New Releases - 8/30/19
Hitting The Racks
Here's your weekly rundown of what's hitting the new release racks at Grimey's
Jump to… New Releases Reissues & From The Vaults New on Vinyl Soundtracks Compilations
New Releases
Bon Iver - i,i CD/LP (Jagjaguwar)
"Bon Iver has always been Justin Vernon's escape route. After retreating to the woods of Wisconsin to record For Emma, Forever Ago, he drew a surrealist roadmap of the United States on Bon Iver, depicting a fantastical world where the lived, the dreamed, and desired coexisted. When this invented land felt oppressive and the anxiety of facing it too overwhelming, Vernon retreated again and burrowed within himself, pulverizing his voice with machines to create 22, A Million, a record that dramatized the fracturing of the self. There's no more hiding on i,i. Justin Vernon takes the Bon Iver sound and reassembles it like a cubist collage, with his voice right out front. All the familiar elements are here-impressionist swells of sound, impenetrable-yet-tender lyrics, mesmerizing studio tricks-and they are buoyed by Vernon's supple baritone, the instrument he knows how to manipulate best. Acoustic guitar, horns, and piano return to prominence alongside the jittery electronics and synths that Vernon has lately favored. But the mood he conjures with these elements feels new. These songs don't swallow you whole with grandeur; they look outward, leaving some room for the rest of the world." - Pitchfork
Tool - Fear Inoculum CD (RCA)
Fear Inoculum is the long-awaited new album from Tool, and the band's first new album in 13 years. The limited-edition CD is packaged in a state-of-the-art tri-fold soft pack video brochure featuring a 4" HD rechargeable screen with exclusive video footage, a USB charging cable, a 2-watt speaker and a 36-page insert book. "This is the most intricate and densely-layered album Tool have yet made, but to use the word like "complex" to describe the counting-in-prime-numbers time signatures of Invincible or digital-only track Legion Inoculant would be lazy in the extreme. ... An album that pushes and challenges its creators and its audiences in new ways, the finer details of which will probably take another 13 years to fully unwrap and appreciate" (Kerrang!). "As with releases previous, there are wrinkles that will only emerge after the record is lived with and absorbed. But if you're wondering whether 'Fear Inoculum' was worth the wait, then the answer is yes. If you're wondering whether it'll touch your heart, soul and spirt, the answer is also so" (NME). "They continue to blur the lines between art, psychedelia, alt metal, and prog rock with undiminished curiosity and skill. ... As with previous work, on Fear Inoculum, the band's songwriting can at times seem like a riddle, daring listeners to lean in and figure out exactly what is going on" (Spin).
Sheryl Crow - Threads CD/2xLP (Valory)
Threads is the nine-time Grammy Award-winner singer-songwriter's album of collaborations. The set includes "Still The Good Old Days" featuring Joe Walsh, "Redemption Day" featuring Johnny Cash, "Live Wire" featuring Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples, and "Prove You Wrong" featuring Stevie Nicks and Maren Morris. Additional guests include Eric Clapton, Chris Stapleton, Sting, Brandi Carlile, Margo Price, Jason Isbell, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Lucius, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, St. Vincent, Chuck D, Gary Clark Jr., Kris Kristofferson, James Taylor and Andra Day.
Lana Del Rey - NFR! CD/2xLP (Interscope)
Norman F**king Rockwell! is the highly anticipated sixth studio album by Lana Del Rey and follow-up to 2017's Grammy-nominated Lust For Life. The singer notes that the album is, "in the vein of a Laurel Canyon sound. And its kind of transformed a little bit because there's some surf elements to some of the songs - it's not really surfy like Dick Dale but a lot of electric guitar, a little Red Hot Chili Peppers influence in there."
Olivia Jean - Night Owl CD/LP (Third Man)
Night Owl is exactly what it sounds like: the wee-hour workings of an artist engrossed in a project, pushing against omnipresent forces of fear and judgment to do exactly what she's always wanted to do and be exactly what she's known she is. It's candy-coated and also bittersweet, fully aware and also full-hearted. The album mines the shared spaces between bubblegum, beach pop undercurrents and fuzzed out garage a la B-52s and Dick Dale, lyrically diving headfirst into the frustrations of perfectionism, mental barriers, obsession and modern heartache.
Trisha Yearwood - Every Girl CD/LP (Gwendolyn)
Every Girl is Yearwood's first country music studio album since 2007's Heaven, Heartache And The Power Of Love. The album consists of songs composed mostly by female songwriters.
