The death over the weekend of legendary record man Seymour Stein has unleashed a torrent of heartfelt appreciations from the musicians he championed.

Earlier this year, U.K.-based label Occultation Recordings took the unusual step of surveying fans of The Wild Swans about what they’d like to see included on deluxe vinyl reissues of the band’s third album, 2011′s The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years, and a 2003 compilation of ’80s radio sessions, demos and rarities,

Occultation Recordings is planning deluxe vinyl reissues of The Wild Swans’ third album, 2011’s The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years, and a 2003 compilation of ’80s radio sessions, demos and rarities called Incandescent — but first the label is taking the unusual step of asking fans what they’d like to see included.

Echo & The Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant has enlisted former bandmate and current Wild Swans bassist Les Pattinson to take part in a new instrumental band called Poltergeist that he says falls ‘somewhere between krautrock and prog rock,’ and which already is rehearing in Liverpool in advance of recording a four-track EP.

As 2011 quickly winds to an end, we’re happy to roll out our fourth and final days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite music of the year. Today, we bring you the big one: The best albums of 2011.

This week’s new releases include ‘The Coldest Winter For a Hundred Years,’ the first new album from The Wild Swans in 21 years, plus ‘Swing,’ a CD/12-inch combo from New Order’s Gillian & Stephen and expanded reissues of the first two albums from Pop Will Eat Itself.

Next week, Liverpool’s The Wild Swans — the brainchild of former Teardrop Explodes keyboardist Paul Simpson — will release their first album in 21 years and only their third overall, a 13-track collection called ‘The Coldest Winter For a Hundred Years’ that features veterans of Echo & The Bunnymen, Spiritualized and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.