071 ALTER.NATION.MiX weekly favtraX 01-02-2020

ALTER.NATION #71

Chastity Belt, Loose Tooth, Gorillaz, Wild Nothing, Smoke Fairies, Son Little, Drive-By Truckers, Tinsley Ellis, The Psychedelic Furs, Against All Logic, Elon EDM Musk

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"The Process"

Seattle area band takes cues from the riot grrrl scene as well as angular early-'90s guitar-based indie rock.
Chastity Belt - The Process
Swept together from the ashes of your finest night on the tiles, Loose Tooth are a Melbourne three-piece who craft sweet guitar pop with frayed edges.
Loose Tooth - Lonely
Chastity Belt will soon head out on a tour of the Western US with Loose Tooth — the Loose Tooth from Melbourne, recently covered by Courtney Barnett, not the the Loose Tooth from Philadelphia who we haven’t heard from since 2017. Ahead of the upcoming dates, the two groups have released a digital split single today.

Chastity Belt’s “The Process” and Loose Tooth’s “Lonely” go well together in that both are powered by a gleaming churn of reverby guitars. The former taps into that drowsy yet propulsive post-Sonic Youth vibe Chastity Belt do so well. The latter is more of a jangly indie-pop track in keeping with the legacy of Loose Tooth’s native Oceania.

Conceived as the first "virtual hip-hop group," Gorillaz blended the musical talents of Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, Blur's Damon Albarn, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori, and Tom Tom Club's Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz with the arresting visuals of Jamie Hewlett, best known as the creator of the cult comic Tank Girl.
Gorillaz - Momentary Bliss feat. slowthai & Slaves
Two days ago, Gorillaz started teasing the first “season” of a new project called Song Machine. Yesterday, we found out what it actually is — a series of collaborative singles, aka “episodes,” that will be released throughout the year. And today, the first installment has already arrived. “Momentary Bliss” is a collaboration with the politically charged British rapper slowthai and the UK punk duo Slaves.

Reverb-heavy and layered indie pop that harkens back to the slick sound of the '80s, but on a tighter budget.
Wild Nothing - Laughing Gas / The World Is A Hungry Place
Somehow it’s been nearly 10 years since Jack Tatum of Wild Nothing shared his lo-fi dream-pop debut with the world. ‘Gemini’ arrived during a period of transition between late noughties chillwave and surf-rock indie... The songs on ‘Laughing Gas’ were originally written and recorded alongside last year’s ‘Indigo’ before Tatum isolated the songs for a separate release. It was a smart move; ‘Laughing Gas’ is a lush paean to ‘80s precision pop, all snaking funk basslines, synth claps and reverb-addled drums... Tatum rounds the record off with a meticulous, downbeat piece of yacht rock. ‘The World Is A Hungry Place’ sees him play with metaphors about the planet’s perils, ironically soundtracking the sense of doom with sensual sax notes and cocksure beats. It sounds like Tears For Fears – no bad thing.

U.K. duo whose strong but ethereal sound combines elements of British folk, blues, and indie pop.
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...

Potent and deeply personal soul/R&B from Roots and Rjd2 collaborator Aaron Livingston.
Son Little - Aloha / that's the way
In the press materials for Son Little's third album, 2020's Aloha, Little (known to his mom and the tax people as Aaron Livingston) says he had written a big batch of songs for his next project and recorded elaborate demos working out the arrangements. Then the hard drive in his recording setup went wonky on him, and suddenly all that hard work vanished and Little had to rewrite the album from the ground up in a few weeks...  It also marks the first time Little has worked with an outside producer, in this case Renaud Letang, and the record's approach suggests a compromise between the styles of his first two albums, combining the hip-hop-informed one-man-band recording techniques of his debut with the more open and organic tone of New Magic. At the same time, it's a quiet and introspective set, rarely working up to the heat of the vintage soul-funk grooves of the first two LPs. Little is in great voice here, as usual, but his arrangements (where he plays most of the instruments himself) are leaner and more efficient, with open space and atmosphere playing a larger role than before...  The more subdued affect of Aloha makes it a less immediately satisfying listen than New Magic, but that does nothing to change that this is a rewarding effort from an exciting and engaging talent.

