MUSIC

Legendary Midwest electronic producer, the sadly departed LeRon Carson's late 80's productions are gathered on Sound Signature with this impressive overview of his work. ‘Under The Conditions’ is vintage, raw Chicago house music in the vein of his previous releases on Theo Parrish's esteemed label. Fans of Virgo Four's lush deep house trax should definitely check this out.

Includes a long version of "Get Down on It" sampled by Snoop Dogg & 98 Degrees and the original studio version of "Summer Madness".

Legendary performer Nico of the Velvet Underground released his last album in 1985. Featuring The Faction as his backing band, this eight-track album features the lead singer's voice and readings, striding with overwhelming presence through a variety of post-noise, industrial, and improvisational productions.　The album, which is also considered to be Nico's best work in the latter half of his career, includes a cover of the jazz standard "My Funny Valentine". For this RSD release, the album has been remastered from the original analog tapes to 24-bit HD audio, and reissued on blue vinyl in limited quantities.

Everything Pale Blue is the first collection of ambient music by New York City-based composer and Au Revoir Simone keyboardist Annie Hart. Performed on analog synthesizers and processed through daisy chains of delay, reverb and loop effects, Everything Pale Blue’s warm, sonorous tones and trance-like, minimalist arrangements recall the work of pioneering electronic music composers Wendy Carlos, Éliane Radigue and Brian Eno, as well as German Kosmische Musik groups of the 70’s like Kraftwerk, Cluster and Tangerine Dream.

Throughout Everything Pale Blue, Hart’s gentle arpeggios and playful melodic figures echo the harmonies and rhythms of our natural world, from the cycles of flora, fauna and weather patterns to the orbits of celestial bodies. Everything Pale Blue’s four gorgeously expansive instrumental tracks reward patient listeners seeking calm, melody and meditation.

Annie Hart explains:

“I began composing Everything Pale Blue in November 2020 at an artist’s residency near Oneonta, New York called Aunt Karen’s Farm, which was funded through a grant from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, whose mission is to support arts created by people with children. Normally, it’s a hub of activity, but due to COVID, it was just me, and for part of the time, my family, sharing an open, empty farm space; a true retreat. At first I was a bit bored by the same scenery every day in such a gloomy, wet, gray season, but after a while I started seeing the minute daily changes in the nature around me. Every day I went on walks through fallow fields spiked with mown straw, sometimes wet with mud, sometimes caked with snow, and on some magical days, encased in crystalline ice. I started seeing the trees around the farm as individuals, with their own personalities. I saw the leaves change on the ground from yellow and brown, to dry brown blowing ones, to wet, dark brown precursors to soil that would then nurture the same trees they came from. Obviously, in New York City, we see trees every day, but it is incredibly rare to witness their symbioses with each other and the soil and animals. I started noticing the differences in the bird songs of each species and their various moods.

“At the start of my residency, I visited Green Toad Bookstore in Oneonta where I was drawn to the 33 1/3 book on Another Green World by Geeta Dayal. She’s a great writer and laid Eno’s processes and philosophies out in an incredibly tangible way. I savored that book and bought AGW on iTunes and would listen on repeat while I ate my suppers. I had intended to use my time at the farm to finish recording a pop record, but I soon started sliding out of the typical song structure mentality and sliding into a playing/listening mentality. And I mean “play” in the childish sense. I brought my Oblique Strategies cards that I got for my birthday and I started just going to the recording studio I’d set up in the farmhouse’s living room and doing wild experiments.

“I’d brought along a few of my analog synthesizers (a Minimoog Model D, a Sequential Prophet-6, a Yamaha CP-20) plus some delay, reverb and loop effects. I started to think about just how meditative, playful and creative I could be within small parameters. I composed “Somebody Moves, Nobody Talks” like that, with the idea of how to make my own version of Eno’s studio with tape going around the room, looped on pencils.

“It was incredible to see the shift in my mentality over the time at the farm. To go from gripping and holding to just playing; allowing myself the freedom to create without guilt or responsibility, to see the shifts in my abilities as a composer and musician. It was absolutely magical and I consider that month an incredibly formative one that I am so lucky to have been able to attend and appreciate.” 

