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Denzel Curry & Kenneth Blume - ii
  • 1: GONE FISHING
  • 2: EVIL GRIN
  • 3: CANDLELIGHT
  • 4: PRODUCT
  • 5: UPS
  • 6: BENJAMIN
  • 7: COLD NIGHT IN HELL
  • 8: CROWN
  • 9: DIFFERENCE
LVR05475
Loma Vista Recordings
12inch04.12.202604.DEC.26

Hip-HopRapHip-Hop

Following the success of UNLOCKED and UNLOCKED 1.5, acclaimed rapper Denzel Curry and visionary producer Kenneth Blume fka. Kenny Beats reunite for another explosive collaboration on upcoming album ii. Featuring JPEGMAFIA, Yebba, and Westside Gunn, the project pairs boundary-pushing production with sharp lyricism. The campaign includes music videos for both focus tracks, behind-the-scenes content, exclusive interviews, and more, giving fans an inside look at the making of this highly anticipated release.

pre-order now04 Dec

expected to be published on 04 Dec

36,93 €
Jesse Rae - The Flesher (2x12")
PACE007
Pace Yourself
2x12inch07.08.202607.AUG.26

Hip-HopFunkPopSynth-Pop

This has been a very personal project and a mammoth undertaking for us folks here PACE HQ: 12 tracks unearthed from the cult Scottish figure’s completely overlooked back catalogue. Collected archive material from the past 25 years, originally composed as an OST for the feature length film The Flesher (1992) which was also written, shot and directed by Rae. No copies remain. Deep cuts that span G-funk, hip-hop, house, synth-pop, electro, dub, downtempo, funk/soul, R’n’B with appearances from Rae’s heavyweight list of frequent collaborators… Bernie Worrell, Adrian Sherwood and Jimmy Douglass.

"In 1991, the Scottish Rugby Union & the Royal Bank of Scotland, commissioned me tae make the world's first Scotland World Cup music video... they didn’t pay me so I fought back. It took 18 years tae win, and I nearly lost everything. I turned to audio visual art: under the pseudonym Jock Pleasure - I wrote and directed a feature length film called The Flesher as well as creating 100s of full length DVDs and tracks” (Jesse Rae).

One man took on the banks and won, but it took its toll and in this totemic corpus of work Jesse Rae counts the cost. The Flesher is art as pure defiance: “this stuff is very dark and deep, it is such a vast body o’ work, but when I won my battle against the bank, I secretly returned tae Hodge Close (in the Scottish borders) and dropped the entire work sealed in stone intae the deep deep murky depths of that water, where it has remained since 2009. There are no mair copies."

What we have here then is the salvaged remains. A hopeful dunt of Scottish erotica that gets you right in the pits.

Splice DJ Screw with Dean Blunt, Moodymann, Prince, Cocteau Twins, MF DOOM, Luther Van fuckin’ Dross, Barry fuckin’ White; run that through the B-movie videotape static meets Harmony Korine, Les Blank & early Grand Theft Auto. Empty boulevards. Small-town strip joints. Late-night dial-up. Sacrifice and solace. Outside of the OST, there’s a cast of forgotten characters: primary school kids making house jams, teenage popstars from the Scottish Borders, and the rhapsodic Ayrshire soprano NIKA laying down haunting vocals in Miami.

Celebrated as a cult figure in the USA, Jesse’s work has never fully had the appreciation it deserves at home. Not really. Aye, we know Inside Out and The Thistle. But he’s too easily fobbed off as an eccentric outsider: a helmet-wearing, claymore-wielding gimmick. But do we really know the extent of what this man has done - and gone through - for the sake of art?

