July 22, 2021
NEW THIS WEEK AT THE SHOP:
Thank you all for another exciting Record Store Day drop! We had a smooth and enjoyable ride all day and we hope that you did too. It was fantastic to see so many of you, and we really appreciate your participation in our ongoing efforts to make these events safe, organized, and fun. Now onto the new stuff!
The week starts off with unique voices. Danish R&B vocalist and producer ERIKA DE CASIER has been quietly coiled in the shadows for a minute now, waiting for the perfect time to strike with 'Sensational', her debut on the 4AD label after a small handful of records that were not easily available in the states (believe me, we tried). EDC's lyrics are balletic as all hell, graceful yet possessed of a subtly-cloaked strength, as she describes challenging dating experiences with frankness and humor. Pity the dude who tried to buy her diamonds. Janet Jackson 'Velvet Rope' vibes are all over this album, as Casier teams up once again with longtime producer Natal Zaks aka Central aka DJ Sports, a multi-skilled mixer of lean, detailed house with the snappiest drums in all of Denmark, maybe even the skirts of Norway. Sticking in the Schengen Area, we eagerly welcome the arrival of the first vocal pop album from the globetrotting SUZANNE KRAFT. Diego Herrera's ongoing sound-journey has led him to realms of moody techno and ambient concrète, always flexing an incredible ability to make and describe a space. We've never heard his voice before, until 'About You', the first SK album to go full shoegaze mode, a very pleasant development that reveals Herrera's latent fixations with Prefab Sprout-style elegance, the crushed melodies of Slowdive, and Felt's stately guitar. Vocalist LEON BRIDGES continues to carry the soul movement forward into the 21st century on 'Gold-Diggers Sound', another world-class album of cool groove that has us very amped for his upcoming Sylvee show. We've got some exclusive copies of this sharp-lookin LP with an alternate cover.
We've scarfed down every morsel of music from producer Nicolas Jaar, but sometimes we wonder where the dramatically tinged downtempo pop of his breakout album 'Space Is Only Noise' went. Turns out he has channeled it to his on/off band with Dave Harrington, DARKSIDE, who return with a sprawling album of progressive synth rock called 'Spiral', which recalls the brutalist pop of Depeche Mode and the dramatic acoustics of Genesis. PAGE McCONNELL and TREY ANASTASIO, co-captains of the good ship Phish, deliver a quarantine mini-album called 'December'. 'I Be Trying' is the new record from CEDRIC BURNSIDE, sticking to rough terrain while proudly carrying on the Mississippi hill country blues tradition of his grandfather. Eternal everyman songwriting legend RODNEY CROWELL returns with 'Triage'.
From the Disney channel to young iconoclast to...punk godmother, apparently, has been a wild career path for the one and only MILEY CYRUS, whose latest album 'Plastic Hearts' is now in stock on vinyl. Boosted R&B smoothness galore on a new MOLLY BURCH album with some Wild Nothing assistance, called 'Romantic Images'. 'Folklore', the towering step into the indie wilderness TAYLOR SWIFT made last year, is finally back in stock on vinyl. This edition is a lovely shade of beige, pure as a windswept Wisconsin moraine. Never heard a dull track from UK dub-pop queen ANIKA, who returns with an LP called 'Change', full of irreverent funk with a stoney, post-apocalyptic vibe.
Industrious rap veteran CURREN$Y returns with a new ride-ready EP called 'Collection Agency'. Pride of Mississauga PARTYNEXTDOOR sees his two 2010s EPs 'Colours' combined on a double EP on white vinyl, featuring big spots from Travis Scott ad Cashout. Griselda producer 38 SPESH blesses us with an LP of instrumentals from some of his biggest cuts for the unit, packaged cigar-box style in a Doomy homage.
Expressive pianist TONY TIXIER appears solo and with accompaniment on the tender 'I Am Human'. Poet and vocalist ANTHONY JOSEPH enlists jazz movement allstars like Shabaka Hutchings and Roger Raspail on the scorching psychedelic jazz album, 'The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running For Their Lives' (or going to space, maybe?). Not one but two new albums from trans-generational New York jazz fundament WILLIAM PARKER are here on vinyl: 'Mayan Space Station' and 'Painters Winter'.
The 4AD label turns its veritable juggernaut of an artist stable loose on its imposingly fertile back catalog on the triple LP comp 'Bills & Aches & Blues', which promises dazzling cover treatments and reinventions such as U.S. Girls on The Birthday Party, Big Thief on The Breeders, and Future Islands on Colourbox. Local boys gone Bay Area CATCH PRICHARD laced us with some direct copies of their stunning new LP 'I Still Miss Theresa Benoit' which have just arrived, bearing lush cinematic noir rock recalling Timber Timbre and Calexico. BRUXAS is the new project from Dutch psychster Jacco Gardner, taking a lovely turn towards punchy nu-disco. Potent, filmic doom metal ala Mono or Russian circles is here from the French unit YEAR OF NO LIGHT with 'Consolamentum'.
Reissues galore of classic, out of print 80s/90s records this week from MUDHONEY, ENIGMA, THE GUN CLUB, NADA SURF, and SIGUR ROS, plus a new printing of the underrated second collab album between PJ HARVEY and JOHN PARISH, 'A Woman A Man Walked By'.
Veteran techno sculptor SASU RIPATTI tries his able hand at footwork on an explosive LP, 'Fun Is Not A Straight Line', in the shop on clear vinyl. A new record from DC outbound dance label Future Times finds label head Max D collabing with Jackson Ryland as SUPERABUNDANCE, a lively 2LP that chops up breaks and psycho riddims in a free-flowing spontaneous session. The mighty prophetic 2000 album 'Kaleidoscope' from DJ FOOD (actually the combo of Strictly Kev and Patrick Carpenter) gets a refresher on wax, revealing its dizzying array of sampladelic chillout. Under his alias Tin Man, Johannes AUVINEN has set a new bar for limbic, dub techno, but under his government name on 'Akkosaari', he's making some deeply entrancing minimalism out of wisps of fuzz and tone.
Unobtainium level private press jazz gets a cracking new edition from Jazzman on RON EVERETT's 'The Glitter of the City'. This edition is a smoking session of latin-tinged large ensemble flex from Philadelphia. From 70s South Africa comes the rarity 'Blue Stompin' from saxophonist KIPPIE MOKETSI with the France-via-Oklahoma bandleader HAL SINGER. OSCAR PETERSON 1969 MPS classic 'Motions & Emotions' gets a new press, and we have a copy of the deep Brazilian jazz obscurity 'Caracol' from JOAO DE BRUÇO and R.H. JACKSON.
Selector Steele Bonus and the Efficient Space label continue their impressive excavation of the Australian experimental synth-pop underground on OZ ECHOES, a sequel to the Oz Waves set a few years back, absolutely gleaming with weirdo gems. We trust the Growing Bin label so highly round here, we'll even order a record as odd looking as the Austrian new wave band MOLTO BRUTTO's album 'II', which they have just reissued. It is indeed an indescribable delight of twitchy, experimental pop in the vein of Yello or Blancmange. Uruguay protects the rep yet again with a reissue of the marvelously soulful DX7 jazz album from HUGO JASA, 'Estados De Animo'. Irish sound explorer NIGEL ROLFE recorded his lone experimental electronic album 'Island Stories' in the mid-80s, with his studio sessions overlapping with a Brian Eno-helmed U2. Did such greatness rub off on the near-anonymous Rolfe? I can hear it.
An extremely heady late 90s session between London dubber THE ROOTSMAN and the legendary tribal ambient don MUSLIMGAUZE finally sees a vinyl release with 'Amahar'. A potent overview of the contemporary Iranian jazz and electronic scenes is on offer this THIS IS TEHRAN? Contemporary arabic folk brilliance comes through on NATIK AWAYEZ' 'Manbarani', and we have the latest collaboration between the inhuman percussionist MOHAMMAD REZA MORTAZAVI and veteran rhythmatist BURNT FRIEDMAN with 'Yek 2'. Seriously, what are those, 64th notes?
Just from the more household names like Vangelis and Theodorakis, you might have gathered that the Greeks have a special knack for the film soundtrack. I guess they did invent the modern theatre and all, so it kind of makes sense. Anyhoo, dive a bit deeper on 'A Spiritual Exploration into Greek Soundtracks 1975-1989' with the lovely new compilation called GOST, from the Into The Light label that has spent the past decade illuminating some incredible, mostly lost music from the Hellenic realm. French musician PIERRE BAROUH teamed up with the cream of the 80s Tokyo avant-garde (Shimizu alert!) for his album 'Le Barouh', which is now back in print. The absolute kings of Swiss new wave GRAUZONE celebrate the 40th anniversary of their groundbreaking 1981 album with an expanded vinyl version, and we have a new vinyl pressing of the obscure jazz-ambient collab record between HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS and ALEXANDER CZJZEK, 'Weites Land'.
The universe would be a lot less creepy without PYE CORNER AUDIO around, the long running alias of UK engineer Martin Jenkins, who doles out another volume of his 'Black Mill Tapes' on haunted vinyl. An obscure early IDM gem from ANTHONY MANNING, 'Islets In Pink Polypropylene', gets a reissue that should recenter it amidst the early Aphex Twin and Black Dog records, which it rivals in ingenuity. Veteran electronic jazz musicians with a profound knack for getting hiss and static to sound positively expressive, Stefan Nemeth of Radian and Steven Hess of Pan American, team up as INNODE on a stimulating new LP called 'Syn'. Tribal drum workouts from João Pais Filipe, Leon Marks, and Valentina Magaletti go on for ever and ever on a new 12" from their project CZN.
USED VINYL ALERT:
This week's used vinyl alert taps the main vein of some super clean copies of essential classics, including nice runs of albums from the Beatles (and solo), Neil Young, Bob Dylan, the Doors, Brue Springsteen, the Who, Fleetwood Mac, the Grateful Dead, Creedence, the Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Dire Straits, the Doobie Brothers, Jimmy Buffett, Gordon Lightfoot, Elton John, the Ventures, Cat Stevens, ELO, the Traveling Wilburys, the Clash, the B-52's, Blondie, the Eagles, Cheap Trick, and the Cars.
Some of our fave female vocalists are in the house, such as Sade, Marianne Faithfull, Nancy Sinatra, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, and Leslie Gore. Jazz comes through from Miles Davis, Charles Bell, Dave Brubeck, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Lucky Thompson, and Kenny Clarke.
Psych and hard rock rarities are in from Ars Nova, Caravan, Boondoggle, Mojo, Savoy Brown, John Sangster, Witchfynde, Neil Merryweather, and more.
Folk gems are in from Tim Hardin, JD Souther, John Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Ry Cooder, and we've got plenty of country from Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, the Judds, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Bonnie Raitt, Wanda Jackson, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, and Jerry Jeff Walker.
STRICTLY DISCS IS HIRING:
VINYL PRICING SPECIALIST AND/OR SHOP CLERK:
Required skills:
Excellent customer service skills; ability to anticipate customer needs
Computer proficient
A passion for music, and a broad, deep base of recorded music history
Knowledge of Goldmine standards & experience grading and pricing records
Knowledge of stereo equipment/functionality
Availability to work nights and weekends
Ability to lift and carry 50 pounds repeatedly
To apply, submit letter of interest & resume to angie@strictlydiscs.com
BILLBOARD MAGAZINE'S BIWEEKLY FEATURE ON STRICTLY DISCS:
As part of Billboard’s efforts to best cover the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the music industry, Chris Eggertsen has been speaking with Angie every other week to chronicle the experience of an independent record store throughout the crisis. Here is a link to the stories in the series so far:
Billboard Article #5 June 12th
Billboard Article #6 June 19th
Billboard Article #7 June 26th
Billboard Article #8 July 10th
Billboard Article #9 July 30th
Billboard Article #10 August 13th
Billboard Article #11 August 28th
Billboard Article #12 September 11th
Billboard Article #13 September 25th
Billboard Article #17 December 14th
Billboard Article #18 December 23rd
Billboard Article #19 February 5th
Billboard Article #20 February 23rd
Billboard Article #21 March 12th
Billboard Article #22 April 1st
Billboard Article #23 April 19th
Billboard Article #24 May 15th
Billboard Article #25 June 1st
Billboard Article #26 June 30th
SELL US YOUR CDS & LPS:
Yes, we are still buying! Call Ron to schedule (608.213.3610).
Ron, Ryan, Angie, Marty, Evan, Matt, Ed, Jack, Eric, Steve, Nick & Matt B.
