Record Store Day 2021 – 1st Drop – 12 vinyl records to look out for

27.05.2021
On June 12, 2021, the first of two Record Store Days will take place this year. For this alone, several dozen exclusive releases have been announced. We have picked out twelve records that we would like to recommend to you.
Animal Collective
Prospect Hummer Ep Record Store Day 2021 Edition
Domino • 2021 • from 28.99€
“What’s going on?” ask Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear and vocalist Vashti Bunyan – the latter clearly setting the tone – on the opener of “Prospect Hummer” over delicate guitar chords in a harmonious unison. Listeners who have stored Animal Collective as canonical mainly because of their monolith »Merriweather Post Pavilion« might think the same. The peculiar mixture of electronica, indie and psychedelic already worked excellently on the time document from 2005, the necessary portion of joke, which is paired with completely unironic beauty, explicitly included. Maximilian Fritz

Beverly Glenn-Copeland
At Last! Record Store Day 2021 Edition
Transgressive • 2021 • from 16.89€
Beverly Glenn-Copeland has rarely sounded more furious than on 1980’s »At Last,« which the genre juggler recorded with his go-to pianist Doug Riley. Even the thoughtful and mantra-like “Onward and Upward” is filled with an unbridled intensity that nevertheless manages to reconcile blues rock, rock’n’roll and Copeland’s unique voice. Each of the four songs proves that intense does not exclude delicate. Even apart from the vocals there is enough going on, every lovingly recorded sound track is worth to be followed attentively. Maximilian Fritz

Dashiell Hedayat
Obsolete Record Store Day 2021 Edition
Diggers Factory/Fgl • 1971 • from 34.99€
Hair up to the butt, dirt under the fingernails. But hey, have you tried any of this stuff? Really bad! Better take only half of it, after three minutes this brother from a different mother will shoot you to the moon anyway. Dashiell Hedayat got lost in the French Gong commune with »Obsolete«, his first and only album – early seventies, the world as colorful as a bubble gum machine, the record cover said: »This record must be played as loud as possible, must be heard as stoned as impossible and thank you everybody!« Well well, have a good trip! Christoph Benkeser

Half Japanese
I Guess I'm Living: The Charmed Life Tapes Record Store Day 2021 Edition
Fire • 2021 • from 29.99€
As [Half Japanese](https://www.hhv-mag.com/en/glossaryentry/6671/half-japanese,) brothers Jad Fair and David Fair were already active as a bedroom duo in the mid-1970s. With Jad Fair’s likeable vocals that take some time to get used to and equipped with an always out-of-tune guitar and rumbling minimal drums, the band has been releasing their very special art-punk in changing lineups and at regular intervals ever since. »I Guess I’m Living: The Charmed Life Tapes« now adds unreleased songs and versions to their 1988 album »Charmed Life«. For the first time on vinyl. Andreas Brüning

And Also The Trees
And Also The Trees Record Store Day 2020 Edition
Graveface • 1984 • from 46.99€
A gem in the sea of blaxploitation films is the 1975 theatrical release of »Lord Shango«. Directed by Ray Marsh from a screenplay by Paul Carter Harrison, »Lord Shango« was marketed at the time by Bryanston Pictures (»Deep Throat«, »Texas Chain Saw Massacre«, »Dark Star«) as horror, but rather deals with the relationship between voodoo cult and Christianity in the black community. Accordingly, Howard Roberts’ soundtrack is a rather unique blend of gospel, doo-wop, Yoruba drumming, funk, jazz, and Latin, featuring, in addition to the Howard Roberts Chorale, Ella Mitchell (Sylvester, Peter Tosh), Chief Bey (Art Blakey, Pharoah Sanders), free-jazz percussionist Milford Graves, and the Aaron Staples Community Choir. Tidal Waves are providing the first re-release of this sought-after collector’s item for RSD2021. Limited to 500 copies. Harry Schmidt

