"Somewhere around 2007 a rather remarkable sight and sound appeared around these parts. Two women, seated among a variety of instruments, playing their own mesmerizing songs amid scattered covers (Richard and Linda Thompson, Donovan, Anne Briggs). Sometimes they played together, sometimes one or the other would do a song while the other watched or added a bit of harmony. It was closer to something you'd see in a university club in 1967 than anything contemporary, but there they were. A large and devoted audience developed quickly, following them from gig to gig. At the time it seemed like they were ready to for the world to discover, something so good that everyone would know about them soon enough. Within a couple of years they would seem more like an apparition, something flown by that you weren't sure was ever really there. They had made some tentative starts at recording, but nothing much to show when I approached them in 2009 to make an LP. One afternoon they loaded all their gear in and set up as they would for a gig. We recorded everything live, including vocals, in one or two takes -- usually one. It was a lovely afternoon, without a hint of the usual recording jitters or other distractions. The songs flowed out, one by one, as naturally as you please. We later added a touch or two to a couple of songs, but the resulting record is almost entirely live, just as you would have heard it if you were lucky enough to see 'em around town. As it turned out, that session was close to the end for Baba Yaga. There were a few more gigs, and then they split -- Carla moving to NYC and Amanda staying local. There were scattered sightings of each over the years: Amanda joined Major Stars for a while. Carla formed Raajmahal with Pat Murano (of No Neck Blues Band and K Salvatore) and put out several LP's and cassettes. But the album they made together as Baba Yaga was seemingly doomed. For a couple of years emails were exchanged, but trying to get the recordings sequenced and artwork prepared for a defunct band whose members lived in different states was slow going. Finally in 2013 everything was in order and 250 copies of the LP were pressed. Then the finished art for the cover went missing. That seemed to be the final nail in the coffin. Boxes of unfinished LP's were tucked into a closet, where they've sat for over a decade. But you can't keep a good record down forever, right? A couple of chance meetings in the middle of this decade restarted the conversation, and designer Darryl Norsen (Grateful Dead, Yes, Joni Mitchell) was brought in to design an all-new sleeve. The records were exhumed and unboxed and after a sixteen year wait the Baba Yaga album everyone 'round town was waiting for is finally here." -- Wayne Rogers

WRWTFWW Records presents the first-ever vinyl release of Japanese electronic music producer Virgo's debut album, Landform Code, a forgotten underground classic from 1998, now finally available as a limited edition 45rpm cut double LP housed in a heavyweight sleeve. Originally only released on CD by Tokyo-based cult label FORM@ RECORDS, Landform Code is an absolute gem of smooth, melodic Detroit techno infused with brilliant hints of acid, ambient, and IDM. It's a dreamy, organic, and timeless record that captures the essence of late '90s electronic innovation with a deeply soulful touch. The 12-track album, radiating with lush melodies, hypnotic rhythms, and textural detail, is an essential (hidden) treasure of electronic music history, transporting the listeners back to the pioneering days of Carl Craig, B12, The Black Dog, Ian O'Brien, or Warp's Artificial Intelligence series, beautifully honoring its influences, while solidly standing on its own as a distinct and emotionally resonant piece from Japan's underground scene. Landform Code is released simultaneously with Virgo's 1999 follow-up album Remnants (WRWTFWW 117LP), both excavated from the vaults of FORM@ RECORDS which has officially supervised the reissue efforts. This marks the first phase of a collaboration between the Swiss and Japanese labels.

WRWTFWW Records presents the first-ever vinyl release of Japanese electronic music producer Virgo's unheralded sophomore album, Remnants, a sleeper underground hit from 1999, now finally available as a limited edition 45rpm cut double LP housed in a heavyweight sleeve. Released only on CD in 1999 by Tokyo-based cult label FORM@ RECORDS, Remnants is a quietly visionary record: mellow ambient techno, fluid electronica, and soul-laced atmospherics with the spirit of Detroit close to the heart. As the follow-up to his essential debut Landform Code, Virgo expands his palette here -- working in widescreen textures, warm synth tones, and patient, emotive arrangements that feel both intimate and cinematic. The result is lush, heartfelt, and simply brilliant -- a late '90s statement that rewards deep, repeated listening. Remnants sits comfortably alongside the era's best explorations in soulful techno, ambient, and IDM, recalling the sensibilities of B12, The Black Dog, Ian O'Brien, and the lineage of labels Warp, Likemind and Clear, while remaining distinctly Virgo -- subtle, sophisticated, and unexpectedly moving. The album is released alongside Virgo's Landform Code (WRWTFWW 117LP), also available on vinyl for the first time ever, as part of a collaborative reissue series between WRWTFWW and FORM@.

Originally released in 2020. "Welcome to the second release in the Black Dot LP series. Black Dot albums are all recorded live at the White Spot performance space in beautiful downtown Nanaimo BC, a venue which Mats Gustafsson visited on June 23, 2019. Mats is many things to many people -- a doting father, a fancier of fine bourbons, an enthusiastic sport fisherman and a record collector of unparalleled passion. But he is probably best known as a musical performer/composer/explorer with world-gobbling intentions. On this evening in June, Mats was in extremely fine solo form. Playing baritone sax, fluteophone and three 'vinyl killer' record players (containing three copies of his own Hockey 10" on Gaffer), Mats began the evening with the sounds of tabletop hockey. The hockey sounds were courtesy of the 'vinyl killer' (which look like Hot Wheels versions of VW mini-buses driving around a record), and this madness was soon intercut with insanely fleet breath manipulation on the baritone. Gustafsson is one of the few players (along Anthony Braxton, Peter Brotzmann and the late Hamiett Bluiett) who has managed to bend the baritone sax to his will. Even the tenor is a big horn, requiring some real meat/lung duality for successful wrangling, but the baritone is a monster. Although Mats handles it as though it were a baby otter (albeit a large baby otter.) His click-stop playing shows he has darn nice tongue control, with grumbles of mutated melodic construction poking up and then hiding again, burrowing deep into the fabric of pure sound. As the set continues, the sax gets more aggressive -- inflating and inventing new strategies of sonic architecture, tearing up the air, sometimes inhabiting the so-called freak register like it was born there, at others playing melodies as though Coleman Hawkins' ghost was haunting its bell. Sometimes when he's playing, Mats gets an expression on his face that suggests he's revisiting the entire history of jazz music (something I know he carries around in his head at all moments). And I suspect those spirits were visibly passing across his visage this night in British Columbia. Although he is revered as an avant-gardist, Gustafsson is much more than that. He embodies a tradition that connects all kinds of seemingly unrelated segments of the music, creating unexpected combinations of sound and technique that span a variety of theoretically unbridgeable gaps. The force of his playing and personality create a furnace in which everything must melt and combine." --Byron Coley

