RSD2025 Everything Else

Over the past decade, the harpist Brandee Younger has been at the center of music's celebrated work, even if you didn't know she was there. Be it her output with the soul singer John Legend or the rapper Common, she's always put her stamp on the music in question, all while setting a new course for what classical music can entail. But with her major-label debut, Somewhere Different, she's pushing her artistry to the foreground. By her own admission, Younger would've stepped back in years past to let others shine; the harp would've been mixed behind layers of woodwind instruments. Now she's putting her instrument first.

"It was important for me to thrust the harp forward in a non-traditional setting," Younger says of her new album. "I made a conscious effort to make sure that the harp was a bit more present in this recording. It's important for the instrument." Indeed, the first sound heard on Somewhere Different is the harp, a gorgeous, tone-setting solo that ushers in "Love & Struggle," the album's meditative opener. It also sets the mission for the music that follows: Younger has spent her career breaking down the barriers between classical music and contemporary forms of R&B, hip-hop, and funk. This album synthesizes her work while forging new ground. "I started recording music that wasn't common on harp in 2006," she says. This is my way of combining all the worlds I have into one. This is me doing my own thing completely."

Listeners will hear this creative freedom throughout the LP, from the introspective tenor of "Olivia Benson," "Beautiful Is Black" and "Pretend," featuring Tarriona "Tank" Ball of the breakout New Orleans band Tank and the Bangas, to the vibrant rock and bounce-infused sounds of "Reclamation" and the title track, respectively. In that way, Younger pays homage to the pioneering harpists Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby, both of whom merged the instrument with jazz, funk and soul at a time when such ingenuity wasn't commonplace. Somewhere Different is not only the realization of Younger's musical journey, it channels the spirit of a deserving performer whose life merits deeper examination. 

1. Love & Struggle
2. Olivia Benson
3. Beautiful Is Black
4. Pretend
5. Reclamation
6. Somewhere Different
7. Spirit U Will
8. Tickled Pink

New edition of this very rare deep spiritual jazz album first released as a private-press album in 1970 on flautist Lloyd McNeill's own Asha Record label in Washington, DC. McNeill is an African-American flautist, painter, poet, and photographer born in Washington, D.C., in 1935. His multi-disciplinary creative life led to encounters and friendships with Nina Simone, Picasso, Eric Dolphy, Nana Vasconceles and other legendary cultural figures. McNeill's hypnotic Washington Suite was originally commissioned as a piece of music for the Capital Ballet Company, in Washington, DC. 

1. Home Rule
2. Just 71% Moor
3. 2504 Cliffbourne Pl.
4. Fountain In The Circle
5. City Tryptych
6. Fountain In The Circle

• - Disc 1 -
• 1 Colossus
• 2 Never Fight a Man with a Perm
• 3 I'm Scum
• 4 Danny Nedelko
• 5 Love Song
• 6 June
• - Disc 2 -
• 1 Samaritans
• 2 Television
• 3 Great
• 4 Gram Rock
• 5 Cry to Me
• 6 Rottweiler

Kelela's debut album, Take Me Apart emerges as an epic portrait of an artist spanning the past and future of R&B. In her hands, however, the genre knows no boundaries and so Take Me Apart exists as an absolutely singular and fearless addition to a canon of recent classics. From her very earliest work, honesty and vulnerability have been cornerstones of Kelela's art - even when clad in the armor of the avant-garde electronics she so deftly inhabits - and Take Me Apart sees her double down on both the emotional intensity and resonance of her message as well as the sonic seeking she is renowned for.

The timeless, zero-gravity ballad "Better" sees Kelela at her most unadorned - baring her soul to a nameless other over subtly transforming piano and synth textures while first single "LMK" is all staggering club swagger that manages to span the past 20 years of innovative R&B while still exploring another dimension of possibilities. These songs typify the melding of classic song-craft and inventive production approach at the album's core, but it's here where things take yet another exhilarating turn. "Truth or Dare" has the brittle snap and vocal twists of a Neptunes track while "Blue Light" sees Kelela weld her sweeping pleas to the warped sonic palette of grime, pointing the way forward to a possible future of cybernetic soul.

