MUSIC

“RARE & LOST TAPES” is a collection of singles by the legendary group CORTEX never released on album. This album brings together previously unreleased and rare recordings such as "Les Oiseaux Morts" (Alternative Take 76) released only as a Test Pressing, "Mary & Jeff" (Fender Rhodes Version 77) recorded for TV, or "Californie" & "Stevie" released for the Side Project CARIBOU in 7Inch...

"As a discarded record collection of notorious Cafe Extase crossed their path, Left Bank constructed their own warped version of club music. The era was acid-jazz, p-funk and rare groove, the records covered in thick layers of mold and dust. Recorded a few streets from where the action once took place, Kelder Extase forms a musical resurrection of a basement that has disappeared."

After his first album on BLESSYOU "Turquoise", Mogwaa aka Seungyoung Lee from Seoul is back with another stellar contribution this time re-visiting his earlier days of musical appreciation in Reggae music. This album is another entirely instrumental work with 8 tracks, effortlessly displaying his confidence in the studio when it comes to dreamy dubbed out ambient sounds intertwined with heavy digi/stepper and even dancehall influences. A refreshing treat to the ear when it comes to contemporary productions as Mogwaa approaches the Jamaican genre with a refined aesthetic of his own. From Korea with much craft and dedication for the music, a pleasure to have him back. Mastered at Manmade mastering.

エヴァーグリーンなインディ・ポップの鑑と言える大変秀逸な内容です！黄金期の〈Captured Tracks〉を代表するマスターピース『Nocturne』でもお馴染み、シューゲイズ/ドリーム・ポップを愛する者たちが一度は通るであろう名バンド「Wild Nothing」による実に5年ぶりとなった最新アルバム『Hold』が堂々アナログ・リリース。2018年の前作『Indigo』に続く5枚目のスタジオ・アルバム！Molly BurchやBecca Mancari、Tommy Davidson (Beach Fossils)、Hatchieといった豪華ゲストが結集。Young GuvやNew Orderのファンにもレコメンドしたい、メロディーを前面に押し出した底抜けに明るくユーフォリックなソフィスティ/ドリーム・ポップ作品に仕上がっています。

Nocturne, the sophomore album by Wild Nothing, is a window into singer/songwriter Jack Tatum's "ideal world" of pop music. Written largely while living in Savannah, GA during 2011, the songs that became Nocturne speak to a new Wild Nothing where the lines between Jack's influences and personality have been further blurred. The album features some open references to past music just as his critically acclaimed debut Gemini did, but it's also an album that feels much less rooted in anything in particular and, well, more adult. Gemini was written before there were Wild Nothing fans or even a live band; Nocturne is different. With an unexpected fan base to turn to, Jack spent more time perfecting his craft. The obsessiveness of Nocturne is inherent in it's gentle harmonies, orchestrated synths, wandering voice, and songs that speak of his post-Gemini experiences as he explores new paradoxes of pop. And yet, Nocturne isn't obvious, it is a strange and distinctive musical beast, the product of an obsessive pop vision that creates its own reality.

With this new solar album, Brazilian singer-songwriter Lucas Santtana wishes to re-enchant our life on earth. For his ninth album "O Paraíso" (Paradise), the free heir of the Brazilian tropicália intends to redefine our idea of Paradise. "It is in front of us, we must open our eyes and learn to contemplate it in depth," he explains. The Earth is a living organism also called "biosphere", a unique planet in the solar system where all the conditions are gathered to welcome life. Lucas places life at the heart of his songs and celebrates the collective forces that resist to preserve it. His guitar-vocal songs with bossa nova sounds are mixed with organic sounding percussions, enriched with electronic orchestrations and textures. The Brazilian composer gets closer to his French audience by collaborating with Flavia Coelho, Flore Benguigui (from the band L'Impératrice) or the saxophonist Laurent Bardainne, and by even trying his hand at French on one of his tracks. It's a festive new album, which helps us better understand where we live and with whom we share this heavenly home.

Far Out Recordings presents the new album from Brazilian guitarist and composer Fabiano do Nascimento: Mundo Solo. Recorded at his home studio in Los Angeles (2020) the album is fundamentally the sound of a man alone with his instruments. Utilizing a variety of guitars, including six, seven, and 1ten strings, Oktav guitar and electric baritone guitar, alongside a host of pedals and synthesizers, Fabiano tracked imagined landscapes with expressive, expansive improvisations, which tend toward the more ambient and atmospheric reaches of his recent output. Adopting Hermeto Pascoal's concept of "Universal Music," a rejection of nationalistic tendencies in order to express all of one's musical influences all at once, Fabiano avoided leaning too heavily on any particular musical language, without denying his own musical roots. After studying classical piano as a child, the Rio de Janeiro native discovered the guitar at aged ten. Studying under his late uncle, Lucio Nascimento, he eventually left Brazil for LA, where he soon became an in-demand player for his distinct and authentic sound. He has since released seven albums under his own name and collaborated with renowned Brazilian artists including Arthur Verocai and Airto Moreira, as well as experimental US saxophonist Sam Gendel. Mundo Solo (Do Nascimento's eighth), was recorded in one take per track, with occasional overdubs and a few appearances from collaborators and friends Julien Canthelm (drums on "Etude 1"), Ajurinã Zwarg, (percussion on "CPMV") and Gabe Noel (bass on "Curumim"). Fabiano Do Nascimento's consummate mastery of his instrument has afforded him a freedom of expression few can claim. Blending the emotional with the elemental, Mundo Solo is a stunning snapshot of solitude and the beauty which can blossom within it.

As Young Druid, John T. Gast distills his most endearing Midi-eval energies into a suite of LED candle-lit fugues and funky Myrdas, making a sterling follow-up to his UVA_roots_and_destruction mixtape for Richard Sides’ Bus and the INNA BABALON tape in 2016, which was also self-issued on his 5 Gate Temple label. Concocted from a bank of recordings alchemised on one box and a two-track recorder, Young Druid follows 12 ley-lines of investigation with findings equally applicable to occult soirees and the downtime of amateur archaeologists and tyrannical trap lords alike; conjuring a haul of exquisitely ornate, glyphic hooks, gilded dub grooves and smoked-out chamber themes of a supremely rarified yet earthly air. They bear a striking resemblance to the bright, poised baroque MIDI orchestrations of Coil as much as King Tubby’s classic digi dubs, splitting the fine difference between K. Leimer’s new age experiments and Roland Young’s mystiphonic experiments or even Wiley and Geneeus’ early grime etudes; essentially divining an obscure, arcane and meditative sense of spirituality that transcends time and place with a broad appeal to armchair and headphone-dwelling mystics of all stripes. If you need any prompts, check the creamy luft of Young Druid for a start, then the cross-eyed invocation of Fugue and the Jammer-meets-kenji Kawai stepper, Myrda, and Blue’s exquisite trip hop pallor and you should have a good measure of the variety and consistency of mood and vibe therein. Strongly recommended.

Moonshadows, named for a glossy beachfront Malibu bar where members of the Orgone crew DJed Saturday night sets, is the band's homage to yacht rock, sweater funk, and late night cruises on the Pacific Coast Highway. The genre-bending full-length album evokes neon and moonlight shimmering on ocean waves, undulating rhythms, martinis, and luxury convertibles. There’s nothing lightweight about this collection, however. All the hallmark elements of Orgone production—gritty, deep, authentic sounds and heavy beats—permeate this ten-song LP. For this album, Orgone pulled from its deep bench of talent to feature vocal performances and co-writing by Adryon de León, Woolfy, Masauko Chipembere, Terin Ector, Jamie Allensworth, and more. Moonshadows is a heady mix of lush vocals, classic drum tones, and late-70s vibes best served chilled in the late-night hours and made to keep you grooving through your second wind and into the hazy sunrise.

The first entry in Numero’s Margo Guryan series arrives as a limited edition pic sleeve 45. Side A features the previously unreleased 1966 yé-yé inspired burner “I Ought To Stay Away From You ,” paired with her latter day viral smash “Why Do I Cry.”

Far East house assassin Soichi Terada and fellow Japanese club notable Kuniyuki revise a couple of nuggets from Satoshi & Makoto’s inventive exploits on the CZ-5000 synth The warm and floaty originals are repackaged for the club with weight kicks and the contrast turned right up in the mix for propulsive effect in Soichi Terada’s edit of ‘Coastlines’, whereas Kuniyuki emphasises the Balearic appeal of ‘After New Dawn’ in a glyding mid-tempo Version 1, gilded with crisp keys, and rolled out to the terrace with slinkier bassline in Version 2.

DIY pop master from Saitama, JAPAN. love psychedelic pop/anime/dreamy pop

DELI DAYDREAMS is a conceptual project chronicling a week in the life of a Deli worker. The project meanders through the daydreams of KOJAQUE, the main protagonist, as he contemplates love, life and loneliness in the lead up to the annual work Christmas party. The project is a vignette of working life in Dublin, mundanity, madness and escapism.

