Staff Picks |
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Street Date |
Artist |
Title |
Genre |
Barcode |
Label |
Format |
Catalogue |
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Dwayne |
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2023/12/15 |
Black Box Recorder |
England Made Me (2LP-25th anniversary edition)
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Please note new street date: December 15. 25th anniversary edition. English indie rock group Black Box Recorder formed in London in 1997 and featured Sarah Nixey, Luke Haines (of The Auteurs), and John Moore (of The Jesus and Mary Chain). Their debut album, "England Made Me", was released on Chrysalis Records in 1998. The album was named after the eponymous Graham Greene novel and fuses indie rock and easy-listening pop stylings with lyrics that explore life and the experience of growing up in England. Pitchfork's Michael Sandlin described the sound of the album as "mildly morose but slightly tongue-in-cheek Sylvia Plath-meets-Paul McCartney pop sensibility". "England Made Me" remains a high point in the band's catalogue with standout tracks including 'Kidnapping An Heiress', 'Girl Singing In The Wreckage', and the single 'Child Psychology', which was recently back in the spotlight with a viral moment on social media after being championed by Billie Eilish.
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Alternative |
810098509886 |
CHRYSALIS |
LP |
CRV1610 |
2023/03/24 |
Lankum |
False Lankum (2LP)
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March 24 street date. Dublin-based band Lankum present their fourth record, and third for Rough Trade, "False Lankum". 12 tracks, composed of 10 traditional songs and two originals, show the four-piece using a new palate to colour their sound in an increasingly experimental way, leaning into heavy drones and sonic distortion that imparts new intensity and beauty into each offering. From the start, the band planned for "False Lankum" to feel like a complete piece - a progression and a journey for the listener. "We wanted to create more contrast on the record so the light parts would be almost spiritual and the dark parts would be incredibly dark, even horror inducing," they explain. Breaking out from the folk genre Lankum are creating bold, contemporary music that may be fashioned from traditional elements but is firmly new, sitting comfortably alongside Rough Trade labelmates like black midi and Gilla Band. "False Lankum" earned Lankum a 2023 Mercury Prize Nomination.
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Alternative |
191402039214 |
ROUGH TRADE |
LP |
RT0392LP |
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Jerome |
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2021/03/05 |
Madlib |
Sound Ancestors (arranged by Kieran Hebden)
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March 5 street date. Gil Evans to Miles Davis.... Holger Czukay to the ensemble known as Can....Jean Claude Vannier to Serge Gainsbourg on "Histoire de Melody Nelson". That's the only way to explain the specificity of Four Tet and Madlib's collaboration, in this special album that showcases a two-decade long friendship that has resulted in an album that follows Madlib's classics like Quasimoto's "The Unseen", "Madvillainy" and his "Pinata" and "Bandana" albums with Freddie Gibbs. "A few months ago I completed work on an album with my friend Madlib that we'd been making for the last few years. He is always making loads of music in all sorts of styles and I was listening to some of his new beats and studio sessions when I had the idea that it would be great to hear some of these ideas made into a Madlib solo album. Not made into beats for vocalists to use but instead arranged into tracks that could all flow together in an album designed to be listened to start to finish. I put this concept to him when we were hanging out eating some nice food one day and we decided to work on this together with him sending me tracks, loops, ideas and experiments that I would arrange, edit, manipulate and combine. I was sent hundreds of pieces of music over a couple of years stretch and during that time I put together this album with all the parts that fitted with my vision" - Kieren Hebden aka Four Tet.
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Hip Hop |
989327004413 |
MADLIB INVAZION |
LP |
MMS044 |
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Julien |
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2019/07/26 |
Moses, Pablo |
A Song
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February 8 street date. Onlyroots continue their Pablo Moses re-issue project with this album, the 1980 follow up to the classic Revolutionary Dream they put out a few months ago and the brace of 45's that preceded that. Produced, arranged and engineered by Geoffrey Chung at Dynamics in Jamaica and Island's Basing Street studio in London and featuring a star studded caast of musicians, two of the tracks Dubbing Is A Must and Revolutionary Step were issued back to back on an Island 12" back in the day, and One People emerged on a Jamaican issued 7". Pure quality roots reggae.
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Reggae/Dub |
0600753852217 |
MUSIC ON VINYL |
LP |
MOVLP2335 |
2021/09/24 |
Letts, Don |
Late Night Tales Presents Version Excursion (2LP-180g/black)
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September 24 street date. Don Letts' slippery and unorthodox career is somewhat hard to define, without taking a few detours around London, New York, and Jamaica. He began his working life managing the dauntingly hip Acme Attractions on Chelsea's Kings Road, where he made a mark with his attitude, dress and, especially, the pounding dub reggae that vibrated the shop’s walls. His first gig as a DJ at the short-lived Roxy in Neal Street, became mythical for turning a generation of punks on to reggae. In the 1980s, he was part of Mick Jones’ new venture, Big Audio Dynamite and his innovative use of samples were a core part of their sound. This version excursion crosses time space and genre, with reggae and dub artists (and artists influenced by reggae and dub) such as John Holt, Khruangbin, Ghetto Priest, OBF, and Matumbi covering tracks from from The Beach Boys to The Beatles, Nina Simone to Marvin Gaye, The Bee Gees to Kool & The Gang, The Clash to Joy Division, and beyond.
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Reggae/Dub |
5060391093741 |
LATE NIGHT TALES |
LP |
ALNLP64 |
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Margaret |
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2024/03/22 |
Waxahatchee |
Tigers Blood
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March 22 street date. One of the hardest working singer-songwriters in the game is named Katie Crutchfield. She was born in Alabama, grew up near Waxahatchee Creek. Skipped town and struck out on her own as Waxahatchee. That was over a decade ago. Crutchfield says she never knew the road would lead her here, but after six critically acclaimed albums, she's never felt more confident in herself as an artist. While her sound has evolved from lo-fi folk to lush alt-tinged country, her voice has always remained the same. Honest and close, poetic with Southern lilting. Much like Carson McCullers's Mick Kelly, determined in her desires and convictions, ready to tell whoever will listen. And after years of being sober and stable in Kansas City - after years of sacrificing herself to her work and the road - Crutchfield has arrived at her most potent songwriting yet. On her new album, "Tigers Blood", Crutchfield emerges as a powerhouse - an ethnologist of the self - forever dedicated to revisiting her wins and losses. But now she's arriving at revelations and she ain't holding them back. Produced by Brad Cook, the album features MJ Lenderman, Phil Cook, and Spencer Tweedy.
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Alternative |
045778786015 |
ANTI |
LP |
87860 |
2024/02/23 |
Timony, Mary |
Untame the Tiger
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February 23 street date. For more than 30 years, singer-songwriter and guitar hero Mary Timony has cut a distinctive path through the world of independent music, most recently as vocalist and guitarist of acclaimed garage-pop power trio Ex Hex but also as a member of seminal postpunk band Autoclave, celebrated leader of the deeply influential Helium, multifaceted solo artist, and a co-founder of supergroup Wild Flag. Described by Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein as "Mary Shelley with a guitar" and dubbed "a trailblazer and an innovator" by Lindsey Jordan aka Snail Mail, Timony has distinguished herself as one of her generation's most influential. Her fifth solo album, "Untame the Tiger", approaches these emotions head on. Her first solo release in 15 years is a startling document of an artist fully coming into her own power during the fourth decade of her career. It is the product of lessons learned during life-altering struggle. The mystical, acoustic-driven "Untame the Tiger" emerged after the dissolution of a long-term relationship and was bookended by the deaths of Timony's father and mother. The tectonic psychic shift Mary experienced due to this loss informs many of her lyrics. "Untame the Tiger" picks up the thread woven through Timony's freak-folk-anticipating solo albums of the early 00s. Basic tracks were recorded at Studio 606 in Los Angeles, with Timony backed by Dave Mattacks, drummer of legendary British folk-rock band Fairport Convention.
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Alternative |
673855083414 |
MERGE
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LP |
MRG834 |
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Marie-Pierre |
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2021/12/10 |
New Pornographers |
Mass Romantic (red vinyl + bonus 7")
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December 10 street date. Matador Records celebrates the 21st anniversary of The New Pornographers' debut record and breakout, "Mass Romantic", with a limited-edition LP reissue. The album - clocking three singers and 12 effervescent and undeniable power-pop gems - will return to us on red vinyl and will include a bonus 7", "Letter From An Occupant", which includes two rare B-sides, "The End of Medicine" and "When I Was a Baby". What's more, The New Pornographers will tour the U.S. and Canada this fall playing a series of two-night stands - performing "Mass Romantic" in its entirety on the first night and running down the equally outstanding "Twin Cinema" (2005) on the next. Throughout this trip, the band's lineup will feature AC Newman, Dan Bejar, Joe Seiders, John Collins, Kathryn Calder, Neko Case, and Todd Fancey.
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Alternative |
191401181211 |
MATADOR |
LP |
OLE1812LP |
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Mario |
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2019/05/01 |
Unknown Mortal Orchestra |
Multi-Love |
Alternative |
656605226217 |
JAGJAGUWAR |
LP |
JAG262LP |
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Mathieu |
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2021/02/19 |
Jenkins, Cassandra |
An Overview On Phenomenal Nature
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February 19 street date. Ambient folk meets chamber pop by NYC artist who as played in the bands of Eleanor Friedberger, Craig Finn, and Lola Kirke. "An Overview on Phenomenal Nature" honours flux, detail, and moments of intimacy. Cassandra Jenkins arrived at engineer Josh Kaufman's studio with ideas rather than full songs - nevertheless, they finished the album in a week. Jenkins' voice floats amid sensuous chamber pop arrangements and raw edged drums, ferrying the listener through impressionistic portraits of friends and strangers. Her lyrics unfold magical worlds, introducing one to a cast of characters, like a local fisherman, a psychic at a birthday party, and a driving instructor of a spiritual bent.
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Alternative |
600197016411 |
BA DA BING |
LP |
BING164 |
2013/10/29 |
Onyeabor, William |
World Psychedelic Classics, Vol. 5 (3LP) Who Is William Onyeabor?
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Available now. The title of the fifth volume in Luaka Bop's World Psychedelic Classics series is perhaps the most aptly titled one. Nigerian musician and entrepreneur William Onyeabor is a bit of an intentional cipher biographically. He released eight albums and two singles on his own Wilfilms label between 1977 and 1985. After becoming a born-again Christian, he renounced his past and musical career. Onyeabor became a successful entrepreneurial businessman and an enthusiastic booster of Nigeria's hotbed of Christian music scene. He was also crowned high chief of his native Igbo people of Enugu, one of the country's capitals of commerce. The nine tracks on this years-in-the-making compilation feature music drenched in analog synths, early drum machine sounds, and wah-wah, phase-shifted guitars and basses. It is all seductive, infectious, and timeless. On set-opener "Body and Soul," Onyeabor co-opts tranced-out, Nigerian juju music, saturates it in slow Afro-funk, and weds it all to P-Funk's call-and-response lyric and chorus; after ten minutes, the effect is consciousness altering. "Atomic Bomb" is pure African disco with peeling, phased synths, fat basslines, drum loops, and strident, chunky guitars punctuated by Rhodes pianos; they create a spaced-out backdrop of nearly dubwise effects in this leisurely, insistently pulsing groover. The singing (a female chorus with Onyeabor adding his own gentle stream of consciousness musings) pushes it all to the margin. "Why Go to War," composed and recorded a decade after the Biafran/Nigerian civil war, bridges Onyeabor's brand of Afro-Funk to Fela Kuti's -- especially in the vocal chants and the militancy of its groove.
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African/Afrofunk |
680899007917 |
LUAKA BOP |
LP |
680899007917 |
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Richard |
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2021/10/22 |
Helado Negro |
Far In (2LP)
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October 22 street date. When Roberto Carlos Lange, the musician known as Helado Negro, began writing 'Far In' immediately following the release of 'This is How You Smile' (spotlighted as Pitchfork's #7 "Best Album of 2019"), he could not have predicted that we would soon need to learn how to stay at home and be the stars of our domestic dance floors with intimates and online communities. Roberto and his partner, the visual artist Kristi Sword, had planned to visit Marfa, Texas for an early 2020 residency to work on their collaborative project 'Kite Symphony'. Once the pandemic hit, they decided to stay in Marfa through the summer, inspiring Roberto to write a significant amount of songs on the upcoming album. Driving back to Brooklyn in the fall inspired by his work in the desert, Roberto auspiciously purchased a Rhodes from a friend who 20 years earlier gave him his first synthesizer, an Arp Odyssey 2800. The electric piano was a catalyst that guided much of the remaining songwriting for the album.
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Alternative |
191400039919 |
4AD |
LP |
4AD0399LP |
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Stephan |
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2018/09/14 |
Callier, Terry |
What Color Is Love |
Soul |
602567665786 |
UNIVERSAL |
LP |
B002852701 |
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Sylvain M |
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2021/08/27 |
Sharp, Jason |
The Turning Centre Of A Still World (180g)
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August 27 street date. Electroacoustic composer and saxophonist Jason Sharp presents his third album on Constellation and first purely solo recording. Following two acclaimed albums composed around particular collaborators and guest players, Sharp conceived "The Turning Centre Of A Still World" as an interplay strictly bounded by his own body, his acoustic instrument, and his bespoke electronic rig. The result is Sharp's most lucid, poignant, integral work to date - a singular sonic exploration of human/machine calibration, interaction, expression and biofeedback. Using saxophones, foot-controlled bass pedals, and his own pulse - patched through a heart monitor routed to various signal paths that trigger modular synthesizers and samplers - Sharp paints harmolodic waves of glistening synthesis, pink noise and digitalia. His sound palette evokes fellow-travelers like Fennesz, Klaus Schulze, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost and Colin Stetson. This immersive, intensive, widescreen electronic album could sit comfortably as a stellar contribution to the space/sci-fi/synth soundtrack genre. But this is ultimately deeper, grittier, earthier stuff - pulsing with terrestrial granularity, charting subterranean geographies of the heart and soul. Deluxe 180g vinyl includes four 12"x12" art prints of analog film stills by renowned experimental filmmaker Daïchi Saïto.
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Experimental |
666561015411 |
CONSTELLATION |
LP |
CST154 |