Snuggle Up 'n Get Down with New Discs from the Gemini Madman's Weekly List:

Alvin Curran! David Buchbinder! Bester Quartet! The Whammies Perform Steve Lacy (v2): Han Bennink/Jorrit Dijkstra/Mary Oliver/Jeb Bishop! Pandelis Karayorgis Quintet & Trio! Dan Blacksberg's Devekus! Joel Harrison 19 with Ned Rothenberg et al! Marc Ducret Tower Vol. 3! Ray Russell!

Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music - Volume 7! Guillermo Gregorio with Steve Swell/Jim Baker/Michael Thieke/Michael Zerang! David Buchbinder! Tim Daisy & Jason Stein! Merzbow & Nordvargr! Aaron Dilloway! The Last Hurrah!

Lol Coxhill & Michel Doneda! Father Yod & Source Family DVD! The Dream with Terje Rypdal! King Tubby! Bea Benjamin & Dollar Brand! Michael Hurley! Fotheringay! Bobby Whitlock! Rare Cajun Recordings! Akiro Ito! Yoshiko Sai,

and, Johnny Trunk's label: STRANGE and Rare recordings from Basil Kirchin, Michael Garrick, Evan Parker, Tristram Cary, Carl Orff, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, John Cameron, Leona Anderson ...!


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The DMG Free Weekly In-Store Performance Series Continues in 2013 With:

Sunday, June 23rd:
6pm: KIRK KNUFFKE & CHRISTOF KNOCHE - Cornet & Trombone!

Sunday, June 30th:
6pm: HANS TAMMEN & DOM MINASI Guitar Duo!

Sunday, July 7th Double-Header:
6pm: RAS MOSHE / KYOKO KITAMURA / ANDERS NILSSON / SHAYNA DULBERGER!
7pm: JANEL & ANTHONY - Cuneiform Recordings Artists!

Rare Tuesday Set, July 9th:
6pm: STEUART LIEBIG & JAMES ILGENFRITZ - Electric & Acoustic Bass Duo!

Sunday, July 14th Double-Header:
6pm: TERRENCE McMANUS - Solo Guitar!
7pm: CHRIS WELCOME / SHAYNA DULBERGER / JOHN McLELLAN!

Sunday, July 21st Double-Header:
6pm: GL DIANA / BLAISE SIWULA / HARVEY VALDES - Laptop/Sax/Tesla Guitar!
7pm: NICK FRASER TRIO featuring TONY MALABY!

Sunday, July 28th Double-Header
6pm: CHERYL PYLE & NICOLAS LETMAN-BURTINOVICH - Flute & Double Bass Duo!
7pm: CHRIS PITSIOKOS - Solo Sax!


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Four New Ones on Tzadik!

ALVIN CURRAN With ARNOLD DREYBLATT/WILLIAM WINANT/MICHAEL RIESSLER- Shofar Rags (Tzadik 8176; USA) Active since the mid-'60s, Alvin Curran is one of America's most courageous and outrageous musical mavericks. A true forefather to the Downtown scene, his music embraces the dialectics of composition/improvisation, tonality/atonality, minimalism/maximalism, electronic/acoustic and more. His works are performed worldwide and he has received commissions from most of the world's most important ensembles. Alvin's use of the Shofar in experimental music making goes as far back as 1988, and this long awaited release features several compositions for Shofar and electronics, and ranges from meditative Ambient environments to flamboyant, fast moving collage. Shofar Rags is a fabulous and historic release by one of the world's most eclectic and underappreciated musical explorers! TZADIK RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE SERIES
CD $14

BESTER QUARTET [CRACOW KLEZMER BAND] - The Golden Land (Tzadik 8178; USA) A mainstay of the Radical Jewish series since their first release in 2000, Jaroslaw Bester is one of the most consistently creative and imaginative musicians in the New Jewish Renaissance. His quartet, formerly The Cracow Klezmer Band has released no less than seven CDs on Tzadik, two interpreting John Zorn's Masada songbooks. Here they approach the classic compositions of Cracow-born Mordechaj Gebirtig, the preeminent Yiddish folk artist and one of the most influential poets and songwriters of his time. Killed in the Cracow Ghetto on Bloody Thursday, his songs were a staple of the Yiddish Theatre and continue to be widely performed today. Bester's arrangements are lush and filled with emotion, setting the tone of Gebirtig's lyrical melodies into a modern and powerful new context. TZADIK RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE SERIES
CD $14

DAVID BUCHBINDER With HILARIO DURAN et al - Walk To The Sea (Tzadik 8177; USA) David Buchbinder teams up with JUNO-winning pianist and composer Hilario Duran and a crew of Canada's top jazz and world musicians to present the second volume of his exciting Jewish-Cuban fusion. Working with award-winning producer (and band member) Roberto Occhipinti, the ensemble has captured a fresh, fiery and innovative new sound inspired by the Jewish Mambo craze of the 1950s. Celebratory and joyous music for dancing, listening and fressing from these brilliant musical masters! TZADIK RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE SERIES
CD $14

DEVEYKUS [DAN BLACKSBERG] - Pillar Without Mercy (Tzadik 8179; USA) Dan Blacksberg is the mastermind behind Electric Simcha, and his newest project is an ecstatic trip through the world of Hasidic nigunim as seen through the intense lens of Doom Metal. Inspired by bands such as Earth, and Sunn O))), the music on this album presents classic Spiritual Melodies out of the Hasidic tradition in re-composed and re-arranged versions aimed at a heavy rock sound. Featuring the leader on trombone, with Nick Millevoi and Yoshie Fruchter on guitars, Johnny Deblase on bass, and Eli Litwin on drums, this is music that blends the spiritual fire of Hasidic melodies with Albert Ayler and Dark Metal. Fabulous! TZADIK RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE SERIES
CD $14


Final Volume in the 10 Year Series!

AN ANTHOLOGY OF NOISE & ELECTRONIC MUSIC [V.A.] - Volume 7: A Chronology 1930-2012 [3 CD set] (Sub Rosa 300; Belgium) Sub Rosa presents the seventh and final volume in their An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music series. These seven volumes represent a strong listening base, as incomplete as it may be -- the basis for a near-infinite exploration through one's self, in the present tense. All in all, there are 176 tracks, created between 1921 and 2012, for a total of almost 18 hours of music. The sphere of geographical propagation was kind of programmed at the start (between 1952 and 1970 there have been over 100 national studios, mostly tied to radio, on all five continents), but it accelerated exponentially with the appearance of the first home studios, and later with the advent of the laptop computer. Following the spread with each surge of emerging creators, 42 nations are represented. In Europe: United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Russia. In the Americas: United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chili, Brazil. In the Middle East: Israel, Iran, Turkey. In the Far East Asia: Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia. In Africa: Egypt. In Oceania: Australia, New Zealand.
This triple CD of concrete, destructured and electronic music contains rare or unpublished works by ..

CD1
01 Henry Jacobs Sonata for Loudspeakers (1953-4) 9'20
02 Tziga Vertov - Radio-ear Radio Pravda (1930) 2'58
03 Bebe & Louis Barron Bells of Atlantis (1952) 9'00
04 Luciano Berio Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958) 6'12
05 BŸlent Arel Electronic Music (1961) 8'37
06 Don Preston Analog Heaven #6 (1975) 3'04
07 Slawek Kwi + Siobhan McDonald Lava Samples 2'03
08 Benjamin Thigpen Thread0 (2011) 5'24
09 Helmut Schafer Infuse (2005-6) 7'36
10 Novi_sad The insolence of a poppy (2011) 13'23
11 Saule Paperfilm (2002) 11'22
12 E-L Scott de Martinville Au clair de la lune (1860) 0'16

CD2
01 John Oswald Vertical Time 9'58
02 Israel Quellet Pour percussion et saturation (2007) 2'21
03 Dennis Wong / Sin:Net Decomposition 5'03
04 Alan Courtis Mind Broncoespasmo 2'36
05 Fausto Romitelli Trash TV Trance (2002) 10'10
06 Justin K. Broadrick Guitar Three (1995) 10'21
07 Storm Bugs Cash Wash/Eat good Beans (1980) 3'41
08 E.A.R. Beyond the Pale (1992) 14'49
09 Henry Cow From Trondheim (1976) 13'06
10 Osso Exotico Rota de inverno (1994) 4'45

CD3
01 Eugeniusz Rudnik Collage (1965) 4'59
02 Eduardo Polonio Transparencias (2011) 7'07
03 Cabaret Voltaire Chance versus Causuality (1979) 5'47
04 Mika Vainio Transformer in 7 (2011) 5'59
05 Alma Laprida + Juan Jose Calarco Contorso (2011) 2'36
06 Klangkrieg Korpus 1 (1996) 3'37
07 Gintas Kraptavicius 4m (2011) 7'19
08 Warong Rachapreecha Shambles (2012) 0'56
09 The New Blockaders Blockade is Resistance (1983) 8'12
10 GX Jupitter-Larsen / The Haters Fuechen (1985) 5'20
11 The Rita Skate (2009) 4'59
12 To Die Terhempas luka / Jurang nestapa (2011) 1'03
13 Agro / B. Spivey + R. Anderson Only Those Who Attempt The Impossible Will Achieve The Absurd (1995) 4'08
14 Jamka Wild Rosa Tree (2010) 5'48
15 Erin Sexton Suspend / 2 Electromagnetic Amplifiers (2011) 4:52
16 Gustavo Serpa Astro Metal (2008) 6'04
17 Anonymous Untitled (unknown) 0'23

It also includes a 84-page booklet of critical and biographical notes.
3 CD set for $22



Volumes 1, 2, and 4 already out - finally here's Volume 3!

MARC DUCRET With FIDEL FOURNEYRON/SYLVAIN LEMETRE/MATTHIAS MAHLER/ALEXIS PERSIGAN/ANTONIN RAYON - Tower, Vol 3 (Ayler 120; EEC) Marc Ducret, electric guitar - Fidel Fourneyron, trombone - Sylvain Lemetre, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, percussion - Matthias Mahler, trombone - Alexis Persigan, trombone - Antonin Rayon, piano, celesta Recorded at Salle Colonne, Paris, France on December 17, 18 & 19, 2012.
Presenting the music of the sextet which first performed in October 2011 and recorded in December 2012, a few weeks after the Tower-Bridge 12-piece orchestra had a tour of France and volume 4 was released.
Whereas the quintet from volume 1 and the quartet from volume 2 played selected pieces from the Tower 'repertoire', this ensemble plays comments on the music already played, either in the form of rewritten fragments or developments of excerpts/patterns, that give the music from the other two bands a new light, delivering all the harmonic or rhythmic keys to compositions previously heard in a radically different form.
This is the end of the cycle of releases which started exactly 2 years ago.
Or is it not? Who knows...
CD $18


LOL COXHILL & MICHEL DONEDA - Sitting on your Stairs (2011) (Emanem 5028; UK) Lol Coxhill and Michel Doneda started playing soprano saxophone duets together in 2008. This improvised concert, recorded at Les Instantes Chavires near Paris in 2011, turned out to be their last musical meeting. Two musicians who manage to be themselves, stay out of each other's way, and yet make music together. Two fine improvisers at the top of their respective abilities. 57 minutes.
CD $18


Four Great New Discs from Driff!

THE WHAMMIES [JORRIT DIJKSTRA/PANDELIS KRAYORGIS/JEB BISHOP/MARY OLIVER/NATE McBRIDE/HAN BENNINK]//STEVE LACY - Play The Music Of Steve Lacy Vol 2 (Driff 1303; EEC) With Jorrit Dijkstra on alto sax & lyricon, Jeb Bishop on trombone, Mary Oliver on violin & viola, Pandelis Karayorgis on piano, Nate McBride on bass and Han Bennink on drums. The Boston/Dutch/Chicago sextet is back with their second batch of select Steve Lacy songs plus a are Thelonious Monk cover, Monk being one of Mr. Lacy's main inspirations. Many of these Lacy pieces are rarely heard and each of them is dedicated to a different artist, scientist or doctor. Some are based on poems or texts from Herman Melville, Brion Gysin and St. John of the Cross and run the gamut from Marilyn Monroe to Sigmund Freud to Albert Einstein.
Steve Lacy was a distinctive and quirky composer whose music evolved out of the modern jazz tradition but was never held down by any one style. Starting with "Skirts", the Whammies play that slightly bent Monk-like theme with fresh air blowing through. I dig the way the sax, violin and trombone play together on top with the piano, bass & drums playing tag, tightly underneath. Mr. Dijkstra plays some somber, eerie lyricon (an electronic device that a few saxists played in the seventies but rarely touch today) on "Pregnant Virgin" which sounds fine with the soft, off-kilter violin. Actually the lyricon sounds more like a melodica than anything else. Many of these pieces have unpredictable changes in direction as well as odd structures so they are not so easy to play. Both the Driff label and this sextet are led by Mr. Dijkstra and Pandelis Karayorgis. Mr. Karayorgis is a Boston-based pianist who has series of strong discs out on Hatology, Clean Feed and Leo. His playing in consistently creative, no matter what the context and is integral to the success of this disc. A few of these pieces have sections that sound free, like "The Oil", and sound like they are about to fall apart but the balance between the extremes is just right. Chicago-based trombonist Jeb Bishop has a fine duo disc out with Mr. Dijkstra on the Driff label from last year. Both of these hornmen play extremely well together and are featured on "Saxovision". In many ways, this sextet sounds like the ICP Orchestra, with two members as part of both ensembles, Ms. Oliver and Mr. Bennink. What is most amazing about this disc is hearing legendary drummer, Han Bennink, who loves to clown around and add his unpredictable percussive hijinks, play so tightly within the ever-shifting arrangements. Sadly, I missed the Whammies when they played in Brooklyn earlier this year, but I won't make that mistake again as they are one of the most impressive ensembles currently working. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $14

GUILLERMO GREGORIO/PANDELIS KARAYORGIS/STEVE SWELL - Window And Doorway (Driff 1301; EEC) An intimate and intense set that takes advantage of the unusual instrumentation and diversity of compositional approaches. Each musician contributes original compositions interspersed with a few collective improvisations. The CD booklet contains an original poem by Steve Swell and the cover image is of a collage by Guillermo Gregorio.
CD $14

PANDELIS KARAYORGIS QUINTET With DAVE REMPIS/KEEFE JACKSON/NATE McBRIDE/FRANK ROSALY - Circuitous (Driff 1304; EEC) "Karayorgis and the quintet succeed brilliantly here in creating music that both reverberates with the tradition and creates its own extraordinary musical states - textures, visions and collisions that are unique, that could not be produced by any other group or any singular method." - Stuart Broomer
CD $14

PANDELIS KARAYORGIS TRIO With JEF CHARLAND/LUTHER GRAY - Cocoon (Driff 1302; EEC) First studio recording by an established trio, made at the end of a year of monthly concerts during which this material was developed. Six new original compositions recorded at WGBH's Fraser studio in Boston. "These guys are as connected in musicianship as a piano trio can be. They think, breath, anticipate, and play as one - in the best sense. Right in the pocket of empathy and insight." - Stu Vandermark, Boston Jazz Scene
CD $14

and still available..

