In the best possible way... this week is flipping hectic. Much to savour, do read on...
Hello, Friends.
Record of the Week is No Home Record, the devastating debut solo LP from Kim Gordon. Although she has released work post Sonic Youth (as Body/Head with artist and musician Bill Nace), this feels very much like a singular voice. It is ferocious stuff, gnarly distortions and textures that carry tense anxiety and anger (that feels deeply political in this global climate). Kim is - exactly as you'd expect - cool a.f., growling as the conductor right in the eye of the storm. Experimental but also captivating, it's one that keeps drawing you back in, excellent stuff.
+ The indie version is very limited and pressed on white vinyl.
+ Buy CD/LP this week and we'll enter you into the draw to win a special limited edition 12”, individually hand-stamped with a bespoke design drawn by Kim.
Richard Dawson - the black-humoured bard of Newcastle - returns to release his sixth solo album 2020, his first since the critically-acclaimed Peasant. Not in recent memory has an artist been able to balance such razor sharp wit (it's genuinely laugh-out-loud funny) with the sort of empathy that makes a truly great songwriter. All this on not only the same album and song, but even lines of a song. In a tumultuous and bleak time, no one has articulated it quite so eloquently. A brilliant album.
Shiny New Model is an eight track mini-LP from Brooklyn's Bodega. It picks up where the brilliant Endless Scroll left off and managed to retain that heart and bring in new tones. It still sounds inescapably New York-ish, but more so ESG and Talking Heads with neurotic, frenetic band super-fun dance shapes. Utterly brilliant band, they are getting better and better.
+ Exclusive green vinyl pressing.
They have already made one of our favourite albums of the year, now Big Thief drop their second offering for 2019 with the quite brilliant Two Hands. It's hard not to listen to the album as a companion to U.F.O.F., but to be honest, with works like this it's hard to imagine them not being played back-to-back anyway. Perhaps slightly less emotionally heightened than its predecessor, it's just as gripping and has some moments of massive crash that make the quiet whispers all the more crushing. Another brilliant album, Big Thief remain one of 2019's most consistent companions. A pair of classics.
+ Last few copies available now on desert peach coloured vinyl
It's another double Dinked week with two albums that we're ever so proud to have been part of.
California's Allah Las release their fourth LP - LAHS - on Mexican Summer and it is so chill! There are motifs of postcards (the Dinked Edition included custom perforated postcard reels) throughout and it plays beautifully into the free flowing vibes. Sunshine, ambles, it's making the rays of Autumn sunshine peeping through the windows here feel all the more special.
We're super proud to have worked with Tapete Records to be part of the return of Comet Gain with Fireraisers, Forever! Moments of delicious jangle and plenty of stomping fuzz and post punk, it really is brilliantly delivered, it sounds like the band are around you in a circle. This'll be a most-played at Drift for sure.
We have a couple of each held back and we'll put them online now up on the Dinked section.
A lush collaborative album this week called STIR from Bill MacKay & Katinka Kleijn. Avant-rock, classical and experimental inspirations all forged and warped by the guitarist Bill and the cellist Katinka. This would be such a sick live show.
Sonic Citadel is the return form the ever so mighty duo Lightning Bolt. The drums twist from the primal to the frenetic and wrap around the echoing and furious vocals. Pounding and fuzzed bass lines that play against everything else, it's through the mayhem that you hear the higher space they get to... Can't rave about these guys highly enough. A lush-looking edition housed in a gatefold sleeve with printed inners, pressed on limited virgin (green) vinyl.
Elbow return with Giants Of All Sizes. Some great guest appearances across the album including Jesca Hoop's purr.
+ Indies exclusive coloured vinyl, is a seagrass green that matches the colour of the back cover in a gatefold sleeve.
+ Indies exclusive CD is a Clear O-Card edition - it has a hard clear plastic O-card sleeve on it, which when pulled off will leave the CD artwork bare of text.
Starcrawler return with the pounding new Devour You LP. Riffs, riffs and more riffs, which goes over very well in these parts.
MNNQNS (pronounced mannequins) release Body Negative on Fat Cat. We have a limited red vinyl pressing.
Transgressive release Jules, the debut LP from classically-trained Julien Chang. Clearly influenced by a ton of things, it's the beautifully (simple) melodic stuff that strikes best, really lovely.
Under the watchful eyes and ears of Eli 'Paperboy' Reed, The Harlem Gospel Travelers release He's On Time via Colemine Records this week and it's got some swagger. Indie shop clear vinyl pressing if you're quick too.
Bristol Punks Heavy Lungs release the Measure EP on Balley Records (Idles).
This weeks collection of new-not-new stuff is fierce.
Mogwai's Ten Rapid compilation album - of singles, b-sides and rarities from 1996-1997 - gets a re-press from Rock Action. Very limited, dark green coloured vinyl, pretty essential this.
Reissued with the original 7” for the first time since its original pressing, and printed on coloured vinyl for the first time ever, Kurt Vile's Matador debut Childish Prodigy gets a tenth anniversary pressing. Again, not too many of these about.
Couple of great editions from Gary Numan this week, with Replicas: The First Recordings (mint green vinyl) and The Pleasure Principle: The First Recordings (orange vinyl) pressed via Beggars Banquet. They concentrate on the early recordings made prior to the completed albums, early iterations and demos. Great stuff here.
The Wedding Present's George Best (green vinyl) and Tommy (white vinyl) both get a fresh repress this week.
More solid gold with the recent wave of jazz represses. Herbie Hancock's Inventions & Dimensions, Joe Henderson's In N' Out and the self-titled Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims album get all-analog remasters by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes. New Blue note, pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal, this is all pretty thrilling stuff.
A Larum is the debut album from Johnny Flynn, originally released in 2008. To tie in with the 10th anniversary of Transgressive Records, it has been reissued on 180gram heavyweight vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.
The Light in the Attic affiliated Empire Of Signs label return this week with Inoyama Land's Commissions: 1977-2000... and it is pretty serious stuff. Available for the first time on vinyl (remastered from original tapes in cooperation with the artist and including interviews, notes and mycological photos), the collection expands upon their sound heard on the stunning Kankyō Ongaku compilation. The commissions include work for Museums, an avant-theatre piece on Egyptology and an exhibit on slime molds. Beautiful, out of body music, the most quietly thrilling music.
Lastly this week, James Holden's utterly seminal debut The Idiots Are Winning gets a much deserved repress on his Border Community label. We had to take it off sale a while back as it went so hard and fast, but we're going to get a little wedge tomorrow of the double crystal clear with splatter coloured vinyl. Looking back, the album sounds as different as it did a good decade back, searching and challenging electronic music. An amazing artist and a really quite special album that every home should own. Every home.
In utter non-news, on Saturday we'll - like loads of other shops - be playing an album in the shop.
- Drift