NEW ARRIVALS

Wind of Oirat is the full length debut by Mongolian independent musician and sound artist Ts Bayandalai. Following his acclaimed 2020 EP Kimel, he now presents a further matured, composed and refined version of his signature sound, which combines traditional Mongolian music and instruments with influences from experimental music and post-rock. Deeply rooted in the cultural traditions of his homeland, Ts Bayandalai, who grew up in a nomadic family in the Mongolian steppe, explores nature and its myths, his ancestral roots, and the relationship between humans, animals and nature.

“Baby It Cold Outside” is a new album by Lavurn. The music is a lovesick nod to the turn of the millenium and the ones who helped show us the way.

"A friend of mine told me he had visited the place that Cancer House live and record. He said they jammed together all afternoon. In the moment, in the zone so to speak, he became more and more convinced that what they were making together was the best music he had ever been involved with. As the afternoon drifted by, second by revelatory second, he began making grandiose plans to release the recording. By the time it was dark outside the windows he imagined it as a future lost classic, a key live document of a scene, a moment and an aesthetic. He thought about all the records he loved. He thought about the great, little known, statements of lo-fi, downer indie: dark, sweet, crawling guitar music by bands like Farewood, Bedhead, UN or The Sonora Pine. He could even picture the sleeve down to the last detail. The session ended and as they were all packing up he asked about the recording. And someone said ‘oh, we weren’t recording." -Jack Rollo

More top tier biz from a resurgent Scenic Route label, this time in a more bare-boned and classic sounding singer-songwriter mode courtesy of Oakland-raised and Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Ivy Knight, produced by Deer park (fakemink, Ecco2k, evilgiane) and tipped if you’re anywhere on the line from Joanne Robertson to Sam Amidon, Dagmar Zuniga to Mark William Lewis. "Ivy Knight’s songs reflect a city dreamer creating a new world to sink into: across Iron Mountain, she conjures imagery of barren Southwest American landscapes as she recounts memories that feel beamed from generations past, channeling folk melodies and old trail ballads of the late 50s and early 60s. Much of her work has been created both within, and in reference to the Hudson Valley, where she met frequent collaborator Deer park (fakemink, Ecco2k, evilgiane) who produced and engineered."

Copenhagen’s meme-able, custom line of genre-blurring songwriters yields Lithuanian talent, Gintè Preisait, fresh from the conservatoire and an LP with Toshimaru Nakamura, on an enchanted, waking dream blend of lower case concrète, trip hop and avant-classical experimentation calling to mind the refined crafts of ML Buch, Ugné Uma, Svitlana Nianio, Smerz, Lucrecia Dalt, Julia Holter or Martyna Basta, thru the reaches of Finland’s Fonal Records. It was bound to happen at some point, right? We've written more than enough about how Copenhagen's Rhythmic Music Conservatory has become the central node in a scene that's prioritized the permeable membrane between pop, classical training and unhinged technological experimentation - honestly where else are you gonna find Clarissa Connelly, Astrid Sonne, Erika de Casier, ML Buch and Fine? Gintė Preisaitė pushes even further into uncharted waters on her debut album, letting the pop forms evaporate like vapors around her intricately woven experimental collages. We're already off to a good start with 'Vigilance', a lengthy introduction that pays its respects to Preisaitė's past, present and future. The classically trained improviser, producer and composer begins with an ensemble of moaning acoustic instruments that she gradually chips into, tearing through the acoustic sounds with electronic treatments and introducing subtle, grounding field recordings before adding her voice and completely shifting the direction. The unwieldy blend of elements prepares us for an arguably bolder experiment, 'Summary Saint Mary', where Preisaitė matches her gamelan-like prepared piano phrases with Björk-ish vocal loops, OPN-inspired electronic touches and wheezing processed acoustic sounds. And it's remarkably well controlled; even in capable hands, it's a tough palette to work with and Preisaitė makes it look almost easy, never stepping too far in any direction or another. Because it's not really a pop record at all, it's an album that's aware of pop, doesn't avoid its charms, but manages to corral its characteristics into the avant garde's misshapen spirit. Even the relatively upbeat, straightforward 'Aéroport', a track that would have sounded stylistically comfortable on Smerz's RMC love-in 'Big city life EDITS', she never goes full James K, letting the melodies curve towards freeform abstraction in the final act before hitting us with three tracks of choppy, half-dissolved prepared piano. It's ambitious stuff, and all the better for it.

