Hooooboy, another bonkers week for new arrivals and knowing what’s en route, next week won’t be much better! Firstly, the first reissue of Harold Budd‘s seminal ambient album Pavilion of Dreams is finally in! The newest album of Japanese collage from Meitei. Managed to snag a few copies of the Japanese post punk monster, Aunt Sally, which was sadly missing from the Vanity boxsets. And sneaking in just in time to make it to this email, the mono reissue of Piper at the Gates of Dawn! Also, the coloured Spoon has finally arrived, we finally got MBV’s Isn’t Anything, the 4LP box of Avalanche’s Since I Left You, another new GBV, a bunch of Japanese Jazz reissue’s on BBE both new and restocked, along with more Japanese reissues in general. All in all, another banner week!
Also, they’ve announced the Record Store Day exclusives list. You can find the list HERE or the Canadian list HERE , but it’s also worth noting, that we deal with tons of suppliers so we also can sometimes get some of the UK & European releases. Needless to say we’ll be ordering all the stuff we would stock if it was just a regular release, but if there’s something on the list you hope to find in our shop on that day, be sure to let us know ASAP so we can be sure to order it for you. Don’t worry, we’ll order a ton of Viktor Vaughn, Art Pepper, Karen Dalton, Voivoid. As usual, unfortunately, just because we order 20 doesn’t mean we’ll get 20. So keep an eye out closer to the date to see what we’ll actually have in. Oh and it’s important to note as well, no more Remote RSD, this year, in store only.. good thing we’ve all been practicing standing in line for the last 2 years.
As previously mentioned, in line with current health restrictions we are operating as below..
– in-store shopping/pick ups – 11 – 6 pm Monday – Friday, 11 am – 4 pm Saturday
(if you don’t want to come into the store for a pick up, call and/or use the back door)
– Max 4 people in the store at a time
– Wear a mask(if you don’t have one, we’ll have some)
– Sanitize your hands(we’ll have some)
…..picks of the week…..
Harold Budd: Pavilion of Dreams (Superior Viaduct) LP
For five decades, Harold Budd stood on the forefront of the West Coast avant-garde. Born in Los Angeles, he studied with Schoenberg-pupil Gerald Strang and began teaching at CalArts in 1970. While searching for his own voice, he was influenced as much by abstract expressionist painters as by John Cage and Morton Feldman. In his work, Budd brought delicate, slowing-moving melodies to the foreground – creating a new musical language based on “eternally pretty music” and smooth surfaces. In the early ’70s, Budd started an extended cycle of compositions that would comprise The Pavilion Of Dreams. For Budd, the album was a signpost for a new direction in thinking about music: “The Pavilion Of Dreams erased my past. I consider that to be the birth of myself as a serious artist. It was like my Magna Carta.” Produced by Brian Eno in 1978, The Pavilion Of Dreams stands toe-to-toe with another minimalist masterpiece also released that year, Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians. Budd’s gorgeous pieces reveal a lightness of touch that draws the listener in, while sublime voices float in and out as if in a recurring dream. Featuring saxophonist Marion Brown and multi-instrumentalists Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman, The Pavilion Of Dreams remains a master class in exquisite timbre and shimmering texture. The Pavilion Of Dreams was both the final release on Eno’s Obscure imprint and a transition point towards his seminal ambient series. This first-time reissue is recommended for fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jon Hassell and Mark Hollis.
File Under: Ambient, Minimalism, Kris’s Picks, Ian’s Picks
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Meitei: Kofu II (Kitchen.) LP
Meitei’s 2020 album Kofū was the bold bookend to an expedition, where sounds were first navigated and then subverted in 2018’s Kwaidan and 2019’s Komachi. All three albums were Meitei’s attempt at immersive storytelling, reimagining moments of Japanese history he felt were being washed away – not least by the unforgiving sands of time – through wistful compositions that stretched across ambient music, hauntology and musique concrete. After Kofū, Meitei found he was left with over 60 fully realized tracks, bursting with ideas that fired in divergent, curious directions. He realized his work wasn’t over yet. Meitei sounds right at home celebrating the past he first reimagined in his previous work. The merriment is palpable in its first two tracks of Kofū II – a loop of cheery whistling amidst the clanking of wood leads into strings, cricket sounds and flutes, all united in bustling harmony. Happyaku-yachō is where it comes into focus. Pitch-shifted vocal samples roam around in the crowded sonic field as Meitei conjures the vibrancy of a dense Edo of the past. The affair becomes bittersweet as the track leads into the desolate Kaworu, a compositional piece lifted from his Komachi sessions – a final requiem to his late grandmother. The album is bursting with spectral vignettes of wandering samurais, red lanterns, ninjas, puppet theatres, poets, even a vengeful assassin (Shurayukihime, known to Western audiences as ‘Lady Snow-blood’). Saryō is as elegant and refined as you would expect. It induces stillness in its repetition, with each synth note a brushstroke. It was inspired by a Sengoku-era tea house he once visited, designed by national icon Sen no Rikyū. Meitei tied it to the reaction he felt while poring over the ink paintings in his grandmother’s house. “The decayed earthen walls and faded tatami mats gave me an emotional impression,” he says. “And the cosmic flow of time drifting in the small room. I decided to put my impression of this into music.” In Akira Kurosawa, an appropriately thunderous track, Meitei finds deep resonance in his vast filmography, which drew equally from Japan’s rich heritage and troubled circumstances post-WWII. Kofū II is not a leftovers album, nor is it a straightforward companion piece. In this album, Meitei has his biggest reckoning with the Japanese identity yet. Over the years, he has attempted to peel back what he believes has defined Japan and its people. After seeking answers with three full-length albums, his fourth poses more questions. If his first three albums inspired a sense of longing – or, perhaps inevitably, fed an irreparable nostalgia doomed to history – Kofū II compels us to reassess our relationship with the past. By constantly looking back, are we ever afforded a clearer present? After capturing the “lost Japanese mood”, where does that leave its country in the modern world? Meitei offers no immediate answers with Kofū II. It forces you to sit with its disparate moods, to meditate amidst the textured fragments. Kofū II will be released on 180g LP, CD and digital format via KITCHEN. LABEL. Both LP and CD format are presented in a debossed sleeve with obi strip and include a 16-page insert with words in Japanese and English from Meitei, printed on premium paper stock with design by KITCHEN. LABEL founder Ricks Ang, and is mastered by Chihei Hatakeyama.
File Under: Electronic, Ambient, Japan, Kris’s Picks
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Pink Floyd: Piper at the Gates of Dawn MONO (Pink Floyd) LP
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, originally released in 1967, is the only Pink Floyd title recorded while under the leadership of Syd Barrett. Home to the early Floyd classic “Interstellar Overdrive,” it was recorded at the now legendary Abbey Road Studios and is considered one of the quintessential psychedelic records of its era. The cornerstone release was remastered in 2017 from the original mono analogue tapes by James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Bernie Grundman and is issued here on heavyweight 180 gram vinyl LP with standard single sleeve LP jacket packaging similar to the 2016 stereo release.
File Under: Psych, Kris’s Picks
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Aunt Sally: s/t (Mesh-Key) LP
This seminal, eponymous post-punk album by Japanese group Aunt Sally, fronted by experimental singer Phew, was first released by the iconic Vanity Records label in 1979. Over the past forty-plus years, Phew has forged a singular path through a wide range of styles – from free improvisation to pop – and has collaborated with the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, members of Can, DAF, Einstürzende Neubauten, The Raincoats and more. But Aunt Sally is where she got her start and, despite the members’ young ages (still in college at the time), Phew and the band delivered a mature, timeless take on minimalistic punk. Remastered from the original analog tapes, this fully authorized reissue includes a bonus 7-inch with unreleased live material. The album is packaged in a heavy, tip-on jacket from Stoughton, and is housed in a double-sided, printed inner sleeve.
File Under: Post Punk, Japan, Ian’s Picks, Kris’s Picks
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…..new arrivals……
A Place to Bury Strangers: See Through You (Dedstrange) LP
A Place to Bury Strangers defund post-punk orthodoxy with the most audacious and varied songwriting of their career on their sixth album, See Through You— out February 4, 2022, on Oliver Ackermann’s label, Dedstrange. Following up on 2021’s highly acclaimed Hologram EP, the rebooted lineup— vocalist/guitarist Oliver Ackermann plus drummer/vocalist Sandra Fedowitz and bassist John Fedowitz (both of Ceremony East Coast)— delivers an overclocked set of futuristic electronic punk music encoded with punishing industrial rhythms, swirling voltage-starved guitars and unclassifiable auditory annihilation. Across thirteen tracks recorded in seclusion throughout the nihilistic absurdity of the coronavirus pandemic, See Through You is proof-positive that the group hailed as “The Loudest Band in New York” is still finding new ways to push the needle deeper in the red.
File Under: Post Punk
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Alessandro Alessandroni: A Trip Around The World (Saar) LP
SAAR Records is republishing , in a limited edition with its famous label Stella and thanks to the collaboration of Sonor Muisc Editios for remastering, the Long Play “A Trip Around The World”, much sought after the vinyl collectors. The album was recorded and produced in the recording studios at Pero, with the famous Italian composer, orchestra director, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Alessandro Alessandroni and was first published in 1973.
