Reissues

This band of Japanese exiles released just one album, which first appeared in 1972 and makes its long-overdue CD debut here. A melodic and musicianly set featuring Japanese instruments such as the shakuhachi, koto and taisho-goto alongside the traditional trappings of Western rock and roll, it's a hugely enjoyable collection that will appeal to all fans of Eastern-tinged psychedelia.

Featuring Incredible String Band founder Clive Palmer, COB (an acronym for "Clive's Original Band") made some of the most imaginative and moving music of their time, and this 1972 masterpiece is considered by many to be the finest folk record ever to emerge from the British Isles. Along with members Mick Bennett and John Bidwell, Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart is an overwhelmingly beautiful and compelling collection of songs set to Eastern-tinged arrangements and Celti…

Cheap mid-line pricing on these classic avant garde titles out of the Harmonia Mundi catalog. Pleiades is a percussion piece performed by Les Percussions de Strasbourg (vibraphones, marimbas, xylophones, etc.); richly defined, timeless music that will sound good for the rest of your life. "The whole source of this polyrhythmic composition is the idea of periodicity, repetition, duplication, faithful, pseudo-faithful, unfaithful copy... still greater variations of an even greater complexity, due …

This Apex reissue includes two discs at a low price -- the Ensemble Intercontemporain (EI) performing three 1980s Xenakis works along with two solo works, and on the second disc, four pieces that X wrote for harpschordist Elisabeth Chojnacka. In general Xenakis excelled with large forces, an orchestra or large ensemble. It was his organization of sounds, chaos careening nearly out of control, yet somehow also moving purposefully, that was his genius.

With their rhapsodic, Eastern-inspired melodies, spiraling rhythms and mesmerizing repetitions, Descending Monnshine Dervishes  and Songs for the Ten Voices of the Two Prophets  deftly illustrate just why an entire generation of musicians has looked to Terry Riley for inspiration. Hailed as the godfather of minimalism, Riley spent his early years exploring the possibilities of electronic keyboards through enigmatic, multifarious improvisations. Two classic albums documenting this significant cha…

Composed between 1968 and 1970, Acustica, for experimental sound-producers and loudspeakers, is one of Mauricio Kagel's radical and extraordinary works, in which his constant search for ways of escaping from the restraints and conventions of traditional musical performance took him into a world of exotic instruments and almost surreal invention. The instrumentation for Acustica is a huge array of sound sources: there are folk instruments collected from around the world and from different periods…

Mention "minimalism" and certain names will pop up, both within and outside of the classical world: Terry Riley, Steve Reich, John Adams. The most famous one, however, would be Philip Glass. Unlike most 20th Century composers, Glass has reached far beyond the concert hall: his work includes film soundtracks (THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE THIN BLUE LINE), multimedia presentations ('1000 Airplanes on the Roof"), and collaborations with pop/rock writers/performers (his SONGS FOR LIQUID DAYS album). With SOL…

First in a Glass Trilogy of operas about men who changed the world through the power of their ideas, "Einstein"'s sub-text is science. The opera is non-narrative in form, and the producer has two options: to reproduce the original Robert Wilson production (which exists on videotape), or to create a new series of stage and dance pictures based on themes relating to the life of Albert Einstein. Opera in four acts, composed in 1976. Remastered reissue of the original 1979 Tomato Music Company / CBS…

Unreleased recordings from the late 70s, performed by Glass (Farfisa, Yamaha & Hammond organs, Fender Rhodes piano, Arp synthesizer). New release which contains three seminal works in Glass's musical history. In the late 1970s, Philip Glass was asked by two film producers, Francois de Menil and Barbara Rose, to write music for a film they were producing. The film was Mark di Suervo, Sculptor and it was Glass's first film score, predating even Koyaanisqatsi. The score took its titles from the nam…