Originally released in 1999 on the German sound‑minimalism stronghold ~scape, Kit Clayton’s debut album Nek Sanalet stands as a landmark work of minimal dub and clicks & cuts.

"Linear ancient voltage-controlled sound rituals. Alien liturgical tones" Convergence is an ambient album formed through a series of morning rituals during rehabilitation following a severe medical event and an extended hospital stay. After weeks immersed in the constant alarms, beeps, and environmental signals of medical equipment, the act of listening itself became recalibrated. The music was performed and assembled using glass marimba, flute, and analog synthesizers, with each instrument treated as a source of resonance and gradually dissected through spectral analysis—allowing melody to emerge from fragments through repetition, attention, and daily practice, where synthesis functions not as traditional composition but as an exchange of signals. Working slowly and intuitively, Stardust Multiplier approaches sound as a communicative medium between humans, the natural environment, and non-ordinary states of perception. Motifs evolve through repetition and subtle variation, informed by ceremonial music, mythic structures, and speculative communication frameworks associated with non-human intelligence—not as narrative devices, but as metaphors for attuned listening and pattern recognition. Rather than moving toward resolution, Convergence documents moments of alignment—instances where intention, system, and environment briefly synchronize. The result is a restrained, deeply focused record, less concerned with atmosphere than attention, where synthesis functions as both a grounding practice and a method of inquiry.

Presenting the 2nd in the series of Persian remix EPs, following the bumping Dub House remakes from Picasso, the label is joined by Yorkshire’s own young electronic folklore master, a fast-rising name, Miles J Paralysis. Whereas Picasso took the first Dubplate ‘Space Within Art’, here Miles J delves in to the follow up ‘Smoke Dub’, turning out a selection of dubwise cuts that build on the dark electronics of his excellent debut releases for his Crying Outcast label. Yorkshire born and based, with a love for the Moors, as well as the teachings of lore, magick and mysticism, this young producer has been emersed in music since a young age, with a penchant of Dub, Hip Hop and Reggae. Starting with Survival Dub, the anthemic Ragga Dub original morphs into 2 parts, first heading down Paralysis’s alley of dark and brooding production marrying perfect touches of the vocal samples, before the amen break builds the track to the light. Smoke Mari follows, the languid Digibreaks chugger, utilizing Linval Thompson’s iconic vocals, now comes as a deep meditative Dub excursion. Stripped back to a raw essence, the vocals whirl, while hypnotic keys and dub bass complete the psychedelic mosaic. There Is No Love is modern dub style, off beat syncopation, reverb, tape delays, a lifting melody and some heavy vocal sampling all in the mix. The breakbeats of the original are jettisoned for an assurity of 4/4 thump, the atmospherics seeking the dark corners. “These are the last days; can’t you see the sunshine?” Zatoichi’s Troubles ends the pack, the trip hop, Depth Charge dub bass cut transforms at the mixing desk of Miles J in to Dub Techno territory; haunting, melodic. Miles J’s love of the deeper side of electronic music explored. Club music but not produced for clubs. A perfect synergy of old and new. Made for the discerning. Folklore the Mystery.

Following two lauded EPs on cult label South of North, Amsterdam-based Devon Rexi prepare to release their much-anticipated debut album, recorded by and in collaboration with elusive 5 Gate Temple devotee, musician and producer John T. Gast, whose acclaimed catalogue continues to flourish. Devon Rexi is a trio made up of Nicola Reverda (Nicolini), Nushin Naini and Goya van der Heyden (La Rat). They’ve quickly carved out their own sonic world, traversing krautfunk, post-punk and psyched-up no wave, all laced with a dub-heavy experimental mentality. Breathstep captures the band’s bass-heavy incantations, ripe with melodic chaos and rhythmic improvisation, while devilish cackles and processed vocals flirt over a jukebox of dubbed snippets and sliced textures. The introduction of John T. Gast as producer and collaborator pulls the Devon Rexi sound deeper into bubbling dub territory, while his own palette is stretched and pushed into new terrain. Though Gast has firmly cemented his singular sound over the last decade, this interconnected process marks new ground for all involved. The result is a supreme convergence of esteemed musicians and a wickedly fine debut collaborative record. Breathstep finds its home on Bristol imprint Accidental Meetings, whose ever-evolving sound and wide-ranging discography continue to grow. The album was recorded over the last year across Amsterdam, Lisbon and London.

