★Phoenix Records
Ceremony
LP version: Previously released by Phoenix Records on CD, now available on digitally remastered 180 gram virgin vinyl, this is People's sole album, the legendary Ceremony -- Buddha Meet Rock, originally released in 1971 in Japan. Nobody's sure if the musicians on this recording ever performed as a group or whether Ceremony was simply a studio super-project. Certainly, guitarist Kimio Mizutani had already enjoyed a certain amount of critical exposure following stints with Love Live Life + …
Improvisation sept 75
Originally released on the Iskra label in 1975, Improvisation Sep. 1975 is a mind-bending slice of drone improv from two of Japan's post-war heavyweights; former John Cage student, Juilliard graduate, and Yoko Ono's former husband, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Takehisa Kosugi, considered by many to be the father of what some called "Japanese Krautrock," and Stockhausen percussionist Michael Ranta. Heavy layers of reverbed ring modulators, threaded vocals, melodicas, pianos, violins, gongs and Japanese biwa…
Alomoni 1985
Karuna Khyal's album Alomoni 1985, originally released on Voice Records around 1976, is widely acknowledged as years ahead of its time, preceding other Japanese underground experimental outfits such as Fushitsusha and White Heaven by almost 20 years. The band's musical influences are, if anything, more Germanic than Japanese, with long, hypnotic free-form rock passages, a heavy use of tape loops, electronics, environmental sounds, distortion and backwards tapes underpinning some manic harmo…
Forest
The classic debut album by the UK's Forest, originally released in 1969 by Harvest. As the 1960s progressed, almost every musical genre was affected by the psychedelic boom -- and folk was no exception. Artists such as Bert Jansch, Davy Graham and Donovan had introduced elements of world music into their repertoires by 1965, and in 1966, The Incredible String Band's debut kicked the door wide open for a generation of young musicians to follow. Forest, whose two Harvest albums have long elated li…
Cauldron
Cauldron was Fifty Foot Hose's first and most famous recorded work, released on Limelight Records in 1968. Founded by Cork Marcheschi, the band played continuously around the Bay area of northern California throughout the mid-'60s. Marcheschi, who had developed a taste for R&B and the avant-garde music of composers such as Edgard Varèse, started out as the band's bass player, but his interest in experimental music prompted him to develop his own musical instrument, similar in function to the hy…
silver apples
This is a reissue - in 1000 copies only - of the self-titled first album by '60s electronic legends Silver Apples, originally released by Kapp Records in 1968. Fresh off their stint as The Overland Stage Electric Band, Simeon and Dan Taylor formed their own extravagant, two-man electronic space-odyssey, Silver Apples, to pretty remarkable critical acclaim. Their debut enjoyed a 10-week stay in Billboard's Top 100 list, and the album's first track, "Oscillations," made the Top 10 list in numerous…
contact
This is a reissue (in 1000 numbered copies only) of the second album Contact by '60s electronic legends Silver Apples, originally released by Kapp Records in 1969. This enigmatic duo, armed only with percussion, vocals and an early, specialized synthesizer, is often credited with giving the musical world its first electronic album, as well as having a significant influence on bands which followed in their wake; bands such as Ultravox and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. Silver Apples, named af…