Dead Oceans Us 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Phoebe Bridgers' critically acclaimed and fan approved alternative indie long player Punisher has four tunes from it reversioned on this great new 12". Arranger Rob Moose is the man doing it having worked with Sufjan Stevens, The National, Bon Iver and may others. What he brings is a luscious new sound with majestic, sweeping new orchestral arrangements that bring new perspective to one of last year's best records. This one is sure to win as many new fans as it will please the old ones.

Review: If you weren't already in love with Conor Oberst (with or without Bright Eyes) then this special outing on Dead Oceans is sure to change that tune, perhaps almost as much as the band changed theirs for a good proportion of the tracks on here. I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning was the outfit's landmark sixth studio album, unveiled in 2005 on the same day as their seventh LP, Digital Ash In A Digital Urn (how's that for confidence?) and is also available in a new issue today.
Sticking with what is essentially a side note on the era that birthed those records-proper, here Bright Eyes go all out on reworking Digital Ash tracks, retaining the sweetness of the first incarnations, but adding a sense of mayhem, chaos, and outright deviance to the score. The result is folk, boozy, woozy, and heady stuff. A little like walking into a bar on a cold winter's night to find familiar friends in full song.

Review: Best known as a titular member of Durand Jones & the Indications, a group whose signature soulful sound has seen them reach international audiences, Wait Til I Get Over marks Jones' first foray into solo work. Using this as an opportunity to delve into the more personal, storytelling potential of solo artistry, the record is firmly situated in his hometown - Hillaryville, Louisiana - a town initially founded as a form of reparations to previously enslaved African Americans. The first single to be released from the album, Lord Have Mercy, travels through Jones' family history, recalling his grandmother's memories of moving to the town as a child, via cathartic, wild and raucous vocals. This is a release that masterfully bridges the internal conflict of feeling connected to a place that's at once home but also a historically complex space for its African-American community. Note this edition is a limited gold and blue pressing exclusive to Juno.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The remix album is probably pretty hard to crack in terms of putting it together. On the one hand, you want a broad selection of producers to take the work and make it new again. But there's also a very real risk of winding up with a bunch of random tracks with no real coherent thread to ensure the LP is actually going to get enough people buying to warrant engineering, mastering, and pressing costs.

Khruangbin have certainly cracked it with these takes on tracks from their most recent and perhaps most lush long form outing to date. We have sophisticated micro house, percussive slo-mo disco, slick-to-the-touch downbeat grooves and surrealist pop, all of which work both individually and together, the result being a record that not only knows its own mind, it can easily convince others, too.

Review: Sometimes it's just too difficult to contain our excitement; we're quaking in our boots at news of Khruangbin's next release, with the Texan three-piece this time lending their alt-indie-funk mastery to vocal frontage by Leon Bridges. The humorously titled lead single 'B-side' is emblematic of their stated aim here - to redefine "how people perceive Texas music i that beautiful marriage of country and r'n'b i and really paying homage to that." The sonic result? Bubbling bass and wahhy riffs, over a ghostly and misty relaxers' beat. Its hook digs into our thighs deeper than a Sheriff's steel spurs, and fittingly, it's music video is themed after a 19th Century western town.

Review: If you've caught either Khruangbin or Leon Bridges live before, or indeed listened to anything by either band or producer-singer-songwriter, you'll know where this 20-minute EP is heading. The sleeve art, which gives more than a nod to the 1960s hippy movement, also offers a major clue.

Tripped out, smoked out, lackadaisical, bliss-infused overtures, honied and syrupy, easing you in so far that you don't quite realise how hard it is to crawl back out of the sugar-coated opiate haze. A collection of heady, hallucinogenic work for 21st Century high plains drifters, it's jazzy, psychy, lush soulful fare you'll be wanting to hear again and again, capturing the heat and slow pace of America's southern states with heartfelt songwriting from genuine masters. The result is something very special indeed.

Review: Back with a bang and their third album, essential UK post-punk band shame are reaching something of a new maturity on Food For Worms, matching their cacophonous noise-wreaking skills with a sharper instinct for melody and structure. The music remains lithe and urgent, but there's a sense they know exactly what they're doing on this record, building on the promise of 2021's Drunk Tank Pink and 2018 debut Songs Of Praise. With this new-found focus come towering monoliths of tracks which bristle with the excitement of music captured in the moment - a proper band with something to say, musically, lyrically and artistically.

Review: Jump-starting 2018, this debut release from south London's Shame has set the bar pretty high. 'Songs Of Praise' is a well-toned, considered and poised record, striking perfect balances and contrasts in just about every regard: melodic invention and post-punk aggression, optimism and humour against anger and gloom, rough against smooth. In terms of highlights, the entire album is an exhilarating listen, with enough meat for the listener to sink their teeth into, and enough surprises to maintain engagement throughout. This is one of the most fresh, ferocious and inventive post-punk records released in a while, and - in a time when identikit indie groups seem rife - a concrete opening statement from a group who have skilfully proven themselves to be a cut above.