New Wave / Post-Punk

Like all three HTRK albums, 2009's Marry Me Tonight is singular in sound and circumstance. It's the only album the outfit recorded from start to finish as a trio, and it's the only HTRK record that bears the co-production stamp of Rowland S. Howard. Breathy, caustic and rife with contradiction, _Marry Me Tonight _took the raw material recorded on 2005's Nostalgia and transformed it into a pop record—pop that buckled and warped beneath the glare of Howard, fellow producer Lindsay Gravina and the HTRK trio: Jonnine Standish, Nigel Yang and Sean Stewart. Howard died at the end of 2009; Stewart died the year after. Things would never be the same.</p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 439px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1991166217/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://htrk.bandcamp.com/album/marry-me-tonight">Marry Me Tonight by HTRK</a></iframe>

On their debut self-titled album, Women embraced sonic brashness that deeper examination revealed to be tinted with sly pop melody. With their second album "Public Strain", the band has honed a sound truthful to that reverb drenched noise while allowing the pop sensibilities to surface into clearer focus.This exact balance of delicate and dense is a pervasive thread throughout the album, reflecting the contradiction of the band's environment buried in urban sprawl framed by prairie landscape. Whether twisting through the urgent krautrock of "Locust Valley", an exercise of harmony through simplicity, or climaxing with the bittersweet melody of "Eyesore", the album somehow builds luminous contrast out of a palette of grays.

A high-octane tour-de-force widely considered in Japan to be one of the all-time greatest punk records, 1981's Don’t Eat Food! remains shockingly unknown to the rest of the world. Led by literate but unhinged Machida Machizo, a magnetic stage presence who sang in a thick Osaka dialect that sounded like nothing else at the time, INU came from the same scene as Aunt Sally and took Japan by storm in the late '70s with their powerful live show. Their membership changed frequently but INU's final lineup -- the group that recorded Don’t Eat Food! -- was sharp as a knife, and the band's airtight debut still wows forty-plus years later. Excerpted from Syojiro Ishibashi's essay on INU: Unlike Tokyo — Japan’s economic and cultural center, where everything is consumed in a fashionable way, and even the tiniest subculture can turn a profit — Kansai’s cities (Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe) will forever live in the capital’s shadow. But this underdog dynamic informs the region’s rich, unique culture. Kansai folk are known for resenting Tokyo, but also for plainly and incisively sussing out the true nature of things with their singular aesthetic sensibilities and deeply ironic, humorous dispositions. It was in one of these “secondary” cities, Osaka, that Kou Machida (then known as Machizo Machida) formed INU (Japanese for “dog”) in 1979. INU’s original lineup was Machida (vocals), Naoto Hayashi (guitar), Takeshi Nishimori (drums), and Keisuke “Osho” Tanaka (bass). They were all 17 to 18 years old at the time. In the late ’70s, outdated music styles — blues covers sung in broken English and (mostly) original, acoustic folk tunes sung in Japanese — were all the rage in Kansai. There was a small group of bands in the area who’d been inspired by the global punk/new wave movement, but few could draw audiences larger than 20 to 30 people. They also didn’t have many places to play — few clubs welcomed their sort of music — so they frequently booked their own gigs on university campuses, which tended to be comparatively laid-back spaces. Around the same time, a dozen or so Tokyo bands — Friction, Lizard, Mirrors, Mr. Kite, S-Ken, etc. — began calling themselves Tokyo Rockers. Inspired by international punk/new wave, they got a lot of attention in Japan for championing a new style of music. Young Kansai musicians watched this movement with keen interest, but some saw Tokyo Rockers (with a couple of notable exceptions, like Friction) as simply more of the same old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll, and openly shunned them. These young musicians were determined to create a new type of music unlike anything that had come before. In ’78, bands from the Tokyo Rockers scene shared a bill with a handful of young Kansai groups at Kyoto University's Seibu Koudo Hall (incidentally, home to one of Japan’s few squats at the time). Later writing in his Outsider fanzine, a pre-INU Hayashi strongly criticized the Kansai bands on the lineup (SS, etc.) for being punk “in style only.” But Hayashi also wrote in Outsider that he wanted to “hear local bands channel the sound of the city,” and it was this desire that led him to support Kansai bands. As if in response to Hayashi’s entreaties and criticisms, Osaka’s INU (now including Hayashi) and Alcohol 42%, Kobe’s Aunt Sally (featuring Phew on vocals), and Kyoto’s SS and Ultra Bidé (featuring Hijokaidan’s Jojo Hiroshige on bass) — all creative young Kansai bands who’d been influenced by the worldwide punk/new wave movement — joined forces. Picking up on the sincerity behind Hayashi’s words, these bands welcomed the criticism. At the time, no one else took young bands seriously enough to offer a thoughtful analysis, and his earnest, critical voice was valuable to the scene. Dubbed the “Kansai No Wave” tour by Hayashi, these five bands performed around Tokyo in ’79 (playing five shows at four venues), and music fans throughout the country were soon taking note of the new Kansai scene and the creative groups from the region. INU made a particularly strong impression, not only for its aggressive stage show and witty, literate lyrics, but also for Machida’s intense personality. His provocative behavior toward audiences often got him into trouble, but his skirmishes only elevated the band’s profile. In March ’79, after the Tokyo tour, Hayashi left the band and was replaced by Keita Koma. With Koma in the group, INU pivoted away from the simplistic sound of their early years and became a bit more pop. In May of that same year, Naruko Nishikawa (bass) and Hiroshi Kitagawa (drums) joined the group, and in August, Masahiro Kitada replaced Koma on guitar. Shinichi Higashiura then replaced Kitagawa on drums. These musicians made up the final INU lineup — the same one that would record Don't Eat Food! In ’81, the major label Tokuma Japan released the band’s debut album, Don't Eat Food! Machida’s witty lyrics, delivered in the unique rhythm of the Kansai dialect, were already literate enough to foretell his future receipt of Japan’s top literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, in 2000. The title track actually dated to the Kusareomeko era of the group. Machida was 16 years old when he composed the lyrics to this song. INU rarely played outside of Tokyo or Kansai, so even though they quickly earned a reputation as an incredible live band, very few people had actually heard them. With the release of this album, however, both INU and Machida became quite well known throughout Japan. Three months after the release of Don't Eat Food!, INU disbanded. With its impactful cover art, memorable tunes, tight performances and provocative vocals, INU’s Don't Eat Food! is a legendary work, and one of the country’s most celebrated ‘80s punk albums. Highly influential even today, its presence continues to be felt well beyond the punk sphere. -Syojiro Ishibashi (F.M.N. Sound Factory)

