Stuff you’ll know, stuff you won’t and absolutely something for everybody.
We mentioned last week that the new releases were ridiculously abundant. Well, the compilations and reissues are quite the shelf full too!
The Geneva-based Les Disques Bongo Joe celebrate their first ten years with an absolutely fantastic compilation called 10 Years of Sonic Explorations, a vivid introduction to the time and world-spanning releases they have championed. Swinging grooves, crunching drum machines and exotic treasures that have been both long forgotten and newly discovered. Really fantastic stuff, a proper trip.
+ Great artwork and pressed on double Clear with Splatter vinyl.
Numero pick up the Eccentric Soul series this week with Spiritual Soul, a set of rare grooves and transcendental soothers. The energy of this set is just gorgeous, locked into meditative pulses across genres. Soulful jazz, lush wind arrangements, some balladeering and other pensive timbres. Been playing this one a lot already.
+ Pressed on limited Bimini Blue colour vinyl.
Soundway have well and truly flipped the good vibrations switch this week with a reissue of the mythical soul/boogie record Got To Be Me from Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Rick Asikpo. Rick was a highlight of the Doing It In Lagos compilation so we were ready for this one, but man does it ever cover some ground. Recorded in Louisiana (1981, whilst he was studying in the USA), but only released later in Nigeria, it has been out of focus for too long. Disco beat tightness, washes of synths taking it higher and the basslines just rip through the stereo. Such evocative stuff, we’ve stuck a proper big YES PLEASE sticker on this one.
We have been talking Special Herbs for quite a while now, but the 2025 Rhymesayers reissues for MF DOOM’s amazing instrumentals series have landed and we’re in raptures. Released under the pseudonym Metal Fingers, every single second is a rich and woozing treasure trove of sounds. An MPC loaded with 70s funk and soul cuts, cracking rap hits, fragments of jazz serenity and loads of sound bites and oddities. All named after herbs or similar flora, each volume flows through beats he produced and reworked for himself and others. Sometimes you’ll miss his amazing voice, but it is a trip to really dial into what a seminal and wildly inventive producer he was. Essentials.
+ All presented in custom top opening die-cut 12" gatefold jackets, with special "rolling paper” inserts. All double, all colour, ALL CAPS.
I know we did also mention it the other day, but Danger Doom’s (Danger Mouse & DOOM) The Mouse And The Mask is finally back in print and ready in the racks for you.
Our good pals Metronomy have put together their first ever comprehensive HITS collection, and man do they have the hits! Curated from all seven studio albums, going right back to the locally concerned Pip Paine LP that turned twenty earlier this year. Wild. Alongside the compilation, there is also a stand-alone BBC Sessions release, grouping together all of the recordings that were broadcast between 2009-2019 across the BBC networks.
+ Available on exclusive Yellow / Blue colour vinyl.
Covering a similar timeline, Joy In Repetition compiles some of the finest moments of Hot Chip. Shining dancefloor dominators to maudlin experimental hues, it’s richly impressive stuff. Housed in a cover designed by legendary British pop artist Sir Peter Blake.
+ Available as a limited edition double White vinyl pressing.
Also this week… We have a Certified Gold Edition of Fine Art, the explosive debut LP from KNEECAP, arguably the most talked-about group in the world. Warp and Autechre continue their chronological series of LP reissues with 2005’s Untilted and 2008’s Quaristice. Nice pressings and available for the first time since their original release. Jayda G contributes to the long-running DJ Kicks series with a really tight set that includes HAAi, DJ BORING and Jennifer Loveless. All good vibes, and pressed on double Gold colour vinyl. We have 25th Anniversary Editions of the eponymous debut Slipknot LP (on a wild-looking Double Red and Black mix vinyl pressing) and Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker which includes eleven re-imagined tracks.
