New records in the shop this week include the sophomore album from Virginia guitarist YASMIN WILLIAMS. 'Urban Driftwood' instantly enters the canon of great American folk guitar records, combining her silky playing with kora, kalimba, and other bits of percussion for a record that sits right next to those classic early Steve Tibbetts records for ECM. Aussiesongwriter sensation TASH SULTANA releases their long-awaited second record as well, in the house on limited yellow vinyl, and we gets new releases from THE HOLD STEADY and a vinyl edition of 'The Times', the lockdown album from NEIL YOUNG.
Some reissues and reprints bring us back up to speed on a number of records we haven't had around the shop in a long time. Check out '1966', the collection of the earliest known recordings from legendary folk singer KAREN DALTON, the first vinyl pressing of JOHN PRINE's 'Bruised Orange' since 1978, CAROLE KING's breakup album to beat them all 'Tapestry', and after months of demand, fresh copies of SZA's 'Ctrl'!
The Blue Note Tone Poet series keeps on truckin with a well-received new vinyl edition of the LEE MORGAN rarity 'The Rajah'. Reggae legends TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS are honored with a new best-of vinyl collection called 'Pressure Drop' on cool tri-color vinyl. New Zealand group BAILTER SPACE were sort of an antipodean analog to Yo La Tengo, especially on their mid 90s Matador classic, 'Wammo', back in print. EMMYLOU HARRIS' rugged yet elegant 'Red Dirt Girl' gets a fresh LP press as well.
We've been fans of Rob Butler and his London label Be With Records ever since he stopped in the shop to personally sell us copies of his first release (His wife is a Sconnie!), many years ago. His label runs wild in the wishlists of seasoned record diggers, doing high quality, legitimately licensed reissues of burners from many genres. This week we have a trio of the label's latest gems. 'Un Muneco de Madera' is a blazing early 70s slab of soulful latin funk from Mexican singer SOLA. Italian producers Puccio Roelens and Stefano Torrosi donned the oddly anglicized names JAY RICHFORD and GARY STEVAN for the beastly library funk session 'Feelings' in the mid 70s. With the historic music publishers blessing, Be With carries the KPM library name forward with a new record from synth god STEVE MOORE called 'Analog Sensitivity'.
A new pressing of the lovely EP 'If You want It' by South Korean house sensation PARK HYE JIN is in, as well as a cracking new album of fattened-up acid from DMX KREW, an EP of flawless balearic edits from BASSO, and the first new material in over two decades from Italian ambient duo CABARET DU CIEL, which is packed to the brim with pure chilling satisfaction.
USED VINYL ALERT:
With pickings somewhat slim on the new vinyl front due to national weather related shipping delays, we have gotten extra busy to make sure this week's Used Vinyl Alert more than makes up for it. We have a truly above-average crop of LPs this week, with lots of collector classics from the rock, blues, jazz, soul, folk, and international genres.
Heavy hitters in rock include Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Stones, the Kinks, Steely Dan, the Beatles, the Police, CSNY, the Doobie Brothers, the Eagles, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac (and Buckingham Nicks!), Neil Young, the Shocking Blue, Stealers Wheel, Blue Oyster Cult, the Doors, ELO, Genesis, Tom Petty and Chilliwack.
Not a ton of jazz LPs this week volume wise, but just about every one of them is a stone classic. Check out sweet ones from Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ahmad Jamal, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, and more. Plenty of soul is around this week, including a lot of deep catalog things in deadstock condition, from names like Earth Wind and Fire, Kellee Patterson, Millie Jackson, Foster Sylvers, Slave, Syreeta, the Whispers, Mary Wells, the Floaters, Loleatta Holloway, Fatback, New Birth, the Emotions, and a whole lot more.
Some truly revelatory international LPs come through this week, ranging from reggae and caribbean traditional, to West/Central African pop, to Middle East and East Asian folk, and on and on. Labels like Folkways, Lyrichord and Jive Afrika in the mix here. We've also got a slew of 80s/90s dance twelves, scanning from house and electro, to italo, trance, and Hi NRG, including great names like Patrick Cowley, Strafe, Boyd Jarvis, DJ Nature, and many more.
Some quality punk and heavy stuff is in onLP as well as 7" from Neurosis, Shellac, Los Crudos, Isis, Damad, Assuck, Converge, Brujeria, Spazz, Brutal Truth, Charles Bronson and more. Some classic hiphop12s include Das EFX, Snoop Dogg, Run DMC, Too Short, 2Pac, Nas and more.
Plenty of great classical, a deep dive of children's LPs, modern comp from Bartok, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Meredith Monk and more to round us out.
BILLBOARD MAGAZINE'S BIWEEKLY FEATURE ON STRICTLY DISCS:
As part ofBillboards efforts to best cover the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the music industry, Chris Eggertsen has been speaking withAngieevery otherweek to chroniclethe experience of an independent record storethroughout the crisis. Here is a link to the stories in the series so far:
