ALTER.NATION #117 (11trx 44m)
Virginia Wing, slowthai, R+R=Now, Django Django, Rat Columns, Claud, The Moons, Mush
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"M o o n Tu r n T i d e s"
Virginia Wing - private LIFE / Moon Turn Tides / 99 North
Virginia Wing stunned with 2018's Ecstatic Arrow, and on private LIFE, the heights they reach are only slightly less surprising. Wisely, they don't try to recapture Arrow's magic. Alice Merida Richards and Samuel Pillay are too creatively restless to do that, and so is the music on their fourth album. Where Ecstatic Arrow's galvanizing strength and serenity made a wide, radiant arc, private LIFE rustles and shimmers like a sound sculpture... This unrepentantly unsettled, searching feel makes private LIFE a little less immediate than Ecstatic Arrow, but as they lean into the more experimental side of their music, Virginia Wing share a rich inner life that reveals more with each listen.
Recorded during their month-long residency at New York's Blue Note in 2018, Live finds the all-star collective R+R=Now further expanding their vibrant fusion of post-bop jazz, hip-hop, and R&B. Led by keyboardist Robert Glasper, R+R=Now also features trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, saxophonist/synth-player/vocoder vocalist Terrace Martin, keyboardist Taylor McFerrin, bassist Derrick Hodge, and drummer Justin Tyson. Live was captured the same year the group released their debut album, Collagically Speaking, and features some of the same songs... Boldly contemporary, but informed by a deep love of vintage jazz-funk traditions, Live perfectly capture's R+R=Now's cosmic, genre-bending vibes.
On his Top Ten-charting debut full-length, Nothing Great About Britain, slowthai addressed topics concerning Brexit-era England, particularly the widening wage gap and the struggle of the working class. .. His second album is titled after his given first name, and it focuses on the rapper's own complex personality, exposing his inner conflicts and embracing his flaws and contradictions... On the tense, chilling "45 SMOKE," he states that people refer to him as "Satan's son,"... While slowthai has always been praised for his honesty, he reveals more of himself on Tyron than before, and it's equally as compelling as the sharp social commentary of his debut.
U.K. quartet Django Django have been honing their peculiar strain of art-pop since the beginning of the 2010s, weaving together bits of angular surf guitar, glowing synths, and rich vocal harmonies with a strong electronic undercurrent. Over three previous albums, their ability to absorb multiple eclectic styles (new wave, modern psych, Krautrock minimalism) and compress them into something new has made them a consistently interesting band. A decade into their career, Django Django return with Glowing in the Dark, their fourth album together... There is more diverse fare as well, like the dramatic prog-pop of "Night of the Buffalo" with its soaring string coda courtesy of Syd Arthur member Raven Bush and the lush... As a whole, Glowing in the Dark is a mostly solid, well-built album with enough standouts to keep it fresh without venturing too far out of the group's wheelhouse.
Rat Columns - Pacific Kiss / Athens / She's Coming Home
David West wears enough musical hats to fill a small haberdashery -- under his own name, Total Control, and Liberation, to name a few -- and Rat Columns is his outlet for guitar-heavy, super hooky, melodic indie rock and pop. Previous albums have been sludgy or epic or tilted closer to the off-kilter pop of his solo work; 2021's Pacific Kiss is the group's most immediate and satisfying yet. West and a small band recorded the basic tracks in Brooklyn, then headed to Australia where old mate Mikey Young pitched in to mix the record and add a few heavy guitar solos.... Seeing David West's name attached to a band is basically all the information one needs to know it's going to be something good, and this time around it's on something that verges on greatness.
Claud - Super Monster / Cuff Your Jeans
Kicking off their recording career as half of collegiate duo Toast in 2018, Chicago native Claud Mintz soon went solo, making a warm and vulnerable brand of indie pop with a playful bent as Claud. Deciding to pursue music full-time and attracted to the sizable queer scene of New York City, Claud left school, put down roots in Brooklyn, and was quickly offered tour slots in support of acts including the Neighbourhood and Girlpool... Ultimately landing like a skill set in progress more than an artist fully formed, Super Monster is nevertheless sweet and full of winsome promise.
The Moons - Pocket Melodies / Riding Man (Instrumental)
Marking their return from a six-year recording hiatus, Pocket Melodies is the fourth full-length from the Moons, an English group whose musical touchstones include the British Invasion, psychedelia, and garage rock of the '60s as well as later soft rock, power pop, and Brit-pop inspirations... There's little if anything worth skipping on Pocket Melodies despite its generous length, and it makes for a noteworthy debut for Crofts' own Colorama Records label.
Mush - Lines Redacted / Lines Discontinued
Leeds four-piece Mush continue to direct their loose, angular, post-punk-injected grievances at the unsavory sociopolitical landscape on their second album, Lines Redacted. Following their full-length debut, 2020's 3D Routine, by a year, it returns that album's Lee Childs to the producer's chair as well as matching its relatively generous 12 tracks. What's a little different this time is the relentless churn of similar riffs and meandering, duo-guitar connective tissue that makes Lines Redacted a tenser, more-frustrated (and frustrating) experience...
Virginia Wing, R+R=Now, slowthai, Django Django, Rat Columns, Claud, The Moons, Mush
