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| DRAHLA |
ALTER.NATiON SELECTiON on DEEZER
Drahla - Gilded Clouds from Useless Coordinates
“Go inwards and be bold.” This was Harmony Korine’s advice to aspiring creatives, during a Q&A at the British Film Institute back in early 2016. For the recently-formed Drahla, his words served as something of a directive, encouraging the trio to trust their own instincts, however far removed they might be from those of their peers. Three years on, the Leeds-formed band have defined their own vital subset of art-rock with Useless Coordinates, a debut album that’s as fearless as it is enthralling... As per their earliest releases, No Wave and post-punk remain integral to Drahla’s musical universe, evident in Brown’s brilliantly deadpan drawl, in the Gang Of Four-esque guitars on Gilded Cloud... On Gilded Cloud elegant snapshots from the golden age of Hollywood are juxtaposed with abrasive guitar textures... The result is an uncompromising but deeply rewarding debut where the internal and external, cerebral and visceral coalesce to quite startling effect.
Jamila Woods - MILES
MILES - This feels more like a character study than other tracks on the album, like you’re stepping into the shoes of Miles Davis.
“Miles” felt like a persona poem, where you learn about the author through the lens that they choose to take. I used to love writing persona poems; I once wrote one from the voice of a pigeon.
Also, I have been thinking a lot about feminine and masculine energy, and how I aspire to have both in a good balance. It’s harder for me to be masculine and assertive—to say exactly what I want, speak up when I feel like someone is doing something wrong—so stepping into the voice of someone like Miles Davis is a good feeling.
The Mystery Lights - Thick Skin from Too Much Tension!
The Mystery Lights are a band who live in the the year 2019 by fate, not by choice. Their music suggests that they arrived in the present day after passing through some wrinkle in time adorned with paisley; they are obsessed with '60s garage rock and psychedelia, and their songs and their approach make it clear they've done their homework when it comes to re-creating the nuts and bolts of this stuff. The Mystery Lights' third album, 2019's Too Much Tension!, captures the sound of that halcyon era when America's youth stopped playing "Louie Louie" and started abusing recreational drugs with a truly impressive accuracy, as if someone discovered a long-lost collaborative project with the Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Chocolate Watch Band, and the Seeds joining forces in the studio...
Amyl and the Sniffers - Starfire 500 from Amyl and the Sniffers
With an energy befitting a tiny tornado, Australian punk crew Amyl and the Sniffers deliver a series of punches to the jaw with their rollicking self-titled debut. Clocking in at less than 30 minutes, Amyl and the Sniffers is an absolute thrill, the ideal soundtrack to a sweat-and-beer-covered bar brawl. Here, black eyes and bruises are a welcome trade for the fun and complete abandon within, which owes much to the band's electrifying vocalist, Amy Taylor... While Taylor is undeniably the star of the show, the group -- guitarist Dec Martens, drummer Bryce Wilson, and bassist Gus Romer -- shine when they are given space to breathe. From the instrumental prelude to "Starfire 500" to the steadily building "Control," Amyl and the Sniffers prove there's more beneath the surface than their scuzzy, mosh-friendly, three-pronged attack.
Sleater-Kinney - Hurry On Home
Sleater-Kinney are back! Earlier this year, the legendary trio announced that they would have a new album out this year and that it was being produced by St. Vincent, and they’ve followed through. Their new album is called The Center Won’t Hold, as we found out last week, and it’ll be out later this year via Mom + Pop Records... In a press release, Carrie Brownstein says: “We’re always mixing the personal and the political but on this record, despite obviously thinking so much about politics, we were really thinking about the person — ourselves or versions of ourselves or iterations of depression or loneliness — in the middle of the chaos.”
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| New Sleater-Kinney Album, Produced By St. Vincent |
Valerie Teicher (born Buenos Aires, Argentina), best known by her stage name Tei Shi, is a singer-
Tei Shi - A Kiss Goodbye
Tei Shi, aka Colombian-Canadian musician Valerie Teicher, is preparing to drop the follow-up to 2017’s tremendous Crawl Space. We don’t have details on the new LP just yet, but today she’s sharing its lead single, “A Kiss Goodbye.” The track is a breathy retro Brazilian pop exercise transposed into languid modern production. “So I lead with my body/ Follow with my head,” Tei Shi sings. “If you got what you wanted/ Let me walk away.”...
