Virginia Genta - amplified and processed sopranino saxophone
Michele Mazzani - electric guitar and electronics
David Vanzan - electronics
Matteo Poggi - electronics

“This recording comes from a memorable show the band performed during their first (and so far last) tour in France. The concert had been a heavy mass of around 90 minutes, of whom only a part was caught on cassette, as nobody remembered to flip side when it was time. Anyway what got recorded is here, and it's still...

Aaron Siegel, percussion/Matt Bauder,reeds/ Zach Wallace, bass.

"The music played by Matt Bauder, Zach Wallace and Aaron Siegel - the three sides of the group Memorize The Sky - is like a sudden cold dive on the sea in a very hot summer day...

"Only this disc's short length (34 minutes) qualifies as something worthy of complaint; otherwise, this is seminal blues piano, performed by a great player and singer, Memphis Slim. This 1959 session had everything: super piano solos, a strong lineup of horn players, clever, well-written and sung lyrics, and a seamless pace that kept things moving briskly from beginning to end. Other than Slim, instrumental honors go to guitarist Matt Murphy, a marvelous accompanist who was able to blend sophistication...

"Glass Forest is a highly listenable starting point for any newcomers curious about Daniel Menche's vast discography. It is also, according to Menche, the last CD he will release. From now on he'll be releasing his music on LP only or on DVD to...

Ava Mendoza – guitar

“Ava Mendoza plays these songs. She makes them sing. Her technique is impeccable, but her playing is astonishingly expressive. She doesn't just bend blue notes; she wads them up into a ball and throws them up against a wall. She manipulates raw lightning, giving us a sound that is fluorescent and powerful enough to leave a trace of ozone in the air. Mendoza knows what she does better than almost anyone else on the planet, which is tell stories with her guitar.”

“Misha Mengelberg came to Chicago for two days in 1998, made some music in the studio and in concert with a host of musicians, and went home. Which leaves us with memories.
Fortunately there's this gem left behind, these two albums, containing a timeless message. Sounds that do not express, they signify, they exist.
Misha Mengelberg was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. A prominent figure in post-WWII European Jazz, Mengelberg is known for his forays into free improvisation, for bringing humor.

I can't say that I am particularly knowledgable about Brazilian music in general or even about progressive Brazilian music, but there is a definite strain of progressive Brazilian music, typified by the work of Hermeto Pascoal that I personally find...

Fabio Mentz's 1st album, which seemingly came out of nowhere (and which we still stock, hint, hint), ripped my head off with its blend of real hard core complexity and Brazilian groove. It uses instrumentation like bassoon (Mentz is a bassoonist and he...

Three of downtowns most dynamic performers join forces to form Mephistaone of the first all women supergroups (Susie Ibarra, Sylvie Courvoisier, and Ikue Mori). Separately these three have worked with some of the most important musicians in new...

Nicolas Caloia double bass
Lori Freedman b-flat and bass clarinet

"Quicksilver apothecaries of pitch, timbre and time, the formidable Montreal-based pairing of clarinettist Lori Freedman and bassist Nicolas Caloia, reconvene their long-term Mercury connection for a fittingly volatile and strange, dangerous, and often beautiful, dose of deeply conceptual body music.
Skin is the culmination of a more than 20-year relationship of intense melodic, harmonic and rhythmic exploration, which has.

Very hot jazz/rock trio also including drums and keyboards, let by a virtuoso Stick player who manages to be both the bass and one of the soloists!

"Crisis is the first record work by the Tomás Merlo Group, a group led by the musician, composer and arranger Tomás Merlo.
Recognized as one of the greatest exponents of the Chapman Stick worldwide, this first group work reflects the search to introduce such a little-known and revolutionary instrument in the world of Jazz.
Crisis totally...

"White Worker is a perfect follow-up to Eric Mertens' first CD "Spleen". Mertens' compositional work has evolved through new harmonic and rhythmic combinations. The sounds and atmospheres are more refined and mobile, and this widens his musical style...

Back in print after being unavailable for years, and sounding better than ever.

