"Sad Cowboy" #115 ALTER.NATION.MiX - weekly favtraX 31-01-2021 (13trx 59m)

  ALTER.NATION #115 (13trx 59m)

Goat Girl, The Notwist, Tamar Aphek, Ani DiFranco, Steven Wilson,  Arlo Parks, Baio, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Rats on Rafts

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"Sad Cowboy"

South London quartet known for their snarling mix of punk, country, and goth.

Goat Girl - On All Fours / Sad Cowboy / The Crack

Even for a young, buzzed-about band, the three years between Goat Girl's self-titled debut album and its follow-up On All Fours were notable. Along with more typical shake-ups like lineup changes (bassist Holy Hole stepped in for founding member Naima Jelly), the group endured guitarist/vocalist L.E.D.'s diagnosis of stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma and six-month course of chemotherapy. Happily, Goat Girl's second album reveals that they've only grown stronger together in the wake of these events. There's a greater feeling of connection and cohesion in these songs -- which makes sense, since they took a collaborative approach to songwriting this time out -- and their experimental and pop impulses are more clearly defined and cleverly integrated... Both nervier and more confident than their debut, On All Fours is a huge step forward from a band that's well-equipped to bring post-punk's legacy into the future.

German band that gradually moved from post-hardcore to alternative to indie pop to scruffy electronic music.

The Notwist - Vertigo Days / Oh Sweet Fire

Vertigo Days' ranginess suits the Notwist; after all, they've always resisted easy categorization... Longtime Notwist fans will be happy to hear them get back to the anything-goes heart of post-rock on songs such as the haunting "Oh Sweet Fire," where Markus Acher trades vocals with Ben LaMar Gay over instrumentation that folds hints of dub and jazz into its flow... 

Tamar Aphek is one of the prominent faces of contemporary rock in the Israeli rock scene, and has been crowned “Israel’s guitar goddess” (Timeout Tel-Aviv) She first came to prominence as the singer/guitar player for bands – “Carusella”, “Shoshana”, which were both known for turning every venue into a crime scene of volume and ruthless energy...

Tamar Aphek - All Bets Are / Russian Winter / Show Me Your Pretty Side

All Bets Are Off is Tamar Aphek's first full-length release as a solo artist, but she's been making music for years as a member of different Israeli bands and a composer. Maybe that's why her debut album has such a distinctive mix of familiarity and strangeness -- every time it feels like things might be remotely predictable, she changes things up again. "Russian Winter," the dense, knotty rocker that kicks off All Bets Are Off, sounds like it starts in media res, leaving listeners to play catch-up with her. It's a feeling that extends to nearly every other song here, as Aphek and her band combine touches of punk, psychedelic, and jazz in ever-changing ways... 

Alternative folk icon, feminist, activist, and paragon of the D.I.Y. ethos who has charted in the U.S. since the '90s.

Ani DiFranco - Revolutionary Love / Revolutionary Love / Shrinking Violet

For more than three decades, Ani DiFranco has made the personal political and vice versa. Whether playing solo, working the road with her trio, or in a studio with a raucous band, she has consistently shown unflinching honesty in critiquing the myriad ways in which power informs relationships across racial, social, gender, economic, environmental, and romantic lines in an astonishing variety of musical contexts. DiFranco has also called New Orleans home for some time; many of its musical traditions have burrowed their way into her artistic DNA... As a whole, Revolutionary Love is economical and smooth. The title track is drenched in gentle yet gritty soul. As a slide guitar, brushed snare, and Wurlitzer pave the way, one can hear traces of Percy Mayfield in the melody. The lyrics are pure DiFranco: "I will tend my anger/I will tend my grief/I will achieve safety/I will find relief/I'll show myself some mercy/I'll show myself respect....And even if you hurt me/I will not shut down/No you can't make me hate you/and carry that hate around."...  "Shrinking Violet" is a 21st century gospel blues that looks head on at an abusive relationship with stinging slide guitar underscoring her protagonist's steely, redemptive resolve. .. 

