ALTER.NATION #35
Esperanza Spalding, Jamila Woods, Carlton Jumel Smith, Death and Vanilla, Maps, HÆLOS, Clinic, Nots, Daddy Long Legs, Mac Demarco, Steve Moore
weekly favtraX
12-05-2019
Singer and instrumentalist Esperanza Spalding established herself as a wildly flourishing talent in the '00s.
Esperanza Spalding -
12 Little Spells (thoracic spine) from 12 Little Spells
Coming off her inventive 2016 album Emily's D+Evolution, singer/bassist Esperanza Spalding offers another highly-conceptualized production with 2019's kaleidoscopically tactile 12 Little Spells. Where Spalding's previous work was a built around a central character, here, she offers twelve songs each explicitly inspired by a separate body part, such as the mouth, eyes, fingers, and yet more esoteric parts like the "solar portal." Joining her on this tactile journey of sensation are longtime associates guitarist Matthew Stevens and drummer Justin Tyson. Together they craft deeply ambient, intricately constructed songs that fall yet further afield of the crossover jazz, fusion, and R&B that garnered Spalding so much of her early praise...
Singer and songwriter, as well as a poet and activist, who naturally applies the latter two outlets to her modern, soul-rooted R&B.
Jamila Woods -
MILES / MUDDY
MILES - This feels more like a character study than other tracks on the album, like you’re stepping into the shoes of Miles Davis.
“Miles” felt like a persona poem, where you learn about the author through the lens that they choose to take. I used to love writing persona poems; I once wrote one from the voice of a pigeon.
MUDDY - This feels like the most overt tribute on the album, because you’re singing about what Muddy Waters did—not to him, not as him.
Yeah, that’s true. I wrote this song after the poet Kevin Colville asked me to cover a poem of his, which starts with: “Motherfuckers won’t shut up.” Then it explains how Muddy Waters originally decided to play electric guitar in Chicago because people were talking too loud in the bar. I thought the poem was super dope but I didn’t know that much about Muddy Waters, so I watched all of these interviews with him.
Harlem-born soul singer, songwriter, producer, and actor who played James Brown in Liberty Heights.
Carlton Jumel Smith -
Help Me (Save Me from Myself) from 1634 Lexington Avenue
...1634 Lexington Avenue is his debut long-player for Finland's premier indie soul label, Timmion, and his first full-length since 2008. The title reflects Smith's childhood address. He is backed by Helsinki's Cold Diamond & Mink, Timmion's production team and studio band led by guitarist/organist Seppo Salmi, bassist Sami Kantelinen, and drummer Jukka Sarapää. The horn section includes arranger/trumpeter Jukka Eskola, Pope Puolitaival on baritone sax, and global jazz-funk saxophonist Jimi Tenor, with Janne Auvinen on congas and Tuomo Prättälä on organ, piano, and background vocals filling...
Swedish duo who worship the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and also own a lot of Broadcast albums.
Death and Vanilla -
Nothing Is Real
Sweden's Death And Vanilla have shared new song 'Nothing Is Real' - tune in now.
The band's catalogue has built up a singular identity, a kind of retro-futurist psychedelia that dwells upon eerie and uncanny climes.
New album 'Are You A Dreamer?' will be released on May 10th, released digitally, on CD, and on two different vinyl pressings - crystal clear and a deluxe limited pink transparent wax.
New song 'Nothing Is Real' lifts its title from 'Strawberry Fields Forever', and it opens with a spooked out Joe Meek style twanging reverb guitar line.
Evolving into a curious psych-pop nugget, 'Nothing Is Real' underlines the otherworldly, almost impossible to define charm that drives Death And Vanilla.
Sound sculptor James Chapman combines sleepy indie rock song structures with touches of electronic.
Maps -
New Star from Colours. Reflect. Time. Loss.
Under the name Maps, British musician James Chapman has sculpted a trio of dramatic albums whose electro-shoegaze hybrid seems to skirmish back and forth between its organic and synthetic factions. A veteran of the Mute Records roster since his Mercury Prize-nominated 2007 debut, We Can Create, Chapman has spent over a decade transmuting influences like Spiritualized, My Bloody Valentine, and Ulrich Schnauss into his own pleasing concoction of atmospheric indie rock which, more often than not, trends toward pop melodicism. Following a 2016 detour that saw him pair up with similarly ethereal counterpart Polly Scattergood as the duo ondeadwaves, he returns to Maps with a renewed sense of grandeur on the lush and orchestral Colours. Reflect. Time. Loss. Ambitious as he was on earlier releases, Chapman was often thought of as a bedroom pop producer, extracting a widescreen sound from small screen foundations. On this deeply collaborative set, he steps firmly onto a bigger stage, working with classical ensemble the Echo Collective and an array of guests to create his most sweeping, cinematic work to date...
