While his formative years were spent listening to everything from Yes to Photek, Scott Hansen didn�t get his hands on an actual guitar or drum machine until he left his native Sacramento for San Francisco in 1995. �Encountering this whole new world at 20 years old was a profound experience,� says Hansen, better known by his musical pseudonym Tycho and as the graphic artist ISO50. �At the time, I was just learning the processes of design and music; both felt very similar, and have flowed back and forth for me ever since.�

As seamless as his two creative outlets have been, nearly a decade passed before the release of Hansen�s first proper Tycho LP, Sunrise Projector (later expanded and reissued under the title Past Is Prologue). And while three striking singles have emerged since then, the sum of all those sepia-toned parts�is nowhere near the double-exposed soundscapes of Dive.�The product of a prolonged break from IS050�s design work and blog, it pays tribute to Tycho�s prismatic past (the dense, guitar-guided turning points of �Daydream� and �Adrift�) but spends most of its time pointing to the project�s not-so-distant future.

"After the monumental success and critical acclaim of Cocoa Sugar, Mercury Prize winning Edinburgh trio Young Fathers will release their highly anticipated sixth studio album, Heavy Heavy. Made up of Alloysious Massaquoi, Graham �G� Hastings and Kayus Bankole, Young Fathers have long been recognised as one of Britain�s most vital and distinguished bands - merging incendiary and thought provoking lyrics with cutting edge visuals and an undeniable propulsive live show. Written and recorded over the course of three years, Heavy Heavy is a tour de force from the trio. An unashamedly soulful and heartfelt album, where the drums set the scene throughout to transport the listener to a place of celebration and awakening.

Cocoa Sugar received huge press support from Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork (7.3/10), NPR, Pop Matters (9/10 - �This album will resonate for years to come""), Under The Radar (8.5/10), Exclaim (9/10), Northern Transmissions (8/10), New York Times Magazine Music Issue, The Fader, Stereogum, Noisey, Hypebeast, Past and more. The band have had multiple sold out headline shows (Elsewhere in Brooklyn (The New Yorker praising the group�s �impressive ease"" and �versatility that can be heard in the pop harmonies and stomping rhythms that seem to glue their avant sounds together.�) and Moroccan Lounge in LA), support for LCD Soundsystem and Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Hollywood Bowl as well as a SXSW performance for the New York Times showcase, KEXP live session and performance on Jimmy Kimmel.

Prior to Cocoa Sugar, Young Fathers released the Mercury Prize winning album DEAD in 2014 followed by the seminal White Men Are Black Men Too in 2015. Before these albums the band released two now-legendary mixtapes Tape One in 2011 and Tape Two in 2013, the latter of which also won Scottish Album of the Year."

�I feel like there are two sides of me,� says the Nashville-based singer-songwriter and guitar virtuoso known as Sunny War. �One of them is very self-destructive, and the other is trying to work with that other half to keep things balanced.� That�s the central conflict on her fourth album, the eclectic and innovative Anarchist Gospel, which documents a time when it looked like the self-destructive side might win out.

Extreme emotions can make that battle all the more perilous, yet from such trials Sunny has crafted a set of songs that draw on a range of ideas and styles, as though she�s marshaling all her forces to get her ideas across: ecstatic gospel, dusty country blues, thoughtful folk, rip-roaring rock and roll, even avant garde studio experiments. She melds them together into a powerful statement of survival, revealing a probing songwriter who indulges no comforting platitudes and a highly innovative guitarist who deploys spidery riffs throughout every song.

Because it promises not healing but resilience and perseverance, because it doesn�t take shit for granted, Anarchist Gospel holds up under such intense emotional pressure, acknowledging the pain of living while searching for something that lies just beyond ourselves, some sense of balance between the bad and the good.

Featuring: David Rawlings, Allison Russell, Jim James, Micah Nelson

The songs of Requiem captured live as part of an intimate ceremony at the Hollywood United Methodist Church.

