ALTER.NATION #72
Shopping, Homesick, Cheerleader, Arbor Labor Union, Stone Temple Pilots, Khruangbin & Leon Bridges, Gil Scott-Heron / Makaya McCraven, Antibalas, Sepultura, Shmu, Jorja Chalmers
London trio following the post-punk traditions of prickly sounds and left-wing politics.
Shopping - All or Nothing / All or Nothing
...The uniformly breathless quality of the album belies the breakneck pace of its creative process. Recorded during a ten-day window between London and Glasgow, All or Nothing pushes Shopping's sound into a more electric and elastic airspace. Whereas earlier albums hewed closely to the demo version of each song, bassist Billy Easter explains that "in the spirit of the album title," the band decided to lean into the kind of pop production they've "always dreamed about."...
Dutch indie band who meld springy noise pop and post-punk with a playfully eccentric bent.
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...
Dreamy psychedelic pop from a Philadelphia group led by songwriter Joe Haller.
Cheerleader - Almost Forever / Non-stop
Following touring in support of a 2015 debut album that blended the hazy textures of dream pop with a buoyant, anthemic pop, Philadelphia's Cheerleader went on an indefinite hiatus. Founding member Chris Duran parted ways with the group, and though bandleader Joe Haller began writing songs again in time, he did so for himself without any intention of them serving Cheerleader. However, he eventually did present some of the darker, more reflective material to bandmates, who ultimately embraced the not-so-subtle tonal shift. Recorded with producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Foals), the resulting Almost Forever is a spaced-out, psychedelic outing that still puts a premium on glistening atmospheres but moves them into a more introspective setting.
Georgia-based rock band combines philosophical trippiness with stoner rock firepower; formerly known as Pinecones.
Arbor Labor Union - New Petal Instants / Crushed By Fear Destroyer
After changing their name from Pinecones to the even-greener Arbor Labor Union, this Georgia four-piece debuted on Sub Pop with I Hear You, a peculiar mix of stoner rock, post-punk, and psychedelia with a just a touch of twang. The album introduced the group's core guitar duo of singer Bo Orr and fellow axeman Brian Adams who, when not chugging mightily at a middling pace, were prone to writing spry and intriguing circular riffs that spun neatly throughout the songs. It's the latter of those two tendencies that comes to the foreground on New Petal Instants, the band's eccentric 2020 follow-up...
Spacious and exploratory indie rock built out of looped field recordings, dream pop guitars, and the vocals of Annabel Alpers, formerly of Bachelorette.
Hamerkop - Remote / We Can Wing
After closing shop on Bachelorette in 2011 after a brilliant three-album run, Annabel Alpers started work on a new project with drummer Adam Cooke playing music that was as expansive as her previous band while also being more intimate and more intricately crafted. The first Hamerkop album, Remote, began life as a series of field recordings Alpers made around the world and at home, capturing noises as diverse as the clatter of pots and pans and the gentle hum of the great outdoors. When manipulated, looped, and paired with lush layers of synths, fuzzy dream pop guitars, and Cooke's steady drumming, the combined sound provides a rich backdrop for Alpers' expressive lead vocals and imaginative harmonies...
Multi-platinum hard rockers who brought grunge to the stadium crowd, thanks to Dean DeLeo's guitar talents and the melodic flair of Scott Weiland.
Stone Temple Pilots - Perdida / I Didn't Know the Time
After a decade bookended by just two album releases and capped off with a pair of tragic deaths, Stone Temple Pilots press pause on their usual big rock sound to process grief with their back-to-basics acoustic eighth album, Perdida. Titled after the Spanish word for "loss," this introspective set is weathered, weary, and surprisingly beautiful, an intentional therapy session for a band that's experienced its fair share of tragedy and drama. As such, loss is the central theme for much of the album, but instead of being weighed down by sadness and misery, Perdida does its best to find hope in the darkness...
Khruangbin (Thai for airplane, or literally "engine fly") are a jet-setting trio from Texas whose smooth, mainly instrumental music is heavily inspired by Thai rock and funk from the '60s and '70s, as well as a multitude of other influences ranging from surf rock to dub to Iranian pop.
Leon Bridges' first strides as an R&B artist prompted comparisons to legends like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, but the native Texan quickly came into his own with the remarkably refined Coming Home (2015) and Good Thing (2018),
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - Texas Sun / Texas Sun
The formulation of this short romantic detour from Leon Bridges and Khruangbin began, appropriately enough, on the road. After the fellow native Texans toured together, Khruangbin -- a trio of instrumentalists who mix deep soul, funk, and rock with grainy, psychedelic finesse -- recorded a track they thought would suit Bridges, an old soul with a fresh and personal perspective on traditional R&B. They met up in Houston and knocked out four songs with Bridges always at the fore, a change for the band who have previously used vocals only for shading. They begin by unfurling a couple lazing grooves...
