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2LP
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12XU 165LP
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"Water Damage is ten people from one town and one sound from twelve people. For Instruments, the plus two are guitarist David Grubbs and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, neither of whom blunt the angle or confound the aim. The tempo? Slow and low. Four tracks, averaging twenty minutes each, the pace never above a comfortable walk. The damage creeps, a forest becomes a mountain, and the faithful move forward. The album is named after Fugazi, in a manner, and 'Reel 25' takes after the Shocklee Brothers, in a cry. Stop asking the lord how many drummers this band has and ask him how much of your mind, babe. Some people say drone and same people say trance and some people say invocation through patterned unity. Some people just say rock and we let them set their clocks back. Lie down and let these holy treads flatten you. Just because Water Damage know what they are doing doesn't mean you have to. Fix your hearts or die!" -- Sasha Frere-Jones
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LP
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ACOLOUR 052LP
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Annie A, the one-off collaborative project between Félicia Atkinson, Time is Away, Christina Petrie, and Maxine Funke, arrives on A Colourful Storm with an inquisitive, exploratory composition evoking questions of inconstancy and reconciliation, vastness and finitude and the sometimes-cruel deception of human perception. It is a geographically diverse yet like-minded ensemble whose seeds were sown during an A Colourful Storm show in London, where time on stage was shared by Atkinson, Time is Away and Petrie. Atkinson had previously found solace in Time is Away's Ballads, Funke's Seance, and particularly the voice of poet Petrie, whose delivery drifts from a wide-eyed stream of consciousness to crystalline sensory expression. It is the perfect accompaniment to Atkinson's hushed tones, spoken sensitively like a mother to a resting child. Atkinson's evocative sonic landscapes are formed from keyboard, voice and organic materials collected from life on the dramatic coast of Normandy, as well as field recordings from places far and wide. She breathes life into liminal spaces, the sound of wind, whispers and the distant clatter of rocks conjuring visions of places both beautiful and eerily familiar. Time is Away delicately arranges the field of sounds, their weaving and layering likened to the assembly of an Anni Albers textile. The spirit of Albers guides the piece, Petrie's recounting of her loom and thread a symbol of her endurance, vitality and seeking wonder in intricacies. The piece also features an exclusive concluding track by Maxine Funke, whose meditation on vulnerability confronts and surrenders herself to the enchanting natural world.
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ASM 008LP
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Perila returns with a contemplative spiritual successor to her album 7.37/2.11, which was also released on Vaagner's sister label A Sunken Mall back in 2022. Featuring a collection of eight pieces produced between 2021 and 2023, the album carries a serene vulnerability that underpins each work, drawing the listener in while gently grounding them amidst a drifting, ephemeral motion of echoing voices, droning guitars and sonorous soundscapes. Like a whispered conversation in the quiet moments of the day. Perila has once again created a world unto itself, one that doesn't need to be understood but simply felt. If anything, it's an album that brings listeners back to the present, reminding them that the chaotic disarray of the world outside can be addressed and mitigated through their internal landscape. By embracing imperfection and forging new paths, The Air Outside Feels Crazy Right Now is a testament towards Perila's ability to turn fragility into a powerful form of strength.
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ZORN 107LP
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Japanese free jazz legend Akira Sakata and Greek avant-garde guitarist Giotis Damianidis present Adyton, their first-ever duo recording. Having collaborated since 2018, the two musicians have developed an intuitive and electrifying musical dialogue, culminating in this live performance at Haekem, Brussels -- the final concert of a two-week tour with Entasis in September 2023. Sakata, who turned 80 on February 21st, 2024, delivers his signature fiery alto saxophone, evocative clarinet, expressive voice, and resonant bells, while Damianidis expands the sonic spectrum with textural guitar and effects, weaving a dynamic interplay between structure and chaos. Titled after the "Adyton" - the innermost, most sacred part of an ancient temple -- this album invites listeners into a raw, unfiltered space of musical exploration, where spontaneous energy and deep-rooted tradition converge. A testament to Sakata's lifelong commitment to improvisation and Damianidis' boundary-pushing approach to guitar, Adyton is a powerful, transcendental journey into the unknown. Edition of 200.
