Holy moly! What a bonkers weekend! Thanks to everyone who came down and carried out a nice stack of vinyl during our anniversary sale! We sure sold a lot of records. We hope everyone is enjoying their pulls. But I am sorry to tell you, you probably need to come back real soon as there were some great new arrivals this week! And congrats to the winner of the Rega RP1, Jason, to the rest of you, better luck next time.
Annnnnnd if you didn’t have a chance to come down, we still have our 50% off crates out for the time being, so come have a dig and save save save!
Oh ya… and if you follow us on Instagram, you know we bought some amazing used stuff in the last few weeks. I put another crate out last night and it’s almost all gone already. If I get a second wind here tonight, I’ll hopefully put another crate out in time for the weekend. If you don’t follow us on Instagram, WHY NOT?! And now you know.
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…..picks of the week…..
David Axelrod: Earth Rot (Now Again) LP
In tomorrow… “2018 Black Friday RSD release. Earth Rot is visionary composer/arranger/producer David Axelrod’s third album, and the last of his Capitol trilogy. Recorded as a concept album about the decrepit state of the environment in 1970 Los Angeles, and scheduled for release on the first Earth Day, it features choral vocals and marks a departure for Axelrod’s signature sound, which would take on a jazzier feel in the 1970s. This definitive version of Earth Rot, overseen by Now-Again’s Eothen Alapatt in conjunction with Axelrod’s estate, fulfills a request Axelrod made while alive ? to see the instrumentals of this album, never before released, issued. They see release here as the second LP in a two-LP set. This is an audiophile reissue, with the vocal version lacquered directly from Axelrod’s original master tapes at Capitol Records by Ron Mcmaster. The master was approved by Axelrod’s son Michael, who adapted ancient lyrics for the album in one of three collaborative projects he did with his father. Contains a 28 page booklet that delves into Axelrod’s incredible life and music, replete with never before published photos and an interview. ‘There are very few people who see the Grand Picture of the Universe and understand the Nothingness that it all comes from. There are even fewer who can express these ideas through music – David could do it all.’ –T-Ray. Includes never before issued instrumentals. Comes packaged in a gatefold jacket with a 28-page booklet.”
File Under: Funk, Jazz, Breaks
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Demdike Stare: Passion (Modern Love) LP
Since the release of their album Wonderland, Demdike Stare have been recording material for this new double album Passion; an asymmetric re-imagining of UK club styles taking in frenzied drum trax, shortwave jungle, pinging dancehall and clipped, post-punk riddims. During this time they’ve been busy curating their DDS label (releases from Shinichi Atobe, Mica Levi, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, and Equiknoxx, among others) and have been commissioned by both the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and the surviving members of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza to mine and rework their archives. Enlisting visual artist Michael England (Autechre, Gescom, Leila), they’ve created a cinematic accompaniment for their collaborative live shows, resulting in the image which adorns this cover – a hybrid/composite portrait exploring/questioning the current use of software in creating hyper reality and the manipulation of the self. The accompanying film includes documentary footage filmed at a Voguing event in NYC, a Blackpool promenade and a Newark, New Jersey roller rink, the end result smudging the lines between live performance, documentary and sonic cinema. It’s an idea that’s echoed on Passion, continuing a process Demdike began on their Testpressing series of dismantling lines between analog and digital realms, between urban realism and fantasy, between experimental, pop and soundsystem cultures. An outlandish configuration of avant-garde and ultimately functional club weapons designed and honed for the weightiest bassbins, it’s also their most direct and fucked up record to date — a raucous, joyful 9-track smash that comes off like a night on a glamorous, neon-lit bender. Mastered by Matt Colton. RIYL: Errorsmith, Príncipe, Dem 2, Jon E Cash, Wiley, Joy Division, DJ Scud, Equiknoxx, Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir, Bernard Parmegiani. High-gloss varnish sleeve.
File Under: Ambient, Electronic, Techno
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…..new arrivals…..
Oren Ambarchi & Jim O’Rourke w/ U-Zhaan: Hence (Editions Mego) LP
Hence is the third collaborative release from Oren Ambarchi and Jim O’Rourke, following on from Behold. Building on the refined combination of electronics and acoustic instrumentation found on their previous releases, Hence presents two side-long pieces combining synthesizers, heavily effected guitar tones, and tabla rhythms played by special guest Uzhaan. On the first side, an explosive opening chord sends out ripples of sparse, irregularly pulsing guitar and synthesizer tones, aleatorically changing in pitch and jumping around the stereo image. Combined with the tabla, which gradually builds in busyness throughout the side, the piece is like a dream collaboration between David Behrman and the Henry Kaiser of It’s A Wonderful Life(1984), gradually overtaken in its second half by a swarm of lush live electronic sizzle. The second side begins in a similar area, combining tabla, shimmering Leslie cabinet guitar tones, and a wandering melodic line. Undergoing a series of subtle variations, this initial area eventually builds to a climax of twittering synthesized birdsong reminiscent of Alvin Curran’s ’70s work. As on the first side, Ambarchi and O’Rourke craft a piece that is both comforting and subtly strange, as the constantly shifting dynamics and changes of focus (which recall the flow of improvised music) refuse to allow the music to settle into any one moment for too long or to build in too linear a fashion. Combining influences from post-minimalism, the pioneers of live electronics, and eastern music into a unique sound world, Hence is a seductive work from two of the most singular sensibilities in contemporary music. Cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin. Photos by Traianos Pakioufakis. Sleeve/type design by Stephen O’Malley.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental
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Shinichi Atobe: Heat (DDS) LP
Heat is a surprise new double album from Shinichi Atobe for Demdike Stare. It follows on from 2017’s From The Heart, It’s A Start, A Work Of Art and continues a run of highly enigmatic, acclaimed and completely unparalleled productions that follow their own timeless logic. There’s no sonic fiction involved; this material really does just turn up on a CD sent by air mail from Japan to Manchester, sparse info, no messing, pure gold. What’s that cover art about? It’s probaby something to do with the balmy, slightly fucked, sun-stroked material within. “So Good, So Right”, the ten-minute opener, will force you to forget about all the shit around you for a while. There are also several tracks called “Heat”; they’re all killer. This music takes you elsewhere almost immediately; that fan on your desk is basically a summer breeze. In fact, this whole album is absurd, completely effortless, and a total classic. Find a more life-affirming electronic album in 2018, and there’s an ice cream in the offing. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton, cover by Mat Thornton.
File Under: Electronic, Techno
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Baba Commandant & The Mandingo Band: Siri Ba Kele (Sublime Frequencies) LP
Baba Commandant And The Mandingo Band return with their second LP, Siri Ba Kele. After the Afro-beat fury of their first album Juguya (2015), the band has now distilled a potent mix of traditional and modern Burkinabe funk with a reverent take on the iconic Mandingue guitar music of the 1970’s. Mamadou Sanou (Baba Commandant) leads the band with a confidence earned from years of toiling in the DIY underground of the West African music scene. His riveting growl and main instrument, the doso n’goni, still strike with a profound delivery. The band’s guitarist, Issouf Diabate, is on board again and his breathtaking guitar work is one of the greatest examples of the instrument displayed in modern times. Massibo Taragna (bass) and Mohamed Sana (drums) are simply one of the finest rhythm sections working today, each a master on his instrument and the chops displayed here are truly something to behold. The band has become an interlocking five-headed hydra of complex funk and cosmic guitar explosions. Recorded in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in February 2018 by Camille Louvel and mixed with SF’s Hisham Mayet, the Mandingo Band’s sophomore LP is a modern statement of searing Sahelian compositions. It stands shoulder-to-shoulder with such classics as Super Biton De Segou (1977), Kanaga De Mopti (1977), Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux (1981) and the mighty Rail Band. Limited edition.
File Under: Afrobeat, Jazz, Funk
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David Bowie: Glastonbury 2000 (Rhino) LP
Rhino/Parlophone Records in association with BBC Studios and Glastonbury Festivals Ltd. present Glastonbury 2000, documenting Davide Bowie’s legendary Sunday night headline performance on June 25 at the most famous festival on earth. The 3LP package includes the full 21 song greatest hits set with newly mastered audio and Bowie’s diary, originally written for Time Out, which documents him preparing for the show in his own inimitable manner. In addition it features new artwork from Jonathan Barnbrook (who worked with Bowie on the sleeves for Heathen, The Next Day and Blackstar) and notes from the renowned author and Bowie fan Caitlin Moran, who reviewed the show for The Times. The proceedings are rounded out by photos of Bowie resplendently dressed in a 3/4 length one-of-a-kind Alexander McQueen frock coat, the pattern of which was made to echo the hat (the famous ‘bipperty-bopperty hat’ mentioned in the song “Queen Bitch”) and worn by Bowie at his Glastonbury Fayre debut in 1971. Glastonbury co-organizer Emily Eavis commented: “I often get asked what the best set I’ve seen here at Glastonbury is, and Bowie’s 2000 performance is always one which I think of first. It was spellbinding; he had an absolutely enormous crowd transfixed. I think Bowie had a very deep relationship with Worthy Farm and he told some wonderful stories about his first time at the Festival in 1971, when he stayed at the farmhouse and performed at 6am as the sun was rising. And he just played the perfect headline set. It really was a very special and emotional show.” “Not only the greatest Glastonbury headline performance but the best headline slot at any festival ever!” – NME
File Under: Rock, Pop
Causa Sui: Free Ride (El Paraiso) LP
Causa Sui’s Free Ride is finally back in print after being sold out for more than a decade! The original single-LP version, released in 2007 on Elektrohasch, has been selling for ridiculous prices on Discogs and eBay. Even the CDs are sought-after collectors’ items, almost impossible to find, until now. Imagine a tidal wave sweeping up from the 1960s through the 1970s, then cresting in the 1990s before finally crashing on the shore of the present; that’s what Free Ride sounds like. This is the “heavy psych” album of the Causa Sui catalog, one out of only two albums they recorded with a lead singer,and the most direct-sounding collection of tracks the band has done to date. The sonic experimentation and curious song structures that also define later Causa Sui records are there (just listen to those echo-treated flutes in “Passing Breeze”), but what really ties this record together is an unashamed appreciation of the grand rock tradition of the previous four decades. One can literally feel how the young lads had been absorbing endless amounts of Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, Mudhoney, Black Sabbath, and Kyuss before cooking up these seven tracks. There’s no shortage of killer riffs and Bonham-esque grooves. The culmination is the epic breathtaking acid-rock finale that takes up the entire second disc: the 15-minute “Newborn Road” and the 20-minute extended live version of the band’s signature track “El Paraiso”, captured in front of a mesmerized crowd at Roadburn on the very day Free Ride was released. It’s impossible not feel swept away by the Hendrixian glory of these two cuts, as they fly from tranquil noodlings to the most thunderous peaks. This is the kind of album where one dropa the needle and rides it all the way to the end, as if overwhelmed by an awesome natural force. Includes 20-minute bonus track recorded live at the Roadburn Festival in 2007. Remastered by Jonas Munk.
