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Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Meath have been yodeling together for upwards of fifteen years – in the backseat of a Prius while on their first cross-country tour, on back porches and backstages. It’s what led them to Fruit, their debut release as The A’s – a joyous ten-song collection spanning genre and decades, with interpretations of traditionals, lullabies, and an original song, it weaves between the weird and the wonderful. “Why I’m Grieving,” originally recorded by the DeZurik Sisters, was the inspiration for the A’s existence. The A’s reach into the past to hold hands with the DeZurik Sisters, two farm girls from rural Minnesota who taught themselves to yodel amongst all their animals, in a continuing celebration of the tradition of folk eccentricity and whimsy. The A’s played their first show together in 2013 after Sauser-Monnig first moved to North Carolina, where Meath had been living at the time, but it wasn’t until summer 2021 that they thought seriously about making Fruit. They decamped to Sylvan Esso’s Chapel Hill studio, Betty’s, for two weeks in the midst of a balmy and blooming Carolinian summer. They rehearsed during the day, deconstructing yodeling parts phonetically and staring absurdly into each other’s eyes as they practiced tongue twisting harmonies - and recorded in the nighttime, candles lit, a flickering glow against the windows framing the violet twilight outside. “There was a lot of giggling during the session,” Sauser-Monnig explains. “At one point I was getting a tangle out of my hair and was like, oh, my God, that sounds really cool – the sound of my hands in my hair. And then I thought, what if we recorded hair for a percussion track? And then it just sort of snowballed.” Across the record, the A’s employ a bizarre-o ghost orchestra of strange noises that are percussive and melodic. The credits include nylon shorts, string (singular), hair, shoes, ice chunk, gravel, frog sample, and shoelace, among other unexpected makeshift instrumentation. The backing band is built out by a more traditional group of players: saxophone from Sam Gendel on “Copper Kettle,” backing vocals from Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes, Wye Oak) on “When I Die,” string arrangements from Gabriel Kahane on “He Needs Me,” and more. Fruit is made up simply of songs the A’s love to sing – there are lullabies and love songs; “He Needs Me,” written by Harry Nilsson and first released by Shelley Duvall in the 1980 Popeye film; traditional ballads like “Swing and Turn Jubilee,” “Copper Kettle” and closer “Buckeye Jim,” a multiplying song about frogs and nature. The sole original track to appear on the album is the penultimate “When I Die,” written by Meath. It contains both wishes and instructions for the celebration of her death, a low synth bubbling beneath Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s voices. It’s a collection of ten seemingly incongruous songs, but with the throughline of Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s vocals and sense of humor working in tandem, they fit together into a cosmic yodeling-folk masterpiece. Fruit feels like blowing the dust off a precious artifact of decades past, but also winking and modern. Sauser-Monnig sums up their ethos on the project succinctly: “If it doesn’t make you cackle or cry, it doesn’t belong.”

In late 1961 Spector formed Philles Records with Lester Sill, buying his mentor out the
following year. The slogan was ‘Tomorrow’s sound today’, and Phil Spector proceeded to live
up to that boast. Three-track tape machines were then state of the art, and he perfected the
method of ‘bouncing’ the tracks to get the biggest possible sound. As time went by, his ‘twominute symphonies for the kids’ would be increasingly gilded by his ‘everything but the kitchen
sink’ production including Strings, Percussion and banks of Vocals. Spector gained his
second U.S. chart-topper and his first as a Producer in 1962 with the Gene Pitney penned,
He’s A Rebel. Spector became increasingly obsessed by the production process. ‘My records
are built like a Wagnerian opera. They start simply and end with dynamic force, meaning and
purpose. I dreamed it up.’ He retired from the music business, returning only sporadically to
work with first The Beatles (their Let It Be album, plus solo LPs by George Harrison and John
Lennon), plus a handful of other artists including Dion, Cher and the Ramones.