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29,20 €
Various - Futuristica 20 LP 2x12"
FUTLP011
Futuristica Music
2x12inch29.07.202629.JUL.26

HouseDeepHip-HopSoulHip-Hop

Futuristica is 20!
This independent imprint has been producing and releasing music for friends and family for 20 years, so what better way to celebrate than by releasing a 2xLP limited edition 20 track compilation of rare and never before released on vinyl recordings exclusively selected by label manager Simon Skolfield.
This is a beautifully varied selection of deep soul, jazz and hip-hop music from a group of like-minded independent artists creating their own brand of soulful gems. From the early electro soul of Electric Conversation, the multi layered jazz samples of Kira Neris to the lush vocal harmonies of Deborah Jordan, production and remix class from Marc Rapson and the contemporary spiritual soundtracks of The Peter Franks Group.
Over the years there has been generous support from Gilles Peterson, Tony Minvielle, Marc Mac, Patrick Forge, Kev Beadle and so many more worldwide. Artists like As Valet, Emanative, LaNote and Georgie Sweet have gone on to produce fine work with several different independent labels with our artists garnering fine remixes and production work from the likes of DJ Spinna, Nostalgia 77, Kev Bown, Mr Beatnick, Nicolay, Kaidi Tatham, Atjazz, Simbad, K15, Domu, Mecca:83 and so many others. And all of this organically grown since the release of Low Budget Soul, the label’s debut project back in 2006.

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26,85 €
Nine Inch Nails - OST TRON LP 2x12"
 
20
5727588
NIN - Tron Project PS
2x12inch28.07.202628.JUL.26

PopSoundtrack

TRON: Divergence (Companion-Album zum Soundtrack)
Mit „Tron: Divergence“ veröffentlichte Nine Inch Nails das Companion-Album zum Soundtrack des aktuellen TRON-Films Tron: Ares, dem neuesten Kapitel des legendären Sci-Fi-Franchise, das 1982 mit Tron
begann und 2010 mit Tron: Legacy fortgesetzt wurde. „Tron ARES: Divergence“ vereint neue Songs und
Remixes. Darunter Tracks, die im Film selbst zu hören sind und zusätzlich neue Interpretationen von einer
stilistisch vielfältigen Riege an Kollaborateur:innen. Mit dabei sind u.a. Boys Noize, The Dare, Pixel Grip
und Chilly Gonzales, die dem digitalen TRON-Universum ihre ganz eigene klangliche Handschrift verleihen.
Das physische Album wird am 5. Juni erscheinen.

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33,19 €
The Temptations - Cloud Nine (2x12")
  • A1: Cloud Nine
  • A2: I Heard It Through the Grapevine
  • B1: Run Away Child, Running Wild
  • C1: Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing
  • C2: Hey Girl
  • C3: Why Did She Have to Leave Me (Why Did She Have to Go)
  • C4: I Need Your Lovin’
  • D1: Don’t Let Him Take Your Love from Me
  • D2: I Gotta Find a Way (To Get You Back)
  • D3: Gonna Keep on Tryin’ till I Win Your Love
LMF621
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
2x12inchRelease unknown

Hip-HopR & BSoul

The Temptations Get High on Psychedelic Soul: Cloud Nine Soars with Ambitious Arrangements and Production, Features Standout Vocal Performances and Instrumentation by the Funk Brothers

The Temptations’ Cloud Nine announced that Motown — and “The Sound of Young America” — would never be the same. Influenced by the emergence of cutting-edge rock and pop currents, as well as increasing sociopolitical turmoil, the album broke down barriers between rock, psychedelia, and soul while heralding the arrival of visionary arrangements and production techniques. Bookended by traditional R&B numbers, the 1969 record sent the Temptations in bold new directions and signaled the advent of psychedelic soul.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45PM 2LP set presents Cloud Nine in audiophile sound for the first time on a domestic pressing. This collectible reissue bestows Norman Whitfield’s extraordinary production with the grand-scale dynamics, natural tonality, expansive openness, and low-end weight it deserves. The timbre of each of the five members’ voices is readily identifiable — even within the group harmonies — bestowing a realism never experienced outside the recording studio.

