From Lawrence English: "This recording was, in many ways, a critical one for me. In some respects, it rounded out a period of work that was focused on a particular marriage of thematics and harmony. Like For Varying Degrees Of Winter, it dwelled on old world impressions of the seasons, something that, in the southern hemisphere, isn't intrinsically part of our way of approaching place. I think it was this incongruity with my own lived experience that kick-started the interest in making these recordings. The intention had originally been to take Vivaldi head-on, as the holder of the Four Seasons terrain (I jest of course), but shortly after completing this album, it became resoundingly clear that even in the old world, seasonality was a thing that was known 'then', and unknowable 'now'. Climate change, as a lived experience and not merely as a 'possibility', suddenly came into focus with reports flooding in about the climatic dynamics since the turn of the century and events like the Black Saturday fires here in Australia. It felt like, and continues to feel like, seasonality as some predictable measure of our world is relegated to the 'before' times. This record is not about these climatic shifts however, more a recognition of how we have used patterns and predictability to guide us over the centuries and perhaps a realization that the way forward is not the path we have known historically. Listening back to the record with fresh ears, a process made completely delightful by Stephan Mathieu who has carefully remastered it, I am struck by how minimal some of the structures were. There are moments that strike me as uncharacteristically patient and even generous, allowing one element to hold without interference. I'm grateful to still feel a deep connection to this edition and to the people and places that helped shape it. I hope you find some sense of your place here. It's offered with that intention and invitation."

LP version. First-ever reissue of this elusive private pressing from 1970 by British singer/songwriter Keith Noble (a founding member of pre-Pink Floyd bands Sigma 6/The Abdabs and co-composer of Chad & Jeremy's hit "A Summer Song"). Mr. Compromise, originally released as a tiny demo pressing on the custom Eden label (home also of other psych-folk rarities like Mourning Phase), showcases the versatile songwriting talent of Noble: jazzy-bossa pop, Kinks/Hollies/Byrds styled full electric numbers and haunting psychedelic folk not unlike Al Stewart or Incredible String Band. Featuring Keith's friend from the pre-Floyd days Rado Klose (one of the earliest members of Pink Floyd) on lead guitar. After the album release, Keith Noble dedicated his life to architecture and teaching and he also wrote several musicals. Sadly, he passed away in 2014. This long-awaited reissue of Mr. Compromise has been possible with help from the Noble family. Featuring remastered sound with original artwork in hard cardboard sleeve. Includes insert with detailed liner noted by Richard Allen and photos, as well as download card.

Accurately described by Thurston Moore as "great for meditating to the cosmos," Terry Riley's classic Descending Moonshine Dervishes is available again in a limited edition repress. Originally recorded live in Berlin in 1975 and released by Kuckuck in 1982, Beacon Sound reissued the album in 2016 to widespread acclaim. Using just intonation and a modified organ, Riley conjures forth a rich and layered sound that challenges the Western ear, reflecting his associations with Indian classical singer Pandit Pran Nath and La Monte Young, whose Well Tuned Piano was well underway. Descending Moonshine Dervishes is a virtuosic and kaleidoscopic performance, standing as one of the finest works of a revolutionary composer and musician at the height of his powers. Recorded in concert November 29, 1975 at Metamusik Festival in Berlin. Originally mastered by Stephen Hill. Remastered in 2016 by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Front cover painting by Helmut Zimmermann. Back cover photography by Roberto Masotti.

"Descending Moonshine Dervishes' dates from 1975 and it belongs to a larger Dervish series of compositions whose origins predate Riley's two signature works of minimalism, 'In C' (1968) and 'A Rainbow In Curved Air' (1969)? (the piece is) structured around just intonation, which stretches the listening experience into new areas. Played on a Yamaha organ with a bit of tape delay that allows Riley to duet with himself, the music of Descending Moonshine Dervishes is an ear expansion that goes through skittering arpeggios and long, droning notes that indicate something of the many levels that it operates on." --Louise Gray, The Wire Magazine (2017)

"Terry Riley has become a totemic presence in music over the past half-century." --The Guardian

Essential collection of demos and acetates (1968-69) by psychedelic hard-rock/proto-prog British band Andromeda, mostly done by their original line-up: John Cann on guitar and vocals, Mick Hawksworth on bass, and Jack McCulloch (brother of guitar player Jimmy McCulloch) on drums. Raw psychedelic hard-rock with John Cann's guitar on fire. Out of print since 1990, this new, improved edition fixes some credits/tracklisting mistakes of the original release and includes a new insert with liner notes and photos. Cover illustration by Micah Ulrich.

LP version. Monster tripped-out Floydian psychedelia/krautrock by this band from Düsseldorf featuring visual artist Gabor Baksay. This is their sought-after album originally released in 1972. Dark, atmospheric, hypnotic sound with percussion, flute, organ, guitars and early electronics/proto-industrial sound collages. DOM (Gabor and Laszlo Baksay, Rainer Puzalowski and Hans-Georg Stopka) evolved from a beat/psychedelic band called the Early Birds, later Set Mind, who were in a sort of sporty competition with another group called Spirits of Sounds, featuring Michael Rother's Pre-NEU and Kraftwerk drummer Wolfgang Flür. DOM were regulars at underground clubs from Düsseldorf such as the Creamcheese, where they rubbed shoulders with early Krafwerk and Can. Edge Of Time was recorded at the legendary Neubauer Studios and subsequently released on the tiny Melocord label in 1972. Its enigmatic cover was designed by a friend of the band, Jutta Keime. Remastered sound with original artwork in cardboard sleeve and OBI. Includes insert with liner notes by Klemen Breznikar and rare photos. RIYL: Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Mythos, Kluster, Popol Vuh, Yatha Sidhra.

2024 repress; originally released in 2016. Wilson Tanner's 69 returns to Australian soil for a new season. A uniquely provincial take on ambient music, Andrew Wilson (Andras) and John Tanner (Eleventeen Eston) assembled their prized debut over a shared love of seafood, wine and LPG. Recorded in a Perth backyard, these two new friends reached for the tools at hand and made the best of the fine weather. Instrument and implement combine in a languorous bricolage of synthesizer, clarinet and building materials -- interrupted only by the occasional flutter of pigeon wings or a call to lunch. Back in print for the first time since 2017, Wilson Tanner hop into Efficient Space's expanding pot.

While their name may conjure images of avian origami, rolled cannabis, or cut-up 10th letters, Paper Jays are an instrumental music body from Rhode Island that became fully formed during the session for this eponymous release on ESP-disk. Previously, Jesse Cohen and Justin Hubbard's guitar duo (a trio, only if counting the unmanned feedback drone of a hollow-bodied Gibson) had been contentedly performing and apartment taping for a solid five years. But after witnessing drummer and percussionist Matt Crane back Linda Sharrock at the local House of Pizza, their vision for Paper Jays widened. The ensuing studio recording date with Crane yielded results that greatly pleased all three gentlemen, and a new Paper Jays began. When playing, Jesse and Justin bend, abstract, and honor world and domestic string traditions through their amplified guitars. Matt brings tight (and loose) syncopated rhythms with occasional freer excursions on his array of percussion instruments from varied folkloric sources. Overall, their output travels from intentional, pleasant figures merged with staggered but controlled phrasing to more extemporaneous, unsystematic, and liberated expressions.

2024 repress. "As music fans know, James Brown wasn't just the greatest funk and soul singer the world has ever seen -- he was also a musical visionary and businessman, who surrounded himself with geniuses who made him better and pushed him further. From horn masters Maceo Parker and Pee Wee Ellis to vocalists Lyn Collins and Bobby Byrd, Brown was a musical A & R master, restless and always looking for the next big thing. Most times, that would manifest in the latest James Brown smash under his own name. But not always. His stable of talent was overflowing in the '60s and '70s, and, thankfully, the tape machine in his studio was always rolling. Originally released in 1988, during the era of hip-hop's golden age of sampling, it's no surprise that just about every note heard in this incredible collection has been used on not one but multiple rap classics. Which, at the time, was proof of Brown's (and his crew's) staying power. But we're almost three decades beyond those days now, and it has lost none of its musical potency. Diving deeper into the vaults than the also-incredible Part 1 of the Funky People series, there is not a weak track in the bunch. Moving beyond well-known JBs cuts, things get interesting from the get-go with Bobby Byrd's monumental groover 'I Know You Got Soul.' Hank Ballard and Marva Whitney also enter the fray, leading the way to Myra Barnes' emotional and powerful 'Message From The Soul Sisters (Parts 1 & 2)' and Lyn Collins' slow, smoldering cover of Isaac Hayes' 'Do Your Thing,' Politics even get the funky soul treatment, with Fred Wesley & The JBs' 'You Can Have Watergate But Gimme Some Bucks And I'll Be Straight' and 'I'm Paying Taxes, But What Am I Buying?' And it should not be overlooked that Maceo & The Macks' instrumental workout 'Soul Power '74' even features a proto-sampling snippet from MLK's 'I've Been To The Mountaintop' speech from 1968. This is another amazing collection of James Brown's funky friends, without one second of filler, brought to you as a glorious 2-LP gatefold by your friends at Get On Down."

Repressed. Vivid peyote-induced psychedelia from Texas sounding like an impossible meld between the Elevators and the Velvet Underground but possessing a strongly unique disposition. Recorded in 1970 but never released at the time, featuring future members of Roky Erickson's backing band Bleib Alien/The Aliens. Formed in Austin in the late 1960s by visionary lyricist and autoharp player Billy Bill Miller and his friend Tom McGarrigle on guitar, Cold Sun evolved from a band called Cauldron (later Amethyst) which at one point featured drummer John Kearney from Roky Erickson's first band The Spades. Miller, a proto-Goth figure always dressed in black, highly influenced by Joe Meek and vintage sci-fi/horror movies, started to experiment with weird noises out of his electrified autoharp, favoring the audio-oriented drug mescaline over the LSD associated with hippies. Amethyst jammed with musicians such as Benny Thurman from the 13th Floor Elevators and Steve Webb from the Lost And Found. It was through Mike Waugh's friendship with Elevators drummer John Ike Walton that Billy Miller and the band hooked up with the local label/studio Sonobeat, who expressed interest in recording an album with the intention to shop it to a major label: thus, the now-legendary Cold Sun album was born. The band, driven by Miller's strange electrified autoharp sounds plus the massive fuzz guitar of McGarrigle, dressed with feedback and futuristic lyrics, laid down several tracks in between rehearsals at Miller's house on Castle Hill (west Austin). Never released at the time, the Cold Sun album languished in oblivion and the musicians moved on to other things. It wasn't until 1990 that the Cold Sun album was finally released on vinyl by the Rockadelic label (in a tiny edition of 300 copies), followed by a new edition on German label World In Sound in 2008, now out of print. For this new edition, Guerssen tried to imagine how the Cold Sun album could have looked like if it had been actually released in 1970. It comes in a hard cardboard sleeve with vintage styled artwork by psychedelic illustrator Callum Rooney. Sourced from the same audio master as the original Rockadelic LP, the sound has been vastly improved thanks to the meticulous and careful restoration/remastering by audiophile engineer Ezra Lesser, who has also penned the definitive story of Cold Sun for the liner notes.

One of the rarest psychedelic garage albums ever, the Kaleidoscope album was recorded in the Dominican Republic by this Boricuan/Dominican band but released only in Mexico in 1969 as a tiny pressing, housed in a fantastic psychedelic sleeve designed by Bodo Molitor. Acid fuzz guitars, organ, demented vocals. Impossible to find in its original form, here's a welcomed reissue. Remastered sound. Original artwork in hard cardboard sleeve. Includes insert with detailed liner notes by Enrique Rivas and rare photos.

Limited restock. "Perfect 10 record...Music of the most high." -- Thurston Moore. Reissue for the epic Tapper Zukie's first album, originally released in 1973. Supervised by the original producer Clement Bushay! Zukie never expected these cuts to turn into an album, and was quite startled to discover this record in the London shops when he came to town in the spring of 1975. After 50 years Man Ah Warrior is still a lively and unique collection. The bassline and trademark guitar sound from The Temptations' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" is instantly recognizable in the title track with the riddim featuring just drum, bass, and riffing guitar. "I King Zukie" is a big tune, an interplay between the soulful vocal of "I Dont Know Why I Love You" (originally done by Stevie Wonder) and Tapper Zukie's toasting. All in all, a series of remarkable tunes such as the wicked "Viego", the hypnotic "Cally Dolly" and "Zukie Fashionwear" with a big trombone and at the beginning Willie Williams (although Delroy Wilson is mentioned in the song) singing lines from the Temptations song "Get Ready".

2024 repress, blue vinyl. Reissue, originally released in 1971. This isn't just a seminal album. It is an estuary. All the black rivers that would form Brazilian funk/hip-hop flow through it. Led by Paulista pianist Salvador Silva Filho -- Dom Salvador -- Som, Sangue, e Raça from 1971, one year after the explosion of Tim Maia on the scene, catalyzed the bossa nova and jazz background of its leader with the rhythm and blues of its members like saxophonist Oberdã Magalhães, nephew of samba-enredo master Silas de Oliveira and future leader of Banda Black Rio, who since the group Impacto 8 (which had, among others, Robertinho Silva on drums and Raul de Souza on trombone) had already been trying to reconcile MPB with Stevie Wonder and James Brown. Add to all this a mixture of samba, Nordestino accent, and even the black side of the Jovem Guarda represented by the authorial presence of Getúlio Cortes (older brother of Gerson King Combo, the James Brown "cover") in "Hei! Você". Alongside these elements and the presence of Rubão Sabino (bass), who still called himself "Rubens", drummer Luis Carlos (another member of Black Rio), the record enlists the trumpet and flugelhorn of symphonic musician Darcy in place of the original Barrosinho (yet one more founder of Black Rio), who was traveling during the recording but would end up being a leading force of the band. The album Som, Sangue e Raça paves the way for future generations of musicians and producers of the Carioca scene at the beginning of the 1970s. The lyrics that dealt with the question of race and the explosive fusion of samba, soul, jazz, and funk, elaborated by Dom Salvador and his troupe, Abolição, established the bases for the development of new sounds and tendencies in Brazilian music. 180 gram vinyl; deluxe hard-cardboard sleeve; OBI; resealable outer sleeve.

Recital presents an artists' record from the two giants Richard Hamilton and Dieter Roth. Hamilton (1922-2011) is revered as the father of British Pop Art as both theorist and practitioner, in addition to famously designing the artwork for The Beatles' White Album. Dieter Roth (1930-1998) was a Swiss German artist who blithely ignored all artistic boundaries and aesthetic dictums. His oeuvre includes hundreds of artist books, almost half a thousand prints, sculptures, multiples and records, all balanced between magnetic playfulness and self-deprecating paranoia. Roth also ran his own record/book press Dieter Roths' Verlag, and was a major force in the reckless improvisational music group Selten Gehörte Musik (1973-1979). The two artists most significant collaborations happened between 1976 and 1978, beginning with a series of 74 paintings in which they reworked each other's art. The paintings were made for an exhibition for dogs (as suggested by the late Marcel Broodthaers, to whom the works were dedicated) in Cadaqués, Spain. Hamilton and Roth then produced the catalogue Collaborations of Ch. Rotham with reproductions of all the paintings alongside four brilliant new collaborative texts. The narrative of the texts sprung from the "fairy story" (Hamilton) quality that emerged from these dog paintings -- a hallucinatory tapestry of sausages, gestating giants, Sancho Panza, Don Quixote, and a donkey. Together they gallop, humorous and beautifully absurd, across the wild field of an imaginary seaside backdrop with endless garbled iterations of ever-mutating names riddled with mad typos. For these recordings the individual texts were read by Roth and Hamilton, actor friend Duncan Smith, and a huge cast of British artists for the final play Die Grosse Bockwurst, performed at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1977. The recordings were first released on cassette on the Audio Arts label in 1978, and have now been remastered from the original tapes for this double vinyl edition. Also included are two booklets: one is a new essay written for this edition by artist and co-producer Malcolm Green (Red Sphinx, Atlas Press), alongside full reproductions of the Roth/Hamilton collaborative Ch. Rotham texts. Thanks to Björn Roth, Rita Donagh, Hansjörg Mayer, William Furlong, Tate Modern, and Hauser & Wirth.

Nour Mobarak's Dafne Phono is an adaptation of the first opera, Dafne, composed and written by Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini in 1598. Drawing on the myth of Daphne and Apollo from Ovid's Metamorphoses -- a story of unrequited love, patriarchal possession, conquest, and transformation -- Mobarak's multimedia and multispecies reimagining splinters the opera's Italian libretto. Alongside English and Greek versions, it is translated into some of the world's most phonetically complex languages -- Abkhaz, San Juan Quiahije Eastern Chatino, Silbo Gomero, and !Xoon. In this process, the narrative -- and an artifact of Western culture -- is dismantled, metabolized, and rendered into unruly utterances that shape the sensorium as much as they do the capacity for sense-making. These voices are given material form by a cast of mycelium sonic sculptures whose rhizomatic compositions and broadcasted recordings resemble the formation and mutation of language over time, reconstituting speech into a new, polyphonic body politic, composed of voices whose striking, poetic utterances transfix and transcend meaning. The A-Side of the record presents a stereo version of Mobarak's 15-channel sound installation, Dafne Phono. The B-Side uses a recording of a portion of the translation process the libretto underwent in Namibia, live-processed by the artist. Dafne Phono is released in tandem with a book of the same name, published by Wendy's Subway.

Pressed on amber color vinyl. "Black Bile compiles some of Umberto's most resplendent, sanguine music to date. The solo work of LA composer Matt Hill draws heavily from the world of cinema, spinning immersive narratives and rich atmospheres using sound alone. Hill, an active composer for film and television, recently scored the 2022 Jerry Pyle film Loveseat (soundtrack was released in 2023). Other recent scores include the 2020 thriller Archenemy, from the producers of cult classic Mandy. Inspired by the ancient Greek theory of the 'four humors,' an early medical theory linking the inner workings of the human body to the elements. Black Bile specifically links the feelings of melancholy with autumn. Hill's celestial compositions are an autumnal soundtrack conveying beauty, yearning, reflection and comfort. Many of the album's phrases are constructed from just two notes or sounds, arranged by Hill into complex patterns that undulate with an organic pulse. The spare melodic structure holds a myriad of small and beautiful details. The songs began with Hill improvising on the piano, to find the notes and patterns that created the musical and emotional structure from which he could expand with textural detail. Hill then would often remove the initial structure leaving a sparer and more skeletal one which he could again expand upon to create a full piece. The careful attention to each detail gives his minimal compositions emotional heft. The album masterfully stakes Umberto's claim among other avant-ambient boundary pushers such as Lawrence English or Laurel Halo."

"There is real compositional variety and intrigue in his songs? elaborate and unpredictable... it's hard not to be impressed with Umberto's evolution of late, as lacerating experience as it may be at times." --The Quietus

"Masterfully polished and skillfully arranged... dazzling" --Brainwashed

2024 restock; double LP version. Heavy 350gsm sleeve. WRWTFWW Records reissue Swiss cult band Grauzone's self-titled album in an expanded "40 Years Anniversary Edition" packed with the original 1981 album plus nine extra songs, as well as extensive liner notes by Swiss music historian Lurker Grand. The pioneering band from Bern (Switzerland) had a short-lived but highly-regarded career which birthed a cult discography that still fascinates and resonates today. Consisting of core members Martin Eicher, Stephan Eicher, and Marco Repetto, and on-and-off participants Christian GT Trüssel, Claudine Chirac, and Ingrid Berney, the elusive group broke new grounds in the early '80s, experimenting with punk and industrial music, early techno sounds, minimalism, new wave, pop, and various electronics. With an innovative and polished approach to design, visuals, performance, and all-around style and philosophy on top of their superb music, the constantly transforming unit developed a whole experience -- the Grauzone experience: wild and unpredictable, yet sophisticated and cohesive, or as Swiss music historian Lurker Grand would call it, "an Art band with a Punk attitude." Completely rejecting the music industry rules and refusing to play the game of promotion, touring, release schedules, and TV appearances even though they had a multi-platinum international hit with the song "Eisbär", the band quickly disintegrated in full convention-defying glory, leaving behind an inspiring music legacy for the world to discover and discover again, one generation after the other. This extended version of their debut (and only) album beautifully crystallizes the Grauzone miracle/accident -- where pop and youthful experimentation meet at (new/cold/no) wave and industrial crossroads, and where classic hits ("Eisbär", "FILM 2", "Raum", "Träume Mit Mir", "Der Weg Zu Zweit") flawlessly mesh with unconventional deep cuts ("In Der Nacht", "Film 1", "Maikäfer Flieg"). Very simply put: good timeless music with an edge. Stephan Eicher went on to be, arguably, the most successful Swiss musician ever, with an international career extending from pop chanson to experimental escapades and collaborations with Moondog, artists Sophie Calle and Sylvie Fleury, and author Martin Suter among many other luminaries. Marco Repetto flourished as a techno and ambient producer, releasing multiple projects including releases on Aphex Twin's Rephlex label. Sourced from the original reels and put together under the supervision of band member Stephan Eicher.

The beginning of the 1970s was a watershed moment in the terrestrial life of Sun Ra. With his band, the Arkestra, he began touring internationally. He and his manager Alton Abraham penned a deal with ABC-Impulse! for a series of records which introduced him to many new and distant listeners, as did his Blue Thumb LP Space is the Place. The film of the same name was under way in northern California at the time, too, and Ra accepted a lectureship at University of California, Berkeley, in 1971, teaching a class titled "The Black Man and the Cosmos." This course of study was held in some secrecy, apparently open exclusively to Black students who were strictly forbidden to record the lectures. Ra's assistants did, however, document the sessions, and some of these recordings have made their way to YouTube. The incredible half-hour of Berkeley Lecture presented here, however, is previously unknown, extracted from the Creative Audio Archive's extensive holdings. It presents Ra walking his students through a series of wonderful paradoxes and riddles, the sound of his chalk on the chalkboard serving as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on or complementing his highly creative pedagogy. At the end of the lecture, Ra performs two musical demonstrations, the first a piano version of the Arkestra classic "Love in Outer Space," followed by a blistering 16-minute solo on the Moog synthesizer. Available for the first time ever, with cover images of the original tape box and reel featuring Ra's annotations. Transfer by Todd Carter. Mastering by Alex Inglizian. Original tape box and reel from CAA. CD designed by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by John Corbett.

2024 restock; LP version. As Brian Eno famously said, "The studio is a musical instrument," Bruce Brubaker now says, "A musical instrument can be a studio." Eno Piano, is a stunning reinterpretation by American pianist Bruce Brubaker of selected tracks from Brian Eno's ambient masterpieces, including iconic Music for Airports as well as three original compositions venturing into his collaborations with Harold Budd, Hans Joachim Roedelius, Dieter Moebius, or Jon Hopkins. In his explorations of minimalism, Bruce Brubaker makes connections to music old and new. In his album Codex, there was a dialogue between open-form music by Terry Riley and very early keyboard pieces written down by anonymous scribes in the 15th century, while Brubaker's performances of music by Philip Glass enabled the releases of the critically acclaim Glass Piano and his collaboration on Glassform with Max Cooper (IF 1059CD/LP, 2020). Brian Eno's music is equally a significant part of the repetition-based musical minimalism in the 20th century. Eno Piano acknowledges a deep artistic bond. In Eno Piano, the piano, one of the first "synthesizers," becomes a new kind of fantastic resonating box -- a supernatural synthesizer. The album is a compelling discovery, a rereading, reinterpretation, "re-production" of Brian Eno's music, from the hands of a visionary virtuoso. Sonically, the record is a combination of Bruce's piano playing, and piano sounds made using new electromagnetic "bows" that vibrate strings inside the piano creating drone notes. The album represents a leap, into a new genre of post-ambient, post-piano piano music. Here, sound technology heightens artistic sensitivity, and the listener's presence in the moment. An instrument is reimagined, refashioned. The usual boundaries of time and sound loosen allowing the formation of a new 21st-century beauty.

2024 repress; LP version. "Originally released in 1982, Kakashi is another high water mark in the 80s Japanese underground. This album, which has gathered cult status in recent years, is the project of musical visionary Yasuaki Shimizu, and considered to be a highlight of his solo career. Shimizu was the bandleader of Mariah, who also saw their album Utakata No Hibi reissued by Palto Flats in 2015. Kakashi offers a similar blend of saxophone experimentations, jazz fusion and ambient dub excursions."

Hard and heavy first album by Hard Stuff, originally released in 1972 on Purple Records (the label set up by Deep Purple's management team). Quintessential British hard-rock/proto-metal, featuring the outstanding guitar playing of John Cann (Andromeda, Atomic Rooster) and the powerful rhythm section of John Gustafson (Quatermass) and Paul Hammond (Atomic Rooster). This first Hard Stuff album included a lot of reworked/newly recorded material from the early line-up of Hard Stuff under the Bullet name, with vocalist Harry "Al" Shaw, who also appears here on five of the tracks. Featuring remastered sound and original artwork in gatefold sleeve. Insert with liner notes by Plastic Crimewave and photos/memorabilia.

Beat machine freak duo Bill Converse and Patricia (Max Ravitz) present 380/750, a new EP on Acid Test that blends the two producers' singular styles to form an emotive "introspection on the dance floor" experience over the course of four tracks. Recorded at Ravitz's Brooklyn studio over the course of two days, 380/750 features raw, no-multitrack, no-edit live recordings that showcase the duo's intuition for expressive rhythm tracks. Considering Converse's roots in the '90s Michigan rave scene, and Ravitz's Chicago upbringing, the midwestern strains really shine through. With rhythm-composer mutations, acid dripping over atmospheric synth textures, and the ever-present jack throughout, 380/750 offers a deep sound to get lost in that feels both new and classic at the same time.

On his third album as Etelin, Alex Cobb explores the intricacies of separation and belonging using field recordings and electronics, reconfiguring the dividing line between what is artificial and natural in the process. Maintaining a sense of playful reverence and lurking melancholy in its glitchy pastoralism, Patio User Manual hums with a meticulous and singular energy. From the loops and static pulses of "The Chemistry of Cobalt" to the tension and release of "Electrical Sailing," the listener is pulled into a sound world at once ambivalent and radiant, reaching its denouement in the lovely melody that closes the final track, "Picnic at Gas Station Park." Although the album might bring to mind the nuanced and imaginative ambient music published by labels such as Mille Plateaux, Sonig, and Silent Records in the 1990s, it is, in the end, a world of its own and very much of today. The patio as a stage for alienated life, pyrrhic in its isolation, deceptive in its promise of distinction. Orientation as disorientation, often unseen inside the frame but felt in the bones. What is out there, anyway, other than the thing we fear the most? Written, recorded, and mixed by Alex Cobb, 2022-2023. Mastered by Guiseppe Ielasi. Design by Keith Freund and Alex McCullough.

"Another day of weird weather and screens. What type of perfume did Philip Johnson wear when he designed Glass House? Is it actually possible to flee to the country when you've internalized a lifetime of intellectualized urban living? When you buy a DIY patio kit, you get instructions for how best to embed concrete or brick or flagstone into the natural world. The patio will make you enjoy your environment more. It will become yours. You can stand on it and think 'this is Mine.' The structuralists talked about the importance of fixed camera position, but didn't properly interrogate it because to do so would be impossible. It's hard to believe that it really wasn't long ago that computer music seemed exciting, novel, even radical. We're now thoroughly estranged from eating what's in season. Walking around the woods in southern Ohio in spring, I thought about the curious imperative of the patio, how my kids get excited about picking oyster mushrooms, the dynamics of switched capacitor filters, and how adequacy is tethered to doubt." --Alex Cobb, May 2024

"A hard rock mash up -- bandleader Paul Ngozi's split album with his drummer and co-vocalist Chrissy Zebby Tembo. The set includes an oversized eight-page booklet detailing Ngozi's arc, rare photographs, discography and annotations. Zamrock was a bona-fide rock scene: on the African continent, only Nigeria can claim one so comprehensive, and Nigeria's was largely catalyzed and funded by subsidiaries of the European major labels. Zamrock was as independent as the newly-named country, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia. Zamrock is starting in its completeness, especially for a scene that emerged, unfurled and disappeared so quickly. From Musi-O-Tunyaís fusion of Fela's Afro-beat, Hendrix's rock, South African jazz and traditional Zambian melodies and rhythms to Salty Dog's acid folk/rock, Zambia's rock scene contained all of rock's subgenres. Zamrock was much more than an imitation of American and European rock music: it quickly became a uniquely Zambian movement, befitting of its name. WITCH, Paul Ngozi, and Amanaz sound nothing like other rock music from the African continent -- or elsewhere. Zamrock came from a nation's youth carrying forth the momentum of a political and social revolution with a musical revolution that maintained the fiery power of early rock -- in the mid-to late-'70s. From that era, Zamrock's energy is matched only by the punk and hip hop scenes of England and America."

Ultimate Kraut basement hard-rock garage monster, originally released as a small private pressing edition of 100 copies in 1975. Originally from Brinkum (near Bremen), Grave was formed in a basement in 1975. Using a primitive tape recorder and just two mics, six tracks were recorded live at a makeshift studio located at the Brinkum Jugendhaus (Youth Center) in summer 1975, resulting in the Grave Nr. 1 album. Grave's music is raw, sincere, melancholic and unadulterated. Original artwork with audio sourced from the original masters. Includes insert with liner notes/photos, plus download card including bonus tracks.

2024 repress. Wewantsounds present the first ever vinyl release of Ziad Rahbani's Houdou Nisbi recorded in 1985 and only released on cassette and CD in 1991. One of Rahbani's most praised albums, released on the sought-after Lebanese label Relax-in. Mixing Arabic music with funk, jazz, boogie and a touch of Brazilian music, it is considered a classic among Oriental groove fans, DJs and collectors around the world. Curated by Lebanese DJ and Journalist Ernesto Chahoud. Ziad Rahbani is one of the giants of Arabic music and a cultural icon in the Middle East. The musician, pianist and producer is also a celebrated playwright and a political activist. Coming out of an illustrious artistic dynasty (his father, famous composer and musician Assi Rahbani, was in The Rahbani Brothers and his mother is the legendary Lebanese diva, Fairuz), Ziad Rahbani released a string of key albums in the '70s that have since become cult among DJs and collectors. Heavily influenced by Western music, Rahbani brought these influences to traditional Arabic music early one. 1978 saw the release of two key Rahbani albums, the disco 12" Abu Ali and Bennesbeh Labokra... Chou? (WWSLP 044LP). Serving as musical director to his mother Fairuz, he produced some of her best albums including Maarifti Feek recorded in 1984 at his Beirut studio, By Pass, bringing his blend of modern influences to her traditional sound. At the very same time, Rahbani started recording his own album at By Pass with the cream of Lebanese musicians including saxophonist Tewfic Farroukh, guitarist Paul Dawani, and percussionist Emile Boustani. Bringing funk, boogie, jazz funk fusion and Brazilian music to the mix, Rahbani created a landmark album, Houdou Nisbi now considered one of the best jazz funk albums from the Middle East. Featuring such cult tracks as "Rouh Khabbir", a remake of the Crusaders' "Soul Shadow" sung by Rahbani himself, the modern soul of "Bisaraha" and the Brazilian flavored "For Sure", the album is both effortlessly groovy and steeped in Oriental music. Houdou Nisbi, which means "relatively calm", an expression used by news anchors on Lebanese TV to describe the mood during cease-fire in the civil war that went on between 1975 and 1990. The cassette artwork has faithfully been reproduced for vinyl release. Remastered. New liner notes by Lebanese DJ and curator Ernesto Chahoud in English/French.

LP version. Wewantsounds presents Ryuichi Sakamoto's classic LP Coda, issued in Japan in 1983 as a solo piano version of the Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence soundtrack. The album, which has never been released outside of Japan until now, sees Sakamoto on acoustic piano reinterpreting fascinating versions of his famous soundtrack including the classic theme and "Germination," which was later used in the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack. This reissue has been remastered by Seigen Ono's Saidera Mastering studio in Tokyo and boasts the original artwork plus a four-page insert with new liner notes by Andy Beta. When the film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence hit the cinema in Summer 1983, it was a worldwide instant success, due in no small parts to its renowned director, Nagisa Oshima, and to its superb cast including David Bowie, Takeshi Kitano, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The latter, fresh from his success with Yellow Magic Orchestra and a thriving nascent solo career, was also enrolled to compose the score of the film. The soundtrack was released at the same time as the film in summer 1983. It became equally successful and made the Japanese composer a global icon as the instrumental theme became an instant classic all around the world and also Sakamoto's signature track from then on. That same year, his Japanese label decided to release an exclusive cassette book as the format was getting popular in Japan. The project, called Avec Piano, featured an audio cassette together with a beautiful 80-page book including illustrations and texts by various designers and writers. As for the music, Sakamoto re-recorded the Merry Christmas soundtrack on solo piano at the Onkyo Haus studio in Tokyo. This version of the theme which Sakamoto would re-record many times, is therefore the first ever recorded solo piano version of the composition. The cassette book's success led to an LP release a few months later under a new title, Coda, and with a different artwork by Japanese designer Tsuguya Inoue. The original orchestrated theme "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" was dropped, replaced by two new tracks, "Japan" and "Coda," recorded a couple of years earlier in 1981 and featuring Ryuichi Sakamoto's blend of ethereal ambient soundscapes and modern electronics. Coda is quintessential Ryuichi Sakamoto and an essential album in the Japanese composer's discography.

LP version. Forty years since their inception, and almost two decades since their last release, art-synth auteurs Propaganda return with a brand-new chapter in their enthralling story. This self-titled set from principal songwriting partnership Ralf Dörper and Michael Mertens embodies the depth and drama of their early work, while exploring fresh sounds and styles, and reflecting the personal and societal changes since their last outing. Conceived and crafted entirely in their native Düsseldorf, a deliberate decision to help them stay true to themselves, and featuring guest appearances from the acclaimed Hauschka and ascendant Thunder Bae, this is Propaganda at their most essential. Though an embryonic incarnation was formed by Ralf Dörper, former synthesist with electro-punks Die Krupps, and Andreas Thein in 1982, it wasn't until the addition of Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra percussionist Michael Mertens that the outfit emerged as the dark synth-pop powerhouse which would see chart success as part of the ZTT machine. Upon signing with Trevor Horn's irreverent imprint in 1983, Propaganda, now comprised of vocalists Claudia Bruecken and Susanne Freytag alongside Dörper and Mertens, delivered their classic debut LP A Secret Wish and a slew of international hit singles, "Dr Mabuse," "Duel", and "P Machinery," leaving an indelible mark on the alternative scene and securing an enduring place within the pantheon of synth-dance greats. In an era of impermanence, Propaganda wanted to produce something real -- to be played from start to finish, with artwork and packaging which allows a deeper understanding of the theme of the release. Finding the perfect label to match their ambitions in Bureau B, Propaganda have delivered a third album well worth the wait.

Recital presents composer Allan Gilbert Balon's first full-length LP. Born 1986 in Les Abymes on the island of Guadeloupe, Balon is an artist (exhibiting at MoMA PS1 in 2022) who publishes beautiful handmade books and audio on XYÄ Edition run with Uta Guan Hyë in Créteil, France where he now resides. The Magnesia Suite harbors an unhurried, coastal tranquility that flows lucidly as an album. Though prominently a pianist, a breadth of Balon's musical spheres are visited on this record. Disparate elements of percussion, reeds, organ, voice, and tape recordings are all cast together. Each slowly excavated, surveyed and then set away. "Stella Maris" opens with an organ and voice procession in the vein of a Charlemagne Palestine singing piece. "Lustras" is a patchwork of various tape captures (a la Alvin Curran, Rip Hayman, or André Thomkins); piano clusters dredge into xylophone by night with cicadas swimming in radio transmissions. First hearing the track "Pleuro Delez Waltz" is what made Recital approach Allan about making an album. The proximity of the voices against the small percussions, all laced with Balon's piano stylings. The album ends with "Ogadia," a gentle piano march with soprano saxophone and electronics. Feels like a Dave Burrell-infused rag played slowly, beautifully resolving the outsider-jazz-sound-art-poetry-collages of The Magnesia Suite. The LP includes a booklet of quiet texts and beautiful graphic scores.

Japan's long running masters of psych/kosmische jamming return to Important Records for a vinyl outing featuring beloved original member Cotton Casino. This first edition is pressed in an edition of 500 copies. Trust Masked Replicants finds AMT in fine form, creating experimental psych-rock improvised around skeletal compositions. The group's leader, Kawabata Makoto, holds the group together while they navigate chaos infused, drone-based jamming at the outer edges of human consciousness. Side B, featuring the 20-minute track "Asoko Ananda," is a classic side-long fast paced AMT burner combining sped up kosmische rhythms, filter sweeps, free-jazz piano, tabla drumming and vocal experiments. "Asoko Ananda" utilizes many of the group's skills, ascending to the height of their collective, mountainous ability. Channeling prog, krautrock, modern composition and noise, Kawabata Makoto formed the Acid Mothers Temple in the early '90s. The group has gone on to release countless albums while touring the globe.

"Cleared, the duo of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera has re-emerged with Hexa, their sixth release and third for the Touch label. Steven Hess recorded sessions in the group's practice space, handing them over to Vallera, who in turn added his home recordings, mixing and manipulating them. The final product provides only the barest of hints to any instrumental points of origin, such is the extent of their intermixture. Hexa brings the listener interiority and depth, beginning with the slow build of the title track, where chiming details prompt a cycling drone. The 'Magnetic Bloom' pulsations give way to granulated smears, while the well-named 'Time in Return' plays with repetition and layering. The density in the tracks relents with '53S,' a recording from a train station contributed by the field recordist Chris Watson. The spatial sensations brought by the clanking and creaking offer a respite of sorts before the accretion of processed magnetics resume on the aptly entitled 'Sunsickness.' Clouds of static overwhelm the initial melodies of 'Ash.' Pulses, bursts, and points of electronics breach the layered blankets and sheets of sound, as with the concluding track, 'Oval Waters.' If you need to identify a genre locale, put Hexa on the side of the street where current electronic music lives. However you categorize the album, it is an absorbing listen front-to-back. Each track emerges with layers peeling and/or accreting and new details revealing themselves." --Bruce Adams, 2024

Restocked; LP version.If I don't make it, I love u is Still House Plants third album and the fullest embodiment of their sound to date. Where Fast Edit formed with quick attachment and jump cuts, If I don't make it is shaped by persistence -- a commitment to the songs that makes the music solid, warmer and accepted. Marking the trio's decade of friendship, this is the first record written whilst all live in the same city since 2017's Assemblages. The band rehearsed it relentlessly, playing for nobody except themselves, consistently building support for one another and growing the way they play. Jess's voice is deeper. Fin's guitar is full size, richer. David drums harder. Focused on one point together, everyone gets bigger and nothing falls apart. The guitar and the drums blend, raise the voice, make room for what is being said, what is felt. When able to finally record, production allowed layers, gave elasticity, a chance to fully stretch. Playing with length and connections, the band brought in analog techniques -- a Leslie cabinet on "Headlight", sidechaining the snare with the guitar, pushing vocals through cheap DJ software -- each process an attempt to bring one instrument closer to another, to give bass, body, backup. If I don't make it, I love u seeks beauty, holds feeling maximum and builds surety with its sound. The most generous SHP record to date, the music is wide open, demands less. Play it again, it will come clear.

Recorded when he was just nineteen, Dreaming With Alice by British folk musician/artist Mark Fry was (barely) released only in Italy in 1972, making it one of the rarest and most desirable acid-folk/psychedelic albums ever. Tracks like "The Witch" or "Mandolin Man" are considered nowadays classics of the genre. Original artwork in hard cardboard sleeve. Sourced from the original master tapes. Includes insert with liner notes by Mark Fry and photos. RIYL: Donovan, Nick Drake, Incredible String Band, Dr. Strangely Strange, Comus.

Île Flottante is Mr. Beatnick´s fifth album, following 2023's Joy In Variation (including the notorious cover of "Love on a Real Train") and his well-received off-beat collaboration with London-based avant-garde agitator Richard Greenan -- Coasty -- this is his first contribution to the International Feel trademark. Probably best known for some big deep house revivalist tunes circa 2013 on the now dormant Don't Be Afraid record label, Beatnick now converts that aural quality and dimensionality into the Balearic system. Île Flottante takes its name from the tastiest French pudding of Mr. Beatnick's childhood holidays. The name, also a jeux de mots -- floating island -- hinting at the album's inspirations and sense of identity, as a danceable soundtrack to a fictional island. Explored with high intensity and over a yearlong process, the sounds of the well-worn, but never-failing Balearic universes were a mind-expanding influence. Think of genre staples like Software, Manuel Goettsching, Mark Barrott, Len Leise, Don Carlos, Gaussian Curve, Joan Bibiloni, or Yasuaki Shimuzu. Île Flottante tries its very hardest to avoid being any one thing in particular. At one point, it is a gentle beach walk accompanied by polyrhythmic drum plod and flourishes of Guzheng. At another, the infamous James Yancey septuplet swing is repurposed against a marimba melody that wouldn't be out of place in one of Link's forest adventures. Elsewhere, there are the bellows of distant whales, touches of Italian dream house and a splash of vintage madchester, all working to create a space that feels both familiar and loaded with well-worn tropes, but with its own quirky sense of personality, facets which are often attributed to Mr. Beatnick's holistic b-boy approach. This is his understanding of a Balearic (b-boy) stance. Just with a float instead of a freeze.

"Available in a unique colored vinyl pressing with a 12-page booklet. The next release in Now Again's Memphis rap series is Gotta Get My Pimp On. Lo-fi pimp player raps recorded on a four-track cassette in Shawty Pimp's bedroom in 1994. This is part of Now Again Records multiple LP series on the History of Memphis Rap, which attempts to capture Memphis and its underground rap scene as it began to produce some of the most distinctive music of the '90s. This was a unique hip-hop strain -- visceral and often vicious. It was a local, low-fi, cassette-tape based movement - yet it went on to change the course of rap music. These albums have never been pressed on vinyl -- until now. From Skinny Pimp and Carmike to Gangsta Blac and Shawty Pimp, these albums have been relegated to the proverbial bins of history and bootlegged, with unofficial copies still fetching top dollar on the secondary market. These albums were all licensed directly from their original creators, and come on limited edition colored vinyl with artist-approved imagery for their first LP iterations. You can read the story of the Memphis Rap scene in a 12-page, oversized booklet with notes by Torii MacAdams. It captures the story of Memphis rap starting with the city's founding and ending with an auto supply shop that sold these albums over the counter, with all points in between."

The word "resistance" is deeply embedded in the ethos of techno. For her debut release on the Tresor Records, the British artist and Tresor resident, Imogen, explores the concept of resilience; a related and equally vital concept. Taking its name from a theological term meaning a fundamental change of mind or spiritual conversion, Metanoia is fueled by Imogen's processing of what she describes as one of the most challenging years of her life. Any struggle against injustice or misfortune takes time and effort which requires finding a fortitude within, not only to surpass the hardship itself but to not lose oneself to despair or bitterness in the process. Imogen's journey is summed up in the lead track, 'The Way She Moves' -- resilience is, after all, a persistence to continue, to move forward. The struggle against hardship is laid out in track titles like 'Tired Bonesand Growing in the Dark' before a sense of catharsis is reached in 'Breathe Again' and 'Melancholy Flower.' The music similarly mirrors her experiences, passing through sadness, anger, before ultimately landing at acceptance and a newfound drive for self-actualization and greater interoception; after all, the end goal of any resistance is liberation.