THE WHAMMIES [JORRIT DIJKSTRA/PANDELIS KRAYORGIS/JEB BISHOP/MARY OLIVER/NATE McBRIDE/HAN BENNINK]//STEVE LACY - Play The Music Of Steve Lacy Vol 1 (Driff 1201; EEC) The Whammies feature Jorrit Dijkstra on alto sax & lyricon, Jeb Bishop on trombone, Pandelis Karayorgis on piano, Mary Oliver on violin & viola, Nate McBride on bass and Han Bennink on drums. The elastic, infectious, off-kilter swing of Monk & Lacy is what makes this disc such a delight. String player, Mary Oliver, who has become an integral part of the ICP Orchestra, both as a player and section leader/director over the past decade, really shines on this disc. Although she is on only half of the songs here, she sounds especially shrewd adding spirited solos or parts at just the right times. In the early seventies, there were some devices that sax players used like a Condor, lyricon or EWI. At that time, jazz purists or snobs would complain whenever a serious jazz sax player would use such devices (like Eddie Harris or Lee Konitz). I never had a problem with those devices since I was too young & naive to be a purist. Almost no one uses those devices today so it is interesting to hear Mr. Dijkstar play one. He uses it minimally and more for textures than solos and it fits just fine. The Whammies do a good job of playing these pieces loosely and freeing them up a bit yet always retain their charm and challenging structure. No matter how far out these folks go, there is always something special which holds this together. A sense of fun or daring with a healthy dose of tight in & out tapestry. An outstanding debut in more ways than one! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $14

JEB BISHOP & JORRIT DIJKSTRA - 1000 Worlds (Driff 1202; EEC) Featuring Jeb Bishop on trombone & mutes and Jorrit Dijkstra on alto sax & mutes. Both Mr. Bishop and Mr. Dijkstra are members of the Whammies, a fine new sextet whose members hail from the Netherlands, Chicago and Boston. Both Bishop and Dijkstra were based in Chicago when this studio disc was recorded in 2011, although Mr. Dijkstra is now in Boston. When we got this disc in earlier this week, I thought that a duo of trombone and alto sax would be more of a free from duo but this is not the case. Most of these pieces are carefully written and arranged. Both players contribute compositions as well as a doing few duo improvs. Similar to the Whammies CD, this duo has their roots in the history of modern jazz, exploring arrangements as well as swinging much of the time. The title track opens this disc with an infectious, gleeful theme with twisted solos from each member of the duo while the other plays the main riff. I dig the way the duo share parts of the written line on "Bone Narrow" completing each other's lines, as well as weaving tightly back and forth. A good deal of time and craftiness went into the arranging of this material as each piece shows strong, well thought out layers and harmonies. The fact this disc is a mere duo does make it any less suspect or solid. Some of the pieces are somber or laid back yet the arrangements and playing are fully formed and compelling throughout. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $14


New on Peira!

TIM DAISY/JASON STEIN - Bascule (Peira 21; USA) A limited edition (100 copies). Featuring Tim Daisy on drums and Jason Stein on bass clarinet. The ever creative Chicago scene continues to evolve as dozens of musicians shift between different ensembles and situations to keep things fresh. Both Tim Daisy and Jason Stein have worked together in Bridge 61 with Ken Vandermark. Mr. Stein remains one of the few reedmen who plays bass clarinet exclusively and plays in several bands with Mike Pride, Kyle Bruckmann, Frank Rosaly and Josh Berman. Tim Daisy, who was the second drummer in the Vandermark 5, has appeared on more than 75 discs with ensembles including the Engines, Klang, Dragons 1976 and with Dave Rempis, Aram Shelton and Scott Rosenberg. 'Bascule' is a studio date and the recording is superb, clean and well-balanced. I like the way Mr. Stein's careful playing fits perfectly between the high end sounds of cymbals & sticks and low-end sounds of mallets of hands on drums. On "Center Pier" it sounds as if Stein is playing around or with a ballad when it starts, which he slowly deconstructs as the piece evolves. The tempo and intensity increase throughout, erupting into some explosive free/jazz and then fading into quieter terrain. Overall the dialogue between these two fine musicians is consistently intricate, spirited, heated, occasionally restrained but always engaging. Mr. Stein sometimes sounds as if he is about to take off, practically screaming on his bass clarinet with Mr. Daisy doing a great job of fanning the flames or just creating a web to work with. Most impressive throughout. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $9

JIM BAKER/GUILLERMO GREGORIO/MICHAEL THIEKE/MICHAEL ZERANG - Sack of Rice (Peira 20; USA) A limited edition (100 copies) Michael Thieke & Guillermo Gregorio on clarinets, Jim Baker on synth and Michael Zerang on percussion. It is not often that we find an ensemble fronted by two clarinetists but that is what we have here. Three members of this quartet are Chicago-based which is where this was recorded live at Hungary Brain. The Chicago plays each have hefty resumes: Jim Baker (Territory Band, Steam, Dave Rempis & EPD), Guillermo Gregorio (Fred Lonberg-Holm, Steve Swell & Josh Berman) and Michael Zerang (Peter Brotzmann, Joe McPhee, Scott Fields & the Resonance Ensemble). Their guest, Michael Thieke, is a Berlin-based player who has worked with Gebhard Ullmann, Ulrich Gumpert, the Magic I.D. and the International Nothing.
Although this is a live recording, the sound is warm and nicely balanced. All four members of the quartet deal with careful textures and cautious terrain. It often sounds like one clarinet (Thieke?) is playing longer, flowing lines while the other (Gregorio?) plays shorter, more fractured lines or sounds. There is a good deal of close listening and intricate interaction as well. It is hard to tell at times whether we are hearing rubbed surfaces (of percussion), synth or even bent reed weirdness since all have similar sonic areas of exploration. The combined blend is often organic sounding, like a blob that is slowly mutating into different blob-like being. Sometimes the sound is agitated, sometimes calm but always fascinating and constantly shifting into sometimes else. Both clarinets work together extremely well, swirling around one another tightly, exchanging and finishing each other's lines. The synth and percussion work together extremely well, combining their sounds and sympathetically weaving an intricate tapestry. You might be wondering why the title of this disc is called, "Sack of Rice"? I am not so sure but I would imagine that a sack of rice is made of small granules which blend together and are molded into whatever container they are in. This music seems to have a similar way of fitting into the container of that which it is held by. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $9


IKUE MORI/MAJA S.K. RATKJE - Scrumptious Sabotage [Ltd Ed of 300] (Bocian IM; EEC) All music composed and performed by Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje and Ikue Mori. Recorded live by Barry Hollywood at Black Box, Belfast, March 31, and by Dan Fox and Simon Hanson at The Lanternhouse, Ulverston, March 29, 2012 UK. Mixed and mastered by Maja S.K. Ratkje "Sometimes something truly remarkable can happen by spontaneously placing two distinct compounds together then witnessing the results of their unique interactions. Ikue and Maja are both masters of their crafts and when you put them together not only can you hear them push each other outside of their comfort zones you can also hear two friends having a fun and intriguing musical conversation. Like oil and water dancing around each other; Scrumptious Sabotage is a display of such an educational experiment. It was recorded live from a European tour they did together recently, however most tracks sound as though they were recorded in the studio, the reality is that we are hearing their compositions being affected by a live audience. There is only a tiny amount of vocal distortion (which I'm assuming was unintentional) which reminds you that this is a live recording most likely recorded straight off the mixing board. Limited to 300 copies, blink then they're gone. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!" - Chuck Bettis/DMG
CD $15


JOEL HARRISON 19 With NED ROTHENBERG/DONNY McCASLIN/ANDY LASTER/JOE DALEY/CURTIS FOWLKES et al - Infinite Possibility (Sunnyside 1366; USA) This disc features guitarist & composer Joel Harrison with a nineteen piece orchestra which includes a number of Downtown's best musicians: Ned Rothenberg, Donny McCaslin, Andy Laster & Rob Scheps on reeds, Taylor Haskins on trumpet, Curtis Fowlkes & Jacob Grachik on trombones, Joe Daley on tuba and Kermit Driscoll on basses. Last night (6/19/13) on the train home, I read an excellent article on Gunther Schuller and Third Steam Music in Downbeat magazine, written by Joel Harrison. Besides being a fine guitarist, concert curator and composer, Joel Harrison has a dozen discs out as a leader, each one with a different concept and varying personnel.
'Infinite Possibility' is Mr. Harrison's first disc for a large ensemble (19 piece+) and includes vocals on a coupe of tracks. Mr. Harrison received a commission to finish this project and has obviously worked hard at completing this ambitious effort. All of the pieces on this disc were inspired by gospel hymns, Appalachian folk melodies and the blues so there is a certain earthiness to this entire endeavor. "As We Gather All Around Here", begins with a short vocal part by Everett Bradley, which is most charming (somber and soulful). The music is lush and equally enchanting with superb solos from Taylor Haskins on trumpet and Donny McCaslin on tenor sax. The music often reminds me of Kenny Wheeler's elegant writing and does have that some of that Third Steam-like craft. Mr. Harrison takes a dynamic, blues-drenched slide guitar solo midway through this piece, upping the ante ever further. Throughout this entire work, it is Harrison's crafty writing and arranging that stands out. The orchestra always sounds unified as one moving spirit or force, with assorted waves or currents which rise and fall with a number of inspired solos reaching up and sailing on top. As a big fan of strong large ensembles, this disc ranks amongst this year's finest treasures. Bravo to Joel Harrison and his 19 member crew! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $16


RAY RUSSELL With RUPERT COBB/JIM WATSON/ANTHONY JACKSON/GARY HUSBAND et al - Now More Than Ever (Abstract Logix 39; USA) UK guitarist Ray Russell, a composer and studio specialist for much of the past three decades, broke cover for some dynamic live shows last autumn. He's aided on a jazz-rock fusion programme here by gifted guests including Gary Husband (sharing the drumming with Ralph Salmins), and the excellent Jim Watson on keyboards. Naturally there are plenty of machine-gun melodies rattled out in unison, galloping drumming and wailing sustain-guitar anthems, and Russell the composer is so eager that some pieces restlessly bubble with sub-themes that could have been tracks on their own. But the leader's own playing is strong as ever - eloquently nuanced in vocalised long tones, nailed to the beat on swerving fast runs. The Island mixes a wide-horizon melody and a fast funky one, Shards of Providence has a good raunchy hook, Slow Day is a slow bluesy thump with Watson's Hammond whirring beneath, and Suddenly They Are Gone and Cab in the Rain are graceful rock ballads for Russell in Roy Buchanan mode. Rupert Cobb's excursion into trumpet electronics - somewhere between Nils Petter Molvaer and 1980s Miles - on Odd Way Out sounds as if it was hastily conceived to vary the prevailing sound, but jazz-rock devotees will certainly want to hear Ray Russell out in the open more often. - John Fordham, Guardian, UK
CD $15


THE LAST HURRAH!! - The Beauty Of Fake + Live! [Ltd Ed 2 LP set] (Rune Grammofon 3145 LTD; EEC) Special limited double LP version with bonus live album; edition of 300 copies. The Last Hurrah!! is the project of Norwegian guitarist HP Gundersen plus a jamboree of international players and singers. Based in Bergen in western Norway, Gundersen has a long history in Norwegian music and beyond. As a producer he discovered and nurtured the career of Sondre Lerche, one of Norway's most successful international exports. As well as Madrugada's mega-hit "Lift Me" with Ane Brun, he has produced over 50 albums -- including Tim Rose's final album American Son. An encounter with a Gambian kora-playing folk musician a few years ago was life-altering and, in his own words, took him to a new level of musical understanding. n 2011, his cover of Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky" on the free Mojo tribute CD Return to the Dark Side of the Moon drew high praise from readers. His previous album, Spiritual Non-Believers, was voted album of the year in VG, Norway's most popular newspaper; The Wire called it "maddeningly well executed." HP Gundersen grew up in the 1960s, tuning in to European radio stations and having his mind blown by the sparkling melodies of the decade's pop music, like The Byrds and The Beatles. Notably, these two groups were among the first to absorb Eastern influences, as Gundersen has done in The Last Hurrah!!. Chinese guzheng (zither) resonates with pastoral flutes, Hawaiian guitars and the plangent tones of the Scandinavian Hardanger fiddle. Listening to the repetitive pluckings of the opener, "The Rush," you can't help but think of Steve Reich's solo guitar trance-out Electric Counterpoint; elsewhere you'll hear echoes of Don Cherry's multicultural visions, the soaring harmonies of Rubber Soul-era Beatles, and the magical open tunings of folk-rockers like David Crosby and Stephen Stills and Davy Graham. Country music meets raga meets psychedelic sugar-rush. For Gundersen, the concept of universal music is a truth older than entertainment. Jamming on one chord is a highly democratic way of music-making: anyone can take part. And they do: a dozen extra musicians are involved on various tracks, including jazz-trained vocalist and long-time collaborator Heidi Goodbye, and the remarkable guzheng (zither) played by Yuyue Zheng. There's even an appearance from U.S. saxophonist Jon Irabagon, leader of tumultuous ensemble Mostly Other People Do The Killing. Paradoxically, being restricted to a one-chord drone opens the music up wider than ever.
Ltd 2 LP set for $28

..or..

