New Releases - 2/14/20
Hitting The Racks
Here's your weekly rundown of what's hitting the new release racks at Grimey's
Jump to… New Releases Reissues & From The Vaults New on Vinyl
New Releases
Tame Impala - The Slow Rush CD/2xLP (Interscope)
The highly anticipated The Slow Rush marks Tame Impala's (Kevin Parker) fourth full-length album overall and first studio effort since 2015's Grammy-nominated and BRIT Award-winning Currents. Recorded between Los Angeles and Parker's studio in his hometown of Fremantle, Australia, the twelve tracks were all recorded, produced and mixed by Parker himself. The Slow Rush is Parker's deep dive into the oceans of time, conjuring the feeling of a lifetime in a lightning bolt, of major milestones whizzing by while you're looking at your phone; it's a paean to creation and destruction and the unending cycle of life. Parker told the New York Times that, "A lot of the songs carry this idea of time passing, of seeing your life flash before your eyes, being able to see clearly your life from this point onwards. I'm being swept by this notion of time passing. There's something really intoxicating about it." [Limited indie store exclusive red & blue colored vinyl pressing.]
Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright CD/LP (Stax)
And It's Still Alright is an intensely personal ten-song album of vibrant country-blues, Badland ballads, ornate Americana and jazz-inflected R&B. Rateliff's warm baritone, ranging from gently hushed to a guttural howl, imbues these superbly drawn character studies with raw, naked emotion. The feel of the new record, for which Rateliff had been focusing on an unraveling relationship, took a different turn in July 2018 with the death of Richard Swift. His longtime friend and producer of the two hugely-acclaimed albums by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats thus gave poignant inspiration to these ten new songs, on which, now in his solo voice, Rateliff wears his grief and doubt on his sleeve, but always retains a sense of optimism. The tracks are quieter and more reflective than the exuberant soul with which the Night Sweats made their name, but have the same urgency and indelible appeal, exploring themes of love, loss and perseverance. [Limited coke bottle green transparent colored vinyl pressing.]
Tennis - Swimmer CD/LP (Mutually Detrimental)
Tennis is an indie pop duo comprising husband and wife Patrick Riley (guitar, keyboards, production) and Alaina Moore (vocals, keyboards). The band wrote their new album Swimmer on land and sea; on their sailboat traveling around Baja California, Mexico and in their recording studio they built in Denver. Alaina and Patrick were driven to elevate their songwriting and experimented with different instrumentation, time changes, and a focus on lyrical storytelling. The band experienced many life-changing occurrences over the last two years that influenced their writing - from loss to illness and renewed bonds.
Colony House - Leave What's Lost Behind CD/LP/deluxe LP (Colony House)
The third album from the Franklin-based indie rockers, which incorporates a storied family history going back generations mixed with folklore about a runaway to touch on themes reminiscent of a classic novel. For Leave What's Lost Behind, the band teamed up with Ben Shive, who also produced their debut album, When I Was Younger. LPs pressed on color vinyl. Deluxe vinyl edition includes 24-page photo book and die-cut sleeve.
Highly Suspect - MCID CD/2xLP (300 Entertainment)
Highly Suspect's third album, MCID, is an adventurous new chapter for the Grammy-nominated trio spanning rock, hip-hop and pop, and featuring guest appearances by Young Thug, Tee Grizzley, Gojira, and Conor Mason from Nothing But Thieves.
Beach Bunny - Honeymoon CD/LP/Cassette (Mom & Pop Music)
Honeymoon is the excellent debut album from Beach Bunny, the four-piece band out of Chicago. Recorded at the iconic Chicago studio Electrical Audio with producer Joe Reinhart (Hop Along, Algernon Caldwaller), the nine songs on the LP burst with energy that capture their vital and life-affirming live show. [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Post Animal - Forward Motion Godyssey CD/LP+MP3 (Polyvinyl)
The sophomore full-length from Post Animal, Forward Motion Godyssey unfolds with a frenetic momentum, mercurial and unhinged and gloriously volatile. In a bold leap forward both artistically and sonically, the Chicago-based alt-prog band sets their existential questioning to a wildly kinetic sound, mining inspiration from genres as divergent as electronic and psych-rock and-at one particularly sublime point-achieving both stoner-metal brutishness and dreamy R&B elegance in the very same instant. [A vinyl reissue of 2018's When I Think Of You In A Castle is also available this week.]
Heliocentrics - Infinity Of Now CD/LP (Madlib Invazion)
The UK's cosmic, psychedelic-funk ensemble issue their first album on maverick producer Madlib's label, Madlib Invazion. Drawing equally from the funk universe of James Brown, the disorienting asymmetry of Sun Ra, the cinematic scope of Ennio Morricone, the sublime fusion of David Axelrod, Pierre Henry's turned-on musique concrète, and Can's beat-heavy Krautrock, Heliocentrics have, over the course of their career, pointed the way towards a brand new kind of psychedelia.
Maceo Parker - It's All About Love [Reissue/2018] CD/LP (Leopard)
To celebrate his 75th birthday (February 14, 2018), soul and funk icon Maceo Parker released It's All About Love, his first studio album since 2006.
Tami Neilson - Chickaboom! CD/LP (Outside Music)
Neilson is an artist with real range, whose powerful voice can take on big ballads, golden-age country, heartfelt gospel, soul-infused R&B, Western swing, even old-style rock 'n' roll.
