Holy moly what a weekend! Thanks a lot to everyone who came out last weekend and picked RSD items and took advantage of our annual anniversary sale, making it our biggest one yet! We feel so loved and appreciate your appreciation of what we do here.
So far, no one has claimed the REGA RP1 we are giving away… AGAIN. Check your tickets people… if you have # 3788993 you have won! If you don’t claim it by 11 am on Monday, we will be re-drawing.
…..pick of the week…..
Jun Fukamachi: Nicole (86 Spring & Summer Collection) (WRWTFWW) LP
Cut at Emil Berliner Studios; Housed in a kraft sleeve similar to the original promo-only release. WRWTFWW Records present the release of Jun Fukamachi’s highly coveted Nicole (86 Spring And Summer Collection – Instrumental Images) album, originally recorded in 1986 for celebrated fashion designer Mitsuhiro Matsuda’s Nicole clothing brand. Never officially available before, Nicole was only distributed as a limited promotional item offered to attendees and participants of the 1986 fashion show for the Nicole brand’s Spring and Summer collection. Fukamachi’s moody magnum opus has become a sort of holy grail for fans of Japanese ambient, jazz, and synth music alike –and rightly so. Meticulously conceived, smooth and subtle, Nicole sounds like it came from an ethereal land where Erik Satie and Art of Noise lived together, a sublimely cinematic listening experience perhaps best described by renowned Japanese music writer Masaharu Yoshioka, aka The Soul Searcher: “If you are driving down the Autobahn at 160 km/h, or even 80 km/h, and Jun’s music starts playing on the car stereo, the windshield will instantly turn into your own personal silver screen.” Made in cooperation of the artist’s estate; Includes new liner notes by Masaharu Yoshioka.
File Under: Ambient, Electronic
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…..new arrivals….
Barry Adamson + Pan Sonic + Hafler Trio: The Hymn of the 7th Illusion (Cold Spring) LP
Pan Sonic, arranged and edited by Barry Adamson, with an additional re-arrangement by The Hafler Trio. Here, Barry Adamson and Pan Sonic have composed a 12-minute music piece that is performed by the Hljomeyki Choir and Pan Sonic. Originally released on CD by Icelandic label Kitchen Motors in 2001, now released on vinyl for the first time by Cold Spring. Produced by Barry Adamson, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and Pan Sonic. The cover art features Icelandic electronic composer Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson having a brain scan performed while listening to this disc. 180 gram vinyl with matte card sleeve; Includes download card. “…a blend of an Icelandic choir performing Barry’s (treated) microtonal, urgent score is slowly infiltrated, first with an electronic breath and then by well-rounded bass that evolves into a satisfactory crescendo before the scary humhum returns… highly successful” –Vital Weekly.
File Under: Electronic, Classical
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Alvarius B/Sir Richard Bishop: Strange Fruit (Unrock) 10″
Limited edition four-track split vinyl 10″ featuring legendary Sun City Girls Alan and Richard Bishop, celebrating Unrock’s 25th anniversary. It features the first new recordings by Sir Richard Bishop since his 2015 Tangier Sessions and two exclusive pearls by Alan Bishop, aka Alvarius B. All tracks are exclusive to this “Unrock 25” release. Includes printed lyrics sheet. Limited one-time pressing.
File Under: Experimental, Rock, Sun City Girls
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Causa Sui: Vibraciones Doradas (El Paraiso) LP
Mint green vinyl. Each of these four epic tracks is a testament to the fact that Causa Sui have carved out a singular niche for themselves, where vintage Sabbath-isms are filtered through a distinctively post-modern ethos. Causa Sui’s brand of rock conveys everything that’s so great about fuzzed-out heaviness, yet there’s something about it that makes the listening experience far from trivial. In stark contrast to the standards of the stoner/doom scenes, Causa Sui manage to be weighty and peaceful at the same; forceful, yet vulnerable, ecstatic yet thoughtful. On opener “The Drop”, the band drives a thick John Bonham groove into Can-esque freeform ecstasy before liquefying the groove into a warm ocean of shoegaze-y guitars and wistful synths. On 11-minute centerpiece “El Fuego”, they create a sonic river that seems be channeling Popol Vuh as much as Palm Desert stoner rock. And the closing title track can best be described as sounding like that Sonic Youth sludge-metal record that never was.
