★Cuneiform Records
The Continuing Story Of Counterpoint Parts 1-4+8 (Complete)
The Continuing Story Of Counterpoint is a remarkable 12 part musical cycle that Borden composed between 1976-87. Lasting 3 hours, Cuneiform has released this seminal work on 3 CDs, each containing 4 parts. The music is a pleasing and highly listenable mixture of classical forms, dense textures, strict counterpoint, and high energy electronics. AUDIO Magazine had this to say about the series: "When released in its entirety, this series may stand as the 'Goldberg Variations' of minimalism, a canon…
L\'Ethique
During a fairly incredible 7 year run that began in the mid 1970s, Richard Pinhas released a large string of influencial albums; 7 by Heldon and 5 under his own name, all of which attempted in one way or another to meld (avant-garde) rock music with electronics. L'Ethique was his final release of that 12, recorded in 1981 and originally released in 1982. It was his final solo album before his musical retirement throughout the 1980s and it's one of his great 'classic period' works. It also featur…
Tranzition
"Among collectors of electronic music, some names have become legendary and are present in every search list. These names include Richard Pinhas, the leader of the French cult group Heldon." – AudionComposer, guitarist and electronics innovator Richard Pinhas is recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians. A pivotal figure in the international development of electronic rock music, Pinhas' stature in France is analogous to Tangerine Dream's in Germany: the father figure of an entir…
Event and Repetitions
"...a sporadic but constant thread in Pinhas’ music has been his experimentation with guitar feedback, loops and effects boxes, even in the early days of Heldon, as he tried to perfect his own version of Frippertronics. Well, it has been a long time coming, but Event and Repetitions may well signal the full realization of Pinhas’ long-time vision. The drifting, hypnotic patterns of the five pieces on this CD? have a shimmering beauty and depth that seems to suggest a destination at the end of a …
Looking For The Next One
The group toured widely and had a large body of work to draw from, but only released one, self-titled album on the Ogun label during their lifetime. Looking For The Next One, a compilation of rare and unissued studio sessions and live recordings, will not only rekindle discussions about S.O.S.’s innovative music among connoisseurs, but introduce their exciting, virtuosic music to a new generation of listeners. While the entire set is filled with striking music, the inclusion of the entirety of t…
Beija Flors Velho E Sujo
São Paulo Underground is an electronica-laced tropicalia funhouse, a secret passage between Chicago’s volatile avant garde jazz scene and Brazil’s teeming creative capital. Featuring Chicago maestro Rob Mazurek on cornet, harmonium and various effects, and São Paulo’s Guilherme Granado on keyboards, synths, sampler and vocals, and Mauricio Takara on percussion, cavaquinho and electronics, SPU delivers its fourth revelatory album Beija Flors Velho E Sujo.In its latest incarnation, SPU is a power …
Desolation Row
Desolation Row finds things coming full-circle for guitarist/electronics pioneer, Richard Pinhas. In a career spanning more than 40 years, pathfinder Pinhas has remained continually innovative, pioneering groundbreaking developments in electronic rock and industrial music and influencing generations of musicians. In a major recent creative surge, he has released numerous recordings over the past several years in collaboration with noise and experimental musicians, breaking further sonic gr…
djTRIO - 21 September 2002 Hirshhorn Museum Washington DC
World-renowned multi-media artist Christian Marclay may be best known these days for his globally embraced film collage piece "The Clock," but he began by redefining the roles of "musician," "DJ," and even "artist" itself. Since the late '70s, Marclay has created art by masterfully mistreating both vinyl and phonographic equipment, using them both in a manner more consistent with the way an abstract sculptor employs raw materials in the service of a larger vision. He was one of the earlies…
Tres Cabecas Loucuras
Tres Cabeças Loucuras is the third album by Sao Paulo Underground. It's a very catchy, jazz + electronics album filled with sunny melodies, beats, noise, sounds and songs. The group formed around Rob Mazurek (cornet and electronics), a key player in the Chicago post rock/modern jazz scene, who has played with everyone from his own Exploding Star Orchestra and Chicago Underground projects to performing and/or recording with Tortoise, Jim O'Rourke, Pharoah Sanders, and many more and whose work ref…
Heart's Reflection
An incredible double CD from trumpeter Leo Smith's Organic with Michael Gregory, Pheeroan AkLaff, Angelica Sanchez, Skuli Sverrisson, Brandon Ross, &c &c... incredible electric and acoustic jazz from the legendary improviser and innovator!"Lauded as "one of the most vital musicians on the planet" by Coda, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most visionary, boldly original and artistically important figures in contemporary American jazz and free music, and one of the most distinctive trumpet pla…
