Rock /
Era
"Era is the fourth annual report from Chicago powerhouse quartet Disappears. It was formed during the gloom of the Chicago winter at Electrical Audio by now regular foil John Congleton. Insular and dark, the album sees the band further refining their love of dub, minimalism and repetition into their most original and stark set yet. It harks back to the early 80's post punk period, when almost anything seemed possible with the classic two guitar, bass and drums lineup, and exploration and…
Moths
Michael Morley, Nina Canal, Sara Stephenson : electric guitars. Recorded by Roland Groenenboom at De Player, Rotterdam, August 2009 mixed at My Pit, Port Chalmers, 2011. Artworks: Eric Claridge Owl Moth & Mothface 2012 oil on canvas 30,5 x 30,5 cm each. Limited to 300 copies. Labels: Bimbo Tower Records & Dilettante Courtoisie.
All My Relations
"Black Pus is Brian Chippendale, who rose to prominence as the drummer of noise rock titans Lightning Bolt and Mindflayer. All My Relations is constant forward motion and audible physicality. Chippendale's furious drumming style is ever present and instantly recognizable, but the pop element, which Chippendale explored in more contained ways on earlier Black Pus releases, is more fully integrated. Tracks like '1000 Years' and 'Hear No Evil' bear a snarl and a smile, the sound of wild abando…
Ensemble Pearl
Double LP edition. Cosmic, heavy amplified rock drops and ripples, auras radiate and expand into cloud forms, through which lightning bolts. Tides rise, the moons wax upon a place somewhere between Link Wray, Hex-era Earth and early Tangerine Dream. The echoes return, leaving a trail that blows and drifts, creating a separate piece. Ensemble Pearl are Atsuo, William Herzog, Michio Kurihara and Stephen O'Malley. Their debut album also features the elemental forces of Eyvind Kang and Timba H…
Free Reign
Their 7th album! Record & produced by the band in their hometown of Liverpool & mixed w/ assistance from Daniel Lopatin (ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER, FORD & LOPATIN). The title is apt for this particularly bold & assured new transmission from planet Clinic, it neither turns its back on the sond of their previous albums, nor seeks to recreate them.
The News Is You: The Sacred & Secular Music of Nick Freund
"Recorded at the San Francisco Theological Seminary's own Montgomery Chapel, acid-folk-rock psychedelic gem Search Party Montgomery Chapel was the brainchild of (then Reverend) Nicholas Freund. Having left Wisconsin in the late 1960s to join a burgeoning west coast religious scene, Freund spent considerable time in Sacramento before making their way to San Francisco in 1968 to lay down this one-off with some students of his. The result is a spooky, metaphysical trip that's equal parts God a…
Terribly Well
"The noise rock parade that defies definition, set out on a mission of pure volume worship that is the post-decade pilgrimage of NY-based Sightings. After eight instinctive albums, the Sightings guys show no mercy with endless annihilation of their newest material on Terribly Well. All parts destruction measured against their abrasive songwriting. Jagged, collapsing rhythm based mayhem, guitars that can be mistaken for a freight train being ripped for scrap metal, only to be held together …
Japrock Sampler Volumes 1-5
Bamboo presents Julian Cope's top five Japanese rock albums assembled here in an essential 5CD Japrock set. Never before available as a box set. Comes with a 36-page illustrated booklet with extensive sleevenotes, rare photos, and band bios. This is not a sampler of music -- it includes the following full albums: Speed, Glue & Shinki's Eve (1971), Flower Travellin' Band's Satori (1971), Les Rallizes Desnudes' Heavier Than A Death In The Family (recorded mostly in 1977), Far East Family Band…
The Invisible Hands
Limited edition 2LP. The Invisible Hands is the English translation of the band's original Egyptian Arabic name: El Ayadi El Khafeyya. Taking almost two years to create amidst an unusual and challenging backdrop, this is the new project of Alvarius B. (Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls). Eleven highly-crafted songs projected through his typically dark lens of songwriting and a band of brilliant musicians from Egypt; this special edition limited 2LP includes the English and Arabic language vocal …
Scott 3
2013 repress. "Scott 3, originally released in 1969, marked a big change in Walker's approach to albums as, for the first time, the record is dominated by his original compositions. In fact, the only other songwriter that makes it onto the album is Walker's idol, Belgium's legendary singer/songwriter Jacques Brel. Scott 3 again features string heavy production courtesy of Wally Scott, though it occasionally moves out of pop ballad territory into a more cinematic feel influenced by Ennio M…
Scott 2
