Hello friends! I was looking forward to a break from making news letters, but here we are, back at it I guess. Which is good, that means there’s new things coming in to tell you about I guess. And thankfully, people are placing orders, it really means a lot and helps to ensure that will be able to keep doing this. We’ve got more coming next week too, some much needed restocks and exciting new wax as well.
Anyway, big thanks to everyone who’s been hitting up our webstore and placing orders! Every little bit will help us be able to turn the lights back on when the curve has been flattened and we are able to open the doors back up. If you haven’t hit up the WEBSTORE, MAYBE YOU SHOULD! I’ve been adding way more stuff than usual and will keep doing so, even if we go into total lock down. If that happens, our site is linked to our inventory, if you can order it on the site, we have it. If it sells out, you can’t order it. So ordering will put it on hold for you at the very least. If you can’t figure out the site, or don’t like to use computers, you can always call the store and we can do an order over the phone. I’ll be at the shop 11-4 week days, until I’m not allowed to be. Stay safe!
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…..pick of the week…..
Various: Stone Crush: Memphis Modern Soul 1977-1987
(Light in the Attic) LP
Memphis has always been a studio town, where making hit records looked easy. An unknown Elvis could walk into Sun Studios and cut a side, while Willie Mitchell worked his magic around the corner at the Hi Records studio. This vast studio ecosystem meant that even when Stax Records folded in 1975, everybody still knew somebody who could get them into a real recording facility. The city’s largest player in the business was gone, but the possibilities that it introduced were not. Stone Crush is the definitive overview of Memphis’ modern soul scene of the post-Stax years. It’s a collection of funky tracks of hope—from dentist O.T. Sykes, who traded dental work for studio time, to the ad-man who moonlighted as the visionary mastermind behind Captain Fantastic & Starfleet, few of them ever had anything to do with a hit, but across the board, each believed. Like Cato Walker, whose father’s gig as B.B. King’s driver got him an in, and The Bar-Kays’ former costume maker Libra, some had tangential connections to the city’s deep-rooted music scene that gave them a head start on their hopeful path to fame. Over a decade in the making, Stone Crush is an expertly curated compilation of these home-grown slices of Memphis stylings, from roller skate boogie to private press soul to bedroom funk—rare sides whose original copies are considered holy grails by DJs and collectors all over. This collection does more than transport us to a time gone by. It helps us hear what couldn’t be heard then.
File Under: Soul
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…..new arrivals…..
Fabio Fabor: Pape Satan (Beatball) LP
The long-awaited exact reissue of the 1980 occult electro / dark ambient masterpiece from the Italian library music label HARD. Fabio Borgazzi, under the alias of Fabio Fabor, was one of the maestros of Italian music, traversing disparate genres including classical music, pop, and electronic music. Released under his own library label, ‘Pape Satan’ is yet another holy grail for collectors of Italian library records. The record’s infernal visions woven from analogue synths & percussion invite the listener into Fabor’s obscure, grimy, and visual soundscape. Released with the original striptease artwork, for the first time in 40 years! “My electroacoustic music knowledge encouraged me to attempt a mix of voices, percussions, instruments and synthesizers to deal with a theme that had fascinated me for some time: the eschatological-Dantesque environment in its transcendent metaphysical imagination and, at times, even ironic interpretation. The search for sound materials of the most varied origin allowed me to achieve particularly effective timbric results, the fruit of a patient elaboration of the materials themselves with operations suggested by the mixer and by the various systems for treating sound. What I would define essentially as ‘electroacoustic music’, finds its unavoidable realization exclusively in recording, as by nature one cannot imagine other and different forms of execution: therefore I believe that the most effective and intimate listening the disc allows is the logical point of arrival of my artisan work, which I hope can achieve its own artistic meaning.” – Fabio Fabor
File Under: Library
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Franco Falsini: Cold Nose (Vinyl Magic) LP
Franco Falsini is a musician and composer who, already in the mid-‘60s, was full-time involved in music activities: a tireless traveler and experimenter, an artist with uncommon curiosity and intuition, after having lived for some time in the United States and England, he finally established again in Italy where he gave shape to Sensations’ Fix and signed a contract with Polydor for the release of six records in five years. In addition to the composition and release of the Sensations’ Fix LP’s, Falsini was able to record a solo album in 1975, “Cold Nose (Naso freddo)”, the soundtrack of the eponymous short film directed by Filippo Milani, which Falsini himself says it’s the description of “a day in the life of a Freudian cocaine addict. There were only three actors, two of whom represented the paranoia of the main and only character, Miguel, a Spaniard who lived as a photomodel companion. […] There was no action at all in the film, which was basically made of moving photographs, with many close-ups […]. This, with the absence of dialogues, made the soundtrack fundamental. The slowness of the images had to be reflected in music, and synchronizing everything wasn’t easy. […] Everything was analogic and the tape cuts were handmade”. Sonically speaking, “Cold Nose” is a space/psychedelic trip played by Falsini in complete autonomy, with only bass, guitar, keyboards/synthesizers and sporadic vocalizations at the end of the third and last part of the opera, a long 20-minute composition that fills the entire B-side of the record. Sounds and atmospheres are still fresh totay, and it wouldn’t have been wrong to define them “avant-garde” back in those days! Faithful reproduction of the original edition with inner envelope, in white vinyl.