A leading light of neo-ambient takes their maiden bow on Glasgow’s stealthily expansive co:clear label after cherished turns with the sferic and Stroom labels. The International Billionaire’s Love Child, or tiblsc for brevity, is the avatar of a Leipzig-based artist in possession of a distinctive, world-building ambient purview that has clearly stroked a nerve for listeners chasing the modern ambient zeitgeist, especially their couplet of ‘Delusive Tongue Shifts - Situation Based Compositions’ (2021) + ‘Hypertranslucent’ (2022). Those albums’ careful bends of pulpy sentiment and intricate, immersively dreamlike architecture is now echoed in ‘City of Something’, where her tender feel for compression and blends of HD and lo-fi tones fosters a gauzy sense of depth perception and sonorous emotional resonance. More so than her previous work, the eight tracks here are laced with a flickering pop spirit that riddles the album’s finely meshed dimensions, calling to mind aspects of Perila that are whisked to its most elegant frisson in ‘Resting Bitch Face’, or catching breathy contrails of an airspun pop song in ‘The Sun Really Is Something Round’, whilst tickling private parts of the imagination with the compressed artefacts of ‘You Just Want’, edging on Shinetiac’s take on smudged sheogaze trip hop in ‘Scare Me’, and teasing the most elusive urges on a secretive, quietly restive closer ‘Until the End of Time’.

Yaka slips into the APPX: catalogue with a hi-def 8 part narrative. Coated in silky sonic camouflage the Philadelphian sound designer, producer, and apparent amphibophile, conjures an aquatic instrument-rack straight out the estuary, and re-engineers it into a kind of amphibient-bass eco-system: part poolside bio-luminescence, part Severn-side subsidence. Welling with emotion ‘Dream Big’ is a joyride with your favourite frog-sage homies. It's devotional, yes, but with a wink. Orchestrated by a bayou-mystic who’s just as likely to kiss the ring-modulator as they is to throw a shaka from their boogie board as they carve a line down stream. The opening track “chrysalis of peace” builds like a choral summoning, beckoning you outward. “blubstep” shakes itself off and stretches into scattered breaks, sprinkles of underworld energy flickering beneath the surface. On “la pari,” the daemons find their stride in a huge leap into bass, punctuated by vocal satire, kitschy melodic fun, and an Amazonian sweat capable of humidifying any dancefloor. “miss that beach” slows the A-side into a thoughtful drift on a lilo, the distant sounds of cousins playing while wind lifts leaves overhead. Flipping the disc, “buggged” arrives as a beat you can imagine bounding out of a Timbaland studio, tiptoeing in and out of 4/4 club jack. “back at the pad” breaks stride with a halftime depth that keeps you poised, like the surface tension of a water droplet in zero gravity. “weavin’ web” threads ascending melodic patterns over raised nodules of rhythm. Closing the album, “secret dream” dissolves into a private horizon — something half-remembered, half-invented — left for the listener to discover on their own.

The follow up to 2022’s ‘Return to the Island’ LP is a new 6 track EP influenced heavily by the evocative powers of incense and a deep sense of escapism. The EP has a more organic sound palette than its predecessor, from both the use of samples and appearance of various guest musicians. Lead track ‘Morning Star’ features long standing collaborator Mike Burn (Udaberri Blues & Mama Capes) who adds his trademark liquid gold lead and rhythm guitar lines with live bass from Fernando Pulichino. The guest on ‘Savanna’ is frequent Jack J collaborator Linda Fox, who provides emotive and melancholy sax over a Dub House backing track with a particularly dreamy chord progression. The EP features Instrumental Dubs of both tracks, alongside two other new productions, the 80s leaning ‘Hands Across the Sea’ and ‘Wah Fix’, which rounds off the more Dub influenced B side with a 125 BPM bouncy Dub House excursion. In 2026 the Jura Soundsystem project enters its 10th year and is the creative musical outlet of Isle of Jura founder Kevin Griffiths. All tracks produced at IOJ HQ in Moana, Adelaide between 2022 and 2025 with support from the incense gods of Cedarwood, Jasmine and Sandalwood. The 12” is housed in a 3mm spine full sleeve designed by Bradley Pinkerton.

