New Arrivals
Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters
**2019 stock, reduced price** Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters is the solo debut album by Robert Calvert, former singer of the space-rock band Hawkwind. It's a satirical concept album with both songs and spoken interludes based on the story of the poor quality of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter planes. The sputtering and sprawling planes starts up the album, which portrays the West German minister of defense as a psychopath who's furious about the Luftwaffe. It's the effective combination of…
The Birthday Party
**2019 stock, reduced price** In 1967, The Idle Race were the first major signing by the new British arm of Liberty Records. The group were well received by the music press for their melodies, whimsical lyrics and inventive production. They often appeared on the same bill with such bands as The Spencer Davis Group, The Who, Small Faces, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, Status Quo, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Yes, Free, and The Move. Influential BBC disc jockeys such as John Peel and Kenny Everett were big bo…
Help Yourself
**2019 stock, reduced price** Help Yourself, known to their fans as "The Helps", were an English rock band of the early 70s. Formed in London, originally as a backing band for singer-songwriter Malcolm Morley, who had left Sam Apple Pie and had been signed as a solo act by Famepushers. The band was assembled by John Eichler who, as well as working for Famepushers, was a production manager at Strand Cosmetics. Their eponymous debut album Help Yourself was recorded from late 1970 to early 1971 wit…
Hard Rock From the Middle East
**2019 stock, reduced price** The Devil's Anvil was a 1960s band based in New York City, and Hard Rock From the Middle East, released in 1967, was their one and only album. Showcasing a mix of 1960s rock sound with Arab, Greek and Turkish melodies, the songs on the album are often sung in Arabic. The arrangements walk a tightrope between the modern psychedelia of the day and centuries-old traditional folk modalities and melodies. Hard Rock from the Middle East was released during escalating tens…
The Wildest Guitar
**2019 stock, reduced price** Mickey Baker, also known as Mickey "Guitar" Baker, was an American guitarist. He is widely held to be a critical force in the bridging of rhythm and blues and rock and roll, along with Bo Diddley, Ike Turner and Chuck Berry. His musical style was influenced by saxophonist Charlie Parker. In the 50s Baker did sessions with The Drifters, Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Louis Jordan and many more artists. During this time, Baker played on numerous hit records.…
Please Do Not Steal It!
**1000 copies on transparent vinyl** The Residents are one of pop history's best kept secrets; throughout the group's existence, the individual members have ostensibly attempted to operate under anonymity, preferring instead to have attention focused on their art output. Much outside speculation and rumor has focused on this aspect of the group. In public, the group appears silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tails, a long-lasting costume now recognized as its signat…
Intermission
**1000 copies on pink vinyl** The Residents are one of pop history's best kept secrets; throughout the group's existence, the individual members have ostensibly attempted to operate under anonymity, preferring instead to have attention focused on their art output. Much outside speculation and rumor has focused on this aspect of the group. In public, the group appears silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tails, a long-lasting costume now recognized as its signature ico…
The Photographer
**2019 stock, reduced price** The Photographer is a chamber opera by world renowned composer Philip Glass, first performed in 1982 at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. The story revolves around the life and work of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the 19th century pioneer in photographic studies of motion and motion-picture projection. The centerpiece of the story is the trial for Muybridge's murder of the alleged real father of his child, an accusation Muybridge was indeed found guilty of. Remarka…
Alligator Bogaloo
To believe in serendipity - that’s the operative word when it comes to alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson’s soul-jazz hit, Alligator Bogaloo, the opening track from the leader’s heralded -artistically and commercially - album of the same name, released by Blue Note in 1967. The tale of its origin has been told so many times that it holds mythic status of affirming the power of improvisational jazz. For his LP session at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs, N.J., studio, Lou finished recording five tr…
Light Bringer
**333 copies** Light Bringer documents with pristine detail and gravity the live collaborations between Orphx and JK Flesh, two legends of early industrial techno and rhythmic noise. Consisting of one record each from Berlin’s Atonal Festival and the infamous Katharsis events in the Netherlands, these eight tracks show a peculiar flow and visceral funk rarely seen from live exchanges. Expert mastering by Joshua Eustis ascends these eight blinding cuts far away from any earth grounding and shows …
McGear
Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of a newly re-mastered and expanded 3 disc clamshell box set edition of the album, McGear by Mike McGear, featuring 2CDs and a DVD. Originally released in 1974, McGear was the second solo album by Mike McGear (younger brother of Paul McCartney) and was a more “serious” record than his work with the Liverpool satirical trio Scaffold, or his work with Roger McGough on the McGough & McGear album. Recorded at Strawberry studios in Stockport, (th…
Woman
Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of a newly re-mastered edition of the classic 1972 album Woman by Michael McGear. Released by Island Records in February 1972, Woman was the first solo album by Michael McGear (Paul McCartney younger brother) and was a more “serious” record than his work with the Liverpool satirical trio Scaffold, or his work with Roger McGough on the McGough & McGear album. Recorded at Strawberry studios in Stockport and completed at Abbey Road studios, the…
I've Always Kept a Unicorn: The Acoustic Sandy Denny
"Transcendental. I’ve never heard a voice like Sandy Denny’s. She started out with the band Strawbs, which she left when she realized they weren’t particularly folk enough for her, and joined Fairport Convention, where her, and many others, would make folk-rock history. Quite honestly, since I wasn’t around for this generation of folk, the only songs I like by Fairport Convention, are Sandy Denny’s songs. Her voice is simply breathtaking in its beauty and power, dynamic range, etc. Practically 4…
Mr. Shing-A-Ling
This 1967 recording was always the best of Lou Donaldson's funky albums. It's just amazing that Blue Note put this back into circulation on 180 gram vinyl. Mr. Shing-A-Ling is worth the investment for the ultra-funking Peepin' alone. Composer and organist Lonnie Smith lays down a basic fatback groove and manages to glean a funk anthem that set the foundation for a whole decade worth of Lou Donaldson LPs (Midnight Creeper is a mere rewrite of this classic). Among Donaldson's big funk classics - t…
Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks (Extended Edition)
Marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Brian Eno’s classic ambient excursion with his brother Roger Eno, and studio whizkind, Daniel Lanois, re-enters the vinyl orbit for the first time since 1983, bolstered with booster pack of previously unreleased material. Conceived as a soundtrack to Al Reinert’s 1983 documentary, For All Mankind, the wide-eyed wonder of Apollo has taken on a life of its own as one of Eno's best loved and most influential ambient trips, especially for t…
Gandharva
In the course of their first few albums, Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause broke a lot of ground in the art of recording the synthesizer, still a young and futuristic instrument in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It's sometimes overlooked, however, that the records were not solely vehicles for synthesizer experimentation, but also varied musical statements drawing from numerous strands of popular styles. Just as their first Warner Brothers LP, In a Wild Sanctuary had differed from their earlier reco…
Primitive Substance
"After Liquid Liquid disbanded in 1985 I continued to record electronic music at my home studio in Edison, New Jersey, but I decided to mix the songs for Concepts at another studio so I could have another set of ears to help with the mixes. I was lucky when I looked in the local music ads to find Gabriel Farm Studios in Princeton, New Jersey, owned and operated by Andy Gomory. Andy was a true talent, a keyboardist and arranger, we hit it off immediately. After he recorded my mixes we would recor…
Palina'tufa
Empty Editions presents Palina’tufa, the newest work from saxophonist Seymour Wright and percussionist Paul Abbott’s long-running duo XT. Wright and Abbot’s respective practices have been marked by a simultaneous engagement (with) and desire to challenge the limitations (of) the British tradition of improvised music - represented by groups such as AMM and John Stevens’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble. This album charts a new trajectory for Wright and Abbott, as they draw on recent live collaborations…
A Lowtides Rising... (Explorations of NZ Acoustic Music)
**250 copies** An epic who's who of New Zealand underground music circa 2000, featuring Pumice, Peter Wright, Kunst / Veet (Witcyst), CJA & Anamarie, Sleep, Donald McPherson, GFrenzy, Kieran Monaghan, Swagger Jack, Birchville Cat Motel, Richard Francis, 1/3 Octave Band, Tim Cornelius, Seht, Antony Milton and James Kirk, a total of 16 tracks. Originally released as a CD-R on Antony Milton's PseudoArcana in 2003, reissued as a 2xLP in a heavyweight deluxe deluxe gatefold sleeve and insert with lin…
Live at Tribal Gathering, Luton, UK, 24 May 1997
The machine lives. 1997 saw Kraftwerk playing live for the first time in four whole years, and they chose Luton as their stomping ground. Live at Tribal Gathering sees the krautrock pioneers re-emerge from their robot lab, they even decided to give their audience a shock and perform brand new material.