Records of the Week: Willie Dunn, London Grammar, MICROCORPS, The Armed, Johnnie Frierson, The Nightingales and AJ Tracey.

An even split of new bits and killer reissues. It’s all sounding so good over here.

Hello, Friends. 


Our Record of the Week is a new collection on Light In The Attic celebrating one of Canada's unsung musical heroes. Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies is a comprehensive deep-dive into Willie Dunn, one of the world's most-influential country musicians and film-makers. We first became aware of Willie with his 'I Pity the Country', the astonishing opening cut on Light In The Attic's 2014 Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, And Country 1966-1985 compilation. Everything we've dug up since has only drawn us in more and this fantastic, beautifully presented LP really is just such a treat. His rich voice is so commanding, it seems amazing to hear so many of these wonderful songs for the first time.

+ Indie exclusive LP is pressed on Red vinyl.

"(We are) humbled to help honour Willie Dunn. May he never be forgotten… Peace." - Light in the Attic.


MICROCORPS is the new project by artist and musician Alex Tucker (Grumbling Fur, Alexander Tucker, Imbogodom) and it's absolutely fantastic! This debut release - XMIT - features collaborations with Gazelle Twin, Nik Void, Simon Fisher Turner and Astrud Steehouder. Across its eight tracks, it creates some of the most sonically-rich landscapes we've heard in ages. Dark, texture filled music. Highly recommended. 


Following last year's excellent Running Tracks, Total Wkts (the chosen guise of John Newton - perhaps better known as the drummer/vocalist of South London’s duo JOHN) returns with the equally lush No Holiday on their own Pets Care Records. It's a brutal piece, with lo-fi vibes and frenzied interjections. The production is great, you can't tell clearly what is being played through the fuzz, but it all sits together with great propulsion. 

+ Limited 300 pressing on Frosted Glass colour vinyl, cut at 45rpm.
+ John kindly signed our copies for us.


 

London Grammar return with the huge-sounding Californian Soil. They always have a melancholic bent to what they do, but this new third LP has perhaps their most euphoric moments yet. The album is very much about Hannah Reid as the principal creative force and they sound all the more coherent for it.

+ VERY VERY Limited edition Deluxe includes Transparent White vinyl; Blue 10” vinyl; a 20 page hardback book featuring artwork, unseen photographs and exclusive lithograph art print on 300 GSM card. 

+ Indie LP is Transparent Blue vinyl. 


The Battle At Garden’s Gate is the second studio album from American Rock N Roll band Greta Van Fleet. The styling of it all is pretty derivative (they basically look like a fake band from a Cameron Crowe film), but they actually do have something going on, you know. The production is mint without sounding too over-fussed, the guitars have some glorious tones (especially when they drift off into weirder territory) and Josh Kiszka's vocals are very much his own sound.

+ We have a very limited Green vinyl pressing, and even Liam G is excited about it... Kinda.
 



ULTRAPOP is the new LP from The Armed via Sargent House and it's absolutely massive! Experimental tones of metal, noise and pure fury. We have a very limited Tan Yellow colour vinyl pressing.

White-hot Ladbroke Grove superstar - AJ Tracey - returns with a basketball-inspired concept album, Flu Game. We have a limited indie shop pressing on double Orange colour vinyl.

Norah Jones releases her first full solo live album, Til We Meet Again.

Danny & The Champions Of The World release a double CD live album called Los Campeones en Vivo, full of Asturias good vibes.

This week's reissues start with Pigs on Purpose, the pounding debut LP from Brum punk underground icons The Nightingales. We have an exclusive Double LP pressing on blue coloured vinyl.

We now have the indie shop exclusive edition of Deftones' 20th Anniversary Deluxe White Pony. The set include the original album along with a companion remix album entitled ‘Black Stallion’. This was an idea conceived during the original album’s creation but didn’t come to fruition at the time. ‘Black Stallion’ includes remixes of each of the individual 11 tracks from the original ‘White Pony’ album by different artists including DJ Shadow, Robert Smith, Squarepusher and Mike Shinoda. The indie deluxe also includes an exclusive print.






Earth Recordings are on top form this week with a Gold vinyl edition of Anne Briggs' second LP The Time Has Come, also a Red vinyl pressing of Bert Jansch's late career stunner, Crimson Moon. 

Coffee at Drift was this morning soundtracked by the shimmering Underneath The Pine from Toro Y Moi. It was a treat actually to listen back to this old friend as it turns ten. This anniversary edition is pressed on Desert Sun Vinyl.

Finding Wildflowers [Alternate Versions] - is the latest offering of Tom Petty music, curated with help from his loving family, bandmates and collaborators. 16 studio recordings of alternate takes, long cuts and jam versions of Wildflowers songs as Tom, band members and co-producer Rick Rubin worked to finalise the album in 1994. We have a really nice-looking (and exclusive) Gold colour vinyl edition. 

Light In The Attic are at it again, getting everyone's bank balance into trouble with a 2021 edition of Di Doo Dah, the first true solo album from British born actress, model, singer, mother, and French national treasure, Jane Birkin. Great stuff.

Matador reissue the 1996' Guided By Voices classic Under the Bushes Under the Stars. Long out-of-print this, and we don't have all that many!

We have a 25th Anniversary Edition of Goldie’s Timeless. Remastered and expanded with rarities and new remixes. 

Disco Se Aagay is a (previously) lost 80s synth-pop classic from Nermin Niazi. But check this, it was created by 14-year-old Nermin and her 19-year-old brother Feisal, a new wave masterpiece with another unexpected twist - Urdu-language lyrics and Hindustani melodic scales! Really is one to check out this, our Lee has been going in often. Good little read over on Pitchfork.

An excellent week for printed words. Beeswing is the autobiography from world-renowned artist Richard Thompson, co-founder of the legendary folk rock group Fairport Convention. Getting rave reviews, this. We have signed bookplates in these editions. 

Medical Grade Music is the unlikely story of a six-time World Snooker Champion turned techno DJ, his relationship with a psychedelic True Believer and their adventures as emerging underground music legends, The Utopia Strong! So hyped on this one and Steve Davis and Kavus Torabi have kindly signed copies for us!

132 pages of music, mayhem, art, and obsession! The fourth edition of Third Man's Maggot Brain has arrived all the way from the USA.

Lastly today and playing us out into the distance is yet ANOTHER stunner via Light In The Attic, with Johnnie Frierson's Have You Been Good To Yourself. A compelling story and a stunning set of songs, lost for decades and only now getting the recognition it deserves. Lots of interest of late with the holy trinity of Bill Callahan, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Ty Segall grouping together for a set of covers. The album is a mix of spoken word and gospel songs laid down direct to cassette. Ultra-rare home recordings draw from Johnnie's religious upbringing and his history in the music business, which was interrupted in 1970 when he was sent to fight in Vietnam. Make sure you find time to check this one out, you'll get it.

Hope you enjoy navigating through these, you know where we are when you've picked.

- Drift