New Releases
April 18, 2025Rhiannon Giddens reunites with her former Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson on What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow. Produced by Giddens and Joseph "joebass" DeJarnette, the album features Giddens on banjo and Robinson on fiddle, playing eighteen of their favorite North Carolina tunes. Many were learned from their late mentor, legendary North Carolina Piedmont musician Joe Thompson; one is from another musical hero, the late Etta Baker. Giddens and Robinson recorded outdoors at Thompson’s and Baker’s North Carolina homes, as well as the former plantation Mill Prong House, accompanied by the sounds of nature, including two different broods of cicadas, which had not emerged simultaneously since 1803, creating a true once-in-a-lifetime soundscape.
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Rhiannon Giddens reunites with her former Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson on What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow. Produced by Giddens and Joseph "joebass" DeJarnette, the album features Giddens on banjo and Robinson on fiddle, playing eighteen of their favorite North Carolina tunes. Many were learned from their late mentor, legendary North Carolina Piedmont musician Joe Thompson; one is from another musical hero, the late Etta Baker. Giddens and Robinson recorded outdoors at Thompson’s and Baker’s North Carolina homes, as well as the former plantation Mill Prong House, accompanied by the sounds of nature, including two different broods of cicadas, which had not emerged simultaneously since 1803, creating a true once-in-a-lifetime soundscape.
David Longstreth’s Song of the Earth, a song cycle for orchestra and voices, is performed here by Longstreth with his band Dirty Projectors—Felicia Douglass, Maia Friedman, Olga Bell—and the Berlin-based chamber orchestra s t a r g a z e. The album also features Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie), Steve Lacy, Patrick Shiroishi, Anastasia Coope, Tim Bernardes, Ayoni, Portraits of Tracy, and the author David Wallace-Wells. Longstreth says that while Song of the Earth—his biggest-yet foray into the field of concert music—"is not a ‘climate change opera,’” he wanted to “find something beyond sadness: beauty spiked with damage. Acknowledgement flecked with hope, irony, humor, rage.”
The twenty-seven disc box set Steve Reich Collected Works features music recorded during the composer's forty years on the label—six decades of his compositions, including first recordings of his two latest works, Jacob’s Ladder and Traveler’s Prayer—plus two extensive booklets with new essays by Robert Hurwitz, Michael Tilson Thomas, Russell Hartenberger, Judith Sherman, and Nico Muhly, and a comprehensive listener’s guide by Timo Andres. Nonesuch made its first record with Steve Reich in 1985; he was signed exclusively to the label that year. Collected Works includes twenty-four discs of Nonesuch recordings and three from other labels.
Hurray for the Riff Raff's single “Pyramid Scheme” amplifies the spirit of resilience and rebellion of their acclaimed 2024 album The Past Is Still Alive. Armed with poetic prowess and personal truths, the song conveys a pervasive contempt for the dark side of the Internet and the alienating, undermining effects it has on artists and outsiders. Nods to Billy the Kid, Calamity Jane, Darby Crash, and Frida Kahlo are wrapped in melodies and arrangements that are equal parts scrappy and saccharine, backed by Phil Cook on organ, Yan Westerlund on drums, Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy on electric guitar, and The Past Is Still Alive producer Brad Cook on bass.
February 13, 2025Andy Moor, of the Dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex, remixes the Amsterdam-based duo of Bolivian-born singer/instrumentalist Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Chicago ex-pat jazz drummer Frank Rosaly's "BALADA PARA LA CORPORATOCRACIA," from their debut album, MESTIZX. "Andy has so much experience with communal music from around the globe ... but he’s also lived the life of a musical activist, which is apparent in everything he does," Ferragutti & Rosaly say. "We didn’t think 'BALADA PARA LA CORPORATOCRACIA' could get any filthier, but he proved us wrong!"
This 9-LP + 4 CD Deluxe Edition of Wilco's 2004 Grammy-winning album A Ghost Is Born includes the original album, alternates, outtakes, and demos, charting the making of the album, plus the complete 2004 concert recording from Boston’s Wang Center and the band’s “fundamentals” workshop sessions. The deluxe box includes 65 previously unreleased music tracks as well as a 48-page hardcover book with previously unpublished photos and a new liner notes by Grammy-winning writer Bob Mehr. “Another engrossing, unorthodox record," said Mojo. "With the low-key yet magnificent A Ghost Is Born Tweedy's offering plenty more reasons to believe in the redemptive powers of Wilco.” "Spectacular," Uncut exclaimed. "Their most engaging album yet."
This 9-CD Deluxe Edition of Wilco's 2004 Grammy-winning album A Ghost Is Born includes the original album, alternates, outtakes, and demos, charting the making of the album, plus the complete 2004 concert recording from Boston’s Wang Center and the band’s “fundamentals” workshop sessions. The deluxe box includes 65 previously unreleased music tracks as well as a 48-page hardcover book with previously unpublished photos and a new liner notes by Grammy-winning writer Bob Mehr. “Another engrossing, unorthodox record," said Mojo. "With the low-key yet magnificent A Ghost Is Born Tweedy's offering plenty more reasons to believe in the redemptive powers of Wilco.” "Spectacular," Uncut exclaimed. "Their most engaging album yet."
The two-CD expanded edition of Wilco's 2004 Grammy-winning album A Ghost Is Born includes the original album plus a second disc of outtakes and alternates. “Another engrossing, unorthodox record," said Mojo. "With the low-key yet magnificent A Ghost Is Born Tweedy's offering plenty more reasons to believe in the redemptive powers of Wilco.” "Spectacular," Uncut exclaimed. "Their most engaging album yet."