The three-way ‘Los Angeles’ collaboration was born out of a curiosity which just wouldn’t die. Made up of two of the most illustrious and inventive drummers of the post-punk era, The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst, and Budgie from Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, along with stellar producer and multi-instrumentalist Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee, this unlikely alt-supergroup have spent the last four years spiriting up one of the most extraordinary albums to appear in 2023.

Perusing the tracklist, with its guest credits for, amongst others, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Bobby Gillespie, Civil Rights avant-gardist Lonnie Holley, Starcrawler wildchild Arrow de Wilde and The Edge from U2, you may rightly wonder just what the 13-track long-player holds in store.

The answer: a hard-hitting and compulsively exploratory 55-minute electronic mindscrew, founded on unrivalled rhythmic expertise, fleshed out with an armoury of synths, guitars (Jacknife’s forte) and supplementary percussion, often overlaid with elite-class strings and brass, then universally twisted, manipulated and quite masterfully sculpted by Lee, with his super-producer’s hat on.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Absolutely bonkers how stacked with talent this LP is! With guest spots from James Murphy and Bobby Gillespie, this supergroup odyssey from Tolhurst, Budgie and Jacknife is an eclectic collection of rhythmic set-pieces that have plenty to show-off!

TRACK LISTING

This Is What It Is (To Be Free) (with Bobby Gillespie)
Los Angeles (with James Murphy)
Uh Oh (with Arrow De Wilde And Mark Bowen)
Ghosted At Home (with Bobby Gillespie)
Train With No Station (with The Edge)
Bodies (with Lonnie Holley And Mary Lattimore)
Everything And Nothing
Travel Channel (with Pan Amsterdam)
Country Of The Blind (with Bobby Gillespie)
The Past (Being Eaten)
We Got To Move (with Isaac Brock)
Noche Oscura (with The Edge)
Skins (with James Murphy)

Los Angeles Forum - April 26, 1969 presents an extraordinary live performance by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Before a raucous, sold-out house, Hendrix, drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding tore through a unique set featuring highlights such as "I Don't Live Today," "Purple Haze," "Red House," and an astonishing medley of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" and Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love". This pristine recording, newly mixed by Hendrix's long-time engineer Eddie Kramer, captures the original Jimi Hendrix Experience in their unrivalled, peak form.

A portion of this performance was previously included as part of a short-lived Westwood One radio documentary box set [Lifelines 1990-1992] but has been unavailable in any form for two decades. The CD release with a 24 page booklet--complete with liner notes from ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons who witnessed the show first hand--gives this seminal performance its proper platform, presenting the complete performance mixed directly from the original eight-track master tapes.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Introduction
Tax Free
Foxey Lady
Side B
Red House
Spanish Castle Magic
Side C
Star Spangled Banner
Purple Haze
I Don’t Live Today
Side D
MEDLEY Voodoo Child (Slight Return) / Sunshine Of Your Love / Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Friends! I am so pleased to announce A Night At The Little Los Angeles - the 4-track version of Sundowner. Recorded at home and in my back shed - aka The Little Los Angeles - in suburban Kansas during the summer and winter seasons of 2017 and 2018. This is quite simply the sound of me alone in a room with a four-track to catch my songs as they fell out of my mouth. When I later went into a proper studio to make Sundowner my goal was to capture the essence of these initial recordings, and here you will now have access to the very essence I was chasing. In many ways, this feels like a proper album to me, as it’s my initial attempt to capture the Kansas sunset and put it into sound, where as Sundower was an attempt of an attempt. I love and am proud of them both, of course, but am happy to - for the first time - share this vulnerable side of my songwriting process with the public. Many of my favorite recordings have been made inside of an artist’s home without regard of the outside world, but instead deep in their own world that they’re creating in real time. And with that - I’d like to invite you into my own little world here and now and ask you to please....step inside of....and spend A Night At The Little Los Angeles! - Kevin Morby

****** Sundowner is Morby’s “attempt to put the Middle American twilight -- its beauty profound, though not always immediate -- into sound.” Released in fall 2020 on Dead Oceans, Morby’s distinctively conversational and reflective writing style was received with open arms and was beloved by fans and critics alike. Pitchfork lauded it as “a vision of the Midwest that feels mythical and enormous.” Sundowner’s vision was further fleshed out in comprehensive features in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Stereogum, The FADER, Vice, Aquarium Drunkard, and more. In addition to traditional music publications, Morby appeared on Adult Swim’s Fishcenter and Office Hours with Tim Heidecker. Morby also made his network television debut on CBS This Morning, where he performed the songs “Campfire” and “Sundowner” as part of a special joint performance with his partner and fellow songwriter Katie Crutchfield, aka Waxahatchee.

