Listen: Gunn-Truscinski Duo – “Valley Spiral” [2020]

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Very Warm

One of the best contemporary instrumental pairings over the last decade, Gunn-Truscinski Duo, are releasing their newest album Soundkeeper via Three Lobed Recordings on October 9. If you haven’t heard their 2017 record Bay Head I cannot recommend it enough. Loping guitar lines taking inspiration from shredders in the American Primitive style to Tuareg style backed by with tight percussion + minimal synth. It’s great!

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Listen: Sam Amidon – “Maggie” [2020]

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Very Warm

One of my favorite musicians of the last two decades, Sam Amidon is releasing his new self-titled album on October 23rd via Nonesuch. If you’re unfamiliar, Amidon spent most of his album output reworking traditional folk songs, kind of giving them a modern facelift but also keeping them rooted in their origins, sound-wise. His most recent album, The Following Mountain, broke those traditions in favor of a more experimental, freer sound working its way into folk music, featuring masterful players like Sam Gendel, Shazad Ismaily and Milford Graves. I cannot recommend all his album enough, but this 2017 one is special.

Anyways – this new album is coming on October 23 and it sounds more like a continuation of The Following Mountain‘s sound – but we’ll see! Excited to hear the whole thing.

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Listen: Heathered Pearls – “Salvaged Copper (feat. Terrence Dixon)” [2020]

Posted on September 10, 2020 by Very Warm

NY-based, MI-born (gotta feature that second part as a native Michigander) electronic musician Heathered Pearls is preparing to release his new album Cast on November 13 via Ghostly (again, shout out Michigan!). His 2015 album Body Complex was quietly one of my favorite releases from that year, and one that I’ve continued to return to as the years have gone by.

This first single featured Detroit techno legend Terrence Dixon offering spoken word elements to the track. Instrumentally, it follows his previous material with gossamer, glass-like synth textures cascading over a steady beat. It sets up an album that I’m greatly excited for later this year – hell yes. Thanks Heathered Pearls.

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Listen: Ana Roxanne – “Suite pour l’invisible” [2020]

Posted on September 10, 2020 by Very Warm

One of my favorite new artists of 2019, Ana Roxanne, is releasing her second album Because of a Flower via Kranky on November 13, after putting out her debut ~~~ via LA label Leaving. No shade to Leaving of course, I think they’re great and a vital label for right now, but Roxanne’s new label home is a totally awesome evolution for her and recognition of her extraordinary talent for making slow, healing music for the soul. Just my opinion as a Grouper and Stars of the Lid stan.

This first track off the upcoming album, “Suite pour l’invisible”, is longer than anything she put on her last record, allowing for the gentle washes of instrumentation to take up more space and allowing us as the listener to listen to them expand and billow out as the song progresses. Her vocals are as pristine as ever, again acting as more of an instrument or layer to the quilt rather than a powerful focal point. Roxanne makes music for a kind of utopian universe, one that overflows with caring, kindness, compassion and acceptance. For a time when I personally have been suffocated by the endless onslaught of bad news; sitting down, breathing and letting this track inhabit my brain gave me a rare and much-needed moment of rest.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m quite looking forward to this upcoming album. Again, it’s coming out November 13 via Kranky. You can pre-order the record via the Bandcamp stream I put at the top. In the meantime, listen to ~~~ if you haven’t (or listen again if you haven’t since 2019) and also check out releases from Kranky if you’re unfamiliar. Legend status in my book.

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Recommended Albums: August 2020

Posted on September 7, 2020 by Very Warm

August was the month that made it seem like things slowed down the most. I’m not talking about slowed to like, a manageable pace, but to a arthritic snail’s pace. Reality slowed and stretched and took on new forms, like a pop song that’s been slowed down 500%. I started forgetting about music from earlier this year and was only listening to Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? with any regularity (the fact I can’t listen to music on commutes now really sucks). I had to catch up on like 30 records I neglected to check out on their respective release weeks over the last few days before writing this. Nevertheless, I managed to find some true gems in a bloated month, some records that really floored me from Tkay Maidza, Merce Lemon, Nubya Garcia, Breaking and more. I hope everyone is doing ok, and remember to register to vote!

Continue reading →

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Listen: BUMPER – “Red Brick” [2020]

Posted on September 4, 2020 by Very Warm

Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast and Ryan Galloway of Crying have teamed for a quick EP of bouncy synth pop under the alias BUMPER, further evoking imagery of pinball machines and Sonic the Hedgehog. It gives me flashbacks to pre-election 2016, when new releases from Japanese Breakfast, Crying and Ice Choir (not related to BUMPER, but conjures a similar, utopic synth pop expanse in their own music) all coincided and I was bumping them on the regular. Not to mention the amazing cover art for this project done by Ryuta E (twitter handle @re_illust_) – very anime, very reminiscent of Eizin Suzuki works.

