Reissues
Alfredo
Mr. Bongo proudly presenting our reissue of a bona fide Latin classic from 1979 by the Cuban-born violinist Alfredo De La Fe. Based in New York and Colombia, Alfredo worked with some of the greats in Latin music including Eddie Palmieri, Willie Colon and Roberto Roena, alongside disco and soul icons like Sylvester and Aquarian Dream. His debut album, Alfredo, is sublime and comprises two distinct halves. The A-side is a fine outing of Latin dancefloor workouts, with Alfredo innovatively incorpor…
A Peak In The Signal: Live 1979-1980
Pioneers of the Los Angeles underground art damage electronic music scene, Grey Factor have been more myth than legend for over 40 years. The band recorded two experimental synth/post-punk EPs and gigged sparingly before disbanding. None of their recordings have been officially released in physical format until now.
The Original Sound Of Mali 2
Following the success of ‘The Original Sound of Mali’ compilation, we return with another explorative delve into the wonders of Malian music compiled by French writer, journalist and Grammy-nominated compiler Florent Mazzoleni and Mr Bongo’s very own David Buttle. Restoring, reissuing and contextualising iconic tracks from Ousmane Kouyaté & Ambassadeurs Internationaux, Rail Band, Les Messagers du Mali, Mystère Jazz de Tombouctou and many more, the second compilation in this series dives ever fur…
Readings By Jack Kerouac On The Beat Generation
In his third and final album, recorded ahead of the publication of his novel, Doctor Sax, Jack Kerouac uses his voice as an instrument, weaving his words inside of patterns and percussive accents the way a horn player solos over the changes of a well-known standard. The set is presented with an immense focus and energy to keep the listener engaged for a full 40 minutes. The Verve By Request Series features 180-gram vinyl, pressed at Third Man in Detroit.
Skaeliptom
Sincere dysphoria is a disarming tonic, and 'Skaeliptom' is steeped in it, if not fortified by it. Quietly appearing on the Periferin label in 2013, Varg's debut recording presents with grave intent filtered through a pacifying melancholic haze. A remastered version now arrives on Northern Electronics.
Originally disclosed on cassette with a ziplocked excerpt of a cindered church, 'Skaeliptom' is a depressive tour of Varg's early experiments. As if bleached unconscious by northern winters, his t…
First Step
Big Tip! Born in Donauwörth, a small town in Bavaria in 1951, Götz Tangerding studied piano to concert level at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg. In the 1970s, he started to make a name for himself on the local Munich jazz scene and traveled through East Europe with drummer Rudi Roth. In 1976, he came to New England Conservatory of Music in Boston to study compositions with George Russell and Jaki Byard with whom he played in the New York Big Band in 1978. In 1980, he returned to Muni…
The Sea Of Wires
The Sea Of Wires were a very early '80s electronic duo hailing from the industrial wastelands of Coventry. Followers of the German Electronic Scene of the time (Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Cluster etc), Chris Jones and Tony Murphy used elements of Kosmische Musik in their compositions, with a variety of warm synths, analogue effects, and layered experimentation. This double-CD collects cassettes which appeared on their own Sea Of Wires label: "Individually Screened" (1980, then 19…
The Mutations: Unreleased Basil Kirchin Film Music From 1968 and 1974
Some mighty fine unreleased Basil Kirchin's film music here, including the freaky deaky Mutations score, plus a killer Eastern-tinged TV soundtrack from a TV show you may never have heard of, called Journey To The Unknown, which was a spooky precursor to Tales Of The Unexpected. Kirchin's distinctive talent resides in the smooth juxtapositions and mutations of recorded surroundings, free jazz skronk, surprising vocal samples, and delicate electronic harmonies that he employs in his music.
Basil …
Monument Eternal
The long-awaited reissue of Alice Coltrane’s original spiritual teachings and reflections, which provide powerful insight into her transcendent music, cherished by millions across the globe.
