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Dedications
One of the towering creative musicians of our time, a master drummer and multiple percussionist, Hamid Drake has anchored inumerable bands. As a hard working player, constantly touring the globe, he's collaborated with most of the major figures in improvised music and contemporary jazz, from David Murray and Peter Brötzmann to Pharoah Sanders and Don Cherry. Along the way, Drake has never had an opportunity to stop and make a solo record. Indeed, he's only performed solo on a few occasions. John…
Largest Afternoon
One day in the studio, something ridiculously great happened. It was deep Chicago winter, cold as shit. Four musicians assembled for a round-robin set of improvisations -- duets, trios, a few quartets. Approached casually, the late morning bloomed into Largest Afternoon, 15 crackling encounters between guitarist Arto Lindsay, saxophonists Joe McPhee, and Ken Vandermark, and drummer Phil Sudderberg. No expectations -- open minds and creative intent. Lindsay, a brilliant singer and songwriter and …
Route 84 Quarantine Blues
Joe McPhee’s response to the challenge of making a new CD of solo music during Covid was to go at it head on, to address the present in its starkest aspects, to reach for comfort in the music of great composers, and to speak directly to the virus in no uncertain terms. The result is unlike any other of McPhee’s many records, a variety show of improvisations, favorite compositions, field recording, multi-tracking, incantation and recitation. After searching for the right studio-like setting wit…
Songs In Heat
*In process of stocking.* While Dredd Foole would stamp his legend as a foundational figure in the New Weird America free folk underground of the 1990s and 2000s, that is just the second half of the story. Forty years ago, in February 1982, Dredd entered the studio with Mission of Burma, stepping off a remarkable decade of post-punk activity that drew comparisons to The Stooges, Tim Buckley, and various outsider musicians. They would never tour and lacked ambition, so their powers were largely w…
Musings Of A Bahamian Son
Joe McPhee is one of the great multi-instrumentalists of contemporary improvised music. His instrumental battery has included saxophones, clarinets, valve trombone, pocket trumpet, sound-on-sound tape recorder, and space organ, but another arrow in his quiver is text. McPhee has been writing poems since the 1970s. He occasionally introduces one into performance, as an introduction or afterword to music, and in recent years he's been known to do full-on readings, text only, featuring his inimitab…
11th Street Fire Suite
11th Street Fire Suite is a post-BAG (Black Artists Group) classic. An emotionally ranging set of blues-drenched duets by alto saxophonist Luther Thomas and flutist Luther C. Petty, it's one of the great documents of the St. Louis creative music diaspora, a wild ride through turbulent and beautiful terrain on a slab of vinyl that's as rare as hen's teeth in its original form. Relocated from their midwestern hometown to New York City, Thomas and Petty entered the studio in 1978 with a fellow musi…
Astral collapse
"Latest excursion/exploration into the genius of the late great Angus Maclise that will throw you back into that insomnia haze you truly enjoyed, if you’re old enough. Stripped back focus on the artist and his compositions, some of which are the last things he ever recorded. In the 70s, Angus’s interest in tape music, noise, and the extreme gradualisms of music had reached its apex, and these pieces were born. Nowhere else will you hear Angus shredding apart the circuits of an arp synthesizer, o…
Berlin 07
Berlin 2007 was a monumental performance for Cluster, marking their first live performance in Berlin since their 12-hour concert in the Galerie Hammer in the Europacenter in 1969. The performance was a massive success as a sold out crowd cheered loudly for Cluster to return to the stage. Fortunately, the concert was preserved for posterity and is proudly presented here on Important Records.
Packaged in a deluxe digipack.
