Yow! A big thanks to everyone who came out and bought all the records on the weekend! Easily our biggest blow out yet. I hope to get the RSD leftovers and the new shirts up on the site real soon. Having a bit of a sync issue again so there’s a bit of new stuff up there that isn’t in the list below too. Anyway, lots of great stuff in this week, and last, since we didn’t do a proper news letter last week, this one is beefy. First a couple killer reissues, the second title from Brian Eno’s Obscure Series sees the light of day again via Superior Viaduct! Gavin Bryars’ Sinking of the Titanic is a sublime piece of modern classical. Second, the rarest (and best?) album from Alice Coltrane’s catalog, Ptah, The El Daoud is a scorching slab of spiritual jazz. It’s been confusing as to why it’s taken so long for this one to get reissued, since almost everything else of hers has been, but here it finally is! The mighty Numero has finally repressed the brilliant exotica box Technicolor Paradise, the soundtrack to the tiki party you didn’t know you wanted to host. As well as three other new reissue from them, a 5LP box of releases from Karate (no overlap with the previous LPs they’ve reissued), a 3LP box collecting the complete catalog of US hardcore band Current, AND a double LP by The Hated. A solo album from Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. UK bard Richard Dawson‘s latest epic starts off with a 40 minute track, revisiting some of his earlier instrumental stylings. Bitchin Baja‘s epic synthefication of Sun Ra cassette gets the vinyl treatment. Michael Jackson’s Thriller gets the audiophile treatment. The new Weyes Blood is finally in. And two of the three Ride reissues have arrived from across the pond! Lots to see and hear! Come down for a dig.
OH… and we’re doing something we rarely do… WE ARE HIRING! At least one, maybe two part time positions. Weekend availability is a must! Drop a resume off at the store along with your top ten albums of all time and this year.
Current operations…..
– in-store shopping/pick ups – 11 – 6 pm Monday – Friday, 11 am – 5 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…..
Gavin Bryars: Sinking of the Titanic (Superior Viaduct) LP
Gavin Bryars was born in Yorkshire, England in 1943. His first musical forays were as a jazz bassist working in the early 1960s with improvisors Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley. Bryars later worked with composers John Cage and Cornelius Cardew, founded the Portsmouth Sinfonia and collaborated with Brian Eno on his famed Obscure imprint. The Sinking of the Titanic, Bryars’ first major composition, was inspired by the tragic event of the British passenger liner’s cross-Atlantic maiden voyage. Bryars eloquently reconstructs the passengers’ experience – at once forlorn and eerily calming – through assemblages of understated strings and indeterminate elements. A core principle of the piece is that the ship’s band continued to play as the vessel went down. One of the most sublime works in the modern classical canon, Titanic remains Bryars’ magnum opus. Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, the album’s second sidelong track, is based on a tape loop of a London street singer captured in the early 1970s. Featuring Derek Bailey, Michael Nyman and John White, Bryars’ composition gradually builds around the cripplingly poignant voice until its emotional force is almost too much to bear. It’s no surprise that Jesus’ Blood is known as Tom Waits’ all-time favorite piece of music. Produced by Brian Eno in 1975 as the inaugural release on Obscure, The Sinking of the Titanic draws the listener in to a majestic world. While these exquisite, hymn-like recordings have not changed in nearly 50 years, their deeply personal nature and the audience’s attention to their subtlety have only strengthened over time.
File Under: Ambient, Classical, Kris’s Picks
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Alice Coltrane: Ptah, The El Daoud (Verve) LP
Transferred from Analog Tapes and Remastered on 180g Vinyl LP as Part of the Verve By Request Series. Recorded in the basement studio of the Coltrane home in 1970, Alice Coltrane’s fourth album is a masterpiece of spiritual jazz. The title track is an ode to the Egyptian God Ptah (the El Daoud meaning “the beloved”). Moments on the album reach what Coltrane defined the term Turiya as “a state of consciousness – the high state of Nirvana, the goal of human life.” Verve By Request Series features transfers from analog tapes, remastered on 180-gram vinyl, and pressed at Third Man in Detroit.
File Under: Jazz, Kris’s Picks
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Various: Technicolor Paradise – Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights (Numero) BOX
Finally available again!!! It was a musical cocktail born in a marketing meeting: Two parts easy listening, one part jazz, a healthy dollop of conga drums, a sprinkling of bird calls, and a pinch of textless choir. Serve garnished with an alluring female on the album jacket for best results. Exotica! The soundtrack for a mythical air conditioned Eden, packaged for mid-century, tiki torch-wielding armchair safariers. Be it mosquito-bitten torch singers, landlocked surf quartets, fad-chasing jazz combos, mad genius band leaders, D-list actors, or a middle aged loner programming bird calls into a Hammond, Exotica was always more concerned with what geography might sound like over who was conducting. Captured across three albums (or three compact discs) are 48 (or 54) curious examples of the short-lived genre’s reach, each summoning their own sonic visions of Shangri La, bringing their versions of the Pacific, Africa, and the Orient to the hinterlands of America. Technicolor Paradise is where one makes it, after all.
File Under: Exotica, Jazz, Easy Listening, Ian’s Picks, Kris’s Picks
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Tom Skinner: Voices of Bishara (International Anthem) LP
Drummer, composer, and producer Tom Skinner (The Smile, Sons of Kemet) releases his new album, Voices of Bishara, via Nonesuch. The first recording under Skinner’s own name is a reference to an album he listened to repeatedly during the COVID-19 lockdown: cellist Abdul Wadud’s 1978 solo album By Myself, which was privately pressed on Wadud’s label, Bishara. The common Arabic name has the intention or meaning of “good news” or “the bringer of good news.” The album features Shabaka (Sons of Kemet) and Nubiya Garcia. Voices of Bishara began life when Skinner asked some musician friends to join him for a Played Twice session at London’s Brilliant Corners. These regular sessions had a simple format: play a classic album in full through the venue’s audiophile system and then have a live ensemble improvise a response. The night in question focused on drummer Tony Williams’ 1964 Blue Note album, Life Time, and the music conjured that night inspired Skinner to write an album’s worth of new music. Skinner recorded an album of that music with a cellist, bass, and two saxophonists subsequently putting it aside, occasionally bringing it out for some attention in between his many other creative projects. Gradually, the record began to take shape as he embraced the studio recordings and accentuated their idiosyncrasies. “This record is an attempt to put something truthful into the world, through collaboration and community, at a time of rising dishonesty and disinformation,” says Skinner. “Bishara is the bringer of good news, and by bringing the musicians on this album who are very dear to me together, we pay homage to that idea by collectively spreading light where there is increasing darkness.”
File Under: Jazz, Piyush’s Picks
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…..new arrivals…..
All That Jazz: Anime That Jazz: Evening! (P-Vine) LP
P-VINE is thrilled to reissue Anime that Jazz: Evening! as a limited edition LP for the first time with an iconic obi strip attached. As with the preceding Ghibli Jazz series, All That Jazz is tied together by the soothing vocals of Yukiko Kuwahara who completes the core set-up of piano, bass and drums.
File Under: Jazz, Studio Ghibli
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All That Jazz: Anime That Jazz 2 (P-Vine) LP
P-VINE is thrilled to reissue Anime that Jazz 2 as a limited edition LP for the first time with an iconic obi strip attached. As with the preceding Ghibli Jazz series, All That Jazz is tied together by the soothing vocals of Yukiko Kuwahara who completes the core set-up of piano, bass and drums.
File Under: Jazz, Studio Ghibli
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All That Jazz: Ever Jazz (P-Vine) LP
P-VINE is thrilled to reissue Ever Jazz as a limited edition LP for the first time with an iconic obi strip attached. As with the preceding Ghibli Jazz series, the group is tied together by the soothing vocals of Yukiko Kuwahara who completes the core set-up of piano, bass and drums.
File Under: Jazz, Studio Ghibli
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Joey Bada$$: 1999 (Pro Era) LP
The debut mixtape from Pro Era crew member and Brooklyn MC, Joey Bada$$. Leaning into the golden era sound of hip-hop, Joey Bada$$ garnered widespread acclaim from some of Hip-Hop’s most vaunted tastemakers by crafting a project that paid homage to the 90s, despite only being 17 years old at the time. With the standout tracks, “Waves”, “Survival Tactics”, & “Snakes”, the 15-track album features production from Chuck Strangers, Lord Finesse, MF Doom, & J Dilla, as well as guest appearances from Pro Era members Kirk Knight, CJ Fly, NYCk Caution, Rokamouth, Dessy Hinds, Dyemond Lewis, T’nah Apex & the late Capital STEEZ. Pro Era Forever.
File Under: Hip Hop
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Beat Happening: Black Candy (Domino) LP
Produced by Steve Fisk. Is it okay to call this album a departure? A Jungian descent into a darker psychological state? If the starkness of the cover art wasn’t enough of a harbinger, the edgier tone of Black Candy coupled with all this lyrical talk about gravediggers, lost boyfriends, ghosts and… pajama parties is enough to wonder just how close to the bonfire Beat Happening were willing to dance. It was around this time that Melody Maker opined that “Beat Happening are simply the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world (with the exception of maybe of Half Japanese).” “Mark Lanegan suggested I write a song a day, which worked well for about three months then the inspiration wore off and the enthusiasm wound down. Black Candy was the beneficiary of this songwriting cornucopia.” – Calvin Johnson
File Under: Indie Rock
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Beat Happening: Jamboree (Domino) LP
Produced by Steve Fisk, Mark Lanegan & Gary Lee Conner. Contains America’s accidental entry into the 1988 Eurovision contest, “Indian Summer.” They lost to a then-unknown Céline Dion. Figures. “The secret to Beat Happening’s complete domination of rock lies not in the music’s simplicity, nor what some fuckheads see as feigned innocence or eccentricity; Calvin, Heather and Bret take on situations and ideas, not ‘cause they think it’s funny or strange to feel the way they do — Beat Happening truly live in the world they convey.” -Conflict “After thirty years rock’n’roll music was still fresh as a daisy. The songs on Jamboree reworked this bent tradition – swords into that which cleaves softly through the loam.” -Calvin Johnson
File Under: Indie Rock
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Beat Happening: Music to Climb the Apple Tree By (Domino) LP
Pulling together the lion’s share of the band’s non-LP material not covered by the expanded edition of the debut album, Music To Climb The Apple Tree By collects tracks from the band’s singles and compilation contributions along with their share of the Beat Happening/Screaming Trees EP. Essential ephemera
File Under: Indie Rock
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Bitchin Bajas: Switched on Ra (Drag City) LP
A year after the cassette-only release of Switched On Ra, another format has fallen from whatever kind of rare ether Bitchin Bajas occupy when they’re at home. The LP edition of Switched On Ra bears all the same riches (only richer of course) in its grooves, adding a lovely screen-printed rendering of the graphics to its larger-than-cassette-cosmos dimensions. Switched On Ra is the outcome of a typical Bajas exercise: pouring some out for the pioneers that came before (as they’ve done with Bitchitronics and their participation in the annual Chicago performance of “In C” over the years). It’s a nice way to get a flow—they play a little of themselves, then some for the pioneers, then a little more for the band. Before long, they’re playing with the inspirations twined, as they can only come from within. For Switched On Ra, this meant a deep delve into the song-book of one of their soul-predeces- sors, Sun Ra, whose music is literally written in the Bajas DNA. Digging into this music sounded wild on paper: the drone synth group taking on the Arkestra harmonies and Ra’s loose grooves? The trick was to get that sense of rhythm to translate across the spectrum from Ra to Bajas, in a way that worked for them both. Their rearrangements of the tunes went good — up and down the EQ band, they were finding the round sounds and jagged edges that brought Ra’s music into their own thing. Then at the last minute, there was another twist—why not pay tribute to the Queen herself, and think of the arrangements with a Wendy Carlos vibe? A little side homage? After all, Switched on Bach was visionary, bringing analog synths from the outside all the way into the mainstream in the late 60s—and this take on Ra is meant to take him to new ears everywhere.
File Under: Electronic, Synth, Jazz
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Roy Brooks: Beat (Verve) LP
Recorded for Berry Gordy’s short-lived Workshop Jazz imprint and recorded at the Hitsville USA studio, Roy Brooks (joined by fellow Detroit natives George Bohannaon and Hugh Lawson, along with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, and Eugene Taylor) injects a Motor City soul-jazz groove into the hard-bop root of this engaging 1964 album. Verve By Request Series features transfers from analog tapes, remastered on 180-gram vinyl, and pressed at Third Man in Detroit. Musicians: Blue Mitchell (trumpet) George Bohanon (trombone) Junior Cook (tenor sax) Hugh Lawson (piano) Eugene Taylor (bass) Roy Brooks (drums).
File Under: Jazz
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Cold Gawd: God Get Me the Fuck Out of Here (Dais) LP
Cold Gawd is the flag under which California-based multi-instrumentalist Matt Wainwright creates stormy, wounded shoegaze music born of open tunings and R&B melodies. His second collection, God Get Me The Fuck Out Of Here, took shape in the winter of 2020 while working long solo shifts at a coffee shop in Chicago. Fueled by dreams of returning to his hometown of Rancho Cucamonga and reconnecting with old friends from past hardcore bands, Wainright holed up with his coveted pink Jazzmaster, an array of FX pedals, and a laptop, and wrote the entire album in a month. In March of 2021 he made the move, heading back west to the Inland Empire, where he booked sessions with Gabe Largaespada at Open Ocean to track and mix. Despite recording every instrument himself, the results have the lived-in feel of a practiced live band (which Cold Gawd now are, fleshed into a six-piece). Cascading walls of guitar churn, surge, and ripple, framed by sunken rhythms and Wainright’s distant, defeated voice, veiled in violet haze. He cites the thematic common ground between shoegaze and R&B as a central muse, both obsessively fixated on love, lust, and longing, in forms alternately grandiose and minor key. Lyrically the album sways between oblique and desperate, yearning and resigned – with the exception of “Comfort Thug,” a brooding, largely improvised spoken word piece inspired by the notable lack of black musicians in shoegaze. Cold Gawd is here to change that. God Get Me The Fuck Out Of Here channels malaise and melancholy into gauzy, galvanized anthems of escape, change, and introspection. The crushing closing cut, “Passing Through the Opposite of What It Approaches,” heaves and hovers like looming storm clouds, beneath which Wainright sings (and bandmate Arturo Ramirez screams) as close to a mission statement as the album offers: “leave what you know / and get grown / everyday / remember / why you left.”
File Under: Indie Rock, Shoegaze
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Patrick Cowley: Malebox (Dark Entries) LP
Dark Entries has a surprise delivery! Malebox brings us six previously unreleased funk-fueled jams from the archives of the cybernetic disco titan himself, Patrick Cowley. Best known for his chart-topping disco anthems, Cowley left us with an incredible body of work before his tragic death in 1982 due to AIDS-related illness. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley’s friends and family to uncover the singular artist’s lesser-known sides, including his soundtracks for gay pornographic films on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners. But Malebox gives us more of the Cowley we know and love: churning disco-funk and hi-NRG tracks that are spacey and sleazy, gritty and sublime. Recorded from 1979-1981, these six tracks illuminate what was one of Patrick’s most creatively exciting periods. “If You Feel It” and “Love Me Hot” were both early Paul Parker demos; the former is a peak hour hi-NRG bomb, while the latter dips into Cowley’s zoned-out space disco sound. Jeanie Tracy’s soulful vocals feature on the demo version of “Low Down Dirty Rhythm,” which was later re-recorded by Sarah Dash. The slower, less-varnished rendition here hits with a wild psychedelic edge. Meanwhile, Patrick’s gifts for careful orchestration and infectious melodies shine on “Floating” and “Love and Passion,” which were likely demo tracks for Loverde. The songs on Malebox display the vitality and inventiveness of a brilliant composer taken from us too soon. Malebox sleeve design was by Gwenaël Rattke, and features a hyper-color retro collage. Also included is an air mail envelope containing a letter from Patrick Cowley to French disco producer Pierre Jaubert as well as liner notes and hand-written lyrics.
File Under: Electronic, Disco
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Current: Yesterday’s Tomorrow is Not Today (Numero) BOX
Screaming suburban blues straight from the pages of HeartattaCk magazine, Current exploded out of the early-’90s Midwestern emo scene in a fit of D.C. hardcore-inspired rage. Spread across three LPs, Yesterday’s Tomorrow Is Not Today compiles the quartet’s lone album, two EPs, split 7″s with Indian Summer and Chino Horde, miscellaneous compilation debris, and nine previously unissued alternates, including the infamous KLXU radio show. Remixed and mastered from the original tapes, Current’s complete discography is annotated in Leor Galil’s exhaustive survey, illustrated with period photos, flyers, and cut-n-paste sleeve art across 24 pages.
File Under: Punk, Emo
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Richard Dawson: The Ruby Cord (Domino) LP
Pop in your earpiece, close your eyes and embrace the wonders (and horrors) of augmented reality and prepare to travel 500 years into the future as Richard Dawson returns with…The Ruby Cord. These seven tracks plunge us into an unreal, fantastical and at times sinister future where social mores have mutated, ethical and physical boundaries have evaporated; a place where you no longer need to engage with anyone but yourself and your own imagination. It’s a leap into a future that is well within reach, in some cases already here.
File Under: Folk, Indie
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Dezron Douglas: ATALAYA (International Anthem) LP
Atalaya is the new album by Dezron Douglas and it is alive. Alive in all the ways that jazz is at its best, and filtered through the time-honored tradition of a combo whose members enforce the law of sonic coherence through musical unity. A multi-headed hydra. Shiva’s arms operating independently yet together to realize one goal. Chops so honed that it feels like telepathy, or as Dez puts it: “Mysticism, Magic, Faith, Love, Power, Discernment!” Regular International Anthem listeners will remember Dezron Douglas his contributions to Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings and from Force Majeure , his sublime duo record with harpist Brandee Younger, which compiled the best of their weekly livestream performances from lockdown 2020. That album reflected the speed and feeling of the moment while somehow simultaneously distracting from the harsh reality of it. Atalaya, similarly, wasn’t processed in the lab, but rather, captured in the room. The difference is the energy level. Again, let’s defer to Dez here: “Welcome to the Black Lion rocket ship.” Welcome indeed. Prepare for liftoff, and watch your head, as the pendulum swings wide on this one. Free and dissonant, sweet and consonant, sweeping and pure. This is the band you hope is playing every time you walk into a club.
File Under: Jazz
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E Ruscha V ft. Peter Zummo: Thinking A View (Fourth Sounds) LP
Los Angeles artist Eddie Ruscha aka Secret Circuit hooks up with Downtown minimalist Peter Zummo for ‘Thinking A View’. The duo take listeners to uncharted meridians of the mind through imaginary zones, realized via synthesizers, keyboards, drum machines, vibes, tapes, and clarinet from Ruscha. Meanwhile, Zummo helps paint these psychedelic Fourth World ambient zones utilizing various wind instruments; trombone, cornet, euphonium, and tuba which takes things into a kinda spiritual jazz realm. He also plays conch shell, plastic funnel horn, didgeridoo, and more. Most certainly recommended for fans of Jon Hassell.
File Under: Ambient, Electronic, Fourth World
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Bill Evans Trio: At Town Hall Vol. One (Verve) LP
From Bill Evans’ first-ever performance at a concert hall in New York City. Featuring the sensitive accompaniment of Chuck Israelson bass and Arnold Wise on drums. Includes a 13-minute solo suite dedicated to the memory of Bill’s father who had only recently passed at the time of the recording. “Of pianist Bill Evans’ many live albums, at Town Hall Volume One has always been among his most delicate and elegant,” writes Marc Myers for JazzWax. “Evans’ playing is taut and graceful, with lovely long improvisational lines and a snappy, fluid attack on the keyboard. The mix of standards and two originals – one was a suite in memory of his’ father, who died just three days earlier – also were neatly selected and assembled.” 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
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Fly Anakin: Frank (Lex) LP
Fly Anakin’s debut studio album Frank is out now, and draws influence from the classic R&B and Soul his dad played him as a child, showcasing a gift for songwriting alongside the breathless raps he’s known for. Recorded at the same time as FlySiifu’s, it features Pink Siifu on the DJ Harrison produced ‘Black Be The Source’, as well as link ups with another Richmond hero and Anakin mentor Nickelus F, and fellow Mutant Academicians Big Kahuna OG and Henny L.O.. Beats by Madlib, Evidence, Jay Versace, DJ Harrison, Ohbliv, Foisey, THERAVADA, Graymatter and Like of Pac Div. “‘Frank’ is the perfect introduction to the thrilling mind of one of rap’s brightest” – Paste Fly Anakin is a rapper from Richmond, Virginia, who was described by Madlib as “one of the illest MCs”. He’s co-founder of the Richmond rap collective Mutant Academy. “The raps are skillful, filled with multisyllabic rhyme schemes that are as mesmerizing as a perfectly executed crossover” – Pitchfork
File Under: Hip Hop
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Mabe Fratti: Se Ve Desde Aqui (Tin Angel) LP
Guatemalan cellist and composer, Mabe Fratti releases Se Ve Desde Aquí (It Is Seen FromHere) on September 30, 2022, on Tin Angel Records.Se Ve Desde Aquí (‘It Is Seen From Here’) marks another step in a remarkable run of releases from Guatemalan cellist and composer, Mabe Fratti It is possibly her most revealing one to date; showcasing a sinuous and tensile sound coupled with a confident and clear-eyed worldview. Mabe Fratti is always on the lookout for new ways to express herself and to reflect her surroundings; she sees this as a process of continual “sonic transformation”. Not that she sees her method as unique: “I believe this happens to a lot of musicians, that in the interim when you finish a record and you release it you learn [new] things and change your philosophy towards what you want to sound like.”Se Ve Desde Aquí is a decisive shift away from Fratti’s most recent works, which were more enigmatic in tone. The rich, multi- layered arrangements heard on 2021’s acclaimed long player, Será que ahora podremos entendernos and egoless collaborations such as the fabulous Let’s Talk About The Weather with Malaria legend and Monika supremo Gudrun Gut, created a mystery around Fratti which reveal only certain aspects of this affable musician’s character.
File Under: Experimental
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Fucked Up: Hidden World (Get Better) LP
FUCKED UP’s second reissue for Get Better Records is cloaked in shades of unconventional aesthetics, symbolic overtones and a self-proclaimed “culture of confusion.” Hidden World, the band’s first full length studio album, marks a turning point for the mysterious Toronto band, transcending the boundaries of punk with melody, aggression, expansive structures and enigmatic diatribes on what lies underneath the immediate, visualized World. FUCKED UP combine confrontational ideologies with deliberate misinformation to produce a brutal analysis on thought provocative punk. In a word, FUCKED UP and Hidden World is dangerous and unpredictable in a time when punk has become a manufactured commodity.
File Under: Punk
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Fuckwolf: Goodbye, Asshole (Silver Current) LP
Goodbye, Asshole is the first studio album by San Francisco scuzz-wave merchants Fuckwolf—its a rat’s nest of deep grooves, lost ’70s rock riff intentions and art punk damage. These conundrums of time inform Goodbye, Asshole, but they are hardly romanticized in its music. The band, Eric Park (bass, vocals), Simon Phillips (drums) and Tomo Yasuda (guitar) sound blazing and scuzzy, a tight low-fi energy blasted onto tape at renowned Bay Area indie studios summarizing the last twenty years of San Francisco’s wild artistic soul – one that is now hard to find much evidence of in the city itself, but impossible to miss in the band’s sound. Fans of OSEES, Pink Fairies, late ’70s NYC, Emotional Rescue-era Stones, trashy post-punk dub and solvent-huffing rejoice!
File Under: Punk, Psych
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GBL Sound System: Ghibli Reggae 2 (P-Vine) LP
P-VINE is thrilled to reissue these albums as limited edition LPs for the first time ever. With arrangements from DUBFORCE’s Ippei Tatsuyama and vocals contributed by Kyoko Abe, these records will no doubt please both Studio Ghibli fans and die-hard reggae fans. Songs from “My Neighbor Totoro”, “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”, and “Princess Mononoke” are arranged with a sense of fun that can only be found in reggae while still maintaining their distinct character. Don’t miss this genre-bending follow-up to Ghibli Jazz!
File Under: Reggae, Studio Ghibli
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GBL Sound System: Ghibli Reggae Plus (P-Vine) LP
P-VINE is thrilled to reissue these albums as limited edition LPs for the first time ever. With arrangements from DUBFORCE’s Ippei Tatsuyama and vocals contributed by Kyoko Abe, these records will no doubt please both Studio Ghibli fans and die-hard reggae fans. Songs from “My Neighbor Totoro”, “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”, and “Princess Mononoke” are arranged with a sense of fun that can only be found in reggae while still maintaining their distinct character. Don’t miss this genre-bending follow-up to Ghibli Jazz!
File Under: Reggae, Studio Ghibli
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The Hated: Best Piece of Shit Vol. 4 (Numero) LP
This one’s been teased for awhile, decades even. The Hated box set was an idea before Numero was an idea. Today we’re pleased to announce the first of five planned Hated collections that we’ll be rolling out over the next several years. Up first is Best Piece Of Shit Vol. 4, which compiles the Annapolis quartet’s earliest explorations into revolution summer emo. Spread across two LPs is the band’s 1985 debut cassette, the No More We Cry EP, and 14 period bonus tracks from these hardcore hooligans. We’ve also made a limited 7”+CD+tape edition with an additional five bonus tracks. Andrew Gephardt and Ken Shipley provide lengthy essays on the band and scene, illustrated by dozens of photographs from the band’s archive. We’ve got 500 copies broken bone white wax on both, but not for long. The Hated on Numero… Never said it’d be like this, right?
File Under: Punk
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Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (Brainfeeder) LP
Wrapped in soul, blending poetry and polyrhythms, the music of Hiatus Kaiyote is in a lane all by itself. The Grammy-nominated four-piece band returned to stereos in 2015 with their sophomore album Choose Your Weapon. The album takes listeners on a journey through the group’s self-created ecosystem, populated with songs each embodying its own mini-cinematic sonic soundscape. Following-up their celebrated 2013 debut, Tawk Tomahawk, Choose Your Weapon was conceived on stages worldwide and honed in the studio by the band – Nai Palm (vocals/guitar), Paul Bender (bass), Perrin Moss (drums/percussion) and Simon Mavin (keyboards) – transforming the songs into exquisite pieces of music, pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone. “Everyone who has come in contact with our music has promoted it,” says Nai Palm. “Questlove, Erykah Badu, Pharrell and Prince have gone out of their way to plug the band. There’s been so much support from the musician community.” Colored vinyl 2LP reissue with bonus 7″ including “Breathing Underwater (Roman Soto Cello Rework)” and “Making Friends With Studio Owl (Club Mix)” plus lyric spread gatefold and sticker sheet.
File Under: Funk, Soul, Hip Hop
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Horse Lords: Comradely Objects (RVNG Intl) LP
Horse Lords return with Comradely Objects, an alloy of erudite influences and approaches given frenetic gravity in pursuit of a united musical and political vision. The band’s fifth album doesn’t document a new utopia, so much as limn a thrilling portrait of revolution underway. Comradely Objects adheres to the essential instrumental sound documented on the previous four albums and four mixtapes by the quartet of Andrew Bernstein (saxophone, percussion, electronics), Max Eilbacher (bass, electronics), Owen Gardner (guitar, electronics), and Sam Haberman (drums). But the album refocuses that sound, pulling the disparate strands of the band’s restless musical purview tightly around propulsive, rhythmic grids. Comradely Objects ripples, drones, chugs, and soars with a new abandon and steely control.
File Under: Experimental
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Hulder: Th Eternal Fanfare (20 Buck Spin) LP
ON LIMITED MILKY CLEAR VINYL!!! With the release of her Godslastering: Hymns Of A Forlorn Peasantry, Hulder made it known that the pure traditional black metal of earlier releases could be classical, rich in detail and creatively novel once again. A triumphant debut that indicated much more to come. On her new mini-album The Eternal Fanfare, Hulder expands the scope laid out on the debut, taking the production value to new places with more low-end depth and forceful resonance. The songwriting capability continues to sharpen into a dense confluence of her disparate influences such as on the cinematically expansive “Burden Of Flesh And Bone” and “Sylvan Awakening,” to the cold stormblast ferocity of the title track. Opener “Curse From Beyond” is a celestial atmospheric piece akin to Dead Can Dance at their most mysteriously plaintive, while the pensive lament of closer “A Perilous Journey” concludes The Eternal Fanfare with an aura of melancholic finality. The Eternal Fanfare presents a stark interlude between the Godslastering album and the forthcoming second full length. Yet on its own, its a powerful statement of haunting new horizons and evolving mastery, ascendent and bottomless at once.
File Under: Metal
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Charlie Hunter Trio: Bing Bing Bing (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. Charlie Hunter’s 1995 Blue Note debut Bing Bing Bing! was a groove-heavy tour-de-force that announced the arrival of a virtuosic new guitarist on the scene. Hunter’s unique concept on his 8-string guitar allowed him to lay down a bass line and play chords as well as a melodic line at the same time, producing music that was at once impressive and irrepressible. With his powerful trio featuring tenor saxophonist Dave Ellis and drummer Jay Lane plus contributions from trombonist Jeff Cressman, Ben Goldberg, pedal steel guitarist David Phillips, and percussionist Scott Roberts, Hunter delivered a 10-song set of propulsive originals including “Greasy Granny” and “Fistful of Haggis” plus an unforgettable cover of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are.” Hunter would go on to record six more excellent albums for Blue Note, and also gain notice for playing on D’Angelo’s 2000 neo-soul masterpiece Voodoo.
File Under: Jazz
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Masaru Imada Trio + 1: Planets (BBE) LP
Since 2018, BBE Music has been leading the field in reissuing rare modern jazz from Japan’s golden period spanning the late 60s to the early 80s. The J Jazz Masterclass Series continues to present the finest in Japanese jazz with ‘Planets’ by Masaru Imada Trio + 1. Originally released in 1977 as a private press album, ‘Planets’ showcases the refined playing and sophisticated compositions of one of Japan’s leading pianists, Masaru Imada. In a fifty- plus year career he has released over 40 albums, including several that have won awards from some of Japan’s leading music publications and has recorded with leading US jazz artists such as David Sanborn, Brecker Brothers, Steve Gadd, and Grover Washington Jr. Imada’s Bosendorfer piano is joined by the drums of Tetsujiro Obara and the bass of Kunimitsu Inaba, augmented by Yuji Imamura on percussion. The opening title track on Planets (featured on J Jazz vol 3) is a wafer-thin modal waltz, beginning with gentle bells and shells, followed by Obara’s deft brush work and Inaba’s hypnotically pliant bass that gives a discrete yet steady support to the gossamer melody from Imada-san’s piano. The other standout track is the suite, Sea’s Pasture, an epic piece that undulates and heaves, like the dark endless ocean, rich with mystery and each side of the album ends with a solo piece on the haunting Bosendorfer. Planets comes with full reproduction of the original artwork with obi strip, extra photos, a translation of the original sleeve note and a 3000 word new sleeve note by Tony Higgins including an interview with Masaru Imada himself. The J Jazz Masterclass Series is curated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden for BBE Music.
File Under: Jazz, Japan
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Michael Jackson: Thriller Ultra Disc (MoFi) LP
The Best-Selling Album of All Time Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary: Michael Jackson’s Thriller Receives Definitive Treatment on Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM LP Set. Mastered from the Original Analog Master Tapes for Superior Sound and Strictly Limited to 40,000 Numbered Copies: Experience the Transformative Songs, Soulful Vocals, Sleek Rhythms, and Vibrant Production as If Hearing It All for the First Time. 34-Times-Platinum Blockbuster Changed Music, Culture, Entertainment, and Society: Includes “Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” “Thriller,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Human Nature,” “P. Y. T. (Pretty Young Thing),” and “The Girl Is Mine” (with Paul McCartney). Source: 1/2″ / 30 IPS analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe. Putting into perspective the incalculable impact and pioneering significance of the best-selling album of all time – Michael Jackson’s Thriller – has never been easy. Though Thriller lays claim to mind-boggling statistics that serve as reminders of how pervasive and indispensable it remains to music snobs and casual listeners alike, its essence always traces back to the greatness, power, and scope of the music. Now, as it celebrates its 40th anniversary, the record that reimagined pop; united audiences; made strides towards achieving racial equality; established the video as an artistic and commercial format; and taught the world how to dance sounds even more invigorating than it did during the advent of the Walkman. Mastered from the original analog master tapes, pressed at RTI, and strictly limited to 40,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM LP set does for Thriller what Jackson’s unforgettable appearance on the “Motown 25” TV special in 1983 did for his career: It makes the music personal, human, desirable, relatable, imaginative – the definition of cool. This extraordinary reissue does so by presenting the songs in lifelike fashion, zeroing in on the fundamentals with laser focus, and magnifying the brilliance of the production, arrangements, and vocals in ways that let everyone experience Thriller as if hearing the album for the first time. Surpassing the sonics of earlier reissues and pressings, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g LP set strips away prior limitations and provides a clear, dynamic view of a landmark that crashed through every conceivable barrier and permanently transformed music, culture, and society. The expanse and depth of the soundstage, range of detail, percussive textures, air around the vocals, and natural decay of notes come through with demonstration-grade realism.
File Under: Pop, Audiophile
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Johann Johannsson: And In The Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees (Deutsche Grammophon) LP
An accompaniment to the animated film Varmints, this is a collection of achingly beautiful orchestral work balanced on a bed of Jóhannsson’s patented electronics. Surprisingly however, the film itself is not intrinsic to the enjoyment of the music; Jóhannsson’s score stands alone perfectly as a haunting collection of tracks. As with most soundtracks, the album is made up of a selection of repeating themes which appear and disappear throughout the record; Jóhannsson manages to approach this with such subtlety you can’t always even tell that a familiar theme is drifting in and out of each track. The clouds of ambience and growls of synthesizer that underpin the lilt of the orchestra are crucial to the record and give a similar warmth similar to what made Englaborn so very special. These pieces are memorable and deeply moving, and within one listen you could almost visualize the film itself, or at least a homemade version. Soundtrack or not, Jóhannsson has created yet another peerless collection of electronic/classical vignettes you won’t be forgetting any time soon.
File Under: Ambient, Classical
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Elvin Jones: Revival: Live at Pookie’s Pub (Blue Note) LP
Revival: Live at Pookie’s Pub is a thrilling previously unissued live recording of Elvin Jones’ quartet that captures the legendary drummer’s emergence as a bandleader at a little-known club in New York City where he had a weekly residency after leaving John Coltrane’s band in the late 1960s. Featuring Joe Farrell on tenor saxophone, Billy Greene on piano, and Wilbur Little on bass, Revival was recorded between July 28-30, 1967, just two weeks after Coltrane died on July 17. Musicians: Elvin Jones, drums Joe Farrell, tenor saxophone Billy Greene, piano Wilbur Little, bass
File Under: Jazz
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Norah Jones: I Dream of Christmas (Blue Note) LP
Norah Jones has been a steady voice of warmth and reassurance for nearly 20 years since her cozy 2002 debut album Come Away With Me became a familiar musical companion for millions of people around the world. Now the 9-time Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist has made her first-ever holiday album with I Dream Of Christmas, a delightful and comforting collection of timeless seasonal favorites and affecting new originals that explore the complicated emotions of our times and our hopes that this holiday season will be full of joy and togetherness. Among the album’s many pleasures are Norah’s playful reinvention of The Chipmunk’s “Christmas Don’t Be Late,” which is given a languid beat and swaggering horns. Other highlights include uplifting originals like “Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones),” and sublime versions of “White Christmas,” “Blue Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “Christmas Time Is Here.” I Dream Of Christmas was produced by Leon Michels, and features an excellent cast of musicians including Brian Blade on drums, Tony Scherr and Nick Movshon on bass, Russ Pahl on pedal steel guitar, Marika Hughes on cello, Dave Guy on trumpet, Raymond Mason on trombone, and Michels on saxophone, flute, percussion, and more.
File Under: Jazz, Xmas
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Karate: Time Expired (Numero) BOX
At the turn of the century and after three albums, Karate’s tenure within the insular east coast indie rock scene had expired, but the band was just getting started. Collected here is the band’s spacious, adventurous, and sometimes difficult second half presented in fastidious detail. This five LP box includes the trio’s Unsolved double LP (including 3 previously unissued period appropriate tracks), Some Boots, and Pockets albums, plus a first time vinyl pressing of their Cancel/Sing EP, all annotated by Geoff Farina’s account of Karate’s adulthood and Andy Hong’s insights into the trio’s recording process.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Yasuhiro Kohno Trio + One: Song of Island (BBE) LP
A private press rarity that few know of, ‘Song of Island’ was the third album from pianist Yasuhiro Kohno’s trio, recorded live at the jazz club and live house (gig venue) ‘Again’ in August 1985. Pressed up in small numbers, ‘Song for Island’ was issued on the private ASCAP Records, set up by pianist and band leader Yasuhiro Kohno. The album is a follow up to Kohno-san’s previous two albums, ‘Peace’ and ‘Roma in the Rain’, released on the cult Aketa’s Disk label. However, unlike the ‘Peace’ and ‘Roma in the Rain’ albums, ‘Song of Island’ has never been reissued before – until now. The title track was included on J Jazz volume 3. This is a very special album that captures a special time in Japanese jazz, when exemplary acoustic jazz was still being performed and recorded by dedicated and talented artists at the height of mid-80s synth pop. ‘Song of Island’ features four original compositions by Yasuhiro Kohno plus a distinctive take on a jazz standard. Yasuhiro Kohno was born in Nara, southern Japan, in 1953 and made his professional debut as a member of Japanese rocker Eikichi Yazawa’s band before going on to accompany actor/singer Masatoshi Nakamura. As well as recording and performing under his own name, Kohno has also played with American musicians such as Richard Davis and Mal Waldron and continues to perform regularly in Japan. ‘Song of Island’ will be issued as a full reproduction of the original work, with inserts, translated original sleeve notes, plus new sleeve notes, photos, and an interview with Yasuhiro Kohno by Tony Higgins.
File Under: Jazz, Japan
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Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By – Instrumentals (Bulk) LP
Instrumental version of Nathaniel Merriweather Presents Lovage Avec Michael Patton & Jennifer Charles – Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By. 2022 Reissue – Limited Indie Exclusive Red Colored Vinyl! You knew they would be reissued, too, right? So here they are, the instrumentals. Opaque red vinyl edition. While stock lasts, we won’t get more copies after this. “Lovage” is defined as “an herb that is said to be a benefit for relieving abdominal pains due to gastrointestinal gas…also touted to reduce flatulence when consumed as a tea.” But when placed in the able hands of sonic mastermind Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, recording under the guise of musical lothario Nathaniel Merriweather, the result is a concept album of “music to make love to your old lady by.”
File Under: Hip Hop
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Low: Songs for a Dead Pilot (Kranky) LP
When Kranky began working with Low, the Duluth, Minnesota trio had released three albums and a split single with the Dirty Three on the Vernon Yard label. With their deliberate pacing and the crystalline harmonizing of Alan Sparkhawk and Mimi Parker, Low could not have been further away from what were the prevailing currents of independent rock at the time. In 1997 the band recorded the 36-minute, 6-song EP Songs for a Dead Pilot at their home studio in Duluth. Sprinkled with abstract particles and the product of home experimentation, the release marked an expansion of the band’s working methods and it confirmed that the slow and lovely sound that the band worked with still gave them plenty of room to play in. The vinyl format for this title has been out of print the longest of any of the band’s Kranky releases, and is finally available again for the analog purists.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Mahogany Brain: Smooth Sick Lights (Zaius Tapes) LP
Mahogany Brain forged their unique audio dialect with their debut release, With (Junk-Saucepan) When (Spoon-Trigger) for the legendary Futura label in 1971. More Avant-Garde than Prog, it spoke to the souls of the dedicated one percenters — such as the ESP Disk set — specifically patrons of The Godz and Cromagnon. But in early 1972, Mahogany Brain recorded Smooth Sick Lights, a follow-up release even more bewildering than its predecessor, yet this sat neglected until 1976 when it was issued by the Pole label. It’s hard to know what sort of impression it made on anyone beside Steven Stapleton (as his NWW list is how many have been informed of its existence). It had enough allure that the Tapioca label reissued a botched mispress in 1977, which seems to be the version that most latent hep-cats, whom knew not better, got fooled into owning. Zaius Tapes comes to the rescue once again with a stellar reissue of this exemplary diamond in the rough. For fans of the further out ’70s French Prog, it goes beyond Red Noise and Fille Qui Mousse. You can see how the brain-beams emitted from this release were studied by Heratius, Gutura, and others. It’s possible Smooth Sick Lights even helped inform factions of the New York No Wave (lead guitarist Patrick Geoffois would go on to be a member of both The Contortions and James White & The Blacks). As the bard once penned, “conjecture is nine-tenths of the truth.” RIYL; Frolk Haven, Mars, Jandek, Sproton Layer. One-time pressing of 300.
File Under: Psych
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Ennio Morricone: Quando L’amore e Sensualita (Decca) LP
Quando Lamore E Sensualita is one of the undiscovered gems in the Ennio Morricone catalog. Still unpublished in its entirety, this score is the manifesto of the “Morricone Segreto” concept. With its tonal experiments and compositional complexity, it shows the most obscure, dark-tinged, and psychedelic side of the Maestro and his unbridled creativity. The score masterfully mirrors the lustful bourgeois hypocrisy portrayed in the cult film directed by Vittorio De Sisti, thanks to a striking contrast between obsessive and repetitive sounds (representing the male fury) and uplifting, crystalline and ethereal elements (symbolizing the feminine innocence). Edda Dell’Orso, the long-time “crystal voice” of Morricone (best known for being featured in the score of Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dynamite), is featured on 7 tracks, giving an essential contribution to the uniqueness of the soundtrack: her whimsical whispered vocals enrich tracks like “Luce chiara per vergine” and “Curve oscure” with mystery and fleshliness. The third track, the enigmatic and haunting “Vie-Ni” (one of the most loved pieces from “Morricone Segreto”) is representative of what to expect from the soundtrack: a disturbing and mysterious synthesizer plays on a tribal drumbeat, soon to be interrupted by a children’s choir obsessively repeating the title’s two syllables. These eerie yet creepy childish voices, introduced in previous works, here find an even more obsessive use: they represent one of Morricone’s trademark elements, as well as one of the traits that have made Italian soundtracks from the 1970s so much appreciated and recognizable in the world. The soundtrack also features “Nascosta nell’ombra”, a psych-prog cut featuring a prominent wah wah guitar and an electric organ which represent another nugget from the much sought-after and acclaimed groovy repertoire of the Maestro.
File Under: OST
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Bill Nace: Through a Room (Drag City) LP
“Bill Nace’s Through a Room represents a seismic progression from Both, his startling 2020 debut solo LP for Drag City. Nace’s career has been defined by a relentless probing of ways to frame the complex menu of human emotions, and that the guitar has been his primary tool for exploring this terrain is of little consequence. On this new release, he also employs tapes, hurdy gurdy, doughnut pipe, quelle est belle, as well as his latest instrument of choice, taishōgoto. This is also, ultimately, insignificant. What matters is the discerning spirit which animates his work. The tracks are carefully built from loops and phrases that talk to each other, subsume one another, overlapping and crashing and diving and expanding and emerging into unimagined vistas…”—Matt Krefting
File Under: Experimental
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Queen: s/t (Hollywood) LP
Queen are proud to announce the re-release of their entire studio album catalog on remastered long playing heavyweight vinyl. The album packaging will include every detail of the original releases in their original 12” format. Bonus posters, extra pictures and all the unique content of the original albums will be faithfully reproduced. Queen’s eponymous 1973 debut features all of the band’s signature elements from Freddy Mercury’s operatic harmonies to Brian May’s orchestral guitar work to their theatric and grandiose hard rock. The album and its sound was as unique as it was promising and it provides a rough blue print to what would coalesce into greatness on their subsequent releases.
File Under: Rock
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Queens of the Stone Age: …Like Clockwork (Matador) LP
For their first album in six years, Queens Of The Stone Age called back classic members Dave Grohl and Joey Castillo on drums, and Nick Oliveri and Mark Lanegan on vocals. In addition, some big names came in to perform: Elton John, Trent Reznor, Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), James Lavelle (U.N.K.L.E.) and more. The 2013 release, which Homme described as “an audio documentary of a manic year,” contains some of the QOTSA mastermind’s most intense, personal and beautiful songwriting to date. While the thunder of Queens past is still evident (especially in lead single “My God Is The Sun”) there are a number of gorgeous ballads – meditations on time passing, the struggle to create art, and the nearness of mortality. The music lives up to the album’s lyrical and conceptual ambitions, with some of Homme’s finest guitar work to date, at times recalling past greats such as Brian May or George Harrison, at other times uniquely his own. The rhythm section starts and stops on a dime, and in some of the more complex songs, the ensembles playing is virtuosic – but never sterile.
File Under: Rock
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Queens of the Stone Age: Villains (Matador) LP
This year Queens Of The Stone Age’s redefining chart topping 2017 album, “Villains”, celebrates its 5th anniversary. To commemorate, the Mark Ronson produced and Mark Rankin co-produced record arrives in a special package with an opaque white double LP, vinyl etching, an obi-strip, and limited poster by Boneface. “The bequiffed high priest of desert rock has always imbued his full-throttle stoner sound with a certain amount of hip-shaking sass, but on ‘Villains’, he truly lets his dancing shoes take the floor” (NME).
File Under: Rock
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Adrian Quesada: Jaguar Sound (ATO) LP
On the heels of his acclaimed Boleros Psicodélicos LP, Adrian Quesada drops the new album Jaguar Sound. The twelve-track collection marks the second new album of the year from the Grammy-winning guitarist, producer and Black Pumas co-founder, further showcasing his singular and signature ability to build a bridge between seemingly disparate worlds of music. Steeped in a heady fusion of hip-hop, psychedelic soul and the opulent orchestration of Italian film scores from the 1970s, the LP draws upon inspirations like The Alchemist, Ennio Morricone and Nico Fidenco, as well as his own experience growing up on the border of multiple countries, cultures and languages. Featuring a special appearance from Ikebe Shakedown, as well as harp by Mary Lattimore, Neal Francis on piano, keys from David Garza and an array of strings, horns and percussion, Jaguar Sound was produced, written, engineered, mixed and largely performed by Adrian Quesada at his own Electric Deluxe studio in Austin, TX.
File Under: Soul, Hip Hop, OST, Latin America
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Ride: 4 Eps (Wichita) LP
“Shoegaze legends Ride have announced the details of the reissues of their early classic albums via Wichita Recordings. These will be released on the 4th November and will include the first four EPs, plus their seminal 1990 debut ‘Nowhere’, and feted 1992 album ‘Going Blank Again’ from their days on Creation Records. Entitled ‘4 EPs’, the first four Ride EPs are compiled onto one record for the first time ever and packaged as a beautiful gatefold album on double white vinyl. This is accompanied by a 16 page booklet featuring archive photos and an essay by Sonic Cathedral’s Nathaniel Cramp. ‘Nowhere’ is reissued on blue vinyl, with a gatefold sleeve and embossed artwork. ‘Going Blank Again’ is double orange vinyl and also has a gatefold sleeve. All the original audio has been reworked and refined.”
File Under: Rock, Shoegaze
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Ride: Nowhere (Wichita) LP
“Shoegaze legends Ride have announced the details of the reissues of their early classic albums via Wichita Recordings. These will be released on the 4th November and will include the first four EPs (‘Ride, ‘Play’, ‘Fall’, and ‘Today Forever’), plus their seminal 1990 debut ‘Nowhere’, and feted 1992 album ‘Going Blank Again’ from their days on Creation Records. Entitled ‘4 EPs’, the first four Ride EPs are compiled onto one record for the first time ever and packaged as a beautiful gatefold album on double white vinyl. This is accompanied by a 16 page booklet featuring archive photos and an essay by Sonic Cathedral’s Nathaniel Cramp. ‘Nowhere’ is reissued on blue vinyl, with a gatefold sleeve and embossed artwork. ‘Going Blank Again’ is double orange vinyl and also has a gatefold sleeve. All the original audio has been reworked and refined.”
File Under: Rock, Shoegaze
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Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow: Archive 81 OST (Invada) LP
Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow’s sinister score to Netflix’s supernatural horror “Archive 81” is now available on LP! The album is pressed on black vinyl, housed in a heavyweight spined sleeve with double sided printed insert. Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow are known for their scores on the Ivor Novello Award Winning “Ex Machina” and “Devs”, along with their work on “Annihilation”, “Free Fire”, “HANNA” and more. Inspired by the popular podcast of the same name, Archive 81 depicts the life of a man who comes across videotapes full of a mysterious woman’s adventures in an even more mysterious apartment building. What seemed to be an ordinary job turns into a nightmare as the strange creature that took the woman’s life in the past seems to have found a way back to him 25 years in the future.
File Under: OST
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John Scofield: s/t (ECM) LP
John Scofield’s first guitar-solo-recording ever gives a résumé of all the influences and idioms he has cultivated over his career in performances on guitar, accompanied by his own rhythmic pulse and chordal backing using a loop machine. Besides jazz, John is known to have always also had a soft spot for the rock and roll and country music he grew up with, revealed here in unencumbered renditions of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” and Hank Williams’ “You Win Again”. Between elegant and personal readings of standards, like “It Could Happen To You”, the traditional “Danny Boy” and Keith Jarret’s “Coral”, Scofield presents his own timeless compositions – some new, others known. For the guitarist, it’s all about “the way you get the sound out of the string and what you do with it after you attack it.”
