Punk rock, world obscurities, and “deranged” mix CD’s from Keiji Yamabe’s Los Apson? record shop in Koenji, Tokyo. The best record shops in the world are much more […]
Monthly Bliss: The In Sheep’s Clothing Record Club Delivers Essential Vinyl to Your Doorstep
A few spots are now open for the record club. Join today for personally curated records delivered to you monthly!
Last month a package arrived from Los Angeles containing two records I didn’t order, but that was by design. The best way to discover music, I’ve found, remains through trusted friends and kindred spirits. Although algorithms have also directed me to great stuff — even a broken clock is correct twice a day — I’ve long gotten a better return on my investment through people who are on the same sonic wavelength as I am, and whose never-ending quest for sound waves that will rewire their brains is as relentless as mine. Texts from heads, record store clerks, DJ tips, trusted sites.
To say my colleagues at In Sheep’s Clothing have reconfigured my musical consciousness would be an understatement. My knowledge has expanded into sections of the global discography that otherwise would have gone unheard. My record collection and my passions have gotten deeper — I’ve added music that’s more spacious, more contemplative, and less reliant on typical song structure. I’ve discovered records that I missed the first time around. That’s due to the aesthetics of a group of heads who, like me, live and breathe music and hi-fi culture.
Anyway, that package arrived courtesy of the In Sheep’s Clothing Record Club, which recently opened to new subscribers as we’ve scaled up our shop and obtained more titles. My ISCHiFi subscription delivers two records a month based on parameters and genres I’ve selected as being passionate about. The first was by Ricardo Dias Gomes. Called Muito Sol, it came out on Hive Mind last year.
Join the club: https://club.insheepsclothinghifi.com/
Tasteful others had written about it. In the consistently insightful newsletter the Shfl, Andy Beta accurately called Gomes “a minimalist at heart, adept at conjuring up intimate worlds from the sparest of gestures.” I’d missed that write-up, though, and all the others.
A truly lost-in-music listen from start to finish, it was made by an artist with a cosign from one of the best ever, Caetano Veloso, specifically via his late-period post-Tropicalia masterpieces Cê (2006), Zii and Zie (2009) and Abraçaço (2012). Dias playing bass on the records and toured the world with Veloso. Here’s him playing a solo show a few months ago.
The second album in that mailer — the ISCHiFi Record Club offers tiers for either two or three albums per month — was a record I’d been spying but had never pulled the trigger on. By the Australian artist Santilli, the ambient release came out in 2022 and is called Motions.
Santilli’s record is quiet and deep, especially when heard at proper volume and more especially heard through stacked Advents and a Harman Kardon 730 twin-powered amp, gear acquired after research for ISC on budget audiophilia. Release notes for Santilli’s 2021 album Tidal compare his output to “the finer moments of Windham Hill and ECM,” which tracks.
Another unknown-to-me record that landed in my home mailbox and is a recurrent presence on the turntable, Motions offers further proof of the curatorial expertise of the ISC selectors. I pay $70 month for two records, which includes shipping. Others invest $100 a month for three selections.
As mentioned, we re-opened the space to new subscribers a few months ago. Those interested in learning more about subscriptions and selection should to hit the In Sheep’s Clothing Record Club subscription page:
