New Releases - 2/28/20
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 DVDs & Bluray
New Releases
Soccer Mommy - Color Theory CD/LP (Loma Vista)
For Sophie Allison aka Soccer Mommy, Color Theory confronts the ongoing mental health and familial trials that have plagued the 22-year-old artist since pre-pubescence, presenting listeners with an uncompromisingly honest self-portrait, and reminding us exactly why her critically-acclaimed debut, 2018's Clean, made her a hero to many. The new album's sonic landscape is vast and dexterous, with melodies that shimmer on the surface, but reveal an unsettling darkness with each listen. "I wanted the experience of listening to color theory to feel like finding a dusty old cassette tape that has become messed up over time, because that's what this album is: an expression of all the things that have slowly degraded me personally," Allison explains. "The production warps, the guitar solos occasionally glitch, the melodies can be poppy and deceptively cheerful. To me, it sounds like the music of my childhood distressed and, in some instances, decaying." [Limited indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing.] Free signed LP jacket with purchase while supplies last!
The Secret Sisters - Saturn Return CD/LP (New West)
"As we age, we face obstacles that are beyond our control. Some forces are internal: insecurity, anxiety, fear. Some are external: the loss of loved ones, an unjust system and the fragility of time. Yet the mark of maturity is how you respond when you realize you're not in control. Where do you find your resilience? This album is a reflection of us coming to terms with how to find our power in the face of an unfair world. These songs lead listeners past 'where happy man searches, to a place only mad women know.' We question our purpose, our relationships, and our faith. Trading the fears of our youth for the dread that rages within us as mature women. With Saturn Return, our hope is that women can feel less alone in their journey through the modern world. We need each other more than we ever have; the less competition and the more inclusiveness and understanding, the better. We are southern women in the 21st century, convicted by our beliefs." - The Secret Sisters. Don't miss The Secret Sisters when the play a free, all ages set at Grimey's this Friday at 6PM!
Real Estate - The Main Thing CD/2xLP+MP3 (Domino)
Over the last decade, Real Estate has crafted warm yet meticulous pop-minded music, specializing in soaring melodies that are sentimentally evocative and unmistakably their own. The Main Thing dives even further into the musical dichotomies they're known for - lilting, bright guitar lines set against emotionally nuanced lyrics, complex arrangements conveyed breezily - and what emerges is a superlative collection of interrogative songs as full of depth, strangeness and contradictions as they are lifting hooks. For the first time ever, Real Estate has brought in outside instrumentalists and special guests like Sylvan Esso, whose vocalist Amelia Meath features on first single, "Paper Cup". Across the 13 interrogative tracks - as full of depth, strangeness, and contradictions as they are lifting hooks - the band balances existential, environmental, and political anxieties with fatherly sentiments, self-satirizing lyrics, forever-lively guitar lines, and shimmering strings.
Wasted Shirt - Fungus II CD/LP (Famous Class)
Debut album from Ty Segall and Brian Chippendale, drummer of Lightning Bolt. Prepare To Be Stoked Dept.: The album is exploding euphoria from start to finish. A morphing day-glo rainbow that will bring a smile to your face like if you were on your way to Washington DC for the Million Puppy March. Upon first spin, all boxes are checked and any previously held doubts are completely obliterated. The more you play it, the better it kabongs you upside your head. Hectic doesn't even begin to describe it. Brian and Ty, two mere particles in the grand scheme, collide at high speed, the technicians dive for cover, the reaction is recorded. Mutation is achieved. This is Freedom Rock. Limited edition indie-exclusive lavender colored vinyl.
Caribou - Suddenly CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
A warm, untamable, and constantly surprising record about family and the changes we go through as those relationships evolve. Most prominently, Suddenly refers to the moments of dramatic and unexpected change that occur at points in any life and within any family-universal themes that can catch you off guard and change your life in a heartbeat. You could win some Caribou & Merge Records swag at our listening party for Suddenly, this Saturday, February 29th, at noon.
Wajatta - Don't Let Get You Down CD/2xLP+MP3 (Brainfeeder)
Wajatta - the musical duo of Reggie Watts and John Tejada - return with their second album. Coming from different worlds, but sharing a passion for the rich history of electronic music, beat-boxer/comedian/musician Watts and electronic music artist/DJ/producer Tejada bring out the best in each other's formidable skill sets.
Tycho - Simulcast CD/LP (Mom + Pop Music)
Simulcast follows the release of Tycho's fifth studio album Weather earlier in the year. Simulcast features instrumental versions of the album tracks.
