Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

LORELLE MEETS the OBSOLETE – ” Balance “

Posted: December 10, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Mexican duo Lorelle Meets The Obsolete return with their fourth album, ‘Balance’, which was released in September via Captcha Records and Sonic Cathedral. ‘Balance’ was recorded by the band at their home studio, before being mixed by Cooper Crain (Cave, Bitchin Bajas) at MINBAL in Chicago and mastered in Melbourne by Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring).

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The title track and opener blows away the layers of dusty psych from 2014’s ‘Chambers’, the duo’s previous album, to reveal a sparse and spare sound, embellished with new wave keyboards that wouldn’t sound out of place on one of the early Magazine albums; ‘The Sound Of All Things’ is a mini-epic, opening with a two-and-a-half-minute soundscape, before roaring into life; ‘La Distinción’ is a driving drone-rocker, not dissimilar to ‘What’s Holding You?’ but with the addition of a surprisingly soulful chorus. Lorelle Meets The Obsolete count Robert Smith, Mani and Sonic Boom among their fans, but the most enthusiastic is Henry Rollins. Here’s what he said about ‘Balance’: “It lives up to its name by achieving a balance between fuzz and clarity, nuance and throttle. The mix, which is incredible, utilises the brilliance of the component parts of each song, with a subtlety and dexterity that is not nearly as frequent in the albums that came before. It feels more like there was such an accumulation of captured dreams and their interpretation, that eventually it filled an album.”

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JOSEFIN ÖHRN & The LIBERATION – ” Mirage ” Best Albums of 2016

Posted: December 10, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Having already been nominated for a Swedish Grammy with their debut EP, Diamond Waves, their debut full-length 2015 on Rocket Recordings, “Horse Dance”, marked out a territory in which beguiling repetition could sashay with sweet pop sounds, melodic flourishes with experimental intensity, and it was summarily rapturously received on arrival, making new fans and earning them appearances at Roskilde Festival and Eindhoven Psych Lab.

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This their second full lenth effort “Mirage”, which follows a mere year after its predecessor, sees the band sculpting sprawling, hypnotic jams into elegant nocturnal serenades. “We agree on not remembering very much about how these tracks came about, that all of them were written on the road and that most of them came fully formed” note the band. “Most were really long to begin with, but we found it relieving to break away a bit from the mandatory psych jams a little bit.

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We also just realised that none of them were written in daylight, which might be why memory is so elusive.” Indeed, this approach seems to fit well with the primary inspiration for the five-piece band, which centred on ‘the state where dreams, visions and the present are entwined’ .“Mirage” sees the band taking a chic tradition of avant-pop that extends all the way from Serge Gainsbourg and Françoise Hardy to Broadcast and Saint Etienne, and warping it mercilessly to their own darker ends. Whilst the brooding yet sultry ‘Sister Green Eyes’ is no less than a sharp slice of motorik-pop and ‘Looking For You’ reinvents three-chord garage-rock attack with mighty finesse, The Liberation are just as comfortable dealing out the heavy-lidded and electronically-driven ‘In Madrid’ or the dive in the hallucinatory deep end of ‘Circular Motion’, on which they’re aided and abetted by the Lay Llamas’ Nicola Guinta. The seductive splendour of these ten songs å make manifest a parallel world of disorientation and deliverance in which one would be a fool not to want to languish adrift . Fresh excitement for the band lies in wait, courtesy of a UK tour with Goat and an appearance at Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia.

PSYCHIC ILLS – ” Inner Journey Out ” Best albums Of 2016

Posted: December 10, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The seekers in New York City’s Psychic Ills have spent more than a decade following their muse wherever it takes them. Inner Journey Out, the band’s highly anticipated fifth album and first since 2013, is the culmination of an odyssey of three years of writing, traversing the psych-rock landscape they’ve carved throughout their career and taking inspired pilgrimages into country, blues, gospel, and jazz.

