Bis Aufs Messer Weekly News 003 June 2024
Hi, welcome to another newsletter for June - a couple cool records arrived like new Sublime Frequencies titles, restock of the AHMED - Giant Beauty 5xCD BOXSET, GASTR DEL SOL - We Have Dozens of Titles restock, OREN AMBARCHI - shebang LP restock, OREN AMBARCHI / JOHAN BERTHLING / ANDREAS WERLIN - Ghosted II LP, ROY MONTGOMERY - Temple IV DLP re issue, the new CAIRO comp V/A - Love Hides All Faults LP, JONATHAN FITOUSSI - Poème Symphonique LP, GIOVANNI DI DOMENICO / PAK YAN LAU / JOHN ALSO BENNETT - Tidal Perspectives LP, HOLY TONGUE / BEATRICE DILLON / LAMIN FOFANA / LABOUR - s/t DLP, VALENTINA MAGALETTI - A Queer Anthology of Drums LP restock and VALENTINA MAGALETTI - Lucha Libra LP restock, MONDKOPF - Waves (Selected Works) LP, MASTER WILBURN BURCHETTE restocks, JASMINE GUFFOND - Alien Intelligence LP, V/A - Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa 1985-1986 LP, DEMDIKE STARE x DOLO PERCUSSION - Dolo DS LP, MAMMAN SANI ABDOULAYE - Unreleased Tapes 1981-1984 LP, ANNELIES MONSERÉ - I Sigh, I Resign LP, a couple LANKUM restocks, BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY / NATHAN SALSBURG / TYLER TROTTER - Hear The Children Sing The Evidence LP (LUNGFISH COVER), a couple UNWOUND restocks and the UNWOUND - A Single History: 1991-1997 DLP, SUMAC - The Healer DLP, LINUS VANDEWOLKEN - Oude Geuze uit Niemandaal LP, SHELLAC terraform LP restock; EARTH restocks and more …
We also got a couple things en route like restock of the BASTA NOW and also RA PUNK Books, also a couple dischord restocks are on its way along with the new BEDMAKER LP and also the new BATS & MICE LP etc …
We also repressed the SPORT - colors LP and the SPORT - bon voyage LP in case u are interested.
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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LP
ALY EISSA / JONAS CAMBIEN / AYMAN ASFOUR - The Handover LP (The Handover - There is, and has been, a prevailing orthodoxy permeating the Egyptian musical hierarchy that would render this spectacular piece as scandalous. But let us remember that over the past 100 years, Said Darwish, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Halim El Dabh, Ahmad Adaweya, and the modern Mahraganat movement have all experienced their fair share of scandal and opposition. Music must always be pushed forward – it may not always succeed as revelatory, but in this particular case, it does. Much like the venerable magic carpet, the Handover slowly builds to escort you into its swirling, ascending expression of the psychedelic, eventually descending, step by step, back to earth, landing as a wondrous spaceship with wide open doors inviting us inside for repeat listening. Perhaps this should have been happening in Egyptian music 50 years ago but it's here right now, and that's what matters. We are often asked an impossible question to answer: "What constitutes a Sublime Frequencies release?" For the moment, we can point to this record as the answer to that question. - Alan Bishop/Sublime Frequencies (March 2024) In The Handover, Aly Eissa, Ayman Asfour and Jonas Cambien explore the common and uncommon senses of Egypt's ritual music. It is clear that Aly Eissa's original composition is deeply rooted in Egyptian and Arabic traditions. At the same time, this band is one of the most progressive coming out of Egypt today. This is in big part thanks to Eissa, who has proven time and again to be not only an extremely skillful composer, but also a real visionary, combining tradition with modern experimentation. ) 32.00
ANNELIES MONSERÉ - I Sigh, I Resign LP (horn of plenty - Recorded at home in Gent between 2016 and 2023, I Sigh, I Resign retains the intimacy of Mares with it’s close-mic’d keyboards and vocals that capture every breath. Folk and early music are at the core of her sound but the palette of piano, organ, bass guitar, cello, synth and drum machine make it very much a document of the here and now. The cover features Annelies’s sketches referencing female artists from the Dutch Golden Age who, highly revered at the time, now serve as mere footnotes to Rembrandt, Vermeer et al. The cover sets the tone for the music within which deals with power structures, toxic environments, and questioning (his)tories. Standout tracks include the pounding rhythm and choir-like voices on Salt as well as the tense folk/post-rock of SimpleFractures (co-written with her Luster bandmates). The album’s most tender moment is a cover of Jean Ritchie’s Appalachian ballad One I Love played and sung by Annelies and her ten year old son.) 30.00
