Cerca:captured music

Circassian-Turkish Producer Sine Buyuka debuts new solo project Sinemis with lush, graceful album ‘Dua’, gently combining the ancestral Sufi music of her homeland with sophisticated techno-inflected ambient. Dua’s life began with a life-threatening illness. “I started feeling unwell last year and no one could figure out the reason,” Sine writes. “It was a scary time, not knowing and trying to manage symptoms while they slowly worsened. In late 2021, while I was visiting my family in Turkey during the Christmas break, I was taken into A&E. After more tests, I had a diagnosis and had surgery in January.” Following this, within the healing process - highly emotional as well as physical - Sine was drawn to the traditional Sufi music of Turkey and the Middle East. Ritualistic music to accompany ancient sema ceremonies, in which whirling dervishes enter a transcendental consciousness through ecstatic movement and repetition. With this influence at heart, Sine began work on ‘Dua’, with a newly-formed artist name to signify new, unfamiliar music from a celebrated electronic producer. For her, the album marks a significant step in her recovery. But it is also a potent marriage of contemporary and ancestral trancestates, interweaving sci-fi synthesis and floor shaking bass tones with mystic imagery, textures and timbres. A meditative, spiritual balm that melds field recordings, found sounds, ambient soundscapes, electronics and acoustic instrumentation to celebrate life and survival in challenging circumstances. The breathy, cinematic tones of album opener ‘Dua’ hover and shiver in preparatory stasis as broken-machine punctuation begins to dot rhythmically through the space. A yearning, repeated vocal sample - a living, beating heart inside the machine - characterises a crucial theme for the album: the marriage of digital instrumentation with the analogue, the human and the organic. Later, ‘Elegy’ reflects its title with heartbreaking chordal shifts and glitching birdsong, conjuring a sound world somewhere between KMRU and Max Richter. Key track ‘Gazel’ moves in glacial slo-mo, like whirling dervishes frozen in time at the peak of their trance. Euphoric ceremony made haunting and poignant without losing a mote of power…Across the album, the timbres of Sufi ritual are often captured by the otherworldly presence of the historic ney flute, said to be as old as the Holy Books. “Sufi music can be created using several different instruments but the ney flute is at the heart of it. The sounds emanating from this fascinating instrument kept capturing my imagination,” Sine tells us. Working both with samples and with Turkish musician Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Sine achieves a rare balance of reverence and recontextualisation for such a time-honoured instrument, here performed by a lifelong student of its intricacies and mysteries. In Sinemis’ hands, the processing and sonic treatment of the ney even sometimes renders it indistinguishable from Dua’s synthesis and sound-design

"Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo (1936-82) issued only three live recordings during his lifetime. Significantly, the first of these, The Sorcerer (1967), remains the most popular album in the guitarist’s all-too abbreviated discography. But there were also More Sorcery (1968) and Gabor Szabo Live with Charles Lloyd (1974), offering Szabo totally in his element and at his bewitching best.
Several more of Szabo’s concert recordings have surfaced in the intervening years, including this one, superbly captured for radio broadcast live in 1976 at the 600-seat Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio. It is a revelation. There is a sense here that concert patrons may have been hearing an altogether different Gabor Szabo than record buyers.
For one thing, Szabo is heard fronting what is likely his own group, rather than an army of studio musicians. In 1976, Szabo was leading a tremendous quartet with George Cables (or Joanne Grauer) on piano, Tony Dumas on bass and Sherman Ferguson on drums. Szabo had not had a band with this much jazz clout since his famed quartet with Jimmy Stewart in 1967-68 – and it is a union worth savoring: Szabo’s records during this period were light, at best, on jazz.
It’s unclear if any of these musicians are on the Agora date, but as Dumas’s “It Happens” opens the program, it’s a good bet, at least, that the bassist is on board here. But as Szabo’s ’76 quartet is not known to have recorded a studio record, Live in Cleveland is the closest thing to what a mid-seventies Szabo jazz album would sound like.
Gone, are the strings, vocals and concessions to commercial consideration so prevalent on so many of Szabo’s studio records at the time. What is present, though, is fine craftsmanship, tremendous interplay, and the exciting improvisation that good jazz always yields.
This particular concert was part of Sansui’s “New World of Jazz,” a series of 13 hour-long jazz concerts recorded at Cleveland’s iconic Agora Ballroom and broadcast over 40 FM radio stations. The series was sponsored by Sansui Electronics, a Japanese manufacturer of audio and video equipment, which previously sponsored a similar series of rock concerts recorded at the Agora as well.
Sansui was promoting its matrix QS 4-channel sound system – offering, what was considered at the time, superior diagonal separation and stereo compatibility. The firm, partnering with Agora Ballroom and Agency Recording Studio owner Hank LoConti (1929-2014), was looking to take advantage of what they rightly felt was the then-current jazz renaissance.
Each show’s 16-track master tape was mixed through the Sansui QS 4-channel encoder,” according to an August 1976 Billboard article detailing the arrangement, “for distribution to the 40 FM stations throughout the United States that bought the series” – allowing for three commercial spots for local dealers to advertise."

