Pekka Airaksinen is a legend of the European musical underground, and The Sperm was his first outfit. Active from 1967 to 1971, they challenged every possible norm society and the current musical climate had. Ungodly racket to some, psychedelic experience to others, The Sperm’s Shh! album and their EP 3rd Erection have become legendary collector’s items, far ahead of their time in terms of musical experimentation. Svart Records have joined forces with Pekka Airaksinen, whose archives have now been opened for The Sperm’s 50th birthday. The limited 4LP/2CD set features carefully restored editions of Shh!, 3rd Erection and One Point Music. Almost half of all the material, however, is completely previously unreleased.
Funerary Music of Carriacou Presented here are the magnificent Big Drum songs from Carriacou, Grenada, a font of African and European musical traditions. This is music for the ancestors, or “Old Parents,” performed at Tombstone Feasts held years after death and burial, when the body is finally entombed and the spirit of the departed may at last rest in peace. Caribbean Voyage Released for the first time, Alan Lomax’s legendary 1962 recordings of the rich and many-stranded musical traditions of the Lesser Antilles and eastern Caribbean: work songs, pass-play and story songs, calypso, East Indian chaupai, and steel band music, reflecting the Central and West African, French, English, Celtic, Spanish and East Indian contributions to Caribbean culture. The Alan Lomax Collection The Alan Lomax Collection gathers together the American, European and Caribbean field recordings, world music compilations, and ballad operas of writer, folklorist, and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax.
Dust to Digital always does an impressive job of providing compelling thematic material in artfully designed packaging. This has been true since their debut offering, Goodbye, Babylon, that showcased Southern sacred song and oratory. Baby, How Can It Be? Songs of Love Lust and Contempt from the 1920s and 1930s (the label's 16th release), follows suit. Assembled from the 78 collection of John Heneghan, this three-disc, 66-track set looks at its title subjects from all sides. It travels disc by disc from the first flush and ardor of romance, through the heat and passion of eros, to the tales of terror, depression, and violence that occur when the flower of belladonna replaces the rose's bloom.