quête:west

Stereogum: »Here’s a cool new musical project that feels both out-there and extremely mundane. In 2022, the great Colorado experimentalist M. Sage teamed up with Lieven Martens (Dolphins into the Future) under the name Sage Martens. Their album, »Riding Fences«, was an ambient classical exercise designed to explore the idea of ›Western‹ music. They’re back this year with another conceptual offering (...)«

»Chamber Music for Lawn Mowers« is the second album by Sage Martens. This time, Matthew Sage (RVNG, Fuubutsushi) and Lieven Martens (Edições CN, Dolphins into the Future) sing the lawn.

Did you know a clean-cut lawn is a desire we inherited from the British?

Yes, the British dumped this pleasure into our collective consciousness. Those humorless Victorians who enjoyed having their black pudding on the lawn. They came to this uninspired impression while mis-looking at Italian paintings. Yes indeed, while gazing at these paintings they mistook green lanes for green lawns. Thus it became hip. Every stuffed truffle commanded his gardener to cut the grass.

As a result, this Victorian lust for sterile gardens with pretty green lawns nudged our world into water spillage and pesticide clouds. This new priority produced exhaust clouds and prudish monocultural landscapes. Just by looking at Italian paintings.

As with most of Western history, the practice was exported to America and then turbocharged. By shearing clear the prolific brush of pastures, prairies, forests and glens, biodiversity becomes an aesthetic casualty with long-suffering ecological ripples. An inherited practice narrows the bandwidth of experience.

And so, the childhood habit of humming along in key to the drone of a gas-powered mower while trimming a suburban lawn extrapolates into something expanded — an unanswered question about the harmonics of landscape practices.

M. Sage: Bb clarinet, alto saxophone, sine wave, lawn mowing, processing L. Martens: computer, analog synthesis, digital processing With W. Van Gils: lawn mowing

The debut release of Collective Direction explores the incredibly broad and fascinating variety of work of Tasti Box, operating in San Francisco in the early 90’s.

This previously unreleased album, made in the early 90’s, captures the spirit of the San Francisco free party scene that exploded around that time. DJ Harvey, Doc Martin, the Hardkiss Brothers, the Wicked Crew and a host of international guests played at legendary all-night parties at locations such as under the Golden Gate Bridge, on huge custom-built sound systems. Helping to define not only the West Coast scene but also influencing the rest of the country throughout that decade. The cultural impact of this moment in time continues to inspire today’s dance music landscape.

Opening on the delicate and melodic ambient tracks Mim and Quetzcal, the A side closes on Dr Tripi, a house-infused track preluding the uniqueness and diversity of the emblematic Tasti Box sound, explored more broadly on the B side with the triptych of Desire, U Can Fly and Box, a trippy journey melting influences from breaks, house, experimental and techno, one that can be experimented at home or in a club setting. The C side opens with the killer trancey and psychedelic club track Feel It, one expected to be definitely heard on dancefloors over the Summer. It is complemented by the almost balearic Story of O and bleepy and esoteric Electrons. On the D side, some Daisy Glow tracks, showing strong late Tasti Box influence, close the musical journey with four tracks of joyful and melodic house music, a perfect ending to a night and to the double LP.
It’s a compilation for music collectors and dancers alike and those excited to explore the history of a sound not afraid to experiment. The vinyl includes a limited edition A4 design of the artwork cover, an exclusive conversation with the artists and two vinyl exclusive tracks. One not to miss!

