Bis Aufs Messer Weekly news 02 June 2024
Hi, welcome to another newsletter for June. As usual a couple cool new releases and restocks arrived like the new EZRA FEINBERG - Soft Power LP, ADMAS - Sons Of Ethiopia LP, LANARK ARTEFAX - Metallur LP, GANAVYA - Like The Sky I've Been Too Quiet DLP, TOYLAND - s/t LP, Ø (MIKA VAINIO) - Olento DLP, HARUOMI HOSONO / MIXMASTER MORRIS / JONAH SHARP - Quiet Logic DLP, NOVY SVET - DeGenerazione LP, Blue Lake restock, various Numero restocks (American Analog Set, Indian Summer, Scientist, Unwound etc), Shella Terraform LP restock, the new CRYPT SERMON - The Stygian Rose LP, THOU restocks, a couple restocks from Time Capsule like the NININGASHI - Heavy Way LP, V/A - Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985 LP, V/A - Nippon Acid Folk 1970-1980 LP, also both HAKO YAMASAKI - Tsunawatari LP and the HAKO YAMASAKI - Tobimasu LP are back in stock, CARLOS NIÑO & FRIENDS - Placenta DLP arrived along with restock of the TOM SKINNER - Voices of Bishara Live at "mu" DLP and more
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
Ø (MIKA VAINIO) - Olento DLP (‘Olento’, alongside ‘Metri’, are the key pillars of Mika Vainio’s unparalleled catalogue, which makes this first repress in long over a decade 100% essential if you don’t already know. A resoundingly influential blueprint for electronic minimalism since its original 1996 release, ‘Olento’ followed the more robust, 4:4 pulse of 1995’s ‘Metri’ with a sensitively expressive, if still icy, grasp of pure electrical current that has remained a definitive hallmark of Mika Vainio’s sound. Bookended by shockingly sweet passages of music box melody, the album sees Vainio at his freehand best, coaxing out a spectra of atmospheric tones and rugged rhythms resembling dancehall and techno with a mix of gauntleted gruffness and tender haptics that has become established as his signature. In terms of its melancholy melodic arrangements, it’s all perhaps best compared to Mika’s standout ’Kantamoinen’ album, while its offset sort of rhythms would patently go on to merge with Ilpo Väisänen’s pendulous patterns in Pan Sonic following their 4:4 phase, and pave the way for Mika’s later Ø classics such as ‘Aste’ and the mighty ‘Oleva’ LP. As some wise gadge once said “Mika Vainio gives character to noise”, and that’s quite apparent throughout ‘Olento.’ Working with a palette of modified hardware and oscillators, Mika patiently gave shape to pure sine waves, tweaking and sculpting them into a range of booming basses, precise clicks and gloaming atmospheric presence that you couldn’t simply find in off-the-shelf presets. The haptic act of digits on dials and sliders proved key to the difference between Mika’s sounds and software settings, resulting an endlessly unique and physically affective bank of sounds that he can safely call his own, while in the process defining the principles for so much raw techno, minimalist purism and power electronics to follow. Perhaps most outstanding about ‘Olento’ is that, for all its austere Northern European nature and skeletal make-up, it swings like the best Afro-American rock ’n roll, blues and house that Mika adored. OK, it may not have standard chords or vocals, but cuts like ‘Kaskaat’ and ‘Mugwumb’ are practically icy distillations of hip hop or dancehall patterns, while ‘Throb-S’ finds effortlessly slinky routes between monotone EBM and dancehall. But if you’re looking for the most potent flavours, they manifest in the album’s iciest, and ironically absorbing cuts, with the deliquescent purism of ‘Stratostatti’ and the-last-word-on-dub-chords ‘Ilta’ effectively saying he most with the least, in Mika’s timeless style. It’s always terrible to think that there will be no more new Mika Vainio releases, but at least we have his abundant catalogue to rake back over and rediscover gems like this album.) 35.00
ABACOTHOZI - Thema Maboneng LP (jazz room - Abacothozi were formed in 1973 by bassist Berthwel Maphumulo, formerly of the Elite Swingsters. Together with Mac Mathunjwa on organ, his brother Innocent Mathunjwa on drums, and Joe Zikhali on guitar, they recorded at least two albums: "Thema Maboneng" released in 1975 and "Night in Pelican" released in 1976 (reissued on Matsuli Music Compilation "Night In Pelican"). These six sizzling tracks were originally recorded by West Nkosi for the Mavuthela label. Released without fanfare and then forgotten, they remained totally unknown to DJs and clubgoers for over 40 years. Rediscovered by Diggers Extraordinaire Kon & Amir for their much-lauded "Off Track Volume Two: Queens" and suddenly, a Volcanic Meltdown Frenzy for a Holiest of Grails emerged with sightings reported in hushed tones just in case you were beaten to the draw in some backstreet waxcave that someone foolishly whispered about on a social media site for all the world to see. Now, Jazz Room Records is proud to release this epic fusion of sun-soaked exuberance, funk-infused rhythms and soul-jazz-driven beats for the first time in 50 years. Sounding as if it were recorded yesterday, it is poised to light up dance floors again, from the Vibrant Streets of Soweto to the Funky Basement Dives of Barcelona, filling floors from the Outasite Getdown Grooves of Uncle Funks Palace to the Solid Soul Boulevards of Funky Broadway. ) 30.00