Originally released in 2021. "crys cole is a Canadian-born composer, currently based in Berlin. She has a long history as a sound artist, both for performances and recordings that display a subtle approach to sound generation (often involving small gestures and the amplification of objects not necessarily designed to produce music). She also creates sculptural installations featuring sound as one element amongst others. This might suggest she possesses some of the mania associated with Fluxus, but crys's work generally eschews the antic, focusing on the slow build and accretion of sound layers. On this night in Nanaimo BC, Oren and crys sat at a pair of tables. Oren held a guitar and his table was covered with electronics. crys held no instrument in her hands, but her table contained a mass of objects, some clearly electric in nature, others looking more like random bits found in a kitchen drawer. Working with these tools and microphones to amplify their voices and/or gestures, the pair created the two pieces here -- wonderfully flowing soundscapes from imaginary vistas of otherness. The instruments they employ sometimes recall the essence of things you've heard before, but more often they are sonic events whose source can only be discerned (and then, only fitfully), by trying to see who is doing what with their hands. The interplay of gesticulation and the slow swaying of their bodies resembles a kind of slow-motion dance, almost like something taking place underwater. And at times there is a concordant submarine heft to the music. Drifting as though heard through a waving wall of water at 20,000 leagues beneath the sea. Other portions make you feel as though you are lying in a tent at night in a jungle filled with cyborg insects. It was a night of music that came and went like a dream state. Beautiful, familiar and utterly strange all at the same time. Sadly, this will be the last LP in this series recorded at the original White Room, upstairs at 4 Church Street in downtown Nanaimo. A new landlord wanted to do something different with the legendary performance space/gallery, and so it goes. We are assured, however, that a new venue will be secured in the Nanaimo area, and the shows (with concomitant live LPs) will continue once the plague has abated. For now, take the opportunity to take a trip with Oren and crys. You won't regret a moment of it." --Byron Coley

"Although it is true that the Nanaimo concert hall known as 'The White Room' has been eradicated by real estate greedheads, Jack and Dave (who ran the place and its documenting record label) have decided to keep the label going because why the hell not? The first fruit of this divine union is the Belfort Strasse LP by Eugene Chadbourne's Contemporary Rock Band (whose name was copped from an otherwise anonymous Pismo Beach cover band). Under this exquisitely generic banner you'll find Eugene Chadbourne on vocals, guitar and banjo, Schroeder on drums, Jan Fitsjen on bass and baritone guitar and occasionally Titus Waldenfels on lap steel. Unlike their namesake, this Contemporary Rock Band only plays a couple of covers -- Johnny Paycheck's 'The Cave' and Willie Nelson's 'Wake Me When It's Over.' These are also the tracks on which Waldenfels's lap steel adds musical width, while on 'Prisoner' (recorded for Bulgarian National Radio), the ensemble features solely Chadbourne and Schroeder. The material here was recorded in 2018-19 in a basement studio on Belfort Strasse in Freiburg-im-Brieslau, Germany or in taverns within walking distance of the studio, using a mobile recording facility. A few of the tunes have appeared on some of Eugene's recent CDRs, but this the first vinyl appearance of the music, and a damn fine appearance it is. Unlike his more 'purely' avant instrumental records, Belfort Strasse is a suite of Eugene's sometimes-straight/sometimes-bent lyrics, spiced up with experimentally-canted musical flourishes that fuck with time, melody and harmonics in equal measure and at their own cruel pace. Eugene's approach is so amazingly advanced it can often be head-spinning to try and unravel its intent, but the overall effect kinda destroys the perceptual barriers between sounds deemed 'inside' and 'outside.' This is a trick Chadbourne has long been working at, but as much as I loved many of his early efforts at this syncretic mode of creation, over the years his tactics have become a bit less manic, which seems like a good thing in terms of making the lines blurrier than ever. Eugene is an artist whose aesthetic has long seemed to be dictated by Duke Ellington's statement, 'if it sounds good and feels good then it is. Good. There's no art when one does something without intention.' And to my ear, Belfort Strasse, is Eugene's most adamant exemplar of this dictum yet. If you can't dig it. I'm not certain you can dig." --Byron Coley

LP version. A voice, timeless as the desert, swirls up like the sirocco, drenched in cavernous reverberation, accompanied by the solitary, meditative swells of the ardine, an acoustic harp that dials in the fundamental frequency of Noura Mint Seymali's music. A brief pause, and the same refrain returns, this time picked out on a heavily flanged electric guitar, grounded by thunderous drums and growling electric bass. And there's that voice again -- direct and urgent, careening off into wild ululations and refracted echo. That's the opening two tracks on Yenbett, the brand-new album by Mauritanian force of nature, Noura Mint Seymali. In just under four and a half minutes, these two versions of the song "Lehjibb" set the tone for what's to come -- a trance-inducing and ferociously evocative blend of ancient Northwest African musical tradition and searing, electrified Saharan future rock. Noura Mint Seymali is a living embodiment of musical tradition. She hails from a family of musical visionaries: her father, Seymali Ould Ahmed Vall, was a renowned composer and scholar and her stepmother, Dimi Mint Abba, was a cherished singer and performer. Seymali is a practicing griot -- equal parts poet, singer, musician, historian and cultural custodian -- and a living embodiment of Mauritania's tradition of Moorish griot music. "The griot are highly respected lineages in our culture and are a source of social cohesion and social history that endures," Seymali explains. "We are still a kind of mirror for society, reflecting back the social bonds and history to the people. It's still the griot who are the artist celebrants of traditional weddings and ceremonies. And it's still griot representing the culture as artist ambassadors." In this role, Seymali performs as a powerful vocalist with both a deep connection to the griot's timeless repertoire, and an urge to create fresh, contemporary messages. Rounding out the band are bassist Ousmane Touré, and on drums Matthew Tinari -- an American who has resided in Senegal for many years. Tinari also co-produced the album, together with Mikey Coltun, best known as bassist with Tuareg rock pioneers Mdou Moctar. It's no surprise, then, that Yenbett smolders with a languid fire comparable to the desert blues played by West African groups such as Mdou Moctar. Certainly, Seymali can see a connection between the blues and West African music. "It's sewn from the same cloth," she says.