German trio Cloud Management approached Digital-Sting in late 2023 and started a conversation concerning a loose configuration of improvisations, studio experiments and rehearsal jam recordings. The timing was particularly serendipitous with Feel Free Hi Fi fresh off a West Coast USA tour with Exotic Gardens where we had spent several long drives along the California coast listening to Cloud Managements prior records on Altin Village. The second of which included collaborations with Exotic Gardens. This release " Unfinished Business" inhabits much of the musical history and influences foundational to the Digital Sting sound and ethos making the link up an obvious one. I don't want to be overly predictable in the comparison to the great body of work created by German legends like Moebius, Roedelius, Plank and others but it is there. Also present are heavy doses of dub wandering not too far from the furthest out zones created by African Head Charge or Dub Syndicate. Some creeping psychedelic unease in the way of Industrial Records also sits in the mix. Comparisons aside, Cloud Managements embrace of collaboration and jammy experimentalism create a sound that is unique and a bit rare in the contemporary dub and electronic music continuum where perceptions of genre restrictions can guide a bit too much. The two side long continuous tracks documented in this release lock in and groove as much as they wander, drift and break apart in subtle shifting ways making for special repeat listening where something new is always waiting.

Dune: Prophecy is an HBO original series based on the
best-selling books by Frank Herbert and Brian Herbert, and a spin-off to the blockbuster movies of Dune.

The music for the series was composed by Academy Award-winning composer Volker Bertelmann (All Quiet on
the Western Front, Conclave, Lion), whose evocative, futuris- tic ambience, meets bold, powerful orchestral tracks on this score, accompanying the story.

Set 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides, Dune: Prophecy follows two Harkonnen sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind and establish the fa- bled sect that will become known as the Bene Gesserit. Dune: Prophecy is inspired by the novel “Sisterhood of Dune”, writ- ten by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

The soundtrack of Dune: Prophecy is available as a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies on orange “Spice” marbled vinyl and includes a 4-page booklet with pictures from the series.

Chicagos zweites Multi-Platin-Album wurde von Steven Wilson von den originalen 16-Spur-Masterbändern neu gemastert. Enthalten sind die Lieblingstitel der Fans „25 or 6 to 4“, „Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon“ und viele mehr!

Forrest VanTuyl is a Western songwriter, poet, and working cowboy based in the Inland Northwest. His work has been featured in the New York Times, at The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and he has written music for the US Forest Service.

Das zweite Album des irischen Bluesrock-Trio jetzt auf Vinyl! 2014 stieg es auf Position 12 in die irischen Albumcharts ein und ist eine brillante Reise voller Blues-Rock Power! Als Nachfolger zu dem 2012 veröffentlichten und von Kritikern vielbeachteten Debüt "Electric Soup"baut das zweite Album der Band, "Rumble Shake" auf diesem Erfolg auf und liefert 10 Bluesrock-Songs aus dem tiefen Süden Irlands. Wahre Geschichten und sündhaft gute Musik mit Gästen wie zum Beispiel der texanischen Legende RAY WYLIE HUBBARD. Aufgenommen wurde das Album in den Westland Studios in Dublin, während das Trio die Historie des Ortes in sich einsog - denn in diesem Studio haben schon Größen wie BOB DYLAN, HORSLIPS und THIN LIZZY ihre Platten machen lassen - und abgemischt in Texas von George Reiff (TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND, THE BAND OF HEATHENS, RAY WYLIE HUBBARD). Christy O'Hanlon (Gitarre, Vocals), Stephen McGrath (Bass) und Gev Barrett (Drums, Background-Gesang, Perkussion) schrieben bis auf "Jessie Mae" (RAY WYLIE HUBBARD) alle Songs selbst und lassen den Bluesrock weiter Unvergänglichkeit atmen, ohne ihn dabei verstaubt klingen zu lassen.

Over and through the hot cement of North East L.A., an almost-dry riverbed winds like a snake through the city. Coyotes lap at its trickling stream by moonlight, as pedestrians rush past it by day without a second glance, their thoughts tangled up in the distractions of life in a sprawling metropolis. Here, amongst the many avenues and gentle hills, we find Coffin Prick (alias: Ryan Weinstein).

