Originally released in 1994, Mother Earth’s ‘The People Tree’ is a gem of an album that encapsulates a love of soul, funk and folktinged ‘70s rock. To mark its 30th Anniversary, it is set for a special edition 2LP reissue that includes the original album, three previously unreleased tracks, and a further six that have neverbefore been on vinyl. It has been remastered from the original analogue recordings.

One of the best-loved albums in Acid Jazz history, it was the product of over a year of sessions, led by label-founder Eddie Piller, and features guest appearances from Paul Weller, Dee C Lee, and Brand New Heavies’ Simon Bartholomew. Bonus tracks include the previously-unreleased alternative ‘Apple Green’ with a distinctive female backing vocal, an alternative version of ‘Illusions’, and the title track.

First-time vinyl cuts include the alternate master of ‘Jesse’, ‘A Trip Down Brian Lane’ and the heavy funk of ‘Slide Sweet Baby’. The album is presented in a beautiful ‘wide-spine’ layout, with two printed inner sleeves, adorned with in-depth notes form Eddie Piller and unseen photos from the original cover shoot by Gerald Mankiewicz.

TRACK LISTING

1. Institution Man
2. Jesse
3. Startdust Bubblegum
4. Mr. Freedom
5. Dragster
6. Find It
7. The People Tree
8. Apple Green
9. Time Of The Future
10. Saturation
11. Illusions
12. A Trip Down Brian Lane
13. Jesse (Alternate)
14. Institution Man (Edit)
15. Warlocks Of The Mind (Pt. 1)
16. Time Of The Future (Alternate EP Mix)
17. Find It (Radio Edit)
18. Almost Grown
19. Apple Green (with Harmony Vocal)
20. Illusions (No Horns Mix)
21. A Trio Down Brian Lane (7” Mix)
22. Slide Sweet Baby
23. The People Tree (No Mellotron)
24. Jesse (Brendan Lynch Radio Mix)

The multi-talented Johnny “Guitar” Watson was known for his guitar skills and was one of the hottest blues artists during the 1950s. His 1977 funk album A Real Mother For Ya produced the same titled international hit song and features the additional “Nothing Left To Be Desired” and “Lover Jones”. Also included is the “2020 Ben Liebrand Oldskool mix” as a bonus track, which was not available on the original album. During his career, Johnny “Guitar” Watson influenced Jimi Hendrix amongst others and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Sadly, Johnny “Guitar” Watson passed away while touring Japan in 1996.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A Real Mother For Ya
Nothing Left To Be Desired
Your Love Is My Love
The Real Deal

Side B
Tarzan
I Wanna Thank You
Lover Jones
A Real Mother For Ya (Ben Liebrand Oldskool Mix) – Bonus Track

‘Mother Twilight’ is the second Faun Fables album. It has since been noted by Scottish author R.J. Stewart as a work containing true artifacts of the oral underworld tradition. Dawn and Nils made a handassembled first pressing and peddled it to nearly every bar and rural hall across North America from 2001 to 2003. Drag City reissued the CD in 2004.

Things are glowing outside, enough to bring any sun worshiper in for the night. But you must remain outside and begin walking. It’ll prepare you for the night, which otherwise comes as a chilling surprise. If you pay attention this time, maybe you’ll understand why you’re becoming invisible. When your memory began, it wasn’t startling, wasn’t a mistake. It came out of an old, dark and familiar thing, like a storyteller, like Twilight… so save us from fear, mother, and tell your story.

Dawn McCarthy’s creative background was forged in oral tradition amidst a large musical family in Spokane, Washington; studying piano, music theatre, rock bands, guitar, folklore and ethnomusicology. Dawn cut her teeth as a singer and performer with various bands and cabarets in Madison, Wisconsin and New York City, most notably as yodeller with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, who inspired her to want a gypsy life with a kindred spirit someday. Her focus took a pivotal turn in that direction in 1997 with a solo quest through the UK and Ireland and their bardic traditions; singing songs in clubs and homes, all the while undergoing a pastoral, psychological experience with the land. Upon her return to the States, a fateful meeting with Oakland, CA born-and-raised Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) moved McCarthy back to the West to begin a new creative collaboration in the thriving hills and art community of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Since 1999, Faun Fables have released six albums and performed their animist, otherworldly folk music across North America and Europe, with shows in Australia, New Zealand and Israel, as well. Dawn’s writing and voice (described by The New Yorker as “one of the more compelling instruments in contemporary music”) opens hearts and minds with a whisper to a rallying battle cry, further animated by Frykdahl’s adventurous musicality and vocals.

