★Lion Productions
Cueille Le Jour
"Once in a while, a piece of music jumps out of the loudspeakers and grabs me by the throat. The opening track Couleurs is one of these pieces of music. The twenty-two minutes of music is a blend of symphonic prog, Canterbury prog and jazz. The opening salvos of moog is just heaven and utter heaven. The rest is a mix of superb vocals and the above mentioned styles of music, pretty much dominated by Claude-Marius David's superb flute and sopransaxophon pieces. Couleurs is a creative triumph for t…
Black Sun Ensemble Vol. 2
"Lion's second volume of the Black Sun Ensemble's recordings for their classic first album contains an alternate version of that album, including the tracks from the Camera Obscura label CD (2000) version of that album -- well, sort of. When sifting through the masters while preparing the Lion reissue of the real, actual first Black Sun Ensemble album -- as issued in 1985 on Pyknotic -- it became clear that many of the original LP tracks were also on the Camera Obscura CD release, but under the …
Wapassou
"With their first album, legendary French art-rock band Wapassou found a distinctive musical voice: well-developed melodies, rhythmic organ, prominent droning violin, and guitar doubling-up as a rhythm instrument. They often conjure up what it might have sounded like had John Cale and Stereolab formed a band in 1974, the year this album was released. The five tracks are highly original, varied and inventive, steeped in post-psychedelic rock. Although Wapassou are noted for playing without …
Earthforce
In process of stocking. Ultra rare mid-70s UK acid folk rock recordings. Features sitar, moog, acoustic and electric guitars, assorted percussion instruments to create a Popul Vuh like soundscape. If you can imagine the perfect blend of Eastern trance/psych and English hippy acid folk rock, this would be it. Very cool and freaky. Earthforce were an offshoot of Ebling Mis and Oa Band formed by Steve Bayfield. Hailing from the UK, the band was influenced by a wide variety of music including Englis…
Ailleurs
Dominique Blanc-Francard’s “Ailleurs” is trippy and weird… and yet… the songs are catchy and the album rocks out. Fuzzy guitar, chunky drums, weird effects, a thick mix of layers of sound — all tasty ingredients. Pink Floyd meets T-Rex? It’s a terrific recipe, which surely must describe other albums? Even so, we can’t think of another album that sounds quite like “Ailleurs.”Without realizing it, you’ve probably already listened to Dominique Blanc-Francard’s work — as a sound engineer. DBF (as hi…
Live Electronic Music
"Jeff Carney's sophomore effort for audioFile (1989) could not have been criticized were it to have remained in similar territory as the electronic wall of sound he had created on Imperfect Space Journeys. Instead, he created a more sparse, evolving tapestry of analog timbres. Using an exclusively vintage analog arsenal and recording live without overdubbing, Carney pushed forward with new ideas and uniquely developing sweeps of filter madness. The side-long 'Questions (Unanswered)' is immensely…
Morning Dew
** 2021 Stock. This small press run of 500 copies comes housed in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket and a luscious four panel color insert includes liner notes by Morning Dew songwriter Mal Robinson and lyrics ** Morning Dew have been psych collector faves for ages. Their sole release, "At Last" (much like the Morgan album) becomes more obviously crucial with each passing year. After recording their legendary album for Roulette in 1969, Morning Dew headed back to Topeka feeling good about their pr…
Evening Colours
** 2021 Stock ** Laurence Vanay is the pseudonym for Jacqueline Thibault, wife of music producer and musician Laurent Thibault (Magma). The first ever reissue of her second album, originally released twice in 1975: a version on Galloway credited to fictitious English band Gateway, and once as a CAM label library LP—and incredibly rare in both incarnations. Pure genius: almost all instrumental, with gorgeous keyboards of many types (Hammond, Fender Rhodes, etc.), acoustic/electric guitar, even a …
A Bailar a GoGo
** Hand-numbered limited edition of 300 copies. Comes with a 20-page bi-lingual booklet with unseen pictures and detailed band history ** Willy Barclay and Willy Thorne were friends right from the start. At the age of nine, they began to play music together using acoustic guitars borrowed from their brothers. In 1964, they formed their first rock band. After that, they formed Los Mads, although they left that group a couple of years later. One day in January 1967, Thorne was walking with Barclay…
Years Before the Wine + Agonistes
* 2021 Stock* Third Estate’s “Years Before the Wine” is an ambitious and intricate psychedelic concept album from 1976 about the French Revolution (!) which blends warm Southern summer sounds (the band were from Baton Rouge, Louisiana) with baroque song structures. Never fear, the serious subject matter is no match for the strong songwriting and light, flowing music. Stunning vocals from Fae Ficklin on the title track are lovely, but even without them this album would richly deserve its status a…
Nature
* 2021 Stock* An ecology-inspired Krautrock album (1971) from a short-lived group comprised of German school-chums, some of whom had recorded an LP as Trikolon. Tetragon did not conform to any predetermined musical style: they played whatever they pleased, as long as it included groovy Hammond organ and very trippy, flanged wah-wah guitar, in various taut jamming modes that favored jazz/rock fusion à la Miles Davis with a small dose of classical music (adapting a Bach fugue along the way). The r…
Sound of Sunforest
* 2021 Stock* There was once a band called Sunforest, who recorded a splendid album in 1969. The record is (as has been said elsewhere) a unique compendium of UK acid folk with a popsike feel, sporting harpsichord and (somewhat) medieval-tinged arrangements integrated into electric and acoustic folk-esque tunes. But one thing must be said straight away: the Sunforest album is not at all twee—the songs are far too clever, and the production (by legendary producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven) has far t…
Sun Also Rises
* 2021 Stock* Superb sought-after 1970 British acid folk rarity from the Village Thing label. The Sun Also Rises is another case of a folk/psych duo (we’re thinking of Emtidi, whose “Saat” album we have also reissued) who virtually disappeared in the flesh, once they had left behind a small but fascinating recorded legacy. The sole Sun Also Rises album has been reissued (legally and illegally) on several occasions, a testament to continuing interest in the music contained therein. Who were they?…
Nuestra Soledad / Vera
* 2021 Stock* It was—and is—almost impossible to categorize Vera Sienra’s musical style, but we’ll try: wistful songs with the world-weariness of Fado, and the pulsating sadness of the bossa nova. Her powerful and unique tone of voice, plus the softness of her guitar, have always been an unmistakable trademark. Listening to the songs of Vera’s debut album (from 1969), few people believed that those mature melodies were created by the beautiful and timid blonde who could be seen on their black & …
Shin Joong Hyun & Yup Juns
* 2021 Stock* Spring of 1974 witnessed the birth of psychedelic power trio Shin Joong Hyun & Yup Juns. “In Korean, yupjun literally means a brass coin,” Shin explains. “However, during that time it was used as slang to describe a sense of unpleasantness and dislike. Since I was so unpleasant and dissatisfied [in my career], I told myself, ‘Ok, fine, I am just a yupjun,’ and named my band with a rebellious attitude.” He began by renting a room at Seoul’s Tower Hotel to serve as a creative base fo…
Can You Send Me a Silver Thread
* 2021 Stock* There is nothing ordinary about Sandstone. This private press folk/psych album (1971) is so head and shoulders above almost every other album in the genre, it’s hard to believe it’s not better known. The instrumentation and compositional style are reminiscent of heavy English folk hitters like Mellow Candle, Pentangle, and Heron. The Sandstone album was not a major label production like those records. But the local studio at which it was recorded must have been quite high end, beca…
There Is A Universe
** 2021 Stock ** "Rare private press jazz/space rock album, on reissue wish lists for years.This masterpiece crawled up my spine like a kundalini snake and proceeded to take the top of my head off. Probe 10 are unquestionably linked to a very specifically American form of proto-prog-into-jazz-rock synthesis of the precise sort Elektra Records used to specialize in, from Tim Buckley's Starsailor to David Stoughton's Transformer. Toss in trumpet fanfare laden acid psych straight out of the C.A. Qu…
Nocturnal Earthworm Stew
* 2021 Stock* Nocturnal Earthworm Stew is a glorious experiment in electronic music, capturing the vitality and early curiosity of the 1970s. An earlier press statement called it "Serious headphone music made under the influence of Stockhausen, John Cage, Ornette Coleman, Stravinsky, Frank Zappa, Weather Report, Charles Ives and others." The influence of prog and space rock is pronounced, and contributions from Canadian prog legends Nash the Slash and Martin Deller (of FM) solidify Nocturnal's p…
Underwater Kites
* 2021 Stock* Arriving in the wake of inspirational releases from Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA and Throbbing Gristle, Modern Art’s Underwater Kites pinched those templates into a range of nervy, minimalist styles porous to influence and defined by the moody character of Gary Ramon’s vocals and his feel for expressive, evocative melody. As the founder of Color Discs/Color Tapes, there’s reams of evidence that Ramon was a proper locus for the post-punk scene at that time, and his outp…
Oriental Towers
* 2021 Stock. Edition of 300 * Another entry from the darkly enchanting minimal synth-pop and psych-tinged world of The Modern Art. As an introduction to the world of Coil and Current 93 collaborator (and Sun Dial main man) Gary Ramon and his orbiting bandmates, you can't do better. "From a time when drummers were as rare as a tune with a melody. It could have been made yesterday, by one of those modern bands of foppish young men, whose parents' record collection contained stuff like The Wake an…