One of the most important progenitors of rap music, Gil Scott-Heron's aggressive, no-nonsense street poetry is equal parts politically conscious activism, cultural awareness, polemic and social commentary, inspired a legion of intelligent rappers.
Drummer, composer, and producer Makaya McCraven uses the 21st century tenet of genre-blending creative music to push at the boundaries of sound and rhythm in pursuit of forging new musical directions.
Gil Scott-Heron / Makaya McCraven - We're New Again: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven / Me and the Devil
It's astonishing to consider that nearly ten years after the death of poet, songwriter, novelist, and polemicist Gil Scott-Heron in 2011, much of his work is unavailable. Released in 2010, I'm New Here was Scott-Heron's first album in nearly 15 years... Russell approached drummer, composer, and conceptualist Makaya McCraven to rework the album for its tenth anniversary, and he did just that: he reimagined the entire album as We're New Again... The redo of the cover of Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil" owes a nod to Frank Zappa's "Peaches en Regalia" in the horn intro; while the mix is still beat-centered, McCraven layers so much into it that Scott-Heron's testifying vocal offers a tragic truth as a daily occurrence. The woozy mix, Parker's deft, sharp, and meaty guitaristry, a ticking snare, hi-hat, ambient effects, and tape manipulation emerge with what amounts to a more resonant and ultimately harrowing reading...
Eclectic Afrobeat collective from Brooklyn that have earned a diverse following.
Antibalas - Fu Chronicles / Amenawon
With a globetrotting 20-year career renowned for being a voice for the people across four decades of political and societal upheaval from the late ‘90s to today, Antibalas celebrates its 20th Anniversary with a stark return to their Williamsburg roots on its latest Daptone Records studio album, Fu Chronicles. Pre-gentrified Williamsburg serves as the backdrop for Fu Chronicles–voyaging back to the early days of when Antibalas and Daptone Records spawned out of lead singer Duke Amayo’s kung fu dojo. A senior master of the Jow Ga Kung FuSchool of martial arts, Duke Amayo along with Antibalas founder/baritone saxophonist Martín Perna guide listeners through an epic journey of where kung fu ingeniously intersects with Afrobeat on Fu Chronicles.
Legendary Brazilian metal act that forged a rich, powerful sound, full of speed, aggression, anger, and a surprising dose of melody.
Sepultura - Quadra / Fear, Pain, Chaos, Suffering
Quadra is a concept album that, like its 2017 predecessor, expresses the delineated nature of society and the power of money. The album is so titled because its 12 songs are divided into four groups of three songs each. Each grouping showcases a different aspect of the band's musical persona. Exquisitely produced by Jens Bogren, its first section offers the band at its most aggressive in a short set of thrash metal... Closer "Fear, Pain, Chaos, Suffering" offers a richly atmospheric finale, including wonderful vocal assistance from Emmily Barreto, from Brazil's Far from Alaska. Quadra is Sepultura's first album to actually stand on equal qualitative footing with their classic trilogy. It offers a series of tough, meaty, adventurous songs, that abundantly indulge raw power and emotion.
Kaleidoscopic, free-form meta-pop project of Austin-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Sam Chown.
Shmu - Pure Bliss / Tomorrow Will Never Come
Sam Chown records kaleidoscopic meta-pop as Shmu when he isn't making neo-prog as part of the duo Zorch or touring as the drummer for artists such as Vinyl Williams or Botany. He's been making music for almost his entire life, actually, and has recorded hundreds of albums' worth of material. Pure Bliss is his first full-length for French label Requiem Pour un Twister (also home to Vinyl Williams), and it's the album he's spent the longest time working on -- songs from this album date back to 2004, when Chown was still a teenager, and the bulk of it was written and recorded a decade later...
Australian musician and songwriter who plays saxophone and keyboard in Bryan Ferry's live band, and records haunting, ethereal pop on her own.
Jorja Chalmers - Human Again / Red Light
Australian-born, London-based musician Jorja Chalmers gained international recognition as the show-stealing saxophonist and keyboard player for Bryan Ferry's live band, which she's been an integral part of since 2007. While constantly busy touring throughout the world, she's been writing and recording her own songs, and following a string-laden 2016 EP, Human Again is her synth-heavy full-length debut. Fitting squarely within the Italians Do It Better aesthetic, this is a rich, haunting set of dream pop tunes and cinematic instrumentals that seem to emerge out of a misty late-night haze...
Shopping, Homesick, Cheerleader, Arbor Labor Union, Stone Temple Pilots, Khruangbin & Leon Bridges, Gil Scott-Heron / Makaya McCraven, Antibalas, Sepultura, Shmu, Jorja Chalmers
