Tomotsugu Nakamura is a musician and graphic designer residing in Tokyo, Japan. His primary artistic practice is to compose music with some fragments of minimal acoustic and electronic tones and some field recordings. In Concert, he has played with various genre of musician such as "Musica Frontera Argentina". With previous releases on Kaico and Audiobulb Records, "Literature" is his 5th complete album.
Late 20th Century outsider music from the outskirts of Buenos Aires featuring Alan Courtis, Pablo Reche, Quum and many more artists from the Argentinian underground.
Setting out as an archaeological excavation, literally exhuming material which has been under the surface for more than two decades, this special compilation features work by established and under the radar artists that helped set the now fertile Argentinian underground.
All tracks were directly digitized from the original cassettes masters (half of them never previously released either). The emphasis being to maintain the original sound quality as it was produced at the time (hence the cassette format). The compilation also showcases a broad spectrum style of music that was done at a specific time with very primitive gear - not by choice but because of the obvious economic restrictions of accessing sophisticated equipment forced these musicians on the DIY road. Domestic tape recorders making cassette loops, broken record players, toy keyboards and the noisy ‘fingers on circuitry’ long before Nicolas Collins championed it on Hand-made electronic music.
Whilst some artists actually had access to professional synths and drum machines (Unoxuno, Quum, Jaime Genovart), they still lacked of standard recording equipment. A crucial document then showing how their unique approach to music making influenced the forthcoming experimental scene of South America making these artists influential cult figures of the underground.
Compiled by Juan José Calarco y Pablo Reche
Digitized & Mastered by Juan José Calarco
Abstrack proudly introduces the first of its new series of edits. The music on the record is a direct echo of the vibes found at Abstrack parties. These have been going on for over 8 years, taking place at roughly any time of day or night. The music on the record, dancing somewhere between dreamy slow motion tracks, peak-time weapons, and french singing anthem, was intended for the party rather than for the record and they’ve been rocking Nantes’ best-hidden dances for a while already. Now we’re happily putting them out for everyone to enjoy and rock their own party.
A collection of guitar-wielding all-girl bands, drop-dead female frat rock, garage girls and axe-centric she-pop from the 60s. 14 hot nuggets, each one hand-picked with vinyl lovers in mind.
Features a bevy of genuine all-girl bands – namely Goldie & the Gingerbreads from the environs of New York; the Debutantes from Detroit; Florida’s the Belles; the Rums & Coke and Girls Take Over, both from Wisconsin; and Ace favourites She from California, all of whom give their male counterparts a good run for their money. The Belles, incidentally, released only one record – a killer rendition of Them’s ‘Gloria’, gender-switched as ‘Melvin’ – before drifting apart, never dreaming that copies of the disc would one day change hands for $500 a pop.
Some of the other girls receive help from male colleagues. Glenda Collins, for example, is backed by producer Joe Meek’s favoured house band the Outlaws featuring guitarist Richie Blackmore; Merseyside ex-pat Sandy Edmonds is accompanied by the Pleazers, New Zealand’s answer to the Pretty Things; and teenage trio the Chymes are supported by the Turtles.
Pressed on 180g transparent violet vinyl, with a swanky inner bag sporting a fact-filled 4,000-word track commentary and an array of rare photos.
