CDs + Vinyl:

Eric Alexander – Song Of No Regrets CD (HighNote)

Hearing tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander is one of the great treats in jazz. There are few artists on stage today who combine chops, imagination and technique with a fluidity of ideas as he does. This imposing improviser is reunited here with pianist David Hazeltine and they’re joined by another jazz great, the always daring trumpeter Jon Faddis on a couple of the tracks. Add in the swing engendered by bassist John Webber and drummer Joe Farnsworth and you have a formula for excellence.

Amp Fiddler – Amp Dog Nights CD/2xLP (Mahogani Music)

Amp Fiddler is a keyboardist, sound designer, singer, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, Michigan. His musical styles include funk, soul, dance and electronica music. Amp Dog Nights is his fourth LP and features unreleased beats from J. Dilla.

Horace Andy – Good Vibes [Reissue/1997] CD (VP)

Ten tough disco mixes – vocal and dub – with Horace at the peak of his late ‘70s form. [CD edition contains bonus track not featured on original release. Vinyl due November 24.]

Audn – Farvegir Fyrndar CD/LP (Season Of Mist)

“Audn are a prime example of the power and atmosphere of Iceland’s booming black metal scene.”

Axis – Shift CD/LP+MP3 (Good Fight Music)

The Florida metalcore act follow-up their 2015 debut Show Your Greed with sophomore effort Shift. Ushered in by the bruising lead track “The Altruist,” Shift finds Axis retaining their metalcore ambitions but upping the ante on atmosphere to stunning effect. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys – Rot CD/LP (What’s Your Rupture?)

BWBB is the main project of Joe Sukit, guitarist for the much beloved Australian soul-punk band, Royal Headache, and Rot is the band’s sophomore album. Bold, passionate, ear-splitting rock and roll, performed with tremendous heart and determination. Inspired by ’80s and ’90s punk rock, Noisey calls lead cut “Plastic Tears” “a ragged piece of power pop glory.”

Andrew Bird – Echolocations: River CD/LP (Wegawam)

Recorded under the Hyperion bridge in Los Angeles, California’s Atwater Village, Echolocations: River is the second piece in a series of short films and recordings documenting site specific compositions. Performed by Andrew Bird and filmed by Tyler Manson in remote and acoustically interesting natural and urban environments, the first installment, Echolocations: Canyon, was originally released in 2015.

Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band – Body And Shadow CD/LP (Blue Note)

The fifth album from the jazz drummer/composer/session musician is a succinct nine-track meditation on lightness/darkness that arrives like a balm for the soul, ebbing and flowing with grace, subtlety and no shortness of beauty.

Blue Pills – Lady In Gold: Live In Paris CD+Blu-ray/2xLP (Nuclear Blast)

“A band that belongs to the Champions League of the current retro rock peak is Blues Pills, hailing from Sweden. Lady in Gold – Live in Paris captures all the highlights of this exciting rock outfit” — Markus’ Heavy Music Blog

The Tommy Bolin Band – Northern Lights CD/LP (Friday Music)

This recording, captured just months before blues-rock guitar hero Tommy Bolin’s untimely death from a drug overdose at just 25, is taken from WBCN-FM’s master radio broadcast tape of a promotional performance of the Tommy Bolin Band playing live at the Northern Lights Recording Studios on September 22, 1976.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – Born In Chicago: The Best Of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band CD (Varese Sarabande)

New best-of collection. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was one of the most important American bands of the ‘60s, featuring Paul Butterfield (harmonica/lead vocalist), Mike Bloomfield, and Elvin Bishop. Unlike the British blues revivalists, the Butterfield band was schooled in the tough Chicago bars that housed Muddy Waters, Little Walter, and Howlin’ Wolf.

[Read more…] about New Releases for November 10, 2017

CDs + Vinyl:

a-ha – MTV Unplugged – Summer Solstice 2xCD (UMe)

As part of the MTV Unplugged shows, a-ha performed 17 of their songs with completely new arrangements as well as two new premieres and two cover versions on vintage acoustic instruments. [Vinyl edition due November 10.]

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. – Those Who Came Never Before CD/LP (Nod & Smile)

Two side long pieces of otherworldly psych rock. [Limited pink vinyl pressing also available.]

Alvarius B. – With A Beaker On The Burner And An Otter In The Oven, Vol. 3: Heathen Folklore CD/LP (Abduction)

Here donning his Alvarius B. persona, Alan Bishop returns with the third in a recent trilogy of albums, all recorded from 2014-2017 in Egypt with various members of Cairo’s Invisible Hands and the Master Musicians Of Bukakke. Across the three albums, Bishop crafts effortless reconstructions of a century’s worth of folk-rock-blues idioms through his slack acoustic-guitar splutter.

Annihilator – For The Demented CD/LP+MP3 (Neverland Music)

For The Demented captures some feel from Annihilator’s 1985-87 demos mixed with the first four Annihilator records. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Anti-Flag – The American Fall CD/LP (Spinefarm)

“The politics of distraction influences people to lose focus on what makes a positive impact on their lives and the world,” the band explains. “It encourages people to make choices that are not in their best interest and reduces society’s ability to make progressive change. The American Fall is our rejection of this harmful distraction. At this crucial moment in history, we must focus on pushing past the status quo to create a better and more just world. We reject the proliferation of exploitation, racism, bigotry, and socioeconomic injustice that dominate the policies of Donald Trump, just as we renounce the neoliberal status quo that came before him.” [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for November 3, 2017

CDs + Vinyl:

10 Years – (How To Live) As Ghosts CD/LP+MP3 (Mascot)

When guitarist/drummer Brian Vodinh and guitarist Matt Wantland returned to the Knoxville, Tennessee alt-metal/post-grunge band for their eighth album (How To Live) As Ghosts, they burst through their comfort zones to create something new.

112 – Q Mike Slim Daron CD (E1)

New album from the Atlanta R&B group.

45 Grave – Sleep In Safety CD (Real Gone Music)

Formed from putrefying remnants of The Germs, The Consumers, The Bags, The Gun Club, and The Screamers among other L.A. punk outfits, 45 Grave were arguably the first American Goth/deathrock bands. Now available is this expanded version of the band’s sole album, 1983’s Sleep In Safety. [Vinyl edition due November 24.]

All Pigs Must Die – Hostage Animal CD/LP (Southern Lord)

All Pigs Must Die is comprised of some of the most well-seasoned musicians on the eastern seaboard – Kevin Baker (The Hope Conspiracy), Ben Koller (Converge), Matt Woods, and Adam Wentworth (both of Bloodhorse). Their fusion of crust punk, hardcore and metal is more ferocious than ever before thanks to the addition of Trap Them’s Brian Izzi. Distilling aggressive music to its purest tenets, APMD craft songs that pulverize, gnash, and whirl with a punishing delivery.

Appice – Sinister CD/2xLP+CD (Steamhammer)

The first joint studio album by Carmine and Vinny Appice, recorded with the support of a number of prestigious guests. [Limited gatefold colored 180gm vinyl pressing also available.]

Azonic – Prospect Of The Deep CD (Indivisible Music)

Azonic is Blind Idiot God founder Andy Hawkins on guitars and Tim Wyskida (Khanate, BIG) on timpani, concert bass drum and gong. It was recorded with Bill Laswell at BC Studio which was selected for its enormous tracking rooms, which are ideal for the high volume, long tone qualities of this music. [Vinyl edition due December 15.]

Julien Baker – Turn Out The Lights CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)

From its opening moments — when her chiming, evocative melody is accompanied by swells of strings — Turn Out The Lights throws open the doors to the world without sacrificing the intimacy that has become a hallmark of Baker’s songs. The album was recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in her hometown of Memphis, TN, and mixed by Craig Silvey (The National, Arcade Fire). This evolution from Sprained Ankle’s intentionally spare production allows Baker — who is still the album’s sole producer and writer — greater scope and freedom. Strings and woodwinds now shade the corners of her compositions, and she takes to piano rather than guitar on several tracks, pushing the 21-year-old’s work to cinematic heights of intensity. [Limited clear vinyl pressing also available.]

Battleme – Cult Psychotica CD/LP (El Camino)

What happened to the American psyche? Battleme’s Cult Psychotica explores our tripped-up reality through Matt Drenik’s lens. Written within the first few months of the 2016 election and cut mostly live in a week-long session at Drenik’s Get Loud Studio, Cult Psychotica is a conceptual landscape of heroes and losers, misguided truths and theories, urgent in its delivery and poignant in its critique of the moment. The songs were written in bursts, the lyrics in sequence. Cult Psychotica is an indictment of non-truth – a political album from a writer who has up until now eschewed overt political songwriting. The soaring “Bitch Blues” documents the country in riot while “Testament” embodies the fury of the eternal gathering. Cult Psychotica’s ten songs are an homage to a fluid and sometimes morbid dream that centers around Drenik’s vision of an urban American landscape run by shams and hustles, eventually culminating in the bloom of the “Lowlife.” It’s a reaction to the Trumponian theatre, a timely reflection on our own busted reality.

Big K.R.I.T. – 4eva Is A Mighty Long Time 2xCD (BMG Rights Management)

New album from the Mississippi rapper.

Black Crowes – The Lost Crowes [Reissue/2006] CD (Silver Arrow)

Originally released in 2006, this double-CD set contains a pair of previously unavailable albums recorded by Chris Robinson and the boys – 1993’s Tall (which eventually morphed into Amorica, and 1997’s Band, which was recorded after Three Snakes And One Charm.

Blind Guardian – Battalions Of Fear [Reissue/1988] CD (Nuclear Blast America)

Blind Guardian – Follow The Blind [Reissue/1989] CD (Nuclear Blast America)

Blind Guardian – Tales From The Twilight World [Reissue/1990] CD (Nuclear Blast America)

Blind Guardian – Somewhere Far Behind [Reissue/1992] CD (Nuclear Blast America)

Blind Guardian – Follow The Blind [Reissue/1993] CD (Nuclear Blast America)

Blind Guardian – Imaginations From The Other Side [Reissue/1995] CD (Nuclear Blast America)

Blind Guardian – The Forgotten Tales [Reissue/1996] CD (Nuclear Blast America)

Blind Guardian – Nightfall In Middle Earth [Reissue/1998] CD (Nuclear Blast America)

Blind Guardian – A Night At The Opera [Reissue/2002] CD (Nuclear Blast America)

Blind Guardian – Live [Reissue/2003] 2xCD (Nuclear Blast America)

German power metal – reissued on CD.

Butcher Babies – Lilith CD/LP (Century Media)

For nearly a decade, Butcher Babies have been crushing stages worldwide with their vicious live performance and explosive energy. Frontwomen Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey, guitarist Henry Flury, bassist Jason Klein and drummer Chase Brickenden juxtapose brutal, aggressive riffs with beautiful melodies that wail with emotional redemption. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for October 27, 2017