New Wave / Post-Punk

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 In the late ’70s, outdated music styles — blues covers sung in broken English and (mostly) original, acoustic folk tunes sung in Japanese — were all the rage in Kansai.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. 

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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.

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.

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.

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. 

Formed in Granada by Ani Zinc, who also recorded under the name Neo Zelanda, and Javier G Marín, Diseño Corbusier were a fascinating and unique project of avant-garde electronics. Their second LP, "El alma de la estrella" (1986), is a marvel of sound craftwork that gathers elements of industrial music, minimal techno and vocal manipulation through a dadaist and completely personal approach.

Dark Entries flashes back to the grimy streets of New York City circa 1982 to bring us an unreleased album from cult outfit Ike Yard. Comprised of Stuart Argabright, Michael Diekmann, Kenneth Compton, and Fred Szymanski, Ike Yard sits between the sinewy proto-body music of the Neue Deutsche Welle and the shattered grooves of their No Wave peers in New York. The band’s initial run was short but blinding. They released an EP for Les Disques du Crépuscule in 1981, which was followed by their legendary self-titled LP for Factory in 1982. They disbanded within a year, frustrated by the slow pace at which the industry was able to release their increasingly challenging music. 1982 features 10 tracks which likely would have become the band’s second LP - only four of these songs have previously seen release on 2006’s 1980-82 Collected via Acute Records. Following the release of Ike Yard, they continued down their tortured path of hybrid electro-acoustic music with an arsenal of now-classic analog instruments, including the Korg MS-20 and the Roland TR-808. Skittering rhythms teeter on the verge of collapse while seasick synth warbles threaten to push us overboard. Electronic washes devolve into waves of feedback. Sneering basslines threaten dancers to move, but how can the body obey? This is dangerous music, gliding along the brink. The album features a live photo of the band by Makoto Iida and includes an insert with liner notes from Stuart Argabright. 1982 is essential for fans of post-punk and caustic electronics from Liaisons Dangereuses to Beau Wanzer.

Dark Entries celebrates its 15th anniversary with legendary synth-punk deviants Crash Course in Science. Dale Feliciello, Mallory Yago, and Michael Zodorozny formed CCIS in 1979 after meeting at art school in Philadelphia. As a gesture born of equal parts punk irreverence and brute necessity, the band incorporated toy instruments and kitchen appliances into their aggressive, angular sound. Their anthems “Cardboard Lamb” and “Flying Turns” from 1981’s Signals From Pier Thirteen EP have been staples in adventurous DJ sets for over 40 years - yet some of their finest work is to be found on Near Marineland, a full-length LP recorded in 1981 but remained unreleased in its time. Near Marineland shows the band moving into more diverse and polished territory (although it’s still as abrasive as sandpaper). Tracks like “No More Hollow Doors” and “Jump Over Barrels” highlight CCIS’s singular knack for embedding infectiously monotone hooks in their stiff-yet-funky grooves. Elsewhere we see CCIS going fully unhinged, like on the searing “Someone Reads” or the demented “Pompeii Spared”, where a spray of honks is barely glued together by a frantic synthetic pulse. While this masterwork of malfunctioning analog electronics has surfaced on a few occasions - this first time stand alone remaster includes four never-before-released bonus tracks and includes a lyric sheet. Near Marineland is crucial listening for all devotees of synth-punk and minimal electronics.

Dark Entries returns to Mexico with Back Up Dos: Mexican Tecno Pop 1982-1989. Following 2021’s Back Up compilation, Back Up Dos delivers 10 more tracks of synth-pop and New Beat, 7 of which have never before appeared on vinyl. From mutant drum machine beats to irresistible synthesizer hooks, fans of the fringes of the 80s will find songs to stir their cold, dark hearts. But Back Up Dos does more than mine retro kitsch; it documents the development of a rich DIY music scene that is still underexplored. As affordable samplers and digital synths spread throughout the decade, post-punk and new wave gave way to more aggressive EBM and cyberpunk sounds. The scene also developed in opposition to the political climate of the times: the rise of the drug cartels and a reactionary turn in national politics. Using home recording techniques, these bands took cues from the electronic wizardry of the Human League and Wax Trax Records while reflecting the vibrant and chaotic Mexican cultural landscape of the era. On Back Up Dos, impeccable pop anthems from Casino Shanghai and Los Agentes Secretos sit alongside gnarled obscurities from Ford Proco and María Bonita, showcasing a decade of sly deviance and enthusiastic experimentation. This album comes housed in an 80s-inflected neon sleeve designed by Gwenael Rattke and includes a 12-page booklet with photographs, lyrics, and notes. Back Up Dos compiles synthetic music produced in Mexico at the crossroads from Tecno Pop to Post-Industrial, nourished by culture shock and stories of dystopian worlds.

