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Well, in a dramatic turn of events, we got stuck in Japan for a third, unexpected week due to Typhoon Hagibis! We are safe and fine, our area in Tokyo didn’t get hit hardly at all, however our flight was cancelled and rescheduled from Sunday to the following Saturday! Oh well, there’s much worse places to get stranded. But aside from a few mornings the store should more or less be open as usual all week thanks to our top notch staff. Stop in and buy some records from them! Bring them a coffee or a snack. If there’s anything on this list you want, hit up the shop as the emailed/messaging me could result in disappointment as there’s pretty big time difference.

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…..picks of the week….

Various: Strain, Crack & Break: Music from the Nurse With Wound List Volume One (Finders Keepers) LP
After years of mythology, misinterpretation, and procrastination Nurse With Wound’s Steven Stapleton finally chooses Finders Keepers as the ideal collaborators to release “the right tracks” from his über-legendary psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List, commencing with a French specific Volume One of this authentically titled Strain Crack Break series. Featuring some Finders Keepers’ regulars amongst galactic Gallic rarities, this double-vinyl dossier demystifies some of the essential French free jazz and Parisian prog inclusions from the alphabetical “dedication” inventory as printed the anti-bands 1979 industrial milestone debut. When Steven Stapleton, Heman Pathak, and John Fothergill’s anti-band Nurse With Wound decided to include an alphabetical dedication to all their favorite bands on the back of their inaugural LP the notion of creating a future record dealers’ trophy list couldn’t have been further from their minds. By adding a list of untraveled European mythical musicians and noise makers to their own debut release of unchartered industrial art rock they were merely providing a suggestive support system of existing potential like-minded bands. Many of the rare, obscure and unpronounceable genre-free records on The Nurse With Wound List have slowly found their own feet and stumbled in to the homes of open-minded outer-national vinyl junkies, mostly without consultation of the enigmatic NWW map. Via vinyl vacations, on cheap flights and interrail tickets, buying bargain bin LPs on a shoestring while oblivious to the pending pension worthy price tags after their 40-year vintage, Stapleton and Fothergill, even if you’ve never heard of them, were at the bottom of the pit before “digging” became pay dirt. The List has been mythologized, misunderstood, and misconstrued. It’s also been overlooked, overestimated, and under-appreciated in equal measures. Bolstered by the sub-title “Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden,” all bands on the inventory (many chosen on the strength of just one track alone) were chosen for their genre-defying qualities. Forty years after Nurse With Wound’s first record, Finders Keepers, in close collaboration with Steve Stapleton remind fans of this kind of “lost” music, that there once existed a feint path which was worn away decades before major label pop property developers built over this psychedelic underground. A collaborative attempt to officially, authentically, and legally compile the best tracks from the list, succeeding where many overzealous nerds have deferred. The first volume of the series focuses exclusively on individual tracks of French origin, the country that unsurprisingly hosted the highest content of bands on the list. Comprising of musique concrète, free jazz, Rock In Opposition, Zeuhl School space rock, macabre ballet music, lo-fi sci-fi, and classic horror literature inspired prog.

Features Jacques Thollot, Philippe Besombes, Igor Wakhévitch, Mahjun, Lard Free, Etron Fou Leloublan, Jean Cohen-Solal, Z. N. R., Red Noise, Pierre Henry, Horrific Child, Dashiell Hedayat, and Jean Guérin.

File Under: Prog, Psych, Avant Garde
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Two Daughters: Recordings 1979-1981 (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Anthony & Paul was Anthony Burke and a mysterious Paul. Two Daughters were recording in Brixton around 1980-1982 and were closely connected to the Industrial Records and Throbbing Gristle gang. They recorded a debut tape called, Ladder of Souls released on their own Methane Music in 1980. Their one-and-only LP Kiss The Cloth / Gloria was released in 1981 on Anthony & Paul Records, a sub-division of United Dairies Records the label run by Stephen Stapleton of Nurse with Wound. The LP then also got reissued on United Dairies in 1987. A substantially edited version of “Return Calls – We Are” can be found on the Cherry Red compilation, Perspectives and Distortion (1982). The music and unique percussion-driven style of ambient and experimental sounds are in the vein of bands like O Yuki Conjugate — they still hold the test of time. Anthony passed away in 2004.

File Under: Electronic, Ambient, Minimal
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Inoyama Land: Commissions: 1977-2000
(Empire of Signs) LP
Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita’s Inoyama Land project spans nearly four decades, still active to this day. A portmanteau of their family names, the “Land” of Inoyama hovers between imagined mythical space and concrete reality, extending beyond physical releases into installations, site-specific sound design and theatre scores. After their famed Haruomi Hosono-produced 1983 release Danzindan-Pojidon, the duo became involved in the budding environmental music business that was taking shape in Tokyo during the development boom of the asset bubble – working directly with figures like Hiroshi Yoshimura (with whom they developed sound design for the International Stadium in Yokohama) and Takashi Sekiguchi (Bamboo from Asia). This collection expands upon their sound heard on Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990 (LITA 167) to illuminate material that is even lesser known outside of Japan – some of it presented publicly for the first time. Working initially with Munetaka Tanaka’s Sound Process Design (an acoustic consulting company formed by Tanaka with Satoshi Ashikawa, before Ashikawa’s tragic death in 1983), their commissioned work mirrors the sound world first fleshed out on Danzindan: chiming synthesizers, pastoral hues, childhood memory – all pulsing with a distant, emotional resonance. This material – culled from limited CD issues of the material on Tanaka’s Crescent label, Kazunao Nagata’s Transonic Records and self-released CDRs – presents a window into this process, illustrating how Inoue and Yamashita’s idiosyncratic musical identity gelled perfectly with all of the disparate environments of their commissions. Included is music written for the Kankaku (Sense) Museum in Miyagi, an exhibit on slime molds at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno park, the 1977 stage performance Collecting Net (which also included music that would later become Danzindan-Pojidon) and their score for a Tokyo re-staging of New York avant-theatre pioneer Richard Foreman’s post-modern stage piece Egyptology.

File Under: Ambient, Electronic, Japanese
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…..new arrivals…..

Kath Bloom & Loren Connors: Sand In My Shoe (Chapter) LP

The extraordinary creative partnership of New Haven, CT duo Kath Bloom and Loren Connors has haunted fans of fragile folk and blues since the early 80s. Kath taught herself guitar during shifts as a janitor at a New Haven cemetery, while Loren’s free-form idiosyncratic style had been developing since the late 60s. Between 1981 and 1984, the duo recorded two live and four studio albums, mostly self-released in tiny quantities. Early on, their music mixed folk and blues traditionals with a handful of Kath’s vulnerable, moving originals. By the later albums the songs were all Kath’s – her fragile voice and subdued finger- picking set against Loren’s abstract but always supportive playing. Together the duo created a sound almost impossibly emotional and haunting. Kath & Loren’s first two albums in 1981-82 were live recordings, released via Loren’s Daggett Records label. Next came 1982’s Sing The Children Over on Massachusetts label Ambiguous Records. Then Sand In My Shoe emerged in 1983 as the first release on Loren’s new St. Joan label, in an edition of 200-300 copies with handmade sleeves. Restless Faithful Desperate and Moonlight followed in 1983-84, before the prodigious duo parted ways. After reissuing Kath & Loren’s four landmark studio albums on CD in the late 2000s, Chapter has now embarked on the first ever vinyl reissues for these remarkable records. Restless Faithful Desperate was reissued in 2018, while Moonlight will be released alongside Sand In My Shoe in October 2019.

File Under: Blues, Folk, Experimental
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Delia Derbyshire: The Dreams (Fantome Phonographique) LP

Delia Derbyshire is one of the most innovative electronic musicians of the 20th Century. She is best known for her pioneering work for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and for composing the classic theme song for the original Doctor Who, believed to be the earliest “electronic” theme song in television history. A brilliant composer and one of the few women operating in the early era of electronic music, In the early ’60s she collaborated with the British artist and playwright Barry Bermange for the BBC’s Third Programme to produce four Inventions for Radio, a collage of people describing their dreams, set to a background of electronic sound. This is the first, simply titled Dreams, an attempt to represent, in sound, the sensation of dreaming. Derbyshire’s electronic and musique concrete soundbed is the perfect underscore to the narration, simultaneously jarring, dissonant, and terrifying. An amazing piece of work from one of the legendary pioneers of electronic music.

File Under: Early Electronic, Experimental
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Greg Foat & James Thorpe: Photosynthesis (Athens of the North) LP
Athens of the North is very pleased to introduce part two of our nod to the world of library. This time round Greg Foat journeys into the world of synthesis with good friend James Thorpe. This new LP was recorded in the old Bees Studio on the Isle of Wight earlier this year, a special, different piece of work which I was delighted to receive on ¼ inch tape without warning. Greg’s output continues to be prolific without ever tiring, he never plays it safe and is always looking forward whilst having an ear for our musical heritage.

Funkproof: The Revival (Tidal Waves) LP

George Semper needs little introduction to soul and funk fans. The Trinidadian-American multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, publisher and label owner from San Diego is known as an innovator of the jazz organ, wielding major influence on funk and hip-hop. Notably sampled by Cypress Hill on their classic ‘Insane In The Brain’, Semper’s talent led him to collaborate with literally hundreds of artists, including Jimmy Smith, Merry Clayton, Isaac Hayes, Joe Tex, Johnny Taylor and Donny Hathaway. His 1966 LP Makin’ Waves is considered a Hammond organ essential and his 1977 production The Perfect Circle a cornerstone of Bay Area Funk. George Semper’s career began in the late 1950’s as a leader of several R&B soul groups like the Kingsmen, Imperialites and Chessmen. He ran two successful San Diego nightclubs, and his abilities as a musician, writer, and arranger led to a varied performance and studio career throughout the 1960s and all the way through the 2000s. He worked with legendary acts from the likes of Brenton Wood, Mary Love and Johnny Taylor & he collaborated with venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Monterey Jazz Festival and Wattstax. George Semper was AR and musical director for clubs, artists and labels…he produced his own records, those of others and those for his own Inner City Records & Inner City Attractions labels. Many of these are now considered highly collectable gems. Lesser known are Semper’s numerous band concepts and unreleased studio projects…all cut with top LA session players at recording studios in Hollywood, Compton and Watts. One such is … FUNKPROOF. FUNKPROOF was formed in 1972 and was comprised of players from Brenton Wood’s United Soul Association and The Merry Clayton band. Semper produced the recordings himself and he’s handling the Hammond B3, keys, Sax and lead vocals. Original members Al McKay (Earth Wind & Fire) and Robert Roselle were later replaced by Richard Cavasos on guitar, Nathaniel “Basey” Johnson (Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band) on bass and Ernest Ray “Brother Puff” Johnson (The Ghetto, Hot Ice) completing the lineup on drums. FUNKPROOF completed a full-length album (slated for release by MGM) that was never issued (because MGM was acquired by Polydor) until now! Today we present to you this unreleased hidden funk gem, completely remastered and its history revived, straight from The George Semper Music Archives vaults. Every track on this remarkable album delivers a consistently funky and soulful groove! Pitched between Chitlin’ circuit grit and electronic exploration, FUNKPROOF conveys a timeless message of love, life, and happiness through urban music culture This unreleased 1972 Funk-bomb is now available as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (limited to 500 copies), and also comes with an insert containing exclusive liner notes and pictures. Also included with this release is a digital download card (w/extra tracks).

File Under: Funk
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Hampshire & Foat: The Honey Bear (Athens of the North) LP

After the success of ‘Galaxies Like Grains of Sand’, Warren and Greg retreated back to the Isle of Wight to start work on long discussed concept album based on a fictional children’s book The Honey Bear. Each track a chapter of the book, hypnotic folk pieces mixed with ambient field recordings that Warren and Greg collected around the beaches, cliffs and gardens of the island. They brought everything together at home, organically forming this beautiful ambient folk tale during the island’s idyllic summer evenings. After finishing the initial mixes on the island they brought the tapes up to Scotland and overdubbed with Strings, Oboe and Flute. Whether your 5 or 50, the charm and beauty of The Honeybear is undeniable.

File Under: Jazz, Library
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Herbie Hancock: Inventions & Dimensions (Blue Note) LP

In honor of Blue Note Records’ 80th Anniversary, the legendary jazz label is launching the Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series. Distinct from the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, this second series curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman features 180g vinyl LP releases in standard packaging with albums spanning the many eras of the label’s history presented by themes: Blue Note Debuts, Blue Grooves, Great Reid Miles Covers, Blue Note Live, and Blue Note Drummer Leaders. The series resumes in October 2019 with Part 2 of the Great Reid Miles Covers theme – Jutta Hipp – Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims (1956), Herbie Hancock – Inventions & Dimensions (1964) and Joe Henderson – In ‘n Out (1964) – and will continue with three albums released each month for the coming year. For his third Blue Note album Inventions & Dimensions (1964), pianist Herbie Hancock began moving away from the modernist hard bop sound that defined his first two albums Takin’ Off and My Point Of View. Inspired by explorers like Eric Dolphy and Tony Williams, Hancock went in search of greater musical freedom by composing a set of ingenious originals each with their own unique inner logic that did away with what he considered the established jazz “assumptions” of the time. Hancock also pared the instrumentation down to feature his piano with Paul Chambers’ bass and a nuanced rhythmic bed laid down by percussionists Willie Bobo and Osvaldo “Chihuahua” Martinez. On the album’s unforgettable cover the designer Reid Miles lets Francis Wolff’s imposing photo of Hancock on an NYC street do all the talking. This Blue Note 80 Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

File Under: Jazz

Lee Hazlewood: 400 Miles from L.A. (Light in the Attic) LP

Phoenix, Arizona 1955…a twenty-five year old disc jockey and fledgling songwriter, Lee Hazlewood, is trying to break into the music industry. He takes Greyhound bus trips to Los Angeles to pitch songs, only to be rejected each time. Undeterred, Lee starts a record label called Viv Records. Running the label out of his house, Lee finds the artists, writes the songs, produces the sessions, arranges the pressings of the records and handles distribution. Recently discovered tapes in the Viv Records archive yielded an unbelievable find, the earliest known recordings of Hazlewood singing his songs…Lee’s first demo! The mysterious and bountiful tapes featured Lee singing early unheard compositions and a complete first draft of his Trouble Is A Lonesome Town song cycle that would become his first official solo album in 1963. Light in the Attic Records is proud to continue it’s Lee Hazlewood archival series with 400 Miles From L.A. 1955-56, a collection of previously unknown intimate recordings, never intended for release. Lee sings, plays guitar and even presses the record button on the tape machine. These are rural sketches and small town dreams, captured in an innocent time before the path ahead was clear. These songs rewrite Lee’s recorded history, adding a new first chapter to his saga. For Hazlewood addicts, hearing these early tracks and the embryonic version of Trouble Is A Lonesome Town is akin to finding an early draft of the Old Testament. “That’s beauty of Lee’s songwriting. It lives on. People will hear it for the first time, even though it’s fifty years old or whatever, if it’s good enough and strong enough, they’ll accept and like it as much as if it was just created. That’s the wonderful legacy that Lee has. It’s wonderful to look back and make all this early work available. To put “Boots” and all those other LHI songs into perspective. That it all started somewhere and this is where.” – Arizona Music Historian and record producer, John Dixon.

File Under: Country
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Joe Henderson: In ‘n Out (Blue Note) LP
In honor of Blue Note Records’ 80th Anniversary, the legendary jazz label is launching the Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series. Distinct from the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, this second series curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman features 180g vinyl LP releases in standard packaging with albums spanning the many eras of the label’s history presented by themes: Blue Note Debuts, Blue Grooves, Great Reid Miles Covers, Blue Note Live, and Blue Note Drummer Leaders. The series resumes in October 2019 with Part 2 of the Great Reid Miles Covers theme – Jutta Hipp – Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims (1956), Herbie Hancock – Inventions & Dimensions (1964) and Joe Henderson – In ‘n Out (1964) – and will continue with three albums released each month for the coming year. From the moment that Kenny Dorham picked a 25-year old Joe Henderson out of obscurity in 1962 and had him join his band, it was obvious that Henderson was a very powerful force, a young giant who sent shock waves through the jazz world. Henderson, who had a very distinctive sound from the start along with the ability to play both “inside” and “outside,” sounded very much at home whether playing bebop or free improvisations. He also proved to be a perfect musical brother for Dorham. Henderson’s In ‘N Out album finds the two horns expressing similar ideas, blending together perfectly, and creating memorable music that is beyond description. Every note that Dorham and Henderson play on this classic LP is passionate, intense and meaningful. While most young musicians would be in awe if teamed with Dorham, McCoy Tyner, Richard Davis and Elvin Jones, Henderson not only had no difficulty playing with those masters, but he raised the intensity level and forced them to keep up with him. The brilliant album cover design by Reid Miles is a quintessential example of the bold typography that made his style so influential. This Blue Note 80 Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

File Under: Jazz

Loleatta Holloway: Loleatta (Tidal Waves) LP

Loleatta Holloway (born in Chicago,1946) was an American R&B-Disco singer known for her massive hit songs such as “Hit and Run”, “Love Sensation” and “Relight My Fire”, all of which have been sampled extensively worldwide. Billboard magazine ranked her as the 95th most successful dance artist of all-time. Holloway first began her career singing gospel music, then in the early 70s, she met her future producer, manager (and husband) Floyd Smith which kick-started her impressive recording career. Shortly after Holloway signed with the Atlanta-based soul music label ‘Aware’ where she recorded two albums: Loleatta (1973) and Cry to Me (1975). Later, in the mid 70s she signed with top Philadelphia arranger and producer Norman Harris’ Gold Mind/Salsoul Records, where she recorded many more top charting hit singles and launched her career as a disco act. From then on (and until this day) Holloway’s songs (which became DJ favorites) were heavily remixed and sampled on a multitude of tracks from renowned acts such as Black Box, Whitney Houston, Bobby Byrd, Raekwon, Flo Rida, Pitbull, Ice Cube…and MANY others. Loleatta Holloway passed away at the age of 64 on March 21, 2011 leading to a wave of tributes and condolences from across the globe (Holloway also had a huge following in Europe and Japan). Her debut album (Loleatta from 1973), which we are presenting you here today, is a total classic … it is here that Holloway developed her throaty, full-bodied vocal style and dramatic presentation we all came to enjoy and admire. The album features the hit singles “Mother of Shame” & “Our Love”. Also included is a beautiful rendition of the Syl Johnson track “We Did it”. Fast & slow-paced grooves, blazing horns accompanying the driving rhythm section, female backing vocalists soaring in unison, chiming guitars … and of course Loleatta’s explosively powerful and joyful vocals make this a fantastic (and dance-floor friendly) album. Holloway really brings the tracks & arrangements (penned by a number of hugely talented songwriters) to life using a combination of emotion, passion and power. Originally released in 1973, Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first official reissue of Loleatta’s classic debut album. Remastered from the original master tapes by Ginn Music Group-Aware Records and available as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (limited to 500 copies).