Prolific progressive rock icon who founded the band Porcupine Tree before going on to a celebrated solo career.

Steven Wilson - The Future Bites  / SELF

Steven Wilson fans have been primed for The Future Bites since he released To the Bone in 2017. That record, and the subsequent 4½ EP, were deliberately "pop" responses to his three-album dalliance with prog -- Raven That Refused to Sing, Hand. Cannot. Erase, and Grace for Drowning. In contrast to the above, The Future Bites is a slick exercise in Wilson's oft-articulated love of synth pop and electronic music... Given the musical m.o. here, it should come as no surprise that the production on these nine songs is slick, even icy. It contrasts sharply with most of Wilson's songwriting that remains saturated in welcoming, effusive melodies and hooks. On most tracks, guitars and drums are subservient to keyboards and electronic rhythms and soundscapes. .. 

West London musician/poet who pulls from a broad range of influences, including bedroom pop, indie, and R&B.

Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams / Eugene

On the heels of the viral success of a handful of early songs, London singer/songwriter and poet Arlo Parks makes her full-length debut with Collapsed in Sunbeams, a set that draws on episodes from adolescence. Sharing an empathic, personal approach that doesn't shy away from matters of heart or mental health issues...  The jealous "Eugene" is a duskier entry with a similarly elegant groove that scores Parks trying to comfort a friend after a breakup ("You know I like you like that")... If the musical qualities of Collapsed in Sunbeams suffer from a bit of sameyness by the end, the formula is a soothing, pleasant one with sentiment to spare and, as a debut, full of promise.

Grooving synth pop from Vampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio.

Baio - Dead Hand Control / Caisse Noire

When Vampire Weekend's Chris Baio released his second solo album, 2017's Man of the World, his strutting synth pop was clouded by the anxiety of the previous year's elections in his native U.S. and adopted home of the U.K. Arriving in 2021, the title of his third Baio LP, Dead Hand Control, refers to an automated Soviet-era missile system (Dead Hand, aka Perimeter) still rumored to be operational decades later...

Hard-driving Seattle-based organ trio whose groove-heavy sound weaves together jazz-funk, soul jazz, R&B, and rock.

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - I Told You So / Aces / I Don't Know

In 2015, Seattle-based Hammond B-3 organist Delvon Lamarr was challenged by wife and partner Amy Novo to put together a career-making band; she'd take care of the business end so he could make music. ..  The band took their heady mix of jazz-funk, blues, R&B, and rock on the road across the U.S. and Europe, playing electrifying, booty-quaking shows that brought down houses and festival stages across the globe... I Told You So, the band's second Colemine outing, includes mainstays Lamarr on Hammond B-3 and Jimmy James on guitar. It's their first with newly recruited drummer Dan Weiss (Sextones), who replaced Doug Port. Opener "Hole in One" weds break-heavy drum funk to biting, meaty, lo-fi blues and roots rock vamps from James. 

New wave and post-punk meets textural lo-fi from this Rotterdam-based quartet.

Rats on Rafts - Excerpts From Chapter 3: The Mind Runs a Net of Rabbit Paths / Where Is My Dream?

The third album by Dutch post-punk weirdos Rats on Rafts is partially inspired by the band's 2018 tour of Japan, performing in arenas opening for Franz Ferdinand. Expanding on their previous record's textural noise-rock sound, the long-in-the-making, extravagantly titled Excerpts from Chapter 3: The Mind Runs a Net of Rabbit Paths is an ambitious quasi-opera pulling from Krautrock, psychedelia, and avant-garde pop in the vein of Van Dyke Parks and Scott Walker. Threaded throughout the songs are sound effects representing the elements, ranted narratives, and dreamlike interludes. .. 

