Double rap gold, double Bowie gold and double Congolese Psychedelic Rumba gold amongst other things…

A very welcome double reissue of Danger Mouse & Jemini (the Gifted One)’s absolutely glorious 2003 album Ghetto Pop Life and finally, its follow up Born Again, the album that was recorded a year later and shelved for twenty years!

We were absolutely obsessed with Ghetto Pop Life back on release, a wildly slick party record with rich, dense production. It’s very much the collaboration too, with Jemini’s flow both impressive, wry and straight-out funny. Why Born Again took twenty years to materialise we don’t know, but the formula remains very strong. Rich, crate-dug samples and party soul production, with Jemini on dazzling form once more.

Two great records, one we know inside-out and one we’re really loving already. Lex even kept the delicious gold foiling from the original sleeve for Ghetto Pop Life, which looks pretty mint in 2024!
We have a Golden Jubilee pressing of David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs this week, with a couple of limited new editions. Belgian artist Guy Peellaert’s artwork looks as vivid and otherworldly as ever on an all-new picture disc, and the production that has gone into the Half-Speed Master edition is pretty wild.

These new pressings of Diamond Dogs were cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios.

W3NG is Numero’s third instalment of lost radio gold, with 44 minutes of uninterrupted yacht rock, easy-glide, AOR, and blue-eyed disco that’ll rock your boat. Great curation, we hardly knew any of it but it flows real nice. Lush artwork, it’s all as smooth as Michael McDonald’s beard.

• Available on 'Coast To Coast' Clear colour vinyl.

We have a 50th Anniversary pressing of the iconic (and long-out-of-print) Fania All Stars album. The recordings of the star-studded roster are from the ’73 Live At Yankee Stadium and Roberto Clemente Coliseum concerts. (AAA) lacquers cut from the original master tapes and 180-gram vinyl. Sounds like you’re front and centre.

Lastly for now, one from the Analog Africa vaults that is just ludicrously great. Congolese Funk, Afrobeat & Psychedelic Rumba 1969-1978 charts Verckys et L'Orchestre Veve at the height of their powers; hot nights and never-ending grooves from Kinshasa’s nightclubs and dance floors. Four sides of Rumba hip shakers and burning psychedelic shimmer. Bloody great!