As some of you may know, Alice Coltrane was a legendary pianist, composer, spiritual leader, and the wife of John Coltrane, the most venerated and influential saxophonist in the history of jazz. In 1967, four years after meeting John, he died of liver cancer, leaving Alice a widow with four small children. Bereft of her soul mate, Alice suffered sleepless nights and severe weight loss. At her worst, she weighed only 95 pounds. She had hallucinations in which trees spoke, various beings existed on astral planes, and the sounds of “a planetary ether” spun through her brain, knocking her into a frightening unconsciousness.

The critical event of this period was not that Alice fell into the nadir of her existence, but rather that she experienced tapas, a vital period of trial. These tapas (a Sanskrit term she used to describe her suffering) helped prepare Alice for the spiritual ally she found in Swami Satchidananda, an Indian guru, with whom Alice made her first trip to India. On her second trip there, Alice had a revelation instructing her to abandon the secular life and become a spiritual teacher in the Hindu tradition – so she moved out West – eventually opening the Shanti Anantam Ashram on 47 acres she’d bought in Agoura Hills, California.

Music was the foundation of Alice’s spiritual practice. From the mid 1980’s to mid 1990’s, Alice Coltrane self-released four brilliant cassette albums. These cassettes contained a music she invented, inspired by the gospel music of the Detroit churches she grew up in, mixed together with the Indian devotional music of her religious practice, and even finds Alice singing for the first time in her recorded catalog. Originally only made available through her ashram, they are her most obscure body of work and possibly the greatest reflection of her soul.

TRACK LISTING

1. Om Rama
2. Om Shanti
3. Rama Rama
4. Rama Guru
5. Hari Narayan
6. Journey To Satchidananda
7. Er Ra
8. Keshava Murahara
9. Krishna Japaye*
10. Rama Katha

One of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Alice Coltrane’s fourth Impulse! album finds her on piano and harp in the company of saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. "Almost 50 years after [it] was released, the album remains a vision of universal healing, spiritual self-preservation in times of trouble and the god that appears when you seek her out." (NPR)

Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Journey In Satchidananda
2. Shiva-Loka
3. Stopover Bombay
Side B
1. Something About John Coltrane
2. Isis And Osiris (rec. Live)

Another outstanding Jazz fusion release for Dynamite cuts. limited edition 7" release of 2 masterpieces by Alice Babs and Nils Lindberg's Orchestra. Both tracks ‎taken from the "Music With A Jazz Flavour" LP.

"Been to Canaan" – This amazing jazz-fusion vocal has stood the test of time always in demand. Never before pressed and released as 45. A massive dancer and a must have release.

"It don't mean a thing if it aint got the swing" – this famous Jazz standard covered by many different artists, But with Alice she makes it her own, backed up by the Nils Lindberg's Orchestra

TRACK LISTING

1. Been To Canan
2. It Don't Mean A Thing

Formed in the late 1960s Alice was arguably the most interesting of the crop of French bands that put their own spin on the blues rock scene born in Britain and America. Playing a gaggle of instruments, including woodwinds and vibes, the combo had a sound that often departed from guitar-led grooves to incorporate European classical music and South American folk. “This re-mastered version of Alice’s auspicious BYG debut provides an opportunity to reassess a band that deserves wider recognition ...” Kevin Le Gendre, 2022

TRACK LISTING

1. Axis
2. Onurb
3. Le Nouveau Monde
4. L’arbre
5. Valse
6. L’enfant
7. Extraits Du “Cercle” Final / Thème
8. Venez Jouer I
9. Mexican Song
10. Venez Jouer Ii
11. Tournez La Page...
12. Fumée Grise Et Marrons Chauds
13. De L’autre Côté Du Miroir
14. Viens
15. Le Nouveau Monde (Single Version)
16. Que Pouvons-Nous Faire Ensemble ?
17. Je Voudrais Habiter Le Soleil
18. Il Viendra

Alice is one of the most distinctive of all Waits’ creations, occupying its own corner in the odd-angeld room that is Tom Waits’ body of work. While there are familiar parts—the redoubtable ragged voice, jazz ballads and poignant musings on death and longing—the whole is strange and exotic. A devastatingly beautiful atmosphere made of sorrow and reverie, insanity and resignation, rises like a mist in Alice. It’s a lyrical melancholia, a feeling that creeps in on the arms of Stroh violins and unabashed poetry. These are songs to fall into, and sometimes, to keep falling. There are fragile, haunted musings, and laments, mad ruminations, and tales of unrequited love and anthems from beyond the grave.

TRACK LISTING

Alice
Everything You Can Think
Flower’s Grave
No One Knows I’m Gone
Kommienezuspadt
Poor Edward
Table Top Joe
Lost In The Harbour
We’re All Mad Here
Watch Her Disappear
Reeperbahn
I’m Still Here
Fish & Bird
Barcarolle
Fawn

Etching Side D

Recorded in the basement studio of the Coltrane family home in Dix Hills in 1970, Alice Coltrane’s fourth album is a transcendent masterpiece of spiritual jazz. The title track is an ode to the Egyptian God, Ptah (the El Daoud meaning “the beloved”). Many moments on the album reach what Coltrane herself defined the term Turiya as: “A state of consciousness — the high state of Nirvana, the goal of human life.”

Verve By Request Series features 180-gram vinyl, pressed at Third Man in Detroit.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ptah, The El Daoud (Side A)
2. Turiya & Ramakrishna (Side A)
3. Blue Nile (Side B)
4. Mantra (Side B)

Today Brooklyn is the hipster capital of the USA. Rejuvenated by gentrification, it is the place to live in the New York area if you are young and up-and-coming. Yet for a large part of the 20th century it was an adjunct to the glittering lights of Manhattan for working people and their everyday lives. Born in the late 1940s, Alice Clark came from the borough’s Bedford-Stuyvesant area and returned there when her recording career ended.

Until recently the only person we could find who remembered Alice was Billy Vera. A singer, songwriter and music historian, Billy produced her first single, released on Rainy Day Records, but remembered very little despite overseeing the exceptional tracks on that 45 and a third which eventually appeared here on Ace in 2010.

Alice also released the fantastic single ‘You Hit Me (Right Where It Hurt Me)’, a classic piece of uptown soul, and an album for Bob Shad’s Mainstream Records. The 45 became a northern soul anthem, whilst ‘Don’t You Care’ and ‘Never Did I Stop Loving You’ from the LP became dance floor hits on the acid jazz and modern soul scenes in the 1990s.

Gathered together, the 15 tracks Alice recorded emphasise what a lost talent she was. It’s a meagre output cut over a four-year period, which yielded no success but left a large footprint. After her records failed to bring her fame and fortune, she retired from music to look after her family, most notably her seven grandchildren. Alice died in 2004, unaware how much her music meant to a couple of generations of UK clubbers. We would like to think this album serves as a fitting tribute to a great but under-recorded singer.

Dean Rudland

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
01 Don't You Care
02 Never Did I Stop Loving You
03 Charms Of The Arms Of Love
04 Maybe This Time
05 Say You'll Never (Never Leave Me)
06 Heaven's Will (Must Be Obeyed)
07 I Keep It Hid

Side 2
01 You Hit Me (Right Where It Hurt Me)
02 You Got A Deal
03 Hey Girl
04 Hard Hard Promises
05 Don't Wonder Why
06 Before Her Time
07 Looking At Life
08 It Takes Too Long To Learn To Live Alone

"Dirt" is the second studio album by the American rock band Alice in Chains. Originally released on September 29th 1992 through Columbia Records. The album received critical acclaim and has gone on to sell five million copies worldwide, making "Dirt" the band's highest selling album to date. It was also the band's last album recorded with all four original members. 'Rolling Stone' placed the album at No 26 on its list of the '100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time'. "Dirt" was included in the 2005 book '1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'. It was voted "Critic's Choice Album of the Year". 'Guitar World' named "Dirt" as the best guitar album of 1992. 'Loudwire' named it as one of the best Metal albums of the 1990 s, and 'Rolling Stone' ranked it at No 6 on its list of "50 Greatest Grunge Albums" in 2019. 

Alice Coltrane is the undeniable godmother of spiritual jazz and an acknowledged influence on everyone from Flying Lotus and Kamasi Washington to Solange and Radiohead.

“Kirtan: Turiya Sings” features Alice Coltrane at peak spirituality and is presented in this arrangement for the first time in any format. “Turyia Sings” was originally released in 1982 on cassette as a collection of devotional songs including vocals, organ, strings, and synthesizers available only at Alice’s “Sai Anantam Ashram”. “Kirtan: Turiya Sings” features a sparser arrangement of organ and chanting, produced by Ravi Coltrane. This is intentional, devotional music created with the purpose of connecting to a higher power. The pared back arrangements on this new release are enchantingly haunting and encourage the listener to reach a meditative headspace so as to channel connectiveness to a greater spirit.

