I was working in the shop, late one night...
Hello, Friends.
Record of the Week is the triumphant return of Atlanta three-piece Omni with Networker, their first album in partnership with Sub Pop. Full of warm, angular riffs, it's choppy post-punk that is less frenetic than their previous Multi-task LP, but equally searching. It's underpinned by a metronomic beat throughout and that gives so much opportunity for wandering riffs, along with some pretty wild dips and turns. Channels all sorts of CBGB alumnus without getting too close to anything specific, it's more about the vibe. We really, really, really like this band.
+ Limited edition indies only Loser Edition is on ocean blue vinyl.
Athena is the striking debut album from violinist, singer, songwriter and producer Sudan Archives. The ever-present violin - inspired by Northeast African fiddling and West African rhythms - makes for a fascinating timbre as part of the anthemic R&B stylings, a brilliantly weird counter-weight to the digital pops and clicks. Vocals like a confident slow purr are not too dissimilar from Solange or FKA Twigs, she's a really arresting central character. Highly recommended.
+ Indies only limited edition LP is on Bronze and Black marble coloured vinyl and includes a full colour inner sleeve, sheet music insert, credits insert and sticker.
Dinked in full flow this week, with two excellent new arrivals and the first announcement in our new Dinked Archive line.
Iggy Pop and Kool Keith join Warmduscher (five-piece made up of members from Fat White Family, Paranoid London and Childhood) on their Dan Carey-produced new album Tainted Lunch. Dinked No.26 is a deranged and technicolour affair, a sort-of punk record with hip hop and funk stylings. Really good fun, really addictive.
Dinked No 29 is Fenella - the latest project from Jane Weaver - musical polymath and one of the most respected electronic composers of recent times - and her long-term bandmates Peter Philipson and Raz Ullah. A reimagined soundtrack to Marcell Jankovics’ cult animation Fehérlófia, there is just the most incredible hallucinatory vibe here, a rich psychedelic dream. Make time for this, what a trip.
For our first Dinked Archive edition, we're delighted to be working with Bella Union and The Low Anthem to reissue the band's breakout LP Oh My God, Charlie Darwin with a 10th anniversary Dinked Edition. Replicating the amazing screen-printed CD case the band made on its original release, we have a new custom screen-printed LP jacket. Although only just announced, it's super limited and won't last long at all... So do get involved.
Up On High is the seventh studio LP from Vetiver, a reflective and shimmering album. Written acoustic and slowly added to, they have kept it all pretty simple and it's really lush for it, jangling guitars that recall R.E.M or Feelies and a calm but vindicated vocal throughout. Full of laid-back growers.
The brilliantly unpredictable Anna Meredith returns on Moshi Moshi with FIBS. It's an album of sonic experimentalism, fast runs and motifs that are about as pop-sensitive as she's ever been. A soft of glacial pop vibe with plenty of weird turns to keep you going back, a big hit and a grower, really into this.
+ This first run is pressed on white vinyl.
Michael Kiwanuka returns with the (sort of) self-titled KIWANUKA. Only had the chance to listen to this a couple of times as it was running late, but my word, it's the best album he's made by a mile and we really liked the other ones. His vocal is incredible, sensitive and vulnerable but so big, so proud and so smooth. Really looking forward to playing this a lot more, got a feeling he's made a bit of an instant classic here that will place him right up there with some of the icons that have inspired him.
+ Available on indie shop double yellow vinyl.
+ Available as a limited Deluxe Hardcover Book Sleeve CD.
Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Wiltzie return as A Winged Victory For The Sullen with The Undivided Five, their first via new label partner Ninja Tune. Lots of space and quiet builds, it is beautifully precise music and there is much to find in the long, epic swells.
+ Coloured vinyl edition is enclosed in a gatefold sleeve, on 180g marbled clear & silver LP, with a Black Inner sleeve.
William Doyle (previously Mercury-nominated as the most amazing East India Youth) returns under his own name with Your Wilderness Revisited, his first new album in four years. Markedly different, where as EIY felt tightly wound, this new work is expansive and free-flowing. Plenty of melancholy in these smart and brilliantly weird pop songs.
The Indies only LP comes with an alternate sleeve and is on green vinyl.
Kayla Cohen returns on the ever-essential Paradise of Bachelors as Itasca with Spring. The main event here is the pace, it's just so beautifully controlled. She sings exquisitely and the production is mesmerising, carefully stacked around her with all sorts of complicated things sounding very, very chill.
Dallas Acid is a synth-heavy dream-pop trio from Austin, Texas and the first new signing to All Saints Records in a number of years with the excellent new The Spiral Arm LP. Having previously collaborated with Laraaji, their unique mix of minimalist electronic music with a big ballad sensibility creates gorgeous, utterly compelling soundworlds.
What is DRIFT? - It’s precisely one year inside the minds of Underworld. Really fascinating year one sampler, includes an edition on limited double opaque yellow coloured vinyl.
Couple of EP's this week to end on, with Cate Le Bon & Bradford Cox collaborating on Myths 004, the fourth in Mexican Summer’s 'Myths' EP series. We also have the limited Atlas Complex from Yak, following on from their critically acclaimed second album Pursuit of Momentary Happiness earlier this year.
A huge week in the new, not-new section, with a ton of great reissues and essential new pressings.
We've just unpacked a shop copy of Ty Segall's new demo box set - Pig Man Lives - and it's an absolute treat. Spread across four LPs, the first volume of Ty demos recorded between 2007 and 2017 gives a new spin (or a first spin more accurately) on early iterations of tracks from albums including Manipulator, Freedom’s Goblin, Emotional Mugger, Twins, Ty Segall, Slaughterhouse, and Sleeper. Some new cuts too.
Kranky have pressed Grouper's A I A : Alien Observer and companion A I A : Dream Loss for the first time in ages. Amazing Autumn listening, these.
A new Bootleg Series release - Vol. 15 - from Bob Dylan this week, unveiling 47 previously unreleased recordings, including outtakes from John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait plus first release of fabled Bob Dylan-Johnny Cash 1969 Nashville studio sessions. We always thought that Cash sounded rather like Mr Ed on the Girl from the North Country duet, but there are some lovely moments here.
Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York gets a 25th Anniversary edition, expanded to include five rehearsal performances previously only available on DVD and also features an exclusive gatefold jacket including anniversary silver foil detail on the front and back cover.
Also turning 25 is R.E.M.'s acclaimed ninth album, Monster. Got a double LP edition in with demos and nice new art.
Double that, The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed turns fifty and has a nice clean-sounding repress, plus a special box edition with both stereo and mono pressings.
They don't come more impactful than this. A 40th Anniversary Edition of The Pop Group's highly influential and innovative debut album 'Y' released in 1979, remastered (from the original tapes) and cut half speed at Abbey Road. It really is quite unbelievable and still sounds so utterly unlike anything else. Keep an eye next week on the Sea Change site as we recorded something special at this years festival with Mark and Gareth from the band.
A marvellous one to end on. Cornelius' beautiful and euphoric Point gets a deluxe edition this week. Me (Rupert) and Lee* went really out of our way at Glastonbury 2002 to catch a late night show around the launch of this album. Started late (on the old new music stage) and was massively delayed whilst they carefully rigged up a screen, the height of decadence. John Peel was in attendance giving it the big nod, a very weird and special gig moment. Presented now as a double blue vinyl reissue with three never-before-heard remixes from Kings of Convenience, Herbert, and Yann Tornita. It's a record every home should have.
Have fun spooking around tonight.
- Drift
* Lee points out that Jenny and Graeme Drift were also in the tent that night... nearly a full house.