OOF! Another mega list this week with some really killer slabs. The long awaited Fleet Foxes, the not as long, but also much anticipated Madlib/Four Tet. The killer new Altin Gun. The first new Tomahawk & Genghis Tron in YEARS. So much good stuff. Also bought some more killer used stuff this week. But with the size of today’s list, I won’t be getting any up on the site today, but tomorrow… In the meantime, read on, click to buy, pick up, etc.
Oh, and same as a couple weeks back… some of this is arriving tomorrow, if it says in tomorrow, please be sure to wait for your email confirmation that your order is ready for pick up.
Also! Like the Other Music Documentary, we are again teaming up with Oscilloscope Labs for the distribution/viewing of the new documentary TRUTH TO POWER, about System of a Down’s frontman Serj Tankian. Click the link to rent the film and we’ll get a cut of the proceeds. Rent it HERE
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…..picks of the week…..
Mainliner: Dual Myths (Riot Season) LP
In tomorrow! Gatefold sleeve; one record on silver vinyl, one record on black vinyl. The follow-up to Mainliner’s 2013 comeback album Revelation Space has been rumored for many years. There have been tales of several attempts being finished and scrapped in the last five years. That’s how hard it is to run a band when all the members are based on different continents and in other very busy bands themselves (Acid Mothers Temple and Bo Ningen notably). But it’s finally done. And if you’re a fan, it’s been worth the wait. In Kawabata’s own words: “This new album is the second chapter of this present Mainliner. Finally, we could open to the next stage to break old customs since 1995”. The killer trio from the Revelation Space album is still intact, with Kawabata Makoto (motorpsycho guitar), Koji Shimura (drums), and Kawabe Taigen (bass/vocals), and it’s back to calling them just Mainliner once again (Revelation Space was issued as Kawabata Makoto’s Mainliner).
File Under: Japan, Psych, Acid Mothers Temple
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Byron Westbrook: Distortion Hue (Hands in the Dark) LP
Hands in the Dark presents Distortion Hue, American composer Byron Westbrook’s follow-up LP to 2017’s Body Consonance, his previous LP for the label. Where its predecessor focused on gesture and movement, this new record is grounded in catharsis and gut emotion. Its ten tracks of tape-manipulated electronics present a more raw side of Westbrook’s work, with grainy and damaged textures, walls of feedback and non-metered pulses. The album shows a wide range of expressiveness, capturing at times the deep anxiety of the present moment while also presenting flashes of hope amidst chaos. With a nod to rock minimalism as well as to his mentor Phill Niblock’s sonic material approach, Distortion Hue is heavy in weight; a complex and layered deep listening experience.
File Under: Ambient, New Age
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Madlib: Sound Ancestors (Madlib Invazion) LP
In tomorrow! “Music by Madlib arranged by Kieren Hebden. Gil Evans to Miles Davis… Holger Czukay to the ensemble known as Can… Jean Claude Vannier to Serge Gainsbourg on Histoire de Melody Nelson. That’s the only way to explain the specificity of Four Tet and Madlib’s collaboration, in this special album that showcases a two-decade long friendship that has resulted in an album that follows Madlib’s classics like Quasimoto’s The Unseen, Madvillainy and his Pinata and Bandana albums with Freddie Gibbs. ‘A few months ago I completed work on an album with my friend Madlib that we’d been making for the last few years. He is always making loads of music in all sorts of styles and I was listening to some of his new beats and studio sessions when I had the idea that it would be great to hear some of these ideas made into a Madlib solo album. Not made into beats for vocalists to use but instead arranged into tracks that could all flow together in an album designed to be listened to start to finish. I put this concept to him when we were hanging out eating some nice food one day and we decided to work on this together with him sending me tracks, loops, ideas and experiments that I would arrange, edit, manipulate and combine. I was sent hundreds of pieces of music over a couple of years stretch and during that time I put together this album with all the parts that fitted with my vision.’ –Kieren Hebden AKA Four Tet”
File Under: Hip Hop, Jazz, Funk
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…..new arrivals…..
Acid Mother’s Temple: Ripper at the Heaven’s Gates of Dark (Riot Season) LP
In tomorrow! Limited transparent blue with black swirl double-LP vinyl. Housed in a newly redesigned, full color gatefold sleeve. Nine years after its initial release in 2011, The Ripper At The Heaven’s Gates Of Dark is back. The original black vinyl and CD editions sold out pretty quick, and have been a constant source of repress requests ever since. So, at Makoto’s personal request here it is. It’s definitely the best Acid Mothers Temple studio album from that short lived four-piece line up. With the exception of the album’s opener “Chinese Flying Saucer” and it’s unashamedly obvious musical references to Led Zeppelin II (hello 1969!) the rest of the album locks into a much more laid-back groove than on recent AMT releases. This dynamic shift is best displayed on the 22-minute jam, “Shine On You Crazy Dynamite” and also the album’s closer “Electric Death Mantra”. The band opt for less frantic explosions of electric guitar overload and fuzz, replacing those elements with a more epic, blissed-out and at times brooding Japanese psychedelia, with more emphasis on acoustic guitars, sitar, organ, synthesizer, and at times, really trippy vocals (most prevalent on “Back Door Man Of Ghost Rails Inn”), recalling the twisted psychedelics of early Pink Floyd. Yet still, their sound remains so expansive that it is easy to become totally immersed in this album. Epic in proportions, cloaked in a cosmic haze and shimmering in a synth utopia. The Ripper At Heaven’s Gates Of Dark maintains AMT’s status as masters of out-of-this-world music and reveals their darker side of the moon. Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. at the time of this recording: Tsuyama Atsushi – monster bass, voice, soprano sax, cimpo flute, soprano recorder, acoustic guitar, cosmic joker; Higashi Hiroshi – synthesizer, dancin’ king; Shimura Koji – drums, Latino cool; Kawabata Makoto -electric guitar, electric bouzouki, sitar, organ, percussion, electronics, speed guru. Recorded at Acid Mothers Temple, Japan. Produced and engineered by Kawabata Makoto.
File Under: Japan, Psych
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Altin Gun: Yol (ATO) LP
Coloured vinyl! Altin Gün deliver their third album Yol, the full-length follow-up to the band’s 2019 LP Gece, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best World Music Album. Fronted by vocalists Merve Dasdemir and Erdinç Ecevit, Altin Gün have won worldwide acclaim for their re-imaginings of traditional Turkish folk songs through the lens of pop and psych-rock. 2020’s coronavirus quarantine forced the band to write music in a completely new way, trading demos and ideas over email, and the resulting songs mark a new direction for the band as well, with a shift to a sleeker, synth-driven Europop sound. Yol displays a noticeable dreaminess, maybe born from this enforced time to reflect. And select elements of late 1970s or early 1980s “Euro” synth pop also shine through. This new musical landscape was nurtured by certain instrument choices; namely the Omnichord, heard on “Arda Boylari,” “Kara Toprak” and “Sevda Olmasaydi,” and the drum-machine, an instrument that is key to the gorgeous closing number, “Esmerim Güzelim.”
File Under: Psych, Turkey
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Arcade Fire & Owen Pallett: Her OST (Milan) LP
Composed by GRAMMY Award-winning band Arcade Fire & their long-time collaborator and bandmate Owen Pallett, the score for Spike Jonze’s critically acclaimed 2013 film Her has never been released, until now. The film’s lush, piano-driven soundtrack received a nomination for “Best Original Score” at the 2014 Academy Awards and is regarded as one of the best film soundtracks of the past decade. Wistful, delicate and brimming with nostalgic warmth, the Her soundtrack is a stunning sonic companion to a story of modern love. Set in Los Angeles, in the near future, Her follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a complex, soulful man who makes his living writing touching, personal letters for other people. Heartbroken after the end of a long relationship, he becomes intrigued with a new, advanced operating system, which promises to be an intuitive and unique entity in its own right. Upon initiating it, he is delighted to meet “Samantha,” a bright, female voice (Scarlett Johansson) who is insightful, sensitive and surprisingly funny. As her needs and desires grow, in tandem with his own, their friendship deepens into an eventual love for each other. From the singular perspective of filmmaker Spike Jonze, Her, which won the 2014 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, is an original love story that explores the evolving nature—and the risks—of intimacy in the modern world.
