ALTER.NATION #44
Thom Yorke, The Soft Cavalry, Elephant9, Purling Hiss, Billy Branch, CFM, Prettiest Eyes, 3Teeth, Jesca Hoop, Trash Kit, Necking, Ride
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Thom Yorke - Impossible Knots from ANIMA
... Perhaps the world has turned to meet Yorke on his old stomping ground, but that's where his light touch comes into play. Where he once seemed consumed with dread, Yorke gently argues for the importance of humanity within a cold, alienated world. When he attempts to articulate this stance in his lyrics, he can be a shade direct -- witness how he rails against "goddamned machinery" on "The Axe" -- but his bluntness is softened by the slow, shifting soundscapes that populate ANIMA. Against all odds, Yorke's eerie electronic shimmer doesn't inspire fear so much as console; in this dark time, it's reassuring to hear a human heart beating the digital clutter.
The Soft Cavalry - The Velvet Fog from The Soft Cavalry
Somewhere between shoegaze and synth-pop, tackling frustration, anxiety and confusion, this powerful debut shows it's never too late to follow your dreams
The Soft Cavalry’s eponymous debut is borne out of an old-fashioned love-story. Until 2014, Steve Clarke – the group’s mastermind, lead vocalist and guitarist – was working as a jobbing musician, providing backing vocals for various musicians whilst also balancing work as a tour manager. In 2014, Clarke was asked to work with the newly reformed Slowdive, where he met their vocalist and guitarist, Rachel Goswell. The two married four years later and The Soft Cavalry were born. Goswell, Clarke says, enabled him to finally make his album debut – and it’s been a lifetime in the making.
Elephant9 - Farmer's Secret from Psychedelic Backfire I
After delivering the wonderful but uncharacteristically brief Greatest Show on Earth in 2018, Norway's premier jazz-rock outfit Elephant9 return with two sprawling double-length albums. Psychedelic Backfire I and II are live offerings captured over four nights at Kampen Bistro. The first two nights were presented by the original trio of keyboardist Ståle Storløkken, drummer Torstein Lofthus, and bassist Nikolai Hængsle, while the latter two evenings feature frequent collaborator, guitarist Reine Fiske. On each, the band revisit tunes from their back catalog without overdubs, edits, or corrections of any kind as well as covers.
Purling Hiss - Interstellar Blue
Purling Hiss aren’t letting Fourth Of July celebrations stop them from putting out a fresh tune today. The Philadelphia trip-rockers are putting out their new EP, Interstellar Blue, next week, and today they’re sharing its title track. It comes on the heels of last month’s “Useful Information,” and while the 7-minute jam might not be the ideal soundtrack for your average holiday BBQ, it’s certainly slow and sticky enough to suffice with the weather.
Billy Branch - Roller Coaster from Roots And Branches: The Songs Of Little Walter
Billy Branch earned the throne of king of Chicago Blues harp during the last quarter of the 20th Century, then held it during the first decades of the new millennium. One of the keys to his enduring success is how he didn't merely keep traditions alive, he made sure to blend in elements of funk and soul into Chicago blues, a trick that brought new audiences into the fold while helping the music breathe. In this light, the 2019 album Roots And Branches: The Songs Of Little Walter-recorded with the Sons Of Blues, as nearly all of his albums are-doesn't seem quite so obvious as it might initially appear. Little Walter's influence on Chicago blues in general and harmonicaists in particular is immense, so a tribute album doesn't seem necessarily necessary, yet Branch knows that traditions are kept alive through revivals...
CFM - Black Cat from Soundtrack to an Empty Room
Charles Francis Moothart, a frequent collaborator with Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin, launched his solo project CFM after a painful split with his significant other led him to record a breakup album, 2016's Still Life of Citrus & Slime. 2019 brings a third album from CFM, Soundtrack to an Empty Room, and the good news is Moothart seems to have gotten over his broken heart. That's not to say he's suddenly become a happy guy, though. Soundtrack to an Empty Room is steeped in the darker side of the human experience, and while it seems Moothart had been taking another stab at love, "Greenlight" suggests it's not going any better for him than it has in the past. Despite all that, he isn't bummed out -- he's angry but energized, and he's using his bad mood to fuel a big slab of potent hard rock with a garage punk accent...
