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Casbah Records End Of 2024 Blog
And here it is… our final blog for the year,
below you will find an assortment of news, reviews and vintage hues!
Thank you all for your continued support throughout 2024;
We hope you’ve all had a very Merry Christmas and we look forward to keeping your record fancy tickled in the new year!
CASBAH’S RECORDS OF THE YEAR
Here we are again folk, sorting through the year’s finest releases!
After plenty of discussion and some tough choices, we’ve narrowed it down to our top ten favorites. There were some real gems released this year which we hope you enjoy! Think we’ve missed a worthy contender? Stop by and let us know!
NEW RELEASES
1. MJ Lenderman “Manning Fireworks”
Raw, honest, and full of lo-fi charm. A must-listen for fans of alt-country and slacker rock that speaks to the soul!
2. Jessica Pratt “Here In The Pitch”
The otherworldly Jessica Pratt only continues to expand, with her latest album seeing some of her best songwriting to date, delicately embraced with smooth Bossa-nova and touches of 60s pop á la Spector
Here In The Pitch is heart wrenching, an intimate slow burn that is bound to linger on and on.
3. Nala Sinephro “Endlessness”
Meditative and boundary-pushing, A swirling transcendental journey, blending lush ambient textures with elements of ethereal jazz. Hear your heart beat endlessly through Sinephro’s masterfully arpeggiated modular synths.
4. Ghost Funk Orchestra “A Trip To The Moon”
A cosmic blast of groove filled jazz and psychedelic soul. Feels like a long lost soundtrack to a film from the 1960s!
5. Kim Gordon “The Collective”
The legendary Kim Gordon returns with her second solo effort, an experimental blend of gritty, distorted noise rock with industrial trap beats.
6. Bette Smith “Good Thing”
7. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings “Woodland”
8. Geordie Greep “The New Sound”
9. Jack White “No Name”
10. Charli XCX “Brat”
Honourable Mentions!
Plantoid “Terrapath”
Lady Blackbird “Slang Spirituals”
Milton Nascimento & Esperanza Spalding “Milton & Esperanza”
Vegyn “The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions”
Brittany Howard “What Now”
Cindy Lee “Diamond Jubilee”
Highlights from all of these releases along with other honorable mentions from the year are rounded up in the playlist linked below!
REISSUES AND COMPILATIONS
1. Juliet Lawson “Boo! The Early Recordings”
“Britain’s answer to Joni Mitchel” After 50 long years, the 1972 singer-songwriter cult classic, Boo! is finally available. See below the original artwork
2. John Cale “Paris 1919”
Delicately remastered from its original tapes, the prolific Velvet Underground co-founder revisits his baroque-pop classic Paris 1919.
3. Nico “Desertshore”
Out of print and with faulty original pressings, the year has somehow become less bleak with the re-issues of Nico’s seminal avant-garde masterpieces The Marble Index and Desertshore.
Remastered from the original analogue tapes, highlighting Nico’s everlasting visionary in tandem with John Cale’s haunting arrangements.
4. George Harrison “Living In a Material World”
5. Bob Dylan “Live 1974”
6. Barry Ryan “Rarities 1975-79”(CD Box Set)
7. Kevin Ayers “Joy of a Toy”
8. Margo Guryan “Words and Music”
9. White Noise “An Electric Storm”
10. The Radio Dept. “Lesser Matters”
VINTAGE VINYL
Below are a superb selection selection of vintage vinyl that have gracefully entered the market!
IT AND FRIENDS
In other vintage news, we have also bought in some great British underground papers, namely IT and Friends, Here’s a selection of some great period artwork and articles, along with some cheeky proposals for love!
feel curious to dig deeper into the fine print by clicking on the images!
Radio Geronimo
Radio Geronimo, as advertised in this excerpt from ‘Friends’ was one of the first independent underground radio stations, legally broadcast via Monte Carlo.
A group of serious music fans with a strong desire to bang out the sound of the underground, including everything from cosmic jazz, to progressive rock, long album tracks with minimum chat in between,
Radio Geronimo was truly groundbreaking.
In the links below you can read more about the fascinating, forgotten story of this incredibly influential station, and even listen to an archived broadcast!
CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S STILL HERE!
We still have this superb 2007 all bells and whistles copy of the. ‘Harold & Maude’ soundtrack by Cat Stevens.
Unreleased at the time, this reissue is the final word in deluxe reissues. Not only containing many hitherto unreleased Stevens songs this package just keeps on giving. Lavish gatefold sleeve, posters, book, flyers, 7″ picture sleeve single and outer obi strip. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. I’ve only ever seen this one copy!
FOR SALE!
For sale we’ve got an amazingly rare, original 1970s 8-track player, fit for a car. You’ll have to go a very long way to find one of these!
There’s no Spotify, no playlists here—just a very satisfying clunk as you push in the tape to your player.
Be the envy of your friends as the holder of this very vintage kit, enquire within!
SHOPS WE MISS
One Stop Records on London’s South Molton Street achieved legendary status in the late sixties and early 70’s as the go to place to find all the latest imports and underground music.
Frequented by many famous musicians and DJ’s such as Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan, Elton John and John Peel to name a few!
Read more about this cooler than cool shop in the link below;
Casbah Records Blog: October 2024
Welcome to the all new ‘bell’s ‘a’ poppin’ Casbah ‘big Spender bulletin’.
Choc full to the brim with news, reviews and all things connected to the plastic passion!
NEWS REVIEWS AND NEW IN!
The Guardian listed us in their top record shops in the uk!
Just arrived are our new exclusive range of tote bags, inspired by vintage 70’s inner sleeve designs!
Furthermore, heres a sampler of our new selection of vintage prints!
NEW RELEASES
All Seeing Dolls – ‘Thats Amazing Grace / Siren’s Echo Lung‘
New 10” EP featuring Brian Jonestown Massacre Anton Newcombe and legendary One Dove vocalist Dot Allison. Psychedelic dream pop/shoegaze on eye catching splatter vinyl.
Thee Sacred Souls – ‘Got A Story To Tell’
Second LP from Thee Sacred Souls on the Daptone Label. For lovers of Stay/Southern soul and classic 60s soul sounds.
Highly recommended, on ‘unlimited black vinyl’.
Tucker Zimmerman & Friends – ‘Dance Of Love’
Instant classic of Americana from legendary folkie Tucker Zimmerman with the help of Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek.
Public Service Broadcasting – ‘The Last Flight’
The latest offering from Public Service Broadcasting does not disappoint! The band embrace a more contemporary pop sound with vocal contributions from EERA, Andeya Casablanca and This Is The Kit. Whilst maintaining their classic sample sprinkled electronic style.
NEW VINTAGE VINYL
New Vintage Vinyl Picks
Rare and first pressings that have recently come into the shop,
Above feature;
Ayshea Brough – ‘Ayshea’ (1st pressing)
Miles Davis – ‘On the Corner’ (1st pressing)
Traffic – ‘Mr Fantasy’ (1st pressing)
Rolling Stones – ‘Sticky Fingers’ (70’s Japanese pressing)
Nico – ‘Desertshore’ (1st pressing)
Fontaines D.C. – ‘Romance’ (1st pressing)
John Martyn – ‘Solid Air’ (1st pressing)
T.Rex – ‘Tanx’ (1st pressing)
Alice Cooper – ‘Schools Out’ (1st pressing)
OUR NEW WINDOW DISPLAY
Let’s go through the window and down a rabbit hole to visit the phantasmagorical world of Alice In Wonderland, curious Victoriana and the whimsical world of English psychedelia…
The Cheshire cat and the mad hatter from the original book illustrations by John Tenniel.
Unlike the white rabbit you will never be late with this vintage time piece.
T.Shirt sporting the original Mad Hatter drawing which became the iconic label design for the Charisma record label founded in 1969. Home for the likes of Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator, String Driven Thing and Lindisfarne amongst others.
Children Of The Sun by the Sallyange. A 1968 original pressing on the Transatlantic label. Featuring the floaty vocals of Sally Oldfield and teenage kid brother Mike. Contains the epic ‘Midsummer nights happening’.
Nursery Cryme Genesis; Tales of Musical Boxes, Giant Hogweeds, Harlequins and absent friends. Complete with nightmare Alice artwork.
Kevin Ayers ‘Joy Of A Toy’. From 1069 the recently departed from Soft Machine Kevin Ayers sings a song for insane times referencing ‘Alice’ and ‘I Am The Walrus’.
The Trees ‘On The Shore’. A cult classic from 1972. English folk-rock featuring the sublime vocals of the much missed Celia Humphries.
Andwellas Dream. 3 LP box set from the Numero label. Contains the 1969 album ‘Love And Poetry’ full of excellent pop-psych fayre, the more ‘stonesy’ ‘Worlds End’ and the heavy Band influenced ‘People’s People’. All essential listening.
Magic Carpet, ‘Self Titled’. Originally released in 1972 on the wonderfully named ‘Mushroom Label, this album has remained a hard to find cult classic. Now reissued for everyone to enjoy the acoustic sitar tinged songs of Alisha Sufit.
Caravan ‘In The Land Of Grey And Pink’. A jolly piece of pure English whimsical rock from the Canterbury scene’s main standard bearers.
CANT BELIEVE ITS STILL HERE!
| Sammy Davis Jr ‘Something For Everyone. Tamla Motown 1969. Sometimes records you think should be in demand and flying out the door can remain unloved and unsold! This 1969 album from U’S superstar and rat packer Sammy Davis is one such example. Recorded on Tamla Motown it was in keeping with the trend for mainstream artists who were struggling to stay relevant with the onset of the rock revolution to as they say, ‘get with it’ dress up in some hip gear and record some current pop songs. This usually resulted in mixed results but ‘Something For Everyone’ is a little nugget of an album. Loose and funky Davis is in his element. There’s brilliant versions of Blood sweat And Tears standards, ‘Spinning Wheel’ and ‘You Made Me So Very Happy’ plus an absolute epic take on Stevie’s ‘Once In My Life, which refuses to end. The sleeve art says it all, the front showing Sammy surrounded by the then west coast Motown staff looking like ‘the daddy’ and on the back again in the middle of some groovy young swinging types with a two piece check number to die for. We have it so give it a good home. |
Also worth exploring is the Bob Stanley compilation ‘State Of The Union’ which explores the theme of American mainstream break out pop from the late sixties. Also in stock now.
THE NUMERO GROUP
One of our favourite labels at the moment is the Chicago based Numero Group. Founded in 2003, the archival record label has built a superb reputation and following based on their prolific range of compilations and reissues of overlooked and forgotten original albums. These range from funk and soul, to folk and 90s indie and shoe-gaze.
They recently filled a pop up shop in Shoreditch with their extensive range of LPs and 7”s, along with an exclusive range of merchandise such as tees, totes, pins and lighters. The pop up also included some rare hand-screened editions, out of print dead stock and test pressings, with Crouch End’s Audio gold taking care of the Hi Fi sound system for the duration of the stay. The duo hosting the store were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable making for a lively and sociable atmosphere.
On my visit I picked up two of my favourite albums, Antena’s ‘Camino Del Sol’ and Chuck Senrick’s ‘Dreamin.’
Camino Del Sol – Antena
An expanded compilation album based on the original 1982 mini album, released by the French-Belgian trio Antena. Chilling synths, stuttering drums, and dreamy, beachy vocals, Camino Del Sol plays as a modern bossanova album, combining elements of post punk and new wave. An incredibly evocative album predating the likes of Stereolab and Air. As if Nouvelle Vague wrote their own songs!
What a Beautiful Place – Catherine Howe
Limited edition reissue of long forgotten gem from 1971. Bittersweet, soft and jazzy folk classic!
Recommended listen for fans of the likes of Vashti Bunyan and Linda Perhacs.
Basement Beehive (The Girl Group Underground)
One of the best girl group compilations ever!
Stellar girl group gems, if you like the Shangri-la’s and the Ronettes you’ll love this!
Eccentric Soul Minibus
An essential soul and funk compilation, gathering together some obscure gems from 1960 right up to 1980. Amazing artwork and booklet inside, get on the groove bus!
CHRIS WELLARD
Whilst going down various vintage record shop rabbit holes I found out that Chris Wellard who founded the record shop in Lewisham Way near Goldsmiths had passed away in 2022 well into his nineties. I used to shop at his other branch in Eltham during lunch breaks and after school in the early 70’s. I met Chris a few years back when he was parting with some of his blues and folks records. Great bloke with some wonderful stories.
See these blogs for more on the record shops and the connection with the Goldsmiths Student Union, who booked many famous artists and a few years back opened their incredible archive of original posters, flyers etc to the public.
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