Based in California, Marjorie W.C. Sinclair’s multi-disciplinary project, Evanora Unlimited, weaves together goth, industrial, bedroom pop, and post-punk through a uniquely dark lens. Their latest release, Portraits from Memory, is a deeply personal and conceptual self-released album.

Born in 1944 on Martinique island, Max Cilla worked his whole life to resurrect the bamboo flute played by his forebears in the fields from the relative oblivion into which it had fallen in the early 20th century. At first, Max Cilla built them. He went up into his native coastal hills to manufacture them according to traditional rules used in India. Using a simple piece of rough wood, he fabricated a noble instrument of great « historical » significance that showed the way for a younger generation in search of its identity. « I came up with the name of the coastal hills flute »: the great mystic asserts. Fascinated by Cuban music and Latin rhythms, he composed & played his own songs accompanied by the island’s traditional percussions. He recorded and released La Flute des Mornes Vol.1 in 1981. Max Cilla played with Archie Shepp in Paris, recorded on Bonga’s album Angola 74, shared the stage with Tito Puente & Machito and keep on playing today.

This 7'' record sprouted spontaneously like a bouquet of poisonous mushrooms after the rain. The first encounter between Felix Kubin and Bound By Endogamy dates back to 7 March 2024. An evening dedicated to the label Bongo Joe was held at Petit Bain in Paris. BBE performed live their debut LP, which had been released on the label three months earlier. Felix, meanwhile, presented his project Cell, which he shares with Polish drummer Hubert Zemler. Later that same year, the two duos found themselves on the lineup of the Kalabalik på Tyrolen festival in Sweden, which focuses on electronic post-punk music. The four musicians had the chance to share an exquisite breakfast the following morning at the countryside hotel in Alvesta, where all the festival’s artists were staying. There must have been around thirty crows in the buffet room, uniformly dressed in black as if an exclusive dress code were required to gain access to a cup of coffee and a bowl of cornflakes. Lost in all that darkness were also one or two « regular » families, wondering what the fuck they were doing in the middle of this convention of decadent depressives (the scene could have been straight out of a Roy Andersson film). Between bites of toast, Felix, Kleio, and Shlomo continued a discussion they had started in Paris about their musical references and discovered that they shared many tastes in common. The following year, in April 2025, Felix invited BBE to perform at the Papiripar Festival, which he curates in Hamburg.Then, in November 2025, he in turn was invited to spend a month in Geneva for an artistic residency, a lecture and a couple of events focused on his work. Felix took this opportunity to pay a courtesy visit at Shlomo's, where BBE’s home studio is located. When he rang the doorbell, he had two flight cases tucked under his arm containing a Pulsar-23, an old keyboard sampler, and a battered MS-20 (his signature synthesizer). The three musicians spent the evening trying to synchronize their instruments, twisting knobs and recording their improvisations while drinking natural wine. A few weeks later, back home, Felix cut and pasted the recorded material and edited two instrumental drafts, which he dispatched to Geneva by carrier pigeon. BBE reworked certain tracks and recorded vocal parts to season the whole thing. A few back-and-forth exchanges between Hamburg and Geneva followed, against a backdrop of merciless negotiations over the final shape of the pieces. After a month of labor, the 7’’ was ready to be mastered by Gavin Weiss. The first track, Stück I, deals with the failures of a mechanical woman who dreams of becoming an infallible humanoid machine. Unless it is the other way around. The second track, Stück II, is a prayer glorifying pesticide products and the agrochemical companies that generously dispense them for the good of Humanity.