Like A Duck To Water
Like A Duck To Water was Mother Mallard's 2nd & final release, and was originally released in 1976. The music is a unique and extremely enjoyable blend of space electronics (ala Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze), minimal music (Terry Riley, Philip Glass), and contemporary classical & electronics (Gordon Mumma, John Cage). This album showcases a uniquely American slant on synthesizer music by a band whose pioneering contributions to the genre had been forgotten until now. Includes the original albu…
Time & Motion
Radio Massacre International is a British trio of Steve Dinsdale (keyboards, electronics, drums), Duncan Goddard (keyboards, electronics, bass) and Gary Houghton (guitar, synthesizers). These three musicians have worked together in various configurations since they were 16 year old students in the 70s and formed R.M.I. in 1993. After nearly 20 years together as R.M.I. and over 30 albums and hundreds of concerts, you might think that there might be no surprises left, but like their undulating, fl…
Old Stuff
"Formed in the summer of 1964, although the New York Art Quartet existed for barely a year and a half, great interest remains in their work. They consisted of co-leaders John Tchicai (alto sax), who participated in John Coltrane's ground-breaking Ascension album and Roswell Rudd (trombone), considered to be the first free-jazz trombonist, along with bassist Don Moore and drummer Milford Graves. The band participated in the legendary 'October Revolution in Jazz', which journalist Bill Shoemaker c…
Fools Meeting
Pretty solid blues and r&b with a lot of jazz influences. Many of the band members would go on to other London jazz outfits like Caravan and Hatfield and the North. The most interesting feature of this album is the Grace Slick-like lead female vocals. "Bllinded to Your Light" is a fantastic opener with great sax and piano. "Home Made Ruin" is not too good, but the next track, "Is it Really the Same" has some really solid psych guitar. Most of the rest of the album follows the style of the first…
Solar Flares Burn For You
Vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Robert Wyatt's career extends from the beginnings of the psychedelic era to the present day. This album started its life as simply a collection of the two BBC Top Gear sessions that Robert recorded in 1972 and 1974. But as we worked on it, Robert became more and more involved in it, until it ended up in its final form. In addition to the Top Gear recordings, there is a previously unheard and little known 1973 soundtrack for a short experimental film, …
6 - Interface
As with the preceding album Rêve Sans Conséquance Spéciale, if you come to grip[ with this wild experimental minimalistic music , you will find yourself riveted to your seat by the sheer power and violent intensity of the music developped by Richard Pinhas (the sole leader of this project). It really depends on how your mind (and mood) is set to understand what is developped here but Can is not far away and Fripp/Eno collaborations are also in the sonic neighborhood. Pinhas 's guitar is deeply i…
Allez Teia
Mostly hypnotic electronic motifs & rhythms combined to Pinhas’ Robert Fripp guitar imitation. This is not a classic but an important contribution in French electronic rock explorations. Consequently this is in the direct line of “Electronic Guerilla” but much more achieved with a few original attempts. “Allez Teia” is certainly the most recommended effort for those who enjoy Richard Pinhas’ guitar style. Most of compositions feature nice extended, repetitive & moving musical pictures. Not so fa…
1984
New CD issue of this classic album, with bonus track and improved sound (previously issued by Mantra). Upon it's original release, 1984, with it's unusual combination of lengthy abstract sound-journeys and short, weirdly devolved James Brown-inspired pieces, gained much critical acclaim. 1984 was an extremely unusual release for 1973 and an extremely unusual project for CBS Records, who first released it. Like the groundbreaking novel after which it was named, Hopper's record was truly ahead of …
1970 - 1973
The first album and previously unreleased recordings from the world's first all-synthesizer ensemble. They were also one of the very first [possibly the first] performing synthesizer ensembles, working closely with Robert Moog, whose first factory was nearby. This material pre-dates or is contemporary with the first work of Kraftwerk & Tangerine Dream. A uniquely American slant on synthesizer music by a band whose pioneering contributions to the genre had been forgotten until now. Some excellent…
Camere Zimmer Rooms
Picchio dal Pozzo are considered to be one of the very few 'Canterbury' inspired bands that emerged from Italy's fertile 1970's progressive rock musical scene. They released two highly regarded -- and highly sought after -- albums during their lifetime. The exciting release of Camere Zimmer Rooms, a previously unknown studio recording of all unreleased compositions, extends their legacy greatly! The band formed in Genoa in 1972. They released their first, self-titled album in 1975. The band reco…