Julee Cruise was a remarkable enough talent in her own right that it seems a shame to emphasize her links with David Lynch, but he’s an inescapable presence on this 2-CD set. That’s because Fall_Float_Love comprises her two albums for Warner Brothers, Floating into the Night (1989) and The Voice of Love on which, apart from one song, all the lyrics were written by Lynch, and all the music was composed and arranged by his collaborator Angelo Badalamenti. With the deaths of both Cruise and Badalamenti in 2022 and Lynch this year, the music takes on an even more spectral and haunting quality (and it started off with plenty of both those qualities), and Fall_Float_Love stands as a fitting memorial to the meeting of three unique but entirely compatible talents.
Category: reissue
“This is our last concert, ever. And we’d love to do you for now on our last concert ever…” After the words peter out, a ragged, yet blistering, five-minute version of “(I Can’t Get no) Satisfaction” explodes from the stage. Show over, The Rolling Stones leave Hawaii’s Honolulu International Center to…what?
It’s not as noteworthy a stitch in rock’s rich tapestry as David Bowie’s 3 July 1973 announcement at the Hammersmith Odeon that “not only is it the last show of the tour, but it’s the last show that we’ll ever do.” Or even George Harrison’s “that’s it, then. I’m not a Beatle anymore” comment after playing San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on 29 August 1966 – what turned out to be The Beatles last-ever (conventional) live show. But it was unequivocal. On 28 July 1966, Mick Jagger told the audience…
Convex was the only LP Conrad Schnitzler released in 1982, though he continued recording an untold amount of cassettes, as he did throughout his lengthy career. On this record, he utilized a sample-and-hold generator, which converted sounds into random sequences of tones. Using sequencers and generators rather than keyboard-based synthesizers, he created slowly unfolding pieces which were left up to chance. While the compositions often have an unhurried pace, they seem far from relaxed or tranquil, and it would be a misnomer to refer to them as ambient. They’re generally hypnotic and often quite busy, and even when they aren’t, they sound like an exploration of an alien planet. “Convex 2” contains high-pitched, semi-melodic pulsations over…
Control originally appeared in 1981 during an especially productive era in Conrad Schnitzler’s career. Inspired by his friend Peter Baumann (like Schnitzler, a former member of Tangerine Dream), he experimented with different sound generators, and attempted to incorporate traditional harmonic elements into his work. When the LP was originally issued, it simply consisted of two sidelong pieces, but subsequent reissues have divided the album into short tracks. Most of the pieces sound different from one another, with some being meandering drones, and others sounding much busier and more exciting. The most memorable ones demonstrate Schnitzler’s curious, playful side, with “Control 4” having sprite-like high-pitched melodic tones, and “Control 6” containing…
Marc Almond has personally curated this celebratory 2CD expanded re-issue of his lesser known 2016 electro-pop album. Lesser known simply because, hitherto, it has only had a limited vinyl release in Germany.
Silver City, now a definitive 20 track techno-pop opus, was written and produced by Marc with celebrated cult German electronic music production duo Starcluster and is Marc Almond’s “most synth laden body of work since Soft Cell” (Electricity Club, 2016). It is indeed, a sheer joy to hear Marc Almond’s deft and distinctive vocals alongside a vast array of vintage analogue synthesisers in this resplendently authentic, retro-futuristic setting; an album that provides an eloquent refracted echo of his formative synth-pop work in revered…
Vazz formed in Glasgow during the early ’80s, and initially consisted of vocalist/lyricist Anna Howson and multi-instrumentalist Hugh Small. With Howson’s ethereal harmonies floating over Small’s sparse drum machines and mysterious guitar hooks, the duo’s music fell somewhere between coldwave, post-punk, and dream pop. The five-song mini-album Your Lungs and Your Tongues (released in 1986 by Cathexis Recordings, also home to records by Fini Tribe and Pink Industry) was one of a handful of vinyl releases the pair made before splitting up near the end of the decade. As Small resurfaced during the 2010s with solo piano and ambient compositions, Vazz’s scant ’80s discography was rediscovered and revived in several different configurations…
…include a new bonus track titled “Into Desert”
Whether they realise it or not, millions of people know the music of Soichi Terada. After all, the Tokyo producer’s childlike melodies have bleeped out of consoles across the world as the soundtrack to the Ape Escape games. Until then, Terada seemed to be playing a game of his own, one that could be called Deep House Simulator.
