MUSIC

Mekonium is Michael Anklin’s solo debut. He is a drummer, electronic musician and producer living in Switzerland. To expand his sound spectrum, he uses field recordings, analog synthesizer, tape machines, as well as self-constructed instruments and sound objects. His sound is characterized by prepared acoustic drums, various objects and sound manipulations. Anklin collaborates with artists such as Dim Grimm, Kilchhofer, Janiv Oron and Wordcolour. He is one of the founding members of the open structured band «UFO» and the science-fiction ritual band «Liebeslied». He produces music for theater, dance and sound installations. Inspired by the pureness of ritual and traditional music, Mekonium sounds like a documentation of a fictional ceremony. Topics such as temporal consciousness, minimalism and anti-virtuosity as well as sounds barely perceptible by our auditory system influenced the production process Drones, soundscapes and slowly morphing repetitive patterns establish a state of time. To represent the concept of reduction, each track starts off with a single instrument or sounding object on which the composition slowly started to grow. Like grapes fermented into wine, acoustic sounds developed into different sound manipulations, still preserving the „taste“ of the original sound sources. The Tracks „Exon“ and „Zymosis“ contain a musical deconstruction of Lucas Rössner’s bassoon. Sounds from the Instrument were dissected with different types of microphones and rejoined into a collage. Hagneck, a hydroelectric powerplant next to Lake Biel was stocked with a number of contact microphones resulting in a huge powerful drone which built the fundament of the track. Mekonium deals with the feeling, condition and dilation of time. Musical fragments are played simultaneously at different speed, acoustic sounds were frozen, deformed, stretched and rearranged.

Budapest, Hungary-based producer Laurine Frost, popular for his series of works based on the story of his imaginary daughter's life, has released her latest album under the name Haramia Tapes for the first time in four years! A dope blend of dub, broken beats, and jungle. 7 groovy, cleverly stripped down, hypnotic tracks. Mastering and cutting at by Helmut Erler. Limited to 300 copies.

Listeners who know much of anything about Bryn Jones’ work as Muslimgauze know that he was prolific in both his work and in the way he sent out his work to labels and other interested parties (it’s one of the reason some of that body of work is still being sorted through and released 20+ years after his passing). Fittingly enough for an artist that feverishly productive and often taciturn to the point of frustration, he didn’t tend to give much more information than handwritten track titles on the sleeve of a DAT. Why he would submit multiple copies of the same or similar tracks to those he worked with, often in totally different configurations, is now a permanent mystery, but it does lead to Jackal the Invizible, essentially a compilation of material from multiple other releases* that Jones had also submitted at the time on its own DAT. All of the songs here were released at least 20 years ago (a few over 30!) and as with practically all Muslimgauze releases they were limited and/or hard to get ahold of now. Jackal the Invizible is both a way to issue those tracks on vinyl as the Archive Series has been consistently doing, and in interesting look into how Jones would organize and sequence his albums. The track listing here was faithfully reproduced from the way Jones titled these tracks on this submission, which is how you get Fedayeen’s “Bharboo of Pakistan Railways” here called “Fedayeen Bharboo of Pakistan Railways 2001” (although that album came out in 1998 and Jones sadly was not making anything by 2001, only leading to more questions). This compilation as with most of his work was submitted without comment, so it can be asked, was it intended to be a compilation? Had he at some point decided he preferred these tracks in this arrangement rather than on their other tapes? Did he produce so much work and/or was so disorganized he simply forgot this batch had been mailed off before? Did he have a standing arrangement with his postal worker and just handed him whatever was closest to the door each week? (Well, probably not that last one.) One thing we don’t have to question is the quality of the tracks here, regardless of familiarity. The new juxtapositions can be quite striking; shifting suddenly from the harshly distorted blurts of “Resume and Shaduf Fatah Guerrilla 1999” to the cooly nocturnal atmosphere of “Abu Nidal 1987” and then to the dubby bass pulses and rattling hand percussion of “Hand of Fatima 1999” (possibly the most misleading to longtime listeners - it has indeed been heard on it’s almost-namesake album, but there it’s known as “Mint Tea With Gadaffi”) is an experience unlike much else in Jones’ oeuvre, even though all three modes are ones he has worked in before. The result doesn’t touch on every single mode explored throughout the vast body of Jones’ work (you’d need a box set for that), but does prove to be a multifaceted experience that also serves as an excellent introduction to or refresher on Muslimgauze as a whole.

