SCOUTLOOK

AFX: Orphaned Deejay Selek 2006-2008 (Warp) For the first time since the Analord series released through 2003-2005 on his own Rephlex Records imprint, Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin revises his legendary AFX guise with an 8-track collection of tracks for the alien dancefloor. Orphaned Deejay Selek 2006-2008 appears on an initial run of special spot-glossed and die-cut packaged 12" vinyl LPs made in the Designers Republic. Previous AFX releases include Analogue Bubblebath (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Smojphace and Hangable Auto Bulb. Hangable Auto Bulb is the only previous standalone AFX release on Warp, originally released on 2 x 12”s and compiled to CD with new artwork in 2005. Listen here.

Badbadnotgood & Ghostface Killah: Sour Soul (Instrumentals) Sought after instrumentals for the critically acclaimed album Sour Soul by Toronto jazz/hip-hop band BADBADNOTGOOD and Staten Island rap champ Ghostface Killah. Inspired by 1960s and ‘70s music and taking inspiration from the recording techniques and production of that era, they embrace live instrumentation and zero sampling. BBNG with producer Frank Dukes created a dramatic, cinematic musical staging for Ghostface’s vivid storytelling and this is the first and only time the instrumentals will be available as a standalone album. Limited 12" vinyl pressing with recycled board sleeve. Listen here.

David Bowie: Five Years (1969-1973) (Warner Bros.) This 10 album/13-piece 180g vinyl set is the first in a series of box sets spanning David Bowie’s career and features all of the material officially released during the nascent stage of his career from 1969 to 1973 including: David Bowie AKA Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane, PinUps, Live Santa Monica ‘72 and Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture Soundtrack. Exclusive to the box sets will be Re:Call 1, a new 2-disc compilation of non-album singles, single versions and b-sides. It features a previously unreleased single edit of “All The Madmen,” which was originally set for a U.S. release but was never actually released. Also included is the original version of “Holy Holy,” which was only ever released on the original 1971 Mercury single and hasn’t been available on any release since. Also exclusive to all versions of Five Years 1969–1973 will be a 2003 stereo remix of The Rise and Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars by the album’s original co-producer Ken Scott, previously only available on DVD with the LP/DVD format of the 40th anniversary edition of the album. The box set’s accompanying 84 page book will feature rarely seen photos as well as technical notes about each album from producers Tony Visconti and Ken Scott, an original press review for each album and a short foreword by legendary Kinks front man Ray Davies. Listen here, man.

Gary Clark Jr.: The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim (Warner Bros.) Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and virtuoso guitarist Gary Clark Jr. will release his second full-length studio album, entitled The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, in September 2015 via Warner Bros. Records. The album is the uncanny evolution of an artist embracing his roots with a rarified grace, style, and an inextinguishable passion which reflects his vision as a songwriter, groove master, and the vocal force of nature he has become, while his guitar virtuosity already speaks (quite voluminously) for itself. Listen here.

Lana Del Rey: Honeymoon (Interscope) Throwback singer/songwriter Lana Del Rey’s new Interscope/Polydor album Honeymoon follows up 2014’s million-seller Ultraviolence and features more signature dreamy pop collaborations with producers like Mark Ronson, Daniel Heath, Rick Nowels, Emile Haynie and Justin Parker. The highly anticipated 14-track set from pop’s newest femme fatale is preceded by the cinematic singles “High by the Beach” and “Terrance Loves You.” Del Rey tells Billboard: “It’s very different from the last one and similar to the first two…I’m kind of enjoying sinking into this more noirish feel for this one…I’m doing a cover of ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.’ After doing a cover of ‘The Other Woman’ [the song by R&B writer Jessie Mae Robinson that Del Rey recorded on ‘Ultraviolence’], I like summarizing the record with a jazz song…” Listen here.

Duke Ellington: The Conny Plank Session (Groenland) Germany’s Grönland label has put together an album of unreleased Duke Ellington recordings from a session with producer and sound engineer Conny Plank (Cluster, Kraftwerk, Neu!, Guru Guru). (Cluster, Kraftwerk, Neu!, Guru Guru). Made at Cologne’s Rhenus Studio in 1970, the album features three takes each of the tracks “Alerado” and “Afrique”. Ellington and Plank developed a mutual respect during their brief collaboration, according to Grönland. “The likelihood of finding a good, unreleased Duke Ellington recording is slight at best,” says the German musician and critic Henrik von Holtum. “When Grönland Records called me and told me they had found exactly that in Conny Plank’s estate and asked me if I wanted to give it a listen, I felt pretty honoured and excited.” Listen here.

Girl Band: Holding Hands With Jamie (Rough Trade) 'Holding Hands with Jamie,’ Girl Band’s debut album, comes a few years into their tenure; a few years after their first tour; nine days crammed into a Fiat Panda; a few years of stamping 7” sleeves to sell at merch tables and mail-order; a few years of writing songs and touring and developing a live ferocity unmatched by nearly anyone.  Recorded in April 2015, two days after returning home from their first-ever US tour, the nine tracks making up 'Holding Hands with Jamie’ capture, more than any previous recordings, the tension and abrasive energy of a Girl Band performance. Listen here.

Guilty Simpson: Detroit’s Son (Stone’s Throw) Guilty Simpson may have worked with hip-hop production luminaries from as far afield as California, New York and the UK, but his roots are forever in his hometown of Detroit. It was fellow Detroit native J Dilla who gave Guilty his debut, on “Strapped” from Jaylib’s Champion Sound (2003), and “As Serious as Your Life,” a Four Tet remix.

