Beat Connection – Product 3 CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)

What began as a party-starting DJ duo at the University of Washington, has since blossomed into a four-piece that brings the beats with an incandescent, sample-heavy sound that has quickly evolved to a rock fan’s fantasy of exactly what a live electronic show should be. Their latest single “So Good” has been garnering rave reviews in the blogosphere where JOVM.com calls it “a breezy, pop-confection that seems to subtly channel Junip and classic ‘80s synth pop where shimmering guitar chords… and swirling electronics are paired with an effortlessly soulful voice and an incredibly catchy, arena-friendly hook.” Product 3 also features “Another Go Around”, which COS calls “peppered with the wondrous echo of groovy sitar strings, the track is equal parts funk jam and breezy pop ballad. They may be from one of the nation’s most overcast cities, but their bubbly electropop is a sunny afternoon jam of the highest order.” (Limited copies now available on blue vinyl. Regular black vinyl edition due November 20.)

Fuzz – II CD/2xLP+MP3 (In The Red)
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“Garage rock maven Ty Segall is a notable figure on the American rock landscape for (among a great many things) his prolific catalog of projects, contributions and collaborations. He represents the prioritization of production of preciousness. At a positively precocious twenty-eight years old, with boyish complexion, simpering grin and dimples still in tact, Segall has contributed his hazy stamp to more records than most musicians three times his age. In his Fuzz costume, Segall sheds a lot of skin.” — Bearded

 

Dave Gahan & Soulsavers – Angels & Ghosts CD (Columbia)

Listeners can expect to be led through an aural mix of dark, brooding sounds, elements inspired by gospel and blues, and the stark beauty that has become a signature of Dave & Soulsavers works. Dave Gahan’s emotionally powerful voice has never sounded better, and drives the album forward over a landscape of meticulously crafted instrumentation. A transatlantic collaboration, the writing process started with Dave Gahan and Soulsavers’ Rich Machin exchanging demos and ideas from their respective studios in lower Manhattan and rural England. They then recorded the album with additional musicians in studios around the world, including classic locations such as Sunset Sound in Los Angeles and Electric Lady in New York. The end result is a vibrant, live-sounding album, and proof of the “instant and obvious fit” Machin felt writing with Gahan. Vinyl version due December 4.

Half Moon Run – Sun Leads Me On CD/LP (Glassnote)

“Montreal four-piece Half Moon Run stormed onto the Canadian indie scene back in 2012 with their debut full-length Dark Eyes. Now they follow it up with Sun Leads Me On. The new material was written between their hometown of Montreal and a surfing getaway to California, though recording took place at Ontario’s Bathouse Studios with acclaimed UK producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Adele). And while the new set of songs ‘largely eschews the alt-folk melancholia’ of Dark Eyes, it does hear the band conveying concepts of beauty and honesty through unique instrumentation, classical arrangements and dark lyrics propelled by pulsating synths.” – Exclaim

Killing Joke – Pylon 2xCD (Spinefarm)

16^th studio album by the veteran British post-punk outfit fronted by Jaz Coleman and backed by the original lineup. Pylon isn’t for a quiet night at home; these 10 tracks, produced by the band and Tom Dalgety (Royal Blood) are very much music as ritual — raw, uncompromising and targeted lyrically.

Joanna Newsom – Divers CD/2xLP/Cassette (Drag City)
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“Dive, listener, knowing that your next hour will be filled with diversions aplenty: a wheeling circuit of sci-fi sea-shanties and cavalier ballads, narrated from parts unknown; a family of polysemic song-sets; a paranomasaic Liederkreis of harmonic sympathies and knotted hierarchies; a fanfare of brazen puns and martial lullabies, blazing in sorrow and horseplay and love, in turns symphonic and spare, joined by Mellotrons and Marxophones and Moogs, clavichords and celestas and of course the harp, thrumming its threnodies of circadian invasions and avian irruptions and strange loops of Shepard-toned resonant-frequencies and something called goddamned Simulacreage…”

