Not-new Records of the Week: MF DOOM, Hailu Mergia, The Specials, Squarepusher, Cold Wave #1 and The Avalanches.

Looking back at some utter classics, a lot of which need to be said ALL IN CAPS.

Hello, Friends. 


Not-new in abundance today with some absolutely superb reissues and a few compilations we're going hard on too.

The week has a hero (or a villain) and his name is DOOM. Available in one of three special reissue sleeves, we have the seminal Operation: Doomsday. Released right at the end of the 20th century, it was the first solo appearance of MF DOOM following the tragic demise of KMD some six years earlier. It was so fully formed, in every way DOOM just arrived.

After some excellent collaborations (and appearances as both King Geedorah and Viktor Vaughn), in 2004 MF DOOM released the all-time classic MM...FOOD. We're delighted to have gotten hold of a few more copies of the recent double Pink and Green colour vinyl represses. 

More? Too right. Following the new release of Super What? that we discussed yesterday, we have a few reissue copies of the first Czarface & MF DOOM collaboration, Czarface Meets Metal Face.

My word, we love DOOM and that is what today is going to sound like at the shop.


Twenty years on, The Avalanches' beautiful Since I Left You still sounds quite extraordinary and totally like nothing else. To mark turning twenty, XL have reissued a lush celebration with some absolutely killer remixes (Including MF DOOM!!!). It all adds to the hazy and dreamy quality of the album, the sort of vibe that you just want to float away into.

Good news; We managed to get more of the very limited 4LP edition.
Bad news; they are still en route and we expect to be shipping them late next week.





Tezeta is a set of recordings that are virtually unknown outside Ethiopia. Beautifully-rendered instrumentals of classic Ethiopian standards from Hailu Mergia and his Walias Band. We 100% promise, if you are lucky enough to have a flash of sun today, stick this on for full desert dream vibes. Thank us later.


Warp Records release a very special anniversary edition of Squarepusher’s debut album Feed Me Weird Things, virtually 25 years to the day from its original release in ‘96 on the Rephlex imprint. Remastered from the original DATs, it looks super-handsome on double Clear vinyl (with a bonus 10").


Remastered and cut at half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios (using the original production tapes for optimum audio quality), The Specials iconic Ghost Town [40th Anniversary Half Speed Master] is released today on limited 7" and 12" editions.


Binker and Moses' excellent live LP Escape the Flames gets a new edition on the ever-excellent Gearbox Records. Sounds mint.

Also sounding excellent are another couple of fine additions to the Blue Note Records Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, with Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers' The Witch Doctor and the very rare Katanga! from Curtis Amy & Dupree Bolton.


En route, we have a Tenth Anniversary Edition of Frank Turner's England Keep My Bones album. Pressed on double Opaque Green Vinyl and we will be listing his forthcoming new one shortly too!


Ending this week of not-new with a couple of excellent compilations for you. Oz Echoes: DIY Cassettes and Archives 1980-1989 is a collection of hand-picked rare goodies from the DIY tape scene from 1980s Australia. 'Drone pop, psyche-electronics and agitated tape cut-ups', this really is a trip.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, we have a collection of contemporary artists influenced by the unmistakable electronic sounds of the 70s and 80s with Soul Jazz's really top new Cold Wave #1 compilation. Aside from Detroit's FIT Siege, all artists are based in Europe and totally new to us. This is such a treat in that way. Volume two is due at the end of the month. Excellent.

Oh my. What a day. What a week. What a time to be alive.

- Drift