listen records

Some killer stuff this week! Just LOOK at the cover for that Acid Nightmares comp, just this book by its cover! Finally some Alvvays vinyl. And a fraction of what we ordered of the Metz. Go figure.

…..pick of the week…..

Various: Wayfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares (Numero) LP/CD
As the hippie movement hurdled towards its emanate demise, bad vibes infiltrated the rock world. Tainted LSD, loud motorcycles, and a series of brutal deaths spawned inspiration for guitar-wielding teenagers across the globe. Implementing deafening fuzz and satanic screams to create their protometal monstrosities, short-lived stoner bands pressed their lysergic experiments in microscopic quantities before blacking out entirely. Lifted from the ashes of the acid rock hell fire are 18 distorted tales of dope fiends, pill poppers, and the baddest of trips. Deluxe 2LP comes housed in a blacklight poster-style jacket, replete with flocking and lysergic neon. 24 pages documenting the creeping existential dread of the hard rock underground are tucked into the gatefold pocket alongside two dead dinosaur-heavy LPs. Compact disc is packaged in standard Numero slipcase, with digipak and 40-page book, limited to 2000 copies.

File Under: Psych, Rock, Fuzz
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…..new arrivals…..

Afghan Whigs: Congregation (Sub Pop) LP
Founded in Cincinnati, OH in 1988, The Afghan Whigs have long stood out from their peers, with a savage, rapturous blend of hard rock, classic soul, and frontman Greg Dulli’s searing angst and obsessions. The band’s first three releases on Sub Pop Records – Up In It, Congregation and the Uptown Avondale EP will be reissued on 180g vinyl via the label in September 2017. Both Congregation and Up In It have been out of print on the format for several years and Uptown Avondale has never been available in the U.S. until now. 1992’s Congregation, The Afghan Whigs’ breakthrough third album, finds the band’s soul and psychedelic influences shining through like never before, elements which would help shape their sound for years to come. Congregation has been out of print on vinyl since its original pressing sold out many years ago.

File Under: Indie Rock
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Afghan Whigs: Up In It (Sub Pop) LP
Founded in Cincinnati, OH in 1988, The Afghan Whigs have long stood out from their peers, with a savage, rapturous blend of hard rock, classic soul, and frontman Greg Dulli’s searing angst and obsessions. The band’s first three releases on Sub Pop Records – Up In It, Congregation and the Uptown Avondale EP will be reissued on 180g vinyl via the label in September 2017. Both Congregation and Up In It have been out of print on the format for several years and Uptown Avondale has never been available in the U.S. until now. Up In It is The Afghan Whigs’ second full-length and their Sub Pop debut. Featuring the powerful and provoking “Retarded,” “White Trash Party,” and “I Know Your Little Secret,” the 1990 album – recorded by legendary producer Jack Endino – was critically acclaimed and garnered strong college-radio airplay. It’s been out of print on vinyl for over 25 years. Single-LP jacket and custom dust-sleeve.

File Under: Indie Rock
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Afghan Whigs: Uptown Avondale (Sub Pop) LP
Founded in Cincinnati, OH in 1988, The Afghan Whigs have long stood out from their peers, with a savage, rapturous blend of hard rock, classic soul, and frontman Greg Dulli’s searing angst and obsessions. The band’s first three releases on Sub Pop Records – Up In It, Congregation and the Uptown Avondale EP will be reissued on 180g vinyl via the label in September 2017. Both Congregation and Up In It have been out of print on the format for several years and Uptown Avondale has never been available in the U.S. until now. The 5-track Uptown Avondale EP, released shortly after Congregation, finds The Afghan Whigs paying tribute to their soul-music influences and performing covers of Stax and Motown classics. Its only previous vinyl pressing was a short European run in 1992.

 File Under: Indie Rock
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Alvvays: Antisocialites (Royal Mountain) LP
FINALLY IN TOMORROW! Antisocialites is the much-anticipated follow-up to Alvvays’ 2014 self-titled debut. Across its 10 tracks and 33 minutes the Toronto-based group dive back into the deep end of reckless romance and altered dates. Through thoughtful consideration in basement and abroad, Alvvays has renewed its Scot-pop vows with a powerful new collection of manic emotional collage. The album opens with the excellent strum-‘n-thrummer “In Undertow,” a hi-amp breakup fantasy that is both crushing and charming for its level-headedness. Replete with more songs about drinking (“Forget About Life,” “Hey”), drugging (“Lollipop (Ode To Jim)”), and drowning (“Already Gone”), Antisocialites is a multipolar period piece fueled by isolation and loss. Perversely enjoyable dark drama springs from Molly Rankin’s phonetic twists, quick-sung rhymes and irreverent syllable-play. “So morose for me, seeing ghosts of me, writing oaths to me,” the self-described introvert sings on the Cocteau-pop stunner “Dreams Tonite,” the song from which the album’s name is derived. Antisocialites details a world of ice cream truck jingles and radiophonic workshop noise, where Rankin’s shining wit is refracted through crystalline counterpoint. “Not My Baby” is a centerpiece, a meditation on the rapture of escape following the sadness of separation. Elsewhere, “Plimsoll Punks” is the band’s answer to Television Personalities’ “Part-Time Punks” and a winking surf opus indictment of the self-righteous who intend to condescend. Molly wrote the rapid-fire sugar stream “Lollipop (Ode to Jim)” after singing “Just Like Honey” with Jesus and Mary Chain. “Your Type” is a beautiful primitive stomp about running around Paris with vomit on your feet post-Louvre ejection. The record concludes with a movement that is at once stark and celebratory. On “Forget About Life,” the apartment stands in disarray as undrinkable wine is inhaled: “When the failures of the past multiply and you trivialize the things that keep your hand from mine, did you want to forget about life with me tonite?” The resonant freaks in Rankin’s tales don’t find much resolve, but with equal doses of black humor and heartstring-tugging, Antisocialites rings a truer tone.

File Under: Indie Rock
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Ariel Pink: Dedicated to Bobby James (Mexican Summer) LP
ARIEL PINK’s new album, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson is his first solo album since his highly acclaimed 2014 prog-pop opus pom pom, and first full-length release on Mexican Summer. The new release’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life Los Angeles musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story. Los Angeles’s prodigal songwriting son Ariel Pink offers up his eleventh studio effort, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson. The album’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life L.A. musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story in a series of blogs and YouTube tirades. “His book and life resonated with me to such a degree,” Pink states, “that I felt a need to dedicate my latest record to him.” Dedicated to Bobby Jameson begins at the end and ends at the beginning. “We follow the protagonist through a battery of tests and milestones, the first of which sees him reborn into life out of death,” Pink explains, referencing the opening track “Time To Meet Your God.” “From there, he seesaws his way between the innocent love and the rock-solid edifice of childhood-worn trauma that together constitute his lifelong initiation into the realm of artifice and theatrical disposability.” Building upon his singular vision of pop songcraft, established by such seminal records as The Doldrums, Worn Copy, House Arrest, Loverboy, Before Today, Mature Themes, and Pom Pom, Pink revisits themes that have haunted his sonic cinemascapes since the late 1990s: mismanaged dreams, west coast mythologies, itinerant criminals, haunted boulevards, Hollywood legends, the impermanence of romance, bubblegum artifice, movie stardom, childhood terror, acceptance of self, and narcissism projected through a celluloid filter of controversion. Standout tracks here include “Feels Like Heaven,” a lovelorn insta-classic paying tribute to the promise of romance, “Another Weekend,” which encapsulates the lingering euphoria of a regrettable weekend over the edge, “Dedicated to Bobby Jameson,” a rah-rah psych romp paying homage to L.A.’s punk history, and “Time to Live,” an ironic anti-suicide anthem that promotes survival as a form of resistance before devolving into a grungy, “Video Killed the Radio Star”-style breakdown that supposes life and death as being more or less the same fate and embraces the immortal anarchy of a rock song as an alternative to the prison of reality. Alternately contained and sprawling, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson is a shimmering pop odyssey that represents more astonishing peaks and menacing valleys in the career of a man who, through sheer originality and nerve, has become an American rock and roll institution.

File Under: Indie Rock
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Cut Copy: Haiku From Zero (Astralwerks) LP
In tomorrow… first copies include bonus 7″! Cut Copy returns with Haiku From Zero, their first proper studio album in nearly four years and first with Astralwerks. The new record showcases a band in full command of their powers to move people both emotionally and physically. Written and recorded at studios around the world (Melbourne, Copenhagen, Washington, DC, New York, Atlanta), the 9-tracks present a united sonic front, due in no small part to the guiding ear of producer Ben Allen (Deerhunter, Animal Collective, Neon Indian). Songs like “Counting Down” and “Living Upside Down” offer glimpses of beauty in a state of disco-fueled flux. And single “Standing in the Middle of the Field” announces a theme that percolates throughout Haiku From Zero – the need to cut through the noise, a desire to focus. Amid a backdrop of loping kalimbas, cowbells and bubbly synths, lead singer Dan Whitford’s plaintive voice offers some emotional advice in the lyrics, “You gotta give up the things you love to make it better.” “So much of this album is about this mosaic of information, images that we’re surrounded by on a day-to-day basis,” says Whitford. “Sometimes it feels like overload, but there’s a weird random beauty in it. The idea of squeezing poetry from chaos was where the title of the album came from – the idea of finding something poetic in the overload.”