File Under: Rock, Psych
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Coil: Ape of Naples (Important) LP
Available again! One of my alltime favorites! 2018 re-cut from original Peter Christopherson approved masters. The Ape Of Naples is Coil’s highly celebrated final album completed by Peter Christopherson following the tragic death of Jhonn Balance in 2004. Often noted for being a fan favorite, The Ape Of Naples uses Balance’s final recordings and material recorded at Trent Reznor’s studio in New Orleans to create a deep, heavy masterpiece. Packaged in a heavy tip-on gatefold sleeve with Ian Johnstone’s original artwork coated in a custom spot gloss. Each LP is house in a printed inner sleeve and side D is printed with all three original etchings. Lyrics are printed across the gatefold.
File Under: Electronic, Ambient, Industrial, Essential Grooves
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Cop Killers: The Cop Killers (Ecstatic) LP
Ecstatic presents a reissue of The Cop Killers’ self-titled album, originally issued in 1982. A genuine holy grail of Italian post-industrial music, The Cop Killers’ sole, eponymous tape is remastered and issued on vinyl for the first time via Alessio Natalizia’s Ecstatic label. Fetching triple figures on the second hand market (there’s a copy on Discogs presently for £300) this is an indispensable slice of ’80s Europe’s underground experimental rhizome. An important release for Ecstatic and one very close to their heart, The Cop Killers was originally released on the legendary Trax label and features the industrial power trio of Trax co-founder Vittore Baroni and label regular Daniele Ciullini assisted by UK’s Mark A. Phillips (Five Times of Dust) in supposing a sci-fi narrative set in a not-so-distant future society. While clearly drawing influence and literary license from classic sci-fi by Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and William Burroughs, the trio also take cues from the not-so-distant history of Italian fascism to offer a subtly coded and subversive warning against right-wing ideologies. In the process The Cop Killers distinguished themselves by preferring to plants seeds of hope amid the rubble of their peers nihilistic/apocalyptic visions, implicitly turning the album into a sort of “pacifist parable”. The political aspect wouldn’t be half as crucial without the music, though. A coarse blend of Italian-accented English vox with backing tracks ranging from jaunty synth figures to cloven drum machine malfunctions and noisier wig-outs, it was mixed on a dual cassette deck and mixer from numerous tapes in just over 90 minutes, and successfully carries the narrative and its message to the point it’s become such a sought-after classic – not just for its obscurity, but also its charged energy, a condensation of candescent anger focused into a pointedly oblique yet smartly allegorical condemnation of fascism. Baroni: “As a music journalist and fan of radical and avant-garde audio researches, at the start of the ’80s I was becoming increasingly bored by the mannerism of so many industrial and noise bands, and also annoyed by their gratuitous and stereotyped use of images of death, Nazism, war, with titles and texts soaked in right-wing ideologies. I wanted to produce an antibody to this depressive trend, with seeds of hope well concealed under a nihilistic-apocalyptic “industrial” camouflage.” Mastered by Matt Colton.
File Under: Experimental, Industrial, Collage
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Alessandro Cortini/Lawrence English: Immediate Horizon (Important) LP
Lawrence English and Alessandro Cortini issue Immediate Horizon, a live recording, made at the premiere of the piece, held at Kraftwerk in Berlin. Having become mutual admirers of each other’s work; English of Cortini’s Sonno and Cortini of English’s Wilderness Of Mirrors, the pair were very pleased to receive an invitation to collaborate together. Following a number of months exchanging compositional ideas and materials, Cortini and English met in Berlin several days ahead of the festival and commenced an intense period of rehearsal and arrangement. The resulting piece, Immediate Horizon, traces their shared interests in harmony and texture. It is a work that meditates on saturation and the ruptures that occur when harmonic elements are stacked. Immediate Horizon’s six pieces swell and burst in a perpetual sense of pulse.
