Cosmic, heavy amplified rock drops and ripples, auras radiate and expand into cloud forms, through which lightning bolts. Tides rise, the moons wax upon a place somewhere between Link Wray, Hex-era Earth and early Tangerine Dream. The echoes return, leaving a trail that blows and drifts, creating a separate piece. Ensemble Pearl are Atsuo, William Herzog, Michio Kurihara and Stephen O'Malley. Their debut album also features the elemental forces of Eyvind Kang and Timba Harris. These playe…
"The Venom P. Stinger retrospective is on. One of the roughest groups of the '80s is back in print on vinyl and for the first time ever on CD, and still nice and hard and rough and wild on either format. File under: punk rock/noise rock/free-of-constraints rock. If you think of Venom P. Stinger simply as the proving ground for 2/3rds of the Dirty Three first, then you're seriously missing it, and fuck you."
Alasdair Roberts continues to do his bit for Scottish folk heritage on a fyne suite of augmented standards and new songs accompanied by his pals. Alasdair brings his undoubted charm, skill and imagination to ten songs ranging from celebratory elegies ('The Merry Wake') to doom-laden laments ('The Laverock in the Blackthorn'), distilling the passion, pain and yearning of hundreds of years of tradition with a timeless voice, perfectly summed up by fellow countryman and poet Robin Robertson: …
Stop right there, hands in the air! If you want to know what Magik Markers think is good for you, you'll Surrender to the Fantasy. For this long-desired alpus, they've been working in threes and stuff. Triangles. The hermetic trifecta of knowledge, Christ and the two thieves, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the original tagline of the Markers' symbol: '3 down, no to go.' Meaning, these three get it and literally no one else needs to, 'cept the record-buying public, tra la la, ha ha ha ha. STTF (nev…
Ben Chasny has spent many years at this point perfecting his very personal vision of the American landscape. With his early LPs he managed to grab a groundswell of support for his distinctly lo-fi recordings, and since hitting the Drag City label with the breathtaking 'School of Flower' he has managed to extend his vision to countless others. 'Asleep on the Floodplain' continues his exploration, and while it doesn't change up the formula too much (apart from the odd analogue synth blurt here and…
"When witch-gods collide, it might sound something like this. Six Organs of Admittance...Richard Bishop...Chris Corsano. Riders of the apocalypse, it's them vs. us. After absorbing their über-holy dynamo, you'll be prepared to join up with these wraiths, making it all of us against...well, whomever's fool enough to stand in our way. To evil! Rangda's been building up behind the scenes for some time now. As label mates and members of an exclusive mutual admiration society, Sir Rick …
Young Scotsman Alasdair Roberts is an old hand at songcraft -- and not just his own, but the songs of the ancients, the near-ancients and their friends. Over the past decade that he's been singing music in his own name (after graduating from the Appendix Out youth brigade), he's made a habit out of recording songs of his own and traditional songs with an equal amount of investment and urgency. After all, it's all music, always deserving of everything we have to give. Following 2009's de…
CD edition: Luminous Night is the first set of new Six Organs Of Admittance material to leap forth from Ben Chasnys' cerebral cortex in 18 months, and what a joy it is. With the release of odds-and-sods collection RTZ earlier in the year there to bridge the gap between 2007s Shelter From The Ash it doesn't seem like he's been away for long per se but for serious Chasny-heads a new album is something to get pretty excited about and with his other musical outlet Comets On Fire either on extended h…
Listen through Sir Richard Bishop’s six readily available solo albums, and you get the picture that the worldview of the former Sun City Girls’ guitarist is not only complex, but also more than a little ambiguous. What exactly is Richard Bishop? A dealer in the exotic? A dabbler in esoteric mysticism? A “traveling salesman”? The Freak of Araby doesn’t make Bishop’s worldview any simpler for us, but it does clarify it some. He is, first and foremost, a traveler, picking up inspiration as he roams…
A beautiful acoustic-based record featuring careful, melancholy arrangements in the tradition set by his famous previous record - but with a few unpredictable musical touches. Seconds weaves black threads of lyrical reflection into its sleeve in the short-lived Higgins tradition. His was never a hippie-dippy perspective - back in the day, his songs featured a thoughtful, but worldweary, occasionally even paranoid perspective. Accompanied by his fellow travelers (including a couple Red Hash playe…
For this latest album Caledonian folk impresario Alasdair Roberts teams up with expected collaborators like Alex Neilson (whose drumming and percussion work has illuminated many a free-folk record over recent years, a few of which Roberts has been involved with) and more unusual contributors such as Niko-Matti Ahti of Fonal's Kiila. Perhaps more than ever, Roberts' music invites comparisons to Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, traveling sufficiently far from the trad songwriting fold to be thought of as 'a…
2026 repress on vinyl; Deluxe 3LP box version with an 8-page, large-format lyric booklet and printed inner sleeves. For various reasons Have One On Me, Joanna Newsom's new triple-album defies the notion of fast-turnaround appraisals. Apart from sheer abundance of music here, it's also very dense and scrupulously laboured over, not only by Newsom herself but a select band of fellow musicians and arrangers - not to mention ace mixing engineers Jim O'Rourke, and Noah Georgeson (best known for his w…
Classic proto-punk from 1970s Detroit. Raw with little polish, the record showcases the organic power relationships within the trio of brothers. The Hackneys were first influenced by soul & funk music but it all changed when they saw Iggy and the Stooges. Inspired by The Who, Alice Cooper & Led Zeppelin; the brothers finally see their first full length release, remastered & ready for the world to hear.
“Ridges and creases / high on the middle forehead / The right temple near the eyebrow / A small ridge under the right eye / The right side of the tip of the nose / The opening of the right nostril / The middle lower lip / The inner ear of the right ear.” Can you tell who it is yet? It’s George W. Bush, of course, or at least part of his head, as seen (or rather heard) in the second of five “American portraits” in words and music by legendary experimental rock outfit the Red Krayola, in collabora…
; printed innersleeve with lyrics. Before Balf Quarry landed on my desk, I figured the dirtiest thing in Connecticut was Chris Dodd's browser history. Not so. Among other things — like guitar tones that buzz around like contact-high June bugs, Elisa Ambrogio's slack vocals wavering between coy calls and willfully distant snarls, and a production value so low and dense you feel you're listening to them from the dining room above their rehearsal space — Hartford natives the Magik Markers are one o…
Blow UP record of the month "A step into the void' is how David Grubbs describes An Optimist Notes The Dusk, his first solo album since 2004's A Guess At The Riddle. Much the same way that each of Gastr del Sol's albums sought to avoid precedent and to model a world in which nothing should be taken for granted, An Optimist Notes The Dusk steps into the void. Nothing necessitates -- it's all built from the ground up, and at each step of the way it could have been built differently. David Grubbs' …
Oh, the difference an "o" makes. While Fingerpainting spoke of creation, Fingerpointing jabs you in the eye. These are Jim O'Rourke's alternate mixes, made from the same "paint" as the original release, but the colors are a different shade. 2008 release. "Free
form freak out is dead! Long live free form freak out! Sounds are
building blocks, say The Red Krayola, again and, now, again. '60s The
Red Krayola began recording because posterity asked for it. Today, they
proffer their latest sensat…
Face-shredding, spine-melting - these are all just clichés next to the jams found within this humble packaging. Jim O'Rourke, Darin Gray and Chris Corsano may not even exist anymore, judging from the cataclysms to be heard here.
With the entirely new music statement, Sighs Trapped by Liars, The Red Krayola renew their association with conceptual artists, Art & Language. Beginning in 1973, their collaboration includes the video projects 'Nine Gross and Conspicuous Errors,' and 'Struggle in New York,' as well as the much-acclaimed and decried music releases, Corrected Slogans, Kangaroo?, and Black Snakes. Thirty years has mellowed the various parties not at all. The faint-hearted might want to swallow something calming be…
Ben Chasny (COMETS ON FIRE) might beat you if you call his solo work folk music. Hypnotic, mesmerizing, full of rough edges & elliptical turns round & round. First studio record from the highly prolific Chasny, joined by free-jazz sensation CHRIS CORSANO on drums & absolutely no computers. Chasny says "I see my music as being much more from the underground class of '92 than this folk scene...it has the same rock to folk quotient as Zep 3...Rock is the new folk & folk fucked rock without the reac…
Three albums into his solo adventure, David has clearly learned how to make records work as records, filling them start to finish with entertainment, moments, insight. Rickets & Scurvy is a very complete, start-to-finish kind of beast. The songs kick ass, rocking harder than David's songs have in ages. The process goes further as a result. Rickets & Scurvy's best moments are presented with disarming directness, an ability to plunge to great depth, with abandon.