Joan Shelley - Like The River Loves The Sea CD/LP (No Quarter)
Joan Shelley's fifth solo album, Like The River Loves The Sea was recorded at Greenhaus studios in Reykjavik, Iceland with Shelley and James Elkington serving as co-producers. Shelley says of the collection, "Woven into the melodies and rhythms of these songs are fragments of the many musical traditions that comprise what we now call Kentucky music: Irish, British, and African to name a few. The best music would be a conversation with the divine that has seen all of it, or with the oldest trees that have witnessed the whole human story. These songs are partly that conversation, at times through the lens of lovers. They are also a longing cry born of all the dividing; a call across the slowly spreading ocean." "Primarily, Like The River Loves The Sea is built as a haven for overstimulated heads in uncertain times," she adds. "The title (which comes from a song by Si Kahn) speaks of the inevitable and at times indifferent nature of love. Whether it be a physical place or an idea, everyone needs a place of comfort. One where we can look out again from that place of calm and see how to best act and to be in an uncertain world."
Black Belt Eagle Scout - At The Party With My Brown Friends CD/LP (Saddle Creek)
Where Black Belt Eagle Scout's 2017 debut Mother Of My Children was a snapshot of loss and landscape and of principle singer-songwriter Katherine Paul's standing as a radical indigenous queer feminist, this new chapter finds its power in love, desire and friendship. At the Party With My Brown Friends is a profound and understated forward step. The squalling guitar anthems that shaped its predecessor are replaced by delicate vocals and soft keys, sentiments spoken and unspoken, presenting something shadowy and unsettling; a stirring of the waters. The end result presents a captivating about-face that redefines Black Belt Eagle Scout's beautifully singular artistic vision. [Limited maroon colored vinyl pressing.]
Whitney - Forever Turned Around CD/LP (Secretly Canadian)
The second LP from Chicago indie rockers Whitney deals with fear, confusion, and substance abuse. Forever Turned Around came together over several sessions across the country. Though Julien Ehrlich is Whitney's lead singing drummer while Max Kakacek is the lead guitarist, when writing, both transcend their roles to piece together each offering lyrically and compositionally. "The way it ends up working is one of us comes up with a basic idea for a song and the other person serves as the foil to complicate that idea. We ask, 'What can we change to make it more interesting?'" says Kakacek. Challenging each other is the core of their songwriting partnership. It's these risks and experiments that make Forever Turned Around a triumph. [Limited forest brown colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Ezra Furman - Twelve Nudes CD/LP (Bella Union)
Furman says Twelve Nudes has two spiritual heroes - the late great punk rock rocker Jay Reatard, and Canadian poet, philosopher and essayist Anne Carson. "She's one of my top three living writers," he says. "Anne had these visions, or meditations, to deal with the intense pain in her life, which she calls 'nudes', and similarly these songs are meditations on pain and recognizing what's there if you go digging around in your anger and fear and anxiety. So, my album is called Twelve Nudes." [Limited yellow colored vinyl pressing.]
Jesse Malin - Sunset Kids CD/LP (Wicked Cool)
Sunset Kids first took shape at The Hollywood Bowl, when Jesse accepted Lucinda William's invitation to see her open for what turned out to be Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' final concert. The bittersweet experience inspired one of the new album's highlights, "Shining Down", a rainy day jangle about "keeping alive the spirits of the ones we've lost." During that same visit, the idea came about of three-time Grammy-winning Lucinda producing Jesse's next record.
The Futureheads - Powers CD/LP (Nul)
The Futureheads return with their sixth studio album and first electric guitar release in almost a decade. Recorded and self-produced at Newcastle's First Avenue Studio, Powers is a record that looks at the balance of power in a personal, political and relational sense" and puts it to some of the most vital, invigorated material the band have made since their first steps.
!!! (Chk Chk Chk) - Wallop CD/LP (Warp)
Doesn't it seem like everyone's freaking out lately? !!! know the feeling well. The NYC dance-punk lifers have been chronicling the perpetual meltdown that is American society for nearly 20 years now, from the clattering full-band thrust of their instantly iconic 2003 single "Me And Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard (A True Story)" to the dark disco of 2017's wonderfully eclectic Shake The Shudder. Their eighth full-length, Wallop, follows in the band's grand tradition of plugging straight into our collective nervous system and sending funky, rubbery shock waves through the body politic. If you've found yourself rubbing your temples while contemplating the collapse of everything around us, !!! are proud to provide the soundtrack to your next nervous breakdown.
HTRK - Venus In Leo CD/LP (Ghostly Int'l)
The fourth album from HTRK, the duo of Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang, arrives five years on from 2014's Psychic 9-5 Club. While some much-loved HTRK hallmarks remain-the combination of space and intimacy, the unmistakable interplay between Yang's guitars and effects and Standish's vocals-Venus In Leo comes with its own sonic palette, marking a new chapter for one of the most distinctive bands of the past decade.
Kronos Quartet - Terry Riley: Sun Rings CD (Nonesuch)
Commissioned by NASA for the Kronos Quartet and featuring pre-recorded sounds from the plasma around planets, Terry Riley's Sun Rings is about as close an experience to being in space as it is possible to be. The ten-movement 'spacescape', as Riley refers to it, is a multimedia work for quartet and chorus, opening with recorded audio of the static heard from radio emissions in space. These are all triggered by members of the quartet's hand movements over sensors.