Turn up the volume and look how time bends before your eyes because that is what Robyn Schulkowsky and Andi and Hannes Teichmann do with their music. They bend time.
They make a ring out of it or some sort of ellipse, and then they pull it straight again, they transform it into a rope, and then, of course, they balance on it, forwards, backwards, half speed,
double speed, 33 rounds per minute, or was it 45? Just try both.

World percussion meets Techno and Berlin club culture, one might be tempted to say. One would be wrong to do so. This is not just crossover, this is just not an "encounter" between different generations, different experiences, different cultures, traditions and attitudes and form asossations of expressions, or, to put it in a more simple way, an "encounter" between drums and gongs and bells and stones and on the other side hardware-electronic and sequencing, delay and reverb. This is far more complex.No need to put a label on it.
by Roland Schimmelpfennig / excerpt

Tossing down straight acoustic shots with electric guitar back, Hello, Hi rides through the valley of yer ol' Canyon legends, finding an isolated place to unspool Ty's copious reserves of nervous energy beneath an open sky. Swarms of harmony vocals caper among the clouds, but there's a rider on the horizon behind, with crossbow trained on his very own heart - the engine driving all the relationships of life, whether down Broadway or over the cliffs at night! Whatever doesn't get killed is getting stronger all the time. A lean, mean deal, baked in saltwater and sunlight, compassion pouring out it's beautiful blue eyes.

Available on vinyl for the first time in 10 years, with new cover design by Tim Rutilli Califone's earliest roots lie in the band Red Red Meat, from whence came Califone's founding members Tim Rutili and Ben Massarella and its longtime producer Brian Deck. The band's first release was a self-titled EP on Flydaddy in 1998, followed later by the full-length debut, Roomsound, in 2001 (later reissued on Thrill Jockey) and eventually the band's Thrill Jockey debut, Quicksand/ Cradlesnakes in 2003. After touring for the release of Roomsound, Califone had little time off to take in the impact of the music they were creating. In three years, they recorded four albums (two instrumental, two song-based including Heron King Blues) and toured heavily in between with Wilco, Modest Mouse, The Sea and Cake and others. After the tour for Heron King Blues in 2004, Califone finally took a breath and came back together in late 2005 to begin recordings. They worked on it in chunks at 4Deuces Studio in Chicago with Brian Deck, in Long Beach and Phoenix with Michael Krassner, and at home in Los Angeles and Chicago until May 2006. The time away and each member's individual work naturally brought new elements into the sound of Califone's music. Both Rutili's and Becker's soundtrack work are more atmospheric, however the challenge of enhancing a scene of film without cluttering it or overwhelming it informed their approach to the new recording. Similarly, the burglary of Califone's equipment during the band's last tour (including guitars, banjo, a 1917 violin, bells and more) altered the sound as they had to find new gear on a tight budget. The instruments are new partners, new sounds that forced them to stretch in new directions. Limitations, obstructions and darkness, and the new possibilities they illuminate; roots and crowns. "In that way", says Rutili, "this album is a conscious and resolved thing. It fully realizes ideas we touched on in the past and where we come from as a band, and takes us into our next phase of life."

