★ReR Megacorp
The Cassiber Box 1982 - 1992
Milestone reissue! In 1982 Cassiber (phonetically: ‘a message smuggled out of prison’) crashed like a locomotive into the Deutsche Neue Welle. Founded by Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth, Christoph Anders and Chris Cutler, Cassiber managed to fuse materials and attitudes drawn from experimental rock, fringe jazz, punk, pop, plunderphonics, improvisation, close structure and musique concrete with an energetic and complex form of studio (and then concert) composition that was unique in its comb…
Always Sound
A 200 page book of photographs, texts and documents, including three CDs, drawn from the soundworks but recomposed as three related but internally coherent compositions. A contemporary of Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy, Menter is one of a handful of sound artists with strong links to the land art movement. Now best known for installations that explore the untransformed sounds of natural materials, wood, slate, water, ceramics, stone and air, he also collaborates regularly on cross-platform pr…
Open
"Following on from their two track LP release, Mindset (2011), Open sees legendary artists-in-resonance The Necks return to the territory they are best known for, a single piece running for over an hour. The piece emanates a calm, immersive stillness throughout. Already The Wire has said that Open "(displays The Necks') astute handling of pacing and momentum, finely honed collective sense of timing, (and) their shared ability to balance at length a group equilibrium". Here the band returns…
Rosin
As this four-disc retrospective shows, Australian violinist Jon Rose has done more than any musician to revolutionise the approach to his instrument, with technical developments and radical performance strategies. Jon Rose is one of the most productive, original and focused people I know; he's also an extraordinary musician and an inspired composer. To mark his 60th anniversary we are releasing this three CD box of previously unreleased works ranging from radio documentary and radio ficti…
Omniphony 1
In the early 1960's Tod Dockstader was a young maverick composer of electronic 'organised sound', and James Reichert a film composer and music supervisor. They met in New York in 1963, and launched one of the most extraordinary collaborations in modern music, a unique attempt to integrate electronic sounds and the classical orchestra. Unlike Varese's Deserts, and Stockhausen's Kontakte, it does not merely have the orchestra play along with a tape, or even process orchestral sounds live. What mak…
Mindset
CD edition: now in their twenty-fourth year, the Necks' new release, Mindset, their sixteenth album, and first LP - features two starkly contrasting tracks: the pulsating, raw, 'Rum Jungle' and the slower building, rather hypnotic 'Daylights.' Polyrhythms imbue both pieces with powerful forward motion, embroiled with which ethereal piano patterns interweave with bass, drums, electronics, churning Hammonds and noise-guitars. Drummer and percussionist Tony Buck writes: Mindset shares some …
Cosmo Sun Connection
A CD containing the limited edition Recommended LP release that has been out of print for the last 12 years - though much in demand, since it comprehensively covers the diversity of the Arkestra's work - via Africa, through Ellington and all the way on to Pure Electronics. Given to us by Ra over a decade ago, we intend to apply the royalties of this re-release directly to the Arkestra. A Classic
Townsville
The Necks in quiet mood recorded at a concert recording in Townsville, Thuringowa, Northern Queensland. Though many Necks' pieces open with - or eventually arrive at - some discernable groove, Townsville just floats in a state of suspension from beginning to end. It's like watching the ocean as wave follows wave follows wave: each the same; each different; assymetric. Bassist Lloyd Swanton who, on this occasion, provides the motif that set Townsville running says he had had no idea where it woul…
GPS
Steve MacLeans 5-piece ensemble perform complex, composed polyrhythmic pieces interspersed with atmospheric improvisations for guitar, bass, keyboard, percussion and various objects: a journey through complex, composed polyrhythmic pieces interspersed with careful, atmospheric improvisations for guitar, bass, keyboard, percussion and various objects. There is a quiet rigour, almost a formality, about this CD that is rather unusual for the new century - the compositions are not over-elaborated an…
Sift