Patrice Rushen’s all-time classic 1979 album for Elektra Records This album marked another progression in Rushen’s solo career as she broke through with the huge club hit ‘Haven’t You Heard’ and also featured on her LP cover with her trademark braids for the first time courtesy of stylist Sibongile Bradley and top photographer Norman Seeff. The album showcased Rushen’s famed talent for bringing the right musicians together, mixing more experienced players like drummer James Gadson and Bill Summers with younger talent including bassist Freddie Washington and drummer “Ndugu” Chancler. The tracks themselves were more spacious than on ‘Patrice’, released 18 months earlier. “It was the confidence of feeling that we didn't need quite as much in the arrangements,” Patrice explains, “and the times were also changing in terms of what we liked, what we danced to and the kind of grooves that people responded to. With ‘Pizzazz’, we had the advantage of a rapport with radio and black press, which were both very powerful at the time.” Alongside ‘Haven’t You Heard’, the album features many tracks that have become fan favourites over the years - the upbeat, carefree single ‘Let The Music Take Me’, the sweet ballad ‘Settle For Me Love’ and a memorable duet with Roy Galloway, ‘Givin’ It Up Is Givin’ In’. Strut’s expanded reissue of ‘Pizzazz’ is packaged in full original artwork and featuring loud cut bonus 12” versions of the album’s singles ‘Haven’t You Heard’ and ‘Let The Music Take Me’, alongside a previously unreleased instrumental version of ‘Givin’ It Up Is Givin’ Up’. Package includes rare photos by Bobby Holland and a new interview with Patrice Rushen. All tracks remastered from the original tapes by The Carvery.

After Belgian electro-samba wunderkinds Antena split at the end of 1985, singer Isabelle Antena immediately shed her cold wave crown for a sophisticated pop princess tiara. On 1986’s Martin Hayles-produced En Cavale, echos of Madonna and city pop abound, with a lipstick stain of L80s Euro dance and spilled cosmopolitan’s worth of bossa nova stirred in for good measure. This elegant second chapter of a French pop diva has been expanded to include Antena’s shelved Island Records demo, adjacent B-sides and rarities, plus an expansive essay and previously unpublished photographs.

The diminutive Peter Barclay was that guy in early ’90s Oakland, the eccentric with the most style, the most talent, the local magician. This self-taught musical wizard recorded at home and produced two barely-released albums, 1990’s dreamlike Acceptance and 1992’s synth pop What Kind Of World, winning over the few who heard them. But fame outside his small circle was not to be, and Barclay was lost in the late-’90s crest of the AIDS epidemic. Rediscovered for a new generation, this is queer music at its finest… Welcome to the world of Peter Barclay.

The highly anticipated debut LP from Say She She, the all female discodelic soul band that will transport you with their dreamy harmonies, catchy hooks and up tempo grooves! The band's sound is a hat tip to late 70’s girl groups with the three strong female lead voices of Piya Malik (featured in El Michels Affair, and backing singer for Chicano Batman), Nya Gazelle Brown, and Sabrina Cunningham - whose vocals soar through a set doused heavily with funky bass lines, rhythmic wah guitar, melodic synths and lilting bansuri flute lines, bursting into a seamless blend of dreamy harmonies and catchy hooks. A multicultural, multi-instrumental, collaborative melting pot, pulling sounds and styles from all corners of their record collections. The largely self-produced debut album Prism features contributions from Dap Kings Joey Crispiano and Victor Axelrod, Max Shrager (The Shacks), Bardo Martinez (Chicano Batman), Nikhil Yearwadekar (former Antibalas), Andy Bauer (Twin Shadow) and Matty McDermot (NYPMH). For Fans Of: Aasha Puthli, Grace Jones, Minnie Ripperton, The Supremes, Love Apple and Kendra Morris.

Recorded in Lary 7’s legendary apartment studio Plastikville over nearly a decade, Larynx is the first full-length retrospective of the East Village icon’s hybrid music and engineering practice. The record mobilizes 7’s array of homemade instruments, which he ‘frankensteins’ together from offcast and outmoded bits of technology. An ode to the long-lost Canal Street junk shops he frequented in the 1970s and ’80s, Larynx brings together numerous thrift finds and sonic inventions used in his theatrical performances and installations. To play “le concretotron,” a board covered with twenty years worth of unspooled magnetic tape, 7 runs a tape head topographically over the flattened strips, picking up snippets of their recorded contents. The spring tree, another of his contraptions, is simply turned on and left to its own devices; feedback loops cause the amplified coils to resound in space and slowly increase in volume. The track “Mechano-Bleep” features a pattern generator constructed from a telephone sequence switch, 150 oscillators from an electric accordion, a sewing machine motor, and an early computing system called a “select-a-board.” Meanwhile, antiquated electronic instruments abound—7 employs the Ondioline, a precursor to the synthesizer; a Philicorda organ; and a homemade Trautonium, among other gadgets. Following Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Raymond Scott of Manhattan Research, 7 adopts a painstaking editing process that is entirely analogue. With lacquer cut directly from reel-to-reel and mastered by Paul Gold, Larynx is, in 7’s words, “the sound of the twentieth century going haywire.”

