Franz Ferdinand/Always Ascending
Vinyl LP pressing. Indie pink also available. 2018 release. A triumphant recasting, Franz Ferdinand’s Always Ascending is as exuberant as it is euphoric, bursting with fresh ideas born of what Alex Kapranos calls “aggressive sonic experimentation.” With the help of producer Philippe Zdar (Cassius, Phoenix, Beastie Boys), Kapranos and Co. Took a knife to their old canvas, producing an album that is so foreign in it’s familiarity it could only be current. A sound the singer refers to as “simultaneously futuristic and naturalistic.” These are the louche tales of the Parisian night, the exhilaration of an Italian car racing down the autobahn; a feeling of euphoria so pure it could only exist on a knife’s edge. As such, best to press play expecting nothing more than a good time. “I hope that when you listen to it you feel exhilarated,” Kapranos says, “Until you fully absorb the lyrics.”
MGMT/Little Dark Age
Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket including digital download. 2018 release. Little Dark Age was produced by MGMT, Patrick Wimberly (Chairlift, Kelela, Blood Orange), and long-time collaborator Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Spoon, Tame Impala). MGMT recorded Little Dark Age at Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, NY. The album includes the previously released title song “Little Dark Age,” and the tracks “When You Die” and “Hand It Over.” Formed in 2002 by Andrew VanWyngarden (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard, bass guitar, drums, percussion) and Ben Goldwasser (vocals, keyboards, guitar, percussion), MGMT released their influential, Grammy-nominated, debut album Oracular Spectacular in 2007. This was followed by 2010’s Congratulations and 2013’s self-titled album MGMT.
Nina Simone/Mood Indigo:The Complete Bethlehem Singles
Vinyl LP pressing. Mood Indigo: Complete Bethlehem Singles – Nina Simone’s classic Bethlehem singles collected in one package including a bonus 7″ single featuring remastered “Porgy (Porgy, Loves You)”. Carefully curated and packaged together to bring back Nina’s classic recordings.
Ezra Furman/Transangelic Exodus
Wild Child/Expectations
Vinyl LP pressing. Wild Child’s new album Expectations, out February 9, 2018, is the band’s most nuanced work to date. They’ve stretched their songwriting abilities on this record to both reflect and expand further upon their unique sound, and the album expertly rides the wave of genres that flows between beautifully sentimental acoustic to loud, distorted rock and back again. The band enlisted the help of several heavy-hitting producers to make this record: Chris Walla (formerly of Death Cab for Cutie), Matthew Logan Vasquez (Delta Spirit), Chris Boosahda (Shakey Graves), Scott McMicken (Dr. Dog), Adrian Quesada (Grupo Fantasma), and Max Frost.
John Tejada/Dead Start Program
Double LP version. Includes download code. Following up to three albums on Kompakt since 2011, the latest being Signs Under Test in 2015 (KOMP 119CD/KOM 321LP), Los Angeles based house and techno producer John Tejada returns to the Cologne-based imprint with his thirteenth full-length, Dead Start Program – an eleven-track journey spanning a prismatic array of styles and patterns, from John’s signature soulful techno tunes to the further mazy, hypnotic motifs of his trancey electro hybrids. Be it solo or through a host of multifaceted collaborations, Tejada keeps himself busy on all fronts in and off the club environment, be it by contributing the 44th number in Fabric’s seminal mix series (FABRIC 087CD, 2001), playing drums for Detroit legend Daniel Bell (as DBX), testing the limits of acid with Tin Man or joining forces with the hilarious self-proclaimed “disinformationist” Reggie Watts as Wajatta. Since his beginnings and the drop of his debut 12″, Waxing, released through his own label Palette Recordings in 1996, John has been carving out a lane of his own – combining and assembling elements from all ends of his wide-spanning spectrum of reference in a way that allows a more direct transition from the realm of the mind to the circuits of the machine, as confirmed by the deliberately limited studio setup used in the making of the present album. Navigating across the lines, from the arrhythmic machine spook of the album’s opener “Autoseek” via the straight-out thumping and jacking pulse of “Hypochondriac” and heavy-lidded breakbeat of “Sleep Spindle” onto the kosmische-infused vibrations of “Telemetry”, vibrant slo-mo inertia of “Loss” and wistful club-ready winds of “Duty Cycle” and “Heal”, John threads his way through genres and tempos with optimal chameleonic effect. Cloaked in a beautiful sleeve art courtesy of John’s long-time friend Juan Mendez, aka Silent Servant – another key contributor to the Los Angeles scene worldwide, based upon a picture by Mark Richards, Dead Start Program draws it’s title from the analog start up program used to boot an old CDC 6600 computer from a dead start and which metaphorically invites in John’s own words to figure a “reboot from the challenges life throws at you.”
