DIRE STRAITS

By the mid-'80s Dire Straits were a platinum band dismissed in their native England as safe, yuppie rockers, yet the original quartet's lean, guitar-driven music struggled to find a label home when first recorded in 1978. Mark Knopfler offers craggy vocals, literate blues-based songs, and sinuous, virtuosic guitar work. He melds keening solo lines and rapidly picked fills and dodges the synth washes and postpunk power chords of then-competing new wavers; he relies on atmosphere, character, and pure musicianship intead of heavy irony or pop fashion. "Sultans of Swing," codifies this stance, a galloping paean to aging jazz musicians playing for the sheer love of the music. This became a major hit and has endured as a radio classic. The album itself has proven equally sturdy thanks to cinematic imagery and the tightly wound arrangements of "Down to the Waterline," "Six Blade Knife," and "Water of Love."

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:VG

Vinyl Disc:VG
Insert:Picture/Lyrics jacket sleeve
Label & Pressing:1978 Warner Bros/USA
Price: SOLD

LED ZEPPELIN III

Led Zeppelin III is the third album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was recorded between January and July 1970 and was released on 5 October 1970 by Atlantic Records. Composed largely at a remote cottage in Wales known as Bron-Yr-Aur, this work represented a maturing of the band's music towards a greater emphasis on folk and acoustic sounds. This surprised many fans and critics, and upon its release the album received rather indifferent reviews. Although it is not one of the highest sellers in Led Zeppelin's catalogue, Led Zeppelin III is now generally praised, and acknowledged as representing an important milestone in the band's history.

As noted above, Led Zeppelin III marked a change in focus for the band from late 1960s hard rock to a more folk rock or electric folk and acoustic inspired sound. These styles had been present to a lesser degree in the band's first two releases, but here it was the main emphasis—and one that would remain prominent in some of the group's later albums. This development endeared the band to many progressive rock fans who would never have listened to Led Zeppelin's established blues and rock repertoire. With Led Zeppelin III the group's songwriting dynamic also changed, from Page's domination of the first two albums towards a more democratic affair in which all four group members contributed their own compositions and ideas. 

It's a remarkable piece to have.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:NM (Gatefold)
Vinyl Disc:NM
Insert:
Label & Pressing:1977 Atlantic/USA
Price:SOLD

*There's a 0.5cm crack on the vinyl rim, losing some seconds on the first track of each side.

  The rest plays really good.

PINK FLOYD - The WALL 1979 UK Harvest

Pink Floyd's the Wall is arguably one of the most intriguing and imaginative albums in the history of rock music. Since its release in 1979, and the subsequent movie of 1982, the Wall has become synonymous with, if not the very definition of, the term "concept album." Aureally explosive on record and visually explosive on the screen, the Wall traces the life of the fictional protagoinst, Pink Floyd, from his boyhood days in war-torn England to his self-imposed isolation as a world-renownedrock star, leading to a climax that is as questionably cathartic as it is destructive. 

From the outset, Pink's life revolves around an abyss of loss and isolation. Born to a war-ravaged nation that takes his father's life in the name of "duty," and an overprotective mother who lavishes equal measures of her love and phobias onto her son, Pink chooses to build a mental wall between himself and the rest of the world so that he can live in a constant, alienated equilibrium free from life's physical and emotional troubles. Every incident that causes Pink pain is yet another brick in his ever-growing wall: a fatherless childhood, a domineering mother, a country whose king signs his father's death certificate with a rubber stamp, the superficiality of stardom, an estranged marriage, even the very drugs he turns to in order to find release. As his wall nears completion, each brick further closing him off from the rest of the world, Pink spirals into a void of insanity, cementing in place the final brick in the wall. Yet the minute it is complete, Pink begins to realize the adverse effects of total mental isolation, helplessly watching as his fragmented psyche coalesces into the very dictatorial persona that antagonized the world during World War II, scarred his nation, killed his father, and thereby defiled his own life from birth. Culminating in a mental trial as theatrically rich as the greatest stage shows, the story ends with a message that is as enigmatic and circular as the rest of Pink's life. Whether it is ultimately viewed as a cynical story about the futility of life, or a hopeful journey of metaphorical death and rebirth, the Wall is certainly a musical milestone worthy of the title "art."