Rooms With Walls and Windows is the first album by Seattle-by-way-of-Chicago-by-way-of-Buffalo singer, songwriter & guitarist Julie Byrne. Blending psychedelic & traditional folk elements, Julie Byrne creates a highly personal & quietly mystical world that echoes the early work of Leonard Cohen & Vashti Bunyan. Rooms With Walls and Windows' twelve tracks were collected from two limited edition cassette releases, recorded between 2011 & 2012 by Jake Acosta in Chicago, IL. Each song was recorded live, with Julie accompanying herself on fingerpicked acoustic guitar or keyboard. Rooms With Walls & Windows was lovingly remastered for vinyl by Owen Ashworth & Matthew Barnhart.

Mike Hanapi (1898-1958), a famous steel guitarist and vocalist from Honolulu, Hawaii, left behind one of the greatest collections of pre-war Hawaiian music in the 20th century with his Kalama's Quartet. This is the long awaited analog reissue of the original 78rpm disc with remastering! This is a miraculous reissue of a number of recordings that have never before been reissued in any format. Gorgeous falsetto voice with a bottomlessly beautiful clarity and presence, and harmonious voice with a backing band as rich as a lonely yodel. Purely acoustic instruments such as lap steel guitar, ukulele, and harp guitar are gently woven into the vocal melodies, creating fluid, harmonious layers and hauntingly beautiful blue notes. This is truly peaceful, serene, and unique music. Reverse board jacket, 8-page full-size booklet with biography, rare photos, and full lyrics in Hawaiian and English.

Gorgeous and hypnotic Tanzanian dance music from the legendary Kiko Kids Jazz, a group that formed in the 1950s and produced a unique sound that stood out among the explosion of Tanzanian guitar bands in the run-up to the country's independence. Kiko Kids Jazz is the first LP album from Mississippi. With the endorsement of bandleader Salim Zahoro (1936-2021), who completed the collaboration shortly before his death at the age of 85, this is the first LP release of one of the most locally loved and innovative bands of the time. Remastered from the original tapes and pressings. The album explodes with funky, pastoral guitar music grooves inspired by the exciting music scene of acoustic and electric dance bands in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, as well as the poetic strains of Taarab and Arabic music. A full-size color insert (8 pages) is included. Officially licensed by Mzuri Records.

First ever vinyl collection of the legendary “Kostis,” the most enigmatic of all Greek rebetika artists. 12 tracks of truly unique guitar duets and black-humor lyrics chronicling the hash dens, prison culture and pickpockets of old Athens. Recorded under a pseudonym for export to the Greeks living in America, research has uncovered the musician, journalist and cartoonist Kostas Bezos as the figure lurking behind the Kostis name, with ties to the famous singer Tetos Demetriades. Renowned for his slide guitar playing in Hawaiian-style orchestras throughout the 1930s, the Kostis recordings reveal an entirely different underworld of the macabre and illicit. The use of guitar in these now-classic rebetika songs display a virtuosity of finger-picked Near-Eastern modes and unusual tunings at the dawn of rebetika, when the bouzouki was yet to become supreme.Presented in pristine audio quality mastered from original 78 rpm discs by Michael Graves, “The Jail’s a Fine School” stands as an important document of an enduring mystery in Greek music, and a high standard for what was once a truly subversive art form.

“hi leaves” is the new full-length record from soft tissue, the duo of Glasgow-based artists Feronia Wennborg and Simon Weins. Following their self-titled debut for Penultimate Press in 2019, this collection examines microsound by way of extended amplification technique, bone conduction, domestic recordings, and digital feedback. Tracks like “plant pot” and “kettle” appear to disclose their source material, presenting wonderfully tactile environments of highly articulate sound. Wennborg and Weins prove themselves to be masterful arrangers of discrete, organic material, weaving together knotty and immersive compositions from these sharp, prickly sounds. Ultimately, soft tissue inhabits an intoxicating soundworld somewhere in between the patient abstractions of composerly EAI music, the haptic indulgences of ASMR, and the diffuse digital pastorals of the 90’s a-musik/Cologne scene.

