Another rich and diverse set to bring some heat to your stereos.
Our Record of the Week is another set of brain-blastin’ smashers from the New York experimental quartet Sunwatchers. Like a pack of magpies, they grab glimmering inspiration from jazz, punk, psychedelia, krautrock, noise and Saharan blues, but the way they create feverous musical whirlwinds with all those tones is entirely them and really gripping stuff. Music Is Victory Over Time is high-vibes guaranteed.
+ Available on limited ‘Kool-Aid Sunflare’ colour vinyl.
Hadsel is a sumptuous and rousing new LP from Zach Condon as Beirut, his first in four years. It was recorded in isolation in the remote Hadsel municipality in Northern Norway. It’s mostly structured around a church organ, with other baroque instrumentation creating the warmest of swells and his splendorous voice truly swoons like no one else.
+ Available on Exclusive 'Icebreaker' Colour Vinyl.
Flowers In The Dark is a hugely impressive new collaborative LP under the direction of Jazz vanguard Shabaka Hutchings. It is credited to Kofi Flexxx, but this is a product of participation from his trusted players with poet Anthony Joseph, rappers Billy Woods and Elucid and rising stars from the Native Rebel roster. It’s all so tightly wound, with driving rhythms and focused energy. It’s such a joy and totally consuming as a listen.
+ Available on an Indies Exclusive OBI edition pressing.
Blind On A Galloping Horse is a politically charged return from the enigmatic Northern Irish producer and composer David Holmes. The under current is the last few years and crumbling descent of the UK, a vibrant call to arms to change and celebrate rather than succumb to division. Raven Violet guest vocals almost throughout to hugely alluring effect.
+ Whilst stocks last, we’ll include a limited print with the LP format.
Kevin Morby releases More Photographs (A Continuum) this week, a companion piece to last year's stunning More Photographs. Structurally the songs follow the same flow, but he successfully takes them somewhere entirely new and the orchestral flourishes are lush. Grandiose and intimate all at once, he’s such a gem.
+ Available on limited Coke Bottle Clear colour vinyl.
The Moon Also Rises is the second collaborative record from musician Johnny Flynn and author Robert Macfarlane. There is a real lightness with simple and unfussy arrangements, but there are some really lovely builds and sonically the album is super rich.
+ Pressed on Moon colour vinyl.
+ We’ll make a draw for our test pressing this weekend.
In November 2022, Cat Power took the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall and delivered a song-for-song recreation of one of the most fabled and transformative live sets of all time. Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert is really impressive, with Chan Marshall finding new emotion and yearning in those iconic songs and that iconic gig.
+ Available on limited White colour vinyl.
Also this week… TVAM returns on Invada with the limited Costasol EP. A big poppin’ return from Bas Jan on Fire Records with Back To The Swamp. We have the limited CLUB E.A.S.E. 12” from Nightmares On Wax. Producer Luke Temple releases Be Good The Crazy Boys under his Art Feynman nom de plume and it has gloriously weird pop vibes. Vidrio is the collaborative debut as Titanic from composer I la Cat6Iica (Hector Tosta) and Guatemalan experimentalist Mabe Fratti. Really graceful, this is pretty gorgeous!
Lastly this week, and certainly not one to miss, is Les Jardins Mystiques Vol.1, the absolutely epic debut LP from super-producer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. Yeah, absolutely EPIC, with fifty plus tracks at over three hours, and guests to include Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Jeff Parker, Carlos Niño, Bennie Maupin, and Marcus Gilmore. The improvised piano and viola duet with Austin Peralta (RIP) is especially wonderful, but seriously, there are just so many amazing moments here, what a vibe. A lot of the tracks are quite short, so there is just such a flowing and evolving feel to it. Can’t rate this one highly enough.
What a week! Reissues are great too, with Pauline Anna Strom, New Order, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Quantic, The RH Factor (Roy Hargrove), Public Enemy and more.
Hit the website now for more of that limited 7” from The Beatles.
- Drift
