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Timeless, brilliant avant pop psyche from Joanna Newsom – a flat out stunner and a triple album that's the most rewarding sprawl of an album to come out of the indie realm in years – an epic win for Newsom and the Drag City label! Newsom was unafraid of song length on the previous records, so you had to figure that if any of her peers were gonna pull of a triple album, she'd be the one, but this a holy s**t epiphany of an album. Where the previous one had these lush arrangements, made in collaboration with Van Dyke Parks, this one has a roomy intimacy in the arrangements, but does not lack for grandeur (how could it with harp, viola, violin and horns as central instrumentation), but her voice is so otherworldly and stirring here, and the songs so mysterious and beautiful. Titles include "Easy", "Have One On Me", "No Provenance", "On A Good Day", "Baby Birch", "In California", "Soft As Chalk", "Autumn", "Kingfisher", "Does Not Suffice" and more. CD

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Wonderful work from guitarist Oren Ambarchi – a little more expansive than his preceding effort on Drag City, thanks to larger group and a wider range of instrumentation, while building on what loved about it! The style is tough to pin down in the best kind of way, with strains of improvisational jazz and hypnotic minimalism, but a unique melodic drive that's as compelling as it is tough to cleanly categorize. Collaborators this time include returning Swedish jazz bassist Johan Berthling, drummer Joe Talia, a second guitarist in Julia Reidy, Sam Dunscombe on bass clarinet – and for extra otherworldly, yet melodic atmosphere is some synth by Jim O'Rourke and pedal steel by BJ Cole on a couple of tracks. The whole Shebang is a 4 part set – each track running long, to give it a nice amount of space to build up, settle down, and flow into the next – and numbered 1 to 4. (Jazz, Rock) CD

Wonderful work from guitarist Oren Ambarchi – a little more expansive than his preceding effort on Drag City, thanks to larger group and a wider range of instrumentation, while building on what loved about it! The style is tough to pin down in the best kind of way, with strains of improvisational jazz and hypnotic minimalism, but a unique melodic drive that's as compelling as it is tough to cleanly categorize. Collaborators this time include returning Swedish jazz bassist Johan Berthling, drummer Joe Talia, a second guitarist in Julia Reidy, Sam Dunscombe on bass clarinet – and for extra otherworldly, yet melodic atmosphere is some synth by Jim O'Rourke and pedal steel by BJ Cole on a couple of tracks. The whole Shebang is a 4 part set – each track running long, to give it a nice amount of space to build up, settle down, and flow into the next – and numbered 1 to 4. (Jazz, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful album from this very hip trio – and like the first, a set that's got a vibe that's very different than most other work of its nature! Sure, it's a guitar trio album – Oren Ambarchi on guitar, Johan Berthling on bass, and Andreas Werliin on drums – but the way the instruments relate is often very different – especially the use of guitar from Ambarchi, which often has this sort of subtle sonic energy rather than tautly plucked notes – qualities that get a lot of resonance next to the always-fantastic basswork of Berthling, a player we've really come to love for fresh ideas in music! Titles include "Tre", "TVA","Fyra", and "En". (Jazz, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A contemporary project, but one that was initially intended for the legendary KPM Sound Library – and one that has Emil Amos serving up instrumentals that offer up his own take on classic sound library modes from years back! There's definitely more of a 21st Century vibe going on here at times – as 80s elements get more of a twist through production learned from the beathead generation – all of which almost makes for a more industrial take on sound library styles! Titles include "Bad Night At Cowboys", "Theme From A Personal Prison", "Moving Target", "Interloper 1", "Zone Bleu", "Red Palms", and "Jealous Gods". (Sound Library, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

