Playlist: Mauve Malaise – A Fading Desire

Long in the making, it’s not the fall playlist I anticipated, but the one I think we all need right now. The sun sets at 4:30pm, the sky rarely deviates from a hard slate grey, and the cold temperatures give us all the incentives we need to stay inside. In theory, we shouldn’t want anything that keeps us feeling sad. Au contraire – sometimes we need that extra layer of sadness to blanket upon our already building dirty-pile-of-laundry-on-the-bed type of malaise.

In this playlist I started off with a basic shoegaze formula, but then built upon that with some folk and slowcore. A few other tiny surprises, but for the most part this is for coming from the bed to work to the bed, to a weekend watching the sky stay the same color all day, and feeling too self conscious to leave your room. We’ve all been there! It’s 2019! Get with it! Full tracklisting and link to listen below.

LISTEN TO MAUVE MALAISE ON SPOTIFY HERE!

  1. Sweet Trip – “To All the Dancers of the World, A Round Form of Fantasy”
  2. My Bloody Valentine – “All I Need”
  3. Fleeting Joys – “The Breakup”
  4. Secret Shine – “Into The Ether”
  5. Sarah Louise – “Rime”
  6. Good Night & Good Morning – “Philadelphia”
  7. Julia Lucille – “Plot of Ground”
  8. Cross Record – “High Rise”
  9. Purple Pilgrims – “Ruinous Splendour (feat. Roy Montgomery)”
  10. Tamaryn – “Sandstone”
  11. Slowdive – “Souvlaki Space Station”
  12. Should – “Feels Like Morning”
  13. Swirlies – “Pancake”
  14. Astrobrite – “Hopefully”
  15. LSD and the Search for God – “Starshine”
  16. Fibril – “Declined”
  17. Roy Montgomery – “Landfall (feat. Liz Harris)”
  18. North Americans – “Grayling”
  19. The Microphones – “The Moon”
  20. Gia Margaret – “Smoke”
  21. Matchess – “Ossify Them”
  22. Benny Sings – “Dreamin’ (Sam Wilkes Remix)”
  23. Julee Cruise – “Falling”
  24. Yo La Tengo – “Saturday”
  25. Weyes Blood – “Lost In Dreams”
  26. Infinite Body – “Drive Dreams Away”
  27. Grouper – “Being Her Shadow”
  28. Slowdive – “Miranda”
  29. Cocteau Twins – “Throughout the Dark Months of April and May”
  30. Drowse – “Between Fence Posts”
  31. Steve Gunn & the Black Twig Pickers – “Seasonal Hire”
  32. Daniel Bachman – “And Now I Am Born To Die”
  33. Mazzy Star – “Five String Serenade”
  34. Nick Drake – “River Man”
  35. Flying Saucer Attack – “November Mist”
  36. Bowery Electric – “Empty Words”
  37. Bedhead – “Crushing”
  38. Codeine – “New Year’s”
  39. Duster – “Inside Out”
  40. Low – “Swingin'”
  41. Mojave 3 – “Love Songs on the Radio”
  42. Red House Painters – “Katy Song”
  43. Cigarettes After Sex – “K.”
  44. Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions – “Treasure”
  45. Colleen – “A flame my love, a frequency”
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Listen: The Galleria – “Stop & Go” [2019]

Bless anything Jessy Lanza touches. New single from The Galleria is a late-80s dance party you’re just now remembering.

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Recommended Albums: October 2019

This month was a doozy. We got some of the most anticipated records of the year from Angel Olsen, Anamanaguchi, Floating Points and Danny Brown, some surprise releases from Big Thief, Chromatics and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, along with some newcomers in Konradsen, Great Grandpa and Common Holly. All in all, fantastic stuff.

Anamanaguchi – [USA] [Polyvinyl]
The feeling when you gain the ability to quick travel in a video game and go back to worlds you’ve completed just to sightsee.

Angel Olsen – All Mirrors [Jagjaguwar]
Rose petals mingle in the wind of a dramatic snowstorm.

Big Thief – Two Hands [4AD]
Doing karate in the woods by yourself and a courier brings you a fruit basket.

Chromatics – Closer to Grey [Italians Do It Better]
A long zoom in starting from a view of a city skyline and ending on a person in a nondescript building that turns and looks at the camera.

Common Holly – When I say to you Black Lightning [Barsuk / Solitaire]
Watching a plane flying an oddly specific self-help message pass overhead in a pink and blue sky.

Danny Brown – uknowhatimsayin¿ [Warp]
Laughing so much you experience a psychedelic episode that lasts into your forties.

Floating Points – Crush [Ninja Tune]
Completing complex equations on a giant chalk board opens a gate to a secret dimension.

Great Grandpa – Four of Arrows [Double Double Whammy]
A familiar porch light on in the distance after a miles-long walk down country roads.

Konradsen – Saints and Sebastian Stories [Cascine]
The rosy heat radiating from cheeks after sitting next to a fireplace all night.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen [Ghosteen Ltd.]
Weaving clouds into a glittering tapestry with slots for sunlight to shine through.

GR8 SONGS OF OCTOBER::

  • Anamanaguchi – “Air On Line”
  • Anamanaguchi – “The CRT Woods”
  • Angel Olsen – “Spring”
  • Anna Meredith – “Inhale Exhale”
  • Battles – “Fort Greene Park”
  • Big Thief – “Forgotten Eyes”
  • Big Thief – “Shoulders”
  • Big Thief – “Those Girls”
  • Blue Hawaii – “On a High”
  • Caroline Polachek – “Door”
  • Chromatics – “Whispers in the Hall”
  • Chromatics – “You’re No Good”
  • Common Holly – “Uuu”
  • Common Holly – “You Dance”
  • Danny Brown – “Belly of the Best (feat. Obongjayar)”
  • Danny Brown – “Savage Nomad”
  • Destroyer – “Crimson Tide”
  • Floating Points – “Anasickmodular”
  • Floating Points – “Bias”
  • Floating Points – “Environments”
  • Frances Quinlan – “Rare Thing”
  • Great Grandpa – “Bloom”
  • Great Grandpa – “Dark Green Water”
  • Kim Gordon – “Paprika Pony”
  • Konradsen – “Roasted”
  • Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Galleon Ship”
  • Squirrel Flower – “Red Shoulder”
  • TORRES – “Good Scare”
  • Yeule – “Poison Arrow”
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Combing Thru 10s #1: Les Filles de Illighadad – “Jori” [2017]

As I progress through records I need to listen to for the first time or through those I need to revisit in time to release my Top 200 Albums of the 2010s list, I’ve found the need to post about certain releases that aren’t getting the shine I think they deserve from similar outlets’ decade-recapping lists. This should be obvious: even in a standard year, most sites (including my own) share only 50 albums that year had to offer. So much in the wings, left to decay there until music nerds like me come and rediscover them, or to be celebrated in selective anonymity by their core fanbases. I hope to make a place for them in history in this series as I comb through the 2010s.

So for my first entry chronicling my journey through this magical decade, I’m highlighting an appropriately magical record, Les Filles de Illighadad’s Eghass Malan, released in 2017 via Sahel Sounds. The Nigerien trio’s debut album carries on the tradition of all the best Tuareg guitar albums: being hypnotic and truly unlike any other music out there. Tuareg guitar is a style of folk & rock out of Northern Africa, usually attached to a political message of nomadic rebels. When you first hear a rock group from the Sahara, you know it within the first few passages. The drone-like guitar, the polyphonic vocals, the simple percussion – it’s infectious and groovy unlike anything else.

In the 10s, a spotlight was thankfully shone upon the wellspring of massively talented musicians from Northern Africa like Bombino, Mdou Moctar, Imarhan and Tinariwen, helping the genre bridge over to America and establish legions of dedicated fans, usually leading to being hot ticket items at summer park festivals in metropolitan areas. It’s worth mentioning the group’s leader, Fatou Seidi Ghali is one of, if not the first female Tuareg guitar player, breaking the mold in a genre dominated by men.

Les Filles de Illighadad is the least traditionally “rock” out of the group mentioned here (Bombino has had production assistance from Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, for instance), but flourishes in the simplicity of its elements and its structure. Only guitar, hand-percussion, handclaps and the layering of the trio’s vocals comprise these tracks that rarely break out of its hypnotic groove, happy to entrance the listener with these few elements. “Jori”, the track I’m posting here, has one of the best vocal lines on the album, with Fatou going into her higher register among the polyphonic backing of the other two members’ voices, while an acoustic guitar loop with marching percussion that early Animal Collective would have killed for plays underneath.

