Reissues
Cold And Bouncy
Having passed – at least figuratively – through hundreds of years over the course of their previous two albums, the good ship High Llamas docked, fully loaded, into a congenial present moment for once in its life. O’Hagan’s continued work with Tim Gane and Stereolab caused a healthy dose of electronica to spike the Llamas’ already heady brew, creating an apex of late 90s-style neo-exotica. RIYL: Mouse On Mars, Oval, Grand Royal, Dots and Loops.
Hawaii
The High Llamas discover America – yes, it had been done before, but not via their envisaged pilgrims’ passage. Energized by the breakthroughs of Gideon Gaye, they went all-in, producing a wide-screen epic further exploring their unique agenda. The reference points multiplied, stretching through realms of classic pop and jazz, soundtrack music, exotica and neo-Americana, while charting a journey through musical landscapes of abiding lightness.
Gideon Gaye
This brave foray into conceptual art music produced a jaw-dropping reset on the 20th century pop perspective. The High Llamas engaged songwriting and production with an eye toward filmmaking. Digging through ephemera of choice vintages with post-modern zest, they struck a rich vein they could call their own – a kind of gothic Americana, formal aspects pushed to extremes. The spirit of discovery here can be vibrantly felt over 30 years later.
Santa Barbara
*1st ever LP pressing!* For The Llamas’ 1992 debut, Sean O’Hagan, working the sextant to navigate a post-Microdisney course in the musical world, posted them up as a guitar pop band (RIYL: NRBQ, Big Star, Steely Dan), with nine exquisitely crafted examples of the oft out-of-step sound. Had there been no more after this, Santa Barbara would still be sought-after buried treasure by the perennial waves of voyagers seeking these sweet, jangling spices to this very day.
Futura Grotesk
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Tomaga's debut album, 'Futura Grotesk', Hands in the Dark are re-releasing the long sold out record in a limited edition of 500 copies. The reissue is accompanied by the first-ever vinyl pressing of the band's inaugural EP, 'Sleepy Jazz for Tired Cats', featuring new artwork and 300 units available. Both records have been remastered by Marta Salogni for the occasion.
Always in search of exploration, with an obvious obsession for deconstruction their norm…
Shri Camel
Terry Riley’s Shri Camel is a meditative masterwork blending the feeling of eastern music with repetitive electronic patterns, obtained using a modified Yamaha YC-45D combo organ tuned in just intonation and augmented with digital delay. In C and Rainbow in Curved Air get all the ink (inc?), but its own somewhat subtle way, 1980’s Shri Camel, the last of the three brilliant albums Terry Riley recorded for CBS, is every bit as groundbreaking as its hallowed predecessors. Not content to rest on hi…
Every Dog Has His Day
The two works which comprise this retrospective release project - "Plan for Sleep” (1984) and "Every Dog Has His Day” (1985) - are collaborations between Yamanaka and Furuhashi which were foundational to the music development of Dumb Type's aural legacy and intermedia innovations at large. Their early stage music possessed a unique charm and innovation, serving as an essential element at the core of their art. Through this project, the legacy of these works is to be re-evaluated, and the essence…
Leichenschrei
OEC is proudly going "again" for the re-edition of that SPK masterpiece first out in 1982.
More than 40 years are gone but the energy of Leichenscrei by "Socialistisches Patienten Kollektiv / << S.P.K. >>" is still very H.I.G.H.! A reference and absolute highlight in Industrial culture and muzak!
Éthiopiques 20: Live In Addis
*2024 stock* Russ Gershon and his Grammy-nominated Either/Orchestra have included many Ethiopian pieces into their repertoire in recent years. In January 2004, the Boston big band travelled to Addis for a dream-come-true concert featuring prestigious Ethiopian guests, among them Mulatu Astatqè (Ethiopiques 4, «Broken Flowers») and Gétatchèw Mekurya (Ethiopiques 14). This recording perfectly renders the energy and emotion of this gathering, with beautiful arrangements remarkably performed by exce…
Éthiopiques 19: Alèmyé
*2024 stock* «An authentic legend in Ethiopia, Mahmoud Ahmed has laid down the basis of a music style which is resolutely original in the way it synthesizes the most diverse influences into a language both typical and universal. With his haunting, serpentine voice, at the same time raucous and velvety, Mahmoud Ahmed has invented a world of uncertain borders, an improbable mix of Eastern-African rhythmic lines, mysterious laments with refined ornamentation and melodies of unexpected Indian modula…
Éthiopiques 18: Asguèbba!
*2024 stock* «Asguèbba!» is the Azmari’s cry urging listeners to enter into the dance, an invitation carrying the same sexual innuendo as Latino’s ¡Va dentro! The recordings on this CD are intended as a continuation of those in Tètchawèt! (Ethiopiques 2) and feature most of the artists from the first edition.The songs are accompanied on the mèessenqo (one string fiddle), the krar lyre, the kebero drum and the accordion.
