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JIM

Jim Sullivan

U.F.O. - 2023 Reissue

    In March 1975, Jim Sullivan mysteriously disappeared outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost in the desert. Some think he fell foul of a local family with alleged mafia ties. Some think he was abducted by aliens.

    By coincidence – or perhaps not – Jim’s 1969 debut album was titled U.F.O. Released in tiny numbers on a private label, it too was truly lost, until Seattle’s Light In The Attic Records begun a years-long quest to give it the full release it deserves – and to solve the mystery of Sullivan’s disappearance. Only one of those things happened.

    For record collectors, some albums are considered impossible to get hold of, records so rare you could sit on eBay for years and not get a sniff of a copy. U.F.O. is one of those albums. A seventh son, Jim Sullivan was a West Coast should-have-been, an Irish-American former high school quarterback whose gift for storytelling earned him cult status in the Malibu bar where he performed nightly. Sullivan was always on the edge of fame; hanging out with movie stars like Harry Dean Stanton, performing on the Jose Feliciano show, even stealing a cameo in the ultimate hippie movie, Easy Rider.

    Friend and actor Al Dobbs thought he could change all that, and founded a label – Monnie Records – to release Jim’s album, enlisting the assistance of Phil Spector’s legendary sessioneers The Wrecking Crew to do so. That’s Don Randi, Earl Palmer and Jimmy Bond you can hear, the latter also acting as producer and arranger.

    U.F.O. was a different beast to the one-man-and-his-guitar stuff Jim had been doing on stage; instead, it was a fully realised album of scope and imagination, a folk-rock record with its head in the stratosphere. Sullivan’s voice is deep and expressive like Fred Neil with a weathered and worldly Americana sound like Joe South, pop songs that aren’t happy – but filled with despair. The album is punctuated with a string section (that recalls David Axelrod), other times a Wurlitzer piano provides the driving groove (as if Memphis great Jim Dickinson was running the show). U.F.O. is a slice of American pop music filtered from the murky depths of Los Angeles, by way of the deep south.

    With no music industry contacts, the record went largely unnoticed, and Jim simply moved on, releasing a further album on the Playboy label in 1972. But by 1975, his marriage breaking up, Jim left, for Nashville and the promise of a new life as a sessioneer in the home of C&W. That’s where it gets hazy.
    We know he was stopped by cops for swerving on the highway in Santa Rosa, some 15 hours after setting off. We know he was taken to a local police station, found to be sober, and told to go to the local La Mesa Motel to get some rest, which he did. Some time later, his car was spotted on a ranch belonging to the local Genetti family, who confronted him about his business there. The next day his car was found 26 miles down the road, abandoned. His car and his hotel room contained, among other things, his twelve-string guitar, his wallet, his clothes and several copies of his second album, but no note, and no Jim. It was as if he had simply vanished into thin air.

    Jim’s family travelled out to join search parties looking for him, the local papers printed missing person stories, but the search proved fruitless. Around the same time, the local sheriff retired and the Genettis moved to Hawaii. Jim’s manager Robert “Buster” Ginter later stated that during the early morning hours of a long evening Jim and Buster were talking about what would you do if they had to disappear. Jim said he’d walk into the desert and never come back.

    Tracking down the truth behind Jim’s mystery became an obsession of Light In The Attic’s Matt Sullivan (no relation) when he happened upon a copy of the album and fell in love. He took on a cross country pilgrimage in search of master tapes and truth, and came back with neither, despite hundreds of phone calls, e-mails, letters, faxes, private detectives, telepathy, palm readings and meetings with Jim’s wife, son and producer. Thanks to superb digital mastering techniques, Light In The Attic is still able to present a clean, near perfect copy of Jim’s masterpiece for general consumption for the first time. Enjoy. And remember, beyond the mystery, there’s the music.


    TRACK LISTING

    Jerome
    Plain As Your Eyes Can See
    Roll Back The Time 
    Whistle Stop
    Rosey
     Highways
    U.F.O.
    So Natural
    Johnny
    Sandman

    Jim O'Rourke

    Hands That Bind (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

      O’Rourke’s process – sourcing resonant sounds to be enmeshed together into a music that supersedes their resident parts – makes a fitting soundtrack for Kyle Armstrong’s “prairie gothic” tale of down-on-the-farm horror way up north in Canada. His minimalist score inhabits the wide open, big sky landscape, flowing into suddenly-deep (and opaque) emotional waters, then panning out to a chilly omniscient remove. 

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Go Spend Some Time With Your Kids
      2. Wasn’t There Last Night
      3. He’s Only Got One Oar In The Water
      4. That’s Not How The World Works
      5. A Man’s Mind Will Play Tricks On Him
      6. Here Is Where I Seem To Be / The Good Lord Doesn’t Need Paperwork
      7. You Have No Idea What I Want
      8. One Way Or Another I’m Gone

      Jim White

      Wrong-Eyed Jesus - 2023 Reissue

        Wrong-Eyed Jesus! or The Mysterious Tale of How I Shouted ‘Wrong- Eyed Jesus!’ is a true story by Jim White—it was also the title of his debut album, which established White as a phenomenal maverick talent of alt country music when it was released in 1997, 25 years ago. But we’re not going to spoil the story for you here. For that you’ll have to get the 25th anniversary edition with White’s otherworldly tale on the inside of the gatefold.

        Raised in Pensacola, Florida, a town crushed between the church and heroin, White was at one time a druggie, a Pentacostal, a fashion model, a New York taxi driver, a drifter, a pro-surfer, a photographer, and a filmmaker whose music became the conduit for all the stories he collected along the way.

        Steeped in the influence of Flannery O’Connor and Tom Waits, Wrong- Eyed Jesus revealed White as a spiritual anatomist, reaching deep into the underbelly of the American South. It was quickly acclaimed as an idiosyncratic masterpiece of ‘outer space alt.country’—a classic of the newly burgeoning “sadcore” scene—which amused the Southern songwriter to no end.

        “For 20 years I’d written these dark little songs,” he said. “Every once in a while I’d play them for someone and they’d shout, ‘Stop! That sucks so bad it makes my ears pop!’ Then a thing called alt country came along and, boom, all of a sudden everyone’s hollering ‘Jim, you’re a friggin’ genius!’ I mean, what happened???”

