Utopie
Giusto Pio is mainly remembered for his collaboration with Battiato, with whom he co-arranged and wrote many of his unquestionable pop masterpieces, in which Giusto's fairy violin soared from classical virtuosities overflowing with melody and flashes of pure minimalism: but Giusto Pio, of course, was not just that. The long collaboration with Battiato was one of the most prolific and interesting during the '80s and '90s in Italy; this partnership took Pio to new heights in the fields of commerci…
Non Band
2023 repress, edition of 300 copies, double-sided insert w/ liner notes of this Japanese no wave gem from 1982. With extended liner notes and interviews with band members about the recordings of the album, as well as unpublished photographs from 1981 by Jibiki Yuichi.
'The Japanese punk rock movement known as Tokyo Rockers began in the summer of 1978. It incubated an independent music culture as well as a host of fascinating, individualistic musicians. One of the more striking units was the male…
Danger In Paradise
Killer! 2023 repress. General Strike's legendary album from 1984, for the first time available on vinyl and as a download. Fully remastered by David Cunningham. These 1979-84 recordings were recorded for the most part in the quiet village of Brixton, South London – three tracks at This Heat’s Cold Storage, the rest in Cunningham’s own studio just along the street - and originally released on cassette by Touch in 1984 with the exception of "Parts Of My Body," released on a single by Canal Records…
Live 1977-1979
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks began to formulate their visionary brand of aural catharsis sometime during the first half of 1977, amidst the sordid ruins of a then fully down-and-out Lower Manhattan. The mastermind behind this juggernaut of sonic libertinage was a barely pubescent but world-weary runaway who called herself Lydia Lunch. Influenced strongly by the Marquis de Sade and Henry Miller, Lunch shrewdly decided to graft the existential horror of her own writing onto harsh, atonal music afte…
1981-87 Vol 1 (LP)
Abrasive and challenging, mad, unpredictable, with a wistful, quirky, even humorous side!
Kakashi
2023 much-needed repress. A wonderful, rare record wrapped in a mysterious yet playful ambiance. Or maybe it’s just the impression that the Japanese language often gives me. ‘Suiren’ is an odd jazz-fusion-wave tune that sounds like its boiling, waiting to burst but somehow manages to stay in control. Like the nervous tick of a leg fidgeting under the table of a restaurant on a first date.Yasuaki Shimizu is a Japanese composer, producer and saxophone player. He worked with Ryuchi Sakimoto on cert…
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…
I Really Want To Bomb You: 1972 - 1984
2CD Edition. The first ever collection of Jill Kroesen's wildly inventive and often dystopian compositions from '72 through '84. Includes her art rock masterpiece Stop Vicious Cycles, her coveted '80 single, an equal amount of unissued treasures, and copious liner notes. Jill Kroesen is probably best known for her 'no wave' compositions throughout the 1970s and early '80s. It's a fascinating and theatrical sound that sort of defies categorization. This compilation should help this music of real …
Double Action
Twin Cosmos is not only the name of the musical output of fraternal twins Morihito & Yasuhito Ito, but more philosophically, an album that encapsulates, “the universe of twins”.
The pair were born 1953 in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture. A port city 50 kilometres west of Nagoya, famous for its chemical plants. Despite their surroundings, they grew up in an environment that fostered learning and self-expression. From an early age, they began to carve out their own paths.
Morihito was fascinated with sc…
Up Your Sleeve (LP)
** Edition of 500 copies with a numbered 4-page insert ** Previously released in 1980 on David Toop’s Quartz label at a time when improvised music in London was settling into a long spell of excellence. The players here are Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack, Terry Day and David Toop. Terry had been a member of The People Band in the 60s, one of the groups forming part of the first wave of British improvisation. The rest of the group could be regarded as pioneers of a second generation of improvisers…
The Ascension
** 2022 Much-Needed repress ** Glenn Branca's first full-length album The Ascension is a colossal achievement. After touring much of 1980 with an all-star band featuring four guitarists (Banca, fellow composers Ned Sublette and David Rosenbloom, and future Sonic Youth member Lee Ranaldo) along with Jeffrey Glenn on bass and Stephan Wischerth on drums, Branca took his war-torn group into a studio in Hell's Kitchen to record five incendiary compositions.
