Soundcarriers – Celeste (RSD reissue) 
At this point I’m not really one to line up for Record Store Day. The day’s pushed past its point of use and bled into a burden on the industry and small labels in particular. Though I remain all for supporting your local store, so if that’s the day you do it, keep on. I’m more inclined to quieter browsing days myself. That said, there’s always one or two releases that actually do seem like a good idea that align with the high holiday of petroleum platters. This year, aside from those Miles Davis cuts from On The Corner, that release is Celeste. Soundcarriers’ second album has long proven an out of reach pickup for those that weren’t buying this in 2010, and stateside that has proven an even harder goal.
The band’s sound, a psych-pop cocoon of vernal beauty and quiet cool found further reach on their Ghost Box follow-up and they released one of last years’ most essential records. For the heads, they helped shape the world of Jim Gavin’s long under-appreciated Lodge 49. Several songs from the album would wind up among the soundtrack of the show, and it’s the band’s grasp of humid, alchemical psychedelia that made it most fitting. The songs, like the show have a sense of wonder to them, a step through the veil that nestles the listener between psych-pop, lounge, Bossa Nova, and jazz. Slowly rotating though smoked glass menageries of sound, the band comes into their own here and its great to have it back in print for those that don’t number among the 1,000 that had a shot the first time around, though I do kinda wish they’d kept the original artwork in tact. There are still copies available, both domestically and from the band themselves in the UK. I highly recommend picking one up even as the RSD clatter has cleared up.