Distorted Clamor
We are proud to announce 'Distorted Clamor', the latest full-length album from legendary Spanish ambient composer Suso Saiz. Marking his eighth release with our label, the album showcases Saiz at his spellbinding best, continuing a prolific creative phase in a career that spans over 40 years. Building upon 'Resonant Bodies' and 'Nothing Is Objective', his most recent full length releases for Music From Memory, Saiz's dedication to experimentation and conceptual approach to sound lie at the centr…
Operation Segerpil
Edition of 294 copies, brown cardboard sleeves with paste-on artwork and insert. Inspired by decades of well-intended Swedish mission work, the soul of the raw and uncompromising nature and early 80's bedroom electronics, Operation Segerpil was originally released as two separate EPs on Förfall in 2022-2023. Now slightly reworked and reorganized with the lesser parts scrapped, a rather powerful album somehow emerged from the mist. Brutish weirdo electronics covered in sweat and mosquitoes with b…
Michael Angelo
Enigmatic exemplar of subterranean overachievers, Michael Angelo Nigro, has long been known to sound-hounds searching for esoteric figures on the fringe. He was a man out-of-time, with unerring vision and dedication, principally known for his head-of-the-class 1977 private-press joy, “Michael Angelo” (Guinn 1050—aka The Guinn Album). The Guinn Album, almost entirely an effort of self-creation, is a staggering, hook-filled, inner space hi-fi snap-shot of dreamy pop psychedelia, filled with contem…
Cupar Grain Silo
'Cupar Grain Silo' is Sam Annand's first release on the Blackford Hill label. Its nine tracks blur the lines between ambient electronica and sonic history, as synthesised melodies and rhythms reverberate through the extreme acoustics of the disused Cupar Grain Silo in Scotland. Built in 1964 as a sugar store, the silo towers 60 metres above the surrounding Fife countryside. Its industrial life was short: in 1971 it was closed, and barring a short period as a grain store, remained empty for decad…
Phase Murmur
Over top of Gillespie's nimble, pointillist drumming (he also plays piano and harpsichord), Hunerberg employs flute, organ, bass and balloon (that's not a saxophone on "Cucumber"). The disorienting opener "Cro Magnon/Two" recalls Kraftwerk precursor the Organisation, or contemporaries like Faust. There's a strange, disconsolate atmosphere to the proceedings, almost as if the air had been sucked out of a recording session booked for some avant-garde jazz heavies. Instead of Impulse, Phase Murmur …
Swinging Oildrops!
2024 stock These days, where a young generation worldwide discovers good swinging Jazz again, where Dexter Gordon returned after so many years in exile like a triumphator to New York and "young swinging Scott Hamilton" becomes something like a 'super-star', it is hard to believe that this album was recorded 13 years ago - hard to believe by both artistic and technical standard. At this time, in the year of 1966, Beatlemania reached its peak and the beat and/ or rock wave ruled the world of music…
What A Beautiful Place
This recorded autobiography of Catherine Howe, age 20, briefly appeared in 1971. Too young for memoirs, most artists have barely established any sort of musical competence by the age of legal adulthood, let alone compositions matching the maturity and complexity of Howe's. What A Beautiful Place, however, is a prodigious effort wrought from the melancholy ruminations of post-adolescence. The album's twelve songs unfold like a classic bildungsroman, beginning in the smoke-stained industrial count…
Astral Schlagers: The Singles Collection 2015-2018
Tip! Fantastic funk from one of the hippest combos currently working on the planet – the mighty Misha Panfilov Sound Combo, a group who effortlessly blend 70s-style funk with some sweet spacey sounds! The "astral" in the title here is very well-placed – as there's a slightly cosmic vibe to the cuts – almost as if Stereolab had formed a funk combo, as there's all these cool moogy and thereminy bits all throughout the music – while the drums pound with funky intensity, the guitars riff with non-st…
Jashumon
More Japanese lysergic madness ! The 1972 soundtrack for Shuji Terayama's visionary movie of the same name contains all the elements necessary to reach composer & theatre producer J.A. Caesar's intended pleasure-centers. Disturbing, but in the end truly innovative, this soundtrack is as certified gateway to the underworld in the vein of classic by Faust, Cosmic Jokers or early Amon Düül.
"This mighty soundtrack for Shuji Terayama's nihilistic movie of the same name contains all the elements nec…
Alomoni 1985
Think about Can as performed by a shaman commune ! Two long LP-side size compositions, focusing on tribal rhythms (without real drummer), heavy-folk and electronic samples and loops. Takahashi Yoshihiro (Brast Burn) was the man behind this cultish project originally released in 1974. Buried deep in time, this obscure artifact is something of a revelation. No group information was ever given, and no production date or location is indicated, however, it would seem that this record and the "Brast B…
Blitzkrieg
One of Germany's longer lasting bands had first started as Blitzkrieg (until they found out a British band used the name as well) and changed their name to Wallenstein and kept their former name for the album, gracing it with a war-themed gatefold cover. Produced by the unavoidable Dieter Dierks and released on the ultra collectible Pilz label in early 72, this debut album is stunning effort that transformed the 200 MPH speed notion into music. Keyboardist Jurgen Dollasse's very international gr…