Acclaimed alt-country rockers that skew Southern stereotypes with rowdy yet high-concept work.
Drive-By Truckers - The Unraveling / Heroin Again
As Joe Strummer once told us, anger can be power, but what Joe didn't mention is that it tends to burn hot and fast. Once it's gone, what's left? At what point do you run out of productive rage and find yourself weighed down by the ashes of hopelessness and defeat? When the Drive-By Truckers wrote and recorded 2016's American Band, the United States was a nation ankle-deep in the rising waters of racism and division, with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump just a troubling roadside curiosity. In the truest sense, 2020's The Unraveling is the companion piece to American Band, an update where tragically little has gotten better four years on, and our national malaise is greater than ever...

A fiery guitarist and talented songwriter who plays a unique blend of Memphis R&B, southwest blues, and urban funk.
Tinsley Ellis - Ice Cream in Hell / Your Love's Like Heroin
Eighteen albums into nearly a four-decade career finds blues-rocking guitar slinger Tinsley Ellis still growing as a recording artist, singer, and songwriter. In 2018 he returned home to Alligator Records after delivering four albums on his own Heartfixer label. The chart-topping set was met with Blues Music Association nominations for album of the year and artist of the year. Ice Cream in Hell was recorded in Nashville and co-produced by Ellis and longtime co-producer/keyboardist Kevin McKendree. .. The set closes with the most dramatic tune in the bunch: "Your Love Is Like Heroin." Its 12-bar tension is enabled with lyrical guitar fills that evoke the twin six-string spirits of both Green and Albert King. Ellis' vocal on this crawling seven-minute jam is arguably the most soulful of his career. His playing underscores the emotional depth in the lyrics. Ellis' meaty solo digs so deep it's party to the protagonist's revelation of grief and pain. Unlike most bluesmen, each of his recordings over the last seven decades or so is stronger, more confident, and unabashedly more musical than its predecessor. On Ice Cream in Hell, Ellis' songwriting and singing finally match the prowess in his playing, and we are all richer for it.

British alternative rockers of the '80s, with several international hits, whose regal sound grew out of Bowie-style art rock and gloomy post-punk.
The Psychedelic Furs - Don’t Believe
...If lead single “Don’t Believe” is anything to go by, the answer is: They will sound like those 29 years didn’t even happen. This is a good thing! “Don’t Believe” is a churning, nocturnal track that harkens back to a kind of darker, heavier sound some of the ’80s greats adopted as they transitioned into the ’90s. More importantly, “Don’t Believe” is the kind of gratifying reintroduction that comes right from the Furs’ wheelhouse: gloomy guitar swirls, sax wails, Butler’s voice sounding like he hasn’t aged at all, a big desperate chorus...

More dancefloor-friendly than abstract, this alias for boundary-pushing electronic producer Nicolas Jaar still relies on colorfully warped sampling and beatmaking.

Against All Logic - Illusions of Shameless Abundance feat. Lydia Lunch
Against All Logic - Alucinao feat. Estado Unido, FKA twigs
Nicolas Jaar’s Against All Logic project released a new album, 2012-2017, back in 2018... and he’s releasing two brand new songs.
The first, “Illusions … Of Shameless Abundance” features the avant-garde artist Lydia Lunch. (Jaar’s label Other People Records reissued her 1990 spoken word piece Conspiracy Of Women a few years ago.) And the second track is called “Alucinao” and features Jaar’s recent collaborator FKA twigs and Estado Unido...

Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971) is an engineer and technology entrepreneur. He is a citizen of South Africa, Canada, and the United States (where he resides permanently) and is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer/designer of SpaceX; CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI... In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People, and was ranked (co-)first on the Forbes list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019...
Elon "EDM" Musk - Don't Doubt ur Vibe
...“Don’t Doubt Ur Vibe” definitely sounds like a song that a 48-year-old billionaire might make if he was dating Grimes. On Twitter, Musk has shared some truly ghastly photos of himself in the studio and claimed that he “wrote the lyrics & performed the vocals” himself. Those lyrics are: “Don’t doubt your vibe/ Because it’s true/ Don’t doubt your vibe/ Because it’s you.” He wrote that himself! The cover art is a Tesla Cybertruk orbiting Mars. Take a deep breath, steel yourself, and give it a listen...