        Twenty-five years after the fact, it’s a lot easier to recognize what happened. (By the way, if you haven’t seen his BBC documentary, “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus,” an award-winning road-movie exploring Southern culture, do.) Now living in an old farmhouse in the backwoods of Georgia, White continues to be a highly original voice in the immense Southern gothic tradition. When broken humanity aches for grace, music like his may give you a shot at redemption. 

        TRACK LISTING

        SIDE A
        1 Book Of Angels
        2 Burn The River Dry
        3 Still Waters
        4 When Jesus Gets A Brand New Name
        5 Sleepy Town
        SIDE B
        1 A Perfect Day To Chase Tornados
        2 Wordmule
        3 Stabbed In The Heart
        4 Angel-Land
        5 Heaven Of My Heart
        6 The Road That Leads To Heaven

        JIM

        Love Makes Magic

          Who is Jim?

          A kaleidoscope of harmony vocals - as Crosby, Stills and Nash might have sounded with a funky back beat. Delicate acoustic fingerpicking, warmed by a swell of brass before a drama of electric unfolds. Guitar band music, delivered with the sensibilities of someone who knows how to make you dance. Sun-kissed blue-eyed soul, reminiscent of Ned Doheny, but emanating from a beach far from California.

          These are the sounds of Jim, as heard on debut album 'Love Makes Magic'.

          Debuting in 2021 on the folk-informed 'Falling That You Know' EP, Jim is the latest alias of songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and renowned DJ Jim Baron. Famed as co-founder and musical director of festival-stunning favourites Crazy P, his latest Jim project is a musical journey unlike anything he has done before. 

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Martin says: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Jim! Love this so much!

          Andy says: What a brilliant LP. Beautiful melodies and grooves proliferate on a journey through space and time. From the Laurel Canyon to Levenshulme via, of course, Ibiza, the clue is in the title and this is gonna be the sound of the summer.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Across The Street
          2. A Life Inbetween
          3. Where The Leaves Are Falling
          4. Oxygen
          5. Still River Flows
          6. The Ballad Of San Marino
          7. Phoenix
          8. Sea Of Unbelonging
          9. Then We Do It Again
          10. Love Make Magic 

          Tony Conrad / Arnold Dreyblatt / Jim O'Rourke

          Tonic 19-01-2001

            Celebrating its one hundredth release, Black Truffle is honoured to present a major archival discovery: a stunning document of the only performance by the trio of Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt and Jim O’Rourke.

            Across a two-night programme organised by David Weinstein at legendary New York experimental venue Tonic in January 2001, Conrad, Dreyblatt and O’Rourke presented individual projects before performing a collaborative set each night, the first with members of Dreyblatt’s ensemble and the second the trio heard here.

            As Dreyblatt points out in the wonderfully informative and reflective liner notes written for this release, this was a collaboration across generations, reflecting the profound impact of Conrad’s pioneering minimalism on Dreyblatt and O’Rourke. Both Dreyblatt and O’Rourke came to this collaboration armed with a deep appreciation of Conrad’s music and the just intonation principles at its core, Dreyblatt having first encountered the incredible power of Conrad’s precisely tuned violin chords during his tenure as an archivist for La Monte Young in 1975, while O’Rourke had performed with Conrad in various settings since the mid-1990s (as well as admiring, reissuing, and performing Dreyblatt's music).

            The flyer for the concert promised ‘massive, ecstatic, pulsating overtones’, and the trio certainly delivered. From the moment this keening stream of bowed strings begins, it is clear, as Dreyblatt writes, that we are in ‘Tony’s sonic universe’, as massively amplified, slowly shifting combinations of precisely chosen pitches fill the room with complex beating patterns and ghostly difference tones.

            For more than twenty-five minutes, the music operates at a level of intensity comparable to classic recordings such as Conrad’s Four Violins, until the texture thins out slightly in the performance’s final quarter, allowing for the listener’s first recognition of the individual voices that make up this enormous, overwhelming harmonic edifice. The constant stream of bowed tones is broken by a beautifully rich pizzicato from Conrad on monochord, the sliding low tones and metallic shimmer of the other strings taking the set's final moments on an unexpected detour into spacious pastoral psychedelia.

            Though produced by three individuals known for their own distinctive bodies of the work, this is egoless music, the perfect expression of Conrad's desire 'to move away from composing to listening', to 'working "on" the sound from "inside" the sound'. Historically important and overwhelming in sonic impact, this release also serves as a moving tribute to Tony Conrad from two musicians profoundly marked by the example set by his art and life.


            TRACK LISTING

            A Tony Conrad / Arnold Dreyblatt / Jim O'Rourke I 00:20:25
            B Tony Conrad / Arnold Dreyblatt / Jim O'Rourke II 00:21:09

            Jim James

            Regions Of Light And Sound Of God - 2022 Reissue

              Released in 2013, ‘Regions of Light and Sound of God’ was the debut solo album from Jim James of My Morning Jacket.

              This deluxe reissue features the original album plus a second LP of twelve B-sides, demos and alternate versions, including ‘State of The Art (Demo)’ and the previously unheard ballad ‘Begin Again’.

              The double LP is housed in a rainbow foil tip-on gatefold spot matte jacket with revised artwork, a fold-out handwritten lyrics insert and new custom inner-sleeves and centre labels. Pressed on clear/purple blob vinyl.

              TRACK LISTING

              ‘Regions Of Light And Sound Of God’
              State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.)
              Know Til Now
              Dear One
              A New Life
              Exploding
              Of The Mother Again
              Actress
              All Is Forgiven
              God’s Love To Deliver

              Bonus Disc
              All Is Forgiven (Alt Version)
              State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.) [Demo]
              A New Life (Alt Version)
              Dear One (Demo)
              Actress (Demo)
              God’s Love To Deliver (Demo)
              You Always Know
              Read Between (Begin Again)
              Epichord
              Sweets
              Moving Away (Alt Version)
              Hallway Of Trees

              Jim Ottewill

              Out Of Space : How UK Cities Shaped Rave Culture

                Since the dawn of time, humans have had the urge to come together and move to music. It may have started in caves but these days it happens in clubs often found in the shady corners of our towns and cities. Or at least it did until these places began to march to the beat of property developers rather than DJs. In London in the five years to 2016, half of the clubs were lost while a further quarter have been removed in the devastation of Covid. So what now? At this critical moment, 'Out of Space' plots a course through the spaces and unlikely locations club culture has found a home. From Glasgow to Margate via Manchester, Sheffield and unlikely dance music meccas such as Coalville and Todmorden, it maps the key cities and towns where electronic music has thrived, it currently dances and the spaces it might be headed to next. It explores how urban landscapes have acted as a home for other shades of club music too such as pirate radio, dance music festivals, soundsystem culture and more.

