★Death Is Not The End
The Past Is a Wound in My Heart
Death Is Not The End platforms a selection of brooding, haunting Turkish tango recordings from the decades following the foundation of the republic in the early 1920s through to the mid 1950s.
Making Records: Home Recordings c. 1890-1920
A collection of DIY home recordings, transferred from blank and repurposed brown and black wax cylinders made during the early years of phonographic technology, between the late 1800s and early 1900s. Persons unknown singing, playing instruments, just talking, telling jokes, sending audio-letters to family overseas for in the distant future, children crying & babbling, farmyard animal noises - it's got it all.
Soundsystems at Notting Hill Carnival, 1984-1988
Death Is Not The End's mixtape-style selection of clips from tapes recorded live at soundsystems playing during London's Notting Hill Carnival between 1984 and 1988, originally broadcast on NTS Radio in August 2018, is the latest to be committed to cassette as part of their 10th anniversary series. Featuring sounds from the likes of Jamdown Rockers, Saxon, Java Nuclear Power, Killerwatt Turbotronic, Stereograph, Sir Coxsone, Volcano Express and more.
Audio sourced with the indefatigable efforts …
If I Had a Pair of Wings: Jamaican Doo Wop, Vol. 3
A third and final volume of Jamaican doo wop & R&B records taken from the late 50s and early 60s. These records represent a period in which sound-systems were beginning to dominate the island, with Duke Reid and Sir Coxsone Dodd stepping up their rivalry by beginning to make and release their own records rather than rely on US imports for use in their dances. Many of these records are definitely more-or-less imitations of the American records, as the uniquely Jamaican ska sound was yet to take h…
Folk Poetry, Song & Rhythm in Northeastern Brazil
Death Is Not The End's survey of folk music traditions in Northeastern Brazil, originally broadcast on NTS Radio in 2019, becomes the latest to be committed to cassette as part of their 10th anniversary series. It specifically focuses in on the spur-of-the-moment improvised "duelling" poetry of the repente, embolada & aboio styles that are unique to the Nordeste region.
Skateland Soundtapes, 1980-1986
Death Is Not The End turns 10 years old in May and as part of the celebrations we are committing a selection of Dinte NTS Radio shows from over the years to cassette. Kicking off with this recent special Skateland Soundtapes, 1980-1986 - comprising a selection of clips from sessions held at Halfway Tree, Kingston's most storied roller skating rink during the dancehall era's golden period of the early to mid/late 1980s. Audio sourced with the indefatigable efforts of the Who Cork The Dance crew -…
The Archival Recordings of Constantin Brãiloiu, 1913-1953
An assorted mixtape-style collection of recordings from Constantin Brăiloiu's World Collection of Folk Music archive, originally broadcast on NTS Radio in July 2017, issued as part of Dinte's 10th anniversary series. Comprising field recordings made by the pioneering Romanian ethnomusicologist of English, Irish, Gaelic, Norwegian, Breton, Japanese, Italian, Swiss, Basque, Fulah, Sardinian, Estonian, Georgian, Greek, Turkish, Judaeo-Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, Russian, Hausa, Tuareg, In…
Your Kisses Are Like Roses: Fado Recordings, 1914-1936
The definition of the word 'fado' is technically 'fate', though the Portuguese meaning bound up with this term is more complex. The music itself can be fairly closely compared with that of Greek rebetika - also the American blues or the original working-class tango music of Argentina and Uruguay - and similarly takes it's common subject matter from the various cruel realities of the world. Though perhaps what distinguishes fado in character is it's often poised acceptance of the pains of life ra…
Bristol Pirates
Death Is Not The End's contribution to the Blowing Up The Workshop mix series, subsequently given a cassette release on the label in 2019, finally receives a limited vinyl LP pressing. "A trip across the frequencies of Bristol's pirate radio stations via cut-ups of broadcasts, taken from the late 1980s to the early 2000s ~ also a love-letter to my childhood, an audio document of the years I spent growing up in the city."
