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viewing 1 To 10 of 10 items
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LP
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VIA 011LP
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$27.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 7/4/2025
Meet Motherfuckers JMB & Co! J is for Jim, M is for Marc, B is for Brian. The trio's first full-length is a rocket of rhythm and atmosphere that fearlessly treks into vast sonic spaces. Drumbeats spread into constellations, bass pumps air into the sky, drones flare into clouds. Thick grooves drift in and out of focus, but there's always a central force to cling to as all the vapor-trails shoot past. Decades of musical archaeology lurk behind this rainbow-hued swirl of psych, drone, improvisation, and ritual. Brian Weitz (hurdy gurdy) has spent 25 years crafting sound as Geologist in the ground-breaking quartet Animal Collective. Jim Thomson (drums) has been in scores of bands, from helping found Richmond art-metal legends GWAR, to jamming instrumentals in SST alums Alter-Natives (a fitting forebear to JMB's vocal-less jaunts), to driving the spirited dance-punk of Time Is Fire. Marc Minsker (bass, guitar, harmonium) has made music since the early '90s, initially in Third Eye Lounge (who backed legendary improviser Eugene Chadbourne), and later in myriad partnerships around the mid-Atlantic region. The trio came together via old-fashioned community, in the always-fertile ground of the DC/Maryland/Virginia experimental scene. Recordings for Music Excitement Action Beauty took place in Tonal Park studios during a single afternoon, with "lights lowered and incense and candles lit," as Thomson describes. Weitz edited the resulting material after a three-month break, trimming down improvisations and reworking cut-out sections into seamless transitions. Music Excitement Action Beauty features seven cascading tracks that blend like ice cream flavors overfilling a cone. Throughout Music Excitement Action Beauty, there's a communal vibe -- not just from the friends-through-friends connections of JMB, but also the larger environments they've moved in for years. There's a "Co." at the end of their name for a reason, as if Music Excitement Action Beauty was made by three on behalf of many more. "Every group I've played with was usually organically formed and informed by the community and friendships in some ways," says Thomson. "I was very attracted to playing with Marc and Brian because of the promise of repetition, drone, and psychedelia, and it delivered in spades."
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LP
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VIA 010LP
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"This is an album made during a crucial period in South Africa's history during which there was a palpable feeling of a slow turning towards the collapse of the apartheid state side by side with an increasingly well-organized culture of resistance through the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and various affiliated bodies. However, as a result, there was increased pushback from the state security establishment, a turning to dirty tricks and the formation of hit squads whose members murdered and tortured many of our friends and created chaos throughout South Africa as well as neighboring countries. This album is situated in this political environment however it took advantage of the new do-it-yourself music technologies available at that time. Technologies that made it possible to make and release records without interference from traditional record company executives. Two musician friends of mine pooled their resources after their respective bands had broken up. Ivan Kadey (National Wake) and Lloyd Ross (Radio Rats) built an eight-track recording studio control room and fitted it out in a second-hand caravan and called it Shifty... All the work on this album was completed there, mainly after hours and mostly alone.... Influences of 1970s progressive/kraut/and psychedelic rock combined with mbaqanga bass styles, early reggae/dub and Indian tabla rhythms. Stockhausen, early Zappa and Holgar Czukay were radio text and shredding influences, and Chris Cutler's band Henry Cow & Art Bears helped me see a way to political expression. Mostly though was the exciting post-punk and no-wave music coming through to us from Europe and America: bands like This Heat, the Mekons, Raincoats, Sonic Youth, and Pere Ubu were immensely important to me.... Most important at that time was the influence of sound recordings I had made and experiences garnered from working as a sound recordist on documentary films. These financed my work and later the studio and were consistent employment throughout the 1980s. Film work also enabled me to experience much of South Africa that was hidden from most. The track 'Independence Day' is a good example; drawn from some time spent in the rural homeland of Venda. This then was the first full length Kalahari Surfers album -- completed in summer of 1984 it was taken to EMI pressing plant but rejected by the cutting engineer as being 'political, pornographic and anti-religious.' Chris Cutler at Recommended Records took up the challenge and released the album through his label. He wrote the original liner note." -- Warrick Sony, 2025 Johannesburg
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LP
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VIA 009LP
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"While there has been plenty of precedent, regarding Alvarius B's fascination with the down and out of Anglo/American cultural refuse, That's How I Got To Memphis is certainly his most realized collection of paying homage to it. The fact that this whole album is a collection of covers that have invaded AB's current musical obsessions is testament to the timeless nature of the original artists songwriting prowess. Imagine Joe Meek coming back from the dead to produce a country western and northern album by a Saginaw miscreant fried up in the Orman botanical gardens of Cairo Egypt. That this album could be a perfect soundtrack to a Paul Lynch sequel to his portrait of failed ambition masterpiece The Hard Part Begins is irrelevant, because it stands alone as a sequel to another AB masterpiece, Baroque Primitiva. That this album also highlights actual OUTSIDER artists from the halcyon days of holy, rebellious, loner losers should give hope, cuz outsider these days means you don't have a gmail account or Meta colonized brain. That's How I Got To Memphis is a superb collection of songs about longing, love lost and found, curios picked up and dropped off, tragedy and hope, confusion and epiphany while stumbling around through back roads to nowhere." --HM
