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Lifemask
Hyper-expensive edition on LP, but quality is over the top. Roy Harper's Lifemask was made at the height of the ‘flower power’ expression/boom in 1973. The songs catalog spontaneous interpretations of how we are interacting with the planet. It was never aimed at mass market and is just a poem for friends and kindred spirits. The poem was inspired by a collage of Geronimo in an eighteenth century English landscape drawing given to Harper by his friend and artist James Edgar whilst he was in the m…
DeLuxe
Beautiful legit 2015 reissue on Groenland, truly a brilliant little album from Harmonia – quite possibly their greatest record ever, and a set that's wonderfully balanced between progressive and electronic modes! There's a live drummer on the set – Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru – and although he still plays with a spare, circular mode that recalls the Harmonia rhythms of before, there's also a slight bit of propulsion here too – one that pushes the keyboards and guitars alongside nicely. There's al…
Documents 1975
Grönland casually drop a rocket's worth of virgin krautrock fuel with the previously unreleased 'Documents 1975' tape capturing Moebius, Roedelius, Rother and Eno playing live between their idyllic Forst studio and venues in Hamburg. With likely reams of reels to pick from, they've carefully chosen to highlight four performances best showcasing the group's pioneering work from a variety of aspects. The two pieces recorded at Forst are little short of magick, capturing two sublime and uplifting f…
Phallus Dei
Amon (from the Egyptian sun god) Düül (a German-Turkish derivative of Moon) were a 60s student hippy commune based in Munich, in what was then West Germany. Among their various expressions of free living they occasionally performed rudimentary music where anything went, and being at all proficient was more of a hindrance than a way in to one of their performances, which were mainly for their own amusement anyway. Guitarist and violinist Chris Karrer, frustrated at the lack of direction, along wi…
Yeti
Released in 1970 as a double album, “Yeti“ was a major achievement for Amon Düül 2. In England they won over cult DJ John Peel as friend and supporter; for the readers of the German magazine “Musik Express“ the guys from Munich were the most popular underground band, and “Yeti“ was voted best album of the year. A double album on vinyl, Yeti consists of a set of structured songs and a second disc of improvisations. It's testament to the group's fluidity and improvisational grace that the two albu…
Stuck in Paradise
Sweet Marie was formed in late 1969 amidst the turmoil of the Vietnam War and the wild music scene of Hollywood. Twentyeight year old Prince Teddy, a producer at Capitol Records and a songwnter.'musician. had a vision tor a rock-n-roll trio with rich harmonies and psychedelic undertones He approached Sonny Lathrop, a 25 year ok) guitarist and recording musician who was known around the hip Hollywood night dubs, about his idea and together they recruited Willy Bims on drums Bims. 32, had been the…
Ak Musick
CD Edition. Mental Experience present first ever reissue of AK Musick, originally released in 1972. Radical, freaked-out sound with hints of free-jazz, improv and avant-garde, AK Musick was an improv collective assembled by clarinetist Hans Kumpf to "make music in a very democratic way". The five players had a classical education but they were also influenced by avant-garde composers like Helmut Lachenmann and Johannes Fritsch. Their only album, AK Musick, was recorded at the famous Bauer Stud…
Gal (1969)
This Brazilian classic finally gets a proper U.S. release -- one of the greatest psychedelic albums of the late '60s, and a key part of the Tropicalia movement as well! The record is easily the most tripped-out album ever from Gal Costa -- far more sinister than Gal's debut of a few months before. The session was still recorded with full arrangements by the legendary Rogerio Duprat (who'd worked previously with Costa, Os Mutantes, and others), but it also features a lot heavier guitar and a blaz…
Sternzeit
LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Adelbert Von Deyen's debut album Sternzeit, originally released in 1978. Adelbert Von Deyen is a protagonist of the so-called Berlin School (Berliner Schule) of electronic music. On his debut album, he takes his time to develop sound structures, often drifting, floating blissfully into tonal interference. The listener also requires time and patience, but will be rewarded with a Zen-like state of contemplation. Adelbert Von Deyen's musical backstory follo…
Hingus
LP version. Bureau B presents a reissue of Sven Grünberg's Hingus, originally released in 1981. Sven Grünberg is a famous musician for film and theatre in Estonia - an old hand in the field of electronic ambient music. In 1974, whilst still a music student, he and Härmo Härm founded Mess, a progressive rock band. Grünberg was the first musician in Estonia to use a synthesizer. The ambient electronica of Hingus (Breath), recorded between 1978 and 1980, was spiced up with prog rock and a nod to th…
