MUSIC

More Japanese lysergic madness ! The 1972  soundtrack for Shuji Terayama's visionary movie of the same name contains all the elements necessary to reach composer & theatre producer J.A. Caesar's intended pleasure-centers. Disturbing, but in the end truly innovative, this soundtrack is as certified gateway to the underworld in the vein of classic by Faust, Cosmic Jokers or early Amon Düül.

"This mighty soundtrack for Shuji Terayama's nihilistic movie of the same name contains all the elements necessary to reach J.A. Caesar's intended pleasure-centers. Here, turmoil, mind-numbing repetition, abject misery and grisly partriarchs abound, and all orchestrated by Caesar's damaged proto-metal and choral-led psychedelic sound. Mind-infesting in the truest sense, this soundtrack played in the dark is as certified a Gateway to the Underworld as any acknowledged classic by Faust, Magma, the Cosmic Jokers, Ash Ra Tempel or early Amon Düül." --Julian Cope, Japrocksampler.</p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0KGi-KJQkak?si=-GuIwoImAyG7euYw" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Diane Birch emerges as a formidable American singer-songwriter and pianist, boasting a repertoire of critically lauded releases spanning a rich decade-long career. With an eclectic array of musical influences stemming from a globe-trotting childhood - ranging from her humble beginnings as a preacher’s daughter in Zimbabwe and South Africa to her transformative years as a gothic teen immersed in the vibrant cultural underbelly of Portland, Oregon. Her discovery while living in London via Myspace led to a record deal in New York, where she then spent the next few years. Diane's journey is as diverse as her sound. Her profound experiences have culminated in a unique musical blend, characterized by her stint performing soulful covers and original pieces in the swanky lounges of the Beverly Hills elite. Receiving widespread attention with her debut album “Bible Belt” and her follow-up projects “Speak A Little Louder” and “Nous”, these works not only cemented her position in the international music scene but also earned her accolades and respect from esteemed peers including Prince, Daryl Hall, Mark Ronson, Dave Stewart, Questlove, Elvis Costello, Bryan Ferry and Stevie Wonder. Returning with her latest work, “Flying On Abraham”, Diane presents a meticulously crafted collection of original compositions. This album is a heartfelt homage to her vast and varied musical roots, weaving together the rich tapestry of 70s AM radio, soul, jazz, classic rock, 80s/90s pop and R&B. Despite the eclectic mix, Diane's sound remains distinctly her own - her voice a blend of raw emotion and refined grace, echoing the legacy of iconic artists like Carole King, Carly Simon and Rickie Lee Jones, yet standing out with an authenticity and individuality that is unmistakably Diane Birch. Produced by renowned English musician Paul Stacey, known for his work with Noel Gallagher and the Black Crowes, “Flying On Abraham” was recorded in the UK, backed by an impressive lineup of musicians. This album is not just a collection of songs but a narrative of her artistic journey, offering a window into the soul of a woman who has traversed continents and musical genres to create something truly extraordinary. With “Flying On Abraham”, Diane Birch reaffirms her status as a musical virtuoso, continuing to enchant audiences worldwide with her evocative lyrics. It represents Diane's enduring vision of “making American music with an English sensibility.”

Reverse side print. Re-issue of the Canadian band's only album released back in 1973 on the small Kot'Ai label. Moonstone came from Winnipeg, Manitoba and were a small cult band active in the early 1970s. They played mainly acoustic folk rock with psychedelic overtones and beautiful harmonies.

Before morphing into the excellent psych trio, B.F. Trike, Hickory Wind (from Evansville, Indiana), released one brilliant, and extremely rare, country psych album in 1969. Just 100 copies were pressed for the Gigantic label, and originals have been known to change hands for a small fortune. The album features excellent vocals, plus an interesting mix of fuzz guitar, and droning organ, as well as some wonderfully melodic songs. This reissue also features four bonus tracks from the B.F. Trike album session, recorded for RCA Records in Nashville, Tennessee in 1971. The B.F. Trike album, however, remained in the vaults for 25 years, before it was finally uncovered and given its just recognition in the mid-nineties. </p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K3IzI2EcBpU?si=-aZLG1UwEr0lp9_M" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is a limited reissue analog record (color) of the last album “Happy End” released in 1973 by the legendary Happy End (Haruomi Hosono, Eiichi Otaki, Takashi Matsumoto, and Shigeru Suzuki), an essential band in the story of Japanese pop music. Recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders studio in Los Angeles, the album is a masterpiece among masterpieces that transcends generations and has gained worldwide support as a work that offers a glimpse into the musicality of each member's subsequent solo activities. Produced by Van Dyke Parks.

