It’s Friday (well, pretty sure) and we have a bunch of new releases to dig into! Yes, some of these albums were released over the past month or two but now finally the vinyl versions have been making their way to record shops.
Need a music fix? We are open for order pickups Thursday – Saturday 12pm-4pm. Send us a message or email and we’ll get things set aside for you so you can swing by and grab them. You can pay when you pick up your order (we have tap payment for debt and credit cards) or let us know if you’d prefer to pre-pay and you can send an e-transfer, use PayPal or a credit card.
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On to the new releases!
Body Count – Carnivore
The originators of rap metal are back! ICE-T and his gang are as angry as ever on their 7th studio album, which coincides with their 30th anniversary as a band! Carnivore, the band’s second album for Century Media, continues the path of its uncompromising and critically acclaimed predecessors, “Bloodlust” (2017) and “Manslaugther” (2014), in pairing Ice-T’s angry and socio-critical lyrics with thick guitar riffs and nods to metal and hardcore greats like Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, Suicidal Tendencies and Rage Against The Machine. Bangers like “Thee Critical Beatdown”, “The Hate Is Real” and the title track will please old school Body Count fans, while “Colors” is a killer metal version of ICE-T’s 1988 hit single of the same name. With Motörhead’s classic “Ace Of Spades” Body Count are again paying tribute to one of their major musical influences. “When I’m Gone” shows a new side of Body Count and features guest vocals by Amy Lee (Evanescence). Other guest musicians include Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer),
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Chunky Shrapnel
Chunky Shrapnel features 13 live performances hand-picked from the band’s 2019 European tour and includes a musical score written by Stu Mackenzie that adds a ‘magical touch of alien melancholy’ throughout the record. Chunky Shrapnel is an adrenaline fueled psychedelic trip that captures the energy of a live concert while also creating something tailored and unique to King Gizzard.
2xLP in a deluxe gatefold jacket (heavy silver reflective mirrorboard w/spot matte and gloss printing)
Obi strip w/gold foil
Custom inner-sleeves
Locate S,1 – Personalia – green vinyl
Working under various aliases since 2014, Christina Schneider has explored everything from groovy garage rock to minimalist bedroom pop to Syd Barrett-style psychedelia. Buoyed by her desire to create the same “crazy, powerful feeling” she gets when she hears an ABBA or Kate Bush song, she reached again for the outer limits of pop music and recorded “Personalia”, her sophomore album as Locate S,1. Schneider spends much of the album trying to understand and expel a darkness that has come over her (and society at large) in order to live a more fulfilling life. While she was writing and recording the album over the past year, she was thinking a lot about her own growth and self-worth as an artist, and where her constantly evolving and always experimental music fits in the digital age. Environmentalism, money, power, and modern feminism formed part of that conversation, too. Throughout “Personalia” Schneider seeks to address how the attention economy is plaguing us with feelings of FOMO and anxiety, and is causing many of us to abandon their progressive values.
Mac Miller – Circles
Circles is the sixth and final studio album by Mac Miller. Conceived as a sister album to 2018’s full length Swimming, the album was completed with the assistance of Jon Brion, with whom Miller worked on Swimming and had been working together on Circles at the time of his passing. While sonically distinctly different than its predecessor, Circles features many of the hallmarks for which Swimming was critically-acclaimed upon its release — Miller further realizing his singing voice in addition to rapping, live instrumentation and earnest, confessional lyrical content. Listeners will hear shades of some of the album’s influences in its songs, from the T-Rex guitar tone of “Surf” to the Plastic Ono Band-era John Lennon feel of its production and the inspired cover of Arthur Lee’s 1972 single “Everybody’s Gotta Live.” It’s a momentous final entry into the discography of an artist that remains at the center of re-imagining the limits of rap.
Muzz – Muzz
Muzz, the new project of Paul Banks (Interpol), Josh Kaufman (producer/multi-instrumentalist and one third of Bonny Light Horseman), and Matt Barrick (drummer of Jonathan Fire*Eater, The Walkmen, and Fleet Foxes’ touring band), have announced their self-titled, debut album, out June 5th on Matador.
Muzz was born out of longstanding friendship and collaboration. Banks and Kaufman have known each other since childhood, attending high school together in Spain before separately moving to New York. There, they independently crossed paths with Barrick while running in similar music circles. They kept in touch in the following years: Barrick drummed in Banks + Steelz and on some of Kaufman’s production sessions; Kaufman helped on Banks’ early Julian Plenti solo endeavour; various demos were collaborated on, and a studio was co-bought.
The self-titled debut album, written, arranged and performed by all three, is dark and gorgeous, expansive and soulful. No matter the sonic direction, Muzz goes there effortlessly and with maximum emotional charge.
Perfume Genius – Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
Set My Heart On Fire Immediately sees Hadreas re-teaming with GRAMMY-nominated producer Blake Mills and features contributions from musicians Jim Keltner, Pino Palladino and Matt Chamberlin. It was recorded in Los Angeles, where Perfume Genius settled in 2017 with longtime partner and musical collaborator Alan Wyffels.
The album explores and subverts concepts of masculinity and traditional roles, and introduces decidedly American musical influences. Throughout the album Hadreas plays with themes of love, sex, memory and the body, channelling popular music mythologies while irreverently authoring its own. “I wanted to feel more open, more free and spiritually wild,” says Hadreas, “and I’m in a place now where those feelings are very close– but it can border on being unhinged. I wrote these songs as a way to be more patient, more considered — to pull at all these chaotic threads hovering around me and weave them in to something warm, thoughtful and comforting”
The Strokes – The New Abnormal
The New Abnormal is the long awaited new album from The Strokes, and the band’s first album in seven years. The album was announced with the first track and video, “At The Door.” The New Abnormal is The Strokes’ sixth studio album and was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California, with producer Rick Rubin. The album’s cover artwork is a painting called ‘Bird on Money,’ by famed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The Strokes are singer Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr, bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti.
Yves Tumor – Heaven To A Tortured Mind – silver vinyl
Safe in the Hands of Love marked the vanguard arrival of Yves Tumor. Unclassified and unannounced, the release received widespread acclaim and cemented itself as a landmark in the hallowed Warp catalog. The experimentalist voiced a new generation, creating a surreal pop stratosphere for outsiders and the masses alike. Heaven To A Tortured Mind is the next step in that searing trajectory. A mindfully crafted studio album, gracefully blending genre into alternative bliss. Effortless and inspired, Heaven To A Tortured Mind is an album for lovers, losers and the unconcerned.
Few projects at the forefront of contemporary art truly push visceral sonic boundaries in the way that Yves Tumor does. With an arc that impartially sits between psych-rock and modern pop, comparisons only serve as limitations intended to define that which cannot be. Yves Tumor melds restraint and chaos; diluting reality by giving meaning to the abstract and allowing for dissonance to be seen and heard as harmony.
Heaven To A Tortured Mind – written and composed by Yves Tumor and produced by Yves Tumor and Justin Raisen (Sky Ferreira, Ariel Pink, Charli XCX)- marks the fourth official full-length release from Yves Tumor. Piercing through contradiction, redefining expression through song, and catapulting Yves Tumor into the next phase of illusion and evolution. Heaven To A Tortured Mind finds its place in music history as a collection of anthems for a generation.
Thanks to all our great customers for your support the past few months. You rock!