From the early ’90s onwards, Terada’s Far East Recordings has specialised in Eastern impressions of Western deep house. On Sounds from the Far East, Hunee compiles the best of Terada’s tracks for Rush Hour, alongside a few from his compatriot Shinichiro Yokota.
Parts of Sounds from the Far East are like the aural equivalent of Amerikamura, the Osaka…
Souvlaki is Slowdive’s second studio album, originally released in 1993.
Though not as big and swirling as Just for a Day, there’s more of an attempt to put advanced song structure and melody in place rather than just craft infinitely appealing, occasionally thunderous mood music. Everything is simplified, as if Brian Eno’s presence on two songs – he contributes keyboards and treatments and co-wrote one tune after turning down the band’s invitation to produce – hammered home the better aspects of “ambient” music. This is no Music for Airports though.
On the opening “Alison,” the largely uplifting “When the Sun Hits,” and the darkly blissful “Machine Gun,” Slowdive are still capable of mouth-opening, spine-tingling flourishes.
…The slightly delayed 20th Anniversary Edition comes with a second disc of standout remixes from the time, plus a handful of fresh versions.
Banco de Gaia (basically studio wiz Toby Marks and whomever he invites over) get their ethnic-electronic groove on again, but this time with extra vision. Maybe it’s the four years since the last proper Banco de Gaia album, or maybe the troubled globe of 2004, but whatever it is, You Are Here feels better put-together than any other Banco album before and the most direct message to the listener that Marks has ever attempted. You can use the cover art as a representation of the general feel of the album. Marks’ music is elaborate as ever but it’s compact in purpose, like the cover’s red dot and just as vivid. If Banco could…
Is Kōenjihyakkei’s Angherr Shisspa the greatest Zeuhl album ever made? It could be. …although it’s debatable how much that actually counts for. So, any noise created that helps celebrate this excellent 20th anniversary reissue is not just good for the stature of the album but also for Zeuhl in general, as it is itself a largely overlooked genre. ‘What is Zeuhl?’ you might feel justified in asking. Zeuhl is a moody and bass-driven hybrid of jazz fusion, prog rock and chamber music, typically featuring complex compositions which slough off conventional song structures and apply operatic vocals. This form requires a lot, even from virtuoso musicians. In reality though any definition of Zeuhl is a closed loop because this is music that sounds like Magma; and the term…
A seminal moment in modern acoustic guitar music is being revisited as Drag City released the 10th-anniversary reissue of Land of Plenty, the spellbinding 2015 debut from duo Bill MacKay & Ryley Walker.
To put things in perspective, 2015 was the same year Walker released his debut follow-up, Primrose Green. MacKay had yet to sign to Drag City (this would happen in 2017 with Esker), but released an album of John Hulburt tunes on Tompkins Square – Sunrise: Bill MacKay Plays the Songs of John Hulburt. Walker was also a Hulburt fan, having co-produced Hulburt’s 1972 private press LP, Opus III, the same year.
…The story of Land of Plenty is one of immediate artistic connection. After first…
Gekidan Buraiha was a theater company, a part of the so-called Angura scene that included notable troupes such as Tenjō Sajiki, led by Shūji Terayama; Jōkyō Gekijo, led by Jūrō Kara, Black Tent Theater (originally known as Theater Center 68), led by Makoto Satō; and Waseda Little Theater, led by Tadashi Suzuki.
Gekidan Buraiha began through the efforts of its main actor Kanna Ten (Minoru Takahashi) and his friends, who were all members of the same theater workshop at Kokugakuin University. It was the early ’70s, and the crew would frequently drop in at the rehearsal space occupied by Jūrō Kara’s Jōkyō Gekidan, essentially becoming part of the group’s support crew, and appearing on occasion as extras in their performances.
