Well, Happy New Year. Here we are in the future, and who knew, the future is cold. Not a lot of new stuff in this week, in fact most of this came last week. But it’s here, so you should come and buy it! You probably got some gift cards, or cash from Santa, and Santa wants you to buy records….
As previously mentioned, in line with current health restrictions we are operating as below..
– in-store shopping/pick ups – 11 – 6 pm Monday – Friday, 11 am – 4 pm Saturday
(if you don’t want to come into the store for a pick up, call and/or use the back door)
– Max 4people in the store at a time
– Wear a mask(if you don’t have one, we’ll have some)
– Sanitizeyour hands(we’ll have some)
…..pick of the week…..
Old Saw: Country Topics (Lobby Art) LP
Devotional music and its devotees all do a bit of “buying in”; that while one’s on the ground reality may appear anything but celestial, through this music, one can reach ecstatic space, ecstatic peace. However, devotional music is not solely concerned with a skyward glance – what does it look like to raise up the rust, look upon fractured branches, gaze at the density of a low fog across a field? Instead of us looking up at the land, what if the land was looking back at us? Old Saw brings together a brigade of New England silt sifters to raise up the land not as excavators, but as preparators. Tending and caring for the simple mess that our world discards. Throughout “Country Tropics” four pieces, the crew stretches and bends chords to their resting place before setting forth towards a new one. Fiddle drone, wistful tape loops of pedal steel, pipe organ hums, and clattering bells call us to scenes of observation, a water tower, a mechanical bull rental agency, a back porch, a taxidermy shop, a local church choir, a garden with singing vines, voltage hum of the electric fence on Pulp mill bridge road. The funny thing about devotion is the absence of sight, of source. We place trust in the guide or guides to bring us to a place of seeing, feeling, and hearing. The music on “Country Tropics” calls out to those in search of such places, but also doesn’t demand we conjure some fantastical, celestial vision of understanding. Rather, Old Saw points our gaze downward towards the terrafirma unconsidered, and guides our hands into the dirt.
File Under: Drone
Buy Here
…..new arrivals…..
Altons: Tangled Up In You (Penrose) 7″
The Altons return with two awe-inspiring sides of soulful excellence. Bryan Ponce’s delicate, plaintive vocal, this time accompanied by the sweet, rich timbre of Adriana Flores make for two earnest duets that exude palpable chemistry. On “Tangled Up…” the pair sing of a love affair that has run its course but (against their better judgement) lingers in the form of late night entanglements and dream-induced longing – imprisoning the lovers on a carousel of heartache and despair. “Soon Enough” is a gorgeously sparse ballad rife with melancholic guitar, percolating percussion and a groove that will have you swaying side to side with the one you love.
File Under: Funk, Soul
Buy Here
Autechre: Chiastic Slide (Warp) LP
One of the most distinctive and revered electronic groups of all time, The Autechre sound reached even deeper levels of intricate programming and layered, subtle detail on this their fourth record for Warp, 1997’s underrated Chiastic Slide. 2021 vinyl 2LP reissue.
File Under: Electronic
Buy Here
Autechre: LP5 (Warp) LP
One of the most distinctive and revered electronic groups of all time, The Autechre sound reached even deeper levels of intricate programming and layered, subtle detail on this their fifth record for Warp, 1998’s LP5. 2021 vinyl 2LP reissue.
File Under: Electronic
Buy Here
David Bowie: Toy Box (Parlophone) 6×10″
David Bowie’s legendary Toy receives its long awaited official release in early-2022 here across six 10″ vinyl discs. This Toy box set is a special edition of the album. The ‘capture the moment’ approach of the recording sessions are extended to the sleeve artwork designed by Bowie featuring a photo of him as a baby with a contemporary face. The package also contains a 16-page full-color book featuring previously unseen photographs by Frank Ockenfels 3. Toy was recorded following David’s triumphant Glastonbury 2000 performance. Bowie entered the studio with his band, Mark Plati, Sterling Campbell, Gail Ann Dorsey, Earl Slick, Mike Garson, Holly Palmer and Emm Gryner, to record new interpretations of songs he’d first recorded from 1964-1971. David planned to record the album ‘old school’ with the band playing live, choose the best takes and then release it as soon as humanly possible in a remarkably prescient manner. Unfortunately, in 2001 the concept of the ‘surprise drop’ album release and the technology to support it were still quite a few years off, making it impossible to release Toy, as the album was now named, out to fans as instantly as David wanted. In the interim, David did what he did best; he moved on to something new, which began with a handful of new songs from the same sessions and ultimately became the album Heathen, released in 2002 and now acknowledged as one of his finest moments.
File Under: Rock, Pop
Buy Here
Boy Harsher: Lesser Man (Extended Editon) (Nude) LP
Lesser Man (Extended Version) is the first release of Boy Harsher`s imprint, Nude Club Records, originally released on cassette by Soft Science in (2014), and Night People (2015). The album was reissued by the infamous Berlin goth label aufnahme + wiedergabe in Nov 2017 on 500 copies, and sold out in less than two weeks. Remastered by Thomas P. Heckmann at Trope Mastering, Lesser Man (Extended Version) includes the dark wave hit, ‘Pain’ and the unreleased track ‘Run’ which was recorded during the Lesser Man session. LP version includes digital download code + 2 bonus tracks: ‘Pain (radio edit)’ and ‘Pain (The Soft Moon Remix.’)
File Under: Electronic
Buy Here
Bill Charlap Trip: Street of Dreams (Blue Note) LP
Pianist Bill Charlap returns to Blue Note with Street of Dreams, a stunning new album featuring his revered longstanding trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington. Street of Dreams is a celebration of New York City as it emerges from an unprecedentedly challenging period, as reflected in the eight impeccably curated songs on the album, a delightful mix of jazz classics and Songbook favorites. It’s also a reflection of the literal and metaphorical road traveled together by Charlap and the Washingtons during nearly 25 years as a trio. During that time they’ve become so deeply attuned that on Street of Dreams they seem to breathe as one, whether setting off into rollicking swing or fragile balladry. The album is thus a celebration of these three eloquent voices reconvening, so it’s apt that this homecoming takes place on Blue Note, which released so many of the trio’s acclaimed recordings throughout the first decade of this millennium including Written In The Stars, Stardust, Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein, and Live at the Village Vanguard.
File Under: Jazz
Buy Here
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme (Acoustic Sounds Series) (Impulse) LP
Back in stock! Some music is so finely crafted that the genre in which it is conceived becomes irrelevant to the music itself. Such was the case with much of the work of saxophonist John Coltrane – an artist commonly regarded as a jazz composer, but one whose musical vision transcends the boundaries of what is considered jazz and what is not. Decades after his death, Coltrane continues to inspire musicians of every perspective – not just jazz players, but any composer or performer who recognizes and respects the inherently exploratory and universal nature of music. Originally issued on the Impulse label in 1964, A Love Supreme is the essential document of the genius of John Coltrane and remains one of the most important and influential jazz records ever made. The four-part suite finds Coltrane yearning for spiritual and musical freedom while coalescing the hard bop sensibilities of his early career with the free jazz style that he would adopt later on. Trane is without a doubt an artist whose sincerity and integrity shines through his work and A Love Supreme is as genuine and fully realized as they come. This all-analog 180g vinyl LP Verve reissue was mastered from the original analog tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, pressed at QRP, and comes housed in a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket.
File Under: Jazz
Buy Here
Kenny Cox: Introducing (Blue Note) LP
Blue Note Records has announced the continuation of the Classic Vinyl Reissue Series which presents 180g vinyl LP reissues in standard packaging mastered by Kevin Gray and manufactured at Optimal. The pressings are all-analog whenever an analog source is available, with Gray mastering directly from the original master tapes. While the first 16 titles of the series focused on the best-known Blue Note classics from the 1950s and 60s, the new run of titles curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman broadens its scope to span the many eras and styles of the legendary label’s eight-decade history presented by themes: Bebop, Hard Bop, Soul Jazz, Post-Bop, Avant-Garde, The 70s, The Rebirth, and Hidden Gems. Many great Blue Note artists have hailed from the jazz hotbed of Detroit over the course of the label’s history including Donald Byrd, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers, Thad Jones, Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, and many more. Perhaps the only instance on an entire band coming out of Detroit was with Kenny Cox and The Contemporary Jazz Quintet, a fantastic but unsung combo led by pianist Kenny Cox which featured Joe Henderson’s brother Leon Henderson on tenor saxophone, Charles Moore on trumpet, Ron Brooks on bass, and Danny Spencer on drums. The quintet made two excellent albums in the late 1960s including their debut album Introducing Kenny Cox and The Contemporary Jazz Quintet, a hidden gem of the Blue Note catalog which was recorded in 1968. The band was certainly influenced by the post-bop explorations of the Miles Davis Quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, but the CJQ exhibited its own unique sensibilities on memorable originals like “Mystique,” “Trance Dance,” “Diahnn,” and David Durrah’s beautiful piece “You.”
