For the Record: De La Soul’s “Clear Lake Audiotorium” Reprint Might Leak Green Goo

Super-Electric Records owner Bob Ham notes what’s been in heavy rotation on the shop’s turntable in March.

Clear Lake Auditorium (Chrysalis/AOI) by De La Soul (Discogs)
By Robert Ham

Roseblood

Roseblood (self-released)

For the past 15 years or so, Kathy Foster has played supporting parts in projects like The Thermals, Slang, and All Girl Summer Fun Band. Roseblood finds the multitalented artist taking center stage with a deeply felt debut album. The LP brings to bear her vast history as a musician and as a record collector/DJ with touches of punk, psych, indie pop, shoegaze and folk blending together like a beautiful multicolored mandala.

Raven

GNOSIS (Incienso)

San Francisco artist Raven dropped a contender for album of the year just last month with GNOSIS. I hear the echoes of vintage techno artists like 808 State and LFO rattling through these hissy, luscious tunes, or at least I feel like it perfectly evokes my hazy memories of late-night parties dancing under the influence of various chemicals to those same artists. As my colleague Philip Sherburne said of the album, “I picture this going down among invite-only parties in private basements or even living rooms, where there’s magic in the punch and in the air.”

De La Soul

Clear Lake Audiotorium (Chrysalis/AOI)

Originally released in limited numbers back in 1994, this EP from New York hip-hop icons De La Soul carried the same experimental/psychedelic boom-bap that ran through the group’s then-current full-length Buhloone Mindstate. It’s been out of print for some time but was finally re-pressed this month. Weirdly, the group packaged the records inside a clear sleeve filled with green goo that will start leaking out into the rest of your vinyl collection if you’re not careful.

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