2013 repress. "Originally released in 1968, Scott 2 made it all the way to number one on the UK pop charts, perhaps the strangest number one hit in pop history. Continuing with his orchestral obsession, Scott 2 features over-the-top string and horn arrangements, occasionally veering into dangerously schmaltzy territory. This production style is in drastic contrast to the lyrical content, songs of despair, prostitution, homosexuality, and brutal honesty, indicting the same glamorous and gli…
Freermasonry
Lyrically Freermasonry consists of a series of poems and discourses. Early on in Freermasonry during 'SOL,' the Mother allusion is referenced out of Faust Part Two. It's a small portion and short moment. Faust does an invocation to the Mothers, but the execution is as trickery through occult charlatanism and not truly believed ritual. Goethe found passages about dark goddess figures known as Mothers in the writings of Plutarch. The metaphor is ambiguous, generally associated with creative dar…
Fuzzweed
With each successive release, MV & EE strive to map new territory and to travel more distant orbits. It makes sense that this mission is their furthest reaching yet. While they've long been comfortable navigating the same planes as such cosmic explorers as Sun Ra and Alan Silva, Fuzzweed sees them planting their freak flag in the sorts of different galaxies where the atmospheres counterpoint the music of the spheres with the more earthbound plaints of the blues. Please remember that The …
live at Namba Bears
Acid Mothers leader and Reynols legend meet once again for a wild psych out explosion! Kawabata and Courtis previously worked together on 2006's Kokura for Riot Season, here they return for a raging trip of psychedelic noise rock recorded in February 2011, in Osaka, Japan. Both Kawabata and Courtis are playing guitar, but with Anla bringing tapes and vocals to the mix and Makoto bow and effects. Namba Lightbeam, the first of two 20 minute pieces, opens with a eastern sounding drone sound,…
Insect Dilemma/Disallowed
This is the brand new project of Alvarius B. (Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls). Recorded in Cairo in October 2012, both tracks on this 7 inch are not found on the new Invisible Hands self-titled album and exclusive to this 45 rpm. Side one is a fully orchestrated version of two Alvarius B tracks, one of those tracks, Insect Dilemma, was included on Sun City Girl's classic 330,003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig Veda album from 1996. Side B, Lili Twil, is a cover of a Moroccan folk song from…
2nd
Agitation Free's 2nd stands as one of Germany's finest instrumental rock albums of the 1970s and a classic for fans of progressive rock and Krautrock. Despite the fact that the group had problems keeping its cohesion at the time, these troubles never affect the music. 2nd presented a daring blend of Krautrock-type extended jams, laid-back attitude, and experimentation. The music remains very psychedelic in nature, more early Can than Faust. The presence of acoustic guitars and bouzouki emphasize…
Lux Aeterna
greay-area LP reissue, Lux Aeterna, was originally composed to celebrate a friend of William Sheller's wedding, thematically driven by concepts of union and togetherness, and ostensibly based on the Catholic mass, this is far from any sort of religious music you've ever heard. Following in the footsteps of other iconoclastic composers, like Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier, Lee Hazlewood, David Axelrod, Scott Walker and of course Magma (more on that in a second), Sheller conjured up w…
The Dead C Vs Rangda
Two of the greatest bands of the present day, each composed of two guitarists and a drummer. Every member's name carries its own legendary status. Richard Bishop. Ben Chasny. Chris Corsano. Michael Morley. Bruce Russell. Robbie Yeats. Fabricated empires have risen and been destroyed by the vast output of any one of these guys. Finally, they come together on one release: a split LP between two supergroups. The Dead C's tracks are a gem of a find. The band uncovered recordings nestled in th…
Live at Aston University, Birmingham
Extremely rare recording of Can performing live at Aston University in Birmingham, on March 4, 1977 and featuring the new addition of Rebop Kwaku Baah (the Ghanian percussionist well-known for his work with Traffic, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, etc.) and Roscoe Gee (a Jamaican bassist who had also recorded with Traffic). Holger Czukay, now freed from bass duties, began experimenting with an array of electronic sounds, which he also began adding to the mix in part to counterbalance Can's …
A Double Promo Album By CAN
Vocalist Damo Suzuki’s departure from CAN in 1973 had forced the band to re-evaluate their sound. Now with Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt sharing vocal duties, the band had also begun drawing on influences from disco and glam. While still remaining staunchly outside the mainstream, they undoubtedly became more accessible to a wider audience, and soon had a huge fan base in the UK. In fact, just a few months after playing the live show found on this double LP (recorded in Lyon in January …