Chastity Belt, Loose Tooth, Gorillaz, Wild Nothing, Smoke Fairies, Son Little, Drive-By Truckers, Tinsley Ellis, The Psychedelic Furs, Against All Logic, Elon EDM Musk

055 ALTER.NATION weekly favtraX 24-09-2019

ALTER.NATION #55

Reid Anderson, Dave King, Craig Taborn, Brittany Howard, Robbie Robertson, Liam Gallagher, David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights, Giant Sand, Chastity Belt, Vivian Girls, One True Pairing, Andrew Combs, Marco Benevento, The Juan MacLean

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"Sparklers and Snakes"

ALTER.NATION #55 on DEEZER

Composer, bassist, and electronicist Reid Anderson is a founding member of the globally acclaimed jazz trio the Bad Plus.
David King is an American drummer and composer from Minneapolis. He is known for being a founding member of the jazz groups The Bad Plus (with Reid Anderson and Ethan Iverson) and Happy Apple (with Michael Lewis and Erik Fratzke) although he is active in many other projects
Craig Taborn is an award-winning, in-demand pianist as a soloist, bandleader, and a sideman. His technical skills, combined with intellectual curiosity and stylistic versatility, have earned him numerous opportunities to collaborate with a range of recognized masters in diverse styles of contemporary jazz.
Reid Anderson, Dave King, Craig Taborn - Sparklers and Snakes from Golden Valley Is Now
...Their fixed focus was on song forms. The notion of "soloists" was thrown out the window. The music is tightly scripted and pays careful attention to texture, color, dynamic and, to a lesser extent, hooks. Taborn's place on synths and electric and acoustic pianos is central as the most recognizable center of melody, but his bandmates stick very close. Elements of indie electronica meld with lighthearted prog, easy flowing indie rock, and D.I.Y. electro-pop...  This date isn't about showing musical muscle; it's about composing, playing, and arranging songs -- simple instrumental ones -- with creativity and panache. This trio accomplish that with rawness, immediacy, collective good will, and a wacky kind of elegance.

Brittany Howard is an American musician, best known as lead vocalist and guitarist of American rock bands Alabama Shakes and Thunderbitch.
Brittany Howard - History Repeats from Jaime
Jaime is the name of Brittany Howard's sister, a sibling who died from a rare cancer when she was 13 years old. Howard began reckoning with the enduring ramifications of her loss when she started writing a memoir, an exercise that eventually led to her 2019 solo debut Jaime. Running a tight 35 minutes but containing a lifetime's worth of drama and insight, Jaime is bracing in its adventure and generosity. Trace elements of Americana can be heard -- there's nary a trace of the rockabilly roar of her ferocious Thunderbitch side project -- but Jaime could never be mistaken for an Alabama Shakes album...  It's slippery, elusive, and sober in its intent, even when its sound is decidedly woozy. Jaime plays the way memories do: specific facts get lost to a truth that gets larger as years pass, where the familiarity can be reassuring yet melancholy. Howard's embrace of all the mess of life gives Jaime its sustenance. Her audacity is apparent upon the first listen, but subsequent spins are profound and nourishing.

The chief songwriter and lead guitarist of the Band, who later moved into film (acting, producing, scoring) and a solo career.
Robbie Robertson - Beautiful Madness from Sinematic
...Throughout the album, Robertson relies on atmosphere, a vibe he builds with swathes of synthesizers, half-spoken, half-sung vocals, in the pocket rhythms, and plenty of tasty licks. Such studio precision has been a hallmark of Robertson's solo work, but Sinematic largely dispenses with darkness, at least sonically speaking... The clean funk and gleaming blues are performed with the expert panache of old pros who enjoy adding grace notes to shopworn chord changes, and that can be almost enough to compensate Robertson singing like he's an actor trying on roles...