Juiceboxxx - It's Easy To Feel Like A Nobody When You're Living In The City CD/LP (Dangerbird)
Juiceboxxx has been making waves in DIY music scenes since he was a 13-year-old in Milwaukee, WI combining rap and rock in an effective yet polarizing way that earned him an opening stint with Public Enemy in the mid- 2000s. It's Easy To Feel Like A Nobody When You're Living In The City is an album about the universal struggles of just getting by, told through a mix of anthemic pop-punk and deep-cutting rap lyrics. The 10-track collection is opened by the lead single "Coinstar Song". Listening to it, you might ask yourself: 'What is this life? Why??!? What do I get out of bed for?' The answer might be in "Coinstar Song", which is somehow both soul-crushing and supremely motivational. We are here to move forward, to persist, to grind what we grind until its deadly sharp. And if the answer to lifes pressing questions isn't in "Coinstar Song", you go on looking for it. That's what the man who has maintained this deranged moniker since he was a teenager teaches us. Because if there's one thing to know about Juiceboxxx, it's that he never surrenders. "Did I mess up my life?" he asks at one point. Probably, but what else is there to do?
James Taylor - American Standard CD/LP+MP3/2xLP (Fantasy)
It takes an extraordinary artist to re-imagine some of the most beloved songs of the 20th century and make them completely their own. And that's precisely what James Taylor has accomplished with his brand-new album, An all-star array of Taylor's musical comrades makes significant contributions on American Standard including drummer Steve Gadd, percussionist Luis Conte, electric bassist Jimmy Johnson, upright bassist Viktor Krauss, keyboardist Larry Goldings, fiddler Stuart Duncan, dobroist Jerry Douglas, and vocalists Arnold McCuller, Kate Markowitz, Andrea Zonn and Dorian Holley. [Audiophile 180gm 45rpm double-vinyl pressing.]
Bobby Previte/Jamie Saft/Nels Cline - Music From The Early 21st Century CD/LP (RareNoise)
When future generations listen back to the sounds of this still young millennium, what music will remain to define the era? Master improvisers Bobby Previte, Jamie Saft and Nels Cline make their bid for immortality with Music From The Early 21st Century, their venturesome captured live during a brief tour of the Northeastern US in early 2019. The album is essentially a freely improvised organ trio set filtered through the lens of these three encyclopedically eclectic masters. It morphs continually from one prismatic hybrid of styles to another throughout its ten carefully curated pieces.
Daniel Davies - Signals CD/LP (Sacred Bones)
Limited colored vinyl pressing. Whether scoring a film or making a solo album, Daniel Davies thinks cinematically. Images and story - on a movie screen, on a canvas, or flashing through his mind - inform the shape of his compositions and the sounds he uses to bring them to life. For Signals, the inspiration for his musical narration was a collaboration with visual artist Jesse Draxler, whose otherworldly mixed media works grace the cover and the booklet.
Ratboys - Printer's Devil CD/LP+MP3 (Topshelf)
What started as an acoustic duo has finally transformed into a full-scale indie-rock band with a clear identity. Printer's Devil features big-chorus power pop songs alongside intimate folk songs and devastating alt-country tracks, which as a whole showcase the group's signature versatility.
The Orielles - Disco Volador CD (Heavenly/PIAS)
On Disco Volador, The Orielles push their sonic horizon to its outer-limits with a sharp collection of progressive strato-pop symphonies. Written and recorded in just twelve months, Disco Volador voyages through cinematic samba, '70s disco, deep funk boogies, danceable grooves and '90s acid house. It captures the warp-speed momentum following their 2018 debut, Silver Dollar Moment. "Disco Volador's literal interpretation from Spanish means flying disc, but everyone experiences things differently. It could be a frisbee, a UFO, an alien nightclub or how you feel when you fly; what happens to your body physically or that euphoric buzz from a great party," suggests bassist and singer Esme. "But it is an album of escape. If I went to space I might not come back." [Limited green colored vinyl pressing also available for special order.]
Black Market Brass - Undying Thirst CD/LP (Colemine)
Black Market Brass' sophomore record is a noxious brew of diesel and bleach; a special long-player full of wasteoid rippers for skullduggerous hoverbike gangs peddling fugazi relics and snake oil tinctures. Hellacious guitars, nitrous-charged percussion, a brass section harsher than paint-thinner, and a special batch of short-circuited electronics and synthesizers will leave your head buzzing into the 31st century [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Robert Cray Band - That's What I Heard CD/LP (Nozzle)"Funky, cool and bad," is how Robert Cray describes his latest album, That's What I Heard. "I thought if it we could get this thing that Sam Cooke used to have, the kind of sound that early Sam Cooke records had, that we could pull this off," says producer Steve Jordan. Over the past four decades, Cray has created a sound that rises from American roots, blues, soul and R&B, with five Grammy wins, 20 acclaimed studio albums and a bundle of live albums that punctuate the Blues Hall of Famer's career. On That's What I Heard, Robert celebrates the music of Curtis Mayfield, Bobby "Blue" Bland, The Sensational Nightingales and more, alongside four newly written songs. [Limited indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing.]
