New Releases - 2/22/19

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 Compilations, Best Of's & Sundry Collections New on Vinyl Books

New Releases

Yola - Walk Through Fire CD/LP (Nonesuch) 

British rising star Yola presents her debut solo album, Walk Through Fire, produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. A contemporary twist on a traditional sonic tapestry of orchestral strings, fiddle, steel, and shimmering tremolo guitars, it provides the perfect soundtrack to Yola's arresting vocals. Written and recorded at Auerbach's Nashville studio, Easy Eye Sound, Walk Through Fire is a truly collaborative record. It was written in the studio by Yola and Auerbach with contributions from songwriting legends who between them have written songs for artists from Glen Campbell to Aretha Franklin. Auerbach also assembled his Easy Eye Sound all-star house band composed of legendary session players. Musicians who performed on the record include bassist Dave Roe (Johnny Cash) as well as drummer Gene Chrisman and pianist Bobby Wood who played on hits by Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley. Guest performers include up-and-comer Molly Tuttle and country music icon Vince Gill. Yola will celebrate the release of her album with a free, all ages in-store performance on the day it's released - Friday, February 22nd, at 6PM!

Susto - Ever Since I Lost My Mind CD/2xLP (Rounder) 

Ever Since I Lost My Mind is the third album from Charleston-based musician Justin Osborne's band Susto (derived from a Latin American term roughly translated as "panic attack"). The 12-track offering was produced by Ian Fitchuck (Kacey Musgraves, Ruston Kelly) with input from Osborne's longtime creative partner Wolfgang Zimmerman. "Ever Since I Lost My Mind is very personal," Osborne explains of the new record. "This collection of songs came together over the course of a couple years, and they all represent different moments. It felt cathartic writing all of them, and they were also all fun in different ways." "Ever Since I Lost My Mind is a showcase for frontman Justin Osborne's masterful songwriting. It's tasteful and subtle in the gentle parts, but there are major guitar moments and heavy tones, such on the first single "Homeboy," which starts with chugging acoustics but then breaks into angsty electric wails at the chorus. These songs could stand strong stripped down to just an acoustic or blaze on with full band." - Premier Guitar [Limited colored vinyl pressing.] Don't miss SUSTO when they rock the Grimey's stage with a free, all ages in-store performance next Tuesday, February 26th, at 6PM!

Adia Victoria - Silences CD/LP (Atlantic) 

Two years after the release of her critically-acclaimed debut, Beyond The Bloodhounds, Nashville-based modern blueswoman Adia Victoria returns with Silences. The album was recorded with Aaron Dessner (The National) at his studio in upstate New York. Over 12 tracks, Victoria brings the topics of mental illness, drug addiction, sexism, and all the elements that consume the day-to-day lives of women attempting to make a world of their own.

Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center CD/LP (Dead Oceans) 

Better Oblivion Community Center is a brand-new band comprising the formidable talents of Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst. Better Oblivion Community Center features the work of several talented friends: Yeah Yeah Yeahs' guitarist Nick Zinner appears on two tracks (first single "Dylan Thomas" and "Dominoes") while Carla Azur (Autolux, Jack White) plays drums on half of the album. Dawes' rhythm section Wylie Gelber and Griffin Goldsmith appear on the other half. Songwriter Christian Lee Hutson contributes guitar and Anna Butterss provides bass. [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]

The Claypool Lennon Delirium - South Of Reality CD/2xLP+MP3 (ATO) 

South Of Reality, The Claypool Lennon Delirium's epic sophomore album might be just the antidote this sick world needs. Music so potent it could repel an asteroid impact from space, these seasoned warriors of psychedelia have crafted timeless songs that may as well be chiseled in stone. The monolithic dream team's new record was produced by Les Claypool and Sean Lennon themselves, and engineered and mixed by Claypool at his own Rancho Relaxo studio in Sonoma County, California. Claypool and Lennon told Rolling Stone that South Of Reality "feels like an organic extension of Monolith Of Phobos, blending the wildly surreal and psychedelic with satirical social commentary." Additionally, Rolling Stone called new track "Blood And Rockets", "a sprawling epic that finds Lennon and Claypool crooning and snarling, respectively, over spacey synths and chiming guitars." [Limited half pink/half purple splatter colored vinyl pressing.]

Dream Theater - Distance Over Time CD/2xLP/2xCD+2xLP+7"+DVD+Blu-ray (Century Media) 

Dream Theater return to their roots combining heavy progressive music with epic melodies on their 14th album, Distance Over Time. [Digipak CD edition includes bonus track. Super deluxe edition in 12"x12" box includes the double vinyl LP pressing, a 7" vinyl single, two CDs, the 5.1 mix on DVD and Blu-ray.] 