Compilation and note by Mick Patrick
Here is the highly anticipated sixth volume of the well received electronic compilation series from the relaunched 1980's color tapes label. As with the other volumes you can find great examples of cold wave, minimal wave and synth electronics and pro to EDM made by obscure British bands in the 1980's such as: Berserk In A Hayfield, Lives of Angels, Silicon Valley, Modern Art, Disintegrators, Echophase, The Lord and Mystery Plane
"Up there with V-O-D selections, the Color Tapes series so far has provided invaluable insight to hidden or much lesser-known currents of the ‘80s cassette subculture which gave birth to myriad artists, styles and industry conventions whose influence can still be felt over 30 years later. " - Boomkat
“Electronic work that’s way different from mainstream pop of the period - often forgedout of the same instrumentation as the hits - but in a stripped down way - with lots of dark and moody corners!” Dusty Groove
“Evil Synths and evil beats” - Norman Records
“Gary Ramon’s re-born Color Tapes imprint is every bit as essential as it’s Minimal Wave and electro-focused predecessors” - Juno
Limited edition of 500 copies comes with poster insert
On the Corner Records was awarded 'Label of the Year' at the Worldwide Awards 2018. OtC is a story of artists and scenes that goes way beyond being a record label. DJ and label owner Pete On the Corner has created a home for innovative, bordercrossing, genre pushing artists. The OtC vision is to bring music to the world that is knocking at the 'Door To The Cosmos'. The label is an inimitable mixture of Miles Davis 'call it what you want' attitude, Sun Ra's Afro Futurism and the ecstatic soul lifting influence of black music on electronic dance music. On 'Door To The Cosmos - Dancefloor Sampler' Pete has curated a volume of cuts from present and future label family. This first in the series, is not just knocking at the door but giving it a kick! It's club music referencing the source, be it Detroit, or UK bass culture combined with future sounds rising from cosmopolitan hotbeds of sonic heat. On this maxi EP Venezuela meets India via New York, the street sound of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania pulses through UK Jungle. Undergrounds pushing the dance, breaking borders and genre alike. Rhythms from the ancestors channelled for future times.
Japanese sound artist and producer Kosei Fukuda’s presents a collaborated vision of the first edition of ENSo¯, a two-day audio-visual event collated around the REITEN label. The ENSo¯ Festival invites its artists and audiences alike to appreciate the merging of the improvisational, with the contemplation of rhythmic cycles, based around the conception of enso¯ – ?? – meaning a hand-drawn circle created by one uninterrupted stroke. Now, with an elongated stretch of time in front of us before the next edition of the festival, the compilation stands to provide a sustained glimpse into the world imagined by Fukuda. Blending spontaneity and gravity alike, the record features an array of idiosyncratic artists set to play ENSo¯, all purveyors of their own shaped sound-worlds.
For the A-side, we have Fukada’s own contribution ‘?? – ENSo¯’; a slice of ambient techno dotted somewhere within a faraway galaxy. Venezuelan noise artist UCHI crafts a fourth-world hymn with tribal percussion on the expansive ‘ZRO’, and Osaka based experimentalist YPY aka Korshiro Hino shapes an elusive polyrhythmic ambience on ‘Circulation’. The B-side presents a colossal improvisational track ‘My Default Emotion’ from Berlin based duo Recent Arts. Formed of Chilean artist Valentina Berthelon and German musician Tobias Freund, the duo are masters in audio-visual experimental performances that both surprise and challenge an audience. Renowned artist, programmer and teacher Renick Bell is noted as a pioneer for live coded performance, conducting mutated rhythms that cut across the landscape of electronic sound. His addition to the compilation is a luminescent IDM piece, titled ‘Organize and Unite’. A polished ambient club track from Fukada and MA titled ‘????(????)’ provides a state of organized tranquility, whilst the track ‘The Chosen Home’ from Belgium artist YvesDeMay, whose move from breakbeat to experimental producer has produced gratifying results for all, is a welcome slice of pensive dub- techno.
The C-side brings us a textured and haunting techno track ‘He Turned Into Him’ with revered German artist Tobias, veteran mainstay with an expert hand in shimmering sound design; Kyoto based 10 Label heads Katsunori Sawa and Yuji Kondo brings sample-heavy rushes of sound, the former with ‘The Stonewall’ and the latter with ‘Zenith’, both multi-faceted in their reference points. The D-Side presents the grainy and expansive ‘Circle’ from Lebanese producer Rabih Beaini, who expertly combines club tropes and avant-gardism in his DJing and music. Hypnotic skeletal beats circulate on the pulsating ‘42.1’ by Tokyo artist ENA. Japanese composer Lemna, the alias of Maiko Okimoto rounds it off with a dreamy noise ambience on ‘Moments In Eternal Recurrence’. Released on vinyl July 24th, the compilation stands as a traversable artefact of the festival, rich in spontaneous beauty.