Originally released in the summer of 1981, …
Marco wa Kanashii-Koihiro Watanabe's Anti-Climax Ongun
Following the odd album of the century, "Let me tell you all about Abayo!" 2 CDs of unreleased material by Koichiro Watanabe from 1977 and the early 1980s!
No Forgetting - The Album
**500 copies** Discos Transgénero presents the first ever album by The Manchester Mekon, a group of musicians that were active from the end of the '70s to the beginning of the '80s in Manchester. Influenced by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Igor Stravinsky, King Crimson, Maurice Revel and Pink Floyd, the Manchester Mekon aimed to integrate composed and improvised music, blending orchestral and electronic sounds with rock, both live and in the studio. Over a period of five years (1977-…
Metabolism: A Salute To The Energy Of The Sun
* 150 Gram Pink Vinyl* There’s a hole in our hearts where Captain Beefheart once loomed. Allow Bird Names to fill it. Whatever it is we need to fill our post-Beefheart aortic vacancy, Bird Names shall deliver."-- Impose Magazine
Gerry & The Holograms
Temporary Super Offer! Well–documented as one of Frank Zappa’s favourite ever groups and instantly recognisable as the BLUEprint of 80’s Mancunian electro pop, the inflated alter–egos of Gerry & The Holograms (and their unrivalled brand of conceptual sarcastic synth pop) successfully remodelled, ridiculed and redefined plugged–in punk before hitting the self–destruct button and burying the evidence under a pile of hand–mutilated microgrooves for over 35 wet summers.
Having risen from the electro…
Trademark Ground
A new album from pioneering multi-instrumentalist Charles Hayward (of This Heat and Camberwell Now legendary fame) , on Otoacoustic. Four songs and five percussion interludes, laced through with field recording interventions. This is a very special production, with Hayward's music on one side and his original graphics laser-etched into side 2. The albums are being pressed in 180 gram CLEAR vinyl, with a full-color sleeve also featuring original Hayward graphics.
Scheintot
LP version. "Arguably the most prescient band of the entire late '70s San Francisco underground, Factrix released just one 7-inch and two pioneering LP's in the early '80s. Formed in 1978 by Cole Palme (one-time member of the LAFMS group Airway) and Bond Bergland (later of Saqqara Dogs), the two initially called themselves Minimal Man and performed a handful of shows along with Patrick Miller (who would go on to have a great solo career under the MM moniker). Soon they enlisted bassist Joseph T.…
Metallic Diseases
Metallic Diseases is the most intense blast of guitar squalling heat to never find its proper audience when originally released 20 years ago. Truly unhinged at times ("Cans"), sublimely dreamlike and understated at others ("Shake Off"), Starfuckers's debut album fuses the best lineage of droning, hard rocking sounds ("USA" makes a perfect amalgam of Suicide's "Rocket USA" and the Stooges' "1969"), with a gestalt that pushes it over the cliff, as "Western Man" is the kind of prophetic call to arm…
Worry
"The very premise of this musical -- executives borrowing an apartment to cheat on their wives -- makes this show entertainment for grown-ups. If you're cool with your older children being exposed to infidelity to the nth degree, they will likely enjoy the wit of the dialogue and the bouncy score. But take note: there is a suicide attempt and a drunk scene -- not exactly fare for young ones. Debut LP by Ridgewood, NJ shoegazers Big Troubles. It's pretty good. Parental advisory stickers not inclu…
Ex Aeqo
Their amazing 2nd album!! Paolo Cantù e Xabier Iriondo one more time together for a second chapter following s/t release of 2005 ( read past komareview ), - coming from previous series of free-jazz voltage to a new album somewhat tantric and stoned, untypical altough with kraut explosions (let me cite Kroko): i mean, it's the suicidal well-known sound of Wallace rec - that one wisely well-grounded in its sinister slants - perfect for a quarantine room.
Federico Ciappini (formerly from Six Minute…