Itchy Spots
The Berlin based duo Itchy Spots combine falling words with tricky rhythms. Their music concerns the simultaneity of intensity and nonchalance, feverish high speed drumming, static sounds and tribal hypnosis. The vocal performance seems to stand alone, it is independent from whats happening rhythmically, yet it all melts together perfectly. Grooving skeletons of songs, rituals and shamanism. Itchy Spots are James Main (former singer and lyricist with Wild Daughter) and Ansgar Wilken (Ilse Lau, F…
Top Natural Drum
Following releases on West Mineral and Lillerne Tapes, Iggy Romeu’s inimitable Mister Water Wet project makes its Soda Gong debut. “Top Natural Drum” feels like a double entendre ode to digging culture, drawing equally from the plantlife in the dirt and the grooves in the stacks. Tracks like opener “Soak” concoct a haze of resonant ceramic/wooden percs, skittering drum programming, and addictive yet diffuse melodic and harmonic textures. Dusty-fingered nodders like “Caged at Last”, “Classicfit,”…
¡Ay!
Tip! Lucrecia Dalt channels innate sensory echoes of growing up in Colombia on her new album ¡Ay!, where traditional instrumentation encounters adventurous impulse and sci-fi meditations on atemporality in an exclamation of liminal delight. Dalt’s introspective approach to composition, last surfaced on her entrancing 2020 album No era sólida, refracts across ¡Ay! in a subconscious spectrum of the music genres she absorbed as a child. Treasured sounds and syncopations of bolero, mambo, salsa, and…
Tree of Life
Midori Takada's 1999 album Tree Of Life was only Takada's second solo LP after the release of 1983 debut Through The Looking Glass, was originally made available on CD only by Japanese label BAJ Records. Reissues of Takada's music by WRWTFWW, including her work with Mkawju Ensemble, triggered a return to live touring for the artist in recent years. She also released a collaborative record with Lafawndah, called Le Renard Blue, in 2018, while her first new solo material in 23 years arrived earlie…
39 / Part I – III
The piece consists, as the title suggests, of three parts. Each of these parts contains a so-called large form. These consist of 39 tracks each and are played on deadwood, a drum, and on 39 pine cones, respectively. The note values, the corresponding rests, as well as the tempi are rolled. In part, the durations of the individual sequences are also determined with the dice according to a strict concept. Besides the mentioned sound sources, stones, water, footsteps, church bells, etc. also appear…
Kannon-Daiji
WRWTFWW Records and MEG Museum (Geneva) announce a new full-length album by celebrated Japanese percussionist Midori Takada, in collaboration with Buddhist monks belonging to the Samgha group of the Shingon school of Koya-san, led by Reverend Syuukoh Ikawa. Recorded at The Premises Studio (London) and in Tokyo in 2019, You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana is a majestic work combining a suite of six Buddhist liturgical chants and a musical creation by Midori Takada. The Buddhist chants come from three …
A Sign 2
*2022 stock* 'Since the 70's, the club "nu things Jajouka ~ environment 0g [zero-gauge]" produced by Yuzuru Agi has been crossing various scenes such as progressive rock, contemporary music, punk, new wave, industrial, house, techno, and club jazz, and has always been trying to decipher the coming era. This double-CD compilation “a sign 2” featuring 15 artists gathered in the club. The seeds of cutting-edge music that sprouted in the 2010s have blossomed here.' - Satoru Higashiseto
Live At Servant Jazz Quarters
In December 2021 just before Christmas Holy Tongue played an intimate live show at Servant Jazz Quarters in London. The show was recorded and is presented here on cassette in its entirety as a snapshot of the continually evolving Holy Tongue live experience.