Black Truffle is pleased to announce a new solo album by Eiko Ishibashi, her first for the label, following on from the duo recording Ichida alongside bassist Darin Gray. Hyakki Yagyō (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) was produced for the ‘Japan Supernatural’ exhibition at The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney focusing on ghost stories and folklore from the Edo period onwards. As with The Dream My Bones Dream (Drag City, 2018), the album is a response to troubling questions about Japanese history, and the influence of the past upon the present, but finds Ishibashi shifting further away from her earlier piano-led songwriting and showing a deepening interest in electronics and audio collaging.
The two sidelong parts of Hyakki Yagyō feature layered synthesisers, acoustic instrumentation, recited verse and field recordings, at times densely mixed but always with a subtle interplay of changing elements. The influence of European and American forerunners as diverse as Alvin Curran, David Behrman and Strafe Für Rebellion can be traced, yet at the same time Ishibashi evokes the flute and string sounds associated with Japanese storytelling, and draws directly on the subversive literary tradition of Kyoka (‘mad poetry’) with a verse by the 15th-century poet Ikkyū Sōjun repeated throughout the album. Revisiting what has gone before, re-thinking what is possible musically, as a way of articulating what else might be possible in the future.
As Ishibashi’s liner notes make clear, the album reflects an attention to persistent dangers, myths and evasions in Japanese culture – as well as the lurking uncertainties that might threaten positive change. This would seem to be manifested in the emerging melodies soon met by dissonance, erratic collisions and near silence, as well as the eerie manipulation of the double-tracked vocals. Ishibashi’s underlying concerns ring true more widely of course. Hyakki Yagyō is a work of multiplicities, and mystery, a landscape where nothing is as it seems at first, and everything is vulnerable to sudden violent interruptions.
The album was produced with regular collaborators Jim O’Rourke (double bass) and Joe Talia (percussion), and features dancer and choreographer Ryuichi Fujimura performing Ikkyū’s satirical tanka. O’Rourke’s immersive mix creates a three-dimensional effect, with Ishibashi’s various sound sources enmeshing and interacting in captivating ways.
Pressed on coloured vinyl and presented in a deluxe package with an inner sleeve featuring and artist portrait and liner notes from Eiko Ishibashi. Cover and label design by Shuhei Abe.
Back cover design by Lasse Marhaug. Mixed and mastered by Jim O’Rourke.
key selling points:
- Black Truffle is pleased to announce a new solo album by Eiko Ishibashi, her first since her acclaimed 2018 Drag City release The Dream My Bones Dream.
- This album finds Ishibashi shifting further away from her earlier piano-led songwriting and showing a deepening interest in electronics and audio collaging.
- Hyakki Yagyō (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) was produced for the ‘Japan Supernatural’ exhibition at The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney focusing on ghost stories and folklore from the Edo period onwards and is a response to troubling questions about Japanese history, and the influence of the past upon the present.
- Produced with regular collaborators Jim O’Rourke (double bass) and Joe Talia (percussion), O’Rourke’s immersive mix creates a three-dimensional effect, with Ishibashi’s various sound sources enmeshing and interacting in captivating ways.
- The two sidelong parts of Hyakki Yagyō feature layered synthesisers, acoustic instrumentation, recited verse and field recordings, at times densely mixed but always with a subtle interplay of changing elements, hinting at an influence of European and American forerunners as diverse as Alvin Curran, David Behrman and Strafe Für Rebellion.
- Pressed on coloured vinyl and presented in a deluxe package with an inner sleeve featuring an artist portrait and liner notes from Eiko Ishibashi. Mixed and mastered by Jim O’Rourke.
To say Fredfades and Jawn Rice are House music producers would be sneering at their efforts across genres like Hip Hop, Soul, and Jazz. The Mutual Intentions collaborators have forged a sound together in classic House, siphoning a myriad of influences through their intricate constructions in the studio as solo acts since first meeting in 2007. Becoming fast friends over a shared love of the dusty beats of an SP1200, Jawn Rice and Fredfades started working together while the Mutual Intentions collective gestated around them. Individual works by Jawn and Fred dot the collective’s back catalogue like various nodes of evolution through the course of MI’s output.
