BTW if you haven't already please take a minute to look up what venomous snakes are local to you and familiarize yourself with them

Farfetched as it may seem, the tiny Malaysian mountain town of Kundasang is sometimes compared to the pastoral villages in the Alps. Situated in the northern part of the island of Borneo, Kundasang is nestled in a rugged landscape that has spectacular scenic vistas like in Switzerland, but it’s unlike anywhere I’ve been in Europe, or Southeast Asia for that matter.

Wooden Malay houses nestle between farms, plantations, and undulating hills, set against the backdrop of Mount Kinabalu’s jagged terrain. A floral wonderland of delicate pine trees stretches in every direction, as Friesian cows graze in the distance. The beckoning chants of the Islamic call for prayer mingle in the village air, which boasts a number of Catholic Churches as well. Farm field of cabbages, carrots, leeks and tomatoes surround the town.

Traveling to Kundasang by car means snaking through forested mountains for two hours from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian section of Borneo. Borneo, an Asian island, is politically divided with Brunei and Indonesia also claiming a portion of the island as their territory.

Courtesy of WikiMedia

A View of Mount Kinabalu

When I traveled there in December 2018, my friend and I stayed at a quaint guesthouse called Amazing Grace Lodge. Perched on top of a hill amid the clouds, the recently-built guesthouse overlooks the Kundasang valley, while Mount Kinabalu looms ahead. It’s run by Jerry, an architect by training from Kota Kinabalu, who has a small tour company on the side. There are few Western travelers in this part of Borneo and my friend and I were the only guests when we arrived making the lodge both peaceful and eerie.

From my window, I watched Mount Kinabalu each morning, as its granite peaks poked through wisps of mist. The mountain has a powerful presence, physically and culturally, even from afar. Steeped in myths and legends, it plays a pivotal role in the ancient pagan traditions of the local indigenous groups. ‘Kinabalu’ is derived from the Kadazan word, ‘Aki Nabalu,’ meaning ‘revered place of the dead.’ Many local people believe that this is where their ancestors’ souls reside before transcending to an afterlife. Each year, shamans from the Kadazan-Dusun tribe – the island’s native people – sacrifice chickens on the mountain as offerings to the spirits.

Given its proximity to the sacred mountain, Kundasang is a popular starting point for hikers embarking on their climbing adventure to the top, which unfolds over two days. Despite the dearth of foreigners, I had to forgo my Kinabalu trek, because trips are usually booked six months in advance. But wandering the picturesque village, it quickly became apparent that I wouldn’t be short of things to do and discover.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Commemorating a Death March

One of the first places I stumbled upon was The Kundasang War Memorial in the town center. The region’s dark history makes it an intriguing spot for travelers interested in World War II. Kundasang lies in the district of Ranau, the final destination for the gut-wrenching 1942 death marches. After the fall of Singapore to the Japanese army, British, Indian and Australian troops were captured and shipped by Japanese soldiers to North Borneo to build an airfield. Thousands of men were ordered to trek a distance of 240 km from Sandakan to Ranau while carrying supplies, culminating in more than 2,500 deaths. The memorial commemorates these fallen prisoners of war with exquisite flower gardens: the wild plants from the region, the exotic blooms of Australia, and red roses reminiscent of England.

Miles away from the horrors of war, present-day Kundasang seems a haven of tolerance. Although, officially a secular country, Malaysia’s dominant religion is Islam. Yet, Christians and Muslims live peaceably alongside each other in this multi-cultural, multi-racial nation. Jerry, who is of Chinese descent, tells me that he was once an atheist – a “free-thinker,” as he calls it – until one day he realized how many miracles had transpired right before his eyes, including his mother’s recovery from a near-fatal illness. Now, he and his family are practicing Christians, with many Muslim friends and neighbors.

A Hike in a World Heritage Site

On our final day, Jerry dropped us off at Kinabalu National Park, a world heritage site set amongst the foothills of Mount Kinabulu. An hour’s drive from the Amazing Grace Lodge, the park is a melting pot of habitats, ranging from tropical lowlands to tropical montane to sub-alpine forests. Once inside, there’s plenty to see and do, including soaking in an open-air hot spring, known for its “healing” sulphuric waters, or channeling your inner Indiana Jones while crossing the jungle on a canopy walk made out of rope and wood planks.

We decided to venture to the top of the hiking trail within the park, where the photogenic Langanan Waterfall awaits like a glistening mirage. The path was narrow, yet, relatively easy to climb. We hopped over crooked logs and moss-covered rocks, pulling ourselves up by gnarled tree limbs at steeper parts. The vegetation grew more unusual as we ascended. The first waterfall we arrived at was Kipungit, where we bathed in the small stream as tiny fish nibbled at our feet. We mostly were alone, meeting only a handful of hikers along the way. Two hours of trekking later, heavy rain started to fall. We hadn’t yet reached the waterfall and the ground was becoming muddy and slippery, so, we decided to make our way back down.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

By the time we reached the carpark, dusk was settling around us and the last bus back to Kundasang had departed. A feeling of trepidation crept in as it dawned on me that besides us, the only people around were a Malaysian family getting into their car. Using our translation app, we asked them about transportation back to Kundasang and the middle-aged man and a grandmotherly lady wearing a headscarf gestured for us to join them and their two children. “Terima Kasih, thank you,” we repeated.

Kundasang turned out to be more than an idyllic town in the clouds suited to adventurers hoping to conquer Kinabalu. If ascending the highest peak in Borneo isn’t in the cards, there are myriad other reasons to explore this less-trodden part of Southeast Asia. Kundasang breathes its own rhythm, making it an ideal destination for jaded travelers seeking pockets of solitude and a deeper cultural experience. You’ll find unpretentious local eateries and market stalls laden with exotic fruits like durian, mata kucing, and purple mangosteen. You’ll marvel at untouched natural landscapes and hike through forests bursting with biodiversity. You’ll hear fascinating stories about Mount Kinabalu from locals and be impressed by their hospitality and kindness.

#gallery-0-12 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-12 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-12 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-12 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Kundasang Sunday market. Photo: Ziba Redif

Kundasang fruit and vegetable market. Photo: Ziba Redif

  There’s More to Kundasang, Borneo than Mount Kinabalu Farfetched as it may seem, the tiny Malaysian mountain town of Kundasang is sometimes compared to the pastoral villages in the Alps.

new arrivals and happy easter!