Carly Pearce - Carly Pearce CD/LP (Big Machine)
Pearce was 2018's Radio Disney The Freshest! Country Best New Artist winner and a 2019 ACM Awards New Female Artist of the Year and iHeartRadio Music Awards Best New Country Artist nominee. Carly Peace is her sophomore album.
Puss N Boots - Sister CD/LP (Blue Note)
Puss N Boots - the charming trio featuring Norah Jones, Sasha Dobson, and Catherine Popper - deliver their second full-length album, Sister - a fetching collection of originals written by the band members collectively and individually, mixed with loving covers of songs by Tom Petty ("Angel Dream") and Paul Westerberg ("It's A Wonderful Lie"). Jones, Dobson, and Popper each take turns delivering lead vocals and pick up multiple instruments throughout the album trading off on guitar, bass, and drums. "This band has always been a great adventure," says Jones. "Sasha and Cat's fearlessness eggs me on to try new things, be it playing guitar, drums, writing a new way or wearing an elf costume on stage. We feed off each other's eagerness to jump in, sink or swim. And singing together feels like the most natural thing in the world. It's a real privilege to have found this space together, try different things and to watch this band grow into what is at this moment. It is ever evolving and so fun."
Huey Lewis & The News - Weather CD (BMG)
Featuring Huey Lewis & The News' first new, original songs since 2001's Plan B - plus one cover of the classic Eugene Church soul burner "Pretty Girls Everywhere" - Weather was produced in-house by Huey and the guys, just like every record they've made since the early 1980s. Following their previous offering "Her Love Is Killin' Me" - a "harmonica-topped, gritty-voiced, good-natured boogie that has Huey Lewis & The News sounding like absolutely nothing has changed since the mid-1980s" (The New York Times) - "While We're Young" delivers another preview of the patience and positivity at the core of Weather. Unaware that recording sessions were about to be cut short by a 2018 Ménière's disease diagnosis (a rare disorder of the inner ear that causes episodes of vertigo) that could keep him from ever singing again, Lewis reflects on fleeting mortality with a rasp as uninhibited, witty, and confident as ever, backed by the same strength of smooth-sailing soul arrangements that first launched the group to international superstardom. Realized through years spent road-testing the tracks on tour, Lewis calls Weather some of the band's best work. [Vinyl due 2/28]
The Men - Mercy CD/LP (Sacred Bones)
New York's The Men have always been genre-morphic and unpredictable, but on their eighth album Mercy they have truly done something new as a band. For the first time since forming, they have now created three straight records with the same lineup, and the result is a sound that feels developed and continuous despite running the gamut of mood, in true Men fashion. [Limited purple colored vinyl pressing.]
Third Mind - Third Mind CD/LP (Yep Roc)
Dave Alvin, Victor Krummenacher (Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven), Michael Jerome (Toadies, Better Than Ezra) and David Immerglück (Counting Crows, Camper Van Beethoven) form the core of this group of seasoned musicians, who have joined forces to take a trip back to the psychedelic folk/rock sound of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They put their own spin on songs made famous by Alice Coltrane, 13th Floor Elevators, Fred Neil and others, plus an original song.
Eyelids - The Accidental Falls CD (Jealous Butcher)
On The Accidental Falls, Portland, OR's Eyelids, one of rock's best-kept secrets, step firmly out from the considerable shadow cast by the band members' second-to-none pedigrees earned from time spent in Guided By Voices, The Decemberists, Stephen Malkmus and Elliott Smith. Featuring lyrics written by poet and frequent Tim Buckley collaborator Larry Beckett that span over four decades and produced by R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, it features a bountiful cacophony of gorgeously shimmering riffs and songs so delectably crafted that all who value the electric guitar as a source of joy should find themselves awash in goosebumps once under this record's spell. [Vinyl edition due February 28.]
Katie Gately - Loom CD/LP (Houndstooth)
Following remix work for Björk and Zola Jesus, productions for Serpentwithfeet, Gately returns with her sophomore album Loom, dedicated to her mother, who passed away in 2018. "My mother's voice is in this record, her picture's in the sleeve notes. This record is for her," says Katie. Where her debut album Color, (2016) deployed fractured rhythms, fierce licks, bold samples and her signature paintbox pop hooks, Loom reveals crepuscular textures. Her voice is more forward in the mix, often densely layered in choral laments above a coarse foundation of hard and brittle sound design, the latter of which is rooted in her film school training.
Eden - No Future CD (Astralwerks)
Vocalist/producer/multi-instrumentalist Eden (Dublin-bred artist born Jonathon Ng) returns with No Future, the follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 full-length debut, Vertigo. As with all his music to date, lead single "Projector" was recorded and produced by Eden at his home studio. With its dreamlike textures and heady drum-machine rhythms, the song finds Eden's graceful vocal work channeling a heavy-hearted surrender. "'Projector' is about appreciating all the ebbs and flows and accepting how things really are instead of wishing they were some other way," Ng explains. "It started out as a very no-man's-land kind of song, and then the lyrics ended up reflecting the concept of the death of the universe into a very personal space: this idea that no matter what's going on in your life right now, everything eventually runs its course." [Vinyl edition due March 13.]
Haviah Mighty - 13th Floor CD/LP (Haviah Mighty Ent.)