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Listen: Dame – “Mensrea” [2020]

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Very Warm

Looking for steady, bunkered-down basslines, ripping, vampiric guitars and haunting synths echoing in the background  of a dramatic, high-energy goth new wave group? Ok that’s pretty basic, but Boston group Dame do it especially well. Everything sounds right on their new record on Richmond, VA label Beach Impediment Records. Gothy, spooky, smoky punk, perfect as we transition to the fall months.

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Listen: They Hate Change – “Screwface” [2020]

Posted on September 2, 2020 by Very Warm

Tampa/Tri-City hip hop duo They Hate Change recently released a new EP “666 Central Ave.” via LA label Godmode. I was totally unfamiliar with the group but I’ve been seeing them pop up in some trusted sources around my universe so I had to dive in to see for myself.

What you’ll find on the EP is some of the freshest, most inventive hip hop of the year, with production taking plenty of inspiration from underground dance music, from jungle, footwork, Miami bass and more. Plainly, it’s here to make you feel good and move around, granting you a now-forbidden taste of high energy you might be missing from the shutdown nightlife scene in your area. Plenty of deep bass, tight, hammering drums and swaggering, fast-paced bars. It’s FUN. Thank GOD.

I really dig the whole EP, but “Screwface” really connected with me on a sonic level. The mix is littered with micro-fragments of high-frequency signals, chopped up exasperated vocals and smooth submerged bass, all bound together with a killer break and an eerie bell loop throughout. The rapping is top-notch as well, the flow/melody at one point reminding me a bit of fellow FL rapper Denzel Curry. The whole project is hella entertaining, putting They Hate Change on my map and a group to watch for a full-length hopefully on the horizon. On Twitter they call themselves Black Daft Punks, which like, hell yeah. I want these guys to be as big as Daft Punk. Bigger. Let’s do it.

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Listen: Badge Époque Ensemble – “Sing A Silent Gospel” [2020]

Posted on September 2, 2020 by Very Warm

One of my favorite, if not THE favorite discovery of 2019 for me, Badge Époque Ensemble, are releasing their sophomore album on November 20, Self Help, via Telephone Explosion Records. I saw the group open for U.S. Girls at Union Pool of all places last year and was hooked. Their self-titled album was my #16 favorite album of last year and their follow-up EP, Nature, Man & Woman, was another favorite.

This upcoming album features Meg Remy of U.S. Girls, perennial Canadian favorites Jennifer Castle and Dorothea Paas, and BÉE standout guest vocalist James Baley on various tracks. This new one features Meg & Dorothea – get pumped! This first single is exactly what I want from the group, jazz funk with an air of cosmic mystery around it. Wicked hand percussion, solid mellotron, stellar-as-ever horn section, and ripping leads from the guitar and sax players. It all comes to a head near the end with the band engaging in a hypnotic synchronized melody while the drummer goes absolutely HAM in the background. This is an excellent sign of things to come. I cannot wait for this album and I hope you can’t either.

Badge Époque Ensemble is:
Jay Anderson – Drum kit
Chris Bezant – Guitar
Karen Ng – Saxophone
Alia O’Brien – Flute
Ed Squires – Percussion
Giosuè Rosati – Bass
Maximilian ‘Twig’ Turnbull – Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, synthesizers, piano

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Listen: Coral Club – “Undefined Traces” [2020]

Posted on September 1, 2020 by Very Warm

Russian producer Alexander Sirenko paints vivid pictures of a psychedelic, humid rainforest on his track “Undefined Traces”, coming off his upcoming album Nowhere Island, out September 4 via Not Not Fun. Layering sounds of waterfalls, water splashing on a tiled floor, bird calls, wood-block percussion, cicadas, bushes rustling, along with more digital ambiance thrown in there, Coral Club establishes a universe unlike our current one (well outside those that exist in the concrete jungle of cities, anyways – shout out to everyone living on the equator), and provides a place for us to escape to during this truly screwed up time.

The layers of sounds slowly ramp up and really submerge the listener in its humidity at the midway point, then ushers them out of it by the end, sufficiently hypnotized by digital hand percussion. It really reminds me of certain levels from the Pikmin series, specifically the Perplexing Pool and Forest Navel locations. Such wonder, such surprise, such magnificence.

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