MUSIC

Strut revisit the early years of Patrice Rushen’s time with Elektra Records with the definitive 2LP edition of the ‘Patrice’ album from 1978. After a series of jazz funk albums on Prestige, Patrice moved to Elektra as the label tapped into the burgeoning “sophisticated R&B” market at the tail end of the disco era. “By this time, I had already made some great in-roads, made some great friends and picked up valuable knowledge which definitely paid off in terms of the music and the way the records sounded,” Patrice remembers. As a brilliant pianist, songwriter and arranger from a young age, Rushen was perfectly placed to bring the class and musicianship that the label needed and now also began to assume the role of lead vocalist for the first time. She enlisted the production prowess of high school friend Charles Mims, Jr. and long-time mentor Reggie Andrews. Recorded at the newly opened Conway Studios in L.A., ‘Patrice’, Rushen brought in heartfelt lyrics, vulnerability and messages of hope into her music for the first time on yearning tracks like ‘Didn’t You Know’ and ‘When I Found You’ alongside simply forgetting your troubles on the singles ‘Hang It Up’ and Play!’. Clubs played an important part in the interest in her music. While her record label didn’t fully get behind her as an artist until the early ‘80s, influential club and black radio DJs consistently supported her and recognised Patrice as a unique talent. ‘Music Of The Earth’ became an underground New York club favourite and Danny Krivit’s extended edit has endured in its own right, included here. “So much of what happened with these records happened after they had come out, like years afterwards, as people discovered them,” reflects Patrice. “but with this album, all of the things that I wanted to do were possible without limitation - the recording, the writing, the execution with the musicians, the production. Everything was, “Okay, let’s do it.” And we did it.”

Overproof levels of fruity, dazzling, early machine funk from South indian film composer Vijaya Anand, plucked out by David Byrne’s Luaka Bop for first time vinyl pressing - a must-check for anyone smitten with Finders Keepers’ Ilaiyaraaja sets, YMO, LG Mair Jr.’s midi-funk, or classic cartoon scores from Hanna-Barbera to Mark Mothersbaugh ‘Asia Classics I - The South Indian Film Music of Vijaya Anand: Dance Raja Dance’ is a very welcome return to the Tamil film music realms previously revealed to the western world thru a number of Finders Keepers comps in recent decades. Where those sets attended to the catalogues of A.R. Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja (and even prompted a Rian Treanor edit down the years), this one was originally issued in 1992 and brings the work of Vijaya Anand into striking focus through 11 tracks of lavish string arrangements synced to devilishly detailed disco drum machine programming and synth edits, all sung in Tamil and Telugu languages. Like the aforementioned FK comps, it spanks our tiny minds with its abundance of colourful melody and club-ready grooves wrapped up in incredibly intricate song-writing that never fails to leave us beaming. In the 30 years since its release on CD, ‘Asia Classics I’ has led to Vijaya collaborating with David Byrne on ‘Happy Suicide’ from the ’95 Hollywood flick ‘Blue in the Face’, and a remix of his work by Deee-Lite’s Super DJ Dmitry - two reference points that personify his music’s broad appeal beyond its original purpose on Kollywood screens. From the no wavey psych-funk of ‘Aatavu Chanda (Dancing is Beautiful)’ thru to the wildly animated carousel of ‘Ba Ennalu (When I Say Come)’ its not hard to hear a playful genius at work, riddling every cut like a game of snakes and ladders with multiple stop/start chops, electro-funk fills and complex big band swing, while never losing sight of the groove and audience’s attentions. We’ve absolutely no doubt that it’s a serious baga fun for lovers of the choicest midi-funk and the busiest J-pop alike.

A deluxe, embossed 2 LP box set. Alongside a remastered version of PHAROAH, his seminal record from 1977, are two previously unreleased live performances of his masterpiece, “Harvest Time." Includes a 24-page booklet with rarely seen photographs and ephemera, as well as interviews with many of the participants and a conversation with Pharoah himself.

BACK IN PRINT! This is a soul version of Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music, a collection of gorgeous soul music selected with a keen aesthetic eye.

Limited Clear Vinyl. Despite his status as a key figure in the history of Japanese ambient music, Hiroshi Yoshimura remains tragically under-known outside of his home country. Empire of Signs – a new imprint co-helmed by Maxwell August Croy, Spencer Doran and distributed by Light In The Attic – is proud to reissue Yoshimura’s debut Music for Nine Post Cards for the first time outside Japan in collaboration with Hiroshi’s widow Yoko Yoshimura, with more reissues of Hiroshi’s works to follow in the future.

Working initially as a conceptual artist, the musical side of Yoshimura’s artistic practice came to prominence in the post-Fluxus scene of late 1970s Tokyo alongside Akio Suzuki and Takehisa Kosugi, taking many subsequent turns within Japan’s bubble economy afterward. His sound works took on many forms – commissioned fashion runway scores, soundtracking perfume, soundscapes for pre-fab houses, train station sound design – all existing not as side work but as logical extensions of his philosophy of sound. His work strived for serenity as an ideal, and this approach can be felt strongly on Music for Nine Post Cards.

