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Shebang
Tip! > in process of restock < Extended guitar hero Oren Ambarchi returns with Shebang, the latest in the series of intricately detailed long-form rhythmic workouts that includes Quixotism (2014) and Hubris (2016). Like those records, Shebang features an international all-star cast of musical luminaries, their contributions recorded individually in locations from Sweden to Japan yet threaded together so convincingly (by Ambarchi in collaboration with Konrad Sprenger) that it’s hard to believe t…
Ghosted
It was early in 2019 — no, November 2018! — that Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin met at Studio Rymden, in a quiet suburban district of Stockholm, to make the music that became Ghosted.
Music for Hippies
**100 copies limited edition. In process of stocking** "Years and years ago, I went through my collection of old cassettes and transferred many of them. Within the dark corners, I found some rarely played cassettes by De Fabriek, and when I heard those again, I realized why I hadn't played those a lot. One was with P. Funk and called 'Music For Hippies'. Today I learned that not all those old cassettes will be re-issued on CD, which I think is good. I also learned that behind P. Funk there are a…
Spectral Evolution
After a two-decade interlude, Jim O’Rourke’s Moikai returns with Spectral Evolution, a major new work by Rafael Toral. Making his name in the mid-1990s with influential guitar drone platters like "Sound Mind Sound Body" and "Wave Field" (both reissued by Drag City in recent years), Toral has never been one to rest on his laurels repeating his past glories. In the early years of the 21st century, Toral laid the guitar aside, along with the focus on extended tones that had defined much of his musi…
East Meets West
Huge Tip! Ahmed Abdul-Malik was best known to jazz listeners as a bassist with Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Coleman Hawkins, and many others. He made a few records as a leader, with this one being his most exotic. The Brooklyn native was of Sudanese descent; in addition to playing bass, he also plays oud, the forerunner to the lute. Originally released in 1960 the album is rich and heady, a multi-layered set of tonal grooves that are wrapped tight beneath the melody lines. The musicians on Ma…
Wave Field
**A prescient vision of the next phases of listening space! Remastered reissue, first on vinyl** Released in 1995 ‘Wave Field’ was a departure from the first album into new composition methods involving the dirty textures of rock guitar, sounding in the open ears of many listeners (like Jim O’Rourke, who issued the disc in the US on dexter’s cigar) as a synthesis of disparate elements - a nexus where Alvin Lucier, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Brian Eno blend together. Here, the clangorou…
Sound Mind Sound Body (30th Anniversary Edition)
**30th Anniversary Edition. Remastered reissue, first on vinyl** Released in 1994 ‘Sound Mind Sound Body’ decrees the massive impact of discreet gestures; slow-moving tones and spacious orchestral resonances, drifting and droning with glacial majesty, hardly recognizable as guitar much of the time In 1987, Rafael Toral began making his own compositions and solo recordings. 30 years later, these recordings sound remarkably prescient and perfectly timeless - almost fresher today than when they wer…
Plux Quba
One of the greatest sonic masterpieces of the '80s - long championed by Jim O'Rourke and foreshadowing the work of an entire generation of experimental electronic music that emerged during the 1990s - Christian Fennesz, Oval, Mouse on Mars, Microstoria, C-Schulz, Mountains, and Oren Ambarchi - we're thrilled to offer an essential repress of Nuno Canavarro's visionary LP, Plux Quba, via the venerable Drag City. Originally appearing from the shadows of the mysterious vanguard of Portuguese music i…
Fingerpainting
"Now we have The Red Krayola's state-of-the-states address 1999, presented to one and all in grand Red Krayola style, going all the way back to the days when they spelled it with a C instead of a K (c. 1967). Back then, the world was hearing it's first of this now legendary outfit. Having never tried to do anything the same twice, The Red Krayola, manage in a way not to again on Fingerpainting, although this time, in a way, they tried. Fingerpainting features unreleased songs from the distant da…
Baby and Child Care
1984 unlreleaed befor album! When he wasn't busy with his many musical projects in the '70s and '80s, guitarist and songwriter Mayo Thompson was part of the celebrated British conceptual art collective Art & Language. Given Thompson's creative restlessness, it's not surprising that his partners in Art & Language became part of his musical efforts, most notably his shape-shifting group the Red Krayola, and they've teamed up for several albums since 1976's Corrected Slogans. Arriving in 2016, Baby…