THE LAST HURRAH!! - The Beauty Of Fake [LP + CD] (Rune Grammofon 3145; EEC) Includes Bonus CD of the LP tracks [of the first LP from the double editon]
LP + CD $24


NURSE WITH WOUND [NWW: STEVEN STAPLETON et al] & GRAHAM BOWERS - Parade (Red Wharf 1-01-008; UK) The second studio album release by Nurse With Wound and Graham Bowers delves into the multiple manifestations of the human form and psyche. The music is an audio sketch-pad, capturing a Commedia dell'Arte-type procession of the extremes and banalities of what we are and what we do on this bizarre and indefinable one-way trip to oblivion. The CD features original artworks by Babs Santini and Graham Bowers.
CD $17


MERZBOW [MASAMI AKITA] Vs. HENRIK NORDVARGR BJORKK - Partikel III (Cold Spring 180; UK) The third and final part of the Partikel trilogy is finally here. Another beautifully-constructed collaboration from the two noise giants -- Japanoise King Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) and Swedish Overlord Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk (MZ.412, Folkstorm, Toroidh). The styles on Partikel III range from total noise barrages, to intelligent electronics, to subtle dark ambient pieces. Essential. Presented in a luxurious matte laminate digipak.
CD $17

THRONE [V.A. With MERZBOW/CCCC/Z'EV/SKULLFLOWER et al] - Cold Spring Records: 2013 and Beyond [2 CD set] (Cold Spring 181; USA) A nice-price 2CD sampler of Cold Spring Records' current/forthcoming releases. Thirty-three original tracks spanning over 100 releases, since their last sampler Swarm. Throne encompasses all sides of Cold Spring. Artists include: Iron Fist Of The Sun, Kreuzweg Ost, Sleep Research Facility, TenHornedBeast, Splinterskin, C.C.C.C., Hirsute Pursuite (feat. Boyd Rice), Heldentod, Satori, NDE, Rose Rovine E Amanti, Nordvargr, Merzbow & Z'ev, Steven Severin, Sutcliffe Jugend, Emme Ya, Goatvargr, Von Thronstahl, Z'ev, Skullflower, All Hail The Transcending Ghost, Deadwood, Cages, Wicked King Wicker, Merzbow vs. Nordvargr, South Saturn Delta, Sagittarius, Fire In The Head, Sistrenatus, Sehnsucht, Merzbow, and Anni Hogan.
2 CD set $13


RABIH BEAINI - Albidaya (Annihaya 07; Lebanon) Albidaya in Arabic means "the beginning," which in the case of Rabih Beaini's, might be the return to the beginnings, or the start of the path. The album is conceptually a revisiting of the traditional and early psychedelic Arabic music, all through distorted paths and instruments, remashed and deconstructed sounds, recreating patterns with diverse instruments to give a different perspective of the sound itself. Includes musicians from Upperground, Piero, Bittolo, Bon, and Tommaso Cappellato. Commissioned by Annihaya in Lebanon, by Sharif Sehnaoui, Raed Yassin, and Hatem Imam -- includes artwork by Maria Kassab. "Dips into the ethnically charged concepts and neo-traditionalisms of Annihaya, traversing through a panorama of sounds and textures. Eastern twang, Middle Eastern thematics and jazz all play a role in Albidaya, as do tribal drums and marketplace noise with the introduction of live and off-the-cuff synth experiments, arpeggiated space transmissions and eerie Wu-Tang-like vocal samples entrapped in a gurgling soup of analog beef." --Juno Plus Blog
CD $30


STEVE GUNN - Boerum Palace (3Lobed 54; USA) "Steve Gunn's prodigious talent for fusing traditional American song structures with a raga influence is almost criminally unheralded. Gunn's songcraft is so strong and his playing style so effortlessly beautiful that folks should be shouting his name from every tall building and mountaintop. It is with such high esteem for the man's work that Three Lobed Recordings is humbled by the association and thrilled to announce the release of Boerum Palace by Steve Gunn. Without any doubt, Boerum Palace is a staggering accomplishment and is certainly Gunn's most assured and confident work to date."
LP $20


AARON DILLOWAY - Modern Jester (Hanson 250; USA) "From short bursts to long-form, hallucinatory epics, it's a sprawling collection that highlights every facet of Dilloway's considerable arsenal. One of the album's two side-long attacks, 'Look Over Your Shoulder' is a lurid, subtly shifting piece with disembodied vocals and a barrage of extra-terrestrial tones that slithers into your cerebral cortex atop a funeral rhythm."-- Jeff Conklin, East Village Radio.
"Aaron Dilloway on tape loops, percussion, synthesizer, junk, voice, and tape FX. Recorded 2008--2011. Silkscreened gatefold sleeve. Note: With the exception of one track ('Eight Cut Scars'), this is a completely different release than the cassette title of the same name. Every second of this recording contains subliminal messages."
CD $12


FATHER YOD And THE SOURCE FAMILY - The Source Family (Drag City 564; USA) "Awareness of The Source Family, YaHoWa13 and Father Yod has been growing since their early 1970s heyday. A spiritual commune dedicated to a wide-ranging blend of eastern and western mysticism, The Source Family were very much a part of the infamous era of tuning in, turning on and dropping out in the late 1960s and '70s. The Source Family's celebrity-hang-out vegetarian restaurant, rock band, utopian commune, and beautiful women made them darlings of Hollywood's Sunset Strip; but their outsider ideals and controversial spiritual leader Father Yod provoked local authorities, leading to their dramatic demise. Still, Yod's spirit lives on -- in the hearts and souls of Family members, and in the music that he and the family's various bands made during his life, much of which remains in circulation. Additionally, new finds from the many hours of tapes they left behind are released every year. This incredible true story -- told largely through home movies and photographs maintained by archivist Isis Aquarian, one of Father Yod's fourteen wives, features a soundtrack comprised entirely of original Source Family music. The Source Family provides an unparalleled insider's view into the cult/commune phenomenon and wild social experimentation of the '70s; a penetrating and bittersweet examination of the joys of the free love generation and the contradictions that lay beneath the surface of their peaceful, easy feelings. In this, it is a uniquely Californian story as well." NTSC format.\; 99 minutes; aspect ratio: 16:9
DVD $16


(SATHIMA) BEA BENJAMIN With DOLLAR BRAND - African Songbird (Matsuli 103; UK) "Matsuli Music is proud is announce the re-issue of African Songbird, the masterpiece from South Africa's greatest jazz singer, Sathima Bea Benjamin. Originally released in 1976, African Songbird was a debut long overdue. A 1959 recording debut, which would have been South Africa's first ever LP, was shelved. Her 1963 recording with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn was put aside by Reprise's then head of A&R, Frank Sinatra, for not being commercial enough. African Songbird is a tour-de-force, and arguably the most dramatic and powerful release on Rashid Vally's As-shams label. The opener, 'Africa', is the album's fulcrum, a statement of breath-taking musical, personal and political complexity. It is a song of exile, of loss, and of return: a song that is both personal and universal, speaking for a people made homeless in their own land, speaking to those whose ambivalent embrace of exile ached for a homecoming. It speaks too of hope and resolution. 'Africa' is a personally powerful declaration from a remarkable African woman: a song of deferred self and dislocated space finally resolved in an emotional homecoming. It is a song of celebration and mourning -- a heartfelt paean to her home that is shot through with the raw sorrow of lament. Sathima's voice, wholly unique in jazz singing, gradually sheds its musical supports as the programme develops. From the thickly-layered tumult of 'Africa,' through the characteristic Cape Town swing that informs 'Music,' the instrumentation is quietly reduced, then finally dispensed with. The title track is performed a capella, but for the natural sounds of the sea coast, the gulls and surf of the Cape itself. After many years of silence, two deferred albums, and over a decade of rootless exile from a home that had been made inhospitable by the inhumanity of apartheid, Sathima's voice is finally heard, alone with her song, naturally, like a bird.
CD $18


THE DREAM [TERJE RYPDAL et al] - Get Dreamy (Shadoks 151; Germany) "The Dream's Get Dreamy is perhaps the most fantastic and unique underground album from Scandinavia. Recorded in 1967 it was the first LP by legendary guitarist Terje Rypdal after the two albums he made with The Vanguards. A year later Terje recorded his first solo album also for Polydor. The album Get Dreamy has great original songs full of wild fuzz guitar, swirling Hammond organ, sound effects and strong vocals. The musicals influences could be Cream and Jimi Hendrix with the lyrical touch of Procol Harum. All songs very well produced and recorded in Stockholm. Dream started straight away with a full album which was not common in the musical world in 1967. Most bands produced singles, first. With a lot enthusiastic help from Norway, including Terje Rypdal, plus the cooperation of many photographers, we are happy to put this album out with a big poster insert including a great band story and many, many unseen photos. The album was mastered in 24bit direct from the original master tapes. So the sound is really good and many tracks you can hear for the first time in full stereo (the original Polydor pressing had half of the tracks in mono). So, this might be for us on of the most important releases of this year since this took so much work and passion. We just love this album."
CD $17
also available as Ltd #d LP for $45

TSEE MUD [LSD/BACRO: JOSE ROMERO et al] - LSD Bacro (Shadoks 142; Germany) "It may be possible that, until this release, that these three names do not sound familiar to lovers of 'South American underground music,' but for any fan of good Venezuelan hard psych rock of the 60s and 70's, Bacro, Tsee Mud, and LSD are really special bands and well known. Beside the other great album from Venezuela, Ladies WC, this release is as good and as important. The band has only released a couple of singles and played a lot of great live concerts. Those bands from Jose Romero on guitar changed names from LSD to Tsee Mud and to Bacro. In-between those bands, Jose lived in USA and was part of the band The Del-Vikings, which included a concert at the Madison Square Garden. Jose went back to Venezuela and continued playing with his band Bacro. All those tracks presented on this album here are extra strong and heavy psychedelic with amazing fuzz guitar and vocals and lots of acid moves. A really wild album all the way.
CD $17
also available as Ltd #d LP for $45

STEVE ATKINSON - Samll Boats (Shadoks 152; Germany) There are not many underground folk albums Shadoks are keen on putting out. Steve Atkinson's Small Boats was one the label loved immediately. Steve was just not easy to find. So, with some help from a student (Steve was a teacher) Shadoks were able to locate him. If you think the early Mick Stevens albums are cool, Tony Caro And John is a killer group, and you love the tradition of British underground folk music, you will really like this album. Very well composed electric and acoustic songs with beautiful vocals, guitar, violin, recorder, cello, bass, chimes, and clarinet, this album is a little masterpiece. Recorded between 1980 and 1981. Steve said: "My musical education came from the folk clubs of Bedfordshire, Fairport Convention, John Peel, West Coast bands like Love, Jefferson Airplane, and The Doors, punk, The Beach Boys, and of course The Beatles." A very beautiful album which deserves a good spot as a shiny star in the folk music universe.
CD $17
also available as Ltd #d LP for $45


Back in Print!

FOTHERINGAY Featuring SANDY DENNY - Fotheringay + 4 (Fledg'ling 3044; UK) 2013 REPRESS! One of the ALL-TIME highest-regarded British folk-rock albums, featuring Sandy Denny. Originally issued by Island in 1970 (previous Hannibal CD long o/p). With additional artwork and bonus tracks. Fotheringay's beautiful debut album was recorded in 1970, and has long been regarded as one of the greatest achievements of British folk-rock. Sandy Denny, Trevor Lucas, Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway created a magical ensemble sound and one of the finest albums of Sandy's career. For this carefully remastered edition, Fledg'ling have restored all of the original artwork and added four bonus tracks -- performances recorded at the 1970 Rotterdam Festival. Remastering approved by original producer Joe Boyd.
Fotheringay's beautiful debut album was recorded in 1970 and has long been regarded as one of the greatest achievements of British folk-rock. Sandy Denny, Trevor Lucas, Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway created a magical ensemble sound and one of the finest albums of Sandy's career. It has been out of print for sometime. For this carefully re-mastered edition Fledg'ling have restored all of the original artwork and added four bonus tracks - performances recorded at the 1970 Rotterdam Festival. Remastering approved by original producer Joe Boyd. Amongst my favorite British folk-rock classics of all time. - BLG
CD $17

FOTHERINGAY Featuring SANDY DENNY - Fotheringay 2: The UNRELEASED Album (Fledg'ling 3066; UK) 2013 REPRESS! This is what would have been -- and now IS -- the second release for UK folk-rock legends Fotheringay, including all members Sandy Denny, Pat Donaldson, Trevor Lucas, Gerry Conway, and Jerry Donahue. These are the original recordings from 1970. Fotheringay remain one of the great might-have-beens of British music. They lasted less than a year, and released just one album, but their disappearance robbed the early '70s scene of a group of musicians capable of taking folk-rock to new heights of subtlety and musicianship. Now, the nine songs on that debut album; assumed for almost four decades to be their sole testament, are joined by the eleven that would have constituted a follow-up. Sadly, they broke up during the recording sessions for their second album. Incredibly, all the tapes survived in various record company archives. Thirty-eight years later, the surviving members of the group have mixed all the material to finally complete this remarkable album. When originally released, the debut album went straight into the Top Twenty in both Melody Maker and NME, and is now an acknowledged classic recording of British folk-rock. It is very, very rare that musicians get the chance to complete a project begun 38 years earlier. The second Fotheringay album has been eagerly awaited by all fans of Sandy Denny, British folk-rock, and by pretty much everyone in general
CD $17