ADMAS - Sons Of Ethiopia LP (fredeicksberg - restock - Sons of Ethiopia is a fascinating piece of the Ethiopian musical puzzle. Emerging from the community of Ethiopian exiles who had been scattered to the winds by the brutality of the Derg – the military dictatorship that had deposed Haile Selassie – the album was the sound of a new generation. The members of Admas were not musicians from the so-called ‘golden age’: they were children of the terror and propaganda of the Derg time – an era of state-sponsored neighbourhood bands and a propaganda-tinged traditional music scene, where the weekends were sound-tracked by the remaining hotel groups of a bygone Imperial world.) 36.00
ADRIANNE LENKER - Bright Future LP (This vinyl record is 100% analog-analog-analog (AAA). No digital process was used in the production of this sound recording. on bright future, adrianne lenker, a songwriter known for turns of phrase and currents of rhyme, says it plainly, “you have my heart // i want it back.” documented with analog precision, what began as an experiment in collaboration, became proof adrianne’s heart did return, full to the brim, daring her into the unknown. admirers of adrianne’s solo music and big thief will find on bright future her reliable talent captured in stunning, magnetic clarity. in the company of parlor instruments, adrianne’s modern melodic and lyrical inventions create new traditions. her vocal flights at times outwit gravity, then land, guiding along an earthly path. the wholeness of the unspliced recordings preserve a time of musical friendship during a golden season) 27.00
CARLOS NIÑO & FRIENDS - Placenta DLP (International anthem - Placenta is the fourth collection of broadly imaginative and highly collaborative Carlos Niño & Friends music released on International Anthem in the last four years. It is also the first new music to be released by Carlos Niño & Friends following the November 2023 release of André 3000’s New Blue Sun – an album which Carlos produced alongside André, while co-writing, co-creating/playing, and co-mixing every song. Placenta is announced on April 11th, 2024, a date chosen because it is the 1st solar return of Moss Niño (a new being in human form, who Carlos and his partner Annelise are Earth parents of). Their experience of pregnancy, labor and delivery were all profoundly impactful for Carlos. Becoming a father again (a whole 24 years after the birth of Azul Niño, who has become a regular artistic collaborator with Carlos) he felt total Inspiration for this set of recordings, and hence it is perhaps the most conceptually-grounded Carlos Niño & Friends album we've yet to present – fully connected to the spirit of family, birth, and "how we get here.") 35.00
CRYPT SERMON - The Stygian Rose LP (dark descent - Featuring guitarist Steve Jansson (Daeva, Unrest), vocalist Brooks Wilson (Unrest), drummer Enrique Sagarnaga (Daeva, The Silver), guitarist Frank Chin (Daeva), bassist Matt Knox (Horrendous, The Silver) and keyboardist Tanner Anderson (Obsequiae, Majesties), the Philadelphia-based sextet has used its time away from the spotlight to create an even bigger, more mysterious Crypt Sermon. The Stygian Rose is a blend of doom and heavy metal that effortlessly transcends both genres. From the blazing solo salvo of "Glimmers in the Underworld" and the commanding rhythm of "Heavy is the Crown of Bone" to the evocative Middle Eastern vibes of "Thunder (Perfect Mind)" and the intricate, masterful journey of the 11-minute title track, The Stygian Rose embodies the band's increasingly burgeoning musical and conceptual abilities. Crypt Sermon recorded The Stygian Rose with renowned producer Arthur Rizk (Blood Incantation, Cirith Ungol) and engineer Aidan Elias (Blood Incantation, Wayfarer) at Philadelphia's Redwoods. Although Rizk was responsible for Out of the Garden (2015) and The Ruins of Fading Light (2019), the team has captured the band's genre-bending work in a new light this time around. Singles "Glimmers in the Underworld," "Heavy is the Crown of Bone," and "Thunder (Perfect Mind)" are frighteningly effective in their [Neil] Kernon-esque production, while deep album tracks "Scrying Orb," "Down in the Hollow," and "The Stygian Rose" cast long, mysterious shadows. Rizk extracted from Crypt Sermon the same big-stage sound that producers Dave Jerden and Rick Rubin coaxed from Alice In Chains and Trouble, respectively.) 30.00