Goat Girl, The Notwist, Tamar Aphek, Ani DiFranco, Steven Wilson,  Arlo Parks, Baio, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Rats on Rafts

EVERY DAY i HAVE THE BLUES BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1965-1975

EVERY DAY i HAVE THE BLUES BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1965-1975 # B.B. King, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Cream, Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix,The Allman Brothers Band,Rory Gallagher, Koko Taylor,Robin Trower, Junior Wells

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1965-1975

 

One of the most important electric guitarists in history, whose bent notes and staccato picking style influenced legions to come. Universally hailed as the king of the blues, the legendary B.B. King was without a doubt the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century. His bent notes and staccato picking style influenced legions of contemporary bluesmen, while his gritty and confident voice -- capable of wringing every nuance from any lyric -- provided a worthy match for his passionate playing.

B.B. King 

Every Day I Have the Blues  (Peter Chatman / Memphis Slim)

Sweet Little Angel  (B.B. King / Jules Taub)

It's My Own Fault (John Lee Hooker / B.B. King / Jules Taub)

from Live at the Regal 1965

B.B. King is not only a timeless singer and guitarist, he's also a natural-born entertainer, and on Live at the Regal the listener is treated to an exhibition of all three of his talents. Over percolating horn hits and rolling shuffles, King treats an enthusiastic audience (at some points, they shriek after he delivers each line) to a collection of some of his greatest hits. The backing band is razor-sharp, picking up the leader's cues with almost telepathic accuracy. King's voice is rarely in this fine of form, shifting effortlessly between his falsetto and his regular range, hitting the microphone hard for gritty emphasis and backing off in moments of almost intimate tenderness. Nowhere is this more evident than at the climax of "How Blue Can You Get," where the Chicago venue threatens to explode at King's prompting. Of course, the master's guitar is all over this record, and his playing here is among the best in his long career. Displaying a jazz sensibility, King's lines are sophisticated without losing their grit. More than anything else, Live at the Regal is a textbook example of how to set up a live performance. Talking to the crowd, setting up the tunes with a vignette, King is the consummate entertainer. Live at the Regal is an absolutely necessary acquisition for fans of B.B. King or blues music in general. A high point, perhaps even the high point, for uptown blues.

With a style honed in the gritty blues bars of Chicago's south side, the Butterfield Blues Band was instrumental in bringing the sound of authentic Chicago blues to a young white audience in the mid-'60s, and although the band wasn't a particularly huge commercial success, its influence has been enduring and pervasive. 

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band 

I Got a Mind to Give Up Living (Traditional)

All These Blues (Public Domain / Traditional)

East-West

from East West 1966

The raw immediacy and tight instrumental attack of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's self-titled debut album were startling and impressive in 1965, but the following year, the group significantly upped the ante with its second LP, East-West. The debut showed that Paul Butterfield and his bandmates could cut tough, authentic blues (not a given for an integrated band during the era in which fans were still debating if a white boy could play the blues) with the energy of rock & roll, but East-West was a far more ambitious set, with the band showing an effective command of jazz, Indian raga, and garagey proto-psychedelia as well as razor-sharp electric blues. Butterfield was the frontman, and his harp work was fierce and potent, but the core of the band was the dueling guitar work of Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, especially Bloomfield's ferocious, acrobatic solos, while Mark Naftalin's keyboards added welcome washes of melodic color, and the rhythm section of bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Billy Davenport were capable of both the rock-solid support of veteran blues players and the more flexible and artful pulse of a jazz combo, rising and relaxing with the dynamics of a performance...

The first and best power trio, whose brand of highly amplified, free-form playing took blues and rock in new directions. Although Cream were only together for a little more than two years, their influence was immense, both during their late-'60s peak and in the years following their breakup. Cream were the first top group to truly exploit the power trio format, in the process laying the foundation for much blues-rock and hard rock of the 1960s and 1970s. It was with Cream, too, that guitarist Eric Clapton truly became an international superstar...