The recording is available for the first time on CD and VINYL. Mastering by grammy-nominated Jessica Thompson.

180g clear vinyl. This is for Indies only. Milan/London experimental band Throw Down Bones are returning with their new album 'Three' on February 24th. A towering body of work that feels both apocalyptic and jubilant, 'Three' is Throw Down Bones' eagerly-awaited return following 2018's 'Two' and the tragic passing of founding member Dave Cocks in a motorcycle accident in 2019. Choosing to continue the band in honour of Cocks, in February 2020, surviving co-founder Francesco Vanni returned to London's New River Studios with long-term collaborator and producer James Aparicio (Spiritualized, Nick Cave) and a new band in tow, made up of bassist Marion Andrau and drummer Raphael Mura. Working in the studio with the new band for the first time, several hours of improvised recordings were captured over the course of those early New River sessions, which were then expanded and pieced together between Aparicio in London and Vanni in Milan. Ready to lacerate eardrums and send into a trance once more, the result is a 9-track album spanning feedback-blasted industrial psychedelia, heavy electronics, krautrock and dark ambient. Overcoming huge psychological and practical difficulties, 'Three' is a powerful and moving record in more ways than one - a post-industrial triumph that's at once hedonistic, cathartic and poignant. Describing 'Three' and its intentions, Vanni says: "This album tries to reverse the usual band-listener interaction. We hold no truth and we're not willing to serve any universal answers to anything. Instead, we question the listener who, according to their experiences and sensitivity, will find a reply for themselves. That's the role of instrumental music and why we love it so much. It brings the listener to the centre of the project, giving them an active role in translating music into meaning. Every single note in this album is dedicated to our brother Dave Cocks."

Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly was the one and only full-length album by experimental post-punk innovators, Moss Icon . Recorded in 1988, Lyburnum would not be released until 1993 - several years after Moss Icon 's demise. Originally released on Vermiforn - the esoteric noise label founded by Sam McPheeters of Born Against - the vision that Moss Icon 's Tonie Joy had for Lyburnum failed to manifest in its finished product. Of the process of preparing Lyburnum for its eventual release, Joy recalls, "My creative mind was well into its next chapter, onto an apocalyptic order referring to Joy's post- Moss Icon band, Universal Order of Armageddon . Getting Lyburnum to look like what I envisioned in my mind became an uphill battle that involved misplaced photos, misunderstood instructions by the printer, increasing apathy, and lack of advanced printing knowledge (on my part), amongst many other technical and creative issues. With a deadline near it ended up being an it-is-what-it-is situation. Some corrections were attempted for the second pressing the following year, but a further lack of coordination between various parties saw it losing even more of the original vision." Despite these challenges and shortcomings, Lyburnum Wits End Liberation was instantly cherished as a feral masterpiece - a singular entity that would become a defining influence on post-hardcore and emo in the 1990s and beyond. Nothing before sounded like this, and nothing since has quite captured the same mysterious fury. Now, finally, Moss Icon 's seminal Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly LP will be released exactly as it was always intended to look, sound, and feel. The artwork has been fully restored, and includes previously unpublished photos that were inadvertently missing from the original release. Brilliantly remastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, the vinyl has been newly cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, and pressed onto audiophile-grade vinyl at Record Technology Inc.

CRYSTAL CLEAR VINYL
Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly was the one and only full-length album by experimental post-punk innovators, Moss Icon . Recorded in 1988, Lyburnum would not be released until 1993 - several years after Moss Icon 's demise. Originally released on Vermiforn - the esoteric noise label founded by Sam McPheeters of Born Against - the vision that Moss Icon 's Tonie Joy had for Lyburnum failed to manifest in its finished product. Of the process of preparing Lyburnum for its eventual release, Joy recalls, "My creative mind was well into its next chapter, onto an apocalyptic order referring to Joy's post- Moss Icon band, Universal Order of Armageddon . Getting Lyburnum to look like what I envisioned in my mind became an uphill battle that involved misplaced photos, misunderstood instructions by the printer, increasing apathy, and lack of advanced printing knowledge (on my part), amongst many other technical and creative issues. With a deadline near it ended up being an it-is-what-it-is situation. Some corrections were attempted for the second pressing the following year, but a further lack of coordination between various parties saw it losing even more of the original vision." Despite these challenges and shortcomings, Lyburnum Wits End Liberation was instantly cherished as a feral masterpiece - a singular entity that would become a defining influence on post-hardcore and emo in the 1990s and beyond. Nothing before sounded like this, and nothing since has quite captured the same mysterious fury. Now, finally, Moss Icon 's seminal Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly LP will be released exactly as it was always intended to look, sound, and feel. The artwork has been fully restored, and includes previously unpublished photos that were inadvertently missing from the original release. Brilliantly remastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, the vinyl has been newly cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, and pressed onto audiophile-grade vinyl at Record Technology Inc.

Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly was the one and only full-length album by experimental post-punk innovators, Moss Icon. Recorded in 1988, Lyburnum would not be released until 1993 several years after Moss Icon’s demise.

Originally released on Vermiforn – the esoteric noise label founded by Sam McPheeters of Born Against – the vision that Moss Icon’s Tonie Joy had for Lyburnum failed to manifest in its finished product. Of the process of preparing Lyburnum for its eventual release, Joy recalls, “My creative mind was well into its next chapter, onto an apocalyptic order referring to Joy’s post-Moss Icon band, Universal Order of Armageddon.

Getting Lyburnum to look like what I envisioned in my mind became an uphill battle that involved misplaced photos, misunderstood instructions by the printer, increasing apathy, and lack of advanced printing knowledge (on my part), amongst many other technical and creative issues.

With a deadline near it ended up being an it-is-what-it-is situation. Some corrections were attempted for the second pressing the following year, but a further lack of coordination between various parties saw it losing even more of the original vision.”

Despite these challenges and shortcomings, Lyburnum Wits End Liberation was instantly cherished as a feral masterpiece a singular entity that would become a defining influence on post-hardcore and emo in the 1990s and beyond.

Nothing before sounded like this, and nothing since has quite captured the same mysterious fury. Now, finally, Moss Icon’s seminal Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly LP will be released exactly as it was always intended to look, sound, and feel. The artwork has been fully restored and includes previously unpublished photos that were inadvertently missing from the original release.

Brilliantly remastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, the vinyl has been newly cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, and pressed onto audiophile-grade vinyl at Record Technology Inc.

Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly was the one and only full-length album by experimental post-punk innovators, Moss Icon. Recorded in 1988, Lyburnum would not be released until 1993 several years after Moss Icon’s demise.

Originally released on Vermiforn – the esoteric noise label founded by Sam McPheeters of Born Against – the vision that Moss Icon’s Tonie Joy had for Lyburnum failed to manifest in its finished product. Of the process of preparing Lyburnum for its eventual release, Joy recalls, “My creative mind was well into its next chapter, onto an apocalyptic order referring to Joy’s post-Moss Icon band, Universal Order of Armageddon.

Getting Lyburnum to look like what I envisioned in my mind became an uphill battle that involved misplaced photos, misunderstood instructions by the printer, increasing apathy, and lack of advanced printing knowledge (on my part), amongst many other technical and creative issues.

With a deadline near it ended up being an it-is-what-it-is situation. Some corrections were attempted for the second pressing the following year, but a further lack of coordination between various parties saw it losing even more of the original vision.”