The fifth instalment of Ilian Tape’s Ilian Beat Series finds veteran Dutch producer Kid Sundance providing a fruitful selection of sample heavy hip hop tracks. ‘Neptunes’ opens with metal creaks and groans, eerie yet smooth, meanwhile Rones plays spacey, dreamy synths on ‘Wooden Loft’. The luscious delivery of ‘Ero’ combines the jazz expertise of Shigeto with loops programmed akin to Brainfeeder's Teebs. Tien Seconden feels like a lost beat tape from the 90s, with the warm crackle of Kid Sundance’s weapon of choice the EMU SP1200 coming through in spades, but an unmistakable modern glamour shines through.

Kazuo Imai is one of the few artists to traverse both Japan's early avant-garde and free jazz movements. Though he began performing in the 1970's, his 2004 P.S.F. album "far and wee" was only the second under his name. In a series of thrilling acoustic guitar improvisations - Imai's playing crackles with dynamic tension and physicality as well as a subtlety and nuance that reveals him as one of the instrument's true masters and innovators. Newly mixed and remastered under Imai's supervision, available for the first time ever on LP. Pressed to high quality vinyl at RTI and housed in heavy Stoughton "tip-on" jacket with laminate gloss finish and additional insert. Originally released on CD in 2004 by P.S.F. Records, Japan.

狂風暴雨，神獸互搏，溫柔的交織 An enchanting "in distance" collaboration between cello noise and percussions, weaving the sound of a harsh and dreamy landscape. 「這張專輯密集地撰寫著高功率的官能性噪音音樂，在藝術家和混音師的努力下抵達『好聽的噪音』的那個境界。」 "This album is a dense collection of high-powered, functional noise music, the artists and the sound engineer have reached that 'euphonious noise' level. " - 空之穴 holeinthesky This is a recording between two friends in Beijing and London during the pandemic, a wonderful long-distance collaboration. After releasing her critically acclaimed debut solo album '卵生 Oviparity' (The Wire's Top 50 of 2020), Sheng Jie 盛潔(a.k.a gogoj) continues to explore her own unconventional path in tandem experimentation with electric cellos and effects, while Shen Jing 沈靜 (a.k.a Shenggy, former drummer of the legendary Beijing punk band 'Hanging on the Box'), who has been in the music scene since the 90s, she started to develop her solo project in the field of industrial music, ambient and analogue synthesizers since 2003, for this record she returns to her role as a drummer, adding also gamelan and various percussion instruments from different parts of the world. A free, chaotic yet tender piece of work is what they deliver. 這是一份疫情期間的創作，分別身處北京和倫敦的兩位好友，心有靈犀完成了這份精彩的遠程合作。在出版了首張個人實體專輯《卵生》並且大獲好評（2020年英國《The Wire》雜誌年底50佳）後，盛潔（a.k.a gogoj）繼續在電子大提琴和效果器的各種串聯調試中探索著自己的非常規演奏道路，而作為90年代就已進入音樂領域的沈靜（a.k.a Shenggy，傳奇朋克樂隊“掛在盒子上”前鼓手），自2003開始就在工業音樂、氛圍、模擬合成器的領域不斷孕育自己的個人計劃，這次她又重拾鼓手的身份，使用鼓、甘美蘭、和其他多種世界不同地區的民間打擊樂器，和盛潔碰撞出了這張自由、狂躁卻又溫柔的作品。

Mega rare 1974 jazz funk rock album recorded by Argentina’s top jazzmen Pocho Lapouble, Ricardo Lew and Adalberto Cevasco (also members of Quinteplus, Jorge Lopez Ruiz’s band and Gato Barbieri’s group among many others). Includes the irresistible fast-paced funk rock track ‘Se Acabó el Recreo’ and the ethereal ‘Todo en Su Medida y Armoniosamente’ and ‘Haceme Shaft’, featuring Patricia Clark on vocals and unexpected moog arrangements. First time reissue, with remastered sound and original artwork.

