Hey everyone,

We’ve been releasing records fast and furious these days - five in the last few weeks by my count - and we should have at least three new ones by the end of the year. When time is short go long on music, says a (broke, disbarred) financial advisor.

Today, we’re focusing on the great Keanu Nelson, an Aboriginal Australian artist from Papunya whose extremely moving debut record has been on repeat for everyone at Mississippi. Keanu vocalizes poems he wrote about family, home and longing in a reverbed-out voice that somehow embodies all those things. He sings in both English and Papunya, over warm and wobbly Casio beats. It’s a bit of a departure from our usual mix, but it hits. You can listen and order here.

Keanu is a pretty reserved guy, but he and Maria from the label somehow figured out the 13 hour time difference and talked on the phone about this beautiful music. You can read more below.

Across the world but on a similarly elevated spiritual plane, we have The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, comprised of Portland’s own Roman Norfleet, Harlan Silverman, and Kennedy Verrett. On their debut record “All is Sound,” they travel inner and outer spaceways and create extremely peaceful music for daily living. Listen to the first single, A SLEEPING PLANET here.

And straight from the hash dens of early 20th century Athens, we have an album of rare and remastered tracks by one of the legends of Greek rembetiko, Giorgos Katsaros. Katsaros played a mean steel string guitar and brought the songs of the old country to Greek diaspora in New York, Philly, and San Francisco, playing well into his ninth (and, according to some legends 10th) decade. This album features the best-sounding Katsaros tracks to date, and in-depth historical research from Stavros Kourousis and Konstantinos Kopanitsanos, shedding new light on this mythic figure. Hear the first single, THE UPPER VILLAGE OF SYROS, here. Co-released with Olvido Records.

Finally, for the real heads, we have a moving story about a moving piano. An impromptu visit from Lonnie Holley sparks this dispatch from Eric over at the Portland shop.

Read on for events and some beautiful records by labels we love in our distro shop. For the next couple weeks, all site orders over $100 get free shipping with the code: FREESHIP

Thanks as always for your support, for your notes and messages, and for keeping this weird enterprise alive.

all the love,

cyrus, maria, sam and adam at Mississippi

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Keanu Nelson - Wilurarrakutu
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Incredibly moving song-poetry over homemade beats, from remote but artistically rich central Australia.

Keanu Nelson’s debut was first released in a small run by the excellent Altered States Tapes label last year. We’re honored to re-issue it in collaboration with Keanu and his production partner Yuta Matsumura. LISTEN NOW, YOU WON’T REGRET IT!!!!!!

Read about Wilurarrakutu on Bandcamp Daily and Aquarium Drunkard

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Kankawa Nagarra - Wirlmarni
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Aboriginal Australian blues, country, and gospel by the great Kankawa Nagarra, Queen of the Bandaral Ngadu Delta.

Kankawa Nagarra: There's another ear that's located within the spirit, in my culture. We hear the real story with this other ear, and what I’m trying to do is get this thing across to a wider audience, and let them know that once upon a time, even the Western culture had this, because they were Indigenous once. So they too, heard the story from their heart.

Keanu Nelson Tjakamarra is a young Aboriginal Australian artist from the remote and artistically rich community of Papunya, in the Northern Territory, Australia. Through heart-rending recordings that speak of his home, Warumpi, and free-flowing paintings in the Western Desert Art tradition, Nelson captures his rich, multi-dimensional life and creative practice. His love for the land, family, and youth playing soccer and riding bikes, along with a keen eye for abstract and intangible motifs all come through in his music and exquisite portraits.

Wilurarrakutu is Nelson’s first album. Originally released in 2023 by Nipaluna tape label Altered States, its keyboard gospel captured us completely—so much that we decided to give the album a second release. To anticipate and celebrate Wilurarrakutu, out on August 30th, Mississippi’s own María Barrios talked with Keanu Nelson. Graciously facilitating the conversation was Nelson’s close friend Paloma Pizarro, who met him through her work at the 100% aboriginal-owned and directed community arts organization Papunya Tjupi Arts. Although reserved, Nelson’s friendship with Pizarro—along with what makes his music and art special—were reflected in a conversation nothing short of memorable. “I’m singing with meaning,” Nelson told us over email some days after. In a way, that’s all we needed to hear.

(Keanu Nelson. Photo Credit: Paloma Pizarro)

Maria Barrios: How and when did you start making music?

Keanu Nelson: I started in Gospel, as a boy.

Paloma Pizarro: So in this community, there are gospel nights. Outside, most nights, everyone sings gospel, and that's where Keanu started; when he was a little boy singing gospel, and he still does it sometimes.

MB: Do you enjoy any contemporary music?

KN: I listen to reggae, it’s good.

PP: He listens to a lot of music all the time when he's at the Art Center and stuff, he’s always on YouTube. With Aboriginal music, there are a lot of local recordings that just kind of go around communities. People just record and put on USBs and pass them around.

MB: That’s really cool. Keanu, do you want to talk a little bit about your upbringing and and about your story, so we know more about you?

KN: No.

PP: When did you realize you could sing?

KN: With gospel. My mom sing it.

PP: The first song he recorded [from the album] on the first night he came over was “Family.” It was a one-night take, I remember that. And then after that, it was all pretty quick, right?

KN: Yeah.

(To listen to a playlist Keanu made for us, click on the image above)

PP: As you can see, he’s pretty shy. We just talk a lot because we've known each other for three years now, but he's pretty shy with new people and in general. So it was pretty surprising when, three years ago, he arrived and just belted out this song. He was just this quiet kid who wouldn't really look at me in the eyes and then performed this song in my house, and we got it recorded.

MB: That sounds pretty magical. Do you, or Keanu, know more about the stories of each song and what is, maybe, behind the songs on the record?

PP: Yeah, what about the one you were practicing today? What’s that one about?

KN: A girl talking.

PP: That song is called “Kungkaku Wangkapayi,” and is about a girl talking about Keanu. And she's in town… and you're here, yeah?

MB: Which town?

PP: So we're three hours from Alice Springs, three hours from West Bow Springs, which is the closest town. This is a remote community of 400 people, so yeah, three hours on a dirt road to get here. And so this girl's in town talking and thinking about Keanu, and he's here.

KN: “Kungkaku” is about a girl talking to me. She’s waiting in Alice for me, she’s my girlfriend.

MB: How often do you go there?

PP: Not very often. Keanu doesn’t leave Papunya very often. Last week, we went on a bush trip, and Keanu came with us for the first time in three years. He never, he doesn’t like to leave Papunya, which is why all his songs are about missing Papunya, but he doesn’t really leave very often [laughs]. But he went on this bush trip and it was really good.

MB: I’ve never been on a bush trip. Can you tell me more about that?

PP: Part of the Art Center’s goal is keeping a connection between artists and country, so we try to make it happen as often as possible. Going to artists' country, their traditional lands, and when we go there, we camp out and drive out to sacred sites and stuff, and look at rock paintings. Then we cook by the fire, eat, talk, tell stories, and sing around the fire.

MB: Keanu, or Paloma, can you tell me about Keanu’s paintings?

PP: “Bush Potato Dreaming” (Yalka Tjukurrpa) is what he paints. [Note: “Yalka” roughly translates to “a low growing bush that bears potato-like tubers, and “Tjukurrpa” refers to “Dreaming,” a place where ancestral beings wander the landscape]. The image that is on the record is “Bush Potato Dreaming,” which comes from Mum’s side?

KN: Yeah, Mum’s side.

PP: So the stories that he paints, or most people paint, are handed down from family members. Keanu, do you want to say anything about what it means to you to paint that story..?

KN: Bush Potato Dreaming. 

(“Yalka Tjukurrpa,” by Keanu Nelson, as seen on the record’s back cover)

MB: Keanu, the record sounds really good. How did it come to be?

PP: Yuta [Matsumura] who was my partner at the time and is a musician, brought all his equipment, and, that's when I told Keanu to come over to record music because he was just singing and writing music at the Art Center all the time. The songs… they're all in his head. He did have a piece of paper with some lyrics written down on it, but that's it. He knows exactly the beat, exactly the melody that he wants. Sorry to talk so much for Keanu, but, I know him quite well, and he's not saying anything!

MB: That’s OK. Some things are best experienced away from Google Meets. We will just have to visit Papunya [laughs].

“Wilurarrakutu” will be released worldwide on September 20th, 2024, and is available to pre-order via the Mississippi website and our Bandcamp page. Listen to two tracks from the record here. To learn more about Papunya Tjupi Arts, click here. 

A dispatch from Portland shop owner Eric Isaacson…

Hello all,

Summer's in full swing on the Mississippi corner. We hope you can come on by and say hello. 

We got a piano in front of the shop for you to pound on! It's actually my family's piano that goes back a couple generations. My Grandma had it in her house for years. She would play things like "Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue" and "Stardust" on it. 

Grandma Lil passed it on to my Dad when I was a kid and he also played old fashioned tunes like "Deep Purple" on it. Here's Sun Ra playing that song in 1948 (one of Ra's earliest recordings).

I like to picture my dad singing along to this warbly version - "When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls...there's a time for joy, a time for cheer, a time remembered through the years." 

(Photo Credit: @intuitionista)

After my father passed away, my Grandma decided the piano should move to my Aunt's house in Seattle. My Aunt already had a good functioning piano, but did not want to insult the offer so she paid an exorbitant sum to ship it up from Los Angeles. Shortly after that, my Aunt moved herself and the piano down to Portland 

When I was fourteen I moved up to Portland from LA to live in my Aunt and Uncle's basement. I was reunited with the piano, which was directly above my room. A rug point version of Picasso's "The Three Musicians" my dad made hung above it. My Aunt would play the piano daily and I'd enjoy her soulful renditions of jazz standards through the floorboards. 

As space became an issue, my Aunt struggled with the idea of ditching the piano for a long while and no suitably poetic version of dumping it was coming to her. One day she realized she could donate it to a great organization called Push Piano Play that drops publicly accessed pianos all over Portland, including in front of the record store. They have artists transform the pianos into "art pieces''. Last year we had a piano dolled up to look like a tiger. This year it's covered in moss and other dried vegetation courtesy of someone known as "The Angry Florist." 

