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viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
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2LP
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VMP 2220LP
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"The beats on Capital Punishment, from 'RZA,' 'Rockwilder,' 'Domingo,' and other A-list maestros, are grimy, radio-friendly, yet low-ley cutting-edge, affirming its status as an undisputed classic. Big Pun was as much a visionary -- conceptualizing every song -- as a consummate pro in the booth. Citing Picasso and Baby Jesus while purporting to 'twist your temples into pretzels,' Pun made Minute Rice out of multi-syllables. There's no way to describe Pun's febrile liberties with the king's English. He doesn't really breathe; when he does, it's a sharp gasp for air that almost mimics his Ginsu-like wordplay. Pun's habit of sucking wind before spitting an ill verse mimics the effect of a lit grenade about to land and decimate entire sections of the population. If Pun's dense rhymes invoke mixed metaphors, that's likely because he's an impossible amalgam of wanton wooer and lyrical hitman, an overweight lover with a murderous mouthpiece. Originally released in 1998 on Sony. Red and yellow color double vinyl in direct-to-board, widespine jacket. Mastered by Cicely Balston at AIR Mastering. Listening notes booklet by Will Dukes."
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LP
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VMP 2209LP
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"Anthem Of The Sun is not a live album. Nor is it a studio album. It is truly a hybrid, unprecedented at the time and never replicated. It is both types of album and was created through genius production techniques, exceptional musicianship and inspiration. There were two versions of Anthem Of The Sun and also of Aoxomoxoa, the Dead's 1969 follow-up to Anthem. This new Vinyl Me, Please slab of wax is the original mix and a rare opportunity to hear the 1968 intention mastered from the original analog tape. There's always a lot to be excited about in the Grateful Dead world, and this is certainly one of those things. 180gram orange color vinyl. Foil stamped. Remastering by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Listening notes by David Lemieux."
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2LP
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VMP 2207LP
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"Experimental electronic composer/producer Oneohtrix Point Never's 2023 album, Again, is self-described as 'a speculative autobiography' and follows the acclaim of his self-titled Magic Oneotrix Point Never and involvement as executive producer on The Weekend's Dawn FM. Again exists as a culmination of Oneohtrix Point Never's musical identity and explores the intersection of space, time and realities. Limited to 1000 copies, the VMP exclusive edition and only U.S. edition of Again is pressed on 2LP orange transparent vinyl at Precision Record Pressing (PRP). The record comes in a gatefold, direct-to-board, foil-stamped and numbered jacket along with a download code and transparent obi strip. It's mastered by Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound."
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2LP
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VMP 2230LP
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"Recorded live at a UCLA concert hall in April 1978 and released on Warner Bros, Coltrane plays piano and organ accompanied by Roy Haynes on drums and Reggie Workman on bass. The trio conjures both a universe and a universal consciousness; Coltrane has no qualms with the commingling of exhilaration and asceticism it demands of listeners. In fact, she demands that you come closer, to its tone and to your natural self. What this feels like in one aspect is Black music's Bonnie and Clyde fantasy realized. Alice and John were both fugitives from received values and ideas that felt too limiting, and their shared refuge was this sound that can only culminate in the spirit displacing and becoming the body through a series of collective gestures made both into song and a live ritual as is this album. There are very few pieces in the so-called American Songbook with stakes this high and encompassing in their insistence on transformation. One is John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, another, Transfiguration. Black color double vinyl in direct-to-board, double gatefold jacket. Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. Listening notes booklet by Harmony Holiday."
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2LP
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VMP 2216LP
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"Released on June 20, 1966, Blonde on Blonde is the third entry in Bob Dylan's so-called 'rock trilogy' of the mid-1960s. Following half an electric album (Bringing It All Back Home) and a romping raw rocker (Highway 61 Revisited), Dylan renewed the sound he was seeking with number three. But words can't fully describe the music on this double LP. It's simultaneously wiry and mercurial, skirting the border of out-of-control -- too fresh to pin down with record store bin titles. Blonde color vinyl in tip-on, gatefold jacket. Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. Plated at Record Technology Incorporated. Listening notes booklet by Michael Simmons."
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LP
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VMP 2231LP
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"Available for the first time since its original release in 2006 via Stones Throw, Dudley Perkins & Madlib are pleased for the reissue of their sophomore collaborative LP, Expressions (2012 A.U.), their acclaimed follow-up to their 2003 debut effort, A Lil' Light. While the former can be accused of being excessively avant-garde, it's Expressions where both Perkins and the Beat Konducta find a more fluid symmetry. In everything from his collaborations with MF Doom and the late Jay Dee to his more recent pairing with Freddie Gibbs, Madlib is easily one of hip-hop's golden revolutionaries. At times his production has been accused of being sparse, but that's not the case with Expressions. This time around, Madlib's production is hitting all the funky corners with layered grooves that evoke the attitudes and emotions of A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory. Limited to 500 copies, the VMP exclusive version of Dudley Perkins Expressions (2012 A.U.) is pressed on opaque olive green vinyl at Precision Record Pressing (PRP). The LP comes in a single, direct-to-board, foil-stamped and numbered jacket."