Arguably one of the highpoints from both these UK sonic pioneers (John Bolotten aka The Rootmsan and Bryn Jones aka Muslimgauze). This is the first vinyl issue of original material previously published in 1997 on CD by Third Eye Music (Rootsman’s own CD imprint). Another collaboration between Muslimgauze and The Rootsman following the Amahar release.

Af Ursin, a project of Timo Van Luijk, who also works with Andrew Chalk in the units Elodie and Mirror, and organizer of La Scie Dorée, released this work in 2017. The work is a masterpiece in which his worldview is deployed without regret, with improvisations that gradually build up heat with an unobtrusive yet drone-like energy, and sound works that have the feel of In Camera/Mirror. The natural analog soundtrack further enhances the perfection of the piece.

Three introspective instrumental compositions for English horn, flute, percussion, double bass, Hammond organ. Performed, recorded and mixed by Timo van Luijk at Kulta Saha, 2010-2012. Remastered May 2020.

This version of the ‘imâra starts with the qahili introduction in the form of a prayer to the prophet, then the tawhid (the affirmation of divine unicity) : « lâ illâha illah llah ». This same dikhr (psalmody) quickens its pace, at first very slowly, then more and more rapid until the name of Allah is repeated to a binary rhythm. The fuqâra will shortly retain only hu (from Allahu) as it is gradually imposed by the qutb (the pole). The hu is transformed by this special ‘imâra alchemy into the unique breath of the spirant hamza (the sound emission technique is purely abdominal), and then, when the qutb claps his hands, it becomes more and more prominent. Associated with the name of Allah, the hu asserts itself by accelerating and quickening the pace to the point of metamorphosing itself into hamza. The balance between the soloist who sings the mystical poems and the rest of the assembly is progressively established, and then the accelration of the hamza finally throws the participants into the abyss of ecstasy.

The Suwa Daiko is a tradition of Kagura (= sacred music and dance) and drums of the SUWA TAISHA Shrine that enshrines the life of the TAKEMINAKATA (= one of god in Japanese mythology). It is a folk performing art that is recorded in an ancient document of the “Koshin-etsu-Senroku (=Koshin-etsu War Record)”. The document says that it is also medieval military music. Shingen TAKEDA（1521-1573）, who was a great warlord in 16th-century known for his equestrian corps said to be the strongest in Sengoku period, formed 21 people of Suwa Daiko and raised the spirit and willingness of the Takeda army soldiers by Suwa Daiko at the battle of Kawanakajima (1553-1564). Mr. Daihachi OGUCHI has collected traditional drums with different tones of various sizes and created an original group drum. He opened 15 branches nationwide, 12 branches overseas such as San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Singapore etc. and helped spread the Suwa Daiko world wide. Osuwa Daiko Preservation Society is an intangible cultural property that inherits the will of Daihachi OGUCHI. This album was recorded at the Osuwa Daiko Preservation Society dojo in Okaya City, Nagano. One of the two songs is created as DTM by veteran jazz pianist Masahiko SATO (studied at Berklee College of Music in 1966-68 and has many awards). His DTM adds unique musicality to this traditional sound and makes it lively and original. Also, the artwork was licensed to use “Shingen TAKEDA statue” drawn by Tohaku HASEGAWA (=Tohaku HASEGAWA (1539-1610) was the highest painter played an active part from the Azuchi Momoyama to the early Edo period. Now many of his works designated as national treasures.) It is an important cultural property in the Seikei-in Temple at Mt. Koya.

