Reissues
Steve Allen's Hip Fables
Before Sesame Street or Yo Gabba Gabba made art for kids that their parents understood on a whole other level, there were Hip Fables. Pop prose originally put to pulp by the pen of Steve Allen circa the ‘50s, which inspired a popular album and even a book titled Hip Fables (Simon & Schuster). The original recording featured Steve Allen on the piano accompanied by King Cool himself, Chicago DJ and Impulse! recording artist Al Jazzbeaux Collins!
In 1983 under the watchful eye of original producer …
Starting Point
Tip! In 1975, under the oppressive air of military dictatorship in Brazil, brothers Lelo and Zé Eduardo Nazario invited bassist Zeca Assumpção to join their musical experiments in a basement under Sao Paulo’s Teodoro Sampaio Street. As teenagers, the trio had already been playing together in Hermeto Pascoal’s Grupo, alongside guitarist Toninho Horta and saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, and it was while working together under Hermeto’s direction that the Paulista rhythm section (as they were then kno…
Doctor Dancing Mask: Pianoisms
Neil S. Kvern’s Doctor Dancing Mask: Pianoisms is a near mythical marker on the map of late 20th century experimentalism transpiring in America’s Pacific Northwest. A sublime, spacious effort of left field DIY minimalism constructed from recurring piano pieces, hypnotic percussion, and a peppering of diverse instrumentation, vocals, and invisible effects, Doctor Dancing Mask illuminates a hidden but remarkable legacy of a young composer at the height of his creativity and consciousness.
Original…
Plastic Carved Out In The Shape Of The Music
6-panel digipack with a 12-page booklet. Edition of 500 copies * Plastic Carved Out In The Shape Of The Music compiles all the non-album releases of the 1990s by Dunedin free improvisation quartet-cum-trio, Sandoz Lab Technicians. One of many hermetic enclaves of creative endeavour in the nineties NZ underground, Sandoz Lab Technicians are James Kirk (also of King Loser, The Stumps, Black Boned Angel, Renderizors, etc.), Nathan Thompson (Sleep, Renderizors, Eye, Expansion Bay, etc.), Tim Corneli…
Bread Love And Dreams
"The debut album by this two-woman, one-man trio presented contemporary British folk with the slightest of pop and folk-rock edges. The most prominent pop embroidery was found in the occasional sweeping, haunting string arrangements; there were also dabs of organ, harp, and percussion here and there. It was pretty but somewhat bland music on the border of late-'60s British folk-rock, the songs faintly echoing those of U.K. peers such as Donovan and Bert Jansch.
Bread, Love and Dreams had a sligh…
La Perversita
*2023 repress!! Limited edition* Sofa Records is delighted to propose the reissue of this seminal French underground record ! Released in 1979, this concept record is an attempt to sublimate sexual perversion. It results from the association between Jacques Pasquier (founder of S.C.O.P.A./Invisible Records and central figure of the Parisian alternative scene during the 70s), the producer Hector Zazou, the outraging graphic design collective Bazooka and other talents from the outskirts of artisti…
Solaire
Ah those child prodigies… Siegfried Kessler, learned piano at 4, gave his first concert at 6, then studied classical music when the discovery of jazz blew everything up. So the pianist played with Dexter Gordon or Joe Henderson, created the cult group Perception and, before becoming Archie Shepp’s long-time accompanist, created his own jewels: recorded in 1971 with Gus Nemeth and Stu Martin, Solaire is the rarest of all. The brightest, the one we want to play all the time and never loose!
