Another massive pile of new stuff hitting the shelves this week, and loads on the way for next week as well. Just in time for those student loan cheques….
…..pick of the week…..
Madrigal: s/t (Lysergia) LP
Finally a reissue of one of the great lost Grails of the NYC freak underground! Trading hands for $3-4000 on the rare occasions it is offered, Madrigal has grown into a legend among fans of psychedelic drone music. Here’s what the Acid Archives has to say: “…A rather amazing do-it-yourself descent into the murkiest depths of the early 1970s underground. It’s two guys sitting in what sounds like a boiler room, equipped with a drum machine, an electric guitar & bass and some oscillators, hotwiring themselves into the lysergic flow of the Now. The music drones and cavorts while incomprehensible screams and dialogue lurk in the background, as heard through a locked door. The atmosphere is as thick as in a nightmare…” But Madrigal’s strongest achievement may be the seamless shift from the harrowing visions of machinery and faceless suffering on side 1 into a string of dark, haunting folk-rock numbers on side 2, a transition as natural as if these were simply the two sides of the same unclassifiable coin. Pioneering at the time and still unique today, vague parallels could be made to Suicide, the Patron Saints and Velvet Underground’s third LP, but first and last Madrigal can only be understood on its own. Re-mastered for superior sound, retaining the original artwork and pressed in a limited edition, 180 gram virgin vinyl, housed in a deluxe case with a wrapped tip-on-sleeve, and including an insert with in-depth liner notes.
File Under: Psych, Raers, Holy Grail
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…..new arrivals…..
Les Ambassadeurs: du Motel de Bamako (Sterns Africa) 2CD
On sale in our listening post! The supernal singer Salif Keita, groundbreaking guitarists Kante Manfila, Ousmane Kouyate and Amadou Bagayoko (now famous as half of Amadou & Mariam), saxophonist Moussa Sissoko, organist Idrissa Soumaoro, and the extraordinary bala-xylophonist and fiddler Keletigui Diabate — they (and as many others) were all in the great West African band called Les Ambassadeurs. They came together from several bands from four different countries (hence their name) in Bamako, Mali, in 1970. The man behind this all-star ensemble was a high-ranking officer in the military junta that governed Mali. He was eager to affirm his influence by entertaining VIPs at his favorite hangout, the Motel de Bamako, located among shady mango trees along the Niger River, and to succeed he needed an attraction at least as strong as the Rail Band, which was in residence at the popular Buffet Hotel adjacent to the city’s central train station. Les Ambassadeurs immediately created a sensation with their skill at various styles, including Afro-Cuban, jazz, R&B, rock, and modernized Manding classics, and in 1973 the Rail Band’s star vocalist, Salif Keita, left the Buffet Hotel to join his peers at the Motel de Bamako. In the mid-’70s Les Ambassadeurs were the pre-eminent Malian band, releasing hit after hit, touring West Africa, and even making appearances in France. The new Sterns Music 2CD album includes 18 recordings made by Les Ambassadeurs in Bamako between 1975 and 1977 (before politics compelled them to relocate to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where they became known as Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux). Most of these tracks have never previously been reissued on CD, and two of them — Radio Mali live recordings — have never been released until now. The album booklet contains illuminating notes, rare photographs, and reproductions of LP covers.
File Under: Indie Rock, CanCon
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The Apostles: Punk Obituary (Beat Generation) LP
The Apostles were formed in 1979 in the Islington area, London by Bill Corbet, Julian Portinari, Dan McIntrye and Pete Byng-Hall. With this line-up, the band didn’t play any gigs, but were featured in diverse fanzines such as Paroxysm Fear and New Crimes. In the summer of 1981, Andy Martin joined them as vocalist and they played their first gig in September of 1981 and recorded their first demo, The Apostles. With the addition of Martin, the band started to work something out from the anarcho-punk scene, more into mixing diverse sounds such as industrial, English folk, some gospel and avant-garde stuff. In 1982, all the band’s members left except Andy Martin, who called some friends from other bands as Political Asylum and Innocent Bystander to continue with the band’s work. With this new line-up, the band recorded four 7″s and seven 12″ LPs between 1984 and 1990. Punk Obituary was originally released by the great Motorhate label, run by the English band Conflict. This album is to anarco-punk what London Calling was to mainstream punk, a total seminal record that helped to create a new sound and style. Also the lyrics turned from anarco-punk themes to more personal and intellectual ones. A total absolute must-have record, for sure. Features replica cover art and inside artwork including a big newspaper/fanzine. Limited edition of 500 copies on 180 gram black vinyl with a gatefold sleeve.
File Under: Punk, Anarco-punk
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Bitchin’ Bajas: s/t (Drag City) LP
“…and at the heart of Bitchin Bajas, there is pure peace. Bitchin Bajas have been around the world in five years; chasing sonics through space and time and coming up with a lot of conclusions along their discographical path. Always, they push forward, recklessly consuming processes in order to realize their own works — but the sound and the music regularly emerges with tranquil essence, bringing them and their listeners into a shared experience. Bitchin Bajas’ output has been remarkably diverse in search of this singular goal, which makes for great listening across multiple albums etc. — and with the release of this new double-LP, they have mapped and traversed their own ecosystem as they journey in search of the aural epiphany, the true unknowing. With plenty of room stretched over four sides, Bitchin Bajas use their many methods to attain perfect flow throughout the 76 minutes of this self-titled record. Self-titled because this is who they are at their core; these are the flares and oscillations of their soul. They will be other things again, horizons will continue to rise and fade away in their path as they continue forward and upward — but this self-titled record is a pure vision at the heart of Bitchin Bajas. Acoustic is the beginning. Eastern tonalities relocate Bitchin Bajas farther inside the source, finding the timeless time from long ago and slowly sliding via fader until then is now, until acoustic goes analog. Something pure and natural is happening — within the sound, within the songs; in the album and in you. The shifts that come makes changes in your moods and your body temperature. Something delicate yet definite, gradually washing over your consciousness. Electricity just comes, it doesn’t even begin. Bitchin Bajas is climate-controlled comprehension — on one hand, an ultimate album, and on the other, barely even an album at all. What began in randomness, pitch-shifting and tape manipulation emerged in the cutting as a single direction, a journey in scales, divided by the format perfectly into four stages, eight discreet parts. Bitchin Bajas reach high and low in their consciousness as expressed through equalization to see (hear) what affect it will have on them — and what it does to them, reaches through to you. The space found on Bitchin Bajas was located with organ, synthesizer, winds, xylophone and autoharp, employing a 1″ 8-track tape machine to the fullest extent. Additional contributions from strings, keys, guitar and field recordings helped make Bitchin Bajas everything that it is.”
File Under: Electronic, Drone
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Charlatan: Local Agent (Umor Rex) LP
“Local Agent is the fourth LP by Charlatan, a.k.a. Brad Rose, label-head of Digitalis, also known as The North Sea and one half of Safiyya. Local Agent is Charlatan’s streamlined statement, an amalgam of spy and sci-fi techno with touches of abstract dub, finely mastered by John Tejada. Local Agent is a great culmination of several years’ work by Brad Rose, who has been studying and styling a conceptual and abstract merge between industrial-beat and techno structures, with a sensitivity for narrative and the description of futuristic landscapes (retro-futuristic / Lab style). While employing his usual set of tools (electronic synthesis, cyclical melodies and techno/abstract rhythms), this time around Brad Rose/Charlatan is also playing inside the most turbulent dub territories, jointed by crushed and anonymous bass lines, to create tracks loaded with kinetic content, pieces that move within the grounds of science fiction and spy thrillers, a paranoia-rich sound apt for a J.G. Ballard novel.” Limited to 300 copies; pressed on transparent yellow vinyl.
File Under: Electronic, Synth Pop
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Cocteau Twins: Heaven or Las Vegas (4AD) LP
The celebrated last two albums Cocteau Twins released on 4AD will finally be back in the vinyl racks. The first time either have been pressed since release, both will come on heavyweight 180 gram black vinyl and are being cut from brand new HD 96/24 masters. Both also include MP3 download coupons. Heaven or Las Vegas followed in 1990 and was to become their most commercially successful release, reaching number seven in the UK album charts. Numerous publications have since declared it one of the best albums of the 90s, Pitchfork calling it “a core of ungodly gorgeous songs that is every bit as moving and relevant today as it ever was.” Label founder Ivo Watts-Russell goes further, candidly revealing in the recent 4AD biography, Facing The Other Way, that this album wasn’t just his favourite Cocteaus album but also his favourite all-time 4AD album, and “by a long shot’, calling it “the perfect record.’ And with tracks as majestic as the title track, ‘Cherry-Coloured Funk’ and ‘Iceblink Luck’, who’s to argue? “From the start, Heaven… is simply fantastic: on “Cherry-Coloured Funk,” Guthrie’s inimitable guitar work chimes leading a low-key but forceful rhythm, while Raymonde’s grand bass work fleshes it out. Fraser simply captivates; her vocals are the clearest, most direct they’ve ever been, purring with energy and life. There are many moments of sheer Cocteaus beauty and power, including the title track, with its great chorus, and two spotlight Guthrie solos: “Fotzepolitic,” a powerful number building to a rushing conclusion, and the album-ending “Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires.” Possessing the same climactic sense of drama past disc-closers as “Donimo” and “The Thinner the Air,” it’s a perfect way to end a near-perfect album.” – AllMusic.
File Under: Ethereal, Downtempo
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Smoke Dawson: Fiddle (Tompkins Square) LP
“Reissue of Smoke Dawson’s 1971 private press LP, Fiddle. George ‘Smoke’ Dawson played banjo in MacGrundy’s Old-Timey Wool Thumpers with Peter Stampfel (later of Holy Modal Rounders) in 1960, lived for years at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY, and roamed around the US as an itinerant bagpipe and fiddle player for decades. His life is laced with small triumphs, and lots of tragedy. But he’s still with us. Tompkins Square reissues his only album, a remarkable 1971 private press LP. This is his story. Excerpted notes by reissue producer / Tompkins Square label owner Josh Rosenthal : ‘I was doing some research for a box set of music recorded at Cafe Lena, the hallowed folk music venue located in Saratoga Springs, NY, when I came upon a photograph of a musician I didn’t recognize. He looked like a sixth member of The Band – a handsome fiddler with wax moustache, goatee, black Western hat. There was a traditional air to him, a seriousness, but there was also something wild there. I needed to know who he was, and everything about him. The producers told me his name was Smoke Dawson, and they had tape on him. We listened, and his live version of ‘Devil’s Dream’ made it onto the box set. Then I started digging. I found a 1996 blog post from someone named Oliver Seeler, who claimed to have recorded a solo album by Dawson in 1971. I called the number on the site, not expecting much from an 18 year old blog post. But he picked up. He gave me background on the record. And, he gave me Smoke Dawson’s phone number…'”
File Under: Folk, Old-Time, Holy Modal Rounders
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Earth: Primitive & Deadly (Southern Lord) CD
Vinyl in next week! Earth’s career, like its music, has always been a slow, deliberate progression. Each record slightly removed from the last, a constant refinement of a singular vision. Dylan Carlson has remained focused throughout on coaxing moments of strange beauty and reflection from “the riff”. This elemental foundation of rock is refracted, in their earliest recordings, through the prism of sheer volume and feedbacking drone or via a sparse unraveling take on folk. With Primitive And Deadly, Earth’s tenth studio collection, Carlson and long term cohort, drummer Adrienne Davies, manage to come full circle twenty-five years in the making, whilst exploring new directions in their music. For the first time in their diverse career, they allow themselves to be a rock band, freed of adornment and embellishment. As much as Carlson’s guitar has always been the focal point of Earth’s music, it’s been surrounded by consistently diverse instrumentation. Here the dialog between Carlson and Davies drumming remains pivotal, underpinned by the sympathetic bass of Bill Herzog (Sunn O))), Joel RL Phelps, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter) and thickened by additional layers of guitar from Brett Netson (Built To Spill, Caustic Resin) and Jodie Cox (Narrows). Perhaps the largest left turn on Primitive And Deadly, though, is the prominence of guest vocalists Mark Lanegan and Rabia Shaheen Qazi (Rose Windows) who transform the traditionally free ranging meditations of Earth into something approaching traditional pop structures. On “Rooks Across the Gates” Carlson stretches out into some of his most lyrical playing to date, creating an almost symbiotic relationship between his performance and the vocals of old friend Mark Lanegan. “From the Zodiacal Light,” meanwhile, takes a late 60s San Franciscan/freaked-out jazz-rock transcendence and quickly re-appropriates that sound into a musky torch song for the witching hour. This contradictive tension between a band pushing itself ever-forward whilst surveying their history is reflected in the albums twin recording locales. The foundation of the record was laid in the mystic desert high lands of Joshua Tree, California where Earth recorded hour after hour of meditations on each tracks central theme at Rancho de la Luna. Upon returning to Seattle these were edited, arranged and expanded upon at Avast with the help of long-term collaborator Randall Dunn (who was previously at the helm for the Hex, The Bees Made Honey In The Lions Skull and Hibernaculum sessions). Thick, dense and overdriven, melodically rich and enveloping, Primitive And Deadly is Earth reaffirming their position as a singular point in the history of rock. (And yes, Earth will be touring extensively in support of this album)
File Under: Metal, Doom, Southern Lord
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Eno-Hyde: High Life (Warp) LP
The collaboration between Brian Eno and Karl Hyde (Underworld) continues with second full-length record High Life on Warp Records. The experiment drew inspiration from the repetitive minimalism of composers like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, and from the polyrhythmic music of Fela Kuti and funk, as well as continuing the work that Eno and Hyde have done separately.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental, ENO
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Lee Gamble: Kuang EP (Pan) 12″
Lee Gamble is a UK-based artist and electronic music producer with roots in the original jungle-techno and extreme computer music fields. The Kuang EP heralds the release of Gamble’s keenly-awaited 2nd LP KOCH with three tracks of dissociative ambient/techno. “Kali Wave” opens with a bittersweet breakbeat roller sounding something like early AGCG playing in a hall of mirrors, whereas “Mimas Skank” diffuses oily acid and dry dub techno inna dancefloor wormhole, and the detached ambient drift of “Girl Drop” rends a gasp of post-rave bliss into 12 minutes of spectral sublime or precipitous dread, depending on your perspective.