Loose Enchantment, this latest Coffin Prick record, is music conceived of in a different frame of mind for humans living in a world nearly-disenchanted with itself. The album consists of eleven new pieces of music recorded by Coffin Prick himself at his home in Los Angeles, a great city of quicksand-like commitments and those who love them enough to uphold the ends of their collective bargains. A record as much about the confusion of modern life as it is endeavored to expose the lusts in the very loins of creation. Sounds enchanting enough for you? Let’s look a little more closely…

On the heels of 2023’s Laughing (Sophomore Lounge), Coffin Prick got busy. And fast. Playing shows into the year with a newly minted live band, while simultaneously working day and night in his home studio laying the ground for what would become Loose Enchantment. Whereas he was essentially a recording know-nothing at the inception of his last LP, he’d learned a thing or two about better capturing his ideas by this point, taking the sidesteps and victories born of the experience Laughing provided and turning the bright lights on them. As many of Los Angeles’s drivers choose to do, it was time to take some surface roads. Odes to self-delusion, the mysteries of creation, cleanliness, and the secrets in other people’s lives.

A little Loose Enchantment for everyone, basically.

* The first release on Entire Records, in the shape of the soundtrack score to Academy-nominated 1976 documentary about the Bakhtiari tribe composed and performed by G.T. Moore and Shusha Guppy

* Available on vinyl for the first time since its original release.

* Musically encompassing Persian-flavoured and folk-tinged instrumentals and Farsi-language a-capellas.

* G.T. Moore is a singer and songwriter whose career stretches back to the late 60s when he was a member of folk band Heron. In the mid-70s he formed G.T. Moore and the Reggae Guitars. Later in his career, he would work with the likes of Lee Perry, Johnny Nash and Poly Styrene.
After 50 years in the music business, Gerald (G.T.) is still effortless bridging musical genres.

* Shusha Guppy, born in Tehran, was a talented writer, editor, songwriter, and singer.
Between 1971 and 1995, she recorded over ten albums of both Persian and Western folk songs.
She passed away in 2008.

The record is largely sung in Scots language, one of Scotland’s three official languages along with Gaelic and English. “Scots gives me a way of expressing myself which is connected directly with the landscapes I love. It brings the songs alive and it is a fascinating language. The name of the record is in Scots - Forefowk means the people who came before, or ancestors. When we say ‘mind me,’ we can mean a few things- remind, remember, watch over or care for me. The record explores how tradition needs to be constantly reconnected with, built upon, looked after, and shared.”
Quinie sings with a style inspired by Scottish Traveller singers. “I began singing unaccompanied Scots Song in 2015 after hearing Scots Traveller singer Sheila Stewart on the radio. Initially I felt like I shouldn't sing these songs because I'm not a Traveller, and I saw people around me doing that in a way that made me uncomfortable. But on the other hand this music made sense to me and I felt driven to learn. Over the years I have met Traveller friends who taught me that settled people sharing these songs could contribute to raising awareness. Scottish Travellers are marginalised and discriminated against in modern Scotland, despite being custodians of so many of our important traditions. So I started to perform them and tell this story. From there I built on my repertoire and started writing my own songs”.
To develop this record, Quinie travelled across Argyll with her horse. They went on a pilgrimage of sorts through the ancient landscapes of the West of Scotland to explore the interconnected relationships between people, ancestors, animals, and place. The album’s vinyl release is accompanied by a book and film, documenting this unusual research process.
Forefowk, Mind Me was recorded in August 2024 at The Big Shed in Highland Perthshire with support from Creative Scotland. Quinie is accompanied by an ensemble of musicians: Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh (viola), Oliver Pitt (duduk, bouzouki, percussion), Harry Górski-Brown (small pipes, violin), and Stevie Jones (double bass, recording, and mixing). Each of these artists brings their own distinctive voice, bridging contemporary experimental practice with worlds of traditional and early music.

Sealed ! MINT from Label Stock.

