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SKY GIRL 2LP/CD/DIG OUT NOW

Sky Girl is a mysteriously unshakeable companion, a deeply melancholic and sentimental journey through folk-pop, new wave and art music micro presses that span 1961-1991. A seemingly disparate suite of selections of forgotten fables by more or less neverknowns, Sky Girl forms a beautifully coherent and utterly sublime whole deftly compiled by French collectors DJ Sundae and Julien Dechery.

From Scott Seskind's adolescent musical road movie to Karen Marks' icy Oz-wave, the charming DIY storytelling of Italian-American go-getter Joe Tossini and the ethereal slow dance themes of Parisian artists Nini Raviolette and Hugo Weris, Sky Girl resonates on a wide spectrum historically, geographically and stylistically. It unites in a singular, longing, almost intangible ambience.

If the names sound wholly unfamiliar that doesn't matter, the nature of the compositions swiftly nurtures an intimacy with these lonely, poignant, openhearted wanderers. Most were available in a very limited capacity at the time of their release, some were never really released at all - Gary Davenport declined to release Sarra after he split with the girl for whom the track is named - years later a friend convinced Davenport to allow him to put 100 copies online to sell and DJ Sundae was quick enough to snare one. Beyond their scarcity, these tracks are bound together by a certain raw beauty that's achievable when music is made and no one is listening.

Sky Girl comprises of fifteen officially licensed songs, a two year international scavenger hunt through long-folded home label operations, the depths of internet forums and traceless acetates. Both compilers are well trained record sleuths - DJ Sundae's labels Hollie and Idle Press have reissued Arthur Russell affiliate Nirosta Steel and DIY relic Pitch, while Julien Dechery previously compiled 'Fire Star', a retrospective on Tamil film composer Ilaiyaraaja, for Bombay Connection.

Released by Noise In My Head offshoot Efficient Space, Sky Girl is enriched with artwork from Perks and Mini mutant Misha Hollenbach and appropriately elegant sleeve notes courtesy of Ivan Smagghe.

02 Karen Marks - Cold Cafe 3:04 (ES002)

„ NEW from Kristy And The Kraks „Snakes On The Phone“ 4 Tracks EP on Fettkakao. Kristy And The Kraks, affectionately known as the two-headed love child of Kate Kristal and Ana Threat, are wreaking havoc on the sensibilities of unsuspecting analog lovers, club kids, and vinyl freaks from Vienna to Chicago. Bristling with handfuls of vipers, ripped-out telephone cords, haywire guitar strings, strangulated utterances, and femme fatale crash & flash, KATK have elevated CAVE-GIRL garage anthems to a new level of sleek ULTRA TRASH AuGoGo. If you are not listening to „SNAKES On The Phone“, you’re wasting your time.“
- Tav Falco, 2017

Snakes On The Phone

Kristy And The Kraks - Ready

I Have to Feed Larry's Hawk

Neighborhood Light

02 - Semelles de vent

Kawanabe Kyosai is the first track from Komachi, the first full length vinyl release from the inimitable Hiroshima based artist @Meiteijapan. As with his previous work, Meitei once again explores what he calls ‘the lost Japanese mood’, an era and culture that he hopes to keep in our collective consciousness as society moves away from some of Japans more traditional aesthetics. 

The album drops on March 15th but you can pre-order the limited edition 12’’ from our Bandcamp page or via our wonderful partner and distributors Séance Centre.

metronrecords.bandcamp.com/album/komachi
www.seance-centre.com/shop/meitei-komachi-pre-order

Meitei - Kawanabe Kyosai [Pt.II]

Club Nites

Submission

Grotto Terrazza - Was Leben Will Muss Sterben [That which longs to live must die]

Almost four decades since it’s domestic release, Karen Marks’ 1981 single Cold Café has finally reaped it’s deserved international credit to become one of Australia's most recognised minimal wave recordings. Efficient Space now showcases the Melbourne artist’s brief but entire discography, including two previously unheard demos, all produced with experimental synthesist Ash Wednesday (The Metronomes, Modern Jazz, Thealonian Music). 

A rarity in the then male dominated industry, Marks found her footing in music, first through rock journalism and then in band management. Formally of Adelaide, newly arrived synth-punks JAB (Johnny Crash, Ash Wednesday and Bodhan X) approached her for representation, subsequently contributing tracks to seminal 1978 snapshot Lethal Weapons and playing the Crystal Ballroom's opening night. Wednesday and Crash would soon dissolve JAB, enlisting Mark Ferry and Sean Kelly to create Models. Still under Mark's management, Models became one of the fastest rising new bands of the punk movement, playing to full houses of dedicated and frenzied fans everywhere. Sadly, internal frictions forced Wednesday and Marks to leave after two years, with Crash following three months later. 

