New Arrivals

* Limited Edition Mother Sky Blue Vinyl* With the sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart and The Velvet Underground ringing in their ears, Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt left behind their careers in academia to form the influential group in the late 60s. Together with Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit and American singer Malcolm Mooney, they recorded their debut album Monster Movie in a castle near Cologne in 1968. "Are we there yet? After 25 years of critical reappraisal and at least 15 years…

* 2022 Repress * Another obscure album from the Nurse With Wound list, the official release of eponymous album of Frankfurt region group Lily. Lily's music revealed influences from Traffic to Van der Graaf Generator and Gnidrolog because of the flute and sax work. The album is also comparable to the 1st Nine Days Wonder or Os Mundis "43 Minuten" albums.  LP comes with insert containing band story by group member and bass player Wilfried Kirchmeier and a lot of photos. Remastered from the origina…

'Ra to the Rescue was initially pressed in limited quantities in 1983, but several of its tracks subsequently were reissued with incongruous tracks on the albums (commonly referred to as) When Spaceships Appear, Cosmo-Party Blues, Somewhere There, and Children of the Sun. Those album "titles" are in many cases simply the names of the first track on a particular side (these were scribbled in pen on otherwise blank labels). To complicate matters, some tracks were retitled for reasons that shall fo…

Reissue of a 1994 French cassette. Bittersweet toy pop, minimal synth, and avant-folk interpretations of classical waltzes. Professionally-replicated CD in 4-panel digipak featuring the original art, extensive liner notes from Christophe Petchanatz on the production of each track, and newly-found photos from the recording era.Audio / Art by Christophe Petchanatz / Françoise LefebrveRemastered by Phillip B. Klingler, @pbksoundReplicated by Monotype Pressing

"I am not entirely sure, but I don't think I reviewed 'Endogeny' when it first came out on Direction Music in 1990. Hearing the music I am not even sure I heard it, even when being in contact with the label at that time. I surely heard Gen Ken Montgomery's music by then and was always fascinated by that, his connection to Conrad Schnitzler and his Generator space in New York, which was a venue doubling as a shop (or vice versa) for weird music. The pieces here are for various instruments that we…

Reissue of Flower Travellin' Band's debut album Anywhere, originally released in 1970. Anywhere is the first album from the legendary Japanese rockers fronted by Yuya Uchida. Although an album consisting mainly of cover versions, Anywhere still exhibited many of the musical traits that were to come to the fore on the band's next release, the classic 1971 album Satori, an album of original material delivered with panache by the increasingly confident Uchida. An album made memorable by its risky c…

*150 copies limited edition* It’s not easy to summarize any band whose career has stretched over two decades. In the case of The Growing Concern, though, it’s all in the name: since 2001, the core duo of Kevin Doria and Joe DeNardo have been making vibrating, explorative experimental music that is in a forever state of evolution. In that time, Growing have amassed a hard-to-define and influential body of work, and “Diptych,” out April 30th on Ethan Miller’s Silver Current Records, sees the band …

Tip! They say that if you’re a friend to everyone you’re a friend to no one. Well, in the case of Tarika Blue, here is an album that roundly disproves that maxim. A record that delivers to fusion, soul, jazz and disco aficionados alike, Tarika Blue’s ability to cover all these bases with equal skill is quite an achievement. The balance locked in its grooves are testament to the astonishing musical range found in the artists who perform with such aplomb. Tarika Blue was formed in 1973 by Phil Cle…

*50 copies limited edition* Following releases on Warm Gospel Tapes and Ingrown Records, J Hamilton Isaacs continues on his synthesizing quest to encapsulate the universe around him in his modular rig. This release is comprised of two side-long compositions of precise, drifting modular electronics. As the pieces build, sweep, fluctuate, dissolve and begin again, the sound itself seems wholly alive, breathing and wandering with the listener.

*75 copies limited edition* Lillian Drip was collectively recorded and mixed in different home studios in State College, PA, Pittsburgh, PA and Baltimore, MD over the course of a few years.

*50 copies limited edition* Hailing from the American midwest, Matthew Crowe is active in a number of musical projects and collaborations. Crowe is one half of the left-field improv duo Sex Funeral and also makes video game-centric vaporwave music as Heaven Drugs. On this split, he brings us a dreamlike, oddball sampling frenzy. Various styles and themes drift in and out, dissolving and replacing one another in a stew of world music juxtapositions and pop culture sampling nostalgia. Marsha Fish…

*50 copies limited edition* Degraded rhythms and cybernetic melodies from the mind behind Suspicion 疑惑, Bone Sergery and cybergrunge.net

*50 copies limited edition* Lean, experimental soundscapes cobbled together from field recordings, prepared guitar snippets and synthesizer learning meant to walk the line between mania and having a good time. All music composed, improvised and recorded by Sean Devlin.

*100 copies limited edition* Get your seasonal dose of environmental futurism from expert synth-operators Asako Fujimoto and Niki Neecke via Knackless. Two tracks from the duo in the spirit of the season of rebirth: »Chlorophylic Memories« makes room between canopy and soil to immerse yourself in a glistening and hyperreal forest. Flip the record over and enter a kaleidoscopic concert hidden away in the thickets of the underbrush with »GalaxianIdyl«. Precious and rare!

"This seemingly improbable duo finds both artists defending a common cause, with Lanz as stunning turntablist to serve as a perfect companion to Kocher's iconoclastic approach to his instrument. Detailed moves, fast gestures and throbbing pulses are recurrently cut by silences and sustained tones. Short rhythmic patterns and precise syllables emerge only to give way to more intimate sequences where players drift into some neutral space before re-colliding again into actualizations of micro-event…

WRWTFWW Records and MEG Museum (Geneva) announce a new full-length album by celebrated Japanese percussionist Midori Takada, in collaboration with Buddhist monks belonging to the Samgha group of the Shingon school of Koya-san, led by Reverend Syuukoh Ikawa. Recorded at The Premises Studio (London) and in Tokyo in 2019, You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana is a majestic work combining a suite of six Buddhist liturgical chants and a musical creation by Midori Takada. The Buddhist chants come from three …

WRWTFWW & MEG Museum (Geneva) are very happy to announce a new album by famed Japanese percussionist Midori Takada, Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter, her very own rendition of "Nhemamusasa", a traditional work emblematic of the musical repertoire for mbira of the Shona of Zimbabwe. Recorded in a live setting and played with instruments conserved in the collections of the MEG Museum. Liner notes include: An interview by Midori Takada A point of view by Zimbabwean scholar, musician and act…

Brooklyn based drummer/producer Jason Nazary (of Anteloper) makes his We Jazz Records debut with "Spring Collection", released on 25 June. The album sees Nazary crafting some deliciously sparkly solo cuts plus working long distance with choice collaborators Jaimie Branch, David Leon, Ramon Landolt, Matt Mitchell, Grey McMurray and Michael Coleman. This is essentially a collection of home recordings and the whole operation has an infectious feeling of immediacy to it. The result is improv adjacen…

We Jazz Records presents "Pu:", the boundary-breaking solo debut of bass player Ville Herrala. Herrala utilises only the double bass but approaches the instrument from various different perspectives. The end result is an inspired set of 14 miniatures, each pushing the concept forward in a highly personal way. The first single "Pu: 12" presents a rhythmic approach with echoes of from the world of minimal classical music and electronic music. Bowed tracks such as "Pu: 2" offer another perspective,…

Tip! *Edition of 50 copies in special deluxe packaging* De Fabriek presents The Holstein Tapes Vol.1 . Source material for this release was taken from the reel-to-reel audio tape archive of sound recorder and editor Wim van Holstein (1944 -1992). Tape manipulation, processing, (soft)synths and mixing by Martijn Hohmann. C40 'Petrol blue' Audio Cassette with white on-body printing, wrapped in source tape. Packaged in a deluxe handmade matchbox style pasted box with various inserts on recycled tax…

**100 copies limited edition. In process of stocking** 'This release sees De Fabriek working with Ausland, also known as Roberto Auser (also known as Derk Reneman), whom I had not heard before. Judging by the labels who release his work (Viewlexx, Enfant Terrible, Charlois etc.) is someone with a background in more techno-based music. Not that this shows on this release. The seventy-four minutes are filled with four long pieces and one short opening shot. As said, the music has very little to do…

US sax player Stanley J. Zappa and Finnish drummer Simo Laihonen come together on the new album "Muster Point" on We Jazz Records. The two students of Milford Graves add bassist Ville Rauhala on a couple of tracks to make a bold and adventurous album captured both live and in the studio while Zappa was touring in Finland with the Black Motor musicians. This is a set full of fire and thunder, but also features some more meditative spiritual jazz. RIYL: Milford Graves, ESP-Disk', spiritual jazz  "…

We Jazz Records presents the debut album of AINON, a Helsinki-based ensemble founded by cellist-composer Aino Juutilainen, released 4 September. On "Drought", the four-piece plays music influenced by jazz, contemporary music and classical music, all morphed together into a highly inspired musical vision. The music of AINON might be best described as "spiritual avantgarde jazz", with original compositions and the individual voices of the four players both playing an integral part in the music. In…

Gothenburg trio Dark Horse present their new album "Listen", released by We Jazz Records. The band, comprising of John Holmström (piano), Alfred Lorinius (bass) and Mårten Magnefors (drums) recorded their second album in a remote cabin by the ocean in Norway, owned by Holmström's family. The natural sound of the album owes a lot to the relaxed surroundings and the result is some high degree of improvised music turning into collective composition as the music unfolds.  The album recording took pl…

**100 copies** "I wrote and recorded these songs over a decade ago. Listening back, I chuckle at the fact that I may actually say the word ‘die’ or ‘death’ in every single song. Considering how metaphorically I attempted to write these lyrics, those two words very literally represent what I was dealing with. Within a four year span I lost one of my best friends to cancer and my dad to a heart attack. As a person in my 20’s that span of time felt like an eternity but in hindsight I can see now th…

These five albums by Klaus Janek appear to have been originally released in 2018, but were bundled together under the title almenrauschen in 2019 in nice colour-coded sleeves designed by Stephanie Roderer – I’ll refer to this aspect at the head of each review section – in an edition of 300 units. The name “almenrauschen” derives from the aural sensation perceiving a non intentional sound world and transforming it to musical sense-making. This bundle includes the following albums on vinyl: - Casp…

This habit some experimental musicians have of applying forced context or stories to what is essentially pure improvised music does sometimes perplex me. Here Janek references Kaspar Hauser with the title and in the sleeve notes. He also states the intention “…to de- and reformulate the idea of beauty”. When referencing the case of Kaspar Hauser, I assume Janek sees himself as “…set free…” from traditional technique, and aims, on this disc at least, to “…redefine by discover[y] and recover the p…

'This disc commences with “Prolog / Autumn / Winter Part 1” which are relatively unadorned solo contrabass improvisations from 2003, inspired by the poem Lettera Amorosa by René Char. Although the work apparently “…follows an emotional path a man lives through a loss…” which is intriguing, the main emotions this music is conveying to me are morbid self-analysis, ennui and fatigue. So far so good. Nonetheless, Janek insists upon the piece “…awakening from impotence, sensing awareness and rediscov…

'Janek’s “source of inspiration” was apparently Stanislaw Lem’s novel Solaris and Janek’s own social observations in Prospect Park in New York City “…where I was living during the main research period for this work”. I’m not familiar with Lem’s novel, but if you’re expecting echoes or resonances from the soundtracks of either the Tarkovsky film or the George Clooney remake, I’m afraid you may be disappointed. On side A we find “Infinite Bang Part 1”, which is more solo contrabass and electronics…

