Compilation of later trio recordings with Dan Hosker on 2nd guitar from 1997. "All high energy music tends towards the omega point that would see it escape form altogether, where the jam is the thing and the song a mere excuse for getting there. Even hardcore, the most doctrinaire of rebel musics, planted the seeds of its own overthrow in its urge-to-accelerate, with each successive wave of groups battling the last in terms of speed of execution, of hyper-exaggerated moves, in order to be the ones that even time couldn’t hold back. Where psychedelia was all about leaving your body behind, hardcore posited a muscular oblivion by way of a punishing physicality, one that went hand-in-hand with a puritanical aesthetic, a skinhead form of scourging to ecstasy. Harry Pussy were the most extreme hardcore group of the post-punk era. They were hyper everything, hyper-fast, hyper-crude, hyper-free, hyper-dexterous, hyper a-musical. They boasted a once-ina-lifetime line-up, straight out of Miami: Bill Orcutt on electric guitar, a weird film maker and prodigiously talented instrumentalist; Adris Hoyos, first-time drummer and vocalist, a goofy tough-attitude chick from Cuba with a feral performance style; and Mark Feehan and Dan Hosker, two separate second guitarists, the presence of one or the other serving to define the group’s two distinct eras.It’s the later Hosker-era that this new 42 track compilation of rare and unreleased recordings is drawn from. The main difference between the line-ups is that Harry Pussy actually got faster as they evolved, tracking the opposite trajectory of normal punk groups. When Feehan was playing with them they could still get strung out, still play more obviously ‘free’. But by the time of these recordings Harry Pussy were playing 60 second bursts of chaotic rock ’n’ roll that barbarise whole histories of freakout style, from free jazz through classic hardcore, boogie, blues, Black Flag, Germs, most explicitly through Beefheart, but all hyper-condensed into ultra-kranky riffs that Orcutt plays at hallucinatory speed, compressing Zoot Horn Rollo-style avant confusion into lighting runs and metallic two note knock-outs. Hoyos’s style is so primitive that it’s wildly avant garde, with an instinctive feel for time that confounds the most advanced improvisatory strategies with the most hysterical. And her vocals are post-Yoko in the truest sense, not directly informed by her but sharing the same spontaneous energy and a-musical appeal, sometimes breaking from songs completely to expand on barely articulated vocal rants and fever pitched bouts of screaming. During the Hosker period the whole group existed in a zone that was constantly beyond technique. You’ll Never Play This Town Again features some of the best Harry Pussy recordings, the Untitled/Tour/Fuck You LP, the live 10”, the split singles with Pelt and Frosty (what the hell happened to them?) and the Radiation Nation single on De Stijl alongside seven unreleased tracks, all expertly remastered. The May 1997 studio tracks are as formally staggering as anything on Trout Mask Replica. “Ice Cream Man” is “Dali’s Car” at four times the speed, just as “Smash The Mirror” is “Ella Guru”. The tracks are also cut in an extremely appealing audio-verite style. Hoyos is nasty, sarcastic, infectiously funny. Despite the improvised feel of most of the tracks, Harry Pussy were an ultra-tight performance unit and played actual songs, with out-takes and live versions sounding just as rigorously conceived as the originals. The live recordings are important both for successfully capturing the insane energy of the group and for including their legendary version of Kraftwerk’s “Showroom Dummies”, where Orcutt’s irresistible “Big Eyed Beans” groove and Hoyos’s mad vocals and drums create a reading that’s more pneumatic than motorik while spearing the very heart of the tune. It’s still one of the all-time great cover versions. Teenage Jesus And The Jerks are the group that Harry Pussy most often get compared to, but hearing them covering that group’s “Orphans” on a bonus live track (coincidentally the last track from their last live performance), it’s clear that Harry Pussy were of a much more rock/roll bent than any of the No Wave groups, making music that wasn’t so much a refusal of previous rock modes as an exaggerated celebration of all of its most outlaw attributes. Of the rest of the unreleased material the most interesting track is “Velvet Pussy”, a take on a Velvet Underground-style rocker that sounds uncannily like your dream VU bootleg. But it’s the officially released material that’s the real attraction, tracks like “Sex Problem”, “Smash The Mirror” and “Chuck!”, with Hoyos pulverising time and Orcutt out-stripping it completely. The closing extended take on “Smash The Mirror” is one of the great free jazz-inspired electric guitar freakouts, up there with The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High”, Television’s live reading of “Fire Engine”, The Blue Humans’ Clear To Higher Time and The Dead C’s Helen Said This. Harry Pussy formed in 1992 and imploded in 1997, played a bunch of legendarily riotous shows, got barred from a whole bunch more, released a string of amazing LPs and 7”s and then disappeared. Hoyos is currently married with two children, working in computers, living with musician and artist Graham Lambkin and seemingly retired from music. Rumours persist of Bill Orcutt making a return to the stage but outside of reports of a shady uncredited 7” nothing has been heard of him since. The arc of their career was perfect, the mission truly accomplished, and all that’s left is this amazing series of recordings, a body of work that has had a disproportionate effect on the minds, if rarely the actual sound of the underground."David Keenan, the WireDylan Nyoukis from a blindfold test in The WireHarry Pussy “Mandolin” From You’ll Never Play This Town Again (Load) 2008 Beefheart? No, it’s Harry Pussy, man. I should’ve known it straight away. This, to me, is what punk music should have been. I discovered punk music ten years after the fact and I think I was doubly disappointed. I imagine, if my life had been a different throw of the dice, I might have been a kid in 1980 or 1979 discovering punk and being so disappointed with how it sounded: so boring, so absolutely fucking objectionable pub rock. Terrible. I just leapfrogged that shit to Metal, which is in itself just goofball shit, and then into weirdo shit. And then I heard Harry Pussy. This is what I thought punk should sound like. It’s wild shit. It’s visceral. It’s about where you are at the moment. It’s about where your fucking stomach is, on the moment. Where is your belly positioned? Chocolate Monk released Harry Pussy quite early on. We released Vigilance, on a C120: two hours of jams, but I guess the recording mechanism was a bit goofed up so a gap keeps appearing.  Dan Hosker: guitar, Adris Hoyos: drums and vocals, Bill Orcutt: guitar and vocals. Blake Eden: drums on “New Song.” Robert Price: synthesizer on “Velvet Pussy” and “MS20.”Everything by Hosker/Hoyos/Orcutt except “New Song” by Nip Drivers, “Showroom Dummies” by Kraftwerk and “Orphans” by Teenage Jesus and the Jerks.Tracks 1-17 recorded January 1997 by the band at Anvil Rehearsal Studios, Miami, FL. Tracks 18-31 recorded 5/5/97 by Rat Bastard at Churchill’s Hideaway, Miami FL and mixed by Rat Bastard and Tom Smith. Track 32 recorded 4/16/97 at Salon Zwerge, Chicago IL by Emil Hagstrom. Tracks 33-42 recorded 5/4/97 and mixed by Tom Smith at Microgroove Studio, Atanta, GA.