The insane debut of Big Stick – a record that came out around the same time that Sonic Youth were really taking off, and Pussy Galore were first getting their feet wet – and a set that's as equally noise-filled as the early work of both! The group are a duo – John Gill on guitar and Yanna Trance on drum machine – and the sound is very spare, but very noisy – heavy beats that are almost hip hop meets industrial – colored with lots of freaky, fuzzy guitar lines – and topped with lyrics that have this offbeat sense of wit – all with an approach that's in that mid-80s moment when underground music and performance art were somewhat comfortable bedfellows. Titles include "Shoot The President", "Drag Racing", "I Look Like Shit", "Hell On Earth", and "Jesus Was Born (On An Indian Reservation)" 12-inch, Vinyl record

The first all new, all original effort from Bitchin Bajas in a few years finds the group's core synth-driven vibe just as hypnotic, but more expansive than ever! The tracks are all on the longer side, and have this beautiful way of working in subtle shifts in sound and texture that build up, ease back and ultimately evolve from starting base layer of bells, chimes and vibes-y soundscapes. The core trio of Cooper Crain, Rob Frye and Daniel Quinlivan are joined by Mike Reed, Nori Tanaka and Rex McMurry on cymbals and drums that nicely add to atmosphere – and the titles include "Amorpha", "Geomancy", "World B Free" and "Quackenbruck". LP, Vinyl record album

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The first four albums from this crucial group – along with four more CDs of rare live material too! First up is the self-titled Cactus – the first album from this legendary group – an important American hard rock powerhouse, driven by the famous rhythm duo of Tim Bogert on bass and Carmine Appice on drums – both of whom roll out of the gate here with amazingly frenetic energy! They're maybe only topped by the guitar work of Jim McCarty, whose searing lines are clearly learned from blues inspirations, then turned up in both speed and power – to match the vocals and harmonica of Rusty Day! There's nothing going on here that sounds like blues rock at all – even though the set begins with a cover of "Parchman Farm" – next to other titles that include "My Lady From South Of Detroit", "No Need To Worry", "You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover", and "Let Me Swim". On One Way Or Another, Cactus are totally at the top of their game – and the guitar of Jim McCarthy really sets the record on fire, right from the very first note – at a level that should have made Jim one of the real guitar hero legends of his generation! Yet there's also power from the whole group going on too – tight rhythms from the team of Carmine Appice and Jim Bogert, the latter of whom starts to bring in his own vocals a fair bit more, offering backup to the raspy lead of Rusty Day. And while there's a few currents that show their older influence from blues, the sound here is massively hard rock all the way through – making the record a great illustration of the way that slavish blues rock gave birth to a fresh new jamming sound in a matter of just a few short years. Titles include "Rockout Whatever You Feel Like", "Song For Aries", "Feel So Bad", "Rock N Roll Children", and "Hometown Bust". Restrictions is next, and despite the title, there's no restrictions at all – as Cactus seem to be even more confident, more able to stretch their wings and fly than ever before – even adding in some extra piano and keyboards at points to the core guitar-heavy sound of the quartet! All the group's best elements are very firmly in place – searing guitar, righteously confident vocals, and a strutting sensibility that makes this early 70s album way ahead of the game in terms of territory that so many bigger groups would later copy for their own classic records. Titles include "Guiltless Glider", "Evil Alaska", "Sweet Sixteen", "Bag Drag", "Restrictions", and "Mean Night In Cleveland". Ot N Sweaty is a record that's got a bit of a shift in the classic Cactus lineup – as the group's still driven strongly by the work of Carmine Appice on drums and Tim Bogert on bass, but get guitar power from Werner Fritzschings, who's a pretty amazing player – next to some added keyboards from Duane Hitchings, and vocals from Peter French – a singer who's ballsy power might be even more in line with the group than their previous lead singer! The album's got an unusual approach in that side one was recorded live, side two in the studio – each with a nicely different flavor as a result – on titles that include "Swim", "Our Lil Rock N Roll Thing", "Bedroom Mazurka", "Telling You", "Bad Stuff", and "Bringing Me Down". 8CD set is overflowing with great material – bonus tracks added to three of the four albums in the collection, than a further 4CDs worth of live material – titled Fully Unleashed – The Live Gigs Vols 1 & 2. The live material is great – and really shows the tightness of the group at their best! CD