First time ever on a 7' Jah Over i fits nicely into the best of Yabby You's roots recordings. Comes with a flute led instrumental by Tommy McCook backed by Sly and Robbie as The Prophets on the flipside. Roots music that soars above the Kingston haze!! Beautiful.

In the early 1970s the island of Jamaica, and in particular its reggae musicians, developed a love affair with small Japanese motor bikes. Honda bikes were eulogised in Big Youth’s ‘S90 Skank’ and Dillinger’s ‘CB200’, whilst their rival was lauded on Shorty The President’s ‘Yamaha Skank’, to name the most obvious examples.The plot of the film ‘Rockers’ revolved around how transformative a motorbike could be, providing a livelihood whilst projecting an image of success in the ghetto. 
Vivian ‘Yabby You’ Jackson had been fiercely independent as a singer and producer, and the success of his early self-pressed productions, mostly on the Prophets or Vivian Jackson labels, had given him a sense of hard earned autonomy. A motorbike was one of the fruits of his labours, acquired as a way of zipping around the capital’s roads to deliver records and organise recording sessions. His wife Jean could often be see hanging on to the back. Twelve years after his death, she remembers various exploits on the pot-holed roads of Kingston. 
Jean Vencella Williams: ‘His first motorbike was a Honda 50 and then a 100, a Yamaha. I remember the Yamaha, it was a dark blue colour, it must have been from the mid 70s til the early 80s. I used to ride around on the back and we ride all over, like we go to the country cos his mother lived in Clarendon.And he had a little carrier thing for boxes of records, so we go to Mandeville in Manchester, sometimes to Spanish Town fe sell records. Most of the time he sell them to the shops, like Randys, and the people them buy it from there. He had pressing plants like Byron Lee and later Tuff Gong, so when the records pressed we find out the time when we get back the records, which usually was at least a couple of days or about a week.And later when we living in Clarendon we come into Kingston to pick them up at the pressing plant.And when he book the studio he might book two or three days and we come in and usually stay til late. 
‘He used to carry the records from the different pressing plants on the bike, but because of the rain and weather you know it not so good for the records, and also the sun beating down.Then Wayne Wade had an accident on the Yamaha, and he was hurt quite bad, and he had to go to the hospital for quite a while. Well Yabby didn’t ride it after that, cos it was getting dangerous with so many cars coming in. So he gave up the Yamaha and bought a Toyota Carina, and that car was very good to him.Then the Carina become a little shaky, so he got a Toyota Corolla which he drove until his death.’ 
This album presents a sample of the best of those ‘Dubs and Versions’ that Yabby was ferrying around town, whether rarities, B-sides or tracks culled from albums that showcase the breadth of Yabby’s productions between 1975 and 1982. 


Tribal War Dub and Creation Rock Version. 
We open with two make-overs of Studio One rhythms,‘Death In The Arena’ and ‘Rockfort Rock’.Yabby is rightly lauded for his well worked original rhythms, but the same care and attention is on display here.Slow and hypnotic,‘TribalWar Dub’ was recorded at the Black Ark but mixed and overlaid with syndrum sound effects at King Tubby’s. ‘Creation Rock Version’ was issued on 7-inch as the flip to a storming vocal by Michael Prophet: the dub is pounding and relentless, aimed straight at the sound system. 

United Africa Dub 
Tommy McCook’s delicate flute leads an instrumental dub of Yabby’s haunting song ‘Jah Over I’.The master saxophonist was a key collaborator with Yabby throughout the 70s, and often switched to flute or fife for atmospheric classics like the mighty ‘Death Trap’. Here his sublime melody floats over a solid steppers drum pattern from Sly Dunbar, with syncopated snare fills. 

