Ha! So if you get this via email, I totally goofed and didn’t update this little intro, but no one reads it anyway right? Or do you? ha. Anyway… not as big a week as most have been lately but still some great stuff. Not one, not two, but THREE Broadcast reissues of their BBC session and tour only CD releases. An archival Sonic Youth release! Yet another Acoustic Sounds Series John Coltrane, with Duke Ellington. And Edmonton’s Kimberlite Records has dropped of the newest Aladean Kheroufi single!
Also, they’ve announced the Record Store Day exclusives list. You can find the list HERE or the Canadian list HERE , but it’s also worth noting, that we deal with tons of suppliers so we also can sometimes get some of the UK & European releases. Needless to say we’ll be ordering all the stuff we would stock if it was just a regular release, but if there’s something on the list you hope to find in our shop on that day, be sure to let us know ASAP so we can be sure to order it for you. Don’t worry, we’ll order a ton of Viktor Vaughn, Art Pepper, Karen Dalton, Voivoid. As usual, unfortunately, just because we order 20 doesn’t mean we’ll get 20. So keep an eye out closer to the date to see what we’ll actually have in. Oh and it’s important to note as well, no more Remote RSD, this year, in store only.. good thing we’ve all been practicing standing in line for the last 2 years.
And while there are no longer any health restrictions we are currently operating….
– 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)
– We will be wearing masks, if you want to, great! If not, that’s also fine, but please be respectful of other people’s space and decisions.
– Sanitize your hands (we’ll have some)
…..picks of the week…..
Broadcast: BBC Maida Vale Sessions (Warp) LP
The Maida Vale Sessions compiles four of Broadcast’s live performances at the famed West London studios between October 1996 and August 2003, charting the band from their first year together to near-international recognition as their sound continued mutating. Even in their embryonic state, Broadcast appear fully formed on their first session for John Peel in 1996, performing three early singles along with a near-complete sketch of ‘City In Progress’ four years before its proper release. Less than a year later, Broadcast were already toying with the public’s perception of them in their 1997 Evening Session. Known for her cool, withdrawn delivery and hesitancy towards live performances, Keenan brings a sweeter, more confident warmth to the live version of ‘Come On Let’s Go’ alongside three propulsive performances of the band’s work between their Work and Non Work and The Noise Made by People eras. The latter sessions, recorded in 2000 and 2003, audibly track their psychedelic pop transitioning into exhilarating, noisy decay as the group pared down to the core duo of James Cargill and Trish Keenan. ‘Pendulum’ and “Colour Me In” come off even more brassy and commanding here than on HaHa Sound, while their cover of Nico’s ‘Sixty Forty’ ends the collection on a shoegazing high, signalling the experimenting to come with Tender Buttons. More than cementing their chameleonic sound though, this compilation stands as both a career-spanning look and introduction to Broadcast’s powers as a live act.
File Under: Electronic, Indie Rock, Kris’s Picks, Piyush’s Picks
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Sonic Youth: In/Out/In (Three Lobed) LP/CS
In mulling over their career, it’s staggering to realize that Sonic Youth not only delivered a healthy slab of releases as a unit but also have a myriad of shelved material still waiting for broader ears. While the group’s current Bandcamp abode lays out a generous amount of it, a bunch more has yet to surface. And it’s a massive mountain to chip away at in the sense of the group output alone; individual members’ projects are a whole other game, needless to say. “In/Out/In” ably delivers a new slab of mostly-unheard Sonic righteousness, with a scope on the post 2000-era band in especially zoned/exploratory regions. The 80’s and 90’s continually saw Sonic Youth reminding everyone that their jams ran free alongside song craft and visible development album to album; there were Peel excursions, dipping toes into soundtrack work starting with 1986’s “Made In USA”, and of course great impromptu expansive takes of tried and true previous material onstage. The millennial establishment of home turf studio spaces in NYC then NJ greatly egged on forays into improvisation and composition on their own clock as evidenced in “Goodbye 20th Century” and the plethora of SYR releases that trickled out side by side between major release albums. At this juncture they had already created a cultural template for a whole new breed of rock heads who, in turn, entered a feedback loop to SY itself, which cultivated more of its own new moves informed by the very fandom they had for their acolytes all the while pushing the band outward to uncharted fields. Jim O’Rourke’s residency had already influenced the band’s material in part into denser, longer, meditative paths. Mark Ibold’s entry for their swan song “The Eternal” also allowed for more of this exploration with Kim Gordon having more room to commit to third guitar. However “The Eternal” also took more cues from Ibold’s bottom-end