THE NOTATIONS - Still Here 1967-1973

"From the dawn of doo-wop to the death of disco, the Notations saw—and sang—it all. Persisting through changing trends and technologies, on major labels and minor ones, produced by both Syl Johnson and Curtis Mayfield, nothing could stop the Notations from representing Chicago's Southside for decades. The first overview of their indie label golden age, Still Here 1967–1973 finds the Notations at a musical crossroads, turning from simmering R&B ballads to socially-conscious soul." - Numero Group

THE STAPLE SINGERS - Freedom Highway Complete: Recorded Live at Chicago's New Nazareth Church

"By April 9, 1965, as the Staple Singers set up at the New Nazareth Church in Chicago to record the album that would become Freedom Highway, the group had moved far afield of its original gospel roots. Galvanized by the emerging Civil Rights movement, Roebuck 'Pops' Staples and family had offered a series of stirring protest songs like 'March Up Freedom's Highway,' 'Why? (Am I Treated So Bad),' and 'Washington Is A Long Walk To D.C.'—moments that helped frame the era.

But, as Sony Legacy's Freedom Highway Complete makes viscerally clear, the Staple Singers could still rattle the back pews.

Formerly constrained by the physical limitations of a 12-inch vinyl LP, the Staple Singers' performance—recorded in glorious mono by Billy Sherrill—is now available in its entirety. A highlight of this reissue's never-before-heard material is 'Jesus Is All,' which begins like a field holler before gaining steady, hand-clapping momentum, finally emerging as a jubilant paean to the sturdy faith needed to persevere through the toughest of times." - Something Else Reviews

MATTHEW E. WHITE - Fresh Blood

"On 'Rock & Roll Is Cold,' the second track on Matthew E. White's second album, the 32-year-old Virginian takes a rare break from essaying love in its many various forms to get a little meta, singing about music itself. Off-mic, some cynical cur boasts that he's figured out how to fake it in gospel, soul and R&B. White rolls his eyes, pitying the fool. 'Everybody sees that R&B is free,' he whispers, incredulously. 'Gospel licks,' he adds, 'ain't got no tricks.'

White, by contrast, is no faker, and has got no tricks, evading the valley of slavish copyists by locating his own idiosyncratic dialect within the larger lexicon of soul. The house band at his Spacebomb studio robes his songs with strings, horns, Fender Rhodes, the sort of rich instrumentation that evokes soul at its plushest, but White’s vocals–dry, understated, deadpan–are something else, and the friction between those styles lends Fresh Blood a frisson. His lyrics, meanwhile, are more Bill Callahan than Bill Withers: dark, blackly humorous, mischievous and erotic." - MOJO

KIM GORDON: Girl In A Band

"For 30 years, the band Sonic Youth had, as its core, two main vocalists: Thurston Moore on guitar, and Kim Gordon on bass. They were indie rock's power couple—a shining example of love and loyalty in maybe the environment least conducive to marital bliss. Sonic Youth ended in 2011, with their divorce. Now, Gordon has written a new memoir, Girl In A Band, about her marriage, her music and the origins—and the end—of Sonic Youth." - NPR

"It is in its uncrated reports of what she’s always seen but never said, where Gordon allows herself the grace of believing her own intuition, that Girl In A Band becomes a triumph and a manual for owning one’s pain, sensitivity, cruelness, self-consciousness and instinct. Gordon’s heartbreak and insecurities (about her singing voice, for example) are as prevalent as her notable confidence and ferocity." - National Post

ANDY SHAUF - The Bearer Of Bad News

"It's taken two years for Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf's The Bearer of Bad News to reach the States, but now we can finally hear why this Saskatchewan crooner is being hailed. Without a doubt, Shauf's folk is the kind of lush, contemplative songwriting that makes you pause." - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

"Recorded in his basement in Regina, Saskatchewan over the course of two years and written over four, The Bearer Of Bad News has the deep, refined feeling of being worked on, but not overworked. The 11 tracks here are decidedly rustic at heart, with a hushed, spartan feeling akin to early Elliott Smith albums, an acknowledged influence. The vision is singular, with Shauf supplying all the vocals and instrumentation save for drums on one track. Shauf's brand of Canadiana is rooted in folk music, but the sophistication of his arrangements reveals a keen pop sensibility that saves it from wallowing too deeply in the sepia-toned doldrums." - All Music