A pre-punk bit of charged, hard grooving Motor City rock from Death – a lost record that takes a tightly coiled, blazing approach to their influences of garage rock and psychedelia – and a record that's all the better in that it was recorded way back in 1975! To put it bluntly, music didn't really sound like this in '75 – and it would be as easy to label the sound as something like, "mid 70s Detroit African American precursor to Husker Du", etc, but this is a honestly a pretty remarkable album for its time that we don't want to trivialize it with a lazy nutshell description. The group does distill their influences in a way that's reminiscent of some midwestern post punk, but Death is pre-punk, making it a really fascinating record, and a blast to crank up in your headphones! Titles include "Keep On Knocking", "Rock-N-Roll Victim", the longer, seemingly Arthur Lee influenced "Let The World Turn" (eventually nailing a fiercer sound the likes of which Love never messed with), "You're A Prisoner", "Freakin Out", "Where Do We Go From Here???" and "Politicians In My Eyes". 7 songs, 27 minutes, and pretty awesome. LP, Vinyl record album

Really great work from Arnold Dreyblatt – a set that's almost a distillation of his excited strings material from many years back, taken into rock minimalism territory that almost seems to tie it to early projects from composer Glenn Branca too! The strings here are all electric – Arnold on excited strings bass, next to two live guitars, and one computer-controlled guitar – all moving in these modal rhythms that build nicely, with some slight phase shifts and inflections – but also enough punch at the core with some drums, so that the tunes almost seem to have more rock appeal than some of Dreyblatt's other material. Titles include the very long "Auditoria", plus the cuts "Shuffle Effect", "Container", and "Flight Path". (Out Sound, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

Very dark sounds from John Fahey's later years – music that was likely recorded in the boardinghouse where he was spending his time, and done with a much moodier vibe than most of his earlier music! The set begins with a layered vocal number that's extremely foreboding – layered vocals that are almost a looser take on some sort of early Steve Reich territory – balanced by acoustic guitar instrumentals that are in that looser, more open later Fahey mode as well. There's a bit of electronics on the set at points, plenty of those 90s Fahey surprises along the way – and the whole thing was edited and mastered by Jim O'Rourke. Titles include "All The Rains", "F For Fake", "Untitled", "Evening Not Night", and "For LMC 2". (Folk/Country, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

Possibly the best ever from LA punk pioneers The Flesh Eaters – who were a vital piece of the nascent days of SoCal punk for around a half decade by this point in the early 80s, but were arguably just now hitting their strongest creative stride! They're a bit akin to X in the way they show some love for their primal rock & roll forbears, loose and caustic as their tributes may be, and without compromising their edge. They also have some longer songs, a sax player, and other interesting facets that stand aside of punk orthodoxy. Brilliant stuff! Includes "My Life To Live", "A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die", "Secret Life", "The Wedding Dice", "Hand Of Glory", "Drag My Name In The Mud", "Tightrope On Fire" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

David Johansen wipes off the lipstick and kicks off his heels for this first solo set –sans drag, we're left with a normal looking dude – and one hell of a great, still glammy sounding record that's right up there in excellence with his New York Dolls canon! Wow, is this ever underrated. David would go on the tweak his style and persona in a bunch of different ways, to varying creative and commercial success. Here he's just out to make a kickass rock and roll record as he'd done with the dolls, sans the wardrobe and junkie hijinks, but with all the blistering rock guitar and gritty R&B influences. This one really blazes! Includes "Funky But Chic", "Girls", "Not That Much", "Donna", "I'm A Lover" and "Frenchette". LP, Vinyl record album