Making its debut on 45RPM, the album further benefits from the wide groove space by playing with greater separation and more realistic presence than prior editions. Everything from the brassiness of the horns to the dry snap of the snare comes across with reference-grade clarity and positioning. And since Motown’s renowned Funk Brothers backing band plays on many of the cuts, you’ll want to savor every note. The imaging, soundstaging, and organic bloom-and-decay of the notes make that possible.

Amid Cloud Nine, the instrumentation and architecture stand out as much as any element. Never before had a Motown album contained such ambitious patterns and complex passages. Seemingly conscientious of the departure from their past methods, the Temptations and Whitfield bunched together the tracks that mark a deep dive into psychedelic territory and counterbalance them with seven sterling soul cuts that dovetail with Motown tradition drenched with heartfelt vocals, swelling strings, and finger-snapping beats.

On the original 33RPM release, traditional Motown soul — laden with heartfelt vocals, swelling strings, and finger-snapping beats — occupies Side Two. These songs reveal an ensemble still very much on top of delivering pristine pop-soul material graced with romantic sweetness, persuasive insistent, and soaring highs. Re-energized after the departure of lead singer David Ruffin, who was fired for a variety of reasons in June 1968, the Temptations seamlessly meld with his replacement, Dennis Edwards, on one melodic gem after another.

The collective tackles five songs co-written by the legendary Motown team of Barrett Strong and Whitfield. Not the least of which are the smooth, shuffling “Why Did She Have to Leave Me (Why Did She Have to Go)” and deceptively simple, horn-spiked “Gonna Keep on Tryin’ till I Win Your Love.” On these tracks, as well as on a lush rendition of the ballad “Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing” and pleading, tender send-up of the Gerry Goffin-Carole King classic “Hey Girl,” Edwards and Paul Williams take turns on the lead with the estimable Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, and Otis Williams providing backing support.

All five vocalists trade-off leads on the simmering title track, a groundbreaking composition shot through with wah-wah-pedal effects, liquid funk, deep bass lines, Cuban percussion, saturated reverb, and gang choruses. Whitfield mines each member’s natural vocal range with spectacular results, keeps time with cymbals, and channels both the heated temperatures and escapist desires of a society embroiled in war, conflict, and experimental drugs.

Amazingly, the Temptations top themselves on the similarly revealing “Run Away Child, Running Wild.” Nearly 10 minutes in length, the song explodes R&B parameters and harbors a cinematic scope. Urgent pianos, distorted guitars, stripped-down percussion, steamy Hammond organs, minimal bass motifs, five distinct voices narrating the tale of a boy who fled home and now finds himself amid the scary, unforgiving external world: They combine to give the urgent tune a walls-closing-in atmosphere where fear and desperation reign. Bolstered by an extended instrumental section that precedes a climactic return of the singers’ voices, “Run Away Child, Running Wild” equaled the success of the record’s title track, with both reaching No. 6 on the pop charts.

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83,15 €
Young Adults - Mindstretcher EP
UNSWAX03
Unusual Traxx
12inchRelease unknown

HouseTechTechnoTechno

Unusual Traxx welcomes Young Adults, the Dutch duo who have been making their mark in the underground scene with standout releases on Mood Waves, Private Parts, Seven Hills, and more.

Their four-track EP is a powerful showcase of groove and sound design, built around solid basslines, otherworldly synths, and some of the strangest vocals you are likely to hear. Each track is designed for a different moment of the night, taking you deeper into dark, sweaty rooms where anything can happen.

Pressed on limited edition vinyl, with only 200 copies available. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

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12,40 €
Rave Alarm - Garbage Pail Rekkid 2 EP
KFA130
Kniteforce Again
12inchRelease unknown

BeatsJungle

The first Garbage Pail Rekkid by legendary canadian producers Rave Alarm (Gobs and Virus) sold out so fast we barely had time to stock it! So for this second one, we ordered a few more, and this is now available in limited numbers in this awesome color format! Never to be repressed, this will be gone before you know it!