File Under: Electronic, Kosmische, Psych, Prog
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Far Out: 日本人 (Nihonjin) (Everland) LP
Some albums are certainly a kind of holy grail for music lovers and collectors of a certain genre, style and era. FAR OUT with their eponymous debut and unfortunately also farewell album from 1973 have created such a sacred gem. Original copies in good condition change hands for up to 2000 USD and there are certainly a few not so official reprints on vinyl and CD out on the market which do not even come close to do justice to the greatness of the old original black gold. But here we go with the first ever official vinyl reissue taken directly from the original mastertapes supplied by Nippon Columbia. EVERLAND MUSIC did a brilliant job as usual with their reissue. The coverart with a white glove hanging on a washing line to dry comes on an awesome heavy gatefold sleeve. Including 2 inserts with live photos from back in the day when the band was going wild on stage. Now for the most important part, the music. There are certainly not too many wild moments here since both long tracks „Too many people“ and „Nihonjin“ have a melancholic, dreamy approach with a desperately howling and sighing lead guitar that spouts some utterly intense melodies. These two tracks are epics in the pure sense of the word. They start both with a rather gentle part which develops into a journey of sound that bring either vast landscapes of enchanting beauty untouched by modern human life or quite dramatic scenes to your mind’s eye. The lead guitarist often uses some strange instrument which is a kind of electric sitar to add the atmosphere of eastern mystic. So while falling into a state of deep trance while letting the music rush through my ears into my brain my spirit that has left my body embarks on a trip from the smokey volcanic hills around Pompeji to the icy permafrost wastelands of the Northeastern lands and arrives somewhere in the East Asian jungle on a gold plated pyramid of an unspeakable age where laughing demons dance around mystic fireplaces. Yes, this is the real journey to the center of your mind and despite having no really abstract freak out parts, tricky instrumental runs and twisted rhythm figures this music will capture your whole existence for the next 38 minutes. The end of „Nihonjin“, the second tune, shows an ambient like section with synthesizer background, echoing atonal sitar, a brightly squeaking flute, organ carpet and some percussions. This is indeed a rather extreme part, due to the pointed tone of the flute but quite soon the music stops and leaves the listener back in reality. This second track later on got a kind of reappearance on the FAR EAST FAMILY album „Nipponjin“, also retitled as „Nipponjin“. Mastermind behind both acts is multi instrumentalist Fumio Miyashita, so there is no wonder. The later version has more space rock elements and electronic sounds than the original FAR OUT tune and is a little bit shorter all in all. But I digress. This is the real thing for those who still miss the melodies and atmosphere of the late 60s and very early 70s when people had a dream of a peaceful world and who enjoy early German cosmic kraut rock like AMON DÜÜL II, ORGANISATION (later to become KRAFTWERK), the debut album by TANGERINE DREAM and more obscure stuff but also international bands like PINK FLOYD, GONG, TWINK and HAWKWIND just as an East Asian version. A real gem and finally available with the real sound and package again.
