Fire up the stereo folks, we’re looking backwards today.
Hello, Friends.
For the second week running, we bring you news of new-not-new Records of the Week on a Friday, a batch of superb reissues and some real nice compilations too.
Heading up todays notice is Start Walkin' 1965-1977, a revisiting of the iconic Nancy Sinatra. The definitive new collection surveys Sinatra’s most prolific period over 1965-1976, including her revered collaborations with Lee Hazlewood, spanning over 23 tracks. Remastered from the original analogue tapes by the GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin, the collection is complemented by liner notes penned by Amanda Petrusich (author and music critic at The New Yorker), featuring insightful new interviews with Sinatra, as well as a Q&A with archivist and GRAMMY® nominated reissue co-producer Hunter Lea.
The press is just insane on this one, and rightfully so.
The other real big hitter this week is a 2021 remaster of Japan's genre-defining Quiet Life. It's been half-speed remastered at Abbey Road and sounds pretty mint. We've actually just uploaded the last copies (and last ones we'll have) to include an indie shop pressing on Red vinyl and a Deluxe Edition that includes; alternative mixes, b-sides, singles, rarities and live material, including the sought after ‘lost’ Live at Budokan show from March 1980, previously only available as the 4 track EP ‘Live in Japan’.
Loads of other avenues to follow today.
We have a really limited colour repress of Guided By Voices' Propeller LP, a Yellow vinyl reissue of Goldfrapp's rather brilliant 2008 record, Seventh Tree, and Karen Dalton's all-time iconic 1966 LP on Clear Green Rocky Road colour vinyl.
One from more recently is Arlo Parks' excellent Super Sad Generation on Beatnik Creative, when she was even younger than she is now!
A little volley from our man Chet, with a set of Craft Recordings reissues to include; Chet, Chet Baker in New York, Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner And Loewe and Chet Baker Sings: It Could Happen To You.
Power up your NEC Ready 9716, disconnect that phone line and LOG-ON to some of this seriously great computer music of 1995. Numero again sets the bar high with Numero 95, exploring early computer music unbound by scene or region. Eight solo pioneers vibing out at home in their headphones, travelling as far as the sound card would allow.
The replica floppy diskette packaging is also pure genius. LOVE THIS!
If you loved Kankyō Ongaku Ambient and the Pacific Breeze compilations as much as we did, then you're in for a real treat with this one... the missing piece! Somewhere Between looks at 'Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan, 1980-1988'. All three albums showcase recordings produced during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged. Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance came the luxury to dream.
+ Purple Cornetto vinyl due 26th March.
We didn't know how much we needed this until we heard it... Soul Jazz Records' Two Synths, A Guitar (and) A Drum Machine is a new collection of current DIY post-punk bands shaped by the mutant sounds of no wave, punk funk and New York Noise bands from the late 70s and early 80s that collided with the world of underground dance music found at the Paradise Garage, Mudd Club in New York City (ESG, Arthur Russell, Bush Tetras, Talking Heads, Suicide, Liquid Liquid).
+ Indie Edition is Green Neon vinyl.
Tell you what, you could go all year long and not hear a better comp than any of these three. Glorious stuff.
