Record Store Day is one of our favorite days of the year, and we're looking forward to this year's celebration in particular because we have something really special for you. Ugly Custard's self-titled album is heavy organ-lead psychedelic funk at its best, featuring library music legend Alan Parker and a host of top notch UK session musicians. Our release (limited to 1000 copies worldwide) will mark the first in a series of limited LP reissues from Strut. Listen to "Hung Upside Down" below, and check these lists of US and UK retailers who will be stocking the record: US retailers • UK retailers. Don't sleep, because when this one's gone, it's gone.

Ugly Custard - Hung Upside Down (Record Store Day release) by Strut

We're going straight to the dance floor with this one! The midwestern American origins of House music have been widely celebrated, but there's something about the period when UK producers first started responding to the sounds making their way over from American shores that we find very special. On This Ain't Chicago, Richard Sen (of Bronx Dogs and Padded Cell fame) collects key tracks from the early rave days when acid house was starting to be heard clubs like Shoom, Spectrum, The Hacienda, The Jungle and others. Classics and should-be classics are featured on this two disc collection (due for international release on June 25th, July 10th in the US), which will also feature extensive liner notes, and a deeper look at some of the clubs, DJs and producers that pushed the UK deep into Acid territory.

Tracklist:

CD1

1. BANG THE PARTY - BANG BANG YOU'RE MINE (Full Vocal remix)
2. WINDOW SMASHERS - FREE TO BE
3. JULIAN JONAH - JEALOUSY AND LIES
4. BABY FORD - CRASHING
5. MAN WITH NO NAME - FROM WITHIN THE MIND OF MY 909
6. RIO RHYTHM BAND - CUBA JAKKIN'
7. PLAYTIME TOONS - SHAKER SONG
8. JAIL BREAK - MENTALITY
9. EXOCET - SAFETY ZONE
10. RETURN OF THE LIVING ACID - TWIN TUB
11. CXX - THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS (Mix by Rhythm Doctor – Richard Sen Edit)
12. JULIE STAPLETON - WHERE'S THE LOVE GONE (remix)
13. ROHAN DELANO - INFLIGHT

CD2

1. SLY AND LOVECHILD - THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SLY & LOVECHILD (Andrew Weatherall Soul Of Europe mix)
2. ABILITY II - PRESSURE DUB
3. STATIC - IRON ORBIT (J. Saul Kane mix)
4. M. D. EMM - 1666 (Pyro-Maniac mix)
5. COLM III - TAKE ME HIGH (Mansion mix)
6. S.L.F. - SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT
7. PAUL RUTHERFORD - GET REAL (Happy House mix)
8. BIZZARE INC - TECHNOLOGICAL
9. US - BORN IN THE NORTH
10. ANNETTE - DREAM 17

Digital only:
A GUY CALLED GERALD – SPECIFIC HATE
THIS AIN’T CHICAGO – RIDE THE RHYTHM

If you're anything like us, you're a big fan of Record Store Day. Now in it's fifth year, the April date is a special time to get all sorts of exclusive, vinyl-only, limited-edition stuff that record geeks sweat over. Last year we offered a 500-run 7" single from Dennis Coffey, featuring an exclusive Steinski remix.

This year, we're serving up a full album worth of heavy psychedelic funk, in the form of the rare self-titled Ugly Custard LP. Originally released in 1971, the album has become a cult classic among vinyl diggers – a dense, heavy, psyched-out set from a short-lived side project put together by UK library and film music composer, Alan Parker (of KPM 1000 series fame). It also includes work from ace session players Herbie Flowers (bass) and Roger Coulam (organ) & Clem Cattini.

Check out the amazing "Custard's Last Stand" for a taste, and look for the limited edition vinyl at participating stores on April 21st.

What more could there possibly be to say about Fela Kuti? For many of us, Kuti’s music has been the primary entry point to the incredibly fertile terrain of hybrid African music. But aside from the obvious honor of having the privilege of releasing some of the first unheard Fela recordings in over twenty years, the fact that these recordings even exist in the first place is something of a marvel.

In 1984, Fela Kuti had planned to leave Nigeria to tour abroad, but was arrested and imprisoned on dubious charges of “currency trafficking,” preventing him from leaving the country. It took two years, and efforts from Amnesty International before Fela once again was able to share his music with the world. The music featured on this album was recorded the year of his release, live at the Fox Theater in Detroit.

