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| Field Music |
from 67th to 99th weekly favtraX
PnM:MiX: 3rd 33 bestofbestofs on DEEZER
Field Music - Making a New World / Best Kept Garden
war stories with disco-pop sensibilities
The Brewis brothers’ concept album about the impact of the first world war brings left-field pop to topics ranging from skin grafts to period shame
This 40-minute, 19-song cycle about the aftermath of the first world war isn’t the most obvious commercial follow-up to Field Music’s glorious 2018 Top 30 album, Open Here. In fact, Making a New World was originally a commission for performances in the Imperial War Museum, but Peter and David Brewis felt proud enough of the resulting songs to release them as a concept album. The opening two short instrumentals evoke artillery fire on either side of the armistice: there are percussion sounds like falling bombs and mournful, Erik Satie-like pianos and eerie near-silences...
Of Montreal - Ur Fun / Deliberate Self-harm Ha Ha
2018's White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood took direct inspiration from the extended remixes of pop hits that were prevalent in the 1980s, and two years later, Ur Fun narrows in on catchier, singles-minded fare. A set that doesn't break for ballads, it was, as has become typical for Barnes, inspired by his personal life, which settled into a steady relationship following divorce. In fact, his partner, Christina Schneider (aka Locate S,1)... Taken together, infectious rhythms, smart lyrics, and effervescent chorus hooks that deliver throughout Ur Fun make it more than a mere amusement.
Courteeners - More. Again. Forever. / Heart Attack
Emerging from a dark and uncertain period following their 2016 effort, Mapping the Rendezvous, Manchester favorites Courteeners returned triumphant with their sleek, boundary-pushing sixth set, More. Again. Forever... At a tight ten songs, More. Again. Forever. is near perfect and not a song is wasted. Yet, rising above the pack, a pair of highlights demand special note... For a band that is beloved on home soil but often gets lost in the crop of late-2000s U.K. exports, this catalog highlight is ample evidence of artistic greatness and proves that, even after the darkest of days, beauty and light are on the horizon.
The Wood Brothers - Kingdom in My Mind / Alabaster
"Alabaster" kicks off Kingdom in My Mind, the Wood Brothers' eighth studio album, with a slow, thick groove, its swampiness a reflection of how the album originated from a series of studio jams. The band didn't enter the studio with the intent of recording a new album, but they were taken with the results of their recording, so brothers Chris and Oliver Wood shaped the improvisations into songs. Starting with a collection of funky rustic recordings wound up being a boon to the Wood Brothers, letting Kingdom in My Mind establish a vibe that's cozy, homespun, and just slightly slick. Chalk the polish up to how the group are veterans with a good sense of space and feel, a knack that they're pushing on Kingdom in My Mind over tasteful songcraft...
Smoke Fairies - Darkness Brings the Wonders Home / On the Wing
"Dirty blues-rock" is about the last thing that comes to mind when thinking about Smoke Fairies, whose music is most strongly rooted in ethereal indie folk. But it seems someone in their circle has been listening to something featuring gritty guitar textures with a side of slide, since that's the unexpected yet prominent new flavor on Smoke Fairies' fifth album, 2020's Darkness Brings the Wonders Home. The opening track, "On the Wing," is built around a faintly ominous folky melody with the graceful harmonies of Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies hovering overhead, while in the middle distance there's a buzzy electric guitar playing bluesy licks and slide riffs...
Homesick - The Big Exercise / I Celebrate My Fantasy
Making their Sub Pop debut are the Homesick, a trio of Dutch sonic explorers from the Frisian town of Dokkum whose idiosyncratic indie rock traverses Motorik post-punk, neo-psychedelia, and lean Baroque pop. The Big Exercise follows three years after the band's slightly grittier 2017 missive Youth Hunt, which introduced their signature blend to mostly European audiences and scored them a fair amount of critical buzz, not to mention an American record deal. Brandishing a youthful mix of confidence, creative intelligence, and chutzpah, members Elias Elgersma (guitar), Jaap Van der Velde (bass), and Erik Woudwijk (drums) have landed on a surprisingly distinctive sound, one that contains enough melodic warmth to engage listeners but packed with complex song structures and played with taut precision...
Puss N Boots - Sister / Sister
Puss N Boots—the charming trio featuring Norah Jones, Sasha Dobson, and Catherine Popper—are slated to release their second full-length album. Sister is a collection of originals written by the band members collectively and individually, mixed with loving covers of songs...
King Krule - Man Alive! / Cellular
... Marshall duly stuffs his concise follow-up to The Ooz with the terror and negative liquid references, both literal and metaphorical, for which he is known. They even girdle it, starting with a numbed post-punk creeper in which Marshall drones about glancing at his phone to watch a girl cry, and signing off with a lashing, hollowed-out appeal of disconnectedness and dejection that contains the lyrics, "We don't have long 'til this earth is drowned." The Krule gaze is certainly more outward than before, though the most trenchant observations are mumbled. At times, Marshall sounds like he's recording a memo in the middle of a sleepless night...
Caribou - Suddenly / Like I Loved You
Over a long career arc, electronic producer Dan Snaith took his Caribou project from sunny sample-core to more organic, psyche-tinged creations and beyond. His 2010 album Swim filtered his unique musical perspectives through a fascination with deep house music, and four years later Our Love delivered some of his more intimate and minimal sounds. Sixth studio album Suddenly picks up threads from both of these, pushing the dancefloor-ready style of Swim as well as Snaith's more softly drawn songwriting into colorful and fun new places...
Chromatics - Famous Monsters
Chromatics have shared a futuristic new single, ‘Famous Monsters.’ You can listen to the new song below.
‘Famous Monsters’ is the second new song from the band this year, following on from ‘TOY’ which was released back in February. The single came in three different versions: ‘TOY,’ ‘TOY (On Film),’ and ‘TOY (Instrumental).’
Describing that song, Chromatics wrote: “It’s a song about trying to forget someone you’re still in love with even though they treat you like an object. I’m not your TOY.”
Dungen - Live / A4
Recorded during the end of 2015 at a couple different Swedish concerts, Dungen's first live album is a ripping example of their prowess both as individual musicians and as a cohesive unit. The album is totally instrumental and it flows from short song fragments to extended expansive pieces in dynamic waves of psychedelic sound. The guitars as played mainly by Reine Fiske (mainly) and band leader Gustav Ejstes are massive when they are cranked up, riffing and soloing like large birds in flight. The other instrument to take the lead is saxophone, with Jonas Kullhamer doing his best Pharoah Sanders at crucial points throughout. Ejstes and he also add some flute to the mix, and the former does very nifty things with keyboards (piano, organ and mellotron) throughout... (Tim Sendra)
Arbouretum - Let It All In / No Sanctuary Blues
Built around the masterful songwriting and commanding vocals of bandleader Dave Heumann, Arbouretum spent the 2000s and 2010s slowly trickling out excellent albums of slightly cosmic folk-rock. As time went on, the band leaned into a British folk influence, lacing Heumann's narrative songs with haunting traditionally informed melodies. Ninth album Let It All In finds the band at the clearest articulation of their sound ever, blurring the boundary lines between woodsy folk, rural psychedelia, and an experimental take on roots rock. "No Sanctuary Blues" finds Arbouretum at the crossroads of all of their varied impulses. Solid rhythm section playing shifts between bar room rock and sprawling drone while Heumann steps away from delivering spirited vocals only to offer Richard Thompson-grade guitar soloing. The moments of cosmic space-out are highlighted by keyboardist Matthew Pierce's unobtrusive synth textures... (Fred Thomas)
The Wants - Container / Clearly a Crisis
The Wants – ‘Container’ review: punk-funkers’ debut is the soundtrack to a lockdown party
Fans of Interpol, Depeche Mode, LCD Soundsystem and Gang of Four – meet your favourite new band
The album artwork for ‘Container’ displays cans of tinned food – stockpiling chic, if you will – while portentous song titles such as ‘Fear My Society’ and ‘Clearly A Crisis’ could hardly chime more with the doomy current climate if they arrived with vouchers for contraband hand sanitiser. Comprised of two members of New York art-punks Bodega – Madison Velding-VanDam and bassist Heather Elle – and completed by drummer Jason Gates, the confident self-produced debut from The Wants is riven with taut anxiety and a sense of looming dread. Yet it’s also a collection of razor-sharp pop songs that gleam through the gloom. They mine the sinuous basslines and euphoric bleakness of post-punk outfits such as Gang Of Four (with Velding-Van-Dam’s lyrics seemingly similarly preoccupied with stripping away the lies of capitalist and consumerist culture) and the dancefloor nous of bands from their home city (think LCD Soundsystem). So while ‘Clearly A Crisis’ apes Andy Gill’s distinctive, serrated slashes of guitar... (Gary Ryan)
Since they began in the late 2000s, Ringo Deathstarr have been one of the finest exemplars of blown-out shoegaze and amped-up dream pop. Their albums are home to an unbroken string of memorable songs delivered with just the right blend of noise and melody, all driven home with a heavy dose of glitter and feedback. It's good to see that after taking a few years off from issuing records, 2020's self-titled album finds the band doing the same thing they've always done. Almost... "Once Upon A Freak" is loping, Medicine-esque, and has giant smears of guitar obscuring the melody...
1581Members of Bay Area bands including Drunk Horse, East Bay Grease, and Howlin Rain make neo-psychedelia with a marked prog slant. A part of the Bay Area indie-psych scene, Once & Future Band fuses '60s and '70s psychedelic pop influences with heavy doses of virtuosic prog rock, jazz-rock, and more. The group's eponymous debut album appeared in 2017.
