LOS BRINCOS - Contrabando

It's rather appropriate that Los Brincos, known as the Spanish Beatles, recorded this album at Abbey Road studios. Engineered by Geoff Emerick, who had proved so invaluable on Beatles sessions, Contrabando is sure to delight lovers of Swingin' London-flavoured '60s pop.

"Contrabando proved the band's viability after members Juan Pardo and Junior had left to start their own career as a duo. The other original members, Fernando Arbex and Manolo González, quickly rebuilt the four-piece with Ricky Morales (Junior's younger brother) and Vicente Fernández. Los Brincos remained faithful to their beat group aesthetic, but at this point also opened up to more eclectic and playful musical and conceptual possibilities. The album was recorded at Abbey Road, with engineer Geoff Emerick. It was essential to establish themselves in the international market and several songs were recorded in both English and Spanish. In order to help realise their international ambitions, the group enlisted the services of Larry Page, who had handled both The Kinks and The Troggs with enormous success. But all of Page's contacts weren't enough for the band to break through in the UK, where two singles were released on the producer's own Page One label. Still, 'Lola' and 'El Pasaporte' were big hits in Spain, making it clear that Juan & Junior hadn't taken the four-piece's audience with them." - Cherry Red

MIKAL CRONIN - MCII / THEE OH SEES - Floating Coffin

Ah, there's nothing like springtime for some of that cool Californian crunch. Thee Oh Sees out of San Francisco just keep churning out one album after another, but no complaints here! Their latest, Floating Coffin, may not have the offbeat touches of their previous efforts, but still kicks out the garage jams in a satisfying fashion. Meanwhile, from Laguna Beach comes Mikal Cronin, Ty Segall's frequent collaborator. His second solo album, released last week, finds him smoothing out his rough edges as he offers up clean, catchy power-pop.

"Mikal Cronin's self-titled debut from 2011 was all about endings: the end of college, the end of a serious relationship, and the end of his time in Los Angeles, where he grew up. So it's no surprise that his sophomore release MCII—and first disc for Merge—is all about new beginnings. 'Since the first record came out, my life has changed quite a bit,' Cronin says, referencing his move to San Francisco and tours with Ty Segall as well as with his own band. 'I was presented with a whole new slew of problems and situations that I was trying to work through.' 'Am I Wrong' and 'Shout It Out' dissect his fears over a new relationship, while 'I'm Done Running from You' and 'Weight' find him freaking out about what it means to grow up in the 21st century." - Merge Records

"John Dwyer & Co. have a style distinctly and linguistically their own at this point. Draw whatever parallels you want to various Nuggets bands, but that conversation is old and boring now. Looking at the last four (!) albums released by this band in the last three years, Thee Oh Sees can do full-band captures (this album, Carrion Crawler/The Dream), home 4-tracked goofiness (Castlemania), and studio-embracing fuckery (Putrifiers II), all while retaining the essence of what it is that makes them themselves: those balanced moments between serious and playfulness, the comforts of what we normally expect from the safety of a childish existence not necessarily broken, but rather, the two expectations trying to coexist." - Tiny Mix Tapes

TANDYN ALMER - Along Comes Tandyn

Pssst! You, yeah, you! Lookin' for some slightly-delic sunshine pop? Well, has songwriter Tandyn Almer ever got a good strong dose for you! That’s right, Tandyn Almer… Name don't ring a bell, eh? Hmm, maybe you’ve heard one or two of his tunes like "Sail On, Sailor" by The Beach Boys or "Along Comes Mary," a Top 10 smash hit by The Association. Yeah, now you’re gettin' the picture, right?

But if that still ain't the case, it'll come through loud and clear upon listening to this new collection of fifteen previously unreleased mid-'60s demos Almer's publisher sent to potential clients. And yet it's hard to believe that the songs on Along Comes Tandyn (recorded with a number of different musicians and vocalists) are demos, since they don’t quite have the rawness typically found on demo tracks. Coming off somewhat more like a finished product, the album kicks off with the Association-like "Find Yourself." Tougher-sounding pop-rock tunes such as "You Turn Me Around" and its infectious refrain will stick to you like glue from the very first spin, while "Alice Designs" is a not-so-veiled ode to LSD. Dylan-esque folk-rock also makes a welcome appearance on "About Where Love Is," and, speaking of protest songs rockin' the folk, the album wraps up with some social commentary on the Hollywood teen riots of late '66, "Sunset Strip Soliloquy."

