We kick off a solid week of new releases with some legends, two living and two sadly departed. Tortured troubadour NICK CAVE has kept busy lately scoring films, but now he's summoned the Bad Seeds for 'Wild God', his first album outing in over five years. We had a spin with this one today and found it to be an instant hit. Cave's songwriting is as poignant and yearning as ever, and the production on this album heaves with spirituality, without any elements of excess in earshot. We've got a couple versions of this one in: black vinyl, clear vinyl, and a limited-run clear vinyl edition with an art print. Few artists have contributed so much to the elevated realm of art and music where theory and performance mingle like LAURIE ANDERSON, arguably the first post-modern musician (alongside her late husband Lou Reed). A new album from her this week called 'Amelia', a languid narrative about the pilot Amelia Earhart's atttempt to circumnavigate the globe, is a absolute delight. DAVID BOWIE's modest, modish 1967 debut album is reissued on limited green vinyl, and we get a pair of classics from ELLIOTT SMITH back in stock. 'Roman Candle' has a new peach vinyl pressing, while 'XO' is back in stock for the first time in many years!

While digging for records several years ago, I took a flyer on DOROTHY CARTER's 1976 album 'Troubadour', on the strength of its cover alone. As we know, this method doesn't always pay off, but this time...whoa. Billed as a traditional dulcimer album, this modest slab contains so much more; a mildly psychedelic trip through druidic praise hymns that run from the most joyful music you've ever heard to some of the most mournful. Since digging this one up, a lot more about Dorothy has come to light. Based in Woodstock, NY, she formed a foundation of an exploratory folkscene that included future luminaries like Constance Demby and Larry "Laraaji" Gordon. Her very rare second album, 'Waillee Waillee', was reissued last year and is still in stock. Pick up both of them and count yourself lucky to live on the same planet that birthed music like this. On the heels of their lush box set documenting her entire output, the Numero Group reissues MARGO GURYAN's lone solo album 'Take A Picture' in a standalone edition on "sun gold" colored marble; its a delightful snapshot of a one of a kind singer sitting comfortably at the intersection of jazz and folk. The eternally underrated American Primitive guitarist SANDY BULL used to gig heavily in California in the late 60s, and luckily some of those transcendent sets got recorded. One of the best is 'Still Valentine's Day 1969', released on CD a few decades back but now done up on vinyl for the first time by No Quarter. Alone on a stage in front of what must have been a small but dedicated audience, Bull experimented live with the blues of Fahey, the oud of Hamza El Din, and the twang of Bo Diddley. CHUCK JOHNSON is a modern-day disciple of Fahey and Bull, and he aims for the skies on a gorgeous new album called 'Sun Glories'.

Chicago rapper SMINO has made a massive name for himself with a volcanic flow and a casual cool, drawing very well-earned comparisons to Andre3000. His impossibly chill 2018 album 'Noir' never actually came out on vinyl, which makes me feel a little less bad for not hearing it until now, as it finally lands in the shop on wax. Google tells me that Smino recently found out that he's related to Florida rapper DENZEL CURRY through an uncle, which is kindof wild. Curry is back this week with 'King Of The Mischievous South Vol 2', a tight and entertaining romp that keeps him on or near the top of list of active southern rappers. Get familiar with rapping synthpunker N8NOFACE with a new collection called 'Missed Connections'. THE HARLEM GOSPEL TRAVELERS pick up the thread of 60s/70s gospel group sounds with the lovely new set 'Rhapsody'.

A new audiophile edition of MILES DAVIS' 1955 classic 'Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet', finds a young Miles alongside a young Coltrane as both men began to discover their revolutionary sounds. A new Verve/Acoustic Sounds pressing restores the timeless bossa-jazz groove of STAN GETZ' 1967 album 'Sweet Rain'. It must be time for me to schedule a check-up with my general practitioner, because its been (gulp) twenty-five years since the original release of 'Nigeria 70: The Definitive Guide to 1970's Funky Lagos' compilation, in which the Strut label put everyone on game as to the endless potency of the West African funky pop scene. Drummer Tony Allen was a key player in that scene, and he turns up as a featured guest on YANNIS & THE YAW's 'Lagos Paris London', bringing friends in tow to join up with Yannis Philippakis, the frontman of Foals.