Aesthetic techno-pop album in collaboration with Haruomi Hosono, following the previous album "Tutu". In addition to the original, it includes Barbara's chanson "In the Forest of Santamant". This reissue was pre-mastered by Haruomi Hosono and cut by Toru Kotetsu. The second album on the Alpha/YEN label (1984).

The mid-2000s underground stir surrounding Studio, the project of Swedish musicians Dan Lissvik and Rasmus Hägg, feels nearly lost to time. West Coast, their seminal 2006 debut, captured a faraway romanticism of Balearic brushed up against Krautrock, disco, dub, and afro-beat, with pop lyricism lifted from new wave, all made modern by two art school grads in Gothenburg. First pressed in a small vinyl-only run via their own Information label, the album has been notably absent from most streaming services, and the internet’s record of its initial impact is all but fossilized from a bygone blog era, while its sound is simply untraceable to any one moment in music. Presented with a minimalist black circle LP design, the set possessed an uncanny escapist sensibility, underscored by track titles like “Life’s A Beach!” but otherwise entirely on the suggestion of that sound, imagined, displaced, and subconsciously amalgamated. Some called it “the missing link between The Cure and Lindstrøm,” Pitchfork heard Durutti Column and Can, as the duo’s story became swept up in a loosely developing scene — adjacent first to the label Service (Jens Lekman, The Whitest Boy Alive) and later Sincerely Yours (The Tough Alliance, jj) — and a precursor to the 2010s boom at the axis of electronic and psychedelic music guided by indie greats like Caribou, Four Tet, and Darkside. Featuring six free-flowed tracks that glide between hypnotic instrumental terrain and anthemic pop architecture, West Coast succeeded in its premise, a trance-inducing, deja vu-like destination instantly identifiable and endlessly replayable. By late 2007, following its expanded CD repackaging as Yearbook 1, the songs were staples of year-end lists, including best album write-ups by Pitchfork, FACT Magazine, and Rough Trade. While Lissvik and Hägg kept busy, Studio’s proper follow-up never came, thus adding to West Coast’s strange allure and legacy. In 2025, the record sees renewed appreciation, remastered and reissued by Ghostly International. West Coast took shape throughout much of Studio's existence. The earliest recordings trace back to sessions held at Lissvik’s art school and Hägg’s rehearsal space between 2001 and 2004. During this period, Lissvik co-founded the Service label, creating a platform to release music, produce T-shirts, and host events. Service organized large parties, and the art school served as both a club venue and office, in a style reminiscent of Factory Records and Haçienda. Aside from their three initial 7-inch releases on Service, they kept most of their music to themselves for several years. Hägg remembers, "All these recordings were just piled up and we dusted them off and started to deconstruct and assemble them in a more drawn-out fashion." In 2005, they left Service, flirted with breaking up, and then revisited material and wrote two new songs at Hägg's Ferry Terminal Studio and Lissvik's N.47 studio, which he jokingly dubbed the "Beach Ball of Death sessions" due to the slow processing strain put on his Power Mac G4. Hägg continues, "I had started a disco club night with a friend and we went deep down the rabbit holes of Balearics, space rock, and strange leftfield dancefloor stuff. This probably seeped into Studio's output. Around the same time, with Dan slowing drums down to half tempo, finishing ‘No Comply’ and creating ‘Radio Edit’, the B-side of Studio's first 12", a West Coast blueprint was born.” Soon songs were finalized and sequenced from countless sketches and layers, and the titles clicked into place after being kicked around for a while. The title for the pulsing, guitar-driven “Self Service” was inspired by Lissvik’s visit to the office of the Paris fashion magazine and chosen to mark their newfound independence. Thematically, a larger vision emerged. “Somehow, I knew I wanted to make a conceptual record that, although only imaginary at that point, could represent or define how our city sounded,” says Lissvik. “I was totally immersed in a word bubble and was really struggling with lyrics for one of our potential instrumentals. While walking back to the studio one day after a lunch break, ‘West Coast’ appeared in my mind. I ran back to the studio, wrote down the lyrics for ‘West Side,’ and suddenly ‘Life’s A Beach!,’ ‘Indo’ and the rest of the potential instrumentals all made sense.” Sonically, the set represented years of developing taste as well. In the same breadth, they cite DJ Screw, J Dilla, and Joy Division, along with early ‘80s European live DJ sets from the likes of Beppe Loda, DJ Mozart, and Baldelli as reference points. “The anything-goes mentality was very encouraging and was a big cornerstone to the Studio sound,” says Hägg. “But there’s so much more to the picture, we were not that young then and had lots of musical baggage in our suitcases, the new thing was that we finally let it all come through, not bound by any borders that was often the case with music identity in Sweden during the ‘90s.” West Coast is defined by its swing, an ability to lock into loops and beat-grids while still prioritizing looseness and genuine surprises across long passages with layers constantly appearing and fading from the mix. Songs can momentarily fall out of step or change course, like 10 minutes into the hazy opener “Out There” when the bass line suddenly dips back beat for 4 bars and then returns on the beat, giving way for a dubbed-out breakdown and ascendent finish. Or take the 13-minute “Life’s A Beach!” which eases into a soft, tide-changing crescendo just before the 9-minute mark, returning anew on an optimistic bass line as the guitar gets moody above the shimmering wash. Hägg says, “It always transcended very well live, like an implosion. It’s a very tricky song to play, due to strange rounds so it’s such a relief when one gets there, probably what you hear is a big sigh.” In the afterglow of the record’s 2007 reception, as their oft-mentioned un-Google-able name and Myspace page made rounds and West Coast was cemented as “one of the finest pieces of electronic music you ́ll hear this year,” per The Guardian, Studio receded from view, clouded behind a mountain of remix requests (including belter for Kylie Minogue and Stockholm’s Shout Out Louds) and label bureaucracy. But both artists, now well into respective careers beyond Studio, have come to peace with West Coast as their most enduring effort together. Lissvik adds, “It serves as a good reminder for me to keep to that decision and promise and to continue exploring and growing.”