David Johansen wipes off the lipstick and kicks off his heels for this first solo set –sans drag, we're left with a normal looking dude – and one hell of a great, still glammy sounding record that's right up there in greatness with his New York Dolls canon! Wow, is this ever underrated. David would go on the tweak his style and persona in a bunch of different ways, to varying creative and commercial success. Here he's just out to make kick ass rock and roll record as he'd done with the dolls, sans the wardrobe and junkie hijinks, but with all all the blistering rock guitar and gritty R&B influences. This one really blazes! Includes "Funky But Chic", "Girls", "Not That Much", "Donna", "I'm A Lover" and "Frenchette". CD

It's been quite awhile since the last High Llamas album – and in that time, the genius of Sean O'Hagan seems to have distilled even more – to a point where all those great elements he was able to layer together on previous records come out with a spare focus that maybe makes the whole thing even more wonderful! The album's as completely charming as its title and title track – and maybe seems to even borrow a bit from the coolest currents of the Japanese indie scene in the 90s, while also letting Sean's wonderful vocals warm things up – every bit as great as when we first fell in love with his music in Microdisney, but maybe even better with age. The record features guest appearances from Bonnie Prince Billy, Rae Morris, and Fryars – and titles include "Hey Panda", "Sisters Friends", "Hungriest Man", "The Water Moves", "Yoga Goat", "Stone Cold Slow", "The Grade", and "Fall Off The Mountain". CD

It's been quite awhile since the last High Llamas album – and in that time, the genius of Sean O'Hagan seems to have distilled even more – to a point where all those great elements he was able to layer together on previous records come out with a spare focus that maybe makes the whole thing even more wonderful! The album's as completely charming as its title and title track – and maybe seems to even borrow a bit from the coolest currents of the Japanese indie scene in the 90s, while also letting Sean's wonderful vocals warm things up – every bit as great as when we first fell in love with his music in Microdisney, but maybe even better with age. The record features guest appearances from Bonnie Prince Billy, Rae Morris, and Fryars – and titles include "Hey Panda", "Sisters Friends", "Hungriest Man", "The Water Moves", "Yoga Goat", "Stone Cold Slow", "The Grade", and "Fall Off The Mountain". LP, Vinyl record album

Joanna Newsom as richly lyrical, lushly arranged and weirdly beautiful as ever! Divers is the 5 years in the making follow up to her triple album Have One On Me, and if you found that one too thick a forest to take root in, this one's much easier to dive into – with 11 songs in 51 minutes – but it might be even greater in lyrical scope! As always, her distinctive voice is a very compelling instrument, and no other could convey the wordy brilliance of her songs. Recorded by Steve Albini and Noah Georgeson with clarity and immediacy, all the better for the diverse arrangements that range from light orchestal, to wispy folk, to anthemic, if largely acoustic art pop. At this point, if you've heard Joanna Newsom, you either "get it" or not. Our admiration grows with each effort, and we're pretty excited that an artist with a sound this far out of the ordinary can be as popular as she is. Includes "Anecdotes", "Sapokanikan", "Leaving The City", "Goose Eggs", "Waltz of The 101st Lightborne", "The Things I Say", "Divers", "Same Old Man", "You Will Not Take Heart Alive", "A Pin-Light Bent" and "Time, As A Symptom". CD

Tremendous work from The Pogues – a group who may well have hit their height with this record! Producer Elvis Costello made it his mission to stay the hell out of the way and just capture the band in all their shambling, boozy glory, and that he does. Underneath his slurred vocals, Shane MacGowan was starting to become one of greatest songwriters ever – and the band's punk-fueled take on Irish acoustic is delivered with superb musicianship throughout – more than enough to make you realize that they're the real deal, and not some hybrid gimmick – breathing new life into a world that had been watered down a bit too much by the aging folkies. Includes "The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn", "The Old Main Drag", "Wild Cats In Kilkenny", "Dirty Old Town", "Jesse James", "Billy's Bones", "The Gentleman Soldier", "A Pair Of Brown Eyes", and "Navigator". LP, Vinyl record album

