New Arrivals
Endogeny
"I am not entirely sure, but I don't think I reviewed 'Endogeny' when it first came out on Direction Music in 1990. Hearing the music I am not even sure I heard it, even when being in contact with the label at that time. I surely heard Gen Ken Montgomery's music by then and was always fascinated by that, his connection to Conrad Schnitzler and his Generator space in New York, which was a venue doubling as a shop (or vice versa) for weird music. The pieces here are for various instruments that we…
Anywhere
Reissue of Flower Travellin' Band's debut album Anywhere, originally released in 1970. Anywhere is the first album from the legendary Japanese rockers fronted by Yuya Uchida. Although an album consisting mainly of cover versions, Anywhere still exhibited many of the musical traits that were to come to the fore on the band's next release, the classic 1971 album Satori, an album of original material delivered with panache by the increasingly confident Uchida. An album made memorable by its risky c…
Beat of the Earth
* in process of stocking * Second album from the cultish experimental jam band formed in 1967 in Orange County, California. Their second effort from 1970 - The Electronic Hole - takes a step away from their earlier work, being composed with definite song structures versus the earlier drawn-out freeform jams. Sounding much like a west-coast version of The Velvet Underground & Nico, the album has melodic motifs but is much more primitive and mysterious than its cousin, with loads of fuzz, hauntin…
Diptych
*150 copies limited edition* It’s not easy to summarize any band whose career has stretched over two decades. In the case of The Growing Concern, though, it’s all in the name: since 2001, the core duo of Kevin Doria and Joe DeNardo have been making vibrating, explorative experimental music that is in a forever state of evolution. In that time, Growing have amassed a hard-to-define and influential body of work, and “Diptych,” out April 30th on Ethan Miller’s Silver Current Records, sees the band …
Commotus
Tip! 'Today, we seem to have two branches in the school of experimental pop. One branch privileges object-hood, richness of surface, and mass-hallucinatory quotation. The other (much less celebrated) branch seeks to recapture authenticity in the form of a highly personal hallucination of music history.
With her sophomore full-length, Lucrecia Dalt follows the latter branch as far as it seems to go. She leaps into a surrealist landscape with stunning abandon, eschewing the comparatively safe trop…
Tarika Blue
Tip! They say that if you’re a friend to everyone you’re a friend to no one. Well, in the case of Tarika Blue, here is an album that roundly disproves that maxim. A record that delivers to fusion, soul, jazz and disco aficionados alike, Tarika Blue’s ability to cover all these bases with equal skill is quite an achievement. The balance locked in its grooves are testament to the astonishing musical range found in the artists who perform with such aplomb. Tarika Blue was formed in 1973 by Phil Cle…
Citycraze//Dweebcity
*50 copies limited edition* Following releases on Warm Gospel Tapes and Ingrown Records, J Hamilton Isaacs continues on his synthesizing quest to encapsulate the universe around him in his modular rig. This release is comprised of two side-long compositions of precise, drifting modular electronics. As the pieces build, sweep, fluctuate, dissolve and begin again, the sound itself seems wholly alive, breathing and wandering with the listener.
Lillian Drip
*75 copies limited edition* Lillian Drip was collectively recorded and mixed in different home studios in State College, PA, Pittsburgh, PA and Baltimore, MD over the course of a few years.
Split
*50 copies limited edition* Hailing from the American midwest, Matthew Crowe is active in a number of musical projects and collaborations. Crowe is one half of the left-field improv duo Sex Funeral and also makes video game-centric vaporwave music as Heaven Drugs. On this split, he brings us a dreamlike, oddball sampling frenzy. Various styles and themes drift in and out, dissolving and replacing one another in a stew of world music juxtapositions and pop culture sampling nostalgia. Marsha Fish…
I Guess This Is Fine
*50 copies limited edition* Lean, experimental soundscapes cobbled together from field recordings, prepared guitar snippets and synthesizer learning meant to walk the line between mania and having a good time. All music composed, improvised and recorded by Sean Devlin.