File Under: Electronic, Synth Pop
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Hot Water Music: Light It Up (Rise) LP
Gainesville, FL’s Hot Water Music return with Light It Up, their second for Rise Records following 2012’s Exister. Ushered in by the anthemic lead single “Never Going Back,” the 12-track album was self-produced and serves as a prime example of a band remaining vital and increasingly relevant throughout a 25-year career. “The most exciting part about this record for us was self-producing and being in control from start to finish,” the band notes. “We haven’t made a record this way since Fuel For The Hate Game. As frightening as it was to not have the safety net and sounding board of a producer, it was just as liberating to make a record that is 100% Hot Water Music, scars and all.”

File Under: Punk
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Ibeyi: Ash (XL) LP
Their first album, the eponymous Ibeyi, grappled with the past—the sister’s relationship, origins, loss, and roots. It earned them fans and collaborators in some of the most iconic and crucial artists of today, Beyoncé and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre included. By contrast, Ash is a more visceral and potent political statement, and while firmly rooted in Afro-Cuban culture and history, it finds itself entirely  concerned with Ibeyi’s present: Who Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi are, what’s important to them, and how they live today, especially given that the spheres, both personally and politically, are entirely different from when the first album was recorded. It’s also a testament to their cathartic live performances, where they’re able to transmute a vast array of emotions—sorrow, anger, sensuality, happiness—to and through their fans. Ash is also a study in deft electronic production. Ibeyi worked once again alongside XL head Richard Russell, a confidante and friend, to produce Ash at his studio. “We absolutely wanted, 100%, to work with him again: It was not even a question,” Lisa-Kaindé says. “Richard is an amazing producer…wherever you want to go, he will guide you there. But it feels like you’re playing with him. You’re sharing ideas together and he has an amazing ear. It’s like a flow, it’s really easy.” To that effect, Naomi adds: “It’s like we produced the album too, actually, and it’s a good feeling.” Along with Russell’s stylized production sensibilities, Ibeyi drew from a host of influences ranging from Kendrick Lamar, Jay Electronica, Meshell Ndegeocello, Erykah Badu and Nina Simone and beyond, to craft the wide-ranging musical landscape of Ash. In a recent cover story for The FADER titled “Ibeyi’s Home” the twins traveled to Cuba to retrace their Afro-Cuban roots. The cover story touched on Ibeyi’s sophomore album which includes appearances from Kamasi Washington, Chilly Gonzales, La Mala Rodriguez and Meshell Ndegeocello. Premiere single “Away Away” pushes forward the unique, cross-cultural sound that Ibeyi have become so widely recognized for. The duo, who split their time between Paris, Cuba and London, explain that the song is about “looking out onto the world’s craziness, which is symbolized by the sirens heard in the track, and wondering if the promises of a better world will be made true?”

File Under: Indie Rock
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Kadavar: Rough Times (Nuclear Blast) LP
In the beginning of 2017 German trio Kadavar prepared to start a new album cycle by literally rolling up their sleeves and building a brand new recording studio from scratch. Over 100 square meters inside an industrial complex in the area of Neukölln in Berlin is now their creative haven and workplace alike, and this is where the follow-up to 2015’s Berlin took form. “We have been giving it quite a lot of thought, how we want to continue after the last album,” says drummer Tiger. “Maybe I try not to only be a musician, but to think, write and play like an artist. It sounds corny, but I mean it in the way a brick layer differs from an architecht. Not to only lay brick by brick, but create a nice vision of a house with different rooms.” Intentionally or not, the act of manual labor – like building a house in arrival of a new baby – gives a poetic layer to the album process for Rough Times. “It is a big challenge,” Simon ‘Dragon’ Bouteloup adds. “But also a positive period where we are able to question everything we’ve already established in order to move forward as a band. We would not respect ourselves and our followers by putting out just another Kadavar album. It needs to be different and hopefully better!” They might have eased up on the competitive attitude, but don’t believe for a second the hunger is gone. Take it from Lupus ‘Wolf’ Lindemann himself: “When you realize you have taken it to the next level, where you can live from music and see the world – you work your ass off to keep that. What else should we do? We are useless in the normal world. And maybe it looks harder than it is…” Their secret seems to be boiled down and brewed from three ingredients: an accessible yet personalized brand of classic rock; a no-frills approach to everything they do (“minimal arrangement, maximum effect”); and that undeniable German tenacity, yet again.

File Under: Metal
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Ted Leo: The Hanged Man (Super Ego) LP
The Hanged Man is Ted Leo’s first solo album in nearly a decade, following his 2014 Aimee Mann collaboration The Both and 2010’s The Brutalist Bricks with The Pharmacists. The 14-track collection was recorded at a home studio in Wakefield, Rhode Island with the singer/songwriter manning almost all of the instruments. The streamlined LP features Leo’s familiar sharp bursts of skinny-tie pop-punk offset with an adventurousness in both tone and structure. The Hanged Man features contributions from Chris Wilson (The Pharmacists), Aimee Mann (The Both), Jean Grae and Jonathan Coulton and is ushered in by the urgent lead single “You’re Like Me.”

File Under: Indie Rock
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Metz: Strange Peace (Royal Mountain) LP
Since releasing their self-titled debut record in 2012, which The New Yorker called, “One of the year’s best albums…a punishing, noisy, exhilarating thing,” the Toronto-based 3-piece METZ have garnered international acclaim as one of the most electrifying and forceful live acts, touring widely and extensively, playing hundreds of shows each year around the world. Now, Alex Edkins (guitar, vocals), along with Hayden Menzies (drums), and Chris Slorach (bass) are set to unleash their highly-anticipated third full-length album, Strange Peace, an emphatic but artful hammer swing to the status quo. “The best punk isn’t an assault as much as it’s a challenge — to what’s normal, to what’s comfortable, or simply to what’s expected. Teetering on the edge of perpetual implosion,” NPR wrote in their glowing review of METZ’s 2015 second album, II. Strange Peace was recorded in Chicago, live off the floor to tape with Steve Albini. The result is a distinct artistic maturation into new and alarming territory, frantically pushing past where the band has gone before, while capturing the notorious intensity of their live show. The trio continued to assemble the album (including home recordings, additional instrumentation) in their hometown, adding the finishing touches with longtime collaborator, engineer and mixer, Graham Walsh. Strange Peace isn’t merely a collection of eleven uninhibited and urgent songs. It’s also a kind of sonic venting, a truculent social commentary that bludgeons and provokes, excites and unsettles. With all the pleasurable tension and anxiety of a fever dream, Strange Peace is equal parts- challenging and accessible. It is this implausible balancing act, moving from one end of the musical spectrum to the other, that only a band of METZ’s power and capacity can maintain: discordant and melodic, powerful and controlled, meticulous and instinctive, subtle and complex, precise and reckless, wholehearted and merciless, brutal and optimistic, terrifying and fun. “Their whiplash of distortion is made with precision, a contained chaos. But you would never talk about them like that. Because METZ are not something you study or analyze,” wrote Liisa Ladouceur in Exclaim! “They are something you feel: a transfer of energy, pure and simple.” In other words: to feel something, fiercely and intensely, but together, not alone.

File Under: Punk
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OST: Twin Peaks 2017 Score (Rhino) LP
Now in stock! The score from the new Twin Peaks series, which includes a lot of highlights from the original series score as well.. coloured vinyl.

File Under: OST
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Ryuichi Sakamoto: Async (Milan) LP
As one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra and an Academy Award-winning composer for his work on the soundtrack for The Last Emperor, synth pop innovator Ryuichi Sakamoto is among the most groundbreaking artists to have emerged since the late-70s. A musician’s musician, Sakamoto has created intriguing musical unions with artists such as David Sylvian, Iggy Pop, Tony Williams, Bootsy Collins, Jacques Morelenbaum and many others. Async is Sakamoto’s first studio album in eight years and his most personal release as it follows a long fight against cancer from which Sakamoto emerged with a renewed and passionate creative energy. “What kind of “sounds/music” do I want to listen to?” Async is the answer to this question Ryuichi has asked himself for the past several years. This is the album he is the most proud of which synthesizes all of his musical and sound interests. This is a journey through analog synth, the sounds of things and of places, an imaginary soundtrack to an Andrei Tarkovsky film and many others musical surprises.

