New Releases - 6/21/19
Hitting The Racks
Here's your weekly rundown of what's hitting the new release racks at Grimey's
Jump to… New Releases Reissues & From The Vaults New on Vinyl Live & in Concert Soundtracks Compilations
New Releases
The Raconteurs - Help Us Stranger CD/LP (Third Man Records)
The Raconteurs - Jack White, Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence, and Patrick Keeler - are back with their long-awaited new album, Help Us Stranger, which serves as the Grammy-winning rock band's third studio LP and first new release in more than a decade. The 12-track collection sees the mighty combo reassembled, stronger and perhaps even more vital than ever before as they continue to push rock & roll forward into its future, bonding prodigious riffs, blues power, sinewy psychedelia, Detroit funk, and Nashville soul via Benson and White's uncompromising songcraft and the band's steadfast musical muscle. The pair wrote all of the songs on the record except the lone Donovan cover, "Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness)". [Indie exclusive white vinyl until they're gone, then black vinyl]
Drivin N Cryin - Live The Love Beautiful CD/LP (Drivin N' Cryin)
From their days as MTV-approved radio stars to their rebirth as DIY icons of the American underground, Drivin N' Cryin spent three and a half decades building a legacy grounded in sharp songwriting, southern stomp, and loud, life affirming shows. Drivin N Cryin will celebrate their new album release with a free, all ages in-store performance at Grimey's on release day - Friday, June 21st, at 4PM! Catch them later that evening at the Exit/In.
Jim Lauderdale - From Another World CD/LP (Yep Roc)
A ten song collection of empathy, love, forgiveness and humility, an antidote to the anger and divisiveness of today's world. McCartney-esque melodies, Dylan-esque lyrics, bluegrass, and twangy psychedelia collide on From Another World. Jim has once again opened his heart wide and delivered a beautiful record where country music still cries with the sound of pedal steel guitar and beautiful lyrics flow through aching indelible melodies. Jim Lauderdale will grace us with a free, live in-store performance this Saturday, June 22nd, at 5PM, in celebration of his new album release!
Chuck Mead - Close To Home CD/LP (Plowboy)
Neo-traditional honky tonker Chuck Mead serves up a Memphis-spiced hardcore country platter with Close to Home. The 11-track collection recorded at the historic Sam Phillips Recording Studios in Memphis, Tenn. was produced by acclaimed Memphis recording engineer and producer Matt Toss-Spang (John Prine, Jason Isbell and Margo Price), hailed by Rolling Stone as "one of the most trusted arbiters of the modern Memphis sound." Mead has been upending expectations and walking the line between hardcore country music and raucous rock'n'roll for the better part of 25 years. As a member of the alternative country music quintet BR5-49 in the early 1990s, Mead fused rock'n'roll excitement with the soul of the Music City's honky tonk heritage, sparking the rebirth of Nashville's Lower Broadway music scene. Over the course of the late 90's and the early 21st century, he recorded seven albums with BR5-49 and spread the gospel of neo-traditional country music around the world, garnering the band a CMA Award for Best International Touring Act and three Grammy nominations. He currently serves as the Musical Director/Supervisor/Producer of the hit Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet, as well as the companion CMT dramatic series, Sun Records. Don't miss Chuck Mead when he takes the Grimey's stage for the final show in his week-long tour of Nashville honky tonks - this Sunday, June 23rd, at 1PM!
Buddy & Judy Miller - Breakdown On 20th Ave. South CD/LP+MP3 (New West)
Their first album together in nearly 10 years, Breakdown On 20th Ave. South is an album of Julie Miller songs produced by Buddy Miller. As a couple and individually, Buddy and Julie have been nominated and received multiple awards including Grammys, Americana Awards, Dove Awards among others. Julie Millers songs have been recorded by a diverse range of artists including Emmylou Harris, Lee Ann Womack, Levon Helm, Solomon Burke, and Miranda Lambert. Buddy Miller is known for his work as a guitarist, performing live and in the studio with artists such as Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris. Buddy's production credits include albums with Plant, Harris, Earle, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and many more. Breakdown On 20th Ave. South is a first rate showcase for Julies finely crafted lyrics. Tracks like "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" and "Everything Is Your Fault" hint at the ups and downs of love. The entire album is tied together by Buddy's unfussy production style.
Bedouine - Songs Of A Killjoy CD/LP (Spacebomb Arc)
When you listen to the love songs of L.A.-based Bedouine, you will be reminded of Karen Dalton's world-wise voice or the breathy seduction of Minnie Riperton's vocals, the easy cool of French ye-ye singers, and the poetry of Joan Baez. Her folk is nomadic, wandering across time and space, and on the likes of new song "Dizzy" meander into danceable jams. On first discovery you may ask whether they're dated to 2019, or whether you've uncovered some forgotten classic. It makes sense that singer-songwriter Azniv Korkejian's arrival - both musically and personally - on her second record has been influenced by her own wanderlust, displacement, and curiosity. The 12-songs on Bird Songs Of A Killjoy contain several references to birds. It's a soundtrack to Spring blossom, to warm air on skin, to the concept of possibility.