Once & Future Band - Deleted Scenes / Several Bullets in My Head
The follow-up to their Technicolor eponymous debut, Deleted Scenes further showcases Once & Future Band's skill at combining technical virtuosity across several rock styles with their knack for catchy rhythms and classic pop hooks. Corralling inspirations that include Pink Floyd, E.L.O., and Steely Dan, just for starters, the album offers up nine varied tracks, four of which are instrumentals of a tight, tuneful nature. Hummable enough that passive listeners may not even notice that it's non-vocal, one such track is "Several Bullets in My Head," which evokes the particular jazzy, martini-lounge sound prevalent in composer soundtracks of the '60s and '70s, while remaining rooted in rock. The song's melody moves seamlessly between organ, piano, guitar, and mallet percussion as the rhythm section lays down a soft funk groove... The trio -- singer/keyboardist/guitarist Joel Robinow, bassist/guitarist Eli Eckert, and drummer/technician Raj Ojha -- who had played together in various incarnations in the Bay Area before forming Once & Future Band, not only sound like a veteran arena combo here but offer the material to make them shine.
1682Best known as the compelling vocalist for Savages, Jehnny Beth is the performing name of French musician Camille Berthomier.
Jehnny Beth - Innocence
Earlier this year, Savages leader Jehnny Beth announced that she would finally be releasing her debut solo album, To Love Is To Live. “Record stores are where I found myself as a teenager, digging through albums that ultimately shaped who I have become,” she said in a statement. “To release my first ever solo album in a way that would leave them out felt wrong to me; luckily, we were able to find a date that would allow us to release the physical and digital album at the same time.”... she’s putting out another track, “Innocence.” It’s a booming and dancey song about being packed-in with other people...
1783Stillwater, Oklahoma-based atmospheric indie rockers invoke names like Alt-J, Fleet Foxes, and early Radiohead.
Other Lives - For Their Love / Sound of Violence
The fourth full-length effort from the Nebraska-based indie rockers, For Their Love finds Other Lives in fine form, applying their moody sonic expertise to a spectral ten-song set that parses themes of self-worth and existential dread in an age of political, social, and economic turmoil. Commencing with the ruminative "Sound of Violence," a sumptuous bit of '60s-leaning orchestral pop that evokes the Wally Stott string arrangements of "Montague Terrace"-era Scott Walker, For Their Love was self-produced in Oregon's Cooper Mountain region in frontman Jesse Tabish's A-framed cabin, and the material mostly reflects that pastoral setting...
1884Texas-born musician and actor known for his experimental psychedelic rock. After making his name as a film actor in the latter half of the 2010s, Texas native Caleb Landry Jones launched his music career in 2020 with the experimental, neo-psychedelic album The Mother Stone.
Caleb Landry Jones - The Mother Stone / You're So Wonderfull
Actor and musician Caleb Landry Jones makes his recording debut with The Mother Stone, a 15-song psychedelic rock opus of sprawling complexity, abrupt tonal shifts, and dark-hued pop arrangements. Dating back to the late 2000s, the Texas native has built up an impressive resume of film and television credits, from Breaking Bad and X-Men to Get Out and Twin Peaks. It turns out he has also been making music since a young age and boasts a deep back catalog of material, much of it inspired by the Beatles' more exploratory moments and the ramshackle psych of Syd Barrett's thrilling post-Pink Floyd burnout. While filming the zombie art-comedy The Dead Don't Die, Jones played some of his demos for director Jim Jarmusch, who recommended him to experimental enthusiasts Sacred Bones Records, the same label that has released some of Jarmusch's own recordings. Teaming up with producer Nic Jodoin (Black Lips), Jones unleashed what sounds like a lifetime's worth of ideas and pent-up weirdness, constructing a wild suite of interconnected songs, replete with lurching orchestral sections and harsh fuzzy textures and sung in a variety of different voices and timbres like a character actor gone off the rails...
1985Jazz saxophonist, flutist, producer, and composer who made his solo debut at 42 after his previous career in Manchester house and hip-hop scenes. Roger "Chip" Wickham is a saxophonist/flutist producer/composer who resides in Madrid, Doha in Qatar, and the U.K. His vintage-influenced, open, warm brand of modal jazz weaves together the great expansive traditions of the '60s and '70s...
Chip Wickham - Blue to Red / Double Cross
The title of British jazzman Chip Wickham's third long-player refers to one of his greatest fears: That climate change will cause our blue and verdant earth to become a red desert like the planet Mars... Wickham leaves his saxophones in their cases in favor of his flutes. The Coltrane reference may be sketched into his compositions, but it takes on physical characteristics through the playing of harpist Amanda Whiting who, like Wickham, is an alumnus of Matthew Halsall's Gondwana Orchestra. The other sidemen include session boss Dan Goldman on keys, drummer Jon Scott (Sons of Kemet), bassist Simon Houghton (Fingathing), and percussionist Rick Weedon (Mr. Scruff)... "Double Cross" is gritty and fast, with Goldman's Rhodes and synths both soloing and painting a fat, heavy, funky backdrop. Scott's snare and hi-hat breaks, and a propulsive shuffle delivers a dramatic Headhunters vibe in the backbeat. Wickham's solo sounds filthy, visceral, swinging, and soulful (think Jeremy Steig)...