File Under: Ambient, Modern Classical
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Sannhet: So Numb (Profound Lore) LP
Brooklyn instrumental post-metal power trio Sannhet formed in late 2010 and since then have been recognized as one of the most promising and newer prominent bands within the genre. Their last, sophomore album Revisionist (Flenser Records), was praised across the board, one of the most celebrated albums in this specific genre of that year, and now with their new full-length So Numb they have delivered their most transcendent album to date. For this album the band enlisted respected producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Japandroids, Kurt Vile) who was essential in helping the trio reach a new level with their sound, going beyond the typical trappings of post-metal and expanding it into the realms of electronic, experimental, and ambient, while still upholding their heavy and punishing sound. The trio created songs with a stronger focus on songwriting, with more memorable and evocative melodies permeating the entire album, making it a listening experience like no other.

File Under: Metal
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Shindig #71 Mag
In this issue: The Rolling Stones – 2,000 light years from home: The making of Their Satanic Majesties Request. Plus; Captain Beefheart – Safe As Milk re-opened. PP Arnord – Lost masterpiece. Also: The Lost / The Clientele / The Solarflares / Trevor Burton / Pentangle / Aussi Psych / Colorama / Coven /Mary Epworth.

File Under: Reading

Slits: Return of the Giant Slits (Real Gone) LP
Labeling The Slits groundbreaking just doesn’t cut it. No other post-punk band was as confrontational – an all-female trio calling themselves The Slits and posing muddily topless on their debut album cover was about as in-your-face as a feminist statement gets – or as determinedly uncommercial. Indeed, after being dropped by their label, Island, despite having made Cut, of the signature albums of the era, Viv Albertine, Tessa Pollitt, and Ari Up treated Sony, their new label, to an even more radical record, 1981’s Return of the Giant Slits. Already far removed from the male-dominated, louder-faster ethos of punk rock, The Slits, with new drummer Bruce Smith of The Pop Group and multi-instrumentalist Steve Beresford in tow, added world music and free jazz to Up’s Ono-esque ululations, Albertine’s skittering guitar, and Pollitt’s dubwise bass riddims. Predictably, Sony dropped the record like a hot potato, not even bothering to release it in the U.S., and it has only been intermittently available on CD in the 35-plus years since. But the reputation of Return of the Giant Slits has continued to grow, with Albertine herself recently commenting, “It’s more experimental than Cut and brings in even wider musical influences. In some ways, I think it’s a better record.” Real Gone Music offers up a colored vinyl pressing (including the original printed inner sleeve) of Return of the Giant Slits complete with a fresh remastering by Maria Triana at Battery Studios in New York. This record demands to be in your collection…you can trace the beginning of the whole “riot grrrl” movement to right here!

File Under: Punk
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Torres:  Three Futures (4AD) LP
4AD will release Three Futures, the third full-length album from TORRES, the creative alter-ego of Brooklyn-based Mackenzie Scott. Three Futures follows 2015’s breakthrough Sprinter, which was lauded across the board – from The Observer who called it “astonishing”, to Pitchfork scoring it 8.0, and the New York Times who claimed “her music can smoulder while she considers exactly where she stands, and roar into feedback-edged howls when her rage or despair boil over.” In describing the album, Scott says it “is entirely about using the body that each of us has been given as a mechanism of joy.” The 10 original tracks on Three Futures embrace ecstasy, desire and indulgence rather than self-denial, and exude this idea via immersive music. Mechanized grooves are placed at the forefront: perforated electro-pop static, gothic industrial’s harsh textures and insistent Kraut rock.

File Under: Indie Rock
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Unsane: Sterilize (Southern Lord) LP
Since 1988, legendary NYC-based noise rock outfit Unsane has pounded the planet with their caustic grooves and foundation-crumbling riffs, having released LPs through a wide range of labels including Matador/Atlantic, Amphetamine Reptile, Relapse, Ipecac, Alternative Tentacles, and others, not to mention a wide range of singles, splits, and live albums. The band’s gnarled blend of punk, metal, noise, and hardcore helping to define the “AmRep sound” alongside other forerunners of the style, Today Is The Day, The Jesus Lizard, Helmet, Tad, Cows, Halo Of Flies, Melvins, and others. Closing a five-year gap since the 2012 release of their Wreck LP through Alternative Tentacles, Unsane makes a vicious return on Southern Lord with the pummeling Sterilize, a record that recalls the most defining elements of the band’s seminal Scattered, Smothered, And Covered and Occupational Hazard albums, surging with the band’s unrelenting singular sound created by guitarist/vocalist Chris Spencer, bassist/vocalist Dave Curran, and drummer Vinnie Signorelli. Sterilize was produced by Unsane, recorded by Dave Curran at Gatos Trail Studios in Yucca Valley, CA, mixed by Andrew Schneider at Acre in New York City, and mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering in Chicago. Sterilize showcases Unsane sounding as dense and damaging as ever, and sees them remaining as necessary as ever, nearly three decades since they began.

File Under: Noise Rock, Metal
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Kamasi Washington: Harmony of Difference (Young Turks) 12″
Avant-garde jazz titan Kamasi Washington premiered Harmony of Difference, an original six-movement suite, as part of 2017’s Whitney Biennial. The EP is the first new music from Washington since his universally acclaimed 2015 debut album The Epic. Harmony of Difference explores the philosophical possibilities of the musical technique known as “counterpoint,” which Washington defines as “the art of balancing similarity and difference to create harmony between separate melodies.” Washington’s suite includes visual elements married to the musical works and draws voraciously on jazz for its foundation. Each of the first five movements is its own unique composition. “Truth,” the sixth movement, fuses all five compositions into one simultaneous performance. Beyond the artistic impulse to expand the possibilities within counterpoint, Washington wanted to create something that opened people’s minds to the gift of diversity. In his own words, “my hope is that witnessing the beautiful harmony created by merging different musical melodies will help people realize the beauty in our own differences.”

File Under: Jazz
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Various: Collection VIII (Erased Tapes) LP+Tote Bag
On February 5th 2017 Erased Tapes opened the doors to their new East London home, marking the 10th anniversary by introducing their fans and the public to the new Erased Tapes Sound Gallery. Coinciding with the takeover of London’s Southbank Centre, September 8th sees the release of the latest annual compilation Erased Tapes Collection VIII as a highly limited transparent 2-LP set. Initially founded by German-born Robert Raths in 2007, the London-based label has grown and extended across the world with satellite offices in Los Angeles and Berlin. Spanning over ten years, Erased Tapes has nurtured avant-garde artists from all around the world whilst remaining genre-defying and truly independent. Commencing these celebrations with a new compilation entitled Erased Tapes Collection VIII, they also welcome the iconic Penguin Cafe to the roster amongst tracks from new signing Daniel Brandt (of Brandt Brauer Frick) and Peter Broderick’s duo project Allred & Broderick. It also includes recent compositions by Rival Consoles, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Ben Lukas Boysen, Douglas Dare and Immix Ensemble & Vessel, as well as a previously unreleased Ryan Davis remix of Erased Tapes stalwarts Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm which was recently favoured by Aphex Twin and an exclusive edit of Woodkid & Nils Frahm’s score for JR’s Ellis, with spoken words by Robert De Niro.

File Under: Ambient
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Various: Jesus Rocked the Jukebox (Craft) LP
In tomorrow… The triple vinyl Craft Recordings/Concord Music Group compilation Jesus Rocked the Jukebox: Small Group Black Gospel (1951-1965) offers a spirited celebration of some of the most foundational songs in American musical history, tracing the evolution of the modern Soul, R&B, and Rock n’ Roll genres via the likes of The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Swan Silvertones, The Staple Singers, Sam Cooke, and The Chosen Gospel Singers featuring Lou Rawls among many others!

File Under: Gospel, R&B, Soul
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…..Restocks…..

