Reissues
Doctor Dancing Mask: Pianoisms
Neil S. Kvern’s Doctor Dancing Mask: Pianoisms is a near mythical marker on the map of late 20th century experimentalism transpiring in America’s Pacific Northwest. A sublime, spacious effort of left field DIY minimalism constructed from recurring piano pieces, hypnotic percussion, and a peppering of diverse instrumentation, vocals, and invisible effects, Doctor Dancing Mask illuminates a hidden but remarkable legacy of a young composer at the height of his creativity and consciousness.
Original…
Plastic Carved Out In The Shape Of The Music
6-panel digipack with a 12-page booklet. Edition of 500 copies * Plastic Carved Out In The Shape Of The Music compiles all the non-album releases of the 1990s by Dunedin free improvisation quartet-cum-trio, Sandoz Lab Technicians. One of many hermetic enclaves of creative endeavour in the nineties NZ underground, Sandoz Lab Technicians are James Kirk (also of King Loser, The Stumps, Black Boned Angel, Renderizors, etc.), Nathan Thompson (Sleep, Renderizors, Eye, Expansion Bay, etc.), Tim Corneli…
Bread Love And Dreams
"The debut album by this two-woman, one-man trio presented contemporary British folk with the slightest of pop and folk-rock edges. The most prominent pop embroidery was found in the occasional sweeping, haunting string arrangements; there were also dabs of organ, harp, and percussion here and there. It was pretty but somewhat bland music on the border of late-'60s British folk-rock, the songs faintly echoing those of U.K. peers such as Donovan and Bert Jansch.
Bread, Love and Dreams had a sligh…
Faintly Blowing
"Faintly Blowing contains music that openly cites the influences of the day, from the Beatles to the Bee Gees to Pink Floyd. However, what sets Kaleidoscope apart is how they are able to take what may sound familiar yet make it all their own. There are also happen to be some really great tracks on the album such as "Faintly Blowing", "A Love Song for Annie", "If You So Wish", "Snapdragon", and "Bless the Executioner". The quality writing of Peter Daltrey is apparent, and his gift of melody is co…
Four Letter Monday Afternoon
*2023 stock* "Four Letter Monday' was the third album by Out Of Focus and in sharp contrast to their previous two, expanded to an 11-piece group, adding an extra guitarist as well as a full brass section. This double album features the 2 side long epic track Huchen 55 (parts a, b and c) which is an amazing track and worth the admission alone. The rest of the album plays out covering quite a range (at times I hear early Chicago and sounds of Blood, Sweat & Tears). This wild album really hits all …
Out Of Focus
*2023 stock* "With an unchanged line-up, OOF progressed immensely from their psyched-out prog rock by adding a jazz dimension that will make itself present through Moran's newly developed sax playing. This added dimension will give OOF such a wider spectrum that their excellent debut album will be dwarfed by this monster follow-up. Strangely enough their jazzy impulses show in the Tull (This Was) or TYA (Ten Years After) mode, rather than a complete jazz-rock ala Mahavishnu or brassy rock ala C…
Made In Japan
*Back in print! In process of stocking* Made In Japan is the third album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, released in 1972. After meeting Lighthouse at the Expo '70 festival in Osaka, Flower Travellin' Band were invited to visit Canada. While there, the group recorded Made in Japan with Lighthouse keyboardist Paul Hoffert helping produce. Due to George Wada becoming ill with tuberculosis, Canadian drummer Paul DeLong plays on some tracks on this album. The lyrics were written by Yok…
Satori
Temporary super offer! The Flower Travellin' Band's first musical outing, Challenge, was released in 1970 and was essentially a series of covers of Cream, Hendrix, Big Brother and Jefferson Airplane material. However, Satori appeared a year later and forever changed the way the group would be perceived, both in Japan and in the musical world at large. Possessing the vision to select Akira "Joe" Yamanaka as their vocalist, the Flower Travellin' boys elevated themselves above other Japanese bands …
The Farm Band
*Warehouse find! In process of stocking* The Farm Band was unbelievably not the only band that sprung from a hippie farm community in the 70s. Between 1972 and 1977 the band released four albums including this self titled double LP featuring 8 tracks highly influenced by the Grateful Dead-esque psychedelic trips, like in the 17 minute "I Believe It".
