Tempo Dischi is an italian label created on a mission to discover and repress classics and rare gems of the italo disco, afro and cosmic scene. With the support from all the main players who has made that era magic, we work to put back on records stores shelves a piece of art that may have been lost but it’s still timeless. Rare sought-after future disco via Italy. Tempo Dischi’s second release is one of electronic music’s seminal albums; 1978 Italian space disco album: Automat by Automat.
Konstruktivists is the Industrial project of Glenn Michael Wallis from Kent, England. In the late ’70s Wallis was a “control agent” for Throbbing Gristle and the Industrial Records crew. Glenn began to record his own material and after several cassette releases, Konstruktivists’ first LP ‘A Dissembly’ was released in 1982, followed by ‘Psykho Genetika’ in 1983 and ‘Black December’ in 1984. In 1985, Glenn spent a week at Chris and Cosey’s studio recording 11 tracks that would become the ’Glennascaul’ album originally released on Nigel Ayers’ Sterile Records. Produced and mixed by Chris Carter, it marked a complete change in style for the band towards a beat-orientated rhythmic sound. ‘Glennascaul’ is proto electro at its very best, with Glenn’s hallucinogenic vocals on top. A musical collage designed to invoke images in the mind. The back cover clearly states “No guitars. No Fairlights.” For this deluxe reissue we’ve added two bonus tracks recorded around the same time, now vinyl for the first time ever. All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley.
We Release Jazz presents the official reissue of the original soundtrack of Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1970 film noir classic Le Cercle Rouge composed by French soundtrack master Eric Demarsan. Eric Demarsan’s compositions for Le Cercle Rouge draw from the orchestral spirit of the Modern Jazz Quartet (as requested by Melville who loved John Lewis’ work), abstraction and minimalism to create a suspenseful and hypnotizing audio landscape which elegantly underlines the tense atmosphere of unavoidable fate that shrouds the movie and the doleful beauty of its characters. Simply put, it’s the finest combination of underworld existentialism, coldblooded chic, and crime jazz! Le Cercle Rouge boasts the participation of celebrated jazz players Guy Pedersen (bass), Daniel Humair (drums), Georges Arvanitas (piano), and Bernard Lubat (vibraphone). Starting as a collaborator of François de Roubaix and Michel Magne in the 60s, Eric Demarsan went on to become a mainstay of French cinema soundtracks, composing for directors such as Jean-Pierre Mocky, Costa-Gavras, and Patrice Leconte among others. He also recorded the cult album Pop Symphony (for Pierre Cardin in 1970) under the Jason Havelock pseudonym.
Official license of the 1991 rare classic house produced by Mike Perras for Bassic records, now remastered and re-pressed by Flash Forward. “Beginning Of Life” is a pice of history of the deep house music and will continue to make old and new generations dance.
Following the original dissolution of legendary Sheffield industrial funk outfit Clock DVA in 1984, founder member Adi Newton struck out on his own with The Anti-Group: an experimental project in which he could explore a variety of sonic worlds with the aid of a revolving cast of likeminded Steel City stalwarts (Richard H Kirk, Stephen Mallinder, Martyn Ware and Warp co-founder Robert Gordon included). “4×12″ is a retrospective of sorts, gathering together tracks from three 12” singles (“Ha-Zulu”, “Big Sex”, “Broadcast Test”) and one mini-album (“ShT”). Musically, it veers from collage style sample patchworks and dark ambient soundscapes to rubbery industrial funk, twisted post synth-pop, EBM-influenced workouts and madcap experimental escapades.