Unauthorized Sunset
*100 copies limited edition* Get your seasonal dose of environmental futurism from expert synth-operators Asako Fujimoto and Niki Neecke via Knackless. Two tracks from the duo in the spirit of the season of rebirth: »Chlorophylic Memories« makes room between canopy and soil to immerse yourself in a glistening and hyperreal forest. Flip the record over and enter a kaleidoscopic concert hidden away in the thickets of the underbrush with »GalaxianIdyl«. Precious and rare!
Abstract Musette
"This seemingly improbable duo finds both artists defending a common cause, with Lanz as stunning turntablist to serve as a perfect companion to Kocher's iconoclastic approach to his instrument. Detailed moves, fast gestures and throbbing pulses are recurrently cut by silences and sustained tones. Short rhythmic patterns and precise syllables emerge only to give way to more intimate sequences where players drift into some neutral space before re-colliding again into actualizations of micro-event…
Kannon-Daiji
WRWTFWW Records and MEG Museum (Geneva) announce a new full-length album by celebrated Japanese percussionist Midori Takada, in collaboration with Buddhist monks belonging to the Samgha group of the Shingon school of Koya-san, led by Reverend Syuukoh Ikawa. Recorded at The Premises Studio (London) and in Tokyo in 2019, You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana is a majestic work combining a suite of six Buddhist liturgical chants and a musical creation by Midori Takada. The Buddhist chants come from three …
Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter
WRWTFWW & MEG Museum (Geneva) are very happy to announce a new album by famed Japanese percussionist Midori Takada, Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter, her very own rendition of "Nhemamusasa", a traditional work emblematic of the musical repertoire for mbira of the Shona of Zimbabwe. Recorded in a live setting and played with instruments conserved in the collections of the MEG Museum.
Liner notes include: An interview by Midori Takada A point of view by Zimbabwean scholar, musician and act…
Spring Collection
Brooklyn based drummer/producer Jason Nazary (of Anteloper) makes his We Jazz Records debut with "Spring Collection", released on 25 June. The album sees Nazary crafting some deliciously sparkly solo cuts plus working long distance with choice collaborators Jaimie Branch, David Leon, Ramon Landolt, Matt Mitchell, Grey McMurray and Michael Coleman. This is essentially a collection of home recordings and the whole operation has an infectious feeling of immediacy to it. The result is improv adjacen…
Pu:
We Jazz Records presents "Pu:", the boundary-breaking solo debut of bass player Ville Herrala. Herrala utilises only the double bass but approaches the instrument from various different perspectives. The end result is an inspired set of 14 miniatures, each pushing the concept forward in a highly personal way. The first single "Pu: 12" presents a rhythmic approach with echoes of from the world of minimal classical music and electronic music. Bowed tracks such as "Pu: 2" offer another perspective,…
Dual
*In process of stocking* VAxBY is Albert van Abbe & Byetone. Dutch sound artist Albert van Abbe now joins the Raster family, with an unexpected collaboration with founder Olaf Bender aka Byetone title »Dual«. The result of their collaboration is both smooth and haptic, rounding out as an expressive camaraderie between the two veteran producers. Jovial and innocent, »Dual« alludes to the experimental research process of finding common ground. Fully embracing the haphazard richness of live recordi…
The Holstein Tapes Vol. 1
Tip! *Edition of 50 copies in special deluxe packaging* De Fabriek presents The Holstein Tapes Vol.1 . Source material for this release was taken from the reel-to-reel audio tape archive of sound recorder and editor Wim van Holstein (1944 -1992). Tape manipulation, processing, (soft)synths and mixing by Martijn Hohmann.
C40 'Petrol blue' Audio Cassette with white on-body printing, wrapped in source tape. Packaged in a deluxe handmade matchbox style pasted box with various inserts on recycled tax…
L' Usine À L' Etranger
**100 copies limited edition. In process of stocking** 'This release sees De Fabriek working with Ausland, also known as Roberto Auser (also known as Derk Reneman), whom I had not heard before. Judging by the labels who release his work (Viewlexx, Enfant Terrible, Charlois etc.) is someone with a background in more techno-based music. Not that this shows on this release. The seventy-four minutes are filled with four long pieces and one short opening shot. As said, the music has very little to do…