Fresh Grabs

Still waiting on the Oldies order made three weeks ago...

November Acquisitions


Current year selections

Bodikhuu - Tokyo
Lucinda Chua - YIAN
Maria BC - Spike Field (signed)
Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

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Bodikhuu is the first release associated with Mississippi Records I own! Relaxed instrumental hip hop from a Mongolian producer, despite the Japanese title and album art. Only $15 in store.
YIAN is an ambient pop highlight. Gentle, rejuvenative, and lush orchestral arrangements.
Went to Portland to see Maria BC for the second time on Wednesday. Gorgeous performance, even if their set was only 40min long. Bought this at the table, and got it and my copy of Hyaline brought from home inked.
One of the best albums of the year. Finally available on LP several months after digital release. Similar packaging to Pang; large 2x3 panel foldout poster but also a printed inner sleeve. Maybe the latter makes it temporarily worse, the LP almost felt glued to the inside of the inner.


tone poem/Visible Cloaks pop-up selections

Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一) - 音楽図鑑
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Solid State Survivor
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Technodelic
Hiroshi Yoshimura (吉村弘) - A・I・R (Air In Resort)

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Two weeks ago, there was a pop-up store jointly held by Spencer Doran of Portland ambient duo Visible Cloaks and the owner of tone poem, a record collector previously on assignment in a boutique store but now in a state of flux. The tone poem owner is also fluent in Japanese. Both he and Spencer regularly travel to Japan and scope out Japanese records of various genres, fringe (avantgarde/experimental/ambient) genres, and rare books to import them over here to resell at very fair prices for the better good of us collectors here. I spent more money than I normally would.
I found an OG ECM copy of 18 Musicians!!!! It has a hole punch, something I found odd...it doesn't bother me but don't understand why it was there. Playtested it on the test table nearby and was convinced with it enough to go through. Has the original insert as well.
This copy of Sakamoto's 音楽図鑑 is an OG. It was reissued this year The OBI strip that was holding on by threads at both ends separated while I took it out of the outer sleeve to inspect...I've mended both ends with tape and it functions just like new! A fun synthpop record, with lots of crossover sounds.
Both of these YMOs are excellent, of course. I'm only missing Naughty Boys, which I did pass on at the pop-up.
While I'm glad I have this Yoshimura beauty, it sounds terrible right now. I didn't read the Discogs reviews prior to purchasing, so that probably would've swayed my opinion on purchasing but here I am with a noisy, crackly, unlistenable piece of wax. I need to get this through an ultrasonic cleaner (Humminguru or equivalent). I have optimism that it is still salvageable.


Miscellaneous selections

Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru - Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru
Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
Arvo Pärt - Für Alina
Vito Ricci - I Was Crossing a Bridge
Loris S. Sarid - Seabed-Sunbath

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Well, I've seen all the talk about Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru and how many of you have this (or others of hers) in your collections. I finally cracked and got one last week from the source, Mississippi Records. Pressing isn't fantastic, but good enough for $16. Gets better as it goes along, quite enjoyable. Hope I live to 99 as well. RIP.
How did I not have this Joanna album earlier?!?
Also on the Mississippi Records label, this Arvo Pärt mini-compilation is delicate minimalism tapestry. Lightly used copy for $12, but sounds dead silent. Love it.
Couldn't believe I saw a used MFM record in my wantlist in the new arrivals bin for $15. Incredibly unique entry in the label.
Another record from Moon Glyph that I enjoyed last year. Certainly one of my top10 favorite record labels.
All of these acquired at Mississippi Records.
 
I found an OG ECM copy of 18 Musicians!!!! It has a hole punch, something I found odd...it doesn't bother me but don't understand why it was there. Playtested it on the test table nearby and was convinced with it enough to go through. Has the original insert as well.
Nice additions. I’ve been looking for a nice copy 18 Musicians at a decent price for years.

Regarding the hole punch, this album was likely “Remaindered”. Lots of times records just don’t sell and back in the day sellers of media such as books and records wanted to move old stock that was clogging up their storage but was afraid that unscrupulous customers would buy these albums super cheap and then later return them for a full price refund. So to prevent this, they would remainder the discounted copies essentially marking or branding them so they could not be returned. The hole punch is less common. Most of the time you will see a saw cut mark in roughly the same area or a completely cut off an entire corner of the jacket. Obviously it effects the value overall but usually the records themselves are uneffected.

This isn’t practiced as much any more on new records but In the book world remaindering is still a fairly common practice. In books, you will usually find a heavy Sharpie marker dash across the top or bottom of the books bound pages.
 
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Nice additions. I’ve been looking for a nice copy 18 Musicians at a decent price for years.

Regarding the hole punch, this album was likely “Remaindered”. Lots of times records just don’t sell and back in the day sellers of media such as books and records wanted to move old stock that was clogging up their storage but was afraid that unscrupulous customers would buy these albums super cheap and then later return them for a full price refund. So to prevent this, they would remainder the discounted copies essentially marking or branding them so they could not be returned. The hole punch is less common. Most of the time you will see a saw cut mark in roughly the same area or a completely cut off an entire corner of the jacket. Obviously it effects the value overall but usually the records themselves are uneffected.

