CDs + Vinyl:
Altarage – Endinghent CD/LP (Season Of Mist)
“Black and dissonant death metal fury that immediately evokes a plethora of sinister images in the brain.”
All Out War – Give Us Extinction CD/LP (Organized Crime)
The NYHC hardcore band’s first proper full length is seven years. Give Us Extinction continues in the assault, but strives to unleash even more pummeling brutality.
Antisect – The Rising Of The Lights CD/LP (Rise Above)
32 years on from the release of Antisect’s brutally prescient Out From The Void 7”, a revitalized Antisect is reborn in flames of glory on their brand new full-length LP, The Rising Of The Lights: a startling and absorbing return to action from a band whose inner flame has never stopped blazing. With scabrous, mantra-like grooves and numerous moments of refined but unsettling electronic ambience, songs like epic opener “Spirit–Level” and the monstrous, pitch-black “Welcome To The New Dark Ages” acknowledge both past and present, reveling in the enlightening power of untamed noise. Meanwhile, the sharp and punchy “Something To Hate” is simply a newly-minted hardcore punk anthem, replete with raging refrain and a pulsating Motör-heart. This is punk rock and heavy metal enjoying a new form of intuitive symbiosis: angry, dark music conjured from the ether for the heaviest of times. [Kunuted colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Fred Astaire – The Astaire Story 2xCD (Verve)
This is a reissue of a famous package starring Fred Astaire, a revered film actor/dancer, and Oscar Peterson, one of the top jazz pianists of the era. Astaire sings most of the songs that made him famous on stage & screen in the 1930s and 1940s. The program is presented as a soundtrack, with an Overture, Intermission, and an Exit Music. Additionally, there is a bonus track, an alternate version of “I Won’t Dance,” one of Astaire’s trademark numbers, recorded with Peterson three years later.
Courtney Barnett / Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
Lotta Sea Lice is a conversation between friends Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, documented in raw, unvarnished song, brimming with personal history, crackling with energy and shot through with humor. What started as a loose plan to record a couple songs with no plans for release, turned into this full-length – “because the vibe was so strong,” says Vile.
Mike Barnett – Portraits In Fiddles CD (Compass)
Though he’s a Nashville native who became a professional player at a young age as part of Jesse McReynolds’ band, Mike Barnett can still be considered another breakout talent from the Boston roots music scene that produced the likes of Lake Street Dive, Crooked Still and The Deadly Gentlemen, a newgrass outfit where he held fiddle duties from 2011 to 2014.
Barr Brothers – Queens Of The Breakers CD (Secret City)
A collection of 11 hypnotically fluid songs that speak to the raw, elemental power of reflection, forgiveness, loss, and growing up. The record finds the band, featuring brothers Brad (guitar) and Andrew Barr (drums), and Sarah Page (harp), further on their thrilling path of exploring the outer limits of folk, blues, rock and Americana made north of the American border.
Beck – Colors CD/LP/2xLP (Capitol)
The last time the mass public got a glimpse of Beck, it was at the end of the 2015 Grammy Awards, when Prince was handing him an Album of the Year award for his meditative, mostly acoustic album Morning Phase. Few people knew, but at that time the artist was already two years into work on the follow-up which has taken two more years to complete. Possibly the most aptly titled work in Beck’s storied discography, Colors unfolds in an intoxicating rainbow of auditory tricks and treats, making it a summery smash for the fall season. In addition to the captivating piano-driven “Dear Life,” Colors includes both Beck singles that preceded it: a new mix of the psych-dance summer jam “Dreams” that NPR hailed as “urgently contemporary and irresistibly vintage” and the retro-futuristic earworm “Wow” that had Stereogum praising its “big, sweet incandescent hook” and Esquire rejoicing, “All hail the return of Party Beck.” [Multiple vinyl editions available: Standard black, indie store exclusive single-disc yellow, single-disc red, and deluxe red colored 180gm 45rpm with customizable cover, transparency prints and a 24-page lyrics art book.]
Barney Bentall – The Drifter & The Preacher CD/LP (True North)
After a five-year recording hiatus, Juno Award winner Barney Bentall returns with his 10th album.
Anouar Brahem – Blue Maqams CD (ECM)
Recorded in New Yorks Avatar Studios in May 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher, Blue Maqams brings the Tunisian oud master together with three brilliant improvisers: Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, and British pianist Django Bates. [Vinyl edition due November 17.]