*It's hard to find a very nice condition of this album around. This is one flawless piece.

Condition:Used/Original/2 LPs
Cover:NM (Gatefold)
Vinyl Disc:NM
Insert:Card board jacket sleeve
Label & Pressing:1979 Harvest/UK
Price:SOLD

BELLE & SEBASTIAN - Tigermilk (OOP)

Tigermilk is simply gorgeous, an unaffected debut equal to the Smiths' finest work, and seemed to arrive fully formed out of nowhere in May 1996. In songs like the pastoral, shimmering "The State I Am In" and the wonderfully naive "We Rule the School," bandleader Stuart Murdoch had already laid the seeds that would later come to such full, poignant fruition on If You're Feeling Sinister and The Boy with the Arab Strap. The 10 songs here have such a natural pop sensibility, such a grace and resonance, it's hard now to believe that Tigermilk was only originally intended as a small-time project between seven Glaswegian friends (the original vinyl release was limited to 1,000 copies). Whimsical, surreal, and beautiful, this reissue is well worth the wait.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:NM

Vinyl Disc:NM
Insert:White paper sleeve
Label & Pressing:Electric Honey Records/UK
Price:SOLD

SIGUR ROS - Agaetis Byrjun (1st Press OOP)

Reykjavík-based noise quartet Sigur Rós are the biggest band in their native Iceland, which should say much, much more about the collective insanity of that earthquake-ridden, blizzard-beaten crag of an island than anything to do with Sigur Rós's sound. But in their music, Sigur Rós reflect all the breathtaking glory of the Icelandic wastes--a fairy-tale explosion of unhinged elemental majesty that's finally crystallized here, their debut European release. Frontman Jon Por Birgisson sings in a language that Sigur Rós dub "Hopelandic"--an otherworldly mutation of Icelandic, sung in the falsetto cadence of angels; similarly, he plays his guitar with a violin bow, opening the floodgates for brilliant waves of feedback. And while it's the opening "Svefn-G-Englar" that's Sigur Rós' moment to date, there's far more that they have to offer; listen to the pomp and flourish of a full orchestra on "Flugufrelsarinn," or the awe-inspiring near-religious mantra of "Ny Batteri."

Condition:Used/Original/2 LPs

Cover:M (Paper Texture)

Vinyl Disc:M

Insert:Original Black paper sleeve
Label & Pressing:1999 FatCat/UK
Price:SOLD

LORD SUTCH & HEAVY FRIENDS (Rare)

If you ignore the poor voice and puerile lyrics this piece turns into an unexpected pleasure. Fans of the greats should give this a listen, then like me you won't stop playing it, worse still,you won't stop bragging to all your friends about how you've got half of Led Zep., a ton of Beck and Redding,plus the late great Nicky Hopkins. All on an album that NONE of your friends would ever have heard of. 

The soon to be superstars all seem to be having good clean fun, honing their skills for the future. Other members of the band --although unheard of (to any great extent)-- nonetheless do more than adequate work, All together a very nice surprise. Top notch. Fully recomended. 

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:VG

Vinyl Disc:VG
Insert:Original paper sleeve
Label & Pressing:Cotillion/USA
Price:MYR90

THE BAND - Rock Of Ages (In Concert)

This 1972 live album is a watershed recording for the Band. Recorded the previous New Year's Eve, the two-disc concert recording presents the core quintet fortified by a five-man horn section overseen by New Orleans ace Allen Toussaint, and it is capped by a guest appearance by Bob Dylan. The brass and reed players incite the group to gut it out with more unrestrained fire than these road-hardened vets were accustomed to. The lion's share of the set selections are culled from the quintet's first four studio albums; only an ebullient cover of the Marvin Gaye hit "Don't Do It," the unremarkable original "Get Up Jake," Garth Hudson's mind-boggling organ improvisation "The Genetic Method," and an absolutely piercing version of Chuck Willis's "Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes" spice up the reliable album selections on disc one. But Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel sound like they're having so much fun singing the likes of "King Harvest," "Stage Fright," "Caledonia Mission," and "Chest Fever" that it matters not that Robbie Robertson's writing muse had already pretty much dried up. The 2001 digitally remastered reissue includes an entire second disc of previously unreleased tracks, including four with Dylan at the mic. More than four years would pass before the Robertson version of the Band would call it a day following its star-studded Last Waltz, but, as a live entity, here is where they crested.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:NM (Gatefold Double LP)
Vinyl Disc:NM
Insert:Original paper sleeve
Label & Pressing:EMI/Target Capitol/USA
Price:MYR80