This compilation brings together eight tracks by Yassine Nana and his group, recorded between 1984 and 1989, during a key moment in Mauritania’s musical history. A central figure of one of the country’s most respected musical families, Yassine stands at the crossroads of a long-standing tradition and a period of deep transformation in form, sound and production. Recorded in Mauritania as well as during stays in Paris and Rabat, these songs integrate drum machines, synthesizers and electric guitars into Saharan musical structures. Influenced by reggae, soul and new wave, the group develops a sound that reflects the circulation of music and technology in the 1980s, while remaining firmly rooted in Mauritanian languages, themes and melodic systems. Love, travel, exile and music itself run through lyrics sung in Hassaniya and classical Arabic. Originally released on cassette and long confined to local circulation, these recordings offer a rare perspective on African popular music of the period, seen from Nouakchott. A body of work that documents a Mauritanian modernity, both popular and exploratory, now brought back into circulation by Les Disques Bongo Joe and Sofa Records. 

Guest Bartender Deborah Toyota is the collaborative project of Julia Shapiro and Samur Khouja, two artists whose long-running creative dialogue shaped 'Music for Babies', an instrumental record built on tenderness, experimentation, and restraint. The band name was inspired by a poster for an event in Hydra, Greece featuring “guest bartender Maria Nissan.” The idea of a guest bartender sparked an inside joke between the artists, eventually inspiring a project name that reflects the spirit of the music: odd, playful and not too self-serious. The album grew out of a shared curiosity: what would it sound like to make something genuinely new, for the very beginning of listening? Designed so that it could be a baby’s first encounter with sound, the album inhabits a space that is both nascent and cutting-edge. It treats infancy not as a novelty, but as a conceptual constraint: one that deserves care and curiosity. The result is music that functions simultaneously as lullaby, ambient composition, and quiet experimentation. Both artists arrive at Guest Bartender Deborah Toyota with distinct but complementary histories. Shapiro is known for her work in Chastity Belt, where understatement and melodic clarity often mask emotional weight. Khouja’s projects—including Conscious Summary and his production work with artists such as Cate Le Bon—lean toward textural precision and left-field pop architecture. Music for Babies is not a departure from those paths, but a parallel one—quieter, slower, and deliberately unguarded. If those other projects speak outward, 'Music for Babies' listens inward. It is the sound of two people choosing tenderness as a method, and experimentation as an act of care. A record made not to impress, but to accompany—to exist in the background of early life, shaping a listener before language, before memory, before expectation.

Psychedelic sorcerers Nuke Watch return with a definitive blast of improvised studio shenanigans on London’s Sagome, after celebrated turns with TTT, PPM, and patience. Proper outerzone madness, tipped FFO Pekka Airaksinen, Wolf Eyes, Marshall Allen, Sperm. Expanding from a duo to a trio with the addition of Zack Stafford on wind and electronics, Nuke Watch emulate the effects of some legit Lucy for a particularly skewiff and trippy session on their 8th studio album ‘Fusion’. The key to the LP is in the titular nod to psych jazz and rock hybrids of the ‘70s, where styles began to melt into one another via the extraordinary musical virtuosity of the likes of King Crimson, Tony Williams, and John McLaughlin. But rather than overly intricate key changes and showmanship, Nuke Watch distill a confluence of inspirations - contemporary urban beats, dub, trip metal, outernational trance, US basement noise, raga drone - with an alchemic, imaginative ingenuity they can safely call their own. The trio, plus the likes of Daryl Seaver on EWI MIDI and instrument, a la Marshall Allen or Wolf Eyes, giive it hot and sticky with a flow of intuitive ideas best representing a prolific creative practice of open-ended jams. But again, they deftly sidestep the more hoary connotations of psych with a freezer fresh zing and grasp of groove that, just about, lets us know it’s the 2020s, not the 1970s, or at least somewhere along that timeline. This uchronic approach, factored by extramusical prompts from psyops, eschatology, and contemporary political clusterfucks, yields a brace of hypnotic, hallucinatory projections in progression from the swingeing groove and smeared apparitions of the opener, thru the mutant raga of the ‘War Lock’ section, to a properly unbuckled ‘New American Psycho’ movement squirming in space between Sperm and Wolf Eyes’ trip metal.

