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Liz Brasher
Body of Mine 2:50
Blood of the Lamb 3:02
from Painted Image 2019
Singer/guitarist Liz Brasher first tried her hand at songwriting as a young adult after studying up on a variety of 20th century American masters, including Stephen Foster, Lead Belly, and Bob Dylan. She found particular inspiration in the sounds of the Delta blues and Southern soul. On her full-length debut, Painted Image, those influences shine through an eclectic retro-soul. ..
Sore Eros
Backseat Bop 2:57
Mirror 8:34
from Sore Eros 2020
While the exploratory, psychedelic lo-fi of Sore Eros took root in the early 2000s as the D.I.Y. endeavor of frontman Robert Robinson, the project moved from CD-Rs to small labels and expanded its lineup by 2009's Second Chants... An unpredictable ride despite its consistent dreaminess, songs like catchy closer "Mirror," with its ghosts of Buddy Holly-style early rock, and the opener, "Backseat Bop," contain tempo changes among other structural diversions, and tracks vary in length from under three minutes to over ten. The album's shifting, dreamy disposition is matched by lyrics like first words "Open your eyes" and final ones "As you cut cards of tarot/I drop shards of mirror/It once filled me with terror/But now it's getting better." That song, "Mirror," ends appropriately with a minute-long instrumental resolution that finally delivers stillness.
Mr. Elevator
Waiting 3:17
Anywhere 3:55
from Goodbye Blue Sky 2020
After two albums of keyboard-driven psych rock that shone like the flash of a paisley scarf on an overcast day, Mr. Elevator's third album Goodbye, Blue Sky is a much gloomier listening experience dominated by washes of synths, Tomas Dolas' downcast vocals, and melodies that don't just pluck at the heartstrings, but give them a big twang instead. It's a big change from the group's previous work, but Dolas guides things with the same questing, inspired (and guitar-free) approach as before and the results are as thrilling as a record that sounds too sad to get out of bed can be... Mr. Elevator already had a couple of records that positioned them as a band to watch for fans of weird and wonderful psychedelic music, Goodbye, Blue Sky makes good on that promise while shifting gears in fascinating fashion.
Shopping
Trust in Us 2:55
Body Clock 2:21
from All or Nothing 2020
Shopping has such a clearly defined sound -- spiky melodies, spring-loaded basslines, rhythms that just won't quit -- that small changes make a big impact. While All or Nothing continues the move toward a more polished style that Rachel Aggs, Billy Easter, and Andrew Milk began with The Official Body, the two albums couldn't be more different... With this album, Shopping begins the 2020s with a much colder style, an interesting, if not always successful, choice for such a passionate band. Though All or Nothing's title mocks high-stakes ambition, the album is certainly cleaner and tighter-sounding than any of the trio's previous music. Taking inspiration from house and industrial music and Talking Heads, Shopping brings the precision of their playing to the fore on songs that, aptly enough, explore the impersonality of 21st century life...
Spirit Fingers
Nails
Cross Twine
from Peace 2020
...While the group love to juxtapose genre attributes from organic and electric jazz, hip-hop, classical minimalism, breakbeat culture, and EDM, they do so here largely under an identifiable jazz fusion umbrella. While the knotty piano repetitions that undergird opener "Nails" come right out of the Philip Glass fakebook, Chiazzolino's legato playing asserts counterpoint as Mitchell hammers the rhythm home with layers of breaking snares and martial accents, while Feraud holds it all in place... The post-bop fusion exercise "Cross Twine" contains a vamping bassline that Ornette Coleman would love. The remaining players exchange riffs and polyrhythms around and inside it. Chiazzolino moves the group to the ledge with his razor-wire soloing before Spero answers with short interlocutory chords and Mitchell pushes the band to the margin with syncopated fills, rolls, and rim shots. Peace is a next step for Spirit Fingers. While the approach here advances their textural, sonic, and compositional frameworks, it retains all the colorful elements that made their debut so exciting while integrating them inside a new space for contemporary jazz.
The Messthetics
Better Wings
Touch Earth Touch Sky
from Anthropocosmic Nest 2019
Released in 2018, the self-titled debut album from the Messthetics walked a winding path between indie rock and experimental music, which made sense given the group's line-up -- avant-garde guitarist Anthony Pirog teamed with the former rhythm section from Fugazi, bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty. The Messthetics was recorded not long after the band was formed, and the follow-up, 2019's Anthropocosmic Nest, came after the band had toured extensively, honing their music in a way they hadn't had the chance to do prior to their debut. As a consequence, Anthropocosmic Nest pushes the trio's boundaries on all sides...
My Brightest Diamond
It's Me on the Dance Floor
White Noise
from A Million and One 2018
Shara Nova's music as My Brightest Diamond always served as a multi-dimensional muse for her eclectic songwriting and production. Nothing was off limits as her operatically trained vocals found their way into settings of moody rock, spare lullabies, and meticulously arranged chamber pop. Following a time of major life shifting, fifth album A Million and One marks another wide swing for My Brightest Diamond, as the songs move towards darker electronic landscapes and nod to the techno of her hometown of Detroit...
Left Lane Cruiser
Claw Machine Wizard
Lay Down
Indigenous
from Claw Machine Wizard 2017
2017's Claw Machine Wizard is Left Lane Cruiser's ninth album in ten years, and if you've been following their body of work, you should know what to expect before the first tune kicks in. Left Lane Cruiser are all about raw, dirty blues-rock, full of distorted guitars and pounding rhythms, and they aren't about to change their formula a decade into the game. But Claw Machine Wizard does sound just a bit less raunchy than their past few efforts, and contrary to expectations, that turns out to work in their favor. Don't worry, this album is still industrial-strength stomp-down blues-rock, but Jason Davis' engineering and mix add a bit more clarity to the group's attack, and the result boasts a bit less grime and a bit more groove, which helps these tunes shake long and hard...
She-Devils
Come
You Don't Know
from She-Devils 2017
Making their full-length debut, Montreal art pop duo She-Devils incorporate layered tape loops into playfully off-kilter tunes. Behind the group's fondness for '60s French pop, surf rock, and Andy Warhol are musician/soundscaper Kyle Jukka and Audrey Ann Boucher, a visual artist who only began singing and making music after meeting Jukka when they were crashing in the same communal rehearsal space. The two hit it off and began experimenting with sound together, then played shows for several months before recording a self-titled EP. In addition to a reworked "Come" from that release, the She-Devils LP offers slightly more ambitious melodies and vocals by Boucher and continued explorations in twist- and watusi-friendly sound collage...
Public Memory
The Line
Trick of the Light
from Demolition 2018
While Public Memory's Robert Toher doesn't quite tear everything down and start over on Demolition, he does make space for new forms of expression on the project's second album... This time, his moody electronic collages reach outwards: "The Line"'s ever-expanding electronics introduce the vast scope of Demolition's songs. As on 2017's Veil of Counsel EP, the album's increased clarity gives Toher ample room to play with space and tempos... By the time Demolition closes on a surprisingly optimistic note with "Trick of the Light," it proves that Toher can give more focus -- and more hope -- to Public Memory's music without sacrificing any of its mystery.
Poppy
I Disagree
Anything Like Me
from I Disagree 2019
Starting in late 2018, pop artist and Internet personality Poppy teased a drastic stylistic shift, moving beyond the alt-pop earworms that amassed a cult following and embracing her metal-loving side. Disregarding genre restrictions, the result of that evolution, I Disagree, is a metallic storm, informed by pulsing beats, thrashing riffs, and crushing breakdowns. That fury is punctuated by atmospheric electronics and sugary vocals that support her deceptively confrontational lyrics... Speaking of Manson, bits of "The Beautiful People" can be heard on "Anything Like Me," a demonic kiss-off that sounds like an alternate-reality cousin of Billie Eilish's "Bury a Friend."...
Kate NV
Ça Commence Par
Plans
Telefon
from Room for the Moon 2020
The Russian experimental pop performer Kate NV has her feet in two worlds. In one, the artist born Ekaterina Shilonosova sings and plays guitar in the fiery post-punk band ΓШ (Glintshake). In the other, she works with the Moscow Scratch Orchestra, an ensemble inspired by the improvisational pieces of the English composer Cornelius Cardew. In her work as Kate NV, she commits fully to the unpredictability and openness that unites them both... If NV’s striking voice was largely absent from для FOR, here it springs forth like an acrobat who has been waiting on the bench for her time to shine. Alongside a cast of musicians who help bring her kaleidoscopic world to life, NV emerges with a visionary avant-pop record that offers an escape from gloom...
Jeff Parker
Fusion Swirl
Max Brown
from Suite for Max Brown 2020
Guitarist and composer Jeff Parker made a name for himself first with Tortoise during the '90s, and then as an integral member of the experimental music scene in Chicago. He's made a career of jumping the dimensions between rock, soul, funk, and jazz. Unknown to all but his contemporaries and musician friends, he also pursued his intense love of hip-hop without recording any of it; that is, until he released The New Breed from his adopted home in Los Angeles in 2016. He became a mad beats pilgrim, melding bass-throbbing, spine-quaking, bass-centric, hip-hop production inside improvised music, threaded through with R&B, dirty funk, and his own vision of glitched-up future jazz... "Fusion Swirl" claims the fore, turning on a collision of clattering breaks, droning synths, and popping, propulsive bass... The title-track closer is a ten-minute suite played by a quintet including trumpeter Nate Wolcott. While firmly rooted in soulful post-bop, its organic rhythms are adorned by shimmering ride cymbal work from Williams. The interplay between Nate Wolcott and Johnson's alto saxophone is canny, and songlike in its melodic expression through the first half, even as Bryan asserts a third harmonic line with his bass. Parker's analog synth adds pillowy textures, as he comps, fills, and slides on guitar. Johnson's horn eventually moves afield before the entire thing turns inward during its final third as synth and guitar create a mantra-like vamp...
Bambara
Heat Lightning
Stay Cruel
from Stray 2020
...Active for over a decade, the Brooklyn-based trio's sound has evolved from shadowy noise rock to a much more focused, direct sort of gothic post-punk, foregrounding Reid Bateh's bitter, brutal lyrics about seedy characters who constantly seem to be one wrong move away from a horrible, unforgiving tragedy... The production gives everything a hazy, ethereal glow, but it makes all of the blazing guitar riffs and pounding drums resonate, rather than washing them out. Easily the band's most accomplished album to date.
Brooklyn quartet plays dreamy-eyed garage rock with lyrics about late-night wandering and occasional Middle Eastern touches.
Angel Eyes
Flowers
Come My Habibi
from Anywhere But Here 2020
...Six years later, sophomore album Anywhere But Here retains some of that excitement, but sees the band expanding into moodier expression, more complex songwriting, and an expanded instrumentation that includes occasional Middle Eastern touches. .. The relaxed pace and sun-dazed atmosphere of "Angel Eyes" sounds like the Allah-Las at their most subdued...
a daring willingness to explore outside of their known parameters on songs like album-closer "Come My Habibi." Along with auxiliary percussion from a tombak player, the song finds a droning riff stretching into a psychedelic workout, taking the band further out than they've ventured before...
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