Despite these challenges and shortcomings, Lyburnum Wits End Liberation was instantly cherished as a feral masterpiece a singular entity that would become a defining influence on post-hardcore and emo in the 1990s and beyond.

Nothing before sounded like this, and nothing since has quite captured the same mysterious fury. Now, finally, Moss Icon’s seminal Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly LP will be released exactly as it was always intended to look, sound, and feel. The artwork has been fully restored and includes previously unpublished photos that were inadvertently missing from the original release.

Brilliantly remastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, the vinyl has been newly cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, and pressed onto audiophile-grade vinyl at Record Technology Inc.

The Space Lady began her odyssey on the streets of San Francisco in the late 70s, playing versions of contemporary pop music an accordion and dressed flamboyantly, transmitting messages of peace and harmony. Following the theft of her accordion, The Space Lady invested in a then-new Casio keyboard, birthing an otherworldly new dimension to popular song that has captured the imaginations of the underground and its lead exponents ever since, with the likes of John Maus, Erol Alkan and Kutmah being devotees.

Of her early street sets, only one recording was made, self-released originally on cassette and then transferred to a home-made CD. "The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits"(LSSN021) features the best of these recordings - mostly covers but with some originals - pressed on vinyl for the first time and features archival photographs and liner notes from The Space Lady herself. “Greatest Hits” contains The Space Lady’s personal favourites; her haunting take on The Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night),” a frantic “Ballroom Blitz” amidst other reconstructed pop music. Included are also 4 originals that easily match for the Pop canon. Following the release of this archive, The Space Lady will be issuing new material and travelling the world to present her message outside the United States for the first time.

Elias Devoldere is the drummer in bands such as Nordmann, Hypochristmutreefuzz, Suwi, Robbing Millions, and John Ghost. Following an ep, Kaiku, released last summer, Bloomed > Exploded is his debut full length as a solo artist. Besides writing and singing, he composed, played, recorded, and produced the bulk of the ten songs himself. 'Everything blooms', he explains the title of his first album. 'Until it explodes, and something else is able to grow from it'. In this case, what came full cycle is an intimate coming-of-age album of intangible atmospherics, crisp melodies, and understated rhythmical patterns.

BLOOMED >

'As a kid, I just wanted to play football, you know?', says Elias. 'But when I was eight years old, my parents made me choose between drawing school and music school'. And thus began a dedication to rhythm for Elias. At 18, he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown of Ghent, opting for a jazz education. 'Not because I aspired to become a master 'jazz drummer', but to learn music, to become a good musician'. It was at the academy that, after an impromptu jam session, Nordmann first came together. The exhilarating instrumental quartet went on to win second place at the prestigious Humo's Rock Rally in 2014, and released three albums to critical acclaim, with a new one in the works.

Devoldere, in the meantime, had completed his degree with a craving - ironically - for music. 'I was in over my head with jazz for such a long time, and went on an epic discovering spree. Moses Sumney, James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, Connan Mockasin... Lots of stuff I had missed over the years. In a way, I reconnected with the kind of music I was into before jazz dominated my life. Pink Floyd was my first love, for instance, and later Radiohead proved to be a game changer. Diving back into those kind of sounds, I was feeling the urge to follow my old dreams, of being a solo artist - or something more than 'just' a drummer, anyway. So I bought a guitar, an interface for my laptop, and started writing'.

EXPLODED

When he released his 5 track ep Kaiku in the summer of 2021, it summarised a lot of firsts for Elias. First time writing lyrics, first time as a lead vocalist, first time recording his own songs all by himself. The songs had been around for a while, but taking those leaps took a long time. 'Making the ep helped me to find my voice, in every way possible'. Still, in the aftermath of the pandemic, the songs on Bloomed > Exploded sprouted in a time of upheaval. 'Musically the album is quite serene, gentle even. But the themes speak of internal unrest and uncertainty. There are a lot of questions on the album, as it turned out. Duality, as the title suggests, coming from the struggle between a wish to turn everything upside down and a search for peace. Honestly: the prospect of my 30th birthday was messing with my head too'.

Recording during a period of solitude in France, Elias initially relied heavily on synthesizers and drum machines. 'Explode / Boalis was one of the first songs I wrote for this album, and pivotal for its atmosphere, based mostly on electronic elements. Later, I did use 'real' drums on most of the other songs, though, and contributions from other musicians, but the overall mood is very cohesive'. 'Pure', that's how Bruno Ellingham, the UK engineer who mixed the album, described it. Much to the delight of Elias, who reached out to Ellingham because of his previous work with bands such as Massive Attack and Portishead. 'Hearing the end result, I thought he really captured the essence of the original demo's. For me, that adds to this album being a sincere reflection of my true self. 'Take a dive/ Into the place where it's more quiet', as I sing in the last song, that kind of sums it up for me'.

Back in print for the first time since its initial release during lockdown in 2020!
The music of Current Joys has captured the imagination of millions through headphones and laptop speakers across the world. Rattigan's deeply emotive and commanding songwriting feels built for solitary walks or contemplative nights in one's bedroom, and that is why a Current Joys live performance is a whole different experience altogether. On Live At Kilby Court, the band rips through a stacked setlist of fan-favorites transforming these bedroom ballads into adrenaline-pumping anthems, creating an overwhelming feeling of togetherness.

Limited colour variant "battlefield aftermath with blood & dirt swirl" Following their 2020 debut, Ruin, FORETOKEN's latest album sees the group expand upon their foundations of meticulously lofty soundscapes, mythological narratives, and elaborate musicianship. Utilizing traditional narratives of myths, legends, and folklore from a wide range of Western and Middle Eastern origins, Triumphs examines the ignored collateral damage of the cost of victory through these established mythos. Taking musical inspiration from melodic and tech death metal, as well as power, folk and black metal, Foretoken's core sound on Triumphs is bolstered by subtle and captivating use of traditionally Scandinavian, Southeast Asian, and Middle Eastern instruments for atmospheric depth. Reunited once again with Hannes Grossmann (Hate Eternal, Alkaloid, Obscura, Necrophagist, Blotted Science, and Triptykon) on drums and boasting a guest guitar appearance by The Black Dahlia Murder's Brandon Ellis, FORETOKEN's technical prowess shines through without overpowering any of the nine songs' rhythmic charge. Triumphs was penned throughout 2021 by both Steve Redmond (guitar and orchestration) and Dan Cooley (vocals), with the pair settling on eight original compositions and a cover of Naglfar's I Am Vengeance. Grossmann then commenced drum tracking at his own studio, Mordor Sounds, with guitars recorded by Redmond himself and vocals captured at Trepan Studios by Tony Petrocelly, before mixing and mastering duties were placed in the accomplished hands of Jacob Hansen (Arch Enemy, Fleshgod Apocalypse, The Black Dahlia Murder, and more) at Hansen Studios. Visually tied together by portrait artist Tomas Honz's detailed cover painting, depicting a protagonist's journey in the aftermath of battle, Triumphs aesthetic component is a symbolic embodiment of the duo's enduring fascination with historial consequence via a folkloric lens. Taking fables and fantasy to extreme sonic heights, FORETOKEN's Triumphs is as lofty in ambition as it is accomplished in its musicianship and songcraft.

Clear Vinyl

Kate Fagan took the Chicago punk scene by storm in the early 80's with her self-released single "I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool", which became the best-selling single ever by a local artist at the legendary Wax Trax! Records. Today, Captured Tracks is thrilled to present an expanded, re-mastered edition of I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool as a full-length vinyl album. Fagan wrote "I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool" after moving to Chicago from New York in the late 70's. The track is a critique of the emergent "hipster" attitude of the disco crowd and the posturing she was witnessing among her peers in New York. With its surf-inspired drum machine, irresistible melody, and defiant lyrics, "Too Cool" was immediately embraced by club DJs, radio stations, and independent record stores. Its b-side, "Waiting For The Crisis," also gained notice for its raw musical style and politically charged Reagan-era lyrics, which still resonate today. In the years that followed, Fagan continued to break new ground In 1980, she co-founded the enormously popular ska band Heavy Manners (whose dance parties are still legendary), and with them opened shows for The Clash, Grace Jones, Peter Tosh, The English Beat, and many more. The "Too Cool" single became a sought-after rarity among record collectors for decades after its initial release, until Manufactured Recordings gave it a proper reissue in 2016. Captured Tracks' expanded 2023 follow-up features four unreleased songs, which encapsulate the gutsy, new wave energy that pulses through the original single. The final track, the reggae-tinged "Say It", features production from the reggae legend Peter Tosh and Bob Marley's guitarist Donald Kinsey, who flew in from Jamaica to record with Heavy Manners after witnessing their impassioned live show. While the 2016 reissue re-established Fagan's cult-classic status for a new audience, this new expanded release solidifies her place in a tradition of trailblazing, powerhouse frontwomen.

This EP contains unreleased music composed and produced by Alessandro Alessandroni in the 70s, taken from a dusty tape found in his vault. Afro Discoteca strikes immediately for its modernity and rich textures, sounding unbelievably contemporary.

Alessandro Alessandroni is one of those pioneers, a maestro that built the legend of Italian soundtracks and library music along with Ennio Morricone, Piero Umiliani and many others. His vault testifies how prolific had been those times, with hundreds of tapes and obscure recordings from that period. Among the many, a dusty tape bearing the hand-written label Afro Discoteca' captured the attention of Four Flies.

The music contained in the tape had never been released until now. When he listened to the tracks, Italian legendary DJ LEO MAS (one of the undisputed inventors of the Balearic sound) told us: It is surprising to listen to something that sounds

so modern... This EP is the perfect union of Afro influences and Italian taste. There's something Afro lounge here but also incredibly cinematic - it makes me think of John Carpenter's atmospheres. B1 (Afro Discoteca) reminds me of clubs I've been in Malindi in the late 70s and the closing track is absolutely spellbinding. This is wonderful.' PAOLO SCOTTI, head of Déjà vu Records and an authoritative Italian jazz expert said: Alessandroni's contribution to music is huge, he's a great musician and a great experimenter. Afro Discoteca sounds like it's been produced yesterday by a DJ of our times, an absolutely surprising EP and proof of Alessandroni's spontaneous genius!'

Stunning document of a one-off performance by Powell and London Contemporary Orchestra at Barbican Centre, London.

Captured from a three-hour multi-channel recording of unheard music.

Unique acoustic rendering of a unique moment in time.

Performed in January 2022 alongside works by Jon Cage, Alvin Lucier, Micah Levi First music on Diagonal after a brief pause for growing up and babies.

Special edition PMS 910c art by Guy Featherstone. Mastered by Russell Haswell.

Canto Ostinato is the new volume of classical minimalism from musician and producer Erik Hall. Written for four pianos in 1979 by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt, the piece is freshly framed as an intimate, hour-long solo performance consisting of multitracked grand pianos, electric piano, and organ. Modern yet warm, ethereal yet tangible, Hall's Canto Ostinato expertly bridges a revered piece of meditative concert repertoire with a tactile and highly personal studio setting. Chicago-born and Michigan-based, Erik Hall is known as a multi-instrumental pillar for the groups NOMO, Wild Belle, and his own songwriting moniker In Tall Buildings. He has composed music for feature films, and as a producer/engineer he has shaped records for Natalie Bergman and Western Vinyl labelmates Lean Year. In a 2020 creative pivot, he chose to reinvent composer Steve Reich's monumental contemporary classical masterpiece Music for 18 Musicians as a solo undertaking, applying the piece's score to the familiar keyboards, guitars, and synthesizers in his studio. "At the time I think I was working through my identity as a musician and an artist," Hall explains, "and on a level there was some sort of exorcism of a long held pop spirit." The album was celebrated for being "freshly thrilling" and "legible in history but assertive of the moment" (Pitchfork) and "beguiling, meditational, and magical" (Electronic Sound). It won the 2021 Libera Award for Best Classical Record, and it quickly joined the canon of the piece's quintessential recordings. "There is a pseudo-meditational benefit to working on a longform piece that's built on repetition," Hall says. "Every stage- from internalizing the music, to executing the performance, to editing and mixing the record- requires deep and sustained presence of mind. I've always been drawn to a hallucinatory combination of harmony and repetition, and I found the entire process addictive." An apt second chapter, Canto Ostinato is inherently vast, and its score gives great creative license to the performer. Comprising 106 sections, complete freedom is given to repeat each one as many or as few times as desired. Additional leeway is given with regard to dynamics, articulation, and even instrumentation. On the heels of his previous, rather maximal arrangement, Hall chose to limit this album's palette to three foundational keyboards of his studio: a 1962 Hammond M-101 organ, a 1978 Rhodes Mark I electric piano, and his family-heirloom 1910 Steinway grand piano. "This particular piece brought the added challenge of rekindling my dexterity as a pianist, something I haven't maintained in earnest since I was a teenager," he admits. The ensuing five-note rhythmic motif- the piece's primary building block- is steady and workmanlike, forgoing virtuosic flare for depth, texture, and resonance, and eventually giving way to the stunning gratification of a gorgeously lyrical left turn. As with Music for 18 Musicians, Hall employed no loops nor quantization nor any programmed or sequenced instruments of any kind. Every part was performed live in a room and captured with microphones, one at a time, each informed by, and reacting to the last. In this way the record breathes with interplay and an organic humanity, complete with flaws, noise, and the faint sound of turning pages. The recording quality is nonetheless toneful and saturated, characteristic of Hall's production style and straying from the usual transparency of classical albums by using gear with tubes, transformers, and various stages of compression in the signal path. Always there is unmistakable realism and the feeling of being present in the room, sitting among the keys, hammers, and tines. Ten Holt said: "Time, patience and discipline are the prerequisites for making a genetic code productive." His landmark composition provides Hall once again with a wondrous space in which to reverently embody this sentiment and deftly convey the elegant beauty of this music.

