New Arrivals
Spiritual Jazz 3: Europe
Gatefold double LP version. Esoteric, modal and deep jazz from the European underground, 1963-1972. At the end of the '50s, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue heralded the revelatory arrival of modal jazz. As the vibrations of these giant steps resonated across the world, European jazz musicians reassessed their bearings and began to steer a new course. Across the continent, they sent roots down into the rich soil of the European folk and Christian liturgical traditions, extended their music along a…
Heads Full Of Poison
North Carolina instrumental rock duo Ahleuchatistas belong to the beyond-category sector of such iconic, genre-flouting combos as John Zorn’s Naked City, Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Swans, Tortoise, and Sun City Girls.Ahleuchatistas combine wicked precision with intense abandon, droll humor with analytical construction, and a sly gregariousness with uncompromising vision. This pair interweaves elements of punk rock, jazz, classical music, speed metal, grindcore, progressive rock, noise, …
Desertshore/The Final Report
**Gatefold double 180g vinyl LP, with 12" booklet of liner notes and photos**Industrial Records presents the much-anticipated two album release Desertshore/The Final Report, a unique collaboration by Chris Carter, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, and Cosey Fanni Tutti. This is a two album release celebrating both the progress inherent in change and the fulfillment of two exceptional, yet separate projects. The Desertshore project is a "re-imagined" cover version of Nico's seminal 1970 album, f…
Live Peace In Toronto
Limited edition, audiophile pressing, with original spiral bound 1970 calendar w/ photoLive Peace in Toronto 1969 is a 1969 live album recorded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as the Plastic Ono Band, at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival. Lennon after being asked by local promoter John Brower if he and Yoko would accept an invitation to emcee the show on short notice instead decided to make his post Beatle debut at this festival. Featuring Eric Clapton on guitar (fresh from the breakup of …
The Revenant Diary
"Don't look back," repeats one of several voices within Mark Van Hoen's The Revenant Diary, his fifth solo album and first release on Editions Mego. Surrounded by weighted beats, analog synthesizer drones and granular dirt, the unidentified, siren-like female voice's advice is as much seduction as warning. Tellingly so, for as well as being both Van Hoen's most ambitious and his most accessible work, The Revenant Diary is an eloquent meditation on the allures and dangers of memory, regret …
\"The Vodoun Effect\" 1972-1975
Most Likely To: be one of the only albums you hear that will protect you from the smallpox virus. In the late 1960s, as traditional African culture rubbed up against an influx of Western influences, some of the most amazing modern musical forms birthed in the dance halls of West Africa. Rhythm and blues, soul, and funk elements electrified and popularized in the United States folded back upon themselves into their African origins. Afrobeat reigned supreme in Nigeria, a defiant and jubilant funk …
Trapped in amber
'LP only - Limited edition of 350 copies. Does Edward KA-SPEL need any introduction? Frontman of The Legendary Pink Dots, solo artist, member of Tear Garden and a fine man for fine music. On Korm Plastics we released the LP 'DNA Le Draw Dkee' a long time ago, and ever since Edward wanted to do another one. Here it is, a fine succesor to 'The Painted River of Regrets', two pieces of melancholic, ambient based music. Entirely instrumental. Cover design by Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek).
