MUSIC

Brokeback is Douglas McCombs. Douglas may be familiar to many of you as the bassist for Eleventh Dream Day, Tortoise and Pullman. During the last two years Brokeback has released two singles and played numerous live dates throughout the U.S. and Europe. Through Brokeback, Douglas has sought to explore something not as densely structured as his other musical outings with a focus on rhythm and texture. The idea with Brokeback is to keep things simple and let the melodies hang in the air. By the nature of this decision the music is sparse, but not without sounding full and realized. Field Recordings From The Cook County Water Table is the most actualized offering of the Brokeback experience to date, whether it be recorded or live. Field Recordings… features contributions from Noel Kupersmith (Chicago Underground Orchestra) and Josh Abrams (Sam Prekop Band/Town and Country), whose versatile bass playing helped Douglas achieve the textural depth for this debut and first in-depth documentation of Brokeback. Noel has been a frequent collaborator in Brokeback's live setting. Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground Orchestra/Isotope 217) plays cornet on the opening track, "after the internationals" and Mary Hansen (Stereolab) lends her angelic voice to the song, "the great banks". Both John Herndon and John McEntire contributed their percussive talents, while McEntire handled the recording duties by himself. However at the heart of Brokeback lies the vision and playing of Doug McCombs. In Douglas' own words: "Brokeback wouldn't exist without the Fender six-string bass. I consider myself a bass player, and though I have dabbled with slide instruments (lap steel and dobro) I was never really interested in moving into the higher register until I became aware of this instrument and its perfect blend of twang and low tone. I began planning this album years before I could even afford to purchase one. It may seem ridiculous to give so much credit to the instrument, but most of these melodies practically wrote themselves, and they were exactly what I wanted."

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!

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. 

In his book Powershift, published in 1990, writer and businessman Alvin Toffler predicted that the century ahead would be defined by speed and that time itself is destined to become our most valuable commodity. When Joshua Abrams recorded Natural Information, originally released by Eremite in 2010, he was reacting against such commodification of time and the diminishing attention span that accompanies it by offering music with an irresistible groove, rooted in the sinuous rhythms of the human body and the full play of our senses.

At the heart of this music is the sound of the guimbri, a North African three-stringed bass lute, which Abrams started to play following a visit to Morocco during the late 90s. Traditionally the instrument has a key role in mystical healing ceremonies. Abrams, already a well-established figure in Chicago’s vibrant musical communities, had no desire to repackage tradition. He recognized however that the involving, springy and percussive sound of the guimbri was just the right voice to communicate vital data, to relay the natural information we all need in order to get back in touch with the pulsating continuities of a world we all share.

With Natural Information Abrams entered a new phase of his musical life, extending an invitation to the trance, where time intersects with timelessness. He carried with him a wealth of playing and listening experience. As a bass player he had worked with a host of notable musicians including guitarist Jeff Parker and percussionist Hamid Drake, and had been a member of back porch minimalism outfit Town And Country and the improvising trio Sticks And Stones.

The guimbri is a shaping presence on this remarkable recording, but Abrams also plays bass, bells, kora, sampler and synthesizer. Sympathetic friends including guitarist Emmett Kelly, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz and drummers Frank Rosaly and Nori Tanaka join him  for the project. They set out not to contrive some neat hybrid but to enable coordinated energies and enriching influences to pulse and flow through living, breathing music. Ten years further into a century seemingly dedicated, as Toffler foresaw, to the survival of the fastest, the deep involving groove of Natural Information seems still more relevant, more illuminating, more vital.

From the landlocked tropical savanna of Upper Volta, an ever-evolving cast of musicians brought the world’s rhythms to the streets of their native Bobo-Dioulasso. Combining Congolese rhumba, American R&B, French yé-yé, Cuban son, and regional Senufo and Mandingo traditions, Orchestre Volta Jazz was at the epicenter of the West African musical explosion of the ’60s and ’70s. Air Volta compiles nine original songs originally issued on the Disques France-Afrique and Sonafric labels, a peerless primer of a group that turned the brutality of colonialism into something beautiful and enduring. “Boisterous and simmering in equal measure.”—Pitchfork “Infectious and filled with joy.”—The New Yorker

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.

Classic Wailers recordings done with Lee Perry early 70s. Tuff roots rhythms with early stripped down versions to later well known tracks such as "Sun Is Shining" "African Herbsman" "Keep On Moving" and many more.