swing and perhaps dialed back the expansiveness of the “NYC Ghosts and Flowers” and “Sonic Nurse” era a notch in a cool way, making it one of the best group efforts for me, anyway. Perhaps this fueled some of these tracks here, in an already comfortable zone with a new lineup and new drive to take sideroads to even more outer realms. “In/Out/In” reveals their last decade to be still heavy on the roll-tape and bug-out Sonic Youth. Not all recorded in one session but rather spread out over 2000-2010, the sequencing here is especially well thought out. Opening with the 2008 “Basement Contender” we get a super-unfiltered glimpse of the band at Kim and Thurston’s Northampton house creating a gentle springboard of Venusian choogle, with phased Lee lappings at cascading Thurston figures forming a simmering soundtrack. “Machine” offers another instrumental track from “The Eternal” sessions and is a steamy exercise in stop-start rhythmic grunt amidst a jungle of chiming and upward spiraling chord progressions. We’ve also got the extended score offering “Social Static” from the Chris Habib/Spencer Tunick film of the same name, draping white sheets of noise over your head then descending into a gauzy maw of car-alarm guitars and ambient-yet-disruptive turbulence that eventually subsides into a smoky coda. Two more tracks round out the set both culled from a Three Lobed box set of various artists from 2011 called “Not the Spaces You Know, But Between Them”: “In & Out” quietly resembles Can in a cave with dripping stalactites of Kim’s wordless tone rumble and was recorded at a soundcheck in Pomona California and their home Hoboken turf in 2010. “Out & In” from 2000 was done in their late downtown NYC studio and serves to close out this LP’s last 12 minutes as a reminder of what they got up to with O’Rourke there. More gentle time shift chord framework erupts into molten fury three minutes in, before mutating into the sonic equivalent of a slowly collapsing star. Casting an audio net over the entire instrumental/outtake oeuvre of Sonic Youth’s long history isn’t something easily committed to a single release without a doubt. Hearing these tracks in comparison to, say, 1986’s “Made In USA” material shows the massive leaps they took over the years. Whereas ’86 showed them freshly discovering their go-with-the-flow instrumental abilities for a soundtrack, their last decade showed them complementing the ambience with assured twists and turns that only came to be through their inimitable and rooted telepathy. That, plus the freedom to compose in more comfortable environs other than dank Ludlow Street rental spaces (hard to believe “Daydream Nation” was created in a claustrophobic practice basement) most assuredly was a component in their continued paths of discovery. Shifting on the drop of a dime from quiet/deep forays into full on noised-out Autobahn stomps with Steve Shelley at the wheel, they painted detailed and varied brush strokes and continually created organic sounds that undoubtedly carried the signature sound of the band, while ringing loud with their continual drive to free themselves from just that. Enjoy this capsule.
File Under: Indie Rock
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…..new arrivals…..
Wesley Bright: Come Right Back (Colemine) 7″
Ohio’s sweetest soul singer Mr. Wesley Bright has returned with a new ear-worm called “Come Right Back”. This family man, entrepreneur, and beekeeper came down to Loveland and to produce some tracks with Leroi Conroy in a more minimal, hard hitting manner. The track started off with a Wu-Tang reference and then eventually evolved into a massive 7 minute soul jam featuring strings and horns arranged by Wesley himself.
File Under: Funk, Soul
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Broadcast: Microtronic – Vol. 1 & 2 (Warp) LP
Microtronics Volumes 1 & 2’s initial availability alone makes it some of the group’s most curious releases, released first as tour-only 3” CDs in 2003 and 2005 before being offered exclusively via mail order. True to its name, Microtronics offers miniatures of Broadcast’s experimental spirit, the majority of the 21 tracks coming in under 2 minutes. Thankfully, its brief runtime doesn’t restrict any of the group’s sprawling ambition. If anything, those hoping for a consistent through-line from track to track or some semblance of a particular Broadcast era might want to tread carefully with this one. ‘Microtronics 1’ opens the set with jazz percussion underpinning skittering synths before making a hard pivot into a distorted, driving beat on ‘2’. From there, Microtronics is a frenetic free-for-all of creative ideas, building instrumental sketches of the group’s signature psychedelic pop before dissolving them in brief baths of unsettling noise, ambient passages, glitchy beatwork or free jazz-adjacent explorations depending on where the groups exuberant minds drift to next. Microtronics Volumes 1 & 2 drifts furthest from anything sounding like the band’s other work, ultimately makes for a fascinating addition to any completist collection. Capturing the band between two of their most beloved records, Microtronics fashions a scattershot bridge between the band’s final releases out of lighthearted sonic exercises and inspired glimpses into the creative minds of Broadcast.
