Few people are onto great records as quickly as a great record store.
Phonica’s end of year lists are always a treasure trove for undersung gems, so we realised we ought to just give the shop’s learned staff their own slot on FACT. Every Saturday, the team behind the counter at the Soho institution select five vinyl records you should pick up this week.
HELENA HAUFF
Discreet Desires LP
(Werkdiscs)
Golden Pudel resident Helena Hauff’s delivers her debut album for Werkdiscs, pulling together her interest in EBM, post-punk, new wave, techno and more into a package that the label says is “the embodiment of Helena’s deep-seated beliefs about music as a radical force and unifying movement.”
BE
Hypnotony LP
(Sticky)
Manchester-based Garth Be’s 2014 LP The Seven Movements was one of Phonica’s top albums last year, and now he’s back with another. Combining deep house with downtempo grooves, the results are something as loose and deep as Theo Parrish but with all the summery feel of classic Balearic beats.
ALHAJI FRIMPONG/EBO TAYLOR
Kyenkyen Bi Adi M’awu / Heaven 7″
(Mr Bongo)
Mr Bongo reissues two classic pieces of Ghanian highlife on this 7″ from Alhaji Frimpong and Ebo Taylor. Both were originally released in 1977, and Frimpong’s ‘Kyenkyen Bi Adi M’awu’ was even sampled on Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Storm Coming’.
TRAX COUTURE/VARIOUS
World Series Vol. 2 LP
(Trax Couture)
The label of London’s House Of Trax delivers its second compilation, which focuses on four more producers with ties to the club night – this time it’s Akito, Air Max 97, Grovestreet and Evil Streets mixing up Baltimore, Jersey and Ballroom into high-impact club music.
WILLIAM BASINSKI
The Deluge LP
(Temporary Residence)
Experimental composer William Basinski makes his return with The Deluge, the vinyl companion to his 40-minute piano composition Cascade. This haunting recording was run through several feedback filters live at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, before opening out into a full-scale orchestral finale. Proof that there’s a lot more to Basinski than just The Disintegration Loops.