File Under: Prog, Psych, Japanese
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Sven Libaek: The Music of (Votary) LP
The Sven Libaek soundtrack story begins here. The genesis of one of the most singular modern jazz voices to emerge in documentary film music during the 1960s and 70s, an unheralded style that melded European modernism, west coast jazz and Brazilian rhythms combined with a unique antipodean disposition; a musical vision inspired by a personal experience in an alien environment together with a sound shaped by a virtuoso team of Australian jazzmen. In the words of the albums original liner notes, “A kaleidoscope of 1960s Australia…” Compiled here is a collection of soundtrack themes composed for various early 1960s documentary and public information films produced by the Australian Newsreel Company Cinesound. All pieces were composed in the short few years after Libaek immigrated to Australia and were first recorded prior to his landmark score to Vince Serventy’s television series Nature Walkabout (1966). Reminiscent of future Libaek documentary soundtracks, To Ride A White Horse (1968) and of course the now legendary score to Ron And Valerie Taylor’s Inner Space (1973), it is on this compilation that we first witness the unique elements that make his music so alluring, the inception of a refined jazz modernist with a wonderful pop sensibility. Hypnotic 7/4, 5/4, waltz and bossa rhythms combined with a strong focus on the tonal colours of the Vibraphone and Flute (played by John Sangster and Don Burrows respectively) but above all else, it is the first introduction to those highly individual and blissful Sven Libaek melodies.
File Under: Library
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Egisto Macchi: Fauna Marina (Vinyl Magic) LP
At the end of the ‘60s in Italy – but also abroad, especially in France and England – a very particular trend began to spread, that one known as ’Library music’ or ‘sonorization’: as suggested by its name, those were real music libraries intended for the accompaniment of audiovisual productions such as television programs, advertisements, documentaries and films. Since they were created in total artistic freedom condition, they are often difficult if not impossible to catalog, as they’re not anchored to a specific musical genre; this freedom also allowed the authors to compose, sometimes in the most complete anonymity, experimental and avant-garde music, capable of anticipating the sounds that only many years later would have been widespread on a larger scale. Egisto Macchi (1928-1992) was one of the most active composers of the sonorization and soundtrack genres together with artists such as Piero Umiliani, Alessandro Alessandroni and Ennio Morricone; he also collaborated with the latter in the experimental music project Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. “Fauna Marina” is among his most popular and sought-after by collectors titles: a set of eleven compositions intended to accompany the images of a hypothetical fish fauna documentary, an abstract hybrid of classical, contemporary and jazz music that is still fresh and surprising today. “Fauna Marina” is part of a reissues series, made in collaboration with Edizioni Leonardi (Milan, Italy), of extremely rare library music LP’s published between late ’60s and early ’70s, most of which have never been released again until today, and that are finally made available again for collectors and sonorization music lovers.
File Under: Library, Underwater
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OST: Music of Red Dead Redemption II (Score) (Lakeshore) LP
Building on the evocative score of the original Red Dead Redemption, The Music of Red Dead Redemption 2: Original Score is a powerful, emotional journey through the final days of America’s outlaw era and the second installment of music from Red Dead Redemption 2. This award-winning interactive score was composed by longtime Rockstar collaborator Woody Jackson, whose previous work includes score for the original Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and Grand Theft Auto V with Tangerine Dream, The Alchemist and Oh No. “Writing the score for Red Dead Redemption 2 was an incredibly ambitious project and I couldn’t be prouder of the results,” said Jackson. “We were creating a living soundscape for a wildly diverse cross section of 19th century America. After all these years working with so many talented people, I can’t wait to share these songs beyond the world of the game.” The Music of Red Dead Redemption 2: Original Score also features additional production and arrangement by Jeff Silverman (Truth and Soul, Aloe Black), with additional musical score and orchestration provided by Colin Stetson (Bon Iver, Hereditary), David Ferguson (Johnny Cash’s engineer), David Ralicke (Beck, Sons of Anarchy), Gabe Witcher (Punch Brothers, True Detective), Luke O’Malley, Mario Batkovic (of Geoff Barrow’s Invada), Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf, Iggy Pop, Bonnie Prince Billy), Rabih Beaini and Senyawa, as well as contributions from over 110 other musicians including Arca (frequent Bjork, Kanye West, Frank Ocean and Kelela collaborator), Duane Eddy (Lee Hazlewood protégé), Jon Theodore (former drummer of Mars Volta and current Queens of the Stone Age drummer), Michael Shuman aka Mikey Shoes (Queens of the Stone Age, Mini Mansions) and more.