Joshua Abrams’ Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation is the aural manifestation of an art event described as “an in-between space and access point to a pulsating experience that connects body and land.” Like the action of a slow-spiraling coil, the music information here revolves in dappling light, an evolution drawn slowly, magnetically forward, resonating there and back again. Deep-reaching in elemental movement, it leaves traces and echoes in the air—and in our ears, as our own experience evolves.Joshua originally created this music as a 4 channel installation to accompany Lisa Alvarado's Pulse Meridian Foliation exhibition at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles. Written for two violas (both played by James Sanders), harmonium (Lisa), & electronics (Joshua), it was designed to play on a loop throughout the gallery's open hours between April 1 and August 20, 2023. And it did.When playing with Natural Information Society, Joshua’s writing is directed toward the form of the music as uniquely occupied by the group. Here, he wrote in strict dialogue with the exhibit, responding with choices in composition, performance and production on Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation. A key interpretation of the exhibition is voiced by Josh in the hand-off of information between the two violas as they weave together from oppositional points across the sound stage.In mixing the original surround sound down to two channels, Joshua worked toward the small details from left to right, placing former residents of triangulated speaker planes in a congenial spot on our present stereo azimuth—realizing, in the careful growth of this auricular border ecosystem, an essential aspect of the Pulse Meridian Foliation exhibit.Daniela Lieja Quintanar, REDCAT Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Programs, on Pulse Meridian Foliation:A threshold composed of a new immersive mural, a collection of double-sided paintings, a series of photos, and a sound installation. The exhibition explores how memory can be transformed through the body’s relationship to geography and geology, as well as engaging with Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of Nepantl (in-between): "the midway point between the conscious and the unconscious, the place where transformations are enacted."In her exhibit, Pulse Meridian Foliation, Lisa Alvarado inhabits the process of foliation, in which extreme environmental pressures upon rocks evoke a new crystallization and a changed minerality. For Alvarado personally, this is a matrix through which she can consider time and changes, specifically the politics of change, and dialogues that multiply over distinct chapters of history. A way to view her family’s intergenerational memory of “Mexican Repatriation”, a 1930s US policy that pushed millions across the border into Mexico, including many U.S. citizens.The weight of these things shudders through the bones of the music here slowly, almost incalculably. Details come and go, light and shadow flickers as horizontal and vertical planes gently intersect… an ambient space in constant change. Constant MINIMAL change, with the recurrent events and slight returns cascading in slo-mo arcs all around.On Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation, Lisa Alvarado asks, “How does memory transform and live within the body?” and, in collaboration with Joshua Abrams, a transformation is enacted.

Killer live outing by doom / stoner legends, Om, recorded at the legendary Maida Vale studios in spring 2019. Among the four tracks are the OM classics Gethsemine and State Of No Return.

"Far View is a collection of 15 tracks drawn exclusively from across Vandroogenbroeck’s years with Coloursound, in remastered analogue form. If the titles necessarily leave little to the imagination, styles and moods range far and wide, though as you’d expect, many reflect the trends of their time'

To pour some out for one of their heroes, the cosmos’ own Sun Ra, Bitchin Bajas simply cut a slice of their own DNA and amplify it! Or something like that: they clearly vibe with Ra in hypno-symbiosis, setting the controls of their analog synths for the heart of Sun. Bonus mixtribute: a heartfelt doff to Queen Wendy C, sythnaut and another mother!A portion of the proceeds for Switched On Ra was donated to The Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project. The Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP) is a visual arts and education project that connects teaching artists and scholars to incarcerated students at Stateville Maximum Security Prison through classes, workshops, a policy think tank, and guest lectures. Classes cover subjects ranging from poetry, visual arts, and creative writing to political theory, social studies, and history. PNAP also offers a tuition-free degree-granting program at Stateville in partnership with the University Without Walls at Northeastern Illinois University. Our classes serve as an indispensable opportunity for our students to connect with artists, scholars, and writers from the region, expand their cultural and political education, and communicate complex ideas. PNAP courses develop projects—visual art, creative writing, and critical essays—which are the basis for exhibitions, events, and publications that are shared both within and across the walls of the prison.

ollowing their collaboration on 2021’s Oscar winning Drive My Car, Eiko Ishibashi & filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi up the ante with a deeply inspired synergistic exchange: music for images, visuals for sounds. Eiko’s score initiated the project that has become his celebrated new film (Best Picture – BFI London Film Fest, Asian Film Awards, Silver Lion – Venice Film Fest, Best Score – Asia Film Awards). Every nuance mixed & mastered by Jim O’Rourke.

For this collaborative release, Eiko & Jim edited and remixed material captured at shows they played during a lovely two week tour through France, Switzerland, Italy and Ireland in April 2023. Pareidolia shapes an ideal collage from the best resonances and relationships from those nights. A dynamic medley of color and shape to pulse through earbuds, speaker cones and the air around you, appealing to your suggestibility, wherever you find it.

Antigone is a chilling look at our already-alternate reality, coming from inside Eiko Isibashi’s own head. Her band brings a wide array of sounds and moods, shading pop, funk and jazz, ambient, electronic and musique concrète in a bittersweet latticework. Interlocking her new songs in seamless long-play flow with the compositional ambitions of her acclaimed soundtrack work, Eiko’s expressions are epic and intimate. 2025 will never be the same!

Individually and collectively, Gastr have broken down the fourth wall in music that was invisible and we previously didn't know was there.

Maple's third full-lenth outing and the first offering on Drag City. Produced by Michael Gira of The Swans. This is their unique take on Rock n' Roll High School.

Good news from some of the city's finest gutters: the boys are back in town. Acre Thrills features thrills and chills, ballads and blues, all wrapped up in the sweetest sleaze ever!