Pauline Oliveros's The Wanderer is available on LP for the first time since it was originally released in 1984. Cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity. An utterly essential document of early American minimalism from Pauline Oliveros. The Wanderer is the sister record to Accordion & Voice (IMPREC 140LP). "The Wanderer" is based on a single modal scale (B C# D D# E F# G#) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of ¾ and ⅜. Part I, "Song", is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, "Dance", demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of cross-rhythms characteristic of jigs, reels, batucadas, Bulgars, klezmer forms, Cajun dances, and music of other diverse cultures. The Wanderer was composed in November, 1982 especially for the Springfield Accordion Orchestra, directed by Sam Falcetti. This recording documents The Wanderer's world premiere, as it was performed January 27, 1983 at Marymount Manhattan Theatre. The orchestra consists of twenty accordions, two bass accordions, and five percussionists, with Pauline Oliveros as soloist, Sam Falcetti conducting. "Horse Sings From Cloud", written in 1975, is one of Oliveros' best known works. Like most of her Sonic Meditations, it can be performed vocally and/or instrumentally, solo or in collaboration. A solo version of "Horse Sings From Cloud" has been recorded on Accordion & Voice. An early version of the score reads, "Sustain a tone or sound until any desire to change it disappears. When there is no longer any desire to change the tone or sound, then change it." This time, "Horse Sings From Cloud" is performed in ensemble. Joining Pauline Oliveros on bandoneon are Heloise Gold on Harmonium, Julia Haines on accordion, and Linda Montano on concertina. This quartet version incorporates the microtonal differences in tuning of the selected instruments, creating shimmering reed sounds somewhat similar to the shimmering of a Balinese gamelan.

Pauline Oliveros' Accordion & Voice is available on LP for the first time since it was originally released in 1982. Cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity. Pauline Oliveros was an electronic music pioneer, accordionist, composer and educator who resided in Kingston, New York. Her instrument was tuned in Just Intonation and she often included it in her meditative improvisational music. Her music is not meditative in the sense that it is intended for listening to while meditating, rather each piece is a form of meditation, such as her aptly titled Sonic Meditations. A central figure in post-war electronic art music, Oliveros is one of the original members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center (along with Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley, and Anthony Martin), which was the resource on the US West coast for electronic music during the 1960s. The Center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and is now called the Center for Contemporary Music. Oliveros often improvises with the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed, in her performances and recordings.

"Accordion & Voice was the first of my recordings as a soloist. I was living in an A-frame house in a meadow just below Mount Tremper at Zen Mountain Center. I had a wonderful view of the graceful saddle mountain top. When away on a performance trip I would imagine the mountain as I played 'Rattlesnake Mountain'. I followed the feelings and sensations of my many experiences of the mountain -- the changing colors of the season, the breezes and winds blowing through the grasses and trees. 'Horse Sings From Cloud' taught me to listen to the depth of a tone and to have patience. Rather than initiating musical impulses of motion, melody and harmony I wanted to hear the subtlety of a tone taking space and time to develop. The tones linger and resonate in the body, mind, instrument and performance space. My thanks to Important Records for bringing these pieces to be heard again." --Pauline Oliveros, 2007

オリジナル盤カセットは最早入手不可能にも近い一枚！配給元最終ストック。ウクライナ出身の作曲家、映像作家、ライターであり、70年代中盤から90年代にかけてスペイン・マドリッドの前衛音楽シーンで絶大な影響を誇っていたIury Lechが同国地下実験音楽の聖地〈Hyades Arts〉より1989年に発表した1作目のアルバム『Otra Rumorosa Superficie』が〈Utopia Records〉からアナログ・リイシュー。〈Grabaciones Accidentales〉の〈El Cometa De Madrid〉（マドリッドの彗星）シリーズで紹介されたアクトを筆頭に筆頭に独創的なアーティストたちが世界でも類を見ないクリエイティヴなシーンを興隆させたマドリッド音響派周辺のシーンを代表する１枚。先に再発されていた次作同様、天上風景を醸すモダン・クラシカルの傑作ですが、こちらにはよりアヴァンギャルドかつ仄暗い影を滲ませており、深い内省を感じさせる一枚となっています。そこ知れず幽玄にして幻影的なモダン・クラシカルの傑作。180g重量盤。限定300部。

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Deep Listening, Important Records offer a definitive double-LP combining the classic, complete original 1989 release with selected tracks from the Deep Listening Band's 1991 album, The Ready Made Boomerang. Recorded in a cistern, this double-LP reverberates with brilliant sonic clarity and masterfully improvised performances combining live electronics, vocals, trombone. and accordion. Deep Listening is a classic in the fields of improvisation, minimalism, ambient/drone, and modern classical. Listen with attentiveness, listen while lying down, listen with headphones -- as recording engineer Al Swanson entices the listener to become a virtual performer in selecting the many different ways to perceive these phenomenal tracks. Whatever you do, listen deeply. Packaged in a gatefold sleeve with original and updated recollections from the performers, the engineer, and a mesostic from John Cage, to whom these recordings are inextricably linked.

Having assembled 99 collaborators for their previous album The Consuming Flame, on their new album Baltimore-based electronic duo Matmos focus upon just one person: Polish polymath Bogusław Schaeffer. Celebrated in his native land but not widely known beyond, Schaeffer innovated for decades across the boundaries of classical composition, electronic experimentation, and radical theater in playfully form-breaking ways. At the suggestion of Michal Mendyk of the Instytutu Adama Mickiewicza in Warsaw, Matmos were given access to the entire catalogue of Schaeffer’s recorded works to use as they saw fit. Neither performances nor remixes, the resulting encounters between past and present take tissue samples of DNA from past compositions and mutate them into entirely new organisms that throb with an alien vitality. What emerges across this suite of eight new songs is a composite portrait of the utopian 1960s Polish avant-garde and the contemporary dystopian cultural moment regarding each other across a distance. Like the anagrams of the letters of Bogusław Schaeffer’s name that were re-assembled to create some of the song titles, the album itself is a musical re-assemblage of component parts into possible but unforeseen new shapes. Adding harp from Irish harpist Úna Monaghan, erhu, viola and violin from Turkish multi-instrumentalist Ulas Kurugullu, and electronic processes from Baltimore instrument builder Will Schorre and Horse Lords wunderkind Max Eilbacher, the resulting arrangements constantly toy with scale as they move from the close-mic-ing of ASMR and the intimacy of chamber music to the immensity of processed drones and oceanic field-recordings that close the album. Offering a “life review” of production styles, Regards / Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer builds temporary shelters out of the panoramic wreckage of modernist composition, sixties tape music, seventies dub, eighties industrial music, nineties postrock and dark ambient, 2000s era glitch fetishism, and contemporary post-everything collage sensibilities. The contrary poles of humor and morbidity for which Matmos are known show up on the album’s distinct sides. Balancing structure and texture, side one of the LP is spiked with plunderphonic surprise edits and unexpectedly pop pleasures, while side two opens out into more extended, sprawling and ominous forms. On the opening track “Resemblage / Parasamblaż” the choral harmonies and analogue electronics of Schaeffer’s work jostle against distinctly contemporary sub-bass drops and spiky high-end fizzes. But just as often historical dividing lines seem to blur, soften or melt, as when “If All Things Were Turned to Smoke / Gdyby wszystko stało się dymem” cuts and refolds fragments of harp and aquatic musique concrète from Schaeffer’s 1970 composition “Heraklitiana” into a faintly swinging polychronic elegy. Throughout, nostalgia is repudiated in favor of creative re-use. To facilitate the transcultural exchange that is the album’s essential premise, all song titles and liner-notes are provided in both English and Polish. The album was mastered by Rashad Becker and features illustration and design by Robert Beatty.

