sale | listen records

And spring is back!…… But that doesn’t change that Black Friday RSD is coming! And that can only mean one other thing…. DEALS! And one other thing… we’re gonna give away a Rega RP1! Mark it in your calendars folks…Nov 23-25th you need to get down here and get a jump start on your Xmas shopping and have a chance to win a turntable. And celebrate our 17th anniversary! But don’t wait until then to come for a dig… we’ve been buying and pricing up loads of great used stuff that is flying out the door. And there’s all these great new arrivals in this week too…………

Oh ya… and if you follow us on Instagram, you know we bought some amazing used stuff in the last few weeks. I bought 4 more crates from the same guy today. That should be hitting the shelves soon. If you don’t follow us on Instagram, WHY NOT?! And now you know.

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…..picks of the week…..

**Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports**
**(Astralwerks) LP/2LP**
***In tomorrow… MEGA ESSENTIAL!!! Ground zero for ambient music, if you don’t have this record, stop what you are doing, and come and buy it!*** *Available both as a regular 33rpm LP or as an audiophile double 45rpm (see below).* Though not the earliest entry in the genre (which Brian Eno makes no claim to have invented), 1978’s Ambient 1 (Music For Airports) was the first album ever to be explicitly labelled ‘ambient music’. Eno had previously created similarly quiet, unobtrusive music on albums Evening Star, Discreet Music, and Harold Budd’s The Pavilion of Dreams (which he produced), but this was the first album to give it precedence as a cohesive concept. Eno conceived the idea for Music For Airports while spending several hours waiting at Cologne Bonn Airport, becoming annoyed by the uninspired sound and the atmosphere it created. The recording was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent of defusing the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal, by avoiding the derivative and familiar elements of typical ‘canned music’. The album features contributions from Robert Wyatt and Rhett Davies. Ambient 1 (Music For Airports) was followed by Harold Budd and Brian Eno’s Ambient 2 (The Plateaux of Mirror) and Ambient 3 (Day Of Radiance) by Laraaji, which was also produced by Eno. This record was cut using a specialist technique known as half-speed mastering. This artisan process results in cuts that have superior high frequency response (treble) and solid and stable stereo images. In addition, it is presented as a double 45RPM half-speed mastered edition. This is the ultimate for high quality reproduction as the faster the replay speed of the record, the higher the potential quality. Also, the shorter side times allow the level recorded to the master lacquer discs to be increased thereby improving the signal to the noise ratio.

**File Under:** Ambient, Electronic
Listen Here
Buy Here, And Here

**Joseph Shabason: Anne** **(Western Vinyl) LP**
Anne, the second album by Toronto saxophonist and composer Joseph Shabason, is a tonal essay on degenerative illness. Delicately and compassionately woven with interviews of Shabason’s mother from whom the album takes its name, Anne finds its creator navigating a labyrinth of subtle and tragic emotions arising from his mother’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Across the nine vivid postcards of jazz-laden ambience that comprise the album, Shabason unwraps these difficult themes with great care and focus revealing the unseen aspects of degenerative diseases that force us to re-examine common notions of self, identity, and mortality. Shabason’s uncanny ability to maneuver through such microscopic feelings is mirrored by his capacity to execute a similar tightrope-walk through musical genres. His music occupies a specific space that is as palpable as it is difficult to pin labels to. On Anne’s second track “Deep Dark Divide” rays of effected saxophone shine behind clouds of digital synthesizer that echoes the sound of jazz in the late ’80s, but with a Jon Hassell-esque depth of sensibility that consciously subverts the stylistic inoffensiveness of that era. There is detail and idiosyncrasy beneath Shabason’s dawn-of-the-CD-era sheen that elevates the album far beyond a mere aesthetic exercise. Still, the sounds on Anne are not so experimentally opaque as to stand in the way of the album’s through-line of sincerity and emotionality. When dissonance is employed it is punctual and meaningful, like on album-middler “Fred and Lil” where a 6-minute cascade of breathy textures builds suddenly to an agitated growl, only to abruptly give way to Anne Shabason speaking intimately about her relationship to her own parents. Snippets of such conversations see her taking on something like a narrator role across Anne while the sound of her voice itself is sometimes effected to become a musical texture entwined into the fabric of the songs without always being present or audible. On “November” Shabason lays muted brass textures atop a wavepool of electric chords provided by none other than the ambient cult-hero Gigi Masin, one of Anne’s many integral collaborators. The serene tragedy of the album distills itself gracefully into the ironically titled album closer “Treat it Like a Wine Bar” wherein flutters of piano and mournfully whispered woodwinds seem to evaporate particle by delicate particle, leaving the listener with a faint emotional afterglow like a dream upon waking. There is a corollary to be drawn here with what it must be like to feel one’s own mind and body drift away slowly until nothing remains, while the collection of memories and abilities that we use to denote the “self” softens into eternity. On Anne, it is precisely this fragile exchange of tranquility and anguish that Joseph Shabason has proven his singular ability to articulate.