File Under: Psych
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Alessandro Cortini: Forse 1 (Important) LP
2017 repress. “Deluxe double LP. Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails/How To Destroy Angels) composed the Forse series using a Buchla Music Easel. Forse, meaning ‘maybe’ In Italian, is a series of three double LP releases Cortini recorded for Important to release in 2013. ‘All pieces were written and performed live on a Buchla Music Easel, in the span of one month. I found that the limited array of modules that the instrument offers sparked my creativity. Most pieces consist of a repeating chord progression, where the real change happens at a spectral/dynamic level, as opposed to the harmonic/chordal one. I believe that the former are just as effective as the latter, in the sense that the sonic presentation (distortion , filtering, wave shaping, etc.) are just as expressive as a chord change or chord type, and often reinforce said chord progressions. Of all the years with Nine Inch Nails the period spent writing and recording the instrumental record Ghosts I-IV is probably the one which changed my approach to music making the most. After that record I started getting more into instrumental composition, although I tried to approach it in a different way. While we had a vast array of tools and instruments at our disposal then, I decided to approach my pieces limiting myself to one instrument only, as I found myself being more decisive when faced with a limited creative environment.'”
File Under: Electronic, Ambient
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Descendants of Mike & Phoebe: A Spirit Speaks (Everland) LP
Everland Jazz present a reissue of The Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe’s A Spirit Speaks, originally released in 1974. “This delightfully eclectic LP is a prime example of ’70s soul jazz. It is an early fusion record combining elements from jazz, gospel, soul and blues. It even has an edge of classical music, to be heard in the clear soprano voice of lead singer A. Grace Lee Mims on several tracks. As such it is a great sign of the times, the early seventies when musical experimentation and coalition was all abound. Bass player and band member Bill Lee would later gain fame as being the father of controversial filmmaker Spike Lee and worked as musical director/conductor on four of his son’s excellent movie soundtracks. For sure you can already hear the early influences here! This is the best sounding reissue of A Spirit Speaks since its original release in 1974 and comes in an exact replica of the great original cover art.” –Marc Janssen Licensed by Strata-East Records.
File Under: Jazz, Soul Jazz
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Dwarfs of East Agouza: Both Sides of the Curtain (Unrock) LP
Dadawahn Bishopesque taken to just another level. Beirut, Lebanon…. three major players: Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls, Invisible Hands, Alvarius B) Osama Shalabi (Karkhana, Shalabi Effect, etc.), and Maurice Louca (Karkhana, Lekhfa). Delicate improvised freeform recorded live in Beirut in spring of 2017. Improvisation on the highest level. Organic, never arty. Hot. Released in association with Mophradat. Cover art made exclusively for this release by Mariana Castillo Debal. Deluxe gatefold sleeve. Limited edition, one-time pressing.
File Under: Rock, World, Jazz
Electric Wizard: Wizard Bloody Wizard (Spinefarm) LP
Wizard Bloody Wizard is the ninth studio effort from Electric Wizard. Produced by Jus Oborn and Liz Buckingham, and mixed by Oborn, this stripped back, all-analogue affair sees the band rising above convention and genre to construct their own vision of classic heavy rock…a sound harking back to the dreaded days when ‘heavy’ meant Grand Funk and Black Sabbath, and ‘rock’ meant drugs, groupies and mountains of amplification. Wizard Bloody Wizard: 43 brain-damaging minutes, six savage hymns to death, drugs, sex and violence, music dragged (and drugged) back from the grave…The line is drawn. In blood.
File Under: Metal, Stoner
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Eleh: Home Age (Important) LP
Home Age is the first proper Eleh full-length since 2012’s Homage To The Pointed Waveforms. These three new pieces seek to expose the inherent musicality of pure electrical currents via high resolution Serge STS synthesizers. Like early Eleh work, Home Age is inward looking, domestic, and deliberate, but also slowly emotional and revealing as if peering blurry-eyed through a window. Melody, harmony, and counterpoint are suggested but not revealed. Packaged in a deluxe gold-on-black, heavy-duty letterpress jacket made by Studio On Fire in Minneapolis; Edition of 500.
