This is a collection of most of the 1984 album “Glass Tube”, which was After Dinner’s first album + some other stuff, plus 30’ of live material by this Japanese new music rock band, who predated the current huge interest in all things "Japan".
Characterized by leader Haco's vocals, this is subtly detailed, almost pastel, progressive Japanese music; they don’t sound like ANYBODY else!

“Can't say I've heard anything quite like this. Truly awesome in its presentation, it's hard not to want to...

"Known best as an experimental guitarist, with his ‘‘Giant’ Sardinian guitar – which has a large mechanical claw stuck to the side of its body (to pluck counter melodies), piano-like hammers operated by pedals (to strike the strings), extra strings crossing the main strings at right angles with yet another set of sitar strings mounted on the body, a rope, a viola bridge - which holds yet more strings - and thirteen pickups and microphones which can separately amplify all the elements, sending them to...

Takumi Fukushima – violin, voice
Paolo Angeli – prepared Sardinian guitar, voice
Excellent album of duos; some a bit wild, others, very intimate and - dare I say - beautiful? Remember, Monk wrote a song called "Ugly Beauty"... After the demise of Volapük, I was wondering when I would hear Takumi again and I am happy to hear her here with Paolo who makes an excellent musical partner for her.

"This is Paulo Angeli’s fifth release, this time with ex-After Dinner, ex Volupuk violinist and....

Dagmar Krause-vocals
Chris Cutler-drums, electronics
Fred Frith-guitars, keyboards, violin, etc.
This was the 2nd and possibly most successful of the three albums by this immediate offshoot of Henry Cow, as it was recorded AS an Art Bears album (their 1st had been recorded as a Henry Cow album, but half the band objected, so it came out as being by Art Bears).
It’s also their best known album as it was released in the States by The Residents' Ralph label, in the early 80's and at the

"Six years in the making, this is the sixth CD released by ReR from the visual/sonic art group Biota. Unique in their history and method, Biota painstakingly construct complex, organic structures that mix extensive studio processing and musique concréte techniques, with a highly eclectic orchestra of acoustic and electronic resources - from kit drums, through mediaeval winds, strings and barrel organs, to early experimental electronic instruments. Their works are always performance driven and interleaved...

"This is the second release (editor's note: no, it isn't, it's their sixth release; it's their second on ReR after three on Cuneiform and a first that was self-released) after a long wait, from this unique ensemble. Equally at home with the discipline of composition and the tightrope of improvisation Blast have evolved a fluid, pointillistic, unfathomable but transparent musical language that seamlessly integrates - over very short durations - highly complex writing and very free ranging improvisation...

Long-time Waysiders will remember this Residents-influenced recording project who released two fun, primitive slabs of home-made vinyl. Nice to have them here again and done so nicely!

"Way back in 80’s, before the term “Alternative” was hijacked to correspond with Seattle “Grunge”, the genre was held in high-esteem for its “D.I.Y. / Low-Fi” ethic.
The Blitzoids - along with The Residents, R. Stevie Moore and Eugene Chadbourne - epitomized this school of thought in the USA. From the...

"Three old hands out of Soft Machine, Gong and Henry Cow stretch already flexible musical material into one shape after another, then tie it in knots and generally have a fun with it. High quality recordings combined with seat-of-the-pants playing keep the tension high, underpinning a richly labile music, full of shape and colour that is constantly in motion. Compiled from recent concert recordings in Berlin, London and Tel Aviv, this clutch of extended songs should be to the taste of anyone familiar...

A very great collection of unreleased live and studio recordings from the very exciting post-Henry Cow band of Chris Cutler.

"Cassiber (phonetically: 'a message smuggled out of prison') crashed like a locomotive into the 'Deutsche Neue Welle.'
Founded by Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth, Christoph Anders, and Chris Cutler (his first major project after News From Babel), Cassiber managed to fuse materials and attitudes drawn from experimental rock, fringe jazz, punk, pop, plunderphonics...

For a number of years in the late 90s, Chris traveled the the world, giving solo performances on his specially made electric kit and various acoutrements.
I’m biased because I saw several of these concerts (and even put on at least one), but they were very different, very entertaining and very much completely NOT what you would expect a ‘solo drum concert’ to sound like, probably because it wasn’t a ‘solo drum concert’. Conditionally recommended!!

"Here at last, a solo electronic drum...

''Digital recordings from the Nordlydd Contemporary Music Festival and Berlin's Tacheles from 1991. Plus the historic prescient noise-music 1978 analogue recording from Limoges as a bonus. All singing, all dancing, all hell let loose. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee...'' -Chris Cutler

"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...

"The finest composer who ever worked in the medium of sounds assembled on tape"-OP

"The legendary collaboration between a leading American Musique Concrete composer and an instrumental ensemble directed by James Reichert where, for I think the first and to date only time, there was full integration of the written, played and manipulated sounds. The instrumental parts were derived from 'cells' of concrete sound and in turn were electronically transformed (in Robert Moog's then state of the art...

Part 1: Bob Drake-all instruments and voices
Part 2: Live a La Borde Basse
Bob Drake-guitar & lead vocals
Kavus Torabi-guitar and vocals
David Campbell-bass and vocals
David Kerman-drums and vocals

What a great concept! Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Bob records an album as he always does; he plays all the parts himself. But he's got this nifty band he assembled. A VERY nifty band, actually! What a shame to waste them!
So...he sends them the most basic elements of

What Day Is It is Bob Drake’s first-ever solo album and was self-released by Bob in a hand-made package in 1993. He performed all the music with some assistance from Dave Kerman on drums. Odd songs with an almost folk or Cajun feel to them; folk music from another planet, perhaps. This is a great one for me if only simply because it was the first time that anyone heard Bob’s instantly recognizable solo sound! Recommended.

"Bob is already celebrated for his many ReR solo CDs, as well as for his...

This contains their great 1973 Top Gear performance and a substantial amount of extra material, and even two outtakes from their albums, all of which have never been released!
Despite it saying ‘BBC’, nearly all of this was recorded at Wumme during the group’s classic early 70s period and is like a great lost album by them and even includes their ‘lost’ sixth member, Arnulf Meifurt, who only appears on the 1st album and ‘Tapes’.

This 5 CD set contains all Faust's early classic albums, a John Peel session and unreleased early material.
The 40 page booklet is stuffed with unpublished photos, stills from super 8 footage of the famous studio at Wumme, and revealing interviews with many of the key players of the Faust story.
Included is:
Faust
So Far
Faust Tapes
71 Minutes
BBC Sessions (their great 1973 Top Gear performance and a substantial amount of extra material, all of which have never been...

Jonas Åström (guitar, keyboards, percussion, piano, vocals)
Jan Nilsson (bass guitar, flute, percussion, piano, [homemade] instruments, vocals)
Michael Hellström (drums, keyboards, percussion, vocals)
Lars ‘Lach’n’ Jonsson (violin)

This sat and sat for years and years until Udi Koomran and Dave Kerman posted on a music board about how much they liked this and then, zip, they were gone.
Thanks, guys; the check is in the mail!
Fortrangt Hushallsarbete is a 2002 release on..

Gravity is one of Fred's most enduring & endearing works. It was his first post-Henry Cow solo album, and he recorded it with the backing of The Muffins on one side of the original album and Samla Mammas Manna on the other + Marc Hollander.
It's the closest thing to a progressive rock disc that Fred has ever released and it's a tuneful yet still avant progressive rock work. This is a classic and is highly recommended!

“1980's GRAVITY represented guitarist Fred Frith's first major break from.

Long time Waysiders will remember the limited edition box that we sold with the two albums of this concert a very long time ago. They may also remember the many concerts that Fred performed with this set up in that style in the late 70s/early 80s all over the world. I do.

“Concert recordings made at various venues in Japan in 1981 and released by Recommended Records Japan in 1982 in an edition of 1000. Out of print since, though highly sought after, it has now been transferred and remastered...

This is the soundtrack to the film which followed Fred touring & playing in the late 80's, when he was actively on the road all the time. This functions as a sort of a 'best of' sampler, featuring many aspects of his work, some of which can be found on other albums, but most of which is only available here.
This includes many great players: Tom Cora, Haco, Zeena Parkins, John Zorn, Rene Lussier, Bob Ostertag, Lars Hollmer, Eino Haapala, Iva Bittova, Hans Bruniusson, Joey Barron, and many many others..

"An instant Fred classic, ‘Happy End’ presents two, related, small-ensemble works for 6 and 7 musicians respectively - mostly strings of one sort or another, with percussion, flute, clarinet and electronics. Fred, violinist Carla Kilsteht and percussionist Willie Wynant play throughout providing continuity across the pieces, as the music constantly unfolds into new textures and dialects. Melody, harmony and rhythm are omnipresent, though not always obviously colluding, and the music moves with a...

"This album is gorgeous. I picked it up expecting some crazy experimental thing because it's a Haco project, but what I ended up hearing was an achingly beautiful collaboration of slow, climaxing songs, inventive string technique, and head-bobbing goodness. This is a really, really good disc."-Eon Fontes May

"Charismatic singer, lyricist and performer Haco came to the fore in the early 80s with the group After Dinner, a sublime incarnation of surreal, direct, and offbeat Japanese/European pop...

Songs by Suzanne Lewis and Bob Drake, both ex-Thinking Plague - a punky cross between Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd and early Jefferson Airplane. This time, Bob Drake and Susanne Lewis are joined by some guests: Dave Kerman, Chris Cutler, Bill Gilonis.

Charles Hayward is, of course, best known for his drumming and vocalizing feats with This Heat, Camberwell Now and Quiet Sun, but in addition to doing some improvising work, he has released a number of solo albums contsructed out of his excellent drumming, distinctive voice and single drones made from keyboards, melodica, etc. I saw him perform at RIO in 2009 and it was a real treat to finally see the great man behind the kit and in full voice. This is his first in quite some time and is a good one...