**File Under:** Ambient, Electronic, Jazz
Listen Here
Buy Here

**…..new arrivals…..**
**Richard Devine: Sort/Lave** **(Timesig) 3LP**
After a break of 6 years, Atlanta based electronic musician, producer and sound designer Richard Devine returns with a new album Sort\Lave on Venetian Snares‘ Timesig imprint. Recorded between 2016 and 2017 using Richard’s custom built Eurorack modular system and two Nord G2 Modular units, Sort\Lave features 12 tracks of intricate electronica that ranges from abrasive percussive experiments such as “Revsic” to “Astra’s” dazzling juxtaposition of sounds and onto the radiant ambience of the album’s closer “Takara.” Talking about the album’s genesis Devine explains “I’ve been using modular synthesizers since I was 17, but have never written complete tracks using these newer systems. This was my first experiment to see if it would be possible and I probably spent about 5 years building up the systems that I used on this album. I wanted the record to sound very different to my previous works which had been more cold, digital, clinical even, and had all been made using computers. The aim here was the complete opposite, to create something that felt very organic, detailed, spacious, big and warm and just as importantly, a record that you could put on and play all the way through that flowed in a seamless way.” This new approach was to prove fruitful and enabled Devine to create music in an entirely new way. “I really wanted to break free from timeline-based music creation and do things with my hands on the fly,” he explains. “So the tracks are more like captured snapshot performances where I could experiment and play around with the idea of probability-based sequencing for every patch, string multiple sequencers together that would feed other sequencers to come up with interesting rhythms and melodies. It was really fun coming up with new sounds this way too, I felt like I created several I haven’t heard before with this album. Some of the tracks on the album were complete accidents and evolved from something that happened spontaneously. In the end I feel this is one of the best records I have released to date, so I’m very excited to share it with the world.”

**File Under:** Electronic
Listen Here
**Drake: Scorpion** **(Universal) LP**
Superstar rapper Drake’s latest full-length album, Scorpion has already smashed innumerable industry records, blowing just about every streaming record out of the water while making the artist the first to surpass 50 billion streams across all global streaming platforms along the way. A double album – divided between a hip-hop side and R&B side – Scorpion topped the Billboard Top 200 and its hit single “In My Feelings” dominated the Billboard Hot 100. The sprawling 25-track affair features unreleased Michael Jackson vocals on the track “Don’t Matter To Me,” a song which appears to be built around previously unreleased music: Paul Anka is listed as a co-writer on the track. Scorpion also included appearances from Static Major, TY Dollah $ign and Jay Z. On “That’s How You Feel,” Drake samples Nicki Minaj’s song “Boss Ass Bitch” and Future appears on “Blue Tint.” No I.D., DJ Premier, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Tay Keith, Boi-1da, and Murda Beatz are among the producers credited on the album. Scorpion is Drake’s first project since 2017’s More Life, which was billed as a playlist. It is his first studio album since 2016’s commercially successful Views.
**File Under:** Hip Hop
Listen Here

shabason — **Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports**
**(Astralwerks) LP/2LP**
***In tomorrow… MEGA ESSENTIAL!!! Ground zero for ambient music, if you don’t have this record, stop what you are doing, and come and buy it!*** *Available both as a regular 33rpm LP or as an audiophile double 45rpm (see below).* Though not the earliest entry in the genre (which Brian Eno makes no claim to have invented), 1978’s Ambient 1 (Music For Airports) was the first album ever to be explicitly labelled ‘ambient music’. Eno had previously created similarly quiet, unobtrusive music on albums Evening Star, Discreet Music, and Harold Budd’s The Pavilion of Dreams (which he produced), but this was the first album to give it precedence as a cohesive concept. Eno conceived the idea for Music For Airports while spending several hours waiting at Cologne Bonn Airport, becoming annoyed by the uninspired sound and the atmosphere it created. The recording was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent of defusing the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal, by avoiding the derivative and familiar elements of typical ‘canned music’. The album features contributions from Robert Wyatt and Rhett Davies. Ambient 1 (Music For Airports) was followed by Harold Budd and Brian Eno’s Ambient 2 (The Plateaux of Mirror) and Ambient 3 (Day Of Radiance) by Laraaji, which was also produced by Eno. This record was cut using a specialist technique known as half-speed mastering. This artisan process results in cuts that have superior high frequency response (treble) and solid and stable stereo images. In addition, it is presented as a double 45RPM half-speed mastered edition. This is the ultimate for high quality reproduction as the faster the replay speed of the record, the higher the potential quality. Also, the shorter side times allow the level recorded to the master lacquer discs to be increased thereby improving the signal to the noise ratio.

**File Under:** Ambient, Electronic
Listen Here
Buy Here, And Here

**Joseph Shabason: Anne** **(Western Vinyl) LP**
Anne, the second album by Toronto saxophonist and composer Joseph Shabason, is a tonal essay on degenerative illness. Delicately and compassionately woven with interviews of Shabason’s mother from whom the album takes its name, Anne finds its creator navigating a labyrinth of subtle and tragic emotions arising from his mother’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Across the nine vivid postcards of jazz-laden ambience that comprise the album, Shabason unwraps these difficult themes with great care and focus revealing the unseen aspects of degenerative diseases that force us to re-examine common notions of self, identity, and mortality. Shabason’s uncanny ability to maneuver through such microscopic feelings is mirrored by his capacity to execute a similar tightrope-walk through musical genres. His music occupies a specific space that is as palpable as it is difficult to pin labels to. On Anne’s second track “Deep Dark Divide” rays of effected saxophone shine behind clouds of digital synthesizer that echoes the sound of jazz in the late ’80s, but with a Jon Hassell-esque depth of sensibility that consciously subverts the stylistic inoffensiveness of that era. There is detail and idiosyncrasy beneath Shabason’s dawn-of-the-CD-era sheen that elevates the album far beyond a mere aesthetic exercise. Still, the sounds on Anne are not so experimentally opaque as to stand in the way of the album’s through-line of sincerity and emotionality. When dissonance is employed it is punctual and meaningful, like on album-middler “Fred and Lil” where a 6-minute cascade of breathy textures builds suddenly to an agitated growl, only to abruptly give way to Anne Shabason speaking intimately about her relationship to her own parents. Snippets of such conversations see her taking on something like a narrator role across Anne while the sound of her voice itself is sometimes effected to become a musical texture entwined into the fabric of the songs without always being present or audible. On “November” Shabason lays muted brass textures atop a wavepool of electric chords provided by none other than the ambient cult-hero Gigi Masin, one of Anne’s many integral collaborators. The serene tragedy of the album distills itself gracefully into the ironically titled album closer “Treat it Like a Wine Bar” wherein flutters of piano and mournfully whispered woodwinds seem to evaporate particle by delicate particle, leaving the listener with a faint emotional afterglow like a dream upon waking. There is a corollary to be drawn here with what it must be like to feel one’s own mind and body drift away slowly until nothing remains, while the collection of memories and abilities that we use to denote the “self” softens into eternity. On Anne, it is precisely this fragile exchange of tranquility and anguish that Joseph Shabason has proven his singular ability to articulate.