File Under: Jazz
Buy Here
Fucked Up: David Comes to Life (Matador) LP
In 2011, Toronto’s Fucked Up delivered an album that chafed the edges of punk rock’s conceptual boundaries – a set of songs that splayed freely into unexpected instrumentation, psychedelic drift, and situationist philosophy. Its ambition was limitless and its run time opulent. Which is to say, they made a concept album. In December 2021, Matador Records celebrates the 10th anniversary of Fucked Up’s titanic 78-minute early ’10s masterpiece, David Comes to Life, with a colored vinyl 2LP reissue. David Comes To Life is a story of lost love, global meltdown, depression, bombs, guilt and madness. Or is it? A modern-day morality tale set amid the dour backdrop of a British industrial town in the late ’70s, it’s a four-part play that follows the dark moods and inner psyche of the titular hero. At the same time, the reliability of the narrator gets called into question. The tables are turned, responsibility shifts, and the story goes meta. Of course, you could always ignore the backstory and just listen to a fiercely imaginative double album of blistering, melodic rock ‘n’ roll shot through with all manner of psychic weirdness. Fucked Up will be performing the album in full on a North American tour in early 2022.
File Under: Punk
Buy Here
Home Front: Think of the Lie (La Vida Es Un Mus) LP
Created on the western edges of the infinite plains and prairies of coldest Canada, Edmonton, Alberta’s HOME FRONT dance freely and madly along the edges of time and create their own moment amongst the revered and long frozen reserves of THE CURE, SUICIDE, ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN, “Second Empire Justice” era BLITZ, and NEW ORDER. A record bubbling over with analog synth, guitar loops, slammed 808 drums, and anthemic vocal pushes tugging at the great moment in-between the “death” of punk and the “birth” of new wave, pulling fresh sounds into their punk roots and shoving a studded leather jacket around a silk robe. Justice, violence, doubt and uncertainty a la Gary Numan narrating a Warren Miller Extreme Ski Special on the set of TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA: this is HOME FRONT.
File Under: Punk
Buy Here
Kid Cudi: Man on the Moon III: The Chosen (Republic) LP
Kid Cudi delivers the latest installment of his Man on the Moon series – Man on the Moon III: The Chosen. The 18-track album features contributions from Phoebe Bridgers, Trippie Redd, Skepta, and the late Pop Smoke. Man on the Moon III: The Chosen comes 10 years after the second installment of the trilogy, The Legend of Mr. Rager, and 11 years after Cudi’s Grammy-nominated debut studio album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, which drew wide critical acclaim for its fresh and eclectic sound.
File Under: Hip Hop
Buy Here
My Morning Jacket: Z (ATO) LP
My Morning Jacket has built a reputation as a group who consistently challenges the paradigms in which they are placed. From psychedelic to soul to classic rock & roll, MMJ’s range has remained steadfast throughout the band’s 20 plus years. While much of the John Leckie (XTC, Radiohead) produced Z (2005) came as a shock, even the surprises should seem perfectly natural in hindsight. The combination of the hushed, indie balladry of their early records with the spacious guitar rock of 2003 breakout It Still Moves was to be expected, but here they deliver newer, more exotic rhythms and textures, which made it clear that this was a great band, doing great things, who were maybe playing it safe previously. An ambitious leap of faith into a new frontier, the crafty and creative affair was universally praised with Pitchfork calling Z “My Morning Jacket’s OK Computer” and Rolling Stone ranking it among their ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’. Previously out of print, MMJ is celebrating the 15th anniversary of Z with a colored vinyl 2LP reissue housed in gatefold jacket packaging.
File Under: Rock, Pop
Buy Here
Pamela Z: Echolocation (Freedom to Spend) LP
Echolocation is the debut work by Pamela Z, the pioneering Bay Area intermedia performance artist and composer. Recorded, released and distributed on cassette by Pamela in 1988, and a definitive, genre-defying document of her earliest experiments with live voice and delay, this first-time vinyl edition of the album is remastered from original sources and expanded with liner notes.
File Under: Electronic
Buy Here
Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band: Egypt Strut (Strut) LP
In 1968, while he was also the leader of the Military Music Departments in Heliopolis, Salah Ragab formed the first jazz big band in Egypt, The Cairo Jazz Band. Some of the best musicians in Egypt of that time were members – Zaki Osman (trumpet), Saied Salama (tenor sax), Khamis El-Kholy (piano) and Ala Mostafa (piano). On these recordings The Band consists of five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass, drums and percussion and various other oriental instruments. The opening concert of The Cairo Jazz Band was in Ewart Memorial Hall at The American University 23/02/1969 followed by many other concerts in various prestigious places such as the Old Opera House, The University of Alexandria and appearances on Egyptian TV Jazz Club Weekly. Salah Ragab studied jazz theory and improvisation with the jazz musician and composer from Kansas City, USA, Osman Kareem, with whom he formed the first Jazz Quintet in Cairo in 1963 recording with the Radio Service of Cairo. He accompanied the great bandleader and composer Sun Ra on a tour in Egypt, Greece, France and Spain in 1984. These recordings present Salah Ragab and The Cairo Jazz Band’s definitive work, recorded in Heliopolis Egypt between 1968 and 1973. Western jazz musicians have been fascinated with the world of Islam for many years, for religious, spiritual, musical and sociological reasons. It was therefore inevitable that musicians of the Arabian North African area would play a part in the interaction of these two musical cultures. The compositions correspond to the cross-over of musical styles at the time of the recording 6000 miles away across the Mediterranean and Atlantic in New York with releases on Moodsville by Yusef Lateef and RCA by Ahmed Abdul-Malik. This record represents the Cairo Jazz Band responding to the American jazz scene in the 60’s and 70’s with influences from Mongo Santamaria to Randy Weston to Sun Ra. These tracks (apart from “Egypt Strut”) were first presented by the Ministry Of Culture in Cairo as a Prism Music Unit Production.
File Under: Jazz
Buy Here
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross: The Social Network (Null) LP
The groundbreaking debut score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Original Score, presented in its Definitive Edition on 180g vinyl 2LP. For The Social Network soundtrack, Reznor said that the ambience the duo created is “sometimes chilly, sometimes warm, but always spoiling around the edges. We wanted something a bit more Tangerine Dream than Debussy. I started thinking about something synthetic for Zuckerberg, his choices, his path. I don’t know the real Mark Zuckerberg but I understand that character. The act of creation at any cost, I can relate to.” The original vinyl pressing of The Social Network OST goes for upwards of $200.
File Under: OST, Nine Inch Nails
Buy Here
Jimmy Smith: Home Cookin’ (Blue Note) LP
Blue Note Records has announced the continuation of the Classic Vinyl Reissue Series which presents 180g vinyl LP reissues in standard packaging mastered by Kevin Gray and manufactured at Optimal. The pressings are all-analog whenever an analog source is available, with Gray mastering directly from the original master tapes. While the first 16 titles of the series focused on the best-known Blue Note classics from the 1950s and 60s, the new run of titles curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman broadens its scope to span the many eras and styles of the legendary label’s eight-decade history presented by themes: Bebop, Hard Bop, Soul Jazz, Post-Bop, Avant-Garde, The 70s, The Rebirth, and Hidden Gems. The Incredible Jimmy Smith was a self-taught keyboard virtuoso who gave up the piano in 1954 in favor of the Hammond B3 organ, setting up shop in a warehouse in Philadelphia and woodshedding for a year before emerging with a revolutionary approach to the instrument that immediately caught the ear Alfred Lion. The Blue Note founder recorded the B3 innovator as often as he could between 1956-1963 in a range of different settings and released a tremendous run of albums that laid the foundation for the soul jazz movement. Drawn from three different sessions recorded in 1958-1959, Home Cookin’ featured Smith in a quartet with tenor saxophonist Percy France, guitarist Kenny Burrell, and drummer Donald Bailey, and it stands as one of the most deeply soulful albums Smith ever made. The band gives a soul jazz symposium on this seven-song set that includes covers of tunes by Ma Rainey, Ray Charles, and Jimmy McGriff along with originals by Smith and Burrell.
File Under: Jazz
Buy Here
Dr. Lonnie Smith: Breathe (Blue Note) LP
Breathe captures the Hammond B-3 organ legend Dr. Lonnie Smith during his 75th birthday run at the Jazz Standard in NYC in 2017, the same week he recorded his acclaimed trio album All In My Mind. On this night the good doctor took the stage with an expanded line-up featuring Jonathan Kreisberg on guitar, Johnathan Blake on drums, John Ellis on tenor saxophone, Jason Marshall on baritone saxophone, Sean Jones on trumpet, and Robin Eubanks on trombone. Two additional studio tracks that open and close the album present the unique collaboration between Doc and Iggy Pop including a sublime cover of Donovan’s 1966 hit “Sunshine Superman.” Breathe is Smith’s third Blue Note album since his 2016 return to the label where he made a name for himself in the late ’60s, first as a sideman with saxophonist Lou Donaldson on soul jazz classics like Alligator Bogaloo, and soon after as a leader with his own classics such as Think! and Turning Point. His last three albums have all been produced by Blue Note president Don Was. “Don has been hands on, there all the time,” Lonnie says. “He believes in you. I’ve worked with producers who don’t understand the musicians they’re working with. But Don, he wants me to be myself, to understand what I like to do. It’s a reminder of the old days when Frank Wolff used to be the same. Blue Note is like family. It’s like I never left. Everybody is great to work with. They give me the opportunity to play my life, to tell my story.”