File Under: Electronic, Indie Rock
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Broadcast: Mother Is the Milky Way (Warp) LP
Released as a tour only CD limited to 750 copies supporting their collaborative album with the Focus Group in 2009, Mother Is The Milky Way takes on a retrospective weight as Broadcast’s true final release before Trish Keenan’s passing in 2011. The release contains some of Broadcast’s warmest, most personal recordings as a group. Trish Keenan was known for her dreamily distant delivery on Broadcast’s records, but before connecting with James Cargill, Keenan was a part of another duo in Birmingham: the more folk-leaning Hayward Winters. While virtually nothing from that project made it onto the internet aside from a few mentions in interviews, it provides some explanation for how naturally Broadcast slipped into sample-heavy psych folk for Mother. The EP properly opens on ‘In Here The World Begins’, unfurling woozily but proving to be the closest Keenan and Cargill come to a standard issue Broadcast song here. Highlight ‘Elegant Elephant’ is more telling of the project’s aim, crafting a pastoral folk song in what sounds like the belly of a beast, soothed only by the reverberations of Keenan’s voice inside. Sketches of songs quickly give way to tripped out field recordings, woodwind interludes, and excited chatter underpinning Keenan’s singing, giving Mother a certain wide-eyed, psychedelic Alice in Wonderland-esque whimsy. Considering Keenan was a known lover of the children’s book, it’s hard not see Mother as a bittersweet, unintentional tribute to Keenan’s life, but far more enjoyable to just enjoy the ride down one last rabbit hole from Broadcast.
File Under: Electronic, Indie Rock
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Alex Cameron: Oxy Music (Secretly Canadian) LP
Alex Cameron has always been a great storyteller, finding his ways into the depths of the places where not many others are looking, and Oxy Music continues on that trajectory. It’s filled with stories of people who fall outside the system and exist in the grey areas of life. In its design – its music, lyrics and tracklist – lies the journey a person can take, if the circumstances present themselves – down the road of heavy drug and alcohol abuse. Initially inspired by Nico Walker’s Cherry, Cameron was spurred into yet another commentary on American Life, this time about the opioid crisis that has taken over the country. He says about Oxy Music: “The album is a story, a work of fiction, mostly from the perspective of a man. Starved of meaningful purpose, confused about the state of the world, and in dire need of a reason to live – a person can, and according to the latest statistics, increasingly will, turn to opioids. This is one of those people.” While Oxy Music could be dark, it’s instead brighter and more buoyant than much of Cameron’s previous work, a shift in mood first seen across 2019’s Miami Memory. It’s told from a place of optimism and through the lens of Cameron, in the way that only he can tell it.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Jarvis Cocker: Jarvis (Rough Trade) LP
Jarvis Cocker’s 2006 solo debut finds the ex-Pulp frontman returning to the well-honed Britpop sound of his lauded former band after a brief stint heading up the Relaxed Muscle techno project. While Jarvis lacks the cinematic expanse of Pulp’s swansong, We Love Life, and the darkly brooding atmosphere of This Is Hardcore, it hews fairly closely to the pop-savvy rock sound of His ‘N’ Hers and Different Class. Cocker’s deep croon and witty social observations are fully on display here, whether he’s singing about an inappropriate lover (“Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time”), not so subtly alluding to murder (the deceptively gentle “I Will Kill Again”), or being assaulted by portly kids (the punked-up “Fat Children”). Joining Cocker are Pulp alum Mark Webber (guitar) and Steve Mackey (bass), along with six-stringer (and revered singer-songwriter) Richard Hawley. Although Jarvis may not eclipse past Pulp glories, it certainly honors their roguish spirit, and serves as an excellent showcase for Cocker’s cheeky charm.