David Grubbs' first pop proper solo LP. There's a proud equilibrium to The Thicket. The arrangements are consistent (and consistently colorful) throughout the record. When you first hear a banjo or a trumpet or a Tony Conrad, you can bet your bottom dollar that you'll hear it again. Thus, the record is purged of exoticisms. The Thicket is many things, and elusive is not among them. It's a straight-40-to-the-head album of pop sonic lucidity.
Released 1999 from Mayo Thompson & crew, this recording feat. unreleased songs from the distant days of 1966. The 90s RED KRAYOLA group then shuffles these ancient pre-Parable Red Crayola songs w/ the sounds of neo-freakouts, live on the world's stage - free, familiar & ugly, for new generations to come. Feat. both the latter day Krayola & the original Red Crayola, from 30 yrs back, bringing it all full circle & thus allowing another circle to be formed as soon as possible.
The Awakening’s debut album Hear, Sense and Feel is a landmark spiritual jazz statement that captures the restless, creative energy of early‑1970s Chicago and the vanguard of the Black Jazz Records catalog. Recorded in 1972 at Streeterville Studios and newly available again after years as a coveted collector’s item, the album finds the group balancing deep groove, free improvisation, and Afrocentric consciousness in a way that feels timeless and urgently contemporary.
Hear, Sense and Feel was t…
*2026 repress!* Born in Detroit in 1932 Dorothy Ashby can be easily recognized as the woman who gave the harp a Jazz voice. In her hands, the harp, an originally classical instrument which seemed to just scare people, became a highly versatile swinging voice able to drive a whole jazz rhythm section. Recorded in 1958 by master Rudy Van Gelder and originally released on the Prestige label, Hip Harp is a perfect example of Ashby’s artistry. At the head of a fine quartet featuring the great Frank …
** Edition of 300 ** Ayahuasca: Music for Film, by Luis David Aguilar (1978-1983) compiles works by Luis David Aguilar, one of the most prolific composers of film scores in Peru. It shows the great versatility and avant-garde style that has distinguished his work. Luis David Aguilar (Arequipa, 1950) occupies a fundamental place in the history of film music in Peru, not only because of the prolific nature of his work (which also includes music for television and advertising), but because of the s…
Dive into the vibrant soundscape of the 1970s with “Change Up the Groove”, a hidden gem from Roy Ayers Ubiquity's early years on Polygram. Often overlooked compared to his more famous records, this work overflows with soul and is a true masterclass in fusing jazz and funk, perfectly capturing Ayers' evolution as he connected his jazz roots with the sharp, driving rhythms of 1970s funk. From the very first track, Ayers' signature vibraphone shines brightly, bringing emotion and rhythm. The album …
On Things We Lost in the Fire, Low stretch slowcore until it glows, binding hushed harmonies, sudden noise and fragile lullabies into one prolonged reckoning with love, faith and mortality. What began as an “anti-rock” trio here becomes a devastatingly direct pop group, without sacrificing an inch of quiet intensity.
Official BYG album Newly remastered Deluxe Vinyl Edition Comes in deluxe gatefold sleeve with exclusive artwork. A true milestone of French underground music, Catalyse by Ame Son returns in its fullest-ever vinyl edition, newly expanded with bonus improvisations never included on the original pressing. First released in 1970 on the avant-garde BYG label, Catalyse is widely considered the first psychedelic rock album made in France-a vibrant, adventurous fusion of English psychedelia, French poet…
A cornerstone of the late-1960s Paris free jazz explosion, Ketchaoua by Clifford Thornton stands as one of the most vital and adventurous albums of its era. Recorded in August 1969 at Studio Saravah and newly reissued from the original BYG tapes, this session brings together a formidable ensemble: Thornton on cornet and congas, joined by Archie Shepp, Arthur Jones, Grachan Moncur III, Dave Burrell, Beb Guérin, Earl Freeman, Sunny Murray, and Claude Delcloo.