Available on vinyl for the first time in 10 years, with new cover design by Tim Rutilli Califone's earliest roots lie in the band Red Red Meat, from whence came Califone's founding members Tim Rutili and Ben Massarella and its longtime producer Brian Deck. The band's first release was a self-titled EP on Flydaddy in 1998, followed later by the full-length debut, Roomsound, in 2001 (later reissued on Thrill Jockey) and eventually the band's Thrill Jockey debut, Quicksand/ Cradlesnakes in 2003. After touring for the release of Roomsound, Califone had little time off to take in the impact of the music they were creating. In three years, they recorded four albums (two instrumental, two song-based including Heron King Blues) and toured heavily in between with Wilco, Modest Mouse, The Sea and Cake and others. After the tour for Heron King Blues in 2004, Califone finally took a breath and came back together in late 2005 to begin recordings. They worked on it in chunks at 4Deuces Studio in Chicago with Brian Deck, in Long Beach and Phoenix with Michael Krassner, and at home in Los Angeles and Chicago until May 2006. The time away and each member's individual work naturally brought new elements into the sound of Califone's music. Both Rutili's and Becker's soundtrack work are more atmospheric, however the challenge of enhancing a scene of film without cluttering it or overwhelming it informed their approach to the new recording. Similarly, the burglary of Califone's equipment during the band's last tour (including guitars, banjo, a 1917 violin, bells and more) altered the sound as they had to find new gear on a tight budget. The instruments are new partners, new sounds that forced them to stretch in new directions. Limitations, obstructions and darkness, and the new possibilities they illuminate; roots and crowns. "In that way", says Rutili, "this album is a conscious and resolved thing. It fully realizes ideas we touched on in the past and where we come from as a band, and takes us into our next phase of life."

• Ghost of Tsushima: Music from Iki Island and Legends builds on the groundbreaking soundtrack to Ghost of Tsushima, the third-person adventure game by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Featuring music by Chad Cannon and Bill Hemstapat, it includes selections from Ghost of Tsushima’s popular Iki Island and Legends expansions.

• The 2020 award-winning open-world video game, Ghost of Tsushima, follows the samurai Jin Sakai, who must protect Tsushima Island from invasion, defeat the ruthless Mongol invaders and protect what’s left of his home and people. As he embarks on an epic adventure for the freedom of Tsushima, he is forced to set aside samurai traditions and become a new kind of warrior.


• This vinyl release from composers Chad Cannon and Bill Hemstapat features 45 minutes of all new music written for the Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut. It contains 15 tracks, of which 10 are from Iki Island and 5 are from Legends.

• This release includes a black LP housed in a beautiful gatefold jacket with a folded insert.

• Chad Cannon has worked with several of the world’s best-loved film composers as arranger and orchestrator. As chief arranger for Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi since 2017, Chad has created large symphonic suites for Kiki’s Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, and Spirited Away. His score to the Academy Award- winning Netflix documentary American Factory has been called “stirring” (NY Times) and “graceful” (Washington Post) and was nominated for a Cinema Eye Honors Award for Outstanding Original Score. The film is the first release by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions.
• Originally from Thailand, Bill Piyatut Hemstapat is a composer and record producer based in LA whose works have been featured in Video Games, TV and cinemas all over the world. Bill’s passion for video games music has led him to working at Sony PlayStation’s music department. Along with his most recent work re-imagining Shunsuke Kida’s iconic music of Demon’s Souls for the PS5 remake, he also contributed additional music and arrangements for Ghost of Tsushima as well as music editing for God of War, Days Gone and Hideo Kojima’s critically acclaimed Death Stranding.