Sierra Hull - 25 Trips CD/LP (Rounder)25 Trips is a genre-transcending album emerging from the world of folk-pop, bluegrass & acoustic music.
Sergio Mendes - In The Key Of Joy CD/LP (Concord)In The Key Of Joy is the first album from Sergio Mendes in 5 years. It features an array of guest artists that join him in creating an album with the forward leaning sound that has come to define his music. Guest artists include Common, Cali y El Dandee, Buddy, Hermeto Pascoal, Roge, Guinga, Sheléa, Sugar Joans, Gracinha Leporace and Joe Pizzulo.
Four Year Strong - Brain Pain CD/LP (Pure Noise)Four Year Strong aka vocalist/guitarists Dan O'Connor and Alan Day, bassist Joe Weiss and drummer Jake Massucco, began conceptualizing the ideas for Brain Pain two years ago. For the past year-and-a-half they focused on bringing those thoughts to fruition. "We didn't want to set a strict deadline for this album because we wanted to be sure we took the time to write the best songs possible. In the past our writing and recording was so dependent on getting something out in time to go on tour; this time we really had the opportunity to take our time and work through these ideas," explains Day. In order to capture that sound the group enlisted producer Will Putney, who was an engineer on 2010's Enemy Of The World and already had a relationship with the band. "We were really emotionally invested in this music so we wanted to go with someone who we knew would care about it as much as we did and Will was that guy," Day adds.
Five Finger Death Punch - F8 CD/2xLP (Better Noise)Founded in 2005, the American heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch has described their eighth studio effort F8 as a rebirth. This is the first album featuring new drummer Charlie Engel who replaced Jeremy Spencer in 2018. "Every so often, a band renowned for railing against the sicknesses of the system, decides to turn the lens inward, to express the inner turmoil that smolders within their own minds. A beautiful a catharsis this proves to be, and it is seldom more warranted than in the case of American metal titans, Five Finger Death Punch. Five Finger Death Punch has opened the floodgates and unleashed their eighth studio album, aptly titled F8. Forged from the fires of vocalist Ivan Moody's lifesaving quest for sobriety, it comes to bear that F8 is deeper, angrier, and more disturbingly introspective than anything we have seen to date from one of America's most successful metal bands." [Red vinyl pressing.]
Today Is The Day - No Good To Anyone CD (BMG)Visionary metal outfit Today's The Day's new album was recorded and mastered by Steve Austin, who offers, "I fuckin' love No Good To Anyone. I wanted to make the heaviest and most rocking, psychedelic songs possible. To take you on a trip. Anything goes at any second. No Good To Anyone is an experience. No Good To Anyone is beginning of the end of your life." It represents the literal sound of a man rising from the darkest and lowest point of his life to a new plateau, delivering one of the most dynamic and poignant records in Today Is The Day's enduring and ongoing legacy. Decibel Magazine calls the title track "the sound of a man pulling himself straight through hell and battling his way out. Building from slow, doomy dirges into a tangled mess of jagged guitars, discordant notes, off-kilter drumming and half-snarled-half-shrieked vocals, the song is proof positive that Today Is The Day has a point to prove and a story to tell on their new album."
Intronaut - Fluid Existential Inversions CD/2xLP (Metal Blade)Sixth full-length from the genre-bending progressive/post-metal masters.
Tombs - Monarchy Of Shadows CD (Season Of Mist)Monarchy Of Shadows is the fastest and most vicious blackened metal from Tombs to date, showcasing the quartet's metallic precision without sacrificing the bleak post-punk leanings that set the critically-acclaimed band apart.
Reissues, Sundry Collections, Live Recordings & Vault Excavations...
The Allman Brothers Band - Trouble No More: 50th Anniversary Collection 5xCD (Mercury)
The Allman Brothers Band's first jam together - and last song performed together - was a Muddy Waters song "Trouble No More" which also became their first demoed track. The recording has remained unreleased until now, kicking off this 50th anniversary collection. Each set is housed in special packaging and includes an 88-page booklet, unreleased band photos and newly shot photos of memorabilia from the Big House Museum, and an essay on the band's 50-year history by John Lynskey. 10 LP vinyl version available for special order.
Charles Lloyd - 8: Kindred Spirits - Live From The Lobero CD+DVD/2xLP+DVD/3xLP+2xCD+DVD (Blue Note)
On March 15, 2018 Charles Lloyd celebrated his 80th birthday in his hometown of Santa Barbara, CA on the stage of the Lobero Theater, with an unprecedented group of music lovers, including guitarist Julian Lage, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland. Organist Booker T. Jones and Blue Note President Don Was on bass joined as guests. 8: Kindred Spirits - Live From The Lobero is the unique documentation of an irretrievable evening and the culmination of the artistic energies of an incomparable jazz artist. [A Super Deluxe 180gm vinyl/CD/DVD box set featuring the complete concert plus a 96-page hardcover book and two lithographs documenting the first eight decades of Lloyds remarkable career is available for special order.]
Dom Flemons - Prospect Hill: The American Songster Omnibus 2xCD (Omnivore)
A collection containing a three-part journey: the original 2014 album Prospect Hill; the 2015 Record Store Day nine-track EP What Got Over; and a third section, The Drum Major Instinct, a set of 12 previously unissued instrumental tracks that presents the vision of the Phoenix rising from the ashes, morphing into a butterfly, and seeing the world with a new set of eyes.
Organisation - Tone Float CD (Inner Space)
Originally released in 1970. German rock band, Organisation, is often referred to as the prototype or predecessor of Kraftwerk -- the godfathers of electronic music. Tone Float is the only album produced by Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider under this name and is a seminal example of the genre. Audiences in West Germany were fortunate enough to watch and listen to the whole album, played live for German television station, EDF, and it is this broadcast featured here. The bonus track "Vor Dem Blauen Bock" (more accurately, "Rückstoß Gondoliere"), is a notable rarity in that it includes a later Organisation line-up consisting of Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider and Klaus Dinger, and Michael Rother who would go on to form the band, Neu! Vinyl edition due in March.
Various Artists - Kearney Barton: Architect of the Northwest Sound CD/2LP/color 2LP (Light in the Attic)
A comprehensive document of Seattle in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, including Seattle's vibrant 1960s-70s R&B and soul scene. It is also a testament to Barton's life-long dedication to the art of recording the cream of the Seattle music scene for 50 years. It includes long out of print recordings originally released by local labels. such as Jerden, Topaz, Piccadilly, and Etiquette Records. and spans a wide range of genres: sitar and balalaika players, gospel church choirs, unknown garage bands, steel drums, obscure soul artists and teenage a cappella singers. There's also some familiar names here: Sonics, Wailers, a young pre-Heart Ann Wilson, Larry Coryell making his first ever studio recordings with Chuck Mahaffay, the Hudson Brothers long before they were on TV. (Limited green vinyl pressing also available)
Various Artists - Cadence Revolution: Disques Debs International Vol. 2 1973-1981 CD/2xLP (Strut)
The second volume in a series of compilations taken from the archives of Disques Debs International, the longest-running and most prolific label of the French Caribbean. Set up by the late Henri Debs in the late '50s, the label has continued for over 50 years, releasing hundreds of records and playing a pivotal role in bringing the creole music of Guadeloupe and Martinique to a wider international audience. Vol. 2 of the series focuses on the label's '70s output and the development of the unique Cadence sound, pulling disparate influences into a Pan-Caribbean blend of rhythms, styles and languages that dominated the dancehalls, clubs and concerts of the decade.
Various Artists - The Rough Guide To The Roots Of The Blues CD/LP (World Music Network)
From the earthy guitar-driven country blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charley Patton to the sequined glamour of the classic blues singers Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, this Rough Guide charts the early recorded history of the blues through its key pioneers.
DVDs & Bluray
ZZ Top - ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band From Texas Blu-ray (Eagle Rock)
Produced by the award-winning Banger Films, ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band From Texas tells the story of how three teenage bluesmen - Billy F Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard - became one of the biggest, most beloved bands on the planet, all while maintaining a surrealist mystique that continues to intrigue fans and entice onlookers 50 years after the band's inception. The 90-minute documentary is packaged with 35 minutes of live performances, a mix of recent Gruene Hall and archival footage.
New on Vinyl
Robert Plant - Digging Deep 8x7" (Es Paranza)
Robert Plant is celebrating the second season of his hugely popular podcast, Digging Deep with the release of a limited edition 7' singles box set. Digging Deep includes 16 A-sides and rare B-sides spanning three decades, remastered versions available on vinyl for the first time. The eight-disc collection also features restored artwork from the original 7" releases, packaged in a bespoke hardback book.
Broken Social Scene - Live At Third Man LP (Third Man)
Third Man Records had the pleasure of hosting the inimitable Broken Social Scene, carefully absorbing and recording their magnetic and unforgettable live set on the Blue Room stage. Epic, panoramic, and intimate all at the same time, the legendary Toronto collective Broken Social Scene began as an ebbing and flowing collective of artists in the late '90s, collaborating to create a distinct strand of indie rock that is both perplexingly maximal and straight-up catchy.