U.K. trio with a love of '90s trip-hop and seductive, hypnotizing soundscapes that they've dubbed "dark euphoria."
Hælos -
Buried in the Sand
...appears to be changing: HÆLOS are back with a new single called “Buried In The Sand” and a promise of more new music to follow in 2019. The trio has now expanded to a four-piece, with original members Lotti Bernadout, Arthur Delaney, and Dom Goldsmith officially joined by their one-time touring member Daniel Vildósola. “Buried In The Sand” maintains the nocturnal textures of Full Circle, and the same subtle attention to sonic detail that made their debut so rewarding. Built on a clattering beat and ghostly vocal turns from various members, it’s also a reminder of how good this band is at depicting internal, psychological tension. Here’s what HÆLOS had to say about the new song and their approach to working on their forthcoming album...
Liverpool-based art punk band distinguished by its chugging rhythms, an inventive cut-up approach to arrangements, and the acidic vocals of Ade Blackburn.
Clinic -
Laughing Cavalier
Clinic's forthcoming Wheeltappers and Shunters album is their first since 2012's Free Reign.
They recorded the album at founding member Jonathan Hartley's Liverpool studio, before recruiting Dilip Harris (King Krule, Sons Of Kemet, Mount Kimbie) to mix the album.
The group's Ade Blackburn says of the new record, "It’s a satirical take on British culture - high and low. It fascinates me that people look back on the 1970s as the glory days. It’s emerged that there was a darker, more perverse side to that time. When you look back on it now it was quite clearly there in mainstream culture."
Self-proclaimed "weird punk" band who deliver fast, aggressive tunes with a side portion of jagged noise.
Nots -
Floating Hands
Feedback opens the track and underscores the majority of the song with little fluctuation. As the track builds, bitter and visceral raucous keys carve up any room not filled with that buzzing sensation. The vocals get more desperate, the melody revs up in speed and intensity all while descending into a disjointed cadence. Whirling alien-like synth tones spiral through the air as the reverb doused kick drum outpaces the repetition of the song’s title.
Intense, wild, and wailin’ blues-punk from the St. Louis/Brooklyn trio. Fronted by the tall, lean harp-blowin' Missourian vocalist Daddy Long Legs -- from whom the band derives its name -- this raw and energetic outfit's lo-fi sound is positively dripping with the blues
Daddy Long Legs - Pink Lemonade
from Lowdown Ways
Brooklyn, NY-based trio DADDY LONG LEGS-Brian Hurd (vocals, harmonica, guitar), Murat Akturk (slide guitar), Josh Styles (drums, maraca) will make their Yep Roc Records debut May 10, with Lowdown Ways, their third studio album... the album features 12 original compositions with songwriting contributions from JD McPherson and Sutton. A new direction from their first two studio albums (released by Norton Records), Lowdown Ways sees the boys widen their sonic horizons with field hollers, gospel, Cajun, and Mississippi Hill Music, coupled with their renowned supercharged, harp-driven R&B bangers.
Indie icon with a unique style that moves between jangly warped pop and glassy-eyed late-night reflections on youth.
Mac DeMarco -
All of Our Yesterdays from Here Comes the Cowboy
...His fourth official album and inaugural release on Mac's Record Label (what else would he call it?) arrives as somewhat of a conundrum. Here Comes the Cowboy isn't really about cowboys, nor does it have a particularly country-inspired feel. Growing up in prairie-bound Edmonton, he chafed against the cowboy image adopted by the jocks and bullies of his youth and only later adopted the term "cowboy" as a semi-affectionate slang term among his friends. With its camera phone happy-face button cover and minimalist production, Here Comes the Cowboy is a mixed bag of a record beset by an overall aimlessness where some crafty low-key gems have to share the bus with a few inane clunkers that probably should have stayed in the vault.
Co-founder of Pittsburgh horror-prog duo Zombi as well as a prolific film composer, dance music producer, and solo artist.
Steve Moore -
Beloved Exile from
Beloved Exile
...After devoting a large chunk of the 2010s to writing scores for actual horror films (the best of which remains 2016's exemplary The Mind's Eye), Beloved Exile is Moore's first proper solo album since 2013's Spectrum Spools-issued Pangaea Ultima. Immediately, the album feels like one of the most spiritually informed works he's ever produced. Opener "Your Sentries Will Be Met with Force" features the enchanting vocals of Tunisian singer Emel Mathlouthi, who adds a sublime new dimension to Moore's glowing, pulsating electronics. On much of the rest of the album, Moore is joined by master harpist Mary Lattimore... Beloved Exile contains some of Moore's most meditative music, while also maintaining the fantasy element present throughout his work.
Esperanza Spalding, Jamila Woods, Carlton Jumel Smith, Death and Vanilla, Maps, HÆLOS, Clinic, Nots, Daddy Long Legs, Mac Demarco, Steve Moore
