Various
Wound Without A Tear

Raï is the music of a youth hungover from Algeria's recent independence. It became a space for a liberated, transgressive dialogue that told the social truths of its time -- an up-front yet poetic voice that covers the taboos and frustrations of daily life, expressing emotion without detour. This voice is heard at weddings, cabarets, in the nightclubs of the Oranese coast, and casually on the street... With the boom of the audio cassette, an avalanche of raï tapes were produced in Oran and diffused all over the world. Both women and men sang and listened to the new sound, as raï is intimately tied to parties, alcohol and the night. With the spontaneous improvisation of its singers as the main part of each song, raï keeps reinventing itself. In this style, Cheb Hasni, along with Cheb Nasro, incarnates a second generation of musicians. With the "love raï", or sentimental raï, Hasni sings about love, passion and its setbacks -- moving away from the bittersweet daily chronicles of the first chebs and chebates. Having recorded nearly 150 cassettes, Cheb Hasni remains one of the most prolific and talented raï singers of his generation. Almost thirty years after his death, this three-volume compilation of rare tracks from his cassette releases on the Oriental Music Production label is a tribute to the lasting legacy of Cheb Hasni -- ya raï! The third volume of three is presented here.CHEB HASNIVol 3 Outre National

Allen Ravenstine's turbulent futurism behind the synthesizer was a key ingredient in American post-punk innovators Pere Ubu's distinctive sound. Just as Brian Eno's malevolent modulations had adulterated the glam-rock swagger of Roxy Music before him, Ravenstine's corrosive tones oozed through his band's songs like radioactive seepage, illuminating their otherwise guitar-driven landscapes with a strange chemical glow.In addition to playing with them from 1975-1989, he also co-owned the Plaza, a historic apartment complex in Central Cleveland where Pere Ubu members lived and created alongside a vibrant community of other artists. Music took a backseat for Ravenstine afer leaving the group, among other things he obtained his pilot's license and wrote a novel. The invitation to spar with fellow synthesist Robert Wheeler in 2012 for Waveshaper Media's acclaimed synth documentary I Dream Of Wires reignited his dormant sonic interests. Since then, he's unleashed a handful of recordings.The analog abstraction for which he became known remains a significant part of Ravenstine's current sound palette, but recent years have seen him turn increasingly toward outlandish eclecticism as his foundation. 2018's celebrated Waiting for the Bomb (RER Megacorp) bounded freely between disparate styles and instrumentation, all the while managing to convey a cohesive (albeit of-kilter) identity.Ravenstine is now launching his much-anticipated follow-upon Waveshaper—a series of four EPs collectively entitled The Tyranny of Fiction. Materializing as a pair of LPs with one EP per side, or as two double CD sets, these works continue to chronicle the approach unveiled on their predecessor. The cheeky series title hints at a tension that's fundamental to these recordings. Ravenstine's use of genre suggests it's almost a literary device to him—unsurprising, given his forays into the realm prose. Styles will ofen allude to underlying thematic or narrative elements. However, friction begins to arise when this is juxtaposed with his surreal sense of orchestration. He takes pure electronic sound, nuggets of real -world recordings, live instrumentation and the latter's sampled counterparts and stirs them all together vigorously. This makes for decidedly unfaithful reproductions of the various musical idioms his composition cite, leaving the listener to contend with constant dissonance—every feature of the music feels at once completely familiar and utterly inscrutable.Even within the brief span of each installment of The Tyranny of Fiction, Ravenstine gleefully embraces a panoply of modalities. ElectronMusic, the first of the bunch, uses ornery ambient music as its jumping-of point, embarking on excursions into hyperreal chamber music, and swarming sci-fi synthesizer. Shore Leave announces itself with a spartan piano miniature decorated with a sof trickling sound before a meandering into cubist exotica, sinister new age music, and what sound like 21st century nocturnes. A host of other mongrel styles spill forth over the course of Nautilus. Each track weaves its own wayward travelogue amidst stray bits of audio verité and wafting musical fragrances—by turns tropical and foreboding. Rue De Poisson Noir takes cues from its fragmentary companion, slithering between cinematic intrigue, of-brand jazz, avant-garde mischief, and fried electro without batting an eye. At various points throughout, Ravenstine's fried citationality might recall a young generation of Ohioan oddballs, Orange Milk Records. Like many acts on the innovative electronic music imprint, Ravenstine's colorful, innuendo-rich music is restless, playful, inquisitive and most of all evocative—never resorting to irony or other such ploys.

Jacobus Derwort started exploring sonic soundscapes listening to his short-wave world receiver at the age of 12. There he would hear music from Africa, China, Japan, Indonesia, South America and beyond. He started playing guitar, piano, percussion and saxophone.He met Hanyo van Oosterom in 1978 and they started the legendary cult rock band, 'The Jones'. Derwort was playing the sax, van Oosterom the drums. They started conducting sound experiments in Hanyo’s small cellar in the Dutch village of Krimpen aan den IJssel.In the early eighties they made their first cassette, 'The Kallikatsou'. Hanyo started the ambient collective CHI in 1983. Jacobus was the first musician to join CHI. Together, they went to the magic rock “The Kallikatsou” on the island of Patmos, Greece. Here, Hanyo had stayed for months in a cave for some deep soul-searching. He heard the sound of CHI in the silence of the night like a message from out of space. Being together at the Kallikatsou they shaped the foundation of CHI, making handmade flutes from local bamboo and conducting field recordings ofwater, crickets, owls, goats, wind, etc...Back home they asked Willem Cramer to join CHI, and later Michel Banabila. They released a legendary ambient cassette, 'The Original Recordings', in 1983 which soon became a collectors item. CHI stopped in 1987 (and still now nobody knows exactly why). Willem Cramer and Michel Banabila started the world music collective 'East Meets West' in 1989. Hanyo and Jacobus kept recording ambient soundscapes.Jacobus was working on his 'Bamboo' recordings. Hanyo recorded the first tracks for 'The Kallikatsou Experience'. Neither album was ever released. They returned a few times together to The Kallikatsou, but there the history seems to end...…until decades later when Astral Industries located them after a long search, inspired by Rod Modell (Deepchord). The result was the vinyl release of CHI – The Original Recordings in February 2016. The album received great reviews and sold out in a few weeks.This inspired Hanyo and Jacobus to work on an old plan: remixing the old bamboo recordings. Most tracks were made in the eighties before and after CHI. Original tape recordings using mainly analogue sounds, percussion, samples and (of course)bamboo flutes and manipulated clarinets. Hanyo added some new recordings and remixed the old tapes in his Numoonlab Studio in Rotterdam. The result was 'The Bamboo Recordings', a timeless collection of ambient soundscapes.THE CHI FACTORY is the next step of CHI into the future. It will involve many future ambient collaborations. The next release will be 'The Kallikatsou Recordings'(Astral Industries 2016 TBA). Also bringing back the original line-up of CHI for new recordings is part of the plan. Who knows what may happen next.The Bamboo Recordings have been produced and remixed by Hanyo vanOosterom. Original recordings by Jacobus Derwort.Jacobus Derwort: bamboo flutes, clarinet, guitar, samples, loops, saxophone,percussion, field recordings.Hanyo van Oosterom: piano, bass, guitar, percussion, flute, samples and drones.The Bamboo Recordings contain voice samples from around the world,including Tibetan monks, Sufi chanting, a Hopi elder, a Hopi woman, Fulani storytellers, a Japanese girl singing, Spanish and Greek children, excerpts from Gratitude For The Gaze by Nikos Eliou and much more...

After years of anticipation, here are the Iration Steppa “90s CLASSIC CUTZ”, an exclusive re- edition of five seminal UK Dub tracks that revolutionised reggae & electronic music in the 90s! Including: Reminiscence, Kilimanjaro, What's Wrong, Lightning Dub & High Rise Vibrations All tracks have been remastered to perfection by Fédé (DK Mastering) and put onto five separate 12” slabs of wax. And to spice it up even more, each release features original mixes + previously unreleased dubplate cutz that could only be heard live on the sound system! These tracks were produced and mixed by Iration's founding members Mark Iration and Dennis Rootical at the High Rise Studio in Chapeltown, Leeds. At the time, the dub-making-duo were heavily experimenting with new sounds, blending dub with acid soundscapes in a way that had never been done before. Their pioneering approach resulted in the creation of a whole new sub- genre, later inspiring future generations to create their own...ALL 12" come in thick heavy card printed "Iration Steppas" White Sleeves!