Extended guitar hero Oren Ambarchi returns with Shebang, the latest in the series of intricately detailed long-form rhythmic workouts that includes Quixotism (2014) and Hubris (2016). Like those records, Shebang features an international all-star cast of musical luminaries, their contributions recorded individually in locations from Sweden to Japan yet threaded together so convincingly (by Ambarchi in collaboration with Konrad Sprenger) that it’s hard to believe they weren’t breathing the same studio air. Expanding on the techniques used on Simian Angel (2019), we can never be entirely sure who is responsible for what we hear, as Ambarchi’s guitar is used to trigger everything from bass lines to driving piano riffs. Picking up from the staccato guitar patterns that ran through Hubris, Shebang’s single 35-minute track begins with a precisely interwoven lattice of chiming guitar figures, expanding Hubris’ monolithic pulse into a joyous, hyper-rhythmic melodicism that calls up points of reference as disparate as Albert Marcoeur, early Pat Metheny Group, and Henry Kaiser’s It’s A Wonderful Life. Building from isolated single notes into densely layered polyrhythms, the muted guitar tones are joined by subtle touches of shimmering Leslie cabinet tones and guitar synth. Simmering down and funnelling into a single note, the guitar stew is soon thickened by Joe Talia’s propulsive ride cymbal, which blossoms into a beautifully flowing yet rigorously snapped-to fusion funk, whose ever-shifting details skitter across the kit – think 70s heavyweights like Jack DeJohnette or Jon Christensen. An unexpected entry of guttural bass clarinet licks from Sam Dunscombe begins the series of instrumental features that pepper the remainder of the piece. Soon we hear from the legendary British pedal steel player B.J. Cole (hopefully known to some listeners from his outer-limits singer-songwriter masterpiece The New Hovering Dog or, failing that, ‘Tiny Dancer’), whose languorous yet uneasy lines float in and out of a shifting rhythmic foundation supported by a single note bass groove, cut through with aleatoric synth articulations Though single-mindedly occupying its rhythmic space throughout, Shebang’s dense ensemble sound is carefully composed while drawing on the free flow of improvisation, with individual voices momentarily coming to the fore and subtle changes in harmony and texture. Perhaps the most surprising of these shifts occurs around half-way through when the smoke of a buzzing synth crescendo from Jim O'Rourke clears to reveal something like a piano trio, with Ambarchi’s guitar-triggered piano patterns providing restless accompaniment to flowing melodic lines from Chris Abrahams of The Necks, while Johan Berthling’s double bass and Talia’s drums fill out the bottom end. Before long, things take another left turn as Julia Reidy’s rapidly picked 12-string guitar lines take centre stage, with O’Rourke’s monumental synth clouds hovering in the distance. The ensemble surges through a slow series of harmonic changes before the whole shebang dissolves into a delirious synthetic mirage. Bridging minimalism, contemporary electronics, and classic ECM stylings, and bringing together a cast of preternaturally talented contributors, Shebang is unmistakably the work of Oren Ambarchi: obsessively detailed, relentlessly rhythmic, unabashedly celebratory.

Orcutt Shelley Miller is an avant-rock trio comprised of three highly celebrated figures of experimental music: Bill Orcutt (Harry Pussy), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) and Ethan Miller (Howlin Rain, Comets On Fire).  Their debut self-titled album will be released September 5th on Silver Current Records.  Following in the footsteps of the high-firing free jazz and European outer-rock bands of the ‘60s and ‘70s and the Pacific Rim’s subterranean reimagining of “rock” form in the 90s, Orcutt Shelley Miller utilize explosive group chemistry, focused intention and chance to pursue the creation of song in its rawest, purest form. “The landscape Orcutt Shelley Miller inhabits lies deep in the stoner American bedrock, fed by volcanic riffage and hypnotic phrasing with rhythmic nods to the SoCal ‘60s and atonal slash piled on a mid ‘80s SST punk-fusionoid substrate, ultimately blasting a "big rock statement" that treads the line between good times and blown minds.” --Tom Carter (Charalambides) Bill Orcutt is renowned for his incendiary guitar work with the seminal '90s noise-rock band Harry Pussy, Orcutt has since carved a niche in the experimental music scene with his raw, deconstructed guitar improvisations and recent quartet compositions. His solo work blends elements of blues, punk, and free improvisation, earning acclaim for its intensity and originality. Steve Shelley is best known as the drummer for alternative rock pioneers Sonic Youth, Shelley has been a driving force in the indie and experimental music scenes since the early 1980s. His dynamic drumming style has contributed to numerous projects, showcasing his versatility and commitment to pushing musical boundaries. Ethan Miller is a central figure in the psychedelic and outer-rock movements, Miller has been at the bow of influential bands such as Comets on Fire and Howlin' Rain. His work is characterized by high-energy performances and a fusion of classic rock influences with experimental sounds, solidifying his reputation as a visionary guitarist and vocalist.

