The Lost Tapes is a 3 CD set of unreleased tracks, they are an opportunity to hear unreleased material, brand new tracks as if you were there, from the halcyon days, not outtakes.

The tracks cover the period from 1968 through to 1977 and were compiled by Irmin Schmidt and Daniel Miller. The album features studio material recorded at Schloss Nörvenich and Can Studio, Weilerswist with the Can line up of Holger Czukay on bass, Michael Karoli on guitars, Jaki Liebezeit on drums and Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, and on most tracks, vocals from Malcolm Mooney or Damo Suzuki.

The album will be released in a numbered limited edition 3CD 10″ old style tape box with a 28 page booklet on June 18th in Europe and June 19th in America.

Paul Buff, owner of Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga, California from 1957-1964, first opened up his archives in 2010 for a large series of download-only releases. This 156-track collection features 58 early masters by the late Frank Zappa, recorded at Pal and Original Sound Recording Studios. These recordings feature Zappa as performer, writer and/or producer.

Multi-instrumentalist Paul Buff created Pal Recording Studio in December 1957 with a simple two-track Viking recorder. The demand for stereo recording led Buff to create a homemade, five-track recording studio when the industry standard was still mono or two-track stereo recording.

Buff’s studio creativity and complete openness in recording musicians of all backgrounds and styles naturally resulted in studio bookings by many local artists. Pal Recording Studio quickly became a place where musicians could record their rehearsals and repertoire and leave with high quality recordings. One of those groups of musicians was The Surfaris, who recorded “Wipe Out” at Pal in late 1962. This surf standard is the best known Pal recording.

“Paul Buff Presents Highlights From The Pal And Original Sound Studio Archives” has many in-demand rarities and unreleased tracks drawn from Paul Buff’s mixdown tapes and reference discs.

Pal functioned as the recording home for Buff’s record labels (Pal, Emmy, Yukon, Plaza and Vigah!) and for The Pal Studio Band, a group of musicians revolving around Paul Buff, guitarist Dave Aerni and young guitarist/drummer Frank Zappa. Buff taught Zappa the art of recording studio operation as The Pal Studio Band created a large body of work.

Emmy’s releases featured three singles by The Masters, cut by Buff and guitarist Ronnie Williams. The B-side of the second Masters single, “Breaktime,” featured overdubbed guitar leads by Zappa. Other early singles that spotlighted Frank Zappa were by The Penguins, The Hollywood Persuaders, The Tornadoes, Buddy And The Crickets, Ron Roman, Baby Ray And The Ferns, Brian Lord And The Midnighters, Mr. Clean, The Heartbreakers, Ned & Nelda, Bob Guy, Conrad And The Hurricane Strings, The Cordells, The Rhythm Surfers, The Woody Waggers, The Decades, and Johnny Barakat And The Vestells. Many Pal Studio Band tracks with Zappa involvement make their CD debuts in this box set, including some with original Mothers Of Invention vocalist Ray Collins.

While still at Pal, Paul Buff started working with Art Laboe, owner of Original Sound Records. Laboe asked Buff to create a new recording studio for Original Sound artists, and in 1964, Paul finished creating his own ten-track recording gear. Buff was already in place as Original Sound’s studio engineer when he sold Pal Recording Studio to Frank Zappa on August 1, 1964. Many Original Sound artists were engineered by Paul Buff, who had started making his own recordings at the studio the previous year.

Paul Buff’s Original Sound output was credited to his own name as well as many other artists. Tracks recorded with Dave Aerni were released as by The Bongo Teens and The Rotations. One-man-band recordings issued as The Hollywood Persuaders include the well known “Tijuana” and “Drums A-Go-Go.” Paul also recorded with his first wife Allison as The Catalinas, Lori Allison, The Buff Organization and with vocalist Ricky Dean. The Friendly Torpedoes featured Buff with The Music Machine’s Sean Bonniwell. Nearly the entire output of the All-American label (known for Strawberry Alarm Clock’s “Incense And Peppermints”) was engineered by Buff, as was Sugarloaf’s “Green-Eyed Lady” for Liberty.

“Paul Buff Presents Highlights From The Pal And Original Sound Studio Archives” is available in DVD-sized packaging, with a 40-page, illustrated color booklet containing detailed information about the artists and the recordings. The five CDs in the set feature reproductions of the Pal, Plaza, Yukon, Emmy and Vigah! labels.

The first 200 pre-release orders from Crossfire Publications will be accompanied by two additional CDs – The Tornadoes’ “Now And Then” and “Charge Of The Tornadoes” – featuring an additional 11 tracks that Frank Zappa engineered at Pal during 1962-1963.

More info at www.crossfirepublications.com.

Dunn was in Tokyo for a series of shows. News of his death was posted on the Facebook site of his friend and fellow musician Steve Cropper, who was on the same tour.

Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.’s and as a session bassist for Stax Records, which specialized in blues and gospel-infused southern soul and Memphis soul music styles. Dunn also performed on recordings with The Blues Brothers, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Albert King, Neil Young, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Guy Sebastian, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Roy Buchanan and Arthur Conley.

Donald Dunn played himself in the 1980 feature “The Blues Brothers”, where he had one of the most memorable lines, “We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline!”. He later reprised his self-depicting role in 1998′s “Blues Brothers 2000″.

Over the years Gail Zappa has given some hints about the state of the project. Technical and budgetary issues are given as the main reasons why the release hasn’t materialised yet.

But here’s the good news. The Zappa Family Trust have issued a newsletter which includes the following slightly cryptic info:

“All of the footage has now been transferred on a best light basis into HD and all camera angles have been “synched” by eye and heart and hand and edit to the original Nagra tapes. We now need to identify all usable camera angles and begin the actual edit. Still, we have miles to go in order to bring the best of the possibilities to a screen near you. And we need your help.

We still have a few wrinkles but our irons are hot and the details of our plan for the next Official Release is bundled in a unique opportunity to participate in a special, social experiment designed to open lots of doors for all Artists and their fans everywhere. Participate and You’ll be First. First with your own copy of a Soundtrack to The Roxy Performances. First with your name credited in The Roxy Performances, The Movie. And there are more Firsts. Stay Tuned.”

The details are not clear yet, but it looks like Zappa fans will be treated to a new Roxy & Elsewhere audio release (the part about the “next official release” and “a soundtrack to the Roxy Performances”) and an option to participate in some crowd funded release of the mythical Roxy dvd.

As Gail would say: keep watching the skies!

Featured artists include stalwarts and emerging artists from a diverse cross section of the improv, jazz, noise, psych and indie scenes including Rhys Chatham, Matthew Shipp, Arthur Doyle, Eugene Chadbourne, PG Six, Guardian Alien, Magik Markers and many more.

The last twenty four months has been a whirlwind for Northern Spy owners Tom Abbs and Adam Downey. After a dramatic break with the owners of the legendary imprint ESP-Disk’ in the summer of 2010, a label they ran for more than three years, Abbs and Downey rushed to assemble funding and distribution for a new label that they alone could control.

Spy Music Festival, now in its second year, is supported financially by the not-for-profit Jump Arts, an arts presenting organization Abbs founded over a decade ago to shine light on fringe and unsung artists of the then thriving Downtown scene. This year’s fest is also proud to announce the media sponsors Tiny Mix Tapes and The Village Voice.

The full schedule of the Spy Music Festival can be found here.

For example, wave heights control the amplitude of oscillators in a variety of contexts such as ring modulation and amplitude modulation. Dominant wave periods determine which synthesizers are used to make sound. The speed at which new sounds are created (tempo) is controlled by the wind speed.The frequency or pitch of a tone is controlled by the water and/or air temperature. The many permutations of these variables create an ever changing soundscape that is both fascinating and unpredictable.

Website: www.chaosatlantis.com.

Skafish’s proto-punk, avant-garde performances started shaking up the Chicago music scene in February 1976. By the time of the Ratso’s concert, the band had already created a buzz in the local and national media and had developed a devoted underground following. Skafish later went on to tour America and Europe with groups such as The Police, XTC, and Iggy Pop, and was featured in the cult classic film, “Urgh, a Music War!”

The recording features 27 songs, including 15 Skafish compositions that have never been released in any form prior. The planned two CD set will be a numbered, limited edition of only 2000 copies.

According to Skafish, he had no idea that there was a bootleg recording made of the show until he finally got the tapes a few years ago. “What’s so exciting about this,” says Skafish, “is that I can take my project directly to the people, and let my fans participate in the process.”

Fans are encouraged to visit the Kickstarter project page. The campaign lasts through June 24th. The anticipated official release date of the bootleg is on its 35th anniversary, on August 29, 2012.

Russell first organized the group with Jerry Lawson, Jayotis Washington, Herbert “Taubo” Rhoad and Jimmy “Bro” Hayes in Brooklyn during the mid-60′s. They got their first big break when Frank Zappa heard them sing and flew the group to Los Angeles to record their first album. The Persuasions would salute their original mentor thirty years later with the album Frankly A Cappella.

Source: www.vintagevinylnews.com

There have only been two other occasions in the Sun Ra Arkestra’s 56 year history where a string section and guest performers have played a major role in an Arkestra performance. The first instance was the October 27, 1990 performance of the Sun Ra Arkestra with a Symphony Orchestra in Paris, France – which was recorded on the “Pleiades” CD release (Leo Records). The second manifestation was the “Space is the Place Spectacular” on December 31, 2000, which was a concert at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, PA following a month long residency of 10 Philadelphia based string musicians with the Sun Ra Arkestra.

The 2012 Uncool Festival will co-reside with the 17th Sun Ra Convention by Hartmut Geerken. The 2012 Uncool Festival is dedicated to Sun Ra Arkestra trumpeter Michael Ray, who will conclude the festival with a solo trumpet concert on Sunday, June 24, 2012. The “Oedipus” and “Akhenaten” performance schedule involving the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen is:

Friday, June 22, 2012 at 10:00 pm – “Oedipus” – Piazza Cumun, Poschiavo, Switzerland
Saturday, June 23, 2012 at 10:00 pm – “Akhenaten” – Piazza Cumun, Poschiavo, Switzerland

More details about this Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen appearance can be found at www.uncool.ch/2012/program.php.