{"id":2331,"date":"2019-01-20T23:45:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T04:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/?p=2331"},"modified":"2019-03-20T23:45:53","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T04:45:53","slug":"best-reissues-of-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/?p=2331","title":{"rendered":"Best Reissues of 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The Carbonas\u00a0–\u00a0<\/strong>Your Moral Superiors: Singles and Rarities<\/em>\u00a02xLP (Goner)
\n<\/strong>For whatever reason The Carbonas never quite clicked for me despite many attempts and many recommendations from highly trusted sources. They always seemed a bit too conventional during their time but I’ve been slowly backing into their back catalog, mostly\u00a0on account of band member G.G. King’s\u00a0first rate output since The Carbonas ended. And while I still lean a bit towards the boundless creative calisthenics of G.G. King’s\u00a0oeuvre, it’s hard to deny the righteousness of\u00a0the 37 snotty razor-sharp punk rock bangers by The Carbonas collected on\u00a0these two slabs ‘o vinyl. Cheers to the Goner label for delivering the the massive payload\u00a0necessary to finally<\/em> convert my dumb ass into being a fan.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Chandra
\nChandra<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Transportation<\/em>\u00a0LP (Telephone Explosion)
\nToronto record label Telephone Explosion worked its way into NFZ’s heart through a consistently solid lineup of garage punk’s finest, but recently the sound of the label has\u00a0mutated into some interesting new directions. In particular, the label has released some really intriguing\u00a0reissues from artists like Bruce Haack, Steve Roach, Melodic Energy Commission, Fist of Facts, and this gem from 1980, Chandra’s\u00a0Transportation<\/em>. Suspicions\u00a0about the novelty of a 12-year old girl fronting a post-punkish new wave group in the 1980s New York club scene are immediately tabled as the tensely-wound lead track “Opposite” stomps\u00a0with the righteous thump of ESG, the loose energy of The Fall’s “three R’s” of rock n roll (repetition, repetition, repetition), and the Slits’\u00a0dub-fused punk punch. It sounds fresh by today’s standards and\u00a0even has a bit of a no wave edge with clashing, discordant keyboards and violin that are guaranteed\u00a0to repel normals and delight weirdos.<\/p>\n

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\"Cows
\nCows<\/strong> – Effete and Impudent Snobs<\/em> (Amphetamine Reptile)
\nAmRep’s boutique reissues continue to\u00a0mine noisy gold\u00a0from their back catalog, this time resurrecting one of the Cows’ more overlooked records.\u00a0While every Cows record is worthy of your attention, I’ve always thought this one has a slightly different vibe than the rest of their discography. To me,\u00a0Effete<\/em> always felt grimier\u00a0and more akin to\u00a0the dingy bludgeoning\u00a0of Drunks with Guns than the drunken warble of their earlier records or the punchy skronk of their later, more widely known classics like Peacetika<\/em> and Cunning Stunts.<\/em>\u00a0It’s bleak and relentless, caked in noise, almost like an R-rated version of the Brainbombs. Granted,\u00a0this is still the Cows as\u00a0evidenced by\u00a0the stomping old gold classic track “Cartoon Corral”, a song propagated\u00a0by the first Dope, Guns, and Fucking Up Your Video Deck<\/em> compilation with a doublespeed oompa oompa wobble\u00a0kinda like the Butthole Surfers playing a demented polka. A couple other tracks kick up the pace a bit too, but overall, the pace is lumbering and queasy, and a bit gnarlier than their other records. Recommended!<\/p>\n

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\"ESG
\nESG<\/strong> – Come Away with ESG<\/em> LP (Fire)
\nAlong with the Chandra reissue and Superior Viaduct’s Liquid Liquid reissues a couple years back, the minimalist NYC beat party never has to end. It’s shocking how badass and fresh this 1983 LP still sounds after 35 years. It’s a stone cold classic that defies genre, slipping somewhere in the space between new wave, hip-hop, post-punk. And even though 98% of Record Store Day releases\u00a0tend to be utter wastes of oil (Sugar Ray on vinyl anyone? Anyone?)\u00a0causing record dorks to convulse with vulgar spasms of consumerism,\u00a0it’s essential reissues like this that almost justify the whole lurid affair.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe Fall<\/strong> – The\u00a0Rough Trade Singles<\/em> (Superior Viaduct)
\nOf the hundreds of releases from The Fall, some of their (specifically Mark E. Smith, R.I.P.)\u00a0finest moments were captured on wax during their\u00a0first stint on the Rough Trade label, four of which are collected here. These pillars of postpunk progeny have been reissued in many formats over the 40 years since their initial run, including 7″ box sets and expansive double CD collections of these four singles and a grab bag of related recordings, but the fine team at Superior Viaduct have lovingly packaged these indispensable classics into the perfect format LP with great sound and liner notes by WFMU’s Brian Turner. We lost MES in 2018, but his music lives on.<\/p>\n

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\"Goblin
\nGoblin<\/strong> – Profondo Rosso Original Film Soundtrack<\/em>\u00a0(Death Waltz)
\nWith nearly 50 reissues of this classic Argento movie\u00a0soundtrack (aka Deep Red<\/em>) and counting, there’s no shortage of options when it comes to experiencing this piece of wild ass Italian prog rock from 1975. This edition from Death Waltz however is one of the best-looking and best sounding editions you’ll hear, as it fully lures you into the era with enough slithering bass lines, percussive calculus, and analog synths to paint your world into the\u00a0psychedelically-tinted world\u00a0of psychotic killers and blood red splatter.<\/p>\n