More Free Jazz fire from Superior Vaiduct: One of the greatest artiifacts from St Louis' Black Artists Group, Julius Hemphill's seminal debut,  Featuring the all-star line up of Hemphill, Baikida Carroll, Abdul Wadud, Phillip Wilson, and Hamiet Bluiett.  "Julius Hemphill's debut record, 1972's Dogon A.D., was self-produced for his Mbari imprint, and it was issued with a beautiful black-and-white cover. Very DIY. The label's name writ large along the bottom edge, like it was the band's name. It's a quartet record featuring Hemphill on alto and flute, with Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Abdul Wadud on cello, and Phillip Wilson on drums – a classic jazz front line/rhythm section format, but nothing conventional about the way the music sounds. "The long track – from where the LP takes its title – is one of the key epic statements of new jazz in the era. Among its remarkable distinctions, it manages to draw on Wilson's schizoid experience having been a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the first drummer for the Art Ensemble of Chicago, in making an 11/8 rhythm into a staggeringly funky thing of joy. Over the course of fourteen and a half minutes, Hemphillbuilds a nearly continuous solo, his spiritual blood brother Wadud sawing the cello with a deep blues soulfulness that is raw and mantra-like in its repetitive incantation. It feels right and wrong in equal measure, the theme carrying its own piquancy with honked barnyard dissonances and some contrary motion between the horns and string. Most of all, it takes its own sweet time, in no hurry to get anywhere in particular, but out for a righteous stroll." – John Corbett (excerpt from the liner notes)

Noel Kelehan Quintet’s gorgeous holy grail of Irish jazz newly cut to vinyl on a first ever reissue - dusted, vibrant, effervescent bebop, emastered at Abbey Road using the master-tapes.  “Long sought-after by those in know, this essential Irish jazz album finally gets a vinyl reissue on Outernational Sounds! Fully licensed from producer John D’Ardis, remastered at Abbey Road from the original tapes, and with lacquers cut at Dubplates and Mastering, the Noel Kelehan Quintet’s stunning 1979 Ozone is presented with unseen photographs of the band and commentary from original band members. Featuring moody, modal jazz of the first order, subtle and original composing and world- class playing, Ozone was the creation of Ireland’s most respected jazz composer and musician, pianist Noel Kelehan (1935-2012). The only small-group album under his name, and arguably the first ever Irish jazz LP, Ozone was a landmark recording, but it was far from Kelehan’s only achievement. Born in Dublin, Kelehan had studied music from an early age. From the mid-1950s he worked at state-broadcaster Radio Éireann (RÉ, later RTÉ – Radio Telefis Éireann), and from the early 1960s he fronted Dublin’s first be-bop unit, the Jazz Heralds. A busy professional career saw him compose for numerous Irish pop stars, arrange and conduct many of Ireland’s Eurovision entries, and even contribute string arrangements to U2’s Unforgettable Fire LP. But jazz was Kelehan’s first passion, and he never stopped playing in both small modernist units and composing for his own big band. The late 1970s saw him fronting the Noel Kelehan Quintet, alongside drummer John Wadham, saxophonist Keith Donald, bassist Frank Hess and trumpeter Mick Nolan. Playing weekly in Dublin for several years, they opened for visiting stars including Dollar Brand and the Ronnie Scott Orchestra, and eventually played a two-week residency at Ronnie Scotts in London. Though Kelehan had recorded a big-band LP of traditional Irish songs arranged as easy jazz in 1970, Ozone was his first album of modern jazz.  Released on John D’Ardis’s independent Cargo imprint and press on blue vinyl, it featured original compositions such as the deep collectors cut ‘Spon Song’, subtle Latin flavours on ‘Spacer’s Delight’ and a beautiful modal arrangement of the traditional Irish air ‘Castle of Dromore’. A legendary recording in Ireland, Ozone reflected Kelehan’s keen appreciation of classic quintet-era Miles, with touches of the cerebral fusion of Ian Carr and the arranging genius of Neil Ardley. Not just a landmark Irish jazz set, Ozone is a lost classic of European jazz more widely – finally available again on vinyl from Outernational Sounds!”