Mouse on Mars’ Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner return with their most inventive album to date, Dimensional People. The new album finds the Berlin-based duo reunited with Thrill Jockey, a powerful aesthetic partnership marked by such seminal albums as Radical Connector (2004), Idiology (2001), and Niun Niggung (2000). After a series of notorious dance floor releases, Dimensional People reveals them working deep within their own vernacular, digging into fertile terrain of their inexhaustible vault of digital and acoustic experimentation, and charismatically making elemental components new again. This album makes clear how their craft is of discovery, of finding new contexts for places, sounds, memories, sensations, ambiences, technologies, relationships, and of course, people. A number of prolific guests joined the production: Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Zach Condon (Beirut), Spank Rock, Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National), Swamp Dogg, Eric D. Clarke, Lisa Hannigan, Amanda Blank, Sam Amidon, Ensemble Musikfabrik, and about 20 more musical collaborators. The cast of characters are as unique as they are vast, clearly a rich quarry for the prodigious duo. Dimensional People, initially titled new konstruktivist socialism, gives each participating guest a platform to imprint the album as whoever or whatever they want to be: a narrator, a perfect moment, a jam, an ensemble member, an abstract sound, a multiple persona, a mood, a soloist. Originally premiering as a spatial composition using object-based mixing technology playing with the possibilities of sonic design and collective musicianship, the recording expands upon these ideas. Dimensional People expresses itself as a dynamic 50-piece orchestra, telling a story in sound. Each player is a multifaceted character, the recording an imagined stage, and the production is direction, lighting, and setting changes. Mouse on Mars offer sound as a means to encourage open-minded societies, aided by cutting-edge technology including their own MoMinstruments music software or a spatial mixing technique called object based mixing, with which a spatial version of the work was created. It is a conceptual puzzle composed around one harmonic spectrum within one rhythmic scheme, mostly in the tempo of 145bpm (inspired by Chicago footwork, so the dance floor is not entirely absent). Looking ahead, Dimensional People will also be realized through installation, presenting the work as an immersive listening experience, as well as performance.

In 2004 Jan St.Werner and Andi Toma, aka Mouse On Mars, celebrate their 10th anniversary. Many will claim their music already was so revolutionary and pioneering back in 1994, that it could well have been written today without sounding the slightest bit dated whatsoever. Starting as an avant-garde experiment in electronic music and philosophy, Mouse On Mars has evolved into one of the biggest music exports from Germany. After a decade of producing music, the duo have released eight full length records including their newest: Radical Connector. In true Mouse On Mars style, Jan St.Werner and Andi Toma came up with a perfect way to celebrate their anniversary. In conjunction with the prestigious Kunsthalle Düsseldorf they worked on an art exhibition called "doku / fiction: Mouse On Mars reviewed and remixed" in which artists delivered their visions of Mouse On Mars, but and here's the special twist (or should we say 'twift') without being able to use Mouse On Mars' music or to generate any sound. The exhibition opened on April 3rd to huge acclaim in both the art and music worlds alike and, as such, constitutes the perfect start for the launch of Mouse On Mars' new album Radical Connector. Due for release in the second half of 2004, it is the follow up to 2001's Idiology. Critical acclaim has been heaped on Mouse On Mars for their significant contribution to the development of electronic music, their importance for the German music scene as a whole, and for their innovations using live instrumentation in performance and recording long before it became common place in the power book scene. Mouse On Mars are true innovators. Jan St.Werner and Andi Toma provide positive proof that despite it being an incredibly difficult undertaking, it is nevertheless possible to write and perform sophisticated music as part of a theoretical framework and still rock like hell. Anyone who has ever been to a Mouse On Mars show will testify to the latter; anyone who has ever talked to Jan St.Werner or Andi Toma will confirm the former. Mouse On Mars' unique way of creating music demonstrates that intelligence and playfulness are not mutually exclusive terms. Their music is both challenging and funny - complexly layered yet with a simple driving beat. Mouse On Mars has a unique vision and a unique way of expressing this vision, resulting in an unmistakeable sound which functions on a universal level and makes people move their minds and their bodies. In a musical genre not noted for longevity, Mouse On Mars has not only found their own distinctive voice, but have remained a force of imaginative innovations for a decade. The new album Radical Connector includes nine new tracks which took Jan and Andi three years to write and produce in their famous St. Martin studio in Düsseldorf. Long-time musical collaborator Dodo Nkishi was part of the recording team once again, and the album fe atures both his drumming and his strangely recorded vocals most prominently in the aptly named "Wipe This Sound". Never has Mouse On Mars written a more danceable track with such irresistible drive. Expect to see dance floors from Tokyo to Santiago de Chile full to overflowing. Sonig recording artist Niobe also participated in the recording her wonderfully aloof vocals ("the end is near...") adorn two tracks. With Radical Connector Mouse On Mars is taking an important step forward both in terms of musical vision and international standing. Their Touring will focus for the first time on North America. Making appearances not only with Drummer Dodo, but as both a duo and as DJ's. When you show up remember to bring your dance shoes and your thinking cap! If in 1994 Mouse On Mars sounded like 2004, then Radical Connector is a portent of what the year 2014 will bring. Enjoy!