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Inner Journey Out started out the way many Psychic Ills records have – with frontman Tres Warren’s demos. Like all of their records, Elizabeth Hart’s bass is the glue that holds everything together. Where other recent albums found Warren overdubbing himself to create a blown-out, widescreen sound, this recording handed the reigns to a multitude of guest players. A cadre of musicians and vocalists – including Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, who duets on lead single “I Don’t Mind” – join in on the journey. This is the first record to feature touring keyboard player Brent Cordero, his Farfisa and Wurlitzer work is a staple throughout. Rounding things out, is a platoon of drummers and percussionists including Chris Millstein, Harry Druzd of Endless Boogie, Derek James of The Entrance Band, and Charles Burst, one of the record’s engineers. These musicians build the frame on which Warren lays his hazy guitar and vocals. An endless array of friends and guests also provide pedal steel guitar, horns, strings, and backing vocals, which culminate in a career-defining moment for the Ills.

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Thematically, Inner Journey Out is a detailed exploration of the interior and the exterior, and the pathway between the two. The focused songwriting makes the stylistic departures fit seamlessly within the band’s dexterous ethos. The rousing gospel number “Another Change” and the far-out free jazz exploration “Ra Wah Wah” help shape Inner Journey Out into a multi-faceted, full album experience. It’s the most personal Psychic Ills album, too, hinting tantalizingly at love and loss but denying the listener resolution — asking questions, but never answering; seeking, but never fully concluding.

A decade on from releasing their critically lauded cult debut, Dins, and the deep dive into cosmic improvisation of Mirror Eye that followed, through the more recent and straightforward outings of Hazed Dream and One Track Mind, Psychic Ills have delivered their most remarkable statement yet with Inner Journey Out.

VAN MORRISON and THEM – ” The Complete Them 1964-1967 “

Posted: December 10, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Complete Them 1964-1967

In 2015, Legacy Recordings acquired (most of) the catalogue of Van Morrison, releasing his library digitally and introducing a volume of the long-running Essential series.  But the most exciting release from the Morrison/Legacy union so far is this this 3-CD, 79-track anthology dedicated to Morrison’s first band, Them.  The Belfast-formed garage rockers’ complete discography was compiled along with a full disc of demos, session material and rarities, adding up to the first look at Them that can be considered truly exhaustive.  The icing on the cake?  Van the Man himself supplied the detailed liner notes, expressing a sometimes-surprising fondness for his earliest musical endeavors.

The new 69-track, 3-CD set from Legacy contains all of the group’s released recordings together with a disc of rarities and unreleased material.  Much of this material has been anthologized in the past, including on Deram’s 1997 compilation The Story of Them Featuring Van Morrison (although that release had some mono tracks rechanneled into stereo and did not have the complete recordings.) We’ve got Legacy’s press release below together with the full tracklisting and discographical information.  If you’d like to explore some of Van Morrison’s earliest work,

ADIA VICTORIA – ” Sea Of Sand / Howlin Shame “

Posted: December 9, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A vivid crossroads of punk, blues, garage, and folk mark the arresting debut from Nashville’s  Adia Victoria. A native of South Carolina raised in a strict Seventh Day Adventist household, her relationship with the Deep South is as complicated as the place itself. The album’s title, Beyond the Bloodhounds, is taken from Harriet Jacobs’ compelling 1861 autobiographical novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Victorias defiant songs whip up a bitter wind howling with themes of race, religion, and her own personal narrative of escaping and then returning to the South.

Co-produced by analog-leaning indie rock vet Roger Moutenot Beyond The Bloodhounds shimmers with overheated guitars and instruments nimbly exploring the edge of fuzz. It’s an aura matched perfectly to Victoria’s melodious voice, which shifts between demure testimonies and fiery incantations at the drop of a hat. Highlights abound, from the rollicking swamp rock of lead single “Dead Eyes” to the spooky dedications and condemnations of “Sea of Sand.” It’s a version of the oft-romanticized American South that still gets far less media exposure than it should.

On “Stuck in the South,” the album’s thematic centerpiece, Victoria’s rasps sweetly over a springy blues creep, tossing out lines like “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout Southern belles, but I can tell you somethin’ ’bout Southern hell when your skin give ’em cause to take and take.” And yet for all its troubles, the South remains both her home and her muse, and these eerie gothic blues make for one very enchanting debut.

Members
Adia Victoria
Tiffany Minton
Mason Hickman
Jason Harris
Alex Caress

ADAM TORRES – ” Tiny Desk Concert “

Posted: December 9, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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It took Adam Torres 10 years to release his second album. His life took a non-musical turn when he moved from Athens, Ohio, to Austin, Texas, with South America somewhere along the way. This album was the antiserum to all the overused and over-abundant vocal processing I heard in 2016. Adam Torres high and lonesome voice is pure, relatable and visceral. The songs are weightless with an underpinning of violin and simple, tasteful keyboards and percussion. I tend to need, then find, one good quiet record each year. Pearls To Swine was my go-to serene album for 2016.

Adam Torres voice makes Pearls To Swine a constant listen for me. It’s high and lonesome, but more frail than the voices of the bluegrass pioneers who defined that style . Besides, Torres isn’t a country singer or a folksinger but more of an atmospheric storyteller.

It took the musician, now based in Austin just a week to record Pearls To Swine, though the album was nearly 10 years in the making. In 2006, Torres was 20 and living in Athens, Ohio, when he put out a debut record called Nostra Nova, which is worthy of cult status. Then his life took a non-musical course.

I first heard his music far more recently, Thor Harris of Swans raved about this new singer he was touring with, and then I heard Pearls To Swine and flipped. I’ve been writing and telling my gigging friends about Adam Torres a whole lot this year, and the more I listen, the more I want to share it.

Listen in particular to the way Torres and Aisha Burns weave his voice and her violin together. It’s rare and beautiful. Then there’s the delicate percussion and bass that keep it all in motion. In addition to songs from his current record, we also get to hear an unreleased track, appropriately titled “I Came To Sing The Song.” I’m thrilled he did.

Set List

  • “High Lonesome”
  • “Outlands”
  • “I Came To Sing The Song”

Musicians

Adam Torres (vocals, guitar); Aisha Burns (violin); Thor Harris (percussion); Dailey Toliver (bass, keys)

THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL NEW RELEASES 9th December 2016

Posted: December 9, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL PURCHASES
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T Rex  –  Taverne De L’ Olympia Paris 1971

Limited Edition of 300 – Pressed on Purple Vinyl, The Earliest recorded Live performance by T.Rex whilst still a 3 piece band – Features the single Ride A White Swan All royalties go to Light Of Love foundation for The Marc Bolan School Of Music.

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Lou Reed –  American Poet (Deluxe Edition)

Recorded live at Alice Tully Hall, NYC, January 27, 1973. Re- Packaged with completely new design photos and liner notes housed in deluxe card gatefold sleeve – Re mastered audio. CD Contains additional bonus disc of Unreleased U.S broadcast of the very first ‘proper’ Lou Reed solo show before the global Hit Walk On The Wild Side’. Contains classic Velvet Underground tracks’ I’m Waiting for the Man, Heroin, Sister Ray, Sweet Jane, and White Light White heat.