Formed from the ashes of Rema-Rema and Mass in the early '80s, The Wolfgang Press were originally a trio of bassist and vocalist Michael Allen, keyboardist Mark Cox and guitarist Andrew Gray. They were one of 4AD's longest-running acts, and shifted from pitch-black, industrial-tinged post-punk in their early years to funky, hip-hop-inspired avant-dance as they stepped into the '90s. But since '94's 'Funky Little Demons' they've been relatively quiet. There was a compilation of unreleased career-spanning material mostly penned by Allen and Gray released in 2020, but 'A 2nd Shape' is the first all-new gear from the duo in almost 30 years, with Gray's brother Stephen replacing Cox on keys. It's a fitting move for Downwards too; not only do The Wolfgang Press neatly straddle the label's musical poles, but the band's '88 high point 'Bird Wood Cage' is an enduring favourite of Karl O'Connor.

 

 

'A 2nd Shape' reflects The Wolfgang Press's output up to and including that touchstone - the soulful, sampledelic mood of 'Queer' (and it's popular single 'A Girl Like You') is nowhere to be found. Allen's signature dubbed-out basslines are front and centre on 'The Garden of Eden', booming over gnarled synths and a blitzed, slo-mo drum machine - the bleakness of 'The Burden of Mules' is latent, but sliced into bits by discordant feedback and dissociated FX. The band have always been hyper aware of contemporary musical developments, and it sounds as if they're offering a corrective here in a landscape pocked by post-punk pretenders. On '21st Century', Allen snarls knowingly over menacing oscillations: "The 21st century can tell you who you are, can tell you what you're thinking." The music's not a remnant of the past, but a way for The Wolfgang Press to acknowledge their tenure while peering into tomorrow. 

 

 

'Take It Backwards' is the album's most direct post-punk stomper, it's got all the hallmarks you'd expect to find - reverberating guitars, resonant bass, ice-cold synths - but sounds as if it's been infected with modern paranoia. If the trio's early run was marked by inky depression, their new material sounds just as umbral, but far more self-assured. "The future has been set to one side," Allen deadpans on 'Rest Your Mind', slurring over horizontal drums and fuzzy clouds of electronics. They might have lost their appetite for funk, but The Wolfgang Press's claws have never sounded so razor sharp - 'A 2nd Shape' is the rarest of comeback albums, one that captures the OG magic without a shred of pastiche or a trace of repetition. 

<iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 439px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3832907613/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://regis-dns.bandcamp.com/album/a-2nd-shape-2">A 2nd Shape by The Wolfgang Press ( TWP )</a></iframe>

Big Black was started by Steve Albini in 1982 while he was attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Lungs, the first Big Black release was recorded by Steve on a borrowed 4-track. He played everything on the EP himself - except the sax bleating courtesy of pal John Bohnen and the drums courtesy of Roland. Soon after, Steve recruited Jeff Pezzati (Naked Raygun) on bass, and Santiago Durango (also Naked Raygun) joined them on guitar. In 1983, together with live drummer Pat Byrne, they recorded the Bulldozer EP. By 1984, the band had done some touring and recorded the Racer X EP and the start of the Il Duce 7". After that, Jeff returned to Naked Raygun and was replaced by Dave Riley. In 1985, Big Black recorded their first full-length, Atomizer, as well as finishing the Il Duce 7". Atomizer was released in 1986 along with the release of the Hammer Party compilation CD. In 1987, the Headache EP and Heartbeat 7" were released. That same year, the band recorded and released the 7" of The Model/He's A Whore as well as their second full-length album, Songs About Fucking. They toured extensively (for Big Black). And they broke up.

The fantastic disco/world music project from Bremen, Germany that was never meant to be. Formed by Bremen DJ Ralf Behrendt in 1982, Saâda Bonaire was a unique concept band centered around two sultry female vocalists (Stefanie Lange and Claudia Hossfeld) as well as dozens of local musicians culled from the local immigration center. Originally signed to EMI in 1982, their first and only single, “You Could Be More As You Are” was produced by legendary Matumbi, Slits and Pop Group producer Dennis Bovell in Kraftwerk’s studio in Cologne. Its fusion of husky female vocals, Eastern instruments, dub and African music aesthetics, drum computers and synthesizers remains unique to this day. 

