Released by Trojan Records in the UK in 1975, Ja-Gan quickly became a must-have long-player for dub enthusiasts and devotees of the melodica sound first popularised by Augustus Pablo two years earlier.
Despite crediting keyboard whizz Leslie Butler as the primary artist, the Harry Johnson-produced LP primarily showcased the talents of singer-turned melodica maestro Joe White, whose proficiency of the instrument rivalled that of his more widely celebrated contemporary, Augustus Pablo.
Remarkably, White also went unacknowledged on the front sleeve of ‘Dub Wise’, the Jamaican pressing of the LP, which instead credited the engineer responsible for mixing the set, Sylvan Morris!
Category: reissue
…this Record Store Day, April 18, 2026, Merge Records is reissuing ‘Words of Wisdom and Hope’, the 2002 album by Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair. Includes two bonus tracks that were originally part of a limited 7-inch single “Always in My Heart” and “Rock Me Tonight.”
The line of musicians waiting to work with Jad Fair goes around the block. But you can see the line move; such is the prolific nature of the subdued dude. Words of Wisdom and Hope is, not surprisingly, exactly the sum of its parts. Teenage Fanclub is probably the purest pop act to get involved with Fair, and the result is easily the most straightforward album to have his name on it in some time, possibly ever. Please note, though, that this doesn’t mean it’s particularly…
Brand new CD reissue to celebrate its recent 40th Anniversary in 2025 and due for a critical reappraisal.
Following the breakup of the Police, their drummer Stewart Copeland undertook a musical Odessey through the heart of Africa in search of the roots of Rock & Roll. Originally released as both a film, (directed and produced by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux) and album in 1985, The Rhythmatist preceded amongst other albums, the release of ‘Graceland’ by Paul Simon which was to follow in 1986.
The album produced by Stewart along with Jeff Seitz, featured the singles ‘Koteja (Oh Bolilla)’ featuring Ray Lema a major figure in world music himself as well as ‘Gong Rock’.
This brand new edition comes with…
…deluxe anniversary reissue features 11 new tracks, including unreleased demos and remixes with artists Cody Votolato (The Blood Brothers), Youth Code and Kerry McCoy (Deafheaven).
On the second track of Touché Amoré‘s emotional and complicated fourth effort Stage Four, vocalist Jeremy Bolm addresses his late mother — as he does throughout the album, written out of grief, guilt and regret over her passing due to cancer two years ago — and tells her, “I haven’t found the courage to listen to your last message to me.”
The album is a passionately written and deeply moving meditation on loss, and Touché Amoré have never been better as a band. Bolm’s throat-shredding yell tears through most of these lines, reminding us that although…
…The anniversary edition expands the original 11-track record with three bonus tracks.
Portland rockers Summer Cannibals step up their game on Full of It, their label debut for Kill Rock Stars. A solid pair of self-released LPs and countless touring miles have earned them plenty of respect in the Northwest and beyond, and they make the most of their heightened exposure by delivering their tightest outing yet. Led by singer/guitarist Jessica Boudreaux, the group sports a streamlined new sound courtesy of both producer Chris Woodhouse (Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees) and a retooled lineup that features bassist Jenny Logan and drummer Devon Shirley alongside longtime guitar man Marc Swart. There are certainly elements of fuzzy garage pop in…
This tenth anniversary edition of Venetian Snares’ ‘Traditional Synthesizer Music’ adds ten bonus tracks and alternative versions originally available only on limited edition compact disc from the artist’s Bandcamp.
For an artist whose recordings typically consist of intensely edited, sample-heavy sonic constructions, the “traditional” way to go about making music is to spend countless hours programming an overwhelming modular synthesizer system that takes up an entire room. Aaron Funk has explored analog synthesizer music before, but he usually saves this type of work for his Last Step moniker, which veers toward acid techno rather than the frenetic breakcore of his more well-known guise, Venetian Snares.
The Gathering, originally released in 2007, returns in an expanded edition that reaffirms the lasting significance of Marianne Segal’s long-awaited comeback. This reissue not only revisits the album but also casts new light on a work that already proved her artistic voice remained as compelling as ever after decades away from the spotlight.
Best known for her work with cult ‘70s outfit Jade, Segal used The Gathering to reconnect with the spirit of that era while subtly updating it for a more contemporary audience. In this expanded form, the album’s depth and craftsmanship become even more apparent, offering listeners a fuller picture of her creative vision.
The record moves effortlessly between traditional folk balladry, roots…
…features the original album plus ‘Live at Third Man Records’, a 10-song live album.
On his debut for Columbia Records, Pete Yorn wears his heart on his sleeve like Ryan Adams, sings in a husky croon similar to Jakob Dylan, and earnestly plays into passion and emotion like Jeff Buckley. The year 2001 belonged to Yorn, and his critical praise was not unwarranted, with Musicforthemorningafter marking the stunning beginning of a long, varied career. It’s a raw selection of heartland and American trad rock, yet Yorn’s love for Brit-pop is also quite evident, with several breezy acoustic-based songs (“Sense,” “Simonize”) resembling threads of the Smiths. Yorn’s voice may crack at points, but it contributes to the dusty feeling of the entire…
Why it’s volume two from the Rotting Tapes series that’s being given a vinyl reissue, rather than volumes one, three or four is anybody’s guess, but why not? All four tapes contained two tracks each, all were recorded live in Tokyo in the first half of 1982, and all feature the duo Michio Kadotani (1959-1990, vocals/guitar) and Nanjo Asahito (bass), this time joined by an uncredited drummer. The group was well-named; although the music at times seems like impenetrable, formless sludge, there’s often a real beauty and poetry to it, too. When Rotting Telepathies performed together, there was, perhaps fitfully, a unique alchemy, and when it works, it’s glorious, presaging the more fully formed music of noisy, doomy Japanese bands like Gallhammer, but it’s also…
One of the clearest examples of an album that crafts a strange and beautiful world not quite like any other is Rocketship’s 1996 full-length debut A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness. Even upon arrival, this was an experience unto itself, and 30 years later, these eight songs of bittersweet bliss still feel new.
Rocketship spiked their deliciously melodic indiepop with buzzing organs, spacey interstitials and motorik repetition, aligning them with mid-90s peers like Stereolab and Unrest. “A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness” is an album of unrepentantly vulnerable melodies, unusual seventh chords, lingering ambient interludes, and soft sentiments released at a time when unfriendly, self-conscious punk rock was the order of the day…
Camouflage are one of the few German bands to have been making music successfully at home and abroad for the last couple of decades. “The Great Commandment” (1987) and “Love Is A Shield” (1989) were actually worldwide hits. After four albums, Camouflage felt it was time to experiment. This phase reached its zenith with the album Spice Crackers in 1995 – the most daring, most interesting work they ever released. Electropop tracks sit side by side with hypnotic, repetetive, spheric tracks. Now, 30 years later, “Spice Crackers” will finally be released on vinyl for the first time!
Heiko Maile, Camouflage founder member and producer of “Spice Crackers”, has this to say about working on the album: On our previous productions, we started out with just a few…
Concord Music Group reissue R.E.M. at the BBC, originally released in 2018, the comprehensive broadcast collection from R.E.M.
R.E.M. grew up with the BBC, and this historic relationship is lovingly celebrated across an incredible collection that beautifully illustrates the career trajectory of one of modern music’s greatest bands. The collection—available as a super-deluxe edition 8-CD/1-DVD box set, as well as 2-CD, 2-LP and digital formats—comprises a treasure trove of rare and unreleased live and studio recordings culled from theBBC and band archives. This is a must-have collection for R.E.M. fans and an authoritative introduction for newcomers.
In-studio performances featured in the 8-CD/1-DVD box set include a John Peel Session…
Doo Dah Nean is an entirely characteristic release from La Musica records, the murky Japanese underground cassette label that’s been around since the ‘90s, occasionally putting out sonically debased bootlegs of artists’ work to make them fit with the noise aesthetic of label founder Asahito Nanjo. Nean was a mysterious trio, consisting of Naoko (vocals), Yui (bass/electronics) and Non (drums) and this was their only album, released in 1996. Few people, least of all Nean themselves, can have expected a reissue on limited-edition vinyl in a gatefold sleeve 20 years later, but here it is, and it’s so eccentric, such an acquired taste – though not an inaccessible one, by the standards of Japanese underground music – that it’s guaranteed to sell out quickly.
The Environment series originally began as an archive of previously unreleased recordings but Environment Five features thirteen all new songs recorded in the first half of 2014. It includes appearances from Daniel Pemberton (BAFTA nominated / Ivor Novello winning composer), Raven Bush (Syd Arthur) and Riz Maslen (Neotropic).
Environment Five continues the conceptual journey of the Environment series by The Future Sound of London, but this installment stands apart in several important ways. While earlier releases in the series often drew from the duo’s vast archive of unreleased material, Environment Five presents thirteen entirely new compositions recorded during the first half of 2014. The result feels less like a retrospective and more like a fully formed…
Released on handsome red splatter vinyl for its 45th birthday, the 1981 debut by Edinburgh’s finest has lost none of its ferocity with the passing of time and is as divisive now as it was back then. A vital, hardcore-infused re-statement of the uncompromising principles of 1977 or the retrograde acme of cliched and cartoonish punk? Neither point of view is without its merits.
In 1981, there were plenty of reasons to believe that UK punk was indeed dead. Sid, who was punk, was dead while his former colleague John Lydon was releasing experimental records like The Flowers of Romance. The Clash were making funky pop singles and the Damned goth pop ones; even stalwarts Sham 69 had split after the lamentable The Game. Meanwhile, Wattie Buchan…
For Comet Gain, the 2020s have been a decade of consolidation so far. Their recent output on Tapete is a combination of new material and the wider distribution of their older albums, none of which ever got the fair shake they should have from their contemporary audience. Of those, City Fallen Leaves may be the most crucial in their discography, as it separates and clearly identifies two eras of the band. While prior albums found Comet Gain indulging in equal parts twee melodicism and indie-rock fuzz & scuzz, City Fallen Leaves marks where they began to leave the scuzz behind. Yet, despite cleaning up their act, the band don’t completely abandon the depth that their songwriting always had.
Anyone familiar with later-period Comet Gain…
Few artists are as closely tied to the foundation of country music as Willie Nelson. Before the outlaw movement, before the braids and bandanas, Nelson was a Nashville songwriter absorbing the work of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, and Merle Travis.
Originally released in 2010 and produced by T Bone Burnett, Country Music is his direct salute to that lineage. It was his first album made entirely of country standards, a tribute to the songs that shaped him before he became a household name.
The current reissue from Craft Recordings and HighTone Records gives the album renewed focus. HighTone’s relaunch has centered on core Americana titles, and this record fits squarely within that tradition. Country Music opens with Nelson’s own 1959 single…
…This anniversary release of the band’s first EP includes three additional tracks: remastered demos of “31 Seasons in the Minor Leagues,” previously titled as “Tonight I’m So Down,” and “Lonesome Valley,” recorded at Echo Park Studios in Indiana during the ‘Hard to Love a Man’ sessions, as well as “One Thin Dime,” recorded during the Black Ram sessions at Sound of Music Recording Studios in Richmond, Virginia.
Let’s begin at the end, with the cover of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” that closes Magnolia Electric Co.‘s Hard to Love a Man EP. Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner’s always elegant guitar work makes it clear that the song is probably a barnstormer live, probably saved for the first encore so that the band can cut loose…
A blurry Facebook clip posted by salsa enthusiast Jesús Rojas in December of 2023 captures Venezuelan orchestra El Gran Grupo celebrating their 44th anniversary. Three years later the band is still doing what they love most: Playing salsa.
Born in the neighborhood of Petare — one of the largest shanty towns in Latin America — El Gran Grupo began as a sextet called Los Tigres del Ritmo. Dressed in vests and Oxford pants, rocking afros and thick mustaches, they looked a bit like a rock band. But instead of electric guitars, they wielded congas, güiro, and claves. Though they played mostly local gigs, the group caught the attention of well respected composer Orlando Briceño, who already had at least one record out as a salsa bandleader. Briceño saw…
The long-overdue revival of Bim Sherman’s catalog begins here. These essential recordings will become widely available again for the first time in decades, opening a new chapter in the appreciation of one of Jamaica’s most distinctive voices and representing a major moment for reggae and dub aficionados around the world. This reissue series will not only preserve his legacy but will also offer listeners the chance to experience the depth and timeless resonance of Sherman’s work in its full glory.
Bim Sherman-born Jarret Lloyd Vincent, in Westmoreland, Jamaica—holds a unique place in reggae history. Emerging in the mid 70s, his ethereal, haunting vocal style quickly set him apart from his contemporaries. He was soon collaborating with the top producers…