Dear Afterword brothers and sisters,
Here we go with my favourite 15 reissues and historical recordings so far in 2016.
The list is rather reggae-heavy, because … well, because I like vintage 1970s reggae and dub, basically.
In the traditional style(e), we start with the lower ten…
Nos 6 to 15, in alphabetical order
Glen Brown – Check the Winner
One of three compilations of music from Glen Brown’s Pantomime studio during the 1970-74 period. This one is instrumentals, and there are also vocal and DJ sets. Consistently fine. If you like Blood & Fire’s “Termination Dub” set, then this is for you.
Fleetwood Mac – In Concert
These 21 live tracks from the 1979-80 tour were originally included as 2CDs in the Tusk Deluxe set, but have now been reissued as a triple vinyl set. Most of the material is from “Fleetwood Mac” – Rumours – Tusk, but they do delve back into the Peter Green era for Oh Well. The live sound, pleasingly, has a rather rougher edge than the polished studio originals. Well worth having.
Grateful Dead – Red Rocks, 7/8/78
One of the most famous Betty Boards has finally made it out as an official release. Jerry nails the first set ballads admirably, and the band are really flying in the Estimated > Other One > eyes in the second set. Also notable for the Dead’s best attempt at Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London”
Dadisi Komolafe – Hassan’s Walk
Early 80s long-form spiritual jazz from Los Angeles.
Hailu Mergia & Dahlak Band – Wede Harer Guzo
The Awesome Tapes from Africa label are certainly living up to their name. This is their third release of ultra-obscure vintage material by the 1970s/80s ethio jazz keyboard man, and the third winner.
Page One & the Observers – Observation Of Life Dub
Welcome reissue of a classic Niney the Observer dub set.
Revolutionaries – Revolutionaries Sounds Vol. 2
Channel One dub set from 1976. Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, Tommy McCook, Ansel Collins, Bobby Ellis … you just know it’s going to be good, don’t you?
Skin Flesh & Bones – Dub in Blood
Reissue of an extremely rare dub set originally on the Sunshot label. Eleven Phil Pratt cuts recorded for Ossie Hibbert at Channel One, plus one Lee Perry dub from the Black Ark thrown in for good measure. Pressure Sounds delivers again.
Sons of Negus – A Psalm of Praises to the Most High 1967-1972
The Japanese Dub Store Records keep unearthing lost treasures of Jamaican music, and none more so than this. These are Rastafarian hymns – pure nyabinghi chanting and drumming – led by Ras Michael. If you’ve got his “Dadawah – Peace and Love” (one of the five greatest reggae albums of all time), then you’ll want this, too.
Various Artists – Well Charged, Vol. 1
Pressure Sounds have been reissuing selections from some of their early CD releases as vinyl LP sets. There are some nice selections here: John Holt, I-Roy, the Wailing Souls, Leroy Smart. Some vocal numbers, some DJ material. Very worthwhile.
I think I have that Pressure Sounds comp – is it this one? I ask because your comment implies that it’s new to vinyl, but I’m sure I bought it quite a few years back
http://www.pressure.co.uk/store/PS14/channel-one-well-charged/
On reggae reissues, I saw a new vinyl release of Heart Of The Congos today (surely another one of the five greatest reggae albums?). It’s a double, but the material on the second disc looks completely different to the second disc of the Blood & Fire reissue. Think I’ll pick it up, it was only £8.99 in HMV.
I must thank you, duco. You’ve prompted me to pull that Well Charged compilation off the racks for the first time in years, and I’ve just listened to it twice in a row. It’s a corker, isn’t it? Particularly digging Shaka The Great by Overnight Players.
Yes, it’s nice when a thread or post on this board sends one scurrying back to the murky depths of one’s record collection to dig out something that one hasn’t played for ages.
Thanks for the heads-up about the Heart of the Congos reissue. The second LP seems to be rather vaguely entitled “Best of the Rest”. I must admit I’m not familiar with the material on it.
Stay tuned for my exciting Top 5 Reissues and Historical Recordings of the first six months of 2016. Coming to a computer, tablet or smartphone near you sometime this afternoon. Oh yes!
I’m Grateful for all the reggae, duco, otherwise your list would be Dead.
The Dead shows you list are on “Grateful Dead – July 1978: The Complete Recordings”, comprising six discs (!) of a twelve disc (!!) set, should anyone be inclined to “find out more” at the eel market.
I’m really regretting not going for that box set, as the Red Rocks one is excellent.
I’ve taken the liberty of adding tracks from this list to the playlist I did for your Best of 2016 so far. There’s quite a contrast. Several of the albums here would not be out of place at a party.
How about a list of Classic DuCool Floorfillers? Lurking in your record collection, I suspect there are several albums that would get us on the good foot.
Sounds nice. But, where is it?
Here you go!
Thank you
“McGough and McGear” – 1968. That’s it.
I use the reissue reviews in Mojo, Shindig!, Record Collector etc. to dig out the perfectly serviceable versions of the CD I already own.
Recent examples being the Them compilation, “Pet Sounds” and “Roger the Engineer,” all recently reissued, bought them all about 20 years ago.
Socking it to the man, man.
Okey dokey then, here we go with the Top 5, in alphabetical order!
Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – Trance Frendz
This was originally released in 2015 as disc 2 of the “Collaborative Works” CD set. Now it has a standalone vinyl release. The Icelandic and German ambient masters produce a really beautiful wash of sound that belongs with the very best of both men’s work. They could’ve thought of a better title, though.
