Shackleton’s most expansive, ecstatic and hallucinatory music to date. Four extended excursions channeling Congotronics way to the east, with an aura of restrained mania reminiscent of the feral pomp and gallows humour of Coil’s moon-musick phase.
The pairing with Tomasini is a match made in heaven. Swooping from deep growl to piercing falsetto, his four-octave voice both heightens the taste for the theatrical that’s always been integral to Shackleton’s music, and makes explicit the latter’s kinship to the occult energies of the UK’s post-industrial underground.
As the title suggests, these are shadowy songs rich with allusions to bodily ritual and psychic exploration, with Tomasini’s lyrics framed by luminous whirls of hand-struck drums and synthetic gamelan, bells and tumbling organ melodies, all earthed by dubwise bass. You Are The One escalates from delicate choral chant to full-bore psychedelic organ freakout; Rinse Out All Contaminants is a slow incantation, to purge all negative thoughts; the melodies of Father You Have Left Me are smudged like early Steve Reich, then burned out by snarling subs; and the magnificent Twelve Shared Addictions balances elliptical melodies like spinning plates, gradually unfurling into a breakneck storm of voice and hammered keys.

‘Marvelling, playful, inquisitive contemplations, ranging from the stardust that forms us to the very first human sound that reverberated through a cave; ambient, liminal narratives woven by poetic recitation and Buchla, bass and sitar, edging towards blues and spiritual jazz.’

Anthony Maher’s 1988 dub album, an Australian commingling of JA science and UK post-punk and Industrial.

‘The saxophonist leading a septet into fascinating, playful and sparky combinations of contemporary music, avant-garde jazz, techno, and improv; a kind of seance summoning the wailing fairy of Irish folklore, a shrieking harbinger of death.’

The first album-length collection of the recordings of this collaborator of La Monte Young, who contributes here: a diverse, diaristic compilation by Forti herself (with Yoshi Wada’s son Tashi) of never-before-released work from the early 60s to mid-80s, showcasing her use of voice and handmade instruments, folk songs and physical space; together with a 28-page colour booklet of her writings, drawings, and photos.

Compositions from 1969/70, when Forti was based in Woodstock, New York — ‘stoned in the woods,’ she recalls — around the time of the Festival, just before moving to California, and working and performing with Charlemagne Palestine.
The seven songs here were recorded in 2012 during her exhibition Sounding, at The Box gallery in Los Angeles. The blue vinyl carries an etching of Forti’s Illuminations Drawing on the flip; accompanied by a sixteen-page colour book with images of the original sheet music scored by Charlemagne Palestine.

Four members of Sonny Okosun’s band, edging things on in 1974: deep, spacey afro-funk.

Demdike Stare and Andy Votel.

Zany, Alaskan, harmonica-led electro-pop, with a case of Krautrock-and-the-Moroders, originally released in 1980.

Remastered direct from the original master tapes, with previously unreleased outtakes and rarities — including Patti’s 1975 RCA audition tape.