October 8, 2026:
As I've written before, these are troubling times for a record store like ours.
First the UK and EU changed the rules on shipping, requiring VAT to be collected even on small orders. More recently, the EU changed the rules again, introducing a €3 customs charge on low-value parcels from outside the EU. Audio albums like the kind we sell have traditionally entered duty-free, but under the new system even those shipments can incur this additional customs charge. Because of the way we ship to EU customers, that cost ultimately falls on us.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has imposed new tariffs on imports from a large number of countries, including the UK, EU, Japan and others. Fortunately, recordings and publications are currently exempted as "informational materials," but the broader effect of these trade policies is still being felt throughout the businesses and suppliers we depend on.
All of this comes against a backdrop of rising global postal costs in both directions, along with sharply higher costs here at home. Rent, supplies, shipping materials, utilities and other overhead have all risen quickly over the last several years.
The worst part is that so much of this is the result of choices we have made politically. Our leadership too often seems more concerned with protecting wealth and powerful economic interests than with culture, small businesses or the affordability of everyday life. Governments repeatedly find ways to reward those who already have the most, while the costs are passed down to smaller businesses and ordinary people.
These changes are pushing us to raise the prices of some albums, something we've been doing slowly and reluctantly. We hope our customers understand why these increases are necessary, and know that we're doing everything we can to keep them as small as possible.
We've also lost a significant number of customers in the UK and EU, understandably, because ordering from the U.S. has become more expensive and complicated. At the same time, higher prices are affecting sales everywhere, including here in the U.S. As sales decline, we have to order fewer copies and restock less often.
That has consequences in both directions. We import a great deal of music from the UK and EU - probably as much as we once exported to customers there - so when rising costs reduce our overall sales, we in turn buy less from the labels and artists in those countries. In that sense, policies intended to collect more revenue or protect domestic markets can end up reducing international trade and hurting the very independent labels and artists whose work crosses those borders. It's a sad state of affairs.
I ask our customers to stick with us as we navigate these new rules and rising costs. If there's a new album you know you want, I would encourage you to order it when it arrives, because we may not be able to restock titles as quickly or as deeply as we once did.
And if you value what we do, please tell your fellow music collectors about Squidco. We're a small, sincere business devoted to extraordinary music, and keeping stores like ours alive helps keep this music circulating between artists, labels, listeners and communities around the world.
I promise I'll get back to the music in my next entry. I just needed to get this off my chest; it's frustrating to face the headwinds that keep pushing us back.
Squidco Publishing Roundup:
You can view our latest fully cataloged albums in the Recently Section.
You can also browse new titles as they enter our Just In Stock Section — meaning we physically have the album and can ship it, though we may still be updating additional information about the release.
To see restocks of previously listed titles, visit our Recently Restocked page.
And if you're interested in a future release, you can ask us to notify you by email via our Upcoming Releases page — no obligation necessary.
October 2, 2026:
Apologies for the nearly two-week gap between entries. I was out sick for a few days with an internal infection that is fortunately resolving. During that time, my priority while at work was getting new releases onto the store and making sure we were ready for the release of our eighth album on Squid Note Records. Some phenomenal records have come in, or been added to our catalog, since my last blog entry, from labels including Fou Records, Ftarri, Relative Pitch Records, Tzadik, Fataka, Mahakala, CLM, and 4Da Records — my favorites of which are noted below. We also ran a sale in collaboration with Les Disques VICTO, celebrating the label's 40th anniversary. Many thanks to our customers for showing their love for this great and important label!
Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp - Duologues 7: Distillation.
This is our eigth release on Squid Note Records, and we couldn't be more proud to have this in our catalog!
Ivo Perelman has also announced that Squid Note Records will be releasing a duo with Matthew Shipp every year on our label going forward. It's great news for us, and reaffirms our commitment to getting new music out into the world.
Out Now!
Duologues 7: DistillationA new duo album from Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp!
Click the album cover to preview or purchase at Squid Note Records.
We're also selling a limited edition of the album, with the cover, tracking listing and credits printed on a quality card stock album facsimile, with a download code on the back. There are only 100 of them and about 30 have gone out already, so here's how to add this keepsake to your collection.
GREAT NEWS!
Squidco will release a new Perelman/Matt Shipp duo every year IN PERPETUUM.
The first one comes out October 2nd, Duologues 7 "Distillation"
Here you can pre-order it and listen to track 4( Vol 1) and track 9( Vol 2) — Ivo Perelman
Philz Weekly Recommendations:
For my collection, the new 4-CD Jon Rose box is the standout release of the last two weeks. At only $24.95, it's an extraordinary package, with a thick booklet packed with credits and color images of Rose's wonderfully strange instruments -- and even a few curious clocks. Across the set, Rose ranges widely through the ideas that have defined his work: free improvisation, electroacoustic experiments using instruments he has built himself and devices by innovators such as Cor Fuhler, fractured approaches to classical music, and his famous recordings of fences across Australia. One piece is even powered by bicycles! What makes the set especially compelling is the sequencing, which keeps shifting the ground beneath you as Rose moves from one concept and sound world to another, turning the box into a genuinely adventurous listening journey.
On the more aggressive side comes the latest album from Marteau Rouge, this time with saxophonist Daunik Lazro. If you're not familiar with the band: Formed in the early 1990s by guitarist Jean-Francois Pauvros, electronics player Jean-Marc Foussat, and drummer Makoto Sato, French trio Marteau Rouge fuse free improvisation, noise, and free rock into a volatile language of amplified guitar, analog electronics, voice, and highly physical percussion. Their dense, spontaneous sound has also proven remarkably open to collaboration, particularly with saxophonists such as Evan Parker, whose tenor and soprano became another force within the trio's turbulent electric environment.