Heaven Is Better Than This: A Jamaican Gospel Mixtape
A slightly revised & edited take of Death Is Not The End's Jamaican Gospel special for NTS Radio, originally broadcast for the station back in late 2016. A dusty heap of JA gospel from the 60s and early 70s. Split across two sides - all vinyl and all 45s - played through a touch of delay pedal with crackle aplenty.
If I Had A Pair Of Wings: Jamaican Doo Wop, Vol. 2
Repressed by popular demand! Lauren Laverne's comp of the week on BBC Radio 6 Music w/c 11th Jan.
If I Had A Pair Of Wings: Jamaican Doo Wop, Vol. 1
Repressed by popular demand! Lauren Laverne's comp of the week on BBC Radio 6 Music w/c 11th Jan.
If You Want to Make a Lover: Palm Wine, Akan Blues & Early Guitar Highlife, Pt. II
The second part in a collection encompassing Akan blues, palm wine and early guitar-based highlife music, with recordings dating from the late 1920s through to the end of the 1950s.
My Greatest Revenge: Flamenco Recordings, 1904-1938
Death Is Not The End presents a collection of haunted, brooding flamenco recordings taken from the early 1900s through to the late 1930s.
If You Want to Make a Lover: Palm Wine, Akan Blues & Early Guitar Highlife, Pt. I
The first part in a collection encompassing Akan blues, palm wine and early guitar-based highlife music, with recordings dating from the late 1920s through to the end of the 1950s.
Waiting for Your Return: A Shidaiqu Anthology 1927-1952, Pt. II
Tip! Shidaiqu literally means “songs of the era”, a term used to describe a hybrid musical genre that first began permeating through the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai in the late 1920s. Blending western pop, jazz, blues and Hollywood-inspired film soundtracks with traditional Chinese elements, the shidaiqu represented a musical and cultural merging that would go on to shape a golden age of Chinese popular song & film in the pre-communism interwar period. Waiting for Your Return brings together a…
Waiting for Your Return: A Shidaiqu Anthology 1927-1952, Pt. I
Shidaiqu literally means "songs of the era", a term used to describe a hybrid musical genre that first began permeating through the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai in the late 1920s. Blending western pop, jazz, blues and Hollywood-inspired film soundtracks with traditional Chinese elements, the shidaiqu represented a musical and cultural merging that would go on to shape a golden age of Chinese popular song & film in the pre-communism interwar period.
Waiting for Your Return brings together a wide…
All Bad Boy & All Good Girl - Manchester Street Soul Soundtapes, 1988-1996
*200 copies limited edition* A mixtape pulling together extracts from soundsystem tapes out of Manchester's storied street soul scene of the late 1980s to mid-1990s. Featuring DIY cassette recordings of sounds such as Broadway, Stereo Dan & Soul Control playing live at dances and blues parties in south & central Manchester from 1988 through to 1996.
River of Revenge: Brazilian Country Music 1929-1961, Vol. 2
The second volume in Death Is Not The End's survey of a form of Brazilian country music known as música caipira ("hillbilly music") - a stripped-back forerunner to música sertaneja, the Brazilian equivalent to US country & western which in it's contemporary form has come to dominate the domestic music industry in recent decades. This collection covers some of the earliest recordings made by the pioneering folklorist Cornélio Pires at the end of the 1920s, through to records from the 30s, 40s & 5…
I'm Always Crying
Another brilliant bit of excavation from Death Is Not The End, a label rapidly becoming a crate-digging collective par excellence. Think Honest Jon’s with a particular focus on early-to-mid-20th-century folk musics of all strains. This particular release focuses on the career of Dolores Jiménez Alcántara, stage-name Nina de la Puebla, who was a prime exponent of the Flamenco and Andalusian Copla songbooks. As the fourteen songs here demonstrate, powerful alto was dexterous enough to encompass th…