File Under: OST
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Chet Baker: Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe (Craft) LP
Few musicians have embodied the romantic – and ultimately tragic – jazz figure as totally as Chet Baker. Unschooled yet eloquent in his music, and a fast-liver who survived for nearly six decades, the Baker mystique has only reinforced one of the most haunting trumpet styles and ingenious approaches to jazz singing. The Los Angeles-based musician rose to fame in the early ’50s, playing with established artists like Charlie Parker, Gerry Mulligan and pianist Russ Freeman – partnerships which would solidify his status as a major jazz star. By the end of the decade, when he signed a four-album deal with the New York-based label Riverside, Baker had become known for his trademark West Coast “cool jazz” style. However, these recordings – which paired the artist with some of the best East Coast players – demonstrate Baker’s versatility as a modern trumpeter who could play with even the hardest boppers. This is one of the last Chet Baker long players recorded in the States prior to the artist relocating to Europe in the early ’60s. Likewise, the eight-tune collection was the final effort issued during his brief association with the Riverside Records imprint. The project was undoubtedly spurred on by the overwhelming success of the Shelly Manne-led combo that interpreted titles taken from the score to My Fair Lady (1956). 1959’s Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner And Loewe finds the trumpeter offering his renditions of tunes by lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe who, together, penned some of the most famous songs on Broadway. Baker, joined by an ensemble that once again included Bill Evans, Pepper Adams and Herbie Mann – along with the great Zoot Sims on tenor saxophone – covers material from My Fair Lady, Gigi, Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon.
File Under: Jazz
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The Body: I’ve Seen All I Need to See (Thrill Jockey) LP
Coloured vinyl! The Body is a prolific musical force whose creativity is matched only by the astonishing weight of their sound. Duo Lee Buford and Chip King have established their own musical language that reimagines how rhythm, dynamics, and sonics can shape or dismantle song structure. Over the course of two decades, the duo has consistently challenged assumptions and defied categorization, redefining what it means to be a heavy band. On their new album, The Body are again pushing limits and testing the boundaries of the studio to explore the extremes and microtonality of distortion to find its maximal impact. I’ve Seen All I Need To See is The Body at their most incisively bleak, a towering monolith of noise. I’ve Seen All I Need To See marks both a return and departure for The Body. In contrast to the electronic-centric instrumentation and production-heavy arrangements of previous albums and Buford’s work in Sightless Pit, this album is focused on their core live sound: Buford’s booming, resolute drums paired with King’s obliterated guitar and howl. Following albums with extensive guest performances and acclaimed collaborations with Thou, Uniform, Full of Hell, and more, I’ve Seen All I Need To See is almost entirely the core duo. Guests vocalist/pianist Chrissy Wolpert and vocalist Ben Eberle are used very sparingly. Course, bristling distortion contorts every instrument, with samples of spoken word, cymbals, toms and King’s already noxious tone emerging from layers of feedback. The myriad of tonal interplays, captured in detail, has a movement all its own. The Body, together with engineer Seth Manchester of Machines With Magnets, capture the complexities of distorted sound in stunning detail. The clarity and the cacophony exceed anything they’ve created before, morphing desolate, festering soundscapes into an exhilarating sonic universe. The recording studio remains indelible to The Body’s creative process. Working closely with Manchester, Buford often lays the framework for songs from the drums up, mirroring hip hop production. I’ve Seen All I Need To See trades out 808s and The Body’s self-sampling for live instruments with a focus on expanding mutations of sound from more limited sources. The results are remarkably rich textural bombardments. Throughout, The Body deliver oppressive noise with potent lucidity, replicating the overwhelming sound of their live performances in revelatory detail.
File Under: Metal
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Boise Cover Band: Unoriginal Artists (Ernest Jennings) LP
In 2002 while Built to Spill was on hiatus, Doug Martsch was inviting various local musician friends to his home studio for improvised jam sessions. Eventually he settled on guitarist John Mullin, long time BTS Soundman Ian Waters on drums and his former Treepeople bandmate Scott Schmaljohn on guitar. Doug played bass. After a while they lost interest in improvising and decided to learn a few covers. When Scott no longer had time for the project he was replaced by Boise guitar player Ned Evett. While Doug, John , and Ian were OK musicians Ned was a world class virtuoso, winner of the 2003 North American Guitar competition and inventor of the glass-necked fretless guitar which he plays on the album. No one seems to remember exactly how long the band existed, maybe a couple months. There were no ambitions, it was all just for fun. They played the Pretenders song “Back On The Chain Gang” but without first listening to the original, relying only on memory. There was talk of maybe playing a show or two but the band ended up never performing live. When everyone’s lives got too busy for the band they made this record and called it quits. It was recorded on Doug’s 16 track 1/2 tape machine in the same room where the band had always rehearsed, a garage behind his house that his three-year-old son had named the Man House because it had been built for humans, not for lions or elephants. Long time Built to Spill producer Phil Ek engineered the live tracking sessions and then Doug finished the record alone, adding more guitars, some keyboards, lead vocals, and the backing vocal parts that the other band members had been singing during rehearsals. He mixed it alone and Up Records executive Pete Ritchy designed the K-Tel style cover and released a few hundred CD’s on his unofficial side label Jo-Ri. Built to Spill sold them on tour and that was that. And then seventeen years later Doug asked his friends at EJRC if they could make it available again because it is probably his favorite record he ever made. Includes covers of David Bowie, Captain Beefheart, The Pretenders and more!
File Under: Indie Rock, Built To Spill
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The Crown: Royal Destroyer (Metal Blade) LP
Having celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2020 [their first eight years spent as Crown Of Thorns], The Crown have proven themselves one of the most enduring forces in death metal. In 2021 they further up the ante with ‘Royal Destroyer’, a record that sets a new standard for the genre. “It is our album number ten, so now we are in the big boys club,” says bassist Magnus Olsfelt. “I think it in some ways is our crowning achievement, and it encompasses our sound across all albums on one defining record. It’s got it all – the early 90s death metal stuff, the haunting melodies, the thrash, the punk, the grind, the heavy metal and the more epic and doomy stuff.”
File Under: Metal
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Disco Zombies: South London Stinks (Optic Nerve) LP
In tomorrow! It was 1977, there may well have been “knives in West 11”, but at a student’s hall of residence in Leicester, a packed room of cross-legged intellectuals were about to witness the debut of the Disco Zombies; Andy Ross on vocals and guitar, Geoff Dodimead on bass, Johnny “Guitar” Hawkins on guitar, and Andy Fullerton on drums. They were loud, fast and they had some witty one-liners. The four-piece added Dave Henderson from The Blazers, a chirpy power pop punk quintet. Record Shop owner — and now Mayor Of Mablethorpe — Carl Tebbutt launched Uptwon Records with a Disco Zombies EP. The record was shelved, but unperturbed, the band pressed on and recorded a session at the local radio station, “TV Screen Existence” was the only track that survived. The band lost Johnny “Guitar”, relocated to London and took The Foamettes’ guitarist Steve Gerrard with them who returned to Leicester to become a part of The Bomb Party. Steve was replaced by Mark Sutherland in what was to become the recognized line-up of The Disco Zombies for several years. By 1978, Andy Ross launched South Circular Records to release the band’s debut single, “Drums Over London” and John Peel played it regularly. South Circular wasn’t to last but Dave Henderson launched Dining Out. Dave and Andy journeyed to Ipswich to record the debut EP from the Peel-approved Adicts, the plan being to follow it with a Disco Zombies’ single and regain momentum. “Here Comes The Buts” was the second Dining Out release, featuring the breakthrough Dr Boss drum machine; it was likened to The Cramps meets Neil Young in NME. They recorded for Dining Out the follow-up “The Year Of The Sex Olympics”, backed with “Target Practice” and “New Scars” — it never saw the light of day. By now, the Zombies had been through their dark post punk phase and “Where Have You Been Lately Tony Hateley” was a clever upbeat anthem. It was released on the Cordelia label’s Obscure Independent Classics album. In 2011, the drum machine line up descended on Mark’s studio, and they recorded two of their lengthier tracks: “Night Of The Big Heat” and “LHO”. A few years later Andy Fullerton returned to the fold recording three more originals “Hit”, “Lenin’s Tomb”, and “Paint It Red” for an even more limited edition ten-inch in 2018. 20-track compilation, remastered. Double-LP vinyl version comes on pink (disc one) and green vinyl (disc two); gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves and poster.
File Under: Punk
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Faith No More: Who Cares A Lot? (Slash) LP
Coloured vinyl! Who Cares A Lot? The Greatest Hits spotlights some of the biggest tracks released by Faith No More between 1987 and 1997. It includes massive hits such as “Epic”, “Easy”, “Evidence” and their first single “We Care A Lot.” Presented in chronological order, this collection highlights the journey Faith No More went on, starting with tracks such as “We Care A Lot” and “Introduce Yourself”; tracks sung by original lead singer Chuck Mosley. After his departure in 1988, the band turned to current frontman Mike Patton, who’s first album with the band was the renowned “The Real Thing.” Faith No More have maintained a cult status, being widely credited for developing alternative metal and having influence on bands such as Limp Bizkit and Slipknot. Founding member and bassist of Nirvana, Krist Novoselic, cites Faith No More as one of the bands who paved the way for Nirvana. This record presents a true celebration of Faith No More’s music and is on gold vinyl for the first time.
