Reissues
How to Make a Happening
Historic release. Originally released as an LP in 1966 by Mass Art, this is Allen Kaprow, father of The Happening explaining how to do it, and what is - and is not - a Happening.Simple in construction, yet profound in context, How to Make a Happening is Allan Kaprow delivering 11 rules on how, and how not, to make a Happening, an movement begun by Kaprow in the late fifties that is known for its unpredictability, open scores, and constantly-evolving form. On the first track, Kaprow speaks plainl…
Forerunners - Swedish Electronic & Concrete Music 1955-65
With Karl-Birger Blomdahl: Mimamusik (1959). Bengt Hambraeus: Doppelrohr 2 (1955). Rune Lindblad: Formation (1958-59), Optica 2 (1960). Arne Mellns: Nite Music (1964). Sten Hanson: Fruits de mer (1962). Åke Karlung: Antihappening (1962). Leo Nilsson: Skorpionen (1964). Ralph Lundsten: Atomskymning (1964). Bengt Emil Johnson: Enmans Gubbdrunkning (1964). Lars-Gunnar Bodin: Den heter ingenting, den heter nog 'Seans 2' (1965). The cd includes a 16 page booklet with texts by Sten Hanson.
Keio Line
An incredible collaboration that sweeps across the generations of electronic music. Richard Pinhas is internationally recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians: the 'father' of French electronic music. He was the founder of Heldon, a band whose violent fusion of electronics and guitar in the 70s rivalled the German electronic school. As a guitar player he has been compared to Robert Fripp. Cited as an influence by many electronic musicians, Richard Pinhas has helped to define th…
Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted: Baghdad, 1925-1929
In the mid-1920s, The Gramophone Company sent representatives into Iraq to investigate the indigenous music found in its record stores and performance halls. Their research laid the foundation for sessions that produced almost 1,000 recordings. The selections on this disc, restored from their original 78s, present a compelling multicultural portrait of Iraq that is all but forgotten today.Rural Arab folk singers, Kurdish violinists, professional Jewish musicians, and prostitutes share equal bill…
Live At The I.C.A. / Retrospective
The English free jazz improvisation scene of the late 60s and early 70s was an incestuous breeding ground. Robert Fripp was producing albums by Keith Tippet, Brian Eno was using Derek Bailey and Evan Parker on albums of odd Russian electronic music on Island, and labels like EMI and RCA were actually taking a stab at selling this music to a large market. Amidst all this was Ray Russell, a popular session guitarist, also playing in John Barry's group, also reputed to be the first guitarist in Eng…
Soldier Talk
The Red Crayola's Soldier-Talk returns at last. Drag City Records are proud to announce that, after having been missing in action for twenty-eight years, this vital, much acclaimed work is now available again. Soldier-Talk appeared first on Radar Records. A custom label built around Elvis Costello, financed and distributed by WEA, Radar had licensed the International Artists catalog in 1978 and had already re-released the band's first album, The Parable of Arable Land, and first single, 'Wives i…
Live 1967
Rescued from a long slumber of loathe, these live tapes of the Houston Red Crayola rejoin us to the truth about flower power: all free, all form, all freaked out.
Japlan
Japanese-only CD reissue of what was originally a Japanese-only LP in the 80s, issued in support of a Der Plan tour. Der Plan is a German music art group who is running an independent label Ata Tak. The original LP was released only in Japan in 1985. Including 12. EP track, 2 unreleased tracks. Japan only.
