Rolling Reissues 2014

They've been adding stuff weekly or so.

From Drag City News:

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THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUNG
Also on the schedule for July, courtesy of those forward-looking crate diggers at Yoga Records, is Matthew Young’s Recurring Dreams. In 2010, Yoga and Drag City partnered to reissue Matthew’s 1986 album Traveller’s Advisory, which combined electronics with folk music in an intriguingly out-of-step fashion (out-of-fashion step?) that seemed to be just what the world needed then (meaning 2010). Recurring Dreams is actually the album before that, which suggests an interesting way to do a reissue series – start with the most recent, then go backwards! It worked with that movie Irreversible, so why not with Matthew Young? Recurring Dreams is much more of a classic ambient/electronic album with no quirky vocals, hammered dulcimers etc – and in that, it’s a personal masterwork of electric keyboard and suitcase synth, making music of wide reach, deep relaxation and personal resonance with a minimal amount of instrumentation and a maximum of subtlety. Now, maybe even more than it was then, Recurring Dreams is a triumph.

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PROPER M
Back in 1997, David Pajo was a little over a half decade removed from the future sensation known as Slint. Their second album had been released in 1991 when the band themselves were already defunct. During the next five years, David worked with Palace Brothers, King Kong, Tortoise, The For Carnation and Stereolab. All during that period, the idea of his own music was slowly simmering, building flavor like a good rage. He and former Slint-ite Britt Walford had discussed a band called M – the significance lying in the letter’s position in the middle of the alphabet. A single under that name was released on Palace Records in 1996, and upon hearing it, there was no doubt that this fucker was one of the Slint boys. We were big fans of Tweez; we jumped right on that shit and offered Dave a deal he couldn’t refuse – if he made a record, we’d put it out! The rest is…not only history, but somewhat out of print. David changed the name to Aerial M and made an LP and two singles, then changed the name to Papa M and made a couple of double-albums, an EP and a five or six singles. At the time of those singles, he joined another band and then another and another and….poof, no more Papa M. There were two Pajo records in 2005 and 2006 and since then, nothing else along these lines. And so, Aerial M and Papa M things have slowly gone out of print. But now that everyone is really into that post-Tweez Slint record (time is funny), it seems like a perfect time to re-inject Aerial M into the world’s music-veins. David put the record together in a fashion that feels very much after Slint, but instead of just playing his part, he played all the other parts too, kind of in the way he might played them if he HAD played them. So, virtual Slint reality, ’97-style – before any of these reunion tours provided another kind of second life. Of course, that’s super-reductive and unfair – what the Aerial M record ACTUALLY presented was an initial step in a hot ten-year evolution of sounds and song-making – but in 2014, whotta sales hook! BOOM. Aerial M walks among us – again.

But this is what I'm waiting for:

YAKUZA: Chicago Experi-Metallers To Reissue First Four Full-Lengths Along With One Never-Before-Heard Release Through War Crime Recordings

Throughout the entire month of July, Chicago experi-metallers, YAKUZA, will reissue their first four albums along with one never-before-heard release through War Crime Recordings. Amount To Nothing, Way Of The Dead, Samsara and Transmutations have been out of print for several years now and in most cases, these reissues will contain unreleased bonus tracks and remixes.

July 1st, 2014 will see the band's 2000 self-released debut album, Amount To Nothing and Way Of The Dead, originally released by Century Media Records in 2002. Way Of The Dead will include a cover of John Coltrane's "Seraphic Light" as a bonus track.

On July 15th, 2014, the band will reissue their Prosthetic Records albums: 2006's Samsara, featuring two bonus tunes -- a James Plotkin (OLD, Scorn, Khanate, Khlyst) remix of "Back To The Mountain" as well as "The Ballad Of Mr. K" -- along with 2007's Transmutations, which boasts a Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh) remix of "The Blinding."

On July 29th, 2014, the never-before-released, "improvisational" recording entitled Kabuki Mono will be unveiled. "Kabuki Mono" has been YAKUZA's moniker whenever they perform their mostly instrumental improvisational sets throughout Chicago. This album was originally recorded in the studio in 2001.

Frontman/saxophonist/War Crimes co-owner Bruce Lamont comments: "It's great that these recordings are available again as so to document the lineage of YAKUZA but we are a band who does not dwell in the past. Into the future. Onward!"

Newer developments for YAKUZA include a recent recording session at Soma Studios in Chicago with engineer and co-War Crime Recordings owner, Sanford Parker. The band has recorded over 100 minutes of improvised material (much like that of the Kabuki Mono recording) and plan to pick the best takes for release sometime early next year.

War Crime Recordings was founded by Chicago residents and musicians Sanford Parker and Bruce Lamont. Parker is probably best known for his production work for Pelican, Yob and countless other bands. He's also founded cult doomster, Buried At Sea and at one time has been listed in the ranks of such innovative groups as Minsk, Twilight and Nachtmystium. Lamont leads the avant-garde unclassifiable troupe, YAKUZA, fronts the psychedelic post doom band, Bloodiest and has been involved in the Chicago music scene in one way or another since he was teenager. He's also been a guest player on dozens of recordings. Both Lamont and Parker are in Corrections House along with Mike IX Williams (Eyehategod) and Scott Kelly (Neurosis) and have released that band's catalog on vinyl through the label.

Omnivore's been pretty good the past couple years, so maybe....

