VIA PRESS RELEASE | C/Z Records, the influential independent label formed in 1985, announced today the upcoming release of a limited edition colored 7×7” vinyl curated box set consisting of tracks from seminal Seattle proto-grunge band Skin Yard. Entitled Skin Yard Select, the set is in an edition of 1,000. Featuring previously released tracks, alternate versions, rarities, remixes and a new, previously unreleased track, the set is available direct from C/Z Records here for pre-save or pre-sale.

Skin Yard was one of the seminal Seattle bands that launched the scene that would eventually become known as “grunge.” Skin Yard co-founders, bassist Daniel House and then guitarist, now noted producer Jack Endino carefully curated the songs for Skin Yard Select primarily from their four studio albums spanning the years 1985–1991. Skin Yard featured four distinct drummers who appear on these recordings. They are Matt Cameron (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam), Jason Finn (Presidents of the United States of America, Love Battery), Norman Scott (Gruntruck with Skin Yard singer, Ben McMillan), and Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees, Mad Season, Walking Papers).

“The recordings that make up Skin Yard Select are essential tracks that helped birth what the international media would eventually call “‘Grunge.’” said founding Skin Yard member and C/Z Records owner Daniel House. “In many ways, this compilation will help tell the story of Skin Yard and their place in the Seattle scene that rarely gets told—the heavier, more metal side of the scene. Next year, Words on Bone, my upcoming Skin Yard oral history book, is expected to be published to tell the whole history. Over 60 interviews have been conducted as part of the book.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Fifty years ago a young and aspiring Tom Waits released The Heart of Saturday Night, his attempt to immerse himself in the romance of longing for adventure, trouble, mystery of love and lust, and the after-hours clubs where jazz, blues, lounge, piano bar crooners would gather and play for and with each other in their search for the ruby eye of the heart that only shone on a Saturday night.

He imagined a concept album with a small bebop jazz ensemble, filled with the literary influences of the two Jacks—Kerouac and London—along with classic American songbook songwriters and the language and sound of the piano played in intimate clubs for and with musicians who had finished their regular Saturday night engagements. In searching for the voice for these characters, he evoked Sinatra’s “In the Wee Small Hours” and was inspired to mould his fingers to the keyboard by the bold, improvisational and unique Thelonius Monk.

180g Raspberry Beret-coloured vinyl, limited to 3700 copies, will be available worldwide from record stores on 6th December and 180g slightly gold vinyl, limited to 800 copies, is available for pre-order via the Tom Waits webstore now.

The latest additions to Elemental Music’s Motown Sound Collection come from three of the Motor City label’s heavy hitters. There’s a mono edition of A Bit of Liverpool by The Supremes, Third Album by the Jackson 5 on red vinyl, and Sky’s the Limit by The Temptations. All three are available October 18.

No scientific testing has been done in connection with this roundup, but it sure seems like A Bit of Liverpool is the least esteemed record from The Supremes’ ’60s catalog. It’s an observation that applies to general listeners but also music writers, as not much print space has been devoted to the set’s thematic contents.

Hitting stores in 1964 as the British Invasion was in full swing, The Supremes’ third full-length record has often been described as a cash-in, though it’s unlikely many people were bothered about this at the time of the record’s release. Per the title, The Beatles get the most attention, but this focus reaches beyond just the hits.

There are versions of “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” all pretty good as straight covers go, but there’s also a likeable take of “You Can’t Do That” and an even better “A World Without Love,” a chart topper by Peter and Gordon that was written by Lennon-McCartney, don’tcha know. Getting even deeper into the weeds is “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” a well-loved nugget by the Miracles that was an album cut on With the Beatles (and The Beatles’ Second Album in the USA).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The 30th anniversary edition of Plastikman’s Musik, the groundbreaking second studio album by Richie Hawtin, has been announced for release on NovaMute on December 6, 2024. It is manufactured with environmentally-conscious packaging, pressed on bio-vinyl.

The album, originally released via NovaMute / Plus 8, followed 1993’s Sheet One and propelled Hawtin into new levels of international success. On its initial release, in November 1994, Hawtin was central to a burgeoning underground scene in Detroit, and the album, which expands on his unique and innovative minimal techno world, was launched with Plastikman’s first ever live performance in Aug 1994, at the derelict Packard Plant in Detroit, in a room encased in black plastic sheets.

Before the full album hit the shelves, “Plastique” (later described by Q as “… the flipside to Hawtin’s early singles, all ticking percussion, feline acid tweaks and cushioned sub bass”), set the stage for a more dance floor friendly album, albeit one with an unsettling and sinister side.

Musik, which featured tracks such as “Freek,” “Kriket” (which Raf Simons used earlier this year in the Prada Men Spring/Summer 2025 show), “Fuk,” and “Marbles” was soon heard by a much wider audience. Plastikman live appearances at Glastonbury, Tribal Gathering and a headline slot at Megadog followed soon after, prompting NME to declare Plastikman to be “Fiercer than Orbital, funkier than the Prodigy and more insatiably danceable than anything else on the bill.”