Cream 

White Room (Pete Brown / Jack Bruce)

Crossroads (Ahmad Jamal / Robert Johnson / Traditional)

Politician (Pete Brown / Jack Bruce)

Born Under a Bad Sign (William Bell / Booker T. Jones)

from Wheels of Fire 1968

If Disraeli Gears was the album where Cream came into their own, its successor, Wheels of Fire, finds the trio in full fight, capturing every side of their multi-faceted personality, even hinting at the internal pressures that soon would tear the band asunder. A dense, unwieldy double album split into an LP of new studio material and an LP of live material, it's sprawling and scattered, at once awesome in its achievement and maddening in how it falls just short of greatness. It misses its goal not because one LP works and the other doesn't, but because both the live and studio sets suffer from strikingly similar flaws, deriving from the constant power struggle between the trio... And in many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream's very best work, since it also captures the fury and invention (and indulgence) of the band at its peak on the stage and in the studio, but as it tries to find a delicate balance between these three titanic egos, it doesn't quite add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. But taken alone, those individual parts are often quite tremendous.

The giant of postwar blues, who eloquently defined Chicago's swaggering, Delta-rooted sound with his declamatory vocals and piercing slide guitar.

Muddy Waters 

I Am the Blues (Willie Dixon)

Rollin' and Tumblin' (McKinley Morganfield)

Blues and Trouble (McKinley Morganfield)

Hurtin' Soul

from After the Rain 1969

...The album mostly featured higher-wattage remakes of a lot of familiar repertoire, including "Honey Bee" and "Rollin' and Tumblin'," and also reintroduced Muddy's own electric guitar, which had mostly been unheard on his recordings of the 1960s (and completely missing from Electric Mud). And on the tracks where he does play lead, they're first-rate representations of his talent as it stood at the tail end of the 1960s, powerful and bold, like a king (or maybe even a god) surveying a blues landscape he had shaped, and ranging across it freely...

In his brief four-year reign as a superstar, Jimi Hendrix expanded the vocabulary of the electric rock guitar more than anyone before or since. Hendrix was a master at coaxing all manner of unforeseen sonics from his instrument, often with innovative amplification experiments that produced astral-quality feedback and roaring distortion.

Jimi Hendrix 

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

In From the Storm (Jimi Hendrix)

Hear My Train A-Comin' (Jimi Hendrix)

Ezy Ryder  (Jimi Hendrix)

Red House  (Jimi Hendrix)

from Live in Maui 1970 

...However, they were seasoned pros, and Live in Maui presents in full the two sets they played before the cameras on July 30, 1970. These recordings document Hendrix and his accompanists -- bassist Billy Cox and drummer Mitch Mitchell -- as a well-oiled machine that delivered this material with a confidence and strength that also gave them room to stretch out without losing the plot. Hendrix delivers the guitar pyrotechnics that were his trademark, demonstrating his skills with a clear focus while using the swoops and cries of his Stratocaster to explore the outer limits of his songs. ..

Blending rock, blues, country, and jazz, the godfathers of Southern rock in all its wild, woolly glory.

The Allman Brothers Band 

Statesboro Blues (Blind Willie McTell)

Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ (Gregg Allman)

Stormy Monday (T-Bone Walker)

from  Fillmore West '71

Graham's left coast venue, the Fillmore West, in San Francisco in January of 1971. They were slotted between openers the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band and Hot Tuna. These three shows are presented in their entirety in a four-disc set. Sourced from original two-track, reel-to-reel soundboard masters, they were held in ABB crew members Twiggs Lyndon's, Joe Dan Petty's, and Mike Callahan's closets for nearly five decades. They were then acquired by archivist Kirk West, who set the painstaking restoration process in motion... A revelation of these recordings is what they say about the Allmans' development and how much more polished they were just six weeks later, which doesn't diminish the earlier dates one iota: These performances are absolutely electrifying. They are wooly and intensely exploratory.

Influential Irish guitarist who played an earthy, stripped-down brand of blues-rock that touched everyone who heard it.

