CDs + Vinyl:

311 – Archive 4xCD (Sony Legacy)
Career-spanning four CD set by the alternative rock band commemorates their silver anniversary with 81 tracks, including unreleased songs, B-sides, bonus tracks, pre-production recordings, alternate versions and demos.

Abnormal Thought Patters – Altered States Of Consciousness CD (Lifeforces)
Abnormal Thought Patterns is a mathematical instrumental trio that fuses heavy riffs, intricate time signatures and shredding solos.

Anathema – Fine Days: 1999-2004 3xCD+DVD (The End)
This triple-CD+DVD box set consists of three digitally remastered albums (Judgment, A Fine Day To Exit, and A Natural Disaster) along with the live Were You There? DVD from 2004. Anathema has become a favorite live band across Europe and the UK, and an affinity with Eastern Europe that is second to none. (Each title also separately repressed on vinyl.)

Ancient Ocean – Blood Moon CD/LP+MP3 (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
After a steady run of superb EP releases, Ancient Ocean’s first long player Blood Moon has given J.R. Bohannon the space he needs to stretch out and fully realize his sprawling soundscapes. Four songs over 41 minutes featuring Jonas Reinhardt and Mark Demolar (Woodsman) on the title track and J.S. Aurelius (Destruction Unit) and Aaron Martin on the expansive “Beargrass Creek.”

Aranda – Not The Same CD (Wind-Up)
A new album of powerhouse rock anthems.

August Burns Red – Found In Far Away Places CD/LP (Fearless)
Seventh album from the Lancaster, PA melodic metalcore band. Available in Regular and Deluxe editions. Deluxe adds two bonus tracks.

Author & Punisher – Melk En Honing CD (Housecore)
Author & Punisher’s new is mélange of his various drone machinery together, multiple physical rhythm machines, some synth and the new electromechanical masks that began to appear in A&P performances across the US and Europe in 2014. Abandoning the typical guitar and drums set up, Author & Punisher makes aggressive rhythmic and oscillatory soundscapes from his own custom fabricated and precision machinery. Designed by Shone himself, the instruments of Author & Punisher are custom devices that begin mostly as big chunks of aluminum and steel that are worked into all manners of wheels, throttles, pedals, and masks to manipulate sound live. Vinyl version due August 7.

Barbecue Bob – The Rough Guide To Blues Legends: Barbecue Bob CD (World Music Network)

One of the unsung heroes of the Piedmont blues style, Robert Hicks, aka Barbecue Bob recorded over sixty sides for Columbia Records and became one of the best-selling artists on their race series, outsold only by Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Blind Willie Johnson. With his original and witty compositions he was one of the real pioneers of the Atlanta blues scene of the time, but his career was tragically ended by his death from pneumonia at the age of just 29.

Being As An Ocean – Being As An Ocean CD/LP (InVogue)
Being As An Ocean is a post-hardcore band with a melodic and plaintive sound punctuated by outbursts of aggression.

Bilal – In Another Life CD (Purpose Music Group/eOne Music)
According to a press released, the long-running soul singer’s fifth album explores “today’s sociopolitical environment.” In Another Life features Kendrick Lamar, returning the favor for Bilal singing on To Pimp A Butterfly cuts “Institutionalized” and “These Walls,” Southern rap obsessive Big K.R.I.T. and Kiwi vocalist Kimbra. The album was produced by L.A. composer and producer Adrian Younge, who just announced another collaborative album with Ghostface Killah.

Bitter End – Illusions Of Dominance CD (Deathwish, Inc.)
Introspection and anger blankets everything in tracks like “Truth, Lies, Fear,” “Realm Of Despair,” “Long Time Gone,” “The Crushing Madness,” and “Conversations With Death.” Each one, writhing and clawing with thrash precision and hardcore aggression. It’s not all speed and violence though; songs “Sting Of Betrayal,” “Pleasure And Pain,” “Into The Unknown,” and closer “No Man’s Land” choose to churn at a slower rpm but are just as lethal. Opting to let their hybrid hardcore/metal heaviness shine through the eye of the storm with mid-tempo battery and epic breakdowns.

Bong – We Are, We Were, And We Will Have Been CD (Ritual Productions)
Solemn in its delivery and frightening in its implications, We Are, We Were, And We Will Have Been signifies a point of no return from the pied pipers of mesmeric drone; its two near-20-minute tracks will surely loop and envelop indefinitely, freeing the listener from this increasingly unfamiliar material world and mercifully trapping them in the weightlessness of Bong’s sonic void.
[Read more…] about New Releases for June 30, 2015

CDs + Vinyl:

Abyssal – Antikatastaseis CD (Profound Lore)
Third full-length release from mysterious death metal entity. For fans of Portal, Mitochondrion, Impetuous Ritual, Ulcerate, Wormed, Artificial Brain.

Andy Human And The Reptoids – Andy Human And The Reptoids CD/LP (S-s Records)
In an era when artists do little more than tweak their influences, Andy Human And The Reptoids take the past, hint at the future, and turn it all into the now. With punk energy, a new wave sense of economy, and the tap of power pop, these guys fold in Roxy Music, Devo (both the art and the pop sides), early Eno and Pere Ubu, while making sounds that are very much their own.

Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie – Tideline [Reissue/1982] CD (Adventure Music)
“In 1980, Windham Hill’s newly empowered executive producer Will Ackerman heard my first release Fiddlistics and liked the lone, lonesome piano and violin duet on that recording. He wanted more of that feeling; Barbara Higbie and I managed to give him that and more. Barbara, my Northern California compatriot that I had actually met two years prior in Paris while she was busking around the continent, had an ear for odd time signatures that sound perfectly normal, her perfectly tilted melodies, and tough, joyful groove fit right in with all the surging, leaping music happening around us. I finally felt ready to sing out my own story on a fiddle borrowed from my best friend. Our total conviction about the music made everything come together for Tideline.” — Darol Anger, 2015

Asia – Axis XXX Live San Francisco MMXII 2xCD+DVD (Frontiers)
Asia celebrated the 30th Anniversary of their self-titled debut album with a concert at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco in 2012. This is a documentation of that performance. Also available on stand-alone Blu-ray.

Bad Assets – Ponco CD (Deer Lodge)
Whiskey drenched, roots rockin’ party country music.

Baby Dee – I Am A Stick. CD/LP (Tin Angel)
“Dee’s songs read like short stories: though they easily blend in with whatever state you’re in, there are details and details to take in. Except for the occasional divertissement indebted to her humorous, ‘dark cabaret’ side (and to her past as a street performer), most of her songs are exquisitely moody and spacious, much like Current 93’s piano-only masterpiece Soft Black Stars or Kate Bush’s A Sky Of Honey. Take ‘Unheard Of Hope’ from A Book Of Songs For Anne Marie (2010): just three notes on the piano and her meandering voice, typically divided between singing and recitative. It could hardly be more stripped-down, but Dee’s a master in keeping you on your toes. I Am A Stick travels at different speeds. What has remained intact is Dee’s ability as a storyteller. ‘Big Love’ tells the story of a nun who failed to keep her vow of chastity, and of how a merciful St. Brigit intervened to interrupt her unwanted pregnancy. Segmenting the plot into a series of short scenes, Dee swings and captivates for nearly six minutes. As with all Dee’s best songs, it’s creepy, tragic and oddly funny.” – Drowned In Sound

[Read more…] about New Releases for June 23, 2015

CDs + Vinyl:

Acid King – Middle Of Nowhere, Center Of Everywhere CD (Svart)
Acid King breaks their ten-year studio silence with a new, deliriously heavy new album.

Active Child – Mercy CD/LP (Vagrant)
“Los Angeles-based artist Pat Grossi (aka Active Child) is no stranger to Hype Machine. He’s been heaped with attention from music blogs since his first release in 2010, and even had Ellie Goulding cover one of his songs on her second album. For his own sophomore LP, the former Philadelphia Boys Choir member wrote primarily on harp and piano, then traveled to Brooklyn to record with producer Van Rivers (Glasser, Fever Ray, Matthew Dear) who, Pat says, ‘really pushed me vocally, more than anyone ever has before.’” – Hype Machine

Air – The Virgin Suicides [OST/Reissue/1999] 2xCD/2xCD+LP+7”+MP3 (Parlophone)
Warner and Parlophone celebrate the 15th anniversary of Sofia Coppola’s directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides, by reissuing Air’s original soundtrack for the film. Available on double-CD, vinyl, and in a limited edition super deluxe box set, the score is reissued along with Air’s early studio releases on vinyl. The box set includes the album pressed on red vinyl plus a bonus picture disc featuring a previously unreleased live performance of the score recorded at L.A.’s American Legion Hall on January 22nd, 2000 and three recordings from a KCRW performance that same month. Also in the box will be the double-CD version, a movie poster, a 16-page booklet featuring a new Air interview, a VIP badge from the L.A. show, and an exclusive red vinyl 7” featuring remixes and the song “Playground Love.” The live album will also be included as one of the discs in the double-CD set, while two additional studio outtakes will be tacked onto the end of disc one.

Alpine – Yuck CD/LP (Votiv Music)
“The sound of the Australian indie-pop band Alpine is so spare and meticulous, it’s hard to believe it emanates from a six-piece group. While there’s guitar, bass, keyboards and drums at play behind frontwomen Phoebe Baker and Lou James, Alpine builds its songs up harmonically, allowing its sound a sense of space not unlike modern R&B or the likes of jj and Lykke Li. ‘Light’ was a descriptor tagged to 2012’s A Is For Alpine, and it’s easy to be smitten by that seemingly effortless attribute.” – Boise State Public Radio

Anaal Nathrakh – The Candlelight Years 3xCD (Candlelight)
A compilation of the British industrial black metal/grindcore band’s three albums for Candlelight: In The Constellation Of The Black Widow (2009), Passion (2011) and Vanitas (2012).

Babymetal – Babymetal CD/LP (RAL)
Debut album from the Japanese j-pop/metal band. Originally released in Japan in 2014, the critically acclaimed set now sees a stateside release.

Bad Cop/Bad Cop – Not Sorry CD/LP (Fat Wreck Chords)
Aptly titled, Bad Cop/Bad Cop brazenly blasts out vibrant pop/punk. Laden with catchy hooks, three part harmonies that’d make The Beach Boys jealous and a ton of attitude, Not Sorry showcases their uncanny ability to blend aggressive instrumentation with polished vocals.
[Read more…] about New Releases for June 16, 2015