Hello friends! Long time no see! How are you doing? Are you all ready for Reco… oh wait, right. Tomorrow would have been Record Store Day BUT NOOOOOOO. We’re all house bound. No staying here late trying to get read. No getting up early to line up. No starting drinking at 11… well, probably still gonna start drinking at 11. Maybe even 10. But even though the big day is cancelled, we’re thinking about you, and maybe you’re thinking about us too. Fortunately, we’ve even got some new stock to tell you about this week, so there’s a nice little list below. Some really nice stuff in. And if you’ve been hitting up our site you’ll have seen, we’re adding both new and used stuff every day. Don’t sleep on the used stuff, when it’s gone, it’s gone.
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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…..picks of the week…..
Other Music Documentary
We are participating in the virtual screening launch of the Other Music Documentary. Click the image above to rent a 72 hour viewing window. Your rental supports the documentary, and record stores, like us! We receive a portion of each rental, so we’d love it if you used our link and watched the film. It’s about as close to RSD as you’re going to get tomorrow. And it’ll be warmer and cheaper than lining up!
“Other Music was an influential and uncompromising New York City record store that was vital to the city’s early 2000s indie music scene. But when the store is forced to close its doors due to rent increases, the homogenization of urban culture, and the shift from CDs to downloadable and streaming music, a cultural landmark is lost. Through vibrant storytelling, the documentary captures the record store’s vital role in the musical and cultural life of the city, and highlights the artists whose careers it helped launch including Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, William Basinski, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sharon Van Etten, Yo La Tengo and TV On The Radio.
Produced and Directed by Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller
Featuring: Tunde Adebimpe (TV On the Radio), William Basinski (composer), Panda Bear, Avey Tare & Geologist (Animal Collective), Matt Berninger (The National), Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), James Chance (The Contortions), Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Benicio Del Toro (actor), Janeane Garofalo (comedian), Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Daniel Kessler (Interpol), Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), Mac McCaughan (Superchunk), Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields), Keigo Oyamada (Cornelius), JD Samson (Le Tigre), Jason Schwartzman (actor), Regina Spektor (singer/sonwriter), Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500/Luna) and more…
Festivals: Tribeca Film Festival, Montclair Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Oak Cliff Film Festival, Taoyuan Film Festival, SoundTrack Cologne, Middle Of The Map Fest, Lake County Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, POP Montreal, Vancouver International Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, New Hampshire Film Festival, Cork Film Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival, Sound Unseen, Reel Music Festival and more…
File Under: Documentaries, Film, Viewing, Record Stores
Loke Rahbek & Frederik Valentin: Elephant (Posh Isolation) LP
The combined forces of Frederik Valentin and Loke Rahbek first found a way into the world in 2017 with the album Buy Corals Online. Together they now present Elephant, an eight-track album that composes an inquisitive space with its parts. The economy of movement across Rahbek and Valentin’s new collaborative album makes for a gentle transmission of its abstract intimacies. This presence, which appeared in glimpses on their previous work Buy Corals Online, is shaped by the delicate interplay between acoustic instrumentation and synthetically rendered sounds. Hauntingly melodic at times, the album feels like a suite of uncanny lullabies that grant access to realities that can only be found in dreams. Rahbek and Valentin are always leading you somewhere and showing you something– one piece of the scene at a time, coming and going with different parts of a puzzle that eventually settles into a complete form. And through all this you perceive an inviting restlessness on their behalf, encouraging us to stray further and further into the private space of Elephant. Valentin is perhaps best known for his work in the exquisite atypical pop group Kyo, though his wide-reaching music and videography practices covertly underpin his flagship projects. Most recently, Valentin has been working with Yung Lean as both producer on his Nectar album (2019) as Jonatan Leandoer127 as well as on their commission for Sweden’s Cullberg Ballet. As Croatian Amor, Rahbek has made similar forays into unworldly pop and his work with Christian Stadsgaard as Damien Dubrovnik has been as critical as their cofounding of Posh Isolation. Modest interventions from processed field-recordings and semi-erupting synths invite you to zoom in enough to hear the human hand. An attention to listening, to how sounds cradle the small movements and gestures that naturally accompany the playing of guitar, piano, and viola, is acutely developed by Rahbek and Valentin. It’s in this way that Elephant persuades ou that even small stories unfurl into the most intricate and tremendous of sagas. “In Waves” features CTM.
File Under: Electronic, Ambient
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Vox Populi!: La Catherdrale Morte (Backwards) LP
Backwards present the reissue of this amazing Vox Populi! album, La Cathedrale Morte, originally released on cassette in 1985 by Cause And Effect in the United States. Self-labeled as an ethno-industrial project, Vox Populi! is one of the most intriguing and original bands to emerge from the French underground. These recordings were made between 1980 and 1985. This amazing release presents seven tracks of analog experimental ethno industrial music. Silkscreened cover with printed inner-sleeve; edition of 400.
File Under: Electronic, Industrial
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…..new arrivals…..
