Now Hear this

RPM International

“Un label d’esthètes” (Les Inrockuptibles).

RPM International is the home of French icons Jacques Dutronc, Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan, freak-folk, garage rock and trippiness from Sweden, Nigerian psychedelic funk, Brazilian freakiness, fuzz-filled Japanese Sixties’ rock, Finnish avant-rock, and Dutch Sixties’ legends The Outsiders and The Golden Earrings.

From Brazil to Sweden, RPM International is mapping a world of music.

A&R and PR contact : Kieron Tyler - kieron.tyler@rpminternational.org

Brazil

Finland

France

Módulo 1000 - Não Fale Com Paredes (Retro 884)

Brazil’s late ‘60s Tropicália movement was one of the most vital, exciting music scenes in the world. Modulo 1000 took it even further. Collected here is their rare album, and all their non-album cuts. Raw and exotic, Modulo 1000 were like no one else.

Available

Various Artists - Love, From Finland: The Love Records Anthology, 1968-76 (Retro 872)

Founded in 1966, Love was Finland’s pioneering independent label. Prog outfits Wigwam and Tasavallan Presidentti were Love’s best-known bands, but there was more to this revolutionary label. Love, From Finland tells the story for the first time outside Finland.

Available

Jacques Dutronc - Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi (Retro 849)

The first-ever British collection of Jacques Dutronc’s ‘60s recordings. Françoise Hardy’s beau, he was impeccably dressed and a consummate musician. Clubbers and collectors have known his ineffably French take on ‘60s pop for years. The secret is finally out.

Available

Johnny Hallyday - Le Roi De France: Johnny Hallyday 1966-9 (Retro 871)

Le Roi De France pulls its cuts from when Johnny Hallyday, the King of French pop, was red hot and driving. He’s helped by a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page and mod titans The Small Faces. It finally shows the rest of the world Hallyday at his most essential.

Available

France

Israel

Japan

Sylvie Vartan – Irrésistiblement (Retro 848)

Sylvie Vartan was France’s queen of pop. Covering the golden years 1965 to 1968, Irrésistiblement is the first-ever collection of her grooviest, most swinging and most danceable ‘60s cuts. Her songwriters included Mick Jones, later the lynchpin of hitmakers Foreigner.

Available

France Gall - Made in France: France Gall’’s Baby Pop (Retro 909)

The definitive collection of France Gall’s upbeat, irresistible girl pop. She won 1965’s Eurovision with “Poupée De Cire Poupée De Son”, written for her by Serge Gainsbourg. Made in France: France Gall’s Baby Pop brings the songs he composed for her together for the first time outside France.

Available

Minimal Compact - Raging And Dancing: The Anthology (Retro 895)

Minimal Compact’s dance-inflected post punk revelled in the band’s Israeli origins. In 1981 Minimal Compact infused their music with the feel of their home country, though they were based in Belgium. Still a dance floor filler, “Statik Dancin'” is a classic.

Available

The Dynamites - Young Sound R&B (Retro 888)

The Dynamites' classic single “Tunnel To Heaven” – about dying – is one of the wildest, most fuzz-drenched, Japanese records from the ‘60s. The first-ever official reissue of their Young Sound R&B album outside Japan is supplemented by all The Dynamites’ non-album JVC singles, including “Tunnel To Heaven”

Available

Japan

The Netherlands

The Mops - Psychedelic Sounds in Japan (Retro 880)

Julian Cope said Tokyo’s The Mops made “some of the most urgently deranged and euphorically disruptive music of the entire Group Sounds era.” Their 1968 album Psychedelic Sounds in Japan is the evidence.

Available

The Golden Ear-rings - Just Earrings (Retro 852)

When Golden Earring scored a worldwide hit with “Radar Love”, few knew they already had an unbroken string of Dutch hits under the name The Golden Ear-rings. Their 1965 debut album – supplemented here by the non-album singles – shows they were melodic, focused and immediate. They arrived on record fully formed. Just Earrings is the foundation of that career that still thrives.

Available

The Golden Ear-rings - Winter Harvest (Retro 853)

Winter Harvest was The Golden Ear-rings’ second album, issued in 1967. Marrying a tough mod-beat approach to sensitive minor-key melodies, their sound was unique.

Available

The Golden Ear-rings – Miracle Mirror (Retro 854)

The Golden Earrings 1968 album Miracle Mirror was consummate psychedelic pop, as good as anything coming from Britain, yet it escaped attention beyond the Netherlands’ borders. Supplemented by the band’s contemporary singles, this reissue is very special. One listen and it’s obvious why.

Available

The Netherlands

Nigeria

Sweden

The Outsiders – CQ (Retro 891)

The Outsiders’ 1968 album CQ was a benchmark, one of the greatest albums of the late ‘60s from anywhere. Supplemented by a professionally-recorded 1968 concert of CQ material, this definitive reissue includes an essay by Mike Stax, editor of Ugly Things that draws on interviews with band member Ronnie Splinter.

Available

Blo - Chapters & Phases: The Complete Albums 1973-1975 (Retro 861)

Lagos-based trio Blo shook the Nigerian scene to its foundations with their Afro-rooted rock music. Formed from the ashes of Ginger Baker’s unrecorded band Salt, Blo were described as Africa’s first rock band. Their first two albums, 1973’s Chapter One and 1975’s Phase II, are amazing fusions of traditional rhythms and psychedelia.

Available

Tages - The Studio Album Plus… (Retro 874)

Tages released the benchmark Studio album in 1967. Sweden’s Sergeant Pepper drew on traditional Swedish music – this psychedelia is unique. Never before released outside Sweden, RPM International’s reissue of Studio supplements the album with the non-album singles recorded in its wake.

Available

Turid - Stjärnor Och Änglar, Stars And Angels: Songs, 1971-75 (Retro 870)

The magical records of Swedish singer-songwriter Turid have largely been a secret beyond the Scandinavian world. Stars and Angels: Songs, 1971-75 compiles the best of the three bewitching, mysterious and fragile albums she made for the Swedish independent label Silence between 1971 and 1975.

Available

Sweden

Various Artists - A Real Cool Time Revisited (Retro D 873)

In 1985 the compilation album A Real Cool Time: Distorted Sounds From The North brought Sweden’s garage rock revival to the world. Now expanded, that vital period has the definitive statement it needed.

Available

All RPM International product is distributed to all good record stores by Cherry Red Records ltd www.cherryred.co.uk