Double LP version. Livity Sound Recordings' label head Peverelist presents Tessellations. As the core to the label's vision, Peverelist builds on his pioneering work with Punch Drunk Records and releases for esteemed labels such as Skull Disco, Hessle Audio, and Tectonic. Tessellations is his first long-player for Livity Sound Recordings; a succinct nine tracks demonstrating the breadth of his work and scope of his influences through a snapshot of productions from the last two years. Starting in 2011, Livity Sound Recordings quickly grew to become one of the leading labels in the UK dance music underground. Combining the legacy of Bristol's sound system culture and the futuristic visions of techno, the label forged a unique voice in the contemporary musical landscape. Initially based around a core group of producers, Livity Sound Recordings has since grown and diversified, expanding its outlook and roster while retaining its ideals of innovative, forward thinking dance music.
A stunning Piero Piccioni score for the soundtrack of the homonymous film released in 1972 and directed by Al Bagram (a pseudonym used by Spanish filmmaker and screenwriter Alfonso Balcázar). Jazz-noir numbers and disturbing chamber arrangements enforce the dark atmosphere of the film, a Gothic film that transcended the Italian giallo tradition (which was actually an Italian-Spanish co-production). The themes created by the maestro for this metaphysical horror bring to light a disturbing classicism, wrapping the listener in a gloomy, often nightmarish, horizon. One of the most sought after soundtracks by Piero Piccioni, made available for the first time on vinyl by Sub Ost.
Roll The Dice are back with their fourth full-length album, Born To Ruin. The Swedish duo, consists of Malcolm Pardon and Peder Mannerfelt, both established musicians in their own right. Pardon's background producing scores for film and television is reflected in Roll The Dice's cinematic aesthetic, while Mannerfelt's acclaimed third solo album Controlling Body landed in 2016 and follows on from his acclaimed work as producer for Fever Ray. In 2013, the pair contributed to the Blanck Mass-curated score for the Belgian horror movie The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, while in 2016 they composed part of the score and end credit theme for the drama series The Last Panthers. The duo have performed live at Sonar, Unsound, Primavera, ATP, Mutek, Norberg, Roskilde, and Semibreve festivals as well as alongside an exclusive orchestral setting at Norrlands Opera. Compared to the epic, sweeping compositions of the duo's earlier records, Born To Ruin is stripped to the bone -- a collection of concise, sharply evocative, jazz-infused music that's more smoky basement than orchestral hall. Following the stately orchestral explorations of 2014's Until Silence, the music here is lithe, hollow and furious, evoking a fractured world of economic and political instability. Ten tracks exploring burningly intense, psychedelic and romantic krautrock, ambient, and rhythmic noise themes -- A moving, widescreen electro-acoustic sound design. RIYL: Colin Stetson, The Haxan Cloak, John Carpenter, Deathprod, Willie Burns. Mastered and cut to vinyl by Pole at Scape Mastering.
LP version. Analog synthesizers, drum machines and oriental lutes. Ko Shin Moon is the first contemporary artist signed and produced by Akuphone. It reflects perfectly the new cosmopolitan sound that the label wanted to highlight. Blurring the lines between time and space, Ko Shin Moon mixes acoustic instruments from various regions of the world, analog devices, traditional music, electronic arrangements, sampling, and field recordings. As the soundtrack of a patchwork journey, the band's first LP conveys one along a succession of hybrid territories, imaginary sound landscapes, multi-colored collages: acid dabke, Turkish-Greek disco, cosmic raï, new beat molam, Tibetan ambient, synth wave Hindi filmi, rickshaw dance music -- future sound has no borders.
Coming hot on the heels of Samuel Rohrer's Range Of Regularity album (AMEL 712CD/LP, 2017) are two EPs of striking reinterpretations. The first comes with remixes by Ricardo Villalobos and Vilod, the collaborative duo with Max Loderbauer. Villalobos's compelling take on "Lenina" pulsates from start to finish with a kind of voluntary anxiety. He pieces together something surprisingly funky and hyper-real from a catalog of distinct percussive hits, time-reversed ephemera, and playful "kitchen sink" ambience. Vilod's "Uncertain Grace" remix induces a feeling of perpetual movement with is a buzzing beehive of activity and an organ-like refrain.
Doxy present a reissue of Billie Holiday's The Blues Are Brewin', originally released in 1958. The Lady can sing the blues! A stunning collection of traditionals and blues pieces masterfully interpreted by the great Billie Holiday. 140 gram clear vinyl; First pressing comes in an edition of 500 (numbered).
"The material in this collection, blues in form or associative feeling, like old friends, is treated with knowing care. Framed in Sy Oliver big band settings that might evoke comparison with Basie, and in smaller, more intimate environs, (teaming up with friend and idol Louis Armstrong on two titles) 'Lady' is very much 'Lady', a jazz singer in the most compelling sense." --Burt Korall, from the original liner notes
Environ boss Morgan Geist returns to his love for Detroit techno, Chicago tracks, and generally exceptional dancefloor music with the second installment in his series of instrumental EPs: Megaprojects Two. In his own words: "Megaprojects are by definition large-scale, high-tech and cost billions of dollars, whereas this is a collection of low-tech tracks made with cheap little drum machines and rejected old synths. . . . Of course, I've been inspired and fascinated by actual megaprojects since I was a child: imposing, surreal engineering and architecture like giant hydroelectric dams, soaring bridges and exposed-concrete government buildings."
Preditah steps up for FabricLive 92, his debut mix album, featuring exclusive material from himself, plus DJ Q and C4, alongside tracks and remixes from Skepta, Wiley, Joker, Swindle, Flava D, Shorty, and more. The 32 track mix is the sound of Preditah (aka Nathan Gerald) helming the rave, mixing up grime, UK house, and garage with all the passion of someone who lives and breathes dance music. Born in Birmingham, Preditah's series of instrumental EPs, Solitaire EP (2011), Eightsome (2011), Circles EP (2012), Red Bull EP (2012), Gears Of Grime (2012), and El Futuro (2013), ensured a growing presence on pirate radio and in the club. His breakthrough track, "The Big Wok", was noticed by JME (Boy Better Know), and this association helped cement a fast-growing reputation. Preditah is regarded as the "go to producer" for grime music in 2016/2017. Also features: Black Loops, Bassboy, J.G., Clarity, AJ Tracey, Safone, Trilla, Bomma B, Pressure, Solo 45, Mr Virgo, Sir Spyro, Teddy Bruckshot, Lady Chann, Killa P, Teddy Music, Marcus Beatz, and Swifta Beater. Packaged in bespoke slipcase containing die-embossed tin.
Far Out Recordings present the ten-year anniversary of Arthur Verocai's Encore, originally released in 2007. Encore features 11 original compositions from Arthur Verocai with guest musicians including Azymuth, Ivan Lins, and a nine-piece string section. The highly anticipated follow-up to Arthur's eponymous debut album from 1972, Encore saw Arthur joining the dots over 35 years to create a modern classic of Brazilian music that, like his debut, combines Brazilian influences with his take on American soul and cinematic experimentation, and shows that Arthur's sound is as poignant as it ever was. In the mid-2000s, following on from Marcos Valle, Joyce, and of course Azymuth, Arthur Verocai joined the long-line of Brazilian musicians whose music was to be introduced to a whole new legion of fans by Far Out Recordings. The story of Encore begins with Joe Davis, Far Out Recordings' head honcho who stumbled upon Arthur's debut in a dusty record store in downtown Rio in the late '80s. At the time of its release in 1972, critics panned Arthur's debut and both the album and artist subsequently vanished into obscurity. Fast forward to winter 2004 and Joe's at the studio of Far Out Recording artists Harmonic 313 -- aka production duo Mark "Troubleman" Pritchard and Dave Brinkworth -- playing them some of his favorite Brazilian albums. Dave recalls the moment Joe put on Arthur's debut, "As soon as the needle hit the record and we heard the fantastic arrangements, songs and sounds, Arthur completely blew our minds." Three months later and Dave was in Brazil with Arthur Verocai, and the plans for what was to become Encore were being laid down. Produced by Dave, Encore sees Arthur on incredible form, the 35 plus years between the recording of his debut and this the follow-up just melting away as Arthur picked up the (conductor's) baton once again to create 11 epic tracks of stirring samba-soul and experimental cinematic movements that sees him creating a record to rival his debut.
"This is the third LP to feature the exquisite improvising duo, Marcia Bassett and Samara Lubelski. And as great as the first two were (on Kye and Golden Lab (ROWF 047LP, 2015), respectively), Live NYC is even better. It elegantly shows just how much brain damage you can do using only a guitar and a violin. The pair have deep deep roots in the East Coast sub-underground. Marcia's solo projects and work with groups (Un, Double Leopards, Hototogisu, GHQ, Zaika, etc.) has been exploding minds since the mid '90s. The same is true for Samara, except her history reaches even further back, with non-solo-aktion including bands like Tower Recordings, Hall of Fame, Chelsea Light Moving, Metabolismus, and too many more to name. But neither of them has really destroyed on the pure level they manage to sustain with this duo. The two sets were recorded on different nights, at different venues, and their sound is as variated as could be. The first side, recorded by Bob Bellerue at Knockabout Center, is a tale of twinned and lightly fuzzed tones, twirling and blending in the air like a lost track from Heldon's It's Always Rock & Roll (1975) (or maybe a Fripp & Eno radio broadcast from 1974). The threads of sound absolutely phosphoresce. It's an incredible mix of motion, stillness and power all wrapped up in a psychedelic diaper. The other side, recorded by Kevin Reilly at Trans Pecos sounds more like some crazy BBC Radio Workshop soundtrack to a Peter Cushing science fiction tragedy. The feel is pure outer space, with all the vast emptiness and glittering promise that implies. I'm having a hell of a hard time figuring out which approach I like better. But they're both incredible sonic shards. And the silkscreened cover art is pretty amazing in its own right. Hard to think of what more you could ask for. Except maybe a sandwich." --Byron Coley, 2017 Silkscreen printed covers by Neil Burke; Edition of 400.
LP version. Silkscreen fold over cover by Neil Burke. Includes CD. Edition of 500. "Totally great live LP by Gary Wilson (the world's forgotten boy) with a cover photo that makes him look like a dead ringer for the late Mike Kelley, back when Mike was a fake hippie. Anyway, Gary shouldn't need much of an introduction. If you don't know him, you might well access one of the many other LPs of his we've done. But then again, Another Lonely Night In Brooklyn might be just the place to start your own little wagon rolling down the road of Gary Wilson fandom. The tunes on this album are representative of the live set Gary's been doing lately, with a heavy emphasis on tracks originally recorded around the time of his 1977 breakout LP, You Think You Really Know Me (FTR 236LP). What lifts things to a higher-than-usual level is the lovely musical backing provided by Tredici Bacci. This New York City unit formed to perform classic-era faux Italian film music, but they really find their own special place as Gary's backing group. Wilson's best songs of longing and loss have always been built around strong narrative centers as much as melodies, but Tredici Bacci's expansive accompaniment manages to give these narratives a width that is positively cinematic. And I'm not trying to put down Gary's other backing bands or anything, but I think anyone who's familiar with Wilson's work will have a similar response. The songs are not re-cast, but they feel a lot less compressed now, and this open-ness gives them a universality they didn't always have. No one would ever dare suggest that Wilson isn't a weirdo of the first order, but the sound of this album (and the jocularity of Gary's on stage raps) might well bring him to a whole new audience. Let the era of Wilson-Mania begin." --Byron Coley, 2017
U-ROY
Dread In A Babylon LP
2017 repress; previously an RSD 2017 release. "U-Roy was a true reggae pioneer, dubbed The Originator for good reason. Bursting onto the Jamaican scene in the earliest 1970s, he pioneered the vocal approach called 'toasting,' which in addition to branching out Jamaican music into a new era, was also heavily influential on an American genre in its infancy: rapping. On Dread In A Babylon, his third full-length, he stretches out over traditional roots grooves provided by the Soul Syndicate and Skin, Flesh & Bones bands, riffing on topics including love ('Runaway Girl,' a 1975 single released in the UK on Virgin Records); the Bible ('The Great Psalms'); walking the straight and narrow ('Listen To The Teacher'); and even his take on governmental policy goals ('Chalice In The Palace'). The album finishes with an instrumental version of Bob Marley & The Wailers' 'Trench Town Rock,' for good measure. U-Roy's style and charisma are always on display, and -- as with all of his classic records -- the groove rules all. Presented on black vinyl with a poster of the glorious, ganja-drenched cover art, it's the perfect chance to revisit one of the more underrated voices in Jamaican musical history. Includes an 18" x 24" full-color poster of the cover art."
Andreas Tilliander (Mokira, TM404) returns with a plunging set of skewed techno dubs for the mightily on-form iDEAL Recordings label, his first new release for the label since the Bias Line 7" in 2010, and the Hateless album released in 2010, both released under his Mokira moniker. Andreas Tilliander has gone some way to making his studio a bastion of dub music within his home city, Stockholm ever since emerging with the Cliphop for Raster-Noton in 2000 and subsequently releasing a whole slew of influential releases for labels including Mille Plateaux, Type, Kontra, and Skudge. With the heady churn of Compuriddim dispensed under his own name, Tilliander returns to the site of some of his earliest outings, Joachim Nordwall's iDEAL Recordings, with a clutch of warped and murky dub ecologies, firming up as some of the most absorbing iterations of his adroitly smoked-out sound. iDEAL Recordings were first turned on to Tilliander's music via his Ljud LP for Mille Plateaux (2001), and have established an occasional yet crucial relationship ever since, resulting in highlights such as the Dutty & Digital 12" (2004) and the Bias Line 7". The Compuriddim set is the newest and most intoxicatingly textured addition to that collection; six tracks strong in pursuit of an elusive electro-acoustic Geist that lives between the wires of his classic hardware, in the late night air of his studio. In keeping with the classic tenets of dub production -- less-is-more efficiency, constant movement within space -- he executes a sort of psychoacoustic telekinesis with the six parts of Compuriddim, skanking from the spiraling loops of drip bass and drums overlaid with windswept melodica in "Twilight Circuit", to a grumbling but charming dub techno stepper on "Mokirian Tekno", then letting it all go loose and floppy with the sloshing Afracid deviation of "FR777 Skank". "Open Up The CV/Gate" meanwhile kicks off the B-side at a bendy slow/fast bent lodged somewhere between Tin Man and Aphex Twin's slow mo Analord (2005) or Cheetah EP (2016) tracks, followed up by the ragged dub chord stagger of "Return Of The Super Tape", and the sweetest number, "Syncussion Discussion", a bottom-heavy but dainty whorl of 303 dialog seemingly detained for the most squashed and strange corners of the night or morning after. RIYL: Peder Mannerfelt, Frak, Tapes, Pole.
Record producer, DJ, record plugger, and record shop owner Herman Chin Loy operated out of his Aquarius Record shop at Half Way Three in Kingston, Jamaica. It is from this base that he started his recording studio where he not only put out the first ever dub album, Aquarius Dub (1975), but was also responsible for naming future artist Horace Swaby, allowing him to use his exotic fictitious working name Augustus Pablo for his own recording career. Although called Aquarius Dub, the tracks that make up this album were cut at Dynamic Sounds, Harry J's and Randy's Studio 17. It was not long after this release that Herman opened the first ever twenty-four track studio Aquarius Studios. Jamaican Recordings have compiled this set of dub tracks that were worked on at Aquarius Studio. Using the legendary studio for some of the recordings and/or it's mixing and voicing facilities. CD version includes four bonus tracks.
LP version. Dona Onete, "the grande dame of Amazonian song", returns with further tales from the river Amazon on her sophomore album Banzeiro. Whether she's championing gay rights, singing about the delights of indecent proposals, or praising a former lover for his "crazy ways of making love", Banzeiro is defined by Onete's honest reflections on life, love, sex as well as her delight in the everyday pleasures of life in the Amazon, whether that's spicy seasoning, salty kisses, or fishy-smelling water. Formerly a history teacher, folklore researcher, union representative, culture secretary and children's author, Onete recorded her debut album Feitiço Caboclo (2014) at 73. A cult figure in Brazil and an ambassador for Amazonian culture, the music she sings is a unique mix of rhythms from native Brazilians, African slaves, and the Caribbean - epitomized in the joyous carimbós that are her trademark. Born in the Amazonian region of Pará in 1938, Onete is a mix of native Indian from her mother's side and African from her father. She first started to sing after a chance riverside encounter: "I was washing clothes by the river and one day I saw a dolphin and sung for him. The next day I sang again, and two dolphins came, then a whole family!" A self-proclaimed "teenage-dreamer" who embraced music "because everything was forbidden by my parents", by the age of 15, Onete was singing in bars, yet her musical ambitions were soon crushed: "I was married at 22 and when I tried to sing at home my husband didn't like it so I had to stop." She became an ardent researcher of the rhythms, dances, and traditions of the Amazon's indigenous and black people, which inspired her to begin composing songs herself. Unable to sing at home, she began to incorporate her compositions in her work as a history teacher, using her songs to explain the history of the region to her students: "Nowadays indigenous people can be proud of their heritage but years ago this wasn't the case." In the early eighties, Onete quit teaching to campaign for workers' rights and following retirement in 1990 she became her region's Municipal Secretary of Culture from 1993-1996, a role she embraced: "I helped local musicians and local culture that people didn't value. I brought my culture to the fore". In the early 2000s, Onete's second husband encouraged her musical side and it was whilst singing at a friend's party in 2006 that she was overheard by a local band. Initially rejecting their offer to sing with them, she was eventually persuaded and soon became a local celebrity known for her risque lyrics. A debut album, Feitiço Caboclo, soon followed and her contemporary take on the music of Para was a critical success with Onete touring Brazil playing to crowds of thousands: "Traditional carimbó songs are about nature and tradition - I modernized it by singing about love and sex and taking influence from samba and pagoda." International critics were next to fall for this sassy, saucy, and sexy septuagenarian with Les Inrocks making the album one of their top five "world" releases that year. European festival performances followed in 2015, including a main stage spot at Womad UK, with a US tour taking in Chicago, Cleveland, and New York in September 2016. "Sometimes, when you think you've given all you've got, you realize that, in fact, you have a lot more ahead of you," she opines. "Banzeiro" is the wave that's created as boats pass through the water and with its pulsating saxophone riff, insistent guitar line, thundering percussion and Onete's charged lyrics the album title track, a banguê - raucous high-octane "Amazonian ska" - is a musical tsunami. Onete is at her most potent on "Na Linha Do Arco Iris" ("The Line Of The Rainbow"), a rallying cry of support for her LGBT fans. Inspired by a young gay man she knew who was afraid to come out, the lyrics are a call to "come out of the wardrobe, cross the line of the rainbow and be who you want to be." "Faceira" and "No Meio Do Pitiú" are joyous carimbós with the latter surely the only song to recount the charms of Pitiú - the fishy-smelling water that floods Belém's legendary fish-market Ver-o-Peso as the ice defrosts. "No Sabor Do Beijo" ("The Taste Of A Kiss") delights in recounting the different flavors a kiss can have: "hot, frozen, sweet, salty, bold . . . abusive", whilst "Lua Jaci" ("Jaci Moon") recounts a journey to a local island for a concert: "When I arrived they didn't have a soundsystem - they were very poor people. All they had was this huge, beautiful moon . . . Lua Jaci." The cumbia-influenced "Quiemoso E Tremoso" is about seasoning Onete invented that reflects the mix of people from Pará: "Quiemoso is a spice from the Africans that burns the mouth, jambu is a spice from the indigenous that makes the mouth tremble (tremoso), whilst the olive oil is from the Portuguese and holds it together." The boleros Onete offers provide respite from the heat of the tropical night and a welcome chance to drop the tempo. On "Coracao Brecho Onete" sings of how her heart has become a second-hand store (brecho) full of happy and sad memories whilst "Quando Eu Te Conheci" ("When I Met You") is a song even she was unsure of recording because of its risqué lyric "Eu adorei teu jeito louco, Muito louco, Muito louco, De fazer amor" - "I adore your crazy way, Very crazy, Very crazy, Of making love." Comes with Portuguese lyrics and English translations.
Gene Hunt summons a three-tracker for the Midnight Shift label. True house and techno direct from the source and in his own words, a rather "jungly" take of it due to the tracks' chaotic percussion. "Feeling It" takes you back to the original old school, with all the classic elements in place. It's a house lover's wet dream, 30 years after the fact. "Spector" twists things up while keeping that pumping jacking groove a perfect intersection between then and now. "Scatter" punches through the noise like a clarion call to arms. Report to the dancefloor, please.
Double LP version. Framed by two spoken word samples and wrapped in house and techno emotions, that know about electro and '90s electronica too, the second album by the Leipzig and Berlin based producer Martin Enke, aka Lake People, moves in a fresh way. This time he shifts towards a focus on the essentials of electronic club music: sounds and groove, rough and playful interweaved with the aesthetic particles of techno. With his Point EP, released on the Berlin based imprint Krakatau Records in late 2012 (KKT 006EP), his creative life as a producer for melancholic driven club tunes took off. Several top notch DJs played the tune "Point In Time", Lake People started to tour world-wide with his mesmerizing live set and produced countless remixes for colleagues from all around the globe. In 2015, he finally released his first album Purposely Uncertain Field on the Munich based label Permanent Vacation (PERMVAC 136CD/LP) and delivered eleven tracks at the interface of techno, ambient, experimental, and electronic, that bewitch with hymnal chords, yearningly melodies, detailed production, elaborate sound design, and an overall introspective, emotive feeling. Now, just shortly after releasing Break The Pattern on the Dresden based imprint Uncanny Valley (2017), Lake People drops Phase Transition, a new album consisting of ten haunting tracks full of dance suspense. He recorded all the tracks between 2016 and early 2017 on various vintage analog synthesizers, UAD, and other creative interfaces. To find out if his latest pure slamming tracks work deep, he tried them out during his live shows in order to catch some new ideas directly from the dancefloor. Later he refitted the tested material so that all ten tunes dance together as a compact album, which at times sounds melancholic and vulnerable, but comes around at large in a more self-assured guise. You also experience in any tone, rhythmic twist, or melody that his latest music came naturally out of the soul of a producer, who constantly is doing music, at home or on the road. During this continual work flow, he created sparser, direct kicking spheres that still bring some drama to the party. A fine, moody, don't-stop-grooving record that follows a heartfelt syuzhet, which is full of temperament and devotion, partly Larry Heard-ish and straight like a bullet, carrying the audience from joy and whimsy, to melancholy and sugared desolation.
Pharaway Sounds present a reissue of Airto Fogo's self-titled album, originally released in 1976. Featuring superb drummer Sylvain Krief, Airto Fogo's sole album from 1976 is one of the best instrumental jazz-funk/rare-groove albums ever recorded in France. Heavy drums, Rhodes, analog keyboards, deep bass, hot horns, with Blaxploitation and Latin touches -- A Euro funk holy grail. RIYL: Placebo, CCPP, The J.B's, Eumir Deodato, Ben & The Platano Group, Godchild.
