Haven’t heard of Nommos before? You’re in for a treat.

Craig Leon will always be best known as a producer to the stars. The man has lent his technical knowledge to a host of high profile bands and artists, from the Ramones, The Talking Heads, Blondie and Suicide in the 1970s and 80s to his more recent classical work with Luciano Pavarotti, The London Symphony Orchestra and flautist James Galway. It is however, a lesser known album from 1981, released on John Fahey’s hallowed Takoma imprint that stands as his most unique contribution to music. An electronic record made at a time when the sounds were still in their infancy, Leon took the post-punk sound he helped to forge and stripped into a skeletal, pulsing hum replacing any sense of pop with off-key drones, reverberating rhythms and pulsating synthesizers.

Nommos will be re-issued by the Superior Viaduct label on June 25 and it’s beyond overdue. The album received a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ bootleg pressing not so long ago, but Superior Viaduct are pulling out all the stops to make sure theirs is the version to grab, with the edition remastered from the original analog tapes.

According to Julian Cope’s Head Heritage Nommos is the “missing link between the proto-industrial rhythm and drone of Suicide and the whole minimalist drone / static / repetition method of Terry Riley and La Monte Young.” – we couldn’t agree more. [via Ad Hoc]