You can't say no forever: This week at South
The big one for us this week is a batch of The Go-Betweens reissues: Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express, Tallulah and 16 Lovers Lane, alongside Fountains of Youth - Live at the Town and Country Club. It’s a brilliant run of records - from the self-produced Liberty Belle & The Black Diamond Express, through the expanded sound of Tallulah, to 16 Lovers Lane, often regarded as their finest album and described by Robert Forster as the perfect combination of “London melancholy and Sydney sunshine”. Fountains of Youth captures them live in May 1987, just before Tallulah, in a one-off show professionally recorded to 24-track analogue tape.
Elsewhere there’s Julia Jacklin’s fourth album The Gem, recorded in Melbourne above the pub that gives the record its name; Protomartyr return with the Dave Fridmann-produced Hotel Usona; and Dublin’s Gilla Band are back with Pugnello. The Leaf Library collect more of their electronic pop, motorik and kosmische excursions on Library Music: Volume Two, while Montréal duo Light Conductor continue their long-form analogue synth explorations with Sequence Three. Southend’s Nothing But Thieves return with fifth album Stray Dogs, Leon Bridges teams up with J. Lloyd and Lydia Kitto of Jungle for the soul, disco and Afrobeat-influenced Happiness Anytime, and Jim Legxacy’s excellent 2023 mixtape - a mix of emo guitars, UK drill, afrobeats and Jersey club - gets its first release on vinyl.
There’s also Alice In Chains’ MTV Unplugged, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s final album, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard heading into electronic territory on their 28th album Alien Metal, while Can’s excellent live archive series continues with Live in Arles 1975, capturing the classic Schmidt/Karoli/Liebezeit/Czukay line-up at the Théâtre Antique in Arles. All of this week’s new releases are available in the shop and online now.
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Gang Starr’s third album Daily Operation arrived in 1992 and is arguably the point where Guru and DJ Premier’s sound fully clicked into place. Premier’s stripped-back jazz samples, and sparse, brilliantly constructed production provide the perfect backdrop for Guru’s unmistakably laid-back delivery, with “Take It Personal”, “Ex Girl to Next Girl” and “Soliloquy of Chaos” among the highlights. One of the defining records of early ’90s New York hip-hop, and still one of the best places to start with Gang Starr. First pressing right here.