Cluster was formed around 1971 when Roedelius and Moebius left Conrad Schni…
Noise Forest
Tip! A classic compilation that emanated out of Osaka, "Noise Forest" brings together a powerhouse of early 90's Japanese noise stalwarts: Merzbow, C.C.C.C., Solmania, Dislocation, Monde Bruits, Masonna, Violent Onsen Geisha, and Incapacitants. The ultimate Japanoise collection, originally released in 1992 on the cult Les Disques Du Soleil label / record store on CD-only, and now impossible to find. Remastered and presented here on deluxe 2LP in matt-laminate gatefold sleeve (first time on vinyl…
The Feudal Spirit
2019 small repress. "Rob Noyes has been on the Eastern Massachusetts scene for a while, but what we've heard him play is music from within the context of electric bands, most of whom are loud as hell and exist somewhere along the rim of the post-core continuum. More recently, Rob has taken to displaying his solo acoustic guitar chops and they are massive. The Feudal Spirit is the first vinyl evidence of their 'shoulders.' Like Western Mass's Tony Pasquarosa, who mines the same widely-variant sty…
Vocazione
A beatiful reissue of Enzo Carella's first album released in Italy in 1977, whose original edition usually sells for crazy prices on the second-hand market. This undervalued piece of work was perhaps too avantgarde during the time of release to get the full attention it deserves.Carella was an Italian singer-songwriter who is best remembered for his 1979 major hit Barbara, which is the opening track on Barbara e altri Carella, his second album. All songs on this release are written by Enzo Carel…
Shitsuren = 失恋
Second installment from Tomoyuki Trio, a blistering power trio featuring Tomoyuki Aoki, Mike Vest and Dave Sneddon. Tomoyuki Aoki is the founding member and lead guitarist of the legendary Japanese psychedelic rock band Up-Tight, who've been active and since 1992 building up a cult following worldwide. Collaboration between Tomoyuki Aoki and Mike Vest (of Blown Out, Bong, Modoki, Artifacts & Uranium, Drunk In Hell etc) greets two titans of guitar feedback and blissful improvised every-time leads…
Circular Temple
"On a good day it is strenuous to stay current with pianist Matthew Shipp's imposing and voluminous output. On an even better day it is a fool's hardy errand to say the least. Now with the planned re-issuing of some of his great early deconstructions of musical thought and theory, starting here with 1990's daringly incongruous yet hypnotically accessible, Circular Temple, keeping up just got a whole lot harder. With William Parker on bass and Whit Dickey on drums, this four-movement suite for pi…
Yukuzo! - TV BGM Collection
*200 copies limited edition* Music Collection from 70's Japanese Hero Sci-Fi TV anime series Gatchaman, Tekkaman, and Go Wapper 5 (Godam), all music composed by Bob Sakuma.
Storie di uomini e non
300 copies, numbered edition. This italian band from Parma (Rocky's Filj is from their leader Rocky Rossi's name) gained a contract with Ricordi label after a tour with Banco del Mutuo Soccorso.Their only album, Storie di Uomini e Non (1973) - included in the infamous Nurse with Wound list - is jazz-rock oriented with original vocals and very well made instrumental parts, symphonic touches and sax in evidence, sometimes a la King Crimson. The primary lead, in addition to sax, is guitar and there…
Feuilleton In Jazz
Symphonic Jazz at its finest and a rare musical find from post-war Berlin. Unknown performances of the orchestra under the direction of Werner Müller, recorded April 1960 and September 1961. Excellent crossover of Westcoast, Hard Bop, Modern Classical, and Blues. Most of the tracks composed exclusively for the occasion, such as “Blues In Studio 7” (Helmut Brandt), “Ouverture in Jazz” (Klaus Wüsthoff) and “Feuilleton in Jazz” (Peter Sandloff). Another exciting new chapter of Progressive Jazz in G…
Radials
For AI-38 Italian duo LF58 (Giuseppe Tillieci and Filippo Scorcucchi) present ‘Radials’. A site-specific concept piece that was recorded live on location in Venice, Radials showcases the powerful and transportive sound world which LF58 have become known for. Radials takes its name from the homonymous exhibition created by the Roman artist group Sbagliato, for the 2023 Biennale Architettura of Venice.
Following a landmark renovation of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koo…
Räkenskapens Dag
A small chunk of early 80's Swedish DIY underground history from the legendary but rarely heard Fysisk Fostran. Based in the small town of Stenungsund north of Gothenburg and roughly active between 1980 and 1984, the group released a few cassettes as well as a fabled 7" that due to mysterious complications only exist as a testpressing in 4 copies. Fysisk Fostran were inspired by the early UK industrial sound as well as post-punk and synth music, this combined with the young age of the bandmember…
Sillmjölke
Big Tip! *First time vinyl pressing of Engürdetz' 1988 release "Sillmjölke", originally accompanied by Lille Roger's "Rock N Roll 85-86". 500 copies. "Sillmjölke" differed from the duo’s previous outputs. The tracks had moved closer into the formula of a ”standard” song formula & the influences from British industrialists such as Whitehouse had become more apparent, along with sections that made your mind venture to the freer & ambient sides of Swell Maps (even if they didn’t necessarily know wh…
Tryghed
Tip! Tryghed is the debut album from Franciska, the alias of the now Copenhagen-based artist Jonas Torstensson. As one of the key figures in the young, vivid scene around the Forlaget Kornmod imprint, Jonas has released a good deal of music under different names during the last few years, often in very limited cassette editions with barely no distribution. In many ways, Franciska pretty much captures the very essence of the sound world their label now is associated with: melancholic and rather l…