A brand-new offering for you today – the first track from the upcoming Michael Beharie (of improvisational group Zs) album, Promise, out April 8. If you’re familiar with Zs’ music and are intimidated (like I was before clicking play on this), fret not – this is some pretty beautiful, wistful music that’s sitting in front of you.
Are you bored with hearing the same old melodies and harmonies in your pop music? Feeling de ja vu as you mindlessly ooze down your algorithmically-generated playlist? Well I have the solution – this new track (and the upcoming album) from Erica Eso, the synth pop project of NY musician Weston Minissali, flanked by other notable figures in the local atmosphere in Angelica Bess (of Body Language + blog favs Kalbells), Rhonda Lowry, Nathaniel Morgan and Lydia Velichkovski. I know certain pop heads out there will know when I say it, but when I give comparisons to say, Kurt Feldman, I mean it. Good shit going on here.
This song has been out for a minute now, but London group caroline just dropped their debut LP via Rough Trade this past Friday and its opener, “Dark Blue” is a tone-setter for an album I foresee myself spending a LOT of time with this year.
A little late getting it out, but once again starting another year of Recommended Albums, where I pick around 10 records from each month and write a little memorable description about them. I’ve been doing this since 2016 – I ain’t stopping now!
We’ve got everything from booming doom, to moving groove, to snazzy jazz. It’s the hits! Check it out below along with a few song favorites as well.
Another discovery in my time trawling the internet for buried gems of the 1980s. On this occasion I’m brought to France, I think, with singer Cida Desvarieux + her album Cida, released in 1984. There’s not much I can find about this record, but what I CAN say about it is that it’s supremely groovy. I mean it.
Dan Deacon’s “Sheathed Wings” has been really doing it for me on my running playlist, so I thought I’d share it here for anyone who had forgotten since 2015 or needs a new spark plug in their rotation.
It’s been a year already. We need some meditative, instrumental guitar pieces to help us recalibrate. Ryan Dugre is here. His new EP Look See is out February 18 via Ruination Records and has definitely reset my internal monologues in the short time I’ve spent with it early on.
Phew! We got some hotness on our hands. Irish producer Lighght has a new club and techno-focused LP, Seodra, coming March 4 via Doom Trip Records. I was previously familiar with Lighght’s 2021 album Holy Endings, which is much different than what we’re hearing here. 2021’s album was slower, and comprised of spine-tingling field recordings and auditory hallucinations. I’m trying to not just say “it was an ambient album”. This time around? Hoo-wee: it’s got volume, it’s got tempo, it’s got snap.
Gotta give a quick shout out to one of my favorite rising indie pop acts, Night Palace (fka Avery Leigh’s Night Palace). A friend & rare reader of the blog Tori tipped me to their song “Into the Wake, Mystified” in late 2020, and it eventually found its way onto favorite playlists, Ochre Overture, a dreamy lens into shoegaze, folk, drone and ambient with a little bit of grooves thrown in. They’ve got their debut album Diving Rings coming April 1st and I’m PUMPED – so let’s dive into one of the newest singles!
Another bookmark I’ve placed on my journey through 80s albums, Nyssa Musique appeared on my radar after seeing many trusted sources hype this record up as something special. While it may not be mind-blowing, their one record Comme Au Moulin is a fantastic record in the canon of weirdo jazz, “non-western” rhythms + textures and modern minimal composition.
Warm Visions 