Last week the provincial gov’t announced a plan to reopen businesses and a lot of people have been asking if we’ll be reopening next week…
No, we will not be reopening on the 14th.
As much as we’d love to see things go back to the way they were, the risk of Covid-19 is still very real. Many businesses will be reopening, and in many stores safely reopening is possible. Keeping distancing protocols in place and reducing contact and interaction with customers is possible in some stores, we fully support our fellow business owners who can and chose to reopen safely.
Our product is one of those things that you need to touch, you want to touch. Our customers want to come back and flip through the bins, the Alberta gov’t’s guidelines say to ‘minimize patron contact with merchandise’, that basically means no flipping. Our shop is not just crates of records though, it is also a gathering place to talk about music and socialize with other music lovers, this doesn’t really work with the levels of social distancing the gov’t wants businesses to maintain. To keep a level of cleanliness and distancing while being open that keeps our staff, customers, families, and community safe is frankly mind boggling right now.
Our current curbside pick up system is working well. People are finding our site and placing orders. People are calling in and placing orders. We are working together to SAFELY get fresh tunes into your homes while you are stuck there. We want to be able to continue to SAFELY do that. And I assume people also would feel safer knowing that the records we are providing are SAFE. The best way for us to continue to SAFELY keep doing this is to carry on with our current mode of doing business. We will continue to monitor the situation, and listen to AHS and other businesses that do decide to reopen. We will reopen, but not yet. We appreciate that you want to get in here and dig, we miss you too. Thanks for your understanding and continued support.
As always, big thanks to everyone who’s been hitting up our webstore and placing orders! If you haven’t hit up the WEBSTORE, MAYBE YOU SHOULD! If you can’t figure out the site, or don’t like to use computers, you can always call the store and we can do an order over the phone. I’ll be at the shop 11-4 week days. Stay safe!
Oh ya… if you don’t follow us on Instagram, WHY NOT?! And now you know.
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSTORE!!!
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…..pick of the week…..
Shabaka & The Ancestors: We Are Sent Here By History (Impulse) LP
In tomorrow… Spiritual jazz pacesetters Shabaka & the Ancestors, led by Shabaka Hutchings, release We Are Sent Here By History, their sophomore album and first for Impulse! It’s the follow-up to their 2016 breakout Wisdom of Elders, which established them as leading lights in the contemporary jazz scene. Says Hutchings: “We Are Sent Here by History is a meditation on the fact of our coming extinction as a species. It is a reflection from the ruins, from the burning. A questioning of the steps to be taken in preparation for our transition individually and societally if the end is to be seen as anything but a tragic defeat. For those lives lost and cultures dismantled by centuries of western expansionism, capitalist thought and white supremist structural hegemony the end days have long been heralded as present with this world experienced as an embodiment of a living purgatory.”The band was formed when Shabaka was connected in Johannesburg by trumpeter/bandleader Mandla Mlangeni with a group of South African jazz musicians that Hutchings admired. Wisdom Of Elders was the result of their several recording sessions together and the new release reunites the group. They recorded it in 2019, once again working in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The more urgent, unrelenting and darker feel of the album reflects its social commentary set in the context of ancient traditions, with a mixture of African and Afro-Caribbean musical history. It takes the concept of the griot, one of the storytellers who keep alive the tradition of oral history in parts of Africa, and transports it to the present day. South African performance artist Siyabonga Mthembu chants and sings on the album, and composed lyrics for it. Shabaka then selected song titles from the lyrics and composed poems around each of them, based on Siyabonga’s lyrics. Among them, “We Will Work (On Redefining Manhood)” features Siyabonga singing a poem in Zulu that, when translated to English, rejects archaic notions of virility by which young boys are trained to suppress their emotions. “This song sings from the point of the toxic masculine,” says Siyabonga. “It repeats the sentences they tell to their boys – to not cry, to not grieve and to not hurt.”
File Under: Jazz, Spiritual, Comet is Coming
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…..new arrivals…..
