<NEWMUSICFRIDAY> all the releases you need to buzz through
the rest of the week and straight into the weekend (and possibly next week too) -- it's jam-packed
LUMP - Animal [LP/CD/CS](Chrysalis)
Laura Marling frees up the music composition to Mike Lindsay of TUNNG (whose 2020's "Dead Club" was an underrated beauty.) As a result, Marling finds multiple melodies as a vocalist, occasionally singing with herself (the luminous "We Cannot Resist.") The bubbling, burbling beds make fertile ground for Marling to weave and then interweave pensive lyrics that are thought-provoking and still playful. "Animal" is most enticing as it spills over early and grinds to a halt on Marling's wild harmonic vocalizing. As the tumble-down drums cease, it somehow picks up even stronger. Lump is beginning to take shape as one of those projects that is going to push both members in fantastic new directions.
LANTLOS - Wildhund [LP/CD](Prophecy GER/AMPED)
On the first Lantlos album in seven years, their Blackgaze music is alive and well. However, "Wildhund" is a strangely mature Metal album. Markus Siegenhorst, though clearly not after commercial acceptance, may have found his way toward it by working so hard to make a maximal Metal record that tops its predecessor "Melting Sun." While that "Sun" was ambitious with its blend of sludgy riffs and clean vocals, "Wildhund" abandons it all to sound foreign and uncertain. Songs twinkle in before launching into powerful riffs ("Lich") or even flirt with Hip-Hop and voice manipulation that melts into Electronics ("IDONTKNOW.") However, "Lake Fantasy" is the blueprint for a Mainstream/Alternative Rock radio hit. Massive beats, an incredible riff drop, and those shoegazer vocals tuned into full focus (doubled here for maximum coverage) make it the best possible invitation to a great album.
KING WOMAN - Celestial Blues [LP/CD](Relapse/The Orchard)
MIDWIFE - Luminol [LP/CD] (The Flenser)
A pair of releases that on their surface would seem distant and far away from each other. King Woman’s blackened Gothic metal and Midwife’s hazy almost-Slowcore slice of gauzy Shoegaze. However, played together and you link them as bold women doing all they can to find the truth.
Madeline Johnston enlists three members of DIIV plus others to dig deep into the pain of living in this world of loss and how even personal sequestration only brings on more agony and pushes the goal of inner peace farther away. Her beautiful music (dubbed by Johnston as “Heaven Metal”) only partially obscures real anguish on “God Is A Cop” and “Enemy.” When you arrive at her conclusion on “Christina’s World,” the disconnection feels permanent.
King Woman’s second album for Relapse (her first EP “Doubt” was on The Flenser) is a bloodletting leading to the (hopeful) end of all pain. Kristina Esfandari is a star in the making holding your attention with every grimace, whisper and death-rattling shriek. Mind and body are drawn and quartered by the spiritual quest underway here. Her band buzzes behind her in the deadly quiet and rains down rage-soaked riffs as she screams. This deathly dark Gothic/Doom Metal also finds a way to be both frightening and melodic - as if Esfandari and King Woman want a beauty like “Morning Star” to reverberate in your skull so that you never forget the message here.
WOMBO - Blossomlooksdownuponus [LP/CD](Fire Talk/Redeye)
TANGENTS - Timeslips and Chimeras [LP](Temporary Residence)
While rhythm is what governs a great song, here are two new bands who surprise with their abilities to let it govern nearly everything. Wombo is a unique trio from Louisville, KY who sound like if Deerhoof listened to a lot more Minutemen. Songs weirdly feel normal, but reach for their artsy peaks in different ways. Wombo can sound tough (the Pixies-with-keyboard magic of “Overwhelming” and its rhythmic flip,) new wave (the oft-kilter “Sad World”,) post-rock (the weird completion of “Black Hole Sun II,”) and even slightly vulnerable (the balladeering of “Blossom Bear” over terse rhythms.) A promising debut from a soon-to-be-undefinable band.
Australia’s Tangents specialize in improvised pieces that sound like meditative “In A Silent Way” Miles pieces played over insistent acoustic/electronic rhythms that push hard like Drum N’Bass sometimes. “Timeslips” has a lot of dense atmospheres to unfurl. Tracks like “Vessel” are brash drum-wise and then smoothed out thanks to warm keys. “Survival” works in a pair of tense polyrhythms that welcome the heavy oscillations and wavering pitch bends of the keyboard. Finally, even the slowest cuts (“Bylong”) develop into driving beats that make you think of Tortoise and Can but never forget this really improvised ambient Jazz.
