Reissues
Space Is The Place
Tip! The holy grail for Sun Ra collectors and fans, an album that forever gave them a slogan to live by! The record's different than some of the other Arkestra work from the time – in that it's a bit tighter and more spiritual, more in keeping with the style of the Blue Thumb label, for which it was recorded – and soaring along on a wave of post-Coltrane spiritual jazz enthusiasm. Side one features the ultimate recording of "Space Is The Place" – an anthemic tune that blends chanting, modal rhyt…
Love Cry
Tip! Love Cry (1968) is a true Albert Ayler manifesto: a sometimes disorienting combination of childish dirges, band music and folk melodies, all revised according to the New Thing perspective. Experimental album (for the time) containing some of the saxophonist's most famous tunes, such as "Ghosts." Ayler's last recording with his brother Donald, while the others are double bassist Alan Silva and drummer Milford Graves, with (surprise) contributions from harpsichordist Call Cobbs.
Black Sun Ensemble Vol. 2
"Lion's second volume of the Black Sun Ensemble's recordings for their classic first album contains an alternate version of that album, including the tracks from the Camera Obscura label CD (2000) version of that album -- well, sort of. When sifting through the masters while preparing the Lion reissue of the real, actual first Black Sun Ensemble album -- as issued in 1985 on Pyknotic -- it became clear that many of the original LP tracks were also on the Camera Obscura CD release, but under the …
Visceral Underskinnings
Hastings of Malawi are Heman Pathak, David Hodes and John Grieve. They recorded the album in one night in 1981 with no plan and no idea of what they were doing. They played drums, clarinet, synthesiser and piano but also made use of things that they found lying around the studio – old records, cookery books, telephone directories and a telephone. The recordings were played down the phone to randomly dialled numbers and the reactions added to the recording. All three had been involved in the reco…
Fishes
Geins't Naït was founded in Nancy, France, in 1986 by Thierry Merigout and Vincent Hachet, both students at the Architecture School of Nancy. A year later Laurent Petitgrand joined the band. Their sound is often described as an equivalent of bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Coil or Test Dept., but Geins't Naït is not pure classic Industrial. While Geins't Naït offers rough pieces of music as an extension of its punk attitude, Petitgand refines them to create some musicality within the post-ind…
Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958–1971
Big Tip! In the 1950s and 60s, the blues was the dominant form of Black vernacular music throughout Texas and the surrounding areas. In segregated neighborhoods, community members gathered in saloons, dancehalls, and each other’s homes to hear their neighbors sing their stories of sorrow, heartbreak, jubilation, and triumph. Robert “Mack” McCormick, an academically untrained but fanatical devotee of the blues, stepped into this world and became one of its most devout advocates and documentarians…
Put The Music In It's Coffin
Throughout their legendary, decade-long run, The Shadow Ring were an enigmatic force on the international musical sub-underground. Before their disbandment in 2002, this shambolic rock outfit, formed by a group of rowdy teenagers in southeast England, left behind a mighty run of eight LPs, a handful of 7"s, and a spate of raucous live shows and cryptic zine appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, all which have bolstered their enduring word-of-mouth mystique. Beginning this year with the firs…
City Lights
Throughout their legendary, decade-long run, The Shadow Ring were an enigmatic force on the international musical sub-underground. Before their disbandment in 2002, this shambolic rock outfit, formed by a group of rowdy teenagers in southeast England, left behind a mighty run of eight LPs, a handful of 7"s, and a spate of raucous live shows and cryptic zine appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, all which have bolstered their enduring word-of-mouth mystique. Beginning this year with the firs…
Outspan No 2
Tip! Recorded a month after Outspan No 1, this album offers up four more sonic delights from the core trio of Brötzmann, Van Hove, and Bennink. Rarely has free jazz/Euro improv/circus music/[your identifier here] sounded so unfettered and delightful -- adventurous without seeming self-serious, silly yet not without gravity. A must for any fan of these three maestros.
Outspan No 1
Tip! It's hard to imagine how this record -- and it's mate, Outspan No 2 -- managed to remain more or less out of circulation from the CD era onward. Outspan No 1 is nothing less than an ideal distillation of the broad approach to sound creation utilized by the three-ring circus that is Brötzmann, Van Hove, and Bennink, here with the added bonus of Mangelsdorff. Two short numbers, two long, too perfect.