Chromeo: She’s in Control (Last Gang) LP
“In 2004 everything felt new. As hip hop producers in the late 90s, we were influenced by Pete Rock and Lord Finesse but by the early 2000s, the sound began to change. People wanted Triton Beats. We weren’t so into that…so we changed too: we traded our S950 (actually we kept it for the drums on Needy Girl) for a talkbox and a handful of synths and we signed to Tiga’s Turbo Recordings without a demo. “We didn’t know the first thing about electronic music, but we figured we’d try our hand at it…although we really just wanted to pay homage to Hall & Oates and Rick James. We had no idea what we were doing: we were writing lyrics for the first time, singing into mics for the first time, dusting off instruments we hadn’t touched since our high school band. We put together songs about sad robots and antiheroic trials of love, with the ingenuity of two childhood bffs who were making music in our mom’s basement. (The album was actually made in Pee’s mom’s basement). The credits on She’s In Control were simple: written, performed, produced and mixed by Chromeo. “Unbeknownst to us, our misunderstood debut album placed us amongst a new crop of electronic musicians. A project we lovingly crafted with the sole aims of conjuring Huey Lewis and making eachother laugh gave us a career. ‘Needy Girl’ and ‘You’re So Gangsta’ laid the blueprint. 15 years later, here we are.” – Patrick Gemayel & David Macklovitch
File Under: Electro, Disco
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Container: Scramblers (Alter) LP
Transparent blue vinyl with insert. Container is the project of American noise veteran Ren Schofield, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, and now based in London. Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools — run by old friend John Elliott of the band Emeralds — took the punt to release his debut LP, a collection of mutated techno tracks simply titled LP. The record gained attention quickly in the electronic music scene largely thanks to Schofield’s unique production style that separates him from forms of conventional dance music. Whilst the music of Container sits perfectly fine within dance music, years on the US noise circuit have given Schofield’s brand of techno a rawness and direct intensity that stands out in the club and crosses over into other sub-sections of the underground. His modest set up of Roland MC-909, a four-track porta studio and an array of pedals allowed him to hone his scuzzy and bewildering beat music over the years, leading to three more well-received, and literally titled, LP’s. Over this time period Container also released some EPs on Morphine, Liberation Technologies, and Diagonal, did a variety of remixes for acts like Four Tet, The Body, Panda Bear, and Fucked Up, plus maintained a healthy touring schedule that reached over every continent. Almost a decade since his debut, Container arrives on Alter with his first non-LP titled album called Scramblers. The title taken from both a Baltimore street drug and a Rhode Island Diner he used to eat at with his father. Schofield elaborates: “The juxtaposition between these two Scramblers is a great one. I wanted to pay homage to a nice name that lends itself to both depraved and wholesome contexts and do my part to carry on the tradition.” The eight tracks have their origins in live performance and a more high-octane delivery is noticeable when compared with previous Container albums. “Mottle” sits in a mysterious zone between the productions of EVOL and early Ruff Sqwad. Fierce electro cuts like “Trench” and “Nozzle” work alongside the nauseous slink of “Duster”, which in typical Container fashion morphs into a frenzy in no time. A frenzy which may be linked cosmically to the fact that Scramblers was recorded, mixed, and mastered in one day, reinforcing further his unorthodox and fun approach to club music.
File Under: Electronic, Techno
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Philippe Doray & Les Asociaux Associes: Ramasse-Miettes Nucleaires (Souffle Continu) LP
Souffle Continu Records present the first ever reissue of Philippe Doray & Les Asociaux Associés’ Ramasse-Miettes Nucléaires, originally released in 1977. In 1976, the Asociaux Associés (antisocial associates, TN) led by Philippe Doray (Rotomagus, Ruth, Crash), recorded the first of the two albums under their own name: Ramasse-Miettes Nucléaires. On synthesizer, Doray fires off his disturbing poetry over psychedelic pop, voodoo rock, off-kilter krautrock, approximate swing — But if the music is iconoclastic (bringing to mind as much Hendrix as Areski, Ash Ra Tempel as Berrocal…), one thing is certain: Ramasse-Miettes Nucléaires is one of the best albums of obscure experimental song ever recorded. It is no surprise that, on the Nurse With Wound list that Steven Stapleton inserted in the first album of his legendary musical project, the name of Philippe Doray can be found between that of the Doo-Dooettes and Jean Dubuffet: his music is genuinely original and, what is more, ahead of its time. It was in 1977 that the first album by Philippe Doray, Ramasse-Miettes Nucléaires, was published on Gratte-Ciel, a label created by the journalist from Rock & Folk Jean-Marc Bailleux and run by Jean-Marc Patrat and José Serré. Encouraged by his wild experience in Rotomagus, a formidable rock band which swept through Rouen, for sure, but also further afield — as Julian Cope was himself inspired, years later, by their explosivity — Doray brought a team to this album which was both untamed and ready to fight to defend it’s terrible (and trembling) poetry. Backed by his Asociaux Associés (antisocial associates, TN), the man from Rouen let his fantasy run wild and cried out again: “sing with me, and don’t be afraid to clap your hands!” And so, much of French popular music was shaken: the ball in Doray’s pinball machine had struck Jimi Hendrix then Alain Goraguer, then Ash Ra Tempel and onto Areski, then T-Rex followed by Jac Berrocal… As far as the texts are concerned, just take a listen. Doray’s poetry is schizophrenic: nurtured in the Normandy countryside, it relates paranoid tales of booby-trapped towns, Levi’s jeans, Prisunic supermarkets, and plastic dolls… Crumbs of reality which he sucked up to create the album that Souffle Continu Records and Thierry Müller, mastering (with Ruth, Crash, and Illitch too) spit out again fifty years later, with many good memories. Licensed from Philippe Doray. Remastered from the master tapes; obi strip; includes text sheet insert.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental, Art Rock
