The greatest British writer of literary fiction during the last couple of decades, by miles. So bound up with issues of voice, being and truth, it’s thrilling to hear the stuff read in person. Listen to Acid.

Winston Jarrett fronting a characteristically rugged, deep-funk Family Man rhythm.

The masterful Greek folk violinist. ‘So raw and unmediated that anyone who has ever yearned for anything will feel these songs like a club to the back of the knees…immediate, destructive, and stunning.’ Crumb artwork.

The Arkestra toured Europe in early 1983; then made its way to Cairo. It played a number of concerts during April at Il Capo/Il Buco, before recording superb studio versions of the Ragab compositions Egypt Strut and Dawn, at El Nahar Studios in Heliopolis the following month, featuring Salah Ragab on congas.
For the original release of this LP, the Greek label Praxis added Ramadan and Oriental Mood from the Cairo Jazz Orchestra album Egypt Strut; and another new CJO recording, A Farewell Theme, composed by Ragab upon the death of president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970.
This first ever official reissue features previously unseen photos and new liner notes by Hartmut Geerken and Paul Griffiths.

‘New and archival recordings all orbiting around the intergalactic soundscape introduced by Sun Ra. Ra’s own a capella I Don’t Believe in Love, recorded by Ra at home in Chicago during the 1950s, kicks the program off. This intimate private recording is followed by two intense new solo improvisations by French guitarist Raymond Boni, one acoustic and one electric, inspired by seeing the Arkestra preparing for a gig in Arles in 1976. The first side wraps up with Jason Adasiewicz’s riveting unaccompanied vibraphone workout on Ra’s Lanquidity and Where Pathways Meet. With a completely different take on Lanquidity, Side Two begins with four wild remixes by legendary Cologne techno pioneer Wolfgang Voigt, using layered samples from the LP. Hailing from the intersection of free jazz and out rock, Ken Vandermark’s band Spaceways Inc., with bassist Nate McBride and drummer Hamid Drake, continue with a Ra medley, in collaboration with the Italian band Zu. And where the program started in disbelief, love-skepticism, it concludes with Joe McPhee’s emphatic loving embrace on Cosmic Love, a classic tenor/synth sound-on-sound recording from 1970.’
With cover art by Emil Schult, who designed classic 1970s LPs for Kraftwerk. Very limited.

‘Dedicated to Jaimie Branch, this features a compacted version of Mazurek’s long-running Exploding Star Orchestra, including guitarist Jeff Parker, vocalist Damon Locks, drummer Gerald Cleaver, and pianists Angelica Sanchez and Craig Taborn.
‘Drop the needle and immediately find this crew deep in a chromatic funk fantasy of outer-space grooves and Bartokian riffs. MC Damon Locks brings the Deltron 3030 energy while pianist Craig Taborn and Angelica Sanchez face-off from behind Wurlitzer pianos and Moog synthesizers. Parker is in absolute space shred mode.’

Funk scorchers from the house band at FAME in 1969. Freeman Brown, Jesse Boyce, Clayton Ivey, Junior Lowe… Knockout sevens like Grits And Gravy and Turn My Chicken Loose — equal parts Meters, MGs, JBs — with a heap of top-notch stuff out here for the first time.

Representing every Chess artist recording at Muscle Shoals, 1967-69. The likes of Etta James, Irma Thomas, Laura Lee, Bobby Moore and Mitty Collier, in the era of the studio’s second great rhythm section, the Swampers. Plenty of unfamiliar glories, and throwing in three instrumentals by Charles Chalmers and crew.

The legendary Gaelic concert singer, drawing on his vast repertoire — much of it learned traditionally, within the family circle.

Baby Whale doses a cross between classic Chicago house and E2-E4 with a no-prisoners boogie bassline and piano chords glistering in from Rimini. JV’s signature spaced-out production assures a head-turning dancefloor banger for the 4am crew.
Adam & Eve is an intriguing mix of exotica and Arthur Russell. ‘The sound of Matisse,’ says the label.