★Superior Viaduct
Je Ne Connais Pas Cet Homme
Following their groundbreaking collaboration with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Comme à la Radio, Areski and Brigitte Fontaine began recording almost exclusively together as a duo. Originally released in 1973, Je Ne Connais Pas Cet Homme is their first record billed under both names. Deeply rooted in North African and European folk traditions, the album features evocative vignettes with breezy vocals and minimal accompaniment of classical guitar, strings, and woodwinds. As always, there is a m…
Musica su schemi
2015 repress. In the early 1960s, Franco Evangelisti assembled Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, a collective of Italian composers, aspiring to revolutionize composition through group improvisation and -like their peer, Karlheinz Stockhausen-musique concrète, aleatory (controlled chance) techniques and early electronic music. One significant influence in the studio was their use of chess to define key parameters of their music. Musica Su Schemi is unpredictable, fluid and always marked…
Visitations
MASTERPIECE!!!"Since the mid-1960s, Jon Gibson has played a key role in the development of American avant-garde music. No other artist has performed in the world premieres of Terry Riley's 'In C,' Steve Reich's 'Drumming,' and Philip Glass's 'Einstein on the Beach,' three major works that changed the course of musical history. While his expertise on woodwind instruments made Gibson a go-to collaborator in Reich's, Glass's, and La Monte Young's ensembles, less known are his remarkable contributio…
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Heralded by many as Charles Mingus' masterwork, "Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" stands as one of his most powerful and difficult compositions. Recorded during his brief tenure on Impulse! (1963, during which Mingus turned out three of his best works), "Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" is a suite for a ballet, perhaps a representation of the tortured psyche of the composer. It is dark, haunting, and probably the most difficult work Mingus has ever done-- drawing as much from contemporary classi…
Mingus Plays Piano
Superior Viaduct's second Mingus reissue shows a more introspective side of the composer with Mingus Plays Piano. One of his most straightforwardly beautiful recordings, there is a meditative calm found in Mingus' piano work, touching on shades of Debussy, Satie, Bill Evans, and Duke Ellington. There's no showboating, and not an ounce of amateurism considering Mingus was primarily known as a bassist. Making its way through standards, original compositions, and the blues, Mingus Plays Piano is a …
3R4
In 1980, after three relentlessly creative albums, the members of Wire were at an impasse, unsure of how to push themselves any further as a four-piece rock band. While frontman Colin Newman spent the band's hiatus mining Wire’s knack for intelligent and contorted pop songs, guitarist Bruce Gilbert and bassist/vocalist Graham Lewis joined forces for a series of experimental projects (Dome, Cupol, etc.) where the primary motivating concept was "studio as instrument."3R4, the duo's only LP under t…
Pink Section
Named after San Francisco Chronicle's pink-hued arts and entertainment guide, Pink Section coalesced at SF Art Institute and performed their first show at the legendary Deaf Club on Valentine's Day, 1979. These self-taught musicians existed on the fringe (even in the local underground scene), producing an unusual brand of off-kilter post-punk against a backdrop of Dadaist aesthetics. The group itself was strangely symmetrical: singer Judy Gittelsohn and drummer Carol Detweiler (both members of I…
Die Electric Eels
Cleveland's electric eels (all lower case in homage to poet e.e. cummings) is America's quintessential proto-punk band. Formed in 1972 by singer Dave E. McManus and guitarists John Morton and Brian McMahon, the group enlisted drummer Nick Knox (later of The Cramps) and producer Paul Marotta to record a flurry of catchy and genuinely fucked-up tunes. After only five legendary live performances – complete with Dave E. in black leather jacket covered in rat-traps and playing a gas-powered lawnmower…
A Bird In The Engine
In the late '60s, Pip Proud recorded two of the oddest records ever to come out of Australia – Adreneline & Richard and A Bird In The Engine – before vanishing into obscurity for the better part of three decades. Often called the "Australian Syd Barrett," yet Proud actually released his second album in 1969, a year prior to The Madcap Laughs, and developed his indigenous psychedelia in virtual isolation.A Bird In The Engine is even more rare than his debut. From the extraordinary "Eagle-Wise" to…
Adreneline & Richard
*One of the oddest records ever to come out of Australia newly reissued by Superior Viaduct* "In the late ’60s, Pip Proud recorded two of the oddest records ever to come out of Australia—Adreneline & Richard and A Bird in the Engine—before vanishing into obscurity for the better part of three decades. Often called the “Australian Syd Barrett,” Proud actually released his second album in 1969, a year prior to The Madcap Laughs, and developed his indigenous psychedelia in virtual isolation. …
