New Arrivals
History Of The Units - The Early Years: 1977-1983
first ever legit reissue of THE UNITS. This genre-defying band, from San Francisco's barely-documented synth/punk/art underground of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, combined sarcastic humor with deadly serious cultural critique, and synthetic experimentation with the bombast of punk. Includes the most sought-after early singles and selections from their first LP, Digital Stimulation, along with unreleased demos, and more. Remastered audio. Packaged in gatefold LP style sleeves with 32-page booklet…
The Cloud of Unknowing
For fans of acoustic guitar music, James Blackshaw's The Cloud of Unknowing is a gift that's long overdue. Blackshaw's fourth album gracefully glides over the same sonic ground that his contemporaries generally tread with reverential obedience or dilettante tactics. Growing into his prodigious own at the relatively young age of 25, Blackshaw has finessed his 12-string acoustic guitar into a veritable solo symphony that's as schooled in uncommon beauty as it is in complex 20th century composition…
Trouble In Paradise
Phantom Orchard, the duo of Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori, is expanded with 5 performers representing some of the most exciting women in modern creative experimental music, releasing a surprising, riveting, and amazing album.Members of bands as diverse as DNA, Skeleton Crew, Electric Masada, Hemophiliac and Björk, Zeena and Ikue have been leading figures of the downtown scene since the early 1980s. Their fabulous duo project Phantom Orchard is expanded here with five of the most exciting and creat…
Seven
Third album from Oslo's PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE & Chicago's KEN VANDERMARK who have previously worked together in SCHOOL DAYS & FME follows their 2 "Dual Pleasure" releases. While it seems barely possible, the duo have become even more groovy on this third album. Free Jazz w/roots in both the American & European traditions: warm, groovy, melodic & funky at the same time as it is raw, wild & energetic. The pure art of spontaneous music. Independent underground jazz at its very best & a free jazz master…
Selections From The Symphonies (For Electric Guitars)
Intro sampler collection of Glenn's various guitar orchestra classics for the uninitiated. Glenn has personally selected a track listing representative of his absolute unique-on-this-planet vision, with material ranging from the delicate celestial beauty of Symphony No. 3 to the demonical, otherworldly terror unfurled in No. 10. Selections is the ultimate 'in' to Branca's work if you're yet unacquainted with the most influential composer of the era.
Likeness
Likeness is the newest release from the duo of Tom and Christina Carter. Recorded over a period of several weeks during the Spring of 2006, the album is a return to the spontaneous composition of previous Charalambides records such as Houston and Union. With the exception of "The Good Life", which appeared in a primitive version on the Wholly Other CDR Home, all of the tracks on this release sprung forth after 'record' was pressed, and were fleshed out via overdubs, editing, and a malfu…
Black Box: Torture Garden/Leng Tch\'e
"The controversial and influential Naked City Black Box couples two of Zorn's most extreme and violent creations. Torture Garden (1991) presents Naked City's intense and groundbreaking music combining free jazz, bebop, r&b, country, funk, rockabilly, surf, metal and grindcore—usually in the same song! The rare, seldom heard Leng Tch'e (1992), released only in Japan and long out-of-print features Naked City in an agonizingly slow, brutal 32-minute assault. This special 20th anniversary ed…
Civiltà Paleospaziale
Italian minimal synth & drum machine duo, another side project by Ottaven/Canedicoda, abstract dread sounds with elements of clinical drone and throbbing frequencies to a more introspective ambient chaos
Beam Stone
Per Anders Nilsson (computer and synthesizer), Sten Sandell (piano, prepared piano, electronics and voice) & Raymond Strid (percussion). Beam Stone was founded a year before this October 2007 recording. The trio consists of three free improvisers, each with a distinctive personal sound. Their aim with Beam Stone is to explore sonic territories with the guidance of different pre-defined concepts. Listening and sonic exploration are considered the essential points of departure.
