Reissues
1987-1991
This release reunites Pablo A. Gimenez’s first four albums, originally published between 1987 and 1991 on Javier Cinca’s label, Sindicato de Trabajos Imaginarios (S.T.I) in Zaragoza, Spain. They contain various forms of home-made electroacoustic compositions, that draw inspiration from traditions such musique concrete or free jazz.
Mimidokodesuka
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.
Rag Jhinjoti, Rag Pilu - Sitar And Sarod Jugalbandi
2024 Stock. Builds slowly from the statement of the melody to intense sections of stunning brilliance
Rag Lalit
2024 Stock. The Sarangi remains not only the authentic and original Indian bowed instrument but the one which most poignantly, and in the hands of Ram Narayan, most revealingly expresses the very soul of Indian feeling and thought. I cannot separate the Sarangi from Ram Narayan, so thoroughly fused are they, not only in my memory but in the fact of this sublime dedication of the great musician to an instrument which is no longer archaic because of the matchless way he has made it speak
Rag Kaunsi Kanhra
2024 Stock. This sensuous evening raga for the bamboo bansuri flute was recorded with tabla by Sabir Khan.
Rag Miya ki Todi / Rag Bilaskhani Todi
2024 Stock. Ustad Imrat Khan hails from a great tradition of musicians called the Imdadkhani Gharana, named after his grandfather. It has produced great masters of the sitar such as Ustad Vilayat Khan and his son Shujaat Khan, Shahid Parvez and Budhaditya Mukherjee. This renowned gharana specializes in gayaki; the vocal style of sitar playing, which is obvious when listening to this recording, as I can't help singing along with the Ustad's beautiful lyrical playing. Imrat Khan is the master of t…
Rag Lalit
2024 Stock. The Nimbus recordings of Hariprasad Chaurasia are among the best of his recorded repertoire. Hariprasad Chaurasia's hauntingly beautiful interpretation of Raga Lalit probably is the best introduction to that raga for listeners unacquainted with Indian music. Lalit is a serene raga with a devotional mood to be performed at dawn, before sunrise. Most sandhiprakash ragas (to be performed at dawn or dusk) feature komal swaras (flat notes), which give them a certain dreamy, longing, even …
Rag Darbari / Rag Chandra Kanhra
2024 Stock. The album presents a deeply meditative world, resonating with the mysteries of India. When it comes to sarangi - a forgotten Indian instrument that has been overshadowed by the violin in terms of popularity and accessibility - nobody can compare to Ram Narayan. Both Ram's growth and the ragas performed on this CD are deeply emotional. Additionally, the tabla playing is both powerful and precise. To experience the ethereal sarangi sound, this is a must-have.
Ram Narayan (1927-) is a…
Rag Ahir Bhairav
2024 Stock. The Nimbus recordings of Hariprasad Chaurasia are among the best of his recorded repertoire. Hariprasad Chaurasia (born July 1, 1938, Allahabad, United Provinces, British India [now in Uttar Pradesh, India]) is an Indian flutist in the Hindustani classical tradition whose performances and compositions brought global recognition to the bansuri, a simple side-blown bamboo flute.
Unlike most other noted musicians of his generation, Chaurasia was not born into a family of musicians. Alth…
Rag Madhuvanti, Rag Misra Tilang
2024 Stock. Shivkumar Sharma's contribution to the Indian classical tradition is that he introduced the Santúr (hammered dulcmimer) to the classical Indian repertoire. That is no small feat, considering the conservative attitude that these performers take towards musical performance. "Sharma is credited with bringing this folk instrument, normally associated with the Sufi music of Kashmir, into Indian classical music. Indian music involves several of the elements I’ve been discussing in this lis…
The Milk-Eyed Mender
2024 repress. "Drag City takes great pleasure in introducing to you a remarkable new musical singer, songwriter and all-around talent, Joanna Newsom. Joanna's music has more of an affinity with the folk revival of the 60s, or the bluegrass movement at present, than with most contemporary 'folk' (or 'anti-folk') scenes. Affinities aside, her style could hardly be called bluegrass; nor does it evoke the pastoral tonalities of 60s folk: she sings about whalebones, sleep, grammar, mollusks, accumula…
Ys
2024 stock. Double LP version; deluxe gatefold sleeve, with inserted 12"x12" booklet of lyrics. "Five songs, fifty-five minutes, what-an-album! Ys is to Joanna Newsom a dream collaboration between her voice and harp and a full orchestra -- a sound many of us fans have thought we were hearing when listening with closed eyes at her concert performances. Songs familiar to Joanna's following are a big part of Ys, having been performed in concert over the past year -- but not with the arrangements yo…
Azimüth
2024 repress. Azimuth was the blueprint for the band's own 'samba doido'/ 'crazy samba' sound. Released in the summer of 1975, the album was a minor commercial success selling around 200,000 copies, but it's now recognised as an essential piece of Brazilian music history. Surely the rawest and funkiest of Azymuth's albums, every track exudes the brimming energy of three exceptionally creative young men from Rio, with incendiary results. Opener ‘Linha do Horizonte’ – a sublime piece of melancholi…
The Hygrades
Sleeve Records & Dig This Way teamed back to bring to light the history and the tracks of this iconic early 70' Psychedelic Afro-funk East Nigeria group. The Hygrades's album will include all 4 rare 45"s united in a single LP with an insert of their story told by a true Uchenna narrator.
Recoiled
“Recoiled” is a rambunctious alchemy, of magikal Coil sensibilities and hi-tech home circa 90’s mixing technique, all fused in the cave-like early studios of Danny Hyde (Coil, Electric Sewer Age) / Peter Christopherson (Coil, Throbbing Gristle). These were the unrestrained Pre- big studio- mix downs, of four songs which long time Coil admirer / collaborator Trent Reznor requested Coil to remix. Reznor sent over the original multi-tracks and DATs to Hyde / Christopherson, who independently mixed …
Sun Also Rises
* 2024 LP Reissue * Released in 1970 on the british cult label The Village Thing (owned by singer/songwriter Ian A. Anderson), the sole album by couple Anne and Graham Hemingway is a superb acid folk manifesto. Coming all the way from Cardiff, the duo has been described as a mystical, magical hippie small family. Alongside classic guitars, they played dulcimer, glockenspiel, vibes, bells, kazoo and small percussion, joined throughout by label-mate John Turner (bowed and finger-picked string bass…
Bromio
*2024 reissue. 300 copies limited edition* In January 1999, after years of continuous daily rehearsals, Zu entered the studio to record Bromio. The album was released in October of the same year to immediate and enthusiastic feedback from the press and the public, and a few months later Zu began to play on stages all over Europe. But the band's inexperience in recording work weighed on them, because the impact they had live was not present in the sound of the CD at all. So it was that during the…
Eureka
2025 repress; originally released in 1999. Twenty-six years after its initial release, Jim O'Rourke's Eureka remains one of experimental music's most beautifully contradictory statements - an album that somehow manages to be utterly devoid of anything resembling conventional pop music while simultaneously being magnificent in scale, pleasant to listen to, catchy, and even reminiscent of records you might have heard on The Casey Kasem Show. Now, Drag City presents a 2025 repress of this essential…
Insignificance
2024 Repress. Insignificance, Jim O'Rourke's third solo album for Drag City, reaffirms that he is not only a fine composer, arranger, and producer, but a gifted, creative songwriter as well. As with Eureka and the Halfway to a Threeway EP, O'Rourke continues to find as many possibilities in singing and songwriting as he does experiment with pure sound. However, this time O'Rourke adds a few twists to the formula he pioneered on those two efforts.
He sings on each of Insignificance's tracks, his…