File Under: Library, Lounge
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Avalanches: Since I Left You (XL) 4LP
“Better than just about any music ever made” – Pitchfork
“As good as could possibly be… timeless” – Zane Lowe
The Avalanches’ landmark debut LP, ‘Since I Left You,’ is being re-released as a 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition 4LP. The 4LP features 33 tracks on heavyweight vinyl, consisting of the original 18 track album + 15 tracks including 9 previously unreleased remixes by MF Doom, Sinkane, Carl Craig, Leon Vynehall, and more. The Deluxe Edition also has new album art and contains a poster, along with liner notes by Simon Reynolds. The album includes remixes from MF Doom, Cornelius, Prince Paul, Stereolab, Sinkane, Carl Craig, and more. The Melbourne bands iconic debut blew minds upon its release, winning a clutch of ARIA Awards and topping polls all over the world. ‘Since I Left You’ flows seamlessly from start to finish like a travelogue dedicated to a lover somewhere across oceans, The Avalanches’ sample-based approach setting a precedent for dance music that has been influential ever since and is arguably yet to be rivaled. The records singles “Frontier Psychiatrist” and “Since I Left You” were accompanied by dazzling, unforgettable videos that captured punters imaginations as much as the music itself. The overwhelming reception of the record led The Avalanches on an infamous world tour that resulted in raucous, joyous festival shows, kitchen sink club DJ sets, media offices set alight, two broken legs and an indecent amount of nudity.
File Under: Electronic
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Jeff Carney: Live Electronic Music (Lion) LP
Jeff Carney’s sophomore effort for audioFile (1989) could not have been criticized were it to have remained in similar territory as the electronic wall of sound he had created on Imperfect Space Journeys. Instead, he created a more sparse, evolving tapestry of analog timbres. Using an exclusively vintage analog arsenal and recording live without overdubbing, Carney pushed forward with new ideas and uniquely developing sweeps of filter madness. The side-long ’Questions (Unanswered)’ is immensely innovative: the sounds are at once organic and of the earth, yet futuristic in their skyward drones and hypnotic hooks. Additional layers are gradually added, like a bubbling alien swarm tone that comes in successive falling surges, followed by cosmic whooshing and howling rushes of wind. The effect is simultaneously meditative and intense. And live. As Carney said, “I was quite proud because I managed to essentially perform the entire composition without error. Just about every sound came in at the right level. Every part was performed without mistake. And nothing was adjusted or corrected. This was what happened on the spot.” Carney explores different territory on the two B-side tracks: ‘ARP 2600 Improvisation’ is like a master class of cosmic effects. It feels like the soundtrack to a 1950s sci-fi movie, recalling Forbidden Planet’s most electrifying moments, but also at times sounding like sci-fi flick meets battle-in-space video game. ‘Pensive Mood’ roars out of the starting gate with a high octane electronic arpeggiated pattern, creating a somewhat white-knuckled brand of “pensive” contemplation. This is the most minimal piece of the set, with the incessant, almost imperceptibly evolving arrangement having a somewhat edge-of-your-seat hypnotic effect. The album was completely uninfluenced by the digital trends that were dominating the era, and stands as a landmark example of the uncompromising ethos adopted by many artists of the 1980’s underground. Featuring an all new essay and interview with Jeff Carney by Jerry Kranitz (author of the “Cassette Culture” book and publisher for nearly two decades of Aural Innovations), this is the definitive reissue of Live Electronic Music.
File Under: Electronic, Kosmische
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Coral Club: Turn To (Not Not Fun) CS
Alexander Sirenko’s second odyssey as Coral Club, Turn To, centers on transformative synesthetic childhood experiences retriggered in meditation. Although composed using a similar Groovebox / Electribe / FX rig as his NNF debut, Nowhere Island, the album’s nine tracks skew looser and more levitational, lost in cloud currents of color, memory, and solar fantasy. Hazy keys loop and climb to shimmering heights, lifted by churning synthetic rhythms, equal parts 4th world futurism and past life ascension mantra. Sirenko speaks of these pieces as “journeys through inner worlds,” distilled across two years of patient creation. Visions turned to sound, reveries to rainbows – this is music of the senses and the spheres, approaching rare summits of celestial convergence.
File Under: Ambient, Tapes
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Henryk Debich: Zblizenie (Astigmatic) LP
After the well-received, sold-out on the spot seven-inch single containing “Monika” and “Zabawa w ciemności”, as well as a special repress for the renowned German shop HHV, the time has come for a full-length album entitled “Zbliżenie” presenting nine never before released compositions by the Henryk Debich’s Orchestra. Over the last two years, Astigmatic Records have been digging through the Radio Łódź archives, listening to hundreds of recordings of the local Orchestra conducted by Henryk Debich. As a result, 13 gems were selected from the period between 1974 and 1977, which was also the time when the Holy Grail of Polish jazz-funk was created: the highly sought after by record collectors in all corners of the globe “String Beat” album. At the beginning of the year, the first vinyl from the series of releases under the baton of Maestro came out. It was a seven-inch record entitled “Monika/Zabawa w ciemności”. The next in line is the long-awaited album “Zbliżenie” (“The Close-up”), initially planned for June, but postponed to September due to overloaded pressing plants. “Zbliżenie” is a longplay packed with groove, pulsating drums, powerful brass and string sections, and unique, previously unreleased compositions. The album’s title is not that random, as, apart from the B-side opening track under the same title, we take a closer look at the period when the Łódź Orchestra, thanks to the “angry youngsters” such as Jacek Malinowski, Mirosław Racewicz, Jacek Delong, Andrzej Żylis and Zbigniew Karwacki, was exploring the genre taking the West by storm – Jazz-Funk. In the seventies, despite having over twenty years of experience, the Łódź Orchestra of the Polish Radio and Television was reinventing itself, sounding ever more modern and exciting with every passing year. Depending on the piece, there could be from forty to seventy musicians performing! The orchestra smoothly maneuvered between funk and disco, touching on illustrative music and jazz. Upon the project’s completion, it turned out that 2021 will be a year of many anniversaries. 18 January marked the 100th birthday anniversary of the legendary conductor and founder of the Łódź Orchestra of the Polish Radio and Television, while July marked 20 years since he is no longer with us. What’s more, Radio Łódź, Debich’s home away from home for almost half a century, celebrated its 80th anniversary, and 30 years ago the Orchestra he managed until the very end was disbanded.
File Under: Jazz, Library, Polish
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Feral Season: Rotting Body in the Range of Light (Profound Lore) LP
Feral Season is Karl Cordtz (Chrch, Occlith) and Patrick Hills (Occlith, ex-King Woman). All songs and lyrics were written by Cordtz in isolation during the summer and fall of 2020. Drums and synth were added by Hills. Rotting Body In The Range Of Light, their debut full-length, was recorded the following winter at Earthtone Recording Company in Sacramento, California. The influence of early to mid-Scandinavian black metal forms the bands sonic backbone, though their songs often wander into more hallucinatory soundscapes. The project initially began as a way for Cordtz to explore a personal connection between black metal and the landscapes of Northern California. Rotting Body In The Range Of Light is a portrayal of the loss of one’s mind and a subsequent flight into the depths of the inner self.