Various Artists - CHANGUI: THE SOUND OF GUANTANAMO [3CD](Petaluma/AMPED)
Cuban music generally has two dominant aspects that must "dance" together with the same connection and force you to see in a pair of whirling humans: the not-just-consistent but insistent rhythm (and its polyrhythmic "force") must be right up front, mixed to be unavoidable, and the call and harmonious response. The latter is a unique mixture of what is raw and sweet. When it is done right, you will never turn it off. Pair that with some tough, muscular rhythms and you have this beautiful selection of music from Guantanamo. These are songs of celebration. Even at their most rough or even cleanly recorded, "Changui" is a thing of beauty. On several songs, you may want to hear the brassy repartee of horns or a chanting chorus. However, "Changui" is fine as it is and has been since 1945 - Folk-based music that will literally propel you to moving.
TUBS - Names EP [7”](Trouble In Mind)
Members of Joanna Gruesome revisit Jangle Pop circa ‘86 on this sweet four-song EP. “Two Person Love” is a strange but enchanting combination of Richard Thompson, Cleaners From Venus, and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Like all great Eighties singles, you can spin it around and around again - it never loses its ebullience. Tubs quite simply find that pocket quickly and never lose their grip on their Pop power. “Illusion” flips around its Beatlesque/Big Star chording in the verse until the final repetitive release of Owen Williams singing “Just an illusion/Is it just an illusion” repetitively makes you anticipate the fade into applause that should follow as we return to their clever 60’s TV show.
SAM MEHRAN - Cold Brew [LP/CD](Weird World/Domino/Redeye)
As the founder of Test Icicles and collaborator with many, the loss of Sam Mehran hits hard when you listen to these SynthPop instrumentals. Highly melodic and well-arranged, “Cold Brew” is full of fun moments of Mehran clearly following his inspirations. The title cut busts out some powerful live drums and fuzz bass which quickly become Mehran’s most consistent instruments. The standout “Loungy” uses that same big beat but Mehran’s chord changes color the mood of the song and then it throws into a Punk-y ending. While “Cold Brew” musically follows the “Chillwave” compositional theory in places, it is surprisingly formed like a library music record. The hooks are dominant (“70”) and well developed over time. It is a joyous listen that will leave you sad when it finishes. Thank you Sam.
BATSAUCE - Wolf's Clothing [LP](Full Plate/Fatbeats)
Recorded and mixed in places as far away as Berlin and Vietnam, Batsauce nails that motif of the simplest Hip-Hop and how beats borrow from Jazz. "Wolf's Clothing" is a very Madlib-oriented journey into old sounds. However, the manipulation here is different. Batsauce is content to quickly find the groove ("Hydrogen Jukebox") and just let it ride with a few stops and bumps. "Wolf's Clothing" uses its resources very well finding banging beats and basslines to pair with neatly interspersed instruments that loop rather than riff. The guitars swing, the saxes sing and we all follow along.
PINK SKULL - “Taki Chrome/Strummer Maxx” [7”](Hoga Nord)
In what I dub “Post-Punk Dub,” Pink Skull makes bleeping-yet-bass heavy propulsive dance music on “Taki Chrome” before giving you the B-side “Strummer Maxx” as an On-U digital synth/Dub “Nightclubbing”-esque instrumental chillout conclusion.
BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND - At Last! EP [LP](Transgressive/PIAS)
Before she started making beautiful New Age music and sculpting her songs with her elegant waver, BG-C made a very Pop/Rock EP that sounded like Joan Armatrading. Given that this is a completely different musical setting than you may be used to, it takes some adaptation. She comes out tough on "Montreal Main (The Buddha In The Palm,)" but if you listen to the lyrics you can still hear her guiding philosophy above the slap bass. Things settle down after this and Glenn-Copeland finds power within the swaying "Onward and Upward" and subsequently releases it on the sweeping ballad "Where There's Love." Again, this is totally different framework than the beauty of "Keyboard Fantasies" coming six years later. However, listening to her voice wrap around these Pop songs is its own adventure.