“We’ve always been sharing sketches,” explains Jawn Rice, “but I feel that these past years have been more productive in getting some of these sketches out as songs with Fredrik. It’s just a continuation of our friendship.” Emboldened by this friendship and with their finely tuned skills in the studio,
honed to near-perfection, they eventually started making music together. Following two seminal solo LPs – Fredfades’ Warmth and Jawn Rice’s Highlights – the pair consolidated their music as a duo in 2019, striking out with their electrifying debut, Jacuzzi Boyz. In a fusion between Jawn’s electronic inclinations and Fred’s soulful eccentricities, Jacuzzi Boyz established the duo as a new force workingNew Release Information within the broad scope of House music, with a sound imbued in the origin story of House and the genre’s hip-hop allegiances.
In 2020 they continue to pursue music together in the sophomore LP, Luv Neva Fades. Following the release of the title track and lead single, Luv Neva Fades finds the producers cementing their artistic voice and re-enforcing their commitment to a singular sound. Lush Rhodes keys and bouncing percussion lay the foundations for the album, while buoyant bass-lines and sparkling synthesisers provide
the catalyst for a crooning vocal or ruminating melody. It’s a record that thrives in a sultry mood; an LP that basks in the warmth of its analogue origins and cools in the shade of languid chord progressions.
Like Jacuzzi Boys, this album is an extended collaborative affair, as Mutual Intentions’ reach stretches across the Atlantic with guest appearances from Byron the Aquarius, Javonntte, Arthur Kay, Bendik HK and the SP1200 that started it all. Shimmering melodies, hazy harmonies and boisterous beats draw Fredfades and Jawn Rice out of the jacuzzi and onto the dance floor, moving under shimmering stars, where the duo cement what they started with Luv Neva Fades.
A follow up to 2018’s Jazz On The Corner which has now sold over 10,000 copies, and last year’s equally successful Soul On The Corner, this compilation see Martin and Eddie return to the world of jazz for another bite at the cherry after Volume one was declared to be “the best jazz compilation of the last 20 years” by Jazz FM’s Chris Phillips
The concept came from a radio show that Freeman and Piller put together for BBC Radio 6 Music which was so well received that the pair decided to dig deep into their record collections and build a double album of some of their favourite tracks.
The concept is simple: an album packed full of jazz gems which they hope are slightly off the beaten track. This year we have hidden gems from Nina Simone and Nicola Conte, classics from Roberta Flack, Roy Ayers and The MJQ, whilst the new British jazz generation is represented by Emma Emma-Jean Thackray. Running the gamut from hard bop, to progressive fusion via Latin beats, it’s an exhilarating listen from start to finish.
Searching for new languages beyond the bitter and nihilist dialect of punk, bands like Gaz Nevada, Litfiba, CCCP, Diaframma, Neon, and many others, began spreading their message all along the Italian peninsula during the early eighties and many of the members of these bands are now some of the best musicians/producers in the Italian independent music panorama (Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, Piero Pelù/Litfiba, Bisca, etc.). 16 tracks by 16 Italian underground bands from 1982-1984: bands who faded into oblivion before ever releasing anything of their own on vinyl. It should, however, be stated that if these sixteen bands had been found on an album, EP or single, they certainly would not have lowered the average quality of albums in that genre…not even in terms of sound quality, which has actually been improved upon here (considering that the original tapes had been lying around collecting dust for at least a quarter of a century) by careful restoration.
Vinyl Only
The duo Discult Soundsystem is very proud to present their vinyl only imprint: Lets Discult. For their debut release the Berlin based label is dropping a massive Various Artists shaped for the dancefloor. 4 tracks EP including one from the label heads themselves, Intr0beatz, Leo Woelfel and Dimi Wilson.
The notorious London White vinyl only project returns with more original Rave material!
Selected by Gareth Wild this cut through VA sees excellent additions to the series via standout material from JK Flesh, 7XINS, Keikari and Voicedrone.
Tried and tested, dance floor killers!
All tracks written and produced by the artists.
Mastered by Simon at The Exchange.
Graphics design by Grade A.
Craigie Knowes continue their long-running War Child fundraiser series with a new 2x12" release featuring tracks from Eluize, DJ Python, Stellar OM Source, Innnershades, No Moon, The Burrell Connection and more. From ambient and downbeat through to techno and electro, the release spans the sounds that Craigie Knowes have embraced over the last 5 years. The fourth installment of the project also sees a completely new sleeve and center label design by Kyle Morrison. All profits donated to War Child UK, a charity helping children in areas of conflict around the world.
