Music Releases 06-24-22

Mercury Studios salutes THIN LIZZY's legacy with the release of "Phil Lynott Songs For While I'm Away + Thin Lizzy The Boys Are Back In Town Live At The Sydney Opera House October 1978" on June 24. Pairing the acclaimed Phil Lynott documentary with a renowned live concert film, the set will include Blu-ray+DVD+CD (with the Phil Lynott documentary on the Blu-ray).

By popular demand, we are proud to present Ekundayo Inversions (Instrumentals). Liam Bailey released his debut album Ekundayo on the label at the end of 2020, then in the Summer of 2021 El Michels Affair took the tapes from that and did a dub version of the album in his own style aptly titled Ekundayo Inversions. Both of these releases quickly became cult classics in their own right. The chemistry between Liam and producer Leon Michels is undeniable, each pushing the other to new places in their sounds. Here we take the vocals out of the mix and focus on the production and the players pulling instrumentals versions from both the Ekundayo album and the Ekundayo Inversions album.This is a limited one time pressing of 1000 pieces.

"El Alimento (translation: the nutrient) is the monumental second album from Cimafunk, the Cuban medical-student-turned-Latin-funk-star who crash-landed onto the music scene with his debut album Terapia in 2017 and an electric live show that been compared to that of James Brown. The sonically dynamic collection masterfully blends Afro-Cuban sounds and rhythms with global funk, hip hop and soul—resulting in a progressive, head-bopping celebration of black music’s power to eclipse borders and cross-pollinate across cultures. Written and recorded over the last year, the album served as an alimento for the soul, a motivation to persevere through the pandemic, as Cimafunk spent countless hours studying decades of musical influences to help understand who he is musically and culturally, and thus, where he wanted this album to take him.

As innovative funk forefather George Clinton (Parliament-Funkadelic), who sings alongside Cimafunk on the opening track "Funk Aspirin," says: “Cimafunk takes it back there while keeping it in the now. It’s what we do, always reinventing the Funk to keep it fresh.”

The 13-track album was co-produced by Cimafunk and Grammy Award-winning producer Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Goodie Mob, Valerie June, Tank & the Bangas). El Alimento also includes collaborations with US hip hop stars Lupe Fiasco and CeeLo Green; Jamaican dancehall singer Stylo G and Afro-Colombian hip hop group ChocQuibTown; as well as Cuban musicians Chucho Valdes, an AfroCuban jazz icon and '70s funk pioneer, Los Papines, a Cuban Rumba group whose career spans six decades, and AfroCuban rapper and Reggaetonero El Micha."

Kanye West delivers a Deluxe Edition of the record-shattering Donda, featuring 4 bonus tracks plus fan-favorite verses from Andre 3k, Kid Cudi and more. This release, from one of “the most influential pop stars of the 21st century,” was his 10th #1 album on the Billboard 200, racking up over 1 billion streams in the first 10 days. Originally previewed at 3 historic livestream events, the global phenomenon topped charts in 11 countries and set an Apple Music record of #1s in 152 countries. 4 LP.

From the academy of deep soul and no ego, Reverend Baron delivers visions of liquor store East LA, the off-the-freeway dry mirage of slow motion graffiti and lonely seagulls. A nylon stringed zen fog with themes of woozy love, layered dimensions of nostalgia and glazed neighborhood tales that roll in with a natural ease. After notching a permanent status in the skateboarding orbit as Danny Garcia, he transferred his effortless style, dedication and authenticity into music. Practicing a philosophy of demystifying the process and doing it yourself, he has become a proficient multi-instrumentalist, engineer, and producer of his own and other artist's music. All streams of curiosity converge into the river. An enigma, Reverend Baron emerges from the proverbial gray overpass with no sense of urgency. He takes a sharp gaze at his surroundings and processes them through a factory of depth and gentle swag to yield a sound that sits as easy as fallen molasses on the bodega shelf. The songs are an unassuming invitation to either walk through the doorway or lean on the wall outside, either way something beautiful and rare.

Oxeneers or The Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home is, in many ways, the completion of the promise made with the potential of This is Meant to Hurt You. The hooks are thicker, the guitars bigger and the songs are a simply stunning culmination of a years hard work and dedication. The album sparkles with a tight, visceral momentum, both angular and infectious. This is the record These Arms Are Snakes set out to make, a confident testimonial, a vicious revision, and a true confrontation in every sense of the word. Reissued on vinyl for the first time since 2004!

These Arms Are Snakes second full length for Jade Tree finds the Seattle foursome towing a proverbial line between paradox, hostility and a caustic blend of post-hard/math core. Retaining the definitive tension and angular force of earlier These Arms Are Snakes efforts, Easter is the year-long culmination of a more structured yet experimental song writing process for the band. Recorded at Red Room Recording in Seattle by These Arms Are Snakes’ drummer Chris Common, Easter explores the relationship between suspect animism, impending otherworldly doom and the ethereal battle between virtue and ruin. More than anything from These Arms Are Snakes’ back catalog, Easter was meant to hurt you. New vinyl reissued for the first time since 2008!