File Under: Rock
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Fleet Foxes: Shore (Anti) LP
Clear vinyl! Fleet Foxes return with their fourth full-length album Shore, bringing the dark sophistication of 2017’s Crack-Up to new heights with a soulful, sun-shined hue and fresh rhythmic vitality. The songs have dark themes of loss and struggle, but contain an uplifting lyrical power and sense of musical joy that remind us we can make it through the toughest of times. Shore was recorded before and during quarantine in Hudson (NY), Paris, Los Angeles, Long Island City and New York City from September 2018 until September 2020 with the help of recording and production engineer Beatriz Artola. The 15-song, 55-minute Shore was initially inspired by frontman Robin Pecknold’s musical heroes such as Arthur Russell, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guebrou and more who, in his experience, celebrated life in the face of death. “I see “shore” as a place of safety on the edge of something uncertain, staring at Whitman’s waves reciting ‘death,'” commented Pecknold. “Tempted by the adventure of the unknown at the same time you are relishing the comfort of the stable ground beneath you. This was the mindset I found, the fuel I found, for making this album.” Shore is presented here as a 180g vinyl 2LP-set encased in an Old Style double gatefold jacket with black polybags and 24″ x 24″ poster insert, printed at Stoughton Printing Company. Side D features an etching of fifteen hand drawn flora by visual artist Dino Matt, each tied to one of the album’s 15-songs. The album’s cover, front and back, showcases artwork by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya and design by Benjamin Tousley with Robin Pecknold. Stills from the Shore album companion art film by Kersti Jan Werdal are incorporated into the labels and lyric sheet.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Maalem Mahmoud Gania: Aicha (Hive Mind) LP
In tomorrow! Hive Mind Records celebrate their tenth release by bringing the label full circle, right back where they started. They once again have worked with the Gania family of Essaouira to offer another reissue of the music of the undisputed King of Gnawa music, the late Maalem Mahmoud Gania. It feels like the perfect time to release this spiritual music, specifically played to heal and to cure us of our ills, as the world is in the grip of a viral pandemic and powerful forces seem to be polarizing people all around the globe. The label hopes that Aicha will enable you to carve out some healing space in amongst the chaos of the world. Aicha was previously released on cassette in Morocco only in the late 1990s. Maalem Mahmoud Gania was a particularly prolific artist recording for many labels in Morocco and many details about the recording of this particular album or the people involved are destined to remain a mystery. However, the album was recorded in the Gania’s home town of Essaouira with only a small and intimate group of supporting musicians. The resulting album, after the dizzying intensity of the opening song, offers more relaxed, laidback interpretations of the Gnawa ritual repertoire, and a deeper, more gentle sound than Hive Mind Records’ previous Gania release, Colours of the Night (2017). The album shines a light on Mahmoud’s virtuoso guimbri playing and mastery of Gnawa songcraft, and is a standout amongst his many cassette releases. The album comes with extensive sleeve notes written by Tim Abdellah Fuson, Berkeley scholar and curator of the excellent Moroccan Tape Stash blog. First pressing of this release comes with a print of the album cover.
File Under: Africa, Morocco
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Genghis Tron: Dream Weapon (Relapse) LP
Blue vinyl! Genghis Tron make their return with their highly anticipated new album, Dream Weapon! The band’s first new studio outing in over a decade, Genghis Tron’s Hamilton Jordan and Michael Sochynsky are now joined by two new collaborators: vocalist Tony Wolski and Sumac/Baptists drummer Nick Yacyshyn. Together, the lineup perfects the unique mix of extreme rock and electronic music Genghis Tron has pioneered over their storied career. A melding of hypnotic rhythms and densely layered synth soundscapes, Dream Weapon was recorded and produced alongside long-time collaborator Kurt Ballou at God City Studio in Salem, MA, with additional production and engineering by Ben Chisolm (Chelsea Wolfe) and JJ Heath (Rain City Recorders). Lyrically and conceptually, Dream Weapon picks up where Board Up The House left off. “That album’s closing track, ‘Relief,’ was about how humans have become a burden to the planet, and how Earth will endure long after we’re gone,” Jordan explains. “There is sadness at the end, but some relief – and beauty – too. Dream Weapon is, loosely, an album-length meditation on that theme.” From the ethereal, almost robotic vocal phrasings accompanying the industrial attack of “Pyrocene,” to the chaotic, pulse-pounding drumming acrobatics and cyclical guitar patterns in the album’s triumphant title track, Dream Weapon is not just a nod to Genghis Tron’s celebrated past as a metal/progressive/experimental outfit. The new album redefines what these genres, sounds, and musical elements can achieve. Dream Weapon is a record that captures Genghis Tron at a matured, focused state; the ebbs and flows of the album are just as hard-hitting as they are dreamy, soaring, and meditative. Through the album’s inventiveness and rejuvenated approach, Dream Weapon marks another bold step forward in the wildly creative career of Genghis Tron, and cements the band’s legacy of groundbreaking, genre-defying innovation.
File Under: Metal
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Jef Gilson: Le Massacre du Printemps (Souffle Continu) LP
In tomorrow! Souffle Continu Records present the first vinyl reissue of Jef Gilson’s Le Massacre Du Printemps, originally released in 1971. In 1971, the day after the death of Igor Stravinsky, Jef Gilson, and his Unit (Pierre Moret and Jean-Claude Pourtier) made this curious homage to classical music. It is jazz, contemporary, and electroacoustic music that the trio interrogate through a wild “noise” session evoking as much John Cage as Pierre Henry, John Coltrane as the Percussions de Strasbourg, the Art Ensemble of Chicago as the Tacet by Jean Guérin. Le Massacre du Printemps, (the Massacre of Spring) is a strange kind of homage to Igor Stravinsky, who had just died when, in 1971, Jef Gilson recorded this not-to-be-missed album of French experimental jazz. “Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end,” the Russian composer was quoted as saying and here is Gilson offering us… six! A funny bird (of fire) was Jef Gilson. Clarinetist who came up playing in the basement clubs with Claude Luter and Boris Vian, he turned to piano and multiplied his experiences in jazz: bebop, choral, modal, free, fusion… As a free spirit, Gilson welcomed many “up and coming” French musicians in his bands (Jean-Luc Ponty, Bernard Lubat, Michel Portal, Henri Texier…) as well as being associated with Woody Shaw, Nathan Davis, or Byard Lancaster. Later he would go on to create, Europamerica, a transatlantic formation in which Butch Morris, Frank Lowe, and Joe McPhee would play… But for the time being it’s a massacre! With Pierre Moret on organ and Jean-Claude Pourtier on drums, Gilson improvises with style and gusto. On the eponymous title track of the album, he also plays tuba and invites Claude Jeanmaire to get involved on prepared piano. Spring, for the four musicians here, is windswept: billowing, rumbling, frantic, it sounds like Stravinsky played by the “Percussions de Strasbourg” without a scoresheet! After which, behind his electric piano, Gilson with Moret and Pourtier offers us five more “unpremeditated spontaneous expressions”, as he wrote on the back of the album sleeve. Five wily and electric expressions which are like the soundtrack to a film which could also have been played by the Art Ensemble or Jean Guérin. Licensed from Futura / Marge. Remastered from the master tapes; restored artwork with obi strip.
File Under: Jazz
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Japan: Quiet Life (BMG) LP
Red vinyl! That Japan’s breakthrough record Quiet Life was released in both 1979 and 1980 is uniquely fitting for a band who were about to step out of the glam rock, post punk shadows of the late ’70s and deliver a record with a brand new sound that would come to define the ’80s. Quiet Life was the third, final and most successful release on the Hansa Records label. A forerunner for the alternative/new wave sound of the new decade, the album would become one of the great classic British albums. Half-speed mastered on colored vinyl LP with newly restored original album artwork and exclusive new liner notes.