File Under: Jazz
Buy Here
Sunset Rubdown: Shut Up I Am Dreaming (Pronounced Krooog) LP
Originally released in 2006 on Absolutely Kosher Records, Shut Up I Am Dreaming is the first full-band effort from Montreal’s Sunset Rubdown, a project that had until then been reserved for the solo experiments of Wolf Parade’s Spencer Krug. Though met with praise by fans and critics alike, Shut Up I Am Dreaming wasn’t made available on vinyl at the time. Now, fifteen years later, Pronounced Kroog has had it pressed. The album was remastered for vinyl at Greymarket Mastering by Harris Newman (the same engineer who mastered the original), and the original cover art by Matt Moroz has been reformatted for LP. After a decade and a half of earnest inquiries, Sunset Rubdown fans can finally listen to Shut Up I Am Dreaming on vinyl. About time.
File Under: Indie Rock
Buy Here
Tekarra: Kicking Horse (Saw-Whet) LP
4 years after their successful self-titled debut, doom trio TEKARRA have returned with their second full-length LP KICKING HORSE. Amidst the original covid-19 confusion and subsequent tour cancellation, Tekarra began piecing together what would become the follow-up to their crushing debut. Recording sessions took place September 2020 at Lee Valley Studios by Jake Ian and mastering was carried out by Esben Willems (Monolord) at Studio Beserk in Gothenburg. As for the music itself; The compositions still reach great lengths, the riffs still carry monolithic weight. And yet, the trudge through nature’s ranges has become more unforgiving than ever before. KICKING HORSE brings down the unfathomable and it does not ease up until it’s over. This is Tekarra at their darkest and bleakest yet Available now on vinyl through Saw-whet Records (Canada) and on CD by LSDR Records (Mexico).
File Under: Metal, Stoner
Buy Here
Joel Vandroogenbroeck: Far View (Drag City) LP
Far View is a compilation of tracks from Joel Vandroogenbroeck’s (Brainticket) series of library music releases for the Coloursound label – a uniquely trippy catalog of music vignettes long overdue for their day in the library music sun, remastered from the original analog reels! The late Vandroogenbroeckeck was among that rare breed of musician who defy all categorization, using music conventions to explore the far reaches of human and cosmic consciousness. After passing through the jazz and rock worlds from the 1950s through the ’70s, Joel found new outlets for his expansive vision in the ’80s with the Swiss library music label Coloursound. Far View draws tracks from these releases, which form a unique entry in the genre of library music. For the uninitiated, this is just one way to begin a brilliant musical trip through Vandroogenbroeckeck’s undersung career.
File Under: Electronic, Library
Buy Here
Various: Lost in Translation OST (Rhino) LP
Lost In Translation (Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack) was the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s Academy Award winning movie of the same name. The soundtrack earned supervisor / composers Brian Reitzell and Kevin Shields a BAFTA nomination. It featured five Kevin Shields tracks (one of which was a My Bloody Valentine track) it also featured artists including; Air, Death in Vegas, Squarepusher and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Pressed on black vinyl.
File Under: OST
Buy Here
…..restocks…..
Dorothy Ashby: Dorothy’s Harp (Music on Vinyl) LP
Frank Black: Cult of Ray (Demon) LP
Bohren & Der Club of Gore: Black Earth (PIAS) LP
Bohren & Der Club of Gore: Sunset Mission (PIAS) LP
Bon Iver: 22, A Millions (Jagjaguwar) LP
Childish Gambino: Awaken, My Love (Glassnote) LP
Gal Costa: India (Mr. Bongo) LP
Al Green: Let’s Stay Together (Fat Possum) LP
George Harrison: All Things Must Pass (Capitol) 3LP
King Crimson: In the Court of… (Panegyric) LP
LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver (DFA) LP
Neutral Milk Hotel: In The Aeroplane Over the Sea (Merge) LP
Art Pepper: Meets the Rhythm Section (OJC) LP
Spoon: Girls Can Tell (Merge) LP
Spoon: Kill the Moonlight (Merge) LP
Spoon: Telephono (Merge) LP
Stone Roses: s/t (Sony) LP
Swirlies: They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days… (Taang) LP
System of a Down: Toxicity (American) LP
Talk Talk: Laughing Stock (EMI) LP
Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden (EMI) LP
Arthur Verocai: s/t (Mr. Bongo) LP