Home recorded on a minimal setup of keyboard and Fender Rhodes, Music for Nine Post Cards was Yoshimura’s first concrete collection of music, initially a demo recording given to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art to be played within the building’s architecture. This was not background music in the prior Japanese “BGM” sense of the word, but “environmental music”, the literal translation of the Japanese term kankyō ongaku [環境音楽] given to Brian Eno’s “ambient” music when it arrived in late 70’s Japan. Yoshimura, along with his musical co-traveler Satoshi Ashikawa, searched for a new dialog between sound and space: music not as an external absolute, but as something that interlocks with a physical environment and shifts the listener’s experience within it. Erik Satie’s furniture music, R. Murray Schafer’s concept of the soundscape and Eno’s ambience all greatly informed their work, but the specific form of tranquil stasis presented on releases like Nine Post Cards is still difficult to place within a specific tradition, remaining elusive and idiosyncratic despite the economy of its construction. This record offers the perfect introduction to Hiroshi’s unique and beautiful worldview: it’s one that can be listened to – and lived in – endlessly.

“People don’t like Abdullah Ibrahim, they adore him, bestowing on him the devotion normally reserved for Nina Simone. When he plays, melodies tumble out effortlessly, as he slides from theme to theme like a laid-back South African reincarnation of Thelonious Monk.” - The Guardian

Taken from Abdullah Ibrahim’s summer 2023 sold-out headline date at London’s Barbican Centre, the new album “3” follows suit and is spread across two performances – the first is recorded without an audience ahead of the concert straight to analogue on a 1” Scully tape machine, which had previously been used by Elvis at the famous Memphis-based Sun Studios.

The second recording is taken from the evening’s performance itself with Ibrahim performing in a unique trio which includes Cleave Guyton (flute, piccolo, saxophone) who has performed alongside the likes of Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, and Joe Henderson, as well as lauded bassist and cellist Noah Jackson, both of which are members of EKAYA and featured on Ibrahim’s Top 3 Billboard Jazz album “The Balance”

Mamman Sani Abdoulaye, a legendary name amongst Niger’s avant garde, presents a singularly unique recording of minimalist organ music from the Sahara. Dreamy and hypnotic, the sound is unlike anything coming out of West Africa before or since, closer in effect to early electronic experiments of Kraftwerk.Mamman composes in technique that can only be called minimal, relying on the simplicity and space. It is a remarkable manipulation of sound that uses the silence to invoke the emptiness, a metaphoric desert soundscape. Unsurprisingly, his source material is folkloric Nigerien music, and many of the compositions on this record are reproductions of ancient songs brought into the modern age. Interpreting this rich and varied history of Niger’s dance and song for the first time in contemporary music, Mamman electrifies the nomadic drum of the Tuaerg, the polyphonic ballads of the Woddaabe, and the pastoral hymns of the Sahelian herders. Accompanying this repertoire are a few compositions, such as Salamatu, the deeply personal love letter to an unrequited romance.Recorded in 1981 at the National Radio in Niger, shortly after Mamman discovered an old Italian organ, the album was a spontaneous production, recorded in two takes. It was released on cassette but was a commercial failure, and only a handful were sold. The recordings, however, were a success, and became the themes to the National radio for the subsequent 30 years, securing Mamman’s place in the foundation of Nigerien music.Rediscovered in a cassette archive in Niger and digitized on a portable recorder, La Musique Électronique du Niger was reissued in 2013 on limited vinyl. Now restored and remastered from the original tape material by Jessica Thompson, this new edition is available on vinyl, cd, and a color Newbury Comics edition.

Recorded in various basements and professional studios around Chicago between 1980 and 1984, the Apart Demos documents 12 intimate and stripped-down sketches, demos and unreleased tracks by Andre Gibson and the Universal Togetherness Band as they pivoted to solo careers. From heartfelt tributes to lovers adorned by a silky Fender Rhodes to disco party-starters about spiritual gratitude, Andre Gibson universally lets us into his heart and brings it all together in the end.

Propelled by his 1956 Lee Hazlewood-produced hit “The Fool,” Sanford Clark was already a rockabilly legend in his own right by the time he swapped his hair gel and switchblade for a pair of cowboy boots on They Call Me Country. Recorded between 1965-67 and originally released as a series of singles for Phoenix’s Ramco label, the 12 tracks on this LP borrow Bakersfield’s outlaw sound and ignore Nashville’s countrypolitan flair, standing as a true lost masterpiece of country music’s third generation. Clark’s booming baritone tells tales of bar fights, heartaches, and drinking til you can’t stand, while Waylon Jennings provides a backdrop of fuzzed out guitar twang. Mastered from the original session tapes and back on vinyl for the first time since the Nixon administration.

In 1975, spiritual jazz pioneer Brother Ah (aka Robert Northern) ventured into a more worldly sound on his second album, incorporating robust African and Asian influences. Its eight eclectic tracks feature vocals from artists Dara, Aiisha, Kwesi Gilbert Northern and Ayida Tengemana, along with cacaphonous percussion, flute and stringed instrument flourishes.