Why? - AOKOHIO CD/LP (Joyful Noise)
Yoni Wolf has spent the last two decades traveling the remote sonic terrain where underground hip hop, avant-pop, and psych-rock meet. On AOKOHIO, Yoni Wolf condenses the essential elements of Why? into a stunningly potent musical vision. Co-produced by Wolf and his brother Josiah, the record presents a rich palette of musical voices that emerge and disappear into a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of sound. [Limited yellow colored vinyl pressing.]
Common - Let Love CD (Loma Vista)
Grammy and Academy Award-winning rapper Common's twelfth studio album Let Love was inspired by his 2019 memoir Let Love Have The Last Word, which left him "charged to go to raw, personal and spiritual places in the music." Boasting contributions from Leon Bridges, A-Trak, Leikeli47, BJ the Chicago Kid, Jill Scott, Samora Pinderhughes and Jonathan McReynolds, the 11-track collection comes preceded by lead single "Her Love", featuring guests Daniel Caesar and Dwele over an unreleased beat by the late J Dilla and the Swizz Beatz-assisted "Hercules". "Production-wise, I knew that the music had to have depth, soul and dimension to it," Common notes. "I wanted the musicianship and the spirit of what live music brings but it also had to have something raw and basement about it. When my team said, 'You should do some music revolving around the book,' I just took that energy and went running into my artistry without focusing on anything else." [Vinyl edition due October 11.]
Velvet Negroni - Neon Brown CD/LP (4AD)
Velvet Negroni is the alter-ego of creative polymath Jeremy Nutzman. Raised in an outer suburb of the Twin Cities, Jeremy - a black kid adopted into a white evangelical Christian family - split his formative years between classical piano lessons and late night jam sessions. A duality that permeates every corner of his music, with new album Neon Brown thriving in the borderlands between indie rock and R&B. Since touring with close friend Bon Iver, Nutzman notched writing credits for Kanye West and Kid Cudi ahead of his debut single releases on NYC label b4 in 2018. Now, alongside prolific co-producer Psymun (Young Thug, Juice WLRD, The Weeknd), Nutzman's new releases transcend the borders between his often polarized influences, bringing R&B slow jams and nods to hometown hero Prince with guitar licks and full band energy.
Natasha Bedingfield - Roll With Me CD (We Hear Music)
Pop stardom can warp a performer's sense of perspective. But singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield, who broke through in 2004 with the international smash "Unwritten", has maintained a healthy set of priorities. "You can easily lose touch," Bedingfield says. "Being in the real world is part of being a good songwriter." She recently sang at the 18th Annual Chrysalis Butterfly Ball to support the organization which works to help individuals out of poverty and homelessness by providing the tools necessary to gain employment. Now she returns with Roll With Me, her fourth studio album and her first in nine years, following 2010's Strip Me. Roll With Me was produced by multiplatinum producer Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera, P!nk, and Alicia Keys). "I wanted to make music that moves people and makes them move, says Natasha of the album. It's bright and bold but in a way that is also raw and honest. Linda Perry says of Natasha and the album, "I wanted to work with Natasha because she is one of the best live performers I have ever seen and has one of the most versatile voices I have ever heard.
Elaine Elias - Love Stories CD (Concord)
Love Stories gives full display of her mastery and artistry as a vocalist, pianist, composer, arranger and producer. She brings a stellar lineup of some of Brazil's most sought-after rhythm section players, including Marcus Texiera on guitar and Edu Ribeiro, Rafael Barata, Paulo Braga and Celso Almeida on drums, plus Marc Johnson, her longtime musical partner and co-lyricist, on bass.
James Carter Organ Trio - James Carter Trio: Live From Newport Jazz CD (Blue Note)
Saxophone master James Carter makes his Blue Note debut with James Carter Organ Trio: Live From Newport Jazz - his first new release since 2011. A soulfully robust dispatch from America's most storied jazz festival, it's also a follow-up of sorts to his acclaimed 2000 album Chasin' The Gypsy that The New Yorker called "an alternately reverent and audacious tribute to the Belgian swing-guitar legend Django Reinhardt. It may be the rambunctious saxophone player's recorded masterpiece."
Jah Cure - Royal Soldier CD/LP (VP)
Jah Cure is a musical adventurer, exploring rhythms, moods and meaning with his latest album Royal Soldier, his first since The Cure in 2015. Jah writes songs about love and consciousness and reality and his music moves between classic roots and smooth R&B and often challenges the boundaries of the reggae genre. The 14-track collection includes the previously released tracks "Telephone Love", "Risk It All" and "Marijuana" and features guest appearances by Melanie Fiona, Mya, Phyllisia Ross, Popcaan, Damien 'Jr. Gong' Marley and Tory Lanez, among others.
