New Releases - 2/7/20
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
The Lone Bellow - Half Moon Light CD/LP (Dualtone)
Half Moon Light is an artistic triumph worked toward for years, earned not by individual posturing, but by collective determination and natural growth. With earthy three-part harmonies and songwriting as provocative as it is honest, The Lone Bellow creates sparks that make a stranger's life matter or bring our sense of childlike wonder roaring back. On Half Moon Light, the trio mix light and dark to muster a complex ode to memory, a call for hope, and an exercise in empathy. Anchored in the acoustic storytelling that first so endeared the band to fans and critics, Half Moon Light also takes more chances, experimenting with textures and instrumental fillips to create a full-bodied music experience. The 15-track album touches on personal topics like family, loss, overcoming struggle, and letting things go. The band expertly traverses several moods throughout, going from gentle, soothing lows to enormous, sweeping highs, and their musicianship shines through in every track. The Lone Bellow will perform a live set at Grimey's on Thursday, February 20th, at 6PM. Purchase Half Moon Light on vinyl or CD from Grimey's, either in person or online, for your wristband to go through the signing line and get your album autographed following the performance!
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - Texas Sun EP CDEP/12" (Dead Oceans)
Driving anywhere in Texas can cost you half a day, easy. For example, it'll take you over four hours just to get from R&B singer Leon Bridges' hometown of Fort Worth down to Houston, where the psychedelic wanderers in Khruangbin hail from. On Texas Sun, these two members of the state's musical vanguard meet up somewhere in the middle of that scene, in the mythical nexus of Texas' past, present, and future - a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain.
John Moreland - LP5 CD/LP (Old Omens)
Over the last half a dozen years or so, John Moreland's honesty has stunned us - and stung. He addressed pain we didn't even realize we had into his songs, and we sang along. And we felt better. But there has always been far more to Moreland than sad songs. Today, his earthbound poetry remains potent, but in addition to his world-weary candor, Moreland's music smolders with gentle wisdom, flashes of wit and joy, and compassion. And once again, as we listen, we feel better. A masterful display of songwriting by one of today's best young practitioners of the art form, LP5's experimentations with instrumentation and sounds capture an artist whose confidence has grown, all without abandoning the hardy roots rock bed and the lyrics - first approach Moreland's work demands. There is no grand or alarming stylistic departure here - just different textures and background layers that add muscly new dimensions to Moreland's heretofore instrumentally sparse recordings. [Limited indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing.]
Aubrie Sellers - Far From Home CD (Aurbrie Sellers Music)
For anybody who's ever felt as if they didn't quite fit in, Aubrie Sellers' masterful second album, Far From Home, the follow-up to her sensational debut, New City Blues, is essential listening. Sonically, it's a sweeping, epic vision made manifest in crushing, amp-busting guitar rock - Sellers once dubbed this sound "garage country" - and delicate yet shattering widescreen ballads that form compelling frameworks for her angelic voice to take flight. [Vinyl edition due February 21.]
The SteelDrivers - Bad For You CD/LP (Big Machine)
The fifth album from Nashville's hard-edged bluegrass band The Steeldrivers arrives after a period of triumph and adaptation. The band's 2015 release, The Muscle Shoals Recordings, won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.
The Cadillac Three - Country Fuzz CD/2xLP (Big Machine)
Powerhouse Nashville country-rock trio The Cadillac Three kick off 2020 with their fourth full-length studio album. Country Fuzz adds to the catalogue of hard-rocking releases by the Cadillac Three which began with their self-titled debut of 2012.
Nada Surf - Never Not Together CD/LP+MP3 (Barsuk)
Never Not Together sees Nada Surf continuing to pursue their humanistic vision of the world through hooky, catchy rock songs with sharply drawn, yet tenderly felt, lyrics. Recorded earlier this year at the legendary Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales, the wide-ranging collection revels in the group's ability to evoke and reflect grand and intricately wrought emotions, whether through sweeping guitar solos or hushed-whisper vocals. Songs like the spectacular "Looking For You" and the shimmering mid-tempo "Just Wait" are empathetic, warm, and powerfully urgent, marked by songwriter Matthew Caws' ongoing lyrical quest for 21st century love and connection. "We're all together, and that's just the way it is, and the way it always will be," says Caws. "That's the sacred truth of it."