Dawn has written musical theatre performed by the Idyllwild Arts Academy, among others, and has lent her vocals to Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy on ‘The Letting Go’ and ‘What the Brothers Sang’. In 2022, Faun Fables debuted their family band, joined onstage by their daughters with vocals, percussion, keyboard and dance.

TRACK LISTING

1. Begin
2. Sleepwalker
3. Shadowsound
4. Hela
5. Traveller
6. Returning
7. Train
8. Beautiful Blade
9. Mother Twilight
10. Lightning Rods
11. Moth
12. Girl That
13. Said Goodbye
14. Washington State
15. Catch Me
16. Live Old

“Mother”, Logic1000’s debut album. “I felt so much love and inspiration entering into motherhood that I just needed to create something really powerful,” explains Samantha Poulter, the Berlin-based DJ and producer , who grewed up in the Sydney suburbs of Yarrawarrah and Botany Bay and better known to fans as Logic1000. “And with a lot less free time, you really make sure you make the most of any moment you get.” That vitality and renewed sense of purpose is captured on Mother.

The 12-track set is a laser-focused “love letter to house music”, written in collaboration with her husband and long-time creative partner Thom McAlister (Cop Envy, Big Ever). Finding Poulter further fine-tuning her inventive, multi-genre approach, it’s a crucial contribution not just to the world of dance but to the canon of art inspired by parenthood. As Poulter herself puts it, a little awed, “I never thought I would be capable of something so powerful.”

Motherhood changes everything. Little moments assume a much greater significance, and every memory holds the potential to last forever. Responsibilities expand, yet joy does as well.

The Wandering Hearts intimately explore this maternal transformation on their aptly titled third full-length offering and Chrysalis Records debut, MOTHER. The UK trio — Tara Wilcox [vocals], A.J. Dean [vocals, acoustic guitar], and Francesca “Chess”Whiffin [vocals, mandolin] — chronicle this season of growth and change across eleven tracks.

“During the process, we really found ourselves as a band. Motherhood has helped us grow and find meaning. It brought our writing and performing to a different level.” Notes Chess, "From the get-go, it felt like the most authentic and true representation of who we are now."

Mother started as a folk EP but incorporates elements of folk, Americana, rock, blues, pop and more with the band's vocals tying them all together, A.J. explains "We were really just making an album for us. We think the result is the best music we've ever made.”

TRACK LISTING

1. About America
2. Still Waters
3. Tired
4. Letter To Myself
5. Hold Your Tongue
6. Waiting
7. Dance Again
8. Not Misunderstood
9. River To Cry
10. Will You Love Me
11. What Fools Believe

On DECEMBER 1st, BLIXA SOUNDS will release a Remastered Edition of Mother Juno, the classic 1987 album by punk blues legends The Gun Club

This timeless album has been digitally re- mastered and comes in replicate packaging to the original release. Long out-of-print, this album has been on the collector's market since not long after first being released.

This classic line- up only stayed together for this one album, featuring drummer Nick Sanderson (The Jesus and Mary Chain), as well as guitar from Kid Congo Powers (The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), bassist Romi Mori, and Blixa Bargeld (Einsturzende Neubauten, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) providing lead guitar on the haunting "Yellow Eyes."

The album was recorded under the guidance of producer Robin Guthrie, guitarist and co-founder of Cocteau Twins. Mother Juno is widely considered by many to be the swan song of the Gun Club discography.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bill Bailey
2. Thunderhead
3. Lupita Screams
4. Yellow Eyes
5. The Breaking
6. Hands
7. Araby
8. Hearts
9. My Cousin Kim
10. Port Of Souls

Sinead was born in Dublin in 1966, and was discovered by Paul Byrne, drummer of U2 proteges In Tua Nua, while singing wedding covers in the city. After cowriting the first In Tua Nua single, she left school to focus on music, studying voice and piano at the Dublin College of Music before relocating to London in 1985.