The Maria Sessions
Summer of 1990 was glorious. The Legendary Pink Dots entered the studio on a high as The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse seemed to be embraced by a broad audience. Our label Play It Again Sam had been generous with the budget for a new record, and there was a spirit of daring adventure firing up the band. For the first month we pretty much jammed... and Bob captured many of these sessions on a small tape recorder placed in the middle of the studio. Bob had dusted off his sitar, Niels unearthed his mon…
Collage
After his adventure with My Solid Ground, Ingo Werner formed Baba Yaga. Named after the Slavic folklore character his new adventure seemed to be more a solo project. On this second LP Ingo Werner chose to join forces with santur, sitar, tabla player Nemat Darman, an Iranian musician who also contributed congas, cymbal, gong, timpani, drums and vibraphone, and record the whole album as a duo. Werner would play EMS, Davoli and Solina-string synthesizer, clavinet, electric piano and grand piano, be…
Featuring Ingo Werner
After his adventure with My Solid Ground, Ingo Werner formed Baba Yaga. Named after the Slavic folklore character his new adventure seemed to be more a solo project (he plays electric piano, piano, mellotron, synthesizer, organ, clavinet, bassoon and gong, besides being the composer of the music), but it is made with the cooperation of other musicians - most notably Bernd Weidmann who, in addition to singing and playing bass also contibuted with some lyrics. Other musicians in the recording are …
It Don't Bother Me
Bert Jansch recorded his second album in 1965, just after his self-titled debut earlier that same year. The sessions were a step-up from the intimate, field-recording setting of his first album, although still not labored over too much in the studio. 'I figured that the faster I put down the tracks, the faster I could get out of the place,' Jansch told NME, 'so I just ordered about a dozen bottles of wine, put the microphone in front of me and off I went, for three hours.' The lyrics of I…
Ultima Thule
A superb collection of rare early tracks from electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream! Features 2 tracks from the ’60s psych-rock band that preceded Tangerine Dream, The Ones, plus rare tracks from the early ’70s era of the band when they were at their most adventurous, composing epic pieces that clocked in at over 10 minutes each such as “”Asteroid Agenda”" and “”Overture. Amazing floating space cosmic psychedelia
Faust IV
Exact replica, officially reissued by EMI. 180 gram audiophile pressing with printed inner sleeve; digitally remastered from original tapes. This reissue was "researched, spearheaded and co-ordinated" by Tom Recchion who has supplied rare artwork for the inner sleeve -- and, in general, this is a state-of-the-art edition. The fourth and final album to be released during Faust's original lifespan, originally released by Virgin Records in 1973. "As an album, IV matches the band's trajectory: Jumbl…
I.P. Son Group
Appeared in 1975 on the legendary Ultima Spiaggia label during the mature stage of the Italian underground scene, the only album of the milanese band led by guitarist Marco Rossi looks like a experiment rather atypical of that period. The typical jazz sound of formations such Perigeo or Napoli Centrale, leave here considerable field for improvisation on suggestions of extra-eurepean ethnic flavor, enhanced by the masterful rhythmic section (without drums) curated by the African percussionists Ni…
S.P 73
Brazilian arranger and composer Hareton Salvanini was born in Bauru and grew up in Campinas. S.P 73 is his first LP – he worked tirelessly with his right man and brother, Ayrton, was a theatre director. The 'Hareton + Meta' EP was written and recorded for one of Ayrton’s productions – Hareton wrote the music, Ayrton the lyrics – which was given out at performances. S.P 73 was recorded with the full Campinas Teatro Municipal Orchestra, the same orchestra that that featured on ‘Hareton + Meta’ EP.…
Satwa
Written, recorded and released just as Brazil’s military dictatorship reached the climax of its long black arc, the one and only album by Satwa is a divinely subtle protest, often cited as Brazil’s first independent record. Formed after the return of Lula Côrtes and Lailson from their respective foreign excursions – the ‘Satwa’ project lasted only a year, perhaps due to their differing stripes. Lailson was from the verdant former Dutch colony of Pernambuco, while Côrtes hailed from the wild b…
No Sub Reino Dos Metazoários
**Lucky restock, few copies in, totally sold-out at source** Another incredibly original album from the Solar/Rozenblit catalogue, this features the fabulous trio of Lula Cortes, Marconi Notaro and Ramalho. With Lula Cortes at the controls, writing, playing and illustrating the album cover. Soon after recording the classic album ‘Satwa’ (MRBLP083), Lula was back in the same Recife studio with his friend, the cult poet and writer Marconi Notaro to lay down another equally magical album.This joyou…