Feels - Post Earth CD/LP+MP3 (Wichita) 

Post Earth follows Feels' Ty Segall-produced 2016 eponymous debut which earned the band wide acclaim. Produced by Tim Green (the former guitarist of punk iconoclasts Nation of Ulysses, who has worked with Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Joanna Newsom, and Jawbreaker), Post Earth is a call to arms, interspersed with frustration and hope, and strikes a perfect balance musically between noise and energy, breath and space with a mix of angular, interweaving guitars, lush vocal harmonies, heavy bass and pummeling drums - at times hearty and loud, and at others stunningly harmonic and calm. [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]

Lily & Madeleine - Canterbury Girls CD/LP (New West) 

Lily & Madeleine Jurkiewicz create candid music with deep emotional and personal resonance. The sisters, who record under the moniker Lily & Madeleine, boldly explore what it means to be women in the 21st century and aren't afraid to use their music to call out injustice or double standards. This fearless approach has permeated their three albums, which are full of insightful lyrics and thoughtful indie-pop. But with their fourth studio album, Canterbury Girls - named after Canterbury Park, located in their hometown of Indianapolis - the sisters are coming into their own as women and musicians as the explore new sonic vistas. "Supernatural Sadness" is an irresistible slice of bubbly, easy-going disco-pop; the urgent "Pachinko Song" hews toward interstellar synth-pop with driving rhythms, and "Can't Help The Way I Feel" is an effervescent, Motown-inflected number. Vocally, the sisters also take giant leaps forward. The dreamy waltz "Self Care" is a rich, piano-heavy track on which their voices intertwine for soulful harmonies, while the meticulous "Just Do It" has a throwback, '70s R&B vibe.

Telekinesis - Effluxion CD/LP+MP3 (Merge) 

The fifth full-length album Michael Benjamin Lerner has recorded as Telekinesis is perfect, unfussy power pop - romantic and hopeful and skittish and fresh and familiar, with hooks in all the right places. Its title, Effluxion, comes from the Latin term meaning "to flow" and captures the spirit in which the album was made: hooks flow in, hooks flow out. Effluxion is, in the purest way, a back-to-basics album - not just in its reaffirmation of the sound and style that made Lerner an indie wunderkind a decade ago, but in the way it was created. Using the same now-discontinued MacBook microphone he used to record his earliest tracks, he holed up in the basement of his West Seattle home and put the album together piece by piece over the past two years, playing every instrument. [Exclusive indie-store vinyl pressing.]

Martin Frawley - Undone At 31 CD/LP+MP3 (Merge) 

Whether one seeks it out or it simply presents itself, change is an inevitability. Should one embrace it? Grapple with it? Fight it? These are the questions Martin Frawley unpacks as he steps into the spotlight for Undone At 31, his first album as a solo artist and the start of a new chapter for the Melbourne songwriter. Those familiar with Frawley's time as co-leader of Twerps will take comfort in hearing his deceptively simple songwriting is still intact, but the big reveal on Undone At 31 is how new instrumentation and influences seamlessly expand his playground. It might take several listens for one to realize Frawley is singing "Something About Me" over just violin, Moog, and a Graceland-esque bassline, or to appreciate the PB+J pairing of Fender Rhodes and lap steel on "Where The Heart Is", which serves as the album's twist ending. [Exclusive indie-store vinyl pressing.]

Julia Jacklin - Crushing CD/LP+MP3 (Polyvinyl) 

The second full-length album from the Australian singer/songwriter album was formed from sheer intensity of feeling, an in-the-moment narrative of heartbreak and infatuation. And with her storytelling centered on bodies and crossed boundaries and smothering closeness, Crushing reveals how our physical experience of the world shapes and sometimes distorts our inner lives. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Bayonne - Drastic Measures CD/LP (Mom + Pop Music) 

Each song on Bayonne's Drastic Measures is orchestral in texture, unfolding in countless layers and kaleidoscopic tones. With great intensity of detail, the Austin-based artist otherwise known as Roger Sellers deepens that sonic complexity by weaving in elegantly warped samples of the field recordings that he has gathered for over a decade. But in its powerful melodies and pristine arrangements, Drastic Measures ultimately bears a pure pop lucidity even in its most grandiose moments.

Unknown Instructors - Unwilling To Explain CD (ORG Music) 

Unknown Instructors are an all-star outfit featuring the former rhythm section of Minutemen and Firehose, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, with poet Dan McGuire. Dinosaur Junior guitarist J Mascis was recruited for their fourth effort, Unwilling To Explain. They seamlessly blend flavors of jazz, punk rock, spoken word, noise, and art rock. [Vinyl edition due March 22.]

Badflower - OK, I'm Sick CD/LP (Big Machine/ John Varvatos) 

OK, I'm Sick is the debut studio album from alternative rock band Badflower. Lead singer Josh Katz gave Billboard insight into the 13-track project, "There's a lot of heavy lyrical content - honest, no filter, very emotive. We really weren't trying to impress people on a musical level; We were just trying to be genuine and make something that sounded right and felt right." Members of the band co-wrote each of the tracks on the album which range from guitar-driven to downtempo.

Emilie Kahn - Outro CD/LP (Secret City) 

Teeming with adulthood's melancholy, Kahn offers indie pop crafted with a miniaturist hand toward intimacy while still reaching for the grandiosity of the genre's icons. Outro is a record that stings as much as it soothes, and never misses a chance to swing for the fences as she glances around one last time before heading off to some future island.

Henry Jamison - Gloria Duplex CD (Akira) 

On his second record, Gloria Duplex, the Vermont songwriter deconstructs ideas of masculinity from boyhood to adulthood and what it means to be a white, middle class male in America today. Recorded over a two-week period in New York City during January 2018, the album features an all-star cast including producer Thomas Bartlett (Sufjan Stevens, The National, St. Vincent) string arranger Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Phoebe Bridgers) and mixer Patrick Dillett (Rhye, David Byrne, Glen Hansard). [Vinyl edition due March 8.]

Vandoliers - Forever CD/LP+MP3 (Bloodshot) 

Vandoliers are the next wave of Texas music. The six-piece Dallas-Fort Worth group channels all that makes this vast state unique: tradition, modernity, audacity, grit, and-of course-size. Forever puts it all together for an enthralling ride down a fresh Lone Star highway. Produced and recorded by Adam Hill (Low Cut Connie, The Bo-Keys, Deer Tick, Don Bryant, Zeshan B) at American Recording Studios in Memphis, TN, the band's third album, Forever is a mix of youthful and defiant punk, rugged Red Dirt country, and vibrant Tejano. The full-length's 10 songs blend emblematic rock 'n' roll with bold horns, violin, and a slather of twang reflecting where the band is from, where they've been and, eventually, where they'll be headed. It's regional and universal all the same.

The Way Down Wanderers - Illusions CD (ORG Music) 

With their sophomore album, Illusions, the Way Down Wanderers have fine-tuned their signature blend of heartfelt songwriting, lyrical harmonies, and dance floor drumbeats. These eleven songs are informed by a diverse range of musical traditions, somewhere between bluegrass and hip-hop, and the result is an album that sounds both timeless and fresh. [Vinyl edition due March 22.]

And The Kids - When This Life Is Over CD/LP+MP3 (Signature Sounds) 

Praised by NPR for "striking vocals [that] rival the vibrato and boldness of Siouxsie Sioux... and music that's both fearless and entertaining," And The Kids return with a bold continuation of their chunky indie rock meets blissful new wave sound, while finding inspiration in exploring the total freedom of mortality's fate.

Our Native Daughters - Songs Of Our Native Daughters CD (Smithsonian Folkways) Songs of Our Native Daughters gathers together kindred musicians Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell in song and sisterhood to communicate with their forebears. Drawing on and reclaiming early minstrelsy and banjo music, these musicians reclaim, recast, and spotlight the often unheard and untold history of their ancestors, whose stories remain vital and alive today.

Alicia Olatuja - Intuition: Songs From The Minds Of Women CD (Resilience Music) 

A collection of definitive songs written by some of the greatest female songwriters and features the vocals of the incomparable Alicia Olatuja, supported by a who's who of great players, including Sullivan Fortner, Billy Childs, David Rosenthal, Ben Williams, Ulysses Owens Jr., Dayna Stephens, Etienne Charles, and Jeremy Pelt.

Cyrille Aimée - Move On: A Sondheim Adventure CD (Mack Avenue) 

The genius of Stephen Sondheim stems from the revered composer's ability to plumb universal human emotions even in the form of the most outré characters - be they cannibalistic barbers, presidential assassins, or fairy tale witches. The acclaimed vocalist Cyrille Aimée discovered that gift first-hand as she took a deep dive into the Sondheim songbook for her scintillating new album, Move On: A Sondheim Adventure. What began as a celebration of a legendary Broadway songwriter became a work of cathartic autobiography as one song after another captured her deepest personal feelings.