Now we are swept into the slipstream of a pair of breathtaking Arca collaborations in "On And On" and the otherworldly grandeur of "Turn To Dust," which conjures images of the powerful and iconic diva of Luc Besson's The Fifth Element; and it's a short trip to the unforgettable pneumatic gospel of album closer "Altadena," a perfect uroboros link back to "Frontline" to begin the saga all over again. At this point you're left with the feeling that this trip through Take Me Apart is one you'll be making many more times.

1. Frontline
2. Waitin
3. Take Me Apart
4. Enough
5. Jupiter
6. Better
7. LMK
8. Truth Or Dare
9. S.O.S.
10. Blue Light
11. On and On
12. Turn To Dust
13. Bluff
14. Altadena

YOU'RE DEAD! Is a shamanic pilgrimage into the psychedelic unknown of the infinite afterlife. A sonic, visual and metaphysical fusion of technological innovation and technical virtuosity that amounts to a transcendent, mind-expanding plasma that could only exist between our world and another. The enduring universe of Lotus' supporting cast has expanded and evolved to feature in order of appearance, Herbie Hancock, Kendrick Lamar, Captain Murphy, Snoop Dogg, Angel Deradoorian, Thundercat, Niki Randa, alongside mind-blowing original artwork by Japanese comic book artist Shintaro Kago. 'The album isn't about the end, it's really the beginning. It's a celebration of the next experience. It's the transition and the confusion. It's not 'hey you're dead.' It's 'hey you're dead!'

• - Disc 1 -
• 1 Theme
• 2 Tesla
• 3 Cold Dead
• 4 FKN Dead
• 5 Never Catch Me
• 6 Dead Man's Tetris
• 7 Turkey Dog Coma
• 8 Stirring
• 9 Coronus, the Terminator
• 10 Siren Song
• - Disc 2 -
• 1 Turtles
• 2 Ready Err Not
• 3 Eyes Above
• 4 Moment of Hesitation
• 5 Descent Into Madness
• 6 Boys Who Died in Their Sleep
• 7 Obligatory Cadence
• 8 Your Potential//The Beyond
• 9 Protest

Music by Madlib Edited, Arranged and Mastered by Kieren Hebden aka Four Tet; Vinyl Lacquered by Bernie Grundman in L.A.

Gil Evans to Miles Davis...Holger Czukay to the ensemble known as Can...Jean Claude Vannier to Serge Gainsbourg on Histoire de Melody Nelson. That's the only way to explain the specificity of Four Tet and Madlib's collaboration, in the special album, Sound Ancestors, that showcases a two-decade long friendship. The collection follows in the big shoes of Madlib classics like Quasimoto's The Unseen, Madvillainy and his Pinata and Bandana albums with Freddie Gibbs.

"A few months ago I completed work on an album with my friend Madlib that we'd been making for the last few years," explains Kieren Hebden aka Four Tet. "He is always making loads of music in all sorts of styles and I was listening to some of his new beats and studio sessions when I had the idea that it would be great to hear some of these ideas made into a Madlib solo album. Not made into beats for vocalists to use but instead arranged into tracks that could all flow together in an album designed to be listened to start to finish. I put this concept to him when we were hanging out eating some nice food one day and we decided to work on this together with him sending me tracks, loops, ideas and experiments that I would arrange, edit, manipulate and combine. I was sent hundreds of pieces of music over a couple of years stretch and during that time I put together this album with all the parts that fitted with my vision."

Music by Madlib. Edited, arranged and mastered by Kieran Hebden. Lacquered by Bernie Grundman in L.A. Art direction by Errol Richardson. Photography by Richard Foster. 

1. There Is No Time (Prelude)
2. The Call
3. Theme De Crabtree
4. Road Of The Lonely Ones
5. Loose Goose
6. Dirtknock
7. Hopprock
8. Riddim Chant
9. Sound Ancestors
10. One For Quartabê/Right Now
11. Hang Out (Phone Off)
12. Two for 2 -For Dilla
13. Latino Negro
14. The New Normal
15. Chino
16. Duumbiyay

Vinyl LP pressing. 2021 release. For the second straight year, The Killers are releasing a new album. The follow-up to 2020's Imploding the Mirage is titled Pressure Machine.

• 1 West Hills
• 2 Quiet Town
• 3 Terrible Thing
• 4 Cody
• 5 Sleepwalker
• 6 Runaway Horses
• 7 In the Car Outside
• 8 In Another Life
• 9 Desperate Things
• 10 Pressure Machine
• 11 The Getting By

This is Bill Evans' first trio date under his own name for Verve, and the deep communication he maintains throughout with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian, two brilliant rhythm players, is sublime. All of the songs are standards of one for or another, but Evans and Co. find a depth to them that's astonishing. Bill uses the spaces between phrases in a way that broadens and deepens the emotional content. Two outstanding examples of Bill's interpretive magic here are the novelty numbers "Little Lulu" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," which both acquire a warmth, scope of imagery and sardonic touch that enlivens their musical essence like never before. This all-analog 180g vinyl LP reissue was mastered from the original analog tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, pressed at QRP, and comes housed in a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket.

Tracks

1. Little Lulu
2. A Sleeping Bee
3. Always
4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
5. I'll See You Again
6. For Heaven's Sake
7. Dancing In The Dark
8. Everything Happens To Me

Vinyl LP pressing. Eliza Noble and Jennifer Skillman are Eli & Fur: the British live act, singer-songwriter and producer duo whose career together stretches back for nearly a decade. Having formed a close bond in their teens born out of their unwavering passion for music in all it's guises, their careers as DJs, songwriters, vocalists and producers has taken them around the globe as touring musicians and seen them grace the stages of the biggest festivals in the world including Coachella, Tomorrowland and Glastonbury.

Highly Anticipated Follow-Up to 5x Grammy-Winning Debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go

Billie Eilish's highly anticipated second full-length album Happier Than Ever, which she called the favorite thing she's ever created, features no outside songwriters or producers, and was written by Billie and her brother Finneas, who produced the album in Los Angeles, CA. In late 2020, the singer released "Therefore I Am," an audacious ode to being entirely unbothered which followed the release of the ethereal single "My Future." Eilish appeared on Sirius XM to discuss the process of creating the follow up to her massive debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go, which took home five Grammys and went 3x Platinum saying: "Everything about every song is very different but somehow cohesive, and I think that was the same with the last album. We really wanted a project to be cohesive and make sense, but not just be a repeat and a clone of every other song." The album topped the US Billboard 200 and its title track received a total of seven nominations at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

1. Getting Older
2. I Didn't Change My Number
3. Billie Bossa Nova
4. My Future
5. Oxytocin
6. Goldwing
7. Lost Cause
8. Halley's Comet
9. Not My Responsibility
10. OverHeated
11. Everybody Dies
12. Your Power
13. NDA
14. Therefore I Am
15. Happier Than Ever
16. Male Fantasy

Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series All-Analog 180g Vinyl LP Mastered by Kevin Gray Directly from the Original Master Tapes and Manufactured at Optimal in Germany

Blue Note Records is pleased to present the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series, a continuation of their acclaimed Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series which was launched in celebration of the label's 80th anniversary in 2019. The Classic Series will once again feature all-analog 180g vinyl pressings in standard packaging that are mastered by Kevin Gray directly from the original master tapes and manufactured at Optimal in Germany. The first 16 titles of the Classic Series will focus on the enduring classics of the Blue Note catalog. The Classic Series will be on-going, running alongside the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series which is produced by Joe Harley.

Time and troubles seem to melt away during the 15 enrapturing minutes of Idle Moments, the opening track of Grant Green's sublime 1963 album of the same name. As the piece unhurriedly unfurls all the unique colors of the ensemble present themselves with Green's soulful guitar joined by Duke Pearson's elegant piano, Bobby Hutcherson's crystalline vibraphone, Bob Cranshaw's reassuring upright bass, Al Harewood's subtle drums, and lastly Joe Henderson's magnificent tenor saxophone. The pace quickens for the rest of this set including the Green original "Jean de Fleur," a bluesy take on John Lewis' MJQ standard "Django," and Pearson's original "Nomad."

