New Releases - 5/10/19

Hitting The Racks

Here's your weekly rundown of what's hitting the new release racks at Grimey's

Jump to… New Releases New on Vinyl Books

New Releases

Mac DeMarco - Here Comes The Cowboy CD/LP (Mac's Records Label) 

Here Comes The Cowboy is Mac DeMarco's fourth full-length and debut release on his own record label, introduced by the waltzing lead single, "Nobody". As described by DeMarco, "This one is my cowboy record. Cowboy is a term of endearment to me; I use it often when referring to people in my life. Where I grew up there are many people that sincerely wear cowboy hats and do cowboy activities. These aren't the people I'm referring to." Nearly every instrument on the album was played by DeMarco, aside from keyboards on select tracks by touring member and close friend Alec Meen. Traveling sound engineer, Joe Santarpia, helped shape the record, sharing engineering and mixing duties with DeMarco. The rusty old grinning pin on the front and back covers was purchased from a man in the mountains somewhere in the Nantahala National Forest between Chattanooga, TN and Asheville, NC. [Indie exclusive color vinyl]

Charly Bliss - Young Enough CD/LP (Barsuk) 

Charly Bliss has evolved from the bunch of scrappy upstarts behind their brash punk debut Guppy, to the confident, assured artists who have produced the comparatively dynamic and unapologetically pop Young Enough. But, for lead singer Eva Hendricks, the path of this evolution was fraught, as her lyrics inspired by a past abusive relationship show. Songwriting became a source of respite, and, eventually, redemption. "You go through experiences of loss or extreme pain and you just keep moving," Eva says. "You look around and go, how has the world not stopped? But it is also powerful. It's like, I'm still here, I'm not a person who is ruled by pain, I still like who I am." Album tracks "Chat Room" and "Young Enough" are new sonic lynchpins, as is the soaring, mini epic, "Fighting In The Dark". The delicate synth confessional "Hurt Me" also felt, as Eva puts it, "like something we hadn't explored yet." The entire record sounds like a new realm, from the deceptively easeful confessional "Capacity" to the propulsive, more classic pop of Hard To Believe". In the end, Young Enough feels joyful and celebratory, but also infused with a new sense of depth and maturity. [Limited edition blue colored vinyl pressing.]

Clinic - Wheeltappers And Shunters CD/LP (Domino) 

After an unprecedented seven-year break, Clinic - Liverpool's cherished post-punk pop experimentalists - return with their eighth album, Wheeltappers And Shunters. The unusual name is taken from the long-forgotten 1970s ITV variety show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club, compered by Bernard Manning, which recreated the smoky, boozy atmosphere of Northern working men's clubs for a sofa-bound audience. This album is neither a celebration nor a denigration of the culture of the era in which Adrian Blackburn and his collaborator-in-chief, Jonathan Hartley, grew up.

A.A. Bondy - Enderness CD/LP (Fat Possum) 

A.A. Bondy's first album in eight years was finished the day before the California wildfires burned his house down. He recorded and played everything on the ten track collection himself.

Jo Schornikow - Secret Weapon CD/LP (Keeled Scales) 

Secret Weapon is Australian songwriter Jo Schornikow (and keyboardist in Phosphorescent)'s stunning label debut. It's a devastatingly beautiful indie-pop album that eddies into dreamy nooks, while staying firmly rooted in strong melodies. It's a quiet record, adorned with subtle swells of synths and shimmering washes of guitars.

Esperanza Spalding - 12 Little Spells CD/2xLP (Concord) 

Since October 7th, 2018, 4x Grammy Award-winner Esperanza Spalding has been unveiling her innovative new project 12 Little Spells by releasing a new spell - in the form of a new song with video - every day on her Facebook, Instagram, and website. The concept came to Esperanza while exploring different ways to create, experience, and process music; particularly the healing powers of art and how music and the body interact. Each song is inspired by a different body part. Composed by Spalding, 12 Little Spells find the trailblazing artist on vocals flanked by Matthew Stevens (guitar), Justin Tyson (drums), Aaron Burnett (saxophone), Burniss Travis (bass), Corey King (background vocals), and Rob Schwimmer (continuum). Spalding also worked with visual artist Carmen Daneshmandi, opera/theater director Elkhanah Pulitzer, wardrobe specialist Diego Montoya, choreographer Chanel DaSilva and video artist Ethan Samuel Young to create elements of the album and live show. 

Tanika Charles - The Gumption CD/LP (Record Kicks) 

The Gumption picks up where Charles' Polaris Music Prize-nominated debut Soul Run left off, continuing her tradition of marrying classic soul with modern production styles. Predominantly guitar-driven mid-tempo soul, with a handful of dance floor friendly tunes and some psychedelic leanings, The Gumption was indirectly influenced by the likes of Alabama Shakes, The Supremes, Khruangbin, D'Angelo, and Moses Sumney. It is sonically moody at times, but with consistent silver-lining arcs. In Charles' words: "It's a little more mature. It's not feeling guilty about being up front, not being afraid to address situations that aren't comfortable for me. I'm comfortable in my skin now in a way I never was before. The overall theme is growth."

Carlton Jumel Smith - 1634 Lexington Avenue CD/LP (Timmion) 

Contemporary soul gold mined from the vintage groove troves of classic '70s R&B.

She Keeps Bees - Kinship CD/LP (Ba Da Bing!) 

A meditative and endlessly turning clutch of songs, She Keeps Bees' Kinship reasserts the band's elegant power in a stream of loss and regeneration. Death, birth, both personal and in reflection of Earth itself emerge through Jessica Larrabee's focused, empowered voice. With Larrabee and Andy LaPlant's first album in four years, She Keeps Bees peels away their distorted guitars and fills the void with hypnotic organ, keyboards, strings, a tight bed of drum grooves, and a direct lyricism full of with wisdom and intention. This is an album that radiates its messages with deft knowledge and immeasurable strength.

Bear Hands - Fake Tunes CD/LP (Spensive Sounds) 

Bear Hands' auspicious fourth studio album Fake Tunes offers a deep dive into a twisted modern era, paranoid yet hopeful, celebrity obsessed and introspective, an unmistakable sign of troubled times. From the metronomic electro-pop (New York Times) of album opener "Blue Lips", a song about listening to someone's problems over and over until it drains you completely, to the dreamy lilt of "Clean Up California", a song about finding salvation (or not) across state lines, Fake Tunes traces the anxiety of life and love in America today.

Tōth - Practice Magic And Seek Professional Help When Necessary CD/LP (Figureight/Northern Spy) 

In July 2016, Alex Toth was recovering from a broken foot and a broken heart, stuck in his fourth-floor apartment in Brooklyn with cast and crutches. This is where Toth's debut album, Practice Magic And Seek Professional Help When Necessary, was born. A fiercely dedicated jazz trumpeter by training, Alex is always playing. More importantly, he is always, always writing. And that spring, in the midst of dance parties and silent meditations, rooftop smokes and intense crying jags, a new kind of music started to come. Raw, stripped-down songs unfurling in the middle of the night without agenda, bent over an acoustic guitar. It never occurred to Alex that he was making an album. The idea sprouted later that spring when he was co-directing a David Bowie tribute with his friend Kimbra-after hearing some of his new songs, she strongly encouraged Alex to turn them into a record, an idea he brushed off at first (they went on to co-write Down for the Count on the album). But it solidified in June 2016, when Alex was onstage with his punk project, Alexander F and broke his foot. Stuck there in his apartment all summer, through practice, solitude, and a lot of silence, Toth came to life.

Get Up Kids - Problems CD/LP+MP3 (Polyvinyl) 

On their new album Problems - their first full-length in eight years - The Get Up Kids examine everything from life-changing loss to loneliness to the inevitable anxiety of existing in 2019. But by sustaining the essence of their sound - anthemic choruses with sing-along-ready melodies - the band highlights those troubles as a shared experience, giving way to an unbreakable solidarity. And at the heart of Problems is an invaluable element the band's embodied since their 1997 debut Four Minute Mile: a penetrating lyricism that's both acutely introspective and indelibly resonant. [Limited 180gm colored vinyl pressing.]

The Mystery Lights - Too Much Tension! CD/LP+MP3 (Wick) 

The Mystery Lights' sophomore album on Daptone's rock subsidiary, Wick Records, finds the group digging deeper into their well of eclectic influences, enriching their sound without echoing the past. It mixes the eerie, insistent synth sounds of groups like The Normal and Suicide, the energy and swagger of punks golden age, the pop sensibility of The Kinks, and the stark, deliberate execution of Television. The Mystery Lights are taking their idiosyncratic brand of rock and roll to dizzying new heights. "Mystery Lights maintaining their raw and brilliantly unrefined sound. 'I'm So Tired (Of Living In The City)' has almost punk-like attributes with a rhythm driving and an urgency that's simmering superficially beneath vintage rock chords and its swirling progressions. Produced by Wayne Gordon at Daptone's House Of Soul, Too Much Tension! is a modern classic born from vintage technique and soulful execution." -- Statiknoize

Daddy Long Legs - Lowdown Ways CD/LP (Yep Roc) 

Lowdown Ways marks a quantum creative leap for Daddy Long Legs, the scrappy New York trio known for their stripped-down roots sound and in-your-face intensity that's garnered them fans in their hometown and overseas, where they've toured with such kindred spirits as The Damned, Blackfoot Gypsies, Hurray For The Riff Raff and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. They've been recognized by Rolling Stone, who aptly compared them to "Chicago blues fired at the moon, played by the demented children of the Pretty Things." [Limited white colored vinyl pressing.] 