Saâda Bonaire compiles two songs from the original EMI single along with eleven previously unreleased songs recorded between 1982 and 1985. Also included are never before published photos, in depth interviews with band members, and a full gate fold cover for dedicated vinyl buyers. These lost recordings from the early eighties still sound fresh on today’s dance floor.

Another cassette-only mixtape taking in Soviet punk selections, 1985 to 1992, issued in partnership with Philadelphia's World Gone Mad.

A special cassette-only Halloween drop in the form of part one of a two-part Japanese post-punk, goth & new wave mixtape, the first in a tranche of globally-focused mixes reissued in partnership with Philadelphia’s punk archivists World Gone Mad.

Another cassette-only mixtape taking in Soviet punk selections, 1985 to 1992, issued in partnership with Philadelphia's World Gone Mad.

Analog reissue of his fourth solo album, released on Midi Records in October 1984. The album was produced over a period of one year and eight months, and has a beautiful, stateless atmosphere and elegance. Cutting by Bernie Grundman Mastering, U.S.A. Japanese pressing, limited edition. Participating musicians: Yukihiro Takahashi, Haruomi Hosono, Kenji Omura, Toshinori Kondo, Tatsuro Yamashita, Yasuaki Shimizu, Yoshiaki Shirai and Masahiro Takekawa of Moonriders, etc.

Guernica, a retro song techno-pop unit formed by former 8 1/2 Halmens member Koji Ueno, actress/singer Jun Togawa, and illustrator/lyricist Hotaruichi Ota, released their stunning first album on the Alpha/YEN label in 1982 under the production of Haruomi Hosono. The “Special Enlarged Version” was released on CD in 2016 with all remaining unreleased material on the YEN label, and is now being released as a double-LP “Super Special Enlarged Version” with new artwork under the art direction of Hotaruichi Ota, a member of the unit. The “Special Enlarged Version” will be released as a double-LP “Super Special Enlarged Version. This product is part of the “ALFA55” project to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Alpha Music.

Another cassette-only mixtape in our series in partnership with Philadelphia's World Gone Mad, this time surveying South American punk and post-punk between '81 & '90 - featuring bands from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.

DINTE's third cassette-only mixtape in partnership with Philadelphia punk archivists World Gone Mad, this time specifically focused on the late 1980s/early 90s punk & hardcore scene in Medellín, Colombia.

"There are moments in which art perfectly reflects the surroundings in which it was born. This is the case of the entire hc/punk/metal scene in late 80s/early 90s Medellín. It was, at the time, the most violent city in the world because of drug cartels, corruption, oppression & poverty. This violence was the reality of daily life & is reflected in the music that flourished in Medellín during the time period. It is some of the most authentically violent, aggressive, noisy, raw & abrasive hc/punk/metal to ever exist. This tape is a sonic snapshot of those times."

Glenn Branca's first full-length album The Ascension is a colossal achievement. After touring much of 1980 with an all-star band featuring four guitarists (Branca, fellow composers Ned Sublette and David Rosenbloom, and future Sonic Youth member Lee Ranaldo) with Jeffrey Glenn on bass and Stephan Wischerth on drums, Branca took his war-torn group into a studio in Hell's Kitchen to record five incendiary compositions. Originally released in 1981 on 99 Records, The Ascension effectively tears down the genre-ghettos between 20th century avant-garde and ecstatic rock 'n' roll.

On "The Spectacular Commodity," chiming, shimmering tones unfold into sinister drone-territory à la Tony Conrad, while abrasive guitars and repetitive beats retain the raw primitivism of No Wave. The title track attains a densely packed, larger-than-life sound and (as author Marc Masters says best) "never stops climbing skyward."

With artist Robert Longo's stark front cover that depicts Branca battling an unidentified man, The Ascension is a must-have record not only for fans of early Swans and Sonic Youth, but also of Steve Reich or Slint's Tweez.

This seminal, eponymous post-punk album by Japanese group Aunt Sally, fronted by experimental singer Phew, was first released by the iconic Vanity Records label in 1979. Over the past forty-plus years, Phew has forged a singular path through a wide range of styles - from free improvisation to pop - and has collaborated with the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, members of Can, DAF, Einstürzende Neubauten, The Raincoats and more. But Aunt Sally is where she got her start and, despite the members’ young ages (still in college at the time), Phew and the band delivered a mature, timeless take on minimalistic punk. Remastered from the original analog tapes, this fully authorized reissue.