El Michels Affair: Return To The 37th Chamber CD $19.99 LP $27.99"The wait is over, Return To The 37th Chamber is El Michels Affair's highly anticipated follow up to 2009's underground cult classic Enter the 37th Chamber. Churning out classic records since then for the likes of Lee Fields, The Arcs, The Shacks, and tons more, it is clear that EMA's signature sound is stronger & sharper than ever. This time, in addition to re-interpreting the Wu compositions for a live band, EMA pays homage to the production and sonic fog that makes a RZA beat so recognizable. Producer and bandleader Leon Michels recorded the album completely analog, sometimes hitting 6 generations of tape before it was ready for mixing, giving the Return to The 37th Chamber its own hazy sound. Adding to the unique fidelity, the record is laced with psychedelic flourishes, 'John Carpenter' synths, heavy metal guitars, triumphant horns, and traditional Chinese instruments that make up for the lack of the Wu's superlative vocals. From start to finish it's a dark trip that walks the line between RZA's timeless hip-hop aesthetic and the cinematic soul EMA has become known for. El Michels Affair tackles some classics like '4th Chamber' and 'Wu Tang Aint Nuthin to Fuck Wit', as well as some deeper cuts like Ol Dirty Bastard's 'Snakes', Raekwon's 'Verbal Intercourse', and 'Shaolin Brew', Wu-Tang's contribution to the St. Ide's Hip Hop endorsement campaign from 1994. This time El Michels brings some of the Big Crown family along for the ride. Lee Fields handles vocal duties on 'Snakes' and is joined by Shannon Wise of The Shacks for their version of 'Tearz', which pays as much homage to the Wendy Rene sample as it does to the Wu-Tang Clan. Lady Wray makes an appearance on the cover of Method Man's hit, 'All I Need', lending her vocal prowess to what gave the Wu one of their biggest hits of all time. Interspersed throughout the record are some original interludes that are like the 'rug that ties the room together,' giving Return To The 37th Chamber a cinematic narrative that makes it a proper El Michels Affair record and not just a collection of covers. From the music to the presentation, this album is a perfect example of what can only be achieved through diversity. The end result is as much a kaleidoscope of influences and multiculturalism as the city it was recorded in. El Michels Affair is once again, 'sounding out the city' that raised them, pulling elements of art and culture from across the country and around the globe to create an album truly unique in its own right." CALE & TERRY RILEY, JOHNChurch Of AnthraxLP  $24.992017 repress. Terry Riley (piano, organ, soprano saxophone) & John Cale (bass, harpsichord, piano, guitar, viola, organ) collaborated on this one-off album, released in 1970. At this time, rock music was a serious movement, removed from the joke it once was, quite unaware of the joke it would eventually become, and things like this sometimes happened. Cale, classically trained on the viola, must have been pretty pleased to get a shot to record with the '60s king of minimalist pulse, Terry Riley. The album features 4 collaborative tracks between the two; while maybe not earth-shattering, they are quite fine for horizontal home listening pleasure at just about any hour of the day. Instrumental jams, mixing the styles of the two players pretty evenly (if you're vaguely awake, you can imagine this easily). The fifth track is a psychedelic pop masterpiece by Cale, "The Soul of Patrick Lee." Exactly why this track is included here has never been adequately explained, but it is about as beautiful as music in song form can get. 180 gram exact repro reissue. STEREOLABTransient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements2LP  $32.99 "Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements is Stereolab's breakthrough album, their major label debut, and one of the most innovative releases of the 1990s, a musical decade signified by breaking down artistic barriers. Originally released in August 1993, Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements builds on the promise of the band's early releases Switched On and Peng! by expanding the scope of their highly distinctive mix of one-chord Krautrock grooves, distorted vintage keyboard noise and Euro-pop. Adding touches of '50s and '60s easy listening, exotica and space-age sounds as well as samba and French pop, Stereolab did more than any group in the modern rock era to expand the language of art music by incorporating styles left for dead by the serious rock community." MF DOOMOperation: Doomsday (Metal Face Cover) (Black Vinyl)2LP  $32.99Back again on vinyl where it belongs, MF DOOM's 1999 classic Operation: Doomsday is now presented on a premium grade LP, with audio re-mastered from the original Fondle'Em Records release, and a poster of the album cover art! Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF DOOM hides the cachet underground legends are made of. After KMD (his first group)'s 1994 sophomore album Bl_ck B_st_rds was shelved by Elektra in 1994 and his blood brother Subroc (one half of the sibling rap duo) passed away, surviving front-man Zev Love X mutated into the MC Avenger known as MF DOOM and the rap world is better for it. This 19-cut deep album is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol' Dirty Bastard kind of way. Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. On arguably the best track, 'Rhymes Like Dimes,' Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting 'only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.' 