from the "Black Phoenix Blues" LP :::

To call Rodd Keith the king of the song-poems (also known as the “send us your lyrics” quick buck-demo mill) is damning with faint praise: no one else in that shady backwater of the music industry possessed an array of talents as distinctively individual as his.  As gifted a singer, composer and arranger as he was, his genius was destined to remain a well-kept secret during his lifetime by virtue of the complete disregard – verging on invisibility – in which song-poem records were held.  He was a commercial musician in the most literal sense of the word, but within those confines, he displayed an oddball, personal vision that frequently transcended the work-for-hire nature of his music.
 
Black Phoenix Blues is the third Roaratorio collection of the best of Rodd Keith’s vast output.  Dating from 1966 to 1974, the sixteen previously unreissued songs showcase the scope of his work: the should’ve-been-a-hit “You And I”; the elegant exotica of “I Love Lovely Chinese Gal”; the history lesson of “The Explosion Of Holden 22 Mine”; the harrowing psychokiller musings of the title track; “I’m Proud To Be A Hippie From Mississippi,” the stoner’s answer to Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee”; the low-fi “The Game Of Love” (which, in the tradition of Keith’s infamous “I’m Just The Other Woman,” prompted the dissatisfied customer to request a more conventional re-take); the disturbingly desperate “Sing My Death Note,” which was discovered on one of Keith’s private reels; and the unclassifiable wtf?-ness of “Abidin’ Tuh The Rule.” 
 
A limited edition LP with artwork by Josh Journey-Heinz and liner notes from noted blues guitarist Debbie Davies, one of Keith’s musical and personal compadres from the early 1970s.  Download coupon included.

Rodd Keith -You And I

title track from the forthcoming LP :::

Within Sun Ra’s vast-as-outer-space discography, the album that orbits the furthest away from the known jazz universe is Strange Strings. Calling it a “study in ignorance,” Ra directed his Arkestra stalwarts to pick up unusual stringed instruments and homemade percussion with which they had little familiarity, and improvise without any guidelines or direction; the resulting record is one of Ra’s best. Now, Roaratorio is proud to issue a satellite around that lonely planet: Other Strange Worlds, recorded in Ra’s NYC apartment in May of 1965, dates from the same era and employs the same methodology as Strange Strings. But while the latter album featured the full Arkestra, Other Strange Worlds pares the players down to a core quintet of Ra, John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Art Jenkins, and Ali Hasaan. There’s plenty of freewheeling collective improvisation in the Ra catalog, but rarely in a small-group setting such as this. Half of the pieces are texture-over-tonality string experiments, while the rest feature exotic reeds and percussion. Other Strange Worlds is a significant addition to Sun Ra’s body of work, and a brilliant example of free improv from the days before it had a name. 

“There’s always more Ra being issued than anyone can keep up with. But this one’s essential. Don’t skip it.” – Byron Coley



Sun Ra & His Astro-Infinity Arkestra - Other Strange Worlds

In 1972, Sun Ra inked a high-profile deal with ABC / Impulse, bringing his recorded work to the widest audience he’d had to date.  A slew of Saturn back catalog titles and two newly-recorded albums (Astro Black, Pathways To Unknown Worlds) were issued before ABC cancelled the contract, dumped the records into the cut-out bins, and left the unreleased albums to languish.  Now, over four decades later, Roaratorio is proud to offer one of the lost Impulse recordings for the first time.  Sign Of The Myth hails from the same studio session as Pathways, and shares its emphasis on guided improvisations.  With a constantly shifting palette of Moog textures, Ra tosses off a dazzling array of ideas throughout, supported by the usual Arkestra stalwarts; in particular, bassist Ronnie Boykins and drummer Clifford Jarvis are in shining form here, giving shape and solidity to these pieces.  Sign Of The Myth is a welcome augmentation to an especially fertile period from Sun Ra’s time on Earth.

Sun Ra & His Astro-Infinity Arkestra - The Truth Of Maat

“Les Barricades Mistérieuses,” the harpsichord gem by French Baroque composer François Couperin, has been a long-running source of exploration for Fluxus musician Philip Corner, who for years has used it as a jumping-off point for piano improvisations. Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades comprises two very different takes on the same piece. The first dates from 1992, in collaboration with dancer Paulette Sears (who provides the ‘singings and screamings’ of the album’s subtitle); it moves from a frenzy of abstraction to a more meditative take on Couperin’s composition, with diversions and tributaries along the way. The second, from 2004, is a rougher beast: recorded with wildly over-saturated levels, the tape machine itself becomes a participant in the performance, with its heavy distortion bringing out stormclouds of overtones from Corner’s piano. Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades is released in an edition of 318 copies, with Corner’s calligraphy silkscreened on Kozo rice paper and mounted onto the jacket. Download coupon included.

Philip Corner - Through The Mysterious Barricade With Paulette (excerpt)

For decades, Crystal Syphon were, at most, a footnote in the music history books: a name on posters from the psychedelic ballroom days, and a fond memory to those who’d seen the Merced, California band perform on the west coast circuit in the late 1960s.  That changed with the release of Family Evil in 2012.  Their debut album – evidence that the mine of hidden gems from the original psych era had not yet been picked clean – caught the ears of fans worldwide, garnering raves and equal-footing comparisons to Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and the Byrds; the group reunited and began playing out again, with their vintage sound intact. Now, Roaratorio is proud to present Elephant Ball, a second helping of unearthed material from the band’s archives.  Starting with three tracks from their earliest recording sessions under the Crystal Syphon name, in 1967 – the swaggering garage-rock miniature “Dawn Sermon” and the folk-rock of “For All Of My Life” and “Tell Her For Me” – it then moves on to a Fillmore West gig from November 1969, featuring the final incarnation of the group during their original run. With the same complex harmonies, nuanced songwriting and top-drawer musicianship that won Family Evil its accolades, the half-dozen tunes range from the crunchy riffs of the title track and “It’s Winter” to the lightly jazzy “Don’t Fall Brother” and the Latin-tinged moves of “There Is Light There.”  Comes in an old-style “tip-on” jacket with a digital download.  

Crystal Syphon - It's Winter

In 1976, Joe McPhee recorded the landmark album Tenor, kicking off a solo period of finding and refining the distinctive voice that continues to inform his music to this day.  Solos : The Lost Tapes (1980 – 1981 – 1984) is a collection of material from McPhee’s personal archives that shines new light on the legendary multi-instrumentalist’s work during this time.  “Wind Cycles,” for tenor saxophone, explores the permutations of breath on reed and brass, from quiet whispers to full-throated cries and back again.  With “The Redwood Rag,” McPhee takes a jaunty melody and gives it a swinging workout with Steve Lacy-like precision.  The free-blowing alto excursion “Ice Blu” is, in McPhee’s words, “a sound which evokes an image, which asks a question ‘What is that?’ and the answer is, a sound which evokes an image which asks a question.”  “Voices,” one of his signature compositions, gets a particularly haunting treatment here on soprano, with McPhee incorporating various electronics to mesmerizing effect.  All together, Solos : The Lost Tapes (1980 – 1981 – 1984) is the distilled essence of one of the most important creative improvising musicians of our time.  Cover art by Judith Lindbloom.  Includes a download coupon for the full album plus a bonus interview, conducted at the New Music America Festival in 1981.



Joe McPhee - Voices (excerpt)

The Cleveland Wrecking Company were formed in San Francisco in 1965.  Their members came from jazz, flamenco and R&B backgrounds, but together their psychedelic brew verged on Blue Cheer heaviness.  As perennial local favorites, they gigged at every stage in the area.  They left behind no recorded artifacts during this time; a deal with Vanguard went nowhere, when their manager absconded to Mexico with the album advance on an ill-fated mission to buy a kilo of pot.  A later incarnation of the band – with a completely different lineup and musical style – released a 45 that has since become a favorite of cratedigging DJs, but This is not That.  These two tracks hail from 1967-8, one studio, one live (the sonics on the latter may remind of the VU’s “guitar amp” boot, but with a solo as overdriven and atonal as this, it’s a plus).  With liner notes by Jim Moscoso (CWC vocalist, bassist, brother of Victor) and rare photographs.

Cleveland Wrecking Company - Say There's A Reason

from the forthcoming album 'This Song Was Borne', available in March // now accepting pre-orders

Allan Fraser & Daisy DeBolt met in the summer of 1969.  They had both been working individually on the coffeehouse circuit in their native Canada; over the next five years, as the duo of Fraser & DeBolt, they created a sublime body of work that still sounds remarkably fresh decades later.  They recorded two albums for Columbia which garnered rave reviews at the time, but saw little commercial success.  Both have since become cult classics in psychedelic folk circles; the first, 'With Ian Guenther,' being particularly beloved amongst a coterie of die-hard fans.  Their combination of ragged-but-right salt & pepper harmonies, evocative lyrics, beautiful songs shot through with occasional dissonant grace notes, and careful arrangements that still managed to sound off-the-cuff made for some of the most beguiling music of the day.  Now, Roaratorio is proud to present 'This Song Was Borne,' a double LP collection of previously unreleased demos, studio outtakes, radio sessions, and live recordings from Fraser & DeBolt’s archives, spanning their entire career, in a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket with detailed liner notes from Allan and Daisy.  Download coupon included.  

