Reissues
Ikoyi Blindness
Fela used the cover of Ikoyi Blindness to announce his change of middle name from Ransome, which he now considered a slave name, to Anikulapo, which means “he who carries death in his pouch.” The front cover shows Ransome crossed out and Anikulapo added above it. Fela also used the album cover to announce the Africanisation of Africa 70’s name, changing it to Afrika 70. In the title track, Fela draws attention to the economic chasm separating the haves and have-nots of Nigerian society, contrast…
Original Suffer Head
This edition of Original Sufferhead is a major event. With the release of box set #5, and now on this reissue, the title track of this magnificent album is presented in its full-length, 25 minutes 24 seconds glory. While preparing the master disc for the box set, our engineer Jedi, Colin Young, discovered four minutes of “lost” material on the B-side of the original pressing, including a superb keyboard solo by Fela. This had been omitted from subsequent reissues. The restored version used here …
O.D.O.O. (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake)
Overtake Don Overtake Overtake was the penultimate album of newly recorded studio material released by Fela before he passed in 1997. Like its immediate predecessor, Beasts Of No Nation (also 1989), and its followup, Underground System (1992), the album finds Fela continuing to campaign for human rights and social change despite the relentless beatings, jailings and general harassment he had received from successive military regimes since the start of the 1970s.
First Encounter
After playing with Mingus, Coltrane, Lady Day and Abbey Lincoln, inventive jazz pianist Mal Waldron moved to Europe and first reached Japan in 1970, where he met Idahoborn double-bassist Gary Peacock, who had played with Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bill Evans and free-jazz giant, Albert Ayler before moving to Japan to study zen buddhism. First Encounter, recorded in Tokyo in 1971 for French producer Herve Bergerat, shows that the intense pairing was quite natural, the harmonic dissonance of Waldron’…
Tribal Dance
Los Angeles bass titan Henry Franklin is bestknown for the two Skipper LPs issued by Black Jazz in 1972-74; 1977’s Tribal Dance is more obscure and arguably the best of the bunch, the spiritual jazz given an extra propulsive dimension via the excesses of Sonship, banging complex rhythms on his elaborate self-made drums, as heard on the opening title track and the extended ‘Cosmos Dwellers.’ Elsewhere, ‘Eric’s Tune’ has flamenco undercurrents, ‘Spring Song’ is a slow piano meditation, and ‘Prime …
Decision In Paradise
Absolute killer session recorded at Vanguard Studios, New York, September 24 and 28 in 1984, with an intense line-up of some of our all-time-fav players of free music, including of tenor-saxophonist Frank Lowe, trumpeter Don Cherry, trombonnist Grachan Moncur III, pianist Geri Allen, bassist Charnette Moffett, and drummer Charles Moffett, ensures that this music is worth going for. Phrasing is super articulated and the whole vibe is just contagious. Outstanding interaction. The tandem communicat…
Exotic Heartbreak
Frank Lowe was a very dynamic tenor saxophonist who derived inspiration from the initial and subsequent movements of free jazz throughout the 1960s. Lowe is most known for his collaborations with drummer Rashied Ali and a few of the many albums released under his own name. Throughout his career, he has often been overshadowed by the influence of John Coltrane and Albert Ayler. He has left behind an outstanding collection of solo and leader work, including contributions to Don Cherry's Ralativity…
Martin Rev
LP version. "Martin Rev's eponymous debut solo record was released in 1980, not long after the second Suicide LP appeared. It is one of the most seminal albums to have emerged in the early years of electronic music?. The tension between his hypnotic drum machine salvoes and Alan Vega's irrepressibly expressive voice on stage or in the studio created an electrifying mix, and yet these six supremely minimal compositions were no less impactful without Vega's voice. There is an enchanting simplicity…
Betrayal
*300 copies limited edition* »Betrayal« was originally released on CD by Staalplaat in 1993. »Betrayal« isn't that far removed from Veiled Sisters; while not as minimalist, if not repetitive, as that particular release, »Betrayal« relies on the same basic tools of gentle, steady electronic percussion and low-level bass and keyboard shadings. The most immediate changes lie with the various vocal samples on some of the tracks; while not immediately intelligible per se, you get scraps and hints fro…
Kimalle
*100 copies limited edition* Reissue of Olli Aarni's Dauw debut and the very first release on the label at all: 'Kimalle'. Originally released in 2014 as a super limited cassette edition. Olli Aarni is a sound artist living in Helsinki. He graduated in the Masters of arts in 2016 while he was already releasing his first work through labels as Sunshine LTD, Cotton Goods, Preservation among others. Throughout the years, Aarni has performed his music worldwide and held residencies at acclaimed plac…
Storie di Vita e Malavita
Restored and remastered from the original tapes, the soundtrack to Storie di Vita e Malavita is being released for the first time on vinyl! Set in Milan, mostly in darkly and oppressively photographed suburbs, the film is the tale of some young girls who end up in prostitution, both on the street and uptown. The music, composed by Ennio Morricone, has a vivid and dizzying flavor.