Improving on their very fine, self-titled debut album, Sing Sing Death House, is battle-scarred and resolute, but Brody’s tough voice is more expressive than your average punker’s and especially affecting when she flaunts the full range of her throaty snarl. On “Seneca Falls,” an appreciation of the women’s suffrage movement set to chugging guitars and a thumpity-thump bass, there’s an exceptional, goosebump-inducing though unintelligible chorus, which soars above the music because of the emotional
quality of Brody’s howl. Otherwise, the music is quite stirring, coming from a gang of gutter-punks with lip piercings. New colored vinyl pressing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band’s iconic album!

There is a way a voice can cut through the fascia of reality, cleaving through habit into the raw nerve of experience. Nika Roza Danilova, the singer, songwriter, and producer who since 2009 has released music as Zola Jesus, wields a voice that does that. When you hear it, it is like you are being summoned to a place that’s already wrapped inside you but obscured from conscious experience. This place has been buried because it tends to hold pain, but it’s also a gift, because once it’s opened, once you’re inside of it, it can show you the truth. Zola Jesus’s new album, Arkhon, finds new ways of loosing this submerged, stalled pain.
 
On previous albums, Danilova had largely played the role of auteur, meticulously crafting every aspect of Zola Jesus’s sound and look. This time, she realized that her habitual need for control was sealing her out of her art. Arkhon sees Zola Jesus’s first collaboration with producer Randall Dunn (Sunn O))),Earth, Mandy soundtrack, Candyman soundtrack) and with drummer and percussionist Chamberlain, whose prior work appears on albums by Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie. 
 
Arkhon runs the spectrum from songs whose weight lies in their bare simplicity, like “Desire,” an elegiac piano composition about the end of a relationship that was recorded acoustically in a single take, to towering, groove-oriented tracks like “The Fall” and the tight, interlocking percussion and samples of a Slovenian folk choir in “Lost,” which propel narratives of collective despair and mutual comfort in kind. Through these turns, Arkhon reveals itself as an album whose power derives from abandon. Both its turmoils and its pleasures take root in the body, letting individual consciousness dissolve into the thick of the beat.
 
Despite the darkness curled inside reality, there is power, too, in surrendering to what can’t be pinned down, to the wild unfurling of the world in all its unforeseeable motion. That letting go is the crux ofArkhon, which marks a new way of moving and making for Zola Jesus.

Revered country/Americana artist Elizabeth Cook will commemorate the 15^th anniversary of her pivotal album Balls by reissuing the release on June 24 via Thirty Tigers. The reissue will include a repressing of the long out of print CD, remastered audio for a first pressing on vinyl, vibrant peach LPs, and repackaged artwork.

“It's been 15 years,” Cook says. “In a way, I hardly recognize the sound of the girl on this record, but I recognize her drive for independence and stubborn insistence on freeing her voice. And it is an honor and awe-inspiring in this hard-knock town to still be standing today and have the opportunity to celebrate that.”

Originally released in 2007, Balls was a career-defining moment for Cook as an independent voice in the Americana scene. The 11-song collection was produced by Rodney Crowell and features contemporary classics like “Mama’s Prayers” and “Rest Your Weary Mind” (featuring a duet with Bobby Bare, Jr.), alongside the gorgeous genre-breaching cover of Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning”. But the album’s major marks were made by expressive standouts “Times are Tough in Rock N’ Roll” and “Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman”, which set Cook on a path toward individuality and artistic self-discovery.

With Balls, Cook jumped the gap between mainstream conformity and artistic independence by tightening her signature sound and working in additional elements of humor and authenticity. While taboo at the time, such creative and wry choices had a ripple effect and are now load-baring characteristics for successful Americana artists such as Margo Price, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Lilly Hiatt, and beyond.

Reissue. Originally released in 2017 on the band's own label Artificial Plastic and now being reissued by Fuzz Club Records, Damage And Joy is the seventh studio album from Scottish alt-rock legends The Jesus and Mary Chain. The long-awaited follow-up to 1998's Munki, Damage And Joy was the band's first studio album in nearly two decades and contained brand new material alongside reimagined versions of songs that had been released in various forms by the Reid brothers in between the Mary Chain's 1999 break-up and 2007 reunion. Co-produced by Youth (Killing Joke) and featuring the lead singles 'Amputation' and 'All Things Pass', 'Damage & Joy' also featured guest appearances from Scottish singer-songwriter Isobel Campbell ('The Two of Us', 'Song For A Secret') and American alt-pop star Sky Ferreira ('Black And Blues').

Wood Belly has recently come to Americana Vibes to release their 4th studio album, Great Big Skies, produced by legendary bluegrass writer/producer, Jon Weisberger. The band has recently undergone a formation change and is looking to further establish themselves as a leader in the bluegrass/Americana space. Indie Exclusive CD Digipak.

First ever compilation from rock & roll hall of famer highlights songs from her solo career, newly remastered by Glyn Johns, along with two unreleased studio recordings. Also includes new orchestral version of Fleetwood Mac classic “Songbird”. Presented on Seafoam Green Vinyl. 