Alabama Shakes: Boys & Girls (ATO) LP
Baby Huey: The Living Legend (Curtom) LP
Bjork: Vespertine (One Little Indian) LP
Booker T. & The MGs: Green Onions (Rhino) LP
Nick Cave: Skeleton Tree (Bad Seed) LP
CCR: Chronicle Vol 1 (Fantasy) LP
Comus: First Utterance (Getback) LP
Creation: Action Painting (Numero) LP
Miles Davis: On The Corner (Music on Vinyl) LP
J Dilla: Donuts (Stones Throw) LP
Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Astralwerks) LP
Equatics: Doin’ It (Now Again) LP
Funkadelic: s/t (Westbound) LP
Green Day: Dookie (Warner) LP
Billie Holiday: 3 Classic Albums (Real Gone) 3LP
Jason Isbell: Nashville Sound (Thirty Tigers) LP
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Flying Microtonal Banana (ATO) LP
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Nonagon Infinitey (ATO) LP
Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (Aftermath) LP
LCD Soundsystem: American Dream (Sony) LP
Melvins: Ozma/Bullhead (Boner) LP
Melvins: Eggnog/Lice-all (Boner) LP
Neutral Milk Hotel: In The Aeroplane Over the Sea (Merge) LP
Lee Scratch Perry: Super Ape (Get on Down) LP
Slowdive: s/t (Dead Oceans) LP
Tragically Hip: Day for Night (UniversAl) LP
Tragically Hip: Live Between Us (Universal) LP
Tragically Hip: Phantom Power (Universal) LP
Tragically Hip: Road Apples (Universal) LP
Townes Van Zandt: Delta Momma Blues (Fat Possum) LP
Townes Van Zandt: s/t (Fat Possum) LP
Colter Wall: s/t (Sony) LP
White Zombie: It Came From NYC (Numero) 5LP Box
Neil Young: Harvest (Reprise) LP

Yow! Video game soundtrack motherload coming in tomorrow. And the some soothing sounds from Godspeed for these dreary rainy days….

…..pick of the week…..

Ennio Morricone: Space 1999 (Death Waltz) LP
In tomorrow… Death Waltz Recording Company is ready to whisk you far into the future to the end of the 20th century with the truly out of this world Ennio Morricone score to SPAZIO: 1999, starring the late, great Martin Landau. Produced by the legendary Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the feature was constructed out of three episodes of the revered SPACE: 1999 television show to introduce Italian audiences to Commander Koenig and his crew, and thrilled audiences with nuclear explosions, parallel universes, and space opera thrills, all coming out of Moonbase Alpha. While the Italian show still featured the brassy sound of Barry Gray, legendary maestro Morricone was employed to bring a decidedly different feel to the theatrical film. From the opening the score launches into wild space jazz with piano and trumpet interspersed with all kinds of noise before it descends into a creepier vibe. Morricone uses unsettling violins and atonal music together with electronics to simulate the void of space and the danger faced by the intrepid heroes, and what emerges is a mix of sci-fi and horror that will not only thrill you, but also scare the living daylights out of you. Human decision required. – Charlie Brigden (Creator, The Sound Of Fear Podcast)

File Under: OST, SciFi, Jazz, Electronic
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…..new arrivals…..

Acetone: 1992 – 2001 (Light in the Attic) LP
In tomorrow… This fall, the independent literary press All Night Menu will publish Sam Sweet’s Hadley Lee Lightcap, a nonfiction novel that traces the backstories of the three members in Acetone, a band that played in Los Angeles for nine years. Though few heard them, their recordings are time capsules of who they were, how they lived, and where they came from. Light In the Attic has partnered with All Night Menu to present Acetone 1992-2001, the first anthology of the trio’s music. The book and the album will be released concurrently on September 22. Counting their early years in the scuzz-rock band Spinout, whose sole self-titled release came out in 1991 on Delicious Vinyl, guitarist Mark Lightcap, bassist Richie Lee, and drummer Steve Hadley played together for a total of 15 years. They disbanded in July 2001, when Lee committed suicide in the garage next to the house where the trio practiced. Afterwards, Rolling Stone ran a short obituary saying Acetone’s albums were “well received” but “failed to make any waves.” It was the first and only time they were featured in the national music press. Between 1993 and 2001 the trio released two LPs and an EP on Vernon Yard—a Virgin subsidiary—and two LPs on Vapor, the L.A.-based label founded by Neil Young and manager Elliott Roberts. In that span, they were selected to tour with Oasis, Mazzy Star, The Verve, and Spiritualized. Against a rising tide of post-Nirvana grunge and slipshod indie rock, Acetone tapped into a timeless Southern California groove by fusing elements of psychedelia, surf, and country. They rehearsed endlessly in an empty bedroom in northeast Los Angeles, recording hours of music onto cassettes that were subsequently stuffed into shoeboxes and left in a shed behind the drummer’s house. Those tapes are being released for the first time in this anthology, which also includes highlights from Acetone’s official releases. Taken together, the songs form a companion soundtrack to Sam Sweet’s book, which maps the character of Los Angeles as a place through the lens of these three unique characters bonded by music. “I think our music is all about moods and feeling but hopefully it will get as weird as it possibly can,” said Richie Lee in 1997. “We want things to get weird in the way that you could hear an Acetone song and know that no one else in the world could make that kind of music but us.”

File Under: Indie Rock
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Behind The Shadow Drops: Harmonic (Temporary Residence) LP
Behind the Shadow Drops is the new solo endeavor from Takaakira ‘Taka’ Goto, founding guitarist and composer of iconic Japanese experimental rock group, MONO. Established in 2016, Behind the Shadow Drops combines Goto’s disparate but commensurate interests in many different forms of music, most notably ambient, trip-hop, industrial minimalism, and modern classical. Recorded at Goto’s home studio and mixed with esteemed producer and percussionist, John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, Yo La Tengo), H a r m o n i c merges Goto’s dynamic, moody compositions with McEntire’s renowned drum programming and percussive sensibilities. What begins as a passing resemblance to the more melancholy work of Goto’s ensemble, MONO, slowly mutates into something otherworldly, submerging in a symphony of synths, drum machines, noise loops, and mournful strings (courtesy of Los Angeles experimental cellist, Helen Money). Resembling something like waves rippling in the ocean under a cloudy moonlit sky, H a r m o n i c is as eerie as it is beautiful – a vast abyss punctuated by seemingly endless glimmers of light.

File Under: Ambient, Classical, Mono
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Phoebe Bridgers: Stranger in the Alps (Dead Oceans) LP
Don’t let the somber tone of her music fool you: the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has a sunny disposition. Stranger in the Alps opens with the one-two punch of “Smoke Signals” and “Motion Sickness,” a pair of songs that highlight Bridgers’ abilities. The former, a gorgeous, ethereal tune guided by sparse electric guitar and sweeping strings, toes the line between weary and wistful, using specific anecdotes from its singer to tell its tale. The style highlights the strengths of Bridgers’ unique lyric writing perspective: there are overt references to lost idols, canonical pop songs and actual incidents, but her stories unfold through specific, evocative imagery sung in her subtle, confessional style. The latter is perhaps the most upbeat moment on the album and was written on her baritone guitar and discusses a problematic relationship from her past. “Scott Street” is a song inspired by East Los Angeles where Bridgers now lives. “Killer” is a song originally appearing on her Adams-produced single but is re-recorded here by the album’s producer, Tony Berg, with John Doe singing alongside Bridgers. That song in particular inspired her to be more honest in her approach. Elsewhere, Conor Oberst joins her for the duet “Would You Rather,” a singer chosen for his unmistakable voice. A Mark Kozelek cover, “You Missed My Heart,” ends the album. As with any singer’s debut, the songs here comprise a wide swath of Bridgers’ life, dating from the oldest, “Georgia,” which she calls the most different-sounding on the LP, to the opening pair, which were written after the recording process had already begun. Berg and co-producer Ethan Gruska worked with Bridgers to record in on-and-off stretches in between tours over 2016 at Berg’s studio in Brentwood. Phoebe went into the studio with the majority of the material written, however “Smoke Signals” and “Motion Sickness” were written in a cabin in Idaho, while Bridgers was waiting for a tour to begin. The pair were the last songs written for the LP.

 File Under: Indie Rock
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Armancio D’Silva: Integration (Pheon) LP
In tomorrow… The third Pheon Records LP release is the 1969 debut by Indian jazz guitar legend Amancio D’Silva. A perfect storm of amazing, accessible British jazz and incredible scarcity, an original would cost you well in excess of £1000 today. This album represents a high point in 1960s British jazz, a time of experimentation, integration and joy. This is effortless, unique and very beautiful jazz, exotically tinged with elements from Indian musical tradition. Criminally overlooked when it first came out (hence its rarity today), hopefully this FIRST EVER repress will allow more collectors to appreciate just how harmonious and beautiful music made by supreme, international but impoverished jazz artists can be.

File Under: Jazz
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Rino De Filippi: Arte Marziale (Cometa) LP
In tomorrow… Unreleased amazing funk/beat library LP with tones of jazz-funk and psychedelic beats. Keeping the listener on their toes, the music oscillates between psych-funk, jazz and esoteric movie themes then back again.

