November Program Titles Released This Week:
Allah-Las – Lahs CD/LP (Mexican Summer)
On their fourth LP, drummer Matt Correia, bassist Spencer Dunham, and guitarists Miles Michaud and Pedrum Siadatian turn their collective gaze outward and toward the horizon. Simply titled Lahs (a reference to a common misspelling of the band’s name), their new release finds the band turning in their most cohesive and ambitious work yet. The Allah Las seem to be transmitting from a place not found on any map. Those familiar with the band’s work will recognize their skillful melding of melodies and moods, but through that lens we see them venturing into new, exciting territories. Indeed, their growth not just as songwriters, but as performers, arrangers, and producers – is clearly audible. Opener “Holding Pattern” conveys what the title suggests; you’ve almost arrived, you can see the ground, but you’re not quite there yet. Airy, ethereal harmonies chant the title, holding you in suspense – and eventually give way to an entirely different mood just before the fade – as if telling the listener “we’ve landed safely. [Indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Big Thief – Two Hands CD/LP+MP3 (4AD)
Big Thief had only just finished work on their recently released third album, U.F.O.F. – “the celestial twin” – days before in a cabin studio in the woods of Washington State. Now it was time to birth U.F.O.F.’s sister album – “the earth twin” – Two Hands. 30 miles west of El Paso, surrounded by 3,000 acres of pecan orchards and only a stone’s throw from the Mexican border, Big Thief (a.k.a. Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik, and James Krivchenia) set up their instruments as close together as possible to capture their most important collection of songs yet. Where U.F.O.F. layered mysterious sounds and effects for levitation, Two Hands grounds itself on dried-out, cracked desert dirt. In sharp contrast to the wet environment of the U.F.O.F. session, the southwestern Sonic Ranch studio was chosen for its vast desert location. The 105-degree weather boiled away any clinging memories of the green trees and wet air of the previous session. Two Hands had to be completely different – an album about the Earth and the bones beneath it. The songs were recorded live with almost no overdubs. All but two songs feature entirely live vocal takes, leaving Adrianne’s voice suspended above the mix in dry air, raw and vulnerable as ever.
The Building – Petra CD/LP (Concord)
The Building’s remarkable and intimate new album Petra was written, produced, and performed by acclaimed multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Anthony LaMarca, also known for his role as guitarist in The War On Drugs. Petra – which shares its name with the LaMarcas’ beloved German Shepherd – is a bare-boned, often brutally blunt, new work from a gifted musician-songwriter forced by fate to confront life’s hardest truths and consequences. LaMarca had just begun recording the album when a spell of intense back pain led to his being diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Originally, LaMarca was diagnosed in the middle of making his first as The Building, Reconciliation. He immediately started treatment, which brought the disease into complete remission. His disease relapsed in 2018 while in the middle of making Petra. The experience inspired a second meaning to the album’s title, the acronym P-E-T-R-A, or “Peace’s Eternal Truth Renews All”. Moreover, LaMarca’s physical struggle has resulted in the most powerful work of The Building’s still-growing canon, a vivid series of deeply personal songs such as “Purifer” and the LP-opening “Transformed”, made even more impactful through strikingly simple arrangements and raw, heartfelt performance.
The Dead South – Sugar & Joy CD/LP (Six Shooter)
A rock band without a drummer, a bluegrass band without a fiddler. To The Dead South, a self-styled four-piece string band from Regina, Saskatchewan, it’s about how, not what, you play. Their combination of cello, mandolin, guitar and banjo has all the hallmarks of a group tuned to bygone times, but with their signature sleight of hand, The Dead South find distinctly modern bathos in this old-time rigging. A Bauhaus-via-bluegrass stomp and minor-key mandolin tremolo of “Alabama People”, which finds the universal in the hyper-regional, could not have been written anywhere else but at The Nutthouse. With equal parts empathy and fear, The Dead South have channeled their experience in the fraught, beautiful south into an outsider, observational anthem. The ongoing question of what is, or is not, bluegrass music, occasionally froths up in The Dead South’s wake as they speed on to the next gig. Cue “Blue Trash”, a song built on a perfectly bluegrassy banjo lick about…not being a bluegrass band. “Blue Trash” is a love letter – not apologia – to the purists, for The Dead South come in peace.
Elbow – Giants Of All Sizes CD/LP (Verve)
Elbow’s eighth studio album, Giants Of All Sizes, lyrically takes in moments of deep personal loss whilst reflecting its times by confronting head-on the specters of injustice and division not just in the UK but across the world. It is a record that could only have been made in the 21st Century. Given such bleak, if ultimately redeemed, subject matter, it is also, perversely, the most relaxed record which Elbow have made in some time. Here, each band member extended their usual process of working on demos alone and followed their vision to its conclusion rather than, as Potter puts it, “taking the edges off things to find compromise.” In tandem with this, they returned to playing live in the studio, encouraged to experiment with of analogue equipment, giving songs a looser, more live feel. The result is a starkly dynamic record which Garvey describes as “sonically unabashed.” Whilst closer “Weightless” has the gossamer melodies and communal harmonies for which the band have latterly been known, Giants Of All Sizes echoes earlier Elbow work at times whilst also breaking new ground.
Kim Gordon – No Home Record CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
Multi-disciplinary artist Kim Gordon’s first solo album, No Home Record, follows the recent opening of her solo exhibition She Bites Her Tender Mind at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) in Dublin and Lo-Fi Glamour at Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. The album’s title is a nod to the French-Belgian director Chantal Akerman’s film No Home Movie. Despite the exhaustive nature of her résumé, the most reliable aspect of Gordon’s music may be its resistance to formula. Songs discover themselves as they unspool, each one performing a test of the medium’s possibilities and limits. Her command is astonishing, but Gordon’s artistic curiosity remains the guiding force behind her music. It makes sense that this “American idea” (as Gordon says on the agitated rock track “Air BnB”) of purchasing utopia permeates the record, as no place is this phenomenon more apparent than L.A., where Gordon was born and recently returned to after several lifetimes on the East Coast. It was a move precipitated by several seismic shifts in her personal life and undoubtedly plays a role in No Home Record’s fascination with transience.
Grade 2 – Graveyard Island CD/LP (Hellcat)
Grade 2 is a UK punk band from the Isle of Wight, formed in 2013. The young three-piece is made up of Sid Ryan (bass & lead vocals), Jack Chatfield (guitar & vocals) and Jacob Hull (drums). Their music can be described as a classic punk sound, hard and fast whilst also including melodic guitar and vocal parts. Influence taken from classics such as The Clash, The Jam and The Stranglers. While touring, the band met Lars Frederiksen (Rancid) who took an interest in Grade 2 and ultimately played some of their music videos to his bandmate Tim Armstrong. Armstrong liked what he saw. “He knows exactly what he wants. In the studio, he wanted to capture how we sound onstage, so we were tracking songs live with a scratch vocal,” Sid Ryan said on working with Armstrong.
Cody Jinks – After The Fire CD (Late August)
Cody Jinks follows up his 2018 album Lifers with After The Fire, the first to be released via the Texas songwriter’s own label. A former thrash-metal singer, Jinks has become one of outlaw country’s most popular new stars, amassing a passionate base of fans who gravitate to his blue-collar brand of lived-in country music and his fierce DIY aesthetic. “I tried to play the game a long time ago, I tried to do the clean-cut thing,” Jinks told Rolling Stone of his indie approach. “I talked to some people who wanted to shelve me for a developmental deal, but it just wasn’t a route I could see myself going down. Too much hand tying.” [Vinyl edition due November 15.]
Kadavar – For The Dead Travel Fast CD/LP (Nuclear Blast)
Aptly entitled For The Dead Travel Fast after German gothic poet Gottfried August Bürger, Kadavar’s doomed fifth record is a perilous journey into the land of the dead, a foray into the bleakest corners of our minds. A heavy, slow-paced, throbbing force of guitar, bass and drums preciously enriched by spooky synths and a brooding narrative reminiscent of the Victorian death-cult. Beware, this is Kadavar gone pitch-black. Think Hawkwind with old Pink Floyd melodies, eerily sung to you from the grave. Just like the album cover, taken in front of Dracula’s alleged crib in Transylvania, mysterious Castle Bran, the whole album is drenched in superstition, Romanian folklore and the mysterious ways of our psyche. Self-recorded and self-produced, For The Dead Travel Fast is Kadavar’s very own death cult, an album at the same time uncanny and extremely powerful.
Dan Luke and The Raid – Out Of The Blue CD/LP (New West)
“It’s like a coming-of-age crisis,” says Daniel Shultz about Out Of The Blue, the messy and melodic debut album from his band, Dan Luke and The Raid. “It’s about being in that space in your 20s where you’re trying to get your shit together and figure things out in life. You’re dealing with your problems” – the singer, songwriter and guitarist pauses – “even as you’re going out and partying and getting into trouble all the time.” Shultz and his bandmates know a thing or two about the last part of that equation, as evidenced by the songs and subject matter on Out Of The Blue. Throughout the album’s 10 tracks, people are passed out on curbs under neon signs (“Black Cat Heavy Metal”), breaking hearts over rolled-up dollar bills (“Exoskeleton”), leaving baggies lying in passenger seats (“Money Mouth”) and faking smiles and feeling ashamed (“Golden Age”). Legs are bleeding, faces are numb, and Shultz declares his band to be the “diamond kings of smut.” All the while, the music throbs and pulses and twitches and buzzes with the energy and enthusiasm and inexperience of youth, bursting with harsh, distorted guitar chords, blown-out synth squiggles and hopped-up rhythms – as well as, on occasion, moments of stunning and sincere melodic beauty. [Limited blue colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Kendell Marvel – Solid Gold Sounds CD/LP (Easy Eye Sound)
Over the past two decades, Kendell Marvel has become one of the great legendary songwriters in Nashville. For years, he’s quietly written massive hits for country royalty – from George Strait to Jake Owen, Gary Allan to Chris Stapleton – but now has stepped from behind the pen and paper into the studio and spotlight. The result is Solid Gold Sounds – a stellar album that weaves a rich tapestry of deep southern songwriting with the unique gravity and talent Marvel brings as a one-of-a-kind performer.
Trigger Hippy – Full Circle And Then Some CD (Turkey Grass)
Rejuvenated artist collective Trigger Hippy is back with their first album in five years. Led by Black Crowes co-founder/drummer Steve Gorman and bassist/vocalist Nick Govrik, Trigger Hippy now features Band Of Heathens vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Ed Jurdi and powerhouse vocalist/saxophonist Amber Woodhouse. Full Circle And Then Some finds the band building on a foundation steeped in music that grew out of the South. The unit infuses high energy doses of R&B, funk, blues, rock and gospel with a little Memphis soul and New Orleans boogie tossed into the mix. The result is both captivating and exhilarating. Trigger Hippy flex their muscle right out of the gate with the rousing “Don’t Want To Bring You Down” featuring a lead by all three vocalists and a highly spirited refrain. The group’s eclectic sound ranges from the country soul infused “Strung Out On The Pain” to the hypnotic dance rhythm of “Born To Be Blue” to Lowell George / Dr. John / Allen Toussaint stylings on “Lost Lost Friend” and “One Of Them”. Special guests include harmonica virtuoso Mickey Raphael, and guitarist/mandolin player Guthrie Trapp.
CDs + Vinyl:
808 State – Transmission Suite CD/2xLP (808 State)
New release from the veteran electronic band. Recorded entirely in Manchester, some tracks are haunted by their home city’s industrial past and the influence of classic Detroit techno; but the whole thing stays true to the band’s career-long focus on what comes next.
Yazz Ahmed – Polyhymnia CD/2xLP (Ropeadope)
Composer, trumpeter, and flugelhorn player Yazz Ahmed has performed with Radiohead and The New Puritans. Her second album, La Saboteuse, featured Shabaka Hutchings and Naadia Sheriff and was hailed by critics and fans alike. Her third album is called Polyhymnia and while Yazz continues to blend Jazz with traditional Arabic rhythms and melodies, she brings her message with the music. Polyhymnia is a celebration of female courage and determination. It is a suite of six compositions, each dedicated to women of outstanding qualities, whom Yazz finds to be inspirational role models.
Art Alexakis – Sun Songs CD (BMG)
Some 25 years into his career as a recording artist, Art Alexakis – best-known as the singer, guitarist and sole songwriter behind alt-rock outfit Everclear – starts a new chapter in his career, now as a solo artist. [Vinyl edition due November 22.]
Amendola Vs. Blades – Everybody Wins CD/LP (The Royal Potato Family)
If told about a band that consisted of only keyboards and drums, one wouldn’t be faulted for thinking, Where’s the rest of the group? But one listen to Amendola vs. Blades – the funky California-based duo of Wil Blades on Hammond organ and clavinet and Scott Amendola behind the kit – and all fears will be assuaged. Blades’ cutting solos and deep bass lines make for a thick stew of soulful harmony and daring improvisation. And Amendola’s beats are simply unstoppable, simultaneously pushing the duo to heights unknown and sending the listener into a joyful sonic trance.
Aquarian Blood – A Love That Leads To War CD/LP (Goner)
A Love That Leads To War is a clear departure in style and mood for Memphis Tennessee’s Aquarian Blood. The band’s 2017 album, Last Nite In Paradise, is a chaotic punk epic, rising and falling like the soundtrack to a paranoid nightmare. As a live act, the six-piece band’s sonic atrocity left clubs and house shows around Memphis on life support. Follow up, A Love That Leads To War, is a more intimate offering of fifteen tracks. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Avoid One Thing – Right Here Where You Left Me CD/LP (Big Rig)
Some say what’s done is done—there’s no sense in reliving the past. These people obviously aren’t songwriters. On Right Here Where You Left Me, the first album in 15 years by Avoid One Thing, bandleader Joe Gittleman ruminates on drunken adventures, doomed relationships, mental health struggles, and periods of loneliness and self-doubt. He tells these tales through punky rock ‘n’ roll tunes reminiscent of Jawbreaker, Social Distortion, and most of all The Replacements. “I probably could have called this record ‘Here Comes Another Regular’,” Gittleman jokes.
Babymetal – Metal Galaxy CD/LP (Cooking Vinyl)
Metal Galaxy is Babymetal’s third album overall and first since 2016’s Metal Resistance which saw the pop-metal outfit become the highest charting Japanese band ever in the UK Official Album Charts. Metal Galaxy also marks the band’s first release with two singers instead of three, after Yuimetal left the fold to pursue a solo career. Vocalists Su-metal and Moametal remain, along with their backing band.
Tim Barry – The Roads To Richmond CD/LP (Chunksaah)
Another chapter in the life of the prolific storyteller and songwriter, Tim Barry. This instalment offers further insights into life at home and on the road, and even features a song written by his daughter and another about his other daughter. Tim performed onstage with the Richmond Symphony following his last release, one never knows what he will get into next.
Bent Knee – You Know That They Mean CD/LP (Deadline Music)
A band occupying sonic territory entirely their own, Bent Knee continues to break ground with each successive album. The Boston outfit’s myriad influences are distilled into a deeply moving art-form that defies categorization, merging texture and style into music that’s thrilling, addictive, and unapologetically original. You Know What They Mean, the band’s fifth full-length, is a prime example how to unite rock, pop, minimalist, and avant-garde spectrums in a seamless and captivating experience. [Limited 180gm clear vinyl pressing also available.]
Blackwater Holylight – Veils Of Winter CD/LP (Riding Easy)
Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts. It’s a fluid convergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying and beautiful all at once. As a heavy band, their songs aren’t anchored to riffs, but rather riffs come and go in waves that surface throughout the band’s meditative, entrancing songs. It’s a hypnotic sound, with orchestral structures that often build tension and intrigue before turning the song on its head-not by simply getting louder or heavier, nor by just layering elements.
Bodega – Shiny New Model CD/LP (What’s Your Rupture)
The mini album Shiny New Model covers various thematic ground: history alive in the present, the sadness of modern consumption, adultery via sexting, and a song set inside an actual Bodega (“Shiny New Model”). In addition to the breezy hook-filled songs, the vinyl and CD feature an extended improvised version of the group’s staple track “Truth Is Not Punishment”. The band has been using this song as a vehicle for live improvisation for a year and decided to use a day of the session to experiment with capturing the song’s new, extended boundaries in the studio.
Booker T. & The MG’s – The Complete Stax Singles Vol. 1 (1962-1967) CD (Real Gone Music)
[Vinyl edition due November 1.]
With apologies to groups like The Meters, Bar-Kays, and Average White Band, when it comes to all-time great instrumental R&B bands, for most folks Booker T. & the MG’s represent the gold standard. Together, they recorded 49 single sides for Stax, 29 of which are collected here in their correct mono versions.
Boy Harsher – Country Girl Uncut CD/LP (Nude Club)
In October 2017 Boy Harsher released the four-track EP, Country Girl. The EP was released by Ascetic House as a one-time vinyl pressing of 600 copies, which sold out in a month. This new deluxe reissue titled Country Girl Uncut, includes four previously unreleased tracks, for a total of eight songs. The sound defined by these two worlds that the band existed within – their quiet, modest life in small town Massachusetts and their speed-fueled weekends in New York.
Jaimie Branch – Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs Of Paradise CD (International Anthem)
Fiery and fluent front line dispatch on dystopian Americana folds distorted forms of blues jazz and punk into outer space dub and alien disco. [Vinyl edition due October 18.]
Blanco Brown – Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs CD (Broken Bow)
Blanco Brown is a singer, songwriter and record producer who has produced for Chris Brown and Pitbull.
Julien Chang – Jules CD (PIAS America)
The self-produced, self-recorded and almost entirely self-performed debut album Jules shows Julien fusing infectious pop melodies and experimental psych-rock with progressive jazz improvisation and sophisticated classical construction, all while spanning multiple instruments.
Alan Davey’s Psychedelic Warlords – Captain Lockheed and The Starfighters Live! CD/LP (Purple Pyramid)
Alan Davey’s Hawkwind inspired project, Psychedelic Warlords, performed the entirety of Robert Calvert’s 1974 concept album, Captain Lockeed and The Starfighters, in 2014 at The Underworld in Camden, London. [Autographed yellow colored vinyl edition also available.]
Richard Dawson – 2020 CD/LP (Weird World)
Richard Dawson, the black-humored bard of Newcastle, returns to release his sixth solo album 2020, his first since the critically acclaimed Peasant. 2020 is an utterly contemporary state-of-the-nation study, that uncovers a tumultuous and bleak time. Here is an island country in a state of flux; a society on the edge of mental meltdown.
Down N Outz – This Is How We Roll CD/LP (UMe)
Down N Outz is fronted by Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott and backed by members of the Quireboys, Wayward Sons and Vixen.
Eclipse – Paradigm CD/LP+MP3 (Frontiers)
Eclipse is the primary musical vehicle of the prolific Swedish songwriter and producer Erik Martensson, who also comprises half of Nordic Union, an ongoing project with Pretty Maids vocalist Ronnie Atkins. In addition, Martensson is one of three core members of the melodic rock/AOR supergroup W.E.T., which also features Jeff Scott Soto (Sons Of Apollo, Talisman) and Robert Sall (Work Of Art).
Entrails – Rise Of The Reaper CD/LP (Metal Blade)
Entrails formed in 1990/91. Their goal was to follow the scene that Stockholm brought to light around the time with bands like Dismember, Entombed, Grave and many more that cemented the brilliant Swedish death metal sound from T. Skogsberg’s Sunlight studio. Unfortunately, all attempts to record a demo at the time did not produce satisfactory results.
Ethereal Kingdoms – Hollow Mirror CD (SPV)
Denmark’s newest symphonic metal act, Ethereal Kingdoms, deliver a unique and modern take on theatrical symphonic metal. [Vinyl edition due October 25.]
Fantasia – Sketchbook CD (BMG)
New release from R&B singer.
The Ferrymen – New Evil CD (Frontiers)
The Ferrymen released their debut album in June 2017 and took fans of the European melodic metal sound by surprise. Musically, expect a very heavy, melodic metal album fusing the songwriting and epic structures of the widely praised Allen/Lande records (guitarist Magnus Karlsson was the main architect of the first three critically acclaimed releases) with the powerful vocal approach of Romero (let’s not forget that Romero was handpicked by legendary Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore to be the lead vocalist for Rainbow’s recent reunion shows).
Fu Manchu – Start The Machine [Reissue/2004] CD/LP+7” (At The Dojo)
Fu Manchu’s eighth album, Start The Machine, was originally released in September of 2004. Until now, it is the only album from the legendary band that has never been issued on vinyl. While also reissued on CD, the vinyl edition includes a bonus picture flexi 7″ of “Written In Stone” performed live at Roadburn Festival 2003, one year prior to the song’s studio version release on this album. Limited green & black colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Billy Fury – Wondrous Place: The Brits Are Rocking 2 CD (Bear Family)
An extensive documentary of the British pop artist’s career in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Gideon – Out Of Control CD/LP (Equal Vision)
Fifth studio album from the Alabama hardcore outfit.
The Harlem Gospel Travelers – He’s On Time CD/LP (Colemine)
The Harlem Gospel Travelers are not from Harlem. They came to Harlem, however, from far-flung corners of the five boroughs of New York City, and it was in Harlem, that legendary center of African-American culture, that they found their voices. As members of the music education program Gospel For Teens, these young men spent many hours on the subway or the bus to ultimately end up at an unassuming brownstone on W. 126th Street. They walked through the red door at the parlor level, the one with the cross on it, and inside they found a world of music. Gospel music. [Limited clear vinyl pressing also available.]
The Hecks – My Star CD/LP (Trouble In Mind)
My Star is a gigantic leap forward for Chicago trio The Hecks, absorbing everything from Manscape-era Wire to Paisley Park nu-funk to abstract new wave and art rock plucked straight from the Cold Storage playbook.
Dave Holland/Zakir Hussain/Chris Potter – Good Hope CD/2xLP (Edition)
The international jazz supergroup featuring bassist Dave Holland, tabla player Zakir Hussain and saxophonist Chris Potter, collectively known as the Crosscurrents Trio, deliver their collective debut album, Good Hope. Featuring giants of American and Indian music, the album is built on a deep mutual respect, a shared love of the music and a dedication to musical and cultural integration.
Ernest Hood – Neighborhoods [Reissue/1975] CD/LP (RVNG Int’l)
Ernest Hood’s Neighborhoods was released some two decades after the Portland, Oregon born and raised musician’s first forays into field recordings. These very recordings, and those captured over intervening years, define the universal sound and aural images of childhood, a theme memorialized by Hood’s privately-pressed opus of 1975. Sprawling through a haze of zither, synthesizer melodies, and foraged pedestrian sound, Neighborhoods is both a score and documentary composed and directed by Hood to offer, in his words, joy in reminiscence. [Limited orange colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Illiterate Light – Langue CD/LP (Atlantic)
From tending to their organic crops, to touring the southeast states by bicycle, alternative-rock duo Illiterate Light present their self-titled major label debut release. The album features melodic highlights like “Sometimes Love Takes So Long” – produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Vance Powell (Jack White, Kings of Leon, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson) and “Better Than I Used To” – produced by Adrian Olsen (Foxygen, Futurebirds, Natalie Prass), and also guitar heavy tracks like “Existential Crisis” and “Carolina Lorelei” – which NPR named on their Best Songs of 2019 (So Far) List.
Iron Age – The Sleeping Eye [Reissue/2009] CD (Profound Lore)
In 2009 Iron Age unleashed their second album The Sleeping Eye upon the world like a many-tentacled monstrosity, ripping to shreds boundaries between epic heavy metal and punishing hardcore. [Vinyl edition due November 8.]
Kaleta & Super Yamba Band – Mèdaho CD/LP (Ubiquity)
Recently released on vinyl – now available on CD. Debut album from the Brooklyn based Afro-funksters. Fronted by Afrobeat and Juju veteran Leon LiganMajek AKA Kaleta-a native of Benin Republic-Mèdaho draws on the group’s shared reverence for the raw, psychedelic afro-funk sound that captivated Kaleta as a music loving kid in 1970s Benin.
Kiefer – Superbloom CDEP/12” (Stones Throw)
Bridges and Superbloom are one cohesive project – Superbloom is just an expansion of the Bridges instrumental hip-hop/jazz sound. The tracks are meant to be very active. The first five tracks are invigorating, while tracks 6 & 7 act as a grand exhale.
Chris Knight – Almost Daylight CD/LP (Drifter’s Church)
For the past 20 years, Chris Knight has only made music his own way. He’s released eight acclaimed albums, played thousands of electrifying live shows and built generations of fervent fans from Texas honky-tonks to Manhattan rock clubs. He’s been hailed as “the last of a dying breed… a taciturn loner with an acoustic guitar and a college degree” (The New York Times) and “a storyteller in the best traditions of Mellencamp and Springsteen” (USA Today). Bottom line, he’s hard earned his reputation as one of America’s most uncompromising and respected singer/songwriters.
Mark Kozelek & Petra Haden – Joey Always Smiled CD (Caldo Verde)
Mark Kozelek teams up with violinist and singer Petra Haden for a new LP. Along with Haden, it features contributions from Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley, character actor Kevin Corrigan, regular Kozelek collaborator Ben Boye, and more. And following six originals with very Kozelekian song titles, the record closes out with a folky, beautifully spare cover of Huey Lewis & The News’ immortal Back To The Future soundtrack hit “The Power Of Love”.
Lacuna Coil – Black Anima CD/LP (Century Media)
Lacuna Coil’s ninth full-length, Black Anima, is epic, atmospheric, groovy, heavy yet forward-thinking. Vocalist Cristina Scabbia is transcendent throughout. Her vocal partner Andrea Ferro has viciously transformed into a beast, while the rest of Lacuna Coil including new drummer Richard Meiz give the performance of their lifetimes. [Limited pink colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Life Of Agony – The Sound Of Scars CD/LP (Napalm)
Life Of Agony emerged from the New York music scene in the early ’90s with one of the most distinctive sounds in its genre. Best known for its 1993 metal/crossover debut River Runs Red, the band instantly built a die-hard, cult following. For over two decades, the group toured relentlessly all over the world, sharing stages with the biggest names in rock, including Metallica, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Foo Fighters, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Sound Of Scars is the band’s new album.
Lightning Bolt – Sonic Citadel CD/2xLP+MP3 (Thrill Jockey)
Lightning Bolt play with abandon that is unmatched and remarkably undiluted since the duo’s formation 25 years ago. They are often called one of the loudest rock outfits in existence, both on record and on (or famously, off) the stage. Brian Gibson creates sounds that are unexpected and remarkably varied with his virtuosic bass playing and his inventive approach to the instrument, centered around melody rather than rhythm. The dizzying fury of Brian Chippendale’s drums twist from primal patterns into disorienting break beats as his distorted, looped, and echoing vocals weave more melody into the mayhem. Amidst the fray there has always been shreds of a pop songs discernible in the eye of every Lightning Bolt song. [Limited magenta colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Los Pirañas – Historia Natural CD/LP (Glitterbeat)
Fusing the experimental possibilities of South American rhythms and sonics (cumbia, champeta, tropicalia, salsa, and more) with avant psych rock, dub minimalism, and spiked jazz, Los Pirañas are retro-futurism at its finest.
Stephen Mallinder – Um Dada CD/LP (Dais)
Stephen Mallinder, co-founder and frontman of the iconic Cabaret Voltaire, returns with his first solo album in over 35 years. Laced with leftfield house and cut-up sound collages, Um Dada is a melding of energies that are an exercise in simplicity and motion. [Limited blue colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Mars Red Sky – The Task Eternal CD/LP (Listenable)
Beyond a highly recognizable sound, Mars Red Sky has been opening gateways to new dimensions with their otherworldly songs since their self-titled debut back in 2011. Whether you experience their records or live performances, their hulking yet trippy brand of stoner rock takes you onto an infinite journey.
Catherine McLellan – Coyote CD/LP (Idla)
The Canadian folk music gem returns with her seventh album.
Freddie Mercury – Never Boring 3xCD+Blu-ray+DVD (Hollywood)
Iconic. Incomparable. Irreplaceable. But never, ever boring. Freddie Mercury’s spirit is every bit as central to the fabric of popular music today as it was during his unforgettable lifetime. Now comes a unique release to showcase the full range of his musical talents and passions, and their indelible imprint on the worlds of pop, opera and far beyond. The Never Boring box set brings together for the first time a specially-curated selection of Freddie Mercury’s music, visuals and written and spoken words. [Single-disc vinyl edition as well as a separate vinyl reissue of Mr. Bad Guy due October 25.]
Steve Miller Band – Welcome To The Vault 3xCD+DVD (Capitol)
Steve Miller Band – Selections From The Vault CD/LP (Capitol)
Welcome To The Vault covers Miller’s genre-blurring six-decade career over 52 audio tracks, pairing a number of greatest hits and certifiable rock ‘n roll classics with 38 previously unreleased recordings that span demos, rehearsals, outtakes, vintage concert performances and five newly uncovered original Steve Miller Band songs recorded in the 1960s and 1970s. Selections From The Vault features tracks taken from Welcome To The Vault. The colored vinyl LP edition features eight tracks, all of which are previously unreleased.
MNNQNS – Body Negative CD/LP (Fat Cat)
On the surface, MNNQNS might resemble a rock band: their music is stuffed with guitars that explode in frenzied bursts as pounding drums collide with intense vocals, all of which is carried forward with youthful spunk and propulsive energy. Yet plunge beneath that surface layer and MNNQNS are exploring guitar music with much more depth and breadth than most. Body Negative is a rare record that manages to be both fiery and textural. It resembles a car veering dangerously close to a cliff edge yet also manages to instill a confidence in the ability of the driver. MNNQNS exude a sense of controlled danger and chaos and this permeates throughout their debut.
Mortiferum – Disgorged From Psychotic Depths CD/LP (Profound Lore)
This monstrous offering crawls forth as an anguished slab of death doom filth of the most wretched order. Dark and foreboding through monolithic, brutal, and crestfallen riffs, alongside malformed, dissonant, and rhythmic rumblings, this album is a towering and dreadful benefaction of atmospheric imposing death metal ruin and depravity, reeking of the stench of the early ’90s American and Finnish death metal scenes.
Municipal Waste – The Last Rager CDEP/12” (Nuclear Blast America)
Four ripper tracks that embrace all the bands punk and street metal roots without clutching the past. [Limited yellow/blue splatter colored vinyl pressing also available.]
mxmtoon – the masquerade CD/LP/Cassette (House Arrest)
The debut album from 18-year-old singer/songwriter mxmtoon, the masquerade delivers what she calls rhyming diary entries: an off-the-cuff account of her most private thoughts and feelings, usually dashed off very late at night, straight from her brightly lit brain. In her deliberate refusal to hide behind metaphor, the Oakland-based artist otherwise known as Maia achieves a quiet bravery, an unrestrained honesty that gives voice to those who often go unheard. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Nas – The Lost Tapes 2 CD (Mass Appeal)
The sequel to 2002’s The Lost Tapes 1 features unreleased tracks from Nas’ last four studio albums: Hip Hop Is Dead (2006), Untitled (2008), Life Is Good (2012) and the album scrapped in favor of Nasir (2018). It includes production from producers such as RZA, Swizz Beatz, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, No I.D., Pete Rock and The Alchemist, among others. [Vinyl edition due November 1.]
The Number Twelve Looks Like You – Wild Gods CD (Overlord)
After a long hiatus, the New Jersey-based mathcore 4-piece is back with their chaotic yet gorgeous brand of heaviness.
Bill Orcutt – Odds Against Tomorrow CD/LP (Palilalia)
After two LPs and over half a decade spent toiling in the margins of the American Songbook, Bill Orcutt returns to original composition and the blues with his latest LP.
Pizzagirl – first timer CD/LP (Heist Or Hit)
Winning critics and audiences over with a dozen tracks across two EPs in 2018, the ever-prolific Pizzagirl, or Liam Brown to give his off-screen name, has fine-tuned his hyperactive DIY-pop to an esoteric art. The result is first timer, a debut album of split-personality genre jumping that’ll have you bopping, laughing and crying before the closing credits.
Population Control – Death Toll CD/LP (Beer City)
10 tracks of blackened thrash metal.
Profanatica – Rotting Incarnation Of God CD/LP (Season Of Mist)
Profanatica walk as kings in the murky depths of the black metal scene, and Rotting Incarnation Of God cements their well-deserved reputation as one of the genre’s most wicked creations.
Jon Regen – Higher Ground CD/LP (Ropeadope)
Higher Ground was produced by Jamiroquai’s Matt Johnson and includes musical performances by legends like Andy Summers of The Police, Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Chuck Leavell of The Rolling Stones and Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran. A jazz/pop tour de force, album opener “Wide Awake” marries Regen’s signature soulful vocals and infectious piano work with the funk production prowess of longtime Jamiroquai keyboardist Johnson.
R + – The Last Summer CD/LP (Loaded)
R + is a a brand new artist project from Rollo Armstrong (Faithless) with vocals from Dido. Led by the evocative first single “Summer Dress”, which captures the heat of Balearic summers past, debut album The Last Summer is a blistering collection which Armstrong says, “has melody at its core, it’s textured but easy, uplifting and a little yearning- a sense of things you know, you recognize, all wrapped up in a funky ball of light and wonder… A musical memory for all those who have had a holiday that has been life changing.”
Rf Shannon – Rain On Dust CD/LP (Keeled Scales)
Rf Shannon’s third album in three years expands on their desert soul sound, which has also been described as deconstructed Americana, mellow psych, and shoegaze country. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Oscar Scheller – HTTP404 CD/LP (Wichita)
Gone are the guitars that characterized his earlier sound and now in their place we find synths, samples and programming that pull the work of Oscar Scheller right into the zeitgeist. Characterized by the incisive and witty lyrics we have come to know and love from Scheller and backed by melodies that will be jammed in your head all day long, HTTP404 is a rush of smart, pop magic.
Sights & Sounds – No Virtue CD/LP (Static Era)
Sights & Sounds is a rock band from Canada that features Andrew Neufeld on vocals who also sings for hardcore/punk juggernaut Comeback Kid.
Signs Of The Swarm – Vital Deprivation CD (Unique Leader)
[Vinyl edition due October 25.]
Frank Sinatra – My Way [Reissue/1969] CD/LP (Capitol)
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of the most iconic recordings of all time. My Way was first issued in 1969 and featuring the hit title song as well as Sinatra’s indelible performance on “All My Tomorrows”, from the film in which he had a starring role, A Hole In The Head. My Way, arranged by Don Costa, and coproduced by him with Sonny Burke, also includes Sinatra’s versions of more contemporary material.
Frank Sinatra – Sinatra Sings Alan & Marilyn Bergman CD/LP (Capitol)
Alan & Marilyn Bergman, winners of two Academy Awards and members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, were husband and wife, and their professional collaboration produced memorable lyrics cherished by superstars from Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett and Johnny Mathis, to Sting, Barbra Streisand, and Frank Sinatra. This album highlights their great songs as sung by Sinatra.
Sleep On It – Pride & Disaster CD/LP (Equal Vision)
Pride & Disaster is the follow-up to 2017’s Overexposed, and features production by Mike Green (All Time Low, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Set It Off) and Kyle Black (State Champs, Pierce The Veil, All Time Low). With Pride & Disaster, Sleep On It harnesses the strength and vulnerability of the human spirit. Over the course of ten songs, they make a case for enjoying life, even when times are tough, and never shying away from your truth.
Spyro Gyra – Vinyl Tap CD/LP (Amherst)
Spyro Gyra’s new release Vinyl Tap, their first album of new material in six years, is sure to excite their worldwide fan base as well as to bring new listeners into the fold. Never content to rest on their prodigious work of the past, they have once again challenged themselves to apply their iconic sound to an idea that makes this release stand out from all of its predecessors.
Starcrawler – Devour You CD/LP (Rough Trade)
Born on the streets of Los Angeles, Starcrawler is a band possessed by the spirit of its own hometown, every movement charged with a manic electricity. Since forming in 2015, vocalist Arrow de Wilde, guitarist/vocalist Henri Cash, bassist Tim Franco, and drummer Austin Smith have gone from bashing out classic-punk covers in the garage to winning the love of such legendary artists as Shirley Manson and Elton John. They’ve also opened for the likes of Beck, Foo Fighters, Spoon, and MC5, bringing their unhinged energy to an already-fabled live show-a spectacle that’s simultaneously lurid and glorious and elegant as ballet. On their sophomore full-length Devour You, Starcrawler captures that dynamic with a whole new precision, revealing their rare ability to find a fragile beauty in even the greatest chaos.
Strays – Time | Death | Void | Dream CD/LP (Triptych)
Strays’ debut full length album is an unholy amalgamation of song and warfare. Start to finish, the album treks an apocalyptic experience and provides an emergent journey that is loaded with grit and undoubtedly drug induced.
Yukihiro Takahashi – Saravah [Reissue/1978] CD/LP (Wewantsounds)
One of the key Japanese albums of the ’70s, Sarava was released at a key time when, following his tenure with Sadistic Mika Band, Takahashi had just joined the nascent line up of Yellow Magic Orchestra. A sophisticated mix of disco funk, synth pop, ambient, French exotica, and bossa nova, the album has the stylish feel of a night out clubbing in Paris circa 1978. It’s the missing link between the city pop scene of the late ’70s and the synth sound of YMO which was about to revolutionize the world.
Third Eye Blind – Screamer CD/LP (Mega Collider)
The follow up to 2018’s EP Thanks For Everything, Screamer finds Third Eye Blind collaborating with Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells (Screamer), Ryan Olson of Marijuana Death Squad and Poliça (“Who Am I” and “Got So High”), and the album’s musical consigliere, Billy Corgan. [Limited pink colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Thousand Below – Gone In Your Wake CD/LP (Rise)
A seamless blend of catchy hooks and hard-hitting vocals.
Toothgrinder – I Am CD/LP (Spinefarm)
Challenging convention, existing independent of genre expectations, and delivering a hypnotic, haunting, and hard-hitting alchemy of rock, alternative, and metal, Toothgrinder set a precedent as outliers.
Carrie Underwood – Cry Pretty 2xCD (Capitol Nashville)
Two-CD picture book edition of the recently released (2018) sixth studio album by the country music singer and songwriter.
Ursula 1000 – Esoterique CD (Insect Queen Music)
[Vinyl edition due October 18.]
Ursula 1000 has major credits in the groove, chill, lofi and electronic world including seven studio full-lengths, a pair of DJ mix albums, remixes for celebrated peers from Quincy Jones to Felix Da Housecat. Having performed in more than 30 countries, Ursula 1000 is fluent in the international language of dance. New album Esoterique features special guest stars Fred Schneider of The B-52s, Isabelle Antena, Loredana Grimaudo of Swingrowers, Qypthone, The Gentle People and remixes by Jazzanova and Fantastic Plastic Machine.
Vanden Plas – The Ghost Xperiment – Awakening CD/LP+MP3 (Frontiers)
New album from the prog metal band.
Varials – In Darkness CD/LP (Fearless)
With their second album In Darkness, Philadelphia’s Varials traffic in moshy-metal. While the music is heavy enough to shift tectonic plates, it’s not merely about crowd-killing breakdowns – although those exist in spades on the record. Rather, the band explore other aspects of heavy from the lyrics to the tones to the song structures to the melodies.
Various Artists – Bat Head Soup – A Tribute To Ozzy [Reissue/2000] CD/LP (Deadline Music)
Reissue of the Ozzy tribute album featuring new artwork. Includes performances by Lemmy from Motörhead, Goerge Lynch of Dokken, Mötley Crüe vocalist Vince Neil, indie singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb, Toto’s Steve Lukather, and lots more. [Limited red colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Various Artists – Fabric Presents The Martinez Brothers CD/2xLP+MP3 (Fabric)
Spending their early years on the streets of the Bronx, The Martinez Brothers went on to tour the world with dance music royalty such as Dennis Ferrer, Erick Morillo, and Louie Vega before they’d even finished high school. This 23-track mix therefore includes respected names like Chicago innovator Paul Johnson and Detroit multi-instrumentalist Amp Fiddler. Three exclusive Martinez Brothers tracks stud the 75-minute offering.
Various Artists – Punk Rock Halloween II Louder, Faster & Scarier 2xCD/LP (Cleopatra)
Brand new studio recordings by legendary punk bands such as The Vandals, Down By Law, The Casualties, Reagan Youth, The Members, The Vibrators, MDC, Tsunami Bomb, The Queers and lots more, [Limited single-disc 15-track orange colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Waterparks – Fandom CD/LP (Hopeless)
Busting onto the scene in 2012, Waterparks has always been a band with hard-hitting lyrics and quirky personalities. On their latest album, Fandom, they bring their music to the next level, addressing everything from the familiar themes of heartbreak and depression to polarizing topics such as the hate rock bands often receive for wanting to make a living.
Wayward Sons – The Truth Ain’t What It Used To Be CD/LP+MP3 (Frontiers)
Wayward Sons is a UK hard rock guitar act. Their new sophomore album, The Truth Ain’t What It Used To Be is a “full-throttled rocker.”
Kirk Whalum – Humanité CD (Artistry Music)
Over a period of three months in 2018, Kirk and his longtime friend and producer, the British jazz trumpeter and session musician James McMillan, recorded tracks in locations ranging from studios in Jakarta, Tokyo, Paris, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Hastings, to hotel rooms, office buildings and even Kirk’s living room in Memphis – tracks that showcase the album’s harmonious mix of American jazz, blues, funk, pop along with global indigenous musical forms abound on Humanité.
Barney Wilen Quartet – Live In Tokyo ’91 CD/2xLP (Elemental Music)
A complete previously unissued quartet performance in pristine sound quality by the great French saxophonist. This wonderful concert finds Wilen playing at the Keystone Korner in Tokyo, Japan, on February 11, 1991. The quartet is completed with Olivier Hutman at the piano, Gilles Naturel on bass, and Peter Gritz on drums.
This Week’s Vinyl Exclusives:
1349 – Liberation [Reissue/2003] LP (Spinefarm)
1349 – Beyond The Apocalypse [Reissue/2004] 2xLP (Spinefarm)
1349 – Hellfire [Reissue/2005] 2xLP (Spinefarm)
Limited colored vinyl pressings of the Norwegian black metal band’s second, third, and fourth albums.
The Alchemist – Fetti Instrumentals LP (ALC)
The limited edition instrumentals to the collaborative album from Curren$y and Freddie Gibbs produced entirely by The Alchemist. Only available on vinyl.
Andrew Jackson Jihad – Can’t Maintain [Reissue/2009] LP (Asian Man)
Picture-disc vinyl reissue of Andrew Jackson Jihad’s second album. Can’t Maintain is funny, intelligent, and brutally honest, with songs about self-loathing as well as loathing for everyone else.
Arab Strap – The Week Never Starts Round Here [Reissue/1996] LP (1972)
The year 1996 saw the release of Arab Strap’s first single, “The First Big Weekend”, and debut album The Week Never Starts Round Here. Into an underground rock milieu preoccupied at the time with slo-core, math rock, and all things Pet Sounds, the duo of Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffat couldn’t have sounded more alien. In many ways, The Week Never Starts Round Here bears all the marks of a debut: it’s raw, unguarded, and crammed with ideas. It also firmly establishes the particular set-up that would define Arab Strap’s sound over the course of eleven years, with Middleton handling the music while Moffat provides the vocals and lyrics.
Borknagar – True North 2xLP (Century Media)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Norway’s avant-garde black metal pioneers and innovators arise at their most spirited and resplendent on their 11th studio album, True North.
David Bowie – VH1 Storytellers – Live At Manhattan Center 2xLP (Rhino/Parlophone)
Recorded on August 23rd, 1999 for VH1’s Storytellers, this set of songs spanning the ’60s through the ’90s was officially released 10 years later in 2009. Now it’s available on double vinyl for its 20th anniversary.
Sidiku Buari – Feelings/Sidiku Buari And His Jam Busters [Reissue/1983/1982] 2xLP (BBE)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Two back-to-back, impossibly scarce and NYC Afrodisco by Sidiku Buari & His Jambusters, originally released on short-lived and highly collectible imprint Precious Records. Accra funk, village-party, anthem-packed LPs from the prolific output of Alaji Sidiku Buari, gold-winning sprint athlete, dancer, singer, arranger, composer, cinema and club founder, award-winning music video producer – and, latterly, president of Ghana’s Musicians’ Union as well as recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award of the Pan-African Society.
Bun B & Statik Selektah – TrillStatik LP (Tuff Kong)
The new album (released as digital-only in April) from new rapper and producer Bun B and Statik Selektah features appearances by Method Man, Smoke DZA, Fat Joe, Flatbush Zombies’ Meechy Darko, Westside Gunn, Pro Era’s CJ Fly, Big K.R.I.T., Talib Kweli, and more.
Coil – The Gay Man’s Guide To Safer Sex LP (Musique Pour Danse)
Green vinyl; comes in green sleeve. Musique Pour La Danse present Coil’s unreleased soundtrack for the VHS only, pre-internet, sexual education documentary entitled The Gay Man’s Guide To Safer Sex released in 1992. Members for this project were John Balance, Peter Sleazy Christopherson, and Danny Hyde. The OST, to quote John Balance’s interview for Compulsion Online, is “[a] slightly new age-y, progressive house type thing. Another way to approach it is as a delightful collection of Balearic beats, smoking jazz not far removed from Badalamenti’s work with David Lynch, somewhat of an ambient house album for your home listening and early morning sunrise dances, Coil style.”
Common – Let Love LP (Loma Vista)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Grammy and Academy Award-winning rapper Common’s twelfth studio album Let Love was inspired by his 2019 memoir Let Love Have The Last Word, which left him “charged to go to raw, personal and spiritual places in the music.” Boasting contributions from Leon Bridges, A-Trak, Leikeli47, BJ the Chicago Kid, Jill Scott, Samora Pinderhughes and Jonathan McReynolds, the 11-track collection comes preceded by lead single “Her Love”, featuring guests Daniel Caesar and Dwele over an unreleased beat by the late J Dilla and the Swizz Beatz-assisted “Hercules”. “Production-wise, I knew that the music had to have depth, soul and dimension to it,” Common notes. “I wanted the musicianship and the spirit of what live music brings but it also had to have something raw and basement about it. When my team said, ‘You should do some music revolving around the book,’ I just took that energy and went running into my artistry without focusing on anything else.”
Coven – Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls [Reissue/1969] LP (Real Gone Music)
Coven – Blood On The Snow [Reissue/1974] LP (Real Gone Music)
Vinyl reissues of the first and third albums by the band that launched the Satanic rock genre. [Limited orange colored vinyl pressing of Blood On The Snow also available.]
Creed – Human Clay [Reissue/1999] 2xLP (Bicycle Music/Craft Recordings)
Vinyl reissue of Creed’s second album in celebration of its 20th anniversary.
Crypt Sermon – The Ruins Of Fading Light LP (Dark Descent)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. A follow up to 2015’s critically acclaimed debut Out Of The Garden, The Ruins Of Fading Light is a collection of existential meditations set to the backdrop of looming, apocryphal vestiges from a lost dark age.
Curren$y/Statik Selektah – Gran Turismo LP (Jet Life)
Curren$y, who has built a cult following over the years, teams up with super producer, Statik Selektah for a collab project that brings the best of New York and New Orleans together with special guest appearances from Wize Khalifa, YBN Cordae, Termanology, and more.
Czardust (Ohbliv & Sadhuhold) – The Ra(w) Material LP (Rap Vacation)
Coming together for the first time in physical format, Sadhu Gold and Ohbliv bring you The Ra(w) Material. With past collaborations with the likes of Mach Hommy, Nickelus F, Tha God Fahim, Mutant Academy, and a plethora of other artists, Czardust comes together to present an album that is sure to please the mind, body, and soul. Eleven tracks of cosmic glory; an ode to the past and a preface to the future, The Ra(w) Material finds a way to present something so alien yet familiar.
Dome – Dome 3 [Reissue/1981] LP+MP3 (Editions Mego)
With the demise of the group Wire in 1980, founder members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis joined forces to create Dome. With the assistance of engineer Eric Radcliffe and his Blackwing Studio Dome took the ethic of using the studio as a compositional tool and recorded and released three Dome albums on their own label in the space of 12 months: Dome (July, 1980), Dome 2 (October, 1980), and Dome 3 (October 1981). These albums represent some of the most beautifully stark and above all timeless exercises in studio experimentation from early 1980s alternative music scene.
Stro Elliot – Moods EP 12” (Street Corner Music)
The Roots percussionist follows up his 2016 self-titled album with a new EP featuring a variety of Moods, from the downtempo flip of Bilal on “’Hey Slim”, to the bang-your-f**king-head-off slaps of “FTL”. Tributes are paid to lost greats and classics of old are made new again.
Esbe – Late Night Headphones Vol. 1 [Reissue/2010] 2xLP (Cold Busted)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Originally released on Dusted Wax Kingdom in 2010, Late Night Headphones Vol. 1 is the first part of a three-part series from multi-genre producer Esbe. Esbe is based in Los Angeles, and through releases on Dusted Wax Kingdom, Cult Classic, and Cold Busted (which issued his acclaimed album Bloomsday), he’s proven his sublime beat-making acumen. Esbe’s forte is atmospheric instrumental production, incorporating cut-up jazz and soul samples mixed into an intricate and tasty sonic stew.
Essaie Pas – Earth EP 12” (DFA)
Montreal duo Essaie pas return with a blistering new ride through the rave; an amalgamation of techno and trance.
Firebreather – Under A Blood Moon 2xLP (Riding Easy)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Fire is what happens when a carbon based object is consumed by oxygen. That chemical reaction is fitting to the sound of Firebreather: the riffs are suffocating, the rhythms fast-moving and all-consuming.
Five Finger Death Punch – American Capitalist [Reissue/2011] LP (Prospect Park)
Five Finger Death Punch – The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell, Volume 1 [Reissue/2013] 2xLP (Prospect Park)
Vinyl reissues of the second and third albums by the heavy metal band.
The Foreign Exchange – Connected [Reissue/2004] 2xLP (The Foreign Exchange Music)
Representative of how the Internet can aid in creating music, The Foreign Exchange started when Little Brother rapper Phonte heard a beat on Okayplayer.com by Dutch producer Nicolay and asked if he could lay some vocals over it. Nicolay agreed, and the song “Light It Up” appeared shortly after as the B-side to “Whatever You Say” off Little Brother’s 2003 album, The Listening. Relying mainly on Instant Messenger and email, the duo continued to work together, with Nicolay sending beats to Phonte, who would add vocals and send them back until they had enough tracks together to form an album. Not once during the entire process of making their debut, Connected, which came out in 2004, did the members of the Foreign Exchange speak over the phone or in person.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – This Is The Place 12” (Caroline)
The second EP of the year from former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. This Is The Place follows June’s Black Star Dancing EP. Includes the tracks “This Is The Place”, “A Dream Is All I Need To Get By”, and “Evil Flower”. Also features remixes of two of the tracks.
Jean Grae – Jean Grae: The Evil Jeanius [Reissue/2008] LP (Babygrande)
One of the most respected MC’s in hip-hop (and arguably the most respected female MC of all-time), Jean Grae teamed up with renowned production duo Blue Sky Black Death for The Evil Jeanius. The 2008 album is regarded as one of the most prized works in Jean Grae’s catalog. A certified cult classic album, The Evil Jeanius is now available for first time on vinyl.
Herbie Hancock – Inventions & Dimensions [Reissue/1964] LP (Blue Note)
For his third Blue Note album Inventions & Dimensions (1963), pianist Herbie Hancock began moving away from the modernist hard bop sound that defined his first two albums Takin’ Off and My Point Of View. Inspired by explorers like Eric Dolphy and Tony Williams, Hancock went in search of greater musical freedom by composing a set of ingenious originals each with their own unique inner logic that did away with what he considered the established jazz assumptions of the time.
Heaven’s Club – Here There And Nowhere LP (Profound Lore)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Formed in Oakland, CA, Heaven’s Club began as the project of Shiv Mehra during downtime while off tour with his band Deafheaven. It then expanded to include Deafheaven drummer Dan Tracy, Nadia Kury, Chris Natividad, Ross Peacock and Luis Mayorga. Finding ground in introspective lyricism and progressive, ethereal sonics, they achieve a careful balance between punching urgency and distant atmosphere.
Joe Henderson – In ‘N Out [Reissue/1964] LP (Blue Note)
Recorded in April 1964, In ‘N Out falls square in the middle of the formidable run of five classic Blue Note albums that launched tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson’s legendary career. The lineup featured the transcendent frontline of Henderson and trumpeter Kenny Dorham along with a powerful rhythm section with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones. The music charted expansive post-bop territory on three Henderson’s originals (“In ‘N Out”, “Punjab”, “Serenity”).
Him Lo – Da Buze Bruvaz Present: Him Lo Prince Akeem Jewelz LP (Grilchy Party)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Him-Lo returns on a mission to prove to both listeners and doubters that not only can he put together a classic album as a solo emcee but also an exceptional producer.
Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims – Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims [Reissue/1956] LP (Blue Note)
German Jazz pianist Jutta Hipp remains one of the most intriguing yet little known figures in Blue Note history. A unique and shortlived presence on the NYC Jazz scene in the mid-1950s, Hipp moved to the U.S. with the aid of critic Leonard Feather and recorded a series of Blue Note releases that culminated with Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims, a sublime date with the feeling of high level blowing session featuring tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims, trumpeter Jerry Lloyd, bassist Ahmed Abdul Malik, and drummer Ed Thigpen.
Hirie – Dreamer LP (Controlled Substance)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. A sonic journey baselined by reggae beats, pop-reggae act Hirie’s new album Dreamer at turns celebrates the bold, joyful, and even messy impulses that drive the female experience. Chilled-out Mexi-Cali reggae cut “I’m Messed Up” serves as the album’s first single while the pair of related tracks, the ruminating mid-tempo “Better As Is” and the soulful “Stay With Me” likewise ride the ups and downs – the acceptable imperfections – of her relationships.
Loleatta Holloway – Loleatta [Reissue/1973] LP (Tidal Waves Music)
Loleatta is the debut studio album by singer Loleatta Holloway, released in 1973 on the Aware label. The album features the singles “Mother Of Shame”, which peaked at #63 on the Hot Soul Singles chart, and “Our Love”, which peaked at #43 on the Hot Soul Singles chart.
Bill Hutchinson/King Tubby – Rocking Time In Dub LP (Deeper Knowledge)
13 track LP collecting 1970’s versions and dubs from the labels of producer & singer Milton “Billy Hutch” Hutchinson, including three previously unreleased tracks. With several tracks mixed by King Tubby himself and several backed by the Wailers Band, plus many other JA musical luminaries, this is a prime collection of real raw ’70s roots reggae in dubwise style. The ten previously released tracks are all culled from rare 45’s on Bill’s Rocking Time, Judah Music and Gemini labels.
Iggy and The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog [Reissue/2011] LP (Cleopatra)
Digitally remastered recordings from punk icons Iggy & The Stooges at their rawest and most revolutionary. Limited white colored vinyl pressing.
In Love With A Ghost – Let’s Go 12” (Parapente)
The emotional winter songs of this young Parisian producer can only make you fall in love. Soft silk-draped melodies wander freely in the ethereal atmosphere of a music dedicated to a fantasy world. Between elegance and restraint, the intimate dreams of the author are revealed.
Ben Jagga – Hold On Pretty Woman LP (BBE)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Ben Jagga’s long-deleted sole solo release is the epitome of Tabansi/Taretone soul-funk-boogie-disco in it’s prime, and is very much a family affair. Instrumentation is a tight, stripped-down unit: bass, guitar, drums and keyboards – and the mixdown man is Martin Ikebuaku, one of the unsung geniuses of the West African boogie sound, with literally hundreds of well-regarded sessions on almost every major Nigerian label under his belt.
Karen Jonas – Lucky, Revisited LP (Yellow Brick Road)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Built from a collection of nine songs released on her first three albums and two stellar covers, Lucky, Revisited is an action-packed overview of Jonas’s finest songwriting.
Arthur Kay – Arthur Kay LP (Jansen Plateproduksjon)
With styles ranging from funk bangers to Latin American psychedelia to more low-key ethereal moods, this collection of songs will make you think of legends like Todd Rundgren and Marcos Valle one moment, and contemporaries like James Blake and Thundercat the next. The lead single Holiday Pay celebrates the great Norwegian invention of holiday pay – your employer is required by law to pay you a certain percentage of last year’s wages as holiday pay every summer.
KMFDM – Paradise 2xLP (Metropolis)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Blending techno innovation, punk snarl, metal aggression, Paradise is an impactful set of dance beats, crunching guitars, and the dual vocal attack of founder Sascha K. & Lucia Cifarelli.
Koralle – Collecting LP (Melting Pot Music)
Koralle is the new moniker of Lorenzo Nada, a musician, beatmaker and producer from Italy.
La Coka Nostra & Ill Bill – Presents Black Metal [Reissue/2007] LP (Uncle Howie)
Black Metal was the forecast of what was to come with the introduction of La Coka Nostra. Non Phixion front man Ill Bill had recently joined up with Danny Boy, Slaine and others to start working on a new powerhouse group. With friends from both coasts like Sick Jacken, Q-Unique, Killah Priest, Jeru The Damaja, O.C. and more joining in, this release takes a look at the music Bill was recording after Non Phixion disbanded and as LCN was forming.
L’Indecis – Plethora [Reissue/2017] LP (Chillhop Music)
L’Indecis – Playtime 12” [2018] (Chillhop Music)
Arguably the most popular Artist on Chillhop, L’Indecis continues to expand on musical boundaries fusing jazz, soul and instrumental hip-hop.
Loretta Lynn – Icon [Reissue/2011] LP (MCA Nashville)
Twelve of the best-loved songs from one of country music ‘s most legendary artists. Includes “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)”, “Fist City”, “Coal Miner’s Daughter”, “Ones On The Way”, “Rated X”, “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” (w/Conway Twitty), and “She’s Got You”, plus her classics “Blue Kentucky Girl”, and “You’re Lookin’ At Country”.
Malaria! – Compiled 2.0 2xLP+MP3 (Moabit)
January 1981 found Gudrun Gut and Bettina Koster in Christopher Franke’s Berlin-Spandau Studio recording their first Malaria! EP (Zensor Records). Christine Hahn of The Static with Glenn Branca and Barbara Ess, joined in from New York, and Manon P. Duursma fresh from Nina Hagen’s O.U.T. project, and Susanne Kuhnke completed the line-up.
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Glorified Magnified [Reissue/1972] LP (Creature Music)
Originally released in 1972, the same year as their first album, Glorified Magnified was the second album by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.
Charles Manson – Live At San Quentin 1983 LP (Spahn Ranch)
Charles Manson’s second-best album after Lie, nearly an hour of songs and musical improvisation recorded in his jail cell in 1983. Freak folk, dreamy blues, rant and rave, and sudden outbreaks of violence.
Mayhem – Henhouse Recordings LP (Peaceville)
Mayhem – Out Of The Dark LP (Peaceville)
Mayhem, the Norwegian pioneers responsible for invigorating a global scene alongside originators such as Venom, Celtic Frost and Bathory, formed in 1984, and with a long history of tragedy, intrigue and infamy have become truly revered legends of black metal, with a large part of their legacy established in the late 80’s and early 90’s, when guitarist Euronymous and bassist Necrobutcher welcomed Hellhammer on drums and Dead on vocals, to help shape a new era of darkness and Armageddon. Henhouse Recordings collects Mayhem’s legendary 1989 rehearsal. Out From The Dark features another rare & ferocious rehearsal from the Mayhem archive recorded in 1989.
Greg McMurray – Walled Gardens LP (FigureEight)
Thoroughly blooded as a sideman to musical giants (Grey has performed alongside Gil-Scott Heron, Tyondai Braxton, Alarm Will Sound, Beth Orton, ACME, Colin Stetson, Sam Amidon and John Cale among others) Stay Up represents an artist emboldened by musical heritage and a songwriting voice refined, singular and mesmerizing. The album is uniquely expressive, ranging from sweetly melodic passages reflecting the traditional cast of a singer-songwriter, to huge open plains of chord-washes and chorus, to dense, dark, acute dissonance, all composed and performed by the master guitarist.
Nate Mercereau – Joy Techniques LP (How So)
Joy Techniques is a literal title; it’s about intentionally creating a space for the experience of joy to happen. This is the overarching theme of the album, creating purposeful space to consider and improvise within the context of what each song title means.
Hamlet Minassian – Armenian Pop Music [Reissue/1979] LP (Numero)
A winsome and dizzying spin on disco pop, recorded in westernized Iran during last moments before the 1979 revolution. All but criminalized in the wake of Ayatollah Khomeni’s theocratic repression, Hamlet Minassian’s solo masterpiece is a testament to the Middle East’s forgotten dance music culture. This six-song, 44-minute LP hybridizes Euro attitude and Armenian traditional songs to create long, hypnotic proto-house, seemingly beamed in from another dimension.
The Munsters – The Munsters [Reissue/1964] LP (Real Gone Music)
Veteran producers Joe Hooven and Hal Winn had the good sense to hire the Wrecking Crew (most notably Glen Campbell and Leon Russell) to play this surf-tinged set of songs under disguised as the Munsters from the hit TV show. Limited green colored vinyl reissue.
One Be Lo – The R.E.B.I.R.T.H. 2xLP (Young Heavy Souls)
After coproducing Binary Star, Subterraneous and three Solo albums, One Be Lo began collaborating with producers outside of his Trackezoids producer crew. The first project in this series of collaborations, rightfully titled R.E.B.I.R.T.H. (Real emcees bring intelligent rhyme to hip-hop.), was released in 2007 and is now available for the first time on blue vinyl.
The Pendletons – 2 Steps Away LP (Bastard Jazz)
Recorded in San Francisco with a rock-solid band consisting of some of the best musicians in the Bay Area, including guitarist Carl Locket (Shalamar, Rick James) and Star Creature recording artist Elive, the duo taps into a classic soul/boogie sound that rides a wave of ’70s and early ’80s funk with ease but somehow remains true to the excitement of those classic recordings without being overly nostalgic.
Lee Scratch Perry & Mr. Green – Super Ape Vs. 緑 “Open Door” 12” (Tuff Kong)
The duo has created a unique chemistry, delivering 18 tracks of music that Mr. Green has put together using original stems from Lee Scratch Perry. Mixed with his own unique style, Green managed to merge literally 20 different genres of music together on one record, bringing some memorable guests to the project such as HR of Bad Brains, Sheek Louch (The Lox), Daniel Son and an intro from Eric ‘Scratch’ Andre.
The Pineapple Thief – Your Wilderness [Reissue/2016] LP (Kscope)
The Pineapple Thief reissue their breakthrough 2016 album Your Wilderness on 180gm vinyl. [New album, Hold Our Fire, due November 15.]
Pink Siifu – Ensley LP (Pink Siifu)
Pink Siifu is a 27-year-old artist from Birmingham Alabama raised in Cincinnati Ohio who started making music in 2012. Also a part of a duo group, B. Cool-Aid, (consisting of producer Ahwlee) and always working on music with producer Swarvy, Siifu makes music that reflects the ideas, life, and struggles experienced through blackness even in light. Most times his music stretches from soul, punk, jazz, rap, and experimental.
Eliane Radigue – Chry-Ptus [Reissue/2007] 2xLP (Important)
Realized on the Buchla Synthesizer at the New York University.Originally two tapes which are to be played simultaneously, with or without synchronization, which does not affect the structure of the work, but creates changes in the game of sub-harmonics and overtones. Three variations on this piece were performed at the New York Cultural Center in 1971, with variations of amplitude and location modulation as well as synchronization and de-synchronization up to one minute both ways. Limited clear vinyl pressing.
Lou Rebecca – Restless LP (Holodeck)
Recently released on cassette – now available on vinyl. Playfully capturing the hearts and minds of her fans, Austin-based Parisian synth-pop starlet Lou Rebecca unveils her highly anticipated full-length debut. At times whimsical and delicate, Lou’s precise arrangements and eloquent lyrical cadence display a visionary talent mastering the subtleties of their work.
Rojai – Strut Down LP (Austin Boogie Crew)
ojai (pronounced ROW-JUH – real name Jairo Vargas) is a San Francisco born singer emerging as a leading voice in the modern funk scene. As a frontman for groups like R&B duo Kool Customer and Latin-funk outfit Bayonics, Rojai has proven himself adept at crooning on any groove in his raspy, soulful timbre.
Rush – Clockwork Angels Tour 5xLP+MP3 (Atlantic)
This limited five 180gm vinyl LP box set includes an etching on the flipside of the final album. The set comes packaged in a two-piece telescopic box with a full color booklet, and a code to download a high-definition digital version of the album. The band recorded concerts in 2012 in Phoenix, Dallas and San Antonio for a live album, and this set includes all 31 tracks from those recordings. This vinyl set also features the bonus tracks from the original CD release, including a version of the classic “Limelight” that the band recorded during soundcheck.
Sarcófago – Crust [Reissue/2000] 12” (Greyhaze)
After many years of never giving in to any musical trend, Sarcófago bowed out with Crust in 2000, leaving one of the most significant legacies in all of extreme metal having influenced a plethora of bands including stalwarts such as Mayhem, Beherit, Darkthrone, and so many more.
Jonathan Scherk & Daniel Majer – It’s Counterpart LP (Faitiche)
Jan Jelinek’s Faitiche label welcomes two young artists from Canada; Jonathan Scherk and Daniel Majer hail from the post-rock and experimental scene in Vancouver, where they shared a studio for several years. In artistic terms, too, there is a surprising coherence: on It’s Counterpart, their solo work naturally blends to create a joint album, making it hard to distinguish between their contributions.
Claire M Singer – Trian: Recent Works 2xLP (Touch)
A double-LP vinyl version of Claire M Singer’s previous two CDs: 2016’s Solas (excluding the piece “The Molendinar”, and 2017’s Fairge. Solas (Light in Gaelic) is Claire M Singer’s debut album, spanning 14 years of her work in acoustic and electronic composition. In recent years she has focused on writing and performing a mix of organ, cello, and electronics with regular performances at Union Chapel, where, as Music Director, she runs a diverse program of concerts and educational workshops around the chapel’s organ, which was built by Henry Willis in 1877. Fairge, meaning the ocean or the sea in Scottish Gaelic, is a single 21-minute piece for organ, cello, and electronics, composed, performed and produced by Singer.
Skid Row – Skid Row [Reissue/1989] LP (Friday Music)
Limited 180gm colored vinyl pressing of the New Jersey glam metal band’s multiplatinum debut album. [Trivia: frontman Sebastian Bach released an album in 2001 with Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins), Jimmy Flemion (The Frogs), and Kelley Deal (The Breeders), under the supergroup guise The Last Hard Men.]
Sneaker Pimps – Becoming X [Reissue/1996] LP (One Little Indian)
Liam Howe and Chris Corner met as teenagers in the ’80s and formed Sneaker Pimps in Hartlepool in 1994, becoming forerunners of trip-hop. They were joined by Kelli Ali (then known as Kelli Dayton) on vocals, with Ian Pickering writing the lyrics. Their debut album Becoming X went Gold in 1996, spawning the hit singles “Spin Spin Sugar” and “6 Underground”. The album later inspired the remix album Becoming Remixed, featuring a slew of DJ supremos.
Fred Schneider & The Superions – Bat Baby 7” (HHBTM)
Enjoy this camp holiday season treat and get the dance floor pumpin’ at your Halloween party.
Sorxe – The Ark Burner LP (Prosthetic)
Sorxe breaks the stereotypes of post & sludge metal, treading new psychedelic ground into the unknown.
Soul Tune Allstars – Introducing LP (Soul Tune)
The debut album by Sweden’s own Soul Tune Allstars gives you everything from hard instrumental funk to vocal soul winners with a hint here and there from other parts of the world, like the Brazilian flavored “World” and the mighty African flavored “Mother Nature”.
Bridget St. John – Live At The Betsey Trotwood LP (Feeding Tube/Shagrat)
Bridget St. John is one of the treasures of the British folk revival. Her early recordings on John Peel’s Dandelion label in the late ’60s and early ’70s – delicate and delightful as they are – continue to inspire a growing cadre of songwriters, singers, and alternate-tuned guitar-wielders. Live At The Betsey Trotwood is a document of a February 2017 show at the London venue, Trotwood.
Starcrawler – Starcrawler 12” (Rough Trade)
Released early last year on CD – now available on vinyl. What do you get when you combine elements of the Cramps, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne and The Runaways? You get Starcrawler, a Los Angeles, CA rock band who formed in 2015. Starcrawler’s eponymous debut was recorded by Ryan Adams on analog tape at his PaxAm Studio. Ryan’s love for the band and his excitement about the album has been well documented in his many posts from the studio.
Sun City Girls – Dawn Of The Devi [Reissue/1991] LP (Abduction)
Abduction Records reissue Dawn Of The Devi, Sun City Girls’ follow up album to Torch Of The Mystics (1990). Originally released in 1991 on Majora Records, many who had discovered Sun City Girls via Torch Of The Mystics were immediately alienated and blindsided by Dawn Of The Devi and all the harshness that comes with it.
Temples – Hot Motion LP (ATO)
Recently released on CD – now available on limited colored vinyl. With their third brilliantly crafted and ingeniously intricate album, Hot Motion, beloved British band Temples has found new ground and a deeper, darker creative well. A glorious technicolor infuses much of the record but there is a David Lynch-ian undertone that adds a gravity to Hot Motion’s soaring moments. “It felt like there was a darker edge to what we were coming up with and we wanted to make sure that carried through the whole record,” said bassist Thomas Walmsley. “It’s not a ten track, relentless rock record from start to finish, it’s got a lot of light and shade and more tender moments, but that heavier, darker sound is something we wanted to explore further.” Fizzing with ideas, bursting with kinetic energy and balancing an immediate impact with an enduring, timeless intensity, Hot Motion is a cohesive album in a time of stand-alone singles. Temples hasve created an aural tapestry for dark days, an inviting and warm sanctuary away from the daily churn of information overload. It’s an album of complexity, crafted for repeat listening. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Tomb Mold – Planetary Clairvoyance LP (20 Buck Spin)
Disharmoniously melding the pulverizing heaviness of Finnish death metal with a never overbearing technicality, Tomb Mold careen through world after world of alien landscape with formidable singularity. [Two colored vinyl variants available: orange/yellow and purple/blue ‘galaxy’.]
Dan Vapid and The Cheats – Dan Vapid and The Cheats [Reissue/2012] LP (Eccentric Pop)
Dan Vapid and The Cheats were formed in 2011 by Dan Vapid following his split from Screeching Weasel. The initial plan was to play a one-off show that featured songs from Dan’s previous bands (Screeching Weasel, The Riverdales, The Methadones, Sludgeworth, etc.) but soon evolved into a whole new band with its own material.
Various Artists [Hernan Cattaneo] – Balance Presents Sunsetstrip 2xLP+MP3 (Balance)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Lovingly referred to as “El Maestro” by his legions of adoring fans, Hernan Cattaneo has, over the last 30 years, carved a career that eclipses all others. Fascinated by the synth-pop and post punk of the ’80s, Hernan quickly discovered the futuristic sounds of dance music coming from Detroit and Chicago. Completely consumed by his new-found love, he progressed naturally to DJing.
Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy [Reissue/2009] LP+7”+MP3 (Matador)
Tenth anniversary colored vinyl LP pressing with accompanying 7″. Kurt Vile’s 2009 album was the complete set that he had hidden up his plaid sleeve for half a decade. Featuring nine dreamy, off kilter cuts (most by hometown master-engineer Jeff Zeigler) with the perfect level of fidelity, tunes like “Hunchback” and “Inside Looking Out” show the absolute power the Violators hold. It’s Mike Zanghi dominating his thunder kit on the former, and Michael Johnson banging in a primitive caveman thud on the latter. These tracks dig in and drive hard like Crazy Horse truckin’ along the Autobahn.
Vitriol – To Bathe From The Throat Of Cowardice LP (Century Media)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Debut full length album from the extreme metal band.
Your Old Droog – Looseys [Reissue/2017] 12” (Nature Sounds)
With transcendent lyrical skills, an impossibly perfect rap voice, and a uniquely cool, calm, and collected flow, Brooklyn rapper Your Old Droog is one of the brightest young stars in hip-hop today. His latest offering is Looseys, a collection of tracks that lit up blogs but never made it onto any of Droog’s acclaimed projects. The 6-track EP features collaborations with Joey Bada$$, Styles P, and Rast RFC, plus stellar production from famed producers like Alchemist, Oh No, Black Milk, and Statik Selektah.
Cassettes:
Bjork – Debut [Reissue/1993] (One Little Indian)
Bjork – Post [Reissue/1995] (One Little Indian)
Bjork – Homogenic [Reissue/1997] (One Little Indian)
Bjork – Vespertine [Reissue/2001] (One Little Indian)
Bjork – Medúlla [Reissue/2004] (One Little Indian)
Bjork – Volta [Reissue/2007] (One Little Indian)
Bjork – Biopilla [Reissue/2011] (One Little Indian)
Bjork – Utopia [Reissue/2017] (One Little Indian)
Part of the 2019 reissue series of Björk’s entire solo album catalogue on limited edition colored cassettes.
mxmtoon – the masquerade (House Arrest)
The debut album from 18-year-old singer/songwriter mxmtoon, the masquerade delivers what she calls rhyming diary entries: an off-the-cuff account of her most private thoughts and feelings, usually dashed off very late at night, straight from her brightly lit brain. In her deliberate refusal to hide behind metaphor, the Oakland-based artist otherwise known as Maia achieves a quiet bravery, an unrestrained honesty that gives voice to those who often go unheard.
Robedoor – Negative Legacy (Deathbomb Arc)
The filthiest of dungeon crawling synth-noise acts has returned. Let the universe howl in despair, Robedoor delivers Negative Legacy. Here, Robedoor dive deeper into murky beats than they ever have before, while introducing a new element of melodic vocals to resonate through their unlit caves of hopelessness. [Vinyl edition due October 11.]
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