A thriller and two chillers, plus forthcoming attractions for any occasion…

An absolute stone cold blast from the past this week with an essential reissue of In the Graveyard, the 1988 debut LP from Portland punk three-piece Dead Moon. The aesthetic is punk, with lo-fi sounds and a menacing brood in the air, but they had so much more going on, with a leaden psychedelia playing out concurrently. It’s a discombobulating and hypnotic sort of balance. Remastered from the original tapes and freshly pressed in 2024 by MIssissippi Records.

There is a great article in the Uncut Magazine archives about the band when a reissue series came out back in 2014. Check that out here.

We are going back into the first of the label’s haydays this with two really strong albums under the Blue Note Classic series.
Originally released in 1956, The Magnificent Thad Jones is, well… a magnificent LP from American jazz trumpeter Thad Jones and it is really elegant stuff. Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey (as those best ones usually are), the clarity is just sublime. Each player takes the lead with such grace and the space in between them is really like being in the room. This really is essential Blue Note, a winding cool with edge.

Released the following year in 1957, Cliff Craft is a set from Saxophonist Clifford Jordan and the Three Sounds. It is really joyous stuff, complex but light compositions with real bounce. The first side are originals and the B has versions of Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie.

The Magnificent Thad Jones is mono and Cliff Craft is stereo. Both Blue Note Classic editions are all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Nice Swan Records have made a repress of Polyawkward, the debut EP from Leeds based art-punks, English Teacher. We’re firing off the Drift Mercury Klaxon™ ahead of the imminent 2024 announcements. No BRJ and we riot.

So that is what is in the racks today, but arriving shortly we have some really superb reissues on pre order that you need to know about, including; a first ever reissue (an analogue remaster too!) of self-titled The Doug Carn Trio LP on Real Gone Music. Uncollected Noise New York '88-'90, a set of rarities and outtakes of the iconic Galaxie 500. A 40th Anniversary Half-Speed Master of Talk Talk’s It’s My Life. 1974 and 1975 synthesiser performances by revolutionary composer Suzanne Ciani. New pressings of Run Come Save Me and Brand New Second Hand from the titular Roots Manuva (he so is). Lastly, a Numero reissue of Horizon Unlimited from revolutionary Nigerian twins, The Lijadu Sisters. We are big time into that one.