File Under: Library, Jazz, Funk, Psych
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Fink: Resurgam (Rcoupd) LP
Resurgam  – meaning “I shall rise again” – is the hotly-anticipated sixth studio album from Fink: UK-born, Berlin-based founding singer-songwriter musician Fin Greenall, alongside long-time bandmates Tim Thornton (drums, guitar) and Guy Whittaker (bass). It continues an acclaimed and distinctly adventurous catalogue, from the sample-splicing debut Fresh Produce (2000), through to the beautifully heady expressions of their last album, Hard Believer (2014). Fink have never been afraid to experiment and on Resurgam, they arguably sound more fearless than ever. Resurgam derives its title from a Latin inscription in a 900-year-old church in Greenall’s native Cornwall. Its vital, insistent spirit pulses through the entire album, which was recorded with ground-breaking producer Flood (PJ Harvey, U2, Foals, Warpaint, The Killers) at his Assault & Battery studios in North London. Its ten new tracks were created over two months, a relatively luxurious stretch of time compared to previous Fink albums, resulting in a collection that is both assertive and richly immersive. “Flood, present and engaged from the first demo, guided me through the process of doing things differently, from writing, to singing, to even thinking about the music I make,” says Greenall. “His combination of ‘deadlines are a good thing’ versus ‘fuck the deadline’, and his mantra of ‘making records to be bought, not sold’ gave us all, in our own individual corner of the studio, the fire and the focus to pull together our firmest, strongest, and most coherent record to date.” On the opening title number, “Resurgam’s” lyrics are deliberately stripped-back, but they also pack a powerful punch, along with a deliciously persuasive deep funk flow. There is revelation and redemption; Fink’s positive conviction pervades even the darkest sentiments here. “Day 22” deals with sobriety and temptation, spiked with Greenall’s characteristic observant wit (“the blood, sweat, tears taste so good”). The lead single, “Cracks Appear” delivers a headrush of melody, with warmth and candor. On the exquisitely bittersweet “Word To The Wise,” Greenall lingers over the final notes of a love affair, tenderly accompanied on the piano by Douglas Dare. “Not Everything Was Better In The Past” feels like a personal awakening, merging sharp reflections and poignant moods. A heavy, resonant bass underpins the production throughout, and a range of new elements are also added to the Fink mix, from Flood’s own vintage analogue synths, to sax (played by guest musician Martin Slattery) layered into the vivid atmospheres and skittering beats of “This Isn’t A Mistake.” The rhythm guitar hook of “Godhead” brings out a West African influence, and lends a mesmerizing backdrop to Greenall’s rousing vocals.

File Under: Rock, Folk, Blues
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Beverly Glenn-Copeland: …keyboard fantasies… (Séance Center) LP
In tomorrow… Beverly Glenn-Copeland is already known amongst collectors and music heads for two sought-after albums of folky jazz in the key of Joni. But it was this album, originally self-released on cassette in 1986 that really caught our attention. The album, entirely recorded on DX-7 and TR-707, lies somewhere between digital new-age and (accidentally) early Detroit techno experiments. The inimitable style of BGC here is both peaceful and meditative while simultaneously rhythmic and bass heavy. The album was recorded in the northern Canadian town of Huntsville where BGC was living at the time and is a beautiful fusion of personal vision, technology and place.

File Under: New Age, Ambient
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Godspeed You Black Emperor: Luciferian Towers (Constellation) LP
This long-playing record, a thing we made in the midst of communal mess, raising dogs and children. Eyes up and filled with dreadful joy – we aimed for wrong notes that explode, a quiet muttering amplified heavenward. We recorded it all in a burning motorboat. 1. UNDOING A LUCIFERIAN TOWERS – Look at that fucking skyline! Big lazy money writ in dull marble obelisks! Imagine all those buildings much later on, hollowed out and stripped bare of wires and glass, listen – the wind is whistling through all 3,000 of its burning window-holes! 2. BOSSES HANG – Labor, alienated from the wealth it creates, so that holy cow, most of us live precariously! Kicking at it, but barely hanging on! also – the proud illuminations of our shortened lives! Also – more of us than them! Also – what we need now is shovels, wells, and barricades! 3. FAM / FAMINE – How they kill us = absentee landlord, burning high-rise. The loud panics of child-policemen and their exploding trigger-hands. With the dull edge of an arbitrary meritocracy. Neglect, cancer maps, drone strike, famine. The forest is burning and soon they’ll hunt us like wolves. 4. ANTHEM FOR NO STATE – Canada, emptied of its minerals and dirty oil. Emptied of its trees and water. A crippled thing, drowning in a puddle, covered in ants. The ocean doesn’t give a shit because it knows it’s dying too. 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket with printed inner plus 24″ x 24″ art print poster and download.

File Under: Indie Rock, Post Rock
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Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton: Choir of the Mind (Last Gang) LP
Choir of the Mind is the first release from Metric singer Emily Haines’ Soft Skeleton solo project in a decade. Haines’ vocals are definitely the focal point of Choir of the Mind. She used her voice to create spellbinding orchestrations for an effect that is subtle and ghostly on “Wounded,” lush on “Fatal Gift” and deeply powerful on “Legend of the Wild Horse,” which she calls her “soft anthem.” Haines’ voice is the only audible instrument on “Strangle All Romance,” and she creates mesmerizing layers that drift and swirl through the title track, which includes a spokenword part adapted from a poem by the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo. Haines recorded Choir of the Mind over several weeks in September and October of 2016, more or less alone in Metric’s Toronto studio with a borrowed 18-foot grand piano built in 1850. Her longtime musical partner/Metric bandmate, James Shaw, helped flesh out the sonics with various instruments and rhythmic elements. Shaw also mixed the album. Sparklehorse drummer Scott Minor, a member of the Soft Skeleton’s first incarnation, returned to perform on “Legend of the Wild Horse.” Haines says, “The writing and recording process was heightened and intensive, the two became one thing.”

File Under: Indie Rock, Metric
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La Donna Invisibile: Giallo Oscuro 1 & 2 (Bongo Joe) LP
In tomorrow… When the stars begin to fall, darkness rises upon everything and absorbs these little golden teardrops, these mysterious gems shining bright in the obscurity. In dark ages like this one, we have to find out those rare jewels to fight against the mediocrity and mass-absorption generated by things such as the superficiality of the communication and the domination of the all-similar merchandise. One way to find out some enlightenment is to dig deep down and excavate those treasures with a gold shit-digging shovel. On the surface, Giallo Oscuro is a pop-oriented project about 60’s Italian love songs. Giallo Oscuro is the missing link between romance, lightness, recklessness and fear, terror, murder and psychosexual dementia. These strange connexions are created in a dream-like form able to reach out the darkness in a compendium of tension and grace. This is part of the “magic” modus operandi of this project. It’s an homage to the music of those “maestri” who have changed forever as much pop sound as the movie soundtracks genre at that time: Bruno Nicolai, Egisto Macchi, Alessandro Alessandroni, Gruppo di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Ennio Morricone- just to name a few. The sounds that emerges from this golden-age are the combination between splendor, grace, lascivious, eroticism, joy, sadness and pre-psychedelia era. And even more than an homage or a rereading of this beautiful music, Giallo Oscuro is mostly about love, loss, distance, time, heartbreak, falling, “pop star’s” fall and decadence. This project is about death, about the dead: our creations, lives and art are ruled by the dead.

File Under: Library, OST, Giallo
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Marc 4: Debito Coniugale (Four Flies) LP
In tomorrow… Holy Grail Alert! This is absolutely the rarest, and probably the best MARC 4 album ever, pressed as a library on Ricordi label in 1970 with the title I MARC 4 PER VOI, but composed for the original soundtrack of DEBITO CONIUGALE; a brilliant comedy directed by Franco Prosperi, and starring Barbara Bouchet and Lando Buzzanca. A truly amazing album, ranging from jazz to bossa nova, from funk to rhythm ‘n’ blues and psychedelic – all touched with the unique and distinctive sound of I MARC 4, the premier backing band of soloists in the panorama of Italian soundtracks and library music, here accompanied by the vocal work of Edda Dell’Orso as well as the choir, I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni. An essential record that resonates with that distinctive Italian sound from beginning to end, and which pays tribute to the incredible work of our finest session musicians and creators, rather than of simple executors of a rustproof groove that is not affected by the passage of time. Go South Italy! Armando Trovajoli. An absolute must-have for any serious soundtrack collector, and reissued here on vinyl for the very first time!

File Under: Library, Jazz, Funk, Bossa

Thelonious Monk: Criss Cross (Pure Pleasure) LP
In tomorrow… Criss-Cross — Thelonious Monk’s second album for Columbia Records –features some of the finest work that Monk ever did in the studio with his ‘60s trio and quartet. Whether revisiting pop standards or reinventing Monk’s own classic compositions, Monk and Charlie Rouse (tenor sax), John Ore (bass), and Frankie Dunlop (drums) exchange powerful musical ideas, as well as provide potent solos throughout the disc. Fittingly, “Hackensack” — a frenetic original composition — opens the disc by demonstrating the bandleader’s strength in a quartet environment. The solid rhythmic support of the trio unfetters Monk into unleashing endless cascades of percussive inflections and intoxicating chord progressions. The title cut also reflects the ability of the four musicians to maintain melodic intricacies that are at times so exigent it seems cruel that Monk would have expected a musician of any caliber to pull them off. “Tea for Two” showcases Monk’s appreciation for the great stride or “walking” piano style of James P. Johnson and Willie “The Lion” Smith. The arrangement here is lighter, and features a trio (minus Rouse) to accent rather than banter with Monk’s splashes of magnificence throughout. Likewise, Monk’s solo on “Don’t Blame Me” is excellent. The extended runs up and down the keyboard can’t help but reiterate the tremendous debt of gratitude owed to the original stride pianists of the early 20th century. This is prime Monk for any degree of listener.