Ship to Shore PhonoCo. is proud to announce the release of Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil – Original Video Game Soundtrack on vinyl and audio cassette! The critically acclaimed sequel to 1997’s Klonoa: Door To Phantomile, Klonoa 2 sees our titular “Dream Traveler” hero stumbling into another world-saving adventure, bringing a whole new cast of friends along for the ride. Expanding on the gameplay featured in its predecessor, Klonoa 2 ups the ante with its soundtrack too as the NAMCO Sound Team creates unique musical motifs for each of the five Kingdoms played throughout the game. This highly-anticipated release – now available on vinyl and cassette for the first time – is sure to sell out fast, so don’t miss out!

Chet Baker (1929 – 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter, actor and vocalist that needs little introduction. Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s but his well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety (he was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late ‘70s and ’80s). Chet’s career included collaborations with greats such as Elvis Costello, Charlie Parker and Van Morrison. Mr. Baker was the subject of many books and documentaries throughout the decades and he was even portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the 2015 film Born to Be Blue. Chet began his musical career singing in a church choir and his mother said that he had begun to memorize tunes on the radio before he was even given his first instrument. Peers called Baker a natural musician to whom playing came effortlessly. In the early 1950s he was chosen by Charlie Parker for a series of West Coast engagements…shortly after this, his song “My Funny Valentine” became a hit and would be associated with Baker for the rest of his career. Mr. Baker (with his quartet) was a regular performer at famous Los Angeles jazz clubs such as The Haig. Chet Baker’s quartet released popular albums between 1953 and 1956 and he won reader’s polls at Metronome & Down Beat magazine, beating trumpeters Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. In 1956, Pacific Jazz Records released Chet Baker Sings, an album that seriously increased his visibility. During most of the 1960s (before heading to Europe more frequently) Chet recorded music that could be classified as ‘West Coast jazz’ From 1978 until his death in 1988, Chet Baker lived and played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the U.S. once a year for a few performances. This was Baker’s most prolific era as a recording artist. On the album we are presenting you today (Mr.B) you’ll find Dutch recordings (recorded in 1983 & released in 1984). This rare gem of an album is comprised out of tracks written by some of the top jazz composers of all time (Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver, David Brubeck,..) and played meticulously by Baker and his all-star line-up trio consisting out of Ricardo Del Fra (Ennio Morricone), John Engels (Toots Thielemans, Dizzy Gillespie) and Michel Graillier (Magma, Steve Grossman). On the bonus tracks you’ll also find a top performance from Philip Catherine (Placebo) on guitar. Be prepared for eight sublime tunes that bring out the more intimate and touching aspects of the Chet Baker sound, a fantastic session where the master plays his themes with an almost religious surrender. There is a sadness permeating the trumpeter’s sound throughout…a deep and touching beauty can be felt, marking this as one of Chet’s best from the period. Originally released in 1984, Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first official reissue of Chet Baker’s classic Mr. B album. This reissue was remastered by Peter Brussee (Herman Brood) and is featuring the original album cover shot by Hans Harzheim (Pharoah Sanders, Coltrane & Sun Ra). Also included are the original liner notes from jazz writer Wim Van Eyle and two bonus tracks that were not on the original vinyl release. Available as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition with obi strip. This release is only available to NORTH AMERICAN customers…there is a ‘rest of the world’ edition of this release coming out on RECORD STORE DAY (August 29, 2020) which will be available in other territories. Preview Tracklist

Shivkumar Sharma, the guitarist Brij Bhushan Kabra, and flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia were all aged about 30 when they made Call of the Valley. Shivkumar Sharma, who had made his first solo album in 1960, was responsible for establishing and popularizing the instrument in Hindustani classical circles. Kabra was also having to prove himself because of the guitar's Western and Indian popular music associations Chaurasia's problem was the wide popularity of the bansuri -- a bamboo transverse flute -- and his need to establish himself with the instrument. In 1967, the concept behind this album was as revolutionary as it was traditional. Conceived as a suite, they used their instruments to tell the story of a day in the life of a shepherd in Kashmir using ragas associated with various times of the day to advance the dramatic narrative. If the newcomer buys only one Indian classical recording, it should be Call of the Valley. Call of the Valley is considered Kabra's most beloved recording. It is certainly his most popular globally. Newly remastered for this edition. Limited edition pressing.

Reissue of one of the most in demand Brij Bhushan Kabra LPs finally available. Remastered. In the 1920s, Tau Moe (pronounced "mo-ay"), a Hawaiian musician, arrived in India and introduced Hawaiian music to the sub-continent. After settling in Calcutta in the early 1940s, Moe and his family performed, taught and introduced Hawaiian music by building and selling guitars to the local musicians. Indian filmmakers and composers quickly fell under the spell of these instruments and sounds and made them suitable for playing ragas, the melodic patterns and modes in traditional Indian compositions. Soon these hot-rod guitars were accepted as legitimate instruments for performing Indian classical music, and a new breed of virtuosos emerged to write yet another chapter of the guitar's unpredictable evolution. Brij Bhushan Kabra was one of the Indian musicians who heard the steel guitar's siren call, but his vision went beyond adapting Hawaiian sounds to popular music. Instead, he saw the instrument's potential for playing ragas. To pursue this dream, Kabra began studying with Ali Akbar Khan, whose fretless sarod offered a sonic example for Kabra to emulate with his lap-slide guitar. Kabra's instrument was a Gibson Super 400, modified with a drone string and a high nut to raise the strings off the fretboard like a lap steel. Seated on the floor in the traditional style of Indian musicians, Kabra played his guitar horizontally, using a fingerstyle plucking technique and a bar to contact the strings. His approach set the standard for virtually all Indian slide guitarists. He is rightfully considered a master musician and regarded as one of Indian Classical music's most renowned ambassadors to the rest of the world.