Caravan Palace - Chronologic CD/LP (Le Plan)
Chronologic is Caravan Palace's fourth studio album. Following on from the huge success of their last studio album with its fusion of hedonistic house and old school jazz, could have seemed quite the task for the band. However, these accomplished musicians are also studio geeks, and the band hunkered for two years in their basement Parisian studio, relentlessly testing new formulae, looking for unanimous approval between themselves before unleashing their work on the public. They did not want to walk the same roads, opened themselves up to the moment, retaining their eagerness to have fun smashing musical barriers and infusing vintage elements in their modern work. Broadening the sonic palette, the early big band feel of previous records now shares the stage with a production firmly rooted in electronic music, and Chronologic introduces new influences ranging from bossa and soul to hip-hop. The result is a record that is joyous, high-spirited and so distinctly Caravan Palace. For the first time, the band has also invited a selection of guest singers to appear in their music, adding to the texture and widening appeal of their sound. [Deluxe white colored vinyl pressing due September 6.]
Carter Tutti Void - Triumvirate CD/LP (Conspiracy International)
The third and final studio album from Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti (both of Throbbing Gristle) and Nik Void (of Factory Floor). Triumvirate was composed at Carter and Tutti's Studio47 in Norfolk, with an improvisational approach similar to that of their previous recordings. The rhythms, created by Chris Carter, formed the staring point from which the process began of melding the live instrumentation of Cosey Fanni Tutti and Nik Void's searing guitars, vocals, effects and the arsenal of sounds each had amassed from a variety of sources, some sounds manipulated to extremes, all fed into the mix.
Sect - Blood Of The Beasts CD/LP (Southern Lord)
Vegan straight edge outfit Sect unites vocalist Chris Colohan (Cursed, Burning Love, Left For Dead), guitarists James Chang (Catharsis, Undying) and Scott Crouse (Earth Crisis, The Path Of Resistance), bassist Steve Hart (Day Of Suffering), and drummer Andy Hurley (Racetraitor, The Damned Things). The result is a caustic, riotous, belligerent style of vile hardcore fed by a boundless well of socio-political vitriol.
Sons Of Apollo - Live With The Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony 3xCD+DVD+Blu-ray (Inside Out U.S.)
New live release from Sons Of Apollo featuring former Dream Theater members Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian, Ron Bumblefoot Thal (ex-Guns N' Roses), Billy Sheehan (The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, David Lee Roth) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Journey, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force). Live With The Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony documents the band's remarkable one-off performance at the Ancient Roman Theatre in Plovdiv, Bulgaria alongside a full orchestra and choir, playing tracks from their debut album Psychotic Symphony as well as a selection of tracks by legendary bands.
Reissues & From The Archives
Snail Mail - Habit CDEP/12" (Matador)
Snail Mail's debut EP Habit serves as a nascent example of Lindsey Jordan's extraordinary talent as a songwriter, singer and guitarist. The seven-song disc features the six original 2016 tracks as well as "The 2nd Most Beautiful Girl In The World", penned by K Records Band Courtney Love and recorded by Snail Mail in 2018, available on record for the first time.
Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata [Reissue/1967] CD/LP+MP3 (Strut)
Strut presents an all-time classic of South African music, the definitive remastered edition of Miriam Makeba's Pata Pata, her album recorded for Reprise in 1966.
Manu Chao - Clandestino / Bloody Border CD/2LP+10"+CD (Because Music)
Limited 2019 edition, remastered for the first time. LP version includes a bonus blue vinyl 10" with three new songs. "The first solo album released by the former frontman of Mano Negra, Clandestino is an enchanting trip through Latin-flavored worldbeat rock, reliant on a potpourri of musical styles from traditional Latin and salsa to dub to rock 'n' roll to French pop to experimental rock to techno... Just about every track has odd sampled bits from what sound like pirate radio-station broadcasts. There are so many great ideas that it's difficult to digest in one listen." --All Music Guide
Rodriguez - Cold Fact [Reissue/1970] CD/LP (UMe)
Rodriguez - Coming From Reality [Reissue/1971] CD/LP (UMe)
It's one of the lost classics of the '60s, a psychedelic masterpiece drenched in color and inspired by life, love, poverty, rebellion. The album is Cold Fact, and what's more intriguing is that its maker, a shadowy figure known as Rodriguez, was for many years, lost too. Over a decade ago now, he was rediscovered working as a day laborer in Detroit, MI. He was unaware that his defining album had become not only a cult classic, but for the people of South Africa, a beacon of revolution. 1971's Coming From Reality is his second and (to date) final studio album.
Frank Zappa - Orchestral Favorites - 40th Anniversary 3xCD/LP (UMe)
When Frank Zappa's Orchestral Favorites was eventually released in 1979 as part of fulfilling his contract with his contentious former label, the album was dumped into the world along with several other titles without the legendary musician's permission or quality control. It did not include liner notes or credits and the artwork and audio wasn't approved by Zappa who publicly criticized it as not being up to his standards. As a result of not receiving any promotion, it was quickly relegated to the bargain bin shortly after its release. Four decades later, in celebration of the long-beleaguered album's 40th anniversary, the Zappa Family Trust is righting this wrong and presenting Orchestral Favorites with the audiophile detail and respect it deserves to commemorate the historical event that took place at UCLA's Royce Hall in September 1975 where the compositions were recorded. [The three-CD deluxe edition adds a recording of a previously unreleased two-hour concert.] This title is due for delivery on Friday but is not here yet.
Nurse with Wound - Soliloquy for Lilith 3CD (United Dirter)
Originally recorded and released in 1988, Nurse With Wound's ambient opus was years ahead of its time, a ground-breaking set of atmospheric sound patterns designed for ritual ceremonies. Hailed as a masterpiece on release, it topped the world ambient chart for over three months. Originally a limited-edition, three-album set housed in a handsome 12-inch gold and black foil embossed box, this new edition, a CD facsimile of the original vinyl set, contains the entire album, plus 40 additional minutes of music from the original sessions.
Steven Wilson - Hand.Cannot.Erase [Reissue/2015] CD (Kscope)
CD reissue of the fourth studio album from the four-time Grammy nominee and founder member of cult legends, Porcupine Tree.
New on Vinyl
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Bryce Dressner/Eighth Blackbird - When We Are Inhuman LP (37D03D)
Bonnie "Prince" Billy, the National's Bryce Dessner, and the contemporary classical outfit Eighth Blackbird have teamed up for a new album. When We Are Inhuman includes Eighth Blackbird's new arrangements of Will Oldham songs, a live performance of Julius Eastman's "Stay on It", and movements from Bryce Dessner's Murder Ballades.
Four Tet - Anna Painting 12" (Text)
Kieran Hebden's new 12-inch, Anna Painting, features three tracks he composed for artist and longtime friend Anna Liber Lewis's recent exhibition. Until now, you could only hear the material through headphones and audio players at London's Elephant West gallery from January to March 2019.
Guided By Voices - Half Smiles Of The Decomposed [Reissue/2004] LP+MP3 (Matador)
2004's Half Smiles Of The Decomposed was intended to be GBV's swan song, a final album. They would eventually reunite in 2010 for Matador's 21st birthday celebrations in Las Vegas, but either way, it may well be the strongest set of music the band has ever released for public consumption, and featured Robert Pollard (vocals), Doug Gillard (guitar), Nate Farley (guitar), Chris Slusarenko (bass), and Kevin March (drums). GBV's final Matador album back in print for the first time since 2008 on red colored vinyl LP as part of the Matador Revisionist History Catalog Campaign.
Robert Pollard - Kid Marine [Reissue/1999] LP (GBV Inc.)
Robert Pollard/Doug Gillard - Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Department [Reissue/1999] LP (GBV Inc.)
Guided By Voices brings you 20th anniversary vinyl reissues of two early gems from the Fading Captain Series. Originally issued as small vinyl pressings (1000 copies) in 1999, both have been remastered from the original analog tapes. Unfortunately these shipped late from the West coast without expedited shipping applied so they won't arrive until next Tuesday...
Nirvana - Live And Loud [Reissue/1994] 2xLP+MP3 (Geffen)
First-time stand-alone vinyl release of the Nirvana concert Live And Loud from the MTV-shot performance. Filmed on December 13, 1993, at Seattle's Pier 48 (less than a month after the band's influential MTV Unplugged In New York show taping), Nirvana: Live And Loud originally aired on MTV on New Year's Eve in 1993 and issued on DVD in 2013.
The Germs - Live At Starwood Dec. 3, 1980 LP (Run Out Groove)
On December 3, 1980, an over-sold Starwood hosted a final show of the reunited Germs, four days before singer Darby Crash's suicide.
Wu-Tang Clan - Wu Tang: Of Mics And Men (Music From The Showtime Documentary Series) LP (Mass Appeal)
Wu-Tang: Of Mics And Men features the classic Wu-Tang lyricism and sound that fans of the iconic group have been yearning for. With the docuseries, Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics And Men, setting the tone for the project, the Wu-Tang swordsmen deliver rhymes that harken back to the group's earlier days. This is the first official Wu-Tang compilation release since Wu-Tang: The Saga Continues in 2017. In addition to the new music, the project's skits feature never-before heard Wu-Tang Clan stories from footage that didn't make the documentary's final cut.
The Rails - Cancel The Sun LP (Psychonaut Sounds)
There's something different about The Rails on their brilliant third album. It's not just the sound of the record, which is harder, tougher and rockier than ever before. Cancel The Sun is melodic and immediate, a record that brings together the musical pasts of Kami Thompson and James Walbourne - her family heritage, as the daughter of Linda and Richard Thompson, and sister of Teddy; his as guitarist for Son Volt, The Pogues and The Pretenders - in a record that sounds like a pure version of themselves.
Parsnip - When The Tree Bears Fruit LP (Trouble In Mind)
An irresistible mix of garage, surf, girl-group gang vocals and bizarro funk, with a carefree attitude that revels in its idiosyncrasies (crazed wah-wah, warped harmonies, unexpected rhythmic shifts, ambient sounds of the sea) without sacrificing any ounce of melodic fervor. [Limited green colored vinyl pressing.]