KING CRIMSON - Larks' Tongues In Aspic

To worship at the sonic temple of King Crimson always meant dispensing with preconceived notions, and Fripp and company proved more than ready to lay waste to their more staid contemporaries on this 1973 masterwork. 

Like any King Crimson outing, "Larks Tongues in Aspic" is not everyone's cup of tea, but everyone needs to sample this one as a reminder of the power of imagination fueled by technique.  

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:VG-

Vinyl Disc:VG+
Insert:Standard paper sleeve
Label & Pressing:1973 Atlantic Records/USA
Price:MYR65

LED ZEPPELIN - In Through The Out Door

Though the band likely didn't know it at the time, this would prove to be the last studio record by one of the most famous rock & roll bands in the world. Drummer John Bonham died shortly after its release. Although nothing compares to early Led Zeppelin--and they lost many longtime fans in the late 1970s--this LP is nothing to be embarrassed by. They were quick to embrace and experiment with synthesizers, and while it wears a little thin by record's end (the synth-bloated "Carouselambra" and the slick AOR hit "All My Love"), it adds a certain majestic tone to the heavy-hitting opener, "In the Evening," and gives a rollicking good-time feel to "South Bound Suarez." Plant's howl and Page's bluesy guitars are in fine form on "I'm Gonna Crawl" and the lilting "Fool in the Rain" recalls the pretty numbers from their early career.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:VG-

Vinyl Disc:VG+
Insert:Picture jacket sleeve
Label & Pressing:1979 Swan Song/USA
Price:MYR45

PINK FLOYD - Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here is a song cycle dedicated to Pink Floyd's original frontman, Syd Barrett, who'd flamed out years before: two grimly funny songs about the evils of the music business ("By the way, which one's Pink?"), and two long, touching ones about the band's vanished friend. The real star of the show, though, is the production: sparkling, convoluted, designed to sound deeply oh-wow under the influence--and pretty great sober too--with David Gilmour getting lots of space for his most lyrical guitar playing ever. And, though the album is big and ambitious, even bombastic, it somehow dodges being pretentious--the Barrett tributes are honest and heartfelt, beneath all the grand gestures and stereophonic trickery.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:VG+

Vinyl Disc:VG
Insert:Picture/Lyrics jacket
Label & Pressing:Harvest/Holland
Price:SOLD

LED ZEPPELIN - IV

Known as the "rune" album or Zoso because of the medieval symbols adorning the inner sleeve, Led Zeppelin's fourth album, released in 1971, turned them from mere superstars into giant behemoths of the rock world. On tracks like "Black Dog," "Misty Mountain Hop," and "Rock and Roll," the combination of Robert Plant's banshee wails and Jimmy Page's frenetic guitar playing forever altered the stylistic bent of hard rock music. And the foreboding "When the Levee Breaks" demonstrated that Zeppelin could indeed play the blues fairly straight if they so desired. Still, everything here ultimately took a back seat to the album's (and, ultimately, the band's) magnum opus--the expertly constructed and deftly executed classic, "Stairway to Heaven."

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:VG (Gatefold)

Vinyl Disc:VG+
Insert:Original Brown Sleeve/Lyrics
Label & Pressing:1971 Atlantic/US
Price:SOLD

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans

Seven Swans is a folk rock music album by Sufjan Stevens. It includes songs about Abraham and Christ's Transfiguration, among many others. The album is softer and sparser than other albums by Stevens, relying more heavily on his trademark banjo and "hushed vocals." Seven Swans was received well by critics. The Guardian called it "a record of remarkable delicacy" and Spin magazine said it sounded "like Elliott Smith after ten years of Sunday school".