Musicians:
Grant Green, guitar
Duke Pearson, piano
Joe Henderson, tenor saxophone
Bobby Hutcherson, vibes
Bob Cranshaw, bass
Al Harewood, drums

Features:
• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series
• All analog 180g vinyl LP
• Mastered by Kevin Gray directly from the original master tapes
• Manufactured at Optimal in Germany
• Standard packaging

1. Idle Moments
2. Jean De Fleur
3. Django
4. Nomad

J Mascis Several Shades Of Why on LP + MP3 from Sub Pop

Dinosaur Jr. Leader's First Solo Acoustic Album

Gorgeous Arrangements, Delicate Emotions, and Brilliant Melodies Pepper Guitar Hero's Batch of Original Tunes

In the quarter century since he founded Dinosaur Jr., J Mascis has created some of the era’s signature songs, albums and styles. The laconically-based roar of his guitar, drums and vocals have driven a long string of bands such as Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr., Gobblehoof, Velvet Monkeys, the Fog, Witch, and Sweet Apple. He has also guested on innumerable sessions. But Several Shades of Why, recorded at Amherst, Massachusetts’ Bisquiteen Studios, is J’s first solo studio record, and it is an album of incredible beauty, performed with a delicacy not always associated with his work.

Nearly all acoustic, Several Shades of Why was created with the help of a few friends. Notable amongst them are Kurt Vile, Sophie Trudeau (A Silver Mount Zion), Kurt Fedora (long-time collusionist), Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene), Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), Pall Jenkins (Black Heart Procession), Matt Valentine (The Golden Road), and Suzanne Thorpe (Wounded Knees).

Together in small mutable groupings, they conjure up classic sounds ranging from English-tinged folk to drifty, West Coast-style singer/songwriters. But every track, every note even, bears that distinct Mascis watermark, both in the shape of the tunes and the glorious rasp of the vocals. Ten brilliant tunes that quietly grow and expand until they fill your brain with the purest pleasure.

"Mascis’ first solo acoustic album and Sub Pop debut, the ten-song set further exposes the beautiful tunefulness and pained emotionalism at the root of his craft. Many of Mascis’ best songs over the past 20 years capture the lifetime-lasting wounds related to longing, wondering, and searching. Such emotional themes recur on Several Shades of Why, which finds the singer/guitarist striving for degrees of destination, closure, companionship, and certainty without ever arriving at any agreed-upon understandings or firm conclusions."
--Bob Gendron, TONE Audio, Issue 35, February 2011

J Mascis Several Shades Of Why Track Listing:

1.  Listen To Me
2.  Several Shades Of Why
3.  Not Enough
4.  Very Nervous and Love
5.  Is It Done
6.  Make It Right
7.  Where Are You
8.  Too Deep
9.  Can I
10. What Happened

Double vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Includes poster. Digitally remastered and expanded edition. By going back to basics with Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, Mudhoney flipped conventional wisdom. Not for the first time - or the last - they would be vindicated. A month after release in July 1991, the album entered the UK album chart at Number 34 (five weeks later, Nirvana's Nevermind entered at 36) and went on to sell 75,000 copies worldwide. A more meaningful measure of success, however, lay in it's revitalization of the band, casting a touchstone for the future. The record is a major chapter in Mudhoney's ongoing story, the moral of which has to be: when in doubt, fudge it. This 30th anniversary edition, remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, stands as testimony to the creative surge that drove them in this period. The album sessions yielded a clutch of material that would subsequently appear on B-sides, compilations, and split-singles. This edition includes all those tracks, and a slew of previously unreleased songs, including the entire five-track Music Source session.