Dark Entries continues celebrating our 10 year anniversary with ‘Preservation Bias’, a compilation of lost songs and rarities from Linea Aspera out June 28th. The group formed in London in November 2011 by Ryan Ambridge (Synths/Programming) and Alison Lewis (Vocals/Synths). Within the duo, Alison writes and performs all vocal elements, while Ryan is responsible for producing, recording and mixing the electronics. We released their debut self titled album in June 2012 that was followed by a posthumous vinyl reissue of their tour cassette “II” on Weyrd Son Records in 2013. For all recordings Ryan utilizes an analog synthesizer set up: Roland SH-09, Roland Juno 6, Vermona DRM MKiii, Korg Poly 800 and Analogue Solutions Semblance. Linea Aspera’s sound includes clear influences from 1980s electronic body music, synth-pop, industrial and noise. Lyrically the band incorporates the sciences of osteology, neuroscience, and anthropology weaving a new medical language around themes of desire, despair and renewal. Linea Aspera is the muscle attachment on the back of the femur and translates to ‘rough line’ in Latin. ‘Preservation Bias’ features all three songs from the limited ‘II’ tour cassette EP, four songs from the 2012 self-titled limited cassette EP and one song from the Desire Records 2013 compilation ‘And You Will Find Them In The Basement’. All songs have been mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each LP is housed in jacket designed by Niall Greaves and includes a double-sided insert with lyrics.
The re-issue of a real Electro gem by the genious Thomas P. Heckmann. It’s the ”Electro Nation – Shipwrecked” originally released 1998 on Electrocute.
Little-known trio The Bees put out only one full album, 1988’s She’s A Witch (Tikoloshi). Its six tracks all offer dancefloor-ready, distinctively South African grooves that show how bubblegum in the late 80s embraced house music. Produced by Steve Cooks, who would go on to work with heavyweights Senyaka, Spokes H and Umoja in the years that followed. Searing vocals and percussive synth basslines are best on ‘Hlabalaza’ (already a DJ favourite) and the title track, it lyrics telling the spooky tale of an evil woman who rules the night – ‘Tikoloshi’ being the mischievous creature of Zulu folklore (usually a man) who is still widely blamed for all manner of mysterious happenings in the middle of the night.
This long time sought after french post-punk/coldwave/melancholic pop 7″ finally gets an official reissue, by Camisole Records. Coldreams was a french female fronted post-punk band hailing from Clermont-Ferrand.
Seminal NYC deep house sounds from the legendary Strictly Rhythm catalogue, this is some straight 1991 heat. ‘I Wanna Feel The Music’ / ‘Gotta Have You’ are 2 stone cold jams. Sound Waves is a crew made up of Andrew Richardson and Gijo Rosario, who crafted 2 slamming 12”s for Strictly in the very early 90’s. Both cuts ooze so much soul, and those unmistakable deep synth pads that wash over those tuff NYC drums with uplifting emotion. A true underground record that sounds like it could have easily dropped last week.
Mappa Mundi’s sole release ‘Musaics’ was released in 1990, riding on the wave of early trance and ambient house sounds and exploring the same sonic terrain and worlds as The Orb, The KLF, Sun Electric and other like minded outfits. A wonderful swirling collage or mosaic of breakbeats, samples and new-age synth stylings, ‘Musaics’ is indeed a real trip. A spontaneous late night studio concoction borne of endless takes and experimentation between Pieter Kuyl and Jan Van Den Bergh who both display a deep knowledge and a shared love of different sounds from around the world. The end result is a meditative, sprawling journey that touches on many different styles from languid widescreen techno to frantic drum machine driven machine-funk, all while retaining a feeling of post-rave atmospherics and psychedelia. This is a very special record indeed, and is somewhat of a lost gem from a very fertile and interesting period in sample based music. Undoubtedly the perfect soundtrack to numerous late nights and early mornings to come
‘Jazzrock’ is an aggressive, percussion-heavy album with an energy that leaves jaws on the floor, killer funk breaks from 1972 by the mighty John Cameron. Breaks and beats for days with electric piano, bass loops, and pounding percussion. Funky jazz with a deep, tough, soundtrack feel.
‘Afro Rock’ was recorded at Morgan Studios by John Cameron and Alan Parker in London in 1973 as a collection of stripped-down African rhythms, virtuoso jazz instrumentation, fuzzed up wah wah guitars and spaced out library breaks. The percussion is effortlessly funky, and those flutes so melodic, it’s as if the LP was crafted with the beat lovers of the future firmly in mind. As Cameron himself described it in Unusual Sounds, this is “heavy duty drum-and-bass salsa music”.
