Some excellent newness, great old stuff on colour vinyl and loads from Cuba.
Hello, Friends.
Our Record of the Week is Push, the debut, full-length album on Leaving Records from Los Angeles-based Iranian-American producer Maral. Collages of Iranian classical and folk samples that drives through experimental electronic production with noise, punk / post-punk and dub. Intense and addictive, includes guest appearances from dub legend Lee “Scratch” Perry and Penny Rimbaud of Crass.
We really can't rave about the LA-based Leaving Records enough, you'll well recall how wild we went for Green House and also this month's Nailah Hunter LP. This is an entirely different trip, but a trip it sure is.
Huge, flexing return this week on Ninja Tune from Bicep with Isles. It's a real joy, this one. It's an album that really was built for dance-floors, but it manages to capture the spirit of missing them. As we all continue to navigate a period of time where communally experiencing the music is impossible, it's important to have records like this that remind us of why the culture is to be cherished.
+ Double picture discs and deluxe triple LP editions due back online shortly.
Kurt Vile returns with Speed, Sound, Lonely KV; a new EP of new material, cover songs and amazing guests. It's got a really lush, dreamy vibe to it, especially the duet with the late John Prine. We always love Kurt over here, but this one really does offer up something new... Same haze, different spirit.
The Wide, Wide River is the new collaboration between James Yorkston and the Swedish Second Hand Orchestra. This all bumbles along with some gloriously unexpected tones and is successfully both humble and quite grand.
+ Available as a limited Indie edition on Green vinyl.
Farmer Dave Scheer of All Night Radio, Kurt Vile, Beachwood Sparks & Skiffle Players releases his first LP for 10 years & with a new band. Some pretty cosmic vibes going on here.
+ Indie LP is pressed on Blue vinyl.
Also due this week, we have a very limited repress of Faye Webster's self-titled debut, Cats of Coven Lawn from folk-icon Frankie Armstrong, The Last Exit is the fifth studio LP from Still Corners (including a Crystal Clear vinyl pressing) and the beautiful self-titled Carm album on 37d03d. Got that one on now as it happens, pretty special stuff.
Although the CD dropped last year, Lamentations (the exquisite new studio album from William Basinski) has landed, and my word does it feel like we need his music now more than ever.
Rough Trade Books series seven are in the building, with new pamphlets from The Fandangoe Kid, Roy, Hsdeeb Iqbal and Jeannette Lee & Don Letts. Get further acquainted here.
Lots and lots of all time classics on coloured wax this week.
David Bowie's Station to Station [45th Anniversary Vinyl] is in the building and we've added our final copies into stock. It's flown this one, so don't miss out.
Talking Heads' Speaking In Tongues (Sky Blue) and The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads (Red Opaque vinyl) are here, worth flagging that we got hold of more Fear Of Music, Talking Heads: 77 and More Songs About Building and Food, all three also pressed on nice colours. Browse those here.
Also in the racks: Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline (White) and John Wesley Harding (White), Elvis Presley's self-titled debut (White), Beastie Boys Licensed To Ill (Clear), Creedence Clearwater Revival's Pendulum (Blue), Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection (Green) and Miles Davis' In a Silent Way (White).
And lastly; pressed on a limited Purple vinyl edition, we have #1 Record, the debut album from Memphis' Big Star... it also happens to be - for our money - the best album ever recorded.
Closing out this week we have a compilation that we've been waiting on for yonks. Compiled by Gilles Peterson and Soul Jazz's own Stuart Baker, CUBA features some of the most innovative music from Cuba during the 1970s. "Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol. 1" explores the many new styles that emerged in Cuba in the 1970s as Jazz, Funk, Brazilian Tropicalia and even Disco mixed together with Latin and Salsa on the island as Cuban artists experimented with new musical forms created in the unique socialist state of Cuba. This really is the font of goodness.
We also have more copies of the coffee table book compiling the amazing sleeve art.
Lots to keep you busy there. We're just putting it all into cardboard mailers if you need us!
- Drift