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.

Sonor Music Editions proudly announces the first ever reissue of another Italian Library holy grail, fruit of the union between two of the most brilliant composers of Italian panorama: Alessandro Alessandroni and Rino De Filippi. "VACANZE" album (in English 'holidays'), was originally released in early/mid 70s on Sermi output, and is one of the most elusive records from the label out there. From refined Lounge music to stunning Jazz-Funk and groovy vibes, this album features an unbelievable set of the coolest themed music from the whole Library scene, with maestro Rino De Filippi's harpsichord on evidence in many tracks and soaring, loungy and dreamy moods throughout the entire album. A superlative recording, with an incredible sleeve design that has obssessed Library collectors for years, and for sure among the best releases from the gold Sermi label along with "Nel Mondo Del Lavoro" release just announced. iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/614156976&color=%239a8d5e&auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=true&show_artwork=false&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=false" allow="autoplay" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no">

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.

180-gram reissue of John Fahey's 1972 major-label debut. "In the liner notes for this wonderful disc, sideman Chris Darrow comments, 'I remember the first time I ever heard him, I thought they'd turned the record from 45 to 33 or something, 'cause I couldn't believe how slow he played.' One of the (many) great beauties in Fahey's approach is just that: he takes his time and savors every last resonance he can wring from his guitar. This 1972 release was his first for a major label (originally on Reprise) after more than a decade of issuing work privately or on small imprints, and also the first instance of Fahey having access to a large ensemble of musicians, including a brass and string section. Still, the extra players don't come close to swamping the session; Fahey is very much in the foreground and a number of the pieces read, essentially, as solo performances. It opens with 'Steamboat Gwine 'Round de Bend,' as gorgeous an example of Fahey's slide guitar work as he ever recorded, languid, soulful, and profound. Similarly, his medley of 'Deep River' and 'Ol' Man River' is steeped in Delta humidity, lazily floating downstream. The tracks with the brass band raise the ghosts of Dixieland, while some of the string accompaniment may recall Van Morrison. In any event, Fahey, major label or not, is simply himself, leisurely rolling along, sharply perceptive in his observations and sumptuously gorgeous in his evocations. A fine effort and certainly something that belongs on the shelves of any fan of the late, very great guitarist." --Brian Olewnick, AllMusic

In C is a musical piece by the composer and performing musician Terry Riley. As one of the first minimalist compositions and a masterpiece of this genre it's a response to the modern music that dominated the scene in 1968. The piece inspired a lot of famous composers, like Philip Glass and Steve Reich. In C consists of repeating cells and different rhythms, loosely based on the musical structures he had heard and loved in north African music. 53 short musical phrases are what the compositions are made of. The thing that makes In C so enduring is that, once all concept is stripped away, it's a seriously hypnotic piece of music. For listeners with a sympathy for minimalism it's a wild and impressive work, full of energy. 180 gram vinyl.

Discreet Music (1975) is the fourth studio album by the British musician Brian Eno. While his earlier work with Robert Fripp (No Pussyfooting) and several selections from Another Green World feature similar ideas, Discreet Music marked a clear step toward the ambient aesthetic Eno would later codify with 1978's Ambient 1: Music for Airports. It is also Eno's first album to be released under his full name "Brian Eno" as opposed to his previous rock albums released simply under the name "Eno".

A reissue of the classic 1977 vocal fusion album that has been the source of many hip-hop samples. It features Narada Michael Walden (Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, George Benson) on drums. Long out of print, and coveted by collectors, Chiaroscuro provides an official faithful reissue.

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.

This is an analog reissue of the 1956 album "Exotica" by Martin Denny, the undisputed king of exotic fantasy music! Once you drop the needle, you're transported to another world... A monumental album that launched Denny's 30-year career and opened up a whole new genre of exotica music! As the tropical mood from the iconic artwork suggests, the album showcases the full range of fantastic space-age sounds that reek of exoticism and imaginary charm.

Third reissue in our Makoto Kubota reissue program with the release of "Dixie Fever" recorded in Hawaii in 1976 and co-produced by Haruomi Hosono. Like its predecessors, 'Sunset Gang' and 'Hawaii Champroo', 'Dixie Fever' continues to explore American and Island music through a Japanese prism with a skilful mix of blues, swamp funk and America adding an exotic edge to the whole. It is the first time the album is released outside of Japan and the LP features remastered audio by Makoto Kubota himself.