                James Righton

                Jim, I'm Still Here

                  ‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is the second album from James Righton under his own name; produced by David & Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax and released on their label DEEWEE, the album follows The Performer released in 2020. James’ musical past is well documented; as the frontman of the genre inventing Klaxons, he helped create a revolution in British music and spawned a youth subculture. ‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is a captivating meditation on the artists experience of the pandemic as James looks to conceptualize the myriad of emotions and events into a fascinating third person narrative. One of the album tracks features Benny Andersson from Swedish pop legendary band ABBA, with whom James has been working on putting together their new live band.

                  TRACK LISTING

                  1. Livestream Superstar
                  2. Pause
                  3. Touch
                  4. Release Party
                  5. Real World Park
                  6. Never Give Up On The City 
                  7. A Day At The Races
                  8. I Want To Live
                  9. Lover Boy
                  10. Empty Rooms
                  11. Playing To Win
                  12. Farewell Superstar

                  Jim Noir

                  Deep Blue View

                    AM Jazz was the moment we all became truly acquainted with Alan Roberts; the melodic maestro beneath Jim Noir’s dandy exterior, whose hypnotic minimalist symphonies waltzed their way to Piccadilly Records’ #2 Best Album of 2020. Not to mention a whole host of great reviews….

                    No less than 12 months later arrives ‘Deep Blue View’ – not so much of a follow-up, as a mini-flipside moving the Jazz from AM to PM, between city and sea.

                    “I originally had AM Jazz down as walking around some New York backstreet at 4am, smoking in a fedora, looking for crimes to solve but it now ends as night begins,” reveals Al, of his latest tale’s gradual evolution. “Deep Blue View is the night-time album now… like losing yourself deeper in the fog, or disappearing in the sea… would someone, or some 'thing' come to save you or would they , or it , come along for the ride?”

                    Usually by now, Daveyhulme’s own could-be John Barry would have left distractions of success for suburban side-projects and writing with his fellow Mancunian musicians, but AM Jazz left unfinished business - and, with 50 or so session recordings leaving a litter of sonic debris strewn about the cutting room floor, one major clean-up. Deep Blue View is 6 brand new tracks crafted from its reconstructed and revived remnants, unfurling like Sinatra’s Wee Small Hours to reinforce the strangely beautiful atmosphere of Al’s now revered repertoire.

                    “I had the urge to create something new and started playing around with different EPs and pseudonyms but when I sequenced these tracks, I was really happy how smoothly they flowed; it just needed an opener. I quickly wrote ‘Deep Blue View’ and it fell into place. It’s great, so I carried on, knowing it was time to save the best stuff for myself,” Al grins.

                    Just as AM Jazz was created in the spirit of his earlier working style on debut album Tower of Love, Deep Blue View fuses Al’s love of finding the ‘right’ in the odd, weird, back-to-front and everything in between, with the hi-fi meets lo-fi sounds of his crate-digging curiosity and empathy for TV themes and movie soundtracks. Guided by melody, his home-based sorcery of working with analog, tape and field recordings opposed to the lure of studio mechanics allowed his inner subconscious to tap at the door and reveal itself in new musical forms. “In the studio it’s tempting to turn everything up loud but I’ve got bad tinnitus and don’t want to write anything else in a Beatles style. I have done all that now… at home I have a computer, a microphone and just go crazy and lose myself staring at the screen. Then suddenly loads of music is written.”

                    Setting his inner autopilot to flight mode, ‘Peppergone’ adds to the tracks’ nocturnal narrative and appears reborn after a last-minute culling from AM Jazz’s initial tracklist. Like a beautifully romantic ode to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, it is a fitting tribute to dearly departed best friend 'Batfinks', written in the middle of a tough night. “I have no idea why or how the song came about because I was so upset to do anything, let alone record any music. But there you go. Somehow I did and it’s a really special thing. I know he would have dug me using his chords; growing up we’d both try to create the perfect chord sequence. This is his idea of that. I hope he doesn’t think it’s shit,” Al jests.

                    Also revived from AM Jazz’s archive is the simmering groove of ‘Night Talk Late Street’ and instrumental ‘Star Six Seven’, whilst ‘Have Another Cigar’ weaves its own semi-autobiographical fairy-tale with lyrics written and sung by long-time pal and former housemate Aidan Smith. Transformed from backing track into a cool morsel of story pop, it recalls the drunken joy of when the pair would make recordings together between singing the Everly Brothers at full volume. “I’m sure it’s about not wanting the musical party to stop and having to get on with real life,” Al says.

                    ‘String Beat’ meanwhile, soars like a beautiful Bond theme with the shimmer of Lee Hazlewood holidaying in Palm Springs, alongside perhaps, the waltzing string-like synthonies of some long-lost rhythm and blues orchestra of Davyhulme (whose real-life origins reside with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra), introduced to him by Super Furry Animals’ Cian Ciaran. “I’ve never created anything this moody before and have always threatened to do something John Barry-esque with some slightly dark and spooky musical changes.”

                    First may not be worst, but as AM Jazz has proven, second can be best and as a master of suspense Jim’s Deep Blue View arranges the day to night pieces of another puzzle that makes a whole lot of sense.


                    STAFF COMMENTS

                    Andy says: Another absolutely beautiful record. Gonna be one of my favourites of the year, I can tell already.

                    Barry says: Where 'A.M Jazz' wasn't particularly true to its name, 'Deep Blue View' plunges much more readily into smooth jazz waters, with swimming melodies and progressions perfectly befitting Roberts' hazy dreamlike vocal lines. A brilliantly cohesive and fitting follow-up to A.M Jazz, showing the rapid upwards trajectory of this local gem. Brilliant.

                    Jim Ghedi

                    In The Furrows Of Common Place

                      “Instead of landscape sketches I wanted to go into more personal areas of my reality,” says Jim Ghedi of his third album In The Furrows Of Common Place. “To hold up certain aspects of society that were laying bare in front of me.”

                      Whilst Ghedi’s previous idiosyncratic take on folk has often been instrumental, exploring the natural world and his relationship to it through his music as seen on 2018's A Hymn For Ancient Land. His new album In The Furrow Of Common Place is a deeper plunge inside himself to offer up more of his voice to accompany his profoundly unique and moving compositions. “There were things I was seeing around me and being affected by in my daily life,” he says. “Socially and politically I saw defiance but also hopelessness. I wanted to be honest with the frustration and turmoil I was experiencing.”