File Under: Electronic, Drone, Ambient
Eleh/Christina Kubisch: Split (Important) LP
Christina Kubisch contemplates Nicolai Tesla and his concept of electrical remoteness as it applies to the modern world. In this piece, Kubisch considers whether this is the future Tesla envisioned and what remoteness means in an age where remoteness hardly exists at all. “Tesla’s Dream” includes electromagnetic field recordings from tramways, analog machines, light systems, power stations, airports, banks, security systems, advertising, and the sounds of discharges and activities of Tesla’s own devices. Eleh’s composition “Ohmage/Resistor” utilizes a new kind of spaciousness and was composed for piano and Serge STS modular synthesizers. Letterpress printed jacket; Edition of 500. From Christina Kubisch: “The figure of Nikola Tesla has fascinated me since a long time. He was the person who imagined wireless communication in an era when there was hardly electricity. . . . Tesla had invented and patented the first telephone amplifier in 1882 in Budapest and, without knowing about its origin I used a simple telephone amplifier with incorporated small coils to listen to the sounds in my installations. Later on my work with electromagnetic induction had developed into the series ‘Electrical Walks’, city walks with special headphones which make audible the usually hidden electromagnetic fields around us. In 2012, I visited the small museum of science in the city of Kosice in Slovakia. The museum had many Tesla devices in their showroom and I got a special permission to test tem. I listened with my special induction headphones to the Tesla machines and was fascinated: a thunderstorm of electromagnetic noise. It was the moment when I got inspired to make a piece about electrical remoteness. . . .’Tesla’s Dream’ opens with the magnetic fields recorded in an old Austrian train station followed by the electrical melodies of old Tatra tramways in Bratislava (now almost disappeared). The sounds of discharges and activities of Tesla’s devices gradually come in. During the piece the electromagnetic signals change gradually from the sounds of analog machines to the more actual fields of light systems, security systems, power lines, banks, subways, airports, power stations etc. Various electrical signals of digital communication slowly merge in and change again the sound structure. . . . The glass armonica (an original instrument from the 19th century) was recorded at the Musikinstrumentenmuseum in Berlin. All other recordings were made with electromagnetic headphones and other custom made devices developed by Christina Kubisch.”
File Under: Electronic, Drone, Ambient
France: Occitanie (Aguirre) LP
Aguirre Records present the first vinyl edition of France’s Occitanie, originally released in 2009. Savage pulsating drone-rock from France, the trio of Jeremie Sauvage on electric bass, Mathieu Tilly on drums, and Yann Gourdon on amplified hurdy-gurdy. They play one note/one rhythm, producing energetic performances reminiscent of the early collaborations between Faust and Tony Conrad. Creatively recycled influences result in intense shows with pounding overtones and repetitive pulsing rhythms. Loud, straight, and trance-inducing. On Occitanie, in the mass of sound, the rhythmic repetition and the elongated drones. The hurdy-gurdy forces you deeper, highlighting points of microtonal flux, cracking open the single note, the nodding rhythm, to imply the presence of every note, every sound, inside it. The insensible evolution lurks in a corner of noise and finally imposes itself slowly on careful listening. The band members of France perform in various other projects: Tanz Mein Herz, Toad and Jérico, all are member of the collective La Novià, an organization based in Haute-Loire which brings together professional musicians and acts as a place for reflection and experimentation around traditional and or experimental music. In 2009, France was invited to play in Pau, a city far south-west of France, next to Spain, by the people running Pagans Musica, a like-minded traditional-oriented group of people, also bent on educational issues concerning the local music and dialect: Occitan and on fusing traditional musics and rock related sounds and instruments. They had set up a show for France and their band Artus and originally wanted to have Acid Mothers Temple join the bill. The Japanese band had done versions of songs coming from their village, but weren’t touring near France so instead they invited Duo Ancelin-Rouzier as the third act, a band both Artus and France were also very fond of. Pagans had everything set-up for the concert to be recorded and as France had plenty of time for sound-check, they went on to record the Pau album (2011) in the afternoon, taking a thirty seconds pause in the middle of the session so as to mark both sides of the vinyl. Occitanie is a recording of the live set later that night, with no cut and a longer, more savage performance. Artwork by Standard In-Fi Visuals. Recorded live by Tòmas Baudoin and Yannick Prévost; Mastering by Kris Delacourt. High-glossy sleeve; Edition of 500.