Detroit’s Son distills the essence of what made Ode To The Ghetto an underground classic. With the subject of life in the Motor City placed front and center, Guilty’s uncompromising rhymes fit seamlessly with Katalyst’s hard-hitting beats. The raps are every bit as gritty as on Ode or OJ, but there’s also a little light relief on tracks such as “Smoking,” probably about as close as Guilty will get to a summer anthem. Listen here.

Julia Holter: Have You In My Wilderness (Domino) Have You In My Wilderness is Julia Holter’s most intimate album yet, a collection of radiant ballads. Her follow-up to 2013’s widely celebrated Loud City Song explores love, trust, and power in human relationships. While love songs are familiar fodder in pop music, Holter manages to stay fascinatingly oblique and enigmatic on her new album. Have You in My Wilderness is also Holter’s most sonically intimate album. Here, she and producer Cole Marsden Greif-Neill lift her voice out of the layers of smeared, hazy effects, putting her vocals front and center in the mix. The result is striking—it sounds as if Holter is singing right in your ear. It sounds clear and vivid, but also disarmingly personal. The focused warm sound and instrumentation — dense strings, subtle synth pads — adds to the effect. Listen here.

Onyx: Bacdafucup (Def Jam) Bacdafucup is the debut album from hardcore rap group Onyx. The album featured their breakout single, “Slam”, which received heavy airplay on both radio and television (MTV and BET), leading the song to reach #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bacdafucup was certified platinum by the RIAA on October 25, 1993. Listen here. 

Ought: Sun Coming Down (Constellation) Ought returns with their second full-length album Sun Coming Down, following a break-out year for the Montréal-based rock quartet that saw its 2014 debut More Than Any Other Day make well-deserved waves for its blend of authentic, anxious, controlled and restive energy, with a Best New Music nod from Pitchfork and appearances on a wide range of year-end lists. Having spent most of 2014 on the road vitalizing audiences with no-nonsense post-punk and the feverishly observational testifying of singer/guitarist Tim Darcy (who officially changed his name from Tim Beeler this year), Ought settled into a long harsh Montreal winter hibernation, spending the first few months of 2015 writing, playing the occasional local gig, and eventually heading back to the Hotel2Tango recording studio in the spring to lay down a batch of fresh tunes. Sun Coming Down confirms the distinctive vitality and purposive naturalism of this band; Ought resists facile primitivism and overhyped dynamics in equal measure, keeping things hermetic but never airless, ascetic but never dispassionate, literate but never prolix. The band’s steady and subtle charms don’t make them the cool kids or the iconoclastic freaks  –  just a satisfyingly unrefined and substantive rock band that eschews indulgence or aesthetic bandwagoneering to seek a humble, thoughtful corner from which to articulate a position within and contribute meaningfully to a 40-year continuum of indie, punk and DIY tradition. Listen here.

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats: The Night Creeper (Rise Above) The Night Creeper is the newest endeavor from Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. Contained within are ten tracks of the type of sonic psyche-frazzling heaviness and blood-drenched pop that have made the group one of Britain’s great cult acts. Recorded at Toe Rag studios in early 2015 with engineer Liam Watson (White Stripes, Tame Impala, Electric Wizard), their fourth opus finds the quartet in full-on death-tripping, third eye-widening mode. Here songs ooze louche evil over flesh-melting riffs that creep like hot magma bubbling up through the earth’s crust at their own malevolent pace. This album is in no hurry to destroy you. But it will. It will. Listen here.

U.S. Girls: Half Free (4AD) The work of Illinois-born, Toronto-based artist Meg Remy, U.S. Girls has evolved in recent years from the coarse 4-track fidelity found on her early recordings to more luscious and unabashed works, packed with fiery pop sensibilities.  Half Free is the next step in this impressive progression, an honest and lyrically jarring exploration of emotions, drenched in a bath of raw beats and loops that have become the hallmark of her work with producer and frequent collaborator Onakabazien.  Other album guests include Slim Twig (DFA), Ben Cook (Fucked Up, Young Guv), Amanda Crist (Ice Cream) and Tony Price. Listen here.

Various Artists: Daptone Gold Vol. II (Daptone) A collection of fan favorites, 45 only, and exclusive killers soooo good it turns Gold to Platinum. Dig on 21 tracks hand-picked by Daptone Staff, Musicians, and fans. But what’s REALLY special are the exclusive tracks by Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens, as well as “The Baddest Band in the Land” The Dap-Kings, who offer up a dance-floor dominator, “Thunderclap.” Still need more convincing?  How about extensive liner notes from the foremost authority on SOUL Music, Mr. Fine Wine – the DJ behind WFMU’s longest running SOUL program, Downtown Soulville. For the vinyl enthusiast, there are a couple special goodies inside each silver foil embossed 2xLP Gatefold: a double-sided FULL-SIZED poster adorning all the album artwork that has made Daptone the world’s #1 source for the modern yet classic aesthetic.  And for you crafty sorts, there’s an iron–on Daptone Logo sporting the mantra “There’s no Business Like Soul Business”, you can put on the back of your favorite white demin jacket. …just saying.  It’s the perfect album for those down with the Daptone Sound, but who also enjoy consolidation. Voila! Daptone Gold Volume II. Listen here.

Kurt Vile: B’lieve I’m Goin Down… & B’lieve I’m Goin (Deep) Down… (Matador) Kurt Vile does his own myth making; a boy/man with an old soul voice in the age of digital everything becoming something else, which is why his sixth full-length record and first in two years - the focused, brilliantly clear and seemingly candid B'lieve I’m Goin Down… is a breath of fresh air.

Recorded and mixed in a number of locations, including Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, the album is a handshake across the country, East to West coast, through the dustbowl history of Woody honest straight forward talk Guthrie, and a Cali canyon dead still night floating in a nearly waterless landscape. The record is all air, weightless, bodyless, but grounded in convincing authenticity, in the best version of singer songwriter upcycling.