ASMAHAN - Ya Habibi Taala Elhaani LP (Born on November 25, 1912, Asmahan, whose real name was Amal al-Atrash, was a Syrian singer and actress of the first half of the 20th century. Modern and free, she was the sister of Farid al-Atrash; and perhaps the only singer able to compete with the famous Oum Kalsoum. Her private and public life is worthy of a Hollywood movie and was particularly eventful during the Second World War, where she played spy for Germany, France and Great Britain. She died in 1944, at the age of 32, in a mysterious car accident, leaving only a few recordings. This record features her most popular titles, to be rediscovered by the music enthusiasts of today.) 30.00
BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY / NATHAN SALSBURG / TYLER TROTTER - Hear The Children Sing The Evidence LP (no quarter - When Nathan Salsburg’s daughter Talya was a baby, he often sang her to sleep in a rocking chair. At one point, he remembered a song he had taught himself as a teenager: “The Evidence” by Lungfish, the Maryland band who coined a singular brand of post-punk in the 90s and 00s. Salsburg realized he could play the guitar part with one hand, singing while holding Talya in his other arm. Though the original version of “The Evidence” is only five minutes long, it’s essentially a repetitive mantra, so Salsburg could extend it as long as he wanted–10 minutes, 20 minutes, even an hour. “It was therapeutic and calming and just lovely for me,” he says. “And it worked on her.” Eventually Nathan and Talya moved on from their ritual, but his lullaby cover stayed in his head. “I find that lullabies stick more than anything else,” he says. “Something about the liminal space between awake and asleep, and the way that they ease into the subconsciousness.” So he proposed to his fellow Louisville collaborators Bonnie “Prince” Billy (aka Will Oldham) and Tyler Trotter that they record a version with Salsburg on guitar, Oldham singing, and Trotter adding drum machines and synths. They decided to pair it with a rendition of another Lungfish song, “Hear the Children Sing,” playing each tune for more than enough time to fill two sides of an album. The result is the beguiling Hear the Children Sing the Evidence, an album that displays the strengths and visions of the participants while showcasing how richly powerful Lungfish’s songs are. “Hear the Children Sing” was recorded at the studio of Jim Marlowe, and features banjo contributions from Zak Riles (Trotter’s bandmate in Watter); “The Evidence” was recorded by Riles at his own space (just down the road from where Oldham made the Bonnie “Prince” Billy classic I See A Darkness) and includes some beautiful electric guitar from Will’s brother Ned.=) 28.00
DEMDIKE STARE x DOLO PERCUSSION - Dolo DS LP (DDS - Since 2019 Demdike Stare had been playing edits of Dolo Percussion’s bare-boned breaks in their DJ sets, eventually sharing them with Dolo’s Andrew Field-Pickering (Beautiful Swimmers, boss of Future Times) and fomenting a creative fusion that hits at the square root of their shared tastes for unruly, deadly rhythms. In a transatlantic back ’n forth - or what Kodwo Eshun termed a double refraction - they juggle the rudest aspects of UK hardcore, as derived from electro, breaks and garage-house - that would feed into Dolo’s pool of sound, and return to the UK via the likes of breakbeat wizard Karizma, who was a key touchstone for the whole late ‘90s broken beat movement key to Demdike’s tastes.) 25.00
GASTR DEL SOL - We Have Dozens of Titles 3xLP BOXSET (drag city - Nearly twenty-five years after disbanding, Gastr del Sol have unpacked their archive, stringing together an alternative view to their genre-melting 1993-1998 run. This assembly of previously uncollected studio recordings and beautifully captured unreleased live performances forms a spacious ode to the flux that was their métier; a further set of reinventions that continue to alter the manner in which we hear music, and literally everything else! ) 85.00
