A masterpiece! But also a major turning point in 38 Special’s career. It is with this now ‘classic’ that the band will be recognised. Rockin’ Into The Night, which followed ‘Special Delivery’, benefited from the first seeds sown by the latter, and the first plant to appear in all its splendour was the eponymous title of this new album, released in 1979.
A revolver cartridge transformed into a tube of lipstick sets the tone, far removed from Southern bands. Just like the opening track, co-written by three members of Survivor, including Jim Peterik, which producer Ron Nevison thought was too Southern for his colts. Was it this track that influenced the Jacksonville gang’s songwriting? 38 SPECIAL’s music is becoming smoother and more polished, and even if their Southern roots…
Category: *editions*
This year’s “in” black music style is the slow, sweet groove of soul harmony ballads. Interest has grown over the last decade and now the rarer of these records regularly reach four figure prices. This interest in Soul Harmony has led to Ace forming its own singles label of that name for the purpose of issuing tracks on vinyl for DJs and collectors of this genre.
Though not that expensive, several tracks on here command hefty prices due to demand. The Question Marks on Money, the Puffs on Dore, John Wesley and the 4 Tees’ Melic offering will make a hole in most pockets. We aren’t picking the songs on price though, rather on musical excellence. Hence the recordings by the Mad Lads, Moments, Diplomats and Lee Williams…
Stafell Sbâr Sain (Sain’s Spare Room) is a vibrant showcase of Welsh folk at its most diverse and inventive. Released on limited-run vinyl by Sain, Wales’ oldest independent label, this compilation brings together 12 tracks that weave a strong traditional thread while embracing bold contemporary sounds.
Long-established names like Bob Delyn, Lleuwen Steffan and Gwilym Bowen Rhys share space with fresh voices such as Irfan Rais, a Singaporean who learned Welsh during his studies, a testament to the genre’s growing global reach. The album balances reworkings of classics, like Georgia Ruth’s delicate take on ‘Blodau’r Flwyddyn’, with striking originals such as Lleuwen’s ‘Haleliwia Newydd’. Folk royalty is represented by newcomers…
In 1969, as Cold War tensions simmered, Jerry Goldsmith composed the score for The Chairman, a spy thriller starring Gregory Peck. Known for his genre-spanning versatility, Goldsmith had already impressed Hollywood with scores for Planet of the Apes and The Sand Pebbles. This film presented a unique challenge: blending Western orchestration with Eastern musical motifs to reflect the story’s geopolitical intrigue.
…While a soundtrack album was released concurrently with the film on the Tetragrammaton label, the album masters and film recording sessions both vanished over the years. Subsequent CD reissues were limited to rips from vinyl sources, amplifying the limited range and distortion inherit in the format. While a short mono…
…”Microwave,” the 1989 track from Japanese singer Kyoko Koizumi, opens with a plasticky creak and a kitchen timer ring. Adding in crunchy guitar samples, a thudding drum machine and a house-inspired keyboard solo, the chart-topping vocalist embraced the playful spirit that defined Japan’s experimental ’80s genre, known as techno kayō, or techno pop. Positioned on the B-side of the new vinyl-only compilation, Techno Kayō Vol. 1: Japanese Techno Pop 1981-1989, “Microwave” proves that this sometimes-underestimated genre still has the power to surprise.
Lovingly compiled by Toshihito “Dubby” Maeyama (owner of Onda records) and Antal Heitlager (co-founder of Amsterdam’s renowned Rush Hour label), Vol. 1 sets out to establish…
Black Doldrums’ set at the 2025 Fuzz Club Festival is being immortalised on wax with this super-limited live album release. The London-based band founded by Kevin Gibbard and Sophie Landers fall somewhere between dark neo-psych intensity and gothic post-punk melancholy that’s all the more powerful live on stage.
Their first appearance at the Fuzz Club Festival – which takes place every year at the Effenaar in Eindhoven, the Netherlands – was in support of their latest studio album ‘In Limerence’, released in late 2024. Their discography-spanning set comprised five tracks from the new album (‘Hideaway’, ‘In Silence’, ‘Dying For You’, ‘Tarantula’ and ‘Painting Smiles’), two from their 2022 debut full-length Dead Awake…
Though little-known in America prior to 2000, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant formed in Japan back in 1991 and began playing raucous garage rock & roll inspired by the Stooges, Thee Headcoats, the Who, and MC5. Futoshi Abe’s thrashy guitar riffs propel the fast-paced, hard-hitting tunes over the driving rhythms of Kouji Ueno’s thick bass grooves and Kazuyuki Kuhara’s heavy backbeat. Yusuke Chiba’s mod, raspy vocals, alternately sung and screamed out mostly in Japanese, hold the whole thing together with a rough-as-rock-gets swagger.
Initially, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant’s sound was derived from British punk and blues. The band recorded their first EP, Wonder Style, in 1995. They soon followed up with their debut album, Cult Grass Stars, recorded in London with…
CBGB’s was the center of the N.Y.C. punk explosion, as well as a welcoming place to play for all the artists and bands who followed in the wake. CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack 1975-1986 is a four-disc set that seeks to paint a picture of the original scene as it burst out into the open as well as detailing the various sounds and movements, like no wave and hardcore, that were born in the ensuing years. All the groups one would hope for are here, represented by slightly deeper cuts — Talking Heads’ sprightly live version of “A Clean Break” for one — along with a ton of lesser-known bands and a healthy dose of super-obscure ones. It’s the kind of collection where even someone with a healthy knowledge of the scene will be constantly surprised. One surprise element…
Was it a matter of timing, or simply living in the shadow of giants, that has kept saxophonist Charles Tyler off most listeners’ radars? Born in Kentucky in 1941 and raised in Indianapolis, Tyler first gained recognition through his association with Albert Ayler. After relocating to Cleveland in the early ’60s, the two became fast friends, and Tyler’s fiery saxophone can be heard on Ayler’s early ESP-Disk recordings Bells (1965) and Spirits (1965). He soon stepped forward as a leader with Charles Tyler Ensemble (1966) and Eastern Man Alone (1967), two albums that have drifted in and out of print, perhaps casualties of a moment when Ayler and Ornette Coleman’s groundbreaking work dominated the conversation and left little room for similarly adventurous voices.
Ty Segall’s 2016 Emotional Mugger Tour was a blistering assault of psychedelic surrealism. The power derived from the multiple-guitar, six person set-up of Mikal Cronin, King Tuff (Kyle Thomas), Emmett Kelly, and Wand’s Cory Hanson and Evan Burrows. The surrealism came in when Segall donned a baby’s mask, filtering his rock star persona through a shroud of carnivalesque disguise. When the band turned up at Mark Riley’s BBC recording studio, they had already logged 50 shows. It was mayhem — how could it not be? — but finely tuned.
This five song EP revisits the glorious abandon of that mid-teens iteration of Segall’s art. It delivers four songs from Emotional Mugger, plus a rabid but abbreviated run-through of…
A journey through the musical life of Gary Young, the subject of the SXSW-winning documentary Louder Than You Think and the wild polymath best known as the original drummer for indie royalty Pavement: from early hardcore punk and post-punk recordings to the merry chaos of Hospital, whose ‘Plant Man’ ended up being an improbable MTV favorite.
Original music created by Noah Georgeson and Edward W. Dahl is presented alongside ultra-rare Pavement live tracks and something quite special: a Gary Young-penned oddity that Gary’s old friend Scott ‘Spiral Stairs’ Kannberg turned into a suitably trippy musical track (spiced with some Stephen Malkmus feedback yowls), recorded for the movie shortly before Gary’s passing in August 2023.
Dave’s Picks Volume 57 contains the complete show recorded at the Uptown Theatre in Chicago on February 1, 1978, and also includes some songs from the previous night’s concert.
…The Uptown Theatre, originally a movie palace, opened in 1925. From 1978 to 1981, the Grateful Dead played 17 shows at the Uptown. The January 30 & 31, and February 1, 1978 shows comprised the band’s first concert run at the venue.
This very first Dead run at the Uptown is infused with bold exploration from the monster first set of classics (“Jack Straw, “Friend of the Devil,” “Me and My Uncle”) with a “Sugaree” reminiscent of May ’77 to close things out, from Bobby’s powerful delivery of “Samson and Delilah,” to the Rhythm Devils’ spacey psychedelic…
John McLaughlin has one of the richest artistic legacies in modern music, not only for his unmatched technique but also for his boundless curiosity. From early masterpieces, Extrapolation and Love Devotion Surrender (with Carlos Santana), to the genre-bending invention of Mahavishnu Orchestra and the blistering acoustic explorations with Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia, John has always sought the new and transcendent. His work seeks a profound spiritual connection. Now, he has brought his singular vision to the world of film music with his score, Music for Abandoned Heights.
Compositionally, McLaughlin poured his imagination into the film’s script, crafting a rich blend of hot fusion and pensive ballads. He describes his writing process: “In my mind I…
The press release for Pop Ambient 2026, the 26th installment of Kompakt Records’ influential ambient compilations, paraphrases Heraclitus, comparing ambient music to a river: “everything flows, nothing remains.” It’s an apt summation of what makes the Pop Ambient series such a compelling listen, even if it is mostly quiet, unobtrusive and unassuming.
Pop Ambient 2026 leans ever-so-slightly towards the “different” end of the ambient continuum, although you’d have to really lean in to notice. On its surface, Pop Ambient 2026 radiates the same pastoral, vaguely melancholic mood that has made the series such a mainstay for the past quarter-century, but there’s something more, a sense of the human wandering through the garden of machines. Take Segensklang’s “Schauer…
Electric Cowbell Records announces the launch of Richmond Relics, a new archival imprint dedicated to preserving the city’s musical history. Its inaugural release is a newly remastered reissue of FA3574, the sole album from Richmond, Virginia’s legendary supergroup Famous Actors From Out of Town. Originally self-released in 1986 as a limited-edition, cassette-only title, FA3574 was recorded at Floodzone, a repurposed tobacco warehouse studio in Richmond.
The album features ten original instrumental tracks that capture the group’s kinetic chemistry and their off-kilter blend of late-’70s/early-’80s art rock, jazz, noise, and improvisation. Nearly forty years later, the recordings remain strikingly vibrant. Now fully remastered for vinyl, FA3574…
…Remastered by Bob Weston.
Having fully made their case with Venus Luxure, Girls Against Boys kept on course with the equally fine Cruise Yourself. The hints of lounge and Vegas were even more explicit here — the cocktail artwork on the CD, the fact that one particularly bitter number is called “My Martini.” Again, though, these weren’t the gauche clichés of characters like Combustible Edison, but signposts of a vicious, cutting quality in lyrics and music. McCloud’s purring rasp again serves as one of the band’s chief qualities, perfectly suited to the sassy, snarling burn of songs like “Cruise Your New Baby Fly Self” and “The Royal Lowdown.” Though backing vocals aren’t specifically credited, it’s Janney adding the high parts here and there,…