WITCHES HATS AND PAINTED CHARIOTS [V.A. Omnibus on INCREDIBLE STRING BAND et al] - The Incredible String Band and the 5,000 Layers of Psychedelic Folk Music [BOOK] (Shindig; EEC) "The Incredible String Band and the 5,000 Layers of Psychedelic Folk Music. Witches Hats & Painted Chariots covers a broad spectrum of British underground folk-rock from a lengthy selection of articles on acid-folk pioneers The Incredible String Band to the acts that followed in their footsteps. Folk and psychedelia held hands around the maypole while drug-inspired lyricism collided with traditional music, pagan mythology and spiritualism to create a sound and lifestyle that still resonate today. This delightfully-designed book overflows with sumptuous visuals and exclusive features -- no one has presented the work and influence of the String Band with such vivid colour and insight." Paperback, full color with illustrations, 112 pages.
BOOK $14


LET ME PLAY THIS FOR YOU [V.A.] - Rare Cajun Recordings (Tompkins Square 2912; USA) "This latest installment in the Long Gone Sound series features some of the rarest, most compelling tunes and heart-breaking songs from Southwest Louisiana. Most of the performances on this collection have not been heard since they were originally recorded on 78 rpm disc and yet they serve as a discrete Rosetta Stone for the traditional Cajun and Creole repertoire that exists today. Not to be understated, this collection features some of the most vexingly rare and valuable Cajun 78s ever recorded. Cajun discs such as those found in this release are valued not only for their magnificent artistry but also because of their desperate scarcity. In the isolated back-water bayous and prairies of South-West Louisiana a profoundly unique and powerful form of indigenous music developed among the French speaking white Cajuns and black Creoles. Drawing from a rich range of cultural sounds, this music was first recorded in the 1920s and 1930s and featured such luminaries as Amede Ardoin, Dennis McGee and Joe & Cleoma Falcon. This special collection includes all of Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry's 1929 recordings and most of Angelas Le Jeune's 1929-1930 recordings with Denus McGee & Ernest Fruge. Found within is also the newly discovered 78 of Blind Uncle Gaspard & Delma Lachney. Respectfully crafted by Christopher King, Susan Archie, and Ron Brown for Tompkins Square."
CD $16


MICHAEL HURLEY - Hi Fi Snock Uptown (Future Days 604; USA) "Reissue of Hurley's 3rd LP. Originally recorded in 1972, this record finds Hurley exploring the full range of his stylistic canon and features some of his most loved songs such as 'Water Train,' 'The Twilight Zone,' 'Eyes, Eyes' and 'Blue Driver.'
"Featuring 14 twisted songs produced by 'Banana' and Joe Bauer, Hi Fi Snock Uptown saw Hurley amplifying some of Armchair Boogie's willfully esoteric qualities and delivering an album that explores the full range of his sound, from blues to country and folk to playful sounds -- like his crow impressions on 'Old Black Crow.' As 'Twilight Zone' neatly puts it, 'everything is weird.' It also features some of his most loved songs such as 'Water Train,' 'Eyes, Eyes,' and the gorgeous traveling track 'Blue Driver.' This is the highly sought-after album sounding better than it ever has, complete with Hurley's own unmistakable sleeve art. It's housed in a deluxe, gatefold tip-on jacket.
CD $16

MICHAEL HURLEY With JESSE COLIN YOUNG - Armchair Boogie (Future Days 603; USA) Hurley is a much respected singer songwriter (former member of the Holy Modal Rounders), & it is an honor for us to put this out. Features the following songs: 'Werewolf' (a beautiful haunting song later covered by Cat Power), 'Grand Canyon Line,' 'English Nobleman,' 'Be Kind To Me,' 'Troubled Waters,' 'Red Ravager's Reel,' 'Sweedeedee' (also covered by Cat Power), 'Open Up,' 'Jocko's Lament,' 'Light Green Fellow,' 'Get The Best Of Me,' 'Biscuit Roller,' 'When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano,' & 'Penguins' (a beautiful dirge played by trumpets & guitars).
"Recorded with Jesse Colin Young, Armchair Boogie is Hurley's debut album proper, and the one in which he set out his stall as purveyor of charming, homely, folksy songs. It is essentially 14 songs about love and strange things -- werewolves ('Werewolf'), institutionalized English gentry ('English Nobleman'), and aquatic birds ('Penguin') all appear. Credited to Michael Hurley and pals, Young is among the friends who appear. Largely acoustic, it features little more than the sound of Hurley's guitar and voice and the occasional mouth trumpet. This is the highly sought-after album sounding better than it ever has. It comes with a 36-page facsimile reproduction of the cartoon book drawn by Hurley, who does all his own artwork, this time following the exploits of two hick wolves named Jocko and Boone. It's housed in a deluxe, gatefold tip-on jacket."
CD $16

BOBBY WHITLOCK With ERIC CLAPTON/GEORGE HARRISON/DELANEY & BONNIE/CHRIS WOOD/KLAUS VOORMAN/JIM GORDON et al - Where There's a Will There's a Way: The ABC-Dunhill Recordings: Bobby Whitlock/Raw Velvet (Future Days 602; USA) "Collecting the first two early 1970's solo albums by Memphis singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist Bobby Whitlock. Presented here together on CD, Bobby Whitlock (1972) and Raw Velvet (also 1972) are star-studded (George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie), soulful albums from one of rock music's key unsung figures. Whitlock's story is a remarkable one. Born to a hardscrabble existence, raised in abject poverty, abused by his preacher father and sent out to pick cotton in the fields. Moving from one railroad town to another, Whitlock was quite literally from the wrong side of the tracks. Yet thanks to his singing and piano playing, music was Whitlock's escape. Winding up in Memphis, Whitlock hooked up with Stax Records, who signed him as the first white artist to their new pop label HIP. But it was soul music, not pop, that was in Whitlock's heart -- and his break came when Delaney & Bonnie asked him to join their band, The Friends. Following Delaney & Bonnie from Stax to Elektra Records, Whitlock found his life starting to intertwine with '60s rock royalty. Delaney & Bonnie took him on tour with Blind Faith, where Eric Clapton was impressed with Whitlock's playing and the camaraderie he saw in The Friends. Soon, Whitlock joined Clapton, Jim Gordon and Carl Radle in Derek & The Dominos, the crack unit that backed George Harrison on much of the seminal All Things Must Pass and recorded the classic rock album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. During the recording of those albums, Whitlock tentatively made his first steps as a solo artist. Though drugs were already beginning to tear Derek & The Dominoes apart, Whitlock was able to call on some high profile friends (and 'Friends') to play on his album, including Clapton, Harrison, session bassist Klaus Voorman (John Lennon, Carly Simon, et al), drummer Jim Gordon, Chris Wood (of Traffic) and others."
CD $16


YOSHIKO SAI - Mikko (Bamboo 7009; UK) Truly a Japanese psychedelic female acid-folk masterpiece. Released on July 25th, 1976, Mikko was Sai Yoshiko's second album, a wonderful acid-folk album on which she gets assisted by a string of big name musicians such as Kuni Kawauchi (of the Happenings Four, amongst others) to arrange the songs. Mikko features Sai's original songs, making it her first real complete album. At times the disc draws in Middle Eastern influences (sitar and tabla), but once she gets to singing, the listener is lulled into her own private, mysterious sonic world, through which one gets sucked in by her wide-ranging vocalizations. At the time of this recording, Sai Yoshiko was merely 23 years-old. Totally obscure, much in-demand by Japanese psych heads, and rather hard to track down. One of Sai Yoshiko's biggest fans is Jojo Hiroshige from Hijokaidan and Alchemy Records, who eventually, 25 years after she recorded this stunning album, dove in the studio with her for the Crimson Voyage CD on which she merely attributed some sighs and moans. This album is really a stunner and a must for people into some more advanced Japanese underground historical recordings. Digitally remastered and available on 180 gram vinyl for the first time. Comes with an English translation of the original Japanese LP insert.
CD $17

AKIRO ITO - Japanesque (Bamboo 7007; UK) Keyboardist and former member of the Far East Family Band, Akira Ito embarked on a solo career making what has been described as "floating electronics," using a medley of analog synths, guitar, bass, drums, and choral vocals. He released Japanesque in 1981; an album considered to be illusionary mind music at its finest and rarest. It's a gorgeous, mellow, floating, cosmic album, perhaps like a more organic Kitaro. Ito lends his sonic signature sounds of cosmic rock to full effect on Japanesque, reminding us why the Far East Family Band were considered to be the foremost innovators of early electronica. Digitally-remastered and presented on 180 gram vinyl for the first time.
CD $17


DER PLAN - JaPlan + 4 (Bureau B 130; Germany) Der Plan were invited to Tokyo in 1984 to play six concerts for Seibu, a Japanese department store chain. Seibu were staging a "German Week." But how did they come to choose Der Plan, of all bands? Why not an Oktoberfest combo or the Scorpions? Moritz Reichelt explains: "German New Wave was really popular in Japan. They knew more about it than people here at home. Catalogs and magazines detailed every obscure record and depicted the covers. This particular department store chain was linked to Wave, a record shop and distributor -- and they really knew their stuff." JaPlan documents the set list from these Tokyo shows. Featuring previously-released songs from the Normalette Surprise (BB 105CD/LP) album, the Die letzte Rache soundtrack, and the double single Golden Cheapos, JaPlan also includes rare instrumentals produced for these very concerts, and one of the most famous songs by Der Plan: "Gummitwist." Der Plan and Japan -- a good match, not only phonetically. Reichelt: "Japan had always been one of our strongest territories. Our records were exported there from the very beginning. When I arrived, I understood why. Japanese pop culture is really 'planesque' in a way. Artificiality with a twinkle in the eye. We stepped inside our hotel in 1984 and switched on the television. The first thing we saw was an advert with three dinosaurs singing a song. Pretty much like one of our shows." The reissue is graced with new artwork due to the fact that the Japanese simply adopted the cover of the existing Golden Cheapos EP. The relationship of form and content was thus absent and one significant change was made: the image of a faint square covering the exposed lower body of a lady in the hay was replaced by an opaque black square. A joke at the expense of the censors fell victim to actual censorship. This re-release could be said to correct an optical error in the band's discography. Includes four bonus tracks.
CD $17

DER PLAN - Die Letzte Rache + 8 (Bureau B 129; Germany) Retrospectively, it makes perfect sense that Der Plan created a soundtrack. For one thing, visuals were almost as important to Der Plan as their music. And if every self-respecting pop band pays attention to wearing the right clothes at the right time (or the completely wrong ones at the right time) and designing pretty album covers, Der Plan went further -- with scenery, masks and album covers designed by Moritz R they invented their own universe. Indeed, the sounds of everyday life woven into Der Plan's music contributed to the filmic quality of their sound. Thus Frank Fenstermacher, Moritz R and Pyrolator were not slow in responding to their old friend Rainer Kirberg's request to work on his latest film Die letzte Rache. The director Kirberg, born in 1954, studied film in Dusseldorf. They all knew each other from shared lodgings, political meetings and the local hangout Ratinger Hof. As well as playing his part in the music, Moritz R also came up with the sets, while Frank Fenstermacher secured a minor role as the inspector's sidekick. But back to the music: Letzte Rache (1983) was a kind of revue with silent film qualities, so the soundtrack was a decisive factor. With the aid of the Emulator 1, Der Plan succeeded in recording something which could also work as a diverting radio drama without moving images. In contrast to the two previous albums Geri Reig and Normalette Surprise (BB 105CD/LP), which defined the Plan sound and virtually did without any musical quotations, echoes of jazz can be heard on Die letzte Rache and, of course, film music. Andreas Dorau weighs in with a bona fide pop hit in the guise of a "Junger Mann." Ah yes, the film itself, what is it actually about? Following the aesthetic tradition of 1920s German Expressionist cinema, Die letzte Rache -- "the last revenge" -- tells the hair-raising tale of a ruler who charges "the worldly" with the task of finding him a successor. The problem is: idiots abound. The worldly's search is fruitless and -- sometimes the most obvious solutions are the most practical -- he decides to seize power himself. At the end of the day: the ruler's empire in ruins, the Worldly goes mad, the inspector goes to jail (arrested by his own assistant!), and the ruler is badly injured yet immortal, suffering terrible agonies. Bonus tracks include the six pieces from the film Der Grottenolm.
CD $17

DER PLAN - Normalette Surprise + 8 (Bureau B 105; Germany) 1980 the zeitgeist played into the right hands. And who held the aces? In Bureau B's game, Moritz R, Frank Fenstermacher and Pyrolator aka Der Plan. Tired of convention and full of enthusiasm, they encountered an audience who felt just the same. And with record companies too ponderous to sign up Der Plan, the wonderful Ata Tak label was born of necessity. Normalette Surprise is the second album by Der Plan, released in 1981, a good year after their Geri Reig debut. It is immediately recognizable as a Plan album, yet Normalette Surprise does contain a few, well, surprises. The first number, "Leb doch," is a brilliant pop song. One can say many (good) things about Geri Reig, but it does not contain any pop songs. "Leb doch" is built on a captivatingly taut rhythm, sub-cooled vocals and German lyrics. Hang on a minute, taut rhythm, sub-cooled vocals, German lyrics? Yes exactly -- Der Plan drew up the blueprint for what would soon become known as "Neue Deutsche Welle" -- the German New Wave. Although, "blueprint" sounds a little too benign. It was more like a big bang. Moreover, there was something new about it. Or rather, something old. Bizarrely, Der Plan were introduced by their American artist friends, including the controversial elocutionist Boyd Rice, into the amazing world of the German Schlager, a colorful universe of the absurd awaited exploration. "Kleine Schlager-Revue" and "Sie hat mich verlassen" are the clearest indications of this newfound passion on Normalette Surprise. Hence, Normalette Surprise presents the full range of attributes which would define Der Plan and the Ata Tak label: electronics and Schlager, noise and pop. And Der Plan's protagonists succeeded -- unlike so many -- in their mission of creating something original, something of their own.
CD $17

