Dusted machinery
Butcher and Nakamura first played together in 2002 at 'Super Deluxe' in Tokyo at the invitation of promoter Hisashi Teruchi. The concert was released as half of 'Cavern with Nightlife' prompting Jason Bivins (Dusted Magazine) to write : 'Not only is Nakamura one of the worlds great improvisers working today, I am hugely impressed with Butchers ability to work in concert with him. Whisper soft soprano squeaks and gently coaxed feedback saxophone meld fluidly, seamlessly with the stripped-metal to…
The Cable House
The arrival of a new Andrew Chalk album is always a cause for celebration, and now this record re-appears after a very small vinyl pressing last year. Mr. Chalk has long stood as one of our favorite drone composers over the years, beginning with his early contributions to the more placid Organum recordings, through his exemplary collaborative work in Mirror and Ora, and onto his near perfect catalogue of solo recording self-released through his Faraway Press. Through the more recent recordings G…
Rapture adrenaline
Originally released on a limited critically acclaimed VHS edition, this succulent re-issue present an exclusive extra, WELCOME TO CANDYLAND, an interview with the author and, at the same time, an exciting voyage through some cult virtual-hyper-reality-simulacro. The OJ chase, Hollywood forever cemetery, Dr. Phil are just some ingredients of this delicious visual trippy cake. The movie RAPTURE ADRENALINE is an educational mixtape program, a cyber marine combat training video designed through…
Dolmen Music
Meredith Monk and her vocal troupe cut a line between experimental theatre and music, marking a passage through the Ancient Greek tragedy, the opera, world-music, the archaic ritual and the mystical chant. It started with "Gotham Lullaby", presenting a contralto over a desolate and stark piano sonata. Then "Travelling" set a feverish gypsy dance, a wild ritual stirring the primeval forces at play. The sonata returned in "The Tale", as the backbone to an offbeat pantomime/ theatrical performance.…
Sacred Hymns
A series of piano transcriptions of some solemn, now-dark, now-affirmative religious hymns by one G.I. Gurdjieff, with none of the usual flourishes and heady flights usually associated with Keith Jarrett's solo records. Jarrett assumes the proper devotional position, playing with a steady tread but always with attention to dynamic extremes, producing a gorgeously rich piano tone with plenty of bass.
Si Faustine
Pigeons is Wednesday Knudsen and Clark Griffin, from Bronx, NY. After flirting with lo-fi psychedelic-leaning Francophile pop on their two previous full-lengths, Liasons and Si Faustine (both from 2010), the pair have shifted into more dense, heady modes for their new record, They Sweetheartstammers. Heavy doses of melody & dissonance carry free-form songs like "Lauren" and "Behind the Reeds" into Broadcast and Meddle-era Floyd territory. The more-straightforward "Red Friend" and "Tournoi…
Carved Into Roses / Infinityland / Singles
Deluxe triple-pack CD that restores two classic Skullflower albums to print, with a bonus disc of contemporaneous singles. Recorded together and originally conceived as a double CD back in the dark ages of 1995, "Carved Into Roses" and "Infinityland" find the band making a transition from the "heavy" riffs of their early days to a more free-form sound that continues to this day to drive leader Matthew Bower's many guises (Skullflower, Sunroof!, Hototogisu, Mirag, etc). Sporting a revamped …
Dharma Warriors
Far-out garage blues from the unpredictable talent of Henry Flynt, here in collaboration with C.C. Hennix. The two lengthy improvisations here straddle the borders between unrefined bluegrass and free-jazz improv. Flynt's freetime chord phrasings are given some context by the elaborately off-kilter beats supplied by Hennix, but the overall feel here is one of primordial, rock & roll chaos. While you'd expect a certain amount of soloing in such long-form improv workouts, expectations are subverte…
Hamamatsu Power!
Fantastic meeting between Tokyo’s heroes Up-Tight and cosmic traveller Anla Courtis. Recorded February 18th, 2011 at Lucrezia in Hamamatsu, Tokyo, here you have the rare chance to listen to these folks jamming completely free and at monstrous volume, perfectly alternating great explosions of electricity and quiet moments of dream-like psychedelia, for the real deal celestial burn-out! Limited to 200 numbered copies, with handmade covers.
