Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (DVD/Blu-ray/OST)

Offering respective peeks into both the biographies of the band and their Memphis scene peers as well as rough and alternate mixes made during the recording of their three studio albums, this documentary and soundtrack are must-see/-hear material for both Big Star fanatics as well as those new to the group.

"A treasure trove of home movies and photographs allows director Drew DeNicola and co-director Olivia Mori to document the band’s coming together and falling apart and offer a passionate tribute to its brilliant, beautiful music. The film is by turns joyous and poignant (Bell died at the age of twenty-seven), and the filmmakers unfold with great care the band’s stuttering beginnings, their record company’s fumblings, and the eventual rediscovery in the mid-eighties that brought the musicians some of the adulation they so richly deserved." - The New Yorker

"All too many music documentaries send you away feeling unsatisfied, but with its heartfelt backstory and generous helpings of music, Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me is a shining exception: the filmmakers' urge to be true to their subject is palpable. It doesn’t hurt that Drew DeNicola and Olivia Mori frequently crank up the volume and allow the shimmering chords and moody sweep of Big Star to enfold the influential rock band’s mythic story of years in the wilderness and late rediscovery." - Film Comment

TIMMY THOMAS - Why Can't We Live Together (Expanded Edition)

The king of one-man soul's crowning achievement has finally been remastered. Sounds like a futuristic blast from the past, even today!

"Why Can't We Live Together was the first of four albums Thomas recorded on Glades Records, and with the title track released as the first single in late 1972, Thomas had his first and biggest hit with ‘Why Can’t We Live Together,’ which peaked at #1 R&B and #3 Pop in the U.S., and #12 in the U.K. [...] [The title track] has a very stripped-down production, a sound echoed throughout the album, with Thomas’s soulful organ played in an improvisational style over the rhythm section, giving room for his impassioned vocals. [...] BBR is very proud to bring you Why Can't We Be Together, completely remastered and repackaged with extensive liner notes, extended bonus content, and a brand new interview with Timmy Thomas." - Big Break Recordings

MOLLY DRAKE - S/T

Gentle and soothing but subtly ominous and wisely wistful, the (until-now) private piano parlour tunes of Molly Drake are as melancholy and beautiful as the work of her son, someone else whose songs were similarly only fully appreciated after his passing.

"Squirrel Thing Recordings is proud to announce the release of Molly Drake—a self-titled collection of never-before-heard songs recorded in the 1950s at the Drake family home, and lovingly restored by Nick Drake's engineer John Wood. According to Joe Boyd, legendary producer of Five Leaves Left and Bryter Later, 'this is the missing link in the Nick Drake story.'

In the privacy of her home, Molly Drake wrote music and poetry, and played her songs for family and friends. With the help of her husband Rodney, she recorded them to tape and direct-to-disk recorders, but they were never published in her own lifetime.

For fans of Nick Drake, Molly Drake reveals an undeniable influence on her son’s celebrated canon. But moreover, these songs present a comprehensive first look at a singular and sophisticated artist in her own right." - Squirrel Thing Recordings

VA - New Orleans Funk Vol. 3: The Original Sound Of Funk - Two-Way-Pock-A-Way, Gumbo Ya-Ya & The Mardi Gras Mambo

Yet another undeniable (and nicely varied) doozy from Soul Jazz, the 18 enclosed cuts ride that uniquely N.O. (second) line between dressed-up and low-down.

"This new instalment of New Orleans Funk features more classic New Orleans funk in all its forms. The syncopated percussion beat of the second line jazz parade bands, the secret language and dances of the Mardi Gras Indians, the mambo and Latin rhythms of Professor Longhair and the city’s many piano players help make New Orleans a unique musical melting pot.

In the 1960s and into the early 1970s add to this the creative powerhouses of Allen Toussaint, The Meters, Eddie Bo and others alongside the famous musical families of the city--the Nevilles, the Marsalises, the Lasties – and we find ourselves at the birthplace of the original sound of funk - New Orleans Funk.

A seemingly endless line of amazing singers - Lee Dorsey, Betty Harris, Willie West, Eldridge Holmes – released a constant stream of stunning 45s, backed by the super-funk Meters and produced by Allen Toussaint. The multi-talented Eddie Bo, similarly wrote and produced for an elite set of artists including The Explosions, Chuck Carbo and others.