Nightlands is the solo project of The War on Drugs’ bassist and multi-instrumentalist Dave Hartley. Amid massive global paradigm shifts Dave Hartley (aka Nightlands) became a father twice over and left his native Philadelphia for Asheville, where the pace of daily life is slower and it's easier to maintain a zoomed-out perspective on modern life. From the newfound refuge of a studio he built using the bones of a barn attached to his hundred-something-year-old house in the mountains, Hartley has tailored a collection of well-crafted pop rock, pointedly titled Moonshine. Guided by some of the harmonic sensibilities that have helped make The War on Drugs a force in modern music, Moonshine combines immaculate-yet-dense vocal stacks and billowy clouds of effected keyboards with classic songcraft, revealing previously unseen acreage in the unfurling dreamscape that is Nightlands. The surrealistic album art by Austin-based illustrator Jaime Zuverza depicts an archway opening to the stars over the surface of an idyllic sea flanked by both moon and sun. Similarly, Moonshine reveals portals within portals leading to ever deeper places in Hartley's vocal-centered labyrinth. Throughout the album, there are plenty of buoyant high moods where the pitter-patter of drum machine and humming digital organ hints at Hartley's low-key tropicalia streak, but the lyrics anchor the dreaminess in real-world sorrow and resignation. Nowhere are these sentiments more apparent than on the title track, a nearly acapella recitation of "America the Beautiful" that poignantly hovers over a mirage of soft keyboards before dovetailing into Hartley's own words about the hypocrisy of the American dream. "This was never intended to be an overtly political record" he admits. "I have so many friends who are able to process the frustration of current events gracefully or with wisdom or in a nuanced way, but I often find myself just consumed with anger about it all. I decided to just let that come out, and it manifested itself lyrically." Moonshine's wide-eyed, utopian instrumental backdrops provide sharp contrast to Hartley's lyrics, which sting even harder within the sweetness. Even in light of the album's vocal emphasis, Hartley's history as a bassist brilliantly beams through Moonshine, giving effortless and sprightly movement to songs like "Down Here," which also features an extended section of saxophone lent by his Western Vinyl labelmate, Joseph Shabason. In addition to Shabason, the album hosts a short list of remote collaborators including four of Hartley's bandmates from The War on Drugs, Robbie Bennet, Anthony Lamarca, Eliza Hardy Jones, and Charlie Hall, as well as exotica virtuoso Frank Locrasto (Cass McCombs, Fruit Bats), and producer Adam McDaniel (Avey Tare, Angel Olsen). Hartley was forced to keep the guest list small out of the necessity of pandemic isolation, coupled with his move to a smaller city, all of which challenged him to do most of the album's heavy lifting right down to the mixing duties, resulting in the most independent effort of his career. By that measure, Moonshine is also the clearest image yet of Dave Hartley as a person and creator.

For the first time ever, T-Rock’s debut solo album, Conspiracy Theory will be available on Vinyl, CD & Cassette in time for the album’s 20 year anniversary! The album was first independently released in 2002 on CD-only through Secret Service Inc., the year after T-Rock left Three 6 Mafia's Hypnotize Camp Posse. With guest features from Kingpin Skinny Pimp, Wylecat, Area 51, Odd 1, J-Love, C.I.A., Chilly Rakin, Lyrical Child, 6ix Shot, C-Mac, Miss T., Da Crime-Click, II Tone & 240 North, this album is considered an underground classic amongst fans and critics. This special edition release is pressed on classic black vinyl (limited to 200 copies) as well as a high dispersion silver, and transparent blue variant limited to 150 copies each.

A rigorous recollection of all the music that went into last year's Netflix smash The Queen's Gambit. You were probably too busy trying to keep up with actress Anya Taylor-Joy's timer-stopping and piece-placing chops to notice the ingenuity of the soundtrack; packed with contemporaneous music to the time in which the series is set, from Donovan to The Monkees to The Vogues, we're duly thrown back by this new 2xLP edition (which comes to a special black and white colour vinyl). Check it, mate.

Label favourites Balearic Ensemble return to the fore following last summer's spectacular 'Cachonda' EP, this time with a 12" treasury of wonderful, eclectic dancing music of the highest balearic order. They're joined by Das Komplex, notable for recent excursions on DJ Harvey's Mercury Rising, to round out their five-track excursion for the label: this is the Mediterráneo EP.

Opener 'Pitiusas First' sets the tone with dizzy, downbeat percussions as a bass guitar skates and glissades underfoot; soaring, starry-eyed synth work and Latin organ stabs in concerto. This homage to the islands and islets of Ibiza comes with a note of melancholy, or nostalgia: waking up to find that your best years might have evaded you - and celebrating the fact. It's a maturing of the Residentes sound in a way we haven't heard before; a gorgeous moonlight serenade, the last tango on Formentera, and a tip for orange-tinted sunsets all summer long.

Second track 'Almendros y Drones' takes us deeper into the throes of that distinctive Mediterranean sound with dizzying arpeggios and analogue bass over teetering hihats and fizzing synths; it's an eruptive, volcanic beast of a track that will take liberties with your dancefloor. Over-the-top filter action and driving piano perforations, crashing snares and resonant howls, Almendros, Drones.

The third offering is 'Mojada', taking cues from classic deep house with its deep-set bassline and modular squeaks. It's a slow burner, an aquaplane on Eivissa, cueing 303 squelches and 90s drum machine riffing before its eventual, explosive peak.

After Mojada we enter the chugging, gritty realm of Das Komplex's remixes. He refashions the heady throes of 'Mojada' into a driving, churning unit; percussions, distorted into infinity; basslines bent and buckled into submission; slabs of piano lathered with space echo delay. Wonky late-nite dancing music at its very best.

Extra treat: Das Komplex also left us his 'Pineapple Bonus Mix' of Mojada, which is a more sunset-suited affair altogether. This special mix lasers in on that exuberant piano part, then plays with percussions and dynamics to create a full-on dub version of the original track.

More Late 70s/early 80s Westcoast Yachtpop you can almost dance to!
Buoyed by the incredible love felt for TSTD Vol. 1 in summer 2014, Berlin's renowned pop archaeologist, that master musical excavator DJ Super-markt, has leapt straight back into the soft-top and been out digging for the lost gems you'll find here on Volume 2. This is another perfect collection of missing-in-action, late-70s/early-80s smooth, singer/songwriter, AOR-paced, yacht-based pop and blue-eyed soul. Every song brims over with that West Coast sunshine, and for Volume 2 we've dug even deeper into obscure corners of LA, London, even Cologne, to create an even more potent soundtrack to that lost world that's somehow always with us. So join us on another sunset trip as we soundtrack summer 2015 in the company of these lost luminaries. Bask in every detail of that glorious over-production, and recall an era when the music industry had the time, money and sheer musical talent to make everything BIG. Pay no mind to the cynics, the cooler-than-thou-erati, or the buzz kills of the sincerity police. These are big tunes that deserve to be hits, even if it's taken 40 years to get there, driving slowly up that winding California coast road in the wonderful warm summer air.

Benefits are an issues-based music collective from Teesside in the
North East of England. They write songs about the urgencies that
concern them, and they play them loud.

Forming in 2019 and consisting of Kingsley Hall on vocals, Robbie
Major and Hugh Major on synths and noise, and Jonny Snowball
on drums, they quickly evolved from a standard shouty punk rock
outfit into a minimalist, overtly political band that merges noise,
hip-hop and industrial rock, creating an effect that feels urgent,
darkly hilarious and unsettling all at once.

Thus far, Benefits have been completely DIY yet, via a succession
of digital singles and accompanying videos through 2021, they
built a following that enabled them to complete a sold-out headline
UK tour in March 2022. They also gained fans in high places,
including Sleaford Mods, Black Francis, Garbage and Elijah Wood
and Steve Albini.

James and Ryan of Yard Act were also instant admirers and that’s
where their label Zen F.C. comes in. Using their ill-gotten major
label gains Zen F.C. are pressing Benefit’s single ‘Flag’ (backed
with ‘Empire’) on vinyl.

On working with Yard Act, Kingsley comments: “I think Benefits
come at some of the same subject matter that they talk about but
from a slightly different angle (and by ‘slightly different’ I really
mean ‘more frequent swearing’, though we've never said the C
word in a song unlike...ahem). We appreciate every bit of help
we’ve had off them, we just wish we could somehow repay that
kindness (not monetarily mind, we're totally skint).”

Yard Act’s James Smith says of the release: “Lots of bands are
saying all this stuff so what makes Benefits so special? Why do I
need to be told what I already know over and over again by a
shouty man from Teesside? Well, because no one else is saying it
with such physicality they sound like their voice box is about to
leap from their throat and eat your eyeballs. With that little bit of
influence we’ve garnered and the small fortune of money we now
have kicking about, I’m so glad we can play a part in spreading the
word on Benefits, because I think they’re well on their way to a
classic debut album, and I’m going to fucking love being able to
brag about how important I was in making it all happen.”