Jazzbois - Jazzbois / Bois
2086Last autumn, Jazzbois released its Jazzbois Goes Blunt, which received a strong international response (recommended by Okayplayer, for example). And now here’s the “official” debut, the EP Jazzbois, which was also released on vinyl by Berlin’s Cosmic Compositions. This is also where the last album of Abase came out last year, Tamás Czirják is also on the drums, who recorded the new EP with Bence Molnár (Rhodes, Sinti, MPC), plus guests. According to the publisher's description, jazz and broken beat are the deepest roots, but also the effects of hip-hop, disco and funk can be felt on the five-piece material ...
2187Alternative singer/songwriter project for Mike Hadreas' fragile yet brutally honest songs.
Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire, Immediately / Describe
On Perfume Genius' previous albums, Mike Hadreas revealed so much of himself that it's difficult to imagine he'd have more to uncover. With Set My Heart on Fire, Immediately, however, he goes beyond baring his soul to exploring the power and tenderness of the body. Before making this record, Hadreas collaborated with choreographer Kate Wallich and her dance company the YC, not just writing the music for her piece The Sun Still Burns Here but performing in it as well. This collaborative, body-oriented way of making art had a profound impact on his fifth album. Set My Heart on Fire, Immediately is more theatrical and more direct than much of Perfume Genius' earlier work, and revels in the physicality of his music in inspired ways. The album's textures are almost tangible, particularly on "Describe"'s thick distortion and flowing slide guitars...
88Danish retro-rock combo with a knack for pairing jazzy, sitar-laced pop with cavernous, psych-blasted acid rock.
The Sonic Dawn - Enter the Mirage / Young Love, Old Hate
Arriving just under a year after the release of the Danish psych-rockers third studio effort, 2019's liquid light show-ready Eclipse, Enter the Mirage delivers another tie-dyed blast from the past; a lo-fi, acid-soaked transmission from a mirror dimension where the Summer of Love never ended. Commencing with "Young Love, Old Hate," the hirsute trio goes all-in on the '60s fetishizing, administering copious amounts of noodly guitars and shimmery maracas drenched in analog reverb and delay, and a melodic through-line that echoes Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower."...
89Manchester-based trio who play gritty yet glamorous post-punk with a female perspective.
PINS - Hot Slick / Hot Slick
Manchester trio Pins spent the first half of the 2010s as a four-piece who made drone-heavy indie-pop... in the time since, they’ve changed their lineup, collaborated with Iggy Pop, taken on the production skills of the Kills’ Jamie Hince, and leaned heavily into disco and post-punk influences. The result is Hot Slick, a self-released album of 10 airy songs that hinge on earworm 1960s girl-group melodies and a new surge of bright-eyed synths. . The result is a revitalising jolt for the band. The girl-gang chants of Set Me Off and Bad Girls Forever are enjoyably defiant... Lead single Hot Slick is a stand-out track for its driving bassline and cheery harmonies...
90A heady air of dislocation envelops Drab City’s debut album, where songs of innocence and experience merge with dub, hip-hop, dream-pop and jazzy soundtrack vibes to intoxicating effect. Drab City are fixated on social alienation, violent revenge, and (perhaps) romantic love as salvation; topics not new in music, but listening to Drab City in 2020, one is struck by how uncommon they’ve become.
Drab City - Good Songs for Bad People / Devil Doll
What a great album - imagine Julee Cruise doing the soundtrack to Killing Eve? Or Mazzy Star miraculously transported back to ye-ye France. A heady air of dislocation envelops Drab City’s debut album, where songs of innocence and experience merge with dub, hip-hop, dream-pop and jazzy soundtrack vibes to intoxicating effect. Drab City are fixated on social alienation, violent revenge, and (perhaps) romantic love as salvation; topics not new in music, but listening to Drab City in 2020, one is struck by how uncommon they’ve become. Lyrically, these songs often project punkish angst and resentment... Dreamy and ethereal, a foundation of flute, vibraphone, and jazzy guitar chord melody can switch to drum machines or funk-inflected girl-group pop at a moment’s notice. It’s a flurry of 20th century references, combining and recombining at such a schizophrenic pace, the overall effect is something that could only be conjured in our frenzied present....
91Pianist who sold millions with her beguiling vocals and a musical blend featuring jazz, traditional vocal pop, bluesy country, and contemporary folk.
Norah Jones - Pick Me Up Off the Floor / Hurts to Be Alone
Once she came to the end of the promotional cycle for 2016's Day Breaks, Norah Jones decided to challenge herself by recording a series of swift sessions with a rotating cast of collaborators. The intention was to release the results quickly, issuing them as a digital single at a time, and Jones followed through on this plan, releasing a new song every few months throughout 2018. These tunes were rounded up on 2019's Begin Again, but that wasn't the end of the project. Jones cut a number of songs during these sessions that were unreleased but not forgotten by the singer/songwriter. She kept listening to the rough mixes, eventually coming to the conclusion that these tracks would make a strong album of their own accord. Pick Me Up Off the Floor proves her instincts were correct...