Lord Of Lords Dub, Black Is Our Colour Dub, Now I Know Dub and Man Of The Living Dub 
Four dubs all taken from singles featuring the teenage singer Wayne Wade. Jean remembers Wayne Wade as ‘a very brilliant singer, really the first one that Yabby spend a lot of time on as he get more confident as a producer’.Wade recorded extensively for Yabby, and went on to cut the awesome ‘Poor And Humble’ for Linval Thompson and a couple of albums for Willie Lindo. ‘Lord of Lords’ is a reworking of Yabby’s signature tune ‘Conquering Lion’,‘Now I Know’ is a recut of Dennis Brown’s ‘Baby Don’t Do It’, and ‘Man Of The Living’ is one of the deepest tunes recorded by Yabby’s young protégé.The ‘Black Is Our Colour’ rhythm was recorded by Lee Perry at the Black Ark studio, with horns and flute by Tommy McCook added after the original release, as heard on this, the version side to Jah Stitch’s cut ‘African Queen’. 

Dub U So and Yabby U Sound 
Two tracks from an LP named ‘Yabby U Meets Sly and Robbie Along With Tommy McCook’ released in 1982, in which Yabby revisits some of his older rhythms with new dub mixes by Professor and Scientist.‘Dub U So’ focuses in on some stirring but plangent horn parts.An album track by Byron Otis of The Blackstones named ‘Set Me Free’ uses the same rhythm track, seemingly because its producer Jah Larry was living in Clarendon alongside Yabby. ‘Yabby U Sound’ is a minimalist remix of the anthemic ‘King Pharaoh’s Plague’, originally released five years earlier. 

Vengeance In Dub, Repatriation Rock and Warrior No Tarry Yah Version 
Three version sides to strong DJ records, with Ranking Trevor’s toast over a recut of ‘Jah Vengeance’, Jah Stitch’s DJ piece to ‘Zion Gate’ aka ‘Judgement On The Land’, and Tony Tuff ’s chant over his own ‘One Big Family’, riding the Paragons’ ‘Man Next Door’ rhythm.All were mixed at King Tubby’s, probably by Prince Jammy, and all three dubs show the standard Tubby’s practice of recording the DJ’s clean voice and the full dub mix onto separate adjacent tracks.This meant that the flip side of the record would not need to be mixed separately, the dub mix being the same as that behind the voice on the A side.You just pulled down the fader on the DJ’s vocal and your B-side dub was already mixed. Not a second was wasted in the studio! 

Heads A Roll Dub, Mash Down Rome Dub and Turn Me Loose Dub 
Michael Prophet was Yabby’s most successful and prolific artist. Jean remembers Michael’s recruitment:‘Michael Prophet came to him as part of a trio,andYabby liked Michael but for some reason he didn’t take the other two, and decide him better as a solo artist. So Michael was taught from scratch and him would come in the evening and practice and practice, until Yabby feel he was ready for the studio.’ These three tracks are from the confusingly named ‘Michael Prophet – Vocal and Dub LP’, which is actually a full dub album mixed by King Tubby, with extended vocal passages. It’s a very musical set that was obviously conceived as a coherent album, with new mixes to existing singles and subtle sound effects overlaid throughout. 

Dub U So and Yabby U Sound 
Two tracks from an LP named ‘Yabby U Meets Sly and Robbie Along With Tommy McCook’ released in 1982, in which Yabby revisits some of his older rhythms with new dub mixes by Professor and Scientist.‘Dub U So’ focuses in on some stirring but plangent horn parts.An album track by Byron Otis of The Blackstones named ‘Set Me Free’ uses the same rhythm track, seemingly because its producer Jah Larry was living in Clarendon alongside Yabby. ‘Yabby U Sound’ is a minimalist remix of the anthemic ‘King Pharaoh’s Plague’, originally released five years earlier. 

Vengeance In Dub, Repatriation Rock and Warrior No Tarry Yah Version 
Three version sides to strong DJ records, with Ranking Trevor’s toast over a recut of ‘Jah Vengeance’, Jah Stitch’s DJ piece to ‘Zion Gate’ aka ‘Judgement On The Land’, and Tony Tuff ’s chant over his own ‘One Big Family’, riding the Paragons’ ‘Man Next Door’ rhythm.All were mixed at King Tubby’s, probably by Prince Jammy, and all three dubs show the standard Tubby’s practice of recording the DJ’s clean voice and the full dub mix onto separate adjacent tracks.This meant that the flip side of the record would not need to be mixed separately, the dub mix being the same as that behind the voice on the A side.You just pulled down the fader on the DJ’s vocal and your B-side dub was already mixed. Not a second was wasted in the studio! 

