Bis Aufs Messer Weekly News 01 April 2024
Hi. First of all - thanks to everyone that came out to a show on the last SWEAT tour and made this short Euro adventure a fun one. All shows have been stellar and it was great to see some familiar faces.
In the meantime we also got a bunch of cool new records and restocks like the ARTHUR VEROCAI - Arthur Verocai LP, DAISY CHAIN - The World Is Not Spinning LP, DEAD FINKS - The Death and Resurrection of Johnathan Cowboy LP restock, ELLA WASHINGTON - Ella Washington LP re issue, GENERACION SUICIDA - Regeneracion LP re issue, A.S.O. - a.s.o. LP restock, UNCHAINED - Gabbeh LP, OPTIC NERVE - Angel Numbers LP on URGE records, SCYTHE - Head X'Change DLP, MORITZ VON OSWALD - Silencio DLP, a couple Vitriol restocks (Sweat, Graf Orlock, Dangers etc), a couple of the fantastic Efficient Space Comps are also back (Sky Girl comp, Ghost Riders comp. …), also new and old stuff from A COLOURFUL STORM records like V/A - I Won't Have To Think About You: Compiled by Bayu and Moopie LP, SCYTHE - Head X'Change LP, UNCHAINED - Gabbeh LP, SUN RA - Live in Roma 1980 3xLP BOX, DES EDENS - la non-pareille LP restock, HISTORY OF UNHEARD MUSIC - Hear Us Again For Whatever Reason LP, PYGMY UNIT - Signals From Earth LP and more
And we also added (adding) a few more second hand LPs and 7“s to our discogs
https://www.discogs.com/seller/XMESSERX
Thank you as usual
Til then thank you for all your orders & support.
Robert & Norman
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7“
DANGERS - Kiss with Spit 7“ (vitriol - This is the single version of "Kiss With Spit" off the forthcoming "Bend In The Break" LP (being released by Top Shelf Records 10/14). This has the title track and two other songs ("Longpig" and "Oxhead") not on the LP. These are rippers of things to come. All on black, GTFO otherwise.) 8.00
LP
ARTHUR VEROCAI - Arthur Verocai LP (mr bongo - back in stock - New half-speed mastering! Taken from the original Continental master tapes, transferred under supervision by Arthur Verocai. Original replica gatefold artwork. A complete album masterpiece in every sense of the word, considered by many people to be one of the greatest ever made, regardless of genre. Recorded at Studio Somil, Rio De Janeiro in 1972, the album was produced, arranged, directed by the self-taught, Arthur Verocai. Previously he had worked on many records in various capacities, with artists including Jorge Ben, Ivan Lins and Celia, but this album gave him the chance to do his thing in it’s most pure form. The 29 minute masterpiece, perfect in it’s arrangement and fusion of sonics, epitomises the sound of Brazil at the time; strings, guitars, pianos, break beats, bass lines, synthesizers, vocals from the wonderful Célia, Carlos Dafe and Oberdan (Banda Black Rio), plus percussion from Pedro Santos and Paulo Moura on sax. Bossa nova, samba, jazz, MPB, psychedelics and funk sit side by side effortlessly.) 30.00
A.S.O. - a.s.o. LP (restock - Here is the debut, self-titled album from a.s.o., singer/songwriter Alia Seror-O'Neill, and producer Lewie Day. 'a.s.o.' is a thematic consolidation of the previous three singles and an impressive artistic progression. Day and Seror-O'Neill show they've mastered the format of the radio-friendly pop song and found how to subvert it completely. Across eleven songs, they have built a rich and compelling body of work. We know where we are now, emotionally complex, trip-hop torch songs for club freaks. But the palette has broadened to encompass ethereal dream pop à la Cocteau Twins, slow-burning AOR-soul, and dubwise stylings. As a result, 'a.s.o.' is a satisfyingly coherent listen but never a musical monoculture. Variously there are nods toward Julee Cruise, Fleetwood Mac, and the uneasy listening of Portishead. It's an album that wears its influences lightly, is never weighed down by them, and always sure of its own identity.) 28.00