                      The decision to include more of Ghedi’s vocals was a conscious one and driven by a need to say something. However, this isn’t a brash raging political polemic. As is now customary with Ghedi’s work, it is rich in nuance, history, poetry and allegory. Musically, the album is equally locked into this ongoing sense of evolution. Ghedi’s intricate yet deft guitar playing still twists and flows its way through the core, weaving in and out of gliding double bass, sweeping violin, gentle percussion and vocals that shift from tender solos to overlapping harmonies.

                      As with much of Ghedi’s work, there’s a rich connection between the past and the current. Musically, he continues to sit in a singular position of sounding distinctly contemporary yet also with a touch of traditional flair. This expands itself into the lyrical terrain here too. “I've been exploring contemporary issues and in that process discovering sources that correlate with similar issues in the past,” he says. “Which proves that these issues throughout history - environmental destruction, working class poverty etc - are ongoing.”

                      For all the socio-political and historical backdrop to the record it is not one that feels overwhelmed by it. Much like Ghedi’s work when it was largely instrumental - and some of it still is here - it flows and unfurls thoughtfully, with space still being utilised masterfully, creating room to pause and reflect. It’s another inimitable record from an artist that truly sounds like nobody else right now. 


                      STAFF COMMENTS

                      Barry says: An intoxicating mix of traditional folk, hazy psychedelia and classic rock progressions all enriched with Ghedi's distinctive vocal affectations. It's a heady and transportive affair, and one that will reward richly on repeated listens. Gorgeous.

                      TRACK LISTING

                      1. Common Thread
                      2. The Lamentations Of Round Oak Waters
                      3. Mytholm
                      4. Stolen Ground
                      5. Ah Cud Hew
                      6. Beneath The Willow
                      7. Beneath The Willow Part II
                      8. Son David

                      Jim White And Marisa Anderson

                      The Quickening

                        The Quickening is an improvised work guided by emotional intuition and an ability to spin collective experience into music of potent and boundless beauty.

                        Jim White and Marisa Anderson instrumental voices’ are unmistakable and spellbindingly lyrical. Anderson unravels global guitar traditions into atmospheres all their own through improvisations and transforming melodic lines. While White implements an array of sticks, brushes, and techniques that imbue each rhythmic percussion passage with its own distinct personality. Together their melodic flourishes cascade and twist upon one another, at times trading conversational exchanges, and at others drifting in unison as if lost in the same train of thought.

                        White and Anderson share an abounding appetite for musical exploration. White, as a member of Venom P Stinger, Dirty Three, and Xylouris White, is well known for his creative and idiosyncratic drumming. His singular abilities have also led to collaborations with Cat Power, PJ Harvey, and Bill Callahan among others.

                        Anderson’s prolific output as a solo performer, her mastery of traditional folk and blues forms and her abilities to make them entirely her own has established her as one of the most exciting and forward-thinking guitarists of the last decade.

                        White and Anderson’s considerable technical skills are used in the most inventive and unconventional manner on their debut duo recording, The Quickening. The duo’ friendship and shared explorative nature inform these warm and daring improvisations. Their remarkable performances take the listener on a journey of exuberant discovery.

                        The idea of a collaboration developed while on the road together in 2015, Anderson playing solo and White playing with Xylouris white. The Quickening began at the Portland studio Type Foundry in late 2018, where the duo initially agreed to meet and improvise and record. Happy with the recordings, the duo headed to Mexico City and into Estudios Noviembres, a time capsule of a studio from the 70’s that had been largely closed before some young engineers took it over. The “slight disorientation” of working in less familiar environments mirrored their willingness to plunge headfirst into exploring new sonic territory together. Anderson purchased a new nylon string Ramos-Castillo guitar from a Mexican luthier just ahead of recording which leant to the spontaneity of “The Lucky” and “The Quickening”. The duo did not rehearse or perform together prior to the recording sessions; as White puts it, “it’s good to suspend disbelief at this stage of playing.”

                        TRACK LISTING

                        Gathering
                        Unwritten
                        The Lucky
                        The Other Christmas
                        Song
                        Last Days
                        Diver
                        The Quickening
                        Pallet
                        18 To 1
                        November

                        Jim Spencer & Angie Jarer

                        Wrap Myself Up In Your Love

                          After years in the SSW mines, the bookish Jim Spencer engaged cowriter Ed Tossing to create a hit, and turned out a song so catchy no less than two aspiring vocalists added it to their repertoire. Years later collectors finally took notice, and the late Spencer’s vision of popular music was finally vindicated. This limited 45 rpm edition of “Wrap Myself Up In Your Love” features Spencer on the A side, and a sexy take by Angie Jarée on the flip. The digital edition adds a slick and soulful rendition by Marshall Titus.

                          TRACK LISTING

                          Side A Jim Spencer “Wrap Myself Up In Your Love” (4:06)
                          Side B Angie Jarée - “Wrap Myself Up In Your Love” (4:45)

                          Jim Morrison & The Doors

                          An American Prayer

                            An American Prayer was The Doors’ 9th and final studio album and posthumously features Jim Morrison. The band reunited 7 years after Morrison’s death and 5 years after the remaining members broke up. They recorded backing tracks over Morrison’s poetry, originally recorded between 1969-1970. Other pieces of music and audio include dialogue from Morrison’s film HWY: An American Pastoral and snippets from jam sessions

                            A record to be enjoyed to its very last second AM Jazz is set to place this songwriter where he just might, finally, receive the recognition he deserves; from unsung hero to a truly worthy candidate for being called up to join the City of Manchester’s ranks of great musical icons. Whether you prefer to know him as Mr. Roberts or simply call him Al, it’s time to become acquainted with the real Jim Noir.

                            Tossing his bowler onto the hat stand and sliding on his slippers, AM Jazz sees ‘Jim’ putting his feet up whilst Alan Roberts takes the lead. A creative masterpiece for the record player and the mantlepiece, it’s a multi-layered album that features close friends including those dearly departed, and is his truest record to date, by a songwriter painting his own hypnotic Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

                            “I haven’t 'felt' like Jim Noir for a long time. I’m not sure I ever did; it was a construct of other people’s imaginations,” reveals Al. “AM Jazz is definitely the kind of music I make generally. It harks back to when I started making music years ago and didn’t worry about capturing a particular style. It will be nice to show people more of that. It's the best album I've written; real hypnotic minimalism, the good stuff!”