Repressed on vinyl. Ayalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. Mesfin’s music is some of the funkiest to arise from this unconquerable East African nation. Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974, he has returned almost 50 years later with this triumphant set albums the first time that his music has been presented in this form. These albums give us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in anthologies built from Mesfin’s uber-rare 7” single releases and from previously unreleased recordings taken from master tapes. Good Aderegechegn gives us a chance to discover a rare & beautiful moment in music history, in an anthology built from his uber-rare 7” single releases.

Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne did more than figuratively reach for the sky on Eldorado. Daring to be bold, and creating imaginative worlds that invite the listener to escape the mundane, the visionary composer-musician achieved a multidisciplinary fantasia and, in the process, a prog-rock landmark. Nearly 50 years later, the concept album's brilliance can be experienced like never before in cinematic, IMAX-worthy fashion.

Sourced from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl vinyl at RTI, housed in a keepsake box, and limited to 10,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP set of Eldorado allows the long-time audiophile staple to resonate with reference-setting dynamics, tones, and colours. Conjuring the feeling of journeying to different horizons, the record's songs teem with layer upon layer of details, which can now be heard as the producers intended. This very special release both pays tribute to the record's merit and enhances the spectacular program for generations to come.

Presenting the album with breathtaking clarity yet retaining the warmth, texture, and emotion that differentiate live music from reproduced sounds, the collectible reissue features beguiling levels of in-the-moment presence, grand-scale sound-staging, and instrumental balance. Bursting with a veritable cornucopia of stimuli, MoFi's Eldorado package also benefits from superb separation and immersive atmospherics that stem from the meticulous remastering process – as well as an ultra-low noise floor, industry-leading groove definition, and dead-quiet surfaces courtesy of the MoFi SuperVinyl properties.

The premium packaging and gorgeous presentation of the UD1S Eldorado pressing befit its extremely select status. Housed in a deluxe box, it features special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendour of the recording. No expense has been spared. Aurally and visually, the reissue exists as a curatorial artefact meant to be preserved, touched, and examined. It is made for discerning listeners that prize sound quality and production, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in everything involved with the album.

An artistic breakthrough that established Electric Light Orchestra as a pioneering band (and confirmed Lynne as the leading practising Beatles disciple), the 1974 effort remains notable for its involvement of a full orchestra and choral section, the range of which are captured with exquisite results on this LP. Eldorado distinguished itself from the band's first two works not only via Lynne's sharpened songwriting but due to the hiring of an orchestra that augmented the group's three string players. Co-arranged by Lynne and conductor Louis Clark, the symphonic movements bolster the contagious fare without ever drowning it. The accents also act as transports into the varied narrative universes.