File Under: Rock, Pop
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Cro-Mags: Hard Times in the Age of Quarrel Vol. 1
Cro-Mags: Hard Times in the Age of Quarrel Vol. 2
(Back on Black) LP
Killer live album from one of the most legendry hard-core bands! Two blistering live sets that feature 36 tracks (across both volumes) and Include We Gotta Know, World Peace, Show No Mercy, Apocalypse Now, Signs Of The Times, Age Of Quarrel, Hard Times and Death Camps.
File Under: Punk
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Dip: Sticking With It (Dualtone) LP
On their Dualtone Records debut Sticking With It, Seattle-based seven-piece The Dip deliver the kind of unbridled rhythm-and-blues that hits on every emotional level. Inciting everything from raw catharsis to heavy-hearted reckoning to wildly exuberant joy, the self-produced album marks a major creative breakthrough for the band. To that end, Sticking With It fully channels the vitality of the freewheeling live show that’s earned them an ardent following over the last decade, matching their sophisticated musicianship with a fantastically loose energy. When met with The Dip’s reflection on matters both timely (the crush of late capitalism, the glaring need for true community) and irrefutably timeless (the vast complexities of love and loss), the resulting body of work captures the mood of the current moment while offering immediate escape into a more elevated state of mind.
File Under: RnB
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Duster: Stratosphere (Numero) CS
Best listened to from inside the womb, Duster’s 1998’s debut Stratosphere simultaneously capped off and reinvented the slow core’s first wave. A four track dreamscape that will wake the neighbors and then lull them back to sleep. Hazy, arpeggiated guitars layer over a deliberate drummer with no real place to be, as semi-inaudible vocals warn of millennial malaise and subtly encourage the listener to “rock out, rock out, rock out, rock out.”
File Under: Indie Rock
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Duster: Contemporary Movement (Numero) CS
A muffled cry into the technological darkness, Contemporary Movement slid into the world right as the MP3 was seeping out of college dorms. A 39-minute drift into the void, drenched in Cold War-era reverb and then submerged in four track hiss for good measure. Duster constructed a Brutalist masterpiece on the outskirts of a suburban mall, as if to say, “We were here.”
File Under: Indie Rock
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Earthless: From The Ages (Nuclear Blast) LP
2013 album from the award-winning San Diego power rock band. From The Ages is their first studio album since the release of 2007’s critically acclaimed Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky. Earthless prides itself on creating energetic, free thinking instrumental music inspired by an eclectic mix of German Krautrock and Japanese heavy Blues-Rock. The Californian trio has dedicated itself to mastery of the mind-bending jam session, evoking the spirits of Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath in equal measure. Earthless’ sound has been called ”A sonic kaleidoscope of lava and lightning,” earning it the title of ”California’s loudest band.”
File Under: Metal, Stoner, Psych
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Duke Ellington & John Coltrane: s/t (Verve) LP
Released in 1962, the titanic Duke Ellington & John Coltrane is a must-have historical document that captures the only meeting between the greatest figure in all of jazz history and one of the most significant revolutionary figures of the 1960s and beyond. Ellington sets the mood and both soloists complement each other brilliantly throughout. The legendary session is both warm and exciting and offers up plenty of surprises for fans of both Ellington and Coltrane, particularly in terms of texture, tenderness, and cohesiveness. This all-analog 180g vinyl LP 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, Audiophile
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Kazi & Madlib: Blackmarket Seminar (Tuff Kong) LP
Kazi’s Blackmarket Seminar was entirely produced by Madlib and boasts guest features from MED, Wildchild, Declaime (Dudley Perkins) and Oh No. The album was recorded in 1996 and has been newly re-remastered for vinyl 2LP. Kazi says, “We recorded this album in the wee hours at CDP studios back in ‘96. It was pretty much me, Madlib and Declaime in the lab when this album was recorded. I learned so much from Lib cadence, rhyme patterns, timing and how to dig for records. What some people don’t know is this cat actually took the time to show me how to make beats. I must say working with Lib was an amazing experience. The “Blackmarket Seminar” is a very raw and dark album. We came up with “Black Market” because at the time we were doing Hip Hop that nobody else was doing and to us you could only get it on the “Black Market”. When you first play the album you’ll hear characters on a skit in search of the black market seminar. We really tried to make it seem like the characters were outside walking around looking for it.”