African Head Charge: In Pursuit of Shashamane Land (On-U Sound) LP
In Tomorrow… In Pursuit of Shashamane Land was originally issued in 1993 and served as the last African Head Charge album on On-U Sound for 12 years, released at the height of the band’s popularity as a staple of live music festivals. Continuing the skillful fusion of styles they had explored on Songs Of Praise, this album added elements of trance and electronica to their trademark percussion-heavy sound. African Head Charge blend dub, trance, electronica and world music throughout with Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah at the helm and typically skillful production from Adrian Sherwood. This expanded reissue adds eight bonus tracks to the original vinyl tracks listing including two previously unreleased songs. Also includes a double sided poster insert with excerpts of a new interview with band leader Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah.
File Under: Reggae, Electronic
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Chicano Batman: Invisible People (ATO) LP
In tomorrow… Los Angeles psych-soul four-piece Chicano Batman follow-up 2017’s critically-acclaimed Freedom Is Free with the 2020 ATO Records release Invisible People. Their most sonically-varied and cohesive album to date, the record is a statement of hope, a proclamation that we are all Invisible People, and that despite race, class, or gender we can overcome our differences and stand together. For the album, the band worked with Grammy-winning mixing engineer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, War on Drugs, Kacey Musgraves, and Julian Casablancas). With Leon Michels’ (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Lee Fields & The Expressions) producing and Everett’s mixing steering the record’s direction, the band’s lush Tropicalia-tinged sound has transformed into their most polished and densely layered. Invisible People is an illuminating and encapsulating sonic landscape, one that hasn’t lost the essence that put Chicano Batman on the map. Flaunting their “laid back lounge grooves…R&B with flavors from Mexico or Brazil and a funky swagger” (NPR) that they’ve become so known for, single “Color my Life” places the listener in a hazy, California dream. “[It’s a] neck breaker from the future, beckoning a retreat to nature in the apocalyptic dawn,” says lead singer Bardo Martinez. “This is Chicano Batman’s new single for all generations past and for all those yet to be born. Everything is everything, brothers and sisters.”
File Under: Funk, Soul, Latin, Psych
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Duke Ellington: Money Jungle (Blue Note) LP
In Tomorrow… On September 17, 1962, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach gathered at Sound Makers studio in NYC and recorded Money Jungle, one of the most celebrated jazz trio albums of all time. Generational and stylistic differences between the three masters led to fearless music-making of the highest order. The album was originally released on United Artists and featured seven of Ellington’s indelible compositions including “Caravan,” “Solitude,” and a stunning version of “Le Fleurs Africaines (African Flower).” By going back to the original analog stereo master the Tone Poet Edition presents this classic album with superior sound quality. Blue Note Records has announced the continuation of the acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series in 2020. Launched in 2019 in honor of the label’s 80th Anniversary, the Tone Poet series is produced by Joe Harley (from Music Matters) and features all-analog, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues that are mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio. Tone Poet vinyl is manufactured at RTI in Camarillo, CA, and packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing “Old Style” gatefold Tip-On jackets. The titles were once again handpicked by Harley and cover the crème de la crème of the Blue Note catalog along with underrated classics, modern era standouts, and albums from other labels under the Blue Note umbrella including Pacific Jazz and United Artists Records. Every aspect of these Blue Note/Tone Poet releases is done to the highest-possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. “The LPs are mastered directly from the original analog master tapes by Kevin at his incredible facility called Cohearent Mastering. We go about it in the exact same way that we did for so many years for the Music Matters Blue Note reissues. We do not roll off the low end, boost the top or do any limiting of any kind. We allow the full glory of the original Blue Note masters to come though unimpeded! Short of having an actual time machine, this is as close as you can get to going back and being a fly on the wall for an original Blue Note recording session.” – Joe Harley
File Under: Jazz
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EOB: Earth (Capitol) LP