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:M
Vinyl Disc:12" + 7" M
Insert:Picture/Lyrics jacket
Label & Pressing:2004 Sounds Familyre/US
Price:MYR85

THE DOORS - LA Woman

The last official Doors studio album, L.A. Woman was still high on the charts when, like the 

"actor out on loan" of its closing track, "Riders on the Storm," Jim Morrison died in a Paris 

bathtub in the summer of 1971. Via such tracks as "The Changeling," "Crawling King Snake," and the frothy, rollicking title track, the collection leaned heavily toward the blues--in particular, Morrison's boastful "Lizard King" brand of it. It also holds another entry in the band's ever-adventurous tone poems in the ever-underrated mythical tale of American music and culture, "WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)."

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:NM

Vinyl Disc:NM
Insert:White paper sleeve
Label & Pressing:Elektra/US
Price:SOLD

EFTERKLANG - Parades

Parades is the highly anticipated second album by Denmark s Efterklang, the follow up to their underground hit of 2004, Tripper. Comprising 11 majestic, otherworldly pop songs, Parades manages to be both magnificently ambitious and engagingly intimate; a breathtaking panorama of sound with few clear antecedents. Music with no boundaries. In a parallel universe, songs like Mirador and Caravan would be number one forever...

Unlike previous recordings, the band relied less on digital techniques and went for a palatial sound by recording in large rooms. A boys' choir and a church organ were recorded in a church, while other instruments were recorded in their studio bathroom and hallway; others in an echo chamber. Darren Allison (who worked on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, and Ladies and Gentlemen... by Spiritualized records that surely need no introduction) mixed the album on analogue equipment with Efterklang s Mads Brauer, distinguishing the minutiae of sound while keeping the bigger picture of each song firmly in focus. 

Parades features similarly lavish artwork to Under Giant Trees, by Danish artists Hvass & Hannibal and UFEX. Like a day-glo Hieronymus Bosch, the design carries through the musical idea of minuscule detail on an epic scale. 

Condition:Used/Original/1st Press
Cover:M (Gatefold)
Vinyl Disc:12" NM 45rpm
Insert:Original Black Sleeve
Label & Pressing:2007 RUMRAKET/Netherlands
Price:RMSOLD

TANGERINE DREAM - Poland

The last, truly great piece of music released by Tangerine Dream. Recorded live in Poland in October 1983 at the height of the cold war (TD were one of the first bands to play in Eastern Europe because their songs contained no lyrics), this is Edgar and co at their most chilling (it was apparently recorded in temperatures of -5 degrees) and yet at the same time, warmest. Echoing elements of Hyperborea at points, this is an 80 minute epic of some of the most dramatic cosmic rock made. The title track is worth buying alone - this is surprisingly meaty and has some hidden pearls. 

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:NM (Gatefold)
Vinyl Disc:NM
Insert:White paper sleeve
Label & Pressing:1984 Jive Electro/UK
Price:MYR110.00

JOHN COLTRANE - A Love Supreme

A Love Supreme is a suite about redemption, a work of pure spirit and song, that encapsulates all the struggles and aspirations of the 1960s. Following hard on the heels of the lyrical, swinging Crescent, A Love Supreme heralded Coltrane's search for spiritual and musical freedom, as expressed through polyrhythms, modalities, and purely vertical forms that seemed strange to some jazz purists, but which captivated more adventurous listeners (and rock fellow travelers such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, and the Byrds), while initiating a series of volatile, unruly prayer offerings, including Kulu Su Mama, Ascension, Om, Meditations, Expression, Interstellar Space. From the urgent speech-like timbre of his tenor, to the serpentine textures and earthy groove of Elvin Jones's drumming, Coltrane's suite proceeds with escalating intensity, conveying a hard-fought wisdom and a beckoning serenity in the prayer-like drones of "Psalm," where Jones rolls and rumbles like thunder as Garrison and Tyner toll away suggestively--all the while Coltrane searches for that one climactic note worthy of the love he wants to share.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:M (Gatefold)
Vinyl Disc:M
Insert:White paper sleeve
Label & Pressing:Impulse/USA
Price:SOLD