Released in September 1994, Universal Mother was described by Sinead as "the first attempt to try to expose what was really underneath a lot of the anger of the other records". The album features sparse, striking but delicate arrangements on intense and honest songs. Standout moments include the singles 'Thank You For Hearing Me' and 'Fire On Babylon', along with contributions from Germaine Greer (opening track 'Germaine'), and Sinead's son Jake Reynolds ('Am I A Human?'), plus a cover of Nirvana's 'All Apologies'.

TRACK LISTING

Germaine
Fire On Babylon
John I Love You
My Darling Child
Am I A Human?
Red Football
All Apologies
A Perfect Indian
Scorn Not His Simplicity
All Babies
In This Heart
Tiny Grief Song
"Famine"
Thank You For Hearing Me

2023 sees 40 years of James. As part of the celebration UMR is reissuing the band’s breakthrough album, Gold Mother on 2LP gold vinyl. Combining the 1990 and 1991 versions of the album it includes the iconic anthem Sit Down as well as How Was It For You, Come Home (Flood Mix) and Lose Control.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Come Home (Flood Mix)
Lose Control
Government Walls
Side B
God Only Knows
You Can't Tell How Much Suffering (On A Face That's Always Smiling)
How Was It For You
Sit Down
Side C
Walking The Ghost
Gold Mother
Top Of The World
Side D
Come Home
Crescendo
Hang On

Mother I’d Like To Funk are back with another sizzling hot re-issue, this time straight from Denmark. Danish pop group Boulevard released an obscure LP back in 1981, called “American Dream”.

This official re-issue features the street funk anthem “Ready For Your Love” on the A Side, with a special “Synthphonic Dub" version on the B Side (previously only available on the album)

Guaranteed to light up any boogie-leaning dance spot, Mother I'd Like To Funk deliver a trunk of funk on their imperative second release!

TRACK LISTING

Ready For Your Love
Still Ready (Synthfonic Dub)

Acid Jazz is marking its 35th Anniversary with a series of classic releases from their catalogue The first of these is Mother Earth’s debut album - ‘Stoned Woman’.

Recorded in a Tottenham industrial estate studio at the height of ‘acid jazz’, it’s a rock inflected, funky brew that heavily referenced Blaxploitation soundtracks from the early to mid 70s. Mother Earth developed a life of their own, moving through line-up changes, and leaving behind the arguably more radical sound that remains distilled in this album. A must-have for original-era acid jazz fans, marking an important time in British music.

American songwriter-inventor THOMAS TRUAX joins forces with ex-Slits/Banshees drummer BUDGIE to produce a gemstone of art-rock, post-punk and surreal Americana.

Thomas Truax is (pronounced troo-aks) an imaginative American singer/songwriter and inventor who has been touring and releasing records for 2 decades, usually performing solo with his own ‘band’ of self-made (sometimes mechanical) instruments. His music evades easy pigeonholing as his songs flit between art rock, post-punk, and a distinctive brand of surreal Americana. UNCUT Magazine wrote: "Truax is shaping up nicely as one of the great rock eccentrics.”

Budgie is an English drummer known best for his work with Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, and The Creatures. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential drummers of Alternative music.

SPIN Magazine wrote: "Budgie drums up a marvel of kinetic syncopation and invention."

Currently he co-hosts a podcast with Lol Tolhurst of the Cure, and is writing an autobiography.

Mother Superior is the third in a series of motorized mechanical drum machines built by Thomas. She’s made primarily from recycled parts including bicycle wheels, hubcaps, spoons, a horn, and other percussive bits. She is widely celebrated for her ability to play steadily and make quite a din.

Allusions to dreams are woven throughout Thomas Truax’s 10th studio album Dream Catching Songs, whether they be literal night dreams, aspirations, fantasies or broken dreams.

As a shy art kid growing up feeling trapped in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, Thomas dreamed of being in a rock band. As a teen he moved to New York City and formed several of these in succession, but grew frustrated with the typical problems of keeping a human band together and committed. Especially when it came to drummers, whom it seemed were always jumping ship just as things started to go well. He finally decided to build his own motorized mechanical drummer and go ‘solo.’