TRACK LISTING

1. Campfire (4-Track Version)
2. Sundowner (4-Track Version)
3. A Night At The Little Los Angeles (4-Track Version)
4. Wander (4-Track Version)
5. Velvet Highway (4-Track Version)
6. Valley (4-Track Version)
7. Brother, Sister (4-Track Version)
8. Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun (4-Track Version)
9. Provisions (4-Track Version)
10. U.S. Mail (4-Track Version)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2021 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY JUNE 12TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 6PM ON THE SAME DAY (SATURDAY JUNE 12TH).

This release commeorates the 30th anniversary of Johnny's death on the 23rd April 1991. Never released on vinyl before

The next collaborative release between Freeride Millenium and Pauls Musique is a terrific two-tracker from Manchester artist Joseph Louis Harland of Menage A Trois / Dream Lovers fame, and sees a duo of dreamlike synth excursions, beautifuly delivered through a hazy filter of irradiated saturation. 

On the A-Side we get 'L'Amour', kicking things off with a digital choir sound, shorly joined by a parallel but suboctaved string pull, both working together to create a dreamlike backdrop for the whimsical guitar melody that takes things from a charming background ambeince through the realms of dreampop into euphoric eye-closing bliss. Warmly reassuring through it's unabashed use of tried-and-tested melodic refrains, but cleverly tipped on it's head with the percussive and vocal elements falling behind the amplitudinal intensity of the 'background' elements, skilfully increased to seratonin-spouting levels, it's a heady and intoxicating juxtaposition. 

On the flipside we see the seratonin burst of the former piece rounding out into a slowly progressing synthetic bubblebath, keeping the choirs at work but tapering their contribution into a warm sea of glimmering LFO'd pads and warm, Roland chorus. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautifully retrospective, but unflinchingly modern take on synth ambient, mixing elements of Emeralds (more specifically Mark McGuire / Steve Hauschildt's solo work) with the juvenile optimism of IDIB (Johnny Jewel / Chromatics) without ever sounding like a tribute. These are intelligent, beautifully written odes to years gone past,with a forward-facing melodic ideal, and a keen ear for a tune. Lovely.

TRACK LISTING

A. L´amour
B. I Wanna Go To Heaven 

'Soul City Los Angeles' presents recordings which served to establish the musical direction of LA and neighbouring West Coast conurbations in the late 1950s and early 1960s when R&B was evolving into the style that became known as soul. Compiled and annotated by soul music authority Clive Richardson, 'Soul City Los Angeles' is the latest in a series that has previously explored the nascent soul scenes in Detroit, New York and Chicago.

This instalment presents a selection from key independent labels of the area, including Sam Cooke’s SAR and Richard Vaughn’s Arvee, as well as choice items from Aladdin, Liberty, Imperial and Ebb, and collectable releases from more obscure imprints. Famous names on CD1 of this 60-track 2CD set include the Olympics, the Valentinos (aka the Womack Brothers) with ‘Lookin’ For A Love’, the Rivingtons with ‘Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow’, and Johnnie Morisette with ‘Meet Me At The Twistin’ Place’, while CD2 features ‘Ko Ko Mo’ hitmakers Gene & Eunice, both sides of a 1962 single on Rush by Don & Dewey, early recordings by future stars Johnnie Taylor and Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, and a young Sly Stone as a member of the Viscaynes.

Soul fans of the early 1960s could often figure out the geographic origins of new singles as much by the ‘sound’ as by any knowledge of sometimes obscure artists and labels, with the output of West Coast studios tending to have a ‘harder’ sound in comparison with some more sophisticated (for the era) productions from the opposite coast or the regions of the Great Lakes. Here we have music from the formative period of the soul era in Los Angeles.

Also available as 2LP vinyl collectors edition, featuring 28 of the most sought-after tracks and colour insert.

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklisting:
CD One

1. Soothe Me (The Simms Twins)
2. Right To Love (The Simms Twins)
3. The Smile (The Simms Twins)
4. You’re Pickin’ In The Right Cotton Patch (The Simms Twins)
5. Stay Where You Are (The Olympics)
6. Baby, It’s Hot (The Olympics)
7. Come On (Earl Nelson)
8. No Time To Cry (Earl Nelson)
9. Lookin’ For A Love (The Valentinos)
10. Somewhere There’s A Girl (The Valentinos)
11. Damper (Johnnie Morisette)
12. Meet Me At The Twistin’ Place (Johnnie Morisette)
13. Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere (Johnnie Morisette)
14. Here Comes The Night (Part 1) (Jimmy Norman)
15. Here Comes The Night (Part 2) (Willie Moon Man Echols_
16. The Heebee Jeebees (Wally Cox)
17. I Can’t Help It (Wally Cox)
18. Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow (The Rivingtons)
19. Deep Water (The Rivingtons)
20. My Reward (The Rivingtons)
21. Waiting (The Rivingtons)
22. The Love I Just Lost (Beamon Young)
23. Some Day (Beamon Young)
24. That Much Of Your Love (Donald Woods)
25. Memories Of An Angel (Donald Woods)
26. All By Myself (Zeke Strong And His Queen Tones)
27. Your Heart Must Be Made Of Stone (Zeke Strong And His Queen Tones)
28. This Is The Nite (The Valiants)
29. Love Game (The Valiants)
30. Frieda Frieda (The Valiants)