EZRA FEINBERG - Soft Power LP (tonal union - Limited Clear Vinyl. Ezra Feinberg’s third album Soft Power sees the composer-guitarist enlist an impressive array of fellow musicians including Mary Lattimore, David Moore (Bing & Ruth), Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Robbie Lee and share the life affirming lead single ‘Future Sand’. Defined by its abundance of melodies, repeating figures and ecstatic improvisations, Soft Power exudes an enlightened and transformative spirit to empower the listener. Feinberg, a practising psychoanalyst and former founding member of the San Francisco psychedelic collective Citay (Dead Oceans / Important Records) resides in the artistic enclave of upstate New York's Hudson River valley. Initial recordings emerged in the late summer of 2020, before added synthesis with collaborator John Thayer (Arp, Sunwatchers) during early 2021. Soft Power follows previous albums ‘Recumbent Speech’ (2020) and ‘Pentimento and Others’ (2018). The compassionate, tender-hearted opener ‘Future Sand’ deftly interweaves flutes and steady arpeggios. The Reichian pulse beneath the soaring melody is played not on the customary analogue sequencer, but on finger-picked acoustic guitar, one of the lodestars of Feinberg’s compositional approach. ‘Soft Power’, the buoyant and mesmeric title track that follows builds over a rich bed of guitars and a reverb-y Rhodes melody reminiscent of a Strata East LP, its narrative arc bountiful in energy, optimism and future dreaming, a perfect accompaniment to long days of summertide. “The most unexpected, unpredictable, and spontaneous moments in life live in the realm of softness”, quotes Feinberg. ‘Pose Beams’ blends the chamber-jazz approach of Penguin Café Orchestra with a balletic kosmische, climaxing with a galvanising crescendo and “free improv” section performed by fellow New Yorkers - Robbie Lee (piano) and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, whose granular and modular synths sprinkle particle dust over the expressive drumming of John Thayer. ‘Flutter Intensity’ evokes in part the music of Cluster as played on acoustic guitars, which ping-pong across the stereo field, providing the canvas for a plaintive vibraphone line reminiscent of TNT-era Tortoise. Instruments move in tandem, but also drift and glide allowing them the space to hang in the air, the variegated rhythms, textures, and tones all laced into the fabric of the album. ) 28.00
GANAVYA - Like The Sky I've Been Too Quiet DLP (South-Asian vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Ganavya releases her new studio album “Like the sky I've been too quiet” on Shabaka Hutchings’ Native Rebel Recordings. The album features contributions from artists including Kofi Flexxx, Floating Points, Carlos Niño, Leafcutter John and Mercury-nominated bassist Tom Herbert. Since graduating from Berklee College of Music, Ucla and Harvard, Ganavya has quickly become a much-in-demand artist on the US scene who consistently confounds expectations. Hailed as “among modern music's most compelling vocalists” (Wall Street Journal), “most enchanting” (npr) and "extraordinary" (DownBeat), Ganavya has worked with an array of luminaries including the likes of Quincy Jones, Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding and on new album "Like the sky I've been too quiet" she presents thirteen compelling tracks which showcase her ethereal voice and numinous energy. ) 36.00
HARUOMI HOSONO / MIXMASTER MORRIS / JONAH SHARP - Quiet Logic DLP (Allow Mixmaster Morris, YMO’s Haruomi Hosono, and US electronica pioneer Jonah Sharp to nuzzle nostalgia nozzles on a first vinyl pressing of their 1997 ambient dance saga - a big RIYL The Irresistible Force, Spacetime Continuum, Dreamfish, Tetsu Inoue, FFWD, H.I.A., Fax +49-69/450464 Mana for backroom psychonauts and yoghurt weavers, ‘Quiet Logic’ pitches a trio of electronic music dreamers in fluid, harmonious fusion for just under an hour of gently trippy ambient soundscaping. Mostly helmed by transatlantic duo Morris & Sharp, it crucially stars two standout jams with living legend Haruomi Hosono, whose preceding decades of work - both solo and with Yellow Magic Orchestra - held huge sway over his collaborators and their generation. The influence of YMO and Japanese electronics and culture can be read in the track titles, elegance, and iridescent tone of the album, from the frothily animated designs of ‘Waraitake’ recallign earlier Susumu Yokota acid trax, thru the sparkling ambient jungle of ‘Uchu Yuei (Swimming in Space’, and the melange of environmental ambient and club sensuality in ’Tsunami (Moon Viewing)’. But that link is best firmed up in Hosono’s two co-composer credits, gracing the fluttering delicacy ‘Wakarimasen’ with fractal melodic charms, and lending a lysergic quality to the jazzy frisson of elements in ‘Dr. Gauss / Yakan Hiko (Night Flight)’. Don your best raglan T, turn up those spenny Jap denim cuffs, and get a hot knife on the go for optimal ‘90s a e s t h e t i c when rolling on the carpet to this one.) 33.00