But limited local record distribution meant that most of these artists remained unknown outside of the city borders and as a consequence many of these records are serious collectors items today.

WILLIAM ONYEABOR - Who Is William Onyeabor?

While Luaka Bop recently stated that this compilation was five years in the making, it's been more like an eight-and-a-half-year stretch for anyone whose interest was initially piqued by the inclusion of "Better Change Your Mind" on the label's 2005 compilation of West African funk rarities, World Psychedelic Classics, Vol. 3: Love's A Real Thing. While the label's clearly been biding their time, since Who Is William Onyeabor? is still only Vol. 5 (with the Tim Maia anthology Nobody Can Live Forever the only other addition to the slim but immaculately-selected series in the interim), getting to finally hear such strange, synth-lead-laden Afro-disco dancefloor-filling workout warnings as "Atomic Bomb" and "Why Go To War" properly mastered at last has been well worth the wait. 

If Fela Kuti was a child of James Brown, fellow Nigerian William Onyeabor is something like the next-generation musical offspring of Parliament-Funkadelic. His songs are extended call-and-response disco-funk jams driven by the space-age sound of synthesizers and drum machines—very new tools when Onyeabor was recording in the late '70s and '80s, especially in Africa. After years of existing mainly as secret grails passed between electronic music DJs and other crate diggers, Onyeabor's handful of studio LPs have been licensed and boiled down to a killer compilation.

So, who is William Onyeabor? Part of the album's conceit is that even the compilers don't fully know. The liner notes, by veteran British journalist Vivien Goldman, note that Onyeabor is a crowned chief in his hometown village of Enugu, Eastern Nigeria, where he lives in 'a hidden palace in the woods' and is a booster of the local Christian music scene. But he essentially left his own music career in the '80s, in the wake of the recordings collected here, presumably when he became a born-again Christian—indeed, you can hear a moral, preacherly spirit on a lot of the tracks here." - NPR

DAVE VAN RONK - Down In Washington Square: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection

With track-by-track liner notes and selections spanning his entire career (from early live recordings made in 1958 through to his final studio recordings in 2001), Down In Washington Square is a fitting and thorough summation of a key figure in (and mentor to) the Greenwich Village folk/blues revival of the late '50s/early '60s, and the inspiration for the title character of the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis (the T-Bone Burnett-produced soundtrack for which is set to be released next week). On a related note, Van Ronk's autobiography/memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street is a recommended read for anyone looking to learn more about this grizzled growler and fine fingerpicker. 

"[His] large personality is what made Van Ronk a central figure in the '60s Greenwich Village scene and folk song revival, and that influence found its way to fellow folkies like Phil Ochs, Suzanne Vega and Bob Dylan. There's an anecdote in the Dylan documentary No Direction Home that's repeated in the booklet here about how the emerging singer learned his version of 'House of the Rising Son' from Van Ronk, and how Dylan asked Van Ronk if he could record it. Van Ronk said that he'd rather Dylan didn't since he had his own plans to record it soon. The problem was Dylan had already recorded it.

Van Ronk said he had to stop performing it live because people thought he was ripping off Dylan, but eventually they both had to stop after people thought they were ripping off The Animals. 'Rising Sun' is included here, along with a host of other songs that have appeared and reappeared in one version or another in various places by other singers." - American Songwriter

VA - Youths Boogie: Jamaican R&B and the Birth of Ska

Stepping sideways and sailing south from the rock'n'roll/Americana zone of focus we're by now accustomed to from them, the typically multi-disc compilers at Fantastic Voyage set their sights on late-'50s/early'60s Jamaica with this single-CD look at the initial impact of stateside boogie-woogie, doo-wop, jump blues and R&B on the island's then-burgeoning record industry.

