Pylon
Cool / Dub

Soft Machine released their third album Third in 1970. It is a double album with each side of the vinyl consisting of a single long composition. Its music explores the emerging Jazz Fusion of the type present on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, which was released just a few months earlier.

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 second volume of three is presented here.CHEB HASNIVol 1Outre National

First ever repress of their breakthrough album, in the 21st anniversary year - remastered!Absolutely Freak Out! is the set that first got AMT noticed (relatively) big-time in the UK, and for good reason. There's not a lot of point trying to describe it; just imagine every moment in rock history when psychedelia got out of control, and edit them all together. Or imagine Hawkwind with Hendrix on guitar, playing Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa covers in a large aircraft hangar, with the doors open and a strong wind blowing.Other Acid Mothers Temple recordings offer more folk or more metal or more drone, but this is the band in full-spectrum-retro-cosmic-rock mode and just offers … more. Of everything you could possibly imagine. If you have yet to commence your journey then this is the one to start with.