Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

After the reissue of their three private pressed albums from the 70's and the European tour in 2010 followed by the release of a new album, the Pyramids, led by multi-instrumentalist - or better: multi-talented artist - Idris Ackamoor, seem to have revived the burning fire that once gave birth to an ecstatic musical concept. The Pyramids' honest love for music, their firm belief in its social impact have shaped their story and style: after studying with free-jazz icon Cecil Taylor, the Pyramids left for a journey through Africa in 1972 where they connected with their cultural roots and developed their own musical vision.

On "Rhapsody in Berlin" this vision is still vibrating: a melodic horn theme interplays with a Pygmy flute, some driving riffs and a heavy funk rhythm. The music will walk you through an enchanted jungle that seems somewhat quiet at first - despite the sense of its hidden power. Suddenly but elegantly the music explodes and the saxophone takes off and flies freely before merging with a singing violin into an ecstasy of percussion.

This deluxe overview Of Boston's creative jazz scene is presented as a double LP Set, packaged in deluxe box with each piece of vinyl housed in its own euro-style glossy jacket. Also Included is an 8 ½ x 5 ½, 80 page book documenting the rich history of the music with in-depth analyses and photos. Check!
In the 1970s Boston was a fertile ground for a very creative jazz scene. Small, independent venues ranging from lofts to churches to clubs opened up to support this thriving backdrop while jazz musicians set up their own labels. One man was there through it all, playing music and documenting the musical landscape. His name was Mark Harvey and here is his story....

Mark Harvey and Deano Sounds pulled together the most comprehensive package of Boston
Jazz released to date. The album has been assembled as a deluxe package that includes, in
addition to the music, an 80-page book documenting the rich history of this music scene with in-depth analyses and photos of the jazz musicians involved.
The music on this album is culled from rare private press Jazz LPs that were pressed in small
quantities of a few hundred for members of the band and the local jazz community at the time.
The music here runs the gamut of funky jazz from Arnie Cheatham's "Thing" to the deep free jazz
of the Phill Musra Group or the spoken word brilliance of Worlds, to the complex metric structures of Stanton Davis' "Play Sleep." This is a collection of very rare eccentric jazz pieces for your
enjoyment!

Debut album, released in 1977, by one by one of Anatolian Rock's most sheerly talented vocalists. Turkish psych-rock with some amazing funk drums and fuzzed out guitars. Ersen spent time in Mogollar, 3 Hür-El, and Cem Karaca's Kardaslar before cementing his reputation as the frontman of Dadaslar. His voice can range from one that has a soft edge (where he swallows his notes a bit, like a muezzin would), to growling belt-outs that could have fronted any 80s metal act.

Ersen and his ever-changing backup band wore Slade haircuts and loud jackets with rainbow pants or silver platform shoes, and they grew their moustaches just as long as the Beatle bangs of their Western counterparts.

Get the synth-wizz, funk breaks and fuzzed-out prog riffage behind one of Anatolian Rock's best vocalists!

Original gatefold artwork, insert with liner notes by Angela Sawyer (Weirdo Records), remastered sound.

On Hidden Orchestra's eagerly anticipated third album, 'Dawn Chorus', producer and composer Joe Acheson conjures an intricate yet expansive world of sound, built around a collection of birdsong and other field recordings captured over many years in diverse locations around the UK and abroad. Rich in detail and character, these snapshots intertwine with bass, drums, percussion and eclectic instruments - including piano, electro-harp, zither, Turkish mey and cello - for an emotive and transporting listen that Acheson describes as "a kind of personal audio diary, time capsule or memoir".

More music from Hidden Orchestra! This time Joe Acheson delivers his first full length album in 5 years. Hidden Orchestra have a dedicated following for their live shows and their album sales are seriously impressive, we're expecting big things for this release. To cater to their fanatical fans we have made some exciting products. The album's artwork comes courtesy of Norman Ackyroyd (CBE, RA), who's stunning prints have graced all the covers of Hidden Orchestra albums and whose artwork can be found in the Tate, The British Museum and The Natioinal Gallery of Art, Washington. The CD is housed in a triple gatefold digifile, while the LP comes housed in a gatefold LP (+ download card).

On Hidden Orchestra's eagerly anticipated third album, 'Dawn Chorus', producer and composer Joe Acheson conjures an intricate yet expansive world of sound, built around a collection of birdsong and other field recordings captured over many years in diverse locations around the UK and abroad. Rich in detail and character, these snapshots intertwine with bass, drums, percussion and eclectic instruments - including piano, electro-harp, zither, Turkish mey and cello - for an emotive and transporting listen that Acheson describes as "a kind of personal audio diary, time capsule or memoir".

More music from Hidden Orchestra! This time Joe Acheson delivers his first full length album in 5 years. Hidden Orchestra have a dedicated following for their live shows and their album csales are seriously impressive, we're expecting big things for this release. To cater to their fanatical fans we have made some exciting products. The album's artwork comes courtesy of Norman Ackyroyd (CBE, RA), who's stunning prints have graced all the covers of Hidden Orchestra albums and whose artwork can be found in the Tate, The British Museum and The Natioinal Gallery of Art, Washington. The CD is housed in a triple gatefold digifile, while the LP comes housed in a gatefold LP (+ download card).

Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee the smoked out instrumentalist trio Magic In Threes are highly influenced by library records, old film soundtracks, and hip hop tapes. They were formed in 2010 as a side project to their work with DeRobert & The Half-Truths. Following a long line of solid and well-received releases on Nashville's own G.E.D Soul Records, KU started their investigation into the chances of signing the group.

In 2016, Magic In Threes members, Dave Singleton, Nick DeVan, and Mark Spain set a goal to record and release a new track every week. You are about to hear two of them. The a-
side At Jody's' was recorded at flautist Jody Douglas's house in the Sylvan Park neighbourhood of Nashville, Tennessee. Breezy Day' was recorded at DeVan's Poor Man Studios in Madison, Tennessee. We think you'll agree, it's quite blazed out.

Han Swolfs turns our senses to more classic and jazz infused pieces, improvised almost entirely on winged piano. Gazebo Compositions' can be considered a resting point after Han's more energetic electronic releases and grasps back to his roots. Inspired by a video-work by Jef Cornelis, Han translates moods and impressions of memories of his youth and his relation to the artist using a technique similar to Ecriture Automatique. Each note sprouts inspiration for the next one and composes the full story with uppers and downers. Belgian duality in it's bloom for this summer release.
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Written and performed by Hantrax. Mastered at Dubplas & Mastering Berlin. Pressed on (180g) 12inch black vinyl with a video still cover taken from De Koninklijke serres van Laken 1877-1902' made by Jef Cornelis in 1974. Packed in a silk-screened transparant over-sleeve.

Paal Nilssen-Love - Drums
Terrie Hessels - Guitar
Andy Moor - Guitar
Ken Vandermark - Reeds

Paal Nilssen-Love - Drums
Terrie Hessels - Guitar
Andy Moor - Guitar
Ken Vandermark - Reeds

Heather Leigh: pedal steel guitarPeter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone

Jongno Edits is an homage to the golden age of K-pop, those rarely heard but always loved strains of psych- rock, funk, disco and boogie from the 60's, 70's, 80's. Our mystery editors spent countless hours getting their hands dusty in the record shops and flea markets of Seoul's Jongno-Gu, in order to dig out the ultra-rare gems from the 'Land of the Morning Calm'.

These tracks have been put together especially for KAT45 and the 7'' format in mind: short and steady edits of soul and psych-rock... No effects or crazy filtering, but fine layering and editing of really hard to find Korean classics that stays true to the originals.

Jongno Edits - Drifter
- - / Key Brothers
South Korean psychedelic rock masterpiece, heavy drums all the way around. In 1971, the Korean group Key Boys split up and its members either went solo or joined/formed groups like He6, Guys & Dolls, and the Key Brothers. This track (A Drifter's Life, ) is from the Key Brothers second album, , which was released in 1972 and features two fantastic originals, one of them penned by the Korean rock god Shin Jung-Hyun, and a sick 12 minute cover of Evil Ways.

Jongno Edits - Dark Alley
- / Jung Sung Jo - Dark alley
Jung Sung-jo began his career as music director in film with "It Rained Yesterday" (1975) by director Lee Jang-ho, and left music to work on about 50 film scores including "Winter Woman", "Lee Jang-ho's" "Baseball Team" and "My Bride My Love". He organised a band called 'Jung Sung-jo and Messengers' with Cho Kyeong-su and Choi Byung-geol in the 1970s, and introduced jazz sounds into film music, playing the saxophone and flute.

Once again the big band takes some classics back

Alemayehu Eshete is considered the golden voice of Ethopia. Since his first hit single "Seul" in 1961 he has become the father figure of the soulful stream of Ethopian music. In Ethiopia no other musician adapted the newest trends from the US soul scene as consequently as Alemayehu did.

With this new 7" he continues his soulful approach on Ethopian music. His funky classic Alteleyeshegnem is here re-interpretated by the Philophon house band in an even funkier way than the original. A tough beat is crisscrossed by mystic harmonies and a pumping bassline. Temar Ledje points out the sweet side of master Alemayehu. This is another classic tune that comes dosed with a rejuvenating cure by the Philophon production team. Just listen!

The cooperation between Alemayehu Eshete and Philophon was initiated by Listros e.V. Berlin with support by the Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany.

Very scarce 1981 glossy cover Australian LP "What Is This Thing Called 'Disco" with bonus 12" single!
Chapter is excited to announce the first ever reissue of What Is This Thing Called 'Disco'' , a landmark Australian post-punk artefact originally released in 1981 as an LP with accompanying 12' single.
One of the first records from the Australian underground to incorporate disco elements into the reigning post-punk asethetic, What Is This Thing Called 'Disco'' sits alongside records by international counterparts like Flying Lizards or Yellow Magic Orchestra in its combination of art school formalism and dancefloor hedonism. Melbourne artist Philip Brophy is best known for his work with 70s/80s art-punk provocateurs Tsk Tsk Tsk (pronounced with three clicks of the tongue). Asked to stage an exhibition in Melbourne in 1980, Brophy decided to put disco into an art gallery context. He created 'fake' band Asphixiation to mime on stage along to tape, and recorded What Is This Thing Called 'Disco'' as the backing tracks. In 1981, iconic Melbourne label Missing Link released a two song 12', and later that year the band released the album themselves, repressing the 12' and including it in the package. 36 years later, Chapter has lovingly remastered and reissued the album + single package, with new liner notes and photos.

"Year Of The Funky" is the second album from Bei Bei () & Shawn Lee. After their debut collaborative album "Into The Wind" (Ubiquity Records, 2010), the Chinese guzheng virtuoso / composer and the prolific multi-instrumentalist / producer join forces again on 12 new tracks. "Year Of The Funky" marries a unique blend of ancient tradition with studio trickery. Eschewing all notions of superficial "Asian/Fusion", this uplifting, genre-bending, and sophisticated sound brings together both East & West with musical aplomb. The new album continues as a logical progression from "Into The Wind". It ventures into both new tempos & moods while deftly connecting the past, the future and what lies beyond.


About Bei Bei

The Guzheng is over 2000 years old and belongs to the Asian long zither family. It was used in both folk and court music in the ancient China. Falling in love with the 5 foot tall x 1 foot wide 21-stringed Chinese instrument at first sight, Bei Bei began playing at the age of seven and received her professional musical training at the Central University of Nationalities in Beijing, China and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in Hong Kong. She also studied Jazz music and improvisation at Fullerton College in California. Bei Bei roots her art in classical music and expands into other styles, combining new with old into creative new expressions, especially in her collaborations with musicians from different genres such as funk, jazz, alternative, electronica, hip-hop, and dance. She is a multi-award winner of many national and international awards. In 2011, she and her music were included in the American college textbook "World Music" by Michael Bakan. In 2015, she was featured as one of The Most Fascinating People of Los Angeles by LA Weekly Magazine. As a studio musician, she recorded for Sci-fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" and award-winning video game original score "Revelation" (). As a composer, she composed music and performed for the China Central TV documentary series "Dun Huang", Chinese movie "Copycat", and for Canon web promo video "Tiger's Heart" . She released her debut album "Quiet Your Mind And Listen" in 2006 and her collaborative album "Heart of China" (Universal Music), with Richard Horowtiz, in 2008. Her last collaborative album "Into The Wind" with Shawn Lee was released through Ubiquity Records in 2010. As an educator and author, she has published two books "Gu Zheng Sessions Vol.1" and "Bei Bei's Easiest Guzheng Course Book 1" with accompaniment CD and videos. She is the director of Lotus Bud Guzheng Academy in Orange County California and business owner of The Guzheng Shop.


About Shawn Lee

Shawn Lee is one of the most prolific musicians of his generation. A multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer songwriter, composer and Radio DJ who has released 35 albums as an artist to date. He has played, produced and written on hundreds of records. He has worked with a diverse range of artists including Jeff Buckley, Kelis, Saint Etienne, Money Mark, Amy Winehouse, Jonathan Jeremiah, Darondo, Adrian Younge, Tony Joe White, Robbie Williams, Incognito and Princess Superstar to name just a few. Lee's music has been used extensively in both film & TV - "Monuments Men", "20 feet from stardom", "House of cards", "Orange is the new black", "Blacklist", "Vice Principals", "Oceans 13", "Eastbound & Down", "Ugly Betty", "Nip Tuck", "CSI," "Confessions of a shopaholic", Cinemaxx, Jaguar, BMW, Barclays, Clarks shoes, Head & shoulders and many many more. He has also created bespoke music for Hermann Miller, Ace Hotels and Wallpaper magazine. As a composer, he has scored two documentary films "Elevate" and "Under the sun". Lee also created the original soundtrack for the feature films "Save Angel Hope", "Live Evil," "12 Dare's" and composed the original scores for video games "Zombie Playground" and "Rockstar's Bully" which was nominated for best score twice - winning once. Shawn Lee is an American and has lived in London England for over 20 years with his wife and his two daughters.

Eclectic, Futuristic, Soulful, Danceable..... Carl Hudson's follow-up album to the critically acclaimed 'Zoology For Martians' doesn't disappoint. 'Pixel Planet' oozes class from start to
finish. His wizardry on the keyboard and his willingness to experiment with sound and melody, combine to create an aural extravagance that propels the listener to another world
and compels their feet to dance. Pixel Planet - coming to a Galaxy near you soon!
Featuring nine tracks in all their sonic glory. Hear this album as it was intended to be heard.

A magical mixture of traditional min'yo songs and Latin jazz elements, this is an original compilation of the work of Japanese singer Chiemi Eri, drawing upon 10-inches released by the Japanese King label between 1958 and 1962. Included are exclusive liner notes and a rich calligraphed booklet with romanized lyrics.

This LP brings together for the first time, HIP HARP and IN A MINOR GROOVE, the two albums recorded in 1958 by the legendary jazz harpist and polistrumentist Dorothy Ashby. Dorothy Ashby had a unique soul jazz harp sound, and although the instrument she used is probably more thought of in terms of bedtime lullabies, she actually makes it swing nicely, and with a soulful sound that draws back to traditions of African stringed instruments. Ashby was part of the same scene as Yusef Lateef, and like Lateef, she managed to use odd instrumentation in new contexts, to get a very unique jazz sound.

In HIP HARP in addition to the interpretations of standards like Moonlight In Vermont, Dancing In The Dark, Charmaine and There's A Small Hotel, Dorothy and Frank work out on three Ashby tunes: Pawky, a minor-key blues, Back Talk, major-key blues and Jollity, a medium-up original. Dorothy Ashby has added to the basic territory that the harp previously occupied. In fusing her sometimes guitar-like, swinging line to the expected harp effects, she has added another step to the instrument-scope of jazz(...) (from the original liner notes)


IN A MINOR GROOVE is so named because all of the tunes are set in that particular mode. They represent a mixture of standards, jazz originals and one fairly recent pop song. Like the first set featuring Dorothy Ashby and Frank Wess (Hip Harp), this is not rock 'em, sock 'em jazz, it is far from the cloying effects of the kind of performances often associated with jazz of a low decibel nature' (from the original liner notes)

Numbered first press of 500 copies.