File Under: Psych, Experimental
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Function: Recompiled II/II (A-Ton) LP
Manhattan to Berlin: Dave Sumner, better known as Function, had found a new path in techno, and as he obsessively talked about the British Murder Boys and the work of Mika Vainio, he focused in on his latest influence: Sleeparchive. Elements of Plastikman’s take on jacking raw rhythms collided with Sähkö bleeps for a powerful post-Jeff Mills form of techno. After a laptop, Battleship-like session in Berlin with Dave and Karl O’Connor, better known as Regis, Dave decided to move to “techno Mecca”. He returned to NYC to get ready, and three months later, on the day he moved to Berlin, his record was released as Isolation on Sandwell District and was named DJ Magazine’s 12 Inch of the Month. He then set up his studio in the warehouse of Tony Vieira. Sandwell District: Sandwell District is a literal place — the Black Country — where the industrial revolution began. It’s one of the many Dadaesque references in the Integrale catalog. The whole thing has this major punk DIY spirit. Sandwell District quickly evolved from a label into a music project with a distinctly egoless and mysterious approach. They functioned around the motto of “Decentralizing the artist ego, blurring the lines between the artist, label and DJ; re-arranging the DNA of modern dance music.” The first record on Sandwell was by Regis, followed by records from Juan Mendez as Silent Servant and Dave as Function; soon they would all release collectively. Sandwell District was a more mature response, the second stage of a career with the disparate influences absorbed, digested, and slowed down, yet somehow more emotional. Later, Rrose would become an integral part of Sandwell, right before they broke up at the height of their popularity, in the spirit of their heroes Big Black. Dave then went on to record his debut solo album Incubation for Ostgut Ton and revived Infrastructure. The Next Phase: Sometimes the only way forward is to look backwards. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, as the saying goes. Recompiled I/II and II/II is an attempt to understand what has happened and to liberate the artist from the burden of their own oeuvre. Moving forward, Function is still connecting the dots with his DJing around the globe, with residencies at Berghain in Berlin and Bassani in Tbilisi, Georgia.
File Under: Electronic, Techno
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John Gordon: Erotica Suite (Everland) LP
Everland Jazz present an official reissue of John Gordon’s Erotica Suite, originally released in 1978. One of the rarest albums on Strata-East Records. a great later label effort under the leadership of trombonist John Gordon — with work by James Spaulding on alto and flute, John Miller on piano and keyboards, Waymond Reed on trumpet, Lyle Atkinson on bass, and Frank Derrick on drums and bells; The whole thing has a very spiritual feel, and it features the long “Erotica Suite”, plus “Ora Lee Tingle”, “Blue Na”, and “Neleh”. Licensed by Strata-East Records.
File Under: Jazz
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Davy Graham: Folk, Blues & Beyond (Bread & Wine) LP
“One of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk scene, Davy Graham inspired many practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar of the era, notably Bert Jansch, John Martyn and Jimmy Page. Graham is probably best known for his acoustic instrumental ‘Anji’ and for popularizing DADGAD tuning, later widely adopted by many acoustic guitarists. Not one to be categorised, Graham could be seen covering the genres of folk, blues and jazz. Graham was an entirely British phenomenon in the sixties, none of his early records were originally issued in the U.S. Originally released in January 1965, this edition of Folk, Blues & Beyond is its official, American debut. It remains perfectly named, a stunning introduction to the breadth of Graham’s craft and seeking at the peak of his impact.”
File Under: Folk, Blues
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Davy Graham: Large as Life and Twice as Natural (Bread & Wine) LP
“Large As Life And Twice As Natural is unique in Graham’s work for Decca. The album’s three extended instrumentals two immersive ragas and a wickedly knotty homage to the be-bop piano titan Lennie Tristano were the most Graham wrote for any of his Sixties LPs. And Graham never played with a better, bigger studio band. Jon Hiseman, recently out of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, was leading his own progressive-rock unit Colosseum; Danny Thompson was the earthy, incisive bassist in Britain’s folk supergroup, Pentangle, with guitarists and Graham acolytes Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. Large As Life And Twice As Natural was Graham’s only album from his most important decade to be released in the U.S., which at the time went unnoticed.”
File Under: Folk, Blues
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Keiji Haino/Jim O’Rourke/Oren Ambarchi: This Dazzling, Genuine ‘Difference’ Now Where Shall It Go? (Black Truffle) LP
Black Truffle presents the eighth full-length release from the trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke, and Oren Ambarchi. Over the course of four LP sides, the October 2014 concert documented here ranges from rock power trio dynamics to maelstroms of analog electronics. Once again, the three demonstrate their commitment to pushing into new areas of instrumental exploration and group interaction. Where their previous releases featured extended vocal workouts from Haino, his vocalizations here are restricted to the occasional impassioned cry, putting the focus squarely on instrumental interplay. More than ever before, this feels like the work of three equals, with O’Rourke or Ambarchi taking the lead role as often as Haino does. The four pieces presented here each focus on extended development. The first side is propelled by Ambarchi’s busy, Jack DeJohnette-esque cymbal and tom work, which provides a skittering yet insistent pulse over which Haino and O’Rourke’s FX-saturated strings rise and fall, momentarily converging for passages of near stasis before wandering through areas of gently sour discord; O’Rourke’s use of a six-string bass here boosts the harmonic density of the music and often makes his contribution difficult to distinguish from Haino’s guitar. On the second side, O’Rourke uses his pedals to make his bass near unrecognizable, generating a squelching, harmonically unstable riff that Ambarchi accompanies with a semi-martial snare pattern. Haino moves between frenetic octave-doubled fuzz riffing and streams of feedback. The third side is the most abstract; Continuing Haino’s explorations of new instruments, the side opens with a long passage of toy piano. Alongside occasional vocal interjections from Haino (singing in English), Ambarchi creates delicate textures on cymbals and metallic percussion while O’Rourke, for the first time in this group, performs on the EMS Synthi. With Haino joining in with his own electronics, the side eventually builds to a chaotic climax. Beginning with a sequence of “fourth world” drums and flute, the final side unfolds an epic build-up over a hypnotic foundation of pounding toms. Moving from flute to vocals to electronics, Haino eventually picks up the guitar in the second half of the piece, igniting a spectral blur over driving rhythms from bass and drums that eventually builds to a frenzied climax. Cover image by Traianos Pakioufakis; Live action pics by Mike Kubeck. LP design by Stephen O’Malley; Gatefold sleeve. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.
File Under: Experimental, Rock, Noise
James Holden & The Animal Spirits: The Animal Spirits (Border Community) LP
Electronics guru James Holden and his newly-expanded band The Animal Spirits transport its listeners to a magical other world with this third album: a bold new set of synth-led folk-trance standards, fusing elements of psychedelia, krautrock, world, and spiritual jazz with Holden’s usual propulsive melodic vigor into his most ambitious — but also most accessible — work to date. The synth-and-drum core of Holden’s Inheritors-era live touring outfit has picked up several members along the way, incorporating saxophone, cornet, recorder, and cosmic percussion, all recorded live together in one room under the direction of band leader Holden to produce a genre-blending new form of universal music that feels inherently fluid and alive.
File Under: Jazz, Electronic, Experimental
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Konstrukt & Keiji Haino: A Philosophy Warping… (Karlrecords) LP
Turkish free jazzers Konstrukt and the Japanese avant-garde/noise icon Keiji Haino present their first collaboration album. Formed early 2008 in Istanbul, Konstrukt have since been gaining high reputation and an ever-growing audience within European improvised music circles. Over the past decade, the Turkish free jazzers not only released a couple of superb albums under their own name — they also regularly invite significant musicians like Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Akira Sakata, Marshall Allen, Evan Parker, Thurston Moore, Michael Zerang, Alfred Harth, or Alexander Hawkins for recording sessions and/or concerts (a.o. at festivals like A L’arme, .Konfrontationen Nickels-Dorf, Krakow Jazz Autumn). Their latest work A Philosophy Warping, Little By Little That Way Lies A Quagmire sees Konstrukt team up with Keiji Haino — and besides all the elements you may well expect from such a musical meeting like Konstrukt’s “acerbic razor-edged sound” (Mark Corroto, All About Jazz) and Haino’s unmistakable voice/guitar explosions, there’s also some real surprises… Personnel: Korhan Futacı – alto and tenor saxophones, zurna, kaval, sipsi, instant loops, voice; Umut Çaglar – Moog (MicroMoog), Korg (X-911), gralla, bamboo flutes, xylophones, percussion, tape echo, Vermona (Retroverb); Berkan Tilavel – Nord (Drum2), electronic percussion, tef, cymbal; Erdem Göymen – drums, cymbals, percussion; Keiji Haino: electric guitar, percussion, voice, airsynths. Cover painting “Escape” by Artur Trojanowski. Recorded and mixed by Ozan Öner at Pür Recording Studio, Istanbul. Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
File Under: Free Jazz
Mary Jane Leach: Pipe Dreams (Blume) LP
Milan based imprint Blume offer two incredible archival works from the 1980s American composer Mary Jane Leach, never before released. Mary Jane Leach is a definitive model of the American avant-garde and experimental composer — creatively brilliant, tragically underrecognized, yet always there, rigorously plumbing the depths, issuing challenges, venturing toward the unknown. Leach’s creative practice began at the crossroads of the modern and post-modern — with the death of the American dream, its hegemonic point of view, and with the irreconcilable reductive legacies of their predecessors, the minimalists. Leach pursued the physicality of sound and acoustic phenomena — investigating their properties, and interactions with space. Despite being incredibly active, during the 1970s and ’80s Leach failed to offer a single commercial release. She instead instigated a singular body of work which is conceptually centered around live acoustic phenomena and performance. In effect, there are two dynamic components of her work — the notes, structures, and relationships which make up a composition, and a secondary series of difference, combination, and interference tones, generated by a work’s relationship to the space in which it is conceived and performed. Pipe Dreams represents a turning of the tide — a means through which to offer the composer the attention she has always righty deserved. Comprised of two incredible works — “4BC” and “Pipe Dreams” — this LP is a brilliant entry point into Mary Jane Leach’s sprawling body of composition and investigatory work. Like all of her efforts, they are temporal snapshots, incapable of being fully reproduced. They are singular and unique. “4BC” is a work for four bass clarinets, recorded during 1984. It is part of Leach’s large body of compositions which employs long tones (drone) within a constrained tonal palette. “Pipe Dreams”, written for, and recorded on, the organ in St. Peter’s in Köln, Germany, during 1989, was realized by, and as a direct response to, the unique environment for which it was made. St. Peter’s organ has two sets of pipes at opposite ends of the church, each having separate sounds and stops that can generate microtonal intervals. The work is a structured improvisation, exploring antiphony and the specific sounds of that organ, extra-musical as well as musical. These pieces help illuminate Leach as one of the most important voices in her generation.
File Under: Drone, Neo Classical
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Annea Lockwood: Tiger Balm (Black Truffle) LP
Black Truffle presents a new issue of Annea Lockwood’s classic 1970 tape piece “Tiger Balm”, unavailable on vinyl for over thirty years, accompanied by two exquisite unreleased works for percussion and voice. “Created while Lockwood was living in the UK, the side-long ‘Tiger Balm’ is a singular work within the canon of tape music. Inspired by research into the ritual function of music, the piece explores the possibility of evoking ancient communal memories through sound. Breaking entirely with the dynamic language of the musique concrète tradition, Lockwood uses a select palette of mainly unprocessed sonic elements chosen for their mysterious and erotic characteristics (a purring cat, a heartbeat, gongs, slowed down jaw harp, a tiger, a woman’s breath, a plane passing overhead), presenting at most two sounds at once. As one sound flows organically into the next, their shared characteristics are highlighted, opening a space of dream logic and mysterious associations between nature and culture, the ancient and the modern. The B side presents two pieces for percussion recorded here for the first time. ‘Amazonia Dreaming’ (1987), performed by Dominic Donato, uses unaccompanied snare drum and voice to evoke the nocturnal soundscape of the Amazon rainforest. Unorthodox techniques and materials (marbles, chopsticks, a plastic jar lid) transform the snare into a resonant field of sensual textures. ‘Immersion’ (1998), performed by Donato and Frank Cassara, is a slow-moving exploration of gentle beating tones, performed on marimba, tam tams, and gong. Like the other two works presented on this LP, it provides captivating proof of Lockwood’s belief in the complexity that deep listening can reveal within seemingly simple sounds” –Francis Plagne. Comes in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with archival pictures and liner notes by Annea Lockwood; Includes the score to “Amazonia Dreaming”; LP design by Stephen O’Malley; Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.