Fruit Bats - Gold Past Life CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
Fruit Bats' Gold Past Life marks both an end and a beginning. It's the end of an unintentional thematic trilogy of records from Eric D. Johnson that began with 2014's EDJ (a solo record by name, but a Fruit Bats release in spirit) and hit an emotional peak with 2016's Absolute Loser. They encompassed years of loss, displacement, and the persistent, low-level anxiety of the current political climate. They were written in the wake of friends who left these earthly confines and families that could have been. But the songs on Gold Past Life also represent new beginnings - the journeys that await after making it through troubled times. Johnson's falsetto shines atop the bopping folk-rock of Gold Past Life. The new record features more keyboard influences and a range of guests including Greta Morgan (Springtime Carnivore, Vampire Weekend), Neal Casal (Circles Around the Sun), Trevor Beld Jimenez and Tim Ramsey (Parting Lines), Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), and more. It also sees his working relationship with producer and engineer Thom Monahan (Neko Case, Peter Bjorn & John, Devendra Banhart) hit its stride.
Two Door Cinema Club - False Alarm CD/LP (Glassnote)
Two Door Cinema Club's highly-anticipated fourth album False Alarm finds the three piece gloriously unshackled and creatively at the peak of their game. Across it's ten tracks, False Alarm wryly scans and satirizes the social and environmental woes of 2019 through the prism of wonderfully off-kilter pop, simultaneously borrowing from and warping elements of future pop, disco, rock, funk and soul. Recorded in sessions between London and L.A. with producer Jacknife Lee (U2, REM, The Killers), it's an LP that takes the familiar and twists it, to startling and stimulating effect.
Titus Andronicus - An Obelisk CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
An Obelisk is the sixth album from Titus Andronicus, which finds the noted rock band under the stewardship of producer and legendary rocker Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü, Sugar). This trans-generational meeting of the minds has yielded the most immediate, intense, and unadorned Titus Andronicus record to date. Clocking in at a brisk 38 minutes and change, it is also the shortest. Recorded over six breathless days at Steve Albini's world-renowned Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, An Obelisk presents the sound of Titus Andronicus, rock band, at its most irreducible, as monolithic as the album's titular monument.
Bad Books - III CD/LP (Concord/Loma Vista)
"For their first record in seven years, Bad Books made sure it was worth the wait, and not a side project worth forgetting. Helmed by singer-songwriters Kevin Devine and Andy Hull (of Manchester Orchestra), III brings their talents together and distils them into an album that's all of a piece while preserving each writer's own identity. In the realm of Frightened Rabbit and Volcano Choir, Bad Books offer a sometimes exuberant, sometimes somber sound that takes simple folk songs and blows them out with dramatic piano chords, churchlike choral arrangements, spacey atmospherics and digital embellishments. For all their basis in acoustic instruments, these are songs that shimmer and echo at length - not for a coffee house, but an opera house. Devine and Hull contribute five songs each, trading back and forth, track-by-track. In spite of the album's cohesive feel, the differences between each writer's songs are quite drastic - Devine's are generally upbeat and full-bodied, while Hull's are far gloomier and barren. III is a record that fluctuates between the joyous and the melancholy over and over, making those many contrasts of dark and light all the more impactful." -- Exclaim
Mark Ronson - Late Night Feelings CD/2xLP+MP3 (RCA)
Fifth studio album by British producer Mark Ronson includes guest appearances by Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li, and Camila Cabello.
Hot Chip - A Bath Full Of Ecstasy CD/LP (Domino)
Hot Chip's electrifying seventh album, A Bath Full Of Ecstasy, is the group's definitive release, crystallizing the sound they've become celebrated for - bridging euphoria and melancholy with colorful melodies, idiosyncratic vocalizations and pounding electronic pop rhythms. Recorded in Paris and London, the nine-track collection sees the group (Owen Clarke, Al Doyle, Joe Goddard, Felix Martin and Alexis Taylor) open up to a more adventurous and collaborative songwriting process, choosing to work with outside producers for the first time: Philippe Zdar, the French maestro who's shaped the magic of Cassius and Phoenix, and Rodaidh McDonald, the Scot who's collaborated with The xx, David Byrne and Sampha, among others.
Holy Ghost! - Work CD/LP (West End)
Holy Ghost! is one of the few modern-day practitioners of pure, unadulterated dance music; crafting each sound from scratch with unapologetic, exacting precision in the studio before delivering hit after hit to the dance floor.
Quantic - Atlantic Oscillations CD/LP (Tru Thoughts)
Atlantic Oscillations marks the return of world-renowned British producer Quantic with his most cohesive and intricate album to date. Bringing together new players and concepts with a dance orientated sound that has enchanted fans and tastemakers across the world for nearly two decades, it showcases Will Quantic Holland's artistry and rare ability to intertwine the electronic with the orchestral.
