Numero Group

In the tradition of Environments mastermind Irv Teibel, Numero’s crack team of audio archivists have documented 2024’s once-in-two centuries cicada super bloom phenomena. The collision of the XIX and XIII broods last occurred in 1803, 57 years before the first sound recording was captured, making Numero’s state of the art audio a first in human history. Armed with a Zoom Handy Recorder H4N, Tascam DR-40X, and Olympus LS-12 Linear PCM Recorder, Stephen Arndt, Ken Shipley, and Tim Zawada trawled the forests of central Illinois on the hunt for the mating clicks, ambient screams, and zealous fly-bys of this curious clockwork insect. The Psychologically Ultimate 220 Year Cicada Super Bloom also marks the return of the Environments series, which bowed in 1979 with Alpine Blizzard and Country Thunderstorm recordings. “Irv Teibel’s visionary Environments helped an ever-disconnecting humanity reconvene with nature and changed the way we heard the world,” Numero co-founder Ken Shipley said. “Numero is honored to resume his work at this critical and uncertain juncture for our planet. We may never experience this confluence of beautiful cicada rackets again, but we’re committed to making sure their deafening buzz continues to ring in our ears long after the last bug molts.”

In the tradition of Environments mastermind Irv Teibel, Numero’s crack team of audio archivists have documented 2024’s once-in-two centuries cicada super bloom phenomena. The collision of the XIX and XIII broods last occurred in 1803, 57 years before the first sound recording was captured, making Numero’s state of the art audio a first in human history. Armed with a Zoom Handy Recorder H4N, Tascam DR-40X, and Olympus LS-12 Linear PCM Recorder, Stephen Arndt, Ken Shipley, and Tim Zawada trawled the forests of central Illinois on the hunt for the mating clicks, ambient screams, and zealous fly-bys of this curious clockwork insect. The Psychologically Ultimate 220 Year Cicada Super Bloom also marks the return of the Environments series, which bowed in 1979 with Alpine Blizzard and Country Thunderstorm recordings. “Irv Teibel’s visionary Environments helped an ever-disconnecting humanity reconvene with nature and changed the way we heard the world,” Numero co-founder Ken Shipley said. “Numero is honored to resume his work at this critical and uncertain juncture for our planet. We may never experience this confluence of beautiful cicada rackets again, but we’re committed to making sure their deafening buzz continues to ring in our ears long after the last bug molts.”

Margo Guryan Died in 2021. Her Music Keeps Getting Rediscovered. “Words and Music,” a new anthology, shines light on a little-known but increasingly beloved master of pop and jazz songwriting. In the late summer of 1970, Elton John arrived at Los Angeles International Airport for his debut U.S. shows and was greeted by another wildly talented piano-playing singer-songwriter: Margo Guryan. Her husband, David Rosner, worked for the company that signed John, and together they helped him get sorted in the run-up to his legendary performances at the Troubadour, kicking off a long, spectacular career. Guryan’s career proved less of a spectacle. After modest success as a jazz-pop songwriter, she recorded one album of her own, with Rosner’s encouragement. “Take a Picture” was alive with dazzling melodies, lyrical wit, strikingly intimate vocals and marvelously florid arrangements — a small masterpiece of the microgenre known as sunshine pop. But Guryan was a reluctant performer who refused to tour, and her album, released in 1968, was a commercial flop, after her label barely promoted it. And yet, in a unique twist on a familiar story, the 11 songs of “Take a Picture” became a shared secret around the world; pirate pressings overseas earned her the sobriquet “The Soft Pop Queen of Japan.” In 2000 the LP was officially reissued, followed by others collecting her demo recordings — lean performances that could pass for 21st-century indie-pop.

Margo Guryan Died in 2021. Her Music Keeps Getting Rediscovered. “Words and Music,” a new anthology, shines light on a little-known but increasingly beloved master of pop and jazz songwriting. In the late summer of 1970, Elton John arrived at Los Angeles International Airport for his debut U.S. shows and was greeted by another wildly talented piano-playing singer-songwriter: Margo Guryan. Her husband, David Rosner, worked for the company that signed John, and together they helped him get sorted in the run-up to his legendary performances at the Troubadour, kicking off a long, spectacular career. Guryan’s career proved less of a spectacle. After modest success as a jazz-pop songwriter, she recorded one album of her own, with Rosner’s encouragement. “Take a Picture” was alive with dazzling melodies, lyrical wit, strikingly intimate vocals and marvelously florid arrangements — a small masterpiece of the microgenre known as sunshine pop. But Guryan was a reluctant performer who refused to tour, and her album, released in 1968, was a commercial flop, after her label barely promoted it. And yet, in a unique twist on a familiar story, the 11 songs of “Take a Picture” became a shared secret around the world; pirate pressings overseas earned her the sobriquet “The Soft Pop Queen of Japan.” In 2000 the LP was officially reissued, followed by others collecting her demo recordings — lean performances that could pass for 21st-century indie-pop.

Records which date from a time before the internet don’t tend to spawn viral hits. This fact makes the recent resurgence of interest in Rupa Biswas’ 1982 LP Disco Jazz all the more astonishing. Whether by a quirk of an algorithm, furious link-sharing or some other means, Disco Jazz’s penultimate track ‘Aaj Shanibar’ has taken the net by storm of late - one particular YouTube upload has well over a million hits at the time of writing. While the song’s newfound fame may or may not be a happy accident, Disco Jazz has the tunes to make good on the promise, as this Numero Group reissue proves. Funnily enough these tunes barely count as disco, and are pretty much nowhere near jazz. Indeed, their fusion of Bollywood song, Latin rhythms, funk-rock guitars and vaguely Balearic textures is delightfully unique.

Alan Munson, the songwriter of Cooley-Munson duo, continued the folk-rock way. It took him some time, but in 1975 he was ready for what is, his best 70's work. We, at Guerssen, think "Good Morning World" is a killer album! Incredibly, "Good Morning World" was only released in cassette, and in a limited run. Under these circumstances, I'm so glad to put this out at last the way it should be. "Good Morning World" includes nine original, acoustic based songs with a mellow psych and folk rock sound across this album. Meaningful and understandable lyrics, delivered by "close-up" lead vocals, and background harmony vocals. Instruments played on the album include 6 string acoustic guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar, electric bass and percussion.

Psychedelic rock band from St. Joseph, Missouri. A full-length album was recorded in 1969, but was not released until Numero Group issued it in 2015, giving it a new life.

Teeming with the energy and grit of pre-Giuliani Manhattan, Blonde Redhead's long out-of-print early recordings have finally crawled their way out of the '90s basement thanks to Numero Group who will issue the set on Sept. 30. Weighing in at 37 tracks, Masculin Féminin compiles the band's first two albums for Steve Shelley's Smells Like Records (self-titled and La Mia Via Violenta), their period singles, extant demos, and radio performances across four LPs or two CDs. Dozens of previously unpublished photographs illustrate two lengthy essays on this essential New York band's formative years.

Gathered here are The Fun Of Watching Fireworks, From Our Living Room To Yours, and The Golden Band albums, garnished with period b-sides, outtakes, and demos. Remastered from the original analog tapes, this early-career spanning 5xLP box includes lyrics, photos, and ephemera from the before times.