★Modern Harmonic
Prophet
Featuring what may be his only recordings on the Prophet keyboard, these once lost performances expand the omniverse of Ra across a stellar set of lengthy cuts! All recorded in a single day and finally making their terrestrial debut! What happens when a Prophet meets a Prophet? The answer lies within these grooves. Amongst the hundreds of recordings issued by Sun Ra and his Arkestra, under their various guises, the majority were recorded in concert or in makeshift studios such as their early 19…
Space Is The Place: Music From The Original Soundtrack
A celestial journey is just what Sun Ra and his Arkestra have created with Space is the Place. Sun Ra's opus is at its simplest, a trip through outer bound melodies! Planetary bodies, eras in time, crystals, space caravans
Some Skin: A Modern Harmonic Bongo & Percussion Party
Bongo, the mere uttering of the word conjures up dreams and images of beatniks and poets, goatees and cha-cha heels. Bongo Rock! Bongo Fury! Bongo Madness! Beat on a pair of bongos and watch the party begin! Some Skin is designed to get that party started. We’ve put together a group of rare selections, the majority of which are previously unreleased, including cuts from Sun Ra, "Mr. Bongo" Jack Costanzo, exotica jungle master Tak Shindo, art-rock chanteuse Jill Kroesen, and more! Just throw the …
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…
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…
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…
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
Reflections
Reflections is the very explicit beat-jazz birth of gangsta rap. A former pimp turned author, Iceberg Slim wrote Pimp: The Story of My Life, believed by some to be the highest selling book by a black author ever! On Reflections, the Red Holloway Quartet makes the bed, then Slim rhythmically speaks his prose like a bass note beat poet in what became the birth of the bad, dark, none-too-taboo tales of the street that inspired a subgenre of music. Justin Gifford, author of Street Poison – The Biogr…
One Man's Journey
One Man’s Journey is a compilation based on Alan Munson's real life happenings, a blend of singer-songwriter music and his experiences, accompanied by beautiful guitar and voice. It would be unfair to place Munson's music in a single genre — it’s a fusion of mellow psychedelic folk rock with the amazing atmosphere of the times.Originally released as private pressings, his recorded songs have a very intimate feel. Wonderful harmonies and meaningful lyrics will get deep under your skin, and the st…
The Saga Of Padani
The Oakland Elementary School Arkestra presents the odyssey of 4th, 5th & 6th grade students from novice musicians into an avant garde ensemble. An ensemble that engenders an array of sonic textures which never remain static or stagnant, but flow in a way that it's always surprising, often startling and astonishing.These schoolkids have traveled the spaceways of Modernism, Minimalism, Impressionism, Exotica, film soundtracks and more. They have ingested the lessons of Iconic artists like Sun Ra …
77 Sunset Strip-per
A 60’s advertising innovator behind blending music & strategically placed sound effects! Featuring 12 sexed-up double entendre laced gems from 1962’s La Dolce Henke and bonus romp “77 Sunset Strip-per!” From the original 1962 tapes to your space age bachelor pad! Mel Henke was a guerrilla in the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Think Ward Cleaver meets Hugh Hefner: an upstanding, tax-paying, white collar, tie-and-sports coat-wearing middle class, middle aged guy with the heart and mind of a…
Jazz For Hi-Fi Lovers
A smart set of fine beat-era jazz, beautifully programed and compiled for the hi-fi in your home! Includes some of the top players of the era- Zoot Sims, Paul Quinichette, Gene Roland, and others- in selections suited for a swingin’ starlit session! ”Start Here,” says it all as this both the perfect way to start this LP and the perfect way to start your jazz collection! From the distinctive style and touch of Randy Weston on the keys, to the tenor tones Paul Quinichette blows, these are the trac…
Workshop
The best-selling album of Chet Atkins's lengthy career! Having set up a home studio in the '50s, he would lay down backing tracks at RCA with session musicians, then work at home on his own with unlimited freedom to refine the genesis of Chet Atkins' Workshop! Pressed on premium RTI vinyl, from the original masters!The album reflected the continued diversity of his repertoire and ongoing flair for experimentation. Jazz standards like George Shearing's "Lullabye of Birdland" coexisted with …
Jimmy Raney Visits Paris
By the time Jimmy Raney recorded the ultra-cool Visits Paris, he was already at the peak of his career. Having started in 1944 with the Jerry Wald band, he'd pass through a passel of great jazz combos before ending up with Stan Getz in his classic quintet. There, the guitarist became world-renowned, and just weeks before cutting this album, in 1954, he was voted the number one guitarist in the world by French magazine Le Hot Jazz.
The album finds Raney on a (very) brief break from touring…
Blues For A Stripper
This extraordinary soundtrack, featuring many of the finest jazz musicians this side of anywhere, is a collection of small ensemble and large band arrangements so perfectly indicative of its era. It’s beyond hip and runs the gamut from cool jazz to hard bop. Moreover, it authorized the virtuosic freedom of the best of New York’s jazz community. The swingingly cinematic score was commissioned for a Sexploitation classic entitled Satan in High Heels, the story of a woman caught in the decade…
Folk Songs For The 21st Century
A time capsule of atomic-age country, radioactive rockabilly, and other-worldly melodies! Sheldon Allman (the singing voice of Mr. Ed!) brings you this long-out-of-print bunker full of plutonium-charged songs about space and destruction. Features “Crawl Out Through The Fallout” as heard in the award winning video game Fallout 4! Modern Harmonic proudly resurrects this wonderfully mystifying LP! A true creative treasure, the Chicago born and Canada raised Sheldon Allman was a graduate of the…
Variations IV, Vol. II
A 1965 journey into found sound; this is John Cage. Another seminal volume of indeterminate music, from an icon of experimental sounds. Reissued for the first time and thematically on gorgeous clear vinyl! It could be argued that there is no more controversial figure in music history as avant-garde electronic composer John Cage. Perhaps best known for his composition “4'33"" which consisted of Cage sitting at a piano for four-plus minutes of total silence, Cage was both loved and loathed …