…..news letter #978 – one more…..

Well, this is more or less it. Last news letter of the year I’d say. There will be one next week, but it’s not gonna have new stuff on it. So you’ll have to just keep an eye on the site if you’re looking for anything. If you haven’t noticed, new stuff goes up there daily and often now sells out before the news letter even goes out (talking about you Sturgill!). There’s a late shipment coming… stuff is in here and up on the site for pre-purchase for when it shows up.

Anyway, it’s been a really fucked up year and we took a different approach to keep our customers, staff, and friends safe… and pretty much everyone has been really supportive, accepting, and appreciative of the way we chose to operate through these uncharted waters. I really want to thank everyone for their continued support, allowing us to keep slinging wax while keeping the doors closed. It’s been a stressful year despite being closed, but your support has made things a lot less stressful. 

As always, big thanks to everyone who’s been hitting up our webstore and placing orders! It’s getting competitive around 5pm when we post up fresh used stock. 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. We’ll be at the shop 11-5 Tuesday – Friday & Saturday 11-4. Stay safe!

Oh ya… if you don’t follow us on Instagram, WHY NOT?! And now you know.

CHECK OUT OUR WEBSTORE!!! 
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWS LETTER!!!!

…..pick of the week…..

Endless Boogie: Gathered & Scattered (No Quarter) BOX
Since the pandemic has made it impossible for the Endless Boogie gentlemen to gather in order to finally finish their new studio album they thought this an appropriate time to dig through the basement for some ancient fierce jams for you to relish and devour. These recordings were made mostly during the first decade of this century and it’s mostly entirely improvised rehearsal recordings, a couple of 3am jams after falling out of the bar, and hints of aborted and despairing recording sessions. The great sage Ben Ratliff, when reviewing the band for the New York Times one dry news day in 2013, perfectly captured the band’s spirit on these recordings: “a dank, cramped, low-expectations idea of eternity”. Besides the core line-up of Gray/Druzd, Eklow, Major and Mark O during this era we get glimmers of double Sweeneys (both Matt and Spencer), as well as Tim Evans, and, whoop dee, Andrew WK?! This collection of unrelenting Pre-Music comprise some selections previously only available on limited edition CDRs, almost half is entirely previously unreleased and NONE of the tracks in this box have ever appeared on vinyl before. 4 LPs, 3 hours of CRUDE TRUTH. It’s a one-time vinyl-only edition of 1,000 copies.

File Under: Psych
Buy Here

…..new arrivals…..

Across the Water: s/t (Seelie Court) LP
An unknown and precious album recorded in 1975 by two friends who recorded one side each, they made just two acetates and then handmade beautiful covers from two enlargements of a photograph of the Isles of St Kilda. Side one is a neo-classical prog rock epic in the style of Renaissance and Continuum, inspired by the wild and pagan isles of St Kilda where, as a 16 yr old, the composer Peter Mc Kerrow was taken by military launch to conduct a census on the rare Soay Sheep that live there. A storm blew away his tent on the first night. The other side is by his Canadian pal who attended the same Uni in England, deeply homesick for Canada and surviving a broken relationship these songs are melancholic and Cohen-esque. The original LP is astonishingly gorgeous and one of the most desirable looking artifacts of the prog era.

File Under: Psych
Buy Here

Arica: Heaven (Tidal Waves) LP
Nowadays Arica exists only as the ‘Arica Institute’, a school of spiritual development formed and led by Chilean mystic Oscar Ichazo…however, the collective also produced several musical albums in the US (presumably to increase awareness of the school), this resulted in the release of four totally eclectic masterpieces: Arica & Audition (1972), Heaven (1973) and Music In The Nine Rings (2002). Both the Arica school and its musical output had a big influence on some of the most creative minds amongst us, for example: prior to making his film The Holy Mountain, Alejandro Jodorowsky met Ichazo and became intrigued enough by his techniques – essentially a potent blending of esoteric knowledge and methods from around the world – to not only go through the initial intensive course of Arica mind expansion and training but to require the same of the entire cast and crew for the film. This undoubtedly affected the whole movie, and it seems strange that Arica’s music was not used for the soundtrack, an Arica soundtrack could have been pure magic all the way through. The Arica album we are proudly presenting you today (Heaven from 1973) is a total must-have in any collection (originally released on the Just Sunshine Records label in 1973 that was responsible for putting out milestone albums from the likes of Betty Davis, Karen Dalton and Norman Feels). Here on these recordings, you’ll find ten tracks that will blow your mind and open your spiritual doors! Heaven has it all…omming drones interchanged with upbeat percussion, acoustic and funky basslines intertwining the melodious threads. The album is full of deep meditational grooves meeting all kinds of polyrhythmic free jazz vibes, atonal keyboards and avant-garde soul-jazz sounds. The unhurried improvisations and subtle manipulation of musical tension make Heaven an immersive, psychedelic and spiritual masterpiece with a jazz sensibility in its overall structure. The superb use of the sitar and the hypnotic percussion gives it that great cosmic touch that reminds of Alice Coltrane’s work. The whole album was recorded on a midsummer night in NYC…one hundred Arica members, musicians and dancers all gathered at the legendary Electric Lady Studio (home to Jimy Hendrix) and played until dawn. The names of the musicians involved were not given on the record sleeves, credited simply to ‘The Arica Musicians’. In a way, though, this mystery suits the remarkable music contained within these resultant grooves – timeless sounds that could have been conjured from and played by the very spirits of the Earth…all this accompanied by notes in the gatefold jacket to guide the listener through his sonic voyage. Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first ever vinyl reissue of this fantastic album (originally released in 1973 on Just Sunshine Records). This rare record (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited 180g vinyl edition (500 copies) and comes packaged in a gatefold jacket complete with the original 1973 artwork, photographs and liner notes.

File Under: Jazz, Ambient
Buy Here

Beyonce: Homecoming (Columbia) LP
A four-disc vinyl set of Beyoncé’s historic headlining Coachella performance on two weekends in April 2018. Beyoncé was the first African American woman to headline the festival and her performances received immediate widespread acclaim from fans and critics alike for the staging and celebration of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The set includes over two dozen songs that moved over 125,000 concert goers in the Valley. The epic pyramid-shaped bleachers held some 100 dancers and band, with special guest performers including Solange, Jay-Z, and Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, who brought Destiny’s Child magic, harmony and nostalgia. Slipcase jacket packaging with a 52 page insert booklet.

File Under: Pop, Hip Hop, RnB
Buy Here

Black Keys: Brothers – 10th Anniversary Edition (Nonesuch) LP
The maturation of the Black Keys as record makers and performers has been both subtle and startling. With their 2008 Nonesuch release Attack & Release, the fifth album of their then eight-year career which doubled the sales of their previous album and Nonesuch debut Magic Potion, guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney illustrated the durability of their few-frills sound, a mysterious and heavy brew of 70s vintage rock, classic R&B and timeless, downhearted blues. Producer and pal Danger Mouse, their first outside collaborator, didn’t try to reinvent their sound but further isolated its essence with the help of a few carefully chosen guest players and some retro-modern electronic gear. Danger Mouse returned to co-produce lead single “Tighten Up” on 2010’s 2x Platinum, multi-Grammy winning Brothers, but for the most part, the duo was on its own, spending ten days at the legendary Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama and coming up with the an even more intensely focused, deeply soulful set that includes a cover of Jerry Butler’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The performances are inventive and impassioned: Auerbach extends his vocal range to falsetto on lead-off track “Everlasting Light” and “The Only One”; “Howlin’ For You” opens with a Gary Glitter-style drum riff and the chorus practically invites singing along. The tunes offer a surprising amount of lyrical candor and more than a little dark humor; the grooves alternate between ballsy swagger and bluesy rumination. The album reflects where Auerbach and Carney had been lately, most recently collaborating with a who’s who of New York City MCs, including RZA, Q Tip, Mos Def, and Raekwon on the 2009 BlakRoc album. They also pursued projects on their own, Auerbach with his solo Keep It Hid album and tour, Carney with his band Drummer and its debut disc, Feels Good Together.  Brothers was primarily cut in Muscle Shoals, a setting that turned out to have more in common with the Akron, Ohio factories where the Black Keys used to record. The place was desolate, the town depressed, so once again the duo slipped into a world all its own. They did additional recording at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound System in Akron and The Bunker in Brooklyn. The album was mixed by engineer Tchad Blake, a veteran of sessions with Los Lobos, Pearl Jam, and Peter Gabriel. Said Carney, “The way he approaches mixing is the same way we approach making music. Respecting the past while being in the present.” This Deluxe 10th Anniversary vinyl 2LP reissue features fully remastered audio and contains three previously unavailable tracks. Additionally the gatefold packaging includes new liner notes written by David Fricke as well as previously unseen photos.