• - Disc 1 -
• 1 Generation Genocide
• 2 Let It Slide
• 3 Good Enough
• 4 Something So Clear
• 5 Thorn
• 6 Into the Drink
• 7 Broken Hands
• 8 Who You Drivin' Now?
• 9 Move Out
• 10 Shoot the Moon
• 11 Fuzzgun '91
• 12 Pokin' Around
• 13 Don't Fade IV
• 14 Check-Out Time
• - Disc 2 -
• 1 March to Fuzz
• 2 Ounce of Deception
• 3 Paperback Life (Alternate Version)
• 4 Fuzzbuster
• 5 Bushpusher Man
• 6 Flowers for Industry
• 7 Thorn (1st Attempt)
• 8 Overblown
• 9 March from Fuzz
• 10 You're Gone
• 11 Something So Clear (24-Track Demo)
• 12 Bushpusher Man (24-Track Demo)
• 13 Pokin' Around (24-Track Demo)
• 14 Check-Out Time (24-Track Demo)
• 15 Generation Genocide (24-Track Demo)

Released on the legendary Dutch jazz label Timeless Records, Chippin' In features ten sublime tracks recorded at Rudy van Gelder's Recording Studio in February 1990. Although Art Blakey passed away just eight months after these tracks were cut you certainly can't tell by the performances. For these specific recordings, The Jazz Messengers were expanded from its usual quintet or sextet into a septet and they showcase their energetic signature sound with remarkable style, musical knowledge, a dash of good humor and camaraderie you'd expect from a world-class outfit. The line-up on these fantastic sessions includes non-other than Essiet Okon, Geoff Keezer, Dale Barlow, Javon Jackson, Frank Lacy, Steve Davis and Brian Lynch...impressive to say the least!

Tidal Waves Music proudly presents the first ever vinyl release of Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers' Chippin' In on deluxe colored 180g vinyl 2LP with an obi strip. The jacket features exclusive session pics shot by legendary Dutch photographer Joost Leijen (known for his work with artists such as Chet Baker and Pharoah Sanders), plus an insert with liner notes by renowned author and producer Russ Musto. Chippin' In sounds as vibrant as ever here! Expect supercharged hard bop with striking notes, no-holds-barred musicianship, high swinging solos, screaming choruses and plenty of solid virtuosity to spare. This electrifying set of tracks contains both originals and several eclectic versions of standards...making this release a bonafide hit and a must-have for any self-respecting jazz fan or collector.

Musicians:
Art Blakey, drums
Essiet Okon, bass
Geoff Keezer, piano
Dale Barlow / Javon Jackson, tenor saxophone
Frank Lacy / Steve Davis, trombone
Brian Lynch, trumpet

Features:
• Deluxe colored 180g vinyl 2LP
• First time on the format
• Includes obi strip
• Exclusive session pics shot by Dutch photographer Joost Leijen
• Insert with liner notes by renowned author and producer Russ Musto

1. Brain Stormin'
2. Byrdflight
3. Hammerhead
4. Aquarius Rising
5. Kay Pea
6. Chippin' In
7. Raincheck
8. Chandek's Den
9. Kenji's Walk
10. Love Walked In

Limited vinyl LP repressing of this classic Jazz release. This album is a Blue Note essential and is part of the Blue Note 75 anniversary LP reissue campaign. At the Half Note Cafe is a live album by American trumpeter Donald Byrd recorded in 1960 at the Half Note in Manhattan and released on the Blue Note label originally as two single LP issues. Trumpeter Byrd is joined on this recording by Pepper Adams, Duke Pearson, Laymon Jackson and Lex Humphries. This first volume includes "Intro/My Girl Shirl', "Soulful Kiddy", "A Portrait Of Jennie", "Cecile", " and "Theme: Pure D. Funk".

THE JEAN-PIERRE LELOIR COLLECTION

180 PRE VIRGIN VINYL LPs IN GATEFOLD PACKAGING

INCLUDES 2 BONUS TRACKS

"The Lonely One", issued by Verve in 1959, presents a series of 1955 trio sessions by the great Bud Powell, recorded in the company of such figures as bassists Percy Heath and George Duvivier, and drummers Kenny Clarke and Art Taylor. Powell experienced serious health problems throughout his life. He was commited to a mental hospital from late 1951 to early 1953, and would be released into the guardianship of Oscar Goodstein, the owner of the Birdland nightclub. Following his release from the hospital, Powell’s playing began to be seriously affected by Largactil, a drug prescribed for the treatment of schizophrenia, and by the late Fifties his talent was clearly in eclipse.