Anonymous experimentalists The Residents cover, satirize and stage an arty assault on the classic rock and pop regime! The group dispenses with all subtlety here, mocking the heck out of a couple decades worth of American pop culture soundtrack fodder. Anything that could be construed as "the sound of an era" gets skewered mercilessly – drag strip rockers become car crashes, pop songs are recast as creepy noise and other clearly satirical waves rush in throughout the 2 long pieces, but other movements are less obviously sarcastic, and even more innovative. It'd be smug if it wasn't so damn good! CD

Raucous drag strip rockers and driving R&B-fueled instrumentals by The T-Bones – killer material on Liberty from a group of young session wizards – including Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Dave Pell, Steve Douglas and others! It's wildly fun stuff that goes all in with the drag strip novelty – but totally transcends it – with some rubber-burning, rumbling excellence! Killer guitars, sax, organ drums from a one-time relatively anonymous cast of players. Includes "Hey Little Cobra", "Shut Down", "Drag City", "Draggin'", "Scorchin", "Little Deuce Coupe", "Boss Drag" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Guitarist Oren Ambarchi is joined here by two players we know and love from the Swedish jazz scene – bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Andreas Werliin – both coming here along with Oren's guitar lines in a session that's got a very unique vibe! The album's not entirely jazz, but it's also not like some of the more introspective guitar sessions from the acoustic underground – as there's a very strong rhythmic pulse to the record, even when mellow – pushed forward by those wonderfully round, full bass notes that we've always dug in Berthling's playing – wonderful in a jazz setting, and equally great here! Tracks are all nice and long – and the album features four different selections, numbered 1 to 4. (Jazz, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

(Soul, Rock) 12-inch, Vinyl record

Brigitte Bardot's best known on these shores as an actress, but during the 60s she cut some really fantastic work on the scene in Paris – including a fair bit of groovers that were done with help from the legendary Serge Gainsbourg! Bardot provided a fantastic new voice in the world of pop music – a singer who was unabashedly open about her desires, and very different than the more melancholy stars of a few years before – a quality that's further emphasized by the wonderfully groovy instrumentation used on most of these tracks! Production and arrangements are superb – and put this music in the best territory of the grooviest 60s French pop by artists like Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall, Jacques Dutronc, and a rare few others. This is the first-ever English-annotated collection of work from the period – and features a whopping 25 tracks from her recordings for Philips and Disc AZ – titles that include "Harley Davidson", "Contact", "Neu Au Soleil", "Je Danse Donc Je Suis", "La Madrague", "Les Hommes Endormis", "Je Voudrais Perdre La Memoire", "Mr Sun", "Le Diable Est Anglais", "Tu Es Venu Mon Amour", "John Et Michel", "Gang Gang", and duets with Serge Gainsbourg on "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus". (French, Rock) CD

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One of the proudest pop moments in the Windy City during the 60s – the fantastic Columbia debut of The Buckinghams, easily one of the most tremendous vocal groups of their generation! At their core, the quintet work in a sunny way that's not unlike other pop acts – but the key difference here is that they're getting some incredible production and arrangements from James William Guerico, working in a pre-Chicago mode that has complicated horn charts pushing up brightly underneath the vocals – edging the whole mix way up into the stratosphere with a uniquely soaring sound! Other instrumentation is great too – bright, but never slick, and really complementing the vocals perfectly. Titles include "The Married Life", "Don't You Care", "Pitied Be The Dragon Hunter", "And Our Love", "I'll Be Back", and "Remember". LP, Vinyl record album

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Think what you want about Captain & Tennille – the set's a monumental bit of 70s pop, and one that found a way to push the 60s hipness of A&M Records to the next level! The set's got a mainstream polish, but it's the summation of all sorts of cool elements that had been bubbling under on the LA scene – not the least of which is the career of The Captain, aka Daryl Dragon – a guy with great experience in the studio, and a strong ear for a keyboard line too! The group tip their hat strongly to the Beach Boys – with a great reading of "Disney Girls", and a take of "God Only Knows" that's pretty darn nice too – next to the global hit "Love Will Keep Us Together", and other tunes that include "I Write The Songs", "Gentle Stranger", "Honey Come Love Me", and "The Good Songs". LP, Vinyl record album

