A year ago we were delighted to introduce you to Anastasia Minster via our First Date series along with her stunning full length release Father. Today we’re doubly delighted to inform you of its upcoming arrival on vinyl which you can assist in supporting here. —Ed.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | The upcoming second album release from Moscow-born singer and composer Anastasia Minster, Father, is dark and existential, with intricate multi-layered instrumental arrangements and hauntingly expressive vocals.
After releasing her debut noir chamber pop album Hour of the Wolf in 2017, Anastasia Minster went on to work on a more ambitious and comprehensive project: her second record Father. Three tracks were created in collaboration with English musician, composer and record producer Steve Jansen, and feature his signature atmospheric synth and string arrangements.
Other tracks boast multi-layered cello arrangements by Canadian virtuoso cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne and trumpet parts by JUNO nominated Tara Kannangara. The album was recorded at Sonology studio in Toronto using a variety of vintage analogue sound equipment. The lyrics are inspired by the works of Carl Jung, Hermann Hesse, and Andrei Tarkovsky.
The first single, “Solaris” takes inspiration from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 film of the same name. Solaris is a mysterious oceanic planet that has the ability to communicate with people by perceiving their brainwaves and bringing their deepest desires to life. The track is built on the traditional jazz trio setup with grand piano, upright bass and soft percussion, and features a stunning climactic instrumental outro section with 6 layered cello parts.
Duncan, BC | Business notes: Full Bug Records opens in Duncan: What’s going on in the Cowichan business community. Vinyl records are making a comeback, and Matt Hewlett has gotten on the bandwagon. Hewlett, a former restaurateur from Vancouver, recently moved to Duncan and opened up Full Bug Records at 171 Jubilee St. in Duncan. He said many of those who sold their record collections in the 1990s are looking to revive them, and a new and younger generation of listeners have begun taking to vinyl records as well. He said that while some believe the sound from vinyl records is better quality than CDs and the music that is downloaded from the internet, many of his customers just like the more interactive format that records, many of which have large 12-inch by 12-inch jackets, come in as they are typically covered in interesting information about the band and may even have posters. “People also want a physical copy of the music, 
Orillia, ON | Passion helps owner ensure record store is a hit: ‘Orillia has a lot to offer, and we feel like we are a part of that,’ says owner of Alleycats Music & Art. Believe it or not, Alleycats Music & Art owner Mike Rothwell isn’t a huge music guy. But his passion for being a key player in the community has prompted him to collect more than 10,000 records which he sells at his 95 Mississaga St. E. location in downtown Orillia. The Kitchener native formerly worked as a health, safety, and environmental professional for most of his life after studying science at the University of Toronto. In 2007, Rothwell and his wife Krista decided to move up north to start a new chapter of their life. “It’s my wife’s hometown, so we wanted to re-locate and move up here; we’ve always liked it here,” Rothwell said. In 2012, Rothwell and his wife opened up Alleycats as a hobby business to give them something to keep them busy. “I’ve always been entrepreneurial, so this is the first time I really got to do anything with 
Suzi has done it all: several top ten hits throughout the world, a starring role in Happy Days as Leather Tuscadero, and she recently saw the release of an excellent documentary about her life titled, Suzi Q (2019). When she’s not doing that, she’s hosting radio programs on the BBC, writing a book of poetry, or finding some other way to explore her wealth of talents and energy.
Boston, MA | From Comic Book to custom vinyl records: Newbury Comics! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Newbury Comics, you might, you might go “WAIT WHUT?!” because there’s nothing VINYL about Newbury Comics at all. Newbury Comics was originally a comic store that only sells…well, comics. Their first store opened in Boston, New England’s largest city in 1978. The founders, John Brusger and Mike Dreese, both MIT students, started selling Brusger’s preloved comic book collections on Batman, Superman and Spider-Man and later expanded to many other comics with different styles and origins– from American comic books, graphic novels, manga…you name any comic title, they probably have it. But what really elevated their success aren’t the comic books, it’s music! They should probably rename the store to Newbury Music but I guess they don’t need to. Somewhere in the early 1980’s, the comic store shifted into selling CDs and vinyl records. This was all thanks to a box of records Dreese brought back from England and Boston’s booming local music scene. He just put it in their store and BAM, they’re gone. 
