CDs + Vinyl:

Aktor – Paranoia CD (Soulfood)
New album from metaller Chris ‘The Professor’ Black (High Spirits, Dawnbringer). Aktor is more rooted in 1970s hard rock, including keyboard sounds and hammond, than any other projects he has been involved in so far.

Alborosie meets King Jammy – Dub Of Thrones CD (V.P.)
Two dub masters meet and collaborate on recreating original riddims from the legendary King Jammy.

Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes [Reissue/1991] 2xCD/LP (Atlantic)
Tori Amos – Under The Pink [Reissue/1993] 2xCD/LP (Atlantic)
Digitally remastered and expanded two CD editions of the songstress’ first two albums, each featuring a bonus CD containing non-album tracks and live recordings. (Vinyl versions are single-disc.)

Antigone Rising – Whiskey & Wine I CD (Blackheart)
Antigone Rising – Whiskey & Wine II CD (Blackheart)
Antigone Rising is an all-female alt-country rock band. Their latest single, “That Was The Whiskey” was co-written with songwriter Lori McKenna (Faith Hill, Little Big Town).

Ava Luna – Infinite House CD/LP (Western Vinyl)
While on a writing retreat in the sleepy southern town of Benton, Mississippi, the members of New York’s Ava Luna came across an abandoned house while on a walk through the woods. Overgrown, rotting, and littered with evidence of its past inhabitants, the maze-like dwelling would haunt their psyches throughout the writing and recording of their third full-length Infinite House. Like Jorge Luis Borges’ The Library Of Babel, the seemingly endless rooms and hallways in the old house felt like a metaphor for the invisible, internal labyrinths, which the band explores lyrically and sonically on their new album.

Avid Dancer – 1st Bath CD/LP (Grand Jury)
Debut LP from L.A.-based songsmith and former US Marine and world champion at the art of rudimental snare drumming, Jacob Dillan Summers, who records lush baroque pop and shimmering psychedelia under the name Avid Dancer. “While his first song ever, ‘Stop Playing With My Heart,’ certainly sports a steady rhythm, the focus here is on the bigger picture — specifically the way his bright vocals, swirling guitars, and buzzing keys evoke the psychedelic sound of Tame Impala, though somehow sent back to the ‘60s so all that soulful loveliness can rattle around in the heyday a bit. ‘You’re the only one,’ Summers sings, ‘All the others are gone.’ – SPIN

Bachman – Heavy Blues CD/LP (Linus)
Heavy blues from The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive founder Randy Bachman and his new power blues rock trio Bachman.

Aidan Baker – Half Lives 2xCD (Gizeh)
Multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker’s double album Half Lives shows the Canadian bridging his ambient and lyrical modes on the electric-guitar leaning “Mountains Sweat Clouds” and the acoustic “As I Walked On Dead Earth.” Stemming from a set of extended improvisations, this interconnected collection of meandering experiments will appeal to fans of Baker’s contemporaries Tim Hecker and Ben Frost.

Michael Angelo Batio – Shred Force 1 (Rat Pak)
Considered to be a pioneer of the shred guitar genre, Michael Angelo Batio releases his first-ever career retrospective.

Tim Berne’s Snakeoil – You’ve Been Watching Me CD (ECM)
Tim Berne s third ECM album sees the saxophonist-composer again leading his ultra-dynamic New York band Snakeoil, but with the quartet now a quintet with the arrival of guitarist Ryan Ferreira, whose sound adds textural allure.

Blackfoot Gypsies – Handle It CD/LP (Plowboy)
The Blackfoot Gypsies drink from the same deep well as Zeppelin, The Stones & The Faces: delta blues and the foreboding ghosts of country music’s past. They blast out raw, classic rock & roll all dolled up in feathers, sequin jackets, vintage bell-bottoms and cowboy boots. Founding members Matthew Paige, who “makes Keith Richards riffs sound clean by comparison” (Creative Loafing/Atlanta) and drummer Zack Murphy have rounded out their sound with bassist Dylan Whitlow and Ollie Dogg on harmonica for this album. Handle It showcases their “bombast of reckless experimentation” (The Downcast) with American music; album track “Under My Skin” bursts with bluesy psychedelia and “Spent All My Money” echoes Desire-era Dylan with fingerpicked guitars and violin.

B-Legit – What We Been Doin CD (Empire Distribution)
Blood relative to E-40 and a member of the powerhouse group, The Click, B-Legit returns with a brand new album that features E-40, Berner, J Boog, Clyde Carson, Problem, Cousin Fik and more.

Blind Shake – Fly Right CD/LP (Slovenly)
This nine cut release is another sonic hurdle for the band, steadily alternating between bold, phaser heavy garage punk wail, trippy spaghetti western tinged surf, and viscerally dramatic scare tactics. Another hypnotic document for an unworthy world.

The Bluebeaters – Everybody Knows CD/LP (Record Kicks)
Fifth album from the Italian rocksteady/ska giants and their first in six years. The Bluebeaters take a bunch of hits from the past and present and re-arrange the songs as if they were recorded in Kingston, Jamaica in the ’60s and early ’70s.

Bodega Bams – Sidewalk Exec… CD (Duck Down)
Bodega Bamz is a Puerto Rican rapper from Spanish Harlem, New York. Sidewalk Exec features Joell Oritz, Flatbush Zombies, Aston Matthews, Youth Is Dead and Lil Eto.

Bosse-De-Nage – All Fours CD (Profound Lore)
New release from the Bay Area extreme metal band — an intriguing mix of visceral black metal and classic early-’90s indie rock/screamo.

Jack Bruce – Live At The Canterbury Fayre CD (The Store For Music)
Jack Bruce and the Cuicoland Express captured live at the Canterbury Fayre music festival in Summer 2002. Features Living Color guitarist Vernon Reid, keyboardist Woo Warrior and former Parliament/Funkadelic musical director Bernie Worrell, and percussionists Robby Ameen, El Negro Horacio Hernandez, and Richie Flores.
[Read more…] about New Releases for April 14, 2015