An overlooked group from the glory days of late 60s Elektra Records – a really unique combo who have a great way of folding together a number of different modes! There's definitely a folk element at their core – a few years before, these guys probably would have been recording straighter acoustic material – but their sound also has some trippy elements that are further enforced by their fantastic harmonies – which mix female singer Kerrilee Male with the voices of the men in the group – all with a heavenly sound that reminds us of that special blend from groups like The Mamas & The Papas, or We Five. But Eclection's music is definitely headier than either of those groups – imbued with the sense of freedom and invention that graced some of the other Elektra acts – and this undercurrent of majesty that really elevates some of their songs to a wonderful level. Titles include "Violet Dew", "In Her Mind", "Still I Can See", "Will Tomorrow Be The Same", "Another Time Another Place", and "St Georg & The Dragon". LP, Vinyl record album

A stunning selection of early work from The Fall – a package that brings together all the music they recorded in the late 70s, plus a number of unissued live sets from the same time! As with the other boxes in this series from Cherry Red, the presentation is amazing, and amazingly comprehensive – with very detailed notes on all the material, providing a musical history of the band that gets way past the oblique packaging of the original releases. And in case you're wondering what's inside, here goes: CD1 features the album Live At The Witch Trials, CD2 features Dragnet, CD3 features all the great early 7" singles by the group and Peel Sessions material, CD4 features rare outtakes and session material, and CD5 through CD12 all include rare concert recordings, including the first-ever Fall live set! 150 tracks in all – and a very big booklet of notes. CD

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Vintage 70s & 80s recordings from the George-Edwards Group – whose recorded legacy, we thought, was held almost completely by the cosmic psych/synth folk rarity 38:38 LP – but here's more from their personal Archives! Ed and Ray both provide vocals, keyboards and percussion – piano, acoustic and electric bass by Ed and acoustic guitar by Ray. Overall, it's a weird mix of chiming or fuzzed out guitars and squeeling keyboards – but always oddly tuneful! Includes "Once Upon A Moog", "Nevada", "Shattered Heart", "Puppetman", "It's All Right", "The Blowing Wind", "Midnight Asylum" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

The rare one-off collaborative side project by Robert Smith of The Cure and Steven Severin of Siouxsie & The Banshees! Includes "Like An Animal", "Looking Glass Girl", "A Blue In Drag", "Punish Me With Kisses", "Relax", ""Mouth To Mouth", "Like An Animal", "This Green City" and more. CD

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An artist with a sound that's as wild as his look on the cover – a definite individual from the Australian underground of the 70s – serving up some incredibly offbeat vocals alongside a range of his own instrumentation on guitar, alto, tenor, and flute! The album's got some nice heavy bass at points, which creates a raw funky edge that's a real surprise – not straight funk, but kind of a psych-funk groove that really fits with the rawer bluesy energy that Leong brings to the way he put the whole thing together. A very compelling fusion of sounds from many different corners – with titles that include the long jammer "Deep In The Jungle", the funky flute workout "Dragon Man", and the tracks "Soul Baby", "The Atlas Revolution", and "Rhythm Pounding". LP, Vinyl record album

Almost a late British invasion group – and a pretty darn groovy one at that! The Magic Lanterns hail from the UK, but they've got a sound that's picked up some of the Sunshine pop and jazzier touches of the US pop scene in the late 60s – heard to great effect on the title hit "Shame Shame", but coming through nicely throughout the record, which seems to benefit strongly from arrangements by the likes of Big Jim Sullivan, John Paul Jones, and Reg Tilsley. Titles include "Out In The Cold Again", "Shame Shame", "Impressions Of Linda", "Never Gonna Trust My Heart Again", "Give Me Love", "When The Music Stops", and "Pussy Willow Dragon". LP, Vinyl record album