(Photo Credit: @intuitionista)

When I found out my Aunt was donating the piano to Push Piano Play I asked her to request it be placed in front of the record store. They complied!

The piano arrived at the record shop right as me and visiting friend from Atlanta Lonnie Holley finished lunch at Sweedeedee. I couldn't believe the timing - here was my favorite living artist and my family piano just happening to land at the same time. Lonnie sensed the gravitas of the moment and I didn't even need me to ask him to inaugurate the piano's arrival to its newest home in my life.

Lonnie sat down and played beautifully while people gathered around. I got pretty choked up, thinking of all the people who cared for me over the years who played that piano.

So, come on down and tickle the keys. (just don't play it after 7:00 out of respect for the neighbors). Take a sentimental journey. 

all love,
Eric

Our obsession with underground Greek music continues with 10 ultra-rare recordings of heartbreak and vice from rembetiko legend Giorgos Katsaros. Katsaros, who by some accounts lived to be over 100 years old, carried the old songs of Greece to the Diaspora in the United States, bridging centuries of music in one-storied lifetime. A co-release with Olvido Records, Giorgos Katsaros ten tracks are remastered from Katsaros's 64 surviving early recordings, many rarely heard since their original release.

To listen to Giorgos Katsaros’ first single, “The Upper Village of Syros,” click here.

Giorgos Katsaros will be available worldwide on October 11th, 2024.

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The Cosmic Tones Research Trio - All is Sound
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It’s the golden age of reissues and we’re filling our online distro with records we love at the lowest possible prices… keep checking back cause it’s always changing….

Presented by Mississippi Records Portland

A People’s History of North American Music
September 5th, 7:30 pm
Hollywood Theatre
Tickets

A new lecture / film / slideshow that attempts to tell the entire history of North American music in ninety minutes!

Mississippi Record label and store founder Eric Isaacson will guide you through this whirlwind presentation of archival film, sound clips, and images.

Subjects include: 
- Examples of industrialization devolving the human race to become dumber while other animals are getting smarter.
- The insane early American Puritan's visions of a utopian musicless society.
- How The Church Of Scientology saved the record industry.
- The personal traumatic history of Mississippi Records founder and how it led him to declare war on the record and tech industries.
- Hopeful messages about the future.

Overall, it's the story of how the powers that be are trying to control music and how people find ways to work outside of Puritans, corporations, and tech lords' systems despite these social engineers' best efforts.

Don't worry, it's a fun telling of this tale with lots of great music, images, and wild stories. An ASL interpreter will be on hand to interpret the event as well.

We'll have a merch table at the event with 100% of the money made going DIRECTLY to a family in Gaza attempting to go to Egypt. Here's the family's Gofundme page

✸ This event will take place in Chicago, IL ✸

Presented by Mississippi Records
Mohammad Reza Aslani
CHESS OF THE WIND 

A live performance from TAYF will precede the film’s screening
With the support of Salon Kawakib

September 18th, 7 pm
At The Music Box Theater
Tickets on sale August 30th

This summer, Mississippi Records released CHESS OF THE WIND, the soundtrack to Mohammad Reza Aslani’s 1976 film of the same time. A masterpiece of world cinema, Aslani’s CHESS OF THE WIND was banned in Iran and thought lost until a complete print of the film re-emerged in 2014. Restored by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and released to rapturous reviews in 2020, CHESS OF THE WIND is a genre-breaking queer-class-horror in miniature and one of the most visionary and daring films of pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema.

The film’s soundtrack, by one of Iran’s most revered avant-garde composers, Sheida Gharachedaghi, blends Persian classical instrumentation and atonal dissonance drawn from the composer’s Western conservatory background. For the new Mississippi Records album, both Aslani and Gharachedaghi worked with film scholar Gita Aslani Shahrestani to revisit their score from fifty years ago and recombine its recorded elements into a new sonic work. The result is a cohesive sound collage tracing the history of the Women’s Rights Movement in Iran from 1905 to the present – a wholly new work that Aslani long dreamt of creating.

The film's screening will be preceded by a live performance from TAYF — a nonbinary/women/queer-led group playing music from the SWANA (Southwest Asia & North Africa) region. 

Mohammad Reza Aslani
CHESS OF THE WIND / SHATRANJ-E BAAD
1976, 98 min, 35mm-to-DCP. In Farsi with English subtitles. Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Image Retrouvée laboratory (Paris) in collaboration with Mohammad Reza Aslani and Gita Aslani Shahrestani. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

“This rediscovered jewel of Iranian cinema has reemerged as one of the most astonishing works of the country’s prerevolutionary New Wave. A hypnotically stylized murder mystery awash in period atmosphere, CHESS OF THE WIND unfolds inside a candlelit mansion, where a web of greed, violence, and betrayal ensnares potential heirs as they vie for control of their matriarch’s estate. Melding the influences of European modernism, gothic horror, and classical Persian art, Mohammad Reza Aslani crafts an exquisitely restrained mood piece that erupts into a subversive final act in which class conventions, gender roles, and time itself are upended with shocking ferocity.”–CRITERION COLLECTION