While some of the demos here were indeed recorded by various groups, Almer's compositions hardly struck gold. His career was sadly hampered by mental disorders and he passed away this January. This Sundazed release, with its detailed liner notes telling the full tale of Tandyn Almer, fittingly provides a testimonial to his considerable melodic talents. Available on CD and vinyl, it should appeal both to fans of Californian '60s pop and, for that matter, anyone who loves well-crafted tunes from any era.

THE HIGHEST ORDER - If It's Real

A mix of psych/country covers and originals split into sides by the intervention of three two-chord takes of motorik "Cosmic Manipulations," If It's Real is the debut recording by the newest project to spin off from the One Hundred Dollars/Fiver axis.

"The Highest Order formed in early 2012 after its members found good fortune in an unfortunate situation: while alternative-country band One Hundred Dollars was on tour, drummer Dave Clarke was unable to participate in one leg. The band recruited Simone TB (Ell V Gore) as a replacement. She had such great chemistry with the group that vocalist and guitarist Simone Schmidt, vocalist and guitarist Paul Mortimer, and bassist Kyle Porter started a new project with with her. Since then, The Highest Order has been making a name for itself by composing and performing spacey, psychedelic country that’s as strange at it is soulful." - Torontoist

"While Simone Schmidt's projects typically focus on her first-person stories—One Hundred Dollars and Fiver, for example, put listeners in the steel-toed boots of migrant farmers, hopeless addicts and bottom-rung oil men—her supporting ensemble is usually underrated. Songs of Man and Forest of Tears, to the credit of electric guitarist Paul Mortimer and bassist Kyle Porter, painted impeccable country-music backdrops for Schmidt’s tales of work, love and loss. Porter and Mortimer, along with Tropics drummer Simone TB, join Schmidt in The Highest Order, and If It’s Real is a logical, yet no less substantial, progression from One Hundred Dollars. Finally, Schmidt’s instrumental backing has caught up to her vivid storytelling—no small feat. - Fast Forward Weekly

MY BLOODY VALENTINE - m b v

It's been well worth the waits (both that little twenty-two-year-long one, as well as the initial short-lived limbo regarding whether or not retailers would even be able to stock this, or if it would just be a direct-mailorder-only item), as m b v delivers not only initially, but even more upon further listens, opening itself up to reveal as many details as one could have hoped for the more often one dives in.

"The nine songs divide neatly into three mini-albums. The first three explore the feedback drone of Loveless and Glider. The next three are the pop tunes; the final three go for aggro punk. Any 20-second stretch would be identifiable as My Bloody Valentine, yet every track holds surprises – the pulsing guitar strobes of 'In Another Way,' the way oceanic guitar waves suck your body into the speakers on 'Wonder 2.'" - Rolling Stone

"After an absence of more than 20 years, it's the most aggressively amniotic stuff going. Lead track 'She Found Now' picks up more or less where Loveless left off, with Valentine-in-chief Kevin Shields crooning, guitars flanging, and an urgent aortic throb underpinning all the gauziness. You can imagine fans punching the air at this point, in the blessed relief that this long, long, long-awaited album doesn't induce a desire to kick the cat in disappointment." - The Guardian

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA - II

Ruban Nielson's follow-up recordings as UMO do not disappoint, similarly sequenced to his debut with a mix of bouncy breakbeat funk-pop and psych/garage detours (with the latter approach nearing Chrome-finished menace both tonally and lyrically on surfy sci-fi chugger "No Need For A Leader"), strong vocal performances (especially, for this writer, on his most soulful take to date, second advance single "So Good At Being In Trouble"), and inventive guitar playing with a near-classical intervallic flair that befits the last part of that goofy band name surprisingly well.