Liam Gallagher achieved both fame and notoriety as the lead singer of British rock band Oasis, who hit their commercial peak in the '90s during the height of Brit-pop. Following the breakup of the band, he went on to form Beady Eye, and then began a career as a solo artist.
Liam Gallagher - Meadow from Why Me? Why Not.
Give Liam Gallagher considerable credit for a streak of wry self-awareness. The shrug lying within the title Why Me? Why Not. doesn't read as arrogance, it plays as a joke. Coming from a singer who once sneered at any emotion that came his way, this is a sign of maturity. The album -- his second as a solo artist -- sounds mature, too. Working once again with a bevy of producers headlined by Greg Kurstin and Andrew Wyatt, Gallagher essentially expands upon 2017's cleanly polished As You Were, relying on the same blend of comforting psychedelia and controlled six-string roar. Every song here could trace its musical roots back to Oasis -- there's a cheerful reliance on classically constructed pop tunes and heavy-booted stomps -- but Why Me? Why Not. consciously lacks the abandon that was present in even the band's last records... Granted, Gallagher isn't as potent a personality as he was a quarter-century earlier, but his middle-aged control has its charms, too. He sounds relaxed on Why Me? Why Not., maybe for the first time ever.

New Zealand singer and songwriter who proved highly influential to indie pop for his work in the Clean and as a solo act. From his earliest days as a member of legendary guitar pop trio the Clean through a long-running career as a solo artist, singer/songwriter David Kilgour stands among the most important figures on the New Zealand pop landscape.
David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights - Ngapara from Bobbie's a girl
Both on his own and with his band the Heavy Eights, David Kilgour built up a strong CV of chiming, noisy, and sometimes thickly psychedelic indie rock since the Clean stopped recording (for a while) in the early '90s. On records like 1994's Sugar Mouth or 2004's Frozen Orange, right up to 2014's End Times Undone, he's made thoughtful, tuneful albums that chime warmly as his understated vocals deliver a big, soft punch. It's a formula that has served him well for a long time, but on 2019's Bobbie's a Girl, Kilgour and his band change things up. For one thing, it's mostly an instrumental album, with Tony De Raad and Kilgour's acoustic and electric guitars carrying the main melodic weight, Thomas Bell's bass and Taane Tokona's drums subtly shading the background, and an array of carefully placed keyboards coloring in spaces here and there...

Influential alt country band whose sound evolved into a crisp mix of swing, country, rock and beatnik lyricism.Giant Sand was the primary outlet for the stylistic curveballs and sun-damaged songcraft of Howe Gelb, a Pennsylvania-born singer/guitarist who found his muse in Tucson, Arizona in the '80s. Beginning as a scrappy rock band with a psychedelic bent, Gelb and his rotating band of collaborators matured into a group that combined hard rock guitars and lonesome country twang with a dry, dusty sound that was an ideal match for Gelb's playful lyrical eccentricities.
Giant Sand - Recounting The Ballads Of Thin Line Men from Recounting The Ballads Of Thin Line Men
...A bit less than a year later, Gelb and Giant Sand issued another studio set, Recounting the Ballads of Thin Line Men, and this time they re-cut most of the tunes from the second Giant Sand LP, 1986's Ballad of a Thin Line Man. Even by Gelb's inscrutable standards, re-recording two albums in a row seems like a truly strange move, but Recounting the Ballads of Thin Line Men at least does a better job with this concept than Returns to Valley of Rain. This lineup of Giant Sand -- Gelb on guitar, keys, and vocals, Annie Dolan and Gabriel Sullivan on guitars, Scott Garber and Thøger T. Lund on bass, and Winston Watson on drums -- sounds more broken in and the members more in tune with one another on their second trip to the recording studio...

Seattle area band takes cues from the riot grrrl scene as well as angular early-'90s guitar-based indie rock.Taking cues from both the politics of the riot grrrl scene and the intricate, moody guitar-based sound of early-'90s Pacific Northwestern indie bands like Sleater-Kinney and Autoclave, Chastity Belt balanced smart, edgy music against lyrics that were often filled with goofball wit and feminist satire on their 2013 debut, No Regerts. Principal songwriter Julia Shapiro moved into deeper and more personal themes...
Chastity Belt - Split from Chastity Belt
Chastity Belt haven't really changed that much since they released their first album, No Regerts, in 2013, but the changes they have made mean a great deal. Where they previously sounded at once rough and languid, they've grown into a band whose instrumental interplay is artful without seeming pretentious, and the dry snarky wit that was a large part of their early work has faded into the middle distance as their lyrics explore more personal and introspective themes. 2019's Chastity Belt, the group's self-titled fourth album, is still clearly the work of the same band, but this music doesn't shout, it insinuates, and the tone of the conversation is intelligent and unguarded... Chastity Belt's musical evolution has been a fascinating and rewarding thing to witness, and this may be their smartest and most compelling music to date.

