So, since 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, Thrill Jockey is taking it upon themselves to repress damn near the entire Tortoise catalog on the vinyl format. Starting apparently, with Standards, the group’s standout album from 2001. The post-rock genre has bled out magnificently, but this band’s entire discography still sounds fresh and needless [...]
Light In The Attic Records is off to a helluva start with their Modern Classics series. Entry number two is none other than the classic (indeed) 90′s recording Cure for Pain by everyone’s favorite saxophone wielding alternative rock trio Morphine. Featuring remastered audio on 180 gram vinyl, not to mention the very first U.S. pressing [...]
Heavy. Fucking. Deeds. Dark Magus is a live album from 1974, recorded by Miles Davis and his electric group at the alleged pinnacle of the bandleader’s addiction to cocaine and painkillers. The term “heavy” gets pretty much nonstop dropped when folks are discussing this music. It is a classic recording, and has been all but [...]
Well, color me embarrassed. I was fully unaware that Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs had been awarded “Modern Classic” status. 9.3 from Pitchfork? Wha? I didn’t even realize Pitchfork was around when I was in high school. In any case, great to see this one on vinyl – it is indeed a classic. Pick it up [...]
If you haven’t already been giving this one heavy play, prepare to be introduced to one of your favorite records of 2011. Thundercat (aka Stephen Bruner) is playing an absolutely authentic blend of smoothed-out jazz and funk from a bygone era. This shit just sounds too good, too pure to be from 2011. Bruner is [...]
We love new vinyl from Blackest Rainbow. The label is so damn prolific though, it’s hard to keep up with. We are just now writing up these brand new albums from Acid Birds and Isidore Ducasse, and already they’ve got a whole new batch of amazing shit up for pre-order. One thing at a time, [...]
Just got hipped to this brand new 2xLP being peddled over at Thrill Jockey. A live recording of a couple dudes from legendary Chicago act Tortoise laying down some jams with “Japanese Alto Saxophone Free Jazz Extraordinaire” Akira Sakata. Now you know about as much as I do, except to tell you that these come [...]
Nick Butcher just released the third entry in his “Free Jazz Bitmaps” series, an exploration of early Chicago electronic music and free jazz. Of the three so far, this one is my favorite. These usually disappear fast, so don’t sleep. The lathe-cut 7″ comes in a screenprinted sleeve, includes a print, has a tiny edition [...]
This record from Simon Henneman sat in vinyl limbo for over five years, but has finally been given a proper LP release. “Black Magic & Moustache” is, quite simply, a near-perfect jazz record. Henneman plays all instruments on the record himself and fearlessly plows through every crack and crevice the experimental jazz genre has to [...]
Minneapolis label Taiga is back with another beautiful vinyl edition, this time for the third volume of Rafael Toral’s “Space Elements” series. If you missed the first two, this collection of albums features Toral burning through some completely way-out improvisational, experimental jazz. The entire record is pretty far left of conventional, but it’s sure exciting [...]
