Indie Basement is a weekly column on BrooklynVegan focusing on classic indie and alternative artists, “college rock,” and new and current acts who follow a similar path. There are reviews of new albums, reissues, box sets, books and sometimes movies and television shows. Here we look at the best reissues, box sets and compilations of 2024.
You cannot quarantine the past, some band once sang, and that’s certainly true with record labels who are always trying to come up with ways to make us re-buy things we already own. But sometimes they also give us things we’ve been wanting for years and years. That is truly the case in 2024 with at least four albums that I thought would never get reissued, miraculously being made available and given the care they deserve. There are also a few anniversary packages that I just couldn’t resist and one limited edition box set I’m kinda kicking myself for not grabbing. I picked a baker’s dozen, though in one case it’s six albums all separately reissued, so really it’s even more.
Head below for my picks, in alphabetical order, for 2023’s best reissues and box sets.
INDIE BASEMENT – 2024’S BEST REISSUES, BOX SETS & COMPILATIONS
Air – Moon Safari Deluxe Edition (Rhino)
French duo Air’s 1998 debut album was called kitschy by a lot of people on its release, lumped in with the lounge revival, but a quarter century later it’s clear that Moon Safari is as much a prog album as anything else with more Pink Floyd DNA than Martin Denny. (This is something they made very clear on this year’s spectacular Moon Safari Tour.) Moon Safari sounds better than ever, especially now that it’s removed from its historical context, as you luxuriate in Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel’s love of analog synths, Rhodes electric piano, groovy basslines, perfect sound and, yes, vocoders. For the album’s (belated) 25th anniversary, they released a deluxe three-disc set featuring the original album, a bonus CD of hard-to-find remixes and other rarities, and a Blu-ray featuring an immersive Dolby Atmos spatial audio mix (for those with a tricked out home system) as well as Mike Mills’ documentary Eating, Sleeping, Waiting & Playing, and the band’s groundbreaking music videos for the album’s singles. There’s a new single-disc vinyl edition, too, but Moon Safari is a great excuse to dig your CD player out of storage…or buy a new one.
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Broadcast – Spell Blanket / Distant Call (Warp)
Broadcast ceased to be in 2011 when Trish Keenan died from the H1N1 flu. We’ll never truly know what might’ve been, but Spell Blanket collects demos she and bandmate James Cargill had made from 2006 – 2009 following their final studio album, 2005’s Tender Buttons. Most of these 26 songs fall firmly into “song sketch” territory, not more than Trish and a guitar or keyboard, and sometimes it’s just her singing into a tape recorder (or answering machine) but her voice and melodies still have the power to bewitch even without Broadcast’s full sound lab at full power. Distant Call, meanwhile, offers up demos from 2000 – 2006, with skeletal versions of songs fans would come to know and love. Any chance to hear more from Keenan is welcome and worthy of cherishing.
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Drop Nineteens – Delaware (Wharf Cat)
If nothing else, the current shoegaze resurgence has meant a lot of out-of-print classics are finally getting much-needed reissues and bands you never thought you’d get to see live are coming out of retirement and making great new music. One of the few credible US practitioners of the form in the original ’90s era, Drop Nineteens, seemed like they would remain a footnote, but renewed interest via Tik Tok led to the band reforming and making their first new album in 30 years. Getting their 1992 debut reissued took a little longer, but here we are, remastered from the original tapes and featuring slightly reimagined, thoughtfully and sensitively handled artwork. (The gun the kid was holding in the original has been replaced by flowers, with a portion of the proceeds from this reissue going to anti-gun-violence charities.) Delaware, which includes “Winona,” “Kick the Tragedy,” and their cover of Madonna’s “Angel,” sounds better than in did 32 years ago and the hits keep coming: Drop Nineteens’ lost 1991 album is getting released in early 2025.
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Galaxie 500 – Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90 (20/20/20)
NYC trio Galaxie 500 were only together for a few years in the late-’80s and early-’90s but they’ve cast a long shadow, influencing shoegaze, slowcore, post-rock and other dreamy genres to this day. The band’s three studio albums are all essential but some of Dean Wareham, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang’s best music fell between albums. This two-LP set collects most of those stray nuggets, as well as recordings that have never seen the light of day before. (Many were on the bonus disc of Ryko’s 1996 CD box set but there’s a good 10 here that are previously unheard.) There are alternate versions of some of their most well-known songs, inspired covers (New Order/Joy Division, Young Marble Giants, The Rutles), live performances, and nascent versions of songs that would completely transform by the time they made it to an album. ”I can see why we left some of these songs in the vaults, but there is pleasure in hearing them today,” says Wareham in the liner notes. “They sound very alive, like Galaxie 500 playing in the brick-walled room that was [producer Kramer’s studio] Noise New York.”