File Under: Rock
Buy Here

Blackfoot: The Foot Steps (Strawberry Rain) LP
The Foot Steps was the brainchild of legendary producer Billie Nyati, and the second and final album from Blackfoot. An essential Zamrock document and among the genre’s finest achievements. Plenty of incredible songs on here, including ‘Lonely Highway”, “Send Me The Flowers”, “Mwe Bafyahi”, “When I Needed You” and many more. Taken from the original master reels, this is from our ZMPL LEGACY SERIES, a partnership with Zambia Music Parlour that will celebrate the most prolific label in Zambia. Limited to 500 copies and housed in tip on covers. Be sure to check out the free, downloadable 30 page PDF booklet on our website, along with the short documentary on Youtube and our site about Blackfoot including interviews with Zambia Music Parlour’s Billie Nyati, and Blackfoot’s Alfred Yabe.

File Under: Africa, Psych
Buy Here

Boris w/ Merzbow: 2ROI2PO (Relapse) LP
Relapse Records presents 2R0I2P0, the brand new collaborative album from Boris and Merzbow. The 10 track album showcases every bit of the excitement and pulse-pounding rock and metal heard throughout the inimitable, expansive Boris catalog, as it meets the signature harsh noise and soundscapes of the equally prolific Merzbow. An album that is at once familiar and unique for its time, melodic and harsh in equal parts, 2R0I2P0 aims to find sonic harmony. After all, 2R0I2P0 translates to “Twenty Twenty R.I.P.” “This year was a period of trial for everyone in the world,” Boris comments. “This work becomes a monument to the requiem of the previous era. From here, a new world begins again.”

File Under: Metal
Buy Here

Isobel Campbell: Amorino (Cooking Vinyl) LP
After vaulting to fame as a founding member of the beloved indie pop collective Belle & Sebastian, Isobel Campbell enjoyed success as a solo artist, recording lush and elegiac chamber pop under her given name, under the moniker the Gentle Waves, and with longstanding duet partner Mark Lanegan. Following excellent reviews for her recent solo album, There Is No Other…, released early in 2020, Campbell reissues her third and fourth solo albums, Amorino and Milkwhite Sheets, on gatefold vinyl LP in November via Cooking Vinyl. Self-produced and funded by Campbell, Amorino was originally released in October 2003. Obsessed with French New Wave, chanson, vintage European cinema, the beat girls and boys of the 1960’s, White Horses by Jacky, Peter Sellers and the bossa nova of Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, Campbell, alongside fellow maverick composer and Scottish national treasure Bill Wells set about making their homage to such things. They had a lot of fun, hired a lot of jazzers and still remain the closest of friends to this day.

File Under: Indie Rock
Buy Here

Isobel Campell: Milkwhite Sheets (Cooking Vinyl) LP
After vaulting to fame as a founding member of the beloved indie pop collective Belle & Sebastian, Isobel Campbell enjoyed success as a solo artist, recording lush and elegiac chamber pop under her given name, under the moniker the Gentle Waves, and with longstanding duet partner Mark Lanegan. Following excellent reviews for her recent solo album, There Is No Other…, released early in 2020, Campbell reissues her third and fourth solo albums, Amorino and Milkwhite Sheets, on gatefold vinyl LP in November via Cooking Vinyl. Produced by Campbell, Milkwhite Sheets was released in October 2006 following her Mercury nomination for Ballad Of The Broken Seas, her first collaboration with Lanegan. Milkwhite Sheets interweaves traditional songs from Appalachia and The British Isles alongside songs written by Campbell. Of the album Campbell says: “When David Tibet introduced me to the recordings of Shirley and Dolly Collins I was instantly transfixed. I’d never heard anything so beautiful in my life, so raw and honest, it led me onwards to discover Davey Graham and Anne Briggs and the recordings of Jean Ritchie and more. I couldn’t hear enough. I feel them so deeply and the humanity and breadth of experience they encompass. My whole life everything has always been about the songs. And as a writer listening, absorbing and learning about these magical, mysterious treasures taught and inspired so much, I honestly think some of these ancient folk songs are some of the most beautiful to ever grace the earth. They spoke to me in a way I’d never experienced prior and never will again. I was grateful David Tibet assisted me in deciding the album title over dinner in Glasgow one night. And stoked to have Alex Neilson drumming.”

File Under: Indie Rock
Buy Here

Isobel Campbell: There is No Other.. (Cooking Vinyl) LP
Isobel Campbell started out in Belle & Sebastian before recording under the name The Gentle Waves. She has also released three critically acclaimed albums with Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees. Her new solo album, There Is No Other… has been a while in coming, but Campbell says she likes to take her time and do things properly. The speed that the world is moving makes her want to take more time over the things she loves.

File Under: Indie Rock
Buy Here 

Carlton Melton: Where This Leads (Agitated) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. “Nestled deep in the forests of Mendocino County in Northern California, huddled under the protective shade of towering redwoods and within earshot of frothy waves crashing against the Pacific coastline, squats a geodesic dome that has served as crucible for the experimental genius of Carlton Melton. Nature and Man operate under different logics. But here, Carlton Melton wholly entrusts this idyllic environment with the task of inspiring and guiding their musical improvisations. The Dome has been the ideal setting to facilitate their creativity. Without forcing a specific dynamic or theme, the band inhabits its womb-like confines to improvise, explore, dream. Their music draws on psychedelia, stoner metal, krautrock, and ambient atmospherics to convey, above all else, a mood. A prickly guitar melody will float lazily, a wall of dissonant feedback will resolve into a hypnotic drone, or a colossal riff will exhume the soul of Jimi Hendrix. One hears Hawkwind or Spacemen 3 jamming with Pink Floyd at Pompeii. Indeed, Carlton Melton have one foot in the ancient world and one tentacle in deep space. They are both the pack of proto-humans drumming with femurs in Kubrick’s 2001 and the film’s inscrutable monolith hinting at the universe’s mysteries. The “Stoned Ape” theory holds that early hominids ingested psychedelic mushrooms that provided an evolutionary boost to their brains, helping them blossom into Homo Sapiens. Imagine such cavemen trippin’ balls, their nightmarish visions sending them into feverish bouts of rage and then gentle moments of introspection. They very well could have heard the music of Carlton Melton rattling inside their skulls, first driving our ancestors mad then upward into a higher realm. Andy Duvall (drums, guitar), Clint Golden (bass), and Rich Millman (guitar, synths) have yet to play Pompeii, but they have already wowed crowds at European festivals such as the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, Roadburn, and Desertfest Antwerp. Live, they are jaw-dropping. On record, mind-altering. In fact, with each album, Carlton Melton adds a subtle new element, synapses firing new neural connections. In 2020, they release new full-length Where This Leads, marking ten years of the band’s working relationship with their UK label Agitated Records and five years of recording with Phil Manley in his El Studio in San Francisco. With Where This Leads, the band rewires the listener’s mind. “Smoke Drip Revisited” is a ticklish acid flashback, “Porch Dreams” a dabbling in country psych, and “Closer” a driving, freak-out of guitar heroics. One senses that the group is conveying a message that cannot be expressed verbally but only suggested through synth sighs, walloping rhythms, and soaring solos. Would Carlton Melton therefore be a group of stoned apes dizzily grasping for meaning or telepathic futurists communicating to us through crude man-made instrumentation? Well, lower the stylus to find out.”—Eric Bensel, Paris July 2020

File Under: Psych
Buy Here

Causa Sui: Szabodelico (El Paraiso) LP
Something different from Causa Sui. While Causa Sui have always had one foot in heavy psychedelic rock, they’ve had the other one deep in a wide variety of esoteric styles. On this new double LP set, that other dimension of the band is being explored full-scale. ”Szabodelico” paints with a colourful palette, both compositionally and sonically – digging deep into an assortment of cultures, eras and sounds with a true crate-digger mindset. Throughout their 15 year life-span Causa Sui has always been about seeking out new directions, exploring the past and the present in a way that’s unique at each step of their subtle progression – forging new paths into an existing map. ”Szabodelico” feels like discovering a small room under the stairs of your own house: familiar, yet new and exciting. Their latest vision is an elegantly zoned-out version of itself: a turn inward. Anti-bombastic, yet rich with ecstatic harmonics and dynamics. The band stringed together a long series of sessions in 2019 and early 2020 in their studio in Odense, often prioritizing playful first takes and good vibes rather than clinical perfection. Sparsely dubbed and mixed with a natural, full bodied flavour by Jonas Munk during the summer of 2020, each track has its own aesthetic. There’s no simple equation to sum up the 13 individual parts of the album, but as a whole it creates an entity that’s as complete as each of its parts. From the windblown opener ”Echoes of Light”, to the closing slow-motion epic ”Merging Waters” you’ll find yourself asking where did the time go? The answer of course is: Szabodelico.

