VINYL NEWS – A ROUND 19 RELEASES

This Vinyl News piece with lots of opinion thrown in is very late indeed but I was determined to ‘get them out there’

THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE

…is the new album by writer/illustrator, Charlie Mackey (Penguin). Actually, it’s an audiobook aimed at all ages featuring, narrated by him with a Max Richter soundtrack accompanying a new composition via Isobel Waller-Bridge. Bespoke sounds of nature (it was recorded in a barn) add flavour. And it’s rather sweet.

BUY HERE: 

USA – https://amzn.to/3ks6cRq

UK – https://amzn.to/3kwsRMo

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3nbsx7M

MILES DAVIS

Merci Miles! (Rhino) is a double live album in a single sleeve, recorded at the Jazz a Vienne Festival, France on 1 July 1991. It includes Penetration and Jailbait, written by Prince. Varied tempos touch on jazz funk, jazz rock and introspection. Miles packs in a host of vibes here.

BUY HERE:

UK – https://amzn.to/3qxHtPq

USA – https://amzn.to/3qvneBU

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/30brdZn

MUNSTER

Three from the Spanish audiophile label sees the release of Venezuelan rocker, The Love Depression from 1968. Fuzz guitars combine with aggressive garage rock. 

BUY HERE:

USA – https://amzn.to/3ohsA0Q

UK – https://amzn.to/2YL98kE

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3C8rmdd

60s Peruvian rock, anyone? Los Teddy’s Doce Psicoéxitos mixes Stones and Doors covers with originals covered in blues rhythms. Atmospheric with fine guitar work.

BUY HERE:

UK – https://amzn.to/3n8MewI

USA – https://amzn.to/30eGgl1

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3HgMKAX

Included in Sebastião Tapajos & Pedro Dos Santos’s 1972 release is a fascinating combination of often delicate acoustic guitar and free-form percussion.

BUY HERE: 

UK – https://amzn.to/3ccJs3b

USA – https://amzn.to/3Dn6Yq8

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3kuayY8

 

C/A

The Only Way We Know To Have Fun By England’s Council Of Legislation And Governing Body Of Hyper Real Simulations And Constructs (cslasha.bandcamp.com) features “medieval speedcore, esoteric grime and horse riding ambient”. 

Full of c/a’s collated singles and EPs from 2020, it combines chaos, melodicism and spectacle, like a million dandelion seeds suddenly blown into the wind. 

BUY HERE: cslasha.bandcamp.com/album/the-only-way-we-know-to-have-fun-w-ecolagbohrsac2021 

ROD

Remastered, spanning five discs and featuring his mid-70s solo work, 1975-1978 (Warner) features Atlantic Crossing, A Night on The Town, Footloose & Fancy Free, Blondes Have More Fun and Encores featuring rarities in a er, Celtic cover. Stirring honest nests? Rod? Nah.

BUY HERE: 

UK – https://amzn.to/30joe0R

USA – https://amzn.to/3qMgikj

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3n8h6NW

ARBENZ

Newly released, jazz drummer, Florian Arbenz works here with American trumpeter Hermon Mehari and Brazilian guitarist, Nelson Veras on the avant-leaning Conversation #1. Offers plenty of room for improv and melodicism.

BUY HERE: florianarbenz.bandcamp.com/album/conversation-1-condensed

DEMON

Three from the UK label (www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk) begins with alt-pop, Drugstore’s Songs for the Jet Set (2001). ‘Alt’ because of the breathy, textured voice of Isabel Monteiro. She always sounded like a passerby, singing in microphone range. ‘Other’ from the group.

BUY HERE: 

USA – https://amzn.to/3qSW0p3

UK – https://amzn.to/3csihll

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3HCHKa1

Also look out for Showaddywaddy’s Rock’n’roll Jukebox new compilation on pink vinyl and stuffed with hits and Jimmy Castor’s The Jimmy Castor Story (1972). An R&B singer, he could belt a song but in a soothing manner.

BUY HERE:

UK – https://amzn.to/3CKLvGV

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3Dz4Zzt

 

AUDIOWEB

Anti-Britpop? Manchester-based house, dub, reggae band, Audiolab ploughed their own mid-90s furrow. Here, they offer their self-titled album (1996) on white vinyl via Demon. 

BUY HERE:

USA – https://amzn.to/3qTPVZG

UK – https://amzn.to/3DE1SpO

There’s a Massive Attack-kinda thing going on, more so with Fireworks City perhaps but this is cross-over music to the max.

MR WILLIAMZ

…presents his new LP, Sound Killa Mindset (Tenwest/Scalpaz) with a reggae state on mind but with hip hop flavours on the periphery and plenty of clever rhyming.

BUY HERE: 

USA – https://amzn.to/3cz9qy0

UK – https://amzn.to/3nyMSUy

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3FzSsMO

SEDIBUS

The Heavens’ is Sedibus four tracker. Sedibus is basically The Orb Redux. Actually Mr Orb, Alex Paterson collaborating with Andy Falconer (who was part of the Orb from 1991-1994). And you know what? It sounds completely beautiful: dub, electronica, ambient, samples, coloured inner, green vinyl, what more do you want?

BUY HERE:

USA – https://amzn.to/3cx93nT

UK – https://amzn.to/3HNcHIK

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3nyG7SJ

 

EBONI BAND

On the We Are Buy Bodies label Eboni Band’s self-titled LP was originally released in 1981, combines musicians from the Ivory Coast and, would you believe, ex-Motown talent. Combining musical cultures, the music within offers 70s-era funk, pastoral musings and joyous contemplation.

BUY HERE: we-are-busy-bodies.myshopify.com/collections/all

BRAIN DAMAGE MEETS BIG YOUTH 

A new collaboration between French dubsters, Brain Damage (Samuel Clayton Jr. and Martin Nathan) and the Kingston, Jamaica DJ, Big Youth. The team up cost Clayton his life, a victim of Covid. 

There’s plenty of jazz and blues tones in the mix here that hang in the air like tuneful clouds.

BUY HERE: 

USA – https://amzn.to/3HvqNOC

UK – https://amzn.to/3cwqnsY

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3nFR98Z

THE PROBLEM OF LEISURE

A compilation covering Gang of Four songs featuring Gary Numan (oh, yes), The Dandy Warhols, Killing Joke, Helmet and more. There’s plenty of variation and interpretation here. There’s no shovelware. Only life.

BUY HERE:

USA – https://amzn.to/3DDRuyj 

UK – https://amzn.to/3FtqJgA

EUROPE: https://amzn.to/3kSmPWH

GEORGE JONES

Country Music Jamboree is a limited-edition (500 copies) 10” release, only available from the Bear Family website (www.bear-family.com). The original version was originally released in Japan, under the Mercury label, in 1960. The original eight tracks are joined by four bonus rarities. Gotta say, this on-going, limited-edition 10” series is pure gold. Keep it up guys!

BLUE STOMPIN’

Energetic and animated jazz from 1959 via sax men, Hal Singer and Kippie Moketsi (We Are Busy Bodies) packs in a swinging party affair onto a single disc on which the guys skip and gambol and squeeze in a heap of quality solos.  Classic stuff.

BUY HERE: 

USA – https://amzn.to/3nxeARs

UK – https://amzn.to/32hLRIq

EUROPE – https://amzn.to/3FtqUIM