Electronic & Dance 425 Items

A compilation squeezed onto a 7” that brings together some of the finest artists active in the Japanese underground. Featuring the talents of Tenniscoats (featuring Undora), Tori Kudo, Yumbo, Kawate Naoto, & Otani Naoki. Each artist has personally chosen a song from the full length record Kumokokudo by LE TON Mité, and made it their own.

The scottish musician, born in 1953 in Port Glasgow, is one of the most eclectic artist of the so-called minimal wave scene. Alongside german singer Claudia Brücken (vocalist of the hit-makers Propaganda) he formed Act a short-lived synthpop group signed to ZTT Records in the late eighties. Licensed by Cherry Red in 1982, the double album ‘Contradictions’ is the third effort in Leer high and rising career. After the seminal debut on Industrial Records with Robert Rental – The Bridge (1979) – Leer ventured on a solo career with the brave synth wave of ‘Letter From America’ and his personal masterpiece ‘Contradictions’. The latter is such an enigmatic piece of work, with alien melodies as in the case of the ‘Soul Gypsy’ infectious white funk. The whole album was recorded in his living room at home onto 4-track using borrowed equipment ( Korg synth, Ult-sound drum computer & guitars ) from his friend Morgan Fisher. Featuring Leer’s haunting, uncertain vocal – recorded quietly, so as not to wake his girlfriend in their bedsit! – crooning over a minimal bass pulse and discreet whines and washes of primitive Wasp synthesiser, it retains its peculiar lo-fi magic four decades on.

Now numbered from 1001 to 1500 and wrapped in Mr. Disc label covers.

Alvin Lucier (born May 14, 1931) is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. Much of his work is influenced by science and explores the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound through physical media. Bird and Person Dyning is his first solo recorded work; originally released on the Italian Cramps Records label as the 11th volume of the Nova Musicha series dedicated to contemporary avant-garde composers, Bird and Person Dyning is now made available again on Dialogo in a faithful reproduction of the original gatefold cover artwork, including also an inner sleeve with the English translation of the liner notes. From the original liner notes of “Bird and Person Dyning”: The Duke of York (1972) “A long time ago I wanted to build a grotesque jukebox. I thought of merging three or four old jukeboxes and then recording sounds on 45s, so that you could mix the sounds together. [...] The original idea of this work was about the power of singers and vedettes in our society and the hypothesis that their vocal personalities are present in our memory at different levels and, in addition, that all of us, living or dead, might somehow be part of a huge composite identity that is constantly changing with the birth and arrival of new people. The Duke of York is an attempt to elaborate these ideas. A single performer chooses and determines the order of an indefinite number of whole songs, speeches, arias, selected excerpts from books, letters, poems, films, plays, TV series or any other vocal sounds, including non-human ones. The actual duration of these sounds is altered by one or more people using synthesisers or other electronic tools, basing their choices on memories or similar experiences. Once altered, for example through a filter, the example can no longer be undone, and other changes must be made to the previous examples. The effect is that of a vocal identity made of layers of separate and partial iden tities. [...] The Duke of York was composed in 1971 and was performed in its current version on 19 February 1972 at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York. Bird and Person Dyning (1975) for performers with microphones, amplifiers, speakers and a sound object. One day I got an electronic bird in the mail. It was a silver ball with an electrical cord that, when connected, made a sound similar to that of a chirping bird [...]. A few months later I read an article in «Scientific American» about how certain birds that fly at night, particularly the bunting, cross long distances by partly orienting themselves looking at the position of the stars in relation to the rotation of Earth [...]. I owned a Sennheiser binaural microphone consisting of two mini microphones which, when introduced into the ears of a dummy or a person, faithfully reproduced the sounds as heard when they were bouncing inside the head and in the ear canals. I began experimenting by moving the sounds of the bird between two speakers, listening to them through the two mini microphones inserted in my ears, as I walked slowly through the space between the two speakers. The amplified chirps moved left and right according to my movements, creating small time delays and phase-shifts in relation to the position of the motionless bird. Sometimes the microphones would resonate with the loudspeakers, thus generating a Larsen feedback, and I could control the timbre and volume with small head movements [...]. A performance of Bird and Person Dyning is a live exploration of these phenomena. The title is meant as an exact description of the activity.