Dama Scout's first full-length sees the London/Glasgow trio stretch their creative muscles, further building upon their unique, individual tastes to bring together a world that’s ever-changing, infectious and brilliantly fresh. By pushing through the barriers of genre, Dama Scout’s constantly curious dive into contrasting sonic landscapes allows them to craft new terrain that takes its cues from East Asian pop and film. Mimicking the unpredictability of playing live shows, the tension between audience and artist and the push-and-pull of creative collaboration, 'gen wo lai (come with me)' ushers in an authoritative new era for the band. Here, jolting nightmares and reality-bending dreams exist side-by-side, and Dama Scout are our guides for every unnerving, enchanting moment.

Healing Together is a benefit compilation for mental health recovery featuring 23 ambient-electronic artists from around the world. Recognizing that music is a bridge to normalizing conversations about the challenges people are going through, each artist was prompted to create a song that would help someone with mental health struggles know they're not alone. This sprouted into a collection of ambient music holding space for the many emotional landscapes we experience as humans. Healing Together features new compositions specially prepared for the compilation from the incredible line-up of women artists Nailah Hunter, Penelope Trappes, Clarice Jensen, Drum & Lace, Sofie Birch, Hollie Kenniff, Clariloops, more eaze, Ami Dang, Karen Vogt, Patricia Wolf, Zoe Polanski, Sachi Kobayashi, Christina Giannone, Ai Yamamoto, Cat Tyson Hughes, IKSRE, Inquiri, Belly Full of Stars, Claire Deak, Pechblende, Caminuata and marine eyes. Net profits of the compilation will go to Sounds of Saving, a non-profit fueling hope for mental health both by celebrating the power of human connection to music and directing people towards the resources they need before it's too late.

AOW is a new collaborative project from Dan Ghenacia and Tolga Fidan emerging from a new period of creativity and inspiration for the Lisbon-based artists.

Long time friends and fellow lynchpins of the European house and techno scene, Ghenacia and Fidan started working closely together through 2020 and 2021 while sharing studio space at Boa Lab. They found themselves at the heart of an artistic community of musicians, designers and engineers, which took shape around Ghenacia’s experiments with alpha wave generation, inspired by Bryon Gysin’s Dream Machine.

Ghenacia and engineer Anine Kirsten developed a modern update on Gysin’s 1950s design, which has been installed at exhibitions in London, Lisbon and Paris. At its heart, the project explores the natural hallucinatory effects of alpha wave projections on the eyelids, and the therapeutic benefits of the experience. Out of this spirit of psychedelically-charged experimentation, Ghenacia and Fidan have been working beyond the confines of their typical club-oriented material, creating ambient soundtracks to artist exhibitions in Boa and auditory backdrops to Alpha Wave Experience installations.

AOW bridges the gap between this new period of creativity and Ghenacia and Fidan’s life-long passion for electronic dance music. Compared to the strictures of house and techno they’re best known for, the three tracks on Hear the Light explore a more open, inquisitive sound with roots in UK electronica and West Coast psychedelic breaks (a seminal scene when Ghenacia was in the Bay Area in the 90s). Crucially though, it’s not a pointedly retro sound, but rather a result of rich streams of inspiration meeting and passing through crisp, modernist production techniques to offer something
genuinely fresh on the ears.

Working outside of their comfort zones and guided by creative philosophies springing from research, shared experience and community, Hear the Light marks a new step forward for Ghenacia and Fidan, with many more developments promised for the future.

Piezo returns to Facta and K-LONE’s Wisdom Teeth imprint with a 5 track EP of experimental, warping, majestic club music. Since his last outing on the label, the Milanese producer has refined and consolidated his aesthetic considerably: through a spree of crucial releases on his own label, Ansia, and then with the release of his essential debut LP, Perdu (released in 2020 on experimental powerhouse Hundebiss). LSD Superhero sees him bring together the goofy, club-ready aspects of his output on Ansia with the meticulously crafted cybernetic sonics of his debut LP, but with the addition of something new: melody. The title track opens the record with house lights up: glitching percs build around gasseous pads and trembling subs in a drawn out climax that finally collapses into a rolling technoiddembow beat at its midpoint. Next, ‘Unto’ squeezes the producer’s wonky, sub-heavy sonics into a 4x4 template - one of those special 5 am tracks that will appeal equally to dubsteppers and minimal heads. (Remember that time Shackleton appeared on Perlon?). ‘TB2’ - a collaboration with label head K-LONE - balances nectar sweet melodies with bust-up drums and glitching FX hits, while ‘Dijitz’ sees him flex his full melodic knack for an eyes down, half-stepping synth workout. To close, ambient wobbler ‘Xxx^_^x’ refracts bass music sonics into something sprawling and shadowy - like an old Benga track exploded and

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

Charles Tolliver / Music Inc ‘Live In Tokyo 1973’ 180g Vinyl (Pure Pleasure) 5/5

It’s incredible to witness this resurgence of Strata-East’s recordings over the last few years – an appreciation for the label’s ground-breaking approach to music-making, backed by a phenomenal catalogue, continues to attract listeners both new as well as its devoted faithful once again giving rise to its revered and cult-like status. The label’s return to prominence and its subsequent reintroduction to new audiences has been aided, in no small part, by reissues like these – Pure Pleasure as a prime example of a label that lovingly curates these treasured releases, repackaging them for vinyl enthusiasts the world over.

There’s certainly a keen eye that goes into the joyous task of plunging through the Strata-East vaults and although Charles Tolliver and Music Inc’s ‘Live in Tokyo 1973’ isn’t as forgotten a treasure as previous Pure Pleasure reissues of projects like Stanley Cowell’s ‘Such Great Friends’ may be, it’s no less of an incredible project to revisit in this way.

Recorded 7th December 1973, the fifth album by trumpeter Charles Tolliver and his quartet of musicians comprising Music Inc performed a 50-minute set in Tokyo’s Yubinchokin Hall. The performance was initially released through Strata-East the following year and would even be revisited a further time by Mosaic Records in 2005 as part of a three-disc box set – all of this a true testament to the masters of the craft gracing the stage on this night.

Despite the slew of releases with Music Inc, Tolliver boasts an incredible resume that has seen him perform alongside luminaries including Horace Silver, Andrew Hill, Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz amongst others. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised in New York from the age of 10 years old, Tolliver’s inspired contributions to jazz couldn’t be celebrated enough – from his innumerable successes as a musician in his own right to his achievements as co-founder of Strata along with Stanley Cowell. Despite neither having any formal or business training, Tolliver and Cowell’s pioneering efforts positioned them as beacons for being an independent, black-owned success story.

With the Music Inc quartet comprised of bassist Clint Houston, drummer Clifford Barbaro and Stanley Cowell on piano, Tolliver and company present a set of five compositions including tracks from the pen of the trumpeter himself (‘Drought’ and ‘Stretch’) as well as a heralded rendition of ‘Round Midnight’ initially composed by Thelonious Monk. Kicking the project off with the exquisite slow build of ‘Drought’ which starts with Tolliver’s trumpet holding court on centre stage while the glorious crescendo builds around him. ‘Stretch’ eschews in another high-energy number before making way to the sublime lament of ‘Truth’.

‘Live in Tokyo 1973’ is certainly a project that has been afforded its due reverence over the years but once again, an exceptional performance from Charles Tolliver and Music Inc benefits from an unrivalled presentation at the hands of Pure Pleasure. By Imran Mirza/ukvibe.org - est.1993