Now available on vinyl. Toronto-based MC Haviah has been releasing music since 2009, but 13th Floor (2019) made history as the first hip hop artist and the first black woman to ever receive Canada's Polaris Prize. Garnering overwhelming praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Billboard, and Hot New Hip Hop, Haviah continues to carve out spaces that boldly defy gendered expectations for women in hip hop. Haviah's explosive live show, filled with in-your-face intensity and her fast, technical flows, has quickly developed her reputation as one to keep an eye on, earning her opening slots for acclaimed artists like Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, Redman and Method Man, Sheck Wes, and Nelly.
Boniface - Boniface CD/LP (PIAS)
The self-titled debut from Canadian solo artist Boniface is a catalogue of his most formative coming-of-age experiences - each moment captured in diary-like detail and set against a magnificently sprawling backdrop. Throughout the album, the musician/producer otherwise known as Micah Visser reflects on falling in love and facing heartbreak whilst struggling with identity, never failing to find an ineffable beauty within all the pain. The result is a body of work both bracingly honest and powerfully exhilarating. Growing up in Winnipeg, Visser wrote the songs for the album at home throughout their late teens and early twenties, after shifts at the local coffee shop and lost nights in the city. This intimacy has been preserved on Boniface, which features production engineer Neil Comber (Charli XCX, M.I.A., Glass Animals) who helped bring Boniface's lavish arrangements to full and dazzling life. [Limited red colored vinyl pressing.]
Robert Vincent - In The Town You're Owned CD/LP (Robert Vincent Music)
"People say you should just stick to music and keep your opinions to yourself but I find that entirely the opposite of what songwriting should be," explains award winning singer-songwriter Robert Vincent of his third album, In This Town You're Owned, "but we should be the ones that are bothered by what goes on in society." Vincent returns here with his most relevant album to date, produced by Brit Award winning Ethan Johns - who has won acclaim for his production work with, amongst others, Paul McCartney, Ray LaMontagne and Laura Marling.
Jake Shimabukuro Trio - Trio CD/LP (Mascot Label Group)
Jake Shimabukuro has been redefining what the ukulele is capable of for the last 20 years and he kicks off 2020 with the new album, Trio. Joining Jake on this album are bassist Nolan Verner, who has been a constant presence on stage and in the studio for the past five years, and guitarist Dave Preston, who joined the fold two years ago. From pastoral folk and traditional Hawaiian melodies to incandescent versions of beloved classics like Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" and Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide", Trio pushes the possibilities of the ukulele even further into the future. [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
BRKN LOVE - BRKN LOVE CD/LP (Spinefarm)
Amplifiers still blare out of suburban garages everywhere. Guitars, drums, and bass still translate the emotion and energy of a generation better than anything. No matter what prevailing opinion may be, rock music still maintains its foothold just behind the pop culture curtain - as if in the wings waiting to return. BRKN LOVE carry on this tradition.
Albert Cummings - Believe CD/LP (Mascot Label Group)
Blues-rock guitarist Albert Cummings' new album, Believe, features a flavorful mix of blues, country, and rock 'n' roll. Recorded at the iconic FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL, Cummings takes this release to new heights with the help of Grammy-winning producer, Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana). Together, they drew inspiration from the rich recording legacy of Muscle Shoals and created a timeless album full of rhythm, funk, and soul. "You can hear the difference between this album and my others, and that is the Muscle Shoals difference," Cummings says of the new project, "If I had recorded those same songs anywhere else, then Believe would have sounded like a completely different album." [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Michael Doucet - Lacher Prise CD/LP (Compass)
Michael Doucet - the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, artist, founder of BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, and overall Cajun legend - crafts the quintessential Louisiana soundtrack to a good time on his new solo album.
Posehn - Grandpa Metal CD (Megaforce)
Comedian Brian Posehn has friends in metal places. The Uncle Nick star has corralled a murderer's row of metal and rock help for his new metal album Grandpa Metal. The album features a massive list of guest collaborators, including Fall Out Boy members Patrick Stump and Joe Trohman, Dokken's Jeff Pilson, "Weird" Al Yankovic, Dethklok's Brendon Small, Anthrax's Scott Ian and Jonathan Donais and Slipknot's Corey Taylor. Grandpa Metal's first single is a thundering death metal take on A-ha's iconic "Take On Me", featuring Rob Cavestany (Death Angel), Jill Janus (Huntress), Chuck Billy and Alex Skolnick (Testament) and Steve Souza (Exodus). Also appearing on the album: Gary Holt (Slayer), Pearl Aday and Johan Hegg (Amon Amarth), Michael Starr (Steel Panther), Jacob Bunton (Mars Electric) and Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil. [Limited indie store exclusive vinyl pressing also available for special order.]
Archon Angel - Fallen CD (Frontiers)
Archon Angel is a new metal band project born from a meeting between producer/guitar player Aldo Lonobile (Secret Sphere) and former Savatage and Circle II Circle vocalist Zak Stevens during the making of Timo Tolkki's Avalon's Return To Eden album, of which Aldo produced and played guitar and Zak did some guest lead vocals.
Seven Spires - Emerald Seas CD (Frontiers)
Seven Spires is an American metal quartet, and Berklee College Of Music graduates, specializing in melancholic tales and tenebrous grandeur. Part bittersweet melodic metal anthems, part apocalyptic melodic death and black metal, and part Romantic Classical poets, they are storytellers who draw from across the traditional spectrum of metal and beyond to weave tragedies of demons, death, love, and the peculiarities of human condition.
Waiting For Monday - Waiting For Monday CD (Frontiers)
Waiting for Monday is a new melodic rock band formed by vocalist Rudy Cardenas and guitarist/singer August Zadra. Musically, you can expect classic chart topping melodies ala Journey, Styx, and Foreginer, but with a decidedly modern approach.