"...[T]here’s the rickety strut of lead single 'Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark),' with its gentle wish to 'swim and sleep like a shark does,' a line whose childish syntax neatly decorates Neilson’s yen for emotional lobotomy. For a New Zealander who crossed the Pacific to prosper in Portland, Neilson has a remarkable grasp on the nature of stasis. All this is delivered, refreshingly, without irony or self-awareness: UMO opt for nifty and direct lyrics that charm with morbid honesty while eschewing self-loathing. Beneath the isolation blues, II is buoyant and visceral enough to suffuse its existential cloud with a redemptive joie de vivre by way of the playful talent inherent in its creation." - Drowned In Sound

"...II feels more complete in its ambition; it's a warmer record that, instrumentally at least, heads more in the direction of The Beatles ('The Opposite Of Afternoon') than the mind-expanding riffs that their debut was slathered in... Unknown Mortal Orchestra's focus on a lazier psychedelia ('So Good at Being in Trouble') that better suits Nielson's androgynous voice is what allows this record to stand out in what is fast becoming a crowded field." - Altsounds

FOXYGEN - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic

Not to be overly reductive about this, but anyone into the likes of MGMT (their main contemporary/fellow rearview-glancing American rascal-pop competition, it would seem) and/or Richard Swift (entrusted here with production duties on this official first full-length, following the duo's debut 12", Take The Kids Off Broadway) is urged to give these guys a listen pronto.

"The sooner you fumble your way through the unruly title of Foxygen’s latest LP, We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, the sooner you can get to the music, which is quite the opposite—immediately familiar and relatively easy to navigate. That’s not to say Foxygen’s generous winks and nods to The Beatles and The Zombies and Bob Dylan and Lou Reed and David Bowie (… and I can go on) don’t make for an engaging spin on the past. Members Jonathan Rado and Sam France do so with the necessary confidence and personality, and the right amount of TLC. They’re not far off from artists like Thee Oh Sees and Ariel Pink, who wear their influences like a red cape flapping in the wind without simply aping them." - Paste

"No one will accuse Foxygen’s We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic of being a concept album. It’s as stylistically diverse, maddening and confident as the Take The Kids Off Broadway EP, yet feels ready to enter the primetime—a band confident that their set of skills will be accepted, or at least tolerated. This is in part thanks to the deft production of Richard Swift, whose hand truly feels like a contribution rather than a contraption. Sonically, the music is still confounding, still prone to fits of vibing followed by un-fettered freakouts. And with Foxygen there always seems to be a nod and a wink with every riff and turn." - Aquarium Drunkard

SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN (DVD/Blu-ray)

A must-see documentary for music fans, Searching For Sugar Man is the story of Sixto Rodriguez, a singer from the early '70s little known in his native USA who became a musical folk hero in South Africa. After seeing this film, you'll want to buy his music which accounts for why the soundtrack was our #7 Top Selling release of 2012. We also stock his albums Cold Fact and Coming From Reality both reissued by Light In The Attic records a few years ago.

"Music documentaries have come thick and fast in 2012, but this one’s the best and easily the most successful...It’s a heartening, uplifting film, touched by the shy, sweet-natured spirit of Rodriguez; you find yourself willing him to succeed. Director Malik Bendjelloul structures his story skilfully, and in a 30-minute ‘making of’ extra, engagingly relates how he came close to abandoning Searching for Sugarman because he had ran out of money. He emerges every bit as much of an underdog as Rodriguez himself." - The Telegraph

NAOMI PUNK - The Feeling

Previously little-known outside of their native Olympia/Seattle area, fans of such bands as WA's Gun Outfit and Talbot Tagora, LA's No Age and Abe Vigoda, Calgary's late/lamented Women, and to a certain extent SF's Ty Segall/Mikal Cronin/Oh Sees axis might have just found their new favourite band.

"Much of Naomi Punk's music is slow, with big riffs and well-paced, grand-wingspan style drumming. It is loud and not rendered in the highest fidelity, so much so that you may strain to pick out what they're singing...There's a busted, tweaky synth in there somewhere, a lot of cymbal crashing, and a sick rasp of vocals that sound out in rebellious triumph, but since it's not heavy in a traditional sense, we're forced to instead focus on these things. It feels...like a Pixies record at 16 RPM, or Times New Viking imitating the Melvins." - Other Music