Trio of distortion-loving women become overnight sensations in Brooklyn punk scene. Deriving their name from the ill-fated characters featured in the work of writer/illustrator Henry Darger, the Vivian Girls (not to be confused with the "craft pop" duo of the same name) are a Brooklyn-based trio whose gritty, lo-fi tunes nod to seminal indie pop acts like Black Tambourine, Talulah Gosh, and Tiger Trap.
Vivian Girls - All Your Promises from Memory
The return of the Vivian Girls in 2019 seemingly came out of nowhere. Since they broke up, each member of the group had struck out on her own and forged a path free and clear of the band and their reputation. Their friendship brought them back together to record Memory, and fans of the band and their brand of spooky, hooky noise pop should be glad. The three bandmembers apply the musical growth they experienced in other projects -- Cassie Ramone in the Babies, Katy Goodman in La Sera, and Ali Koehler in Upset -- to this record, and working with producer Rob Barbato, they deliver plenty of songs that add the noise of punk to the sweetness of pop, sounding tough and more focused than ever...

The politically and personally charged synth rock project of former Wild Beasts bassist Tom Fleming. As One True Pairing, former Wild Beasts bassist/vocalist Tom Fleming continues to explore the complexity of masculinity as well as larger issues like class and Brexit's impact on the U.K. On 2019's One True Pairing, Fleming expressed this intersection of the personal and the political with a rough-edged set of songs that combined his rich baritone, anthemic '80s heartland rock and gritty synth pop.
One True Pairing - Blank Walls from One True Pairing
More than many artists, One True Pairing's Tom Fleming is well prepared to explore the complexities of the late 2010s. After all, he already tackled many of these subjects with Wild Beasts, a band who, over the course of five albums, eloquently explored the intersection of the personal and the political. Fleming continues to examine that fraught, inescapable relationship as One True Pairing, and though the name of his solo project comes from Internet fan fiction, his self-titled debut album couldn't be more genuine. In Wild Beasts, Fleming's resounding baritone was the perfect complement to Hayden Thorpe's falsetto as they played with different aspects of sexuality and masculinity. On his own, he sounds rougher, wearier, and more direct as he digs into the ways class and gender shaped the political climate that created Brexit, as well as more timeless conflicts. To express them, he looks back, but not fondly: One True Pairing's anti-nostalgic combination of Reagan and Thatcher-era sounds -- Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Depeche Mode -- helps him tie together nearly four decades' worth of struggle...

Nashville singer/songwriter with a knack for pairing golden-hued, vintage country-pop with contemporary indie Americana.
Andrew Combs - Stars of Longing from Ideal Man
2017's Canyons of the Mind saw Andrew Combs hewing closely to the sepia-toned '70s singer/songwriter architecture of his previous works. Part outlaw and part coffeehouse crooner, Combs' efficacy as a modern countrypolitan torchbearer is on full display with the arrival of Ideal Man, a compelling 11-track set that looks to the cosmic country stylings of Lee Hazlewood for inspiration. Recorded live in the studio in Brooklyn with producer Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby, Benjamin Booker), Ideal Man commences with the fuzzed-out "Stars of Longing," which sees longtime collaborators Dom Billet (drums) and Jerry Bernhardt (guitarist/keyboardist/bassist) laying down a propulsive net of sound that helps elevate Combs' Walt Whitman-esque declaration of self into the upper reaches of the atmosphere...