This is as well YB70 number 16, the vinyl edition of the YB70 12 CD. Fat cutting and loud sound, for a superb record... Meet these Techno Indus, downtempo dark hardbreak, Breakcore Dub and others jewelry coming straigth from the Parazit/YB70 selector. Enjoy the 12th anniversary from SEPPUKU/PARAZIT parties in west France, where all these artists played melting the Industrial scene to the techno crowd... Notice the super sleeve. A sealed record... Important release !

ULTRA LIMITED EDITION - WHITE VINYL - 4 DIFFERENT ARTWORKS (BUY, OBEY, WATCH TV, SLEEP) - NO REPRESS!

FULL soundtrack of John Carpenter's cult sci-fi/action/horror cult film They Live (1988) in never released on vinyl before expanded edition from legendary composer Alan Howarth.

Blues riffs surf on ambient synth, saxophone and harmonica mingle with sparse alien electronics and abstract soundscapes - Alan Howarth's score perfectly matches the eerie paranoid urban Western meets corporate sci fi vibe of John Carpenter's iconic movie.

This version, officially licensed from Alan Howarth, includes all 29 tracks from the soundtrack - the true complete music scores of They Live!

Points of interests

- For fans of soundtracks, horror, cult, sci fi, synth, Western, VHS, John Carpenter, bubble gum, conspiracies, cowboy boots, sunglasses, very rare editions of vinyl records.

- Full EXPANDED version of the They Live soundtrack on vinyl for the first time!

"Amazing! Like stumbling on a treasure-trove of unheard Charlie Patton and Blind Willie McTell 78s, but imbued with the spirit of Mahlathini and Ladysmith." Joe Boyd

'But for this compilation of rescued songs masterfully restored from rare 78 rpm shellacs, few could imagine the diversely beautiful roots of Zulu Guitar Music emerging during the period 1950 – 1965. Story-tellers and master musicians appropriate outlaw personae, re-purpose country and western, Hawaiian and other styles, to stretch and challenge our notion of “the Zulu guitar”.

Twenty-five songs (18 on vinyl) plunge us into the depths of the migrant experience. Translations in the liner notes offer us glimpses of pugnacity, melancholy and heartache, all coloured by the paternalism that circumscribed the singers’ apartheid-dominated lives.

The early *mbaqanga* undertow in many of the songs subverts the wanderlust of Country and Western music into a fugitivity burdened by nostalgia. Something irretrievable has been lost, prompting a blending of ideas and cultures to make sense through thankless acts of musical divination. Inadvertently they have been thrust into the role of the antihero, where outwitting competition for lovers is as important as evading the Black Jacks (apartheid’s municipal cops) and their informants.

Considering the politically repressive period that this music emerges from, we can surmise that the specificity in the storytelling went a long way towards evading censure. But even when words are absent, there is a narrative arc suggested by the musical expression.

With most of the master tapes wilfully destroyed or lost, modern transcription and restoration techniques from the original shellac discs present the original sound most likely more clearly than ever heard before.'

Produced for reissue by Chris Albertyn and Matt Temple at Matsuli Music and Siemon Allen at Flatinternational.
Artwork design by Siemon Allen.
Liner note and translations by Kwanele Sosibo.
Audio restoration and lacquers by Frank Merritt at The Carvery and pressed at Pallas, Germany.
Original 78rpm recordings sourced from the collections of Chris Albertyn at Matsuli Music, and Siemon Allen at the Flatinternational Archive.