Joseijoi Banzai was released as an analog single disc only in Japan in 1973. It is now an ultra-rare disc that has become a premier item worldwide. It was one of the exhibits at the exhibition, and will be reissued again, this time only in Japan, and on white vinyl with a red label side, in a Japan-inspired format. The song is sung in Japanese in response to the “women's lib” movement in Japan at the time, appealing for women's liberation, assertion of women's rights, and improvement of women's status.

HAPPY's "Ancient Moods Mahollova Mind" is their third full-length album in five years, and most of the songs were recorded in the members' home studio, which was built up during the pandemic disaster. As the album title suggests, the theme of the album is an ancient fascination and an exploration of the mind, and it has a new sound with an exotic atmosphere, as is typical of HAPPY's exploration of music that has never been heard before. In addition to their usual instruments, the members themselves play a variety of instruments such as the Taishogoto, lyre harp, bansuri, conga, and djembe, expanding their range of expression while maintaining the catchy approach of their previous works. Mastering was done by Timothy Stollenwerk, who has worked with Wooden Shjips and Drugdealer, and the depth and dimension of the sound has been increase.

Originally released in 1996 as a limited fan-club pressing for Rockathon, Guided By Voices' Tonics And Twisted Chasers has always existed as an anomaly in Robert Pollard's vast discography. In many ways, the album serves as the tail of a creative comet that in just two years included the "classic line-up" trilogy of Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars and countless singles that crammed endless hooks in their grooves. In the intervening space, Tonics And Twisted Chasers has taken on a mythic status. It's arguably Pollard's strangest, gnarliest, most enlightened record and also the fans first chance to see the stitches that bind his galaxy of songs. It's like peering at the caliber inside a watch, responsible for making the whole enterprise tick. This nineteen-song collaboration with guitarist Tobin Sprout could be interpreted as spontaneous sketches, late-night improvisations, ideas that blossomed later in the timeline ("Knock 'Em Flying" and "Key Losers"), but as with anything in Pollard's orbit, its intention is clear when heard as a cohesive whole. The Pollard tenet that "less is more" is on full display here. The songs rarely creep past ninety seconds and coalesce much like Pollard's collage-styled visual art. Arena anthems in miniature ("158 Years of Beautiful Sex") bash up against eerie piano laments ("Universal Nurse Finger") without any time to breathe, acoustic lullabies that sound like a Midwestern summer's twilight ("Look It's Baseball") segue into monochromatic post-rock ("Maxwell Jump"). The euphoric joy and obtuse melancholy in Pollard's voice is so palpable on the album's standout, "Dayton, Ohio - 19 Something & 5" (which has since become a live staple), that it's impossible to find a more autobiographical yarn in his catalog. The album's closest analog is 1993's Vampire On Titus, as it contains that album's prickly, dark and shimmering obfuscation that only reveals its beauty after repeated listens. Tonics And Twisted Chasers maintains the lore because the melodies are so strong. Using a primitive drum machine, Radio Shack effects, minimal instrumentation and the DIY spirit that guided them in the first place, Pollard and Sprout construct a masterpiece of pop that could only come from a basement in north Dayton, Ohio. Anyone in that hallowed era who happened upon it, kept it as a secret.

In the swirl of kaleidoscopic recordings that is Spacemen 3's discography, Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To occupies a pivotal position – one at the nexus between their garage beginnings and expansionist future. Spacemen 3 capture the inspired spark of mid-'80s psychedelia, offering a distinct variation on high pop through layered feedback, a formidable rhythm section and shining vocals. Taking Drugs features the legendary Northampton demos, which secured the band's first record deal with Glass. While much of this material would be expanded upon on their first two albums, Sound Of Confusion and The Perfect Prescription, many devotees consider these early 1986 demos to be the vital document of Spacemen 3 at this primal stage. With urgent, minimally treated versions of "Sound Of Confusion" (aka "Walkin' With Jesus"), "Losing Touch With My Mind" and "Come Down Easy," this double LP collection serves to exalt the strength of Spacemen 3's songwriting over the deep-dive, sonic ruminations that would permeate their later studio efforts. Includes download card and new insert with liner notes by Byron Coley.