**File Under:** Ambient, Electronic, Jazz
Listen Here
Buy Here

**…..new arrivals…..**
**Richard Devine: Sort/Lave** **(Timesig) 3LP**
After a break of 6 years, Atlanta based electronic musician, producer and sound designer Richard Devine returns with a new album Sort\Lave on Venetian Snares‘ Timesig imprint. Recorded between 2016 and 2017 using Richard’s custom built Eurorack modular system and two Nord G2 Modular units, Sort\Lave features 12 tracks of intricate electronica that ranges from abrasive percussive experiments such as “Revsic” to “Astra’s” dazzling juxtaposition of sounds and onto the radiant ambience of the album’s closer “Takara.” Talking about the album’s genesis Devine explains “I’ve been using modular synthesizers since I was 17, but have never written complete tracks using these newer systems. This was my first experiment to see if it would be possible and I probably spent about 5 years building up the systems that I used on this album. I wanted the record to sound very different to my previous works which had been more cold, digital, clinical even, and had all been made using computers. The aim here was the complete opposite, to create something that felt very organic, detailed, spacious, big and warm and just as importantly, a record that you could put on and play all the way through that flowed in a seamless way.” This new approach was to prove fruitful and enabled Devine to create music in an entirely new way. “I really wanted to break free from timeline-based music creation and do things with my hands on the fly,” he explains. “So the tracks are more like captured snapshot performances where I could experiment and play around with the idea of probability-based sequencing for every patch, string multiple sequencers together that would feed other sequencers to come up with interesting rhythms and melodies. It was really fun coming up with new sounds this way too, I felt like I created several I haven’t heard before with this album. Some of the tracks on the album were complete accidents and evolved from something that happened spontaneously. In the end I feel this is one of the best records I have released to date, so I’m very excited to share it with the world.”

**File Under:** Electronic
Listen Here
**Drake: Scorpion** **(Universal) LP**
Superstar rapper Drake’s latest full-length album, Scorpion has already smashed innumerable industry records, blowing just about every streaming record out of the water while making the artist the first to surpass 50 billion streams across all global streaming platforms along the way. A double album – divided between a hip-hop side and R&B side – Scorpion topped the Billboard Top 200 and its hit single “In My Feelings” dominated the Billboard Hot 100. The sprawling 25-track affair features unreleased Michael Jackson vocals on the track “Don’t Matter To Me,” a song which appears to be built around previously unreleased music: Paul Anka is listed as a co-writer on the track. Scorpion also included appearances from Static Major, TY Dollah $ign and Jay Z. On “That’s How You Feel,” Drake samples Nicki Minaj’s song “Boss Ass Bitch” and Future appears on “Blue Tint.” No I.D., DJ Premier, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Tay Keith, Boi-1da, and Murda Beatz are among the producers credited on the album. Scorpion is Drake’s first project since 2017’s More Life, which was billed as a playlist. It is his first studio album since 2016’s commercially successful Views.
**File Under:** Hip Hop
Listen Here

Brian Eno: Ambient 4: On Land (Astralwerks) LP/2LP
In tomorrow… Available both as a regular 33rpm LP or as an audiophile double 45rpm (see below). On 1982’s Ambient 4 (On Land) – the final edition in Brian Eno’s ambient series – his palate shifted from electro-mechanical and acoustic instruments towards “non-instruments” like pieces of chain, sticks and stones. “One of the big freedoms of music had been that it didn’t have to relate to anything – nobody listened to a piece of music and said, ‘What’s that supposed to be, then?’, the way they would if they were looking at an abstract painting; music was accepted as abstract. I wanted to try and make music which attempted to be figurative, for example by using lots of real noises,” he recalled to Mojo. In a pioneering early incarnation of what later became widely-known as remixing, Eno explained, “I included not only recordings of rooks, frogs and insects, but also the complete body of my own earlier work making ‘On Land’, which involved feeding unheard tape into the mix, constant feeding and remixing, subtracting and composting.” Conventional instruments do occasionally feature however, including Jon Hassell’s trumpet and Bill Laswell’s bass. The album also features contributions from Michael Brook and Daniel Lanois.

This record was cut using a specialist technique known as half-speed mastering. This artisan process results in cuts that have superior high frequency response (treble) and solid and stable stereo images. In addition, it is presented as a double 45RPM half-speed mastered edition. This is the ultimate for high quality reproduction as the faster the replay speed of the record, the higher the potential quality. Also, the shorter side times allow the level recorded to the master lacquer discs to be increased thereby improving the signal to the noise ratio.

