Music

The 10 best reissues of 2015

by Jesse Locke

In a year clotted with $40 editions of classic rock albums that could previously be scored in your local dollar bin or Record Store Day ‘exclusives’ no one asked for like the fake grunge band band from Singles, the state of reissues can be depressing. Thankfully, there’s also the flipside of the coin with exploratory labels seeking out brave new worlds of unreleased offerings or holy grail rarities with prices that could scare off even the most seasoned collectors. We’ve stacked up 10 of the year’s most thrilling reissues below.

Gloria Ann Taylor – Love Is A Hurting Thing (Ubiquity)

Gloria Ann Taylor’s 1973 b-side “Love Is A Hurting Thing” is an oceanically deep cut of psychedelic soul with copies of its original 12” fetching four figures. This year it reappeared as the backdrop of U.S. Girls’ Slim Twig-produced “Window Shades” and has now provided the title for a compilation of Taylor’s sparse but heart-stopping output, including the equally affecting “Deep Inside You” and a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.”

Sun City Girls – Torch of the Mystics (Abduction)

The original fourth world freakout band coalesced their countless sonic excursions on 1990’s Torch of the Mystics. Sounding like This Heat channeling Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western scores with some of the most damaged guitar action of any decade, brothers Alan and Richard Bishop teamed with drummer Charles Gocher to crank out well over 50 albums. This one is often considered the high bong water mark.

Savant – Artificial Dance (RVNG Intl.)

Seattle-via-Winnipeg’s Kerry Leimer moved on from a set of solitary studio experiments (also compiled by RVNG Intl. on 2014’s A Period of Review) to assemble the group project Savant. More post-production than post-punk, Leimer stitched together instrumental jams with found vocal samples and scattered sound sources to create phantasmagoric grooves. Savant has earned rightful comparisons to David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, though I’d reach for this collection over its inspiration any day.

Mariah – Utakata no Hibi (Palto Flats)

In 1983, producer Yasuaki Shimizu assembled this dazzling fusion of Yellow Magic Orchestra-style ‘city pop’ with sweeping orchestrations, slinky disco, and vocals alternating between Japanese and Armenian. Heard today, it sounds like a vision beamed down from the retro future and is somehow light years beyond 2015.

Ata Kak – Obaa Sima (Awesome Tapes From Africa)

The cassette that put Awesome Tapes From Africa on the map in 2006 finally landed a vinyl release nine years later thanks to a Canadian connection. As you can attest if you’ve already hit play above (or have been bumping Ata Kak for years), the Ghanaian rapper spits squeaky fire over relentlessly chintzy beats that sound like Prince demos from another dimension. Awesome Tapes founder Brian Shimkovitz finally tracked down its creator Yaw Atta-Owusu on a trip to Toronto in 2015. Read the full story from FACTMag.

Gigi Masin – Wind (The Bear on the Moon/Music From Memory)

Italian electronic composer Gigi Masin may be best known for providing the dreamlike sample for Bjork’s “It’s In Our Hands” and his catalogue is well worth a deep dive. This year saw Masin reissue his 1986 album Wind through his own label with distribution from the great Music From Memory. The combination of Masin’s emotive vocals with muted horns and his trademark shimmering synths make for some of the most soothing sounds on the ambient sphere.

The Velvet Underground – The Complete Matrix Tapes (Polydor/Universal)

Velvets fans are surely already drooling over this 4CD box collecting a pair of 1969 performances at San Francsisco pizza-shop-turned-venue The Matrix. The band hit a peak here, as shown on the blistering 36-minute “Sister Ray” above and other previously unheard extendo-vamps. If you’ve got any interest in hearing some of the cleanest and meanest VU boots ever laid to tape, this is the motherlode.

PACK – PACK (Ugly Pop)

It might surprise you to learn that this 1978 slab of raw-boned and raging first-wave punk arrived from a former member of prog group Embryo and krautrock collective Amon Düül II. Germany’s Jörg Evers reverted to his earliest inclinations for a set of snotty tunes with sandpaper vocals recorded live off the floor of a WW2 bunker. Thanks to Ugly Pop for the pogo-inducing history lesson.

Renny Wilson Punk Explosion – Explosion/Extension (Mint Records)

Mint Records made the brilliant move of reissuing Renny Wilson’s brilliantly dumb Punk Explosion collection, first delivered as a grip-or-it’s-gone cassette in 2014. The sugar rush garage punk of rippers like “Radio Receiver” or Flipper-style falsetto dirge of “Stiffed” are timeless teenage kicks from the reigning king of kijiji. Renny closes it all out the worst/best cover of Foreigner’s “Juke Box Hero” you never knew you needed.

Intersystems – Intersystems (Alga Marghen)

The other side of weird Canadiana comes from late ’60s electronic wig-flippers Intersystems with a lavish 3LP set from Italy’s Alga Marghen. John-Mills Cockell of Syrinx infamy teamed with poet Blake Parker for some gloriously warped wormholes on their trio of albums Number One, Peachy, and Free Psychedelic Poster Inside. These have finally been bundled together and given the treatment they deserve with expansive liner notes, photos, and the works.