Pure Bathing Culture – Pray For Rain CD/LP+MP3 (Partisan)
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“Portland BTW alumni Pure Bathing Culture return with Pray For Rain, the follow-up to 2013 debut Moon Tides. [The title track] adds new oomph to the duo’s crystalline transcendental yacht-pop. It’s still recognizable as the band behind ‘Pendulum,’ but there’s a brisk uptempo drum programming, and both the synths and the guitars pulsate with new urgency and rawness. It reminds me of the way My Bloody Valentine’s sound jolted into a new gear on Loveless closer ‘Soon.’ Speaking with Interview, Sarah Versprille credited producer John Congleton for the shift toward the visceral: ‘John was demanding in our abandonment of clichés. The songs aren’t covered up by a production concept [like they were on Moon Tides] … It was hard and uncomfortable for us plenty of times. It changed us, and the way we think about our music. It was much more of a passage between places than an arrival.’” – Stereogum

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – Moanin’ [Reissue/1958] LP (Blue Note)

Moanin’ was originally recorded in 1958. This was Blakey’s first album for Blue Note in several years, after a period of recording for a miscellany of labels, and marked both a homecoming and a fresh start. Originally the LP was self-titled, but the instant popularity of the bluesy opening track “Moanin’” (by pianist Bobby Timmons) led to it’s becoming known by that title. The album stands as one of the archetypal hard bop albums of the era, for the intensity of Blakey’s drumming and the work of Morgan, Golson and Timmons, and for it’s combination of old-fashioned gospel and blues influences with a sophisticated modern jazz sensibility. Part of Blue Note’s 75^th anniversary essential vinyl reissue campaign.

Departmentstore Santas – At the Medieval Castle Nineteen 100-Year Lifetimes [Reissue/1984] LP+MP3 (Superior Viaduct)

First-time reissue of an elusive ’80s cult classic. For fans of Television Personalities, Guided By Voices, Cleaners From Venus.

John Grant – Grey Tickles, Black Pressure 2xLP+CD (Partisan)

Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Grant’s (Sinead O’Connor, Goldfrapp, Elton John) third solo album features lush strings and electronic influences with his singular wit and brutal candor. The album opens in an unsettling swirl of overlapping male voices repeating 1 Corinthians 13:4 in English and Icelandic before dissolving into fuzz, and closes with the same passage read clearly, this time by a young girl. In between, Grant’s depth and range are vividly present.

 

GZA – Liquid Swords [Reissue/1995] 2xLP (Geffen/UMe)

Liquid Swords is the second solo studio album from Wu-Tang Clan member GZA. Upon its initial release, the album received critical acclaim for its complex lyricism and hypnotic musical style. Over the years, its recognition has grown, with a number of famous publishers proclaiming it as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. Reissued as part of UMe’s Respect The Classics campaign.

Hum – You’d Prefer An Astronaut [Reissue/1995] LP (SRcviny)

Two versions: Plain black, and white/green split colored vinyl LP represses housed in a matte finished gatefold sleeve. You’d Prefer An Astronaut is the Champaign, IL post-hardcore group’s third studio album. The 9-song set was first released in 1995 by RCA Records and serves as the band’s major label debut following the independently issuedFillet Show (1991) and Electra 2000 (1993).

Horace Silver Quintet – Blowin’ The Blues Away [Reissue/1959] LP (Blue Note)

Blowin’ The Blues Away is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver, originally released in 1959, and features performances by Silver with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor, and Louis Hayes. Part of Blue Note’s 75^th anniversary essential vinyl reissue campaign.

McCoy Tyner – Expansions [Reissue/1969] LP (Blue Note)

Expansions is the tenth album by jazz pianist McCoy Tyner and his fourth released on the Blue Note label. It was recorded in August 1968 and features performances by Tyner with Woody Shaw, Gary Bartz, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Herbie Lewis, and Freddie Waits. Part of Blue Note’s 75^th anniversary essential vinyl reissue campaign.