ONA - Full Moon, Heavy Light CD/LP (Hickman Holler) 

With a true brotherhood that comes from growing up together, West Virginia-based indie rock band Ona merge all their musical history for their second album, Full Moon, Heavy Light. Produced by Drew Vandenburg (of Montreal), the new nine-track effort showcases a band that could easily deliver an arena show while still retaining the sincerity of the '70s songwriters in their parents' record collections. It captures the late-night ambience of a rock venue with the warmth of a listening room. Wistful songs like "Summer Candy" and "Young Forever" are at once timeless and contemporary, and the optimistic streak that runs throughout the project is both genuine and disarming. As vocalist/guitarist Bradley Jenkins explains, "A full moon is associated with all these dark, ominous things, but it's also the brightest thing in the sky at night - and it can lead you in a good direction, too."

Parachute - Parachute CD/LP (Parachute Music) 

Parachute's eponymous fifth album was produced by Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Dawes, Tom Waits, Modest Mouth, Norah Jones, Josh Ritter, Punch Brothers). Parachute is Will Anderson (vocals, guitar), Johnny Stubblefield (drums), and Christopher Kit French (saxophone, keyboards). Fans and critics alike are no stranger to Anderson's impeccable ability to connect as a songwriter, with Billboard hailing that "he has a knack for writing emotionally connecting, hook-laden songs that linger in the brain for days" as well as Idolator calling the band's past songs, "well-crafted and infectious."

Greys - Age Hasn't Spoiled You CD/LP+MP3 (Carpark) 

On their third album Age Hasn't Spoiled You, Toronto post-punks The Greys eschew their trademark frenzy for a more cerebral and cinematic affair. This widescreen approach loses none of the impact of their early material, instead employing space and dynamics to propel the listener toward even greater payoffs when they decide to switch back into high gear. Age Hasn't Spoiled You is a richly textured experience that draws influence from krautrock, industrial, hip-hop, dub, jazz, ambient, drone and more, sometimes within the same song. That their blend of disparate sounds never obscures the album's sharp focus is a testament to the group's mastery of both songwriting and production. This is evident on lead single "These Things Happen", which jumps from big beat psychedelia to CSNY harmonies and back again while frontman Shehzaad Jiwani considers privilege, apathy, drug use, and content fatigue in one verse. Elsewhere, on "Kill Appeal", electronic drums pound and pummel before caving into a free jazz freakout, only to return for the song's climax with a lyrical allusion to the writings of James Baldwin.

Patience - Dizzy Spells CD (Winona) 

Patience began as bedroom synth project for songwriter Roxanne Clifford after the break-up of her acclaimed indie pop band Veronica Falls. Born out of a desire to experiment with a new sound and analogue synthesizers, the project has since grown to become an all-encompassing persona and serves as the main vehicle for the full emotional spectrum always latent in Clifford's songwriting. [Vinyl edition due May 24.]

Chely Wright - Revival CDEP/12" (MRI Associated) 

Acclaimed singer-songwriter and activist Chely Wright followed up her Joe Henry-produced comeback album I Am The Rain (2016) with the 2018 holiday EP Santa Will Find You which No Depression called "the warmest, most-family oriented of recent holiday records." While recording the latter she also recorded five new songs which comprise the new EP Revival.

Lydia Ainsworth - Phantom Forest CD/LP (Zombie Cat) 

On Phantom Forest, Lydia Ainsworth introduces a lush, complex dream world that she created and inhabits largely on her own. It's a beautiful, vast collection of art pop with hooks about the search for personal connections in the midst of apocalypse and technology. It's a journey that holds up to close listening (and lyric reading) and to dance floors, but can also exist on a purely emotional plane. Lydia notes that although the self-produced album is considered pop, she approached it as an orchestrator. "Even if I'm dealing purely with synths," she says, "the songs are like a score, each one an evolving journey. I love to use strings so I've included my own arrangements on 'Tell Me I Exist' and 'Can You Find Her Place'. I recorded live musicians on drums, bass, and guitar on 'Edge Of The Throne', 'The Time', and 'Floating Dream', and wove those live elements into my programmed elements." She wrote and performed everything aside from a re-imagined cover of Pink Floyd's "Green Is The Color"; two other tracks are co-written with Survive's Kyle Dixon (Stranger Things), to which Ainsworth wrote melodies and added lyrics to his instrumentals.

