Plenty of scorching not-new for your stereos and considerations.
A pretty iconic live album to get us started in this new week and a 25th Anniversary pressing of Portishead’s Roseland NYC Live album. It was recorded and filmed at New York’s Roseland Ballroom with a 28-piece orchestra in 1997, and released in 1998. The way it bounces between intimate and absolutely epic is really quite something.
+ Available Limited 2LP is pressed on solid red vinyl, with gatefold sleeve, a double-sided fold out poster, and a recreation of the guest ‘backstage’ sticky pass used at the concert.
+ Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.
Not exactly a reissue, but Fu##kin' Up finds Neil Young With Crazy Horse ripping through a Toronto club live set back in 2023. They perform the classic 1990 album Ragged Glory almost in its entirety and there is such a lush looseness as they take it all over the place.
“In the spirit it’s offered…made this for the Horse lovers. I can’t stop it. The horse is runnin’. What a ride we have. I don’t want to mess with the vibe. I am so happy to have this to share.” - Neil
Numero keep shining a light on the Duster camp with a reissue of Canaan Amber’s solo debut, CA. It was all tracked in the decade after Duster went on hiatus and sways with rich, sunshine drenched surf sounds in light and dark. The original 2012 five-song CD has been expanded to include six other demos plundered from the prolific songwriter’s vault. A lush trip.
+ Available on limited Golden Hills colour vinyl.
A real belter from the Impulse catalogue now, that we didn’t know too much about at all… Organist Gloria Coleman and drummer Pola Roberts are real swingers on Soul Sisters, with guitarist Grant Green giving it some serious lightning too! Highly recommended.
Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan plays out real cool jazz ballads on Night Lights, which gets a new pressing under the Acoustic Sounds series. We also have Abbey Lincoln & Hank Jones collaborating on the 1992 When There Is Love, giving some serious charm to the standards.
Soulwax’s Y2K BANGER Much Against Everyone’s Advice gets a much deserved repress this week. It is the link between their power pop, crunching guitars and progression into beat based music. Stands up very well, been enjoying this a lot.
We had a bit of a gap last week as we were so busy stock-taking, selling and packing up RSD orders, but there were some excellent titles landing in the racks that we do need to cover.
Herbie Hancock’s much underrated Speak Like A Child - the follow up to the iconic Maiden Voyage - gets a pressing on the Blue Note Classic Vinyl series, as does Bobby Hutcherson’s super-graceful Happenings. Both records are stereo, all-analogue, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.
Flowered Up’s debut LP A Life With Brian gets an expanded new pressing on London Records to include the cult epic 13 minute ‘Weekender’ and much sought after Andrew Weatherall remix, both for the first time added to the LP.
And one that has been on HEAVY rotation here is The Flesh Eaters’ 1981 punk-noir masterpiece A Minute To Pray A Second To Die via Jackpot Records. Spooky, full of rattles and hurting past, it is such a great record.
Our last scorcher today is an all-new pressing of Witch’s Lukombo Vibes on Now Again Records, the stadium-filling kings of 70s Zamrock. The album features some of the band’s most traditional sounding rhythms and instrumentation, but it sure is still high on the afro-rocking jams that make them so irresistible. Restored and remastered from master tapes, and presented as an archival reissue in an aged copper green vinyl pressing. This is the hookup!