Last spotted on production duties for Yungwesbster’s ‘II’ as well as turns for Nostalgians and Dj Loser’s Magdalena’s Apathy.. Seattle-based Jaqueline Lawson aka Matryoshka shows serious emotional range on her debut album, channeling Burial, Shinichi Atobe, Space Afrika, Malibu and Surf Gang, seemingly all at once…. Matryoshka has already built a reputation as a producer for DJ Loser's Magdalena's Apathy imprint as well as work for the Nostalgians, an under-the-radar ambient rap collective featuring Yungwebster, Mdb, tnotsobad, Nopaprr and ogpra1. Her musical roots - dubstep, trance and hard dance - tell some of the story here, but she transmogrifies those influences into haunted, Basinski-esque memories like the gaseous traces and decelerated remnants of the club. On album opener 'Lifelover’, Burial's hazed interludes spring to mind, or perhaps the 4am cityscapes of Space Afrika's now mythical 'Somewhere Decent to Live’. Background ambiance simmers below Lawson's pensive FM pads, but once she establishes the mood, things take an unexpected turn with a pitch-bent bassline that might have been lifted straight from a 6LACK loosie, and a rhythmic pulse that traces the thin red line of Shinichi Atobe. If it's dub techno, it's a strand that hasn't been codified quite yet. 'Surface Tension' uses deep, Maybach Music-coded bass womps to twist through her skittering slow rhythms and sadcore pads. But it’s Matryoshka’s harmonic instinct that stands out; if you heard the airy 'otr' or 'fantasize' from Yungwebster's 'II' you'll know exactly what we mean, and she takes it even further here, weaving cinematic, languid harmonies that bridge the gap between Steve Roach and Future. Check 'Where the Dancers are Spinning' with its levitational, almost orchestral sweeps that Lawson counterbalances with thudding subs, or the brief title track, an Akira Yamaoka-style save room loop that dissipates into a dreamy, dissociated fog, for further proof. Then there's the second side's centrepiece 'Parted by the Sea', where a ratcheting Chain Reaction-style rhythm builds to a tense crescendo only to get splintered unrecognisably in the second half, its broken pieces pillowed by Lawson's billowing time-stretched chords.

This album was recorded in 1968. Building on the resounding success of his performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Hozan Yamamoto was beginning to fully develop his great musical versatility. Regarding , Hozan recalled that, “When it came out, I was still a poor musician living in Koganei(小金井). I listened to it on an 8,000 yen record player. I started getting a lot more recording gigs after its release, so I guess that makes this my debut album. I find it comforting to listen to.” This was the first album released under Hozan Yamamoto’s name as the lead act.

The backing band on this album was the Shungo Sawada (沢田駿吾) Quintet. Members included Shungo Sawada (guitar), Takeru Muraoka (村岡建, tenor saxophone), Yō Tokuyama (徳山陽, piano), Yoshio Ikeda (池田芳夫, bass), and Motohiko Hino (日野元彦, drums). Jazz and folk music tend to pair very nicely, and fusions of the two genres had been often attempted in the past. This album adds a taste of bossa nova to this mixture. While the distinctive feel of Japanese traditional / folk music remains very present, the velvety yet contrasting musicality of bossa nova comes together with Hozan’s resonant shakuhachi tones to create a profoundly exotic vibe.

Although the album’s theme could have lent itself readily to ‘easy’ interpretations, the sheer musical mastery of Shungo’s quintet ensures an overall sophistication throughout the album. The arrangements also point to Shungo’s role. For instance, the intro to track B-1 ‘Sado Okesa(佐渡おけさ)’ borrows from Ike Quebec’s ‘Loie’, from the Blue Note bossa jazz masterpiece (1962). Likewise, every track on the album hints at meticulous musicianship and wide-ranging experimentation. While Hozan Yamamoto’s distinctive sound remains at the forefront, the brilliant sparks of jazziness peppered throughout the album make for a refreshing and engaging listen. It is a masterpiece of an album that manages to deftly combine numerous different elements into a coherent whole.