The Ape Of Naples
2023 re-cut from original Peter Christopherson approved masters. Double LP version. Pressed using the original Ape Of Naples plates approved by Peter Christopherson. The Ape Of Naples is Coil's highly celebrated final album completed by Peter Christopherson following the tragic death of John Balance in 2004. Often noted for being a fan favorite, The Ape Of Naples uses Balance's final recordings and material recorded at Trent Reznor's studio in New Orleans to create a deep, heavy masterpiece.The…
Yniverze
*2023 stock* This album can be considered Emma Myldenberger's epilogue or even their fourth album. Indeed after the third album Live (only released under the cassette format at the time (and recently reissued in Cd by the God label, the group sort of managed to survive a few months later but members were abandoning the ship.
Definitely an excellent album, Yniverse easily compares to Tour De Trance and in some ways is better. No doubt that the excellent people at Garden Of Delight will one day (r…
Odiszée Parck
*2023 stock* Radio Noisz Ensemble was the successor band to the more folk-oriented six-piece Emma Myldenberger, who released two LPs in the late 1970s, and followed those with a live cassette after the turn of the decade (all since released on CD). Three members (guitarist / mandolinist Michel Meyer, reeds player Biber Gullatz, and Topsi Tkacz on violin and contrabass) of Emma Myldenberger formed RNE in ’81, who along with percussionist Matthias Gassert and special guest Mani Neumeier (Guru Guru…
Weltschmerz
*2023 stock* Siddhartha, named after a novel by Hermann Hesse, were formed in 1973 in Korntal near Stuttgart. They performed an intelligent mix-ture of progressive and art rock influenced by psychedelia and folk. Although their 1975 album is called "Weltschmerz" all songs contain English lyrics except for "Weit weg". It was released in a limited edition of 400 copies and is now one of the most sought-after collectors’ items. A thirty minute demo tape by Siddhartha which was recorded after the re…
Thoughts
A very rare but strong 'Canterbury' release from Germany. Very pleasant, inspired and technical, Zyma cultivates the musical schema developed by Soft Machine and others but stresses the funniest and most optimistic emotional dialogue of it, thanks to very enthusiastic melodies and catchy improvisations. The opening track illustrates it perfectly. Mostly a jazzy rock composition punctuated by female voices and fantasist interludes.
June 1975
*2023 stock* Epidermis were founded in Idstein, Germany, in 1971. They played some complex and sophisticated rock music, often compared with Gentle Giant, Yes and the Canterbury scene. 'June 1975' has not been released on any physical format back then, and has been made available for the first time. The 20-page booklet in LP size contains a long band history in German and English lyrics and a detailed discography.
Umsonst Und Draußen – Vlotho 1977
*2023 stock* Before the Munich krautrockers turned more strongly in the direction of world music in the following years, at this gig they once again delivered their mix, moving between funk and jazz, as it defined the mid-70s. Fixed song structures never played a role with Embryo. Apart from the - despite difficult meter - extremely loose-floppy 'Getalongwithasong' (from the 1977 studio album Apo-Calypso), they mainly played new improvisations in Vlotho."
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
*2023 stock* Originally based in Stuttgart Conny Veit’s Gila had already recorded a more rocking psychedelic first album with a different line-up when Veit was invited to Munich to record “Hosianna Mantra” for Florian Fricke’s Popol Vuh. Hanging around frequently at Amon Düül’s commune in Kronwinkel he met Daniel Fichelscher who played and recorded with Amon Düül II at that time. Veit was impressed with Fichelscher’s drumming and decided to revive Gila with Fichelscher on drums, Veit playing gui…
Father, Son And Holy Ghosts
*2023 stock* This album is a bit difficult to pigeonhole, as most of the early Embryo work is. The opening number sounds if anything, like an outtake from Miles Davis' Jack Johnson soundtrack, but with lead guitar sound more prominant. Then, gears are switched, and you are listening to acoustic folk guitar and sitar, which melts into a cool ostenato riff flanging around, that just builds and builds, with countermelody on Violin (or Veena?) and guitar weaving in and out, along with the drum parts…
Shock
"Schock" was released in 1977 and directed by horror maestro Mario Bava, released while Italian horror cinema was at its peak, following the international success of Dario Argento with Deep Red and Suspiria. While Goblin soundtracked the work of Argento, the choice for the music of Schock fell on Libra, (distant relatives of Goblin , thanks to drummer Walter Martino and guitarist Carlo Pennisi). In ‘77 Libra, after a brief dalliance with legendary soul/funk label Motown, had practically split up…