Emerging in the wake of Thornton and S…
** ** Deluxe 180gr. Marbled vinyl edition. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve. Original 1970 BYG album facsimile-edition. Mastered to vinyl from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins. Exclusive liner notes by author John Masouri ** ** Second chapter of Don Cherry’s "Mu" recordings for BYG - a landmark of free jazz improvisation. Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell had both played with Ornette Coleman and contributed to the revolutionary free jazz movement of the late fifties and early sixties…
* Limited Edition 180-Gram white vinyl. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve * Newly mastered from original BYG tapes. BYG were a pioneering independant record compagny, one of the first labels to actively promote diversity and support black African-American musicians and multi-cultural artists worldwide during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Launched in the late ’60s in Paris, a city then in the throes of great social upheaval, BYG became the home of music that was uncompromisingly new. The…
Tip! Archie Shepp has many made many Afrocentric statements in his long distinguished career but this meeting with Algerian and Touareg musicians in 1969 ranks among his greatest artistic achievements. The backdrop was the inaugural Pan African Festival Of Culture that took place in Algiers in July 1969 in order to promote solidarity among African nations at a time when many were emerging from the yoke of colonialism and some were still fighting for freedom. Their struggle chimed with the Black …
The second instalment of a landmark session by one of the most unique figures in black music is a shower of sounds that have come straight from another world. Sun Ra and the various groups he led were as prolific as they were innovative. By conservative estimates they produced around 200 recordings over a fifty-year period, and the early 70s was as fertile a time as any. In a typical burst of creative energy Ra and an ensemble he dubbed The Solar Myth Arkestra produced enough material to be spr…
2024 Stock. "In 1970, the world got its first taste of the original pothead pixie, Daevid Allen's Gong, as Magick Brother was released in France on the BYG label. Allen's wife, Gilli Smyth, penned all the tunes on the album, and Allen's now-classic "Ph.P." drawing style graces the inside of the gatefold. Leaning a little toward the pop end of the spectrum, Magick Brother is a fairly light album, devoid of the blatant psychedelic/hippie qualities which shine through so brilliantly on the later Ca…
The impact made in Britain in the 60s by legendary American blues artists such as Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf cannot be overstated. With their loud guitars, soulful voices and sexually charged lyrics, they inspired a new generation of aspiring young UK bands to throw off their inhibitions and make music that had the same brashly unapologetic energy and raw power. By plugging in and cranking up the volume they succeeded in capturing the imagination of the youth of the day. Freedo…
A cornerstone of avant-garde jazz, B-X0 NO-47A captures Anthony Braxton at a pivotal moment in his career and in the history of the Association For The Advancement Of Creative Musicians (AACM). Recorded in Paris in 1969 and newly restored from the original master tapes, this classic session finds Braxton leading a quartet of fellow AACM visionaries: trumpeter Leo Smith (before adopting the name Wadada), violinist Leroy Jenkins, and drummer Steve McCall.
The group’s instrumentation is strikingly …
Buh Records is proud to announce the release of "Cello in My Life", the new album by the renowned Ecuadorian composer Mesías Maiguashca. This deeply personal work reflects an intimate exploration of the relationship between the cello and the artist's life, realized in collaboration with celebrated cellist Gaby Schumacher. The album features six remarkable compositions spanning Maiguashca’s career from 1972 to 2015. Each piece offers a unique perspective on his groundbreaking approach to music, b…
** 2-CD set gathering the seminal albums “Mu” First Part and “Mu” Second Part. Restored & remastered from the original tapes by Nick Robbins. New & insightful essay by author & music journalist John Masouri. 6-panel deluxe digi-sleeve echoes the vibe of the original LPs & includes a 16-page booklet. Two printed inner wallets replicate the original LP covers back and front ** Two historic 1969 recording sessions by Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell now assembled on this deluxe 2-CD set that co…