HOLLY MACVE - Not The Girl [CD](BFD)
Bristol's Macve has a generous touch when it comes to writing songs that borrow from Seventies Pop to make modern Country. "Not The Girl" is about two steps away from being the next Mazzy Star album. However, for all its slow beats and languid melodies, Macve makes a real star turn as a singer and songwriter. "Bird" is amazingly simple, but soars on her voice. Accompanied by piano on "Eye of the Storm," Macve shows her vocal dexterity. The breezy "Be My Friend" is dreamy, and "Daddy's Gone" is a real lump-in-the-throat moment where Macve exposes her vulnerability. "Not The Girl" demonstrates both presence and presence of mind for Macve. It should be all over AAA radio right now.
JEF GILSON AND MALAGASY - Malagasy [LP](Souffle Continu FR/Forced Exposure)
First, here at Forced Exposure, the brilliant Byron Coley has written a fascinating summary of how this release came together. As I could never match that piece of reportage, I can only say that in the early Seventies a very Trad record like this would have never received attention. The arrangements of the horns alone on the very Oliver Nelson-esque “Avaradoha” are breathtaking. Cross-breeding the native percussive music of Madagascar with straight Jazz is inspirational. “Chant Inca” features a beautiful battle between a wailing sax and a Madagascarian xylophone. While the band cooks, these melodies, various percussion, and a distant voice make this workout even more feverish. As the French group digs deeper into their jazz motifs (the flute and humming through in on “Sodina,”) the local players catch on to the modal runs. Then, Gilson lets them hear Pharoah Sanders and there is a 12-minute version of “The Creator Has A Master Plan” that is jawdropping.
GEWISSEN [LP](Low Company UK)
Instrumental records are supposed to be mysterious. Without the words to guide your thoughts, the best ones need to bring forth a panoply of sounds that revolve around your head. Then, when it is finished, your recognition of how to describe it - should be challenged. Gewissen is a true rule breaker. Quiet and unassuming, this is "head" music that needs time to find its way to your overstimulated brain. "lynx + untitled" comes closest to being meditative, even tossing in a thought-provoking drone synth as well. "liquidfingers" is a subdued place to start with its dreamy synths both in phase and out of it. While all the "sanna" pieces neatly bounce around tape sounds and synths that bubble up unnaturally. By the time you arrive at Gewissen's "state of peace" they knock you out of it beautifully with a hypnotic Throbbing Gristle-esque conclusion. Fascination beyond words. Kudos to Low Company, one promising UK label.
BIG BOY PETE - The Cosmic Genius of Big Boy Pete [LP](Mono-Tone UK)
Peter Miller came to fame during the British Invasion with Peter Jay and Jaybirds. However, in 1965 Miller felt music was changing and launched his solo with several sides that took off in a more fanciful Psychedelic direction. The tracks here compiled from 1965-1977 demonstrate that early fever dream of stardom growing into a fevered succession of wild, experimental solo singles. Like R.Stevie Moore, the songs of Big Boy Pete veer between wonderful naivete and studio expertise. “My Love Is Like a Spaceship” sounds like another Joe Meek-esque novelty hits brimming over with reverb and Pete’s intoning of sounds. Break it down and it truly reminds you of the earliest Glam T.Rex. Miller rides the riffs and then solos like a Syd Barrett-esque madman. “Nasty Nazi” is a growling strut that never lets up and “Cold Turkey” remains a booming Pop song (think Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich) with the relentless and dense sound that predates everything coming in the Seventies. Like all great compilations, “Cosmic” leaves me wanting more.
L’ALBA DI MORRIGAN - I’m God, I’m Gold [LP](My Kingdom Music ITA)
This Italian Metal band has a huge commercial Metal sound, but twists and turns their sounds and songs into a creation better than most of what Active Rock radio plays. The Tool-ian title track has some very dense, galloping Danny Carey rhythms, but breaks down neatly into a vocal break for the middle. While the battering “I Flume Di Rosso Sangre” morphs into a harmonious basher that only hints at System of A Down. For all its familiarity, L’Alba Di Morrigan even sings in English on the chugging Post-Metal of “Alpha Supernova.” So American Rock Radio, what are you waiting for?
Well, another week, another list of several different styles and pursuits in music for you. Enjoy. Listen again. Share as you wish.
A mix of the NEW RELEASES from this week!
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