Another light week but some big titles, that Khruangbin is gonna sell out in a minute so don’t ponder it, just buy. Still loads of killer used stuff going up on the site daily, and if you’re paying attention, you just might be able to snag a title or two.
No, we still aren’t opening up yet. As I’ve been saying we’re in a good groove. Online ordering and pick-ups are working well and keeping everyone safe. We run a small shop. Distancing, and cleaning add an extra layer to the whole thing that I currently just can’t fathom adding to the mix right now.
As always, big thanks to everyone who’s been hitting up our webstore and placing orders! It’s getting competitive around 5pm when we post up fresh used stock. If you haven’t hit up the WEBSTORE, MAYBE YOU SHOULD! If you can’t figure out the site, or don’t like to use computers, you can always call the store and we can do an order over the phone. I’ll be at the shop 11-4 week days. Stay safe!
Oh ya… if you don’t follow us on Instagram, WHY NOT?! And now you know.
Khruangbin: Mordechai (Dead Oceans) LP *YOW! ALREADY SOLD OUT, MORE SOON (HOPEFULLY!) Limited translucent pink vinyl! Khruangbin has always been multilingual, weaving far-flung musical languages like East Asian surf-rock, Persian funk, and Jamaican dub into mellifluous harmony. But on their third album, it’s finally speaking out loud. Mordechai features vocals prominently on nearly every song, a first for the mostly instrumental band. It’s a shift that rewards the risk, reorienting Khruangbin’s transportive sound toward a new sense of emotional directness, without losing the spirit of nomadic wandering that’s always defined it. And it all started with them coming home. By the summer of 2019, the Houston group – bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, guitarist Mark Speer, drummer DJ Johnson – had been on tour for nearly three-and-a-half years, playing to audiences across North and South America, Europe, and southeast Asia behind acclaimed albums The Universe Smiles Upon You and Con Todo El Mundo. They returned to their farmhouse studio in Burton, Texas, ready to begin work on their third album. But they were also determined to slow down, to take their time and luxuriate in building something together. Musically, the band’s ever-restless ear saw it pulling reference points from Pakistan, Korea, and West Africa, incorporating strains of Indian chanting boxes and Congolese syncopated guitar. But more than anything, the album became a celebration of Houston, the eclectic city that had nurtured them, and a cultural nexus where you can check out country and zydeco, trap rap, or avant-garde opera on any given night. In those years away from home, Khruangbin’s members often felt like they were swimming underwater, unsure of where they were going, or why they were going there. But Mordechai leads them gently back to the surface, allowing them to take a breath, look around, and find itself again. It is a snapshot taken along a larger journey – a moment all the more beautiful for its impermanence. And it’s a memory to revisit again and again, speaking to us now more clearly than ever.
Blanck Mass: s/t (Sacred Bones) LP Blanck Mass is the debut self titled release from Ben Power of Fuck Buttons. First released in 2011 to critical acclaim, this is an expansive collection of tracks loosely themed around cerebral hypoxia and the beautiful complexity of the natural world, comprising ten songs which were written, recorded and self-produced at Power’s home in London. Unlike much of his recent work this album has an aquatic ambient quality and guides the listener on a deeply hypnotic interstellar journey. This long out-of-print album has been highly sought after for years and Sacred Bones is happy to once again make this beautiful music accessible here on colored vinyl 2LP.
Phoebe Bridgers: Punisher (Dead Oceans) LP Phoebe Bridgers doesn’t write love songs as much as songs about the impact love can have on our lives, personalities, and priorities. Punisher, her fourth release and second solo album, is concerned with that subject. To say she writes about heartbreak is to undersell her blue wisdom, to say she writes about pain erases all the strange joy her music emanates. The arrival of Punisher cements Bridgers as one of the most clever, tender and prolific songwriters of our era. Bridgers is the rare artist with enough humor to deconstruct her own meteoric rise. Repeatedly praised by tastemakers, Bridgers herself is more interested in discussing topics on Twitter. Deadpanning meditations on the humiliating process of being a person, she presents a sweetly funny flipside to the strikingly sad songs she writes. Fittingly, Punisher is fascinated with and driven by that kind of impossible tension. Whether it’s writing tweets or songs, Bridgers’s singular talent lies in bringing fierce curiosity to slimy and painful things, interrogating them until they yield up answers that are beautiful and absurd, or faithfully reporting the reality that, sometimes, they are neither. Bridgers pulls together a formidable crew of guests, including Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, Christian Lee Hutson and Conor Oberst; Nathaniel Walcott (of Bright Eyes), Nick Zinner (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Jenny Lee Lindberg (of Warpaint), Blake Mills and Jim Keltner; and her longtime bandmates Marshall Vore (drums), Harrison Whitford (guitar), Emily Retsas (bass) and Nick White (keys). The album was mixed by Mike Mogis, who also mixed Stranger In The Alps. On the album’s epic, freewheeling closer, “I Know The End,” Bridgers orchestrates wails and horns, drums and electric guitar into a sumptuous doomsday swirl, culminating in her own final whispered roar. This is Punisher in a nutshell: devastating elegance punctuated by a moment of deeply campy self-awareness.
Deerhoof: Future Teenage Cave Artists (Joyful Noise) LP Normal is never coming back. Whether by a collective dismantling or sheer collapse, our old illusions are being hollowed out. Over the past couple of years, Deerhoof has been asking themselves if there was any music they could create that expressed how the rapidly changing future might actually feel. The finished product, Future Teenage Cave Artists, finds Deerhoof in a revolutionary mood, but also haunted by memories of a lost world and every failed attempt to save it. People already cut loose from the system, already surviving with new ways of life – these hopeful heroes are Deerhoof’s inspiration. These are the Future Teenage Cave Artists. Faithful listeners will recognize a certain alienated but transformational figure who shows up in Deerhoof songs going back to their earliest days. Take the narrator of “The Perfect Me” from 2007’s Friend Opportunity: an orphaned but eager soul attempting to entice other wounded wanderers who might lack a home, a clan, a family, a history. But on Future Teenage Cave Artists our protagonist is threatened by terror lurking around every corner. Add to that the fact that our “cast-off queen,” our “maniac,” our “terrible daughter” are watching themselves get orphaned in real time by an older generation in power that would rather see life on Earth destroyed than give up archaic systems of capital. Like a lot of the inimitable music they have released over the last quarter-century, the Deerhoof of Future Teenage Cave Artists (Satomi Matsuzaki on bass and vocals, Ed Rodriguez and John Dieterich on guitars, and Greg Saunier on drums, vocals and piano) stitches together fragments of R&B and classic rock and transforms them into a new language of revolution, forgoing verse-chorus structures for dream logic and blind intuition. But what makes this album different is its intimacy – the blues riffs and slide guitars are joined by soft, rickety pianos and whispered three-part harmonies. In this sense, FTCA inverts the formula of Deerhoof’s last album, Mountain Moves, which invited a wide community of collaborators to band together in an open celebration of solidarity. The new one is borne of self-isolation and deprivation. It’s the sound of a sparkling, manic musical intelligence being disconnected from a nourishing public and devouring itself inside its own cocoon: a desperate lunge at metamorphosis. At times FTCA indeed sounds as if the band has retreated to the caves, recording with unreliable electricity and insecure food supplies. Guitar pedals malfunction mid-take, reverbs chop off mid-tail, drum fills collapse mid-phrase. Some musical moments, as gorgeous and touching as anything Deerhoof has ever written, stop short for no apparent reason, giving way to queasy smudges of sound. Many of the instruments and voices were recorded with nothing more than the built-in mic of a laptop. Harsh splices make no effort to hide the seams. Hard panning leaves many of these imperfections weirdly naked in the mix. In this way FTCA joins a storied lineage of pop records that expose the insular and reclusive nature of recording itself. Like Let It Be, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, or Sister Lovers, this record is its own “making-of.” Absence is a central character in the drama. For every heartwarming melody or pile-up of parade drums or shard of loopy guitar noise, there is musical acknowledgement of the toll that a constant threat of cataclysm takes on mental health. This is a sonic and lyric funeral for a way of life that is never coming back – an afterparty, back when the doomsday clock hit midnight. There are raucous toasts to the departed in high style, as sassy and spasmodic as anything they’ve done – see Side A; there are moments of profound sadness, maximally small, descending into madness, shrieking with loss – see Side B. All funerals remind us that life goes on, somehow.
Lady Gaga: Chromatica (Universal) LP On the heels of her comeback single “Stupid Love,” – an infectious dance-pop collaboration with producer/songwriters Bloodpop (Michael Tucker), Max Martin, Tchami, Martin Joseph and Eli Rise – Lady Gaga delivers her sixth studio album, Chromatica, which finds the Grammy and Academy-Award winning artist triumphantly reclaiming the dancefloor. It also features collaborations with Ariana Grande, Elton John and Blackpink. “The symbol for Chromatica has a sinewave in it, which is the mathematical symbol for sound, and it’s from what all sound is made from,” Gaga explained to Zane Lowe. “And for me, sound is what healed me in my life, period, and it healed me again making this record, and that is really what Chromatica is all about… it’s about healing and it’s about bravery as well, and when we talk about love I think it’s so important to include the fact that it requires a ton of bravery to love someone.” “I think what I’ve learned is that I can view the world in whatever way I choose to see it, and it doesn’t mean that I’m deleting the bad things, it just means that I can reframe my life experiences and reframe also the way that the world frames life experiences to a way that I love and believe in,” she adds. “That is Chromatica. I live on Chromatica, that is where I live. I went into my frame – I found earth, I deleted it. Earth is cancelled. I live on Chromatica.”
Sofie is a musician and artist based in Vienna. Best known as a DJ, she is about to release her self-produced debut album, Cult Survivor, a collection of leftfield pop songs inspired by chanson, heartbreak and life’s overwhelming decisions. Surrounded by classical music from a young age, Sofie started learning the violin at just four years old. She continued playing the violin through her teens, and though she won a place to study at the prestigious Vienna Conservatoire, decided to leave the course early to live between Los Angeles, New York and London. She became a host of Boiler Room and an NTS Radio resident DJ, and worked at Stones Throw for four years, bringing several artists to the label including Knxwledge, Mndsgn and Stimulator Jones. As a DJ, she played on lineups with the likes of Teebs and Dam-Funk, and in 2016, she curated the compilation Sofie’s SOS Tape for Stones Throw, which includes the track “Abeja” – her collaboration with Mndsgn. After an abrupt breakup and a serious illness in the family, Sofie moved back to Vienna. There, isolated from her musical community, she began to write her own songs. “In Vienna, I was suddenly so secluded, no longer surrounded by the musical world I was so embedded in, that it forged the way for my creativity,” she says. “I’m not sure this would have happened had I stayed in LA, I don’t know if I’d have had the courage, or not felt like it was superfluous.” In touch with Peanut Butter Wolf from her days at Stones Throw, Sofie started to send him her demos, which eventually led to her finishing a record and being asked to release it on the label. Cult Survivor was written as a direct response to Sofie’s difficult personal experiences, emphasised throughout dreamy and melancholic songs like “Asleep” and “Figueroa”. Her writing process was intuitive: “I just ended up sitting down whenever I could, and the songs were just there. I’d hear them in my head or in dreams, and then write them down.” The resulting songs draw on an unexpected range of influences: French chanson, cult experimental musician Gary Wilson, ‘60s pop ballads. Inspired by the way Todd Rundgren and Serge Gainsbourg convey stories in their songs, Sofie draws on her own heartache and blends fiction with reality on “Hollywood Walk of Fame” and “Georgia Waves”. An honest and graceful debut, Cult Survivor establishes Sofie’s talent as a songwriter, moving through complex love stories, raw memories, and new beginnings.
Another week, another stack of new releases and a bunch of quick selling used postings up on the site as well. If you aren’t hitting up the used selections on our site everyday, you might be missing out! Hope everyone is staying safe out there.
No, we still aren’t opening up yet. As I’ve been saying we’re in a good groove. Online ordering and pick-ups are working well and keeping everyone safe. We run a small shop. Distancing, and cleaning add an extra layer to the whole thing that I currently just can’t fathom adding to the mix right now.
As always, big thanks to everyone who’s been hitting up our webstore and placing orders! It’s getting competitive around 5pm when we post up fresh used stock. If you haven’t hit up the WEBSTORE, MAYBE YOU SHOULD! If you can’t figure out the site, or don’t like to use computers, you can always call the store and we can do an order over the phone. I’ll be at the shop 11-4 week days. Stay safe!
Oh ya… if you don’t follow us on Instagram, WHY NOT?! And now you know.
Alessandro Alessandroni: Ritmo Dell’Industria N. 2 (Cinevox) LP At the end of the ‘60s in Italy – but also abroad, especially in France and England – a very particular trend began to spread, that one known as ’Library music’ or ‘sonorization’: as suggested by its name, those were real music libraries intended for the accompaniment of audiovisual productions such as television programs, advertisements, documentaries and films. Since they were created in total artistic freedom condition, they are often difficult if not impossible to catalog, as they’re not anchored to a specific musical genre; this freedom also allowed the authors to compose, sometimes in the most complete anonymity, experimental and avant-garde music, capable of anticipating the sounds that only many years later would have been widespread on a larger scale. Alessandro Alessandroni is mostly known for his unmistakable whistle in Ennio Morricone’s soundtracks composed for Sergio Leone’s westerns but, in a world where information is easily accessible to many people, still very few people know how vast his discography is, and how many instruments he was able to play. “Ritmo dell’industria N. 2” (Rhythm of the Industry No. 2), released in 1969 in the library music circuit – and therefore nowadays almost impossible to find in its original version if not at a very high price – can be considered Alessandroni’s first solo album. The title is misleading, since among the notes of this record the only vague reference to an industrial rhythm is the almost hypnotic repetitiveness of certain music passages which the songs are based upon: the overall feeling is more metropolitan, mysterious, at times dissonant, and it would better suit a police/thriller context rather than an industrial one; however, the charm of these compositions has remained intact to the present day. “Ritmo dell’industria N. 2” is part of a reissues series, made in collaboration with Edizioni Leonardi (Milan, Italy), of extremely rare library music LP’s published between late ’60s and early ’70s, most of which have never been released again until today, and that are finally made available again for collectors and sonorization music lovers
David Bowie: Space Oddity (Parlophone) LP Rhino/Parlophone present a picture disc vinyl LP replicating the 1972 RCA edition of Space Oddity. The disc features the same iconic Mick Rock shots that were used on the front and back of the original sleeve, albeit in much better quality due to Mick Kindly supplying new scans of the negatives. The pictures were taken at Bowie’s then home, Haddon Hall, in the spring of 1972. The album also comes with a replica of the cover image poster which was part of the package at the time and no doubt helped launch a thousand punk hairdos a few years later. The back sleeve image was taken in Zowie’s (Duncan Jones) pink bedroom. Along with The Man Who Sold The World, the November 1972 edition of Space Oddity was repackaged for the new Bowie audience to make available the increasingly hard to find Philips and Mercury originals. Needless to say, both albums performed considerably better released in the wake of Ziggy’s success, with Space Oddity peaking at No. 17 in the UK chart and No. 16 in the US. The picture disc will feature the 2009 40th anniversary remaster of the album, which was undertaken to match as closely as possible to the original vinyl issue.
Basia Bulat: Are You In Love (Secret City) LP Some records require a journey. Are You in Love?, Basia Bulat’s extraordinary, glittering 2019 album, required two: the Canadian singer went to the Mojave Desert and then she went away – turning inward, shaking off the shadows, looking out to dawn. Somewhere in the middle of making her fifth album, Bulat took almost a whole year off. Because she had fallen in love, because her father died, because she had lost her sense of beauty and where it might be hidden. “The desert exposes you,” she admits. “There’s nowhere to hide.” Like 2016’s Good Advice, Are You in Love? was made with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James. I want to make a really beautiful record about compassion, she had written to him, and Joshua Tree seemed like the perfect location: the site for a quest, finding music in the dunes. She was inspired by singer-songwriters like Minnie Ripperton, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Silvio Rodriguez – artists who knew (and know) how to imbue quiet songs with sensational force and boundless loving-kindness. Artists who can sing the sun down – and also bring it up. Still, as work on the record began, “I was afraid to write what I wanted to write,” Bulat admits. “I was afraid of some of the lyrics.” Some of the words had come easily – songs like “Are You in Love?” or the Instagram-uncanny “Hall of Mirrors,” composed one morning in Joshua Tree. But the essence of others was much more difficult to express. “Light Years,” “Electric Roses” and “Already Forgiven” wrestle with desire, self-knowledge and reinvention. “Stories fail you when you’re grown,” she sings on “Fables,” “My love for you is bold, take it all.” Are You in Love? is an album that’s gorgeous and startling, quietly strange, a shining desert record with a bit of dusty rose over all its 13 tracks. It’s searching and certain; it’s the sound of a singer who’s refusing to hide. The title track sashays like a girl-group classic; “No Control” flashes like that group’s hard stare. “Already Forgiven” ripples with reverb like a ribbon in a windstorm, whereas “Your Girl” is cruising down the highway – with Bulat doing her best Christine McVie. “Love Is At The End of the World,” the album’s gradually thunderous closing tune, is one of the most thrilling things Bulat has ever created: a blazing, incandescent ever-after, all raw electric hope. “You could keep on running,” she sings there, “you could start a war diamonds in the dust still sing into the dark.”
Cybotron: Colossus (Dual Planet) LP Part Man, Part Machine, Cybotron was the synthesis of progressive rock and electronic music experimentation. Conceived by pioneers of the Australian electronic underground, Steve Maxwell Von Braund and keyboardist Geo Green, together they produced a series of mind-altering cosmic albums throughout the 1970s which set the tone for the Minimal wave and electronic post punk scene of early 1980s Melbourne. Part Tangerine Dream, part Ash Ra Tempel, Cybotron channelled the spirit of Krautrock to create their own unique brand of throbbing Komische electronica rivaling the futuristic vision of their German counterparts. Dual Planet present the long awaited reissue of this landmark Australian recording. Issued as a limited edition reissue of the 1978 LP, re-mastered from the original source!
Peter Davison: Music on the Way (Fact of Being) LP “The Fact of Being is excited to announce the first release in a series of reissues of early works by Peter Davison. The first step into a realm of peace and love will be the long-awaited re-edition of “Music On The Way” to celebrate its 40th anniversary. “Music On The Way” was the artist’s debut in 1980 and has not been reissued since its initial release. A mesmerising ambient recording with just a touch of early new-age music in its finest incarnation. An absolute classic in the spirit of Iasos, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, Michael Stearns…finally available again on limited vinyl and extremely limited CD. The outstanding mastering works has been prepared by Grammy-nominated Jessica Thompson which guarantees an immersive deep sound experience and an unforgettable journey inwards. Peter Davison has composed music scores for Indie Features, the History Channel, A+E, Biography, PBS, Warner Bros., Disney, Universal, Discovery, Gaiam (Yoga/Relaxation music) and others. Over 25 CDs of his music are available on EMI/Higher Octave, Gaiam, Davisounds and TSR/Baja. His instrumental “Sip of Wine” (from his CD “Future, Present, Past”) received the Best Song of the Year Award, Hollywood Music in Media Awards, (New Age/Ambient), 2010. Both “Fern Valley” and “Mount Tahquitz” from his CD “Forest Home” and “Possibility” (from his CD “Possibility”) have also received nominations. Peter’s score for the PBS Series “The Endless Voyage” was nominated for the “Best Score of the Year, TV Show.” Peter Davison has composed the memorable music for over 45 of GAIAM’s award-winning DVDs featuring master instructors yoga and meditations Rodney Yee, Patricia Walden, Suzanne Deason, David-Dorian Ross, and others.”
Blaze Foley: Live at the Austin Outhouse (End of an Ear) LP “Live at the Austin Outhouse” captures Blaze Foley, Austin’s legendary singer-songwriter, at his final appearance at the iconic Austin Outhouse venue. Recorded over two nights in 1989 just days before his tragic murder these twelve tracks are available on vinyl for the first time. Recorded by his friend John Casner these now classic Blaze tracks were for years only shared on hand-made cassettes among a small network of friends and fans. This vinyl LP marks the twenty-year anniversary of their initial release on CD by Lost Art Records. While Blaze’s reputation as a singer-songwriter has exploded in recent years, access to his catalog on vinyl has not kept pace. The tracks here include many of his classics; Clay Pigeons (covered by John Prine), If I Could Only Fly (covered by Merle Haggard), Election Day (covered by Lyle Lovett) and nine others. Blaze is joined in this set by several of Austin’s most beloved musicians including Champ Hood and Sarah Elizabeth Campbell. “Live at the Austin Outhouse” reveals Blaze to be as talented and soulful as his friends and running buddies Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda Williams. Foley is also the subject of a documentary film, Blaze Foley – Duct Tape Messiah, directed by Kevin Triplett, and the 2018 feature-film, Blaze, directed by Ethan Hawke. The package includes a bonus reproduction copy of the Blaze’s rare 1979 Zephyr Records 45 RPM record. Recorded in Houston, Texas on a label that quickly disappeared, the Zephyr 45 never received commercial distribution. The 45 includes a version of “If I Could Only Fly” and “Let Me Ride in Your Big Cadillac.”
John Frusciante: The Empyrean (Record Collection) LP After releasing six solo full-lengths and an EP in 2004 alone, John Frusciante took his time recording the 10-song concept album The Empyrean which wasn’t issued until 2009. Featuring collaborations with Josh Klinghoffer and Flea and guest spots from Johnny Marr, The New Dimension Singers and the Sonus Quartet, The Empyrean is awash in lush and beautiful melodies throughout and includes some of the most assured singing of Frusciante’s career. “(The Empyrean) was recorded on and off between December 2006 and March 2008. It is a concept record which tells a single story both musically and lyrically. The story takes place within one person, and there are two characters. It contains a version of Tim Buckley’s, ‘Song To The Siren’ and the rest of the songs are written by me. My friend Josh plays on it, as does Flea. It also features Sonus Quartet, Johnny Marr and The New Dimension Singers. I’m really happy with it and I’ve listened to it a lot for the psychedelic experience it provides. It should be played as loud as possible and it is suited to dark living rooms late at night. – John Frusciante 10 year anniversary reissue recut by John Frusciante and Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes. This double vinyl LP includes a download card of the album plus bonus tracks in hi-resolution.
Liam Gallagher: MTV Unplugged: Live at Hull City Hall (Warner) LP Recorded in Hull, UK in August of 2019, MTV Unplugged showcases Liam Gallagher’s solo career highlights alongside Oasis classics in new arrangements featuring a backing choir, a string section and more. The MTV special aired globally in September in celebration of the release of his second solo album Why Me? Why Not. and includes the solo hits “Wall of Glass” and “One of Us” as well as Oasis’ global smash single “Champagne Supernova.”
Goblin: Greatest Hits Vol 1 (Cinevox) LP In the ’60s, Ennio Morricone renewed the world of soundtracks in such a radical way that it is still influential today, thanks to his collaboration with film director Sergio Leone. In the following decade, another artistic partnership, the one between Goblin and Dario Argento, made a second revolution in the same field, in particular in the music of thriller and horror films. A full global scale renewal, which has inspired a myriad of artists in the decades to come to the present day, and will continue to do so in the future. To celebrate the genius of one of the most talented and influential bands in the history of soundtracks, Cinevox Record, in collaboration with AMS Records, has worked on a ‘Best Of’ divided into two parts. The first section covers the initial 1975-79 period, the one in which an incredibly inspired group wrote immortal scores for masterpiece films such as “Profondo Rosso”, “Suspiria” and “Zombi / Dawn of the Living Dead”, as well as the Italian progressive rock gems “Roller” and “Il Fantastico Viaggio del Bagarozzo Mark”. Thanks to this collection you’ll discover why the Goblin were great and unique, and why defining them ‘revolutionary’ is not an exaggeration at all. This first volume also contains a rare edit version of the song “Roller” – different from the one used in the regular LP and used in the European release of George Romero’s “Martin” movie edited by Dario Argento – and the two parts of “Chi?” merged for the first time in a single 6-minute cut.
Fumio Miyashita: Silent Echo: Sounds of the Universe (Personal Affair) LP We are proud to announce reissuing of the most important root of Japanese Ambient Music, Fumio Miyashita’s archives. The second release on this series is “Silent Echo” originally released on cassette from his label Biwa Records in 1984.
Ennio Morricone: For a Few Dollars More (Cinevox) 10″ In 1965 the previous year’s film “A Fistful of Dollars” by Sergio Leone, thanks to its success, had already helped to codify and massively increase the popularity of the ‘spaghetti western’ genre, together with the one the two lead actors Clint Eastwood and Gian Maria Volonte. “For a Few Dollars More” is the natural prosecution of that movie, with the addition of a third protagonist – Lee Van Cleef – who joins the already mentioned two actors: a triad that made history, for another masterpiece Sergio Leone’s masterpiece. Ennio Morricone’s music is equally important. The Maestro here chooses a ‘poor’ registry, consisting of folk instruments such as ocarina, Jew’s harp and chimes, respectively used to accompany the entry stage of the three main actors. But there are, as usual, the contributions of Alessandro Alessandroni and his Cantori Moderni choir, for an incredibly exciting final result.
Ennio Morricone: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly (Cinevox) LP “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” is neither more nor less than the perfect soundtrack to the most wonderful of western movies, the third and final act of the “Dollar Trilogy” directed by Sergio Leone. A film not only rated among the best of the genre, but universally considered among the most successful in the history of cinema. The Maestro Ennio Morricone has here been able to be as meticulous as his friend director, composing a soundtrack that fits brilliantly to the bombastic and epic atmospheres of the film. In addition to the main theme, played by different instruments according to the character shown on the screen, it’s totally impossible to forget the great finale, the immense closure of an unparalleled masterpiece brought by “L’estasi dell’oro” (The Ecstasy of Gold) and “Il triello”. It was only 1966, and the Morricone-Leone partnership had to live some more years on…
Ennio Morricone: Once Upon a Time in the West (Cinevox) LP After the “Dollar Trilogy”, Sergio Leone was given a new offer on another western movie that he could not refuse. Following his own rules again, and working on the film story with Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento, he directed the monumental “Once upon a time in the West”, featuring the American actors Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson among others. Each character is strongly stereotyped here, a fact emphasized by the motion picture soundtrack, once again delivered by Ennio Morricone in collaboration with his orchestra and Alessandro “The Whistler” Alessandroni and his Choir, with the addition of the female singer Edda Dell’Orso. The flavor is epic, but also very romantic at some points, since there’s a love story involving Jill, an ex-prostitute, and one of her old lovers, Cheyenne. This is another excellent demonstration that, when it comes to the exquisite blending of images and music, Italians do it better! In a few word, this is another perfect soundtrack for a magnificent movie!
Ennio Morricone: Per Un Pugno di Dollari (Cinevox) 10″ Year 1964. Almost out of nowhere, the little-known and regarded director Sergio Leone transposes into a western key a film by Akira Kurosawa, and by putting together all the right pieces, adding a bit of intuition, lays down new rules for the ‘spaghetti western’ genre, giving way to an endless series of imitations. “A Fistful of Dollars” would not have the same impact without the inimitable music written by Ennio Morricone, who had curiously been an old elementary school Leone’s classmate. The main soundtrack themes were chosen from two arrangements that Morricone had already drafted two years earlier; once removed the lyrics and added the unmistakable whistle of Alessandro Alessandroni, the spaghetti-sound was finally complete! The film was an incredible success, and projected Leone, Morricone, and in particular the actor Clint Eastwood into the Olympus of the Great. The soundtrack was released for the first time the following year (1965), along with the one of Sergio Leone’s subsequent work “For a Few Dollars More”.
The National: High Violet – 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition (4AD) 3LP 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition Colored Vinyl 3LP Reissue featuring Third Disc with Eight Bonus Tracks! 2010’s High Violet, the critically acclaimed fifth full-length record by The National, is a nervy, melodic, explosive and beautiful set of songs that finds the band at the height of their collaborative powers. Home to the now-classics “Terrible Love,” “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” “England,” and perennial show closer, “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks,” the music is wide-ranging in its moods, by turns intimate and rough, expansive and spare, full of atmosphere. Matt Berninger’s singing: wild, half-broken and sly evokes a feeling of being haunted, by love, paranoia and something just out of reach. High Violet may be The National’s most thematically twisted record to date but it also manages to be their most infectious and immediate. In celebration of High Violet’s 10-year anniversary the band presents an expanded edition colored vinyl 3LP reissue complete with a third disc of eight bonus tracks never before available on the format including a trio of live cuts, “Wake Up Your Saints,” an alternate version of “Terrible Love,” “Walk Off” and more. The essential release is rounded out with tri-fold jacket packaging and an obi strip.
OST: Dolemite is My Name (Mondo) LP Dolemite is his name and rappin’ & tappin’ is his game! Eddie Murphy’s 15-year-old pet project about Rudy Ray Moore is absolutely one of the best feel good films in recent memory. Featuring music by Scott Bomar. The soundtrack is a loving homage to 1970’s funk and Blaxploitation scores that sounds contemporary and fresh rather than just leaning on the past. It’s fun, reverential and funky as all hell. Bomar has an incredible feel for funk and soul and it absolutely shines here. This vinyl edition features the full score plus tracks sung by Eddie Murphy, Craig Robinson & Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
Pale Cocoon: Mayu (Incidental Music) LP In the early 1980s, Pale Cocoon member Tsuyoshi Kawabata received the vivid image of springing forth from a cocoon as he was composing music in his hometown of Toyama, Japan. Having spent time arranging sounds on a 4-track recorder in the musical chrysalis of his home studio, Kawabata moved to a larger studio and converted his recordings to an open reel with the help of other musicians on the Pafe Record roster, leading to the musical metamorphosis of his full-length work 繭 (Mayu). Like the Belgian symbolist paintings that served as inspiration during Kawabata’s musical process – the compositions featured on Mayu serve to elevate the nuanced elements of daily life, each sound intentionally crafted with a meticulous approach to best represent its objective nature. Sounds of the Japanese landscape in summertime parallel swirling synthesizers and noise; shimmering guitar sounds take the shape of a snowflake. In this way, Kawabata’s pure reflection on the objective nature of sounds evokes the deeper spiritual essence of their origins – taking on a symbolic role in order to elucidate a greater psychic nature… or as French poet Stéphane Mallarmé writes, “to depict not the thing but the effect it produces”. The result is a musical soundscape evocative of Kawabata’s hometown of Toyama – a collection of compositions with inherent seasonality in their arrangement, mirroring the landscapes along the sea of Japan. The album opener “Sora” acts as a portal into Kawabata’s world, segueing from a dizzying whirlwind of processed recorder into an ecstatic atmosphere of guitar and synthesizer invoking the likes of Woo, Cluster, and the euphoric stylings of Penguin Café Orchestra. The next piece, “Shunmin”, waltzes deeper into Mayu’s fever dream, creating a gorgeous atmosphere with hypnotic drum machine programming leading a chorus of processed acoustic guitar and cosmic keyboard arrangements. At times, the listener may hear the dreamy post-punk influence of Cherry Red Records and peers The Durutti Column throughout Mayu – a group whom Pale Cocoon shared the stage with during their Japan tour of 1984. However, the album itself is undoubtedly the singular vision of Kawabata, informed by the musical landscape of Toyama – the same environs which fostered the sounds of Pale Cocoon’s label Pafe Record and fellow groups Funeral Party and Virgin Mayonnaise who perform on Mayu. Incidental Music and Conatala are proud to present Mayu, remastered by Makoto Ohshiro and published for the first time on vinyl since its original cassette release on Pafe Record in 1984. Mayu will be available on 2LP vinyl pressed by Pallas, CD, and digital formats in mid May, 2020.