Fraser & DeBolt - Daisy Sky

Fraser & DeBolt - Doors Will Appear (...And Swing Open)

One might think, with a discography as extensive as the one Sun Ra boasts, that the scope of his work has been fully apprehended by this point, but The Intergalactic Thing demonstrates its seemingly bottomless depths.  This is not a complete surprise: anyone who saw Ra and the Arkestra perform will remember the sight of the band quickly shuffling through an imposingly thick stack of sheet music, when Sunny would call the next tune on the program with an encrypted hint on his keyboard.  Band members tell stories of spending long hours practicing a newly-written composition, only to never play it again.  Here, we have a taste of what's been hidden: drawn from rehearsals at the Sun Ra house in Philadelphia from 1969, The Intergalactic Thing introduces a dozen never-before-heard pieces from Ra’s songbook – tunes that may have never even made it to the bandstand, let alone the recording studio – along with a handful of reworkings of such Ra classics as “Spontaneous Simplicity” and “The Exotic Forest.”  Without a doubt, this is one of the most important augmentations to the Sun Ra catalog in many a moon.  This double LP set comes in a beautiful gatefold jacket, with extensive liner notes by Ra discographer Robert L. Campbell and a download coupon for the full album.  

Sun Ra & His Astro-Ihnfinity Arkestra - The Others From Another World

Sun Ra & His Astro-Ihnfinity Arkestra - Discipline Of The Pharaohs

“In an everlasting process that continuously repositions and reevaluates infinity as a consciously unachievable but ultimately rewarding goal since the early 90′s, David Maranha’s music has been riding that arc with ferocity and aplomb. A unique vision that has been translating the ETERNAL in a sprawling language through countless performances, approaches and records like Marches of the New World and the Roaratorio-released classic Antarctica. Always the unsettled mind, Maranha conveys his spiraling vision towards its core with this new ensemble. Comprised of Diana Combo on drums, Filipe Felizardo on electric guitar and David himself on organ and violin, they are a speculative tour de force around animic and sensory principles of movement, stillness and reaction. Long drawn out semi-riffs feedback along the drifting textures of the violin and the organ like rock’s ultimate coda stretched into nowhere. Drums plodding in restraint, sustaining the drone-like vortex of electricity without ever reaching any sort of conclusion in four pieces that inhabit their own universe continually. As it should.” – Bruno Silva

Salt, Ashes, Goat Skin

Goat

David Maranha Ensemble - Goat

Thollem McDonas : “This is the third trio album Nels and I have made together, each time with a different 3rd partner. The previous two were 'The Gowanus Session' with William Parker and 'Radical Empathy' with Michael Wimberly. Though each session has been unique in itself (different prescribed approaches, the environment and of course the uniqueness that each individual brings), there are definitely overarching themes pollinating each album. As the instigator of each of these sessions, I’ve always been curious about the sonic experience created each time a unique combination of musicians gather. So, in a sense, this is really kind of a scientific experiment with a control and a variable. I also love the trio format: there’s plenty of room for everyone, yet still many possible depths of complexity in relationships between the individuals. The three of us seemed immediately intertwined, psychically and sonically. An amazing place to record with amazing musicians/human beings. I think it all comes through in the recording… an experiment with fascinating results!”

Pauline Oliveros : “This recording brought us together for an unusual musical conversation. There was no plan or guiding structure. Thus the conversation set the pace between eGuitar, V accordion and piano. Each of us contributing, conversing in response to the other from our own individual perceptions. The music develops as a result of those moments of conversation. As different subjects are triggered or introduced the conversation shifts, turns and integrates making the music.”

Nels Cline : “It started on a beautiful sunny day in a rental car to Accord, NY, Thollem at the wheel, his lovely partner Angela riding shotgun. Thollem had instigated yet another miraculous and rather unexpected improvisatory recording session. This time, I was really going to meet the legendary Pauline Oliveros and improvise with her – and Thollem, of course! We met at a market and caravanned it to a beautiful barn studio. Pauline was immediately welcoming and gracious – a good start! A few improvisations, some bucolic photos, and precious lungfuls of sweet air later we were headed back to The City. How was that? Did that really happen?? Yes, it really did. A concentrated portion of our probing explorations is thankfully here, on this petrochemical slice: 'Molecular Affinity'. It’s a good thing!”
Jacket & label are adorned with confocal microscopy images of a Coleochaete green algae, by Fernán Federici. Download coupon included.

Molecular Affinity

Thollem / Oliveros / Cline - In Particular (excerpt)

A companion EP to the recent double LP retrospective This Song Was Borne, Flight Of The Light Air Force features three exclusive tracks by cult favorite outsider-folk duo Fraser & DeBolt. The majestic title track is an outtake from their second Columbia LP With Pleasure; left off that album for reasons of space (it clocks in at 8 minutes), it would’ve easily been the finest song on the record & a highlight of their career. On the flip side, we have two cuts recorded live at a February 1970 concert in upstate NY, as performed by Fraser, DeBolt & violinist Ian Guenther : their signature song “Dance Hall Girls” and a rollicking version of the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Fraser & DeBolt are a secret handshake among those who know : come acquaint yourself. Digital download included.