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2CD
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ZORN 112CD
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The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves Mind Body Deal exhibition at the Institute Of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and now a working group. Across two discs of long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts and Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by the Cecil Taylor Unit and Ornette Coleman's Golden Circle Band (expanded upon in later eras by Sam Rivers' trio and Parker's collective trios with Charles Gayle/Graves and Peter Brötzmann/Hamid Drake) into their own unique and scintillating realms of expression. As we tumble further into the throes of history's tides, people of hope and creativity rely on the works of our great artists to lift our spirits and focus our resolve. Ascension was recorded less than a year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and four months after the assassination of Malcolm X. Journey in Satchidananda was recorded the month Reagan was re-elected governor of California. M'Boom made its debut recording weeks after the Watergate scandal broke and a couple months after the Wounded Knee occupation ended. The music of The Ancients builds on these great musical legacies. It resounds with the pride of survival and the joys of making and sharing music. It delivers to us hope and balm. Something real in you, real in history, and real in the music is shared, right on time. When Eremite records commenced operations during the 1990s free jazz resurgence, heavyweight freedom-seeking tenor saxophonists such as Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Charles Gayle, Kidd Jordan, and David S. Ware were at the height of their powers. Isaiah Collier's tenor playing in The Ancients is bracing testimony that the wellspring lives on. To hear the young Chicago firebrand blowing freely with veteran improvisers in an entirely open-form group music is a revelatory study of his vast talent, personal voice, and the intensity of his expression -- as well as a bold complement to his composition-based albums as a bandleader (including The Almighty, a New York Times' best albums of 2024 selection). I've admired drummer William Hooker since first encountering his music in a Hartford, CT, city park, early '90s (on a double bill with Jerry González and Fort Apache Band). From the man himself right off the bandstand I bought his even-then rare first recording, the 1976 self-released 2LP opus Is Eternal Life (reissued 2019 by Superior Viaduct). An imposing force on his instrument and an intrepid DIY cat, Hooker's been exuberantly swinging in-and-out of free time for 50+ years. Informed by the innovations of Sunny Murray and Tony Williams yet entirely himself, there is no other term for it than "pure Hooker." At age 78, with the Ancients and everywhere else, THE HOOK is in peak form. With a discography approaching 600 entries and 50+ years working across the musical maps, including in the history-defining bands of Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Peter Brötzmann, in his own wondrous ensembles from small group to orchestra to opera, a bastion of compassionate leadership and a poetic champion of his musical community, in tireless service to what he rather egolessly refers to as "the tone world," multi-instrumentalist, improviser and composer William Parker is a living hero of the grassroots and the Black Mystery Musics, not to mention one of the great bassists in the history of jazz. To quote George Clinton, conquering the stumbling blocks comes easier when the conqueror is in tune with the infinite. Free jazz is an enduring high art. Its greatest expressions belong to their particular moment in history, and live on to transcend and refract in amaranthine ways. Inside our present historical moment, we are fortunate to have the master musicians in the ancients bringing us their high-level creation. Live to 2-track concert recordings by Bryce Gonzales, Highland Dynamics. Mastered by Joe Lizzi, Queens, NY. Album and concerts co-produced with The Black Editions Group.