Founded in Rome in 1964, ‘Il Gruppo D’Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza’ was a collective of noted and noteworthy composers who challenged the very structure and performance of music itself. Today the most celebrated of its members is the renowned film composer Ennio Morricone but each contributor has an intriguing history in Italian music. Drawing on Jazz, Serialism, Musique Concrete and other extended techniques, the group performed on many of Morricone’s experimental soundtracks of the 1970s including, A Quiet Place In The Country and Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura). The collective improvised live (according to strict exercises) and in the studio (recording for RCA, Deutsche Grammaphon, General Music and others). In 1970 ‘Il Gruppo’ (as ‘The Group’) recorded The Feed-back (for RCA Italy), an insane amalgam of avant-improvisation and motorik Krautrock-influenced beats that understandably has become one of the most collectable ‘Library Music’ related LPs ever issued. In 1971 ‘Il Gruppo’ returned to the studio to record a sequel. This is that record. For reasons unknown Niente was never originally issued but one listen will convince that not only is it the sequel to one of the most sought after LPs of all time, but it is also by far its superior. Brain melting jams collide with unhinged intensity in a hothouse of Italian avant-improv. You have been warned.
The Italian Fuzz Dance! Just said almost everything about the global dance music scene. One of the most prominent labels to connect the old Continent to the new Continent. For many top players it is considered the blueprint of Italo-disco, for many others the beginning of the House sound. Some of the records on its catalogue are merely timeless and in the history forever. And ”Plastic Love” is definitely one of those.
Beta Evers returns to Sonic Groove Experiments with another re-issue of one of her classics from the late aught decade. Three cuts of seductive vocal-charged post-punk, wave / body music.
The second chapter from Axis Records’ The Director’s Cut re-issue project. Jeff Mills goes back into the Axis archive to release special unreleased versions as well as iconic tracks that made the label what it is today.
Jazzman presents the definitive anthology of pioneering ethno-musicologist, mystical adventurer and real life jazz guru Dr Lloyd Miller. This album tells the fascinating life story of one man and his journey through Europe and the Middle East, living off nothing but his wits, talent and an open-minded attitude towards music and jazz. Master of dozens of languages and hundreds of instruments, Miller has spent fifty years immersed in the music of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Featuring recordings taken from incredibly rare privately pressed albums, live sessions in Europe, and previously unreleased material, A Lifetime in Oriental Jazz tells the story of his extraordinary personal journey from the West Coast to the Far East. Played on a plethora of exotic instruments from around the world, Miller’s music is a unique blend of jazz with the modal and spiritual sounds of traditional Asian and Middle Eastern music. Spiritual jazz, Eastern jazz – direct from the source! Available on deluxe heavyweight vinyl and compact disc with digitally remastered sound, previously unreleased material, exhaustive historical liner notes and unseen archive photos.
Tempo Dischi is an italian label created on a mission to discover and repress classics and rare gems of the italo disco, afro and cosmic scene. With the support from all the main players who has made that era magic, we work to put back on records stores shelves a piece of art that may have been lost but it’s still timeless. The first release is one of the key projects of the underground Italo Disco scene, probably not the most famous one, but surely it is among the most loved one by DJs and connoisseurs: Steel Mind. ‘It was the end of the ’70s and at that time Disco Music was very popular. I was in a band called Caelestium, and we were playing in the most important clubs in Italy…Around the beginning of the 80s, I started to feel the desire to make a different kind of sound and I decided to start my solo project creating songs like ‘Boss Man’ and ‘Lionel’ that were closer to the Krautrock style’ recalls Piero Torsani, the producer behind this project. These songs have become a cult for many djs, including Daniele Baldelli, Beppe Loda and Alexander Robotnick and they still sound contemporary. The Tempo Dischi collective is responsible of a club friendly edit of ‘Boss Man’. And after a deeper search into Pietro Torsani’s original music archive, an unreleased track has surfaced we could not resist to give to the world: ‘Summer in The City’ featuring the voice of Marisa Lucà , at that time singer of Caelestium.
The Hipodrome Of Music 