File Under: OST
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Piper: Gentle Breeze (Ship to Shore) LP
Scoring a hit with their second album Summer Breeze, Piper set out to record their follow up in a similar vein. Members remained the same: Keisuke Yamamoto (guitar, vocals), Takashi Shima (keyboards), and Wataru Ito (bass). Guest musicians included Kazuhito Murata and Hiroshi Koitabashi on chorus, and Tetsuaki Hoashi on percussion. Recording sessions for the third album began less than 6 months after the second, but the evolution of their sound was considerable. One reason was utilizing the skills of Yuji Toriyama for programming of the Linn Drums. This made it easier for the band to write and arrange their songs to their liking. Second was that the band members were beginning to enjoy making music in this style. Specific ideas were coming together to become distinct songs. The fact that they were able to transcend the BGM style that they initially aspired towards to create a distinct pop sound, is one of the important aspects of this album. The front cover photo of a snowy scene juxtaposed with the sunny pool scene of the back cover, also had quite an impact. This jacket design was a collaboration between (TV personality and jazz aficionado) Tamori, who took the photos, anddesigner Hajime Anzai. The two would go on to become the popular co-hosts of “Soramimi Hour” on Tamori’s variety show Tamori Club. The duo’s unique visual sense encouraged listeners to enjoy the sounds of summer in a wintery setting – which in turn had a hand in influencing PIPER’s own sound as well. Gentle Breeze is in one way an extension of Summer Breeze, in other ways it’s one big step up. Many PIPER fans consider this album to be their masterpiece. For fans who enjoy this phase of PIPER, we encourage you to listen to the songs from Gentle Breeze and Summer Breeze on shuffle. That way the meaning catch copy on the obi – “Gentle Beat Pop” – should start to make sense.
File Under: Japanese, Pop, City Pop
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Giuliano Sorgini: Elettroformule (Vinyl Magic) LP
At the end of the ‘60s in Italy – but also abroad, especially in France and England – a very particular trend began to spread, that one known as ’Library music’ or ‘sonorization’: as suggested by its name, those were real music libraries intended for the accompaniment of audiovisual productions such as television programs, advertisements, documentaries and films. Since they were created in total artistic freedom condition, they are often difficult if not impossible to catalog, as they’re not anchored to a specific musical genre; this freedom also allowed the authors to compose, sometimes in the most complete anonymity, experimental and avant-garde music, capable of anticipating the sounds that only many years later would have been widespread on a larger scale. Giuliano Sorgini is one of the most mysterious composers of the sonorization and soundtrack genres: almost nothing is known about his life, despite his name being linked to dozens of albums and compositions. “Elettroformule” is probably one of his most ‘extreme’ experiments: a collection of twelve short improvisations generated with the sole aid of electronic instruments: abstract compositions, balanced between ambient and noise music, perfect for a hypothetical science fiction from the ’60/70s. “Elettroformule” is part of a reissues series, made in collaboration with Edizioni Leonardi (Milan, Italy), of extremely rare library music LP’s, published between late ’60s and early ’70s, most of which have never been released again until today, and that are finally made available again for collectors and sonorization music lovers.
File Under: Electronic, Library
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Various: Black Death (Wyrd War) 3LP
Cleveland, Ohio’s legendary BLACK DEATH is widely hailed as one of the first African American heavy metal bands, and this definitive new triple LP anthology assembles for the first time on vinyl their seminal demos, compilation tracks and only existing live recordings from the classic 1983-1988 era. UNTIL WE ROCK: THE LOST RECORDINGS features their rare 1983 demo, Cleveland Metal compilation tracks, epic live concert jams and previously unheard 1988 rehearsal demo that was intended to be the band’s sophomore record following the acclaimed and highly sought 1984 release on Auburn Records. Three full-length records, more than 100 minutes of music, lovingly restored and mastered for vinyl by Timothy Stollenwerk from the rawest of RAW source material & featuring gatefold liner notes by streetwalkin’ survivor Siki Spacek himself! A crucial underground bridge between the soulful guitar wizardry of Jimi Hendrix and the bold forward-leaning experimentalism characterized by the Afro Punk movement, this expansive collection has been several years in the making. The release date commemorates the precise day that guitarist Vincent Lindsay marched onward in 2018 after a prolonged and brave battle with cancer. UNTIL WE ROCK!