HHV:829767 :Vinyl LP###### Joni Mitchell – Joni Mitchell Archives Vol.1 (Rhino)
From early recordings at a radio station in her hometown of Saskatoon and tapes for her mother’s birthday to performances in Philadelphia as well as Toronto and demo versions from New York, where she lived in the 1960s. »Joni Mitchell Archives Vol.1« is a smorgasbord of diverse snapshots in the folk icon’s musical career. From cover versions of traditional folk songs dating back to 1963, the box set biographically follows the Canadian’s first steps to her debut album in 1968. **Joni Mitchell’s sole companion through six hours of selected stages is the acoustic guitar that embraces her increasingly sophisticated lyrics. Louisa Neitz

HHV:829706 :Vinyl LP###### Michel Legrand – OST La Piscine (WeWantSound)
The soundtrack for »La Piscine« by the great maestro (and multiple Oscar winner) of film music, [Michel Legrande](https://www.hhv-mag.com/en/glossaryentry/6672/michel-legrande,) is style-defining and legendary – and saved the somewhat flat plot of this film. His jazz interludes live in a cloud of »joie de vivre,« sophisticated charm and sexiness. The string interludes add decent tension and yes, it’s okay to go out on a limb: Legrande made Romy Schneider a world star with his soundtrack. The RSD edition comes with an additional vinyl 7inch with film music for Jacques Deray’s »Un Homme Est Mor«. Lars Fleischmann

Pat Thomas
Stage Two Record Store Day 2021 Edition
Tidal Waves Music • 2021 • from 41.99€
The Ghanaian singer, songwriter and producer Pat Thomas worked together with Ebo Taylor and formations such as the Blue Monks, the Satellites and the Sweet Beans. »Mr. Golden Voice of Africa« thus released more than twenty albums between highlife, funk, reggae, soul, Afrobeat and Afropop between 1974 and 2019. One of his most famous is »Stage Two« from 1976, recorded with his band Marijata, which will be released on vinyl for the first time outside the African continent for Record Store Day 2021. Andreas Brüning

Renaldo & The Loaf
Long Time Coming: Live In Vienna Record Store Day 2021 Edition
Blocglobal • 2021 • from 33.99€
Put the Melvins in a pint with Steve Stapleton, two Indian snake charmers on acid and the thrashing atmosphere of a southern English pub after two in the morning, pour it in your face – and you’re still nowhere near what Renaldo & The Loaf pulled off on a Vienna stage in 2018. That was when the British underground grandpas played their first concert in 38 years. Totally whacky, but true: «Long Time Coming: Live In Vienna« shreds so hard into the so-called present that you have to ask yourself if old white men aren’t the better people after all. (Daring thesis, old white editor’s note) Christoph Benkeser

Roisin Murphy
Crooked Machine Record Store Day 2021 Edition
Skint • 2021 • from 39.99€
Is it disco? Is it indie? Is it indie disco? With the last predicate it behaves like tech-house: Hardly anyone puts on this shoe wantonly – at least after 2012. Róisín Murphy, however, has been so much above things for years that she should be heartily indifferent. *»Crooked Machine,« on which then-producer Parrot aka Crooked Man rethinks Róisín Machine from last year, strikes out even more violently in the direction of the club than the original, dictating the pace to the Irishwoman’s loyal following with mechanical four-to-the-floor salvos. Maximilian Fritz

Salah Ragab & Cairo Jazz Band
Egypt Strut Record Store Day 2021 Edition
Strut • 2021 • from 29.99€
It is not without reason that Salah Ragab is considered a pioneer of Egyptian jazz. The multi-instrumentalist and drummer was one of the first to combine American jazz improvisations with North African folklore. In 1968, as head of the Department of Military Music, he founded the Cairo Jazz Band, an ensemble of Egypt’s finest instrumentalists. »Egypt Strut« now brings together the early work from 1974 in a comprehensive special edition: Lively big band arrangements between free jazz and hard bop, rhythmic, raw and complex. Tim Tschentscher