We’re a minger, and you’re all mingers too.
Knowing full well that you all love a bold proclamation, how about this… Super Furry Animals are doubtless one of the best bands of our lifetime and Phantom Power (that receives a twentieth anniversary repress this week) is not only some of their best moments, but it’s one of the best albums of the last twenty years. Yep!
It’s just a cracker. The strings swoon, the harmonies are drenched in sunshine and the choruses beam. It’s euphoric, it’s funny, it’s just an absolute classic. Great new editions too, with audio carefully remastered from the mixdown tapes. The 3CD edition has killer bonus material, both include liner notes from the album’s executive producer Kurt Stern and the 2LP pressing has absolutely brilliant new die-cut artwork.
Regular readers will be aware that we’re big Sarah Davachi fans over here, so a double set of Selected Works from the vaults has us pumped. Released in one/two parts (or together as a CD edition), this is the start of an archival series of selected electronic and acoustic works from the esteemed Canadian composer and experimental musician. There are some really amazing tones across the work, from the ornate and old, to the crunched up electronic. Fine spiritual drones.
A really great one via Domino this week with The Folk Implosion’s Music for KIDS. The duo of Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh) and John Davis were commissioned to create the soundtrack for Lary Clark’s hugely controversial Kids film, and listening to it in isolation now, you can really sense just how much of the film's murky allure they were responsible for. Great stuff.
Everything Will Change is a feature-length documentary concert film of The Postal Service’s performance at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA during their 2013 reunion tour. The Postal Service was a collaboration between Benjamin Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie) and Jimmy Tamborello (from Dntel), with Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis contributing vocals throughout. They only ever released one album - the hugely successful Give Up - scarcely playing live either.
+ Pressed on double Blue & Pink colour vinyl.
A Tribute To Leon Russell you say! Too right. A Song For Leon is a stonking new compilation that celebrates Russell’s quite amazing career. He was not only a kick-ass writer, he was also one of the best live/session players around and his CV reads more like the roll call to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame than anything else. This compilation is stacked too, with U.S. Girls & Bootsy Collins, Durand Jones, Orville Peck, Margo Price, Pixies and more, all celebrating the man.
+ This first Pressing is on Mango colour vinyl.
The Verve By Request series presents Albert Ayler’s 1968 Love Cry album this week, a free jazzer with really bold brass sounds. Nursery rhymes and marching modes whirled up into a red hot frenzy. This week was supposed to see the reissue of Sun Ra’s Space Is The Place too, but we think it’s going to be a little later now.
The Way of the Vaselines compiles celebrates Scottish indie royalty, The Vaselines. The release includes the band's two EPs (Son of a Gun and Dying for It) and their sole LP release (Dum-Dum). This 2023 edition is the first ever vinyl release of The Way of The Vaselines, which originally came out on CD in 1992.
XL Present a limited 15th Anniversary Edition pressing of the debut Friendly Fires LP on Silver vinyl. Tell you what, we LOVED listening to this over the weekend. It is so vibrant and really took us back to hot summer nights getting naughty in the late noughties.
Also this week we have reissues of Anna and Concrete Love from The Courteeners and the debauched Rumours Live from Fleetwood Mac. Pressed on really limited Clear vinyl.
Lastly today, a ripper from 2015 with the hard af second LP from Fuzz. Ty Segall, Charlie Moothart and Chad Ubovich in full flow, a rock and roll stomper with flashes of glam and clashes of metal. We don’t half love this one.
Available for the first time in ages and pressed on limited double Metallic Silver colour vinyl.
Geddon!