Niente
** restocked, last copies around, sold out at source ** Mindblowing limited vinyl reissue! Founded in Rome in 1964, ‘Il Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza’ was a collective of noted and noteworthy composers who challenged the very structure and performance of music itself. Today the most renowned of its members would be film scoring genius Ennio Morricone (indeed “Il Gruppo…” performed on many celebrated Morricone scores of the 1960s and 1970s) but each contributor has an intriguing hist…
Catalyse
The origins of Ame Son go back to the mid-sixties, when Bernard Lavialle (guitar), Bernard Stisi (guitar, vocals), Patrick Fontaine (bass) and Marc Blanc (drums) formed Les Primitivs circa 1965. They took the Parisian stages with a Yardbirds/Pretty Things inspired wild R&B set, and they kept active until Stisi left in 1967. At that point they changed their name to Expression, and with a more experimental approach they took their newly find free rock sound a la Soft Machine to night clubs …
24-24 Music
Though classically trained Arthur Russell's major contributions to the music world is in the dance genre. Despite the fact that his pioneering work in the late '70s and on through the '80s was only quietly acknowledged at the time, his long term impact is best described as formidable. Russell's innovative; left field dance records flew way ahead of what people were used to hearing at the time, due in part, to his involvement in New York's downtown avant-garde music scene. He scored severa…
Exile
A Charalambides album is always an event in our book, and this new one on Kranky is superb stuff, arguably taking their fizzy, fuzzy psychedelic pop and drone-folk sound to a whole new level. It's mad to think that Tom and Christina Carter have been making music together for 20 years now, but it shows in the coherence of Exile, their first LP since 2007's Likeness. It begins cautiously, with the uber-minimal twanger 'Autumn Leaves', like Richard Chartier scoring a spaghetti western, but t…
Field
"The Koeln concert shows us these positive vibrations marching through "the complete continuance of creative music," and on towards the next millennium. The "success of the future" is not a lost cause as long as there is music like this in the air."-Graham Lock"Although Anthony Braxton does not play on this double CD (whose contents were released for the first time in 1995), his presence is certainly felt. He conducts the band through a fairly free improvisation and five of his compositio…
On Metal Shore
The idea for "On Metal Shore" goes back to the 2008 collaboration "Vista" with Boston artist Asher. The genesis of this piece was early morning recordings I made on the shores of the Lake of Zurich in 2007, where I played some very resonant steel railings with my hands. There was something magical for me about being down by the water an hour or so before sunrise. My hands were freezing and as I played a flock of birds in a tree nearby would fly away from my noise (even though I wasn't playing ve…
Sacred & Profane Love
We haven’t made any secret of our love for Estonian Producer Maria Minerva, and this latest offering for 100% Silk might just be her finest yet. She’s had to bat off plenty of comparisons with Nite Jewel, Glass Candy and others from the nu-disco set, and this collection of six tracks should be where those comparisons end. Here Minerva explores a wider range of dancefloor styles, beginning with woozy late night Chicago gloom on ‘A Love So Strong’ with its detuned vocal hook and punchy bas…
Metal Machine Music
A Masterpiece deluxe reissue. "The album has been released on Reed’s very own Sister Ray label in three formats – double gatefold vinyl (in quadraphonic sound), Audio DVD and Blu-ray. This timely release dovetails the UK tour dates for Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio – a new band that Lou has put together which performs music that is loosely based on, and inspired by Metal Machine Music. 180 gram and double gatefold vinyl edition contains a stereo reproduction of the original quadraphonic ma…
Space Primitive
Peaking Lights return with a follow up EP to their excellent Night-People full length Imaginary Falcons and a teaser to lead into their killer next full length album set to drop on Not Not Fun later this winter. Space Primitive was originally released as a limited cassette on Fuck It Tapes but needed a bit more shelf life so Night-People set to work to make this release a reality on vinyl. Aesthetically very similar to Imaginary Falcons, the same haunted low fi electronics surfacing thr…
Enlightenment / Phrenesia
Holy Strays follows up his scuzzy debut tape for NNF with two surprisingly lush and undeniably ace electronic trips. The meld of sparse, reverberating drums and plangent psych licks on 'Enlightenment' calls to mind Forest Swords jamming with a lo-fi Raime, on some sweet Hoffman's in a cabin in the Alps, after listening to loads of Amon Duul. Flipsude 'Phrenesia' is a moodier counterpoint, sucking us in with wormholing synthline while blunted programmed beats and a lone rave mistress vocal…
Silent Partner
There’s probably not much to say about punk’s continued existence. Like jazz or sitcoms or party politics, it just carries on eating and breathing and shitting and propogating. It’s only interesting when someone comes along trying to advance the form. Like “Arrested Development” or Dennis Kucinich, they’re usually forgotten.
This would all be relevant if Neptune were a punk band, which we’re not at all sure is the case. They create a sense of undermining the status quo, which is pretty pun…