File Under: Ambient Techno
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Arve Henriksen: The Nature of Connections (Rune Grammofon) CD
Arve Henriksen stumbled across the title of his latest album while reading a book about furniture-making. “The author mentioned the complexity of making a chair and all the people involved in the process,” the Norwegian trumpet player says. “The high quality of the different fields and the wide range of professions that, after a long process, turns into a product which can easily be compared to the process of making this album.” The Nature of Connections finds Arve working in harness with some of Norway’s most distinguished and dynamic musician-craftsmen, drawn from the fields of folk, improvisation and jazz. Each one brought specialist components and skills honed over many years to Arve’s workshop, where the results were assembled and polished to a high gleam. The Nature of Connections almost entirely features pieces composed by Arve’s collaborators. Recorded in the sparkling acoustics of Oslo’s legendary Rainbow Studio by Jan Erik Kongshaug, it’s an album with closer ties to Nordic folk and contemporary, minimalist chamber music than any of Arve’s previous releases. The trumpeter had planned to make an album with a string quartet for many years but never quite found the right formula. Finally, a specially commissioned tour brought him together with violinists Nils Økland and Gjermund Larsen, cellist Svante Henryson and double bassist Mats Eilertsen, all of whom now appear as the central planks in The Nature of Connections. Another welcome guest is drummer Audun Kleive, veteran of Norwegian jazz ensembles including Masqualero, JoKleBa!, Generator X, Terje Rypdal and Jon Balke. “The brilliant thing about collaboration with others is that your collaborators very often have better ideas than yourself,” says Arve, typically modest. “At the same time, some naive and simple ideas from my head are sometimes enough to illustrate that moment and that special feeling of a story. I have gradually started to trust that feeling.” His instincts are correct, leading to some of the warmest and most organic sounding music of his career. Highlights include the solemn chamber music of “Seclusive Song,” and the stately progress of “Hymn” — composed by Arve’s keyboardist partner in the long-running Norwegian improv ensemble Supersilent, Ståle Storløkken — which paces itself around Henryson’s repetitive, gently churning cello. Born in Norway and currently living in Sweden, Arve Henriksen is Scandinavia’s most distinctive trumpeter and improviser. He played in various jazz ensembles in his youth before co-forming Supersilent in 1997, a prolific free music group with Helge Sten (Deathprod) and Ståle Storløkken, which is still ongoing. His trumpet, augmented with effects and electronics, has appeared with David Sylvian, Terje Rypdal, Nils Petter Molvær, Jon Balke, Terje Isungset and Iain Ballamy’s Food. With Supersilent he recently collaborated with former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. In September 2014 he’ll be participating in an architectural installation/performance as part of Oslo’s Ultima Festival of contemporary music. Since 2001 he has created a series of exquisite solo recordings (on Rune Grammofon and ECM), which combine electronic textures, horns, woodwinds, ethnic instruments, percussion, keyboards, and his mournful, yearning singing voice. Henriksen’s music reflects both the stunning beauty of virgin wilderness and the shifting, cosmopolitan environments experienced by the 21st century traveler. The Nature of Connections is the latest link forged in an ever-growing chain. Arve Henriksen (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, piano); Nils Økland (violin, Hardanger fiddle, viola d’amore); Svante Henryson (cello); Gjermund Larsen (violin, Hardanger fiddle); Mats Eilertsen (double bass); Audun Kleive (drums).
File Under: Jazz, Trumpet, Supersilent
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Hiss Golden Messenger: Lateness of Dances (Merge) LP
Hiss Golden Messenger is Durham, North Carolina-based songwriter M.C. Taylor. Lateness of Dancers is the fifth full-length from Hiss Golden Messenger. It’s an open, confident, immediate album, and it feels, at times, like a direct response to the darkness of Taylor’s last record, 2013’s Haw, or to the searching of 2010’s Bad Debt, the stunning acoustic LP he made at his kitchen table shortly after the birth of his son. Lateness of Dancers was recorded in a tin-roofed barn outside of Hillsborough, North Carolina, last fall and includes many of Taylor’s longtime collaborators, like Phil and Brad Cook of Megafaun, the guitarist William Tyler, and his erstwhile recording partner Scott Hirsch. Alexandra Sauser-Monnig of Mountain Man contributes backing vocals; her tender, wooly voice both complements and challenges Taylor’s. The record takes its name from a Eudora Welty story, which is noteworthy not because of its origins – although there are hints of Welty in Taylor’s work, and not just Welty but Flannery O’Connor and Faulkner and Barry Hannah and Larry Brown and the whole pantheon of brutal and exquisite southern writers – but because Taylor is the type of person who recognizes the beauty in a phrase like that. It is a record about self-discovery and self-knowledge, and how impossible it is to outsmart yourself. I don’t know how you learn a lesson like that, except the hard way. “The misery of love is a funny thing / The more it hurts / The more you think / You can stand a little pain,” he sings on ‘Mahogany Dread’, one of Lateness’ most telling tracks. These are the kinds of lies we tell ourselves to feel the things we want to feel, even when those pleasures are buried in a whole lot of hurt.