Santa Rosa, CA | The Last Record Store’s co-owner will retire as shop rebrands: It’s closing time for Michael “Hoyt” Wilhelm, his 38-year journey down the long and winding road of running The Last Record Store about to end as customers pick through the fruits of his labor. Wilhelm is retiring in May from the business he opened downtown on Jan. 15, 1983, with his longtime friend, Doug Jayne. Back in those days, physical LPs and cassettes were the dominant music format and the compact disc was only beginning to emerge. The intervening years brought massive technology changes and innovations such as Napster, iTunes and Spotify that wiped out most physical media sales. But The Last Record Store still stands as a beloved musical mecca for curious Gen Z shoppers to the most hard-core vinylphiles who could easily unpack the references in the first paragraph of this story to lyrics from Semisonic, the Beatles and Lucinda Williams, or even come up with their own. As part of the transition, Jayne and Wilhelm will close the business, which moved to Mendocino Avenue north of the Junior College in 2003. Jayne and longtime store manager Gerry Stumbaugh will reopen a new store called 
With a discography that spanned from the late 1950s to 2017, Aretha produced more than enough great music to stock a top-notch jukebox, but most everybody has a favorite Franklin LP. Me, I turned for solace upon learning of her death to 1968’s Lady Soul.
NEW RELEASE PICK: Xiu Xiu, OH NO (Polyvinyl) This album features Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart in a series of duets with an impressive list of contemporary artists, including Sharon Van Etten, Haley Fohr (Circuits Des Yeux), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Owen Pallet, Chelsea Wolfe, Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater), Alice Bag, and Stewart’s Xiu Xiu bandmate Angela Seo. 15 duets, well, 14, as the very brief “ANTS,” while a delightful finale, sounds like it’s Valerie Diaz all by her lonesome. Now, when a singer shares the mic on a record with a bunch of different folks, my expectations generally lean toward an enjoyable but not especially challenging affair, so I was intrigued by OH NO, as easy listening has never been Xiu Xiu’s specialty. Hey, good news: it still isn’t. The scoop here is that the making of OH NO served as therapeutic for Stewart, or more to the point, helped him to regain some faith in humanity after suffering a few betrayals. Instead of just a pileup of songs, this unwinds like a Xiu Xiu record, but with a handful of surprises, like a Cure cover, and the swank electro-pop of “A Bottle of Rum” with Liz Harris. A-
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICKS: Ali Farka Touré, Red (World Circuit) Released in 1984 by Disques Espérance, a subsidiary of the French Sonodisc label, this wasn’t Touré’s recording debut, but it did substantially raise the Malian guitarist profile and proved enduringly influential, particularly after World Circuit (and Nonesuch in the US) combined it on CD in 2004 with Touré’s ’88 LP, as Red & Green, that name referring to the original eponymous releases’ sleeve colors that have come to stand in as titles that distinguish the two. Growing up in the 1980s, it was stated back then with regularity that World Music was mostly consumed by Yuppies (particularly those who were ex-hippies), but I can’t imagine those cats willingly hanging with the exquisite, barbed rawness of Red’s desert trance blues. Featuring just Touré on a Bulgarian-made acoustic and percussionist Hama Sankare on calibash, this set is pretty much required listening for fans of Tinariwen and for those into the output of the Sahel Sounds label, but it’s also recommended to curious newbies who are partial to the Delta blues and drone music. A
V/A, Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2 (World Circuit) Cumbia is the celebrated dance music of Columbia, deep of rhythm and spiked with rich horns, spritely accordions and passionate vocals. I can think of no better primer into the goodness of the style than this set, which combines two albums originally issued by World Circuit in 1989 and ’93, the second one on CD only until they were first offered together in 2012. But more importantly, these four sides are packed with material that was first issued by the Discos Fuentes label, the first album spanning 1960-’88, while the second is a deeper dive into the ’50-’60s. What this means is that, unlike a multitude of other decades-spanning comps that become less vital as they progress forward chronologically, this baby is a certifiable fiesta of swinging throughout. Seriously, “Santo Domingo” by Los Cumbiamberos De Pacheco, sequenced deep into side three, feels like the standout of the record, but then side four delivers a ceaseless succession of gems. If you dig Afro Cuban sounds and salsa but aren’t hip to cumbia, this will hit a sweet spot you didn’t know you had. A
Tower of Power, 50 Years of Funk & Soul – Live at the Fox Theater – Oakland, CA – June 2018 (Mack Avenue) As the title relates, San Francisco’s Tower of Power has been around for a long time, hitting that golden anniversary in 2018 and marking the occasion with a run of shows in their hometown, augmenting the 10-piece core band with more horns and even a (sparingly used) string section. And the generosity of the band’s performance is matched by Mack Avenue’s multiformat documentation, as they offer a 3LP, a 2CD/ DVD combo and a standalone DVD. Drum tight and highly polished, Tower of Power embody the sound of communal celebration that’s comparable to Parliament, though minus George Clinton’s eccentricity. Instead, ToP just combine their incessant James Brown-like grooves with a soulful pop inclination that can occasionally suggest ’70s Philadelphia. And while the musicianship is impeccable, the virtuosity never kneecaps feeling, which is kinda miraculous given the nature of the endeavor. I’ll close by mentioning the coincidental timeliness of “Soul Vaccination.” A-
