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Vinyl LP pressing. Four decades after their inception, one thing is clear: X was not only one of the most influential bands to crash out of the punk movement of the late '70s, but the group's music continues to be sonically groundbreaking today. Songs written during the group's inception are as relevant and inventive today as they were in 1977. The band's early albums, Los Angeles, produced by Ray Manzarek of the Doors, Wild Gift, and Under the Big Black Sun explored dark love and an even darker L.A. with the unflinching eye of a Raymond Chandler novel. Subsequent efforts like More Fun in the New World found the band continuing to grow musically and politically, fearlessly mixing genres without ever losing it's center. "The quintessential L.A. punk band made the first great West Coast punk album with it's debut. Los Angeles is best known for it's city-defining anthem and the torrid "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene"; produced by Ray Manzarek of the Doors, it also shows that punk and classic rock can be occasional friends" - No. 287 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
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Vinyl LP pressing. Fat Possum Records and punk icons X team up to reissue newly remastered versions - courtesy of Jason Ward and Chicago Mastering - of four of the band's classic albums including Los Angeles (1980), Wild Gift (1981), Under The Big Black Sun (1982), and More Fun In The New World (1983). Four decades after their inception, one thing is clear: X was not only one of the most influential bands to crash out of the punk movement of the late '70s, but the group's music continues to be sonically groundbreaking today. Songs written during the group's inception are as relevant and inventive today as they were in 1977. The band's early albums, Los Angeles, produced by Ray Manzarek of the Doors, Wild Gift, and Under the Big Black Sun explored dark love and an even darker L.A. with the unflinching eye of a Raymond Chandler novel. Subsequent efforts like More Fun in the New World found the band continuing to grow musically and politically, fearlessly mixing genres without ever losing it's center.
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Limited 200gm vinyl LP pressing plus bonus 7" single. Drums And Wires has been mastered by Jason Mitchell at LOUD mastering with input from Andy Partridge and is fully approved by XTC. Swindon's finest, XTC, produced an early classic album with the Steve Lillywhite produced Drums and Wires. Andy Partridge recalls it as an optimistic time for the band. Dave Gregory's arrival on guitar marked a shift in style with the group now configured as a twin guitar/bass/drums line-up. Despite an endless touring schedule much time was spent honing new material. Both Partridge and Colin Moulding were growing in confidence as songwriters - this album did much to further their reputation for peerless post-punk pop tunes. But it was also Steve Lillywhite and engineer Hugh Padgham's ability to give appropriate studio support and recording expertise to the more expansive pieces such as "Roads Girdle The Globe" and "Complicated Game" that helped to bring a new level of maturity to the overall feel of the release. Issued at the start of September, Drums and Wires entered the UK Albums Chart where it remained for a total of seven weeks, accompanied by another first for the band, a Top 20 UK (and international) hit single in album lead track "Making Plans for Nigel". The optimism of the recording sessions had proved justified.
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![Xtc As Dukes Of The Stratosphere - 25 O'Clock [200-Gram Vinyl]](https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/23/3726223-2479999.jpg "Xtc As Dukes Of The Stratosphere - 25 O'Clock [200-Gram Vinyl]")
Limited 200gm vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered release from XTC's Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, and Dave Gregory masquerading as 'lost' '60s psych band called The Dukes of Stratosphear. This 1985 mini-album was produced by John Leckie (Swami Anand Nagara) and The Dukes. The story is a familiar one. XTC, as a non-touring band, between the recording/release of The Big Express and Skylarking, adopted the alter egos of The Dukes of Stratosphear and set about writing and recording 25 O'Clock, partying like it was 1967 and stereo phasing had just been popularized. With a clutch of songs as tuneful as Sgt. Pepper's, guitars cranked up like a Kinks Pye b-side, the collective knowledge of a bunch of psych's keenest fanboys and the engineering skills of John Leckie... The resulting album sits somewhere in the pantheon of greatness between Evolution, Their Satanic Majesties Request and S. F. Sorrow.