Jamila Woods - Legacy! Legacy! CD/LP (Jagjaguwar) 

Jamila Woods has a voice and lyrical sensibility that transcends generations, and so it makes sense to have this lush and layered album that bounces seamlessly from one sonic aesthetic to another. From the airy boom-bap of "Giovanni" to the psychedelic flourishes of "Sonia", the instrument which ties the musical threads together is the ability of Woods to find her pockets in the waves of instrumentation, stretching syllables and vowels over the harmony of noise until each puzzle piece has a home. [Limited pink colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Dreamers - Launch Fly Land CD (Fairfax/Hollywood) 

Founded in Brooklyn, Dreamers deliver infectious indie rock in the vein of Surfer Blood and the Vaccines, the latter of whom they joined on tour soon after their inception. The trio of Nick Wold (lead vocals, guitar), Nelson (bass, backing vocals), and Chris Bagamery (drums, backing vocals) self-released the rousing, synth-kissed single "Wolves (You Got Me)" and an eponymous EP in 2014. It garnered attention from the mainstream and indie music press, and led to support spots on the road for Walk The Moon, Stone Temple Pilots, and Bear Hands. Jackob Wick later joined the band as drummer in place of Bagamery. February 2016 brought their second EP, You Are Here, which featured "Wolves (You Got Me)" as well as four new tunes. Their debut LP This Album Does Not Exist arrived that summer. 2017 saw the band share bills with Weezer, Catfish and The Bottlemen, and the Maine. Following last year's EP The Launch, Dreamers release their sophomore album Launch Fly Land. Vinyl edition due June 28.]

Big Brave - Gaze Among Them CD/LP (Southern Lord) 

Since their inception in 2012, Big Brave has explored terrains of experimental rock with a clear focus on the key principles; space, volume, and raw emotion. The essence of the group's magic has always been the way they balance these dynamics, and particularly how much sheer power comes from the beautifully quiet moments. Their fourth album, A Gaze Among Them features guest appearances from Thierry Amar (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt Zion) on contrabass and Seth Manchester's synth overdubs. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Tim Hecker - Anoyo CD (Kranky) 

Anoyo (the world over there) draws from the same sessions which led to the 2018 work Konoyo but rendered starker, solemn, and stripped back, with more of a naturalist tint. Tim Hecker's processing here moves in veiled ways, soft refractions and whispered shrouds woven within improvisational sessions of traditional gagaku interplay, evoking a sense of vaulted space, temples at dawn, shredded silk fluttering in the rafters. This is boldly barren music, skeletal and sculptural, shaped from wood, wind, strings, and mist. Modern yet ancient, delicate and desolate, Anoyo inverts its predecessor to compellingly conjure a parallel world of illusion, solitude, and eternal return. [ Vinyl edition due May 24.]

Steve Moore - Beloved Exile CD/LP+MP3 (Temporary Residence) 

A prevalent figure of the modern synth era, Moore cofounded the influential synth-prog duo, Zombi, and has scored more than a dozen feature films and TV shows. Composed and produced by Steve Moore in his home studio in upstate New York, Beloved Exile is a collaboration with internationally-renowned Tunisian singer-songwriter Emel Mathlouthi, visionary harpist Mary Lattimore, and veteran percussionist Jeff Gretz. Drawing influences from vintage ambient synth libraries, New Age/spiritual music, and menacing horror film canon, Beloved Exile proves to be simultaneously exquisite and deceptively unsettling.

Kedr Livanskiy - Your Need CD/LP (2MR)
After her 2017 breakout album Ariadna, which put her on the forefront of Russia's burgeoning electronic scene, Kedr felt lost with her identity and was searching for her next direction. DJ'ing was the main catalyst to pull her out of this rut, shifting her inspiration from more ambient and krautrock to mainly old school styles of dance music: 90s electronica, house, dub, breakbeat, and UK garage. Your Need has a cinematic quality, telling a story that illustrates different scenarios and moods that our mythical hero experiences, living in an urban jungle. Our hero sometimes feels bold, lost or devastated, but also tender and full. Your Need reflects an array of genres and a mix of cultures -- a harmonious combination of differences.

Craig Leon - Anthology Of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon LP+MP3 (RVNG Int'l) 

Craig Leon revisits the extraterrestrial origins of civilization in Anthology Of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon. Picking up where the pioneering electronic albums Nommos and Visiting (Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1) left off, The Canon traces the imparted knowledge of alien visitors as it spread from Africa across the ancient world. Co-produced and featuring vocals by Cassell Webb, the pair engage a sonic pallet familiar from Vol. 1, updated with ecstatic contemporary sound and synthesis, creating a propulsive, exploratory album of cosmic lore and speculative anthropology.

Olivia Neutron-John - Olivia Neutron John CD/LP (Sister Polygon) 

Olivia Neutron-John draws you into its hypnotic repetition only to disorient with a catchy line gone awry and into a totally different atmosphere, like Ian Curtis playing on the moon. The punk sensibilities of ON-J's dance music ride a delicate balance between chaos and precision.

Ohbliv - Give Thanks LP/CS (Fat Beats)
Ohbliv reunites with Fat Beats, with whom he's always had a fruitful working relationship, for the first proper follow-up to his last Baker's Dozen. With a lot of familial pride and years of experience behind this moment, the new album is fittingly titled, Give Thanks. The project is a woozy pastiche of eclectic samples chopped to bits with the aid of an SP-4O4, PT01 turntable, and digi-recorder. While Ohbliv does use an MPC 2000 here and then, the 404-SX is his main weapon of choice. "Weaving together samples from soul, funk, jazz, & beyond with a hip-hop sensibility, his beats are mesmerizing." -The Fader

CJ Ramone - The Holy Spell... CD/LP (Fat Wreck Chords) 

CJ Ramone made his name as a member of (arguably) the greatest punk band of all time, and nearly 25 years after that experience, it'd be understandable if he now spent his days resting on his legacy and tsk-tsking the state of punk rock. Instead, The Holy Spell... joyfully celebrates his undiminished love of music. 

Defeater - Defeater CD/LP+MP3 (Epitaph) 

Massachusetts hardcore band Defeater's new self-titled album serves as their fifth full-length release overall and first in four years. Lead single, "Mothers' Sons" features blistering guitars that take the song into something chaotic and beautiful. Defeater was produced with Will Yip (Quicksand, La Dispute, Blacklisted, Lauryn Hill) whose enthusiasm and talent pushed the songs to their fullest potential. Defeater is as pummeling as it is atmospheric. Yet it's been a long journey to where the band is now. Years of touring took their toll on the friends that make up the current lineup of Derek Archambault (vocals), Jake Woodruff (guitar), Adam Crowe (guitar), Mike Poulin (bass) and Joe Longobardi (drums). Health, substance abuse issues, and ejecting a longtime member had made a touring hiatus necessary. After a few months at home, working and decompressing, the fire to write a new record caught everyone in a major way.

Arch/Matheos - Winter Ethereal CD/LP (Metal Blade) 

Guitarist Jim Matheos and singer John Arch (both alumni of Fates Warning) have linked back up to deliver their second collaborative album. 

Possessed - Revelations Of Oblivion CD/2xLP (Nuclear Blast) 

There was a time in which genuine power was felt erupting from the sonic landscape that is now referred to as "old school" death metal. Its genesis was filled with a fresh and vibrant energy, and it was the mighty Possessed who initially breathed life into this new and exciting genre. With writing that started in 1982, the first official death metal band created the now classic record Seven Churches and established the face of the genre permanently. Sadly, like with many artistic pioneers, it was very early on in Possessed's existence that a grand tragedy struck which would put the band on hiatus for almost two decades. After many years of healing, education, renewal, and eventually new writing, there is now a resurgence of life, and the rebuilt, and polished Possessed return with the long awaited album Revelations Of Oblivion. [A limited indie-store exclusive red colored vinyl edition is available for special order.]

Sammy Hagar & The Circle - Space Between CD/LP (BMG) 

On Space Between, Sammy Hagar & The Circle harness the depth of their artistic experiences and seminal collaborative sound with Hagar's prolific writing vein to produce an album that builds and explodes, song after song, around the concepts of money, greed, enlightenment and truth.

Whitesnake - Flesh & Blood CD/CD+DVD (Frontiers) 

New release from the hard rock band fronted by David Coverdale. [Deluxe CD + DVD edition includes two additional tracks plus bonus DVD.

New on Vinyl

Various - Stax Does The Beatles 2xLP (Craft Recordings)
Meant to be a Record Store Day release but delayed. Now finally here! The Fab Funk of Stax Records takes on the Fab Four on this soulful tribute. Songs included are previously unreleased 'Got To Get You Into My Life' by Booker T & The MGs, 'Day Tripper (alternate take) by Otis Redding, 'Yesterday' by Carla Thomas, and 'And I Love Her ' by Reggie Milner. Additional songs are 'Help' by David Porter, 'With a Little Help From My Friends' by Steve Cropper, 'Eleanor Rigby', ' Lady Madonna' and 'Michelle' by Booker T. & The MGs, 'Let It Be' by The Mar-Keys, 'Something' by Isaac Hayes, 'Yesterday','Hey Jude', 'With a Little Help From My Friends' by The Bar-Kays, 'My Sweet Lord' by John Gary Williams and more. 

Buddy & Julie Miller - I'm Gonna Make You Love Me b/w Can't Cry Hard Enough 7" (New West) 

The second single from the forthcoming Buddy & Julie Miller album, Breakdown On 20th Ave. South (due June 21).