BILLY THERMAL BROUGHT SONGWRITING CHOPS
TO THE WEST COAST NEW WAVE MOVEMENT IN EARLY ’80s.
THEIR ALBUM WAS NEVER RELEASED — UNTIL NOW.
Led by songwriter Billy Steinberg, the band’s only album
receives a proper release on Omnivore Recordings on August 12.
THERMAL, Calif. — Before Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston, The Bangles, Pretenders, and Heart had mega-hits with his songs, Billy Steinberg was the leader of California’s Billy Thermal.
Billy Steinberg’s songwriting ability brought him to the attention of producer Richard Perry (Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, Barbra Streisand), who signed Steinberg’s band, Billy Thermal, to his Planet Records (also home of the Pointer Sisters). An album was recorded, but never released. Until now.
Omnivore Recordings will release Billy Thermal, including the full album plus three bonus demo tracks, on August 12, 2014.
Billy Thermal contains the original versions of songs later made famous by superstars like Linda Ronstadt, who took “How Do I Make You” to the Top 10 in 1980; Pat Benatar, who named her third album after Steinberg’s “Precious Time”; and Rick Nelson, who cut “Don’t Look At Me” on his last album of new material, Playing To Win.
While Billy Thermal would fit best in the “new wave” genre, the album shows the genesis of #1 hits Steinberg would later co-write like The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame,” Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional,” Heart’s “Alone,” Madonna’s iconic “Like a Virgin,” and classics including Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand By You” and Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself.”
Five tracks made their way into the marketplace on an early ’80s EP, but the entire album has sat unreleased for decades. Omnivore Recordings
 is proud to rectify that with this release, and it is even enhanced with three demos written during the same time frame. The CD contains an informative set of liners from Steinberg and photos from the original album shoot.
In late 1978, Steinberg wrote some songs that he wanted to demo. Knowing he needed a band, he called a friend, singer/songwriter Mark Safan, in Los Angeles, who recommended guitarist Craig Hull. Through an acquaintance in Palm Springs (Steinberg grew up near Palm Springs and in the desert date-growing town of Thermal), he met bass player Bob Carlisle and drummer Efren Espinosa. Safan came to the first session with singer/songwriter Wendy Waldman. Mark and Wendy added background vocals. They recorded in a friend’s Palm Springs garage studio.
Carlisle would eventually score a massive hit of
his own in the 1990s with “Butterfly Kisses.”
According to Steinberg, “Billy Thermal was part of a movement referred to in the music business as New Wave. Early New Wave acts included Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Television, Blondie, Graham Parker, The Cars, The Knack, The Police, and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Some of these artists had significant commercial success. But by the time the second wave of New Wave acts had records ready for release, the bloom was off the rose. Billy Thermal fell victim to bad timing. Richard (Perry) lost faith in our record, and we were miffed. When Planet offered to cut us loose and give us our record, we were happy. This occurred in late 1980. Shortly thereafter, Billy Thermal broke up.”
Billy Thermal is a record that still sounds fresh and energetic — unfortunately, no one really got to hear it the first time around.
While Steinberg continues to make hits for current artists like Nicole Scherzinger, Demi Lovato and Katherine McPhee — the heat emanated from Billy Thermal.
# #

Another maay-beee from Omnivore (did moderately enjoy the Auer-Stringfellow songs on Big Star's In Space, so...?)

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THE POSIES’ GROUNDBREAKING DEBUT ALBUM, FAILURE,
TO BE REISSUED, EXPANDED ON CD AND VINYL
ON OMNIVORE RECORDINGS AUGUST 19

Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer, active as members of Big Star
and as solo artists, were involved in album’s restoration
along with PopLlama A&R rep Scott McCaughey
(R.E.M., The Minus 5).
Live dates to be announced.
SEATTLE, Wash. — The Posies’ 1988 debut is about to work its magic all over again. Little did Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow know that when they dropped off their cassette to Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., The Minus 5, Baseball Project), the clerk at their favorite record store (who happened to do A&R for the indie label PopLlama), that a power-pop dynasty would begin.
Originally released by the band on homemade, hand-dubbed cassettes, then issued on LP (with one track removed for the then-current time constraints), and later on CD, Failure made the indie-rock scene take notice. On August 19, 2014, Omnivore Recordings will reissue this landmark album, complete with eight bonus tracks, including one available for the first time.
The Posies will shortly announce live dates surrounding the reissue.
Housed in a digipak, the Failure expanded reissue contains the original 12 songs, plus bonus material from the highly sought-after out-of-print 2000 box set At Least At Last, as well tracks from the Spanish only 15th anniversary edition — plus, one track recently located in The Posies’ extensive archives. The booklet contains press clippings and essays from 1988, as well as updated messages from McCaughey and the band.
This 2014 edition sees the original 12-track playlist restored and available on vinyl for the first time since its original issue (and cut by Kevin Gray). The LP (initial pressing on colored vinyl) also includes a download card for the entire CD program.
While Auer and Stringfellow have continued on — as members of the reunited Big Star, as The Posies and as solo artists — the journey began at Failure. Step back in time and hear the future.
According to McCaughey in the liner notes, “Failure still amazes me today — its freshness undiminished by anything recorded before or since. At the time, we thought, “These two kids made this on their own in a parental basement?” But it’s more than that. Sure, there are the songs, the musicianship, the making-the-most-of-an-8-track-and-a couple-of-microphones — all those aspects figure in, and the sheer talent on display is undeniable. But it’s more the feeling I get of two people creating a complete, coherent work, for the first time, with such exuberance and wonder, and really just doing it for themselves. Most bands only get to make one record like that; then come managers, contracts, lawyers, accountants, tour budgets, mountains of cocaine, brown cheeses and Bordeaux, pressure, expectations. That The Posies handled subsequent success with a minimum of fisticuffs and still harmonize like famous brothers all these years later is a beautiful thing. This is where it started, and it’s still where it’s at!”
Adds Stringfellow, “Twenty-seven years after we started the initial sessions for Failure, I’m still astonished at what this humble recording accomplished and set in motion. For all its quirks, much care went into its creation. And what I think sparks people’s affection for this album is maybe one thing above the others: you can hear two very young people unselfconsciously discover their sound, making a real record for the first time in their lives. What we didn’t know then didn’t matter — in fact, you could say that everything we have done since has been somewhat contaminated by ever-wider knowledge, worldliness, and comparative analysis of the accomplishments of others.”
Track List:
Blind Eyes Open
The Longest Line
Under Easy
Like Me Too
I May Hate You Sometimes
Ironing Tuesday
Paint Me
Believe in Something Other (Than Yourself)
Compliment?
At Least for Now
Uncombined
What Little Remains
Bonus Tracks:
Believe in Something Other (Than Yourself) (Live)
I May Hate You Sometimes (Demo)
Paint Me (Demo)
Like Me Too (Demo
Alison Hubbard (Instrumental)
After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (Instrumental)
Blind Eyes Open (Instrumental Demo)
At Least for Now (Instrumental Demo)
# # #
Watch the Posies trailer.
http://youtu.be/2tLR8ilh4Dw

Reviews of many things posted here, times *several* significant others (gotta get Miles Davis Bootleg Series Vol, 3, Haiti Direct, the wide-ranging proto-punk doc) (that Slint slab is dire, though)
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-best-reissues-of-2014-20140702?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

wtf @ 10 disc nils lofgren box set

indeed. This looks more promising:

HERMIT HUT, A NEW RECORD LABEL OWNED BY

BEN CHASNY (SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE)

RELEASING GUITARIST TASHI DORJI’S FIRST LP AUGUST 19TH

Ben Chasny is renowned in the underground for the work he’s done with Rangda, Comets on Fire, New Bums, 200 Years, and most significantly of all, Six Organs of Admittance. While his own output is varied and prolific, Chasny realized a great emptiness in the world upon hearing the work of Tashi Dorji and realizing not a lot of people were aware of the improvisational guitarist from Asheville-by-way-of-Bhutan. In an effort to right that wrong, he has formed Hermit Hut, a record label distributed by Revolver USA, which will highlight the best in experimental and adventurous music.

Dorji is the ideal first release. His journey from a secluded life on the eastern side of the Himalayas to becoming one of the most innovative guitarists around today is almost as fascinating as the music he creates. After numerous cassette releases, most of them long sold out, Dorji is releasing a vinyl album that compiles the best moments of these obscure releases.

