CDs + Vinyl:
Tony Allen – The Source CD (Blue Note)
With his Blue Note-debut, The Source, Nigerian drummer Tony Allen sees a childhood dream come true. Allen says this is the “best in my life,” and with a career spanning over 50 years, that’s quite the confession for the Afrobeat pioneer and former Fela Kuti fixture. The Source represents Blue Note’s classic era while symbolizing the label’s innovative present. [Vinyl edition due September 22.]
Gregg Allman – Southern Blood CD/CD+DVD/2xLP (Rounder/Concord)
Southern Blood serves as a remarkable final testament from an artist whose contributions have truly shaped rock & roll throughout the past four decades. Gregg Allman’s first all-new recording since 2011’s Grammy Award-nominated solo landmark, Low Country Blues, is among the most uniquely personal of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s career, an emotionally expansive collection of songs written by friends and favorite artists including Jackson Browne, Willie Dixon, Jerry Garcia & Robert Hunter, Lowell George and Spooner Oldham & Dan Penn. Rich with emotional texture, historical connectivity, and purity of performance, Southern Blood would be a landmark Gregg Allman record under any circumstance, its powerful subject matter and passionate presentation as emblematic an expression of his distinctive art as any prior work in the Allman canon. Though his loss leaves a vast musical space that can never truly be filled, the album stands tall as a remarkable valedictory and memorial to a true giant of American music. [CD version is available in Regular and Deluxe editions. Deluxe includes two live bonus tracks, as well as Back To The Swamp: The Making Of Southern Blood DVD. Limited hardwood-colored vinyl LP pressing also available.]
Alter Bridge – Live At The O2 Arena + Rarities 3xCD/4xLP (Napalm)
19-tracks recorded live at London’s O2 arena on November 24th, 2016. The rarities CD features the limited release tracks “Breathe”, “Cruel Sun”, and “Solace” alongside seven songs that have only been released in Japan. [Limited edition white vinyl pressing also available.]
Alvvays – Antisocialites CD/LP+MP3/Cassette (Polyvinyl)
Antisocialites is the much-anticipated follow-up to Alvvays’ 2014 self-titled debut. Across its 10 tracks and 33 minutes the Toronto-based group dive back into the deep end of reckless romance and altered dates. Through thoughtful consideration in basement and abroad, Alvvays has renewed its Scot-pop vows with a powerful new collection of manic emotional collage. The album opens with the excellent strum-‘n-thrummer “In Undertow,” a hi-amp breakup fantasy that is both crushing and charming for its level-headedness. Replete with more songs about drinking (“Forget About Life,” “Hey”), drugging (“Lollipop (Ode To Jim)”), and drowning (“Already Gone”), Antisocialites is a multipolar period piece fueled by isolation and loss. Perversely enjoyable dark drama springs from Molly Rankin’s phonetic twists, quick-sung rhymes and irreverent syllable-play. “So morose for me, seeing ghosts of me, writing oaths to me,” the self-described introvert sings on the Cocteau-pop stunner “Dreams Tonite,” the song from which the album’s name is derived. [Limited edition yellow colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Tori Amos – Native Invader CD (Decca)
Tori Amos’ fifteenth album and follow-up to 2014’s Unrepentant Geraldines is an intense feast of melody, protest, tenderness and pain. In the summer of 2016, she took a road trip through North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains. The intention was to reconnect with the stories and songlines of her mother’s family, who were from the North Carolina and Tennessee Smoky Mountain area. That winter, two seismic events knocked the plan off its axis. The fallout from the US election. And in January her mother, Mary Ellen Amos, suffered a severe stroke leaving her unable to speak. The complex influence of America’s alt-right Super PACs, lobbyists and think tanks informs much of the tension in Native Invader. [Available in Regular and Deluxe editions. Deluxe adds two bonus tracks. Vinyl edition due October 20.]
Animal Collective – Sung Tongs [Reissue/2004] CD/2xLP (My Animal Home)
Animal Collective’s second album has been reissued on their own label, My Animal Home.
Arch Enemy – Will To Power CD/2xLP+CD/CD+2xLP+7” (Century Media)
Tenth album from the Swedish veteran metal band. [Available in Regular, Deluxe, and Super Deluxe editions. Deluxe digipak edition includes bonus tracks. Super Deluxe includes a colored blood-red splatter vinyl pressing and a bonus 7” single. Limited stand-alone white colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Bash & Pop – Friday Night Is Killing Me [Reissue/1993] 2xCD (Omnivore)
When the Replacements called it quits in 1991, Tommy Stinson missed playing in a band with great chemistry and who all shared the same vision. He recruited then Replacements drummer Steve Foley, Foley’s brother Kevin, and Steve Brantseg to form Bash & Pop. Recording with Producer Don Smith (Cracker, Keith Richards, John Hiatt) and getting help from Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, Americana icon Greg Leisz, Wire Train’s Jeff Trott, and more, the band’s debut album, Friday Night Is Killing Me, arrived in January of 1993. In addition to the original 11 track release, this expanded double-CD edition includes an 18-track bonus disc adds rare singles and B-sides, their contribution to the soundtrack of the 1994 film Clerks, and 15 previously unissued performances.
Tim Berne – Incidentals CD (ECM)
Incidentals characteristically action-packed in the Berne tradition: powerful, dynamic, often fast-moving – yet also very clear in all its teeming detail. Producer David Torn plays guitar in a cameo at the climax of the modestly-titled “Sideshow” (in reality a 26-minute epic journey), soloing amid thunderous timpani and over serpentine melody outlined by sax and clarinet.
The Black Seeds – Fabric CD (Easy Star)
The Black Seeds’ sound casts a wide net, layering funk, soul, Afrobeat, and other eclectic elements over their dub/reggae foundations. [Vinyl edition due September 29.]
Blockhead – Funeral Balloons CD/LP (Backwoodz Studioz)
New album from acclaimed producer and NYC fixture.
Matthew Borne – Isotach CD/LP+CD (Leaf)
Following his celebrated moog memory project, Matthew Bourne returns to the piano for Isotach. Once again, spontaneity is the keyword where Bourne is concerned, catching on tape that pregnant moment when a piece begins to form. Skeletal piano motifs, an aching use of space and sparing cello arrangements are deployed to devastating effect.
Burn – Do Or Die CD/LP (Deathwish Inc.)
Led by vocalist Chaka Malik and guitarist Gavin Van Vlack, Burn have been pushing the boundaries of hardcore since their inception in 1990. As a whole, this 10-song slab is a melding of infectious melody, hook laden groove, and raw hardcore emotion…an invigorating modernization and continuation down the path these visionaries forged alone two decades earlier. [Limited black and cream mix colored vinyl pressing also available.]