File Under: Psych
Buy Here

Nick Cave & Nicholas Lens: Litanies (Deutsche Grammophon) LP
Renowned Bad Seeds frontman Nick Cave and Belgian composer Nicholas Lens collaborate on the “chamber opera” L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S. There are several things that Belgian composer and the Australian singer/songwriter have in common, but chief among them is that neither likes to waste time. Very early into the COVID-19 pandemic, both realized that their respective schedules for 2020 were likely to be heavily disrupted. Lens was dismayed to see performances of his operas cancelled right through to the following year, likewise Cave saw an extensive tour of North America and Europe for his band The Bad Seeds put on ice until 2021. Lens says: “The initial idea for L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S was born in the natural silence that rises from the rainy and vivid green forest that surrounds these 13th-century temples. And because my memory works in musical phrases, writing L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S has become my method of remembering the peace I found while visiting Japan as well.” Needing a librettist to author words for his music, he contacted Cave. The pair had already worked together on the 2014 opera Shell Shock, about the horrors of war. Lens recalls: “I wanted to work with someone who was fresh to the field of opera; someone who was most believable and authentic in the way they would use words. Nick was obviously that person.” Cave takes up the story: “Nicholas called me during lockdown and asked if I would write ‘12 litanies’. I happily agreed. The first thing I did after I put down the phone was search ‘What is a litany?’ I learned that a litany was ‘a series of religious petitions’, and realised I had been writing litanies all my life.” He wrote 12 lyrical pieces that tracked the birth, blooming, fracturing and eventual rebirth of a human being and which were “petitions to a divine maker demanding some sort of cosmic acknowledgement”. To Lens, the term suggests “a pure form of poetry… a lyrical form of minimalism which might lead to a trance-like state”, and he acknowledges that both men have entirely different ideas about what L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S means. The recording was very much a DIY affair and the “modest” chamber ensemble involved was mainly composed of people who simply happened to be around Lens during lockdown. Among the 11 piece instrumental group who recorded L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S was his artist daughter Clara-Lane, who had found herself trapped in Brussels due to the travel ban. Under normal circumstances she has no interest in recording music, but here she found herself playing keyboards, helping out with production and even singing on some of the tracks. Because of the social distancing rules, each of the musicians had to come in and record his or her part separately, but the beautiful and moving finished work reveals a unified group working with a singular purpose. Studios were completely closed down so Lens arranged the sessions in his own home, and he feels that some of the atmosphere of the “dead and spooky city with its weird ambience” has permeated this special recording. Lens closes, “In the end, all of this was recorded in one room, so it literally is chamber music!”

File Under: Classical
Buy Here

Coil: Sara Dale’s Sensual Massage (Infinite Fog) LP
IFP presents a long-awaited complete version of “Sara Dale’s Sensual Massage” OST with 8 exclusive and unheard tracks. Sara Dale’s Sensual Massage was a delightful erotic video with a mystic soundtrack by Coil. Quite unusual for the band dreamy ambient, almost spa-relaxed soft harmonies, bland tribal rhythms, chimes, and birdsong but still with dark mysterious and inimitable Coil musick’s charm. However, the second part of the album explores more rhythmic structures that remind ‘Gay Man’s Guide…’ soundtrack.

File Under: Electronic, Industrial
Buy Here

Gal Costa: s/t (Polysom) LP
Gal Costa is the first solo album by the Brazilian singer Gal Costa, released in 1969. It was ranked the 80th best Brazilian album of all time by the Brazilian Rolling Stone magazine. A mix between tropicália and Brazilian pop, while still showing bossa nova influence.

File Under: Brazil, Psych, Tropicalia
Buy Here

Brian Eno: Small Craft on a Milk Sea (Warp) LP
“The work in this [2010] collection is a result of an occasional collaboration between myself, Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins. The two of them are gifted young player/composers whose work, like mine, is intimately connected to the possibilities and freedoms of electronic music. Over the last few years we’ve worked together several times, enjoying exploring the huge new sonic territories now available to musicians. Mostly the pieces on this album resulted not from ‘composition’ in the classical sense, but from improvisation. The improvisations are not attempts to end up with a song, but rather with a landscape, a feeling of a place and perhaps the suggestion of an event. In a sense they deliberately lack ‘personality’: there is no singer, no narrator, no guide as to what you ought to be feeling. If these pieces had been used in films, the film would complete the picture. As they stand, they are the mirror-image of silent movies – sound-only movies.” – Brian Eno

File Under: Electronic, Ambient
Buy Here

The Ex: Disturbing Domestic Peace (Superior Viaduct) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. Emerging out of Amsterdam’s vibrant squat scene in 1979, The Ex —a name chosen for the ease and speed with which it could be spray-painted onto a wall – have for four decades been an entirely self-sustaining musical entity, charting a course through the global underground with a spirit of freedom and radical exploration. Disturbing Domestic Peace, The Ex’s debut album, appeared mere months after their first single, 1980’s All Corpses Smell The Same. Originally released on the band’s own Verrecords (they made up different label names with each record), the LP falls squarely within a punk idiom and, at the same time, shows this influential Dutch group’s restless energy. Terrie Ex’s guitar serves up vectors of percussive pulse, fraying the edges of the music’s squared-off rhythms. Vocalist G.W. Sok—an anarchist Dziga Vertov with a mic—observes, declaims and condemns across a set of interrelated political concerns that would return in Ex-music for years to come. While The Ex channel the poise and principled attack of Crass or Flux Of Pink Indians, they create a unique declamatory sound all their own—trailing brilliant flashes of color in the wake of punk’s monochrome palette. Offering ten songs in only twenty-two minutes, Disturbing Domestic Peace lays bare a vivid snapshot of a truly singular band who (at the time) were just finding their feet. This first-time vinyl reissue comes with bonus 7-inch, insert and 20-page booklet.

File Under: Punk
Buy Here

The Ex: History is What’s Happening (Superior Viaduct) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. Emerging out of Amsterdam’s vibrant squat scene in 1979, The Ex —a name chosen for the ease and speed with which it could be spray-painted onto a wall—have for four decades been an entirely self-sustaining musical entity, charting a course through the global underground with a spirit of freedom and radical exploration. Originally released in 1982, History Is What’s Happening features one of the most harrowing title/cover art combinations in recent memory. What at first glance looks like a firing squad is, upon closer inspection, a concentration camp orchestra. On their second album, The Ex advance into a distinctly more post-punk style: textural guitar shards and tumbling motorik drumming with Bas Masbeck’s thunderous bass shouldering much of the melodic load. Railing against political duplicity and the illusory nature of “freedom” in an age of manufactured consent, G.W. Sok offers some of punk’s most bracing and memorable agit-prop lyrics. These twenty songs are a quick-moving and caustic trip, a DIY studio rendition of the band’s explosive live set from this era. History Is What’s Happening remains an important signpost in the history of both Ex-evolution and the cataclysmic ’80s. With their sophomore LP, the group would put Holland on the underground music map. Indeed, many now-lifelong fans around the world were just beginning to take notice and get down with the mighty Ex. This first-time vinyl reissue comes with 23” x 16” poster and 24-page booklet.