File Under: Ambient, Electronic
Listen Here
Buy Here, And Here

Brian Eno: Discreet Music (Astralwerks) LP/2LP
In tomorrow… Available both as a regular 33rpm LP or as an audiophile double 45rpm (see below). While his earlier work with Robert Fripp on No Pussyfooting and several selections from his own Another Green World feature similar ideas, Discreet Music marked a clear step toward the ambient aesthetic Brian Eno would later codify with 1978’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports. The inspiration for this 1975 album began when Eno was hospitalized after an accident. Whilst bed-ridden and listening to a record of 18th-century harp music, the volume was too low and he couldn’t reach to turn it up. It was raining outside, and Eno recounts he began listening to the rain and to “these odd notes of the harp, that were just loud enough to be heard above the rain.” “This presented what was for me a new way of hearing music – as part of the ambience of the environment, just as the colour of the light and the sound of the rain were parts of that ambience,” he observed. The A-side of the album is a 30-minute piece titled “Discreet Music,” which Pitchfork called “one of the greatest single ambient pieces that Eno has produced.” It was made using two overlapped tape loops of melodic synthesizer phrases of different lengths. This technique became known as ‘Frippertronics’; one of Eno’s early forays into algorithmic, generative composition – exploring multiple ways to create music with limited planning or intervention. The second half of the album, titled “Three Variations on the Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel” features the Cockpit Ensemble, playing brief excerpts from the score, which were repeated several times, with the tempo and other elements gradually altered – the end result of which “forced the listener to switch fundamental modes of hearing,” Pitchfork proclaimed.

This record was cut using a specialist technique known as half-speed mastering. This artisan process results in cuts that have superior high frequency response (treble) and solid and stable stereo images. In addition, it is presented as a double 45RPM half-speed mastered edition. This is the ultimate for high quality reproduction as the faster the replay speed of the record, the higher the potential quality. Also, the shorter side times allow the level recorded to the master lacquer discs to be increased thereby improving the signal to the noise ratio.

File Under: Ambient, Electronic
Listen Here
Buy Here, And Here

Brian Eno: Music For Films (Astralwerks) LP/2LP
In tomorrow… Available both as a regular 33rpm LP or as an audiophile double 45rpm (see below). “Arguably the most quietly influential of all his works,” according to the BBC, this conceptual 1976 Brian Eno record was intended as a soundtrack for imaginary films, with excerpts later featuring in movies by directors including John Woo and Derek Jarman. The album is a loose compilation of material, composed of short tracks ranging from one-and-a-half minutes to just over four, making it the antithesis of the long, ambient pieces he later became known for. The compositional styles and equipment used also carried over onto Eno’s work on David Bowie’s 1977 classic Low. Unlike Eno’s later ambient works, Music for Films utilizes a broader sonic palette, with his studio exercises being supplemented by instrumentation from Rhett Davies, John Cale, Phil Collins, Robert Fripp, Fred Frith, Percy Jones, Bill MacCormick, Dave Mattacks, Paul Rudolph and Rod Melvin.

This record was cut using a specialist technique known as half-speed mastering. This artisan process results in cuts that have superior high frequency response (treble) and solid and stable stereo images. In addition, it is presented as a double 45RPM half-speed mastered edition. This is the ultimate for high quality reproduction as the faster the replay speed of the record, the higher the potential quality. Also, the shorter side times allow the level recorded to the master lacquer discs to be increased thereby improving the signal to the noise ratio.

File Under: Ambient, Electronic
Listen Here
Buy Here, And Here

Fleet Foxes: First Collection (Sub Pop) Box
Fleet Foxes and Sub Pop present a limited-edition collection in honor of the 10th anniversary of the band’s debut LP. First Collection 2006-2009 spans the early days of Fleet Foxes’ career, including their self-titled debut, plus the Sun Giant EP, The First EP (formerly a self-titled, very limited-edition, self-released EP), and B-sides & Rarities. The vinyl version is packaged in a lavish box, with a 12″ LP of the debut album and separate 10″ records for each of the added titles. In addition to its musical offerings, the collection features a 32-page booklet including show flyers, lyrics and artwork from band’s early history. Fleet Foxes’ debut made a tremendous impact on the international musical scene, topping numerous “best of” lists, including Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Albums of the 2000’s and Pitchfork’s 50 Best Albums of 2008, and earned the band Uncut’s inaugural Music Award Prize. Fleet Foxes is certified Gold in North America and Platinum in both the UK and Australia.

File Under: Indie Rock
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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Willoughby’s Beach (Flightless/ATO) LP
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are the most exciting head-spinning, third-eye opening, double-drumming goddamn rock ‘n’ roll band on the planet. The unexpected is just about the only thing we have come to expect from the Melbourne band. Via a series of carefully considered yet wildly divergent concepts The Gizz’s collective body of work offers visceral thrills a-plenty without ever once resorting to indulgence. Their music works on so many levels, providing a transcendental, hair-swinging soundtrack for some, a transportive journey to the center of one’s id for others, while in their more reflective moments also tenderly offering succour and guidance for the lost and spiritually malnourished. ATO is partnering with Flightless Records to bring you five King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard reissues in November 2018! The first five titles from the band’s incredible back catalogue – 12 Bar Bruise, Eyes Like The Sky, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs, Oddments, and the Willoughby’s Beach EP – will be reissued on 12″ vinyl for the first time with re-imagined artwork, packaging, liner notes and fresh colors. Willoughby’s Beach is King Gizzard’s second EP, originally self-released in 2011 and limited to 350 hand numbered copies. Featuring the the manic, grunged up standouts “Danger $$$” and “Dead-Beat, the reissue features new artwork re-imagined by Ican Harem and comes on colored vinyl.