Rory Gallagher 

Used to Be (Rory Gallagher)

Whole Lot of People (Rory Gallagher)

There's a Light (Rory Gallagher)

from Deuce 1972

Released in November 1971, just six months after his solo debut, Rory Gallagher's second album was the summation of all that he'd promised in the wake of Taste's collapse, and the blueprint for most of what he'd accomplish over the next two years of recording. Largely overlooked by posterity's haste to canonize his next album, Live! In Europe, Deuce finds Gallagher torn between the earthy R&B of "Used to Be," a gritty blues fed through by some viciously unrestrained guitar playing... "There's a Light", too, plays to Gallagher's sensitive side, while stating his mastery of the guitar across a protracted solo that isn't simply spellbinding in its restraint, it also has the effect of adding another voice to the proceedings...

Accurately dubbed "the Queen of Chicago blues" (and sometimes just the blues in general), Koko Taylor helped keep the tradition of big-voiced, brassy female blues belters alive, recasting the spirits of early legends like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thornton, and Memphis Minnie for the modern age.

Koko Taylor 

I'm a Little Mixed Up(Criss Johnson)

What Kind of Man Is This? (Koko Taylor)

Twenty-Nine Ways to My Baby's Door (Willie Dixon)

from South Side Lady 1973 

Cut during the period when she was between Chess and Alligator, this 15-song selection, cut in a French studio and live in the Netherlands in 1973, is a potent set that finds Koko Taylor ably backed by the Aces, guitarist Jimmy Rogers, and pianist Willie Mabon. Lots of familiar titles -- a live "Wang Dang Doodle," studio remakes of "I'm a Little Mixed Up" and "Twenty-Nine Ways" -- and a few numbers that aren't usually associated with Chicago's undisputed blues queen.

One of rock's prime guitarists due to his uncanny ability to channel the blues-psych, Fender Strat-fueled playing style of Jimi Hendrix.

Robin Trower 

Day of the Eagle (Robin Trower)

Bridge of Sighs (Robin Trower)

Too Rolling Stoned (Robin Trower)

from Bridge Of Sighs 1974

Guitarist Robin Trower's watershed sophomore solo disc remains his most stunning, representative, and consistent collection of tunes. Mixing obvious Hendrix influences with blues and psychedelia, then adding the immensely soulful vocals of James Dewar, Trower pushed the often limited boundaries of the power trio concept into refreshing new waters. The concept gels best in the first track, "Day of the Eagle," where the opening riff rockingly morphs into the dreamy washes of gooey guitar chords that characterize the album's distinctive title track that follows. .. One of the few Robin Trower albums without a weak cut, Bridge of Sighs holds up to repeated listenings as a timeless work, as well as the crown jewel in Trower's extensive yet inconsistent catalog.

Swaggering Chicago blues harmonica player, a solo star who also worked frequently with Buddy Guy.

Junior Wells 

What My Momma Told Me (Junior Wells)

Key to the Highway (Big Bill Broonzy / Charles Segar)

The Train I Ride (Junior Wells)

from On Tap 1975

Underrated mid-'70s collection boasting a contemporary, funky edge driven by guitarists Phil Guy and Sammy Lawhorn, keyboardist Big Moose Walker, and saxman A.C. Reed. Especially potent is the crackling "The Train I Ride," a kissin' cousin to Little Junior Parker's "Mystery Train."

"Struggle" #114 ALTER.NATION.MiX - weekly favtraX 24-01-2021 (10 trax, 45m)

  ALTER.NATION #114 (10 trax, 45m)

The Second Hand Orchestra and James Yorkston, Still Corners, Palberta, Jordana, Yung, Rhye, Kiwi Jr., M. Caye Castagnetto, Brian Eno, Jeremiah Fraites

weekly favtraX 

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"S t r u g g l e"

Scottish singer/songwriter who blends dark Leonard Cohen musings with Stuart Murdoch airs.

The Second Hand Orchestra and James Yorkston - The Wide Wide River / Struggle
Multi-faceted troubadour James Yorkston has explored many dimensions during his two decades of work... While its successor, The Wide Wide River, is collaborative to its core, it nonetheless feels like a continuation of his recent style, albeit pleasantly shaded by a new cast of players. Credited to James Yorkston & the Secondhand Orchestra, the project stems from the singer's longtime friendship with Swedish musician Karl-Jonas Winqvist, who, over a smattering of sessions in Stockholm, paired Yorkston with his own stable of musicians. Spontaneity has always been an element of Yorkston's style, but the loose group-mind feel captured here yields appealingly fresh and intimate results... The buoyant "Struggle" is a clear highlight with its airy harmonies and warming refrain...

English-American duo combining spacy psych experiments, glamorous '80s synth pop, and more.

Still Corners - The Last Exit / It's Woodoo

More than a decade after they formed, Still Corners and their music remain in constant motion. Over the years, Greg Hughes and Tessa Murray have relocated from London to the English seaside to Texas' Hill Country, and their sound has shifted with every move. On The Last Exit, however, there's a slightly shorter distance between where they've been and where they are. They embellish on the sunbaked dream pop they introduced on Slow Air...  In Murray, Still Corners are blessed with a vocalist who sounds great in just about any setting... While moments like these won't dispel comparisons to Mazzy Star and Julee Cruise, the gentle otherworldliness that has been vital to the duo's music since Creatures of an Hour is still distinctive...

Eccentric lo-fi trio whose unpredictable songs recall post-punk, no wave, and the vocal harmonies of the Roches.

Palberta - Palberta5000 / All Over My Face

New York-based abstract punks Palberta (Ani Ivry-Block, Lily Konigsberg, and Nina Ryser) went into the recording of their fifth album with the intention to create songs which were catchier and less abrasive than their previous material... Palberta5000 still has plenty of tracks that only last a minute or two, but the songs seem more planned out, with much more natural-sounding transitions between parts. They still come up with unconventional riffs and twitchy rhythms, but it's all executed with a bit more finesse this time around, and the trio's vocal harmonies have never sounded stronger... Palberta5000 is more mature than anything they've done before but just as playful, and more accessible while impossible to mistake for the work of any other band.

Kansas-born, Maryland-based singer/songwriter with a hooky bedroom pop sound. Classical Notions of HappinessSinger/songwriter Jordana Nye, aka Jordana, is known for her intimate and emotive electro-acoustic bedroom pop sound.

Jordana - Something To Say To You / Fuck You

Kansas-born/Maryland-based singer/songwriter Jordana Nye (aka Jordana) makes deeply intimate, handcrafted bedroom pop that brings to mind a wry combination of Cat Power and Beck. It's a potent, '90s-inspired vibe she first displayed on 2019's Classical Notions of Happiness and one which she further develops on 2020's engaging Something to Say to You. The album again finds her recording on her own with some production assistance from electronic artist Melvv. Though she primarily utilizes a guitar, bass, and drum set-up, there's also a kaleidoscope of instruments and effects on display here, including what sound like toy pianos, African kalimbas, reversed electric guitar riffs, and tape loops; all of which add to the homemade quality of the album... It's that alchemic sense that Jordana is conjuring pop magic out of the mundane details of everyday life that makes Something to Say to You a kind of revelatory experience.

Danish indie rock quartet who merge driving dance-rock with lush, brooding post-punk proclivities, Yung is led by singer and songwriter Mikkel Holm Silkjær.

Yung - Ongoing Dispute / Autobiography

...The quartet spent the next nearly five years preparing the follow-up, with bandleader and main songwriter Mikkel Holm Silkjær citing members' varied musical tastes as a challenge in finding the right balance of noise and tunefulness. The resulting Ongoing Dispute, their full-length debut for the PNKSLM label, does succeed in homing in on a consistently hooky, distorted, and dissatisfied sound. The album launches into grudges with a driving, rambling borderline dance-rock on "Autobiography," an uptempo track that has Holm mocking his guitar player, confronting a former mate, and ultimately asking for an apology "for the friendship you threw away." He's interrupted at times during the song by segments of churning, head-banging guitar unisons and, later, duetting, ultimately dissonant guitar solos that aren't quite able to see eye to eye...