File Under: Punk
Buy Here

Norman Feels: Where or When (Tidal Waves) LP
Little is known about Norman Feels…but we do know that he was an underground soul sensation in the 1970s. He released two classic albums on Just Sunshine Records (the label that was also responsible for putting out milestone recordings by artists like Betty Davis, Karen Dalton and Arica). Over the years, Norman’s songs have been sampled by renowned acts from the likes of Ghostface Killah, Nas and Kanye West. The sound his songs emit reminds of the classic soul coming out of New Jersey at the time, but it just has that extra thing going for it…something alternative and exceptional. This made for an excellent match with the ‘Just Sunshine’ label that released both of his albums. Just like his labelmate Betty Davis, Norman Feels was an artist that was hard to typecast and compare with his contemporaries/peers…this makes Norman’s work very interesting and worth every soul/funk connoisseur’s time. Following up on his classic 1973 self-titled debut, Norman Feels treated his fans with another exceptional album (Where Or When from 1974). The songs on this one are a tad less dark & heavy, which makes it a bit more accessible to the listener…but certainly not less worthy! Norman’s sophomore album also features two carefully selected cover songs: Where or When written by Rodgers and Hart and the magnificent Till You Come Back to Me which was written by Stevie Wonder and made famous by Aretha Franklin. Just like on his debut album all the compositions have been beautifully arranged by David Van De Pitte (who is world-famous for the arrangements heard on Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’) and topped off by Sal Scaltro’s slick production work. Next to Norman Feels’ fascinating writing skills and trademark voice you’ll find intriguing (and at times scary) themes about love, obsession, sadness…all wrapped in a looming, jazzy atmosphere complete with sharp lyrics (touching on subjects that were pretty controversial at the time). Fans of Norman’s debut will also hear the rich instrumentation and that dark psychedelic feeling they came to love…all of this makes Where Or When a total ‘must-have’ album that begs for a special place in your record collection! Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the FIRST ever vinyl reissue of this fantastic album (originally released in 1974 on Just Sunshine Records). This rare record (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited 180g vinyl edition (500 copies).

File Under: Funk
Buy Here

Ben Frost: Dark – Cycle 3 (Lakeshore) LP
Ben Frost’s menacing soundscapes have provided a foreboding backdrop to the surreal German thriller for three seasons. In this third and final cycle, Frost’s score evolves beyond the sharp string orchestrations of the first and the percussive distortion of the second, towards a sea of disintegrated brass and woodwind arrangements and Eno-inspired ambience. “In the third and final season, DARK reaches its mind-bending conclusion, moving beyond the concept of space and time. Upon arrival in a new world, Jonas tries to make sense of what this rendition of Winden means for his own fate, while the ones left behind in the other world are left on a quest to break the loop that now not only bends time but also space. Two worlds. Light and dark. And in the center a tragic love story of epic proportions. Ben Frost is a Composer, Producer, Sound Artist and Director. Born in Melbourne Australia in 1980 and based since the early 2000’s in Reykjavík Iceland, Frost was mentored by Brian Eno in the Rolex Arts Initiative. His work includes the studio albums Theory of Machines (2007), By The Throat (2009), A U R O R A (2014) and The Centre Cannot Hold (2017) and spans an array of other forms including installations, live performance, scores for dance, theatre, and various studio collaborations. He has composed several scores for film including the Palme d’Or nominated Sleeping Beauty, the TV series Fortitude and Dark. Most recently he composed the score for Raised By Wolves with director Ridley Scott.”
 
File Under: Electronic, OST
Buy Here

Jasmine Infiniti: Bxtch Slap (Dark Entries) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. Brooklyn-based queer nightlife luminary Jasmine Infiniti self-released her debut album, BXTCH SLÄP, in March 2020. Dark Entries steps forward to present the album remastered and on double vinyl. Over the thirteen disruptive club cuts of BXTCH SLÄP, Jasmine conjures occult rave incantations with sub-tectonic bass and seductive harmonies. Audaciously championing R&B, vogue, and hip-hop sounds, Jasmine Infiniti’s latest collection of techno-hybrid dance tunes is built for the dancefloors of underground nightlife. While SiS, her debut EP, was an ode to queer solidarity, community, and sisterhood, BXTCH SLÄP refines the art of personal myth-building. It is an unflinching and uncompromising album, but it also boasts surprising range, moving briskly between ethereal hardcore house (“HOTT”), anxious dark electro (“SPOOKED”), and certifiable techno bangers (“YES, SIR,” “WELLFAIR”). Meanwhile album standout “
 
File Under: Electronic
Buy Here

Michael Giacchino: Travelogue Vol 1 (Death Waltz) LP
Death Waltz Originals is proud to be the home for Academy Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino’s debut non-soundtrack album. A masterfully constructed concept album titled Travelogue Volume 1. TRAVELOGUE VOL 1 by Michael Giacchino and his Nouvelle Modernica Orchestra takes the listener into a journey of both space and time, unlike anything they have heard before. The record follows a space traveler seeking solace on a planet that isn’t as broken and lost as her own distant world, upon discovering earth the story unfolds throughout its 11 captivating tracks. To say more would be to spoil the journey and interpretation of the listener as the story is told. The songs have a beautiful, timeless, hazy feeling that transports the listener to their own imagination. Musically, it’s indebted to the easy listening wonders of such legendary musicians as Martin Denny and Lex Baxter (both of whom pioneered the lounge music of the ’50s & ’60s). While Michael continues the tradition of using driving jazz-infused rhythms, he updates this timeless sound with synths, samples & a full string orchestra bringing it into 2020 and making it his own. His melodies (as always) are incredible, weaving in and out of tracks with a boundless fluidity, and the record is so much fun you’ll find yourself listening to it again the minute the needle hits the run-out groove of side 4. The cover artwork by Henry Abrams compliments the music perfectly, its effortless beauty is something to get lost in as you listen, truly wondrous. Sit back and let Michael Giacchino and his Nouvelle Modernica Orchestra transport you to a place both familiar and strange as you let the sounds of yesteryear take you into the future.

File Under: OST
Buy Here

Kacy & Clayton and Marlon Williams: Plastic Bouquet (New West) LP
Coloured vinyl! Every December, Christchurch, NZ enjoys the start of summer as Saskatoon, SK begins to freeze over. For as far apart as these places may seem, you would never know it from the sound of Plastic Bouquet, the debut collaborative album between Saskatoon duo Kacy & Clayton and Christchurch singer and songwriter Marlon Williams. While on tour across Europe in 2017, Kacy & Clayton quite literally stopped Marlon in his tracks. As if playing by divine design through the radio, the pair’s “Springtime of the Year” immediately enchanted him. Soon thereafter, Marlon hopped a flight to Saskatoon and they wrote and recorded the bulk of what would become Plastic Bouquet. They unlocked undeniable chemistry. With Plastic Bouquet, these three musicians find common ground in dusty country spun through a kaleidoscope of psychedelic soul and dreamy fifties delivery. They created an ethnosphere that is more than the sum of its parts. It’s also the beginning of something very exciting.