Spaced out bleeps & bloops and wild ARP synth freakouts from 1976!
“Pieces For Kohn”, as the title suggests, included four electronic pieces composed by Tom Hamilton as musical responses to 3-D geometric paintings by artist Bill Kohn.
A renowned audio producer and electronic composer, among other many things, you’ve probably have seen Tom Hamilton’s name in the credits of many albums by Robert Ashley and on releases from labels like Lovely Music, Pogus Productions, New World Records, etc.
Tom was first introduced to electronic music in 1965, while he was an undergraduate in Milwaukee, thanks to a lecture by Vladimir Ussachevsky illustrated with examples of electronic composers of the day: Bülent Arel, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Henry, Milton Babbitt…Encouraged by his teacher, Thom David Mason, Tom started to build audio circuits and battery-operated boxes that produced or modified sounds.
In 1969, Tom moved to St. Louis. After graduating at Washington University, he was offered a job to design, purchase, and build an electronic music and recording studio there. He now had continuing access to commercially built synthesizers and by the mid 1970s Tom found that working with electronic music was more satisfying to him than other musical endeavors.
The idea for the “Pieces for Kohn” album came from a studio visit with St. Louis artist Bill Kohn. Tom was an admirer of his work, which combined vibrant color combinations to fulfill 3-D geometric and architectural compositions in paintings, prints, and watercolors.
Bill proposed that Tom composed music for his art exhibition opening at a famous St. Louis gallery and Tom decided to simultaneously release that work on LP. Tom picked four of the paintings that he liked the most and titled his four pieces correspondingly. The recording took place at the Washington University Electronic Music / Recording Studio – the studio that Tom designed and first built in 1971 and then moved and rebuilt in 1974 (where it resides to date).
The original tapes were performed at the opening of Bill Kohn's exhibit at the Terry Moore Gallery in St. Louis, in January, 1976 and then Tom did a limited pressing of the album on his own label, Somnath Records.

Record Store Day Japan 2021 Drop 2 release. Released in 1978, Masaki Ueda sang the reggae lovers’ masterpiece “Harder They Come” in Japanese, a soulful cover single.

Reissue of this italo disco rarity from 1986 with remixes by Flemming Dalum and Rey David Diaz.

Originally released in 1987, « Metropolitan Jungle » by German synth-pop band Cold End is reissued by Swiss label Proxima. Cold End is the second musical project of Katrin A. Kunze, Jürgen Grah and Markus Kammann. Musically, the sound of Cold End was something special back in the time, as a successful fusion of electronic and soul. Dynamic percussions, synth textures and enchanting vocals. Includes an aerial rework by Audrey Danza. All four tracks are freshly remastered!

Limited edition of 300 copies on curaçao blue wax.

Galvanica: a voice with unusual qualities, refined and balanced, also high-pitched, sensual, embellished by an orgasmic inspiration with fluid and spaced solos in hypnotic rhythms that often change scenery. ‘Nightlights in Japan’: an extraordinary piece of pure and profound creativity where each version seems to have been built apart and where the West meets the East. A splendid interpreter for a truly stunning piece, as fresh and far-sighted as the day it was recorded at Studio Emme in Calenzano by Marzio Benelli with the Yamaha DX7 synth and Linn 9000 drum sequencer that are at the base of the piece - made and re-interpreted in the four original versions, all sung in the Eastern Asian pentatonic scale. ‘Nightlights in Japan’ was also written by Massimiliano Orfei, at the time collaborator in the advertising projects from label Smash One Music of Pino Toma, the producer who drew new inspiration to venture into the record market, which, in 1987 became everyday more difficult and this song was considered out of fashion - even if each version seems to have been built as a unique composition, and it was expertly arranged by the talented Giorgio Costantini (Giokost as composer). We’ve clarified as to whom Galvanica's velopendulus belongs, to rightly consider this artist as a contributive voice of disco music, despite being part of the ‘second wave’ of the Italo-Disco scene having contributed to it as Otero, Belen Thomas, Angelby and previously with the disco-project Plustwo creating ‘Melody’ (which after 40 years gets a new extraordinary success with 134 million plays on TikTok and around 18 million streaming).