KLAUS JOHANN GROBE - Io tu il loro LP (trouble in mind - Six years have passed since Swiss-based duo Klaus Johann Grobe’s last long player “Du bist so symmetrisch” (2018) and you’ll hear they’ve come a long way. “Io tu il loro”, their fourth album for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records was written over two weeks in a cabin at the very end of a remote Swiss valley, where - pretty much at the same place - Klaus Johann Grobe came up with their whole debut full-length “Im Sinne der Zeit” album in 2014. What started out as simply making music again quickly turned into seriously making a new album. Once decided, the whole thing was finished rather quickly and recorded once again at David Langhard’s Dala Studio at the end of 2022. “Io tu il loro” is a record that cannot be done by endlessly fiddling around with hundreds of ideas and sounds. All it needed was a real break (Dani and Sevi didn’t work on any Grobe-related stuff until they met up in the mountains in 2022). It’s an album with a blurry vision and soft limitations. You can somehow feel them looking back on all their work forgivingly and then moving on to what felt right. So here we are with nine tracks full of embracing warmth, so melancholicly welcoming you don’t know if you want to smile or cry. Some might call it timeless, some might call it dad-rock... well, it certainly isn’t disco for the masses, it’s more like, “If I can’t make myself dance after four beers, I can as well go home.” So, no disco? No syncopated synths? No German? No reverb? Where’s The Grobe? Take your time, you’ll notice Klaus Johann Grobe aren’t gone, they just took a turn before driving yet into another unknown. ) 26.00
LANARK ARTEFAX - Metallur LP (AD93 — Emerging from a generative paradox of laser precision and fluid dynamism, Metallur fuses percussive, metallic force with warping tempos and a field of ethereal resonance and debris. The result is an insurgent, elemental, time-smearing of hyperspace, where "tellurian beats merge with alien glossolalia and vocal samples blip tesseracts of human affect into a ghostly, melodic aether“. Music for a crushed infinity. ) 28.00
LA MONTE YOUNG / MARIAN ZAZEELA - Dream House 78'17" LP (superior - Originally released in 1974 on Shandar, »Dream House 78'17"« is the second full-length album by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. This first-time US edition reproduces the original gatefold sleeve with beautiful calligraphy by Zazeela and liner notes by Young and French musicologist Daniel Caux. Side one was recorded at a private concert (on the date and time indicated by the title) and features Young and Zazeela's voices against a sine wave drone with Jon Hassell on trumpet and Garrett List on trombone. This work is a section of the longer composition Map of 49's Dream the Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery (begun in 1966 as a sub-section of The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys, which was begun in 1964 with Young's group The Theatre of Eternal Music). The piece evolves with the oscillator changing pitch and dictating an ornate pattern over the course of the performance. Side two is an example of one of the sets of frequencies sustained in the Dream House, the composite sound environments conceived by Young and Zazeela. The composer suggests listening while seated – to experience how the sound interacts with the room and other perceptions of its arrangement – as well as while walking. As Young states, "The frequency ratios are monitored continuously as lissajous patterns on the oscilloscopes and, in spite of the great stability of the oscillators, the phase relationships of the sine waves gradually drift which causes their amplitudes to add and subtract algebraically. Not only does the sound become a bit louder and softer, but at very loud levels, one actually begins to have a sensation that parts of the body are somehow locked in sync with the sine waves and slowly drifting with them in space and time.) 32.00
LÉO DUPLEIX – Resonant Tree LP (black truffle — Black Truffle is pleased to announce Resonant Trees, the first vinyl release from French composer-performer Léo Dupleix. An active member of the international community of younger musicians working with just intonation, Dupleix has composed works for solo instrumentalists and ensembles in Europe and Japan, as well as performing extensively on harpsichord, piano and electronics. His music is distinguished by a formal clarity and elegance of surface, gently shaping pure intervals into delicate melodic patterns and shimmering harmonic planes. Resonant Trees presents two side-long pieces for harpsichord and ensemble, both setting slowly repeating patterns played on harpsichord and guitar within an environment of sustained tones. Dupleix performs on a French double manual harpsichord (tuned to a just intonation scheme of his own devising) and Prophet synthesizer, joined by Juliette Adam (bass clarinet), Johanna Bartz (traverso flute), Cyprien Busolini (viola), Fredrik Rasten (6- and 12-string guitars), and Mara Winter (traverso flute). The harpsichord begins Resonant Tree I alone, slowly sounding out a series of arpeggiated chords that emphasise the unique (and for unaccustomed listeners, sometimes unsettling) harmonic and timbral qualities of justly tuned intervals. Long tones from