File Under: Ambient, Electronic
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Current 93: The Light is Leaving Us All (The Spheres) LP
The Light Is Leaving Us All is more music from Current 93, everyone’s favorite hallucinatory cuneiform super-group. Three years in the making, The Light Is Leaving Us Allcontain spells within its eleven tracks. C93 are possibly, probably, certainly perhaps: Alasdair Roberts, Aloma Ruiz Boada, Andrew Liles, Ben Chasny, David Tibet, Michael J. York, Ossian Brown, Reinier van Houdt, Rita Knuistingh Neven, and Thomas Ligotti. Remember, remember, your future cartoon is as soft as the tarot! Gatefold sleeve, with insert containing all lyrics and credits.
File Under: Experimental, Folk
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Grupo Controle Digital: A Festa e Nossa (Soundway) LP
Soundway presents a reissue of Brazilian duo Grupo Controle Digital’s only album, A Festa É Nossa, originally released in 1988. The title track “A Festa É Nossa” having circulated in DJ sets of influential tastemakers, the album has become highly sought after by electronic fans and collectors alike. Lo-fi synths and cruising bass lines permeate the record, influenced by the group’s Brazilian contemporaries at the time such as Tim Maia, Cláudio Zoli, Secos E Molhados, and rock outfit Made In Brazil. Band members Billy Jaguar and Gel Valiery regularly performed in various groups in São Paulo throughout the ’80s and ’90s, but after Gel passed away, Grupo Controle Digital was no more — the band and the album faded into obscurity and Billy became a priest, working with gospel music. It remained that way until Brazilian DJ Millos Kaiser (from label Selva Discos, and one half of Brazilian street party organizers Selvagem) tracked down the remaining member of the group to be able to include one of their tracks on the highly anticipated Soundway compilation, Onda De Amor: Synthesized Brazilian Hits That Never Were (1984-94). Audio restored by Neal Birnie. Artwork restored by Lewis Heriz. Remastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, London. Tip-on heavyweight sleeve.
File Under: Brazil, Electronic
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Herbie Hancock: Flood (Get on Down) LP
In tomorrow… “2018 Black Friday RSD release. Never before released commercially on vinyl in the US! This double live outing from Herbie Hancock was recorded in Tokyo in July of 1975. Backed up by The Headhunters, Hancock runs through selections from his albums Head Hunters, Thrust and Man-Child — that last project still being months away from release at the time of this recording. Get On Down’s Black Friday reissue of the vinyl will be the first US release for the double LP, ever.”
File Under: Jazz
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High on Fire: Electric Messiah (E One) LP
“I had a dream about Lemmy,” says Matt Pike, explaining the inspiration behind the title of High on Fire’s triumphant eighth album Electric Messiah. If there’s one aspect of the band that warrants comparison to Lemmy’s mighty Motörhead, it’s longevity. 2018 sees them celebrating 20 years of thunderous heavy metal, with brothers-in-arms Pike, bassist Jeff Matz, and drummer Des Kensel having been firmly intact for the last dozen years. Along the way the band has forged a distinct identity of towering riffs, a propulsive rhythm section, shredding solos, and lyrics of Hessian poetry. “This is by far the best record I’ve ever made with the High on Fire stamp,” Pike adds. “It just keeps getting better and better. We just try to outdo ourselves. I’m not saying the old work is progressively worse, it’s just that we get better every time instead of burning out, which is a common finality for a lot of bands. This album is fucking excellent, I just love everything on it, I’m not bummed about anything. It’s great when you think that about your record.”
File Under: Metal
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Jean Hoyoux: III Hymne (Cortizona) LP
Reissue, originally released in 1985. Two years after his debut double-LP Planètes (1981), Jean Hoyoux recorded three new compositions in the home build studio, Madame Bois. In his later published book NOOS, la naissance à l’esprit, Hoyoux described the recording of III Hymne as follows: “‘Power of being’ my fingers are wreathed with violets and blues. Sounds emerge from them, called by something unknown to me. Joyful forces embrace me. I am both listener and musician. The rising melodies come forth from some unknown universe, vibrating to some unknown world. E Minor, C Minor, G Minor: harmonies of the awareness inside. The third hymn.” The original record was issued on CRETS, or Centre du Recherche et d’Etudes, in 1985 and now, 33 years later, re-released for the first time on Cortizona. On III Hymne, Hoyoux further explores the electronic instruments he also used on Planètes which results in a marvelous album that in some way connects the dots between ambient, library, cosmic, and spiritual music.
File Under: Experimental, Electronic, Ambient
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Joy Division/New Order: Total (Warner) LP
New Order are proud to announce the release of TOTAL from Joy Division to New Order on vinyl. Originally released in June 2011 on CD, TOTAL from Joy Division to New Order will be available on vinyl for the very first time on 30th November 2018. Featuring single versions of tracks from both Joy Division and New Order mastered for vinyl by Frank Arkwright from his 2011 remasters. The iconic album cover was created by Howard Wakefield with art direction from Peter Saville. TOTAL contains New Order’s UK Top 10 singles Blue Monday, True Faith, Regret and the Number 1 single World in Motion along with classic Joy Division tracks Love Will Tell Us Apart, Transmission, She’s Lost Control and Atmosphere.
