"Leben heißt Leben", "Geburt einer Nation", "Leben-Tod", "F.I.A.T."... Laibach's 1987 watershed album "Opus Dei" has been remastered and with a really improved sound now reveals many details which could easily be missed in the original. New artwork, extensive liner notes, a couple of also remastered remixes and a full bonus CD with many great live versions of "Opus Dei" tracks, recorded between 1987 and 1992, complete this absolutely worthwhile 2CD box. (Don't mistake this remastered release with "Opus Dei Revisited"! That's another album with actually new arrangements and mixes of this classic.)
In honour of the late saxophone pioneer's eightieth birthday Repertoire Records re-issued Barbara Thompson's 1980 live show of amazing Jazz Rock with sprinkles of Funk, Latin and Oriental influences and pinches of schmaltz and Disco and added an at least equally compelling bonus compilation focussing on her work on flute. With liner notes from her daughter Ana Gracey this 2CD Fusion treasure chest comes with a lot of love.
New cover, new master. All signs are on having a booming blast with ultra-heavy Electronics of Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick on their dark and harsh 2001 Industrial-infused Hip Hop classic. Their Brotherhood with a whole bunch of rappers has aged extremely well and should still fill fans of Clipping., Dälek or the classic "Judgement Night" soundtrack with droning joy. Monstrous!
Does this even still count as a reissue? Jazz In Britain took the only and relatively obscure 1974 cassette album "One, Two, Three_ _ _ Go!" of Jazz pianist Gordon Beck's band Gyroscope and beefed it up to an almost four hour chronology of demos, live shows and radio broadcasts on three CDs. Even though the sound quality of these recordings isn't always ideal, there's no escape from the magic of his boundlessly talented and creative band. A stunning and vivid document of British Jazz history.
Blue-ified in true Jazz classic fashion this first ever vinyl pressing of Yazz Ahmed's 2011 debut album is a true beauty inside out. The trumpet player does her first steps in merging Miles Davis-inspired Western Jazztradition with her Bahraini roots and already shines as a unique creative voice in both impressive band arrangements and magical duets with congenius bass player Janek Gwishada.
Yeah, let's do this! Just a quick review of four albums which recently joined my collection as [sorry, old man talk incoming!] compact discs.
SEAN ONO LENNON - Asterisms (CD) (2024)
How not to sound like your dad? In case of Sean One Lennon the solution obviously is to shut your mouth, because the vocal resemblence unmistakenly gives it away. But the newest album of John and Yoko's son isn't only instrumental, but also a step into new territory in other ways. It's neither quirky psychedelic stuff like The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger or his band with Les Claypool, nor is it open Beatles homage like the time he was singing a duet (and playing all the instruments on the track) with Lana Del Rey.
That being said this album features several themes, which would easily have worked as instrumental parts on both Claypool Lennon Delirium longplayers. However the whole musical setting here is very different, going back to Sean's longtime admiration for John Zorn, starting at a time when he would never have imagined to someday become a good enough player to create that kind of Jazz Fusion himself. And now - encouraged by the master himself and released on Tzadik Records here we are: "Asterisms" sounds like a crossover between Sean's most progressive Space Rock tendencies and a colourful gallery of all kinds of Zorn impressions. As a composer, not as a saxophone player, since the choice of brass in this band is trumpet. But the wide cinematic mood, the Wurlitzer, the smooth genre transitions... it all feels very akin.
In his liner notes Lennon reveals that the only Jazz he liked before his first Zorn encounter was Miles Davis' electric phase, and you can clearly hear that he was a huge influence too, since all this is soaked in "Bitches Brew" worship. This is probably one of the highest praises you can give an "outsider" for an album like this. Hard to imagine that he initially didn't even plan to play the guitar himself, and that just happened, when after many covid-related the original player could make it to the recordings. And damn, he's doing some fine tasty, but not too flashy stuff here.
And even though this album would have deserved a much longer playing time than thirty-seven minutes, at least the production sounds very big. It's warm and lush and detailed. All in all this is just a wonderful surprise!
GHOST FUNK ORCHESTRA - A Trip To The Moon (CD) (2024)
Speaking of lush albums, we have to continue with one which also shares the jazzy and psychedelic moments with "Asterisms". First and foremost however "A Trip To The Moon", the newest release of New York's Ghost Funk Orchestra fully commits to the promise of the big band's name: The Funk and Soul are incredibly strong on this one, be it in the tight grooves, keys, the explosive brass arrangements or the powerhouse female lead vocals on several tracks. But then there's also something a little off, that side which subtly mixes the Black music influence with Garage Rock and fuzzy Surf guitars.
This ensemble burns in a very specific yet luckily easily accessible niche. The sound of their trip is rich and full and produces a funky-ass life-affirming album, grounded in a somehow quite melancholic mood, set by the red thread of samples from Apollo moon mission transmissions.
These fifteen short and sweet tracks go by incredibly fast. Irresistible stuff! Take me to the moon!
TECHNO ANIMAL - The Brotherhood Of The Bomb (CD) (2001/2024)
Boom! Why the fuck did I miss out on Kevin Martin's and Justin Broadrick's Techno Animal back in the day? Ok, it probably was the misleading name plus the lack of (sufficient) internet. But those days are gone now! I already declared their mammoth album "Re-Entry" my fourth-favorite reissue of 2023 and here comes back another - quite different - beast of droning Electro goodness!
"The Brotherhood Of The Bomb" saw the duo team up with several rappers for a super heavy bass fest of Industrial and Ragga infused Hip Hop. Even though there's no Metal or guitars here, this massive throb feels like the fulfillment of what the best tracks on the famous "Judgement Night" soundtrack once promised in the early Nineties. So yeah, if you dig sincerely dark, harsh and heavy Hip Hop like Dälek, Clipping. or of course The Bug (aka Kevin Martin) - this is your shit!
