New Arrivals
Lux Aeterna
greay-area LP reissue, Lux Aeterna, was originally composed to celebrate a friend of William Sheller's wedding, thematically driven by concepts of union and togetherness, and ostensibly based on the Catholic mass, this is far from any sort of religious music you've ever heard. Following in the footsteps of other iconoclastic composers, like Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier, Lee Hazlewood, David Axelrod, Scott Walker and of course Magma (more on that in a second), Sheller conjured up w…
Le retour de
Jac Berrocal, voice & trumpet, Jean-Noël Cognard, drums & percussion, Philippe Thiphaine, guitar (from Heliogabale), Quentin Rollet, alto saxophone, Ben Ajrab, bass, Rivkah, voice & keyboard.
Dream request
'Bo Weavil presents a sublime duo recording from old sparring partners Oren Ambarchi and Robbie Aveniam recorded live in Tel Aviv in 2009. This is a single edit of the performance which perfectly captures the chemistry between Robbie's busy percussive maneuvers and Oren's textural overlay. A previous performance of the pair was documented on the 'Clockwork' CD (re-issued by room40) and prior to this the notorious 'The Alter Rebbe's Niggun' CD was released on Tzadik. Here, the two come together w…
White Bird Release
Vinyl! The sixth album from Mark Nelson's longtime solo project following Quiet City. A mix of warmth & foreboding expansiveness, neither of which is minimal nor overdone.
True Breath
Stunning five-song debut EP by this young Tokyo producer. Ghost-in-the-drum-machine rhythms layered with her exquisite Cocteau Twins vocal haze, but impeccably crafted into nuanced multi-movement compositions. Will be doing a full-length later in 2012 as well. Our fave new female artist
The Second Stop Is Jupiter
nterstellar vocal group numbers and doo wop from the Sun Ra vaults – a couple rare release and a bunch of previously unissued numbers featuring The Cosmic Rays, Crystals, Nu Sounds and Juanita Rogers – teenage vocal group numbers, bits of bebop and spacey doo wop released for the first time ever! The Second Stop Is Jupiter is Volume 2 in Norton's compilations of early, vocals centered Sun Ra material – beautifully done, and worthy for more than just Ra completists – it's a treasure trove…
Teeth Mountain
Driven primarily by neo-tribal drums, which would seemingly put them in league with the rumbling sound of Bmore's Thank You. But "12 Plus Harsh Tanz" in particular is much more reflective. The guitar brings to mind the cracked post-1960s dream-psyche hangover of Pink Floyd, I'm thinking here of an instrumental interlude that might have been on Obscured by Clouds, or perhaps the contemporaneous Eastern-infused lines of Popul Vuh's Daniel Fichelscher. It's headspace music, to be sure, but in some …
ABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ
Starring’s ABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ combines minimalist musical patterns with dreamy poetry to create a new style front-woman Clara Hunter likes to call “sparkle prog.” It captures the frenetic energy of the band’s live show, but here it is overlain with a new palate of synthesizers, delay effects, drum processing, aux percussion, and vocals that create delicate, but sometimes radical juxtapositions between the lyrical and the experimental. Though songs like “the best” and “aphonia” …
Absent Coast
Another sublime drone album from the unshakably good Root Strata camp, En's The Absent Coast is a real upper tier ambient release. Distinguished by its depth and effortless musicality, this album is one for genre fans to really savour. After the sandblasting noise/tonal onslaught of 'A Dying Sun/Return To Holyoke', the album calibrates itself to a stately simmer that comes to life during the quite sublime 'Honeysuckle Heart', which combines glassy sustains with crackl…
Cymbals
restocked, but very few available...LP art edition of 310 numbered copies, recorded on 1973, NEVER previously issued on vinyl, this is a jewel from saturn: try to find it in the cosmo if you can. This albums originally intended for release by Impulse! in the early 1970s, Cymbals is very a much a continuation of efforts like The Night of the Purple Moon, with an overall extended sax workouts, and built out with plenty of welcoming grooves. An highlight from a fertile period when Sun Ra and his…
At WKCR Studios NY 12-8-74
Massively unlikely unearthing of a previously unreleased live radio broadcast from legendary free jazz saxophonist Charles Tyler in a hand-numbered edition of only 99 copies: Tyler is a comparatively unsung player compared to the better known free music titans but his was a fascinating career, playing alongside Albert Ayler on Bells and Spirits Rejoice, cutting a hands-down classic run of private LPs – Eastern Man Alone on ESP Disk, Voyage From Jericho and Live In Europe, 1978’s Saga Of Th…