Bill Fay's first, originally released in 1970 on Deram Nova; this is presumably the same 2005 24-bit remaster from original tapes as Eclectic used, with 2 bonus tracks from his staggeringly great1967(!) single, new liner notes by Mark Powell , etc. Very well done. Bill Fay is an enigmatic UK based singer, songwriter and pianist whose work is impossible to categorise. His late '60s and early '70s work has a strong cult following, is highly regarded by many music journalists and is dark and haunti…

In his liner notes to this release, John Fahey mentions his desire to have an entire world orchestra in his guitar, Western to Eastern, bagpipes to gamelan. Perhaps it's this mental approach that sets his music so deliciously far apart from other so-called folk guitarists. Requia is essentially in two sections. One is a series of blues-based pieces in line with music he had previously recorded. These include the lovely "Requiem for John Hurt" and a wry "Fight On Christians, Fight On," both of wh…

This German Warner Bros. reissue is a nice repackaging of the late John Fahey's 1972 album Of Rivers Religion and his wonderfully genteel 1973 release After the Ball from his all too brief sojourn with the label. These recordings represent a shift for Fahey, playing both solo and with an ensemble. On Of Rivers Religion, the ensemble included many of the New Orleans players who performed on Walt Disney's Song of the South film soundtrack. Gorgeous, slow, ringing slide and fingerplucked tones esta…

One of the best albums of the late '60s and Tim Buckley's most underrated album, Happy Sad was a change-up pitch for the eclectic L.A. singer/songwriter. Sounding like a bit like Fred Neil's Capitol-era albums, Buckley and his small, acoustic-based ensemble create beautiful, jazz tinged folk-rock.

Recorded in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on July 10, 1968 this impressive 2-hour live concert presents the Washingtonian prodigy folk singer at his best. He was only 21 years old when he had this incredible chance to show the world his talent which would carry him through a short but prolific career -- 9 albums released between 1966 and his death in 1975. Accompanied by Lee Underwood, David Friedman and Pentangle's bass player Danny Thompson, Buckley caressed his 12 string acoustic guitar in an…

Seal of the Blue Lotus is the 1965 debut from the extraordinary folk guitarist Robbie Basho, who released numerous albums for John Fahey's Takoma label during the '60s. His mystical approach to six- and 12-string guitar improvisation shares many similarities to John Fahey in that Basho, too, was inspired by Eastern modalities -- his six-string melodies recalling the Indian ragas of Ravi Shankar's "Dhun in Musra Mund." "Mountain Man's Farewell" is an outstanding piece that displays the early seed…

The collected Recordings by exceptional Greek composer Jani Christou. Included compositions ranging from the late 1940s until 1968. Each CD comes in a book cover, containing lots of information to each composition. Truly an amazing series of recordingsVolume 1:Phoenix Music for orchestra in five continous movements (1948-49, 11'20'')Six T.S. Eliot Songs for mezzo-soprano and piano (1955, 12'27'')The Strychnine Lady for solo viola (female), five actors, instrumental ensemble, tapes, various sound…

Recorded in Faust's studio in Hamburg, Germany, Casablanca Moon is the 2nd Slapp Happy record. It's an eccentric yet melodic record with addictive songs... Blegvad, Dagmar Krause and Anthony Moore work in a short song format, and understandably ...    Full Descriptionquirky and great things happen. Desperate Straights is something else, the first fusing of Henry Cow and Slapp Happy (who went on to make In Praise of Learning as well. This is a powerful album, musically sophisticated and quirky as…

Aki Tsuyuko may be best known on this side of the planet as the voice for Nobukazu Takemura, but she has been making her own music quietly and unassumingly for the last few years. Tsuyuko's own music is subdued, and more introspective that what is expected from the current generation of Japanese electronic music.Instead of the sample-crazed, cartoon-pitched high speed cacophony of say, someone like Space Ponch, the sound of Ongakushitsu is rooted in more organic sounds. Fender Rhodes, disconnect…

