{"title":"Private Mind Garden","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Numero Group Guide to Private Press Records. This collection includes both individual albums and singles originally released independently by the artists and compilations that lean heavily on selections from Private Press titles. Read more about the Numero Private Mind Garden on our \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/numerogroup.com\/blogs\/stories\/numero-guide-to-private-press\"\u003eblog\u003c\/a\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"wayfaring-strangers-guitar-soli","title":"Guitar Soli","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eGuitar Soli\u003c\/em\u003e documents the solo acoustic guitar movement that flourished between 1966 and 1981. The collection highlights a range of little-known innovators who bridged the chronological gap between the American Primitivism of John Fahey and Robbie Basho and the California Modernism of Michael Hedges and William Ackerman. Inside, discover the raga-influenced Ted Lucas, the mad-genius luthier William Eaton, the detuned loner Brad Chequer, and the classically trained, soon-to-be-mystery novelist Daniel Hecht. While Takoma and Windham Hill were laying the groundwork for the new age marketing juggernaut of the mid-’80s, Lucas, Hecht, Eaton, Chequer, Dan Lambert, Scott Witte, Richard Crandell, Jim Ohlschmidt, Tom Smith, Mark Lang, Stephen Cohen, Dwayne Cannan, Dana Westover, and George Cromarty were picking away in tiny cafes. They toiled for years in the same obscurity that Fahey worked to maintain, their privately issued albums sold hand-to-hand or stored in the garage. Consider it the perfect companion for your next seeds-and-stems separation marathon or transcendental meditation retreat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40259779068102,"sku":"NUM018cd","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40259779100870,"sku":"NUM018dig1","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"2xLP","offer_id":40259779133638,"sku":"NUM018lp","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/atom-1538756220_f9fd89e0-9f44-458b-91de-40e533868c72.jpg?v=1626880345"},{"product_id":"willie-wright-telling-the-truth","title":"Telling The Truth","description":"\u003cp\u003eBorn of Harlem doo-wop roots and refined by Boston’s counterculture scene, Willie Wright arrived in Nantucket in 1976 well worn by two decades of street corner and club performing, eager to make the easy money only a private yacht clientele could guarantee. Trapped on the island over winter, a set of original songs poured into his cover-heavy set. Tales of Wright’s native roots, straight life, his abandoned four children, and the many women he had known flooded his loose leaf notebook before finally being set to tape in New York the following spring. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Tracked with George “Buzzy” Bragg and Herry Jensen (of Skull Snaps and Jimmy Castor Bunch fame, respectively) in one day with minimal overdubs, \u003cem\u003eTelling The Truth\u003c\/em\u003e was, and would remain, Willie Wright’s brightest and most inspired moment. Sold from the trunk of a car and from a handful of resort stages, the humble album disappeared into the collections and garages of Nantucket tourists, taking what was left of a near-30-year career along with it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"Nantucket Blue Vinyl","offer_id":42040765087942,"sku":"NUM038.2lp-C1","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black Vinyl Repress","offer_id":42040933482694,"sku":"NUM038.2lp","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD+4.72in","offer_id":40260700799174,"sku":"NUM038cd","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40260700733638,"sku":"NUM038dig","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM038.2LP-C1-Willie-Wright-mock-Edited.png?v=1671839124"},{"product_id":"wtng-899-solid-bronze","title":"Solid Bronze","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Numero Group’s ode to radio station compilation albums of yore, back in the days of when FM radio jocks stoked the flames of stage acts in their broadcast area with hyped-up talent shows, invaluable airplay, and homegrown LPs stacked with the best efforts of bands not more than a few counties away. \u003cem\u003eSolid Bronze\u003c\/em\u003e covers all of that ground and then some: smooth rock, AOR, easy glide, hot tub soul, and earnest yacht rock sailing gentle radio waves. Fans of the Dans—Fogelberg, Steely, Seals, and Hill—this is your Numero record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numbero","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40260863131846,"sku":"NBR002cd","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40260863164614,"sku":"NBR002digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40260863197382,"sku":"NBR002lp","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/atom-1539017475_278956c4-af5d-47aa-97d8-a2edf81ab18f.jpg?v=1626880468"},{"product_id":"circuit-rider-s-t","title":"S\/T","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the ultimate burnout biker-psych masterpiece. Finally repressed directly from tapes to flawlessly restore the cigarette burns, Harley fumes, and cocaine hangovers of the original ride, Circuit Rider is a 40-minute recipe for mental breakdown. Included on the \u003cem\u003eAcid Archives\u003c\/em\u003e’ list of Top Ten LPs Most Likely To Be Owned By A Serial Killer, Circuit Rider went lost on the same journey as Kenneth Higney, Nicodemus \u0026amp; Matchez, YaHowWa, Boa, Heitkotter, Dave Lamb \u0026amp; Gye Whiz, Raven, Fraction, and—sure, why not?—The Doors’ \u003cem\u003eL.A. Woman.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40260871487686,"sku":"NUM1205digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40260871520454,"sku":"NUM1205lp","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/atom-1539024317_dd103b51-014f-4db6-b041-b71d9cb6e9ae.jpg?v=1626880475"},{"product_id":"medusa-first-step-beyond","title":"First Step Beyond","description":"\u003cp\u003eYou must physically hold this album, kneel at its altar; we will fail to describe it. Medusa’s \u003ci\u003eFirst Step Beyond\u003c\/i\u003e might have forever shifted the perception of Chicago rock history had it managed to make the leap from tape to its never-realized vinyl pressing. Instead, the conflagration of Sabbath, Hawkwind, and Amon Duul II remained petrified in the Corycian Caverns—otherwise known as the drummer’s basement. Self-produced on four track in 1975, this lone transmission from Medusa’s repertoire appeared on the extremely mysterious Pepperhead label, whose proprietor allegedly disappeared after a bad trip and has never been seen again. Forged in ceremonial mock-velvet, custom embossed in Gorgon-gold and blood-red, and art directed in accordance with the band’s elaborate original stage props and artwork, we have positioned this unreleased opus to finally reach its destination: the turntables of pot-smoking and leather-clad teenagers, young and old.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP (Blood Red Vinyl)","offer_id":40260889411782,"sku":"NUM048.5lp-C1","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP (Black Wizard Vinyl)","offer_id":43645613670598,"sku":"NUM048.5lp-C2","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40260889313478,"sku":"NUM048-5lp","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40260889247942,"sku":"NUM048.5CD","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40260889280710,"sku":"NUM048.5dig","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/bloodred.jpg?v=1633540271"},{"product_id":"caroline-peyton-intuition","title":"Intuition","description":"\u003cp\u003eIssued in 1977, Caroline Peyton’s sophomore album is a schizophrenic time capsule of folk’s coked-out overdose. Jazz-disco table dancing gives way to electric hillbilly bluez and Boone’s Farm-soaked cocktail napkin torch songs before settling heavily down into the canyon. At the time of its release, \u003cem\u003eRolling Stone\u003c\/em\u003e called \u003cem\u003eIntuition\u003c\/em\u003e a “near state-of-the-art album by a pop female vocalist,” prompting Arista’s Clive Davis to take a sniff, and pass after pianist Mark Gray insulted him for not being hip enough to even understand the music. He wasn’t wrong. \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nThis expanded edition includes dozens of photos and two studio outtakes, but the real gold lies in the five demos recorded for Curb Records in 1979. Straightforwardly arranged, pristinely picked, and gorgeously sung, these demos find Peyton off the junk and out of the commune, marking the end of an incredible renaissance for not only Bloomington, but folk as a whole. \u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40260902650054,"sku":"NUM5006cd","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40260902682822,"sku":"NUM5006digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/atom-1539015123_01a25f36-761a-4c8d-9a93-2eb64b33f88c.jpg?v=1626880502"},{"product_id":"caroline-peyton-mock-up","title":"Mock Up","description":"\u003cp\u003eBorn out of Bloomington, Indiana’s Needmore Commune, \u003cem\u003eMock Up\u003c\/em\u003e is the drug-damaged hippy stepsister to Joni Mitchell’s \u003cem\u003eBlue\u003c\/em\u003e. A dark orgasmic love letter between Caroline Peyton and producer Mark Bingham, the sparsely arranged album chronicles the rise and fall of their tumultuous relationship. Peyton’s operatic training complements Mark Gray’s spare piano flourishes and Bingham’s minimal strums, seeming at times to be just another instrument amidst the controlled chaos. Bird calls, laughter, soprano, falsetto…even high-pitched squeals show off Peyton’s dynamic range and control. \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nOriginally issued in 1972, the ten-song album has been expanded to include her three cuts from the Screaming Gypsy Bandits’ \u003cem\u003eIn The Eye\u003c\/em\u003e LP and a live freak-out from the Bandits’ legendary stage show. Enhanced CD contains a contemporaneous short film from an intimate performance at the Hummingbird Café. Quite possibly the hippest record to ever have its cover drawn by the pressing plant’s janitor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40260905205958,"sku":"NUM5007cd","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40260905238726,"sku":"NUM5006digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/atom-1539015160_39ba2e49-cbb8-491a-87ef-a7a48e0e27fa.jpg?v=1626880504"},{"product_id":"good-god-apocryphal-hymns","title":"Apocryphal Hymns","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eIn the firmament of independently financed gospel LPs, the stock album jacket would become as much a commonplace as any of the most obligatory hymns, from \"Amazing Grace\" to \"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.\" Decorating that stock jacket pantheon is a familiar collection of nature’s most graceful images of everyday awe-inspiration—foamy waves crashing over rocks or sand, rainbows spilling from passing clouds, sunset-backlit trees deep in shadow. Lighthouses and hands cupped in prayer abound, as do clip-art praying hands superimposed over those same lighthouse, cloud, and shoreline scenes. Photographic representation of the performers on a given LP product was most often left to an afterthought group portrait, pasted off-center into a back cover’s bottom corner, with names and instruments listed in plain black type. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmong the dozens of stock cover concerns vying for the attentions of a nation teeming with small-time music makers, Century Records of Saugus, California, turned out a lion’s share of the imagery options, which today turn up with the frequency of pebbles in a stream. Illinois Christian folksters the \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/dev.numerogroup.com\/products\/sixth-station-deep-night\"\u003eSixth Station\u003c\/a\u003e took to the twilit midwestern sundown meadow of Century’s Cover Option #229 for their contemplative and offbeat \u003cem\u003eDeep Night\u003c\/em\u003e cassette. That same #229 cover would do its service for the Gospel Imperials, the Jubilaires II, and the Sensational Friendly Four of Selma, Alabama...who made themselves a sensational pair of #229 LPs. The cascading waterfall tumult of Century cover #333 made good sense for the Original Soul Stirrers, but the Gospel Clouds of Joy also chose it, apparently for its mostly obscured clouds. Louise Richardson, the Golden Keys, and the Elison Family, to name just a few from far-flung parts unknown, headed for the sun-kissed mountain radiance of #317. And the litany of groups who selected the pastel-colored pre-dusk beachscape of #CS202 might truly be eternal; its golds and blues have been stamped in block type by names including—but nowhere near limited to—the Traveling Souls, Song Birds of the South, and the Flying Eagles Gospel Singers....though there was nary a seagull aloft on the day that #CS202’s film got exposed.\u2028\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nFor \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/dev.numerogroup.com\/products\/king-bullard-version-songs-of-the-bos-label\"\u003eKing James Records\u003c\/a\u003e proprietor and repeat stock-cover customer James Bullard, choosing covers was creative only in the most minimal sense. \"I tried to select 'em so that they would coincide with the title of the content in the package. When I was starting out, I didn't have access to art directors, there wasn't any in Cleveland that I was aware of.\" Bullard's report is echoed by the Supreme Jubilees' Leonard Sanders: \"The title of our album was \u003cem\u003eIt'll All Be Over\u003c\/em\u003e. When I saw that photo of the sun setting into the ocean, it seemed to express everything we were trying to say.\" The same held true for the vast majority of the tens of thousands of gospel tracks distributed on LP between two sheets of stock-cover cardboard. But what of the exceptions? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBy the dawn of the 1970s, the popular canon of gospel standards had grown full-on grey and stately. \"Just A Closer Walk With Thee,\" \"Blessed Assurance,\" and \"Wade In The Water” were ending their long march out of the sharecropping 1800s, while \"Stand By Me\" and \"We'll Understand It Better By And By\" sounded increasingly like turn-of-the-century relics. Even the pre-war silver on Thomas Dorsey's \"Take My Hand, Precious Lord\" and \"Peace In The Valley\" had tarnished some, as a new generation of musical holy rollers tried on the everyman spiritualism of the Civil Rights movement. Meanwhile, the spiritual’s oral tradition approached obsolescence with the advance of modern recording technology and inexpensive means of physically replicating a sung message. Predictably, this new era witnessed gospel readings in their multitudes on chart hits like “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “People Get Ready.” But for every instant-classic Bill Withers or Curtis Mayfield composition refracted through recorded gospel’s stained-glass prism, thousands of original hymns were etched into perhaps 1000—and often fewer—pieces of vinyl and then promptly left to the care of a tiny congregation. Of those hordes of recordings, only a precious few—given new context by time and the whims of taste—announce themselves to today's ears, standing fully apart from the innocuous reverence of the stock-cover imagery that, to our eyes, drags them toward the light.\u2028\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nCollected here are 19 \u003cem\u003eApocryphal Hymns\u003c\/em\u003e, a slim new gospel songbook, penned powerfully by lesser-known disciples. Though some were housed by a prosaic Cover Option #293 or #397, their delivery of the Word was anything but ordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"2xLP","offer_id":40260912382150,"sku":"NUM040lp","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40260912316614,"sku":"NUM040cd","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40260912349382,"sku":"NUM040digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/atom-1539024657_5f3bbcf5-355b-4ee8-ada2-0ba35f0e6bf1.jpg?v=1626880512"},{"product_id":"otis-g-johnson-everything-god-is-love-78","title":"Everything - God Is Love '78","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor outsider gospel visionary and Detroit native Otis G. Johnson, the Holy Ghost was in the machine...in this case a rhythm-equipped Hammond organ. \u003cem\u003eEverything - God Is Love 78\u003c\/em\u003e, a singular 1978 mid-fi document, features android percussion against chords of Otis’s own invention, possessed by minor tonality and frequent bum notes. Lifting it further are extemporaneous vocal homilies to the rapture, love, and everything, plus occasional “other” voicings that scratch at the periphery of the mix. Homespun gospel rarely entered this dirge-like, intuitive space, nor did it commonly achieve such a spectral and captivating hymn to its darkest conventions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40260919197894,"sku":"NUM1209lp","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/atom-1539024682_3cac7e59-405a-4323-be5c-04c45278a459.jpg?v=1626880517"},{"product_id":"sixth-station-deep-night","title":"Deep Night","description":"\u003cp\u003eA raw cry from the dark night of one man’s soul. Cloistered away from the popular culture of 1982, rural Illinois priest Tony Trosley painted a pastoral refraction of early 1970s Laurel Canyon watercolors with this stand-alone set of songs. Openhearted and naively psychedelic, \u003cem\u003eDeep Night\u003c\/em\u003e was recorded during a single pre-dawn marathon, and mixed live to tape in an isolated chapel. Cobbled together out of local players to help fill out this ethereal soundscape, Trosley’s band brought an earnest but bluntly unsophisticated backdrop to his phaser-drenched 12-string guitar. The Sixth Station—named for a grim New Testament tableau in which Veronica washes the tortured face of Jesus—managed to avoid overtly Christian themes in favor of a mystical Humanism that resonates timelessly, and to any sort of listener. This \u003cem\u003eDeep Night\u003c\/em\u003e is as profound and eerie as the images conjured by its title.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40260935188678,"sku":"NUM1212dig1","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40260935221446,"sku":"NUM1212lp","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/atom-1539024831_0432797e-c56a-4ab8-a7f9-8da75e1ca02a.jpg?v=1626880526"},{"product_id":"kathy-heideman-move-with-love","title":"Move With Love","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eLodged between a heartbreak and a smoke break, Kathy Heideman’s \u003cem\u003eMove With Love\u003c\/em\u003e wandered off I-5 somewhere just south of Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area and broke down. At its dusty roadside, cheap truck-stop java flows over plaintive coffeehouse tunes concerning “Bob” and “Need.” Her session hand’s lanky, echo-laden guitar might’ve twanged a bit strong for the typical sandal-shoed hitchhiker, who’d have fell harder for Dylanesque grandeur on “The Earth Won’t Hold Me.” More Bakersfield than Laurel Canyon, and set to walking in 1976 by the one-off Dia imprint in a plain-Jane, black-on-white sleeve, Heideman’s lone LP suffered the geographical misfortune of having ripened in the pre-silicon orchards of San Jose, California, far from more marketable realms—Emmylou’s backyard, say, or Joni Mitchell’s summery lawn. Heideman herself faded out thereafter, packing her shaken, singular voice into a rustic suitcase, moseying on, and leaping into the moving sun.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP (Java Vinyl)","offer_id":44837758894278,"sku":"NUM1214lp-C3","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP (White Vinyl)","offer_id":40260994433222,"sku":"NUM1214lp-C1","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40260994400454,"sku":"NUM1214lp","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40260994367686,"sku":"NUM1214digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/files\/movewithlove_C2.png?v=1754687573"},{"product_id":"josefus-dead-man","title":"Dead Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDead Man\u003c\/em\u003e is a 13th Floor Elevator descent headlong into southern-fried bloody Sabbath. Released on the Hookah imprint in 1970, the LP’s gaping cranium cover, sludged-up blues, and bone-bleached riffs outsold \u003cem\u003eLet It Be\u003c\/em\u003e, if only locally, being far “too psychedelic” and skull-crushing for Houston’s International Artists label to touch. A Texas-bound band except in tracking \u003ci\u003eDead Man\u003c\/i\u003e inside the furnace of Phoenix, Josefus strode loud and longhaired amid the oil fields, peddling their own brand of black gold.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nAs US involvement in the Vietnam War peaked and human boots sunk into lunar dust, Josefus powered across the Texas plains, shaking its coliseums awake as openers for the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Heavier by tonnage than both the Stones they cover and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” Doug Tull, Pete Bailey, Ray Turner, and Dave Mitchell watched their 17-minute funeral pyre title track burn through statewide airplay, glorying in the evil looseness of the FM format.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nRead no further than the replica back cover of our reissue, which sends Josefus “emitting from the darkness of obscurity, bursting forth with the drive and impact of a celestial happening.” A clattering and prescient skeleton of a record—a deceased Zeppelin reanimated by four lost and darkened country boys—\u003ci\u003eDead Man\u003c\/i\u003e truly should be played loud.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40261041553606,"sku":"NUM1216lp","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40261041520838,"sku":"NUM1216digital","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM1216_Josefus_DeadMan_LP_Black.jpg?v=1663262735"},{"product_id":"bulbous-creation-you-wont-remember-dying","title":"You Won't Remember Dying","description":"\u003cp\u003eA truly underground document of the national obsession with heavy, mind-bent psychedelia. Originating in the unassuming suburb of Prairie Village, Kansas, Bulbous Creation seem to have warped directly from the wrong side of the looking glass with a jabberwocky full of surreal lyrics and gratuitous guitar solos. Recorded and abandoned in the catacombs of Independence, Missouri's Cavern Sound studio in 1969, Bulbous Creation's eight-song screed invokes images of sinners, wage slaves, drugs, out of touch parents, jail, and the devil, naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n“He was kind of a loner,” Jan Parkinson said of his younger brother Paul, singer and guitarist of Kansas City’s Bulbous Creation. Born and raised on the west side of the Missouri River in Prairie Village, Kansas, Paul used his semi-isolated surroundings as fuel for his fantastical lyrics. A series of informal bands were formed in high school with his childhood friend Jim “Bugs” Wine and revolving cast of drummers. The band was put on ice in 1966 for Wine’s enlistment, and he spent the next three years stationed in Korea, Germany, and Fort Riley, Kansas, where he spent his downtime honing his bass chops to a fine point. Discharged honorably into the heady climate of the ’60s final year, Wine waded into the potent stream of freedom and higher consciousness that was flowing in every city. He got an apartment in KC with another childhood friend whose hair was gathering around the collar and a job in avionics. It was here he reconnected with Paul Parkinson.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Wine had already been looking into putting a band together. A personal ad in the K.C. Star put him in contact with guitarist Alan Lewis, who had a monstrous talent and a familiarity with Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep. Lewis and Wine gelled immediately, but lacked the introspective nature of true songwriters. Wine invited the wordsmith Parkinson to apply his lyrics and melodic ideas to their heavy foundation. On the drum stool was Chuck Horstmann. For no identifiable reason, Lewis thought the term “Bulbous” applied to their sound, and wanted to name the band thus. His mates balked, but applying the slightly cosmic “Creation” to it at least let it roll off the tongue. Their all-originals set list made them a difficult booking, and profits did not materialize.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In 1971, the quartet poured what little personal surplus they had into a full day of recording at Cavern Studios, tracking enough material for a full length album. Bulbous Creation wouldn’t stay together long enough to save up for a custom pressing. The deeply individualistic Parkinson left to perform his songs as he thought appropriate, as a solo act. He preferred coffee shops to concert halls, and would stick to his craft another 20 years before hanging it up. Horstmann followed suit. Wine and Lewis soldiered on, adding a few components and then shortening their name to the more sensible Creation on the path to a more progressive sound. The Bulbous Creation LP might’ve been doomed to oblivion but for the efforts of Rich Haupt, who issued the seven-song LP in 1995 on his Rockadelic imprint. 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A student of Terry Riley and La Monte Young’s “pure sound with shape” school of piano tuning, De La Sierra was not confined by Bach’s Western, “well tempered” tuning, instead incorporating the natural point of view, what Young called “well tuned,” where notes are not flattened or sharpened in order to fall into an octave of 12 equal semitones to simply bend within the player’s improvisations and textural sonic explorations. With help from the venerable public radio program \u003cem\u003eHearts of Space\u003c\/em\u003e, De La Sierra tracked the four-song, 120 minute long album in a tiny Berkeley studio in 1976, then replayed the tape in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral to create a reverb-drenched atmosphere. Take an interstellar ride on the sensory engulfing space piano with this lovingly recreated double LP set, complete with De La Sierra’s India-inspired visual artwork and musings on the tableau of space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"2xLP","offer_id":40459452088518,"sku":"NUM059LP","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"2xCD","offer_id":40261125275846,"sku":"NUM059CD","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40261125243078,"sku":"NUM059digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM059_JordanDeLaSierra_GymnosphereSongOfTheRose_LP_Black.jpg?v=1660931682"},{"product_id":"alan-watts-this-is-it","title":"This Is IT","description":"\u003cp\u003ePsychedelic music began with the tiniest possible bang: a minuscule pressing of a self-produced LP by Zen Buddhist scholar Alan Watts. In one cosmic flash of inspiration and group improvisation, the next two decades of musical innovation was pre-supposed: psychedelic rock, spiritual jazz, and even new age. As this micro pressing barely made it out of the ashram, it was Watts’ writings that actually spread his ideas, usually through osmosis: he was profoundly influential on the beat poets and the subsequent counter-culture. He became the forebear of the 1960s counterculture's spirituality, much as William Burroughs was the forebear of its hedonism.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nReleased in 1962, \u003cem\u003eThis Is It\u003c\/em\u003e is an imaginative cacophony of percussion, non-verbal chanting, and free-flowing expression, punctuated occasionally by leisurely passes at a terrestrial piano, marimba, or french horn. It is at once experimental, intellectual, and experiential. 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Previously available only out of the backs of borrowed cars, truck stops, campgrounds, and country-western bars between Algonac, Detroit, East Lansing, Cadillac, and Manistee, this LP now finds new life in similarly detached environs: the last remaining record stores.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40261203558598,"sku":"NUM1226LP","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40261203493062,"sku":"NUM1226digital","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM1226_JeffCowell_LuckyStrikesAndLiquidGold_LP_Black.jpg?v=1660847354"},{"product_id":"rob-galbraith-damn-it-all","title":"Damn It All","description":"\u003cblockquote\u003eI was a reticent artist at best.\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eAs a DJ during the mid-’60s at Knoxville’s WNOX, Rob Galbraith could be heard spinning everything from Ray Charles to David “Fathead” Newman, resulting in unique, salt-and-pepper playlists that began to season his own songwriting proclivities. 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Guitarist Don Potter adapted Galbraith’s piano parts, and cellist Michael Bacon (brother of actor Kevin) added several graceful passes—a decision uncommon in conventional country music. 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But these were true believers all the same, given over fully to his roots music concept, each filling vinyl grooves with non-rock instrumentation like fiddle, banjo, and pedal steel guitar, the last undoubtedly Cosmic American Music’s most distinguishing stringed signifier. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Only too predictably, big labels did the grunt work of confining and defining the movement, as ABC, United Artists, RCA, and more played catch-up with Asylum’s raptor rock juggernaut, via backwoods crossover also-rans with names like Gladstone, American Flyer, and Silverado. Twang reigned, the shitkickers kicked shit, and the vaguely western-sounding guitar records piled up. Country-rock became “the dominant American rock style of the 1970s,” as Peter Doggett’s comprehensive \u003cem\u003eAre You Ready for the Country\u003c\/em\u003e put it much later. Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music picks up and dusts off golden ingots from the dollar-bin detritus of that domination, to reconstruct events as seen from the genre’s real Wild West—America’s one-off private press label substructure.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"2xLP (Astro Spangled Red and Blue Vinyl)","offer_id":42519693852870,"sku":"NUM058LP-C1","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"2xLP (Black Vinyl)","offer_id":40261483036870,"sku":"NUM058lp","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":41175995089094,"sku":"NUM058CD","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40261483004102,"sku":"NUM058dig","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM058lp-C1VariousArtistsCosmicAmericanMusicBlue_Red2xLP.png?v=1672871834"},{"product_id":"master-wilburn-burchette-guitar-grimoire","title":"Guitar Grimoire","description":"\u003cp\u003eCalifornia mail-order mystic Master Wilburn Burchette was first known from his ads, hidden in the back pages of \u003cem\u003eFate Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBeyond Reality\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eGnostica News\u003c\/em\u003e. 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Rather, it reflected the refined tastes of the boomers: better wages, better dwellings, better drugs. Greater musicianship led to improved songwriting, chord voicing, and a deeper respect for harmony. Sometimes classified as West Coast—and, later, Yacht Rock—the architects of this sound were not exclusively Californians or mariners. These were stylistic tides felt in North Dakota and Colorado, along the Outer Banks and the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Softer fare could occasionally serve as a salve for city life, a coping mechanism for strong swimmers still treading the nations’ metropolises. With pop music’s volume knob adjusted for deflation, softness begat smoothness. Songs conceived on the Gibson Dreadnought were embellished with Fender Rhodes, hand percussion, and chimes. Crewmen arrived from the worlds of jazz, folk, rock, and soul, all peddling a product that was sincere, leisurely, and lofty. A sound that was buoyant, crisp, defined. Numerous artists were able to coexist along this narrow stylistic isthmus. There was Crosby, Stills, Nash \u0026amp; Young—and, eventually, Scaggs, Rundgren, Hall \u0026amp; Oates. All the while, James Taylor was still plucking away with a beautiful head of hair, no end in sight to where a capo could take him. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe hands that hoisted the sail over the ’70s went down with the ship in the early ’80s. Feeding tributaries of Caucasian reggae, Salsalito, and Marina Rock, some ponds were drained while others stagnated, and others still overflowed. With the pop charts littered with shiny keyboards, sherbet guitars, and gated reverb, our celebrated strain of rock became a casualty of the gluttonous hair decade. Marriages capsized. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Staring out from either coast, a thin membrane is almost visible, one that separates the calmness of the sky from the stillness of the sea. 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There, at the glassy apex of rock’s softer side, away from all of the commotion, exists a place for both relaxation and reflection, where listeners can enjoy the present, a cool breeze—a taste of the good life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"2xLP (Seafoam Green Vinyl)","offer_id":42519689593030,"sku":"NUM072lp-C2","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"2xLP (Black Vinyl)","offer_id":40261837717702,"sku":"NUM072LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"2xLP (Purple Vinyl)","offer_id":41156181590214,"sku":"NUM072LP-C1","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40261837652166,"sku":"NUM072CD","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40261837684934,"sku":"NUM072digital","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM072lp-C2SeafaringStrangersPrivateYacht2xLPTransparent.png?v=1672871681"},{"product_id":"laraaji-vision-songs-vol-1","title":"Vision Songs Vol. 1","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eVision Songs Vol. 1\u003c\/em\u003e is the Laraaji album like no other, located at the intersection of new age and gospel, his outlier and magnum opus, the feel-good DIY tape of the century. Casio synth jams recorded at spiritual retreat guest rooms and a tiny bedroom on the Upper West Side in 1984, lysergically-spectacular anthems for a continually arriving new moment. “Channeled from the sky,” humbly offered on vinyl for the first time, this is where this is going on, this is where this is taking place, this is how this is going on. Is this very clear? --- \u003cem\u003edigital track list includes 7 bonus recordings (included with vinyl purchase)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew Cosmic Joe Orange Vinyl!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"Cosmic Joe Orange Vinyl","offer_id":43187007881414,"sku":"NUM079lp-C2","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":40261914362054,"sku":"NUM079LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":43682536751302,"sku":"NUM079CD","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40261914329286,"sku":"NUM079dig","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/files\/NUM079lp-C2LaraajiVisionSongs_2023Repress_CosmicJoeOrangeVinyl.png?v=1708725428"},{"product_id":"w2ng-899fm","title":"89.9FM","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the wake of 2017’s \u003cem\u003eSeafaring Strangers: Private Yacht\u003c\/em\u003e, Numero is proud to present another addition to the soft rock canon: \u003cem\u003eW2NG\u003c\/em\u003e. Set your FM dial to smooth and sail away with 42 minutes of uninterrupted easy glide, pontoon rock, and whispery disco. Featuring unreleased burners from Gary Hyde, Love Transfusion, Marshall Titus, and Phillips, alongside scarce cuts from Nannette, Greenflow, Jim Spencer \u0026amp; Son Rize, Larry Sanders, Kettner \u0026amp; Shawe, Orphans of Love, and Lion, \u003cem\u003eW2NG\u003c\/em\u003e is sure to surprise even the most devout boat shoe enthusiast.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numbero","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40261937692870,"sku":"NBR009LP-C1","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40261937660102,"sku":"NBR002digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NBR009_W2NG_899FM_LP_Blue.jpg?v=1657909191"},{"product_id":"happy-rhodes-ectotrophia","title":"Ectotrophia","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eThe first authoritative compilation of American dream pop artist Happy Rhodes, whose singular songwriting and four-octave vocal range emanated from the pastoral confines of upstate New York in the 1980s. Her melding of classical music influences with synthesizer and acoustic guitar, and her enchanting and idiosyncratic singing, are favorably compared to heralded English chanteuse Kate Bush. Fans of such artistic pop music would be remiss to overlook Rhodes’s similarly remarkable and otherworldly sonic transmissions, traversing tales of dreamers, outsiders, lovers and other lovely and terrifying creatures born of a wellspring of wild creativity and bold imagination. Affectionately remastered from the original tapes, Ectotrophia gathers essential songs from Rhodes’s mid-’80s salad days, many written when she was just a teenager—wildly ahead of her time and unafraid to bare her soul to regional audiences, the ectophiles who’d eventually coin an entire subgenre of pop music in her honor. Dive deep into ecto, with the woman who started it all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"2xLP","offer_id":40261950243014,"sku":"NUM199LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40261950177478,"sku":"NUM199CD","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM199_HappyRhodes_Ectotrophia_LP_Black.jpg?v=1657908258"},{"product_id":"don-slepian-sea-of-bliss","title":"Sea Of Bliss","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom 1970s Hawaii on to modern day New Jersey, Don Slepian has enjoyed a reputation as one of new age’s most respected and technologically-advanced synthesists. Slepian’s 1980 landmark \u003cem\u003eSea of Bliss\u003c\/em\u003e is frequently cited as one of new age’s greatest albums, and is one of the genre’s most legendary tape-only recordings. Two side-length Alles synthesizer tracks transport listeners to personal paradises for relaxation, rest, focus and reset on vinyl for the first time, only on Numero Group. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePair with the Tee Of Bliss Shirt and get 25% off both in your cart when picking up the record and shirt together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/numerogroup.com\/products\/sea-of-bliss-t-shirt?variant=42810220609734\"\u003e\u003cimg height=\"488\" width=\"488\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/files\/NUM806-T01DonSlepianT-Shirt_White_1fa18b5e-66b4-4f98-ad58-965e58ea5694.png?v=1712325218\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"Deep Blue Vinyl","offer_id":42633927884998,"sku":"NUM806lp-C1","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black Vinyl","offer_id":40262197575878,"sku":"NUM806LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40262197543110,"sku":"NUM806dig","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM806lpDonSlepianSeaOfBlissDeepBlueVinyl.png?v=1679093294"},{"product_id":"spontaneous-overthrow-all-about-money","title":"All About Money","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eSynth chutes, synth ladders, popcorn 808 beats, dirge-y chants and busted sub-woofer hums from inner-galactic soul pioneers Nathaniel Woolridge and Anthony Freeman intertwine to create this hypnotic, mythical 1984 LP from Newark, New Jersey. The most damaged party record ever set to black, or the most partied cry of the heart ever howled into personal space. Probably both. \u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40262383894726,"sku":"NUM801lp","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM801_SpontaneousOverthrow_AllAboutMoney_LP_Black.jpg?v=1657732781"},{"product_id":"escape-from-synth-city","title":"From Synth City","description":"\u003cp\u003eA hero’s quest worth of staccato synths, crack house Casios, off-brand drum machines, minimal Morricone, four-track fantasia, and a variety of other speculations on what the 1980s thought the future would sound like. \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nPackaged in a 12\"x12\" Nintendo Entertainment System-styled jacket, replete with game sticker, die-cut outer sleeve, and debossed cartridge inner sleeve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEscape From Synth City\u003c\/em\u003e is a 21st century experiment in making records. Harvested via the algorithm, reissued as a playlist, and finally pressed as a souvenir LP months later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHear the Escape From Synth City playlist \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/4oox6WC3c1GtRgqJmhj9pt?si=JVsUUQDYR6a2UHFbNJBgrA\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAbout the \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.numerogroup.com\/d\/the-cabinet-of-curiosities-a-numero-universe\"\u003eCabinet of Curiosities\u003c\/a\u003e: \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nFor Numero, taking time to explore the more esoteric possibilities of our creative practice provides a deeper understanding of the resulting piece of work. This curatorial exercise, usually relegated to mix tapes and oddball DJ nights, has allowed us to see the connections between our most far reaching corners.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nAfter years of whittling away at the art of compilation, this part of the practice came to the foreground, and an alternate view began to emerge. The outlines of a context beyond time and place, individual and scene. Threads sewn through the fabric of music history that tell a story primarily concerned with intentionality, psychic connections, and vibe. \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nTo tell these stories an equally symbolic medium is required.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nIn order to create an object that can emote the value of the like minded yet distant relationships therein we looked to the world of commercial production running parallel to these musical subcultures. The treasure chest of artifacts made during the 20th century’s post-industrial free-for-all may be the only conceptually appropriate talisman for this music, the ability to bring the studio home was after all made by the same mechanism that brought on the consumer gold rush.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nThe consumer experience embodied by the secondary market, dog eared, footnoted, taken apart and tinkered with. The cabinet is a simulacrum of the lost and found. Our commercially nostalgic spirit-animal, redressed to be a more accurate representation of our emotional experiences with these objects. Less concerned with function than with the memories we associate with them.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Cabinet of Curiosities is Numero’s tribute to the origin of the DIY museum, with our curatorial focus as always on the heroically home-made, the expanding fan universe, the suburban studio sublime.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":41175981981894,"sku":"NUM101lp","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40262446416070,"sku":"NUM101dig","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM101_EscapeFromSynthCity_LP_Black.jpg?v=1657303435"},{"product_id":"chasman-synth-e-fuge","title":"Synth-E-Fuge","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the blown-out motherboard of West Philadelphia’s Master Control Programmers, Charles Grossman broke off to explore his own personal outer space experience. With just a DW-8000 to keep him company, University City’s loneliest cyborg issued this eight song electro-funk statement in 1989. Spectral synths, pulsating programming, and yes—a keytar—set the soundtrack to your next game of Spyhunter. Jam on to a sound more sophisticated.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40262519783622,"sku":"NUM807lp","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40262519750854,"sku":"NUM807dig1","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM807_Chasman_SynthEFuse_LP_Black.jpg?v=1657302108"},{"product_id":"charlie-megira-da-abtomatic-miesterzinger-mambo-chic","title":"Da Abtomatic Miesterzinger Mambo Chic","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eThe bastard love child of Elvis and Lux Interior, Israeli guitarist Charlie Megira brewed a heady amalgam of ’50s trash rock, surf-y tremolo, and reverb-drenched goth during his all-too-brief 44 trips around the sun. He recorded seven albums worth of material in 15 years, primarily issued on CD-R, most of which is now unreadable or in a landfill. Armed with only an Eko guitar, a black tuxedo, and his signature wrap-around shades, Charlie Megira was a mold-breaking artist who disintegrated while we were all staring at our phones.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn his 2000 debut, \u003cem\u003eDa Abtomatic Meisterzinger Mambo Chic\u003c\/em\u003e, Megira channels the optimism of post-war America, narcoleptic surf, and the Twin Peaks soundtrack into a lo-fi masterpiece all his own. Sung in both Hebrew and English, Mambo Chic moves at a deliberate pace, unconcerned by the traffic of the modern world and wrapped in a blanket of Tascam 4-track hiss. On “Tomorrow’s Gone” Megira achieves the feat of being so far back in time that he’s somehow living in the future and waiting for the rest of us to arrive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eDa Abtomatic Meisterzinger Mambo Chic \u003c\/em\u003eLP out 1\/28\/22.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero Group","offers":[{"title":"LP (Tri-Color Vinyl)","offer_id":41140805763270,"sku":"NUM912lp-C1","price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP (Black Vinyl)","offer_id":41140805730502,"sku":"NUM912LP","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40262662783174,"sku":"NUM5098dig1","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Forest Green Vinyl","offer_id":43201510768838,"sku":"NUM912lp-C2","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM912_CharlieMegira_DaAbtomaticMiesterzingerMamboChic_LP_Tri-Color_c6e3dbaf-46ac-4bbe-82fd-86351873bfed.jpg?v=1657155612"},{"product_id":"joanna-brouk-the-space-between","title":"The Space Between","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003ePreviously issued on three rare cassette-only editions, Joanna Brouk’s 1980 sophomore album \u003cem\u003eThe Space Between\u003c\/em\u003e has finally been given spacious LP quarters. The side-long title track, performed by Brouk’s Mills College instructor and sometime-lover Bill Maraldo is among the deepest and most distinctive pieces in the new age canon, while side B’s three cuts expand the theme in hypnotic new directions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP (White Vinyl)","offer_id":41368216633542,"sku":"NUM810lp-C1","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40262771736774,"sku":"NUM810LP","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40262771704006,"sku":"NUM810digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM810_JoannaBrouk_TheSpaceBetween_LP_White.jpg?v=1657148149"},{"product_id":"gary-davenport-scattered-thoughts","title":"Scattered Thoughts","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA treasure trove of early underground from San Antonio’s first “punk” label Closet Records. Centered around the manic energy of founder Gary Davenport, this tidy 13-song collection compiles for the first time the best of his mid-fi work in Mannequin, quirky duos with Mark Champion and Charles Athanas, and alone at the raging edge of suburban Texas. A heady mix of jangly prog, dream-punk, community college rock, and anxious alternative, achieved just as video was killing the radio star. Packaged in a heavy-weight tip-on sleeve, with an accompanying book chronicling the entire sordid affair and visual discography.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40262850085062,"sku":"NUM197LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40262850052294,"sku":"NUM197digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM197_GaryDavenport_ScatteredThoughts_LP_Black_5eaae3de-d53b-457e-9228-684408fa46e8.jpg?v=1657045736"},{"product_id":"whispers-lounge-originals","title":"Lounge Originals","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eA lounge in the Poconos located just inside a Holiday Inn, 1973. The smoky haze clears to reveal a middle-aged couple on a one-foot high stage, prattling on about the weather or Watergate before launching into a serviceable cover of Burt Bacharach’s “Do You Know The Way To San Jose?” Tens of thousands of such combos littered restaurants, cruise ships, casinos, lobbies, and cocktail bars throughout the ’60s and ’70s, but far fewer cut a record worth buying from the stage, much less listening to on the home hi-fi. Gathered here are 14 lounge originals from across the entire easy listening spectrum. A spent matchbook’s worth of crooners, bossa nobodies, seafood jazzers, and Donca-Matic enthusiasts all in search of their ticket out of a red leather booth hell.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/numero-cdn\/images\/atoms\/whispers-lounge-originals\/atom-1581439832.jpg\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePatrons of Whispers Lounge may also enjoy a \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/numerogroup.com\/products\/blue-tandem-fleetwood-jack\"\u003ebonus 7”\u003c\/a\u003e featuring two delectable lo-fi covers of Fleetwood Mac, available in a limited edition run of 500 copies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbout the \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.numerogroup.com\/d\/the-cabinet-of-curiosities-a-numero-universe\"\u003eCabinet of Curiosities\u003c\/a\u003e: \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For Numero, taking time to explore the more esoteric possibilities of our creative practice provides a deeper understanding of the resulting piece of work. This curatorial exercise, usually relegated to mix tapes and oddball DJ nights, has allowed us to see the connections between our most far reaching corners.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e After years of whittling away at the art of compilation, this part of the practice came to the foreground, and an alternate view began to emerge. The outlines of a context beyond time and place, individual and scene. Threads sewn through the fabric of music history that tell a story primarily concerned with intentionality, psychic connections, and vibe. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e To tell these stories an equally symbolic medium is required.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In order to create an object that can emote the value of the like minded yet distant relationships therein we looked to the world of commercial production running parallel to these musical subcultures. The treasure chest of artifacts made during the 20th century’s post-industrial free-for-all may be the only conceptually appropriate talisman for this music, the ability to bring the studio home was after all made by the same mechanism that brought on the consumer gold rush.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The consumer experience embodied by the secondary market, dog eared, footnoted, taken apart and tinkered with. The cabinet is a simulacrum of the lost and found. Our commercially nostalgic spirit-animal, redressed to be a more accurate representation of our emotional experiences with these objects. Less concerned with function than with the memories we associate with them.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Cabinet of Curiosities is Numero’s tribute to the origin of the DIY museum, with our curatorial focus as always on the heroically home-made, the expanding fan universe, the suburban studio sublime.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40262978142406,"sku":"NUM106lp","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40262978109638,"sku":"NUM106digital2","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM106_Whispers_LoungeOriginals_LP_Black.jpg?v=1656531104"},{"product_id":"archie-james-cavanaugh-black-and-white-raven","title":"Black and White Raven","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eA masterpiece of the schooner rock variety, \u003cem\u003eBlack and White Raven\u003c\/em\u003e is an album that emerged from Archie James Cavanaugh’s youthful dream of recording his own music while stuck in the Alaskan wilderness. “This dream was always elusive,” Cavanaugh said, “believing either that it was only meant for those famous artists who got picked up by major record labels, or that it was just too impossible to achieve because of cost and lack of know-how.” With a freewheeling cast culled from Archie’s travels around the Pacific Northwest, \u003cem\u003eBlack and White Raven\u003c\/em\u003e was set down as the ’70s crested and self-released in the spring of 1980. Traces of disco, AM gold, gospel, and yacht mixed freely with his Tlingit heritage, creating a breezy and optimistic portrait of life in the 49th state.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"Ravenous Vinyl (Clear Vinyl w\/ Red \u0026 Black Splatter)","offer_id":42541413892294,"sku":"NUM812lp-C2","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"White Raven Vinyl","offer_id":41831839858886,"sku":"NUM812lp-C1","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black Raven Vinyl","offer_id":41831839105222,"sku":"NUM812lp","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40263014809798,"sku":"NUM5154digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/ravenoussplattervinylcopy.png?v=1674077121"},{"product_id":"nuleaf-smooth-jazz-underground","title":"Smooth Jazz Underground","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs the rift between academic jazz, new age, and pop narrowed in the 1980s, DI.Y. practitioners of metronome driven riffs found new growth in a burgeoning managerial middle class, a commercial audience held captive in dentist offices and waiting rooms across America. Session players took to midi-banks stocked with every instrument imaginable and delivered on a road rage-induced demand to stay cool, relaxed, and focused all at once. The extra-wide cuts packaged here will be mint for years to come. Go ahead, break the seal on a fresh pack of Nuleafs. There’s only one sensation this smooth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/numero-cdn\/images\/atoms\/nuleaf-smooth-jazz-underground\/atom-1587496613.jpg\"\u003e\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbout the \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.numerogroup.com\/d\/the-cabinet-of-curiosities-a-numero-universe\"\u003eCabinet of Curiosities\u003c\/a\u003e: \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For Numero, taking time to explore the more esoteric possibilities of our creative practice provides a deeper understanding of the resulting piece of work. This curatorial exercise, usually relegated to mix tapes and oddball DJ nights, has allowed us to see the connections between our most far reaching corners.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e After years of whittling away at the art of compilation, this part of the practice came to the foreground, and an alternate view began to emerge. The outlines of a context beyond time and place, individual and scene. Threads sewn through the fabric of music history that tell a story primarily concerned with intentionality, psychic connections, and vibe. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e To tell these stories an equally symbolic medium is required.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In order to create an object that can emote the value of the like minded yet distant relationships therein we looked to the world of commercial production running parallel to these musical subcultures. The treasure chest of artifacts made during the 20th century’s post-industrial free-for-all may be the only conceptually appropriate talisman for this music, the ability to bring the studio home was after all made by the same mechanism that brought on the consumer gold rush.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The consumer experience embodied by the secondary market, dog eared, footnoted, taken apart and tinkered with. The cabinet is a simulacrum of the lost and found. Our commercially nostalgic spirit-animal, redressed to be a more accurate representation of our emotional experiences with these objects. Less concerned with function than with the memories we associate with them.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Cabinet of Curiosities is Numero’s tribute to the origin of the DIY museum, with our curatorial focus as always on the heroically home-made, the expanding fan universe, the suburban studio sublime.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP (Cellophane Green)","offer_id":40263036698822,"sku":"NUM107lp-C1","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40263036666054,"sku":"NUM107lp","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40263036633286,"sku":"NUM107digital","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM107_Nuleaf_SmoothJazzUnderground_LP_CellophaneGreen_397e0dac-4f29-4a0b-af69-bf87ef57d2eb.jpg?v=1656528107"},{"product_id":"female-species-tale-of-my-lost-love","title":"Tale of My Lost Love","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eBehold the Female Species! A once-in-a-decade discovery of two sisters, married to music for life, always charging forward, indefatigable, indomitable, at last seen and heard. From their origins as the archetypal mid-’60s southern California girl group to their destiny as top-flight songwriters in the ’80s and ’90s Nashville country-industrial complex, Vicki and Ronni Gossett have never been much further than 20 feet from stardom. Fifty-five years into their remarkable story, \u003cem\u003eTale Of My Lost Love\u003c\/em\u003e is the Gossetts’ debut album—an ode to what could have been, and still might be.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP (Moonshine Color Vinyl)","offer_id":41296846323910,"sku":"NUM073lp-C2","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40263310737606,"sku":"NUM073LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40263310704838,"sku":"NUM073digital","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM073_FemaleSpecies_TaleOfMyLostLove_LP_Moonshine.jpg?v=1656377647"},{"product_id":"art-wilson-overworld","title":"Overworld","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eA new age album that draws as much from ethno-groove, Chicago house, and G-funk, as it does from primitive percussion and ’80s library music. Relaxing, gentle, and warm, the 10-song ambient suite was made for a multidisciplinary modern dance performance described as “Neo-Paganism, Pop Divas, YouTube, Yoga, and Death Metal side by side in a live performance that searches for transcendence in the most unlikely places.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"Sarah's White Vinyl","offer_id":41847580754118,"sku":"NUM1274lp-C2","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP (Rebecca Blue)","offer_id":40263330103494,"sku":"NUM1274lp-C1","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40263330070726,"sku":"NUM1274lp","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40263330037958,"sku":"NUM1274digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM1274_ARTWilson_Overworld_LP_SarahsWhite_22f1b49e-e4f3-493f-9431-575b1993ac5a.jpg?v=1656376727"},{"product_id":"technicolor-paradise-rhum-rhapsodies-other-exotic-delights","title":"Rhum Rhapsodies \u0026 Other Exotic Delights","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eIt was a musical cocktail born in a marketing meeting: Two parts easy listening, one part jazz, a healthy dollop of conga drums, a sprinkling of bird calls, and a pinch of textless choir. Serve garnished with an alluring woman on the album jacket for best results. Liberty Records co-founder Si Waronker called it Exotica; the soundtrack for a mythical air conditioned Eden, packaged for mid-century, tiki torch-wielding armchair safariers. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the five years after \u003cem\u003eExotica\u003c\/em\u003e—Martin Denny’s 1957 landmark Liberty debut—arrived, hundreds of other ethnographic forgeries washed up in record racks all over the U.S., bearing titles like \u003cem\u003eSophisticated Savage, Sacred Idol, Chant of the Jungle, Polynesian Paradise, Exotic Paradise, Taboo, Primitiva, Forbidden Island, Afrodesia, Hypnotique, Percussion Exotique\u003c\/em\u003e, and a barrel’s worth of other portmanteaus. “All of those ica and itiva endings I came up with because I thought I was being cute,” Waronker said. “And I don’t know why, but nobody got wise.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile Liberty certainly had a first mover advantage, it wasn’t long before the major recording companies began reinventing their aging mood music purveyors as pushers of peregrine percussion. And where the majors went, so too did the rest of the market. Dozens of readings on the genre standards like “Quiet Village,” “Similau,” “Miserlou,” “Caravan,” “Nature Boy,” “Moon of Manakoora,” and “Taboo” appeared on micro-pressed 45s and LPs as hotel lobby combos and restaurant entertainers alike tried their hand at creating regional living room lotus lands while others summoned their own sonic visions of Shangri La, bringing their versions of the Pacific, Africa, and the Orient to the hinterlands America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003eIf you can’t come to paradise, I’ll bring paradise to you.\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe earliest whispers of this brand of appropriated escapism appeared not in song, but literature. Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 collection \u003cem\u003eThe Jungle Book\u003c\/em\u003e and William Henry Hudson’s 1904 novel \u003cem\u003eGreen Mansions\u003c\/em\u003e both chronicle the experiences of young protagonists in the jungles of India and Guayana, respectively. Eight years later, Edgar Rice Burroughs blew the naturalist scene wide open with \u003cem\u003eTarzan of the Apes\u003c\/em\u003e. These woodland tales inspired English Impressionist Cyril Scott, who in penning “Lotus Land” in 1905 and “Impressions of the Jungle Book” in 1912 unwittingly became the godfather of exotica. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Exotica was a name I made up,” recalled Waronker, “I never heard that word before.” But the cultural trappings of that word began appearing nearly 25 years before his invention. Born in February 1907, Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt would be the first to “bring paradise”—as he sloganized—to American shores. The 1933 opening of his first Don the Beachcomber’s Cafe offered Los Angelenos a glimpse into island life, its walls adorned with spears, masks, and bamboo, a hose dripping on the corrugated metal roof giving beachniks refuge from a make believe tropical deluge. The fare was simple: Chinese food served in wooden bowls. The drink menu, on the other hand, was transportive: A bootlegger’s trunk of rums mixed with fruit juice and other liqueurs, with terror-glee inspiring name like Cobra’s Fang, Demerara Dry Float, Missionary’s Downfall, and Zombie. As Hollywood rediscovered their love of alcohol following the repeal of prohibition, Gantt—who officially changed his name to Donn Beach—found himself in the middle of a typhoon of cash and franchise opportunities. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe bombing of paradise on December 7, 1941 inadvertently set off the tiki explosion, when Beach and 16 million others joined the war effort. Many servicemen caught their first glimpses of the outriggers, rattan rugs, thatched roofs, wahine waifs, and totems while stationed on Wake Island, the Philippines, and Guam. When the curtain was drawn on the Pacific theater, these suntanned veterans washed up stateside with more than just sand in their boots; they brought tiki culture to the suburbs. Beach faced a rude awakening upon his return; his wife filed for divorce and he lost everything but his name, which he’d take to Waikiki for a reboot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLieutenant Commander James A. Michner published his account on the fictional island of Bali Ha’i as \u003cem\u003eTales of the South Pacific\u003c\/em\u003e in 1947. “I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific,” Michener wrote. “The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ocean. Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description. I wish I could tell you about the sweating jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and the waiting. The waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor America, the wait for exotica’s arrival was almost over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1947, Eden Ahbez was living under the first L of the Hollywood sign. He’d spent the bulk of his 40 trips around the sun as a proto-hippie, living in caves and lean-tos with a group of men affectionately known as “The Nature Boys,” before decamping to Mount Lee with a sleeping bag and his wife. Lyrics for his free-love hymn “Nature Boy” began circulating in 1946, with a tattered copy reaching Nat King Cole via his valet the following year. Hoping to record the song, Cole began seeking out a bearded man who was last seen preaching the wonders of Lebensreform on the streets of Hollywood. The April 1948 release would ultimately hit #1 on the \u003cem\u003eBillboard\u003c\/em\u003e charts and spawn dozens of cover versions, making “Nature Boy” the first hit in the exotica canon. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNearly a year to the day after the release of “Nature Boy,” Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s musical adaptation of \u003cem\u003eTales of the South Pacific\u003c\/em\u003e debuted on Broadway, whetting America's island appetite. Juanita Hall’s quivering mezzo-soprano on “Bali Ha’i” prototyped the coming movement, her character Bloody Mary creating a sultry intrigue with the lyric “Where the sky meets the sea. Here I am your special island. Come to me, come to me.” The Original 1949 Broadway cast LP was the best selling album of the decade, bringing the imagined sounds of Vanuatu into living rooms everywhere. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Cyril Scott’s 1928 book \u003cem\u003eThe Influence of Music on History and Morals\u003c\/em\u003e he anticipated that “Great floods of melody will be poured forth from the higher planes, to be translated into earthly sound by composers sensitive enough to apprehend them.” His heir apparent was only six at the time of the prediction, but two decades later Les Baxter found himself on the cusp of creating a series of modern classical works that would define an entire genre. Baxter had spent the ’40s banging around west coast jazz combos, including stints with Freddie Slack, Mel Tormé and his own Les Baxter Trio before being tapped by composer Harry Revel to arrange an album around the then-chic theremin. The two Revel collaborations—1947’s \u003cem\u003eMusic Out of the Moon\u003c\/em\u003e and 1948’s \u003cem\u003ePerfume Set To Music\u003c\/em\u003e—solidified Baxter’s innovative reputation at Capitol Records, who had unusual pairing in mind for his next effort. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I hadn’t been to South America or Cuba or anyplace when I did my exotic stuff,” Baxter said in a 1995 interview with Peter Huestis. “It just came out of nowhere.” He did, however, have a Peruvian princess in the studio to make up for the lack of stamps in his passport. Yma Sumac arrived in New York in 1946 with her husband\/manager Moisés Vivanco, showcasing her her five octave, quasi-operatic talent as Inca Taqui Trio before finally catching Capitol's ear three years later. “We sat with Yma Sumac and listened to her natural incantation, or music, or whatever you might call it, which was totally foreign to anything that we know as Western music or European music, or anything else,” Capitol V.P. Alan Livingston said. “I give Les Baxter credit. He sat with her and managed to isolate certain portions of what she was doing to write and create a background to go with it.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“After \u003cem\u003e(Voices of the Xtabay)\u003c\/em\u003e came out, people were very intrigued,” Sumac said. “They had never heard this kind of singing before. They didn’t know how to classify it; whether it was classical or mumbo-jumbo!” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the half century mark, exotica had found its image via Donn Beach, its sound through the classical musings of Les Baxter, and its voice in Yma Sumac, but it lacked for an anthem. Baxter’s 1951 solo debut \u003cem\u003eThe Ritual of the Savage\u003c\/em\u003e would change that. The back cover described the album as “a tone poem of the sound and the struggle of the jungle...the hue and mood of the interior...the tempo and texture of the bustling seaports and the tropics!” Savage’s signature moment doesn’t appear until the opening of side B, when “Quiet Village” unfurls as a series of ostinatos bathed in percussion and strings. It would be another eight years before the song hit the charts, and even then Baxter’s name could only be found while squinting at the credits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMartin Denny washed up at Donn Beach’s Dagger Lounge in 1954. The pianist had spent the previous 20 years in and out of casinos and hotels on and off the mainland before forming a trio with vibraphonist Arthur Lyman and bassist John Kramer. A year later, after moving on to the Shell Bar at Hawaiian Village and adding percussionist Augie Colon, inspiration struck Denny: “The Hawaiian Village was a beautiful open-air tropical setting. There was a pond with some very large bullfrogs right next to the bandstand. One night we were playing a certain song and I could hear the frogs going ‘Rivet! Rivet! Rivet!’ When we stopped playing, the frogs stopped croaking. A little while later I said, ‘Let’s repeat that tune,’ and sure enough the frogs started croaking again. And as a gag, some of the guys spontaneously started doing these bird calls. The following day one of the guests came up and said, ‘Mr. Denny, you know that song you did with the birds and the frogs? Can you do that again?’ At the next rehearsal I said, ‘Okay, fellas, how about if each one of you does a different bird call? We must have played that tune thirty times. It turned out to be ‘Quiet Village.’” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWord of Denny’s schtick spread east to Liberty Records’ Los Angeles office, leading Si Waronker to take a $850 gamble and put Denny \u0026amp; Co. in the studio. The result was 1957’s \u003cem\u003eExotica\u003c\/em\u003e, a slow burner that wouldn’t find the charts for nearly two years, but would ultimately be the genus for an entire subspecies of music. Baxter’s song would be covered vigorously in the coming years, working its way into every lounge set from Maui to Miami, replete with bird calls and piped in shorebreaks and tradewinds. Was it jazz? Was it classical? Was it world music? Could it be mumbo-jumbo?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust as Si Waronker wrung every nickel out of Ross Bagdasarian’s Chipmunks, he would apply the same level of force in getting the most out of his new invention. Thirteen Martin Denny albums were pushed through the system over the course of five years alongside cash-ins by the likes of Russ Garcia, Leo Arnaud, Jack Costanzo, Ethel Azama, John Buzon, Augie Colon, Chick Floyd and Rene Paulo. Many of these shared more than just a flair for Polynesian pop, they used the same team of photographers, and quite often the same woman for their album covers. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe team of Murray Garrett and Gene Howard had only a few credits under their belts when a portrait of a bejeweled Sandy Warner peering through a beaded doorway was optioned by Liberty Records for use on Denny’s debut. An aspiring model and actress, the buxom Warner appeared on 16 Denny jackets wearing little more than the wind, and many of the other Liberty exotica titles. Blonde or brunette, half naked or clothed, in nature or in studio, Warner’s striking look earned her the title of “Exotica Girl” on the way to a career that included body doubling for Marilyn Monroe in \u003cem\u003eSome Like It Hot\u003c\/em\u003e and guesting on \u003cem\u003eThe Twilight Zone\u003c\/em\u003e. “A lot of people bought the album on the strength of her pictures,” Denny reflected. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“She came to Hawaii and sat in the audience right in front of the stage. After my performance, she sort of waved at me to come over. I walked over to her table, and it turned out that she was on her honeymoon. But I didn't know who she was. Then she said ‘You and I have a lot in common.’ And I said ‘Oh, really? What's that?’ She said, ‘Well, I'm the girl on your album covers!’ I looked at her and said, ‘My God, you're right!’”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWarner took her celebrity status one step too far with 1959’s \u003cem\u003eFair \u0026amp; Warner\u003c\/em\u003e album, exotic in cover only, and even then just barely. She’d hardly be the last struggling actor to go looking for paradise in a Hollywood recording studio; Martha Raye, Aki Aleong, and \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/dev.numerogroup.com\/products\/darla-hood-silent-island\"\u003eDarla Hood\u003c\/a\u003e all donned sonic loincloths on their climb up Mount Lee. Even Les Baxter succumbed to the pressure of Tinseltown and recut his own version of \u003cem\u003eSouth Pacific\u003c\/em\u003e, adding—as described on the back cover—”a new dimension of color and momentum...to the already legendary music of Rodgers and Hammerstein.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the time Hawaii entered the union in August 1959, the Exotica movement was febrile. Hawaiian shirts and floral muu muus became de rigueur. Backyard pools were ringed with torches and rattan furniture. The Outrigger Lounge in Rochester, Minnesota, The Mainlander in St. Louis, Missouri, Tiki Cove in Fairbanks, Alaska, Kahiki in Columbus, Ohio, and Judges’ Beyond The Reef in Brookfield, Wisconsin, proved that the phenomena was no longer coastal. Walt Disney even got into the fray, breaking ground on his million dollar Enchanted Tiki Room at the turn of the decade, promising to combine “entertainment magic and the wonders of space-age electronics...starring a cast of more than 200 birds, flowers and tropical Tikis…all brought to life through the wonders of AUDIO ANIMATRONICS!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe arrival of the Beatles and their British brethren in 1964 wiped out this lush, easy-listening movement almost entirely. Sinatra or Martin might be able to squeeze “Blue Hawaii” into a set at the Sands, but for the turned-on boomers gripping with the Kennedy assassination and the Civil Rights Movement, a bit more substance was required. A few outliers would slip through here and there, but America’s fascination with the tropics was largely over. Martin Denny’s 1969 album \u003cem\u003eExotic Moog\u003c\/em\u003e was a fitting nail in the coffin. “The company aimed this at what was then called the ‘underground’ market. This was when the hippie thing had started happening in San Francisco,” Denny said. “But the record never sold, so that was the end of \u003cem\u003ethat\u003c\/em\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA quarter century later, a new generation of space age bachelors and bachelorettes rediscovered the sound, nestling Esquivel and Chaino LPs between their mid-century hi-fi systems and Libbey cocktail glassware. Capitol Records—the repository for both the Les Baxter and Liberty catalogs—rolled out nearly 50 volumes of \u003cem\u003eUltra Lounge\u003c\/em\u003e, compact disc compilations aimed squarely at hipsters and boomer nostalgists alike. Fittingly, much of the renaissance focused on the more established names in the field, ignoring—or just completely unaware of—the indie contributions to the field. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eTechnicolor Paradise\u003c\/em\u003e is proof that Denny, Sumac, and Baxter were just islets poking through the sea, and that Exotica’s larger ecosystem of reefs, lagoons, and sandbars are worthy of equal attention and conservation. Be it mosquito-bitten torch singers, landlocked surf quartets, fad-chasing jazz combos, mad genius band leaders, wannabe actors, or a middle aged loner programming bird calls into a Hammond, Exotica was always more concerned with what geography might sound like over who was conducting. Bill Bradway of the \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/dev.numerogroup.com\/products\/gospel-hawaiinaires-the-songs-of-bill-jean-bradway\"\u003eGospel Hawaiianaires\u003c\/a\u003e never even made it to the 50th state, but his homemade three-necked pedal steel is far more exotic than the Xaphoon or Chinese Bell Tree. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTechnicolor Paradise is where one makes it, after all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"Moon Mist Vinyl (Numero Exclusive 3xLP)","offer_id":42411309301958,"sku":"NUM065LP-C1","price":80.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"House of Grass (3xLP)","offer_id":42411311038662,"sku":"NUM065LP-C2","price":80.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Technicolor Isle Pink Swirl (3xLP)","offer_id":42411312414918,"sku":"NUM065LP-C3","price":80.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Blue Oasis (3xLP)","offer_id":42411313955014,"sku":"NUM065LP-C4","price":80.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"3xLP","offer_id":40311233315014,"sku":"NUM065LP","price":70.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"3xCD","offer_id":40311233282246,"sku":"NUM065CD","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40311233249478,"sku":"NUM065dig","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM065_TechnicolorParadise_RhumRhapsodies_LP_MoonMist.jpg?v=1667329763"},{"product_id":"reach","title":"REACH","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eA post-modern mixtape of 12 micro-genres created by The Numero Group. 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The only LP guaranteed to save your life during humanity’s apocalyptic demise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"Open Heart Red Vinyl","offer_id":43160733417670,"sku":"NUM500lp-C1","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40311767367878,"sku":"NUM500lp","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":40311767335110,"sku":"NUM500cass","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40311767302342,"sku":"NUM500digital","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/files\/NUM500lp_C1_Mockup.png?v=1707856126"},{"product_id":"numero-95","title":"Numero 95","description":"\u003cp class=\"dropcap\"\u003eAs escapism from corporate banality turned the corner in the ‘90s, a new generation of vibrant, software generated soundscapes emerged. Communal access to the internet propagated the new hive mind of ideas online, giving way to smoother, stress-free textures. The PC revolution opened the gateway to ray-traced playgrounds of color and light, allowing for visions of utopic proportions to manifest themselves on screensavers far and wide. Boot up your machine, load the software on this floppy diskette, and drop out of a reality bounded by the physical laws of the universe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eNumero 95\u003c\/em\u003e is the soundtrack to the screen saver fever dream we’re all trying to climb back into. Eight droplets of proto-vaporwave, synthesized in vinyl (or digital) form, fresh from Numero’s archive of forgotten sounds. Are you looking for that half way point between smooth jazz and new age? Mac and PC? Quantum Leap and the X-Files? This software is for you. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHoused in a replica floppy diskette, Numero 95 explores an early computer music unbound by scene or region. Eight solo pioneers vibing out at home in their headphones, traveling as far as the sound card would allow. This is music that barely escaped the hard drive and yet percolates at the edges of the algorithm 30 years later. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWelcome to Numero 95.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/numero-cdn\/images\/atoms\/numero-95\/atom-1611680895.png\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/files\/num95-2_480x480.jpg?v=1628093837\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNumero 95\u003c\/em\u003e Clear Vinyl Edition\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Numero","offers":[{"title":"LP (Clear Vinyl)","offer_id":40423131742406,"sku":"NUM108lp-C1","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40311779721414,"sku":"NUM108LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40311779688646,"sku":"NUM108digital","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/1650\/7846\/products\/NUM108_Numero95_LP_Clear.jpg?v=1656025749"},{"product_id":"jeff-phelps-magnetic-eyes","title":"Magnetic Eyes","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMuch is made of Detroit techno progenitors proximity to the auto plants. Similarly, overlooked electronic pioneer Jeff Phelps was raised just blocks from a Western Pennsylvania steel mill—close enough to smell the sulphur and hear the roaring blast furnace. When Tascam released their ground breaking Portastudio in 1984—allowing multi tracking on the far more financially inclusive cassette tape—Phelps purchased one immediately, and quickly added a Roland SH-101 monophonic synthesizer, Fender Rhodes suitcase piano, Roland drum machine, and a basic Radio Shack stereo mic. Those basic tools were employed on his first commercial productions for his own Engineered For Sound label: 1985’s \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMagnetic Eyes\u003c\/em\u003e LP and Antoinette’s “Now You’re Gone” 45. These DIY sketches generated few profits, and Phelps kept his day job in the energy business.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eJeff Phelps eventually found his way back into performance and recording, starting with The Next Level Band near the end of the decade. 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