Tuesday, December 26, 2023

2023 In Music: Reissues, Box Sets, Compilations, Rediscoveries Part 1


A.R. Kane

ARKive 

Rocket Girl

July





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


Abdul Wadud

By Myself (Solo Cello)

Gotta Groove

April





Remarkable resurrection of a 1977 private press album of radical solo cello music fully demonstrating the versatility of the instrument.


Acetone

I’m Still Waiting

New West

November





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. 


Al Tanner Quintet

Happiness Is…Taking Care Of Natural Business…DIG?!

Jazzman

June





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. 

Alan Braxe & Fred Falke

The Upper Cuts

Smugglers Way/Vulture

March





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. 


Ali Farka Toure

Voyageur 

World Circuit

March





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.


Allen Kwela

Black Beauty

As-Shams Archive

September





Great South African guitarist and composer with characteristically joyful defining example of ‘township jazz’.


Arthur Russell

Picture Of Bunny Rabbit

Audika 

June





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. 


Avey Tare & Panda Bear

Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished 

Domino

May





Lysergic weirdness from the prototype Animal Collective, originally released in 2000.


Beauty Pill

Blue Period

Ernest Jenning

January





Double LP set that compiles the artful Washington D.C. post rock band’s complete recordings for Dischord 


Belle & Sebastian 

The Boy With The Arab Strap

Matador

November





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.  


Betty Davis

Crashin From Passion

Light In The Attic

September





Tracks from Davis’ final recording sessions show she remained strident and uncompromising even when the arrangements became more generic.


Billy Bragg

The Roaring Forty 1983-2023

Cooking Vinyl

October





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. 


Black Disco

Discovery 1975-1976

As-Shams Archive

September





Fusion of jazz, funk and dance from South Africa.


Bob Dylan

The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments - Time Out Of Mind Sessions 1996-97

Columbia

January




Bob Dylan

The Complete Budokan 1978

Columbia 

November





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.


Bob Marley

Catch A Fire 50th Anniversary 

Island

November





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.


Bobby Hutcherson

San Francisco

Blue Note

February





Vinyl reissue of groovy, insistent jazz set from the percussionist and composer also featuring Harold Land and The Crusaders’ Joe Sample on piano.


Booker T & The MG’s

Green Onions

Stax

February





Stax soul jazz classic in a new vinyl pressing. 


Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express

Complete Oblivion

Soul Bank Music

November






Box set compiling six studio albums from Auger’s post-Trinity 70s group. Also very reasonably priced!


Bryan Ferry

Mamouna (Deluxe)

Dene Jesmond Enterprises/BMG

November






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. 


Burt Bacharach & Elvis Costello

The Songs of Burt Bacharach & Elvis Costello

UMG

March





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. 


Calexico

Feast Of Wire 20th Anniversary 

Quartersticks/City Slang

May





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.


Candi Staton

I’m Just A Prisoner

Ace

May




Candi Staton

Stand By Your Man

Kent

October






Two limited edition vinyl releases of key albums from the great soul singer, including her debut. 


Christian Love Forum

Naked Light

The Death of Rave

January





Very unusual album of occasionally abrasive, otherwise meditative semi-improvised electronica originally issued in 2021. 


Codeine

Frigid Stars

Numero

July




Codeine

The White Birch

Numero

July




Codeine 

Barely Real

Numero

Judy





Very welcome individual vinyl reissues (on very distinctive marble or splattered coloured vinyl) of the sludgy avant rock trio’s outstanding, consistent catalogue. 


Crabby Appleton

Go Back: The Crabby Appleton Anthology

Grapefruit 

September





First ever anthology of the infectious US power pop group.


Daft Punk

Random Access Memories Tenth Anniversary 

Daft Life/Columbia

May





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.


Dave Evans

Elephantasia 

Earth

November






Ambitious, richly creative and unpredictable 1972 progressive folk


David Sylvian

Do You Know Me Now? The Samadhi Sound Box Set

Samadhi Sound

August





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


Dawuna

Naya (2021 Unmastered)

Bandcamp

November






Unmastered 2021 recording of haunting and atmospheric electro soul.


De La Soul

3 Feet High and Rising

A.O.I./Chrysalis

March




De La Soul

Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump

A.O.I./Chrysalis

March




De La Soul

Buhloone Mindstate

A.O.I./Chrysalis

March




De La Soul

De La Soul Is Dead

A.O.I./Chrysalis

March




De La Soul

Stakes Is High

A.O.I./Chrysalis

March





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….


Del Shannon

A Stranger In Town: A Del Shannon Compendium

Edsel

February






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.


Dennis Bovell

The 4th Street Albums Collection

Doctor Bird

October





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.


Devo

50 Years of De-Evolution 1973-2003

Rhino

November





Extensive compilation from the great conceptual art rock group, available as a limited edition 4LP set or as a condensed 2LP version.


DeYarmond Edison

Epoch

Jagjaguwar 

August





Fascinating box set of Justin Vernon’s pre-Bon Iver band with Phil Cook of Megafaun.


Dinosaur Jr.

Puke + Cry - The Sire Years 1990-1997

Cherry Red

February





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.


Dionne Warwick 

The Complete Scepter Singles 1962-73

Real Gone Music

April





Massive 74 track collection that features all the Bacharach and David classics and much more besides.


Dire Straits

Live 1978-1992

UMC/Mercury

November





Career spanning live box set that reveals the substance that always remained within the stadium behemoth.


Don Cherry and Jean Schwarz 

Round Trip (1977) (Live)

Transversales Disques

January





Fascinating live set uniting the improvising pioneer with one of the innovators of electronic composition. Also featuring Nana Vasconcelos on percussion.


Dorothy Ashby 

With Strings Attached 1957-1965

New Land

June






The great improvising harpist gets the prohibitively expensive luxury vinyl box set treatment.


Dorothy Carter

Waillee Waillee

Palto Flats

December





Meditative psychedelic folk highlighting the dulcimer - first reissue for this mesmerising 1978 oddity.


Drive By Truckers 

The Complete Dirty South

New West

June





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.


Duster

Remote Echoes

Numero 

September




Duster

Stratosphere 

Numero

October





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. 


Earth

Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Edition/Earth 2.23: Special Lower Frequency Edition 

Sub Pop

November





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. 


Electronic

Get The Message: The Best Of Electronic

Parlophone

October





Still by some distance the best music Johnny Marr has been involved in outside The Smiths.