TROUBLE iN PARADiSE alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX

Rufus Wainwright

TROUBLE iN PARADiSE alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from recent past] # Rufus Wainwright, Benjamin Biolay, Beck, Spice Boys, Khruangbin, Algiers,Steve Gunn,Dream Wife,Jon Spencer, Cat Clyde,The Sufis,Arbor Labor Union,CocoRosie

M U S I C

if you want excitement PRESS SHUFFLE!

Juno-winning singer/songwriter from a famed musical family but with a style all his own drawn from influences spanning Tin Pan Alley and opera.
Rufus Wainwright
Trouble In Paradise
Unfollow The Rules
from Unfollow the Rules 2020
His tenth album overall, Unfollow the Rules signifies an emphatic return to pop for Rufus Wainwright following a recording of his first opera (2015's Prima Donna) and a set of Shakespeare sonnets set to music (2016's Take All My Loves). It also represents a career marker of sorts; returning to Los Angeles and specifically Sound City Studios, where Wainwright recorded his 1998 eponymous debut, the songwriter has described it as a bookend to the first part of his career. A lush, theatrical, nearly hourlong 12-track set recorded with legendary producer Mitchell Froom (Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Crowded House), it opens with the sleek pairing of Wainwright's vocals and a drum beat by Matt Chamberlain before "Trouble in Paradise" breaks open with dense, pointed vocal harmonies...

French pop singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who is the only loigical successor in chanson to Serge Gainshbourg.
Benjamin Biolay
Comment est ta peine ?
Idéogrammes
from Grand Prix 2020
France's Benjamin Biolay left behind his provocative Buenos Aires cycle after two acclaimed albums, Palermo Hollywood in 2016 and the platinum-certified Volver in 2017). Grand Prix is nostalgic and unquestionably autobiographical. Its title references Formula 1 racing's excitement, drama, heroes, and tragedies. "Grand Prize" artfully contrasts racing with his own life experiences and the sacrifices he's made in pursuit of art...  with a small band, analog synths, complete guitar and drum takes, and live vocals in songs that caress elements of Krautrock, post-punk, Brit-and electro-pop, Euro-disco, chanson, and MPB.

One of the most inventive, eclectic figures of the alternative era, the epitome of post-modern chic in an era obsessed with junk culture.
Beck
Hyperspace
Dark Places
from Hyperspace 2019
Hyperspace is one of those Beck projects that came together quickly. At the conclusion of the supporting tour for 2017's Colors, Beck headed into the studio with Pharrell Williams with the intention of contributing to a new N.E.R.D album, but they wound up hitting it off... With its layers of analog synths and drum machines, it's hard to escape the new wave trappings of Hyperspace, yet the album is devoid of nostalgia or irony...  Beck never lingers upon either his melancholy or his celestial flights of fantasy: they exist simultaneously, resulting in a tremulous and pretty soundtrack for moments of fleeting introspection.

Raucous Swedish garage punks Spice Boys formed in Umeå in late 2015, establishing themselves quickly in the local scene... The quartet of Adam Forsberg, Jesper Lindkivst, Emil Uppenberg, and Sebastian Holmlund returned in January 2018 with their first full-length release, Glade.
Spice Boys 
Spice City Boys
Mirages
from Glade 2018
A raucous garage punk quartet hailing from Umeå, Sweden, Spice Boys follow up their 2017 Spice City EP with Glade, their first full-length outing. Formed in 2015, the group is a natural fit for Stockholm label PNKSLM, whose roster of similarly irreverent lo-fi acts includes London duo Shit Girlfriend and fellow Swede ShitKid. With the help of producer/collaborator Simon Skeleton, Glade's 13 cuts were banged out in one presumably deafening weekend followed by a handful of overdub sessions to complete the Boys' cultivated vibe of ramshackle, surf-inspired, urban disillusionment. Despite their Nordic climes, their loose and clamorous guitar attack shares plenty of similarities with the D.I.Y. sounds of California's Burger Records empire. The songwriting and vocals are shared by guitarists Sebastian Holmlund and Adam Forsberg, who take turns exchanging abrasive leads and sprightly strumming as rhythm battery Jesper Lindkvist and Emil Uppenberg hasten to keep the train on the tracks...

Khruangbin (Thai for airplane, or literally "engine fly") are a jet-setting trio from Texas whose smooth, groove-heavy 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.
Khruangbin
Cómo Me Quieres
Shades of Man
Rules
from Con Todo el Mundo 2018
Texan trio Khruangbin named themselves after the Thai word for airplane, which couldn't be more appropriate for a band whose influences imply heavy passport usage. Of course, the band are inspired by Thai rock and funk from the '60s and '70s -- sounds most easily available to Western ears via releases like the Thai Beat a Go-Go compilations or anything issued by ZudRangMa Records. The group also draw from the bass pressure of vintage dub reggae, the free-spirited haziness of California psychedelia, and the gritty passion of '70s soul, with hints of Iranian pop, Afrobeat, Spaghetti Western film scores, and countless other styles. While this sounds like it could be an impossibly tall order, or something that requires an encyclopedic knowledge of music just to listen to, the band achieve a remarkably, almost effortlessly cohesive sound, and it goes down much more smoothly than one might expect...

This transcontinental trio formed in Georgia, playing an urgent hybrid of gospel, blues, and noisy post-punk. Algiers are a politically conscious indie trio who combine elements of post-punk and no wave with raw blues, gospel, and even early industrial music.
Algiers 

There Is No Year

Losing Is Ours

from There Is No Year 2020 

There Is No Year, the third album by Atlanta-based Algiers, was co-produced by Randall Dunn and Ben Greenberg. It further extends the reach of their previous outings while offering a more strategically articulated, disciplined musicality without sacrificing their core sound or blunting their emotional impact. In a scalding gumbo of post-punk mania, mutant gospel, shambolic blues, and ravaged funk and soul, they add more grimy electronic and industrial elements to their attack. Pulsing synths and electronic, clattering, mechanized beats (recalling the manic approach of Suicide's first album) introduce the opening title track. Vocalist/lyricist Franklin James Fisher begins testifying with an activist's conviction and a soul man's heart. His urgency offers keen, righteous, social and cultural critique rather than indictment and judgment. A sax breakdown by guest Skerik pushes the margin... On "Losing Is Ours," Lee Tesche's squalling, acid-drenched blues guitar meets dissonant synth, harsh noise, and Ryan Mahan's processional piano as Fisher's vocal soars above it all; Skerik's horn once more adds an out-jazz dimension...

Virtuoso guitarist, songwriter, and producer best-known as a go-to musician, a member of the trio GHQ, and frequent solo recordings.

steve gunn 

new moon

new familiar

from the unseen in between 2019

Annabel Mehran's black-and-white cover photo for Steve Gunn's The Unseen In Between is a portrait of the guitarist and songwriter seemingly on the move. It evokes those found on early- to mid-'60s recordings by Bob Dylan, Koerner, Ray & Glover, Jackson C. Frank, Bert Jansch, and others... Gunn's also a more confident, capable singer than he was on 2016's Eyes on the Lines and it shows. He places his voice at the center of producer/guitarist James Elkington's beautifully layered, multi-textured mix. Gunn enlisted Tony Garnier, Dylan's bassist of 30 years as his musical director, along with Elkington (who also contributes guitars, harmonica, and keyboards), drummer T.J Mainani, keyboardist Daniel Schlett, string players Macie Stewart and Lia Kohl, and clarinetist Jacob Daneman. Opener "New Moon" commences with an acoustic guitar and bassline delivering a syncopated psych-folk vamp before a heavily reverbed electric guitar paints over them both. His delivery walks the line between folk, blues, and psychedelia as the tune unfolds its suggestive, fleeting landscapes and emotional states... "New Familiar" utilizes a hypnotic drone and repetitive single-string guitar lines done raga style to introduce a sprawling, labyrinthine rock number...

Arty, all-female British trio influenced by '90s indie rock, punk, and ambient pop. With their brashly catchy mix of punk and pop and proudly feminist viewpoint, Dream Wife continue the empowering lineage of the Slits, Debbie Harry, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Le Tigre. Thanks to their clever songwriting and abundant hooks -- and Rakel Mjöll's ability to shift from a coo to a howl in an instant -- Dream Wife's manifestos about gender roles, body image, and identity feel thrilling rather than pedantic.

Dream Wife 

Let's Make Out

Fire

Hey Heartbreaker

from Dream Wife 2018 

Infusing the angular sounds of the early aughts with a healthy dose of riot grrrl power, indie rock outfit Dream Wife delivered a fierce debut packed with jagged guitar riffs, sneering kiss-offs, and irresistible charm. On Dream Wife, the trio of Rakel Mjoll, Alice Go, and Bella Podpadec channel their predecessors with precision and ease, distilling the grit and groove of early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sahara Hotnights, and the Sounds, while paying their respects to forebears like Sleater-Kinney and Kathleen Hanna's Bikini Kill, and Le Tigre... Dream Wife have seized a certain energy that is undeniable and -- despite the myriad inspirations and easy comparisons -- feels so fresh and alive, enough to make their trailblazing influences proud.

Scuzz-rocking guitarist who fused ernest traditionalism and destructive tendencies fronting Pussy Galore, the Blues Explosion, and Heavy Trash. Best known as the leader of punk-blues firebrands the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jon Spencer became a major figure in noise rock and alternative rock circles for his gritty, combustible songs, fiercely minimalistic guitar work, and over-the-top performing style.

Jon Spencer 

Trash Can

Love Handle

I Got the Hits

from Spencer Sings the Hits 2018

...More than anything, Spencer Sings the Hits suggests the Blues Explosion without the same degree of fire and gravity, and with a little bit of noisy clatter and keyboard blurt added for seasoning. The high-attitude strut of Spencer's vocals is as loud and proud as ever, and the minimalist snarl of his guitar work is similarly confident. But where Judah Bauer and Russell Simins pushed Spencer forward, giving as good as he gave out, percussionist M. Sord and keyboardist Sam Coomes follow the star rather than walking in formation with him, and it makes a difference... 

Cat Clyde is a new artist out of Stratford, Ontario. A fresh take on the classic sounds of yesteryear. She breathes new life into the velvety vocal, tack-piano, slide-guitar-style that can instantly walk you through the swinging doors of a packed saloon. With influences ranging from Etta James to Kevin Morby to Lead Belly; hers is a mix that goes down smoother than a neat glass of mellow Kentucky bourbon. No longer do you need to reach for your trusty sifting pan and river boots to find gold. You just need to know one name

Cat Clyde 

Bird Bone

Not Like You

Reach It

from Hunters Trance 2019

The melodies of Hunters Trance will inspire you to pour a glass of whiskey and sulk at a bar; it epitomizes the grudge and allure that is notorious of blues-truly authentic and particularly chilling. Cat's voice encapsulates the essence of inspirations such as Amy Winehouse and Janis Joplin to remind us that music that comes from the soul is never outdated and forever transformative. Whether you’re a die hard bluesy-folk fan or not, Cat Clyde’s velvety voice will bury into your heart, stick in your mind, and leave you with that familiar bittersweet taste in your mouth.

Nashville duo dedicated to reviving mid-'60s garage rock and psychedelic pop. The Sufis began their career dedicated to excavating garage rock nuggets and re-creating them in lo-fi, bedroom psych style. After releasing two albums that sounded like a cross between the Byrds, (the original) Nirvana, and the house band on Shindig, the duo added synthesizers, dubby post-chillwave psych, and smooth soft rock textures to their sound on a pair of albums that brought them up to date.

The Sufis 

Find Your Friends

Cleveland

Too Far

from Double Exposure 2020 

The Sufis' fourth album, Double Exposure, follows in the same lo-fi, weird, and woolly bedroom psych footsteps as their previous album did. Only this time the duo have a much more focused and animated approach to the writing and recording process and punch their performances up just a touch. The sound might be oddly smooth and bathed in cheapo synths, warbly vocals, and drums that sound like they have an inch of water sloshing around inside them, but the songs are shiny and sharp as diamonds. Each track connects like a sucker punch, whether it's the bubbling post-Ariel Pink pop of "Find Your Friends," the compressed jangle pop of "Cleveland," the moody new wave of "Too Far"... they vault to the forefront of the style with an album that shows off their skills as writers, performers, producers, and arrangers like none of their other records has, and few other bands of their ilk have either.