The songs featured here, the shortest clocking in at 29 minutes and 35 seconds, aren’t among Fela’s best known compositions, though they did feature on studio albums with the Egypt 80 band. It’s in these unbridled live performances though that the material truly comes alive, complete with audience interaction, the incredible musicianship of the band, and Kuti’s inimitable vocal stylings. It’s evident that the audience as completely entranced.

Fela Kuti – Live In Detroit is a document of one of the greatest performers of the 20th Century, and we’re honored to be able to share it with you. The album will be released on Strut on May 8th on Strut Records internationally, and via our friends at Knitting Factory in the US. The Strut release will be a double CD / four vinyl / digital format.

CD1:
01. JUST LIKE THAT 29.35
02. CONFUSION BREAK BONES 40.54

CD2:
01. TEACHER DON'T TEACH ME NONSENSE 34.04
02. BEASTS OF NO NATION 38.49

Fela Kuti & Egypt 80 - Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense - Live In Detroit (Edit) by Strut

With his two-disc collection of alternative dance music (which he claims could be called "Trevor's Teenage Years") coming soon, the man behind Output Recordings, Playgroup, and too many excellent record sleeve designs to count sits down to tell us a little bit more about the aforementioned teenaged years. His discussion of exposure to London club life as a fourteen-year-old make us nostalgic for one of the golden eras of nightlife. The music on Metal Dance just makes the the feeling hit that much harder...

Trevor Jackson, known for his work as Playgroup and the incredibly influential Output Recordings, has the kind of crates that even hard core collectors envy. So when he came to us with the idea of collecting some of his favorite rarities from the under-explored world of 80s industrial & post-punk dance floor material, we couldn't say no. Having already gotten into the groove with our Fac Dance collection of material from the legendary Factory label, we knew this would be something special. The two-disc collection covers recognized masters such as Cabaret Voltaire & Nitzer Ebb as well as names that we know are going to be new to quite a few listeners. If the term EBM (Electronic Body Music, coined by Kraftwerk's Ralf Hütter) means anything to you, you're in for a treat. If not, there's a world waiting to be discovered...

Tracklist *Updated*:

CD 1

1. The Bubblemen – The Bubblemen Are Coming
2. 400 Blows – Pressure (Club Pressure)
3. Cabaret Voltaire – Seconds Too Late
4. Neon – Voices
5. Pete Shelley – Witness The Change (Dub version)
6. Shock - Dream Games
7. Executive Slacks – The Bus (EP version)
8. Analysis - Surface Tension
9. Nitzer Ebb – Control I’m Here (Clouston’s Controlled Edit)
10. DAF – Brothers (Mix Gabi)
11. Portion Control – The Great Divide (Dub)
12. Stanton Miranda – Wheels Over Indian Trails (Dub)
13. Jah Wobble – Invaders Of The Heart (Exotic Decadent Disco mix)
14. SPK – Metal Dance
15. Fini Tribe – De Testimony (Collapsing Edit)


CD 2

1. Alien Sex Fiend – Under The Thunder (Ignore The Dub)
2. Hard Corps – Je Suis Passee (Dub)
3. Naked Lunch – Slipping Again
4. Secession – Touch (Part 4)
5. Severed Heads – Dead Eyes Opened
6. The Cage feat. Nona Hendryx – Do What Ya Wanna Do (Dub version)
7. Yello – You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess (UK promo mix)
8. Ledernacken – Amok!
9. Nash The Slash - Womble
10. John Carpenter & Alan Howarth – The Duke Arrives – The Barricade / The President At The Train (Extended version)
11. Diseño Corbusier – Golpe De Amistad
12. Schlaflose Nachte - Move
13. 23 Skidoo - Coup (In The Palace)

VINYL
1. Cabaret Voltaire – Seconds Too Late
2. Neon – Voices
3. Diseño Corbusier – Golpe De Amistad
4. Analysis - Surface Tension
5. Hard Corps – Je Suis Passee (Dub)
6. DAF – Brothers (Mix Gabi)
7. Jah Wobble – Invaders Of The Heart (Exotic Decadent Disco mix)
8. Yello – You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess (UK promo mix)
9. Naked Lunch – Slipping Again
10. SPK – Metal Dance