File Under: Hip Hop
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Aladean Kheroufi: Love!… (Is The Answer) (Kimberlite) 7″
There was a night that sticks out in my mind as I’m writing this. Aladean was over at my place, we were listening to soul records and having some drinks. From beer and Barbara Lynn to tequila and Thomas East if my memory serves… but that’s unreliable at best. Specifics of the night are blurry, but what really stuck with me since then was the running topic that carried the conversation for the entire evening: a profound passion for love songs. This record leads with Love!… (Is The Answer), a ballad in line with Aladean’s espoused ideology. Velvet vocals, a playful swing to the drums, and intimate exchanges between guitar and keyboard tease at yearnings which harmonizing backing vocals satisfy with exultation. This isn’t a simple love song proclaiming romantic feelings for just one person, this is a grand gesture that declares love for everyone. This is therapy, philosophy, and a recipe to get through hard times. This is help we all need. Were the leading side to be foreplay, then the other will bring you to an earned climax. Every Girl hits with a force that will shake you and sets a rhythmic pace that may break you. Reminiscent of Mr. Mayfield’s Move On Up, horns punctuate percussion and bass that are only just barely constrained. This is an expression of pure joy and an exploration of the heart’s governance. These two sides serve both as a testament to the glory of love, and as physical representation of a true labor of love. Cutting through the profundity though, our biggest hope is that you just love this music.
File Under: Soul, Pop, Local
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John Carroll Kirby: Cyptozoo OST (Stones Throw) LP
John Carroll Kirby brings his talents as a composer and producer to film scoring. His vivid imagination, dreamy compositions, and knack for storytelling with instrumental music make for a perfect match with comic book writer, artist and filmmaker Dash Shaw’s vibrant, fantastical animated feature. Kirby’s score is at once deeply evocative and mysterious, evoking nostalgia, wide-eyed innocence, and ethereal otherworldliness. As with all of Kirby’s music, the score resists easy genre classification, melding together sounds from New Age, exotica, library music, and the sweeter side of electronic music.
File Under: Electronic, Jazz
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Lemonheads: It’s A Shame About Ray (Fire) LP
Lemonheads’ seminal album It’s A Shame About Ray, lovingly reissued for it’s 30th Anniversary. The long overdue reissue includes a slew of extra material, including an unreleased ‘My Drug Buddy’ KCRW session track from 1992 featuring Juliana Hatfield, B-sides from singles ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ and ‘Confetti’, a track from the ‘Mrs. Robinson / Being Round’ EP, alongside demos that will be released for the first time on vinyl. This reissue celebrates their prestigious fifth album, these deluxe bookback editions feature new liner notes and unseen photos. Described by music journalist and author Everett True as “A 30-minute insight into what it’s like to live hard and fast and loose and happy with like-minded buddies, fuelled by a shared love for similar bands and drugs and booze and freedom.”. ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ had a considerable impact back in those heady, carefree days of ’92, the record perfectly captures Dando’s ability to effortlessly encapsulate teenage longing and lust over the course of a two-minute pop song. Singles such as ‘My Drug Buddy’ and the breezy perfect pop of the title track might stand out (plus the add-on of ‘Mrs. Robinson’ which later copies included), but the album’s real strength lies in the tracks in-between; the truly fantastic ‘Confetti’ (written about Evan’s parents’ divorce), and the eye-wateringly casual acoustic cover of ‘Frank Mills’ (from the “hippie” musical Hair), a version that seems to resonate with every ounce of pathos and emotion felt for the lost 1960s generation. To hear Evan Dando sing lines like ‘I love him/but it embarrasses me/To walk down the street with him/He lives in Brooklyn somewhere/And he wears his white crash helmet’ is to truly appreciate how wonderful and tantalising pop music can be. Then, there’s the rush of insurgency and brattishness on the wonderfully truncated ‘Bit Part’; the topsy-turvy ‘Ceiling Fan In My Spoon’… this was male teenage skinny-tie pop music on a level of brilliance with The Kinks, early Undertones, Wipers.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Moldy Peaches: Origin Story 1994-1999 (ORG) LP
Adam Green and Kimya Dawson originally crossed paths at an open mic night in Mount Kisco, New York in the early 90s. From there they went on to record a surplus of home recordings with various friends under the moniker The Moldy Peaches, and eventually became staples in the NYC anti-folk scene of the late 90’s/early 2000’s. After releasing several albums that gained traction in the U.S. and UK, the group broke into the mainstream when their song “Anyone Else But You” appeared in the hit indie film Juno (2007). Origin Story: 1994-1999 is a collection of songs, unreleased demos, live tracks, and poems from the early years of The Moldy Peaches, and outline the tale of how the band came to be. Liner notes written by Adam and Kimya detail the stories behind each track and rare photos included in the packaging help to illustrate the life and times of the duo when they were young. Audio remastered by Sarah Register, packaging designed by Kelly Cousins.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Moon Duo: Mazes (Sacred Bones) LP
Available again! Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips) and Sanae Yamada have been burning up the scene with their propulsive beats and compelling acid washed shows. Certainly the most pop-oriented batch of songs the band has ever delivered, 2011’s Mazes reveals a more accessible vocal delivery and song structure that is sure to appeal to a wide audience not necessarily well-versed in the psych underground. The concepts of minimalism, expansion through repetition and sensory distortion are all still here and the dynamic interplay between Ripley’s guitar and Sanae’s keyboard continue to push this band and genre into uncharted territory. A benchmark follow-up to their critically acclaimed previous LP, Escape and prior release for Sacred Bones, Killing Time.
