Psych /
Jazz Al Folkstudio
Huge Tip! **300 copies, comes with a printed insert** Back in 2021, we bore witness to the reissue, by Dialogo, of the Rome based ensemble Spirale’s lone 1974 self-titled LP, a towering obscurity of 1970s Italian jazz. Made of up Gaetano Delfini (wind instruments, vocals, percussion), Giancarlo Maurino (saxophone, flute, percussion), Corrado Nofri (piano, marimba, mbira, siren, Jew’s harp), Giuseppe Caporello (contrabass, guitar, percussion) and Giampaolo Ascolese (drums), the band ranks among t…
I Tarantolati
Digipack CD. The second LP in Black Sweat’s latest batch, ‘I Tarantolati’ the first outing of Antonio Infantino with his band, Il Gruppo Di Tricarico, while very different in its musical approach, belongs to the same wild ferment around Folk Studio in Rome, and was issued by the Folkstudio label the year prior in 1975.
Antonio Infantino was poet and singer, who operated in circles connected to Beat literature and Italian performance and gestural music circles, alongside figures like Sylvano Buss…
Citta' '93
** 2CDs housed in a gatefold wallet** In 1991, Les Rallizes Denudes released three full-length albums on CD, the band’s first-ever recordings to be made available since their formation in Kyoto more than two decades prior. In 1993, the band appeared in front of an audience for the first time since 1988. Their February 17 appearance at Club Cittaʼ, which came four days after their “comeback” gig at Baus Theater, turned out to be one of the most notable out of all the Rallizes performances thus …
Nana Vasconcelos Nelson Angelo - Novelli
Cult album of Brazilian music finally reissued. Official reissue of this real tour de force of Brazilian creativity, where the mighty Naná Vasconcelos is joined by his friends Nelson Angelo and Novelli (both members of the legendary Clube da Esquina) to create one of the greatest Brazilian albums ever recorded outside of Brazil. The three musicians grasp here for the kind of musical freedom that could then only be achieved outside of their country. A boundary-pushing experimentation that makes y…
Ptooff!
2023 Repress. LP 180gr Vinyl, fold-out poster cover. After the release of Disposal early this year, Tiger Bay returns with another album by the UK psychedelic rock band The Deviants. The band’s debut album Ptooff! was released in 1967 on the label Underground Impresarios, and only available through a few selected head shops, and then re-printed by Decca Records in 1969.Founded by legendary counter-culture figure Mick Farren and Russell Hunter and inspired by The Fugs, the band was the first of t…
Sea Shanties
With the Misunderstood, Tony Hill co-wrote epochal psych-rock anthems like "Children of the Sun"; however, while High Tide's sound has roots in the peace-and-love era, the band was also in tune with the post-psychedelic comedown at the decade's darker end. On Sea Shanties, there's nothing fey and flowery in Hill's bleak lyrics or his doomy Jim Morrison-like delivery, and psychedelia's melodic whimsy is supplanted by a physicality more in line with the visceral heft of metal progenitors such as C…
Sperrmüll
Long lost krautrock classic delivering a dynamic, complex combination between fuzzy freak out improvisations (full of Hammond organ and catchy heavy guitar leads) and epic folk arrangements for the flute. Sperrmull formed in 1971 but went through various lineup changes until they recorded this their only album in December of 1972. It was produced by Dieter Dierks and recorded at his studio. Dieter also played some synths on the opening track. A very accomplished essay. Similar to (early) Nosfera…
Eve
Speed, Glue & Shinki's 1971 debut album, Eve. Ex-Food Brain guitarist Shinki Chen, bass player Masayoshi Kabe (also known as M Glue) and Filipino Vietnam war veteran Joey "Pepe" Smith, who doubled as both the trio's drummer and vocalist, released two legendary albums in the early '70s. Eve, the earlier of the band's two efforts, was probably the band's only "real" recording, as the self-titled second release in 1972 was put together by Smith from studio outtakes of Chen's guitar playing and trac…
Speed, Glue & Shinki
Speed, Glue & Shinki's second release, originally released in 1972 on Atlantic and often referred to as Tiger, brought together a number of tracks not included on Eve, as well as some new recordings that took a very different musical slant. Joey Smith decided that since he could he handle himself admirably on drums, it was time to challenge a new instrument, so he bought a synthesizer. Drafting in friend Mike Hanopol to take over the bass-playing duties from the departed Masayoshi "Glue" Kabe, S…
Saint Just
Here's one of those surreal, strange trips that just throws you off-kilter at first but soon enough becomes irresistible. Saint Just was an avant-folk group from Naples who fashioned this haunting interpretation of prog-folk with elements of centuries past classical, romantic and traditional folk influence. They don't sound like anyone precisely, but to give a general idea I can float the names Pierrot Lunaire, Trees, Fairport, Vashti Bunyan, Holderlin's Traum. The band contrasts simple and spar…
La Casa Del Lago
"La Casa del Lago" came out just a year after Saint Just's eponymous debut album; in 1973 the band were a very special trio, consisting of Jenny Sorrenti (voice), Antonio Verde (guitar) and Robert Fix (saxophone). They had a contract with Harvest (as well as Jenny's brother Alan Sorrenti, who debuted with "Aria" the previous year), and managed to stand out in the vast Italian pop scene of the early '70s.Unlike many other musical realities, they had a concrete support from the record label, which…
Suspiro
Sister of well known artist Alan Sorrenti, Jenny (or Jane, as she was called in her early releases) was born in Naples from a welsh mother, and formed there the acid folk trio Saint Just. With this band, she released two albums before embarking in a solo career that only produced two more albums in the 70’s.
Jenny Sorrenti’s style as a solo artist is far from her previous bands, being much closer to the song format. Both albums being mainly built on Jenny’s delicate voice; “Suspiro” is the best …
Aria
A very important artist from Naples, Alan Sorrenti released his first album in 1972 on the legendary Harvest label. Aria is an absolute Italian prog classic, with two different sides: the first only contained the long title track, a dreamy psych-suite starting with acoustic guitar and based on the marvelous instrument-like voice of Sorrenti, and exploding in the final part with a memorable violin solo by Jean Luc Ponty. Side 2 was softer, with three tracks, two of which also appeared on a singl…
Et après...
Originally from Le Havre, Mémoriance is one of the best kept secrets of the French progressive scene. Formed in the early 1970s, the sextet released their first album Et après…in 1976, a skilful and subtle disc which demonstrates all the compositional talent of a group in full possession of its means and which will earn it the winner of the Tremplin d’Or the same year. Sometimes symphonic (often reminiscent of Floyd from Wish You Were Here), sometimes jazz-rock, always inspired in its discreet p…
Apache / Inca
**Deluxe edition, double LP version, includes 16-page 28x28cm book and insert** The psychedelic masterpiece nobody heard -- First ever official, authorized release of psychedelic mega-rarity. After suffering an LSD-induced mental breakdown, Los Angeles-based songwriter Craig Smith renamed himself Maitreya Kali and custom-pressed Apache / Inca, a double-LP documenting his musical, personal, and spiritual journey. His message to the world, encoded on the album jackets in rambling, quasi-mystical M…
San Francisco Earthquake
A treasure trove of previously unreleased West Coast guitar psychedelia, 1966-1975
Pieces Of Me / The Fetch - Remastered
180 Gram gatefold sleeve with custom replica retro finish. Half speed mastering at Abbey Road Studios. Fantastic vinyl reissue from Repertoire Records of Germany, superb packaging, very quiet pressing with great sound quality. Linda Hoyle first came to attention as vocalist with the excellent, but short-lived jazz rock band Affinity in 1970, after recording an album for Vertigo records, Linda then embarked on recording her first solo album, “Pieces of Me”, for Vertigo in 1971.
Collaborating wit…
A Beacon from Mars
Grey-area repro from this Akarma-related sublabel. Wielding a battery of exotic instruments that once adorned a thrift-shop front window (bazouki, oud, vina, saz, doumbeg), the Kaleidoscope was every bit as multi-hued and subject-to-change as the telescope full of bright bits of colored glass the band was named after. If there had been a prize for the most eclectic psychedelic outfit, L.A.’s Kaleidoscope would have had it stashed on a shelf—between the hookah pipes and the bowling trophies—in th…
Velvett Fogg
Velvett Fogg were a psychedelic rock band and active during the late 1960's. They were one of the many new bands from the Birmingham underground scene. Toni Iommi was a brief member at the time but left to form Black Sabbath. They were given a record deal by Pye Records, through which they released their first and only studio album, the self-titled Velvett Fogg. The original package was accompanied by a quote from the legendary U.K. disc jockey John Peel, who commented that "there is a lot of go…
Letters Home
* Temporary nice price * Recorded at the legendary Cold Storage studio in London and first released in 1986 this is one of the greatest chapters in the 80’s post-Henry Cow / Art Bears era. News from Babel was the song project inaugurated by two ex Henry Cow, Lindsay Cooper (bassoon, sopranino & alto saxophone, keyboards) and Chris Cutler (drums, electrics) plus Zeena Parkins (harp, electric harps, accordion.) A band that created a totally new sound as result of the combination of unusual instru…