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Record is close to VG+. Sleeve looks good but has writing and sticker on front cover.

"That's The World" from Houston emcee Anti-Lilly and Portland, Maine producer Phoniks is the third installment of their hip-hop trilogy which featured 2014's "Stories From The Brass Section" and 2017's "It's Nice Outside". After going from exchanging beats over email in 2014 to now touring the world together the chemistry between the two has never been more evident than on their latest release.

Once again Anti-Lilly is laying his therapy sessions on record, speaking on his substance abuse, trust issues, relationships and coping with his parents divorce. But despite the negativity he touches on, the young Houston poet embraces the duality of life—taking the good with the bad and trying to find a ray of light in dark times. His outer pressures help craft the jewels he lays over Phoniks jazzy production as he showcases his mature, honest perspective across the albums 12 tracks.

American progressive rock band Kansas’ sixth studio album Monolith was their third straight studio album to hit the Billboard Top 10 in the US. Just like on their previous recordings you’ll find an extra amount of superb drumming and bass playing. They created some superlative, spiritual music that fuses the best parts of American rock and English prog. This well arranged record was the beginning of a slightly different approach, but it still maintains the power of all the band had to offer during those days. The tracks “On the Other Side”, “Angels Have Fallen” and “How My Soul Cries Out for You” are good examples of the great music the band recorded for this album. Kansas became popular during the 1970s with hits like “Carry On Wayward Son” and “Dust in the Wind”. Besides their well-known ballads, they also recorded some impressive progressive pieces. The diversity of their music and the immense energy of the band is one of the reasons why they’re still performing and recording. Monolith is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on blue Colored Vinyl and the package includes an insert.

The Quickening is an improvised work guided by emotional intuition and an ability to spin collective experience into music of potent and boundless beauty. Jim White and Marisa Anderson instrumental voices' are unmistakable and spellbindingly lyrical. Anderson unravels global guitar traditions into atmospheres all their own through improvisations and transforming melodic lines. While White implements an array of sticks, brushes, and techniques that imbue each rhythmic percussion passage with its own distinct personality. Together their melodic flourishes cascade and twist upon one another, at times trading conversational exchanges, and at others drifting in unison as if lost in the same train of thought. White and Anderson share an abounding appetite for musical exploration. White, as a member of Venom P Stinger, Dirty Three, and Xylouris White, is well known for his creative and idiosyncratic drumming. His singular abilities have also led to collaborations with Cat Power, PJ Harvey, and Bill Callahan among others. Anderson's prolific output as a solo performer, her mastery of traditional folk and blues forms and her abilities to make them entirely her own has established her as one of the most exciting and forward-thinking guitarists of the last decade. White and Anderson's considerable technical skills are used in the most inventive and unconventional manner on their debut duo recording, The Quickening. The duo' friendship and shared explorative nature inform these warm and daring improvisations. Their remarkable performances take the listener on a journey of exuberant discovery. The idea of a collaboration developed while on the road together in 2015, Anderson playing solo and White playing with Xylouris white. The Quickening began at the Portland studio Type Foundry in late 2018, where the duo initially agreed to meet and improvise and record. Happy with the recordings, the duo headed to Mexico City and into Estudios Noviembres, a time capsule of a studio from the 70's that had been largely closed before some young engineers took it over. The "slight disorientation" of working in less familiar environments mirrored their willingness to plunge headfirst into exploring new sonic territory together. Anderson purchased a new nylon string Ramos-Castillo guitar from a Mexican luthier just ahead of recording which leant to the spontaneity of "The Lucky" and "The Quickening". The duo did not rehearse or perform together prior to the recording sessions; as White puts it, "it's good to suspend disbelief at this stage of playing."

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs

Cover with seam split and writing.

1978 reissue.

Hoop Dreams gently patters into life as a comforting wall of sound builds beneath crisp percussion and a skittish bassline, its simplicity seductively luring you into its clutches before it totally immerses you in a unfolding mix of shifting melodies, competing vocal snippets and percussion that comes at you from every angle.

Life Notes returns with its 3rd transmission, with label owner Life Recorder welcoming two of his favourite producers on board: Birmingham based Jayson Wynters (Phoenix G) and Perpetual Rhythms co-founder Taelue. Guided by a natural artistic connection, they take the opportunity to present their vision of deep, meditative house/techno speaking to the mind and the dance floor.

Play It Say What Records and Isaac Basker return after a 5-year hiatus with White Souls Lost (Part II), providing 4 styles of Isaac’s distnict, “thumping” take on American house music designed for dancefloors, headphones, or contemplating human existence. Never shy of controversial track titles and themes, a trend that can be traced back to previous collaborations with Public Enemy as a hip-hop DJ and turntablist, Isaac cuts right to the chace again focusing on the state of the “soul” in post-Trump America.
On the title track, A1 “White Soul’s Lost (Part II),” a play on words of Nas’ “Black Girl Lost,” Isaac calls into question the state of some white folks’ souls in an appropriately emotive banger that starts with Afro house- oriented congas and layered deep pads until guitar solo-like chord riffs build to a layered crescendo. From this point on, to its conclusion, the track keeps the listener on high.
A2, “So Lonely Here” brings a definitive Isaac sound influenced by his experience growing up dancing in clubs to vintage NYC deep house. The track provides a deep, dusty, almost lo-fi-esque vibe geared to be a perfect track for an early set or afters. Isaac’s love of simple vocal drops in part from his background as a turntablist comes into play again as a lone, sexy female voice casually reminds us of their feelings of isolation, and is a double entendre on the state of lost souls everwhere.
B1, “Noisy Neighbours,” evokes that “thump” Hard Wax once labeled some of Isaac’s tracks. Created in response to noise complaints, a coded reference to Trump supporters, and even Isaac’s world football allegiances it could be categorized “deep house techno” but this ain’t no tech house. Heavy kicks bump over choped up live percussion as a lone pad keeps it deep, and then an analog bassline reveals the underground, grooving along to vocal drops that demand the listener to “Stop, look and listen.”
Lastly with B1, “A Paradox Now!” Isaac’s love for titles derived from word play refers this time to Francis Ford Coppola’s classic film “Apocalypse Now!” The track teases with mellow keys laid over strong 909 drums and a prominent minimal bassline as it builds slowly over panned high hats. However, it then flips from chill to bumping as a live percussion sample arrives along with a repeated Terre Thaemlinz influenced vocal that proceeds to drive the track to its peak.