Noel Gallagher has said Oasis had “no fear” about playing to 250,000 fans over two nights at Knebworth, adding if his old band were to do it again now they would be “petrified”.

A late '60s Japanese compilation investigating the so-called "group sound" movement. Includes early recordings by a series of musicians later to perform with legendary bands such as the Flower Travellin' Band, Speed Glue & Shinki, Les Rallizes Denudes, and Foodbrain. Featuring Golden Cups, Dynamite, Outcast, Carnabeats, Tempters, Beavers, Bunnys, Mops, Spiders, D'Swooners, Zoo Nee Woo, Fingers, Outcast, and Bunnys.

A dreamlike dispatch from mid-80's Japan, the first and only Hallelujahs album is an entrancing and gentle work of psychedelic pop brilliance. Friends gathered in the studio by Shinji Shibayama (Nagisa Ni Te), Hallelujahs created a music of deep feeling and wonderment with simple song craft and a guileless magic. The album was the first release by the now revered ORG Records in 1986 in a micro-edition of 300 copies. With affinities to the sounds of the Rough Trade and Flying Nun labels, the Paisley Underground and Galaxie 500, the album is an utterly unique masterpiece that remains a touchstone for generations of like spirited artists in Japan and around the world. Black Editions is proud to present this all-time classic in a deluxe vinyl edition, remastered from the original tapes and presented in a heavy tip-on jacket with textured paper, mounted high quality print, foil stamped finishes and spot colors. Also released with a special limited edition 7" featuring two previously unreleased tracks and hand stamped envelope with seven photo cards.

Legendary UK band Asian Dub Foundation is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year !

In 30 years, Asian Dub Foundation have racked up 1000’s of unforgettable shows, 9 studio albums alongside a social and educational activism that both created the group and sustains them today. In celebration of the longevity of this unique project they are announcing an extensive European tour for 2024-25 of more than 60 shows and a special album showcasing their many iconic collaborations. “94-Now: Collaborations” will be released on September 27, 2024!

On the eve of Drop Nineteens' first live performances in 30 years, we are excited to announce the reissue of the band's 1992 shoegaze masterpiece, Delaware. "Reissue" is slightly misleading as Delaware has never actually been issued on vinyl in the United States. Delaware is the debut studio album by American band Drop Nineteens released on June 19, 1992. Despite the albums release over 30 years ago, and the band remaining inactive from 1993 onwards this album has remained a favorite of shoegaze fans for decades, and was listed as one of the 50 best shoegaze albums of all time by Pitchfork in 2016. This lasting love of the record has cemented the band as one of the most influential bands of the genre from their time. Over the last several years the album has found a new audience that has championed Delaware along side of the band's mostly UK 90's contemporaries. A new legion of Drop Nineteens fans have likely discovered their music through streaming services, rather than on 120 Minutes. Tracks like the towering "Kick The Tragedy" and pop songs "Winona" & "Delaware" sit next to more experimental moments like "Reberrymemberer." And while the album is certainly a wild ride, it all flows together as easily as singers' Greg Ackell and Paula Kelley's vocals.Now for the first time, this record will be available via a USA pressing on yellow colored vinyl. Remastered for vinyl by Carl Saff the album will be available on June 21st.

This is a remix of the album released in 2019 on Wharf Cat Records, a prestigious label that has been home to many of the indie world's heretics, including Blanche Blanche, The Ukiah Drag, and Horoscope. The album is a remix of the 2019 album from Wharf Cat Records, a label with a long list of indie outliers, including Zaliva-D, Simon Frank, and Howie Lee (also from Beijing), Shanghai's Knopha, who released Nothing Nil on Eating Music, and Taiwan's Scattered Purgatory. and the Taiwanese Scattered Purgatory. This is the perfect introduction to the Chinese underground.

