Welcome to August 2019’s iteration of Recommended Albums, which greets us with music like nails being hammered into your hands, with music that caresses our senses like an island breeze, with music that possesses our limbs and makes them swing wildly. In all seriousness, I greatly enjoyed the records I’ve plucked to highlight this month. Top standouts to me are Cross Record and Friendly Fires, whom by happenstance are both playing NYC on the same night. I bought Friendly Fires tickets before Cross Record show was announced, so there’s not much I can do. I’ll have a good time regardless. Onwards!

Blanck Mass – Animated Violence Mild [Sacred Bones]
A roller coaster gets longer and more chaotic as you ride it, distorting your sense of time, space and self.

Bodywash – Comforter [Luminelle]
A casual diving excursion in warm, shallow waters vibrant with sea life reveals a submerged metropolis, calcified from rising ocean temperatures.

Cross Record – Cross Record [Ba Da Bing!]
Grappling with life as a partially invisible person, taking pleasure in solitude & trusted friends only able to visually communicate with your shadow.

Esther Rose – You Made It This Far [Father/Daughter]
A tipsy, moonlit walk home with thoughts that wobble between abandoning companionship for good and holding your partner tight for the rest of your life.

Friendly Fires – Inflorescent [Interscope]
One of those extreme wingsuit POV videos, racing down mountainsides with various parties and other extreme stunts happen below.

HTRK – Venus In Leo [Ghostly International]
In stasis aboard a drifting spaceship, you dream of human contact from someone outside your sleep chamber.

Infinity Shred – Forever, A Fast Life [3DOT Recordings]
Assembling and launching rocket out of salvaged parts by yourself to escape Earth before it caves in on itself.

Joan Shelley – Like The River Loves The Sea [No Quarter]
Memories of peaceful times spent in a small home near the water with friends, family and lovers inspire a series of paintings.

Salami Rose Joe Louis – Zdenka 2080 [Brainfeeder]
A semi-educational, definitely homemade VHS tape about how galaxies and molecules are the same thing plays to a high school science class.

Various Artists – Chill Pill [Public Possession]
Disconnecting from social media, you take a trip to a mountainous coast for a week of hiking, meditation, going to dance functions and gently psychedelic guided self-reflection.

GR8 TRACKS OF AUGUST:

Listen to all these songs + more on my building Best of 2019 PLAYLIST!

• Anamanaguchi – “Lorem Ipsum (Arctic Anthem)”
• Battles – “Titanium 2 Step (feat. Sal Principato)”
• Big Thief – “Not”
• Black Belt Eagle Scout – “My Heart Dreams”
• Blanck Mass – “Death Drop”
• Bodywash – “Comforter”
• Bodywash – “With Heat”
• Bodywash – “Reprise”
• Channel Tres – “Raw Power”
• Cross Record – “Face Smashed, Drooling”
• Cross Record – “Y/O Dragon”
• Esther Rose – “Handyman”
• Fire-Toolz – “Clear Light”
• Four Tet – “Anna Painting”
• Friendly Fires – “Almost Midnight”
• Friendly Fires – “Heaven Let Me In”
• Friendly Fires – “Sleeptalking”
• Indira Valey – “Vessel”
• Infinity Shred – “Forever, A Fast Life”
• Jay Som – “Superbike”
• JPEGMAFIA – “Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot”
• Konradsen – “Television Land”
• Lana Del Rey – “Venice Bitch”
• Magdalena Bay – “Venice”
• Maria Usbeck – “Nostalgia”
• Omni – “Sincerely Yours”
• Parsnip – “Too Late”
• Pusha T – “Coming Home (feat. Ms. Lauryn Hill)”
• Rose Dorn – “Shaking”
• Ross From Friends – “Epiphany”
• Salami Rose Joe Louis – “Earth Creature”
• SASSY 009 – “Thrasher”
• Snoh Aalegra – “Whoa”
• Tropical Fuck Storm – “Maria 63”
• Tyler Childers – “House Fire”
• Whitney – “Giving Up”