Record Store Day Black Friday 2025 preview: Non-US releases
We’re continuing our ongoing RSD Black Friday preview series today with a look at all the interesting releases that aren’t part of the US version of Black Friday. While Black Friday itself started as a grossly American phenomenon—a manufactured shopping “holiday” that takes place the day after American Thanksgiving in order to jump-start the Christmas buying season—other countries have kindly gotten on board with Record Store Day’s Black Friday, releasing rare and limited vinyl in November as a sort of kid-brother version to RSD’s main event in April.
If you missed the first installment of our RSD 2025 preview, be sure to check that out:
Ned Lannamann
As far as what we’re looking at today, these are the releases from the UK and other European countries that aren’t on the American list. Some US record stores are able to work with distributors who can get them onto US shelves, but as quantities are limited (and importing has gotten more and more complicated in recent months), just be aware that your local may not be able to get these for you. However! Since stores need to get in their RSD orders right away—this week, even—we wanted to showcase ’em in case any tickle your fancy. If they do, make a request to your local independent store immediately so they can do their best.
To our non-US readers, these releases may be part of your country’s Black Friday (if it has one); if not, you may want to make a special request too. At any rate, in the days after Black Friday, any leftovers—US and non-US alike—will hit the internet market, so eventually they should all be accessible, if not exactly cheap.
Let’s take a look at what might be worth a special request from your record store! (Remember, do it ASAP.) We took almost all these from the UK list, but several are available in other countries as well.
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine: Avon Calling! [Proper]
Despite saddling themselves with a memorably stupid band name, the London-based dance-punk duo Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine had a remarkably strong discography and a spectacular live show during their initial 11-year run. This RSD Black Friday release gives fans a taste of both. Recorded at a world-beating performance at the 1994 Phoenix Festival, Avon Calling! finds the group ripping into choice cuts from their first four studio albums and juicing them with energy (and the addition of a touring drummer) to best appease a hungry early-evening festival crowd. Released digitally in 2016 as part of the BBC In Concert series, the audio has been mastered for vinyl with some fresh artwork courtesy of friend of the band Mark Andrews. RH
Gang of Four: Shrinkwrapped [Republic]
Just in time for its 30th anniversary, and as a nice nod to Gang of Four’s final tour that ended mere months ago, the band’s sixth studio album Shrinkwrapped is being pressed on vinyl for the first time. The LP was a divisive one upon its release, as guitarist Andy Gill and vocalist Jon King chose to move beyond the sociopolitical commentary of their previous efforts and look toward a slightly more commercial sound with some help from Curve co-founder Dean Garcia and journeyman bassist Phil Butcher. I’m likely in the minority in that I have a special affection for this record, as it was one of my introductions to the group, dovetailing nicely with my then-loves for Nine Inch Nails and Killing Joke and leading me to affirmed Go4 classics like Entertainment! and Solid Gold. Your mileage may vary, but I’ll be on the hunt for this one on Black Friday. RH
Gang War: Johnny Thunders & Wayne Kramer’s Gang War! [Jungle]
This isn’t an entirely new release—this vinyl package was released in the US during one of the three “RSD Drop” days that took place in 2020 during Covid. That edition was limited to 1250 copies, and now it gets an overseas RSD re-release for Black Friday. Culling tracks from three different 1980 live gigs—from Toronto, Boston, and Max’s Kansas City in NYC, all of which have been released in one form or another—it’s a document of Johnny Thunders and MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer’s volatile collaboration in Gang War, a band that flamed out before it had the chance to make an album. There’s plenty of punk energy, as well as a trick bag full of covers like “Like a Rolling Stone,” “The Harder They Come,” “Do You Love Me,” and an airing of the rare Keith Richards/Andrew Loog Oldham co-write “I’d Much Rather Be with the Boys.” The ensemble is equally fiery and sloppy—their rendition of James Brown’s “I’ll Go Crazy” is a pretty tough listen—and probably isn’t going to be reclaimed as the missing link that connects the MC5’s agitprop to the punk-inducing CBGB scene. But as a document for a collab that never left the launchpad, it’s an interesting listen. NL
The Go! Team: Thunder, Lightning, Strike: Live from the Roundhouse [Memphis Industries]
As the years tick by, the Go! Team’s 2004 debut Thunder, Lightning, Strike has yet to lose any of its exuberant flavor, mapping a joyous collision of sample culture, indie rock, hip-hop, film soundtracks, schoolyard rhymes, and countless other ingredients that result in a cherry vanilla Coke of sound that never fails to uplift. In February 2024, the Brighton group assembled at London’s Roundhouse to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, and that show has now been pressed to vinyl. Noobs might wonder how Thunder, Lightning, Strike’s loop-heavy sound could be recreated in the live setting, but boasting a dual-drummer ensemble and the indefatiguable MC Ninja working the crowd, the Go! Team live are able to turn their dense studioscapes into pep rallies of pure euphoria. Judging by the audience-filmed clips on YouTube, this night at the Roundhouse was no exception. NL
Mississippi John Hurt: Live at Oberlin College 1965 [Southern Echoes]
Recorded shortly before the blues legend’s death in 1966, this concert at Oberlin College, recorded April 15, 1965, was originally released in 1971 by Vanguard as a double LP set called, somewhat misleadingly, The Best of Mississippi John Hurt. It captures Hurt during the brief revival his music experienced at the very end of his career, and in that way it’s a lovely document of him finally getting his due, playing in front of a large and attentive crowd who emit chuckles and cheers at his timeless country blues-pickin’ and easygoing delivery. The recording has never been an audiophile wonder, and it’s been re-released in countless formations over the years, but this 2-LP set has the imprimatur of the non-profit Mississippi John Hurt Foundation on its sleeve, with new mastering and liner notes from the estate. The only puzzling thing is why this didn’t earn a stateside release. NL
Japanese Television: Automata Exotica (The Remixes) [Tip Top]
For their most recent album, British psych-surf band Japanese Television opted to record everything live to tape—all the better to capture the buoyancy of their live sets and add some urgency to the proceedings. Not content to let the music rest there, the quartet handed these tapes over to some of their friends and contemporaries, allowing them to remix the music as they saw fit. The resulting collection is already available for download and streaming, but a physical version gets a RSD Black Friday release overseas. It’s a lovely development for those of us who want to include the dubby renovation that Factory Floor’s Gabe Guernsey gave “Tabadaboum” and the motorik throb of Floral Image’s remix of “Ariel School Sighting” into their vinyl DJ sets. RH
Maribou State: Portraits (10th anniversary edition) [Counter]
Hertfordshire-bred electronic duo Maribou State already have enough to celebrate in 2025, with the January release of their most recent LP Hallucinating Love and live appearances at Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, and Coachella. So the Black Friday arrival of an anniversary edition of their debut Portraits feels like something of a victory lap. I have no details to share about who mastered this new vinyl edition or where it was pressed, but I can tell you that the album will now be available on colored wax and comes with a second LP of remixes and the five songs that were initially released on the 2015 deluxe CD version. RH
The Orb featuring David Gilmour: Metallic Spheres [Sony Music]
Original vinyl copies of Metallic Spheres, the 2010 collaboration between The Orb’s Alex Patterson, Killing Joke bassist Youth, and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, are still very much in circulation as of this writing. So the necessity for a new vinyl pressing, even one on “pearlescent Metallic Sunrise” colored wax, is lost on me. That said, if this does get some curious listeners to take a chance on the tripped-out instrumentals that perfectly meld Gilmour’s signature flowing guitar tone into the lysergic dub electronic soundscapes of Patterson and Youth, then a good deed will certainly shine in this weary world. RH
Ivan Shopov, Carmen Rizzo & Dhani Harrison feat. New Bulgarian Voices & Georgi Petkov: Ascending into Silence [BMG]
George Harrison was famously an enormous fan of the legendary 1975 album Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, which captured the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Choir performing gooseflesh-inducing a capella arrangements of traditional Bulgarian folk songs. Their unearthly sound was based on dissonant harmonies, unconventional microtones, and an at-times strident delivery, but the end result was breathtakingly beautiful and unlike anything else familiar to western ears at the time. It makes sense that George’s son Dhani Harrison would be involved in what could be characterized as an update of the project, which features New Bulgarian Voices conducted by Georgi Petkov, as well as two electronic music producers, the Bulgarian Ivan Shopov and the American Carmen Rizzo. As to what this collaboration will actually be? Details remain scant, although the trio of Harrison, Rizzo, and Shopov previously worked with Tuvan group Huun-Huur-Tu on 2024’s Dreamers in the Field, an album of gentle musical beds augmented by Huun-Huur-Tu’s contributions. NL
Sid Vicious: Sid Lives [Jungle]
Like a cockroach, the music of Sid Vicious lingers... and lingers. This live double album was originally released by Jungle in 2007 and then again as part of Britain’s Record Store Day back in 2019, so as to why they deemed it worthy of another vinyl reissue probably has to do primarily with ledger numbers. These are lo-fi recordings of mostly cover songs, recorded at four short gigs at Max’s Kansas City in September 1978 bearing nearly identical setlists, meaning you get each song three or four times. With Vicious acting as frontman for an outfit consisting of guitarist Steve Dior and the New York Dolls’ Jerry Nolan and Arthur Kane (Nancy Spungen served as backing vocalist, but apparently her mic was not plugged in), the sound they make is thrillingly out of control, but the recordings are almost more interesting for the animosity between Vicious and the hecklers in the crowd. The package is completed by 8,000 words of liner notes, which we here at The Vinyl Cut support unconditionally. NL
Young Fathers: White Men Are Black Too (10th anniversary edition) [Big Dada]
As it is for a lot of artists following up wildly acclaimed debuts, the knives were out for Young Fathers, with critics and bloggers ready to knock these young bucks down a few pegs when their second full-length White Men Are Black Too came out in 2015. The Scottish trio dodged those blades easily with an album of futurist hip-hop, soupy R&B, and an experimental fog flowing through it all that earned them even more glowing press notices. With a decade in the rearview, their label Big Dada (an imprint under the Ninja Tune umbrella) is dropping an expanded vinyl edition on Black Friday with new art and a second disc featuring an Adrian Sherwood-like dub mix of the original album overseen by Young Fathers themselves. RH