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LP
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AVM 078LP
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Re:Polyism is a track-by-track reinterpretation of Friedrich "Fritz" Brückner's 2022 debut solo album as Modus Pitch, Polyism (AVM 074LP, 2023), through artists affiliated with Altin Village & Mine and/or former collaborators of the prolific Leipzig-based musician and producer. Each track from Polyism has been remixed or reworked by different artists such as Modeselektor, Angel Bat Dawid, Maya Shenfield, or Mouse on Mars member and HJirok producer Andi Toma, but the album -- mastered by Tim Roth a.k.a. Sin Maldita and released as a strictly limited vinyl LP with reimagined artwork by Carmen Orschinski -- follows the original record's tracklist. This makes Re:Polyism a veritable musical prism, refracting the creativity inherent to Brückner's genre-transcending original works through other people's artistic lenses to create an even more colorful end result. First off are the Gebrüder Teichmann with their take on opener "Drive," carefully adding more depth and uncanny sounds to the jazzy, drum-focused piece. Unsurprisingly, Modeselektor go a lot further with their remix "Rainbow," turning the two-minute track into a dubstep-adjacent banger with infectious synth work that is twice as long and comes with a mind-melting breakdown. With their take on "Hilltop Jacuzzi," Peaking Lights turn the blissful original into a piece that calls to mind experiments at the intersection of dub, ambient, and industrial music in the mid-1990s. Cloud Management radically transform the eerie "Compound Eye Dialogue" into a rhythmically charged mid-tempo post-krautrock epic, while the Seekers International's "Jelly Roll Dub" of "Gelée Royale" uses the original's lush textures to turn up the intensity even further. On the flipside, Andi Thoma gives the intricate synth pop/breakcore fusion of "Suspender" a similarly dubwise treatment before venturing into gqom territory. Maya Shenfeld then brings her trademark modular synth work to "Outer Veil," accentuating the focus on Hendrik Otremba's uncanny spoken word performance even further. This sets the mood perfectly for vocal experimentalist Agnese Menguzzato working her singular magic. Under her hands and with her voice, the multi-layered ambient soundscapes of "Lava Fans" become even larger-than-life-like than before. When Angel Bat Dawid takes the menacing drones of "Iridescent Path" as a template for a trap-inspired beat over which she lets loose on the clarinet, that serves as both the ultimate counterpoint and perfect coda to Re:Polyism. These nine reinterpretations of the highly diverse source material underline Brückner's singular approach to music-making while also emphasizing their makers' idiosyncratic talents.
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2LP
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ANS 7000LP
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After a two-year hiatus following his critically acclaimed fifth album Orbs, Anthony Naples returns with his sixth album, Scanners, featuring ten new songs.
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LP
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AR 058LP
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"In May 2024, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, where I was born and have lived all my life, faced the worst climate catastrophe in its history. After weeks of relentless, torrential rain, its rivers overflowed, flooding much of the region. Entire cities were submerged. More than 170 people lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands of animals perished. Amid this dystopian and desperate situation, Flux was composed and recorded in about a week. Initially, the album was created solely as an exercise to maintain my mental health. But when I finished it, I realized that it had become a kind of 'sound portrait' of this dark moment -- days filled with pain and suffering. Yet it was also a meditation on the ephemerality and fragility of life, and the struggle to survive."
All music composed and performed by Carlos Ferreira using electric guitars, ppooll, sampling, piano, synthesizers and FX pedals. Cover layout and design by Sergio Vidal. Photos by Leo Caobelli.
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2LP
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B 181LP
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Warehouse find, last copies. "Vocalist Damo Suzuki's departure from Can in 1973 had forced the band to re-evaluate their sound. Now with Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt sharing vocal duties, the band had also begun drawing on influences from disco and glam. While still remaining staunchly outside the mainstream, they undoubtedly became more accessible to a wider audience, and soon had a huge fan base in the UK. In fact, just a few months after playing the live show found on this double LP (recorded in Lyon in January of 1976), Can was even on Top of the Pops!" Double 140 gram clear vinyl with multicolored labels in a PVC sleeve."
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CD
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BCD 17750CD
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"With Etta James, Bear Family Records finally dedicates itself to the most rocking recordings of one of the most important and successful Afro-American singers of her time! She was equally at home in R&B, jump, doo-wop, hard blues, languorous ballads and hot soul. Bill Dahl has written the detailed and exciting liner notes. The extensive booklet contains many photos and illustrations. Feisty from day one, Etta James amassed an incredible musical legacy by refusing to limit her vocal exploits to one genre. Jumping R&B, doo-woppish ballads, tough blues, smoldering torch ballads, sizzling soul -- Miss Peaches did it all during her primordial days in the studio. Etta James Rocks takes an in-depth gander at James' early years of rocking and rolling with 29 well-selected tracks from the Modern/Kent and Chess/Argo archives. Naturally, her 1955 debut R&B chart-topper 'The Wallflower' -- a sassy response to The Midnighters' 'Work With Me Annie' -- is here, along with the encore 'Hey! Henry,' her second Modern hit 'Good Rockin' Daddy,' and the New Orleans-cut scorcher 'Tough Lover,' complete with a two-chorus Lee Allen sax solo (her Crescent City remake of 'The Wallflower' is also aboard, retitled 'Dance With Me Henry'). When Etta shifted her recording home from Los Angeles to Chicago-based Chess at the dawn of the '60s, she engaged in more rocking alongside her smoldering balladry, often with a soul-steeped edge: 'Seven Day Fool,' the charming girl group-oriented 'Pushover,' and 'Next Door To The Blues' are splendid examples. Her snarling violin-enriched reprise of Willie Dixon's 'I Just Want To Make Love To You' reset the song's parameters (ditto her duet rendition of 'Spoonful' with her beau of the moment, Moonglows founder Harvey Fuqua). Add two selections from her seminal album Etta James Rocks The House, done in late '63 at Nashville's New Era Club, and you know beyond all doubt that Etta James Rocks!"