"Compiled by specialist black music writer Mike Atherton (Record Collector, Echoes), Youths Boogie portrays the popular music of Jamaica in the period 1959 to 1962, before it became formally known as ska, but by which time most of the characteristics of ska were present and correct, alongside the influences of American R&B. Disc One showcases the productions of Chris Blackwell, a white Jamaican who ran the local R&B and Island labels, before moving his operation to Britain, and Duke Reid, who ran the Trojan sound system, and issued many of his productions on the Duke Reid’s label, before founding the famous Treasure Isle label in the sixties. Disc Two looks at the productions of other individuals like Simeon Smith, Charlie Moo, Dada Tewari, Byron Lee, Roy Robinson, Vincent Chin and the London-based Sonny Roberts, who were all vying to make names for themselves." - Fantastic Voyage

GIORGIO MORODER - Schlagermoroder Volume 1: 1966-1975

Giorgio Moroder has really jumped into public consciousness this year with his participation in Daft Punk's "Giorgio by Moroder," coinciding with a string of reissues. The most surprising one (for some members of our staff) has been Schlagermoroder Volume 1: 1966-1975, as it chronicles Moroder's early career as a bubblegum glam pop performer-songwriter. Moroder's early material has much in common with the Kasenatz-Katz stable of bubblegum bands, and he even netted a UK #1 hit when British glam group Chicory Tip recorded a version of his "Son of My Father" (his original version of the hit is featured in two parts on this compilation).

"Italian disco producer and recent Daft Punk collaborator Giorgio Moroder must have multiple vaults of material just screeching to be heard. Because not only is he uploading hours of rarities on SoundCloud, but he's now releasing a 51-track (!) compilation, cleverly titled  Schlagermoroder Volume 1: 1966-1975.

As the title insists, the release collects Moroder's earlier non-disco and film work, specifically tracks like 'How Much Longer Will I Have to Wait,' 'Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo,' and 'Son of My Father.' If these go over your head, it's probably because most of it was released under the pseudonyms Giorgio, George, and Snoopy—and were released in various languages over several territories." - Consequence of Sound

VA - Eccentric Soul: The Forte Label

Unrelentingly uptempo, this newest volume in Numero's neverending Eccentric Soul stash focuses on Kansas City's soul scene, offering up enough occasional oddness to truly fit the series name (as on Lee Harris' "Lookin' Good," replete with randomly-dropped censor-style beeps not actually censoring anything, or The Rayons' "Baby Be Good," a girl-group number interrupted by the piped-in, poorly recorded spoken sweet-nothings of a male suitor) and some particularly funky half-chorded basslines, as on Tear Drop's "I'm Gonna Get You" and Gene Williams' "Whatever You Do (Do It Good)."

"In 1969, after three years as Soul Sister #1 to James Brown's touring entourage, Marva Whitney came home to Kansas City, putting Ellis Taylor's Forte label back at full fighting strength. She'd calmed aching crowds the day after MLK's death, and she'd lived the life, despite its rigors—to pour out her pain and exuberance on Forte sides including 'I’ve Lived The Life' and 'Daddy Don’t Know About Sugar Bear,' which made national rounds in 1972. By then, Forte had already done more than deliver Marvelous Marva to market.

The Forte Label charts Kansas City yeoman's work, The Carpets and The Derbys, dapper clothiers mysteriously murdered, and marriages made and broken. There's a trove of promo headshots and label scans of every hue detailing all iterations of Forte's logo in print. This is an Eccentric Soul sojourn past vivid floor shakers and lost dance craze records alike—though what moves 'The Hen' required remains anyone’s guess." - Numero Group

GILBERTO GIL - Louvação

Soul Jazz continues its recent run of tip-on, hardshell-case CD reissues of rare mid-to-late '60s Brazilian titles (serving as companion pieces to their 2011 series of compilations Brazil Bossa Beat!, Bossa Jazz, and Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s) with Louvação, an undeniably compelling MPB debut from a man whose music a few of us here were first introduced to via this same label's bestselling 2006 set Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution In Sound.

"This debut 1967 album showed how confident Gil was in his musical inventiveness. As well as the title track, the album includes seminal tracks that have become classics of Brazilian contemporary music. 'Viramundo,' later covered by Sergio Mendes, effortlessly blended the northeastern baiao and xaxado accordion rhythms of Luiz Gonzaga. 'Procissao,' in contrast, took its starting point from the religious processions found in the Afro-Brazilian centre of Salvador. Songs such as 'Roda' instantly became classics of Brazilian popular music. Add to this the lyricism of poets and artists Chico Buarque, Torquato Neto, Capinam, Caetano Veloso, Tom Ze and Gil himself and we are presented with one of the most significant debut albums of Brazilian music from one of the most important artists in Brazil to this day." - Soul Jazz Records

HACKAMORE BRICK - One Kiss Leads To Another

From the streets of Brooklyn came this strongly Velvet Underground-influenced group whose only album unfortunately sank without a trace upon its release in 1970. While recalling the Velvets in their more mellow moments, Hackamore Brick's sound and sensibility also forecast punk pioneers like Jonathan Richman and Television.

"Though Hackamore Brick hailed from the mean streets of New York (as depicted on that striking and hip cover), there’s a beguiling, youthful innocence behind the often-oblique lyrics (that alone differentiates the group from the Velvet Underground!). Darkness lurks around the edges of otherwise-mellow tracks like the album-opening "Reachin'."  [Chick] Newman’s elegiac melody and the ragged harmony vocals contribute to an atmosphere of paranoia...Haunting, spare and atmospheric arrangements color [Tommy] Moonlight’s "Got a Gal Named Wilma," Moonlight and Bob Roman's "Peace Has Come," and Newman's "And I Wonder."  The latter builds to an extended keyboard jam-freakout, and makes it one of the few tracks on One Kiss that seems of its time; others, like "Zip Gun Woman," sound straight out of the CBGB's scene of a few years later." - The Second Disc

HONEY LTD. - The Complete LHI Recordings

Light In The Attic continues to reissue stellar rarities from Lee Hazlewood's LHI label, this time the sole album by late-'60s Detroit girl group Honey Ltd. With angelic vocal harmonies sure to satisfy sunshine pop lovers, their version of "Louie Louie," arranged by the legendary Jack Nitzsche, must be heard to be believed.

"The band came together in Detroit in the mid-'60s when friends Laura Polkinghorne and Marsha Jo Temmer met sisters Alex and Joan Sliwin at Wayne State University. The four started singing together–mainly covers of the Motown hits being churned out of their hometown–and by 1967 had formed a group that producer Punch Andrews named the Mama Cats. That summer, as riots were sweeping the States, they spent two weeks in LA and loved it so much that in January of 1968, they pooled resources and moved there to try their luck as a band. They slept on Temmer's grandmother's floor and hitchhiked, stoned, to their audition with Hazlewood at 9,000 Sunset Blvd.

He was taken with them immediately and gave them a manager, a name and a recording contract on the spot. For a year or so, they were on the edge of superstardom." - The Guardian

SARAH SISKIND - Covered

Justin Vernon's Chigliak imprint chugs along at an appreciably leisurely release pace with only its second reissue title to date, one that clearly made quite an impression on Vernon when he first heard it, and with good reason, as Sarah Siskind's debut is one of the most intruiging roots-tinged pop/singer-songwriter records we've heard in some time.

"Although it was initially intended as a national release, then 22-year-old Sarah Siskind's 2003 debut album, Covered, produced by Tucker Martine and featuring contributions from guitarist Bill Frisell and the Story's Jennifer Kimball, was eventually released independently that same year when Siskind became suddenly ill and was unable to tour widely and support the album. Several surgeries later, Siskind got her career back on track, but, Covered, although it was a strikingly unique album, has never quite gotten the attention it should have. Sparse, unhurried, and atmospheric, helped immeasurably by Frisell's exact and appropriate guitar playing and centered around Siskind's subtle, literate, and often haunting songs, the album doesn't seem to belong to any era, which gives it a kind of patient power now ten years later...Ten years on, Covered is still an impressive and coherent debut, with songs that fit together like patches in a patchwork quilt, each gathering strength from the others." - Allmusic

VA - Theo Parrish's Black Jazz Signature: Black Jazz Records 1971-1975

Check out Sound Signature label head, unofficial ambassador of Detroit's long-fertile electronic music culture, and endearingly outspoken re-editor, DJ and producer Theo Parrish's mix commission for Snow Dog's ongoing CD reissues of the entire Black Jazz catalog, now featured in our listening post (and specially priced for a limited time)!

"Parrish, as would be expected, takes a low-key, backseat approach to mixing the tracks he loves; no Flying Lotus pastiches or potentially disrespectful attempts at taming grooves into linear house form. Instead, simple, quick transitions and deft choices keep the recordings entirely at the fore. The selections are astounding and the energy insistent from beginning to end. The majority of the pieces chosen by Parrish are hugely amorphous, the by-then elastic forms of the most adventurous modern jazz electrified into further flexibility. Black Jazz Signature captures a sheer flood of music, parts crashing and reforming around each other as they break away, jut out, drop back, or lace themselves around others." - FACT

"To get Parrish to do the mix, Snow Dog Records—a Japanese label that does licensed reissues and mixes of the BJR catalogue—sent a package of hard-to-find LPs to a PO box in Detroit. Some time later, Parrish sent back a few different versions of his mix, all of which sounded quite different—some more challenging, others more serene. The one that made the cut is somewhere in the middle: the whole thing is bright and upbeat, but a frantic, dissonant energy occasionally creeps in." - Resident Advisor

THE CLEAN - Vehicle

If you've been following the shop through the years, you'll no doubt know we're huge fans of The Clean, so it's great to see a reissue of their debut album from 1990. True, much of this material has been available on the excellent career overview Anthology, but it's still worth hearing it in its original context. As a bonus, there are five live versions of classic singles from the early '80s.

"The songs on Vehicle hold their own. Instead of the rough and ready four-track recordings that marked their early singles and EPs, Vehicle sounds very much like a studio creation, though the fuller sound didn’t harm the performances. Part of the pleasure lies in hearing how each of the band members is so distinct, creating the type of collaboration where the individual parts’ strength meshes rather than trying to outstrip another. The singing from all three is a core part of The Clean's appeal, the back-and-forth between Scott’s affable but never cloying voice and the Kilgours' slightly gentler but no less engaging approach. Leads are almost always matched by harmonies, and the feeling throughout Vehicle is one of continuity." - Pitchfork

VA - The South Side Of Soul Street: The Minaret Soul Singles 1967-1976

This excellent soul compilation could very well have been titled The Story of Big John Hamilton, as his tunes make up exactly half of the forty tracks here, including his deep soul classics "I Have No One" and "How Much Can A Man Take." We were playing this in the shop the other night, and Big John was mistaken for Otis Redding: he's that good! In addition to Big John, there are twenty more tracks of top-notch southern soul, including the classic "A Shell Of A Woman" by Doris Allen.

"Having explored the West Coast with the three-volume Music City Sessions, Omnivore Recordings has set its sights on Southern R&B with The South Side Of Soul Street: The Minaret Soul Singles 1967-1976. This 2CD 40-track collection gathers all of the As and Bs of Minaret's soulful sides for the very first time. Many of these tracks have been out of print for decades, commanding top dollar on the collector’s market.

For decades, Memphis and Muscle Shoals have been praised to the skies as premier Southern soul recording capitals, and rightly so. But any comprehensive list of important R&B studio destinations should also include Valparaiso, located on Florida's Panhandle, not far from the Alabama state line. That's where Finley Duncan established Playground Recording Studio in 1969, producing a series of stunning singles for his Minaret Records label that inexplicably avoided the charts but stand treetop-tall with a legion of R&B aficionados.” - Omnivore Recordings

MICHAEL FENNELLY - Love Can Change Everything: Demos 1967-1972

As also recently occurred in the case of Drag City's Chris Darrow reissue at the beginning of this year, here's another instance of overdue solo exposure for an underappreciated late-'60s/early-'70s Californian singer-songwriter.

"Hollywood’s Sunset Strip was fertile breeding ground for folk-rock songwriters on the make during the mid-'60s. One of these kids with an acoustic guitar jumped right into a historically important album project within weeks of his arrival. Michael Fennelly quickly became one-seventh of The Millennium, who produced Begin, a lush audio carpetorium of an album that found a cult audience upon its reissue thirty years later. After the Millennium shattered, Fennelly jumped directly into his next effort, the power-pop legends Crabby Appleton. Love Can Change Everything: Demos 1967-1972 charts the development of Fennelly as a songwriter. Starting with his earliest demos produced during the Millennium era and closing with stripped-down renditions of his Crabby Appleton songs, Love Can Change Everything makes the argument for Fennelly as a power-pop legend." - Sundazed

DARK - Dark Round The Edges

Proto-metal, psych-prog, private-press: if any of these plosive descriptors lead your pleasure center to light up in anticipation, then pay attention to upstart label Machu Piccu's second reissue, an English group whose lone album was originally issued in 1972 in a run of only 50-odd copies (but could have just as easily come out via the esteemed likes of Vertigo)!