Wewantsounds' Makoto Kubota retrospective continues with the reissue of "Sunset Gang" recorded in 1973 for Showboat. The album, co-produced by Kinji Yoshino (Haruomi Hosono, Akiko Yano, Sachiko Kanenobu) and featuring Haruomi Hosono, Minako Yoshida and Taeko Ohnuki, was released as Kubota had just recorded his classic first solo album, 'Machibouke'. It marks the start of the group's unique sound mixing Japanese music with R&B, Blues and New Orleans influences, a sound that would have a lasting impression on the Japanese music scene. This is the first time the album is released outside of Japan, remastered by Makoto Kubota himself

Soul singer Barbara Massey and jazz guitarist Ernie Calabria paired up for this rare 1971 album. With Calabria having worked with Nina Simone and Harry Belafonte, among others, and Massey having sung backup for artists including Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens, and Herbie Hancock, the pairing was an inspired one and resulted in this superb soul-jazz outing. Massey has a dry yet passionate and evocative vocal quality that often brings to mind Grace Slick. Fittingly, the duo takes on Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love," turning the Summer of Love anthem into a steamy and hypnotic soul-funk jam. Elsewhere, the duo touches upon such varying styles as folk, Latin, and psychedelic rock with cuts like "For You" and "Do You Know?," bringing to mind such similarly inclined acts as the Free Design and Bill Withers. Anyone who has even a passing interest in this kind of '70s cross-genre aesthetic will certainly want to seek out Prelude To.... ~ Matt Collar

Sounding almost as though Tortoise and Stereolab had joined forces to play jazz, Piero Umiliani described his 1975 LP, Piano Fenderblues, as “Music with a modern but discreet sound”. Recorded by an ensemble comprising two electric pianos (Fender and Wurlitzer), bass, piano, drums, and percussion, the album encounters the famed Florentine composer stretching out into territories that stand slightly apart from his most widely celebrated efforts and avant-garde experimentations. Released under the moniker Rovi by Umiliani’s own Omicron imprint, at first glance Pianofender Blues appear to be what the literalness of its title describes, a bluesy excursion driven by electric piano. At a closer listen, the album’s 'light', 'easy listening' repertoire - orbiting around the melancholic tones produced by the famous keyboard - reveals a startling level of complexity and tension, that highlights the composer's remarkable versatility. Funky and smooth, darting to and from like elevator music on the high seas, Piano Fenderblues is a fascinating and startling listen - revealing its depths slowly over time - embedded in what migsht be misunderstood as one of Umiliani’s more accessible works. Dialogo’s beautiful, fully-authorized vinyl and CD reissues of this strange wonder - the first since its original 1975 release, beautifully remastered from the original analogue master tapes - further expands our understanding and approach to one of Italian music’s most radical and complex minds, and is an absolute must for any fan of this unparalleled era of the country's library music and soundtrack triumphs.

LP reissue, originally released as Eternal Now on Sonet Records in 1973. Don was living in Sweden at the time and made 2 great spaced-out records (in the freeform "Universal Music" style) for Sonet (Live Ankara being the other) -- the prior CD reissue of this material has seemingly disappeared into the wind. If this album had been made by some Vietnam vet living in a windowless cove in Northern California -- with a picture of leaves on the cover, no less -- it would have made the NWW list and originals would be fetching more than a used car, today. As an unfortunate aside, this LP reissue features the vastly inferior American cover as used by Picc-a-dilly, compared to the screaming ethno-psychedelic visuals favored by Sonet. The fact that he is shown wearing a suite that he certainly wasn't wearing during this recording, playing an instrument that he certainly wasn't playing during this recording -- apparently these details fazed no one. "Piano and percussion dominate this rare recording from sessions in April of 1973. No cornet or trumpet. Cherry sings and plays piano, gamelan, harmonium, and assorted percussion. The other musicians are: Christer Bothen (piano, etc.), Bernt Rosengren (taragot, a Swedish wooden soprano saxophone), Agneta Ernstrom (Tibetan bell, etc.), Bengt Berger (piano, mridangam, etc.)."

Minimalist music evangelist Terry Riley's 1968 masterpiece "A Rainbow In The Curved Air" influenced numerous musicians.From The Who to many techno artists, this is a classic album that continues to influence us.