Recommended Albums: August 2023

Posted on September 26, 2023 by Very Warm

Hey and welcome. Apologies for the massive wait for August albums. It’s basically October. I went on vacation for a week earlier in the month. The weeks have tended to melt by without much hubbub, making me completely lost track of time. But we’re still here, keeping the Recommended Albums streak up. In my defense, it feels as though August has always been a slow month for new releases. Looking through old Recommended Albums posts, notable August releases (for me) include Kornel Kovacs’ The Bells (2016), Esther Rose’s You Made It This Far (2019), Indigo De Souza’s Every Shape You Take (2021) and Marci’s self-titled debut (2022). One year I’ve purposely excluded until now is 2018, which easily takes “Best Recommended Albums of August” post, featuring The Beths’ Future Me Hates Me, Mitski’s Be The Cowboy, Tirzah’s Devotion, and more. Three albums featured in my Best Albums of the 2010s list. Notable to say the least! We’ll be seeing more of Tirzah in September!

Do any of the records from August 2023 have a shot to make my Best Albums of the 2020s list? We’ll have to see, only time will tell. But nah, probably not, if we’re being honest. There are some cool records, don’t get me wrong. Lots of new-to-me names (Kibi James, Mary Jane Dunphe (PS: the lead singer of CCFX!!), Edsel Axle (PS: the solo guitar project of Rosali!)) + some real freaky shit (dadá Joãozinho, draag me) + more cool records. But for the most part these are records to fill in some gaps on your Best of 2023 list. Am I saying to skip this month’s Recommended Albums post? Not in the slightest. You could find your AOTY here. Am I saying that September, a month that is nearly 86% over already, has featured better albums already, I’d say yeah. But still, listen away, why don’tcha.

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Listen: Tirzah – “their Love” [2023]

Posted on September 8, 2023 by Very Warm

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Tirzah, one of my favorite musicians of the last decade, surprise dropped an album this past Tueday, entitled trip9love… ???, co-produced with longtime collaborator Mica Levi + recorded over the last year. Interestingly, the record features the same beat across the full project, zhushed up with different distortion or tempo. Nearly each track has deep, echoing piano as well, along with Tirzah’s vocals, more often than not, pretty far up into the mix.

The whole album is fantastic, but I’m featuring the song that was an instant favorite for me, “their Love”, which is probably the most spare track on the record, mostly featuring piano and Tirzah’s voice. Her performance and melodies really shine here.

Not much to say since I’m writing this late at night + trying to get one more post scheduled before my vacation, but Tirzah is always worth it, and I’ll always be in her corner.

Tirzah’s trip9love… ??? is out now via Domino. Listen more + buy via Bandcamp below.

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Listen: Sean La’Brooy – “140 to the Pin (feat. Greg Carleton)” [2023]

Posted on September 7, 2023 by Very Warm

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Sometimes you just want tunes that remind you of memory-holed soundtracks from early PS2 games that you rented from GameFly back in the day. You don’t even remember what these games were like, but you vaguely remember shades of its soundtrack. Summer break. The time limit is zero. That’s what I felt like I’ve found on this Sean La’Brooy album, There’s Always Next Year, out now via Melbourne’s Analogue Attic Recordings. The entire album is a groove and a great way to spend the last remaining hot days of the year soaking in.

The song begins like the genesis of a pleasant dream. Wafts of saxophone and washes of synth drift ashore like a sea breeze. Slowly a beat starts chipping in, with watery piano bending whichever way it wants (a signature of early 00s game soundtracks – a bendy piano). The saxophone becomes more pointed in its delivery, no longer content at just letting things float along. Suddenly a more electronic backdrop percolates forward, again with bendy, almost tubular stabs of synth egging on the listener to grind some kind of rail in a graffiti-filled sewer.

Parts of it remind me of the idyllic pop miniatures of Domenique Dumont, while the bending electronics and their y2k-era aesthetics bring me to the 2021 CFCF album. It’s a delightful late summer listen, one I’m happy I stumbled upon when I did, as NYC plunges into yet another heat wave.

Sean La’Brooy’s There’s Always Next Year is out now via Analogue Attic Recordings. Listen more + buy via Bandcamp below.

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Listen: Badge Époque Ensemble – “Air, Light & Harmony” [2023]

Posted on September 6, 2023 by Very Warm

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This world is full of constants: death, taxes, and Warm Visions covering Badge Époque Ensemble. These things will never fade, even long after we’re all gone.

