Encapsulating the culmination of a joyously ambitious twelve-day jazz project mounted in 1978 at the ancient amphitheatre Tasso della Quercia, in Rome: the collaboration (in different group configurations) between key Italian avant-gardists like the saxophonists Tommaso Vittorini, Eugenio Colombo and Maurizio Giammarco, trumpeter Alberto Corvini and trombonist Danilo Terenzi, together with visiting players such as Steve Lacy, Steve Potts and Evan Parker, Roswell Rudd, Frederick Rzewski and Noel McGhee.

The Kabbalistic Dixieland of Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum, joined here by saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonist Garrett List and vibraphonist Karl Berger, recording for the legendary Italian label Horo in 1977. The MEV in all of its discordant, subversive, improvisatory glory.

‘Since the mid-1960s, Jon Gibson has played a key role in the development of American avant-garde music. As a reed player, he has performed with everyone from Steve Reich and Philip Glass to Terry Riley and La Monte Young. In the 1970s, Gibson would emerge as a minimalist composer in his own right and release two exceptional albums, Visitations and Two Solo Pieces, on Glass’ Chatham Square imprint.
‘Ranging from introspective piano meditations to cerebral ensemble works, Songs & Melodies brings together recordings from 1973 to 1977 (mostly previously unreleased), featuring prominent figures in New York’s scene, including Arthur Russell and Julius Eastman.’

The 2011 album available on vinyl for the first time.
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah meets Adrian Sherwood, with numerous guest spots including Jazzwad and Adamski.
Some of the hardest hitting AHC rhythms are here; more tailored to sound-system transmission than ever before.

The eagerly awaited return of Bastian Epple to Marionette, for his debut album. Fifteen richly evocative vignettes conjured up with modular synth, tape-work, synthetic sounds, percussion, guitar: captivating, scene-setting catalysts of dreams, nostalgia, and other imaginary voyages; intimate, unpredictable, and alive; full of curiosity and wonder.

The LP is clear vinyl enclosed in a silver-foil metallic bag with black print, plus digital download card.

‘The beating heart of the golden age of Ethiopian music, the Ibex Band was the driving force behind such stars as Aster Aweke, Tilahun Gessesse, Girma Beyene, and Mahmoud Ahmed. Led by bassist Giovanni Rico and guitarist Selam Seyoum, Ibex relentlessly reshaped Ethiopian music, blending traditional 6/8 rhythms with Western influences like Motown, and knocking out more than 250 albums, 2,500 songs.
‘Stereo Instrumental Music is a rare gem from this era, recorded in 1976 at the Ras Hotel Ballroom in Addis Ababa.’

His terrific Positive-Negative LP from 1976, plus singles for Golden Voice, Mercury and Tosted (including the original Now That I Have You), and the sixties sides of his organ-funk combo the TMGs.
Lovely, characterful, poignant soul music which irresistibly radiates the singer’s worship of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye.
Al Green, Philly Soul and also-ran frustration are in the wings: What Can I Do came out of Grand Rapids on the coat-tails of Back Up Train; I’m A Stranger was recorded at Sigma, in the slipstream of Be Thankful For What You Got.

“I’m out here all alone… trying to find my way… I don’t know where to roam… I just don’t know what to say about all this… I’m a stranger.”

The return of the AACM flautist to the visionary, Afro-futurist science fiction of Octavia Butler, alongside theremin-player Harris, together with fellow Chicago luminaries like cellist Tomeka Reid and trumpeter Ben LaMar Gay.
Tumultuous, visceral musical reflections on Butler’s ideas about Apocalypse, power, hybridity-versus-identity, race and feminism. ‘Writing myself in,’ she called it.

‘Mind-melting West Javanese gong pop, recorded in 2007 at Jugala studios in Bandung, based on a Javanese secular village music and dance tradition known as ketuk-tila, which was transformed into a popular studio music in the early 1960s by the producer Gugum Gumbira, founder of Jugala. With vocals by Idjah Hadidjah, one of the key historic voices of jaipongan, the situation here is disorientatingly heavy, low bpm gong pressure coming straight from the originators. It is a much less dainty affair than classical Javanese gamelan, and less febrile than the fully automatic Balinese variant. Hadidjah’s golden voice sews together shifting polyrhythms that would baffle a watchmaker; the whole is embroidered by rehab and underpinned by Mariana Trench level bass drops. A second disc features a set of thoughtful electronic reworkings’ (Frances Gooding, The Wire).

An excellent introduction — a tip-top, well-paced selection ranging across styles and vintages, with some marvellous photographs of the great man at Kingston airport, Canada-bound.

The first of three volumes surveying surely the mightiest Gospel label of them all.
Stomping, rollicking gospel music, intermingling with raw soul, searing blues, hard-rocking doo-wop and jazz, and storming r&b.
Infused and incandescent with the hurting, surging indignation of the Civil Rights movement, here are twenty-four precious scorchers by giants like the Staple Singers and Jimmy Scott, alongside devastating sides by less celebrated names like the Harmonising Five of Burlington, North Carolina, and teen-group the North Philadelphia Juniors, culminating triumphantly with slamming, sanctified versions of Hit The Road Jack and Wade In The Water. Drawn from nigh-impossible-to-find 78s, sevens and LPs, hardly any of these recordings have been reissued since their first release.
Presented in a gatefold sleeve, with full-size booklet; beautifully designed, with stunning, rare photographs and original Savoy artwork. Sound restoration and mastering at Abbey Road; pressed at Pallas.
Co-curated by Greg Belson, compiler of Divine Disco; with deep, extensive notes by Robert Marovich, author of A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music (University of Illinois), and host of the award-winning radio show Gospel Memories.