GIOVANNI DI DOMENICO / PAK YAN LAU / JOHN ALSO BENNETT - Tidal Perspectives LP (Tidal Perspectives is an album by Giovanni Di Domenico, Pak Yan Lau, and John Also Bennett. Recorded across a single afternoon in Brussels, Belgium, the album’s four parts are a rippling alchemy of processed Rhodes piano, sizzling ceramics, and liquified bass flute, a rare meeting of three unique voices from the contemporary music landscape that manages to flow with the effortless inevitability of the oceanic tides. Giovanni Di Domenico, an accomplished composer and prolific collaborator who has released albums with Jim O’Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi and Akira Sakata, among many others, initiated the collaboration with Bennett after the two met at a record fair in Saint-Gilles, Belgium and bonded over a shared inquisitiveness for unconventional sonic combinations. Along with Pak Yan Lau, a Belgian-born sound artist and improviser who has developed her own rich and unique sonic footprint, the trio entered the studio with little, if any, discussion beforehand, jumping right into playing without preconceived structures. The resulting recordings had a depth of sound and emotional resonance surprising even them, with finished pieces emerging from single live takes and minor edits.) 29.00
HOLY TONGUE / BEATRICE DILLON / LAMIN FOFANA / LABOUR - s/t DLP (honest jones - Senegal’s master mbalax drummers are rendered in killer electro dubs and club rub ’n tug by Valentina Magaletti’s Holy Tongue trio, Beatrice Dillon and Lamin Fofana, for an instant Honest Jon’s classic - Brewing since 2020, ‘Labour’ shells eight diffusions and variations on the deadly detonations of traditional mbalax drumming; a scintillating, traditional sound highlighted to the western world in recent years by Mark Ernestus’ work with the ensemble Jeri-Jeri on Ndagga. ‘Labour’ finds mbalax’s thunderous, rolling and swingeing percussion pulled in four distinct movements by a coterie of UK, Euro, and Afro-American artists who all share a rhythmic fascination from varying perspectives, and with incendiary results for discerning dancers and drum fiends who can hear the links to West African drumming disciplines strewn between ‘80s post-punk (23 Skidoo, On-U Sound, the Pop Group), ‘90s jungle, ‘00s post-techno and broken beat mutations, or 2010’s electro-dub deconstructions into 4th world ambient and experiments with rhythm. The big one for us is the set’s most radical engagement with the style, where Beatrice Dillon carries the crafty conceptual energy and bodily-attuned results of her ‘Workaround’ album into the razor-cut chords and sinuous rhythmic grammar of ‘2020’ - whose title refers to her time in Senegal, recording with master drummers. Closer to the tradition, the Holy Tongue (Valentina Magaletti, Al Wootton, Susumu Yokai) versions go wild like a ‘phet-fuelled post-punk stepper on ‘Dey Say’, and wider, deeper in the echo chamber in consequent, hands-on dubs, while Sierre Leone/Guinea-originating, US-based contemporary pioneer Lamin Fofana - who introduced the world to Lotic on his Sci-Fi & Fantasy label - turns out driving and trippy acidic variants for the club. It all comes back to root in extraordinary fashion on the two parts of ‘Etu Keur Gui’, featuring input by some 30 sabar drummers of Doudou Ndiaye Rose’s family distilled, computerised and electro-acoustically diffused in a spiralling 10 min excursion, and pared back to pure, fluid rhythmelody and slashing synth menace on its 2nd part.) 34.00
JAMES HOFF - Shadows Lifted from Invisible Hands LP (shelter - Shadows Lifted from Invisible Hands is an autobiographical record, comprised of four songs that Hoff refers to as ambient media. Each track is composed from sources drawn from his own involuntary aural landscape, specifically musical earworms and tinnitus frequencies. Neither sound nor a daydream, the earworm (or stuck song) emblematizes music as a commercial form—immediate, ubiquitous, and persistent. Likewise, tinnitus is inaudible and unscrupulous, manifesting across a spectrum of frequencies at will. The cognitive swirling of these phenomena provides an ambivalent, internal soundtrack that scores a person’s movement through the world. ) 30.00
JASMINE GUFFOND - Alien Intelligence LP (Through the medium of a distinctly synthesised, sustained ambience, seasoned artist and composer Jasmine Guffond arrives on OOH-sounds to explore the tension between technology and human creativity in an increasingly ambiguous playing field. Alien Intelligence came into being during Guffond’s residency at fabled Parisian institution GRM in 2021. While learning how to generate sound and make music with the in-house Serge modular synthesiser, the Australian artist noticed the typical role of human input for machine output was being subverted by the behaviour of certain electronic elements, which came to exercise their own influences on the direction of the music.) 28.00