This album is the sequel to <Shakuhachi and Bossa Nova - Bossa Nova Japanese Folk Songs>. While the exact date of the recording is unclear, various clues indicate that it was released in 1969, the year following the Volume 1 record. The cover art of Volume 2 was almost identical to that of the EP of 4 tracks from Volume 1, suggesting that it was quite well-received. As with Volume 1, the backing band was the Shungo Sawada Quintet. The quintet lineup remained the same except for the drummer: Shungo Sawada (沢田駿吾), guitar), Takeru Muraoka (村岡建, tenor saxophone), Yō Tokuyama (徳山陽, piano), Yoshio Ikeda (池田芳夫, bass), and Takaaki Nishikawa (西川喬昭, drums).

Japanese folk / traditional songs lend well to jazzy interpretations, and Japanese themes were often used in jazz. There have also been numerous previous attempts by jazz musicians to collaborate with players of traditional Japanese instruments such as the shakuhachi(尺八), koto(箏), wadaiko(和太鼓), and shamisen(三味線). Among such musicians, Hozan Yamamoto was one of the most sought-after in the jazz scene. Hozan described his approach as follows: "I didn't learn music through jazz, nor have I tried to express such an understanding of music through the shakuhachi. Instead, I drew on my experiences in traditional shakuhachi playing, striving to express the technique and spirit that I learned there and to present it within the context of jazz." Hozan's words give us some indication of how he was able to preserve his sense of self and endure as a brilliant figure in the jazz scene.

This album, which hails from the earlier phase of Hozan's musical career, somewhat ambitiously aims to combine Japanese folk with jazz and bossa nova. It manages to meet that tall order, with the rock-solid musicianship throughout the album conveying a modern and lively overall feel. Shungo's group effortlessly supports Hozan's vivacious shakuhachi playing. While Volume 2 is a continuation of its previous installment, it brings a more sprightly feel, with tracks such as the explosive ‘Yasugi-Bushi安来節’, the modal-tinged ‘Ina-Bushi伊那節’, the swaying lyrical ballad of ‘Nikko Warakuodori日光和楽踊り’, the groovy jazz-rock of ‘Soran-Bushiソーラン節’, and the delightful interplay with Takeru Muraoka's flute in ‘Gojo-Bushi群上節’. The album is without fillers, making for a heartily rewarding listen throughout.

Recorded at Nippon-Columbia Daiichi Studio, on Oct 8-10, 1975.
Trombone: Hiroshi Suzuki.
Keyboards: Hiromasa Suzuki.
Bass: Kunimitsu Inaba.
Drums: Akira Ishikawa.
Saxophone: Takeru Muraoka.

Well known for their Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar series—also familiar to Meditations—Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes return with a new duo work. This time, they step away from their signature sax-and-bass pairing and move toward a fresh approach centered on guitar and synthesizer. Compact at eight tracks and roughly 27 minutes, the album builds a distinctive world through a sequence of short, interconnected pieces.

In 2011, Southern Lord was contacted by Sleeps’ Al Cisneros about the possibility of releasing a deluxe version of the classic Sleep recording: Dopesmoker. Cisneros wanted to breathe some new life into the old beast and finally have the original vision of the album fully realized. Southern Lord was overwhelmingly ecstatic about the challenge of taking the reigns of one of the most important recordings in the history of Heavy Metal! The Lord version features brand new artwork by long time Sleep artist, Arik Roper, who created something specifically special for the albums’ rebirth. The biggest difference between this new version and the old releases is the phenomenal remastering job by Brad Boatright . His vision was to enhance the original recording without changing it drastically. What he has done makes this epic opus sound invigorated, more powerful with renewed clarity and all-around unbelievably mammoth. His work was enthusiastically approved by the band and considering how focused, vigilant and protective of their masterpiece the band is, that is nothing short of a miracle! Also exclusive to the reborn version of Dopesmoker, is a unreleased live track of one of the best songs the band ever did, Holy Mountain. The cd version of the album is sheltered in a digipac with embossed artwork. Includes unseen photos and a “riff-chart” the band created in order to follow the epic journey that Dopesmoker takes us all on!