This reissue naturally comes remastered and with new artwork (since the original of the old one is just lost). Of course I was tempted to buy the double vinyl version, but financial reason - and the fact that Relapse Records has decided to find download cards with their releases uncool recently - made me chose the CD digipak. Music's the same - and it fucking slaps! A classic aged well.
HIGHEST PRIMZAHL ON MARS - Escape From Moronia (CD) (2023)
Well, you know the old saying from the 1990's, right? "Don't judge a promo CD by its horrible look I can make my own cover on the computer artwork!"
I hope you do and can look beyond the first impression, because in case of the debut album from The Highest Primzahl ("prime number") On Mars (is it another one than on Earth?) you really don't receive the musical quality the visuals promised - but luckily something much better!
The long Psych Rock jams on this hour-long release don't re-invent the wheel, but no matter if it's driven by a Robert Hampson Loop guitar riff, if the bass line reminds you of Electric Moon or the groove feels more like a space freakout from Kungens Män or Hills... Siehs Krautz sound really confident and convincing in this sphere.
Among their upcoming shows is a support gig for the legendary Acid Mothers Temple. And from what my ears are gathering here I'm sure they'll survive it gracefully!
End of the year season continues, and after the TOP 23 live shows 2023 the next logical category is of course live albums. And I have indeed already written that post. But since I'm still waiting for one CD to take a neat little picture like above, we're doing another list - the shortest one of all - today.
Ok, this is a little bit weird. Wasn't there a new pressing of Magma's larger than life opus "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh" only yesteryear in my TOP 5 reissues 2022? Of course there was, but this huge box contains not only the original album and a hardcover book, but most importantly seven additional versions of the song/album: One of the earliest live versions from 1972, the 1971 demo, a choir and children's choir version from 1994/1995 and three more live version from 2000 to 2021. Some of these have only been released on CD or DVD before, others are entirely new. Each and every one is amazing and has different qualities. As a whole this is a treasure chest that keeps on giving.
Laibach's 1986 Industrial classic is undoubtly one of my favorite releases of that whole decade. This vinyl reissue comes remastered, with renewed artwork, extensive liner notes and - my main reason to purchase it - an extra LP with the previously unreleased malicious 2007 orchestral version of "Vade Retro Satanas" plus six more, partly revisited live renditions of songs from the album, recorded between 2018 and 2021. The only thing which annoys me is that months later there's now also a CD box with an extra disc of even more live recordings, which continues the unfortunate trend of Laibach vinyl releases with less musical content than their digital counterparts. Nonetheless this is still awesome.
Yeah, so far this list is only made of long-established all-time favorites of mine and of course Voivod's underrated 1993 classic is no exception. I already got the first vinyl repress since the original run, released 2021 by Real Gone Music - but Listenable Record did their job so much better that I just couldn't resist, even though this one doesn't feature any new music beside the familiar Space Prog hits either. But as straight-forward as it is, the first vinyl version with the 3D cover variant obviously presents itself as a labour of love.
TECHNO ANIMAL - Re-Entry
Yes, finally some stuff actually completely new to me! Even though I've been a huge Godflesh and Jesu fan for ages, I've never explored the rabbit whole of Justin Broadrick and Kevin Martin's Electro project Techno Animal, whose monstrous two and a half hour album "Re-Entry" has now been remastered and reissued by Relapse Records. The droning and booming Industrial Dub power on this double CD is not only a levelling yet atmospheric brainmelter, but also feels astonishingly timeless. Remains the question: Why the hell didn't I indulge in this fantastic stuff decades earlier? Right, it probably was the duo's misleading moniker. Which surely is also why today's continuation of the duo is called Zonal instead.
Phew, this tail end spot was a tough choice! It ultimately went to another album I didn't know before - and listen to quite regularly now. Originally released in 2013 this Italian Horror Electronics record finds the perfect balance between classic scary sounds and being danceable. Presented by WV Sorcerer Productions in rearranged and extended form there's nothing not to love about this excellent soundtrack to an imaginary slasher movie.
"Leben heißt Leben", "Geburt einer Nation", "Leben-Tod", "F.I.A.T."... Laibach's 1987 watershed album "Opus Dei" has been remastered and with a really improved sound now reveals many details which could easily be missed in the original.
In honour of the late saxophone pioneer's eightieth birthday Repertoire Records re-issued Barbara Thompson's 1980 live show of amazing Jazz Rock with sprinkles of Funk, Latin and Oriental influences and pinches of schmaltz and Disco and added an at least equally compelling bonus compilation focussing on her work on flute. With liner notes from her daughter Ana Gracey this 2CD Fusion treasure chest comes with a lot of love.
Does this even still count as a reissue? Jazz In Britain took the only and relatively obscure 1974 cassette album "One, Two, Three_ _ _ Go!" of Jazz pianist Gordon Beck's band Gyroscope and beefed it up to an almost four hour chronology of demos, live shows and radio broadcasts on three CDs. Even though the sound quality of these recordings isn't always ideal, there's no escape from the magic of his boundlessly talented and creative band. A stunning and vivid document of British Jazz history.
Blue-ified in true Jazz classic fashion this first ever vinyl pressing of Yazz Ahmed's 2011 debut album is a true beauty inside out. The trumpet player does her first steps in merging Miles Davis-inspired Western Jazz tradition with her Bahraini roots and already shines as a unique creative voice in both impressive band arrangements and magical duets with congenius bass player Janek Gwishada.