Bill Evans – Some Other Time: the Lost Session From The Black Forest
Resonance Records have outdone themselves here: this is an absolutely exemplary historical jazz release. In June 1968, the Bill Evans Trio (Evans, Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette) were passing through the Black Forest after performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival. They stopped for a day to record more than an hour’s worth of new material at the MPS studios in Villingen. For one reason or another, the album was never released and the tapes remained unheard. Until now.
So what we have here is not a warmed-up reissue or an odds-and-sods compilation, but a genuine all-new recording by one of the greatest ever jazz pianists. And it’s very good indeed. If you love Evans’s classic Riverside recordings, it’s essential.
Grateful Dead – Dave’s Picks Vol. 18: Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco, 16 & 17 July 1976
It’s a testament to the quantity and quality of live GD products that continue to emerge in a never-ending stream that the fine Red Rocks 1978 show wasn’t even my favourite Dead release of Jan-June 2016. Grateful Dead archivist Dave Lemieux comes in for a lot of stick from ultra-picky Deadheads. But even obsessive Heads had to admit that Dave selected a winner with his eighteenth Pick. 16 and 17 July were the fourth and fifth nights of a 6-night hometown run in San Francisco for the band. The second-set jams from 17 July are as good as you’ll ever hear from 1976 Dead. Contains a 16-minute Comes A Time which is simply … immense.
Mabrak – Drum Talk
10 of Leroy Mattis’s talking drum rhythms mixed by King Tubby. They sound like this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wer90fUTm_U
Van Morrison – It’s Too Late to Stop Now, Vols II, III and IV
You may have read a few things about this set somewhere on this board….
Hmmm … my top five selections seem to have blown everyone’s minds so comprehensively that there hasn’t even been a single solitary comment. These albums are a lot better than most of the ones included in the “Top selling UK albums of the past 60 years” list, I can tell you!
That Dave’s Picks release is brilliant – thanks again for putting me on to those. Presumably vol 19 will soon be revealed?
1. yes, surely the long-awaited announcement about DaP 19 will be coming up in the next few days. Lemieux has cryptically said that it’s “something we haven’t done before”, which has led to intense speculation on the Steve Hoffman site. Whatever can he mean? One of the shows with Bob Dylan, possibly? Or one of those trainwreck shows from 1995 that everyone agrees is completely unlistenable? We shall see…
2. Yes, the Orpheum shows from July 76 are just ace. As you probably know, the final night of that run (18 July) is available cheaply from the tax-dodgers (under the title “San Francisco 1976”), as it was an FM broadcast for the King Biscuit Hour. The show complements DaP 18 superbly, although the packaging is a shocker. The cover photo is from 2 years later than the gig in question. For shame!
Well, the details of Dave’s Picks Vol. 19 have finally been revealed.
And it’s a Hawaii show from January 1970. Interesting.
http://www.dead.net/store/1970s/dave-s-picks-volume-19-honolulu-civic-auditorium-hi-12370
“Hard to Handle”, “Black Peter”, “Mason’s Children” “Dire Wolf”. Sounds very respectable. And I do like an early “Dark Star.” I’m not sure I’ll be playing the 35-minute “Lovelight” too often, though. Sometimes one can only take so much of Pig’s rapping….
I haven’t listened to David Lemieux’s seaside chat about the release yet, but he’ll doubtless deScribe it as a “REALLY GREAT SHOW – ONE WE’VE BEEN WANTING TO RELEASE FOR YEARS!!!”
On the ball @duco01 ! Yes, interesting. Not my favourite era but I’m intrigued.
I’ve bought the Bill Evans without a moment’s hesitation.
Me too! Didn’t know about it all – so many thanks. Fopp has many later period Bill Evans at three quid a pop and I often buy a couple – they’re a little hit and miss at the stage in his career – but this looks and sounds to be very high quality stuff.
Yes, it’s clear from the excellent packaging of “Some Other Time” that a lot of care and time has gone into making this release as good as possible. Resonance are to be congratulated for such a professional job.
The previous Bill Evans archival release on Resonance (in 2013) was “Live at Art D’Lugoff’s Top of the Gate” from 1968, with Eddie Gomez but not with Jack DeJohnette. It received a lot of praise in the US jazz press, but user reviews have been rather mixed. I haven’t heard it myself.
I think the rest of the AW is in a huff because you have never discussed Dave’s Picks 1-17.
I’ve added tracks from your new selections to my playlist.
The Icelandic German meetings is on Spotify and I’m very keen to give it a listen.
I humiliated myself on a similar thread by choosing 2015 albums; this time I have been more careful. In alphabetical order:
Close To The Nouse Floor: formative UK electronically 1975-1984 (Cherry Red). 4 CDs of mainly punk-era lo-fi electronics in the industrial/ art-pop / Mute records vein. Revelatory, if rather gloomy, music at times, but with a sick sense of humor. A specialist, scholarly reissue curated by Dave Henderson.
Cosmic Machine: The Sequel (Because): French electronics and disco from 1970s; enjoyably groovy and cool and just a little camp (check Rosebud’s disco version of Floyd’s ‘theme from More’
Flying Saucer Attack: Chorus & Distance ( Domino): vinyl and download only reissues of all three FSA albums, it was great to hear Distance again as I have mislaid my original. Bristol ‘space rock’ is one of the loveliest, now-forgotten, sub-genres of recent times.
Still in a Dream: A Story of Shoegaze 1989-1995 ( Cherry Red): fun, 5CD set of the maligned indie pop genre. It’s called ‘a’ story because some big names( MBV) couldn’t be included, but this is still a highly enjoyable assortment of obscure tracks. Already reviewed on this site.
That is a very interesting list, Pessoa. Bristol space rock, eh? Must explore further.
And as for Rosebud, How about their disco take on Interstellar Overdrive?
It’s …..different