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BB 480CD
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Hamburg's kosmische custodians at Bureau B welcome legendary synth maestro Peter Baumann back into the studio for his first solo album since Machines Of Desire (BB 234CD, 2016). A defining force in the Berlin School of electronic music, both as a member of Tangerine Dream in their most essential era, and as a solo artist, Baumann has always bridged the cerebral and the cinematic. With Nightfall, he embarks on another sonic odyssey, crafting an atmospheric album steeped in mystery and evocative storytelling. "Baumann's artistic vision has long been shaped by his exploration of the human condition. From his pioneering work with Tangerine Dream to his influential New Age imprint, Private Music, and his philosophical pursuits through the Baumann Foundation, his creativity and curiosity remain undiminished. Nightfall is the latest chapter in his five-decade journey -- an deeply emotional album that embraces impermanence to transport the listener into a series of shapeshifting soundscapes? The misty melancholia of opener 'No One Knows' pairs hypnotic woodblock rhythms with desert guitars, while 'Lost In A Pale Blue Sky' floats through celestial choirs and rolling timpani, evoking dreamlike introspection. Elsewhere, 'On The Long Road' pulses with insect-like percussion and serrated synth tones, exuding a ritualistic energy. Tracks like 'A World Apart' and 'From A Far Land' build tension through cascading melodies and rhythmic precision, evoking distant horizons and uncharted territories. 'Sailing Past Midnight' melds bass mallets with feedback-laden synths, conjuring a sense of movement and urgency, while 'I'm Sitting Here, Just For A While' layers snaking saxophones and hand percussion into a mystical, arcane soundscape. The album closes with the title track, 'Nightfall,' a deeply atmospheric piece wrapped in choral textures and shadowy undertones? From the very beginnings of his career, Peter Baumann has infused his work with a sense of the beyond and Nightfall is no exception. Each track invites the listener to interpret, to feel, and to immerse themselves in its crepuscular beauty? With Nightfall, the composer has created a shimmering doorway, just waiting for you to step through." --Patrick Ryder
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BB 481CD
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With his first full-length album Ruinenkampf, released via Hamburg based label Bureau B, Das Kinn embarks on a musical tour de force through the ruins of time. An electronic armada and kickbox phonetics lead listeners through haunting soundscapes somewhere between DAF, Kosmische Kuriere, and Frankfurt Bahnhofsviertel. Beats on full blast. Bones rattle. Warm synthlines played by cold hands. A saxophone ponders the after. Hymns for the demolition. Sonic meditations on decay. Music for the solemn decline.
"Toben Piel likes to visit cemeteries. In those places of peace and idyll he finds the distance to contemplate transience and consider the hereafter as a concrete location. His debut album Ruinenkampf comes from the same mindset -- distancing himself just enough to get straight to the point with a running start. It certainly doesn't sound anything like peace and idyll. It has more to do with the cassette scene, the 1980s, with staccato vocals, and synths somewhere between DAF and Kosmische Kuriere. Underground aesthetics. Torrents of melody, sophistication, constantly oscillating between anthem and demolition. And the crass power of that voice! These are eight pieces of intensive listening, always right on the mark. So how does it work? How can anybody create something like that? Well, this man in his forties from Frankfurt, still young at heart and ever hungry, has substantial experience: first with Antitainment (2005-2010), then together with the magnificent Charlotte Simon in Les Trucs, through his cassette label MMODEMM, and also as a musician on various theatre stages. Yet with Das Kinn he feels that he has now finally created music with a true sense of self-liberation." --Hendrik Otremba
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7"
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DKR 193EP
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2025 repress. "At long last, our unofficial companion piece to 'Rocks & Mountains' sees the light of day. Another mystical dubplate tune by an unknown artist, 'Warrior' developed a reputation among the most dedicated students of dubplates. The mysterious artist credit comes from a master tape box labeled with several Sly & Robbie dubplate tunes, in fact the very same tape which yielded our 'Rocks & Mountains' master! However, part of the tape had been erased and re-used, so only a few seconds of the tune remained! It was heartbreaking, but enough to keep us hunting for the tune. It's now a few years after that near miss, and we finally secured a crisp master to bring this tune out. Hard, minimal, dubplate style roots from Sly & Robbie at Channel 1. Ciddy Bop, who are you?"