File Under: Pop
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Junie: Suzie Super Groupie (Be With) LP
In tomorrow! Be With Records present a reissue of Junie’s Suzie Super Groupie, originally released in 1976. Walter “Junie” Morrison released his third solo LP, Suzie Super Groupie, in 1976. A slick, smooth and soulful record, it’s a genre-melting tour de force with rich elements of proto-boogie, funk, and jazz. The sublime “Suzie Thundertussy” was brilliantly sampled by Madlib for Kanye West’s “No More Parties In LA”. The track opens with a sinuous synth and combines Junie’s storytelling abilities with an emphatic vocal style and funky arrangements. The powerful bass and sinister chords create an undeniable groove, and the explosive chorus is full of ambition and joy. “If You Love Him” is a great, mid-tempo soul song. With a swinging jazz-infused middle-eight, it demonstrates Junie was much more than a mercurial funkateer. The laconic groove of “What Am I Gonna Do” recalls Fresh-era Sly Stone, whilst the frantic “Super Groupie” showcases his sharp imagination and sense of fun. The lyrics range from humorous to dirty, all fueled by an infectious groove and tight horn arrangements. The P-Funk of B-side opener “Surrender” bounces and sparkles, with a strutting Junie backed by great harmony vocals and joyous horns. “Suzie” is a sleek, softer affair albeit with a disco pulse; a beautiful combination of bright, funky horns, fluid basslines and vigorous rhythms. “Stone Face Joe” is another character song, this time one that chugs along on a sweet boogie rhythm. The closing piece, “Spirit”, is an extended funk-rock jam. A nod to Jimi Hendrix, it creates a live concert sound, complete with screaming crowd and fuzzy vocals. Junie made his name as the lead singer and keyboardist of the Ohio Players. As the mastermind behind “Pain”, “Pleasure”, “Ecstasy”, and the oft-sampled “Funky Worm”, he was beloved by countless musicians, not least Prince. As co-writer of some of Funkadelic’s seminal works — “One Nation Under A Groove”, “(Not Just) Knee Deep” — his standing as one of the structural fathers of funk is undisputed. In late 2016, Solange’s A Seat At The Table featured a track called “Junie”, a tribute to the freedom he created in music. In February 2017, Junie died, aged just 62. With records as mighty as Suzie Super Groupie, his legacy will live forever.
File Under: Funk, Boogie, Jazz
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Brij Bhushan Kabra: Lure of the Desert (Gramophone Company of India) LP
In tomorrow! Reissue of Lure of the Desert, originally released in 1985. In the 1920s, Tau Moe (pronounced mo-ay), a Hawaiian musician, arrived in India and introduced Hawaiian music to the sub-continent. After settling in Calcutta in the early 1940s, Moe and his family performed, taught and introduced Hawaiian music by building and selling guitars to the local musicians. Indian filmmakers and composers quickly fell under the spell of these instruments and sounds and made them suitable for playing ragas — the melodic patterns and modes in traditional Indian compositions. Soon these hot-rod guitars were accepted as legitimate instruments for performing Indian classical music, and a new breed of virtuosos emerged to write yet another chapter of the guitar’s unpredictable evolution. Brij Bhushan Kabra was one of the Indian musicians who heard the steel guitar’s siren call, but his vision went beyond adapting Hawaiian sounds to popular music. Instead, he saw the instrument’s potential for playing ragas. To pursue this dream, Kabra began studying with Ali Akbar Khan, whose fretless sarod offered a sonic example for Kabra to emulate with his lap-slide guitar. Kabra’s instrument was a Gibson Super 400, modified with a drone string and a high nut to raise the strings off the fretboard like a lap steel. Seated on the floor in the traditional style of Indian musicians, Kabra played his guitar horizontally, using a fingerstyle plucking technique and a bar to contact the strings. His approach set the standard for virtually all Indian slide guitarists. He is rightfully considered a master musician and regarded as one of Indian classical music’s most renowned ambassadors’ to the rest of the world. Lure of the Desert presents Brij Bhushan Kabra’s exploration of the folk music of Rajasthan. Hypnotic rhythms and snaking guitar compositions with almost percolating percussion makes this LP one of his later masterpieces. Released in 1985 it is one of the peaks in a discography that is an embarrassment of riches. Newly remastered, limited edition pressing.
File Under: India
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Brij Bhushan Kabra: Scaling New Horizons With Guitar (Gramphone Company of India) LP
In tomorrow! Reissue of Brij Bhushan Kabra’s Scaling New Horizons With Guitar, originally released in 1976. In the 1920s, Tau Moe (pronounced mo-ay), a Hawaiian musician, arrived in India and introduced Hawaiian music to the sub-continent. After settling in Calcutta in the early 1940s, Moe and his family performed, taught and introduced Hawaiian music by building and selling guitars to the local musicians. Indian filmmakers and composers quickly fell under the spell of these instruments and sounds and made them suitable for playing ragas — the melodic patterns and modes in traditional Indian compositions. Soon these hot-rod guitars were accepted as legitimate instruments for performing Indian classical music, and a new breed of virtuosos emerged to write yet another chapter of the guitar’s unpredictable evolution. Brij Bhushan Kabra was one of the Indian musicians who heard the steel guitar’s siren call, but his vision went beyond adapting Hawaiian sounds to popular music. Instead, he saw the instrument’s potential for playing ragas. To pursue this dream, Kabra began studying with Ali Akbar Khan, whose fretless sarod offered a sonic example for Kabra to emulate with his lap-slide guitar. Kabra’s instrument was a Gibson Super 400, modified with a drone string and a high nut to raise the strings off the fretboard like a lap steel. Seated on the floor in the traditional style of Indian musicians, Kabra played his guitar horizontally, using a fingerstyle plucking technique and a bar to contact the strings. His approach set the standard for virtually all Indian slide guitarists. He is rightfully considered a master musician and regarded as one of Indian classical music’s most renowned ambassadors’ to the rest of the world. Scaling New Horizons With Guitar is considered by many one of Kabra’s masterpieces. Released in 1976 and out of print for over 45 years, this is the first reissue in any format. Newly remastered for this edition, limited edition pressing.
File Under: India
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Brij Bhushan Kabra & Zakir Hussain: The Magic of Music – Guitar and Tabla (Gramophone Company of India) LP
In tomorrow! Reissue of Brij Bhushan Kabra and Zakir Hussain’s The Magic of Music – Guitar and Tabla, originally released in 1982. In the 1920s, Tau Moe (pronounced mo-ay), a Hawaiian musician, arrived in India and introduced Hawaiian music to the sub-continent. After settling in Calcutta in the early 1940s, Moe and his family performed, taught and introduced Hawaiian music by building and selling guitars to the local musicians. Indian filmmakers and composers quickly fell under the spell of these instruments and sounds and made them suitable for playing ragas — the melodic patterns and modes in traditional Indian compositions. Soon these hot-rod guitars were accepted as legitimate instruments for performing Indian classical music, and a new breed of virtuosos emerged to write yet another chapter of the guitar’s unpredictable evolution. Brij Bhushan Kabra was one of the Indian musicians who heard the steel guitar’s siren call, but his vision went beyond adapting Hawaiian sounds to popular music. Instead, he saw the instrument’s potential for playing ragas. To pursue this dream, Kabra began studying with Ali Akbar Khan, whose fretless sarod offered a sonic example for Kabra to emulate with his lap-slide guitar. Kabra’s instrument was a Gibson Super 400, modified with a drone string and a high nut to raise the strings off the fretboard like a lap steel. Seated on the floor in the traditional style of Indian musicians, Kabra played his guitar horizontally, using a fingerstyle plucking technique and a bar to contact the strings. His approach set the standard for virtually all Indian slide guitarists. He is rightfully considered a master musician and regarded as one of Indian classical music’s most renowned ambassadors’ to the rest of the world. Guitar and Tabla was originally released in 1982. Newly remastered, limited edition pressing.
File Under: India
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Lamb of God: Live in Richmond, VA (Epic) LP
Miss the ferocity, groove and aggression of the one-and-only Lamb of God live? Well, the wait is over. Live In Richmond, VA captures the band performing their latest self-titled album live for the very first time in its entirety in their hometown of Richmond, VA. The fact that Lamb Of God’s eighth studio effort would warrant ‘self-titled’ status is a testament to the band’s pride and satisfaction with these songs and this period in their creativity. “Putting only our name on it is a statement,” Randy Blythe says. “This is Lamb Of God. Here and now.”
File Under: Metal
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Leila: Like Weather (Modern Love) LP
In tomorrow! When you make a record that doesn’t conform, expect to divide opinion. Like Weather was released in 1998, on Rephlex — run by Grant Wilson Claridge and Richard D James — an often great label that had a following largely made up of Aphex-logo wearing fanboys who couldn’t quite deal with electronic music made by a girl — let alone one that used vocals. Everything those lads couldn’t fathom about Like Weather is essentially what makes it untouchable; one of the greatest, most effortlessly esoteric pop albums ever made, not in the lineage of IDM or trip-hop, genres it has so often been awkwardly lumped in with, but something else that can’t quite be categorized — even 22 years later. Like Weather echoes the world-building energy of Prince’s Sign “O” The Times (1987) — every track is a self-contained universe all its own, there are no rules or conventions — it’s full of hooks, but also insular as fuck, the production is all over the place and it still sounds like nothing else (although if you’re into the Mica Levi-produced Tirzah album (2018), know that this here is the aesthetic, spiritual blueprint). It feels analog, then digital — it’s R&B, but also baroque music box, drone pop, experimental, electronic, junglist — attempting to define it is like trying to cup mercury in the palm of your hands; it’ll just find something else to slide into. Newly remastered by Rashad Becker; cut by Lupo.
