Another year, another RSD. As April 18th draws to a close and the harsh reality of either spending way over your budget or returning home empty-handed sinks in, feel consoled at the fact you're probably not alone.
But before you consider heading to eBay or Discogs to pay well over the odds for the items you didn't get, you might be better off considering making another journey out to seek out those missing pieces of the jigsaw. A visit to a different bricks-and-mortar record-store might prove to be worthwhile - you might discover a release you didn't even know about. Like the ones below. This round-up concerns the RSD Best Release of 2015, plus various box-sets and 7".
The second part (below) features 12" (other than Amon Tobin) and LPs.
Box-sets are becoming more common with every passing of RSD. One worth considering is the completely out-there Amon Tobin double white-vinyl 12" Dark Jovian. Not content with slipping the discs into standard packaging, Ninja Tunes have enlisted designer Alexander Brown to come up with a branded white rubber wheel that cleverly holds the one-sided discs in place without scratching them. It's a cumbersome task of prising the platters from the ring's grasp but once out and installed on your decks, you'll be wowed by Tobin's homage to film soundtrack composers, complete with remixes. This has to be my RSD Release Of The Year 2015.
Fans of mid-'80s jangle-pop will be eyeing up the Creation Artifact 45 box. Perhaps lacking in extensive sleevenotes, the facsimiles of the first ten 7" issued on the influential Creation label are decent enough and the £50 price-tag translates into a fiver per record. Biff Bang Pow, Jasmine Minks and The Loft are included, natch.
Soul Jazz Records weigh in with another fairly basic 7" collection, this time five discs boxed up as the Down Beat Special. Every track is a gem but easy enough to find outside of this collection (if you look hard enough). But newcomers to classic '70s reggae shouldn't fail to be tempted by Marcia Griffiths' Feel Like Jumping or Jackie Mittoo's Totally Together - two party bangers right there.
And so to singular 7" singles. Soul gems are represented by one or two unlikely artists - James Last covering Sly Stone's Everyday People, anyone? No really, it's rather 'swingy', as is Dusty Springfield's fantastic floor-filler What's It Gonna Be (coupled with the perennial Spooky). But the picks of the RnB crop are Looking For You by Garnet Mimms and two versions of Frank Wilson's Do I Love You (Indeed I Do), one by Chris Clark and one by the man himself. Both are cracking Northern Soul stompers.
Factory Benelux (with sister-label Les Disques du Crepuscule) have unleashed a quartet of must-haves. In addition to a Crispy Ambulance album as mentioned below (Compulsion, reviewed in full here), Marnie has contributed one of her best-ever solo efforts with Wolves (given a sparkling electro-pop remix by Marsheaux), The Wake issue new song Clouds Disco from recent best-of primer Testament (with an exclusive b-side) and Section 25 have recorded two early live favourites Mirror and You Leave Me No Choice with additional vocals from ex-ACR luminary Simon Topping. Dressed in a reverse appropriation of the band's recent Always Now deluxe reissue, both tracks are gritty, droll and compelling.
Other worthy sevens include a beautifully-packaged Bamboo Houses single by David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto (sleeve designed by 4AD's Chris Bigg), David Bowie having a crack at Tom Verlaine's Kingdom Come as part of Rhino's Side By Side series and early demos from B-Movie in the shape of They Forget and Trash and Mystery.
12" / LPs were not surprisingly heavily represented this year with an abundance of reissues, repackaged old material and brand new releases. There are too many to list but stand-out 12" singles include two shaped discs from John Cooper Clarke (Gimmix basically emulates the same shape of the original triangular orange vinyl but with different b-sides) and flavour of the year Father John Misty (a heart-shaped I Loved You Honeybee).
As for regular 12", Blancmange culled their cover of Can's I Want More from recent album Semi-Detached (with a bonus remix), Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever highlights were re-assembled for a 'promo-style' EP and NYC's funk siblings ESG also had their most familiar trio of songs (Moody, UFO and You're No Good) gathered onto a four-track EP.
Germany's proto-electronica label Bureau B unleashed four lengthy extended-players bursting with rare tracks and exclusive mixes by the likes of Tarwater, Solyst, Roedelius Schneider, Gut Und Irmler and Automat, all of which raise the label's profile successfully, while Grace Jones upcoming disco years box-set gets a preview with a reissue of I Need a Man / La Vie En Rose plus a cut included on the superb Larry Levan Genius Of Time EP (Feel Up).
A favoured format, particularly among major-labels who can afford such luxuries, is the 10" and there was no shortage of gems to choose from. Pop fans will have been flocking towards the OMD single Julia's Song, essentially the first dubbier half of the 1984 remix version coupled with Junk Culture outtake 10 To 1, as well as Roxy Music's Ladytron single which previews the forthcoming Super Deluxe of the band's debut album. Others from across the genres include The Waterboys (really spot-on demo versions of tracks from Modern Blues), Jon Hopkins (with a nifty Nils Frahm remix) and The Sound weighing in with the double 10" Propaganda.