In tomorrow… Earth is an album of rediscovery and adventure by Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, being released under the moniker EOB. Written and recorded over five years during any possible break from the making and touring of Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool, the album deftly veers from moments of delicate folk to euphoric house, its songs seamlessly pinned together by unswerving melodic hooks and candid lyricism. A spirit of collaboration runs through Earth from the production team of Flood, Catherine Marks, Alan Moulder and Adam ‘Cecil’ Bartlett to the extraordinary musicians O’Brien assembled to bring these tracks to life; bassist Nathan East, drummers Omar Hakim and Glenn Kotche, and The Invisible’s multi-instrumentalist leader David Okumu. Portishead’s Adrian Utley appears on two tracks, whilst Laura Marling duets with O’Brien on stirring closer “Cloak of The Night.” But every group of collaborators needs a leader, and Earth is all O’Brien’s vision. “I wanted to make a record from the heart,” he says. “I wanted to make something direct. I wanted to talk about love, your family in the immediate and the wider sense, where we are on the planet, the bigger picture, life and death. I wanted to make a big hearted, warm and colorful album…something hopeful and full of love.” Featuring the singles “Shangri-La,” which sways between syncopated beats and twisted rock, and “Brasil,” a track that morphs from a tender opening into a heightened-state rhythmic banger, Earth marks a new beginning for Ed O’Brien.
File Under: Rock, Radiohead
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Herbie Hancock: The Prisoner (Blue Note) LP
In tomorrow… Throughout his brilliant career, Herbie Hancock has always pushed musical boundaries, exploring a wide variety of jazz idioms while bringing his flair and innovation to every single setting. His Blue Note albums of the 1960’s ranged all the way from post bop to Latin jazz, to straight ahead and free form. 1969’s The Prisoner served as his final recording for the label and one of his first after exiting Miles Davis’ quintet. The ambitious post-bop date finds the music legend in a nonet with the likes of Joe Henderson (tenor sax, alto flute), Johnny Coles (flugelhorn), Garnett Brown (trombone), Buster Williams (bass) and Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums). A tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King and the oppression of his fellow African Americans, Hancock explained that he was, “able to get closer to the real me on this album than on any other previous one.” Blue Note Records has announced the continuation of the acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series in 2020. Launched in 2019 in honor of the label’s 80th Anniversary, the Tone Poet series is produced by Joe Harley (from Music Matters) and features all-analog, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues that are mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio. Tone Poet vinyl is manufactured at RTI in Camarillo, CA, and packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing “Old Style” gatefold Tip-On jackets. The titles were once again handpicked by Harley and cover the crème de la crème of the Blue Note catalog along with underrated classics, modern era standouts, and albums from other labels under the Blue Note umbrella including Pacific Jazz and United Artists Records. Every aspect of these Blue Note/Tone Poet releases is done to the highest-possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. “The LPs are mastered directly from the original analog master tapes by Kevin at his incredible facility called Cohearent Mastering. We go about it in the exact same way that we did for so many years for the Music Matters Blue Note reissues. We do not roll off the low end, boost the top or do any limiting of any kind. We allow the full glory of the original Blue Note masters to come though unimpeded! Short of having an actual time machine, this is as close as you can get to going back and being a fly on the wall for an original Blue Note recording session.” – Joe Harley
File Under: Jazz
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Jackie McLean: A Fickle Sonance (Blue Note) LP
In tomorrow… In honor of Blue Note Records’ 80th Anniversary, the legendary jazz label is launching the Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series. Distinct from the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, this second series curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman features 180g vinyl LP releases in standard packaging with albums spanning the many eras of the label’s history presented by themes: Blue Note Debuts, Blue Grooves, Great Reid Miles Covers, Blue Note Live, and Blue Note Drummer Leaders. The series resumes in April 2020 with Part 3 of the Great Reid Miles Covers theme – Jackie McLean – A Fickle Sonance (1961), Dexter Gordon – A Swingin’ Affair (1962) and Lee Morgan – The Rumproller (1965). Recorded in October 1961, A Fickle Sonance is a quintessential hard bop outing by Jackie McLean that also offered just a hint of the avant-garde explorations the alto saxophonist was about to embark on in the years to come with the dissonances of the title track’s intro. Otherwise the fantastic quintet – with McLean joined by Tommy Turrentine on trumpet, Sonny Clark on piano, Butch Warren on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums – kept it firmly in the pocket on this sterling set that kicks off with the playful “Five Will Get You Ten” (which legend has it Clark found in Thelonious Monk’s apartment). Reid Miles’ dramatic cropping of Francis Wolff’s photo of McLean on the cover makes the album cover utterly unforgettable.
File Under: Jazz
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Lee Morgan: The Cooker (Blue Note) LP
In tomorrow… When listening to Lee Morgan blow his molten solo on “A Night In Tunisia,” the opening track of The Cooker, it’s hard to fathom that he was only 19 years old at the time. Recorded just two weeks after Morgan’s dazzling performance on John Coltrane’s masterpiece Blue Train in September 1957, The Cooker was in fact Morgan’s fifth Blue Note album as a leader. Bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones (both of whom also played on Blue Train) are joined by baritone saxophone master Pepper Adams and the great Bobby Timmons on piano on this superbly swinging session. Blue Note Records has announced the continuation of the acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series in 2020. Launched in 2019 in honor of the label’s 80th Anniversary, the Tone Poet series is produced by Joe Harley (from Music Matters) and features all-analog, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues that are mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio. Tone Poet vinyl is manufactured at RTI in Camarillo, CA, and packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing “Old Style” gatefold Tip-On jackets. The titles were once again handpicked by Harley and cover the crème de la crème of the Blue Note catalog along with underrated classics, modern era standouts, and albums from other labels under the Blue Note umbrella including Pacific Jazz and United Artists Records. Every aspect of these Blue Note/Tone Poet releases is done to the highest-possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. “The LPs are mastered directly from the original analog master tapes by Kevin at his incredible facility called Cohearent Mastering. We go about it in the exact same way that we did for so many years for the Music Matters Blue Note reissues. We do not roll off the low end, boost the top or do any limiting of any kind. We allow the full glory of the original Blue Note masters to come though unimpeded! Short of having an actual time machine, this is as close as you can get to going back and being a fly on the wall for an original Blue Note recording session.” – Joe Harley
File Under: Jazz
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Lorenzo Senni: Scacco Matto (Warp) L
In tomorrow… Scacco Matto is a continuation of Lorenzo Senni’s distinctive “pointillistic” style – where gated, taut sounds are arranged relentlessly as drumless rhythms and melody, which this time come in more song based structures. On this bold sonic ‘Rave-Voyeuristic’ statement, he takes the synthetic synapse manipulation of trance and computer music, but intentionally encourages short circuits, resulting in unexpected signal paths moving in different directions, and making new fascinating shapes.