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15,55 €
Hyper-On Experience - The Lost And Found Remixes
KF284SE
Kniteforce Records
12inchRelease unknown

BeatsDrum&BassJungle

With a little work and a lot of love, we present this limited edition selection of wonderful Lords Of the Null Lines remixes for your enjoyment...limited to 300 copies, this will be gone in the blink of an eye...featuring the epic remix from Photek, the difficult to find remix from Aquasky & Masterblaster, the unique Acen, and the pounding NRG remixes, this EP is a must have for all old skool and jungle heads....

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15,76 €
Memphis Slim with Peter Green - Blue Memphis LP
  • A1: Born In Memphis, Tennessee
  • A2: Chicago
  • A3: Me And My Piano
  • A4: Handy Man
  • A5: Feel Like Screaming And Crying
  • A6: Riding On The Blues Train
  • A7: Boogin' And Bluesin
  • A8: Wind Gonna Rise
  • A9: Mother Earth (bonus track)
  • B1: Youth Wants To Know
  • B2: Boobie Woogie 1970
  • B3: Otis Span And Earl Hooker
  • B4: Chicago Seven
  • B5: Mason - Dixon Line
  • B6: I've Got Soul (bonus track)
HE70016
Endless Happiness
12inchRelease unknown

PopJazz

Recorded in 1970 with a host of young blues and rock musicians, Blue Memphis is recognized as one of the best dates released by fellow blues artists in that era. On this album, the famous American blues pianist, singer, and composer Memphis Slim (John Peter Chatman) is backed by several British musicians, including Chris Spedding, John Paul Jones, Duster Bennett, and Peter Green.

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23,32 €
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4 Way Street LP
  • A1: Suite Judy Blue Eyes 00:28
  • A2: On The Way Home 03:52
  • A3: Teach Your Children 03:04
  • A4: Triad 06:50
  • A5: The Lee Shore 04:35
  • A6: Chicago 03:22
  • A7: Right Between The Eyes 03:33
  • B1: Cowgirl In The Sand 04:01
  • B2: Don't Let It Bring You Down 03:30
  • B3 49: Bye Byes - America's Children 06:33
  • B4: Love The One You're With 03:22
  • B5: Pre-Road Downs 03:03
  • B6: Long Time Gone 05:59
  • C1: Southern Man 13:36
  • C2: Ohio 03:33
  • C3: Black Queen (Bonus Track) 06:41
  • D1: Carry On 13:28
  • D2: Find The Cost Of Freedom 03:12
  • D3: Medley - The Loner - Cinnamon Girl - Down By The River (Bonus Track) 09:36
HE71019
Endless Happiness
12inchRelease unknown

PopFolk

4 Way Street is the second and live album by David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young. It was released in 1971 with the live recordings taken from the band's shows during their 1970 tour around the USA. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and was awarded a gold record. This is the first 2LP reissue since 1986 and it contains two bonus tracks on sides C and D: the at-the-time unreleased "Black Queen" from Stephen Stills and a medley made up of “The Loner - Cinnamon Girl - Down By The River” performed by Neil Young.

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28,78 €
CRACK CLOUD - PEACE & PURPOSE (2x12")
  • 1: Peace & Purpose
  • 2: Safe Room
  • 3: Not The Same Thing
  • 4: Life On A Farm
  • 5: Pick Apart
  • 6: Marathon Of Hope
  • 7: Stop Cutting Me Down
  • 8: Shut The Fuck Up
  • 9: Reunion
  • 10: Phantom Limb
  • 11: Thoughts On My Faith
  • 12: Eris On The Run
  • 13: Red House
  • 14: Truth in Trauma
MM17LP
Meat Machine
2x12inchRelease unknown

