Several years ago now, I read an interview with PANDA BEAR, where he was asked a question about how it felt to be so (relatively) well-known as a musician while still making such weird music. He pushed back against the idea, saying that he's never been recognized in the supermarket. This image is lodged in my head forever, and now any time I hear Panda Bear's music, I can't help but imagining locking eyes with him over a heap of tomatoes at Woodman's. Would I recognize him? Probably not. (The first time I saw him with Avey Tare pre-AnCo, he had a sock on his entire head). And yet, there are few artists in the world making more immediately-recognizable music than Noah Lennox does, and just because you have a solid idea of what you're going to get with his latest album 'Sinister Grift', in the shop on already-sold-out blue vinyl, does not lessen the impact. On the heels of that fantastic Sonic Boom collab, PB continues to hone a chopped-not-slopped approach to sunny garage pop that follows in the wake of his ever limber vocals, inviting fellow travelers like Cindy Lee and Rivka from Spirit of the Beehive into the security of his home studio. ## I may as well describe yesterday's weather in lieu of describing CHARLI XCX's 'Brat And Its Completely Different', which finally lands in the shop on neon green wax this week. You already know all about it! True to its title, this is a remix album, probably one of the highest-profile examples of its kind to ever hit the racks. ## Looking for something a little more subtle? We're thrilled to have another new album from Japanese ethereal folksinger ICHIKO AOBA, an artist with a truly unique ability to calm a room. 'Luminescent Creatures' is yet another masterclass in softness and organic complexity, picking right up from where her last album 'Windswept Adan' drifted off. ## New York art-synth-rockers DARKSIDE are such an aptly named project. You might forget about them for awhile, but then suddenly *bam*, they become visible, reminding you they've been there this whole time. For their third album 'Nothing', in stock on red vinyl tomorrow, the duo of Dave Harrington and Nicolas Jaar become a trio with the addition of longtime friend Tlacael Esparza. I feel like you've gotta be a pretty bad dude to join the dark side. This album does feel about 33.3% better than the last two!

At the end of a 2023 North American tour that endeared him to an audience roughly ten times the size of his previous sojourns here, Nigerien guitarist MDOU MOCTAR and band found themselves unable to return home due to a military junta that had sealed off the country's borders. Luckily, Mdou and crew had just made themselves welcome in any number of American households - and recording studios - so they settled into an extended Brooklyn session to record the companion album to their breakout 'Funeral for Justice'. Opting to go acoustic on these versions, and on the heels of exploring these songs to the absolute fullest in their torrid live shows, the band is absolutely incandescent on 'Tears of Injustice', which may actually eclipse its predecessor in terms of nuanced power. ## If that whole story isn't impressive enough for you, observe the tale of young Irish folksinger MUIREANN BRADLEY. Emphasis on "young". When lockdown set in on the 15-year old musician in 2020, Bradley decided to pass the time mastering the old pre-war blues records her father was obsessed with playing for her and telling her about. The result is 'I Kept These Old Blues', an incredible debut that (if you piped in some crackle) sounds strikingly of a piece with the spirit of the originals. This is a very nice debut album, and its amusing to imagine these performances making their wending way from Ballybofey in County Donegal up to the bigwigs at Verve Records. Killer cover art by Plastic Crimewave, too! ## Rapper CORDAE hit a new high with his late-'24 release 'The Crossroads', which now lands on limited silver wax, with features from Lil Wayne and Anderson.Paak. ## Sometimes as a DJ, you play a song early on in an evening and then think, hmm...they weren't ready for that one yet. An hour or two later, on it goes again and, sure enough, the entire room is singed to a crisp. That's what director Jonathan Demme did with the Q LAZZARUS song 'Goodbye Horses', inserting it in his 1988 film "Married to the Mob" and then dropping it again at the bone-chilling peak of "The Silence Of The Lambs", just a few years later, creating one of the all-time earworms. In those intervening years, the artist behind the song had abandoned the project and disappeared from public life. The true story of her life is told in a new documentary on the way, and this soundtrack album collects a slew of unheard material from the shadowy dance-popper that shows many more sides, from XTC-style new wave, to Sparks-and-Madonna-locked-in-the-Danceteria disco.

Hop in, we're headed for the 90s. American dream-gaze mirage DROP NINETEENS cement their stunning comeback with a disc called '1991' collecting their earliest demos recorded in, you guessed it. Essential stuff here from a band we always want more of. Just 'ere the turn of the millenium, Dave Pajo from Slint and Tortoise confabbed as PAPA M with the thrillingly meandering post-rock opus 'Live From A Shark Cage'. I have logged many hours with this sturdy and stately double album, one of the greatest distillations of avant-Americana (half in the holler, half in the Vuh) that's ever been put to wax, and it's always exciting when Drag City sees fit to press it up again! No accounting of the 90s stylistic fringe is complete without these two albums from STEREOLAB: 'Emperor Tomato Ketchup' and 'Dots & Loops' both make much-needed returns to vinyl this week.

Also new this week: The Cure - Songs Of A Live World ## Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music From The Penguin Cafe ## Bernard Parmegiani & François Bayle - 'Divine Comédie' ## Entombed - Entombed ## Miles Davis - Dark Magus (MFSL) ## Dub Syndicate - Stoned Immaculate

Ryan, Evan, Ed, Eric, Matt, Steve, Mark, Marty, Brad, Adam, Andrew, Rick, Dru, Ashley, Cypress & Dan.