Weezer are proud to present one of their most exciting projects to date: SZNZ, a four EP song cycle of sorts. Already mythical across the internet, SZNZ will, fittingly, be released at the start of every season via Crush Music/Atlantic Records. Each EP will offer it's own palette of colors, creatures, and emotions to explore. They're also being created in real time, made in tandem with the season themselves; the band only just finished SZNZ: Spring, and have yet to begin work on SZNZ: Summer, SZNZ: Autumn, and SZNZ: Winter. Once they've all been released, however, the EPs will create an incredible collection of some of Weezer's best songs yet, which is no small feat for a band that never leaves the Zeitgeist.�

Even if you�ve never heard this 1974 album, you�ve heard it. What do we mean? Well, the drum break from the song �Ashley�s Roachclip� is probably the single most sampled track in all of hip hop. Everybody, and we mean EVERYBODY, has used it�Run-D.M.C., Eric B. & Rakim, and LL Cool J to name a few (and Public Enemy sampled �Blow Your Whistle� for good measure). And when you throw in the fact that the D.C.-based Soul Searchers were led by the soon-to-be �Godfather of Go-Go� himself, Chuck Brown, you can understand why Salt of the Earth�which originally came out on the lightly distributed Sussex label�ranks among the most collectible R&B albums of all time. For its first-ever American LP reissue, we�ve pressed this puppy up on coke clear vinyl. You need to own this record! A1. I Rolled It You Hold It A2. Blow Your Whistle A3. Close to You A4. Funk to the Folks B1. Ain�t It Heavy B2. Windsong B3. Ashley�s Roachclip B4. We Share B5. If It Ain�t Funky

When the world came to a halt, Jim Ward couldn�t stop moving. He�d just released a reunion album, Trust the River, as the frontman of Sparta when the pandemic hit, and as tour dates dried up, Ward returned to the studio. A year later, he debuted his raucous solo record Daggers and now he�s offering up yet another Sparta album to the world.�

The resulting collection of songs were entirely written on keys in what Ward considers an effort to stretch musical muscles he wouldn�t otherwise have had the expanse of time to indulge in. Boldly self-titled some 20-odd years into Sparta�s career, the album serves as a kind of reintroduction to the band, what Ward calls �a fresh slate.��

He recorded the song at Red Bull Studios in Santa Monica, where for the first time in his long career, Ward had a state of the art recording space to himself, and an engineer able to help him enact his vision. The rest of the album was self-produced at Ward�s El Paso studio, Crowded Heart.�

Joe Chambers, Andres Vial and the Montreal-based musicians on the Dance Kobina have a shared interest in exploring the deep musical connection between jazz, Latin and African music. Vial's original composition Dance Kobina, draws specific inspiration from African-American, Brazilian, Argentinian and Central African music. Originally lacking a title, Chambers suggested Dance Kobina as the name for the piece because of its uplifting, dancing quality.

Indie Exclusive * First time on colored vinyl * The realm of Western-influenced African music is consistently dominated by such powerhouse names as Fela Kuti, Victor Uwaifo and other West African legends whose 60s and 70s recordings have been reissued by companies like Soundway, Strut and Analog Africa. One can't possibly hope even to scratch the surface of the continent, however, without giving mention to Zambia's Zamrock scene which, alongside the music that arose in Ethiopia in the late 60s and early 70s, is leagues deep and largely misunderstood. in the same vein, the genius of multi-instrumentalist Rikki Ililonga, and the famed Musi-O-Tunya band he helped found, have been afforded little international light. Ililonga's charismatic presence and unparrelled musicality - coupled with his ability to pen deeper lyrics than most in the genre - and Musi-O-Tunya's transcendent ability to deal in difficult traditional Zambian rhythms, deep funk and unrestrained fuzz rock in equal measure, have made for some amazing albums.

We�re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the debut album from legendary hip-hop collective The Pharcyde with this exclusive RSD Essential 2-LP set of Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, pressed on clear with yellow + purple splatter vinyl.

Originally released in 1992 through the iconic Delicious Vinyl, this RIAA Gold-certified album was featured as one of Rolling Stone�s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

This album features the singles �Passin� Me By� �Ya Mama� and �Pack the Pipe�, and is a must-have for any West Coast hip-hop fan.