File Under: Psych
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Lee Perry: Africa’s Blood (Music on Vinyl) LP
Upon release in 1971, Africa’s Blood was the first record Lee “Scratch” Perry released under his own name, although his band The Upsetters do appear on most of the tracks. If any album serves as a good peak into what was happening in Jamaican music in the early 70s, Africa’s Blood is the way to go. There’s an undeniable influence from American contemporary R&B, but still Perry’s signature dub and reggae fusion shines through. 180g vinyl LP.
File Under: Reggae
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Tanya Tagaq: Tongues (Six Shooter) LP
You don’t think about what’s underfoot until it stirs. Tanya Tagaq, an experimental, improvisational, exceptional artist, has felt the land beneath her shake. To survive, you have to know what you’re doing. To survive, you have to trust in the body. Tagaq’s power, her voice, still comes from this place, where to defy nature is doom. Tongues, Tagaq’s new album, enters deep chasms and dangerous spaces. Produced by Saul Williams and mixed by Gonjasufi, Tagaq’s Tongues speaks not to horrors and crisis, as previous Tagaq albums wordlessly, powerfully encircled, but directly of these things. Tongues is Tagaq at her most explicit and specific. Delicate, poetic passages from Split Tooth, Tagaq’s bestselling, award winning mythobiography, crash against an industrial, electronic exoskeleton.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental
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Various: Songs for Tres (Sacred Bones) LP
On the tribute album Songs for Tres, Psychic Ills band members come together to commemorate the late Tres Warren who passed away just as the world turned upside down in March of 2020. Isolated, feeling helpless and lost by the death of her musical soul mate and collaborator of 18 years, bassist Elizabeth Hart found making music to be her only outlet in a time where people were unable to be physically together to mourn. So, she reached out to Adam Amram, Jon Catfish DeLorme and Brent Cordero, the main players in the Ills line up since the release of their last full length album Inner Journey Out (2016), to ask if they would embark on this cathartic journey with her. This was a different kind of production endeavor for Hart driven solely by “the aching need and urgency” to do something to honor her friend. Keeping the project in the Ills family, Hart produced the album alongside Iván Diaz Mathé, the long-time Psychic Ills sound engineer. The album consists of five original tracks and four cover songs. Initially, learning the covers was just a method for the musicians to “break the ice” and play together again for the first time without their band leader. However, those tracks became just as important to include as the originals because of their essential role in the process of coming together to make the album. The cover songs were chosen because of their unique connections to the band’s memories of Warren. Dennis Wilson’s “Rainbows” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Station Man” come from two of Warren’s favorite albums, Pacific Ocean Blue and Kiln House. The band also recorded Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons” and Powell St. John’s “Right Track Now.” The idea for the latter was suggested by Amram. Warren once sent him a clip of Roky Erikson singing a moving rendition of that song in the film Demon Angel and it had stuck with him ever since. Hart wrote “I’ll Walk With You” on the day of Warrens’ passing, at the time not knowing what it meant. When she got the call with the heartbreaking news, it became clear to her what the song was about. Relying on a gently lilting string arrangement to set the tone, this duet features Mazzy Star vocalist Hope Sandoval alongside Hart. Sandoval previously collaborated with Psychic Ills accompanying Warren on “I Don’t Mind” (2016). The ideas for “Home” and “Walk Around,” two other songs on the album by Hart, started simply with an acoustic guitar and lyrics, a hopeful exercise to connect with her lost friend. Brent Cordero’s instrumental “Whole Lotta Piece of Mind” is nothing short of a transcendental experience. By running his pedal steel through a Leslie speaker, Jon Catfish DeLorme crafts the unique tone showcased on “Wonderful Feeling,” a moving example of studio experimentation combined with old school techniques. DeLorme describes it as “an attempt to highlight the musical experience I shared with Tres both sonically and thematically. What resulted is the unguarded exaltation I feel lucky to have shared with my fellow bandmates.” Adam Amram’s “Into the Sea” was composed spontaneously the week Warren passed. The melodic tune has a hopeful lightness and Amram describes it simply as “a song to my brother”. Their connection shines through.