Grizzly Bear - Horn Of Plenty [Reissue/2003] LP (Kanine)
The debut album from Grizzly Bear has been repressed on cloudy clear vinyl for its 15 year anniversary. Before they were sound tracking Super Bowl ads, headlining festivals, making TV appearances and opening for Radiohead, Ed Droste started Grizzly Bear as a pet project meant only for friends.
Kevin Krauter - Full Hand LP (Bayonet)
On his sophomore album, Full Hand, Indiana musician Kevin Krauter tackles complicated emotional states and ideas through elliptical songwriting that is at once poetic and truthful. It's not especially uncommon for artists to probe deep into their own psyche to uncover what makes them tic, but Krauter's light touch feels like something all his own. [Limited transparent yellow colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Gladie - Safe Sins LP (Run For Cover)
Safe Sins, the debut record from Philadelphia band Gladie, begins with a prayer: "I close my eyes, pretend to pray/That this shame would just fuck off today," sings Augusta Koch, her familiar timbre floating atop a wave of bleary-eyed synths on opener "Pray". It's a gentle, hymnal introduction to a record that ducks from jangly power pop to plucky indie rock, scrappy electronic psych jams to swaying shoegaze. The record borrows its title from Koch's personal poetry theme book: Safe Sins is a place of safety, acceptance, and progress. It is a record about isolation, loss, and dismantling shame and grief through self-analysis. [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Gaz Coombes - Sheldonian/Live 12" (Caroline)
Limited 2019 live EP from the Supergrass frontman.
Polvo - Cor-Crane Secret [Reissue/1992] LP+MP3 (Merge)
Polvo - Today's Active Lifestyles [Reissue/1993] LP+MP3 (Merge)
Limited colored vinyl reissues of the Chapel Hill indie noise rock band's first two albums.
The Donnas - Gold Medal [Reissue/2004] LP (Real Gone Music)
Famously formed in 8th grade for a school talent show, The Donnas began as a self-styled co-ed answer to The Ramones, each taking the first name of Donna (as opposed to the last name of Ramone), and playing gleefully unapologetic, pop-punk paeans to adolescent alienation and hedonism from a decidedly female perspective. But by the time of 2004's Gold Medal, their sixth album and second for the major label Atlantic, the group had clearly matured. [Limited black & gold splatter vinyl pressing.]
The Doors - Soft Parade [Reissue/1969] LP (Elektra)
Limited 180gm vinyl pressing. Digitally remastered 50th Anniversary edition. The original studio album newly remastered by Bruce Botnick, The Doors' longtime engineer and mixer.
Jim Morrison Music By The Doors - An American Prayer [Reissue/1978] LP (Elektra)
Limited 180gm vinyl pressing of the ninth studio album by The Doors that posthumously features Jim Morrison. The band reunited seven years after Morrison's death and five years after the remaining members broke up. They recorded backing tracks over Morrison's poetry (originally recorded 1969-1970). Other pieces of music and audio include dialogue from Morrison's film HWY: An American Pastoral and snippets from jam sessions.
The Head Cat - Fool's Paradise [Reissue/2006] LP (Cleopatra)
Limited edition yellow colored vinyl pressing of the retro rockabilly side project featuring Lemmy of Motörhead, Slim Jim Phantom of The Stray Cats and Danny B. Harvey.
Hot Tuna - Burgers [Reissue/1972] LP (Friday Music)
Limited 180gm colored vinyl pressings now available, each housed in gatefold sleeve plus new liner commentary from founders Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady. At first an experimental side project during their tenure with Jefferson Airplane, co-founders Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady soon created a full time Hot Tuna, giving the music world a whole new approach to blues, country blues, gospel, jazz fusion, and all things rock with their magnificent artistry and musicianship which is unparalleled to this day.
Bob Marley - Soul Rebel [Reissue/1989] LP (Goldenlane)
Green colored vinyl pressing.The best tracks from the critically acclaimed Lee Perry sessions by reggae legend Bob Marley, featuring "Soul Rebel", "African Herbsman" and more.
Angelica Garcia - Cha Cha Palace LP (Spacebomb)
With Mexican and Salvadoran roots in the San Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles, Angelica Garcia has spent the last few years creating a new, second family for herself within the welcoming community of Richmond, VA. This multicultural dichotomy shapes her new album Cha Cha Palace, a "mental scrapbook" of her journey for listeners, and for herself, all the while confronting a lifetime of feeling split between two identities. Pulling inspiration from her experience growing up in the predominantly immigrant Latinx communities, Garcia's roots are woven all throughout the album. And like Lorde and Billie Eilish, she isn't afraid to tear pages out of her diary and share candid emotions that might be difficult, and oftentimes daunting.