The perfect introduction to Alice Coltrane for listeners interested in music for mediation and personal wellness.

“Turiya” is short for Alice’s full Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda. “Kirtan” means “narrating, reciting, telling, describing, of an idea of story”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Alice Coltrane is one of the most legendary figures in the history of spiritual jazz for good reason, so while it's always an exciting thing to see a reissue come out on vinyl, this one is even more special. 'Kirtan..' sees Coltrane stripping things right back to a simple organ, accompanied by her unmistakeable, hypnotic voice. It's a beautifully simplistic, wildly effective and entirely essential document of one of the greatest jazz musicians of our time.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jagadishwar
2. Jai Ramachandra
3. Krishna Krishna
4. Rama Katha
5. Yamuna Tira Vihari
6. Charanam
7. Govindi Hara
8. Hara Siva
9. Pranadhana

The definitive reissue of one of rock’s rarest and most sought-after albums, “acid-folk” – equal parts pastoral folk and contemplative psychedelic. The ¬first time since 1971 that this album has been pressed from the original master tapes, recently discovered in Italy. Lacquered directly from tape in an all-analog transfer by Bernie Grundman. Features extensive liner notes, photos and ephemera in an oversized book (LP only). Mark Fry was 19 recently graduated from high school and in Italy studying painting when he walked barefooted into RCA’s Italian subsidiary, played some songs he’d written on his guitar and was signed to record the album that would become legend.

The first recordings he made proved stuff, so he was paired with members of the Scottish band Middle of the Road, who were in Rome while under contract to RCA Italiana. Convening in a basement home studio with two 4-track reel-to-reel recorders, Mark’s visions coalesced in a dreamy, airy manner “Nick Drake meets Dr. Strangely Strange with a touch of Lewis Carroll” The Word Magazine would later write. Pressed in small amounts for Vincenzo Micocci’s RCA sub-label It, Alice remained an out of reach masterpiece for many but its creator, who returned to England in 1971 and subsequently traveled the world, playing music, sometimes recording and painting. By the time of its rediscovery, its master tapes were assumed lost. Their rediscovery allows this pristine transfer to reveal nuances not heard on anything but original It pressings. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Dreaming With Alice (Verse 1)
A2. The Witch
A3. Dreaming With Alice (Verse 2)
A4. Song For Wilde
A5. Dreaming With Alice (Verse 3)
A6. Roses For Columbus
A7. A Norman Soldier
A8. Dreaming With Alice (Verse 4)

B1. Dreaming With Alice (Verse 5)
B2. Lute And Flute
B3. Dreaming With Alice (Verse 6)
B4. Down Narrow Streets
B5. Dreaming With Alice (Verse 7)
B6. Mandolin Man
B7. Dreaming With Alice (Verse 8)
B8. Rehtorb Ym No Hcram… 

A deeply textural, atmospheric and immersive sounding record.

Alice Boman’s fragile yet engulfing ethereal vocals create a vortex that listeners are sucked in by. A world where ambient, dream pop and folk merge into a unique new form.

Produced by Fabian Prynn (EX:RE, Ghostpoet, Dan Croll) and Patrik Berger (Robyn, Charlie XCX, Icona Pop and Santigold).

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: While the progressions here may hark back to 60's soul and doo-wop, Boman's vocals are very much down the Hope Sandoval dream-pop line. Slightly melancholic but constantly immersive and warmingly nostalgic throughout.

TRACK LISTING

Wish We Had More Time
Heart On Fire
The More I Cry
Who Knows
Don't Forget About Me
Everybody Hurts
Hold On
It's OK, It's Alright
This Is Where It Ends
Mississippi

Already being tipped as one to watch out for this year and with Amazing Radio voting her in at No.9 for this year alongside Shura, Spring Kings and Glass Animals, Alice Jemima is set to release her self-titled debut album via Sunday Best Recordings.

The record includes her breakthrough cover of ‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet featuring Dr Dre, which went viral and now stands at over 3 million plays, as well as Radio 1 favourite ‘Dodged A Bullet’, which was playlisted at the station after her stand out performance at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Exeter last year.

TRACK LISTING

Electric
Dodged A Bullet
No More
Liquorice
Falling Out Of Love
When You Dance
So
Toxic
No Diggity
Live For Now
Cocoa Liquor
Take Me Back

Alternative pop / folk.