Hermit Hut is just beginning. Future releases will include an album by Australia’s Chris Smith and a reissue of the Six Organs of Admittance album, Maria Kapel. Much more greatness to come.

View Hermit Hut’s website, and pre-order the Tashi Dorji album here: http://www.sixorgans.com/hermit-hut-records/

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I put this in the GT thread too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkjnAQtQWcU

Thanks, hadn't seen that. Also, this just in:

Corpse Flower Records is honored to release the vinyl edition of Halo, the debut from experimental noise rock unit, CELAN.

Featuring a veritable who's who of prominent experimental musicians including Unsane frontman Chris Spencer, Einstürzende Neubauten/Redux's keyboard player Ari Benjamin Meyers, flu.ID's Franz Xaver and Phil Roeder along with Oxbow guitarist Niko Wenner, CELAN's Halo was initially released in 2009 via Exile On Mainstream Records. Now available for the first time on vinyl, the wax edition is limited to 300 hand-numbered and assembled copies and comes in three color variants: 100 translucent yellow, 100 clear and 100 translucent red.

Halo Track Listing:

Side 1

1. A Thousands Charms

2. All This And Everything

3. One Minute

4. Sinking

5. Weigh Tag

Side 2

1. Train Of Thought

2. It's Low

3. Wait And See

4. Lunchbox

Finding common musical ground obviously doesn't require musicians to have a similar background although that's normally the way these things come together. What happens when musicians from disparate musical worlds meet and merge? That's where true originality can often thrive. One such outfit is CELAN, the brainchild of Ari Benjamin Meyers (Einstürzende Neubauten, Redux Orchestra) and Chris Spencer (Unsane, Cutthroats 9). Meyers and Spencer met on an Unsane tour stop in Berlin when Meyers mentioning that AndereBaustelle, the famed Einstürzende Neubauten studio, might be available. "The thought of working on a project with him in that studio was very exciting to me," Spencer explained. "There has always been an attraction to Berlin for me, so I guess you could say I was compelled..." It was initially meant as a one-off collaboration between two very distinct musicians: A classically trained composer and the other a founding member of a seminal noise/rock band.

After the concept was born it became obvious that this was more than a side project. What CELAN was and is began to grow with the addition of Phil Roeder and Franz Xaver (both of ex-flu.ID fame) on bass and drums. Spencer and the two met when flu.ID toured with Unsane in late 2007; they stayed in touch and became friends. Niko Wenner (Oxbow) joined during the Summer of '08, and the band was complete. By August, they had entered the studio and tracked a full album to tape in just two weeks. The songs breathe deeply with this spontaneity and one can feel the chemistry between the members which accompanied the entire building process. Though there is a great deal of thought and creativity behind the album, Halo reveals its beauty through its compelling creational vibe. You can pigeon-hole at your own risk: noise, rock, avant-hardcore etc. Approach this album with minds open, ready to be blown away by its sheer class, emotion, and musical craftsmanship.

update to the xpost KRS YouTube oldies, which might be helping the more vintage of their top sellers:
NEW ADDITIONS TO THE KRS YOUTUBE PAGE
Good news for all you streaming audio fans out there, we've added more albums from the KRS back catalog to our official Youtube page! Tube on over to listen to Sleater-Kinney's albums Dig Me Out, The Hot Rock, All Hands On The Bad One and One Beat! We've also added The Advantage's Elf Titled album. Don't forget to subscribe to our Youtube page to be updated about all the latest videos!

MAIL-ORDER AND BANDCAMP TOP 5's
For those of you keeping score at home, here are the top 5 selling releases at our mail-order store and Bandcamp page during the period of July 03-15, 2014:

Mail-order Top 5
1. Hari Kondabolu - Waiting For 2042 CD + pin combo
2. Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out LP (1997)
3. Elliott Smith - From A Basement On The Hill 2LP (2004, re: 2010)
4. The Raincoats - The Raincoats LP (1979, re: 2009)
5. Heavens To Betsy - Calculated limited edition LP (1994, re: 2014)

Bandcamp Top 5
1. Hari Kondabolu - Waiting For 2042 (2014)
2. Kleenex/LiLiPUT - LiLiPUT (2001)
3. Marnie Stern - The Chornicles of Marnia (2014)
4. Elliott Smith - From A Basement On The Hill (2004, re: 2010)
5. Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings And All (2008)

Ah, Amy Linton!

The Aislers Set announce reissue of catalog & West Coast reunion shows

STREAM: The Aislers Set catalog sampler -
https://soundcloud.com/slumberland-records/sets/the-aislers-set-2014-reissue

Slumberland Records and Suicide Squeeze Records are proud to join together to re-release all three albums from seminal indie ­pop band The Aislers Set. The albums have been re­mastered, and in the case of How I Learned To Write Backwards, re­-sequenced. All three will feature new eco-­friendly CD packaging and will be available on vinyl LP for the first time in at least a decade. Furthermore, the band will play a select set of West Coast shows this Fall, and a new album of singles and rarities is being prepared for release in early 2015.

Terrible Things Happen (originally released in 1998) and The Last Match (orig. released in 2000) are the first releases in a projected year-long celebration of Slumberland's 25th anniversary, they will both be released on Sept. 23, 2014. How I Learned To Write Backwards (orig. released in 2002) will be issued on Suicide Squeeze on Oct. 14, 2014. Look for more reissues, special gigs and publications soon.

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THE AISLERS SET

09/22 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
09/23 - Portland, OR - Holocene
09/26 - Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
09/28 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel

About The Aislers Set

The Aislers Set occupy an enviable place in the pop pantheon. Brimming with drunken romanticism, sharp pop sensibilities and timeless melodies, The Aislers reveled in the history of great POP, spiking their classicist 60s­-tinged tunes with pure post­-punk energy and originality of bands like the Fire Engines and The June Brides. Every song is a meticulously constructed sound world, where the arrangement and instrumentation sublimely, uncannily bring each tune to completeness.

The Aislers Set began in 1998 as a vehicle for the songs of Amy Linton, who had most recently co-­led San Francisco's legendary Henry's Dress and drummed in Go Sailor with her pal Rose Melberg. With Henry's Dress she had helped guide the band from it's noise/drone beginnings to the explosive mod/punk fusion that made them such a force to be reckoned with. With The Aislers Set the original goal was just to write, record and document.

The result was the first Aislers Set album, 1998's Terrible Things Happen. Not content to merely (!) write some of the most sublime pop tunes this side of Ray Davies, Linton got busy in her garage studio and recorded and produced almost the whole record by herself. It's a remarkable feat, and a love for such producers as Phil Spector and Brian Wilson shines from each and every groove. This is no shameless 60's pastiche, though, with the echoes of classic pop past filtered through a totally 90's aesthetic. It's a beautiful, multi-layered record and a genuinely great achievement of home recording.

During the course of recording Terrible Things Happen, Linton was joined by some
friends who became the full­-band Aislers Set line­up: Alicia Vanden Heuvel on bass,
Yoshi Nakamoto on drums, Wyatt Cusick on guitar and Jen Cohen on keyboards. It's this fantastic line­up that toured the US and Japan in 1999 and put together the second album, 2000's The Last Match. Where Terrible Things Happen's synthesis of 60s mod-pop, 70s punk and 80s/90s indie flavors provided an end-­of­-the­-century summation of where pop had been and where it was heading, The Last Match upped the ante even further.

More ambitious in conception, The Last Match expanded the band's sound into more orchestral areas. While the songs are still driving and catchy as a fish hook, the arrangements are far more sophisticated. The instrumentation has been augmented by Jen's vintage keyboards/organs and various horns, giving the tunes the timeless feel of classic groups like the early Bee Gees, The Zombies and The Millennium. Still preferring to record in the garage where they were allowed unlimited time for experimentation, the band had no problem crafting an amazing sounding album that could have sprung fully-formed from the hallowed studios of Gold Star. This is no murky lo­-fi production, but a fully­ rounded and rich ­sounding recording with a warm, analog sound.

The Last Match was a roaring success, garnering fantastic reviews and spurring the band to tour the US, Japan and UK multiple times, with bands (and fans) including Belle & Sebastian, Black Dice, The Gossip, Erase Errata, Comet Gain and Sleater­-Kinney. The band even achieved the ultimate badge of indie honor, recording a session for the legendary John Peel. Even more, The Last Match established The Aislers Set as one of the most beloved indie­ pop bands of their generation. It was a must­listen album, one that fueled fond memories, sparked love affairs, set off spontaneous dance parties, and reminded us all of the power of songs and song­craft and POP. It's chiming guitars and indelible melodies were heard everywhere from London to Tokyo, from Glasgow to Malmo: with The Last Match, The Aislers truly came into their own.

2003 saw the release of the band's final album, How I Learned To Write Backwards. At once more baroque and edgier than its predecessor, How I Learned To Write Backwards expertly wound together so many strands of pop history with such personality, atmosphere and style that there's never any doubt that you're listening to a band with vision. Far from being a "name the reference" game, The Aislers used the past as inspiration rather than a blueprint, so the echoes you might hear of, say, Phil Spector's Wall of Sound or Laura Nyro's soulful lyricism are so well­ integrated into the Aislers' sound that they're more akin to the spice in the stew rather than the stock of the soup.

While the band had stopped playing and recording together by 2004 thanks to life
commitments, their reputation has only grown and sporadic reunion shows, most recently in NYC for the Chickfactor 20 celebration, have met with rapturous response.

THE AISLERS SET LINKS:

OFFICIAL SITE
SLUMBERLAND
SUICIDE SQUEEZE

Actual links: http://www.aislersset.com/
http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/
http://suicidesqueezerecords.tumblr.com/

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Today sees Cocteau Twins' Blue Bell Knoll and Heaven or Las Vegas return to vinyl racks in Europe.

The first time either have been pressed since release, both come on heavyweight black vinyl and are being cut from brand-new HD 96/24 masters.

You can buy Blue Bell Knoll from Rough Trade, Jumbo, Piccadilly, Resident, Bleep, Boomkat and 4AD (US).

You can buy Heaven or Las Vegas from Rough Trade, Jumbo, Piccadilly, Resident, Bleep, Boomkat and 4AD (US).

The albums are both available to stream on the platform of your choice:http://smarturl.it/rtyp9l Blue Bell Knoll / Heaven or Las Vegas.

Released in 1988, Blue Bell Knoll is the Cocteau Twins’ fifth studio album. Delivered after a slightly longer period between records than fans had been used to, this was the first they recorded in their own studio. Freed to now make music how they wanted and with no clock to beat, they rose to the challenge of producing it themselves with real aplomb, introducing a new pop sensibility to their sound, expressed through shorter, 'hookier' songs with occasionally intelligible lyrics. Sound On Sound magazine praised them for showing “an uncanny feel for contemporary sound possibilities without making even the slightest concessions towards the mainstream.”

Heaven or Las Vegas followed in 1990 and is recognised as their most commercially successful release, reaching number seven in the UK album charts. Numerous publications have since declared it one of the best albums of the 90s, Pitchfork calling it “a core of ungodly gorgeous songs that is every bit as moving and relevant today as it ever was.” Label founder Ivo Watts-Russell goes further, candidly revealing in the recent 4AD biography, Facing The Other Way, that this album wasn’t just his favourite Cocteaus album but also his favourite all-time 4AD album, and“by a long shot”, calling it “the perfect record.”

from Numero:

http://www.numerogroup.com/images/product_images/web/solaris-the-waves-of-the-evernow-1.jpg

THE WAVES OF THE EVERNOW LP

Influenced by Amon Düül, Richie Blackmoore, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Solaris's experimental mash of jazz, noise, and rock rendered a product darker and more ominous than that of their idols. Comprised of Jawxillion Loeb on guitar, Karellen XOR on Farfisa Organ, and Ed Kramer on drums, the Hyde Park trio's arsenal of amplifiers and effects had to be hauled to performances via U-Haul. Despite their tonnage, Solaris rarely rarely performed outside of Alice's Revisted, a North Side juice bar that booked an inordinate number of blues legends, rising rock icons, and doubled as headquarters for pot zine, The Seed.

In 1973, the band holed up in a 15’x20’ basement rehearsal space at the corner of 54th and Blackstone in residential Hyde Park to record. Two colored light bulbs hung from the ceiling, one representing the red universe, the other the blue universe. One side of the room was filled with instruments while the other, a reel-to-reel tape recorder. The vocals and organ were run through the same Twin Reverb amplifier, while three echoplex tape delay units ran at various speeds, giving their in-the-red recordings a wash of rich distortion. Despite interest from Styx producer John Ryan and Saul Smaizys of WXRT's Triad Radio, the band’s recordings were never formally released.

Available only through the Numero Group website in a limited edition of 500, all orders will include a digital download of the release plus a download of the band's 1970's live performance at The Metaphysical Festival, held at the Headquarters of the Theosophical Society of Wheaton, Illinois

(LP is $25, mp3 is $10)

From Drag City:

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We already introduced you to his music, now Drag City invites you into the home and mind of Matthew Young! A reissue of Young's 1981 New Age masterpiece, Recurring Dreams, is set to hit the shelves on July 22nd, courtesy of yours truly and Yoga Records. Detailed minds will recall, Drag City and Yoga teamed up to bring you Matthew Young's Traveler's Advisory back in the 2010. Recurring Dreams happens to be that album's precursor (the fabric of time wrinkles, friend), and equally as potent! This intimate video (shot by Douglas Mcgowan of Yoga) provides a never before seen look into Matthew's influences and motivations for recording Recurring Dreams. His eccentric surroundings take center stage and offer a glimpse into his magical world. Breathe deeply and take it all in--Recurring Dreams will soon fill your nights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH7nKiQuwcc&feature=youtu.be