Black Pumas - Black Pumas CD/LP (ATO)
Black Pumas is led by the creative partnership between Grammy Award-winning guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada and songwriter Eric Burton. The latter is a relative newcomer who arrived in Austin in 2015 after busking his way across the country from Los Angeles, while Quesada has a storied reputation for playing in bands like Grupo Fantasma and Brownout. After the two connected via friends in the Austin scene, they began to collaborate on a new sound that transmutes soul into something idiosyncratically modern. Reminiscent of Ghostface Killah and Motown in equal measure, this original sound ensured that Black Pumas' weekly residency at C-Boys quickly became "the hottest party in town" (Austin-American Statesman). Produced by Quesada in his home studio and colored by Burton's dark imagery and haunting vocals, their eponymous debut is equally as indebted to East Coast hip-hop as it is to classic funk and soul, resulting in a project that is of the moment rather than retro. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Willie Nelson - Ride Me Back Home CD/LP (Sony)
Willie Nelson returns with another incredible addition to his legendary catalog. Once again working with longtime producer Buddy Cannon, Ride Me Back Home sits beside 2017's God's Problem Child and 2018's Last Man Standing as a trilogy of superior song craft exploring ideas of mortality with wisdom, empathy and a winking love of life. Nelson and Cannon co-wrote a handful of songs but go deep into their favorite songsmiths, great writers with great stories to tell: Sonny Throck-Morton, Guy Clark, Mac Davis, and Buzz Rabin. The result is a magical collection of tunes with emphasis on the lyric. Backed by an amazing band of Nashville gunslingers, Ride Me Back Home finds Willie Nelson making some of the most inspired work of his career.
Hackensaw Boys - A Fireproof Of Sunshine CD/10" (Free Dirt)
On the band's 20th anniversary, stalwart roots collective Hackensaw Boys present a fresh batch of original songs with their new EP A Fireproof House Of Sunshine. For the ever-evolving string band, the five-song collection showcases their graceful maturation and feels more timeless than timely, in no small part due to frontman David Sickmen's deeply cultivated songwriting. Energized by the band's new fiddler (Caleb Powers), upright bassist (Chris Stevens), and percussionist/charismo player (Beau Dodson), A Fireproof House Of Sunshine keeps Hackensaw Boys' classic punk-fueled roots sound at the center. Yet here the group further explores within genre, from the rollicking contemporary Americana of "Late Night Kitchen" and "Pass Unloving Eyes" to the country-blues working class anthem "Factory Blues", all while maintaining a toe-tapping pop sensibility. A Fireproof House Of Sunshine opens the curtain on a new era for Hackensaw Boys, who continually prove capable of turning universal life experiences into music that fosters togetherness, community, and understanding. [Limited blue colored vinyl pressing.]
Los Straitjackets - Channel Surfing CDEP/12"+MP3 (Yep Roc)
Surf rock renditions of some of television's greatest hits, including the theme to Game Of Thrones, The Andy Griffith Show, Ken Burns' The Civil War, and a medley of Dancing With The Stars and Sex And The City.
Hollywood Vampires - Rise CD/2xLP (earMUSIC)
Rock & roll royalty Joe Perry, Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp and shock rock icon Alice Cooper join forces once again as the Hollywood Vampires for their explosive second album, Rise. Unlike their 2015 debut record, the album consists mainly of original material. Seconds into the opening track "I Want My Now", it's clear this supergroup has created something special - the chemistry between the individuals is unmistakable when they come together on stage or in the recording studio. Forget the star-studded lineup's individual reputations, Rise is some of the purest, unapologetic and most enjoyable rock & roll of the year. [Limited glow-in-the-dark vinyl pressing.]
Collective Soul - Blood CD (Fuzze Flex)
From their humble beginnings in Stockbridge, GA to the heights of playing to sold-out audiences all over the world, Collective Soul has cemented their place in music by creating indelible, smash-hits like "Shine", "Breathe", "December", "The World I Know", "Gel", "Heavy", "Precious Declaration" and more. The band's new album Blood is the culmination of a quarter-century of assessing not only where they've come from, but also where they're going. "I think Blood expresses where we've been on this life journey," observes frontman Ed Roland. "And we've done so with songs featuring piano and strings to those with a lot of guitar riffs. Blood is an accumulation of all the different styles we've used over the years - but it's still Collective Soul." From the hard-charging skitter of "Over Me" to the optimistic declaration of "Right As Rain", the hopeful uplift of a man "Changed", and the tender promise of "Big Sky", the album delivers in full from stem to stern. [Vinyl due 7/19]
Nick Murphy/Chet Faker - Run Fast Sleep Naked CD (Downtown)
The new release from Nick Murphy, the artist formerly known as Chet Faker, Run Fast Sleep Naked is the follow-up to his 2014 debut Built On Glass which was released under the Chet Faker moniker, and 2017's Missing Link EP. Co-produced by Dave Harrington, the vocals for the collection were captured all around the world during the last four years. For the record, Murphy found "spaces and environments that most inspired him," ranging from his grandmother's living room to a studio in Tokyo to a New Zealand rental home while on vacation with his family. During this period, the musician began a process of intense self-examination, using Joseph Campbell's writings to question his role as an artist in modern society. The instrumentation for the album was later recorded at Brooklyn, New York's Figure 8 with help from over 15 musicians and a full orchestra. [Vinyl edition due July 5.]