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Various: Tanamur City: Indonesian AOR, City Pop & Boogie 1979-1991 (Cultures of Soul) LP
Cultures of Soul continues their global exploration across space and time to discover the funkiest pockets of music culture the world has to offer! This time they make a pitstop in Jakarta, in the years between 1979 and 1991 – the peak of the New Order. Not the British electronic post-punk band that enjoyed great success during this same period but the revolutionary government of President Suharto, which could be characterized as a “dictatorship”… along with all the political repressiveness that entails. However, at the same time, Suharto’s full-throated advocacy of foreign trade resulted in a new economic buoyancy, an expansion of tourism and culture industries, and a flourishing of the entertainment sector. Suharto aggressively courted western corporations to do business in Indonesia, which led to the need for more and more entertainment to distract the expatriates after hours. Jakarta became a wonderland of colorful discotheques, nightclubs and restaurants that merged traditional Indonesian ambience with the sexy ultramodern pulse of the disco beat. While imported disco records dominate playlists, a local music scene has developed in parallel, with indigenous artists like Chaseiro, Rafika Duri, The Rollies and Lydia Kandou embracing the use of synthesizers and drum machines, modern studio production and influences from western pop, rock, funk, boogie, disco, jazz, yacht rock as well as Japanese “City Pop.” And from all this they are forging a distinctive Indonesian dance-pop sound that will largely remain hidden from the rest of the world… until now. Compiled by Munir Septiandry of the influential Indonesian DJ collective Midnight Runners, Tanamur City collects some of the high points of the latter part of this era, conjuring up a world of humid nights in packed discos, no-holds-barred genre blending, fun, fashion and funkiness of a kind never before seen in Southeast Asia… and seen rarely since.
File Under: Indonesia, Rock, Pop
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…..restocks…..
A Place to Bury Strangers: See Through You (Dedstrange) LP
Chet Baker: Chet (Craft) LP
Beach House: Once Twice Melody – Gold Edition (Sub Pop) LP
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe You (4AD) LP
Boards of Canada: Geogaddi (Warp) LP
Booker T & The MGs: Complete Stax Singles Vol 1 (Real Gone) LP
Broadcast: Future Crayon (Warp) LP
Broadcast: Noise Made By Noise (Warp) LP
Broadcast: Work & Non-Work (Warp) LP
Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer: Recording from the Aland Islands (International Anthem) LP
Choir Boy: Passive With Desire (Dais) LP
Czarface: Every Hero Needs a Villain (Silver Age) LP
Earth: Live at Third Man (Third Man) LP
Earth: Pentastar: In the Style of Demons (Sub Pop) LP
Earth: Phase 3 Thrones and Dominions (Sub Pop) LP
Feelies: Crazy Rhythms (Bar None) LP
Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma (Warp) LP
Fontaines DC: Dogrel (Partisan) LP
Fontaines DC: A Hero’s Death (Partisan) LP
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (Constellation) LP
PJ Harvey & John Parish: Dance Hall At Louse Point (Island) LP
PJ Harvey: Dry Demos (Island) LP
PJ Harvey: Let England Shake (Island) LP
IDLES: Crawler (Partisan) LP
LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening (DFA) LP
Jeff Parker: The Relatives (Thrill Jockey) LP
Psychic TV: Allegory & Self (Sacred Bones) LP
Radiohead: I Might Be Wrong (XL) LP
Radiohead: Kid A (XL) LP
Stereolab: Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Vol. 2) (Duophonic) LP
Weyes Blood: Front Row Seat to Earth (Mexican Summer) LP
Various: Soul Slabs Vol. 1 (Colemine) LP