Black Swan - Shake The World CD/2xLP (Frontiers) Vocalist Robin McAuley (McAuley Schenker Group), guitarist Reb Beach (Winger, Whitesnake), bassist Jeff Pilson (Foreigner, The End Machine, ex-Dokken), and drummer Matt Starr (Ace Frehley, Mr. Big) have joined forces in new melodic hard rock/metal band Black Swan.
Godthrymm - Reflections CD/LP (Profound Lore)
Godthrymm was formed in 2017 by vocalist / guitarist Hamish Glencross (ex-My Dying Bride / Vallenfyre / Solstice) and sees the respected UK metal luminary returning to his doom metal roots, creating the music he helped forge with Solstice (on the legendary New Dark Age album) and especially with the heralded My Dying Bride during the 2000 - 2014 time period.
Reissues, Sundry Compilations & Vault Excavations...
David Gray - White Ladder [Reissue/1998] CD/2xLP+MP3/2xCD/4xLP+MP3 (iht Records)
David Gray's fourth studio album White Ladder failed to chart when first released in 1998 but became an enormous success when re-released on ATO Records in 2000. The album spawned five singles including "Babylon", "Please Forgive Me", and "Sail Away". This 20th anniversary reissue is available in regular and deluxe editions. The expanded deluxe edition adds a series of previously unreleased and rare White Ladder-era B-sides and demos. "What happened with White Ladder involved more than music. It was a sort of heart and soul moment of total surrender for everybody involved, for me and the audience. That was it. It doesn't get any better than that." - David Gray [Deluxe vinyl edition is available for special order & features the original LP on two white colored vinyl records and the associated tracks on two black vinyl LPs. It comes with a 40-page booklet, which includes lyrics, photos and David Gray's personal notes on the people involved and the stories behind some of the songs and most memorable shows.]
Various Artists - Jamaica All Stars CD/LP (Studio One)
Jamaica All Stars combines two rare and long-out-of-print releases from the archives of Studio One, Jamaica All Stars Vol. 1 (1972) and Vol. 2 (1974). The albums featured early performances from some of the most legendary reggae artists of all time, including Alton Ellis, John Holt, Horace Andy, Burning Spear and more.
Various Artists - Soul Sega Vol. 2: Indian Ocean Segas from the 70's CD/LP (Bongo Joe)
On Mauritius, the Seychelles, and Reunion Island, the gradual appropriation by the Creole populations of Western instruments and European melodic traditions (waltzes, polkas, etc.), as well as the cultural contribution of committed workers from India, laid the foundations of the modern style called sega. This crossroads of influences was to continue to grow when the Birst phonographs arrived, playing all kinds of varieties but also jazz, soul, rock'n'roll, and even Cuban or Brazilian music. Amplified instruments arrived, and electric guitars, basses, drums and keyboards quickly replaced violins and accordions. Psychedelic keyboards, fuzz guitars and undulating basses invited themselves on the furious ternary polyrhythms of drums, bongos, claves, and maracas, to produce a unique style.
Various Artists - Uzelli Elektro Saz CD (Uzelli)
Uzelli Kaset was established in 1971 in Frankfurt, Germany, and the music released on the label resonated with the Turkish guest workers who longed for their homelands and families. This album is a selection of performances on the electric saz, an instrument considered controversial by some traditionalists. Simple, calm and dignified villagers, forced to leave their villages behind, carried the saz to new lands. As they called out to the crowd of fellow exiles and struggled to adapt to a new way of life, their traditional acoustic saz transformed into the electric saz and rang out with a new and different urban sound. Features Akbaba Ikilisi, Sari Zeki, Mehtap Tuna, and many more.
Drivin N' Cryin - Live The Love Beautiful CD/LP (Drivin N' Cryin)
Released last summer on vinyl - now available on CD. From their days as MTV-approved radio stars to their rebirth as DIY icons of the American underground, Drivin N' Cryin spent three and a half decades building a legacy grounded in sharp songwriting, southern stomp, and loud, life affirming shows.
Lynyrd Skynrd - Last Of The Street Survivors Tour Lyve! 2xCD+DVD (Skynyrd Partners)
Recorded live at the band's hometown performance in Jacksonville, Florida, on September 2, 2018 during the venerable Southern rock groups' farewell tour.
Katy Moffatt - Chrysalis 2xCD (Sunset Blvd.)
Moffatt is one of the seminal voices in the alt-country & Americana movement. This double-CD collection features the best of Moffatt's '80s & '90s recordings.
Bobby Hatfield - Stay With Me: The Richard Perry Sessions CD (Omnivore)
Unfinished lost 1971 album from former tenor of blue-eyed soul duo The Righteous Brothers featuring Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann and Al Kooper.
Johnny Mathis - The Island CD (Real Gone Music)
Johnny Mathis has recorded many romantic albums over the past seven decades, but none quite like The Island. Recorded in 1989 but unreleased for decades, The Island transported listeners to Brazil, with all of its mystique and magic.
Erroll Garner - Up In Erroll's Room [Reissue/1968] CD (Mack Avenue)
Eighth album in the The Erroll Garner Octave Remastered Series. Each represents an artist in his prime, with full creative and commercial control of his output following his break with Columbia Records.