Jake Sollo: Boogie Legs (Tidal Wave Music) LP Jake Sollo (Born in Nigeria as Nkem Okonkwo) started his career in the 1960s as a member of The Hykkers, a popular band that drew large audiences across the country (even during the turmoil of the Biafra civil war). After The Hykkers disbanded, Jake joined the Aba-based super-group The Funkees…a musical outfit turned into instant superstars due to the State Broadcasting Service’s heavy rotation of their demo tracks. The Funkees became a phenomenon that spread across the country fast (and eventually to England where they were championed by the legendary John Peel). By 1976, due to creative and personal tensions, The Funkees slowly started disintegrating. Jake Sollo was soon offered the golden opportunity to join the ‘crème de la crème’ of Afro-rock groups: Osibisa. Jake’s distinctive rhythm guitar graced their hits, but his tenure with them was short-lived…in 1977, Sollo and two other members left the band because of financial disagreements. Jake Sollo quickly moved on and did just fine after his experiences with said bands…he got steady work as a session musician and became a hot producer in the London scene. Eventually, that chapter came to a close as well (with budgets and visas to record in the UK becoming increasingly scarce at this point). Jake returned to Nigeria where he started recording and producing albums, during this period he became the MOST in-demand producer in Nigeria. Sollo’s specialty was bouncy ‘high-gloss’ boogie (though he occasionally produced artists in other genres as well). Regardless of which style he was working in, a ‘Jake Sollo production’ was always instantly recognizable and his records’ main sonic signature was probably the distinct sound of the Prophet “V” synthesizer (a hot piece of hardware that was transforming music in Europe and America). Rumor has it that Sollo owned one of the two only Prophet synthesizers present on the African continent (the other one belonging to William Onyeabor). Without exaggeration and according to his peers…Jake was the hottest and most prolific music producer in Nigeria between the late 1970s and mid 1980s. Next to his productions for other artists and major labels like EMI & Polydor, Jake Sollo would go on to record a total of three astonishing albums: ‘Coming Home’ (1977), ‘Show Me How’ (1979) and ‘Boogie Legs’ (1980). Boogie Legs would be Sollo’s final album, his career was cut short when he tragically died in a car accident in 1985…depriving the world of what no doubt would have been decades of more innovative and creative music. On Boogie Legs, the listener is treated to Jake Sollo’s trademark sound with touches of pop, plenty of African groove disco, moments of psychedelic reggae, chattering guitars, mad synth skills and fat angular basslines … all bound together with Jakes distinctive guitar playing and smooth production. A triumphant album that combined the raw power from his roots with the slick tricks he learned in London. Also featured on these recordings are some ‘all-star’ guest appearances by musicians from the likes of Trevor Murrell (Kim Wilde, Sade) and Ray Carless (Maxi Priest, Adele). Boogie Legs is a sexy monster of an album that shows off Jake Sollo as the multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire and Apostle of Nigerian music he was…the sound of an artist at the height of his power, with a career that came to an untimely end…but leaving us with a BIG legacy. Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first ever vinyl reissue of Jake Sollo’s ‘Boogie Legs’ album (originally released in 1980 on Taretone). This rare Nigerian record (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited vinyl edition (500 copies) complete with the original artwork.
Colin Stetson: Color Out of Space OST (Waxwork) LP In partnership with Milan Records, Waxwork Records is proud to announce the deluxe soundtrack vinyl release to COLOR OUT OF SPACE Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Grammy Award-wining saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist, song writer and composer Colin Stetson! Directed by Richard Stanley (Hardware, Dust Devil), Color Out of Space is based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft. After a meteorite lands in the front yard of their farmstead, Nathan Gardner (Nicolas Cage) and his family find themselves battling a mutant extraterrestrial organism as it infects their minds and bodies, transforming their quiet rural life into a technicolor nightmare. About Colin Stetson: A highly-coveted collaborator to Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Tom Waits, LCD Soundsystem, The National and more, Stetson brings with him an expansive body of work that includes both genre-defying, avant-jazz records as well as critically-acclaimed original scores for major film, television and game titles (Ari Aster’s Hereditary, Red Dead Redemption 2). Of the soundtrack, Stetson says: “The question posed initially when conceiving of this score was what exactly is the sonic representation of a cosmic alien color that does not exist in this terrestrial reality? I began trying to answer that by layering the sounds of coral reefs, processing that cacophony and finding the order revealed through harmonic generation of these hyperdensities, and then continued to chase that same concept of ‘transfiguring the natural’ down every path and application I could see. Turns out it’s somewhere between magenta and hot pink :)” Waxwork Records is thrilled to present the complete soundtrack by Stetson pressed to 180 gram “Cosmic Magenta” swirled vinyl, housed within a heavyweight printed inner sleeve inserted into an old-style tip-on jacket with film laminate gloss coating, and new art by Matt Taylor.
Jack Wilson: Call Me: Jazz from the Penthouse (Century 67) LP Call Me: Jazz from the Penthouse presents previously unreleased live recordings of underrated jazz pianist Jack Wilson and his quartet, best known for his work on the Atlantic and Blue Note labels. Featuring a young Roy Ayers and recorded in Seattle at the Penthouse jazz club in July and August of 1966 when Wilson’s group was touring the west coast with Redd Foxx, these recordings feature a mix of standards, current pop hits of the day, and originals by Wilson himself. In addition to Roy Ayers on vibes, the group features Von Barlow on drums and Buddy Woodson on bass. The deluxe 24-page booklet features an appreciation by Ahmad Jamal, interviews with Roy Ayers and Von Barlow, producer’s notes, and previously unseen archival photographs. These recordings were made just two weeks before Wilson & Co. would enter the studio to record his classic Blue Note debut Something Personal.