Patrick Sweany - I Wanna Tell You [Reissue/1999] LP (Nine Mile) 

In 1999 a young kid named Patrick Sweany went into legendary Suma Studios in NE Ohio and recorded a simple 11 track record featuring only acoustic guitar and one vocal. Most of the tracks were done in two takes. That recording made its way into the hands of Jorma Kaukonen, Roy Book Binder, and Dan Auerbach (among others), landing Sweany a gig at prestigious Merlefest just a few months later. 

Gob Iron - Death Songs For The Living LP (Transmit Sound) 

Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. Gob Iron (British slang for a harmonica) is a brand-new side project for Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo founder Jay Farrar. Teaming up with his friend (and Varnaline front man) Anders Parker, Farrar has recorded an album of new takes on American folk standards. Also known as the folk process, these are old songs by the likes of Stephen Foster and The Reverend JM Gates which have been given new lyrics or new arrangements in an effort to re-interpret the songs in a fresh way.

Devin Townsend - Empath LP (Inside Out U.S.) 

Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. New release from the guitar great featuring Mike Keneally as music director, Morgan Agren [Mats And Morgan, Frank Zappa, Fredrik Thordendal], Anup Sastry [Monuments, Periphery], Samus Paulicelli [Decripit Birth, Abigail Williams], Chad Kroeger [Nickelback], Anneke van Giersbergen and many more.

Reese Wynans and Friends - Sweet Release LP (J&R Adventures) 

Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. Over the last five decades, you might have found Reese Wynans cutting his teeth with the early nucleus of the Allman Brothers Band. Taking the stage with Boz Scaggs. Saving the '80s blues scene with Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble. Bringing the blues to the people with Joe Bonamassa. Adding his thumbprint on piano and B3 to the work of Larry Carlton, Delbert McClinton, Los Lonely Boys - and hundreds more. During a celebrated career that recently saw him inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the one omission on Wynans' résumé was that this fabled keys man had never released a solo record - until now. Sweet Release is the album we always knew Wynans had up his sleeve: a glorious collision of stellar musicianship, classic material given fresh mojo and a glittering roll-call of star guests - including Keb' Mo', Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Warren Haynes and Joe Bonamassa himself on production - that confirms the deep respect Wynans commands on the scene.

Efrim Manuel Menuck & Kevin Doria - Are Sing Sinck Sing LP (Constellation) 

Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion) and Kevin Doria (Growing, Total Life) are now officially a duo and offer up this new set of whirling maximalist antifa electronics, shot through with Menuck's trademark incantatory vocals awash in plaintive distortion and hope.

UT - Conviction [Reissue/1986] LP (Out) 

Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. Originating in the downtown NYC No Wave scene and inheritors of the collision between rock, free jazz and the avant-garde, UT exploded the rigidity of conventional rock, constructing songs through collective improvisation, swapping instruments and rotating the role of singer/director.

Alice Coltrane - Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana [Reissue/1977] LP (Antarctica Starts Here) 

Alice Coltrane - Transcendence [Reissue/1977] LP (Antarctica Starts Here) 

Alice Coltrane - Transfiguration [Reissue/1978] 2xLP (Antarctica Starts Here) 

Vinyl reissues of Alice Coltrane's four albums for Warner Bros. While Eternity and Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana followed the Coltrane's muse through an exciting range of musical styles and influences, Transcendence is perhaps the most fully realized of the three LPs, synthesizing the best elements of each into a monumental whole. By the late '70s, Alice Coltrane had largely gravitated away from jazz, incorporating Hindu chants and hymns into her music to reflect a newfound sense of creative omnipotence. Transfiguration, featuring drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Reggie Workman, showcases Alice's many compositional talents and fierce improvisatory abilities. Throughout this double LP set, her playing evokes the time spent in her late husband John Coltrane's band and the avant-garde music of her earlier years. Eternity has not yet shipped.

Dehd - Water LP (Fire Talk) 

Chicago trio Dehd's sound is hazy and reverb-drenched, a scuzzy and hyped-up take on surf rock that could only come from the Third Coast. It's all animated by the red-lining feel-good spirit of the Velvet Undergrounds Loaded and the breezy melodicism of C86-era indie rock, with a dash of the Cramps spooky-hop bop. [Limited edition blue colored vinyl pressing.]

Dean Lewis - A Place We Knew LP (Island) 

Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. Debut studio album by the Australian singer/songwriter. Lewis said that the title encapsulates the bittersweet memories of past relationships. In addition to writing every song on the album, Dean also plays piano and guitar on the project.

