Live In Nickelsdorf
(Roaratorio - ROAR32) LP $16.50 (Out-of-stock)
The heavily textural, frequently perplexing, sometimes unsettling music of Mazen Kerbaj (trumpet), Sharif Sehnaoui (acoustic guitar), and Raed Yassin (doublebass) bears little relation to its cousins from similar outer realms of extended technique. Live In Nickeldorf is the sound of a collective ur-mind that favors the long gesture over pointillistic strokes. Using no electronics or overdubs whatsoever, the Beirut-based trio’s capacity for generating aural illusions is astounding; one would be hard-pressed to identify their sources as three acoustic instruments. Includes download coupon. Edition of 350
ANDREW BRODER / GEORGE CARTWRIGHT
Broder / Cartwright
(Roaratorio - ROAR08) LP $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
Andrew Broder (aka Lex Records/Ninja Tune recording artist Fog) and George Cartwright (leader of the long-running avant/jazz group Curlew and Gloryland Ponycat Trio) lay claim to some barrier-crashing and genre-splicing within their respective bodies of work. Together on a Minneapolis stage in February 2004, they cross-pollinate like killer bees with their array of saxes, laptops, turntables, keyboards, and various effects. Broder and Cartwright’s free improv would work fine as a soundtrack for documentaries on paranormal phenomena, so start filming, auteur. Limited edition on red vinyl, with hand-silkscreened covers.s/t
DANIEL CARTER / DISSIPATED FACE
Live At CBGB 1986
(Roaratorio - ROAR30) 7-inch $7.25 (Out-of-stock)
These archival recordings from the NYC punk club capture a moment in time when free jazz got its first chance since Detroit’s Grande Ballroom ca. 1968 to organically meld with sheer metalesque maelstrom. The twisted, thrashing power chords and shrieking licks of Dissipated Face guitarist Kurt “Hologram” Ralske, fueled by the throbbing rhythms of Steve “X Dream” Popkin and Ben “Face” Munves, who alternated on bass and drums, blend with special guest saxophonist Carter’s cathartic alto wail. Cover artwork by Raymond Pettibon.
New Nixon Tapes
(Roaratorio - ROAR16) Used LP $15.00
Since 2003, NYC's Talibam! have been charting a course through improv waters where rock, jazz, noise and all stops in between collide in an aggressive mix that defines free music in the best sense of the term: nothing is deemed out of bounds. Too much fun to be a po-faced postmodern exercise, and too expertly played to get sunk in a morass of good intentions, The New Nixon Tapes hurtles through two side-long pieces in an agile cascade of rhythmic and melodic ideas. Kevin Shea (drums) and Matt Mottel (synthesizer) have worked with Cooper-Moore and Rhys Chatham, among others; here they're joined by master saxophonist / trumpeter / flautist Daniel Carter. Recorded live in the WFMU studios. MP3 download coupon included. Sealed
Rag
(Roaratorio - ROAR19) LP $18.00 (Out-of-stock)
Recorded at various Minneapolis venues throughout 2009, Rag captures freely improvised meetings between saxophonist Cartwright (longtime leader of Curlew, associations with Ornette Coleman, Half Japanese, Alex Chilton and Loren Mazzacane) and percussionist Seru, whose playing is a trompe l’oreille marriage of forward motion and suspended stasis; witness his work with Milo Fine, Paul Metzger and Evan Parker, among others. Cartwright can be restlessly melodic or jaggedly guttural on the reeds, although his bedrock lyricism is never far from the surface. Edition of 300, each copy with unique print by Anne Elias on the jacket. Colored vinyl. Includes digital download coupon.
