A new week. Talking old Records. New pressings. Old hands.
Hello, Friends.
It's a new week, it's a new month and we're the same old Drift with a very good set of reissues for you.
In The Red Records look back to one of the earlier Thee Oh See's albums this week with a 2022 pressing (on deliciously spangling purple vinyl) of the band's HELP LP. It's either the second or third album as THEE Oh Sees, following early releases as OCS and THE Oh Sees. It's got such a great rattle to it, full of psychedelic garage rock and analogue hues. It's refreshing to remember that they've always just been 'kin great!
Ash's full-debut album 1977 is reissued for the first time since its 1996 release this week. Not only this, they've pressed it on a very impressive looking Black & White exploded splatter vinyl pressing. Tell you what, it stands up pretty well too and there wasn't enough room on the record to include that infamous CD bonus track from the OG release. Probably for the best too. 🤢
Trunk Records are in particularly Trunk form this week, with the reissue of the self-titled Magician LP, a mythically rare British album from the late 1970s. It's a totally unique jazz, library, prog, fusion album of which only a handful of original copies have ever been found. Highly recommended.
Put this bio in your pipe and smoke it... Rhythm Revolution is one of Afrobeat’s most mysterious and rare records by a former schoolteacher, boxer, friend of Fela Kuti and Muhammad Ali - later Jacques Chirac's bodyguard - and Beninese musical visionary: Ferry Djimmy. Honestly, can't rave about this one enough, we've really been playing it loads.
A couple of absolutely essential reissues on the esteemed Numero this week. Firstly, En Super Forme Vol. 1 from Mali's Super Djata Band, traditional timbres and western psychedelia, blues, and Nigerian afro-beat influences. Available on a limited 'Mango' colour vinyl pressing. Also out today (pressed on equally exciting-sounding "Razz" Red colour vinyl) is Air Volta from (Orchestre) Volta Jazz. From the landlocked tropical savanna of Upper Volta (later to be re-named Burkina Faso), the influences pull in Congolese rhumba, American R&B, French yé-yé and more Such great energy. Both releases get the Drift seal of approval.
San Francisco Moog: 1968–72 documents a much under-documented period of electronic music from Bay Area native Doug McKechnie. Explorative and totally psychedelic music, this really was lightyears ahead of the Moog Moods that the instrument was becoming synonymous with.
Strut Records release Risco Version, the first ever official compilation of Risco Connection's iconic reggae / disco singles. Drummer “Drummie” Joe Isaacs had already created history as the house drummer at Studio 1, but this compilation features on his disco exploits in Canada and brings together all of the vocal versions, dubs and extra tracks from the singles.
An excellent compilation on Bureau B called The Psychedelic Side of Kosmische Musik 1972-1986, it explores the psychedelic side of Kosmische Musik between 1972-1986... lol. Features Cluster, Conrad Schnitzler, Moebius, Roedelius and tons of lush stuff we didn't know. Check it out.
Also this week; Night School and Frankie Rose reissue her interpretation of The Cure’s masterpiece Seventeen Seconds. Pressed on dark red transparent vinyl with new, artist-approved artwork. The first two alt-J albums - An Awesome Wave and This Is All Yours - get a fresh pressing, both on limited White colour vinyl. Cooking Vinyl release Watch Over Me, a collection of Lissie's early works between 2002 - 2009. Yard Act's Dark Days EP gets a reissue, this time on a limited Silver colour vinyl disc. Not many of these left!
Okay! Got a good feeling about this week.
- Drift