He found a warm welcome for this new brand of lineup when touring Europe and the UK, and scored licensing deals for his first albums. Eventually he relocated to London.

Though he mostly sticks to his solo live routine and original compositions, in recent years he has collaborated with Jarvis Cocker, James Smith of Yard Act, and drummer Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls/Violent Femmes). Following a meeting with David Lynch, he delivered a well-received covers album ‘Songs From The Films Of David Lynch’ .

When he had to leave England after his work permits were exhausted, he moved to Germany, and it was here while they were both performing at a festival event that Thomas and Budgie had a chance to get properly acquainted.

Thomas: “We had a great conversation over dinner. I’d been a fan of his work since my teenage days in Denver but he didn’t know mine. My performance was scheduled for later and he said he’d watch it. I warned him that sometimes human drummers take offense to Mother Superior, seeing that something so mechanical could, in a way, threaten to take their place.”

“But when I finished my set I went back stage and there was Budgie, waiting in the wings, very enthusiastic about my set. He was even holding a flower for Mother Superior, and said he was in love with her.”

“We crossed paths a few more times and we discussed the possibility of him doing some recording with myself and Mother S. on some new material I’d been working on and he was very much up for it. So when I was next touring through Berlin (where Budgie is based) I booked some extra days off the road and we set up to record in his underground ‘Bunker’.

“We really dove straight into it and he came up with incredible stuff. My tendency is to work slowly and if someone doesn’t stop me, I’ll work on the tiniest details forever. Budgie likes to work faster and stresses the value of spontaneity.”

“Spontaneous is where the best stuff happens,” he says. He also emphasizes the importance of chemistry in artistic collaboration: “What is it about creative energy? It’s to do with chemistry and relationship.”

Thomas jokes: “I worry that Mother Superior might run off with him, they obviously have a special chemistry.”

From the gentle allure of the opening title song through its final sweeping orchestrated mini-movie of a track, Dream Catching Songs is an inspired and powerful entry in Thomas’s catalog of recorded work, and a shining example of Budgie at his dynamic best. A poignant, sometimes tender, often raucous collection that - much like Thomas’s music machines - has been crafted with great care and affection. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Dream Catching Song
2. Everything’s Going To Be All Right
3. Birds & Bees
4.The Anomalous Now
5. Free Floaters
6. A Wonderful Kind Of Strange
7.Origami Spy Arrives In Paper Boat
8. A Little More Time
9. Big Bright Marble
10. The Fisherman’s Wishing Well Prayer

Long awaited re-issue of Harri Stojka Express’ “What a Funky Night”, originally released in 1983. The Austrian producer/guitarist took everyone by surprise with this huge boogie-disco-funk meteorite, due to his previous releases, which were mostly jazz-rock-fusion orientated records.

Previously only pressed in Austria and Spain, Mothers I’d Like To Funk present to you an official re-issue of this lost funk anthem, and the flip side features a stoned, marijuana themed reggae tune to boot - winner! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A nice curio from Australia. This double headed nugget contains a jubilant, party-ready bedroom boogie bomb & a lilting disco-reggae joint indebted to the world's favourite weed.

TRACK LISTING

A1 What A Funky Night
B1 Marihuana

Dublin five-piece MELTS announce their debut album produced by Daniel Fox of Gilla Band (FKA Girl Band). 

“Repetition is definitely the key to Melts,” says Gaz Earle. “It’s about just keeping it simple and driving and fucking stomping.” Earle (drums) makes up the Dublin five-piece along with Robbie Brady (keys/synth), Colm Giles (bass), Kenny (vocals) and Hugh O'Reilly (guitar). "Outlier is about the distance between, like the imaginable distance between objects in space and how leaving one way of life and moving on to another life falling into space, into the void. The title refers to an object or person existing at a distance from the centre of the system."This idea of keeping it simple has been woven into the fabric of the band since day one. Different line-ups were tried and experimented with and after an immediate connection at a rehearsal, Kenny was quickly in as singer. The inclusion of Kenny who, like all the other members have been in various other bands, unlocked something new and distinct in the group. Then once Brady joined on keys, an even more evolved tone to the band began to take shape.