For the first time, NAYEON from TWICE is releasing her solo album titled IM NAYEON. This debut album will be available in 4 versions. Contents of IM NAYEON include a CD, Photobook (80 pages), Photocard (random 2 of 12), Business Card (random 1 of 4), Interview Poster (random 1 of 4), Clear Postcard (random 1 of 4), Polaroid Photocard (random 1 of 4) and Envelope. North American Retail Exclusives include Paper Holder, D.I.Y. Sticker and Folded Poster. Box Dimensions: 210 x 290 x 20 mm.

For more than 6 decades, saxophonist and composer Charles Lloyd has been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. At 84, he remains as prolific as ever. Early on, Lloyd saw how placing the improvised solo in interesting contexts could provoke greater freedom and creativity. That vision is evident on his Trio of Trios project, which encompasses 3 albums in different trio settings. The first, Trios: Chapel, features guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan.

Following upon the success of his combined Eps, Take Time & When Its All Said And Done, the 7x Grammy nominated R&B’s singer’s album, Give Or Take, continues a narrative of heart felt songwriting in singles “For Tonight” and “Lie Again” and will undoubtedly become one of this new decade’s acclaimed developing artist stories.

The beginning of Spacey Jane's astonishing success in Australia came behind closed doors. Debut album 'Sunlight', was received with the backdrop of a continuing lockdown in June 2020. The balance of introspective lyrics and hopeful, sun-kissed instrumentation struck a chord; it provided a guide with which to get through the current moment, as well as a glimpse of what could follow when it was all over. The universal adulation duly and deservedly followed for the Fremantle-based band - vocalist and guitarist Caleb Harper, bassist Peppa Lane, guitarist Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu and drummer & manager Kieran Lama. The handful of shows they have managed to play since, have welcomed the long-overdue in-person coronation of Australia's new stars.

On his latest album, The Sun is Shining Down, out January 28th via Forty Below Records, Blues legend John Mayall teams up with a stellar cast to deliver a funky soulful affair punctuated by brass, violins, harmonica and electric ukulele. Special guests include, The Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell, fast rising roots rocker Marcus King, Americana icon Buddy Miller, Scarlet Rivera of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review, Chicago blues guitar mainstay Melvin Taylor and Hawaiian ukulele star Jake Shimabukuro. Also on hand are Mayall's longtime dynamic Chicago rhythm section of Greg Rzab on bass guitar and Jay Davenport on drums with Austin's multi-talented and charismatic Carolyn Wonderland on guitar. Recorded at Robby Krieger's (The Doors) Horse Latitudes studio with Grammy nominated Producer Eric Corne, The Sun is Shining Down is Mayall's 5th studio album for Forty Below Records, a fruitful partnership that began with 2014's A Special Life. "I couldn't be happier with the new record," exclaims Mayall. "I can't wait to share it with my fans. Each one of these special guests brings something unique to the album and our team works so well together. I think you can hear that chemistry in the music," raves Mayall. The album explores a range of styles and eclectic instruments. Scarlet Rivera's violin beautifully compliments two Mayall originals, the timely "Got to Find a Better Way" and a spirited reboot of the Mayall classic "Deep Blue Sea". Mike Campbell sounds like a natural born Bluesbreaker on the funky Bernard Allison cut "Chills and Thrills" and Marcus King sizzles throughout the soulful "Can't Take No More," another Mayall original. Buddy Miller's baritone tremolo guitar adds a unique and memorable flair to the Bobby Rush composition "I'm as Good as Gone", while Jake Shimabukuro's electric ukulele is nothing short of astonishing on "One Special Lady". Melvin Taylor proves why he's been wowing Chicago blues audiences for decades on "Hungry and Ready" and "Driving Wheel" and Carolyn Wonderland brilliantly concludes the record with a sensitive moving performance on the title track. As significant as each of these guest turns is, however, they can't overshadow Mayall's own spirited vocals, iconic harmonica and lyrical keyboard work on The Sun is Shining Down. "John shines throughout this album, exuding a joy and gratitude that are infectious. We all want to give that back to him," adds Producer Eric Corne.

2022 release from the veteran Americana/roots rock band. 4 Thee Last Time is the follow-up to 2020's 20/20 Vision.

Limited yellow colored vinyl LP pressing. Candy make their Relapse Records debut with their highly anticipated new album, Heaven is Here. The critically acclaimed band is poised to break past the conventions of metal, hardcore, and punk with one of 2022's most extreme and unique records. Heaven Is Here puts together so many disparate elements with the confidence and care to graft their relativities together under what sounds like extreme duress. Candy specifically strives to replicate moments of impact and anxiety, obsessive compulsive thinking, and extreme cynicism - aiming to provide the listener with an aural journey that allows for an outlet for these overwhelming feelings. Heaven is Here proves to be a record where the songs feel like a merciful reprieve from the screeching interludes; a masterful almanac of noise welded together by the unpredictable ways that we hear and reproduce the music we love in the era of unending dopamine hits and virulent technological doom.