The Canadian jazz-funk group’s new album Air, Light & Harmony arrives November 3rd via Telephone Explosion Records, their fourth LP for the label since 2019, and sixth overall. The album is also the final piece of a trilogy, the others being 2019’s Nature, Man & Woman and 2021’s Future, Past & Present, which all sample and take stems from previous BÉE records, warping them into new creations behind the intensely skilled instrumental prowess of the band themselves, once again flexing their versatility as elite studio musicians, as well as sampler extraordinaires.

The title track, “Air, Light & Harmony” is out now and is a lightweight groove, immediately bringing to mind a hot day spent out on a veranda, with shadows in the form of stray patches of disharmony occasionally floating in like clouds. Across the chunky drums, saxophone lilts away and organ steams up the place. A vibraphone solo offers a glassy quality, beads of moisture gathering on the outside of your beverage. A satiny guitar solo stretches out time, rubberizing stiff joints. BÉE’s ever-present flute closes things out, signaling the curtain closing on this afternoon, but leaving the door open for the rest of the album.

Badge Époque Ensemble’s Air, Light & Harmony is out November 3rd via Telephone Explosion. Listen more + pre-order below.

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Listen: Edsel Axle – “Some Answer” [2023]

Posted on September 5, 2023 by Very Warm

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Looking for a little discordant shredding to start kick off your week? Yes it’s Tuesday, but I had Labor Day off. From all things. But back to the previous prompt, if you need some beautiful disharmony, look no further than the new record from Edsel Axle, aka blog fav Rosali Middleman’s solo guitar project. Her new album Variable Happiness is out now via Worried Songs, and most likely going to be featured in my Recommended Albums of September 2023.

The song I’ve chosen in particular here is “Some Answer”, the opener for the record. Putting it on a few weeks back gave me a kind of magical feeling, one that harkened back to times like when I listened to The Dirty Three for the first time. Layers of bending and wilting guitar pile onto one another, washing ashore and receding like the current. There’s a recurring, trembling passage that works its way into the mix throughout the song as well, adding depth and color to the churning guitar passages. To some the dissonance might feel overwhelmingly ugly, but I was struck by a sense of awe & beauty I haven’t felt in a while listening to new music. Love this track.

Listen to this + buy Variable Happiness via Bandcamp below.

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Listen: Gabby’s World – “Open The Door” [2023]

Posted on September 1, 2023 by Very Warm

Now here’s a name I haven’t posted on the blog in a good minute. Gabby’s World is prepping a new album Gabby Sword, coming out on December 1st via Carrot All Records. Gabby’s World is an artist that’s beloved between my partner and I, and their 2015 album O.K. was one of my favorite albums of the 2010s.

The newest track off the record, “Open The Door”, is a lightweight pop romp with nice added strings to beef up the instrumental, which is held together by a drum machine loop. Very motivational, with its steady beat and swelling strings, matching Gabby’s World singer Gabby Smith’s soaring vocals. It reminds me of the kind of summer day that’s beautiful and scenic, but you can see massive storm clouds looming in the distance.

Gabby Sword, the new album from Gabby’s World, is out December 1st via Carrot All. 

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Listen: Joseph Shabason – “Jamie Thomas” [2023]

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Very Warm

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Ok I have to admit: I don’t know anything about skateboarding. But thankfully I do know a bit about Joseph Shabason, and can appreciate the vision for his upcoming project, Welcome to Hell, a reimagining of the soundtrack to the iconic skate video of the same name from 1996, made by Toy Machine.

The original video contained songs by The Sundays, Sonic Youth, Iron Maiden, Jefferson Airplane and more, mostly featuring rock and punk tracks, but also some jazz funk from the Overton Berry Ensemble. This fast-paced skate footage, along with the spliced in clips of the skaters’ surroundings, along with the eclectic combination of tune selections, inspired Shabason at a young age. Now, he’s gone about reimagining the soundtrack in his own terms, utilizing a big band of players and a wide range of instrumentation to harness the energy that surrounded the original and point it in new, exciting directions.

The star of the first single here, “Jamie Thomas”, is undoubtedly the vibraphone, which plinks and plonks around in a psychedelic haze set by the uptempo, driving beat. A fuzzed out violin and smooth keyboard also take solos, but the ping-ponging energy the vibraphone commands is undoubtedly my focus point. It’s an itchy, nervous track that presses you to keep moving, to keep looking back. I’m definitely curious to see how Shabason continues to pay homage to not only the skate footage itself but the musical moods placed upon them at the beginning. Should be a good time!

Welcome To Hell is out October 20th via Western Vinyl. Listen + pre-order below.