BEN CHASNY / CHRIS CORSANO / PAUL METZGER
Chris Corsano & Ben Chasny / Paul Metzger
(Roaratorio) Used Split LP $15.00
“On guitar modified with music box innards and an accompanying tambura, Metzger dives deep into the raga heart of a moonlit day and returns with the jewels. On the flip, Corsano’s drums and Chasny’s guitar chatter and clatter with jittery hyper-articulation, worrying the meat off the bone in short sharp strokes.” Silkscreened poplar wood covers. Edition of 766
Say There’s A Reason
(Roaratorio - ROAR41) 7-inch $7.50 (Out-of-stock)
The members of this mid-’60s San Francisco combo came from jazz, flamenco and R&B backgrounds, but together their psychedelic brew verges on Blue Cheer heaviness. They gigged everywhere but left behind no recorded artifacts. A deal with Vanguard went nowhere when their manager absconded to Mexico with the advance money on an ill-fated mission to buy a kilo of pot. A later incarnation of the band — with a completely different lineup and musical style — released a 45 that has since become a favorite of crate-digging DJs, but This ain’t That. These two tracks hail from 1967 and 1968. The A-Side was recorded at Nick Gravenites’s studio in Sausalito, while the sonics on the live “Hat Full Of Dreams” recalls VU’s guitar amp boot (with a solo as overdriven and atonal as this, it’s a plus). Liner notes by Jim Moscoso, rare photographs. Edition of 505.
Gong / Ear : dance-ing, 1 & 2
(Roaratorio - ROAR27) Used LP $32.00
As part of “Metal Meditations,” Corner’s decades-long series of improvisations with dancers, Gong / Ear utilizes his favorite Paiste tam-tam; the two recordings here -- from his NYC Leonard Street loft in 1989 -- are a feedback loop of perceptions between gong and dance: “the initiating sound (or perhaps the dancer’s posture) is made physically audible. Responsive movement is turned back into sound. Musicianly attentiveness sends it back, and it continues.” Handcut facsimile brass gong, silkscreened with Corner’s calligraphy and mounted onto the jacket. Includes download coupon. Edition of 305.
Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades
(Roaratorio - ROAR36) LP $21.00 (Out-of-stock)
Two very different takes on “Les Barricades Mistérieuses,” the harpsichord gem by French Baroque composer François Couperin. The first dates from 1992, in collaboration with dancer Paulette Sears (who provides the “singings and screamings” of the album’s subtitle) and moves from a frenzy of abstraction to a more meditative zone, with diversions and tributaries along the way. The second, from 2004, is a rougher beast, recorded with wildly over-saturated levels; the tape machine itself becomes a participant in the performance, with its heavy distortion bringing out stormclouds of overtones from Corner’s piano. Download coupon included. Listen to excerpts here: http://roaratorio.com/uncategorized/philip-corner-through-two-more-than-mysterious-barricades/
Scraps and Shadows
(Roaratorio - roar26) LP $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
This follow-up to the duo’s Under A Double Moon finds McPhee largely on tenor sax rather than alto. Seven dedicatory pieces recorded live in Milwaukee in 2011, from the delicate balladry of “For Adrienne P” to the appropriately combustible “For Han Bennink.” Corsano’s stupendously detailed drumming and McPhee’s free-soul love cries weave a master latticework. Cover art by Judith Lindbloom. Download coupon included.
Under A Double Moon
(Roaratorio - ROAR22) LP $16.00 (Out-of-stock)
With a career now spanning over forty years and more than one-hundred recordings, Joe McPhee has shown that in the world of creative improvised music, emotional content and theoretical underpinnings are thoroughly compatible — and, in fact, a critically important pairing. Since recording The Hated Music with Paul Flaherty in 2000, Chris Corsano has been active in far-reaching corners of the free improvised world. Recorded live in Paris during their spring 2010 tour of Europe, Under A Double Moon is McPhee and Corsano's first album together. Cover artwork by Judith Lindbloom. Liner notes by John Szwed. Includes download coupon.