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2LP
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DKR 286LP
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2025 repress. "This compilation is dedicated to the memory of the late great 'Prince' Philip Smart -- the first apprentice of King Tubby and the first engineer at Tubby's studio besides Tubby himself. Alongside Tubby, Philip was integral to the innovation that took place at Tubby's studio in the mid-1970s, where the mixing of new roots reggae revolutionized the sound of Jamaican music and created styles and techniques that are still being echoed today, nearly 50 years later. Though rarely credited on records in comparison to Tubby, Philip also mixed a lot of the paramount music produced by those close associates of Tubby's studio such as Bunny Lee, Yabby You, and Augustus Pablo. Philip was closely tied to Pablo due to their childhood friendship and was a partner in his stylistically significant early production works. In the early years of Tubby's studio, both men were making and cutting custom dubs there for their sound systems before starting to produce their own tunes from scratch, and Philip becoming the second chair engineer. Several of the songs on this compilation are a selection of the aforementioned work. All of the songs here are sourced from Philip's personal tape archive, and basically all of these mixes and versions have been scarcely if ever heard, and never released before. This double album comprises a rare and genuine glimpse into the dubplate workings of the inner circle of Tubby's studio in the mid-1970s, where the prime players and emerging giants of reggae music production and sound system versioned, remixed and voiced rhythms for custom and exclusive cuts. Some of the cuts heard here were formerly exclusive power plays on King Tubby's own legendary sound system, and unlike some previous issues of such material, these are genuine mixes done at the time. Some other tracks clearly exude the youthful enthusiasm of the participants. Rest in power Prince Philip Smart." --RB/DKR, Summer 2023
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LP
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DC 282LP
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2025 repress; LP version. "This is the first Six Organs of Admittance record to be recorded in a studio. No computers were harmed (or used) during the making of this record. Free-jazz sensation Chris Corsano contributes drums with the greatest sympathy. It's a fantastic new album, as just a fraction of a listen will reveal. The highly prolific Six Organs of Admittance returns with a sixth or seventh album, School of the Flower."
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2LP
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DC 701LP
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2025 repress. "In 1987, Rafael Toral began making his own compositions and solo recordings. 30 years later, these recordings sound remarkably prescient and perfectly timeless -- almost fresher today than when they were first released. Rafael has spent the time since then developing his conceptions, with continued explorations in the many records that have followed. On the 30th anniversary of his start, we are reissuing Sound Mind Sound Body and Wave Field, his first two long out-of-print albums, on vinyl for the first time. Sound Mind Sound Body was partly inspired by exploring some of the working principles of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, extrapolated by Rafael via a unique signal path leading out of his guitar. He paid notice to the massive impact of discreet gestures, creating slow-moving tones and spacious orchestral resonances, drifting and droning with glacial majesty, hardly recognizable as guitar much of the time. The first of these pieces were recorded in 1987, and in 1994, they were released on Portugal's AnAnAnA, with material evolved in the years between, producing a remarkable equilibrium over an hour's listening. Further evidence of the necessity for gradual development exists in subsequent reissues: for the 1998 Moikai reissue, AE 1 was recorded, and for this edition, AER 7 E was rerecorded and the material for AE 2 was recorded for the first time ever -- all from original processes as noted, and none of which will cause the listener to notice a change in the otherworldly atmosphere. Wave Field, released in 1995, was a departure from the first album into new composition methods involving the dirty textures of rock guitar, sounding in the open ears of many listeners (like Jim O'Rourke, who issued the disc in the US on dexter's cigar) as a synthesis of disparate elements -- a nexus where Alvin Lucier, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Eno blend together. Here, the clangorous potential of the guitar was emphasized, giving a metallic edge to the two extended pieces and 'radio edit' coda. The jacket paid subtle tribute to My Bloody Valentine, which, along with the radio edit, suggested a harmony between musical directions as wildly disparate as minimalist experimental and rock. Today, such a paradoxical intent is more widely considered as a part of the artist's purview. This allows the sounds of Wave Field and Sound Mind Sound Body to sit perfectly among the forward-reaching music of today -- as it continues to evolve in our ears, moving ever towards the next conception of listening space."