                            15 years since he recorded the first ever 'Jim Noir' EP, AM Jazz is the record all Noirheads won’t be surprised Al had inside him. Letting the Beatlesesque stylings of his most recent album Finnish Line be (5 years ago no less), AM Jazz suits the Noir repertoire of his catalogue so far and is another homegrown offering which sees the Daveyhulme composer tinkering in his suburban Manchester studio once more, with the magic of his computer work sorcery, analog and tape recordings. “For this I went back to the slightly more haphazard way I wrote my first album, Tower Of Love, wherein I’d use things in front of me, or a bit wrong like headphones for a microphone, to make the most Hi-Fi Lo-fi album ever.”

                            Whilst a brief disappearance of Jim’s online persona may have provoked bleak theories as to his whereabouts, Al had little time for digital distraction. Whilst writing and creating with friends, he has worked on electronic pet project, FAX with former Alfie guitarist, Ian Smith, and the vintage analogue house meets electro sound of his own solo EP Granada Personnel Recovery, as well as producing local band, Shaking Chainsor, and helping long-time musical colleague, Aidan Smith with his long-awaited 'The Planets' project; “I’ve been writing in dribs and drabs when I feel like it,” Al says. “I used to write all day everyday but it’s a lot harder now I’m (feeling) over 100 years old.” Never not sonically exploring or being inspired by the sounds around him, there was even a red-carpet moment when he appeared as a film premier guest after a couple of his songs were selected for the OST of director Jason Wingard’s film Eaten By Lions.

                            Performing all AM Jazz’s instrumental parts himself but also, at the right moment, bringing in present and past pals along the way, sexy lounge song, ‘Hexagons’ features 'Phil Anderson' and Mark Williamson singing and playing “legendary OTT guitar solo” respectively. Meanwhile the orchestration of ‘Peppergone’ waltzes like a beautifully romantic ode to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata – a tribute to dearly departed best friend 'Batfinks' who originally wrote the chords in his song 'Peppercorn.' “I hope he doesn’t think it’s shit,” Al jests. Listen closely and you may even find a few unsuspecting celebrity guest appearances as, perhaps, it could be the very first album to feature soundbites of podcasts sneaking onto the recordings. “I will have a podcast on if I’m recording; Adam Buxton, Athletico Mince, Frank Skinner or Richard Herring… I’m sure some mics will have picked them up, like in the old Tower of Love days,” he says referring to his breakout debut.

                            Culled from around 50 tunes AM Jazz moves like the time of the day, from dawn to night, stirring from the pop of ‘Good Mood’ and ‘Upside Down’s Beta Band groove. “As the album was playing, I imagined this smoky backstreet with all those neon signs outside clubs at about 4am,” Al says. Mellow ‘TOL Circle’ is like Percy Faith’s Theme From A Summer Place synthesized, capturing the style of TV library music or movie soundtrack obscurity that has always stirred Al’s curiosity, and the album plunges into a vast chasm of instrumental exploration with ‘Mystermoods,’ visiting Japan’s funky synth whiz duo Testpattern and Hakabashi Sakamoto. Darkening and deepening in intensity, ‘Eggshell’ is like an undiscovered gem from Angelo Badalamenti’s cutting room floor, the Panda Bear shimmer of ‘Lander’ is where blissful positivity and sadness meet, about another of his friends who left the world too young. “By the album’s close, its nearly time to let go and enter the ether,” he says of the album’s story. “Like one would do when they take their final sigh on this earth.”


                            STAFF COMMENTS

                            Andy says: It’s 14 years since Jim Noir’s debut album and the way the music scene works (chew them up spit ‘em out, next!) you could be forgiven for heaving an almighty shrug. Playful, whimsical (his stage name is derived from a Vic Reeves character!) quirky Mancunian, songs used in adverts and video games, cute, charming, retro sounds, etc etc; all kinda true, but only half the story. This guy, real name Alan Roberts, is a genius songwriter, for whom the notion of pop “relevance” should not apply. His way with melody is right up there with the very best, and these harmoniously overlapping songs actually remind me of a Paul McCartney or Brian Wilson.

                            This record is quite simply beautiful. Forty one minutes of lush, blissed-out, mesmerising song craft. It starts with a Fanclub-style classic, moves through upbeat Super Furries fun then slides into three Air style velvet funk groovers, including album highlight “Hexagons” which is the best song I’ve heard all year. Then a nine minute mid record three song instrumental passage (a dream!) sets you up perfectly for Side 2 where Alan revisits that stunning opener but with added melancholy, before drifting off into second big standout “Lander” where swathes of shoegaze distortion, heavenly keys and percussive beats provide chillwave vibes as the chords shift gorgeously underneath. All that remains is for the record’s fourth instrumental and title track to play you out; high, lonely, but fuzzy and still beautiful. It’s a trip.

                            TRACK LISTING

                            1. Good Mood
                            2. Upside Down
                            3. Hexagons
                            4. Beatheart
                            5. Tol Circle
                            6. Feel O.K
                            7. Wonders Amber
                            8. Eggshell
                            9. Lander
                            10. A.M Jazz

                            Jim Sullivan

                            Jim Sullivan

                              On March 4, 1975, Jim Sullivan mysteriously disappeared outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost. Some think the mafia bumped him. Some even think he was abducted by aliens.

                              By coincidence–or perhaps not–Jim’s 1969 debut album was titled U.F.O.. Released in tiny numbers on a private label, it too was truly lost until Light In The Attic Records began a years-long quest to re-release it–and to solve the mystery of Sullivan’s disappearance. Only one of those things happened, and you can guess which…

                              Light In The Attic’s reissue of U.F.O. introduced the world to an overlooked masterwork and won him, posthumously (presumably), legions of new fans. Those new admirers are in for a real treat: a lavish reissue of Jim’s 1972 sophomore album, Jim Sullivan.

                              The self-titled LP was originally released on Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner’s short-lived Playboy imprint. Horns sweeten this funky and bombastic session driven by Jim’s unmistakably larger-than-life voice and exceptional song-writing chops, alongside a cast of legendary session musicians including Jim Hughart. Another LP you’ll rarely see in the wild, it is by no means the poor relation of U.F.O., but rather a big stride into country, folk rock, and swampy blues, mesmerically finger-picked, brass-bedecked, and with that uniqueness of phrasing–part crooner, part jazz singer–that makes Sullivan such a rare performer.

