Recently Added Vinyl

First new LP in over 15 years. Builds on 3 successful ATFA reissues of Mergia's music. Legendary artist still active after decades of historic work. Modern Ethiopian jazz built on ancient scales and standards. Capping several successful years traveling the world performing to audiences big and small, Hailu Mergia's Lala Belu has been a long time coming.

It builds on Mergia's remarkable career resurgence over the past few years. Beginning in 2013 with the reissue of his dreamy Hailu Mergia and His Classical Instrument followed by the enormous success of his seminal Ethio-jazz masterpiece Tche Belew and continuing with last year's widely acclaimed Wede Harer Guzo, Mergia has received considerable accolades from listeners and press globally, including The New York Times, Pitchfork and The Wire.

His old recordings are cherished revelations for Ethiopian music fans; however, Mergia's return to the stage has been just as inspiring and electrifying. Mergia's vintage recordings are known for an inherently mysterious and worn-in quality, while his new recordings echo his band's 21st century live show with modern instrumental interpretations of crucial Ethiopian standards and Mergia's own original compositions. Tony Buck (drums) and Mike Majkowski (bass), who have backed Mergia on tour throughout Europe and Australia, form the bass-drums trio on the recording.

Having played venues from Radio City Music Hall and the Kennedy Center to jazz festivals, rock clubs and DIY spaces all over North America, Europe and Australia, Mergia and Awesome Tapes From Africa want to document this moment in his landmark career with a snapshot of Mergia's current sound.

Since he emigrated from Ethiopia and built a life in Washington, D.C. around 1981'where he remains working as an airport taxi driver when he is not on tour'Mergia's career has followed a humble trajectory. He made a few recordings in America but they didn't easily reach fans back home. He kept making music on his own and with friends but after the early 80's his gigs in the U.S. mostly dried up.

It wasn't until he began working with Awesome Tapes From Africa and putting together bands with the help of booking agents and musicians in Europe and the U.S., that he was able to chart a new path. With a broad audience of young listeners in diverse venues and distant locales, at age 71, Mergia is enjoying his comeback and is not slowing down.

Tracklisting:
1. Tizita
2. Addis Nat
3. Gum Gum
4. Anchihoye Lene
5. Lala Belu
6. Yefikir Engurguro

An appetite for the unknown" - Daniel Lanois

No collaboration is unlikely when the end goals are the same. A meeting of two artists who illustrate different corners of the musical landscape, come together to create a new statement that takes their collective strengths to higher elevations and encompasses new terrains.

So it is on the first collaborative journey of Canadian musicians Venetian Snares and Daniel Lanois. What started as mutual respect for one another's work, led to several years of a creative germination resulting in an eight-track full-length exploration released May 4th on Timesig/Planet Mu.

The path began in 2014, after Lanois reached out to Venetian Snares (Aaron Funk) as a fan of his work. The project started to take root in Summer of 2016, after Funk hung around Toronto between shows. Taking his gear to Lanois'studio, the two began to play for the first time together in what would prove to be a formative moment in their creative journey together.

'I love making music with Dan, he has a real understanding of how to create a world and build what may exist within that world. Bassdrums are trombones and they are a colossal whale which floats on clouds of leaves speaking to the blast furnace feeding the mammoth. A small painting of forest horses hangs in the cranium of the sea horse.' - Aaron Funk

Recorded live in a former Buddhist temple-turned-studio in Toronto,
'Venetian Snares x Daniel Lanois' travels to new zones in what Lanois describes as 'a body of work driven by exploration'. Like all the best collaborations, it's brought something new out of both musicians. Equipped with their production acuity, they let their natural workflow guide them through uncharted waters. Funk laid the groundwork with drums while Lanois rode the pedal steel, weaving their sounds together in a new sonic tapestry. The two ultimately landed at their destination, their work ready to be shared with those willing to explore.

In Daniel Lanois 'own words:
"To come upon a new form reassures the head that frontier lives on The unlikely pairing of Venetian Snares and Daniel Lanois may very well have provided us with a nice new pair of shoes to walk to new sonic frontier A melange of gospel and electronics As madness of the world trips over its heels these Canadian sonic innovators prepare for travel A body of work driven by exploration, brings to us in our modern times what we remember and admire from the Jazz explorations of the 50s A splintering An appetite for the unknown"

Tracklisting:
Vinyl LP:
Side A:
1. Mag11 P82
2. HpShk5050 P127
3. United P92

Side B:
1. Bernard Revisit P81
2. Best P54
3. Mothors Pressroll P131
4. Night MXCMPV1 P74
5. Ophelius 1stP118

CD:
1. Mag11 P82
2. HpShk5050 P127
3. United P92
4. Bernard Revisit P81
5. Best P54
6. Mothors Pressroll P131
7. Night MXCMPV1 P74
8. Ophelius 1stP118

Release Date: 04/05/2018

Debut LP by the new creepy and romantic basement organ project of Romain Perrot (VOMIR, FREE AS DEAD, FALOT, RORO PERROT).

'The other night I dreamt about a parallel universe in which Klaus Schulze had some sort of government-paid job installing contact mics and analog synths (which I suspect was mainly to annoy Tangerine Dream) in all the big European cathedrals to "modernize" the pipe organs.

I told him how they used to make cobwebs in the early Dracula movies; you punch a small hole in a yogurt pot full of liquid latex attached to an electric drill, point roughly where you want the cobwebs to go, shut your eyes and hit the trigger. This got ol' Klaus drooling, and pretty soon every church (not to mention cemetery) ceiling in France was dripping with stringy latex goo.

He also decided to add more gargoyles (inside, on the altar) and impose a black metal warpaint dress code for Sunday mass. Roro worked part-time as the Hunchback (every church had their own, so as well as Notre Dame there was The Hunchback of The Sistine Chapel, The Hunchback of Unarius, and even, controversially, The Hunchback of Scientology) and also hung out in front of Pere Lachaise trying to get people to sign a petition to change the name of the cemetery to "The Dario Argento Museum".

Reclusiveness aside, Romain and I sometimes like to meet up near Notre Dame at a Japanese restaurant run by one of the members of Les Legions Noire, serving "necro-sushi" and so on... One sunny afternoon, sighing as he removed the fake Quasimodo teeth and the cushion stuffed into the back of his shirt, he handed me the new Trou Au Rats LP, cursing the backache which was the result of his job. "Give this to Klaus" he said, in a deep voice a few octaves lower than usual.

Now, dear reader, let me assure you, I don't know and I don't want to know what kind of entities he'd done deals with in his basement catacomb, but a few days after Klaus heard that album, Roro got to lay down his hunch for the last time, and scored his dream job as full-time organist. Mind you, dream job or not, he does still have to wear the plastic vampire fangs, somehow managing to remain the perfect gentleman, even if they do make him talk funny.

Now, if you are aware of his other projects (Vomir being one), chez Roro there's no such thing as a coincidence, and there's always a lot more going on that meets the eye...

That might explain why, shortly after his promotion to organist, as if by majic(k), weird record shops called things like "Bimbo Tower 2" started opening up all over Europe in the tiny streets round the backs of cathedrals or near to old cemeteries (and even inside pyramids, or so I was told), right next to where the crazy old witches sell gory upside-down crucifixion dioramas and Free As Dead t-shirts in the most happenin' European cities. Which must be why you are reading this right now' Andy Bolus (Evil Moisture, Royal Sperm) Paris January 2018

Release Date: 16/03/2018

Northern psychedelic punks The Lovely Eggs return with a mind-melting new album. The Lovely Eggs are one of the most unique, innovative and genuine bands on the British Underground music scene. Heavier and more in-your-face than anything they've done previously, Holly Ross (guitar/vocals) and David Blackwell (drums) bring together a fierce DIY ethos, surreal sense of humour and kitchen-sink realism.

Working with a producer for the very first time, Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips) lends his magic dust to bring out the best of The Lovely Eggs'explosive blend of motoric krautrock, 60s psychedelia and punk rock attitude. They create their own world and invite us to join them in Eggland. The album title is a cheeky nod to Shane Meadows'series, This Is England. It is a comment on the current state of modern Britain.

The album is about being an outsider and doing things differently, eschewing society's conventions as they have done. Since having their son in 2013, the pair have taken him on tour with them, racing round the UK with 2 fingers up to conventional family life firmly out of the window.

They have also remained in their hometown of Lancaster, despite its cultural and geographical isolation. As Holly explains; 'On this album we're saying it's OK to live life differently, we're doing it and you can do it too! 'Living up here in Lancaster is kind of mad. It's a bit like the Twin Peaks of Great Britain.' The town has a rich history of the witchcraft, notoriously it was where the Pendle witches were hanged'.

For the first time ever, the pair worked with a producer on the new album, welcoming in legendary Grammy award winning engineer Dave Fridmann to their world. 'We received an email from Dave Fridmann. He had got our answerphone message, listened to our stuff and wanted to work with us. It was just totally bizarre!' The album was self-recorded at Lancaster Musician's Co-op and the Eggs'own house. Dave Fridmann then produced it remotely. They then went out to Dave's Studio in New York State, for mixing.

The result is a gratifyingly rich sounding record, which still retains the raw energy of the band's sound but harnesses a real power and dynamism. It's much heavier than anything they've done before. As Holly says: 'It's pretty relentless. It kind of sounds like a chip shop on fire. We still write about everyday life and the stuff that goes on in our world, it's just the new album is more fierce'.

The Lovely Eggs have been nudging towards a heavier sound with their previous album This Is Our Nowhere, which was praised by the NME, who called them; 'One of the country's most beloved underground bands.' Having formed in Paris in 2006, they named themselves after a pigeon laid two eggs on an abandoned nest on the windowsill.To celebrate their 10th anniversary last year, they reissued their first three albums on coloured vinyl. The band have built up a cult following, selling out gigs across the UK, as well as gaining support from 6 Music and Radio One.

This Is Eggland is a giant leap forward in their wild-ride of a career. The album is like listening in on The Lovely Eggs'own secret world, with philosophical songs about the mysteries of the universe ('Hello I Am Your Sun'), to abandoning ' the grass is always greener' mentality ('Wiggy Giggy'), to being on the wrong side of society or the music industry ('I'm With You') and several inspired by local witchcraft. Unashamed to be themselves and have fun while they're at it, The Lovely Eggs weave an intoxicatingly magnetic magic spell and we're helplessly and willingly falling under it.

Tracklisting:
1. Hello I Am Your Sun
2. Wiggy Giggy
3. Dickhead
4. I Shouldn't Have Said That
5. Return Of Witchcraft
6. I'm With You
7. Repeat It
8. Witchcraft
9. Big Sea
10. Let Me Observe
11. Would You Fuck

Release Date: 23/02/2018