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EMEGO 317LP
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Rivet's new album for Editions Mego is an uplifting and joyous affair coming in the wake of tragedy and disenchantment. It is yet another rebirth from an artist willing to take a step back and reprise the current situation he is in. Mika Hallbäck has a long credible history in the Swedish underground. First recognized for his industrial techno works under the Grovskopa moniker he worked privately on more experimental works that eventually came out as On Feather and Wire, an album released on Editions Mego in 2020. After much acclaim for this bold new direction that blended electronic abstraction, pop and industrial forms into a heavy synthetic trip two tragedies struck. One was the passing of label boss Peter Rehberg and then the passing of his dog Lilo, who was as close as a companion one could have. Peck Glamour sees Rivet return to the reawakened Editions Mego with an album of optimism inspired by reconciliation with loss and further explorations of new mental/sonic realms. Hallbäck defines his approach as not being married to any particular machine, instrument, process or genre. However, he holds a particular affinity to sampling, of which, he says, provides the dirt and grit amongst what would otherwise be pristine, generic machine music. Peck Glamour is an album full of tracks brimming with the excitement of exploration. It's the results of a mind informed by punk, industrial, techno, dancefloor, disappointment, trauma and rebirth. Here the synthetic and authentic is viewed simply as the same means of human rationale and expression. The entire trip of Peck Glamour is sewn up with "We left before we came" whereby extraneous recordings of double bass player Gregory Vartian-Foss (tuning/strumming/moving the bass) are superimposed with local field recordings to create a gorgeous bed of sounds acting as an exciting exit music to this sharp collection of cinematic ear excursions.
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EMEGO 318LP
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Hüma Utku returns to Editions Mego with her new album. The title Dracones makes reference to the mediaeval Latin term "Hic sunt dracones" (Here be dragons), marking the unexplored, dangerous places on world maps, expressing the fear of chaos, the unexpected and the unknown. This new work by the Istanbul sound artist is a sonic journal of an expedition into uncharted territory, one which occupies self and domesticity. Inspired by Utku's experience of matrescence, Dracones explores the themes of familial demonology, metamorphosis and homecoming as well as human relationship to the experience of love woven layers of euphoria, alienation and consumption. Musically, Dracones traverses a wide array of sonic tools whereby industrial sounds are imbedded with certain psychological angles; this is an album where, all matter meshes into a sly snapshot of the human experience with a tension and release exposure occurring frequently with dark corners opening up to bright layers of electronic experimentation. The haunting opening track "A World Between Worlds" tackles pregnancy, of which Utku was experiencing when making this record. This track features the "Lyraei," an electromagnetic string instrument and modern interpretation of the ancient lyre, that was built and played by Mihalis Shammas. Dracones is a deeply visual journey through inner and outer worlds, a space where symbolic evocation is supreme and passive listening is not an option. All tracks composed, performed and recorded by Hüma Utku. Mixed by Enyang Urbiks. Mastered by Heba Kadry. Cover artwork by Marco Ciceri. Design by Tina Frank.
