Indie Basement: Best Reissues, Box Sets & Compilations of 2020
Having already posted the Indie Basement Best Albums of 2020 list, I thought I d run down my favorite reissues and compilations from the past year. I stayed within the general confines of the things I cover on a weekly basis. So as much as I dig the Prince ˆmega-deluxe edition and Neil Young s
Homegrown, they re not on this list. For the reissues, I picked things that either had lots of worthy bonus features or had been out of print for a long time (often both). I also picked an additional 12 reissues from this year that didn t quite fit that criteria but were also worthy of note.
You can
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Brief summary of the year in reissues and vault rediscoveries: There was an avalanche of them, across all genres and all eras. Each promises edification, offering dives into the rich contexts of historically significant records while also being flat-out thrilling listening.
Thanks to the work of sound-obsessed archivists and audio detectives this year, it s now possible to trace John Coltrane s
Giant Steps session in microscopic detail for its 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition; or revisit some of the unheralded album tracks from John Prine s output in the 1970s (
Crooked Piece of Time); to hear legendary guitarist Duane Allman s last performance before his death (
NEW IN 2020
Alex Dowling – Reality Rounds – Astonishing choral electronics using autotune and other tricks
Nicolas Jaar – Cenizas – Smoky late night club vibes
Rhucle – Middle/Nostalgia – More ambient bliss
75 Dollar Bill – Live At Tubby’s/Live At Cafe Oto/Live At Roulette – Tour de force band pulls out all the stops on their desert blues jams
United Bible Studies – Roses In The Voltage I-IV – Witchy weirdness and folky tunage
Horse Lords – The Common Task – Basically really loud math rock in just intonation
Powers/Rolin Duo -S/T LP – Dulcimer and 12-string ftw
Sault – Black Is – I was late to this, just a great band all around, check it
Archives Volume 1: The Early Years, was among the best archival releases of 2020. Roy Jones / Getty Images
You can
.
Brief summary of the year in reissues and vault rediscoveries: There was an avalanche of them, across all genres and all eras. Each promises edification, offering dives into the rich contexts of historically significant records while also being flat-out thrilling listening.
Thanks to the work of sound-obsessed archivists and audio detectives this year, it s now possible to trace John Coltrane s
Giant Steps session in microscopic detail for its 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition; or revisit some of the unheralded album tracks from John Prine s output in the 1970s (
Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988, on 2xLP this January.
The tracks were created “during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged,” shares LITA. “Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance, came the luxury to dream.”
“Thanks to the idyllic economic climate and innovations in domestically manufactured music gear, creators on the edges were empowered to focus on satisfying their artistic visions in the open headspace of home studios.”