Beziehungen
The second and the last album by Annexus Quam originally released in 1972 on the Ohr label. Sound engineer: Dieter Dierks. Reissue with elaborate miniature paper sleeve of the original LP (full color print, coated sleeve). 2008 digital remaster version, limited to 1,000 copies!After the release of their debut album Osmose and much playing in jazz festivals, Annexus Quam fronted some personnel changes and settled down to a quintet. The band was now Hans Kämper (trombone, Spanish guitar, flute), H…
Trilogie 1979-1988
Erick Moncollin, Mastermind behind ADN’ Ckrystall and famous for his great and extremely rare Synth/Minimal-Wave-Records on Lp and 7“ has finally digged into his archive and provided VOD with the long awaited for collection of the 10 year A-D-N-Trilogie. All tracks are from 1979-1988 -- including the mythicals sessions of the "Museum-ep", the "Rock Noire" mini-album, as well as tracks from "ADN'La Catastrophe" and others rarities. Members will recieve a 4 Track 7“ Bonus that includes the hits De…
Lest We Forget
"Lest We Forget" is a collection compiled from the earliest recordings by Nocturnal Emissions, a group founded by Nigel Ayers, his brother Daniel Ayers and Caroline K in 1980. It comprises of material previously only available on cassettes as well as tracks recorded under their earlier name, The Pump. The Nocturnal Emissions were active in what has been known as “cassette culture” and explored the medium of underground cassette exchange in parallel with their better known vinyl releases and live…
Opera Plus
Opera Plus is a reissue of Tape's 2002 full-length debut Opera (HAPNA 009CD), with three new tracks taken from the original 2002 sessions. Tape are Johan Berthling, Andreas Berthling and Tomas Hallonsten: guitars, laptop, pedals, synthesizers, harmonium, melodica, field recordings, percussion, harmonica, zither, piano, flute, bells, glockenspiel, accordion, trumpet, paper, styrofoam, yongmei. As Stephan Mathieu wrote at the time of this release, "Tape's music lives at the intersection of a 21st …
Frowny Frown
EXCLUSIVE ADVANCE RELEASE! A could-have-been classic from John Terrill, cofounder of Bloomington's the Dancing Cigarettes. Unlike the wiry art-punk of his late-'70s band, "Frowny Frown" is a far more intimate set of homespun pop-psychedelia, recorded between 1989-99 and only hand-pressed for close friends. A halcyonic journey with rich layers of vocal harmonies (perhaps a sly nod to "Smiley Smile") that fans from Bobb Trimble to Galaxie 500 will find much to love. Includes a bonus track from '84…
The GrimmRobe Demos
Seventy two minutes of bestial riffing and unholy drone. Very first recordings (circa 1998). Originally released via Hydra Head in edition of 700 in 2000. Bonus Track not on original release.
Goodbye 20th Century
Goodbye 20th Century is a double album of covers of Avant-garde recordings by Sonic Youth and collaborators. SYR4 features works by avant-garde classical composers such as John Cage, Yoko Ono, Steve Reich, and Christian Wolff played by Sonic Youth along with several collaborators from the modern avant-garde music scene, such as Christian Marclay, William Winant, Wharton Tiers, Takehisa Kosugi and others. The album received mixed reviews, but most critics praised the group's efforts at popularizi…
Tiromancy
New recordings and a couple of their unreleased tracks. Another Japanese CD from 1997 by this oblique improv collective. In some ways, just as traditional as a bunch of Sun Ra acolytes, in others more bent than actual acid casualties, Tiromancy splashes down swaddled in rainbow dots, early Playboy chic, laughing gas electronics, conflicting vapors, surround-seep ooze-adelia, and highly agile mental capabilities. Japanese import.
Smegma is an American experimental noise group formed in Pasadena, …
Syr 5
The fifth release in Sonic Youth's SYR series doesn't even feature Sonic Youth at all, but rather an avant-garde power trio of SY bassist Kim Gordon, turntablist DJ Olive, and programming electro-goddess Ikue Mori. The music is ultra-abstract and mood-driven, filling the listening space with a dark ambience constructed by Olive's incredibly resonant choice of samples and Mori's carefully tweaked bleeps. Gordon predictably contributes with a dose of noise guitar, though the source of sounds on th…
Songs From The Source
Twelve amazing songs recorded live in the Father House garage as a rehearsal for a live date that Spirit of '76 (aka YaHoWa 13, also now known as Children of the Sixth Root Race, Father Yod's "house band") had at the Whisky in the summer of 1973. It's still a mystery how a 1/4" tape copy of the recording was found in Chicago in 2006. Djin Aquarian, guitarist of Children of the Sixth Root Race and composer of all but one of the songs on the album, recalls being sent on a mission to Chicago later …
new horizons
Chicago pianist Sun Ra emerged as a leader on the jazz scene early in 1956, when he assembled a group of neo-boppers that contributed to the original and exciting jazz sound offered by his new Sun Ra Arkestra, a medium-sized group that swung like a giant locomotive, an effect primarily due to an interesting use of two basses playing simultaneously.They featured the power of big band ensemble along with the excitement of combo blowing by fine soloists, among them the driving tenor John Gilmore, …
Go Home
One of the rarest Art Ensemble albums ever -- an obscure recording issued only briefly by the equally obscure Calloway Records in France. The set's got a spare, moody feel to it -- and seems to use a bit more stringed instruments than on some of the group's other recordings -- especially on the longer track "Dance ", which matches the usual basswork of Malachi Favors with some additional violin or cello stylings, possibly performed by the rest of the group -- although the cover's not much on not…