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Woods  –  Live At Third Man Records

There are certain bands in this supersaturated, hyper-fragmented, temperamental internet era that rise above ephemeral popularity not because they perpetually reinvent themselves or stay ahead of trends or make headlines with crazy antics or write a mega hit or have a super dreamy frontperson… there are certain bands that rise above because of one characteristic that trumps all others: consistency. Woods is one of those bands, and their wheelhouse is a decidedly mellow blend of folk, psych, soul, and funk that’s wise beyond its years in timbre and lyric. It’s a comforting kind of music Woods makes. It doesn’t take you anywhere you don’t want to go, even if they world they depict is less and less hospitable with every passing day. It’s a soundscape reflective of the world it was created in, and its lack of call-it-action and angst makes it endlessly listenable for those of us with regrettably overactive minds. With over ten years and nine studio records under their belt, this Brooklyn band also runs their own label and 2-day festival at Big Sur, and has carved out a loyal legion of appreciators who extol their steadfast artistry and work ethic. We got to see the Nashville Chapter of this legion, as well as a whole slew of new members, at their live taping in our Nashville Blue room, Monday May 2nd. All captured on their Live at Third Man Records LP.

Neil young peace trail

Neil Young  –  Peace Trail

Neil Young releases the brand new studio album Peace Trail on Reprise Records. Peace Trail features all new songs that Young wrote since the release of his album Earth in June. This new album is primarily acoustic and reflects an intimate, sparse approach to each of the ten songs within. The album was recorded at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios and features Young on vocals and guitar, Jim Keltner on drums, and Paul Bushnell on bass. It was produced by Young and John Hanlon .

Live at urchin studios

Lucy Rose – Live At Urchin Studios

Live at Urchin Studios is Lucy Rose’s latest record, recorded in just one hour in front of a live audience at Urchin Studios, London. Rose has spent the last year touring mostly acoustically, not just in the UK and Europe but India, Turkey and for 8 weeks in Latin America where she lived with fans and played gigs every night for free. It was during this experience that she decided to record an acoustic live record with fellow bandmate Alex Eichenberger as many fans wanted to be able to listen to the songs again in this stripped down fashion. The record consists of six songs from Rose’s first LP, Like I Used To, and four from her second, Work It Out. The album is stripped back, raw, real, full of emotion and made entirely for the fans. Each song finds a new home in this intimate setting and highlights the stunning songwriting and vocals of an evolving artist.

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Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – The Complete Studio Albums Volume 1 (1976-1991)

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers commemorate the 40th anniversary of their self-titled debut album by releasing two companion vinyl box sets featuring their entire studio album repertoire. Several of these albums have been out of print on vinyl for years and all albums have been remastered for this release except where noted. All LP’s in each of the limited-edition box sets are pressed on 180-gram vinyl with replica artwork.

The Complete Studio Albums Volume 1 (1976-1991) features nine vinyl albums and features:

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
You’re Gonna Get It!
Damn The Torpedoes
Hard Promises
Long After Dark
Southern Accents
Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)
Full Moon Fever
Into The Great Wide Open

The I DON’T CARES – ” Wild Stab ” Best Albums Of 2016

Posted: December 9, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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According to an interview Paul Westerberg these are a bunch of songs/demos Westerberg had laying around his basement studio. Inertia had set-in and it took Hatfield to pick out some of the gems and help whip them into shape. If true, the collaboration has made for the best Westerberg release in ages. If you liked the harder stuff on “All Shook Down” or “14 Songs” you’ll dig this – lots of stonesy rock-with a tender side (“Whole Lotta Nothin’,” “Born to Me”).

It’s not a quite a “band” but Westerberg sounds really fantastic working in collaboration with Juliana Hatfield. A supremely enjoyable and impactful album. Lots of great songs here. A few tunes put Hatfield’s voice at the front,

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“I’m back if you’ll have me” — after too many years since a proper album this is a great and emotional album opener.

Born For Me – what was a slow piano ballad from a Westerberg solo release is rerecorded here as a joyous rock and roll song and it is fantastic. So fun and happy.

Kissing Break — the heartfelt performance here elevates what could have been a light and inconsequential throw away to something unique and beautiful. In a way it reminds me how “Dyslexic Heart” might have first seemed like just a fun song to place on a movie soundtrack, but the kept popping up all over the place for the past two decades.

Outta My System — another re-recorded Westerberg song, and again it’s way better than the original in every way. So deceptively simple it’s amazing how compelling it is.

