Another week, more records. Our first real batch of shipments this year, some much needed restocks and some real tasty new slabs. We’ve also got a bunch of great stuff en route, some which was SUPPOSED to show up today but… here we are and they are not, oh well, there’s always tomorrow….
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)
…..picks of the week…..
Bill Fay: Still Some Light Part 1 (Dead Oceans) LP
Bill Fay has always sung about attempting to understand the most universal questions: those of nature, spirituality, humanity. His songs are “calming hymns for another chaotic time,” he says. His influence can be traced through many artist’s work, and so it only seemed right to celebrate this with a collection of newer voices interpreting his timeless tracks. Originally released in 2010 by David Tibet (Current 93), Still Some Light was released as a double CD, made up of 70’s album demos (Disc One) and 2009 home recordings (Disc Two). For the first time, this collection of recordings is pressed to vinyl. Released in two parts, Still Some Light: Part 1 is released in January 2022 while Part 2 follows in April.
File Under: Folk, SSW
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Various: Program 3: Sonic Communications from the Circle City (Medium Sound) 2xCS
Twenty-eight tracks across two tapes of strange electronics, free-wheeling aural experiments and other sonic trickery from Indianapolis, the greater Midwest and beyond
File Under: Electronic, Ambient, Tapes
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…..new arrivals…..
Cannonball Adderley: Somethin’ Else (Blue Note) LP
Blue Note Records is pleased to present the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series, a continuation of their acclaimed Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series which was launched in celebration of the label’s 80th anniversary in 2019. The Classic Series will once again feature all-analog 180g vinyl pressings in standard packaging that are mastered by Kevin Gray directly from the original master tapes and manufactured at Optimal in Germany. The first 16 titles of the Classic Series will focus on the enduring classics of the Blue Note catalog. The Classic Series will be on-going, running alongside the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series which is produced by Joe Harley. “Is that what you wanted, Alfred?” we hear in Miles Davis’ unmistakable rasp at the end of “One for Daddy-O,” making it clear that the legendary (and assertive) trumpeter was not just playing the role of sideman on Somethin’ Else, the sole Blue Note album by Cannonball Adderley. The alto saxophonist was a member of Davis’ band at the time and the depth of their musical camaraderie lifts this session up to rarefied heights throughout, from the breathtaking performance of “Autumn Leaves” that opens the album to the thrilling call-and-response theme of the title track. Pianist Hank Jones, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Art Blakey round out the quintet on this timeless classic.
File Under: Jazz
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Bonobo: Fragments (Ninja Tune) LP
Fragments is the most emotionally intense record that he – aka Simon Green – has ever had to make. It’s no surprise that it’s also his masterpiece. The album features Jamila Woods, Joji, Kadhja Bonet, Jordan Rakei, O’Flynn and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. Born first out of fragments of ideas and experimentation, the album ultimately was fused together in a burst of creativity fueled by both collaboration and Green’s escape into the wild. One of the biggest names in dance music, Bonobo now boasts now boasts a global fan base of over 3.3M followers online, an incredible 1.3 billion+ streams and over 800,000 album sales. He has had 3 GRAMMY nominations and sold 2 million tickets for the tour supporting previous album Migration which also reached #1 on Billboard’s Dance album chart. A favorite mainstage performer at the world’s greatest music festivals and continually receives outstanding press coverage from the likes of Pitchfork, The Guardian, Stereogum,, THE FADER, Mixmag, Q, Wired, I-D, Clash and more.
File Under: Electronic
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Johnny Cash: Bear’s Sonic Journals (BMG) BOX
Bear’s Sonic Journals: At the Carousel Ballroom, 4/24/1968 is an historic and never-heard live Johnny Cash concert recorded in San Francisco by innovative sound wizard Owsley Stanley. Captured in the heart of Haight-Ashbury, just days before the release of Cash’s iconic At Folsom Prison album (and over six months before the arrival of the equally revered At San Quentin), At The Carousel Ballroom serves as a third essential – and wholly unique – live document from the era, a moment of cultural collision, with Cash leaning into songs about society’s outcasts, while playing a venue operated by The Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead. At The Carousel Ballroom captures Cash at the height of his charismatic powers, in playful and powerful dialogue with his then-new bride June Carter, and backed by his legendary band The Tennessee Three: guitarist Luther Perkins, bassist Marshall Grant and drummer W.S. Holland. His set list that evening diverged from other concerts of the time, as Cash chose to cover two Bob Dylan compositions (“Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright,” and his earliest known recording of “One Too Many Mornings”) and perform songs of the overlooked and underserved such as “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.” Recorded by Stanley in a verité style, the album startles with its clarity and dimension. Many of the sound reproduction techniques that Stanley pioneered while serving as the in-house engineer at the Carousel are accepted sonic gospel today. When he listened back to the Cash concert, he knew he had captured something special, immediately earmarking it for preservation. This release marks the latest entry in the Owsley Stanley Foundation’s Bear’s Sonic Journals series, which has previously included Stanley’s live recordings of The Allman Brothers Band, Tim Buckley, Doc & Merle Watson and many more. The live album, presented here as a colored vinyl 2LP-set, features new essays by Johnny and June Carter Cash’s son John Carter Cash, Owsley Stanley’s son Starfinder Stanley, The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, and Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools, as well as new art by Susan Archie, and a reproduction of the original Carousel Ballroom concert poster by Steve Catron. “When you hear this, you feel like you are on the stage with the band,” says Starfinder. John Carter Cash agrees, describing At The Carousel Ballroom as “what I believe to be one of the most intimate and connected shows I have ever heard.”
File Under: Country
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Cat Power: Covers (Domino) LP
Cover songs have always occupied a crucial place in the Chan Marshall canon, and Covers completes a trilogy of sorts, following beloved past Cat Power collections Jukebox (2008) and The Covers Record (2000). While she frequently delights and surprises with the songs she chooses to cover, it’s Marshall’s total commitment to the performance – imbuing the songs with a creative singularity that rivals her original work – that make Cat Power covers so special. Says Pitchfork, Marshall can “rearrange a song simply by squinting at it.” Produced in its entirety by Marshall, Covers features fully reimagined songs by Frank Ocean, Bob Seger, Lana Del Rey, Jackson Browne, Iggy Pop, The Pogues, Nick Cave and The Replacements and more, plus an updated rendition of her own song “Hate” from The Greatest (2006), retitled “Unhate” for this album. Marshall’s take on “Bad Religion” originated after performing the excoriating original “In Your Face,” from 2018’s Wanderer, on tour: “That song was bringing me down,” she admits. “So I started pulling out lyrics from ‘Bad Religion’ and singing those instead of getting super depressed. Performing covers is a very enjoyable way to do something that feels natural to me when it comes to making music.” Covers closes with a powerful take on the Billie Holiday-associated standard “I’ll Be Seeing You,” which was inspired by recent losses within Marshall’s creative inner circle – including Sun collaborator Phillippe Zdar, who tragically passed in 2019. “When people who you love have been taken from you, there’s always a song that holds their memory in your mind,” Marshall says. “It’s a conversation with those on the other side, and it’s really important for me to reach out to people that way.”
File Under: Indie, Folk
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Vic Chesnutt: Ghetto Bells (New West) LP
Ghetto Bells matches the poetic power of Vic Chesnutt’s words with some of the most elegantly simpatico backing he’s ever been blessed with, including jazz icon Bill Frisell on guitars, legendary writer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Van Dyke Parks on piano, accordion and organ, Don Heffington of Lone Justice and the Jayhawks on drums and percussion, classically trained session-man Dominic Genova on double bass, Tina Chesnutt on electric bass and Liz Durrett on exquisite backing vocals. At the time, Vic Chesnutt had released a dozen albums in 15 years. Ghetto Bells has a powerful resonance that reveals itself slowly. A pair of seven-minute pieces are the heart of the album, both moving forward slowly, but ever so purposefully. One of them, “Rambunctious Cloud,” is further sweetened by the presence of Van Dyke Parks on accordion and a staggering guitar solo from Bill Frisell. It’s a mark of Chesnutt’s singular songwriting prowess that such a stellar band of disparate players came together, full of sympathetic invention, confidence and grace. “These songs are ultimately and admirably patient and fluid, building not to grandiloquent climaxes but to a greater and greater complexity of meaning” – Pitchfork “The songs are all-encompassing. They sweep you up. They really get to you.” – Washington Post
File Under: Folk, Country
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Corrosion of Conformity: Animosity (Metal Blade) LP
Animosity is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Corrosion of Conformity. It was released on October 25, 1985.
File Under: Metal
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Corrosion of Conformity: Technocracy (Metal Blade) LP
Technocracy is an EP by American heavy metal band Corrosion of Conformity. It was released in 1987 on Metal Blade Records.
File Under: Metal
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Creedence Clearwater Revival: Green River (Craft) LP
Creedence Clearwater Revival is arguably the definitive American rock band. Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area and borrowing heavily from the musical traditions of the Deep South, the gritty and powerful foursome served up a potent stew that appealed to a broad audience not just in the States but around the world. Their creative arc was relatively brief yet highly influential, and some five decades after their heyday, their straight ahead raw energy continues to echo in the rock and pop sounds of the modern day. By the summer of 1969, the band was firmly ensconced as the American dance band, continuing to churn out hugely-successful hit singles, four of which are found here. The title cut “Green River,” along with “Commotion,” “Bad Moon Rising” and “Lodi,” were Top Ten singles in the classic rockabilly/R&B tradition and together made Green River the group’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard charts. As a result of the group’s unrivaled penchant for developing tight, carefully crafted material before even entering the studio, CCR recorded Green River in an astounding two-and-a-half days, after which it remained on the charts for 88 weeks, earning the group its second platinum album. This 50th anniversary edition has been mastered at half-speed at Abbey Road Studios, benefiting from an exacting process that allows for an exceptional level of sonic clarity and punch and brings the classic recording a new vibrancy. This audiophile-quality 180-gram vinyl LP comes housed in a handsome tip-on jacket replicating the packaging of the original pressing (previously only available as part of The Studio Albums Collection, 7-LP box set).
File Under: Rock
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Miles Davis & Michel LeGrand: Dingo OST (Rhino) LP
”Dingo: Selections From The Motion Picture Soundtrack” features a soundtrack composed by Jazz legends Miles Davis and Michel LeGrand. It also features one of Miles Davis’ final filmed performances. This 30th Anniversary Edition of the soundtrack will be the first pressing since its original release in 1991. It will be pressed on red vinyl.
File Under: Jazz
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Mary Lattimore: Collected Pieces: 2015 – 2020 (Ghostly) LP
In the afterglow of her acclaimed 2020 album Silver Ladders, Los Angeles-based harpist/composer Mary Lattimore returns with a culminating counterpart release, Collected Pieces: 2015-2020. The LP sequences selections from her two rarities collections, Collected Pieces I (2017) and Collected Pieces II (2020), bringing archive highlights and fan favorites to vinyl for the first time. Lattimore has described the process of arranging these releases as akin to “opening a box filled with memories,” and here that box continues to populate, accessible for both the artist and fans. Evocative material separated by years, framed as a portrait of an instrumental storyteller who rarely pauses, recording and often sharing music as soon as it strikes her. Seemingly in constant forward motion for the last five years since her Ghostly debut, Lattimore glances back for a breath, inviting new chances to live in these fleeting moments and emotions; all the beauty, sorrow, sunshine, and darkness housed within.
File Under: Ambient
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Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra: Galactic Parables (Cuniform) LP
Composer, cornetist, electronic & acoustic sound specialist and musical director Rob Mazurek leads his largest regular ensemble, the Exploding Star Orchestra through one of his most ambitious recordings. While Galactic Parables: Volume 1 is a self-contained cosmos, marked by colliding melodic lines and startlingly beautiful passages, as the title indicates, it’s part of a larger work. Ever since Exploding Star Orchestra’s debut recording, Mazurek has been gradually building an epic science fiction opera inspired by the writings of Samuel R. Delany and Stanislaw Lem. With Galactic Parables his vast speculative realm is coming more clearly into focus with an apocalyptic vision of alternate universes, machine reproduction run amuck, and the colonization of distant planets. Galactic Parables “is the first record where we’re getting close to hitting on the libretto for this future opera,” says Mazurek, who by both inclination and geography is linked to a constellation of Chicago avant-garde pioneers. Ultimately what makes the record so enthralling on both the flight into the cosmos and the return journey is that the Exploding Star Orchestra brings together a creatively charged cast of improvisers: Rob Mazurek – cornet, electronics, direction (I/II) Damon Locks – text, voice, electronics (I/II) Angelica Sanchez – piano (I/II) Jeff Parker – guitar (I/II) John Herndon – drums (I/II) Matthew Lux – electric bass (I/II) Matthew Bauder – tenor sax, clarinet (I/II) Chad Taylor – drums (I) Guilherme Granado – keyboard, samplers, synth, voice (I) Mauricio Takara – cavaquinho, electronics, percussion (I) Nicole Mitchell – flutes, voice (II) [Sardegna, Italy performance = I / Chicago, Illinois performance = II] All of these musicians have performed and recorded together under Mazurek’s leadership in various ensembles and configurations. In many ways, Exploding Star Orchestra is the mothership, the “conceptual, compositional and philosophical center of all my work.” Mazurek says. The band came together in 2005 when the Chicago Cultural Center and the Jazz Institute commissioned Mazurek to create a vehicle that could encompass the disparate styles and ideologies of avant-garde music unfolding in Chicago. Conceived as a one-off event, Exploding Star took on a life of its own, and has continued to evolve reflecting the transient nature of musicians’ lives. Each subsequent Exploding Star Orchestra project has featured an evolving cast of players. Galactic Parables brings Mazurek one giant step closer to realizing his oversized vision. The universe is a very big place. Rob Mazurek is doing his part to fill it with glorious sound.
File Under: Jazz
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OST: Vanilla Sky (Real Gone) LP
As a former music journalist (for Creem and Rolling Stone among other periodicals), director Cameron Crowe has always put his heart and soul into the soundtracks of his films. So, it’s no wonder that the most ambitious of all his films, Vanilla Sky, sported the most far-ranging and masterful of all of his scores. The film itself was a waking dream, subject to various interpretations; the soundtrack, too, explored shifting moods and shades, but always maintaining the surreal tone and aesthetic of the film, with a glittering line-up (R.E.M., Radiohead, Paul McCartney, Jeff Buckley, Bob Dylan) of artists. The result was breathless praise for the soundtrack (the New York Times called it “a music masterpiece”) and an Academy Award nomination. It is, quite simply, one of the greatest “mix-tapes” a film director has ever created (with some help from soundtrack Co-Producer Danny Bramson and Crowe’s then-wife, Nancy Wilson of Heart); and, for its 20th anniversary, we have created a custom gatefold cover for the 2-LP release and pressed up 1500 copies in white with orange swirl vinyl. A sublime listening and visual experience awaits.
File Under: OST
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Primus: Green Naugahyde (ATO) LP
Led by musical genius and renowned world-class bassist Les Claypool, Primus offered up a fantastic, colorful journey through demented novelty compositions and preposterous instrumental rollercoasters that take The Residents’ and Frank Zappa’s blueprints to the most bizarre heights. The results are a unique form of psycho jazz, bass-oriented metal and alt-rock psychedelia. Released in 2011 after a long hiatus, Green Naugahyde reunited the group with their early drummer Jay Lane and harkened back to the early days of Primus (think Frizzle Fry). Green Naugahyde expands on Primus’ incomparable sound, bringing it into the next millennium. It is a cerebral and complex album that is teeming with the band’s signature blend of whimsy and underlying darkness. The trio were described by Rolling Stone at the time as a “tight knotty rhythm team.” This 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition colored vinyl 2LP reissue comes packaged in a gatefold jacket with emboss and spot gloss plus updated artwork (new gatefold image, new inner sleeve art, naugahyde texture printed inside gatefold pockets).
File Under: Rock
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Quicksand: Distant Populations (Epitaph) LP
New York City post-hardcore band Quicksand deliver their fourth studio album Distant Populations on Epitaph Records. Recorded at Studio 4 Recording in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, Distant Populations was produced and engineered by Will Yip (The Menzingers, Code Orange, Defeater), and mixed by Josh Wilbur (Lamb of God, Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold). The album is the follow-up to the critically lauded 2017 release Interiors. Sonically it has a punchier, more up-tempo sound than its predecessor, with its 11 songs being concise, carved sonic jewels boasting not a single wasted note. Its gripping lyricism and raw power leap out from the very first listening. Throughout the album’s 11 tracks, Quicksand explores the duality of our simultaneous existence in individual relationships and as part of mass society, while also examining the alienation and loneliness of it all. “Everyone is on the one hand so connected with each other, and on the other hand, is so far apart.” says frontman Walter Schreifels.”We’re checking out each other’s social media and we know what everybody’s doing. But when we’re sitting in the same room together, we’re looking at our phones,” he adds to point out the sad irony of it all. Single “Missile Command,” a song that emerged from a Quicksand rehearsal jam, recalls Schreifels “really kind of focuses on Sergio’s (Vega) whole motif in a very simple way. He and Alan (Cage) just have this really kind of trademark groove, and I think that really sings on this one to me. I just felt like it’s a kind of song that is very us, but we hadn’t written it yet.”
File Under: Punk
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Twenty One Pilots: Vessel (Fueled By Ramen) LP
For their third studio album and major label debut Vessel (2013), Twenty One Pilots entered a real studio for the first time ever with Grammy nominated producer Greg Wells (Weezer, Adele) to craft an album which merges elements of hip-hop, indie rock and punk in a way that’s so seamless that you’ll be rapping along one minute and caught up in a lush orchestral line on a song like “Car Radio ” in the next minute. From the impossibly catchy groove of “Semi-Automatic” to the high-energy hip-hop of “Holding On To You” and the ambient electronic experimentation of “Trees,” Vessel is a complex collection of songs that certainly resonated with fans (2x Platinum).
File Under: Rock, Pop
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Xasthur: Defective Epitaph (Prophecy) LP
Following hot on the heels of the celebrated Subliminal Genocide, Xasthur thankfully resisted the temptation to just deliver a follow-up. Instead the depressive black metal pioneers returned to a more direct approach and strong underground feeling with their sixth album Defective Epitaph. This epic 2007 full-length radiates self-loathing, misanthropic hatred, and echoes of a truly broken spirit.
File Under: Metal
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Xasthur: Portal of Sorrow (Prophecy) LP
In hindsight, Xasthur were foreshadowing their later evolution with album number eight, Portal of Sorrow. Although this 2010 release continues in the well-established downcast black metal mold, the full-length develops a restless touch that might reflect the artist’s search for new ways of expression, which would eventually lead to a complete re-invention.
File Under: Metal
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Xasthur: Subliminal Genocide (Prophecy) LP
With its improved production and an entirely exquisite songwriting that emanates feelings of utter darkness and despair and draws from over a decade of experience, Xasthur’s fifth full-length Subliminal Genocide (2006) has become regarded by many critics and followers as the apex of the American band’s first incarnation as a trailblazing depressive black metal entity.
File Under: Metal
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…..restocks…..
Bardo Pond: Amanita (Matador) LP
Black Country, New Road: For the First Time (Ninja Tune) LP
Boris with Merzbow: Sun Baked Snow Cave (Hydra Head) LP
Leon Bridges: Gold Diggers Sound (Columbia) LP
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Ghosteen (Bad Seed LTD) LP
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis: Carnage (Goliath) LP
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle (Impulse) LP
John Coltrane: Giant Steps (Atlantic LP
Sonny Clark: Cool Struttin’ (Blue Note) LP
Lula Cortes E Ze Ramalho: Paebiru (Mr. Bongo) LP
Miles Davis: On the Corner (Music on Vinyl) LP
Endless Boogie: Admonitions (No Quarter) LP
Eric’s Trip: Forever Again (Sub Pop) LP
Eric’s Trip: Purple Blue (Sub Pop) LP
Flying Burrito Brothers: Gilded Palace of Sin (A&M) LP
Fugazi: s/t (Dischord) LP
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (Constellation) LP
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (Constellation) LP
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: G_d’s Pee AT STATES END! (Constellation) LP
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Luciferian Towers (Constellation) LP
Green-House: Six Songs for Invisible Gardens (Leaving) LP
Curtis Harding: If Words Were Flowers (Anti) LP
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasure (Rhino) LP
Peggy Lee: Black Coffee (Verve) LP
Los Sospechos: Postales OST (Colemine) LP
Mdou Moctar: Afrique Victime (Matador) LP
Herbie Nichols: The Prophetic… (Blue Note) LP
Notorious B.I.G.: Ready To Die (Rhino) LP
Anderson .Paak: Venice (Steel Wool) LP
Parquet Courts: Wide Awake (Rough Trade) LP
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd) LP
Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (Pink Floyd) LP
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raise the Roof (Rounder) LP
Radiohead: Kid A Mnesia (XL) LP
Radiohead: King of Limbs (XL) LP
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross: The Social Network OST (Null) LP
Michael Rother: Fernwarme (Gronland) LP
Rugged Nuggets: Odds & Ends (Colemine) LP
Emma Ruth Rundle: Engine of Hell (Sargent House) LP
George Russell: New York, N.Y. (Verve) LP
Sleep: The Sciences (Third Man) LP
Slowdive: Pygmalion (Music on Vinyl) LP
Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine: A Beginners Mind (Asthmatic Kitty) LP
Sufjan Stevens: Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty) LP
Kamasi Washington: The Epic (Brainfeeder) LP
Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud (Merge) LP
Weezer: Blue Album (Universal) LP
Windir: 1184 (Season of Mist) LP
Wolves in the Throne Room: Primordial Arcana (Relapse) LP
Yola: Stand For Myself (Easy Eye Sound) LP