John Mayall - Nobody Told Me CD/LP (Forty Below) 

The new studio album from Blues Hall of Fame member boasts an impressive and diverse list of guest guitarists including Todd Rundgren, Little Steven Van Zandt of The E Street Band, Alex Lifeson from Rush, Joe Bonamassa, Larry McCray and Carolyn Wonderland.

Kel Assouf - Black Tenere CD/LP (Glitterbeat)
On the heels of their acclaimed album Tikounen, which The Guardian called a radical leap forward in the modern Tuareg sound, Kel Assouf return with an even more transformative collection. Kel Assouf draws from the wellspring created by desert rock pioneers Tinariwen but touches on rock classicism and the club beats and astral ambiance of European electronic music, incorporating the pulse of motorik and Eno-esque atmospheres. The lyrics reflect the struggle of the stateless Kel Tamashek (a name preferred to the colonial moniker "Tuareg") to maintain control of their ancestral lands, their dignity and their nomadic way of life, but the music also contains the shimmer of nostalgia and a poetry of deep longing. 

Julian Lage - Love Hurts CD/LP (Mack Avenue) 

Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation, Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association and a spirit of infinite possibility. Though only 31, the New York-based musician boasts a long, prolific résumé as sideman (alongside such icons as Gary Burton and John Zorn), duo partner (with Nels Cline, Chris Eldridge and Fred Hersch), and as soloist and bandleader.

Chris Potter - Circuits CD/LP (Edition) 

For more than two decades, Chris Potter's limitless creativity, effortless virtuosity and vibrant sense of swing has wowed critics, musicians and fans alike, who cite him as one of the most influential saxophonists and inventive improvisors of the modern day. His new album, Circuits is immediate and uplifting, rooted in a strong sense of groove and intense improvisation.

Cochemea - All My Relations CD/LP+MP3 (Daptone) 

Debut solo album from long-time Dap-Kings saxophonist, Cochemea Gastelum. Cochemea's electrosax leads an ensemble of percussive giants (members of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Antibalas) on a psychedelic, spiritual journey, exploring his ancestral roots through melody and rhythm.

Benny Sings - City Pop CD/LP (Stones Throw) 

Benny Sings debuted in 2003 and has since performed for NPR's Tiny Desk; toured the world with Mayer Hawthorne, and collaborated with the likes of Anderson.Paak, GoldLink, and Mndsgn. Like the 2015 album Studio, City Pop celebrates collaboration, with Hawthorne, Cornelius, Sukimaswitch (the Japanese Steely Dan), Mocky and Faberyayo among the featured artists.

Ivan Mamao Conti - Poison Fruit CD/LP (Far Out Recordings)
Brazilian drumming legend Ivan "Mamão" Conti has been experimenting and innovating for the last half a century. As one third of cult Rio jazz-funk trio Azymuth, Mamão was at the root of the group's "samba doido" (crazy samba) philosophy, which warped the traditional samba compass with jazz influences and space age electronics. With his first album in over twenty years, Mamão shares his zany carioca character across eleven tracks of roots-y electronic samba and tripped-out jazz, beats, and dance music. The Azymuth lifeblood runs deep, but venturing into the modern discotheque, Poison Fruit also experiments with sounds more commonly associated with house and techno. 

Cardi B - Invasion Of Privacy CD/2xLP+MP3 (Atlantic) 

Released in December on vinyl - now available on CD. Comprised of a contagious mix of street rap, Latin music and R&B buoyed by a stack of famous guest artists like Migos, Chance The Rapper, YG and SZA, the self-made 25-year old Bronx native not only asserts herself as a force to be reckoned with here but proves she's a perfectly timed modern pop star with staying power in the process.

Future - Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD CD (Epic) 

The seventh full-length album from Atlanta hip-hop superstar and multiplatinum trailblazer. Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD boasts a handful of blockbuster collaborations. "Unicorn Purp" (featuring Young Thug & Gunna) unites three of Atlanta's most iconoclastic talents on one psyched-out banger. "First Off" (featuring Travis Scott) threads together wildly woozy melodies as these two titans lock into a chaotic call-and-response. [Vinyl edition due March 15.]

Knocked Loose - Pop Culture CDEP/12" (Pure Noise) 

Bruised and bloodied, Knocked Loose opens up the pit with a brutal sound that falls between hardcore, punk and metal.

Powder - Powder in Space CD (Beats in Space)
Powder's ceremonious DJ sets invite listeners and dancers to extend their imaginations to abstracted spaces, while allowing the body to vessel the voyage in free, flowing style. Playful, thoughtful, and natural without knowing, Powder's crates encourage abandonment of arbitrary boundaries and expectations surrounding genre, movement, schedule, and societal convention to revel, spirited and harmonious, in the passage of time.