File Under: Indie Rock, Psych
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Mkwaju Ensemble: Mkwaju (WRWTFWW) LP
WRWTFWW Records announces the highly anticipated official reissue of holy grail album MKWAJU by acclaimed Japanese percussionist Midori Takada’s MKWAJU Ensemble, sourced from the original masters and available in two versions: a vinyl LP cut at Emil Berliner Studios (formerly the in-house recording department of Deutsche Grammophon) and a digipack CD. Originally recorded in February and March 1981 and released by fabled Japanese avant-garde label Better Days (home of Ryuichi Sakamato’s debut album, Yasuaki Shimizu’s Kakashi (1982), Colored Music’s self-titled LP and many more) MKWAJU is the fruit of the collaboration between Takada’s crew and world-famous composer/musical director Joe Hisaishi, the man behind most of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli anime soundtracks and over 100 other films scores, including Takeshi Kitano’s Sonatine (1993), Hana-Bi(1997), and Kikujiro (1999). The ensemble’s transcendental wonder is, in fact, the first-ever Midori Takada album and the first-ever Joe Hisaishi-produced album: historic. Led by Midori Takada on marimba, gong, vibraphone, and tom tom, MKWAJU is an inventive and riveting take on Eastern and Western minimalist traditions, African rhythms, and early electronica. Drawing from its jazz-rooted polyrhythmic improvisations in the most inventive ways, the album covers a wide spectrum of sounds, from colorful dance floor-ready percussion pieces that stand somewhere between proto-techno and experimental synth-pop, to cinematic ambient landscapes and ethereal drone delicacies. The feverishly sought-after full-length is a stepping-stone in Midori Takada’s career and an all-around pioneering album. Alongside Takada and Hisaishi (who not only produced the album but also played synthesizers), personnel on MKWAJU includes famed Japanese musicians Yoji Sadanari and Hideki Matsutake of KI-Motion fame, Junko Arase (heard on Satoshi Ashikawa’s legendary Still Way – Wave Notation 2(1982)), and Pecker (whose stacked resume boasts collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Jun Fukamachi).

File Under: Japan, Percussion, Minimalism
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Tanya Tagaq: Split Tooth (Six Shooter) LP
Six Shooter Records presents a vinyl edition of readings from Polaris Music Prize winner and Member of the Order of Canada Tanya Tagaq’s debut novel, Split Tooth. From the internationally acclaimed Inuit throat singer who has dazzled and enthralled the world with music it had never heard before, Split Tooth is a fierce, tender and heartbreaking story. Read by Tagaq, poems include improvised vocals. The vinyl edition also features drawings by Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets).

File Under: Experimental, Audio Books
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…..Restocks…..

Parquet Courts: Wide Awake (Rough Trade) LP
Joe Strummer: 001 (Ignition) Box
Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden (Virgin) LP
Kurt Vile: B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down (Matador) LP

A much quieter week here on the new release front, which gives you some time to catch up on all the stuff that’s been coming out lately. Loads of hot new rekkids to pick up. And if new records aren’t your thing, we’ve been getting lots of sweet little stacks of used records too, and we’ve been pricing up a storm. Come have a dig.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out our new webstore… CHECK IT OUT! The inventory is live with the shop, so if it’s in stock there, it’s in stock in the store. We have an instore pick up option, so if you are local, but going out of town, or just don’t want to miss out on something, by all means, buy it through the site and it’ll be here waiting for you when you have time to get in.

…..pick of the week…..

Rega Planar 6 Sale!
Rega doesn’t have a lot of sales, but when they do, they are killer deals, and this one is no exception! Crazy savings on amazing turntables! Only for the month of June! The Planar 6 has one goal, to reproduce your vinyl as accurately as possible. We have engineered every aspect of this turntable to extract as much detail from the vinyl surface as possible. Advanced materials and engineering solutions have been used throughout the design to ensure the greatest level of performance.The Neo PSU offers electronic speed change, advanced anti-vibration control and user adjustable electronic fine speed adjustment only found on the RP10 until now. See ‘product details’ tab below for full information.

File Under: Sales, Gear, Rega
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…..new arrivals…..

Behemoth: Messe Noire (Metal Blade) LP
Polish black/death overlords Behemoth present the brand new live collection Messe Noire, recorded at Progresja in Warsaw, Poland on August 8, 2016. Comments singer/guitarist Nergal: “‘Messe Noire’. Well, that is everything that the Behemoth live magick represents, and we’re stoked that we have a true representation on record for everyone out there to enjoy. ‘Messe Noire’ captures the true intensity of what we do as a band and the energy we share with our fans. This is also an exclamation mark, the perfect way to conclude ‘The Satanist’ cycle which has been an overwhelming experience and amazing chapter in Behemoth’s career and our lives so far!”

File Under: Metal
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Bombino: Deran (PTKF) LP
In tomorrow… Home. Where the heart is. For Bombino and most other Tuareg, there’s only one place that can be. In recent years, the rest of the world has largely written off that home as a hot and savage wasteland, a bolt hole for religious extremists and terrorists, a geopolitical video nasty with little to offer apart from the oil, gold and phosphates that lie beneath its soil. But Bombino would like us to take a closer look and think again. How to celebrate that desert home, how to protect it, develop it, unify it, respect it and, above all, never forget it, are the salient themes of his brand new album Deran. They’re dressed up in 10 songs of rare maturity and power that mark a turning point in the career of a guitarist and songwriter who was born in the shade of an acacia tree about 80 miles north west of the ancient town of Agadez, and has since risen to forefront of the new Tuareg guitar generation. It’s a turning back the source of everything that makes Bombino who he is. “My mission for this album was always to get closer to Africa,” he says. Not surprising then that the decision was made to record Deran as close as possible to his native Niger in the southern Sahara. The ideal venue emerged in the shape of Studio Hiba, a top flight recording facility owned by King Mohammed VI located in a fairly drab industrial suburb of Casablanca in Morocco. There Bombino and his steady long-term band – fellow Tuareg Illias Mohammed on guitar and vocals, American Corey Wilhelm on drums and percussion and the Mauritanian (living in Belgium) Youba Dia on bass – slept, ate and made music in blissful isolation. Their circle was widened by Moroccan percussionist Hassan Krifa, and by Bombino’s cousins Anana ag Haroun (lead singer of the Brussels-based Tuareg band Kel Assouf), and Toulou Kiki (singer and star of the film Timbuktu), who dropped in to add some ‘gang’ vocals. After Casablanca, the tapes flew to Boston to be embellished by Sudanese friend and keyboardist Mohammed Araki. Whatever emerged at the end of the process had to be fresh and powerful. Yes. Bombino and crew have conjured up a roving mystery tour of contemporary Saharan sounds, from the raw diesel rock of the opener “Imajghane” (‘The Tuareg’), to the camel gait lope of “Tenesse” (‘Idleness’), the tender lilt of “Midiwan” (‘My Friends”) and the ‘Tuareggae’ style that is Bombino’s unique contribution to desert music on the song “Tehigren.” All the desert is there, harsh and gentle, tragic and playful. But more than anything Deran had to be honest and true. The pressure to be the authentic voice of his culture and his home on the world stage weighs heavy on Bombino. “You have to begin with the question of who you are,” he says. “You’re a Tuareg. With all the travels, all the experience of world, it’s as if I’m making myself remember where I come from. Where I come from will always be my home, my memory.” Simple, raw, true, that was the brief. “We wanted him to take a deliberate step out of the shadow of the celebrity producer,” says Bombino’s manager, and Deran producer, Eric Herman. “Apart from that, the idea was to take this raw, spontaneous, unadulterated approach to capturing his songs.”