Limited edition gatefold double LP. Includes 12 page booklet of liner notes, photos, band ephemera and other visual miscellanea. Bulbous Monocle focuses its lens further into the legacy and archives of the Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. These Things Remain Unassigned — a phrase coined by Brian Hageman, one of the band’s musical snake appendages emanating from its Medusa crown — is presented by Bulbous Monocle as a double LP (gatefold jacket with a twelve page libretto). BM-03 gathers together the band’s singles, compilation tracks, outtakes and never before released gems encompassing the arc of TFUL’s musical corpus. Every track has been surgically remastered by Mark Gergis (Porest/Sublime Frequencies/Mono Pause) with his signature craftsman approach. This collection is an auditory and visual feast. The extensive booklet included features band ephemera, concert flyers, photographs, and commentary about each track from Mark Davies. Beyond the rare singles and unreleased tracks from the TFUL archives, are cover versions from such disparate artists and composers as: Ennio Morricone, Krzysztof Komeda, The Residents, The Shaggs, Caroliner Rainbow and Pérez Prado. “…In addition to these compilation one-offs, there were also a few studio recordings that were never quite completed or released. Throw in an alternate mix or two and the handful of singles that came out on various labels over the years, and you end up with what I feel works well as its own body of work, a bunch of adopted oddballs that somehow fit together as a family. I hope youʼll agree with me that these things are now no longer unassigned, but part of a somewhat cohesive whole, stitched together into something mysterious and glistening —Mark Davies (2023)”

Fully licensed, limited to 500 copies. Frank Chickens could have been possibly forerunners for several famous alternative band, Cibo Matto, but sure had a development on their own. They began in London, early eighties as the original creation of Japanese performers Kazuko Hohki and Kazumi Taguchi. The band debuted with a pair of singles and a full length on Kaz Records. Backed by the likes of Steve Beresford (Alterations, The Slits, General Strike, London Improvisers Orchestra), Annie Whitehead (Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Robert Wyatt), Lol Coxhill, Tony Coe, and Clive Bell, the band soon became a case in history. Now, 37 years after its original release, their second album is being reissued: Get Chickenized! The record came out in 1987 on the British label Flying Lecords and showed a different side of the project, with a major focus on the so-called synth wave counterculture, still maintaining a certain avant feel. With original conspirator Steve Beresford still on board, the band was propelled in the studio by another key figure of the London underground: journalist, composer and producer David Toop. Being John Peel's favorite for a while, the band built a cult following retaining some absurd live performances, well known for their idiosyncratic choreography. Later revamped in the year 2000, thanks to cult label Ninja Tune, the band enjoyed a second wave of success, with a remix album featuring the likes of Pizzicato 5, Fink, and Neotropic. With a cover embellished by the labor of Pere Ubu David Thomas, this second influential album is finally available for your listening pleasure.

Released on Cherry Red in 1981, Threat To Creation spotted the collaboration between two mystical entities : Creation Rebel and New Age Steppers. Forerunners of the british dub scene the two bands shared several members, a who’s who of the On U-Sound school and key figures of the Bristol and London scene. Adrian Sherwood is – obviously – the man behind the desk a craftsman on its own, a character with no borders and one of the most sought after producer of the time. The supergroup is ran by post-punk stalwarts Bruce Smith (The Pop Group) on drums and Keith Levene (PIL) on guitar. Ari Up of The Slits sits on piano and organ, while masters Crucial Tony is both on bass and guitars. Members of African Head Charge – bass player George Oban, Eskimo Fox and Style Scott on drums – are welcomed addition to the line-up. Threat To Creation is still recognizable as an album ahead of its time, a futuristic blend filling the gap between the Jamaican heritage, the so-called (post) industrial revolution and the studio witchery of the whitey man.