Windsong (LP)
2022 small repress Morning Trip & Yoga Records are proud to finally reveal one of the ultimate lost masterworks of new age music: Alice Damon’s Windsong. Gently propelled by Damon's haunting breath-of-life vocal winds reminiscent of Joan La Barbara underscored by field recordings and Damon's fretless bass sound calling to mind mid-70 Joni Mitchell, Windsong is traveling music, for the roads or for the skies. Instantly moving, it conjures vistas both romantically familiar and cosmically mysterio…
Dual
*In process of stocking* VAxBY is Albert van Abbe & Byetone. Dutch sound artist Albert van Abbe now joins the Raster family, with an unexpected collaboration with founder Olaf Bender aka Byetone title »Dual«. The result of their collaboration is both smooth and haptic, rounding out as an expressive camaraderie between the two veteran producers. Jovial and innocent, »Dual« alludes to the experimental research process of finding common ground. Fully embracing the haphazard richness of live recordi…
None Corsa
Debut vinyl outing for Valentina Magaletti and Pino Montecalvo’s Avvitagalli project couretesy of London's Horn of Plenty label. Variegated percussion + WTF jams inspired by a visit to an abandoned, torched palazzo somewhere in southern Europe. Its charred, decaying splendour casts a fitting backdrop to the surreal push-pull of Valentina & Pino’s aural capers. None Corsa explores presence and absence, purpose and chance, and the tension between serenity and disquiet. Composing and decomposing, g…
Merzbeat
*20th anniversary reissue!* Merzbow's Merzbeat is one the most unique and legendary titles in the artist's vast archive. This 20th anniversary reissue is being issued at the same time as CD reissue of his 1983 album Material Action 2 and a brand new collaboration with Arcane Device, all on Important Records. Originally released in 2002, Merzbeat contains over 50 minutes of aggressive, psychedelic, organic, analog beat oriented Merzbow compositions. Drummed rhythms, massive looping samples, a pun…
Elders
Tip! Elders is the debut release from Ensemble Nist-Nah, a nine-piece percussion group led by Nantes-based Australian drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie. The diverse group of French musicians that make up Ensemble Nist-Nah – whose collective experience encompasses traditional Gamelan performance, contemporary composition, noise, jazz, and everything in between – perform on drum kits, traditional and junk percussion, and a complete set of Javanese Gamelan instruments. Though building on the f…
Hiking The Trails Of Mount Muzak
No time to waste: nine months after Tim Vanhamel released 'Dubs Pour Oh La La', his debut album under the moniker Comité Hypnotisé, the Millionaire frontman presents already the second album 'Hiking The Trails Of Mount Muzak'. Hardly leaving any traces of the dubbed out vibe which marked the first record, Tim expands his Comité Hypnotisé universe to a surprising next level on this second album: exploring a place where James Last, Wu-Tang Clan and Dj Shadow are cooking up a Thai meal in a Peruvia…
Probables
On his first solo LP, Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy (the spectacular drummer of Pneu, Binidu, la Colonie de vacances among many other projects) explores a feild between contemporary music, minimalism and sound art.
Sommé-e
Many superb records by drummers exist already, but JB Geoffroy has no interest in simply following in the footsteps of Chris Corsano, Man Forever or Will Guthrie, all of whom he cites as touchstones,but in this case a drum record without drums is a a step into expanded percussion and wild sonic experimentation.
White Smoke
Unusual instrumentation and interaction from the trio of percussionist Mike Goyvaerts (Canaries on the Pole), saxophonist Jeffey Morgan (releases on Headlight, Konnex) and EMS synthesist Willy Van Buggenhout. Buggenhout and Goyvaerts are known for their electroacoustic duo Hotzeniebotsze, while Goyvaerts is also a long-term member of Fred Van Hove's W.I.M. (Workshop of Improvising Music). The trio use great technical skills and a unique approach to playing that mixes conventional and alien sound…
People Pleaser Pt.II / Electric Rag (2LP in bundle)
This special bundle collects the two recently issued albums by acclaimed experimental percussionist Will Guthrie, including his latest collaboration with Jean-Luc Guionnet:Will Guthrie "People Pleaser - Pt. II" LPWill Guthrie / Jean-Luc Guionnet "Electric Rag" LPWill Guthrie "People Pleaser - Pt. II" LPA singular exercise in Will Guthrie's discography, “People Pleaser”, a series initiated in 2017, sees the Australian partially put down his drumsticks and wear a producer cap for a result offerin…
Yüen Shan
Michael Ranta is one of those rare composers able to organically melt his wide artistic span into a singular but yet diverse universe morphing his rich vocabulary as a percussionist with the Oriental esoteric tradition, the psychedelic underground and the realm of electronic minimalism.Yuen Shan (Round Mountain in chinese) was conceived in 1972 and finalised in 2014. It’s a major work in Ranta’s oeuvre (his first solo release in almost 25 years), highly personal and spiritual. A musical cosmogon…
People Pleaser Pt.II
Tip!! A singular exercise in Will Guthrie's discography, “People Pleaser”, a series initiated in 2017, sees the Australian partially put down his drumsticks and wear a producer cap for a result offering a resolutely singular perspective of / on his work with a very personal dimension. On the first volume, with a cover signed Stephen O'Malley sets the tone by diverting the chamaré Warhol influenced visual of the album “Unit Structures” by Cecil Taylor. The portrait of the free jazz pianist has be…