Tommy Guerrero - Return Of The Bastard. LP [2024 Reissue / Ltd. Ed. 140g Black Vinyl]

Tommy Guerrero - Return Of The Bastard. LP [2024 Reissue / Ltd. Ed. 140g Black Vinyl]

Tommy Guerrero's revered 'Return Of The Bastard' gets its first ever vinyl reissue. Endearingly simple but beautifully beguiling, it's lo-fi dusty break business with the most elegant guitars this side of Vini Reilly and Gabor Szabo. Tommy's breezy drum-machine guitar-soul should be prescribed to soothe an aching world. By rights, he should also be a Balearic god. Here's 14 tracks of drop-dead laconic beauty, all of them combining to create this unheralded masterpiece. Working with Tommy directly, the LP has been fully remastered and sounds as dazzlingly, heartbreakingly beautiful as it did back in 2007. 

As ever, there's heavenly Latin guitar stylings that make you swoon and the melancholic vibe is accentuated by the addition of some melodic wordless vocals from Tommy. The head-nod funk of "Calling For Ya!" features Curumin delivering the clever title as a hypnotic vocal refrain peppered throughout, all hung around some buried spoken word vocals and gorgeous cello work from Lenny Gonzalez. "Bloodinthemud" is a low-down gritty funk workout whilst "Zapata's Boots" is a total low-key groover, all Latin percussion and Morricone muscle aided by a whistled Spaghetti Western melody. 

The upbeat and bright "40 Summers," featuring congas from Alfredo Ortiz, is as clean and poppy as Tommy gets and it really is a look he wears incredibly well. Meticulously remastered and cut by both Simon Francis and Cicely Balston respectively, it has been pressed to the highest possible quality at Record Industry in Holland. 

The original and iconic sleeve, designed by Natas Kaupas, has been restored as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.  

[140g Black Vinyl].

Track Listing  

SIDE A

1. And The Folklore Continues
2. La Califas Perdido
3. I Would Go With You
4. No Time For Time
5. Calling For Ya!
6. Bloodinthemud
7. Zapata's Boots
8. Mosaic Man

SIDE B

9. What Have I Been Doing Since I Was Gone?
10. Paper Switchblade
11. Never Forget To Remember
12. Run With The Hunted
13. New Terrain
14. 40 Summers
15. The Simple Man