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\"Hammerhead
\nHammerhead<\/strong> – Into The Vortex<\/em> (Amphetamine Reptile)
\nHappy to see another one of AmRep’s finest get a reissue of their\u00a0killer\u00a0sophomore album, even if it is a limited edition art version that sold out before it was even a twinkle\u00a0in Tom Hazelmeyer’s eye. But hey,\u00a0you can still get the CD version or stream it somewhere (gasp!) and revel in one of 1994’s best\u00a0documents of midwestern noise rock. While Hammerhead’s debut Ethereal Killer<\/em> still holds up and their raging swansong Duh, The Big City<\/em> is worthy of your attention as well, Into The Vortex<\/em> is the record where these Minnesota-via-North Dakota-via-Nowhere spazzoids kicked their amped up their aural attack to a whole new level with obscenely propulsive guttural buzz bombs that leveled every wanker wannabe “grunge” band\u00a0and their impotent\u00a0distortion pedals.<\/p>\n

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\"Punk
\nPunk 45: Approaching the Minimal with Spray Guns<\/strong>\u00a0 – 5×7″ Box Set (Soul Jazz)
\nAlso justifying Record Store Day 2018, maybe, was this exquisite collection of primo punk singles by the fine folks at Soul Jazz, whose\u00a0expertly curated\u00a0Punk 45<\/em> compilation series has\u00a0revived tons of obscure and\u00a0way out of print\u00a0gems with\u00a0copious liner notes,\u00a0excessive titles\u00a0and electrified\u00a0mastering that pumps new life into these lost classics.\u00a0This set collects full, faithful reproductions of 5 raging 45s,\u00a0with a mix of large holes and small holes, accurate labels and even the origami-like sleeve from The Scabs 1979 EP. And despite being featured on two of the LP comps, Cleveland’s X____X’s\u00a0A-side from their second release, “No Nonsense”, not included on the LPs or featured as the comp title like the B-side for this limited edition box set, is an essential chunk of mangled, tense weirdo punk that still sounds fresh 38 years later. Also included is the stomping Bizarros\/Rubber City Rebels split 7″,\u00a0the KBD-approved\u00a0Hollywood Squares “Hillside Strangler” 7″ and the Flesh Eaters’ essential “Disintegration Nation” 7″ EP from 1978, all lovingly reproduced<\/p>\n

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\"Simply
\nSimply Saucer<\/strong> – Cyborgs Revisited<\/em>\u00a02xLP (In The Red)
\nCult archival collection that’s been issued by at least four other record labels gets a deluxe double LP treatment from the always reliable In The Red label.\u00a0 The 16 tracks here, 6 studio recordings from 1974 and an extended live set from 1975, demonstrate how completely out of time and ahead of their time they were. There’s a touch of punk snarl, some expansive VU-like jams (whose influence is captured in 2 additional bonus tracks, “Sweet Jane” and “I’m Waiting for The Man” with a download code) and a wacked out space vibe that falls somewhere between the trance state of Hawkwind and the jarring\u00a0sci-fried\u00a0buzz of Chrome.<\/p>\n

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\"Unwound
\nUnwound<\/strong> – Leaves Turn Inside You<\/em>\u00a02xLP (Numero Group)
\nIn addition to\u00a0a stellar box set reissue campaign from\u00a02013\u20132016, the\u00a0Numero Group\u00a0saw fit to provide\u00a0a deluxe reissue of Unwound’s 2001 swansong, Leaves Turn Inside You <\/em>in 2018, a record which\u00a0marked the end of one of the most dependably solid bands of the 1990s without much fanfare. At the time of its release, Unwound had evolved so much from their\u00a01991 debut\u00a0that most saw this double album simply as the next step of the band’s forward thinking approach to post\/noise\/wave\/indie\/core\/whatever\/etc, rather than the\u00a0final transmission of a group whose 10 years of constant touring, evolution and reach were clearly taken for granted. While\u00a0Unwound seemed to be a known quantity in 2001, Leaves<\/em> proved to be an elusive beast that\u00a0could be identified as Unwound, but an alien\u00a0form of Unwound that had evolved into a hard-to-pin genre in a league all of its own. Kudos to Numero Group for\u00a0resurrecting\u00a0this monumental document.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Vector
\nVector Command<\/strong> – System 3 <\/em>LP (Hozac)
\nSystem 3<\/em> is a previously unreleased archival album by two members of Crime that taps into a sci-fi strain of\u00a0chilly electro postpunk orbiting in the same stratosphere as early Chrome. While not as cut-up and revolutionary as Chrome, Vector Command certainly stands on its own as a noteworthy otherworldly demonstration of punk’s wide-open possibilities in 1983 as members of one of U.S. punk’s earliest groups (Crime’s Hot Wire My Heart<\/em> 7″ released in 1976) could make a departure this dramatic\u00a0from the codification of the genre in the early ’80s.\u00a0Deviating from\u00a0the fiery stomp Crime was known for, Vector Command took a detached, robotic approach that coils like mildly-stimulating electrodes through the cerebellum with seductive, analog electronic buzz and thump.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Carbonas\u00a0–\u00a0Your Moral Superiors: Singles and Rarities\u00a02xLP (Goner) For whatever reason The Carbonas never quite clicked for me despite many attempts and many recommendations from highly trusted sources. They always seemed a bit too conventional during their time but I’ve been slowly backing into their back catalog, mostly\u00a0on account of band member G.G. King’s\u00a0first rate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[122,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2331"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2382,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331\/revisions\/2382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}