File Under: Country, Folk
Buy Here

Anthony ‘Reebop’ Kwaku Bah: s/t (Jet) LP
This is the 1973 solo album by Ghanaian percussionist Anthony Kwaku Bah, who was given the nickname “Reebop” by American jazz legend Dizzie Gillespie. He passed away early at the age of 39 in Stockholm in 1983, but before made himself a name for his works with UK 70s rock heroes Traffic and German Krautrockers Can, amongst others. If you might expect here the prototypical Afro Beat and Afro Rock you mostly know from British bands, you will be surprised that this is only one part of the deal. Yes, there are African elements to be found, buried somewhere in this boiling cauldron where polyrhythmic grooves are the base for jazz improvisations by the brass section, that range from naughty swing and bebop, to freaked out free jazz and enchanting soul jazz the way it was popular in the late 60s. The arrangements are utterly lush with so much going on here in every aspect that you would get lost if there was no trace of melody to be discovered, but there they are and they tell you fantastic stories of exotic places that only exist in your wildest dreams. Kwaku Bah’s rhythm patterns grab you by the horns and pull you into a world of their own. Hypnotic, irresistible, hot, and vivid. The tunes combine jazz, soul, funk and each one is constructed like a self–contained story. One could imagine these tunes being used as library music for the 70s movies from action to romance. All pieces, though, are characterized by the constantly pulsating rhythm. To avoid drifting into the field of insubstantial disco dance music, the performances witnessed here were executed with the highest possible emotional intensity and dedication. Lay back, close your eyes and float away on a raft of sound upon the wild river of grooves and melodies. Some haunting Exotica jazz passages with a typical “jungle” feel get thrown in for the good measure. There are even vocals in an African language hard to identify, which creates an even more mysterious atmosphere. This is just an introduction part of another powerful speed funk groover but the vocals stay and make this a clear standout track. Saxophone and guitars seem to have a duel here. You will not sit still while having this tune “Iphonohimine” coming down on you like a thunderstorm. Blues, Afro Beat, Psychedelic Rock, Funk, it can all be found in here and the band goes wild into an everlasting improvisation that deprives you of your breath. Can this record get even better? Do not ask, just enjoy what comes next. If you think that some melodies by the giant brass section sound a bit too catchy just reach out beyond these harmony lines and find yourself in a thicket of grooves, pulsations, bits and pieces of melody with a dense, sultry atmosphere. Some smaller parts might make you think of cruise ship big bands and white suits, but everybody will soon drop these and dance in their underwear for the hot-blooded power funk base of the tune called “Africa”, which will take over one’s soul and set it on fire. So clean, so nice and so filthy and dangerous at the same time, this album is a masterpiece of its style. The exciting and very sensual funk-rock of “Lovin’ You Baby” with crazy fuzz guitars and a dark and haunting approach is another reason to kneel down when you put this record onto your turntable. Great clean lead guitars give it a Latin garage rock edge Carlos Santana would commit serious crimes for. If you love bands like Osibisa, Eric Burden & War, Ginger Baker Airforce, Santana, Miles Davis, all-around 1969 to 1973, this is what you’ve always wanted to listen to. Grab your copy now.
 
File Under: Africa, Psych, Funk
Buy Here

The Kills: Little Bastards (Domino) LP
Yellow vinyl! It’s been a long time coming! The Kills compile an extraordinary career-spanning B-sides and rarities album titled Little Bastards. The songs date back from the band’s first 7-inch singles in 2002 through to 2009. All of the material has been newly remastered marking the first ever vinyl pressing for some of these tracks. The compilation includes the unreleased and never-before-heard demo “Raise Me” from the 2008-2009 Midnight Boom era.  Inimitable and unparalleled, Little Bastards is a musical refresher manifest as a shot of pure adrenaline. Often raw, intimate and zero-budget spontaneous, the album’s title is a wry comment on these excellent recordings’ neglectful fate: in many cases birthed on the fly to fill bonus-track space on CD singles, they’d effectively vanished together with the release format that necessitated their creation. Also: Little Bastard was the affectionate nickname that the pair gave to the drum machine which enabled their initial existence as a band of only two members for the first half of their career. “It was a Roland 880,” says Jamie, “which isn’t strictly a drum machine – it’s a sequencer, and an eight-track recorder, with its own drum machine built in, and that’s what we’d record all our beats on.” Other LP highlights include “I Call It Art” from the Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited covers compilation, the brilliant Midnight Boom digital bonus track “Night Train,” a blistering performance of “Love Is A Deserter” from an XFM radio session and a handful of classic American roots songs performed with the kind of bruising delivery they’re famous for: Howlin’ Wolfs’ “Forty Four,” Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell on You” and Dock Boggs’ “Sugar Baby.”

File Under: Indie Rock
Buy Here

Erkin Koray: 2 (Survival Research) LP
Pioneer ErKin Koray may have been the first Turkish rock artist, he and his band reputedly playing Fats Domino and Elvis covers in 1957; by combining rock ‘n’ roll and Turkish traditional music, he spearheaded Anatolian rock and became the leading Turkish psychedelic practitioner. East-west hybrid Elektronik Turkuler was an innovative concept album marrying rock with Turkish trad; in contrast, the 1976 release 2 is thoroughly grounded in Turkish traditional music, the understated delivery holding just a touch of psychedelia and a proto- disco undercurrent in the mix, as heard on tracks like Estarabim, Arap Saçi and Timbilli.

 File Under: Psych, Turkey
Buy Here

Lie in Ruins: Floating in Timeless Streams (Dark Descent) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. Six years since Finland’s Lie In Ruin’s last full-length, 2014’s Towards Divine Death, Floating In Timeless Streams sees a more streamlined approach for the band. While their previous album clocked in at seventy-one minutes of brutality (!), this latest trims some of that excess at just over forty-two minutes—without losing any of the impact. Floating… continues to hone and highlight the band’s tremendous guitar work by Roni Ärling and Tuomas Kulmala, but the band has also added the extremely talented Jussi-Pekka Manner (Corpsessed) on drums. Roni Sahari’s (Desolate Shrine) vocals add the icing on the cake, making this the band’s magnum opus and a top highlight of 2020. Finnish death metal’s finest!

File Under: Metal
Buy Here

Myrkur: Mausoleum (Relapse) LP
On the one year anniversary of her critically-acclaimed, masterful debut full-length, M, Danish black metal artist MYRKUR unveils a captivating live recording from the historic Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo, Norway. Aptly titled Mausoleum, the album features beautifully dramatic & stripped down acoustic reinventions of seven songs from M plus one brand new song and a Bathory cover; all with the accompaniment of the storied Norwegian Girls Choir. Captured in a cold, dimly lit tomb covered in morbid frescos that depict the circle of human life from conception til death, Mausoleum is an incredible showcase of MYRKUR’s sublime yet haunting voice in a truly chilling, unrivaled atmosphere.

 File Under: Metal
Buy Here

Akiko Nakamura: Hit Album (Ship to Shore) LP
Pink or yellow vinyl! Available on vinyl for the first time since 1984, Ship to Shore and Light in the Attic are proud to present Akiko Nakamura’s Hit Album. Born in Chiba, Japan in 1948, Akiko Nakamura gained notoriety as a singer and actress during the 1960s and 1970s. Starting as a beauty pageant contestant, she soon ventured into music, taking inspiration from the garage rock of the late 1960s. Hit Album is an early J Pop rarity that shows the true size, scope and diversity of 60’s pop, containing a mix of covers and original songs (by Hiro Yokoi and Hirooki Ogawa). Collaborating with Japanese band “The Jaguars,” their hit single “Nijiirono Mizuumi” (featured on this release) went to #3 on the Japanese Pop Charts. Another album highlight is her beautiful rendition of the counterculture classic “San Francisco.”

File Under: Japan, Pop
Buy Here

Negativland: The World Will Decide (Seeland) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. Negativland’s mirror image sequel to last year’s True False, The World Will Decide turns the focus away from the very human inability to accurately define reality, and towards the technologies being built to do a better job at it. But if sorting true from false seemed like a full time job back when all one had to keep track of was one’s own mind, life alongside the machines built to connect everyone only seems to multiply the uncertainties. On The World Will Decide, those uncertainties are made almost deliriously danceable: a netweb of densely sampled voices melting speech back down into music and back again, into what everyone can agree are the real questions—did that firefly really land on your finger? Would you like to be arrested? Does this app connect you to people, or replace them? Is this post an example of inauthentic behavior? Do people have to die? Or, as one of the many sampled voices on this work assures the listener: we can really feel like we’re here.

File Under: Experimental
Buy Here

Osees: Panther Rotate (Castle Face) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. “In the swirling and undulant warm mud of jettisoned reels of magnetic tape, blurps up the fog of reinvention. Every night I would parley with my pilots and run and rerun the recordings. Right up until the moment sleep slips its veil over eyes and ears and you drift back without a sound. Protean Threat dream haze becomes Panther Rotate in the other dimension. A companion LP of remixes, field recordings, and sonic experiments using all sounds generated by the him and crackle of the desert farm. “A second version of our Protean Threat if you will, but barely conspicuous in its relation. Forward, never straight! Sunrise, sunset. Two lives connected by a cosmic thread, One for your feet and one for your head. For fans of Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees, OCS, The Oh Sees, Osees…etc etc etcetcetc…be well.”    —John Dwyer

File Under: Psych, Punk
Buy Here

OST: Dune (Jackpot) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. The soundtrack to David Lynch’s 1984 cult film featuring music composed by TOTO and BRAIN ENO. Sixteen tracks sourced from the original master tapes. Audiophile pressing done at RTI.