                              Each song could have been a bonafide radio hit, but with spotty promotion and negative connotations surrounding the Playboy name, the self-titled album suffered a fate known all too well and fizzled out. While Sullivan’s disappearance remains unsolved, his music endures and is finally gaining him the recognition he deserves, albeit long overdue.


                              TRACK LISTING

                              Don't Let It Throw You
                              Sunny Jim
                              Tea Leaves
                              Biblical Boogie (True He's Gone)
                              Lonesome Picker
                              Sandman
                              Tom Cat
                              You Show Me The Way To Go
                              Amos
                              I'll Be Here
                              Plain To See

                              Jim Sullivan

                              If The Evening Were Dawn

                                On March 4, 1975, Jim Sullivan mysteriously disappeared outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost. Some think the mafia bumped him. Some even think he was abducted by aliens.

                                By coincidence–or perhaps not–Jim’s 1969 debut album was titled U.F.O.. Released in tiny numbers on a private label, it too was truly lost until Light In The Attic Records began a years-long quest to re-release it–and to solve the mystery of Sullivan’s disappearance. Only one of those things happened, and you can guess which…

                                Light In The Attic’s reissue of U.F.O. introduced the world to an overlooked masterwork and won Sullivan, posthumously (presumably), legions of new fans. Those new admirers are in for a real treat: a lavish, first-time release of a previously unheard 1969 studio session.

                                If The Evening Were Dawn contains 10 acoustic solo recordings that have never seen the light of day. Whereas U.F.O. was bolstered by legendary sessioneers The Wrecking Crew, this is Jim Sullivan on his own terms, stripped down and soulful as ever. Recorded at a Los Angeles studio circa 1969, the session contains acoustic versions of a handful of U.F.O. tracks alongside a half dozen previously unheard songs. This, then, is the closest thing to those fabled Malibu bar performances at which Sullivan was first noticed.

                                According to his widow, Barbara, this was the album Jim always hoped to record. It serves as an unprecedented glimpse into the mysterious, larger-than-life figure who’s become the stuff of legends.

                                While Sullivan’s disappearance remains unsolved, his music endures and is finally gaining him the recognition he deserves, albeit long overdue. This recording serves as an unexpected missing piece of the puzzle; this is Jim Sullivan’s true swan song.


                                TRACK LISTING

                                Roll Back The Time
                                Sandman
                                Walls
                                Jerome
                                What To Tell Her
                                Grandpa's Trip
                                So Natural
                                Whistle Stop / Mama
                                What Is My Name
                                Close My Eyes

                                Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind

                                CollectiV

                                  Hot on the heels of 2018’s successful reunion with garage-psych testifiers Thee Hypnotics, singer/guitarist Jim Jones returns to give 2019 the kick-start that it so urgently needs with his current band, Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind, and the release of their incendiary second album, CollectiV. Rising from the ashes of The Jim Jones Revue, Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind paint from a broader sonic palette. Incorporating elements of chain gang chants, mutant soul and gospel, and psychedelia, Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind are fervent torchbearers for rock’n’roll at its most primal, feral and elemental. Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind’s debut album, Super Natural, was rightly showered by the kind of hosannas most bands merely dare dream of, while their legendarily highly-charged live shows have left audiences breathless across the UK and Europe.

                                  Often found in the thick of the action, Jim Jones has worked his mojo through memorable performances on Later with Jools Holland and Late Night with David Letterman, as well recording radio sessions for the likes of the BBC’s late, great John Peel, and Marc Riley. A seasoned veteran of the road, he’s shared bills with The Stooges, Jack White, The Cult, The Cramps and Grinderman and many more. And he’s also spread the gospel of rock’n’roll with his own shows on 6 Music and Boogaloo Radio. A rock’n’roll singer and guitarist of rare distinction, Jim Jones is a raconteur with one hell of a story to tell. You should hear it. 

                                  STAFF COMMENTS

                                  Barry says: Jim Jones (not that one) has always been one for the heavier more chaotic end of the rock music spectrum, and 'CollectiV' doesn't change that trend at all, featuring frenetic piano and cavernous reverb, soaring choruses and all-out instrumental mayhem in equal measure, this is a chaotic and thoroughly exciting adventure.

                                  TRACK LISTING

                                  1 Sex Robot
                                  2 Satan's Got His Heart Set On You
                                  3 O Genie
                                  4 Attack Of The Killer Brainz
                                  5 Meth Church
                                  6 Dark Secrets
                                  7 I Found A Love
                                  8 Out Align
                                  9 Going There Anyway
                                  10 Shazam

                                  “The idea for UNIFORM CLARITY came from UNIFORM DISTORTION,” says James, “an album of intentional chaos/dirt: literal and figurative distortion of lyrics and sound meant to echo and hopefully shed some light on the twisted times and distortion of the truth in which we now live. UNIFORM CLARITY is meant to illuminate the other side – raw and real, but very clear, much like in the early days of recording where all you could hear was the truth because there were no ways to manipulate recordings in the studio. Working with Shawn Everett, we created a document style recording of these songs- just vocals, guitar and the space itself- no special FX. A crystal clear illustration of the flawed beauty of what a song starts off as or sometimes remains- a thought. a seed. a light from the womb of the universe brought to life down here on earth."

                                  TRACK LISTING

                                  1 Just A Fool
                                  2 You Get To Rome
                                  3 Out Of Time
                                  4 Throwback
                                  5 No Secrets
                                  6 Yes To Everything
                                  7 No Use Waiting
                                  8 All In Your Head
                                  9 Better Late Than Never
                                  10 Over And Over
                                  11 Too Good To Be True
                                  12 It Will Work Out
                                  13 Flash In The Pan

                                  Jim James third studio album ‘Uniform Distortion’ follows on from his previous success from being frontman of My Morning Jacket.Uniform Distortion was produced by Jim James and Kevin Ratterman at Louisville, KY’s La La Land, with Ratterman also serving as recording engineer. All songs were written by James, who is backed on the album by bassist Seth Kauffman (Floating Action) and longtime touring drummer Dave Givan, with backing vocals provided throughout by Dear Lemon Trees’ Leslie Stevens, Jamie Drake and Kathleen Grace. “The name of my new record is Uniform Distortion because I feel like there is this blanket distortion on society/media and the way we gather our ‘news and important information. More and more of us are feeling lost and looking for new ways out of this distortion and back to the truth…and finding hope in places like the desert where I write this now...finding hope in the land and in the water and in old books offering new ideas and most importantly in each other and love.” says James. Uniform Distortion is James’ finest work to date filled with compassion and brimming with meaningful ideology. 