File Under: Electronic
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Karl Lightsey & Rudolph Johnson with the All Stars: Habiba (Outernational) LP
In tomorrow! Never released outside South Africa since its original release in 1974, Outernational Sounds presents one of the most sought-after international jazz exclusives ever to appear on South Africa’s famous Gallo imprint: the funky, spiritual and outward bound Habiba. Limited, fully licensed vinyl reissue of a lost modal classic by renowned pianist Kirk Lightsey and Black Jazz stalwart Rudolph Johnson. As the archives of South Africa’s premier record labels steadily give up the treasures that were hidden in the darkness of the apartheid era, the incredible heritage of South African jazz is gradually finding an international audience. And while most of the laurels are naturally for South Africa’s own overlooked musicians, the South African discography contains a few sparkling, nearly unknown jazz sessions by visiting players. Habiba is the greatest of them — a raw, impassioned set led by bop pianist Kirk Lightsey, who had been a regular sideman for Chet Baker and Sonny Stitt, and saxophonist Rudolph Johnson, a key player at the storied West Coast indie Black Jazz. Visits to the apartheid state by respected Black musicians were hardly a common occurrence during apartheid’s darkest years — so how did a crew of crack American jazz players end up in the Gallo studios? The story starts with the now almost forgotten crooner, Lovelace Watkins. Sometimes billed as “the Black Sinatra”, the Detroit-born Watkins sang standards, show tunes and ballroom classics on the Las Vegas circuit. In his 1970s heyday he was a huge star in the UK and in southern Africa, where he toured regularly. In 1974 he hired a jazz big band to accompany him on a tour of South Africa — and among their number were Lightsey and Johnson, as well as Mastersounds bassist Monk Montgomery, West Coast trombonist Al Hall Jr., and Marshall Royal, musical director of the Count Basie band. The tour was a huge success, and during downtime from performing, members of Watkin’s group independently record no fewer than three albums. Two of these LPs appeared on the IRC label, billed as the Mallory-Hall Band — the third, on the more prestigious Gallo, was Habiba. Three tracks deep, the album is a heavy-duty excursion into post-Coltrane spiritual modernism, ranging from the modal, cerebral intensity of the side-long title track “Habiba”, to the downhome breakbeat groove of “There It Is”, and the dark glitter of minor key waltz “Fresh Air”. Long one of the most desired global jazz LPs, and never before available outside South Africa, Habiba is a forgotten masterpiece of its era.
File Under: Jazz
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Loretta Lynn: Still Woman Enough (Legacy) LP
The American music icon’s 50th studio album (excluding her 10 studio duet collaborations with Conway Twitty), Still Woman Enough celebrates women in country music. From her homage to the originators, Mother Maybelle Carter and the Carter Family (via her cover of “Keep On The Sunny Side”) through a new interpretation of her very first single, “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl,” Loretta Lynn acknowledges her role in the continuum of American country music while her duets with Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood (“Still Woman Enough”), Margo Price (“One’s On The Way”) and Tanya Tucker (“You Ain’t Woman Enough”) find her sharing the musical torch with some of the brightest lights and biggest stars in contemporary pop-country. The album premieres 13 new Loretta Lynn recordings, intimate and electrifying performances of a career-spanning selection of songs illuminating different aspects of her repertoire. The collection is centered around Loretta’s original compositions – from new songs like “Still Woman Enough” (which shares its title and attitude with her 2002 autobiography and was cowritten with her daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell) through fresh interpretations of classics including “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” (her first single, originally released March 1960), “You Ain’t Woman Enough” (the title track for her first No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Album in 1966), “My Love” (from 1968’s Here’s Loretta Lynn), “I Wanna Be Free” (1971) and a deeply emotional “Coal Miner’s Daughter Recitation,” commemorating the 50th anniversary of the release of her signature song (October 1970) and album (January 1971). Still Woman Enough was primarily recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, TN, with producers Patsy Lynn Russell and John Carter Cash. “I am just so thankful to have some of my friends join me on my new album. We girl singers gotta stick together,” Lynn shares. “It’s amazing how much has happened in the fifty years since ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ first came out and I’m extremely grateful to be given a part to play in the history of American music.”
File Under: Country
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Madlib/Freddie Gibbs: Pinata: The ’74 Version (Madlib Invazion) LP
In tomorrow! “This single LP edit of Piñata has been lacquered at half speed master by Metropolis Mastering in London for the highest fidelity and is housed in a Blaxploitation-themed cover exclusively for Record Store Day 2020. This single LP version of Piñata, the acclaimed rap album from 2014 that debuted at Number 39 on Billboard’s Top 200, is presented in a unique cover for RSD 2020. The cover is a collaboration between Jeff Jank and Pathetic Pixels with inspiration found in the unique graphics and content of 1970s Blaxploitation films. Piñata is ‘a gangster Blaxploitation film on wax,’ says Gibbs, who came up on the streets of Gary, Indiana, the disregarded city previously best known for producing Michael Jackson. Here he is joined by Mac Miller, Earl Sweatshirt, Raekwon, Scarface, Domo Genesis, Ab-Soul and a host of others in setting his soliloquies of the streets alongside film snippets and dusted funk, soul and prog musical tapestries. This version of Piñata comes on the heels of the 2019 release of the duo’s acclaimed album Bandana, named album of the year by Hypebeast, Rap Caviar, and many others, and is a welcome reminder of the undeniable musical chemistry that first catalyzed 6 years ago, elevating Freddie Gibbs and Madlib to the upper echelon of the genre’s teams, and placing a classic album alongside the others Madlib issued over the years, from Madvillain’s Madvillainy to Quasimoto’s The Unseen.” Previously announced as an RSD 2020 release that nobody got. This version of Piñata comes on the heels of the 2019 release of the duo’s acclaimed album Bandana, named Album of the Year by Hypebeast, Rap Caviar, and many others, and is a welcome reminder of the undeniable musical chemistry that first catalyzed six years ago, elevating Freddie Gibbs and Madlib to the upper echelon of the genre’s teams, and placing a classic album alongside the others Madlib issued over the years, from Madvillain’s Madvillainy to Quasimoto’s The Unseen.
File Under: Hip Hop
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Manslaughter 777: World Vision Perfect Harmony (Thrill Jockey) LP
Manslaughter 777 is the new collaboration of drummer/percussionist Lee Buford (The Body) and drummer Zac Jones (Braveyoung/MSC). Debut album World Vision Perfect Harmony follows a decade of collaborations starting with The Body and Braveyoung’s Nothing Passes. For their debut as a duo, Buford and Jones blend bracing and imaginative takes on rhythmic-centric forms from dub, breakbeats, hip hop and beyond for a phantasmagoria of bristling drumscapes. Manslaughter 777 pulls together a vast array of disparate percussive traditions and patterns into a veil of dark, propulsive energy. Recorded and mixed by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets, the album’s mélange of live and sampled beats fizzle, splat and rupture with an edge. While there are sounds that could be at home on a record by The Body, Manslaughter 777 inhabits much more open spaces. The duo’s music is based primarily on drums and eclectic samples, shifting melodic ideas to the overtones and resonances of their respective percussive thuds or clicks. Buford and Jones incorporate hybridizations of live, sampled, and electronic percussion obscuring their boundaries while highlighting their specific tonal and timbral qualities. The repetitive amen break of “ARC” creates a hypnotic stasis before being broken wide open by bending and grizzly distorted hits. “Gainax” and “Mag Tech” both utilize a rolling tom pattern as a tonal drone that interplays with pitched bass drums to startlingly contrasting effects. Elysian vocal snippets and laidback tempos spin pieces like “I Can Not Tell You How I Feel” and “Do You Know Who Loves You” into more contemplative and ecstatic atmospheres. An alchemical balance of detailed and dynamic production guides each element to the fore in steady waves of relentless momentum. Taken as a whole, World Vision Perfect Harmony is a cornucopia of rhythmic texture. Manslaughter 777 channels a deluge of kineticism into a web of syncopated grooves that are equally entrancing and provocative. Audacious sound architects, Buford and Jones built an album that passionately revels in the world of rhythm. Manslaughter 777’s constructs glide as gracefully as they rumble. Together, they are a monument to the power of percussion.
File Under: Experimental, Drums, The Body
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Microphones: Foghorn Tape (PW Elverum) LP
Literally just the noisy fuzzed out tape loop of a “fog horn” (actually a distant pitch-bent bass) that plays through-out the background of “the Glow pt. 2” and other Microphones musics. LP / no digital option / CLEAR VINYL limited to 999 copies
File Under: Indie Rock
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Mong Tong: Mystery (Guruguru Brain) LP
Brothers Hom Yu and Jiun Chi returned to Taipei in 2017 after finishing their studies. Since then they began to explore their mutual obsession for Taiwanese occult-inspired art and vintage superstitious imagery, channeling it through music. Mong Tong means many things in Chinese, but the translation they choose to fit their music is “the east-side of dreams”. On “Mystery” these inspirations combine with the dark humour of Taiwanese folklore and a love of conspiracy theories to form what they describe as “a psychedelic journey to the east.” Recorded in their home studio in Taipei, “Mystery” is a psychedelic journey into Taiwanese folklore combined with the 80’s media obsession with the supernatural. It’s a record that manages to combine nostalgia and tradition with humour and an underlying intrinsic earthiness to create something unlike anything else out there.