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David Gilmour, formerly of Pink Floyd, doesn’t make many solo albums. He made one while the first post-Syd Barrett incarnation of Pink Floyd was still together in 1978, one in 1984, which was one year after that lineup’s last album, and then didn’t record another solo album until 2006. The next one was in 2015.

This new one, like all his previous solo albums, is more than worth the wait. Few artists who began their careers in the 1960s and who are releasing new albums these days have made a record this good. While still reflecting the sound (both vocally and musically) that fans of Gilmour most love, this new album is something truly new and fresh. The most striking thing about the album is how understated the music is and how, other than in the moments where orchestration is added, the instrumentation is minimal and very organic.

Naturally, this is a very guitar-heavy recording, with Gilmour’s iconic guitar sound prevalent throughout. Rob Gentry’s tasteful synths and keyboards are subtly a major part of the sound, with Roger Eno contributing keyboards to the album opener “Black Cat” and Gilmour’s late, ex-bandmate from Pink Floyd Richard Wright, playing keyboards on the title cut, which was taken from a jam at Gilmour’s home in 2007. Other notable musicians who contributed to the album include Guy Pratt and Steve Gadd.

Gilmour’s wife Polly Sampson wrote most of the lyrics, which often deal with growing older, but which are very complex, nuanced, and in no way morose. There is a cover of “Between Two Points,” from The Montgolfier Brothers, with Romany Gilmour on vocals and harp, who also performs backing vocals on the album. Both Romany Gilmour and Gabriel Gilmour, two of his children with Sampson, contribute to the album.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | 2021’s vinyl only American Dreamer box set reintroduced the world to the undisputed but somewhat overlooked talents of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Laura Nyro, the brilliant Brooklyn-born female artist who, in four decades of recording, would merge r&b, doo-wop, pop, jazz, Broadway, opera, folk with her own individual brand of blue-eyed soul across several critically acclaimed studio albums she recorded before her tragic passing in 1997 aged 49 years. Now, Madfish Music is proud to present Hear My Song: The Collection, 1966–1995, a 19 CD deluxe box set that is the deepest dive yet into the creativity of the extraordinary, unmistakable musical force that is Laura Nyro.

Ten original studio albums, six live albums including 2 previously unreleased live concerts, Laura’s original demo tape from 1966, and bonus disc of rarities including mono versions, alternative versions, and live tracks. All albums remastered especially for this collection.

All housed in a deluxe, lift-off lid box. 90-page coffee-table hardback book with in-depth liner notes by Vivien Goldman, foreword from Elton John and testimonials from Charlie Calello, Will Lee, John Sebastian, Jackson Browne, Clive Davis, Lou Adler, Randy Brecker, Bernard Purdie, Scott Billington, John Sebastian, and Gary Burden. Rare, previously unseen photographs including intimate family shots illuminate the book

Included within this set are all of Laura Nyro’s 10 studio albums: More Than A New Discovery (1967), Eli And The Thirteenth Confession (1968), New York Tendaberry (1969), Christmas And The Beads Of Sweat (1970), the wonderful covers album she made with Labelle Gonna Take A Miracle (1971), Smile (1976), and Nested (1978), Mother’s Spiritual (1984), Walk The Dog & Light The Light (1993) and her posthumously released masterwork Angel In The Dark (2001).

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Barbados born British trumpeter-flugelhornist Harry Beckett had a long and distinguished career that was capped with a delightfully unexpected collaboration with producer Adrian Sherwood, The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett. Released in 2008 by Sherwood’s On-U Sound label, it has just received a worthy reissue, the set now available on vinyl for the first time.

The arrival of The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett shouldn’t have been a surprise given the number of times the horn-man recorded with Jah Wobble (more than a dozen releases across a two-decade span). Indeed, it was the extended relationship with Wobble that hipped Sherwood to the prospect of working with Beckett and sowed the seeds for this album.

Beckett, who passed in 2010 after a stroke, had a deep rep as an ace guest who added value to records spanning from the Small Faces (Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake) and the regular sized Faces (Long Player) to Jack Bruce (Songs for a Tailor) to Alexis Korner (Both Sides) to Manfred Mann Chapter Three (S/T and Volume Two) to Robert Wyatt (Nothing Can Stop Us) to Weekend (La Varieté) to Working Week (Working Nights) to David Sylvian (Gone to Earth).

The above excludes Beckett’s extensive work in the jazz field, which in addition to his own records (debuting with Flare Up in 1970) found him in bands ranging from big (aggregations organized by Graham Collier, Neil Ardley, John Dankworth, Mike Westbrook, Michael Gibbs, and Oliver Nelson) to mid-size (outfits led by Collier, Elton Dean, and Stan Tracey) to small (groups with John Surman, Mike Osborne, and Ray Russell). Of special note is his connection to South African musicians through his membership in Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | High Moon Records is proud to announce a new vinyl collection of rare tracks from cult singer-songwriter Laurie Styvers. Let Me Comfort You: The Hush Rarities arrives Friday, October 25, 2024 exclusively on vinyl LP, joined by a 4-page lyric insert with liner notes from 5x GRAMMY® Award-nominated compilation producer Alec Palao. Pre-orders are available now.