Heads A Roll Dub, Mash Down Rome Dub and Turn Me Loose Dub 
Michael Prophet was Yabby’s most successful and prolific artist. Jean remembers Michael’s recruitment:‘Michael Prophet came to him as part of a trio,andYabby liked Michael but for some reason he didn’t take the other two, and decide him better as a solo artist. So Michael was taught from scratch and him would come in the evening and practice and practice, until Yabby feel he was ready for the studio.’ These three tracks are from the confusingly named ‘Michael Prophet – Vocal and Dub LP’, which is actually a full dub album mixed by King Tubby, with extended vocal passages. It’s a very musical set that was obviously conceived as a coherent album, with new mixes to existing singles and subtle sound effects overlaid throughout. 

Death To All Racist and Aggression Dub 
Yabby took a pretty relaxed attitude to naming tracks, especially on his dub albums, which today causes some confusion among the ranks of record collectors.These two neglected tracks are both from LPs with contradictory information.The various pressings of ‘Yabby You Meets Michael Prophet And Scientist At The Dub Station’ use the same track names for totally different dubs, but ‘Death To All Racist’ on the original 1981 release is the dub to Michael Prophet’s ‘Stop Throw Stones’. Meanwhile the tracklisting on ‘Michael Prophet – Stars In Disco Showcase’ does not match between the sleeve and the label, so ‘Aggression Dub’ may actually be named ‘Falkland Crisis Dub’. Whatever, it’s a great version, probably mixed at Channel One, although strangely the only known vocal on this rhythm, ‘Come Make We Rally’ by Willie Williams, was produced by Sugar Minott. 
Babylon A Fall Dub 
‘Babylon A Fall’ was released as a Discomix 12” on the Grove label, with the dub segueing from Yabby’s vocal. Here the dub is presented on its own, with instrumentation led by trombone and a slightly tentative flute, again probably mixed by Prince Jammy. 

Time Changing Dub and Chanting Version 
These are the version sides to singles by Samuel Patterson (‘Time Changing’) and Errol Alphonso (‘Chant Jah Victory’) respectively, two talented singers who sadly seem to have recorded only one or two tunes each, and exclusively for Yabby. Both dubs have the musical weight so typical of the music mixed at King Tubby’s. ‘Chanting Version’ has a great intro guitar lick, probably played by Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, and brilliant use of the famous hi pass filter to alter the whole perspective of the mix half way through. 

Although drawn from disparate sources, hopefully this collection presents a coherent overview of the drum and bass music produced byYabbyYou from the late 70s to the early 80s.As Jean remembers:‘Yabby really loved dubs, I think he put special care into them. And he loved what he did.’ 

Diggory Kenrick London UK 2022 

Another sterling piece of improv history from Incus via Honest Jon’s, this time Derek Bailey’s spellbinding, teetering excursion with legendary percussionist Jamie Muir (King Crimson), who previously collaborated in The Music Improvisation Company. Less jarring, more wildly fluid and flowing into thrilling new spaces, from tribal rhythms to the kitchen sink…

“Percussionist Jamie Muir was a member of King Crimson during the recording of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, in 1973. Staying less than a year with Robert Fripp, the Scot had already cut his teeth with another master guitarist, Derek Bailey, as part of the Music Improvisation Company, along with Evan Parker, Hugh Davies and Christine Jeffrey, whose eponymous 1970 album was one of the first releases on ECM. Muir and Bailey recorded Dart Drug eleven years later, in 1981.

There’s no shortage of great percussionists in the brief history of free improvised music but on the strength of Dart Drug alone Jamie Muir deserves a place at High Table. Unlike for example Han Bennink and John Stevens, though, you can’t hear echoes of any particular jazz drummer in Muir’s playing, even if he has expressed appreciation for Milford Graves (who himself sounded like nobody else who’d come before him).