File Under: Psych, Taiwan
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Moonspell: Hermitage (Napalm) LP
Moonspell is approaching their 30th anniversary as a band more ambitiously and stronger than ever. Hermitage – the gothic metal pioneers‘ thirteenth studio album – was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Paradise Lost, Primordial, Ghost, Sólstafir) at the Orgone Studios in the UK. Building upon the album’s dark, revolutionary and sensitive facets, it’s an entertaining yet epic journey through the darkest days of human existence. Beautifully crafted tracks such as “The Greater Good” show us the modernity of the wolves in 2021, while “Common Prayers” embraces the Moonspell tradition of writing a dark, gothic metal song like no other band can. “All Or Nothing” brings back the ethereal and melodic sounds of Moonspell, served by a beautiful musical landscape, making it most likely one of the deepest and most sincerely heart-breaking tunes the Portuguese dark metal titans have ever written. But of course, they don‘t stray away from their metal roots, especially influenced by underground metal bands like Bathory on tracks like the bombastic and epic metal anthem “The Hermit Saints.” Hermitage is a revolutionary, wonderfully intuitive and epic journey by one of the most distinctive dark metal bands of all time, and a testament to what they’ve always loved the most: Honest, emotional metal that binds us even in the darkest times. This first vinyl 2LP pressing also contains an exclusive bonus track, the Candlemass cover “Darkness in Paradise.”
File Under: Metal
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Kelly Moran/Prurient: Chain Reaction at Dusk (Hospital) LP
In tomorrow! Originally initiated for the Merzbow, Kelly Moran, Prurient USA tour (representing three generations of heavy electronics), this archival recording is finally released as Chain Reaction At Dusk. Moran and Prurient first met in 2018 in support of electronic music luminary Oneohtrix Point Never at his legendary debut of Myriad at the Park Avenue Armory. The two bonded over an unlikely composite of piano, drone and noise synthesis (Moran from John Cage, while early Prurient tapes cut-up Erik Satie). A leader in the realm of prepared piano, Kelly Moran quickly drew attention for her massive and seamlessly complex juxtapositions of plucked icy melodic sequences and deep sub bass compositions, culminating in a stunning 2018 LP, Ultraviolet for Warp Records. With three tracks of continuous intertwining melodic tension, Moran continues her juxtaposition of crystalline single note attacks upon a bed of massive low-end prepared drones. Shattering genre, Moran culls from a broad palate of classical, post-minimalism, ambient and other forms to free the piano from convention pushing high and low frequencies through electronic pairing and coupling. Recorded at her home in fall 2018, Moran’s split side showcases the composer’s prepared piano treated with delays and granular synthesis over a heavy wash of droning, arpeggiating synthesizers. Similarly, Prurient returns with a side parallax-view vocal barrage complimentary to Moran’s fractal modes. Composed at Guy Brewer’s (Shifted) former Berlin studio, Fernow accessed a cache of pristine analog synthesizers and sequencers while finishing the process with Kris Lapke in New York with layers of crude telephone dictation manipulation, resulting in surrealist vocal cut-ups — and “exquisite corpse” static. Kelly Moran speaks of her music and as movement on the psychedelic path and the interior, while Prurient’s noise derives nearly exclusively from dissociative and nightmarish imaginations. This is the meeting of psychedelia and anxiety disorder, but the opposing morphosis is ultimately one creation of “classical doom electronics”.
File Under: Experimental
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Mountain Goats: Songs for Pierre Chuvin (Merge) LP
Coloured vinyl! Surprise-released in April of 2020, Songs for Pierre Chuvin is the Mountain Goats’ first all-boombox album since 2002’s All Hail West Texas. “I dedicate this tape to everybody who’s waited a long time for the wheels to sound their joyous grind: may they grind us into a safe future where we gather once again in rooms to sing songs about pagan priests & hidden shelters, and where we see each other face to face,” says John Darnielle. “Hail the Panasonic! Hail the inscrutable engines of chance! Hail Cybele!” “Recording on the same boombox that launched his career, John Darnielle returns to his lo-fi roots for an album of alienation, ancient pagans, and making it through the year together.” – Pitchfork “Full of images fit for these dismal times and slogans suited to surviving them, Pierre Chuvin is an inspiring reminder of how much each of us has left to learn.” – NPR “Songs for Pierre Chuvin is exactly what we’ve come to expect: big-hearted songs full of warmth and smarts, custom-built to comfort and to inspire.” – Bandcamp
File Under: Indie Rock, Folk, LoFi
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Ennio Morricone: Exorcist II: The Heretic (Jackpot) LP
In tomorrow! “1977 original soundtrack LP for the horror sequel, music composed by Ennio Morricone. In one of his first forays into big budget Hollywood, Ennio Morricone handed in one of his weirdest, eeriest scores — Rolling Stone (top 35 greatest horror soundtracks). From the beautiful to the absolutely demented, while still playing in the same sandbox. Once you get to the deranged Satanic prog rock of ‘Magic And Ecstasy,’ it hits you: this is the craziest we’ve ever heard Morricone. And it’s amazing. ‘I like the first Exorcist, because of the Catholic guilt I have, and because it scared the hell out of me; but The Heretic surpasses it’. –Martin Scorsese”
File Under: OST
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Roisin Murphy: Roisin Machine (BMG) LP
Finally in stock! Róisín Murphy’s highly anticipated new album, the fabulously titled Róisín Machine is her first full length project since 2015’s Mercury Nominated Hairless Toys and 2016’s equally revered Take Her Up To Monto. Róisín Machine is the culmination of a rich, decades long partnership between Murphy and one of her most trusted collaborators Crooked Man aka DJ Parrot. Although packed to the rafters with masterclass singles, including “Simulation,” “Jealousy,” “Incapable,” Narcissus” and “Murphy’s Law,” it’s also an ingeniously and seamlessly edited listening experience, designed to be listened to in one uninterrupted sitting, from start to dazzling finish. From the intoxicating disco-funk of “Incapable,” to the quintessential “Narcissus” which crystallized New-Disco and established a high watermark for the genre, to “Murphy’s Law,” a 70’s inflected stomper, Roisin Machine offers up everything you could ask for on an exquisite plate. Added to the familiar tunes are five new songs, including the Dalek-funk of “We Got Together” and the fantastical “Shellfish Mademoiselle.” An album that works perfectly on the home sound system but also comes alive in a basement sweatbox, it impeccably sits alongside Murphy’s stellar cannon of work released across 25 boundary pushing, trailblazing years, a career encompassing iconic music, directorial, art and fashion moments.
File Under: Pop
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Shakey Graves: Roll the Bones X (Dualtone) LP
In honor of the tenth anniversary of Roll The Bones, Shakey Graves presents Roll The Bones X. Available everywhere for the first time, this very special reissue includes the original album paired with 15 Odds & Ends, of never before heard songs, demos, and deep cuts.
File Under: Folk, Country
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Sahib Shihab + Gilson Unit: La Marche Dans le Desert (Souffle Continu) LP
In tomorrow! Souffle Continu Records present the first vinyl reissue of Sahib Shihab + Jef Gilson Unit’s La Marche Dans Le Désert, originally released in 1972. A few months after having released Le Massacre Du Printemps (FFL 064LP), Jef Gilson was back behind his keyboards heading up his Unit. This time he was joined by Sahib Shihab. The caravan passes by, evoking, one after the other, Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane, Pierre Henry and Karlheinz Stockhausen… Oh yes, Shihab’s saxophone is… amplified. La Marche Dans Le Désert (The Walk in the Desert) is first and foremost the meeting of two iconoclastic musicians: Jef Gilson, pianist who tried his hand in all forms of jazz collaborating with emblematic American musicians (Walter Davis Jr., Woody Shaw, Nathan Davis…) or French musicians who were on their way to becoming so (Jean-Luc Ponty, Bernard Lubat, Michel Portal, Henri Texier…) Shihab is one of the many black American jazzmen who found refuge in Europe. After having played in the bands of Fletcher Henderson and Roy Eldridge, the saxophonist worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Art Blakey and Tadd Dameron. He came to the old continent with the Quincy Jones orchestra, spent a few years in Copenhagen, returned to Los Angeles, then came back to Europe. When he met Jef Gilson, in February 1972, the saxophonist was happily touring with the Clarke-Boland Big Band. La Marche Dans Le Désert was an opportunity for this supporting player to show what he was capable of. And it was some opportunity: with Gilson and his Unit (Pierre Moret on keyboards and Jean-Claude Pourtier on drums, Jef Catoire on double bass, and Bruno Di Gioia and Maurice Bouhana on flute and percussion respectively), Shihab got maximum exposure. To mark the occasion, he put aside his baritone saxophone to play a soprano… varitone. The amplified instrument, while losing nothing of its natural sound, was capable of generating the same presence as Gilson’s electronic keyboards. And it would change the face of modal jazz: in a forest of percussion, Shihab and Gilson go on a sensual walkabout that will remain with listeners for long after. Between the two takes of “Mirage”, Shihab, this time on baritone again, takes up the mantle once more of a style of jazz he was unable to strictly define. Licensed from Futura / Marge. Remastered from the master tapes; Restored artwork and obi strip.