St. Radigunds
*Warehouse found! In process of stocking* "The quartet of singer/guitarist/songwriter Martin Cockerham, singer Barbara Gaskin, violinist/keyboardist Julian Cusack, and bassist Steve Borrill were obviously short a member, with future Fairport Convention drummer Dave Mattacks coming on board for the recording of St. Radigunds, the group's debut album. The group's sound was unusual, with Cockerham's brittle, almost adenoidal vocals counterpointed by Gaskin's crystalline tones. Musically, too, the b…
La Perversita
*2023 repress!! Limited edition* Sofa Records is delighted to propose the reissue of this seminal French underground record ! Released in 1979, this concept record is an attempt to sublimate sexual perversion. It results from the association between Jacques Pasquier (founder of S.C.O.P.A./Invisible Records and central figure of the Parisian alternative scene during the 70s), the producer Hector Zazou, the outraging graphic design collective Bazooka and other talents from the outskirts of artisti…
Chants Magnetiques
** 2022 Restock, few copies available ** Here is a masterpiece of electronic music! French musician Bernard Parmegiani has composed Chants Magnetiques in 1974, one of the most sought-after Parmegiani albums -- a monster rarity which is almost impossible to find. This obscure album was composed around the same time as De Natura Sonorum during the mid-'70s, a particularly important and effervescent era for Bernard Parmegiani. Indeed, as if one can say that De Natura Sonorum is one of the best of P…
Une Bien Curieuse Planète
From 1960 to the present day, from Georges Arvanitas to Laetitia Shériff, or from Manu Dibango to "Mama" Béa Tékielski, everyone has wanted to include François Jeanneau in their team at some point. This, his first album under his own name, was recorded for Jef Gilson’s Palm label in 1975, a few months after ‘’Watch Devil Go’’ by Thollot, with more or less the same cast: Jeanneau on saxophone, Jenny-Clark on double bass and percussion, Lubat replaces Thollot on drums and Michel Grailler is added …
Meu Balanço
This one takes us back! We originally reissued Waltel Branco's 'Meu Balanço' in 1995, it was one of the first releases to come out on Mr Bongo. It is a much-requested title with original copies becoming ever more-scarce and the price tag increasingly rising, so it feels fitting to present this stunning record once again for all to enjoy. Waltel Branco was born in Paranaguá, Brazil in 1929 and died in Rio de Janeiro in 2018. During his triumphant career he accumulated an impressive musical portfo…
Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei
Rubinho E Mauro Assumpção's 'Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei' has to be up there as one of the finest Brazilian-psych-folk-MPB records we know. Unfortunately, it's very hard to find in the wild; even on digging trips to Brazil, an original copy rarely shows up, and when it does, it comes with a hefty price tag. This highly sought-after rarity was released on the Brazilian label Tapecar Records in 1972 and is the one and only album by the sensational pairing of Rubinho and Mauro Assumpçã…
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…
Tra Scienza E Fantascienza
Timeless atmospheres, hypnotic sonorities, minimal arrangements. And a composer gifted with a never ending passion for music, experimenter in his genetic code, innovator by vocation, at ease with various instruments in order to forge avant-garde themes. Piero Umiliani was already forward in building completely new sounds in the late Seventies. “Tra Scienza E Fantascienza” finds his alter ego Moggi experimenting with alternative grooves, electronic music, jazz tunes and soundtrack motifs. One of …
Carolina
Carolina is the Brazilian virtuoso Seu Jorge's debut full-length album from 2002. Originally released under the title ‘Samba Esporte Fino’, its release and subsequent international acclaim dovetailed with Seu Jorge’s ascent into movie stardom. He is probably best known outside of Brazil for his work on Wes Anderson’s 2004 film 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’, in which he played a starring role and his Portuguese covers of David Bowie records were a highlight of the soundtrack. Having initia…
Bečvou
Bečva is a river located in the Eastern part of Czech Republic. In September 2020, several chemical leaks into the river caused the poisoning and subsequent death of 40 tons of wildlife in the waterway – an unprecedented catastrophe. Growing up in Přerov, Bečva was an ever-present part of Tomáš Niesner’s youth and this environmental disaster affected him deeply. In an effort to understand the river better and inspired by Werner Herzog’s ‘Of Walking in Ice’, Niesner set out on a journey from the …
Handscapes 2
At the time of release Ebony reviewer Phyl Garland said "One needn't be a "piano freak" to appreciate a truly new recording. First of all imagine seven gifted and talented pianists sitting down to seven grand pianos and proceeding to tear up these instruments - musically, that is. ...the torrent of sound springing from their 70 fingers is so powerful and majestic as to be unlike anything one has ever heard."