Green Day - Father Of All... CD/LP (Reprise)
Five-time Grammy Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Green Day unleash their soul-inflected new single "Father Of All...", - complete with a falsetto turn from frontman Billie Joe Armstrong - which is the lead track of their new thirteenth studio album of the same name. It's the band's first album of new music since 2016's Revolution Radio. Citing Kendrick Lamar and old-school Motown as influences, Armstrong revealed to Billboard that, "It's very high energy - 10 songs in 26 minutes. I like to feel some sense of joy, living through the chaos of [this] era." [Limited indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing.]
Stone Temple Pilots - Perdida CD/LP (Rhino)
Stone Temple Pilots embark upon a new sonic adventure with Perdida, the band's first-ever acoustic album. It features 10 deeply personal songs that weave introspective lyrics together with unexpected instruments to take listeners on an emotional and musical journey through letting go and starting over. The album features guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo, drummer Eric Kretz and vocalist Jeff Gutt, who joined STP in 2017. Dean says the album's title (Spanish for "loss") foreshadows its somber mood. Perdida is as much a musical journey as it is an emotional one thanks the touches of flute, alto saxophone, vintage keyboards, guitarrón and Marxophone featured throughout. "I've always loved how different instruments can accentuate a song in unexpected ways," Robert adds. "Working with other musicians on this album was such a joy because it gave us a rare opportunity to hear our songs through someone else's ears."
Antibalas - Fu Chronicles CD/LP+MP3 (Daptone)
Over the years, different members of Antibalas have traded production and composition duties from album to album. On the new record - Fu Chronicles - Amayo leads us through a thrilling sonic journey of kung fu meets Afrobeat, weaving together the strands of Edo and Yoruba cultural memory from Nigeria with his training and study in Chinese martial arts. Recorded in the summer of 2018, over seventeen musicians and singers crammed into the storied Daptone House of Soul in Bushwick, Brooklyn to record the massive body of work.
La Roux - Supervision CD/LP (Supercolour)
Grammy-winning and Brit and Mercury-Prize-nominated artist La Roux returns with her first new material in five years. From the cover to the contents, this is unequivocally the album Elly always wanted to make - a claim that with some artists might ring alarm bells, but in this instance simply means that Supervision sounds precisely, unmistakably, gloriously like La Roux.
Isobel Campbell - There Is No Other CD/LP (Cooking Vinyl)
"After many twists and turns, trials and tribulations, I am back on boogie street," says onetime Belle & Sebastian member Isobel Campbell regarding her first solo album in over 13 years.
Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White - 2 CD (Caldo Verde)
2 is, of course, a sequel to 2017's Mark Kozelek With Ben Boye And Jim White, which saw him teaming up with Chicago multi-instrumentalist Boye and Dirty Three drummer White. Recorded and mixed in San Francisco, Buffalo, New Orleans, February through August 2019.
Innocence Mission - See You Tomorrow CD/LP (Therese)
Beloved Pennsylvania band The Innocence Mission, led by Karen and Don Peris, return with an exquisite and touching new album.
The Homesick - The Big Exercise CD/LP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
The Big Exercise, the second album by Dutch band The Homesick, finds the group keenly second-guessing their core chemistry as a live unit, imbuing their angular post-punk workouts with baroque elements such as piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, and even clarinet. "It's the opposite of trying to translate recorded music to the stage," guitarist Elias Elgersma comments. "We were already playing these songs live for quite some time, so for this album, we wanted to unlock the potential of these songs further in the studio." Opening track "What's In Store" was in part inspired by bassist Jaap Van der Velde's unprompted deep dive into the world of national anthems, making his own attempt to conjure a similarly timeless melody. The song seamlessly bleeds into the chivalrous prance of "Children's Day" and the fragmented "Pawing", righteously encouraging Erik Woudwijk's nimble, cerebral drumming to become the band's driving force. The headstrong wanderlust of The Big Exercise is fitting, given The Homesick's exodus as a small-town Dutch band ready to trot the world.
Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone CD/LP (Pure Noise)
Steeped in the same detail-rich storytelling of Bruce Springsteen, The Menzingers and Manchester Orchestra and filtered through the band's sweat-soaked punk fervor, the songs on Spanish Love Songs' third album, 'represent the situations Dylan Slocum and his bandmates - guitarist Kyle McAulay, bassist Trevor Dietrich, drummer Ruben Duarte and keyboardist Meredith Van Woert - experienced during 30-some weeks of rigorous touring during the Schmaltz album cycle. These are character stories set in small-town America and anxious urban jungles alike, unfurling heartbreaking tales of addiction, depression, debt and death juxtaposed alongside looming societal bogeys like mass shootings, the opioid epidemic and climate change. They're all at once personal vignettes and universal truths of life in the 2010s, the lines blurred between Slocum's own experiences and those of his friends and acquaintances. [Limited indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing.]
Christopher Paul Stelling - Best Of Luck CD/LP (ANTI-)
Impassioned singer and virtuosic guitar player Christopher Paul Stelling returns with his fifth album, Best Of Luck, produced by Ben Harper. Harper says he instantly recognized a kindred spirit in Stelling's virtuosic finger picking and soulful delivery. "It was like finding a John Fahey or Leo Kottke that was a really great singer," he explains. Throughout Best Of Luck, discontent and self-doubt are transformed into messages of resilience and hope. It is a supremely accessible and finely crafted record that deftly merges genres. Harper, who has previously produced records by Mavis Staples, Rickie Lee Jones, The Blind Boys Of Alabama and others, recruited an all-star rhythm section with Jimmy Paxson (Stevie Nicks, Dixie Chicks) on drums and upright bass player Mike Valerio (Randy Newman, L.A. Philharmonic) to lend a versatility and finesse. "I really believe Best Of Luck is the intersection where folk and soul meet," Harper said. [Limited indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing also available for special order.]
Oh Wonder - No One Else Can Wear Your Crown CD (Republic)
Oh Wonder is one of the UK's best-kept secrets. Written and self-produced in the group's own home studio before being co-mixed with Cenzo Townshend (Bat For Lashes, Christine & The Queens, Jungle), No One Else Can Wear Your Crown explores a host of different emotions and experiences - some forged on the road on their last world tour, others from taking a break and reflecting on all that they've accomplished as a band so far. [Deluxe CD edition includes five bonus acoustic tracks. Vinyl edition due February 21.]
Darling West - We'll Never Know Unless We Try CD/LP (Jansen Plateproduksjon)
Darling are at the forefront of "Nordicana", Norwegian folk/Americana group Darling West release their fourth album.
Christian McBride - The Movement Revisited: A Music Portrait Of Four Icons CD (Mack Avenue)
Marshaling his ever-sharpening skills as a composer, arranger, conductor, musician and lyricist, McBride has created a historically and culturally illuminating five-part suite for an 18-piece big band, chorus and narrators that places the motivating forces as well as the goals of the Civil Rights Movement within a powerfully relevant artistic context; a culminating documentation of a richly inspired piece - lauding four key figures of the Civil Rights Movement: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali.
Ben Williams - I Am A Man CD/2xLP (Rainbow Blonde)
When it comes to black music, Washington, D.C. produces its share of game-changers. That long list includes Duke Ellington, Chuck Brown, Marvin Gaye, Shirley Horn, Roberta Flack, Bad Brains, Meshell Ndegeocello, Wale, and Oddisee. You can add Ben Williams to that venerated roster. For more than a decade, Williams has steadily become one of the most acclaimed and versatile bassists in modern jazz.
Grey Daze - What's in the Eye CD-single (Loma Vista)
Grey Daze is Chester Bennington's pre-Linkin Park band. The CD single comes with a $3 coupon redeemable for the full length album "Amends" due out on April 10th on CD, LP & Deluxe LP box set.
New on Vinyl
Shopping - All Or Nothing LP (Fat Cat)
With their new album All or Nothing Shopping take a big leap into a vibrant and punchy production style that is closer to pop than anything they've ever done. [CD edition due February 14.]
Hamerkop - Remote LP (Drag City)
Hamerkop is a pair of Baltimore-based sound nerds: Annabel Alpers, the composer, singer and instrumentalist formerly of New Zealand's Bachelorette, and Adam Cooke, a Baltimorean drummer/audio engineer with credits that include Beach House, Wye Oak and Future Islands. Together, they have created a song-cycle that contrasts the often-mundane (yet often satisfying) everyday world with that of the idealized, longed-for fantasy, to find the spaces in between these things, the place where we all feel good about our existence.