'The first track on side A is “Violeros Revisitados”, which is a fight between the sounds made by Brazilian traditional musicians and the UHER Report 400 tape machine the sounds were recorded on. This source material was recorded by Gunther Kipfmüller in Northeast Brazil in the 1970s. Kipfmüller’s daughter, Milena , processes the raw material while Janek adds his contrabass and electronics to the mixture. Brazil born, Milena is also Berlin-based and works as”… a freelance soundartist, dramaturgu…

Magenta. Road at night. Its probably worth quoting from the sleeve-notes so you get an idea of what the intention is on this disc: “The album consists of music chosen from a pool of recordings made over a time span of 10 years and according to its expression composed ‘together’. All of the music was created through a practice of combining the compositional and performative act. The album making process consists of two levels: the music created in the past functions as material and is put into fo…

Building on the back of their stunning release of Ensemble 0’s rendering of "Femenine" issued earlier this year, Sub Rosa returns with "Two Extended Pieces for Four Pianos", featuring brand new recording of two seminal works composed by Julius Eastman between 1970 and 1980 - "Evil N*gger" (1979) and "Crazy N*gger" (1980) - realised by Nicolas Horvath, Melaine Dalibert, Stephane Ginsburgh, and Wilhem Latchoumia.

*75 copies limited edition* Palace Zones is an epic statement from veteran weirdo music unit Sex Funeral. The long form double album constitutes an exquisite corpse: an incidental yet coherent sonic narrative traversing naïve wonder to cosmic dread and then beyond. Matthew Crowe and Bob Bucko, Jr. evoke cinematic visions; both in gleaming HD widescreen and straight to crackling VHS.  A perfect soundtrack for reading paperback sci-fi in the woods, at the end of the world.

*50 copies limited edition* "I have always felt that God has been leading me, in that I'm only an instrument. Who am I without Him, anyway? I rely on prayer and fasting to help me live according to His will, and to help me fulfill my role as a messenger." - Mirjana Dragicevic, Medjugorje visionary

*75 copies limited edition* Orb Tapes presents Mirror Thru Haze by Andrew Kirschner.

*50 copies limited edition* "Fourteen days, two full weeks after he had trapped himself in a cave that others could barely enter, Floyd Collins had died. And what was the rest of the country left with? A gaping fascination with what lies beneath us, a fixation with the blackness. Congress regulated the area around Collins' cave, in part to try to regulate the stream of wannabe explorers plunging into their own underground worlds. You might have heard of what resulted: Mammoth Cave National Park.…

*75 copies limited edition* Since the 1990s, Nathan Berlinguette has been performing and releasing a prolific range of experimental music. Throughout the years, he has shared the stage with bands such as The Haters, Scott Arford, John Wiese, Geronimo, Locrian and Pharmakon. Some of Berlinguette's projects include 5/5/2000 along with Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation) as well as 3 different projects with his ongoing musical accomplice Ryan Unks, which includes their latest effort - a new band insp…

*50 copies limited edition* Orb Tapes presents Uncertain Sediments by Floralplasm. Squirgles and flimpers by Ian Franklin Ronkles, tomps and flaggelananix by Jamie Orlando. Recorded at Slimbo's Slimy Slurry Shoppe.

*100 copies limited edition* Government Alpha is the long-running and incredibly prolific solo project of Japanese artist Yasutoshi Yoshida. Having released dozens of albums since the mid 1990s (on his own Xerxes label as well as countless others), Government Alpha has solidified a place as one of the seminal acts of the Japanoise sound and scene. "Mobility" recorded at Xerxes Studio in 2021 Coalminer is the malevolent brainchild of Chester Masangya and Robert Glen Dilanco based in Rizal, the Ph…

*300 copies limited edition* Like Weeds: "After a friendship of over 25 years, a couple of collaborative tracks, and sharing bills in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, it's an honour to finally present a full length split release between myself and Bastard Noise in the year of their 30th anniversary. Bastard Noise recordings demand a lot from the listener. they demand patience. They demand concentration. They take me on a journey, both illuminating the actualities of my surroundings and propellin…