DER PLAN - Geri Reig + 6 (Bureau B 104; Germany) Six bonus cuts! Geri Reig is Der Plan's debut album (originally released in 1980), but not their first release. An EP, recorded with the aid of an Electric Memo dictation preceded Geri Reig. But the band is not very keen on reissuing this early work. Why did they call themselves "Der Plan," actually? "A concept which has something to do with the capacity of people to think and shape their future" as Plan member Moritz Reichelt, alias Moritz R, once explained. Der Plan at that time comprised Moritz Reichelt, Frank Fenstermacher, Robert Gorl and Chrislo Haas. Their music was menacing, fragmented noise rock, still with guitar and drums, but far removed from the typical (rock) music of the period. When Gorl and Haas departed (to form DAF), guitars and drums also disappeared from Der Plan. New on the team: Kurt Dahlke alias Pyrolator. This was the line-up which recorded Geri Reig in Reichelt's Dusseldorf office with a two-channel tape machine. Geri Reig is a punk album in the truest and best sense. New, threatening and, at the same time, humoros. While other bands of the era stamped with the seal of "punk" played a faster and harder version of 1950s rock and roll or 1960s garage rock, Der Plan, like a handful of contemporaries such as The Residents or Throbbing Gristle, not only rejected traditional song structures but jettisoned the whole instrument list. That's punk for you! Allied to a deep aversion to rock music and the cliche that goes with it, was the wish to create something of their own. And Geri Reig is certainly idiosyncratic: fragments and songs, raspy and fragile, melodies and interference, ambient sounds up front in the mix. Fine in theory and -- rare though it may be -- excellent in practice. And it just gets better: the album was well-received. Moritz R: "As if everyone had been waiting for it."
CD $17


MOONDOG [LOUIS HARDIN] - The Viking of Sixth Avenue (Honest Jon's 118; UK) 2013 REPRESS. This is the first retrospective of Moondog's music -- 36 tracks from 1949-1995, most of them exceptionally rare, all of them miraculous. Now re-released on its original label, Honest Jon's, with new and improved gatefold card wallet sleeve packaging. "This new release from Honest Jon's is the first overview of Moondog's amazing artistic life -- including recordings spanning from 1949 till 1995, with numerous 78s and various other vanished records revived for the first time (not to mention a couple of Weegee photographs!). Though the compilation is rooted in the decades Moondog regularly lived rough in New York City, performing on street corners -- 'the Viking Of Sixth Avenue' -- at the same time it lays the music's claim to the future. It makes vivid sense of his inspiration of fans from Igor Stravinsky to Bob Dylan, Mr Scruff to Frank Zappa, Charlie Parker to Elvis Costello, Janis Joplin to Anthony And The Johnsons. As Moondog put it himself in 1989 -- 'I still love horned helmets and swords and spears. I like to feel that I'm loyal to my past. I wouldn't want to be on the street anymore. But, you know, that led to a lot of things.' Moondog was born Louis Thomas Hardin on May 26, 1916, in Marysville, Kansas. Noting the five-year-old's interest in percussion, his father -- an Episcopal minister -- took him to see an Arapaho Sun Dance. During the ritual the budding musician was allowed to sit on Chief Yellow Calf's lap and play the tom-tom. This experience -- and later playing tom-tom and flute with the Blackfoot tribe in Idaho at another Sun Dance -- would have a profound and lasting effect on the development of his own music and ideas. 'The American Indians have this basic beat,' Moondog said in 1995, 'a heartbeat in two speeds -- a walking beat (in twos) and a running beat (in four). I use those rhythms to this day. In fact it just came to me recently that American Indian music is just so syncopated that any jazz musician -- especially in the swing era -- would see a clear connection between jazz and Indian music. Those songs are not improvised -- they've been handed down from generation to generation -- they're extremely old. I think of America as an 'Old World' too, maybe older culturally than Europe.' And elsewhere: 'Harmonically, my music is the same as Bach, Beethoven and Brahms; rhythmically, it goes back to the past -- the swing rhythms of the Indians. You really couldn't find anything more syncopated.'"
CD $17
also available as 2 LP set for $22

ABDEL HADI HALO & THE EL GUSTO ORCHESTRA OF ALGIERS - Abdel Hadi Halo & The El Gusto Orchestra of Algiera (Honest Jon's 032; UK) 2103 REPRESS. Chaabi ("of the people") has its roots in the Andalusian music of Moorish Spain, spreading to North Africa with exiled Jewish and Moorish communities; but it really took off in the music schools, parties and bars of occupied, post-WWII Algiers, where its Andalusian, Middle Eastern and North African lineage fused with the Mediterranean soundtrack of that era -- chanson, jazz, snatches of tango, a little boogie-woogie. A chaabi band combines traditional instruments such as the quanoun (or zither), mandole, oud, gambar (a stringed turtle shell), bendir and derbouka (types of drum); together with the piano, flute, banjo (brought to Algiers by American GIs), violin (played upright on the lap to save space in crowded venues), accordion and bongos. With subject matter ranging from God to pretty girls, the songs often touch on taboo issues. For this recording, the Abdel Hadi Halo & The El Gusto Orchestra of Algiers includes four singers -- joined in chorus by the voices of the entire orchestra and five-man banjo, percussion and violin sections. The scale and organization are thrilling; the music is swirling and improvisatory, surging from the haunted to the bluesy, the devotional to the knees-up. This album was recorded on the tilting fifth floor of the Conservatoire d'Algiers, in a room overlooking the sea on one side, and the Casbah on the other: the orchestra was recorded live in full flight -- all together, in continuous takes.
CD $17


MOLAM [V.A.] - Vol 2: Thai Country Groove from Isan [2 LP set[] (Sublime Freq 033; USA) This is volume two in the Sublime Frequencies series, Molam: Thai Country Grooves From Isan. Molam is a multi-faceted folk country music native to Laos and the collection of rural Northeastern Thai provinces called Isan. Molam is an umbrella term used for numerous lam styles. It literally translates to "expert singer" or "expert song." Featured here in volume 2 of this series are lam phun, lam thuy, lam plern, lam dern and lam sing styles of molam recordings from the 1970s and 1980s. All of these forms are built from a tradition that is centuries-old. A few examples of molam/luk thung (Thailand's national country music) hybrids are also featured here. In the late-1960s, at the onset of molam's modern genesis, electric guitars and organs were introduced alongside the extant folk sounds of the khaen (bamboo mouth-organ) and phin (Thai lute). Hybrid styles were formed with an electrified sound that jived with tradition while creating something entirely new. Much of the music relies on stock formulas, designed primarily to showcase the stylings of various singers from the region. But, as this brilliant collection demonstrates, the rules tend to bend a bit as more adventurous groups experiment with the genre and the production. Sound effects, flamboyant vamping, odd vocal styles or trick intros and finales based on popular rock themes show up now and then, among other playful and dynamic shifts, making for some exceptional listening. So join the folks at Sublime Frequencies in their perpetual and confounding love affair with Thai Isan Molam. Enjoy this rarely-heard music, culled from vintage cassette and vinyl recordings, rescued from the silent places in which they've rested for the past decades.
2 LP set for $28


SHAHRAM SHABPAREH - Shahram (Pharaway Sounds 11; EEC) You know how record nerds are. They'll gladly tell you that a dawdling Moldovian choir of 70 year-old grandmothers is the next brick in your psych-funksplosion journey. But Shahram Shabpareh is the real thing. Colorful arrangements of blurting horns, evil bass grooves, cheesy organs, and thick strata of overlapping percussion instruments going off like microwave popcorn. As the leader of an Iranian '60s garage band, The Rebels, and later a '70s solo singer, Shabpareh was never happy just tossing a few moves from Abba in front of whatever was on the local charts already. He wrote and recorded hard rock and funky piano riffs that were built bulldozer-tough and would've stuck out in an American trailer park or a London pub just as easily as they did in Tehran. Not that he wasn't afraid to put someone else's idea to good use, as he certainly makes superb use of The Kinks' chords from "You Really Got Me." It's more that Shahram's rock cojones have caused him to make blistering music again and again over the years, with little regard for where it comes from. Here's a well-deserved compilation of his best tracks, with booklet with liner notes.
CD $17

DERDIYOKLAR IKILISI - Coban Mamos (Pharaway Sounds 12; EEC) Turkish Bar or Bengi folk dancing requires approximately 100 people to do properly, and it helps if a lot of them are eating wedding cake. You put your arms around the shoulders of the people on either side of you, and then stomp around in a circle, facing in and kicking the air, until everybody is exhausted and happy. Far away from any folklore festivals, Derdiyoklar Ikilisi hand-built the soundtrack to this dancing as it was drunkenly executed by luckless German-Turkish immigrants in the fashion-insensitive '80s. And though the band had only two members, they decided electric saz, synthesized drums, cimbalom, and sheep sound effects were all needed to get the job done. Who could argue? This tinkly and psychoactive album, full of uniquely odd overdubs and buzzy, flanged-out guitar solos, can now be yours. First time-ever reissue. Sound taken from master tapes, booklet with liner notes.
CD $17


KING TUBBY - Hometown Hi-Fi Dubplate Specials 1975-1979 (Jamaican Recordings 51; UK) King Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi was one the great sound systems in Jamaica. It also proved a fantastic outlet for the Dub Plate Specials cut at Tubby's studio, providing exclusive cuts to be played out, enticing the dance's audience. The tracks at the time were mainly cut over producer Bunny "Striker" Lee rhythms, that Bunny stored at Tubby's studio which was in fact his home, 18 Drumilly Avenue in Kingston, Jamaica. The versions were given exclusive plays at Tubby's before some finding their way on to vinyl, as the B-side version cut to its A-side vocal, proving so popular, that the records were often bought for its version side over its vocal counterpart. King Tubby and Producer Bunny "Striker" Lee are intertwined in the birth of dub music. Tubby's vast knowledge of electronics and Bunny's vast catalog of rhythms would lay the foundations of what today is taken as a standard... the remix/version cuts to an existing vocal tune. Tubby and Striker were at Treasure Isle Studios one day while Ruddy from Spanish Town was working with the engineer Byron Smith. "Tubby and myself was talking when Ruddy was cutting some dub but Smithy (engineer) made a mistake and forgot to put in the voice. It was a two-track recording in those days. Ruddy said 'No Man! Make it stay!' And so they cut the rhythm. When I went over to Ruddy's that Saturday night a dance was in progress and when they played the vocal to the tune... then he said we're going to play 'Part Two.' They never called it 'Version.' And then he played the rhythm track. The song was a catchy song and everybody started to sing along and the deejay started to toast so everything went down well. On Monday morning I went up and I said 'Tubbs the mistake we made was a serious joke. It mash up Spanish Town!' The people went wild. So you have to start to do that now 'cause when the man put on the 'Part Two' everyone started singing this song. It played about 20 times. I said you try Tubbs!' Well the next Saturday night now when Tubby strung up down the farm U Roy said he's going to play 'Part Two' but Tubby did it different now. He started with the voice then dropped it out and let the rhythm run and then he brought in the voice in the middle and from there Tubby started to get really popular.'' --Bunny "Striker" Lee. Dynamic Sounds upgraded to 16-track recording in 1972 and Tubby purchased, again with the help of a deal brokered by Bunny Lee, the old 4-track equipment and the MCI console from their Studio B. The four tracks now gave him far wider scope to work with and he began to create a new musical form where the bass and drum parts were brought up while the faders allowed Tubby to ease the vocal and rhythm in and out of the mix. Jamaican Recordings has compiled a selection of cuts that were all tried and tested on Tubby's hometown hi-fi sound system and worked a great set of Bunny Lee's rhythms in fine style. All killer no filler.
CD $14




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New and Recent on that STRANGE UK label, Trunk!


CARL ORFF/GUNILD KEETMAN - Music for Children (Schulwerk) (Trunk 048; UK) This is quite simply some of the most beautiful children's music ever made, with simple melodies and forgotten rhymes building gradually into more complex roundels and speech exercises. Performed by children in the late 1950s, this wonderful recording is educational, darkly nostalgic, and enchanting. History: This is the first time these important recordings have been in print since 1957. Their origins go back to the 1920s and the Gunterschule in Munich, a progressive educational academy that specialized in music and exercise. Carl Orff was a teacher there, and worked on a new method of introducing children to music. Over the next few decades the "Orff Method" was developed and enhanced with the help of one of his former students Gunild Keetman. By the late 1950s the term "schulwerk" (literally "schooling" or "school work") had been adopted and with the inclusion of nursery rhymes and street cries it had spread across Europe as a popular education technique. A two LP recording was issued in Germany in 1957 to demonstrate some of the musical results -- this was followed by a pair of LPs issued in the UK, that were to include the music as well as early English nursery rhymes, songs and sayings. It is these recordings that are being issued here, along with the original and rare sleevenotes. The music is performed on what has since become known as "the Orff instruments": glockenspiels, xylophones, metallophones, drinking glasses, violoncello, bells, cymbals, drums, and the triangle. Rhythmic exercises are executed by hand-clapping, knee-slapping, feet-stamping, as well as using drums, whips, sand-rattles, and other percussion instruments. The spoken word is used for its meaning, its tone-color and rhythmic significance. Nursery rhymes familiar to most of us form a strong base to the album, but there are some here that you may have never come across before. Many of these date back to the 18th century, and Trunk also includes here the oldest song of all -- "Sumer Is Icumen In." Not only is the music absolutely captivating for adults and children alike, the CD comes with extensive 16-page sleeve notes explaining the origins of the songs and sayings. These are magical, rarely heard (and occasionally scary) recordings from the 1950s that highlight just how beautiful the simplest of all music can be. But the release also shows how incredible children's musical education once was. Performers: Chorus of the Children's Opera Group, Speech Ensemble from the Italia Conti School, and The Instrumental Ensemble.
CD $16

REFINED LARD [V.A.] - A Trunk Records Sampler (Trunk 045; UK) Thirty rare and fabulous cues celebrating the last year or so of Trunk Records activity: music from 1945 to last month, artists including Basil Kirchin, Terry Thomas, some hip jazz people, some rare film music, children, a doctor, an announcement from a train buffet car and a letter to a porn star. What else do you want, eh? Recently, Jonny Trunk was talking to Rough Trade records. They were asking if Trunk had any copies of the Now We Are Ten sampler in stock. The answer was no, so Jonny decided to put together a more recent sampler. So here it is, 30 cues all from the recent 12 months of Trunk Records activity, but many of the cues here have only been released digitally. They cover a wide range of musical styles from experimental to classical, from exotic to bizarre. Also in the mix are some intriguing spoken-word numbers, a bit of strange folk and a few cues that have never been released before. Sleeve notes include an excuse that the album has not been properly mastered as the Trunk mastering man is away on holiday. This would explain why overall it sounds a bit like an old mix tape with fluctuating sound, but the music is quite superb and what more could you wish for such a bargain price. Running Time: about 79 mins, or 1.2 hours.
CD $10

BOB CHANCE - It's Broken (Trunk 044; UK) "There's no one quite like Bob Chance. He's a California man who makes his own music. And here he is, on fire. It's a privately-pressed album that has become a cult item in recent years. DJ Shadow calls it 'hairy forearm disco,' I think it walks a fine line between the dancefloor and the asylum. Originally recorded and issued by himself in 1980, It's Broken represents Bob Chance's creative juices flowing and then possibly overflowing all over the place. He's a multi-talented multi-instrumentalist who writes his own songs. Trunk first came across the album in the USA, and decided to feature it as one of the strange slabs of vinyl I write about for my 'weird record' column in Mojo. I described it as the musical equivalent of Curry House DIY, an unusual and unexpected flow of ideas that maybe shouldn't work together but actually do in a most unorthodox and functional way. And if I have to describe the album musically to people I explain it has a touch of Giorgio Moroder, a bit of the Beach Boys and a sprinkle of Glen Campbell as a serial killer. How can you not love a nine-minute post-disco oddity called 'It's Broken?' Why would you not want to thrill at a five minute instrumental journey into Bob's jungle? And how about a short trip inside a stalker's van? Exactly, it's all irresistible. And now, thanks to this reissue, more of us can enjoy the genius that is Bob Chance and his very unique music." --Jonny Trunk
CD $17

SANDRA CROSS - The MMs Bar Recordings (Trunk 040; UK) Trunk presents quite an unusual release; it's various buffet car announcements recorded over a period of three months on the Leicester to London train. Spelt "MMs" and pronounced the "Em's Bar," this small hive of buffet activity used to live in Coach F on the Midland Mainline trains (hence the "MM") running between Leicester and London. At the beginning of each train journey, the staff at the MMs Bar would announce that it was, or in some cases was not, open for business. Business meant hot food, light snacks and a dazzling array of hot drinks. Making the journey weekly between 2006 and 2007 was Sandra Cross. An artist working on an ongoing project exploring food, she recorded the MMs bar announcements whenever she got on the train. There was no consistency as to when the announcements would start, sometimes at the beginning of a journey, sometimes they pipe up several minutes after the train had started. You'll hear that the recordings have a wide fluctuation in quality based on a wide variety of voice, tone and delivery. Simply shunted together like old rail yard stock, these basic recordings represent a strangely engaging set of monologues all based on the same exciting menus and occasional "safety information." "On a 6am drive to Tonbridge on my way to the Audio Jumble last year, I was tuned into Resonance 104.4 FM and heard the MMs Bar recording. It lasted about 30 minutes and I found myself strangely hypnotized by the way it sounded, the mundane nature of the announcements and the almost infinite number of variations possible within each one. I found myself laughing out loud as each announcer mentioned the phrase 'bottle of pop,' and decided to find out more about the recording. I did, and then decided the best thing to do was put it on very limited vinyl [and CD]. I figured there must be that many people out there who will find this as entertaining as I still do. Sadly the MMs bar is no more, and has been replaced by the far less attractive trolley system. Apparently the bar is still there, but the shutters remain permanently shut."
CD $11

G SPOTS [V.A.] - The Spacey Folk Electro-Horror Sounds of the Studio G Library (Trunk 032; UK) G Spots is the first-ever retrospective of Studio G, one of the smallest, but finest music libraries to come out of the UK. It was started in London, in the late 1960s by advertising man John Gale. He realized that most library music at the time was still very much "light orchestral," so he decided to change things: across 48 albums between 1969 and 1982, he made quite an extraordinary impact. With a small stable of talented and versatile musicians, Studio G produced albums covering all major library music genres: horror, pop, industrial, children, jazz, and avant-garde. Throughout production, Studio G were deliberately restricted to small budgets, so the musicians had to be creative with limited time and studio equipment to have any impact at all. The results were a stunning collection of stripped-down, simple but extremely effective compositions across a variety of genres, many employing heavy delay, reverb, echo boxes and early synthesis. G Spots begins with humble tracks with treated guitars and musical jaunts into outer space; we then move through jazz, easy-listening and oddball sounds into weird, dark and often quite unsettling future music. There are drifting synthesizer soundscapes, unsettling vocal tape-loops, even the odd bit of electro-voodoo. With music this interesting and different, it's understandable that bands like The Chemical Brothers and UNKLE have sampled some of the more obscure corners of the catalog. It will also come as no surprise that originals of the rarer Studio G albums fetch huge amounts of money when they come up for sale. In fact, it would take you years to find all these original albums, but here are the best and most interesting bits all together for the first time, which is so much easier. So welcome to G Spots, a stunning and occasionally deep collection of library music that will influence, educate and entertain.
CD $16

LEONA ANDERSON - Music To Suffer By (Remastered) (Trunk 037; UK) A very rare cult recording from 1958, and possibly the greatest worst album of all time. Beautifully remastered for the very first time, so now it sounds even worse. After a vague career on the silver screen..
(from the web: The sister of early cowboy movie star Bronco Billy Anderson, she appeared in a number of films - thankfully all silent - in the early 1920s. One - Mud and Sand - satirised Rudolph Valentino and starred the great Stan Laurel (as Rhubarb Vaselino; Leona played Filet de Sole), another (In the Park) starred Charlie Chaplin, and a third (Bronco Billy's Mexican Wife) was directed by and starred her brother. Many years later, she also appeared as the scary blind servant in William Castle's 1957 Vincent Price horror classic The House on Haunted Hill, and had bit singing roles on Ernie Kovac's TV show)
...Leona Anderson hit the recording studio in 1958. She only went once. The results are legendary. In fact, no other album has reached such heights of brilliance and badness at the same time. The album is relentless, from "Indian Love Call" to "Carmen," the yodelling, crooning and aural torture just gets more incredible, more entertaining and more unforgettable as the album runs on. Add to the mix such classic and unique numbers as "Rats In My Room" and "Limburger Lover" (the greatest song about cheese ever written and performed), and we find that the album moves effortlessly from being just another incredibly strange album to simply the greatest, most consistently entertaining recording of all time. Anderson's vocal timing is sublime, the orchestra is strong, and the album brims with humor, darkness and more than a touch of utter madness. One listen to Music To Suffer By, and you will not suffer. Instead, you will laugh and revel in the fact that you will not be able to stop singing it or playing it for the rest of your life, whether you like it or not. CD is housed in a beautiful, period color sleeve, and includes a 4-page booklet with original photos and sleevenotes.
CD $16

JOHNNY TRUNK - Johnny Trunk's Scrapbook (Trunk 033; UK) This is the second album from UK-based Trunk Records label-head, Jonny Trunk. As one would expect from a lad from Trunk, Scrapbook is a curious, entertaining and quite bewildering mix of samples, piano, men with no throats, lesbians and a Japanese choir. It's kind of jazzy, hip-hoppy, filmic, and borders on novelty once in a while. And there's a rock bit on there too. As Jonny Trunk himself explains: "This album has all come about through impatience. Over the last seven years I have tinkered and diddled with music in my bedroom, my office and my head. The 20 tracks on this album are the ones that are still just about alive and represent the scraps of music I have dubbed off or that have not been trashed from my desktop. I don't really want to see them all die, so the only way to get them off my computer and out of my life is to issue them, and the only way I thought I could do it was under the umbrella excuse of a musical scrapbook. It will become obvious quite fast that many of the tracks are indeed scraps, sketches or unfinished business. But getting tracks completed is the hardest bit about making music, if you ask me, it takes ages to finish things sometimes, and ages is really not what I have. So I thought it best to get it all out as it is. I actually think this is alright and acceptable these days -- our attention spans have diminished, we are more used to sound bites, shorter cues, weird little things. The other nearly noteworthy point is that rather that sit around and deliberate for hours, days, weeks or months about which track should follow which track, I've simply compiled them all alphabetically, which was dead easy. It took about ten seconds. And I have only stuck with working titles for the tracks, too." Equipment used: an EMU E5000 Ultra, an old Beocenter 1800, Logic 4.7 on an Apple G3, a Yamaha P90 electric piano and a small Mackie mixer.
CD $16


and, Very Last Copies of..

JOHN CAMERON With HAROLD McNAIR/TONY CARR et al - Kes [sndtck] (Trunk 001; UK) Following the massively successful Clangers and Wicker Man soundtracks, Trunk Records is only too proud to present Kes.. One of the most beautiful unreleased soundtracks of all time. It may be short, but no score is sweeter or more memorable. Artwork comes with sleevenotes by Jarvis Cocker.. "This is the real thing. This is beauty so fragile it hurts. This is music with the Jesses Well & truly off'. Mid priced CD plus limited edition vinyl. Originally recorded at Olympic Studios in 1969, the master tapes have sat silently with the composer John Cameron for over 30 years. The recording itself is a beautiful mixture of wistful pastoral compositions with slight jazz tinges. The musicians themselves read like a who's who of late 60's British Jazz: Harold McNair, Ronnie Ross, David Snell, Tony Carr, and Danny Moss; any recording by these musicians are exceptionally rare and valuable [eg. Harold Mcnair's first LP changes hands for 500 pounds!]"
CD $16

MICHAEL GARRICK & SHAKE KEANE With COLERIDGE GOODE/BOBBY ORR - Rising Stars (Trunk 041; UK) 1964 was a pretty special year, especially for groovy jazz in Britain. Not only did it see the release of Moonscape by the Michael Garrick Trio (JBH 022CD) but also the birth of these fine and exceptionally rare recordings. Modern, jazzy, exotic and progressive, early British jazz rarely sounded so good or beautiful. In 1964 the modern British jazz scene was growing, progressing and bursting out in creative musical rashes. Following the release of Moonscape (the UK's rarest British jazz LP), Michael Garrick teamed up with horn legend Shake Keane to cut an EP of modern ideas in a quartet setting called A Case Of Jazz. It was issued the same year in a run of just 99 copies. At the same time, flugelhorn maestro Shake Keane was working with several arrangers and set-ups, one of the results being a peculiar (and possibly unreleased) acetate of 4 cues: two recorded with The Hastings Girls Choir, two in a small but lively and slightly Latin combo. Coming directly from Michael Garrick's own archive, these exceptionally rare eight cues from 1964 have now been brought together for this unusual and exciting release. Opening with two cues with Keane and the Hastings Girls Choir, the music is ethereal and strangely exotic. Moving then through a fine British bossa nova and into the quartet recordings, we find the music pleasing, progressive (for 1964), creative and exciting. Also of note is the mighty fine "Sun Maiden," which has the kind of classic piano riff and repetitive regal rhythm so sought-after by many jazz collectors. These tracks and complete album are worthy additions to the growing archive of the classic modern British period jazz, and feature two major artists flourishing early in their careers. Personnel (last four cues only): Shake Keane (flugelhorn), Michael Garrick (piano), Coleridge Goode (bass) and Bobby Orr (drums).
CD $16

MICHAEL GARRICK With DAVE GREEN/COLIN BARNES - Moonscape (Trunk 022; UK) Originally privately pressed in 1964 in an edition of just 99 copies, Moonscape is possibly the most rare, most desirable and certainly most valuable modern British jazz record ever made. One of the super-scarce 10" originals could cost you L1500-L 2000 ($4000!!!) in mint condition. This is the first time Moonscape has had a proper release. Recorded in London in 1964, Moonscape is pianist and modern British jazz legend Michael Garrick's first album. Until now, and for 99 obvious reasons, very few people have ever heard this stunning lunar jazz. As interest in modern British jazz and Michael Garrick has increased over the last decade, this recording has gained almost mythical status, with possibly only two copies coming to market in that time. Moonscape is a solid keystone in the development of Britain's jazz sound, with a slightly floaty, drifting essence to the music, and an early British first foray into "The New Thing" -- the free jazz sound, even though the steps here are tentative and a touch naive. Highlights on such a short album are frequent, and current Trunk favorites include the awesome and blissfully sad "Sketches Of Israel," and the complex 6/8 trip "Man Have You Ever Heard." This is British modern jazz at its very best. Even though the space race had not really begun by 1964, and man was still a full five years away from a moonwalk, Garrick was no doubt onto something here, his prescient view of sound, jazz and space predating the rush of international cosmic jazz that punctuated the late 1960s and early 1970s. So, welcome at last to Moonscape, and thank heavens there are more than 99 copies this time around..
CD $16

BASIL KIRCHIN With EVAN PARKER/KENNY WHEELER et al - Quantum (Trunk 003; UK) Artists involved include the hugely important Evan Parker, Darryl Runswick, Kenny Wheeler and Graham Lyons. This is not a reissue, this is the legendary Basil Kirchin's first recording released in thirty years. Although there hasn't been a Basil Kirchin release for over 30 years, his reputation is still intact as being one of the most innovative and influential composers of the late 20th century. This release is possibly his finest hour. It's certainly his weirdest. His last releases, in 1971 and 1973 are both rare and highly influential. This is the man who discovered a new way of listening and a whole newsound - with his unique mixture of jazz and field recordings he became a key influence in the development of Brian Eno's famous ambient works and also a major influence behind the industrial sound sculpture movement of the late seventies/early eighties for groups/entities like Nurse With Wound et al. However his influence does not stop in the seventies - bands such as Broadcast are now citing Kirchin as an influence. Constructed in the early 70s, 'Quantum' was spliced together by Basil using jazz, field recordings (animals, insects. trains), his wife and autistic children. The result is a very different and occasionally harrowing journey through sound. Beautiful and often extraordinarily dark.
CD $16