92Kate NV is the solo persona of Moscow-based experimentalist Kate Shilonosova, front girl of new wave/post-punk band гш, English name: Glintshake. Kate NV is also a performer in the experimental Moscow Scratch Orchestra, and draws inspiration from Russian and Japanese pop music and film from the '70s and '80s, (specificially Akiko Yano, Haniwa-chan).
Kate NV - Room for the Moon / Not Not Not
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... But even while Room for the Moon bursts with exuberance, NV has explained that the record was finished during “the loneliest period” of her life. With that in mind, it’s easy to see these 10 songs as a sanctuary NV willed into being, a fantasy world where that solitude could be replaced with a cornucopia of melodies. The air of escapism is palpable in the album’s wriggling synth flourishes and chirping flutes like hummingbirds...
93American sister act HAIM -- their name simply taken from the trio's surname -- formed in 2006 after spending their childhood as part of family cover band Rockinhaim. They grew up together in California's San Fernando Valley, where they were brought up listening to Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, Santana, and the sounds of Motown, to name a few of their diverse influences...
HAIM - Women In Music Pt. III / Up From A Dream
Dark events of the sisters’ recent past inform their revelatory third album on which garage and louche funk combine with west-coast rock... Haim’s third album retains some of their perpetual glide. But this is a set in which everyone is dancing with tears in their eyes, and one where Haim’s pat affiliation to 70s west coast truisms undergoes some interesting seepage. More so than ever before, Haim venture outside their musical Hotel California, with jazz saxophone and UK garage beats heading up a lively new intake of sounds. Intermittent blasts of lurid electric guitar – witness the chorusing riffola on All That Ever Mattered – are there to underline the trio’s allegiance to rock music... Stranger still, Up from a Dream galumphs like glam rock, but some hyper-processed machine variant, strafed by low-flying effects...
94Mexican duo producing ethereal dream pop with nods to Krautrock and ambient, utilizing fuzzy guitars and heavenly vocals.
Mint Field - Contingencia
Formed in Tijuana and currently based in Mexico City, Mint Field specialize in sweltering, languorous psychedelic rock. Led by singer-guitarist named Estrella del Sol (which translates to Star of the Sun), they make hallucinatory mood music for oppressive heat, a soundtrack for days when a bleary melancholy spreads out over everything and even sundown doesn’t offer a respite from the sweaty humidity. In other words, they are a perfect band for one of the hottest and most depressing summers in recent memory, one where hallmarks of seasonal fun have become dangers to public health.
95French singer/songwriter and actress specializing in free-flowing, intimate indie pop. As a musician and award-winning actor, Soko is known for her remarkably emotional performances.
Soko - Feel Feelings / Blasphémie
...The clarity she gained from the experience is reflected on Feel Feelings, which flows with the sudden, intuitive understanding of a breakthrough. Soko's emotions -- loss, joy, and above all, self-awareness -- spill into each other over music that's just as uninhibited... On songs such as "Blasphémie," the rounded bass line and tumbling melody evoke Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson (not coincidentally, this is Soko's first song en Français)... Soko demands the same commitment from her listeners that she put into making these songs, but as she combines happiness and sadness into something beautiful, the honesty in her music is mesmerizing.
96Three major figures in the Washington, D.C. punk/indie community unite in an ambitious and dynamic trio. A trio featuring some of the most influential figures on the Washington, D.C. punk/independent music scene, Coriky also brings together three closely associated artists in a unique configuration. The band features Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi on vocals and guitar; Joe Lally, MacKaye's former Fugazi bandmate and a member of the Messthetics, on bass and vocals; and Amy Farina, formerly with the Warmers and MacKaye's collaborator in the duo the Evens, on drums and vocals.
Coriky - Coriky / Say Yes
Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina have a new band with an old friend—Fugazi bassist Joe Lally. Their debut is a shrewd distillation of some of the United States’ most insidious issues... and the start-stop funk and frenzied guitar scraping of “Say Yes.” But as the vocal interplay on the latter song illustrates, Farina’s presence lends Coriky a personality all their own...
97Vancouver-based multimedia collective Crack Cloud utilize the combined talents of various artists, filmmakers, musicians, and designers to deliver striking visuals and a core band that straddles art-rock and post-punk.
Crack Cloud - Pain Olympics / Tunnel Vision
If the aim of Pain Olympics was to leave the listener wanting more, then it's gold medals all around. Although the 29-minute runtime is bursting with brilliance, the breakneck speed of the record approaches escape velocity only to abruptly hit the brakes. It can be a little disorienting at times, as the tracks pinball from one another with minimal space to catch their breath, even managing to forge a newer cosmic side to their sound in the process. It feels like a truer opening statement from the band, as their debut was really just two EPs melded together, and fully demonstrates their capabilities, especially their updated version of "Bastard Basket," which eschews the scratchy nature of its initial iteration for a weightier sound. Despite its erratic nature, Pain Olympics does manage to find cohesion in chaos; the band may have Zach Choy's vocals and propulsive percussion front and center, but the cast of larger than life members -- including the irresistible magnetism of Mohammed Ali Sharar -- that surround him conjure something far greater, an odd unity of sound and visuals that would otherwise fall apart if too many egos were at play; no-one else in 2020 exemplifies art-punk as much as Crack Cloud...