A New York City-based keyboardist and vocalist whose sound crosses between experimental jazz, psych-pop, and catchy indie rock. An inventive keyboardist and singer, the New York-based Marco Benevento is a broadly inspired performer known for his expansive, psychedelic sound. A graduate of Berklee School of Music, Benevento's musical palette is both deep and wide with roots in modern creative jazz, indie rock, jam band, and post-rock/experimental styles.
Marco Benevento - Nature's Change from Let It Slide
Coming off his 2016 concept album The Story of Fred Short, Marco Benevento offers a slightly more straightforward if no less inventive pop effort, Let It Slide. Produced with Leon Fields & the Expressions' bandmember Leon Michels (who has also worked on such disparate recording projects as Norah Jones, Lady Wray, and his own El Michels Affair), Let It Slide finds Benevento offering songs that straddle the lines between arty indie pop, '70s soft rock, and psychedelic soul. A Berklee College of Music grad with a jazz and creative music background, Benevento has a knack for balancing memorable chorus hooks with a tactile, deeply textured, and analog-brand of instrumentation...

Centered around John MacLean and Nancy Whang, the Juan MacLean were one of the first signees to Brooklyn indie dance behemoth DFA, and they remained one of the label's most consistently first-rate acts without sticking to a predictable formula.
The Juan MacLean -  The Brighter the Light from The Brighter the Light
...The Brighter the Light collects the majority of these tracks (barring a pair of non-DFA releases), and it easily stands up to the act's three strong full-lengths. As expected from a collection of singles by a dance group, this focuses squarely on club burners -- no synth pop ballads or interstitial experiments here... The collection concludes with its title track, a dreamy blend of starry arpeggios and reflective yet buoyant pianos. A magnificent release from an act who have remained DFA's most reliable signing without ever sticking to a tried-and-true formula.

Reid Anderson, Dave King, Craig Taborn, Brittany Howard, Robbie Robertson, Liam Gallagher, David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights, Giant Sand, Chastity Belt, Vivian Girls, One True Pairing, Andrew Combs, Marco Benevento, The Juan MacLean

052 ALTER.NATION weekly favtraX 08-0 9-2019

ALTER.NATION #52

Chrissie Hynde, The Valve Bone Woe Ensemble, Iggy Pop, Frankie Cosmos, Bat For Lashes, Mermaidens, Guaxe, Kendra Amalie, The Comet Is Coming, Chastity Belt, Mikal Cronin, Cigarettes After Sex, Chelsea Wolfe

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"Wild is the Wind"

ALTER.NATION #52 on DEEZER

The lead singer/songwriter and driving force of the Pretenders, Hynde released her solo debut nearly 35 years into her career.

Chrissie Hynde, The Valve Bone Woe Ensemble - Wild is the Wind from Valve Bone Woe
The notion of Chrissie Hynde recording a jazz album initially seems odd, even incongruous. Hynde admitted as much in the promotional cycle for the release of Valve Bone Woe in 2019, calling herself a "devout rock singer," but revealing that the idea of a jazz album appealed to her because she has a "penchant for cover songs." That much is true... Hints of studio trickery are peppered throughout the record, most evident in elongated electronic echoes, and far from seeming out of place, they lend the album a certain sense of hipness; Hynde isn't shutting out the modern world, she's ushering the past into the present. The vibe is appealing and so is Hynde's performance. Unhurried and nuanced, she eases herself into songs she clearly loves, and that sense of warmth lingers long after the album's last notes fade away.

The Godfather of Punk, who began shocking in the late '60s, influencing and (phenomenally) outlasting practically every punk movement to come.
Iggy Pop - James Bond from Free
If you'd been a baker for more than fifty years, you could be forgiven for being sick of the sight of chocolate eclairs. Similarly, a half-century on from the first Stooges album, Iggy Pop has made it clear he's not in love with rock & roll as he once was. Albums such as 2009's Preliminaries and 2012's Après have found him exploring less aggressive and more thoughtful material, and Iggy continues this trend with 2019's Free... While there are electric guitars on most of these numbers, there's little in the way of fuzz or bark, and a ghostly trumpet and waves of atmospheric keyboards play a much bigger role in the arrangements. Iggy had a hand in writing three of the tracks on Free, but most of the songs were penned by his primarily collaborators on this album, trumpeter Leron Thomas and Noveller, who is credited with "guitarscapes."  There are a few playful moments, most notably on the sly and slinky "James Bond...