What on earth did Muir’s kit consist of? Some instruments are clearly identifiable (bells, gongs, chimes, woodblocks); others could be… well, anything. Old suitcases thwacked with rolled up newspapers? Tin cans and hubcaps inside a washing machine? Who cares? It sounds terrific – but if you’re the kind of person who faints at the sound of nails scraping a blackboard, you might want to nip out and put the kettle on towards the end of the title track.

Dart Drug is consistently thrilling, and often very amusing – but it’s certainly not easy listening. In music we talk about playing with other musicians, whereas in sport you play against another opponent (or with your team against another team). Why not play against in music, too? That’s precisely what happens very often in improvised music, and Bailey was particularly good at it. How can a humble acoustic guitar hope to compete with a Muir in full flight?  Sometimes Bailey’s content to sit on those open strings, teasing out yet another exquisite Webernian constellation of ringing harmonics and wait for the dust to settle in Muir’s junkyard, but elsewhere he sets off into uncharted territory himself.

“The way to discover the undiscovered in performing terms is to immediately reject all situations as you identify them (the cloud of unknowing) – which is to give music a future.” Bailey evidently concurred with this spoken statement by Muir, including it in his book Improvisation.

Derek Bailey is no longer with us, of course, and Muir gave up performing music back in 1989. All the more reason for seeking out this magnificent, wild album.

Very hotly recommended.”

Burnt Friedman frames his latest album in the vein of the nonsuch explorer series, with a musical look at Central Europe, specifically Berlin, and its intersection of artists, dancers, musicians still moving to 30 year old techno and house while constantly investigating and discarding novel new forms...

“Burnt Friedman with Explorer Series Vol. 4, original ethnic music of the peoples of the world/full spectrum stereo dominance. With such a complicated amalgam of races, religions, and language as there is in central Europe, it is not surprising, that the musical life is endless in variety. Before the upheavals engendered by immigration policies, the introduction of 5 G technology, and the gaining of maximum self-expression, the separation of cultures must have been even more noticeable, yet now in the sphere of music one can see them drawing more closely together.

This is especially true of an under-populated melting pot such as Berlin, where the sense of beauty is innate and one hardly meets a white male or a woman not being a painter or a dancer, or a musician. The system of scales, and also the fact that the western central Europeans rely on recorded or written script in order to conserve the themes of their music, could lead us to look upon it as a form of art music. Remarkably enough, traditional house or techno which existed 30 years ago, still flourishes today. Moreover, all the time new forms and musical styles are being discovered, tried out and eventually overlooked. The present record can offer but a modest sampling of extinct splendors, political or individual sufferings, gloomy sadness, love, resentment, exquisite delicacy, laughter and delectable wisdom of rural and urban central European music. Burnt Friedman's essential function is to perform music that ensures the repose of the dead and render their ghosts harmless; in the case of whole communities, to dispel evil spirits and restore to Berlin its pristine purity; and in the case of individuals, to expel the demands of possession.

Despite the limited scope of sound carriers, these ten highlights of central European culture contain an emotional force and documentary value of inestimable importance. Although it would be incorrect to consider the various selections contained herein as authentic ethnological documents insofar as the performances were for the most part "mystified", on the other hand one can certainly consider them significant examples of the attempts of white males to develop their own modes of expression and communication.”

Klimt present a reissue of Don Cherry's Relatively Suite, originally released in 1973. Finally, available again on vinyl. Recorded with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra. At this time, Cherry was becoming increasingly interested in Middle Eastern and traditional African and Indian music, having traveled extensively and studied with Indian musician, Vasant Rai. This suite of songs was particularly influenced by the Indian Carnatic singing tradition, as can be heard from the very opening moments of the album. Featuring Carla Bley on piano, Charlie Haden on bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums, as well as an extended horn and string section, Cherry collaborated extensively with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra throughout the early '70s. His Swedish wife, Moki Cherry, plays tambura on "Trans-Love Airways". Clear vinyl.