Nadagen
Eschatology, a belief in the imminent end of the world, is as old as time itself. Long before our present fear of ecological catastrophe, our coda was advocated by various theologies and philosophies, from early Dharmic religions to the Millerite movement. The Dutch band Nadagen echoes those apocalyptic seers of old, spreading prophecies about our last days in the small number of songs that they recorded. ‘Nadagen’ translates to something like aftermath or twilight years, which reveals the exist…
Dawit Yifru
Ethiopia’s music company Muzikawi reissue the self-titled solo instrumental album of Ethio-jazz composer Dawit Yifru, which offers an exceptional occasion to rediscover one of the most important eras in Ethiopia’s music history. This 11-track album features a compilation of songs that were restored and remastered from cassettes released throughout the 1970s. With Ethiopian Chickchika music, Twist, Congolese Rumba, and Waltz music styles converging, the songs reflect the dynamic musical crossroad…
Elegy - The Recordings 1968-1971 (6CD Box)
6Cd box Discs in Vinyl replica sleeves with a 36-page booklet all held in a clam-shell box. Colosseum came together in 1968, the brainchild of virtuoso drummer Jon Hiseman and saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith (who had played together in the Graham Bond Organisation and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers). Teaming with bass guitarist Tony Reeves and keyboard player Dave Greenslade, the line-up of the band was completed with the recruitment of guitarist and vocalist James Litherland. Their debut album, ‘…
Der Aufstand Der Chemiker
The very first solo album from Der Plan member Moritz R® as an exclusive, original Japanese release on Suezan Studio!
The Tetchy Teenage Tapes Of
2024 Stock. 300 copies limited edition. Japan release only. ** Felix Kubin began his musical career in the early 1980s as a twelve-year-old as part of the duo Die Egozentrischen 2, together with Stefan Mohr, who was one year younger. Since then, the Hamburg multi-talent, born Felix Knoth in 1969, has made a significant name for himself in the alternative German music scene both as a solo artist and in diverse formations such as Klangkrieg, Liedertafel Margot Honecker, CEL and many others, and ru…
Euch Geht's Ja Noch Viel Zu Gut
2024 Stock. 300 copies limited edition. Japan release only. ** The name of the duo Thorax-Wach, which was founded in 1980 together with Frank Dieckmann, comes from the context of the morgue in which Olaf Kraemer worked at the time. Between 1980 and 1981, with the help of two Korg M-20s and a microphone, a handful of MCs celebrated in the underground scene were created, as well as self-released vinyl records on their own label, Schnellschnitt, which the duo, which had since relocated from tranqui…
Kaum Erdacht - Schon Mode
2024 Stock. 300 copies limited edition. Japan release only. ** The name of the duo Thorax-Wach, which was founded in 1980 together with Frank Dieckmann, comes from the context of the morgue in which Olaf Kraemer worked at the time. Between 1980 and 1981, with the help of two Korg M-20s and a microphone, a handful of MCs celebrated in the underground scene were created, as well as self-released vinyl records on their own label, Schnellschnitt, which the duo, which had since relocated from tranqui…
The 80s Archives
2024 Stock. 300 copies limited edition. Japan release only. ** “It all started in 1979 when the punk scene was in full bloom and we, the youthful dilletants believed that changing the world included a hit on a cooking pot, some weird strumming of a distorted acoustic guitar or screaming from the top of the lungs. We were anti Art, but Dadaists, hated politics but were political, anti-pretty but extremely vain, anti-Rock and anti-conformist.” This is how Jürgen Schweighart describes the beginning…
Stahlwerksynfonie
2024 Stock. Japan release only. ** The 1981 debut album by Dee Krupps, the first German industrial album that made a huge impact on artists since then, is now officially released in Japan for the first time. This historical masterpiece, recorded at Cann's Inner Space Studio and mixed at Connie Planck's studio, has been completely reissued in 2022 with the latest digital re-mastering and clearer sound. The screams of metal percussion (stertorophone) piercing sharply through the heavy repetitive r…