"Revolutionary, spiritual jazz from the unlikely city of Houston, Texas: the definitive issue, mastered from the original tapes. Bonus disc contains previously unreleased tracks. Drummer, bandleader and activist Bubbha Thomas had toured America with R&B revues, served as a session musician for Peacock and Back Beat Records, and played straight ahead jazz with legends before the political and social upheaval of the late 1960s led him to a path first charted by Coltrane. Energy Control Center, his third LP...

You will not believe that this ugly slab of punk rock and art-noise emerged from Chickasha Oklahoma in 1976.

“The band were said to be high on acid when they recorded this in Oklahoma in 1975; not surprising then that the result is demented avant-garde proto-punk psychedelia, with modulators and synthesizers, a vibraharp (and more) utilised to good effect; the album is now considered a pivotal mid-70s effort from the American private press underworld, and as such has been hailed in Ugly Things....

“Perhaps Tom Waits' most cohesive album, Bone Machine is a morbid, sinister nightmare, one that applied the quirks of his experimental '80s classics to stunningly evocative -- and often harrowing -- effect. In keeping with the title's grotesque image of the human body, Bone Machine is obsessed with decay and mortality, the ease with which earthly existence can be destroyed. The arrangements are accordingly stripped of all excess flesh; the very few, often non-traditional instruments float in distinct...

“Supertramp came into their own on their third album, 1974's Crime of the Century, as their lineup gelled but, more importantly, so did their sound. The group still betrayed a heavy Pink Floyd influence, particularly in its expansive art rock arrangements graced by saxophones, but Supertramp isn't nearly as spooky as Floyd -- they're snarky collegiate elitists, an art rock variation on Steely Dan or perhaps a less difficult 10cc, filled with cutting jokes and allusions, best heard on "Bloody Well Right."...

“Furry Lewis was the only blues singer of the 1920s to achieve major media attention in the 1960s and '70s. One of the most recorded Memphis-based guitarists of the late '20s, Lewis's subsequent fame 40 years later was based largely on the strength of those early sides. One of the very best blues storytellers, and an extremely nimble-fingered guitarist right into his seventies, he was equally adept at blues and ragtime, and made the most out of an understated, rather than an overtly flamboyant style.”

“This release in the Heroes of the Blues series is the only true cross-licensed best-of package for Mississippi Fred McDowell. It's a complete career retrospective, covering all periods of his career and various record labels. It has been digitally re-mastered. Original cover art by Bill Stout.
When Mississippi Fred McDowell proclaimed on one of his last albums, "I do not play no rock'n'roll," it was less a boast by an aging musician swept aside by the big beat than a mere statement of fact. As a...

“Although Chargin Falls, Ohio-native musician, Chris Butler, is most known for his creating of the experimental new wave band The Waitresses, the Kent State University student (yes, he experienced the infamous Kent State shooting) was also actively involved in the highly influential 70s Kent/Akron/Cleveland music and art scene that practically invented the American new wave sound with such bands as Devo, Chrissie Hynde’s Jack Rabbit, the Bizarros, Pere Ubu, Pagans, and Butler’s own Waitresses, 15-60-75...

“The album shows how the ideals of the civil rights movement, black power and black nationalism influenced the evolvement of radical African-American music in the United States of America in the intensely political and revolutionary period at the end of the 1960s following the assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and the rise of the Black Panther party.”

1. Gil Scott - Heron
2. Mandingo Griot Society with Don Cherry - Sounds From The Bush...

“Upon examining the eventful life of Can bassist Holger Czukay, one might come to the conclusion that this intrepid musician was a loner. His turbulent career exuded an enduring eccentricity governed by a boundless free spirit. Yet Czukay, who passed away unexpectedly last year at the age of 79, constantly emphasized that his creativity was always contingent upon a musical partner, whether that was a skin-and-bones counterpart or an anonymous manifestation that interacted with him through radio waves...

Legendary, NWW name-checked, 1968 tape assemblage by Holger Czukay and Rolf Dammers.

“Holger Czukay, before his famous work in Can, was disciple of Karlhein Stochausen. He learned a lot about electronic and concrete music and tape manipulation. His first album, "Canaxis" predates almost every experiment with world music: from Popol Vuh to Brian Eno, from Steve Roach to SPK. Holger created tape loops with found voices and sounds (coming from Vietnam, China and Japan generally). "Canaxis" uses...

Everything from Columbia’s vaults from these Curt Boettcher-led, masterpieces of late 60s ‘sunshine pop’ bands and projects, including complete albums, demos, alternatives and outtakes. 62 tracks including 22 previously unissued!

“The Millennium's Begin is a bona fide lost classic. The brainchild of producers Curt Boettcher and Gary Usher, the group was formed out of the remnants of their previous studio project, Sagittarius -- which had been preceded by yet another aggregation, the Ballroom...

Dave Douglas - trumpet
Jon Irabagon - saxophones
Matt Mitchell - piano
Linda May Han Oh - bass
Rudy Royston - drums

A killer band presenting all four nights at the Jazz Standard in 2015. The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel for today!

"Douglas' quintet ... is one of the best working groups in jazz. In recent years, Douglas' unflagging intellectual curiosity has led to the creation of a diverse body of work.... His quintet, however, represents a creative..

Dave Douglas - trumpet
Jon Irabagon - saxophones
Matt Mitchell - piano
Linda May Han Oh - bass
Rudy Royston - drums

A killer band presenting all four nights at the Jazz Standard in 2015. The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel for today!

"Douglas' quintet ... is one of the best working groups in jazz. In recent years, Douglas' unflagging intellectual curiosity has led to the creation of a diverse body of work.... His quintet, however, represents a creative..

"This work, a masterpiece of restraint, reflects the musical imagination of someone who has spent long periods in the quiet recesses of the mind."-Terry Riley

“A reissue of Hans Otte's The Book Of Sounds (Das Buch Der Klänge) originally released in 1984. Hans Otte (1926-2007) was a multifaceted artist, poet, pianist, composer, and promoter who synthesized the strands of minimalism, Eastern spirituality, and radical art into his own unique and protean vision. In his younger years he studied...

“RareNoiseRecords co-founder, multi-instrumentalist and composer Eraldo Bernocchi has created an evocative soundtrack for a new documentary film on American artist Cy Twombly.
Imagined and produced by Michele Bongiorno, written and directed by Andrea Bettinetti for GoodDay Productions Ltd, Cy Dear was presented privately at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in the Spring of 2018 and will have it's festival premiere this Fall.
Bernocchi's soundtrack is suitably atmospheric, underscoring..

The Third Ear Band were a late 60's/mid 70's quartet who were fixtures at ALL the festivals & who used hand drums, oboe, violin/viola & cello to make a mostly improvised, dark, pagan & medieval-influenced, acoustic music that sounded like no one but themselves. The only thing that comes close to their sound is some small bits of the early Univers Zero records.
They called themselves "electric acid raga music", and that's a fine description. This is a newly remastered reissue of their classic second...

“Recorded in the Autumn of 1975 at Abbey Road studios (with some sessions also taking place at AIR studios in London), SUNBURST FINISH was the third album by Be Bop Deluxe and the first to feature the line-up of BILL NELSON (vocals, guitars, keyboards), CHARLIE TUMAHAI (bass, vocals), ANDY CLARK (keyboards) and SIMON FOX (drums). It was also the first Be-Bop album to be co-produced by BILL NELSON and JOHN LECKIE. An album of immense musical inventiveness and creativity, SUNBURST FINISH was one of the...

Cos were one of the most popular Belgian progressive bands of the early/mid 1970's. They had a very pleasant, breezy jazz/rock sound, somewhat informed by the Canterbury sound, but definitely not slavish to it. This was their second album, and possibly...

This particular Musea reissue had been promised at least 20 years ago (seriously!) but here it finally is.
This is the one and only release, originally on Phillips in 1977, by this French progressive rock quartet. Their music is typical somewhat dark-hued French symphonic / progressive. They are often compared to King Crimson, but I think they only resemble KC in terms of obvious inspiration, but I don’t think they mostly sound like them.
This premier official reissue, taken from master tapes...

"A subtle, moody, rich and wide-ranging work, in which atmosphere, emotion and dramaturgy lead the ear far beyond music into a world of hints, evocations, anticipation and association and, in passing, reveal a complex metonymic language that, at a deep level, invokes that mostly unconscious lexicon of sound we have all absorbed collectively and subliminally in the course of a century of movie-going, television viewing, documentary recording and electroacoustic experimentation. Once sounds have been...

Dagmar Krause-vocals Chris Cutler-drums, electronics Fred Frith-guitars, keyboards, violin, etc.

This was the 3rd and final album by the successor band to Henry Cow. I'm not really sure why (short playing length? the press had gone onto other things to champion? it wasn't released stateside, unlike the first two?) but this one slipped under the radar of a lot of folks, compared to their 1st two.
It's a very bleak, but also a very solid work. And very clever and sly in its own way - who...

Dustin Carlson - guitar, compositions
Nathaniel Morgan - alto saxophone
Eric Trudel - baritone saxophone
Danny Gouker - trumpet
Matt Mitchell - Prophet 6
Adam Hopkins - bass
Kate Gentile - drums

Great, very composerly ‘math jazz’ release; not as heavy as Starebaby, but certainly in the same sort of ball park.

“Dustin Carlson just surprises me with each new project, fucking genius new music composer/conceiver....brilliant guitarist with his own voice...

“Proximo is the third release from Mantra, a five piece prog rock band from Belo Horizonte in Brazil. The band has virtually no web presence so I can't really elaborate much about their history. What I know is that they are what I call a "kitchen sink" band - they have so many influences they wear on their sleeve that its like listening to a who's who of prog. Overall I'd categorize this as symphonic rock but there are some interesting moments like when they incorporate a ripping...

Brân (Welsh for ‘crow’) existed from 1974-1978, generally working in a folk/rock territory and releasing 3 lps. The band was noteworthy for recording all of their works sung in Welsh.

“Rise Above Relics has spent several painstaking years collating as much information and memorabilia as we possibly could, in order to bring you this definitive collection.
A Box Of Brân brings together all of the bands commercially released output, namely their three studio albums for Sain Records:...

William Hamlet : saxophone alto
Olivier Vibert : guitare
Philippe Macaire : basse
Benjamin Leleu : rhodes, orgue
Adrien Protin : batterie
Excellent new album by an improvising French group I was not previously familiar with.
The want to bring together Sun Ra, Magma, Funkadelic and Robert Wyatt. Do they? I don’t know, but they’re good!!

“Spectrum Orchestrum appeared in 2007 and is a french five-piece ensemble (alto sax, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums) devoted to th