'Who You Think I Am?' features DOOM's crew M.onster I.sland C.zars, while on '?' he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge. Doom's avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on 'Tick, Tick...' where he and guest MC MF Grimm's flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. The comic-book themed skits, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. And in today's bland commercial rap universe, Operation: Doomsday's left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy." VA: Music from Saharan Cellphones  LP $19.992017 repress, originally released in 2012. "A compilation of the most popular music circulating the Sahara desert on the unofficial network of cellphones -- where mp3s are stored, played, and traded in very literal peer to peer bluetooth transfers. The contemporary West African sound from the new school of DIY production with little or no commercial release outside of their locales, from spaced out Tuareg autotune, Ivorian club jams, Mauritanian synth, and Malian hip hop electro. Collected from memory cards by and released on cassette, the vinyl comes after over a year of tracking down the composers." Includes cardstock insert with liner notes. VA: Music From Saharan Cellphones V2 LP $18.992017 repress. "Contemporary pop music from the Sahara desert, where songs are stored on cellphones. Collected in Northern Mali in 2010 (since taken over by extremists who've banned music on cellphones) the second volume expands into new sonic territory - from dreamy Niger guitar ballads, Bamako club juke, and hi energy Moroccan child Raï - with a focus on the Autotuned DIY creations circulating the desert." Includes insert with liner notes. PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNEStrumming MusicLP $29.99The classic minimal music album, available again on vinyl for the first time since the '70s. Primed with a glass of cognac, Charlemagne Palestine sits at the keyboard of a Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano. One foot firmly holds down the sustain pedal while both hands perform an insistent strum-like alternation on the keys. Soon Palestine and his Bösendorfer are enveloped in sound and bathed in a shimmering haze of multi-colored overtones. For 45 minutes, this rich pulsating music swells and intensifies, filling the air. When Strumming Music first appeared on the adventurous French label Shandar during the mid-1970s, it seemed a straightforward matter to place Charlemagne Palestine in the so-called minimalist company of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, whose work also featured in the Shandar catalog. Palestine too used a deliberately restricted range of materials and a repetitive technique, but as he has often pointed out in more recent times, the opulent fullness of his music would more accurately be described as maximalist. Strumming Music, recorded in Palestine's own loft in Manhattan, has no written score. In an age of recorded sound he still feels no need for traditional notation. The surging energy of this particular recording stands comparison with the improvising of jazz visionaries who impressed and inspired him while living in New York as a young man. But, as Palestine himself has made clear, primarily he brings to music-making the sensibility of an artist rather than a musician. Although the technique of the piece has roots in Palestine's daily practice, when a teenager, of playing the carillon at a church, hammering sonorous chimes from a rack of tuned bells, it also draws on his later work as a body artist, staging vigorously muscular, physically demanding and often reckless performances. In addition, Strumming Music can be heard as a sculptural tour de force, while its textures connect with the color moods, plastic rhythms, and tactile space of Mark Rothko's abstract expressionist canvases. Strumming Music remains the essential index of Palestine's singular creative vision. Fundamentally this fascinating piece is a collaboration between an artist and an instrument. Palestine had first encountered the Bösendorfer Imperial back in 1969. "The Bösendorfer at its best is a very noisy, thick molasses piano," he has remarked. Charlemagne Palestine embraced its clinging sonorousness, its clangorous resonance and out of that embrace came the voluptuous sonic fabric of Strumming Music. CHERRY, DONMusic, Wisdom, Love 1969LP $28.99Reaching a near-mythical status amongst fans of free jazz's most worldly intrepid explorer, these seldom heard Paris soundtrack sessions known as Music, Wisdom, Love have evaded collectors' grasps and confused historians for exactly 50 years. Instigated in Paris in 1967 and filmed during Don Cherry's downtime on a visit to the Chat qui Pêche nightclub in March 1967, where he played with Karl Berger, Henri Texier, and Jacques Thollot, the bulk of this cinematic portrait was filmed on the streets of Paris under the direction of creative all-rounders Jean-Noël Delamarre and Nathalie Perrey, who, as their careers bloomed, would become pivotal figures in underground French cinema - straddling La Nouvelle Vague, adult entertainment, and cinema fantastique in what can only be described as speedball cinema. As the supportive creative family that primarily played home to French vampire/horrortica director Jean Rollin, both Nathalie and Jean-Noël, his brother Jean-Philippe Delamarre and a small team of other fans of oblique media would be responsible for a vibrant micro-culture that