What became clear was the band quickly outgrew their initial intentions of being a garage rock outfit. The raw, simplistic, primal nature of that approach remained intact but soon they expanded into immersive pulsing grooves. “We wanted to keep the rhythms just really straight and hypnotic,” says Earle. “The aim of the game was to try and get people into a trance when they are watching the gig. With bringing Robbie on board, as he's doing loads of stuff with sequencers and deadly synth bits, there grew a psychedelic hypnotic vibe to Melts.” A friend described the band as like a space rock version of The Doors, which they didn’t balk at.

Lyrically the album weaves between big picture state-of-the-world stuff to the more introspective and personal. The former can be heard on opener ‘Maelstrom’ which is about, according to Kenny, “a storm that sweeps through a town one day and causes an irreversible change to the order of things he song written from the point of view of someone caught in currents, beyond their own making and understanding the frustrations felt by someone who feels powerless against the effects of the upheaval.” ‘Spectral’, on the other hand, one of the album’s most tender moments that unfurls slowly with Kenny’s rich and resonant vocal delivery, is a track dedicated to the loss of a friend to suicide. As a whole, Kenny says, “the theme of the record is kind of based on coming to grips with the world around us.”

The end result is an album that gracefully yet potently merges psych rock with touches of post-rock-esque soundscapes, pulsing krautrock, all of which is driven by demented organ wig outs, engulfing waves of heavily textured guitar and a crisp rhythm section. While they land on a sound that is distinctly their own, their debut occupies something of a middle ground between Spacemen 3 and Primary Colours-era The Horrors. Or, as the band say themselves, something that sounds “driving and fucking stomping.” 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Maelstrom
A2 Signal
A3 Outlier
A4 Circular
Side B
B1 Spectral
B2 Waltzer
B3 Skyward
B4 Tides

Another wonderful tour-only oddity from Broadcast, issued finally on LP and CD. This one is from 2009 and sees the duo at their most experimental, resulting in some of their msot arresting moments, fractured wisps of melody wrought out of clattering breakbeats and woozy psychedelic swirls both distorted and monolithic. There is little argument from anyone that they were a talented pair, and though this takes a little getting used to, it's even more evidence that their innovative way of doing things resulted in the most sublime of results. Shadowy and percussive, deeply psychedelic and wonderfully weird. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I love broadcast, and I love the way they write music. It's never what you expect but it's ALWAYS worth listening to. This one from their 2009 tour is no different, and as a listening experience is both cathartic and richly rewarding. A weird and wonderful journey.

TRACK LISTING

01 Creation Day The Travel Flute Way
02 In Here The World Begins
03 Elegant Elephant
04 Through The Gates Of Yesterday
05 Milling Around The Village
06 The Aphid Sleeps
07 Growing Backwards
08 I'm Just A Person In This Roomy Verse
09 Never Trust A Rusty Bolt
10 Innocence In Orbit
11 Mother's Milk Means Music [At Home In The Universe]

The first Tunng album!

Originally released in 2005 on the magnificent Static Caravan (VAN88V), this is the first time this beloved album has been available on vinyl since 2006. Lovingly restored from the original masters, re-cut in December 2020.

Back in 2003, Sam Genders and Mike Lindsay were introduced by a mutual friend at a gig Sam was playing. Mike had a strange studio underneath a woman’s clothes shop in Soho at the time, and after some discussion, Sam asked if he could record an EP there.

Mike agreed, and after a while played Sam some ideas he’d been working on, fusing his vision of electronica and acoustic paganistic folk music. He then asked Sam if he’d sing on one, and then another one…and then another one. The pair began to write songs together from this point, and became totally immersed in this new album project, which would later come to be known as Mother’s Daughter and Other Songs.

Inspiration for the name “tunng” came from electronic artists Mike was into at the time – Mum, Isan, Benge. From here, the pair sent CD-Rs to labels, and Static Caravan got back immediately, signing on a handshake deal. “Tale From Black” was released on 7” in 2004 and became a favourite of John Peel’s. The album itself came out in Jan 2005 and it was from here that Tunng was made complete. Made up of friends the pair had made in London, Tunng now included Phil Winter (electronics), Ashley Bates (nylon string guitar), Becky Jacobs (vocals / melodica) and Martin Smith (sea shells, bear’s toenails, clarinet, keys). Seventeen years, a few mini world tours, a million festivals and 7 albums later the band are still making music together.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Well well, this long awaited gem is finally here and it honestly sounds as good as the day it came out. One of the forefathers of the 'Folktronica' movement and consistently excellent to this day, this is an absolutely essential addition to any collection. It's a definite yes from me.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mother’s Daughter
2. People Folk
3. Out The Window With The Window
4. Beautiful And Light
5. Tale From Black
6. Song Of The Sea
7. Kinky Vans
8. Fair Doreen
9. Code Breaker
10. Surprise Me 44

To celebrate what would have been the 74th birthday of David Bowie on the 8th January, two previously unreleased cover versions John Lennon’s MOTHER and Bob Dylan’s TRYIN’ TO GET TO HEAVEN will be released as a very special limited edition 7” single.

Originally recorded by Lennon for his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Bowie's version of MOTHER was produced by Tony Visconti in 1998 for a Lennon tribute that never came to fruition. Bob Dylan’s original TRYIN’ TO GET TO HEAVEN was released on his 1997 Album of the Year GRAMMY winning Time Out Of Mind. David’s version was recorded in February 1998 during the mixing sessions for the live album.

TRACK LISTING

A/ Mother
AA/Tryin’ To Get To Heaven (single Edit)

“I think most of it takes place in dreams,” Caleb Landry Jones says of his debut solo album, The Mother Stone. “I’m talking more about dreams than I am about what’s happened in the physical realm. Or I’m talking about both, and you’re not sure what’s what.”

Caleb Landry Jones was born in Garland, Texas in 1989 and comes from a long line of fiddle players. Three, maybe four generations back, on his mother’s side. His grandfather wrote jingles for commercials, his mother was a singer-songwriter who taught piano lessons in the house, and his father was a contractor who did a lot of work for the Dallas music-equipment retailer Brook Mays and knew a guy if you needed a bass or a banjo. But Jones is not sure if you can hear any of this in his music and he does not play the fiddle.

Jones has been writing and recording music since age 16, around the same time he started acting professionally. Played in a band called Robert Jones for a minute, lost his guitar player to higher education, moved into his own place, and broke up with somebody, at which point the songs really started coming hard and fast.

“I started playing guitar and playing more keys,” he says, “and then started writing record after record after record after record, because I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was a good way of healing. And it felt like as soon as I started doing it, it felt like it needed to happen all the time.”

In the ensuing years he’d spend a lot of time carrying unrecorded songs around in his head like goldfish in a bag, waiting for a chance to record them in marathon sessions in his parents’ barn. “You gotta play the songs every day, or every two or three days, to keep ‘em,” he says. “Otherwise I forget them.” Sometimes the ideas fuse together, one chapter to the next; this is how songs grow into sevenplus-minute epics like the ones on The Mother Stone. His back catalog is around seven hundred songs deep— a whole discography of full albums, most of them unheard outside the barn, at least for now.

TRACK LISTING

1. Flag Day / The Mother Stone
2. You’re So Wonderfull
3. I Dig Your Dog
4. Katya
5. All I Am In You / The Big Worm
6. No Where’s Where Nothing’s Died
7. Licking The Days
8. For The Longest Time
9. The Hodge-Podge Porridge Poke
10. I Want To Love You
11. The Great I Am
12. Lullabbey
13. No Where’s Where Nothing’s Died (A Marvelous Pain) 
14. Thanks For Staying
15. Little Planet Pig

In the mid-1970s, a force of nature swept across the continental United States, cutting across all strata of race and class, rooting in our minds, our homes, our culture. It wasn’t The Exorcist, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or even bell-bottoms, but instead a book called The Secret Life of Plants. The work of occultist/former OSS agent Peter Tompkins and former CIA agent/dowsing enthusiast Christopher Bird, the books shot up the bestseller charts and spread like kudzu across the landscape, becoming a phenomenon. Seemingly overnight, the indoor plant business was in full bloom and photosynthetic eukaryotes of every genus were hanging off walls, lording over bookshelves, and basking on sunny window ledges. The science behind Secret Life was specious: plants can hear our prayers, they’re lie detectors, they’re telepathic, able to predict natural disasters and receive signals from distant galaxies. But that didn’t stop millions from buying and nurturing their new plants.