THE CLASSIC EXAMPLE - The Classic Example LP (on high - The Classic Example were a Los Angeles singing duet consisting of Curtis Colbert and Harriet Hurst. Their eponymous LP was released on the infamous GSF Records alongside infamous acts such as Skull Snaps and The Whatnauts. The backing group for the album is none other than Hodges, James, Smith & Crawford. To date, very little is known about this sweet sounding duo. On High is honored to present the first ever vinyl reissue of their stand alone album. The Classic Example is absolutely killer from front to back and is a must own for any serious soul collector. Newly remastered and pressed on audiophile virgin vinyl for your listening pleasure.) 32.00
CORBEAU HANGS - Optograms LP (young and cold - “Optograms” is the debut album by Corbeau Hangs after a release of 3 singles. This album is very much finding my sound and soul within the art of sound. Mixing various influences such as modern acts like Twin Tribes, She Past Away and other acts like Clan of Xymox, Pink Turns Blue. Mixing the rawness of post-punk with the ambience and grittiness of synths and drum machines. Optograms is an image extracted from the eye seen right before death. These are my sounds visualized right before death.) 26.00
DAISY CHAIN - The World Is Not Spinning LP (vitriol - Based out of Los Angeles, CA, rock outfit Daisy Chain (featuring members of Graf Orlock, Sweat, and Mossbreaker) formed in 2017, culling inspiration from '90s grunge and post hardcore, early '80s punk, and contemporary hardcore. Growling vocals, chainsaw guitars, thundering bass, and mammoth drums make every song a sonic onslaught of punk-rock potency blended with hard-rock havoc. Daisy Chain's new release, "The World Is Not Spinning," can only be described as a lesson in riffing.) 20.00
DEAD FINKS - The Death and Resurrection of Johnathan Cowboy LP (urge records - Dead Finks is the musical output of New Zealand-born duo Joseph Thomas and Erin Violet. Formed in Sydney sometime in the late '10s, it's current incarnation is a four-piece rock band based in Berlin. On The Death & Resurrection Of Johnathan Cowboy the band showcase an incredible knack for writing catchy and unique melodies. They play punk music in the tradition of Wire or Sonic Youth and take cues from contemporaries like Parquet Courts and Iceage in their efforts to manipulate and expand upon what it means to be a punk group in 2021.) 23.00
DELIVERY HEALTH - SuperDeLuxe! 2xLP (holidays - 300 copies, black vinyl, b/w insert with Japanese text on colored paper + obi - For more than a decade, Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O’Rourke, and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto have been coming together in various combinations – duos, trios, and larger ensembles – slowly becoming one of the most noteworthy, understated collaborations in the landscape of experimental sound. In 2015, the trio recorded a brilliant LP entitled “Delivery Health” for Silent Water, laying the groundwork for an enduring project that adopted that album’s title as its name, debuting properly in 2017 with the stunner “Hard Off”. Over the years since, we’ve encountered Di Domenico, O’Rourke, and Yamamoto playing together in Bonjintan, their project with Akira Sakata, and in further collaborations with Eiko Ishibashi and Joe Talia, not to mention O’Rourke and Di Domenico’s prolific work as a duo.) 29.00
DES EDENS - la non-pareille LP (les giants - Cover printed by silkscreen on high quality shiny silver paper - LTD TO 200 copies Lava music, maybe. Lava music, always evolving, always surprising, always exciting because we don’t know what the other will bring to the music that we start improvising and exploring together. We’ll see what bubbles will form in this lava music.