Her creative relationship with Wednesday fortified with the co-production of his 1980 machine-pop prank Love By Numbers, her swooning chorus uplifting his deadpan count to 100, before the two collaborated on Marks’ own recording persona. Immortalised by the icy Oz wave of Cold Café, her Astor issued 7” also boasted the caffeinated flip Won't Wear It For Long - a should be hit with guitar from future Icehouse member Robert Kretschmer. 

Fans know of one more recording - You Bring These Things, a forlorn arrangement of an otherwise unreleased Paul Kelly song, gifted to her by the revered wordsmith. The track only ever appeared on the Astor promotional LP Terra Australis, sinfully alongside Up There Cazaly and Joe Dolce - hard proof that the label grossly misunderstood her talent (Marks recalls their persistent requests to show midriff and cleavage). Locked in a dissatisfying label arrangement and at this stage unwilling to follow her peers to greener pastures overseas, she felt her only way out was to cease all further activities. 

At the 11th hour of preparing this retrospective, two tracks unexpectedly surfaced via two cassettes - a paranoid demo version of her signature tune Cold Café, and a long-lost fourth song Problem Page. Both living room recordings follow Marks and Wednesday’s ingenious framework of minimal lyrics, minimal chord progressions.

Cold Café EP

BUY 12"/DIGI

KAREN MARKS - Cold Café (ES012) OUT NOW

Wilson Tanner (Andras and Eleventeen Eston) return to shore with II - a new album of floating melodies, lightly salted. The 12 min odyssey Killcord Pts I-III battens down the hatches as these sailors eye merciless waves and blinding ocean spray, channelling Berlin-school electronics and sea legs.

Wilson Tanner - Killcord Pts I-III (ES013)

Gwakasonné is the ecstatic articulation of Robert Oumaou’s artistic and political vision, a unified expression of his interests in American jazz, pre-colonial rhythms, Guadeloupian independence, and Créole poetics. Over the course of three albums, all released in the 80s, Robert piloted a revolving cast of musicians, a venerable who’s-who of Point-a-Pitre avant-jazz pioneers, to deftly intone his creative communal concepts. The songs on Vwayajé are compiled from these three releases, Gwakasonné, Temwen, and Moun, along with an electronic mantra taken from his 2007 solo album Sang Comment Taire. Viewed from our current artistic and cultural landscape, Robert’s work is exceptionally enduring, grounded in its declarations of freedom and foundational use of the Ka (drum) and voice, and prescient in its borderless explorations of protest folk, electronics, ambient atmosphere, music from the African diaspora, and spiritual jazz. The long-form hive-mind expression of the group has parallels with similar explorations by The Grateful Dead, electric Miles, Pharaoh Sanders, and even the Boredoms, but these are only oblique references for a truly peerless sound. Like other conceptual children of Gérard Lockel, the group was part of a progressive movement of like-minded musicians, such as Serge Fabriano, Dao, Erick Cosaque, and Gaoulé Mizik, who embraced Lockel’s modernist ideals, fusing Gwo Ka drumming and tuning systems with contemporary jazz and vanguard recording technologies. Robert’s ecstatic phrasings, embrace of electronic instruments, and daring lyrics set the group apart as the beatific expression of a sagacious soul. 

Tracklist:
A1 Atmosphere (1:58)
A2 W3 (3:49)
A3 Karayib (4:47)
A4 Suzy (4:00)
B1 Vou (4:09)
B2 Siklon (3:47)
B3 Pita (6:13)
C1 Nirvacina (3:39)
C2 Respé (5:08)
C3 Lewoz (4:06)
D1 Rekreasyon (3:38)
D2 Algerie 62 (10:35)

Release date July 5th 2019

For EU distribution contact: info@rushhour.nl
For NA distribution contact: info@seance-centre.com

Gwakasonné - Nirvancina (16SC) EXCERPT

Useful Information

Habibi Funk is back with another album from Casablanca. Completely unreleased album which was recorded in Morocco in 1973 by three generation family band. A unique blend of Gnawa, Funk and Rock. Traditional Moroccan music meets electronic guitars and dense layers of percussion by a band that used to run in the same circles as Fadoul (And actually wrote one of his songs).

2  ALBAKI  
it's the story of a man who lost his love. The author asks him to explain (to the people) the sources of his suffering and dissatisfaction.  To which he replied "I will not tell you because the weight of your problems certainly exceeds mine."
I have confided in myself in the past. My first confidant left without a trace. The second confidant created twice as much trouble for me.