Perhaps the craziest claim of the book was that plants also dug music. And whether you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for them. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back from the dawn of time, but apparently they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.

Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result. When one writer rhetorically asked: “How was Garson’s music so ubiquitous while the man remained so under the radar?” the answer was simple. Well before Brian Eno did it, Garson was making discreet music, both the man and his music as inconspicuous as a Chlorophytum comosum. Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Garson wrote lounge hits, scored plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” He could render the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel alike into easy listening and also dreamed up his own ditties. “An idear” as Garson himself would drawl it out. “I live with it, I walk it, I sing it.”

But as his daughter Day Darmet recalls: “When my dad found the synthesizer, he realized he didn’t want to do pop music anymore.” Garson encountered Robert Moog and his new device at the Audio Engineering Society’s West Coast convention in 1967 and immediately began tinkering with the device. With the Moog, those idears could be transformed. “He constantly had a song he was humming,” Darmet says. “At the table he was constantly tapping.” Which is to say that Mort pulled his melodies out of thin air, just like any household plant would.

The Plantae kingdom grew to its height by 1976, from DC Comics’ mossy superhero Swamp Thing to Stevie Wonder’s own herbal meditation, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. Nefarious manifestations of human-plant interaction also abounded, be it the grotesque pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the pothead paranoia of the US Government spraying Mexican marijuana fields with the herbicide paraquat (which led to the rise in homegrown pot by the 1980s). And then there’s the warm, leafy embrace of Plantasia itself.

“My mom had a lot of plants,” Darmet says. “She didn’t believe in organized religion, she believed the earth was the best thing in the whole world. Whatever created us was incredible.” And she also knew when her husband had a good song, shouting from another room when she heard him humming a good idear. Novel as it might seem, Plantasia is simply full of good tunes.

Garson may have given the album away to new plant and bed owners, but a decade later a new generation could hear his music in another surreptitious way. Millions of kids bought The Legend of Zelda for their Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1986 and one distinct 8-bit tune bears more than a passing resemblance to album highlight “Concerto for Philodendron and Pothos.” Garson was never properly credited for it, but he nevertheless subliminally slipped into a new generations’ head, helping kids and plants alike grow.

Hearing Plantasia in the 21st century, it seems less an ode to our photosynthesizing friends by Garson and more an homage to his wife, the one with the green thumb that made everything flower around him. “My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time,” Darmet says of Plantasia’s new renaissance. “He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then.” Garson seems to be everywhere again, even if he’s not really noticed, just like a houseplant.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Perfect for playing to plants, pasta and unborn children (Barry reckons you can play it to your cat too), this early electronic masterpiece is amongst the finest Moog records ever recorded. Shut your eyes and you’ll find yourself brushing through the verdant flora of a distant planet, glittering arps and delicate melodies accompanying your every move. Originally given away with any houseplant purchase at LA’s Mother Earth, this unique LP has since become a holy grail for open-minded audiophiles, and we’re eternally indebted to Sacred Bones for such a gorgeous reissue.

TRACK LISTING

(A)
1. Plantasia
2. Symphony For A Spider Plant
3. Baby’s Tears Blues
4. Ode To An African Violet
5. Concerto For Philodendron And Pothos

(B)
1. Rhapsody In Green
2. Swingin' Spathiphyllums
3. You Don't Have To Walk A Begonia
4. A Mellow Mood For Maidenhair 