Soft Centre is the new album by Iko Chérie, the solo project of French-born, London-based multi-instrumentalist Marie Merlet. She blends dub-inflected textures, pop-tinged vocals, reverb-drenched guitars, Casio drones, and warm experimental noises -- creating her own intimate, fragile sound. Self-produced and largely performed by Merlet, the album grew from an introspective process, with many sketches recorded in transit between tours. The result is a deeply personal work, balancing light and dark in a Lynchian dream-pop haze. Songs such as "We Smoke That Peace Pipe" and "Bilbao" shimmer between vulnerability and resilience, while the single "Ghosted Ghosters of the Holy G" captures the immediacy of a one-take dub bass. Some pieces retain the quality of improvised snapshots while others reveal her meticulous production process and songwriting craft. Merlet defines Soft Centre as alive in radical tenderness, unguarded, open, and vivid. Influenced by Clarice Lispector's prose, Diane di Prima's poetry and Rachel Carson's environmentalist writing, as well as Marie's fascination with a vintage Roland Space Echo, the album is an invitation to connection that she describes as "hopefully a meditation into healing." A versatile musician trained in classical piano, jazz, and electroacoustic composition, Merlet has long moved between different worlds of sound. She has worked with Laetitia Sadier in Monade, performs with Gina Birch (The Raincoats), Malphino, Yama Warashi, and several other groups. She recently appeared as guest singer on the latest Stereolab album. Her debut solo LP, Dreaming On (Elefant Records, 2015), revealed her singular melodic instincts; with Soft Centre she ventures further inward, shaping her own distinctive voice in experimental pop.

Frank Maston's beloved 2025 single finally gets its long overdue vinyl release! "Foreign Affairs" drifts through London fog and Paris shimmer, its avant-lounge glow wrapping each melody in a wistful ache. On B-side "Liaison," ghostly strings and a solitary piano paint a deserted twilight shoreline, Pacôme Henry's distinct 16mm cinematography hovering nearby. Originally written for a film Maston was scoring in 2024, he decided to keep it aside for himself. The two songs were recorded in Paris and London in the summer of 2024. Aside from the rhythm section and piano, there's vibraphone, a full string section, trombones and alto and concert flutes. The artwork for this 7" single has Roman campaign flags, referencing the foreign affairs in sort of a sassy way.

2025 repress. Originally released in 1969, this album is one of the most significant in Brazilian musical history, spearheading the musical Tropicalia revolution lead by Brazilian legends Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, not to mention Gal Costa and mutant rockers Os Mutantes. Not only were the artists experimenting with the music, they were also making a very strong political statement that spoke out very harshly against the military regime in Brazil at the time. This album helped land Veloso and Gil a brief stint in jail and eventually in political exile in the UK. Includes bonus CD of the album.

2025 restock. Working outside normal record business market mechanisms, Einstürzende Neubauten recorded this album over some 200 days in their own studio funded by their world-wide network of subscribing supporters via www.neubauten.org. Possibly informed by the title of 2000's Silence Is Sexy, the word on the international music scene was that Einstürzende Neubauten had become calmer, quieter even. Alles Wieder Offen blows this assumption out of the water; it is an urgent and compelling album in every aspect. The instruments do not exhaust themselves by a consumptive struggle against each other as they might have on prior recordings, but instead create an unprecedented fusion of Einstürzende Neubauten-typical instruments with conventional ones. Alexander Hacke's bass has never sounded warmer, Jochen Arbeit's guitar more graceful, the metal of Rudolf Moser and the percussion of N.U. Unruh more unsettling and diverse, or Blixa Bargeld's voice more mercurial yet forceful. It's the little details that first draw the attention: Jochen Arbeit's whizzing guitar on "Unvollständigkeit," seeming to anticipate the outburst that follows: a rain of light, falling aluminum sticks; the way Alexander Hacke electronically deconstructs Rudolph Moser's rounded, flowing rhythm on "Weilweilweil"; the deft combination of uplifting organ and the almost tender feedback that rends the sky open on "Nagorny Karabach." This album also is very conscious of the band's history. On a lyrical level, "Unvollständigkeit" is a sister piece to both "DNS/Wasserturm" (1983) as well as "Redukt" (of Silence Is Sexy, 2000); "Nagorny Karabach" refers to "Armenia" (1983), which is the sun of the EN-cosmos; "Von Wegen" quotes both their first single and a line from the song "Sehnsucht" from Kollaps (1981). Moreover, musically "Von Wegen" mirrors the structure of "Zerstörte Zelle" (1987). "Susej" is based around a rhythm guitar figure that Bargeld recorded in a flooded cellar of the Hafenklangstudio in Hamburg in the early '80s. Many layers have deposited themselves around the group's original nucleus. At the same time, the energy and the sheer willpower of the early days is still powerfully evident here. Perhaps the most emotionally-affecting and intellectually-stimulating album of Einstürzende Neubauten's career. Gatefold with full color printed inner sleeves.