JONATHAN FITOUSSI - Poème Symphonique LP (transversales - Electronic music composer Jonathan Fitoussi revisits Symphony No. 1 “Titan” by Gustav Mahler as part of a world creation commissioned by Radio France. Concert recorded in public in the large auditorium of La Maison de la radio on November 18, 2023 in Paris. ) 30.00
LINUS VANDEWOLKEN - Oude Geuze uit Niemandaal LP (morc tapes - As an American in Belgium, McCloud Zicmuse developed a deep love for some of the customs of his new-found homeland: a specific kind of archery (‘staande wip’), celebrating carnaval, aging geuze-beers, and not in the least: playing de ‘hommel”, the Flemish cousin of the apalachian Dulcimer. With the persona Linus Vandewolken, Zicmuse took a deep dive into these traditions. His love for the dulcimer is very real, yet he breaks out of the narrow framework in which the instrument is often handled. The additional use of homemade flutes, percussion instruments and some humming definitely add up to the experience. Zicmuse released a handful of tapes as Linus Vandewolken, and a double 10” on okraina records. But his musical curriculum is way longer than that. Under his own name, he did releases on ao Shelter press, with le ton mite on crammed discs, and contributed to a long, long list of releases by artists as diverse as Yume Bitsu, Maher Shalal Hash Basz or Singers.) 25.00
MAMMAN SANI ABDOULAYE - Unreleased Tapes 1981-1984 LP (sahel - Experimentation in early electronic music in the Sahara from the singular Mamman Sani. Dreamy organs and droning melodies reinterpret ancient folk tradition into sublime fantastical soundscape. Never before released recordings from the very beginning - unreleased tracks from his first album, recordings of a short lived trio, and a cover of an American folk ballad.) 28.00
MASTER WILBURN BURCHETTE - Guitar Grimoire LP (numero - A grimoire, of course, is a book of magic spells and invocations. The Master’s most evocative, cinematic work, this collection of seven reverberant charms clearly establishes Burchette as a master of guitar technique, and marks the Burchette Brothers’ fateful move to self-publishing. The otherworldly quality of Guitar Grimoire is hard to exaggerate; although each of Burchette’s seven LPs are special, Grimoire may be regarded as his masterwork.) 30.00
MASTER WILBURN BURCHETTE - Music Of The Godhead For Supernatural Meditation LP (numero - Nearly nothing personal on this man can be found on the internet, not even his real age and his whereabouts of today. Well, he’s a mystery of experimental guitar music of the 70s, so much I can tell. I had never heard about this man until I received the request to review this album and now that I repeatedly listened to “Opens the seven gates of transcendental consciousness”, I have to confess that I am really floored by the dark and mysterious atmosphere of the music. Rather than regular songs you have several layers of chord and melody patterns shifted upon each other, performed with a semi distorted electric guitar that lives from a strong echo effect. A few other instruments may have been used as well even though I doubt to hear anything but electric guitars on this album. Even the oscillating buzz of the third track “Transformation” could easily be created with a guitar and a few effect machines. Halfway through the tune the music knocks over into some very bright and jubilant guitar melody structures. This album is entirely instrumental by the way but I thought you already guessed that. It has a krautish vibe due to the repetitive “layer upon layer” structure of the compositions. It has a folkish and ethnical edge due to the use of Spanish or eastern folk harmonies. The intention of Wilburn Burchette has been the creation of spiritual music that expands your mind in a positive way and transforms your soul and with that your body into a state of enlightenment. Folk from several different parts of the world surely has a big stake in the direction of this guitar masterpiece and even though there are many mood changes from the obscure lairs of the ancient druids to the light filled Celtic spring time ceremonies, this record really lifts up your spirit and cleans it from all the stress, anger and pain you experience throughout each day. Despite not being from Germany this album could be a typical experimental and even cosmic release of the krautrock scene from its era. The years 1970 to 1974 saw quite a few similar releases. Especially the last track of side B, “Realization” is a beautiful example of cosmic guitar music as it was produced only in that short