State51 are pleased to welcome the very interesting label/publisher A Year In The Country to our fold this autumn. Based in the UK, and with an outlook very much 'of' this land, they explore similar territory to your hauntological faves but with an additional hand-spun folkiness which ups the off-kilter feel. Think The Wicker Man re-make but actually good, or indeed the soundtrack to a relatively modern imaginary film called The Corn Mother which revolved around the folklore of the “corn mother” – where the last row of the corn harvest is beaten to the ground by the reapers as they shout “THERE SHE IS! KNOCK HER INTO THE GROUND, DON'T LET HER GET AWAY!”, in an attempt to drive the spirit of the corn mother back into the earth for next year’s sowing. Yes, that.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gavino Morretti - Ritual And Unearthly Fire
2. Pulselovers - Beat Her Down
3.The Heartwood Institute - Corn Dolly
4. United Bible Studies - The Last Sheaf On The Braes
5. A Year In The Country - The Night Harvest
6. Depatterning - The Keeper's Dilemma
7. Widow's Weeds - The Corn Mother
8. Sproatly Smith - Caught In The Coppice
9. Field Lines Cartographer - Procession At Dusk

Double Vinyl re-press with download code.
180g black vinyl.
First time available on vinyl with this specific track-list.

TRACK LISTING

1.Come Home (Flood Mix)
2.Lose Control
3.Government Walls
4.God Only Knows
5.You Can't Tell How Much Suffering (On A Face That's Always Smiling)
6.How Was It For You?
7.Sit Down
8.Walking The Ghost
9.Gold Mother
10.Top Of The World
11.Come Home (Album Version)
12.Crescendo
13.Hang On

Pink Floyd Records continue the reintroduction of the Pink Floyd catalogue on vinyl for the first time in over two decades with the next three titles. Special care has been taken to replicate the original packaging. Mastered by James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Bernie Grundman, they will be pressed on 180gram vinyl for optimum sound quality. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Superb LP which has one side dedicated to the fully orchestrated title track, and the other an unusual collection of tunes composed by all 3 songwriters. The standout track is Dave Gilmour's "Fat Old Sun".

Numbered limited edition for Black Friday. Previously unissued early versions of these tracks.

35007 co-founder and guitar player, Bertus Fridael, has now started a solo project called Mother-Unit. As the guitar player of 35007, Bertus was responsible for most of their typical guitar riffs and the heavy guitar sound that made 35007 famous. Their heavy wall of sound, long soundscapes and wild video shows were legendary. To keep the best tradition of instrumental rock music alive, he is now releasing a new album titled "Brain-Massage". The fingerprint he put on 35007 is also present on this new album. By learning how to play drums and keyboards after ending his 35007 voyage in 2003, he had total freedom to compose his music, to be sure that all the instruments fit the guitar riffs perfectly and to give the music an even more hypnotic and massive sound than that which was 35007’s trademark. Not only will these heavily hypnotic sounds lead you to another world, the more mellow parts will also guide you to another universe.

This album will give you the total brain massage your mind and body was waiting for, it hurts a little but still feels great. While listening to these hypnotic sounds you will experience new dimensions in time and space, leading you to the question 'what do we actually know?'. Have a nice trip! For fans of 35007, Hawkwind, Amon Duul, etc

Susumu Yokota returns with one of his most engaging albums to date, with every track a gently glowing gem. The set features the vocal talents of Casper Clausen (Efterklang), Anna Bronsted (Our Broken Garden), Claire Hope (The Chap), Panos Ghikas (The Chap), Nancy Elizabeth, Caroline Ross and Kaori. Yokota creates an album full of great songs within a mesmerising web of sound made of subtle rhythms and deep tones. From the almost soft bossa vibes of "Love Tendrilises" to the fractured folk of "A Flower White", the electronic jazz of "A Ray Of Light" and the Twin Peaks beauty of "Meltwater", this as an album that repays deep and repeated listening.

Tracklisting
1. Love Tendrilises - vocals by Casper Clausen (Efterklang) & Anna Bronsted (Our Broken Garden)
2. Breeze - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth
3. A Ray Of Light - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth
4. A Flower White - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth
5. The Natural Process - vocals by Caroline Ross
6. Reflect Mind - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth and Kaori
7. Inside Foresighted - vocals by Kaori
8. Meltwater - vocals by Caroline Ross and Kaori
9. Tree Surgeon - vocals by Kaori, ClaireHope (The Chap) & Panos Ghikas (The Chap)
10. Suture - vocals by Casper Clausen (Efterklang) & Anna Bronsted (Our Broken Garden)
11. Bonda - vocals by Kaori
12. 12 Days 12 Nights - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth
13. Warmth