File Under: R&B, Disco

Jutta Hipp: with Zoot Zims (Blue Note) LP
In honor of Blue Note Records’ 80th Anniversary, the legendary jazz label is launching the Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series. Distinct from the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, this second series curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman features 180g vinyl LP releases in standard packaging with albums spanning the many eras of the label’s history presented by themes: Blue Note Debuts, Blue Grooves, Great Reid Miles Covers, Blue Note Live, and Blue Note Drummer Leaders. The series resumes in October 2019 with Part 2 of the Great Reid Miles Covers theme – Jutta Hipp – Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims (1956), Herbie Hancock – Inventions & Dimensions (1964) and Joe Henderson – In ‘n Out (1964) – and will continue with three albums released each month for the coming year. German Jazz pianist Jutta Hipp remains one of the most intriguing yet little-known figures in Blue Note history. A unique and short-lived presence on the NYC jazz scene in the mid-1950s, Hipp moved to the U.S. with the aid of critic Leonard Feather and recorded a series of Blue Note releases that culminated with Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims, a sublime date with the feeling of high-level blowing session featuring tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims, trumpeter Jerry Lloyd, bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and drummer Ed Thigpen. Highlights of the set including the up-tempo opener “Just Blues” and the gorgeous ballad “Violets for Your Furs,” and the album – which features a seminal graphic cover design by Reid Miles – turned out to be her final recording as Hipp left the music scene shortly thereafter. This Blue Note 80 Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

File Under: Jazz

Majeure: Mass Flashback (Holodeck) LP
Reviving the essence of Krautrock and classic horror soundtracks, veteran composer and multi-instrumentalist AE Paterra is back with his latest cinematic full-length as Majeure entitled Mass Flashback out September 27, 2019. Known best as one half of highly influential prog duo Zombi, the Pittsburgh area native has been performing and recording experimental music in a multitude of projects for over two decades. Majeure’s arrangements of analog synthesizers, live drums and delicate sound design sculpt a fantastic array of gripping instrumental music that sparks the imagination. From epic to abstract, Majeure’s waves of triumph and despair are orchestrated to guide Mass Flashback through a compelling journey into the cosmic recesses of the sound library and beyond. Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, Paterra learned piano as a child and started playing drums in high school. Naturally gravitating towards the creativity and virtuoso style of 70’s and 80’s prog, metal and classic rock, Paterra excelled at percussion and developed a high level of musicianship by the time he moved to Pittsburgh to attend college. After stints drumming with various collaborative projects and touring bands, Paterra met bass and synth player Steve Moore in 1999 and bonded over their mutual love for Italian horror scores and bands like Goblin. The duo released their first album as Zombi in 2001 and have since become widely regarded as one of the best prog bands of the modern era, organically honing a distinct sound and dedicated fanbase over the course of their lengthy discography. After several successful albums and years of touring with Moore, Paterra established his solo identity as Majeure in 2009 to explore nuanced interests outside of the scope of the band. Since then, Paterra has continued his prolific career with both Zombi and as a solo artist in addition to numerous side projects including film scores, gallery residencies, founding his own tape label, and in 2017 he became the synth player in experimental rock band Grails. Throughout his extensive portfolio of work, Paterra continues to return to his self-reflective base as Majeure, adding new innovative chapters to his remarkable and ever-growing legacy. Mass Flashback marks the return of Majeure in top form, embracing the role of world builder and storyteller through the use of tone and rhythm. Paterra’s signature mood is conveyed through a special union of traditional composition with the seemingly limitless expansion possible with the use of electronic instruments. The slow rising intro of “Face Dancer” and title track “Mass Flashback” are built on layers of warm synthesizers that morph, intensify and eventually burst into methodically pulsing drums and bass. Every peak is carefully balanced with moments of cavernous darkness that seamlessly oscillate between each determined extreme. The euphoric lead melodies of opening track “Longing, Love and Loss” are countered by the ominous drones on closing track “Universal Out,” showcasing the polar sonic spectrum of Paterra’s unique range. On Mass Flashback, propulsive arpeggiations and sequences provide the foundation for chord progressions to gather and ascend into movements of pure harmonic climax. By meticulously shaping every rich and expressive song element, Majeure keeps the audience suspended on each consecutive beat as Mass Flashback progresses through a rewarding odyssey of high drama in electronics. Harnessing years of experience and crafted methodology, Majeure delivers a sharp and impressive addition to his extensive catalog on the timeless and incomparable Mass Flashback.