Friends, it is time for a finish. Here's the seventh and last chapter of the festivities that we put together for our 50th catalogue number. Once again, the mighty graphics wizards Doppeldenk from Leipzig provided us with a delightfull artwork. And once again, you'll get a record that sports a kaleidoscope of sophisticated dance music from Uncanny Valley veterans and newcomers. This time with the emphasis on bright and positive timbres which can be associated with the colour yellow. Cuthead starts things with a bang and his PARTY CHORDS set the tone perfectly (including neck pain after nodding your head to the beat like there's no tomorrow). If chords could be president this would get a lot of votes. Massimiliano Pagliara shifts down a gear with the acoustic road trip SUNSET FUNK, a masterfully arranged track, made up for driving around on your bike, skateboard or whatever vehicle you are using to get from A to B. The slow and sexy IWESU YEWISU from the soul brothers of Duererstuben is a longtime favorite in the Uncanny Valley headquarters. We are super happy that this groover will finally see the light of day. Panthera Krause provides the subtle but euphoric THE NAKED NOW, a House music lesson that's bubbling under the surface. And finally, Uncanny Valley first-timer Daniela Da Luz closes the record with WHEN YOU GO ALL IN AND WAIT, a drum heavy but also embracing excursion into your own neural circuit
The second volume of Nothing Is Real’s self-titled compilation builds on their towering reputation as leading lights within the global electronic music community. As the label’s first release distributed by the respected Dutch record label and store Bordello A Parigi, the collection is set to further establish their international presence and spread their eclectic sound far and wide.
Bringing together diverse influences from across the spectrum of electronica and into new wave and ambient music, Nothing Is Real stand at the forefront of modern dance music as sonic innovators that continue to push boundaries with each offering.
Curated by Alberto Iovine and Alessandro Fumagalli, also known under the stage name Modular Project, this four-track collection takes listeners on a journey through the outer atmosphere of techno, expanding and evolving the genre into new forms along the way.
Cantor’s opening track kicks things off with a hypnotic, driving groove built on acidic synths before Niv Ast & Roe Deers bring a human touch to the proceedings with a vocal-led heater that recalls classic ‘80s sounds. Dharma pairs shuffling rhythms with extraterrestrial soundscapes that recall Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, before Argia closes the record with force and momentum, surrounding voltaic synthesizers and tribal drums with expressive atmospherics.
Black Ark In Dub is another piece of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s limitless musical puzzle.
Featuring a bedrock of deep and heavy rhythms recorded at the Black Ark just before its demise, Black Ark In Dub features bass heavy spooky dub deconstructions of ‘Jah Love Is Sweeter’, ‘Ethiopia’, ‘Lion A De Winner’, ‘Open The Gate’, ‘Guideline,’ and ‘Mr Money Man’, along with an embellished dub version of Ras Keatus I ‘Dreadlocks I’ and the much sought after ‘Guidance’ a longime Jah Shaka killer exclusive to this set.
Originally released in 1981 the hard to find Black Ark In Dub remains a frozen sonic timepiece, captured at the beginning of the end of one era and poised at the start of another.
Black Ark Vol. 2 is another piece of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s limitless musical puzzle. It’s a bedrock of deep and heavy rhythms recorded around Jamaica =just before the demise of Perry’s famed Black Ark Studio. Black Ark Vol. 2 is the follow up album to the acclaimed Black Ark In Dub that unsurprisingly for an Upsetter release, took a different path. More vocal oriented, the album features extended dubwise cuts of (former wife and co-producer) Carol Cole’s ‘Ethiopia’, The Originals ‘Got To Be Irie’, Junior Byles ‘Mumbling & Grumbling and The Inamans remake of the Bee Gees hit ‘How Deep Is your Love’, along with an alternate take of the Silvertones roots classic ‘Give Thanks’ with flute overdub and a couple of solid covers from Third World lead vocalist Bunny Rugs. Originally released in 1981 the hard to find Black Ark Vol. 2 remains a frozen sonic timepiece, captured at the beginning of the end of one era and poised at the start of another.
