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First time reissue of a legendary and undeservedly obscure salsa collector’s album from 1969. Led by rebel accordionist Alfredo Gutiérrez and featuring singer Lucho Pérez of Sonora Dinamita fame, “Así es… Con salsa!” is just that: raw, heavy duty NYC salsa performed through a Colombian “Costeño” tropical filter, with trombone, accordion and deep bass. Contains three hot bonus tracks in the same style and insert with liner notes. “¡Así es… Con salsa!”, by Colombia’s Alfredo Gutiérrez y Los Caporales del Magdalena, is a legendary collector’s album, yet still undeservedly obscure (and perhaps sonically surprising) for the uninitiated. It’s an experimental mash-up of seemingly disparate genres from different origins that on paper would seem to be at cross purposes. Yet at the same time the release is a masterpiece of raw pan-Latin fusion from the dawn of Colombian salsa that holds its own as a bonafide heavy duty pioneering record of the genre, despite its outsider status. Probably the most shocking musical element is Alfredo Gutiérrez’s fiery accordion, an unexpected instrument in the idiom of salsa, as it’s usually associated with the tropical music of Gutiérrez’s Caribbean home region of Sucre. Gutiérrez has always been a provocateur, never shying away from the controversial or outlandish, which has earned him the richly deserved sobriquet, “El Rebelde Del Acordeón” (The Rebel of The Accordion). Gutiérrez started Los Caporales in 1968 as a rival to Discos Fuentes supergroup Los Corraleros de Majagual, and the band had made three popular albums prior to “¡Así es… Con salsa!”, yet most of the repertoire on those records consisted of typical Colombian tropical and coastal rhythms and genres, none were purposely devoted to the newly minted genre of salsa. From the start, Gutiérrez lays down a salsa manifesto when the album kicks off with ‘Guadelupe no va’, a four-minute workout with pile-driving force that demonstrates the uncompromising power of this 14 piece orchestra. The listener is instantly hooked by the rawness of the sound, the bouncy energy, heavy brass and piano arrangements and the looseness of the improvisational sections. Gutiérrez was given the green light by Codiscos A&R head Humberto Moreno to dedicate an album to New York style salsa, giving more prominence to the voice and compositions of Lucho Pérez, an already proven expert in Cuban genres who previously had been only one among many vocalists in the band. Several tunes on the record are remakes of older compositions by Lucho Pérez from his early tenure with Discos Fuentes group La Sonora Dinamita, the new versions are much more raw and menacing, as if put through a Bronx filter. The band was made up of Codiscos’ regular stable of ace studio musicians from Medellín for the recording date. The album was both a success and also not abnormal in its mixing of salsa and costeño Colombian sounds, as there were several other similar hybrid records by other artists at the time. Both the desperation of the lyrics (about not being able to afford anything) and Lucho Pérez’ forceful delivery leave an indelible impression of street wise authenticity, which is backed up by the fact that both band members grew up poor

We have opened the vault to bring to you for the first time on a 2CD set Roadrunner United ‘The Concert (Live at the Nokia Theatre, New York, NY, 12/15/2005)’, featuring members of Slipknot, Anthrax, Trivium, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Sepultura & more. Roadrunner United was a project organized by the heavy metal record label Roadrunner Records to celebrate its 25th anniversary. On December 15th, 2005, in New York City, the label produced the Metal Concert to end all Metal Concerts: 39 musicians, representing 25 different Roadrunner bands, performed 25 songs from 19 different bands’ repertoire. This unique and unprecedented aggregation of musicians was no jam session. Each song was studiously rehearsed and arranged, coming together with exuberant perfection, to produce a concert that can only be called “Legend.”

Conceived as a follow-up to the Roadrunner United All-Star recording sessions, the label recruited the core team of musicians (Dino Cazares, Adam Duce, Paul Gray, Joey Jordison, Andreas Kisser and Roy Mayorga) as the backbone of the performance. Sure enough, as they fine-tuned the songs and rehearsed them tirelessly, dozens of other musicians came on board.

This 3LP set represents the gathering of a community of musicians that spans the heavy metal history of the first 25 years of Roadrunner Records: from King Diamond to Slipknot and beyond. Those who were lucky enough to be there experienced a night they will never forget. For the first time as a live concert album, this 3LP set on red, white and black coloured vinyl is a chance to relive that special night again and again.

Maxophone, from Milan, formed in 1973 as a six-piece with an unusual
assortment of instruments, all members previously music students
A band of great talent and musicianship, their only LP, released in 1975, came a
little too late to compete with the other important Progrock Italian bands and
went sadly unnoticed.
"Maxophone", was released on the Produttori Associati label (along with Duello
Madre one of the few rock records released by this label) is a marvellous album,
full of dreamy atmospheres and complex horn arrangements, with vocal parts in
a Genesis style and is now considered one of the best Italian prog records of all
times.

“On this, their second LP, P16.D4 solicited tapes from several artists from Europe, England, the U.S., Canada, and Japan, and mixed that with their own material. Though in the current digital age collaborations from artists thousands of miles apart is quite normal, this was a quite radical approach back in 1982, when work on this LP began – an interesting concept that actually works quite well, since these artists, which include Bladder Flask, DDAA, the Haters, Merzbow, Nocturnal Emissions, Nurse With Wound, and several others – work in a similar free-ranging experimentalism as P16.D4, and their particular elements, usually just vocals or one instrument or noise implement, blend well without diluting P16.D4’s own peculiar brand of avant-garde post-industrialism, but merely give it another facet. One of the best tracks, “Aufmarsch, Heimlich,” consists of a choir submitted anonymously from Eastern Europe phasing in and out of static while a skronky alto sax bleats away. Most of the pieces exist somewhere just beyond the borders of free jazz, industrial, and even classical avant-garde, full of jarring noises and strange transitions and with a heavy overlay of electronics. What started out as an experiment yielded one of P16.D4’s best albums.” - Rolf Semprebon / AMG

“Distruct is organized around sounds provided by the cream of experimental musicians of the early ’80s, from Nurse With Wound to Nocturnal Emissions, via De Fabriek, Die Todliche Doris, The Haters, Merzbow, and others. Obviously, there is no question of remixing here, and at no time do P16.D4 seek to hide its sources, clearly identifying the contribution of each artist in the liner notes. It would be futile to try to find the paw of each artist, the trio operating vis-à-vis its collaborators the same methods as in their own work. Reworked, distorted by various effects, cut, edited, aggregated with other sounds, produced by P16.D4 themselves, reprocessed. Exchange, communication, two other data that will constantly recur in the work of P16.D4, rich in external contributions and encounters of all kinds. Musically, and despite the diversity of sources treated, Distruct escapes the heterogeneous character, which often marks this type of collaboration, to offer a coherent whole: fragments of opera, Soviet speeches, out-of-tune guitar, saxophone, tattered violins, overdriven and metallic noisy attacks, jackhammers, field recordings, battered choirs, and many other less identifiable sounds. In addition to the desired dialogue between the artists, Distruct also offers a real reflection on listening, and on the expectations of the listener.” - Dissolve

P16.D4 was a German electronic noise music collective, active primarily from 1980 to 1988. P16.D4 embraced tape cut-ups, musique concrète, endless recycling and transformation of previously published material, and many long-distance collaborations with like-minded artists such as DDAA, Vortex Campaign, Nurse With Wound, and Merzbow. Their active participation in the international industrial tape scene yielded collaborative output such as their release Distruct, where bands such as Nurse with Wound, Nocturnal Emissions, Die Tödliche Doris, and The Haters provided the source material. The longest-term collaboration was with the installation and conceptual artist Achim Wollscheid, who used P16.D4 sounds as the basis for LPs he recorded under the name SBOTHI. Ralf Wehowsky, the only constant member of the group, later released solo material under the alias RLW.

Members of P16.D4 were also involved with Selektion, a collective of people involved with sound as well as the visual arts. Selektion published LPs, CDs, books, visual art and design.

The collective worked in a strongly improvised, spontaneous and anti-professional way, using acoustic and electronic instruments, using existing sound fragments, duplicating and alienating them, using repetition, distortion, changes in speed and playing direction. For this they used not only sounds of other artists but also their own material from earlier productions. Late works of the collective are associated with musique concrete.

“This music is staggeringly original and innovative, and while it’s possible to locate it in a chain of circumstance that links it to ‘Industrial’ music, P16.D4 indulged in none of the empty cliches associated with the genre, worked incredibly hard, and seem to have been aiming at a form of sound art that was much more profound, varied, subversive, and potentially dangerous. Kuhe In 1/2 Trauer’s accompanying credits indicate their radical approach to making music: lots of improvisation, lots of live electronics, extensive use of tape-loops, some conventional instrumentation, and much that isn’t – like the milk churn on ‘Paris, Morgue’ or the use of baking tray and washing machine elsewhere. Even when guitars, drums or keyboards are used, they’re played very weirdly. It’s not even made clear who was doing what; the main credit is ‘Concept,’ which I assume means that one of the three devised the framework in which the noise would operate itself, and while RLW gets the lion’s share of these credits, a lot of the cuts are evenly divided among the team and I have no doubt that the group operated in a very democratic or libertarian manner. None of this prepares you for the insane and troubling sounds that reach your ears, composed with scant regard for conventional logic and following an exciting, absurdist path, especially in the matter of tape edits and juxtapositions of recordings.” - Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector.