And sometimes an idea comes up, a bubble pops and it becomes a track. Lava, like the wax that was melted to press the record. Lava, like energy flowing, slow. Improvising most of the time, you really connect with the other musician. It takes all your energy, trying to follow, trying to figure out where to go next, what will happen if I do this and if Pacôme, next to me, decides to change instrument. All of a sudden. Pacôme may be holding his clarinet in one hand, but he also has a synth on his lap and a harmonica around his neck. Oh, and he recalls : « I remember Antoine searching new rhythm ideas with his machines directly connected to an old cassette player with speakers. All these subtle changes gave the direction and the evolution of each track. We were side by side, maybe only one meter from each other -very close. This afternoon autumn session when we made the record was first to rehearse for a gig, so I think we were particularly taking care of transitions – while playing for an hour non-stop.») 25.00
DON CHERRY / GATA BARBIERI / KARL BERGER / BO STIE - Live in Stuttgart LP (modern silence - The legendary Don Cherry with his great 1966 quintet featuring Gato Barbieri (tenor sax) Karl Berger (piano) Bo Stief (bass) Aldo Romano (drums) which can also be heard on three fine releases on ESP-Disk, and with the New York Total Music Company in 1968. His quintet was on very fine form at this time, it captures a crucial stage of Cherry’s journey from free jazz to yet wilder territories.) 30.00
ELLA WASHINGTON - Ella Washington LP (on high -
ENNIO MORRICONE - Spasmo - Soundtrack LP (tiger bay. 2024 repress. A great score by the maestro, Ennio Morricone for Umberto Lenzi's 1974 cult thriller Spasmo. Here Morricone creates a disorienting and disturbing effect, using an unusual and almost avant-garde like combination of sounds, music and instruments.) 30.00
FRANCIS HARRIS - Thresholds DLP (While previous albums, most notably Leland and Minutes of Sleep (2014) as well as two albums released as one half of the duo Aris Kindt (most notably the stellar Swann and Odette from 2017) have relied on singular thematic and narrative drives that were often of a personal, collaborative, or hermetic in nature, Thresholds is an album that aspires to sonic universality and the presentation of a fully formed psychoacoustical world. That being said it is not an “album of ideas”. Inspired by the ecological and political upheavals of the present and the role of speculative thought as an avenue of global transformation Thresholds is the work of a mature artist fully in control of his powers. Both expansive and nuanced the album widens the aperture of the affective possibilities of the electronic assemblage; themes skip from one track to the next, elevating and informing each other in tangible fields of abstract figuration. The titles, while often heady, concisely allude to strategies implicit in the construction and arrangement of the works: Cut Up, within the context of the album, is exactly that. Luck Takes a Step juxtaposes stately synths with just the right touch of playful fluctuation and latent atonality) 26.00
GENERACION SUICIDA - Regeneracion LP (vitriol - US-PRESS ON OXBLOOD VINYL. 'What if Blitz hailed from Los Angeles and sang in Spanish' isn't a question you hear all that often. Fortunately, we don't need to ask - the answer is provided by Generacion Suicida's latest album, which rages and rattles in all the right places, drenched in the memorable brilliance that powered the Killed By Death compilations (ask yer dad - and if he doesn't know or care, burn his terrible records and make some space to track down the KBD LPs). The band's slogan is 'musica del barrio, para el barrio' - music from the neighbourhood, for the neighbourhood - but it sounds like they could use these hooks to take on the world. That's a pretty accurate sentiment as well, because this album was written during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020, while the world bubbled over with carefully managed misinformation, police violence and the sickening overspill of white supremacy's foul brew. If Regeneracion sounds potent, it's because there was a lot to be angry about, and the result is arguably their best album yet. Those chorused-out guitar lines carry shades of deathrock, hints of Manchester circa 1980, elements of something you might call goth if it was several degrees less furious. But there's no doomed romance to this music; it's an all-out attack. Street punk with the smarts turned up and an ear turned to the lessons learned from post-punk (but crucially, not the 'post-punk revival' that is essentially shirtless beardy lads chanting non-sequiturs over landfill indie). Chiefly, it'll make you wanna get out of your chair, unite your local community and march on down towards your government's centre of operations with a simple-to-use molotov cocktail kit. Its rage is infectious. It's inspired by bleak moments in our recent shared history, but it revels in humans' capacity to find strength in each other. And the tunes? Oh damn, they're good.' Will Fitzpatrick.) 26.00
HISTORY OF UNHEARD MUSIC - Hear Us Again For Whatever Reason LP (les giants - The History of Unheard Music hail from lower Manhattan and were founded at the absolute dawn of the 1980s. The founders, Books Williams, Charlie Mendoza and Beo Morales combined their individual and common interests in music from all periods of all cultures, active analytic listening, state-of-the-art music technology and low tech devices. These interests were applied to highly developed composition and raw free-form improvisation. Access to the then-nascent computer aided compositional tools of sampling and synthesis, pre-and-post MIDI sequencing and a fearless appetite for sound-as-event, synthesizing historical styles, formats, sonic triggers, and traditions allowed them to strike a nerve in the listener resulting in responses ranging from confusion and bewilderment to appreciation and inspiration and beyond. A neutral response to the music or the live performances was not an option. We got the blissful pleasure of compiling an unheard selection of some works of that mind-boggling New York band. All tracks selected from the 84-85 hidden tapes and LPs: “History of Unheard Music” on Staatplat, “Drop it” on Harmonic Ranch and “Chapter One” on Rockgarage Records. Music that ranges exclusively in the absurd. Art-rock, Grotesque comedian pop, bouncing sounds from post-world influences and electronic proto dance music, pure avant-garde. We are on an empirical stage, complex sound-theatre scenarios, a mere projection on a thin, labile thread of reality and surrealists. Fringes. “Here Us Again for Whatever Reason” touches hidden chords in a decomposed and critical message towards a dimensional state of total disorientation against the established order. Strange Fulfillment.) 25.00
JAMES RUSHFORD - Block Gifts LP (holidays - 300 copies, black vinyl, fold out A2 poster
Block Gifts is a collection of three works for organs composed by James Rushford between 2015 and 2018. Using harmonium, portative organ and electric organ, each piece is linked by Rushford’s idiosyncratic combination of strict intervallic systems in different tunings (Werckmeister, quarter-tone, equal temperament), and haptically-informed rhythmic and expressive freedom. Creaks, stutters and sweeping fingers on keys become instrumental sounds in their own right, creating a further logical layer in Rushford’s compositional world.