File Under: Tuareg, Desert Blues
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Father John Misty: God’s Favorite Customer (Sub Pop) Loser Edition LP
Written largely in New York between the summer of 2016 and winter of 2017, Josh Tillman’s fourth Father John Misty LP, God’s Favorite Customer follows-up his Grammy-nominated 2017 effort Pure Comedy and reflects on the experience of being caught between the vertigo of heartbreak and the manic throes of freedom. God’s Favorite Customer reveals a bittersweetness and directness in Tillman’s songwriting, without sacrificing any of his wit or taste for the absurd. From “Mr. Tillman,” where he trains his lens on his own misadventure, to the cavernous pain of estrangement in “Please Don’t Die,” Tillman plays with perspective throughout to alternatingly hilarious and devastating effect. “We’re Only People (And There’s Not Much Anyone Can Do About That)” is a meditation on our inner lives and the limitations we experience in our attempts to give and receive love. It stands in solidarity with the title track, which examines the ironic relationship between forgiveness and sin. Together, these are songs that demand to know either real love or what comes after, and as the album progresses, that entreaty leads to discovering the latter’s true stakes. God’s Favorite Customer was produced by Tillman and recorded with Jonathan Rado (Foxygen), Dave Cerminara (Jonathan Wilson, Foster the People, Conor Oberst), and Trevor Spencer (FJM). The album features contributions from Haxan Cloak, Natalie Mering of Weyes Blood, longtime collaborator Jonathan Wilson, and members of Misty’s touring band.

File Under: Indie Rock
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Joan of Arc: 1984 (Joyful Noise) LP
Over their 20-odd year discography, Joan of Arc’s astute, endlessly probing musical experimentation – steadfastly resistant to dogma and genre at every turn – has been chorused by a barrage of voices, mostly from the singular larynx of mainstay Tim Kinsella, who remains endlessly obsessed with (and infuriated by) Orwellian language and it’s dominion over American life. Richard Brautigan, Mark Twain, Elizabeth Taylor, and Assata Shakur might visit his lyrics, but it’s the band itself that contains multitudes. Throughout Joan of Arc, Kinsella and his bandmates have hewn together a true artistic democracy – some two dozen members over the years – to confront the darkening political realities and interpersonal mysteries of our time. Like their namesake – a donee of revelation who became a fierce holy warrior, only to be discarded by a king and burned at the stake as a heretic – Joan of Arc has inspired their share of true believers and dismayed legions of skeptics. And now, a series of nearly a cappella performances from Kinsella’s fellow vocalist Melina Ausikaitis, debuted live by Joan of Arc over the last several years, has become the backbone of their new LP, 1984. Remarkably, so much of the cluttered sound of earlier LPs has largely fallen away on 1984, as has Kinsella’s voice. At first it’s genuinely shocking. But the songs here are a revelation, as profound and plainspoken as parables. Thoroughly of the band’s lineage, Ausikaitis’ lyrics are equally measured with wit, despair and stubborn perseverance. There is awkward sex at Grandma’s house. There are kids in the snow wearing cop sunglasses and the crumbling psychic defenses of childhood memories. There are A-frame houses and white horses. There are trucks losing their brakes on the hill at the end of the street. There are heaps of thoroughly useful self-help advice (“stop chicken-shittin’ all over your life” has become a personal mantra.). Like the album’s striking hand drawn cover art, the music inside is often spare. Anthemic highs ring from elegiac lows and back again. At times, Ausikaitis sings in an earnestly tangy and lovely flat twang redolent of the midwest, before screwing her voice up into a fearsome roar. Sometimes her voice is electronically distorted, like bells in the sky, into ringing eternity.

File Under: Indie Rock
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Megadeth: Killing is my Business… and Business is Good (Century Media) LP
Hailed as one of the best thrash metal debuts of all time, legendary thrash metal trailblazers Megadeth celebrate the band’s 35th Anniversary with a deluxe 180g 2LP re-issue of their revolutionary first effort, Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good! Originally released in 1985, the album has been completely restored to band mastermind Dave Mustaine’s intended vision. Remixed by veteran metal mixer, Mark Lewis (Trivium, Death Angel, Devildriver, Whitechapel) and remastered by Ted Jensen for an optimal listening experience, the 2018 version reveals previously unheard parts and performances throughout the record, including a missing drum performance found during the mixing sessions. This rare gem includes the full original album, along with 7 live audio tracks from VHS tapes found in MegaDave’s own attic. In addition to the bonus live tracks, the re-issue also features Megadeth’s 1984 3-track demo and the previously removed cover of “These Boots,” that has been added back to the record with recut vocals true to Lee Hazelwood’s version. The re-issue is further enhanced by new album cover artwork featuring a fully executed sculpture of the iconic skull that has been lost over the many years since the album’s initial release. The packaging also includes classic flyers and band photos pulled from their archive of timeless metal moments from Megadeth’s storied 35-year history. Mustaine delves into the struggles during that time period as well as some of the surprising moments during the remixing sessions throughout the re-issue’s liner notes.