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A Girl Called Eddy – A Girl Called Eddy 20th Anniversary Edition (Last Night From Glasgow)
Records like A Girl Called Eddy’s 2004 self-titled debut don’t come along very often. I mean that literally, as it took Erin Moran (the singer-songwriter, not the actress who played Joanie on Happy Days) 16 years to make a second album. Even on its release, the album felt like it had always been here, featuring the kind of heartfelt, melancholic, and melodically complex songs you associate with Burt Bacharach, Carole King and The Carpenters, with the kind of lush arrangements that instant classics such as “Tears All Over Town,” “The Long Goodbye,” and “Somebody Hurt You” deserve. (Moran clearly knew what she wanted this to sound like, but getting Richard Hawley to produce was a stroke of genius.) A Girl Called Eddy was and is a stunner, but its been out of print basically since its release. This 20th anniversary reissue has been lovingly remastered and comes with a bonus disc featuring the also-great b-sides from album’s two singles.
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The Go-Betweens – G Stands for Go-Betweens Volume 3 (Domino)
Australian group The Go-Betweens had one of the great second acts in indie music: after breaking up in 1990 and spending a decade making solo music, co-bandleaders Grant McLennan and Robert Forster found their way back to each other, forming a new lineup of the band and releasing three wonderful albums before their time was tragically cut short in 2006 when McLennan died of a heart attack in his sleep. Those three records are at the center of the third and final volume of the G Stands for Go-Betweens box set series. In some ways, it’s the most needed of the three, as these records came out before the vinyl resurgence of the 2010s and have been almost impossible to find on the secondary market. I argue that 2000’s The Friends of Rachel Worth, featuring Sleater-Kinney as their backing band, is The Go-Betweens’ best-ever album and the other two are terrific too. 2003’s Bright Orange, Bright Yellow is McLennan & Forster at their most spare, and 2005’s Oceans Apart is vibrant and and as rocking as they’d been since someone let them put oboes on their records in the mid-’80s. All have been remastered, and Oceans Apart gets a much needed new mix, as the original release had a notoriously harsh, blown-out sound that made it seem like your stereo was busted. There is also a fourth vinyl LP featuring radio sessions McLennan & Forster did in 1999, plus a whopping seven CDs full of b-sides, live recordings, and demos, including ones made for a 1991 album that never happened (some of the songs ended up on solo albums though). Volume 3 also comes with a 112-page book featuring photos and extensive liner notes from Robert Forster, along with essays and remembrances from fans and friends. This box is not cheap ($250, which is nearly double what Vol 1 cost), but until Domino (hopefully) releases single-album reissues, this is the only place to get it.
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The High Llamas – ’90s albums vinyl reissues (Drag City)
Sean O’Hagan formed The High Llamas in 1991 after his previous band Microdisney split up, and it allowed him to explore decidedly out-of-fashion pop inspired by Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, Steely Dan, Ennio Morricone and tropicalia. He fell in with Stereolab around the same time, contributing string and brass arrangements to their records and even joining the band for a while, which would alter the course of The High Llamas’ sound. These reissues of the band’s ’90s output are a miracle, something I never thought would happen as they were released by different labels (including Sony and Virgin imprint V2) and it always seemed too cost-prohibitive to bother getting the rights back. But here they are, all out via Drag City, including my three favorites: 1995’s pop-forward Gideon Gaye, the sprawling, cinematic Hawaii, and the glitchy, tropical Snowbug. It’s a Christmas miracle! With this year’s Hey Panda, the best High Llamas album since the ’90s, 2024 has been a surprising banner year for fans of O’Hagan’s unique body of work.
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Hugo Largo – Huge, Large and Electric: Hugo Largo 1984-1991 (Missing Piece Records)
The NYC underground scene of the 1980s favored the arty and experimental, be it Ambitious Lovers, Bongwater, Glenn Branca, The Lounge Lizards, or John Zorn. (More traditional bands seemed to settle in Hoboken.) One of the many unique bands of the era were Hugo Largo who formed in 1984 and whose lineup consisted of singer and performance artist Mimi Goese, electric violinist Hahn Rowe, and bassists Adam Peacock and Tim Sommer (who was also a music writer for the Village Voice). They had an earthy, ethereal sound — they sometimes got compared to Cocteau Twins and Throwing Muses — and that might explain what drew them to R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe who produced Hugo Largo’s 1987 debut, a mini album titled Drum, that he contributed vocals too. This in turn brought them to the attention of Brian Eno who signed them to his Warner Brothers imprint, Opal, rereleasing Drum in 1988 and then putting out their even-better second album, Mettle, the next year. Sadly, the band split not long after, with Sommer going on to have a short stint at MTV as a VJ. The albums have been out of print for three decades and have never been on streaming services, crimes that have been recitified by this box set which includes a third disc of live and unreleased tracks. Drum and Mettle still sound otherworldly and not quite like anything before or since.
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Kruder & Dorfmeister – The K&D Sessions (25th Anniversary Edition) (K7)
Austrians Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister released their first EP, G Stoned, in 1992 which showcased their dexterity with jazzy, downtempo grooves, not to mention their sense of humor with its Simon & Garfunkel-inspired cover art. Kruder and Dorfmeister really took off, though, with their remixes of disparate acts like Depeche Mode, Roni Size, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, David Holmes, and more where they only used the original vocals, replacing everything else with their own performances. “We wrote whole new songs around those vocals,” notes Peter. These vibey creations were collected and mixed seamlessly into one another on a two-CD set, The K&D Sessions, which was released in 1998 and served as a primer and a debut album all in one. Fitting right in alongside Air’s Moon Safari, Bjork’s Homogenic, and Massive Attack’s Mezzanine, The K&D Sessions was inescapable in hip urban environments at the time, from hotel bars, to hair salons and upscale stores. Its ubiquity may have given it a cheesy reputation in the years since, but this 25th anniversary box set edition is a nice excuse to re-listen and realize how cool and sophisticated these songs, and Kruder and Dorfmeister, are.
