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Ceremony - Buddha Meet Rock
**Back in print !** A monster on its own ‘Ceremony-Buddha Meet Rock’ still is one of the most enigmatic record coming out of the early seventies Japanese underground. Composers Yusuke Hoguchi and Naoki Tachikawa are the main conspirators here. The album is clearly informed by the flower power counterculture, is full-on mysticism – with Buddha chants all over the place – and trippy guitar playing make room for an otherwordly experience. The album opens with a rendition of 'Holy Thursday' lifted …
Viva Boma
Viva Boma was Cos second LP, originally issued in November 1976, and added some African influences to the mix, including the cover which, designed by Alain Goutier upon a concept by Daniel Schell, depicted a trio of hipopotamus that made reference to Boma, a portuary city at the banks of the river Congo, and Bomma, Belgian word for grandmother (hence the title appearing either with one or two m's on different parts of the artwork).
The Wah Wah reissue comes housed in a beautiful reproduction of …
Babel
The origins of Cos date back to the second half of the sixties when Daniel Schell joined forces with Jean-Paul Musette, Pascale Son and Robert Pernet to form Classroom. When Classroom split, Daniel Schell and Pascale Son moved ahead and formed Cos together with Charles Loos, Alain Goutier and Bob Dartsch. They produced an experimental jazz rock sound linked to the influences above mentioned, but without being mere copycats since they always managed to keep to their own personality.
Babel was…
Kãrtëhl
Due to COVID-19, the French avant-garde band Magma was unable to perform live, so they decided to dive into the studio to create new material. This resulted in a brand new album titled Kãrtëhl, a collective album such as they have not made in a long time. The band reformed in 2020 and added new musicians to the lineup, which created opportunities for new innovative compositions. After the rather dark 2019 Zëss, this new work Kãrtëhl features bright and resolutely optimistic collective new work, …
Azimut
* 500 copies. 180 gr. Red vinyl, 50th anniversary edition * First album from the one of the best Italian jazz-rock band (formed in Rome in 71), and the first of a few masterpieces in a row, all of them being distinctive from one another. Perigeo has their sound somewhere between Free Jazz, Soft Machine, Nucleus and Miles Davis' Bitches Brew period. Rising on spacey noises, the sublime Posto Di Non Dove starts to grab you with a quiet electric piano over a Floyd-like organ and Tommaso’s superb …
The Faust Tapes
There’s something perversely fabulous about the thought of this warped masterwork wandering into 60,000 unsuspecting British homes in 1973. Faust’s second-and-a-half album hit the shops to celebrate their signing to the nascent Virgin Records, who were looking to take advantage of the zeitgeist for German music at that time. Undeterred by the fact the band’s unwillingness to engage with the commercial landscape had seen them dropped from Polydor, Branson and co cooked up a suitably spectacular m…
Heresie
Tip! Sub Rosa present a reissue of Univers Zero's second album Heresie, originally released in 1979. A classic of chamber rock music, featuring heavy use of dissonance and dark, brooding, and extremely complex melodies. "This music on this LP might have little to do with rock, and might also be a massive downer, but the quality of the writing and playing is extremely high. Michel Berckmans' solo work on oboe and bassoon work is magnificent, and Patrick Hanappier's string playing (violin and viol…
Midnight Massiera
Eighteen sacred psychedelic suppositories from the laboratory of Mad Scientist and scalpel happy pop mutilator Jean-Pierre Massiera. Including the rarest and most sought after fuzz funk, spooked surf and interplanetary prog from “The French Joe Meek” and all his schizoid split-personalities and freakish friends - The Maledictus Sound, Chico Magnetic Band, Visitors, Human Egg, The Pirhana Sound and Jesus himself.
Samadhi (LP)
* Gatefold sleeve – a faithful replica of the original edition on 180gr. Clear transparent vinyl. * Samadhi could be considered a sort of supergroup, as most of their members came from well-known bands, it were formed after the split of Raccomandata Ricevuta di Ritorno by singer Regoli and guitarist Civitenga, along with keyboard player Sabatini (from Free Love and Kaleidon), Aldo Bellanova from Teoremi on bass and drummer Ruggero Stefani (L’Uovo di Colombo), and two other members.
The album mix…
Pierrot Lunaire
** Limited edition Yellow vinyl 180 gr. numbered edition ** Stunning 1974 debut album by Pierrot Lunaire full of fantasy in the real sense of the word: sense of wonder, a feeling of journeying through worlds and states of imagination, playful experimentation, and melody above all. An overlooked gem.