Joan As Police Woman/Damned Devotion
Vinyl LP pressing. Already acknowledged as a thrilling live performer and starkly honest lyricist, Damned Devotion finds Joan Wasserat her rawest. While her 2014 album The Classic was a soulful celebration of life and her 2011 album The Deep Field a lush moody expansion, this new release sees her stripping her compositions back to the core, the bare-all lyricism and timeless melodies harking back to her accolade-winning album To Survive (2008) and her universally acclaimed debut Real Life (2006). “My maxim is: if it feels scary to say it, it’s the thing you must say,” Joan says. On Damned Devotion the thoughtful lyricism is married to Joan as Police Woman’s most accessible music to date.
GoGo Penguin/A Humdrum Star
Bruce Brubaker/Codex
Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. 2018 release. On Codex, American pianist Bruce Brubaker sets up a clash (or a discussion) between Terry Riley’s Keyboard Study No. 2 (1965) and the Codex Faenza, a 15th century manuscript considered to be one of the very first collections of keyboard music. By putting forth the work of the performer/creator above that of the composer, this back-and forth takes the listener on a journey that is at once timeless and eminently current. Over six centuries ago, at the dawn of the 15th century, unknown scribes – authentic artists or inspired copyists, that we do not know – collected over fifty vocal compositions, some from the previous century. Liturgical or secular, anonymous or bearing the imprint of the Ars nova’s most famous French and Italian composers (Jacopo da Bologna, Francesco Landini, Guillaume de Machaut, Pierre des Molins…), these works were transcribed on two parallel staves, which was unusual at the time and indicate that they were intended for keyboard. Thus the Codex Faenza – named after the Ravenna-adjacent town where it is kept – created circa 1420 and rediscovered in the 1930s, became an object of fascination for harpsichordists, organists and pianists the world over, as one of the oldest keyboard scores to have survived.
A.R. Rahman/The Essential A.R. Rahman
Twin Peaks/Sweet ’17 Singles
Vinyl LP pressing. Throughout the second half of 2017, Chicago’s Twin Peaks released a run of a half dozen limited-edition 7″ singles the band affectionately dubbed Sweet ’17. Only 300 copies of each 7″ were made, and subscriptions sold out almost immediately. Due to popular demand, Twin Peaks have compiled all of the songs from the series onto the new 12″ Sweet 17 Singles. The release also coincides with the band’s run of dates supporting Portugal. The Man, and a headline tour that winds through the Midwest in March. Sweet ’17 Singles follows in the footsteps of Down In Heaven, the band’s 2016 full-length release, which expanded on the garage-inspired sounds of 2014’s Wild Onion.
Shovels & Rope/Busted Jukebox Vol.2
Shovels & Rope’s – Busted Jukebox 2 LP – Shovels & Rope’s ‘Busted Jukebox: Volume 1’ is a collaborative effort between critically acclaimed duo Shovels & Rope and their close friends. The ten song collection finds the band covering well known songs or tracks they have written or performed with other artists in the past. Album features collaborations with Shakey Graves, Lucius, J Roddy Walston, Butch Walker and more.
Brain Fallon/Sleepwalkers
Double vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release, the second full-length solo album from the artist best known as singer/guitarist of The Gaslight Anthem as well as The Horrible Crowes. The follow-up to 2016’s Painkillers was recorded earlier this year at Parlor Recording Studio in New Orleans alongside Ted Hutt, who previously worked on The Gaslight Anthem’s 2008 breakthrough LP, The ’59 Sound. Sleepwalkers sees Brian Fallon once again pushing timeless rock ‘n’ roll into the modern era, recasting British Invasion rock, first generation UK punk, and American pop and soul into a near irresistible sound he’s dubbed – with a nod and a wink towards The Who – as Heavy R&B.
Thomas Stronens Time Is A Blind Guide/Lucus
Ruby Boots/Don’t Talk About It
Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing including digital download. 2018 release. Don’t Talk About It charts this drifter’s odyssey, tattered passport in hand. Behind her commanding and versatile voice, sharp guitar playing, and adept songwriting, Ruby Boots confidently maneuvers past the whirlwinds life has tossed on her occasionally lost highway. It’s an album of hope, breakthrough, and handling the unknown challenges around the next bend. Echoes of first wave UK power pop and jangly punk intersect with the every (wo)man indie and pop-inflected muscle of Best Coast. Classic rock touchstones from T. Rex to the girl-group-wall-of-sound to personal hero Tom Petty meld with a weary poet’s eye recalling Hope Sandoval.
Danny Elfman/Justice League OST
Double vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Original score to the 2017 major motion picture composed by Danny Elfman. Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound friend, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. Despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Ramones:
Ringo Starr:
