New vinyl reissues: April 24, 2026
A little thing like Record Store Day can’t do much to upset the endless torrent of new vinyl reissues, and this week is looking as robust as ever. We’ll get into the rundown in a second, but first, a reminder that our April vinyl giveaway is now live! Each month, paid subscribers get a chance to win free vinyl, and this month we’re giving away a copy of the excellent new Rhino Reserve pressing of John Coltrane's seminal Giant Steps. Go here to enter:
Ned Lannamann
Paid subscribers also get weekly playlists—such as the one included here. (Can’t see it? That means you’re not a paid subscriber.) These playlists include a track from almost every release discussed in today’s newsletter and are playable on Apple Music, Tidal, and Spotify.
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Now, let’s get into the week.
ZZ Top: Tres Hombres [Analogue Productions]
Last year Rhino reissued ZZ Top’s 1973 classic Tres Hombres via an all-analog cut on their Rhino High Fidelity imprint; now it’s Analogue Productions’ turn. They’re upping the stakes, cutting it onto two LPs at 45 RPM under their UHQR banner, with the 200-gram discs pressed on “Clarity” vinyl and housed inside a fancy slipcase. Tres Hombres is the Texas trio’s finest recorded hour (well, 33 minutes, to be precise), featuring their wonderfully grimy Southern blues-rock delivered in straight-ahead roadhouse style, with classics like “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” “Move Me on Down the Line,” and “La Grange.” One wonders if this boogie rock needs all these fancy accoutrements and high-end mastering—it was cut from tape by Matthew Lutthans and should sound damned swanky as a result—but that’s the eternal question with these premium reissues, isn’t it? At any rate, Billy Gibbons’s guitar should sound more lifelike than ever, with Frank Beard’s drums and Dusty Hill’s bass rendered in holographic realism. Sadly, the sumptuous spread of mouthwatering Mexican food on the inner gatefold spread will remain as two-dimensional and out of reach as ever. You’d think at this price they’d toss in a taco or two. NL
Terry Callier: At the Earl of Old Town [Time Traveler]
This live recording from folk-soul troubadour Terry Callier was recorded in 1968 via a tape recorder in the audience. As such, it is barely a step above a bootleg in terms of fidelity; it also contains quite a bit of distracting crowd chatter during Callier’s hushed acoustic performance. As such, it can only be recommended to Callier devotees. This was released as part of Record Store Day in the UK and Europe and now receives a standard release in the US. Read our full review here. NL
The Montgolfier Brothers: The World Is Flat [Caroline True]
It feels fitting for this Manchester, UK, duo to have named their musical project after the French brothers who pioneered hot-air ballooning in the late 18th century. The songs created by the late Roger Quigley and Mark Tranmer feel like being wrested free from gravity and sent floating pleasantly above the ground. It’s a rare sensation in music, shared by such disparate artists as the Durutti Column and Seefeel, but the Montgolfier Brothers brought a pure pop sensibility to this buoyant sound that can warm the soul or break the heart with one sharp turn of lyrical phrase. Just as the label did in 2019 with the duo’s 1999 debut Seventeen Stars, this week Caroline True Records is reissuing 2002’s The World Is Flat. The limited-run release is the first vinyl pressing of the album, and it comes with a bonus track previously only available on the original Japanese CD. RH
Parliament: Osmium [Demon]
The first Parliament album, 1970’s Osmium, may be scarcely recognizable to those who only know the George Clinton-led outfit’s mid-’70s heyday as cosmic funkateers. To be sure, there’s plenty of funk to be found on Osmium—that’s the original lineup of Funkadelic as the backing band—but at this stage Parliament had just as much psychedelic soul in their DNA as anything else. Released on the Holland-Dozier-Holland spinoff label Invictus Records, it’s a complete treat from start to finish, with curveballs and leftfields galore; check out the yodeling on “Little Ole Country Boy,” later appropriated by De La Soul, or the sonorous bagpipes and angelic harp on the oddly stirring closing number “The Silent Boatman.” Demon Records released an expanded 2-LP edition of Osmium on Record Store Day in 2024 on green vinyl; now it gets a wide release on black vinyl. This is a weird, wild, and altogether wonderful record that gets overlooked even by P-Funk enthusiasts. Don’t make the same mistake. NL
Descendents: Enjoy! [Org Music]
From the start, Cali pop-punkers Descendents happily embraced highs and lows in their music. On their 1986 album Enjoy!, for example, the group included heartfelt songs about unrequited love and the end of romantic relationships with songs like the title track and “Orgofart,” both of which celebrated flatulence in all its glory. The mixture of the heartfelt and puerile is an unusual one, but Descendents make it work through the boundless, infectious energy they apply to everything from a tasteful cover of the Beach Boys’ “Wendy” to a recording of the four men farting in the studio. This new pressing of Enjoy! is the latest in a series of Descendents reissues that Org Music have released since the band wrested control of their back catalog from SST Records. The lacquers were cut by Dave Gardner at DSG Mastering and the vinyl was pressed at Furnace Record Pressing. RH
Sparklehorse + Fennesz: In the Fishtank 15 [Konkurrent]
In the late ’90s, label/distributor Konkurrent invited some of their favorite artists to take a couple of days in a Dutch studio and create some new music that would be issued as part of their In the Fishtank series. Some were by individual acts, like Canadian punk trio Nomeansno or Louisville post-hardcore group June of 44, but the most intriguing of these releases were made by pairs of artists working together, sometimes for the first time. One of the finest in the series was the 2009 collaboration between Mark Linkous, the musician who recorded under the name Sparklehorse, and Christian Fennesz, an ambient electronic artist from Austria. The two men were already fans of one another, and Fennesz had contributed to the 2006 Sparklehorse album Dreamt for Lightyears in the Belly of a Mountain, so there was a level of comfort that they brought to the two-day session. The nearly 40-minute release spills over with warm, gooey experimental guitar work cast in the unnatural glow of a laptop and the LED lights from an array of Eurorack synths. Konkurrent is reissuing In the Fishtank 15 in a limited turquoise vinyl pressing this week. RH
Prince: 3121 [Sony]
The headline with Prince’s 2006 album 3121 is that it was his Royal Badness’s first to hit number one since 1989’s Batman, capitalizing on the rejuvenated success he’d found with 2004’s Musicology. It’s easy for Prince’s 21st century albums to all blend together, but 3121 distinguishes itself by embracing Prince’s pop proclivities, using more synths than usual and toning down the extended funk workouts. That’s not to say there’s no funk on 3121—there’s an absurd amount, it’s just used to bolster concise party-starters like “Black Sweat” and “Lolita.” (How had there never been a Prince song called “Lolita” before this?) It’s also got the bedroom R&B of “Incense and Candles” and a detour into bossa nova in “Te Amo Corazón.” It’s not a perfect album, but it’s Prince, and it’s back on vinyl for its 20th birthday, give or take a month or two. NL
Inrain: Rise [Music from Memory]
In the early ’90s, A.R. Kane member Rudy Tambala was introduced to Cranes vocalist Alison Shaw by their mutual pal, Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis. The two musicians got along famously and set about collaborating on a batch of songs that fluidly combined the sounds of their individual projects, with Tambala’s exploratory pop ideas providing a colorful backdrop for Shaw’s delicate voice. In spite of the creative connection, the pair’s mutual project Inrain only issued three tracks of minimalist, dream-like ambient pop on a one-off 1991 7-inch. But those songs have had such a lasting impact on subsequent generations of bedroom-pop and downtempo artists that Dutch label Music from Memory is reissuing the original trio of tunes with an Inrain track recorded in 2012 as a 12-inch single this week, using audio remastered from the original DAT masters. RH
T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo: West African Beat: Rare 7s and EPs from Benin and Niger [Acid Jazz]
In two weeks, we’re getting a second reissue of rare work from Benin’s legendary Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, also known as T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo (the T.P. stands for “tout puissant,” or “all powerful”) or Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou (Cotonou being the large coastal city in Benin) or even Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey (Dahomey being the West African kingdom that was eradicated during the rise of colonialism and the forming of Benin). Last week’s LP collected the group’s work with the self-proclaimed “devil’s prime minister,” Antoine Dougbé; this week sees a double LP from London label Acid Jazz that compiles some of their incredible records for the Albarika Store label, focusing on their ’70s heyday. The tracks come from uncollected 7-inchs and EPs, of which the Orchestre released some 300 or so during their existence. Their style is a rich mix of dance rhythms, Afrobeat, funk, and traditional Beninese music. NL
The Gentle People: The Peel Sessions [WRWTFWW]
With an artistic aesthetic informed by the lounge and easy listening records released in the ’60s, the Gentle People could be dismissed as pure kitsch. Yet there was something strangely and unnervingly dark about their sound. It was a quality that may have helped get them signed to Rephlex, the electronic label co-run by Aphex Twin that released the group’s two studio albums in the late ’90s. As with many of the great indie acts of the time, the Gentle People were invited to BBC’s Maida Vale studios in 1997 to record a session for John Peel’s Radio 1 program. But unlike many of those sessions, the four tracks that the group recorded were never officially released in any form. Just as they did with their recent 3-LP reissue of Soundtracks for the Living, Swiss label We Release Whatever the Fuck We Want is filling the gap in our Gentle People library this week with a limited run 12-inch EP of the group’s Peel Session, pressed on bright pink wax. RH
Squirrel Bait: Squirrel Bait; Skag Heaven [Drag City/Dexter’s Cigar]
Much like The Dana Carvey Show or the 1972 production of Godspell in Toronto, the impact of Louisville, Kentucky’s Squirrel Bait is felt most strongly via the projects its various contributors went on to afterwards—in this case, Slint, Gastr del Sol, and Palace Music among them. But that’s no reason to ignore the music that Squirrel Bait made during their brief time together. The three releases the group recorded for Homestead Records in the mid- to late ’80s set the stage for the future rise of emo and other adventurous punk groups like Jawbox and Hazel. Squirrel Bait’s founding guitarist David Grubbs has re-released the band’s recordings through his Drag City sub-label Dexter’s Cigar, but unfortunately the vinyl reissues of 1985’s Squirrel Bait EP and 1987’s Skag Heaven fell out of print. Thankfully, new pressings of both are arriving in stores this week that will hopefully seed a new generation of melodic hardcore bands. RH
Wishbone Ash: Argus [Proper]
Wishbone Ash’s third album Argus was a coalescence of ideas for the British group, locating the heart of their blend of hard guitar rock, British folk, and gently exploratory prog. Released in 1972, its dueling guitars rest at the axis that crosses heavier Fairport Convention jams like “Sloth,” Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, “The Boys Are Back in Town,” and early Iron Maiden, who took the band’s twin-guitar approach to heart. Argus contains the group’s best songwriting and playing, and it remains a spellbinding listen for those susceptible to a particular brand of guitar-driven Britrock from the early ’70s; Zeppelin fans in particular may be wondering where this band has been their whole lives. The LP has been subjected to a lot of fancy reissues lately, including a 3-LP/3-CD/1-DVD box set from Madfish in 2023 that contained demos and loads of live stuff, and a 2-LP 45 RPM version from Analogue Productions in 2025, cut from tape at Abbey Road. Now Proper Records is reissuing a standard, straightforward release of the album on one LP at 33 RPM, and it should be more than enough to stand on its own. NL
Helen Ripley-Marshall: Green Chaos [Fresh Hold]
In the early ’80s, Sydney-based musician and artist Helen Ripley-Mitchell was a member of an art-rock project called D Face but often felt dissatisfied with the band’s aggressive sound and the challenges of working within a group dynamic. Inspired by the music of Tangerine Dream and Harold Budd, she started developing material that had more dynamic range, with calming synth pulses and floating drones set within elegant rhythms and melodies played on violin and trumpet. Her lone studio album Green Chaos was released on indie label Freefall in 1988 and soon became a cult classic among fans of new age and ambient. The LP is getting a long overdue reissue this week with remastered audio taken from the original DAT masters and a pressing from Leipzig’s R.A.N.D. Muzik. RH
The Wedding Present: Plugged In [Secret]
Leeds-born indie rockers the Wedding Present have a busy touring schedule this year. The group is soon to wrap up a run of US shows and they’ve got a mess of UK dates in the future, all in celebration of the 35th anniversary of their 1991 album Seamonsters. If, for some reason, you can’t attend one of these gigs, the next best thing is to grab one of the many live albums they’ve released over the years. One of the finest of these, Plugged In, is getting a vinyl repress this week. Originally released in 2007 under the name Shepherd’s Bush Welcomes the Wedding Present, the 2-LP set was recorded at a 2005 date at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire in support of their fantastic album Take Fountain. The performance leans heavily on that record, but the rest of the setlist is a perfect overview of the group’s healthy discography and the wounded romanticism of singer/guitarist David Gedge. RH
Analogue Productions Living Stereo Series
Two more entries into Analogue Productions’ reissue series of the RCA Living Stereo collection have dropped. The first is a 1962 LP from Jascha Heifetz that tackles slightly lesser known works in the violin repertoire: Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy was written for the violinist Pablo de Sarasate, and it explores Scottish folk melodies across four movements. Meanwhile, Vieuxtemps’s Violin Concerto No. 5 is one of a batch of seven the Belgian virtuoso wrote in the mid-1800s; Heifetz was a proponent of getting the composer’s work, largely forgotten by the 20th century, back in the public eye. Heifetz is joined by Malcolm Sargent and the New Symphony Orchestra of London on these works. Meanwhile, Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Spain is a tour through orchestral pieces by Spanish composers Granados, Falla, and Albéniz; expect castanets. These 45 RPM 2-LP pressings use the metalwork from lacquers originally cut from tape by Bernie Grundman for Classic Records more than 20 years ago. NL
Munster & Vampisoul
Once again the fine folks at Munster Records and their sister label Vampisoul spoil us with a heaping array of excellent obscurities. First up are two salsa albums originally released in 1971 on Joe Bataan’s Ghetto Records, a New York label that released seven LPs in its brief three-year lifespan. Puerto Rican-born, New York-raised salsa pianist Joe Acosta’s The Power of Love is a fascinating blend of harder salsa dura and more soulful ballads. From Ear to Ear comes from the New York ensemble La Fantástica, which incorporated vibraphone into its unusual blend of salsa, merengue, and rhumba. Recently reissued by Now-Again Records, Vampisoul takes up the mantle for these new pressings. Then, Munster continues its series curating the work of Catalan countercultural musician Pau Riba. Juguetes de Época y Cajas de Cerillas is a 2-LP compilation of the songwriter’s tunes from 1967 to 1969, rounding up singles, stray tracks, and alternate versions from his earliest years, when he blended folk and psychedelia. Munster has also prepared reissues of two EPs from Bolivian hard psych band Climax, Nacido Para Ser Alvaje (1969) and Nacido Para Ser Alvaje 2 (1970). Vampisoul rounds out the week with a reissue of Spanish softcore star Susana Estrada’s 1981 7-inch “Mi Chico Favorito,” an erotic disco number that pilfers the bass line from either Chic’s “Good Times” or Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” depending on who’s asking. NL
Ace Records
Three fine new soul/R&B reissues arrive from the British reissue experts at Ace Records via their Kent, Southbound, and BGP imprints. The first is Darrow Fletcher Presents Jacklyn & Genna Records [Kent], a disc that compiles 45s originally released on the tiny Chicago label Jacklyn Records, which was best known as the home of ’60s R&B teen singer Darrow Fletcher; this LP looks at the other artists on their roster, including Paul Smith, Pam Colquitt, Mighty Joe Young, and Lovemasters, whose lead singer Ron Murray also recorded some singles for the Jacklyn subsidiary Genna Records. Next up is Millie Jackson’s 1978 pop-disco-soul LP Get It Out’Cha System [Southbound], which has her covering Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” and offering one of her trademark raps on “Logs and Thangs,” an extended riff coming out of her version of Latimore’s “Keep the Home Fire Burnin’.” Last is Spring Originals [BGP], which compiles tracks from the Spring Records catalog. The New York funk and soul label hit its stride during the disco era, and this 2-LP set compiles some of the extended disco mixes from the period, with tracks by Millie Jackson, Fatback, Joe Simon, and more. NL
Jazz Alley
Three new discs in Craft’s Original Jazz Classics series are here: Introducing Lee Morgan, released on Savoy in 1956, captures the trumpeter at age 18, performing with Hank Mobley, Art Taylor, Doug Watkins, and Hank Jones. 1960’s This Here Is Bobby Timmons is a hard bop set originally released on Riverside as the pianist’s first LP as bandleader. And 1961’s Vee-Jay set The Young Lions is a one-off gathering featuring Wayne Shorter on tenor and Lee Morgan on trumpet. These were all cut from tape by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI. Meanwhile, Verve’s Acoustic Sounds series returns to the deep and refreshing John Coltrane well for a fresh new pressing of the saxophonist’s 1961 first LP for Impulse!, the groundbreaking Africa/Brass, which displayed a giant leap (step?) forward from Trane’s work on Atlantic. Using a larger ensemble that made use of tuba and French horn, Coltrane started to explore the spiritual sound that would crystalize on A Love Supreme four years later. This was cut by Matthew Lutthans from analog tape and pressed at QRP. Next up: Blue Note’s new Tone Poet release is a 3-LP set from trumpeter Kenny Dorham: The Complete ’Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia captures four sets from May 31, 1956, recorded at the New York club; one LP was originally released in 1956 and two more volumes came out in Japan in the ’80s. This set collects the full night’s recordings all in one place, cut from tape by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI. Last up is an archival release from the estate of Thelonious Monk. Monk Live in Paris, 1967, Volume One has circulated before on various labels including Charly, France’s Concert, and Get Back, but now it comes in an estate-approved edition on Rhythm-a-Ning Records. The performance, recorded November 3, 1967 at the Salle Pleyel and captured by French broadcasting agency INA, finds Monk fronting a nonet that includes tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist Larry Gales, and drummer Ben Riley, plus a five-piece horn section. NL
OTHER REISSUES OF NOTE:
Abhorrence/Disgrace/Messiah Paratroops: Maggots: Original Artyfacts from the First Finnish Death Metal Era Part 1 (3x7”) [Svart]
The Alarm: Best of Live [Secret]
Rashied Ali, Byard Lancaster, Vito Ricci: Postones [De Occulta]
Alien Sex Fiend: Between Good and Evil [Culture Factory]
Alisha’s Attic: Alisha Rules the World [Music on Vinyl]
Apostle: White Metal; Chariots of Iron [Retroactive]
Roy Ayers Ubiquity: Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival [Universal Japan]
Beathoven: Live at Pascoe Vale High School 1977 [Grown Up Wrong]
Average White Band: Soul Searching [Demon]
Blonde on Blonde: Rebirth [Culture Factory]
Brand Nubian: One For All (35th Anniversary 7-inch box set) [Get on Down]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Dave Digs Disney [20th Century Jazz Masters]
Chas & Dave: Anuvver Fing Coming: 50 Years of Rockney [Demon]
Chase Atlantic: Dalliance; Nostalgia; Paradise; Phases [BMG]
The Cosmic Dead: The Cosmic Dead; The Exalted King [Heavy Psych Sounds]
The Damned: Live at the 100 Club [Radiation Reissues]
Miles Davis: Live in Helsinki/Berlin 1964 [The Lost Recordings]
Deus: Worst Case Scenario; In a Bar, Under the Sea [PIAS]
Manu Dibango: Waka Juju [Soul Makossa]
Disgusteens: Disgusteens [Hey Suburbia]
D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles): Dealing with It [Beer City]
Druid: Toward the Sun [Music on Vinyl]
Eve 6: Eve 6 [Music on Vinyl]
The Fabulous Thunderbirds: Hot Number [Last]
Girlschool: Live from the Camden Palace [Culture Factory]
Yoshio Ikeda Quintet: Sketch of My Life [Studio Mule]
Pedro Iturralde: Jazz Flamenco [Elemental]
Paul Johnson: Feel the Music; Bump Talkin’ [Peacefrog]
Mat Kerekes: Luna and the Wild Blue Everything [Wax Bodega]
Steve Lacy: The Straight Horn of Steve Lacy [Ojo de Mujer]
Michel Legrand & Miles Davis: Michel Legrand Meets Miles Davis [Decca]
Lorenna McKennitt: The Mask and the Mirror; Nights from the Alhambra [Quinlan Road]
Migala: Asi Duele un Verano [Acuarela]
M.D.C.: Millions of Dead Cops [Beer City]
Mindless Self Indulgence: How I Learned to Stop Giving a Shit and Love MSI [Music on Vinyl]
Gary Moore: Old New Ballads Blues; Close as You Get; Live at Bush Hall 2007; Bad for You Baby [BMG]
Ennio Morricone: Trilling soundtrack [Intermezzo]
Natrus: Natrus [Needle Mythology]
New Bomb Turks: Nightmare Scenario [Music on Vinyl]
The Orb: Bicycles & Tricycles [Cooking Vinyl]
Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection [Music on Vinyl]
Pia Fraus: Nature Heart Software [Seksound]
Elvis Presley: EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert [Sony]
Elis Regina: Elis [Verve]
Sade: Diamond Life (Rough Trade 50) [Sony]
Sadies: Modern Pop from Mauritania 1984–1989 [Bongo Joe]
Nina Simone: Sinnerman: The Spiritual Nina Simone [New Continent]
Social Distortion: Social Distortion [Music on Vinyl]
Soda Stereo: Dynamo; Sueño Stereo; Comfort y Música Para Volar [Music on Vinyl]
Shudan Sokai: Sono Zenya - Live at Hachioji Alone [Aguirre]
Rick Springfield: Karma [Friday]
Status Quo: Live in Glasgow 27 October 1976 [Demon]
Suicidal Tendencies: Suicidal Tendencies [Frontier]
Isao Suzuki: String Band; The Thing [Victor]
Tai Phong: Tai Phong [GM]
Tokyo Blade: Madame Guillotine/Undercover Honeymoon/The Cave Sessions [Culture Factory]
Caetano Veloso & Gal Costa: Domingo [Verve]
Carlos Walker: A Frauta de Pã [Music on Vinyl]
Warrant: Belly to Belly Vol. 1 [Deko]
Weezer: Coloring Book Box [UMe]
Paul Weller: Weller at the BBC Vol. 2 [WB/Parlophone]
Yes: From a Page [Mercury]
Various Artists: Bulayo: Guitar Songs from Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and DR Congo [Mississippi]
Various Artists: Cosmic Stash: High Lights [Jazz Dispensary]
Various Artists: Xkatedral Anthology Series III [Xkatedral/Ideologic Organ]