Advaitic Songs
*2023 stock* Already out of stock at source, few copies available...Where God Is Good was the first step in a more ornate and sophisticated direction for Om, Advaitic Songs achieves a level of composition that would've been impossible to foresee. There remains the singularity of purpose that is the core of all Om records, but no single reason can account for this comprehensive nature of their evolution. On this album the core primary sound of Om remains, yet everything reaches further and become…
God Is Good
It's been years now -- just about two, judging from the sun. OM have done their time in the desert, and ever-changing, are returned. Today, they say, God is Good. Are you surprised? Perhaps you've haven't understood what OM was saying to you. But perhaps you felt something... It's true that the one way pursued by OM leads in many different directions. It is a mystic path. Songs come from innumerable sources, filtering through the external and the internal. OM albums are rituals, personal convict…
Ghost
Formed in 1984, Ghost burgeoned slowly, blowing open the gate in 1990 with their eponymous debut. Opening with a vast spirit plosion – shards of antique light and clouds of centuries-old, dust-laden airs escaping from a primeval tomb – they settle into the deep feeling. A variety of mostly acoustic instruments aids their projection of traditional sounds from space and time, troubadours of unknown, an enigma of eternal trippiness all about them.
The Plain Where The Palace Stood
Drag City drops the sixth and latest David Grubbs pop album, The Plain Where the Palace Stood, which finds David once again twining together the diverse strands of his vast interests. Working with Andrea Belfi (drums, electronics) and Stefano Pilia (guitar) - plus Attila Faravelli on electronics - creates a sympathetic groupthink that David expects more and greater from in the years to come. The welcome return of his distinctive overdriven guitar tone is a highlight of the record. And C. S…
A Dream A While Back
Come pre-Hashing with Gary! The in-between years, echoing from far out, seeking love and peace and happiness but disturbed by what all's around the treasure. It seems that '70–'71 wasn't all smiles and sunshine — paranoia struck deep, and it hit a chord: a pretty, eerie acoustic one. With archival material like this, it is always tempting to examine the songs for hints of foreshadowing, and it's easy to have a little shiver when Higgins sings such fatalistic lines as "Ragged edges will cut your …
Seconds
"The music business is full of funny stories and some of them aren't that funny at all. Take Gary Higgins. In the early 70s, he made a great record, the culmination of years of listening and playing and work. Then he went to jail for marijuana possession, a short stint, but still, the kind of crime that's almost not a crime these days. The record came out but without him to promote it, almost nobody heard it, until 2005: Red Hash, Higgins' megaobscure psychedelic folk-rock masterpiece is reissue…
For The Whole World To See
Classic proto-punk from 1970s Detroit. Raw with little polish, the record showcases the organic power relationships within the trio of brothers. The Hackneys were first influenced by soul & funk music but it all changed when they saw Iggy and the Stooges. Inspired by The Who, Alice Cooper & Led Zeppelin; the brothers finally see their first full length release, remastered & ready for the world to hear.
Spiritual/Mental/Physical
‘Spiritual-Mental-Physical’ is a collection of wild early Death demos, presenting the three young Hackney brothers consolidating their powers as they embark on a trip into pure rock and roll music. The album comes with liner notes from Bobby Hackney Sr. explaining the genesis and meaning of the songs included.
Resolve
Following several releases over the past decade of archival Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings material and collaborations with other ensembles, on labels including Black Truffle, Choice Records, Megafaun and Superior Viaduct, Drag City is excited as well to be able to introduce Resolve, the first release of new Excited Strings music from Arnold Dreyblatt since 2002. Resolve acts in dialogue with the minimalist inspirations of the first Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excite…
Nodal excitation
"By the late '80s most of the burgeoning minimal underground had been forgotten, especially one amazing character, Arnold Dreyblatt. Dreyblatt only had one record, Nodal Excitation (on the mostly post-AACM jazz label India Navigation), before he packed and moved to Berlin, where he concentrated on his other activities, making only two more records over the next 10 years. But for those who caught the action, Arnold was the man. He was more rock that any of the others combined, and he was also the…