File Under: Electronic, Minimal
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N.A.D.M.A.: Uno Zingaro Di Atlante Con Un Fiore A New York (Die Schachtel) LP
Die Schachtel present the first vinyl reissue N.A.D.M.A.’s (Natural Arkestra Da Maya Alta) Uno Zingaro Di Atlante Con Un Fiore A New York, originally released in 1973. Comprised of Davide Mosconi, Franco Pardi, Gustavo Bonora, Inez Klok, Marco Cristofolini, Marino Vismara, Mino Ceretti, Otto Davis Corrado, and Talia Toni Marcus, within the history of the Italian avant-garde, N.A.D.M.A is as obscure as they come. Mosconi later came to note as a solo artist and photographer, and Pardi and Vismara within the worlds of visual arts, but beyond a scattering of releases, Uno Zingaro Di Atlante Con Un Fiore A New York is the lone document to have surfaced from most of its contributors. Details surrounding the band and the record are incredible scarce. Despite the mystery, with hindsight, they rise as a definitive gesture of the movement to which they belonged. The Italian avant-garde is among the most rigorously democratic of any of the movements within 20th century sound. Like their more well know peers in Aktuala, N.A.D.M.A grew from this spirit, but realized it in far more radical forms. They are among the wildest of those connected to the movements of free-improvisation and jazz. The group’s lone 1973 release is unlike anything else of its day. Soulful as hell, it blends a remarkable range of instrumentation and cross-cultural reference — a wild imagining of the potentialities of modal folk traditions, gathered in the writhing aggressive form of free-jazz. It is an album so remarkable and striking — among the greatest and most accomplished European efforts within the form — that there is no explanation for why it has remained so unacknowledged through the years. It is a towering, bubbling, brilliant achievement in sound. Uno Zingaro Di Atlante Con Un Fiore A New York is among the greatest documents of Italian music, and among the most important within the canon of European free-jazz. As seminal as they come. Not to be missed on any count. Edition of 500.
File Under: Free Jazz
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Bill Plummer & The Cosmic Brotherhood: s/t (Captain High) LP
Captain High Records present a reissue of Bill Plummer & The Cosmic Brotherhood, originally released in 1968. Long thought to be lost to only the most industrious of crate diggers, Bill Plummer’s 1968 album Bill Plummer & The Cosmic Brotherhood makes its triumphant return on Captain High Records. Already an accomplished jazz bassist at the time of the album’s release, Bill Plummer turned heads on The Cosmic Brotherhood with heavy Eastern and psychedelic influences that challenged contemporary ideas about jazz. Original compositions like “Journey To The East” and “Arc 294” are colored by striking sitar sounds, rhythmic chanting, and melodic improvisation, while Plummer lends his distinctive touch to songs by The Byrds (“Lady Friend”) and Burt Bacharach (“The Look of Love”). The result is an album that reflects a musician at the peak of his creative powers, unafraid to explore new ideas and sounds that meld into a cohesive, spectacular album.
File Under: Jazz, Psych, Space Age
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Satoshi & Makoto: CZ-5000 Sounds & Sequences (Safe Trip) LP
An unidentified life source on the release: “We write to you with the conclusions of our investigation into the synthesized audio transmissions picked up by the deep space telescope at irregular intervals since 1986. After many years, we pinpointed the source of the ear-pleasing frequencies. They were being transmitted from a secluded building in ‘Kawasaki’, Japan. A key to their origin was found on the video-sharing site, ‘YouTube’. When we visited the building, we discovered identical twins, huddled around a synthesizer manufactured by the Casio Corporation. The twins told us that their names were Satoshi and Makoto, and that the synthesizer model number was CZ-5000. We were still puzzled about the music we had heard, which was largely ambient in nature, positive in tone, and possibly extra-terrestrial in origin. Under interrogation, Satoshi and Makoto claimed that they had created every melody, drumbeat and musical phrase using this one piece of Japanese-made musical hardware. We doubted their version of events, so asked for a demonstration of their working method. Once they had shown us how they shaped, played, and sequenced sounds, we accepted that the transmissions we had received were indeed created entirely using the CZ-5000. Satoshi and Makoto said that the audio transmissions we were investigating had been mostly been created throughout the 1990s, under the influence of early Japanese techno, the Orb, YMO, Kraftwerk and ‘lots of soul’. We asked to be provided with a collection of these transmissions, which had never before been made available to the public. Satoshi and Makoto kindly provided us with a compact disc, on to which was scribbled the code ‘st006’. We believe it is in the public interest to make these remarkable synthesizer compositions available for wider research. We have therefore passed them on to the ‘Safe Trip’ organization. They will make suitable arrangements for public release.”