These sessions, however, still find him in good shape (his playing, besides some technical trouble, never ceased to produce interesting music). According to All About Jazz reviewer Patrick Burnette, “Powell deconstructs Monk’s ‘Epistrophy’ and garbles ‘Sweet Georgia Brown,’ but the most striking cut is ‘Mediocre,’ on which Powell plays a repetitive melody over a descending series of chords for about three minutes, making increasingly outre variations on the melody rather than soloing over the chords.”

PERSONNEL:

BUD POWELL, piano on all tracks, plus:

A1-A5 & B7:
GEORGE DUVIVIER, bass
ART TAYLOR, drums
Fine Sound Studio, New York, April 25 (A4-A5 & B7) and April 27 (A1-A3), 1955.

B1-B6:
PERCY HEATH, bass
KENNY CLARKE, drums
Fine Sound Studio, New York, January 13, 1955.

SIDE A:

1 CONFIRMATION
2 STAR EYES
3 LULLABY IN RHYTHM
4 WILLOW WEEP FOR ME
5 HEART AND SOUL (*)

SIDE B:

1 MEDIOCRE
2 ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE
3 EPISTROPHY
4 DANCE OF THE INFIDELS
5 SALT PEANUTS
6 HEY GEORGE [SWEET GEORGIA BROWN]
7 CRAZY RHYTHM (*)

(*) Bonus tracks: From the same sessions, but not included on the original LP.

Modern Baseball was formed in 2011 by friends and guitarists Jacob Ewald and Brendan Lukens, who were soon joined by Ian Farmer on bass and Sean Huber on drums. The band self-released their first EP The Nameless Ranger in 2011 while still in high school. Shortly after the members relocated to Philadelphia to attend college and quickly gained a strong following in the Philadelphia music community, teaming up with locals Marietta to release the Couples Therapy split in the spring of 2012. Modern Baseball released their debut full-length Sports later that year on Lame-O Records, which they self-recorded and produced.

After spending the summer of 2013 touring heavily across the US, the band headed into Studio A in Philadelphia to self-record You're Going to Miss It All. Mixed by Jonathan Low at Minor Street Recordings and mastered by Will Yip, You're Going to Miss It All features 12 tracks that showcase the band's signature witty indie-pop.

Tracks

• 1 Re-Do
• 2 Tears Over Beers
• 3 The Weekend
• 4 @CHL03K
• 5 Hours Outside in the Snow
• 6 I Think You Were in My Profile Picture Once
• 7 Re-Done
• 8 Cooke
• 9 See Ya, Sucker
• 10 Look Out
• 11 Play Ball!
• 12 Coals



Norwegian artist and writer Jenny Hval has developed her distinct take on intimate sound since the release of her debut album in 2006. For her last two solo albums, 2013's Innocence Is Kinky and 2015's Apocalypse, Girl, Hval's debut for Sacred Bones, she has received thoughtful and widespread international acclaim for her fascinating voice, singular delivery and markedly non-traditional arrangements which incorporate elements of poetry, prose writing, performance art, and film.

The New York Times defines her writing as "taking a scalpel to the subjects of gender politics and sexuality." Hval has eloquently brought to light issues of both male and female gaze, which for years had been swept under the rug and/or denied all together. Apocalypse, Girl landed on numerous year-end lists with leading compelling writers everywhere to grapple with the age-old, yet previously unspoken, question: What is Soft Dick Rock?

After touring for a year and earning her second Nordic Prize nomination, as any perfectionist would, Hval immediately went back into the studio to continue her work with acumen noise producer Lasse Marhaug, with whom she co-produces here on Blood Bitch. Her new effort is in many respects a complete 180° from her last in subject matter, execution and production. It is her most focused, but the lens is filtered through a gaze which the viewer least expects.

1. Ritual Awakening
2. Female Vampire
3. In the Red
4. Conceptual Romance
5. Untamed Region
6. The Great Undressing
7. Period Piece
8. The Plague
9. Secret Touch
10. Lorna