File Under: Rock, Pop
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Kode9 & Burial: FabricLive 100 (Fabric) 4LP
Burial and Kode9 are each credited with fostering esoteric, hyperlocal sounds and steering them to global recognition. As such, these tracks reach into obscure corners and across a disorienting range of tempos. This set of four vinyl LPs — produced to accompany the final FabricLive 100 compilation release, features 28 of the 37 tracks on the compilation in their unmixed format. Featuring artists from Africa, China, South America, and Japan as well as the Europe and US. Drawing from gqom, juke, and footwork to trance, jungle, and grime, as well as a wealth of material that defies categorization.
File Under: Electronic
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Lotus Eaters: Desatura (Stroboscopic Artefacts) LP
Lucy and Rrose, now coming together as The Lotus Eaters, have established themselves separately as techno artists who are just as comfortable operating in the uncharted area of experimental music. Running their own labels (Stroboscopic Artefacts and Eaux, respectively), they have gained a cult following, both influencing and challenging the direction of techno. Their first collaboration took the form of mutual remixes. Lucy remixed Rrose, taking on his modern classic “Waterfall” while Rrose remixed Dadub for Stroboscopic Artefacts, and shortly thereafter contributed an extended EP as part of Stroboscopic Artefacts’s Monad series. Eventually, the idea of working together became inevitable. Several intense sessions in Lucy’s Berlin studio followed, using mainly analog hardware. These sessions gave birth to a new project, starting with two EPs signed Lucy and Rrose, called The Lotus Eaters and The Lotus Eaters II (2018). With the Desatura album, the first release signed under the project name The Lotus Eaters, their common work is refined further, also becoming a live act which will debut at ADE (Amsterdam) 2018. With Desatura, Lucy and Rrose explore themes of physical density, emptiness, and space, creating sonic objects which can be rotated and viewed from multiple perspectives. Eschewing the typical instrumentation of techno, the duo uses synthesized sound and feedback as fundamental sources to generate both textural and percussive elements. A sense of tension and weight emerge from sources that cannot be easily pinpointed. The resulting album forms a complex narrative from a paradoxically simple and restrained set of sound sources. A mysterious and profound accomplishment.
File Under: Electronic, Techno
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Ted Lucas: s/t (Yoga) LP
Ted Lucas, the sole published album by singer-songwriter and master guitarist Ted Lucas has achieved an almost mystical reputation amongst aficionados and collectors. Ted Lucas is a seamless marriage of moody odes and raga-style instrumentals regarded by many to be, simply put, the greatest private press folk/psych album ever recorded. Lucas was a fixture in the Detroit rock scene of the sixties and seventies. His first band, The Spike Drivers, relocated to San Francisco to become one of the very first true psych bands, the Motor City’s answer to Jefferson Airplane and The Byrds. Following that band’s collapse, Lucas returned to Detroit and paid bills doing session work with Motown. And there he recorded, in 1972, the demo for Warner Brothers which would become Ted Lucas, released in two private editions in 1975 and known informally to friends and family as “The OM Album”, after Lucas’ own label. The album was released with artwork by the legendary Stanley Mouse originally created for Jimi Hendrix. A troubled figure whose lack of commercial capitalization and general disgust with the music business fueled a tragic narrative of self-destruction and an untimely death at 53, Lucas nevertheless reflects a regal confidence on this album, both in terms of his Sandy Bull-level guitar workouts and his masterful songwriting, as reflected in covers by the Blind Boys of Alabama, Richard Buckner, Phil Cook, and Father John Misty. As singular as Skip Spence’s Oar (1969), as liminal and uncanny as David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971), Ted Lucas is a collection of elevated and elegiac cosmic folk music, presented here in a newly re-mastered edition from the original tapes with high-quality tip-on sleeves and the original back cover art.
File Under: Folk, Psych
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Ron Morelli: Disappearer (Hospital) LP
The Disappearer story is an abstract and conflicted one, loosely based around moral codes handed down through generations, reinterpreted, debated and enforced, followed and broken. What happens when a threat is posed? Is the answer diluted to the simple fact of survival by any and all means necessary? Does instinct take precedence over all? This cycle is full of contradiction, feeding back in its most primitive animalistic and oft brutal of levels, with many questions left unanswered. Who becomes the disappeared and who becomes the disappearer? Two years since his last releases for Hospital Productions — A Gathering Together — L.I.E.S. Records boss Ron Morelli returns with Disappearer, his third full-length. Disappearer claws and tears its way through 13 tracks at 54 minutes long, touching upon everything from cold, stripped-back electronics, to hints of 1990s Hague scum techno, to grim passages reminiscent of early tape minimalists, the amalgamation forming a nasty sonic narrative that reaches an explosive unsettling apex. This is a definitive return to tense, urgent punk roots; the minimal beat construction, unexpected acid burned vocals, and stark atmospheres touch upon Morelli’s full spectrum of influences with his signature rusted razor production. Composed over the last two years in various foul states, the album is a fusion of base level hardware programming, open room mic recordings and extensive computer processing, all finalized in the Paris studio of Krikor Kouchian. Compositionally, Morelli has fused the brute immediacy of his then-controversial now-cult debut album Spit with intricate compositional cut-ups of cassette culture, the updated crushing production the product of having circled and lived Europe’s nightclub circuit for close to a decade. Presented here as a double LP with new artwork, re-sequenced and edited from its original cassette format.