Son Rompe Pera - Batuco LP (Aya)
Born and raised in the deep outskirts of Mexico City, the Gama brothers are keeping alive the rich legacy of marimba music running through their family with their latest project, Son Rompe Pera. While firmly rooted in the tradition of this historic instrument, their fresh take on the folk icon challenges its limits as never before, moving it into the garage/punk world of urban misfits and firmly planting it in the 21st century.
Charlie Parker - The Savoy 10" LP Collection 4x10" (Craft Recordings)
Limited edition box containing four 10" LPs cut from newly restored and remastered audio. This collection highlights Bird's pioneering bebop recordings for Savoy Records from 1944-1948, featuring jazz legends Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis and more. The package includes faithfully restored original album artwork, plus a booklet containing vintage photos, rare ephemera and new liner notes by Grammy-winning author Neil Tesser.
Grant Green - Nigeria [Reissue/1962] LP (Blue Note)
Grant Green's Nigeria is an underrated gem in the guitarist's remarkable Blue Note catalog. Recorded in 1962, and released in 1980, the album features a top-shelf band with Sonny Clark on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and powerhouse Art Blakey on drums. The groove is deep right from the start, highlighting timeless renditions of the classic tracks.
Hank Mobley - Poppin' [Reissue/1980] LP (Blue Note)
Hank Mobley, famously called the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone, had a round sound and an incredible rhythmic lightness. This remarkable 1957 session features a stunning cast of bop giants, including Art Farmer, Pepper Adams, Sonny Clark and more. East of Brooklyn, a highlight on the album, is a masterpiece of lyrical construction. Part of the Blue Note Tone Poet audiophile vinyl reissue series.
Stanley Turrentine - Comin' Your Way [Reissue/1961] LP (Blue Note)
Stanley Turrentine is at his blues-drenched best on Comin' Your Way. This 1961 session features the magnificent rhythm section of the Horace Parlan Trio (Horace Parlan, George Trucker & Al Harewood) at the peak of their collective power. Also featured is Tommy Turrentine on trumpet, contributing his strong Fats Navarro influence. Part of the Blue Note Tone Poet audiophile vinyl reissue series.
Chet Baker - Chet Baker Sings [Reissue/1954] LP (Blue Note)
Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing - part of the Blue Note Tone Poet audiophile vinyl reissue series.
Leo Takami - Felis Catus And Silence CD/LP (Unseen Worlds)
Takami counterpoints the soothing aesthetics of prime-era Windham Hill new age guitar-heroism with meditative, intellectual compositions comprised of ambitious, process-oriented arrangements. While Takami largely wears his genre influences on his sleeve - jazz, classical, Japanese gagaku - the influence of ambient music is a tacit foundation of his work.
Ted Poor - You Already Know LP (Impulse)
Ted Poor is a Seattle-based drummer whose adventurous, soulful playing has vaulted him to the stages of some of today's most important musicians and placed him amongst those drummers most in demand. After graduating from the Eastman School of Music in 2003, Ted moved from his hometown of Rochester, NY to New York City where he quickly made a deep impression on its jazz and indie-rock music communities. In his ten years in NYC Ted appeared on dozens of recordings with world-renowned artists.
Kassa Overall - I Think I'm Good LP (Brownswood)
Seattle-raised, Brooklyn-residing Kassa Overall is a jazz musician, emcee, singer, producer, and drummer. His second full-length album, I Think I'm Good, is the work of an artist whose voice has ripened to its own hard-earned, provocative conclusions, erasing the need to talk about dissolving barriers between hip-hop and jazz because he has begun a new conversation.
Gryffin - Gravity 2xLP (Interscope)
The debut album by Gryffin features Elley Duhe, Marina, Carly Rae Jepsen, Aloe Blacc and many others.
Cold Beat - Mother LP (DFA)
Wound tight with an energy that ricochets from one song into the next, Mother was made while frontperson Hannah Lew (formerly of indie trio Grass Widow) was pregnant and considering the chaotic conditions of the world she was bringing a new human into. If we consider Mother an artistic style guide through space and time, the framework Cold Beat provide is overcast by design but focused in execution; locked-in drums and synths with choir-like melodies high above it all.
Alabaster Deplume - To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 LP (International Anthem)
Alabaster Deplume is a London-based bandleader, composer, saxophonist, activist and orator. Whilst much of his music contains vocals, this is a collection of instrumentals. The music of To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 contains naturally elegant orchestration wrapped around something visceral and primordial. The music is filled with space, inspired by computer games and Japanese animation, particularly Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack for Castle In The Sky.