La Valle Dei Templi
** Limited edition red vinyl 180 gr. numbered edition ** Perigeo were founded in Rome in 1971: five professional musicians, all of them already largely active in the jazz and rock circuits of those years, who gathered in the studio to wisely blend together the two aforementioned music genres: this is probably the first example of jazz-rock music in Italy, admittedly influenced by Miles Davis and that legendary “Bitches Brew” that just two years earlier had shocked the jazz scene worldwide.Purist…
Io Sono Nato Libero - Legacy Edition
** Limited edition green vinyl 180 gr. numbered edition** A new Legacy edition of "Io sono nato libero", historic third album by Banco del Mutuo soccorso, one of the most famous and important italian progressive rock bands.
"Banco del Mutuo Soccorso's third LP, Io Sono Nato Libero, was released only a few months after the impressive Darwin!, and featured the same lineup (brothers Vittorio and Gianni Nocenzi on keyboards, Rodolfo Maltese on guitar, Pierluigi Calderoni on drums, Renato d'Angelo on…
Galaxy My Dear
Synthesizer king J.B. Banfi, a.k.a. Giuseppe 'Baffo' Banfi, hit the record market with the great italian prog rock outfit Biglietto per l'Inferno who released a legendary LP in 1974 on Trident and have been reivindicated in several occasions since with the release of lost recordings from the era as well as unearthing an unreleased 1974 live album. The band existed between 1972 and 1975, and had both Pilly Cossa on Hammond doing the virtuoso work and Baffo's keyboard explorations adding sound tex…
Atomic System
Finally available again, this rare Italian prog classic! New Trolls Atomic System were an offshoot of the New Trolls, one of Italy's best-known progressive outfits. A messy split between the two main members lead to an uneasy compromise where the splinter faction were known as 'N.T. Atomic System', although initial copies of the album had a sticker on the front with the full name... While the New Trolls were sporadically good, New Trolls Atomic System is a stormer of an album, radiating energy, …
Tempi Dispari
** Limited edition black vinyl 180 gr. ** Tempi Dispari is a live album from 1974 by the Atomic System variation, a line up formed by guitarist Vittorio DeScalzi after three members left to form what would end up being Ibis. DeScalzi is aided by future Nova keyboards player Renato Rosset, who influences this variation in a more jazzy oriented way than any other New Trolls incarnation. Two side-long suites (including a theme from Concerto Grosso 1) of excellent and innovative music, reminding me…
Gudrun
* 180 Gr. Vinyl Transparent Red Vinyl. Numbered Edition* Along with the likes of Franco Battiato, Opus Avantra and Piccho dal Pozzo, Pierrot Lunaire were one of the artists that contributed to the small, but artistically significant, avant progressive scene of Italy in the mid-70s. The second album of Pierrot Lunaire of 1977, long out of print, is finally reissued! One of the most important Italian electronic progressive, formed in Rome in the early '70s by Arturo Stalteri and Gaio Chiocchio, th…
Mattanza
* 600 copies, numbered edition. Remastered edition, Orange vinyl *. Napoli Centrale were formed in Naples in 1974 on the initiative of James Senese (sax, vocals) and Franco Del Prete (drums) after their experience in another band called the Showmen 2. They joined forces with American keyboardist Mark Harris and British bassist Tony Walmsley and in 1975 released an eponymous debut album blending in an original way Mediterranean roots and jazz rock. James Senese’s father was an American soldier wh…
Area Di Servizio
* Clear red vinyl edition * "Area di Servizio" is a truly unique release in the history of ‘70s Italian music: a record consisting of twelve Italian-sung compositions, mainly the result of the collaboration between Riccardo “Rolli” Pirolli and Franco Battiato: the first came from the Cristalli Fragili group, which Battiato wanted as his musicians in the early seventies. The album recording sessions lasted a few days, and several songs were written and arranged directly in the studio. The result …
Gioia e Rivoluzione
Temporary nicer price * 500 numbered copies, 180 gr. Red vinyl, numbered edition * Gioia e Rivoluzione is the third compilation of the Jazz fusion band Area. This album concentrates exclusively on the albums released on the Cramps label. Just like the first compilation "Anto/Logicamente", this album contains "Citazione da George L. Jackson", the non-LP b-side of "L'internazionale". "L'Internazionale" appears as well, but instead of the studio version released on the single (which has only re-app…
Anto/Logicamente
* 500 numbered copies, 180 gr. Red vinyl, numbered edition * Anto/Logicamente is the first compilation of the Jazz fusion band Area and was released in 1977. As the title suggests, the track selection focuses more on the tracks that were "hidden, ignored by the critics and many others", as told on the booklet. "Anto/Logicamente" is a play on words based on "antologia" (compilation, in this case), "anto" (not) and "logicamente" (with sense). Noticeably, this album contains "Citazione da George L.…