Herman Chin Loy wants the world to know the truth about his musical vision, realized in a series of fantastic records released throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s. And how his mission was interrupted in the early 1990s.

“I would like to start off by saying: what about the half that has never been told, who so bold, for the price of gold. The first part is like a Jamaican proverb, but who so bold, for the price of gold, is the part that I put in, because it is all about gold. My mission on this earth is all about the music. But if you want to know the truth, follow the money!”

Herman’s musical trip had a wonderfully sunny start, before ending in acrimony and intrigue. Follow the money indeed… He started by selling records for Leslie Kong, then opened his own One Stop record shop, before moving on to KG’s electrical appliance store in Halfway Tree and deejaying at their discoteque, the Lotus A Go Go.

“It was the age of Aquarius! Whatever was in the air, or what got my attention at the time would find its way into the music, cos I was very creative.”

So Herman turned his keen ears towards record production. The Aquarius and Scorpio labels had a fine run of hit tunes, known for their unusual arrangements and imaginative productions. Many cuts featured Herman himself talking over them. Others were moody instrumentals, for which Herman invented the name Augustus Pablo.

“The name came out of my head. Augustus Pablo – it sounded real not normal! Horace Swaby is the one that I really put the name with, but before that it was Lloyd Charmers, he did some songs for me under that name. Well Horace Swaby came back to me and said can I use the name on my own productions, and I said sure, go ahead. Cos I was not interested in money per se, I was interested in helping others along.”

Kingston in the early 70s was on fire with new music, and Herman put on the afterburners to release Aquarius Dub, probably the world’s first dub LP.

“People always used to come to the store and they want to buy the dub music, but they couldn’t get it easily, so I said let me put all these things together as an LP, and let’s put no label on it so it looks like a dub [plate], and let’s sell it as a dub album. And I was the first one to do that, for sure. I remember when I took the record down to sell it to Randy’s, well they just scoff at it to some degree. Well if people didn’t want to sell my music, then I would just say ‘fuck off with you’, I’ll just sell my music myself, from my own shop and nowhere else.”

Herman then opened the Aquarius Records shop on Constant Spring Road, with a busy bus stop right outside providing a captive audience. Big speakers were placed out in the street, and Herman acted as a vibes man and entertainer, running in and out of the shop and dragging customers inside. As the crowds grew bigger, Aquarius became extremely influential, and the energetic Herman could make or break the latest tunes.

“Well once we get going now, the Aquarius record shop sells more records than anyone in Jamaica. And the people get to know me and come to hang out to see what we play. And soon all musicians start gathering there, like Tommy McCook and the Wailers and everyone, cos Aquarius was the place to be.”

In one infamous incident, Peter Tosh was hanging around outside the shop, when plain-clothes police grabbed the spliff he was smoking and dragged him back to Halfway Tree police station, where he was brutally beaten. Herman and Tommy McCook were the ones who bailed him out.

“Peter Tosh was feisty and got in some trouble sometimes, but then we all did – heheheh. I had always hung around with the bad boys.”

Herman had by now brought his brother Lloyd into the business, and together they opened the Aquarius Studio, fitted out to an extremely high standard by Rosser Electronics, from Swansea in Wales. The studio is probably most remembered today for the recordings made there by Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh. But it was also the seedbed for some interesting offshoots into jazz and soul, with Herman always pushing up against the boundaries of what was conventional. Interestingly, Herman retains a huge affection for Lee “Scratch” Perry, and the mystic experiments that came out of his Black Ark studio.

“Well Scratch was a mad guy, a crazy dude. When we were a youth, the two of us make some records with a bit of screaming and shouting on top. So I come with “here is the news, the great bugga wugga from arugga”, and some other foolishness, just like Scratch, who come with the Chicken Scratch. It was a youthman thing. Then later he came into the shop one day looking like Haile Selassie. And I say “bloodclaat Scratch, you can’t go around looking so”, and he take off him cap and looked inside and pull out some cigarette butt he found in there. And he had a girlfriend name Pauline, and when the two of them fall out, he threw everything out of the studio that had the letter P on it! He was one crazy dude.”

Herman was developing his own unique world view derived partly from a rejection of conventional politics, alongside a distinctive reading of the Bible.

“Musicism is because you have socialism, communism and capitalism, so I thought Musicism would be a good thing to forge people together, to stop them yelling at each other and murdering each other. I thought it would be a good place for everybody to come together. Then I started a little thing down by Trenchtown there, where I was getting people from Rema and from Jungle to get together, but it mashed up in a little while because in the heat of the moment the guns would bark, and for the sake of my life I opted out of that, you know. But Musicism was a thought, so I continued to have an album called Musicism, and you’re talking about people like Linval Thompson, Sugar Minott. I was saying to the people of Jamaica, let’s not vote JLP, let’s not vote PNP, let it be that Musicism is a place where it’s not politics, and where people can talk to each other, so Musicism was birthed out of that.. So we had all sorts of things going on with the Musicism label, and I would put an album with the vocal and then have another album with the dub, because I was into business, I was into making money, but what drives me into the music was the music itself, because I really love the music.”

This reissue is of two extremely rare LPs that came out on Musicism in 1983, a couple of years after dub had declined in popularity as an album form in Jamaica. They were released in the generic 12-inch sleeves of the American label TK Disco, which had recently ceased trading, picked up on Herman’s travels to Miami. The labels were either blank or stamped with the wrong song titles from a similarly obscure vocal compilation. A handful of copies were exported to London and the U.S., and the remainder were sold exclusively by the Aquarius shop.

“In the studio we used to work really fast in them days, especially with Karl Pitterson. Karl Pitterson was one of the most efficient engineers you would ever find, and him and me had a great understanding. So the studio ran real fast. Then there was this guy Steven Stanley who was just a little youngster when he start with me, but he went on to Compass Point and working with Chris Blackwell. He was a little uppity, a bit prideful, although he didn’t even recognise that, but still he was a really good engineer. So we had these people to work for me, and it didn’t take long to do what I did. So it’s strange that we did these things so fast, so many years ago, and they still have a public that wants to hear them today.”

Herman also had an eccentric label called Selection Exclusive which mainly released 12 inch singles with hand-stamped titles on the labels, or sometimes no title at all, wrapped in more of those generic TK Disco sleeves. If this wasn’t enough to throw off even the most serious collector, instead of the expected version on the B-side, there would often be a totally different tune from 10 years earlier, sometimes with Herman whispering smokey rhymes over the top.

“Selection Exclusive was birthed where I was selling this dub album exclusive, but it was expensive. So I don’t think much people knew about these records, but the collectors knew, and these records were selling for hundreds of [Jamaican] dollars more than a normal LP. So this dub album come out and I give it to the sound systems, I give it to Gemini and Merritone, so that they play it all the time. I never give my records to the radio station. And I made so much money out of this album, that it was exclusive expensive!”
Finally, it was a family dispute with Herman’s brother Lloyd that derailed the Aquarius and Musicism train. The outcome was that Lloyd took the studio and Herman kept the record shop.

“I go to court twice and lost all of that money, and my brother won control of the studio. But then they try to write me out of history. And I get so upset when I really think about it. I’m not saying I’ve never done anything wrong in my life. We all need to repent. You see, I have to tell the truth: what about the half that’s never been told! But there was some skulduggery going on then.”

Nowadays there are no record shops on Constant Spring Road. The block which housed Aquarius is now home to Usain Bolt’s Tracks And Records restaurant. Herman joined the steady exodus of Jamaicans to Miami, and today finds him using his verbal dexterity and irrepressible energy to sell Sorrel drinks filled with medicinal herbs, ginger and turmeric. But his music is still out there, circling the globe through speakers and headphones...

“I always want my music to be on a higher plane, like to carry some message. And a dub album gives plenty of space for the message. Just because there are no words, it doesn’t mean that it don’t communicate. If you listen carefully, you will hear it properly, and so the message will reach down through the years, and spread to the people again. This is a spiritual conversation, cos I have reached to a different spiritual plane!”

Diggory Kenrick 

Pharoah ‘Farrell’ Sanders (born 1940) is a leading figure in the world of jazz and one of the last living legends with connections to players like Sun Ra and John Coltrane. His tenor saxophone playing has earned him royal status amongst free jazz players, critics and collectors. Originally Sanders was interested in urban blues music, but his high school teacher exposed him to jazz and this took Farrell in an entirely new direction. Once completing high school Sanders quickly packed his belongings and headed to Oakland, where he got a chance to work with musicians of high caliber such as saxophone players Sonny Simmons and Dewey Redman (who were both later to be major forces in new jazz and free jazz). Soon the young Pharoah would meet John Coltrane and would feel being attracted to the life as a professional musician. By the early sixties Sanders moved to New York where the major jazz scene was happening. Here he’d spent most his time honing his skills at rehearsals with Sun Ra….sadly he was not making much money with the Arkestra and soon found himself living on the streets, trying to stay up all night playing and then scrounging for money during the day, often selling blood to eat. Sanders recorded his debut album for ESP soon after, but it wasn’t until he started playing with his old friend John Coltrane that he would fully unleash the fury of his saxophone on the world of free jazz. The records Pharoah Sanders played on for Coltrane laid the foundation of what was to come for both the world of free jazz and for Sanders as a musician. After Coltrane’s tragic death Sanders would record further with Alice Coltrane, John’s widow, on the album Karma (1969 – Impulse!), which is universally accepted as Sanders’ masterpiece. Along with musicians Alice Coltrane and singer Leon Thomas, Sanders helped to create the genre of spiritual jazz. On the album we are presenting you today (Africa from 1987) Sanders plays with an all-star line-up consisting of Idris Muhammad, John Hicks and Curtis Lundy. Muhammad brings his trademark tight sense of timekeeping, but with a looseness that we love – and Lundy’s warm soulful bass does more than enough to give the set a sound bottom- all this while Hick’s free lyrical piano works nicely with Sander’s spiritual horn. The brilliant ‘Africa sessions’ features the quartet at their best…soulful but also searching for a strong groove at the same time. The music here is less ornamented than on most of Sanders’ studio recordings, where sextets, septets or larger lineups have been the norm, but this brilliant effort here remains every bit as compelling. Pharoah and his crew play with the utmost sensitivity and give a demonstration that shows us the full extent of their skills. Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents: the official reissue of this fantastic album, back available on vinyl for the first time since 1987. Available as a deluxe 180g 2XLP set, with TWO bonus tracks from the same session that were not featured on the original vinyl release. This album is limited to 500 copies worldwide and comes with an obi strip + liner notes by American jazz critic & author Kevin Whitehead.