Jon Gibson - Songs & Melodies, 1973-1977 2xLP (Superior Viaduct)
Since the mid-1960s, Jon Gibson has played a key role in the development of American avant-garde music. As a versatile reed player, he has performed with everyone from Steve Reich and Philip Glass to Terry Riley and La Monte Young. In the 1970s, Gibson would emerge as a minimalist composer in his own right and release two exceptional albums, Visitations and Two Solo Pieces, on Glass' Chatham Square imprint. Songs & Melodies brings together recordings from 1973 to 1977 (mostly previously unreleased), featuring prominent figures in New York's scene including Arthur Russell, Barbara Benary and Julius Eastman.
Ellen Fullman - In The Sea [Reissue/1987] 2xLP (Superior Viaduct)
Ellen Fullman began developing The Long String Instrument in her St. Paul, Minnesota studio in 1980 and moved to Brooklyn the following year. Inspired by composer and instrument builder Harry Partch, Fullman's large-scale work creates droning, organ-like overtones that are as unique in the world of sound as her vision of the instrument itself.
Nathan Johnson - Knives Out OST 2xLP (Mondo)
Mondo and Cut Narrative are proud to present the original score to Rian Johnson's 2019 whodunit Knives Out. Nathan Johnson is Rian's long time collaborator (Brick, the Brothers Bloom, Looper) and a master of genre - able to deftly pivot from the chaotic noise of the future Looper to the classic orchestral strings and stings needed to underscore this New England murder-mystery. This vinyl release features three bonus tracks not available anywhere else. This 180 Gram vinyl set is housed in a beautiful package designed by Jay Shaw, featuring a die-cut window and containing one of nine randomly inserted "Suspect" cards.
Marcos Valle - Braziliance! LP (Mr. Bongo)Braziliance! takes things back to the early heady days of Marcos' career with the bright and optimistic sound of Rio's Bossa Nova scene. It includes an instrumental version of 'Crickets Sing For Anamaria' or 'Os Grilos' in Portuguese, which would also be re-recorded with vocals. Though only in his early twenties at the time, 'Braziliance!' depicts very sophisticated production for a musician so young. Recorded in 1966, produced by Louis Oliveira and Ray Gilberts with arrangements by the very talented Eumir Deodato, the album was released on Warner Bros. Records. Limited blue vinyl pressing.
Ikebe Shakedown - Stone by Stone LP (Ubiquity Recordings, Inc.)Originally released in 2014. Ikebe Shakedown's powerful instrumental soul takes "big unison horns, slinky bass lines, tight little guitar licks-and blends them with tasty grooves culled from '70s-style horn-driven funk." Their self-produced second album was recorded at the famed "House of Soul" Daptone Studios in Bushwick, Brooklyn. "The new record is much more of a studio effort. Psychedelic textures weave in and out of the grooves while the horn section offers an explosive response. The songs are heavy and danceable and show our moodier, more melodic side."
Oneness of Juju - Chapter Two: Nia LP (Black Fire/Now Again)Magical, mystical, Afrocentric, progressive - words that could be used to describe any number of musical compositions by Sun Ra or his cosmic brothers and sisters, as well as the interests of a Washington, DC native named Jimmy Gray that centered under one, perfect moniker: Black Fire. Gray spent nearly three decades pushing boundaries as a Black American promoter, distributor and, finally, record label owner. Together with Juju's leader James "Plunky Nkabinde " Branch, Gray oversaw sixteen releases on Black Fire Records between 1975 and 1996. With this set, Juju and Black Fire's story burns forth into its fifth decade, its message not tempered, its sound pure.
Collocutor - Continuation LP (On the Corner Records)A remarkable work in which the interplay of emotional experience and life motion experienced by band leader Tamar Osborn is channeled and explored by jazz outfit Collocutor. Continuation is an album about coping with grief and loss/bereavement: The music charts the many emotional states encountered, moving from acknowledgement, trying to keep "normal" life going, the need to sometimes put a pause button on the world/existence and let the waves of feelings crash and roll, sudden anger and confusion, finally to moving (perhaps with uncertainty) forward. Pared back from a septet to a quintet, the new line-up allows for more group improvisation, based on just a few motifs and thereby giving the musicians more space to converse, occasionally touching on the intricate arrangements of their 2017 album The Search.
Jason Joshua & the Beholders - Alegría y Tristeza LP (Mango Hill Records)7 heart wrenching rippers sung & composed by The Golden Voice (La Voz De Oro), aka Miami-based Jason Joshua! Joshua speaks to the listener as if he was speaking to his lover on a midnight phone call, wounded from the aches and trials and tribulations of love. Alegría Y Tristeza takes you thru all the emotions, even optimism even when in loss. Recorded all in Miami, Florida and Mastered by Alex Abrash (Marvin Gaye, Fania All-Stars). Run and tell a friend! The latin soul wonders Jason Joshua & The Beholders have returned for the first time!
