Wonderful 1985 recording led by the brilliant cellist Tristan Honsinger, originally released by Data.
With trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, saxophonist Sean Bergen, Jean Jacques Avenel on bass, Michael Vatcher on drums and percussion, and Tiziana Simona Vigni singing.
‘Deceptively vicious little songs with hilarious twists and the kind of intense improvising you’d expect from a band that incorporates players of this calibre.’

This soundtrack to Romano Ferrara’s 1964 spy movie is one of PU’s best and most celebrated. Featuring Nini Rosso, Chet Baker, Bill Gilmore, Marcello Boschi and many others. Excellent sound, from the original analogue masters, with lots of bonus material; in a beautiful sleeve, with a reproduction of the original movie poster on the inside gatefold.

Kit Downes is on organ. Hayden Chisholm contributes alto saxophone, shruti box, analogue synthesizer, and throat singing. The vocals are by PJEV, a female a cappella vocal quintet from Zagreb devoted to the traditional singing of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

‘This is a remarkable, stirring piece of work that works right into your bones’ (Dusted).
​‘Your mind will be truly blown’ (Songlines).

Poor Isa — Ruben Machtelinckx and Frederik Leroux — playing woodblocks and prepared banjos; joined by Evan Parker, and Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach.
Wonderful, moody, questing music, beautifully presented, in thick grey cardboard sleeves with foil stamping. Individually hand-numbered, in a first edition of just 150.
These are the last copies.
Strongly recommended.

‘At the heart of the album lies the resonance, focus and slightly surreal shapes conjured by guitarist Bill Frisell. These gain extra substance by Potter’s arrangements for trombone, clarinet and violin which, added to Potter’s own strident tones, add extra layers of tension and sonic possibility. Bags of detail, soloists in elegant form and the narrative drive of the excellent Nate Smith and Burniss Travis on drums and bass, complete an album that engages and grips.
‘The set, bookended by the stirring fanfares and collective improv of the title track, unfolds thrillingly through layered melodies and blues-rooted solos, hints of Americana and seriously funky grooves… Two bonus tracks are covers featuring the core quartet and are worth the price of the deluxe release’ (Mike Hobart, Financial Times).

A meditation on the white abolitionist John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, which aimed to ignite a massive armed slave revolt across the American South.
“Looked at from one angle, John Brown was a religious zealot who used violence to try and achieve his aims. From a different angle, he was on the right side of justice, and gave his life hoping others would be free.”

Steve Beresford, Luc Houtkamp, Martin Blume.

The legendary AMM drummer recorded roundabout his home village of Matching Tye, Essex, in amongst the acoustics and significance of the village green and All Saints church in High Laver (where John Locke is buried).
‘At times it sounds like he’s sharpening blades on a grinding wheel, as keening tones slowly scythe through the air. Elsewhere, he appears to be dragging the side of a cymbal against a bass drum skin, producing low groans that complement the glistening high end… In Air, Oak, Metal, Hair, Prevost’s cymbals whistle and shimmer as they catch the breeze.
‘Other tracks nod towards Prevost’s jazz background. MaxPlus draws inspiration from a Max Roach hi-hat study… Rotology touches on a range of drumming traditions, from East Asia to West Africa’ (The Wire).

Congo Call, such a killer. With Sonny Simmons.

‘I was a music teacher. I wasn’t trying to make a record to compete, I was trying to make a record so the students would have something to remember the experience that we had… I was doing it for the kids.’
The reissue of a private pressing in 1973 by Prof James Benson and his students at Cal Poly, California, inspired by their recent trip to Africa, blending in the radical jazz idioms of early-seventies black America.
Insurgent music; full of life. Jazzman strikes again.
As originally, in a heavyweight tip-on sleeve.

The saxophonist of the Blue Notes and the Brotherhood Of Breath, with pianist Misha Mengelberg, and Han Bennink on drums, trombone, clarinet and viola.
Originally released on ICP in 1979; an absolute classic of improvised music.

Available for the first time since its original release in 1980, this is compelling, funky, exploratory jazz from Melbourne, Australia.

The album opens with the floating Song For Bobby, a downtempo gem with the heartbeat aura of Herbie Hancock’s Butterfly; Orchestral Excerpts (From The Symphony Of Life), In The Basement and City Of Stone are high-grade fusion jams with one eye on Weather Report and Return to Forever, the other on the organic Australian sound of Alan Lee and John Sangster. The album closes out with the completely improvised Universal Suite, a 17-minute excursion which begins with a cinematic opening reminiscent of electric Miles at his most introspective before taking flight on passages of hard-driving Latin percussion, shimmering fusion and gritty funk. Slick, cultured and in close dialogue with the most advanced sounds of the era, Pyramid documents one of Australia’s great fusion bands at the height of their powers.

‘Naqvi’s electronics, Smith’s trumpet and Cyrille’s percussion acquiesce with finesse in a perfect simpatico balance of accommodating and complimentary interplay. The trio balance bursts of energy with delicate stillness to create a feeling of meditation. Nuanced, textural, subtle yet devastatingly affective as well as sensitive and contemplative where appropriate, they also deliver bursts of incredible energy and impact; navigating a path between expressions of dismay and meditative healing resolutions – both a protest and paean for harmony.’

‘Killer!’, says Gilles Peterson.
‘Exquisitely constructed… They are not landscapes to be admired at a distance, but inscapes to be explored with attentive care’ (The Wire).
‘Solace for the soul’ (All That Jazz).