The second Mirror album Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann produced together in 1999, originally released as a limited edition vinyl LP, is now available on CD for the first time. Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann think that it is a very boring idea to try to find descriptions for their music (and most music in general). Why is the music there after all? If they wanted to make their artistic statements in language, they would work as writers. They like to say it in sound, so if you want to find…

For this amazing reissue, the Tiliqua label puts on hold its obsession with vintage Japanese erotica and instead turns to the obscure psychedelics of Swedish artist Joakim Skogsberg. Dating back to 1972, Skogburg's long lost 'Jola Rota' LP originally only sold between 300 and 400 copies, and it's not terribly difficult to understand why. Tapping into the imagery of acid folk, the album's hippyish sleeve art is probably a bit misleading. In truth Jola Rota is a far more adventurous piece of work …

Chronologically beginning the label's in-depth survey of the lesser-known psychedelic era of Sun Ra (1968-1971), these discs were painstakingly mastered from first and second generation passes of Michael Wilderman's original recordings and sound better than any collector has ever heard them previously. The Electric Circus show features an unknown female singer who was with the group prior to June Tyson. The Arkestra on stage at Newport cover photo is published in high resolution for the first ti…

...Female Blues Singers - Rarities 1923-1930. The Sub Rosa label presents a collection of works from obscure and forgotten female blues singers, exploring the question: what can be said about a singer whose entire work fits on a single-sided 78rpm record? What circumstances led to this recording? Who decided to do it? For whom was it intended? Why wasn't it followed by more recordings? Hypotheses get lost in places and moments themselves forgotten. What remains are these miraculous voices that h…

This is the 5th part of the complete experimental and electronic music by the composer - after Liège à Paris (1977), Eight parabolic studies (1972), Four parabolic mixes (1972-2001, Mixed music (1966-70) and before Narrative voices and electronic (1960-1982), Paraboles-Mix avec Leçons d'Enfer (1972-1999) and Experimental Electronic and Noise (1954-61). Here, 5 rare pieces that come from 5 decades and performed by Rohan de Saram (Quatuor Arditti), Evert van Tright (who played mainly Stockhausen),…

One of four new CD reissues of the early albums of renowned songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Recorded between 1969 and 1978, these albums are the heart of any serious consideration of Van Zandt's brilliant career. Features some of the most iconic cover art in album history, each designed by Milton Glaser.

Be Here to Love Me is the official soundtrack from a documentary film by Margaret Brown about Townes Van Zandt. The music on these two discs is largely taken from Van Zandt's catalog on Tomato, but there are a couple of live cuts and alternate versions of previously released cuts contributed by his longtime manager Harold F. Eggers These include "Nothin'," "Black Crow Blues," and "To Live's to Fly." There are a few bits of movie audio offered by Brown. In sum, this is a two-disc compilation that…

long deleted, last copy of this outstanding box: Hermann Nitsch is perhaps the best known of the notorious Vienna Actionists. His carefully choreographed performance art frequently involves cacophonous noise, buckets of blood and animal dismemberment, turning gory excess into ritualistic spectacle. Nitsch's undoubted Gesamtkunstwerk is his Des Orgien Mysterien Theaters, a six-day 'play' that was first performed in its entirety in 1998 at the artist's Prinzendorf Castle, in his native Austria.The…

An awesome double CDS Part 1_ Unknown Live1976, Part2_1976 Summer, 30, July. UNIVIVE is a new, Mitzutani approved, Rallizes-only label. ACTUAL CDs - not CDrs.