During the mid-1980s, Rhythmites used their music to break down racial, ethnic, and cultural barriers. Formed in the small Roman town of Bath in the west of England, Rhythmites issued a couple of tapes on UK peace punk pioneers Subhumans' label Bluurg before cutting debut LP Integration in 1989, by which time lead singer Angus Wright and bassist Clive ‘Flash’ Gordon were injecting the Jamaican sensibility atop the English core of keyboardist Rich Patterson, future Invisible System drummer Gary Woodhouse and future RDF guitarist Murph Murphy. It’s a compelling set of defiant roots with a touch of new wave, reminding of the vibrant hybrids conjured in the greater Bristol area, a worthy discovery for all fans of British reggae and rebellious late-80s post-punk.

Earlando Arrington Neil became Early B on the Jamaican sound system scene, working his way through Soul Imperial, King Majesty and other sets before coming to prominence in the early 1980s on Kilimajaro, where he became known as ‘The Doctor’ for unleashing his lyrical cures on the mic. Recording for various producers from 1981, Early B reached another level upon linking with deejay-turned-producer Jah Thomas in 1984, the humorous hit ‘Sunday Dish’ leading to this explosive LP of the same name, an enduring classic of early dancehall that also features the equally hilarious ‘Learn Fi Drive.’ All killer, no filler!

Back in 2015, Japanese deep house pioneer Soichi Terada stepped back into the limelight courtesy of Sounds From The Far East, a Rush Hour-released, Hunee curated retrospective of material released on his Far East Recording label in the 1990s and early 2000s. Buoyed by the positive response and renewed interest in his work, Terada went back into studio to record his first new album of house music for over 25 years, Asakusa Light. Developed over 18 months, Terada tried to recreate the mental and physical processes that led to the creation of his acclaimed earlier work. Those familiar with Terada’s celebrated, dancefloor-focused sound of the 1990s – a vibrant, atmospheric, and emotive take on deep house powered by the twin attractions of groove and melody – will find much to enjoy on Asakusa Light. “I tried to recall my feelings 30 years ago, but when I tried it, I found it super difficult,” he explains. “I didn’t even know what I thought about myself five years ago, and the mental metabolic cycle seems to be faster than I thought. I tried different methods, including digging up my old MIDI data and composing by remembering old experiences. With the help of Rush Hour, I found some of the light from my heart that I had 30 years ago. I nicknamed the light I found in my heart, ‘Asakusa Light’.” Produced using the very same synthesizers and drum machines that powered his 1990s work, the album is a joyous, colourful and life-affirming collection of timeless house music that not only recalls Terada’s own impeccable back catalogue, but also that of similarly celebrated contemporaries such as the Burrell Brothers or Ben Cenac (Dream 2 Science, Sha-Lor). Terada, who has spent much of the last two decades writing video game music, has always had a gift for combining warm, undulating synthesizer basslines and perfectly programmed machine drums with stirring chords, smile-inducing melodies and mellow musical flourishes. It’s this immersive, sun-kissed and tuneful trademark style that takes centre stage on Asakusa Light, an album for the ages. The set begins with the alien-sounding chords, soft-touch percussion and dawn-friendly warmth of ‘Silent Chord’ and ends on a high via the bouncing string stabs, starlight chords and thickset grooves of ‘Blinker’; in between, you’ll find a deluge of effortlessly feelgood music that’s the aural equivalent of a dopamine rush at sunrise. There are subtle variations aplenty throughout the album – see the 8-bit lead lines and pulsing electronic textures of ‘Takusambient’, the vintage Tony Humphries flex of ‘Diving Into Minds’ and the effortlessly funky ‘Marimbau’ – but it’s the uniquely atmospheric, vivid and tactile nature of Terada’s loved-up sound that resonates. After well over 30 years in house music, the light in his heart is shining brighter than ever.

The latest single from Pretty Sneaky, rumored to be an alias of SHED, who is also known for his work on Ostgut Ton and Delsin, features four tracks of superb ambient/dub with a 90s electronica/IDM aesthetic. No digital, analog only.

This is a very rare album from the Saturn era in 1979. This is like MOODYMANN?!!!!! Please open the door to the Cosmos!

Folder is a collaboration between Ultrafog, mdo and ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

Artwork by Angelina Nonaj & Ryan Loecker
Centre labels by Jesse Sappell
Mastered by Miles of Demdike Stare, cut at D&M Berlin