Santana - Blue Skies from Africa Speaks
...Throughout, the Santana octet is on fire, fronted by Spain's inimitable force of nature Concha Buika, a singer, songwriter, poet, and producer. She is so versatile, she's been nominated for Latin Grammys in several genres, and is equally adept at flamenco, jazz, soul, funk, and Anglo-Latin and Afro-pop... Laura Mvula guests on the simmering jazz-blues nocturne "Blue Skies," trading verses with co-composer Buika...
The Mattson 2 - Naima's Dream from Paradise
...Paradise is a much more laid-back and pop-oriented production. Cuts like the opening "Naima's Daughter" and "Moonlight Motel" are sparkling groovers built around Jared's bright-toned arpeggio's and lyrical guitar leads, all of which bring to mind a vintage late '60s/early '70s vibe that falls somewhere in between George Benson and the hippie vocal group Free Design...
Dungen - Var Har Du Varit from Self-Discovery for Social Survival
Self-Discovery for Social Survival is a documentary film in three parts, following 16 surfers in three very different countries. Exploring hazy adventures in surfing cultures in Mexico, the remote Maldives Islands, and Iceland, the film's soundtrack is an integral part of the package, as the musicians worked closely with the producers of the documentary to create original music that not only scored the visual elements but acted as an emotional counterpart to the experiences of the surfers. For this project, the bands and artists were handpicked for their place in the somewhat psychedelic nature of surf culture and philosophy... Swedish acid rock powerhouse Dungen..
The Raconteurs - Somedays (I Don't Feel Like Trying) from Help Us Stranger
Reconvening after a decade's absence, the Raconteurs resemble nothing less than a guild of craftsman united by taste and work ethic on their third album, Help Us Stranger. Ever since their debut, the quartet displayed a shared love for the rock and pop made before the advent of MTV, and while they've never abandoned an aesthetic steeped in FM radio, they've gotten livelier with each passing LP. Which isn't to say Help Us Stranger is a slack, loose affair. One of its considerable pleasures his how Brendan Benson encourages Jack White to stick to a strict outline and color within the lines, trends the latter largely abandoned on his willfully obtuse 2018 album Boarding House Reach. There are jokes and asides peppered throughout Help Us Stranger -- the best of these is an intentional skip at the start of the title track, the kind of thing that will drive vinyl freaks batty upon the initial listen -- but the album is distinguished by its velocity, a momentum delivered as much through writing as it is through performance. Whether they're stitching together individual ideas or writing in tandem, Benson and White are full collaborators, honing their hooks and melodies so they're gleamingly lean, then they dress up these handsome bones with squalls of guitar, vintage synths, campfire acoustics, ghostly piano, gypsy violin, and thundering rhythms...
Elephant9 - Farmer's Secret from Psychedelic Backfire I
After delivering the wonderful but uncharacteristically brief Greatest Show on Earth in 2018, Norway's premier jazz-rock outfit Elephant9 return with two sprawling double-length albums. Psychedelic Backfire I and II are live offerings captured over four nights at Kampen Bistro. The first two nights were presented by the original trio of keyboardist Ståle Storløkken, drummer Torstein Lofthus, and bassist Nikolai Hængsle, while the latter two evenings feature frequent collaborator, guitarist Reine Fiske. On each, the band revisit tunes from their back catalog without overdubs, edits, or corrections of any kind as well as covers.
Influential art punk band whose experimental sound harnessed self-destructing melodies, scattershot rhythms, and industrial-strength dissonance.
