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Vinyl only assembly of the catalogue of this hugely pioneering and influential duo who remain resistant to categorisation - essential for those who have the funds. Fortunately, the material can also be purchased digitally here: https://arkaneband.bandcamp.com/music
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Remarkable resurrection of a 1977 private press album of radical solo cello music fully demonstrating the versatility of the instrument.
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Another prohibitively costly (and now sold out) vinyl box set collating the great, meditative and melancholy 90s band. Unfortunately, New West have not made this music available digitally, and the simultaneously reissued individual albums are also hugely overpriced. This seems to be the world we now live in, but I don’t have to like it! The music itself is a reminder that some bands of the period ended up unfairly neglected, while others sharing aspects of their sound and approach (hello Spiritualized!) stayed in favour.
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Jazzman’s Holy Grail series unearths this scorching 1967 set from a group of West Coast American musicians who, in spite of the hyperbolic introductions, remained under-heralded. It remained the group’s sole album.
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Update of 2005 set collating Braxe’s remixes, collaborations with Fred Falke and including his biggest hit, Music Sounds Better With You made with Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter and vocalist Benjamin Diamond under the Stardust moniker.
A collection of tracks recorded on tour and at jam sessions between 1991 and 2004 capturing Toure’s freewheeling spirit but also achieving a remarkable coherence.
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Great South African guitarist and composer with characteristically joyful defining example of ‘township jazz’.
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Just when you think the Arthur Russell well must be dry, Audika return with yet another outstanding compilation of previously unreleased voice and cello material from the World of Echo period.
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Lysergic weirdness from the prototype Animal Collective, originally released in 2000.
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Double LP set that compiles the artful Washington D.C. post rock band’s complete recordings for Dischord
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25th Anniversary vinyl edition of Belle and Sebastian’s last truly decent record, where the wit and imagination of the songwriting still outweighed the tweeness and before it all went a bit daytime Radio 2. I always liked their slices of Northern Soul, of which Dirty Dream #2 is a great example.
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Tracks from Davis’ final recording sessions show she remained strident and uncompromising even when the arrangements became more generic.
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Forty year career retrospective. A 14 disc box set combines his albums with additional live material and rarities. Avery condensed compilation is on streaming services.
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Fusion of jazz, funk and dance from South Africa.
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The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments - Time Out Of Mind Sessions 1996-97 |
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The Dylan camp gave us two great expanded sets in 2023. Fragments, focusing on the Time Out Of Mind sessions, did not offer much in the way of unheard songs (although The Water Is Wide is almost worth the investment in itself), but the gathering of alternate takes and a new mix shorn of Daniel Lanois’ trademark murk showed how the album could have taken a starker, drier road.
The Budokan concerts have never been my favourite examples of live Dylan, although perhaps this is mostly because they suffer against the raw intensity of the Rolling Thunder revue. As is so often the case with Dylan, this complete set shows that some of the strongest material was omitted from the original 2 disc set. On revisiting this material, some of the oddities (Springsteen/Clemons influenced saxophone, the flutes and piccolos, odd funk and cod reggae revisions of some of his most graceful songs) sound more playful and irreverent than awkward.
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The start of Marley’s ascent to superstardom, but also something of a more polished compromise on his recordings with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Catch A Fire still captures the peerless groove of The Wailers. This anniversary set provides balance by including alternate Jamaican takes and some great live recordings.
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Vinyl reissue of groovy, insistent jazz set from the percussionist and composer also featuring Harold Land and The Crusaders’ Joe Sample on piano.
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Stax soul jazz classic in a new vinyl pressing.
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Box set compiling six studio albums from Auger’s post-Trinity 70s group. Also very reasonably priced!
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Expanded version of 1994 album. Ferry at his most slick and refined - I find much more to like in this now than I did on its release.
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Deluxe set expanding on Painted From Memory, itself already a superb meeting of two greats and a songwriting masterclass. Includes interpretations of the songs from other artists and live recordings from Costello and Steve Nieve.
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Is this album, perhaps the epitome of Calexico’s distinctive border sound, really 20 years old? It still sounds wonderful and contains a number of their best songs. This deluxe edition also includes a great live set from Stockholm.
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Two limited edition vinyl releases of key albums from the great soul singer, including her debut.
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Very unusual album of occasionally abrasive, otherwise meditative semi-improvised electronica originally issued in 2021.
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Very welcome individual vinyl reissues (on very distinctive marble or splattered coloured vinyl) of the sludgy avant rock trio’s outstanding, consistent catalogue.
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First ever anthology of the infectious US power pop group.
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You know you’re getting old when albums that feel as if they came out yesterday get repackaged for their tenth anniversary. Daft Punk’s most divisive album, combining wildly entertaining new disco with theatrical flourish, here with a batch of intriguing extras. Later in the year, they also released a bizarre drumless version - a curio for anyone interested in hearing the nuance in the other parts (especially Nile Rogers on Get Lucky) - but surely of zero interest to a wider audience.
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Ambitious, richly creative and unpredictable 1972 progressive folk
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Essential box set compendium of some of the bravest and most fascinating music of Sylvian’s multi-faceted career. The lush melancholy of the Nine Horses album rubs shoulders with the amorphous and abrasive poetics of Blemish
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Unmastered 2021 recording of haunting and atmospheric electro soul.
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The very welcome and long awaited digital release of De La Soul’s outstanding back catalogue, long kept gestating in sample clearance purgatory. A reminder that their work was always a lot more than just 3 Feet High….
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12 CD complete retrospective of Shannon’s entire career. Includes the early 60s kitchen sink epics and 70s and 80s recordings made with Tom Petty and Mike Campbell.
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Compendium of the four albums Bovell recorded between 1976-1978 under the alias The 4th Street Orchestra. True classics of British reggae, with a distinctive, brilliantly crafted sound.
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Extensive compilation from the great conceptual art rock group, available as a limited edition 4LP set or as a condensed 2LP version.
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Fascinating box set of Justin Vernon’s pre-Bon Iver band with Phil Cook of Megafaun.
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It’s good that renewed attention has been paid to the J Mascis/Mike Johnson era of Dinosaur Jr. this year, not least because these albums include some of Mascis’ most enduring songs. All four albums come with extras and, crucially, the Hand It Over disc includes the masterful Beach Boys pastiche Take A Run At The Sun.
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Massive 74 track collection that features all the Bacharach and David classics and much more besides.
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Career spanning live box set that reveals the substance that always remained within the stadium behemoth.
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Fascinating live set uniting the improvising pioneer with one of the innovators of electronic composition. Also featuring Nana Vasconcelos on percussion.
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The great improvising harpist gets the prohibitively expensive luxury vinyl box set treatment.
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Meditative psychedelic folk highlighting the dulcimer - first reissue for this mesmerising 1978 oddity.
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A ‘Director’s Cut’ of what might be my favourite DBT album with a new running order, extra tracks and some alternate mixes - still the same unity of theme, narrative and substance. A modern country rock classic.
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Two additions to Numero’s series of Duster reissues - a 25th anniversary edition of their debut (Stratosphere) - worth noting that it is the digital edition that includes a bonus track. Remote Echoes curates a series of cassette only demos, the hiss and overall low audio quality giving it a haunting character.
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Earth |
Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Edition/Earth 2.23: Special Lower Frequency Edition |
Sub Pop |
November |
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A new mix of the classic piece of doom laden sludge, coupled with an audacious set of remixes from sonically imaginative artists such as The Bug.
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Still by some distance the best music Johnny Marr has been involved in outside The Smiths.