This first reference (ate001) is a reissue of Corsica Ribella, which is the second album by Ghjuvan Petru Graziani (GP.G) in collaboration with the poet Rinatu Coti. Limited to 300 copies, the reissue includes the restoration of the cover as well as an 8-page booklet containing sketches, poems and exclusive interviews with the artists translated into three languages (French/English/Corsican). Below a bit more about the artist Ghjuvan Petru Graziani (GP.G) : Born in Corsica, with a childhood in Toulon, then planer and toolmaker at the Renault Billancourt factory, GP.G created the Groupe Culturel Renault which had an impact in the political strike of 1971. Multi-faceted artist, GP.G is known among other things for his activist music label Les Disques Vendémiaire with which he produced a few big names in free jazz such as JEF Gilson, François Tusques, Cossi Anatz and ByardLancaster. Corsica Ribella record is born in 1984 when G.P.G was back in Corsica. He was at this time highly committed to the Corsican National Liberation Front (flnc). Corsica Ribella is then the first Corsican electronic disc ; a clever mix of electronics, poetry and field recording. Jazz-funk influenced, the LP is a cosmic ballad oscillating between ambient and leftfield with large instrumental parts against backdrop of nationalist demands, an ode to freedom.

Galvanica: a voice with unusual qualities, refined and balanced, also high-pitched, sensual, embellished by an orgasmic inspiration with fluid and spaced solos in hypnotic rhythms that often change scenery. ‘Nightlights in Japan’: an extraordinary piece of pure and profound creativity where each version seems to have been built apart and where the West meets the East. A splendid interpreter for a truly stunning piece, as fresh and far-sighted as the day it was recorded at Studio Emme in Calenzano by Marzio Benelli with the Yamaha DX7 synth and Linn 9000 drum sequencer that are at the base of the piece - made and re-interpreted in the four original versions, all sung in the Eastern Asian pentatonic scale. ‘Nightlights in Japan’ was also written by Massimiliano Orfei, at the time collaborator in the advertising projects from label Smash One Music of Pino Toma, the producer who drew new inspiration to venture into the record market, which, in 1987 became everyday more difficult and this song was considered out of fashion - even if each version seems to have been built as a unique composition and it was expertly arranged by the talented Giorgio Costantini (Giokost as composer). We’ve clarified as to whom Galvanica's velopendulus belongs, to rightly consider this artist as a contributive voice of disco music, despite being part of the ‘second wave’ of the Italo-Disco scene having contributed to it as Otero, Belen Thomas, Angelby and previously with the disco-project Plustwo creating ‘Melody’ (which after 40 years gets a new extraordinary success with 134 million plays on TikTok and around 18 million streaming).

Originally released in 1986, 'Nostalgia De Lo Humano' is almost unclassifiable. For Segura, styles are another form of repression, something that serves to label and keep track of those who sees, listens, buys or plays, and especially who sells. Despite the fact that Segura has been producing music continuously since the 1970s, his recognition as a musician was for a long time limited to experimental music circles. He had always controlled his career on his own, on the fringes of the industry. As Javier Segura himself says, his head is full of textures, rhythms and melodies. Through his textured productions, Segura opened up new dimensions to experimental music, using guitars, drum machines, trumpets, synths, or pedals.

The reissue of Masahide Sakuma's 1st solo album 'lisa' released in 1984 has been decided!

LP reissue of Masahide Sakuma's 1st solo album 'lisa', which has been active as a member of Yonin Bayashi and Plastics and produced for many famous artists. A work released from the ambient music series 'Music Interior' by sound engineer Seihiko Ono. It is often called a Japanese ambient masterpiece, and it is soaring in the second-hand market, making it one of the coveted fans.

A young, free-reined musician with a rich music vocabulary and avant-garde sensibilities pours his heart out on cutting-edge musical equipment. Recorded in Northern Italy in 1989 by Michele Tadini, this release effortlessly fuses ambient and library overtones with the influence of early digital electronic music, underlined by an ethereal atmosphere eerily reminiscent of the best soundtracks by John Carpenter. Seemingly unplaceable in time and space, it is both Italian and world-spanning.