Fataka's latest is an incredible example of improvisational language from masterful players Paul Lytton, Eddie Prevost, Nate Wooley, and Seymour Wright, who present four journeys -- two "Parallels" and two "Diagonals" -- using metaphoric geometry to reflect their interactions. With relationships ranging from established partnerships to dormant connections and completely new pairings, the quartet creates a richly layered improvisational setting that often envelops the listener, their playing shaped as much by familiarity as by discovery, each musician bringing a distinct voice to a meeting whose possibilities remain genuinely open.
I found Jessica Pavone's latest album especially interesting, mixing solo work with a handful of spare but fascinating duos. "Spare" may be the better word than "frugal," particularly for her track with Fred Frith, who adds layers of guitar sonics to Pavone's solo material in a collaboration assembled remotely. Her piece with Joe Lally was similarly constructed through file exchange, his bass bringing distinctive punctuation to the finished work. I didn't recognize Lally's name at first, but I certainly knew his playing: he was the bassist and a founding member of Fugazi.
I'm still delving into Ikue Mori's CD/DVD release, but so far I'm impressed by both the sound and the visuals she presents. Her collaborators include Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura, Koichi Makigami, and Zeena Parkins, all musicians with whom she has worked in various configurations over many years. Those connections extend through projects involving Jim Staley, Phantom Orchard Orchestra, Fred Frith and Ensemble Modern, Mahobin, and Wadada Leo Smith, giving the release a strong sense of continuity with the many musical relationships Mori has developed across her career.
I spent a bit of time with the ZTT label in the '80s, but somehow never pursued Andrew Poppy's work until False Walls reissued his classic The Beating of Wings. What a revelation! Poppy brings the repetition and pulse of contemporary minimalism into contact with rock and electronic elements, using orchestral winds, brass and strings alongside piano, electric piano, guitar, bass, sampler, Fairlight and drum machine. If Steve Reich or Philip Glass are reference points for you, there's plenty here to latch onto, but Poppy's approach is very much his own. I've really been enjoying this beautifully remastered reissue.
 Rose, Jon: Rosenberg Museum [4 CDs] (Relative Pitch)
A five-CD survey of Jon Rose's Rosenberg Museum, the violinist's decades-long Gesamtkunstwerk of invented, altered and repurposed string instruments, documenting a practice that treats the violin as a limitless field for acoustic experiment, cultural critique and sonic invention, with John Oswald contributing to this expansive archive of new instruments, new sounds and unstable musical histories.
 Marteau Rouge / Daunik Lazro : Marteau Rouge (Fou Records)
Reuniting after a nine-year hiatus, Marteau Rouge — Jean-Francois Pauvros, Jean-Marc Foussat and Makoto Sato — joins longtime associate Daunik Lazro on tenor saxophone for a live Montreuil performance of seven compact improvisations, merging distorted guitar, Synthi AKS electronics, percussion, voices and toys with Lazro's incisive tenor in a volatile mix of free jazz, noise and free rock.
 Lytton, Paul / Eddie Prevost / Nate Wooley / Seymour Wright : Parallels & Diagonals (Fataka)
Recorded live at Cafe Oto, this first-time quartet of percussionists Paul Lytton and Eddie Prevost, trumpeter Nate Wooley and saxophonist Seymour Wright brings together overlapping histories of long-standing, renewed and entirely new collaborations, using those contrasting degrees of familiarity to shape a freely improvised performance of shifting alliances, layered interaction and distinct individual voices.
 Mori, Ikue: Enchanted and Delighted [CD + DVD] (Tzadik)
NYC electronic composer and improviser Ikue Mori gathers music created from 2016-2025 into an imaginative CD/DVD work pairing her intricate electronic worlds with handmade dolls, puppets, animation and miniature sets, joined on pieces by Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura, Koichi Makigami, and Zeena Parkins in eight pieces moving through fantasy, science fiction, Japanese ghost imagery and detailed electroacoustic sound.
 Poppy, Andrew: The Beating of Wings: 40th Anniversary Edition (False Walls)
Marking 40 years since its 1985 ZTT release, Andrew Poppy's landmark The Beating of Wings returns newly remastered by Stephan Mathieu, presenting four prescient post-minimal works where Poppy's piano, keyboards, voice and sampler, Glyn Perrin's electric piano, orchestral winds, brass and strings, guitar, bass, Fairlight and drum machine merge acoustic composition with the studio as a compositional instrument.
Squidco Publishing Roundup:
You can view our latest fully cataloged albums in the Recently Section.
You can also browse new titles as they enter our Just In Stock Section — meaning we physically have the album and can ship it, though we may still be updating additional information about the release.
To see restocks of previously listed titles, visit our Recently Restocked page.
And if you're interested in a future release, you can ask us to notify you by email via our Upcoming Releases page — no obligation necessary.
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Masayo Koketsu / Nava Dunkelman:
Nicolas Gombert / James Weeks:
Reuben / Hanslip / Lash / Hession:
Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp:
Ishmael Ali (Ishmael / Wilkerson / Wilkes / Baker / Tong / Harris):
Marta Warelis (w/ LaMar Gay / Baars / Ng / Haker Flaten / Rosaly):
Maya Bennardo / Erik Blennow Calalv / Kristofer Svensson:
Charles K. Noyes:
Marco Fusi / Pierre Alexandre Tremblay:
Dominic Lash / Mark Wastell:
