Mighty Massa
Rise Up / Midnight Stars

Maxx Mann were the gay New Wave duo of Frank Oldham Jr (vocals, lyrics) and Paul Hamman (music) from New York City formed in 1981. Frank studied voice and acting at the Herbert Bergdorf School idolizing Eartha Kitt, Nancy Wilson, Johnny Mathis and Shirley Bassey. Paul was playing piano for a cabaret singer at a bar in Greenwich Village where Frank met him and their friendship began. Paul and Frank worked together 3 to 4 times a week recording their debut self-titled album released in 1982, limited to 500 copies.Songs provide interesting insights into the homosexual experience before the AIDS crisis: cruising backroom bars, BDSM and one-night stands. The music is "Neo-realistic rock" heavily influenced by punk, titillating, synthesized body and soul with Frank’s dramatized vocal stylings. The original press release sent to radio stations stated, "Because this is a completely innovative sound, we hope you will give it several listenings. It is adventurous, daring, and certain to cause reactions from your listeners.” For this first time vinyl/CD reissue we’ve added two bonus instrumental tracks, so the album now contains all four original vocal cuts and their corresponding instrumental versions. Paul sadly passed away in 1986 aged 33 from AIDS-related illness and we dedicate this reissue to him. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Each copy is housed in an exact replica of the 1982 jacket and includes a fold-post poster with photos, lyrics and notes by Frank Oldham Jr.

Currently a trio featuring Helge Sten, Arve Henriksen and Ståle Storløkken, Supersilent ’s album number 13 marks a turning point in the group’s two-decade career. After a dozen recordings under the umbrella of the diverse Rune Grammofon label, Supersilent have now signed to Oslo based Smalltown Supersound, where they join the likes of Lindstrøm, DJ Harvey, Prins Thomas and Andre Bratten as labelmates. After live and studio dalliances with Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones in the last few years, they return to the trio format with a real hunger and wigged-out vibe, covering more distance in the space of one record than many bands do in their whole career. Atavistic, abstract and alien, 13 documents a tangle of ribboning, in-the-moment thought processes in oscillation between atonal, asymmetric rhythms and discord and much lusher, spacious flights of fancy, with each player alternately operating at full, noisily expressive wingspan, and also at their most hunched, grubbing. Perhaps most shocking is prominent appearance of crushing, post-techno sludge impulses and almost darkwave-styled themes, whether infiltrating the opener with sloppy syncopation, slung low under 13.3 like Wolf Eyes at their most primal, squashed into the sprawling, psychotomimetic structure of 13.7 or clattering and fizzing under the weight of 13.9. But that’s just one of many deeply skewed aspects that light up across 13, which also shares much in common with the surrealistic, dissonant illuminations of Rashad Becker throughout, whilst the likes of 13.4 head off on crankiest electro-acoustic vectors recalling Edgard Varese’s early electronics or the ferric tang of Gottfried Michael Koenig, whereas 13.8 recalls the gloaming spectres of Gruppo D’Improvvisazione, and the ecstatic squall of 13.9 feels like Fennesz undergoing some radical metamorphosis. Figure it out for yourself, but for us this is one of the wildest, freeform sides of 2016 so far.

Hot on the tattered heels of ‘Terminal Tokyo’ - the reissued cult UK DIY single by Garage Class and the inaugural release on Outer Reaches - arrives ‘Flight & Pursuit’, another overlooked revelation of provincial post-punk, this time by Indifferent Dance Centre. A four-piece from Chichester, a quiet Cathedral city in West Sussex, the group consisted of Lizzy Dowling (vocals / lyrics), Christopher Binns (guitar), Ashley Barrett (bass) and Douglas Barrett (drums / guitar & bass when required) with added contributions from known associates including the artist & musician Alexander Johnson (melodica)