Overkill - The Wings Of War CD (Nuclear Blast America) 

It's with over 30 years under their leather belts that New Jersey natives Overkill unveil their latest offering, The Wings Of War. With 10 tracks clocking in at fifty-one minutes, their nineteenth full length slab is the ultimate combination of sickening brutality and addictive melody. Album opener "Last Man Standing" is Overkill kicking the door in with a hard and loud tune that's rooted in some of the best angst that thrash possesses. The album's second single, "Head Of A Pin", is a lyrical journey about disappointment and trust. Musically, the song comes across as "Black Sabbath on meth" proclaims frontman Bobby Blitz. [Vinyl due 3/15]

Candlemass - The Door To Doom CD/LP (Napalm) 

Epic world class doom metal that relies on slow mammoth riffing. Includes a guest appearance by Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi on "Astorolus - The Great Octopus".

New on Vinyl

Fruit Bats & Vetiver - In Real Life (Live At Spacebomb Studios) LP (Spacebomb) 

Eric D. Johnson and Andy Cabic have a lot in common. Two kindred spirits with a common affinity for songwriting that embraces a range of feeling, strong on melodies paired with thoughtful lyrics and catchy hooks. Over the years, they've played in each other's bands (Fruit Bats and Vetiver), on one another's albums, scored films together, and toured the world with one another. In Real Life documents their musical relationship and recent duo touring as part of the ongoing Live At Spacebomb series.

Santana - In Seach Of Mona Lisa 12" (Concord) 

New five-track EP from the legendary singer-songwriter guitarist, inspired by Santana's interaction with the Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre in Paris, France.

Spelling - Mazy Fly LP (Sacred Bones) 

The second full-length by the Bay Area artist Spelling explores the tension between the thrill of exploring the unknown and the terror of imminent destruction. The album traverses the spaces between languid, honey-soaked vocals and distant angelic whispers, from thumping 808 club beats to crunching tape loops, and from silky, smooth R&B to whirling organ sonatas. [Limited blue colored vinyl pressing also available. CD edition due March 1.]

Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning b/w Red Right Hand [Reissue/2009] 7" (Domino) 

Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone b/w Catapult [Reissue/2009] 7" (Domino) 

Arctic Monkeys - Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair [Reissue/2011] 7" (Domino) 

7" vinyl reissues of two Humbug and one Suck It And See singles.

X - Los Angeles [Reissue/1980] LP (Fat Possum) 

Four decades after their inception, one thing is clear: X was not only one of the most influential bands to crash out of the punk movement of the late '70s, but the group's music continues to be sonically groundbreaking today.

The Zombies - The Complete Studio Recordings 5xLP (Varese Sarabande) 

The Complete Studio Recordings includes their two original US albums: She's Not There/Tell Her No and Odessey & Oracle; two important compilations: I Love You and R.I.P. as well as a bespoke collection of rare singles and UK-only album tracks: Oddities & Extras.

Grateful Dead - Spring 1990 - So Glad You Made It [Reissue/2012] 4xLP (Friday Music) 

Limited 180gm audiophile four LP box set. Filled with 20 stellar performances, The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, Mickey Hart and Bill Kruetzmann truly radiate with some of their finest playing and singing ever documented, making this a wonderful listen.

Sublime - Greatest Hits [Reissue/1999] LP (Geffen) 

Limited vinyl LP pressing housed in a matchbook-style jacket.

Sunwatchers - Illegal Moves LP (Trouble In Mind) 

A heady potion of free-jazz, psychedelia, punk & noise rock. [Limited red & blue colored vinyl pressing.]

O.R.k. - Ramagehead LP (Kscope) 

A band of rock legends and some of contemporary music's most revered creators, O.R.k. has combined forces once again for a new studio album. The band is: Lef (lead vocals), King Crimson's Pat Mastelotto (drums), Porcupine Tree's Colin Edwin (bass), Marta Sui Tubi's Carmelo Pipitone (guitars) and extra special guest and Grammy Award-winner Serj Tankian of System of a Down (vocals), who is undoubtedly one of metal's greatest and most renowned vocalists.

StumpWater - Motel In Saginaw LP+7" (Drag City) 

Previously unissued 1973 album. "Rural folk rock that'd make David Crosby's 'stache bristle."