synthesiser, bass clarinet, viola and Baroque traverso flutes slowly creep into the spaces between the arpeggiated chords, joined after several minutes by delicate patterns of harmonics played by Rasten on acoustic guitars. On Resonant Tree II, a similar structure and ensemble (without the flutes) are used with quite different results. We again hear only the harpsichord at first, but this time playing a series of flowing melodic lines, each of which is repeated several times. Joined again by long tones from the ensemble, here the viola is particularly prominent and its interplay with the harpsichord creates fascinating acoustic effects. In both pieces, repetition gives the music a static, stable quality while, at the same time, the exact shape of the repeating patterns remains difficult to grasp. As Dupleix writes, these pieces dream of music as ‘space and a sound that one could grasp in one’s hand.’ As the near-static quality of the repetitions and long tones with little incident make these two stretches of musical time feel like spaces for the listener to inhabit, the small variations on a narrow range of related material act like a three-dimensional object whose each facet is examined in turn. At once austere and seductive, Resonant Trees takes its place beside the work of contemporaries like Catherine Lamb, while also calling up the languorous melodic world of Mamoru Fujieda, the dignified melancholy of Satoshi Ashikawa’s classic Still Way and the espaliered chamber atmospherics of the Obscure catalogue.) 30.00
NININGASHI - Heavy Way LP (time capsule. - A long-lost Japanese acid folk gem, Niningashi’s 1974 private press debut Heavy Way shimmers with originality, deft song writing and a dream-like groove. Although he was training as a pharmacist, Kazuhisa Okubo was much more interested in prescribing musical medicine. A coming-of-age album, Heavy Way captured a turning point in Okubo’s life, and Japanese society more widely as a nostalgia for the pastoral calm of the traditional life, met the cosmopolitan thrill of coffee, sex and cigarettes in the big city. Intoxicated by Tokyo, driven by a passion for music and surrounded by a thriving acid folk scene, the young student filtered his experiences through a psychedelic cocktail of soulful influences from the US and Japan. Niningashi was his first band, and Heavy Way was their only album. It was honest and raw, deep and strangely funky, in an off-beat kind of way. Across nine tracks, Okubo and the 6-piece band put their own spin on the new folk sound of Japan, combining witty lyrics with electric guitar-driven solos and crisp, understated grooves. Melancholy and profound, opening track ‘Ameagari’ feels like a synthesis of Harvest-era Neil Young and Haruomi Hosono’s Happy End. Then there’s the whimsical washboard country sound of ‘Semai Boku No Heyade’; the moody, low-lit charm of ‘Restaurant’; and ‘Hitoribotchi’, a sensitive portrayal of childhood, steeped in memories of rainfall that will resonate with fans of Woo and Mac Demarco. While Okubo would go on to taste success with psychedelic folk bands Neko and Kaze, the latter of which scored three #1 albums, little is known about his mysterious debut with Niningashi. Self-released by Okubo in 1974, and featuring album artwork by his brother, it has slowly generated a cult following online, intrigued by its soft and enchanting sound. So few records were ultimately pressed that those remaining have fetched up to £1,500 online. Featured on Time Capsule’s era-spanning collection Nippon Acid Folk, Niningashi’s Heavy Way is a deep-cut grail of a vibrant time in Japan’s musical history, where even the pharmacists were making jams. ) 30.00
NOVY SVET - DeGenerazione LP (quindi - After having finished recordings for "Desde Infiernos De Flores", Nový Svět immediately began putting down new songs for a follow-up album, which they planned to finalise benefitting from time won by releasing "Desde Infiernos De Flores" in slices (of CD EPs) over a period of some months. J. Weber's and Frl. Tost's return to an earlier life in their hometown Vienna brought a new deck of cards into play and those by then already mixed new pieces, rumoured to circle around all things dream and sleep and (waking up in) nightmares, suddenly were regarded as "too spanish", hence "inappropriate" for release. Instead in late 2007 surprisingly a synth-only album named "Todas Las Últimas Cosas" ("All the last things"), accompanied by a collection of early demos entitled "Todas Las Primeras Cosas", was announced by the acclaimed german label Treue Um Treue / Reue Um Reue. During the following seven years it took Nový Svět to present their next album "Mono", tons of unreleased music were made available on various formats. But none of the tracks being abandoned in 2007 showed up. Years after their making those recordings were saved from a disintegrating master and compiled for the album"DeGenerazione", which when it much later showed up online caught the attention of Quindi Records, now making the album available for the first time on the intended LP format, presenting a missing link in the Austrians' discography and the final part of a musical triptych, the so-called Spanish Trilogy, a reflection on transition, begun with "Fin.Finito.Infinito" back in Vienna, where it now would also find an end. Although noisy and rhythmic in parts, "DeGenerazione" closes the passage of Nový Svět's exile on an overall introspective note. It stands as a document of a band at the point of implosion, another dark hole - in a story full of them - illuminated and evidence that J. Weber's Spanish did not improve a bit. Not even living there. A triumph of the will. ) 30.00