Neil Young: Homegrown (Reprise) LP When it comes to Homegrown, the long-lost album fans have wanted to hear for decades finally available on vinyl LP and remastered from the original analog master tapes, Neil Young puts it best: “This album is the unheard bridge between Harvest and Comes a Time.” Recorded between June 1974 and January 1975, Homegrown was intended to come out in 1975 before Young cancelled the release. The record has remained unreleased until now, achieving a legendary status among fans in the process. It’s made up of twelve Young originals, of which seven are previously unreleased – “Separate Ways,” “Try,” “Mexico,” “Kansas,” We Don’t Smoke It No More,” “Vacancy” and “Florida” (a spoken word narration). Also included are the first recordings of “Love Is A Rose,” “Homegrown,” “White Line, “Little Wing,” and “Star Of Bethlehem” – different versions of which would all later appear on other Young albums. “This album, Homegrown, should have been there for you a couple of years after Harvest,” Young explains. “It’s the sad side of a love affair. The damage done. The heartache. I just couldn’t listen to it. I wanted to move on. So I kept it to myself, hidden away in the vault, on the shelf, in the back of my mind…but I should have shared it. It’s actually beautiful. That’s why I made it in the first place. Sometimes life hurts. You know what I mean. This is the one that got away. Anyway, it’s coming your way in 2020, the first release from our archive in the new decade. Come with us into 2020 as we bring the past.” Young plays solo on some tracks (guitar, piano and harmonica), and is joined by a band of friends on other tracks, including Levon Helm, Ben Keith, Karl T Himmel, Tim Drummond, Emmylou Harris and Robbie Robertson. Recorded in analog, and mastered from the original master tapes, this long-lost album is a wonderful addition to Young’s incomparable catalog and in the finest-possible fidelity on LP.
Various: End of the Night (Hold Fast) LP After the protopunk of The Stooges but before the hardcore of Negative Approach, Detroit’s first wave punk/new wave scene found its footing in early 1978 on the stage of a former jazz supper club turned gay bar called Bookie’s Club 870. The range of sounds developed out of the frustration of artists who felt creatively restrained by bar owners at the time in Detroit and decided to start something for themselves. Detroit Punk Archive Presents “End of the Night (1976-1983)” is a two-LP, 29 track exploration showcasing previously released tracks from independently released compilations and 7 inches along with unheard demos by notable bands from the scene. Among those featured includes members of future notable acts as Was (Not Was), Swans, and more as well as two tracks produced by former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer.
Various: Hillbillies in Hell Volume X (Iron Mountain) LP Come join the Reaper… Fiery Judgements, Rapturous Apocalyptic Revelations and Death’s Icy Grip. This Brim-stoned collection of weathered mountain-prophets and battered backwoods-poets features Angelic Voices, Infernal Visions and Gospel Redemptions, Bluegrass Exultations and heartfelt Sinful Lamentations. Most often waxed on marginal labels and distributed in penurious amounts, these Troubled Troubadours sing of scalding Hellfire Flames, tortured Satanic Slaves and pragmatic Afterlife Options. Songs of Inspiration. Songs of Desperation. Years in the making – ‘Hillbillies In Hell’ (Volume X) presents 16 timeless tribulations – chilling Hillside Hollers, Dark Angelic conversations and Death-cheating celebrations – sweet, virginal Declarations of Doom and the harrowing, final silence of The Grave gloom. A buried cache of forgotten 45s – many of these sides are impossibly rare and are reissued here for the very first time. Nobody gets out of here alive…
Various: Troubled Troubadours (Iron Mountain) LP From the people who brought you Hillbillies In Hell… Lust, murder, assassination, alienation, war, depravity and credit cards. Troubled times demand troubled troubadours. And here they are – 16 seismic slices of misfortune, desperation, woe and plain high-weirdness – delivered by a stellar cast of country music luminaries and a host of valiant battered journeymen. In that seminal epoch of the late-1960s and early-1970s – the times were a changin’ – and it wasn’t always for the better. Autocide, infanticide, deicide, suicide…and the puzzling desire to transmigrate into a stuffed toy are just some of the delights and low-lights presented for your primordial listening pleasure. Look out trouble, here we come… SEE Lawton Williams and his COLD, COLD HANDS! HEAR Mark Slade ask ARE THEY GONNA SHOOT GOD?! WITNESS Lorene Mann’s eternal torment in HIDE MY SIN!
Various: You Gotta Have Soul (Zia) LP In the late ‘50s and on through the 1960s, Phoenix, Arizona, was home to a thriving R&B scene. Though no other song catapulted onto the national charts like Dyke and the Blazer’s signature “Funky Broadway,” inspired by the South Phoenix road of the same name, regional soul and funk acts picked up steam in the Valley of the Sun as established artists passed through on the way to the West Coast and performers traveled along the bustling Southern California to Texas black corridor. Culled from the vaults of Arizona music archivist and legendary Arizona disc jockey John “Johnny D” Dixon, You Gotta Have Soul: Raw Sonoran R&B and Funk (1957-1971), compiles essential desert R&B rarities, from Chuck Womack and the Sweet Souls’ breakbeat heavy “Ham Hocks & Beans” to the raw snap of Jimmie “Playboy” McKnight’s “Little Anne” to the brown-eyed Latin soul of Eddie Dimas & the Upsets.