"This is the second release, after a long wait, from this unique ensemble. Equally at home with the discipline of composition and the tightrope of improvisation Blast have evolved a fluid, pointillistic, unfathomable but transparent musical language that seamlessly integrates -- over very short durations -- highly complex writing and very free ranging improvisation, allowing the two languages to merge and combine into a new kind of logical exposition that makes sense but can't be reverse-enginee…
Silverwater
Restocked. Their first studio CD for three years - named after an industrial suburb in Sydney famous mainly for its correctional facility - Silverwater ranges further and wider than the Necks former releases, exploring a more sectional structure that counterposes extremes and contrasts, and possesses a greater sense of forward motion than we are accustomed to with this most economical of bands though it still retains the long, hypnotic single-track iterative form for which they have been praised…
Recommended Records Sampler
Original double LP copy of this awesome compilation, long out of print. This spectacular set is complete, including all inserts and glitter outer sleeve. Contains tracks by: Vogel, Faust, Art Bears, Stormy Six, The Homosexuals, Joseph Racaille & Patrick Portella, Feliu Gasul, The Black Sheep, Univers Zero, Aksak Maboul / Honeymoon Killers, The Work, Henry Cow, Decibel, Art Zoyd, The Muffins, Heiner Goebbels, Amos, Conventum, Hector Zazou, This Heat, The Residents, R. Stevie Moore, Ron Pate, Picc…
The Recommended Sampler 1982 25th Anniversary Edition
RESTOCKED! By 1982, recommended was in its fourth year. the catalog had expanded and the label was firmly established. a sampler seemed an obvious and necessary next step. we asked the most interesting groups in our catalog to record something new. the result was two hours of music released as a double lp in a hand silk-screened sleeve that was a time capsule - a tidy slice taken across a fascinating forking of musical paths that captured a moment of growth that foresaw a variety of possible fut…
Sang
Tim Hodgkinson's new album is another intense collision of contemporary classical music and rock energy. Perhaps best known as a founding member of avant rock group Henry Cow, Tim has since displayed many musical personalities. What is so effective in Tim's recent work is the requisitioning of rock production techniques; through the use of sampling & sound manipulation, the virtual orchestra hits the speakers with unprecedented force.
Gravity
Former Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith pays homage to three giants of contemporary classical music: John Cage, Morton Feldman and Earle Brown. In his own inimitable fashion, Frith has tried to incorporate the chosen composer's own working methods into each of the three pieces that make up The Previous Evening. As he explains in the enclosed booklet regarding his John Cage homage: 'Fragments of text heard in Part 1 were taken at random from Cage's book Silence. Tape editing, the structure of the e…
Pragma
Tim is best known as a founding member of the legendary avant rock group Henry Cow [1968-1978]. Pragma is an intense fusion of contemporary classical music and rock energy. There are six substantial compositions focusing on horns, violins, percussion, voices, & small orchestral ensembles. Includes: "SHHH" (for taped voices, including fragments of Ana-Maria Avram's 'Archae'); "For Looking Inside" (for 3 prepared violas) & 4 others.
Baku: Symphony Of Sirens
RESTOCKED! An incredible artefact from ReR, this double-disc release comes housed in a beautifully detailed book, all dedicated to the pioneers of the Russian avant-garde in the early twentieth century. The first disc captures a modern-day reconstruction of Arseni Avraamov's Symphony Of Sirens, a public sound event originally conceived in 1922, made up from factory sirens, military regiments, steam locomotives and choirs, all representing the lively sonic signature of the port city of Baku. In a…
The last LP
If i might say so, this is my favourite Faust album, a true masterpiece being the unreleased "Faust Party" tapes, Recorded in Germany in 1971 and released by recomended in 1988. This the very first edition limited to 1988 numbered copies with a silkscreened jacket.
Munic & Elsewhere
Featuring material recorded before and after their 10 year disappearance it proves to be as ageless as the Faust legend itself. Their music is as restless as it ever was. Nomadic in their defiance of borders on time and space, their mostly improvised pieces move like sandstorm drifts across the broad span of rock. They occasionally settle on a familiar landmark, only to distort or blanket its shape completely under wave upon wave of crackling electronics and treated guitar. Limited to 1000 copie…
Ring Ring 1997
A compilation of the best moments of the Ring Ring 1997 festival which took place in Belgrad in May 1997. Included is a previously unreleased track by Justine.