(photo by HiCe)
A new day, new arrivals — nothing as awesome as yesterday’s haul, but still a few choice finds:
Various Artists, Soulful Gospel Groups Vol. 3: I don’t know where this came from, or much about the artists on it, but if you can sample track 7 and not want to download the other 17 songs, it is possible you are not a human being. You are, instead, some kind of robot. A big, deaf robot. The appearance of this one makes me hopeful Volumes 1 & 2 will follow.
Various Artists, Rare Boston Soul: Related! I can find next-to-nothing online about this label, but I hope the stream of releases continues. This one seems to be a bit mellower than the one above, focusing largely on vocal groups of the Quiet Storm variety. I remember a few years ago we got the Funkadelphia label, and I got way excited, and then they ran out of releases. Here’s looking forward to repeating that arc.
The Brothers of Soul, I Guess That Don’t Make Me A Loser: And while we’re at it — this is also gorgeous and stirring, some great vocal R&B, a bit on the quieter side, but magnificent nonetheless. Check the first song.
Pink Martini catalog. A lot of people like these guys.
Basic Channel, BCD 2: Follow-up to the beloved BCD, more electronic hits from Basic Channel. I lack the vocabulary to properly write about this.
Dead Heart Bloom, Fall In: This was one of my happiest discoveries of last year. I don’t like this quite as much as their incredible Chelsea Diaries album, which has yet to show up here, but Fall In finds the group blending sluggish, shoegaze guitars with molasses rhythms sure to please fans of waterlogged, narcoleptic rock & roll. And yes, that is a compliment.
Alton Ellis, Workin’ on a Groovy Thing (Live): A live recording from the late, great Alton Ellis. No idea what year this is from, but this album finds him strolling through the same set he’d been performing for around 30 years before his death. The band is a little, um, cheesy, but Alton is still a master singer. Perhaps we’ll all get lucky and Alton’s superior Silver Jubilee album will show up here soon.
Various Artists, Best Seven Selections: Another reggae record, this one a Yancey discovery. Some of the vocals are a teeny bit too pro for me, but this is still an extremely solid comp.
Various Artists, Guilt By Association Vol. 2: Another volume of indie rockers covering pop songs. Comes as perhaps no surprise whatsoever that the best song on here by a mile is Frightened Rabbit’s heartbreaking cover of British dance band N-Trance’s “Set You Free.” I get weird about compilations like this — I like the original versions of most of these songs, so I don’t necessarily need to hear Kaki King’s take on a pretty magnificent Justin Timberlake song, no matter how much I may like Kaki King. And I definitely don’t need to hear Matt Pond PA destroying a perfectly good My Chemical Romance song. But, you know, there are some bright spots.
Also, I mostly just wanted to point out this cover.
ACK MATT POND PA
I’ve been waiting for the Basic Channel release – I downloaded the first one a while back and it has steadily grown on me. Good review from pitchfork too (9.1):
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/142860-basic-channel-bcd-2
And since you bring up unheard of soul and gospel artists, has anyone found any further information on Famous L. Renfroe? I love that album but am still curious as to the origins.
how is bcd2 not as awesome as anything yesterday? pretty important for it’s genre. i too have been waiting on that for a while. good day!
can i ask a metal-related question though? is there any chance at all of nachtmystium’s assassins showing up here? you’ve got a bunch of century media stuff…
The new The Constantines came in, but I’m not sure I’m liking it as much as their last album.
http://www.emusic.com/album/Our-Age-Fuckin-Up-Our-Age-Fuckin-Up-MP3-Download/11325141.html
And for anyone who likes indie/alt-country as much as I do you might want to check out
She Swings, She Sways
http://www.emusic.com/artist/She-Swings-MP3-Download/12101896.html
I admit on the She Swings I skipped track 2, 7, and 10. I cannot abide the steal guitar. I just can’t.
Argh! I’ll have to wait ANOTHER month for that Basic Channel. Would you believe I checked for it yesterday before using up all my dls!
hey jrn – lemme check. there are a bunch of nachtmystium titles we’re missing. I feel like we used to have more than we currently do.
Another highlight track IMHO on the Guilt By Association 2 is the Max Vernon cover of that damn Katy Perry “I Kissed a Girl.” The piano work is incredible, but the clever twist of NOT changing the pronouns turns it into a whole different beast.
Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!
Only in the world of independent metal could you name your band this: “Anal Vomit “
I tried yesterday to go through all the Metalhit releases and unearth the picks but there are just too many albums… I may try over the weekend. There is some real gold in there, mixed in with a whole lot of…not gold.
pc8ya joe!
I listened to that original My Chemical Romance song, I cut the music very quickly, I prefer a million times the Matt Pond version.
quick comment on metalhit: the Jumalhamara EP, Slaughter the Messenger, is easily one of the best metal releases of the year. i’m really happy it turned up, and i strongly encourage folks to spend three dls on it, you won’t be sorry. aside from that…i have the grim task of wading through the millions of Striborg records that turned up.
Awesome. I will definitely grab this. That’s what’s so frustrating about Metalhit — some of the stuff is absolutely extraordinary, while some of the rest of is is…less so. I guess I know what I’ll be doing over Thanksgiving break.