"Axeman Martin Weaver from Wicked Lady joined up with the Dark right before this was recorded, so that’s his fuzz you’re hearing, which should give you some indication of what this sounds like. A more sophisticated, proggier Wicked Lady perhaps, a Wicked Lady with more in the way of 'songs' rather than freakout jams, though this gets bluesy/jammy at times too." - Roadburn

"To be sure, other groups may have taken the formulas further or assembled a heavier, freer slab of psychedelic boogie, but concision and melody count for a lot in the lysergic world that Dark inhabited. Although Dark disbanded soon after the LP was published, cultish interest inspired a brief and well-received reunion in 1996. More than four decades after their lone LP was waxed, Dark Round the Edges deserves to be visited anew." - Tiny Mix Tapes

JAMES GOVAN - Wanted: The Fame Recordings

The FAME vaults keep producing riches, this time in the form of a compilation from the previously little-known James Govan. The title track "Wanted" appeared on the excellent 3-disc boxset FAME Studios Story 1961-1967, but it's quite a revelation to hear his soulful versions of The Beatles' "Something" and The Band's "I Shall Be Released". Last Saturday night, we put this on in the shop and by the end, four copies had flown out the door (our very own High Fidelity moment).

"The Mississippi-born, Memphis-raised singer has long been something of a mystery. Sometimes known as Little Otis due to his vocal similarity to the great Mr Redding, he has for over 20 years played at the Rumboogie Café in Memphis, but before that his career was low key and extremely sporadic...His 1969 sessions for the company produced 11 songs, among them the George Jackson compositions ‘I Bit Off More Than I Can Chew’ and ‘Your Love Lifted Me’ and wonderful versions of Fame standards ‘You Left The Water Running’ and ‘Take Me Just As I Am’. This is fine southern soul from the label’s greatest period. If James’ career had taken off, the tracks would have made a classic album. Instead they got left in the can." - Ace Records

sissippi-born, Memphis-raised singer has long been something of a mystery. Sometimes known as Little Otis due to his vocal similarity to the great Mr Redding, he has for over 20 years played at the Rumboogie Café in Memphis, but before that his career was low key and extremely sporadic. - See more at: http://acerecords.co.uk/wanted-the-fame-recordings#sthash.OJUUfDi2.dpuf

The Mississippi-born, Memphis-raised singer has long been something of a mystery. Sometimes known as Little Otis due to his vocal similarity to the great Mr Redding, he has for over 20 years played at the Rumboogie Café in Memphis, but before that his career was low key and extremely sporadic. - See more at: http://acerecords.co.uk/wanted-the-fame-recordings#sthash.OJUUfDi2.dpuf

RÖYKSOPP - Late Night Tales

One of the most consistent cross-genre artist-curated mix series keeps its batting average mighty high with this installment from Norway's Röyksopp; we'd especially recommend this bespoke blend of mainly '70s/'80s soft rock, electronic ambience and subtly strange slow jams to anyone who picked up earlier volumes by Air and Lindstrøm, as well as Groove Armada's recent Music For Pleasure entry.

"Röyksopp's selections generally live somewhere in a late-1970s/early-'80s setting. The most compelling include Tuxedomoon's 'In a Manner of Speaking,' a showcase for part-time member Winston Tong's portrayal of romantic miscommunication over a stark arrangement of nervous guitar and distant swirls; Vangelis' "Blade Runner Blues," a pure synthesizer realization of the late-night and disconnected melancholy of Blade Runner that steers clear of the pounding doom of its end theme, and F. R. David's remarkable synth ballad 'Music,' which sounds like a Eurovision winner with all heart and inspiraiton and no irony, even 30 years after it was originally written.

There are also choices that merrily trash received ideas of coolness, like 'Stranger on the Shore,' Acker Bilk’s clarinet-lined Easy Listening smash from the early 60s, which is a kind of outlier from the midcentury that nails both big-band jazz and romantic film music. Ready to be reclaimed by the cassette/chillwave generation, Andreas Vollenweider's 1981 track 'Hands and Clouds' is a brief bit of swirling delicacy that sounds like a lost track from the high point of West Coast radio stations like The Wave. Meanwhile, the neo-classical impulses of acts like Johann Johannsson, whose composition of strings and deep electronic bass plus voice of “Odi Et Amo” features here, showcase a further connection at work." - Pitchfork