PopAlternativeIndie

Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta go through it. And somewhere out there in the Pitch black beyond all darkness lies Peace & Purpose. The horizon you never quite crest until the inevitable end. Breathe deep — this fearful moment is the most alive you’re ever gonna feel. For the last decade, Crack Cloud’s vision has grown ever more expansive, more cinematic. Last go around, they dropped from The Heavens and then performed with their bare backs to an endless darkening desert. Now they’ve crammed all that life into some metallic and strange object called Peace & Purpose. All the terror of living. All the helplessness. All the raw human will. All glued and screwed and locked into this impossible tactile shape of dungeon dub; sour milk vox; Avant-protest music. Music arm wrestling itself to the ground. Far afield of beauty. The discordant symphony of factory farming and grim timber of the meat processing plant. The grinding din of the cogs. And yet, never giving up in spite of all good sense. Even in death, we are a coterie of survivors. Look now: There’s Terry Fox on his one-legged Marathon of Hope across The Great White North while cancer spreads through his lungs. A self-annihilating drive to feel alive. Rage against the dying of the light, they say. Well, how ‘bout it then!??! Peace & Purpose is not in any way some art project meditation on Punk Rock. It is Punk Rock. Terrifying, inspiring, vital, invigorating and most importantly, utterly unexpected. Every goddamn stupid day is a sublime slice of fresh hell. That’s the point. Gotta go through it. Wishing you Peace & Purpose — if only in that last big breath.

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31,72 €
Carly Simon - Anticipation (2x12")
  • A1: Anticipation
  • A2: Legend in Your Own Time
  • B1: Our First Day Together
  • B2: The Girl You Think You See
  • B3: Summer’s Coming Around Again
  • C1: Share the End
  • C2: The Garden
  • D1: Three Days
  • D2: Julie Through the Glass
  • D3: I’ve Got to Have You
LMF631
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
2x12inchRelease unknown

PopRock

Carly Simon’s quietly intense sophomore album comes across like an assertive notice nailed to a telephone pole for all to see. Bold, personal, and autobiographical, Anticipation announces the arrival of an artist who won’t back down. While Simon stands her ground on her eponymous debut, she elevates her passion and persona to heightened levels throughout this gold-certified record, dealing in private matters related to love, relationships, and desire. At times, Simon is nothing short of primal. She reflects on the difficulties of retaining your own identity while also giving yourself to a partner. Simon’s connection to her folk roots would never be stronger.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set of Anticipation lays bare the rich tapestries afforded by the spare blend of soft guitars, mellow orchestration, and dreamy melodies. Audiophiles and record collectors, take note: This is the first time Anticipation has been available on 45RPM. The wider grooves and dead-quiet surfaces prove extremely rewarding.

The rhythmic framework anchored by session pro Andy Newmark’s drumming sounds dynamic and balanced, with songs benefiting from a focused midrange and taut low-end. Simon’s attachment to and investment in each lyric is made evident by way of the intimate, hushed atmospherics and expansive responsiveness. And just as Simon’s vocals feel more transparent and direct, so, too, do the supporting choral arrangements.

Released before the singer-songwriter movement reached full bloom, Anticipation remains remarkable for the high-quality songwriting and Simon’s gutsy stance. The album cover — depicting the vocalist holding the gates at Queen Mary’s Garden in Regent’s Park and seemingly defying anyone to take her on — serves as a metaphor for the content within.

Known for having relationships with high-profile partners, Simon was heavily involved with Cat Stevens leading up to the recording of Anticipation. She draws from her experiences to craft tunes that resonate because of their honesty, realism, and strength. Few of those moments are better known than the Top 20 title track, which Simon composed in just 15 minutes as she waited for Stevens to pick her up for a date. Imbued with the nervousness, tension, and excitement that accompany the moments when a romance could go either way, the Grammy-nominated song presages the feminist-minded vulnerability and burning longing that informs a majority of the record.

On the soulful “Legend in Your Own Time,” also inspired by Stevens, Simon harnesses yearning as a conduit to feel-good paradise. Deemed by Rolling Stone an “absolute clincher, an awesome description of the psychic ravages of gone-nuts, know-nothing love,” her cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “I’ve Got to Have You” moans with no-holds-barred desire and breathtaking sensuality.

For all the wanting Simon pursues on Anticipation, her way of staying in control — vocally and personally — make the record a courageous statement of contemporary femininity. For further evidence, look to the bossa nova of “Summer’s Coming Around Again,” somber “Share the End,” soothing “Three Days,” and sincere “Julie Through the Glass,” a tribute to her young niece.

Simon would achieve international fame with her next album, No Secrets. Yet as this definitive reissue shows, Anticipation suggests the rest of the world was just a little late catching up to her.

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82,56 €
JJ Whitefield - Exotic Meditations / Sloppy Souls LP
  • A1: Assra & Part 1
  • A2: Assra Hulet
  • A3: Secret Sunset
  • A4: Morning Shift
  • A5: Assra Sost
  • A6: Assra Arat
  • A7: Trip To Cairo
  • A8: Assra Amist
  • B1: Broken Hearts
  • B2: High Hopes
  • B3: The Silence That Lasts
  • B4: Shattered Dreams
  • B5: Never Gonna Leave
  • B6: I Fell For Fall
  • B7: Moving Air
FNR-277
Funk Night
12inchRelease unknown

PopJazzAlternativeIndie

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31,30 €
Various - Mansfield Popp EP Vol. 1
  • A1: Birds Of Paradise (Extended Version)
  • B1: Arsène Lupin
RMLP-0004
Readymade International
12inchRelease unknown

PopJazz

EP- Warehouse find /Pressing Mint and NOS Copies
by this label ditsributed by the Long gone Japanese Companies Cisco and DMR (Dance Music Records)

Credits:
Guitar – Yusuke Horikoshi (Titel: A)
Horns – Yokan (Titel: A)
Mixed By – Osamu Hirose
Programmed By – Soichi Terada, Tetsuto Yoshida (Titel: AA)
Vocals – Kayoko Ishu (Titel: AA)
Vocals, Written-By – Momoko Suzuki (Titel: A)
Written-By – Masanori Ikeda

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11,72 €
Various - NFRV 018

Various

NFRV 018

NFRV018
No Fuss Records
12inchRelease unknown

HouseMinimalTechJazzy

The Jazzcodes and Michele Chiavarini kick off this fine survey of contemporary deep house with 'Wolf Dust (Saison Rework)' which draws on jazz-inflected motifs and feeds them into a steady groove with layered keys sitting over a controlled kick pattern. 'Friday' from DJ Romain works in a more direct frame driven by looping piano stabs and clipped drums with diva vocals injecting heat. 'In The Moment' has an air of cool jazz to it with deft horns and spoken word that muse on the great genre while Saison's 'This Is A House Record' sure is that: classic drums and knotted little synths bring a warming vibe for grown-up floors.

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14,08 €
Legowelt - Dark Days LP 3x12"
BAKKDD1
BAKK
3x12inchRelease unknown

HouseElectroTechnoDetroit

2026 Repress

As days prolong darker, walls come seeping in for the solitary resident. A collection of early Legowelt tracks, found on old dusty tapes assumed a long time gone. All tracks recorded between 1992-1997. First time ever on vinyl and fully remastered.

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28,53 €
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World (2x12")
  • A1: Heart Shaped World
  • A2: I’m Not Waiting
  • A3: Don’t Make Me Dream About You
  • B1: Kings of the Highway
  • B2: Wicked Game
  • C1: Blue Spanish Sky
  • C2: Wrong to Love You
  • C3: Forever Young
  • D1: Nothing’s Changed
  • D2: In the Heat of the Jungle
  • D3: Diddley Daddy
LMFUD1S075
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
2x12inchRelease unknown

PopRock

There was nothing in contemporary music like Chris Isaak’s Heart Shaped World when it hit shelves in June 1989. More than three decades later, the singer-songwriter’s third album still sounds unique — and claims a backstory nearly as fascinating as the retro-leaning material and standout performances that propelled it to sales of more than 2.5 million copies. Home to the Top 10 smash “Wicked Game,” the set remains a masterful mood piece that invites you to pour a late-night drink, sit in a dimmed room, and relish Isaak’s elegant albeit raw ruminations on love, relationships, and questionable decisions.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, and featuring the bonus track “Diddley Daddy,” Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set of Heart Shaped World unearths the staggering inner details, saturated tones, and brilliant atmospherics of the crisp production. It brings you up close and personal with Isaak’s spectacular singing — impeccably controlled, tense, brooding, steamy, smoldering, haunted — situated amidst stripped-down backdrops that allow every note to fully bloom and decay.

