January/ February 2019 Releases Announced

Excited to announce our xxx-tra special Valentine’s Day release: Roy Garrett’s ‘Hot Rod To Hell’ with musical scenery by Man Parrish.

DE-240 Roy Garrett & Man Parrish – Hot Rod To Hell LP

Roy Garrett born Roy Samber in Newark, New Jersey arrived in New York City hungry to explore the sex and porn scenes he’d seen advertised in the Village Voice’s classified section. He danced in Times Square theaters The Gaiety, Ramrod, and Big Top before moving into adult film. From 1979 through 1983 Garret starred in ten films, five of them for Joe Gage, including his lead role in ‘Heatstroke’. Throughout this period of self-discovery, he wrote the suite of poems that became ‘Hot Rod to Hell’. In 1982 he recorded 48 of the poems with haunting, atmospheric score by Man Parrish, who also did several soundtracks for Gage. The project was produced for the stage and for cassette by Manhattan illustrator Robert W. Richards. Richards calls ‘Hot Rod’, “a searing voyage through the labyrinths of modern male sexuality; it’s geography ranging from porn theaters to back room bars to the intimacy of shared beds. Only a man born at exactly the moment in gay history that Garrett was could have lived through and conceived this work.” Roy Garrett tells his stories of sex, violence, truth, and illusion, a visceral and personal a record as any of that moment in gay history pre-AIDS. Joe Gage, describes ‘Hot Rod’ as, “…sweet danger. This is a perceptive look at the underside of love. It is funny, scary, surprisingly moving and best of all, extremely acute in observing the specifics of the human condition.” All poems have been carefully remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The records come housed in a jacket designed by Gwenael Rattke and includes an 44-page full color magazine with all 48 ‘Hot Rod’ poems plus 44 previously unpublished poems from Garrett’s archive. All proceeds from ‘Hot Rod’ will be donated to Housing Works, a New York City based non-profit fighting the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness.

2 RELEASES FOR JANUARY 18TH

DE-235 Victrola – Born From The Water (Demos 1983-85) 2xLP

Maritime Tatami
Game Of Despair
Tenderface
Luca’s Theme
Point Of No Return
No Memories
The Mutant Glow
Beyond The Door
Waves Under Mine
In Tandem With You
Neveride
Explorer

Victrola is the duo of Antonio “Eze” Cuscinà and Carlo Smeriglio from Messina, Italy. The band formed in 1979 but shortly thereafter relocated to Florence take part in a rich musical scene alongside Neon, Pankow, Alexander Robotnick, and Diaframma. Beginning as a 4-piece (two guitarists, bassist, drummer) they slimmed down to a synthesizer and guitar-based duo by 1982. Their sole release was the now classic ”Maritime Tatami”/”A Game Of Despair” EP from 1983, which we reissued in 2012.

‘Born From The Water’ is a 12 song collection of unreleased demos recorded between 1983 and 1985. The band sent us over 100 cassettes, through which we dug to compile the first volume of their archival darkwave ballads. They used an array of Roland synthesizers (TR-606, TB-303, TR-909, Juno 6) plus a Korg Polysix, Yamaha DX7, Casio VL-Tone VL-1, DR-55 Dr. Rhythm, and Fender Stratocaster and Jazz Bass. Some of the songs would later appear on various compilations, but the versions presented here are unique. Victrola engulfs the listener with trance-inducing synth lines, oblique minor-key bass lines, angular guitar riffs, and melancholic vocals. The songs tell tales of youth, love, karma, and the decline of civilization in modern times. Each song has been carefully remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The records come housed in a jacket designed by Eloise Leigh, which uses motifs from the band’s sole release and includes an insert with liner notes and photos.

DE-241 Stratis – New Face LP

Technotown
Humanly Possible
Birds In A Cage
Mystery Trip
Die Kur
She’s Dancing
Theatre
Foggy Weather

Stratis is an electronic duo from Cologne, Germany, formed by Antonios Stratis and Albert Klein in 1981. They took inspiration from the progressive electronic synthscapes of Tangerine Dream & Vangelis and the proto-techno of Chris & Cosey and Yello, as well as jazz and funk. The duo recorded 5 cassette-only albums between 1982 and 1986 – Exotic, New Face, Musica da Ballo, Film Musik, and Raging Beauty – which were released on their own label Creative Tapes (later called Temporary Music), and which were also licensed to Colin Potter’s Integrated Circuit Records (ICR) label.

We are pleased to announce the first ever standalone vinyl reissue of their sophomore album “New Face’, which was recorded and released in 1983. It consists of eight future-fixated tracks that could have been composed for movies like Blade Runner or Tron. A wide range of minimal electronics are presented, from robotic synth pop to melancholic cold wave to Neue Deutsche Welle electro. The masters for this reissue came from a new transfer made by Colin Potter at ICR in May 2018, and each song has been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in jacket designed by Eloise Leigh using motifs of the cassette artwork on a neon red background, and includes an insert with lyrics and photos.