Elephant Ball
(Roaratorio - ROAR37) LP $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
Following Roaratorio’s release of Family Evil in 2012, this West Coast psychedelic band reunited and began playing out again, with their vintage sound intact. This second helping of unearthed material from the band’s archives starts with three tracks from their earliest recording sessions in 1967 – the swaggering garage-rock miniature “Dawn Sermon” and the folk-rock “For All Of My Life” and “Tell Her For Me” – and then moves on to a Fillmore West gig from November 1969, featuring the final incarnation of the group during their original run. With the same complex harmonies, nuanced songwriting and top-drawer musicianship that won Family Evil its accolades, the half-dozen tunes here range from the crunchy riffs of the title track and “It’s Winter” to the lightly jazzy “Don’t Fall Brother” and the Latin-tinged moves of “There Is Light There.” Includes digital download. Listen to two tracks from the album here: https://soundcloud.com/roaratoriorecs
Family Evil
(Roaratorio - ROAR25) LP $18.00 (Out-of-stock)
Originally a Beatles / Byrds-influenced unit called the Morlochs, this “lost” West Coast psych group came together in Merced, California in 1965, but soon shed their original moniker and moved in a more psychedelic direction, becoming a fixture on the ballroom circuit from 1966-1970. Despite nods in the direction of the New Tweedy Brothers and Quicksilver Messenger Service at times, Family Evil is imbued with a distinctive sound that arose from practicing up to six nights a week. The band entertained offers from various labels during their existence, but as they insisted on complete artistic control and ownership of their music, no deals were struck. Contains studio tracks, rehearsal tapes and a live recording from the Fillmore West. Cover art by Norman Orr. Extensive historical liner notes. Includes free download.
Gussie
(Roaratorio) Used LP $10.00 (Out-of-stock)
Recorded summer of 2001, released mere moments ago, this spectacularly well-recorded live document of free improv by veteran outists George Cartwright (saxophones), Davey Williams (guitar), Chris Parker (piano), Fred Chalenor (bass), and Bruce Golden (percussion) delivers a squawk most supreme. No over-the-top noise, no meandering wank, just fine jazzbo tweak. Hand-drawn covers signed by Anne Elias. Edition of 436.
Flight Of The Light Air Force
(Roaratorio - ROAR44) 7-inch $7.75 (Out-of-stock)
The majestic title track — an outtake from their second Columbia LP With Pleasure, left off for reasons of space (it clocks in at eight minutes) — could’ve been a highlight of this outsider-folk duo’s career. On the flip side are two cuts recorded live at a February 1970 concert in upstate New York with violinist Ian Guenther: their signature song “Dance Hall Girls” and a rollicking version of the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Includes digital download.
This Song Was Borne
(Roaratorio - ROAR39) 2xLP $29.00 (Out-of-stock)
Previously unreleased demos, studio outtakes, radio sessions and live recordings from the archives, spanning the entire career of these shining lights of the late ’60s Canadian coffeehouse circuit whose two albums for Columbia are cult classics in psychedelic folk circles. Their combination of ragged-but-right, salt-and-pepper harmonies, evocative lyrics, beautiful songs with the occasional dissonant grace note, and careful arrangements that still sound off-the-cuff make for some of the most beguiling music of its era. Detailed liner notes by the artists. With download card.
Disturbed Strings
(Roaratorio) LP $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
In the spring of 1998, guitarist Jeff Fuccillo (Irving Klaw Trio, Wham-O, Hochenkeit) met avant-folk guru John Fahey while opening for his trio at a gig in Portland, Oregon. Fahey booked studio time to record Fuccillo for his label. Fuccillo arrived at the session expecting to make a solo acoustic guitar album. To his surprise Fahey had prepared a pile of samples — random snatches of music, all manner of sound effects — and without warning began shooting them out into the studio through the monitors, effecting a guerilla collaboration of sorts. Disturbed Strings captures the highlight of that day: veering from hardscrabble string-rattling to modal melodicism, the album is ample testament to Fuccillo’s wide-ranging inventiveness as an improvising guitarist, as well as a window into an aspect of Fahey’s artistry not previously represented on record. An essential document of the New Weird America underground. Released in a limited edition of 500 copies, with artwork by Fahey and Judith Lindbloom.
Symphony No. 3: Siddhartha Gautama O El Poder De La Nada
(Roaratorio - ROAR24) Used LP $8.00
When psycho-spatial composer Nelson Gastaldi passed away in 2009 at the age of 77, he left behind a unique musical legacy that is only now beginning to be unveiled. A self-described “musical nihilist with noble and mystic origins” (as well as an accomplished visual artist), Gastaldi supported himself and his family with a job at an electric company in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while creating an astonishing body of work that went virtually unheard during his lifetime. Synthesizing into his music a wide range of interests (medicine, linguistics, Chinese and German philosophy), he welcomed paranormal and initiatic experiences into the compositional process, creating homemade Sibelius-meets-Sun Ra symphonies. The only previous publication of his work was in Bananafish #18, which featured an excerpt of Symphony No. 3 on an accompanying CD. The same issue also contains his sole English-language interview, where he says, “The human being runs at the side of a river. When he is young, he runs faster than the river; in mid-life he runs at the same speed as the river; and at last he falls down and the river keeps going.” Download coupon included. Sealed. TEDIUM HOUSE BEST OF 2012
Saucers In The Sky
(Roaratorio - ROAR10) CD $7.50 (Out-of-stock)
Rodney Keith Eskelin (aka Rodd Keith, Rod Rogers) would’ve certainly found the recognition during his lifetime that his talent demanded had he not chosen to work in the lowest depths of the music industry: the “send us your lyrics” field, known today as the song-poem genre. Saucers In The Sky gathers together twenty-six previously uncollected Keith gems from the hundreds upon hundreds of songs he recorded before he lept from a highway overpass in 1974. Packaged in mini-LP gatefold sleeves with liner notes from Del Casher (inventor of the wah-wah pedal and guitarist on many of Rodd’s early recordings), and Stacey Keith (his daughter).
Black Phoenix Blues
(Roaratorio - ROAR31) LP $15.75 (Out-of-stock)
No one in the shady, quick-buck backwater of the music industry known as the “send us your lyrics” demo mill possessed an array of talents as distinctively individual as Rodd Keith. The genius of his gifts as a singer, composer and arranger was destined to remain a well-kept secret during his lifetime by virtue of the complete disregard — verging on invisibility — in which song-poem records were held. He was a commercial musician in the most literal sense of the word, but within those confines, displayed an oddball, personal vision that frequently transcended the work-for-hire nature of his music. Dating from 1966 to 1974, the sixteen previously unreissued songs on the third Roaratorio collection of Keith’s vast output showcase the scope of his work: the should’ve-been-a-hit “You And I”; the elegant exotica of “I Love Lovely Chinese Gal”; the history lesson of “The Explosion Of Holden 22 Mine”; the harrowing psycho-killer musings of the title track; “I’m Proud To Be A Hippie From Mississippi,” the stoner’s answer to Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee”; the lo-fi “The Game Of Love” (which, in the tradition of Keith’s infamous “I’m Just The Other Woman,” prompted the dissatisfied customer to request a more conventional re-take); the disturbingly desperate “Sing My Death Note,” which was discovered on one of Keith’s private reels; and the unclassifiable WTF-ery of “Abidin’ Tuh The Rule.” Artwork by Josh Journey-Heinz, liner notes from noted blues guitarist and one of Keith’s musical and personal compadres from the early 1970s Debbie Davies, download coupon.