A note from Lawrence English: "If I'm not mistaken, Ben Frost and I first talked about the ideas of what would become Steel Wound sometime in mid-2002. In the early '00s, Ben had been working on cut-up electronics, spilling over with floating rhythms, humming string samples and piano splices. It was a sound realized in part through the subversion of fruity loops and also owes a debt to Ableton Live which arrived in late 2001. His works to that point, gently saturated and bristling with a fizzy distortion at times, hinted at another sound world which would become his focused in the summer of 2002 and into 2003. Locking himself away at Johanna's Beach, a remote southern vantage along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, he was able to record for the first time without a sense of constraint. This opening up of the sound palette brought with it an entirely new harmonic language that had been hinted at, but not realized, on previous recordings. With a simple restriction of instrumentation, the guitar as the palette, Frost unlocked a certain verticality to his working methods that holds light to this day. Steel Wound is, by design, a singular record in Ben Frost's discography. It's a recording born of particular conditions, but also of particular interests. It was the first time Ben had set himself up with a situation where saturation, volume and density were all something that could be realized in a space and a time, not as a process of post-production. To have sound operating in space is a thing of true beauty and moreover it allows for a certain unpredictability that is central to new discoveries. Working with a Fender Twin, often with the reverb dialed in at maximum, he found a language of shimmer and saturation, of compression and collision, that set the stage for a prolonged interest in how sound performs and is perceived at volume. It also is the first time that many of the tonal and melodic inflections that have come to be recognized as his compositional language are on display. Steel Wound, in my opinion, is a map to the future for Ben. It is a portal, a chance for new understandings to emerge and also to take hold and it's these learnings that have guided Ben's work in the subsequent years. Steel Wound remains a pulsing beacon in an ocean of noise that has been flickering for two decades now."

From 2019 to 2022, Gorgun drafted this record twice, then deleted most of her sketches. By the time she opened a new session, she had gone through an accidental electrocution, a cancer diagnosis, and an allergic collapse that nearly suffocated her. During treatment, chemotherapy left her in a cognitive fog known as "chemo-brain," forcing her to relearn the craft of composition from scratch. While rebuilding her own focus, she watched her friends, relatives, and musical heroes battle illness, recover, or slip away. The result is Earthbound: a final, third iteration recorded in the quiet intervals between sunshine afternoons in the park, surgeries, funerals, long walks by the sea, emergency rooms, and snow-lit nights -- above all, between days spent searching for sound and music. Yet, rather than foregrounding those ordeals, Gorgun surrendered to them, composing as a witness to the post-COVID world limping back to life in "Janus"; to the wavedrops rejoining the sea in "Cloudbreak Swell"; to a joyful stargazing experience in "Moonbeams," to the attention-seeking power-drunk swagger in "Edgelord"; to memory dissolving at the doorway -- the doorway effect -- in "Olvido"; or to the way Middle-Eastern artists are ever more exotically consumed while their homelands splinter in "Exocannibalism" and "Bon Pour L'Orient."

Claire M Singer has shared details of the captivating second instalment in a triptych of albums that delves into two intertwining narratives. Gleann Ciùin -- which means "quiet glen" in Scottish Gaelic (pronounced gly-ow-n kyoon) -- is released on CD Touch. The follow up to 2023's Saor, the heart of this album lies a profound exploration of the artist's personal journeys across the rugged, awe-inspiring landscapes of the Cairngorms in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Through a tapestry of evocative melodies and stirring harmonies, the music transports listeners to these majestic mountain peaks, evoking the solitude, the natural wonder, and the transformative power of traversing such terrain. Gleann Cùin also represents a parallel journey, one that ventures deep into the history and grandeur of the UK's most remarkable pipe organs. As the artist navigates these historic instruments, coaxing forth their rich, resonant tones, the music becomes a vehicle for uncovering the stories embedded within these magnificent, centuries-old artifacts. Each track on the album seamlessly blends these two narrative threads, creating a captivating tapestry that invites the listener to experience the artist's own discovery, whether exploring the rugged Scottish landscape or unearthing the hidden musical treasures of the nation's most revered pipe organs. Gleann Ciùin stands as a powerful and immersive artistic statement, a mesmerizing musical journey that immerses the listener in the artist's own transformative explorations. The album's title piece is the Ivor Novello nominated "Gleann Ciùin." Originally commissioned in 2019 by the London Contemporary Orchestra and the Richard Thomas Foundation for the PRS New Music Biennial. The piece features violin, viola, four cellos, and two horns and the 1967 Flentrop organ housed under the stage when not in use in the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall.

2025 repress. "One album into their career in 1969, Mutantes showed few signs of musical burnout after turning in one of the oddest LPs released in the '60s. Similar to its predecessor, Mutantes relies on an atmosphere of experimentation and continual musical collisions, walking a fine line between innovation and pointless genre exercises. The lead track ('Dom Quixote') has the same focus on stylistic cut-and-paste as their debut LP's first track ('Panis et Circenses'). Among the band's musical contemporaries, Mutantes sounds similar only to songs like the Who's miniature suite 'A Quick One While He's Away' -- though done in three minutes instead of nine, and much more confusing given the language barrier. The album highlights ('Nao Va Se Perder por Ai') and ('Dois Mil e Um') come with what sounds like a typically twisted take on roots music (both Brazilian and American), complete with banjo, accordion, and twangy vocals. Though there are several other enjoyable tracks, including 'Magica' and a slap-happy stomp called 'Rita Lee', there's a palpable sense that the experimentation here isn't serving much more than its own ends. If the first album's relentless eclecticism did in fact occasionally result in dry passages, it's especially true here." --All Music

