Pop Vinyl 583 Items

Nico's iconic post-velvets return to rock! As one critic memorably put it, when Nico spoke it was like coffin-lids creaking. When she sang it was like listening to ravens taking off 13 at a time. Nico was like nothing rock music had ever seen or heard before or since. Features originals along with stoic takes on Bowie and The Velvet Underground. Pressed on lavender vinyl!

A reissue of this notable album from the Japanese underground, originally dating back to 1982. Non Band was the unit surrounding female bass player Non, previously one half of the duo Maria 023. Partly due to the use of violin and clarinet, Non Band sounded quite different than the other groups at the time!

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the reissue of Ammar El Sherei's superb instrumental album “Oriental Music” from 1976. Here, the iconic Egyptian musician and composer revisits six classic compositions by another Egyptian legend, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, in his own hypnotic way. This series of great Arabic music reissues, started with the Fairuz and Ziad Rahbani album reissues are curated by Lebanese-born Arabic music expert Mario Choueiry from Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. This reissue has been newly remastered and comes in its beautiful original artwork.

The late musician and composer Ammar El Sherei is one of Egypt's musical giants. Born in Upper Egypt in 1948 into an upper middle class family (his paternal grandfather had been an MP during King Fouad's reign and his eldest brother became the Egyptian ambassador to Australia) El Sherei moved to Cairo with his family when he was five and attended a special school for the blind (he had lost his eyesight in his early childhood). A child prodigy with a unique gift for music, he got noticed by his teachers who recommended him to the Hadley School for the Blind in America so he could perfect his studies by correspondence. El Sherei then quickly learn piano, oud and composition with unparalleled ease. Once he got his BA in English literature from Cairo's Ain Shams University, he decided to become a musician against the will of his family. He began playing accordion in the Cairo bars and clubs and started making a name for himself on the Cairo scene. El Sherei got his first taste of success when he managed to place a song with famed Egyptian singer Maha Sabry. This was the start of a long series of hit he composed for many established Egyptian artists. From then on, his ascension was meteoric and he went to to become a very successful composer for films and TV series especially. A true innovator who didn't hesitate to bring some western influences to traditional Egyptian music and was one of the musicians responsible for ending the lengthy song trend of the 70s. He embraced modern instrumentations and was asked by Japanese keyboard maker Yamaha Corp. to help develop new electronic keyboards that could handle quarter tone. Early in his career El Sherei recorded albums for Soutelphan, including "Oriental Music" celebrating the music of another Egyptian legend, composer Mohamed Abdel Wahab, who had co-founded Soutelphan. Here he masterfully interprets six classics from the Master including "Ana Wehabieby" (aka Ana Wa Habibi), "Ya Wabour Koly" and the classic "Ahwak" made famous by such talents as Abdel Halim Hafez or Fairuz. Using early electronic keyboards like the Steelphon S900 or the Farfisa as seen on the album cover, El Sherei creates beautifully hypnotic instrumentals that blend together traditional melodies with modern instrumentation, adding jazz and pop elements in the mix. Achieving cult status over the years with Arabic music collectors and vinyl diggers, "Oriental Music is now a sought-after album which command high prices on the international scene. Wewantsounds is delighted to make this unique album available on vinyl for the first time since it originally came out in Egypt in 1976.

Opera Multi Steel was born during the winter of 1983 in Bourges, a city in the center of France. The band started off as a trio with Franck Lopez (Vocals, Keyboards,Recorder, Guitars), his brother Patrick L. Robin (Vocals, Percussion) and Catherine M. Marie (Keyboards, Vocals). They began to record demos utilizing a Elex Keyboard, Casio VL-Tone, Roland TR-606 drum machine, guitars and bass pedals. Layering organ-like keyboards over drum machine snares and a woodwind recorder, they created a unique style of Medieval or Baroque synth pop.

Stone cold Italo classic - reissued from the ZYX Archives!

1980, Friday evening in the Munich suburban pub »Panoptikum«. My girlfriend draws my attention to the fact that behind me two guys are talking about looking for a new guitarist for their band. I turn around, chat them up (Jochen and Thomas) and praise my skills to the skies. A few days later I’m standing in Thomas‘ perfectly equipped practice room with my Ibanez Les Paul copy. We jam a little while – jazz rock, to which I can contribute very little due to my lack of skills. We quickly agree on a new style: minimalist, no drums, just a drum machine, Moog and organ, less guitar, dry bass. And German lyrics! We don’t really know or want that this should be ”ndw”. But of course we listen to DAF, Ideal, FSK, Fehlfarben and – yes, Spliff too. These influences are undeniable. So we found the ”piss OFF Orkesstr”, which very quickly becomes ”p’off Orkesstr” and then finally ”P!OFF?”. Ambitious and inspired, we produce a demo cassette that already contains ”Das dicke Kind”, ”Großer Bruder”, ”Pass Auf!” and ”Walkman” and send it to various record companies – including Munich‘s ”Ariola”, which is desperately looking for NDW acts because the Ariola empire has missed this trend. Therefore, they ”buy” about 25 bands at the drop of a hat – and P!OFF? is supposed to be one of them, because they expect some good airplay mainly from ”Walkman”. Producer god Anthony Monn (Amanda Lear, Relax, Saragossa Band, Fancy et al.) takes us under his wing and manages to keep the original demo sound, but to improve it considerably. ”Mein Walkman ist kaputt” didn‘t make it into the charts, but it was played more often on the radio and the Album didn‘t sell badly. In 1982, however, NDW is now commercialised to death and that ship had sailed. But we stay together (under different band names) and over the decades become first New Romantics, then Indie Rockers, then Grunge Noise Makers and finally Electronic Freaks. In 2009, for my fiftieth birthday, we decide to play a few songs from the old 82 record live, which becomes a huge success. And so we are – again as P!OFF? – still on the road with our old songs. The ’82 Album has become a sought-after collector‘s item and cult object – so we are very happy that Bureau B is presenting a lovingly remastered reissue after almost 40 years.

Finally, this classic Peter Gabriel album is back in print.

Finally, this classic Peter Gabriel album is back in print.

This 33 1/3 RPM Half-Speed Master Edition is pressed on 180gram vinyl!