Pearl & the Oysters first album made after their move from the neon swamps of Florida to the glittering lights of L.A. is just as bright and bubbly as their past work. In fact, the only thing Joachim Polack and Juliette Davis change on Coast 2 Coast is the set of collaborators. Old friends Dent May and Mild High Clubs Alex Brettin are on board again, and this time Riley Geare of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Alan Palomo of Neon Indian fame, and most excitingly, Laetitia Sadier join up to add their talents to the mix. Polack and Davis are the stars, though, creating a sound that is warmly familiar while still delivering little jolts of sonic surprise along the way. A few of the most alluring are the funky guitar groove on "Konami," the dubby effects on "Loading Screen" that perfectly match the wry subject matter, the harps that trill magically through the enchanting "Moon Canyon Park," the free jazz sax solo on "Joyful Science," and the warped synths that frame the melancholy vocals on "Paraiso." While these novel sounds give the duos already shiny surfaces something of a glow-up, one thing that didnt need any kind of upgrade or alteration is Davis vocals. Her dulcet tones again prove to be up to any challenge, whether its slinking gracefully through late-night soft rock on "Pacific Ave," crooning with birdlike simplicity on "Space Coast," or teaming with Sadier on one of the albums highlights, "Read the Room," a chugging Stereolab-inspired rocker that thrillingly breaks out into little bursts of baroque metal guitar solos before swinging back into the groove. The extra layering of sound in the arrangements and the overall relaxed feel of the record mean that its not quite as immediate as previous efforts; however, an extra bit of attention on the part of the listener will result in an experience thats suitably easy, breezy, and light, but also deeper and more resonant. Its clear that Polack and Davis keep growing as writers and musicians, and where it might once have been reasonable to knock off a point or two for the novelty-adjacent nature of the songs, any traces of novelty have definitely worn off. What remains is purely enjoyable pop music that should appeal to anyone with a wide definition of the sound and an affinity for lightly seasoned melodies and full-to-the-brim arrangements. ~ Tim Sendra

Limited, fully licensed 180g vinyl-only reissue of ultra rare South African disco-jazz classic. Featuring tracks: Side A: Kabuzela; Bayabaleka; Side B: Disco Freaks; Disco Baby Available for the first time since its original South African release in 1979, Outernational Sounds presents tenor giant Mike Makhamalele’s monster excursion into funktified disco jazz, Kabuzela. Despite a peerless run of groundbreaking fusion and funk albums through the 1970s, the great South African tenorist Mike Makhamalele has remained somewhat unsung. It’s hard to know why – the music he made at the end of the 1970s is some of the finest jazz fusion made anywhere on the planet. This new edition of Kabuzela is the first time that any of his work has been issued outside of South Africa. Respect is long overdue. Born in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, Makhalemele learned his craft at the knee of the great Zakes Nkosi, one of the originators of the township jazz sound. By the early 1970s he had joined South Africa’s most successful jazz funk outfit, Henry Sithole’s famous group The Drive, in which he played alongside the great Bheki Mseleku, and storied altoist Kaya Mahlangu. As jazz in South Africa turned toward dancefloor funk and fusion, Makhalemele become a fixture at Soweto’s most happening jazz and dance club, The Pelican – the owner, Lucky Michaels, remembered him as ‘one of the guys who’d walk around to every other musician he knows and say, “Listen, guys, why don’t we meet at the Pelican, let’s go and jam there...”’ From 1975, he began to record under his own name, developing a sophisticated fusion sound in a musical lane where few of his contemporaries were travelling. His stature at this time can be judged by the fact that he went head to head with the legendary Winston Mankunku on 1976’s The Bull And The Lion, an album that marked a symbolic passing of South Africa’s tenor torch. No other player was keeping such close tabs on the changes occurring in the US, and as slick fusion and advanced smooth became the leading sound for contemporary jazz, Makhalemele was in the vanguard, translating the new styles into South African idioms on LPs like Peaceful Eyes and Walking Spirit. The tenorist also carefully watched other global fashions in Black dance and pop music – working under numerous studio aliases, he cut 45rpm covers of big hits including Fela’s ‘Shakara’ and even the Sugar Hill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’. And in 1979, he entered the Gallo studios with producer Peter Ceronio to respond to the ascendant sound of disco. Kabuzela, named after a contemporary township dance craze, was the result: four extended tracks of bouncing, upful disco jazz. Perfectly calibrated for dancing, heavy on the bass and drums, the album is set off by a gleaming centre piece, ‘Disco Freaks’ – a joyous paean to the weekend and true lost gem of global disco, perfect for the most discerning dancefloors. Transferred from the master tapes by Gallo in South Africa, and mastered for release by D&M. Fully licensed from Gallo South Africa. Distributed by Honest Jons.

"I’ve started to work on this album before I knew it. During June 2018 I was in Japan for a month to release my previous album "Cairn" as well as my first solo exhibition of drawings in Tokyo. Everyday on my way to the gallery I passed in front of the same building, its name kept haunting me : Rogue Hill. Back then I was digging for cheap 80’s Japanese CD’s (Balearic, New Age, Ambient,...) in second hand stores. Most of them set the tone of this album and the direction I wanted to follow. I feel there’s a direct connection between these original sources and the sound I pursue by their meditative aspect. Most of the demo songs were done before my daughter’s birth on August 2019 and were finalized since then. Many of the titles refer to this main event and relate to how it changed my position in life : being a link through time by becoming a father."

Music From Memory quietly released the stunning debut album from the mysterious duo The Zenmenn (who turned out to be musicians Magnus Bang Olsen and Ben Anderson) in 2021. ‘Hidden Gem’, recorded with singer and songwriter John Moods, serves as a kind of companion piece to ‘Meet The Zenmenn’ (its title the same as a song that didn’t make that debut’s final cut). Another set of extended jams encompassing country, AM rock and folk. Music From Memory are delighted to present a new chapter in their ongoing collaboration with Berlin based band The Zenmenn. 'Hidden Gem' is the band’s first full album produced together with songwriter and vocalist John Moods and follows their much-loved debut record, 'Enter The Zenmenn'. Named after a country song that didn't quite make it to the final selection, 'Hidden Gem' is the result of an extended jam session at a friend’s studio, in a field of mystical meadows somewhere south of Hamburg, in which the band would experience a series of inexplicable phenomena. It was their earlier collaboration on the future classic, 'Homage To A Friend' that kickstarted their idea to team up with John Moods again, and in the late summer of 2021 the band set to work on a full album of material together. Using The Zenmenn's trusted drum kit, good old DX7, an unusual Ukrainian bass and an almost discarded pedal steel guitar, combined with Moods’ uniquely fragile voice, the outcome resulted in six timeless songs. The resulting harmonic sound is, as the band put it, “something like Adult Oriented Rock with a teaspoon of Celtic sentimentalism, a pinch of big city Country wrapped in a late night '70s style jam”. 'Hidden Gem’, much like their debut 'Enter The Zenmenn’, was recorded without pre-arranged songs or any fixed musical concept. Instead, it captures fleeting moments of creativity and reflects the joint musical sentiments of the band members at the time. “Some artists are amazing at vision and curating, our work-flow is opposite to that. We are pretty messy and all over the place in our creation, as in life. It has its advantages and disadvantages, but hopefully it comes out all right in the end.” MFM060 will be released in LP and digital format, and comes with artwork by Bráulio Amado. The album is expected to release on October 17th 2022.

Japanese Breakfast's 'Soft Sounds From Another Planet' is less of a concept album about space exploration so much as it is a mood board come to life. Over the course of 12 tracks, Michelle Zauner explores a sonic landscape of her own design, one that's big enough to contain her influences. There are songs on this album that recall the pathos of Roy Orbison’s ballads, while others could soundtrack a cinematic drive down one of Blade Runner's endless skyways. Zauner's voice is capacious; one moment she's serenading the past, the next she's robotically narrating a love story over sleek monochrome, her lyrics more pointed and personal than ever before. While 'Psychopomp' was a genre-spanning introduction to Japanese Breakfast, this visionary sophomore album launches the project to new heights.

To celebrate Arbutus' 100th release we have created a compilation of our artists covering each other's songs. Available on cassette and digital download, all proceeds from the cassette will be donated to Suicide Action Montreal.