Prolific solo project turned indie pop band led by the succinct, sweet, and self-conscious tendencies of singer/songwriter Greta Kline.

Frankie Cosmos - Wannago from Close It Quietly

The onetime bedroom project of singer/songwriter Greta Kline, Frankie Cosmos made its debut as a four-piece band dozens of albums later with 2018's Vessel, a release that doubled as the project's Sub Pop debut. A year and a half later, Close It Quietly continues on the path set by that album, with a sound reinforced by input from, as opposed to the mere presence of, bandmates (here, drummer Luke Pyenson, keyboardist Lauren Martin, and bassist Alex Bailey). As with all Frankie Cosmos output, the spotlight remains on Kline's endearingly candid confessions and observations thanks in part also to first-time collaborator Gabe Wax (The War on Drugs, Fleet Foxes, Palehound), who engineered and co-produced the album...

Acclaimed British/Pakastani singer/songwriter with influences that range from Steve Reich to Siouxsie Sioux.Crafting a mystical indie-rock sound that drew comparisons to Kate Bush and Björk, Bat for Lashes is the project of Natasha Khan.
Bat for Lashes - Feel for You from Lost Girls
By the time Bat for Lashes released Lost Girls, the '80s synth pop revival of the 2000s and 2010s had lasted several years longer than the style's original run. More than 30 years later, the magic, hope and romance of that decade's pop culture and music -- especially when contrasted with its threatening political climate -- still resonated. The imaginary '80s of the 21st century heightened the era's theatricality into a dream world capable of expressing the grandest feelings and desires of artists like M83 and, on her fifth album, Natasha Khan... "Feel for You"'s funky rhythm and laser beam synths make it a perfect rollerskating jam...

New Zealand trio whose moody, angular indie rock takes inspiration from post-punk and psychedelic rock as well as dream pop.
Mermaidens - Bastards from Look Me in the Eye
Mermaidens' second album for the Flying Nun label and third overall, Look Me in the Eye was named with a double meaning in mind. Inspired by shifting gender politics, stubborn power structures, and related frustrations, it refers to confrontation as well as intimacy. Continuing to sharpen their increasingly dark, angular sound, the New Zealand trio favor post-punk and psychedelic influences on an album that doesn't completely leave their mix of dream pop, grunge, and other textures behind...

Warm and surreal Brazilian psych-folk duo formed by members of Boogarins and Supercordas. Brazilian indie psych duo Guaxe formed when two like-minded experimental musicians began collaborating in sporadic sessions where they shared their lo-fi production techniques and warm, hazy songwriting, which resulted in their wild and colorful self-titled debut album in 2019.
Guaxe - Desafio do Guaxe from Guaxe
Longtime friends and collaborators Dino Almeida and Pedro Bonifrate knew each other from the fringes of Brazil's music scene, where they made reaching experimental rock sounds with their respective bands Boogarins and Supercordas. Over a series of years, the two friends worked on a new musical project that eventually was named Guaxe after a bird native to the Atlantic forests whose call is naturally surreal. With their self-titled debut, Bonifrate and Almeida's musical connection and friendship emanates through these wild yet warm sounds of homespun psychedelia...

Midwestern musician, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist especially skilled at 12-string acoustic guitar and drifting, cosmic songwriting.
Kendra Amalie - Breathe Underwater from Intuition
As the guiding force behind her band Names Divine, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Kendra Amalie leaned into dark textures and sprawling experimentalism. In the context of that band, her songs were pained and explosive rock, like an early Velvet Underground at their most tortured meeting the cosmic expanse of working-class underground drifters like Major Stars or Bardo Pond. With her first proper solo album, Intuition, Amalie branches out in several different directions while sharpening her sounds at every turn. The album begins with the tense, nearly gothic rocker "Breathe Underwater." Composed of spindly guitars, gigantic drums, and dour vocal harmonies, the overpowering presence of the song buries more subtle details like soft synth countermelodies and glimmering guitar textures...