Bill Laurance - Live At Ronnie Scott's CD (Flint Music Limited)
Recorded live at the world-renowned Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club during the 2018 International Piano Trio Festival, Bill Laurance Trio's new album strikes a delicate balance between honouring a longstanding tradition, and outlining a creative vision for its development.
New on Vinyl
The Wood Brothers - Kingdom In My Mind LP (Honey Jar)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. The Wood Brothers' new studio album Kingdom In My Mind represents a reckoning of sorts, examining circumstance, mortality and human nature. Finding strength in accepting what lies beyond our control, the material on Kingdom In My Mind hones in on the bittersweet beauty that underlies doubt and pain and sadness with vivid character studies and unflinching self-examination. While the lyrics dig deep, the trio draws from across a broad sonic spectrum to create a set of songs that although thoughtful and inward looking is ultimately transportive and effervescent. Don't miss The Wood Brothers when they play at Grimey's on Monday, February 24th, at 6PM. Buy the new album at Grimey's for your wristband to go through the signing line and get your record autographed following the performance!
Charly Bliss - Supermoon 12"+MP3 (Baruk)
The Supermoon EP is a collection of songs written during the sessions for Charly Bliss' 2019 critically acclaimed sophomore LP, Young Enough. It includes the previously released single "Heaven", which Pitchfork awarded their coveted Best New Track distinction and called "expansive pop-rock that demands repeat listens." [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Georgia Maq - Pleaser LP (Run For Cover)
Georgia McDonald has established herself in recent years as the singer and guitarist of Melbourne, Australia indie rock band Camp Cope, whose sophomore album How to Socialise and Make Friends (Run For Cover/Poison City Records) won widespread acclaim, topping a slew of 2018 end of year lists including NPR, Pitchfork, Billboard, Bandcamp, Stereogum, The Guardian, and Brooklyn Vegan. Using her formidable voice to fight for the betterment of the music industry and rally against sexism, racism and all forms of structural inequality, she has never shied away from the uncomfortable and difficult topics that dominate the news cycle. [Limited pink colored vinyl pressing.]
Personality Cult - New Arrows LP (Dirtnap)
What started as a solo project for North Carolina's Ben Carr has evolved into a full-band supergroup of sorts, featuring past and present members of Paint Fumes, Last Year's Men, Natural Causes, Bass Drum Of Death, Missing Pages, Mind Spiders, Sweet Talk, Sweet Knives, and probably a bunch more.
Jung Jae Il - Parasite [OST] LP (Sacred Bones)
Original soundtrack to the seventh feature film by Korean director Bong Joon Ho and winner of Best Picture (among others) at this year's Academy Awards.
Sam Phillips - Fan Dance [Reissue/2001] LP (Run Out Groove)
Released in 2001, Fan Dance was Sam Phillips's first all-new studio recording since Omnipop in 1996. Unlike her more elaborately produced previous efforts, Fan Dance is unadorned, with the feeling of an intense, look-you-in-the-eye, late-night conversation. The Boston Globe called it "a stunning work of intimacy and emotional range...Phillips digs deeply within to chart romantic yearning and spiritual fulfillment."
Townes Van Zandt - Townes Van Zandt: 50th Anniversary 1969-2019 LP (Fat Possum)
Townes Van Zandt's eponymously titled third recording from 1969 is an early guitar-and-voice singer-songwriter classic laden with memorable originals.
John Fahey - Live In Sausalito 1973 LP (Alternative Fox)
This beautiful 1973 performance, delivered in the sleepy town of Sausalito, California, comprises most of Fahey's Fare Forward Voyagers LP (1973), as well as some earlier material.
David Bowie - Alabama Song 7" (Rhino/Parlophone)
7" picture disc vinyl pressing. Originally released in the UK in February 1980. "Alabama Song" was initially written as a poem by Bertolt Brecht in 1925 and was put to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 play Little Mahogany. David Bowie was a longstanding Brecht fan and included the song in the set list for his 1978 Isolar II tour. The studio version of "Alabama Song" on the A-side of this release was recorded in July, 1978. The AA-Side features two previously unreleased tracks; live renditions of Heroes track "Joe The Lion" and "Alabama Song", both recorded on July 1st, 1978.
Elvis Presley - Good Times [Reissue/1974] LP (Friday Music)
Audiophile 180gm translucent gold and blue swirl colored vinyl pressing. Good Times served as the second album released from Elvis Presley's famous 1973 sessions at Stax studio in Memphis, TN. Capturing the King near his late-career peak and serving as one of his finest outings of the era, it finds a fully engaged Elvis in fine voice traversing rock & roll, soul, country and gospel sounds with consummate backing from longtime associates James Burton and Norbert Putnam.
Ringo Starr - Ringo The 4th [Reissue/1977] LP (Friday Music)
Once the Beatles split for good in 1970, Ringo Starr got right back in the saddle and made a sequence of fine albums in his own right throughout the remainder of the decade. 1977's disco embracing Ringo The 4th features the singles "Wings" and "Drowning In The Sea Of Love" plus the Allen Toussaint cover "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley". [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Bohen & Der Club Of Gore - Patchouli Blue 2xLP (Ipecac)
German darkjazz outfit Bohren & Der Club of Gore - who Pitchfork aptly describes as a combination of "lounge jazz, dark ambience, the languorous adagios of classical-music requiem, and the saturated romance of Italian film soundtracks" - return with their first new album in six years and ninth overall. The band shares: "Dear friends of music where hardly anything happens, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore is happy and proud, to announce their new album. You may have already given up hope, but miracles happen: Patchouli Blue - instrumental, slow, uneventful - as always. Love it, hate it, listen to it."