File Under: Folk, Rock, Psych
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James Hoff: Blaster (Pan) LP
New York-based conceptual artist James Hoff returns to PAN with Blaster, a document of his explorations of computer viruses as agents within the composition process. Specifically, Hoff used the Blaster virus to infect 808 beats and then utilized the mutated results as building blocks for seven new compositions. Hoff’s interest in computer viruses lies in their ability to self-distribute through (and ultimately disrupt) networks of communication and Hoff’s agency as an artist centers on placing these parasitic forms into pre-existing genres, such as dance music. Blaster is a timely exploration of the infectious qualities of sound, and how it too, as a carrier, makes its way through social networks, reduced to bits and programmed to infiltrate and replicate. “Viruses, like art, need a host. Preferably a popular one.” Interested in ways in which the virus works could mutate and spread socially, the first side of Blaster contains these sonic presentations, and the second houses all of the artist’s infected samples and serves as a scratch record for DJs, an object of utility, and ultimately a provocation, mobilizing its new hosts as a point of potential transmission. Blaster is a logical progression from Hoff’s PAN debut LP How Wheeling Feels When the Ground Walks Away, which dealt with aural documents of riots and disruptions, and the record is part of a larger body of work by the artist that also includes virus paintings.
File Under: Electronic, 808
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Etta James: Rocks the House (Jackpot) LP
Best known for the lush 1961 rendition of the ballad “At Last” – a slow-dance staple at wedding celebrations everywhere,she is also celebrated for having recorded one of the best live albums of all time, Rocks the House. Recorded in 1963 at the New Era Club in Nashville, James is captured at her performance peak. The foundation for her reputation as a fiery no-holds-barred performer was firmly established in this recording. Blues, soul, jazz, R&B, and rock vocalist Etta James needs no introduction. An icon from early rock’n’roll’s pantheon of divas, she has inspired five decades of listeners and fellow artists with her vocal stylings. From Janis Joplin to Beyonce, her expressive and guttural style has been imitated but never quite matched. Jackpot Records is honored to release this momentous record on stellar blue vinyl, with the original album artwork and including 3 bonus tracks which have only ever been released previously on CD. Her powerful version of “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” will shake you. Her impassioned version of “All I Could Do Is Cry,” will break you.
File Under: Soul, RnB, Blues
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Lambchop: Live at XX Merge (Merge) LP
First time pressed to vinyl – (Clear vinyl pressing!) LP includes coupon for full digital download – audio & video both. As Merge fans know, Lambchop has been on the label since 1993, releasing a string of widely varied but consistently brilliant records. But the live Lambchop experience has been somewhat elusive in the U.S. While the band has toured the gilded theaters of Europe and elsewhere for nearly two decades, the Nashville group has seldom toured their home country. To help celebrate Merge’s 20th Anniversary the band showed up in one of their largest lineups in recent memory — 11-strong, including multiple guitars, keyboards, piano, and a horn section. By the end of their set, everyone in the packed Cats Cradle – band and audience both – was levitating a few inches off the ground. Lambchop’s set at XX Merge was professionally recorded and filmed, and is available now on vinyl for those who missed it, or for those who want to go back again. “..the Nashville weirdos have never gotten the popular attention they’ve long deserved. Friday night, they won the capacity crowd at the Cradle forever. It was a revelatory moment, suggesting that we’ve got five years from right now to reconsider Lambchop.”- PITCHFORK // “The results are in and it’s unanimous — Lambchop stole the show at XX Merge.” – WASHINGTON POST
File Under: Folk, Country, Indie
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LSD Underground 12: s/t (Lysergia) LP
Before there was psychedelic music, there was LSD Underground 12. Recorded under mysterious circumstances in Los Angeles in the summer of 1966, this mind-blowing musical journey represents the earliest known case of musicians recording while under the effect of LSD. The result is a pioneering aural kaleidoscope of shifting moods and complex atmospheres unlike anything done before and hardly since. Recorded at a time when psychedelic music did not yet exist as a genre, it is not surprising that the music flows freely across genres, from eerie Middle Eastern desert moods and nocturnal West Coast jazz grooves into full-blown acid-rock guitar soloing, while the hallucinogenic tension is sustained and released through outbursts of piercing avant-garde, Fluxic chaos and minimalist stasis. Sold briefly via mail-order, the 1966 record was only rumored to exist until Lysergia’s recent research verified its existence. In view of its pioneering historical status and outstanding musical quality, LSD Underground 12 should rank as one of the greatest psychedelic music discoveries of the past 20 years. A pioneering acid-head sound unlike anything that came before it and hardly anything since… a musical riddle rising from the psychedelic catacombs. Presented by Patrick Lundborg and Lysergia, LSD Underground 12 is available in an exclusive limited LP edition, 180 gram virgin vinyl, housed in a deluxe case with a wrapped tip-on-sleeve, and including an insert with in-depth liner notes.
File Under: Psychedelic, LSD, Avant Garde
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Merchandise: After The End (4AD) LP/CD
First gaining notoriety with the LPs “Children of Desire” (2012), which Pitchfork hailed for its “glistening and emotive, earbleeding noise pop”, and then Totale Nite (2013), which NME likened to “a cultural jumpstart” in their 9/10 review. Merchandise continue their ascent with the highly-anticipated new album, “After The End”. Drawing from too many places to be classified punk, they’ve certainly been informed by its ethics, earning all they’ve achieved. Still self-recording and producing their music, this time over a six month period in the house they share in Tampa, “After The End” is a real achievement in showing what bands can achieve themselves. The only outside influence this time came when they enlisted mixing help from Gareth Jones, the man famed for his work on Depeche Mode’s Berlin Trilogy of “Construction Time Again”, “Some Great Reward”, and “Black Celebration”, and more recently Interpol, These New Puritans and Grizzly Bear.