Neue Rungholter Tänze
'Published September 2010 by Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien, Hamburg in an edition of 500 numbered copies with an insert. New treatments and adaptations of the musical heritage of Mechthild von Leuszch as final part of the Rungholt dance trilogy, executed & presented by Werkbund.' label info
Particles
'Imagine the moment before the origin of the Universe, when nothing yet existed. According to the standard theory, our universe sprang into existence as 'singularity', a zone of infinite density, which is also what is thought to exist at the core of the 'black hole'. The result of its expansion is what we call the 'Universe' and it is also what this album is all about. The gate was opened one night in May, in a basement of Northampton, Ma. by Paul Flaherty on saxophone and Weasel Walter on drums…
Oh Me Oh My... The Way The Day Goes By The Sun Is Setting Dogs A
To say Devendra Banhart is unique is an absurd understatement. When I first heard the voice of this completely unknown, precociously talented 21-year-old songwriter, I could not believe it. His occasionally warbling falsetto is alternately bizarre, comical, and often a little frightening. Coupled with his advanced finger-picking guitar style - which itself often veers schizophrenically from gentle grooves into jolting, non-rhythmic stabs and weird harmonic flights of chaos -- and the wildly surr…
The Fugitives
**Limited edition of 300 housed in handmade silkscreened sleeve. Tipped for fans of Atelecine, Carter Tutti Void, Factory Floor** Ninni Morgia and Silvia Kastel make their first appearance as Control Unit on Italy's freshly minted Backwards label. Guitarist Ninni Morgia is a respected member of the New York underground scene, known for his work with La Otracina for Holy Mountain and Ultramarine Records. His co-conspirator Silvia Kastel was a willing participant in his Ninni Morgia Control …
You Are The One I Pick
"Nottingham duo Felix make their Kranky debut with this fine and idiosyncratic collection of songs. The main focus here is the vocal/piano/cello talents of Lucinda Chua, whose sparse yet quirk-loaded minimalism receives guitar and bass backing from Chris Summerlin, who's probably best known for his work in the rock band Lords. Chua's writing is quite unlike anything else currently out there; her lyrics convey strange or often very simple, domesticated ideas delivered in a pared-down, plaintive f…
Nigeria Afrobeat Special
Nigeria Afrobeat Special is the fourth addition to the Nigeria Special series, a project initiated by Miles Cleret, owner of the Soundway Record label back in 2004. Cleret’s ambition to distinguish the blossoming music scenes of 1970s Nigeria has lent to an indispensable series of CD and LP compilations documenting the influence of western blues, rock and disco amongst artists and musicians versed in the local musical styles of highlife and juju. It was Fela Kuti and his musical and politi…
Oceans Of Silver & Blood
Oceans of Silver and Blood are Joachim Nordwall : Roland S1000 Modular Synth and Mark Wastell : 32 Paiste Tam Tam. This recording was made at Goldsmiths College, London on December 10 2007 by Jonathan McHugh. Mixed and mastered by Jonathan McHugh. Cover design by Alisa Wolfson. Released in conjuction with their performance at Lampo, Chicago, 07 June 2008. Limited to 100 copies.
The Immeasurable Gift
The Immeasurable Gift is a testament to cathartic possibilities and the role of creation/release as a means of understanding. Recorded throughout the past three years in a variety of locations and personal moments; encapsulated by a common, unrelenting concern. Beautifully delicate, elegiac melodies concealed within curtains of dense electronic ambiance reveal themselves like the light at the end of the tunnel; a signifier of the temporary vessel form. Balancing recklessness with care and…
The Divine
""the divine" marks the second phase in the trilogy proposed by john twells aka xela. crawling out of a castle dungeon in pursuit of its predecessor, "the illuminated", this lp finds itself trapped in an abandoned church somewhere in a damp southern wilderness. church bells chime and rattle through the record's first piece, echoing and distorting through a fog of chattering voices and prayers. tape loops stumble over tape loops and the solemn, ecclesiastical drone slowly decomposes into thick, c…