Very pleased and grateful to announce this ‘Home Comfort’ reissue by Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier, originally self-released in 1980. Maybe a bit of an unexpected title to appear in the LSD catalog but my love for this album goes back to my late teenage years and has had an addictive effect since, like a spleen infused magnet. With this album Glynne and Zwier, based in the Netherlands and connected to the Ultra scene, drew an insular blend of intimate post-punk and chamber (bedroom) songs with surreal scenic reflections. Probably its naked singularity defying categorization has left it so unnoticed, even 43 years after the making. It also features a reciting Marlène Dumas still quite unknown at the time. With biggest gratitude to Mark Glynne who instantly felt confident with my proposal to reissue this silent witness of lasting beauty. My long time Japanese friend You Ishihara (White Heaven, The Stars) who bought the LP when it came out in 1980 still considers it as one of his all-time favourites. This is what he writes about ‘Home Comfort’:“Resignation and fear in a desolate mental landscape. This album, which exists like a shelter for those who have quietly escaped through the backdoor of the world, vividly reflects the inner depths of the devastated Amsterdam of the early 80’s. A beautiful and sad, unmistakable masterpiece.”

Very pleased and grateful to announce this ‘Home Comfort’ reissue by Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier, originally self-released in 1980. Maybe a bit of an unexpected title to appear in the LSD catalog but my love for this album goes back to my late teenage years and has had an addictive effect since, like a spleen infused magnet. With this album Glynne and Zwier, based in the Netherlands and connected to the Ultra scene, drew an insular blend of intimate post-punk and chamber (bedroom) songs with surreal scenic reflections. Probably its naked singularity defying categorization has left it so unnoticed, even 43 years after the making. It also features a reciting Marlène Dumas still quite unknown at the time. With biggest gratitude to Mark Glynne who instantly felt confident with my proposal to reissue this silent witness of lasting beauty. My long time Japanese friend You Ishihara (White Heaven, The Stars) who bought the LP when it came out in 1980 still considers it as one of his all-time favourites. This is what he writes about ‘Home Comfort’:“Resignation and fear in a desolate mental landscape. This album, which exists like a shelter for those who have quietly escaped through the backdoor of the world, vividly reflects the inner depths of the devastated Amsterdam of the early 80’s. A beautiful and sad, unmistakable masterpiece.”

A serendipitous conversation brought the project to life. Moot! allowed the group to re-appreciate the recording process, using a combination of live recording and studio techniques. The album spans psych, alternative rock and post-punk mixed with their signature electronics and sampling practice. The record was made as an experiment, to be enjoyed, not as spectacle.

ike an unsent love letter to a psychedelic London where everyone is trying to find their way to a secret Television Personalities gig, Cuneiform Tabs emerge with an astounding debut of lo-fi pop and DIY experimentation. A hazy collage of joyful heartaches, twisted children's TV themes and sing-song melodies, the album echoes the sounds of '60s AM radio from a dozen narrow alleyways to the North. Over 18 months, the Tabs' Matt Bleyle and Sterling Mackinnon traded 4-track tapes between the Bay Area and the UK. While they previously played together in indie band Violent Change, the duo's physical distance and their songwriting process of building, blurring and distorting across the Atlantic would create something no one saw coming. Grabbing any instruments at their disposal and splitting vocal duties, Bleyle and Mackinnon pushed their Tascam to its limit to make glittering, odd-shaped gems. There is an insular feel to Cuneiform Tabs, suited for late nights after the entire city has stumbled into dreamtime or lazy afternoons when you can't quite recall where you need to be, but you know you won't make it there on time. It's like a pirate radio show where Bob Pollard alternates Swell Maps and Cleaners From Venus records while randomly unplugging various bits of gear and reading passages from a book on R.D. Laing.。

Dub-infused post-punk treats from astonishing percussionist Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga, Moin, Holy Tongue) and Zongamin as V/Z. The basslines throughout really hit that sweet spot and the collaborations are killer; Coby Sey and Venus Ex Machina join the fun, along with Vanishing Twin's Cathy Lucas on 'Habadash' with a most appealing Seefeel flavour. Highly recommended.

Crack Cloud has always been something beyond a rock band: both profound and grand, vaporous and elusive.The first iteration of Crack Cloud was formed nearly a decade ago as a proxy-rehab outlet on the fringes of Calgary. Over time, two EPs and accompanying visual pieces were produced out of the residence known as Red Mile. By 2017, several members had relocated to Vancouver, working out of harm reduction centers and low-barrier shelters. Sobriety, self-reformation and the idealism of their work further formed an ethos for Crack Cloud. It was during these years that the band produced their astounding 2020 album Pain Olympics. At once, their vision became expansive, cinematic.Now, Red Mile is a bit of a homecoming. Members have returned to Calgary. But Calgary/home has become a liminal space, a place of flux. After a decade of personal and collective growth, what does home even mean? Red Mile is, for them, something like samsara: a return and a rebirth.Red Mile's sound breathes expansive energy into the circuitous, street bound sonics of Crack Cloud's prior material. Fizzling synths intertwine with chiming pianos. Songs layer like Russian nesting dolls; one may find a Ramones chorus set within a desolate Western prog soundtrack only to watch it erupt into a joyous anthem. Real-ass guitars — alternately lilting, scuzzy and soaring — ring out across wide sun-bleached spaces. In 2024, the cumulative effect is (in rock instrumentation terms) naturalistic. Any whiff of embalmed nostalgia is absent. Even the close of the album – a winding, alllllmost Jerry Garcia guitar noodle that leads us out of Red Mile – is delivered without sentimentality. Principal songwriter Zach Choy's lyrics are cutting but merciful, with a sharp self awareness that never slides into self-satisfaction. Crack Cloud as artists are critical — and ultimately as forgiving — of themselves as they are the melting world around them. The songs balance an easy charm and cathartic power: affirming life without denying death.Recorded predominantly between the outskirts of Joshua Tree, California, and Calgary, Alberta, this record is informed by a bittersweet mélange of old and new. The sprawling, novelistic structures of their previous albums are condensed and sharpened, while maintaining their refusal to delve into superficiality. Through playful melodies and elliptical guitar soliloquy, they deliver a final product of exceptional depth and distinctly unprecious warmth. Crack Cloud have produced a mature, vital work that interrogates the platitudes of the rock-n-roll lifestyle, but ultimately exalts its sacredness.Red Mile's de facto thesis statement "The Medium" is itself a rock song meditation: an ode to the form and its practitioners. This genre that — typical, repeatable, corporatized as it can be — somehow still has the power to help us live through life. We see the dusty sentiment of "I love rock and roll" exhumed, taken apart, and stitched back together. It's a song guided by faith — if the medium helps us proclaim our love today, it’s worth protecting from derision tomorrow. We live in an era where music seems to love hitting its head against the wall. Crack Cloud's Red Mile is the sound — the feeling! — of the bricks giving way.

A feverish essay of transcendent drumming: Chris’ solo approach, rooted in the exploration of elements of extended technique, sought another level, via possibilities facilitated by a self-made string drum! The Key (Became The Important Thing [& Then Just Faded Away]) brings his encompassing focus on free improvisation and noise into a granular fusion with acoustic experiments and hot-wired ideations of hard rock riffing and the post-punk sound.

宮沢正一率いた伝説の実験的パンク・バンド「ザ・ラビッツ」による貴重音源の数々を集めた公式LPが、ゆらゆら帝国やAunt Sally、向井千惠作品などを手がけたニューヨークの要注意レーベル〈Mesh-Key〉から登場。アンダーグラウンドなリスナーを中心にカルト的な人気を博すも、これまで公式LPがリリースされることの無かったザ・ラビッツ初のLP盤！「わ、わ、わ、」や「名犬バター犬君号伝」「Winter Song」といった貴重音源を全10曲収録。

NM/NM Original deadstock. Italian obscure new wave gems!

Emerging out of Amsterdam's vibrant squat scene in 1979, The Ex – a name chosen for the ease and speed with which it could be spray-painted onto a wall – have for four decades been an entirely self-sustaining musical entity, charting a course through the global underground with a spirit of freedom and radical exploration. On 1985's Pokkeherrie (Dutch for "terrible noise"), The Ex return to the more stripped-down instrumentation on their early LPs. A key lineup change would also see the arrival of drummer Kat Bornefeld (whose supple rhythms propel the group to this day). Recorded at the new location of Koeienverhuur Studio in the basement of storied squat/venue Emma, Pokkeherrie is a testament to the angular momentum of a group in full creative flux. Right from the opening track, bassist Luc Klaasen generates a relentless pulse. Terrie Ex's sparse/acidic guitar and G.W. Sok's impassioned vocals combine in a vein similar to The Minutemen, Flipper or Rudimentary Peni, except The Ex have the patience and wherewithal to sustain their approach beyond just brief explosions. Perhaps only The Fall from this period can match The Ex's ability to hold a melody together while utilizing otherwise harsh sonic elements over an extended piece, most effectively on "Soviet Threat," "1,000,000 Ashtrays" and "White Liberals." This first-time vinyl reissue comes with 17" x 24" poster and 20-page booklet.

The first in a series of mini compilations exploring instrumental Dub versions of sought after and long out of print titles from the world of Reggae, Disco, Boogie and House. Many of these versions still contain vocals, snippets here and there drenched in delay or reverb, a style you’ll recognise from many of the Jura Soundsystem edits on the label. The late Glen Adams & Finesse open proceedings with their Island Disco cover of Marvin Gaye’s classic, followed on the A2 by a super rare UK Boogie/Brit Funk mix of Tippa Irie’s ‘Panic’ (shouts to Tippa for personally helping to push through the license) and the A side closes with the 80’s leaning ‘Yes I Do’ from Belgium’s Special Occasion. The first half of the B side comes from Carol Williams with the Special Club Dub mix of ‘Can’t Get Away’, originally a one sided promo only 10” from 1983 complete with spoken word intro from Carol thanking New York’s Metro DJs for their support of the song. The LP closes with a Jura Soundsystem Dubby Edit of La Palace De Beaute’s ‘Sin’ pulling back on the vocal and going heavy on the delay.