My Pipe Yellow Dream
(Roaratorio - ROAR23) LP $15.50 (Out-of-stock)
The late, great genius whose prolific output was almost completely confined to the song-poem industry had a knack for turning sow’s ears into silk purses. “Song Poems Wanted” read the ads. “We need new ideas for recording!” The send-us-your-lyrics business was a borderline scam, taking whatever lyrics came their way from would-be songwriters and – for a fee – setting them to music. The second Roaratorio anthology of Keith’s work compiles fifteen previously unreissued songs from 1966 through his death in 1974, including a never-before-heard cover of “Choo Choo Train.” My Pipe Yellow Dream showcases the full range of his talents. From exquisite mid-60s pop balladry (“Deep Velvet”) to blue-eyed soul (“You Don’t Have To Alibi”) to folk-rock (“Tired Of Waiting”) to solo Chamberlain creations (“Red Sports Car”) to gospel testifying (“O Jesus My Savior”) to a pair of patriotic screeds (the all-spoken word “America The Not So Beautiful” and the bizarre world lounge funk of “Search Out Your Soul, American”), this collection continues the rehabilitation of Keith’s legacy from thrift-shop throwaway to celebrated cult artist. Gatefold jacket, liner notes by song-poem vocalist Dick Kent, digital download coupon.
Knife World
(Roaratorio) Used LP $8.00
Formed in Minneapolis in 2004, Knife World have converted many unwary bystanders into true believers through their frenetic gigs, riff worship, and interchangeable pomposity and mischievous intelligence. Guitarist Jon Nielsen plays as if part of some skewed arena-rock mashup, while drummer Josh Journey-Heinz carves spaces around what would otherwise be obvious backbeats. Packaged in a pleasantly eye-gouging 3D gatefold jacket, with glasses mounted into the vinyl.
Babylon
(Roaratorio - ROAR34) LP $15.75 (Out-of-stock)
Turkish free-improv group led by guitarist Umut Çağlar collaborating with the legendary saxophonist in Istanbul with no prior rehearsal or discussion, although the seamless meshing could fool anyone into thinking that they were a longtime working group. Çağlar, who comes to free jazz via electronic music, incorporates moogs and theremin. Babylon swings from space-raga improv to soaring, full-throated anthemic melodies, to transmissions from some sort of Joe Meek jazz world where bird squeal falsettos pierce through a current of drums, only to struggle for breath, come up laughing, and take off far above. Includes free download card.
The Rest
(Roaratorio - ROAR28) LP (one-sided) $17.00 (Out-of-stock)
In June of 1977, when they shared a double bill in Basel, Switzerland, Lacy invited McPhee to join him for a duet to close his set, for which McPhee elected to bring out his own soprano saxophone. The main part of Lacy’s performance was issued on the classic Clinkers LP (Hat Hut 1978); after thirty-six years, Roaratorio delivers The Rest, a one-sided LP marking the first and only time they’ve played together. The simpatico meshing of their distinctly individual voices points toward a shared history on a different plane. Includes download coupon.
Antarctica
(Roaratorio - ROAR18) LP $17.00 (Out-of-stock)
With recordings stretching back over 20 years with the Portuguese avant trio Osso Exótico and collaborations with Z’ev and Minit, Maranha follows up Marches Of The New World (2007) with two side-long excursions into monolithic drone-rock in the vein of Tony Conrad & Faust, “Venus In Furs,” La Monte Young and Terry Riley. The ensemble is driven by keyboards, strings, and hypnotized-heartbeat percussion. Like the great white expanse of the titular continent, it can be taken in simply as a glorious wash of sound; listen to it closely, however, and you’ll hear the smallest details jump out in high relief: a feather can move a mountain. 300 copies, silkscreened covers, digital download coupon included.