"Naomi Punk rides through a variety of influences on The Feeling, from its state’s pride and joy of grunge to the haunting, No Wave-inspired, synthesizer-solo instrumental tracks, as well as slight psychedelic and punk tinges. The guitar’s distorted and heavily strummed power chords insert themselves sporadically yet carry the majority of the songs by conversing back and forth with heavy cymbal crashes. Hovering over the cacophonous instrumental battles are the wailing vocals. While they emit a hazy texture that numbs your body to relaxation, the vocals contain an energetic inflection as well, giving tracks like 'Burned Body' a much-needed kick." - CMJ

ALFONSO LOVO - La Gigantona

An incredible acetate find from those intrepid archivists at Numero, La Gigantona runs the gamut from frenzied desgargas to Spanish guitar, Afrobeat-ish horn charts, Echoplexed tape-delay dub-outs and stinging Santana-like leads, yet remains a stunningly coherent and cohesive listen.

"The son of a prominent Nicaraguan politician, Lovo was a choice target for the Sandinista rebels who hijacked his homeward flight from Miami in December of 1971, ultimately putting several rounds through the talented musician’s torso and hand. After several years, and as many surgeries, he would break new ground on this psychedelic swirl of Latin jazz and pan-American funk with his musical partner, percussionist Jose 'Chepito' Areas." - Numero Group

MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER - S/T

Ever wondered what could have occurred were the late Trish Keenan to have had the chance to record with Tame Impala singer/songwriter/production whiz Kevin Parker? It might have ended up something like Paris native Melody Prochet's debut solo effort, recorded with Parker and certainly bearing more than a small resemblance to both Broadcast's Tender Buttons as well as, to a lesser extent, later-era Blonde Redhead (not bad things at all in our books).

Another A&R coup for the ever-on-the-ball Fat Possum, adding yet another young, fresh-sounding signing to an already-chockful roster (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Tennis, Yuck, Smith Westerns, Crocodiles, etc.)! 

"That Prochet is peddling her brand of Krautrock/dream-pop/electronica isn't exactly a unique selling point in 2012. However—thankfully, joyously—Melody's Echo Chamber is an utterly marvellous listen. Prochet has blended a myriad of sounds without ever getting engulfed by navel-gazing or disappearing up her own derrière. Melody's Echo Chamber is replete with memorable tunes—fully-realised songs—which anchor Prochet's inquisitive ear and desire to experiment." - The Quietus

"It’s easy to ferret out the Spacemen 3 simplicity and static bursts on 'Crystallized,' the bright, girl-group chorus and Bandwagonesque outro guitar shredding of opener 'I’ll Follow You,' or the Stereolab-quality vintage-organ loops of 'Quand Vas Tu Rentrer?' (Prochet sings in both English and French). But the album gets denser and weirder as it progresses, Prochet's high-pitched vocals sounding ever more little-girl-lost among the tone-bending synths of 'Mount Hopeless' and backwards-tracked 'IsThatWhatYouSaid.'" - eMusic

WILLIAM SHELLER - Lux Aeterna

This newly-unearthed Omni Recording Corp. reissue has been getting major store play here, and with good reason—imagine a David Axelrod/Serge Gainsbourg/Jean-Claude Vannier dream-team collaboration (one which presciently narrowly predates the latter two Frenchmen's collaborations, even!), replete with lysergic Catholic mass choir.

Including 11 bonus tracks focusing on Sheller's poppier (but still fairly freaky) 45s, this is the very first time this rarity has ever been widely available.

"Originally composed as a wedding gift in 1970, it's an oddly beautiful recording which combines a weirdly sinister melange of ritualistic choral chants, melancholic psychedelic orchestration, whirling electronic oscillations, meditative kosmiche groove and devout spoken word recitations. I can only think of a handful of records to compare it to, the nearest touchstones being the dark instrumental passages of Jean Claude Vannier's L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches or the mystical psychedelic liturgical paens of Majoie Hajary's La Passion Selon Judas, or maybe a few of the immersive orchestral reverberations found on Jason Havelock's Pop Symphony. As I said, comparisons are not easy. Whatever dark chemicals they were dumping in the Seine in the late 60's and early 70's to create such weirdly uncharted musical waters we can only guess." - A Sound Awareness

TAME IMPALA - Lonerism

Have you ever walked around with a song in your head? What a stupid question, right? Of course you have—a nagging earworm that (for better or worse) simply refuses to vacate your brain until, like those billboard monsters in that one Simpsons episode, you manage to stop fixating on its presence. Have I ever got songs in my head, you say.