VA - Studio One Jump-Up - The Birth Of A Sound: Jump-Up Jamaican R&B

"Here you will find the roots of Studio One's unique sound, from the first jump-up, boogie-woogie and shuffle recordings made in Jamaica in the late 1950s, as the artists emulated their American rhythm and blues idols—Louis Jordan, Roscoe Gordon, Fats Domino—through to the early Rastafari rhythms of Count Ossie, the righteous Baptist beat of Toots and the Maytals up to the joyous excitement of Ska with tracks by Studio One's young protégés Bob Marley and The Wailers and the all-mighty Skatalites." - Soul Jazz Records

ATA KAK - Obaa Sima

"Ata Kak Yaw Atta-Owusu was born in 1960 in Kumasi. He moved to Toronto in 1989, where he played in a band called Marijata (not to be confused with the '70s band of the same name). They released three albums, which allowed Yaw the opportunity to refine his skills in music, and eventually encouraged him to strike out on his own. By 1991, he began to record his own songs using the software Notator Atari, a synthesizer, and a secondhand 12-track recorder. In 1994, he released fifty copies of his work on tape (manufactured in Ghana to reduce costs). He sold three.

In 2002, during a trip to Cape Coast, [Awesome Tapes From Africa's] Brian Shimkovitz came upon one of those very cassettes in a city market. Fascinated by this condensed chunk of African hip-house, the discovery led him to dig this rich, hitherto unexplored scene unexplored, which led to the blog and then his label. And it was that tape, one of the only existing copies of the album, which is the basis for the new remastered edition of Obaa Sima." - Noisey/VICE

MICHAEL CHAPMAN - Window

"Every artist has a piece of work that niggles them—something that they wish they could redo, given the chance. It’s why Paul McCartney once reproduced Let It Be and why Kate Bush re-recorded Wuthering Heights for her best-of album. For the prolific Michael Chapman, that album is Window, the missing link in the series of Chapman’s early albums being reissued by Light In The Attic. Window sits just after the previously released Fully Qualified Survivor and Rainmaker, and right before Wrecked Again.

The singer-songwriter and prodigious guitarist was in transition from his folkier origins to his heavier future and heading for a whole mess of trouble with the same year's Wrecked Again. Given the touring bust-ups and tortured recording sessions to come, Michael's wife Andru Chapman remembers the recording of Window was noted for a 'lack of hiccups. No one threw their toys out of the pram, unlike Wrecked Again.' Recorded with U.S. guitar player Phil Greenberg, violin player Johnny Van Derek, and pianist Alex Atterson, the album has a blend of electric and acoustic instruments, both traditional and experimental at once, synthetic sounds melding with finger-picked guitars." - Light In The Attic

VA - Punk 45: Burn Rubber City Burn! Akron, Ohio: Punk and the Decline of the Mid-West 1975-80 / Extermination Nights In The Sixth City - Cleveland, Ohio: Punk and the Decline of the Mid-West 1975-82

"Burn, Rubber City Burn! charts the rise of the music scene in Akron, Ohio at a time when the city and the rubber industry it was associated with was in deep decline, featuring a fantastic collection of Akron groups including Devo, The Bizarros, Rubber City Rebels, Jane Aire, Chi-Pig, The Waitresses and more.

Extermination Nights In The Sixth City charts the rise of underground punk in Cleveland, Ohio, which for many people is the true birthplace of punk music in the mid-1970s, featuring a fantastic collection of punk 45 singles from Cleveland groups including Pere Ubu, electric eels, The Pagans, Rockets From The Tomb, Mirrors, X–X and more." - Soul Jazz Records

JON HOPKINS - LateNightTales

"LateNightTales welcomes UK producer and musician Jon Hopkins to the fold with a beautiful sequence of songs and music, a requiem for a dreamstate. It's possibly somewhere between heaven, hell and high water, down the Thames Delta towards Eden. It may involve techno and a distorted state, or simply mates sat listening to music together, drifting on the open sea of their minds. This is Jon Hopkins' world, not so much joining the dots as colouring the whole damn picture in.