Une Bien Curieuse Planète
From 1960 to the present day, from Georges Arvanitas to Laetitia Shériff, or from Manu Dibango to "Mama" Béa Tékielski, everyone has wanted to include François Jeanneau in their team at some point. This, his first album under his own name, was recorded for Jef Gilson’s Palm label in 1975, a few months after ‘’Watch Devil Go’’ by Thollot, with more or less the same cast: Jeanneau on saxophone, Jenny-Clark on double bass and percussion, Lubat replaces Thollot on drums and Michel Grailler is added …
Meu Balanço
This one takes us back! We originally reissued Waltel Branco's 'Meu Balanço' in 1995, it was one of the first releases to come out on Mr Bongo. It is a much-requested title with original copies becoming ever more-scarce and the price tag increasingly rising, so it feels fitting to present this stunning record once again for all to enjoy. Waltel Branco was born in Paranaguá, Brazil in 1929 and died in Rio de Janeiro in 2018. During his triumphant career he accumulated an impressive musical portfo…
Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei
Rubinho E Mauro Assumpção's 'Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei' has to be up there as one of the finest Brazilian-psych-folk-MPB records we know. Unfortunately, it's very hard to find in the wild; even on digging trips to Brazil, an original copy rarely shows up, and when it does, it comes with a hefty price tag. This highly sought-after rarity was released on the Brazilian label Tapecar Records in 1972 and is the one and only album by the sensational pairing of Rubinho and Mauro Assumpçã…
Carolina
Carolina is the Brazilian virtuoso Seu Jorge's debut full-length album from 2002. Originally released under the title ‘Samba Esporte Fino’, its release and subsequent international acclaim dovetailed with Seu Jorge’s ascent into movie stardom. He is probably best known outside of Brazil for his work on Wes Anderson’s 2004 film 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’, in which he played a starring role and his Portuguese covers of David Bowie records were a highlight of the soundtrack. Having initia…
Bečvou
Bečva is a river located in the Eastern part of Czech Republic. In September 2020, several chemical leaks into the river caused the poisoning and subsequent death of 40 tons of wildlife in the waterway – an unprecedented catastrophe. Growing up in Přerov, Bečva was an ever-present part of Tomáš Niesner’s youth and this environmental disaster affected him deeply. In an effort to understand the river better and inspired by Werner Herzog’s ‘Of Walking in Ice’, Niesner set out on a journey from the …
Eleki Bushi 1966-1974
The aftermath of World War II gave rise to a global phenomenon that saw new generations of young people rise up determined to forge new paths from their elders – culturally, politically, and musically. Japan was no exception and the recent past made the local youth angrier, hungrier and even more determined to fully experience something different from their parents. The country caught on to the early rock & roll craze almost in tandem as it was happening in the States. Teenager Chiemi Eri singin…
Live...
Tip! "This album features Pharoah Sanders playing some no-nonsense tenor in a quartet with pianist John Hicks, bassist Walter Booker, and drummer Idris Muhammad. Sanders performs "It's Easy to Remember" (in a style very reminiscent of early-'60s John Coltrane), an original blues, and two of his compositions, including the passionate "You've Got to Have Freedom." The musicianship is at a high level and, although Sanders does not shriek as much as one might hope (the Trane-ish influence was partic…
Todos Os Olhos
Long-awaited legit (and High Quality) Brazilian reissue of this collectible avant madness LP from 1973 from one of the most influential artist in the Tropicália movement of 1960s Brazil. The joke with this album is that the album art -- which looks like an eyeball -- is actually a photo of a marble shoved up someone's anus... a little jab at the Brazilian dictatorship's office of censorship, which apparently didn't recognize a mirror when they saw one. Tom Ze's nutty side comes dancing to the fo…
Correio Da Estação Do Brás
A fluid, low-key effort, with less of the challenging, music box melodies of his earlier efforts. This is a record which eases its way past your ears (and I mean that in a good way!) It’s not sappy or unchallenging, but it is a lot smoother and less overtly avant than the stuff David Byrne loves so much.” – slipcue.com
Tom Zé began his career together with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Maria Bethânia. As a composer, he influenced Caetano and many others and delivered an expressive…
Se O Caso É Chorar
"Wonderful 70s work from Tom Zé! The record's a bit more straightforward than some of his other records from the decade, and has a number of tracks with a samba sound at the base – but there's more than enough fantastic material to keep the record fresh, and Tom's writing is as great as ever. There's a vocal group that sings with Zé on many of the tracks on the record – but they also seem to sometimes act as a Greek chorus, in response to breakaway vocal passages that are dominated by Zé. The wh…
Autour De La Lune
*2023 reissue* Mark Richardson, Pitchfork: Biosphere's Geir Jenssen knows from cold. Residing as he does near the Arctic Circle in Norway, Jenssen understands the psychological implications of a sun that, like a lamented deadbeat parent, routinely disappears for months at a time, and the absence of that essential lifeforce takes an inevitable emotional toll that informs Jenssen's art. It's tempting to say that Biosphere's bleak music sounds as it does for the same reason countries of Norway's ap…
N-Plants
*2023 reissue* Early February 2011: Decided to make an album inspired by the Japanese post-war economic miracle. While searching for more information I found an old photo of the Mihama nuclear plant. The fact that this futuristic-looking plant was situated in such a beautiful spot so close to the sea made me curious. Are they safe when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis? Further reading revealed that many of these plants are situated in earthquake-prone areas, some of them are even located nex…
The Grove
Big Blood are Colleen Kinsella and Caleb Mulkerin who live in South Portland, Maine, where they make and record experimental music at home. They have made twenty-something records since 2006. The music is a vehicle for dealing with what is going on in their heads, which runs the gamut from friends they have lost, to frustrations during the day, and the larger world picture. Without sounding insincere, they make music for themselves, that at times can be wildly inconsistent.
In 2007, they releas…