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7"
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EFFICIENT 045EP
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Efficient Space charts Ghost Riders' North American roadmap, crashing into 1973 New York to ignite the unfiltered teen dreams of Dennis Harte. In the late '60s, 11-year-old prodigy Dennis Harte was handed a Sears-bought Silvertone 1448, its in-case amplifier primed for street-level incantations. Recruiting two neighborhood friends, the trio hammered out raw rhythms, drawing in Brooklyn's wandering bohemians, keen to glimpse a prepubescent Alex Chilton in the making. Also jamming with his older brothers, Bart and John, a family friend introduced the siblings to budding music exec Carl Edelson, who had spent the better part of two decades hustling through a string of local labels. A father figure of sorts, Edelson backed them immediately, facilitating sessions at the famed A-1 Sound Studios and Sanders Recording Studio and pressing four 7"s on his newly minted Roundtable Records. To maximize his chances of courting major labels, he strategically assigned each release a different artist name -- Dennis Harte, Pure Madness, Harte Brothers and the wryly titled Harte Attack. Dennis' emotional maturity and sheer talent bleed into the defining "Summer's Over," penned by Edelson and once recorded by mid-'60s New Jersey garage vocal group The Wouldsmen. Morphing into an unfathomably teenage, blue-eyed soul/psych lament, it aches for a season slipping away forever. Its Harte Attack edition counterpart -- the candied ballad "Running Thru My Mind" -- delivers unison harmonies and kinetic guitar interplay with a streetwise punch, channeling the spirit of NYC-area icons The Rascals, The Lovin' Spoonful, and The Youngbloods. Roaring like the Spencer Davis Group, Pure Madness' organ-driven bruiser "Freedom Rides" screams of biker gangs, yet its true subject -- '60s civil rights activists the Freedom Riders -- looms as another towering theme for an adolescent perspective. Meanwhile, the loose, bluesy ruckus "Treat Me Like a Man" digs back into Edelson's catalogue, covering the Beatles-inflected Levittown group The Shandels. Though Dennis later found success touring with Wilson Pickett and now doubles as a piano tuner to the stars, these four snapshots frame ambition on its outer edge -- a heartfelt homage to an unbreakable brotherhood.
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EPR 080CD
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Causa Sui return with the perfect companion to From The Source (EPR 076CD, 2024). Whereas that record was a tightly structured piece of work, that condensed many aspects of the band's sound into a concise 45-minute LP, In Flux presents the more loose and impulsive side of Causa Sui. After an introductory suite in classic Causa Sui territory, with deep fuzz riffs and syncopated grooves, things gradually become more outlandish. The band channels Hot Rats-style jazz fusion, the oceanic post-rock of late-period Talk Talk, and the impulsive, anarchic experimentalism of Can's Tago Mago into their own beatific brew. On "Spree," the band abandons guitar entirely, relying on a dual synthesizer on top of drums and bass instead, yet maintains that uniquely Sui-an vibe. The centerpiece in this set, "Astral Shores," unfolds over 16 minutes -- from gently hypnotic, ritualistic folk, through motoric psychedelia and back again. It's been many years since Causa Sui have sounded this unmoored on a studio record. In Flux is an essential chapter in the band's ever-changing oeuvre. Each track has a character all off its own, taking the listener somewhere different.
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12"
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ENTRE 117EP
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Kaba & Hyas continue their musical exploration at the crossroads of rap and house by announcing their third opus Wooferz Only, a seven-track EP. The two comparses establish their club music more than ever, reviving sensations of hectic nights from Detroit to Manchester, and hammering home the markers of the style they've made their own. Like a block party MC, Kaba chants incisive, edgy lyrics, set to the energetic rhythms of Hyas, obviously at the center of the game. Solid on their feet, Kaba & Hyas have not hesitated to step out of their comfort zone, exploring new styles, collaborating with a jazz pianist on a couple of tracks, or hosting their first French featuring with thaHomey on the track "Magic Stick". After a spring/summer tour packed with dates including Nuits Sonores, Macki Music Festival and Ed Banger Party, the duo followed up their winter season with appearances at the MaMa Festival and the Transmusicales de Rennes.