The Antique Blacks
Another much sought after and long unavailable title recorded in 1974 with a smallish ensemble consisting (probably) of stalwarts Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Danny David, James Jacson, Akh Tal Ebah, Clifford Jarvis, Artakatune, and a new electric guitarist, Sly, and released on Saturn in the same year. This sounds like a studio recording and carefully thought out - most of the compositions appear only on this record (apart from versions of 'Nature's God' and 'Space Is The Place'), and include …
Éthiopiques 17: Tlahoun Gèssèssè
*2024 stock* To Ethiopian audiences, Tlahoun Gèssèssè is THE VOICE, even more so than Mahmoud Ahmed, Alèmayèhu Eshèté or Mulatu Astatqé. Endowed with a phenomenal, innate vocal talent, he has been the asbsolute and unequalled icon for an entire country since the fifties, heading up the list of Ethiopian discography. Based around seven ‘modernist’ pieces arranged by the brilliant and innovative Mulatu Astatqé (Ethiopiques 4 : «Ethiojazz»), these first Ethiopiques devoted to Talhoun Gèssèssè also …
Éthiopiques 16: The Lady With The Krar
*2024 stock* Before she became famous as a singer and a player of the krar –the traditional Ethiopian lyre– Asnatqèch Wèrqu was well-known as an actress and a dancer. Inspired by the art of the 'azmaris', the Ethiopian wandering minstrels, she found the voice to transform the vicissitudes of life into poignant laments or sarcastic ditties. Asnatqèch is the last great singer, story-teler and free-thinker to carry on the tradition of "poetic jousting". Needless to say, the CD booklet features the …
Éthiopiques 15: Europe Meets Ethiopia
*2024 stock* The result of a surprising encounter between Ethiopian, French and Dutch musicians, Jump to Addis presents a buoying mix of Abbyssinian tradition, revisited jazz and wild rock'n'roll. The krars (folk lyres) and voices of urban azmaris rub shoulders with the guitars, saxophones and drumsets of European musicians, all in an audacious blend.
Éthiopiques 14: Negus Of Ethiopian Sax
*2024 stock* Probably the most revered veteran of Ethiopian saxophone, Gétatchèw Mèkurya is the 'inventor' of an extremely distinctive musical style. Amongst Ethiopia's numerous vocal genres, there exists a form of singing that is purely warlik: epic and declamatory, harsh and hoarse-voiced, it is known as 'shellela'. This bellicose thunderbolt, quite strictly vocal, was improvised before each attack. Gétatchèw Mèkurya had the brilliant idea of transposing the genre to his saxophone, and here we…
Éthiopiques 13: Ethiopian Groove - The Golden Seventies
*2024 stock* An augmented, improved and remastered edition of the legendary anthology of Ethiopian groove that was issued in the 1990s. This selection is a tribute to the haydays of Ethiopian music and reproduces the final salvos of the musical fireworks before they were brutally extinguished by the dictatorship. 1969-78: this near-decade was undoubtedly the golden age of modern Ethiopian music, with its swinging, thunderous or simply gigantic brasses and historic singers adapting and rearrangin…
Éthiopiques 12: Konso Music And Songs - Kirba Afaa Xonso
*2024 stock* The Ethiopiques series aims to make Westerners discover the missing link in African music. The great Italian musicologist Enrico Castelli has devoted this recording to the Konso, an ethnic group living at the border with Sudan. This panorama of Konso music presents pieces linked to daily agricultural tasks, sacred and ritual songs, as well as recreational songs. The rich instrumentarium includes "hibhara", "maayra" and "luutota" flutes, "kihayta" lyre to accompany songs, "tawna" be…
Éthiopiques 10: Tezeta - Ethiopian Blues & Ballads
*2024 stock* Emptiness, melancholy, nostalgia; doom and gloom, morbid musings; heartache or homesickness: such is the stock in trade of the misery and mournful memories expressed by the song Tezeta - Ethiopia's majestic hymn to the blues. Etymologically, the word itself means memory, nostalgia, and several Ethiopian authors have used Tezeta as the title for their memoirs. For Ethiopians, it is the Tezeta genre that seems to capture the essence of the blues.
Dragon Man
"Only a decade ago Leong Lau remained a well-hidden Malaysian-Australian treasure, known only to small circles of Australian record collectors. In 2013 we met Leong in person at the Brisbane state library, where after a long and somewhat transcendental ‘conversation’ received his blessings to re-release his music. In 2014, we reissued his sophomore album ‘That Rongeng Sound’ and later in 2021, his sole single ‘Late Night Flyer. In 2024, we are going back to finish the triangle of Leong releases,…