It’s a real journey through tones and timbres.

Hello, Friends.

Welcome to an excellent new (short) week for the compilations and best new reissues.

De La Soul arrived in doubles, with the trio's second LP De La Soul Is Dead from 1991 and following studio set 1993 Buhloone Mindstate. Like their amazing debut 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul Is Dead was produced by Prince Paul and it has an amazing flow, with narrative skits and the fictional WRMS radio station. Buhloone Mindstate united the trio with Prince Paul for the third and final time for a jazz / rap opus, with guests to include Dres of Black Sheep, Biz Markie and jazz veterans Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis*.

They were, are and always will be, essential albums.

A beauty via Numero this week with a reissue of Unsolved from Boston band Karate. A late career gem, it’s a pretty unique space between slowcore, post-hardcore and jazz. It’s such an engaging listen, the less they do, the more gripping it becomes.

+ Available on very limited double ‘Angels Halo’ colour vinyl.

We have another great compilation release on Two-Piers Records this week (them folks who released Garage Psychédélique, Pop Psychédélique and the wistful Music for the Stars) called Waves of Distortion, with both eyes downward and focusing on The Best of Shoegaze 1990-2022. It’s a great trip, from Lush, Ride and The Telescopes, through contemporary noise-ys; bdrmm, DIIV and Horsegirl.

+ Available on limited Transparent Red colour vinyl.

A double under the impeccable Tone Poet series this week. Great Jazz Standards is the product of two different ensembles under the direction of iconic arranger, composer, and pianist Gil Evans. Blue Spirits was the last of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard’s 1960s studio albums for Blue Note, harmonious but complex and full of blues energy.

Both releases were produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI. Packaged in deluxe tip-on jackets, they're lovely things.



Fat Possum repress a 2023 edition of the excellent Hi Tide Groove compilation that was released as part of RSD a few years back. ‘From the famous to the obscure’, collecting Hi Tide records releases from Al Green, Ann Peebles, Jean Plum and more.

Mic Check…. It’s Doomsday folks! We have the limited silver sleeve edition of MF DOOM’s Operation: Doomsday back in the racks this week. It remains one of those records that sells everytime off the stereo. All-time iconic.

We’ll leave you this week with a special edition pressing of one of our most favourite releases of the last few years, Acetone - 1992-2001. The anthology looks back at the recordings of the Los Angeles trio, with cuts from their two LPs and EP. They create the most amazing haze, spooky sunlight through cobwebs vibes, with whispered vocals and slow rumbling tremolos. Sedate and melancholic songs that show amazing control. If you’ve never spent any time with them, make the time, we just can’t recommend them highly enough.

And that is the end of that chapter!

- Drift

* In about 1998, Pee Wee Ellis came to our old, tiny shop at 91 High St and chilled for hours. He was seriously cool.