Modern Lovers' self-titled debut album, released in 1976, is a timeless exploration of proto-punk and alternative rock. Led by Jonathan Richman, the album captures a minimalist and lo-fi charm, with tracks like 'Roadrunner' becoming anthems of the emerging punk scene. Richman's witty lyrics and stripped-down sound make 'Modern Lovers' a seminal work, influencing generations of indie and punk musicians. The album stands as a testament to the band's pioneering role in shaping the landscape of alternative music.

Minami Deutsch’s debut album is sated with an absolute love toward Krautrock and the driving Motorik beat. Minami Deutsch was formed by Kyotaro Miula (guitar, vocals, synthesizer) in Tokyo in 2014. Their sound is influenced by both their love for Krautrock legends such as Can and Neu!, and the band members being self-professed "repetition freaks" who heavily listen to minimal techno. The music proceeds straightforwardly with the Motorik beat (Hammer beat), devised by Klaus Dinger (Kraftwerk, Neu!), as its central axis. Humorous, yet bizarre Japanese lyrics are whispered over a hard, cold beat that is maniacally repeated, creating a pleasant ambience of electronic pulses drifting in space. Sharp guitar tones reminiscent of Michael Karoli (Can) occasionally explode into fuzz distortion, on the verge of collapse.

Evocative, eclectic, intimate, and rhythmically complex, TRANSA contains everything that has made Caetano Veloso the most distinctive and, arguably, most important voice in modern Brazilian music. The album was recorded during Veloso's political exile in England but released in 1972 upon his return to his homeland. Though the songs are not overtly political, they seem allegorical, celebratory, and plaintive at once, and point to a tension between the artist's expressive impulse and the strictures of his native country. This tension is further heightened by the presence of lyrics in both English and Portuguese. The beautiful, desperate "You Don't Know Me" may be the world's first bilingual bossa nova/folk-punk anthem of identity. The jazzy "Nine Out of Ten" gives way to the gear-shifting "Triste Bahia," which features webs of accelerating Brazilian percussion. A spare treatment of the classic samba "Mora Na Filosofia," the cosmic ditty "Neolithic Man," and the 12-bar "Nostalgia" (ending with the wise line "That's what rock & roll is all about") close out the set. TRANSA is a jewel in Veloso's discography and a must for anyone interested in Brazilian pop--or brilliant, original pop in general.

Sounds created for no reason. Sounds that come and go, and disappear into the air like a scent, as soon as they materialize. Atonal phrases that hold the meaning of words that existed before the advent of language. The wonders of a vortex pulsing with life. Just as a new discovery is actually a new way of looking to see what has always been there, OOIOO, seemingly from the core of their being, created a world of sound made up of parts well known that is strikingly precise and intensely original. After a six year hiatus, OOIOO has created a new album that goes back to the roots of being a four-piece band. The music shows the full spectrum of the unique sound they have crafted throughout the years, which can only be described as “OOIOO”.

It might come as a surprise that nijimusi was recorded mainly using a conventional rock ensemble of two guitars, bass, and drums. OOIOO viewed their instruments simply as “objects that make sounds”, and took a primitive and basic approach to creating the music. The drum tones fluctuate powerfully through the air, while sounding as if they are being observed under a microscope. Bass notes and electronic bursts are so dense that they sound like they’ve been vacuum-sealed. The arrangement of the tones seem to be almost ancient, transcending the notion of a musical ensemble, suggesting the connectivity and oneness that is inherent in all living creatures.

Founded in 1995 by legendary percussionist/guitarist/vocalist YoshimiO, OOIOO’s members came together as musicians who move freely between the audible and inaudible, rhythm and non-rhythm, noise and silence. The music they create is a collection of moments and essences of their favorite sounds, captured as they were created before returning into the ether. In 2016, drummer MISHINA joined the band, allowing more freedom in their rhythmic approach and overall sound. Just as each cell in the body consists of a microcosm of its own, the vibrations of each of the members resonate together to create a new life form, a process reflected in nijimusi.

nijimusi can be considered music, but is also a work of art that stimulates the sense of touch and smell, while being atmospheric and ethereal at the same time. If music is an art form based on the sense of hearing and the concept of time, this album may be deviating from the conventional definition of music. The work is a reflection of the sounds resonating from OOIOO while as they were completely present in the moment. The sounds are like the cries emanating from a creature called OOIOO, proof that it is a living, breathing being. Experience the sounds of OOIOO that can only be heard in the here and now.