While Isaak’s ever-steady baritone remains the anchor, the contributions of his trusty backing band, the aptly named Silvertone, come across with just as much cool, command, and realism. The indispensable playing of guitarist James Calvin Wilsey particularly emerges with superb clarity and dimensionality. The character of his 1965 Fender Stratocaster, shivering twang of his spring-coiled fills, and his signature use of reverb, delay, and vibrato seamlessly match Isaak's patient deliveries and the band’s unhurried rhythms. Experienced on UD1S with ultra-black backgrounds and a nearly invisible noise floor, Heart Shaped World is in every regard a demonstration disc.

The premium packaging of this UD1S pressing befits its elevated status. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, it features foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics. Aurally and visually, this reissue is for discerning listeners who desire to immerse themselves in everything involved with the album, not the least of which is the cover art depicting a lost-in-thought Isaak staring ahead and sitting in what appears to be an efficiency apartment. The image epitomizes the record’s lonesome temperaments and pensive themes.

Of course, if not for director David Lynch hand-picking two cuts from Heart Shaped World for his 1990 film Wild at Heart, the record would’ve probably suffered the same fate as Isaak’s prior efforts and gone unnoticed by the mainstream. Despite receiving raves from outlets such as NME, Chicago Tribune, and Rolling Stone upon its original release, the album stalled in the lower quadrants of the Billboard charts and, after a few weeks, dropped off.

Cue the ear of Lee Chesnut. Then the music director for a large Atlanta radio station, Chesnut heard the instrumental version of “Wicked Game” on Lynch’s soundtrack and started airing the album rendition at all hours of the day. Aided by a sensual video featuring Isaak and supermodel Helena Christensen, the song found its way into the public consciousness by early ‘91 and helped make Isaak a most unlikely mainstream star in an era where his techniques had little to nothing in common with popular tastes.

Despite its vintage vibes and shared DNA with legends such as Roy Orbison, Chet Baker, and Glen Campbell, Heart Shaped World transcends nostalgia, rockabilly, and throwback tropes. For all the melodrama and sadness at hand, Isaak’s gorgeously transparent singing dives deep underneath emotional surfaces. He mines subtleties that indicate his feelings go beyond heartbreak and anguish, and occasionally suggest frustration, menace, and anger. You can hear it in his quivering falsetto, and the slow and methodical ways he allows delicate whispers to break into shadowy phrasing that crosses over to the darker sides of romance and desire.

That approach bolsters the title track, which suggests calm yet moves on ominous currents — its simmering pace and snare-drum snappiness foreshadowing Isaak raising the volume and urgency during the coda. The southwestern-tinged “Wrong to Love You” plays with similar concepts of hesitation, unease, and discord, Isaak careful never to fully erupt and give anything away. His poised deliveries offer a master class in the art of insinuation and hurt on “Nothing’s Changed,” sent up with a wordless backing chorus and crackling guitar lines straight out of a Memphis blues joint.

Heart Shaped World further boosts its merit via its abundant stylistic variations, from the upbeat country-and-western trot of “I’m Not Waiting” and Spanish acoustic shimmer of the jazz-based ballad “Blue Spanish Sky” to the swinging horn-accompanied grooves of “Don’t Make Me Love You” and desert smokiness of the understated “Kings of the Highway.” On the latter, Isaak comes across as resigned and absolute. His singing and pain worm their way into your soul, and echo akin to the way the music prepares to strike when you least expect.

“Trouble going 'round,” Isaak croons right as the album begins. “Trouble going down.” Damn straight.

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185,29 €

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