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Philippe Doray & Les Asociaux Associes: Nouveaux Modes Industriels (Souffle Continu) LP
Souffle Continu Records present the first ever reissue of Philippe Doray & Les Asociaux Associés’ Nouveaux Modes Industriels, originally released in 1980. Between 1978 and 1980, the Asociaux Associés (antisocial associates, TN) recorded the second of the two albums which appeared under their name: Nouveaux Modes Industriels. Philippe Doray, with the help of his ‘Associés, evermore iconoclastic and numerous, backs up his anguished poetry with customized krautrock, hallucinatory pop, and rock Suicide. Much more than a memory of the then surprising (and disturbing) swinging Rouen, this album is an intergalactic ambush. Following the publication, in 1977, of the first of two albums under his own name, Ramasse-Miettes Nucléaires (FFL 058LP), on the label Gratte-Ciel, Philippe Doray didn’t waste any time before writing new obscure and experimental songs. As proof, between May 1978 and January 1980, with his Asociaux Associés (antisocial associates, TN), he recorded ten of them in the farm in which he lived (and shared) close to Rouen. In 1980, Nouveaux Modes Industriels was published thanks to the support of Invisible, the label of the Société Coopérative d’Ouvriers-Producteurs Artistiques (S.C.O.P.A., the Cooperative Society of Artistic Worker/Producers, TN) run by, amongst others, the ex-manager of Crium Delirium, Jacques Pasquier. This meant that Doray had free rein for his electric poetry, his personal delirium, to be heard. He had already shaken up French music with his mix of pop, krautrock, and free jazz; a few months later he would undergo a change which would be the precursor of his future projects. Before collaborating with Thierry Müller under the names Ruth and Crash, Doray let loose one last time, with his Asociaux Associés, his anguished poetry into the face of the urban labyrinth, his nuclear dynamite… It is no coincidence if the album cover is similar to those by Urban Sax, the spirit of the times was anguish as a creator of beauty. Doray’s version had the advantage of still knowing how to sing. Never forgetting his interest for dance, the musician gets Cluster moving to a boogaloo, foments a Suicide on synthetic jaw harp or invents elevator music for tower blocks… All of which hotchpotch feeds into his Nouveaux Modes Industriels. If the last track of the album states “no after-sales service”, it is simply because there is no need. Licensed from Philippe Doray. Remastered from the master tapes; obi strip; includes text sheet insert.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental, Art Rock
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Eleh/NYZ: Split (Important) LP
Split release between ELEH and NYZ (David Burraston). Released alongside a full-length from NYZ via Important Records (IMPREC 453LP). ELEH: This side is possibly the artist’s most complicated electronic composition. It navigates myriad timbral, tuning, and temporal processes while winding itself to completion. It was composed/constructed over a period of months in early 2019. NYZ: Two crunchy microtonal drone meditations in mono, using techniques of digital FM and hybrid analog/digital modular synthesis. “FM60P::fbk1#03” is from a number of sessions recorded on a battered SY99 recorded from 2013 to 2014. As the name suggests, this particular session revolved around using feedback in the FM algorithm. “EML DRNPi” was recorded as part of the 2015 Plum Island Sessions where Burraton had a host of synths on loan from John Brien at Important Records. For the recording, he used the EML ElectroComp 101 and a 4-voice digital microtonal oscillator running a Lambdoma Matrix to make a hybrid analog/digital system. Heavy-duty sleeve; First edition of 500.
File Under: Drone, Ambient
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Priscilla Ermel: Origens Da Luz (Music from Memory) LP
Music From Memory announce a retrospective of an artist long-loved by the label, Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Priscilla Ermel. Origens Da Luz brings together a selection of recordings drawn from a body of work that was originally recorded between 1986 and 1994. Priscilla was raised in a musical family in São Paulo and learned the cello and guitar at an early age. She then embarked on a deeply personal musical journey that would travel from origins rooted in Tom Jobim and Chico Buarque to recording the music of the natural world and the communities around her. A film-maker and anthropologist by training, Priscilla is a lifelong student of a universal music. Disillusioned with contemporary European classical music, she spent long periods living with indigenous populations in Brazil, collecting instruments that she would later combine with synthesizers and field recordings. After studying with the renowned Taoist master Liu Pai Lin, she integrated the slow-moving pace of Tai Chi into a music that connects intimately with a multiplicity of cultures at the same time that it unmistakably reflects her Brazilian soul. Combining sounds drawn from the history of Brazil with her own explorations of analog sound technology, Priscilla’s music opens up a mystical space, where ancient and modern evolves into a new language. Compiled by John Gómez and released on double-LP, Origens Da Luz offers a panoramic view of this artist’s unique and mesmerizing sound world.
File Under: Brazilian, Electronic, Ambient
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Fire! Orchestra: Actions (Rune Grammofon) LP
Original score by Krzysztof Penderecki. New reading and conduction by Mats Gustafsson. The first (and until now only?) recorded interpretation of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Actions For Free Jazz Orchestra took place in 1971 at Donaueschingen and featured the New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra, assembled by Don Cherry for the occasion and conducted by the great Polish composer. That orchestra also consisted of 14 musicians, including international jazz heavyweights such as Kenny Wheeler, Peter Brötzmann, Thomasz Stanko, Terje Rypdal, Han Bennink, and others. Don Cherry himself did not perform. Penderecki had heard the Globe Unity Orchestra a couple of years earlier and was fascinated by the possibilities of working with musicians from a different background and with other perspectives than he was used to from the classical world. The challenge for all involved was to find the right balance between composition and improvisation. The idea was initially met with some skepticism from the musicians, but this soon gave way to acceptance and even eagerness. The new, extended reading by Mats Gustafsson and Fire! Orchestra was commissioned by the Sacrum Profanum festival in Kraków, Poland in 2018. The idea was to place this classic piece in a contemporary setting, with a new approach and a new body of sound. However, the original score was used as a platform for the new reading, connecting history with the present. A score in this context is most often of a graphic nature to present reference points, visualized on the sleeve by Kim Hiorthøy’s cut-up adaption of Mats Gustafsson’s score. It’s also worth noticing that the instrumentation is more or less identical to that of 1971, the main difference being a tuba replacing one of the trombones. Finally, this new reading clocks in at 40 minutes, and is thus considerably longer than the 1971 version. This line-up of the Fire! Orchestra is unique in that it’s the first time without founding members and singers Mariam Wallentin and Sofia Jernberg. It’s also the first time with guitarist Reine Fiske.
File Under: Jazz
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Idjah Hadidjah & Jugala Jaipongan: Jaipongan Music of West Java + Reworks (Hive Mind) LP
Indonesian music has enraptured ears across the globe for many years, and few styles hold such a colorful history and place in the hearts of the people of West Java as Jaipongan. Hive Mind Records announce a collaboration with Kai Riedl of Javasounds to bring you these superb recordings of one of Java, Indonesia’s most famed music styles of the ’70s and ’80s, Jaipongan. The album, recorded at the famed Jugala Studios in Bandung, Java in 2007, features the incredible vocals of Idjah Hadidjah, the country’s most iconic singer of the genre, backed by members of the Jugala Studios house band. The album comes with a second disc of reworks of the original tracks by boundary pushing electronic musicians from around the world. Known for its rapid gamelan (gongs and metallophones) playing, angular and dynamic drumming, and erotically charged dancing, Jaipongan was invented by composer and choreographer Gugum Gumbira (1945-2020) in reaction to the Indonesian government’s ban on rock and roll. As a form of rebellion, Gumbira took the core elements of a local, erotically charged harvesting ritual music and contemporized the sound by adding the gamelan instruments, dynamic drumming, the speed and urbanized subject matter of rock ‘n’ roll, and sensual dance moves. Idjah Hadidjah, a professional singer with Sundanese Shadow Puppet Theatres was approached by Gugum Gumbira in the early ’80s and asked to sing with his Jugala Orchestra. Their collaboration was to last through the decade as she quickly became one of the country’s most beloved Jaipongan singers. The Javasounds recordings saw her reunited with both Bandung’s famous Jugala studio, and members of its famed house orchestra for the first time in a number of years. The Remix Project: For the past few years Kai Riedl was executive producer and curator of Moogfest, the annual celebration of experimental electronic music and of the work of Bob Moog. As a musician himself, Riedl wanted to connect the musicians in Java with others around the world, and he was keen to make multitrack recordings in Java so that other musicians could have access to high quality recordings of individual instruments to work with. For + Reworks, he gave a number of artists from around the world access to the original multitrack recordings with the understanding they had free reign to work with them in an intuitive and open-ended way. Features Bana Haffar, Bergsonist, Lightbath, Sarah Belle Reid, Signals Under Tests, Fahmi Mursyid, Kai Riedl & Suny Lyons, and Ultrabillions.
File Under: World, Folk, Gamelan, Remix
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Inoyamaland: Danzindan-Pojidon (WRWTFWW) LP
WRWTFWW Records present the much-anticipated official reissue of Japanese duo Inoyamaland’s quintessential ambient/environmental/electronic album Danzindan-Pojidon, produced by Haruomi Hosono and originally released in 1983 on his Yen Records label. Available outside of Japan for the first time, the new age classic comes as a limited LP with liner notes by band member Makoto Inoue. With Danzindan-Pojidon, Yasushi Yamashita and Makoto Inoue created what they describe as “a special place where the kingdom of summer vacation never ended.” Playful and magical, it’s a sonic landscape defined by tinkling synths, floating minimalist melodies, pastoral excursions, and mythical overtones. The ten-track adventure takes the listener on a joyful audio exploration of unknown but friendly territories, like childhood memories of an imaginary island where everything is vibrantly alive and peaceful. The original recording sessions for the album took place in an apartment filled with Inoyamaland’s “favorite things and friends” and the wonders that came out of them were handed to master Harry Hosono who added his undeniable genius touch. And thus Danzindan-Pojidon was born, an absolute must-have, sitting in the pantheon of all-time ’80s Japanese ambient greats alongside Midori Takada’s Through The Looking Glass, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Green, and Satoshi Ashikawa’s Still Way — and holding that mysterious power of “music that makes life a little easier and happier.” 350gsm sleeve with selected UV high gloss varnish.