period of time. It begins with some whistling fizzling buzz and then changes to a calm and mystical chord structure with strange echoes and spooky howls in the background. “Realization” slowly develops into a maelstrom that drags you into a musical black hole and swallows you directly. Not as wild and heavy as the early ASH RA TEMPEL albums, this piece could easily be a composition of the guitar legend Manuel Göttsching. So all in all, this is music for fans of blues and folk based, yet utterly freaked out and dirty echo guitar music and cosmic sounds such as A.R. & MACHINES, early TANGERINE DREAM, early KRAFTWERK, the above mentioned ASH RA TEMPEL, Walter Wegmüller or GULAAB. ) 30.00
MASTER WILBURN BURCHETTE - Transcendental Music for Meditation LP (Burchette invites us to eliminate all conscious thinking over the course of two intense, sidelong workouts intended as a tool for a “Psychic Journey Of Transformation”. Transcendental Music For Meditation marks Burchette’s boldest incorporation of the synthesizer, and sounds like nothing else now or then. As the Burchette Brothers write in their guide, “please do not listen to this album until you have prepared yourself!) 30.00
MASTER WILBURN BURCHETTE - Mind Storm LP (numero - DEEP DIMENSIONS BLUE COLORED VINYL. California mail-order mystic Master Wilburn Burchette was first known from his ads, hidden in the back pages of Fate Magazine, Beyond Reality, and Gnostica News. On offer: Burchett's seven-part, block-printed "Psychic Meditation Course," designed to teach people how to listen to music. To go along with his lessons, Burchette sold a series of instrumental guitar and electronic records featuring ornate hand-drawn cover designs, complete with listening instructions from the Master himself. Since just his twelfth year, Burchette had been transfixed by the parapsychological, spending as much time reading books on Tibetan mysticism fundamentals as he did practicing guitar, the vibrations of which he used to create tonal pictures and patterns. After time spent teaching classical guitar, Master Wilburn Burchette released seven albums in the seven years spanning 1971 through 1977, before abruptly burning and discarding everything related to his musical explorations. On Mind Storm, the final album he made prior to his emphatic retirement, Burchette used "pink sound," a phenomenon known in acoustical science to open the mind to thrilling psychic revelations, setting down two side-long pieces that form a reflecting crystal ball for squalls of deep brain imagery. ) 32.00
MONDKOPF - Waves (Selected Works) LP (hands in the dark - Mondkopf, the brainchild of Paul Régimbeau, returns to Hands in the Dark with ‘Waves’, five years after his label-debut ‘How Deep is our Love?’. The French producer’s 9th album features two time-stretched, profound analog-textured pieces based on the physical and emotional swaying motion suggested by its title and recorded during some concerts played in the summer of 2019.The first track was performed at a secret gig in the Vincennes woods in Paris, accompanying a group of Sufi dancers lead by Rana Gorgani, as part of a video project curated and filmed by Vincent Moon. It offers some powerful harmonic drones, subtly building up and flourishing with intensity, accompanying the dancers as they push themselves to their limits) 28.00
OREN AMBARCHI / JOHAN BERTHLING / ANDREAS WERLIN - Ghosted II LP (drag city - An utterly unique guitar/bass/drums triad: the guitar sounds like anything but a guitar; bass and drums simultaneously insistent and relaxed. Telephathic group-think opens a window to fresh fields of fusion: funk-jazz heads, polyrhythmic skeletons, ambient pastorals, post-kraut drones and shimmering soundtrack reveries. A music of sustained tension and deep atmosphere, marked by subtle, shifting dynamics playing out in an open sound field.) 30.00
OREN AMBARCHI - shebang LP (drag city - Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who has long been interested in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on exploring the guitar, "taking the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it is no longer readily identifiable as such. Instead, it is a laboratory for extended sonic investigations". The album is titled Shebang and is said to be an extension of past "rhythmic long-form workouts" found on Ambarchi"s 2014 album Quixotism and 2016"s Hubris. Like those albums, Shebang features contributions from a number of guest artists, including Konrad Sprenger, Jim O"Rourke, Julia Reidy and Chris Abrahams. It follows Ambarchi"s collaborative album with Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin, Ghosted, which was released by Drag City in April and was recently one of tQ"s favourite albums of the year.) 34.00