Hands Together  An epic song. One of Paul’s best songs ever, imaginative and metaphorical and gut wrenching and uplifting. So good it is hard to put into words.

In between are 11 more great rock and roll songs full of life and enthusiasm. It all manages to immediately fit into Westerberg’s catalog and still sound new. This is among his best post-Replacements work and might prove to be one of his best overall releases

 

The DOORS – ” London Fog “

Posted: December 9, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Doors are to release a new album, London Fog 1966, which will consist of recently discovered live recordings, the earliest known to exist.

Available From Rhino/Bright Midnight Archives on December 9th, they will be released in a Collector’s Edition Boxed Set on CD And Vinyl along with 8 x 10 prints of unseen photos and replica memorabilia.

The music was recorded during the Doors tenure as the house band at the London Fog, a Sunset Strip dive bar located close to Whisky a Go Go. The seven song set has been remastered by Doors engineer Bruce Botnick.

The set includes covers of standards like Muddy Waters’ “Rock Me” and “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man”. The set also includes performances of “Baby, Please Don’t Go” (Big Joe Williams), “Don’t Fight It” (Wilson Pickett) and “Lucille” (Little Richard) alongside two originals: “Strange Days” and “You Make Me Real”, which wasn’t officially released on a studio album until Morrison Hotel in 1970.

The Doors band in 1968

Many of the countless Doors live albums are far from essential, but this one feels genuinely important. The recently discovered 1966 audience recording from a gig at the London Fog in Los Angeles, captures the band in their lesser-known embryonic period. Their sound is already in place and Jim Morrison is on the verge of becoming the Lizard King, using the near-empty Sunset Strip venue to develop the necessary stagecraft to get his mojo rising. The various covers range from smouldering, sensual blues (BB King’s Rock Me) to raw, roughhouse rockers (Big Joe Williams’ Baby Please Don’t Go). The two originals – a tightly wound, thrillingly focused You Make Me Real and a particularly ominous, spooked and spooky Strange Days – may be respectively two and four years away from their studio versions, but already sound eerily fully formed. Throughout, disinterested audience chatter and the chink of glasses belies the fact that within months, the London Fog’s unknown house band would be among the hottest groups in the world.

London Fog 1966 track Listing:

“Rock Me”
“Baby, Please Don’t Go”
“You Make Me Real”
“Don’t Fight It”
“I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man”
“Strange Days”
“Lucille”

 

BIG THIEF – ” Masterpiece ” Best Albums Of 2016

Posted: December 8, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Big Thief

It takes nerve to title your debut album “Masterpiece”. As we noted on the midyear list, the Brooklyn band Big Thief has an awful lot of nerve. What is more important is that the group has excellent songs, which run on smoky, vulnerable vocals and superb melodies. Led by the midnight twang of Adrianne Lenker’s voice, Big Thief’s songs capture the rural desperation of a freight trainyard romance (“Paul”), a motel-screen movie marathon (“Vegas”) or an abusive family (“Real Love”). It is a taut, emotionally resonant collection of songs with a killer climax in “Parallels.” And among the group’s many recently converted fans is Jeff Tweedy, of Wilco fame, who tweeted: “Great guitars, great lyrics, great melodies…. What more could you possibly want?” It’s just that simple.

Big Thief’s Masterpiece is a shared experience. It was an album I’d put on riding in a car with friends, travelling to festivals and gigs . For their album debut, Big Thief added heft to these whispery tales. And that often comes in the form of Buck Meek’s guitar, as he underpins Adrianne Lenker’s chilling voice. I’ve listened to this album more than any other in 2016. It’s just about perfect. Calling your album “Masterpiece” is a bold statement, but Big Thief get closer than you’d think on the title track to their debut for Saddle Creek Records. Against a backdrop of beautifully ragged guitars, frontwoman Adrianne Lenker describes what sounds like a late-night bar crawl, always one drink ahead of loss and grief: “There’s only so much letting go you can ask someone to do.”

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