Im klassischen, nicht-popkulturellen Sinne bezieht sich der Begriff "Schamanismus" in erster Linie auf die spirituellen Praktiken der indigenen Völker Sibiriens. Schamanen interagieren als Beschützer ihrer Gemeinschaften über veränderte Bewusstseinszustände mit der Geisterwelt. Auf ihrem Album "Songs of the Shaman" interpretieren NYTT LAND traditionelle schamanische Gesänge und Zaubersprüche der mandschu-tungusischen Sprachgruppen unter Sibiriens Ethnien. Bei diesen Liedern kommen sehr alte musikalische Techniken wie Kehlkopfgesang und Trommeln zum Einsatz. Alle Gesänge wurden in der jeweiligen Originalsprache aufgenommen. Damit will die Band deren ursprüngliche Kraft bewahren, die auch aus der Intonation sowie dem Sprachrhythmus der Worte entsteht. Diese Sammlung alter Magie in Form von Geisterbeschwörungen, Abwehrzaubern und Segensprüchen wurde sorgfältig ausgewählt und schließt Schadflüche bewusst aus. NYTT LAND sind eine rituelle nordische Folk-Band, die das Ehepaar Natalya und Anatoly Pakhalenko im August 2013 in der westsibirischen Stadt Kalachinsk gründete, welche am Ufer des Flusses Om und als Station der Transsibirischen Eisenbahn errichtet wurde. Nach drei in Eigenregie veröffentlichten Alben, "Nytt Land" (2013), "Hávamál" (2015) und "Scopun: Songs from the Elder Edda" (2016), erschien im Jahr 2017 mit "Fimbulvinter" ihr Debüt bei einem Label, auf das kurz darauf das Album "Oðal" (2018) folgte. Während NYTT LAND auch weiterhin Werke in Eigenregie veröffentlichten, traten die sibirischen Elemente in ihrer Musik auf ihrem dritten Label-Album "Ritual" stärker als jemals zuvor in den Vordergrund.

Im klassischen, nicht-popkulturellen Sinne bezieht sich der Begriff "Schamanismus" in erster Linie auf die spirituellen Praktiken der indigenen Völker Sibiriens. Schamanen interagieren als Beschützer ihrer Gemeinschaften über veränderte Bewusstseinszustände mit der Geisterwelt. Auf ihrem Album "Songs of the Shaman" interpretieren NYTT LAND traditionelle schamanische Gesänge und Zaubersprüche der mandschu-tungusischen Sprachgruppen unter Sibiriens Ethnien. Bei diesen Liedern kommen sehr alte musikalische Techniken wie Kehlkopfgesang und Trommeln zum Einsatz. Alle Gesänge wurden in der jeweiligen Originalsprache aufgenommen. Damit will die Band deren ursprüngliche Kraft bewahren, die auch aus der Intonation sowie dem Sprachrhythmus der Worte entsteht. Diese Sammlung alter Magie in Form von Geisterbeschwörungen, Abwehrzaubern und Segensprüchen wurde sorgfältig ausgewählt und schließt Schadflüche bewusst aus. NYTT LAND sind eine rituelle nordische Folk-Band, die das Ehepaar Natalya und Anatoly Pakhalenko im August 2013 in der westsibirischen Stadt Kalachinsk gründete, welche am Ufer des Flusses Om und als Station der Transsibirischen Eisenbahn errichtet wurde. Nach drei in Eigenregie veröffentlichten Alben, "Nytt Land" (2013), "Hávamál" (2015) und "Scopun: Songs from the Elder Edda" (2016), erschien im Jahr 2017 mit "Fimbulvinter" ihr Debüt bei einem Label, auf das kurz darauf das Album "Oðal" (2018) folgte. Während NYTT LAND auch weiterhin Werke in Eigenregie veröffentlichten, traten die sibirischen Elemente in ihrer Musik auf ihrem dritten Label-Album "Ritual" stärker als jemals zuvor in den Vordergrund.

Ein Album zum Schlafen und Wachen, zum Gehen und Fahren, zum Jagen und Fischen, zum Herumlungern vor einer Raststätte in der verwunschenen Tundra. In Fahrstühlen okay, zum Abendessen nicht so toll. Auf Caveman Wakes Up, dem neuen Album von Friendship und ihrem zweiten für Merge Records, wird die historisch weit gefasste Definition von Country-Musik noch weiter gefasst. Shambolische Gitarren werden durch Flötenpads ausgeglichen, trübe Poesie trifft auf eine Motown-Rhythmusgruppe, ein Song über Jerry Garcia und die First Lady Betty Ford wird mit einem Schlagzeugsolo ausgeblendet, als käme Talk Talk aus einem schmuddeligen Keller in Philadelphia und würde von James Tate gespielt. Der zerklüftete Bariton des Songwriters Dan Wriggins schneidet durch elf düstere, wirbelnde Country-Rock-Songs mit tiefgründiger lyrischer Substanz und Aufrichtigkeit. Wie ein Wecker, der am Rande eines Traums eingebaut ist, gehört "Caveman Wakes Up" gleichermaßen zum bewussten und zum unterbewussten Verstand, voller Hintergründe, durchdrungen von Referenzen und Experimenten, beiläufig und als düstere Warnung vorgetragen und vor allem der kreativen Seele der Musik gewidmet. Im Laufe der Jahre hat sich diese Hingabe ausgezahlt. Friendship ist zu einer Art umgekehrter Supergroup geworden, in der die Band selbst und jedes einzelne Mitglied im Zentrum einer zunehmend prominenten Szene junger Folk- und Country-Musiker und Songwriter steht. Der Schlagzeuger Michael Cormier O'Leary leitet das Instrumentalkollektiv Hour und betreibt zusammen mit dem Bassisten Jon Samuels das Label Dear Life Records, das Freunde und Kollegen beherbergt, die Friendship zu einem wichtigen Einfluss zählen, darunter MJ Lenderman, Florry, und Fust. (Samuels spielt auch die Leadgitarre bei MJ Lenderman and the Wind). Die Band 2nd Grade des Gitarristen Peter Gill ist ebenfalls aktiv und macht zahlreiche Aufnahmen. Wriggins begann mit dem Schreiben der Songs von "Caveman Wakes Up" auf einer verstimmten klassischen Gitarre von Lenderman und beendete es auf einem kaum gestimmten Klavier in einer Wohnung, die er mit G DeGroot von Sadurn teilte. Im Sommer 2023 hatte Wriggins gerade den Iowa Writers' Workshop verlassen, wo seine Liebe zur Poesie und sein Misstrauen gegenüber der akademischen Poesiewelt gleichzeitig wuchsen. Eine Beziehung ging in die Brüche, und Wriggins übernachtete mehrere Wochen in North Carolina im Haus von Lenderman und Karly Hartzman (von Wednesday ), wo er die ersten Demos von "Resident Evil", "All Over the World" und "Love Vape" aufnahm. Wriggins kehrte nach Philadelphia zurück, und die Band machte sich an die Arbeit, um neue Ideen zu entwickeln. Schließlich nahmen sie das Album in fünf Tagen mit Tontechniker Jeff Ziegler (Mary Lattimore, War On Drugs) auf, den Gesang mit Bradford Kreiger, dem Techniker von Love the Stranger. Orgel, Geige (Jason Calhoun) und Flöte (Adelyn Strei) wurden von Lucas Knapp in einer Kirche in West Philadelphia aufgenommen. Textlich bewegt sich "Caveman Wakes Up" auf vertrautem Friendship Terrain - das Heilige wird profaniert und das Profane geheiligt. "Caveman Wakes Up" zeigt Friendships besonderes Genie für visionäre Arrangements, die über Generationen hinweg dem Folk-Rock-Kanon von Neil Young, Joni Mitchell und Emmylou Harris ebenso verpflichtet sind wie Indie-Größen wie Yo La Tengo und den Merge-Labelkollegen Lambchop oder Zeitgenossen wie Lomelda und ML Buch. Mehrere der Songs verwenden Fade-Outs, die im Text von "Love Vape" scherzhaft erwähnt werden, und es gibt andere Elemente, die von Motown und 70er-Jahre-Balladen übernommen wurden: festgefahrene Schlagzeugmuster, Bassintervalle, gefühlvolle Streicherarrangements. Jede Referenz wird über das Genre hinausgeschoben, verwirbelt und wiederholt, zu etwas Neuem, das eindeutig zum Friendship-Sound gehört. Bei "Free Association", "Artex" und "Wildwood in January" ist der Groove so festgelegt, dass andere Klänge nahtlos kommen und gehen können: Mellotron-Flächen, Klavierwirbel und -stiche und klare Gitarrenmelodien, wimmelnde Texturen, die sich als Einheit tarnen. "Caveman Wakes Up" das bisher am weitesten fortgeschrittene Werk von Friendship, ein weiterer Beweis für die Hingabe und Sorgfalt der Band.

Sometimes records reflect life with an unsettling precision, your own breath sticking to a mirror, confounding or transforming reality. J.H. Guraj, real name Dominique Vaccaro, is back with ‘The Flip Side’, an accomplished work of grace and sprawling elegance documenting struggle and a near-death experience that summons ghosts of Western primitive masters, rollicking free folk, minimalist orchestrations, weeping guitars and smooth psychedelics.

Time stopped for J.H. Guraj in 2021 following a brush with mortality, extensive forced recovery and subsequent hints of depression after an almost fatal bike crash, leaving our wandering soul, once again, at the edges. While his previous record ‘Introspection / Migration’ hinted at Middle-Eastern influences and merged the artists’ Arbëreshë upbringing with stoic ecstasis, free-form structures and guitar wizardry under sepia tone curtains, ‘The Flip Side’ twists, turns, falls down and rises to new heights, the widescreen breadth of Dominique Vaccaro’s cinematic vision projects new colours, a stark contrast of pastoral emerald green and pitch black asphalt, urban decay and mercurial mystery.

Like passages from some archaic songbook what astonishes is how detailed the new compositions are, a warm embrace like ‘Way To Long Goodbye’, counterpoint pianos leading the way down a Gershwin avenue; ‘You Got It All Wrong So Did I’ with its Van Dyke Parks arrangement; the 9 minute epic ‘Us As Ghosts’ a haunting ballad that resolves into kosmische landscapes; the muted symphony of ‘Fake Af’ and the spectral disorientation of ‘Nothing I Can Do But Flow’. Gentle drumming from collaborator Gianluca Panici augment the eeriness of ‘The Flip Side’, motions that create a sense of suspension and yearning.

“In my category, I’m the one and only,” proclaimed Oakland legend Too $hort on his 1990 single “Short But Funky.” Few disagreed then, and even fewer would do so decades later. First appearing in the mid-1980s, slinging homemade tapes out of his car trunk, the man born Todd Shaw has always stayed true to himself. Although he is known more for the dirty side of his rap game, on “Short But Funky,” he also reminds listeners of an important fact: “There’s a serious side to everything I say.” Short Dog’s In The House, was $hort’s sixth studio album, and his second for the Jive label. By the time it hit, he was a West Coast legend, but his rep was growing Eastwards, as the rest of the country started opening its ears to new sounds. Peaking at #20 on the national Billboard 200 chart, the album was exactly what his dedicated fans expected funky, 70s drenched beats made for cars on the boulevard, and no nonsense lyrics that made more sense and dropped more knowledge than he was ever given credit for. For examples of his conscious side, look no further than the P-Funk fueled “It’s Your Life” or the album’s lead single, “The Ghetto.” The album’s second single “Short But Funky” landed somewhere in the middle of $hort and Todd Shaw, talking about where he was at as the new decade broke, and making it clear that he wasn’t going anywhere. His mortality was mainly on his mind after rumors had surfaced the year before that he had died in a crack house. He speaks directly to this crazy episode on “Dead Or Alive.” And although it’s mostly a solo affair, he brings in some heavy artillery and a lot of not for the kids profanity on “Ain’t Nothin’ But A Word To Me,” featuring none other than Ice Cube In between, $hort distributed plenty of tales and charisma for fans to eat up, continuing to build his legendary status as one of the rap trailblazers of the era. Get On Down has repressed this 1990 Bay Area classic album on Blue and Ruby Color-In-Color vinyl