This isn’t practiced as much any more on new records but In the book world remaindering is still a fairly common practice. In books, you will usually find a heavy Sharpie marker dash across the top or bottom of the books bound pages.
on CDs and tapes you'd see a notch sawed into the case and cover. used paperbacks I used to see with the covers ripped off completely.
 
Nice additions. I’ve been looking for a nice copy 18 Musicians at a decent price for years.

Regarding the hole punch, this album was likely “Remaindered”. Lots of times records just don’t sell and back in the day sellers of media such as books and records wanted to move old stock that was clogging up their storage but was afraid that unscrupulous customers would buy these albums super cheap and then later return them for a full price refund. So to prevent this, they would remainder the discounted copies essentially marking or branding them so they could not be returned. The hole punch is less common. Most of the time you will see a saw cut mark in roughly the same area or a completely cut off an entire corner of the jacket. Obviously it effects the value overall but usually the records themselves are uneffected.

This isn’t practiced as much any more on new records but In the book world remaindering is still a fairly common practice. In books, you will usually find a heavy Sharpie marker dash across the top or bottom of the books bound pages.
I have a ton of hole punches, usually through the barcode. Also common back in the 80/90s was the upper right corner being sawed off at an angle.
 
I have a ton of hole punches, usually through the barcode. Also common back in the 80/90s was the upper right corner being sawed off at an angle.
I did mention the sawed off corners.

The punch through the UPC makes a lot of sense. I just don’t have a huge collection of used 80s LPs when UPC became much more common. Most of my remaindered copies are pre UPC and have a saw cut or a missing corner.
 
I did mention the sawed off corners.

The punch through the UPC makes a lot of sense. I just don’t have a huge collection of used 80s LPs when UPC became much more common. Most of my remaindered copies are pre UPC and have a saw cut or a missing corner.
Sorry missed that.

The ones I really hated were the small saw cut in the spine, like they later did with cds. Those would tear pretty easy
 
The Jazz Five Featuring Vic Ash And Harry Klein - The Five Of Us (Tempo, 1961 First Signed Pressing)
Harry Beckett - Harry Beckett's Warm Smiles (RCA Victor, 1971 First Pressing)
Ray Russell - Rites And Rituals (CBS, 1971 First Pressing)
Nucleus - Alleycat (Vertigo, 1975 First Pressing) & (Vertigo, 1975 First Test Pressing)


Some British jazz greatness in this months haul overview. The Jazz Five were a short lived group that really cooked, and this rare album has the added bonus of being signed by all members of the group. The Harry Beckett is now a second copy I have of this album and my plan is to do a shoot out for which one I will keep. The Ray Russell is the last in his run of more jazz orientated releases that I was missing. Finally, a really interesting (to me anyway) oddity in a white label test pressing of Nucelus' 1975 album "Alleycat". Unusually, this also includes a test print of the sleeve, which is textured and missing the catalogue number and Vertigo logos that the final version has (the final version is laminated instead of textured too). This sleeve is essentially a single piece of folded card, not glued, and without a spine. The left image below is the original final version and the right is the test print.

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Don Rendell - Meet Don Rendell (Tempo, 1955 First Pressing)
The Jazz Couriers And The Eddie Thompson Quintet - BBC Jazz Club (BBC Transcription Services, 1958 First 10" Pressing)


This Don Rendell 10" is an album that I have never seen for sale before I was able to get this copy. Its incredibly rare and the first release by Rendell. I have the Japanese pressing which is good but essentially a needle drop from a decent pressing of the original. Im just 1 album away from having all of Rendell's discography on vinyl now. I also managed to score another BBC Transcription Service release which features Rendell in the Jazz Couriers alongside Tubby Hayes.

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J Jazz - Deep Modern Jazz From Japan Volume 3 (BBE, 2021 First Pressing)
The Mar-Keys / Booker T. And The MG's - Back To Back (Stax, 2023 Vinyl Me Please Classics Pressing)
The Tony Kinsey Quintet - A Jazz At The Flamingo (Decca, 1957 First 7" Pressing)
Don Rendell Jazz Six - Doggin' Around (Pye Nixa, 1957 First 7" Pressing)


A mixed bag with some Japanese jazz, the latest in VMP's Classics series, and some British jazz 7" releases.

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Jazz Cantata - Volume 1 & 2 (1969)
Down Beat Jazz Record Review Volume 2 (1957)
Inside Bebop by Leonard Feather (J.J. Robbins & Sons, 1949 First Edition)


Finally, some books! The 2 volumes of the Jazz Cantata by Michael Garrick is sheet music for his 1969 album of the same title, which was released only for the friends and family of the musicians that attended the Farnham Festival earlier in the year. The Down Beat book contains all of the reviews for albums released in 1957, and this is now the 3rd copy of this that I have, there are a couple of volumes that im missing so hopefully I can use this as a swap. Lastly is Leonard Feathers popular "Inside Bebop" which has the added bonus of being signed by the man himself.

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