File Under: Ambient, Electronic, Japan
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Rafael Anton Irisarri: The North Bend (Room 40) LP
Room40 present a reissue of Rafael Anton Irisarri’s The North Bend, originally released 2010. From Rafael: “The North Bend is about the Pacific Northwest region of the USA, where I lived at the time the album was made. Still, today I consider that region my spiritual home, even though I am now living on the East Coast. I had met Lawrence English in Poland back in 2009 and he kindly invited me to make a record for the label. I was a fan of his releases so this was really an obvious thing for me to say ‘yes’ to and a chance to create something special. I had released a few EPs and an LP under my name, all influenced by the so-called ‘modern classical’ ambient style pioneered by the late great Jóhann Jóhannsson and minimalist composers like Harold Budd and Arvo Pärt. The North Bend is the first work that dealt with ‘place’ and explored a locality, the first in a series of recordings all released with Room40. Since this album came out, I’ve left the Pacific Northwest for another location, New York state, which couldn’t be a starker contrast from the life in the PacNW. I had to start from scratch here in NY, as everything I owned until age 36 was stolen the night before I left to drive to NY. It was both a curse and a blessing. Not having the baggage & pitfalls of old ideas was wonderful, but also losing all the recorded & written works I had was harrowing at the time. Remastering The North Bend seemed like a natural thing for me. Not so much as revisionist history, but rather thinking how to make a record sound in a certain way without being able to revisit any of the mixes. In other words, the creative choices I made at the time (2010) are 100% preserved, there wasn’t any opportunity to revisit those, but rather make the record sound as good as I can framed through hindsight and a decade of separation from the period it was created.”
File Under: Ambient
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Jaman: Sweet Heritage (Outernational) LP
Available again for the first time since original release in 1974, Outernational Sounds presents one of the deepest custom press jazz recordings of all: Jaman’s spiritualized and funky Sweet Heritage. The history of jazz is often told as though it was principally a history of releases and recordings. On those terms, it’s easy to mistake a small recorded footprint for obscurity or silence. The true history of the jazz is the story of the music as it was played night after night in the clubs, bars, concert halls, and backrooms of cities and towns across America and the world. Only a tiny fraction of this living tradition ever makes it onto a recording. And even though 1974’s Sweet Heritage is James Edward Manuel’s only release, the pianist and educator better known as Jaman has undoubtedly lived it. Brought up in Buffalo, New York, Jaman studied classical piano before beginning formal jazz studies under greats including Earl Bostic and Horace Parlan. Quickly becoming a respected regular on the club scene in Buffalo, Jaman held down innumerable residencies and worked with top local musicians — one of his early trios included the renowned bassist John Heard and drummer Clarence Becton, both of whom were poached one night by a visiting Jon Hendricks; sometime Sun Ra Arkestra bassist, Juini Booth, and regular Ahmad Jamal sideman, Sabu Adeyola (also of Kamal & The Brothers), have graced his groups too. At famous night spots all over Buffalo’s East Side and on excursions to Manhattan’s storied jazz clubs, Jaman has shared the stage with some of the most illustrious names in jazz and blues: Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters, Joe Henderson, Ruth Brown, Frank Morgan, Woody Shaw, Sonny Stitt, and many others. His eponymous group, Jaman, was formed in 1970; they toured the US and Canada steadily. He became one of Buffalo’s true jazz stalwarts, and so he remains. But despite a life lived deep within the music, Jaman only recorded a single LP, 1974’s Sweet Heritage. Pressed in tiny quantities by the Mark Records custom service, Sweet Heritage featured the regular Jaman group playing a mixture of covers and originals. The whole LP showcases an ensemble in complete control, and with the flying, spiritual sound of “Free Will” and the Latin-tinged “In The Fall of The Year” — both Jaman originals — the album has since become a legendary collector’s classic. 180 gram vinyl.