Flight Of The Light Air Force

Fraser And DeBolt - Zero ± 22 and Holding (Flight Of The Light Air Force)

from the 'SUN EMBASSY'  lp :::

Roaratorio's survey of the unheard Sun Ra continues with Sun Embassy.  Consisting of recordings from Sun Studios (aka Ra's house in Philadelphia) from 1968-1969, the album features nine tracks : six compositions which have never been heard before in any form, plus fresh coats of paint on such 1950s classics as "Sunology" and "Ancient Aiethiopia," and an early rendition of "Why Go To The Moon?".  Essential listening for Sun Ra devotees.  Download coupon included.

Sun Embassy

Sun Ra & His Astro-Ihnfinity Arkestra - The Stranger

from the LP 'FROM OUTER SPACE' ::: 

At age 78, Joe McPhee shows no sign of slowing down.  Plan B is the master improviser's new trio, with James Keepnews on guitar & laptop and David Berger on drums.  A soundtrack to a science fiction movie existing only in their heads, From Outer Space finds McPhee and company envisioning the first encounter between alien life and a delegation of earthlings (while giving a nod to jazz's original man from another planet, Sun Ra, with a side-long suite dedicated to him).  It's quite unlike anything else in McPhee's vast discography.  Cover art by Judith Lindbloom.  Download coupon included.

From Outer Space

Plan B (Joe McPhee / James Keepnews / David Berger) - Overture

Crystal Syphon, one of the greatest “lost” groups of the West Coast psych scene, came together in Merced, California in 1965.  Originally a Beatles / Byrds-influenced unit called the Morlochs, they soon shed their original moniker and moved in a more psychedelic direction, becoming a fixture on the ballroom circuit from 1966-1970.  Although their music may nod in the direction of the New Tweedy Brothers and Quicksilver Messenger Service at times, it’s imbued throughout with a distinctive sound that arose from practicing up to six nights a week.  The band entertained offers from various labels during their existence, but as they insisted on complete artistic control and ownership of their music, no deals were struck.  Now, some 44 years after its creation, Roaratorio is proud to make the music of Crystal Syphon available for the first time ever.  Drawn from studio tracks, rehearsal tapes and a live recording from the Fillmore West,  Family Evil is released in an edition of 500 copies, with cover art by Norman Orr and extensive historical liner notes on an old-style “tip-on” jacket.  Digital download included.

Crystal Syphon - Marcy, Your Eyes

In June of 1977, Steve Lacy and Joe McPhee shared a double bill in Basel, Switzerland.  Lacy invited McPhee to join him for a duet to close his set, for which McPhee elected to bring out his own soprano saxophone.  The main part of Lacy’s performance was issued on the classic Clinkers LP; after 36 years, here is The Rest.  This one-sided, limited LP marks the first and only time that these two master musicians played together, but the simpatico meshing of their
distinctly individual voices points towards a shared history on a different plane.  Cover artwork by Judith Lindbloom.  Download coupon included.

Steve Lacy & Joe McPhee - The Rest (excerpt)

from the Live At CBGB 1986 7" ep

“Not since the early days of MC5 at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, circa 1968, had there been such an organic melding of sheer metalesque maelstrom and free jazz. These archival recordings from the legendary punk club CBGB capture a moment in time when open-minded musicians from the 'downtown scene' were exploring the possibility of bringing Lou Reed's feedback-infested Metal Machine Music together with Albert Ayler's Love Cry. Dissipated Face guitarist Kurt "Hologram" Ralske and special guest saxophonist Daniel Carter provided that implausible link between punk rock and avant garde jazz on these 1986 live recordings. Fueled by the throbbing rhythms of Steve "X Dream" Popkin and Ben "Face" Munves, who alternated on bass and drums, Ralske's twisted, thrashing power chords and shrieking licks blend with Carter's cathartic alto sax wailing to make the perfect union of disparate worlds.

Ralske would go on to attain a certain level of indie rock fame with Ultra Vivid Scene and subsequently make an impact as a London-based producer-conceptualist-avant-popmeister and visual artist. Carter would become one of the most ubiquitous figures on New York's free jazz scene, recording with William Parker, David S. Ware, Billy Bang, Alan Silva and Matthew Shipp and the cooperative bands Test and Other Dimensions in Music. But for this one moment back in 1986, their paths crossed with bandmates Popkin and Munves, and the results were frighteningly intense.” – Bill Milkowski.  Cover artwork by Raymond Pettibon.

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