OUM KALSOUM - Chansons Inédites LP (CLEAR VINYL. On the occasion of the disquaire day 2023, Elmir Records is pleased to present a reissue of a collection of "unreleased songs" by the one called the Star of the East, both for her magnetism on stage and her somptuous voice. Born in Tmaïe al-Zahayira (Egypt), Oum Kalsoum, also spelled Oum Kalthoum (1898 ≈ 1904/1975) is unanimously considered the greatest singer of the Arab world, which music she modernized for nearly five decades. Produced on 78 rpm records between 1926 and 1936, these short but rare works are among her earliest recordings and contrast with the diva's long and iconic pieces. A remastered collection with biographical notes written by Rabah Mezouane that invites the listener to (re)discover these masterpieces in ideal conditions. ) 27.00
ROY MONTGOMERY - Temple IV DLP (kranky - Originally released 1995 as a CD on Kranky.
From the original press release: Few recording artists have aligned the quantity and quality of their releases as well as New Zealand singer/guitarist Roy Montgomery has in 1995. Beginning with kranky's release of the soundtrack for an imaginary film That That Is...Is(Not) by Roy's duo Dissolve early in the year, a series of superb albums and singles have been issued by a variety of labels across the world. Each one of them is a must have. Most recently, the Drunken Fish label released a collection of pastoral drones entitled Scenes From The South Island, singles have appeared on the Roof Bolt and gyttja labels, and further singles are scheduled with Ajax, Siltbreeze and others.) 40.00
SQÜRL - Music for Man Ray DLP (sacred bones - LIMITED CLEAR VINYL EDITION. Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan (founding members of SQÜRL) return with a sonic exploration of the cinematic works of Dadaist pioneer Man Ray, a captivating project that melds music and film. Over the past eight years, SQÜRL have been enchanting audiences with their live scores to Man Ray’s short films across sold-out shows in prestigious venues like the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The culmination of their endeavor took place in the spring of 2023, on the 100th anniversary of Man Ray’s inaugural foray into filmmaking, when the newly restored Return to Reason premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Produced by Womanray (Marieke Tricoire) and Cinenovo (Julie Viez),Return to Reason unfolds as an anthology featuring four silent short films by Man Ray—Étoilede mer (1928), Emak bakia (1926), Le Retour á la Raison (1923), and Les Mysteres du Château de Dé. (1929)—each paired with an original score by SQÜRL. Jarmusch and Logan, two multidisciplinary artists known for their experimental prowess, approached these scores as a way to create an ecstatic state, a space between consciousness and unconsciousness, reality, and the surreal. The resultingalbum, Music for Man Ray, born out of a live recording at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in February of 2023, features distorted guitars, hypnotic feedback, loops and affected synthesizers. In the words of Logan, “It’s a journey we want to take the audience on, illuminating themes throughout these films. They are discrete, but there are also recurring echoes throughout the whole program.” Jim Jarmusch adds, “We feel very proud to be Man Ray’s backup band.” Now both the film Return to Reason and the resulting music in the form of Music for Man Ray are seeing the light of day—both stand as a testament to the creative synergy between Man Ray’s groundbreaking cinema and the innovative musical interpretation by SQÜRL. ) 35.00
SUMAC - The Healer DLP (thrill jockey - COKE BOTTLE CLEAR VINYL. On The Healer, the new full length from Northwest-based trio SUMAC, consisting of guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner, bassist Brian Cook and drummer Nick Yacyshyn, the group deepens its multi-faceted exploration into the parallel experiences of creation and destruction. Over the course of 4 tracks in 76 minutes, SUMAC presents a sequence of shifting movements which undergo a constant process of expansion, contraction, corruption and regrowth.This musical methodology reflects the thematic nature of the record - narratives of experiential wounding as gateways to empowerment and evolution, both individual and collective. The group's interpolation of melody, drone, improvisation, and complex riffing becomes a transmogrifying act embodying the depth of human experience. In its highest aspiration it mirrors our ability to endure mortal and spiritual challenges, through which we may emerge with an increased capacity for understanding, empathy, love of self and others. Dismal though the subterranean pits of “The Healer” may at first appear, from them can be felt the unwavering determination to embrace life, acknowledge interdependence, and honor the gift of existence.) 36.00
