Best foot forward: This week at South
Beck returns this week with Ride Lonesome, his first new album in seven years. Reuniting with the musicians behind Sea Change and Morning Phase, and mixed by longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich, it sees him returning to the warm, atmospheric songwriting of those records while finding something new within it. It’s available on limited dark green vinyl.
Elsewhere, there's new East LA throwback soul from Thee Sinseers on Love Stories, Kristin Hersh with the darker, deeply personal Sugar On Blackstone, and Harlan Silverman, whose Music for Stillness brings together bansuri flute, cello and ambient textures. Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts return with the semi-acoustic Second Song, Dhani Harrison and Nigel Godrich join forces for their new project Dragonflies, and Echo & The Bunnymen release Apples For Isaac, their first album of newly written songs in over a decade. There’s also Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s Ghost of American Psychonauts, recorded live in Los Angeles last year.
>
On the reissue front, Silver Apples’ remarkable 1968 debut gets an indies-only smoke vinyl pressing, Wipers’ hugely influential is back remastered from Greg Sage’s original tapes, and The Lemonheads celebrate 30 years of Car Button Cloth with a limited white vinyl edition. There’s also the first vinyl reissue in over 40 years of Yoko Ono’s It’s Alright (I See Rainbows), a 30th anniversary edition of DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing....., newly remastered editions of Hole’s Pretty On The Inside, Live Through This and Celebrity Skin, plus Smashing Pumpkins’ Adore and Pisces Iscariot.
→ Recommended
Released in 1994, the German duo’s Mouse on Mars’ debut Vulvaland sits somewhere between ambient techno, dub and the more playful, experimental electronics that would become their trademark. Warm, strange and full of tiny rhythmic details, it has plenty in common with the era’s Warp records but already sounds distinctly like Mouse on Mars. A brilliant mid-90s electronic record that still feels surprisingly fresh. Limited edition first pressing, with the bonus 12", available right here.