File Under: Jazz
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Omni: Multitask (Trouble In Mind) LP
Atlanta, GA trio Omni charges out of the gate in 2016, stunning everyone within earshot with their debut longplayer, “Deluxe”; a dizzyingly refreshing amalgam of wiry post-punk jitters & a dash of zen cool. “Multi-task” is their latest offering & all signs point to the coveted goal of “next level” Guitarist Frankie Broyles (ex-Balkans/Deerhunter) & bassist/vocalist Philip Frobos (Carnivores) crafted “Deluxe”s eleven tracks in their practice space with friend & engineer Nathaniel Higgins “Nathaniel truly knows us, what we like and what we should sound like” says Frobos. They returned to Higgins for “Multi-task”, recording basic drum tracks at Higgins’ home studio & overdubbing bass, guitar, vocals & more during two separate trips to a remote cabin in the woods near Vienna, Georgia. “It gave a true peace/piece of mind away from the city” Frobos says, “We could work with no distractions or limitations at our own pace.” “Multi-task” is a more musically adventurous step forward for the band, keeping the frantic, fleet-fingered fingerpicking of Broyles’ guitar work & Frobos’ dead-cool delivery while expanding their musical palette & to include whispers of post-Roxy glam & Postcard Records pop. “Multi-task” balances the band’s trademark off-kilter & unconventional jams (Southbound Station”, “Supermoon”) with an elegance not found in many of their contemporaries, songs like “Tuxedo Blues” & “Type”, with their underlying seductive sophistication create an aura of romance that many post-punk bands dare not tread. Omni pulls it off with grace & style, still whirring on their minimalist funk-fused agit-pop while creating an album that is awash in the excitement of new love, or fleeting attraction – a journey from that dizzying buzz of first date pheromones found twirling on the dance floor to the cab ride cool-down to home (or wherever.)

File Under: Post Punk
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OST: Altered Beast (Data Discs) LP
In tomorrow… Originally released in the arcades in 1988, but quickly ported over to SEGA’s new Mega Drive console, where it entered countless homes as a pack-in game, Altered Beast remains memorable for many things over its gameplay, not least its soundtrack. Composed by Tohru “Master” Nakabayashi, the music of Altered Beast moves between intense battle themes and cavernous dirges; the perfect backdrop to traversing the netherworld, punching pigs and powering up. Sourced from original hardware and carefully mastered for vinyl, Altered Beast is presented as a 45RPM cut LP in a 400g matte varnished sleeve and printed inner sleeve, both of which feature hand-painted artwork from the SEGA archives. Also included is a foldout poster of the original painting used for the game’s box art.

File Under: OST
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OST: Atomic Blonde (Mondo) LP
In tomorrow… A cool film needs a cool soundtrack, right? And none come cooler than ATOMIC BLONDE. A double LP filled to the brim with needle drops of some of the ’80s best known cuts, as well as some under the radar gems, and a smattering of brand new tracks recorded especially for the movie. David Bowie, George Michael, The Clash, Nena, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and A Flock Of Seagulls of course need no introduction, and they all contribute absolutely killer songs here. Rubbing shoulders with these A-listers are lesser known acts such as Re-Flex, whose track ‘The Politics of Dancing’ was a minor hit in the UK and is a pure ’80s synth-pop banger from start to finish. After The Fire went from playing uninspired prog rock to recording the should-have-been classic ‘Der Kommissar,’ full of funky guitar licks and a chorus so hook-laden it should be illegal. ‘Voices Carry’ by American new wave band ’Til Tuesday features Aimee Mann on vocals and is an all-timer everyone needs on vinyl. The record is rounded out by a series of covers of classic ‘80s tracks. Industrial noise pop band HEALTH offering a fresh take on New Order’s ’Blue Monday’ which turns the cold original into a sublime slice of melodic mayhem that breaks down into into electro shoegaze before going full dance floor to finish. LEX recording artists Kaleida supply a moody ethereal version of Nena’s ‘99 Luftballons’. And finally composer Tyler Bates teams up with Marilyn Manson for a cover of Ministry’s ‘Stigmata,’ which sounds like Manson going back to his Spooky Kids roots, and is urgent as all hell. Four sides of killer music wrapped in a beautiful package for one of the best action films this year. It’s a no brainer, really. Buy this, or be prepared to meet Charlize in stairwell and explain why you aren’t adding it to you collection……

File Under: OST
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OST: Contra (Mondo) LP
In tomorrow… Mondo is proud to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the run-and-gun franchise with the premiere Vinyl release of the classic shooter that started it all: Contra.

File Under: OST, Video Games
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OST: Hero of Time (Music From Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (iam8bit) LP
In tomorrow… Just in time for The Legend of Zelda’s 30th Anniversary Celebration! iam8bit & Materia Collective are ecstatic to present Hero of Time, an officially licensed, one-hour arrangement album based on Koji Kondo’s dynamic, epic and absolutely gorgeous score to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Freshly – and exclusively – recorded by the 64-player Slovak National Symphony Orchestra for this very album, Hero of Time breaths new life into classic Ocarina of Time score, previously only available from its Nintendo 64 sound chip origins. The album is arranged & composed by Eric Buchholz, a maestro of video game concert tours across the globe, including The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony (plus the bonus CD that shipped with Skyward Sword!!), The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, and many more. The stunning album artwork was created by Ryan Brinkerhoff, full of subtle visual detail and interactive pieces, including a die-cut Ocarina window on the jacket’s front, a majestic gatefold featuring both Light or Dark sides, and, of course – the finishing crescendo of a shimmering, gold foil-stamped triforce on the back. This album will be recorded LIVE in January 2017 at Studio 1 in Bratislava by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, immediately thereafter mastered and prepared for vinyl.

File Under: OST, Video Games
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OST: Master of None (Mondo) LP
In tomorrow… Mondo in partnership with Lakeshore Records, are proud to present the soundtrack to Aziz Ansari’s critically acclaimed Netflix Original Series: Master Of None – Season Two. Aziz Ansari’s Netflix Original Series Master Of None has been critically acclaimed for various reasons, including its incredible use of music. The music of season one (which Pitchfork called “prolific and distinctive”) set the tone of Aziz’s character Dev, and his initial misadventures in New York. But season two’s narrative launch in Italy takes the soundtrack into equally distinct, if not more diverse musical directions.

File Under: OST
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OST: Rewind This! (Death Waltz) LP
In tomorrow… REWIND THIS! is a must-see documentary about the home video boom of the 1980s and the tape collectors obsessing, preserving and cataloging the format today. Josh Freda’s incredible synth score perfectly captures all aspects of ‘80s videotape culture; an album full of music recalling cheesy action synth riffs, moody horror stings and neon drenched nighttime radios. This isn’t some hollow retro futuristic re-tread of the ’80s, though, as Freda manages to inject so much personality and playfulness into his music that even through the barrage of synths in play it sounds ultra contemporary and very human indeed. Includes the lo-fi punk gem ‘Head Cleaner’ by Joey Division as a bonus track, and the artwork is by the kickass Hollis Brown Thornton that we have been wanting to work with for an age.

File Under: OST
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OST: Streets of Rage 2 (Data Discs) LP
In tomorrow… Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential game soundtracks of all time, STREETS OF RAGE 2 remains a towering achievement of the 16bit era. Data Discs is extremely proud to be releasing this masterpiece of FM synthesis, composed by Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima in 1992 and sounding more relevant today than ever. The audio has been carefully remastered using multiple sources, including the original NEC PC-88 files supplied by Koshiro himself, and packaged in original artwork sourced from the SEGA archives in Japan.

File Under: OST, Video Games
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OST: Super Castlevania IV (Mondo) LP
In tomorrow… Mondo is proud to present the premiere vinyl soundtrack to Simon Belmont’s first 16-Bit adventure, the 1991 SNES classic Super Castlevania IV. Super Castlevania IV, technically a remake of the first Castlevania game, puts you back into boots of vampire hunter Simon Belmont. But if the first Castlevania soundtrack was like a band’s debut garage album, Super Castlevania IV is where they finally got into a major recording studio and fully fleshed out their sonic ambitions. The Super Nintendo’s sound chip brought the franchise into the world of synth for the first time. It allowed Konami’s composers to use audio samples to achieve an instrumentation previously unattainable on earlier systems. From the moment Super Castlevania IV begins you can hear the difference, with synthesized samples of organs and chiming bells, that set a more cinematic tone for Simon’s quest to fell the devil’s castle. But it’s not all graveyards and fog; by the time you arrive at the fourth track on the album, “Simon Belmont’s Theme,” you reach the new gold standard for the music of Castlevania. And when you get to Track 8, “Mechanical Trick Castle,” you are hearing Konami Kukeiha Club at its absolute finest, producing epic, bombastic score with prog rock elements that would remain the backbone of the franchise for years to come.