OK, that's not quite what I mean, so let me rephrase. Have you ever had a complete song stuck in your head? We're talking intro, verse, chorus, bridge, solos: the whole thing in order. It's possible, but that tends to not be how we remember songs. Instead, we carry with us sequences—frames pulled from the larger entity that range from the obviously memorable (such as a chorus or a big riff) to the oddly compelling (perhaps a funny turn of phrase or a peculiarly isolated bar of music). Songs are made whole by their musicians and writers, but they exist within us as distortions of their 'real' selves; they are subconsciously edited into portions for ease of mental transport and even enjoyment.

Who cares? Well, Tame Impala leader Kevin Parker seems to, for one. Whether intentionally so or not, his band's newest LP, the very excellent Lonerism, sounds like a preedited mental representation of a collection of songs. This is not to be confused with a comment on how the record sounds (although as a sublime execution of psychedelic pop/rock music, it certainly does sound dreamy, trippy, and so forth). Rather, it's about how it's been written. Time and again, the group avoids standard structures by rotating a series of tricks: perhaps omitting choruses, hanging on verses, forgetting to sing all together, obsessing over a particular riff or drum pattern for several bars in a row to see where it goes... All of it sounds much like how 'proper' songs themselves are repositioned by our head. We all know that this is the best part of the song, so I'm just gonna keep playing it.

It doesn't hurt that Parker's Lennonesque voice and the band's fixation on '60s and '70s sonics means that much of Lonerism sounds very familiar already. But where so many other acts treat their retro fetishes too reverently (and interpret them too literally—fellow Aussies Jet would be a good example), Tame Impala feel entirely modern and in-the-now in this particular realm. In addition, the melodies themselves are very strong. When Parker slips into the opening chorus of "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards," it seems like a song you've known all your life.

Really, that's all that Tame Impala are doing here: taking moments that you've lived with all your life and presenting them in new contexts and configurations. Where their debut, Innerspeaker, announced them as a pretty damn good new psych-rock band, Lonerism expresses confidently and playfully that these guys are interested in a lot more than just aping their predecessors. Because if tracking the sources material is fairly easy, the act of actually building a record this lovely and listenable is an entirely different task. It's a challenge, but one that Tame Impala pull off brilliantly. Now it's up to us and our subconscious to pull it back apart again.

REDD KROSS - Researching The Blues

For their first album in fifteen years, L.A.'s Redd Kross pick up where they left off: stomping out tough glitter-punk leavened by instantly memorable bubblegum melodies.

"The members of Redd Kross, of course, know that they’re a legacy band now; they’re well into middle age, after all. But that status hasn’t altered their sound one iota. They named the album—and its riotous first song—Resarching The Blues to make fun of the idea that every old-guy band has to go roots-rock, to tap into some hard-won wisdom. There’s no wisdom to be heard on the album, but there’s craft for days. Researching The Blues gets in and gets out, 10 songs in half an hour, no fat anywhere. They’ve got two speeds: Laser-precise Camaro-rock overdrive and sha-la-la jangle. And every song lands on one side of the divide or the other, more or less. But the amped-up rockers have moments of overwhelming melodic sweetness, and the starry-eyed jams never translate as ballads; they still have pogo tempos and slashing chorus guitars. This is power-pop where the power never, ever gets lost, and where fiery guitar solos are pure necessity." - Stereogum

"This isn’t your every-month, crappy reunion record. Yes, Redd Kross' latest release, Researching The Blues, is their first album in 15 years (and their first on Merge Records), and yes, the band has about three decades of history behind them. But after the super-lean album spins to a close, you’re left with the realization that Researching The Blues possesses something that fans could only dream about from a band that hasn’t released new material since 1997. " - Paste

KING TUFF - S/T

The multi-talented Kyle Thomas has played everything from stoner metal to freak-folk. He's equally adept at garage rock, as his second album under the King Tuff name shows. With a hint of glam-slam thrown into the mix, the results are royally infectious!