Public Image Limited bridged the gap between This Is Pil and forthcoming new material with three double coloured-vinyl editions of various live recordings, including the notorious (and victorious) Isle Of Wight set from 2011, replete with a liberal dose of expletives aimed at the mixing-desk's failure to capture the sonic mood. Simple Minds, Brian Eno and Field Music weigh in with beautifully packaged exclusives while Factory's Crispy Ambulance revisit early material for the impressive Compulsion collection (with Graham Massey at the helm).
But before you consider heading to eBay or Discogs to pay well over the odds for the items you didn't get, you might be better off considering making another journey out to seek out those missing pieces of the jigsaw. A visit to a different bricks-and-mortar record-store might prove to be worthwhile - you might discover a release you didn't even know about. Like the ones below. This round-up concerns the RSD Best Release of 2015, plus various box-sets and 7".
The second part (below) features 12" (other than Amon Tobin) and LPs.
Box-sets are becoming more common with every passing of RSD. One worth considering is the completely out-there Amon Tobin double white-vinyl 12" Dark Jovian. Not content with slipping the discs into standard packaging, Ninja Tunes have enlisted designer Alexander Brown to come up with a branded white rubber wheel that cleverly holds the one-sided discs in place without scratching them. It's a cumbersome task of prising the platters from the ring's grasp but once out and installed on your decks, you'll be wowed by Tobin's homage to film soundtrack composers, complete with remixes. This has to be my RSD Release Of The Year 2015.Fans of mid-'80s jangle-pop will be eyeing up the Creation Artifact 45 box. Perhaps lacking in extensive sleevenotes, the facsimiles of the first ten 7" issued on the influential Creation label are decent enough and the £50 price-tag translates into a fiver per record. Biff Bang Pow, Jasmine Minks and The Loft are included, natch.
Soul Jazz Records weigh in with another fairly basic 7" collection, this time five discs boxed up as the Down Beat Special. Every track is a gem but easy enough to find outside of this collection (if you look hard enough). But newcomers to classic '70s reggae shouldn't fail to be tempted by Marcia Griffiths' Feel Like Jumping or Jackie Mittoo's Totally Together - two party bangers right there.
And so to singular 7" singles. Soul gems are represented by one or two unlikely artists - James Last covering Sly Stone's Everyday People, anyone? No really, it's rather 'swingy', as is Dusty Springfield's fantastic floor-filler What's It Gonna Be (coupled with the perennial Spooky). But the picks of the RnB crop are Looking For You by Garnet Mimms and two versions of Frank Wilson's Do I Love You (Indeed I Do), one by Chris Clark and one by the man himself. Both are cracking Northern Soul stompers.
Other worthy sevens include a beautifully-packaged Bamboo Houses single by David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto (sleeve designed by 4AD's Chris Bigg), David Bowie having a crack at Tom Verlaine's Kingdom Come as part of Rhino's Side By Side series and early demos from B-Movie in the shape of They Forget and Trash and Mystery.
12" / LPs were not surprisingly heavily represented this year with an abundance of reissues, repackaged old material and brand new releases. There are too many to list but stand-out 12" singles include two shaped discs from John Cooper Clarke (Gimmix basically emulates the same shape of the original triangular orange vinyl but with different b-sides) and flavour of the year Father John Misty (a heart-shaped I Loved You Honeybee).
As for regular 12", Blancmange culled their cover of Can's I Want More from recent album Semi-Detached (with a bonus remix), Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever highlights were re-assembled for a 'promo-style' EP and NYC's funk siblings ESG also had their most familiar trio of songs (Moody, UFO and You're No Good) gathered onto a four-track EP.
Germany's proto-electronica label Bureau B unleashed four lengthy extended-players bursting with rare tracks and exclusive mixes by the likes of Tarwater, Solyst, Roedelius Schneider, Gut Und Irmler and Automat, all of which raise the label's profile successfully, while Grace Jones upcoming disco years box-set gets a preview with a reissue of I Need a Man / La Vie En Rose plus a cut included on the superb Larry Levan Genius Of Time EP (Feel Up).
Public Image Limited bridged the gap between This Is Pil and forthcoming new material with three double coloured-vinyl editions of various live recordings, including the notorious (and victorious) Isle Of Wight set from 2011, replete with a liberal dose of expletives aimed at the mixing-desk's failure to capture the sonic mood. Simple Minds, Brian Eno and Field Music weigh in with beautifully packaged exclusives while Factory's Crispy Ambulance revisit early material for the impressive Compulsion collection (with Graham Massey at the helm).