Announcing Perseverance Flow, the latest album from acclaimed Chicago-based ensemble Natural Information Society (NIS). After a trilogy of double LPs by expanded manifestations of the band that began in 2018 with Mandatory Reality & continued through Since Time Is Gravity (a Pitchfork Best Jazz & Experimental Album of the Year selection & Mojo's #1 Underground Album of 2023), NIS returns to its core formation of Lisa Alvarado on harmonium, Mikel Patrick Avery on drums, Jason Stein on bass clarinet, & composer/multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams on guimbri for one continuous 37 minute composition across a single LP. As the rocket boosters on spaceship earth sputter closer to burnout, lower your stylus into a soundfield that grows stronger the deeper you travel into it; a dose of the medicine many of us look to music to deliver awaits you inside. One of the deep contemplations of this natural information (thanks Bill Callahan) is the wide range of source materials Abrams draws from over the band's more than 15 year history: Ideas from minimalism, modal jazz & traditional musics are regularly reimagined in these compositions. The 2021 double LP descension (Out of Our Constrictions), with guest soloist Evan Parker, reflected aspects of Abrams' love of party music, Chicago house, & John Coltrane. *But even veteran travelers with the NIS best brace themselves for the Perseverance Flow. Speaking to the history & the inspirations behind the album, Abrams offers: "We played the piece for a year in concert before the recording. At Electrical (Audio Studios, Chicago) we went in at 11 & were done in time to pick our kids up from school." Abrams continues: "In a reference world, I imagine Perseverance Flow like a live extended realization of a Jaylib lost instrumental as remixed by Kevin Shields. Or vice versa. I also think it has sympathies to some of the more rhythmically intricate dance musics out of Chicago & Lisbon." The core NIS ensemble heard on Perseverance Flow always address Abrams' writing with the discipline of orchestra musicians & the creativity of improvisers. But this time around, instead of inviting living legend status musicians Evan or William Parker or Ari Brown as honored guests to solo freely over the composed materials, Abrams' invited guest collaborator was the medium of the recording studio itself. Situated at the board with engineer Greg Norman, Abrams pushed post production techniques found only sporadically on earlier NIS records deep into the heart of the music, distorting & reshaping instruments to subtly &, at times, aggressively mutate timbre & texture, color & time. Refracting the band's signature mesmerizing chains of overlapping rhythmic patterns through the sonic funhouse of dub makes Perseverance Flow the most formally experimental NIS album to date. Now a soundworld fully unique to itself is listening to itself, consoling & humoring itself, & consoling & humoring you. A destruction myth & a creation myth of a soundworld together at once -- "energetically nutritious" (October 2025 Issue 500 The Wire) supernatural information society.

"Perseverance Flow is skipping rope in slo-mo. A dance of co-operation to rally guts & humors & keep marching through pouring tears" (Abrams).

"At last, a memorable and listenable meeting between jazz and new music returns. At the 1971 Donaueschingen Music Festival, which has become a pioneering meeting not only for new music ever since, Don Cherry and Krzysztof Penderecki performed together with the illustrious personnel of the New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra in a concert that continues to be memorable and well worth a listen. The concert recording was released as a vinyl album by the WERGO label and has been unavailable for many years. After an extensive technical sound restoration using 24-bit digital remastering, Intuition is now releasing Actions on 180g vinyl."

LP version. First ever release of post-Children Of The Mushroom heavy prog studio/live recordings from 1971. Formed in California in 1967, Children of the Mushroom were the quintessential garage-psych band. As the times evolved, the band hardened their sound, shortening their name to Mushroom. By 1970, Mushroom became Lady, incorporating prog-rock influences and instruments like flute to their hard-pych organ/guitar dominated sound, drawing inspiration from bands like Jethro Tull, Steamhammer, Gypsy, or Bloodrock. In 1971 the band recorded a few studio demos at Village Recorders in Los Angeles, which are presented here in top sound quality along with a couple of raw, lo-fi but killer live tracks from the same year. Long tracks, heavy fuzz guitar, Hammond organ, flute, and powerful vocals. Remastered sound. Includes insert with liner notes by Klemen Breznikar (It's Psychedelic Baby) and rare photos. Also includes download card with three live bonus tracks.

Progressive hard-psych milestone from Australia, 1971, with fantastic twin guitar interplay and cool West Coast vibe. Formed in Sydney, Kahvas Jute were a short-lived but much-admired Aussie hard-rock band from the early '70s with connections to local legends Mecca and Tamam Shud. They featured ace guitar players Tim Gaze and Dennis Wilson plus future international rock legend Bob Daisley (Ozzy, Rainbow, Gary Moore) on bass and Dannie Davidson on drums. Originally released in 1971 on the Festival sub-label Infinity, Wide Open has become one of the most sought-after Australian rock albums of the era and is without doubt a lost gem of Aussie progressive hard rock. Original artwork in gatefold sleeve. Remastered sound. Insert with detailed liner notes by Ian McFarlane and rare photos. Includes download card.

Heavy UK progressive monster rarity from 1973; only one acetate copy known to exist. During their brief existence, Cargo -- a band that supported the likes of Sam Apple Pie, Stray, East of Eden, and Greenslade -- certainly delivered the goods with their powerful blend of hard-rock, psychedelic and progressive/jazz-rock sounds, full of screaming vocals, hard guitar, furious sax attacks, and heavy drums. Formed in Burton on Trent by guitarist/songwriter Andrew Perrins with members from the band Helter Skelter, they included killer lead guitarist Neillian 'Sped' Spedding, saxophonist Alan 'Nala' Wright, drummer Graham Hair, bassist Dave Kent, and a charismatic vocalist modeled after Robert Plant named Terence 'Ticker' Davies. Influenced by bands like Gentle Giant, ELP, and Yes, Cargo gained attention through strong live performances, supporting major acts like Queen and East of Eden. In 1973, they recorded a demo acetate titled Delivering The Goods at Zella Studios. Although they nearly signed with Island Records, they turned down the offer when it was only extended to the singer and drummer. This is without doubt a major find for any hard-rock/heavy-prog fan. Gatefold sleeve in the best early '70s style. Remastered sound. Includes insert with detailed liner notes by Austin Matthews (Shindig!/Flashback) and rare photos Also includes download card.