File Under: Jazz, Guitar
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Joseph Shabason: Anne EP (Western Vinyl) LP
The Anne EP is the afterword to Joseph Shabason’s acclaimed 2018 harmonic suite Anne through which he examined and processed his mother’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Employing a small supporting cast that includes vocalist Dan Bejar (Destroyer) and guitarist Thomas Gill (Owen Pallett), Anne EP spotlights the Toronto saxophonist as he builds empathic tropospheres of woodwinds and synthesizers, deepening the sentiment established by the EP’s companion album, which was released in November 2018. The detail and idiosyncrasy beneath the material’s dawn-of-the-CD-era sheen, elevates Shabason’s work far beyond mere aesthetic exercise, cementing jazz, ambient sound design, and new age revivalism into a timely new genre all his own.
File Under: Ambient
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SoiSong: qXn948s (Dais) LP
SoiSong is the stunning but short-lived partnership of Coil co-founder Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson and veteran Russian electronic experimentalist Ivan Pavlov. Though friends since 1997, the project birthed roughly a decade later in Bangkok, where Christopherson relocated following the death of his Coil collaborator John Balance in 2004. Named after the Thai word for ‘two’ along with a notorious red-light district street nearby, the duo dialed into a cryptic language of lurching synthetics, Eastern minimalism, and interdimensional glitch, oscillating between elegance and mayhem. qXn948s collects some of their earliest recordings, and remains as transgressive and transcendent a listen now as it was upon its release a decade and a half ago. Pavlov characterizes SoiSong as less a musical group than a “utopian, semi-alien platform for collaboration, devoid of pronounced personality or centralized authority… more like a message from elsewhere that anyone is welcome to participate in and spread.” Every facet of the project was disruptive and oblique: self-released CDs packaged in elaborate origami that had to be destroyed to be accessed; a website with password protected sections, where different passwords were provided for different events, objects or releases; performance merchandise of headphones and a Walkman melted shut so the music can only be heard as long as the set of batteries last. Theirs was a muse as unprecedented as it was uncompromising, equal parts pranks and profundity. qXn948s began with samples and software composed intuitively in tandem before a large monitor, then progressively processed and scrambled into bewildering arrangements of digital frequencies, alternately spartan and claustrophobic, uneasy and uncanny. Vignettes of small melody emerge and are obliterated; gamelan-esque tones spiral above cybernetic pulse programming and funereal didgeridoo; skeletal piano meanders in the distance while flickering circuitry pummels patterns of white noise. Pavlov describes his and Christopherson’s chemistry as “unspoken and sincere, and very efficient.” That music this aggressively disorienting and complex congealed in a smoothly organic fashion is testament to the rare vision of its creators.
File Under: Electronic, Ambient, Coil
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Weyes Blood: And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow (Sub Pop) LP
Technological agitation. Narcissism fatigue. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. The celestial-influenced folk album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, and The Guardian admiringly named it one of 2019’s best.) While Titanic Rising was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos. “We’re in a fully functional shit show,” Mering says. “My heart is a glow stick that’s been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness.” And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow opens with the wistful, winsome “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody,” a song about the interconnectivity of all beings, despite the fraying of society around us. “I was asking a lot of questions while writing these songs. Hyper-isolation kept coming up,” Mering says. “Our culture relies less and less on people. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal.” Other tracks follow in kind. The lullaby-like “Grapevine” chronicles the splintering of a human connection. The otherworldly dirge “God Turn Me into a Flower” serves as allegory about our collective hubris. “The Worst Is Done” is an ominous warning, set against a deceivingly breezy pop melody. “Chaos is natural. But so is negentropy, or the tendency for things to fall into order,” she says. “These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment.” Colored vinyl with single-LP jacket, custom dust sleeve and two-sided poster.
File Under: Indie Rock, Dream Pop, Folk
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Various: A Guide to the Birdsong of Western Africa (Shika Shika) LP
An album of incredible music inspired by endangered birdsong. This is the third album from The Birdsong Project that challenges ten artists from a certain region to make an original track using and inspired by the song of a threatened bird. 100% of the profits from the project go to bird conservation NGOs working on the ground. Following South America and Mexico, Central America, & the Caribbean, this album moves to Western Africa. The album mixes well-known names from the World or traditional music scene like Vieux Farka Touré, alongside electronic music producers like Buruntuma. This record is also pressed on the greenest record available via Green Vinyl Records with 100% PVC-free, 100% recycled cardboard and 70% less CO2 emissions.
File Under: Africa
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Various: Penny & The Quarters & Friends (Numero) LP
“You and Me” by Penny & the Quarters simply refused to stay lost. For 40 years, the song sat silent in a box of reels before heartthrob Ryan Gosling selected it to star in 2010’s indie weeper Blue Valentine. The power of the track set off an international treasure hunt in pursuit of the mysterious artists behind it. Since then, “You and Me” has soundtracked thousands of weddings, spawned hundreds of YouTube covers, and tugged heartstrings for scores of advertisements and films. Fifteen years after Eccentric Soul: The Prix label became Numero’s worst selling compilation, we’ve reanalyzed the tapes and selected 11 equally-as-fascinating rehearsals caught by engineer Clem Price in Columbus, Ohio, in 1970.
File Under: Funk, Soul
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…..restocks…..
Cannonball Adderley: Somethin’ Else (Blue Note) LP
Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson: Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson (Verve) LP
Bad Religion: How Could Hell Be Any Worse (Epitaph) LP
Bjork: Debut (One Little Indian) LP
Bjork: Post (One Little Indian) LP
Phoebe Bridgers: Stranger in the Alps (Dead Oceans) LP
C418: Minecraft: Alpha (Ghostly) LP
Can: Tago Mago (Spoon) LP
Caribou: Up In Flames (Leaf) LP
Nick Cave: Boatman’s Call (Mute) LP
Cerberus Shoal: …And Farewell to Hightide (Temporary Residence) LP
Denzel Curry: Melt My Eyez See Your Future (Loma Vista) LP
Lucy Dacus: Home Video (Matador) LP
Lucy Dacus: No Burden (Matador) LP
Miles Davis: Workin’ (OJC) LP
Dead Moon: In the Graveyard (Mississippi) LP
Dead Moon: Unknown Passage (Mississippi) LP
Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left (Island) LP
Fever Ray: s/t (Mute) LP
Tim Hecker: Love Streams (4AD) LP
Bobby Hutcherson: Stick-Up! (Blue Note) LP
Iggy & the Stooges: Raw Power (Sony) LP
King Crimson: Beat (Panegyric) LP
Michael Kiwanuka: Kiwanuka (Interscope) LP
Julian Lage: Love Hurts (Mack Ave) LP
Joanna Newsom: Divers (Drag City) LP
Joanna Newsom: YS (Drag City) LP
Angel Olsen: Big Time (Jagjaguwar) LP
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: Viserals (Rocket) LP
Portishead: PNYC: Live at the Roseland Ballroom, New York 1997 (London) LP
Radiohead: Kid A Mnesia (XL) LP
Revolting Cocks: Beers, Steers + Queers (Cleopatra) LP
Rodriguez: Cold Fact (Universal) LP
Rolling Stones: Some Girls (Abkco) LP
Sault: 5 (Forever Living Originals) LP
Sault: Untitled (Black Is) (Forever Living Originals) LP
Spoon: Hot Thoughts (Matador) LP
Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa (Matador) LP
The Smile: A Light for Attracting Attention (XL) LP
Throbbing Gristle: 20 Jazz Funk Greats (Mute) LP
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Cool It Down (Secretly Canadian) LP