"I sacrificed all my youth (for her), and it was in the prime of my life,
A rose from which I removed the spines, from my blood-soaked hands,
The one I cried about has forgotten our days and nights,
And the one to whom I confided my pains, died without memories.
(...) "

Pre-Order

Attarazat Addahabia & Faradjallah - Albaki الباكي(Habibi Funk 011)

American-born, Japan-based composer John Di Stefano self-released a number of cassettes as part of the 80s DIY underground on his own imprint Oktron Produktions, including Klang's Drift, a collaboration with Joel Graham. Living in San Francisco, Di Stefano had access to multiple University electronic music studios, where he had an impressive array of synthesizers at his fingertips, including both Buchla and Serge modular systems. Combining his knowledge of modular synthesis with a background in percussion, his early releases were a uniquely human approach to electroacoustic music, with flourishes of post punk in the mix. Di Stefano developed an interest in world music, studying Indian music theory and tabla, and after an extended trip to Indonesia in the mid 80s, he was particularly drawn to Javanese gamelan music. Future recordings would forever be indebted to the sounds he heard during those travels.
Concentric Circles is proud to present For the Moment, which features tracks from some of Di Stefano's early cassette releases, as well as a number of unheard explorations of Indian polyrhythms from the early 90s. Di Stefano’s prescient and unique work will appeal to fans of Cybe, Joel Graham, UnknownmiX, Zru Vogue, and provides a fascinating view of the 80s US electronic underground.

BUY HERE: https://www.seance-centre.com/other-releases/john-di-stefano-for-the-moment

Tracklisting:
A1. Compos Mentis 2:56
A2. For the Moment 5:25
A3. Nuage 10:12
B1. Ng's Office 4:34
B2. Culture Schlock 3:43
B3. Knocking At My Door 2:39
B4. Three Moon Reflection 4:50
B5. The Rain On the Leaves 2:40

Release date July 5th 2019

For EU distribution contact: info@rushhour.nl
For NA distribution contact: info@seance-centre.com

John Di Stefano - Culture Schlock (CC-003)

Read more: https://electrocorp.fr/2019/06/18/wilson-tanner-ii/ 

"These eight compositions pull in a by-catch of maritime folklore; of Siren and Selkie, Seagull and engine oil slick". This is how we got introduced to the new album of Wilson Tanner. 

Wilson Tanner is the mutual project of Australian artists Andras (Andrew Wilson) and Eleventeen Eston (John Tanner). Here they release "II", a follow up to their debut full-length published in 2016. 

Through the 8 tracks, Andrew and John captured Ambient and Electronica landscapes, all recorded in 3 days, on September 2017, aboard a 1950s riverboat with weatherproof instruments. 

While listening to the LP, we instantly felt in love with the whole aesthetic and the peaceful feeling that spead throughout the tracks. "All Hands Bury the Dead" is our pickup from the release with its early 70s / late 60s electronic sound that brings back a lot of music and visual memories.

Premiere: Wilson Tanner - All Hands Bury the Dead [Efficient Space]

Hüseyin Ertunç Sextet ‎– Unhinged-Ness Voices (Excerpt)

Dragster Club opening track from The Stinkbugs 'Elysian Fields' LP out June 2019 on Swashbuckling Hobo Records. Limited edition vinyl available via swashbucklinghobo.com

Elysian Fields

The Stinkbugs - Dragster Club

Taken from the four track 7", It's A Hit!, released on 12th July. Pre-order the white vinyl here - https://smarturl.it/ItsAHit7

It's A Hit! brings together four songs recorded by The Stroppies at home on their Tascam 4 track in mid 2017. Permeated by dystopian imagery of machines building machines and cats driving cars, It's a Hit! is perhaps the Stroppies most idiosyncratic release. Indeed, the title is a humorous nod to the inherent lo-fi quality of the recordings, a sound that some might not consider to be "radio friendly". Surley though, the songs contained herein are still unashamedly pop, albeit adorned in crackle and hiss. For reference think Alex Chilton's "Like Flies on Sherbert", early Swell Maps, and a touch of Loaded-era Velvet Underground shuffle. Originally released only in Australia via Hobbies Galore as a limited edition 7" in a hand stamped sleeve, the long sold-out EP is now being given an international release on the eve of the band's debut UK tour. Limited to 500 copies on white vinyl, and with a different sleeve to the first pressing.

The Stroppies  - Noble Creatures

cassette available at moonmystmusic.bandcamp.com

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MutantMint