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LP
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MTE 082LP
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Restocked. Onilu is an all-percussionist trio utilizing the extensive family of drummed and tuned percussion instruments to deliver beautifully composed, arranged and executed small ensemble music. Nothing about this all-percussion band feels rarified, or missing anything musical. To the contrary, Onilu create a soundworld where nothing is missing, and everything is musical -- defying the stereotype of modern percussion ensembles as esoteric or academic pursuits, reaffirming the powerful social and sacred musics made in African diasporic communities and across cultures by drum and percussion groups since the beginning of human time. The members of Onilu are: Kevin Diehl, leader of the enduring Philadelphia-based Afro-Cuban Yoruba free-jazz ensemble Sonic Liberation Front; Chad Taylor, Artistic Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and esteemed drummer of long standing in many scenes. Highlights of Taylor's recent history include his work with James Brandon Lewis, Jaimie Branch, Marc Ribot, Rob Mazurek, and with Joshua Abrams in the duo Mind Maintenance-. Taylor was part of the community of young Chicago-based musicians organized around Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge in the 1990s that included Abrams, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, and Matana Roberts, among others; living legend Joe Chambers, who began his illustrious career as the drummer on now-canonical early Blue Note recordings by Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Sam Rivers, Wayne Shorter, and Mccoy Tyner. A 1970 founding member of Max Roach's pathbreaking percussion ensemble M'Boom, Chambers continues to record percussion-centered music as a leader for Blue Note records. After nearly three decades working with such historic drummers as Denis Charles, Walter Perkins, Sunny Murray, Hamid Drake, Milford Graves, Susie Ibarra, Charles Bobo Shaw, and Han Bennink, it is Eremite Records' joy and honor to give the drummers not some, but ALL the spotlight. From Dana Hall's liner notes: "These three artists are master musicians and the music they present here is masterfully conceived. The drum, and its entire global family of membranophones, shakers, and idiophones, are conduits for their collective creative voice. In addition to drummers, they are also composers, and their works here represent a synthesis of ideas, concepts, and their individual dialectics on the language and syntax found in much of African and African Diasporic musics. A music that uses call and response. One that honors the past while looking forward to the future. A music that is principally concerned with feeling, mood, and storytelling. One that eschews frivolity and the baroque. A music that swings and grooves. I found myself dancing to this recording. Trust me, you, too, will find yourself rightfully and unapologetically dancing to this recording." First Eremite edition of 999 copies pressed on premium audiophile-quality 140-gram vinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, from Kevin Gray/Cohearent audio lacquers. Recorded by Michael Richelle, Philadelphia. Mastered by Joe Lizzi, Queens, NY. Hand screen-printed insert by Alan Sherry, Siwa Studios, Northern New Mexico.
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CD
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ESPDISK 5106CD
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This is the first to be released of a series of albums ESP started recording in 2023 combining artists who hadn't worked together before. In this case, saxophonist Larry Ochs teams up with the Flow Trio rhythm section of drummer Charles Downs and bassist Joe Morris. They meshed magnificently on their first encounter! Larry Ochs, co-founder in 1977 of ROVA Saxophone Quartet, was born in New York City but has long been based on the West Coast, specifically the Bay Area. He has also been a member of the Glenn Spearman Double Trio, Maybe Monday, the John Lindberg Ensemble, What We Live, The International Creative Music Orchestra, and Room, along with many other collaborations. ESP-Disk has previously released albums featuring Ochs by ROVA, Jones Jones, and his duo with Donald Robinson. Joe Morris, guitarist and bassist, studied with ESP-Disk legend Lowell Davidson. Morris formed his first trio in 1977 and began his recording career in 1983, with well over 50 albums as a leader and many more as a collaborator, including albums on ESP-Disk under his own name and with Flow Trio and Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFUNK -- and a guitar duo with Elliott Sharp. He's also the author of the crucial book Perpetual Frontier/The Properties of Free Music and on the New England Conservatory faculty. Charles Downs, the senior member of the trio, is also known to jazz aficionados as Rashid Bakr, the performing name he used while drumming in various Cecil Taylor groups and elsewhere. He's also been in groups including Ensemble Muntu, Other Dimensions in Music, Flow Trio, and What You May Call It, and has recorded with Billy Bang, Glenn Spearman, Jamie Saft, Ras Moshe Burnett, William Parker, Arthur Doyle, Sabir Mateen, Joe McPhee, and many more.
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12"
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XBITS 004EP
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A deeply grooving expedition of 20 minutes on Exhibition by Rico Puestel!
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XBITSH 001EP
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Rico Puestel on furtherly different yet unique paths with two murder house tracks!
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