Musician JASON ISBELL is such a genuine good-egg, it feels distasteful and invasive to delve into the personal backstory behind his new album, 'Foxes In The Snow'. If you follow the singer-songwriter closely, you know that last year he divorced his wife and muse Amanda Shires, who had played a significant role in his lifepath's turnaround, and alongside him made up the Americana world's closest thing to a power couple. Well, as we know all too well lately, times change people change and all that, so here's Jason in a new era, with a new lady love just as special as Amanda (assuming that's possible), and a new album that finds him giving the band the night off and cutting an entirely solo acoustic album. 'Foxes' is a startling reminder of the raw stuff that first endeared him to audiences, and its in the shop on lovely gold vinyl. A generation behind Isbell is the mighty NOAH KAHAN, the scruffy folkie who blew up into a national sensation before many record store employees (including this one) could figure out how to pronounce his name. Not since Jonathan Richman has a popular songwriter been so strongly associated with New England, so it's fitting that a new live album from Kahan finds him at Fenway Park, absolutely Fisking the stitches off of his catalog. LA pop chameleon SASAMI amps up the drama for her latest banger 'Blood On The Silver Screen', in the shop on limited red wax, and we've got the first ever vinyl edition of the DE LA SOUL mid-90s rarity 'Clear Lake Audiotorium', originally released as a promo-only CD for a select few DJs. This limited pressing comes in a gel-filled sleeve which looks incredible. Yes I said "gel". I tried to find a picture of it to do it justice and there isn't one, so you will just have to come and cop!

Throughout the 90s, a handful of bands began speeding up the pace of emotional hardcore punk, and injecting the genre with an irresistible sense of chaos that had already seemed to plateau with 80s bands (already fairly chaotic in their own right) like Black Flag, Flipper, Husker Du and Minor Threat. Outside of a small dedicated touring circuit, these bands were not terribly popular, releasing a 7" or two then breaking up before even a few hundred people heard or saw them live. As the years went by and "screamo" went from an epithet to an established genre, heads began trawling used bins for these records which weren't even that easy to find in the first place. Ebullition Records, a label and distributor that championed them above all, still operates much the same way in 2025 as they did in 1994, and they've blessed this wreck of a year with long-overdue reissues of some of the most essential bits. Bay Area band PORTRAITS OF PAST's lone self-titled album looms particularly large in this world, a sledgehammer symphony of stereophonic riffs and relentless song structure. San Diego quartet JULIA took the artful punk of Dischord bands like Ignition and Embrace and somehow made it even stronger and emotionally naked. Their only LP has been on my wantlist for decades, as if only a couple hundred were ever made and each copy is desperately treasured. Later in the 90s, the Amherst, Mass band ORCHID added elements of grindcore to the screamo formula, releasing one of the most iconic debut punk albums of all time, so potent and essential that it's been fueling an extended reunion tour for the band for the last year or so, selling out rooms roughly 10 times the size of anywhere they played back then. Acquired taste though it may be, the sound on these records feels as relevant as ever, inspired, restless and unbounded.

More new releases in this week include: Jeff Buckley & Gary Lucas - Songs To No One 1991-1992 ## Bob Mould - Here We Go Crazy (black white blue vinyl) ## The Tubs - Cotton Crown ## Various - Great Lakes Gospel Vol. 1: Cleveland (clear blue vinyl)

Great audiophile jazz reissues this week: Curtis Amy & Frank Butler - Groovin' Blue (Tone Poet) ## Stan Getz - Getz Au Go Go (Verve/Acoustic Sounds) ## Paul Bley - Open, to love (ECM Luminessence) ## Joe Henderson - Multiple (Jazz Dispensary)

Heady free-jazz, spiritual and loft-era jazz is in full effect with a pair of new releases from the Eremite label, Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, William Parker's trio album 'The Ancients', and tne Onilu album, which convenes the all-percussionist trio of Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl, and Chad Taylor. The Survival Research label brings us a pair from legendary drummer Rashied Ali.

Some phenomenal electronics enter the realm this week, with a reissue of the JAN JELINEK woozy classic 'Kosmischer Pitch', lovely new ambient records from VOLODJA BRODSKY and DOVS, plus a new expanded edition of the NICOLAS JAAR album 'Piedras'.

Great new international LPs are in from FAIRUZ, CELIA CRUZ, YOSHIO SUZUKI, and the Moroccan electronic pioneer AHMED ESSYAD. We've got plenty more new vinyl releases in from DISTURBED, JUICE WRLD, NEIL YOUNG, JITWAM, KRAFTWERK and ELDER.

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