File Under: Indie Rock
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New Pornographers: Brill Bruisers (Last Gang) LP
Brill Bruisers is the first new release in four years from the acclaimed supergroup, who have been called, “virtually peerless in the world of power-pop and indie-rock” by NPR Music. Additionally, the New Yorker describes the band’s music as, “…magnificent and clever,” while Stereogum proclaims, “In recent history, no group has featured so much formidable established talent, collaborating on a regular basis.” Of the album, lead-singer and main songwriter AC Newman comments, “This is a celebration record. After periods of difficulty, I am at a place where nothing in my life is dragging me down and the music reflects that. I’m grateful.” Produced by band-members John Collins (bass) with Newman, the 12-track album was recorded primarily at Little Blue in Woodstock, NY and at JC/DC Studios in Vancouver B.C. with additional recording in Austin, Brooklyn and Vermont.
File Under: Pop, Power Pop, CanCon, Neko Case, Destroyer
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Ngozi Family: Day of Judgement (Now Again) LP/CD
“Guitarist/vocalist Paul Ngozi’s debut album — under the name Ngozi Family — is an important record: not just in the Zamrock genre, but in the global rock canon. Day of Judgement is an introduction to the most intense, raw and inimitable golden era Zamrock recorded, as it paved the way for a dozen Paul Ngozi and Ngozi Family releases (the most famous being drummer Chrissy Zebby Tembo’s My Ancestors) that straddled the line between funk and punk, of driving hard rock and Zambian folk melodies and rhythms. Day of Judgement was released in 1976, the same year as other, now famous, Zamrock albums, from Witch’s Lazy Bones!! to Rikki Ililonga’s Zambia. But it sounds like none of its counterparts. Part of that stems from its frenzied primitivism, the Ngozi Family’s attempt to overcome a lack of musical acumen with sheer force of will. That will allowed Paul Ngozi to overcome a humble upbringing to become the most unlikely combination: Zamrock’s most beloved star in its brief but now-well chronicled arc; the only musician to maintain his fame and recording prowess in the dark ages of the ’80s; an inspiration to not only aging but young Zambians — and now others, beyond Zambia’s borders. But one cannot imagine Paul Ngozi without this album, a full-on aural assault that sounds as wild nearly forty years after its release as it must have sounded in the developing Zamrock landscape from which it emerged. We listen to this anachronistic yet prescient album now as a wholly original, completely unpredictable album in line with those from mavericks from across the world — from the Ramones to the Sex Pistols to Death. And, though it’s been over two decades since Paul Ngozi’s passing, his voice and vision still seem exciting, powerful, unique, unvarnished, new. Packaged in a deluxe hard cover case book.”
File Under: Fuzz, Psych, ZamRock
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OST: Godzilla (Death Waltz) LP
For the first time ever on vinyl, the full score to the legendary monster movie that started it all! Death Waltz Recording Company are proud to be unearthing the legendary monster of our time and bringing him to vinyl in the shape of Akira Ifukube’s score to Godzilla. Starkly different to the usual view of The Big G as the ultimate monster wrestler, Ifukube’s music is intense, dark, and reflects Ishiro Honda’s film as a pure horror film. While the score opens with the jaunty riff that would eventually become Godzilla’s Theme, the majority of the music alternates between pounding brass and mournful strings as we witness the death and destruction that comes in Godzilla’s wake. Help us celebrate the 60th birthday of the greatest monster to walk the earth, and the powerhouse musical experience that is Akira Ifukube’s Godzilla.
File Under: OST, Death Waltz
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OST: Phantom of the Opera (One Way Static) LP
The Phantom of the Opera is perhaps one of the most iconic horror films in history. Directed by Rupert Julian in 1925, this silent movie starred Lon Chaney in the lead role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star. As legendary as its many adaptations on the silver screen and on stage is its history of fitting soundtracks. Throughout the decades that followed many composers and artists worldwide took up the task to write fresh new scores for this iconic picture. One Way Static Records proudly presents the latest installment in this tradition with a brand new modern re-score composed and performed by UK septet THE LAZE. The Laze have developed quite a reputation across the UK for their spine-tingling live performances and expansive soundscapes. Influenced by a history of horror soundtracks, from Bernard Hermann and Angelo Badalamenti to Goblin and John Carpenter, The Laze implemented elements of Progressive Rock, Classical, Jazz, Heavy Metal and Electronica in their score. The original soundtrack will be the group’s fourth long-player. The band’s last release was 2010’s Spacetime Fabric Conditioner, a Sci-Fi concept album, which went on to be remixed by Steve Moore (Zombi), Forest Swords and Brontt Industries Kapital.
File Under: OST, Horror, Goblin, Carpenter
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OST: The Raid 2 (Spacelab 9) LP
Score by Joseph Trapanese, Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemal. Scheduled for a North American theatrical release on March 28, 2014, The Raid 2 picks up right where the first film left off and follows Rama (Iko Uwais) as he goes undercover and infiltrates the ranks of a ruthless Jakarta crime syndicate in order to protect his family and uncover the corruption in his own police force. Already earning a reputation worldwide as one of the year’s most gritty and violent flicks.
File Under: OST
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OST: Street Trash (Lunaris) LP
The original motion picture soundtrack from the ultimate melt movie, Street Trash. Composed by Rick Ulfik, the soundtrack has previously been unreleased since its creation in 1987. For fans of lo-fi synthesizer based soundtracks. Cover artwork and design created by Philadelphia based graphic designer Haunt Love.
File Under: OST, Lofi Synth
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P.I.G.S.: Bloody Belgium (Ugly Pop) 7″
One of the crown jewels of worldwide first-wave punk, this Belgian band’s sole release really is as good as it gets. All three songs here are excellent but “Bloody Belgium” and “Stooges” are stone classics. Unavailable since it was released in 1978, with original copies fetching up to four figures, and finally back in print through cooperation with the band. Includes eight page booklet with liner notes, original press clippings and unseen photos!
File Under: Punk, Belguim
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PF Commando: Manipulerade Mongon (Ugly Pop) LP
Self-released in 1979 by one of Sweden’s most notorious bands, this monster debut was the country’s first punk LP, packing in 15 tracks of pure three-chord bash at its most primal and aggressive. Vocals are alternately barked and snarled, guitars slash and buzz, the rhythm section thrashes along maniacally– no pop, no art, just PUNK in the vein of Dead Boys, Viletones, Germs and early Black Flag! Ugly Pop is very pleased to be making this hard-to-find slab available again in its first legitimate vinyl pressing since 1979, with all new insert.
