The Essentials: Record Store Day 2022 — June Edition
Photo Credit: Adrian Korte
The most crucial pick-ups for the second round of Record Store Day 2022 exclusives.
Back like it never left, Record Store Day 2022 is returning this Saturday, June 18, for the second of three annual installments.
Following a spring outing damp with rare soul and R&B, the summer run of Record Store Day exclusives steps into distinctively deeper strains of funk, spiritual jazz, and lush symphonic instrumentals. As always, we're here to provide you with some titles to keep an eye out for while navigating the isles of your local Wrecka Stow. There's the final dispatches of a legendary rhythm section, the first-ever vinyl issue of a jazz icon's most purple-and-paisley phase, Latin funk and soul-jazz grails revived for the first time in decades, a sleek compilation culled from the archives of a criminally unheralded southern outpost for Northern soul, and so much more.
Scroll through eight crucial pick-ups for the second round of Record Store Day 2022 below, and head over to the official RSD site for the full list of this weekend's drops. We'll be back with another survey of RSD drops for the year's final edition on Black Friday. Until then, happy hunting.
Photo Credit: Liberation Hall
Young-Holt Unlimited — Young-Holt Unlimited Plays Superfly
Format: LP
Quantity: 2,000
As their final dispatch before splitting up, backing band-turned-Ramsey-Lewis-rhythm-section-turned-tour-du-force in their own right, Young-Holt Unlimited treated selections from Curtis Mayfield's Superfly soundtrack to marvelously murky, jazz-injected recalibrations. Filled out with crucial covers of soul standards from Burt Bacharach, The Stylistics, The Spinners and more, Young-Holt Unlimited Plays Superfly has far more depth than the title suggests, and it's brimming with ripe sample fodder for crate-digging producers. The album is getting pressed to yellow vinyl for Record Store Day 2022. Pick up your copy via Dusty Groove today.
Photo Credit: Legacy Recordings
Miles Davis — What It Is: Montreal 7/7/83
Format: 2xLP
Quantity: 10,000
It's hard to imagine a musician as decorated and iconized as Miles Davis ever had to mount a comeback. But after a particularly dark close to the decade prior, Davis fought through addiction and the temporary paralysis of his dominant hand to reemerge in the early-'80s with his own strain of purple-and-paisley funk fusion akin to Prince's Madhouse era. What It Is: Montreal 7/7/83 is a pristine snapshot of mid-reformation Miles, flying high as ever with John Scofield on guitar, "The Other" Bill Evans on bass, keys, and flute, Al Foster on drums, and Mino Cinelu on percussion. The first-ever vinyl issue of the set is housed in a 2xLP, and features liner notes from the late Greg Tate. You can pick up a copy here.
Photo Credit: Now-Again Records
The Bobby Hamilton Quintet Unlimited — Dream Queen
Format: LP
Quantity: 1,000
A highly saught after spiritual jazz grail is getting a loving and long overdue stateside reissue from Now-Again Records for the summer installment of Record Store Day 2022. Initially pressed to just 500 copies, this far-reaching 1972 debut from The Bobby Hamilton Quintet Unlimited remains elusive in its original form. According to Now-Again, one of the last clean copies of the album was sold to Jamie XX last year by Hamilton himself. Instead of dropping a crazy bag on a copy in acceptable condition (which may or may not ever surface again), grab this stellar remaster from original tapes handled by the legendary Bernie Grundman, and packaged with the full backstory as penned by Torii McAdams.
Photo Credit: Cubop
Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers — Super Freak
Format: LP
Quantity: 1,000
Equal parts acid jazz source code and Latin funk blotted with heavy wah-wah, ascendent horn lines, and deep-blue organs, Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers' 1972 album Super Freak contains multitudes. But you don't need to hear much more than the intoxicating side-opening medley of selections from Curtis Mayfield's Superfly to know that. Reissued for the first time in two decades, this psyched-out piece of Pucho's catalog is heading back to the crates this weekend. Keep an eye out for one of the 1,000 copies heading into circulation.
Photo Credit: Jetstar Records
Various Artists — Jetstar Records: The Soul Sides
Format: LP
Quantity: 1,500
Collecting singles and unissued songs from the Jetstar Records archives, this 15-track retrospective on the Texas micro-label uncovers a criminally unheralded southern outpost for Northern soul. From monster b-side ballads to uptempo steppers, The Soul Sides is a wide-screen display of the raw funk and R&B blasting out of the South during the mid-to-late '60s. Grab your copy via Rough Trade while supplies last.
Photo Credit: Legacy Recordings
Prince — The Gold Experience
Format: 2xLP
Quantity: 24,150
Another fine option for the more economically-minded collector, this spot-on recreation of the U.S.-only promo version of Prince's excellent double-album The Gold Experience, is a great way to duck the cost of an original (which currently runs for anywhere between $300 and $2,600). Released under the "Love Symbol" in 1995 at the height of the label battle with Warner Bros. that briefly claimed his name, The Gold Experience was both a critical and pedestrian darling, anchored by a pair of buttery and blunt ballads in "The Most Beautiful Girl in The World" and "Eye Hate U." One of the more abundant Record Store Day 2022 releases, this 2xLP re-release is pressed to translucent gold wax and features a number of "Eye Hate U" remixes on its final side. Pick up your copy via Rough Trade today.
Photo Credit: Get On Down
Viktor Vaughn (MF DOOM) — Vaudeville Villain
Format: 2xLP
Quantity: 10,000
Between 2001 and 2004, MF DOOM was a man obsessed with perpetual reinvention. Across his first three solo projects, the late rap legend took on three distinctive personas, writing fully-developed backstories and intricate trajectories for each. On his 2003 album Vaudeville Villain, DOOM continued to draw inspiration from Marvel's comic book panels, telling the tale of Viktor Vaughn, a time-traveling hustler stuck in 1990s New York City trying to earn enough to piece his ship back together and get back to his native timeline. The latest reissue of the album is handled by Get On Down, and it's packaged as a proper double-gatefold LP. Grab yours via Rough Trade today.
Photo Credit: Reel
Barry White — No Limit On Love
Format: LP
Quantity: 1,000
First released in 1974 on Supremacy — and then, for reasons that aren't entirely clear, never pressed again — Barry White's third solo album, No Limit On Love, has been almost entirely erased from the record. To this day, selections from the tracklist are spottily available on streamers. But this pop-tinged and slightly-psychedelic soul album from the late maestro is headed back to wax in full for the first time in nearly five decades. Pressed to weighty and properly gold 180g vinyl, the reissue collects rare vocal takes and lush orchestral instrumentals from White's early career as a solo artist. It's an indispensable piece of the canon for the completionist collector.
