CDs:

Air Dubai – Be Calm CD (Hopeless)

Known for their highly energetic live show, Air Dubai’s sound combines hip-hop, R&B, jazz, and alternative rock styles.

Bad Suns – Language & Perspective CD/LP (Vagrant)

Comprised of eleven tracks, Language & Perspective moves effortlessly from start to finish showcasing the Bad Suns’ stadium ready anthems and undeniably catchy hooks. 

Beverly – Career CD/LP (Kanine)

Frankie Rose is well known for playing, writing, and singing in many bands. You might know some as The Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, The Dum Dum Girls, and even her own Frankie Rose band. But being such a prolific artist that she is, she has too much to not do. So for this new band, she enlisted her best friend, Drew and conquered up the spirit of Thelma And Louise to make some raw and raucous girl garage do-op that you can actually sing and dance to.

Bon Jovi – New Jersey [Reissue/1988] CD/2xCD/2xCD+DVD (Island/UMe)

Digitally remastered edition of the AOR band’s multi-platinum 1988 album, released to coincide with their 30th Anniversary. Available in a range of editions: Standard single-disc remastered edition; Deluxe edition which adds three bonus tracks and a disc of demos entitled 13 Sons Of Beaches, remixed exclusively for this reissue; and a Super Deluxe edition which adds a DVD  featuring the 88 minute behind-the-scenes documentary Access All Areas: A Rock & Roll Odyssey, expanded packaging, and more.

[Read more…] about New Releases for July 1, 2014

CDs:

Alias – Pitch Black Prism CD/LP (Anticon)

Every year requires winter records—those sounds one reaches for when cyclical freeze triggers a craving for icy synthesizers and sinister drums. This is where one finds Alias’s Pitch Black Prism, an alternately bleak and beautiful album built for headphones and hailstorms. Few places boast a more severe climate than Maine, the artist’s home state, with its ominous forests and jagged coastlines. Listeners can feel the climate and geography exerting brutal force to the contours of Pitch Black Prism. It’s little wonder Alias’s closest stylistic peers are Burial, Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin—all of whom hail from England, land of the cadaver-colored sky.

Allegaeon – Elements Of The Infinite CD (Metal Blade)

Allegaeon was formed in 2008 by founding member and guitar player Ryan Glisan. Soon thereafter, classically trained guitarist Greg Burgess joined, followed by vocalist Ezra Haynes and bassist Corey Archuleta to round out and form what people have come to know now as the Colorado kings of melodic metal.

Alraune – The Process Of Self-Immolation CD (Profound Lore)

Alraune is a new black metal band based out of Nashville, TN. Complex and twisted, Alraune’s vicious yet progressive style puts them alongside such American black metal bands as Ash Borer, Fell Voices, Negative Plane, Wolves In The Throne Room, Leviathan, Avichi and Krallice.

Arc – Umbra CD (DiN)

Arc is Ian Boddy (also DiN label boss) and Mark Shreeve, two veterans of the UK electronic music scene. Their music is deeply routed in the traditions of the German synthesizer music of the ‘70s and as such they employ a vast range of vintage analogue equipment not the least of which is Shreeve’s massive Moog IIIC modular system.

Auroch – Taman Shud CD (Profound Lore)

Formed in 2008, Vancouver, BC’s Auroch are poised to bear the flag of Canadian death metal chaos alongside likeminded bands of the new generation Mitochondrion (vocalist/guitarist Shawn Haché and live-lineup bassist Sebastian Montesi both play in Auroch), Antediluvian and Chthe’ilist. It’s a tradition stretching from the legendary and still-active Gorguts back to the mid-’90s heydays of Cryptopsy and Kataklysm.

[Read more…] about New Releases for June 23/24, 2014

CDs:

Fred Anderson – Birdhouse CD (OkkaDisk)

With Jim Backer, Harrison Bankhead and Hamid Drake. “The best tenor player you’ve never heard.” — Down Beat

The Antlers – Familiars CD/LP+CD (Anti)

Familiars, the highly anticipated new album from The Antlers is their fourth studio album and follows 2011’s critically lauded Burst Apart. Familiars was recorded, engineered and produced by the band in their Brooklyn studio and mixed by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio, Beach House) at DNA Downtown Studios.

Elisabeth Ahlander – Om VI Ska Borja Om CD (Dikotomi Produktion)

Elisabeth Ahlander was one of the founding members of New Quidesty Blaise (later NQB) in 1968 and she kept the band touring until 1978. She kept her guitars but didn’t do much in public during the years. In 2012 she suddenly was contacted by Dikotomi Produktions Dick Lundberg who heard a demo recording from some years earlier and he suggested that a solo album should be recorded. Elisabeth was now writing new songs and Birgitta Pincott (Nursery Rhymes) who toured with NQB 1976-1977 came along and joined the project.

Big Freedia – Just Be Free CD/LP (Queen Diva Music)

As the first openly gay rapper to gain mainstream success, Big Freedia is the undisputed Queen of Bounce.

Mary J. Blige – Think Like A Man [OST] CD (Epic)

Original soundtrack to the new motion picture written and performed by R&B great Mary J. Blige. Features musical collaborations and production by Pharrell Williams and The-Dream.

Boris – Noise CD/2xLP+MP3 (Sargent House)

Boris has always demolished expectations of what a band can do musically and aesthetically. In keeping with that tradition, they again flip the script for the band’s first official release in three years buy serving up their most all-encompassing effort to date. Noise is an amplification of Boris’ endless pursuit of musical extremes while moving aggressive, intense rock into new territories.

Jaki Byard – The Late Show: An Evening With Jaki Byard CD (Highnote)

Jaki Byard always personified the past, present and future of jazz, wherever or whenever one might have been fortunate enough to experience his challenging ideas. An icon in the history of jazz, Jaki was Art Tatum, Earl Hines, Bud Powell, Ran Blake, Cecil Taylor and Bill Evans, all in one. Yet, like these fellow icons, he was his own uncompromising, unique, living entity. He isn’t a household name, but most likely his low profile is the result of an irresistible need to constantly reinvent himself, the sure sign of the consummate artist.

[Read more…] about New Releases for June 17, 2014