File Under: Electronic, Techno
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Pride: s/t (Get on Down) LP
“2018 Black Friday RSD release. Dig deep in to the released output of famed producer David Axelrod and you’ll discover this gem, Pride. The single self-titled release is the pairing of Axelrod with his son Michael. The father-son duo deliver psychedelic pop with what many may call a Baroque folk-rock twist. Issued in 1970, the project is somewhat in the realm of the output from groups such as Love or The Byrds ? but indelibly David Axelrod through and through.”
File Under: Psych, Pop, Folk
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Pride: s/t (Get on Down) LP
“2018 Black Friday RSD release. Dig deep in to the released output of famed producer David Axelrod and you’ll discover this gem, Pride. The single self-titled release is the pairing of Axelrod with his son Michael. The father-son duo deliver psychedelic pop with what many may call a Baroque folk-rock twist. Issued in 1970, the project is somewhat in the realm of the output from groups such as Love or The Byrds ? but indelibly David Axelrod through and through.”
File Under: Psych, Pop, Folk
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Steve Reich: Different Trains (Nonesuch) LP
Nonesuch Records’ 1989 recording of Steve Reich’s Different Trains, the Grammy Award winner for Best Contemporary Composition, and Electric Counterpoint return to vinyl. The album features the first recordings of the two pieces, performed by Kronos Quartet and Pat Metheny, respectively. The new vinyl edition is out, on the 30th anniversary of Kronos Quartet’s world premiere performance of Different Trains at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The New York Times hailed Different Trains as “a work of such originality that ‘breakthrough’ seems the only possible description” while Pitchfork recently called it a “late-career masterpiece,” including the album among the 200 Best Albums of the 1980s.
File Under: Experimental, Minimalism
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Daniel Romano: Finally Free (You’ve Changed) LP
Finally Free marks Daniel Romano’s eighth long playing album in the last eight years. He has had what understatedly would be considered a prolific output of incredibly entrancing, poignant and creative records in this span of time. Recording, producing, designing and landing his records into the minds and hearts of scores of fans the world over. He has been called a shapeshifter, contrived, a chameleon, a Charlatan, the best living songwriter, an asshole and a genius. His last record, Modern Pressure received outstandingly high acclaim and praise from every notable publication out there and was acknowledged by most reputable “for-profit-prize-corporations” as well as a plethora of voguish “music-as-competitive-sport” year end lists. Despite being the bronze placeholder in most of these dogfights, he is most often noted as a person of astounding influence on all of his musically economic successors. Finally Free could stand alone as being pivotal if it were only its profound and breathtaking prose on paper. Writing now like an agnostic Whitman in his prime, Romano explores and uncovers new language and meaning for old sentiments grown tired, stating, “these poems are most certainly my finest and most principled efforts to date.” Finally Free sings like a radical revelation, exploring the concepts of music as a celestial being, flora as a consequential ancestor and singing, no matter its quality or sound, as the endmost important output of our species. This record contains a vivid religious articulation despite its clear condemnation of a god as a singular ruling white male. New words have replaced old words for new meaning and the definitions have been left up to interpretation. It seems safe to say that Romano has broken the literary soil hard and furiously to find the remaining repose in our current “danse macabre.”
File Under: Folk, Indie Rock
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Senyawa: Sujud (Sublime Frequencies) LP
Senyawa are a contemporary duo originating from Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Rully Shabara (extreme vocals) coupled with Wukir Suryadi’s deft instrumentals (and homemade instruments) produce one of the most profound examples of experimental via traditional music happening anywhere today. By weaving Indonesian folkloric moods with various shades of modern genre hybrids, Senyawa has been navigating unexplored musical terrain for more than a decade. Sujud, their premier release on the Sublime Frequencies label, is the latest chapter of this very special and singular sound of the past, present, and future. The basic theme of the record can be summed up with one extremely powerful Bahasa Indonesian word, “tanah”, which translates to “soil-ground-land-earth”. Shabara’s vocals are an expressive force, conjuring spirits from the soil with a deep humility and respect for the land and their existence in the universe. Suryadi has built a new guitar for these tracks and pushes the Senyawa sound into new territory, utilizing delay, loops, and other effects creating grounded backdrops of folk metal, punk attitudinal, and droning earthscapes – providing Shabara the perfect context to explore his whispering poetry and jagged, sharp-as-a-kris animistic powers. There is simply no other sound like it and Sublime Frequencies is thrilled to present this new direction in their discography. Limited LP with two-sided insert featuring lyrics in Bahasa Indonesian.
File Under: Indonesian, Folk
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David Shire: The Conversation OST (Trunk) LP
Trunk presents a special, first-time, issue of David Shire’s soundtrack for The Conversation (1974). This is the first time the complete score to The Conversation has been released on vinyl. The film itself was originally released in 1974 but until now nothing else has ever been pressed on vinyl. Jonny Trunk’s obsession with this music began after he’d caught the film, late night, sometime in the mid-1990s. Musically it’s an exceptional example of the “new minimalism” in film music of the period, marking a departure (for some) from big scores to smaller, more economic ensemble sounds. The film was written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and is a thrilling journey into sound, mind and murder. Heavily influenced by Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966) Coppola wanted to fuse the concept of Blow-Up with “the world of audio surveillance”. The story centers around Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a professional wire-tapper and clandestine bugger consumed by a conversation he’s been paid to record. Caul is a loner, an obsessive-compulsive character with numerous neuroses that play out brilliantly throughout the film. And as he slowly pieces together the conversation fragments and forms his own story around it, his world falls apart. For the music, Coppola wisely chose a young David Shire, his brother-in-law. Shire’s deceptively simple piano theme is one of tragic beauty, capturing Caul’s loneliness, his disturbed nature and this trip into darkness. The melody has both sweet and sour tones, feeling a little like a slow ragtime, developing throughout the film; there are even trips into avant-garde territory with electro-acoustic flourishes and Concrète. The agitated figure of Caul, wearing his distinctive transparent mac, is made all the more raw and poignant by the score, its sparse and curiously emotional compositions unlike any others from the period. The soundtrack for The Conversation proved to be a major break for Shire, his career taking off from this point. His next score was to classic Taking Of Pelham 123, followed up ironically by All The Presidents Men – a thriller about the Watergate scandal. The Conversation won several awards and nominations, and has become a classic of the “New Hollywood” movement. Personnel: Jack Nimitz – baritone sax; Ray Brown – bass; Shelly Manne – drums; Walter Murch – sound montage; Norman Wachner – engineer; Pete Jolly – piano; David Shire – piano; Clark Spangler – ARP 2600; Don Menza – tenor sax; Conte Condoli – trumpet.
File Under: Soundtrack, Jazz
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Jeff Tweedy: Warm (DBPM) LP
Jeff Tweedy presents, Warm, an 11 track solo album of all new material, recorded at Chicago’s now legendary studio, The Loft (with help from some of his usual collaborators – Spencer Tweedy, Glenn Kotche and Tom Schick). Warm follows the acoustic retrospective release, Together at Last (2017), and Wilco’s 2016 album, Schmilco. Tweedy describes lead single “Some Birds” as, “like a lot of songs on Warm, being a confrontation between self and shadow self simultaneously feeling I’m to blame and not to blame, present and gone, and utterly confused, but determined to hold someone accountable.” Produced by Jeff Tweedy and Tom Schick at The Loft (Chicago, IL). Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering (Portland, ME). The incredible liner notes for Warm were written by George Saunders: ‘Warm’ is one of the most joyful, celebratory, infectious collections of songs I’ve heard in a long time. It’s intimate and yet vast and feels lovingly made, by actual people, in some particular place, and not inside a computer. As I was listening, I kept picturing a tight little cabin in the woods somewhere (the woods of Chicago?), under a big yellow moon, and four or five Jeffs in there, all playing different instruments, and Spencer on drums, and Susie and Sammy are there, too, and there’s a fire going, and a feeling of love and discovery and fondness in the smoky air. Also in there, I think, is the spirit of Jeff’s father, Bob Tweedy, who passed away in 2017.”
File Under: Folk, Indie Rock
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Wolves in the Throne Room: Black Cascade (Southern Lord) LP
Coinciding with Southern Lord’s 20th anniversary in 2018, the label announces the reissues of all three of their acclaimed albums from Wolves In The Throne Room; Two Hunters, Black Cascade, and Celestial Lineage. About the reissues the band remarks, “We are thrilled that Two Hunters, Black Cascade, and Celestial Lineage are back in print. These records document a fertile and magical time in our lives and we are so pleased that a new generation of fans will be able to enjoy these records on vinyl.” Since 2006, over the course of six studio albums and hundreds of live performances Wolves in the Throne Room have refracted the transcendent and mythic aspects of Black Metal through their own idiosyncratic Cascadian prism. The resulting essence is music that is intimately linked to the wild lands of the Pacific Northwest. Their songs explore the hidden world of magic that one accesses through dreams, visions and music. As the mind altering pulse of the drums merges with seemingly infinite layers of guitar, an ocean-deep psychedelic soundscape coalesces. Time slows down, a portal opens and the blazing metal riffs collapse and shift into a dirge that invokes a misty other-world. In their songs, rain-drenched specters loom at the edge of the wood. Ancient cedar beings stir beneath their wet moss robes. One glimpses a bronze-domed temple rising among the firs. 2009’s Black Cascade is characterized by a heavy and powerful analog sound, and a deft touch with songwriting and arrangement. The crumbling roar of decidedly old-school tube amps unite with layers of mossy analog synthesizer and cataclysmic percussion. Blazing and crystalline metal riffs slowly collapse and shift into ritualistic dirges that invoke endless rain falling upon the ancient cedars of the Pacific Northwest.