Salt, Ashes, Goat Skin
(Roaratorio - ROAR43) LP $15.75 (Out-of-stock)
Drummer Diana Combo, electric guitarist Filipe Felizardo, and Maranha on organ and violin are a speculative tour de force around animic and sensory principles of movement, stillness and reaction. Long drawn out semi-riffs feedback along the drifting textures of the violin and the organ like rock’s ultimate coda stretched into nowhere. Drums plodding in restraint, sustaining the drone-like vortex of electricity without ever reaching any sort of conclusion in four pieces that inhabit their own universe continually. Includes download card
Everything Happens for a Reason
(Roaratorio) LP $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
McPhee’s solo albums stand out as supreme ur-texts of his consummate improvising and compositional skills. Joining the ranks of such landmark records as Tenor, Graphics, and As Serious As Your Life, Everything Happens For A Reason features McPhee on pocket trumpet, soprano and alto saxophones, recorded live in Austria in November 2003. Limited edition of 500 copies on 180-gram vinyl, with a Judith Lindbloom silkscreen print on rice paper and liner notes by McPhee.
Solos: The Lost Tapes (1980 – 1981 – 1984)
(Roaratorio - ROAR38) LP $15.75
Material from McPhee’s personal archives that shines new light on the legendary multi-instrumentalist’s work from the early 1980s. “Wind Cycles,” for tenor saxophone, explores the permutations of breath on reed and brass, from quiet whispers to full-throated cries and back again. With “The Redwood Rag,” McPhee takes a jaunty melody and gives it a swinging workout with Steve Lacy-like precision. The free-blowing alto excursion “Ice Blu,” is in McPhee’s words, “a sound which evokes an image, which asks a question ‘What is that?’ and the answer is, a sound which evokes an image which asks a question.” “Voices,” one of his signature compositions, gets a particularly haunting treatment here on soprano with the incorporations of mesmerizing electronics. Includes a download coupon for the full album plus a bonus interview, conducted at the New Music America Festival in 1981.
Hear an excerpt from “Voices”: http://roaratorio.com/uncategorized/joe-mcphee-solos-the-lost-tapes-1980-1981-1984/
Soprano
(Roaratorio) Used LP $15.00
This document of McPhee’s first solo concert devoted exclusively to the straight horn is a companion to his critically lauded Everything Happens For A Reason LP, as well as an overdue follow-up to his classic album Tenor, which raised the bar for solo saxophone music over 30 years ago. Recorded live in St. George’s Church at the Guelph Jazz Festival in 1998, Soprano was inspired by Pauline Oliveros’s Deep Listening performance at the venue the previous year. The acoustics of the church provide a natural web of reverberation and delay. A thoughtful, passionate music from one of jazz’s most eloquent practitioners, pressed in a limited edition of 500 on 180-gram vinyl, with a Judith Lindbloom silkscreen print on rice paper and liner notes by McPhee and Oliveros. Sealed
Alto
(Roaratorio - ROAR17) Used LP $16.50
Alto completes a discrete trilogy within Joe McPhee’s catalog of unaccompanied waxings (Tenor, 1977, and Soprano, 2007). Recorded live at a Lower East Side bar in 2009, McPhee’s explorations on alto saxophone and clarinet are alternately fiery and contemplative, imbued with the masterful intelligence that’s marked his work for over forty years. This is a limited edition of 525 copies on 180-gram vinyl, with a Judith Lindbloom silkscreen print on rice paper and liner notes by Hank Shteamer. Digital download coupon included. Sealed
Gedanken Splitter
(Roaratorio - ROAR14) LP $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
Paul Metzger’s modified banjo is tricked out with additional sympathetic raga strings, although Gedanken Splitter is informed by more than Eastern drone music alone. Recorded in the same period as Deliverance (Locust Music 2007), this is more jagged and aggressive; Metzger winds improvisations around thornier threads than on his previous releases, and moves even further away from anything resembling typical banjo fare. Mesmerizing and singular. TEDIUM HOUSE BEST OF 2008.