An omnibus album "OZ DAYS LIVE" recorded in '73 at the live house "OZ" in Kichijoji, Tokyo, will be released as a 2LP analog set, plus previously unreleased material that was not recorded at the time. Officially approved by , which holds the legal rights to Les Rallizes Dénudés's sound sources, and remastered from the original analog tapes by Makoto Kubota. Includes booklet with liner notes by Minoru Tezuka (manager of OZ/ later manager of Rallizes's) and rare photos from that time. Comes with craft board sleeve and obi.

2024 repress. A great score by the maestro, Ennio Morricone for Umberto Lenzi's 1974 cult thriller Spasmo. Here Morricone creates a disorienting and disturbing effect, using an unusual and almost avant-garde like combination of sounds, music and instruments.

The legendary Don Cherry with his great 1966 quintet featuring Gato Barbieri on tenor sax, Karl Berger on piano, Bo Stief on bass and Aldo Romano on drums. This quintet can also be heard on three volumes titled Live at Café Monmartre 1966 (ESPDISK 4032CD, 4043CD and 4051CD) and with the New York Total Music Company in 1968. This recording is taken from an excellent radio broadcast, presented here in a glorious vinyl release.

2024 repress. This record marks a turning point in jazz history. It may be the earliest recorded example of what Ornette Coleman later called free jazz, and it represents the first rumblings of the revolutionary movement which eventually shifted jazz thinking away from bebop. This double LP includes the complete show recorded live at The Hillcrest Club of Los Angeles in 1958 and is pressed on audiophile clear vinyl (ACV) in a limited edition.

Masayuki 'Jojo' Takayanagi (1932 - 1991) was a Japanese jazz / free improvisational musician. He was active in the Japanese jazz scene from the late 1950s. He was one of the earliest noise guitar improvisers, and the first (with Keith Rowe) to use the table-top guitar.