My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
After a fourteen year absence, Michael Gira resurrects his legendary apocalyptic no-wave band for a fabulous new album on his own Young God imprint. Assembling a cast of musicians that includes familiar Swans and Angels Of Light conspirators, Gira also welcomes a few new members to the fold with guest stars including Devendra Banhart, Mercury Rev's Grasshopper, Bill Rieflin (of Ministry, REM and Robyn Hitchcock's band), Shearwater multi-instrumentalist Thor Harris and even Gira's three-and-a-hal…
Nature Data
Why is the phoneme the most 'ideal' of signs? Where does this complicity between sound and ideality, or rather, between voice and ideality, come from? When I speak, it belongs to the phenomenological essence of this operation that I hear myself [je m'entende] at the same time that I speak. The signifier, animated by my breath and by the meaning-intention, is in absolute proximity to me. The living act, the life-giving act, the Lebendigkeit, which animates the body of the signifier and tra…
The Sleeping Bag Sessions
You already know about Arthur Russell from disco classics like "Is It All Over My Face" and "Go Bang" (maybe you even watched the recent documentary), but do you know about all the early/mid-80's work he did on his own Sleeping Bag label? This awesome compilation collects the gems you might've slept-on or never came across. Whether its early hip-hop boogie (Sounds Of JHS 126 Brooklyn's "Chill Pill(1)"), left field electro beats (Bonzo Goes To Washington's "5 Minutes(2)"), or underground disco ba…
Lithp
Improvised music group originating from Haifa, Israel. Ofer Bymel (drums), Adi Snir (soprano & tenor saxophone saxophone, clarinet), Michel Mayer (guitar), Ronni Benner (guitar). A clean, sophisticated minimalist style and a sound that fits snuggly into the soft abstract current European scene.
Bricolage
'Alessandra Rombolà: flutes, tiles & preparations. Rhodri Davies: electric harp & electronics. Ingar Zach: percussion, drone commander & sruti box. All music by Muta. Recorded by Fadi Tabbal on the 8th of april 2009, at Tunefork studio, Beirut. Edited by Ingar Zach, mixed & mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Artwork & design by Mazen Kerbaj. Produced in Lebanon by Al Maslakh & Muta.'
EARR plays a Snare is a Bell
a Snare is a Bell is a solo piece for snare drum, voice and the room in which it is played.Inspired by some close encounters I had with African shamanic/trance musicians and my personal experiences with meditation and music, it also relates to a known-to-many-of-us acoustical wonder of sitting on the toilet and picking up the tone of that little room (often by accident while coughing or talking out loud to oneself) and enjoying to sing that tone and let the toilet become filled with an eno…
The Revenant Diary
"Don't look back," repeats one of several voices within Mark Van Hoen's The Revenant Diary, his fifth solo album and first release on Editions Mego. Surrounded by weighted beats, analog synthesizer drones and granular dirt, the unidentified, siren-like female voice's advice is as much seduction as warning. Tellingly so, for as well as being both Van Hoen's most ambitious and his most accessible work, The Revenant Diary is an eloquent meditation on the allures and dangers of memory, regret …
Extra space, extra time
'Six tracks. Recorded at the studio of Extrapool in Nijmegen for a series of 'Brombron' project in October 2009. Mixed and produced by Kazuyuki Kishino at Prima Natura Studio.' label info
Tengu et Kitsune II
Taku Sugimoto : metronomes, mandolin... Taku Unami: computer, mandolin... Recorded live by Taku Unami at Loop-Line on May 2 and October 16, 2008. Mastered by Taku Unami.
Quite a way away
To say that the last few years of Gareth Dickson’s life have been tumultuous would be an understatement. In 2007 he fell in love with a girl from South America, packed up a few essentials from his life in Scotland, and moved to the Argentinian countryside. It didn’t turn all fairy tale at that point, however. While there he was shot at, attacked by dogs, and was involved in a very close call when the passenger plane he took to a little town in the Andes was forced down after an engine cau…
Dopesmoker
The story behind Dopesmoker, the final LP in the life of pioneering stoner sludge trio Sleep, is one of perseverance not usually associated with such dedicated grass aficionados. Intended to be the Cali band’s third record and first for major label London, the album took shape as a single 63-minute track entitled “Dopesmoker,” an ode to the joys of getting baked. After nearly two months of work, the band (guitarist Matt Pike, bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius) pronounced the opus…