BASIL KIRCHIN - Particles (Trunk 021; UK) For the last five years Trunk Records have been issuing the great, lost work of pioneering British composer Basil Kirchin. Here is his last album, completed only a couple of weeks before he passed away in late 2005. It proves that Kirchin, even in his mid-'70s, was still very much an experimentalist at the top of his odd game. Kirchin invented ambient music and set the template to which much of today's avant garde music sounds like. Highlights of Particles are many -- "The Atonals" for example, was made using conversations between musicians that Basil had secretly recorded over the years. These conversations were then processed into music and the results are quite startling. In fact, the whole album is brimming and bursting with odd ideas, new ways and the unique Kirchin sound. The current Trunk favorite is the last, epic ten-minute hypnotic monster simply called "E+Me." It's an obvious homage to his dear wife Esther, who actually sings at the end of this heavily rhythmic, modal tune. Tragically, Esther died a week before this last Kirchin CD was pressed. Particles adds further fuel to the glowing Kirchin legend, and increases his standing up there with all the other groovy weirdos of the world.
CD $16

BASIL KIRCHIN - Primitive London/The Freelance [sndtck s] (Trunk 038; UK) This is the first-ever release of not ONE but TWO classic Basil Kirchin soundtracks, one from 1965, the other 1971. It's music for strippers, wife-swapping, death, birth, crime and chicken factories. Basil Kirchin is a legendary jazz drummer and grandfather of ambient music. He started his jazz career drumming in his father's jazz band. In the war years, he took over the band and post-war travelled to the East, hung out with the Maharishi, found himself, moved to Australia and finally returned home to the UK in the early 1960s with jazz ideas the likes of which no one else had ever dreamt. He moved into film music composition, library music and special commissions. By the late 1960s, he was experimenting with free jazz, tape manipulations and animal recordings. His series of works entitled Worlds Within Worlds are the first examples of ambient music. Regarded as a musical genius by many of the world's current music geniuses, Basil Kirchin's influence and following grows and grows each day. No one knows how and why drummer and jazzman Basil Kirchin came to write his first-ever soundtrack, but the sounds he created for Primitive London and its images of abattoirs, strip joints, alcoholism, beatniks and peculiar supermarkets are second-to-none. The music is film music but with touches of jazz, drones and oddness, impressive for such an early recording. There's even a tune surprisingly similar to Herrmann's Taxi Driver, a score written over a decade later. Primitive London is notorious as the UK's first and most important "Mondo" movie. The images filmed were strange, sensational, shocking and sleazy, the music harrowing, groovy and hip. This short, and until now unreleased score is accompanied on this release by a soundtrack Kirchin wrote six years later, for a very different kind of London film. Called The Freelance, this rough, tough crime flick is rarely seen, but features lively performances by classic British character actors and a young, impressive Ian McShane. Set in the criminal underworld, Kirchin brought to the screen the sounds of progressive drumming, free jazz and a touch of new decade optimism. The cues are long, develop well and are like no other. Both scores represent important times in Kirchin's musical life; the first score pre-dates his library work, the second comes at a time when this master of modern jazz music and industrial sounds had reached a creative peak. Both scores are unmistakably Kirchin, with his instant, insistent rhythms, memorable melodies and distinctive, strange jazz sounds permeating this entire release. His ever-growing band of fans will love it all. Superb full-color sleeve taken from the original 1965 Primitive London press book
CD $16

NOW WE ARE TEN [V.A. With BASIL KURCHIN/MICHAEL GARRICK TRIO/SVEN LIBAECK et al] - Strange And Beautiful Music From Trunk Records (Trunk 024; UK) Midline-priced label sampler CD with SEVEN EXCLUSIVE TRACKS. In the past ten years, Trunk Records has issued some of the most beautiful, extraordinary and unusual lost music you may have ever heard: consider this release a compendium of your most favorite lost treasures. A decade ago, and after a three year search, Jonny Trunk tracked down and finally released the Wicker Man soundtrack. It had never been released before, and its influence is still rippling through contemporary music today. Shortly after, Trunk brought you the first-ever release of Kes, the pastoral soundtrack to Ken Loach's bleak Northern tale. They followed this with some sex, and the first (and possibly last)-ever airing of the lost tapes by legendary '70s porn star, Mary Millington, which sold out in two days. Next came the gentle, cosmic soundtrack to Oliver Postgate's classic animated TV-series The Clangers. The album caused an odd, nostalgic stir and scored a faultless ten out of ten in NME. Trunk put out the incredible lost music from George A. Romero's classic zombie gorefest Dawn Of The Dead, and issued the unreleased fuzzed-out sounds from classic Brit biker movie Psychomania. Trunk then uncovered the radiophonic's electronics from The Tomorrow People, issued an album of way-out Christian madness, and followed it all up with some magical period advertising recordings. Where else could you find the soundtrack from Bod sitting comfortably in the Trunk catalog alongside legends like Deep Throat? Oh, and don't forget Dirty Fan Male, voted by Time Out as one of the top ten comedy albums of all time. The label also brought to light Basil Kirchin, the godfather of ambient music and the main influence on Brian Eno, and have recently brought the vintage film music of Norwegian film composer Sven Libaek to new light. And don't forget Fuzzy Felt Folk, a sublime compilation of simple folk for children and their slightly odd parents. This celebratory release brings together some of the most beautiful musical moments dug up, cleaned up and distributed by Trunk Records over the last decade. It also contains seven unreleased recordings from albums still to come on the label, including an incredible lost recording by Herbie Hancock. Trunk Records: truly one of the eclectic greats. Other artists include: Basil Kirchin, Sven Libaek, Jonny Trunk, Delia Derbyshire, Douglas Wood, Vernon Elliott, Orriel Smith, Mike Sammes, Paul Lewis, John Cameron, Marc Wilkinson, The Michael Garrick Trio, Dirty Fan Male, Barbara Moore Singers, Wisbey and Hula Saw
01. Basil Kirchin Start Counting (Demo) 03:41
02. Sven Libaeck Dark World 04:34
03. Herbie Hancock Kiddush 02:42
04. Jonny Trunk Zeus 04:26
05. Delia Derbyshire Delia's Psychedelian Waltz 00:37
06. Douglas Wood Icicles 02:08
07. Vernon Elliott Clangers 02:51
08. Orriel Smith Tiffany Glass 02:57
09. Mike Sammes Timex 00:48
10. Sven Libaeck Nature Waltz 02:35
11. Paul Lewis Waiting For Nina 02:21
12. John Cameron Kes (Opening And Titles) 02:52
13. Marc Wilkinson Kathy Crowned From Blood On Satan's Claw 01:15
14. The Michael Garrick Trio Sketches Of Israel 05:09
15. Dirty Fan Male Martin's Theme 00:44
16. Dirty Fan Male My Special Message 00:50
17. Mike Sammes Sweet Young Fumbles 03:06
18. Barbara Moore Singers The Elf 02:25
19. Basil Kirchin Negatives 02:04
20. Wisby The Ladies Bras 00:36
21. Bill Posters Will Be Banned Hula Saw 07:17
CD $11

JOHN BAKER TAPES - Vol 2: Soundtracks, Library Home Recordings, Electro Ads - Rare & Unreleased Workshop Recordings 1963-1975 (Trunk 029; UK) This is volume two of Trunk's John Baker Radiophonic retrospective. The legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop, one of the sound effects units of the BBC, was created in 1958 to produce effects and new music for radio. Sounds for programs were created by using recordings of everyday sounds such as voices, bells, gravel and other raw materials for "radiophonic" manipulations, in which audio tape could be played back at different speeds, pitches, cut and joined, or processed. The Workshop's innovations in manipulative sound are akin to those used in musique concrete, and has had a profound influence on the evolution of modern electronic music. The 39 tracks on volume two represent the major body of important work John Baker produced while moonlighting for other companies (under the pseudonym of John Matthews), and most tracks have remained unissued, until now. This CD brings together the most complete overview of his work outside of the BBC, his freaky library music (for Southern and Peer), incredible electro-advertising commissions, rare soundtracks, and private home recordings, nearly all of which have also remained unissued. This CD also includes the first-ever release of the soundtrack to Boy On A Bicycle, the debut film by Ridley Scott from 1965. The album also comes with his test tone experiments, feedback loops and the first-ever recording made by John Baker (pressed originally on a 78 RPM record) from 1954. There's also the original obituary broadcast on BBC Radio 5 back in 1997. None of these recordings have been released until now. This is another essential release for followers of British electronic music, British electronics, and of the Workshop output.
"The second volume of the wonderful John Baker Tapes presents us with all the unheard recordings of his soundtrack work, jingles, and recordings of his jazz group. We finally get the chance to hear, on one disc, the soundtrack he did for Raymond Scott's short film and the medley used in The Beatles "Help!" alongside his inside jazz group, home recordings of his tape music, plus innovative commercial jingles and themes. Making music from rulers, bottle caps and whatever else is the common story of those who participated at the Radiophonic Workshop. What makes Baker stand out is his swing; from his jazz groups to his tape music. His Xmodus operandiX for tape music was so unique, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop coined it as the "Baker Technique", one which all the workshop members (and now all of us) would come to know and and love. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!" - Chuck Bettis/dmg
CD $16

BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP - The Seasons (Trunk 043; UK) At long last the rarest and most peculiar of all Radiophonic Workshop albums is available. Originally issued in 1969, The Seasons has become almost mythical over the last few years. With its mix of unexpected electronics, percussion, tape manipulation and austere poetry, it sounds like no other. The Seasons has also become a major influence on bands such as Broadcast and a key reference in the development of Ghost Box and the whole "hauntology" soundscape. It is seen and heard very much now as an important and lost classic. And after over one year of detective work and rights investigation (which is a lot in this modern world of instant communication), this impressive, strange and wholly unique album is seeing the light of day once again. Originally made as part of the BBC's Drama Workshop broadcasts, this album was meant for educational purposes. Coming in the later period of what is commonly known and remembered as "Music and Movement" or "Movement and Mime Classes," the album was issued briefly as a teaching aid for the modern thinking 1960s classroom. The idea was to play the album and get the school children to dance, improvise, think and create to the sounds and words. The music was originated by one of the early pioneering Radiophonic musicians, David Cain. Very little of his music has ever been made available (except on the classic BBC "pink" album) but to some followers of early British electronics, he is the forgotten master. And for this release he has been interviewed by Julian House (The Focus Group) with a fascinating Q&A, which will appear in the new sleevenotes. As for the poet Ronald Duncan, he is now deceased, but had an interesting and inspired life. A born pacifist, he famously wrote the libretto for Britten's opera The Rape Of Lucretia, wrote the script for Girl On A Motorcycle, and started the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre. His poetry was published by Faber And Faber by T.S. Eliot, who became a friend. Duncan's 16 featured poems were specially written in 1969 just for this project. The album sold in tiny quantities when it came out and was quickly deleted by the BBC. Even the BBC Archive doesn't have a copy. In fact the album's scarcity has only added to its mythical status. A handful of originals started appearing in bargain bins throughout the mid-1990s, and as interest in British electronics and the Radiophonic Workshop started to grow, the album's reputation began to gain a little momentum. The album rarely surfaces, but Jonny Trunk and fellow collector Martin Green found three copies at back in about 1998, one of which was passed on to Jarvis Cocker. This limited edition LP comes with the original 1969 BBC sleeve and an insert of all the poetry. Also worth noting is that this album has been remastered from the original Radiophonic Workshop tapes.
CD $17

TRISTRAM CARY - It's Time For Tristram Cary: Works For Film, Television, Exhibition & Sculpture (Trunk 035; EEC) The Trunk label presents one of the most important, innovative, influential and almost-forgotten artists of all time, British/Australian electroacoustic composer, Tristram Cary.
Without Tristram's inventions and musical experiments, Dr. Who would sound very different. We'd have no VCS3 synthesizers, no Brian Eno, no crazy electronics for Pink Floyd, etc. This is a retrospective of the composer's work, including some of his unreleased experimental music as well. The third son of famed novelist Joyce Cary, he had a keen interest in music, science and electronics. He studied at Trinity College and served as a radar operator in the Royal Navy as war broke out. After the war, he began building an electronic music studio (the first of its kind in the UK), experimenting with discarded military equipment. By 1954, he was earning a living as a composer, and in 1955 got the job of writing all the music for a new Ealing movie, The Ladykillers. He worked for the BBC on many occasions, most infamously creating the music and otherworldly effects for the Dr. Who Daleks seven part series in 1963. In 1967, he founded the Royal College Of Music Electronic Studio, wrote the groundbreaking music for Hammer's Quatermass And The Pit, and in 1969 along with Peter Zinovieff and David Cockerell founded EMS (Electronic Music Studios), the UK's first ever synthesizer company. Their first major products included the VCS3 synthesizer, the suitcase Synthi and the Delaware, equipment that became the modern musical tools of their times. On demonstration tour in Australia he was offered further work, and moved to Adelaide in 1974 where he worked at the University under a number of different musical titles. He left in 1986 and returned to composing, and in 1991 received the Medal Of The Order Of Australia for services to Australian music. He carried on developing sound, consulting and composing for the rest of his life. This is the first time much of Tristram Cary's musical output has been issued, and it includes his music made for sculpture, for the 1969 Expo, compositions he made for Olivetti using their office equipment and a choir, electronics he devised for Casino Royale, classical music he produced for documentaries and curious effects he developed for films about money and design. It shows he was equally comfortable working in classical compositions, with electronics or working in a concrete style.
CD $16