The Ascension
Glenn Branca's first full-length album The Ascension is a colossal achievement. After touring much of 1980 with an all-star band featuring four guitarists (Banca, fellow composers Ned Sublette and David Rosenbloom, and future Sonic Youth member Lee Ranaldo) along with Jeffrey Glenn on bass and Stephan Wischerth on drums, Branca took his war-torn group into a studio in Hell's Kitchen to record five incendiary compositions. Originally released in the summer of 1981, The Ascension effectively tears…
Youth In Mourning LP
Philip Johnson, a lost figure in the dark waters of early industrial music, self-released over 25 tapes starting in the late '70s. As a part of the "cassette culture" in the UK, he produced ethereal soundscapes, damaged electronics and undanceable drum patterns, along with homemade j-cards. For his first and only LP, 1982's Youth In Mourning, Philip Johnson further refined his approach with mesmerizing audio collages and Mark-E-Smith-ian vocals to make one of the most unique documents of the era…
Murder By Guitar
*Reissue on Superior Viaduct* "San Francisco's first and only rock n' roll band, Crime loomed over the entire Mabuhay Gardens scene with their blistering 1976 single "Hot Wire My Heart." Crime's loose, damaged rock n' roll was as immediate as it was controversial. They were Punk by any definition, yet shunned the label with a guttersnipe sneer. Their meticulously cultivated aesthetic of S&M graphics and police uniforms produced some of the era's most indelible imagery. One of their finest…
Electricity
Peter Jefferies (This Kind of Punishment) released his brilliant sophomore album Electricity in 1994. While his solo debut, 1990's The Last Great Challenge in a Dull World, has drawn comparisons to classic singer-songwriters like Nick Drake and Townes Van Zandt, Electricity is a far more sparse and nocturnal affair. Jefferies' earthy baritone weaves between piano, guitar, cello and analog tape machine noise, pulling in listeners to the deep pastoral life of his music. With guest appearances from…
Brigitte Fontaine
*Excellent issue via Superior Viaduct - First time on vinyl!* Never one to settle on a single musical style, Brigitte Fontaine followed up her debut, Est…Folle, and her astonishing collaboration with The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Comme à la Radio, with the most eclectic release of her lengthy career, 1972’s Brigitte Fontaine. It is telling that Fontaine chose an eponymous title for her third album, the sole release from her venerable ’70s catalogue attributed to her alone. Here the actress-cum-si…
Allez Teia
Materpiece!! The second album by French guitarist Richard Pinhas under his infamous Heldon moniker, was a groundbreaking album of its era, encompassing a wide variety of guitar work, Mellotron and analog synths that float with a delicacy he had never showcased in this type of volume. Released in 1975 on the Richard Pinhas owned imprint Disjuncta, Heldon’s Allez-Téia is an astonishing and gorgeous album, foreshadowing the type of music Pinhas he would further develope with future solo recording…
A Minute To Pray A Second To Die
Deluxe LP reissue issue of an album described by Byron Coley as “the best rock record ever recorded”. The Flesh Eaters is the name behind one Chris Desjardins a.k.a. Chris D. Taking his stage name from a 1964 cult film, Chris D. wrote for legendary fanzine Slash in the late ’70s and assembled the first of many Flesh Eaters lineups from heavyweights in the burgeoning L.A. punk scene. After releasing a ravenous EP and heart-ripping debut album, The Flesh Eaters unleashed their era-defining stateme…
Fire of Love
Fire of Love is the no-nonsense debut from blues-punk legends The Gun Club. Formed in 1979—when singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce taught a young Kid Congo Powers to play guitar—the band injects the Delta blues, rockabilly and ’60s garage with their own amplified fury. Originally released in 1981 on Slash’s sub-label Ruby Records, Fire of Love features the classic second lineup with Ward Dotson on guitar (replacing Powers, who left to join The Cramps) and The Bags’ rhythm section. Opener “Sex Beat”…
Witch
Produced in the twilight of the '80s in London and originally released on white-label LP with homemade rubber stamp impression, Witch is the mysterious and powerful debut from poet, artist, and musician Leslie Winer. It's an infectious patchwork of dub beats, tasteful samples and Winer's sultry blend of spoken word with cool, folksy lullabies that later became popularized by acts such as massive attack and tricky. Even though Witch predates those artists' breakthroughs by a year or more, Winer q…
Santa Dog
Welcome to the wild, bizarro world of the experimental artists called The Residents. Little is known about the group's origins or its members' identities, although it is widely believed that they are based out of San Francisco, California. When their debut release, Santa Dog, first appeared in 1972 on the equally enigmatic Ralph Records / Cryptic Corporation, the few hundred copies quickly fell on deaf ears and blind eyes. Rumor has it that then-President Richard Nixon sent his record back.True …