File Under: Jazz
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Str4ta: Aspects (Brownswood) LP
A project that grew out of a jam session with long term friends and collaborators Gilles Peterson and Jean-Paul ‘Bluey’ Maunick, they capture the raw energy of the Brit-Funk scene of the early 80s over eight tracks. Following the limited white-label 12′ release of their debut single of the same name that featured the deadly Demus Dub on the b-side, STR4TA now present another exclusive vinyl that reflects the DIY spirit of that scene.
File Under: Jazz, Funk
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Joe Strummer: Assembly (Dark Horse) LP
Red vinyl! Assembly showcases carefully curated singles, fan favorites, and archival rarities from the Joe Strummer solo catalog. This 16-track compilation features three previously unreleased versions of classic Clash tracks, including the never-before-heard “Junco Partner (Acoustic)” and electrifying live performances of “Rudie Can’t Fail” and “I Fought The Law,” the latter two of which were recorded by Strummer and the Mescaleros at London’s Brixton Academy on November 24, 2001. George Harrison’s passion for introducing the world to new music expressed itself in May of 1974 when he created his own new label – Dark Horse Records. The label contained a variety of talented artists on its roster, including George himself. Assembly marks the first new Joe Strummer title released via the newly relaunched Dark Horse Records. Remastered by Grammy Award-winner Paul Hicks (The Beatles, George Harrison, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon), the album comes pressed on 180g double vinyl LP with gatefold sleeve packaging featuring a new written foreword by Jakob Dylan.
File Under: Punk, Clash
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Tenderlonious: Ragas From Lahore (22a) LP
In April 2019, 22a boss and multi-instrumentalist, Tenderlonious embarked on a trip to Pakistan to work with Lahore based instrumental quartet, Jaubi. Following on from the success of the three-track limited edition 10” vinyl release of ‘Tender in Lahore’ earlier this year, 22a presents the full LP-length suite of improvised Ragas from a one day recording session in Lahore, featuring four previously unreleased tracks.
File Under: Ambient, New Age
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Tokyo Police Club: Champ (Dine Alone) LP
The idea that you never get a second chance to make a first impression—that’s only partly true. But when you’ve made as strong an impression as Tokyo Police Club did with their first record and a half—2007’s Lesson in Crime EP and 2008’s Elephant Shell—it can be sneakily difficult to change the narrative, especially if the narrative has been good to you so far. But in deference to and celebration of its tenth birthday—that’s at least 50 in rock years—it is time to re-celebrate and re-examine Champ, the Canadian band’s fantastic-yet- underserved sophomore album. Champ is something of a lost classic of new-millennium indie-pop and deserves to be hoisted to the special place in your collection—physically or mentally—that you keep the good stuff. “Boots of Danger,” the single, is every bit as catchy as the Strokes’ “Last Nite,” though it trades New York cool for youthful Ontario exuberance. And it’s not just the hits that drive Champ: Its bench is deep, from the insistent, twitchily bouncer “Big Difference” to the sombre sorta-ballad “Hands Reversed,” which could be a cousin to the best Walkmen songs.
File Under: Indie Rock, Pop
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Tomahawk: Tonic Immobility (Ipecac) LP
Tomahawk show up just when we need them. Now, a lot has changed since we first met them. Hell, a lot has changed since the last time we heard from them seven years ago! It doesn’t matter though, because they’ve crept back just when things got really weird, and they’re ready to put the “new” into “new normal” with – wait for it – new music. On their 20th anniversary, they finally return with their fifth full-length album, Tonic Immobility. The guys – guitarist Duane Denison [the Jesus Lizard, Unsemble], vocalist Mike Patton [Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantômas], drummer John Stanier [Helmet, Battles], and bassist Trevor “field mouse” Dunn [Mr. Bungle, Fantômas] – survey where they’ve come from only to leap ahead once more. “Tonic Immobility is almost a summary of everything we’ve done,” states Duane. “There are references to previous things spread throughout the album as well as new territory. On any of our albums, you’ll find those faster, high energy, abrasive, and dissonant songs. You’ll also find the slower, atmospheric, groove- and tension-based moments too. There’s always been a touch of, dare I say, Latin music in the form of Bossa Nova or flamenco-influenced guitar. All of those things appear on this record.” The first single, “Business Casual” rides an ominous bass line and creaky palm-muting right into a clobbering hook managing to rhyme “bad cholesterol” and “business casual.” The second single (but album finale) “Dog Eat Dog” bares its teeth with grinding guitar and off-kilter falsetto. “Predators and Scavengers” pounces with erratic riffing and another manic refrain based on Duane watching “bobcats, foxes, birds, chipmunks, and other creatures in the backyard.” Then, there’s “Doomsday Fatigue,” which lassos together a Spaghetti Western-style soundscape and an eerily soothing refrain.
File Under: Metal, Rock, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle
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Witch: In the Past (Now Again) LP
In tomorrow! “Pressed on opaque green vinyl. ‘Electrified by a diet of James Brown, the Stones and Deep Purple, Witch were the stadium-filling kings of 70s Zamrock.’ –MOJO This landmark recording from Now-Again’s comprehensive overview of Zambia’s premier garage-, psych-, prog-, funk-, Afro-rock ensemble Witch, We Intend To Cause Havoc! is now available in a never before seen color variant. The audio is nigh-perfect — restored and remastered from the original master tapes. Witch’s musical arc is contained to a five-year span and, in retrospect, is a logical one. The band’s first two, self-produced albums — released in unison with the birth of the commercial Zambian recording industry — are exuberant experiments in garage rock, and are as influenced by the Rolling Stones as they are James Brown. In The Past, their second album, is the perfect follow-up for anyone exposed to the Witch band through their landmark Introduction.”
File Under: Psych, Africa, Zamrock
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Yas-Kaz: Virgo Indigo (Studio Mule) LP
In tomorrow! Studio Mule open the roster towards sophisticated spiritual sounds on the crossroads of electrified jazz, oriental fourth-world spheres and deeply composed experimental sounds. This time, the label welcomes Japanese artist Ya-Sukazu Sato, aka Yas-Kaz, a university-trained percussionist, that gained global success as a composer for the internationally known Butoh dance troupe Sankai Juku which has toured the world since 1975. His infrequent musical amalgamation of ancient Eastern genres, airy soundscapes, and ritualistic dance percussions perfectly accompanied the modern dance movements of an avant-garde dance group that is known for slow, mesmerizing dance passages, whose repetitive body movements sometimes focusing only on the feet or fingers. Besides his theater work, Yas-Kaz composed scores for Japanese movies, performed live along stars like US-American jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter or legendary Japanese new-age musical group Himekami, and recorded a number of collaborative and solo albums. Studio Mule reissues his third solo album, Virgo Indigo, originally published on the Japanese label canyon in 1986. The album opens with “Djidanda”, a composition whose melodic drive and percussive groove is reminiscent of Moondog’s spirit. Melancholic strings, loose guitar riffs, spiritual cowbells and wild, yet mild rhythms form a repetitive maelstrom that is made for all sorts of acrobatic body movements. Its followed by the album’s title track “Virgo Indigo”, a spiritual jazz leaning arrangement featuring Wayne Shorter on the soprano saxophone, delivering a crystal-clear performance above tribal rhythms and traces of Gamelan. The story-arc of the ten-minute long composition also brings minimalistic percussive moments, oriental ambient zones, and some electronic drones. “Kara-Kira ~Windscape III~” is an airy spiritual illusion that melds joyful flute notes with gentle chime melodies. “WADJI” starts with an industrial feel, just to break down into a manic, again Moondog-ish, atmosphere full of darkish sounds and nebulous ambient music. Yas-Kaz enters the oriental zones with “Notarinotari”, seducing with a jazz-laden romantic soundtrack mood. The final tune, “Jasmin”, is yet another surprise, a percussive-driven neon cocktail bar pop that features a humming female voice and mesmerizing synth and guitar melodies. Six tracks that introduce six different locations of Yas-Kaz’s ramified artistic work, combining sweetish melodies, dynamic percussions, statuesque minimalism, and world music traditions in spacious compositions.