File Under: Electronic, Krautrock, Prog, Zombi
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Cal Massey: Blues to Coltrane (Pure Pleasure) LP
Cal Massey, a track title from the Clifford Jordan album “Glass Bead Games”. And this album, the only one recorded under his name. There was much more to his musical life than this title. Born January 11th 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Massey studied trumpet under Freddie Webster, and following this played in the big bands of Jay McShann, Jimmy Heath, and Billie Holiday. After that he mainly worked as a composer. In the late 1950s he led an ensemble with Jimmy Garrison, McCoy Tyner, and Tootie Heath; John Coltrane and Donald Byrd occasionally played with them. In the 1950s he gradually receded from active performance and concentrated on composition; his works were recorded by Coltrane, Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan, Philly Joe Jones, Horace Tapscott and Archie Shepp. Massey played and toured with Shepp from 1969 until 1972. He also performed in The Romas Orchestra with Romulus Franceschini. In examining Massey’s life and music, three names continually emerge. One is that of the great tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, whom Massey met as a teenager in Philadelphia and who remained a close friend until his death in 1967. After Coltrane’s passing, Massey frequently joined forces with saxophonist, poet, and playwright Archie Shepp; though Shepp was about ten years Massey’s junior, the two developed a bond that remained close for the rest of the older man’s life. Massey, Coltrane, and Shepp are all linked by the prolific but obscure composer and arranger Romulus Franceschini, who lent his hand to many important jazz projects, such as Coltrane’s Africa/Brass and Shepp’s Attica Blues. He maintained with Massey a symbiotic relationship not unlike that of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. On the whole, as in the case of Ellington and Strayhorn, it was difficult to tell where one musician’s contribution ended and the other’s began. Massey also shared a radical political stance with Shepp and Franceschini. It is impossible to separate his work from the militant arm of the Civil Rights Movement that took shape in the 1960s and 1970s. As Fred Ho has noted, “Titles such as ‘[Hey Goddamn It], Things Have Got to Change,’ ‘The Damned Don’t Cry,’ and ‘The Cry of My People’ spoke directly to a consciousness of oppression and a politics of liberation.” In fact, the Black Panthers were a driving force behind Massey’s creation (with Franceschini) of The Black Liberation Movement Suite. At the first Pan-African Arts Festival in Algiers in 1969 Massey met exiled Panthers leader Eldridge Cleaver who commissioned the Suite primarily as a fundraising venture. The work would be performed at Black Panther benefits three times during Massey’s lifetime. Massey paid heavy dues for his adventurous music and ideology, as did many of his contemporaries. According to his widow, an altercation with an executive at Blue Note Records resulted in his being blacklisted (or, as Fred Ho put it, “whitelist-ed”) from major recording companies. As a result, only one album was recorded under his name, Blues to Coltrane (Candid, recorded 1961, released 1987). Massey died from a heart attack at the age of 44 in New York City, New York. October 25, 1972.

File Under: Jazz

Fumio Miashita: Wave – Sounds of the Universe (Personal Affair) LP

Musician, music therapist and founder of Healing Music in Japan. Fumio Miyashita began his musical career in 1966. In 1969, he was an original member of the rock musical, ‘Hair’, in Tokyo. He formed the progressive rock groups Far Out and Far East Family Band, releasing ground-breaking albums and touring internationally. Always interested in oriental philosophy since studying karate at a young age (he became a black belt in high school), he became interested in oriental medicine after an injury on stage that only healed after undergoing acupuncture. In 1977, he immigrated to the United States, where he continued to study oriental medicine, philosophy, the Chinese Five Elements and also began, in earnest, to research music therapy. In 1981, he decided to return to Japan, moved to Shinshu Iizuna Highlands and established Biwa Studio. One reason for choosing Iizuna Highlands was because it’s altitude is 1,250 meters and during his studies he learned that this is a very positive and healthy altitude for the human body to reside in. There he created numerous works, including music CD’s and image videos. His passion was for creating music that was helpful to people and his recurring theme in his works was relaxation and healing for the mind and body. He named his music ‘Healing Music’ and he established his own unique style of music therapy.

File Under: Ambient
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Hamlet Minassian: Armenian Pop Music (Numero) LP

A winsome and dizzying spin on disco pop, recorded in westernized Iran during last moments before the 1979 revolution. All but criminalized in the wake of Ayatollah Khomeni’s theocratic repression, Hamlet Minassian’s solo masterpiece is a testament to the Middle East’s forgotten dance music culture. This six-song, 44-minute LP hybridizes Euro attitude and Armenian traditional songs to create long, hypnotic proto-house, seemingly beamed in from another dimension.