Just for a Day is the debut studio album by English rock band Slowdive, originally released on 2nd September 1991 by Creation Records.
Just for a Day is Slowdive’s first album, and it shows; when one listens to the magnificent sound of Souvlaki or the brilliant experimentation of Pygmalion, it becomes clear that Just for a Day was only a step toward the greatness they would later achieve. Its sound is quite like Souvlaki’s – swelling waves of flanged guitars, layers of wispy vocals floating in and out of the mix, and sweet lazy pop songs – but the production sometimes turns the band’s plush, sweet sound into the sort of cheap and cheesy pleasantness one might expect from a new age artist. A few tracks hint at the sound that would be fully achieved on Souvlaki…
Iconoclassic Records is headed to the “Dark Side” with the first-ever anthology from the real-life band behind Hollywood’s Eddie and The Cruisers: John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band. 16-track collection from the rock-and-roll revivalists whose “On the Dark Side” reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 and spent five weeks atop the Mainstream Rock chart and the MTV video charts.
Singer-guitarist Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band (including Gary Gramolini on lead guitar, Pat Lupo on bass, Kenny Jo Silva on drums, Bobby Cotoia on keyboards, and Michael Antunes on saxophone) had been playing up a storm in their native Rhode Island as well as up and down the Northeast Corridor – Massachusetts…
Forgotten and supposedly ‘lost’ albums rarely remain forgotten for long in the digital age, as they eventually find their way back into the present through some wormhole in the World Wide Web. Inzovu Y’imirindi by Bizimungu Dieudonne, a Rwandan civil servant with a passion for music, was discovered by musicologist Matthew Lavoie almost by chance during research.
In the late 1980s, Dieudonne self-released the tape, achieving a degree of local popularity. He plays guitar and sings together with his wife Agnes Umbibizi, while friends and family members provide the accompanying instrumentation.
The songs are deeply shaped by traditional African rhythms and melodies, even though the musicians make use of Western instruments.
If you’re into roots reggae or dub, you’ve probably heard the names The Revolutionaries and Roots Radics tossed around more than once. These two bands shaped the sound of Jamaican music in ways that still echo today.
The Revolutionaries, sometimes called the Mighty Revolutionaries, came together in 1975 as Channel One Studio’s in-house band. The Hoo Kim brothers ran that studio, and it became a serious hub for creativity. The group helped define the tight, driving rockers style riddims that gave reggae a fresh, energetic edge. Sly Dunbar’s crisp drumming and Ranchie McLean’s heavy basslines set the pace, while also players like Robbie Shakespeare, Dougie Bryan, Robbie Lyn, and Ansel Collins added their own spice. Between 1975 and…
…includes seven bonus tracks.
South London sound system owner Lloyd Coxsone ably assisted in raising the Royals’ profile in the U.K., eagerly spinning dub plates of the group’s Ten Years After album. The attention helped Royals’ frontman/producer Roy Cousins land a deal with United Artists, whose Ballistic imprint eventually picked up both that vocal set and Israel Be Wise, as well as Freedom Fighters Dub (a set Cousins dedicated to Coxsone in gratitude) and Liberated Dub. The latter set was Israel‘s counterpart, and what it lacked in imagination for track titles (did someone leave a map of Kingston and its environs on the mixing desk?), was more than made up for the music within. Israel was produced by Cousins himself, with the riddims…
Enigmatic, prolific singer/songwriter and author known for his genre-defying work and contrary personality.
Julian Cope welcomes you to the new age of the New Age with this brand new deeply sonic magical trip-out album. The three tracks invoke three different experiences: the 29-minute ’Star Garden’ emerges through the cosmic ooze like a grand ancient river gradually descending to meet its final coastal destiny; the shattered radio communications of ‘Who Put All Of This In Motion?’ perplex listeners through its veil of sonic mystery; the final epic ‘Psalm Zero’ is an incantation to the cosmos in which Cope duets with himself like some minimal avant-garde barbershop quartet. This CD is part of Head Heritage’s 2025 Ambient Autumn.