CDs + Vinyl:
All We Are – All We Are CD/LP+MP3 (Domino)
All We Are is a global gathering made up of Ireland’s Richard O’Flynn (drums, vocals), Norway’s Guro Gikling (bass, vocals) and Brazil’s Luis Santos (guitar, vocals). They met at university in Liverpool, England. Their self-titled debut was written in a cabin in the isolated Norwegian mountains, with follow-up sessions in a secluded cottage in North Wales. Then the album was finished in their studio in a disused school in Liverpool with producer Dan Carey (Bat For Lashes, M.I.A, Hot Chip). Self-described as sounding like “the Bee Gees on diazepam,” All We Are’s slow rhythmic shuffles, pop harmonies and lovelorn lyrics succinctly captures a universal quality to which everyone can relate.
Ólafur Arnalds – Broadchurch [OST] CD (Mercury)
A vital element in the success of record-breaking 2013 British drama Broadchurch was the hauntingly beautiful, BAFTA Award-winning score by young Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds.
Bahto Delo Delo – Tagoi CD (LM Dupl-Cation)
Marin “Tagoi” Sandu, bandleader of Bahto Delo Delo, is a Romani virtuoso accordion player and singer of the traditional lautari style in Romania. With guidance from his late father, Nicolae Neacsu, who was one of the founders of Taraf De Haidouks and a very respected violinist of his time, Tagoi started learning music from the age of eight. At 64, he plays and sings a large repertoire of Romani and lautari tunes. Bahto Delo Delo means “may God give you luck” in the Roma language. The songs often look back to the golden era of Romanian music-when Bucharest radio stations tuned into the sounds of Aurel and Victor Gore, Romica Puceanu, and Toni Iordache-and are performed in a virtuosic style that has all but been lost.
Lee Bannon – Caligula Theme Music [2012] CD (Chillectro)
Lee Bannon – Cope CD (Chillectro)
Caligula Theme Music and Cope are instrumental EPs that were originally released in 2012 via the bliss-hop artist’s Bandcamp site.
Blind Guardian – Beyond The Red Mirror CD/LP (Nuclear Blast)
Greatly inspired by life experience, world myths, legends, and their own fervent creativity, metal’s most epic storytellers Blind Guardian continually aspire to define themselves on a whole new level. With their orchestral tenth studio album Beyond The Red Mirror, they have successfully captured the scope of their essence with unprecedented accuracy. Available in Regular and Deluxe editions. Deluxe “mediabook” edition comes housed in a hard cover book and contains a bonus track.
Kath Bloom – Pass Through Here CD/LP (Chapter Music)
Bloom presents a distinctive new sound, uplifted by floating synthesizers and disembodied choruses, while retaining the direct simplicity and power for which she is loved.
Boduf Songs – Stench Of Exist CD/LP (The Flenser)
Stench Of Exist unfolds languorously, laced with mysterious electronic filigree. Gorgeously intimate, it transforms the minimal into maximal with layers of electro-detritus wreathed in lush guitar strums, street-side field recordings, reverberating pianos and softly crooned vocals. It is a record of rain and cities and nighttime. The collision of arabesque tonalities with electronic sound and ambience brings to mind the promise of Blade Runner-half-asleep at 4:00 A.M. and slightly medicated, with pyramids and flame-spewing cityscapes in downpour glowing against the fluttering eyelids in the almost-dreaming consciousness. A record for saturnine commuters, on headphones, after sunset.
Breakfast In Fur – Flyaway Garden CD/LP+MP3 (Bar/None)
The debut full length album from New Paltz, NY’s Breakfast In Fur is indie rock loaded with psychedelic textures, nods to ’90s electronica, ’60s pop song-craft, and ecstatic punk energy.
John Carpenter – Lost Themes CD/LP (Sacred Bones)
John Carpenter has been responsible for much of the horror genre’s most striking soundtrack work in the fifteen movies he’s both directed and scored. The themes can instantly flood his fans’ musical memory with imagery of a menacing shape stalking a babysitter, a relentless wall of ghost-filled fog, lightning-fisted kung fu fighters, or a mirror holding the gateway to hell. The all-new music on Lost Themes asks Carpenter’s acolytes to visualize their own nightmares.
The Cherry Wave – Avalancher CD (Saint Marie)
The Cherry Wave pay homage to noise-rock, shoegaze, hardcore punk and noise music in equal measure. Avalancher is always droning and always fuzz-drenched and noise-worshiping, but behind the cacophony lies a collection of songs that are as catchy and memorable as they are ear-destroying. It’s an album full of distortion, but also filled with melody and hooks.
The Church – Further Deeper CD/2xLP+MP3 (Unorthodox)
25th studio album from the legendary Aussie band. After over three decades of making music in various formats, lineups, places and cognitive states, this is a band who have committed to exploring unchartered sonic territories. With long-time member Marty Willson-Piper being unavailable, Ian Haug (formerly of Powderfinger) came on board to partner the iconic guitar playing of founding member Peter Koppes.
Cluster – USA Live CD/LP (Bureau B)
A 1996 recording of Cluster’s first tour of the US. This release consists of tracks from Purple Pyramid’s 1997 CD First Encounter Tour 1996, reworked and reselected in collaboration with the musicians and presented on vinyl (for the first time) and on CD.
Conduct – Fear & Desire CD/LP (Public Tone)
Taking musical cues from industrial, punk, and German progressive movements, Fear & Desire expounds on the inhumane nature of existence, anxiety, and the impulses behind inaction. Though there are many signifiers in Conduct’s music — be it Art Bears, Hula, or This Heat — they have synthesized a unique and slanted approach to the four-piece rock outfit. Recorded by Steve Albini, featuring guest spots from Tim Midyett (Bottomless Pit, Silkworm).
Dailey & Vincent – Sing The Statler Brothers CD (Rounder)
The award-winning duo of Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent “skillfully bring their tightknit harmonies” to such hits as “Elizabeth,” “Flowers On The Wall” and “Do You Know You Are My Sunshine.”
Dead In The Manger – Cessation CD/LP (20 Buck Spin)
On Cessation, Dead In The Manger follows up their Transience debut from 2014 with six new stages in the grief process, resolved in their adherence to dispiriting melodic atmosphere and frenzied black carnage, ever reaching upward yet inevitably pulled down into the mire. Whether grinding forth in a cascade of blinding black metal violence or cloaked in despondent post-rock gloom, Cessation leaves no space for hope, compelling the paradoxical embrace of suffering.
Bob Dylan – Shadows In The Night CD/LP (Columbia)
Shadows In The Night is Bob Dylan’s 36th studio album, and marks the first new music from the artist since 2012’s Tempest. Regarding the repertoire on this album, Bob Dylan commented, “I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band. That’s the key to all these performances. We knew these songs extremely well. It was all done live. Maybe one or two takes. No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way. They’ve been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.”
Tinsley Ellis – Tough Love CD (Heartfixer Music)
An all-new set of soulful originals from veteran Georgia blues rocker.
Entombed – DCLXVI To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth [Reissue/1997] 2xCD/2xLP (Threeman)
Entombed – Same Difference [Reissue/1998] 2xCD/2xLP (Threeman)
Entombed – Uprising [Reissue/1999] 2xCD/2xLP (Threeman)
Expanded reissues of three of the death metal band’s albums in special packaging with additional demo’s, B-sides and bonus material.
Jonny Faith – Sundial CD (Tru Thoughts)
Originating from Edinburgh, but now based in Melbourne, Faith gained his ear for rhythm and sound as a DJ and turntablist spinning hip-hop, jungle and D&B, both in the UK and Australia, for some years. After a while, like many DJs, he turned his hand to his own productions and sound. Faith’s early music had a strong dub and reggae tinge, with one early single release coming under the alias Dropwise Dubs through the Sydney based Foreign Dub imprint. Although dub sensibilities and production techniques still underpin Faith’s style he moved into the hip-hop future beats scene with aplomb hosting both a radio show and club night in Sydney dedicated to the emerging experimental beats sounds sweeping the globe.
Fifth Harmony – Reflection CD (Epic)
Debut album from the girl group created by music mogul Simon Cowell. Cowell decided that individual X-Factor contestants Dinah Jane Hansen, Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke Hernandez, Normani Kordei, and Camila Cabello were too special to let go, so at the end of the show’s Boot Camp week, the five young women became Fifth Harmony. Available in Regular and Deluxe editions. Deluxe adds three bonus tracks.
Mark Gergis – Radio Vietnam CD (Sublime Frequencies)
This disc continues the Sublime Frequencies locale-specific radio collage series with Vietnamese radio recordings culled and assembled from signals received in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City between December 2013 and November 2014. Inside the 70-minute program are moments of outstanding folkloric, traditional, and pop music, including performances on the electric guitar and the dan bau (a one-stringed guitar-like instrument), eclectic Vietnamese folk and rock stylings, dramatic effects-laden radio theater and musical segues, new wave pop forays, traditional percussion and vocal chants, news segments, dynamic radio bumpers, jingles and advertisements, comedic interludes, phoned-in karaoke sing-a-longs, English-language programming, early-morning exercise regimens, and coded messages from the outer ether.
Polly Gibbons – Many Faces Of Love CD+DVD (Resonance)
Polly Gibbons descends from a grand tradition of jazz and blues women whose singing exudes strength, defiance and sassy wit. She possesses a raspy, lived-in tone, a walloping sense of swing and a dramatic flair that grabs the heart. Emotionally, her singing ranges from a slow burn to a bonfire; interpretively, she always rings true. In London jazz circles, Gibbons has been acquiring a growing chorus of champions since her emergence a decade ago.
Aaron Gillespie – Grace Through The Wandering CD (BEC Recordings)
The former Underoath drummer and current frontman for The Almost has had a heart for worship throughout his entire career, and he was able to release some worship songs on his 2011 solo debut Anthem Song. His second album, Grace Through The Wandering, features new original tracks as well as one or two worship favorites.
Gnaw Their Tongues – Collected Atrocities 2005-2008 2xCD (Crucial Blast)
For nearly a decade, Dutch avant-black/doom entity Gnaw Their Tongues — named after a particularly evocative passage from the Book Of Revelation — has infected the underground with a uniquely disturbing brand of chaotic heaviness. Fusing malevolent, rumbling doom and rabid, noise-damaged aggression with blasts of fearsome orchestral power and industrial pandemonium, and draping these lurching, hellish dirges in an oppressive atmosphere thick with horror and despair, the intensely nightmarish music of Gnaw Their Tongues defies easy categorization. This double-disc anthology gathers essential, out-of-print early recordings from the group’s first three years of existence.
Alois Hába – Complete String Quartets 4xCD (Neos)
With this collection, one of the major pioneers of microtonal composition in the 20th century receives an extensive and long-overdue tribute. Czech composer Alois Hába (1893-73) systematically used tones located in between the chromatic steps regularly used in occidental music. In his manifold contributions to the leading genre of string quartet, completely documented in this edition of four CDs, Hába splits the whole tone into regular half-tones, as well as into quarter, fifth, and sixth tones. The intriguing musical effects resulting from this method are realized here by the Frankfurt-based Hába Quartett.
John Hall – Power [Reissue/1979] CD (Real Gone Music)
Late-’70s, soul-dipped, radio-friendly, socially conscious pop (with an all-star supporting cast that including James Taylor, Carly Simon, Tony Levin and Jon Pousette-Dart).
H Hawkline – In The Pink Of Condition CD/LP (Heavenly/PIAS America)
Although little is known about H Hawkline at this stage, international record collector, occasional DJ partner and hirsute head Andy Votel divulges that he is “from a family lineage that comprises of ‘70s radio DJs and Welsh Horror movie stars.” He continues: “H Hawkline’s own place in the limelight often cascades and intertwines with the likes of his close friends Cate Le Bon [who produced this album], Sweet Baboo and Gruff Rhys. As an adept multi-instrumentalist main vein Huw Evans claws his influences from a broad outernational record collection comprising of Faustian Krautrock, Welsh Damp Wave, Turk Jerk and South American pre-punk.”
H-Burns – Night Moves CD/LP+CD (Vietnam)
H-Burns (real name Renaud Brustlein) was known at first as a traditional singer/songwriter with simple arrangements of acoustic guitar and vocals, a French cousin to Will Oldham and Jason Molina. Then he became the leader of a rough and enraged band who recorded Off The Map (2013), an electric storm of a record, with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago. Calmer, poppier, cleaner, more Californian, but still anxious and sorrowful, Night Moves was produced by the all too rare Rob Schnapf (who has previously worked with Beck, Elliott Smith, and Guided By Voices) with a group including A. A. Bondy (Verbena) and Troy von Balthazar (Chokebore).
Elton John – Legendary Covers ‘69/’70 CD (Cleopatra)
Classic recordings of Elton John on the cusp of his early fame covering a superb collection of hits such as “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” “Spirit In The Sky,” “Come And Get It,” and more.
George Jones/Tammy Wynette – Songs Of Inspiration CD (Real Gone Music)
The first 11 tracks hail from the Jones/Wynette1972 album We Love To Sing About Jesus, while the next 11 songs come from Tammy’s album Inspiration which was released in 1969, the year she married George (and shortly after “Stand By Your Man” made her a superstar). Four single sides from the ‘70s, three by Tammy, one by George, round out the set.
Ray Kennedy – Ray Kennedy [Reissue/1980] CD (Real Gone Music)
The late Ray Kennedy wrote, recorded and toured with a who’s who list of musicians, including Brian Wilson (“Sail On Sailor”), Jeff Beck, Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, Dave Mason, Michael Schenker and many more. He also was the K in the supergroup KGB, the group he formed in the mid-‘70s with Barry Goldberg and Mike Bloomfield. But in 1980, he struck off on his own and signed with the Arc label for this solo album, which was produced by David Foster and boasted such big studio names as Jeff Porcaro, Steve Lukather, and Bill Champlin.
Kid Ink – Full Speed CD (RCA)
New album from the L.A. rapper. Includes collaborations with Usher, R. Kelly, Chris Brown, Trey Songz, Young Thug, and others.
Diana Krall – Wallflower CD/LP (Verve)
A collection of songs from the late-‘60s to present day that inspired Krall in her early years. Includes familiar popular classics like The Mamas And The Papas’ “California Dreaming,” The Eagles’ “Desperado,” Elton John’s “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word,” Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” and others.
Julian Lage – World’s Fair CD (Modern Lore)
Debut solo guitar album from Julian Lage. World’s Fair is so spontaneous and intimate in feel it’s as if this prodigious guitarist had just arrived in your living room, picked up his vintage Martin, and simply started to play. It’s very much a project created in the moment, a dozen acoustic guitar tracks recorded over the course of a mere two days, at Sear Sound in New York City.
Bobby Lance – First Peace/Rollin’ Man [Reissue 1971/1972] CD (Real Gone Music)
Digitally remastered twofer containing a pair of albums from the R&B great. Bobby Lance is best remembered for having co-penned Aretha Franklin’s “The House That Jack Built” among a number of hits for doo wop and girl group acts, but by the early ‘70s, when these two cult classic albums were recorded, he was another in the seemingly endless supply of excellent soul singers recording for the Atlantic family of labels.
Los Breakdowns – Rock N Rollerskates CD (Rum Bar)
For fans of British glam, power pop, and straight up rock & roll.
Mary’s Kids – Crust Soup CD (Bootleg Booze)
Sweden’s most energetic punk rock band strikes back with a unique mix of speed-driven punk rock, snotty rollin’ beats, and dirty power pop tunes – straight from the heart of the garage. Crust Soup is a long awaited compilation of sold out singles, rare B-sides, and an excellent choice of covers by the U.K. Subs, Ike Turner, Martin L. Gore, Zero Boys, Teenage Head, The Dicks, and Finland’s grand masters of rock The Hurriganes.
Michna – Thousand Thursday CD/LP+MP3 (Ghostly International)
New album from the NYC producer. “Thousand Thursday’s lead single, ‘She Exists In My Mind,’ sees Michna embracing hip-hop rhythms with synthpop accessibility. The song locks into a stuttering groove, sounding akin to Michna’s labelmate Com Truise, while adding subtle synthesizer flourishes throughout. Crashing drums erupt in the mix halfway through, adding a new sense of energy to the track and taking the vibe from melancholic to triumphant.” – Consequence Of Sound
Murder By Death – Big Dark Love CD/LP (Bloodshot)
For a band that has built its formidable, near 15-year career around a consideration to tension, release, bombast, ecstasy, and highest-highs vs. lowest-lows, it is something to say that this is Murder By Death’s most dynamic release to date. Sonically here, their signature sound rootsy indie rock, cinematic gothic ballads, and rousing pub rock shout-alongs mix with enlivening new stylistic elements touches of pop, synth-y electronics, and psych rock only hinted at on previous albums.
Franz Nicolay – To Us, The Beautiful! CD/LP (Silver Sprocket)
Franz Nicolay is that multi-instrumentalist and man-about-town peddling a modern vaudeville with full-throated songs and stories that ring shamelessly strident, stentorian and more than a little sentimental. He’s been a member of cabaret-punk circus The World/Inferno Friendship Society, world’s best bar band The Hold Steady and occasional touring member of agit-punks Against Me!; and recorded or performed with everyone from Leftover Crack to The Dresden Dolls. To Us, The Beautiful! is Nicolay’s brand new solo album recorded by J. Robbins and featuring Andrew Seward (of Against Me!) on bass, Ara Babajin (of Leftover Crack and The Slackers) on drums, and NYC guitarist Yoni Gordon.
Niko Is – Brutus CD (Javotti Media)
Brazilian born, Orlando-based hip-hop artist, Niko Is, releases his debut album, Brutus, courtesy of Talib Kweli’s Javotti Media. All production credits on the album are attributed to Niko’s longtime collaborator, Thanks Joey. This is his third body of work, following two mixtapes he released independently with the support of DJ Smallz and Javotti Media. While recording his previous projects, Chill Cosby and Good Blood, Niko simultaneously worked on Brutus.
Nite Fields – Depersonalisation CD/LP (Felte)
Poetic and personal, you need only to listen to the record’s lyrics and atmosphere to understand where the title Depersonalisation comes from. Recurring themes include disassociation of reality and dissipation of love, with Venzin’s understated and at times unsettling vocal delivery almost as hard to forget as the album’s unique mood.
Notwist – Messier Objects CD/2xLP (Alien Transistor)
A compilation of instrumental works performed for theater productions and radio plays.
Madilyn Paige – Madilyn Paige CDEP (Highway)
Paige’s debut EP features a set of tunes notable for their raw emotion and beautiful soundscapes. Madilyn wrote or co-wrote every song on the release, drawing from her own struggles as a teenager and her heartfelt expressions of the joy she finds in life. The first track, “Irreplaceable,” begins with aching introspection and soars to an assurance of self-worth; the following track, “Foolish Game,” was written right after Madilyn left the TV show The Voice and gives insight into the inevitability of discouragement in life and the realization that you can rise above the games that people play.
Pond – Man It Feels Like Space Again CD (Caroline)
New album from the Australian psych band featuring members of Tame Impala. Not to be confused with the band from Portland, Oregon that was on Sub Pop in the ’90s, Australia’s Pond were conceived by two members of Tame Impala’s touring group, guitarist Nick Allbrook and drummer Jay Watson, along with Joseph Orion and Jamie Terry. Like Tame Impala, Pond experiment with psychedelia in their fuzzy, modern brand of glam pop. Vinyl version due March 17.
Radio Birds – Contemporary American Slang CD (Brash)
Indie rock band Radio Birds began as four Atlanta musicians sharing a knack for versatile rock.
Really Red – Teaching You The Fear: The Complete Collection 1978-1985 2xCD (Alternative Tentacles)
Really Red was the backbone of Houston’s underground from the early punk era clear through ’80s hardcore. Like The Dicks in Austin, they directly challenged an insanely violent police department at no small risk to their own lives. Their sound itself incorporated art and post-punk elements, with a musical and lyrical depth on par with bands like Mission of Burma, Wire, or Dead Kennedys. Teaching You The Fear: The Complete Collection 1978-1985 has it all in one double-disc set: The classic Teaching You The Fear LP, the long-lost second album, Rest In Pain, all their sought-after 7-inches, and some unreleased gems to boot. It comes with full history and liner notes via Bond’s extensive interview with David Ensminger (Left Of The Dial). Restored from the original tapes, lovingly re-mastered by Jello Biafra, this is the best all-around sound Really Red has ever had. (Vinyl reissues also available.)
Renaissance – DeLane Lea Studios 1973 CD (Cleopatra)
A captivating live-in-the-studio release from ’70s prog rock icons Renaissance performing to a small gathering of friends at the historic DeLane Lea Studios (used by everyone from The Beatles to Queen, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd).
Ricked Wicky – I Sell The Circus CD/LP (GBV Inc.)
New project from the ever-prolific Robert Pollard. The first thing the listener will notice about Ricked Wicky is that it is the most musically adept project Guided By Voices’ mage Pollard has undertaken in some time, at least since late period-GBV or even Boston Spaceships. I Sell The Circus offers in evidence a series of ball-peen hammers to the brain-pan alongside more delicate, prog-tinged Frippery.
Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Three CD/LP+MP3 (Constellation)
Matana Roberts is one of the most acclaimed, socio-politically conscious and aesthetically intrepid avant-jazz practitioners of the 21st century. The critical accolades for her multi-chapter Coin Coin work place her at the vanguard of stylistic innovation and radicalization, while confirming the deep substance and soul that guides her compositional agenda. Roberts has long employed the phrase “panoramic sound quilting” to describe Coin Coin, and with this third chapter in the series she implements this metaphor most overtly.
Scientist – The Dub Album They Didn’t Want You To Hear! CD/LP (Jah Life/Deeper Knowledge)
Totally killer, previously unreleased dub companion LP to Flick Wilson’s School Days LP. Jah Life was no slacker when it came to mixing dubs, and sat in with Scientist at King Tubby’s or the mixing of many of the classic Junjo/Radics Scientist albums. But more importantly, they also mixed a ton load of dubs for Jah Life himself, many of which, like this album, remain unreleased. Nine out of ten tracks from the Flick Wilson album are dubbed here, and one track from Wayne Jarrett’s 1981 album, What’s Wrong With The Youths.
Ty Segall – Live In San Francisco CD/LP (Castle Face)
By now you should know what you’re in for here: an eardrum-toasting take to tape of the mighty Ty Segall Band, captured during two nights in San Francisco at the barely-pushing-medium-sized venue The Rickshaw Stop. Rowdy crowd, meet stacks of amplifiers-Ty, Charlie, Mikal and Emily came to singe your ears off.
Andy Shauf – The Bearer of Bad News CD (Tender Loving Empire)
Canadian singer/songwriter Andy Shauf offers up simple, laconic yet emotionally resonant tunes with echoes of Elliott Smith and Josh Rouse on his debut album.This expanded US version includes four bonus tracks only available previously as B-sides.
Cody Shuler – Cody Shuler CD (Rural Rhythm)
At 15, Cody Shuler began playing mandolin for legendary banjo master Raymond Fairchild before joining Pine Mountain Railroad in 2006. Now at 29, he releases his very first solo album full of his original compositions.
John Slaughter – Meet In The Middle CD (Bigger Sky Music)
New release from the Texas-based country singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Soft Machine – Switzerland CD (Cuneiform)
On July 4, 1974, Soft Machine were invited to perform at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, sharing the spotlight with such headliners as Billy Cobham’s Spectrum, Larry Coryell’s Eleventh House and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. This alone was evidence of the band being a dominant presence on the now widely popular jazz-rock scene, which had evolved out of the unique and edgy sound that the band had pioneered a few years before. Switzerland 1974 is this performance, captured just a couple of weeks before the studio sessions for Bundles.
Chadwick Stokes – Horse Comanche CD/LP (Ruff Shod)
A typical musician wouldn’t travel across the country by hopping freight trains or playing shows inside fans’ living rooms throughout North America and Europe after selling out arenas like Madison Square Garden, but Chadwick Stokes is anything but your typical musician. Stokes releases his sophomore solo album, The Horse Comanche, which was co-produced by Sam Beam of Iron and Wine and producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Gomez, Iron and Wine).
Storm The Sky – Prominence CD (Rise)
Storm The Sky is a six-piece metalcore outfit based out of Melbourne, Australia.
Svartsyn – Nightmarish Sleep CD (Carnal)
New four-track mini-album from the cult Swedish black metallers.
Swami John Reis & The Black Snake – Modern Surf Classics CD/LP+MP3 (Swami)
Swami John Reis & The Blind Shake pay tribute to the classic surf and rock & roll instrumentals of the ‘60s and update the genre for today’s more extreme, modern surfer. 13 original, modern surf compositions create this tidal wave of booming tom toms, skronking saxophones and a chaotic surge of guitars.
Swarm Of The Sun – The Rifts CD/LP (Version Studio)
Third album from the Swedish metal duo. The Rifts is a bleak and beautiful journey through the innermost landscapes of the heart and soul. A brooding album about losing hope, dreams falling apart, isolation and final moments of clarity and redemption.
TeeFLii – Starr CD (Epic)
TeeFLii’s is an integral part of a new generation of Los Angeles artists — a collection of singers, rappers and producers redirecting and redefining what L.A. music sounds and feels like. With his trilogy of Annie RU O’tay mixtapes, he’s garnered a name for himself at radio and on YouTube.
The Temperance Movement – The Temperance Movement CD (Fantasy)
The Temperance Movement’s authentic blast of Faces meets Stones meets AC/DC blues & rock & roll will please devotees of timeless British invasion songcraft and sharp, masterful musicianship.
Roland Tings – Roland Tings CD/LP (Internasjonal)
Roland Tings is Melbourne, Australia’s jack-track anomaly with a penchant for acid coastlines and nebulous rhythms.
Title Fight – Hyperview CD/LP+MP3 (Anti)
New release from the Pennsylvania punk band. Hyperview is the band’s third full-length release and includes the single “Chlorine” as well as nine other brand new tracks.
Samba Touré – Gandadiko CD/LP+MP3 (Glitterbeat)
Touré is known to search for the seeds of his musical ideas in the assorted stack of CDs he listens to while driving through the chaotic streets of Bamako. The out-of-the-box musical inspirations he has picked up for his new album range from Serge Gainsbourg to Bo Diddley via Tom Petty to funky psychedelia, though of course, all the raw material is instinctually filtered through the traditional melodies and rhythms of his Songhai musical heritage. The songs on Gandadiko are in fact framed by a restless eclecticism. Samba’s guitar playing has never been so anxious, exploratory and rock and roll and his voice has never been as smooth and relaxed.
Two Gallants – We Are Undone CD/LP (ATO)
“San Francisco’s Two Gallants made waves in the mid-aughts under the flag of Omaha-based Saddle Creek records, becoming the soundtrack of Midwest kids (like yours truly) who did their best to not get picked up speeding while driving and listening to music. In 2007, the group took a five-year hiatus before returning with their fourth record, The Bloom and the Blight, on ATO Records. Now, the duo is back with their fifth record.” – Noisey/Vice
U.D.O. – Decadent CD/2xLP (AFM)
15th album from the German metal band featuring vocalist Udo Dirkschneider (ex-Accept).
Various Artists – Apollo Saturday Night/Saturday Night At The Uptown [Reissue/1964] CD (Real Gone Music)
By the early ‘60s, Atlantic Records was starting to gain traction as one of the go-to labels in the world of R&B, thanks to the success of Ray Charles, The Drifters, Ruth Brown, Lavern Baker and The Coasters among others. As the genre was gaining more popularity, the label shrewdly chose to capture the excitement and energy of shows staged on the famous chitlin circuit, a term used to refer to a group of theaters in cities with a significant African-American population. And the two most essential stops on the circuit were The Uptown in Philadelphia and the world famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Atlantic recorded shows at the two venues in 1964, resulting in the two live albums collected on this new twofer.
Various Artists – Bali 1928, Vol. II Tembang Kuna: Songs from an Earlier Time CD (World Arbiter)
The second volume in World Arbiter’s five-disc series of 1928 Balinese vocal recordings continues the first release of these recordings since they were first pressed to 78 rpm discs in 1929, the only commercially released recordings of music made in Bali before World War II.
Various Artists – Constant Sorrow: A Tribute To Ralph Stanley CD (Diamondisc)
Some of the greatest singers in country and bluegrass pay tribute to the legend, including: Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Marty Raybon, Rhonda Vincent and many others.
Various Artists – One-Derful! Collection: Mar-V-Lus Records CD/2xLP (Secret Stash)
The second installment of the One-derful! Collection focuses on Mar-V-Lus, the teen-oriented imprint of this legendary R&B label group. This series marks the first in-depth study of what was once one of Chicago’s most prominent African- American run labels. 25 tracks including classic dance numbers from Alvin Cash, pure harmonies from The Du-Ettes, soulful funk from Josephine Taylor, aching deep ballads from Johnny Sayles, teen laments from Miss Madeline & The Young Folk, and Detroit influenced uptempo floor fillers from Joseph Moore, The Blenders, and The Ulti-mations, plus 10 tracks that were never issued.
Butch Walker – Afraid Of Ghosts CD (Dangerbird)
The guitarist/producer’s new album was produced by Ryan Adams at Pax Am Studios in L.A. and includes guest contributions by Johnny Depp and Bob Mould. With gritty hints of folk, pop and rock, Afraid Of Ghosts weaves a journey through life, love, death and everything in between. Vinyl version due February 24.
Kenny Wheeler – Songs For Quintet CD (ECM)
Kenny Wheeler (1930-2014) was an unassuming giant of modern jazz, a daring improviser, and a writer of many beautiful and slyly unorthodox tunes. His recorded legacy includes albums now regarded as contemporary jazz classics such as Gnu High, Deer Wan, and Music For Large And Small Ensembles. In December 2013 he recorded what was to be his last album. Songs for Quintet was recorded in London’s Abbey Road Studio with four of Kenny s favorite players: Stan Sulzmann, John Parricelli, Chris Laurence and Martin France.
Tony Joe White – The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings 2xCD (Real Gone Music)
This double-disc collection from the Louisiana-born legend rounds up all three of the classic albums he recorded for Warner Bros. in the early ‘70s (Tony Joe White, The Train I’m On, Home Made Ice Cream), all of which are out of print and costing a mint online-plus non-LP singles.
White Lion – Anthology ’83-’89 2xCD (Cleopatra)
Double-disc set of rare gems from the early years of blockbuster metal outfit. Features the original studio versions of “Wait,” “When The Children Cry” and “Lady Of The Valley” which were later re-recorded for the band s monster major label debut, Pride. Also includes rare, high quality studio demos of tracks from Mane Attraction and Big Game, including songs that didn’t make the final cut of those albums.
Wolfheart – Winterborn CD (Spinefarm)
A composer, multi-instrumentalist and a veritable metal scene unto himself, Tuomas Saukkonen is the mastermind of bands like Before The Dawn, Dawn Of Solace, Black Sun Aeon, Routasielu and a slew of others. Saukkonen is the type of guy to whom you can give a rock, or a piece of drainage pipe, just to see that 15 minutes later he’s somehow managed to tune and play a song with it.
Dennis Young – Reel To Real CD (Staubgold)
Dennis Young is best known as the marimba player/percussionist for the legendary early ’80s NYC band Liquid Liquid. Reel To Real is a lovingly assembled archive collection of his rare and unreleased solo recordings from 1982-1983.
This Week’s Vinyl Exclusives:
Liz Allbee/Burkhard Beins – Mensch Mensch Mensch LP (Alt.Vinyl)
Electro-acoustic explorations by these two Berlin-based composer-performers, who draw on musique concrète, free improv, noise and industrial, utilizing synth, field recordings, trumpet and percussion.
The Ataris – So Long, Astoria [Reissue/2003] LP (Kung Fu)
This is The Ataris’ first and only album on Columbia Records, having previously been signed to independent punk label Kung Fu Records. It peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified gold status. The album’s title song alludes to the 1985 film The Goonies, which is set in Astoria, Oregon.
James Blackshaw – Apologia LP (Lapsus)
Vinyl edition of Blackshaw’s first solo guitar recording, which he self-released in 2003 on CDR in an edition of 30. (New album Summoning Suns due February 17.)
Zac Brown Band – Greatest Hits So Far… 2xLP+CD (ATO)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. 11 of the 14 tracks are former #1 singles. Includes “Chicken Fried,” “Whatever It Is,” “Free” and more.
William S. Burroughs – Nothing Here Now But The Recordings [Reissue/1981] LP (Dais)
Tape recorder experiments featuring Burroughs’ spoken word cut-ups — collaged field recordings from his travels and his flirtations with EVP recording techniques, pioneered by Latvian intellectual Konstantins Raudive. Genesis P-Orridge and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson (then of Throbbing Gristle renown) spent countless hours compiling various edits, each collection showcasing his sensitive ear and keen experimental prowess for audio anomaly within technical limitations.
Cal And The Calories – Bastard In A Yellow Suit 7” (Total Punk)
Lumpy took the world by storm in 2014, and 2015 will be the year of his weasel faced alter ego, Cal. While Lumpy sings about ghouls, and goo Cal is much more interested in lunchmeat and soft drinks. A no good smart mouth in a yellow suit squeaking out nasally garbage punk of the highest order.
Lyn Collins – Think (About It) [Reissue/1972] LP (Get On Down)
James Brown had several incredibly talented “funky divas” in his late ‘60s and early ‘70s stable, including Vicki Anderson and Marva Whitney. But as great as those two powerhouse singers were, Lyn Collins was the strongest hit maker of that funky JB era. Her strong voice and commanding stage presence — which earned her the nicknames “The Female Preacher” and “Mama Feelgood” — quickly proved to be a potent addition to the People Records universe. In the spring of 1972 her second single, the driving and ridiculously funky “Think (About It)” hit the R & B music world like a ton of bricks.
Cornershop – Hold On It’s Easy LP+MP3 (Ample Play)
In 1993 Cornershop went into the studio to record their first album proper. Given the praise the album is getting now, especially in America, it’s hard to believe the group had to dispense with the producer half way through, but with the financial restraints of being based on a small label in the basement of the Rough Trade Record Shop off Portobello Road they had to persevere to get it finished. This was the Riot Grrrl era and Cornershop were the only all-male band to be a part of it. Hold On It’s Easy is an instrumental, easy listening re-make of their 1993 album, Hold On It Hurts.
Jeff Cowell – Lucky Strikes & Liquid Gold [Reissue/1975] LP (Numero)
Ten road-weary tales from the wrong side of outlaw country. Jeff Cowell may have huffed the same narcotic air as Townes Van Zandt and David Allan Coe, but hunkered far from the Nashville city limits, nary a Cash or Paycheck would drunkenly slur through his tunes. Recorded in 1975, Lucky Strikes & Liquid Gold is an isolated, backwoods loner epic, top-loaded with odes to hitch-hiking and rambling the crumbling Michigan countryside of Cowell’s hard-drinking youth.
Crime – Crime 7×7”+CD (Munster)
Crime compiles the complete recorded legacy of the band fans have come to refer to as San Francisco’s first and only rock and roll band. It includes three facsimile reproductions of Crime’s original singles and four more 7”s featuring ten tracks recorded from 1977 through ’79 and unreleased at the time, among them a “Be Bop a Lula/Peggy Sue” medley unavailable elsewhere until now. The records are accompanied by a 20-page booklet with an extensive band interview by Michael Lucas, photos and memorabilia, plus a special text written by film director and Crime fan Jeff Feuerzeig (The Devil and Daniel Johnston). Includes a CD with all 16 tracks.
Davidians – Night Terrors 7” (Sorry State)
Ex-Double Negative, offering a gritty, off-kilter sound. Dark music for dark times.
Rhodri Davies – And Air Swept Clean Of All Distance LP (Alt.Vinyl)
The radical, virtuoso harpist from Wales continuing his extended deconstruction of the instrument’s historical, cultural connotations, employing E-Bow and other preparations to make the harp sing, chatter and convulse in a way it has rarely done elsewhere (perhaps best compared to Derek Bailey’s treatment of the guitar or Okkyung Lee with the cello). Rivetingly tortuous and life affirming. HQ-180gm green vinyl.
Rhodri Davies – Pedwar 4xLP+MP3 (Alt.Vinyl)
Definitive solo career retrospective of this seminal improvisational harpist—a mighty, almost unparalleled treatise on the harp within free-jazz and free-improv contexts, from the prepared explorations of Trem (Confront 2002), through the shimmering microtonal drone tunings of Over Shadows (Confront 2007), to the visceral metallic tone of Wound Response (Alt.Vinyl 2012) and the adroitly complex, yet almost playfully folkwise patter of An Air Swept Clean Of All Distance (Alt.Vinyl 2014). All platters are HQ-180gm (three on color vinyl). Includes fliers, photographs, posters, printed scores, and essays.
André De Saint-Obin – Sound On Sound [Reissue/1982] LP+CD (Plinkity Plonk)
First-time reissue of the debut album by this Dutch postpunk multi-instrumentalist who subsequently vanished as suddenly as he appeared in the early 1980s. Lots of guitars, a hammering rhythm machine, and lyrics about desolation, drugs, suicide. All thirteen tracks from the original cassette (Ding Dong 1982) on the LP, repeated on the CD plus five bonus tracks.
Devour – Devour LP (Sorry State)
Devour recalls the best of the mid-‘80s trend of hardcore bands “going metal.”
Aaron Dilloway – The Beauty Bath LP+MP3 (Hanson)
“[L]ow-level battlefield tectonics and the sound of smeared and tortured magnetic tape [comes] over like a rusty, industrial-scale take on classic 20th century minimalism. Some of Dilloway’s most barbarously vacated drone work here, with intense low-level fireworks reduced to inchoate shadow plays and rolling, planetary scale hypnotics. Then there are moments of glissing, echoing metal tones coming out of silence, suddenly morphing into sad feedback chorales à la Eliane Radigue’s early workings but with a crude, lonely aspect that is extremely affecting.” — Volcanic Tongue
Free Pizza – Boston, MA LP+MP3 (Feeding Tube)
There’s a real southwest ’80s quality to many of the moves on Free Pizza’s debut LP. There are hints of post-first-LP Meat Puppets, Angst, and even The Texas Instruments lurking in the record’s grooves.
The Go-Betweens – G Stands For Go-Betweens Volume 1 4xLP+4xCD (Domino)
G Stands For Go-Betweens Volume 1 documents the band’s origins in four LP, four CDs and a 112-page book, featuring photos and extensive liner notes. This volume documents them from 1978 to 1984 with vinyl repressings of their first three studio albums (Send Me A Lullaby, Before Hollywood and Spring Hill Fair). It also collects their early 7” output on a fourth LP entitled The First Five Singles. Additionally, the set comes with four CDs of rare and unreleased demos, radio sessions and a complete live concert radio broadcast from 1982.
The Gooch Palms – Sleep Disorder 7” (Urinal Cake)
Brand new double A-side from Newcastle, Australia’s own The Gooch Palms. They play catchy-as-hell pop music for the underdogs of this world, singing songs about bogan life in a small industrial town on an isolated continent in a far away hemisphere. Not to mention a lot of songs about outerspace.
Phil Julien – Trace LP (Harbinger Sound)
Phil Julian is a UK-based sound artist, composer, and improviser active since the late 1990s, with a prolific output under both his Cheapmachines alias and his own name. His work encompasses sonic textures ranging from harsh squalls of noise to hyper-minimalistic timbres and drones.
Keiji Haino/Jim O’Rourke/Oren Ambarchi – Tea Time For Those Determined To Completely Exhaust Every Bit Of This Body They’ve Been Given LP (Black Truffle)
This, their sixth release, presents the entire second set of the trio’s March 2013 concert at SuperDeluxe (the first set is available on Black Truffle as Only Wanting to Melt Beautifully Away Is It A Lack Of Contentment That Stirs Affection Tor Those Things Said To Be As Of Yet Unseen). While the first set of the evening saw the trio branching out into new instrumental configurations, here they return to their signature line-up of guitar, bass and drums.
Hama – Torodi LP (Sahel Sounds)
Futuristic synthesizer interpretations of Tuareg folklore. Pulsing keys, pitch bends, and crashing drum loops combine in a singular sound from underground Niamey based composer Hama. Eclectic convergence of Maghrebi pop, Tuareg guitar, and Detroit techno, transmitting Tuareg guitar into the 21st Century.
Hiss Golden Messenger – Southern Grammar LP+MP3 (Merge)
“This three-song collection that we’re calling Southern Grammar is good for a few good reasons. It gives the song ‘Brother, Do You Know The Road?’ — formerly an orphan tune with no fixed address — a proper physical home. It also offers up a song called ‘He Wrote The Book’ that was a near-casualty from the Lateness Of Dancers sessions. Incidentally — and this I didn’t realize until we had gathered the material for this record – ‘Brother, Do You Know The Road?’ and ‘He Wrote The Book’ share a lyric.” — M.C. Taylor
Iron Chic/Low Culture – Split 7” (Dead Broke)
Iron Chic return with a split 7″ with Low Culture — and both bands bring new exclusive tracks to this release.
Juan & Carmelle – Wearing Leather Wearing Fur LP+MP3 (Captured Tracks)
“Though toeing the gum-smacking snark of his mainstay band The Beets, the crumpled folk and sketched pop [of Juan Wauters] turns inward-a missing link between Daniel Johnston and Jonathan Richman.” — Brooklyn Magazine.
Tori Kudo – Mu Ji Ge 7” (No Label)
A song by Korean psychedelic rock legends Sanullim by Tori Kudo of Maher Shalal Hash Bas, Chie Ozeki (Maher Shalal Hash Baz), Tsukasa Takahashi (Che Shizu, Maher Shalal Hash Baz) and Mikiko Suzuki, in solidarity with and support for Japan’s Korean community, currently facing growing hostility from the Japanese right-wing.
Law$uits – Future Failure LP (Already Dead)
The sounds Future Failure pound, slam, and (to say the least) are post-punk. Separating the chaff and wheat of emotions, the album is that new house on the block that still has traces of cobwebs on the old sentiments.
Heather Leigh – Nightingale LP (Golden Lab)
After an intense one-on-one dialogue with Heather Leigh regarding Golden Lab Records’ mission to present beautiful records that showcase styles of guitar in all their extremities, Golden Lab is delighted to deliver what is, without question, an absolutely blinding example of just such a record. Leigh recorded Nightingale direct to cassette, delivering one of those performances in which the pedal steel rages so hard that the vocals never have the opportunity to even make an appearance.
Louder – Louder LP (Sorry State)
Debut LP from these Japanese punk rockers. Augmenting the Buzzcocks/Adverts style melodic punk with some of the wild garage sounds of bands like Registrators and Teengenerate.
Antoni Maiovvi – Avrokosm LP (Not Not Fun)
The strain of synthesizer cosmosis harvested by Bristol-born Europe-roving psycho-maestro Antoni Maiovvi tends towards the longform and texturally opulent. Past dalliances in horror giallo and intergalactic disco have demonstrated his capacity for mood sculpture as well as dancefloor pleasure nodes, but his latest LP, Avrokosm, assumes an almost ethno-musicological perspective of a distant desert planet. Swirling sand dunes of sound, cold tonal winds, and veiled loops sweep in across pulsing, runic techno patterns.
Mamuthones/Evil Blizzard – Collisions Vol. 4 LP (Rocket Recordings)
Mamuthones, noted for their position in the burgeoning Italian occult psychedelic movement, build their sound on circular, repetitive motifs and take their name from ancient death-masked figures known for joining ritualistic processions and haunting the imaginations of the Sardinian locals. Here they deliver an upbeat and effervescent sound equally damaged by the dark alchemy of early Can, the sci-fi swagger of Chrome, and the magpie spirit of Eno and Byrne’s My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. Evil Blizzard, the mysterious and ghoulish masked voyagers from a land of nightmare (via Preston, Lancashire), possess a markedly similar psychological makeup, and have been raising eyebrows in the live arena since 2011 with their queasy, grand, Guignol-tinged style of repetitive and intense dementia, existing on a psychic wavelength informed by the howling dread of Metal Box era PiL, the sonic overload of Hawkwind, and a taste for a very British type of disquieting absurdity.
Midnite Snaxxx – Don’t Wake Me Up b/w Pull Down The Shades 7” (Total Punk)
Following the release of three sold out singles, and an LP on Red Lounge Records, Midnite Snaxxx have been pretty quite this last year and a half. Don’t let their silence fool you. They haven’t lost a step, and come kicking back onto the scene with two short blasts that let you know they’ve spent the downtime sharpening their sweet tooth. The pop hooks are still front and center, but are backed up with a much meaner and tighter punch than when we last checked in with them. B-side is a killer cover of The Enemy’s “Pull Down The Shades.”
Mdou Moctar – Anar LP (Sahel Sounds)
Spaced out autotune from Niger. Tuareg guitar accompanied with loping drum machines and vocal plug ins, interpreted via the filter of Bollywood influenced Hausa pop. Mdou Moctar’s debut studio recording from 2008 was never officially released but widely distributed via the cellphone file sharing networks of the Sahara. A monumental record sonically, but also as one of the first modern electronic adaptations of Tuareg guitar.
Obnox – Boogalou Reed LP (12xU)
Obnox is the latest and perhaps greatest project of Cleveland multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Lamont ‘Bim’ Thomas (he’s also drummed for Bassholes, This Moment In Black History, and others). “Boogalou Reed is a blown-out rock-and-soul record that was born in a crossfire hurricane while the Velvet Underground’s ‘I Heard Her Call My Name’ and Pere Ubu’s ‘Final Solutio’ spun on dual turntables. Boasting the best album title of 2015, Boogalou Reed is a lean noise-rock monster, and it’s only a matter of time before Neil Young Crosbys his Nashed jeans over the J Mascis-ized cover of ‘Ohio.’” – The Stranger/Slog
Octagrape – Major Mayor Maxion Marble LP (Sounds Familyre)
Take one-half of Trumans Water mod I (Glen Galloway and Ely Moyal), add Vytear noise-dub head Jason Begin, send them on four quick tours and a trip to Gonerfest, add Alexander Dausche on the most electric bass… and what have you? A unit with road warrior ears, poor bleeding hands, and a strange desire to cover four of the wild jams they treasured the most on those all-night drives through Wyoming and Pennsylvania. Marble color vinyl.
Ontario Hospital – Future Ready 12” (Opal Tapes)
Ontario Hospital is a collaboration between Dave Foster (Huren, Teste, etc.) and Rich Oddie (Orphx, Oureboros, etc.). Future Ready is a four-track EP that conflates their histories in noise, power electronics, industrial techno, and rhythmic noise and marries all methods together into a ritual assault.
Charlemagne Palestine/Rhys Chatham – Youuu + Mee = Weee LP (Sub Rosa)
First part of the first recorded collaboration featuring Palestine on Bosendorfer piano, Yamaha organ and voice, and Chatham on trumpet, loop pedal, and electric guitar.
Platinum Boys – Candy 7” (Windian)
This single features more tone than you can shake a stick at, getting you prepared for their 12″ out on Dusty Medical later this year.
Porcupine Tree – On The Sunday Of Life [Reissue/1992] 2xLP (Kscope)
Fourth vinyl repress of Porcupine Tree’s 1992 album.
Problems That Fix Themselves – Which Is Worse 12” (Already Dead)
The majority of the seven pieces that comprise Problems Fix Themselves’ third proper album display a marked emphasis on melody and structure, with only the closing track containing the freeform assault on the senses with which the band have pummeled audiences throughout the Midwest over the past few years.
Really Red – Teaching You The Fear [Reissue/1981] LP+MP3 (Alternative Tentacles)
Really Red – Rest In Pain [Reissue/1985] LP+MP3 (Alternative Tentacles)
Really Red – New Strings For Old Puppets [Reissue/1987] 7”+MP3 (Alternative Tentacles)
Really Red was the backbone of Houston’s underground from the early punk era clear through ’80s hardcore. Like The Dicks in Austin, they directly challenged an insanely violent police department at no small risk to their own lives. Their sound itself incorporated art and post-punk elements, with a musical and lyrical depth on par with bands like Mission of Burma, Wire, or Dead Kennedys. Teaching You The Fear is the much-loved first album that’s been unavailable since Empty Records reissued it ten years ago. Rest In Pain is the long-lost second album that hardly any Really Red fans back then knew existed. New Strings For Old Puppets compiles all of the band’s rare and sought-after 7” releases, plus early previously unreleased tracks.
Regular F**ked Up People/Boring People – Split 7” (Already Dead)
Blues tones, grunge riffs, harmonies, and groovy drumming from Chicago and Michigan.
The Remu Rau Quartet – An Evening At The Cafe Africana [Reissue/1961] LP (Sonorama)
Impossible to find hard bop LP From the collection of Elsie Bianchi comes this exciting Swiss jazz album, originally released 1961 in a micro run of approximately 150 copies on a private label. Composer, arranger and vibraphone player Remo Rau (1925-1987) recorded it directly “on the spot” with at the legendary Cafe Africana in Zurich.
Riel – Riel/Ep De Zombies LP (Alt.Vinyl)
Mora Riel’s dissonant chords and low, almost bass-like guitar sound fuses with the frenetic setbacks of German Loretti’s drums. Tuneful chaos that hits hard, recorded live in the studio in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Seeers – Without Lites 7” (Windian)
From the east coast melting pot of Norfolk, VA, The Seeers aim to blend all the Fat Wreck you loved in your teenage years with all the drugs you’ve been doing since then—from the quick sales of the first press, better make a decision to pick this up with that addled brain of yours before its too late.
Shuko – For The Love Of It LP (Peripherique)
For the Love Of It is the debut album by German hit-producer Shuko. After working in the industry for over ten years and having collaborated with a wide range of artists including The Clipse, Tyga, Saigon, Rakim, Keith Murray, Jedi Mind Tricks, and more, he now releases his first and only producer album. Features contributions by Masta Ace, R.A. The Rugged Man, B-Real (of Cypress Hill), CL Smooth, Vinnie Paz Evidence (of Dilated Peoples), Grand Puba, Blu, Talib Kweli and more.
Sick People – In My Nightmares 7” (Sorry State)
Second EP from this hardcore punk band out of Brisbane, Australia. Big, mean, and menacing. Gnarly, oi!-infected hardcore, one of the few straight-ahead Aussie hardcore punk groups making it happen in a real way.
Size Queen/Jane La Onda – The Spectacle/Buy Buy Buy LP+MP3 (Feeding Tube)
“Size Queen presents a suite of synth-pocked bedroom pop that sounds to me like the dream-state of a young girl whose favorite robot dog has run away. Maybe for good. Gently blabby munchkins try to convince her that everything is gonna be okay, and she kinda swallows it. I thought it was a little weird when the dog started singing what I took—at first—to be a Sonny & Cher cover, but Size Queen didn’t seem to notice. Yet, she yearns. Jane’s side, which was previously released as a Feeding Tube cassette, is cleaner and clearer in its poppic aspirations. Driving busy synth lines are woven into bright vocals that alternate between robo-talk and gal-chorale. The results are not unlike certain new wave giantesses of ages past, but their shadows are so frightening I cannot recall any of their true names.” – Byron Coley
Skemata – Skemata LP (Sorry State)
Debut LP from North Carolina’s reigning kings of hardcore. The riffs are more technical and catchy, the vocals are more brutal, and the rhythm section is more pummeling.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Euclid LP (Western Vinyl)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Kaitlyn’s solo debut Euclid (primarily written on a Buchla Music Easel synthesizer) was inspired by her love of mbira music, early electronic music pioneers like Laurie Spiegel, Oskar Sala, and Terry Riley, and Euclidian geometry. Each of the first six songs on Euclid were initially structured using Euclidian geometry, an idea which Smith explored while attending a class at the San Francisco Conservatory.
Soundtrack – The Godfather [Reissue/1972] LP (Capitol)
Soundtrack [John Williams] – Jaws [Reissue/1975] LP (Capitol)
Soundtrack [John Williams] – E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial [Reissue/1982] LP (Capitol)
Soundtrack – Pulp Fiction [Reissue/1994] LP (Geffen)
Soundtrack – Good Will Hunting [Reissue/1997] LP (Capitol)
Classic soundtracks back in print on vinyl.
Rod Stewart – Rod Steward 5xLP (Mercury)
Rod Stewart’s best! A five-LP box set of Rod Stewart’s first five studio albums remastered on HQ-180gm audiophile vinyl. Includes: An Old Raincoat Won’t Let You Down,(released in the US under the title The Rod Stewart Album), Gasoline Alley, Every Picture Tells A Story, Never A Dull Moment and Smiler.
S U R V I V E – S U R V I V E LP (Holodeck/540)
Finally, the homecoming has arrived for the 2012 debut LP from Austin-based electronic quartet S U R V I V E. With a new US vinyl-reissue bringing life back to this modern classic, the band’s full spectrum of instrumental synthesizer composition is now available on LP domestically for the first time. S U R V I V E’s dedicated and comprehensive approach to sonic-arrangement is the result of the band’s uncompromising standards of quality spread across hundreds of hours in the band’s own Omniverse Studios integrating a vast collection of both antique and modern synthesizers.
Thee Speaking Canaries – Platter Base Must Be Constructed Of Moon Rock LP+MP3 (Chunklet)
Before he was known as the drummer/octopus of Don Caballero, Damon Che had a one-man project called Thee Speaking Canaries. At the beginning of the ‘90s, before he recorded his debut, The Joy Of Wine, he composed and performed an entire record’s worth of material. Now, 24 years later, we get to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Playing all instruments and with a creative zeal that’s part Sonic Youth and part Van Halen, Platter Base serves as an essential release for fans of the Canaries, Don Caballero or just plain guitar histrionics.
Tolerance – Anonym [Reissue/1979] LP (No Label)
Sketchy reissue of the debut album originally released by Vanity in 1979. Masami Yoshikawa and Junko (no relation) grind wild and varied effected guitar over lots of nearly ECM-ish acoustic flourishes, sounding almost random and Dada-esque. Such texture-and-rhythm experiments bask in the outsider glow of idiosyncratic glee, akin to a dilaudid-dosed Keith Jarrett playing along to crude Thomas Brinkmann record cutting-beat discs and a dog that swallowed a guitar played by a barbwire criminal.
Tsembla – Terror & Healing LP (New Images)
Tsembla, aka Marja Johansson, is a Swedish-Finnish artist operating out of Turku, Finland. She’s an active worker in the musical activities of her hometown and a member of the Kemialliset Ystävät ensemble. Arranging sounds from manipulated samples, electronics and objects, Tsembla’s music is rich in detail, riding on waves of warped melodies, fluttering rhythms, abstract voices and mutating textures.
Various Artists – Back From The Grave Volume 9 LP (Crypt)
Various Artists – Back From The Grave Volume 10 LP (Crypt)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. ‘60s garage nuggets from The Warlocks, The Raevins, The Emeralds, The Why-Nots, The Turncoats, The Shakles, Knoll Allen & The Noble Savages, James Bond & The Agents, The Four, Orphans, It’s Them, Nobody’s Children, The Hotbeats, GMC & The Arcells, The Hard Times, John English III, The Expressions, and others.
Various Artists – Music Of Tanzania 2xLP (Sublime Frequencies)
Music of Tanzania is a spectacular collection of field recordings gathered by Laurent Jeanneau between December 1999 and March 2000. This debut volume of Sublime Frequencies’ exploration of indigenous Tanzanian music compiles sacred and profane songs and dances of the Hadza, Datoga, and Makonde people.
Victor Villareal – Sleep Talk LP (Joyful Noise)
Best known as the pioneering guitarist behind the legendary groups Cap’n Jazz and Owls, Victor Villarreal is one of the most inventive guitarists of modern indie-rock. Sleep Talk is Villarreal’s second proper solo effort, recorded live in the studio, with Victor simultaneously performing guitar, percussion and vocals.
Wildhoney – Sleep Through It LP (Deranged)
Wildhoney formed in late 2011, aiming to write pop songs with the energy and malcontent of hardcore punk, but without its entrenched masculinity. The five-piece has since become one of the loudest—and sweetest—bands in its hometown of Baltimore. Sleep Through It expands on two excellent 7”s and one cassette EP, drawing influences from ‘60s girl groups, ‘80s post punk, indie pop, and shoegaze.
Zun Zun Egui – Shackles Gift LP (Bella Union)
Released last week on CD – now available on vinyl. Math in the back seat, math in the front; math as a party in the USA; math as punk rock. Zun Zun Egui have all possible points of contention covered, using their intricate, overly technical guitar riffage and perfectly calculated percussion to provide counsel on a record that’s otherwise loose, loud and proud.
Cassettes:
Profligate – Finding The Floor (Not Not Fun)
Recently released on vinyl – now available on cassette. Philly trawler Noah Anthony’s pulverized industrial designs under the black Profligate flag have grown increasingly caustic and cracked, culminating in the eight misery beat clawhammers comprising his sophomore full-length, Finding The Floor.
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