October 21, 2021
NEW THIS WEEK AT THE SHOP:
A new release week for the record books commences with a newly-unearthed live recording from JOHN COLTRANE. 'A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle' encompasses the jazz legend's full 1965 performance at the Penthouse in Seattle, showcasing his most beloved suite of songs, backed by his classic quartet with the addition of Pharaoh Sanders in his first ever appearance in Coltrane's band. It simply does not get cooler than that. Not all remix albums are created equal, but when the source material is NUBYA GARCIA's breakout album 'The Source', well, it's hard to deny what's right there in front of you. The saxophonist makes music that's clay in the hands of artists and producers like Nala Sinephro, Kaidi Tatham, Georgia Ann Muldrow, and more. A fabulous new Blue Note remaster freshens up the FREDDIE HUBBARD session 'Ready For Freddie' from 1962, with backing from Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Damn. Generational inspiration PAT METHENY launches a new revolving group of mostly younger, unestablished players with the first volume of 'Side-Eye NYC'.
Few artists have walked as high or as thin a conceptual tightrope as London musician DEAN BLUNT who returns to Rough Trade for 'Black Metal 2', seven years after the first installment blew everyone's minds. He gamely sticks to the formula of that record, recasting the callous swagger of a grime MC as a hushed, almost Cohen-esque figure, exhausted yet clear eyed, atop a bed of woozy, negative BPM funk. Joanne Robertson is his vocal foil yetagain, her wailing, neon tone providing a sharp contrast to Blunt's bluntness. Sticking with Rough Trade, the hallowed label brings us another absolute firecracker of an album from PARQUET COURTS, who retain the crown as America's most literary rock band on 'Sympathy For Life', in the shop on regular and deluxe vinyl. We've followed the career of Chicago musician Haley Fohr aka CIRCUIT DES YEUX for what seems like forever, and it's incredibly satisfying to hear the payoff on her first record for Matador, '-io', which multiplies her operatic folk psychedelia into infinity, landing in realms like those described by Weyes Blood, US Girls, or Carla Bozulich.
The ever on-point Seattle band LA LUZ makes a very interesting new turn on their fourth studio album, enlisting neo-soul producer Adrian Younge to bathe their timeless Shirelles-echo sound in even more drama. One of the most beautiful looking records we've seen all year, as well.
The ever on-point Seattle band LA LUZ makes a very interesting new turn on their fourth studio album, enlisting neo-soul producer Adrian Younge to bathe their timeless Shirelles-echo sound in even more drama. One of the most beautiful looking records we've seen all year, as well.
Not trying to start anything up here, but THE ROLLING STONES 1981 album 'Tattoo You' is generally considered the band's last universally acclaimed record. For it's 40th anniversary, the fellows had the unusual idea to expand it to a super deluxe box, with 3LPs from a live show in Wembley 82, and a slate of unreleased tracks. The ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND re-release their authorized bootleg 'Bear's Sonic Journals: Fillmore East February 1970' on pink vinyl this week, plus we've got fresh editions of the HEAVY METAL soundtrack as well as the soundtrack from THE STOOGES documentary 'Gimme Danger'.
A new self-titled album from MY MORNING JACKET is here, their first since 2015's 'The Waterfall', and it finds the group in a rather explosive post-lockdown mood, leavening their trademark jammy meander with some much more charged up material. We're told there will be just one vinyl pressing of this one, and we've got it in the house on exclusive color vinyl. California cosmic folk duo NORTH AMERICANS put out one of our favorite records last year, and now they re-release a 2018 album that only got a microscopic edition when it first came out, the pitch-perfect 'Going Steady', with contribs from Julianna Barwick and Hand Habits.
UK guitarist DEAN MCPHEE returns with the very dreamy 'Witch's Ladder', calling to mind Evening Star-era Fripp/Eno. Aussie pop-psychers POND deliver another scorcher with '9', in the shop on coke bottle clear vinyl.
UK guitarist DEAN MCPHEE returns with the very dreamy 'Witch's Ladder', calling to mind Evening Star-era Fripp/Eno. Aussie pop-psychers POND deliver another scorcher with '9', in the shop on coke bottle clear vinyl.
Personally speaking, the record we needed to hear most this week is 'Far In', the latest from bilingual pop master HELADO NEGRO. Fans of the ongoing project from Roberto Carlos Lange have long marveled at his ability to transform a song; from parts, lyrics and choruses into something more like a mystical token handed to you in a dream. He's never given us so much to slip away with than on this massive LP. Sophisticated soft-synth pop abounds on a new one from BLACK MARBLE, while the Cali boys in YOUNG GUN SILVER FOX are going straight for a Boz Scaggs vibe on 'Canyons'. Not mad about this at all, just a tad confused. Danish post-rockers EFTERKLANG turn in another lush delight with 'Windflowers'.
It's been 20 years now since the vaguely-related Michigan duo WHITE STRIPES broke down and reconstituted the rocknroll rule book with 'White Blood Cells', so it's time for a new edition! Via Third Man Records comes a special indie-only peppermint swirl pressing of this hard candy gem, which arrives in the shop sometime midday on Friday. Early birds can reserve a copy, and no complaining, or you'll get nothing but coal in your stocking! The ongoing SPIRITUALIZED vinyl rescue projects lands on 2001's glorious 'Let It Come Down', graced with new cover art and ivory vinyl. A new NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS rarities collection lands on CD, LP, and super deluxe LP, plus we have an expanded edition of THE REPLACEMENTS raging 'Sorry Ma...' in the house, which includes a previously unavailable 1981 live set.
'Hood Tapes', a rare tour-only CD-r (ahh, that phrase takes me back) from the iconic lo-fi Leeds band HOOD gets released on LP for the first time. Think Radiohead, made entirely from the contents of a shoebox you pulled out of your childhood bedroom closet. GUIDED BY VOICES are never gone, but still as back with a new record called 'It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them!' I'm always saying that. A new LP is in from JARVIS COCKER and I see fuzzy-edged Futura font on the cover so this must be the soundtrack for the latest Wes Anderson film! Back in print for the first time since the Clinton era, it's THE HALO BENDERS sophomore album 'Don't Tell Me', featuring Doug Martsch of Built to Spill and Calvin J from Beat Happening.
The strange, punk-spirited, dark-aura'd hiphop of Philly rapper MOOR MOTHER sounds like nothing else being made today, and her new one, 'Black Encyclopedia Of The Air' is just the latest high water mark. ATMOSPHERE's 'The Family Sign' turns ten and gets a new edition. Regularly appearing in top ten rap albums of the 90s type lists is CAPONE-N-NOREAGA's explosive triple LP 'The War Report', back in stock on color wax, alongside another long out of print rocksteady banger 'Rockstone' from JR. THOMAS & THE VOLCANOES.
We still haven't stopped playing volume one of the FOR THE LOVE OF YOU compilation, an expertly culled collection of small-label lovers rock reggae covers of classic American soul and boogie tunes. The Athens of the North label and esteemed selector Sam Don must have felt our yearning, because here we have a second volume, just as packed with potent party cuts that will have you going out of your head. Contemporary NYC salsa fire rules absolutely on a new one from ORQUESTA AKOKAN, plus we have the LP version of the incredible new electric blues album from CHRISTONE "KINGFISH" INGRAM. Massachusetts traditional folkies CATH & PHIL TYLER deliver a stirring new record called 'The Ox and the Ax'.
Limited color vinyl is here for the new one from EVERY TIME I DIE, plus we've got a new edition of the 2009 record 'Insides' from JON HOPKINS. The one and only DURAN DURAN return with 'Future Past', and we've got a killer compilation of early recordings from Oregon space-rock group NUDITY.
Fuzzy dream-pop perfection is all over a new record from THE MARIAS, two volumes of their 'Superclean' EPs are collected on this new set. Turkish psych-rock pioneers MOGOLLAR are still at the top of their game on a new direct-to-disc recording from the Night Dreamer label, which also brings us a great new live session from UK jazz composer EMMA-JEAN THACKRAY. Johannesburg collective ON OUR OWN CLOCK have a similar situation going as the International Anthem crew in Chicago or the Total Refreshment Centre group in London. A new record from the collective is full of subtle surprises and straddles nearly all contemporary jazz genres.
With their ongoing 'Ragga Preservation Society' series of releases, the mysterious Canadian ensemble SEEKERS INTERNATIONAL has been casually reinventing a dusty style of dub breaks, sleepwalker toasting, and dizzying, colorful loops of sonic detritus. A new LP called 'Worldwide Sound' has the crew at the absolute top of their form. French house duo MOTORBASS released 'Pansoul', a hugely influential record of sleek, machine-driven dance before going on to form groups like Cassius and La Funk Mob. Russian techno-pop ingenue KEDR LIVANSKIY returns with a very strong new LP called 'Liminal Soul', and her compatriot Pavel Milyakov aka BUTTECHNO returns with a 6-tracker of solidly constructed yet vaporous techno on 'Inorganic Demons'.
'My Favorite Tune', an early 90s release from legendary pianist RYO FUKUI gets its first vinyl release in decades. The memorable collaboration of FENNESZ and RYUICHI SAKAMOTO yielded a phenomenally serene album, 'Cendre', back in print this week. Phenomenal fusion rarity from mid-70s Argentina, 'De Las Colonias Del Río De La Plata' by the group VIEJAS RAICES gets a very well considered reissue. This group has at its core the bassist Jorge López Ruiz, of 'El Grito' fame. Last up, a new printing of the classic Australian rare groove album 'The Trip' by vibraphonist JOHN SANGSTER, heavily laden with jazz-funk covers of some classic tunes.
USED VINYL ALERT:
This week's used vinyl alert goes bananas on cool, deep soul, psychedelia, pop and traditional music. Heavy hitters from psych land include Caravan, Cactus, Ultimate Spinach, Guru Guru, Troyka, Julians Treatment, and more. Rock classics include Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, JJ Cale, Gram Parsons, Country Joe, Frank Zappa, Queen, Joni Mitchell, Badfinger, Leonard Cohen, Ventures, the Kinks, Whitesnake, Van Halen, T Rex, and Tom Petty. 80s wave includes Spandau Ballet, the Replacements, NY Dolls, Lords of Acid, the B-52s, U2, and The The.
Jazz includes McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Paul Bley, Gary Burton, Ron Carter, Dollar Brand, and Herbie Hancock. So much soul is in, including nice ones from Curtis Mayfield, the Gap Band, the Temptations, Ebonee Webb, and the Equals.
A slew of classic country from Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and more, plus a nice deep dive through private press folk, a ton of cool Folkways compilations we have never seen here before, sea shanties, bird songs, poetry compilations, spooky soundtracks and much much more.
SELL US YOUR CDS & LPS:
Yes, we are still buying! Call Ron to schedule (608.213.3610).
BLACK FRIDAY RECORD STORE DAY IS NOVEMBER 26:
Strictly Discs will be the place to be this Post-Thanksgiving-Shopping-Melee-Day, also known as Black Friday.
And that's because certain indie stores across the country will be the place to get special releases created just for you, for giving and getting this holiday season, and they're scheduled for release on Black Friday, November 26, 2021.
Now, this is not Record Store Day, Jr., but it is brought to you by the powers-that-be at Record Store Day. This is a group of special releases you can only find at certain independent record stores nationwide. The magic of these pieces (many uber-limited) is that every one of them is something someone will really LOVE to get, and you'll really ENJOY giving. And you may have the added nice feeling of supporting a local, independently owned (Strictly Discs, Independently Owned since 1988) business during the holidays.
THE LIST HAS BEEN RELEASED & WISHLISTS CAN NOW BE MADE HERE.
The DEADLINE for making or modifying Black Friday Wishlists was Wednesday, September 22 at 10AM.
Ron, Ryan, Angie, Marty, Evan, Matt, Ed, Jack, Eric, Steve, Nick, Matt B. & Mark