‘Raga Jazz Style’ speaks brilliantly to a transcontinental fusion of styles seeded in the US with John & Alice Coltrane’s visionary efforts, and here adapted back to source in the subcontinent. By this point the Shankar Jaikashan duo had practically achieved their zenith as go-to composers for Hindi film scores, and as competition started coming from likes of R.D. Burman, they would prove their versatility in melding Afro-American jazz with millennia-old raga forms, resulting this vibrant suite that nails both styles, sometimes on their own, and sometimes combined with sitar. It’s rare pleasure to hear them dance between the two, only a few years before Jaikashan passed away, leaving Shanka to continue solo under the Shankar-Jaikashan handle, and a richly inspirational legacy.

The amazing, and widely acliamed latest from the French composer and musician, Delphine Dora, onMarionette. Printed artwork on reverse-board sleeve, pressed on 180g Vinyl. Delphine Dora, the prolific French composer and multi-instrumentalist, graces Marionette with a suite of keyboard instrumentals that evoke futurism and the transcendental. Based in France and actively releasing music since the 00’s, Delphine’s remarkable solo and collaborative projects loosely connect the dots scattered across modern classical, folk, ambient, and poetic writing - always seeking new ambitions in terms of her sound. Leaving behind the chaos of city life for the quiet solitude of a small village in the French countryside, Delphine finds herself fully immersed in the present moment and committed to her multi-disciplinary creative practices, savoring the experiences of deep listening in nature and her environment. Drawing from an academic background in Outsider Art and Art Brut, Dora yearns to express intimate inner dialogues, revealing the beauty of vulnerability through transportive musical passages to the mystical and sublime. L’inéluctable pulsation du temps was composed in 2018, at a time when Delphine’s life was becoming increasingly busy, marked by relentless touring and concerts unfolding in rapid succession across different places. Written in parallel with L’Inattingible, her most ambitious album, it stands as its instrumental counterpart. The recordings reflect a period of exploration and assimilation of the Nord Electro, an instrument that opened up vast sonic possibilities, particularly for the development of rich polyphonies inspired by repetitive music. The track titles draw inspiration from an essay by Hartmut Rosa on the notions of acceleration and alienation - a reflection that resonates strongly with the pre-covid era right before the quarantine. The album reveals Delphine’s most colorful and rhythmic side, an aural mille-feuille, in total contrast with her previous melancholic vocal works. On L’inéluctable pulsation du temps, Dora sustains atmospheric drone miniatures that form the foundation for flowing, cyclical arpeggios, spiraling into a liminal dream space where the repetitive phrasing of melodies rewards introspective listening. The compositions move through (dis)enchanted landscapes, taking unexpected turns into more haunted terrain, their contours further blurred by Dora’s intuitive articulation and sense of refinement. By mirroring both the acceleration of time and the experience of alienation, Delphine conjures up timeless sonic meditations, rendering the inevitable pulsation of time as something at once mesmerizing and unsettling.

Zulu Guitar's Pioneering Tricksters But for this compilation of rescued songs masterfully restored from rare 78 rpm shellacs, few could imagine the diversely beautiful roots of Zulu Guitar Music emerging during the period 1950 – 1965. Story-tellers and master musicians appropriate outlaw personae, re-purpose country and western, Hawaiian and other styles, to stretch and challenge our notion of “the Zulu guitar”. Twenty-five songs (18 on vinyl) plunge us into the depths of the migrant experience. Translations in the liner notes offer us glimpses of pugnacity, melancholy and heartache, all coloured by the paternalism that circumscribed the singers’ apartheid-dominated lives. The early mbaqanga undertow in many of the songs subverts the wanderlust of Country and Western music into a fugitivity burdened by nostalgia. Something irretrievable has been lost, prompting a blending of ideas and cultures to make sense through thankless acts of musical divination. Inadvertently they have been thrust into the role of the antihero, where outwitting competition for lovers is as important as evading the Black Jacks (apartheid’s municipal cops) and their informants. Considering the politically repressive period that this music emerges from, we can surmise that the specificity in the storytelling went a long way towards evading censure. But even when words are absent, there is a narrative arc suggested by the musical expression. With most of the master tapes wilfully destroyed or lost, modern transcription and restoration techniques from the original shellac discs present the original sound most likely more clearly than ever heard before.