QUINTESSENCE - Quintessence LP (Mad About - File Under: Jazz Funk Private Press Official reissue of the super rare private press Quintessence LP from 1981. With every famous jazz recording, many others remained on the shelf of oblivion without ever receiving the recognition they deserved, and this is the case of Quintessence. Led by Ron Ancrum, with George Sovak, David Gaedeke, Winston Johnson and Steve Muse recorded an exceptional and fundamental album of 80's jazz. If you are into Fender Rhodes, this is an LP to be collected.) 33.00
RAUL GOMEZ - Instrumental LP (mr bongo - For the next reissue in Mr Bongo’s Cuban Classics series, we look to Raúl Gómez’s entrancing 1977 Instrumental album. Presenting a unique blend of orchestral disco and jazz-funk, with Afro-Cuban flavours and soundtrack influences, it’s rich with drum breaks, energy and evolving compositions. A record that forever keeps you guessing, powered by an exemplary orchestra at the top of their game. Cuban composer and singer Raúl Gómez is most known for featuring in the groups Mirtha Y Raul and Los Bucaneros alongside producing the Cuban classic Los Reyes 73 album, amongst a whole host of other incredible productions over the years. Released on Cuba’s state-owned label Areito, Instrumental sees Gómez not only as an instrumentalist and author, but also as a producer and arranger. It's an album that deftly evades pigeonholing. Floating between instrumental mood music and library/soundtrack mastery, followed by explosions of cosmic-Latin funk, psych guitar workouts and compositions that reflect the orchestrated disco coming out of the US at the time, from greats such as Love Unlimited or MFSB. Lace that together with a healthy serving of Afro-Cuban magic to underpin the tracks and it’s a recipe for a record that captivates from start to finish. Predominantly an instrumental album as the title suggests, the record showcases the Orquesta EGREM in full flow, soaring strings and vibrant horns at every turn. Highlights include 'Mi Samba Carnaval' with its breathtaking drum break, bubbling synths and sublime arrangements and the romantic film music impressions of ‘Tema De La Sierra', that have been a sampling source for many a producer. Elsewhere, ‘6 Son’ is a mind-melding psych guitar powerhouse, with 'Dacapo', written by Gilberto Peralta, offering up a slice of atmospheric and energetic Latin shuffle. One of only a handful of tracks where scat vocals compliment the orchestral tones, a Brazilian percussion theme marries with dancefloor sensibilities for a dose of feel-good, brilliance. A wide-ranging, multi-dimensional release, Instrumental exhibits musicianship, composition and creativity at its finest and demonstrates another key example of the rich output of music that flowed from the island of Cuba post revolution. ) 30.00
THE SCIENTISTS - s/t LP (numero - HIGH NOON SUN YELLOW COLORED VINYL. The Scientists’ 1981 wild debut bewildered Perth, Australia’s punters with its charging anthems centered on themes of young love and alienation. Obvious in its rebellion yet more pop than punk, the self-titled “Pink Album” deftly embodied the tough-yet-danceable outsider aura of The Ramones, and its unheard of, feverish clip shook the shores of the geographically confined Swan Coastal Plain of down under. Recorded just as the lineup of guitarist-vocalist Kim Salmon (The Cheap Nasties), drummer James Baker (The Victims) and bassist Ian Sharples were breaking up, the album stands as a testament to the contagious chops of Perth’s swelling pool of musical talent, and to the promise of Salmon’s unwavering vision that would become one of the most celebrated acts of the Aussie underground.) 29.00
THE SCIENTISTS - Weird Love LP (numero - Atomic Love Bomb Pink Colored Vinyl. Unhinged Aussie grunge captured just as the Scientists were imploding/attempting to explode. Recorded over three days in February 1986, Weird Love is the band’s last ditch effort to bring their bad vibes to bedrooms the world over, a colossal failure and brilliant mistake that sounds best when blasting out of a 1982 Corolla’s blown Alpine tweeters) 29.00
SHEIDA GHARACHEDAGHI & MOHAMMAD REZA ASLANI - Chess Of The Wind LP (mississippi - The lost soundtrack to “Chess of the Wind”, Iran’s banned 1976 queer-gothic-class-horror masterpiece, restored by the director and released for the first time. Not for the faint of heart!