File Under: OST, Video Games
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OST: Twin Peaks 2017 (Rhino) LP
This is the music from the show, the score shipped today and will be in early next week… The eagerly awaited revival of Mark Frost and David Lynch’s revolutionary television series Twin Peaks is finally here. The music that appears in the new Showtime series will be part of two upcoming soundtracks to be released by Rhino in September 2017. Twin Peaks: Music From The Limited Event Series and Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series Original Soundtrack will be issued as 2LP-sets and full track listings will be revealed as the season progresses. Music has always played a central role in Lynch’s work and it helped establish the haunting, dreamlike nature of the original Twin Peaks. The same is true for the new series. Much like the plot of the show, the songs that appear on the new soundtracks will be revealed gradually over the course of the season’s 18 episodes. The first track as heard on the debut episode is “Twin Peaks Main Theme” by Grammy-winning composer Angelo Badalamenti, whose music is inextricably linked to the original series and film. The second track is “Shadow” by Chromatics, an electronic band based in Los Angeles, and will be on their new album Dear Tommy. Directed entirely by David Lynch, the new Showtime 18-part limited event series Twin Peaks picks up 25 years after the inhabitants of a quaint northwestern town were stunned when their homecoming queen Laura Palmer was shockingly murdered. Golden Globe-winning and Emmy Award-nominated Kyle MacLachlan stars as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper. Twin Peaks is written and executive produced by series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost, and is executive produced by Sabrina S. Sutherland.

File Under: OST
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Popol Vuh: For You And Me (One Way Static) LP
In tomorrow… Born as Florian Fricke’s brainchild, Popol Vuh needs little introduction, the band stayed active between the late 1960s & late 1990s (until Florian’s passing in 2001). Regarded as pioneers in avant-garde German electronic music, their early works practically laid down the foundations for ‘Kosmische Muzik’ (Space Music) with the then new sounds of the Moog synthesizer joined with ethnic percussions. Later the group evolved to include all kinds of instruments (both electric and acoustic alike) shrouding their music in a spiritual & introspective mystical aura. Popol Vuh influenced many other European bands with their uniquely soft but elaborate instrumentation, which took inspiration from the music of Tibet, Africa and pre-Columbian America. With music sometimes described as “ethereal”, they created soundscapes through psychedelic walls of sound, and are regarded as precursors of contemporary ‘world music’, as well as of ‘new age’ and ‘ambient’. Popol Vuh regularly contributed soundtracks to the films of Werner Herzog that include classics like ‘Aguirre’, ‘Nosferatu’, ‘Heart Of Glass’ & ‘Cobra Verde’. ‘For You And Me’ was their 17th album & now 28 years it holds up more than ever. While decidedly new age and world music in sound (with musical elements from the Himalayas, Ireland, Greece and Africa), this album has style and grace, and the updated sonic quality makes it a pleasure to listen to. The light pieces combined with their timeless dramatic signature sound, the majestic piano chords, the profound lyrics and the crescendos of emotions set this album apart from the banal new age mainstream. The authentic Popul Vuh spirituality permeates on every track here, prepare for goose bumps and a divine moment, in For You And Me, they created a more modern day classic, easily their best album of the 90’s. Out of print since 1991 and never released on vinyl outside of Europe, now back available as a gorgeously packaged deluxe vinyl edition. Strictly limited to 700 copies (black vinyl) with spot-varnished details on the jacket. Next to the black vinyl pressing, a color vinyl variant (#300 copies black & clear swirl vinyl) is also available exclusively from Light In The Attic & Mondo in North America and from Transmission Records in Europe.

File Under: Ambient, Krautrock
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Red River Dave: Authentic Hillbilly Ballads & Topical Songs (Iron Mountain) LP
In tomorrow… Notorious for his 1970 song ‘California Hippie Murders!’ – a ghoulish, harrowing, yodelling retelling of the infamous (Charles Manson masterminded) Tate-La-Bianca slayings – Red River Dave was a genuine cowboy singing star turned tabloid balladeer. While ‘California Hippie Murders!’ might seem chilling and bizarre, within the body of ‘Red River Dave’ McEnery epic saga songs (collected here for the very first time), it makes perfect sense. The Moon landings, the kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst, the Vietnam conflict, the assassination of JFK, the murder of young Emmett Till, Korean War ‘Manchurian Candidate’ brainwashing, patriotic tirades and Cold War dirges – all grist for the great Red River Dave Hillbilly song-mill. Often cut within hours or days of the event and pressed as minuscule edition private 45s: the tall, flamboyant, ’Buffalo Bill’ bearded McEnery cut a dashing figure in his gold-sprayed cowboy boots and cracking lariat – as he hawked these handcrafted cuts from the boot of his steer-horned Cadillac. Some sides presented here are so rare as to be near-mythical – you’ll hear Red River Dave wax about the death of Marilyn Monroe and the Bay of Pigs – in an eccentric and forgotten chronicle of the 20th century experience.

File Under: Country
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Steve Reich: Drumming (Pure Pleasure) LP
In tomorrow… Simply put, Drumming is, along with some of Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach, one of the most fascinating pieces of first-generation minimalism. The version recorded for Elektra/Nonesuch in 1987 ranks among Reich’s masterpieces. The 60-minute continuous work features one basic rhythm pattern. Throughout four segued movements it is multiplied, played in canon on various percussion instruments. “Part I” is for four pairs of tuned bongo drums; “Part II” for three marimbas (played by nine players) and two singers mimicking the sound of marimbas; “Part III” for three glockenspiels, piccolo, and whistling (played by Reich himself); “Part IV” for all previous instruments, including voices. Transitions between movements are gradual, the whole piece being built on accumulation and reduction. When it is time to go to the next movement, players are slowly removed, quarter-notes replaced by rests, in order to make room for the new instruments. The piece almost comes to a complete halt at the end of “Part III,” keeping only the most basic pulse before the whole process starts over, building up to the finale. There is a sense of happiness and lightness irradiating from Drumming. It is a perfect example of the paradox of the simple and the complex, the easy and the challenging underlying minimalist music. Both cerebral and vitally tribal or ritualistic, this album is a must-have.

File Under: Avant Garde, Minimalism
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Moses Sumney: Aromanticism (Jagjaguwar) LP
Since emerging onto the scene in 2014, Moses Sumney has ridden a wave of word-of-mouth praise, hushed recordings, and dynamic live performances. It’s an organic, patient ascent all too rare in today’s musical climate. In a voice both mellifluous and haunting, Sumney makes future music that transmogrifies classic tropes, like moon-colony choir reinterpretations of old jazz gems. His vocals narrate a personal journey through universal loneliness atop otherworldly compositional backdrops. Following the self-release of his debut cassette EP, Mid-City Island, and 2015’s 7″, Seeds/Pleas, Sumney has performed around the world alongside forebears like David Byrne, Karen O, Sufjan Stevens, Solange, James Blake and more. With his 2016 Lamentations EP, The California and Ghana-raised troubadour widened the spectrum of his heretofore “bedroom” music, incorporating songs that feature more elaborate production and evocative songwriting. Now his inspired ascent continues. His proper debut album, Aromanticism is a concept album about lovelessness as a sonic dreamscape. It seeks to interrogate the social constructions around romance. The debut will include the devastating, billowing synths of “Doomed,” which in a way serves as the album’s thesis statement, as well as new versions of standouts “Lonely World” and “Plastic.” It’s a deliberate, jaw-dropping statement that can leave you both enlightened and empty.

File Under: Funk, Soul
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Souljazz Orchestra: Under Burning Skies (Strut) LP
Canada’s fastest moving and hardest working collective are back with one of their finest albums to date, a brand new journey into tropical, soul and jazz styles. Turbulent times call for strong voices and The Souljazz Orchestra’s new set packs a suitably heavy lyrical punch, with wry observations and an urge for progressive change. Musically, the band continue to push the limits, dusting off ‘80s vintage synthesizers and early drum machines for the first time, bringing lo fi disco, boogie and electro touches to their trademark horn arrangements and earthy analogue sound. The fruits are a-plenty and the group sound at their confident and versatile best from start to finish. Opener “Dog Eat Dog” powers in with Mabinuori Idowu and Philippe Lafrenière lambasting the powerful and the corrupt over an infectious Afro-disco groove; “Lufunki” takes the group right back to their B-Boy roots, bringing the Afro vibes to Beat Street and “Is Yeelyel” delivers a killer rework of an obscure original by Somalian super-group Dur-Dur Band. The band go on exploring their passion for French Caribbean styles on the beautiful, lilting “Oublier Pour Un Jour” and “Tambour À Deux Peaux” and they take time for reflection on the potent instrumental title track and poignant closer “Aduna Jarul Naawo,” featuring the vocals of Élage Mbaye.