File Under: Metal
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Various: Oto No Wa (Music for Dreams) LP
For the fifth entry in our Collector`s Series we enlist the skills of Japan-based musical connoisseurs, Ken Hidaka, Max Essa, and Dr. Rob. Their compilation Oto No Wa sets out to map the evolution of chilled Japanese sounds across 3 decades, collecting 14 tracks, produced by a wide range of artists. From ambient pioneers to dance-floor veterans, to a 9-piece reggae band, Little Tempo, percussionist Kazuya Kotani, and organic, psychedelic collective, Olololop. Beginning in the late 1980s, the era when “environmental music” became prevalent, there`s Yoshio Ojima`s cool computer-generated Sealed. The compilation also includes later work by his contemporaries Takashi Kokubo, and Yoshiaki Ochi. Theirs are compositions designed for art galleries and museum installations. “BGM” built from emerging technology, and / or counterpoint tapped out expertly on sticks and stones. The 90s give us the seminal electronics of Susumu Yokota, and the solar-flare strut of Scha Dara Parr – Japan’s answer to The Beastie Boys. Here, remixed by the legendary Major Force. Moving into the 21st century we have the post-house productions of Flower Records. Kentaro Takizawa`s oceanic Gradual Life, and Little Big Bee`s colourful coral reef-diving Scuba. Fellow traveller, Kaoru Inoue`s “Kyushu kosmische”. Representing the next decade are Flower Records’ current rising stars, Coastlines, who calmly combine classic fusion, library music, and gentle nova bossa nova rhythms. Alongside them are the sun-baked electro-acoustics of Karel Arbus & Eiji Takamatsu, plus Chillax` previously unreleased epic analog / modular jam. All of these selections are the result of some serious “digging” but more importantly they represent physical connections made during Ken’s 20-plus-year career in the “Biz”, Max` decade of DJing all over Japan. Music made by folks interviewed by Rob at the websites, Test Pressing and Ban Ban Ton Ton. Friendships forged at Lone Star – the trio’s long-running party, which takes place every month at Bar Bonobo in Harajuku.
File Under: Electronic, Japanese
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Various: Tidbeats (Cinevox) 4LP BOX
This is a collection called “Tidbeats”. Its title means “music bars” but it reads also as tidbits. It contains, in fact, original unreleased tracks from the likes of Stelvio Cipriani, Francesco De Masi, Piero Umiliani, Gianni Ferrio, Giorgio Gaslini, Riz Ortolani, Armando Trovajoli, Piero Piccioni and many other great masters of the Italian soundtracks. “Tidbeats” is a work by Alessio Santoni, who discovered, restored and brewed them in a single linear score. A surprising mosaic composed of 161 never-heard-before takes, for a total of two hours of listening, that also sometime include, between one song and another, unexpected cameos in the form of the authors’ hands-free voice, giving instructions to the musicians, captured in the original Studer recorders tracks. A rigorous philological work and at the same time a skilful work of stitching on a rhythmic and tonal basis. Themes, variations, breaks, interludes: unique finds handled as precious fragments of a collective dream to be recomposed, as highly valuable pieces of a new overture. Thus, after a year of seclusion between the shelves of Cinevox and the recording rooms of Trafalgar Studios, the path was finally traced for a dreamy musical pilgrimage along the golden seasons of Italian Cinema. “Tidbeats”, celebrating the 100 years from the foundation of Gruppo Editoriale Bixio, is produced by Carlo Bagnolo for Cinevox Record with the executive collaboration of AMS Records, is exclusively 33 distributed by the Milanese BTF.
File Under: Library, Funk
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…..Restocks….
Bent Wind: Sussex (Ugly Pop) LP
Greg Foat & James Thorpe: Photosynthesis (Athens of the North) LP
Jacky Giordano: Timing Archives (Farfalla) LP
Haruomi Hosono: Cochin Moon (Light in the Attic) LP
Haruomi Hosono: Hosono House (Light in the Attic) LP
Clifford Jordan: Glass Bead Games (Pure Pleasure) LP
Kikagaku Moyo: Masana Temples (Gurugurubrain) LP
Cecil McBee: Mutima (Pure Pleasure) LP
Ofege: Higher Plane Breeze (Tidal Wave) LP
Byron Pope: Speed of Light (Tidal Wave) LP
This Heat: s/t (Future Days) LP
Marcos Valle & Azymuth: Fly Cruzeiro (Tidal Wave) LP
Various: Even a Tree Can Shed Tears (Light in the Attic) LP
Various: Pacific Breeze (Light in the Attic) LP