Hoarder - Consumer Regret 12" (Khemia Records)
Hoarder is the latest project in a long line of collaborations between Andy Butler (Hercules & Love Affair) and multi-media artist Joie Iacono. Constructing a sonic world sourced from organic, electronic, and found sounds, the two have waded neck deep into noise-oriented, darker territories over the past three years in the studio. While this first EP definitely nods to '80s industrial and techno with Butler's knack for arrangement and tenure producing music, the music builds on these elements without being a straight homage.
Dylan Moon - Only The Blues LP (RVNG Int'l)
Broadly speaking, Dylan Moon works in the field of folk music. But from this pasture, he glances pathways to digression; seeking scenic routes and counterintuitive cartography, trusting that even the most aimless trip becomes lucid if the foggy details are documented well enough. On this trip, images spill from Moon, and most of them seem foreboding.
Blueboy - If Wishes Were Horses [Reissue/1992] LP (A Colourful Storm)
Presented for the first time on vinyl since its release in 1992, the recording by Keith Girdler, Gemma Townley, Paul Stewart, Lloyd Armstrong, and Mark Andes is immortalized in Sarah Records' history as an evergreen of indie-pop and modern DIY. ... "The sort of feelings that rarely escape from the Sarah daydream factory" wrote NME at the time. This long-overdue reissue is presented with the original artwork faithfully restored by Sarah Records' own Matt Haynes.
Oasis - Definitely Maybe [Reissue/1994] 2xLP (Big Brother Recordings)
Limited double silver-colored vinyl pressing of Oasis' debut studio album. Definitely Maybe helped to spur a revitalization in British pop music in the 1990s and was embraced by critics for its optimistic themes and supposed rejection of the grunge music of the time. The album is regarded as a seminal entry of the Britpop scene, and has appeared in many publications' list of the greatest albums of all time.
Goo Goo Dolls - Gutterflower [Reissue/2002] LP (WB)
Goo Goo Dolls - Let Love in [Reissue/2006] LP (WB)
Goo Goo Dolls - Something For The Rest Of Us [Reissue/2010] LP (WB)
Goo Goo Dolls - Magnetic [Reissue/2013] LP (WB)
Vinyl reissues of the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth studio albums from the alt-rock band.
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar [Reissue/2006] LP+MP3 (Pompeii)
Beirut - Flying Club Cup [Reissue/2007] LP+MP3 (Pompeii)
Beirut - The Rip Tide [Reissue/20011] LP+MP3 (Pompeii)
Beirut is an American band which was originally the solo musical project of Santa Fe native Zachary Francis Condon, and later expanded into a band. The band's first performances were in New York, in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar. Beirut's music combines elements of indie-rock and world music. Their first three albums are back in-print on vinyl.
Gregg Allman - Laid Back [Reissue/1973] LP (Mercury)
Gregg Allman - The Greg Allman Tour [Reissue/1974] 2xLP (Mercury)
The masterful debut solo album by Gregg Allman, Laid Back (double-CD edition features 26 bonus tracks), and his long out-of-print live LP The Gregg Allman Tour have both been newly remastered. The pair of releases showcase a remarkable time in Allman's career when he set off on his own to explore a different side of his artistry where he was fully at the helm. Issued in October 1973, Laid Back appeared a few months after the Allman Brothers Band's universally admired fourth studio album Brothers And Sisters. Co-produced by Allman along with Johnny Sandlin, the collection of songs was a creative outlet where he was able to assume full control and explore his varying influences, including rhythm and blues and soul music. Exemplified by the album title's relaxed approach, the songs were a departure from his band's guitar-heavy sound in favor of gospel-tinged organs, slower tempos and a choir, all of which beautifully buoyed Allman's soulful, and at times, mournful vocals.
Morrissey - The Best Of Morrissey [Reissue/2001] 2xLP (WB/Parlophone)
Double 180gm vinyl pressing of the 2001 compilation of tracks by the former Smiths vocalist. Features his biggest solo hits including "Everyday Is Like Sunday", "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get", "Suedehead", "Sing Your Life", and many more.
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram - Kingfish LP+MP3 (Alligator)
180gm vinyl release of the 20-year-old blues firebrand's sensational debut.
Joe Byrd & the Field Hippies - The American Metaphysical Circus LP (Columbia)
2019 repress; originally released in 1969, following Byrd's time as the leader of experimental rock band The United States of America. A student of electronic music, experimental composition, acoustics, psychology, Indian music and more in the 60s, Joe Byrd blended electronics with psychedelic rock in a purely entrancing style.
Carpenters With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Carpenters With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 2xLP (A&M)
Released last year on CD - now available on vinyl. Featuring timeless hits and favorites, Carpenters With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra pairs Karen Carpenters' original vocal and instrumental tracks with new orchestral arrangements from Richard Carpenter, conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) at Abbey Road Studios.