A few years after the dissolution of his massively influential band Slint, and a brief stint in Tortoise, guitarist David Pajo formed a mysterious instrumental trio called AERIAL M that, with only one LP and a couple of singles, did more to define the late 90s atmospheric post-rock sound than any other act. Compact, martial drumming and artful keyboard flourishes provided a minimal backdrop for Pajo's indelible guitar melodies which (for me at least) took up residence in the brain and never, ever left. The trio toured steadily for a year and then dissolved, but luckily they stopped by Maida Vale to play a handful of tunes that now become audible for the first time ever on 'The Peel Sessions', in stock on limited coke bottle clear vinyl. Open and curious to the Texan fuzz-merchants AMERICAN ANALOG SET, but unwilling to plunk down a hundo for the 5 LP box set? Try the standalone edition of 'The Golden Band', arguably the best album they made, available now on yellow wax. Eccentric madman TY SEGALL is back with a new (all drums?) album called 'Love Rudiments', while KISHI BASHI check in with 'Kantos'.

American electronic composer ELORI SAXL composed the three pieces on 'Drifts and Surfaces' while living on Madeline Island in Lake Superior, which gives appropriate context for the vast near-formlessness that slowly envelops you while listening to this, one of the better ambient albums to come down the pike in a long time. 'Infinite Health' sounds like something one of my kids could be breathlessly telling me the Xbox button-combo for, but its also a fitting name for the latest album from TYCHO, a cruising, ultimately uplifting album of new age space-race soundtracks. Veteran producer JON HOPKINS goes for something far heavier and rhythmically-dense on his latest album 'Ritual', and we've got a excellently smooth excursion in jazztronica from London duo KESSONCODA on 'Outerstate'.

The latest album from New York noisecore trio UNIFORM is their most cathartically clear statement yet, as vocalist Michael Berdan spends the four expansive, concussing tracks on 'American Standard' coming to terms with his lifelong struggle with bulimia. I've been proud to call Berdan a friend since we were both getting out of high school; he was brave then (the kind of person you wanted to have in your corner at most shows in Philly), and he is braver now by an incalculable degree. Powerviolence progenitors NAILS are back, with some kind of Black Flag-esque Ship-of-Theseus lineup changes on 'Every Bridge Burning'. We've also got some likely Berdan-approved reissues of SKINNY PUPPY's 'Too Dark Park' and STABBING WESTWARD's 'Ungod'.

Last up, a super-sweet run of reissues from the global guitar rock underground! SEBADOH's melodic masterpiece 'Bakesale' turns 30 with a repress on metallic color vinyl. DINOSAUR JR's 'Farm' turns 15 year with a limited deluxe reissue with 4 bonus tracks (including a Zombies cover!) on color wax. Underappreciated 80s UK melody-makers THE SERVANTS' see their unreleased albums 'Small Time / Hey Hey We're The Manques' rescued by Captured Tracks, while Numero deals us a slab of unhinged Aussie garage with SCIENTISTS 1985 album 'You Get What You Deserve'.

Here is your weekly update for August 29. We'll pickup where the Thursday night sneak peek video on our @StrictlyDiscs Instagram and Facebook left off. No frills. Just the artists. The rest is for your 500+ fresh-used digging pleasure downstairs. Some of the headliners this week:

Rock/Pop: The Amazing Blondel, Eric Burdon & War, Fairport Convention, Moby Grape, Traveling Wilburys, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath, The Clash, Foreigner, Enya, R.E.M., Depeche Mode, Cyndi Lauper, INXS, Tom Petty, The Doors, ELO, Erasure, Peter Gabriel, Tear for Fears, George Michael, A-Ha

Jazz/International/Reggae: Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, Barney McAll, George Van Eps, Nat Adderley, Shirley Horn

Folk/Country: Sandy Denny, Old & In the Way, Ian Matthews, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Sr.

Contemporary/Hip-Hop: Alex G, Kendrick Lamar, Drake

Soul/Funk/Blues: NuShooz, Issac Hayes, Stevie Wonder, Booker T. & The MG's, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Winter, Howlin' Wolf, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Double Trouble, Jimmy Fast Fingers Dawkins

Soundtracks/Misc: Sunday in the Park with George, Married to the Mob, Kelly's Heroes, Superfly

Happy Digging!

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