Library & Soundtracks / Archival

Light in the Attic Records proudly presents Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996—the first comprehensive collection of Ukrainian music recorded prior to, and immediately following, the USSR’s collapse. From subtly dissenting Soviet-era singles to DIY recordings from Kyiv’s vibrant underground scene, the compilation chronicles the development of Ukraine’s rich musical landscape through rare folk, rock, jazz, and electronic recordings. “This record is a labor of love and a long…

I am facing a dilemma: how does the founder of an independent music label justify creating a project highlighting, even praising piracy, the very plague that has brought many labels to the brink of bankruptcy?

"This cassette is a promo mix that we originally sold in high school to promote the parties my friends and I did back then (The Witch Is Back); M.O.A. Productions, Frantik Party Productions, some of my earliest House crews. We (Marky P, DJ Juice, DPC, James) did underground house parties in basements and around while in high school. The mix is a fusion of Chicago house, and also the European minimal techno that was coming into Chicago back then. A timestamp on our histories, early roots and what…

Citation - "Inspiration of My Life" Led by Nate Jones, Citation was a vocal group from Highland Park, on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, that recorded two seven-inches on the seventies. Sean Brown, Terence Forsyth, Clayton Hooker and Walter Jones were the other voices of this band that gave us the highly collectable “Inspiration of live”, pressed 1977, by Red Line Records, the small independent that also unveiled North by Northeast's “Disco unusual”. A superb midtempo Harmony Soul stepper th…

"This collection of songs represents one hundred years of music produced by American composers and poets of color—the best of us. Some identify(ied) as Negro, some African-American, some Black, some men, some women, and some insisted they were beyond classification, adamant that their work speak for itself. Unfortunately, too many of these voices have been stifled from inclusion in our American story thus far. But the time is right, and the fruit is ripe for the picking. The harvest has come in,…

A collection of Mexican recordings dating from approximately 1900 to 1910. Corridos, zarzuelas, poetry, popular songs, police bands, solo harps & guitars, all taken from wax cylinders issued from the beginning of the 20th century through to roughly the start of the Mexican revolution. Inspired by Dr. Fatima Volkoviskii's paper 'In Search of Revolutionary Voices: Performance Practices of Mexican Singers in Cylinder Recordings' delivered at the Early Recordings Association's 'Exploring Traditional…

Huayno has its roots in the Andes during the colonial era, when indigenous peoples began to blend their music with influences brought by European settlers. During this process the Spanish guitar naturally became very prevalent, incorporating the tunings, finger-style and rhythms of the traditional Andean harp along with it. The late Alberto Juscamaita Gastelú, known as Raktako, was a renowned guitarist, composer and mentor to generations of guitarists from his home in Ayacucho, southern Peruvian…

Zulu Guitar's Pioneering Tricksters, but for this compilation of rescued songs masterfully restored from rare 78 rpm shellacs, few could imagine the diversely beautiful roots of Zulu Guitar Music emerging during the period 1950 – 1965. Story-tellers and master musicians appropriate outlaw personae, re-purpose country and western, Hawaiian and other styles, to stretch and challenge our notion of “the Zulu guitar”. Twenty-five songs (18 on vinyl) plunge us into the depths of the migrant experience…

LP version. Wewantsounds continues its extensive Meiko Kaji reissue program in partnership with Teichiku Records and Meiko Kaji herself, with the release of Gincho Wataridori, her debut album from 1972. This is the first time the album is reissued since release and it comes with its original Japanese artwork and newly remastered audio. Famous for her '70s exploitation movies, Meiko Kaji also released a string of great albums on Teichiku mixing Japanese pop and cinematic grooves. This reissue com…

Death Is Not The End release a second part collecting pre-partition film music, compiled by Gary Sullivan of Bodega Pop.

Tresor Magnetique, this compilation of unreleased tracks, archival recordings, and neglected gems from Bebey's vault, feels like a grand reveal in an ongoing narrative - a story that spans continents and generations. The compilation's name (translated as "Magnetic Treasure") sets the stage perfectly. Not only does it reference the fragile tapes discovered in the home of Bebey's son, Patrick, but it also hints at the almost gravitational pull of Bebey's art. Meticulously digitized at Abbey Road S…

A 90 minute cassette-only mixtape taking in Filipino folk, rock, country & OPM from the 1970s, originally broadcast on NTS Radio back during the early months of the pandemic. One missed out of the collection of dinte radio shows committed to tape as part of 10 year anniversary celebrations last year.

A compilation of tracks that rearrange Okinawan folk songs into Jazz Funk, crossover, and large ensemble jazz, featuring works by Kiyoshi Yamaya, who was also highlighted in "Diggers Dozen" (BBE) by the Japanese DJ Muro, known as the "King of Diggin," and "Wamono Groove: Shakuhachi & Koto Jazz Funk 1976" (180g). This collection debuts as the latest installment in the "Ryukyu Rare Groove" series, which was originally released in Japan in 2003 to great acclaim.

"It may surprise some that, after two decades of silent films, when Alam Ara broke the silence in 1931, it and every South Asian talkie that followed was what we in the West think of as a "musical." Music had been integral to the culture's staged drama going back to the Gupta Dynasty — sometime between the 4 th and 6 th Century CE. Since its inception, South Asian cinema drew heavily from Marathi, Parsi, and Bengali musical theatre and silent film screenings were often accompanied by live music …

Shidaiqu literally means "songs of the era", a term used to describe a hybrid musical genre that first began permeating through the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai in the late 1920s. Blending western pop, jazz, blues and Hollywood-inspired film soundtracks with traditional Chinese elements, the shidaiqu represented a musical and cultural merging that would go on to shape a golden age of Chinese popular song & film in the pre-communism interwar period. Waiting for Your Return brings together a wide…

Death Is Not The End platforms a selection of brooding, haunting Turkish tango recordings from the decades following the foundation of the republic in the early 1920s through to the mid 1950s.

This compilation features tracks released between 1978 and 1988 in Western France.

*2025 stock* Running a record label offers adiversified and challenging field of activity. This is particularly true when speaking of tiny independent re-issue labels where one, two or three guys have to take care of everything. Tracking down musicians, collecting their stories, writing the liner notes, creating the cover artwork, mastering the songs, promoting the release, communicating with pressing plants and distributors, and so on. Most of the tasks mean fun with the exception of one thing …

Compiled from ultra-rare dead stock pressed at a Soviet-era vinyl plant in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, this first-of-its-kind fully licensed album features a supreme selection of Uzbek disco, Tajik electronic folk, Uyghur guitar licks, Crimean Tatar jazz, Korean brass, and genre-defying styles from Soviet Central Asia. Drop the needle, and you're not just hearing rare Soviet dance music. You're journeying along the Silk Roads, revisiting raucous USSR disco nights, and immersing in grooves that inspire…

After 10 years from the release of the succesful "Obscure Cuts: Italian Arabic Disco", the mighty Beppe Loda is back with a new EP containing top notch cuts of finely chosen Middle-Eastern-influenced Italian obscure gems from the golden era of disco music. Step on the magical carpet and fly high with this new amazing vinyl by the legendary Beppe Loda.

This is a compilation of (mainly instrumental) music from 1960-80s Estonian animated films. In the mid1970s, when Tallinnfilm animation studios recruited a youthful bunch of skilled artists and cartoonists, interesting things started to happen. Contemporary themes and ironic depictions of domestic life were introduced into Estonian animation – as well as pop-art aesthetics and even psychedelic imagery. Also, composers found their chance to exercise something beyond the routine standards of pop a…

Death Is Not The End's contribution to the Blowing Up The Workshop mix series, subsequently given a cassette release on the label in 2019, finally receives a limited vinyl LP pressing. "A trip across the frequencies of Bristol's pirate radio stations via cut-ups of broadcasts, taken from the late 1980s to the early 2000s ~ also a love-letter to my childhood, an audio document of the years I spent growing up in the city."

Defining post-punk is no easy task. While punk was defined by a raw, rebellious simplicity, post-punk (1978-1986) expanded into a diverse array of sounds and ideas. It maintained punk’s independent spirit but embraced experimentation, incorporating influences from various musical and cultural traditions, resulting in a movement far more eclectic and fragmented than its predecessor. At its core, post-punk broke away from traditional rock structures, blending genres like industrial, goth, and punk…

A collection of DIY home recordings, transferred from blank and repurposed brown and black wax cylinders made during the early years of phonographic technology, between the late 1800s and early 1900s. Persons unknown singing, playing instruments, just talking, telling jokes, sending audio-letters to family overseas for in the distant future, children crying & babbling, farmyard animal noises - it's got it all.

Following the success of the 'Tokyo Glow' compilation, Wewantsounds once again teams up with Japanese Tokyo-based DJ Notoya to dig the rich Electric Bird catalogue and come with a versatile selection of sunny Jazz-Funk gems recorded between 1978 and 1987 for the label. A tasty selection featuring Yasuaki Shimizu, Toshiyuki Honda and Mikio Masuda, together with a few American musicians such as Ronnie Foster and Bobby Lyle. Most tracks make their vinyl debut outside of Japan and the album has been…

Death Is Not The End's mixtape-style selection of clips from tapes recorded live at soundsystems playing during London's Notting Hill Carnival between 1984 and 1988, originally broadcast on NTS Radio in August 2018, is the latest to be committed to cassette as part of their 10th anniversary series. Featuring sounds from the likes of Jamdown Rockers, Saxon, Java Nuclear Power, Killerwatt Turbotronic, Stereograph, Sir Coxsone, Volcano Express and more. Audio sourced with the indefatigable efforts …

Unreleased themes from Kornelije Kovac for commissioned documentary short 'Raport iz Sarajeva', directed by Miodrag Zdravkovic in 1982. This music themes precede the official songs, idents and audio logos for the XIV Winter Olympic Games Sarajevo 1984 opening ceremony made by Kornelije Kovac in his Belgrade based studio from 1982 to 1984. Sourced from the original master tapes with full color artwork by Eric Adrian Lee. Includes insert with photographs from Kornelije Kovac private collection and…

Repressed by popular demand! Lauren Laverne's comp of the week on BBC Radio 6 Music w/c 11th Jan.