UNWOUND - A Single History: 1991-1997 DLP (numero - An expanded and remastered 25th anniversary edition of the mythical Olympia, WA, trio's out-of-print singles and compilation tracks, "A Single History 1991-2001" gathers odds and ends from across Unwound's first decade. From their earliest post-hardcore squeals on "Crab Nebula" to the dub-inspired death march of "Behold The Salt," this 23-track 2xLP fills in the distorted gaps of their initial, seven-album run.) 40.00
V/A - Love Hides All Faults LP (cairo - Pyramid deliver a wonderful new compilation of deep gospel from the 1960s and 1970s. Named after the Holy Light Jrs' eponymous slow jam, featuring as the lead track here, all the songs featured come corralled from the vaults of Pyramid's very own DJ Jumbo. Doing well to shine a light on the unbeatably sentimental mood that hung heavy over the Mississippi-born genre that emerged in the postwar period, the likes of 'Beams Of Heaven', 'Lord You Are My Burden Brother' and 'When The Gates Swing Open' all function as faithful, ivory-fingered devotionals and effective paeans for a better world to come.)
V/A - Six Feet Under LP (mississippi - Compilation of unbelievable rockabilly, country & early rock instrumentals. All obscure & hard to find & not a loser in the bunch. A mind blower for fans of the Cramps, Lee Hazelwood, real deal rock n' roll & out there country. Songs about graveyards, misery, trains, ghosts & so on.We highly recommend this one.) 25.00
VALENTINA MAGALETTI - A Queer Anthology of Drums LP (Limited to 600 copies on black vinyl with three sleeve colour variants: 300 x red, 200 x green and 100 x blue. A Queer Anthology of Drums - "a percussive collage of low-fi frequencies documenting a journey that never took place" (Takuroku), a home recording capturing Valentina's ritualistic free-improv essence. *A Queer Anthology of Drums was originally released on Cafe Oto's label “Takuroku” with 8 tracks solely in MP3 format. The new version is specifically remastered for vinyl format and expanded to 9 tracks with the previously unreleased “She/Her/Gone”.) 30.00
VALENTINA MAGALETTI - Lucha Libra LP (*200 copies limited edition* Valentina Magaletti flies solo again with 4 impeccable post-punk / dub / wave infused workouts. The lo-fi and forlorn And There Is Us opens the set with awkward drum machine, twinkly piano notes, and analogue synth tones sitting under echoing voices which carry across to Noiaz with its rolling, drill-like drum patterns. Lotta on the B side gets busier with guitar, field recordings and a laid-back groove before the pace picks up for the closing track Drum Jump where a range of percussion and fx are propelled by an incessant groove that could have beamed-in from Danceteria circa '82. Killer! ) 26.00
THE WEEDS - Just Colour LP + 2x7“ (mississippi - Fred Cole’s legendary 1961-1966 band. The 12" is a straight reissue of the 1968 LP (unfortunately originally released as "The Lollipop Shoppe" but now returned to the real name of the band). One 7" features artwork from the Weeds' 1971 single and contains the 4 songs released as The Weeds (originally on separate 7", one released 1971 and the other 1966 which includes cover of Them's "Little Girl"). The other 7" features artwork from the 1968 Lollipop Shoppe 7" but since those two cuts were included on the LP, this features 4 other songs, "Someone I Knew" and "Through My Window" from the 1969 single, and "Who's it Gonna Be" and "Mr. Madison Avenue." Instead of pressing a double album that could have provided more material, this package was done intentionally to house all the essential cuts (and all the original artwork of the LP and 7" releases)." ) 38.00
