Back in stock
Afrika
2024 Stock. Reissue on 180 grams vinyl. For “Afrika”, originally released in 1984, South African expatriate bassist Johnny Dyani enlarged his group to a septet from the quartet formation he had used on prior Steeplechase recordings and, in the process, shifted gears slightly from the deeper, beautifully bitter songs that had been his forte (such as “House Arrest” on Mbizo) to a somewhat lighter fare, replete with catchy, skipping melodies and funky electric bass. Dyani unfortunately passed away …
Fotheringay
Following her departure from Fairport Convention at that end of 1969, Sandy Denny formed the short lived folk-rock group, Fotheringay, with her husband Trevor Lucas and released their debut album on Island Records in 1970. The band was comprised of Sandy on vocals, guitar and piano, Trevor Lucas on acoustic guitar and vocals plus ex-Eclection drummer, Gerry Conway, and former members of Poet and The One Man Band, Jerry Donahue on lead guitar and vocals and Pat Donaldson on bass and backing vocal…
Tribal Dance
Los Angeles bass titan Henry Franklin is bestknown for the two Skipper LPs issued by Black Jazz in 1972-74; 1977’s Tribal Dance is more obscure and arguably the best of the bunch, the spiritual jazz given an extra propulsive dimension via the excesses of Sonship, banging complex rhythms on his elaborate self-made drums, as heard on the opening title track and the extended ‘Cosmos Dwellers.’ Elsewhere, ‘Eric’s Tune’ has flamenco undercurrents, ‘Spring Song’ is a slow piano meditation, and ‘Prime …
Hani Polyphonic Singing in Yunnan China
Tip! Mystic choral beauty drifting far into the outer cosmos, this other worldly ensemble creates a contemporary avant-garde vocal fusion combined with strange instrumental accompaniment. The Hani are linguistically derived from the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burmese and number a million and a half in the southern part of Yunnan province in China above Laos (Phongsaly) and Vietnam (Dien Bien) where smaller Hani communities also live. As with many other ethnic groups of the area, an original traditi…
Modern Sorrow
The endlessly prolific and unpredictable Richard Youngs returns to Black Truffle with Modern Sorrow. As any Youngs fan knows, one of the great pleasures of following his career comes from not being able to predict what the next entry in his inexhaustible string of releases will bring: Unaccompanied voice? Country songs? Shakuhachi? Guitar pieces played with his feet? Shredding fuzz bass over the top of hyper-speed distorted drum machine beats?
Continuing in the grand Youngs tradition of explorin…
Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli
another gem, a wonderful collection of obscure solo acoustic guitar tunes from the mid 60s up to the dawn of the 80s -- beautiful work from a slew of players we've never heard of -- but we'd put right up there with Fahey and Basho in the way they reach from the back porch to the cosmos with just their fingers and some strings! One thing we love about this set, and the Numero Group releases to date, is how deep they dig and what beauty they unearth, somehow with impeccable sound quality. Some tun…
Amir
For years Amir, Henri Texier’s debut solo LP, stood slightly in the shadow of its follow-up, Varech, but is equal and towers in every possible way. There is no other record like it on earth - stunning from start to final turn. In our view, it’s one the greatest artifacts of the 1970s France scene, and that’s no small thing! Deceptively minimal and elegant, Amir is the first the world would hear of Texier’s signature sound - a universe of musical legacies, distilled and channelled through delicat…
Diasporas
Originally recorded in 1977, following a limited release in 1979, Ghédalia Tazartès debut album, Diasporas, introduced listeners to the surreal, mysterious and truly unclassifiable statement of Tazartès and his out-of-time place in the French avant-garde canon. Born in Paris in 1947 to Judaeo-Spanish parents of Greek descent, Tazartès spent his early career as an autodidact utilizing his knowledge of repetition and collage, coupled with his Ladino linguistic heritage, to create some of the most …
Jazz En La Universidad
**2021 stock. In process of stocking** Jazz trios have an economy that makes them risky. Yet it’s that risk that makes them exciting; how to get the most out of three musicians. Trios made up of rhythm instruments – piano, drums and bass – are particularly special. In the case of Ruben ‘Baby’ López Furst, the Argentinian pianist, and the trio session for ‘Jazz en la Universidad’, that special feeling is abundant. The balance of lightness and air with muscularity and drive makes the album worthy …
Clark Terry And His Orchestra - Featuring Paul Gonsalves
2024 stock. Critics often complain that small-group sessions comprised of members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra are somewhat disappointing; this is definitely not the case with this session led by Clark Terry, recorded during a 1959 tour of Europe in the final month of the trumpeter’s almost eight-year tenure with the band. Fellow Ellington sidemen Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Woode, and Sam Woodyard are present, along with Raymond Fol at the piano. Terry was one of the most gifted trumpeters to grac…
The Ritual
Finally the time has come to re-release the first ever recordings by Belgian minimal synth masters Twilight Ritual. Released in 1982 in a tiny cassette edition this album has not been heard by many people. “The Ritual" includes some of their best work, from mysterious dark synthpopsongs (Elegy) to club music (Webb-men) and the epic 14-minute track (Up To Now).
Twilight Ritual was/is the main project by Geert Coppens and Peter Bonne. During the early eighties they were involved in many other band…
Ulau Tau / Spirit of the sun
One of the most magical recordings you’ll hear this year is the first LP by Uk-based one-man trancedental-drone band Tuluum Shimmering. The sound of Tuluum Shimmering is like a sort of loop driven, timeless ethnic music without a region or a tradition. The recordings on the LP were made on a 4-track cassette recorder. On the A side there's: homemade bamboo xylophone, homemade flute, acoustic guitar customised with buzz bridge, Roland digital piano, vietnamese gong, cymbal, rattle. On the B side:…
Evil Season
The bass, that metronome that marks the time for musicians of every style, of every era, that secluded, silent, but essential character for a band. Without the bass, the music would be deflated, the heart notes would leave a wasteland of rowdy high frequencies without any rules. But bass players who have character can elevate those low frequencies and even make them loud at times. Who knows if free jazz, if we want to call it that, is exalted by the Arabic background, those semitones between the…
White 2
White2 was originally released in 2004 by Southern Lord as a CD and limited double LP edition of 1000 copies (in a tip on gatefold sleeve in various vinyl colors). Sunn O))) co-founders Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson originally conceived the White albums to be “acoustic” but the sessions at Fontanelle’s Magnetic Park studios in Portland Oregon quickly took a far different route toward the psychedelic and the electronic/synthetic, with trance and drone experiments.The White2 album was notably t…
Flight Of The Behemoth
* Limited to 500, Brown vinyl * Flight of the Behemoth is the third album by Sunn O))). The band collaborated with legendary Japanese noise artist Merzbow, who mixed tracks 3 and 4. The first ever use of a drum machine on a sunn O))) track is heard on "F.W.T.B.T.", a deconstructive interpretation of Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls”. This punisher also features the first ever vocals heard as evoked from the band themselves. Previously only available on vinyl in very small quantities this del…
White1
White1 was originally released in 2003 by Southern Lord as a CD and very limited 3 sided LP edition of 540 copies (in a white sleeve with a sticker, packaged in an embroidered pillowcase and containing a sleeping pill.)Sunn O))) co-founders Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson originally conceived the White albums to be “acoustic” but the sessions at Fontanelle’s Magnetic Park studios in Portland Oregon quickly took a far different route toward the psychedelic and the electronic/synthetic, with tran…
Thembi
Pharoah Sanders recorded the songs that comprise Thembi in the winter of ’70/’71, in between sessions with Alice Coltrane that would eventually become her masterpiece Journey In Satchidananda LP. The same compelling spirituality that embued Coltrane’s masterpiece with a mood of stately calm and grace pervades Thembi. ‘On Thembi, that was the first time that I ever touched a Fender Rhodes electric piano. We got to the studio in California — Cecil McBee had to unpack his bass, the drummer had to …
Jewels of Thought
The compositional minimalism of Jewels of Thought is a major thread through Sanders albums of this period, setting up a sparse canvas for colorful tenor saxophone meditations. In one instance Sanders' playing may be soft, beckoning and glad, while elsewhere his saxophone becomes a crazed, outraged beast unleashing its fury on the world. Regardless of which way these compositions lead, listeners are made to feel more like sonic travelers than mere consumers.
Celestial Love
* Available on LP for the first time in over 30 years! Featuring contributions from the queen of afrofuturism, June Tyson. Includes a bonus cut from the same sessions, not available on the original LP. * True studio albums of Ra with the Arkestra are rare on this planet or beyond. This studio saucer is an interplanetary interpreter, here to convert even the faintest of heart to the sounds of Sun Ra. Recorded with Arkestra veterans at the same NY studio that hosted countless Sun Ra sessions since…
The Stone Killer
This is the soundtrack album for 'The Stone Killer' by director Michael Winner starring Charles Bronson, which came in the middle of a 3-part crime thriller series (1972, 1973, 1974). It follows Charles Bronson as a detective getting to the bottom of the killings in the Sicilian Mafia, with a score by the British film composer Roy Budd ('Get Carter', 'Fear is the Key'). The soundtrack was initially released in Italy and Japan on LP and 7” single, respectively, but only limited copies were releas…