Expanded edition of one of the few official albums released by Rallizes during their existence. The original was made up of select 1973-75 material, but this includes all of the material from the original session tapes, plus a Dec 13, 1980 soundboard recording, and on the 3rd disc, some demos from 1976. Actual CDs (NOT CDRs). 1 copy available

limited to 250 copies, compiled by Mizutani in the early 90s (tracks seem to span quite a few years) as a soundtrack to Ethan Mousikes Rallizes film. Players include Mizutani Takashi, Nakamura Takeshi, Nagata Mikio, Shoda Shunichiro, Hiroshi, Mimaki Toshirou Takada Kiyohiro, Noma Yukimichi, and Takahashi Youkai. Actual CDs (NOT CDRs). 1 copy available

UNIVIVE is a new, Mitzutani approved, Rallizes-only label. Live recordings from 1974-1976. Limited to 200 copies, 1 copy available only 

Live at Le Festival De Fleur in Gotenba, Japan, April 8, 1975. ACTUAL CD - not a CDR. Semi-official release limited to 200 copies. Long out of print, only 1 copy available.

New limited-edition double CD set from long-time archival Rallizes label Ignuitas. This one features a complete Rallizes show from Shizuoka Stupa in 1974 with Mizutani feeding his guitar to the fire with outrageous Star Spangled Banner-style leads while the rest of the group lay-down some of the most brain-freezing nod-out grooves of their entire career. There’s a great slack, elegaically-stoned feel to the playing and by the end of the show the whole group are obliviously destroyed. Recommended…

Five tracks from Japan's underground psych legends. ACTUAL CD - not a CDR. Semi-official release limited to 200 copies. Long out of print, only 1 copy available.

A series of Rallizes CDs on the shadowy Ignuitas label, from somewhere on planet Earth. These are all regular pressed CD releases. Were not sure why, how or whatever. This one is limited to 200 copies. ACTUAL CDs - not CDrs. Long out of print, only 1 copy available.

A series of Rallizes CDs on the shadowy Ignuitas label, from somewhere on planet Earth (we think). These are all regular pressed CD releases (not CD-Rs). Were not sure why, how or whatever. This CD contain  Live 1973 and live at New Rock Festival 1974. Long out of print, only 1 copy available.

A series of Rallizes CDs on the shadowy Ignuitas label, from somewhere on planet Earth. These are all regular pressed CD releases (not CD-Rs). Were not sure why, how or whatever. What was the question again? This first one was apparently originally released in 2006. Live @ Yaneura May 25, 1975. Long out of print, 1 copy only available.

Firmly-established as one of Britain's leading saxophonists and flautists, Ray Warleigh is perhaps best-known for his contributions to albums by Nick Drake, Elton John, Paul McCartney, U2 and many others. This 1969 bachelor pad classic was produced by Scott Walker (for whom he acted as musical director), and features a plethora of renowned musicians, including Gordon Beck, Harry South, Terry Cox and James Galway. Never previously available on CD, it comes complete with rare photographs and compr…

Long prayed-for reissue of this classic 1970 UK folk stunner that's a missing link both in the Wizz Jones oeuvre and in the guitar-freedom music of the prime era. The Legendary Me was Wizz Jones' second studio album, originally released by the obscure but vital Village Thing label (following his self-titled debut on United Artists). Cosmically figuring somewhere between the non-trad radical expressions of the Mike Cooper/Roy Harper axis and Clive Palmer's post-ISB journey, Jones' terrestrial pos…

One of contemporary music's greatest and most elusive mavericks returns to Tzadik with yet another CD of ear-bending electronic sounds. A student of Stockhausen and close collaborator of John Cage and David Behrman, Maryanne Amacher has been creating acoustic art, electronic soundscapes and site-specific installation work since 1967. A new CD of Amacher compositions is a true cause for celebration and Teo! is one of her greatest works. The winner of Prix Ars Electronica in the Digital Musics cat…

This re-release of 1998's Letters From The Serth is a sequential follow-up to the monolithic double CD Letters From The Earth, as it was recorded exactly one year to the day later (Orthodox Easter, 1997), at the same location - on the roof of their building in Chinatown in the afternoon. It's only a single CD this time because as you'll hear at the end, it's starts raining. It features the regular No Neck Blues Band line-up, plus their newest member, the enigmatic Japanese dancer/icon, Michiko. …