 File Under: OST

Buy Here

Pink Siifu & Fly Anakin: FlySiifu (Lex) LP
Fly Siifu is a new collaborative project by Pink Siifu & Fly Anakin. Their debut album, FlySiifu’s, unites two prolific rappers with infectious chemistry. The album mirrors their musical community, as they welcome guests into FlySiifu’s record store, with appearances from Liv.e, Fousheé, $ILKMONEY, and producers Madlib, Jay Versace, Ohbliv, Awhlee, Budgie, Playa Haze, Animoss and more. “Fly Siifu has all of our attention. The pair sound as soothing as a day spent sitting on the porch with your grandparents. Fly Siifu have found something special.” PITCHFORK “One of the most intriguing musicians in Black music.” THE FADER on Pink Siifu “Anakin’s detail isn’t a skill that could just be picked up from studying the legends of the genre, it’s a gift.” PITCHFORK “One of the illest MCs.” MADLIB on Fly Anakin

File Under: Hip Hop
Buy Here

Puscifer: Existential Reckoning (BMG) LP
Puscifer, one of the many side-projects led by Tool/Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan, returns with their fourth full-length effort, Existential Reckoning which follows-up 2015’s Money Shot. The experimental rock band’s current lineup is rounded out by singer-keyboardist Carina Round and multi-instrumentalist Mat Mitchell while guest contributions here are also made by Greg Edwards (Failure), and drummers Gunnar Olsen and Sarah Jones. Existential Reckoning was recorded and mixed by Mitchell at Puscifer Studios in North Hollywood, California and is introduced by the singular tracks “Apocalyptical” and “The Underwhelming.”

File Under: Metal, Tool
Buy Here

Ana Roxanne: Because of a Flower (Kranky) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. The sublime so ngs comprising Los Angeles-based musician Ana Roxanne’s second record, Because Of A Flower, germinated gradually across five years, inspired by interwoven notions of gender identity, beauty, and cruelty. She describes her process as beginning with “a drone element and a mood,” then intuiting melody, syllables, and lyrics incrementally, like sacred shapes materializing from mist. The experience of identifying as intersex informs the album on levels both sonic and thematic, from spoken word texts borrowed from tonal harmony textbooks to cinematic dialogue samples and castrati aria allusions. It’s an appropriately interstitial vision of ambient songcraft, a chemistry of wisps and whispers, sanctuary and sorrow, conjured through a fragile balance of voice, bass, space, and texture. Despite a background studying at the prestigious Mills College in Oakland, Roxanne’s music rarely feels conceptual, instead radiating an immediate and emotive aura, rooted in the present tense of her personal journey. She speaks of the flower in the title as a body, singular and sunlit, as many petals as thorns, an enigma beholden only to itself. But whether taken as surface or subtext, Because Of A Flower is a transfixing document of a rare artist in the spring of their ascension.

File Under: Electronic, Ambient
Buy Here

Sandalwood: Changeling (Seelie Court) LP
Utterly beguiling folk rock trio with two beautiful girls at the helm writing and singing mesmerizing faeirie-like folk rock, only Clive the bassist could be found, the two girls vanished in 1971 after making the LP and abandoning music to start families, Clive has not heard from them since the moment they gave him his 3 copies of the 50 copy first pressing in a folk club that night in ‘71. tracks like “sleepy rain” and “changeling” are understated and gorgeous, with insistent and addictive guitar strumming under gentle Sandy Denny-esque vocals. The whereabouts of the girls remains a mystery and the LP is issued with Clive the bassist’s blessing. only 50 were made, not 99, and the LP is extremely rare, every copy was given away to friends, the originals are valued at £2000-4000.

File Under: Psych
Buy Here

Sea Lions: Free the People (Jet) LP
The year is 1978 and one hot thing from the musical underground is Reggae music from Jamaica, the USA or the UK, where most of the acts had musicians of Caribbean descent. Reggae had the groove, the rebel spirit, and the relaxed attitude all in one, to enchant a big part of the world’s inhabitants. And while at least Jamaica as a relatively poor and so-called “Third World“ country proved to spawn Reggae acts of the highest quality, literally nobody dared to look further and dig deeper into the underground except of a few maniacs who were not satisfied with spinning Marley over and over again. And maybe they stumbled over the 1970s Afro Beat sound from countries like Zambia or Nigeria and then got interested. What did they find in the simmering metropolises of this still mysterious continent? Somewhere in Nigeria, they would have certainly caught a glimpse of mind-blowing performances of The Sea Lions, a six-piece group mixing the then hip Reggae and Afro Beat styles to generate fresh and furious music with a hypnotizing atmosphere. Polyrhythmic beat patterns build the foundation, the utterly fruitful soil for the heartwarming melodies wailed out by the guitars and the commanding vocals with their conjuring charm. Great organ work builds the link between the groove section and the melody instruments. You can imagine what a pleasant experience this band might have been live back in 1978 when their sole album “Free The People“ got released. And this album, of which copies in only good conditions already fetch prices of $450, while nice clean pieces might go up to $1200, lives up to the expectations one might have from watching a live show by the Sea Lions. The sound is vivid, transparent, powerful, and clean enough to make the music a real pleasure listening to, but earthy enough to present nothing but the band going wild here. The songs all have a similar pace, not too fast, but swinging and pulsating to spread their energy to and among the listeners. The melodies are simple but come from the depth of the heart. This feels typical for African 70s music and despite being kind of reduced, these melodies keep haunting you still even hours after the record been taken off the turntable and put back into its sleeve. They bring images of an ever pulsating city by night, warm climate, palm trees, people at the bar, a witches cauldron of sounds, smells, voice, and pictures. And you feel the magic floating through the air while this groove will not let you go so easily. You can either dance your soul out to this ultimate reissue or you can sit down, listen and let the music tell you a story of the dark corners of the big city, the narrow alleys that lead you into a boiling labyrinth of mystical dreams. And in songs like “You Can Make It If You Try“ you will find the whole magic of the African world, a world so fascinating for us Europeans but still so unapproachable in some ways and dangerous for the weak. Do not try to resist, this is your pleasure. Grab a copy and the Sea Lions will carry you off to their place. I haven’t heard such a killer Afro Beat and Reggae album with songs this exciting and wild in a long time. If you equally love Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor, and Fela Kuti, look no further. Here is the spiritual essence of all these great artists merged into one giant act.

File Under: Africa, Reggae, Funk
Buy Here

Sinn Sisamouth: Groove Club Vol. 4 (Lion) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. The first official reissue—or in most cases, re-release of any kind—of these recordings since their initial release as singles. Comes with an 8-page full color booklet with info and photos supplied by Cambodian musician SINN SISAMOUTH’s surviving family. “Discovering the wealth of Cambodian recordings was like falling into a parallel universe, complete with its own Elvises, Patsys and Jimis. You can recognize some of the anonymous outstanding instrumentalists as they appear on record after record and marvel at their uncanny blend of Western and Far East, a pure synergy Western musicians have never accomplished. Of course, looming over every recording is the tragic end of the music and the musicians themselves under the axe of the Khmer Rouge, a cloak of darkness hovering over some of the most joyous, festive music ever made. In a world of instant global communication and mass pop culture, Cambodian rock remains one of the few undiscovered secrets of music. Not content with killing the musicians, the government further ordered the destruction of their records, implicitly understanding the power of pop music to create community. It is a testament to the power of Sinn Sisamouth’s music that it has survived all that has been done to vanquish it.” — Joel Selvin

File Under: Cambodia
Buy Here

Hector Sithole & On Paper: Love, Love (Strawberry Rain) LP
Hector Sithole recorded a series of singles during the peak of the Zamrock era with the band On Paper. These singles did fairly well locally but over the years have been overlooked and missed by fans and collectors. Featuring rock, afrobeat and soul elements fused with proto-disco sounds that would create a bridge into Zambia’s short-lived disco scene. Hector’s music will appeal to fans of HARRY MWALE and OSAYE. Taken from the original master reels and pressed at 45 rpm for the best possible sound, we’ve limited this release to 300 copies housed in paste-on covers. Highly Recommended and released for the first time ever as a full length.