“Though this German group started out as a the new wave band P.D., by the time of Kuhe in 1/2 Trauer, their first LP under the P16.D4 name from 1984, they had developed far beyond into extremely experimental music similar to other post-industrial artists working with abstract avant-garde soundscapes. There’s a bleak industrial feel to the gritty, lo-fi electronics and tape loops, while the group throws in enough curve balls to keep it interesting. On some pieces, strange, looped choirs bubble out of throbbing pulses and drones of feedback, while others have clanging and clattering, and elements of musique concrète and improvisation blur the boundaries even further. The opening track, “Default Value,” is one of those disorienting pieces with noises flying everywhere, while “Paris Morgue” takes excerpts from one of their old P.D. tracks and messes it up with additional instruments, while the ungainly titled fourth track throws in a heavy texture of percussive noises to create an edgy ambience about to teeter off the edge, and the even darker and more ambient title track takes the tension even further. Arrhythmic and amorphous and capable at moments of becoming quite noisy and abrasive, while at others far more somber and quiet, Kuhe in 1/2 Trauer is quite a fascinating release.” - Rolf Semprebon / AMG

P16.D4 was a German electronic noise music collective, active primarily from 1980 to 1988. P16.D4 embraced tape cut-ups, musique concrète, endless recycling and transformation of previously published material, and many long-distance collaborations with like-minded artists such as DDAA, Vortex Campaign, Nurse With Wound, and Merzbow. Their active participation in the international industrial tape scene yielded collaborative output such as their release Distruct, where bands such as Nurse with Wound, Nocturnal Emissions, Die Tödliche Doris, and The Haters provided the source material. The longest-term collaboration was with the installation and conceptual artist Achim Wollscheid, who used P16.D4 sounds as the basis for LPs he recorded under the name SBOTHI. Ralf Wehowsky, the only constant member of the group, later released solo material under the alias RLW.

Members of P16.D4 were also involved with Selektion, a collective of people involved with sound as well as the visual arts. Selektion published LPs, CDs, books, visual art and design.

The collective worked in a strongly improvised, spontaneous and anti-professional way, using acoustic and electronic instruments, using existing sound fragments, duplicating and alienating them, using repetition, distortion, changes in speed and playing direction. For this they used not only sounds of other artists but also their own material from earlier productions. Late works of the collective are associated with musique concrete.

Limited edition colored pressing is for Indies Only. Vinyl housed in a tip-on jacket. For Fans Of... John Carol Kirby, Pharoah Sanders, Bill Evans, Durand Jones & The Indications, Misha Panfilov. Debut LP from Okonski. Features current and former members of Durand Jones & the Indications (Steve Okonski, Aaron Frazer, and Michael Montgomery). Follows the debut single 'By The Lake', a collaboration with Germanbased artist and new Karma Chief signee Pale Jay (500k Monthly listeners). The studio at 122 West Loveland Avenue was not an unfamiliar space for Steve Okonski, the leader of his eponymous trio Okonski. Ever since the Colemine label set up shop in Loveland, Ohio it has been a host to a number of groups passing through town, including Durand Jones and the Indications who all of this trio’s members have connections to. After setting aside some time in winter of 2020, Okonski, trained initially as a classical pianist, invited Michael Isvara “Ish” Montgomery and Aaron Frazer to work on an album that was initially planned to be beat driven and fully composed trio instrumentals. After finishing this first session with some improvisations, a second week was booked in the summer of 2021 to try and capture some more of that spontaneous energy. During this session, the tracks were all improvised and recorded live to a Tascam 388 during several late nights at the Colemine HQ. They were structured to allow the group’s collective intuition to fully shape the melodies and arcs of the music. The album opens with Runner Up, where a triumphant yet melancholic melody in the piano leads to a more reserved B-section driven by the drums and bass of Frazer and Montgomery. As you journey through the remainder of the album you are met with a plethora of evoked and explored emotions. The calmness one has walking down a moonlit street after midnight, the connection one has for a person who comes into their world for just a moment or a lifetime, and the nerves and catharsis one feels when starting upon a new, unknown journey. Magnolia closes with Sunday, a track that was recorded late into the night at the close of their first recording session. Without the spontaneity of Sunday, the remainder of Magnolia would likely have never come to fruition. Magnolia was composed from the heart and from the spirit of those in the studio those late nights in Loveland. It is the culmination of an emotional and artistic release that was not afforded or recognized before the band sat at their instruments, and because of that it is introspective, meditative, spiritual, and new.

The Origins of Power Pop.
Remastered and pressed on Gold Vinyl. Includes printed inner sleeve.
In these songs you’ll find the DNA of The Direct Hits. Although very Elvis Costello like in both style and vocal delivery, these early recordings, dating from 1979 show a remarkable pop sensibility that had come on leaps and bounds since the release of the band’s first single, the now highly sought after ‘Fashion Plague’ b/w ‘Cheam’ released a year prior to these being recorded. Songs like ‘We broke up today’ have all the hallmarks of classic merseybeat, while out and out power pop like ‘Holiday Shots’ and ‘Fool to fall in love’ encapsulate perfectly the sheer exuberance of the genre.
More than a few steps ahead of several of their contemporaries, the band’s built in tunesmiths Buckmaster and Swan were writing catchy songs that carried a powerful punch performed with the energy and excitement of the period. The Exits left behind a wonderful set of recordings that are worthy of a comprehensive vinyl retrospective release,
These recordings first saw the light of day on a CD only release back in 2007 when Cherry Red released the CD ‘The Legendary Lost Exits album’ through its Rev-Ola offshoot. Reportedly the band members were disappointed with the overall mix on the finished release for being a little Lo-Fi . There are no such issues with this specially remastered version for vinyl. The tracks sound fresh, punchy and full of annoyingly great hooks! We are delighted to bring you yet another great addition to our catalogue of long since undisturbed sleeping giants, the Exits, and their Legendary Lost album!

After releasing their highly anticipated singles "This Is Going South" , "Dive Deep Down" , "The Problem"and "Bad" earlier this year,Stockholm based unit DULL.The Album contains everything the die-hard fans of early 00"s alt rock could ask for - the down strokes, theguitar melodies, the sing-along chorus and an intensity that only keeps on increasing throughout the relativelyshort track.Canan Rosén, guitar and vocals, on their new single:"This track deals with that feeling you get once you see someone for who they really are and realize what a loserthis person is and always has been. There"s too many people who claim to be something they"re not or claim todo something they can"t. Time to come down off your high horse and face reality!"The members of DULL are no strangers to the Swedish rock and punk community. Hailing from acts such as Dead Vibrations, Twin Pigs, Tiger Bell, Mary"s Kids and Boris and The Jeltsins DULL are certain not to be dull at all. DULL consists of: Canan Rosén - Guitar/vocals Max Lindén - Bass Louise Erdman - Guitar/vocals Elias Jonsson - Drums DULL manages to take an uneven combination of alternative combination of alternative rock, punk, and Indie and turn it into something that works. Works pretty damn well. Don"t be dull, enjoy music!

A Notwist concert is a Notwist concert is a Notwist concert. The band around the core trio of Cico Beck and the Acher brothers Markus and Micha usually takes its studio recordings as a mere starting point for their live performances, considering them to be possibilities that need to be explored further. This is especially true for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center,« a live record made under unusual circumstances. The band members rearranged songs from their ambitious 2021 album »Vertigo Days« in their studio in Weilheim to record and film a special performance. The songs took on a new life, becoming more psychedelic and intense when rearranged into a spontaneous, Krautrock-esque collage.

»Vertigo Days« was meant to transcend the conventional notion of a band as well as the creative and geographic boundaries inscribed into that concept. And even though life had other plans, this is precisely what the album did when it was released to both commercial success and critical acclaim in early 2021. Contributions by Tenniscoats singer Saya, Angel Bat Dawid, Ben LaMar Gay, Juana Molina, among others, as well as new member Theresa Loibl on bass clarinet, harmonium, and keyboard, expanded the band’s sonic palette, stylistic range, and even lyrical focus through the addition of different instruments, artistic approaches, and languages.

All of that was missing when the band retreated to their studio—dubbed Alien Research Center in response to, and in spite of, a nearby church called Christian Outreach Center—to further explore the possibilities of the source material. The band members considered this a challenge rather than an insurmountable problem and not only accepted, but fully embraced it. Trying to work as little as possible with the computers and samples—Saya’s voice on »Ship« being a notable exception—the band rearranged six tracks from »Vertigo Days« and a piece from the »One of Those Days« film soundtrack in order to allow themselves to improvise more freely, especially thanks to Loibl, who takes on a key role during these 45 minutes.

The intro sets the tone for what’s to come, contrasting loose jazz drumming with curious synthesizer rhythms in an abstract rendition of the first sounds that greeted the listeners on »Vertigo Days«. While the next four tracks—»Into Love / Stars«, »Exit Strategy To Myself«, »Where You Find Me« and »Ship«—follow the chronology of the album, they use the originals as a blank slate for further experimentation. The first track morphs into a feverish long-form jam that draws on the underlying groove to shift the dynamics from and leave behind the song structure of the studio version. It’s an exemplary piece in a recording that sees each individual musician leaving their mark on the overall sound, all while being perfectly attuned to what everyone else is doing around them. This continues up until the record’s triumphant finale, a whirring rendition of »Loose Ends.«

»Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« is at once a snapshot of a certain moment in the band’s history and the quintessential Notwist live record: a unique performance that both explores the untapped potential of the »Vertigo Days« studio recordings while also serving as an inspiration for upcoming live shows.

As with the studio album, the artwork for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« features photographs by Japanese artist Lieko Shiga, taken in the '00s.

The members of short lived Palm Desert, CA stoner/desert rock trailblazers Kyuss went their separate ways in 1995 after only four genre defining albums with Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri forming Queens of the Stone Age, John Garcia founding groups Unida, Slo Burn, and Hermana, and Brant Bjork joining Fu Manchu. 2000 posthumous compilation Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss gathered a selection of 15 rare tracks, B-sides and live cuts. Available for the first time on vinyl in the U.S., Run Out Groove offers up a colored 2LP pressing of the hard to find album with deluxe packaging.

It could only have happened in Detroit. It was in the ashes of this Detroit, that Tribe Records was born - a community-led platform where artists took control of marketing, promoting, and releasing their own music. Two original founding members, saxophonist Wendell Harrison and trombonist Phil Ranelin, are still active in the Detroit jazz community, and act as global ambassadors for the Tribe legacy. In the years that have followed, the path Tribe blazed has become the blueprint for generations of independent artists. With the upcoming release of Ranelin and Harrison"s joint entry in the Jazz Is Dead series, they continue the mission of Tribe to provide "a new dimension in cultural awareness".

Concerto Pour Détraqués" was ranked 52nd best French rock album by Rolling Stones magazine in 2010.

Eleven tracks like so many vitriolic pictures of a sick society: rape, extreme right-wing, psychiatric confinement, security paranoia, alcoholism and all the other crap that the future seems to hold. Loran and François express more than ever their rage and their refusal of the adult world in a recital with three chords: more aggressive guitars, more incisive lyrics and voices while an armada of chorus members and a saxophone come to heckle or underline this darkness.

"Concerto Pour Détraqués" is the band's reference album, with a string of hymns to insubordination and freedom: Petit Agité, Vivre Libre ou Mourir, Les Rebelles, Porcherie, Hélène et le Sang...

The band's name alone evokes the epic of alternative rock: rebellious and committed.

Born by mistake on a February evening in 1983, Bérurier Noir soon found itself the driving force behind a vast "Youth Movement", determined to take control of its life in the face of a society that was ultra conservative at the time. Times have hardly changed.

From the first self-produced records distributed by hand to the creation of self-managed labels, from concerts in squats and wild appearances in demonstrations, on the street or in the metro to endless tours, from interviews given to fanzines and free radio stations to unclassifiable appearances in the mainstream media, Bérurier Noir has waged the most exciting war of independence in the history of French rock, with only a microphone, a guitar, a drum machine, a few red noses and patched-up theatre masks.

The last finger of honour of this turbulent and irrecoverable raia, François, Loran and their "Troupeau d'Rock" commit hara-kiri, at the peak of their glory, during three last concerts in the heart of Paris in November 1989.

Forty years after its birth, Bérurier Noir's work still resonates, whether in demonstrations or free parties, nourishing the hopes of those who wish to overthrow this world to build a truly libertarian, united and fraternal society.

The label Archives de la Zone Mondiale reminds those who missed this unprecedented adventure, 8 discographic parts of the group Bérurier Noir in the form of reissues on particularly original colour vinyls (crown finish), in a limited series and distributed throughout the year.

‘Energy MC2’ began as an energetic bunch of 10 and 11year old neighborhood kids, who initially formed a band under the name of ‘Congressional Funk’. The founding members were Vincent Bonham, Opelton Parker (the brother of Ray Parker Jr) and brothers Ufuoma and Eric Wallace, with the later addition of Fred Gordon. Later becoming the backing band for local Detroit act Mad Dog & The Pups. Featuring on some of the ‘Pups’ earliest Magic City releases “Hep Squeeze” (MC-007) and the follow up release “Funky Monkey” (MC-009). A name-change to ‘The Soulful Hounds’ followed which they are credited as on the instrumental flipside of Mad Dog & The Pups vocal version of “Why Did You Leave Me Girl” Magic City (MC-012).

After leaving Magic City, the band went through several changes in both name and personnel, upon hiring bass player Ben "Rat Bass" Adkins, they adopted the name of his former band, ‘Energy’ to which they added Albert Einstein’s formula for special relativity (E=MC2) to finally became ‘Energy MC2’. As Energy MC2” they soon began seriously recording their own original material which included the two previously unissued 70’’s tracks “If You Break It” and “Other Side Of The Mirror” first released on Soul Junction in 2016. The group’s line up on these songs included Vincent Bonham, Ufuoma Akill-Wallace, Arnell Carmichael, Ernestro Wilson, Opelton Parker, Gordon Carlton, Eric Wallace, Leon Lopez, Marvin Carlton and Marlene Rice. A further unissued song the mellifluous ballad “Juliane” also the gained release on the ‘We Got A Sweet Thing Going On’ volume 2 SJCD 5011 cd compilation album.

During 1974 several members of the group boarded a Greyhound bus for Los Angeles. During their week long stay there under the supervision of Ray Parker Jr they recorded the two featured songs the mellifluous “You And Only You” and “Love To Make Love To You” featuring Arnell Carmichael on lead vocals with the session remaining unissued Energy MC2 returned to Detroit. Vincent Bonham and Arnell Carmichael in 1977 returned to L.A. to join

Ray Parker Jr and Jerry Knight to form the band ‘Raydio” later becoming Ray Parker Jr & Raydio when Jerry Knight left to go solo. Ray Parker later too chose to persue a solo career leading to him recording the title track of the box office hit movie “Ghostbusters” a song he will forever be remember for. During 2014 Arnell Carmichael, Vincent Bonham, James Carmichael and Giovanni Rogers revived ‘Raydio’ but only as a touring band. The remaining members of Energy MC2 all enjoyed successful careers as session and backing musicians with many major artists, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Areatha and Carolyn Franklyn, Michael Henderson, Cheryl Lynn, Bettye Lavette, and Parlet’ (part of the P-Funk family) that help George Clinton Land the Mothership!

In November of 1982, I went into the studio with Government Issue to record what was to be their first full-length album. Up until that time, they had only released the Legless Bull 7”EP, and the tape they recorded early 1982 would take over a year and a half to be released as the Make An Effort 7”EP. The members of G.I. excelled at driving each other crazy and there was a lot of arguing, but still we had a great session at Inner Ear and we managed to track 20 songs in one day. From the beginning the band had been divided on what to record, and it was only after much debate that they decided to leave off the material they had recorded with the earlier line-ups and only put out 10 new songs.

In early 1983 Dischord was strapped for cash, meaning that we could only work on one release at a time. Since all of our money was tied up with the manufacturing of Minor Threat’s Out of Step 12” EP, the G.I. record would have to wait. A new DC label, Fountain of Youth, expressed an interest in releasing Boycott Stabb, so it was decided to do a ‘split-label’ record. In this case, Fountain of Youth put up the money and we let them use the Dischord Records name to help with context and distribution. It has since been reissued on a number of different labels and formats, but after coming across the master tapes and hearing the songs that had been left off, we thought it would be cool to release the complete session, and to finally release the record on Dischord proper.

In going through the tapes, I discovered that most of the outtake songs were never mixed, so earlier this year I took the recordings back into the studio. Hearing the separated tracks amazed me. Such great playing and songs! With the technological advances in the recording world made multi-tracking and overdubbing so common, it’s easy to forget that studios could also be used as something more akin to a photo-booth, capturing what was happening at that very moment. Most of the early Dischord sessions were essentially ‘live’ recordings, so the bands had to be able to play, and because the budgets were minuscule, they had to get the songs down in short order. G.I. stepped up on both counts. -Ian MacKaye, August 2010

In November of 1982, I went into the studio with Government Issue to record what was to be their first full-length album. Up until that time, they had only released the Legless Bull 7”EP, and the tape they recorded early 1982 would take over a year and a half to be released as the Make An Effort 7”EP. The members of G.I. excelled at driving each other crazy and there was a lot of arguing, but still we had a great session at Inner Ear and we managed to track 20 songs in one day. From the beginning the band had been divided on what to record, and it was only after much debate that they decided to leave off the material they had recorded with the earlier line-ups and only put out 10 new songs.

In early 1983 Dischord was strapped for cash, meaning that we could only work on one release at a time. Since all of our money was tied up with the manufacturing of Minor Threat’s Out of Step 12” EP, the G.I. record would have to wait. A new DC label, Fountain of Youth, expressed an interest in releasing Boycott Stabb, so it was decided to do a ‘split-label’ record. In this case, Fountain of Youth put up the money and we let them use the Dischord Records name to help with context and distribution. It has since been reissued on a number of different labels and formats, but after coming across the master tapes and hearing the songs that had been left off, we thought it would be cool to release the complete session, and to finally release the record on Dischord proper.

In going through the tapes, I discovered that most of the outtake songs were never mixed, so earlier this year I took the recordings back into the studio. Hearing the separated tracks amazed me. Such great playing and songs! With the technological advances in the recording world made multi-tracking and overdubbing so common, it’s easy to forget that studios could also be used as something more akin to a photo-booth, capturing what was happening at that very moment. Most of the early Dischord sessions were essentially ‘live’ recordings, so the bands had to be able to play, and because the budgets were minuscule, they had to get the songs down in short order. G.I. stepped up on both counts. -Ian MacKaye, August 2010

Celebrating its one hundredth release, Black Truffle is honoured to present a major archival discovery: a stunning document of the only performance by the trio of Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt and Jim O’Rourke. Across a two-night programme organised by David Weinstein at legendary New York experimental venue Tonic in January 2001, Conrad, Dreyblatt and O’Rourke presented individual projects before performing a collaborative set each night, the first with members of Dreyblatt’s ensemble and the second the trio heard here. As Dreyblatt points out in the wonderfully informative and reflective liner notes written for this release, this was a collaboration across generations, reflecting the profound impact of Conrad’s pioneering minimalism on Dreyblatt and O’Rourke. Both Dreyblatt and O’Rourke came to this collaboration armed with a deep appreciation of Conrad’s music and the just intonation principles at its core, Dreyblatt having first encountered the incredible power of Conrad’s precisely tuned violin chords during his tenure as an archivist for La Monte Young in 1975, while O’Rourke had performed with Conrad in various settings since the mid-1990s (as well as admiring, reissuing, and performing Dreyblatt's music). The flyer for the concert promised ‘massive, ecstatic, pulsating overtones’, and the trio certainly delivered. From the moment this keening stream of bowed strings begins, it is clear, as Dreyblatt writes, that we are in ‘Tony’s sonic universe’, as massively amplified, slowly shifting combinations of precisely chosen pitches fill the room with complex beating patterns and ghostly difference tones. For more than twenty-five minutes, the music operates at a level of intensity comparable to classic recordings such as Conrad’s Four Violins, until the texture thins out slightly in the performance’s final quarter, allowing for the listener’s first recognition of the individual voices that make up this enormous, overwhelming harmonic edifice. The constant stream of bowed tones is broken by a beautifully rich pizzicato from Conrad on monochord, the sliding low tones and metallic shimmer of the other strings taking the set's final moments on an unexpected detour into spacious pastoral psychedelia.

Though produced by three individuals known for their own distinctive bodies of the work, this is egoless music, the perfect expression of Conrad's desire 'to move away from composing to listening', to 'working "on" the sound from "inside" the sound'. Historically important and overwhelming in sonic impact, this release also serves as a moving tribute to Tony Conrad from two musicians profoundly marked by the example set by his art and life.

2020. The year of the corona-pandemic, when the music world was forced into a standstill, five old friends put in motion an old idea that had been lingering - and what eventually was to become a new band and powerhouse: The Halo Effect.
The members of The Halo Effect are not only masters of their domain, but also some of the pioneers of the Gothenburg melodeath scene; Lead guitarists and melodic deathslingers Niclas Engelin and Jesper Strömblad, lead singer and raging growler and lyricist Mikael Stanne, further on adding to this mix is the solid backbone and foundation of power bassist Peter Iwers, and his partner in crime since twenty plus years, hard-hitting drummer Daniel Svensson.
Knowing each other from an early age during the late 80’s and then playing together in different constellations during the 90’s, they came to dominate the Metal scene in Gothenburg - mainly being part of the two major bands and metal exports In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, also two of the pioneers and major forces behind the melodeath monicker: The Gothenburg Sound. A sound that would echo far and wide across the world and influence countless of metal bands during the 90’s and early 2000’s.This was also the initial thought behind The Halo Effect - to go back to the roots and
explore what the groundbreaking metal sounded like then. And add the experience and skills of what the members could bring to the table now. The result is an exceptional album and real tour de force to fans of melodeath where the echoes of the Gothenburg Sound is evident. The Halo Effect delivers the goods in a brutally efficient display of heart pounding beats, melodic mayhem and furious growling at its best. Raw, yetmelodic, and in your melted face.Buckle up and remove your ear plugs. The restrictions are being lifted, the pandemic is over, and The Halo Effect is finally ready to meet its audience all over the world.

The new album Octagon Sphere by Duesseldorf duo Strafe F.R. comprises of four pieces recorded in 2020 and 2021 at the group's own studio. The work features heavily treated female vocals and includes rhythmic patterns and electronic sounds contributed by invited guest musician Detlef Klepsch (of the group keit). The overall atmosphere is tense and moody, both dark and uplifting at the same time. Octagon Sphere was mastered by Kai Blankenberg at Skyline Tonfabrik.

Octagon Sphere is the sister release to last year's CD Soundless Sphere – both albums are tied together by rhythmic alchemy and sound manipulation in highest detail.

STRAFE FÜR REBELLION was founded in 1979 in Düsseldorf by the two artists Siegfried Michael Syniuga and Bernd Kastner. Conceived as an experimental project rather than a band, the duo is active since the early 1980s, they continue to work together to this day.

They demonstrated their subtle abilities in numerous performances and concerts. The members of STRAFE FÜR REBELLION see themselves as researchers on different visual and acoustic levels; they always make use of their idiosyncratic and unusual humor. The duo emphasize that they not only explore the world of music, but also incorporate elements of knowledge, and thus all usable influences, into their experiments. Working plans, storyboards, and composi­tional schemas usually serve as the basis for new musical projects.

Their texts reflect their interest in science, history, philosophy, as well as everyday phenomena, mass media, and popular culture: in their experimental sound expe­riences, performances, and installations STRAFE FÜR REBELLION are absolutely avant-garde, working at the forefront of research-performatively, acoustically, visually, and in a variety of media. Their motto always remains aesthetically uncompromising with serious pleasure.

Originally released in February 2012 and receiving positive critical reception, COGNITIVE is SOEN’s phenomenal debut album. The project features co-founding members, drummer Martin Lopez (OPETH, AMON AMARTH) and vocalist Joel Ekelöf (WILLOWTREE), Steve DiGiorgio (SADUS, TESTAMENT, DEATH, ICED EARTH) on bass and Kim Platbarzdis on guitars. The album was mixed by the Grammy Award-winning Canadian producer David Bottrill, who has worked with PETER GABRIEL, TOOL, SMASHING PUMPKINS and MUSE.

Described by Lopez himself as “melodic, heavy and intricate”, COGNITIVE, through its beautiful melodies, not only displays the performers’ superb technical proficiency, it also showcases the impressive and mysteriously warm vocals of Ekelöf.

Due to great public demand, SOEN will release COGNITIVE for the very first time on vinyl on January 27, 2023 via Silver Lining Music. This official SOEN-endorsed double vinyl release is complete with the bonus track “Writhen” and all of the album lyrics.

CHRISTIAN DEATH was formed by Rozz Williams in Los Angeles, California in 1979. Williams was eventually joined by guitarist/songwriter Rikk Agnew of ADOLESCENTS, James McGearty on bass and George Belanger on drums. This CHRISTIAN DEATH line-up was responsible for recording the band's iconic 1982 debut, ONLY THEATRE OF PAIN, widely regarded as the #1 American goth album of all-time. This exclusive double-LP version of OTOP commemorates its 40th anniversary- the first disc is the digitally remastered, original version of the album while the second disc is comprised of "Dogs" from HELL COMES TO YOUR HOUSE, four pre-Frontier demos, two studio demos made for a second Frontier Records' LP that never happened and two alternate studio mixes from OTOP. The gatefold LP jacket is printed in its original its black and metallic gold, includes a Colver collage poster and a hardcover copy of the photo book, ONLY THEATRE OF PAIN and all come in a hard slipcase. The oversized 12" x 12" book features rare and never-before-seen photos of CHRISTIAN DEATH as well as new interviews with photographer Edward C. Colver, the surviving band members, Frontier's Lisa Fancher and others. Colver befriended the band and followed them around in late 1981 and early 1982 at more than a dozen concerts as well as photo shoots in Rozz Williams' family home (used on the back cover and insert of ONLY THEATRE OF PAIN) and a session of now famous images at a Pomona CA cemetery. Info: Just as the theatrically-minded LA punk scene was beginning to give rise to such morbidly themed outfits as 45 Grave and the Flesh Eaters, an androgynous teenaged street performer named Rozz Williams (né Roger Painter) founded CHRISTIAN DEATH, one of the most prolific, enduring, and beloved gothic acts of all time. Williams' otherworldly groan can make "Only Theatre of Pain" difficult going for those that aren't the gothic faithful, but the loud/not-too-fast music (courtesy of ex-ADOLESCENTS guitarist Rikk Agnew and the walking-dead rhythm section of bassist James McGearty and drummer George Belanger) is appropriately doom 'n' gloomy, with inventive arrangements and clear sound - thanks to Frontier Records' go-to punk production legend, Thom Wilson- capturing the mood in full B-movie fidelity. The lyrics sacriligiously address horror topics and religion: they're overwrought (the backwards masking of 'Mysterium Iniquitatis' being one clever exception) but easy to overlook in the wash of inspired rock noise. The original lineup's recorded debut is a gem. Artists inspired by CHRISTIAN DEATH include Danzig, Craddle of Filth, Paradise Lost, Korn, Type O Negative, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and Jane's Addiction. Press: "A depraved masterpiece, this was punk rock made poetic, subversive, and gracefully savage."- AV Club "The Gothic album to out-gothic all others" - Melody Maker "Only Theatre of Pain's influence should not be underestimated" - Record Collector Limited availability!