Repressed by popular demand! Lauren Laverne's comp of the week on BBC Radio 6 Music w/c 11th Jan.

The second volume in a survey of the modern jazz & hard-bop scenes that emerged in the new cultural melting pot of post war London, with recordings from the end of the 1940s through to the early 1960s. Featuring representations from players whose roots lay in the East-End's jewish community alongside a wealth of talent of Caribbean and African descent playing and recording in post war London during this period. Made in partnership with the Barbican to coincide with the exhibition Postwar Modern:…

The Soninke collective consciousness finds its origins in a founding myth, a blood pact: the legend of Biida and the decadence of the empire of Ghana or Wagadu (evoked by Léopold Sédar Senghor as a land of plenty in his poem Le Kaya Magan). From the 3rd century AD, gathered in the region of Sahel, on the edge of the Sahara desert, the Soninko ruled over their kingdom and its capital Kumbi Saleh. According to folklore, they were blessed with abundant rain and nuggets of gold could be picked direc…

Death Is Not The End turns 10 years old in May and as part of the celebrations we are committing a selection of Dinte NTS Radio shows from over the years to cassette. Kicking off with this recent special Skateland Soundtapes, 1980-1986 - comprising a selection of clips from sessions held at Halfway Tree, Kingston's most storied roller skating rink during the dancehall era's golden period of the early to mid/late 1980s. Audio sourced with the indefatigable efforts of the Who Cork The Dance crew -…

An assorted mixtape-style collection of recordings from Constantin Brăiloiu's World Collection of Folk Music archive, originally broadcast on NTS Radio in July 2017, issued as part of Dinte's 10th anniversary series. Comprising field recordings made by the pioneering Romanian ethnomusicologist of English, Irish, Gaelic, Norwegian, Breton, Japanese, Italian, Swiss, Basque, Fulah, Sardinian, Estonian, Georgian, Greek, Turkish, Judaeo-Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, Russian, Hausa, Tuareg, In…

The definition of the word 'fado' is technically 'fate', though the Portuguese meaning bound up with this term is more complex. The music itself can be fairly closely compared with that of Greek rebetika - also the American blues or the original working-class tango music of Argentina and Uruguay - and similarly takes it's common subject matter from the various cruel realities of the world. Though perhaps what distinguishes fado in character is it's often poised acceptance of the pains of life ra…

The first part in a collection encompassing Akan blues, palm wine and early guitar-based highlife music, with recordings dating from the late 1920s through to the end of the 1950s.

Triángulos De Luz Y Espacios De Sombra (Triangles of Light and Spaces of Shadow) is a collection of visionary Mexican electronic music sourced from obscure cassettes, CDs, private pressings, and personal archives, presented by Séance Centre and Smiling C. These works trace an expansive scene of prescient musicians who created a unique speculative cosmology, forging Mesoamerican mythologies with innovative sonic technologies. From the mid-80s through the 90s, a network of Mexican musicians embark…

*2024 stock* Lotte Lenya (1898-1981) is the outstanding interpreter of Kurt Weill - to whom she was married - and Bertolt Brecht's songs. As an actress at the Berliner Ensemble at the end of the 1920s, she was directly involved in the creation of these works. In 1955, she decided to perform an evening of these songs in Hamburg, which became a legendary, long out-of-print recording. Norman Nitzsche from Berlin's Calyx Studio has remastered the concert and Lotte Lenya, accompanied by Roger Bean an…

A slightly revised & edited take of Death Is Not The End's Jamaican Gospel special for NTS Radio, originally broadcast for the station back in late 2016. A dusty heap of JA gospel from the 60s and early 70s. Split across two sides - all vinyl and all 45s - played through a touch of delay pedal with crackle aplenty.

The second part in a collection encompassing Akan blues, palm wine and early guitar-based highlife music, with recordings dating from the late 1920s through to the end of the 1950s.

Swiss jazz and electronic music legend, Bruno Spoerri, unveils a treasure trove of never-before-released songs in this rare collection recorded between 1976 and 1982 and including collaborations with the fabled Radio Suisse Romande-backed GIR (Groupe Instrumental Romand) which featured an all-star ensemble of local musicians, notably drummer extraordinaire Stuff Combe. Musique Légères offers a marvelous blend of easy listening jazz, joyful synth improvisations, and soulful funk ballads. Among th…