File Under: Africa, Psych
Buy Here

Snakefinger: Who Do you Love (B-sides & Rarities) (Secret) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. While recently digging through The Residents archive tapes, four completely unknown Snakefinger recordings were discovered. These demos are estimated to be from 1978-1982 when The Residents were performing on and producing his studio work. Instead of just releasing them as a 7″ or something, Secret Records decided to pair them with other essential Snakefinger tunes that never appeared on one of his LPs. One side collects the newly discovered demos along with a couple live tracks that were planned to be recorded for a new album in 1987 before Snakefinger passed away. The other side collects all the B-sides / non-album studio recordings from Ralph Records. Limited edition of 350 copies on Neon Violet colored vinyl.

File Under: Experimental, Residents
Buy Here

Gabor Szabo: Dreams (Ebalubga!!!) LP
The long-awaited reissue of rare Eastern and psychedelic Jazz LP by the famous Hungarian guitarist, originally released in 1968. The first time, extended Edition with 2 bonus tracks: radio version of Fire Dance / Ferris Wheel from single 7” 1969. Gatefold Vinyl comes with long, exclusively written inner notes by the famous researcher and biographer Douglas Payne. Remastered by Martin Bowes at Cage Studios (UK). Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, mixing his Hungarian folk music heritage with a deep love of jazz and crafting a distinctive, largely self-taught sound. Born in Budapest, on March 8, 1936, Szabo was inspired by a Roy Rogers cowboy movie to begin playing guitar when he was 14 and often played in dinner clubs and covert jam sessions while still living in his hometown. He escaped from his country at age 20 on the eve of the Communist uprising and eventually made his way to America, settling with his family in California. He attended Berklee College (1958-1960) and in 1961 joined Chico Hamilton’s innovative quintet featuring Charles Lloyd. Urged by Hamilton, Szabo crafted a most distinctive sound; as agile on intricate, nearly-free runs as he was able to sound inspired during melodic passages. Szabo left the Hamilton group in 1965 to leave his mark on the pop-jazz of the Gary McFarland quintet and the energy music of Charles Lloyd’s fiery and underrated quartet featuring Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Szabo initiated a solo career in 1966, recording the exceptional album, Spellbinder, which yielded many inspired moments and “”Gypsy Queen,”” the song Santana turned into a huge hit in 1970. Szabo formed an innovative quintet (1967-1969) featuring the brilliant, classically trained guitarist Jimmy Stewart and recorded many notable albums during the late ’60s. The emergence of rock music (especially George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix) found Szabo experimenting with feedback and more commercially oriented forms of jazz. During the ’70s, Szabo regularly performed along the West Coast, hypnotizing audiences with his enchanting, spellbinding style. From 1970, he locked into a commercial groove, even though records like Mizrab occasionally revealed his seamless jazz, pop, Gypsy, Indian, and Asian fusions. Szabo had revisited his homeland several times during the ’70s, finding opportunities to perform brilliantly with native talents. He was hospitalized during his final visit and died in 1982, just short of his 46th birthday.

File Under: Jazz, Psych
Buy Here

Tangerine Dream: Thief (Mondo) LP
Mondo is proud to present Tangerine Dream’s essential synth soundtrack to Michael Mann’s 1980 masterpiece THIEF. Pulsing with neon energy, Tangerine Dream’s score for Michael Mann’s debut film was markedly bold and unique for the crime genre at the time, which is what makes it so iconic and influential to this day. Housed in a die-cut package designed by Jay Shaw, and liner notes from David Sims, and pressed on 180 Gram black vinyl. Years before MIAMI VICE, HEAT, and MANHUNTER, director Michael Mann took his first crack at the gritty crime genre with a film starring James Caan, about a Chicago diamond thief, and his last big score. Seems straightforward enough – even though it could’ve easily felt like a holdover from the New Hollywood movement of the ‘70s, THIEF plants its feet firmly into the ’80s with Tangerine Dream’s incredible, and at the time revolutionary, approach to film music. They kicked off an electronic film score wave – Tangerine Dream alone would go on to score nearly twenty films over the course of the ‘80s – but THIEF has always been one of our favorites, and we’re honored to re-issue it as we approach the film’s 40th anniversary.

File Under: Electronic, OST
Buy Here

The Toms: 1979 Sessions (Feel It) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. “For many years, Tommy Marolda has been a versatile member of the American music industry: a multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, composer, Grammy-nominated songwriter… the list goes on. But record nerds like me know Tommy because of a single weekend in 1979. He was scheduled to record demos with the Smithereens in his New Jersey home studio, but their last-minute cancelation gave Tommy a small window to record something of his own. After three days of hitting the record button and dashing back to his instruments, Tommy had more than 30 slabs of pop perfection on tape, 12 of which became his seminal power pop LP ‘The Toms’. Other tracks from that weekend session have trickled out via reissues of ‘The Toms’ over the years, but little did anyone know Tommy recorded enough material to fill up three long players! Presented here are the last of the 1979 Toms sessions. Savor them like the rare commodities that they are.”—Scott Carlson, Tomologist

File Under: Punk, Power Pop
Buy Here

Frank Turner & Jon Snodgrass: Buddies II: Still Buddies (Xtra Mile) LP
Ten years ago, the two acclaimed musicians Frank Turner and Jon Snodgrass hung out, drank whisky and wrote and recorded an album together called Buddies – a lighthearted hang between friends that became a hit with fans of both artists. Fast forward a decade and the pair are still buddies, so they decided to write a follow-up. As with the original, Buddies II: Still Buddies was written in just one day, although this time, however, Turner and Snodgrass had to do it over the Internet due to lockdown. With more time on their hands than usual, they were able to flesh out the album, musically, and recruit other buddies – Stephen Egerton (Descendents/ALL), primarily, on drums – for added instrumentation. The result is a funny, warm and at times poignant album that’s part talk show, part music. It’s the first album that Frank has recorded, mixed and produced himself.

File Under: Punk, Folk
Buy Here

Vastum: Patricidal Lust (Coloured) (20 Buck Spin) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. NOW ON LIMITED SILVER / BLACK MERGE VINYL!!! Received a 7.9 rating from Pitchfork. Vastum’s second full-length is the manifestation of much personal tribulation and strife, reflected not only in the morbid hyper-realism of the album’s content, but also in the making of the record itself, which involved devastating real-life tragedy, numerous delays, departed members and a sense of frustration by all involved. It’s work born of pain. Nonetheless, Patricidal Lust is noticeably heavier, more abusive and more mentally calamitous than its predecessor Carnal Law. Recorded with Jeff Davis (R.I.P.) and later Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios, Patricidal Lust has an atmosphere of eerie foreboding shrouding the doomed death metal husk at its center; the cryptic dual vocal dynamic of Daniel Butler (Acephalix) and Leila Abdul-Rauf (Saros, Amber Asylum, Hammers of Misfortune) narrates this journey through the body. The ghosts of Steer and Schuldiner echo in twisted half-remembered inference while the calculated, blunt rhythm section invokes abhorrent basement torture dungeons. Lyrically far beyond that which most death metal bands are capable, Patricidal Lust delves ever deeper into subject matter first seen on Carnal Law—the anguish and confusion associated with sexual abuse, incest and the blurry area where eroticism and madness vaporize into an unrecognizable fog of horror. Certain to leave a lasting impression, Vastum’s Patricial Lust is what lies at the core of obscene abomination.