Progression
Featuring members of Pelican & X-Bax. For the new album three single-chord compositions were charted out, one freeform and tone driven, one long-form piece with charts dictating the players' intensity of performance, and one grid-like chart where each players' note continually shifts, though the combination of voices continue to maintain the chord. Six chords were chosen and arranged in a progression that encompasses two separate performances of each of the three compositions. Though the…
When Stars Glide Through Solid
Long awaited reissue of the debut release from Mehdi Amezianes Twinsistermoon project, originally released as a gorgeous handmade self released CDR in 2007, to many of Natural Snow Buildings and each of their solo project, this is the pick of all their releases, which is rather ironic being that its one of the smallest release runs in the discography of all the Natural Snow Buildings and related projects, it is infact the most limited release of all the Twinsistermoon releases. But due to the ma…
A Long Way Around To A Shortcut
Ever shrouded, serpentine by design, the legend of the Sic Alps has at last made its way to the gates of Drag City. The new, first-time-ever-on-vinyl 2xLP reissue of A Long Way Around To A Shortcut is somehow a 'greatest hits' of the golden not-quite-decade of Sic Alps. Well, not quite golden, either. Can gold be tarnished? Can it be done on purpose? If so, Sic Alps are artisans of the highest order -- for their music is the bright, surging sound of ye olde rock and roll radio (and the garages t…
Second Original Silence
Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke and Mats Gustafsson last convened for the monumentally noisy Diskaholics Anonymous LP, Weapons of Ass Destruction. Now the trio have returned to Smalltown Superjazz for yet more sonic carnage, this time joined by ace drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, guitarist Terrie Ex and bassist Massimo Pupillo. There's a tremendous breadth to the kind of ground covered by these musicians. At no point do you feel as if the ensemble is running out of ideas or stagnating on one particular …
808s & Dark Grapes II
The internet can be blamed for many things, and while the current consensus seems to be that it is single-handedly responsible for the destruction of the music scene, it's impossible to deny the influence it has had on contemporary rap music. Previously held hostage by industry moneymen, file sharing and social networking has democratized the genre and allowed people to hear what's really going on in the minds of young producers and rappers. Main Attrakionz are one such cottage industry ma…
Life (...It eats you up)
Whereas previous works by Mika Vainio have utilised guitar Life (… It Eats You Up) is the first to use the instrument as its primary sound source. A fascinating, sometimes disturbing and deeply personal work this new 10 track set bears all the hallmarks (exacting attention to detail of tone, rhythm and texture) of Vainio's previous works with some stunning surprises, such as his cover version of The Stooges' 'Open Up and Bleed'.Tracks such as ‘Mining’ hark bark to the banging beat exces…
Drums Between The Bells
Gatefold 2LP version. "Pairing prickly electronics with live drum patterns, Eno dumps great globs of blotchy machine -- malfunction into the mix. Holland's poetry is interlaced courtesy of [a] monotone voice...the combined effect makes the whole undertaking sound like a wild William Gibson fantasy come to life." --Pitchfork "Brian Eno first came across the work of Rick Holland in the late '90s during the Map-Making project; a series of collaborative works between students of the Royal College, t…
ØØ Void
Double LP edition: Lengths of stretched distortion rattle the grey matter, unnervingly slow and severe. With Sunn O)))’s second album, ØØ Void, the sonic misery nurtured to functionality by Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley stays simple and repetitive, a tabula rasa having yet to realize the full scope of its potential. With this album, Sunn O))) worked as a three-piece, collaborator Stuart Dalquist coming up with its opener, “Richard,” which is a solid fourteen and a half minutes of be…
Mimikry
Having nicely set up the release of this album with their Ret Marut Handshake EP a few months back, Alva Noto and Blixa Bargeld (of Einsturzende Neubauten fame) deliver a set that exceeds all expectations. One of the most strikingly obvious comparisons to arise from that first batch of material was the Alan Vega/Pan Sonic collaboration, yet Mimikry goes much further than combining the established aesthetics of its constituent parts and creates something that actually feels very new. Car…
Explosion In a Shingle Factory
Debut vinyl by this post-Anschluss project. Basement experimental sound & collage recordings from Amherst, first released in about '93 or so. Tapes, keyboards, synthesizers, harp, piano, percussion, etc.
Reverse Atheism
Barbara Manning and S. Glass lead a small army of guest readers and musicians through barely musical versions of tunes, texts, and tracts. A survey of the exceptional, the eccentric, the feverish, and the pathologically peculiar within popular religious faith, to paraphrase William James, made by others, communicated by tradition, determined to fixed forms by imitation, and retained by habit. 70+ minutes of music fragments leached of melody and harmony, looped, hacked, noisified and depas…
This Way / The Shivering Man
Special vinyl set collecting the first two incredible solo albums from Bruce Gilbert - not to be missed* In 1979, after completing their third and final group masterpiece, 154, Wire dissolved, leaving Bruce Gilbert and fellow traveller Graham Lewis free to explore their interests in minimalist electronics across a series of solo and collaborative projects. Originally released on Mute in 1984, 'This Way' was Gilbert's first solo album and was primarily made up of work commissioned by choreographe…
On fire
Norway's Smalltown Supersound label is just one of those imprints that you have to keep an eye on, because if not you're sure to miss out on some nugget of psyched avant-metal or North European disco that you'll be kicking yourself over neglecting in 10 years time. 'Smalltown Supersound On Fire' is a very handy and rather essential compendium of forthcoming releases on the label, including tracks from Arp, Meanderthals, Diskjokke and Tussle alongside remixes from the likes of Prins Thomas and Bj…