Record Store Day 2012: the best of this year's releases

This Saturday (April 21) is the annual Record Store Day with 2012's event set to be the biggest yet. As an avid music lover you should already call your local record store home but with literally hundreds of special releases available this weekend Gigwise editor Michael Baggs plus Luke Tadgell and David Renshaw have picked out our personal choices of what to snap up from under the nose of your fellow vinyl lovers.

Arctic Monkeys - 'R U Mine?': One of the more intriguing Record Store singles, 'R U Mine?', rather than being a re-release or current album track, is a further progression in the Arctic Monkeys sound. The band have already performed the new track at Coachella and on US tv when they visited Conan O'Brien's show, and are releasing the song as a limited edition purple 7" vinyl with another new song, 'Electricity', as its b-side. LT

Bloc Party - She's Hearing Voices (7"): The first ever release from a band that would go on to define mid-00's indie music, this re-release of She's Hearing Voices is the perfect reminder of Bloc Party's brilliance ahead of their return later in the year. DR

St. Vincent - 'Krokodil/ Grot' (7"): Annie Clarke's 2011 album 'Strange Mercy' was one of the year's finest and she is marking RSD with her heaviest work to date. As anyone who caught her set at Coachella, packed full of riffs and even some crowdsurfing, will know - St. Vincent rock harder than most. DR

Sigur Ros - 'Ekki Mukk' (10"): Sigur Ros have never been the chart-friendly sort, and their latest release 'Ekki Mukk' is about as far from mainstream as they get. Seeminly influenced by lead singer Jonsi's side-project Riceboy Sleeps, this epic track is awash with looped samples, distant choirs and radio static. Stirring stuff from Iceland's finest band. MB

Garbage - 'Blood For Poppies/ Battle In Me' (7"): Garbage are back in a big way for 2012 and kick off their comeback with this Record Store Day release - their first in seven years. Bearing all the hallmarks of classic Garbage (Shirley Manson's ladylike snarl, edgy production and heavy, distorted guitars), this is an esssential release - whether for Record Store Day or otherwise. MB

Mastodon/ Feist - 'A Commotion/ Black Tongue' (7"): As far as musical opposites go, the only two acts more different to one another than Mastodon and Feist that we can think of are Slayer and Olly Murs. Luckily those two will never meet but Feist and Mastodon have made good on their covers and lent their own skills to one anothers songs, totally re-defining the originals.  DR



Azari and III - 'Lost In Time' (12"): Other than it's eighties heyday, New York house music has never been cooler than since flamboyant four-piece Azari and III arrived on the music scene. Taken from their debut album, 'Lost In Time' is a mostly instrumental cut from their debut album, but one that builds to one of the year's biggest, most uplifting climaxes. MB

The Flaming Lips - 'The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends' (12"): Wayne Coyne has gone a bit mad for Record Store Day this year and made an album featuring his collaborations with Bon Iver, Ke$ha, Tame Impala, Nick Cave, Yoko Ono and Neon Indian. We want to hear it for sheer curiosity if nothing else. DR

Morrissey - 'Suedehead': With no record deal to speak of - and therefore no hope of a follow-up to 2009's 'Years of Refusal - Morrissey's Record Store Day contribution is the closest we'll get to a new release any time soon.

He's opted for his number five charting single 'Suedehead' from 1988 debut album 'Viva Hate', being presented as a 10-inch picture disc and digital download. The download track is remixed by Ron and Russell Mael, and is backed by two previously unreleased BBC live tracks: 'We'll Let You Know' and 'Now My Heart Is Full', both recorded at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane in 1995. LT

Battles - Dross Glop 4': Battles have incorporated their Record Store Day effort into their 12 inch remix series. The fourth and final installment, the remixes have been conducted by Gang Gang Dance, Hudson Mohawke and Patrick Mahoney & Dennis McNany of the songs 'Ice Cream', 'Rolls Bayce' and 'My Machines' respectively. LT

Also reccomended:

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Covers EP
Outfit - 'Another Night's Dreams Reach Earth Again' EP (12")
Miles Kane - First Of My Kind (10")
Animal Collective - Traverse Temporal Gyrus (12")
Arcade Fire - Soulwax remixes (12")
Beach House - Lazuli (7")
The Flaming Lips/ Mastodon - A Spoonful Weighs A Ton (pink 7")
Hot Chip - Night & Day (12")
Little Boots - Every Night I Say A Prayer (12")
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Songs From The Great White North (12")
Sex Pistols - Anarchy In the UK (7" picture disc)
Two Door Cinema Club - Acoustic EP (7")
The Vaccines/ R. Stevie Moore - TBA (7")
Scum/ Big Deal - Split EP (7")
Zomby - Where Were U In '92 (12")
The White Stripes - Hand Springs/ Red Death At 6.14 (7")
Gorillaz - DoYaThing (10")
Domino/Ribbon’s Smugglers Way zine/flexi discs feat. Dirty Projectors, Real Estate, Cass McCombs, John Maus, and Villagers