An intimate, nocturnal, and slightly suffered dialogue between the instrument and the body building a shining and fragile monument to the ephemeral nature of the organ, one of the most intriguing and ancient families of musical instruments in history. Mixed by Joe Talia, mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, cut by Daniel Krieger at SST, Frankfurt am Main. Composed and recorded 2015-2018 at Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart), California Institute of the Arts (by Sam Dunscombe) and Chinatown Studios, Melbourne (by Joe Talia). Cover artwork and fold out poster by Graham Lambkin.) 25.00
LAFAYETTE AFRO ROCK BAND - Malik LP (strut - Strut proudly presents the first official remastered reissue of Lafayette Afro Rock Band's elusive funk/Afro original album, 'Malik,' originally released in 1974.) 28.00
MORITZ VON OSWALD - Silencio DLP (tresor - What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On Silencio, his latest album for Tresor Records, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept. Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Varèse, György Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light & ethereal and dark & dissonant. As masterfully demonstrated in the early work of von Oswald and Mark Ernestus’ influential Basic Channel project, repetition and reduction are key elements here, much in the tradition of techno and minimalism. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald’s repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms. The compositions were written in von Oswald’s Berlin studio on classic synthesizers, such as the EMS VCS3 & AKS, Prophet V, Oberheim 4-Voice and the Moog Model 15. These abstract recordings were transcribed to sheet music for choir by Berlin-based Finnish composer and pianist, Jarkko Riihimäki and performed by Vocalconsort Berlin in Ölberg church in the city’s Kreuzberg district, only few metres down the road from where Dubplates & Mastering and Hard Wax opened their doors for music enthusiasts for many years so long. The recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into anew electronic context; in Silencio, the focus is not on using one means to imitate the other, but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them.) 35.00
NEOLITHIC - Shattering Vessels LP (vitriol - "Shattering Vessels" is the debut full-length from Baltimore, MD, quintet Neolithic. Across eight tracks of vitriolic, transgressive death metal infused with lyrical invective on the futility of existence, Neolithic erupts conventional metal boundaries with dissonant ease, pulling the listener deeper into the entropy of infinite nothingness.) 20.00
OPTIC NERVE - Angel Numbers LP (urge - While still better known for its beach vistas and senate corruption, real heads know that the city of Sydney, Australia has consistently produced some of the most vital underground music of at least the last fifteen years. And amongst this fertile ground, Optic Nerve have emerged as one of its most compelling artists. Their debut album "Angel Numbers" is irrefutable proof. So much sets this band apart that it's hard to know where to start. For one, there are Gigi De Lacy's cut-up lyrics. Delivered with a bark at turns harrowing and triumphant, they honour the nuance of complex frustrations while subverting punk's tired trend for abject and simplistic negativity. They are referential, but to a point where it becomes high-concept. These days it takes a certain amount of self-assuredness to include both a conceptual explainer and a list of footnotes in your record's insert. But we can assure you that any pretension is earned by an intellectual rigour. And you'll have to take our word for it, because to summarise or paraphrase the lyrical approach and the concepts at work here any further, would only do them a disservice. Okay, a hint: it's locus is the heresy of a French Christian Mystic whose thought was centuries ahead of her time when she was burned at the stake. Suffice to say also, that this is the greatest punk record ever to pay homage to Madonna's "What It Feels Like For A Girl". The ambition on display here scales the heights not of ego but of transcendent songwriting. The guitar playing is immaculate and unique, a genius melding of countrified twang and hardcore intensity. The rhythm section pound with bulletproof precision, but are smart enough to know when to cede ground to inspired flourishes of acoustic guitar, interjections of experimental noise and even a flute, which kicks off the album with such flair that love on first listen is unavoidable. And the importance of love is just one thing this record will teach those who pay it close attention.... If you are longing for a band to avoid the same old tropes of disaffection, you need it done with more bile AND more style, then you owe yourself an experience with Optic Nerve. ) 27.00
PYGMY UNIT - Signals From Earth LP (holidays. 300 copies, black vinyl, includes two booklets / replicas of original DeVore’s publications Blending Native American references into a body of sonority that draws on free improvisation, experimental electronic music, and spiritual jazz, Pygmy Unit’s “Signals From Earth” – originally self-released by the band in 1974 – forges a singular and almost entirely unknown path, and stands almost entirely on its own in the history of west coast American jazz. First appearing on the San Francisco scene sometime during the early 1970s, almost nothing is know about the Pygmy Unit, a seven piece band steered by Darrel De Vore, who contributed flute, bass, percussion, piano, and vocals to the band’s lone LP, first appeared with percussionist Terry Wilson within the psychedelic folk rock band, The Charlatans, who belonged to the legendary Family Dog scene. Jim Pepper, a Native American tenor saxophonist known for being a member of the Mal Waldron Quartet, played with Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, and numerous others, and produced the cult favourite, “Pepper’s Pow Wow”, for Embryo Records in 1971. John Celona, who contributes parts on sax, synthesizer, and percussion, would later go on to be regarded as an electronic composer of some note. Of the remaining members, saxophonist Frank Albright, bassoonist Ron Grunn, and percussionist Marvin Kirkland, very little else is known. It seems this LP is more or less all they recorded.) 25.00
R.M.F.C. - Club Hits LP (Urge records - BABY BLUE VINYL. ROCK MUSIC FIGHT CRINGE - What is modern music writing without the opening descriptor “long awaited”? To describe most records as being awaited is ridiculous. Nobody today has the patience to wait for a text or a tram or a traffic light… and yet… there is something here, I have a point to make… Please resist cringe – I will not cringe, cringe is the mindkiller – I assure you, I never use words like “long awaited debut” in polite conversation and avoid those who do by general rule. But.) 27.00
SCYTHE - Head X'Change LP (a colorful storm - Head X’Change is the brilliant new album by Scythe, a long-distance collaborative project of David West and R.A. Jones. First appearing on two cloak-and-dagger cassettes distributed by Low Company in 2019 and 20, Scythe’s “expertly modulated space blues and isolationist architectures” betrayed a uniquely sleep-deprived, DIY take on kosmische atmospheres, where brittle, decaying synthesiser loops found solace in endless trails of feedback and reverb. Here, the feeling is distinctly colder and more paranoid, but not without flashes of hope and optimism. West is a masterful songwriter whose vocal and instrumental prowess can be traced back a decade to swathe of solo and collaborative projects, including Rat Columns, Lace Curtain, and work under his own name. For us, Rat Columns’ Do You Remember Real Pain? (Adagio830, 2015) is an evergreen and was a crucial contemporary reference point during the compiling of I Won’t Have To Think About You (2017). Since then, his tireless collaborative impulse has been realised in groups such as Stairway (with Richard Ingham and Anna Savage) and Elizabeta (with Elizabeth Bruk), while Anaxios, a four-piece with Cohen Bourgault, Louis Hooper and Tim Loughman, sees West exposing the tension between his guitar and classical instruments in improvised longform composition.) 25.00
SUN RA - Live in Roma 1980 3xLP BOX (holidays - Includes 24-page booklet printed with silver ink on Fedrigoni Ultra Black paper. Released under license from Sun Ra LLC.
Born Herman Poole Blount in Alabama during 1914, Sun Ra first emerged on the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. One of the great avant-garde composers of his generation – leading the way on piano, organ, and (eventually) synthesizer – beginning in the mid-1950s and lasting until his death in 1993, led the Arkestra, a band through which a near countless number of important artists passed and collaborated with, and many remained for the duration of their careers, notably Marshall Allen, John Gilmore and June Tyson. Known for their wild costumes and theatrics, Ra’s eccentric image and claims that he was from Saturn was deeply political, imagining an alternate social order, history, and future for African Americans that rests as a pioneering force in the Afro-Futurist movement. While Sun Ra and his Arkestra can best be located within the broader movements of avant-garde jazz – particularly as innovators of free and spiritual jazz in their evolving forms – the composer was notoriously hard to pin down on creative terms. He was a visionary titan whose work traversed nearly half of the 20th Century, continuously pushing the idiom of jazz at every turn, ingesting and incorporating the entire history African American music – the blues, R&B, soul, gospel, ragtime, hot jazz, swing, bebop, free jazz, and fusion, etc. – into his work, without any division or hierarchy, producing roughly 100 full lengths bear his name, beginning with 1957’s “Jazz By Sun Ra Vol.1”, and stretching well beyond his death in 1993. Despite how much was captured and released, remarkably, rare and previously unheard recordings continue to emerge and amaze.) 80.00
SWEAT - Love Child LP (vitriol - This is the second LP from LA's SWEAT, following 2023's Split 7" with Negative Blast, 2022's "Gotta Give It Up" LP and 2021's s/t 7". Ten songs of aggressive, snarky and straight up heavy rocker shit from the hardcore lens.) 25.00
TETE MBAMBISA - African Day DLP (2LP set in a gatefold sleeve - first edition of 500 copies
Awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town in 2023, pianist Tete Mbambisa (84) is a legendary figure in South African jazz. Supported by the cream of the local scene, his albums from the 1970s are among the most cherished vinyl documents from this golden era. A monumental archival undertaking, African Day compiles unreleased recordings from 1976 to resurrect a "lost" Tete Mbambisa double album that falls between his seminal works Tete's Big Sound (1975) and Did You Tell Your Mother (1979). Born in 1942 and raised in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, Tete Mbambisa’s childhood home served as an informal tavern where social gatherings orbited around the family's carefully curated music collection with live performances by a local pianist. Growing up in this environment, his musical roots are embedded in marabi, the syncopated piano sound that blended cues from American jazz, blues and ragtime with the cultural sensibilities that shape modern South African jazz.A self-taught musician, it was as leader of the vocal group The Four Yanks in the early 1960s that Tete Mbambisa’s music career began in earnest. With encouragement from Abdullah Ibrahim, he dedicated himself to the piano and went on to record with The Soul Jazzmen in 1969. Mbambisa's two solo recordings from the 1970s were produced by Rashid Vally for the independent As-Shams/The Sun record label. With an abundance of strong material but limited resources, some of the label's prospective releases were not issued at the time of recording. Featuring the intended artwork commissioned for the project in 1976, African Day marks the first major unveiling of unreleased gems from the As-Shams master tape archive.) 35.00
UNCHAINED - Gabbeh LP (a colorful storm - A Colourful Storm begins 2024 with a luxurious suite of daydreaming introspection courtesy of Unchained, the longstanding solo project of Nathaniel Davis who was last seen on vinyl in the final Blackest Ever Black release. Recorded at home between 2020 and 2023, Gabbeh is the latest expression of Davis's guitar-based instrumental musings and represents a stylistic evolution of his self-released noise tapes and CD-Rs into romantic, bossa nova-influenced melody-making. He wrote the tracks sporadically, with minimal instrumentation and intervention. Electric guitar, bass improvisations and rhythms from an old drum machine are layered and given new life, the space between them softly breathing with minutiae of the everyday: the buzz of cicadas, the passing of cars, the whistling of passersby. The psychogeography of Grenoble, Davis' home since 2018, played a conscious role in the weaving of Gabbeh's fabric: "I think certain songs reflect, in ways, Grenoble's natural surroundings. 'Drac' is named after the river that flows from the mountains down to the city… 'Dru' is the name of a well-known peak near Chamonix". Opener 'Largo' sets the mood, its primitive samba rhythm concealed by a cloud of saudade. The bebop sensibility follows suit, the tension between its angular picks and percussive shuffle a wondrous balancing act, while the intoxicating sway of 'Rambler' is perhaps the most poignant expression of longing and loss we've heard in recent years. Highly recommended for fans of Durutti Column, Maurice Feebank, Toninho Horta.) 25.00
V/A - Bristol Pirates LP (death is no the end - Originally made as a contribution to the Blowing Up The Workshop mix series, subsequently given a cassette release in 2019, now finally receiving a limited vinyl LP pressing."A trip across the frequencies of Bristol's pirate radio stations via cut-ups of broadcasts, taken from the late 1980s to the early 2000s ~ also a love-letter to my childhood, an audio document of the years I spent growing up in the city.“) 30.00
V/A - I Won't Have To Think About You: Compiled by Bayu and Moopie LP (a colourful storm - Feat. Cats Miaow, Particles, Shapiros, Hydroplane and more - Do you ever wonder what it was really like? What was your favourite childhood memory? And what did you want to be when you grew up? I brought something for you. Something homespun and charming, sweet and starry-eyed. Something which holds a certain cuteness and even a certain brashness between its vulnerability and fright. It reminds me of the girl with the strawberry hair: puppyish but not puppy-eyed, effervescent yet sincere; trying and falling as the days go by. Don't open it yet. There's beauty in its brevity but time goes too quickly. Assurance in dreams but inconstancy in all else, our memories of Marineville all but forgotten. We can run away with it, be alone with it and keep its wistfulness for ourselves. Summerdays spent on 53rd and 3rd; popkisses shared under blue suburban skies. Fleeting autumnal nights when we were left in the rain. I think It's unashamedly lovelorn and I'm so bookish and shy. I thought you'd like it.) 25.00
V/A - Nippon Acid Folk 1970-1980 LP (time capsule - A counterculture movement united by an expansive, experimental and deeply soulful sensibility, Japan’s rebel protest music challenged the status quo and changed the country’s music industry in the process.The birth of Japan’s nascent acid folk scene was rooted in the messy and invigorating political climate of the late 1960s. It is a story of Dadaists, communists, pharmacists and cult leaders, led by a young generation of upstart students, artists and dreamers hellbent on turning their world upside down. Born on the campuses of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and centred around newly formed independent label and left-wing stronghold URC, this uniquely Japanese form of folk expression provided an outlet for musicians who were tired of aping Western sounds and instead found ways to sing in Japanese and integrate traditional forms in new ways.) 32.00
V/A - Nippon Psychedelic Soul 1970-1979 LP (time capsule - The follow-up compilation to Time Capsule’s Nippon Acid Folk, Nippon Psychedelic Soul takes myriad pathways into the tripped-out undergrowth of 1970s Japan. Finding their feet at home and looking for inspiration abroad, the musicians featured here were engaged in the communal soul-searching that followed the breakdown of the 1960s protest movements. Some made it big, others drifted into oblivion. The music they left behind shimmers with intensity. At the core was Happy End, the first project of YMO’s Haroumi Hosono, whose distortion-heavy guitar and crisp back-beat laid the foundations for Japanese lyrics that flipped the paradigm of Japanese rock music on its head. With it came a new found sonic ambition, such as in the bold Philly-soul style arrangements of producer Yuji Ohno, whose work with occult wandered Yoshiko Sai shares some of the bittersweet grandeur of Rotary Connection or David Axelrod. Then there was Jun Fukamachi, a pioneer of Japanese synthesis, whose debut album was a carnival of orchestral funk, euphoric horn lines and rich production, complete with soaring guitar solos, psychedelic organ and a truly cinematic finale. The first and only time Fukamachi would sing on record, ‘Omae’ rips like the ultimate end-of-nighter. Influenced by giants of the US soul scene, maverick composer Hiroshi “Monsieur” Kamayatsu (otherwise known as ‘the Brian Wilson of Japan’) went one step further, enlisting Tower of Power to play on ‘Have You Smoked Gauloises?’ The B-side to Monsieur’s biggest-selling single, it coasts with sophisticated cool - a liquid bassline and suave keys comping under a roaring trademark ToP sax solo. No surprise it found favour once more on the Acid Jazz dance floors of ‘90s London.) 32.00
TAPES
COINS PARALLÈLES - Alter Ego Club TAPE (Mangel — Almost exactly 2 years after releasing Démo, Coins Parallèles is back with Alter Ego Club, an minialbum as a 'poignant exploration of the intricate labyrinth that is the music industry', as he puts it himself. Still rooted in post-punk/wave, the songwriting and the sounds are even more fluid than the first time around. Both experimental and even somehow poppy, Coins Parallèles only makes you wish he's already working on the next album as we just can't get enough...) 9.00
VA FA NAPOLI - s/t TAPE (diy - 5 Song debut of this new band from Austria - feat. Peeps of Lorraine etc. Super catchy sing a long Midwestern Emo that sounds straight coming from 1997 traveled with a Fluxkompenstator while having a chat with Cap N Jazz, Nuzzle or early Braid. GREAT) 8.00