Syko Friend - Fontanelle LP (Post Present Medium)
Syko Friend is the ongoing solo work of Los Angeles based musician and writer, Sophie Weil. Clear and direct vocals continue to be gentle among the expansive dirge of the guitar, reminiscent at times of the noise laden Body/Head or avant garde approach of Les Rallizes, with equal parts lost folk secret Sibylle Baier.
Aoife Nessa Frances - Land Of No Junction LP (Ba Da Bing!)
"A liminal space-a dark vast landscape to visit in dreams... A place of waiting where I could sit with uncertainty and accept it. Rejecting the distinct and welcoming the uncertain and the unknown." Land Of No Junction is shot through with this sense of mystery-an ambiguity and disorientation that illuminates songs with smokey luminescence. Yet, through the haze, everything comes down to what, where and who one is. With Land Of No Junction, she has built a universe full of intimacy and depth, with lyrics written through a process of free thought writing. It lends the record fluidity, each song in dialogue with the next not only through language, but the way each musical choice complements or threads into another.
Elkhorn - The Storm Sessions LP (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
The Storm Sessions is the latest glowing proof that Elkhorn are one of the most durable and adventurous platforms of the new guitar age. Snowed in with their friend Turner Williams (Ramble Tamble, Guardian Alien) on the night of an emotionally important gig, the duo-plus-one turned it into a cathartic blizzard-bound collaboration and rumination -- and a new step for Elkhorn. A powerful turn outside the duo's comfort zone, The Storm Sessions consists of two side-long improvisations by guitarists Jesse Sheppard (12-string acoustic) and Drew Gardner (6-string electric) along with Turner's rare and lovely vibrations (electric bouzouki on one side, shahi baaja on the flip). No strangers to improvisation or collaboration, The Storm Sessions is their most spontaneous studio work yet, and perhaps their most beautifully flowing.
Joe Russo - phér*bŏney LP (The Royal Potato Family)
Drummer Joe Russo delivers a new album of solo material. The sonically avant-garde jazz fusion record plays with a litany of ethereal, ambient tones and genre-bending sensibilities - a welcome change of pace for the revered musician most frequently heard these days playing music from the Grateful Dead's rock and roll repertoire with Joe Russo's Almost Dead.
Sinkane - Getting' Weird: Alive At Spacebomb Studios LP (Spacebomb)
Stepping into Spacebomb's Richmond studio and working with their team of instrumentalists and producers is a license to get a little weird. Sinkane's Ahmed Gallab takes full advantage of the opportunity on the latest in the Alive At Spacebomb Studios series - the fourth in the series, following albums by Natalie Prass, Sleepwalkers, and the duo of Fruit Bats & Vetiver.
The Walker Roaders - The Walker Roaders 12" (Beverly Martel)
Pogues accordionist James Fearnley teams up with members of Celtic-punk brethren Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys to form The Walker Roaders.
Envy - The Fallen Crimson 2xLP (Temporary Residence)
The first new studio album in five years from the iconic and influential Japanese post-hardcore band.
Monophonics - Chances 7" (Colemine)
First single from Monophonics new album, It's Only Us, due March 13.
Bobby Patterson - It's Just A Matter Of Time [Reissue/1972] LP (Real Gone Music)
If this 1972 record for the Paula label was the sum total of Dallas, Texas soul man Bobby Patterson's career output, then he'd still be reckoned a cult figure among R&B fans. his is a stone soul masterpiece, full of grit and groove, with a breathtaking stylistic breadth stretching from funky soul to romantic soul balladry to James Brown-style workouts to socially conscious, wah wah-drenched commentary and all points in between. Limited purple colored vinyl pressing.
Crayon Fields - All The Pleasures Of The World [Reissue/2009] LP (Chapter Music) Melbourne, Australia minor key pop magicians Crayon Fields released their second album, All The Pleasures Of The World, in 2009. Just over a decade later they revisit this era-defining album with a deluxe vinyl reissue, including new liner notes and a raft of bonus tracks. [Blue & green galaxy swirl color vinyl]
Various Artists [Rainer Trueby] - Rainer Trueby Presents Soulgliding 2xLP (BBE)
Former member of A Forest Mighty Black and founder of Trüby Trio, Rainer Trueby presents his new compilation, Soulgliding. tarting life as a group on Facebook, Soulgliding is a phrase coined by Trueby to describe the more languid, smoother side of 2-step, boogie, modern soul and even jazz. This silky collection spans several decades and sums up what Soulgliding is all about: evocative airy music that feels like a dream-flight across a friendly sky.