Lil Yachty - Nuthin' 2 Prove LP (Quality Control) 

Released last November on CD - now available on vinyl. Nuthin' 2 Prove is the third studio album by rapper Lil Yachty. The album features guest appearances from Quality Control labelmates Offset of Migos and Lil Baby, alongside Cardi B, Trippie Redd, Juice Wrld, Playboi Carti, Gunna and Kevin Gates, among others.

Clear Soul Forces - Still LP (Fat Beats) 

At 11 tracks deep, Still eschews trends and instead provides timeless, straight-up dope hip-hop.

bvdub - Explosions In Slow Motion CD/2xLP (n5MD) 

Explosions In Slow Motion is the 36th album from the master of emotive spacial ambient BVDUB. Foggy memories of friends, loved ones, and adversaries achingly sweep across the album's eighty-minute runtime. Forlorn and shrouded in nostalgia. [Limited translucent yellow vinyl pressing.]

The Hot 8 Brass Band - Take Cover LP (Tru Thoughts) 

Having recently performed as part of Jools Hollands New Years Eve Hootenanny, alongside the likes of Nile Rodgers & Chic, Rudimental, Michael Buble, Yola and George Erza, Hot 8 ring in the new year with their signature party spirit.

Larry Grenadier - The Gleaners LP (ECM) 

The Gleaners is a profound and highly creative album, harvesting influences from many sources, its title inspired by Agnès Varda's film The Gleaners And I. In between his own pieces here, including a dedication to early hero Oscar Pettiford, Grenadier explores compositions by George Gershwin, John Coltrane, Paul Motian, Rebecca Martin and Wolfgang Muthspiel. An important addition to ECM's series of distinguished solo bass albums.

Ella Fitzgerald - Ella At The Shrine LP (Verve) 

Newly discovered live recording, of a live performance captured ten days before Ella Fitzgerald's classic performance at Zardi's (captured on the release Ella At Zardi's).

Billie Holiday - Body And Soul [Reissue/1957] LP (Verve) 

Billie Holiday - Songs For Distingué Lovers [Reissue/1958] LP (Verve) 

Songs For Distingué Lovers was recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles from January 3 to January 9, 1957, and produced by Norman Granz. Norman Granz brings together Barney Kessel on guitar, Ben Webster on tenor sax and Harry 'Sweets' Edison on trumpet to back up Billie on this 1956 classic. Body And Soul is a perfect companion piece to Songs For Distingué Lovers and features classic versions of "They Can't Take That Away From Me" and "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off".

Cal Tjader - Solar Heat [Reissue/1968] LP (Modern Harmonic) 

Vibraphone legend Cal Tjader's fusion of different genres and styles was an acute influence on Carlos Santana (and Latin rock as a whole). On Solar Heat he stirs in tastes of exotica, funk, and of course Latin and jazz. Limited edition gold colored vinyl LP pressing.

Stan Getz/Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba [Reissue/1962] LP (Verve) 

This famous 1962 collaboration sounds as fresh today as it did when it was released, an all-time classic album including evergreen versions of "Desafinado", "O Pato" and "One Note Samba".

Stan Getz & Bill Evans - Stan Getz & Bill Evans[Reissue/1973] LP (Verve) 

Recorded in 1964 but not released until 1973, this classic double- header also features an all-star rhythm section of Ron Carter on bass and Elvin Jones on drums.

Coleman Hawkins - Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster [Reissue/1959] LP (Verve) 

Two titans of the tenor collaborate on this landmark 1957 album, perfectly distilling their differing styles to produce a bona fide jazz classic.

The Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Tutankaman LP (ORG Music) 

Two long tracks recorded by the Art Ensemble in Paris during June of 1969. This was a tremendously productive time for the group; they run through a gamut of instruments, a wild range of sounds, yet never manage to lose their focus.

Wes Montgomery - California Dreaming [Reissue/1966] LP (Verve) 

A career highlight for the guitarist, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio during September 1966, this California Dreaming was an artistic and commercial smash, reaching #1 on the US Billboard Jazz chart.

Skip James - The Rough Guide To Skip James LP+MP3 (World Distribution Network) 

Skip James was a Delta blues enigma, whose mesmerizing guitar playing and haunting voice produced bluer than blue masterpieces. The Rough Guide To Skip James is a collection of his seminal pre-war 1931 recordings for Paramount Records.

Major Murphy - Lafayette EP 12" (Winspear) 

Major Murphy follows up their debut long play No. 1 with a set of bedroom recordings archiving a time when Jacob Bullard was discovering his voice as a songwriter and the band was finding their footing within that space. Named after the house in Grand Rapids, MI that many of these songs were written and recorded in, the Lafayette EP chronicles a liminal space as the project transitioned from a stripped-down, solo project toward a three-piece rock band.

Susan Christie - Paint a Lady (2019 Edition) LP (Finders Keepers)
A mythical and misplaced masterpiece of lost soft rock and acidic folk funk by a one-hit wonderer lost in the wilderness for four decades. From the producer of Margo Guryan, Tarantino soundtracker, and Wendy & Bonnie confidant, Paint A Lady now emerges from folkloric obscurity. The oft overused term "mythical" applies to this album on many levels. Perhaps it's the woozy nostalgia found within the pop craft of Paint A Lady that has led to bizarre claim that songs like the head-nodding title track, with its future-proofed sample-worthy rhythm section, and the acid-drenched sound effects on "Yesterday, Where's My Mind" were just a product of a contemporary studio band trying to create a fake folk funk red herring. As a result, Christie and her producer and husband of 40 years, John Hill, have happily taken the repeat phrase "unbelievable" as a compliment to their songwriting skills and foresight. 

Zdeněk Liska - Ikarie XB-1 LP (Finders Keepers)
With this previously unreleased 1963 score for Jindlich Polák's Ikarie XB-1, Finders Keepers present an "elusive" musical artifact by Zdeněk Liska, a composer respected unanimously in both Czech and Slovakian by studio bosses, producers, directors and actors alike. Not only was Liska a genius of emotive orchestral and coral composition, his grasp on small group arrangements and intimate, minimal scores set him above the competition. By utilizing primitive sample techniques by "looping" a film's existing ambient noise, or rearranging found sounds and dialog into subtle melodic arrangements, Liska would independently develop his own techniques which had simultaneously become known in Paris as musique concrète.

Hugh Marsh - Violinvocations LP (Western Vinyl) 

Even if you've never heard of Hugh Marsh you've almost certainly heard his violin. He's a featured player on soundtracks by Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams, was nominated for a Juno award, recorded with Iggy Pop and The Stooges, and was in the backing band for Bauhaus' Peter Murphy, all a tiny fraction of his decades-long list of credits. The latest addition to that list is Marsh's own Violinvocations, an LP recorded while Marsh lived in L.A. with friend, mentor, and fellow soundbender Jon Hassell.

Günter Schickert - Nachtfalter LP (Bureau B)
Schickert's recordings from the 70s and 80s showcased his hypnotic echo guitar which developed into one of the hallmarks of the krautrock sound. For his new album, Schickert was assisted by Andreas Spechtl, who recorded the album, played the drums, and selected mixed the best moments of Schikert's tracks, while also supplying his own loops and synths. "I was born in Berlin and am a true city child", explains Schickert, "When I was young, I often travelled on the bus or the underground train. The awesome rhythm of the engines has indelibly imprinted itself on me. My music has been the expression of this experience." 

Thighpaulsandra - Practical Electronics with Thighpaulsandra LP (Editions Mego)
Having cut his teeth among such legendary outfits such as Coil and Spiritualized, the UK's most eccentric audio malefactor has constantly catapulted himself further into a musical landscape utterly of his own devising. His eighth studio album eschews the usual group-based recordings and consists of electronics and vocals only, hovering between haunted narratives and extended instrumental sequences. Practical Electronics is an eccentric excursion into playful pop and fearless electronic experimentation: simultaneously intimidating and accessible, an artifact where high art unfolds as an oblique electronic cabaret. 

Not Waving - Futuro (Music for the Waldorf Project) 2LP (Ecstatic)
Futuro is Not Waving's sublime synth/ambient soundtrack for Sean Rogg's radical immersive artwork The Waldorf Project -- fusing choreography, spatial design, music, and performance into a cohesive experience. Futuro finds Alessio Natalizia exploring tonal and spatial minimalism, demonstrating the full span of his obsessive knowledge and emotive feel for electronic composition. The album ranges from evocative synth meditations to bittersweet kosmische intuitions, and milky, Eno-esque beauties, closing with 17 minutes of fawning, gently curdled synth pads, with such memorable effect as to make it something of a modern day environmental/ambient classic. RIYL: Laurie Spiegel, Steve Roach, Brian Eno.

Laraaji & Lyghte - Celestial Realms LP (Morning Trip)
Originally released on cassette in 1986, Celestial Realms is a collaborative album from new age figurehead and Brian Eno-collaborator Laraaji, and fellow cosmic traveller Jonathan Goldman (aka Lyghte). Laraaji conjures his typically vivid soundworld of shimmering electric zither, while Goldman inhabits that world with pulsing guitar and droning synthesizer. A trance-inducing ambient voyage. Celestial Realms provides a 46-minute blissful ambient voyage featuring zither, bells, synthesizer, and guitar. Recommended if you like: Brian Eno, Hiroshi Yoshimura and Steve Roach.

