★Modern Harmonic
Steve Allen's Hip Fables
Before Sesame Street or Yo Gabba Gabba made art for kids that their parents understood on a whole other level, there were Hip Fables. Pop prose originally put to pulp by the pen of Steve Allen circa the ‘50s, which inspired a popular album and even a book titled Hip Fables (Simon & Schuster). The original recording featured Steve Allen on the piano accompanied by King Cool himself, Chicago DJ and Impulse! recording artist Al Jazzbeaux Collins!
In 1983 under the watchful eye of original producer …
I Really Want To Bomb You: 1972 - 1984
2CD Edition. The first ever collection of Jill Kroesen's wildly inventive and often dystopian compositions from '72 through '84. Includes her art rock masterpiece Stop Vicious Cycles, her coveted '80 single, an equal amount of unissued treasures, and copious liner notes. Jill Kroesen is probably best known for her 'no wave' compositions throughout the 1970s and early '80s. It's a fascinating and theatrical sound that sort of defies categorization. This compilation should help this music of real …
Ra to the Rescue
'Ra to the Rescue was initially pressed in limited quantities in 1983, but several of its tracks subsequently were reissued with incongruous tracks on the albums (commonly referred to as) When Spaceships Appear, Cosmo-Party Blues, Somewhere There, and Children of the Sun. Those album "titles" are in many cases simply the names of the first track on a particular side (these were scribbled in pen on otherwise blank labels). To complicate matters, some tracks were retitled for reasons that shall fo…
Middle Eastern Rock
"Crazed time signatures abound as musicians from the West look East for inspiration, infusing their rock and jazz sounds with vibes looted from India and the Far East. A true marriage of Western and (Middle) Eastern music with a fuzzed-out psychedelic edge.Released originally in 1969, Middle Eastern Rock is a unique, compelling fusion record from Armenian-American oud player John Berberian. The Rock East Ensemble, Beberian’s backing band, consists of the artist’s standard group, which specialize…
Omniverse
** Purple Vinyl ** Recorded in New York in 1979 and released that year on Sun Ra's Saturn label, this is a solid, overlooked set in the vast Ra canon. The tracks aren't so much compositions as excursions, pure jazz, lots of reflective piano in trio, quartet, and sextet settings. Features cover art interpreted from a favorite Arkestra hand drawn cover, and liner notes from Irwin Chusid.
Drama of Exile
Nico’s iconic post-Velvets return to rock! As one critic memorably put it, when Nico spoke it was like coffin-lids creaking. When she sang it was like listening to ravens taking off 13 at a time. Nico was like nothing rock music had ever seen or heard before or since. In Paris in the seven year gap between the recording of The End and the release of Drama Of Exile, Nico appeared to be doing little more than feeding a heavy heroin habit. When she met Aura Records founder Aaron Sixx after a gig th…
Celestial Love
* 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 late 60s, this first ever reissue of Celestial L…
A Fireside Chat with Lucifer
* First ever reissues of this iconic demonic slice of Saturnian splendor, one of the most coveted releases in the Ra canon! Features the emblematic “Nuclear War” anthem, earmarked to be played like an air raid siren when we as a society decide to pack up and call it a planet. A cut further popularized by Yo La Tengo. Stunning new cover art blending favorite elements from the handmade original Saturn pressings. * While the most renown track in this omniversal opus is the atomic expletive-filled r…
The Best of Gabor Szabo
**Red vinyl, gatefold sleeve** Exotic jazz guitar mastery! Gabor Szabo’s singular style and authentic sound is on full display across a set of originals and choice covers highlighted by unusual instrumentation and ingenious arrangements. From the sitar-starring adaptation of Paint It Black to the Latin rhythms and bossa nova beats, Szabo’s savvy jazz guitar innovations shine throughout."Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s; mixing his Hungarian folk music he…
1969
Masterful ‘60s pop by a jazz guitar guru! Not many jazz artists were interpreting popular songs in the late ‘60s, but Hungarian-born Gabor Szabo looked past the oft-covered standards to put his trademark jazz transformations on a set of fashionable tunes on 1969, including major hits for the Left Banke, the Beatles, and more songs that his contemporaries neglected. Guitar master Szabo’s 1969 platter of folk and pop music touchstones is highlighted by the rock’n bossa spin on Sealed With a Kiss! …
John Cage Meets Sun Ra: The Complete Film
* Restocked, reduced price * The never-before-seen in its entirety, visual documentation proving this avant-garde collaboration of mythic proportions did indeed occur. Recorded at Sideshows by the Seashore along the Coney Island boardwalk on June 8th, 1986 as documented on VHS by John Polizzi under the commission of event producers Rick Russo and Bronwyn Rucker. It was long believed that John Cage and Sun Ra never performed together but as you'll see,these two shared the stage the entire time. T…
Prophetic Spirit
Blazing sitar and crazed percussion, a 50 year old mystery! Known only in legend from their appearance in 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, the Moon Express album finally arrives 50 years after its recording! Paul Arnold (mastermind behind The Inner Sounds Of The Id) and Tsvia & the Followers weave peculiar music that ebbs and flows with unusual time signatures, sonic baths of wild, exotic percussion and other fascinating and hypnotic sounds, all under Arnold's booming narratives and Tsvia Abarbane…
AndOarAgain
AndOarAgain provides unparalleled access to what David Fricke calls “the most harrowing and compelling artifacts of rock & roll’s most euphoric era” across three dozen unheard tracks! In addition to the quintessential original album, AndOarAgain features nearly two hours of unheard music on the way to Oar–along with roads not taken–that both clarifies and muddies the enigma of how psychedelic legend Alexander “Skip” Spence determined the final state of his iconic masterpiece. The time: December,…
I Want A Rock & Roll Band / I Got A Lot To Say / Mary Jane
Skip Spence leaves his hotel. Its a cold day in Nashville, climbing to only 43 F in the afternoon. It may be Sunday, but on this day a 22-year-old musician is working at Columbia Recording Studios. Over the past few days, hes recorded a slew of new songs and today will be no different. On December 7, 1968, Skip Spence will record no less than 8 different songs. He has only 3 more days left to finish the album. It's been fast and furious and its also been tough, recording every instrument on ever…
Solar Heat
Sultry Tjader jazz! Vibraphone legend Cal Tjader’s fusion of different genres and styles was an acute influence on Carlos Santana (and Latin rock as a whole). On Solar Heat he stirs in tastes of Exotica, Funk, and of course Latin and Jazz elements on this 1968 set of jazzed-up pop chestnuts and original bossas like the delicious “Fried Bananas.” Pressed at RTI, on colored vinyl
Pathways To Unknown Worlds
**First ever CD reissue, containing three Pathways session recordings left off the original, one never before issued** Intrinsic energies of mythic worlds! Pathways was originally issued on LP in 1975 as part of Sun Ra’s ill-fated and short-lived ABC/Impulse! partnership. This Modern Harmonic edition has been exquisitely mastered from the four-track session reel. The Impulse! LP was formatted as “Quad Compatible”—short for “quadraphonic”—which you could enjoy if you had four speakers, a custom q…
Something Weird
Something weird, and something very cool too – a set that brings
together a whole host of strange and unusual tunes from the glory days
of exploitation cinema! These cuts are all from a time when the b-movie
underground was playing it fast and loose – trying to get more folks
into the theaters with some ultra-sleazy themes – which resulted in
wilder music than you might have heard in movies just a few short years
before! The package is presented by Something Weird – the video company
wh…
Astro Black
Astro-Black mythology, astro-timeless immortality! Astro Black has long been known as a cornerstone of the Sun Ra catalog. It is well recorded, features a superb Arkestral lineup, and successfully combines several of the styles in which Sun Ra orbited, from Saturnic jazz to astro-funk. And now it’s finally back in the earthly bins! Pressed on colored vinyl, and packaged with new cover art, with liner notes by Robert Campbell (author of The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra), and includes a poster ins…
Bad Trips
Nobody went full-on electro-rock before Fifty Foot Hose. Before their brief-but-groundbreaking run in the late ‘60s, Bad Trips collects the demos, outtakes, and other rarities that complete the story of a band too far ahead of its time to last. Includes both versions of their multi-speed composition “Bad Trip.” From the pre-Hose tracks of boldly atonal, proto-psychedelic freakout music to early versions of songs that would land on their opus, Bad Trips brazenly displays how Fifty Foot Hose chang…
Cauldron
An electronic rock band wasn’t even an idea when Fifty Foot Hose released their landmark debut album at the end of 1967. Their fusion of psychedelia and electronics resulted in a truly trailblazing sound. Cauldron stands as a signal achievement that laid the groundwork for genres that didn’t even exist when it was released. Pressed at Third Man Pressing on custom colored vinyl and featuring a zine-style insert with liners by FFH electronics mastermind Cork Marcheschi and the original sleeve rei…