Kedama - The Complete Collection 3xLP (Castleface)
Three thick LPs of hot jellied kraut-prog heavies from the 1970s Swiss-German based band.
Maximum Joy - Station M.X.J.Y. [Reissue/1982] LP (1972)
A focal point for the unique punk-funk that was coming together in Bristol as the bridge from the '70s to the '80s arrived, Maximum Joy was formed by Glaxo Babies multi-instrumentalist Tony Wrafter and 18 year-old vocalist Janine Rainforth. Soon they drafted in additional Glaxo Babies in the form of drummer Charlie Llewellin and bassist Dan Catsis, along with guitarist John Waddington, fresh from The Pop Group. The group set about making a one-of-a-kind mix of funk, punk, pop, jazz, dub, soul, Afrobeat and reggae; creating a brilliant burst of danceable tunes wrapped around elastic basslines and complex percussion, punctuated by melodic horns and stabs of guitar, all of it highlighting Rainforth's naturally enthusiastic vocal style.
Raphael Saadiq - Instant Vintage 2LP (Get On Down)
Following production work for D'Angelo, The Roots, Erykah Badu, and many more, the Tony! Toni! Tone! member embraced the burgeoning neo-soul movement for his 2002 solo debut, Instant Vintage, which featured guest spots from D'Angelo, T-Boz of TLC, and Hi-Tek. While the album underperformed commercially, critics praised Saadiq's shimmering style and effortlessly warm reproduction of the classic 70s soul of acts like Curtis Mayfield, merged with a fresh neo-soul sensibility. Instant Vintage would also go on to earn a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album in 2003, and would be ranked as one of the Best R&B Albums of the 00s by Rhapsody. Remastered and reissued on vinyl for the first time since its initial release.
Sun Ra - The Antique Blacks LP (Art Yard)
Art Yard present a reissue of Sun Ra's The Antique Blacks, originally released in 1974. The vitality you hear on The Antique Blacks is a testament to the unique energy of the community around The Foxhole Cafe in Philadelphia, as Ra honed his unique brand of Afro-futurism through the late '60s and '70s. Cosmic theater, spiritual chants, and experimental electronics make this record an essential document that was ahead of its time.
Marcos Valle & Azymuth - Fly Cruzeiro LP (Tidal Waves Music)
Marcos Valle is an award-winning/chart-hitting Brazilian singer, songwriter and record producer, and Azymuth's singular mix of electronic music, samba, funk and jazz that they defined as MPB-jazz (MPB stands for Musica Popular Brasileira) has garnered them worldwide success. Fly Cruzeiro, originally released in 1972, was pressed and gifted to customers of the 'Cruzeiro' airline company, and the material included here spans Brazilian standards written by renowned artists such as Jorge Ben and Antonio Carlos Jobim, alongside originals from Valle and Azymuth. Take a flight through this fantastic album and into some of the best jazz, funk & bossa nova the Brazilian musical landscape has to offer.
Deee-Lite - Infinity Within [Reissue/1992] 2xLP (Get On Down) For their sophomore record Infinity Within, Deee-Lite opted to venture in a different direction of sorts. The club-embracing disco-funk sounds and groovy vibes of1990's World Clique were ever present, but while that record contained themes of global togetherness, Infinity Within took a more socially aware route, with politically charged themes of environmentalism, sexual liberation, voting rights, and critique of the judicial system.
D.I.T.C. - The Official Version [Reissue/2000] 2xLP (D.I.T.C.)
The Diggin' in the Crates Crew, commonly abbreviated as D.I.T.C., is a hip-hop collective from New York City. It was founded by Diamond D and Showbiz and its name is from the art of digging for records to sample for production. D.I.T.C., The Official Version is an alternative version of D.I.T.C.'s self-titled album D.I.T.C. which was not officially available on vinyl upon its initial release via Tommy Boy when it became apparent that group maintained vinyl rights of the album.
Bobby Patterson - My Thing Is Your Thing - Jetstar Strut From Bobby Patterson LP (Modern Harmonic)
Dynamic Dallas soul singer Bobby Patterson cut some seriously sizzling sides in the mid '60s, which are collected on My Thing Is Your Thing.
Magic In Threes - III [Reissue/2016] LP (KingUnderground)
The music would make the perfect fit in movies like the Dolomite revamp and Black Dynamite. But it doesn't fit into a Blaxploitation soundtrack style box alone. You could imagine iconic rappers like Ghostface or Black Thought using these soundscapes. III would even fit comfortably next to classic KPM or De Wolfe library releases from the mid- '70s, just as well as indie trio, Khruangbin.
Drama - Dance Without Me LP+MP3 (Ghostly Int'l)
There is lush lovelorn affliction blended into the tracks on Dance Without Me, Drama's debut record, which is remarkably refined for a young band [CD edition due February 21.]
Monsta X - All About Luv CD/LP (Epic)
Monsta X has taken the US by storm with a list of hits permeating the air waves including the fifth single, "Middle of the Night", from their new record All About Luv, the first all English-language album released by a K-pop group. The single takes another step towards merging them into the pop scene as the first Korean group to seamlessly integrate fully. Hinging on a hummable groove, glistening production and thick beats reverberate throughout the dance-driven ballad alongside impressive vocal performances. [Limited colored vinyl LP pressing includes poster and booklet.]