Dillon - The Tails Of Lobsterdamus LP (Full Plate)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. Atlanta-based rapper/DJ/chef, Dillon is perhaps best known for his collaborations with acclaimed beatmakers Diamond D (Black Tie Affair), Supa Dave West (Studies In Hunger), Paten Locke (Food Chain) and Batsauce (On Their Way), but that might change when Lobsterdamus washes up. The Tails Of Lobsterdamus is Dillon's self-produced solo debut, a deep dive into the origin of his bottom-dwelling evil alter-ego, Lobby Dom. Half man, half lobster and 100% jerk, Lobsterdamus was sent to Earth (unwillingly) from his home planet of Lobtropolis on a quest to save humanity from itself.
Gross Net - Gross Net Means Gross Net LP (Felte)
Belfast-based Gross Net (ex-Girls Names guitarist Philip Quinn) bridges dark electronics, avant garde experimentation, and black humor with his newest album, Gross Net Means Gross Net, where melodies of rapture and unease duel, creating a dizzying anxiety ala the minimal electronic doom of Coil, Bish Bosch-era Scott Walker and the orchestral ambience of Popol Vuh.
Louis Moholo Octet - Spirits Rejoice! LP (Otoroku)
Originally released in 1978 on Ogun Recordings. A legendary free jazz recording, Spirits Rejoice! is a high achievement in the movement of the era, soaring beyond oppression with a raucous and spiritually uplifting surge of movement and melody. This is former Blue Note artist Louis Moholo's first album under his own name and is a classic example of the cross-pollination between South African and British players. From Matthew Wright's new liner notes: "The South African melodies, now so familiar, were wholeheartedly taken on board by the individual musicians, their unity of purpose mirroring the belief in the strength of the collective."
Satoshi Ashikawa - Still Way (Wave Notation 2) LP (WRWTFWW Records)
Originally released in 1982 as part of the Wave Notation series (which includes Hiroshi Yoshimura's Music For Nine Postcards), Still Way is a seminal Japanese environmental/ambient/minimalism album, often mentioned alongside Midori Takada's Through The Looking Glass (1983) and Yoshimura's Green (1986) as one of the genre's most important pieces. Inspired by Erik Satie's Furniture Music and Brian Eno's ambient work, Ashikawa aimed to compose music "intended to be listened to in a casual manner, as a musical landscape or a sound object -- not something that would stimulate listeners but music that should drift like smoke and become part of the environment."
Gareth Quinn Redmond - Laistigh den Ghleo LP (WRWTFWW Records)
The Irish ambient/minimalist producer's companion album to Japanese minimalist composer Satoshi Ashikawa's Still Way (Wave Notation 2) "hopes to engage, enrich and reflect the listener's surroundings, an Environmental Music." Redmond takes Ashikawa's meditative sound designs to more dramatic and lyrical landscapes, instilling his personal touch into the master's melodic patterns and reflecting the modern listener's ever-changing environment. As Midori Takada explains in the liner notes, "Even though Gareth is deeply influenced by Still Way, he looks above, toward the air and the sky. Ashikawa aspired to crystallize the sound structure of nature... Gareth tries to capture what flourishes out of it."
Gökçen Kaynatan - Cehennem LP (Cacophonic)
Cehennem ("Hell") is the first-ever collection of the largely previously unheard EMS Synthi AKS recordings of Gökçen Kaynatan. A founding father of Anatolian rock and the studio brains behind the first Turkish electronic pop records, Kaynatan's influence runs like the lifeblood through Turkish pop and rock. Increasingly dogged by ill health in the early 70s, Gökçen privately harnessed the Synthi to channel the suffering caused by what would later be diagnosed as a brain tumor. This release comprises two of his earliest synthesizer compositions, as well as an updated recording made whilst recovering from brain surgery -- some the earliest Turkish synthesizer music committed to magnetic tape, further cementing Gökçen's indelible legacy within Turkish popular culture.
Petit Singe - Akash Ganga 12" (Haunter Records)
Akash Ganga brings Hazina Francia's mix of post-club sensibilities and reminiscences of her native India directly into space, injecting her tabla-led polyrhythms with cinematic sound design. Francia's talent for gracious meditative moments is here constantly mutating into unprecedented heavier tones, letting the moments of melodic reverie and those of sheer percussive intensity strengthen each other.
Pétra - Aunis LP (Injazero)
A new collaborative electro-acoustic music project from Brian Allen Simon (aka Anenon) and Chantal Chadwick. Aunis draws the listener into dream-like soundscapes and blends ambient sounds, modern composition, and abstract vibrations. Primarily composed on the volcanic island of Nisyros, Greece, with additional work completed in Loire, France and Mexico City, the music is a site-specific reaction to all locales and was arranged in a free-form variety of methods with an improvisational energy being the driving force. Compositions touch on ethereal sounds and deep repetition, hazily meditative sound explorations, and melodic hypnosis reminiscent of minimalist pioneers like Steve Reich.