After making us wait almost two decades for new solo material before last year's "Saudade", Steve Cobby is back in the blink of an eye with his second LP in as many years, once again on his own Declasse imprint. I suspect self-releasing suits Mr Cobby, and "Everliving" sees him embrace the creative freedom it allows. The fourteen immersive and expansive cuts are spread lovingly across three LPs rather than cramped onto a double, allowing each track the time and space to grow and evolve at its own pace. The result is an LP which entirely envelops you within its own sonic world, beguiling your senses with hypnotic keys, lilting rhythms, gentle guitars and pan global sounds. More electronic than its predecessor, "Everliving" delves deeper, gradually easing you into a trance like state through repetition and an expert understanding of space. So far the release has been met with universal praise from the likes of Dave Harvey, Phil Mison, Richard Norris and Peter Kruder, and really, who are we to disagree Superb

REISSUE OF SUPER-RARE ALBUM WHICH SELLS FOR SILLY MONEY ON DISCOGS.
REISSUED FOR RSD AUSTRALIA 2017..NOW WE HAVE A FEW COPIES FOR EUROPE..LIMITED
For decades the mysterious Hiroshi & Claudia LP has been an elusive jewel amongst the curious world of Australian private press LPs. With nothing more than cryptic broken-English album sleeve notes to reference, the mythical Six To Six LP is a bewildering and intriguing jazz oddity. With prices of the rare original record hitting three figures, collectors began demanding to know who was 'Hiroshi', who was 'Claudia' and why did a group of unknown Japanese musicians record an album in Australia in the late 1970s only to issue it in micro-quantities, then seemingly disappear back into obscurity. For years no trace of whom they were nor any clue as to the origins of their peculiar yet entrancing music had surfaced. Until now....

Welcome to the brainchild of Gilles Germain and Carmen Fabro, a French/Italian husband and wife team of restaurateurs and film producers operating in Sydney during the 1970s. Establishing the custom record label 'Atom', the duo released a handful of highly obscure vanity jazz LPs and promotional horse racing 45s. (Yes it's all very strange...) The highlight undoubtedly being the album Six To Six, a session recorded in Sydney in 1979 by a group of touring Japanese jazz musicians led by guitarist Hiroshi Yasukawa, and a forgotten and still undocumented Mauritian cabaret singer performing under the alias 'Claudia'. Sitting somewhere between spacey Balearic disco, haunting soul and hectic funk reminiscent of electric Miles Davis, the Six To Six LP is a curious beast to say the least.

Released specially for Record Store Day 2017 Northside Records and The Roundtable present a limited edition exact reissue of this legendary Australian rare groove LP.  

This album represents a high point in 1960s British jazz, a time of experimentation, integration and joy. This is effortless, unique and very beautiful jazz, exotically tinged with elements from Indian musical tradition.

Now I could go on and on about how amazing and beautiful this LP is but please, just trust me, I've been a collector of British jazz since the early 1990s, this was one of the first LPs I found, originally from 'The Diskery' in Birmingham. It was £30, which was my lunch money for a week back then. I loved it, I marveled at the grace and skillful, flowing simplicity of the music. I loved the fact this was an Indian man inspiring the great British jazz masters with the rhythms, ideas and influences of his home country. I still love this album today and have watched as prices for originals have soared from £200 to £1200 in the last few years, making it impossible for more record collectors to appreciate it. Criminally overlooked when it first came out (hence its rarity today), hopefully this FIRST EVER repress will allow more collectors to appreciate just how harmonious and beautiful music made by supreme, international but impoverished jazz artists can be.

VINYL: Full colour sleeve - exact copy of the original. Standard vinyl, cellowrapped. Barcode stuck to cellowrap, not on sleeve.

Second release from the label offers up broken rhythms, jacking grooves and deep spirituals. Hold Me explores lyricism within tight repetitious rhythm, on which saxophonist Tyrone Isaac-Stuart explores hook lines and story telling whilst bassist Jordan Christo maintains control over the low-end spectrum.That He Man Of Hers melds jacking, upbeat tempo with romanticism and melancholy on top, with Louis Ktisti providing guitar accompaniment. One's Own Permanent Faith, on the other hand, provides for a moodier and more subdued spiritual dance rhythm, which warms one up before the spiritual explorations in Would You Tell Me About You. In this final track, the guitar rhythms provided by Jabriel AlSuhaimi and spiritual exorcism of the saxophone by Tyrone Isaac-Stuart present a different angle in the approach towards discovering the endless groove.

Hip Hop instrumentals in a Western Movie State Of Mind !

Never before reissued, this legendary 1968 EMI recording is a revered Indian jazz rarity, a collectors' holy grail. Raga Jazz Style is an original Indian excursion into Indo-jazz fusion. A one-away recording from the almost unknown Bombay jazz scene, it is among the few jazz LPs to hail from the subcontinent.Closely contemporary with the UK-based explorations of Amancio D'Silva, John Mayer and Joe Harriott, Raga Jazz Style takes the melodic, scale-based raga system of Indian classical music and marries it with a swinging jazz rhythm section assembled by Bollywood's most highly acclaimed musical directors, the soundtrack composing duo Shankar Singh and Jaikishan Panchal.Singh and Panchal were a dominant force in Hindi film music from the late 1940s onwards. Shankar had been trained in classical tabla, while Jaikishan was an expert harmonium player. They worked together on well over a hundred films, and their innovative compositions and orchestral scoring revolutionised the music of the nascent Bollywood industry. Central to their sound was regular collaborator Sebastian D'Souza. From 1952 onwards, D'Souza would work on every Shankar Jaikishan soundtrack, eventually becoming Bollywood's most coveted musical arranger.
Originally from Goa, D'Souza had cut his teeth in the dance-band era, arranging and playing with his uncle's jazz bands in Lahore and Quetta. After Partition, he had moved to Bombay to follow the reliable work provided by the film industry, where Goan musicians had become the mainstay of Bollywood's film studio orchestras. Goans were also the core of Bombay's thriving dance-hall and hotel-based jazz scene, with artists including saxophonist Braz Gonsalves, guitarist Amancio D'Silva and trumpeter Chic Chocolate all working in the city during the post-war years.
The team assembled for Raga Jazz Style were drawn from this inventive and forward-thinking milieu. Pianist Lucilla Pacheco, saxophonist Manohari Singh and guitarist Anibal Castro were all fixtures on the Bombay jazz circuit, while drummer Leslie Godinho is reputed to have taught Joe Morello the 5/4 'Take Five' beat when they jammed together during Dave Brubeck's State Department tour of India. To this jazz backbone was added the sitar of Ustad Rais Khan, scion of long line of classical instrumentalists, and nephew of the renowned sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan. Bombay's jazz modernists had been experimenting with the fusion of ragas and jazz since the 1950s, long before American or British jazz musicians had tuned in to Indian classical music. But very little of this exciting scene was ever captured on record. Raga Jazz Style offers a rare chance to hear the innovative sounds of the Indian jazz scene, as peerless composers Shankar Jaikishan and arranging supremo D'Souza join with veteran Bombay jazzers to explore classical themes in a jazz setting — eleven ragas to a swinging beat!This is a highly impressive inaugural salvo by Outernational Sounds, using original masters and beautifully rendered facsimile artwork, with 180g vinyl pressed at Pallas, in Germany.

***** PICTURE DISK  ***** LIMITED TO 500 COPIES *****  ***** 
RARE!  1957 lp MOST SLEAZY CLASSIC SLEEVE NOW RELEASE ON P . DISK , COOL SEXY SONGS FROM THE PAST ­ Picture Disc ­ FULL COLOR  LP SLEEVE  +  INSERT OF WEIRD LPS PICTURES A forgotten treasure, could be a COOL GIFT FOR XMAS

Minimalist Fourth World Abstractions for Daydreams and other Explorations' Banana was a new experience for us. The sound of musicians I feel very connected to playing freely around composed pieces under my direction - exploring themes and theories of naturalism and modalism through repetition. For those in search of a bath, a rinse, a departure, or an expansion. Hopefully exotic, hopefully pleasant.'

WHITE VINYL

Razor-sharp production of the highest order from two of the masters of the early 80's Rio de Janeiro boogie sound, Robson Jorge and Lincoln Olivetti. Both were highly acclaimed music producers of the time, starting around the mid-70's. Over the course of his career Olivetti worked with artists including Rita Lee, Erasmo Carlos, Don Beto, Marcos Valle, Tim Maia, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Sandra Sa, Painel de Controle and many more. The album takes in mid-tempo, AOR, boogie and even latin all way through the tempo's to ultra-quick Prince style disco-funk workouts. Includes several standout tracks - 'Aleluia' and 'Ginga' being our two favourites. Synths, horns, claps, drum machines, guitars, keys and vocal harmonies combine effortlessly.
Originally released in 1982 on Som Livre, Brazil. Replica original
reproduction.

A very special release of a Sun Ra solo piano improvisation recorded in June 1990 during an interview with presenter and DJ Jez Nelson at the studios of Jazz FM in London.

As Jez Nelson says in the sleeve notes: At the end of our conversation I asked Sun Ra if he would play something for us on the beautiful Schimmel piano in the studio next door. He smiled the smile of an ancient spirit with a childlike joy and said he'd be delighted. Then he walked next door, sat down at the piano, said 'Hello Mr Schimmel' and played.'

This release is the third in a series of totally valve mastered recordings featuring Gearbox's vintage Decca valve mixer in association with their Haeco Scully lathe with Westrex RA1700 series amps, Westrex 3DIIA cutting head and Telefunken U73B tube limiter.

Recently championed by Gilles Peterson on his BBC6 Music radio show, "Dilla" by Abstract Orchestra has been generating a buzz since it's inception in 2016 and subsequent u.k. tour, during which the album was presented to the public in its live form.

Led by Saxophonist Rob Mitchell, Abstract Orchestra seeks to reflect the diversity of music sampled by Hip-Hop producers by presenting music that has the complexity of jazz, framed within the simpler structures of Hip-Hop. Complex harmonies are framed within simple loops and complex bar structures and time signatures can pass by unnoticed. "I selected the tracks on the album with very much the live performance in mind" says band-leader and arranger Rob Mitchell "So the album is a reflection of the tour and the music we performed".

Inspired by the legendary live performances of The Roots with Jay-Z and the 40 piece orchestral arrangements by Miguel-Atwood Ferguson of the work of J Dilla, classic arranging techniques underpin modern loop-based structures.The band itself is based on the classic jazz big band instrumentation of saxes, trumpets and trombones and features the cream of the north of England's jazz scene who collectively have played with Jamiroquai, Corinne Bailey Rae, Mark Ronson, Martha Reeves, John Legend & the Roots, Roots Manuva and Amy Winehouse.

"Dilla" by Abstract Orchestra is a tribute to the work of the highly acclaimed and influential producer. Opener"Welcome to Detroit/The Diary"takes the the vocal sample from Isaac Hayes's "Man's Temptation" and places it against lush brass and driving beats while"Workinonit"Transplants the original 10cc guitar samples from the Dilla original onto biting trumpets and aggressive saxes, underpinned as always by Joost Hendrickx's on point drumming. On"Stop"vocalist Anna Uhuru handles the Dionne Warwick vocal with assurance while the band lay down an arrangement that is reminiscent of the work of David Axelrod and Don Sebeskey, both big sources of inspiration for Abstract Orchestra.

The middle of the album revolves around 2 Dilla medleys featuring versions and sections of"Airworks", "ULove", "Last Donut"and"Welcome To The Show"."Raw Shit"sees Farfisa organ underpinning the insistent brass figures with the bass taking on an almost bassoon-like quality while "Official/Fall In Love"sees Anna & Akin provide a stunning vocal performance, trading lines over the delicate horn arrangement. "Fantastic"features theRhodes intro of the original which is then taken up by the flutes and baritone sax. Inspired by the work of 20th century classical composers like Barber and Copeland the 2nd half of the arrangement takes on an almost orchestral feel with shades of Gil Evans.

"Love","So Far To Go","A.N.G.E.L.", and"Sun In My Face"provide interesting takes on these well known Dilla originals while album closer"Two Can Win"(recently championed by Gilles Peterson on his BBC6 Music show) acts as a showcase for the variety of Anna Uhuru's vocals, blending the style of the original Sylvers track with Minnie Ripperton style harmonies, 70's funk and Lalo Schiffrin/JJ Johnson film score vibes.

Closing track "Two can win" was played twice in two consecutive weeks by Gilles Peterson on his BBC6 Music show, where he declared it to be "A Winner".