98An inventive modern-day blues musician who plays with tradition and culture. Bay Area-based singer/songwriter Xavier Dphrepaulezz rebooted his career in the 2010s by adopting the name Fantastic Negrito and pioneering a blues, hip-hop, rock, folk, and funk hybrid ...
Fantastic Negrito - Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? / Your Sex is Overrated feat. Masa Kohama
Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? is a title suitable for the madness of 2020 and its timeliness is further proof that Fantastic Negrito is the rare modern blues musician whose eye is keenly upon the present, not the past. His insistence on grappling with the realities of now also meant that he never resigned himself to playing traditional chord changes, preferring to rely as heavily on funk, hip-hop, soul, and rock as the blues themselves...
Spoken word, bass, and drum machine minimalism from D.C.-based post-punk Eva Moolchan.
Sneaks - Happy Birthday / Slightly Sophisticated
...Compared to her first two outings, Gymnastics and It's a Myth, 2020's Happy Birthday is far richer in both production value and complexity, but it's still her repetitive half-spoken incantations and wry observations that hold the attention. Working again with engineer Carlos Hernadez, her collaborator from 2019's excellent Highway Hypnosis, as well as producer Jacknife Lee, Happy Birthday feels like a continuation of that album's more experimental tone .. Neither rap nor pop, punk, or rock in any traditional sense, Sneaks continues to keep it fresh and original on another strong outing.
Once & Future Band - Deleted Scenes / Several Bullets in My Head
The follow-up to their Technicolor eponymous debut, Deleted Scenes further showcases Once & Future Band's skill at combining technical virtuosity across several rock styles with their knack for catchy rhythms and classic pop hooks. Corralling inspirations that include Pink Floyd, E.L.O., and Steely Dan, just for starters, the album offers up nine varied tracks, four of which are instrumentals of a tight, tuneful nature. Hummable enough that passive listeners may not even notice that it's non-vocal, one such track is "Several Bullets in My Head," which evokes the particular jazzy, martini-lounge sound prevalent in composer soundtracks of the '60s and '70s, while remaining rooted in rock. The song's melody moves seamlessly between organ, piano, guitar, and mallet percussion as the rhythm section lays down a soft funk groove... The trio -- singer/keyboardist/guitarist Joel Robinow, bassist/guitarist Eli Eckert, and drummer/technician Raj Ojha -- who had played together in various incarnations in the Bay Area before forming Once & Future Band, not only sound like a veteran arena combo here but offer the material to make them shine.
Jehnny Beth - Innocence
Earlier this year, Savages leader Jehnny Beth announced that she would finally be releasing her debut solo album, To Love Is To Live. “Record stores are where I found myself as a teenager, digging through albums that ultimately shaped who I have become,” she said in a statement. “To release my first ever solo album in a way that would leave them out felt wrong to me; luckily, we were able to find a date that would allow us to release the physical and digital album at the same time.”... she’s putting out another track, “Innocence.” It’s a booming and dancey song about being packed-in with other people...
Other Lives - For Their Love / Sound of Violence
The fourth full-length effort from the Nebraska-based indie rockers, For Their Love finds Other Lives in fine form, applying their moody sonic expertise to a spectral ten-song set that parses themes of self-worth and existential dread in an age of political, social, and economic turmoil. Commencing with the ruminative "Sound of Violence," a sumptuous bit of '60s-leaning orchestral pop that evokes the Wally Stott string arrangements of "Montague Terrace"-era Scott Walker, For Their Love was self-produced in Oregon's Cooper Mountain region in frontman Jesse Tabish's A-framed cabin, and the material mostly reflects that pastoral setting...
Caleb Landry Jones - The Mother Stone / You're So Wonderfull
Actor and musician Caleb Landry Jones makes his recording debut with The Mother Stone, a 15-song psychedelic rock opus of sprawling complexity, abrupt tonal shifts, and dark-hued pop arrangements. Dating back to the late 2000s, the Texas native has built up an impressive resume of film and television credits, from Breaking Bad and X-Men to Get Out and Twin Peaks. It turns out he has also been making music since a young age and boasts a deep back catalog of material, much of it inspired by the Beatles' more exploratory moments and the ramshackle psych of Syd Barrett's thrilling post-Pink Floyd burnout. While filming the zombie art-comedy The Dead Don't Die, Jones played some of his demos for director Jim Jarmusch, who recommended him to experimental enthusiasts Sacred Bones Records, the same label that has released some of Jarmusch's own recordings. Teaming up with producer Nic Jodoin (Black Lips), Jones unleashed what sounds like a lifetime's worth of ideas and pent-up weirdness, constructing a wild suite of interconnected songs, replete with lurching orchestral sections and harsh fuzzy textures and sung in a variety of different voices and timbres like a character actor gone off the rails...