Collocutor - Instead LP (On the Corner Records)
Instead is the debut LP from Tamar Osborn's superlative Collocutor ensemble, originally released in 2014. Drawing on trajectories of sound that have been refracted over time and space and expressed at this vanishing point, saxophonist and flutist Tamar Osborn plays with a studied talent and writes her passion into the arrangements that make the songs of Collocutor her own. Tumultuous journeys over eras and epochs to swirling carpet rides in places and spaces, night through day. 

Aenimus - Dreamcatcher CD/LP (Nuclear Blast America) 

Aenimus is a progressive, extreme metal band from San Francisco.

As I Lay Dying - An Ocean Between Us [Reissue/2007] LP (Metal Blade) 

Limited amber with aqua smoke color vinyl LP pressing. Produced by Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, San Diego, California metal titans As I Lay Dying's fourth studio effort, An Ocean Between Us, is seething with metallic vitriol, overflowing with energy, and rich with the kind of melody that irrevocably implants itself in the listener's mind.

Reissues & From The Archives

Ray Charles - Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music Volumes 1 & 2 2xCD (Concord) 

Ray Charles - Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music [Reissue/1962] LP (Concord) 

Listed among the greatest albums of all time by numerous publications, Modern Sounds in Country And Western Music became an instant classic when it was first released in 1962. Charles bent racial barriers in popular music, amid the height of the Civil Rights Movement, with his integration of soul and country music. The success led to the recording of Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music Volume Two. Focusing more on balladry, one side featured performances by the Ray Charles Big Band with the Raelettes, and the other with a string section and the Jack Halloran Singers. Like its predecessor, it was released to both critical and commercial acclaim. [CD combines both volumes, while a single-disc vinyl reissue of the original first volume is also available.]

Sun Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra - Pathways To Unknown Worlds [Reissue/1975] CD/LP (Modern Harmonic) 

These 1975 guided improvisations are imbued with an underlying violence, alternate twists, bank turns, headchoppers, loops, rolls, sidewinders and drops. It's a dark & glorious journey. Vinyl has been delayed.

Compilations, Best Of's & Sundry Collections

Michael Rother - Solo 5xCD/6xLP (Groenland) 

A box set of Neu!/Harmonia/Kraftwerk guitarist's first four solo LPs. Includes Flammende Herzen (1977), Sterntaler (1978), Katzenmusik (1979) and Fernwärme (1982), as well as unreleased soundtracks for the films Die Raeuber and Houston and an album of live tracks and remixes.

Curtis Mayfield - Keep On Keeping On: Curtis Mayfield Studio Albums 1970-1974 4xCD/4xLP (Rhino) 

This collection includes newly remastered versions of his first four studio albums: Curtis (1970), Roots (1971), Back To The World (1973) and Sweet Exorcist (1974).

Various Artists - The Social Power Of Music 4xCD (Smithsonian Folkways) The Social Power Of Music chronicles the vivid, impassioned, and myriad ways in which music binds, incites, memorializes, and moves groups of people. This richly illustrated 124-page book, with 80+ tracks on four CDs, invites listeners into musical practices, episodes, and movements throughout the U.S. and beyond. These songs of struggle, devotion, celebration, and migration remind us that music has the potential to change our world.

Books

Ian S. Port - The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock'n'Roll BK (Scribner)

A riveting saga in the history of rock'n'roll: the decades-long rivalry between the two men who innovated the electric guitar's amplified sound - Leo Fender and Les Paul - and their intense competition to convince rock stars like The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton to play the instruments they built. The Birth of Loud shows how two men dramatically transformed popular culture and brought music into the modern age. 

Alan Lightman - Searching For Stars on an Island in Maine BK (Vintage)

As a physicist, Alan Lightman has always held a scientific view of the world. But one summer evening, while looking at the stars from a small boat at sea, Lightman was overcome by the overwhelming sensation that he was merging with something larger than himself - an eternal unity, something absolute and immaterial. The result is an inspired, lyrical meditation from the acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams that explores these seemingly contradictory impulses. Lightman draws on sources ranging from Saint Augustine's conception of absolute truth to Einstein's theory of relativity, and gives us a profound inquiry into the human desire for truth and meaning, and a journey along the different paths of religion and science that become part of that quest. This small but provocative book explores the tension between our yearning for certainty and permanence versus the modern scientific view that all things in the physical world are uncertain and impermanent.