File Under: Metal
Buy Here

Barry Walker Jr.: Shoulda Zenith (Holy Mountain) LP
In tomorrow.. or Monday…. The sky goes on forever in Barry Walker Jr.’s Shoulda Zenith, and it’s crackling with unexpected lightning. The Tennessee-bred, Portland-based pedal steel master subverts his instrument’s tradition for lachrymose, innocuous Rootzak™. Instead, he ventures to outward-bound strata more frequently traversed by Sonny Sharrock than Gram Parsons. “So often, the pedal steel is used as a textural flavor,” Walker says, “but it really can breathe fire itself.” Evidence for that claim abounds on Shoulda Zenith. Sprouting out of the strategies Walker used on his 2012 LP of Henry Flynt and Paul Metzger-like fiddle aberrations, Banjo Knife, the music on Zenith goes on similar extravagant tangents—but with pedal steel. Assisted here and there by bassist Scott Derr and drummer Dana Valatka, and others, Walker has synthesized his love for country, New Age, freeform freakouts, and ecstatic music on Zenith. One can hear traces of the laid-back sinuousness of Texas psych-rockers Cold Sun, Fushitsusha’s craggy, acid-rock excoriations, and Doug Sahm’s sprightly melodic sweetness. One may notice “Insect Interlude” adding new colors to Terry Riley’s Rainbow In Curved Air and “Up The Fan, Into The Keyhole” taking Sharrock’s Black Woman to Appalachia. Tilt the head just right and “Shoulda Zenith” and “Trinity Payload” may be the most psychedelic things a pandemic-besieged mind will encounter in 2020. Cosmic country didn’t know it needed its own Inventions For Electric Guitar, but now that it’s arrived, the Gilded Palace Of Sin is starting to seem like a dilapidated bungalow.

File Under: Country, Psych, Ambient, Experimental
Buy Here

Various: Hillbillies in Hell Vol. XI (Iron Mountain) LP
Behold… A river of Booze-soaked Ballads, suicidal Anthems and Apocalyptic Slaloms. This Sulphuric collection of withered Nashville legends and battered backwoods-poets features tales of Mournful Desolation, craven Lustmords, delirious Gospel Redemptions and Philosophical Arborist-isms. Often originally waxed and distributed in minuscule amounts, these Troubled Troubadours sing of Drunken Infanticide, Suffocating Conformity, Tortured Inebriates and the all-too-easy escape of The Grave.  Years in the making – ‘Hillbillies In Hell’ (Volume XI) presents 16 timeless tribulations – Vengeful Vigilantism, grisly Rodent Infestations, helpless Automobile Assassinations, breathless Hayseed Cosmologies and blazing faux-Sitar Ditties. A daemonic stash of forgotten 45s – some of these sides are impossibly rare and are reissued here for the very first time. All for your tawdry listening pleasure.

File Under: Country
Buy Here

Various: Southeast of Saturn (Third Man) LP
It makes sense that Detroit had a buzzy, thriving space-rock scene in the ‘90s. What American city’s denizens had a more urgent need to disengage and think outside the grim, post-industrial rustbelt realities? With space-rock (and its close sonic cousin shoegaze) being at once expansive and introspective, it naturally appealed to the young, intelligent artists who gravitated toward its vertiginous orbit. The music of Southeast Of Saturn did not arise organically from metro Detroit’s fertile soil. Locally, garage-rock, goth-rock, neo-hippie groups, and the usual preponderance of adequate bar bands dominated the landscape. Thirsty Forest Animals guitarist Andrew Peters summarizes the prevalent attitude among the Motor City’s space-rock contingent: “I don’t think we really noticed the local Detroit scene earlier on. We were more into the bands you would see in the NME / Melody Maker, zines, and records – mostly from the UK – on the walls at Play It Again.” If anything was a major factor locally, it was Play It Again, the independent record store in the suburbs of Detroit that nurtured the scene with its amazing curation of imports and killer used records picked up on owner Alan Kovan’s British record buying trips. Penned “Detroit Space-Rock”, the scene centered around Burnt Hair Records, Burnt Hair CEO Larry Hoffman’s Life According To Larry radio show, Zoot’s Coffeehouse and bands, such as Windy & Carl, Asha Vida, Füxa, Auburn Lull, and Majesty Crush. It was a modern movement of a more traditional “space-rock” sound, influenced less by The Stooges and MC5 and more by Spacemen 3, Loop, My Bloody Valentine and krautrock bands like Can and Neu!. Even the best-known artists on Southeast Of Saturn – Windy & Carl, Majesty Crush, Füxa – never achieved mainstream success, but within the rock underground, they inspired a cultish devotion that burns to this day. If you missed their evanescent output the first time around, this vinyl 2LP compilation will get you up to speed over its 19 mind-altering tracks!

File Under: Shoegaze, Space Rock
Buy Here

…..Restocks…. 

Alice in Chains: Facelift (Legacy) LP
Alice in Chains: Sap (Legacy) LP
Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters (Epic) LP
Arcade Fire: Suburbs (Sonovox) LP
Arcade Fire: Everything Now (Sonovox) LP
Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson: Louis Meets Oscar (Acoustic Sounds Series) (Verve) LP
Bahamas: Sad Hunk (Brushfire) LP
Belle & Sebastian: What To Look For in Summer (Matador) LP
Big Star: #1 (Craft) LP
Black Sabbath: Paranoid Super Deluxe Box (Rhino) BOX
Blood Incantation: Starspawn (Dark Descent) LP
Boris: Absolute Go (Southern Lord) LP
Boris: Amplifier Worship (Southern Lord) LP
David Bowie: Blackstar (Columbia) LP
David Bowie: Low (Parlophone) LP
Phoebe Bridgers: Stranger in the Alps (Dead Oceans) LP
Leon Bridges: Coming Home (Sony) LP
Leon Bridges: Good Thing (Sony) LP
Dave Brubeck: Time Out (Music on Vinyl) LP
Cabaret Voltaire: Shadow of Fear (Mute) LP
Cindy Lee: Act of Tenderness (W25.ST) LP
Coldplay: Parachutes (Parlophone) LP
Patrick Cowley: Mechanical Fantasy Box (Dark Entries) LP
D’Angelo & The Vanguard: Black Messiah (Sony) LP
Damaged Bug: Bug on Yonkers (Castle Face) LP
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (Music on Vinyl) LP
Miles Davis: Filles de Kilimanjaro (Music on Vinyl) LP
Miles Davis: On the Corner (Music on Vinyl) LP
Brian Eno & Jah Wobble: Spinner (All Saints) LP
Four Tet: There is Love in You (Text) LP
Mort Garson: Plantasia (Sacred Bones) LP
John Hassell: Vernal Equinox (Ndeya) LP
Hum: Inlet (Earth Analog) LP
Durand Jones & The Indications: s/t (Dead Oceans) LP
King Crimson: Red (Pangeryc) LP
Sven Libaek: Inner Space (Votary) LP
LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver (DFA) LP
Loscil: Coast/Range/Arc// (Kranky) LP
Metallica: Kill Em All (Blackened) LP
Metallica: Master of Puppets (Blackened) LP
Metallica: s/t (Blackened) LP
Charles Mingus: Ah Um (Music on Vinyl) LP
Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser (Music on Vinyl) LP
Thelonious Monk: Underground (Music on Vinyl) LP
Kevin Morby: Harlem River (Woodsist) LP
Motorhead: Ace of Spaces (Rhino) 3LP
Osees: Protean Threat (Castle Face) LP
OST: Blade Runner (Warner) LP
National: Sleep Well Beast (4AD) LP
Dolly Parton: Jolene (Legacy) LP
Pig Destroyer: Octagonal Stairway (Relapse) LP
Pink Floyd: Atom Earth Mother (Pink Floyd) LP
Pink Floyd: Division Bell (Pink Floyd) LP
Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (Pink Floyd) LP
Porcupine Tree: Sky Moves Sideways (KScope) LP
John Prine: Live (OH boy) LP
Run The Jewels: RTJ4 (Mass Appeal) LP
Paul Simon: Graceland (Legacy) LP
Sleep: The Sciences (Third Man) LP
Sonic Youth: Evol (Goofin) LP
Bruce Springsteen: Letter to You (Columbia) LP
Stone Roses: s/t (Modern Classics) LP
Tambourinen: Wooden Flower (Cardinal Fuzz) LP
A Tribe Calle Quest: We Got it From Here (Epic) LP
Tyler the Creator: Igor (Sony) LP
Sharon Van Etten: Remind Me Tomorrow (Jagjaguwary) LP
Colter Wall: Imaginary Appalachia (Thirty Tigers) LP
War on Drugs: LIVE DRUGS (Universal) LP
War on Drugs: Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian) LP
X: Los Angeles (Fat Possum) LP
Various: Soul Slabs Vol. 1 (Colemine) LP
Various: Stax of Funk Vol 2 (BGP) LP
Various: Wamono A to Z Vol. 1: Japanese Jazz, Funk & Rare Groove (180G) LP

%d bloggers like this: