Reissues
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…
Live at Yubin Chokin Kaikan Hall, Tokyo,14.05.1986
For this historical concert held at the Yubin Chokin Hall, in Tokyo on May 14, 1986, the legendary Japanese drummer Masahiko Togashi brought together an amazing line-up with such modern jazz luminaries as Steve Lacy (soprano sax), Don Cherry (pocket trumpet) and Dave Holland (bass). This particular album consists of four previously unpublished tracks (on vinyl), including some highly regarded Lacy's compositions such as The Crus and Quakes, and Don Cherry's African flavored anthem called Mopti. …
Spirits Rejoice!
**1000 copies** Otoroku is extremely proud to present the first vinyl reissue of one of the most legendary free jazz records ever produced. Originally released in 1978 on Ogun recordings, Louis Moholo Octet’s Spirits Rejoice! is a high achievement in the movement of the era as it soars beyond oppression with a raucous and spiritually uplifting surge of movement and melody. Featuring Harry Miller, Johnny Dyani, Keith Tippett, Evan Parker, Nick Evans, Radu Malfatti and Kenny Wheeler, this is forme…
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…
Ethiopian Knights
Right from the stop-start bass groove that opens The Emperor, it's immediately clear that Ethiopian Knights is more indebted to funk - not just funky jazz, but the straight-up James Brown / Sly Stone variety - than any previous Donald Byrd project. And, like a true funk band, Byrd and his group work the same driving, polyrhythmic grooves over and over, making rhythm the focal point of the music. Although the musicians do improvise, their main objective is to keep the grooves pumping, using their…
Universal Beings
Paris-born, New England-raised, long-time Chicago-residing Makaya McCraven has been at the forefront of genre-redefining movements in jazz since 2015, when he introduced the world to his unique brand of ‘organic beat music’ on the breakout album In the Moment. Culled, cut, post-produced and re-composed by Makaya using recordings of free improvisation he collected over dozens of live sessions in Chicago, through incubation and experimentation In the Moment established a procedural blueprint that …
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…
Baroque Jazz Trio + 7"
**Bundle edition, LP + 7"** Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of Baroque Jazz Trio's self-titled album, original released on Saravah in 1970. Mixing Baroque, free-jazz, and world music, the unique album of the Baroque Jazz Trio (which is in fact 3/5 of the Bach Modern Quintet) is a difficult-to-label sound object which is far from being typical of the psychedelic sounds associated with the early 1970s. Because, although fusion with Indian music (amongst others) and jazz (but also pop) wa…
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…
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
Representing a more intimate and spontaneous side of Miles Davis, this expanded re-release of the soundtrack to Ascenseur pour l'échafaud is a welcome event. Louis Malle was already a jazz fan when Jean-Claude Rappeneau suggested to him that Miles, who was in France for a brief tour, be asked to record the soundtrack; he readily agreed. By creating a relaxed environment in the studio, where the musicians could view main scenes of the film in a loop and then improvise in response to what they saw…
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…
Roots of Electronic Sound
**500 copies with insert** Futuristic synthesizer specialist and sound designer Matsuo Ohno was responsible for the sound design of a broad range of film, television and radio soundtracks, most famously the animation series Astro Boy, which he began working on in 1963, together with his assistant, Takehisa Kosugi. Ohno was born in the heavily-populated Kanda district of central Tokyo in 1930 and was heavily affected by the repeated bombing raids on the city enacted in World War II, which took pl…
Wonderwall Music
With the release of Wonderwall Music in November 1968, George Harrison was the first Beatle to step into the spotlight on his own. Recording sessions actually began a year earlier - when the Beatles were recording their annual Christmas message - with India and Swordfencing, both working titles that would be changed before release. In January 1968, Harrison traveled to EMI's studios in Bombay for a whirlwind five-day session. There, he employed various local musicians, wrapping up work on Jan. 1…
Psychotic Reaction
Most fans of garage know Count Five as the group behind the classic single Psychotic Reaction – a three minute and eight second distillation of everything that’s great about the genre, from its immediately recognizable opening fuzz riff to its last wigged-out break. Eminent garageologists all agree on the track’s importance in the canon, and its inclusion on the original Nuggets LP cemented its hall-of-fame status long ago. But make no mistake, the sum of Count Five is much more than that one si…