Chip Wickham - Blue to Red / Double Cross
The title of British jazzman Chip Wickham's third long-player refers to one of his greatest fears: That climate change will cause our blue and verdant earth to become a red desert like the planet Mars... Wickham leaves his saxophones in their cases in favor of his flutes. The Coltrane reference may be sketched into his compositions, but it takes on physical characteristics through the playing of harpist Amanda Whiting who, like Wickham, is an alumnus of Matthew Halsall's Gondwana Orchestra. The other sidemen include session boss Dan Goldman on keys, drummer Jon Scott (Sons of Kemet), bassist Simon Houghton (Fingathing), and percussionist Rick Weedon (Mr. Scruff)... "Double Cross" is gritty and fast, with Goldman's Rhodes and synths both soloing and painting a fat, heavy, funky backdrop. Scott's snare and hi-hat breaks, and a propulsive shuffle delivers a dramatic Headhunters vibe in the backbeat. Wickham's solo sounds filthy, visceral, swinging, and soulful (think Jeremy Steig)...
2086Last autumn, Jazzbois released its Jazzbois Goes Blunt, which received a strong international response (recommended by Okayplayer, for example). And now here’s the “official” debut, the EP Jazzbois, which was also released on vinyl by Berlin’s Cosmic Compositions. This is also where the last album of Abase came out last year, Tamás Czirják is also on the drums, who recorded the new EP with Bence Molnár (Rhodes, Sinti, MPC), plus guests. According to the publisher's description, jazz and broken beat are the deepest roots, but also the effects of hip-hop, disco and funk can be felt on the five-piece material ...
Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire, Immediately / Describe
On Perfume Genius' previous albums, Mike Hadreas revealed so much of himself that it's difficult to imagine he'd have more to uncover. With Set My Heart on Fire, Immediately, however, he goes beyond baring his soul to exploring the power and tenderness of the body. Before making this record, Hadreas collaborated with choreographer Kate Wallich and her dance company the YC, not just writing the music for her piece The Sun Still Burns Here but performing in it as well. This collaborative, body-oriented way of making art had a profound impact on his fifth album. Set My Heart on Fire, Immediately is more theatrical and more direct than much of Perfume Genius' earlier work, and revels in the physicality of his music in inspired ways. The album's textures are almost tangible, particularly on "Describe"'s thick distortion and flowing slide guitars...
The Sonic Dawn - Enter the Mirage / Young Love, Old Hate
Arriving just under a year after the release of the Danish psych-rockers third studio effort, 2019's liquid light show-ready Eclipse, Enter the Mirage delivers another tie-dyed blast from the past; a lo-fi, acid-soaked transmission from a mirror dimension where the Summer of Love never ended. Commencing with "Young Love, Old Hate," the hirsute trio goes all-in on the '60s fetishizing, administering copious amounts of noodly guitars and shimmery maracas drenched in analog reverb and delay, and a melodic through-line that echoes Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower."...
PINS - Hot Slick / Hot Slick
Manchester trio Pins spent the first half of the 2010s as a four-piece who made drone-heavy indie-pop... in the time since, they’ve changed their lineup, collaborated with Iggy Pop, taken on the production skills of the Kills’ Jamie Hince, and leaned heavily into disco and post-punk influences. The result is Hot Slick, a self-released album of 10 airy songs that hinge on earworm 1960s girl-group melodies and a new surge of bright-eyed synths. . The result is a revitalising jolt for the band. The girl-gang chants of Set Me Off and Bad Girls Forever are enjoyably defiant... Lead single Hot Slick is a stand-out track for its driving bassline and cheery harmonies...
Drab City - Good Songs for Bad People / Devil Doll
What a great album - imagine Julee Cruise doing the soundtrack to Killing Eve? Or Mazzy Star miraculously transported back to ye-ye France. A heady air of dislocation envelops Drab City’s debut album, where songs of innocence and experience merge with dub, hip-hop, dream-pop and jazzy soundtrack vibes to intoxicating effect. Drab City are fixated on social alienation, violent revenge, and (perhaps) romantic love as salvation; topics not new in music, but listening to Drab City in 2020, one is struck by how uncommon they’ve become. Lyrically, these songs often project punkish angst and resentment... Dreamy and ethereal, a foundation of flute, vibraphone, and jazzy guitar chord melody can switch to drum machines or funk-inflected girl-group pop at a moment’s notice. It’s a flurry of 20th century references, combining and recombining at such a schizophrenic pace, the overall effect is something that could only be conjured in our frenzied present....
Norah Jones - Pick Me Up Off the Floor / Hurts to Be Alone
Once she came to the end of the promotional cycle for 2016's Day Breaks, Norah Jones decided to challenge herself by recording a series of swift sessions with a rotating cast of collaborators. The intention was to release the results quickly, issuing them as a digital single at a time, and Jones followed through on this plan, releasing a new song every few months throughout 2018. These tunes were rounded up on 2019's Begin Again, but that wasn't the end of the project. Jones cut a number of songs during these sessions that were unreleased but not forgotten by the singer/songwriter. She kept listening to the rough mixes, eventually coming to the conclusion that these tracks would make a strong album of their own accord. Pick Me Up Off the Floor proves her instincts were correct...
Kate NV - Room for the Moon / Not Not Not
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... But even while Room for the Moon bursts with exuberance, NV has explained that the record was finished during “the loneliest period” of her life. With that in mind, it’s easy to see these 10 songs as a sanctuary NV willed into being, a fantasy world where that solitude could be replaced with a cornucopia of melodies. The air of escapism is palpable in the album’s wriggling synth flourishes and chirping flutes like hummingbirds...
HAIM - Women In Music Pt. III / Up From A Dream
Dark events of the sisters’ recent past inform their revelatory third album on which garage and louche funk combine with west-coast rock... Haim’s third album retains some of their perpetual glide. But this is a set in which everyone is dancing with tears in their eyes, and one where Haim’s pat affiliation to 70s west coast truisms undergoes some interesting seepage. More so than ever before, Haim venture outside their musical Hotel California, with jazz saxophone and UK garage beats heading up a lively new intake of sounds. Intermittent blasts of lurid electric guitar – witness the chorusing riffola on All That Ever Mattered – are there to underline the trio’s allegiance to rock music... Stranger still, Up from a Dream galumphs like glam rock, but some hyper-processed machine variant, strafed by low-flying effects...
Mint Field - Contingencia
Formed in Tijuana and currently based in Mexico City, Mint Field specialize in sweltering, languorous psychedelic rock. Led by singer-guitarist named Estrella del Sol (which translates to Star of the Sun), they make hallucinatory mood music for oppressive heat, a soundtrack for days when a bleary melancholy spreads out over everything and even sundown doesn’t offer a respite from the sweaty humidity. In other words, they are a perfect band for one of the hottest and most depressing summers in recent memory, one where hallmarks of seasonal fun have become dangers to public health.
Soko - Feel Feelings / Blasphémie
...The clarity she gained from the experience is reflected on Feel Feelings, which flows with the sudden, intuitive understanding of a breakthrough. Soko's emotions -- loss, joy, and above all, self-awareness -- spill into each other over music that's just as uninhibited... On songs such as "Blasphémie," the rounded bass line and tumbling melody evoke Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson (not coincidentally, this is Soko's first song en Français)... Soko demands the same commitment from her listeners that she put into making these songs, but as she combines happiness and sadness into something beautiful, the honesty in her music is mesmerizing.
Coriky - Coriky / Say Yes
Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina have a new band with an old friend—Fugazi bassist Joe Lally. Their debut is a shrewd distillation of some of the United States’ most insidious issues... and the start-stop funk and frenzied guitar scraping of “Say Yes.” But as the vocal interplay on the latter song illustrates, Farina’s presence lends Coriky a personality all their own...
Crack Cloud - Pain Olympics / Tunnel Vision
If the aim of Pain Olympics was to leave the listener wanting more, then it's gold medals all around. Although the 29-minute runtime is bursting with brilliance, the breakneck speed of the record approaches escape velocity only to abruptly hit the brakes. It can be a little disorienting at times, as the tracks pinball from one another with minimal space to catch their breath, even managing to forge a newer cosmic side to their sound in the process. It feels like a truer opening statement from the band, as their debut was really just two EPs melded together, and fully demonstrates their capabilities, especially their updated version of "Bastard Basket," which eschews the scratchy nature of its initial iteration for a weightier sound. Despite its erratic nature, Pain Olympics does manage to find cohesion in chaos; the band may have Zach Choy's vocals and propulsive percussion front and center, but the cast of larger than life members -- including the irresistible magnetism of Mohammed Ali Sharar -- that surround him conjure something far greater, an odd unity of sound and visuals that would otherwise fall apart if too many egos were at play; no-one else in 2020 exemplifies art-punk as much as Crack Cloud...
Fantastic Negrito - Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? / Your Sex is Overrated feat. Masa Kohama
Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? is a title suitable for the madness of 2020 and its timeliness is further proof that Fantastic Negrito is the rare modern blues musician whose eye is keenly upon the present, not the past. His insistence on grappling with the realities of now also meant that he never resigned himself to playing traditional chord changes, preferring to rely as heavily on funk, hip-hop, soul, and rock as the blues themselves...
Sneaks - Happy Birthday / Slightly Sophisticated
...Compared to her first two outings, Gymnastics and It's a Myth, 2020's Happy Birthday is far richer in both production value and complexity, but it's still her repetitive half-spoken incantations and wry observations that hold the attention. Working again with engineer Carlos Hernadez, her collaborator from 2019's excellent Highway Hypnosis, as well as producer Jacknife Lee, Happy Birthday feels like a continuation of that album's more experimental tone .. Neither rap nor pop, punk, or rock in any traditional sense, Sneaks continues to keep it fresh and original on another strong outing.
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