File Under: Metal
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Liz Phair: s/t (Capitol) LP
Available for the First Time on Vinyl! Ever since Exile In Guyville landed in 1993, Liz Phair has been cipher for a certain kind of aesthetic. She’s been called “the female face of indie rock,” a “slacker poet of the first degree” and a “brainy bad girl,” but she forever remains America’s sardonic sweetheart. Following up her great trifecta of albums that included Exile in Guyville (1993), Whip-Smart (1994) and Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998), Liz Phair’s eponymous fourth full-length effort and second in just ten years found her working in a more mainstream pop arena with singer/songwriters Michael Penn and Pete Yorn and hitmakers The Matrix. The album debuted at No. 27 on the Billboard 200 and yielded the successful singles “Why Can’t I?” and “Extraordinary.”

File Under: Indie Rock
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Liz Phair: Whip-Smart (Capitol) LP
Ever since her audacious debut, Exile In Guyville, landed in 1993, singer-songwriter Liz Phair has been cipher for a certain kind of aesthetic. She’s been called “the female face of indie rock,” a “slacker poet of the first degree” and a “brainy bad girl,” but she forever remains America’s sardonic sweetheart – as Guyville’s follow-up, Whip-Smart, continued to prove in 1994. Fusing lo-fi production with a singer-songwriter sensibility, Phair helped shape what would become “indie rock” and defied expectations of what a female rock star could be. Whip-Smart builds upon the foundation set forth by her debut, capturing the same intimate, DIY style but with slicker arrangements, multi-layered vocals and experimental sound effects. Whip-Smart is far more 90s power-pop than her first offering however. Lead single, “Supernova,” dominated alt.rock radio and MTV that year, and greatly introduced the once indie darling to more mainstream audiences, even earning Phair her first Grammy nomination. Whether she’s reflecting on a one-night stand to the tune of the traditional waltz “Chopsticks” or invoking the official slogan of America’s westward expansion in “Go West,” to get over an ex, her unflinching honesty and confessional songwriting is why an entire generation so strongly identified with her, and why she forever looms large as the alt.rock queen of the 90s. “Nashville” is another standout track, with its hazy shoegaze intro, and features one of the best refrains on the album. Much of the latter half of the record is dominated by downtempo bedroom rock, with the exception of the full-on rocker, “Jealousy.” Whip-Smart would go on to debut at No. 27 on the Billboard 200, later achieving Gold status and inspiring countless singers and female-fronted bands for decades to come.

File Under: Indie Rock
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Liz Phair: Whitechocolatespaceegg (Capitol) LP
Ever since Exile In Guyville, landed in 1993, singer-songwriter Liz Phair has been cipher for a certain kind of aesthetic. She’s been called “the female face of indie rock,” a “slacker poet of the first degree” and a “brainy bad girl,” but she forever remains America’s sardonic sweetheart. The final installment in Phair’s great trifecta of albums which began with her audacious debut and continued with its slick power-pop follow-up Whip-Smart (1994), Whitechocolatespaceegg marked her hook-fueled return from hiatus in 1998. Drawing on themes of motherhood and family after getting married and giving birth to a son, the intimate and autobiographical collection peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard 200 and yielded the singles “Polyester Bride” and “Johnny Feelgood.”

File Under: Indie Rock
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Professor Rhythm: Professor 3 (Awesome Tapes From Africa) LP
Professor Rhythm’s 1991 recording Professor 3 is a vivid reflection of urban South Africa as apartheid was ending. Thami Mdluli’s production project had young and old dancing to a sound that sought to unite Blacks within Southern Africa. “Our music gave hope to the hopeless,” he says. Professor Rhythm’s third instrumental album (which contains some background vocals, to be exact), portrays the moment when the dominant mbaqanga and American R&B-based bubblegum sounds being produced in Johannesburg and other urban centers were transforming into house and hip-hop-inspired kwaito. The pop of the 80’s and all that went with it – from the models of synths and drum machines to the lyrical style – gave way to a changing melodic emphasis and new, much slower tempi using a completely different rhythmic skeleton. Upbeat, chipper bubblegum, often with double-time breakdowns and upstroke syncopations, faded and the sounds began to more closely resemble those of contemporary Black America – where hip-hop was slowing down and the bass-lines and melodies were getting moodier, darker in general. At the same time house music had briefly reached mainstream acceptance in the States and that popularity continued to feed into awareness overseas. These two influences blended with the burgeoning house music scenes in Johannesburg and Pretoria as Professor 3 was being produced in March 1991 (the same year apartheid ended). Mdluli explains, “We were Influenced by foreign bands and so people updated their sound.” According to Mdluli, the evolving sound was bolstered by widening availability of house and rap records from abroad while, most importantly, an increasing sense that apartheid might soon be finished was met with a new positivity vibe society. Professor 3 came out on vinyl as the LP business was dying in South Africa and sold around 20,000 copies. It was mainly distributed on tape, which sold closer to 100,000. With the help of engineer Fab Rosso, the recording features backing vocalists from Mango Groove. After making a half-dozen records as Professor Rhythm, Mdluli once again shifted his focus musically. By the mid-90’s he had veered off gospel music – and left playing in bands and started making his own solo recordings. His enormous success in the gospel realm in the years since is a remarkable story in its own right, but for now we are only dancing.

File Under: Africa, Funk, Electro
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Steve Reich: Live Electric Music (Analog Spark) LP
“‘It’s Gonna Rain’ was composed in San Francisco in January of 1965. The voice belongs to a young black Pentecostal preacher who called himself Brother Walter. I recorded him along with the pigeons one Sunday afternoon in Union Square in downtown San Francisco. Later at home I started playing with tape loops of his voice and, by accident , discovered the process of letting two identical loops go gradually in and out of phase with each other. “‘Violin Phase’ was composed in New York in October 1967. Here, the process discovered with tape recorders is applied to a human being playing against several pre-recorded tapes of himself. In two sections of the piece the performer gives a sort of auditory “chalk talk” by simply playing one of the pre-existent inner voices in the tape a bit louder and then gradually fading out, leaving the listener momentarily more aware of that particular figure. The choice of these figures is largely up to the performer, and I want to thank Paul Zukofsky for bringing out several very interesting ones I never would have though of without him. “‘It’s Gonna Rain’ is the first and ‘Violin Phase’ the last of a series of pieces all dealing with the process of gradually shifting phase relations between two or more identical repeating figures. This process determines both the note-to-note (sound-to-sound) detail and the over-all form as well. It is a process we can all hear.” – Steve Reich

File Under: Avant Garde, Tape Music, Experimental
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Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (Abkco) LP
Their Satanic Majesties Request (December 1967) was the first Rolling Stones album to be released on both sides of the Atlantic with the same running order and inside the same record sleeve. The title was a satirical take on the words inside a British passport: “Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary Of State requests and requires…” Coming to fruition during a transformative year in music, the summer of 1967 had been dominated by The Beatles’ pop art masterpiece Sgt Pepper’s, Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced and Pink Floyd’s The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Bands the world over wanted to be part of the psychedelic revolution that was changing pop music and the Stones were no different. A tangle of psychedelic sounds and influences, complete with iconic 3D artwork, Their Satanic Majesties Request reached No. 3 in the UK charts and remains a charming curiosity. Though the band went straight back to their rock and blues-based roots the following year with Beggars Banquet, their foray into flower power was a bold and fruitful attempt to branch out. “She’s A Rainbow” is a sweet chorus-based pop song that features Brian Jones on Mellotron and deft string arrangements from future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Another success is “2,000 Light Years from Home,” while the haunting “The Lantern” is arguably a forerunner of “Shine A Light” from 1972’s Exile On Main St

File Under: Rock
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Uniform/The Body: Mental Wounds Not Healing (Sacred Bones) LP
In Spring 2017, Uniform was asked to support fellow noisy, boundary-pushing duo The Body for a European tour. Having been longtime fans of the band, Uniform vocalist Michael Berdan and guitarist Ben Greenberg jumped at the opportunity. During the planning phase of the tour, Berdan and Lee Buford from The Body started corresponding regularly. Ultimately, Berdan asked Buford if he and The Body cofounder Chip King would be interested in making a collaborative record with Uniform. Buford enthusiastically assented, and the seed of Mental Wounds Not Healing was sown. A few months after the genesis of the idea, Berdan and Greenberg went to the legendary underground Providence studio Machines With Magnets, where The Body were finishing up work on their latest LP. King and Buford had a ton of cool beats and music ready that Berdan played synth bass lines over. Greenberg then played guitar over Berdan’s bass lines, and the songs began to take shape. After the Machine With Magnets session, engineer Seth Manchester sent Greenberg stems of the tracks to work on back in Brooklyn. Berdan recorded vocals in the hallway of Greenberg’s tiny apartment, and the raw intensity of that makeshift session served as the perfect counterpoint for King’s unmistakable voice. Effectively, every song on Mental Wounds Not Healing is a duet between Berdan and King. The collaboration pushes both bands far beyond their roots in industrial music and metal, creating an immersive listening experience that truly transcends genre. The title of the record is a line stolen from the chorus of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.” Most of the titles are culled from horror literature and cinema, with specific nods to Shirley Jackson, Jack Ketchum, and Elem Klimov. Thematically, the songs have to do with feeling trapped in one’s own mind, projecting images over and over again of a future in shambles before it even gets a chance to happen. It is about hopelessness, anxiety, and depression so familiar that they seem like permanent fixtures of one’s psyche and identity.

File Under: Metal
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…..Restocks…..

Beach House: 7 (Sub Pop) LP
Bjork: Homogenic (One Little Indian) LP
Boards of Canada: Campfire Headphase (Warp) LP
Boards of Canada: Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp) LP
Leon Bridges: Good Thing (Columbia) LP
Nick Cave: Push the Sky Away (Bad Seed) LP
Chvrches: Love is Dead (Glassnote) LP
Earth: 2 (Sub Pop) LP
Bill Evans Trio: At Shelleys Manne-Hole (OJC) LP
Bill Evans Trio: Waltz for Debby (OJC) LP
Gang of Four: Entertainment (Universal) LP
Getz/Gilberto: s/t (Verve) LP
Herbie Hancock: Prisoner (Blue Note) LP
Jon Hopkins: Singularity (Domino) LP
Lhasa: Living Road (Audiogram) LP
Sturgill Simpson: Metamodern Sounds (Thirty Tigers) LP
Sleep: Dopesmoker (Southern Lord) LP
Sufjan Stevens: Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty) LP
Sunn o))): Monoliths & Dimensions (Southern Lord) LP
Townes Van Zandt: Flying Shoes (Fat Possum) LP
Townes Van Zandt: Live at the Old Quarter (Fat Possum) LP
Gillian Welch: Harrow & The Harvest (Acorn) LP

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