Let Me Comfort You: The Hush Rarities follows High Moon’s 2023 release of Gemini Girl: The Complete Hush Recordings, the first-ever comprehensive anthology of Styvers’ remarkable body of work, including her two deeply moving solo albums, Spilt Milk (1971) and The Colorado Kid (1973). Akin to a lost third album, the new collection now gathers 11 alternate takes, demos, and previously unissued songs from the original album sessions, further showcasing the enigmatic Texas singer-songwriter’s honey-voiced intimacy and intangible magic, its lovelorn gems like “Let Me Comfort You” and “Crazy Rainy Spring” equal of anything on either now-rightfully acclaimed albums.

Laurie Styvers may be amongst the lesser-known names within the milieu of 1970s cult singer-songwriters, but anyone who experiences the bewitching innocence on display within her two deeply moving solo albums, Spilt Milk (1971) and The Colorado Kid (1973), will surely fall in love with this enigmatic figure.

Born in Texas, Styvers was a student at the American School in London when she joined the legendary 1960s psych-folk outfit Justine, guesting on their eponymous 1970 debut LP before heading back to the US to attend college in Colorado. She soon returned to the UK, embarking upon a solo career after signing with Hush Productions, founded by legendary producers Shel Talmy (The Kinks, The Who, Small Faces) and Hugh Murphy.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “The story of people finding their own voice and doing something because they believe in it.” —Fear and Loathing

The Fire Still Burns is a story of post-punk adventure, packed full of anecdotes, inspiration and tales from the road with an insightful narrative on what keeps these bands plugging away with such heart; gigging, touring, recording and playing in a rough and ready scene.

With a brief history of the independent, alternative label, Engineer Records, and input from eighty of its bands. You’ll read about Canaan and Crosstide, Fat Heaven and Flyswatter, Kid You Not, Kover, and Kyoto Drive, as well as many more. A follow-up to 2023’s A Hardcore Heart and a must-read for all tuned-in punk-rockers and hardcore kids, especially if they’re forming a new band.

David is a musician and author. He’s played in bands since his teens, including Couch Potatoes, Joeyfat, Rydell, Come The Spring, and The Atlantic Union Project, and is an active part of the alternative music scene, having promoted gigs, edited a fanzine and run a record label. He established his current label, Engineer Records, back in 1999 and continues releasing great records to this day, with well over 400 releases and counting.

His first two books were, Punk Faction, a collection of BHP fanzine excerpts that cover a range of subjects important to the youth of the ‘90s and still relevant to the alternative scene of today, and A Hardcore Heart, a semi-autobiographical account of the UKHC scene in the ‘90s focusing on the artists, promoters, venues, and labels involved. David lives with his wife and two sons in East Sussex, and when he’s not playing with his family and their four cats, or writing, he enjoys traveling, strangling his guitar, and introducing others to obscure rock bands.

Stylistically complementary yet with contrasts in execution, the bands Dancer, hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, and Whisper Hiss, based in Portland, OR, each get a side on Split, a new LP that’s available October 18 (after a brief delay) via the reliable Athens, GA label Happy Happy Birthday To Me. It comes with hand-stamped labels in a handmade three-color screen-printed matchbook fold-over sleeve plus insert and a download card. Those with an unscratchable itch to hear these dozen tunes right now can snag a digital copy over at Bandcamp.

Split LPs span back nearly as far as the format itself, but the impulse to share sides really flourished as part of underground rock’s regional scenes in the years after punk’s big reset. Although not all split LPs featured contributors from the same or neighboring cities or towns, geography as a unifier was essentially the norm. But in these post internet days, long distance relationships are far more common and make far more sense as pairings, particularly when aligned by a record label majordomo who comprehends the value of close proximity over the release of two separate 6-song EPs.

Dancer’s side begins with “Priority Girl,” a bouncy, sassy, slightly new wavy dose of pop-rock that could’ve raised the eyebrows of an IRS Records scout circa ’82 or thereabouts, at least until the band lets loose with a little racket in the mid-section. “Didn’t Mean To” follows, delivering a more charged up strain of melodic clang with a solid undercurrent of post-punk.

The title “Paging Planet Earth” positively screams new wave, a scenario that’s aided by Gemma Fleet’s vocal timbre, a little bubbly but smart (shades of Debbie Harry and more so Claire Grogan). However, the cut has an arty edge (while still steadfastly pop) that deepens the appeal. So far so very old school, but “You Saint” brings a twist with prickly guitar lines giving the song a more contemporary spin.

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