Tibor Szemző presents two compositions on his new album Snap #2 – The Other Shore and the first release of his CUBA. As the title implies, Snap #2 can be considered a sequel to his cult album Snapshot from the Island (released in 1987, 2000 and 2020). In that first album the island was a metaphor for isolation and now Snap #2 offers Szemző’s reflections of his visits to real islands, Cuba in 1988-1990 and Japan in 1992-1994. As usual, Tibor Szemző processed the themes both visually and musically and has presented them many times live as cinematographic performances. The previous version of The Other Shore was released in 1999 on CD. On this album the original recording from 1997 is used; it has been recomposed, remixed and remastered and some additional recordings have been included. The core of Szemző’s Gordian Knot ensemble of the mid-nineties (Tibor Szemző on bass flute, Péter Magyar on drums and Tamás Tóth on bass guitar) has been enlarged by a string section and additional percussionists. The Other Shore composition has a multilayered texture; it starts with strings and is followed by prerecorded voices reciting the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law (Myôhô-Renge-Kyô in Japanese), the most important sutra of Mahayana Buddhism. Then percussion introduces the basic beat of the piece and the voice of the 102 year-old Buddhist priest Ônishi Ryôkei giving a lecture on Kannon sutra is heard. The following uneven entries of drums and bass guitar are like paint brush strokes in Zen calligraphy. The long tones of Szemző’s bass flute enters the piece as the last element suggesting itself as a connecting thread through all previous layers. When Tibor Szemző first visited Cuba in 1988 he had just started shooting film on 8mm, something of a personal diary. When he met Jonas Mekas in Budapest a few years later, he realized that this footage could be screened publicly and also be an integral part of live performances. CUBA, presented on the Snap #2 album, is the recording from 2000 of one such performance and was remixed by the author in 2021. It is as similar to and yet different from The Other Shore. The Gordian Knot band seemingly structures the piece in the same way, but the resulting sound is much heavier especially thanks to drummer Péter Magyar. Nevertheless, the contributions of Szemző on bass flute, Mihály Huszár on electric bass and T. Bali on prepared electric guitar also inject the proper rock sting. Incorporated Havanna street sounds and local radio broadcasts recorded by the author provide even more steamy roughness to the sound of Szemző’s CUBA. The cover design of the Snap #2 album with photo reproductions from Szemző’s films reflects the aesthetics of the Snapshot from the Island album. This vinyl LP runs at 45 RPM for better sound quality.

This sprawling collection by Belgian loner blues savant Bram Devens aka Ignatz encapsulates the mystery, murk, and melancholy of his uncanny craft at its most windswept and wayward. Originally issued via Goaty Tapes in September of 2015, this long-anticipated vinyl edition expands the saga with an additional 17 minutes of archival material. Deven’s palette remains constant throughout: feathery fingerpicking, modal loops, and intuitive six-string navigations interspersed with candlelit passages of mournful voice, alternately whispered, mumbled, moaned. His is an aesthetic of embers and resin, cracked masks and distant lights, of what’s left behind and what lingers on. I Live In A Utopia was recorded following a relocation from his longtime base of Brussels to Landen, with a second child due soon: “I remember the weather being nice and having just bought a hammock.” The change of scenery seeded a promise of slower days and lighter times – no utopia perhaps, but a sense of faint hope glowing on the horizon. The songs slide between loose acoustic spirituals and smoky basement ragas, late afternoon haze and midnight moons, a seesawing restlessness reflected in the titles (“I Have Found True Love,” “Time Does Not Bring Relief,” “We Used To Smoke Inside”). The fidelity is grainy but vivid, refracted by tape warp and Flemish dust. As always, Deven’s playing is deceptively elegant, raw but precise, attuned to resonance, radiance, and negative space. Echoes of Fahey and Jandek reverberate in certain moments but ultimately the world Ignatz maps is one incomparably his own. A landscape both doomed and dawning, weary but undefeated, tracing outlines of lengthening shadows. “I walk in the sunshine,” he sings, uneasily. This is music of a rare inner wilderness, poised at cryptic crossroads, devoted to its ghosts. I Live In A Utopia stands as an apex work by one of the underground’s most veiled and visionary talents.