File Under: Funk, Afrobeat
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Esther Suarez: La Bolognesina (Litle Axe) LP
In tomorrow… Esther Suarez, also known as La Ocrasina De Oro, is a popular Peruvian Huayno singer. La Bolognesina is one of her earlier albums, featuring reverbed vocals over Andean harps supplemented with light percussion and handclaps. The album was recorded in 1981, with the title referring to her roots near the snow-capped Andean mountains of the Bolognesi province in the Ancash region of Peru. Peru experienced waves of mass rural-to-urban migration in the latter half of the twentieth century due to poverty and political instability, but with it also came an explosion in the popularity of the folkloric Huayno tradition. An urban and modernized studio version of ancient indigenous Quechua folk traditions, Huayno became the soundtrack to the migrant’s experience of both hardship and homesickness. Esther Suarez’s clear and yearning vocals soar over galloping huayno rhythms, evoking the highlands of her youth with heartbreak, regret and melancholy, while simultaneously looking to a place where there is always a will to live and an invitation to dance. Truly some of the most beautiful music ever.

File Under: Folk, World, Peru
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Chad VanGaalen: Infiniheart (Flemish Eye) LP
Cultivating a singularly unique voice in the world of songwriting and composition is a difficult prospect for all but the most naturally gifted of artists, and Calgary-based songwriter Chad VanGaalen certainly belongs in that category. 2005’s Infiniheart, an epic tapestry of crunchy guitars, ethereal textures and expressive hooks, exists as a selection of the hundreds upon hundreds of intricate, visionary pop songs VanGaalen has crafted and self-recorded in his bedroom studio since 1994 with a Tascam 4-track, an Akai hard disc recorder and an assortment of analog gadgets. VanGaalen, a skilled animator and illustrator, began his journey busking Canadian streets and art events with a simple setup of drums and guitar before critical acclaim of his recorded material gave way to subsequent opening slots with Stars and the Pixies. As prolific as he is curious about the nature of sound and the mysteries of the heart, VanGaalen’s mystical, highly sympathetic characters thematically explore loss, passion and longing through sonic constructions rich in simplicity and peppered with glitchy beats, plaintive, vulnerable vocals and homemade saxophones and violins whittled by VanGaalen himself. Deeply moving and endlessly surprising, Infiniheart was VanGaalen’s first for Sub Pop.

File Under: Indie Rock
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Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun (Sargent House) LP
In tomorrow… While past albums operated on the intimacy of stripped-down folk music (The Grime and the Glow, Unknown Rooms), or the throbbing pulse of supplemental electronics (Pain Is Beauty, Abyss), Chelsea Wolfe’s sixth official album Hiss Spun wrings its exquisiteness out of a palette of groaning bass, pounding drums, and crunching distortion. Recorded by Kurt Ballou (Converge), the album was conceived as an emotional purge, a means of coming to terms with the tumult of the outside world by exploring the complexities of one’s inner unrest. “I’m at odds with myself,” she explains. “I got tired of trying to disappear. The record became very personal in that way. I wanted to open up more, but also create my own reality.” Hiss Spun features contributions by Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom, SUMAC) and Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age, Failure).

File Under: Indie Rock, Goth
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Hiroshi Yoshimura: Pier & Loft (17853) LP
In tomorrow… The late Hiroshi Yoshimura, a pioneer of Japanese ambient music. Yoshimura was involved in a wide range of fields, such as sound design for public installations, graphic design, visual poetry, free improvised performance (using his own body) and inventing his own instruments, right up until he passed away in 2003. The seven songs on this album were created for a fashion exhibition held at a warehouse in the Tokyo bay area. He released it on cassette tape on Japanese label ‘Fukusei Gijutsu Kohboh” ran by Yoshio Ojima who produced the album. Referring to the Loft: “As the time goes by, the Loft that was swept away ( forgotten) from the City but it somewhat has a look of a ” City of Ruins” that reminds you of something you have forgotten. Something nostalgic. Sounds from the City and the vast landscape gave me a great opportunity to take a fresh look at Tokyo.” says Yoshimura. Referring To the Pier: His look towards Tokyo bay takes on the shape of sonic particles….tickling down gently while tinged with change. A landscape of Seven Sounds. This is the first-ever vinyl release, 34 years after it’s recording. The sleeve image is the same as on the original cassette release.

File Under: Electronic, Experimental, Ambient
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Luigi Zito & Vittorio Nadlin: Dinamica Ossessiva (Cometa) LP
In tomorrow… Unreleased amazing funk/beat library LP with tones of jazz-funk and psychedelic beats. Keeping the listener on their toes, the music oscillates between psych-funk, jazz and esoteric movie themes then back again. Songs like “Inseguimento Sul Bosforo”, “Piazza”, “Theme For Two” and “Aggressione”, are timeless and show why Cometa albums are so highly regarded within the library community. This gem has finally be released on HQ 180gr. vinyl, to the delight of audiophiles.

File Under: Library
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Various: Hillbillies In Hell Volume 4 (Iron Mountain) LP
In tomorrow… Be tempted deeper into the depths…a reverberant brimstone labyrinth of tortured souls and redemptive pleas. More Country Gospel diatribes and Hellfired Hillbilly laments originally waxed on microscopic labels and distributed in minuscule amounts. These troubled but largely forgotten Hayseed troubadours sing of damnation and infernal choices, tormented sinners, Devil trains, Luciferian trysts, evil dope schemes and fallow final dreams. Years in the making – ‘Hillbillies In Hell’ (Volume Four) presents a further 16 timeless testaments of sin, tribulation, cold graves and warm temptations. An unholy stash of subterranean 45s, some of these sides are impossibly rare and are reissued here for the very first time. All for your prurient listening pleasure.

File Under: Country

Various: Musica Per L’Immagine (Fly By Night) LP
In tomorrow… With Fly By Night Music now celebrating their fifth year of operation, Lorenzo has marked the occasion by assembling his biggest project to date – an impeccably curated collection of obscure Italian production music circa 1974 – 1985. The project, has been very close to Lorenzo’s heart – beginning unexpectedly in the record fairs of Buenos Aires and leading him on several trips to Rome and Milan, tracking down the original musicians and licensors.

File Under: Library

Various: Outro Tempo (Music From Memory) LP
In tomorrow… FINALLY GOT SOME OF THIS DAMNED RECORD! For their first multi-artist compilation, Music From Memory take us on a trip to the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Outro Tempo: Electronic and Contemporary Music From Brazil, 1978-1992 is a double LP that explores the outer reaches of Brazilian music, where indigenous rhythms mix with synthesizers and where MPB mingles with drum computers. As Brazil faced the last years of its military dictatorship and transition to democracy, a generation of forward-thinking musicians developed an alternative vision of Brazilian music and culture. They embraced traditionally shunned electronic production methods and infused their music with elements of ambient, jazz-fusion, and minimalism. At the same time they referenced the musical forms and spirituality of indigenous tribes from the Amazon. The music they produced was a complex and mesmerising tapestry that vividly evoked Brazilian landscapes and simultaneously reached out to the world beyond its borders. The product of extensive research, this compilation is a unique introduction to this visionary music and features many fresh discoveries in a country well trodden by record diggers. It gathers tracks from obscure albums that have for too long been neglected by even the most avid collectors of Brazilian music. It includes now highly sought after music by Andréa Daltro, Maria Rita, and Fernando Falcão, as well as unknown gems like those of Cinema, Carlinhos Santos, and Anno Luz. This is an essential release that reveals a broader spectrum of Brazilian music, striking a unique sonic signature that is full of innovation, experimentation, and beauty.

File Under: Electronic, Latin, Jazz, Ambient
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…..Restocks…..

Roky Erickson: The Evil One (Light in the Attic) LP
Gaussian Curve: Clouds (Music From Memory) LP
Francoise Hardy: L’Amite (Future Days) LP
Francoise Hardy: La Premier Bonheur Du Jour (Future Days) LP
Shin Joong Hyun: Beautiful Rivers & Mountains (Light in the Attic) LP
Os Mutantes: Everything is Possible (LuakaBop) LP
Rodriguez: Cold Fact (Light in the Attic) LP
Link Wray: Be What You Want To Be (Tidal Wave) LP
Link Wray: Mordicai Jones (Tidal Wave) LP
Link Wray: s/t (Future Days) LP