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LP
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VIA 008LP
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Step into the enigmatic realm of Funeste Human Nature, an audacious collaboration between avant-garde luminaries Jac Berrocal, Pascal Comelade, and Vincent Epplay. In this mesmerizing sonic odyssey, the boundaries of experimental music are shattered as Berrocal's haunting trumpet, Comelade's whimsical piano, and Epplay's immersive soundscapes converge to create a kaleidoscope of textures and emotions. A journey through the depths of the human psyche, where surrealism meets primal instincts and the absurd dances with the profound. The trio's fearless exploration of sound, inviting listeners to unravel the mysteries of the human condition through an eclectic tapestry of sonic experimentation. From the eerie whispers of forgotten dreams to the jubilant cacophony of uninhibited joy, Funeste Human Nature is a testament to the boundless possibilities of artistic collaboration. Embrace the unexpected, embrace the sublime, and immerse yourself in the haunting beauty of this extraordinary musical venture. Pascal Comelade, born in Montpellier, France in 1955, is a prolific Catalan musician and composer known for his distinctive blend of minimalism, surrealism, and musical primitivism. Comelade's work is characterized by its eclectic influences, ranging from rock and folk to classical and avant-garde. He has collaborated with various artists, including PJ Harvey and Robert Wyatt. Jac Berrocal, born in 1946 in Saint-Jean d'Angély, France, is a pioneering avant-garde trumpeter and composer known for his fusion of jazz, rock, and experimental music. His career, which began in the early 1970s, is marked by innovative albums like Musiq Musik and extensive collaborations with artists from Nurse With Wound to Vince Taylor. Vincent Epplay, born in 1964 in France, is an innovative sound artist and musician known for his work in creating immersive audiovisual environments. His artistic approach often involves the manipulation of sound to explore its interaction with space and audience perception. Epplay's works are characterized by a keen interest in the experimental music tradition, incorporating elements of chance and the use of unconventional sound sources. He has collaborated extensively with other artists, including Jac Berrocal and David Fenech, contributing to a dynamic and exploratory sound art scene.
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LP
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VIA 007LP
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French chanson, noise, echoes of music from faraway and long ago, modified radio transistors and other old electronic gear, French song, noisemakers, rumors of ancient and distant music, handmade instruments, modified transistor radios and other old electronic objects, Bégayer is looking for a gesture for those without folklore, for the offspring of this culture of lack, born as much from the twilight of popular habitus as from noisemakers' howling, from village squares as from the swarming of digital streams, for an unprecedented kind of rapsod-aliens. The culture of lack can be seen as a cruel joy, an opportunity for communion between the staggering interpretation of ancient gestures and present-day attempts to construct unique variations and overflows. In this way, each stuttering chant seeks to be a restless and joyful object, whose obstinacy and cruel simplicity offer themselves as manifest objects of agitation, as distances to be encountered, as studies that look towards us. Évohé Bègue moves towards an open, highly improvised composition, somewhere between the patterns of Morton Feldman, the Nigerian Ogene orchestral bands, the post-punk pleas of New York no-wave, the laughing insolence of northern Italian folk music, the ritual yodelling of the monks of Java, contemporary poetry, and improvised music.
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2LP
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VIA 006LP
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Originally in 1999 on CD by Third Eye Music. The second part of the famous collaboration between two UK based electronic pioneers: John Bolloten aka The Rootsman and Bryn Jones aka Muslimgauze. For this album the original The Rootsman material from his albums Into The Light and 52 Days to Timbuktu was remixed and deconstructed by Muslimgauze. As always with Bryn Jones, all material is inspired by Arab culture. You hear distorted dub rhythms, sawn-off loops, traditional music, male and female voices and then distorted rhythms again. Closing your eyes, you can find yourself in the middle of an Eastern city, walk along its noisy streets, admire the ancient architecture. This noise can tell amazing stories. First vinyl edition.
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2LP
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VIA 005LP
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The first vinyl issue of original material previously published in 1997 on CD by Third Eye Music (The Rootsman's own CD imprint). The second collaboration between Muslimgauze and The Rootsman following the Amahar release (VIA 001LP). Arguably one of the highpoints from both these UK sonic pioneers (John Bolotten, aka The Rootmsan, and Bryn Jones, aka Muslimgauze). Double album housed in a sleeve designed by Oleg Galay. Limited edition vinyl pressing. Includes insert.