I-ROY
Can't Conquer Rasta LP
LP version. Radiation Roots present a reissue of I Roy's Can't Conquer Rasta, originally released in 1977. Born Roy Samuel Reid in Saint Thomas in 1944, I Roy was one of Jamaica's all-time greatest deejays. A natural-born toaster, his rhyming raps always sounded effortless, whether describing the harsh realities of the inner city, or making light of nonsense nursery rhymes. A former employee at Customs and Excise, he was first active on a sound system called Soul Bunnies in the rocksteady era, moving to Son's Junior in 1968, and later, to the legendary Supreme Ruler of Sound, defecting to the rival Stereo sound system after that. Hits for Harry Mudie and other producers soon followed, and after the killer debut album Presenting I Roy (1973) impacted overseas, the toaster began spending frequent periods in London. His longstanding working relationship with hit-making producer Bunny Lee led to some of his most noteworthy albums during the mid-1970s; the 1977 set Can't Conquer Rasta is a superb "showcase"-style album, on which the toaster blows hard lyrics over five of Lee's killer "rockers" rhythms (recorded with the likes of Johnny Clarke), each complete with a corresponding Aggrovators dub on the flip, all mixed by Prince Jammy at King Tubby's studio.
Recognition opens up its archives and invites you to a futuristic sentimental journey with respective stages set by the CD release 9702 (RECOG 006CD) and 9799, which includes a 12" along with a CD insert of 9702. The four vinyl exclusive tracks come from the time of Jacek Sienkiewicz's first record Recognition (1999). These earliest recordings openly refer to a formula and rhythmical density of Detroit techno, although the end result of this confrontation turns out to be surprisingly "separate" and individualistic. The material on the CD insert, 9702, contains a set of varied tracks recorded within five years after Warsaw label's launch and its first release. Extended compositions and short improvised sound notes resemble eccentric propositions of such labels as (early) Warp or Rephlex, standing next to melancholy-saturated minimalistic techno and abstract collage structures, which prove to share many characteristics of clicks n' cuts movement of the second half of the 1990s. Usage of human voice samples is an outstanding feature of many of these archive materials. Entirety of mastered-anew, 9702 contains all principal trademarks which distinguish Jacek Sienkiewicz's creations and his label Recognition: utmost care about depth of sound sphere, experimental inclinations, and focus on complex motorik aspect of the rhythmical base. This collection of music from Recognition's first five years, surprising for its freshness and sheer impetus, is a must for all fans of Jacek Sienkiewicz and Polish electronic music of the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Much could be said about German house royalty Boris Dlugosch: From his teen DJ years under the wings of Front's legendary Klaus Stockhausen in Hamburg to his own marvelous tenure there that is pretty much synonymous with the explosion of acid house. Traveller EP is the result of Dlugosch and Cassara meeting at a mutual friend of theirs, getting excited about their shared love for classic synths, and exploiting the latter's extensive synth collection. What you get: classic disco, French house, electro-funk, DJ sound effects, and most of all fun, fun and a little bit of extra fun. Chin-stroking impossible.
Double LP version. The latest transmission from the world of Gunnar Haslam, Kalaatsakia wildly sprawls across the intersections of techno and more abstract sounds to take the listener on a wide-ranging journey from the subterranean to the coastal, from blown-out dub tones through fractured rhythms. An incredible work that is not easy to pigeonhole, Kalaatsakia is a full-length album that navigates and sketches landscapes where new languages are created from old, dead ones to emerge as the lingua franca of interconnected immersive zones. Haslam is an avid home listener of dub, dancehall, and calypso, and that influence is quickly felt as Kalaatsakia launches with a tight electro snap and dubwise crash. Kalaatsakia advances and retreats seasonally, tightening up for the floor with the chrome-plated "Broadcast" and "Kjolle" while splintering apart on "Kalapuyan" and "nxbound". Its constituent parts are often left to collapse in on themselves, smearing themes into residual trails. As the narrative of the album disintegrates and unfolds into more deconstructed territory, it stretches out even further with a striking skittering mental tease, settling into burbling sub-audible vocals and resonant spaces that all form a part of Haslam's self-created subconscious language.
Produced With Love is an extraordinary album from UK legend Joey Negro: a buoyant, life-affirming, disco-inspired album. It's hard to find enough superlatives to describe just how influential and prolific Dave Lee, aka Joey Negro, has been over the last three decades. One of music's major proponents of soulful, disco-tinged, vocal records, and without question instrumental music, is its development and popularization. No-one treats a loop, groove, or hook with as much care and attention as Joey Negro. Throughout his career, disco has been a key ingredient to his sound, and alongside the likes of Nile Rodgers, Daft Punk, Jamiroquai, and Dimitri From Paris, he's one of the few artists to have been keeping the disco fire burning. Produced With Love is only the second ever Joey Negro album to be released, and the first for more than 20 years. And as the electronic music scene threatens to be overrun with faceless, bland, and forgettable productions, Produced With Love proves that dance music with character still exists. And rather than rely on sampling older records, the overwhelming majority of music is newly recorded. Album opener "Prove That You're Feeling Me", featuring Diane Charlemagne, is without question one of the catchiest and most urgent disco recordings produced in the last decade. Evoking the great Nile Rogers and Chic at their funkiest, it trips along on an exquisite bassline with orchestral strings and Charlemagne's vocal lending the record a truly timeless quality. Joey Negro explains: "Unfortunately, between starting and finishing the project, the supremely talented Diane Charlemagne, the singer/songwriter who I co-wrote many songs with over last ten years, very sadly passed away. We had a great working relationship, which was both fun and honest. Most of my final collaborations with Diane, 'Overnight Sensation', 'Prove That You're Feeling Me' and the partly re-written remake of 'Must Be The Music' are on this album." R&B; and house music mainstay Linda Clifford narrates on "Won't Let Go", a deep house cut that celebrates musical escapism, whilst "It's More Fun To Compute" -- an unlikely cover -- is a fully orchestrated disco rework of Dusseldorf's finest. Further highlights include an utterly transformed "Must Be The Music" (one of Joey Negro's best-known records), whilst things get both dubby and jazzy on the Arthur Russell-evoking "Distorting Space Time". Also features: Angela Johnson, Lifford, Alex Mills, Melba Moore, The O'Jays, and The Fatback Band.
Doxy present a reissue of John Coltrane and Wilbur Harden's Tanganyika Strut, originally released in 1958. The last of the three 1958 recordings made by jazz musicians John Coltrane and Wilbur Harden, Tanganyika Strut is Harden's last album as a leader. 140 gram clear vinyl; First pressing comes in an edition of 500 (numbered).
"Whether you call it 'Far Out' or 'Near In' or 'Funky' or 'Mainstream Modern' or 'Beat' . . . this is the sound! Four extended virtuous tracks by a group of outstanding representatives of everything that is happening new on the modern jazz scene! In the kind of odd geography that occasionally plays in important part in the history of jazzmen (i.e. New Orleans, Kansas City, Chicago) this group is dominated by the young lions from Detroit, Michigan . . . breeding place for much of today's important young modern jazz element." -- H. Alan Stein, from the original liner notes
2017 repress; LP version. Former Beat Of The Earth leader Phil Pearlman assembled Relatively Clean Rivers in the early '70s and eventually released this excellent rural rock album in 1975. Although Pearlman's first recorded effort was a surf/hot rod 45 entitled Chrome Reversed Rails which appeared on the Fink label in the mid-'60s, it was with Beat Of The Earth that he began to forge a distinctive musical voice. The band was one of the earliest-known experimental bands with a sound reminiscent of their East Coast counterparts, The Velvet Underground, whose influence is often discernible on Relatively Clean Rivers. That said, RCR is recognized by those fortunate enough to have heard it as one of the very finest albums of the era, with a clearly-defined American sound akin to The Grateful Dead in all their American Beauty pomp or CSNY circa Déjà Vu. An album highly recommended to anyone even remotely interested in '70s West Coast music or simply great music in general. Finally available on 180 gram vinyl once again, and comprehensively remastered using the latest 48-bit technology.
Double LP version. "Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain is the quintessential work of artist/filmmaker/composer Tony Conrad. Comprised of both film installation and minimalist score for amplified strings, Ten Years leaps across genre and medium to connect his revolutionary structural filmmaking with the experiments in long-duration sound that Conrad had begun in the 1960s as part of the Theatre of Eternal Music. 'Ten Years began with image before sound,' writes Andrew Lampert, 'a row of quadruple projections arranged side-by-side, all the shuffling stripes cascading into each other. Over the next two hours the music throbbed and the projectors incrementally shifted inwards, their beams gradually uniting to form one pulsating, overlapping picture.' For its 1972 premiere at New York's The Kitchen, Ten Years included Conrad on violin as well as Rhys Chatham and Laurie Spiegel performing on instruments of the composer's own making. Chatham played the Long String Drone -- a 6-foot long strip of wood with bass strings, electric pickup, tuning keys, tape, rubber band and metal hardware -- while Spiegel carried out an arrhythmic bass pulse throughout. Superior Viaduct is honored to present this previously unreleased recording of Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain's breathtaking premier performance. As Chatham recounts in the liner notes, 'When I first listened to this recording after not hearing it for over 40 years, it transported me back to the early Kitchen and the heyday of early minimalism, played outside the Dream Syndicate.' "
2017 repress, originally released in 2010. This is a special edition all-white 10" by Nicolas Jaar. It all kicks off with "WOUH," a time-stopping piece with sparse arrangements, quirky gulps of sound and electric ambiance in a complex tapestry of harmony. The anthemic "Love You Gotta Lose Again" moves into contrasting boundless activity with broken beats, triumphant singing and pleasant guitar licks. "Don't Believe The Hype" retreats into mystique again -- a cascading mass of body-moving sound, simmering with secrecy.
Doxy present a reissue of Bill Evans, Shelly Manne, and Monty Budwig's Empathy, originally released in 1962. 140 gram clear vinyl; First pressing comes in an edition of 500 (numbered).