"What sets Thomas apart from artists like San Francisco's Ty Segall or Mikael Cronin—two other rockers currently rehashing the '60s and '70s for 21st-century underground consumption—is that Thomas seems like a wimp. Yes, he knows how to play snotty, insistent songs. Yes, his voice is high and needling, and when he wants it to be, very forceful. Force, though, is a secondary concern. He'd rather be, like, carving your initials into a tree or getting a burger." - SPIN

"If 'Keep On Movin'' is to be believed, King Tuff's guitar doesn't shred, it 'drools.' That's an appropriate visual: the greasy, catchy garage-pop on the Vermont-bred singer's second record sneers like convenience store parking lot stoners. Black-and-blue bruisers 'Anthem' and 'Bad Thing' benefit from some chicken-fried riffing, but Tuff is just as good in the slower moments. The dewy-eyed, piano-bar gospel of 'Swamp of Love' suggests that, under the leather jacket and taco-stained Ramones T-Shirt, beats a genuine human heart." - Rolling Stone

BEAK> - >>

Having already self-released 2012 full-lengths from his Quakers and DROKK collaborations, Geoff Barrow has had an especially fruitful past year in the studio; this follow-up (if you don't count their crucial role as Anika's backup band) from Barrow's live-off-the-floor trio with Matt Williams and Billy Fuller, though, is an especially striking, darkly menacing effort, full of off-kilter oscillator wobbles, pristinely recorded Silver Apples-style drum primitivism, and vocals muffled to the point of indiscernibility.

"The groggy post-punk fidget of Bristol's Beak> is erected on antiquated, simplistic, intentionally demanding limits. The trio write in the studio, record in one room at the same time, don't do overdubs, and use outdated digital recording rigs that have as much capability as a 24-track tape machine...The result of their labors is masterful second album >>..., a perfect mix of robotic human rhythms intertwining with humanized electronic textures: krautrock grooves melt into This Heat avant-punk minimalism, and Devo performs through a mouth full of cottonballs and a stomach full of Codeine." - SPIN

"[This] trio’s Neu!-like pulsations are boosted by droning synths ('The Gaul'), crunchy guitar ('Wulfstan II'), suffocating bass ('Kidney') and disquietingly distant vocals ('Deserters'). Menacing and paranoid, this second album makes satisfying sense in 2012, and even leaves you grateful to live in a chaotic world." - NME

VA - All Kinds Of Highs: A Mainstream Pop-Psych Compendium 1966-70

In retrospect, the relentless outpouring of records in the mid-to-late 1960s is nothing short of astounding by today's standards. Groups were forming at lightning speed and constantly cutting singles and albums released by major record companies, as well as small independent labels. The music biz attitude of the time can very well be summed up as such: "Hey, let's throw this tune against the wall, and if it sticks, if it's a hit, then perfect! If it flops, so what? There's plenty more where this came from." Both Top 40 AM radio and the emerging underground FM stations were only too happy to play the records, and the rapid turnover of 'product' was downright exhilarating for the listener.

With the explosion of folk-rock, garage and psychedelia that followed the British invasion, one American indie label that attempted to capitalize on the many new bands appearing on the scene was the New York City-based Mainstream Records, previously responsible for putting out jazz albums. Mainstream signed groups ignored by major labels like Columbia, Capitol and RCA, or other independent outfits such as Elektra.

Future hard-rock guitarist Ted Nugent and his band, the Yardbirds-influenced Amboy Dukes, found themselves on Mainstream, and were rewarded with the hit single "Journey to the Center of the Mind," which kicks off this new 2CD compilation. It's the best-known number on here, since the other groups on the label (The Fever Tree, The Fun + Games Commission, The Jelly Bean Bandits and The Superfine Dandelion among them) never achieved a similar level of commercial success. The competition during this period was intense, and talented Mainstream bands like these basically slipped through the cracks, only to be re-discovered by collectors years later. The variety and top-notch quality of the psychedelic pop, garage-raunch, and all-around fuzz-filled freakiness on this collection is, to use the era's lingo, a total trip!

As is par for the course with Ace/Big Beat reissues, the fifty-two tracks on these two discs are superbly annotated with a thick booklet of fascinating info and great photos. If in the past you've, ahem, blown your mind to the Nuggets box sets, then this companion-piece of sorts should indeed provide you with All Kinds Of Highs.