Second release on new London label Happy Death.

Alice Boman’s voice hits with the emotional force and haunting fragility of Nina Simone.

Recorded in a cabin in the woods near her home town of Malmö, Sweden.

Boman has a penchant for creating beauty through simplicity, her lyrics are direct and incredibly revealing.

“Muffled microphones and ghostly vocals… racked with an unplaceable nostalgia” - The Guardian

“Alice Boman’s voice wavers between ethereal and ghostly, but its fragility doesn’t limit the force of her songs” - The Huffington Post

For fans of Stina Nordenstam and Joanna Newsom.

On the record the band once again hones in on a genre-busting combination of organic improvisation, process-driven experimentation and the focused strength earned from a year of extensive travelling and touring the world together. You get your minimalist trances, electronic exploration, techno thump, jazz motifs and Eastern music tropes in a joyous and complete listening experience. It's a snapshot (or more closely, a yearbook) from an eventful 2008 that is more raw, emotional and loud than anything they've released thus far. Let's put the songs under our trusty microscope and see what we find. "Troubled, Shaken Etc." kicks off with "Love That Moves The Sun". It's a bouncy realization of minimalism set to the cosmos. Arpeggios (on both guitar and vibraphone) set a repetitive tone and Sian Ahern's powerful vocals resemble the sort of expansive clouds we learned about in a 7th grade science class. "Close To The Ground" begins with a Terry Riley meets Theo Parrish figure that slowly morphs into stomp-rock territory with organic four-to-the-floor rhythmic intensity. "Vanishing" provides a unique take on techno. Rupert Clervaux's drums are like a wild Elvin Jones who lived through the rave era, and the vocals provide angelic whole tones over the unhinged bounce. "White" is a surprise. It makes us want to re-enroll in college circa 1994, take naps on a grassy knoll and dream of the heartbreak awaiting us throughout the next two decades. Simply put the guitar interplay on this track is totally breathtaking. It's automatic mixtape fodder. "Troubled, Shaken, Etc." reveals an extremely hardworking band that is focused on process, craft and how their interpersonal relationships can serve as a catalyst to document life in an honest, original and innovative manner. The band masterfully handles the production, and we can't emphasize enough just how strongly Sian's vocals have come through. With guest spots from live mainstays (Sasha Vine, Eben Bull and label-mate Mike Bones), as well as John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack) and Graham Barton, "Troubled, Shaken Etc." is a varied record with tons of collaborative hands on deck. Time to get excited.

The "Dusk Line" EP is comprised of four songs recorded during work on Sian Alice Group's debut album "59.59" in the Summer of 2007. For this release they opted to work on a smaller scale, stripping their sound down to just layered grand piano and voice. Featuring contributions from just two members of the group, Rupert Clervaux and vocalist Sian Ahern, the "Dusk Line" is an exercise in restraint. It was recorded at London's The Garden, utilizing layered piano parts all performed by Clervaux. Sian Alice Group have become known for their sweeping, orchestrated aesthetic, but "Dusk Line" distils their sound to its core. Rather than using the EP format to flesh out one single, they instead utilize the format's brevity to create a concise but wholly realized idea. Starting the EP is the title track, a beautiful pop song. The EP draws elements from "59.59", including "Days Of Grace II", a gorgeous melodic song that echoes "59.59"s "Days Of Grace III", and "When... (Variation)", an alternate version of the album track of the same name that reconfigures the song for just piano and Sian's mesmerizing vocal. Rounding out "Dusk Line" is "October's Piano", a short improvisation by Rupert Clervaux. The resulting EP feels like a scaled down, although no less impactful, version of "59.59". It is a release that helps illustrate the diversity of the band's sound and wide-ranging nature of its ambition.

Here Tru Thoughts collect together Miss Russell's finest recordings to date, and some exclusive material recorded especially for this LP. There's new versions of Quantic Soul Orchestra's "Take Your Time, Change Your Mind" and "Something That's Real", Quantic tracks "Apricot Morning" and "Search The Heavens" and her own single "Sweet Calling" plus many more raw soul / funk and wonky grooves (recorded with TM Juke, Nature Boy and Quantic) that highlight her amazing voice.

A home recording project influenced by Xpressway groups and bands like Veronica Lake and Hood, resulting in this album many years later. Lo-fi minimal guitars combine with blurry sampled sounds and almost-on-key vocals.