The legendary first full-length album "Atomizer" is being reissued on vinyl! It is a monumental work that is as popular as the second album, and is still loved by many listeners as a holy book of noise rock and post-hardcore.

On his 2000 debut, Da Abtomatic Meisterzinger Mambo Chic, Megira channels the optimism of post-war America, narcoleptic surf, and the Twin Peaks soundtrack into a lo-fi masterpiece all his own. Sung in both Hebrew and English, Mambo Chic moves at a deliberate pace, unconcerned by the traffic of the modern world and wrapped in a blanket of Tascam 4-track hiss. On “Tomorrow’s Gone” Megira achieves the feat of being so far back in time that he’s somehow living in the future and waiting for the rest of us to arrive.

Margo Guryan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and lyricist who witnessed a revolution in jazz and pop music and earned a place in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, yet remained obscure for decades.

Half asleep you hear a guitar echo through the early morning haze, you're so zonked you cant tell if its a dream or if the droney reverb is coming from real life, you sit up, now starting to understand what is afoot. Thats right, its the errant kings of slowcore Duster returning with yet another surprise release - In Dreams. Disintegrated, half remembered melodies permeate this record like a slow tide of static soaking into a discarded slice of sponge cake, proving somehow inventive and nostalgic at the same time, in other words Duster on top form.

Sleep off your summer with this comprehensive 36-song/4xLP overview of Kansas City's midwest emo pioneers. From 1993-1997 Boys Life defined this anxious strain of heartworn power pop punk, issuing a pair of standard-bearing albums between endless circling of the U.S. DIY circuit. Collected here are their Departures and Landfalls and self-titled albums, singles, split 7"s and 10", live tracks, and rare demo tape, all annotated and illustrated inside a 24-page book.

The final recordings by Annapolis early emo pioneers the Hated, Flux compiles their 1989 acoustic and electric sessions, home demos, and live shards from their extensive archive. The accompanying 24-page book outlines the last year of the band with essays from founders Dan Littleton and Erik Fisher, a track-by-track oral history, photos, flyers, and lyrics from this vital post-hardcore unit."Hostile and magnetic—like perfume wafting through a barbed wire fence."— Washington Post

HOMESHAKE (always in all caps) is Peter Sajar's baby and in the Shower ishis first proper full length after releasing a couple of cassettes to "cool blog critical praise". In the Shower contains ten songs that are best described as slow, sexy, R'n'B influenced indie pop. The music and vocals really are rightfully steamy and the album art work is wonderful and serene. It's going to be an instant classic.

Dinosaur Jr.'s 1987 masterpiece is a classic alternative rock album from Massachusetts that has influenced countless bands with its groundbreaking fusion of melodic bass, boiling drums, virtuoso guitar playing, and lethargic vocals echoing through their iconic Marshall stacks.

After being long out of press (with the exception of a small, instantly sold- out pressing in 2018 to celebrate Captured Tracks’ 10-year anniversary), Golden Haze is finally back on limited edition Gold vinyl!The charming and gorgeous Golden Haze EP is the culmination of Wild Nothing’s (Jack Tatum) sound in 2010. Fresh off the heels of breakout debut album Gemini, Golden Haze has become a true fan-favorite of Tatum’s cata- log, and an enduring fixture of Wild Nothing’s live shows across the world. The tracklist features the previously unavailable Evertide EP, a Gemini B- Side, and now, for the first time on vinyl, includes bonus tracks “Asleep” and “Vultures Like Lovers.”When Golden Haze was released in 2010, the EP filled with melancholy vocals over addictive guitar riffs offered a perfect continuation to Gemini. It also re-revealed that Tatum has a knack for creating unique, modern ar- rangements based on decades-old influence. On Golden Haze’s single of the same name, tweaked drums and a “textural mesh of severely-gated snare and sleigh bells” evoke 80s bands like The Cure. “Vultures Like Lovers,” a newly available track on vinyl, presents delayed guitars with tremolo’d vocals. The most different to Gemini, it revealed that Tatum could make more “electronically pulsed” songs with echoey, hollow vocals. Over 10 years later, Golden Haze continues to prove Tatum’s ability to create new songs while evoking a musical nostalgia for the past.