OOIOO has always created a musical language all its own. Under the leadership of Yoshimi, also a founding member of Boredoms, the group has recorded six albums that have subverted expectations and warped perceptions of what constitutes pop and experimental music. Four years of work went into making Gamel, their bold new album inspired by the Javanese style of gamelan and the first new music from Yoshimi in over five years. Gamelan is an ancient form that has inspired a great many composers and musicians over the past century, from Erik Satie and Claude Debussy to Mouse on Mars and Sun City Girls. The introduction of this traditional form transformed the group into a super tribe, side-stepping the road between the past and the future. Their focus is not to replicate these ancient styles, but to incorporate them into their consistently inventive, constantly shifting musical frameworks. They take their love of indigenous music into an entirely new dimension by freely weaving organic and electric tones into a vivid tapestry, employing their keen sense of color and texture.

While previous OOIOO albums have been largely studio creations, Gamel is the most accurate portrayal of the band’s overwhelming, forceful live presence they have released yet. Yoshimi leads her minimalistic rhythm ensemble by making quick, impulsive shifts in tone and attack, the group acting as one mind under her expert instruction. While the gamelan elements will be brand new to many listeners, the band offsets the bizarre with familiar, at times even nostalgic and childlike, melodies. Gamel is euphoric, bursting at the seams with an exhilarating frenzy that is universal yet uniquely their own. OOIOO’s music is reflected in the ear of the beholder, with each listener taking away something different.

Yoshimi began her music career in 1986 playing drums in UFO or Die with vocalist Eye, and later joined him in the revolutionary noise-pop group Boredoms. Her explosive drum performances captivated audiences and even inspired Wayne Coyne to name a now-famous Flaming Lips album in her honor. While the band’s tours of the United States are infrequent, they are as The New York Times has stated, transcendent. 

Imagine a feather floating from outer space and landing on earth. What's going on? Which bird did this feather come from? That's what OOIOO's (pronounced oh-oh-eye-oh-oh) music is like? so colorful and shiny that you can't even see what is happening.

OOIOO's Gold and Green reveals the group's hard-to-categorize and refreshing avant-garde rock music, which adeptly incorporates elements of punk and more traditional tribal music. Their rhythms are unique and the organic interplay with the vocals is compelling. The music is complex and challenging and playful and childlike. Previously released only in Japan, Gold and Green includes guest appearances including Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms), Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto), and Sean Lennon. The album packaging, designed by Yoshimi, is a beautiful miniature gatefold album jacked filled with drawings and photographs by Yoshimi and other artists.

OOIOO began as a fictitious band for a photo shoot for Switch magazine in 1996. An all-female four-piece ensemble started by Yoshimi, the Boredoms' drummer, the band quickly gained attention by being the opening act for Sonic Youth in 1997. On Gold and Green, Yoshimi shows off her musical imagination and virtuosity with her songwriting, as well as by playing the guitar, flute, and trumpet, singing, and adding a number of percussion elements. Yoshimi is joined in OOIOO by the striking Kayano on guitar and vocals, the petite and powerful Maki on bass, and the amazing Yoshico on drums.

OOIOO toured the United States in 2004 for the first time in over five years in support of their recent release, Kila Kila Kila. Their soldout tour performances were notable for their unique exuberance and captivating stage presence. Starting off with a vocals-only polyrhythmic song, the band struck a chord like no other. They will be recording a new album for release in the fall of 2006. 