File Under: Electronic
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Dr. Lonnie Smith: All in My Mind (Blue Note) LP
In tomorrow… After his 2016 return to Blue Note where he first made a name for himself with a run of classic soul jazz albums between 1968-70, Hammond B-3 organ legend Dr. Lonnie Smith recorded All In My Mind during his 75th birthday celebration in July 2017 at the Jazz Standard in New York City with guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and drummer Jonathan Blake. The album gets its first-time vinyl release with this five-song Tone Poet Edition which features spirited interpretations of songs by Wayne Shorter (“Juju”), Freddie Hubbard (“Up Jumped Spring”) Paul Simon (“50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”), and more. Blue Note Records has announced the continuation of the acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series in 2020. Launched in 2019 in honor of the label’s 80th Anniversary, the Tone Poet series is produced by Joe Harley (from Music Matters) and features all-analog, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues that are mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio. Tone Poet vinyl is manufactured at RTI in Camarillo, CA, and packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing “Old Style” gatefold Tip-On jackets. The titles were once again handpicked by Harley and cover the crème de la crème of the Blue Note catalog along with underrated classics, modern era standouts, and albums from other labels under the Blue Note umbrella including Pacific Jazz and United Artists Records. Every aspect of these Blue Note/Tone Poet releases is done to the highest-possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. “The LPs are mastered directly from the original analog master tapes by Kevin at his incredible facility called Cohearent Mastering. We go about it in the exact same way that we did for so many years for the Music Matters Blue Note reissues. We do not roll off the low end, boost the top or do any limiting of any kind. We allow the full glory of the original Blue Note masters to come though unimpeded! Short of having an actual time machine, this is as close as you can get to going back and being a fly on the wall for an original Blue Note recording session.” – Joe Harley
File Under: Jazz
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Kanye West: Jesus is King (Def Jam) LP
In tomorrow… Jesus Is King follows Kanye West’s studio album, ye, which he released in June of 2018 as part of his prolific “Wyoming Sessions” that included a string of albums that he produced for Pusha-T, Nas and Teyana Taylor. Following a Christian theme exhibited on the singles “Follow God” and “Closed On Sunday,” it simultaneously topped five separate US charts including the Billboard 200, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Top Rap Albums, Top Christian Albums and Top Gospel Albums, making West the first artist to do so. “Now that I’m in service to Christ, my job is to spread the gospel, to let people know what Jesus has done for me,” he told Zane Lowe. Kanye’s embrace of faith shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. After all, he did christen himself Yeezus, and there are songs of faith throughout his entire catalog. Jesus Is King includes diverse guest appearances by Ty Dolla $, Ant Clemons, Clipse, Kenny G, Fred Hammond and the Sunday Service Choir.
File Under: Hip Hop
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…..Restocks….
Amyl and the Sniffers: s/t LP
Autechre: Tri Repetae LP
Beastie Boys: Check Your Head LP
Beastie Boys: Hello Nasty (Capitol) LP
Beatles: Abbey Road LP
Black Pumas: s/t LP
Blakey, Art and the Jazz Messengers: Free for All LP
Boards of Canada: Campfire Headphase LP
James Brown: Black Caesar (Polydor) LP
Byrd, Donald: A New Perspective LP
Donald Byrd: Chant (Blue Note) LP
Cherry, Don: Brown Rice LP
Cochema: All My Relations (Daptone) LP
Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda (Impulse) LP
Davis, Miles: Workin’ LP
Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left (Island) LP
Nick Drake: Pink Moon (Island) LP
Nick Drake: Bryter Layter (Island) LP
Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports (Astralwerks) LP
Brian Eno: Another Green World (Astralwerks) LP
Brian Eno: Discreet Music (Astralwerks) LP
Eno, Brian: Before and After Science LP
Eno, Brian: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) LP
Evans, Bill: Interplay LP
Gainsbourg, Serge & Brigette Bardot: Bonnie and Clyde LP
Gainsbourg, Serge: Historie de Melody Nelson LP
Gordon, Dexter: A Swingin Affair LP
Green, Grant: I Want to Hold Your Hand LP
Henderson, Joe: Page One LP
Hubbard, Freddie: Blue Spirits LP
Hubbard, Freddie: Open Sesame LP
Bobby Hutcherson: Components (Blue Note) LP
Bobby Hutcherson: Happenings (Blue Note) LP
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: Infest the Rats’ Nest LP
Kiwanuka, Michael: Kiwanuka LP
Mitchell, Blue: The Thing To Do LP
Mobley, Hank: The Turnaround LP
Monk, Thelonious: Brilliant Corners LP
Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral LP
Nirvana: Nevermind (Geffen) LP
Pearl Jam: Gigaton LP
Orville Peck: Pony (Royal Mountain) LP
Rodriguez: Cold Fact LP
Run the Jewels: s/t LP
Shauf, Andy: The Neon Sky LP
Shorter, Wayne: Juju LP
Smith, Lonnie: Live at Club Mozambique LP
Jim Sullivan: UFO (Light in the Attic) LP
Talk Talk: Laughing Stock LP