"Apocalyptic space funk" trio from London, England, signed to the Leaf Label.Identified as Betamax Killer, Danalogue the Conqueror, and King Shabaka -- aliases of drummer Maxwell Hallett, keyboardist Dan Leavers, and saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings -- the Comet Is Coming describe their sound as "apocalyptic space funk," consciously and purposefully melding jazz, funk, electronica, psychedelia, hip-hop, and improvisation.
The Comet Is Coming - Lifeforce Part II
English band the Comet Is Coming released their sophomore album, Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery, back in March... “The Afterlife has been a topic of deep consideration and of the keys to spiritual mythology around the world for millennia,” the band’s keyboardist, who goes by Danalogue, said in a press statement. “The two records can be seen as companions, that cannot exist without each other, like day and night, light and dark, creation and destruction. They were made together, at the same time, and have always been intended to be experienced together.”

Seattle area band takes cues from the riot grrrl scene as well as angular early-'90s guitar-based indie rock.
Chastity Belt - Drown
“I started writing ‘Drown’ back when I was 23 … so almost 6 years ago. It came together with the band a few years later,” Julia Shapiro said in a statement. “It feels good to finally put it out into the world! Everyone’s parts on it are really intricate and thoughtful and overall add to the moodiness of the song.”
“Drown” is a tender swirl, Shapiro’s voice a salve and an escape route. “Believe me,” she sings. “This is the way out/ And doesn’t the water feel good on your skin?”

Creator of clever and idiosyncratic indie pop with a garage rock undertow; frequently collaborates with Ty Segall.
Mikal Cronin - Shelter
This one’s overpowered by fuzzy guitar and really intense string arrangements. The percussion section is multi-layered, creating this dimensional experience that feels expansive. Apparently this approach was calculated, as Cronin was inspired by ambient linchpin Brian Eno. Here’s what Cronin had to say about the track:
"This is a song about searching for answers in an uncertain world. It’s about the observer reluctantly stepping out of their comfort zone and looking around, while trying to keep their head straight. Musically, it’s dense and polyrhythmic. The string line weaves it all together for me. When writing a song with a lot of additive looping rhythmic parts, I think of Brian Eno."

Ambient pop collective Cigarettes After Sex were formed almost accidentally in 2008 by songwriter and bandleader Greg Gonzalez. While living in El Paso, Texas, Gonzalez was experimenting with capturing the spacious sound of recording songs in a four-story stairwell at the University of Texas.
Cigarettes After Sex - Heavenly
Greg Gonzalez released the self-titled debut LP for his ambient pop project Cigarettes After Sex back in 2017. Today, he’s announcing the follow-up sophomore album, Cry, and sharing its dreamy lead single. “Heavenly” recalls the romantic pop music of the late ’50s and early ’60s. Gonzalez sighs over swelling guitars and synths: “I’m giving you all my love.”
The forthcoming album was recorded in a house on the Spanish island of Mallorca with drummer Jacob Tomsky, bassist Randy Miller, and keyboardist Phillip Tubbs. “I’ve always avoided studios,” Gonzalez says. “There’s something special about recording out in the world, some kind of X-factor that comes from the character and atmosphere of wherever it is that you’re working that becomes essential to the feeling of the music.”

Crafting "doom-drenched electric folk," Los Angeles' Chelsea Wolfe grew up in Northern California with a father who had a country band and his own home studio, so she was immersed in music at an early age and began recording herself at age nine; by the time she was in fourth grade, she knew she wanted to be a singer.
Chelsea Wolfe - Deranged For Rock & Roll
“‘Deranged for Rock & Roll’ is my love song to music,” Wolfe says. “Every time I ever tried to walk a different path, music always called me back home to it. It’s in my blood; it’s my one source of true peace. I love its chaos and its rough edges, and I love the way it can bring understanding and comfort. I belong to music, and it to me. I feel Gilbert’s video illustrates that unnamed pull towards something so well. My character is destined to sing the same song over and over in this purgatory of a desert bar, while different people come through the town and begin to feel the pull as well, drawing them into this vortex to stay for good.”

Chrissie Hynde, The Valve Bone Woe Ensemble, Iggy Pop, Frankie Cosmos, Bat For Lashes, Mermaidens, Guaxe, Kendra Amalie, The Comet Is Coming, Chastity Belt, Mikal Cronin, Cigarettes After Sex, Chelsea Wolfe