File Under: Metal
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Frightened Rabbit: Midnight Organ Fight (Fat Cat) LP
2008’s Midnight Organ Fight, the second studio outing from Scottish indie rockers Frightened Rabbit, is actually the group’s first proper album, as 2006’s engaging yet slight Sing the Greys consisted largely of demos. Retaining its predecessor’s raw, nervy center while introducing elements of proper, arena-fueled grandiosity, due in large part to the band’s fiery performances but also to some deft knob-twiddling from producer Peter Katis (Interpol, The National), the 14-track collection is essentially a breakup album, but one that, despite its brutal and frankly disseminated subject matter, is so musically uplifting and emotionally charged that it manages to inspire, even at its most venomous. 2022 repress.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Guided By Voices: Crystal Nuns Cathedral (GBV Inc)
The mighty Guided By Voices are set to unleash upon the world their 35th and quite possibly…best album, Crystal Nuns Cathedral. How do they do it you might ask? Well we have no idea how they do it, but we certainly do know why they do it. They do it because quite honestly we need them to do it. The world needs The Rock, and we need loud guitars, we need anthemic songs, we need a reason to raise a rock fist in the air and give a “Hell Yeah”! On Crystal Nuns Cathedral, the band delivers all of this and so much more. Just four months since It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!, comes this latest, twelve songs determined to challenge for the title of greatest Guided by Voices album of all-time. Hyperbole you say? Not this time. The guitars are bigger, the arrangements are more ambitious, the songs are uplifting, epic, and as incredibly hook-laden as always! Pure power pop perfection like lead single “Excited Ones” mix perfectly with the slow burning “Climbing A Ramp,” which reaches its climax on a stunning guitar lead before dissolving into the fist pumping anthem “Never Mind the List,” which serves as the beating heart of the entire album. Do you still need convincing? Listen to the one-two punch of “Forced to Sea” and “Huddled” and marvel at the epic scope and vision of an incredible band on full display. This record is a statement, a challenge, a monument, a call to arms. Top this one if you can, this is the new benchmark. Who will best it? Who will try? Listen to Crystal Nuns Cathedral, and report back to us. We will be eagerly waiting.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Wendell Harrison: Birth of a Fossil (Tidal Waves) LP
Wendell Harrison was born in Detroit in 1942 where he began formal jazz studies for piano, clarinet and tenor saxophone. At 14, while still in high school, Harrison started performing & recording professionally with artists such as Marvin Gaye, Grant Green, Sun Ra, Hank Crawford … and many others. In 1971, Harrison began teaching music at Metro Arts (a multi-arts complex for youth) where he also connected with Marcus Belgrave, Harold McKinney and Phil Ranelin…soon after they formed the (now legendary) Afro-centric TRIBE record label and artist collective. TRIBE used the Metro Arts complex as a vehicle to convey a growing black political consciousness. Wendell Harrison also published the very popular TRIBE magazine, a publication dedicated to local and national social and political issues, as well as featuring artistic contributions such as poetry and visual pieces. In 1978 Harrison and McKinney co-founded REBIRTH, a non-profit jazz performance and education organization, in which many notable jazz artists have participated. Around the same time Wendell Harrison also created the WENHA record label and publishing company, which released many of his (now classic) recordings as well as those of other artists, such as Phil Ranelin, Doug Hammond and Reggie Fields (The Real ShooBeeDoo). In the early 1990s, Wendell Harrison was awarded the title of “Jazz Master” by Arts Midwest. This distinction led Harrison to collaborate with fellow honorees and gave him the chance to tour throughout the United States, Middle East and Africa. Even to this day Wendell Harrison’s recordings for the TRIBE, WENHA and REBIRTH labels have a large worldwide fanbase. It is on REBIRTH that Harrison released the opus: BIRTH OF A FOSSIL (1985), which we are proudly presenting you today. BIRTH OF A FOSSIL is a monster of an album featuring an all-star line-up that includes Dennis Rowland (Count Basie) on vocals, Duke Billingslea (Martha Reeves) on bass guitar, Pamela Wise (Tribe) on keyboards and Lorenzo Brown (Marcus Belgrave, Strata Records, Dennis Coffey) on percussion. On this fantastic sounding album (produced by the maestro himself) the listener is invited to experience a synthesis of what has been and what is now. The record shows Wendell’s trademark proficiency on saxophone, flute and clarinet…and although you can hear the 80ies creeping in with a smoother fusion sound, more synths, and R&B vocals… this remains a very spiritual (and soulful) jazz record. From the first to the last note you get an irresistible blend of soul jazz combined with funky electric instrumentation…a groovy sound which is very much of its time, yet overtly timeless and as relevant today as it was back when it was initially released. Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first ever vinyl reissue of ‘Birth Of A Fossil’ since its release in 1985. This official reissue is now available as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (limited to 500 copies) and comes with the original artwork.
File Under: Jazz
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PJ Harvey: Let England Shake (Island) LP
The second album in her catalogue to win the UK’s Mercury Music Prize, PJ Harvey’s 2011 release Let England Shake was recorded in a 19th Century church in Dorset, on a cliff-top overlooking the sea. Featuring the singles “The Words That Maketh Murder” and “The Glorious Land,” it was created with a cast of musicians including such long-standing allies as Flood, John Parish and Mick Harvey. It served as the eighth PJ Harvey album overall, following 2007’s acclaimed White Chalk, and the Harvey/Parish collaboration A Woman A Man Walked By. What is remarkable about Let England Shake is bound up with its music, its abiding atmosphere, and in particular, its words. If Harvey’s previous work seemed to draw on direct emotional experience, this album is rather different. Its songs center on both her home country, and events further afield in which it has embroiled itself. The lyrics return, time and again, to the matter of war, the fate of the people who must do the fighting, and events separated by whole ages, from Afghanistan to Gallipoli. The album they make up is not a work of protest, nor of strait-laced social or political comment. It brims with the mystery and magnetism in which she excels. But her lyric-writing in particular has arrived at a new, breathtaking place here, in which the human aspects of history are pushed to the foreground. Put simply, not many people make records like this. The reissue is faithful to the original recording and package, cutting by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering under the guidance of original co-producer John Parish.
File Under: Rock
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Ilmiliekki Quartet: s/t (We Jazz) LP
Ilmiliekki Quartet from Helsinki return with their new self-titled album on We Jazz Records on 11 February 2022. The group, including Verneri Pohjola (trumpet), Tuomo Prättälä (piano), Antti Lötjönen (bass) and Olavi Louhivuori (drums) is a mainstay in the Finnish scene and the band has been steadily developing their sound for nearly two decades now. It could be said that the group’s musicians, each also a solo artist of note these days, has grown with and through performing together with this regularly working quartet. Ilmiliekki Quartet’s music has a song-like melodic quality, which pairs naturally with their often freeform search for new musical landscapes. As testament of Ilmiliekki Quartet being a Band with a capital B, the songs on the new album come from each of the four members. As before, the band also takes a borrowed tune in for a loving rendition, this time tackling “Aila” by the Finnish dream pop group Karina. All in all, there’s a deep, moody element to the music, yet at the same time, their sound flows with remarkable ease and lightness of touch. This brings out a wide range of color in their music, which is easy to fall in love with.
File Under: Jazz
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The Jars: Make Love Not War (Sonomonic) LP
Individually, the members of The Jars were discerning record collectors, radio DJs, fanzine editors and record store clerks well versed in prog, kraut, garage rock and bubblegum, long before punk rock and new wave had entered the cultural landscape. The Jars combined all these influences to create their own brand of “avant-garage psycho-pop,” helping spearhead the original Berkeley Punk / New Wave scene. Between 1979 and 1982, The Jars released two successful singles and made appearances alongside dozens of notorious local and internationally known acts such as Roky Erickson, Angry Samoans, the Dickies, the Flamin’ Groovies, Dead Kennedys, the Suspects, the Mutants, the Contractions and MX 80. Make Love Not War combines their singles with ten previously unheard studio tracks and live performances, acting as a document, firming up The Jars place in Berkeley new wave and punk rock history. Time is long overdue that these tracks were freed from the vaults, dusted off and funneled into the ears of listeners. “The Jars were one of the very first bands to successfully combine ’60s garage and ’70s punk … it still sounds good to me.” —Steve Tupper, founder, Subterranean Records
File Under: Punk, Garage
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Giedrius Kuprevicius: Erotidijos (chOOn!) LP
The latest reissue from chOOn!! is Giedrius Kuprevičius’ Erotidijos, the sixth release from the label that specialises in obscure, archival and forgotten releases. Erotidijos translates from the Lithuanian to “Erotidies” – these were festivals held in honour of Eros, God of Love in Ancient Greece. They were organised every five years and were famous for their celebrations, decorations and luxury. Ritual games were played during the festivals, musicians and poets competed, worshipping Eros. Erotidijos is a haunting yet hypnotic tableaux Kuprevičius originally created for a Stanislovas Rubinovas theatre play staged in 1994 in Kaunas, Lithuania. The Lithuanian composer was one of the founding members of the pioneering electronic pop outfit Argo and has written dozens of scores for stage and film over the past several decades, imbuing his soundwork with a multitude of artful moods and emotive depth. The story of Erotidijos unfolds in both melancholic and serenely lush scenery, in turn mysterious and playful. Memories of places you’ve never been drift into frame, from bedroom womb into a foliage of phantasmal keys and gently psychotropic symphonies. A collection that glissandos between notes, place, and time. Erotidijos is guided by an intuitive, improvisational dream logic that threads the line between waking and sleeping revelations. It offers a hazy, voyeuristic lens into another world with dusty ambience and eccentric keyboard effects, warm synth pads and shimmering vistas serving as soft accents to the angelic murmur of giggling voices. As you listen, you are invited to apply your own interpretation of Erotidijos’ narrative of a new land, its climate, sounds, and geography. A contemplative, celestial electronic work in a gentle, often beautiful ambient style which breezily swings with exquisite analogue synth textures and infinity loops. Jazz spontaneity and organic pop impulses lift the meditative veil, ending with a climactic final scene: a sensuous reverie complete with shedding light and gently opening synapses. Available for the first time on vinyl, including over twenty minutes of music not featured on the original cassette release and produced in cooperation with Giedrius Kuprevičius for chOOn!!
File Under: Electronic, OST
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Francis Lai: Emmanuelle II – L’Anti Vierge (Digger’s Factory) LP
Original soundtrack recordings of the cult movie with the famous cover of Emmanuelle (Japanese version).
File Under: OST
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Linkwood: Mono (Athens of the North) LP
On a creative roll of late, Linkwoods productions have branched out in many directions, a collaboration LP with jazz Genius Greg Foat, Another with Local Edinburgh Legend Other lands and a load more yet to surface. Linkwood now comes back to solo work with a hyper focused piece of electro goodness. Lo-fi but all the better for it, Mono comprises 14 deeply distilled tracks. After producing some more complex records it was time for a pure palate cleanser so we locked Nick in the Athens of the north studio for a week with his friends Moog and Oberheim to see what might happen. Somewhere between Electro, Early 80s Synth pop and techno the album is an extremely listenable piece as a whole, unpretentious and timeless. Sprinklings ofDave Stewart pop noodles, Newbuild, Early Era Nu Groove but very much Linkwood at the same time, I cant recommend this enough.
File Under: Electronic, Library
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Arthur Lyman: Island Vibes (Aloha Got Soul) LP
Merging the sounds of nature along with his resounding vibraphone, Arthur Lyman and producer Gordon Broad created Island Vibes, an ambient/jazz/field recording album that exhibits the pure weightlessness of Lyman’s music. A lost gem from the exotica pioneer’s catalog — and his last recorded album — Island Vibes paints a meditative tropical canvas of the Hawaiian Islands’ natural beauty. A welcomed sonic transport to paradise, much needed in a (post-)pandemic world. Originally recorded with Broad Records, who’s responsible for Phase 7’s Playtime and other important 1970s and 80s-era local records. At eight years old, Arthur Lyman’s music was already being played in public spaces via a toy marimba performance on the radio. While Lyman laughed about the experience, he would continue performing and ultimately debuted professionally at 14 with a jazz group. His skills earned him a place as a vibraphonist alongside exotica pioneer Martin Denny, although Lyman would leave the Denny’s group soon after to pursue a solo career. Island Vibes would become Lyman’s final recorded album, an embodiment of the term of “relaxation”, relying solely on Lyman’s instrumentation and the quaint lull of ocean waves to produce a picturesque atmosphere.
File Under: Exotica, Jazz, Ambient
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Koichi Matsukaze Trio feat Ryojiro Furusawa: At The Room 427 (BBE) LP
The ninth album in BBE Music’s J Jazz Masterclass Series presents ‘At the Room 427’ by Koichi Matsukaze Trio Featuring Ryojiro Furusawa, a rarely heard exemplar of post-modal power bop and free jazz. Delivered by a trio playing with an intensity and energy that draws on classic Eric Dolphy and mid-era Coltrane but definitely with its own particular vibe, At the Room 427 is an exemplar of febrile improvised jazz that could only come from Japan. This deluxe reissue sees a welcome return to the J Jazz Masterclass series for saxophonist Koichi Matsukaze. Originally issued in 1976 on the cult ALM label, At the Room 427 is the debut album from one of the most exciting and forward-thinking instrumentalists to emerge in the mid 1970s. Matsukaze’s distinctively angular, deconstructive style adds an unpredictable quality to the session that is balanced by the muscular bass of Koichi Yamazaki and the kinetic drumming of Ryojiro Furusawa, who provides a sound footing for Matuskaze’s fiery solos and free-form chemistry. The album opens with the epic Acoustic Chicken, a 20-minute tour de force of dynamic and explosive interplay. Featured on J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan volume 3 and written by Furusawa, Acoustic Chicken’s strong melody lines and scorching sax finely mesh with the driving rhythm section. Furusawa’s Elvin Jones-like rolls and batteries of percussion are underpinned by Yamazaki’s driving and rounded bass. At the Room 427 also includes a radical deconstruction of the Billie Holiday classic Lover Man and three more original compositions by Matsukaze. The album was recorded live in November 1975 before a small audience in – as the title states – Room 427, a classroom in Chuo University, the alma mater of both Matsukaze and Furusawa. However, despite the rudimentary surroundings, the recording by Yukio Kojima, founder of ALM, manages to give the listener the feeling of being in the room itself, up close to the band, bristling with an intense energy. This reissue of a long-lost rarity of post-bop/free playing maintains the exceptionally high standard set by the previous releases in the BBE Music J Jazz Masterclass Series. As with all releases in the series, At the Room 427 comes with full reproduction artwork and extra sleeve notes, with artist interviews and biographies.
File Under: Jazz, Japan
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Melvins: Eggnog (Boner) LP
Originally released as a 10-inch in 1991, Eggnog is a wild ride into the outer limits of Melvins-dom. The first side cuts loose with three quick blasts. “Wispy” has the Lorax (Lori Temple Black) on bass and Dale Crover on drums, pounding one note in unison while Buzz Osborne bellows and whispers and turns his guitar on and off. “Antitoxidote” is a rabid horse galloping off into the desert, with yet more stops and starts and feedback detonations. “Hog Leg” sounds like a syphillitic Jimmy Swaggert trying to mimic Dio while being backed by a drunken ZZ Top cover band. Side Two features the side-long epic “Charmicarmicat,” with seasick waves of guitar and slow-motion madness bringing communicable disease and poisonous jellyfish ashore, stinging and infecting the unsuspecting sunbathers before gently washing out to sea again.
File Under: Metal
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Melvins: Lice-all (Boner) LP
Lice-All, from 1992, previously known as self-titled, and also previously known as something else we’re all not gonna talk about, thank you very much. This was the Melvins last release before signing their Atlantic deal, and features the introduction of new bass player Joe Preston (previously of Earth, currently of Thrones). It’s one long, slow, loud blob of drones, moans and fuzztones. The opening endless power chord shimmer influenced Sleep, Sunn O))), and countless other sludge metal drone freaks for years to come.
File Under: Metal
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Francesco Messina: Reflex (Superior Viaduct) LP
Francesco Messina is perhaps best known for his collaboration with fellow composer Raul Lovisoni on the album Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo, originally released on seminal Italian label Cramps in 1979. Along with contemporaries Franco Battiato, Juri Camisasca and Giusto Pio, Messina would help reshape the world of modern composition with an organic rawness and haunting beauty. In 1979, Messina was asked to perform at the Teatro Quartiere in Milan. As the composer writes in the liner notes, “Due to the limited availability of key technical features, it would have been too complicated to perform Prati Bagnati, and therefore I opted for these three pieces instead. We had never actually tried them all together, so I thought about renting a recording studio the previous afternoon. In that way, we could rehearse in a suitable place and use the opportunity to record the music on tape.” Unreleased for over thirty years, the recordings on Reflex have an unadorned, almost improvisational feel. “Untitled” (featuring Lovisoni’s plaintive flute) and “I Nuovi Pescheti” are full of meditative piano passages that lend an aura of new age, while the title track is more insistent with unfurling chords layered in real time via a reel-to-reel tape machine, resembling Steve Reich’s mesmeric phase-shifting works of the ’60s. A central figure within the Italian avant-garde, Francesco Messina gracefully expands his country’s contribution to Minimalism. This first-time vinyl release is recommended for fans of Joanna Brouk, Luciano Cilio and Charlemagne Palestine.
File Under: Piano, Ambient, Minimalism
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Charles Mingus: Oh Yeah! (Speakers Corner) LP
Commenting on this album in 1962, Billboard magazine wrote: »He seems to be everywhere, everywhere that is but on his usual instrument«. Charles Mingus, one of the most impressive musicians in the history of jazz, doesn’t play a single note on the bass for a change, but leads the band from his (blues-)piano – the instrument that he always used for composing. He hits the keys, he sings the blues, he shouts and he encourages – apparently Mingus really found the need to express himself loudly in this album. (Doug Watkins stood in for him on the contrabass.) “Oh Yeah” is definitely Mingus’s most powerful and passionate album. He calls on two hot, intensive saxophonists – Roland Kirk and Booker Ervin – as well as Jimmy Knepper on the trombone. Kirk is the main soloist, but all three wind-players deliver expressive improvisations, carrying out a non-stop dialogue with one another, and pushing one other to achieve maximum energy. The music is wild and ecstatic, but it’s not free jazz, remaining – as it does – grounded in blues and gospel. “Hog Callin’ Blues” is an enthralling shuffle with a wealth of riffs, “Devil Woman” a clever slow blues with inventive wind figures. “Ecclusiastics”, with its constant change of rhythm and expression alternating between gospel and blues has the most complex form. Blues has always been a part of a black church service, said Mingus. “Eat That Chicken” (a homage to Fats Waller and his favourite food) even plays around with an old-time, Dixie feeling. Humour is never far away. Even in the atomic bomb song (this too, a sort of churchy blues) one hears the words: »Don’t let ’em drop it! Stop it! Be-bop it! This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head.
File Under: Jazz, Audiophile
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Morning Reign: Take Cover (Sundazed) LP
Unsung heroes Morning Reign combined the butt-shaking rumble of their ‘60s PNW brethren with sophisticated songwriting chops, a big bag of influences from folk to soul, and the sweetest four-part vocal harmonies east of San Francisco. A downpour of originals hold their own alongside Motown, pop, & blues covers, almost all of which are previously unissued!
File Under: Rock
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Ennio Morricone: La Stagione Dei Sensi (AMS) LP
“La stagione dei sensi” (also known as “Season of the senses”) is a 1969 film directed by Massimo Franciosa, perfect son its time: a pop-coloured cauldron, – whose screenplay had also been written by Dario Argento – which mixes mystery, sensuality, eroticism and morbid atmospheres in an exotic and fascinating context, inside of a castle on an island in the middle of the sea. Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack is very varied and, in some ways, atypical; in fact, there are five sung tracks instead of the usual single one used for the main titles: three beat/pop songs by Patrick Samson (“Gloria”, “Tell me tell me”, “Laila Laila”), and two lounge/symphonic compositions by Edda Dell’Orso (“A voice in the mirror”, “Suspend the time”). The full picture is completed by “Sytar”, with oriental and romantic atmospheres, the dramatic and gloomy improvised “Dinamica per 5 + 1” and the waltz of “In tre quarti”. “La stagione dei sensi” is a Limited edition on Clear vinyl! Not to be missed!!!
File Under: OST
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Ennio Morricone: Vergogna Schifosi (AMS) LP
“La stagione dei sensi” (also known as “Season of the senses”) is a 1969 film directed by Massimo Franciosa, perfect son its time: a pop-coloured cauldron, – whose screenplay had also been written by Dario Argento – which mixes mystery, sensuality, eroticism and morbid atmospheres in an exotic and fascinating context, inside of a castle on an island in the middle of the sea. Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack is very varied and, in some ways, atypical; in fact, there are five sung tracks instead of the usual single one used for the main titles: three beat/pop songs by Patrick Samson (“Gloria”, “Tell me tell me”, “Laila Laila”), and two lounge/symphonic compositions by Edda Dell’Orso (“A voice in the mirror”, “Suspend the time”). The full picture is completed by “Sytar”, with oriental and romantic atmospheres, the dramatic and gloomy improvised “Dinamica per 5 + 1” and the waltz of “In tre quarti”. “La stagione dei sensi” is a Limited edition on Clear vinyl! Not to be missed!!!
File Under: OST
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Muslimgauze: Uzi (Everland) LP
Uzi is Muslimgauze’s gem from the late ’80s. Cinematic, minimal, noisy, hypnotic, and gloomy. Probably not so overtly Middle Eastern as his later works, though definitely bearing an influence. Backed by electric drones, percussion forms a living, breathing an atmosphere of impending menace. For a strange reason, this album was missing in VOD’s Chasing The Shadow Of Bryn Jones 10xLP Box-set. Now you have the chance to complete your Muslimgauze discography!
File Under: Industrial, Electronic, Tribal
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My Bloody Valentine: Isn’t Anything (Domino) LP
Deluxe All Analog Cut! With their debut album, Isn’t Anything (originally released in 1988), my bloody valentine revolutionised alternative music and heralded a new approach to guitar music for generations to come. The album birthed a sound which became a template for thousands of new subgenres, heralding a new approach to guitar music and studio production.
File Under: Indie Rock, Shoegaze
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Pedro the Lion: Havasu (Polyvinyl) LP
After a 15-year hiatus, Seattle’s David Bazan reformed his legendary project Pedro The Lion with the release of “Phoenix”, its first new album in over a decade. The album not only marked the project’s official comeback, it quietly introduced Bazan’s ambitious plan of recording 5 full-length albums devoted to each city he lived in throughout his youth. With “Havasu”, Bazan goes back to the seventh grade, where he and his family spent one year living in Lake Havasu City, AZ. The result is an open-hearted acknowledgment of shame and elation both, spaciously but delicately arranged in affirmation of the nurturing those feelings deserve – even if the kid in need of validation has long since grown up and moved away. After 25 years refining and building what he calls his “garden of songs”, David Bazan has sold hundreds of thousands of albums. With “Havasu”, Bazan continues his prolific trajectory while planting the seeds for darker stories ahead.
File Under: Indie Rock
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People: Ceremony – Buddha Meet Rock (Teichiku) LP
Japan’s world-famous psychedelic rock mega-rare album will be repressed! This is the only 1971 album by People, featuring organist Yusuke Hoguchi and guitarist Kimio Mizutani of Outkast, Hideaki Takebe of Adams, and percussionist Sunaga Larry. Produced by Naoki Tachikawa, this album was based on the concept of Buddha + Rock. The album is full of unique psychedelia sounds, including the chanting of “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo” in the background of fuzz guitar, the sound of monks’ clogs, bells, wooden fish, sitars, etc. Although there are a lot of sound effects reminiscent of Buddhism, there is no sense of religion, and overall the work is easy to listen to. In recent years, this album has been highly praised by DJs for its breakbeats and spirituality.
File Under: Japan, Psych
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Porches: All Day Gentle Hold! (Domino) LP
All Day Gentle Hold ! is the fifth album from Aaron Maine and a celebratory collection of songs. Harder, faster, shorter and louder than any other Porches record, it’s direct and pointed, charged up and chaotic, described by Maine as “the most energetic, off-the-cuff moments, collaged together into the most captivating songs [he] could make.”
File Under: Indie Rock
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G.S. Schray: The Changing Account (Last Resort) LP
One of life’s most difficult arts is learning to let go. You can try to cling to control in the face of a turbulent world, but the only constant we can count on is change—the tendrils of cleansing fire wiping away the old, new life springing forth from the dust and ash. So what’s the point? Give yourself over to the depths. Surrender to the flow. G.S. Schray’s new solo album The Changing Account is an appropriate soundtrack for learning to cope with a world we can’t count on. Each piece is full of elliptical melodies that swirl with the unstable logic of dreams. Flurries of piano, guitar lines, and other more alien instrumentation shimmer delicately, but before they coalesce into familiar shapes or rhythms they change, then change, then change again. Listening is a bit like falling asleep on a long road—with each passing song you’re waking up somewhere new, trying to get your bearings in another strange world. How did I get here? Where are we going? It doesn’t matter. Close your eyes, drift away again.
File Under: Jazz, Ambient
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Severed + Said: Incorporeality (Not Not Fun) CS
The latest long-player by John Touchton’s eerie Everglades industrial enterprise Severed+Said is also his loftiest, equal parts synth-wave séance, abduction hallucination, and paranormal noir. Collaborating with the same recording engineer as 2015’s Occlusions, Jeremiah Johnson, but this time in a more equipped North Florida garage studio, the pair routed an array of synthesizers, drum machines, and guitars through speaker cabinets to achieve an impressively tactile, spacious mix. The 13 tracks of Incorporeality alternate between rhythmic, ravaged, and reflective, psychic and sinister, beyond the swamps and behind the eye. Speaking of his process, Touchton touches on the music’s dimensional aura: “Something omnipresent filters through me, into the sound – I feel a somewhat transcendent state.” Mastered by Alter Echo. Images by JT. Layout by Britt Brown.
File Under: Electronic, Tapes
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Skeeter Shelton & Hamid Drake: Sclupperbep (Two Rooms) LP
Detroit saxophonist Skeeter Shelton and Chicago percussionist Hamid Drake didn’t know each other before Skeeter was subbed into a duo gig at Trinosophes (Detroit) after Hamid’s partner fell ill. Shortly before the performance, it was discovered that Skeeter’s father, Ajaramu Shelton, was Hamid’s drum teacher and mentor at Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. There was an instant bond. The set that night was fire. This should be no surprise, as Skeeter, through his father, grew up around AACM-affiliated musicians like Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Fred Anderson and especially, Amina Claudine Meyers. Soon after, it was decided that Skeeter and Hamid should record together. With Hamid’s international touring schedule, there was only a narrow window of opportunity. A date was picked for Hamid to come to Detroit for a day of recording and a one-night stay. It turned out to be the morning aftermath of the polar vortex in early 2019. Hamid’s just over four-hour drive from Chicago ballooned into more than nine hours. When he finally arrived, he was asked if he needed to decompress or eat something. He was sick of sitting in a car, he said, and just needed to play.That was it. Hamid was already on the house kit—no mic placement, no line check—and he and Skeeter didn’t stop for 90 minutes. Then they paused and did another half- an-hour. It was an outpouring of free improvisation an Skeeter’s own material—all of which was new to Hamid—that found the musicians discovering mutual sympathies and shared pathways in the music. For this release, we have highlighted mostly portions where Skeeter’s themes predominate, because so many of them are excellent and largely unknown.
File Under: Jazz
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Richard Skelton: These Charms May Be Sung Over a Wound (Phantom Limb) LP
Seminal British experimental musician Richard Skelton joins Phantom Limb for the release of stunning new album These Charms May Be Sung Over A Wound, his first for the label, first on vinyl in over a decade, and a standout record in his own catalogue. Over the past sixteen years, Richard Skelton has developed a signature sound, often comprised of strings, piano and other acoustic instrumentation. Since 2013 he has increasingly buried these organic sources in layers of detritus and static. The process, as he articulates it, is to use signal-degradation as a means of reflecting the processes of decay and transformation in the natural world. His music has been placed alongside giants of experimental music, such as Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Stars Of The Lid, William Basinski. With new album These Charms May Be Sung Over A Wound, however, Skelton has abandoned acoustic instrumentation altogether to map out a new territory of buzzing sine tones and square waves, immersed in shimmering clouds of distortion and suspended over landscapes of thrumming bass. The result is a new and transcendental experience: while the key themes of Skelton’s music remain – stark and lonely geographies, ancient myths buried deep within the land, slow-moving glacial evolution – we are transported to a darker and more mechanical place. The intensity and sound design here are more akin to quasi-industrial, abandoned-factory sonics than to earthy, organic tones of earlier Richard Skelton albums. Abul Mogard and Alessandro Cortini could be considered peers now, just as much as Eno and Basinski had been before.
File Under: Ambient
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Sons of the Sun: s/t (BBE) LP
BBE Music is excited to present the long awaited, eponymous debut album from the USA/UK partnership of JTronius and Maverick Quest, aka Sons of the Sun. Delivered remotely following a chance meeting on music-tech networking app ‘Brapp’, the ingenious pair sent files back and forth between Texas and South East London to manifest their shared vision for ‘Sons of the Sun’. Remarkably, the duo are still yet to meet in person. A respected solo artist knighted by Bootsy Collins as an official ‘funkateer,’ Berklee College graduate JTronius is an extravagant entertainer, entrepreneur and lifestyle brand. Self- dubbed The Guvna of the Galaxy, he brings his swaggy, soulful style to all his endeavours. He has shared stages with LL Cool J, The Roots, Talib Kweli, Pharrell, Busta Rhymes and Damian Marley and is an accomplished actor, appearing in a number of successful Hollywood feature films. Genre-blending record producer and multi-instrumentalist Maverick Quest grew up immersed in the aesthetic of hip hop. But in an environment where flipping loops from vinyl was standard, developing his musicianship to create his own sounds was radical, a move that paved the way for his signature sonic. He has previously performed with and produced for Guru, Grandmaster Flash, Ice T, Ibibio Sound Machine, Solo Rosa and Portico Quartet to name but a few, and is firmly rooted in the epicentre of the burgeoning South East London jazz movement. Sons of the Sun’s debut long player features a host of luminary guests and musicians from all over the globe, including guitarist Dai Miyazaki (Bilal, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Tye Tribbett), keyboard player and vocalist Matt Cusson (Christina Aguilera, Brian McKnight), singer Ayesha Brooks (The Voice, Season 6), saxophonist & flautist Jelani M. Brooks (Ghost Note, RC & The Gritz, Erykah Badu), Boston rapper Madame Cruz and Scottish horn collective The Brasscats, among many others. Mixed by Grammy-nominated Clinton “Ubiquity” McCreery and mastered at Grammy- awarded studio The Carvery, this album inks an impressive first chapter in the story of Sons of the Sun.
File Under: Funk, Soul
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Spectres: Hindsight (Artoffact) LP
The New Album From Deathrock / Post-Punk Five-Piece Spectres Pressed On Beautiful Clear Vinyl. Featuring The Hit Single Tell Me, The New Album From Nu Wave Vancouver 5-Piece Spectres Also Includes Tracks Recorded For Part-Time Punks. Artoffact Records Announces The November 5th Release Of `Hindsight’, The New Album By Spectres, And Releases New Single `Tell Me’ Digitally. Founded In Vancouver In 2005 By Vocalist Brian Gustavson, Spectres Is Commonly Cited As One Of The Bands Responsible For Kicking Off The Renewed Interest In The Post-Punk Sound In Canada. The Band Spent The Pandemic Year Off In The Studio, Fine Tuning Their Craft And Recording New Tracks For Hindsight. The Last Track On The Album And Lead-Off Single, `Tell Me’, Was Covered By Stereogum Upon Release. Writer Ryan Leas Noted That `Tell Me’ “Finds [Spectres] Moving A Bit Further Up The [Retro] Timeline, Delving Into Some Deep New Order Vibes. If That Kind Of Thing Works On You The Way It Works On Me, Then You Will Probably Think `Tell Me’ Is A Banger.”The Album Also Includes Three Tracks Recorded For Hip Los Angeles Radio Show Part-Time Punks.
File Under: Post Punk, Piyush’s Picks
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Sunstroke: Nothing’s Wrong in Paradise (Libreville) LP
Just as a film or painting does, recorded music proposes a space in three dimensions, it may not be permanent and it could be said to be illusory, but to us, in the moment, it is there. Sunstroke were Ben Bollaert and Etienne Delaruye, both were obsessed with the burgeoning possibilities of electronic music it made sense that they collaborate in the studio. The resulting experiments culminated in the 1985 release of Nothing Wrong in Paradise. The record was conceived as a soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist – a sophisticated meeting of post-Berlin-school dreaming, Yen-records hi-tech calm and Impressionist Café music ennui. What makes it most compelling though, is that even while it conjures a seemingly perfect world, something around the edges lets you know that all might not be as it seems. Maybe there is nothing wrong in paradise. Or maybe that’s just wallpapering over the cracks. The rough edges and regret of everyday life cannot help but intrude. Once you have spent some time with it, the whole record starts to seem bathed in a dim half-light, suggesting utopia glimpsed through a smudged lens. Just like the ethereal space in their music Sunstroke only existed for a moment, a second LP was planned but never materialised, Delaruye returned to theatre music and Bollaert opened a successful synthesiser store and was active in the New Beat scene. Briefly they created a paradise and pointed out its temporary nature, all at the same time. Remastered from the Master tapes. Tip-on sleeve. 600 copies.
File Under: Ambient
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Yoshio Suzuki: Morning Picture (Victor) LP
“Morning Picture”, the work of 1984, became the pioneer of the trend of ambient music that flourished in the mid-1980s. This work, in which he knitted all the songs by himself and confined a beautiful melody, was released by Klaus Schulze’s “Innovative Communication”at that time, and Floating Points picked it with his own DJ MIX, both domestically and internationally. It is being evaluated. In recent years, the long-awaited recurrence of the masterpiece, which is recognized as a masterpiece of high-purity modern new age-ambient, and also as a representative work of Japanese Balearic.
File Under: Ambient, Japan, Electronic
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Swami John Reis: Ride the Wild Night (Swami) LP
Swami John Reis celebrates his 100th year in rock ’n’ roll with a brand new band and record! Neither similar nor dissimilar to his previous bands (Hot Snakes, Night Marchers, The Sultans, Rocket From The Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, etc) yet immediately familiar (like an old friend asking to borrow some money). The music is an amalgam of ’60s folk punk, ’70s punk, and pre-Vietnam War rock ’n’ roll with only one or two new ideas introduced to the form. The sound is built on stentorian bedrock of savage drumming by J. Sinclair K. of Hot Snakes and the pounding piano of Joe Guevara. Swami John Reis commits audio crime with his throaty basso and then weaponizes the files with electric guitar roar, acoustic strum and bass guitar. Hear his defiant, croak howl in protest in what might be his most autobiographical work yet. Music critics and fans alike have long referred to Reis’s signature voice as “The Velvet Yawn” and never has that description been more apt. Ride The Wild Night was recorded at City Of Refuge (Night Marchers, Black Lips, The Spits) on an 8-track tape machine and mixed by Ben Moore (Hot Snakes, Diamanda Galas) at Singing Serpent. Pressed on green vinyl!!!
File Under: Punk
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Dennis Taylor: Dayspring (Morning Trip) LP
Released in 1983 on a miniscule run of 300-self-financed LP’s, Dennis Taylor’s ‘Dayspring’ remains a lost masterwork of transcendental instrumental guitar. An important missing link between the 60’s folkloric experimentalism of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, and the new age atmospherics mined by William Ackerman and Michael Hedges in the early 80’s. Though Taylor’s guitar playing remains crisply unadorned on these 10 tracks, his technique and his compositions stretch beyond the folk roots of the genre. He crafts a soundworld that is both immersive and familiar. His pastoralism has a spaciousness – a pianistic drift – that feels truly timeless.
File Under: Folk, Guitar Soli
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Irma Thomas: Full Time Woman (Real Gone) LP
“Soul Queen of New Orleans” Irma Thomas enjoyed a run of national success in the U.S. in the mid-’60s with classics like “Wish Someone Would Care,” “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)” along with the original vocal version of “Time Is on My Side” (later a massive hit for the Rolling Stones), recorded for Imperial Records. Following a short stint at Chess Records, Irma recorded for Canyon before being signed to Atlantic Records by the label’s much renowned executive, Jerry Wexler. A first session in 1971 yielded one single, “Full Time Woman” (produced by noted New Orleans music legend Wardell Quezergue), which failed to chart but was singled out by Wexler in a 2007 interview as one of his all-time favorite recordings. Undaunted, Atlantic arranged further sessions for Irma in Detroit, Miami and Philadelphia throughout 1972 – yet none of the material was ever issued until a 2014 CD collection. Now, some 50 years after they were originally recorded, Full Time Woman: The Lost Cotillion Album brings all of Irma’s recordings for Atlantic (under its Cotillion imprint) to LP for the first time! Irma puts her own distinctive, ever-soulful stamp on such tunes as the standard “Time After Time,” Bobbie Gentry’s 1969 hit, “Fancy,” and Billy Walker’s country hit, “Tell Me Again,” alongside the funky “She’s Taken My Part,” (the flipside of “Full Time Woman”), and R&B-flavored original material including the highlights “Waiting For Someone,” “Our Love Don’t Come Easy,” and two early ‘70s Philly soul cuts, “No Name” and “Adam And Eve.” All told, 13 of the 15 tracks on Irma Thomas: Full Time Woman—The Lost Cotillion Album make their vinyl debut (on light blue vinyl, to be exact); it goes without saying that this release represents a major addition to the Irma Thomas discography!
File Under: Funk, Soul
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Piero Umiliani: Paesaggi (Four Flies) LP
Finally putting an end to a long wait for library music lovers, Four Flies Records is proud to present the first reissue of Piero Umiliani’s Paesaggi – a record that, despite remaining for many years pretty obscure compared to other titles in the maestro’s discography, is now regarded by collectors and experts as the gold standard in Italian library music. Originally released in two versions with different sleeves, the first on Liuto Records in 1971 and the second on Ciak Record in 1980, the album features tracks composed by the maestro himself (under his alias Zalla) and performed by the legendary super-group of Italian session players I Marc 4, this time with Angelo Baroncini instead of Carlo Pes on guitars (which probably explains the name being spelled with a ‘k’ instead of a ‘c’ on the album cover). The Italian word paesaggi means “”landscapes””, and that is exactly what the music in the album has been designed to evoke – a journey of moods and emotions, through exotic and pastoral scenery, with loungey sounds that caress your ears like the song of an enchanted nightingale. Mysterious yet captivating soundscapes transport you to a faraway and peaceful place, possibly somewhere in rural Asia. While listening to the record, you’ll feel as if you are sitting under a pavilion, right in the middle of a tea plantation, enjoying a freshly brewed green tea and watching the calm sunset. In addition, Paesaggi is paradigmatic of Italian library music and its genre-defying nature. By using a multitude of instruments, such as flute, vibraphone, harpsichord, sitar, gong and others, it brings together a variety of arrangements, styles, and genres spanning from bossa nova to jazz, easy listening to psychedelic, Latin, exotica, and many more. Under Umiliani’s brilliant direction, the pianos and keyboard instruments of Antonello Vannucchi, the guitars of Angelo Baroncini, the bass of Maurizio Majorana, and the drums of Roberto Podio dance together and – enriched by other instruments played by top session musicians like Bruno Battisti D’Amario (sitar), Franco De Gemini (harmonica), or Franco Chiari (vibraphone) – create the sound that makes Paesaggi so unique. With the honour of reissuing this masterpiece so many decades since its release comes a responsibility to do full justice to one of the greatest Italian composers of the 20th century and his now celebrated legacy. Four Flies have done their best to put out a record that replicates as closely as possible the value of the original as a cultural artefact, providing Italian library connoisseurs and novices alike with an exquisite sonic, and tactile, experience. Paesaggi will be available in 3 different formats: Limited Edition Vinyl LP – 1971 album cover, thick tip-on sleeve, 700 copies only; Vinyl LP – 1980 album cover; First ever CD version – 1980 album cover.
File Under: Library
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Weather Station: How Is It That I Should Look At the Stars (Next Door) LP
The new Weather Station album “How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars” is an introspective record of songs which were written alongside that appeared on her 2021 smash record, “Ignorance”. It is intended not to be a follow up, but to be a companion piece, a piece of reflection and quiet, meant to hold stillness in the aftermath. It was recorded live, as a performance; an improvisation, with a beautiful band of musicians drawn from the Toronto jazz scene. “When I wrote Ignorance, it was a time of intense creativity, and I wrote more songs than I ever had in my life. The songs destined to be on the album were clear from the beginning, but as I continued down my writing path, songs kept appearing that had no place on the album I envisioned.” She continues, “I imagined it as a record of ballads; simple, pure, almost naive, but speaking to many of the same realities as Ignorance does. I see the two albums as two halves of the same coin; the moon and sun, a photograph and a photonegative. “
File Under: Indie Rock
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Wilfred Percussion: s/t (Libreville) LP
Born in the 1940s in Istanbul, Italian painter and percussionist Wilfred Copello had, from the onset, a predisposition for exotic sounds. Indeed, his interest for latin music was manifest early on in his career. In 1970 he was an uncredited member of the Italian band Latins 80 who released the same year the LP Foglie Gialle All’Imbrunire which has now gained cult status. From that period onwards, Wilfred settled in Rome where he gained an excellent reputation as a studio player; he participated in a large number of projects and albums, especially on the jazz scene with his friend Romano Mussolini (The Latin Taste, Jam Session , Soft & Swing, etc.). But it is the music from Brazil that had the greatest impact on Wilfred. In 1974 he recorded ‘Viva Brasil’ with the group Expo 80, an album which was an ode to Brazilian music. A few years later, at the turn of the 80s, he formed the band Wilfred Percussion. He brought with him an all-star cast of the jazz and Latin scene in Rome which included Argentinean drummer Osvaldo Mazzei and respected trumpet player Cicci Santucci. It was actually in Cicci Santucci’s Audio Sound Studio that was recorded Wilfred Percussion’s only album. Recorded in 1983, the album is a musical gem. Self-produced, Wilfred Percussion is composed of covers and original compositions. Covers include original titles by the unclassifiable Hermeto Pascoal as well as Milton Nascimento, and are reinterpreted here in a totally unique fashion with that distinctive Italian groove. Wilfred Percussion is an album which allies funk to MPB with jazz undertones, introducing the listener to a singularly fresh and evocative opus. Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered. 600 copies.
File Under: Latin, Jazz, Percussion
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Wipers: Is This Real? (Jackpot) CS
Unquestionably Portland’s most well-loved punk group, THE WIPERS formed in the late 1970s and in 1980 released their debut LP, Is This Real?— twelve songs of stabbing, jittery guitar, snapped vocals, and unabashed teen angst. Full of desperation and yearning, the LP has stood as a blueprint for wretched youth for over 25 years. In the early 1990s Is This Real? was given mainstream attention when Nirvana covered two tracks off the record and Kurt Cobain announced it was one of the primary influences on his group. Remastered from original tapes as provided by GREG SAGE himself.
File Under: Punk, Tapes
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Wipers: Over the Edge (Jackpot) CS
The bleak, hard-driven third LP by THE WIPERS (originally released in 1983) offers GREG SAGE at his most chased and breathless, lashing out with sharp staccato notes as if melody were his only defense. While their debut LP provided the blueprint for grunge, and their second album recast the band as one of America’s premier postpunk bands, it’s Over The Edge that best exemplifies the Wipers’ sound. The jagged, effortless guitar lines, the paranoid lyrics and raw-throated vocals and the taut, unified rhythms that define their sound bleed together most clearly on this LP, and it stands as both the best entry point for new fans and the most prevalent favorite of diehards. Remastered from the original tapes by Greg Sage.
File Under: Punk, Tapes
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Wipers: Youth of America (Jackpot) CS
Simply obliterating any conception of THE WIPERS as a mere punk band, GREG SAGE released this follow-up to Is This Real? in 1981—a sophisticated, overwhelming response to the evil times marked by the turn of the decade. Broken into six long songs, Youth Of America is a much colder, harrowing experience than the teen angst of their debut. Vocally Sage comes off as sleep-deprived and forsaken, snarling not only at his own predicament but at the predicament of the entire world. Mastered from the original tapes by SAGE.
File Under: Punk, Tapes
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Kiyoshi Yamaya: Komuso World (Nippon Columbia) LP
Kiyoshi Yamaya’s 4th work in the “Japanese melody by PCM recording” series. A profound crossover created by Kiyoshi Yamaya, a genius, featuring Kifu Mitsuhashi, who is active not only in Japan but also internationally, as a master of the shakuhachi koto style, with the theme of songs played by Komuso. Performance: Kiyoshi Yamaya and Contemporary Sound Orchestra, Kifu Mitsuhashi (Shakuhachi)”
File Under: Japan
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Kiyoshi Yamaya: Tsugaru / Osorezan (Nippon Columbia) LP
Kiyoshi Yamaya’s first work in the “Japanese melody by PCM recording” series. Side A incorporates Biwa and Shakuhachi and Japanese drums under the theme of the shrine maiden’s mouth-to-mouth that is handed down to Osorezan on the Shimokita Peninsula. A jazz rock ensemble that incorporates new verses. Performance: Kiyoshi Yamaya and Contemporary Sound Orchestra Side A: Masako Hirayama (Biwa), Naoki Korikawa (Shakuhachi), Yonosuke Segami, Akira Hayashi, Kenzo Hatanaka (Taiko) Side B: Katsuaki Sawada (Tsugaru Shamisen) Kifu Mitsuhashi (Shakuhachi)
File Under: Japan
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Zazou Bikaye: Mr. Manager (Crammed) LP
Following the acclaimed 2017 vinyl reissue of the Noir et Blanc album, we’re excited to present a special edition of Zazou Bikaye’s second record, Mr. Manager, which only ever came out on vinyl, in 1985. This edition comprises nine additional tracks, including six previously-unreleased recordings, and three which were only included on limited-edition singles. Stemming from the encounter between Congolese vocalist/composer Bony Bikaye, French musician/producer Hector Zazou and modular synth wizards CY1, Zazou Bikaye made history with their debut, cult album Noir et Blanc (1983), a groundbreaking Afro/electronic experiment which has been adulated to this day by generations of music fans and musicians. In 1984, after the release of Noir et Blanc, Zazou Bikaye turned into a proper band, and started developing their own special brand of digital Afrobeat/Afrofunk. Hector Zazou took on the task of writing and programming the music, and Bony Bikaye expanded on the more extrovert side of his vocal styles. They set out to record a large number of tracks, five of which came out in 1985 as Mr. Manager, a 32-minute mini-album. The record was acclaimed when it came out on Crammed, and it also benefited from domestic releases in Japan, and in the US (on Mark Kamins’ Pow Wow label).
File Under: Electronic, Africa
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Various: Crown Jewels Vol. 2 (Big Crown) LP
Big Crown is proud to present the second volume of Crown Jewels, their various artists compilation series that highlights some of the most popular tunes next to the more obscure. The Crown Jewels comps are a chance to listen to the whole roster in one place. Even though the artists span genres, putting these tunes next to each other paints a picture of who the label is and what they’re doing collectively.
File Under: Funk, Soul
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Various: Heavenly Remixes 3: Andrew Weatherall Vol. 1 (Heavenly) LP
By the time Heavenly was born in the spring of 1990, Andrew Weatherall was already an inspirational sounding board, as well as a fellow traveller on the bright new road that stretched out ahead thanks to the massive cultural liberation of acid house. Back then every energised meeting could be turned into a fortuitous opportunity in this burgeoning new underground economy. Bored of your job? Start playing records out! Start a club night! Get in the studio! Start a label! Just don’t stand still. Commandments Andrew would follow for the rest of his life. At the start of things, Andrew was a regular visitor to Capersville — the pre-Heavenly press office run by label founder Jeff Barrett (soon to become Andrew’s manager). It was there that he famously picked up a copy of Primal Scream’s unloved second album and singled out a track that would later become Loaded, after being given an instruction to ‘fucking destroy’ it by the band’s Andrew Innes; it was there too that the idea to remix the first Heavenly release came about. Andrew’s mix of that first Heavenly record is very much a product of its time. The World According To Sly and Lovechild is a swirling bass punch topped with a hypnotic marimba line and the kind of ecstatic diva vocal that you’d hear coming out of the speakers all night at post-Shoom clubs like Yellow Book. His take on the label’s next release — Saint Etienne’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart (A Mix of Two Halves) — would set the template for his next three decades of audio exploration. A drawn-out imperial dub, the track builds and builds with a moody intensity (partly down to the melodica played by Weather Prophets legend Pete Astor) that’s far more Kingston JA at dusk than Kingston-upon-Thames at kicking out time. It’s both a dancefloor record to get lost in and headphone psychedelia of the highest order — a perfect example of what he did better than anyone else. Between 1990 and his untimely death in 2020, Andrew fed more Heavenly bands through the mixing desk than those of any other label. Consistently, he returned visionary music to the office, often in person for (at least) one ceremonial playback — a ritual that would involve the volume cranked up high and Andrew rocking back on his heels, eyes closed, lost in the alchemy of it all. Each time, he would warp and twist originals into beautiful new shapes — elasticated club records that might evoke Detroit techno one second and Throbbing Gristle the next, before wheel-spinning into something akin to The Fall produced by King Tubby. Andrew’s studio adventures would always be guided by that early advice to destroy the source material. It’s why he was the first name that came up when remixes were discussed; the first number on the speed dial. Listening back to these remixes now — to thirty years of glorious outsider sounds — it bangs home again just how fucking good Andrew was.
File Under: Electronic
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Various: Heavenly Remixes 4: Andrew Weatherall Vol. 2 (Heavenly) LP
By the time Heavenly was born in the spring of 1990, Andrew Weatherall was already an inspirational sounding board, as well as a fellow traveller on the bright new road that stretched out ahead thanks to the massive cultural liberation of acid house. Back then every energised meeting could be turned into a fortuitous opportunity in this burgeoning new underground economy. Bored of your job? Start playing records out! Start a club night! Get in the studio! Start a label! Just don’t stand still. Commandments Andrew would follow for the rest of his life. At the start of things, Andrew was a regular visitor to Capersville — the pre-Heavenly press office run by label founder Jeff Barrett (soon to become Andrew’s manager). It was there that he famously picked up a copy of Primal Scream’s unloved second album and singled out a track that would later become Loaded, after being given an instruction to ‘fucking destroy’ it by the band’s Andrew Innes; it was there too that the idea to remix the first Heavenly release came about. Andrew’s mix of that first Heavenly record is very much a product of its time. The World According To Sly and Lovechild is a swirling bass punch topped with a hypnotic marimba line and the kind of ecstatic diva vocal that you’d hear coming out of the speakers all night at post-Shoom clubs like Yellow Book. His take on the label’s next release — Saint Etienne’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart (A Mix of Two Halves) — would set the template for his next three decades of audio exploration. A drawn-out imperial dub, the track builds and builds with a moody intensity (partly down to the melodica played by Weather Prophets legend Pete Astor) that’s far more Kingston JA at dusk than Kingston-upon-Thames at kicking out time. It’s both a dancefloor record to get lost in and headphone psychedelia of the highest order — a perfect example of what he did better than anyone else. Between 1990 and his untimely death in 2020, Andrew fed more Heavenly bands through the mixing desk than those of any other label. Consistently, he returned visionary music to the office, often in person for (at least) one ceremonial playback — a ritual that would involve the volume cranked up high and Andrew rocking back on his heels, eyes closed, lost in the alchemy of it all. Each time, he would warp and twist originals into beautiful new shapes — elasticated club records that might evoke Detroit techno one second and Throbbing Gristle the next, before wheel-spinning into something akin to The Fall produced by King Tubby. Andrew’s studio adventures would always be guided by that early advice to destroy the source material. It’s why he was the first name that came up when remixes were discussed; the first number on the speed dial. Listening back to these remixes now — to thirty years of glorious outsider sounds — it bangs home again just how fucking good Andrew was.
File Under: Electronic
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…..restocks…..
13th Floor Elevators: Easter Everywhere (Charly) LP
Ichiko Aoba: Windswept Adan (Ba Da Bing) LP
Arcade Fire: Funeral (Sonovox) LP
Author & Punisher: Kruller (Relapse) LP
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain… (4AD) LP
Bjork: Debut (One Little Indian) LP
Bjork: Post (One Little Indian) LP
Bloc Party: Silent Alarm (Universal) LP
Blood Incantation: Interdimensional Extinction (Dark Descent) LP
Boards of Canada: Geogaddi (Warp) LP
Cleo Sol: Mother (Forever Living Originals) LP
Czarface & Ghostface: Czarface Meets Ghostface (Silver Age) LP
Czarface: A Fistful of Peril (Silver Age) LP
Czarface: Every Hero Needs A Villain (Silver Age) LP
Richard Dawson & Circle: Henki (Domino) LP
Deerhoof: Actually, You Can (Joyful Noise) LP
Nick Drake: Bryter Layter (Island) LP
Dream Unending: Tide Turns Eternal (20 Buck Spin) LP
Bill Evans: Conversations with Myself (Verve) LP
Flying Lotus: You’re Dead (Warp) LP
Fugazi: s/t (Dischord) LP
Funkadelic: Cosmic Slop (Westbound) LP
Funkadelic: Standing on the Verge of Getting It On (Westbound) LP
Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On (Detroit Mix) (HMV) LP
Ghost: Opus Eponymous (Rise Above) LP
Goblin: Roller (AMS) LP
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: f#a# (Constellation) LP
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: G_d’s Pee AT STATES END (Constellation) LP
Guided By Voices: Half Smiles of the Decomposed (Matador) LP
Gun Club: Fire of Love (Extra Term Audio) LP
Kiki Gyan: 24 Hours in a Disco 1972-82 (Soundway) LP
King Crimson: Islands (Panegyric) LP
Herbie Hancock: Sextant (Music on Vinyl) LP
Joe Hisaishi: ‘La Folia’ Vivaldi (Studio Ghibli) LP
Joe Hisaishi: Castle in the Sky – Laputa in the Sky USA Version (Studio Ghibli) LP
Joe Hisaishi: Tale of the Princess Kagua (Studio Ghibli) LP
Hasaan Ibn Ali: Metaphysics (Omnivore) LP
Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (Aftermath) LP
Lonnie Liston-Smith: Expansions (BGP) LP
Mariah: Utakata No Hibi (Everland) LP
Modern Lovers: s/t (Music on Vinyl) LP
Molchat Doma: etazhi (Sacred Bones) LP
Ennio Morricone: Dollars, Dust & Pistoleros (AMS) BOX
Oh Sees: Smote Reverser (Castleface) LP
Paul Page: Pacific Paradise (Subliminal Sounds) LP
Parquet Courts: Sunbathing Animal (What’s Your Rupture) LP
Propagandhi: Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes (Fat Wreck) LP
Smiths: Meat Is Murder (Rhino) LP
Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation (Goofin) CS
Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa (Matador) LP
Stereolab: Dots & Loops (Duophonic) LP
Stereolab: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Duophonic) LP
Taylor Swift: Evermore (Republic) LP
Shinichi Tanabe & Alfred the Great Brass: Kikko Matsuoka’s Love Love 25:00 (HMV) LP
Unwound: Leaves Turn Inside You (Numero) LP
Marcos Valle & Azymuth: Fly Cruzeiro (Tidal Waves) LP
Viletones: Fleurs Du Mal (Artifix) LP
Ween: God Ween Satan (Plain) LP
David Wertman & Sun Ensemble: Earthly Delights (BBE) LP
White Flowers: Day By Day: (Tough Love) LP
Amy Winehouse: Back to Black (Island) LP
Various: J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan Vol 2 (BBE) LP