Zhu - Came For The Low LP (Astralwerks)
Zhu is a unique voice making a name for himself in the electronic sphere. He is an inspiration to the entrepreneurial millennials who shun the status quo in favor of cultural exploration and game changing creationism. Whether it's avant-garde fashion, live music performances or art installations, Zhu fans never know what to expect next.
Riki - Riki LP (Dais)
Riki is the Los Angeles based dark synth-pop outfit commandeered by the mysterious Niff Nawor, a visual artist and musician active in the deathrock / anarcho-punk scenes of the California bay area (formerly a member of Crimson Scarlet), before founding her solo endeavor as Riki in 2017. For her self-titled debut album for Dais, Riki explores courage, physicality, and romance across eight timeless synth pop anthems. [Limited white colored vinyl pressing.]
Sign Libra - Sea To Sea LP+MP3 (RVNG Int'l)
On Sea To Sea, Sign Libra drifts between the cerebral and celestial, arranging, and then rearranging, the complex and magnificent systems of our immediate and greater cosmos into her own graceful and eccentric sound patterns. As the moon illuminates in different ways on different days, Sign Libra leaves Sea To Sea open like an ocean to interpretation and imagination.
Bambara - Stray CD/LP (Wharf Cat)
Stray is not merely another, better entry in a catalog full of darkly thrilling, blistering experimental rock-via-punk. Rather, early on in its conception the band made the decision to experiment with new compositions and song structures.
Ut - In Gut's House [Reissue/1988] 2xLP (Out)
Radical No Wave pioneers Ut reissue their critically acclaimed In Gut's House album-their second studio album originally released in 1988 on Blast First Records, now fully remastered with original cover artwork, song lyrics and band photos. It made the year's NME 'Top 50 Albums'.
Tim McGraw - The Biggest Hits [Reissue/2018] LP (Curb) Vinyl pressing of this 2018 collection by the country music superstar.
Celine Dion - Courage 2xLP (Sony)
Double 140gm translucent ruby colored vinyl pressing in gatefold jacket. Celine's 2019 album Courage is a mix of beautiful ballads and edgy up-tempo tracks. It is also her first English album in six years.
Barbara Eden - Miss Barbara Eden [Reissue/1967] LP (Real Gone Music)
CD and vinyl reissue of the lone solo album from the I Dream Of Jeannie star. Eden got her start performing while singing in the church choir and studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music long before the camera found her. [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Jon Hassell / Farafina - Flash of the Spirit 2LP+CD (Tak:Til/Glitterbeat)
Now available on vinyl. First ever reissue and remastering of this "Fourth World" masterwork, originally released in 1988. Propulsive Burkinese rhythms meet revelatory, ambient soundscapes. Composer and trumpeter Jon Hassell is best known as the pioneer of "Fourth World" music, mixing technology with the tradition and spirituality of non-western cultures. Farafina is an acclaimed percussion, voice, and dance troupe from Burkina Faso, who brought their virtuosic drumming and melodic textures (balafon, flute, voices) to the sessions. They built up layers and patterns of rhythm, while producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (fresh off U2's Joshua Tree) created a sonic atmosphere in which they could creatively intertwine with Hassell's digitally processed trumpet and keyboards. The music that emerged transcends boundaries between jazz, avant-garde classical, ambient and the deep rhythmic tradition embodied by Farafina. Vinyl edition includes CD with all vinyl tracks.
Arlo Parks - Super Sad Generation LP (Beatnik Creative)
A compilation of the 19-year-old London-based musician/poet's first two EPs, "Super Sad Generation" and "Sophie," touching on dreamy neo-soul and mellow indie folk. Predicted to be a breakthrough act of 2020 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2020.
Kali Malone - The Sacrificial Code 2LP (iDEAL Recordings)
2020 repress. Nearly two hours of concentrated pipe organ pieces governed by a strict acoustic and compositional code. Malone's minimalist procedure captures a jarring precision of closeness, both on the level of the materiality of the sounds and on the level of composition. The pipe organs are close-miked to eliminate environmental identifiers as far as possible, and the pieces are stripped of gestural adornments and spontaneous expressive impulse. With its slow, purified, and seemingly austere qualities, The Sacrificial Code is a uniquely satisfying exercise in transcendence through self-restraint -- a stunning realization of ideas borne out of academic and conceptual rigor which gradually reveals startling personal dimensions. It has a perception-altering quality that encourages self-exploration free of signposts and without a preordained endpoint -- the antithesis to the language of colorless musical platitudes we've become so accustomed to.
Mutantes - Mutantes LP (Vinyl Lovers)
2020 repress. One album into their career in 1969, Mutantes showed few signs of musical burnout after turning in one of the oddest LPs released in the '60s. Similar to its predecessor, Mutantes relies on an atmosphere of experimentation and continual musical collisions, walking a fine line between innovation and odd genre exercises. The album highlights come with what sounds like a typically twisted take on roots music (both Brazilian and American), complete with banjo, accordion, and twangy vocals.
Dick Hyman & Mary Mayo - Moon Gas LP (Alternative Fox)
Originally released in 1963. Adventurous keyboardist and arranger Dick Hyman worked in radio, film, and television before making a name for himself as a jazz pianist in the mid-1950s with a hugely popular harpsichord rendition of "Mack The Knife". An early experimenter with electronic instruments, including the Moog, his 1963 rarity Moon Gas, produced by Creed Taylor and recorded with Sinatra sidekick and Broadway musical mainstay Mary Mayo, was conceived as "a glimpse of the possible sounds of the 22nd Century". Blasting lounge music and love ballads into the nether regions of outer space, Moon Gas pitted Hyman's organ, mini-organ, and piano riffs against Mayo's ethereal voice atop a tight studio ensemble, the sounds made more otherworldly through the use of an ondioline, a martinot, oscillators, and Vinnie Bell's customized guitar.
J.M. Pagan - Kiu I Els Seus Amics LP (Finders Keepers)
From the cosmic creative musical mind of J.M. Pagan, the Swiss/Catalan studio whiz and future electronic music therapy pioneer, comes the lost lunar modular synth score to Kiu I Els Seus Amics (Kiu And Friends aka Kiu Is Your Friend), a synth-ridden, vocoder-loaded 1984 sci-funk soundtrack to Barcelona's daytime TV response to the universal E.T. phenomena. Created in 1983 by Luna Films and Televisió de Catalunya (TV3) and screened exclusively in Catalunya, Kiu I Els Seus Amics was one of the first E.T. "tributes" to make it out of the gate, and with a crew of five individual directors and writers to ensure that the five episode, one-off series hit the wave of phone-home-fever, Kiu has since remained a short but sweet micro-memory in the hearts of an entire generation of Catalonian cosmonauts.
Chet Baker & Piero Umiliani - Italian Movies LP (Survival Research)
Italian film composer Piero Umiliani began working with the trumpeter and actor Chet Baker during the late 1950s. Baker and Umiliani first joined forces in 1958 for the crime film I Soliti Ignoti (AKA Big Deal on Madonna Street, Persons Unknown or Le Pigeon), reportedly the first instance of jazz being used for an Italian comedy film. Italian Movies draws from the best of Baker and Umiliani's cinematic collaborations, the atmospheric compositions backed by a group of session players centered on drummer Ralf Ferraro, acoustic bassist Berto Pisano, guitarist Enzo Grillini, tenor saxophonist Livio Cervellieri, and Franco Ciari on vibraphone, along with Baker's expressive trumpet leads and composer Umiliani on piano.
Caedmon - Rare LP+7" (Caedmon's Return)
New Caedmon album featuring seven new songs and six previously unreleased tracks from the '70s. For their 40th anniversary, legendary psych-folk band Caedmon wrote seven new songs and found unreleased archive material from the '70s to make the present album. Side A consists of five new tracks, spanning folk-rock, folk-funk, and an eight-minute prog-folk rock epic. The bonus 7" includes "Rare" (a new song about record collecting and searching for a Holy Grail) and "Peace" (another new song with a beautiful guitar solo at the start). Side B includes six previously unreleased songs from 1975-1978.
Penya na Msafiri Zawose - Penya Safari EP (On the Corner Records)
On The Corner Records favourites Penya kick off the new year with a collaborative EP with legendary gogo musician Msafiri Zawose. Penya are a genre defying quartet that embody the energized sound of a cosmopolitan UK. A host of traditional folkloric rhythms, club culture motifs, and DIY electronics mark the band's distinct sound. Drums, horn, and vocals evoke Penya's live performance from a world of euphoric ritual and visceral dance scapes, ancient and future. Legendary gogo musician Msafiri Zawose is heir to the legacy of the late Hukwe Zawose, who put the music of Tanzania on the map.
David Shea - The Tower of Mirrors 2LP (Sub Rosa)
A crafty piece of complex philosophical and narrative audio collage, The Tower of Mirrors was composed and produced in New York City in fall 1995 and features guests such as David Morley on analog synthesizer programming, Dave Douglas on trumpet, Zeena Parkins on piano and prepared piano, and Jim Pugliese on percussions. In Shea's words: "The Tower of Mirrors began as a collection of pieces for sampler solo and for sampler and solo instrumentalist. Also, a collection of tributes to composers in ambient dance music, exotica, easy listening film music and experimental music formed separate points of entry. In particular, many of the great arrangers and composers of the period from 1955-64 who were the pioneers of stereo recording such as: Esquivel, Marty Gold, The Three Suns, André Popp..."
Jan St. Werner - Molocular Meditation LP (Editions Mego)
Molocular Meditation is a bespoke light and sound environment featuring the voice of the Fall's Mark E Smith, who is heard making observations on mundane objects, events, and a range of meditation techniques basically associating his discontent with an apolitical British upper class. His voice forms the narrative component of an electroacoustic composition by St. Werner placed in a hyper-real scenario evoking a state of transformation and deceleration. The B-side of this release consists of unreleased new work partly written around the same time as Molocular Meditation, including a non-metric rhythmic exercise with a synthesized pulse and an electronic opera based on Giordano Bruno's Renaissance writings.
Kylesa - Spiral Shadow [Reissue/2010] LP (Season Of Mist)
Kylesa - Ultraviolet [Reissue/2013] LP (Season Of Mist)
Deriving their name from the Buddhist concept of "kilesa mara" meaning delusionary states of the mind, critically acclaimed Savannah, Georgia heavy rock outfit Kylesa cites acts like Neurosis, Kyuss, early Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath as influences, while critics have compared them to metal masters like Baroness and Mastodon. The band's fifth and sixth LPs have been repressed on limited colored vinyl.
Saint Vitus - C.O.D. [Reissue/1992] LP (Season Of Mist)
Limited silver colored vinyl pressing of the doom metal band's sixth album.