                                  STAFF COMMENTS

                                  Andy says: Jim James does things differently on his solo records and this one's no exception. Raw, playful and rocking, but still with melodies galore, which other massive alt-rock stars keep things this fresh!

                                  TRACK LISTING

                                  1. Just A Fool
                                  2. You Get To Rome
                                  3. Out Of Time
                                  4. Throwback
                                  5. No Secrets
                                  6. Yes To Everything
                                  7. No Use Waiting
                                  8. All In Your Head
                                  9. Better Late Than Never
                                  10. Over And Over
                                  11. Too Good To Be True

                                  The Gun Club

                                  Lucky Jim

                                    This is the very last album Jeffrey Lee Pierce recorded in 1994 and probably the darkest record he ever recorded. The most telling track on the album is A House Is Not a Home, an electric scorcher with Pierce telling his, and his band's, life story; by the end they were a band without a country, dismissed in America and met with indifference everywhere else except in the Netherlands.

                                    TRACK LISTING

                                    1. Lucky Jim
                                    2. A House Is Not A Home
                                    3. Cry To Me
                                    4. Kamata Hollywood City
                                    5. Ride
                                    6. Idiot Waltz
                                    7. Up Above The World
                                    8. Day Turn To Night
                                    9. Blue Monsoons
                                    10. Desire
                                    11. Anger Blues

                                    Jim Ghedi

                                    A Hymn For Ancient Land

                                      Fourth release on new independent label Basin Rock following highly acclaimed albums by Julie Byrne and Nadia Reid.

                                      Born in Sheffield before moving around various parts of Derbyshire, Shropshire and Scotland and then settling in Moss Valley - an abandoned and forgotten area on the edgelands of South Yorkshire and North East Derbyshire - it makes perfect sense that 26 year old Jim Ghedi’s music feels both fluidly transient yet also deeply rooted to a sense of place.

                                      In 2015 he released his debut album, Home Is Where I Exist, Now To Live and Die (Cambrian Records), which was an extension of the folk-tinged six and twelve-string acoustic guitar instrumentals he had been forging for some time around Sheffield's pubs and then whilst traveling across Europe. On his second album, A Hymn For Ancient Land, his elemental style of playing has expanded into a fuller band set-up, complete with glorious orchestration and dazzling composition that makes it a truly innovative contemporary record whilst still being rooted in great tradition.

                                      Through the inclusion of double bass, violin, cello, harp, trumpet, piano, accordion and numerous other instruments, Ghedi has elevated his unique blend of folk music to a level far beyond that of that of his earlier work. Perhaps most remarkable still is how seamless their inclusions feel, rather than wrestling for space, the wealth of instruments float in and out of one another, interlocking absorbing guitars, gently whirring strings and drums that beat like the faint sounds of thunder on the horizon.

                                      On top of the community of Moss Valley, a driving force behind much of the creations on this record come from Ghedi’s travels, playing shows in numerous rural towns and villages across the British Isles. This traversing through remote parts of the UK, Wales, Scotland and Ireland soon brought a desire to capture the full breadth, scale and beauty of the landscapes he was witnessing. “I wanted to bring in wider instrumentation to somehow resemble the landscapes which musically I could hear in my head, It was at this point I became fixated on connecting the two worlds of classical and contemporary folk” Ghedi says of the album’s birthing period.

                                      All songs on the album are named after places from said travels - ‘Home for Moss Valley’, ‘Bramley Moor’, ‘Cwm Elan’ etc - and Ghedi’s natural ear and eye for capturing the spaces he inhabits creates an immersive environment, in which the guitar lines seem to mirror rolling hills, the rich hum of the ambience hangs like a gentle morning fog and the intricacies and beauty of the arrangements create something almost tangible in their efforts, like capturing a light dew on the tip ends of grass or the sticky moisture of well trampled soil. Nature permeates through this record from start to finish, gliding through its core like a bubbling brook.


                                      TRACK LISTING

                                      1 Home For Moss Valley
                                      2 Cwm Elan
                                      3 Bramley Moor
                                      4 Fortingall Yew
                                      5 Phoenix Works
                                      6 Banks Of Mulroy Bay
                                      7 Sloade Lane

                                      Jim James

                                      Tribute To

                                        Tribute To is a collection of George Harrison songs recorded by Jim after George’s death. “All I had was that eight track at our studio and right after George died I just went up there and sat in a room and played those songs to try and deal with the emotions I felt from his passing and pay tribute to him” said Jim James.

                                        Spin described the EP as “spare and somber – just that windy Americana tenor against a squeaky acoustic guitar … Many of us remember where we were when Harrison died; now we hear when James began to heal.”


                                        This re-issue includes a bonus track, a cover of "If Not For You".

                                        TRACK LISTING

                                        Long, Long, Long
                                        Behind That Locked Door
                                        Love You To
                                        If Not For You
                                        My Sweet Lord
                                        Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)
                                        All Things Must Pass

                                        Jim James

                                        Tribute To 2

                                          After releasing the politically charged solo album ‘Eternally Even’ in 2016, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James returns with ‘Tribute To 2’, a collection of cover songs that reverberate with hope.

                                          Unlike his 2009 mini album of songs by George Harrison and the Beatles, ‘Tribute To’, which was recorded on an eight-track, reel-toreel tape recorder in the days following Harrison’s passing, the 11 songs of ‘Tribute To 2’ were recorded over a period of years, in different places, with different gear and varied instrumentation. James explains, “These are some of my favourite covers - songs I recorded trying to bring myself peace during a rough time or trying to make myself laugh or just have fun. I hope others can relate and enjoy the journey during these tough times and hopefully in times of peace and love as well!”

                                          Jim White

                                          Waffles, Triangles & Jesus

                                            Jim White gets around. When he’s not releasing his own critically acclaimed solo albums he splits his time producing records for other songwriters, exhibiting his visual art in galleries and museums across the USA & Europe and publishing award winning fiction. His sixth solo studio album, the bizarrely titled Waffles, Triangles & Jesus, is a mind-bending joy ride of sonic influences featuring a bevy of his hometown Athens’ roots musicians, plus west coast indie darlings Dead Rock West, and rock and roll maverick Holly Golightly.

                                            STAFF COMMENTS

                                            Barry says: Here we get Jim white tackling at least two out of the three tropes associated with that there Americana (maybe triangles will be the next big thing). Whilst he may not be the first to tackle the subjects, he does it with a aplomb. Witty ruminations, catchy tunemongering and straight-out vibes. Excellent stuff.

                                            "If you don't vote it's on you, not me," Jim James sings on his second solo album. It's an election-year entreaty geared towards too-pure leftoid lintheads, but the song is no screed, befitting a guy whose music usually turns inward. James floats his humidly ethereal soul mumble over seven minutes of a languid beat, cottony strings and chill organ bleat. Throughout Eternally Even, the My Morning Jacket mainman renders his change gospel with conversational grace, Bill Withers warmth, Sly Stone optimism and Neil Young conviction – less soap box pugilist than lazy-Sunday sage.

                                            The music recalls Aquarian soul, Nineties trip-hop and laser-gun funk: "True Nature" ties a find-your-mission message to a hazily coiled Blacksploitation groove; the loose flowing prettiness of "Here in Spirit" links today's battles to a history of struggle. The sonic spaciness can sometimes undercut James' less probing moments ("This world is war and blood when it could've been love," he observes on "We Ain't Getting Any Younger (Pt. 2.)" More often, the effect is charming. The gentlest moment is the title cut, in which his Kentucky coo cuddles against a track that's like Dark Side of the Moon as an astral doo-wop lovers prayer, reaching for a personal and social over-the-rainbow moment of Zen so sweetly visioned it feels like it's already unfolding –walking in the shadows, tripping towards the light. 



                                            STAFF COMMENTS

                                            Andy says: This record has the meandering, groovy, mellow and melancholic vibe of Marvin's masterpiece "Here, My Dear". Stoned, soulful, fuzzy songs bleed into one another to create a powerful meditation on the times (political and personal). It is a stunning record.

                                            TRACK LISTING

                                            1. Hide In Plain Sight
                                            2. Same Old Lie
                                            3. Here In Spirit
                                            4. The World's Smiling Now
                                            5. We Ain't Getting Any Younger Pt. 1
                                            6. We Ain't Getting Any Younger Pt. 2 [Explicit]
                                            7. True Nature
                                            8. In The Moment
                                            9. Eternally Even

                                            Jim O'Rourke

                                            Simple Songs

                                              2015 and the silence has been broken with ‘Simple Songs’. Jim O’Rourke is ready to talk to you again with his first pop album since 2001. ‘Simple Songs’ is an amazing record of musical song entertainment because Jim O’Rourke knows what he wants and how to get it.

                                              The range of sounds and songs that have turned Jim’s head are numerous enough to have crushed together into something that is unmistakably his. The music is played so immaculately by so many instruments and most of them by the creator’s hand. ‘Simple Songs’ was worked over, from source material to finished mix, for five years or more now. Jim’s writing is rooted in the approach of ‘Insignificance’ - frosted pop tarts that leave a darkly bitter aftertaste.

                                              Let ‘Simple Songs’ seep into your brain, as a musical expression and a statement of animal motherhood. It may help you get your bearings in a world gone hopeless.

                                              Jim-E Stack

                                              Tell Me I Belong

                                              Jim-E Stack has come a long way. Born and raised in the culturally rich environs of San Francisco, the now Brooklyn-based artist born James Harmon Stack cut his musical teeth as a jazz drummer, but it wasn't until he entered the world of solo production at the age of 16 that he found the freedom necessary to write and record how he wanted.

                                              Following time spent in New Orleans, James moved to New York in summer of 2012, and started the slow process of sketching, refining, and developing the diverse tracks that would make up his captivating LP. In every corner of Tell Me I Belong, you can hear an artist who equally reveres classic jazz musicians like John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner, experimental pioneers like Steve Reich, Detroit techno greats Omar-S and Robert Hood, and contemporary boundary pushers Arca, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Actress. “More so than anything, it’s really on some personal shit,” says Stack. “The time period between leaving San Francisco and moving to New York was a tough time for me, and the music is kind of a reflection of that, the feeling like you don’t belong.” The music may speak about a kind of alienation, but it also abundantly offers the chance of collective experiences in the form of hard-hitting dancefloor jams. That fearless juxtaposition is the lifeforce of Tell Me I Belong..

                                              TRACK LISTING

                                              01. Somewheres
                                              02. Run
                                              03. Below
                                              04. Reassuring
                                              05. Everything To Say
                                              06. Is It Me
                                              07. Out Of Mind
                                              08. Ease Up
                                              09. Without
                                              10. Wake

                                              Icons Cards - Fatalities Series

                                              Jim Morrison - 1943-1971

                                                The Icons Fatalities Series features some of our late great heroes.

                                                Blank inside for your own message.

                                                Jim O'Rourke

                                                Eureka

                                                  On "Eureka", Jim O'Rourke's musical career sets of in a whole new direction. An album of near perfect, bright pop songs, including a cover of Bacharch and David's "Something Big".

                                                  Jim O'Rourke

                                                  Bad Timing

                                                    This is the album that put Jim firmly in the ranks of studio Meisters elite. Up until that point, Jim had used walls of noise / sound to create music, but with 'Bad Timing', he stepped back a little, stripped it all down and the arrangements became paramount.

                                                    Jim O'Rourke

                                                    The Visitor

                                                      "The Visitor" is a seriously all-Jim O'Rourke affair - all the sounds you hear are Jim and Jim alone. This time you can't blame any of those session dudes and their bloodless line readings - the chill you're getting is a one-hundred percent O'Rourke effect. As a matter of fact, it might be more like two hundred percent — some of it is tracked so deep, it took two hundred tracks to hold it all. It doesn't sound like it though - to Jim's credit, the mix sounds very minimal, very straightforward - not like several hundred tracks at all. All the classic O'Rourke-isms are here: percolating banjos, smooth electric leads, organic, kicking drum sounds, the flickering of shakers to the left and right, mellow but ominous woodwinds, sounds that indicate 'vintage', sonic jokes and sonic tear-jerkers, all wrapped in spacious yet subtle left to right placement of everything in the picture. This is one one-track album everyone's gonna have to buy. However, "The Visitor" doesn't overstay its welcome. Get ready for redefinition - Jim O'Rourke is back.

                                                      White Out With Jim O'Rourke

                                                      Drunken Little Mass

                                                        A collaboration between Lin Culbertson, Tom Surgal (Collectively White Out) and the esteemed Jim O'Rourke. The Contents of this album are totally improvised, recorded in one take, with no over dubs.


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