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CD
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VIA 004CD
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Catalina Matorral is a duo; Marion Cousin and Borja Flames make up its double head and four hands. At the beginning of the 2010s, they were called June et Jim -- they released some disturbing EPs before joining the label Le Saule (a small, chivalrous table whose holy grail is everything unheard, where folk-singing is avant-garde and avant-garde is synonymous with enchantment). Their first LP, Les Forts (2012), evoked the songwriting of indie-hobos inspired by Latin America, contributing to the rejuvenation of French music. Noche Primera (2013) went even further by vibrating in various reveries, from African songs to Spanish medieval music, from Purcell to Bach. It blew hot and cold under a psychedelic candlelight. The record in question has been maturing for seven years in eccentric barrels, marinating in the shadow of Marion and Borja's respective evolutions, nourished by their individual obsessions. Marion fixated on songs and dances from the Iberian Peninsula. This gave birth to a minimalistic, organic record featuring the cellist Gaspar Claus, where humming trembles among frowning pizzicatos, thin drones and throbbing arpeggios. She went on to release another album with the electronic duo Kaumwald, an oeuvre at the crossroads of vernacular narratives and experimental music, simmering everyday songs in an insolently modern production. Meanwhile, Borja leaned towards an intellectual, synthetic and furious pop; made two albums to awaken the dead, somewhere between Moondog and Battiato. They are two conceptual, electrifying and dance-inducing recordings for the phosphorescent masses.
...chimeric narration, heady verses, pop fragments, horizontal synths, distorted technologies. One would think they're listening to an opera composed by Robert Ashley or Laurie Anderson, based on an improbable libretto written by anthropologist Jeanne Favret-Saada, and performed by holograms of Brigitte Fontaine and Areski -- who unexpectedly regurgitate bits of blunt folk, binary jazz, baroque songs and ghostly madrigals. Micro-events, great enchantments. This record was written and recorded by two people, tinkering feverishly for seven years. It was blessed with the furtive appearances of faithful friends: Gaspar Claus played the cello; Igor Estrabol the clarinet, trumpet and flugelhorn; Renaud Cousin the drums; Ernest Bergez played the violin and whimsically mixed the tracks like a bonesetter-scientist. At the crossroads of worlds, eras and moods, Catalina Matorral invents a curiously rural science fiction that confounds poetry with white magic and puts French music in a permanent tension between the cosmos and manure...
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LP
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VIA 004LP
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LP version. Catalina Matorral is a duo; Marion Cousin and Borja Flames make up its double head and four hands. At the beginning of the 2010s, they were called June et Jim -- they released some disturbing EPs before joining the label Le Saule (a small, chivalrous table whose holy grail is everything unheard, where folk-singing is avant-garde and avant-garde is synonymous with enchantment). Their first LP, Les Forts (2012), evoked the songwriting of indie-hobos inspired by Latin America, contributing to the rejuvenation of French music. Noche Primera (2013) went even further by vibrating in various reveries, from African songs to Spanish medieval music, from Purcell to Bach. It blew hot and cold under a psychedelic candlelight. The record in question has been maturing for seven years in eccentric barrels, marinating in the shadow of Marion and Borja's respective evolutions, nourished by their individual obsessions. Marion fixated on songs and dances from the Iberian Peninsula. This gave birth to a minimalistic, organic record featuring the cellist Gaspar Claus, where humming trembles among frowning pizzicatos, thin drones and throbbing arpeggios. She went on to release another album with the electronic duo Kaumwald, an oeuvre at the crossroads of vernacular narratives and experimental music, simmering everyday songs in an insolently modern production. Meanwhile, Borja leaned towards an intellectual, synthetic and furious pop; made two albums to awaken the dead, somewhere between Moondog and Battiato. They are two conceptual, electrifying and dance-inducing recordings for the phosphorescent masses.
...chimeric narration, heady verses, pop fragments, horizontal synths, distorted technologies. One would think they're listening to an opera composed by Robert Ashley or Laurie Anderson, based on an improbable libretto written by anthropologist Jeanne Favret-Saada, and performed by holograms of Brigitte Fontaine and Areski -- who unexpectedly regurgitate bits of blunt folk, binary jazz, baroque songs and ghostly madrigals. Micro-events, great enchantments. This record was written and recorded by two people, tinkering feverishly for seven years. It was blessed with the furtive appearances of faithful friends: Gaspar Claus played the cello; Igor Estrabol the clarinet, trumpet and flugelhorn; Renaud Cousin the drums; Ernest Bergez played the violin and whimsically mixed the tracks like a bonesetter-scientist. At the crossroads of worlds, eras and moods, Catalina Matorral invents a curiously rural science fiction that confounds poetry with white magic and puts French music in a permanent tension between the cosmos and manure...
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LP
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VIA 003LP
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Recorded by Charles Duvelle in 2001 in Mostaganem (Algeria). This version of the 'imâra starts with the qahili introduction in the form of a prayer to the prophet, then the tawhid (the affirmation of divine unicity) : "lâ illâha illah llah". This same dikhr (psalmody) quickens its pace, at first very slowly, then more and more rapid until the name of Allah is repeated to a binary rhythm. The fuqâra will shortly retain only hu (from Allahu) as it is gradually imposed by the qutb (the pole). The hu is transformed by this special 'imâra alchemy into the unique breath of the spirant hamza (the sound emission technique is purely abdominal), and then, when the qutb claps his hands, it becomes more and more prominent. Associated with the name of Allah, the hu asserts itself by accelerating and quickening the pace to the point of metamorphosing itself into hamza. The balance between the soloist who sings the mystical poems and the rest of the assembly is progressively established, and then the acceleration of the hamza finally throws the participants into the abyss of ecstasy. White vinyl.
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