Emotional Rescue celebrates a decade of reissues by again pulling deep from the well with the first of several French avant albums over the coming year. The self-styled "Ethno-Industrial" Vox Populi! present their 1989 Aither album, remastered and repackaged with love nearly 30 years later. Initiated by artist Axel Kyrou in 1982, Vox Populi! was soon joined by long term collaborator Pacific 231 on a series of coldwave/industrial cassette only recordings. Things changed considerably, however, with the meeting of the siblings, Mitra and Arach in 1984. The consequential use of "traditional" instruments and, especially, his wife Mitra's Persian folklore vocals gave a specific tonality, incorporating the band's expanding passion for oriental sounds, electronics and psychedelic music. Involving numerous musicians and friends in often-spontaneous studio sessions, the melting pot of varied cultural backgrounds added ethnic, electronic, concrete music, funk, dub and experimental flavours. This feeling of the subjective absence of the artist was achieved via a communal way for making music, but still with an aim to entertain while leading the listener to experience something unique - mind elevating, non-egotistical, ethereal music - all pushing the intellect towards a more artistic transparency. Welcome to Aither.

Mannequin Records is elated to present for the first time on vinyl the reissue of Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici’s first video soundtrack, originally released in 1984 as an audiotape in less than one hundred copies. Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici (literally Mundane Mechanical Youth) or GMM was one of the most unclassifiable audiovisual experiences to emerge from Italy in the 1980s. Maurizio Dami a.k.a. Alexander Robotnick, a pivotal member of GMM, was responsible for the group’s music output. Founded in 1984 by Antonio Glessi and Andrea Zingoni in Florence, GMM was an art collective whose production represents the quintessential expression of postmodern transmedia hybridity. GMM pioneered the genre of computer comics, created video installations, developed “multiple identity” performances, and was involved in fashion, media, and music productions, and later on produced cyberdelic environments, artificial reality projects, and proto-memes. Alexander Robotnick’s first contribution to GMM was this soundtrack for the group’s eponymous first video, the animated version of a computer comics they coincidentally published on legendary Frigidaire magazine. Restored by Dami and reissued here for the first time by Mannequin Records, the composition was also split into two “suites” and released as an audiotape distributed by Materiali Sonori, also responsible for other releases by both Robotnick and GMM. Determining in this work is Dami’s adoption of the alphaSyntauri, also known as the first affordable digital synth (priced less than $2000 when it was released in 1980), which was playable through its own software, “alphaPlus,” on the Apple II computer. The same computer was used by Glessi to “draw” the 3-bit strips scripted by Zingoni recounting the joyrides of the Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici, three merciless cyborgs in black suit and sunglasses dividing their time between nightclubs, rapes and murders. As Robotnick, Dami developed an innovative formula of Italo disco that was attractive to the dance floor yet at the same time highlighted the expressive properties of the instruments he used, notably Roland drum machines and Korg synthesizers. For the soundtrack of GMM’s videos and installations, he left aside the danceable synth rhythmics in favor of ambient sounds that produced rarefied atmospheres, psychological tensions, and enhanced states of consciousness. Dami’s scores for GMM’s artworks could be associated with Italian avant-garde music of the 1970s and 1980s, ranging from composers who adopted electronics flirting with pop and songwriting to minimalist musicians exploring seriality and drones, including Franco Battiato, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Francesco Messina, and Riccardo Sinigaglia. Analogies could also be traced with the playful and humanizing approach to personal computers that characterizes the music output of Marcello Giombini and Doris Norton. The futuristic escapism of minimal synth and ambient music’s psychological nature is infiltrated by drifting harmonics typical of new age, as if in search of a spiritual dimension of technology. Characteristic of the postmodern ethos of GMM Suite, in line with the humanizing approach to technology that is at the base of GMM’s computer comics, is the melancholic take at speculative dystopias in which human beings would find themselves increasingly trapped into identity crises: a true cyborg’s melodrama. Limited edition of 500 copies, (orange vinyl)