Brace yourselves for more Drag City copy:

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...So we are very pleased to present you with special editions of three of Drag City’s earliest singles for a special Record Store Day of your own choosing. Three titles that changed the world! Our world, that is. DC1 - the one that almost ended it all before it really started! Any venture with Royal Trux was a straight-up GAMBLE in 1990, but not only did we manage to sell through a few thousand of these babies in a mere two-plus years, we also managed to make money on another couple dozen Royal Trux releases over the next decade. Plus, the record's great! "Hero Zero" b/w "Love Is..." are you kidding?
Or what about DC2 - the one that almost broke us on Billboard, how about that! (it would be another fifteen years before we got that close). Yes, Pavement are remembered for a few things - and "Demolition Plot J-7" might just be one of them! It's a great li'l 7"EP, with early hits like "Forklift," "Recorder Grot" and "Perfect Depth." A polar opposite in so many ways from Royal Trux, thus determining what we around the office (apartment, broom closet) would call "our aesthetic" - polar opposites!
For the third of this early trifecta of short-play classics, we have DC8, the "I Hear the Devil Calling Me" 7"EP from New Zealand's Xpressway label. Little remembered today (except by geeks - and us (geeks)), Xpressway was run by The Dead C's Bruce Russell, himself a part of the original third-wave of Down Under-Mania, and he had what it took to draw all the best NZ talent to his doorstep (a strong pair of lungs!). Thus, we have mini-hits from all the biggies of back then - Alastair Galbraith! Peter Jefferies! Gate! Cyclops! A Handful of Dust! Dadameh! Stephen Kilroy! Queen Meanie Puss! David Mitchell! OLLA! The Dead C, and The Renderers, whose rendition of the title track haunts our synapses to this day. How are they all squashed on to one 7"? Simple - super short songs! It only makes great records better - like this single, and all three, really!
They're each pressed on audiophile gold(like) vinyl, and the Trux and Pavement records are packaged in all-new, audiophile sleeves (tip-on, bitch!). The Xpressway single goes them one better, being sold in orignal/NOS sleeves! WHAT.
Any day you go to the record store is Record Store Day - so Happy Record Store Day from all of us at Drag Motherfuckin' City!

Is that for the Record Store Day coming up in November?!

a special Record Store Day of your own choosing.

Alright then.

I saw I Hear the Devil Calling me at a record store yesterday, so I guess yesterday was record store day, except I didn't buy it.

These have been around before, but---for those of us finally drinking the purple PVC (getting a damn record player):

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/480cdd9e0b390c18e4fc2e8a4/images/32795ea4-4d45-45db-978a-b542d347c56c.jpg

CAN
14 CATALOG ALBUMS RE-ISSUED ON INDIVIDUAL VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER A DECADE

LISTEN TO ‘SERPENTINE’ FROM OUT OF REACH
AVAILABLE DIGITALLY FOR THE FIRST TIME
https://soundcloud.com/muterecords/can-serpentine/s-ObTeb

MONSTER MOVIE, TAGO MAGO, SOUNDTRACKS, EGE BAMYASI
TO BE AVAILABLE SEPT 2nd, 2014
“…they were perfect...they were eternal, and we can share it” – Alan Warner

"Can are the most revolutionary band ever…” - New Order’s Stephen Morris
Seminal experimental rock group Can will re-issue fourteen catalog albums on vinyl, which have been unavailable on the format for over a decade. The first four to be released - Monster Movie, Tago Mago, Soundtracks, and Ege Bamyasi – are regarded as some of the most groundbreaking works in rock history and are due out September 2nd, 2014, on Mute.

Can will also release The Lost Tapes as five individual vinyl albums, previously released only as a box set.

Can, founded in 1968 by Irmin Schmidt, Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit, formed a group that utilized and transformed all boundaries of ethnic, electronic experimental and modern classical music. Regarded as one of the most influential avant-garde rock groups in history, Can were at the forefront of the German krautrock movement of the late 1960’s and early 70’s along with such bands as Neu! and Kraftwerk. Combing elements of psychedelia with classic pop and progressive compositional methods, Can’s music directly inspired major artists of the period such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop, before going on to shape everything from indie rock to electronica.

Can’s powerful influence has never diminished, and their mark is apparent in the bands who freely acknowledge their significance - from Portishead, James Murphy, New Order, Factory Floor, Public Image Ltd, Mogwai, Kanye West and Radiohead.

Earlier this year, Faber & Faber announced they will release a Can biography / symposium, curated by Irmin Schmidt. The biography will be written by Rob Young, and the symposium section will use Can as a starting point for a collection of stories, statements and interviews. For more information, click here.

The 33 1/3 series of books have just announced that Alan Warner, a long time fan of the band and the author of the sleeve notes for the acclaimed Can Vinyl Box release, will release a book about Tago Mago in November. For more information, click here.

Upcoming release schedule for the entire vinyl reissue series:

October 7th: Future Days, Soon Over Babaluma, Landed, Flow Motion, Saw Delight (inc CD)

October 21st: Can, Delay, Out Of Reach (inc first time on CD), Rite Time, Unlimited Edition

November 4th: The Lost Tapes, volumes 1-5

More details on the September 2nd re-issues below.
Monster Movie
The debut album from 1969 with Malcolm Mooney on vocals.
The use of improvisation, experimentation, editing and layering of sounds set a standard for Can’s subsequent albums in the early 1970s. Includes ‘Mary, Mary So Contrary’ which Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood picked out for the soundtrack to the film ‘Norwegian Wood’.

TRACKLISTING:
Father Cannot Yell / Mary, Mary So Contrary /
Outside My Door / You Doo Right
Soundtracks
A compilation album, first released in 1970, consisting of tracks written for film. Significant in it’s marking of the departure of Malcolm Mooney and arrival of Damo Suzuki, both vocalist feature on the album and is the only time to do so until the release of The Lost Tapes in 2013.

TRACKLISTING:
Deadlock / Tango Whiskeyman / Deadlock /
Don’t Turn The Light On, Leave Me Alone /
Soul Desert / Mother Sky / She Bring The Rain
Tago Mago
Can’s third studio album from 1971, the first full album with Damo Suzuki and the album that is often sited as ‘the’ Can album to own, although, everyone has a different favorite Can album. The original double vinyl release is echo’d on the new remastered version.

TRACKLISTING:
Paperhouse / Mushroom / Oh Yeah / Halleluhwah / Aumgn / Peking O / Bring Me Coffee Or Tea

Ege Bamyasi
Can’s fourth studio album from 1972 features ‘Sing Swan Song’ which Kanye West sampled on his track, ‘Drunk and Hot Girls’. Beck also covered ”I’m So Green" on his album Graduation. In 2012 Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus performed the album in it’s entirety in Cologne in the presence of some of the founding Can members. Another Can album that is hard, nigh impossible to find fault with and includes the influential ‘Spoon’ which the band named their record label after.

TRACKLISTING:
Pinch / Swing Swan Song / One More Night
Vitamin C / Soup / I’m So Green / Spoon
CAN: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK

MUTE: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | TUMBLR | SOUNDCLOUD

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reminds me: from the music documentaries online thread:

Just watched this good Can documentary, from 1999, 1 hour, 27 min. Mostly music, mostly long performances.Would like to see full-length "I Want More," with the disco gold dust women, and this is the only one where audience, well some of the audience, move with the music, rather than staring, like the students in The Blow-Up. From 1971 on, we get various vocalists, the funk-and-then-some, tophatted bassist, when Holger transfers to his tapes, shortwave and Morse key; excerpts from previous Continental docs, stretching out on The Old Grey Whistle Test, in the home stretch with comments and remix excerpts from Carl Craig, Sonic Youth, James Lavelle and U.N.K.L.E, the Orb ("The first time I heard about Can was in this thing about the Sex Pistols"). The music never stops, or takes a backseat to talk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNhuwkmmzak
― dow, Friday, June 27, 2014 12:17 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bedhead: 1992 - 1998.

The complete studio recordings of Dallas, Texas, slow-core pioneers are finally being reissued on vinyl, both as stand-alone albums, and as part of a gorgeous box set (direct to consumer only and limited to 2000; pictured above). This comes to you from who else but Numero Group, on November 11th. Every cymbal crash, guitar brush, and whisper can be heard across five LPs or four compact discs.

The deluxe box includes WhatFunLifeWas, Beheaded, Transaction De Novo, and an additional disc (2xLP in the vinyl box) overflowing with singles, EPs, and outtakes, alongside a perfect bound book dissecting the quintet's nervous slouch through the '90s.

WATCH A PREVIEW OF BEDHEAD: 1992 - 1998:

http://youtu.be/8xmCZiJt4XE

"I met them in full flower, in the depths of their mania, pursuing contemplative music with the kind of intensity normally found in psychopaths. No detail was too small to sweat, no crack in the veneer not worth gluing and clamping. We built a common language, equal parts philosophy, rock music, and disdain for the dullness around us." - Steve Albini, on recording Transaction De Novo

WhatFunLifeWas

Liferaft

Haywire

Bedside Table

The Unpredictable Landlord

Crushing

Unfinished

Powder

Foaming Love

To The Ground

Living Well

Wind Down

Beheaded

Beheaded

The Rest Of The Day

Left Behind

What's Missing

Smoke

Burned Out

Roman Candle

Withdraw

Felo De Se

Lares and Penates

Losing Memories

Transaction De Novo

Exhume

More Than Ever

Parade

Half-Thought

Extramundane

Forgetting

Lepidoptera

Psychosomatica

The Present

Singles/B-Sides/Etc.

Heizahobit

Dead Language

What I'm Here For

Disorder

The Dark Ages

Inhume

Any Life

Bedside Table (7" version)

Living Well (7" version)

The Rest Of The Day (7" version)

I'm Not Here

Intents and Purposes

Golden Brown

Leper

From Drag City News:

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THE GEORGE-EDWARDS GROUP GIVE THE 3RD DEGREE
The strange and wonderful home recordings of The George-Edwards Group were recorded in the 1970s, yet they're marked by natural tape sounds that give them a timeless space. Having thus far provided two full albums of sanguine melody and mood, 38:38 and Archives, it's time now to prep our universal ear for the third installment of the book of George-Edwards, Chapter III!
Chapter III of The George-Edwards Group archives draws from deep in the pockets of their sporadic later embodiment. With their grand 70s dreams of Hollywood stardom fading, Edward Balian and Ray George continued to track their winsome muse, perhaps a bit more aggro and with a bit more dolor than they had back in the 38:38 days. Although late-60s Detroit was the seedbed for The George-Edwards Group, they had more in common with Silver Apples than the Amboy Dukes. Enamored of keyboard effects and sonic tomfoolery, they developed their sound away from the scene, slowly developing a spacily elegant pop music as the 70s passed by outside their basement lair. Scoring their melancholic melodies with bells, pianos and synthesizer led to something you might almost call ba-roque n roll (if someone hadn’t already said it about The Left Banke!), or perhaps like demos for Big Star’s Third. Chapter III throws the vault open once again with flair. Future generations (and this one too) will treasure these lost-and-found sounds as if they were their own; time makes The George-Edwards Group only more powerful. Chapter III begins October 21st!

I heard a rumor that Trouble In Mind is reissuing "The Further Adventures of Charles Westover” by Del Shannon. One of my favorite records!

Numerophiles of the world rejoice!

After an extremely successful tour of Europe this summer, The Numero Group’s own Rob Sevier, Ken Shipley, and Jon Kirby are bringing our records and message to other friendly climes. We know that many of you will not be able to travel to say, Scotlandia to see us, but there are plenty of west coast Canadians, Emerald Islers, and Blighties young and old who’ve never feasted their eyes or ears on these dashing lads. But it’s not just dudes in their thirties playing 45s for disinterested hipsters, we’re talking, shilling an exclusive album, and even hosting one of our patented pop-up stores. We’d love to see you, or at least we’d like to see you with your wallet in one hand.

The schedule:

September 10th Seattle, WA @ Barboza
September 11th Victoria, BC @ Rifflandia
September 20th Edinburgh, Scotland @ Studio 24
September 21st Manchester, England @ Elektrik Bar
September 23rd London, England @ Rough Trade East (a conversation with Rob Sevier & Ken Shipley)
September 24th London, England @ Servant Jazz Quarters
September 25th Dublin, Ireland @ Sugar Club
September 26th Cork, Ireland @ Triskel Arts Centre
September 27th London, England @ Ace Hotel
September 28th London, England @ Strongroom (Numero pop up store)

When we went to Europe we brought this dandy 45 by the Out of Sights:
http://www.numerogroup.com/products/out-of-sights-tears-dont-care-who-cries-bw-for-the-rest-of-my-life
We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be bringing not only a box full of those gems but also our first, and probably only, northern soul compilation.

http://www.numerogroup.com/images/product_images/web/tinmine-soul-supply-1.jpg

Only 1000 of these exist, and beyond showing up to a Numero gig in the UK or going to an indie store in the UK, the only way to procure this 10 quid, 20 song, talc-dusted piece of reverse colonial madness is to be a Numero subscriber, or to become one. Track list and pithy description here:
http://www.numerogroup.com/products/tinmine-soul-supply
We’ll of course have this and hundreds of other Numero titles at our London pop-up store. Looking for a copy of a rare Numero single? Did you just find out about our amazing Purple Snow: Forecasting The Minneapolis Sound 4LP/2CD box set because we won AIM's "Special Catalogue Release of the Year" award and now need copies for your friends, neighbors, and relatives? Wanna buy Cities of Darkscorch without having to pay an arm and a leg for freight? We’ve got you covered. Here’s those details:

The Numero Group Pop Up Emporium
Sunday, 28 September 2014
Strongroom Bar & Kitchen
2PM-10PM
Cash/Credit

We can’t wait to be showered with your undying love and affection.