File Under: Ambient, Jazz
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Various: Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2 (World Circuit) LP
Cumbia, the music and the dance synonymous with Colombia, has been around almost since the 17th century. Today, it’s a badge of identity for Colombians everywhere, but is now also enjoying a global renaissance; filling dance floors and captivating a new generation of music fans. Originally released by World Circuit as two separate albums – Cumbia Cumbia in 1989 and Cumbia Cumbia 2 in 1993 – this collection brings together some of the greatest recordings made by Colombia’s legendary record label, Discos Fuentes, between 1954 and 1988. Discos Fuentes was founded in Cartagena in 1934 by the visionary musician, arranger and producer, Antonio Lopez Fuentes. It was the first important record label in the country and grew into a company of immense significance for Colombian music, responsible for thousands of hits and scores of legendary singers and musicians over six decades. Fuentes hand-picked his musicians and singers then meticulously arranged, produced and recorded their music in-house. This collection presents thirty of these three-minute-masterpieces, showcasing the gamut of styles that make up the distinctive and irresistible cumbia sound; a sound typified by a loping 2/4 gait and a pulsing rocksteady bassline, overlaid with heavy rural percussion, brass, accordion, clarinet, electric guitar and vocals. LP1 features a broad range of cumbia styles with recordings from 1960 through to 1988, whilst LP2 digs further into the classics of the past focusing almost exclusively on the 1950s and 1960s. Featuring cumbia’s biggest hits from Rudolfo y su Tipica, Gabriel Romero, Sonoro Dinamita and Armando Hernandez, Cumbia Cumbia 1 and 2 is a flawless collection from the Golden Age of Cumbia.
File Under: Latin America
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Various: Nativity in Black (Real Gone) LP
Blew through these in a minute, but if you’re lucky, there might still be one left… Hard to believe in this day and age, but this killer 1994 Black Sabbath tribute 2-LP set was not originally released on vinyl in the U.S.! The record went gold, and features the one and only performance (“The Wizard”) by the Bullring Brummies, which takes the term “metal supergroup” to a whole new level: Rob Halford from Judas Priest, Scott “Wino” Weinrich from The Obsessed and Vitus; Fight guitarist Brian Tilse, and Geezer Butler and Bill Ward from Black Sabbath themselves (not to be undone, Ozzy sings with Therapy? on “Iron Man”)! Megadeth got a Grammy nom for its cover of “Paranoid,” too’and that’s Ministry’s Al Jourgenson guesting with 1000 Homo DJ’s and Bruce Dickinson guesting with Godspeed! Pressed at Gotta Groove Records.
File Under: Metal
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Various: Rocksteady Got Soul (Soul Jazz) LP
Soul Jazz Records’ new Studio One release Rocksteady Got Soul is a collection of uplifting and superb rocksteady and soulful reggae from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Studio One is the number one label in the history of reggae and he album features – as ever with Studio One – an impeccable and unbeatable line-up of reggae superstars, all soaring at the height of their creative powers. Alton Ellis, John Holt, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Ethiopians, Lee Perry and more. The album is a mix of classic tunes and rhythms alongside super-rarities that were released in a dazzlingly complex web of Studio One labels and issues, deftly navigated with new sleeve notes from author and Studio One authority Rob Chapman. But enough with the chatter, just spin the platter – these tunes rule the town, hands down!
File Under: Reggae
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Various: Spiritual Jazz 13: Now! Part One (Jazzman) LP
In tomorrow! Gatefold sleeve; includes download card. Modern sounds for the 21st century featuring modal, progressive and esoteric contemporary jazz from the UK, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, USA, Belgium, Canada, South Africa, Sweden, Germany, and Italy. The first 12 volumes of Jazzman Records’ hugely popular Spiritual Jazz series have unearthed a wealth of historic recordings in the genre, collating a variety of works from the ’50s to the ’80s by artists from all around the world. And so, with Volume 13, the label turn their attention to what’s happening NOW. Over the course of 24 tracks and spanning two sets, Jazzman Records present an overview of the contemporary exponents of spiritual jazz; musicians who are intent on bringing something personal to the table, as much as they recognize the importance of those who have paved the way for them. We feature music recorded within the past 20 years and from 15 different countries, including modern classics from veterans Steve Reid and Idris Ackamoor, providing a vital link between the past masters and the enlightened new generation. It’s pioneers such as John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, et al, with their innovations in reaching another plane of consciousness that was and remains uppermost in the minds of exponents of spiritual jazz. Fittingly, several of the artists featured on this compilation, such as Cat Toren and David Boykin, are practitioners of the art of music therapy and sound healing, and have absolute conviction in the role of song as solace. The pioneers may no longer be with us, but their saintly selves loom large, shining a light in the darkness, inspiring many a brave new disciple today, as this album will testify: the new wave of jazz is gathering pace and still sounds fresh, vibrant and as relevant as ever. Extensive liners with pictures. Features Benjamin Herman, Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids, Nat Birchall, Chip Wickham, Jimi Tenor And Kabukabu, Black Flower, Darryl Yokley, Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble, Oiro Pena, Cat Toren, Shabaka & The Ancestors, and Makaya McCraven.
File Under: Jazz
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Various: Spiritual Jazz 13: Now! Part Two (Jazzman) LP
In tomorrow! Gatefold sleeve; includes download card. Modern sounds for the 21st century featuring modal, progressive and esoteric contemporary jazz from the UK, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, USA, Belgium, Canada, South Africa, Sweden, Germany, and Italy. The first 12 volumes of Jazzman Records’ hugely popular Spiritual Jazz series have unearthed a wealth of historic recordings in the genre, collating a variety of works from the ’50s to the ’80s by artists from all around the world. And so, with Volume 13, the label turn their attention to what’s happening NOW. Over the course of 24 tracks and spanning two sets, Jazzman Records present an overview of the contemporary exponents of spiritual jazz; musicians who are intent on bringing something personal to the table, as much as they recognize the importance of those who have paved the way for them. We feature music recorded within the past 20 years and from 15 different countries, including modern classics from veterans Steve Reid and Idris Ackamoor, providing a vital link between the past masters and the enlightened new generation. It’s pioneers such as John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, et al, with their innovations in reaching another plane of consciousness that was and remains uppermost in the minds of exponents of spiritual jazz. Fittingly, several of the artists featured on this compilation, such as Cat Toren and David Boykin, are practitioners of the art of music therapy and sound healing, and have absolute conviction in the role of song as solace. The pioneers may no longer be with us, but their saintly selves loom large, shining a light in the darkness, inspiring many a brave new disciple today, as this album will testify: the new wave of jazz is gathering pace and still sounds fresh, vibrant and as relevant as ever. Extensive liners with pictures. Features The Cosmic Range, Vibration Black Finger, Abeeku, Wildflower, The Pyramids, Steve Reid, Carla Marciano, Angel Bat Dawid, Menagerie, Teemu Akerblom, The Jamie Saft Quartet, and Jonas Kullhammar.
File Under: Jazz
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…..Restocks….
Robbie Basho: Visions of the Country (Gnome Song) LP
Behemoth: And the Forests Dream Eternally (Metal Blade) LP
Black Sabbath: s/t (Rhino) LP
Black Sabbath: Technical Ecstasy (Rhino) LP
David Bowie: Hunky Dory (Parlophone) LP
David Bowie: Low (Parlophone) LP
David Bowie: Legacy (Legacy) LP
The Cure: Disintegration (Rhino) LP
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (Legacy) LP
El Michel’s Affair: Yeti Season (Big Crown) LP
Gatecreeper: An Unexpected Reality (Closed Casket) LP
Grant Green: Born to be Blue (Blue Note) LP
Inoyamaland: Danzindan–Pojidon (WRWTFWW) LP
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges: Texas Sun (Dead Oceans) LP
Kings of Leon: When You See Yourself (RCA) LP
Led Zeppelin: s/t (Atlantic) LP
Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy (Atlantic) LP
Curtis Mayfield: Curtis (Curtom) LP
Metallica: Garage Days ReRevisited (Blackened) LP
Metallica: …And Justice For All (Blackened) LP
Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah Um Redux (Get on Down) LP
Mount Eerie & Julie Doiron: Lost Wisdom 2 (PW Elverum) LP
Ngozi Family: 45,000 Volts (Now Again) LP
Outkast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (Arista) LP
Anderson Paak: Malibu (Steel Wool) LP
Otis Redding: Otis Blue (Sundazed) LP
Tyler The Creator: Igor (Columbia) LP
Chad VanGaalen: World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener (Flemish Eye) LP
Violent Femmes: s/t (Craft) LP
Colter Wall: Imaginary Appalachia (Thirty Tigers) LP
Colter Wall: Songs of the Plains (Thirty Tigers) LP
Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud (Merge) LP
Various: Numero 95 (Numero) LP
Various: Ork Records (Numero) BOX
Various: Son Cubano NYC (Honest Jons) LP