File Under: Punk, Sweden
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Colin Potter: Entering Again (Sacred Summits) LP
“Five tracks of drone and loopy minimalism, based on the cassette-only album out in 1982 on A Gain. The beautiful, mesmerizing opener ‘On Entering York Minster’ sets the stage. Gorgeous, silk-screened sleeves.”
File Under: Electronic, Drone, Nurse With Wound
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Lou Reed: Early Lou: Pre-Velvet Underground Recordings 1958-1965 (Andy) LP
Tracks: The Jades (“So Blue – Leave Her for Me” single, 1958), Lewis Reed (“Your Love – Merry Go Round” 1962 Demo), The Primitives (“The Ostrich – Sneaky Pete” single, 1964), The Intimates (“I’ve Got A Tiger In My Tank”, 1965), Donnie Burks (“Why Don’t You Smile Now”, 1965), Lou Reed (“Heroin” Demo Pickwick Studios, 1965), The Roughnecks (“You’re Driving Me Insane”, 1965), The Beachnuts (“I’ve Got A Tiger In My Tank – Cycle Annie”, 1965), The Surfsiders (“Little Deuce Coupe – Surfin'”, 1965) and The All Night Workers (” Why Don’t You Smile Now”, 1965).
File Under: Velvet Underground
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Le Revelateur: Extreme Events (Root Strata) LP
Five years after founding Le Révélateur, Montreal-bred musician Roger Tellier-Craig returns to Root Strata with Extreme Events, a collection of dense sonic studies that betray a futuristic and timeless beauty. Alongside collaborator Sabrina Ratté, who creates the project’s videos and live visuals, Le Révélateur operates at the ideological intersection of audio and visual, analog and digital, nostalgic and anticipatory, human and machine. Extreme Events is characterized by complex rhythmic asymmetry and twinkling aesthetic resonance — ultimately a prescient re-vision of hypothetical cyberpunk futures realized in the desert of digital decay and burgeoning artificial ecologies.
File Under: Electronic, Fly Pan Am
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Jack Ruby: s/t Volume 2 (Feeding Tube) LP
“When Don Fleming was doing the initial transfers of the tapes we’d gotten retrieved from Randy Cohen’s barn, every evening seemed to bring a new surprise. But nothing was a bigger jawdropper than the material which makes up the second LP of our Jack Ruby archival series. The central core of the album is the 16 & a 1/2 minute track, “Destroy/Lost,” recorded at the band’s rehearsal space in January ’74. Robin Hall vocalizes and Boris plays electric viola, but the bulk of the piece is screaming analog synth weirdness from Randy Cohen’s Serge synthesizer. According to Robin, the track was recorded in hopes that it might be pared down to a single. Hard to imagine how the hell it might’ve been done (or in what universe), but it is a masterpiece of long-format insanity — with Boris and Robin providing a context for the massive gallumping of the Serge. Additional players appear on some of the shorter tracks — new music/free jazz saxophonist, Pete van Riper, on “Lithium Serenade”; Boris’s electric viola on “Hydrogen Lullaby”; Chris Gray’s guitar on “Mandible Mambo”; Rich Gold’s Serge joins Boris’ strings on “Ghost Note.” The rest is the product of Randy’s whacked-out compositional notions and his mastery of the Serge’s patch-cords. Some of the material was recorded pre-Jack Ruby at Cal Arts (where Randy and Boris first met). The rest was from a performance in New York in early ’74. Heard as a whole, it is a bizarrely shaped piece of the pre-punk/free-form puzzle that was Jack Ruby. Buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” –Byron Coley; Includes download card. Edition of 600.
File Under: Punk, Experimental, Pre-Punk
Shit & Shine: Powder Horn (Diagonal) LP
The next release on Diagonal is the latest album from Texas-based demolition artist Craig Clouse aka Shit & Shine. Titled Powder Horn, it follows-up Clouse’s 2013 Diagonal debut 12″, which channeled his shape-shifting sound into sharp shocks of mangled club music. On this new album, his first full-length since 2012’s Jream Baby Jream, Clouse voyages still deeper down his own sonic wormhole. Its raucous slabs of deviant funk, wiry disco and burnt-out acid are sculpted to soundtrack strung-out dancefloors and their seedy early-hours aftermath, yet they still bear crucial traces of Shit & Shine’s history in noise rock. Drums bound, crash and detonate to drive the music forward in fits and starts, their sound veering from the chest-busting thud of a techno kick to the hollowed-out clatter of a live punk band. Writhing acid lines do battle with taut, spidery guitar motifs, wrenching the momentum abruptly sideways. “Hiss” is bare-chested post-punk, strutting across the stage, caked with sweat and fizzing with static interference. Deeper into the night, “Acid Minor” wrenches up the gear to explode into full-bore acid techno, with Clouse repeatedly hammering the brakes and triggering space itself to distort around you. This provocative yet playful approach has long been a defining characteristic of Clouse’s music. Over the past decade he’s gained a reputation for Shit & Shine’s remarkable live shows — mesmerizing blasts of rhythmic noise featuring multiple drummers — as well as a string of albums exploring starker noise rock and industrial-infused sounds. His recent shift towards more club-centered music, then, makes sense. Both Powder Horn and his previous Diagonal EP further hone his fascination with the energizing effects of rhythm on the mind and body, while retaining the unpredictable and confrontational nature that’s always made Shit & Shine such a wild proposition.
File Under: Electro, No Wave
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Shovels & Rope: Swimmin’ Time (Dine Alone) LP
The ring-of-fire chemistry captured on Shovels & Rope’s 2012 debut album, O’ Be Joyful, turned into a river of accolades for husband-and-wife duo Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent, including the No. 3 spot on American Songwriter’s Top 50 Albums of 2012 list – and No. 1 on the Top 50 Songs list for the single ‘Birmingham’. And now they’re ready to paddle that river again with the August 26 release of Swimmin’ Time on Dualtone Music. The couple’s energetic mix of country, blues, rock, folk and punk also earned them the Emerging Artist of the Year title at the Americana Music Association’s 2013 Americana Honors & Awards, and ‘Birmingham’ won Song of the Year honors.” – Lynne Margolis
File Under: Country, Folk
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SND: Travelog (Special Extended Edition) (SND) LP
travelog was the third EP released by Mat Steel and Mark Fell as SND, arriving in 1999 just before the release of their influential debut album Makesnd Cassette on the Mille Plateaux label. Of the three EP reissues in the series, travelog contains the most developed and satisfying work from the pair, edging their reduced production palette into more fully-realized dimensions, coloring-in those instantly-recognizable bass notes and isolated percussive elements with a slow, sublime trickle of melody. The six extra tracks included are indispensable — extending the original EP into an hour of mesmerizing, slowly immersive rhythmic pulses that still sound pretty much unlike anything you’ll have heard before — a perfect bridge between house, techno and UKG re-imagined within a stripped structure that should act as a masterclass for a new school of producers trying to balance out rhythmic complexity with space. The opening A1 encapsulates this asymmetry brilliantly, bare swing and shuffle riding chiming chords that add warmth and space to an already intoxicating blueprint, while A3 takes those same elements and sharpens them into a slow, undulating alignment bolstered by that immaculate mastering treatment from Rashad Becker. B3 takes things deeper — a slow percussive edit slowly drowned-out by a growling analog drone, while the closing side joins the dots between this EP series and that trio of albums for Mille Plateaux that would soon establish SND as the most forward-thinking and still resolutely original producers from an otherwise largely-forgotten musical era.
File Under: Electronic, Mille Plateaux
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Spacemen 3: Live at the New Morning, Geneva, 5.18.89 (Mental Groove) LP
A bootleg of this show has been floating around for a while but this is the first time that this particular Spacemen 3 performance has had any kind of official release, albeit in slightly truncated form. Sonic Boom concedes in his sleeve notes that “the set presented here, is as it was…except the show was twice this length. We tuned and smoked for almost as long as we played.” So it’s pretty much the show minus all the tuning, smoking, and one rendition of “Revolution”, which the band had taken to playing twice at the time to milk the audience reaction due to its minor hit status. From Sonic Boom’s liner notes: “I seem to remember this show more distinctly than most, and always did. Spacemen 3 was a band not overly loved in their day. It was tough, or at least uneasy. Musically, people thought we were some sort of twisted joke. Which in some ways we were. You needed to be bloody-minded to make this music at that time. Our disenfranchise moment from this show, installed to filter the wheat from the chaff in our audiences – the sprawling “Suicide” wheeled out here in a long mischievous version. We slipped away mid song amongst much fog and dry ice. With taped down keys and feeding back guitars propped against our speaker cabs keeping the song pulsating and screaming. Disappearing back down to the already too familiar dressing room. We rolled large smokes and cracked fresh drinks. And finally after an extended “break” re-appeared on stage. Not to wind down as normal at that juncture, but to re-fire up the piece for a further onslaught. Extending the maelstrom as bloody mindedly as we could.
File Under: Psych, Rock
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Sugar Stems: Only Come Out At Night (Dirtnap) LP
Betsy, Jon, Steph, and Drew are back with their third and finest album – and this time they’re joined by Andy Harris (ex Goodnight Loving) on organ! “Only Come Out At Night” is the second Sugar Stems album to be released on Dirtnap and follows last year’s wonderful and warmly received “Can’t Wait”. Sugar Stems are still the best power pop band going today, and again the band has delivered a beautifully crafted and immaculately produced collection of songs. Continuing in the direction of “Can’t Wait”, this album finds Betsy’s songwriting reaching new levels of sophistication and maturity. And with the added dimension of keyboards, the band’s sound is fuller and richer than ever. Longtime fans hoping for impossibly catchy melodies and big hooks will not be disappointed in Only Come Out At Night. “The One” and “Radio Heartthrob” will have you wondering aloud why they’re not massive radio hits. And tracks like “Haunted” and “Run Rabbit Run” demonstrate that Sugar Stems can still rock with the best of ’em. But by no means has the band delivered a mere repeat of previous albums. The ’60s-inspired “Some Might Say” and acoustic “Million Miles” are gorgeous pop gems that pick up where previous masterpieces like “Love You To Pieces” left off. And while “growing up” can sometimes be the death of a pop band, the 1-2 opening punch of “Baby Teeth” and “I Know Where I’m Going” suggests that Sugar Stems are only getting better as their music probes deeper into fully adult themes. Betsy has become a veritable powerhouse on vocals, and the band as a whole has never sounded tighter or more assured. Boasting the band’s most beautiful melodies to date along with near flawless production, Only Come Out At Night will delight existing Sugar Stems fans and attract a whole lot of new ones. Whether you’re a power pop aficionado or a lover of great music in general, this is one you won’t want to miss. Cover art is an original water color painting by Betsy!
File Under: Garage
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Surgeon: Basictonalvocabulary (Tresor) LP
Tresor presents a classic repress on vinyl of a seminal album by Surgeon, originally released in 1997. Surgeon fires up his second album release (following 1996’s Communications LP on Downwards) with his first album on Tresor. Basictonalvocabulary expands from Tony’s more dance-oriented 12″releases via more a bstract sound shapes and deft frequency control. Neither total dancefloor nor outright home-listening, this album explores a more nocturnal collage of sound design where rhythms form the underlying framework for subtle twists to accent the sound architecture with depth and feeling. Tony’s work is about universal communication where cultural and social barriers are bridged by personal, raw electronic snapshots set within minimal sonic contexts. Basictonalvocabulary speaks a new global sound language for worldwide interpretation. The machine code is on the tape: open your ears and decipher. Stupefying electro-trance of the most stratospheric order.