A masterpiece of world cinema, Mohammad Reza Aslani’s “Chess of the Wind” was banned in Iran and thought to be lost until a complete print of the film re-emerged in an antique shop in 2014. Restored by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and released to rapturous reviews in 2020, “Chess of the Wind” has taken its rightful place as one of the most visionary and daring films of pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema. The film’s soundtrack, by one of the nation’s most revered female composers, Sheida Gharachedaghi, is just as daring - a combination of Persian classical instrumentation and atonal dissonance drawn from her Western conservatory background. Woodwinds, traditional Persian percussion, and the eerie moan of the ancient sheypour horn reflect the film’s battle between feudalism and modernity. As one scholar said, it sounds like “Ornette Coleman visiting a holy shrine in Iran.” For this release, the director and composer worked with film scholar Gita Aslani Shahrestani to reimagine and restore the music, combining it with work from another (as yet unreleased) Aslani/Gharachedaghi project “Therefore Hangs A Tale.” The result is two side-length sound collages, a new sonic work that Aslani had long dreamt of creating. The work is a legible sonic journey that speaks to the film’s feminist themes, tracing a long battle for freedom in Iran from the early 20th century through today’s Women Life Freedom Movement. Mississippi is proud to release a major work by two of Iran’s most visionary artists. The release comes with 8 full-size pages of liner notes and stills from the film, including song translations and an in-depth history by film scholar Gita Aslani Shahrestani. ) 29.00
TOM SKINNER - Voices of Bishara Live at "mu" DLP (international anthem - Hand-numbered edition of 1,200. With insert and screen-printed jacket. In January 2023, Tom Skinner and his ensemble performed material from his recently-released album 'Voices of Bishara' (Brownswood, IARC & Nonesuch, 2022) at London club “mu”— a venue founded by the curators at Brilliant Corners and named after the seminal Don Cherry live album. Their performance was augmented by three pieces by Abdul Wadud, whose 1977 self-released solo cello album, By Myself, was a primary inspiration for Voices of Bishara. The woodwinds featured on Skinner's original Voices of Bishara album — Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia — had already been replaced in Skinner's live ensemble with Robert Stillman (who also plays with Skinner in The Smile) and Chelsea Carmichael; with the extended rhythm section of Tom Herbert (double bass) and Kareem Dayes (cello) still rounding out the lineup with Skinner on drums. From the opening moments of Voices of Bishara Live at "mu", which was recorded on that legendary January 2023 night, it's clear that this band’s aim is to excavate the deep corners of the repertoire, kicking things off with an extended rendition of Skinner’s own composition “Bishara” that employs the same relationship to rhythmic and tonal freedom found in the Abdul Wadud cello work that inspired it. That aesthetic connection is even more clear by the time the group moves into their 20-minute exploration of Wadud’s “Oasis,” the stunning centerpiece of the set that culminates with a scorching 5+ minute sax solo by Carmichael. Hearing Skinner’s compositions - flexed and stretched with extended improvisation, and in context with works by Wadud - both places them and this band firmly in the creative music continuum they honor, and provides us with an unobstructed view of where that continuum is leading us. ) 42.00
TOYLAND - s/t LP (austudy - Self-released in 1983, Toyland's singular creation is an anomalous yet vibrant jewel in the underground canon of Australian music. Conceived during the bijou thrum of Adelaide creativity in the early 80's, Toyland's raw mixture of post-punk and new-wave sounds, blanketed by heavy dub and afro-pop experimentations, reflects the mongrel sensibilities of an Australian sound in an ever growing global mirror. Toyland was the brainchild of Nicholas Hope, his partner Analisa and brother Michael, scene stalwarts who had previously played in celebrated local acts such as The Accountants, Desperate Measures and The Jumpers. After enlisting local unorthodox drummer Bill Menz, the newly christened 'Toyland' set about weekly warehouse rehearsals in Blyth Street which eventually led to monthly gigs, typically with peers but occasionally supporting some of Australia’s bigger touring acts like Hoodoo Gurus, Hunters & Collectors, Birthday Party, Go-Betweens or Machinations. Their arresting live show became something of local legend, employing two dancers and a handful of relentless stage theatrics - the groups presence on any stage reportedly ‘impossible to ignore’. After an intense period of gigging between Adelaide and Melbourne, the band was able to fund a three day recording session at Studio 202 in Adelaide. With one day dedicated to recording instruments and voices and another two days given over to dubs and mixing with session producer, Phil Hibberd, the self-titled Toyland release would be the single ripe fruit of this aberrant movement. The result is unparalleled by any other group in Australia at the time: accessible avant-pop, dubbed-out riddims and afro-percussion lay sonic foundations for theatrical vocals spouting socially-conscious tales of caution and displacement. Despite heavy rotation on local community station 5MMM and an enthusiastic reception on the Adelaide scene, sales never covered recording costs and within 2 years the group had dissolved into the annals of obscure Australian music history… For the first time since 1983 ‘Toyland’ returns to vinyl, remastered with extended liner notes, photos and words from original member Nicholas Hope.) 29.00
