Groovers, thrashing noises, fragile brilliance and more. It’s all new-not-new.
Numero gets us rolling this week with an absolutely terrific compilation called If There's Hell Below, exhuming post-blues sounds from the Afroamerican underground of the 1970’s. Fugged out rock and roll and heavy psychedelic sparklers, with the shadows of Hendrix and Funkadelic running high. It really has a crunch to it, absolutely all killer and no filler. Trust us, this is an essential.
+ Available on a limited Red vinyl pressing.
We have a new thirtieth anniversary pressing of Nirvana’s third and final LP, In Utero. It’s so dark, pure grief and anguish. The LP edition uses the original artwork that has been expanded to a premium tip-on gatefold jacket, it also includes a bonus 10” with b-sides and bonus tracks. It remains a harrowing but thrilling listen.
Keith Jarrett’s Solo Concerts: Bremen / Lausanne receives a lush pressing on ECM this week as part of their critically lauded Luminessence audiophile series. The mesmerising German/Swiss concerts were recorded in March and July 1973 and form some of the first moments of his solo piano works. As the liner notes remark, “the sound of history-in-the-making.” Too right.
Another couple of essentials from the Mogwai vaults this week with Government Commissions (BBC Sessions 1996-2003) and Ten Rapid (Collected Recordings 1996-1997). Government Commissions collects BBC studio recordings and Ten Rapid compiles the band’s early singles and compilation appearances. They absolutely blew my mind all those years back on the wireless.
CITTA' '93 is a near-legendary live show from Japanese rock band Les Rallizes Denudes. We’ve actually sold out, so we won’t go on about it too much, but we’re getting more, so do remember that you need to check this out as it really is something else.
Earth Recordings reissue a lush edition of Bert Jansch’s Avocet as a limited ‘Art Print’ edition with all of UK illustrator Hannah Alice’s beautiful drawings. We have a limited Orange vinyl pressing of Senior, the fourth studio album by Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp. These are numbered too. We did order some of Taylor Swift 1991 rework, but they haven’t arrived.
And lastly for now, we have a new deluxe pressing of José González’s Veneer debut. It’s a lovely thing, double blue vinyl in a hand-numbered gatefold sleeve with a 24-page booklet filled with archival photos, essays (from José González, Zane Lowe, Josephine Olausson and Ian Cohen), and a song-by-song guide from José and more. Little bit shocked (tbh) that it has been 20 years already, but it was really nice to spend some time again in the wooze of his plucked strings and hushed vocals.
Should be quite a few bits to chat about this week, so let's keep in touch eh?
- Drift