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Listen: Eartheater – “Pure Smile Snake Venom” [2023]

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Very Warm

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Right when I was revisiting Eartheater’s incredible 2020 album Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin, and considering it to potentially be the best album of the 2020s so far, she announces a new album, Powders, out September 22nd via Chemical X / Mad Decent.

The first track off the project, “Pure Smile Snake Venom”, sees Eartheater return to the more pop-focused productions found on pre-2020 albums like Trinity, with a throbbing, late-90s rave-influenced instrumental co-produced by Sega Bodega. The song sees Eartheater potentially forgiving a partner that “fucked up”, and withholds her venom despite having every right to use it, instead opting to see how the partner can improve and mend the relationship in the future. A flashed smile to soothe, but contains fangs to kill if provoked. It’s a compelling concept, and executed with grace amongst the pulsating, hypnotizing instrumental.

I’m incredibly excited for this upcoming LP – Eartheater is an artist like no other, and I can’t wait to see where she moves the needle elsewhere on the full project. Powders is out September 22nd via Chemical X / Mad Decent.

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Listen: L’Rain – “Pet Rock” [2023]

Posted on August 29, 2023 by Very Warm

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Adding to the pile of releases I’m incredibly psyched for is L’Rain’s I Killed Your Dog, out October 13 via Mexican Summer. L’Rain had my favor starting all the way back in 2019 when I saw them twice in a week’s time, opening for both Ava Luna and Grouper respectively, putting on truly remarkable shows. Then in 2021 they evolved into “band I will stan for the rest of time” with Fatigue, a record that still sees no equal in terms of its expansiveness and originality. And going back to their live performances, seeing them open for Animal Collective in 2022 just showed me that they’re continuing to evolve, elevating their catalog that I’d already seen played live three times before then into new creations and turning into bonafide rockstars.

And rockstars they are on newest single “Pet Rock”, with some of the most alt-rock guitar and drums I’ve heard on a L’Rain project, with dissonant chords taking chunks out of the melody and a high-pitched arpeggio driving along the verses (almost sounding like a Strokes song slowed down + put in reverse) and the drummer just completely annihilating the beat with incredibly punchy hits across the entire song. Let’s not discount the bass either, which is always a strength of L’Rain’s music. Acrobatic and nimble, it provides the low end and doesn’t feel content with sitting in the background. It’s a kaleidoscoping trip that again, establishes that L’Rain are, like their Bandcamp tags indicate, not jazz, and actually rock stars. This is a rock record. Well, this is one track. Who knows what else we’re going to get.

Don’t think I didn’t notice how the end doesn’t cut off completely clean either, clearly bleeding into the next track following with lead L’Rain brain Taja Cheek laughing in the distance. That was another thing I loved about Fatigue, was that the wide net of sounds and moods across the record never felt jarring – the band found ways to smear the whole thing into one cohesive piece whether it be with samples, field recordings or other strange bits of noise. This band is the future! It’s also the present! Cmon now!

L’Rain’s I Killed Your Dog is out October 13th via Mexican Summer. Listen more + pre-order below.

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Listen: Jane Remover – “Lips” [2023]

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Very Warm

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Undoubtedly one of the bigger incoming records among populations of the terminally online, Jane Remover has announced Census Designated, her sophomore LP out October 20 via deadAir. The first track off the record is the swirling and unsettlingly harmonious “Lips”, which led me to wanting to write a post about it immediately after listening.

I’ve seen Jane Remover’s music described as “digicore”, a label I’ve never found myself gravitating towards after the hyper-saturation of hyperpop as the early pandemic churned along. The fusion of 90s + 00s alt rock combined with cutesy internet forum-fodder digital sound effects and aggressively autotuned vocals, has never won me over. This new track though, despite a few rocky patches in the beginning, fully pulls me in by the second half, as Jane’s falsetto vocal melodies evoking Frank Ocean’s Blonde, with floating vocal harmonies stack together and fall apart in tandem to create a dramatic, dynamic song that feels like a sexy bop singer wandered into a Sweet Trip recording session. Eventually the track goes on the offensive, with a glitched out barrage of guitar and drums giving the hypnotic vocal refrains a trellis to climb upon, growing and reaching further to the sky, before everything eventually crumbles back down to earth.

This upcoming record likely wouldn’t have been on my radar at all if I hadn’t listened to “Lips”, so I suggest you do the same and get in the know. I know Jane’s first album Frailty ran the table of different sounds and influences across its length, so I’m very curious to see if she’ll continue to broaden horizons on this upcoming LP, or hone in on a mood or palette to really flesh out. Either way, Census Designated is out October 20 via deadAir.

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