American Sharks - 11:11 LP (The End) 

Sophomore album from the Austin, Texas based hard rock trio. "American Sharks are creating some of the grittiest, rawest and realest rock and roll we've heard in a very long time." - Diffuser

Cavetown - Animal Kingdom LP (Triple Crown) 

Following the breakthrough success of the Lemon Boy and worldwide sold-out tours, acclaimed UK singer/songwriter Robin Skinner ventured deep into the Animal Kingdom, a digital mixtape series that featured new songs, covers and re-imaginings of catalog material each month along with a song from a friend or peer that he had a hand in creating.

HÆLOS - Any Random Kindness LP (Infectious Music) 

New album from the British electronic quartet, inspired by "the isolating nature of technology and social media." Any Random Kindness is the follow up to 2016's intricately-layered, trip hop-influenced Full Circle, a debut album "that both cements them in a genre and leaves them room to grow" (Pitchfork).

VR SEX - Human Traffic Jam LP (Dais) 

VR SEX are audio/visual provocateurs who transpose the identifiers of death rock, synth punk, post-punk, ambient, and ethereal soundscapes into an audit on technology and its imprint on our collective psyche.

Dungeon Acid - Dungeon Acid 2xLP (Ideal Recordings)
Jean-Louis Huhta's Dungeon Acid turns out a devilish debut album proper of side-winding psychedelic dance music and 90s Detroit-inspired techno and 303 extrusions. For all his stylistic versatility, ranging from crust punk to electro-acoustic experimentation, Huhta's heart has consistently been found in tough, driving, and psychedelic strains of house and techno. His playful character burns through in his persistently detailed tweaks and hypnotically layered productions, unafraid to push into the red or lower the tempo and croon like a shaman conducting ancient rites. He effectively joins the dots between the psychy, punkish dance trax of Börft Records and the Motor City mechanics of Underground Resistance, generating a singular, machine-borne but organic flow between jelly-limbed acid opening, through to steely warehouse hammers, a slow and skudgy hymn to nose drip dynamics, and two belting barrels of warped Biker Bar funk.

Howard Jones - Transform LP (BFD) 

Howard Jones first burst upon the contemporary music scene in 1983, with his very English songwriting and pioneering synthesizers. He continues to make new music and tour the world.

Irma Thomas - In Between Tears LP (Trading Places)
Originally released in 1973. Known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans." After signing to the Canyon label in 1970, Thomas cut a couple of singles in Macon, Georgia, with Jerry Williams Junior, a singer and producer from Portsmouth, Virginia that issued gritty, lewd funk under the alias Swamp Dogg; though the singles sold well in the south, they were largely overlooked elsewhere. Nevertheless, Williams brought Thomas to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record the album that would eventually surface as In Between Tears, but the collapse of Canyon delayed its release until 1973, when Williams issued it on his Fungus label. 

Baby Huey - The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend [Reissue/1971] LP (Run Out Groove) 

The Babysitters regularly played at the Thumbs Up club on Chicago's north side and it was there that the band was discovered by Donny Hathaway who insisted Curtis Mayfield go the following night to check them out. It has been said that Curtis wasn't a fan of the band (he only loved Huey) and may have forced some of his own musicians into the sessions for The Living Legend. The record became a posthumous release for Baby Huey as he died on October 28, 1970 in a Chicago hotel room of unknown causes, just weeks after the death of Jimi Hendrix.

Potter And Tillman - N.Y. To L.A.: Coasting [Reissue/1980] LP (High Jazz) 

An amazing and unique private soul/jazz-funk fusion LP, New York To L.A.: Coasting is the first release (1980) on Andrew Scott Potter and David Eric Tillman's PO/ET label. Sublime from the beginning to the end, it has become, just like their second and final release ... Space... Rapture..., (1982) a sought-after collector's item.

Joey Negro - Backstreet Brit Funk Vol. 1 2xLP (Z Records)
Subtitled: A Collection of the UK's Finest Underground Soul Jazz-Funk and Disco. Backstreet Brit Funk, compiled by Dave Lee aka Joey Negro is a double disc album featuring highly-collectable tracks from the late '70s through to the mid-'80s with sleeve notes from soul weekender veteran Mark Webster. Brit Funk tells the story of the underground scene in the UK when punk and disco were giving way to a new blend of jazz, soul and funk, heavily influenced by the American big-hitters of the day but re-worked by the UK pioneers for the British dancefloors. A collection of rare and very sought-after underground British disco, funk and soul tracks avoiding the obvious hits. 

Caterina Barbieri - Ecstatic Computation LP (Editions Mego) 

Caterina Barbieri is an Italian composer who explores themes related to machine intelligence and object-oriented perception in sound through a focus on minimalism. Ecstatic Computation revolves around the creative use of complex sequencing techniques and pattern-based operations to explore the artefacts of human perception and memory processes by ultimately inducing a sense of ecstasy and contemplation.