"This album came about through a fortuitous convergence of circumstances. Shelly Manne & His Men were appearing at New York's Village Vanguard, sharing the bill with the Bill Evans Trio. Creed Taylor set up a session at Rudy Van Gelder's studio with Evans and Manne sharing top billing. Manne's bass player, Monty Budwig, made up the trio. This was a busman's holiday for Evans, who was freed from the musical parameters he had set for his then-current trio. The result is that his playing seemed lighter, freer, and more relaxed than it had for a while (...) It's clear that everyone was having a good time and simply enjoying being relieved of their duties with their regular combos, even if for just one day." --AllMusic
Double LP version. Nick Höppner connects the territories of house music with the ease of alt-pop on Work, his second solo album for Ostgut Ton. After leaving his full-time job as Ostgut Ton's label manager in 2012, Nick Höppner went fully freelance, focusing on his musically diverse, deep, and dynamic DJing in and outside Berghain's Panorama Bar, but more importantly spending more time in the studio. The result was his critically acclaimed debut album Folk (OSTGUT 033CD/019LP, 2015), various 12" releases and remixes, and now his sophomore LP, Work, which, more than ever, lays out his refined production skills and his talent to work the machines until they reveal their inner ghosts: nine new songs that now dodge the dancefloor, then fully embrace it. On Work, Höppner shows his everlasting lust for musical detail, his increasing technical skills and compositional finesse. Work is a very personal, soulful, and deep record that breaks through the usual club/dancefloor narrative by documenting Nick's interest for hybrid sounds and combining elements from varying musical genres. Work's lead single "All By Themselves (My Belle)" is a very atmospheric, intimate, and steadily unfurling IDM piece with ethereal synth and vocal pads; it's contrasted by the personal "Clean Living" with Tram 78, a modern Höppner club classic: powerful, kick-heavy, muscular, cheerful, and uplifting. Connecting to this musical vibe, "In My Mind" follows with a slightly darker tone putting emphasis on bassline, percussion, and squeaky sound detailing. "Hole Head" pays tongue-in-cheek homage to Nick's love for UK club music, when a dashing melody of synths and vibraphone is matched with clattering breaks and syncopation. The dubby, mesmerizing "The Dark Segment" not only impresses with its hypnotic synth figurines, but also by morphing to a shuffling jazz rhythm towards it's middle part; "Forced Resonance" uses Oberheim synth brass stabs to dramatic effect; the percussion- and clap-laden "Fly Your Colours" comes with an irresistible piano melody atop an energetic kick; and finally the album-closing, shuffling but rhythmic, noisy yet bluesy, "Three Is A Charm", featuring the duo Randweg (Andreas Ernst and David Baurmann) on clarinet, cajón, and acoustic guitar, is a coherent departure heading towards indie pop territory. It sees Nick collaborating with acoustic instrumentalists for the first time in his ten-year-spanning Ostgut Ton release catalog. Art work by German collage artist Frank Bubenzer.
Aguirre Records present a reissue of the 1981 debut album by new age pioneer JD Emmanuel, Rain Forest Music. Texan musician JD Emmanuel's career story is, in a way, a story about how the passion of fans can make a difference and about a gifted musician whose music may have been lost to the ages. The tale begins in 2005 when Douglas Mcgowan stumbled on several dusty boxes of two JD Emmanuel vinyl albums -- several hundred of them, all still sealed -- at a discount book and record store in North Dallas, Texas. Mcgowan purchased 50 copies and took them back to the west coast. This discovery set in motion a chain of events that led to a series of reissues and Emmanuel's return to recording and performing in 2010. The majority of JD Emmanuel's studio recordings date from the 1980s, when new age music in America was still an indie scene. Whether you call his albums new age or not, the meditative vibe, spiritual underpinnings and self-releasing are all hallmarks of the genre. Yet his cyclic, organ-based music is different from most of his contemporaries of that era. Back in 1970, he was deeply impressed by his first taste of classical minimalism when he heard American minimalist composers Terry Riley and Steve Reich. He was also attracted to the improvisations of modern jazz and long-form rock jams. Minimalism and improvisation, then, became the foundations of his art, and the evocation of trance-like states his goal. In 1980, with his newly acquired Crumar Traveler-1 organ, analog synths, guitar, and various effects, he began building a body of warm, melodic, usually stripped-back ambient trance with a unique mystical vibe. On Rain Forest Music he builds gentle, short cycles of notes into floating clouds of sound, mostly improvising around single chords. The "minimalism" in his music lies not in repetitive patterns that barely change -- the extreme end of classical minimalism -- but more in the spare arrangements. There's also an open, loving optimism to the melodies that has obvious appeal to new age listeners. The album cover is from an original water color created for the LP in 1981 by Houston artist, Molly Khan. 180 gram vinyl; Printed inner sleeve; Remastered by Rashad Becker; Lacquer cut by Rashad Becker; Cover reconstruction by Jeroen Wille; Edition of 1000.
Green-inferno vinyl version. Special DJ Blue Heart version, with included skits/interludes from the movie. Heavy cardboard Stoughton Tip-On jacket; Green Japanese Sanguelia 2 VHS obi; 180 gram vinyl; Edition of 400. We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records unleash the complete uncut soundtrack for Lucio Fulci and Bruno Mattei's 1988 cult zombie-ploitation gem Zombi 3 (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, aka Sanguelia 2) for the first time ever on vinyl, available on two different collector's edition vinyl, the "Classic Version" and the "Special Version". This future deluxe edition OOP classic is packed with menacing synths, ghoulish melodies, and contaminated anthems, remastered directly from the rare original reels of maestro Stefano Mainetti. Zombi 3 is the (unrelated) sequel to Zombi 2 (1979), itself an unofficial sequel to George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead (1978). This marvel of the VHS-era finds a group of super scientists working on a very secret biological weapon called Death One which mutates and kills living humans... and re-animates the dead. Feared by critics and beloved by vintage exploitation fanatics, Zombi 3 has all the charms of the glory days of Italian B-horror, including a fantastic soundtrack. Underrated composer and conductor Stefano Mainetti has done soundtracks for Italian sleaze masters Joe D'Amato and Bruno Mattei, but also for Weekend at Bernie's (1989) and First Blood (1982) director Ted Kotcheff, and Russell Mulcahy of Razorback (1984) and Highlander (1986) fame. His resume includes 1988's badass actioner Strike Commando 2 (aka Trappola Diabolica), exploitation horror flick from 1988 Ratman (aka Quella Villa In Fondo Al Parco), and 1995's The Shooter (aka Hidden Assassin) with the manly superstar Dolph Lundgren. Much like his Italian peers Fabio Frizzi, Claudio Simonetti, or Stelvio Cipriani, Stefano Mainetti can do it all: haunting synths à la John Carpenter, jazzy atmospheres, classical orchestrations, erotic funk, decadent FM rock, and the list goes on. His eclectic abilities and flair for '80s cinematic moods are well represented in Zombi 3: The Soundtrack.
"Inspired by life on the touring circuit, this EP takes its name from a night the producer spent in Sliema, Malta. Produced to mirror the frenetic movement of (night)life on the road, the album jumps violently between poles of darkness, familiarity, paranoia and comfort in the club."