音楽フリーク注目のレーベル、Warp傘下の〈Disciples〉からPhewの最新作『Vertigo KO』がリリース！

"このアルバムは、2017年から2019年、10年代の終わり、この閉塞的な期間に制作された音のスケッチです。
言い換えるなら、幻想に浸るでもなく、音楽へ逃避するでもなく、また世界観を提示するものでもなく、2010年代後半のある個人のドキュメンタリーミュージックです。
このアルバムの隠されたメッセージは、「なんてひどい世界、でも生き残ろう」です。” - Phew

日本のアンダーグラウンド・ミュージック界の伝説的なアーティスト、Phew。1978年に大阪で最も初期のパンク・グループの一つであるアーント・サリー (Aunt Sally) のフロントを務めたのを皮切りに、80年代にはソロ・アーティストとして坂本龍一、コニー・プランク、CANのホルガー・シューカイ、ヤキ・リーベツァイト、アインシュテュルツェンデ・ノイバウテンのアレクサンダー・ハッケ、DAFのクリス・ハースなど、多くの著名なアーティストとのコラボレーションを行い、近年では、レインコーツのアナ・ダ・シルヴァ、ジム・オルーク、イクエ・モリ、オーレン・アンバーチ、ボアダムス/OOIOO/SaicobabのYoshimi (Yoshimi P-We) などとのコラボレーションも行っている彼女が、最新作のリリースを発表。

本作は、これまでに、ブラック・ロッジ、ボグダン・ラチンスキー、ヒズ・ネイム・イズ・アライヴといったカルト・ヒーローたちの未発表音源を世に発表して音楽ファンから一目置かれてきたレーベル〈Disciples〉の審美眼に適った初の日本人アーティスト作品となる。

Phewの80年代初期のニューウェイブ指向の作品には、日本のみならず海外のコアな音楽フリークやレーベルから多くの関心が寄せられており、コラボレートしてきた著名なアーティストたちの数々も印象的だが、〈Disciples〉は『Light Sleep』『Voice Hardcore』といった近年の作品は、彼女の素晴らしいキャリアの中でもモダン・クラシックと呼ぶべき傑作であり、Phewが今、再び最盛期を迎えていることを確信し、本作のリリースへと繋がった。〈Disciples〉が今回のリリースにおいて探求したいと思ったのは、まさに彼女の今なのだ。『Vertigo KO』は、前述の2枚のアルバムと同じ時期に録音された楽曲と、今回のリリース用に制作の新曲を収録。アルバムには20ページのブックレットが付属しており、Phewについての文章と、表紙にもなっている塩田正幸の写真が収録。

Originally recorded and mixed at ZSF Produkt Studio 1995. First released in 1996 by the A.I.P.R. label in German in an edition of 200 copies. A very rare record nowadays. This beautiful re-issue comes in a completely handmade cover. The front cover has a metal mesh attached to it. The cover is spray painted on both sides and is completed with alluminum adhesive tape and stickers. Remastered at Munemihouse in 2019 by Masami Akita. Edition of 200 copies.

Vertigo is album number 18 for Australian jazz trio, The Necks. They like to take a simple idea and allow it to develop organically through improvisation. They don’t know where they’re going when they set off but they always seem to get there. Their music is very human, it allows room for space, it’s ambiguous allowing the listener to interpret it in their own way.

Limited edition gold vinyl with embossed sleeve. After leaving the band, Damo Suzuki himself said, "No one else can reach that kind of space. It's a new dimension." He also said that this album is Can's masterpiece.

Originally released on Prestige in 1957, this is the third LP from NYC street performer and avant-garde/minimalist composer Moondog. Perhaps the least accessible of his early releases, this album is made up of percussive jams, usually on instruments of his own creation, street sounds, poetry, and Far East melodies, despite opening with a swinging number that is, oddly, the most bizarre thing on the album. Another classic from Moondog reissued with its original Andy Warhol artwork. Limited edition of 1,000 on purple and green starburst vinyl.