What's it like: This week at South Records
→ New this week
Styrofoam Winos return with Any River, a warm and wonderfully loose collection of country-rock and communal songwriting that feels equally indebted to Michael Hurley, Dylan, MJ Lenderman, and the kind of forgotten bargain-bin treasures that become lifelong favourites. Pye Corner Audio follows Let's Emerge! with More Songs About The Sun, pushing his Balearic and kosmische influences further into the light with echoes of Stereolab, Harmonia and Cluster, while still finding room for moments of darkness and reflection. Earth's Pentastar: In the Style of Demons receives a deserved 30th anniversary edition, arguably Dylan Carlson's most approachable record, blending Black Sabbath heft, psychedelic drift and vast stretches of drone into one long desert journey.
Hull's LIFE return with ABSTRACT / NATURAL, their most ambitious record yet and one deeply rooted in landscape, folklore and personal change, available as a superb Dinked Edition with exclusive artwork and splatter vinyl. Arthur Russell's much-loved Love Is Overtaking Me is also back in a beautifully remastered double LP edition, gathering together his folk, country and pop recordings from across two decades and serving as another reminder that there was simply nobody else quite like him. Whether you're after sprawling experimental rock, gentle Americana, blissed-out electronics or one of the great singular voices in modern music, there's plenty to get excited about this week.
→ Recommended
If you know Miles Davis through Kind of Blue, On the Corner can come as a shock. Released in 1972, it's a dense, hypnotic collision of jazz, funk, rock and tape-loop experimentation, with Miles drawing as much inspiration from Sly Stone and James Brown as he was from the avant-garde. Dismissed on release, it's since become one of his most influential records, laying groundwork for everything from post-punk to hip-hop and electronic music. Challenging, addictive and still sounding like the future. Japanese first pressing right here.