Georgia-based rock band combines philosophical trippiness with stoner rock firepower; formerly known as Pinecones.

Arbor Labor Union 

Riddle Snake Blues

How Long Was I Gone

Highway Loop

from New Petal Instants 2020

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...

Duo formed by sisters Sierra and Bianca Casady, whose distinctive and beautiful sound draws on indie, electronic, and lo-fi. The project of multi-disciplinary artists and sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady, CocoRosie combines a wealth of influences -- hip-hop, folk, opera, electronic, found sounds, and more -- into an unmistakable and often poignant sound.

CocoRosie 

High Road

Hell's Gate

Slow Down Sun Down

from Put the Shine On 2020

Since La Maison de Mon Rêve's "By Your Side," CocoRosie have juxtaposed old and new sounds and attitudes towards relationships in intriguing ways. They continue to mine this territory on Put the Shine On, but this time, Sierra and Bianca Casady's tales of girls and women dealing with men -- especially fathers -- who are absent and abusive are more bemusing than thought-provoking. This is due in large part to the album's sound, which polarizes CocoRosie's collages of unexpected elements into extremes...

2019

17-07-2020 > ALTER:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from recent past] (2h 20m)

Kate NV

17-07-2020 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from recent past] # Kate NV, Poppy, Jeff Parker, Bambara, Habibi,Georgia, Nicole Bus, The Messthetics, The Good, The Good the Bad & the Queen, Ducks Unlimited, Rufus Wainwright, Benjamin Biolay, Beck, Spice Boys, Khruangbin

M U S I C

if you want excitement PRESS SHUFFLE!

.pres_perf_MiX on deezer

pres_perf_mix # The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 

LISTEN THE PLAYLIST ON DEEZER.COM

Kate 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
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...

Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and performance artist who crafts catchy pop and subversively humorous videos.Los Angeles-based performance artist turned pop star Poppy -- born Moriah Rose Pereira and formerly known as That Poppy -- gained a substantial following on social media with her videos, the subjects of which grew ever more absurd and bizarre. 
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."...

Highly versatile, prolific guitarist (and Tortoise member) who has collaborated with numerous jazz, experimental, and indie rock musicians.
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...

094 ALTER.NATION.MiX weekly favtraX 08-07-2020 (51')

ALTER.NATION #94

Bad Moves, Dream Wife, Holy Wave, bdrmm, Mint Field, Thurston Moore, Pure X, Keleketla!, Sault, Benjamin Biolay, A.A. Williams, Greg Foat

weekly favtraX 
0 8 - 0 7 - 2 0 2 0

"Local Radio"

ALTER.NATION #94 on deezer

Washington, D.C. band who fuse edgy punk rock with engaging power pop melodies and clean harmonies. Grafting power pop melodies onto the speedy and minimal frameworks of punk rock, Bad Moves deliver rock & roll that's both fun and thoughtful.
Bad Moves - Untenable / Local Radio
Conventional wisdom says pop punk is the province of teenagers, that folks are supposed to give up on catchy hooks and speedy tempos once they're into their mid-twenties. Bad Moves are here to prove that isn't true. Their second album, 2020's Untenable, is a truly glorious exercise in amped-up pogo punk, full of tunes that will have nearly anyone bouncing around the room by the time the opening track, "Local Radio," hits the chorus for the first time...

Arty, all-female British trio influenced by '90s indie rock, punk, and ambient pop. With their brashly catchy mix of punk and pop and proudly feminist viewpoint, Dream Wife continue the empowering lineage of the Slits, Debbie Harry, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Le Tigre. 
Dream Wife - So When You Gonna... / So When You Gonna...
"Put your money where your mouth is!" Dream Wife shout on So When You Gonna…, and that's exactly what they do on their second album. Known for their support of female and non-binary artists, the band worked with a creative team consisting entirely of women, including producer Marta Salogni and mastering engineer Heba Kadry (who is almost as well-known as her clients). With the help of these women, Dream Wife deliver a more polished, more eclectic version of their music that lives up to the promise of their self-titled 2018 debut album in unexpected ways... On much of So When You Gonna…, the pop instincts Dream Wife wrapped in barbed wire riffs and snarling vocals are allowed to ring out clearly and sweetly... Though it's very different from Dream Wife, So When You Gonna… is just as genuine, and the duality in Dream Wife's music only makes them a more interesting, and more relevant, band.

