Oh baby, this one’s a heater. After giving us one of the best albums of 2021 in Promises, Floating Points brings us back to the club with a head-spinning new track “Vocoder”, out today. If you like his more confrontational, architectural techy bangers, you’re in for a treat.
Get to know Minneapolis musician Joe Rainey, an Ojibwe Pow Wow singer that just recently joined Justin Vernon + Aaron & Bryce Dessner’s 37d03d record label, a spot that pretty routinely supports righteous, out-there music. I really wasn’t super familiar with the specifics of pow wow singing, but from I’ve heard and read, a steady, powerful drum beat is needed, along with both soloing and choir vocals, polyrhythms and a euphoric, high pitched register. Take this long, sacred art and pair it with modern electronics and you’ve got Joe Rainey’s “no chants”, a first taste of an album that is shaping up to be required listening for folks in the US.
I know a lot of music nerds out there have listened to King Crimson’s Discipline before, but I hadn’t until this month. Yeah, it’s really good. I had always thought of the band as really maximal and theatric like most other prog bands, but man, “Matte Kudasai” kinda just sounds like a The Blue Nile or Peter Gabriel track. It rocks. The whole album is great. Check it out if you wanna get taken on a journey.
If you’re a fan of hissing, boiling noise rock baked into delightful, indie pop treats, get to know Seattle’s Star Party and put their upcoming album Meadow Flower on your release calendar. The album drops March 11, but listen to second single “Shot Down” below. The guitars feel scalding hot, while an incessant drum machine punches through panes of glass. It’s a rip-roaring good time, and is consistent with the rest of the LP. Don’t miss!
Oh baby. If you’re a reader of the blog, you know I’m a fan of some deep, dark, menacing shoegaze. I’m not sure if this technically even qualifies (but who’s gonna come foul me? A shoegaze referee?), either way, Just Mustard’s new single is loud, it’s buzzing, and it’s addictive. Gotta love the clock-tower like bass note that punctuates the buzzsaw guitars, and the lead singer’s vocals almost try and lure you into a dream-like state despite the horrors about to confront you. Check it out –>
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.
