Warm country Wilco, big-riff Ride, a couple of tone poets and other excellent reissues.
Hello, Friends.
Wilco’s joyous 2022 album Cruel Country gets a physical press this week with a double LP edition on their own dBpm Records. It was the first time in a decade that all of the band had been in the same place at the same time (their revered The Loft studio space) to record and it has such a lush flow to it.
Wichita Recordings present two new pressings of RIDE’s third and fourth albums, Tarantula and Carnival of Light. Recorded and originally released in 1994 and 1996 the two albums saw the band subtly move away from their shoegaze roots and would be the last releases until they reformed in 2017. Great to have them back with all the original audio reworked and refined.
Carnival of Light is repressed on transparent glow in the dark green double vinyl and includes a 12”x12” insert. Tarantula is released with three bonus tracks. It was advertised as being "Available in Transparent Orange Vinyl", but there has been an error during production and the print run has been pressed on Black vinyl. Which is fine.
Two deep catalogue reissues this week on Warp with Bytes by Black Dog Productions and Spanners by The Black Dog. Both sound unbelievably crisp thirty years on, with the colliding influences on Spanners further expanding on Bytes as the core trio of Ed Handley, Andy Turner and Ken Downie started going their separate ways.
Both LPs are re-cut by Beau Thomas for vinyl and presented as an exact reproduction of the original edition.
A couple of fantastic new additions to the Blue Note ‘Tone Poet’ series this week with Lee Morgan’s Infinity and Duke Pearson’s The Right Touch. The progressive-bop Infinity was recorded in 1965 but not released until 1981 (we dunno) and really worked Morgan’s trumpet into quite cosmic space. The Right Touch is one of pianist and arranger Duke Pearson’s most ambitious sets, with an epic 8-piece band including Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, James Spaulding and more.
Both releases were produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.
A bit of a gem on Rhymesayers this week, with Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 from Atmosphere. The raw demos were originally sold as CD-R and tapes on tour circa 2000, but have now been pressed on vinyl for the first time. Formative as they are, they remain a standout release in the hip hop duo’s extensive discography.
Erased Tapes have repressed Rival Console’s excellent 6-track LP, Night Melody. This run is on limited Blue vinyl to really pop with that bold sleeve art.
Lastly this week, The Fall’s Fontana records years (1990 and 1992) make a long-awaited return with the three albums; Code: Selfish, Shift-Work and Extricate all back on limited 180g vinyl. It’s hard to know where to start with the band’s formidable thirty plus studio albums - and comparable number of lineup changes - but there is some real drive to this trio that make a good jump off point to explore.
We have some pretty decent and essential catalogue arriving. We’ll try and find a way to flag this up for you all for easier browsing (today we had more Grateful Dead, Pavement, Beastie Boys, DOOM, Minor Threat, Serge Gainsbourg and Air Miami), but we’ve got much better at putting bits up onto our socials, so do take a look at @driftrecordshop for live stuff landing.