Go Hirano - Corridor of Daylights LP (Black Editions)The first ever vinyl edition of Go Hirano's third album, originally released in Japan on P.S.F. Records in 2004. Corridor of Daylights is a quiet work of dreamlike brilliance: a home field recording where fragile piano melodies float alongside wind-chimes and wistful melodicas -- insects hum in the distance and a breeze gently rustles as summer day eases toward evening. This remastered pressing includes a bonus track and comes in a deluxe edition featuring pearlescent paper, metallic inks, and foil stamped letters as well as two inserts including a newly translated illustrated story booklet. Includes download.
Various Artists - Black Solidarity Presents: Dance Inna Delamare Avenue LP (Black Solidarity)During the '80s dancehall era a number of record producers claimed to be the real authentic sound of downtown Kingston. but Ossie Thomas's Black Solidarity label, operating out of Delamare Avenue in the heart of the ghetto, was the real deal. Ossie: "This was the start of the '70s when the political rivalry got heated between JLP and the PNP and the shots start fire... I said to myself if you're going die you're going die... from that me not scared of Kingston." This album provides an insightful glimpse into life in these unforgiving Kingston neighborhoods, describing not only the poverty and desperation but also how at times, styles, fashions and the cathartic joys of music and the dancehall could transform this harsh environment into one of joyous celebration. Features: U Roy, Linval Thompson, Triston Palma, Robert Ffrench, and more.
Priscilla Ermel - Origens da Luz 2LxP (Music from Memory)A retrospective of Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Priscilla Ermel, bringing together a selection of recordings from between 1986 and 1994. Priscilla learned the cello and guitar at an early age, and her musical interests expanded from Tom Jobim and Chico Buarque to recording the music of the natural world and the communities around her. She spent long periods living with indigenous populations in Brazil, collecting instruments that she would later combine with synthesizers and field recordings. After studying with the a renowned Taoist master, she integrated the slow-moving pace of Tai Chi into a music that connects intimately with a multiplicity of cultures at the same time that it unmistakably reflects her Brazilian soul. Combining sounds drawn from the history of Brazil with her own explorations of analog sound technology, Priscilla's music opens up a mystical space, where ancient and modern evolves into a new language.
Moodymann - Mahogany Brown 2LP (Peacefrog Records)Super limited double purple vinyl repress, limited to 300. The debut Peacefrog album from Kenny Dixon Jr. aka Moodymann originally released in 1998 is an album of epic proportions, a must have for any and all collectors and lovers of house music. Utilising soul, funk, gospel, and even hip hop production techniques and alternating from mellowed-out disco dubs like "Mahogany Brown" and "Stoneodenjoe" to more raw and dirty tech-house tracks like "Me and My People's Eyes". Mahogany Brown delivers a slice of Black American music that affirms Kenny's reputation as a major influence on house music today.
MATstudio - MATstudio 3 12" (Melody as Truth)Jonny Nash and Suzanne Kraft unleash part three of the Melody As Truth Studio, or MATstudio, vinyl documents... these records are intended to catalog some of the experiments, explorations, accidents, and fortuitous events that regularly take place at their Amsterdam studio. Each record features two compositions created from a collage of works.
Boof - The Hydrangeas Whisper 2LP (Running Back)2020 repress. Maurice Fulton's first Boof material since 2011's Shhh, Dandelions At Play. Like previous excursions under the long-running pseudonym (Fulton first used it way back in 1999), The Hydrangeas Whisper presents the more flowery, melodious and, on occasion, smoother side of the producer's work; warm, often organic deep house littered with live instrumentation, drenched in dub delay and touched by his usual rich, dancefloor-friendly disco influences. There are many reasons to love Maurice Fulton, not least the majestic, off-kilter nature of his finest musical moments, but his pig-headed desire to stick two fingers up at the music industry machine is arguably not one of them.
Trap Them - Darker Handcraft [Reissue/2011] LP (Prosthetic)
Vinyl reissue of Trap Them's 2011 album - a metal, punk, d-beat, hardcore hybrid originally recorded by Converge guitarist, Kurt Ballou at his God City Studios.
Various Artists - The Breakfast Club (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Reissue/1985] LP (A&M)
The soundtrack to everyone's favorite '80s movie will have you singing along from start to finish. This brat-pack extravaganza boasts the anthemic "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds, a hit so large it vaulted them into the collective consciousness. The Karla DeVito track "We Are Not Alone" still wears well, synonymous with some great imagery from the movie.