Hot Casa present an official reissue of Orlando Julius & Ashiko's Love, Peace & Happiness, originally released in 1978. A hard to find, pure Afro funk spiritual grail by the Afro soul maestro. Born in 1943 in Ikole-Ekiti in Ondo State, Nigeria, Orlando Julius Ekemode (Orlando was really a nickname, taken from the Nigerian actor, Orlando Martins) started in music at an early age, becoming the school drummer and learning flute, bugle, and other instruments at St Peters Anglican School in Ikole-Ekiti. A Nigerian musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he is credited as one of the first musicians to fuse US R&B; into traditional highlife music, creating his own influential Afrobeat sound during the mid-60s. From his time playing in the USA during the 1970s onwards, he is credited with bringing African music to a broader audience and famously co-composed the song "Going Back To My Roots" with Lamont Dozier. In 1978, Orlando Julius Ekemode decided to produce this amazing session, originally recorded between Maryland and West Virginia, and released in limited quantity in Nigeria by the obscure label Jungle Records. Six stunning monster Afro funk tracks, recorded by eight musicians based in Oakland. Fully licensed with the artist and remastered by Carvery. Essential!
MUKQS
11,666,666,666,666,666,666 LP
"Maxwell Allison records improvised loop-based electronic music under the name Mukqs. 11,666,666,666,666,666,666, his first LP with Chicago imprint Midwich Productions, documents a session of intertwined synth melodies and technoid beat arrangements recorded live and presented without overdubs. Previous tape releases compiling live takes of textured noise and deranged sample manipulation using cassette tapes as sound sources appeared on labels like Phinery, Apothecary Compositions, and Hausu Mountain (co-run by Allison himself and Doug Kaplan). Allison and Kaplan perform with Natalie Chami in Chicago free music trio Good Willsmith, whose abstracted electronic rock jams and space drone ritual performances aim for a state of overloaded chaos. On 11,666,666,666,666,666, Allison sheds the randomized and abrasive aspects of past free-for-all jams and latches into an elastic pulse of syncopated basslines and complex percussion patterns pumped from a minimal hardware rig of drum machine and sampler. The LP evokes the subaquatic atmospheres and evolving analog arrangements of Drexciya, the recursive melodic ecstasy of Terry Riley, and the cyborg tonal juxtapositions of Oneohtrix Point Never. Mukqs's arrangements pit the insistence of a rigid grid against a system of arrhythmic synth samples that intersect with a loose logic all their own. Brittle vocal and flute preset tones clash with chordal clouds of sustain and swelling drones, as a network of hi-hat and snare patterns click a path through the center of the mix. Allison's thick bass bursts dominate the stereo spread, animating grooves and harmonizing in distortion with a web of crisp triangle wave arpeggios. His session stretches from the loping electro thump and siren synth walls of 'The Tulpoid Serpent' into the zen bongos and syrupy pads of 'Neo-Venezia.' 'Frog Work' hits a stride of major-key bliss when xylophone cascades blend with sitar tones over a 4/4 stomp, as if soundtracking a Studio Ghibli-core movie of Allison's own invention. 'Hashimoto-Appelbaum Syndrome' closes the LP with a palette of juxtaposed textures painted in kinetic rhythms: compounded organ lines mingle with vocaloid chirps and a lattice of pitch-shifted cymbals, as a chopped and screwed flute melody holds down the low end with faux-upright bass. If Mukqs's strict adherence to a live take/no overdubs recording regimen betrays a mentality closer to the noise underground, 11,666,666,666,666,666,666 elevates his stubborn practice to new heights of analog synth arrangement and cosmic density."
In time for the 20th anniversary of his label Hospital Productions, Dominick Fernow offers the first release of his techno-focused moniker Vatican Shadow on Ostgut Ton. The Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil-channeling, beatless widescreen opener "They Deserve Death" and the two collateral club/dancefloor tracks "Rubbish Of The Floodwaters" and "Weapons Inspection" offset each other by reincarnating the tape manipulation that laid the foundation of Vatican's first performances with analog hardware and minimalist midi-dissection. Produced with Josh Eustis. Artwork by Berlin-based photographer Christian Vagt, taken from his Softex series.
|
Laughing On The Outside LP
Get Down (Len Faki Mixes) 12"
Issue Five: Spring 2017 MAG
Magnifier (Grey Vinyl) LP
Gentrified Underground Youth 2LP
Don't Cut Off Your Dreadlocks CD
Una Tomba Aperta... Una Bara Vuota LP
Una Tomba Aperta... Una Bara Vuota (Color Vinyl) LP
Don't Be Fooled By The Name LP
Range Of Regularity Remixes 12"
Nighthawks on the Radio: KNEW-FM Broadcast, 8 December 1976 2LP
Chronicles of the Future Remixes 12"
Uncompromising Groundwork 12"
Relatively Clean Rivers LP
A Shot In The Night EP 12"
The Old Waldorf, SF CA 21 September 1977 - Early and Late Shows 2LP
Love You Gotta Lose Again EP 10"
King Size Dub: Reggae Germany Downtown Chapter 3 CD
New River Ranch Rising Sun, Maryland 1959 - 1961 CD
Another Lonely Night In Brooklyn CD
Another Lonely Night In Brooklyn LP+CD
P.S.K. What Does It Mean?/Gucci Time 12"
Dubbing At Aquarius Studios 1977-1979 CD
Revelation For Personal Use CD
Saigon Supersound Vol. 1 CD
Funky Chimes Sampler 1/5 7"
Funky Chimes Sampler 2/5 7"
Funky Chimes Sampler 3/5 7"
Funky Chimes Sampler 4/5 7"
Funky Chimes Sampler 5/5 7"
Israel Suite / Dominante En Bleu CD
Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain 2LP
The Mothers Earth Experiment CD
|