Finished as a story before Lynne put notes down on paper, Eldorado ironically owes its inspiration to Lynne's father. In response to his dad's criticisms about the band, Lynne conceived a melodic tour de force that, like The Wizard of Oz, which informs the cover art, emphasizes the power of everyday dreams and everyman heroism. It's no coincidence that the sonic journey begins with an overture punctuated by the words of a cynic who condemns "the dreamer, the un-woken fool."

Beautiful yet fun, ambitious yet consistent, Eldorado proceeds to celebrate such romantics and escapists. A Technicolour escapade marked by lush melodies, fluid crescendos, and an intoxicating blend of energetic rock and sweeping orchestral elements, the album weds rich imagery and sweeping sounds in manners that make the two inseparable. In Lynne and company's hands, reality and fantasy collide, and dissolve any dividing lines. The proof is not just in the epic production, but in the timeless (and catchy) nature of songs such as the balladic "Boy Blue," power-pop packed "Illusions in G Major," and, of course, the aptly titled hit, "Can't Get It Out of My Head."

Decades later, Eldorado doubles as an invitation to break away from monotony whether you're listening to your Mobile Fidelity reissue on a large system or an excellent pair of headphones.

MoFi SuperVinyl


Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analogue lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) technique bypasses generational losses inherent to the traditional three-step plating process by removing two steps: the production of father and mother plates, which are created to yield numerous stampers from each lacquer that is cut. For UD1S plating, stampers (also called "converts") are made directly from the lacquers. Since each lacquer yields only one stamper, multiple lacquers need to be cut. Mobile Fidelity's UD1S process produces a final LP with the lowest-possible noise floor. The removal of two steps of the plating process also reveals musical details and dynamics that would otherwise be lost due to the standard multi-step process. With UD1S, every aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the best-sounding vinyl album available today.

160-gram heavyweight Vinyl LP with gatefold jacket displaying the painting series that inspired the music, and the story of Newtok. Newtok is a remote Alaska Native village situated on the Ningliq River, near the west coast of Alaska. Although a very remote and quiet place, Newtok has come face-to-face with climate change. Due to a combination of thawing permafrost, low levels of sea ice, and strong storms, the coastal land of Newtok is eroding dramatically. In 2016, Chicago visual artist Jennifer Cronin embarked on a trip to Newtok to document this changing environment. Upon returning, she spent the next several years developing a series of paintings and screen prints titled Seen and Unseen that captured this eroding landscape. In 2019, Cronin and musical Artist Patrick Mitchell (a/k/a Dusty Patches) began discussing the project after Cronin asked him to perform at the Gallery opening for the series. As a result, Mitchell created this album, Newtok - inspired by Cronin's Seen and Unseen series and the story of Newtok, Alaska. Mitchell is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter and producer from Chicago who has led numerous past projects in the Chicago DIY community including De Triomphe, New Color, and Whiskey Wise. He dove headfirst into synths in 2017 and adopted the electronic alias Dusty Patches. Dusty Patches released his debut project Filthy Four Track Machine: Volumes I & II (2018, Sooper Records), largely made with the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators and OP-1. In 2020, he released Nocturnal Emissions from the Dablatory, his first project fully realized with modular synthesis. In approaching Newtok, Mitchell composed all of the constituent musical elements of the work and then recorded and live mixed the album during a single live performance on modular synthesizer. The album draws heavily on sprawling ambient synths, electric and acoustic post-punk guitar motifs, cryptic vocal sampling, vintage drum machines, and modular patches that often sound like birds or the sea. The subject matter of the album, the complexity of its arrangement, and its execution as a single live recorded performance makes Newtok a unique musical experience. About Newtok, Mitchell says: This record was an exploration of themes. When faced with the immense canvases Jen Cronin produced upon her return from the village of Newtok, one can't help but feel awe. With the sheer size of the works towering above you, you are compelled. There is overwhelming beauty, desolation, a sense of urgency, and a sense that it is, in fact, far too late. These visual themes, and the emotions they evoke, were connected to the sounds and compositions of this record. There is a coldness to the digital soundscape, but organic sounds of nature and humans tether and steer the album through a journey of musical storytelling. Newtok is a journey of musical storytelling about the tragedy of the Anthropocene in the age of climate change. FOR FANS OF: Mother Earth's Plantasia, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Boards of Canada, Bibio