V/A - Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985 LP (Time Capsule - The smooth and funky sound of prime-time Japanese reggae pop in the 1970s and ‘80s fired up an obsession with Jamaican music that persists to the present day. If there is a year zero for the introduction of reggae music to Japan, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was 1979 when Bob Marley and the Wailers toured the country, trailed by an entourage of journalists, photographers and fans ready to spread the message of the music into all corners of Japanese society. But the story of Japanese reggae is not a linear one, and the music that is collected on Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985 captures the moment J-reggae entered the broader public consciousness, merging commercial city pop style with an infectious backbeat, that has drawn comparisons with the emergence of Lovers Rock in the UK. Rather than look directly to Jamaica, many producers and artists in Japan were inspired instead by the more approachable sounds of The Police and UB40, their reggae fix arriving pre-filtered through the lens of new wave pop from the UK. Playful and groovy, these album deep cuts have been overlooked for too long. Among them are Miki Hirayama, the idol singer who borrowed the bassline from Bob Marley’s Natural Mystic on ‘Denshi Lenzi’, Chu Kosaka, who headed to Hawaii to cut the Jimmy Cliff-inspired ‘Music’ and Marlene, the Philippine songstress whose cover of Roberta Flack’s ‘Hittin’ Me Wear It Hurts’ owed much to her producer’s obsession with Sly & Robbie’s Compass Point sound. Then there was Izumi “Mimi” Kobayashi, who enlisted the Babylon Warriors to perform on a dubbed-out version of her own track ‘Lazy Love’, the city pop-meets-new wave reggae sound of Miharu Koshi’s ‘Coffee Break’, Junko Yagami’s anti-apartheid deep cut ‘Johannesburg’ and Lily, whose ‘Tenki Ni Naare’ was produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto and closes out the compilation with a flourish. While these stories may not always conform to neat narratives, they do provide a more accurate reflection of the indirect ways in which styles infiltrate one another and, in their naivety, have the potential to create something beautifully strange and entirely new. Previously only available in Japan, the tracks on this compilation are a testament to that curious alchemy. Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985 is released on vinyl and as a full album download (no streaming), featuring original artwork by Japanese Fukuoka-based artist Noncheleee, whose cover pays homage to the iconic dancehall album art of Wilfred Limonious. ) 33.00
V/A - Aktenzeichen XY...Ungelöst LP (Limited and handnumbered vinyl. "Den Bildschirm zur Verbrechensbekämpfung einzusetzen, das, meine Damen und Herren, ist der Sinn unserer neuen Sendereihe Aktenzeichen XY Ungelöst, die ich Ihnen heute vorstellen möchte." Mit diesen Worten begrüßte Eduard Zimmermann am 20. Oktober 1967 die Zuschauer des Zweiten Deutschen Fernsehens. Es war die erste Ausgabe eines neuen Sendeformats das, so weiß man heute, (Fernseh-)Geschichte schreiben sollte. Die Idee zu diesem Projekt kam der Tramp Mannschaft, wie so oft, eher zufällig in den Sinn. Es war Ende der 1980er Jahre, als wir zum ersten Mal Eduard Zimmermann am Bildschirm bestaunten. Damals war offensichtlich nicht die Musik ausschlaggebend, sondern das Gesamtpaket XY. Zum einen der sachliche Moderationsstil des Protagonisten, zum anderen die spannenden, jedoch immer behutsam produzierten Filmbeiträge von Kurt Grimm. Die XY Fan-Gemeinde ist sich einig, dass durch seine außergewöhnliche Regiearbeit der filmischen Rekonstruktion der Fälle maßgeblich zum Erfolg von XY beigetragen hat. Des Weiteren waren es die Sprecher der Filmbeiträge, allen voran Wolfgang Grönebaum, der zwischen 1967-1989 mit seiner markanten Stimme des öfteren für Gänsehautmomente bei den Zuschauern sorgte. All das würde aber ohne die passende Begleitmusik nicht funktionieren. Und so ist das letzte Puzzlestück welches XY den Kultstatus einbrachte die Kompositionen die für die Filmbeiträge benutzt wurden. Nun fndet sich auf dieser (Bio*-)Schallplatte aber keineswegs Musik von XY aus den 1980er Jahren. Wie ihr wisst schlägt das Tramp Herz, bis auf wenige Ausnahmen, für die Musik der '60er und '70er. Als wir vor einigen Jahren auf XY-Folgen der Anfangszeit stießen war schnell klar: da muss eine Schallplatte her! Und genau diese kann man nun als Resultat unserer Leidenschaft in den Händen halten. Längst überfällig möchte man meinen. Ein besonderer Dank geht hierbei an den Komponisten Ernst-August Quelle, aus dessen Hand alle Titel auf diesem Album stammen. Eduard Zimmermann hat mit Aktenzeichen XY... Ungelöst Fernsehgeschichte geschrieben. Wir, die Tramp Crew, ist mehr als stolz ihm und seinen Fans mit dieser Schallplatte ein Denkmal gesetzt zu haben. Gern geschehen. Die LP stellt die erstmalige Veröffentlichung aller Titel auf Tonträger dar und kommt mit einem Text von Peter Hohl, der zwischen 1967 und 1979 engster Mitarbeiter Eduard Zimmermanns war.) 33.00
V/A - Italians Do It Better - A Tribute To Madonna DLP (Transparent Neon Pink Vinyl As a tribute to the label's muse and the influence Madonna's music has had on the world around us, the iconic New York label is releasing a compilation of cover versions simply titled "Italians Do It Better" (after Madonna's t-shirt motif in the "Papa Don't Preach" video). Executive produced by Johnny Jewel, the sampler features 20 covers from the bedrooms of 19 artists from 10 different countries, including Max Kamin (Club Intl), the son of New York DJ Mark Kamin, who helped Madonna break through in the early 1980s. Ltd. edition on transparent neon pink double vinyl.) 65.00