Ever since "30 Seconds Over Tokyo," Pere Ubu have been portending the end, either with their apocalyptic sounds or the numerous times they've threatened to call it quits. This time, they may actually mean it. The band's mastermind David Thomas described The Long Goodbye as their "definitive destination," and if it is their final statement, they're not making any concessions. Unlike 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo, where they framed the complexity of their music in relatively short, simple outbursts, this time they lead with the avant side of their avant-garage, letting it sprawl and tangle in fascinating and unsettling ways. For the band's final chapter, Thomas was inspired by an unlikely pair of influences: commercial pop music and Raymond Chandler's classic 1953 noir novel The Long Goodbye (which, not coincidentally, was the author's final book and the culmination of the Philip Marlowe series).
The Quiet Temple - X Rated from The Quiet Temple
Founded by guitarist Duke Garwood and Soulsavers' Rich Machin, Quiet Temple is a loose-knit, slipstream instrumental collective named for a Mal Waldron composition immortalized by Donald Byrd and Booker Little. The rolling cast includes players who have worked with various bands over the past two decades and sometimes together. The roster includes saxophonist Ray Dickaty (Stereolab, Spiritualized); keyboardist Tim Lewis (aka Thighpaulsandra -- Spiritualized and Julian Cope), drummer Paul May, bassist Peter Marsh (both Woven Entity), and guitarist Tony "Doggen" Foster (Julian Cope, Spiritualized, Brain Donor). Their music crisscrosses genres from psych and post-punk to left-field jazz, steamy dub, kosmiche, and even Krautrock... Ultimately, there are too few records like The Quiet Temple. While its musical referents are obvious, its assemblage, execution, and inspiration are not.
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| The Quiet Temple founded by Duke Garwood and Soulsavers' Rich Machin |
De Lorians - A Ship of Mental Health from De Lorians
De Lorians are a Tokyo-based quintet who play a freewheeling form of proggy, spiritual jazz-rock heavily influenced by Frank Zappa as well as the Canterbury scene... "A Ship of Mental Health" is unabashedly Zappa-fied, even suddenly breaking midway to splice in rapid-fire bits of conversation and snacking... At this fledgling stage in their career, De Lorians sound a little messy and scattered, but their energy is boundless, and the five of them seem to be a wellspring of ideas. Furthermore, it's quite refreshing to find a young group dedicated to this particular patch of the musical landscape -- their music is devoid of cynicism, and they seem thoroughly excited to be exploring the infinite possibilities of musical creation.
Moon Duo - Lost Heads
It sounds like Moon Duo have found some new drugs. Historically, their brand of psychedelia has been a little foreboding — buzzing machinery guitars and guttural krautrock rhythms, imagery all focused on the occult and shadows and the grimier corners of the night... We got a hint of it with the album’s lead single and title track, sneakily one of the most addicting and straight-up prettiest songs Moon Duo’s ever recorded. “Lost Heads” might not have the lilting poppiness of its predecessor, but it definitely exists in the same airy, Technicolor world. The whole thing rides easily along a sun-dappled groove, with Johnson and Sanae Yamada’s vocals intertwined in a dreamily distant vocal...
Big Thief - Not
Big Thief are really not fucking around. Instead of riding the wave of having released one of the most acclaimed albums of the year, they’re returning with another new collection just months later.... “Not” is a hell of a way to introduce that new album. After U.F.O.F.‘s intricate, meditative beauty enraptured critics and fans alike, “Not” is a roiling, fraying rock song, a totally different side of the band’s personality. Adrianne Lenker’s raw performance pushes her typically elusive vocals to their most ragged extremes; the band’s delivery is something like art school Crazyhorse; the whole thing is as desperate and cathartic as the bulk of U.F.O.F. was pristine and enigmatic. Big Thief have long been elemental. This time around, they’ve leaned deep into the fire.
Lala Lala - Fuck With Your Friends from Sleepyhead
Chicago band Lala Lala is centered around the dark-yet-vulnerable songwriting of Lillie West. West's songs reached a wider audience with her 2018 album The Lamb, a collection of straightforward and intuitive indie rock songs about sobriety, trauma, and recovery... Sleepyhead's blown-out drums, growling bass lines, and walls of layered vocals all look to '90s grunge... Listeners intrigued by riskier production and the happy accidents of lo-fi recording might even prefer the scattered and sometimes unhinged sounds.
Lana Del Rey - Doin' Time from Norman Fucking Rockwell!
...This surreal mix of myth and reality, nostalgic visions of the past and grave warnings for the near future, total chaos and California coolness, defines the 14 songs on her fifth full-length. The album weaves love songs for self-destructive poets, psychedelic jam sessions, and even a cover of Sublime’s “Doin’ Time” through arrangements that harken back to the Laurel Canyon pop of the ’60s and ’70s. Throughout, Lana has never sounded more in tune to her own muse—or less interested in appealing to the masses...
Iggy Pop - James Bond from Free
If you'd been a baker for more than fifty years, you could be forgiven for being sick of the sight of chocolate eclairs. Similarly, a half-century on from the first Stooges album, Iggy Pop has made it clear he's not in love with rock & roll as he once was. Albums such as 2009's Preliminaries and 2012's Après have found him exploring less aggressive and more thoughtful material, and Iggy continues this trend with 2019's Free... While there are electric guitars on most of these numbers, there's little in the way of fuzz or bark, and a ghostly trumpet and waves of atmospheric keyboards play a much bigger role in the arrangements. Iggy had a hand in writing three of the tracks on Free, but most of the songs were penned by his primarily collaborators on this album, trumpeter Leron Thomas and Noveller, who is credited with "guitarscapes." There are a few playful moments, most notably on the sly and slinky "James Bond...
The influence of Jean Claude Vannier on French popular and film music cannot be overstated. A composer, arranger, conductor, and producer, he is best known for work he's done for other artists, but his own recordings and scores have gained critical notice too.
Mike Patton / Jean-Claude Vannier - Browning from Corpse Flower
Though few would have conceived of it beforehand, a collaboration between French composer and arranger Jean-Claude Vannier and American singer, lyricist, songwriter, and producer Mike Patton finds them a perfectly matched pair of musical reprobates... Musically, this set crisscrosses many genres, it is ultimately rooted in exploration and adventure yet grounded in sleazy chanson, lounge tropes, blues, cinema music, and sound library tropes... "Browning" sounds like a mutant outtake from the Rolling Stones' Emotional Rescue if it were arranged by Vannier, Keith Richards, and Gainsbourg... Corpse Flower is a dark jewel from two remarkable musical iconoclasts. It offers surprise, humor, revelation, tenderness, and excess, with flair and a certain tarnished elegance. It's a high-water mark for both men, albeit one born from the belly of hell itself.
DIIV - Blankenship
The new DIIV album, Deceiver, is suddenly imminent. The revved-up NYC shoegazers will release the follow-up to 2016’s Is The Is Are in two weeks... The most exciting song they’ve unveiled so far, though, is today’s offering, “Blankenship.” With a motorik pulse and some of the crispest production of their career, the song surges forward into all manner of noise-pop theatrics, including lots of rad string-bending guitar riffs. Has it instantly become my favorite DIIV song? Maybe?...
David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights - Ngapara from Bobbie's a girl
Both on his own and with his band the Heavy Eights, David Kilgour built up a strong CV of chiming, noisy, and sometimes thickly psychedelic indie rock since the Clean stopped recording (for a while) in the early '90s. On records like 1994's Sugar Mouth or 2004's Frozen Orange, right up to 2014's End Times Undone, he's made thoughtful, tuneful albums that chime warmly as his understated vocals deliver a big, soft punch. It's a formula that has served him well for a long time, but on 2019's Bobbie's a Girl, Kilgour and his band change things up. For one thing, it's mostly an instrumental album, with Tony De Raad and Kilgour's acoustic and electric guitars carrying the main melodic weight, Thomas Bell's bass and Taane Tokona's drums subtly shading the background, and an array of carefully placed keyboards coloring in spaces here and there...
Frankiie - Funny Feelings from Forget Your Head
An indie rock group founded in Vancouver behind singer/guitarist Francesca Carbonneau, Frankiie emerged in 2015 with a debut EP that revealed '60s inspirations including girl groups and surf rock. They strengthen what were subtler psychedelic influences and focus on the harmonic, noir-tinted climate where these styles all overlap on their full-length and label debut, Forget Your Head (Paper Bag Records). Ringing guitar tones and a simple groove set the tone on the first track, "Funny Feelings." Evoking a poppier Grace Slick or Exene throughout the album, Carbonneau's naturally graceful vocals are punctuated by punky shouts and bent pitches that fall in line with the spooky melodic bass, minor intervals, and touches of the distortion that mark the song...
that dog. - Just the Way from Old LP
"I haven't felt like this since 1995," Anna Waronker snarls at one point on Old LP, the first album from that dog. in 22 years. During that time -- nearly half of Waronker, Rachel Haden and Tony Maxwell's lives -- the band's spiky yet vulnerable mix of punk, chamber pop and singer/songwriter confessions shaped later generations of indie rock and pop artists. It's all the sweeter, then, that Old LP is a near-flawless blend of experience and exuberance. Though Waronker and Haden sound only a day or two older than they did on 1997's Retreat from the Sun, all of that dog.'s members have become more seasoned musicians since that album's release. They also made Old LP at a deliberate pace, writing and honing a handful of songs each year after their 2011 reunion shows...
North Mississippi Allstars - Call That Gone from Up and Rolling
...NMA -- Luther and Cody on guitar and drums, respectively, Thomas on vocals and fife, Carl Dufrene on bass, and Sharisse Norman on vocals -- are a well-seasoned outfit; the quintet and most of their guests have been playing together in various capacities for most of their lives. "Call That Gone" is a filthy, squalling, bottleneck-guitar blues driven by rolling tom-toms with souled-out vocals from Luther and Thomas, her fife trading licks with his guitar...
Fabienne Delsol - J’ai Fait De Lui Un Reve from Four
After taking a long break from recording, Fabienne Delsol returns with another light-hearted and snappy album that combines the hookiness of the beat group boom, the drama of vintage French pop, and the murky swirl of psychedelia. Her previous solo albums were helmed by Liam Watson at his famed Toerag studio; this time around Delsol takes half the wheel, with the studio's engineer Luke Oldfield also steering. They get a sound that's a little less reverb coated and a bit snappier, bringing Delsol's sound a little closer to the modern era. Not close enough to be be bland or slick; just enough to make the album sound less like a long-lost curio. As before, the songs are split between newly written tracks and covers of decades-old obscurities, both sung by Delsol in her sophisticated style... Delsol also covers a classic Françoise Hardy song from 1968, "J’ai Fait De Lui Un Rêve," capturing the song's stately charms while adding some buzzing guitars and soaring Mellotron. This song and the rest of the covers are done exactly right, with respect to the original but played and sung with unique style and personality. Delsol and her crew have plenty of each, and they make the covers sounds as much hers as the songs skillfully written for her by Gardiner. Four is another special record from an artist who can do no wrong, except for not making albums more regularly.
Battles - Fort Greene Park from Juice B Crypts
Like a hummingbird in flight, Battles make the most complex labour look carefree and weightless... Ultimately, though, it's the tracks where Battles are left to their own devices that define the album. On "Fort Greene Park," watch as a blustering guitar collects itself into precarious catharsis — synths fall out of the drums that contain them, climb back in, and all builds to quietness. It's one of the most plaintively beautiful songs in Battles' catalogue, in its sonic attention to loss, to change over time. And, as we listen to it, we also listen to the sound of a band who continue to create after more than a decade — tempered with loss, yes, but also joy, also freedom.
Broen - Do You See the Falling Leaves? from Do You See the Falling Leaves?
It's hard to express the creative leap Broen made between their international debut and its follow-up better than the albums' titles do. On 2017's I <3 Art, the Norwegian collective were above all creative, channeling their passion into breaking any remaining boundaries between pop, jazz, electronic music, R&B, and hip-hop. On Do You See the Falling Leaves?, they use their genre-fluid sound to explore the connections between the desire to make art and the desire to reach out to others... The title track's sensuous nine-minute sprawl is remarkably intimate, thanks to the husky warmth of Røe's voice -- which calls to mind Joan as Police Woman's Joan Wasser -- and the surprising, charming combination of tuba and a scorched electric guitar solo...
Bradford James Cox is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Deerhunter. He also pursues a solo career under the moniker Atlas Sound.
Bradford Cox / Cate Le Bon - Canto! from Myths 004
Cate Le Bon's role as producer on Deerhunter's 2019 album Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? can be heard in both the album's experimental tendencies and organic yet distant arrangements. Le Bon's own 2019 strike Reward had the same balance of strong songwriting and production that blurred curiosity and confusion. The creative friendship between Le Bon and Deerhunter's Bradford Cox takes new shapes on their collaborative EP Myths 004. At its most straightforward, the seven-song project sounds like what could be outtakes from either artist's 2019 album. Opening track "Canto!" features Cox in a dramatic double-tracked vocal melody in an arrangement decorated with strums of autoharp, dissonant guitar soloing, and heavy tandem drum kits...
Jehnny Beth - I’m The Man
Savages leader Jehnny Beth has a new song out today, “I’m The Man,” which appears on the soundtrack for the British television show Peaky Blinders... Here’s what Beth had to say about the track in a statement: "I’m The Man’ is an attempted study on humankind, what we define as evil and the inner conflict of morality. Because it is much easier to label the people who are clearly tormented by obsessions as monsters than to discern the universal human background which is visible behind them. However, this song has not even a remote connection with a sociological study, collective psychology, or present politics; It is a poetic work first and foremost. Its aim is to make you feel, not think."
Twin Peaks - Spiders (Kidsmoke) (Wilco Cover)
The Wilco tribute album Wilco Covered was released on CD with the November issue of Uncut, and only one of its songs was released digitally... That would be Twin Peaks’ take on “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” which, like “Company In My Back,” originates from Wilco’s masterful 2004 release A Ghost Is Born. It’s a roots-rock/krautrock hybrid that sets Wilco’s drowsy pop harmonies and rangy, agitated lead guitar work to a motorik pulse, punctuated by occasional widescreen bar-band explosions. Twin Peaks, Wilco’s Chicago rock descendants, have delivered a faithful reading of “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” one that reminds me how cool it would be to see the track back in Wilco’s setlist sometime soon...
Health&Beauty - Saturday Night from Shame Engine / Blood Pleasure
Seven albums into the shape-shifting, lineup-shuffling, improvisational project of guitarist/singer Brian J. Sulpizio (Ryley Walker), Health&Beauty submits a sprawling group of songs that negotiates dark, rambling blues ("Saturday Night")... With a live version of the band at the album's core, much of Shame Engine/Blood Pleasure was recorded with the lineup of Sulpizio, guitarist Jake Acosta, bass player Bill Satek, and drummer Seth Vanek following a three-week tour in late 2017. A number of other familiar and first-time collaborators also contributed performances to Shame Engine/Blood Pleasure before it was deemed complete. Clocking in at over an hour, the album adjusts expectations with the trudging blues-rock of the nearly 11-minute "Saturday Night," which features Acosta's howling lead guitar alongside Sulpizio's minimalist vocals...
Every time we listen to Sorry, the four-piece rock band from North London, we can’t help but feeling as if what is blaring through our headphones is unlike anything we have heard before. The music is rock, grunge rock, with strands of electronic coursing through it, and deliciously moody vocals from lead vocalist Asha Lorenz completing the circle.
Tags: alternative rock grunge post post-punk post-rock London
Sorry - Rock ‘N’ Roll Star
...Although they’re known for switching up their style from song to song, one thing this new one has in common with its predecessor is a reliance on wild saxophone trills. “Rock ‘N’ Roll Star” is a bit more deconstructed at first, like Sonic Youth attempting a nasty jazz track that eventually morphs into idiosyncratic pop music. Amidst the minimalist chaos, Asha Lorenz sings, I stayed up all night with a rock ‘n’ roll star/ He said you gotta just follow the part, you are not who you are.” From there it keeps transforming, always maintaining its unique aesthetic no matter how much the turmoil transforms....
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