Korpses Katatonik was a musical solo project of Zoe DeWitt during the years 1982 and 1983. Unlike DeWitt's later project Zero Kama, the work of Korpses Katatonik remains entirely within the realm of electronic music and shows an uncompromising experimental style comparable to that of other industrial bands like Throbbing Gristle, SPK, or Cabaret Voltaire. Like many other exponents of industrial culture Korpses Katatonik was inspired by dark psychiatry, pathological abnormalism, necrophilia, and other types of paraphilic aberration. These served as a metaphor for the dark side of a dehumanized society that seeks to maintain control by the suppression of anything that could be regarded as dark, sinister, deviant, or unpleasant from the viewpoint of popular mass culture. As a means of escape from this totalitarian pressure - thus a statement by Korpses Katatonik - there remains only self-destruction, murder, or the withdrawal into catatonic schizophrenia. Korpses Katatonik's first release was a Nekrophile Rekords cassette entitled subklinikal leukotomy aphrenia spasmophiik lyssophobo asphyxia sinister lethal anorex. The titles on the album were: shatok, schmertzlabor, enzephallik mortuor, nekom, kcok transzlant, kaltfleisch corporor, skarzisko and okzipital slash. The terminology of psychopathological disorders was used by Korpses Katatonik in a subversive way for its own poetic value and many of the rare vocals and track titles (as for example shatok, enzephallik mortuor and kaltfleisch corporor) were taken from writings of patients of Viennas famous psychiatrist hospital in Maria Gugging (dissolved in 2007). The title skarzisko refers to a national socialist concentration camp in the polish town Skarżysko-Kamienna. The upcoming influence of occultism within the postindustrial underground of the 1980s is finally reflected in the last track of Korpses Katatonik, Choronzon, which was published on the Nekrophile cassette compilation The Beast 666. This track, which refers to a ritual performed by Aleister Crowley and Victor Neuburg in the desert Sahara in 1909, anticipates the strong occult implications of Zoe DeWitt's musical follow-up project Zero Kama. In 2012 all recorded tracks by Korpses Katatonik have been released under the title Oeuvres complètes by the Viennese label Klanggalerie. Currently, the remastered album is reissued on IFP on VINYL, CD, TAPE, and ultra-limited collectors box. Recorded in 1982 by Michael Zoe Dewitt (synth, guitar, voice, tape loops) and mixed at the Institute for Composition and Electroacoustics at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Wiener Konzerthaus studios). First published as audio cassette NRC01 on Nekrophile Rekords in 1983. Remastered by Zoe Dewitt for Infinite Fog Records in 2022.Korpses Katatonik was a musical solo project of Zoe DeWitt during the years 1982 and 1983. Unlike DeWitt's later project Zero Kama, the work of Korpses Katatonik remains entirely within the realm of electronic music and shows an uncompromising experimental style comparable to that of other industrial bands like Throbbing Gristle, SPK, or Cabaret Voltaire. Like many other exponents of industrial culture Korpses Katatonik was inspired by dark psychiatry, pathological abnormalism, necrophilia, and other types of paraphilic aberration. These served as a metaphor for the dark side of a dehumanized society that seeks to maintain control by the suppression of anything that could be regarded as dark, sinister, deviant, or unpleasant from the viewpoint of popular mass culture. As a means of escape from this totalitarian pressure - thus a statement by Korpses Katatonik - there remains only self-destruction, murder, or the withdrawal into catatonic schizophrenia. Korpses Katatonik's first release was a Nekrophile Rekords cassette entitled subklinikal leukotomy aphrenia spasmophiik lyssophobo asphyxia sinister lethal anorex. The titles on the album were: shatok, schmertzlabor, enzephallik mortuor, nekom, kcok transzlant, kaltfleisch corporor, skarzisko and okzipital slash. The terminology of psychopathological disorders was used by Korpses Katatonik in a subversive way for its own poetic value and many of the rare vocals and track titles (as for example shatok, enzephallik mortuor and kaltfleisch corporor) were taken from writings of patients of Viennas famous psychiatrist hospital in Maria Gugging (dissolved in 2007). The title skarzisko refers to a national socialist concentration camp in the polish town Skarżysko-Kamienna. The upcoming influence of occultism within the postindustrial underground of the 1980s is finally reflected in the last track of Korpses Katatonik, Choronzon, which was published on the Nekrophile cassette compilation The Beast 666. This track, which refers to a ritual performed by Aleister Crowley and Victor Neuburg in the desert Sahara in 1909, anticipates the strong occult implications of Zoe DeWitt's musical follow-up project Zero Kama. In 2012 all recorded tracks by Korpses Katatonik have been released under the title Oeuvres complètes by the Viennese label Klanggalerie. Currently, the remastered album is reissued on IFP on VINYL, CD, TAPE, and ultra-limited collectors box. Recorded in 1982 by Michael Zoe Dewitt (synth, guitar, voice, tape loops) and mixed at the Institute for Composition and Electroacoustics at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Wiener Konzerthaus studios). First published as audio cassette NRC01 on Nekrophile Rekords in 1983. Remastered by Zoe Dewitt for Infinite Fog Records in 2022.

