ALBERT AYLER - 'NEW GRASS'

Formats

• TMR638 - LP

  813547028259

Details

Albert Ayler’s 1969 album New Grass has been misunderstood from the day of its release. The album fi nds Ayler experimenting with soul music and digging back into his R&B roots (he started his career playing saxophone with Chicago bluesman Little Walter), fusing it with the avant-garde free jazz (the one element of the record which garnered consistent praise) and adding the vocals of Rose Marie McCoy, The Soul Singers and Ayler himself. As if predicting the divisiveness of the record to follow, Ayler speaks directly to the listener and explains that New Grass is nothing like his albums before — that it is of “a different dimension of his life” — in the album opener “Message from Albert.” New Grass deserves reconsideration, if not for the heavy grooves and surprising arrangements, then for its bravery in challenging norms of the time; by the ‘60s, jazz was well-accepted as a uniquely American art form, while soul as a genre was very much still seen as primitive. Ayler melds them together and creates something novel, adventurous, and completely his own. At the time of its release, despite its divisive reception, New Grass helped break down the unnecessary walls dividing genres and revealed music’s potential freedoms. The album has gone on to infl uence generations of Jazz, R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, Post Punk, No Wave and unshrinking artists like Pharaoh Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Funkadelic, Jungle Brothers, Red Krayola, Sonic Youth and Mark E. Smith. Third Man Records can’t recommend this record highly enough. We are confi dent that it won’t take but one listen for you to understand New Grass is an undeniable healing force

Tracks

SIDE A
1. Message From Albert / New Grass
2. New Generation
3. Sun Watcher

SIDE B
1. New Ghosts
2. Heart Love
3. Everybody?s Movin
4. Free At Last

Press

First pressing in almost 40 years.

Audio & Video

RICHARD YOUNGS - 'EIN KLEIN NEIN'

Formats

• VHF149 - LP

  783881014914

Details

Mysterious and minimal instrumental album by Richard Youngs, dreamt at home and recorded quickly in Glasgow’s Green Door Studio. Centered on a single piano chord and bare snare strikes, Youngs builds a haunting atmosphere in four episodes, featuring his guitar, organ, harmonica, and voice. The reductive and hypnotic approach here recalls his early classics like Advent and Festival. Another essential work from the prolific and truly unique musician. Creator of nearly one hundred albums, Richard Youngs somehow continues to find ways to surprise listeners. Even in these dark, dark ages where everyone knows everything, Youngs finds new creative ways—recording albums of accessible “rock” and folk music for the overground Glass and O Genesis labels, playing high-concept disco in the critically acclaimed AMOR; and releasing an extensive and bewildering series of albums where he plays all instruments with his feet! 

Tracks

1. Ein Klein
2. Klein Nein
3. Klein Ein
4. Nein Klein

Press

Audio & Video

ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS - 'GREATEST IMAGINARY HITS'

Formats

• VHF148 - LP & 4CD

  783881014815

Details

27th Anniversary set for the multi-dimensional midlandscrew, led by Phil Todd and Melanie O’Dubhslaine. Nearly six hours of cosmic, psychedelic, mind-boggling sounds, featuring a newly recorded LP plus four maxlength CDs curated by AshNav connoisseurs Rob Hayler, Henry Rollins, Pete Coward, and Neil Campbell. The CDs are drawn from the band’s massive back catalog of mostly small run / private releases, covering activity dating back to 1994. Mining a deep well of thousand-yard stare psychedelia, Ashtray Navigations possess of one of the most exciting outré music catalogs of the contemporary era, matching the classics from any era in originality and straight-up bonkers fun. This epic release includes a full range of hypnotic jams, including sequencer-led cosmic workouts, drifty ambience, and a heavy dose of Phil Todd’s ripping, laser guitar leads. The gatefold LP also includes pithy liner notes from Matt Valentine, Henry Rollins, Jon Dale, and more. “Phil. Well I am glad you’re finally back from your place in Monaco and getting to work. The pictures of you with the polo mallet and the horses you sent were impressive, sure but when you sell yourself as an artist type and then are seen cavorting with those over tanned Euro trustfunders, it is alienating to your audience. You are, however, the only person I have ever met who has actually cavorted and that’s why you will always be a mid-level god to me.” —Henry Rollins

Tracks

1. Reg Presley Singing
2. Mystery Beatbox
3. What Next?
4. Mushfinger Cadaver
5. The Ultimate Mechanical Abrasion
6. Comic Lever

Press

Audio & Video