awkwardly flourished on the outskirts on the Parisian new wave - combining comic book culture, Lettrism, sexual liberation, psychedelic rock, graphic design, and, with this record as prime example, free jazz and avant-garde music. What previously might have been regarded as an unlikely coupling, with the benefit of half a century of archival hindsight, this release documents the essential cosmic collision of two fantastic planets. Available here for the first time ever and licensed from producer and director Jean-Noël Delamarre himself. I-LP-O In Dub: Capital Dub LP  $23.99I-LP-O In Dub is the solo project of Pan Sonic member Ilpo Väisänen. Capital Dub Chapter 1 follows the 2015 debut Communist Dub (EMEGO 203LP) - a year marked by further descent into economic crisis and instability. The usual business cycles of production/distribution/consumption, running alongside macro cycles of boom and bust, have been replaced by ossification, austerity, the machine seizing up. Ilpo's "circular riddims" complement the ebb-and-flow of the circulation of money + commodities and are mirrored by his field recordings of Barcelona rain -- the final phase of the cyclical movement of water. But of course the smooth running of "Paradise Capital" is unsustainable. Destroyed techno and open spaces contend with sinister swarming atmospheres. A cash machine flickers. Zeros and ones displace another factory. Dub as decay -- the ghostly remains of tracks eroded by time and technology. The "Invisible Hand" of the market spasms with tremors. Ferocious textural feedback as music for stock exchange crashes. The soundtrack to heaps of money hoarded by the hidden class. Capital is value in motion, but there is nowhere to go. After the collapse, picturesque ruins. Capital Dub Chapter 1 simply asks the question: what next? Influenced by the first part of Karl Marx's Capital (1867). Recorded anytime in there, rain & 808 at Pallars152, Poblenou, Barceloba; Mixed at Juniper & Stone, Kartula, Finland; Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering. ANJOU Epithymia CD  $15.99LP  $27.99"The culmination of four years writing and editing, Anjou marks the first collaboration between Labradford's Robert Donne and Mark Nelson since the release of that group's fixed:context LP. Combining modular synthesis, Max/MSP programming and live instrumentation, Anjou deftly weaves noise with gentle ambience and melody with texture. Guitar, bass and Steven Hess' (Locrian, Fennesz, Pan American) live percussion give the eight pieces an immediacy and create a framework for the more abstract sounds of digital and analog synth programming. The product of twenty plus years of friendship, Anjou is refined and challenging. An extension of the Labradford sound-world but no mere victory lap, Anjou represents Donne and Nelson stepping out and forward, their eyes firmly focusing on the future." BOSS HOG Brood X LP $19.99Boss Hog returns from the wild with their most subversive record — this is the seductive soundtrack for the second coming of militant rock’n’roll, and the groove has never been stronger. Brood X — emerging from the dirty streets of New York City after seventeen years of gestation — is a futuristic brew of 21st Century blues, toxic punk rock beat music, and hyper-focused, outer-space psycho assaults. Thermonuclear chanteuse Cristina Martinez blisters the hypocrites, the haters, the heartless, and the clueless hangers-on with a full-tilt microphone attack. A sex-bomb salvo for troubled times, Martinez gives voice to America’s pain while pulling no punches. This band does not negotiate. This is scorched earth rock’n’roll for the resistance, barbed-wire blues battling for the future of the planet. Recorded and mixed at the fabled Key Club, using Sly Stone’s legendary There’s A Riot Goin’ On console, the album channels the subversive mojo of the underground and brings next-level sonics to save your very soul. BREEDERS Pod LP $26.99180 gram vinyl. "Though ostensibly a side project of The Pixies' Kim Deal and Throwing Muses' Tanya Donelly, The Breeders' 1990 debut, Pod, has held up as a classic of late '80s/early '90s off-kilter alternative pop, surpassing the contemporaneous work of their main bands. Though Deal would really hit the big time 3 years later with the Breeders' follow-up, Last Splash, and Donelly would do the same with her next band, Belly, Pod is the band's finest, most coherent, album and perhaps the high point in both their careers. Engineered by the legendary Steve Albini." CRAMPS Smell Of Female $19.992016 repress. "Released in 1983 after a lengthy court battle with IRS Records, Smell Of Female originally contained just the first six songs. These, plus out-of-control ad-lib freakouts 'Beautiful Gardens' and 'She Said' (previously omitted due to legal restrictions) were recorded live at New Yorkʼs famous Peppermint Lounge. There is nothing like the sound of The Cramps, and this set distills that cross of swamp water, moonshine and nitro down to a dangerous and unstable musical substance, captured live like a crazed animal. They rocked like few others could. Additional bonus track 'Surfinʼ Dead' was recorded at A&M Studios in Hollywood and originally appeared on the 1984 soundtrack for Return Of The Living Dead -- when asked to write a 'pop song' for the movie, The Cramps (by then a three-piece) threw into their cauldron a mix of Link Wray, Jan & Dean, Davie Allen, The Righteous Brothers, bongos, Phil Spector and eye of newt." DALTON, KAREN In My Own Time LP $27.99"180-gram vinyl; Audio remastered from the original tapes; old school tip-on jacket. Remastered from the original master tapes. Liner notes by Lenny Kaye (Nuggets, Patti Smith), Devendra Banhart, and Nick Cave. The late Karen Dalton has been the muse for countless folk rock geniuses, from Bob Dylan to Devendra Banhart, from Lucinda Williams to Joanna Newsom. Recorded over a six month period in 1970/71 at Bearsville, In My Own Time was Dalton's only fully planned and realized studio album. The material was carefully selected and crafted for her by producer/musician Harvey Brooks, the Renaissance man of rock-jazz who played bass on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and Miles' Bitches Brew. It features ten songs that reflected Dalton's incredible ability to break just about anybody's heart -- from her spectral evocation of Joe Tate's 'One Night of Love,' to the dark tragedy of the traditional 'Katie Cruel.'" DOCKSTADER, TOD Eight Electronic Pieces $26.99"Originally self-released in 1961 and later issued by Folkways, Tod Dockstader's Eight Electronic Pieces is a foundational document of American electronic music and a stunning first work from this revolutionary composer. Refused access to the resources and funding of the academy and without any interest from the record industry, Dockstader assembled his debut album through three years of his own private labor -- recording after-hours at the New York radio station where he worked. Dockstader's approach was informed by the laboratory experiments of his European contemporaries Edgar Varèse and Pierre Schaefer as well as by the aleatory compositional techniques and neo-dadaist aesthetics of John Cage. While Dockstader famously described his music as 'organized sound,' Eight Electronic Pieces is not pure musique concrète. Oscillators pulse and clash with fragments of incidental tape music, leaving collages of sound as tuneful and memorable as they are otherworldly. A visionary debut that presages the abstract ambience of modern IDM and an essential addition to any collection of early electronic music. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl." FLYING SAUCER ATTACK Distance $22.99First ever US vinyl of the second album by Bristol’s Flying Saucer Attack. This edition of the LP is produced in full collaboration with FSA / Dave Pearce. Originally released on VHF as a compact disc at the end of 1994, this was the second FSA album, compiling five tracks from impossible-to-get seven-inches with twenty minutes of previously unreleased (and good) material. Similar in blend to the band’s first LP (also newly issued in the USA on deluxe vinyl), the songs hang together as a collection that improves on the individual singles. The two proper singles that make up half of Distance — “Soaring High” / ”Standing Stone” and “Crystal Shade” / ”Distance” were instant collectables upon their release, so this album was compiled to make the songs permanently available. “Soaring High” and “Crystal Shade” are jagged bits of fuzzed-out pop genius; tracks like the mutant concrete “techno” of “Distance” and the two lengthy glissando workouts on “Oceans” and “Oceans II” offset the more conventional tunes, upping the overall impact as a whole album. FLYING SAUCER ATTACK S/t $22.99"First-ever US vinyl of the debut album by Bristol's Flying Saucer Attack, and first vinyl edition of any kind since 1993! This edition of the album is produced in full collaboration with FSA/Dave Pearce. Aka Rural Psychedelia, Flying Saucer Attack's first album was released in 1993 after a couple of instantly sold-out singles. Released at the height of the shoegaze boom, the album is a blend of memorable fuzzed out songs and far-out instrumental doodles, sidestepping the rock bombast of many contemporaries in favor of a home-made aesthetic. FSA's blend of razor-edged static, softly sung melody, and echoing atmospherics builds a dour beauty that sustains itself over the course of the entire program. 'My Dreaming Hill,' 'Wish,' and 'The Season Is Ours' are couched in fuzz and whispery reverb, but are beautiful and accessible tunes, able to stand on their own in any context. 'Popol Vuh 1' and 'Popol Vuh 2' are straight up tributes to the now much better known German masters, steeped in the hushed atmosphere of the best Vuh records (if not exactly the sound)." KONAMI KUKEIHA CLUB Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse DOUBLE LP $39.99Mondo is proud to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Castlevania franchise with the premiere vinyl release of the original soundtrack to the 1989 Famicom / Nintendo Entertainment System Three-quel / Prequel: Dracula's Curse. Dracula's Curse is a dark horse for most beloved of the original NES / FAMICOM trilogy, as it was a happy marriage of the linear elements of the first Castlevania and the more exploratory elements of Simon's Quest—a union that led to the introduction of multiple playable characters, multiple paths and multiple endings - that remain franchise staples even today. The story follows Trevor Belmont, Simon's ancestor and his battles with the prince of darkness, along side three other warriors: Grant Danasty the Pirate, Sypha Belnades the Mystic, and Alucard, Dracula's Son, who makes series debut here, and will play a more pivotal role in the games to come. The soundtrack to Dracula's Curse is important as well. Not only for fan favorite track 'Beginning,' a track you'd be nary to find excluded from any future Castlevania game, but for the dynamic audio introduced on the Japanese version of the game. The VRC6 Audio chip contained in the Japanese version allowed for a wider array of sound channels, producing a brighter, fuller soundtrack than on the cartridge released in the US. The Nintendo Entertainment System could not process this level of audio, so the version released in the US needed to have the audio scaled back. Despite this audio handicap the US version is still terrific, and the superiority of the which version best is still a matter of debate to this day. No need to choose though, since Mondo's vinyl re-issue contains both, spread across two 12" LPs, housed in a gatefold jacket featuring amazing new artwork by Sachin Teng. O'NEIL, TARA JANE S/t LP $22.99At the invitation and by the design of Mark Greenberg (The Coctails), half of this record was recorded mostly live at Wilco’s Loft Studio in Chicago with a band that included James Elkington, Gerald Dowd, Nick Macri, and Greenberg himself. Another half was made in TJO’s home studio in California with Devin Hoff, Wilder Zoby, Walt McClements and string supervisor Jim James. This album also features the voices of Chris Cohen, Carolyn Pennypacker-Riggs and Joan Shelley. Tara Jane ONeil plays guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion. SADIER, LAETITIA SOURCE Find Me Finding You CD $15.99LP $22.99Another New Year, and new shapes are forming—if only we are fortunate enough to notice them! As we spin through this world, we are witness to all manner of combinations unfolding before us—familiar arcs and breaking waves alike, upon all of which it is our choice, our chance and our challenge, to possibly ride. Find Me Finding You, the new album from the new organization called the LAETITIA SADIER SOURCE ENSEMBLE, manages to strike new chords while touching familiar keys in the song of life. From its percolating opening beat, Find Me Finding You locates new systems within the sound-universe of Laetitia Sadier. This in itself isn’t a surprise—Laetitia has relentlessly followed her music through different dynamics and into a variety of dimensions over the course of four solo albums since 2010 (not to forget her three albums with MONADE and the long era of STEREOLAB)—but the nature of the construction here stands distinctly apart from her recent albums. Laetitia was inspired by a mind’s-eye envisaging of geometric forms and their possible permutations. As she sought to replicate the shapes in music, this guided the process of assembly for the album. Features longtime collaborators EMMANUEL MARIO and XAVI MUNOZ, keyboard and flutes from DAVID THAYER (LITTLE TORNADOS), keys, synths and electronics from PHIL M FU, and guitar from MASON LE LONG. Includes a guest appearance from HOT CHIP's ALEXIS TAYLOR, as well as cornet work from ROB MAZUREK. V/A Bloodstains Across Virginia LP  $19.99A collection of rare and classic Virginia punk circa 1978-1983. Features tracks from ZITS, PREVARICATORS, LAMOUR, NOYS, BARRIERS, BEEX, INSINUATIONS, NAROS, CHUMPS, CITIZEN 23, RATICLES, NEXT OF KIN, and RICKY AND THE WHITE BOYS. Fifteen cuts in all. V/A Highlights Of Vortex LP $26.99The brainchild of visual artist Jordan Belson and electronics polymath Henry Jacobs, the Vortex Experiments ran from 1957 to 1960, first at San Francisco’s Morrison Planetarium and later at the SF Museum of Art. The very name of these events announced their aim: a swirling totality of sensory experience. Around Belson’s richly-colored visuals – making use of the planetarium’s entire dome and featuring luminous, sharply geometric imagery projected through an array of devices – Jacobs ringed a system of roughly 40 multidirectional loudspeakers, each of which could be precisely controlled to produce, in the words of one reviewer, “a living theater of sound and light.” A landmark recording in the history of electronic tape music and an engrossing artifact of proto-psychedelia, Highlights Of Vortex gathers recordings designed for the Vortex system by Jacobs and collaborators David Talcott, William Loughborough, and Gordon Longfellow. Source material including free improvisation, field recording,classical Indian instrumentation, West African polyrhythms and musique concrète is transmogrified through tape manipulation, atomizing swathes of reverb and delay, and other live and recorded effects, making dramatic use of the monumental Vortex soundsystem. An unprecedented marriage of image and sound, Vortex Experiments exercised immeasurable impact on the imagination and practice of countless experimental visual and sonic artists so this album is a must for fans of such visionaries as Stan Brakhage, Tony Conrad, and Jack Smith. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl. WALTER, JUSTIN Unseen Forces CD  $15.99 LP  $22.99Michigan trumpeter Justin Walter’s solo work centers on evocative, intuitive explorations of the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument), a rare wind-controlled analog synthesizer from the 1970s. Its unique, smeared tonality allows for an expressive range of glassy, jazz-like textures, which Walter loops and layers with hushed electronics and twilit trumpet, painting opaque landscapes of resonant beauty. Walter’s 2013 debut, Lullabies & Nightmares, included a handful of collaborations with percussionist Quin Kirchner, but Unseen Forces finds him fully solo, refining the project to its essence: shape-shifting watercolors of pastel haze, lit by the soft synthetic glow of electric breath. It’s a sound both modern and timeless, fusing emotion and technology, gauze and melody, force and fragility.