Like I mentioned earlier, Tuareg groups are definitely one of the western world’s favorite genres of “international” music so it’s not like this band is completely forgotten, but I implore any indie or psychedelic rock fan unfamiliar with Tuareg guitar or any “desert blues” from the Sahara to check out Les Filles de Illighadad. It is absolutely worth your time and worth a spot in your 10s library. Expect more music from the desert to show up in this series of Combing Thru 10s.

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Listen: Lapalux – “Limb To Limb (feat. Lilia)” [2019]

I’ve been following Lapalux for what seems like nearly a decade now and to my surprise, he just released an album today, Amnioverse, via Brainfeeder. The immediate standout track is this, “Limb To Limb” featuring frequent collaborator Lilia. Probably the most straightforward, “radio-friendly” track on the record; with a steady breakbeat, a ghostly choir in the background and great, slightly-manipulated vocals from Lilia. The emotional climax is in the last fourth of the track, with tons of polyrhythms and volleys of bass rocketing in and layering on top of each other. The whole record is loaded with mind-bending sounds and moments – something that would benefit from being played on a really nice sound system. Even if you don’t have that, listen to Amnioverse when you get a chance.

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Listen: Great Grandpa – “Bloom” [2019]

The new album from Seattle group Great Grandpa is coming out tomorrow, 10/25, via Double Double Whammy – and it is seriously a whammy. I haven’t listened to any of their previous material, but singles like “Digger” and “Mono No Aware” (shout out to PAN) and the album artwork alone really got me interested. Thanks to a friend sending me the record early, I can safely say that the whole album is worthy of your time.

“Bloom” starts off in a way a pop country song from the mid-00s that I’d hear on the radio while having a garage sale, singing about feeling worthless, Tom Petty, and remembering that your friends love you. The second half though is a slow build-up back to the volume of the first half that turns wordlessly anthemic in the process. There are other great songs on the record, but I wanted to share this one in particular to show the versatility of the band’s sound.

Four Of Arrows is out 10/25 via Double Double Whammy – buy the album HERE.

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Listen: Anamanaguchi – “On My Own” [2019]

Anamanaguchi has a new album, [USA], coming out THIS FRIDAY (10/25) via Polyvinyl. They started out the album cycle with single “Lorem Ipsum (Arctic Anthem)”, which was a killer introduction to the new, more rock-focused sound while still incorporating video game sounds and electronics they’re known for.

Second single “Air On Line” is probably my favorite song on the record, harkening back to my favorite track off their last album, “Planet”, and pulling in some classic Ocarina Of Time soundfonts.

This new song “On My Own” is a KILLER pop jam with vocals courtesy of Hana. The chorus is huge and really slams into my chest. It kind of reminds me of some of the more recent Kero Kero Bonito material, as well as another obvious comparison in Crying. Where’s new music from that band? Anyways – it’s a banger to the highest degree and I hope people dig it, because this band has worked hard enough to deserve it.

You can pre-order [USA] or buy other Anamanaguchi merch HERE.

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Listen: Circuit des Yeux – “Black Fly” [2017]

Celebrate the 2-year anniversary of Circuit des Yeux’s great 2017 album Reaching For Indigo and my personal favorite song off the record, “Black Fly”. You’ll probably be seeing this track around soon in my decade wrap-up posts 🙂

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Recommended Albums: September 2019

On this week’s edition of Recommended Albums, we have a long-awaited pop opus, a meditation on chill, a blistering goth collision, a musical equivalent to a gentle breeze, and more. I only picked eight this month because I didn’t feel like really digging down and finding two more albums to focus on. These were the ones I really liked! If there are any I’m missing or you think I should listen to again, let me know!

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Listen: Anna Meredith – “Inhale Exhale” [2019]

I’ve had the pleasure of having this track for a minute now and I’m so excited it’s finally out so I can share it with everyone. Anna Meredith made one of my favorite albums of 2016 in Varmints and is following that up with FIBS later this year. “Inhale Exhale” is my favorite track on the record. I love its bright, tactile synths, the worm-like rumblings below it, and Meredith’s mantra-like lyrics overtop. It ramps up and up and pays off in a great conclusions. She’s hot off making the much-beloved score for Eighth Grade, but don’t miss out on her old material, a totally unique fusion of a traditional orchestral/classical background with electronics.

FIBS is out 10/25 via Moshi Moshi.

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