ALTER.NATION #67
Field Music, Hamerkop, Beach Slang, Gay Meat, Nicole Bus, The Orielles, Jeff Parker, Jim Noir, Poppy, Kvelertak, Troy Sanders, Guided by Voices, Sore Eros
Field Music, Hamerkop, Beach Slang, Gay Meat, Nicole Bus, The Orielles, Jeff Parker, Jim Noir, Poppy, Kvelertak, Troy Sanders, Guided by Voices, Sore Eros
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"Best Kept Garden"
ALTER.NATION #67 on DEEZER
Field Music - Making a New World / Best Kept Garden
war stories with disco-pop sensibilities
The Brewis brothers’ concept album about the impact of the first world war brings left-field pop to topics ranging from skin grafts to period shame
This 40-minute, 19-song cycle about the aftermath of the first world war isn’t the most obvious commercial follow-up to Field Music’s glorious 2018 Top 30 album, Open Here. In fact, Making a New World was originally a commission for performances in the Imperial War Museum, but Peter and David Brewis felt proud enough of the resulting songs to release them as a concept album. The opening two short instrumentals evoke artillery fire on either side of the armistice: there are percussion sounds like falling bombs and mournful, Erik Satie-like pianos and eerie near-silences...
Hamerkop is a pair of Baltimore-based sound nerds, one of whom hails from Christchurch. Annabel Alpers (formerly of Bachelorette) is a composer, singer and instrumentalist; Adam Cooke is a
Hamerkop – The Splendour That Was Rome
“We Can Wing” was our introduction to Hamerkop — the Baltimore-based duo of Annabel Alpers (Bachelorette) and Adam Cooke — and the lead single from the band’s forthcoming Drag City debut album Remote. Upon its release in November I called it “a blinding shimmer of a song.” On Hamerkop’s new single out today, the duo shows how versatile their approach can be even as they maintain a firm grasp on their aesthetic.
The new one, “The Splendour That Was Rome,” exists in the same bleary, fantastical universe. But in contrast to its predecessor’s motorik vibes, this one is a measured thump that recedes into shapeless float and then comes pounding back. There’s a bit of kaleidoscopic Person Pitch-era Panda Bear in it, but also maybe something like Wye Oak’s stately indie experiments?...
Beach Slang - The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City / Stiff
Veteran songwriter James Alex built his band Beach Slang from teenage nostalgia and wonder-struck earnestness, wrapping heart-on-sleeve sentiments in hooks borrowed directly from the Replacements. Alex would be the first to admit an obsession with the 'Mats, and he channeled their rugged blue collar pop into his own idealistic and catchy albums. Loud guitars, racing heartbeats, and youthful excitement encapsulated the best Beach Slang moments, and third album Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City pushes those elements even further...
Gay Meat - One Word AK
Gay Meat is a new solo endeavor from Museum Mouth leader Karl Kuehn. Today, he’s releasing his first single under the name, “One Word AK,” as he works on finishing the project’s debut album... The song is itchy and anxious, as Kuehn sings about giving too much upfront and not getting enough in response. “You’re the one word answer king,” he sings. “Watch me roll on the ground/ Break my spine, hear the sound of it crack straight in half/ Under the weight of what I dream is your calf.”
Nicole Bus - Kairos / You
The winding career of gospel- and soul-powered singer and songwriter Nicole Bus was established with a couple competition wins in her native Netherlands, advancement to the quarterfinals of The Voice of Holland, and her 2009 recorded debut... Her first single for the label, "You," shot to the top of Billboard's Adult R&B Songs chart in 2019. Wrapped in layers of nostalgia, the hit samples the Charmels' Isaac Hayes/David Porter-written 1967 single "As Long as I've Got You" like Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M" did in 1993, and Bus echoes the chorus of the original out of devotion, adding her own timestamp only with references to modern pop-cult heartthrobs... On her subsequent third LP, Bus seizes this opportune moment, or kairos, as the ancient Greeks identified it, and goes a little further to secure her place in the throwback R&B continuum. Apart from TL Cross, who produces a couple tracks and assists on another, Bus works strictly with Needlz...
The Orielles - Space Samba (Disco Volador Theme)
...The appealingly lively “Space Samba (Disco Volador Theme)” is five minutes of sleek, danceable music drawing from disco, tropicalia, loungey psychedelia, and of course, samba...
Jeff Parker - Go Away
Tortoise’s Jeff Parker has a new album out this month with his backing band the New Breed, an ensemble whose wide-ranging contributors include Makaya McCraven, Rob Mazurek, and Nate Walcott among others... Parker considers this new one a companion of sorts to 2016’s The New Breed, which he says “became a kind of tribute to my father who he passed away while I was making the album. It’s named for a clothing store he owned when I was a kid.”... It’s a breathless uptempo adventure called “Go Away.”...
Jim Noir - A.M Jazz / Beatheart
After making a record that eschewed his usual junkshop electronics-meets-the Beatles sound in favor of something guitar-oriented and very Beatlesque on 2014's Finnish Line, Jim Noir returned to a more familiar sound on 2019's AM Jazz. Working with an array of old synths and whatever instruments were lying about his studio, he's crafted a melancholy take on his trademark sound that folds in very pillowy synths, soft rock vocal harmonies, and loads of atmosphere...
Poppy - I Disagree / Anything Like Me
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...
Kvelertak - Crack Of Doom (Feat. Mastodon’s Troy Sanders)
...“Crack Of Doom” has lyrics written entirely in English, which is a new thing for Kvelertak; they usually record in Norwegian. And the track features contributions from members of two American metal institutions. Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, probably the best heavy-music producer working now, recorded the entire album at his God City studios in Massachusetts. And the track features guest-vocals from Mastodon bassist, singer, co-leader, and all-around swamp-monster Troy Sanders. It’s a vast, arena-sized rager of a song, and it will help you get through your morning if you have any metal in your heart at all...
Guided By Voices - Volcano
The first — but definitely not the last — Guided By Voices album of the decade is officially on the way... Surrender Your Poppy Field comes out next month; the title of the album is a reference to “Surrender Dorothy,” the Wicked Witch’s Of The West’s skywritten message from the 1939 movie version of The Wizard Of Oz. And today, Guided By Voices are giving us a first taste in the form of lead single “Volcano,” a catchy little slice of fuzzy rock goodness.
Sore Eros - Sore Eros / Ocean Tow
While the exploratory, psychedelic lo-fi of Sore Eros took root in the early 2000s as the D.I.Y. endeavor of frontman Robert Robinson, the project moved from CD-Rs to small labels and expanded its lineup by 2009's Second Chants... Five years later, the self-titled Sore Eros is a more coherent set of the songs that plays like an evolution from records like Second Chants and 2010's Know Touching more than its predecessor, with some key collaborators contributing to its roaming, sometimes Dead-provoked ruminations. An at-least-partly improvisational set that sounds very much like the collaborative work of a band, it was helmed in the studio by none other than Adam Granduciel of the War of Drugs, who produced, engineered, mixed, and encouraged the making of the album. Former Drugs member Kurt Vile, a longtime collaborator of Robinson's, joins the four-piece on a few tracks, as does Supreme Dicks' Dan Oxenberg, and Granduciel lends a hand throughout. ..
Field Music, Hamerkop, Beach Slang, Gay Meat, Nicole Bus, The Orielles, Jeff Parker, Jim Noir, Poppy, Kvelertak, Troy Sanders, Guided by Voices, Sore Eros