File Under: Electronic, Synth
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Sun Ra: My Brother the Wind Vol 1 (Cosmic Myth) LP
Double LP version. “My Brother The Wind, Vol. 1 captures Afrofuturist visionary Sun Ra’s initial 1969 encounter with the Moog synthesizer. The album has been meticulously remastered from archival session tapes and includes rare and previously unreleased studio material. Recorded in 1969 and self-released by Sun Ra in 1970 on his independent Saturn label, My Brother The Wind is one of several albums that showcase Ra’s initial reckonings with the then-recently introduced Moog synthesizer. Although the Astro Infinity Arkestra is credited on the original Saturn LP sleeve, only three sidemen were on the session — reed players Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, and Danny Davis, with Moog performance pioneer Gershon Kingsley serving as synth programmer and technical consultant. The original 1970 Saturn release featured four tracks, which are included on this remastered edition. Features the complete tracking session of Ra’s Moog-centric single ‘The Perfect Man,’ with three full takes of the title, including two previously unissued versions and the monumental 18-minute ‘Space Probe,’ an outrageously freewheeling Ra solo work recorded on a Moog (or two) around the same time. The remastered editions include liner notes by Moog historian Brian Kehew. Technical notes are provided by jazz historian Ben Young, who also restored and remastered the album with Joe Lizzi.”
File Under: Jazz
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Sun Ra: Space is the Place (Jackpot) LP
“In the endless ocean of Sun Ra recordings, Space Is The Place ranks among the very best but more importantly stands as the most immediately understandable of his records. This masterpiece touches flawlessly on elements of many of Ra’s multiple phases and provides both a mission statement for and a gateway to his immaculate body of work. Originally released in 1973; Tip-on Gatefold Jacket; Original Artwork; Limited Transparent Blue Colored Vinyl.”
File Under: Jazz
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Piero Umiliani: Studio Umiliani (Four Flies) LP
Four Flies Records strikes again, releasing their first archive compilation of Piero Umiliani’s work and the first compilation focussing on the Maestro’s legacy in years. “Studio Umiliani” is a collection of sunken treasures and hidden beauties yet to be re-released, and of stunning unpublished works surprisingly unknown for quite some time. The project, born from the initial effort of Andrea Fabrizii, who has far and wide been exploring Umiliani’s soundtracks before anyone else, led Four Flies research to seek for new unreleased recordings at the Maestro’s archive. A challenge that Pierpaolo De Sanctis from Four Flies Records accepted without hesitation – with the help of the Umiliani family. His two daughters Alessandra and Elisabetta Umiliani, true keepers of their father’s memory, together with their husbands Francesco Argento and John Linkowski, and of course, Piero’s wife Stefania Baffa, have been pivotal in compiling this exciting project. The result is a cross-cutting portrait of Umiliani’s activity during the golden years of his Sound Work Shop, the studio- laboratory where he has been playing, creating and experimenting with total freedom from 1969 to 1983.
File Under: Library, Funk, Jazz, Psych
World’s Experience Orchestra: As Time Flows On (Now Again) LP
“World’s Experience Orchestra’s As Time Flows On has not been available as a stand-alone vinyl release since first being issued as a private pressing out of Boston in 1980. And those pressings where in small runs — set in motion by a visionary, bassist/composer/arranger John Jamyll Jones. Jones is a magical type, who communicates with his instrument, his ensembles, and jazz’s ancient lineage in a manner so profound that his late-’70s album are out of time with jazz’s trajectory, but timeless when presented today. By the late ’90s the music of World’s Experience Orchestra was circulating throughout the collections of esoteric jazz fans, the likes of Gerald ‘Jazzman’ Short and Gilles Peterson, who played WEO for those, the Coltrane-enthralled searching for something new, something different. Something spiritual and honest. As interest in spiritual jazz and WEO grew, Now-Again set about an ambitious plan to reissue Jones’ landmark works. ‘I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t know when,’ says Jones of the road to seeing his music re-issued. ‘It’s 35 years or more now, and I’ve been waiting for this, and I’m quite sure I’m not the only one.'”
File Under: Jazz
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…..Restocks…..
So many restocks…