Texas-based garage-psych combo whose music is one part Nuggets-style fuzz mixed with two parts lysergic echo and drone.
Holy Wave - Interloper / Buddhist Pete
On the four albums leading up to 2020's Interloper, the Texas quartet Holy Wave quietly established themselves as reliable practitioners of top-notch psychedelic sounds. The band fill their psychedelic beakers with typical ingredients like echoing guitars, spacey melodies, and hazy atmospheres, while also adding potent strains of washed-out shoegaze textures, hypnotic motorik rhythms, and reverb-heavy garage rock... "Buddhist Pete" have plenty of rollicking energy and guitar firepower...

Hull, U.K.-based quintet Bdrmm walk the line between dream pop and shoegaze, switching between ethereal melancholy and driving delay with ease.
bdrmm - Bedroom / Happy
English quintet bdrmm pull from several schools of dreamy, driving, hypnotic rock on their debut full-length, which spells out the pronunciation of the band's name. The group seem well-versed in dream pop and post-punk, with a hazy but clean guitar sound and steady, propulsive drumming that nods to Krautrock and space rock... A few tunes are more upbeat, combining surf-influenced guitars and shivering post-punk rhythms. "Happy" delivers the refrain "I'm happy if you're happy" with mixed emotions...

Mexican 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.

Thurston Moore's work with Sonic Youth rearranged the parameters of indie rock to an almost incalculable degree, merging experimental art rock tendencies with unconventional guitar tunings for a sound that would influence generations to come.
Thurston Moore - HASHISH
By The Fire features My Bloody Valentine’s Deb Googe on bass and backing vocals, Negativland’s Jon Leidecker (aka Wobbly) on electronics, James Sedwardson on guitar, and Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley alternating on drums with Jem Doulton. And today, you can preview it with its first single, a blissed-out guitar tangle called “Hashish.”
According to a press release, the song is “an ode to the narcotic of love in our shared responsibility to each other during isolation...”

Pure X - Pure X / Angels of Love
Austin band Pure X went through several shifts as their sound evolved, moving from humid, atmospheric ambient rock on their earliest material into more refined songwriting on their 2014 album Angel. After six years of semi-dormancy, Pure X offer up the most straightforward reading of their drifty, dreamlike sound on their self-titled fourth album. Even presenting their most direct and tuneful material, Pure X's main talent is still creating a slow-moving, album-length mood that hangs suspended somewhere between bliss and regret.

The collective Keleketla! is a musical collaborative project between Coldcut and a menagerie of South African musicians, as well as several international guests. Encompassing a variety of jazz, hip-hop, and club sounds, their genre-bending eponymous album arrived in 2020.
Keleketla! - Keleketla! / Future Toyi Toyi 
feat. Soundz of the South, DJ Mabheko, Tony Allen, Tenderlonious, Afla Sackey, Afla Sackey & Afrik Bawantu
The international, pan-generational project Keleketla! started when Rangoato Hlasane and Malose Malahlela, founders of Johannesburg's Keletetla! Library, were approached by Ruth Daniels of the charity In Place of War and asked which producers they would most like to work with in a collaboration with South African musicians. They expressed interest in several Ninja Tune artists, particularly label founders Coldcut, and so the duo of Jonathan More and Matt Black flew to Johannesburg and recorded sessions with several musicians, singers, and rappers, including Sibusile Xaba, Yugen Blakrok, and members of the collective Soundz of the South. Back in England, they shaped the material with additional contributions from legendary drummer Tony Allen, visionary saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, rap godfathers the Watts Prophets, and several others.

Keleketla! packs a wide array of styles, tempos, and moods into an hour, with the album's central themes including hope for the future, celebration, and unity through music. Considering how much is going on at any given time, the songs never feel overstuffed, and every voice and instrument is allowed to shine. Opening tune "Future Toyi Toyi" is basically a gqom track arranged for a full ensemble, with a full chorus rhythmically chanting over dark, droning synths and heavy polyrhythms played by Tony Allen. (Allen passed away months before the album's release, and without being a conscious tribute to him, the release is certainly a testament to the widespread influence of the Afro-beat sound he helped build with Fela Kuti back in the 1960s and '70s.)