Jamie Cullum - Taller CD/LP (Blue Note)
Jamie Cullum is a globally-celebrated musician whose career spans 18 years, beginning with the success of his major label breakthrough Twentysomething and its follow up Catching Tales, and resulting in Brit and Grammy nominations and numerous other awards around the world.
Injury Reserve - Injury Reserve CD/LP (Loma Vista)
Self-titled debut album from Phoenix rap trio Injury Reserve made up of producer Parker Corey and rappers Stepa J. Groggs and Ritchie With A T, and featuring guest artists Aminé, Rico Nasty, DRAM, and Freddie Gibbs. The album focuses on bridging the gap between experimental and accessible.
Richard Reed Parry - Quiet River Of Dust Vol. 2: That Side Of The River CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
Music of the spheres: it's a term that refers to the universal harmony generated by celestial bodies in orbit, but it means something different to Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry. His musical spheres are floating worlds, 360° embodiments of memory, VR renditions of old family photos. These spheres not only served as metaphorical inspiration for the lyrics of his new project, Quiet River Of Dust, but appear throughout the album artwork and, most strikingly, in the films Parry made to be projected in planetarium-style domes to accompany live performances of this music. The first volume of Quiet River Of Dust was released on the autumn equinox of 2018; this second volume, out on the summer solstice of 2019, was created at the same time. Both volumes bleed into one another, by design. This is a meditative, widescreen musical experience with Beach Boy harmonies and a hypnotic pulse. Layered songs that move in a linear fashion, following a current rather than circular composition. [Limited white colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Joel Rafael - Rose Avenue CD/LP (Inside Recordings)
Rose Avenue gracefully defines California singer songwriter Joel Rafael and his contribution to the American canon. The ten-song masterpiece includes nine originals that reflect the honest accounting of a man in his 70th year. Recorded and mixed by multi-instrumentalist Marty Rifkin in his Santa Monica studio, Rose Avenue is fresh, and radiates warmth and significance. Rafael does not stray from his roots in the songs he selected for this release, or in his choice of musical accompaniment, playing acoustic guitar and harmonica. Social change has always been a topic prevalent in Rafael's writing, and two beautiful examples found their way into the mix of Rose Avenue. The album's first single "Strong", written with Jason Mraz (who is also featured on the song) and Michael Natter, brings a message of solidarity. "Glory Bound", references the shocking story of Emmett Till and his tragic murder. In the spirit of Woody Guthrie, Rafael has given the 1955 death of a fourteen-year-old boy its deserved respect and consideration. Rafael plays harmonica on both anthems. His perception reflects a lifetime's insight into the songs he writes; as well as a full measure of gratitude for what has been, and what lies ahead.
Mannequin Pussy - Patience CD/LP+MP3 (Epitaph)
Patience, the third full-length from Philadelphia, PA indie punk band Mannequin Pussy, is an album fascinated with the physical experience of the body, its songs tracking the movements of mouths and hands and racing hearts, skin and spit and teeth and blood. Deeply attuned to the power of their own physicality, members Colins Rey Regisford (bass, samples, vocals), Kaleen Reading (drums, percussion), Marisa Dabice (guitar, vocals), and Athanasios Paul (guitar, keys) channel complex emotion in blistering riffs, thrashing rhythms, vocals that feel as immediate and untamed as a gut reaction. But throughout the album, the band contrasts that raw vitality with intricate melodies and finely detailed arrangements, building a strange and potent tension that makes the album all the more cathartic. Patience matches Mannequin Pussy's wild volatility with a narrative voice that's often painfully vulnerable.
Harry & The Potters - Lumos CD/LP (Charming)
Lumos is Harry and the Potters' first full-length album since 2006's Harry And The Potters And The Power Of Love. Using the magic of rock and roll, it chronicles the events of the seventh and final Harry Potter book where J.K. Rowling's teen wizard and his friends are on the run from a xenophobic, authoritarian regime and must work diligently to take down a dark wizard who capitalizes on fear and emboldens supremacist wizards. Lumos is an album for this political moment.
Tommy And June - Tommy And June CD/LP (Fat Wreck Chords)
The self-titled debut from the mysterious duo lacks the aggressive, overdriven power of the bands on Fat Wreck's Mount Rushmore. Tommy And June's 10 tracks stick mostly to acoustic guitars, breathy vocal harmonies, and a spirit indebted to Pete Seeger as much as Pete Shelley. But this isn't power chords on acoustic guitars, or punks unplugging for novelty's sake.
Compilations, Best Of's & Sundry Collections...
Various Artists - Soul Jazz Records Presents Brazil USA 70 - Brazilian Music In The USA In The 1970s CD/2xLP (Soul Jazz)
This collection brings together some of these finest works and comes complete with extensive notes that explains the path these musicians took from Brazil to the USA and shows the political and musical links between Brazil and the USA that created the conditions for this unique fusion of these two distinct cultures, North American Jazz and Brazilian music, that occurred in the 1970s.
Glen Campbell - The Legacy 1961-2017 4xCD (Capitol)
All of your favorite Glen Campbell songs, packaged with a 60-page booklet and new liner notes.
Live & in Concert
The Rolling Stones - Bridges To Bremen 2xCD+/DVD/2xCD+Blu-ray/3xLP (Eagle Rock Entertainment)
Bridges To Bremen captures a complete show from the final leg of the Rolling Stones' year-long tour in support of their Platinum-certified album Bridges To Babylon. Ever the innovators, The Bridges To Babylon Tour was one of firsts - the first time the band went on the road with a permanent, and now infamous, B-stage, and also the first time that fans could vote on the band's website for a track they wanted to hear at the show - "Memory Motel" in the case of the Bremen fans, making each show on the tour unique. Opening with a stellar "Satisfaction", Lisa Fisher then accompanies Mick Jagger on vocals for a storming version of "Gimme Shelter", and Bridges single "Saint of Me" receives a rousing welcome. By Stones standards, Bremen was an intimate show, a 40,000 fan-strong hot ticket, for which the band enthusiastically kicked out 155 minutes of unadulterated rock 'n' roll. [Limited edition 180gm gold colored vinyl pressing.]
Travis - Glastonbury 1999 CD/2xLP (Craft Recordings)
Travis - The Man Who [Reissue/1999] 2xCD//LP/LP+2xCD (Craft Recordings)
This is the first ever release of this pivotal performance by British alt-rock band Travis, timed around the 20th anniversary of the show and their breakthrough album, The Man Who (reissued this week on expanded double-CD, deluxe box set, and single-disc vinyl). [Limited blue colored vinyl pressing of Glastonbury 1999 also available.]
New on Vinyl
The Robe - The Robe LP (YK Records)
Self-titled debut from Nashville multi-instrumentalist and long-time Grimey's staffer, Rollum Haas; a fascinating blend of pop and krautrock sensibilities. The Robe was mixed by Nashville's own Jeremy Ferguson and mastered by John Baldwin.
P!nk - Hurts 2B Human LP+MP3 (RCA)
Eighth studio album from pop superstar. The first single from the album, "Walk Me Home", was called "a foot-stomping anthem" as well as "an optimistic departure from the content of her previous album, Beautiful Trauma".
Olivia O'Brien - Was It Even Real? LP (Island)
Released in April on CD - now available on vinyl. Debut album from the Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter named one of 100 Women Revolutionizing Pop Music by Paper Magazine.
His Name Is Alive - All The Mirrors In The House: Early Recordings 1979-1986 LP (Disciples)
Transcendental tape loops and bedroom ambient dream states from the teenage mind of Warren Defever aka His Name Is Alive. All The Mirrors In The House is the first of three projected releases of very early works by the Detroit-based savant, prior to signing to 4AD in the late-1980s. Clear vinyl pressing.
The Innocence Mission - Befriended [Reissue/2003] LP (Badman)
Originally released on CD in 2003, Befriended received high praise from NPR, Pitchfork, and many others. Arguably their best work, it is a haunting collection of songs that feature the interplay of Don Peris' gorgeously warm and shimmering electric guitars with Karen's Peris' transcendently lovely vocals and moving lyrics. Limited milky-white colored vinyl pressing.
Rimarimba - On Dry Land [Reissue/1984] LP (RVNG Int'l)
Rimarimba - In The Woods [Reissue/1985] LP (RVNG Int'l)
For Rimarimba's 1984 album On Dry Land, Robert Cox advances along the terrain explored on Below The Horizon. It's an enchanting album, one which, at times, seems to comment on its own practice; a picture of everyday life in the hobbyist's, or part-time musician's, recording studio. On 1985's In The Woods, Cox has made his music kit, an odd assortment of new and old technologies, lately fixated on the digital delay, and programming technologies, sing his own song at its most articulate clip. The songs seem more developed, fluent, like mini-suites in some sense.
Kashmere Stage Band - Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 LP+MP3 (Now Again)
After capturing audience awards festivals like SXSW and the Los Angeles Film Festival, the word is out that Kashmere was the greatest high school band - ever. Their story is tucked in between slabs of hard '70s funk, soul, and jazz: Conrad Johnson transformed a bunch of rough-hewn high schoolers into a band that could compete with any in the nation - professional, or otherwise. The band's best tracks are collected here.
Parliament - Chocolate City [Reissue/1975] LP (Mercury)
Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Chocolate City is full of the uptempo funk that the band would be known for.
James Brown - Get On The Good Foot [Reissue/1972] 2xLP (Polydor) Double 180gm vinyl pressing of the 1972 studio album by the funk and soul legend. Features the bonus track "I Know It's True" which has never appeared on vinyl in the US.
Chic - Chic [Reissue/1977] LP (Atlantic)
Chic - C'est Chic [Reissue/1978] LP (Atlantic)
Chic - Risqué [Reissue/1979] LP (Atlantic)
Vinyl reissues (2018 remasters) of the first three albums by the disco-era legends.
Aerosmith - Aerosmith's Greatest Hits [Reissue/1990] LP (Sony Legacy)
Vinyl reissue of the first compilation album by Aerosmith featuring songs that made the band an icon of the 1970s rock era.
Conway Twitty - 25 Number Ones 2xLP (MCA Nashville)
25 #1 hits that span the career of the legendary country singer-songwriter.
Renaldo & The Loaf - Songs For Swinging Larvae + Songs From The Surgery [Reissue/1981] LP (Editions Mego)
A biomedical scientist and an architect form a band in the early '70s with nothing by the way of traditional musical talent or skill but with endless enthusiasm and their own unique musical sensibility. The ensuing career and creative output of this ongoing home studio/bedroom band remains one of the most significant song based 'outre' catalogs ever produced in the United Kingdom. This comprehensive two LP set contains their first official LP (originally released on The Residents' legendary Ralph Records label) along with an extra album of different versions and extra tracks which reside here for the first time on vinyl.
The Deadly Syndrome - The Ortolan [Reissue/2007] LP (Community Music)
First-time vinyl pressing. There's a distinctive west coast signature in each of the Los Angeles band's glorious tunes, reminiscent of rock forefathers such as Neil Young, Lindsey Buckingham, Peter Frampton, The Doobie Brothers, Tim and Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith, Wilco, and The Eagles, to name a few. An upbeat pop-tinged album with larger than life percussion, jangling guitars, and heart wrenching vocals that still maintains the crucial darkness that so often taints the west coast folk and rock sound. Upbeat tales of longing, loving, suicide, and loss. "Unbridled euphoria." - LA Times
Lee Morgan - Cornbread [Reissue/1967] LP (Blue Note)
Lee Morgan assembled an astounding crew for this epic session: Hank Mobley, Jackie McLean, Herbie Hancock, Larry Ridley and Billy Higgins on drums, and Cornbread captures Morgan and everyone involved at their absolute best.
Gyedu Blay Ambolley - Ambolley [Reissue/1982] CD/LP (Mr. Bongo)
Vinyl reissue of an extremely hard-to-obtain LP from the Ghanaian master composer, producer and musician. Ambolley' fuses Highlife, disco and boogie sonics perfectly.
Shafiq Husayn - The Loop LP (Nature Sounds)
Shafiq Husayn is a talented musician, producer, songwriter, and recording artist who has worked with some of the top artists in R&B, hip-hop, soul, funk, and beyond. Perhaps best known as one third of innovative Los Angeles musical collective Sa Ra Creative Partners, Husayn has produced for the likes of Erykah Badu, Andre 3000, John Legend, Kanye West, Jurassic 5, Bilal, and many more. Blending lush live instrumentation with futuristic synths and otherworldly vocals, The Loop is a genre-defying opus incorporating spaced-out funk, raw neo-soul, free jazz, hip-hop beats, and electronic elements.
Dos Monos - Dos City LP (Deathbomb Arc)
Tokyo based experimental hip-hop trio Dos Monos summon excitement with some truly unusual alchemy. The building blocks of their style balance the dissonance and cacophony of some very un-smooth, uncool jazz with hyperactive verse trading between their three members. Gila - Trench Tones 12" (Lex) Gila is an electronic producer from Denver, Colorado. His signature, hard-edged productions should appeal to fans of Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing, Hudson Mohawke, Jacques Greene & Lunice.
Horse Torso - Wolf Who Cried Boy LP (Equation Conspiracy)
Horse Torso is an instrumental noise/math rock band founded by veteran New York rock/jazz drummer Danny Sher and featuring Baroness bassist Nick Jost with guitarists Will Chapin and Andrew Smiley. Baroness lead singer and renowned artist John Dyer Baizley engineered, produced, and mixed the session. Limited to 100 copies.
Ration Card - Ration Card EP (Equation Conspiracy)
Mathy, gloomy post-hardcore. The band's self titled debut EP offers 5 tracks of "discordant heaviness ripping through ears with chaotic approaches" (New Noise Magazine). The songs are dark, complex, and periodically heavy compositions which seem to embody an inevitable modern dystopia just around the corner. RIYL: Fugazi, Metz, Big Black.
Dibiase - Bonus Levels LP (10 Thirty Records)
The LA beat scene veteran returns with his signature 8-bit sound. Levels brings back memories of endless hours of gaming and takes us to a place of lo-fi nostalgia. DIBIA$E dices up vintage NES, Super NES and Sega video game samples, layering them with slumped out, off-the-grid drum programming, arpeggiated synths, pixilated sounds and filthy bass lines. Sprinkled with elements of house and footwork, plus a couple of remixes from favorites Elaquent and 14KT, Bonus Levels is destined to be an 8-bit classic.
Shafiq Husayn - The Loop 2LP (Nature Sounds)
CD released this spring; vinyl now available. Husayn's long-awaited, eclectic follow-up to 2009's Shafiq En A-Free-Ka features an all-star cast of Shafiq's most prominent collaborators, including contributions from Erykah Badu, Anderson .Paak, Hiatus Kaiyote, Robert Glasper, Thunercat, Bilal, Flying Lotus, and more. Blending lush live instrumentation with futuristic synths and otherworldly vocals, 'The Loop' is a genre-defying opus incorporating spaced-out funk, raw neo-soul, free jazz, hip-hop beats, and electronic elements.
Wowflower - feverdream LP (Street Corner Music)
For this release, Boston-based instrumental hip-hop producer was inspired by the work of Perrin Moss [of Hiatus Kaiyote] and Paul Thomas Anderson. With both moments of ease and spells of dizzying anxiety, the album establishes a claustrophobic and hypnotic electronic atmosphere that can also stimulate creative thinking with its narcotic haze.
Park Jiha - Philos LP (Tak:Til/Glitterbeat)
Jiha's debut album Communion drew attention for its vivid sound world, the composer's music contextualized by its kinship with minimalism, ambient, and chamber jazz, but with her creative backbone firmly in Korean traditional music, having studied its theory and mastered three classical Korean instruments. Philos shares its predecessor's deeply resonant hypnotic effects and similarly looks to the future while conversing with a rich historical musical language, but Philos is marked by more density and concentration, as each sound has been given the artist's full attention. Jiha's compositions overlap sounds and stretch time, interweaving the ghostly melodies of the ancient yanggeum (hammer dulcimer) and saenghwang (mouth organ) with vivid soundscapes of the city where she lives.
Robert Turman - Flux 2LP (Spectrum Spools)
Flux is the 1981 debut solo outing of Robert Turman, an American multi-instrumentalist and avant-garde composer. Weary of the noisescapes of the electronic and industrial work of his compatriots, he set out to create long-form minimalism utilizing kalimba, piano, "Mini-Pops Jr." drum machine, and tape loops to create a complex bed of interweaving micro-stasis. The results of these new experiments were as beautiful as they were perplexing. These compositions glow with a sprawling, slow-motion haze that's light years ahead of its time. Flux reveals wide spectrums of sound from melancholic kalimba and percussion patterns to slowed-down, syrupy exotica.
Chelique Sarabia - Revolucion "Electronica" en Musica Venezolana LP (Pharaway Sounds)
Originally released in 1971. Ultimate space-age exotica trip from Venezuela. In the early '70s, well-known composer and arranger Chelique Sarabia decided to register an album of traditional and folkloric songs from Venezuela but giving them a modern touch, using especially developed equipment (M.R.A.A.), based off of the principles of the Moog. Chelique, helped by a team of gifted musicians, employed traditional instruments like the cuatro and the bandola llanera, filtered these instruments through oscillators, playing with feedback, tape delay, synthesized frequencies, echoing sounds. The result was Revolución "Electrónica" en Música Venezolana, an album with a truly exotic, psychedelic, and ahead of its time sound.
Biosphere - The Senja Recordings 2LP (Biophon)
The Senja Recordings is a collection of various outdoor recordings and studio improvisations recorded on the island of Senja, Arctic Norway, between 2015 and 2018. Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen, a Norwegian musician who has released a notable catalog of ambient electronic music. He is well known for his works on ambient techno and arctic themed pieces, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources.
Miguel Abuelo & Nada - Miguel Abuelo & Nada LP (Guerssen Records)
Originally released in 1975. A stunning blend of psychedelia, hard-rock, and prog-folk courtesy of Miguel Ángel Peralta, aka Miguel Abuelo, the legendary Argentinean rock pioneer and frontman of early psychedelic band Los Abuelos de la Nada. In the early '70s, Miguel formed a band in Paris with fellow Argentinian expats, influenced by bands like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and the like. The album was recorded at a state-of-the-art studio and was carefully produced: electric and acoustic guitars, bass, drums, flute, keyboards (including Moog), cello, violin. Sadly, the release date kept getting delayed, and the band had to go on tour with no release in sight. When it was finally released, Miguel and guitarist Daniel Sbarra had already decided to part ways.
Salum Abdallah & Cuban Marimba Band - Ngoma Tanzania LP (Domino Sound)
Sweet and joyful sounds from 1960's Tanzania. Salum Abdallah and Cuban Marimba Band were at the forefront of 'muziki wa dansi', the emerging dance music scene influenced by Cuban 78s, crazes like the twist and cha cha cha, and the local sounds of their home country. Only a few of these cuts have ever been re-released in any form, and that hasn't happened in eons. Lots of toe tappers, smile enhancers, and downright dancers, with a few slower and sweeter songs to round it out. The 12 song LP comes in an old style tip-on sleeve with lyrics in Swahili with English translations on the inner sleeve.
MATstudio - MATstudio 2 LP (Melody as Truth)
Second outing from Jonny Nash and Suzanne Kraft in their MATstudio series. 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.
Suzanne Ciani - Flowers of Evil LP (Finders Keepers)
A previously unreleased 1969 work from Suzanne Ciani, a genuine vanguard of electronic music composition at the forefront of the modular synthesizer revolution of the late 60s. Flowers of Evil features the controversial prose of French poet Charles Baudelaire and is inspired by his concept of "modernité" (modernity), a self-coined term dedicated to capturing the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis, best exemplified in Les Fleurs du mal ("flowers of evil"). In her varied career that would combine art gallery installations, major film soundtrackings, and commissions for Atari, Ciani's earliest experiments remain some of her most challenging, beguiling, and timeless. Flowers Of Evil ticks all the above boxes and flicks switches that would power-up a new uncharted universe of her own musical modernité.
Anadol - Uzun Havalar LP (Pingipung)
Anadol is a psychedelic synth folk project by Berlin-based Gözen Atila, a Turkish sound artist and photographer. Her third album is based on collective improvisations of Middle Eastern folk songs called "uzun hava," which turn out as rich, atmospheric synth ballads. Anadol represents Gözen Atila's liberation from a rather academic approach to electronic composition, what she calls the "darkness of serious music" where she first tried to belong, having first broken free with the help of lo-fi synth pop. Her Anadol project walks in the footsteps of lone synth experimentalists like Bruce Haack and The Space Lady with their childlike curiosity for electronic sounds, pushing the boundaries of minimal equipment and translating her experimental background into floating folk ballads.
Kelman Duran - 13th Month 2LP (Apocalipsis)
A double-album of textured, emotive dembow, hip-hop mutations, and field recordings inspired by time spent on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the site of the tragic Wounded Knee massacre. With forward/sideward looking arrangements of cut 'n paste textures, voices, and haunting electronics, Duran offers something akin to a spiritual memory upgrade, using fine-tuned powers of intuition to fluidly sculpt richly impressionistic scenes evoking the trampling fervor of the Ghost Dance, but purposely transposed to downtrodden people and sites of worship in the here and now. Opening with a couplet of scrolling, collaged panoramas that recall the expansively cut-up nature of recent Burial releases, Kelman continues to map out a mosaic of more succinct pieces, grouting stripped-down club rhythms with brooding moments of introspection and a spectrum of voices, from urgent to mournful and frankly alien Latinx styles.
Djrum - Seven Lies 3LP (2nd Drop)
The 2013 debut album by Felix Manuel, aka Djrum, was inspired by the rawness of urban London, with influence from Portishead, DJ Shadow, and The Cinematic Orchestra, jungle, minimal techno, classic house, broken beat -- all seamlessly segued with a nod to jazz vinyl and film music. Djrum's tropes of widescreen atmospheres, dub chords, dusty and melancholic strings, and obscure film samples are spread over a luxurious canvas that dips like an undulating terrain of sound; techno troughs, bumpy hip-hop breaks, and euphoric drum and bass, mutating and diverging down different paths as musical nuances are evoked and explored.
Current 93 - Invocations of Almost LP (The Spheres)
Current 93 have dreamt a new album, Invocations Of Almost, using music from her FuturePast and her PastFuture, to accompany David Tibet's art exhibition, Invocations Of Almost, which opens on March 9 at The Begovich Gallery in Fullerton, CA and lasts for around two months.
Reissues & From The Archives
Mort Garson - Mother Earth's Plantasia [Reissue/1976] CD/LP (Sacred Bones)
If you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears) in 1976, you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for plants. Subtitled warm earth music for plants... and the people that love them, it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Before Brian Eno did it, Mort Garson was making discreet music. [Limited green colored vinyl pressing.]
Soundtracks
Himesh Patel - Yesterday [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] CD (Capitol)
From Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) and Richard Curtis, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Four Weddings And A Funeral, Love Actually and Notting Hill, comes a rock-n-roll comedy about music, dreams, friendship, and the long and winding road that leads to the love of your life. Jack Malik (Himesh Patel, BBC's Eastenders) is a struggling singer-songwriter in a tiny English seaside town whose dreams of fame are rapidly fading, despite the fierce devotion and support of his childhood best friend, Ellie (Lily James, Mamma Mia!, Here We Go Again). Then, after a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, Jack wakes up to discover that The Beatles have never existed...and he finds himself with a very complicated problem, indeed. Performing songs by the greatest band in history to a world that has never heard them, and with a little help from his steel-hearted American agent, Debra (Emmy winner Kate McKinnon), Jack's fame explodes. [Vinyl edition due August 16.]