'Putting this album together was a unique opportunity for me to present music that I have been listening to for years, free from the constraints of a club setting or from trying to stick to one genre. I chose tracks not just because they have been important to me but because of how they sit together, putting as much thought into the transitions and overall narrative as I did into the track choices. I mixed by key and by texture more than anything else, using original sound design, pivot notes, and often recording new synth or piano parts to link things together in a way that flows as naturally as possible. I hope you enjoy it.' -J. H." - LateNightTales

UNIVERSAL TOGETHERNESS BAND - S/T

"Between 1979 and 1982, The Universal Togetherness Band tracked unearthly portions of their sprawling songbook for bewildered students in Columbia College’s audio engineering program. Storming the gates of Chicago’s premier recording studios, the erudite party band explored permutations of soul, jazz-fusion, new wave, and disco with little regard for studio rates or the availability of magnetic tape.

Universal Togetherness Band captures the brightest, never-before-heard moments from this visionary group’s 5-semester recording bender." - Numero Group

TRAVIS BRETZER - Waxing Romantic

"Like so many before him, Travis Bretzer has honed his pop skills writing jingles for his local radio station. This fact will surprise no one who has the opportunity to soak in Bretzer's effortless, melodic guitar-pop. With this experience in commercial music and the success of fellow Edmonton, Alberta native Mac DeMarco informing the sonic shape of his tunes, Bretzer has crafted a smooth, lush collection of pop songs for his debut LP, Waxing Romantic.

Recorded in the spacious environment of Gary's Electric Studio in Brooklyn, Bretzer assembled a crack-team of musical cronies to help him realize his vision. With production from Jorge Elbrecht of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and contributions from James Richardson of MGMT and Regal Degal's Josh da Costa, Waxing Romantic is certainly not lacking in seasoned, acclaimed talent." - The 405

ERIC CHENAUX - Skullsplitter

"Eric Chenaux has emerged as one of the most distinctive, innovative and original voices in what might be called avant-garde balladry, juxtaposing his gorgeously pure and open singing against a guitar sound and style that truly stands alone. Skullsplitter is the impressive new album that confirms Chenaux's singular aesthetic: genuine, natural, unaffected vocals gliding through slow, smoky melodies while electric and nylon-string guitars are deployed with adventurously experimental, dextrous, semi-improvisational technique and texture.

Skullsplitter stands as a welcome and natural evolution from Chenaux's previous song-based album Guitar & Voice (2012), his first properly solo record for Constellation (i.e. made without guest musicians or collaborators), which was widely celebrated as his best work to date, championed by The Wire, Said The Gramophone, Stereophile and others for its unique sensibility and sensitivity. Skullsplitter builds on these strengths and similarly consists solely of Chenaux's voice and guitar." - Constellation

VA - Rhythm 'n' Bluesin' By The Bayou: Mad Dogs, Sweet Daddies & Pretty Babies

"On this tenth volume in the By The Bayou series, the third to focus on R&B, we have 28 tracks from the vaults of J.D. Miller's Crowley studio, Eddie Shuler's Goldband facility, Floyd Soileau's Rod label, Sam Montel's Montel label and Golen Richard's Richland imprint, all from South Louisiana.

The majority of the material comes from that goldmine on North Parkerson Ave in Crowley, where the music store founded by J.D. Miller is now operated by his youngest son Mark. The ceilings and walls are hung with guitars and the floor space is taken up with amplifiers and speakers. The counters and stands are festooned with guitar strings, picks, cords, cables, plugs and all manner of paraphernalia for the professional musician. In one corner is a dwindling number of CDs, which are difficult for a small-town store to sell in competition with outlets such as Amazon, even if much of the material was recorded right here. Behind the store area, hidden from view, is a large working studio where Mark, a bass player, sound engineer and producer record local talent. Most important to us is another part of the building – the tape store, where Alec Palao and I have sifted through the reels, and Alec has transferred close on 3,000 tracks, including 22 of the titles on this CD, eight of which are previously unissued." - Ace Records

OS BRAZOES - S/T (1969)

"Rare and highly sought after in its original format, Os Brazoes' self-titled album was originally released on RGE Discos in 1969, a psychedelic masterpiece that fuses samba, R&B and rock'n'roll influences using fuzz guitars, synths, percussion, lush vocals and effects." - Mr. Bongo

"The group first made a name for itself as Gal Costa’s backing band, yet allegedly never recorded alongside her. After seeing the electrifying shows put on by the group, the RGE label soon signed the group to record a single album. Though the influences of Os Mutantes and other tropicália artists of the time are present, what is laid to tape sounds nothing like the group’s contemporaries. The gloss of lush horns and complex arrangements found on Veloso and Gil records from the same era is missing. Found in its place is a wall of fuzz spread across the majority of the songs provided by, simply, Roberto. Layered within is wah-wah-drenched rhythm guitar by Miguel, who later adopted the moniker Miguel de Deus, recording one solo album titled Black Soul Brothers and another as a member of Assim Assado." - Wax Poetics

BUNNY LION - Red

"Recently unearthed and available for the first time in decades, Bunny Lion's Red is the perfect gateway record for anyone curious about dub, roots reggae, or dancehall. A mysterious deejay LP, Red was originally released on London’s Starlight records in 1979. Little was written about the album at the time; however, we have uncovered that Bunny Lion is in fact the legendary Puddy Roots of Killamanjaro Soundsystem fame. The album is pressed on red vinyl and both versions include liners with unreleased photos and interviews with Puddy Lion and Linval Thompson." - Captured Tracks

JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA - A Year With 13 Moons

"This isn't the first time that drum machines turn up in Cantu-Ledesma's music, but they're foregrounded here as never before. That very specific combination of elements—the ringing guitar tones and flat, dry, electronic thwacks—will inevitably suggest comparisons with Durutti Column; Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd's The Moon and the Melodies is another reference point, though Cantu-Ledesma's waterlogged-tape timbres and power-sander effects give the album its own specific mood and feel...If 13 Moons were a sculpture, it would be an abalone shell crusted with battery acid; it would be a broken, bleeding heart ensconced in a burnt-out amplifier. Ultimately, it's hard to decide if this is the year's most fucked up ambient album, or its most bucolic noise record." - Pitchfork

JIMMY HOLIDAY - Spread Your Love: The Complete Minit Singles 1966-1970

"Jimmy Holiday is probably best known as the co-writer of 'Put A Little Love In Your Heart,' 'All I Ever Need Is You' and a handful of other hit songs, including several for his friend and mentor, Ray Charles. But to connoisseurs of '60s soul, he is regarded as a singer of no small talent, with an individual style that made the release of each new single an important event.

This Kent compilation shines the spotlight on the recordings Jimmy made for Minit in the second half of the 1960s, a period in which he was at his peak as a vocalist and songwriter, working with some of the best musicians and producers of the era, and enjoying a hit or two along the way. Those sides mark him as a man who should have been a big star. He might well have become one, but for a busy schedule writing for others and health problems that led to his death at the age of just 54." - Ace Records

VA - Ciao Bella! Italian Girl Singers Of The 1960s

"Connoisseurs of 1960s girl-pop have been well served in the CD era, particularly those with a preference for American or British singers. Good music, of course, is not exclusive to the English-speaking world, and collections devoted to the female vocalists of France, Japan, Spain and Germany are also available, but to the best of my knowledge their Italian counterparts have not been anthologised. If Ciao Bella! (released as a 24-track CD or 12-track LP) is the first of its kind, let’s hope it’s not the last. In a country known for its song festivals, most notably the prestigious event held annually in Sanremo, lushly orchestrated ballads have always been especially popular, and a few exceptional examples are featured here. Ciao Bella! opens, however, with a selection of uptempo titles." - Ace Records

BOB DYLAN - Shadows In The Night

"Bob Dylan sings Sinatra? It shouldn't work, but Shadows In The Night is quite gorgeous, the sound of an old man picking over memories, lost loves, regrets and triumphs amid an ambient tumble of haunting electric instrumentation. It is spooky, bittersweet, mesmerisingly moving and showcases the best singing from Dylan in 25 years.

The very concept seems outrageous, which is perhaps why Dylan’s management have been at pains to insist it is not a Sinatra tribute.

As much as I love Dylan, recent albums have suggested his barking, growling voice was shot beyond repair. but here his singing is delicate, tender and precise. There is age in the notes, for sure, a wobble and croak as he tackles chords from unusual angles, and falls away with fading breath. Yet somehow this ancient croon focuses the songs, compelling listeners to address their interior world in a way glissando prettiness might disguise.

It is perfectly set in simple yet inspired arrangements for a five-piece band, replacing the usual nostalgic orchestras with weeping pedal steel guitars, gently sawed double bass, a swell of horns and the lightest hint of brushed hi-hats." - The Independent