Modern, low-key, R&B-inspired sophisti-pop from Plug Research staple Mike Milosh.

Rhye - Home / Sweetest Revenge

Two of the singles Michael Milosh released ahead of Home had more dancefloor zest than anything off Blood, his previous Rhye album... Milosh's approach as a songwriter and vocalist hasn't changed much. He's still addressing his lover, gently coaxing and assuring her, letting her know how he feels, communicating at all times on an intimate level. Throughout are references to (quiet) storms, waves, and rain made with literal and metaphorical purposes... This being the Rhye album with the most layers, Milosh was wise to employ the brilliant Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, the Killers) as mixing engineer. Every change pays off.

Toronto-via-Prince Edward Islands indie act that takes cues from a long lineage of collegiate slacker pop.

Kiwi Jr. - Cooler Returns / Cooler Returns

Kiwi Jr.'s 2019 debut, Football Money, was a long-labored triumph of intellectual slacker pop, burying nods to obscure influences under a whirlwind of bounding hooks. The brief album from the Toronto quartet flew by in a dazzled rush, with the energy of the first Modern Lovers' record juxtaposed with lazy, Pavement-esque melodies and lyrical barrages that were stuffed to capacity with esoteric references and culture-jamming imagery. Sophomore album Cooler Returns is much the same, but feels ever so slightly more refined, allowing the band's unique stew of influences and reference points a little more room to gel...

Peruvian artist who works with samples and sound manipulation for their murky, surrealist songs.

M. Caye Castagnetto - Leap Second / All Points North

Peruvian-born artist M. Caye Castagnetto architects a strange new world on their debut album Leap Second, building songs from samples that clash soft, organic instrumentation with murky electronics and surreal atmospheres. Castagnetto worked with musicians like Beatrice Dillon and Aileen Bryant in the creation of the source material for these wobbly, nocturnal songs, boiling down the sounds into the samples that make up Leap Second's ten concise selections. The span of time spent on the album shows up in how stylistically varied it can be from track to track... Leap Second feels like a filing cabinet full of layers and contrasting ideas, but it's surprisingly warm for how chaotically composed it sometimes seems. The album washes by quickly, and with repeat listening it becomes clear that all the strange detours and unrelated segments are connected by Castagnetto's curiosity and daring.

Glam rock star of the 1970s who became a hit producer as well as a trailblazer in ambient, experimental music, and electronica.

Brian Eno - Film Music 1976-2020 / Reasonable Question (From "We Are As Gods")

Aside from his productions for mega-selling stars like David Bowie and Coldplay, or his Windows start-up jingle, Brian Eno's work has received its greatest exposure through film and television. While his earlier Music for Films releases included pieces originally intended as imaginary soundtracks, many of which ending up being used later, Film Music 1976-2020 is more like a greatest-hits compilation of his most memorable cinematic appearances... "Reasonable Question," from 2020's We Are as Gods (a documentary about Whole Earth Catalog editor Stewart Brand), has a scintillating melody and jittery IDM beats, and is easily the most exciting, kinetic track here...

Composer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist best known as the co-founder of the platinum-selling indie folk trio the Lumineers.

Jeremiah Fraites - Piano Piano / Arrival

After 15 years of belting out hearty folk-rock refrains to increasingly large audiences, Lumineers co-founder Jeremiah Fraites makes a surprisingly subtle solo debut with Piano Piano, a collection of tranquil piano instrumentals that occasionally veers into the avant-garde and quasi-classical wilderness. Like so many acts in 2020, the Lumineers' touring plans were waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Fraites -- recently transplanted to his wife's hometown of Turin, Italy -- found himself with time to contemplate his long-intended solo album. Sifting through years of musical fragments on phones and hard drives, a collection of melodies began to take shape, all of them played on the piano with little accompaniment...

The Second Hand Orchestra and James Yorkston, Still Corners, Palberta, Jordana, Yung, Rhye, Kiwi Jr., M. Caye Castagnetto, Brian Eno, Jeremiah Fraites