Tenesha the Wordsmith - Peacocks & Other Savage Beasts LP (On the Corner Records)
Tenesha the Wordsmith, who came to the fore on DJ Khalab's 2018 release Black Noise 2084, has delivered a hard-cutting, gut-wrenching, and extremely moving spoken-word album produced by Khalab that brings together different lines of black music -- folkloric, jazz, and electronic dance -- into an Afro-futurist narrative with thunderous results. Peacocks & Other Savage Beasts lays bare difficult truths and projects the stories of hidden voices, with a warm and heartfelt delivery that envelops the soul. The poems are dedicated to the intersection, the places where we contemplate identity, culture, trauma, and love.
Emra Grid - Shay's Vacation House LP (Opal Tapes)
Shay's Vacation House is a work that feels suspended in time -- both ancient and modern -- a microcosm that ceases to exist in any particular time or space. Sonic messages of a troubled past are etched into precious metals buried in rock. The listener is the alchemist, extracting heart-wrenching modern classical arcs. Emra Grid's second Opal Tape is a profoundly beautiful work, loaded with emotional weight. Beneath its dark exterior, it exudes a tangible, elegant beauty -- an inexplicable feeling that cannot be articulated but needs to be experienced.
Chris Korda - Akoko Ajeji 2LP (Perlon)
A new album from the techno producer and founder of the Church of Euthanasia. Akoko Ajeji means "Strange Time" in Yoruba. All the tracks on the album are in complex polymeter, determining not only the rhythm, but also the harmony. The result is an intricate but non-random trance-inducing pattern of interference. Some of these polymeters repeat after a few minutes, but others have much longer hypothetical cycles. For example, Ala Aye, meaning "dream world" or "space bound" in Yoruba, has a polymeter that repeats after 118,731,810,156,960 beats (roughly 1.7 million years).
Wage War - Pressure LP (Fearless)
Through an unwavering dedication to progression, Wage War sharpen their patented hybrid of heavy pit-starting technicality and hummable hypnotic melodies with each subsequent evolution. Look no further than the aptly titled third full-length from the Florida quintet, Pressure.
Bodywash - Comforter LP (Luminelle)
Comforter is the perfect insomniac's record, a late-night album of emotional extremes, from the enveloping warmth of shoegaze to the stark electronics of '90s trip-hop and IDM. Guitars blur in and out, melodies vanish and appear, synths blinking like lights in a fog.
Pharmakon - Devour LP (Sacred Bones)
Devour marks the fourth full-length record from Margaret Chardiet's project Pharmakon and her most intense output to date. Like her previous albums, Devour comes with a strong concept that is exorcised throughout the five demolishing tracks on the album, using imagery and language of self-cannibalism as allegory for the self-destructive nature of humans. Each of the five songs echoes a stage of grief associated with this cyclical chamber of self-destruction and the chaos surrounding us that leads us to devour ourselves in an attempt to balance the agony. [Limited black & white colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Blood Lust [Reissue/2011] LP (Rise Above Limited)
Vinyl reissue of a doom metal classic. Part of Rise Above Limited's 30th anniversary reissue campaign.
Rotting Christ - Κατά Τον Δαίμονα Εαυτού [Reissue/2013] 2xLP (Season Of Mist)
Limited colored vinyl pressing. With their eleventh full-length, 2013's Κατά Τον Δαίμονα Εαυτού, Rotting Christ created a stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Theogonia (2007) and AEALO (2010) albums. The legendary Greek band adds an unmistakable native element to the musical and lyrical concepts while skillfully augmenting the proceedings with female vocals, piano, bagpipes, and horns.
Soundtracks
Various Artists - Country Music: A Film By Ken Burns (The Soundtrack) 5xCD (Sony Legacy)
"If you write the truth and you're writing about your life, it's going to be country. It'll be country 'cause you're writing what's happening. And that's all a good song is" (Loretta Lynn). Country Music, the eight-part, 16-hour film by Ken Burns, chronicles the creation of a truly American genre of music through the songs and stories of its greatest trailblazers. Country Music: A Film By Ken Burns (The Soundtrack) includes more than 100 timeless classics as heard in the film, including songs by The Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and many more. This deluxe set includes 68 pages of liner notes and rarely seen archival photos, documents and memorabilia. [Abridged 31-track double vinyl edition due September 13.]
Compilations, Best Of's, & Sundry Collections
Dr. John - The Mojo Of Dr. John 2xCD (Sunset Blvd)
The Mojo Of Dr. John features Dr. John's early singles pre-Atlantic Records and live concert recordings previously unreleased in North American and Japan.
Robert Gordon & Chris Spedding - Tear Up The House 2xCD (Sunset Blvd)
30 performances spanning over 40 years - '78, '80, '85 & '15 - Boston, New York, Los Angeles. Together, Gordon and Spedding were an unstoppable combination. Tear Up The House underscores just how powerful Robert's pipes were and continue to be as he rips through a slew of early Elvis classics and more.