File Under: Jazz
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Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar: Apocalypse Across the Sky (Zehra) LP
Zehra present a reissue of Apocalypse Across The Sky by The Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar, originally released in 1992. Available on vinyl for the very first time. Produced by Bill Laswell, remastered for vinyl by Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. No matter if you consider the Master Musicians of Jajouka a “4,000 year-old rock n’ roll band” (William S. Burroughs) or even “6,000 years old” (Ornette Coleman) — without doubt, the music of the ensemble in all its incarnations over the centuries is deeply rooted in Sufi mysticism, paganism, and the cult of the goat-god Boujeloud. According to a myth, many centuries ago Boujeloud appeared to a shepherd called Attar, an ancestor of today’s ensemble leader Bachir Attar, and till today every year at the end of Ramadan a fire in honor of the goat-god is ignited. This pagan root aside, the music performed in several hour long rituals on traditional instruments like tebel and tariyya (drums), ghaita (a woodwind instrument), lira (flute), and gimbri (stringed instrument) reveals hypnotic, trance-inducing qualities and is considered to have magical and healing properties. In the 1950s, Brion Gysin along with Paul Bowles were among the first westerners to witness such a ceremony, and it was Gysin who invited the Master Musicians of Jajouka to play in his restaurant in Tangier, and who later (in 1967) brought Brian Jones to the small village of Jajouka where the Rolling Stones guitarist recorded the ensemble for what became the first “world music album” and that raised interest in the Master Musicians of Jajouka in the western world. Since those days, a wide number of creative minds like William S. Burroughs, Ornette Coleman, Marc Ribot, Flea, Talvin Singh, or the Rolling Stones have worked with the Master Musicians of Jajouka who are now performing regularly outside Morocco. In 1991, iconic producer Bill Laswell also embarked on a trip to the small village of just 800 inhabitants in the Rif mountains to record the group for his Axiom label — Apocalypse Across The Sky is, unlike other Laswell projects that bring together different cultures and genres, a pure document of the ensemble, raw and unpolished but exquisitely recorded, and ranks among the essential recordings according to the world music magazine Songlines. 180 gram vinyl; gatefold sleeve; includes download code.
File Under: Jazz, Folk, World
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Roberto Musci/Giovanni Venosta/Massimo Mariani: Losing The Orthodox Path (Soave) LP
Soave present a reissue of Roberto Musci, Giovanni Venosta, and Massimo Mariani’s Losing The Orthodox Path, originally released in 1997. Color vinyl; edition of 300. “How does one describe such a supremely crafted tapestry of sound and composition when there is such a rich canvas of details to appreciate it? As a homage to ancient music, Musci, Venosta and Mariani blend a powerful undercurrent of otherwordly intrigue and mysticism throughout their structures, resulting in an emotionally engaging experience unlike any other CD recording I’ve encountered. Most of the real-time playing is placed alongside and distinctly from the computer world, creating both a stimulating, dynamic and crossover references. There is much originality to reward both close and repeat listens. This isn’t jazz, nor improvised; in their words, Losing The Orthodox Path is an homage to ancient music, but through an electro-acoustic approach. Our jazz and/or rock souls do the rest.” –Michael King Personnel: Roberto Musci – sampler, prepared electric guitar, tapes, CD player, treatments, synthesizer, rain-stick; Giovanni Venosta – prepared piano, organ, spinet, voice, ocarina, mouth, percussion, Jew’s harp, sampler, synthesizer, tubes, digital percussion, pandaa (zither from Burkina Faso); Massimo Mariani – digital treatments & FX, voix, electronics, electric guitar, detuned acoustic guitar, harmonica, mouth, tapes, digital glockenspiel, mandolin, double bass, sampler, valiha (zither from Madagascar); Sandro Cerino – baritone, soprano and alto saxophones, contrabass clarinet; Moni Ovadia – Greek chant; Silvia Mandolini – violin; Roberto Zanisi – darbukas; Ciaccio De Rossi – violin; Cesare Picco – fake muted trumpet sound produced using mouth; Liliana Bancolini – voice; Laura Pone – voice; Amelie Gerson – voice and flute; Didier Aschour – voice.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental, World
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NYZ: Millz Medz (Important) LP
Lose yourself in the circuitry of the original 1965 Buchla 100 with NYZ (Dave Burraston) as he utilizes Barbara Hero’s Lambdoma tuning theories to create two slow, deeply layered, subconscious, organic and meditative compositions. NYZ’s split 12″ with ELEH will be released at the same time as Millz Medz. David Burraston is an award-winning artist/scientist working in the areas of technology and electronic music, operating Noyzelab as an independent art/science music studio since 1981. His experimental arts practice encompasses field recordings, landscape-scale sound art, chaos/complexity, practice-based research, sound synthesis, and electronic music. He performs, lectures, conducts workshops, and creates art installations in Regional NSW and around the world. David also designs and builds sound synthesizers based on his theories of chaos/complexity science. David has worked with many diverse collaborators such as Aphex Twin, Chris Watson, Doug Quin, Russell Haswell, Robin Fox, Oren Ambarchi, Sarah Last, Cat Hope, Garry Bradbury, William Barton, Alan Lamb, MIT Media Lab, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In 2014m he independently published the legendary “SYROBONKERS!”, the most technical and in-depth interview ever given by Aphex Twin. First pressing of 500.