Anamnestic Tincture
(Roaratorio - ROAR15) LP $17.25 (Out-of-stock)
The performances on this live album by virtuoso musical carpenter Paul Metzger were culled from many hours of concert recordings. Side one, the public debut of his modified banjo, was recorded in 2002 at a church-turned-underground art space in Minneapolis. One of his most memorable compositions, "After Milo," later turned up as an untitled improvisation on his CD for the Chairkickers label. Jumping ahead six years (and several more banjo alterations later) to side two, the glittering "Orans" gets a workout at a memorial show for the artist Matt Zaun. As an acknowledgment of the occasion, Metzger also gives a one-time-only performance -- "Dark Green Water" -- on another of his mutant instruments: an acoustic guitar with the body drilled out to accommodate a cymbal set into its face, and ten assorted strings of varying lengths laid over the top, giving it a particularly metallic and dissonant sound. Limited edition of 425 copies, with an original vintage snapshot mounted on each cover. TEDIUM HOUSE BEST OF 2009
Music Ensemble
(Roaratorio) Used CD $10.00
The first documentation of influential mid-’70s free improv group featuring Daniel Carter, William Parker, Billy Bang, Malik Baraka, Roger Baird, and Herb Kahn bears the seeds of contemporary ecstatic jazz freeweights Other Dimensions in Music and Test. Arresting live recordings of immediate, post-ESP free hoot. Packaged in a mini-gatefold sleeve.
Minexcio Connection: Live at the Rosedale Cafe
(Roaratorio) LP $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
The results of one of the most unexpected yet fruitful partnerships in recent years, a live collaboration between electronic music pioneer and sage of the environmental-drone Pauline Oliveros and indefinable Argentinean experimenters Reynols. Recorded in August 2000 during Reynols’ first trek through North America, the record features a version of “Six For New Time” (originally composed for Sonic Youth’s Goodbye 20th Century album), along with idiosyncratic throat-singing and hypnotic dream/dronescapes.
To Valerie Solanas And Marilyn Monroe In Recognition Of Their Desperation
(Roaratorio - ROAR21) LP $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
Intrigued by the egalitarian feminism set forth in Valerie Solanas’s 1968 SCUM Manifesto, and needing to express her own resonance with the energy of the surfacing women’s movement, Oliveros incorporated the principles in the structure of a new piece she was composing at the time. Monroe had taken her own life and Solanas had attempted to take Andy Warhol’s. Both women seemed desperate, caught in the traps of inequality: Monroe needed to be recognized for her talent as an actress and Solanas wished to be supported for her own creative work. Commissioned by the Music Department of Hope College, Holland Michigan, To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation had its premiere in 1970. Though everyone knew Marilyn Monroe, hardly anyone recognized Valerie Solanas at the time or took her Manifesto seriously. Oliveros brought the names of these two women together to draw attention to their inequality. Roaratorio’s LP -- the first commercially available release of this eerie, beautiful, and important Oliveros work -- contains the 1970 Hope College premiere, performed by a 14-piece ensemble, and a 1977 recording from Wesleyan University, performed by a 43-piece orchestra. Cover artwork by Judith Lindbloom. Download coupon included.
Completed Rotations of...
(Roaratorio - ROAR20) LP $16.00 (Out-of-stock)
The city of Tauranga doesn’t have as celebrated a history as other centers of New Zealand music such as Otago or Port Chalmers or Whangerei. It is home to Rotate The Completor, however, whose music is disconnected from all known scenes in Aotearoa and elsewhere. Stumbling upon the one-man band busking on the streets, an enthusiastic passerby nabbed a home-recorded cassette and here we are. All attempts at personal correspondence with its creator to date have been ignored, so forget about the next volume of Songs In The Key of Z, outsider aficionado. Rotate The Completor gets to his otherworldly inner-world using guitar, kick-drum, and vocals that might pass for early Residents; the songs are a strangely addictive brew of lo-fi bedroom pop, proggy loner folk, bouncy children’s music, and a one-man band at a carnival that’s gone off the rails. Lyrics concern beer-stealing cantaloupes, dead albino hedgehogs, and emphatic denials of insanity. Includes free download card.
SUN RA AND HIS ASTRO-IHNFINITY ARKESTRA
The Intergalactic Thing
(Roaratorio - ROAR40) 2xLP $30.00 (Out-of-stock)
This taste of that which has been hidden, drawn from rehearsals at the Sun Ra house in Philadelphia 1969, introduces a dozen never-before-heard pieces from Ra’s songbook — tunes that may have never even made it to the bandstand, let alone the recording studio — along with a handful of reworkings of “Spontaneous Simplicity” and “The Exotic Forest.” This important augmentations to the Sun Ra catalog comes in a beautiful gatefold jacket, with liner notes by Robert L. Campbell and a download coupon.
Preview a couple tracks here: https://soundcloud.com/roaratoriorecs
SUN RA AND HIS ASTRO-INFINITY ARKESTRA
Sign Of The Myth
(Roaratorio - ROAR35) LP $20.25 (Out-of-stock)
One of the early 70s lost Impulse recordings available for the first time. Recorded during the Pathways To Unknown Worlds sessions (Impulse 1972), it shares that album’s emphasis on guided improvisation. With a constantly shifting palette of Moog textures, Ra tosses off a dazzling array of ideas, supported by the usual Arkestra stalwarts; in particular bassist Ronnie Boykins and drummer Clifford Jarvis shine, giving shape and solidity to the pieces. Includes free download card. Listen to “The Truth Of Maat” here: https://soundcloud.com/roaratoriorecs/sun-ra-his-astro-infinity-arkestra-the-truth-of-maat
SUN RA AND HIS ASTRO-INFINITY ARKESTRA
Other Strange Worlds
(Roaratorio - roar33) LP $20.25 (Out-of-stock)
Within Sun Ra’s vast discography, the album that orbits the furthest away from the known jazz universe is Strange Strings. Calling it a “study in ignorance,” Sun Ra directed his Arkestra stalwarts to pick up unusual stringed instruments and homemade percussion with which they had little familiarity, and improvise without any guidelines or direction. Other Strange Worlds, recorded in his NYC apartment in May of 1965, dates from the same era and employs the same methodology as Strange Strings. He and John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Art Jenkins, and Ali Hasaan freewheel through collective improvisation — some texture-over-tonality string experiments, some exotic reeds and percussion. Includes download coupon.
Molecular Affinity
(Roaratorio - ROAR42) LP $16.50 (Out-of-stock)
The third in pianist Thollem McDonas and guitarist Nels Cline’s series of free improv trios (with a different third player each time) brings in Pauline Oliveros on v-accordion. Together they build evocative whodunit-scapes with understated tension worthy of a noirish thriller from the 1970s. Recorded in Oliveros's barn studio in upstate New York. Includes download card.
CAREI THOMAS FEEL FREE ENSEMBLE
Mining Our Bid’ness
(Roaratorio) CD $7.50 (Out-of-stock)
(Roaratorio) Used CD $4.00 (Out-of-stock)
Free-wheeling, harmonically complex debut album by 64-year-old pianist/composer who gigged with Sun Ra in 1959-60, did brief time in AACM during the mid-’60s, and co-founded The Light with Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (which also included Jerome Cooper and Wadada Leo Smith). This live recording swings both ways and ignores the boundaries between gorgeous Ellingtonian ballads and combustible free jazz testification. Features Curlew’s George Cartwright and tenor saxophonist William R. Lang. Packaged in a mini-gatefold sleeve.
My Gate’s Open Tremble by My Side
(Lexicon Devil) Used CD $5.00
(Roaratorio) Used LP $35.00
Monolithic sheets of organic, repetitive drones that arch into quieter, more subtle territory, rhythms and grooves. A scorchful masterpiece.
CD is a 2004 reissue with three bonus tracks from the same sessions.
LP is from 1999, with painting and rubber-stamped art and text.