CD Two

1. Soul Motion (Don And Dewey)
2. Stretchin’ Out (Don And Dewey)
3. A Whole Lotta Woman (Johnnie Taylor)
4. Why, Why, Why (Johnnie Taylor)
5. Never, Never (Johnnie Taylor)
6. Rome (Wasn’t Built In A Day) (Johnnie Taylor)
7. Looking Back (Johnny Guitar Watson)
8. The Eagle Is Back (Johnny Guitar Watson)
9. Johnny Guitar (Johnny Guitar Watson)
10. Cuttin’ In (Johnny Guitar Watson)
11. Sweet Lovin’ Mama (Johnny Guitar Watson)
12. The Angels Gave You To Me (Gene And Eunice)
13. I Mean Love (Gene And Eunice)
14. I Ain’t Guilty (The Crawford Brothers)
15. It Feels Good (The Crawford Brothers)
16. Just Like That (The Robins)
17. Oh No (The Robins)
18. Glory Of Love (The Velvetones)
19. I Love Her So (The Velvetones)
20. I Pity You Fool (Jennell Hawkins)
21. Don’t Worry Bout Me (Jennell Hawkins)
22. Heavenly Angel (The Viscaynes)
23. Yellow Moon (The Viscaynes)
24. Uncle Sam Needs You (The Viscaynes)
25. That’s All I Ask (Tommy Knight)
26. There’s No Pain (Tommy Knight)
27. Lucy Lee (Lloyd George)
28. Sing Real Loud (Lloyd George)
29. She’s All Right (Troy Walker)
30. I’m Gettin’ Hip (Troy Walker)

LP Tracklisting:
SIDE ONE
1. Meet Me At The Twistin’ Place (Johnnie Morisette)
2. Right To Love (The Simms Twins)
3. Soul Motion (Don And Dewey)
4. No Time To Cry (Earl Nelson)
5. The Heebee Jeebees (Wally Cox)
6. That Much Of Your Love (Donald Woods)
7. Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow (The Rivingtons)

SIDE TWO
1. Soothe Me (The Simms Twins)
2. Stay Where You Are (The Olympics)
3. Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere (Johnnie Morisette)
4. Somewhere There’s A Girl (The Valentinos)
5. Here Comes The Night (Part 1) (Jimmy Norman)
6. Deep Water (The Rivingtons)
7. Some Day (Beamon Young)

SIDE THREE
1. Lookin’ For A Love (The Valentinos)
2. Your Heart Must Be Made Of Stone (Zeke Strong And His Queen Tones)
3. Rome (Wasn’t Built In A Day) (Johnnie Taylor)
4. Looking Back (Johnny Guitar Watson)
5. That’s All I Ask (Tommy Knight)
6. She’s All Right (Troy Walker)
7. Frieda Frieda (The Valiants)

SIDE FOUR
1. Cuttin’ In (Johnny Guitar Watson)
2. Never, Never (Johnnie Taylor)
3. This Is The Nite (The Valiants)
4. There’s No Pain (Tommy Knight)
5. Yellow Moon (The Viscaynes)
6. The Smile (The Simms Twins)
7. Waiting (The Rivingtons)

Hip hop has come a long way since the days of Adidas shell toes and 'yes yes, ya'll', splintering into a variety of guises, from blinged-up cartoon gangsterism to the most leftfield, underground 'but is it hip hop?' sounds. Steven Ellison, using his Flying Lotus moniker, falls into the latter camp, producing some of the most interesting, subtle and beautiful hiptronica / wonky-hop around right now (alongside the likes of Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, Dabrye etc). On his second long player "Los Angeles", the tracks (all 17 of them) are built on standard hip hop beats-and-samples foundations, but then take the left-hand fork in the road, crunching and distorting those neck-snapping beats and slicing the samples up into intricate snippets to create layered textures of woozy future electroid psychedelia. If you fell in love with Burial in 2007, and are ready for something with a bit more oomph, then look no further.