The East Pointers

In East Germany in the early 1970’s Martin Zeichnete worked as a sound editor for DEFA, (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), the state-owned film studio. Like many young East Germans of the time he would listen furtively to West German radio at night and became infatuated with the Kosmische Musik or ‘Krautrock’ epitomised by the likes of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster emerging from his neighbouring country. Martin, a keen runner, hit upon the idea of using the repetitive, motorik beats of this new music as a training aid for athletes. He thought it could benefit the mind as well as the body with the pulsing, hypnotic music bringing focus. A ‘borrowed’ prototype of Andreas Pavel’s Stereobelt showed Martin the technology to provide music on the move already existed and could easily be adapted for runners.

Two late ‘90s albums from the legendary Welsh singer and Meat Loaf sparring partner who recently celebrated her 70th birthday. Plus a CD of their international-selling single cuts in various formats including the mighty ‘Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad’, her cover of The Alan Parsons’s Project’s ‘Limelight’ and the theme tune to German TV series The King of St. Pauli in which she appeared.

Look to the East, Look to the West, the new album by Camera Obscura, is a revelation. The Tracyanne Campbell-led outfit, reuniting with producer Jari Haapalainen (Let’s Get Out of This Country, My Maudlin Career), have crafted an album that simultaneously recalls why longtime fans have ferociously loved them for decades while also being their most sophisticated effort to date. It is also the most hard-fought album of Camera Obscura’s career. Following the 2015 passing of founding keyboardist and friend Carey Lander (to whom the penultimate track “Sugar Almond” is addressed), the band went into an extended hiatus.

Another highlight of Gamma Ray's anniversary releases is the live album called "Heading for the East". The longplayer was recorded in November 1990 and contains a show that was performed in Tokyo, Japan…

Stomu Yamashta's first two Island albums are combined on this two-disc 2008 reissue. From 1972, Floating Music - actually credited to Stomu Yamashta & Come to the Edge - was an unusually long (51-minute) LP for the era. Side one consisted of two long studio compositions; side two had two similarly lengthy instrumental tracks, recorded on January 10, 1972, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Recording with non-Japanese musicians, percussionist Yamashta with this album established himself as an accomplished purveyor of complex, versatile, and quite cerebral fusion music, though of the sort too challenging to get an audience that wide even by fusion standards. Including some world music-flavored interludes, the music nonetheless remained pretty electronic-based, and pretty serious in mood…

Yusef Lateef - Prayer to the East (1957) {Savoy Jazz Japan SV-0210 rel 1993}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 222 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 107 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 132 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1957, 1993 Savoy Jazz / Nippon Columbia Japan | SV-0210
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bebop / Flute / Saxophone

A half-a-century following its original release, Prayer to the East by Yusef Lateef remains a seemingly blessed moment of creative interaction between American modern jazz and the music of the so-called Arab East, the latter evoked in essences ranging from snippets of traditional musical scales to picture postcards of Tunisian nightlife. The second half of the '50s was a busy period for Lateef, at that time under contract to the Savoy imprint. This album as well as three others were all cut in October of 1957, establishing as much documentation as could ever be needed of a transition from a player in the swing context of bandleaders such as Lucky Millinder and Hot Lips Page to a bold adventurer.

Pharoah Sanders - Live At The East (1971) {2007 Japan Mini LP 24bit Remaster UCCI-9133}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 265 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 104 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 22 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1971, 2007 Impulse! / Universal Japan | UCCI-9133 | 24bit/96kHz remaster | LP AS-9227
Jazz / Modal Music / Post Bop / Progressive Jazz / Saxophone

Cardboard sleeve (mini LP) reissue from Pharoah Sander featurign 24-bit/96kHz remastering and original LP replica Cardboard sleeve (mini LP) jacket design. Part of an eleven-album Pharoah Sanders Cardboard sleeve (mini LP) reissue series featuring the albums "Tauhid," "Kahma," "Jewels of Thought," "Summum Bukmum Umyum," "Thembi," "Black Unity," "Village of the Pharoahs," "Live at the Easty," "Love In Us All," "Elevation," and "Wisdom Through Music." One of the most spiritual albums recorded by Pharoah Sanders for Impulse – an open-ended and free-thinking exploration of ideas, all very much in the late John Coltrane mode! The group's a largeish one – filled with spiritual soul jazz luminaries who include Hannibal Marvin Peterson on trumpet, Harold Vick on tenor, Carlos Garnett on flute, Joe Bonner on piano and harmonium, Cecil McBee and Stanley Clarke on basses, Norman Connors and Billy Hart on drums, and Lawrence Killian on congas and percussion – all working together beautifully, with some of the same spirit as the larger jazz ensembles on the Strata East label!