File Under: Black Metal
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Wolves in the Throne Room: Two Hunters (Southern Lord) LP
Coinciding with Southern Lord’s 20th anniversary in 2018, the label announces the reissues of all three of their acclaimed albums from Wolves In The Throne Room; Two Hunters, Black Cascade, and Celestial Lineage. About the reissues the band remarks, “We are thrilled that Two Hunters, Black Cascade, and Celestial Lineage are back in print. These records document a fertile and magical time in our lives and we are so pleased that a new generation of fans will be able to enjoy these records on vinyl.” Since 2006, over the course of six studio albums and hundreds of live performances Wolves in the Throne Room have refracted the transcendent and mythic aspects of Black Metal through their own idiosyncratic Cascadian prism. The resulting essence is music that is intimately linked to the wild lands of the Pacific Northwest. Their songs explore the hidden world of magic that one accesses through dreams, visions and music. As the mind altering pulse of the drums merges with seemingly infinite layers of guitar, an ocean-deep psychedelic soundscape coalesces. Time slows down, a portal opens and the blazing metal riffs collapse and shift into a dirge that invokes a misty other-world. In their songs, rain-drenched specters loom at the edge of the wood. Ancient cedar beings stir beneath their wet moss robes. One glimpses a bronze-domed temple rising among the firs. Their landmark 2007 full-length Two Hunters, likely considered the “fan favorite” from the band’s catalog, undeniably helped elevate Wolves In The Throne Room into the upper echelon of contemporary extreme metal as well as having a substantial impact on USBM in general. Recorded in engineering wizard Randall Dunn’s infamous Aleph Studio, although the forms are more orthodox than future releases the tones and energy are immense.
File Under: Black Metal
Wolves in the Throne Room: Celestial Lineage (Southern Lord) LP
Coinciding with Southern Lord’s 20th anniversary in 2018, the label announces the reissues of all three of their acclaimed albums from Wolves In The Throne Room; Two Hunters, Black Cascade, and Celestial Lineage. About the reissues the band remarks, “We are thrilled that Two Hunters, Black Cascade, and Celestial Lineage are back in print. These records document a fertile and magical time in our lives and we are so pleased that a new generation of fans will be able to enjoy these records on vinyl.” Since 2006, over the course of six studio albums and hundreds of live performances Wolves in the Throne Room have refracted the transcendent and mythic aspects of Black Metal through their own idiosyncratic Cascadian prism. The resulting essence is music that is intimately linked to the wild lands of the Pacific Northwest. Their songs explore the hidden world of magic that one accesses through dreams, visions and music. As the mind altering pulse of the drums merges with seemingly infinite layers of guitar, an ocean-deep psychedelic soundscape coalesces. Time slows down, a portal opens and the blazing metal riffs collapse and shift into a dirge that invokes a misty other-world. In their songs, rain-drenched specters loom at the edge of the wood. Ancient cedar beings stir beneath their wet moss robes. One glimpses a bronze-domed temple rising among the firs. In contrast to the bleakly hypnotic architecture of Black Cascade, the lifespan of 2011’s Celestial Lineage breathed more expansive and visionary life into the duo’s work. The Wolves In The Throne Room trademark long-form approach to arrangement remains intact, but there is a stronger thread of Popul Vuh-inspired underworld synthscapes and star-lit pulse woven with the intertwining guitar figures. It ended a trilogy of releases which began with Two Hunters (2007), and is segued by Black Cascade (2009). Three songs on the album feature Jessika Kenney’s liturgical choir and solo voice while the album also includes orations from Aaron Turner (Isis). Celestial Lineage served as the final release to ever be recorded in engineering wizard Randall Dunn’s infamous Aleph Studio.
File Under: Black Metal
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…..Restocks…..
Aphex Twin: I Care Because You Do (Warp) LP
Aphex Twin: Richard D. James Album (Warp) LP
David Axelrod: Song of Innocence (Now Again) LP
Breeders: All Nerve (4AD) LP
Can: Ege Bamyasi (Mute) LP
Childish Gambino: Awaken, My Love (Glassnote) LP
Childish Gambino: Camp (Glassnote) LP
Childish Gambino: Because the Internet (Glassnote) LP
Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets (Astralwerks) LP
Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (Astralwerks) LP
Brian Eno/Jon Hassell: Fourth World Music Vol 1: Possible Musics (Glitterbeat) LP
Gary Bartz Ntu Troop: Harlem Bush Music (Milestone) LP
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (Rhino) LP
Kendrick Lamar: Damn (Aftermath) LP
Kendrick Lamar: Good Kid M.A.A.D. City (Aftermath) LP
Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (Aftermath) LP
Hank Mobley: No Room For Squares (Blue Note) LP
National: Sleep Well Beast (4AD) LP
Peaches: Teaches of Peaches (XL) LP
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd) LP
Joe Strummer: 001 (Ignition) Box
System of a Down: Toxicity (Sony) LP
Midori Takada: Through the Looking Glass (WRWTFWW) LP
Various: Tokyo Flashback (Black Editions) LP