CULTS PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE [EVELYN GLENNIE et al] - Cults Percussion Ensemble (Trunk 046; UK) Privately pressed in Scotland in 1979, this illusive and quite wonderful percussion album is like no other. Played by a group of 11 girls with an average age of 14, the group included Evelyn Glennie, who was destined to become one of the world's greatest percussionists. This is her first-ever record.
The Cults Percussion Ensemble was a group formed by percussion teaching legend Ron Forbes in the mid-1970s. The ensemble must have one of the best group names of all time. To many, it will immediately come across as something sinister, a touch spooky and possibly a bit dramatic, too. They are certainly two of those but the use of the word "Cults" here is easily misinterpreted. Cults, in this case, is the suburb of Aberdeen. The average age of the students was just 14. They came from a few of the schools in the area, including the Cults Academy, Ellon Academy, Aboyne Academy, Inverurie Academy and Powis. Reminiscent of Carl Orff and peculiar library music, we now have a formal release of something quite lovely that was only previously available very briefly in 1979 at concerts when the young girls performed. The music here is really quite unique, with a celestial, swirling, hypnotic quality. The blend of glockenspiels, xylophones, vibraphones, marimba and timpani drums is quite intoxicating and can recall the shimmering warmth of the desert sun one minute or freezing glacial icecaps the next. The Ensemble perform with an effortless tightness and deftness of touch, building textured layers with recurring percussive motives which appear simultaneously dense and yet sparse, almost sounding like modern sampling. Sleevenotes also include a letter from Ron Forbes: "I decided to form a percussion group to provide an outlet for my percussion pupils to play music specially written for them. The group soon became well-known in the region and as a result of winning the outstanding award at the National Festival of Music for youth on three occasions, they were invited to play at other festivals within Europe, one being in Erlangen in Germany -- hence the "Erlangen Polka" -- and Autun in France -- hence the "Autun Carillon." During these visits we were often asked if we had any recordings and so it was decided to make an LP." Thanks to Ron Forbes and Trunk Records, more people can now enjoy the simple hypnotic musical charms of the Cults Percussion Ensemble.
CD $16

VERNON ELLIOTT ENEMBLE - Ivor The Engine & Pogles Wood [sndtck s] (Trunk 027; UK) For anyone living in the UK, these original soundtrack recordings of two classic children's television soundtracks will immediately bring back memories of happy childhoods and some of the greatest TV ever made, performed by the legendary Vernon Elliott Ensemble. Vernon Elliott was asked by Steve Race, then the director of ATV to help children's programming animator Oliver Postgate by writing a theme to the series we now know as Ivor the Engine. He would later go on to also pen the music for Pogles Wood and the rest is history. This charismatic collection of music has never been issued before: it has sat silently, in Oliver Postgate's underworld for over 40 years. The Postgate and Smallfilms output has a worldwide following, and this magical music contributes greatly to the impact these legendary TV adventures have had. The music is wistful, sad, pastoral and utterly charming, the CD looks wonderful, sounds brilliant and the Trunk label is issuing it in time for Christmas as it will make the perfect musical gift for anyone with a nostalgic bone in their body. Incidentally, the great music is accompanied by many of the special sound effects invented by Oliver Postgate for the shows, like Ivor chuffing and magical noises from the Pogles Wood. There really is nothing quite like this anywhere -- it's another classic Trunk Records release
CD $16

FUZZY-FELT FOLK [V.A.] - True Folk Oddities (Trunk 018; UK) In typical Trunk Records style this is a genre-defining collection of true folk oddities from both the UK and the USA. This CD brings together lost naive psychedelia, beguiling and unreleased film music, spooky nursery rhymes, songs about pixies and trance-like guitar oddities. Some of the music found on this CD is unreleased, some impossible to find, all of it is stunning. This really is unlike any compilation you have heard. Includes work by Basil Kirchin, the man who invented ambient music -- the recording here has never been released and comes from his estate. Barbara Moore is one of the most highly collected female singing artists, and Orriel Smith is a great lost American singer who composed these two psychedelic, progressive, jazzy tracks with funky film composer Philip Lambro-- these tracks have remained lost until now. Reg Tilsley, Pierre Arvay and Claude Vasori are all extremely talented library composers both in the UK and Europe. Much of their music was used in children's TV in the late 1960s, and their tracks are from the legendary De Wolfe Library and have never been commercially released until now. Very little is known about the other artists on this compilation, but their music is incredible. The name Fuzzy Felt comes from a game made up of fuzzy shapes you stick to a felt board, and in the 1960s, was a famous toy in the UK. You use the fuzzy shapes to make little pictures just like on the CD front cover. To us this sums up the innocent, experimental and creative streaks running throughout this incredible music. The other artists include: Christopher Casson, Arthur Birkby, Peggy Zeitlin, and The Piggleswick Folk.
CD $16

KENNY GRAHAM AND HIS SATELLITES With STAN TRACEY - Moondog And Suncat Suites (Trunk 036; UK) Trunk presents a very rare 1957 album featuring British jazz interpretations of Moondog originals. The exceptional jazz line-up includes Stan Tracey, and the recording is made all the more extraordinary because of the exotic instruments used. And to top it all off, this 1957 recording was also engineered by a very young Joe Meek. This is the first time this fabulous album has been issued since its release 53 years ago. By 1956, the early New York street recordings of the great Moondog had just reached British shores. His primitive percussive sounds struck a new nerve with many artists and musicians, none more so that fine London jazzman Kenny Graham. He was so inspired, that he decided to bring together a band of top-notch jazzers and pay his very own musical homage. The result is this exceptionally rare and unique 1957 album of Moondog cover versions (Moondog Suite) and Graham's very own complimentary compositions (Suncat Suite). Engineered by a young Joe Meek and starring Stan Tracey, Phil Seamen, Danny Moss, Ivor Slaney, soaring vocalists and a host of strange instruments, this was a truly unique cocktail of sound and musical vision. There is no other recording that would ever bring together Moondog, British jazz and Joe Meek. And the result is an exotic, ethereal and timeless album that will inspire, haunt, beguile and charm for many years to come. Beautiful period color sleeve, CD comes with a 6-page concertina booklet. Both vinyl and CD come complete with the original 1957 sleevenotes, and a biography of Kenny Graham.
CD $16

BARRY GRAY - Stand By For Adverts: Rare Jingles, Jazz And Advertising Electronics (Trunk 039; UK) Trunk has uncovered 81 tracks of unissued advertising electronics, jingles and jazz by none other than the master composer behind Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and UFO, Barry Gray. From infectious ditties for new banana cereal to raw, experimental sounds for a new space age washing machine, Barry Gray penned a vast amount of catchy, weird and sometimes comical numbers, all now available for the first time ever. These unique and rare recordings by one of the UK's most prolific and successful composers have all come from the Barry Gray Archive. They date from 1958 to about 1965, and cover Gray's advertising and jingle career at that time. He was a busy, creative man, working across a vast spectrum of products, from small local stores to large corporations and banks. The work is typically British, in some cases very experimental (with early tape loops, heavy reverb and echo) and in many ways dangerously catchy. Known worldwide for his soundtracks to the classic Gerry Anderson productions such as Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Space 1999, this unusual release sheds a welcome light on this composer's early work and has many of the classic Gray hallmarks his fans know and love. Housed in a beautiful period color sleeve, the CD comes with a 24-page color booklet, with full notes on the history of the release, tracklists, session notes, biographies, photos and more
CD $16

RICK JONES - Fingerbobs: Original Television Music [sndtck] (Trunk 042; UK) To many people who grew up near a British television in the 1970s and 1980s, Fingerbobs was a curious, formative and hugely inspiring series. At last, the classic music from the popular British television series is now available on the Trunk label. While only thirteen episodes were ever made, the series was widely rebroadcasted for many years. It starred the audacious Fingermouse, his friends Scampi, Gulliver, and Flash, and was fronted by American folk musician, actor and former Play School presenter Rick Jones as 'Yoffy.' Much of the show's popularity was due in part to its unforgettable sing-a-long tunes, which have never been released until now. Each episode involved simple craft, music and a story based on that week's theme, such as sound, wood, shapes and shadows. The whole series was conceived, created and modeled in a brilliant homemade style by the legendary husband and wife team Joanne and Michael Cole, the minds behind much of Play School, the books and TV series Bod, and Ragtime. The Fingerbobs album was quite a challenge to put together as there are no masters and very little paper based archive to speak of, which means no set stills and no paper puppets. All that remains are a few scraps of paper in the Cole's very small archive and the Fingerbobs annual, which contains nothing but some peculiar drawings, none of which relate to the show. But, just as the album was going to print an exceptionally rare promotional flyer for the series from 1973 turned up, which was used to make the fabulous artwork. In order to produce a musical album worthy of release, Jonny Trunk entrusted the ears and musical abilities of Jon Brooks (the Advisory Circle/Ghost Box) to pull together a musical collage of the whole series. The album is complete with all the catchy themes, the instrumentals and a scattering of stories too. The music is a touch folky, a little whimsical, classically nostalgic, humble, hip, witty and occasionally camp. Fingerbobs was possibly the last remaining unreleased score from TVs golden era and finally, thanks to this first ever release, listeners can now enjoy it whenever or wherever they want, such as in the car with their kids. The fantastic sleevenotes to the album are by Ali Cole, daughter of Michael and Jo Cole. By the way, the popular urban myth that Rick Jones drowned Fingermouse in his cup of coffee on the last day of filming is completely true. Includes an 8-page booklet with detailed liner notes. Playing time: approximately 26 minutes
CD $16

JEFF KEEN - Noise Art (Trunk 047; UK) An album of unreleased music made by Jeff Keen, one of the UK's great avant garde artists. This is music found on cassettes in his studio after his death. It was made by Jeff (throughout the 1980s) using field recordings from his local amusement arcade: radio, TV, films, an Atari, a ZX Spectrum, a delay unit and a WASP synth. This is the first Jeff Keen album ever issued. Jeff Keen is one of the great undiscovered artists of our times. A missing link between the Dadaists, Cocteau, Warhol, Picasso, Jack Kirby, and just about anyone else you can think of. Jeff made art every day of his life. Art seemed to explode from him, and he worked across all mediums with boundless creativity and very much his own style. He developed his own graphic, visual, and spoken art language. The BFI (British Film Institute) have issued a 4DVD set of his films. His collages and paintings are currently being exhibited in Brighton, New York, and Paris. The Tate has started buying his work. He's now dead and his stock is quickly rising. The music on this release was made in and around the 1980s, using methods unique to him; in his ramshackle studio he'd have a mic, a radio, an Atari, a ZX Spectrum, a WASP synth, effects units and his own very unusual mind. He mixes field recordings with his very own language ("Bltazwurds") and takes on the characters he developed over his artistic life. This is very much an art/music release. The sound is a little like the industrial albums made in the late 1970s and 1980s, intense, odd, other-worldly, unpredictable. Includes notes by Jonny Trunk, and an important essay by David Toop and recollections by Will Fowler of the BFI, who worked closely with Keen
CD $17

THE TOMORROW PEOPLE [V.A.] - Original Television Music [sndtck] (Trunk 017; UK) Rare, previously unreleased music by Delia Derbyshire, Dudley Simpson, Brian Hodgson & David Vorhaus! "The Tomorrow People album is a very unusual release. Firstly it appeals to Trunk Records collectors. Secondly it appeals to collectors of cult TV items. Thirdly, and most obviously, it appeals to fans of the Tomorrow People. Fourthly it is irresistible to fans of the Radiophonic Workshop -- Delia Derbyshire et al. Fifthly it appeals to fans of progressive and early electronics. It appeals to fans of library recordings. And finally, it's an historic recording. And remember, this is the last lost Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson and David Vorhaus work left unreleased. Until now. Obviously it's a library record. A non-commercial LP, created in 1968/1969 and pure British electronics, ambient, experimental. The LP contains the work of three composers -- the legendary experimentalist David Vorhaus, Nikki St George (eh?) and someone known as Li De La Russe (who?). What makes this all the more interesting is that the two last musicians are pseudonyms, Nikki is in fact the awesome radiophonic Brian Hodgson, Li is none other than Delia Derbyshire. Both musicians were under contract to the BBC at the time, employed at the Radiophonic Workshop and were working with Vorhaus on the White Noise LP at the same time. 1969 was a big year for all three musicians. Creativity at the workshop had really climaxed, and together with Vorhaus their work (through their fledgling space Kalieaphon Studios) had flourished. And the important collaborative White Noise An Electric Storm LP was nearing completion. To many collectors of Derbyshire's music, the Hodgson sound and the work produced by the Radiophonic Workshop and its freelancers, this album represents possibly the last recording to remain unreleased commercially, until now."
CD $16

EDWARD WILLIAMS - Life On Earth: Music From The 1979 BBC TV Series [sndtck] (Trunk 034; UK) The groundbreaking natural history program Life On Earth hit UK TV screens 30 years ago, in 1979, and this is the first time the beautiful music composed for the series by Edward Williams has been commercially issued. It's quite extraordinary that something so utterly beautiful has remained unissued until now. Jonny Trunk: "The music reminded me very much of my first encounter with library music and the magical, twinkling ambient sounds of science, nature and music for jellyfish. Some frantic letter writing followed. Edward Williams had to be traced. Eventually I tracked him down and went to meet him at his home in Bristol. It was fascinating to learn that he had connections with other important musical characters that I was dealing with, like Tristram Cary. I also learned that Edward had invented the soundbeam, an incredible musical education tool. He also told me about his extraordinary 1970s VCS 3 touring band called Uncle Jambo's Pendular Vibrations. Edward also explained the genesis of the rare and elusive vinyl album. Basically, he'd had less than 100 copies privately-pressed for any members of the orchestra who had played on the recording and wanted one. And so in late 2009, 30 years on from the day it was created, we can all enjoy some of the most beautiful music made for some of the greatest TV ever produced." The sounds composed and created for the series are quite magical. It's the sound of science, of underwater life, of progress, flight, fight, death and courtship. There are swamps, petrified forests, snowscapes and coral reefs. And of course, music composed for a wide variety of birds, animals and sea-dwellers of all shapes and sizes. Influences include Erik Satie, British pastoral composition of the post-war period and pioneering UK electronics. What's extraordinary is that Edward Williams created a sound way ahead of his time; listen to track 2 or 3, and you will hear music that could easily be mistaken for the contemporary soundtrack work of Cliff Martinez or Clint Mansell. The music itself is hard to categorize -- of course it's soundtrack music, but it hints at classical, at library music, touches on the avant-garde, and has a strong ambient feel and an unusual timeless quality. It involves over 70 musicians, with the composer placing much of the played music through his vintage 1973 VCS 3 synthesizer.
CD $17




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