ANNETTE PEACOCK - I'm The One

Annette Peacock's 1972 solo debut was only previously reissued in 2010 as a limited edition self-released CD, so hats off to Future Days for following up their release of Bo Diddley's The Black Gladiator with this funk-rock oddity, one that's often akin to Betty Davis belting through an array of Moog filters!

"The album’s wide range of vocal emotions and diverse sonic palette (featuring Robert Moog’s early modular synthesizers, which the singer actually transmitted her voice through to wild effect) places it firmly at the forefront of the pop avant-garde. Originally released by RCA Victor in 1972 to widespread critical acclaim, I'm The One found itself amongst good company. Both Lou Reed and David Bowie had recently signed to the label—Bowie in particular was enamored with Annette—and artists ranging from ex-husband and jazz great Paul Bley, along with notable Brazilian percussionists Airto Moreira and Dom Um Romao, guested on the album itself. Writing and arranging I'm The One’s nine passionate tracks—bar a unique cover of Elvis Presley’s 'Love Me Tender'—the disc grooves easily from free jazz freak-outs and rough and rugged blues-funk to gently pulsing synthesized bliss." - Light In The Attic

CAN - The Lost Tapes (3CD)

A successor/sequel in many ways to 1976's Unlimited Edition, The Lost Tapes exhumes thirty more tracks from the archives, from live excerpts to 'ethnological forgeries' and such revelatory works-in-progress as "Dead Pigeon Suite" and "A Swan Is Born," respective early takes of Ege Bamyasi's "Vitamin C" and "Sing Swan Song."

"Can released 12 albums, and a number of outtakes have dribbled forth since. But for the krautrock aficionado, the tease that 100 tapes of unreleased material was sitting around was almost unbearable: akin to knowing the Holy Grail was sat in a cupboard in Cologne. Finally, Can keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and band associate Jono Podmore have dug in, and the results are pretty stunning: three CDs drawing on film soundtrack work, live material, experimental segments and sprawling jams that show the workings of later Can favourites." - NME

"Drive was Can's trademark, powered not just by [Malcolm] Mooney's aggression but by Michael Karoli's tattoo-needle guitar style and (especially) the drumming of Jaki Liebezeit, in which the delicacy and invention of jazz was applied to a series of rigidly mechanised beats, a kind of percussive hypnosis driving the others forward without fear. In time, as Mooney was replaced by the ethereal Damo Suzuki, the drive became more of a glide, the sound spun out until it was almost translucent, but the band retained its eerie power: heavy when featherlight, direct when delirious." - The Quietus

"At its root, this collection is a testament to the groove. Jaki Liebezeit says: 'The idea to keep the rhythm was forbidden in times of free jazz. There was no groove. But in Can, the rhythms were always defined. I had a lot of critics in the beginning because they said I am repeating all the time, it is monotonous and I have no ideas. If you change your standpoint all the time, no one will understand you. So I keep a standpoint and go on. I must obey the rhythm.'" - musicOHM

MY BLOODY VALENTINE - EPs 1988-1991 / Isn't Anything (remaster) / Loveless (2CD remaster)

Yes, they're finally out after years of delays, sounding great and looking sharp in spartan, stylishly oversized digipacks.

Collecting so many long-unavailable tracks, the EPs collection has understandably been the strongest seller here so far, and Loveless of course remains an untouchable, era-defining piece of avant-pop, but fresh listens to Isn't Anything reveal it to have been equally influential in its own earlier way, especially among the likes of such beloved '90s East Coasters as Sloan and Eric's Trip.    

"For years now, My Bloody Valentine's main creative force, Kevin Shields, has been promising to remaster and reissue Isn't Anything, Loveless, and four contemporaneous EPs—which is an event MBV fans have been eagerly anticipating, if not exactly expecting. Since Loveless came out, Shields has been stingy both with new material and old. Contrary to perception, though, he hasn't been a recluse. He's given interviews, collaborated with other musicians on their projects, and even reunited with My Bloody Valentine for a brief tour and a couple of compilation tracks. But he's also reportedly recorded two or three albums' worth of new MBV material that he’s chosen not to release. And then there's the matter of these reissues, which were announced so long ago that their persistent absence has been a running joke, in the great rock ’n’ roll tradition of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy and Neil Young's Archives. 

But Chinese Democracy and Archives eventually did come out, and now so have the My Bloody Valentine remasters." - A.V. Club