Amnesia Scanner & Bill Kouligas - Lexachast LP (PAN) 

Lexachast is an ongoing collaborative work by Amnesia Scanner, Bill Kouligas, and Harm van den Dorpel. Whilst broadly inspired by the experience derived from and exposure to algorithmic patterns as generated by visual artist Harm van den Dorpel's specially-devised program, the work is a sonic reference to the fallouts of avant-EDM and cyberdrone. This in turn is simultaneously mirrored by the perturbing visuals, created by a unique algorithm that sources and blends various filtered imagery from DeviantArt and Flickr in real time - with a bias towards the NSFW, extreme banality, and ornamental melancholia.

Reginald Omas Mamode IV - Where We Going? LP (Five Easy Pieces)
Mamode's third album was partly recorded on a journey to the Mascarene Islands in search of family roots. Where We Going? is reflective of the search for this lineage, which branches from ancient Mauritian Maroons -- whose rich heritage, music and culture includes an unrecognized, undocumented resistance to colonialism -- through Swahili and Malagasy to sugarcane plantation Creole slave decent. Incorporating a Fender Rhodes and Roland and Korg synthesizers, and influenced by golden era hip-hop, jazz, soul, Afro, funk, Sega, and Maloya, and music from Africa, the Caribbean, South London, and US; it is in part an attempt to evoke feelings of universal love and compassion.

Kornél Kovács - Stockholm Marathon 2xLP (Studio Barnhus)
Kornél Kovács's second album finds the Swedish-Hungarian producer, who was born in the Swedish capital, "reflecting a lot on this beautiful, boring city I never quite manage to move away from," he says, after moving back in September of 2018. Kovács credits his "dearest Stockholm people" for making the album his most collaborative and most personal release. That list includes jazz musician Niclas Skagstedt and minimal house producer Matt Karmil.

Various Artists - Disco Halal Vol. 1 12" (Disco Halal)
Another on point project from Berlin's creative record store hub OYE! Following a sun-soaked day on a trip to Tel Aviv, OYE counter culturist Delfonic wandered into an intriguing spot called Kuli Alma. Coincidentally Berlin-based Tel Avivian Moscoman was playing at the club. Call it fate, call it afternoon drinking, call it sun stroke -- whatever the reason, after a mind-blowing track dropped, he asked Moscoman about its origin, and not so long after, Disco Halal was born. A label dedicated to Middle-Eastern and Oriental sounds, with originals and edits. Edits here from Acid Arab, Autarkic, and Mehmet Aslan.

Books

C.M. Kushins - Nothing's Bad Luck: The Lives of Warren Zevon BK (Da Capo Press)
As is the case with so many musicians, the life of Warren Zevon was blessed with talent and opportunity yet also beset by tragedy and setbacks. Drawing on original interviews with those closest to Zevon, including Crystal Zevon, Jackson Browne, Mitch Albom, Danny Goldberg, Barney Hoskyns, and Merle Ginsberg, Nothing's Bad Luck tells the story of one of rock's greatest talents. Journalist C.M. Kushins not only examines Zevon's troubled personal life and sophisticated, ever-changing musical style, but emphasizes the moments in which the two are inseparable, and ultimately paints Zevon as a hot-headed, literary, compelling, musical genius worthy of the same tier as that of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. In Nothing's Bad Luck, Kushins at last gives Warren Zevon the serious, in-depth biographical treatment he deserves, making the life of this complex subject accessible to fans old and new for the very first time.

Bob Bert - I'm Just The Drummer: My Time Behind Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Chrome Cranks, & BB Gun Magazine BK (HoZac Books)
Hozac Books is proud to present I'm Just The Drummer, Bob Bert's compendium of photography and interviews, establishing his irreplaceable link between the 1970's No Wave movement and contemporary noise rock. Although Bert is best known as drummer for a wide array of artists and musical projects, the focus of his book isn't so much drum-centric as it is an encapsulation of the artistic world he's developed within. It's a 200+ page guide through Bob's musically adventurous life, and what a ride! Starting out with his teenage love of photography and his process of capturing the underground downtown figureheads as well as the emerging unknown No Wave bands, Bob was just as much of an enthusiastic fan of music as he was a fixture in some of the most crucial music of the 1980s, 90s, and beyond. Additionally, his BB Gun Magazine, spanning from 1995 until 2004, covered emerging underground music, film, and outre artists sub-underground, as well as Hollywood-level impresarios. I'm Just the Drummer contains a wealth of interview excerpts from the elusive original magazines, along with his photographic accompaniment. From Nancy Sinatra to Vincent Gallo, and from Suicide to Cynthia Plaster Caster, Bert's undeniable love of his subjects is hard to conceal.