In 1981, at the nadir of quiet, interesting music, there appeared a very nice, interesting double lp compilation called 'Fruit of the Original Sin' (see listing elsewhere). On it was a 'band' I had never heard of called Soft Verdict, who played a rather progressive rock-influenced music, somewhere between Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Michael Nyman and Steve Reich! After waiting and searching, I managed to find this, their...

“A documentation of prolific Japanese noise master Merzbow's double show at London's Cafe OTO in October 2016. Rhythm-driven and rammed with highly sculpted frequencies, Akita's sound is entirely remorseless. Furious squalls and delicate sine-warps post this one on the more psychedelic end of Akita's output. Truly relentless, it is still hard to believe he created "Untitled Knife I" on a casual Saturday afternoon. Be careful with that volume.
Double CD in a matt-finish gatefold ecopak with...

Really nice album as art-object release. This is presented in a hand-crafted round wooden box with screenprinted swiveling lid. The box contains one CD and four round, full-color cards. Only 1000 copies of this handsome CD have been made, and there...

“Merzbow is back with a marvelous concept double album. Hatobana is a complex harmonic sculpture featuring squealing tribal sounds and characteristic ethnic noise. Massima Akita keeps us on our toes by offering experiments with varying instruments such as guitar, wooden percussion, violin. A sublime noise opera among the best works to date from this unique Japanese artist.”

First time on CD for this early, analog material from the man who made noise into a household musical word.

"Over an hour of the best analog material from the King of Japanese noise. Reissue of an extremely rare cassette, dating back to 1985, originally released in Japan by Merzbow's own ZSF Produk and in France by Le Syndicat. All tracks made for "Nil-Vagina Mail-Action February 85." Recorded at Merz-bau Studio, and not "live" as the title would suggest. All material taken from the original...

“Merzbow's Merzbeat is one the most unique and legendary titles in the artist's vast archive. This 20th anniversary repress is being issued at the same time as CD reissue of his 1983 album Material Action 2 and a brand new collaboration with Arcane Device, all on Important Records.
Originally released in 2002, Merzbeat contains over 50 minutes of aggressive, psychedelic, organic, analog beat oriented Merzbow compositions. Drummed rhythms, massive looping samples, a punk spirit and a return to analog..

"Volume three of Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds series. Limited edition of 1000. Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds...

"The king of Japanese noise, Merzbow, joined on stage by Hungarian drummer extraordinaire, Balázs Pándi (known for his work with The Sun Ra Arkestra, Bill Laswell, Justin Broadrick, Bong-Ra, Venetian Snares and more). The special event on September 29th, 2016 took place under the roof of the legendary FAC251 building, the original home of Factory Records' headquarters and where many of Manchester's musical elite set foot. The show features an exemplary performance of Masami Akita's trademark Japanoise...

“On their first official collaboration, Japanese noise pioneer Masami Akita aka Merzbow and Australian sound sculptor Lawrence English present a harrowing, surrealist portrait of nocturnal industrial activity, spawned by field recordings made in a sprawling factory complex seven hours north of English's home in Brisbane. He characterizes the area as "uneasy and unsettling," awash in the sickly glow of smelters and refinement machinery, somehow not of this world - a liminal quality vividly captured in...

“Even the most experienced ear will not come out of Pia-Noise unscathed. Consecrating the meeting of two consummate artists, this release confronts their universe like a massive head-on shock in the eye of a sound storm. Masami Akita (Merzbow) has been surveying the territories of noise music for more than forty years, directing all sorts of instrumentaria, analogical or digital, instrument or software-based. For this record he relied on his favorite combination, a mix of various effects pedals and noise...

"Cat's Squirrel is a live recording of Masami Akita and Oren Ambarchi's performance in Sydney, Australia in May 2012. Although Akita and Ambarchi have known one another since 1993 and performed together as part of larger ensembles, this was their first performance as a duo. Together they create a massive wall of sound that moves from the cavernous to the blisteringly psychedelic, laying down shifting low-end structures over which pointillist details ricochet across the stereo field. Akita and Ambarchi's...

Raz Mesinai is one of the most respected young musicians in New Yorks burgeoning underground electronica scene. His unique approach utilizes samples of acoustic instruments performing his original compositions, electronics of his own design, computers ...