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![Xtc As Dukes Of The Stratosphere - Psonic Psunspot [200-Gram Vinyl]](https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/24/3726224-2480000.jpg "Xtc As Dukes Of The Stratosphere - Psonic Psunspot [200-Gram Vinyl]")
Limited 200gm vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered release from XTC's Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, and Dave Gregory masquerading as 'lost' '60s psych band called The Dukes of Stratosphear. Their second and seminal, final album. Produced by John Leckie (Swami Anand Nagara) and The Dukes. How to follow a masterpiece like Skylarking? XTC retreated to their alter egos, not as caped crime fighters patrolling the mean streets of Swindon but, as pstalwarts of psychedelia echoing the spirit of '67 with Psonic Psunspot, 10 perfectly formed songs of psignificance, culminating in 'Pale and Precious' - one of the best songs of the decade.
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Limited 200gm vinyl LP pressing. Song lyric sheet included. Newly mastered by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering from tapes approved by Andy Partridge. Wasp Star, the band's final album (to date), employed far more of the intricately arranged, guitar driven, XTC sound which Dave Gregory had helped to develop from his point of arrival with 1979's Drums & Wires. While not as strikingly different as Apple Venus Vol. I, it was intended as the 'other part' of that album and writing sessions and was subtitled Apple Venus Vol. II. The songwriting had matured immeasurably from the band's 1977 White Music debut, but the early promise of an innovative, fresh, approach to the possibilities of pop songwriting and recording inherent in that debut had been carried through every album of the band's career with Wasp Star merely the latest, possibly last, instalment.
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Limited 200gm vinyl LP pressing. It's not necessarily a sound associated with XTC per se but, with the twin guitar line-up now fully settled, relentless touring schedule and thoughts of recording with Lillywhite and Padgham in the studio where the same engineer/producer combo had established that drum sound, thinking of XTC in rock band terms was the ideal approach for the multitude of songs Partridge and Moulding were individually producing. Preceded by a set of live demos at Phonogram studios, XTC knew exactly what it wanted from a fourth album - even down to the original album title: Work Under Pressure (which helps make more sense of the sleeve photo), prior to setting foot in The Townhouse for the main recordings. The switch to Black Sea was made only to allay the then band manager's sensitivity to the title being interpreted as a criticism of his management style. More power rock than power pop, when released in Sept. 1980, the album became XTC's first Top 20 chart album in the UK, narrowly missed the Top 40 (#41) in the USA where it was issued in November, but spent an impressive 24 weeks on the Billboard chart nonetheless. 'Generals And Majors' and 'Towers Of London' provided twin back to back Top 40 UK singles released either side of the album in a tight eight weeks' release space in September and October, while 'Sgt. Rock' propelled the band back into the UK top 20 in January 1981. The sense of immediacy, the rush of a band fully living up to it's potential is as apparent now as it was when the album first came out.
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Double 200gm heavyweight vinyl LP pressing. Includes lyric sheet. English Settlement is the fifth studio album and first double album by the English rock band XTC, originally released in 1982. It marked a turn towards the more pastoral pop songs that would dominate later XTC releases, with an emphasis on acoustic guitar, 12-string electric guitar and fretless bass. XTC recorded the album at The Manor Studio in Oxfordshire with producer Hugh Padgham, the engineer of their previous two LPs. Compared to the band's previous releases, English Settlement showcased more complex and intricate arrangements, lengthier songs, lyrics that covered broader social issues, and a wider range of music styles.
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![The xx - I See You [Vinyl]](https://aentcdn.azureedge.net/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/2/0/6/3516020.jpg "The xx - I See You [Vinyl]")
I See You is marked by a tonal shift to something close to pure, crisp pop structure, adorned by unusual crescendos that echo a dextrous DJ inching their dancer toward climax without ever quite lifting the house lights. Its lyric sheet moves from the danger and hopelessness of love to its deliciousness and rapture; a move into a more outward looking proposition.
I See You is recognizably still The xx but is now powered by the voluble ambition of its three perfect counterweights to one another starting to not just realize but harness their full potential. You might even want to think of the decisive move from Joy DiviŽsion to New Order here, too.