Korpses Katatonik was a musical solo project of Zoe DeWitt during the years 1982 and 1983. Unlike DeWitt's later project Zero Kama, the work of Korpses Katatonik remains entirely within the realm of electronic music and shows an uncompromising experimental style comparable to that of other industrial bands like Throbbing Gristle, SPK, or Cabaret Voltaire. Like many other exponents of industrial culture Korpses Katatonik was inspired by dark psychiatry, pathological abnormalism, necrophilia, and other types of paraphilic aberration. These served as a metaphor for the dark side of a dehumanized society that seeks to maintain control by the suppression of anything that could be regarded as dark, sinister, deviant, or unpleasant from the viewpoint of popular mass culture. As a means of escape from this totalitarian pressure - thus a statement by Korpses Katatonik - there remains only self-destruction, murder, or the withdrawal into catatonic schizophrenia. Korpses Katatonik's first release was a Nekrophile Rekords cassette entitled subklinikal leukotomy aphrenia spasmophiik lyssophobo asphyxia sinister lethal anorex. The titles on the album were: shatok, schmertzlabor, enzephallik mortuor, nekom, kcok transzlant, kaltfleisch corporor, skarzisko and okzipital slash. The terminology of psychopathological disorders was used by Korpses Katatonik in a subversive way for its own poetic value and many of the rare vocals and track titles (as for example shatok, enzephallik mortuor and kaltfleisch corporor) were taken from writings of patients of Viennas famous psychiatrist hospital in Maria Gugging (dissolved in 2007). The title skarzisko refers to a national socialist concentration camp in the polish town Skarżysko-Kamienna. The upcoming influence of occultism within the postindustrial underground of the 1980s is finally reflected in the last track of Korpses Katatonik, Choronzon, which was published on the Nekrophile cassette compilation The Beast 666. This track, which refers to a ritual performed by Aleister Crowley and Victor Neuburg in the desert Sahara in 1909, anticipates the strong occult implications of Zoe DeWitt's musical follow-up project Zero Kama. In 2012 all recorded tracks by Korpses Katatonik have been released under the title Oeuvres complètes by the Viennese label Klanggalerie. Currently, the remastered album is reissued on IFP on VINYL, CD, TAPE, and ultra-limited collectors box. Recorded in 1982 by Michael Zoe Dewitt (synth, guitar, voice, tape loops) and mixed at the Institute for Composition and Electroacoustics at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Wiener Konzerthaus studios). First published as audio cassette NRC01 on Nekrophile Rekords in 1983. Remastered by Zoe Dewitt for Infinite Fog Records in 2022.Korpses Katatonik was a musical solo project of Zoe DeWitt during the years 1982 and 1983. Unlike DeWitt's later project Zero Kama, the work of Korpses Katatonik remains entirely within the realm of electronic music and shows an uncompromising experimental style comparable to that of other industrial bands like Throbbing Gristle, SPK, or Cabaret Voltaire. Like many other exponents of industrial culture Korpses Katatonik was inspired by dark psychiatry, pathological abnormalism, necrophilia, and other types of paraphilic aberration. These served as a metaphor for the dark side of a dehumanized society that seeks to maintain control by the suppression of anything that could be regarded as dark, sinister, deviant, or unpleasant from the viewpoint of popular mass culture. As a means of escape from this totalitarian pressure - thus a statement by Korpses Katatonik - there remains only self-destruction, murder, or the withdrawal into catatonic schizophrenia. Korpses Katatonik's first release was a Nekrophile Rekords cassette entitled subklinikal leukotomy aphrenia spasmophiik lyssophobo asphyxia sinister lethal anorex. The titles on the album were: shatok, schmertzlabor, enzephallik mortuor, nekom, kcok transzlant, kaltfleisch corporor, skarzisko and okzipital slash. The terminology of psychopathological disorders was used by Korpses Katatonik in a subversive way for its own poetic value and many of the rare vocals and track titles (as for example shatok, enzephallik mortuor and kaltfleisch corporor) were taken from writings of patients of Viennas famous psychiatrist hospital in Maria Gugging (dissolved in 2007). The title skarzisko refers to a national socialist concentration camp in the polish town Skarżysko-Kamienna. The upcoming influence of occultism within the postindustrial underground of the 1980s is finally reflected in the last track of Korpses Katatonik, Choronzon, which was published on the Nekrophile cassette compilation The Beast 666. This track, which refers to a ritual performed by Aleister Crowley and Victor Neuburg in the desert Sahara in 1909, anticipates the strong occult implications of Zoe DeWitt's musical follow-up project Zero Kama. In 2012 all recorded tracks by Korpses Katatonik have been released under the title Oeuvres complètes by the Viennese label Klanggalerie. Currently, the remastered album is reissued on IFP on VINYL, CD, TAPE, and ultra-limited collectors box. Recorded in 1982 by Michael Zoe Dewitt (synth, guitar, voice, tape loops) and mixed at the Institute for Composition and Electroacozustics at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Wiener Konzerthaus studios). First published as audio cassette NRC01 on Nekrophile Rekords in 1983. Remastered by Zoe Dewitt for Infinite Fog Records in 2022.

Miša Blam’s - Sećanja (Memories), one of the most sought of, rarest and cult ex-Yugoslavian jazz LP’s - is finally reissued, sourced and fully licensed straight from vaults of Jugodisk (Belgrade, Serbia). And where better than on the Everland’s Everland-Yu imprint dedicated to the unheard sound of Yugoslavia! This LP, kept tight in private ex-Yu collectors cabinets and championed by jazz dance DJ’s across the planet, was recorded in 1979 and released in only 1000 copies in 1980 by the Beograd Disk label. The LP is filled with jazz-funk, bop styles, latin jazz and even Gospel live recordings by the Golden gate quartet (recorded by Miša himself) all accompanied by the crème de la crème of Yugoslavia’s jazz-funk instrumentalists at the time (Jelenko Milaković, Lazar Tošić, Stjepko Gut, Jovan Maljoković, Josip boček…). Miša Blam (1947 - 2014) was an influential Serbian jazz composer, arranger, publicist, festival organizer and Radio-Television Belgrade’s long-time collaborator (jazz and folk orchestras, recording engineer, music director…). But Miša was first and foremost a bass player! Having played with numerous worldwide famous jazz cats he often talked of his work in the Chet Baker - Sal Nistico trio while living in New York and playing with them for two years (or rather bailing Sal out of prison or buying off Chet’s trumpet on his behalf from the pawn shop). The album perhaps represents an unusual collection of songs mostly composed by Miša Blam himself during his world wide spanning jazz pursuits in the 70’s. Unusual for it does not stand alone as a cohesive album release but as a collection of works that we were lucky to be rewarded with in his very sparse discography consisting of: one EP, this LP and one cassette tape… Finally this collection showcases what was Miša all about – and that was jazz bass in all its marvelous forms – from lacing dreamy ballads with his impeccable upright bass fiddle play to grooving on his fender bass on the jazz-funk monster Sećanje which could be included on any acid jazz compilation of the 90s (check out Balkan Express...). Masterfully executed and kept to its original sound this release will keep your ears busy and open to the sound of ex Yugoslavian jazz and the sound of unheard Yugoslavia – where-else but on Everland-Yu! Dr. Smeđi Šećer, 2021