Two key recordings which serve as bookends to Elliott Smith‘s catalogue of solo recordings, Roman Candle (his first) and From A Basement on the Hill (ostensibly, his last), are being reissued by Kill Rock Stars on 6 April 2010. Roman Candle, Elliott’s first album, was issued by Portland’s Cavity Search Records in 1994. For the Kill Rock Stars reissue, Roman Candle been remastered by Smith family archivist Larry Crane. Crane, the respected long-time editor of Tape Op Magazine, served in several engineering capacities on Elliott’s work over the course of his career, predominantly as owner and operator of Jackpot! Recordings where Elliott recorded many of his earliest works.

Embarking on the journey of remastering Roman Candle, Crane says that his primary intention going in was to “make the album more listenable.” The job was never to create remixes from the masters or to purposefully make the record seem louder, Crane said. Instead, Crane tried to deal with intricacies that would give the audio a warmer quality. “We never tried to make this CD as loud as current, over-limited trends,” Crane says, “but just to match the volume of the rest of Elliott’s KRS catalog in a graceful way. Please note that none of this album is “remixed” from the master tapes – it is still composed of the mixes Elliott created himself.”

From A Basement on the Hill was previously released by ANTI- Records in 2004 and now becomes part of the Kill Rock Stars catalogue of Elliott Smith material.

To celebrate these two reissues, KRS is giving away this free, previously unreleased track, “Cecilia/Amanda” which was recorded at Jackpot! Recording Studio in 1997 by Larry Crane. And, until January 4th, Elliott Smith’s entire back catalogue is on sale both via KRS mail order (http://buyolympia.com/killrockstars) and via iTunes.

Elliott Smith – Cecilia/Amanda

[Sweet Adeline:KRS (Label)]

There was a psychedelic re-awakening of sorts in the late 1980′s, due in part to the pervasive cultural trend towards retrospective of the late-1960′s “Summer of Love”. In the midst of this, there appeared the psych-pop of The Dukes of Stratosphear. The Dukes were a spin-off of the much-loved British pop/punk act XTC, whom many consider the most important British rock act of the 1980′s. Though they worked feverishly to cloak themselves in anonymous monikers and lack of fanfare for the release of their first EP, 25 O’Clock, people would eventually come to figure out that the Dukes were alter-egos of Andy Partridge and co.

The Dukes of Stratosphear went on to release the full-length Psonic Psunspot and, later, repackage the two releases together as Chips from the Chocolate Fireball.

Though they’ve been out of print for some time, they’ve returned for a visit. Nearly twenty years later, Andy Partridge’s very own APE Label has reissued these beloved psych-pop albums, proving they’re just as bright and inviting today as they were tongue-in-cheek vogue during the “Summer of Love” renaissance 20 years ago. Enjoy these two tracks from the release.

The Dukes of Stratosphear – Brainiac’s Daughter
The Dukes of Stratosphear – My Love Explodes

_{* This LIMITED EDITION packaged CD comes in a HARDBACK digibook featuring brand new artwork and the booklet includes new sleeves notes by Andy, Colin and Dave Gregory and exclusive archive photos.}

_{* Includes 9 extra tracks of demos and extra recordings including “Black Jewelled Serpent of Sound{Radio Caroline edit}”, “Open a Can of Human Beans”, “Tin Toy Clockwork Train”, and the VIDEO for “MOLE FROM THE MINISTRY”.}

I’d say we’re pretty lucky that Rephlex Records has just reissued a fully remastered edition of Quadrastate complete with additional tracks. If you dig what you’re hearing here, you’d do well to head on over to Amazon and pick up the remastered edition to hang on to.

808 State – Pacific State

The reissued Quadrastate is available from Amazon by clicking here.

Rabid music fans and hip-hop enthusiasts with day jobs on the edges of the biz, they got their “big break” in 1983 by winning a Tommy Boy Records remix contest for Play That Beat, Mr. D.J. by G.L.O.B.E. and Whiz Kid. The remix has come to be known in the annals of hip-hop as “Lesson 1 – The Payoff Mix” — an incomprehensible sampladelic jam of breaks from funk and disco records that reads (just as the name suggests) like a time capsulized history lesson. It was from works like these that, much like the graffiti kids tagging stray subway trains with spray paint cans, a cult of “illegal art” in music was born. More music and full review after the jump.

Steinski – Lesson 1 – The Payoff Mix

The story of their influence on hip-hop culture and popular music since the 1980′s is not something that a writer can simply explain in words. It can be heard in the craft of their songs, cobbling pieces from everywhere to generate complete and utter reconstructions of great records — a style duplicated by countless artists since. Steinski and Double Dee, though neither consider themselves to be great turntablists, are considered godfathers of modern DJ culture and serve as the main inspiration to people like DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist and Girl Talk (not to mention one of my favorites, the Memphis Feel-Harmonic DJ Symphony Orchestra). One listen to What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective and you sense the bare essences of what their contribution to hip-hop and DJ culture really means.

This 2-disc set (Disc 1 is all the original tracks while Disc 2 is a monstrous and involving megamix from Steinski’s radio show known as ‘A Rough Mix’) is an absolute essential addition to the collection of anyone who considers themselves a fan of hip-hop, of turntablism, of DJ-oriented music of any kind. Every track is a journey, every moment a new adventure, every slice that Steinski incorporates represents a piece of the cultural landscape in the television generation. From thousands and thousands of recordings, Steinski gave birth to masterpieces as intricate as any of the individual pieces.

These works also represent a by-gone era, an era during which these works could be created with little or no fanfare from the artists whose works were sampled to create the new songs. The amount of money it would cost to pay the sampling fees for these tracks, were they created today, would be so astronomical as to prevent them from ever seeing the light of day — because the revenue they would inevitably generate would never meet the amount of money invested in them.

And it is from the minds of Steinski and Double Dee that these works and ideas sprang forth. We can begin to understand what Keith Haring, the NYC artist whose works came to represent hip-hop culture in the 1980′s, meant about hip-hop culture when he said that “Nothing is ever an end because it can always be used as the beginning of something else.” This retrospective, long overdue, is fitting tribute to the roots of sampling and hip hop culture from one of its greatest curators and inventors.

Steinski – Lesson 2 (James Brown Mix)
Steinski – Lesson 3 (History of Hip Hop)

You can purchase Steinski’s What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective from Amazon [cd or mp3] by clicking here.