When they take their plum festival slots in 2017, armed with the ten most robust songs of their career, The xx should prick the skin and touch gently the shoulder of an audience reaching to the back of the field.
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![The xx - Coexist [Vinyl]](https://aentcdn.azureedge.net/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/9/1/5/7/2027519.jpg "The xx - Coexist [Vinyl]")
The xx exist in a time and space of their own making. In 2009 the south London trio s debut album, xx, quietly made at night over the course of two years, bled steadily into the public consciousness to become shorthand for newly refined ideas of teenage desire and anxiety. Articulated with a maturity beyond their years, its hallmarks were restraint and ambiguity. In the age of the over-share, xx was pop with its privacy settings on max.
Three years later, Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith release Coexist, and a new perspective. Where xx lent in close to whisper in your ear, Coexist gazes warmly in your eyes. Much has happened to lead to this point: most pertinently, they ve grown up.
Previously cast as the quietest of the three, Jamie became the public face of The xx in 2011. In-between DJ gigs, he focused on growing his production skills, developing a distinct sound and presence. His remix of Adele s "Rolling In The Deep, " re-imagining of Gil Scott-Heron s final album on We re New Here with its defining single "I ll Take Care Of U, " and his debut solo single "Far Nearer" set him apart as a highly regarded producer in his own right. That position was cemented when Drake asked Jamie to produce the title track of his album Take Care, inspired by "I ll Take Care Of U."
Above all, though, Coexist is an album of confident adult reflection. "Angels, " sung by Romy, is a perfectly distilled love song. Its counter is "Fiction" led by Oliver, a bittersweet ballad that s strength lies in naming its fear. What has changed for The xx? Nothing, and everything. Older and wiser, surer yet still so tender, Coexist finds itself on the other side of heartbreak, when the light returns.
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2009 vinyl LP pressing. This British group released this debut album when they were just in their early twenties-a considerable feat, given just how fully-formed and polished this album is. Their influences include everything from post-punk to dream pop to indie to dubstep to R&B pop, but that doesn't mean any of their songs are scattered: in fact, they're so sleek they're almost sculptural. "Intro" is a long, monochromatic symphony, and it sets the cool, evocative feel The xx will come to be known for. "VCR" has clangy guitars reminiscent of the Young Marble Giants, while "Infinity" is a slip into the post-punk. There's a subtle sensuality here, there's romantic intrigue. It's a one-of-a-kind, memorable debut that proves The xx as one of the most important Brit indie groups to surface in recent years, and it'll leave you wanting more. Ais/Young Turks/XL.
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![XXXTentacion - ?: Deluxe [Crystal Clear 3LP Box Set]](https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/68/3656768-2410838.jpg "XXXTentacion - ?: Deluxe [Crystal Clear 3LP Box Set]")
The ? anniversary 3-LP Deluxe Edition features the original album, all of its instrumentals, the entire A GHETTO CHRISTMAS CAROL EP,newly remixed songs and unreleased voice memo s from Jahseh D. Onfroy s process of the making of ?. The packaging features a pull-out poster, along with a booklet filled with never-before-seen photos.
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![XXXTentacion - ? [LP]](https://aentcdn.azureedge.net/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/1/1/0/3790118.jpg "XXXTentacion - ? [LP]")
Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 album from the late rapper. Known for cathartic honesty that's turned millions of fans into believers, Xxxtentacion's ? showcases his most poignant, powerful, and personal writing to date. He personally contributed guitar and keys in addition to writing every single song. Close collaborator John Cunningham handled the bulk of production and features include Travis Barker, Matt Ox, JoeyBada$$ and PnB Rock. Fans have taken the charge now and officially made him the post-millennial Generation Z's answer to Kurt Cobain. Xxxtentacion began writing music after being released from a youth correction center and released his first song on SoundCloud in June 2013, titled "News/Flock". He was a popular figure in SoundCloud rap, a trap scene that takes elements of lo-fi music and harsh 808s.
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The final album from XXXTENTACION