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The Lilac Time – Astronauts Super Deluxe Edition (Needle Mythology)
Stephen Duffy has led a fascinating musical life. He was an original member of Duran Duran, spent time with Jacobites David Kusworth as The Hawks, and made slick synthpop as Tin Tin and Dr Calculus, all before forming pastoral pop group The Lilac Time with his multi-instrumentalist brother Nick in 1986. Their debut single, “Return to Yesterday,” felt like the sound Duffy had been looking for all along and led to a deal with major label Fontana Records. After two excellent albums and a disappointing third (overproduced by XTC’s Andy Partridge), The Lilac Time parted ways with Fontana and Nick Duffy left the group. In his place came Sagat Guirey whose delicate finger-picking guitar style changed their sound. Free from record biz execs trying to turn The Lilac Time into Pop Stars, Duffy made an album packed with memorable, romantic songs and gorgeous, spectral arrangements. Unsure what to do with such an out-of-time album, he took it to the sympathetic ears at Creation Records who were home to Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine and Ride at the time but also outliers like Momus and Pete Astor. Astronauts was released on Creation in 1991 to almost no fanfare (Duffy retired the group for nearly a decade after this), but it remains The Lilac Time and Duffy’s finest hour. The only concession to the era is the baggy, blissed-out “Dreaming” which was produced by Hypnotone; otherwise this is closer to Nick Drake than anything else. Mega-fan and acclaimed music writer and BBC radio presenter Pete Paphides spent years trying to get Astronauts reissued, and his efforts shine in this three-disc set — released on his own Needle Mythology label — that shows all the love and attention you’d expect. The new remaster of the original album sounds fantastic (there’s a standard vinyl edition too) and on the deluxe CD and vinyl versions there are demos and rare live recordings from the end of The Lilac Time’s original run. Nice to have this lost classic back and sounding better than ever.
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New Order – Brotherhood Definitive Edition (Rhino)
New Order drummer Stephen Morris considers his band’s fourth album to be “an over-egged custard,” full of too many ideas and not enough time to work them all out, and it’s novel form — the “rock” songs on one side, the “synth” songs on the other — pulled apart the band’s alchemy. He may not be wrong, but in 1985 New Order were still firing on most of their cylinders and even a subpar record by their standards was still better than most other bands’ releases. Brotherhood is brimming with the kind of invention that the era’s rapidly evolving technology allowed, all to service the band’s easy way with a good tune. It’s got “Bizarre Love Triangle,” which mints it right there, but also “Way of Life” and “As It Was When It Was” (both from side “rock”) and the gorgeously layered keyboard-work on “All Day Long” and “Every Little Counts.” This Definitive Edition comes with a disc featuring non-LP singles “Shellshock,” “State of the Nation” and “Touched by the Hand of God” and their score for Beth B’s film Salvation, but the best special features are on the DVD with videos and full live shows from the era that really showcase what a peerlessly innovative band New Order were in the mid-’80s.
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Pavement – Cautionary Tales: Jukebox Classiques (Matador)
This box set featuring all of Pavement’s original 7″ singles, meticulously reproduced, would be the perfect (sound forever) holiday gift for the ’90s indie rock fan in your life if this limited edition collection wasn’t sold strictly as a preorder, meaning they didn’t really make any more than were ordered. But that doesn’t mean it’s still not one of the best reissue packages of the year. It’s all here: Slay Tracks 1933-1969, Demolition Plot J-7, Pacific Trim, and 14 more, charting the arch history of one of the decade’s best groups in all their messy, clever glory, from their lo-fi beginnings through their work with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. I didn’t get one either because I knew that I’d never actually listen to it, but I still regret it every day!
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Various Artists – Celebrate Yourself! The Sonic Cathedral Story 2004–2024 (Sonic Cathedral)
When Sonic Cathedral launched in 2004, first as a London club night but soon an independent label, shoegaze was pretty out of fashion. They stuck it out, though, and over the last two decades Sonic Cathedral have released records by School of Seven Bells, Dean Wareham, M83, Maps, shoegaze vets like Ride’s Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, Lush’s Emma Anderson, and Slowdive’s Neil Halstead and Simon Scott, not to mention I Was a King, Younghusband, Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, Engineers’ Mark Peters, Horsegirl, Disappears, Spectres, bdrmm, deary and more. It’s great timing that as Sonic Cathedral celebrates its 20th anniversary, shoegaze has never been bigger. This well-curated three-CD set features a disc of greatest hits, a disc of trippy remixes, and a disc of live performances, showcasing Sonic Cathedral’s tenacity and continued great taste in the form.
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