File Under: Drone, Electronic
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Carl Oesterhelt: Eleven Pieces for Synthesizer (Umor Rex) LP
Umor Rex presents Eleven Pieces for Synthesizer, a collection of synth instrumentals by German composer Carl Oesterhelt. Oesterhelt has been recording a mixture of straddling kosmische and classical traditions for years on his own reel tape machine, overdubbing stacks of analog gear to create a compelling body of work that brings fresh emotional depth and rhythmic experimentation to the syntax of the modern synthesizer. Born in Munich in 1968, Carl Oesterhelt has worked in a variety of fields throughout a long and impressive career. His discography includes tenures with Neue Deutsche Welle legends FSK, intellectual disco outfit Merricks, and German legends The Notwist. His solo work has travelled even further and wider, taking in contemporary classical and chamber music, music for exhibitions and radio plays, not to mention notable collaborations with saxophonist Johannes Enders and legendary founding member of Faust, Hans Joachim Irmler. Oesterhelt augments his own analog arsenal with synthesizers borrowed from musician friends, resulting in almost fifteen different synthesizers — some in fruitful states of disrepair — which feature on the album. Opener “La Chapelle de Francis Lai” pays tribute to the French film composer with a synthesized church organ procession, disintegrating kraut-funk-noir which emerges on “Poro Secret Society”. Then, eerie sound effects mash with minimal techno rhythms on “Makonde Pattern”, and — most surprisingly — Oesterhelt turns his keys into a sub-Saharan drum ceremony on “Trinidad Pattern”. The sheer range of Eleven Pieces for Synthesizer is an impressive achievement unto itself. Yet it is Oesterhelt’s instincts as a composer which make these (largely improvised) recordings so compelling. Tensions build and emotions stir throughout each piece with a proficiency perfected through his work for the stage. Musically associates, and directly connected to a heritage of German electronics, Eleven Pieces for Synthesizer touches upon similar ground to the likes of Musik von Harmonia (1974) in its pulsations, Klaus Schulze’s sonically adventurous Cyborg (1973), and Tangerine Dream at their earliest and most primitive. The hypnotic ritualism of early African field recordings, or the spiritual regality of European organ music also convey key reference points in the formulation of this collection. Oesterhe’s compositions here have taken the musically primitive and the emotionally raw, and woven them into a rich synthetic sound world all of his own.
File Under: Electronic
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Organisation: Tone Float (Inner Space) LP
Inner Space present a reissue of Organisation’s Tone Float, originally released in 1970. German rock band, Organisation, is often referred to as the prototype or predecessor of Kraftwerk — the godfathers of electronic music. In fact, it was the first iteration of Kraftwerk and if the band had managed to overrule its record label, RCA, Tone Float would have been credited as such. But given that the album was to be released only in the United Kingdom, the label opted for the more Anglicized name, “Organisation”. Tone Float is the only album produced under this name and is a seminal example of the genre. Audiences in West Germany were fortunate enough to watch and listen to the whole album, played live for German television station, EDF, and it is this broadcast featured here. The bonus track “Vor Dem Blauen Bock” (more accurately, “Rückstoß Gondoliere”), is a notable rarity in that it includes a later Organisation line-up consisting of Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider and Klaus Dinger, and Michael Rother who would go on to form the band, Neu! Personnel: Ralf Hutter – organ; Basil Hammoudi – glockenspiel, conga gong, musical box, bangos-voice; Florian Scheider-Esleben – electric flute, alto flute, bell, triangle, tambourine, electro-violin; Butch Hauf – bass, shaky tube, small bells, plastic hammer; Fred Monicks – drums, bongos, maracas, cowbell, tambourine. Includes full floor insert with background notes and images.
File Under: Experimental, Krautrock
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Seahawks: Island Visions (KPM) (Be With) LP
Jon Tye and Pete Fowler have been making music as Seahawks for a decade now. Given the sounds they’ve been exploring over those ten years it was a cosmic inevitability that they would be asked to contribute to the catalog of the legendary library label KPM. They replied with Island Visions, an exploration of sound for vision where they construct “audio micro-worlds to explore and inhabit,” a way to transport the listener away from the everyday without the bother of getting on an airplane. Mostly recorded at The Centre Of Sound in Cornwall, with additional recording at Studio 34 in London, Jon and Pete’s travelling companions on this particular trip were boogie wunderkind Sven Atterton on fretless bass and keys, Nick Mackrory on percussion, and the Seahawks live team of Dan Hillman and Alik Peters-Deacon. From the grooves of Brian Bennett to the moog vibrations of Mike Vickers, the lush textures of Les Baxter to the experimental sounds of Delia Derbyshire and David Vorhaus, this new music channels sounds and moods from across the KPM universe. Like many KPM suites, this is a record of two distinct sides. The sunrise of side A brings a deep meditation, a journey within to renew the jaded self. Side B refreshes with cocktails by the pool and a chance to groove away the evening at some sunset beach party before dancing under the stars in the house of dreams. Pete’s cover for the LP is part map, part postcard; the track descriptions on the back help guide the way. 2020 marks ten years since Ocean Trippin’, the first Seahawks release, and Island Visions is the perfect distillation of the sounds, sights, textures, and moods that Jon and Pete have been exploring over the last decade — sunrise to sunset condensed to two sides of an LP. The normal rules of space and time don’t apply here. This is the first time Be With has worked with Seahawks, but individually Jon and Pete have been members of the extended Be With family since forever (Pete did those posters for our Ned Doheny tour and worked with Jon on the vinyl version of Hatchback’s Colors Of The Sun). Mastered by Balearic engineer of choice Simon Francis, cut by Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, the sonic frequencies of these Island Visions have been precision tuned and encoded for optimum traveling conditions.