LP version. "From out of the dark, the crackle of feedback birdsong signals a return to the land of sound environments exclusive to the music of Rafael Toral. A year and a half after his epochal electric guitar album, Spectral Evolution, Traveling Light finds him sharpening his focus, moving boldly from abstract forms to concrete compositions in the form of a set of jazz standards. Based on Toral's discography, this may seem an unlikely endeavor, but happily, Traveling Light transpires to be one of the major accomplishments in his long history, expressing these songs on their own terms through the unique listening lens of his music. Toral sidesteps the traditional logic of how to play a song, moving outside the framework with which one would expect a standard to be treated. Three decades ago, in the early years of his practice, Toral used the guitar as a generator, to create discreet texture and droning tones. Later, he abandoned the guitar entirely, focusing on self-made electronics to render his music, and the silence from which it came, with a post-free jazz perspective. For the music of Spectral Evolution and Traveling Light, Toral has combined his methodologies, radically expanding the space within their harmonies with his self-made machines, while engaging directly with his instrument and the chords of the material. The result is a listening experience of these standards, that remains 'in the tradition,' even as the elongated harmonies seem to alter time such that, as Toral notes, 'the chords become events on their own.' At points, the long tones animate the sacred ennui of liturgic music, the choir or the organ standing in for silent contemplation while rumbling the ground beneath our feet. Another echo of the concentric circling of music in time. In addition to Toral's proxy orchestra of guitars, sine wave, feedback and bass guitar, Traveling Light features the sounds of clarinetist José Bruno Parrinha, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, flügelhorn player Yaw Tembe, and flautist Clara Saleiro, who each guest on one song. One of Toral's self-made devices incorporates a theremin -- another near-century old innovation in electronics conceived for use in classical music -- to modulate feedback melodies here. In every contour of Traveling Light's path -- arrangement, improvisation and production -- the spring of the old pours through the new in an unstoppable flow."

Named after the galactic location of the nearest black hole to Earth, Connecticut psychedelic band NGC-4594 only issued one single during their brief existence in 1967, Skipping Through The Night (truly an acid-head anthem) backed with "Going Home." Rumors of a lost, unissued full album started to circulate until psych music researcher Gray Newell found it. Top shelf acid-rock/psychedelia, highly recommended if you dig Country Joe & The Fish, Jefferson Airplane, Spirit, Doors, H.P. Lovecraft, Love. LP + 7" single, housed in a hard cardboard sleeve. Remastered sound. Insert with liner notes by Gray Newell and photos.

"On the cover: A comprehensive feature by music writer Shahlin Graves on why Japanese Breakfast's recent record For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) rules so hard, going in-depth on the meaning and gestation of many of its songs with band leader Michelle Zauner, author of Crying in H Mart. Also includes a bunch of really killer, exclusive photos lovingly accompanying the piece. An exceptional interview with Kai Slater, the super prolific, talented 20-year-old member of Lifeguard, about his terrific pure-pop-for-now-people solo project Sharp Pins by Sydney Salk. Includes amazing, lengthy oral history from the crew who worked behind the scenes on the 1981 Bronx-based cult horror flick Wolfen. This alone is probably worth the price of admission. A deliriously well-written tribute by noted music scribe and DJ Kurt Reighley to Gavin Friday, covering his entire career: from the Virgin Prunes through Hollywood collaborations, and his solo work today. Two separate charged and cantankerous interviews by Knoxville-based historian Eric Dawson, stitched together and serving as a swell tribute to the great Pere Ubu leader David Thomas (RIP). Ubu forever."

Color vinyl version. Originally released in 1975 during the so called "Italian Years Of Lead", Angoscia endorses all of the subliminal and controversial emotions of the time with a series of ethereal yet mysterious sketches. It is possibly one of the most intense and obscure release by famous Morricone alumni and collaborator Alessandroni. His guitar is the leading voice here, with several cloudy synth arpeggios, classical piano chords and solemn string sections. A dark feel surrounds the opera overall: a true gem ranked between the most confrontational of the Italian library genre.

British producer Shackleton has transformed Saagara's highly acclaimed 2024 album 3 into a haunting, dub-infused counterpart. What began as a remix request evolved into a full-length reinterpretation, where Saagara's intricate blend of South Indian percussion, jazz, and electronic elements enters a dark, atmospheric dialogue with Shackleton's shapeshifting soundscapes. The result is a captivating rework that stands beautifully alongside the original, subtly amplifying its drama while adding new layers of depth and mystery. 3 made itself right at home in the tak:til universe as soon as it was released to considerable acclaim, quickly becoming as much of a touchstone for the label's Fourth World aesthetic as Jon Hassell, 75 Dollar Bill, and Sirom. A mind-twisting conference of jazz clarinet and sax, Carnatic percussion from South India and the kind of minutely textured electronic music that doesn't mind if you sit down (but would definitely prefer you to dance), the band's first album for seven years was well worth waiting for. What had Wacław Zimpel been up to in the meantime? Those seven years appear to have been extremely well-spent. What's been picked up on the way? For one, the conviction that the studio is as much of an instrument as the clarinet, the sax and indeed the percussion and violin that Saagara's elite line-up of Giridhar Udupa, Aggu Baba, K Raja and Mysore N. Karthik have spent their whole lives mastering. And it's to the studio that 3 has been led once again, in the form of this brilliant set by a British experimental electronicist celebrated for his groundbreaking dubstep productions and, latterly, for his more ambient and minimalist work and a series of high-profile collaborations (Pinch, Six Organs of Admittance, Holy Tongue and, indeed, Wacław Zimpel). At every point as beautifully coiled and weighted as 3, it matches the original for drama, trades blows with it, squints at it, smiles at it, waves at it and just as often picks its pocket. There's a little more darkness in these versions, Lancashire rain rather more than the heat and dust of Southern India, perhaps; but it's recognizably an exchange of love and respect that will get owners of both records scuttling backwards and forwards between the two. Wacław's lovely description of 3 as "interstellar folk" places that record firmly within one of music's more fascinating recent currents: the meeting of electronics and global roots, often anchored by drone, a fascination with minimalism and the kind of progressive retrofuturism that always seems to emerge at times of crisis.

LP version. Sunflare color vinyl. "claire rousay's music cascades from a well of documented experience, reflections of the past that compose the present. A prolific multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer, rousay gracefully crafts boundaryless music. From her frequent and acclaimed collaborations with artists like M. Sage, more eaze, Gretchen Korsmo, Andrew Weathers, LEYA, and Alex Cunningham, to her film scoring like on The Bloody Lady. From her own compositions to her solo pop work, rousay's music is delicate yet powerful, carefully constructed with a casual intimacy. rousay collages a wealth of found sounds and field recordings with earthy strings, stately piano, and processed instrumentation, all of which trace the outlines of memories and distinct impressions and create a complex constellation of feeling. rousay's music has evolved from confessional to conversational and excavates the rich emotional essence of each passage. Her work as both archivist and adept arranger and orchestrator merge sublimely into deeply honest and engrossing music. On a little death, rousay's blend of pop sensibility and compositional acumen turn abstracted sounds into tangible feelings, its warm, glimmering glow coalescing sensually with the darkness. The process of composing a little death felt like a homecoming for rousay after the more pop-oriented song forms of 2024's sentiment. 'sentiment was a different way of working that helped refresh my music making habits and usual flow,' rousay notes. 'This record is a return to what I see as my core solo practice, a re-dedication to those methods of working which I've found most align with what I envision my music or sound to be.' Intended as a part of a trilogy along with a heavenly touch and a softer focus, the pieces on a little death sprout from a wellspring of tactile samples and granularly processed sounds. The use of sounds recorded from her life outside of the studio remains a throughline in her work. While the previous two albums used field recordings as the primary sound source or central figure in the compositions, here they act more as springboards, timbrally intertwining with live instruments like additional voices in a chamber ensemble."

"Pop at its most fragile, attenuated and surreal." --New York Times

"a fantastic tour de force -- a musical antidote to numbness." --Rolling Stone

"Originally released as an edition of 50 lathe-cut LPs housed in silk-screened jackets in 2020 (fast on the heels of What's Tonight To Eternity), Cat O' Nine Tails has long intrigued die-hard Cindy Lee fans with its combination of the classic songwriting that would dominate Diamond Jubilee a few years later and an actual suite of classical songs under the title itself. Opening with the gothic soap opera theme of 'Our Lady Of Sorrows' into the manic exploration of 'Cat O' Nine Tails,' onto the dusty western walk through Patrick Flegel's lovely guitar work on 'Faith Restored,' the album seems to soundtrack the coolest movie the late '60s ever produced. All of this builds to the lush and sweeping ballad of bruised hearts that introduces that beautiful voice via 'Love Remains.' Side two sees 2024 live show closer 'Cat O' Nine Tails III' complete the suite to epic effect, before introducing the absolute showstopper that is 'I Don't Want To Fall In Love Again.' It is tender and fragile in that way that only Flegel can make both familiar and unique. Closing with the ethereal soul shuffle stomp of 'Bondage Of The Mind,' the album showcases nine songs from an essential time in the Cindy Lee evolution. W.25TH/Superior Viaduct is proud to bring this collection to the larger audience it deserves."

Among the true Keiji Haino devotees, Nijiumu's Era of Sad Wings (released on P.S.F. in 1993) has always held a special place in the pantheon. Operating for only a few years in the early '90s and apparently only performing a handful of shows, Nijiumu operated at the opposite end of the dynamic spectrum to Haino's famed power trio Fushitsusha, dwelling in a hushed, meditative realm of mysterious droning sonorities and free-floating melodies that occasionally erupts into violence. Black Truffle now presents a new double-LP edition of a lesser-known 1994 Nijiumu recording, When I sing, I slip into the microphone. Into that void, I bring comrade "prayers", then, turning to face the outside, together we explode. Here, Nijiumu is the trio of Haino, Tetuzi Akiyama, and the obscure Takashi Matsuoka, the three performing on a wide variety of string, wind and percussion instruments, as well as electric guitar and bass, and Haino's unmistakable voice. Like on the early solo Haino album that shares the group's name, the instrumentation swims in reverb, often obscuring the instrumental sources. On the short opening piece, a distant reed instrument arcs long buzzing melodies over a bed of cymbals and gongs, like a psychedelic take on Tibetan music. The epic second part, occupying almost 50 minutes, begins as a splayed, near-formless cloud of electric guitar and bass, shadowed by bowed and plucked strings, the three elements working through twisting atonal shapes. At various points in the recording, we hear what seems to be the sounds of musicians moving between instruments, their shuffling and bumps fitting seamlessly into this radically open music. Eventually, what sounds like electric guitar moves closer to the foreground, fixing on a repeated melodic cell around which hover mysterious clouds of long tones and a sporadic shaker. In this new edition, the Nijiumu trio recording is supplemented by a piece recorded solo by Haino in 1973, a bracing electronic blowout stretching almost half an hour. Using a homemade electronics setup to unleash a barrage of crunching distortion and shuddering harmonic fuzz, it takes its place in the canon of extreme live electronics next to Robert Ashley's Wolfman and Walter Marchetti's Osmanthus fragrans, looking forward to extreme noise years before Merzbow. Taken as a whole, these four sides of music are a stunning document of some of the lesser-known waystations of Haino's singular creative path.

"Out of the roiling miasma of timeless time comes a long-promised delivery from one of the constants of this era: Major Stars, and their new LP, More Colors of Sound. Fueled by overdriven guitars and gut-punching rhythm, these veteran rockers are stalwart in their delivery of trippy, psyched-out extremes. Over the 27 years since The Rock Revival (their Twisted Village debut), they can be counted on to come back around every three or four years or so, with something heavy picked up on their journey. This time, it's been since 2019's Roots of Confusion Seeds of Joy -- but what's a few years in the larger scheme of things? It's been since the late '90s that Major Stars have been transmitting their signal. But even eternity wasn't built in such an arc of time: Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggar have been crossing necks dating back to the '80s, with Crystallized Movements' screaming psychpunk hybrids. Tom Leonard, Major Stars' current third axeman, has been in the mix almost as long: Luxurious Bags' amorphous low-fi was released on Twisted Village too, and Kate and Wayne and him all played together in Vermonster. The More Colors of Sound lineup is as-was for Roots of Confusion Seeds of Joy: Kate, Tom, Wayne, Dave Dougan on bass, Casey Keenan on drums and Noell Dorsey singing lead. More Colors of Sound had been earmarked as a title for nearly twenty years when they started work on the album that would finally bear its name. For the first ten Major Stars releases, Wayne wrote everything, but due to the way things were in 2020 and 2021, Tom and Noell wrote a bunch of things together, along with Wayne's stuff. By the time they got to Gloucester's Bang-A Song Studios, there was enough music for a double LP. As ever, the crush of the three guitars as they riff with the rhythm defines Major Stars' sound. The work of two writing camps has produced a song-centric focus on More Colors of Sound -- one, of course, shot through with distorted tones, fevered neck-wringing solos and several extended jammers -- but the production overall has a cleaner sound than its predecessor. On More Colors of Sound, Major Stars find new hues inside the incendiary approach that's launched them so ecstatically since early times; another jar of infinity captured with a quality all its own -- and it's all in the grooves!"