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LP
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VMP 2219LP
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"Freddie Roach's first three albums introduced him to the world, but Brown Sugar (1964, on Blue Note) showed it who he was. It was the album that Roach made to capture the energy of soul jazz. To somehow take the sounds in the city, in the clubs, and bring them to a record. In his original liner notes, Roach writes that the album is an ode to late nights and loud clubs, to backs damp with sweat, arms wrapped around waists. 'Not caring for the moment about troubles or problems,' he wrote of people dancing, 'their bodies quivering under smiles that seemed to promise 'after the dance.'' After talking to Alfred Lion, president of Blue Note, they decided that the album needed to be made up of standards -- not the standards of the stage or screen, but the standards of the people. 'To get the 'soul,'' Roach wrote, 'I decided to do show soul tunes.' 180gram black vinyl. Foil stamped. Mastering by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. Listening notes booklet by Ashawnta Jackson."
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LP
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VMP 2202LP
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"The phrase 'standards album' was unheard of in 1973, yet within 20 years it had become common parlance in the careers of artists going back to the basics to underscore their vocal prowess. With A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, Nilsson created the template of the solo contemporary singer accompanied by a live orchestra, which set the bar for what followed from Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, Bryan Ferry, and countless others. The decision to make an album like this one would have been unusual for any contemporary artist around at that time, but it was especially strange for Nilsson. His two most recent rock albums had been incredibly successful, and RCA was surely clawing for another guaranteed hit, but, for Nilsson, this was just another twist and turn in his career. It is mind-boggling how far ahead Harry Nilsson was in recording A Little Touch. But where other musicians have turned to a standards album as a way to extend or even resurrect their career, Nilsson made one at his absolute artistic peak. No one has had the guts to do it like he did, before or since -- and Nilsson knew it. 180gram, double-gatefold black vinyl with tip-on jacket. (AAA) lacquers cut from tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. Listening notes booklet by Darren Dutton."
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2LP
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VMP 2215LP
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"For all the name Black Moses conjures, for all that it confers, it was not a name Isaac Hayes gave himself; that title was bestowed by a radio DJ sermonizing an intro to one of his songs. It was not a name Isaac Hayes -- raised by his god-fearing grandparents in a former sharecropper's shed after his parents died before he turned two years old -- thought was even appropriate. It seemed sacrilegious to him. But that name, it meant something that even Hayes had to acknowledge. He had ascended to a plane that no Black performer before him had ever reached before. He topped the R&B charts and, eventually, the pop charts without ever having to compromise who Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. was. He had shown his people that James Brown's 'I'm Black and I'm Proud' edict was possible. He dripped in gold chains inside his album gatefolds and drove cars literally trimmed in it. Unapologetically. Black Moses towers as Hayes' crowning solo achievement. Its 14 songs stand as a 90-plus-minute testament to Hayes' nonpareil greatness, songwriting ability, singing, and arranging. A monument to authenticity, Black Moses projects a self-confidence so mammoth it feels like receiving the stone tablets of swagger down from the mountain of cool. Blue color vinyl in reverse board double gatefold jacket. Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. Listening notes booklet by Andrew Winistorfer. Includes foldout poster."
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LP
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VMP 2211LP
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"Baltimore, an album originally made for the jazz label CTI, is a deep cut in Nina Simone's catalog. It's truly a lost sound found and VMP are proud to feature it here in celebration of her 90th birthday. Limited to 2000 copies, the VMP exclusive version of Nina Simone's Baltimore is pressed on (AAA) 180g red marble vinyl at GZ Vinyl. The LP comes in a gatefold, tip-on, foil-stamped and numbered jacket. The (AAA) lacquers were cut from tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. Originally released in 1978."
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LP
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VMP 2205LP
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"Ray Barretto's songs are cinematic. Artfully composed, richly orchestrated, each one feels like something deserving of big-screen wonderment. And, indeed, from Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets ('Ritmo Sabroso') and Oliver Stone's JFK ('El Watusi') to Lee Daniels' Precious ('Teacher of Love') to Tom McCarthy's Spotlight ('Cocinando Suave'), his music as a bandleader made it into movies of major importance across the decades. Of course, you don't need to be a card-carrying cinephile to appreciate the moods and magnitudes expressed by his work, especially his seminal 1968 album Acid for Fania Records. It takes more than a minute into Acid before Barretto begins showing off on the congas, leading into a nearly three-minute solo marked by fabulous flourishes that culminates with the full band, including pianist Cruz, showing their united might. Elsewhere on Acid, the group would have dutifully jumped headfirst into this mode, but here it is just a spectacular finish to a rhythmic story -- Barretto's story -- told like the best film you've never seen. 180gram orange vinyl in tip-on jacket. (AAA) Lacquers cut from tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. Listening notes booklet by Gary Suarez. Art print by Clay Conder."
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