File Under: Techno, Electronic
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The Young: Chrome Cactus (Matador) LP/CD
Matador are releasing the 3rd album from Austin TX quartet THE YOUNG, ‘Chrome Cactus’. Simply put, their followup to 2012’s ‘Dub Egg’ is nothing short of a monster guitar album, but one that’s always in service to the band’s vastly improved songcraft. In Chrome Cactus, The Young have created a HUGE sounding, timeless rock album that reinforces and revitalizes everything that is great about American Rock Music in 2014. Taking influence from early ZZ Top, Link Wray, Lungfish, Dead Moon – Chrome Cactus is a ball of power and controlled feedback disguised as ten of the catchiest songs you’ll hear this year. Chrome Cactus is a far darker version of Austin’s The Young than ever before. The breezy optimism of their earlier albums has been switched out for sinister, creeping dread in both the lyrics and music. The rhythm section of drummer Ryan Maloney and new bassist Lucas Wedow drive a heavy foundation for guitarists Hans Zimmerman and Kyle Edwards, who have reached dizzying new heights. Expertly produced by fellow sonic assassin Tim Green (Nation of Ulysses, The Fucking Champs), Chrome Cactus is the moment where Zimmerman’s vocal delivery is perfectly matched with the skillful, intuitive interplay, which at this point is fully realized.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Various: Total 14 (Kompakt) LP
Double LP version, featuring the seven tracks from the 25-track CD that are exclusive to this compilation. Exciting new tracks from some of Kompakt’s most cherished artists – such as Superpitcher’s dreamy “Delta,” Saschienne’s neon-lit “Horacio Delirium,” the Tobias Thomas and Michael Mayer-helmed “Unter Holzern,” Voigt & Voigt’s cybernetic ditty “Tischlein Deck Dich,” The Modernist’s pop-infused “Die Fette Gazelle and the Hidden Sixpack” and Jürgen Paape’s “Heuriger,” the long-awaited (and slightly insane) follow-up to his Total 10 classic “Ofterschwang,” and the Amsterdam duo’ Weval.
File Under: Techno
Various: Under The Influence Volume 4 (Z Records) LP
Double LP version in gatefold sleeve. Features 9 tracks from the 21-track double CD: Jean Adebambo’s “Say That You Love Me” (DJ Nick The Record Re-Edit), Katunga’s Palo Bonito (DJ Nick The Record Re-Edit), Blackway & Helene’s Music for Us (Instrumental), Betty & Beverly Prudhomme’s Tut Tut Twins (DJ Nick The Record Re-Edit), Skye’s Ain’t No Need (DJ Nick The Record Part 1 & 2 Re-united Re-Edit), Boogsie’s Can’t You See Me, M.C. Roscoe’s Feel the Beat (Instrumental) (Nick The Record Minor Tweek Edit), Santth’s Do You Want Me Baby, Like I Want You, and The Family Tree’s 150th Psalm. Following on from the phenomenal success of the Italo House and Remixed with Love compilation plus more Joey Negro-compiled albums including GoGo Get Down, Backstreet Brit Funk, Destination Boogie and the ever-popular Soul of Disco series, Z Records continues to release high-quality compilations filled with lesser-known disco, funk and boogie. Now it’s the return of the highly-regarded Under the Influence series with volume four compiled by Nick The Record. “My whole life has revolved around records. I was buying hip-hop and house in the ’80s as it was released and I got heavily into tracing the steps back through breaks and sample sources that were used in hip-hop records. I also joined the dots between disco & modern club & house music & spread my music explorations from rare groove to rare disco. There were very few people interested in this vein of music history at the time & even fewer as obsessed as me, so when the re-emergence of disco exploded, I was well ahead of the curve, not only in collecting but historical knowledge. The best thing about record collecting is it never ends, and after 35 years of buying, after 25 years of selling & playing records, there is still old stuff to discover & new releases to endeavor to keep up with. So as something of an expert in all things disco I get quite a few offers to release compilations, but as a record obsessive, my natural hoarding mentality makes me cautious to give up the goods. As anyone who’s been aware of my record-selling web site http://www.djfriendy.co.uk over the last 10 years and my paper sales lists (now that’s old school) for more than 10 years preceding, I could easily put together a compilation of the rarest disco & boogie 12″s, and there are, of course, some of those included, but I wanted to share more than that here. I feel this Under the Influence series offers the chance to put together a more personal comp, which reflects the many different flavors of my taste & my collection & gives you a feel of my DJ style at the same time.” –Nick The Record, May 2014
File Under: Soul, Disco
…..restocks…..
Arcade Fire: Reflektor (Sonovox) LP
Arkells: High Noon (Universal) LP
Arkells: Michigan Left (Universal) LP
Beastie Boys: Paul’s Boutique (EMI) LP
James Brown: Raw Soul (Polydor) LP
James Brown: The Popcorn (Polydor) LP
James Brown: Super Bad (Polydor) LP
James Brown: Black Caesar (Polydor) LP
Burzum: The Ways of Yore (Back on Black) LP
Chrome: The Visitation (Cleopatra) LP
Chrome: Half Machine Lip Moves (Cleopatra) LP
Coachwhips: Get Your Body Next Ta Mine (Castleface) LP
Coliseum: s/t (Deathwish) LP
Crime: Murder By Guitar (Superior Viaduct) LP
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories (Columbia) LP
Karen Dalton: In My Own Time (Light in the Attic) LP
Donnie & Joe Emerson: Dreamin’ Wild (Light in the Attic) LP
Flower Travellin’ Band: Satori (Phoenix) LP
Genius/Gza: Liquid Swords (Get on Down) LP
Lee Hazlewood: LHI Years (Light in the Attic) LP
Imogen Heap: Sparks (RCA) LP
Tim Hecker: Ravedeath 1972 (Kranky) LP
Hollywood Stars: Shine Like A Radio (Last Summer) LP
King Jammy: Dub Explosion (Jamaican) LP
Laraaji: Celestial Music (All Saints) LP
Lewis: L’Amour (Light in the Attic) LP
Lurussia: Industriale… (Hospital) LP
M83: Before The Dawn Heals Us All (Mute) LP
M83: Dead Cities… (Mute) LP
M83: s/t (Mute) LP
Metallica: Master of Puppets (Blackened) LP
Metallica: s/t (Blackened) LP
Metallica: Re-Load (Blackened) LP
Ennio Morricone: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (AMS) LP
The National: High Violet (4AD) LP
Paul Ngozi: The Ghetto Zambia (Shadoks) LP
Nilsson: Pandemonium Shadow Show (Sundazed) LP
Pixies: Surfer Rosa (4AD) LP
Pulp: Different Class (Plain) LP
Ty Segall: Manipulator (Drag City) LP/CD
Silver Apples: s/t (Phoenix) LP
Sleep: Dopesmoker (Southern Lord) LP
Soul Syndicate: Dub Classics (Jamaican) LP
Tool: Lateralus (Zoo) LP
Marcos Valle: Previsos Do Tempo (Light in the Attic) LP
Vampires Weekend: Modern Vampires in the City (XL) LP
White Fence: For the Recently Found Innocent (Drag City) LP/CS
White Stripes: De Stijl (Thirdman) LP
White Stripes: White Blood Cells (Thirdman) LP
Wu Tang Clan: s/t (Music on Vinyl) 4LP
Various: I Am The Center (Light in the Attic) LP