REISSUES EXTRA

Air

★★★★

10,000 Hz Legend RHINO. BR/CD

After Moon Safari’s space-age wine bar optimism, the French duo took a more composerly, darkly wistful turn. For its 20th anniversary, this heavily textured LP gets a full-spec Blu-ray remaster. Extras include glitchy ballad The Way You Look Tonight (from 2002’s remix album Everybody Hertz), live tracks and demos. JB

Dave Clark Five

★★★★ Glad All Over BMG. LP

The DC5’s 1964 US debut album, then released to capitalise on the success of its stomping title track, now remastered by DC and de-fluffed: throwaways like Doo Dah make way for stronger (Crying Over You; 3046) and tougher (’69’s Who Do You Think You’re Talking To) material. On white vinyl to match their pristine trousers. JB

Bertie Marshall

★★★ Exhibit UPSET THE RHYTHM. DL/LP

Later a novelist, Marshall’s roots were in punk’s Bromley Contingent. His band Behaviour Red recorded one single, Ke Ke Ke Ke Ke Ya, picked up by both John Peel and a Dutch toothpaste ad. It’s a blood-pumping, tribaldrumming highlight of this collection of post-punk, sprechgesang goth. CP

Bixiga 70

★★★★ Bixiga 70 GLITTERBEAT. LP

Tenth anniversary vinyl edition for the debut by São Paulo 10-piece who strove to emulate Fela’s Africa 70 in both name and approach, assimilating hip-hop, jazz and reggae into Afro-Brazilian traditions. Brass-heavy but deeply percussive, highlights include the unexpectedly psychedelic Jamaican jam, Zambo Beat. JB

Willie Hutch

★★★★ Soul Portrait BE WITH RECORDS. LP

Future blaxploitation soundtracker first honed his craft at RCA. Produced by John Florez, 1969’s Soul Portrait announced an artist already fully formed; his songcraft and arrangements concise, energetic, and bubbling with melody. See the uplifting, Curtis-like Ain’t Gonna Stop; the slinky You Can’t Miss Something That You Never Had. LW

North Americans

★★★★ Going Steady THIRD MAN. LP

After two electronic albums, LA’s Patrick McDermott set about repurposing the opaque traditions of American Primitive guitar on NA’s third, from 2018. Against a backdrop of delicate, glowing drone, guitar and pedal steel waltz and hum like a slow, metaphysical bloom. Vinyl extras include singles Gallup and Catch And Release. JB

The Brief Encounter

★★★

Introducing The Brief Encounter REAL GONE. LP

Super-rare 1977 R&B (original on Discogs: £1,343) by North Carolina outfit. “The baddest group of people you’ve ever seen” are more like a polite Isleys. Fine harmonies, best on their too-rare forays into earthier, Clinton-esque funk. CP

Loney Hutchins

★★★ Buried Loot APPALACHIAN RECORD CO. CD/DL

Subtitled “Demos From The House Of Cash And ‘Outlaw’ Era, ’73-78”, these 24 unreleased songs, demoed for a publishing deal with Johnny Cash’s label, reveal a richly-voiced Nashville songwriter as at home inhabiting tender material (lovely Hazel Smith co-write Stoney Creek) as ‘outlaw’ songs (the cautionary tale of Pinball King). CP

Various

★★★★ Essiebons Special: 1973-1984 ANALOG AFRICA. CD/DL/LP

Subtitled “Ghana Music Power House”, a fitting epitaph for Dick Essilfie-Bondzie, Ghanian highlife producer behind the Essiebons label’s keyboard grooves. Six unreleased cuts, including Ernest Honny’s fusion-ready Say The Truth. Highlight: the blissful whirl Yeaba by CK Mann’s Carousel 7. JB