TALKING HEADS - True Stories

True Stories is the seventh album released by Talking Heads in 1986; it was released at the same time as the David Byrne film of the same name, True Stories. The band Radiohead took their name from the Talking Heads' song "Radio Head" from this album.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:VG+

Vinyl Disc:VG+
Insert:Picture/Lyrics jacket
Label & Pressing:EMI Records/UK
Price:MYR45

COLDPLAY - X&Y (Boxed with Poster)

The group's global album sales have soared past the 10-million mark, putting it in the same stratosphere as megabands U2 and the Dave Matthews Band. People have offered up their bank accounts, cars, and even bodies for tickets to its shows. And, in a interesting twist, frontman Chris Martin married Gwyneth Paltrow and set the tabloid world aflame. Funny thing, then, that the British quartet's much-anticipated third album, X&Y, is all about staying grounded. In the powerful opener, "Square One," the singer insists people are fundamentally the same no matter what their stature: "You just want... Somebody listening to what you say," he sings. On "Fix You," Martin grapples with imperfection and missed opportunity: "When you love someone but it goes to waste... Could it be worse?" Meanwhile, the vibrant single, "Speed of Sound," is all about reconnecting with the spirit and soul in the face of the paparazzi's flashbulbs. Musically, the band has never sounded more adventurous, referencing everyone from Kraftwerk ("Talk") to the Pogues ("Swallowed in the Sea"), all the while sweeping aside those Radiohead-lite comparisons to embrace a massive, moving sound that makes simplicity seem sublime.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:M (Gatefold/Box)
Vinyl Disc:M

Insert:Picture/Lyrics jacket
Label & Pressing:Parlophone/EU
Price:SOLD

RAY CHARLES - Best Of

Imagine you are sitting in a nightbar having a whiskey on the rocks and you are thinking about why the world is so bad to you. Then you hear a piano playing softly and you don't really care but it puts you even more into depression. But after a few moments of listening to the music you widen your eyes, bring your ears into the direction of the music and awake from your depressions : what a great piece of music, how the piano together with the sax give a beautiful melody in rock music rythm. What you hear is Ray Charles how you usually do not know him.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:VG+

Vinyl Disc:VG+
Insert:Original Atlantic sleeve
Label & Pressing:Atlantic/USA
Price:SOLD

THELONIOUS MONK with JOHN COLTRANE

Among Thelonious Monk's long stays at New York's legendary Five Spot was a six-month period in 1957 with possibly his most brilliant band, with John Coltrane finding fuel in Monk's music for his harmonic explorations. The quartet only recorded three studio tracks: a sublime reading of Monk's ballad "Ruby, My Dear"; a loping version of "Nutty"; and a stunning version of "Trinkle Tinkle" on which Trane's tenor mirrors Monk's piano part. The CD is completed with outtakes from an octet session that joined Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins and an extended solo version of "Functional."

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:M

Vinyl Disc:M
Insert:White paper sleeve
Label & Pressing:Jazzland/USA
Price:SOLD

LYNYRD SKYNYRD - Second Helping

With staples such as "Sweet Home Alabama," "Workin' for MCA," and the J.J. Cale-penned "Call Me the Breeze," Skynyrd's second captures the Jacksonville, Florida, band at the height of its powers, coming off the success of "Free Bird" and "Gimme Three Steps" from their 1973 debut. Backed by a tight rhythm section and the mighty three-guitar attack of Allen Collins, Ed King, and Gary Rossington, singer Ronnie Van Zant (credited in the album notes for "Vocals, J&B") turns in a legendary performance on the urgent blues ballad "I Need You," the cautionary "The Needle and the Spoon," and "The Ballad of Curtis Loew," the story of a young white boy sitting at the feet of an old black Dobro master. Along with Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd and One More from the Road, Second Helping remains Skynyrd's finest hour.

Condition:Used/Original
Cover:VG+

Vinyl Disc:VG+
Insert:
Label & Pressing:MCA/UK
Price:MYR35