File Under: Disco, Middle Eastern

Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis (Constellation) LP
Matana Roberts returns with the much-anticipated fourth installment of her hugely innovative, profoundly iconoclastic and rightly acclaimed Coin Coin project. Roberts deftly weaves a sonic tapestry of African-American ethnography and history with strands of jazz, blues, free improv, Afro-futurism, traditionals, spoken word and avant-garde composition – always guided by her powerfully personal/universal narratives and wholehearted, singular artistic spirit. “Roberts isn’t just a storyteller, musician, ethnographer, historian, bandleader, arranger, improviser, or activist. She plays all of those roles, yes; collectively, they power one of the most provocative ongoing bodies of work by any American musician.” – Pitchfork “Throughout the [Coin Coin] project thus far, Roberts has used her music as a medium through which to explore the liminal zones between lore and history that define the ways in which we understand ourselves in the present. Primarily interrogating her own sense of identity as an African American woman, Roberts calls upon numerous other voices – from her family’s history, her culture’s mythology – to create not historical documents but living artifacts of collective cultural memory: simultaneously disorienting and exhilarating in their chaotic multiplicity.” – The Quietus

File Under: Jazz

Masahiro Sugaya: Horizon, Volume 1 (Empire of Signs) LP
Almost completely unknown in the west, Masahiro Sugaya has been composing and producing music since the 1980s in an exceptionally wide range of fields and practices. From arrangements for musical acts like the acoustic guitar duo Gontiti to acousmatic diffusion at spaces like Paris’s Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), Sugaya’s reach is almost exhaustive in its breadth, but it was in the 80s bubble-era kankyō ongaku scene that he first found his musical voice. Horizon, Volume 1 presents a window into these works, culled from Sugaya’s early scores for experimental Tokyo theatre group Pappa Tarahumura. As a teenager, Sugaya would visit the avant garde hub of record/book shop Art Vivant run by Satoshi Ashikawa of Sound Process, guided by Ashikawa’s recommendations into the worlds of experimental composition, jazz and ethnographic music. It was there he also met musician Yoshio Ojima—the two would become close friends and contemporaries, working within a circle of Tokyo musicians that also included Midori Takada, Hiroshi Yoshimura and Satsuki Shibano. Ojima, an early adopter of new musical technology, would introduce Sugaya to the possibilities of composing with computers, synthesizers and samplers, which would become a trademark in Sugaya’s early works. Surprisingly, the sound sources on Horizon are entirely digital, showcasing Sugaya’s ability to organically recreate complex musicianship approaches via keyboard using hyper-realistic samples. Much like Ojima and Yoshimura’s work, the results eschew electronic music’s usual coldness for something more warm and inviting, the feeling of a human in deep conversation with technology. Flourishing within the boom of experimental theatre subsidized by corporations during the bubble economy, Pappa Tarahumura forged a unique dream-like style that merged performance art, modern dance and fantastical installation-like stage sets. Sugaya fashioned multiple soundtracks for their productions in collaboration with director Hiroshi Koike, the first two of which, The Pocket Of Fever_ (熱の風景) and Music From Alejo_ (アレッホ – 風を讃えるために), he self-released in 1987 on cassette, handing them out at Tarahumara performances. The third, The Long Living Things (Zoo Of The Sea) (海の動物園) followed in 1988 as a CD on Yukio Kojima’s ALM records. Aside from his brief inclusion on Light in the Attic’s Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990 (compiled by Empire of Signs’ Spencer Doran), Horizon presents this work outside of Japan for the first time.

File Under: Ambient, Japanese
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Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch: Blade Runner 2049 (Mondo) LP
Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch were given the near impossible task of scoring the sequel to one of the greatest and most beloved science-fiction films of all time. The original BLADE RUNNER had an incredible score by Vangelis that has gone on to be one of the most iconic pieces of music in film history, so it’s to their credit that they absolutely knock it out of the park with 2049. What they do with the music in 2049 is astonishing. It makes you feel like you’re in the same universe as the original film, but it’s also apparent that things have changed. There are hints at the past but also strange and beautiful new sounds to explore and get lost in. Expansive, dreamy yet forceful, and propulsive when it needs to be, the score to 2049 is a little more downbeat than the original. The sonics throughout are incredible, and it really feels like you’re wandering strange neon-lit alleyways with no clue where you are. It’s a truly beautiful (and beguiling) listen that captures real human emotion alongside more artificial replicant soundscapes. BLADE RUNNER 2049 features Viktor Kalvachev’s art with a spot Varnish Cover and layout by Chris Bilheimer.