Rod Stewart - You're In My Heart: Rod Stewart With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 2xLP (Rhino)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. You're In My Heart: Rod Stewart With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra pairs classic vocal tracks from his most popular songs with new arrangements performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. [Limited pink colored vinyl pressing.]
The Doobie Brothers - Southbound [Reissue/2014] LP (Friday Music)
Some of country music's biggest stars joined The Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald for all-new recordings of the band's classic hits on 2014's Southbound. Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley, Casey James, Charlie Worsham, Chris Young, Jerrod Niemann, Johnnyswim's Amanda Sudano Ramirez, Love and Theft, Sara Evans, Toby Keith, Tyler Farr, and the Zac Brown Band make up the roster of artists choosing their favorite Doobie songs to record with the band.
Alice Cooper - The Last Temptation [Reissue/1994] LP (Friday Music)
Limited 180gm blue vinyl pressing of the thirteenth solo studio album by Alice Couper, who by now could not takedown the legacy of godfather; Screamin' Jay Hawkins. No worries, all we win.
Various Artists - The Irishman [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] 2xLP (Masterworks) Original soundtrack to the Netflix motion picture.
Nils Frahm & Anne Muller - 7fingers LP (Erased Tapes)
Fans of the Berlin based Nils Frahm are by now familiar with his beguiling live shows where more often than not fellow touring artists are encouraged to join Frahm on stage ' the likes of Rachel Grimes, Rob Lowe of Balmorhea as well as label colleagues Peter Broderick and Ólafur Arnalds have all obliged with fascinating results. It will come as no surprise then that Nils Frahm, an accomplished composer and producer who signed to Erased Tapes in 2009, has extended his collaborative live musings to encompass the recording studio, working for the first time with noted cellist and fellow Berliner Anne Müller to produce 7fingers. With their first collective release Frahm and Müller have built a world where modern classical and electronica collide creating an 'intoxicating and delicious' collection of songs.
Moebius Plank Neumeier - Zero Set LP (Bureau B)
Originally released in 1983. For this third collaboration between Dieter Moebius of Cluster and legendary producer Conny Plank, they were backed up by one of the best drummers on the German rock scene: Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru. Here, Plank explores the full range of audio editing, pushing recording techniques to the limit to achieve maximum brilliance and plasticity, and Moebius generates bizarre sound happenings that never sound forced or arbitrary. The music on Zero Set flows both smoothly and energetically. An important and mystifying chapter in the legacy of Krautrock/Kosmische Musik and a historic moment in German electronic music.
Steve Roach - Quiet Music 1; Quiet Music 2; Quiet Music 3 LP (Telephone Explosion)
Originally released as a three tape cassette series in 1986 on Fortuna Records, now pressed on vinyl for the first time. Quiet Music is a collection of pieces created by Steve Roach between 1983 and 1986 in respect for silence. The gentle electronics of Roach's synthesizers mix with flute, electric piano and nature sounds flow like breath, enveloping the listener in a sustained, delicate and translucent atmosphere. Quiet Music 1 was originally commissioned for a meditation video, which featured a collection of video images of lush forested areas, wild flowers and natural serenity. Quiet Music 2 was inspired by Steve spending a lot of time in deserts and was created as a natural progression from Structures From Silence, and the more nocturnal feeling of Quiet Music 3 were pieces designed for Steve's personal healing practices.
Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis - Invisible Cities II (Karlrecords)
Aidan Baker (Nadja, B/B/S) and bass clarinetist Gareth Davis continue their fruitful collaboration with Invisible Cities II, five new tracks of finest ambient/chamber jazz/subtle drones of a highly meditative quality. Subtle guitar drones, sonore clarinet sounds, a sonic scenery of peacefulness, and meditative introspection characterize this accomplished continuation and refinement of the duo's first collaborative effort from 2018.
Deux Baleines Blanches - Singende Drahte LP (Bureau B)
A remarkable example of the Dusseldorf underground tape output. Deux Baleines Blanches was the name of Stefan Schneider's avant-pop-project, prior to his co-founding the groups Kreidler (1994) and To Rococo Rot (1995). Inspired by the peculiar electric hum emanating from an overhead power line, Schneider combined drone-like synthscapes with watery guitar tones for a meditative but melodically engaging sound. The somewhat sketchy and abstract character of this 1986 release is reminiscent of the aesthetics of contemporary labels like Les Disques du Crépuscule or early 4AD, yet they sound surprisingly modern even 30 years after they were first released.
Aril Brikha - Dance of a Trillion Stars LP (Mule Musiq)
Since the late '90s, Berlin via Tehran DJ and producer Aril Brikha's genre meltdown between techno and house has seducedclub music enthusiasts around the world, drawing from influences such as Depeche Mode, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Robert Hood. His latest release shows his love for slow, trance-influenced compositions that are perfect for meditative moments and thoughtful party situations; discreet rolling bass-lines physical movement while spherical synth lines drift across deep floating trance territory, exploring an infinite space of sound with a heartfelt human touch.
Kazuya Nagaya - Dream Interpretation LP (Sci + Tec Digital Audio)
Singing bowls, bronze bells, and gongs resonate through the mindful layers of Japanese percussionist and ambient producer Kazuya Nagaya's music, which is rooted in Buddhist (Zenzhu) philosophy and sensibilities unique to Japan. Nagaya started out to pursue his talents in literature and is also an award-winning writer and a connoisseur on Japanese Literature, Buddhist Folktales, and Zen Philosophical Works. These interests breathed life into his music, and the sensibilities and philosophical views which he developed during his literary years are now reflected in most of his music today.
Samuel Rohrer - Continual Decentering LP (Arjunamusic)
Rohrer is one of those rare alchemical explorers to have truly created a hybrid which is all his own, a natural result of years of experimentation with both the determination of electronic music and the ludic spirit of "free improvisation". On his last record, the productions are brimming with dub pulses, noir shivers, and blooming timbral variations. In terms of the emotional atmosphere, the pensive and questioning tone hearkens back to the "wide open" state of electronic music in the mid-to-late 1990s, with a greater clarity and maturity of vision. It helps that Rohrer has, in fact, developed a unique and complex hybrid system in which drum hits trigger modular synthesizer processes, the use of which makes for an incredibly fluid response time between distinct sonic events.
Reissues, Sundry Collections & Vault Excavations...
Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here (10th Anniversary Expanded Edition) CD/2xLP (XL)
Gil Scott-Heron - We're New Again - A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven CD/LP (XL)
In February 2010, the late, legendary musician, poet and author Gil Scott-Heron released his thirteenth, and last, studio album. First conceptualized in 2005, and ultimately produced by XL Recordings head Richard Russell during New York recording sessions that commenced in January 2008, I'm New Here was Scott-Heron's first album in thirteen years and found him sounding as vital, boundary-pushing and insightful as ever before. This expanded edition features two unreleased tracks - a cover of Richie Havens' "Handsome Johnny" and a previously unheard Scott-Heron song "King Henry IV" - as well as a selection of other recordings from the original album sessions. We're New Again is a unique reinterpretation of the album by acclaimed jazz musician Makaya McCraven.
Chris & Rich Robinson - Brothers Of A Feather: Live At The Roxy CD/2xLP (Silver Arrow)
In April 2006 during a break in The Black Crowes' touring schedule, Chris and Rich Robinson performed a string of their first-ever full-length acoustic duo dates - in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin. Billed as Brothers Of A Feather: An Acoustic Evening with Chris & Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes, the 12 concerts - all of which sold out in minutes - earned critical acclaim and were highlighted by three shows at The Roxy in Los Angeles, CA. At these acoustic shows, Chris and Rich reached deep into their repertoire of Black Crowes favorites and also performed new songs (the previously unreleased "Magic Rooster Blues", "Cold Boy Smile") plus material from their respective solo catalogs (Chris' "Someday Past The Sunset"; Rich's "Forgiven Song" and "Leave It Alone") and various covers. These full-length acoustic shows gave Chris and Rich the opportunity, as singers and songwriters, to lend a new intimacy to their body of material as well as the cover songs that are an integral part of Black Crowes live performances.
Bryan Ferry - Live At The Royal Albert Hall 1974 CD/LP (BMG)
Live archive release from the former Roxy Music frontman. This 1974 concert at London's Royal Albert Hall saw the setlist built from Ferry's first two solo albums, 1973's These Foolish Things and Another Time.
Jon Hassell/Farafina - Flash Of The Spirit [Reissue/1988] CD/2xLP+CD (Glitterbeat)
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. LP version due 2/14.