V/A - Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa 1985-1986 LP (dark entries - The seductive sounds of Portugal swing to Dark Entries on Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa 1985-1986, a compilation of vintage Iberian synth, wave, and postpunk gems. The legendary club Rock Rendez Vous (RRV) opened its doors in Lisbon in 1980, heralding a new era in the Portuguese underground. Although touring acts like Killing Joke, Danse Society, or Echo & the Bunnymen graced its stage, RRV more vitally served as ground zero for a new generation of Portuguese bands, one simultaneously in touch with broader international musical movements while being invested in establishing a national sonic identity. Rock Rendez Vous culls 9 tracks of prime Portuguese indie tunes from the Música Moderna Portuguesa compilations released in 1985 and 1986, documenting the heyday of this movement. Jangly and brooding postpunk gems like “Levante” from Jovem Guarda, Projecto Azul’s “New Sides,” and Essa Entente’s “Festa Final” are well-represented here. Meanwhile, quirky Balearic-laced synthpop gems like D. W. Art’s “Mate” or Zona Proibida’s “Musak” add a subtly regional flare. Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa comes housed in a sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a photo of the club RRV, and also includes a double-sided insert with lyrics, photos, and liner notes.) 28.00
V/A - SPIRITUAL JAZZ 16: RIVERSIDE ETC. DLP (jazzman - Since 2008 our Spiritual Jazz series has presented unlimited horizons. Each album celebrates the rich tradition of African-American songs based on the belief in a higher force than oneself and has also focused on geographical areas, such as Europe or Japan, thus recognizing that these territories have immense cultural riches. Religions, like Islam, whose musical traditions have vivid Arabic and North African resonances, have also been highlighted. The stylistic range of all the above is wide. Yet historic record labels, from Blue Note and Impulse! to Prestige and Steeplechase, have also featured because their catalogues are musical treasure troves that could not be more relevant to Spiritual Jazz, even though they issued vast amounts of music between the late ‘30s and present day, that have not been confined to any one school. Spiritual Jazz 16is a focus on Riverside and its associated sister labels. Riverside itself was founded in 1953 by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, and became an important purveyor in that decade and beyond of what would be marketed as of modern jazz. That coinage was itself an amorphous, umbrella term that essentially created a demarcation from the vocabulary of pre-war classic jazz and inter-war big band swing, thus recognizing that improvising artists were breaking new creative ground that would subsequently give rise to a flurry of sub-genres, for example bebop, hard bop, cool, modal and Latin jazz. And it's from this multiplicity of sub-genres that we choose the deepest, most vibrant selections that the vast, pan-generational catalogue of Keepnews & Grauer has to offer.) 35.00
ZOE EFSTATHIOU - Solo Piano - Edge Of Chaos LP (ideal! - "In the core of the album’s creation, lies my fascination with unveiling the piano overtones by harnessing the properties of complex systems, which emerge when competing oscillations of strings interact with room acoustics, microphone placements, the piano's pedals, and its soundboard. Through long forms, incremental gestures, and nuanced timbral artifacts, the album aims to distort the perception of time and invite an introspective experience of multiple and expanded temporalities." - Zoe Efstathiou. Following collaborations with Egil Kalman and Oda Dyrnes, Greek pianist Zoe Efstathiou investigates chaotic overtone systems on this pecuilar solo piano excursion, teasing inscrutable, hypnotic drones that sound utterly alien. RIYL Akira Rabelais, John Also Bennett, Kassel Jaeger.) 26.00
CD
AHMED - Giant Beauty 5xCD BOXSET (أحمد [Ahmed] is the quartet of Pat Thomas (piano), Joel Grip (double bass), Antonin Gerbal (drums) and Seymour Wright (alto saxophone). Together, the group re-arrange and re-imagine in real time the music of composer, bassist and oud player Ahmed Abdul-Malik (1927-1993). Listening, learning.) 63.00
GASTR DEL SOL - We Have Dozens of Titles 2xCD (drag city - Nearly twenty-five years after disbanding, Gastr del Sol have unpacked their archive, stringing together an alternative view to their genre-melting 1993-1998 run. This assembly of previously uncollected studio recordings and beautifully captured unreleased live performances forms a spacious ode to the flux that was their métier; a further set of reinventions that continue to alter the manner in which we hear music, and literally everything else! ) 36.00