Numero teased a possible Ork Records box on instagram today. That would be nice.

http://pitchfork.com/news/56557-captain-beefheart-box-set-sun-zoom-spark-1970-1972-announced/
(only relevance of Pitchfork is that it has the tracklisting and links to some related videos)

Lick My Decals off, Baby, Spotlight Kid and Clearspot all released in a box set on November the 11th with a 4th disc of outtake material. All remastered.
Decals was my first Beefheart lp after picking it up in a scratched up copy in my local 2nd hand record shop in '83. I thought the next lp after it was Clearspot since I'm hearing the start of a soul influence that becomes a lot more overt on that record on it. Seems to be about half way between that lp and Troutmask Replica. I think there were line-up changes between each of the lps at that point anyway weren't there? one guitarist leaving between TMR and LMDOB or something and further changes before the more conventional Clearspot. Clearspot is still reasonably weird but does sound like it fits in with other things around the same time, maybe that's just thinking of things like Little Feat who contain other alumni of Beefheart/Zappa in their ranks as being normal though.

Anyway I'm looking forward to this. Got to remember to try to get hold of the Bill Harkleroad book reprint if i didn't already miss it.

all of those outtakes are amazing and essential, there's a 5CD version floating around that was on Dime

My dad only had two rock LPs: sgt peppers and lick my decals. The rest was all baroque music and west coast jazz. It's my favorite beefheart.

I need to have another go at Captain Beefheart one day.

Is that Beefheart thing gonna a Handmade release, or on the regular Rhino label? Because $$$$$$$

ooh good question

I hate Rhino handmade, put that goddamn shit on your website as FLAC files after the CDs sell out you idiots

Amazon has it at $50, which seems on the low side for a Handmade release (when measured against the $40 2CD sets they peddle).

$99 for the vinyl but ooooh I want it, that cover art is great

Lots of people of been waiting for this for a long time, especially Decals which was out of print for 25 years. Wish I'd sold my copies before this was announced, as they would have paid for the new one. Two of his best albums, can't go wrong here.

Now let's have a matching Starsailor/Blue Afternoon/Lorca set (with sufficient lead time for me to sell my Starsailor CD at market value)

diving in to the tracklist for those outtakes, they seem to have nothing or very little in common with what is commonly known as "The Spotlight Kid Outtakes", which maybe makes them even more essential. Wonder where they dug this stuff up? Killing me that "Funeral Hill" has still not been officially released...

Yall may well be on top of this, but just in case: this guy does conjectural, "imaginary" versions of albums that never were (aborted, thwarted, etc)---incl Beefheart's apparently intended 2-discIt Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper. Mostly if not all previously if belatedly released, but here minus what the Captain called "psychedelic Bromo-Seltzer" and other label mandates, and in what may be the intended order:
http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/captain-beefheart-it-comes-to-you-in.html

Oh cool, that guy's Floyd and VU and beach boys assemblies were wonderful

yes that's excellent, thanks

Bob Lind's best record will be reissued!!
http://mapacherecords.com/shop/bob-lind-since-there-were-circles/

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Barbara Lynn

Here Is Barbara Lynn

Light In The Attic

LITA 119

Available: October 28, 2014

To be a woman singing your own blues and soul songs in 1960s Texas was a rare thing. To do so while brandishing a left-handed Stratocaster and bashing out hard-edged licks was even rarer. Yet that’s just what Barbara Lynn did, inspired by Guitar Slim, Jimmy Reed, Elvis Presley and Brenda Lee. And it was a hit: her 1962 debut single, “You’ll Lose A Good Thing,” recorded with session musicians including Dr. John, gave her an R&B chart Number One and a Billboard chart Top 10 hit.

It was a path that Lynn chose at elementary school in 1940s Beaumont, Texas, when she told her mother she wanted to play guitar. “I decided that playing piano was a little bit too common, you know what I mean?” says Lynn in the new liner notes. “You’d always see a lady or a little girl sitting at a piano. I decided I wanted to play something more unexpected, so that’s when I got interested in learning to play the guitar.” Self-taught, first on the ukulele and then on a guitar, Lynn formed her first group, Barbara Lynn and Her Idols, while still at school and soon took the local scene by storm. Hers was a powerful talent in a petite package, a performer who could stand up against the best–even as a teenager.

Spotted while performing, underage, in Louisiana, she was offered the chance to record her own material, songs that filtered the experience of being a black Texan teen with power, feel, and guts. Ten of the twelve tracks on her debut album were her own compositions. “It took a lot of time,” Lynn remembers of the recording process, “but we got ‘Good Thing,’ we got our hit. I loved it. I loved meeting the new musicians; a lot of the guys who played on that record became friends. And seeing how the engineers worked and how they produced the sounds, all of that was really interesting to me.”

The success of that single took Lynn out on the road with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, BB King, Supremes, Chuck Berry, Guitar Slim, and The Temptations. BB King even wrote a letter to Lynn’s mother to tell her what a talented daughter she’d raised. She appeared at the Apollo Theater, she was twice on American Bandstand, and one of her songs, “Oh Baby (We’ve Got A Good Thing Goin’)” was covered by The Rolling Stones.

Though she was a precocious performer, hers is a talent that came to full bloom on Here Is Barbara Lynn, her 1968 album produced by Huey P. Meaux and originally released on Atlantic Records. The record was conceived as an introduction of Lynn’s prodigious talents, her deeply felt guitar playing, her gutsy soulful singing skills, and her songwriting prowess. It collected her early hit and a raft of new songs, each packed with Lynn’s passion and fire. Yet the introduction to her world–now reissued by Light In The Attic–largely proved to be her swansong. She married in 1970, aged 28, had three children, and largely retired from the music industry for most of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Now touring again, she’s amused to think of her 46 year-old album gaining new fans. “I hear this album, and it seems like… it seems like the old times to me,” she says. "I don’t know, it’s strange to know it’s coming out again. It is going to be a wild, first time thing for me, like going back in time. But I’m excited to see what happens.”

24bit / 96kHz remastering from original 1/4” tapes
Liner notes by Jessica Hundley interviewing Barbara, plus rare archive photographs
180gram LP housed in an expanded deluxe Stoughton gatefold “Tip-On” jacket

Tracks streaming here, for now: http://lightintheattic.net/releases/1367-here-is-barbara-lynn

Hate that they're digitally remastering it for vinyl, but I appreciate their honesty. At least it's not CD quality.

Sly Stone
I’m Just Like You: Sly’s Stone Flower 1969-70
CD & Digital available NOW
LP Available: November 4, 2014

Check out this short doc on the making of this reissue project HERE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oCyHAhJgFA

In 1970, The Family Stone were at the peak of their popularity, but the maestro Sly Stone had already moved his head to a completely different space. The first evidence of Sly’s musical about-turn was revealed by the small catalog of his new label, Stone Flower: a pioneering, peculiar, minimal electro-funk sound that unfolded over just four seven-inch singles. Stone Flower’s releases were credited to their individual artists, but each had Sly’s design and musicianship stamped into the grooves–and the words “Written by Sylvester Stewart/Produced and arranged by Sly Stone” on the sticker.

Set up by Stone’s manager David Kapralik with distribution by Atlantic Records, Stone Flower was, predictably, a family affair: the first release was by Little Sister, fronted by Stone’s little sister Vaetta Stewart. It was short lived too–the imprint folded in 1971–but its influence was longer lasting. The sound Stone formulated while working on Stone Flower’s output would shape the next phase in his own career as a recording artist: it was here he began experimenting with the brand new Maestro Rhythm King drum machine. In conjunction with languid, effected organ and guitar sounds and a distinctly lo-fi soundscape, Sly’s productions for Stone Flower would inform the basis of his masterwork There’s A Riot Goin’ On.

The first 45 came in February 1970: Little Sister’s dancefloor-ready “You’re The One” hit Number 22 in the charts–the label’s highest showing. The follow-up, “Stanga," also by Little Sister, made the wah pedal the star. The third release came from 6IX, a six-piece multi-racial rock group whose sole release, a super-slow version of The Family Stone’s “Dynamite," featured only the lead singer and harmonica player from the group. Joe Hicks was the final Stone Flower stablemate; his pulsing, electronic "Life And Death In G&A” is one of the bleakest moments Sly Stone ever created on disc (Hicks’ prior single for Scepter, “Home Sweet Home,” the first released Stone Flower production, is also included).

This long overdue compilation of Sly’s Stone Flower era gathers each side of the five 45s plus ten previously unissued cuts from the label archives, all newly remastered from the original tapes. In these grooves you’ll find the missing link between the rocky, soulful Sly Stone of Stand! and the dark, drum machine-punctuated, overdubbed sound of There’s A Riot Going On. I’m Just Like You: Sly’s Stone Flower 1969-70 opens up the mysteries of an obscure but monumental phase in Stone’s career.

-Compilation and notes by Alec Palao
-An exclusive new interview with Sly Stone himself
-In-depth liner notes with first-hand reminiscences of the Stone Flower era from many of the participants
-Features all five Stone Flower produced singles plus ten previously unissued cuts from the label archives
-All tracks newly remastered from the original tapes
-2xLP housed in a gatefold “tip-on” jacket
-Sly approved Rotter and Friends x Light In The Attic “Stone Flower” shirts
-Limited edition poster illustrated by Jess Rotter

--

that looks awesome

I am psyched about that. I only have one original Stone Flower 45 and kinda want everything. I'm sure there's some crossover with that Ace label comp of his recordings from the late 60s and early 70s, but that's fine.

Word from Forced Exposure newsletter: no bonus tracks, but good presentation:

BRIAN ENO & JON HASSELL: Fourth World Music Vol. I: Possible Musics CD
GLITTERBEAT (Germany) / GB 019CD
release date: 11/25/2014

DESCRIPTION

Originally released in 1980, Jon Hassell and Brian Eno's collaborative album Fourth World Music Vol. I: Possible Musics is a sound document whose ongoing influence seems beyond dispute. Not only is the album a defining moment in the development of what Eno coined as "ambient music" but it also facilitated the introduction of Hassell's "future primitive" trumpet stylings and visionary "Fourth World" musical theories to the broader public. These vectors continue to enrich contemporary audio culture. Eno's ambient strategies are now fixed in the DNA of electronic music and the cross-cultural legacy of Hassell's "Fourth World" concept is apparent not only in the marketplace genre "World Music" but also more persuasively in the accelerating number of digitally-driven, borderless musical fusions we now experience. By the time that Eno and Hassell met, Hassell's experiments with a "Fourth World" musical vocabulary were well underway and in fact it was because of these experiments, particularly Hassell's debut album Vernal Equinox that Brian Eno purposefully sought him out. Within a couple of months of Hassell's performance at The Kitchen the duo entered Celestial Sound in New York City and began work on what would become Fourth World Music Vol. I: Possible Musics. Hassell invited previous collaborators like the Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and the Senegalese drummer Ayibe Dieng to join the sessions. Most of the tracks carry a Hassell/Eno writing credit, though the 20-minute "Charm (Over 'Burundi Cloud')" was a carryover from Hassell's concert repertoire. Hassell has made it clear in several interviews over the years that the album's shared billing was at least partly inaccurate and that Eno's contribution was mainly as a producer. More spiky, angular and steeped in rhythm and exoticism than most of Eno's records and more drone-based, reflective and sonorous than most of Hassell's outings, Possible Musics -- whatever the actual division of labor in sound and concept -- is a seminal highlight in both of their discographies. A meeting of two of the late 20th century's most restless and prescient musicians, the album sounds as beguiling, indeterminate and otherworldly today as it did 34 years ago when it was originally released. The impact of Possible Musics on the contemporary music conversation was almost immediate. Just ten days after it was mastered, Brian Eno and David Byrne convened in Los Angeles to continue experiments inspired in part by Hassell's musical theories. The resultant album would be called My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. All parties involved agree that Ghosts was originally conceived as a trio project that included Hassell but the idea fell apart over disagreements about logistics and musical direction. Hassell still remains bitter about what he considers the projects un-credited appropriation of his musical signatures. From there it was a short jump forward to the chart-topping, Afro-futurism of The Talking Heads Remain in Light, an album that Eno co-produced and Hassell guested on. "Fourth World" strategies have echoed, and can still be heard echoing in the music of Peter Gabriel, Nils Petter Molvaer, Björk, David Sylvian, David Byrne, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Damon Albarn, DJ Spooky, Jah Wobble, Matmos, 23 Skidoo, Goat, Bill Laswell, Mark Ernestus, Adrian Sherwood, and of course, the ongoing projects of Eno and Hassell themselves. Glitterbeat is proud and honored to re-release and re-introduce this compelling, groundbreaking album.

TRACKLISTING

01.

Chemistry

6:54

02.

Delta Rain Dream

3:27

03.

Griot (Over "Contagious Magic")

4:02

04.

Ba-benzélé

6:10

05.

Rising Thermal 14° 16' N; 32° 28' E

3:09

06.

Charm (Over "Burundi Cloud")

21:37

HIGHLIGHTS

- Glitterbeat reissues the genre-defining 1980 album Fourth World Music Vol. 1: Possible Musics from Brian Eno and Jon Hassell.
- Not only a defining moment in ambient music as defined by Eno, but also heralded the introduction of Hassell's "future primitive" trumpet stylings and visionary "Fourth World" theories.
- Gatefold LP version pressed on 180 gram vinyl with CD.
- "Jon Hassell invented the term 'Fourth World' both to describe his music and as a general term applicable