Anonymously presented collective mixing psychedelic soul, post-punk funk, and alternative R&B, produced by Inflo.

SAULT - Hard Life

We don’t know too much about the mysterious UK group SAULT, but their music speaks for itself. On Juneteenth, they put out a powerful new album called UNTITLED (Black Is), their third release that has dropped out of nowhere in just over a year. “Hard Life” is an early highlight. It starts off sinewy and locked-in, a pulsing bass backing a chant: “It’s a hard life, fight against the weak/ It’s a hard life, threatened by our freedom/ Be on your way, things are gonna change.” The song breaks through to something like catharsis around three minutes in, an explosion of gospel and soul and glorious voices that sweeps the listener up in it. “Finally we’ve reached the end,” everyone sings, expressing hope at a time when it’s hard to have hope. It’s a gorgeous breakthrough, one that sounds like it makes all the hard work worth it.

French pop singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who is the only loigical successor in chanson to Serge Gainshbourg.

Benjamin Biolay - Grand Prix / Papillon Noir

France's Benjamin Biolay left behind his provocative Buenos Aires cycle after two acclaimed albums, Palermo Hollywood in 2016 and the platinum-certified Volver in 2017). Grand Prix is nostalgic and unquestionably autobiographical. Its title references Formula 1 racing's excitement, drama, heroes, and tragedies. "Grand Prize" artfully contrasts racing with his own life experiences and the sacrifices he's made in pursuit of art... For "Papillon Noir," with Demoustier, he channels New Order's dancefloor rock beautifully. Again, despite the joy in the mix, his lyrics are resigned to always being in a temporary place when it comes to love: "I am an evening visitor, I am the vestiges of the dark sun/I am the night watchman, I am the bizarre boy...who has nothing to do/I am your only alibi, your temporary libido…." 

Dark, artful vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whose songs fuse folk, metal, post-rock, and classical influences.

A.A. Williams - Forever Blue / All I Asked For (Was To End It All)

Few artists have had a career trajectory quite like A.A. Williams. She put out her debut EP in early 2019, before she had even staged a live gig, and by the end of the year, she was the new darling of the independent music press... While the notion of a classical musician and secret metalhead becoming an overnight underground sensation makes for a good story, Williams' success has come for a good reason -- she's a prodigiously talented musician with a strong creative vision, and her first LP, 2020's Forever Blue, is a remarkable piece of work... Your friends who wear black all the time may be the target audience, but A.A. Williams' ambitious blend of post-rock, folk, goth, metal, and classical ingredients deserves as wide a hearing as it gets, and Forever Blue is a uniquely effective debut album.

London-based keyboardist, composer, bandleader, and DJ, Greg Foat is a musician completely of his time and somehow beyond it. His highly original "non-contemporary jazz" utilizes conventional instruments and an exotic array of unorthodox ones, including harpsichord, tubular bells, and a 15-piece choir.

Greg Foat - Symphonie Pacifique / Symphonie Pacifique

Foat has become a versatile mainstay in UK jazz through an acclaimed series of albums on Jazzman and Athens Of The North, moving from soul-jazz workouts to library music to cinematic, haunting compositions and pastoral acid folk. ‘Symphonie Pacifique’ goes expansive and widescreen, building a lush soundscape using choral textures, harp and tubular bells. “It has been a hallmark of my previous albums to use choral voices and tubular bells to sound more like chordal instruments,” explains Foat. “I used pedal steel for the first time on these tracks.” All are showcased on the atmospheric ‘After The Storm’. “This piece was completely improvised during our last day of studio time,” continues Foat. “The assistant engineer had set up an arpeggio on the synthesizer as a metronome; the harp and guitar created an ostinato, myself and others soloed over it and we later added choir and strings. Eventually, we took the arpeggio off to leave a calm, serene piece of music..."

Bad Moves, Dream Wife, Holy Wave, bdrmm, Mint Field, Thurston Moore, Pure X, Keleketla!, Sault, Benjamin Biolay, A.A. Williams, Greg Foat