A Place In My Memory Is All I Have To Claim is the new album by Australian atmospheric pop trio Hydroplane, the storied "offshoot" formed by three quarters of independent pop group, The Cat's Miaow. On this, their first music after two decades plus of radio silence, Andrew Withycombe, Kerrie Bolton, and Bart Cummings return to the gentle, close-quarters musical world they shared around the turn of the century. Recorded during 2024 in Melbourne and Ballarat, A Place In My Memory picks up the thread Hydroplane set down with its precursor, 2001's The Sound Of Changing Places, though you can hear echoes of their other releases, too, with Withycombe noting a through-line from the group's 1998 "Failed Adventure" single. There's little quite like A Place In My Memory, then or now, though. Fellow travelers might include Empress, The Ah Club, and further back, Young Marble Giants, Veronique Vincent (the muffled, ticking drum machine also makes me think of Robin Gibb 's Robin's Reign). There's also an umbilical to the bedroom-crafted electronica doing the rounds in the late nineties and early noughties. Hydroplane hint at this through their approach to songwriting, which often builds creatively around loops as structural devices. Through all this, the trio achieve an effortless, organic weightlessness across these nine lovely songs. Many feature Bolton's clear singing voice, drifting along, while guitars, keyboards, drum machines and loops tickertape away. The constituent parts fit together, but they also have a curiously detached quality -- think of abstract cloud formations sharing the same sky. Hydroplane and The Cat's Miaow often dealt in emotional ambiguity and uncertainty, and the uncertainty of the nostalgic. This was always one of the most appealing facets of their music, and A Place In My Memory is thus named perfectly. A beautiful collection of drowsy, sleepy pop, humble and quiet, but resolute in its craft, A Place In My Memory Is All I Have To Claim is dream work in practice; a lovely reintroduction.

Pingipung introduces Iko Chérie, the experimental pop project of French multi-instrumentalist Marie Merlet. The 7" single Ghosted Ghosters of the Holy G features a hypnotic blend of dub-infused songwriting and blissful noise. On the flipside, French electro-dub visionaries Froid Dub unravel the track into a shadowy, slow- motion version, with a solid sub-bass, flickering delays and half-heard whispers.

Beyond rare British private press folk album from 1971. Charming atmosphere and dreamy twin female vocals, mixing traditional tunes with interesting covers and superb original songs featuring a slight psych/folk edge. Named after the fabled ghost ship, Wolverhampton folk group Marie Celeste left behind just one rare recording: the 1971 private-press album And Then Perhaps. Pressed in only 200 copies without a proper picture sleeve and recorded live in a single session, it has since become a collector's treasure -- a haunting message in a bottle from the British folk underground. Formed in the late '60s by childhood friends Brian Lindop (vocals, guitar) and Jon Tame (bass), the group evolved through several line-ups before settling with singers Glenys Jenkins and Mary Bishop, alongside young guitar prodigy Ken Price. Their harmonies, combined with Brian's evocative songwriting and Ken's dexterous playing, gave the band a distinct voice within the flourishing folk scene. The album blends five striking originals with inspired covers of Tom Paxton, Joni Mitchell, and traditional standards. Highlights include the pastoral title track "And Then Perhaps," the harmony-rich opener "Prisoner", and the lilting instrumental "A Slice of Peace". Critics at the time praised its warmth and quality despite its shoestring budget, with the Wolverhampton Express & Star calling it "a good album" that deserved wider attention. Though the band disbanded in early 1972, their swansong -- a support slot for Fairport Convention -- confirmed their talent. First ever band-sanctioned reissue. Newly vintage styled artwork in hard cardboard sleeve. 24-bit domain remastered sound. Insert with liner notes by Austin Matthews (Shindig!/Flashback) and photos.

2025 restock, on red vinyl. Fugazi's debut 7 song EP, originally released in 1988. Printed inner sleeve with lyrics. "This 12" EP was recut from the Silver Sonya masters in 2008 at Chicago Mastering Service."

LP version. Echo Beach presents: Don Letts: The Rebel Dread -- legendary film and video director, disc jockey and musician. Don Letts, in his capacity as a selector (it's not for nothing that he hosts his own show on BBC6 radio), enthusiastically accepted the invitation to create a compilation from Echo Beach's extensive catalog to mark its 30th anniversary. A splendid and crisp selection. Featuring Dubinator, Martha And The Muffins, Dubmones, Earl 16 & Oku Onuora, Dubblestandart, Dubxanne, Claire Parsons, Dub Stax, Don Letts Dub Cartel, Aaron, Dubblestandart, Marcia Griffiths, Toogah, Fila Brazillia, Ari Up, Lee Scratch Perry, Noiseshaper, Kid Loco, Soul Sugar, RSD, Ammoye, and Dub Spencer & Trance Hill.

"Tinariwen are the grandfathers of what is known today as Taureg guitar music. Started in refugee camps in Algeria and Libya in 1979, Tinariwen created a new sound of Taureg music that pushed the tradition into a new direction. Ahmoudou, Souleymane, and I all came to Tinariwen in different ways throughout our life and there is no doubt the importance the music has on all three of us. Just as much as Tinariwen pushed what Tuareg music is, that was the idea with TAKAAT is, to push the tradition even further, create something new, create something fresh that blends our love for bands like Tinariwen but also our love of heavier more chaotic bands. Is Noise Vol. 2 includes the TAKAAT versions of a couple of our favorite Tinariwen tunes. Unlike the original Tinariwen versions, these songs are unedited shredding jams recorded live to tape in Washington D.C. This is raw, this is noisy, this is TAKAAT." -- Mikey Coltun