File Under: OST
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Zoviet France: A Flock of Rotations (Vinyl on Demand) LP

A Flock of Rotations was originally released in 1987. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Zoviet France: Assault & Mirage (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Assault And Mirage was originally released in 1987. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Zoviet France: Eostre (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Eostre was originally released in 1984. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Zoviet France: Garista (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Garista was originally released on cassette in 1982. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Zoviet France: Gris (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Gris was originally released in 1985. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Zoviet France: Loh Land (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Loh Land was originally released in 1987. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Zoviet France: Misfits, Loony Tunes and Squalid Criminals (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Misfits, Loony Tunes And Squalid Criminals was originally released in 1986. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Zoviet France: Mohnomishe
(Vinyl on Demand) LP
Mohnomishe was originally released in 1983. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient,Tribal
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Zoviet France: Popular Soviet Songs and Youth Music (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Triple-LP + 7″ from Vinyl On Demand’s boxset, Chasse Recordings 1982-87. Popular Soviet Songs And Youth Music was originally released in 1985. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Zoviet France: s/t / Norsch (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Zoviet France was originally released in 1982 and Norsch was originally released in 1983. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Zoviet France: Signal Gesture Threat (Vinyl on Demand) LP
Gesture Signal Threat was originally released in 1986. Having willfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, Zoviet France developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis

File Under: Electronic, Industrial, Ambient, Tribal
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Various: Electronic Voyages: Early Moog Recordings 1964-1969 (Waveshaper) LP

In support of their forthcoming Bob Moog documentary Electronic Voyager, Waveshaper Media have produced a compilation LP of Moog recordings from the 1960s. The first compilation of its kind, Electronic Voyages: Early Moog recordings 1964-1969 contains tracks by Robert Arthur Moog, Herbert Deutsch, Joel Chadabe, Lothar and the Hand People, Intersystems, Ruth White, Max Brand, and Paul Earls. All of these tracks, released here on vinyl in an edition of 1000 copies, have been scarcely heard and difficult to track down, with all but three of them previously unreleased on vinyl. Bypassing the Moog synthesizer’s backseat appearance on key pop recordings by the likes of the Beatles, the Doors, and the Beach Boys, Electronic Voyages aims to highlight the diverse approach of 1960s musicians and composers who adopted the Moog as their primary instrument; these recordings all feature the Moog synthesizer front and centre. Beginning with an “audio letter” (The Abominatron) from Bob Moog to his musician-muse Herbert Deutsch, demonstrating some of the first Moog synthesizer prototype’s capabilities, Electronic Voyages veers from avant-garde and electronic soundscapes, to psychedelic madness and summer-of-love pop. In the 1960s, the Moog synthesizer was a new, groundbreaking instrument, and its use was completely uncharted territory. The pioneering use of the Moog on all of these recordings sounds fresh today – you can sense the wide-eyed exploratory delight unfolding, and the disparate results range from endearingly naive (Lothar and the Hand People, Paul Earls) to downright eerie (Ruth White, Intersystems). The musicians and composers behind these Electronic Voyages may have been among the first to adopt Moog synthesizers, but the fact that they so readily found within them expressivity, heart, and a means to translate their wondrous sense of discovery, speaks far more to Bob Moog’s visionary invention and enduring legacy.

File Under: Early Electronic

Various: Hillbillies in Hell Volume 9 (Iron Mountain) LP
Behold… the River of Earthly Torments, the Cavern of Hypocrites and the Lake of Fools. This Hell-Bound collection of weathered Nashville legends and battered backwoods-poets features tales of Sinful Lusts, Barroom Executions, Gospel Redemptions and Problematic Parenting. Often originally waxed on marginal labels and distributed in minuscule amounts, these Troubled Troubadours sing of the King of Lies, His Eternal Web, dismal, tortured Ghostly Inebriates and smouldering, tearful Abandonment. Years in the making – ‘Hillbillies In Hell’ (Volume 9) presents 16 timeless tribulations – Luciferian Trysts, Satanic Temptations, grisly Masonic Assassinations and Heathen Cosmologies. A daemonic stash of forgotten 45s – some of these sides are impossibly rare and are reissued here for the very first time. All for your breathless listening pleasure.

File Under: Country
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Various: The World is a Monster (Iron Mountain) LP

From the people who brought you Hillbillies In Hell… Out of the ashes of World War II, post-war Corporate U.S.A would sully its hands with anything in search of a buck. Even Hillbilly music… Here, reissued for the first time, are 18 of the grimiest, most delicious slabs of Hillbilly misery, debauchery and mayhem to grace the Columbia Records imprint. From the dusty Rhinestone Noir of Rocky Porter’s “The World Is A Monster” and Johnny Bond’s “All I Can Do Is Cry” to the strident defiance of Polly Possum’s “Don’t Talk To Me About Men” and the feral cowpoke racket of The Maddox Brothers “Ugly And Slouchy.” Years in the making – ‘The World Is A Monster’ presents 18 timeless paeans to dissolution, absolution and wanderlust – swinging, celebratory Honky Tonk odes and maudlin tear-in-your-beer-jerkers. Remastered with love and care from the original tapes in a deluxe collector’s edition with rare photos and memorabilia. A forgotten cache of subterranean 78s and marginal 45s – some of these sides are impossibly rare and are reissued here for the very first time. All for your guilty listening pleasure.

File Under: Country
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