Prettiest Eyes - I Don't Know from Vol. 3
If the synth punk revolution heralded by Suicide, the Normal, and the Screamers in the '70s never quite happened, Prettiest Eyes demonstrate that the notion that keyboards can be just as expressively jagged as guitars still lives in the hearts of a handful of brave souls. On the third album from Prettiest Eyes, sensibly titled Vol. 3, Paco Casanova's keys and electronics dominate the arrangements, and he takes their harsh sounds and runs them through enough reverb and processing that they sound like a journey through a nightmare-inducing aural funhouse...
3Teeth - Altaer from Metawar
On their third campaign to open the public's eyes to the ills of modern society, Los Angeles industrial anarchists 3Teeth expand the scope of their assault with the powerful Metawar, a hulking monster that makes shutdown.exe sound tame in comparison. Uncovering all the sins that America has to offer, the band pulls no punches, delivering their typically subversive and unflinching messages with beefed-up sound quality courtesy of producer Sean Beavan...
Jesca Hoop feat. Lucius - Free of the Feeling from Stonechild
Following two albums for Sub Pop that included a collaboration with Iron & Wine's Sam Beam (Love Letter for Fire) and the Blake Mills-produced Memories Are Now, Jesca Hoop continues to expand and sharpen her distinctive indie folk on her Memphis Industries debut, Stonechild. It was recorded with longtime PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish, who has also produced albums for the likes of Jenny Hval, Aldous Harding, and This Is the Kit. The latter's Kate Stables and Rozi Plain are among the guests on Stonechild, a set that puts a premium on chromatic melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, and spare arrangements to the point of sometimes evoking Renaissance vocal music...
Trash Kit - Disco from Horizon
anthems to open the mind and loosen the limbs
Being in Trash Kit always looked like it ruled for Aggs, drummer Rachel Horwood and bassist Gill Partington (who replaced former member Ros Murray of Electrelane). The band daubed their faces with neon and pogoed at a dance party in the video for the 2010 anthem Cadets, a spirit that remained when their later music fleshed out their abbreviated, scrapbook-like songs.
That feeling of exuberance permeates Horizon’s centrepiece, Disco, a galloping seven-minute instrumental track on which circular guitar patterns morph, shift and spin gloriously off their axis to give way to James Chance-esque saxophone. Yet the album also makes known that Trash Kit’s celebrations have been hard won.
Necking - No Playtime from Cut Your Teeth
In that exemplary rock & roll movie The Music Man, Professor Harold Hill teaches a group of aspiring young musicians to play by using "the Think System," where they master an instrument by simply thinking about a song to play on it for an extended period. Vancouver's Necking have managed something similar -- they spent months telling people that they were a punk rock band, and even though it started out as a joke, they not only became a for-real group, they happen to be a good one to boot. Necking sounded rough but very promising on their debut EP, 2017's Meditation Tape, and they've raised their game considerably on their full LP, 2019's Cut Your Teeth, sounding tougher, tighter, and more emphatic than on their first go-round.
Acclaimed indie band from Oxford that produced several records of powerful noise pop, driven by their keen sense of songcraft and dynamics.
Ride - Future Love
...Ride have just announced that they’ll release a new album called This Is Not A Safe Place this summer. And they’ve also shared the first single, a hazy and contemplative new song called “Future Love.”
Ride recorded This Is Not A Safe Place with Weather Diaries producer Erol Alkan. Old shoegaze hand Alan Moulder mixed the album with Caesar Edmunds. “Future Love” is a grand, gooey, melodic number with some nice chorus harmonies and a little acoustic-guitar twang in the mix. There’s plenty of effects-pedal roar in the song, but the song isn’t built around those sounds. Of the new song, Andy Bell says, “‘Future Love’ is a song about the beginning of a relationship, when everything feels possible.”
Thom Yorke, The Soft Cavalry, Elephant9, Purling Hiss, Billy Branch, CFM, Prettiest Eyes, 3Teeth, Jesca Hoop, Trash Kit, Necking, Ride
