New Releases & Staff Picks 11/26/2020
Staff Picks
Kimber – The Telescopes
Lindsay – Trees Speak
Dario – Enrique Rodriguez & the Negra Chiway Band
Eric – Orville Peck
Daniel Avery – Love + Light CD/LP+MP3 (Mute)
Love + Light arrives unexpectedly, following Avery’s recent collaborations with Alessandro Cortini on the critically acclaimed Illusion Of Time LP (“a record that suggests Godspeed You! Black Emperor in drone mode, re-imagining Music For Airports as if the runways were covered in gravel and air traffic control was on strike,” said Loud & Quiet, while Q hailed it as “lush mood music to get lost in”) and alongside Roman Flügel under the alias of Noun. Avery’s previous solo album Song For Alpha was released in 2018 to similar acclaim. [Limited milky clear colored vinyl pressing also available.]
The Head and The Heart – Living Mirage: The Complete Recordings 2xLP (WB)
This deluxe double-vinyl pressing of The Head and The Heart’s 2019 album features four brand new tracks.
New Model Army – Carnival (Redux) CD/2xLP (earMUSIC)
New Model Army has never been bound by musical genres. Formed in 1980, the band from Bradford, England was initially influenced by punk rock and northern soul, but over time drew from folk, metal, R&B, hip-hop and classical music to make something totally unique and unclassifiable. Carnival was originally released in 2005, 25 years into New Model Army’s career; it had been their first studio album in more than five years. [Limited white colored double-LP pressing also available.]
Trees Speak – Shadow Forms CD/LP (Soul Jazz)
Trees Speak’s stunning new album Shadow Forms is a blend of 1970s German electronic and ‘motorik’ krautrock instrumentals (think Harmonia, Can, Cluster, Popul Vuh, Neu!), haunting and powerful 1960s and 1970s soundtracks (think Italian prog rock Goblin and John Carpenter horror movies, Morricone and existential John Barry spy movies), together with a New York no wave electronic synth and guitar analogue DIY-ness (think Suicide, anything on Soul Jazz’s New York Noise series or Eno’s No New York).
Richard Edwards – The Soft Ache and The Moon LP (Profound Discomfort)
Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s frontman Richard Edwards will release his third solo album, The Soft Ache And The Moon. He co-produced it with Mike Bloom (who also worked on both of Richard’s other solo albums) and he says, “As has been the unfortunate case for the past few years of my life, upon getting started on a new record, I fell ill and had to make other plans. I built a small studio in my house, where I was stuck for over a year of illness, and worked on finishing it long distance with my Los Angeles based band. It is more or less about things never quite getting back to normal after a personal cataclysm. And hopefully it’s actually about more than that, too.”
The Bird And The Bee – The Bird And The Bee [Reissue/2006] LP (Slow Down Sounds)
White the first repressing sold out in hours on RSD 2019, The Bird And The Bee’s self-titled synth-pop debut is again repressed – this time on clear-water blue colored vinyl. The Bird and the Bee is Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Foo Fighters, Flaming Lips, Sia and Paul McCartney, etc.) and L.A. singer-songwriter Inara George.
Orville Peck – Show Pony LP (Columbia)
Limited purple colored vinyl pressing. Includes sticker and poster. Orville is a critically-acclaimed rising country artist.
Phish – Sigma Oasis 2xLP (Jemp)
Double green and black vinyl pressing. 15th album by the jam band superheroes.
Smashing Pumpkins – Cyr CD/2xLP (Sumerian)
The Smashing Pumpkins follow-up 2018’s Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1: No Past. No Future. No Sun. and usher in the dawn of a new decade with the new 20-track double album, Cyr. Produced by frontman Billy Corgan and recorded in Chicago with original members James Iha and Jimmy Chamblerlin plus longtime guitarist Jeff Schroeder, the album comes introduced by the synth-soaked title cut which Corgan likens to a “dystopic folly” and the hooky Cure-leaning “The Colour Of Love”. “This is the first album since the album that came out in 2000, Machina, where me, James [Iha] and Jimmy [Chamberlin] worked on something for a very long time,” Corgan said. “It’s got a greater conceptual base, and it’s probably a wider swath of music. The last one was kind of like, ‘Let’s just jump in, record some stuff real fast, and let it be what it is…’ so I’m excited about this, because we’re kind of back in the lane of taking a risk, and trying to bring something new to the table, as opposed to just aping what we’re known for.” [Limited edition colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Billie Joe Armstrong – No Fun Mondays CD/LP (Reprise)
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong releases an album of various covers he recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown. Armstrong launched his No Fun Mondays quarantine series back in March at the start of the lockdown with a rendition of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now”. He went on to cover a broad mix of songs, from punk classics like the Clash’s “Police On My Back”, to classic rock deep cuts like John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth” and pop standards like the Bangles’ “Manic Monday”. “While we’ve all been in quarantine I’ve been reflecting on the things that matter the most in my life: family, friends, and, of course, music,” Armstrong said in a statement. “I figure if we have to spend this time in isolation at least we can be alone together.”
Brian Eno – Lux LP reissue (Warp)
Brian Eno – Nerve Net LP reissue (Warp)
Brian Eno – Small Craft On A Milk Sea LP reissue (Warp)
Brian Eno –The Shutov Assembly LP reissue (Warp)
Enrique Rodriguez & the Negra Chiway Band – Fase Liminal LP
Powerful new spiritual jazz from Chile on Soul Jazz Records! Enrique Rodríguez and the Negra Chiway Band have an instantly powerful and unique sound that is reminiscent of the ensembles of Sun Ra and Horace Tapscott, one that channels the righteous spirits of Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and McCoy Tyner together with a stunning Latin rhythmical and new consciousness and percussive energy. Added are elements of the Samurai film soundtracks of Akira Kurosawa, Popol Vuh’s musical spirituality, Tibetan Buddhism and over-blowing chants, all combining to give a truly unique new sound. Rodríguez is a composer, percussionist, keyboardist, and producer from Santiago, Chile, whose work shows similarities with the music of new forward-looking jazz artists including Mathew Halsall, Theon Cross, Emma-Jean Thackray and Makaya McCraven. A powerful mix of radical 60s Afro-centric jazz, eastern spirituality and cosmology, and Latin American rhythmical movement. Awesome!
The Telescopes – Between Dimensions 2 LP (Alive)
The Telescopes’ Between Dimensions compiles all of their EPS originally released on the Creation, What Goes On, and Cheree labels. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
COMING NEXT WEEK!
CALEXICO – Seasonal Shift CD/LP
KING GIZZARD – KG CD/LP
KING GIZZARD – Live in SF CD
WHITE STRIPES – Greatest Hits CD/LP
MARGO PRICE – Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman CD/LP
ARCTIC MONKEYS – Live at the Royal Albert Hall CD/LP
DEAFHEAVEN – 10 Years Gone CD/LP
EMMA RUTH RUNDLE + THOU – May All Our Chambers Be Full CD/LP
S CAREY – All We Grow LP reissue
SWANS – Children Of God CD/LP
ATMOSPHERE – To All My Friends Blood Makes The Blade Holy LP
LEE FIELDS – Big Crown Vaults Vol 1 CD/LP
COIL – Musick To Play In The Dark CD/LP
COM TRUISE – In Decay Too LP
MORT GARSON – Mother Earth’s Plantasia LP audiophile reissue
PERE UBU – Tenement Year LP
SPACEHOG – Chinese Album LP
BONOBO – Black Sands 10th Anniversary Edition LP
TORI AMOS – Live At Montreux LP