File Under: Library, Funk
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Sol Oosel: En allegeance a l’inconnaissable — Une etude en choregraphie pour le flux d’energie (Umor Rex) LP
Sol Oosel presents an album with a complex mixture of tones and structures, striking a close relation between a sort of devotional music and a trancelike state. Beyond his own specific exploration of the possibilities of electronic modular synthesis, Sol Oosel searches for hacks in different states of consciousness by way of sound. En allégeance à l’inconnaissable – Une étude en chorégraphie pour le flux d’énergie is meant as a musical aid for visualizing the ability to dance with and manipulate attainable flows of energy. Largely produced using modular synthesizers and the Roland SH-09, Sol Oosel stretches beyond the fields of ambient music, adding a special sense of drama to this psychoactive journey. Each song is built around solid structures and infused with a mystical atmosphere. Harmonically, this album is close to Hans-Joachim Roedelius’ early works; it is emotionally positive, informed by pop nuances that are rarely found in this type of ambient music. Sol Oosel also owes to the works of Klaus Schulze; however, while Schulze was concerned with space and made music of the unknown but conceivable cosmos in his mind, Sol Oosel is more interested in Earth and the force that weighs us down in this complex physical reality. His music speculates on the relationships between inner and outer worlds. En allégeance à l’inconnaissable… is a soundscape and a choreographic exercise for relaxation, intentionally disrupted by “Here (Au Bord De L’Univers)”, a deconstructive piece covered in multiple layers of repetition, progressive beats, and kosmische pulsation which detours from the flow. In a way, it represents the bridge between all these cosmic and earthly energies. This is Sol Oosel’s debut on Umor Rex. He previously self-released the album Janus, and was member of several bands and projects before focusing in Sol Oosel. He lives in the rural village of Tepoztlán, México, where he works as an artist, performer, sculptor, sonic landscaper, and dancer.
File Under: Ambient, Electronic
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Thundercat: It is What it is (Brainfeeder) LP
Thundercat is set to release his new album It Is What It Is on Brainfeeder Records on April 3, 2020, and shares the first music; “Black Qualls (featuring Steve Lacy and Steve Arrington). The album, produced by Flying Lotus and Thundercat, features musical contributions from Ty Dolla $ign, Childish Gambino, Lil B, Kamasi Washington, Steve Lacy, Steve Arrington, BADBADNOTGOOD, Louis Cole and Zack Fox. It Is What It Is follows his game-changing third album Drunk (2017). That record completed his transition from virtuoso bassist to bonafide star and cemented his reputation as a unique voice that transcends genre. “This album is about love, loss, life and the ups and downs that come with that,” Bruner says. “It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but at different points in life you come across places that you don’t necessarily understand… some things just aren’t meant to be understood.”
File Under: Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic
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Various: Taiwan Disco (Aberrant) LP
Disco divas, funky queens, and glam ladies in ’70s and early ’80s Taiwan! Due to its extremely complex history, Taiwan in the ’70s saw the creation of some incredibly special music in which the sounds being created at the moment from the west collided with the special sensitivity of Taiwanese musicians, creating a delicious mixture you’ll need to hear to believe. Taiwan Disco shines a light on the music created by Taiwanese women during those years (’70s and early ’80s) to present a mind-blowing collection of songs with sounds ranging from wild funk to apace glam, exotic disco or fuzzed-out soul. Here’s the ticket to some crazy Taiwan nights, get those dancing shoes ready, it’s time to shake it! Features Wu Xiu Zhu (吳秀珠), Hua Yi Bao (華怡保), Cui Tai Jing (崔台青), Zou Juan Juan (邹娟娟), Chen Lan Li (陳蘭麗), Wang Xiang Ling (王祥齡), Tian Lu Lu (田路路), Liu Guan Lin (劉冠霖), Wu Xiu Zhu (吳秀珠), Luo Yan Li (駱豔麗), Yu San Shan (于三珊), and Zhang Bei Xin (張蓓心).
File Under: Taiwan, Disco, Duh
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…..Restocks….
Joshua Abrams: Mandatory Reality (Eremite) LP
Victor Cavini: Japan (Be With) LP
Alabaster DePlume: To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol 1 (International Anthem) LP
Carla Dal Forno: Look Up Sharp (Kallista) LP
Carla Dal Forno: You Know What (Blackest Ever Black) LP
Keiji Haino: Watashi Dake (Black Editions) LP
Heliocentrics & Melvin Van Peebles: Last Transmission (Now Again) LP
Heliocentrics: World of Masks (Soundways) LP
Menahan Street Band: The Crossing (Daptone) LP
William Onyeabor: Who is William Onyeabor? (Luaka Bop) LP
Orquesta Akokan: s/t (Daptone) LP
SPK: Zamia Lehmanni (Cold Spring) LP
Horace Tapscott Quintet: The Giant is Awakened (Real Gone) LP
White Heaven: Out (Black Editions) LP