Hello everyone welcome to this weeks new album thread.
Today I will be listening to:
Pissed Jeans - Half Divorced
Obnoxious noisy occasionally quite silly punk rock. FFO Jesus Lizard, Metz, ice cream
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
Emotionally charged grungy punk rock with shoegazey indie flourishes.
Bruce Dickinson - The Mandrake Project
Iron Maiden frontman’s latest solo album, his voice makes everything sound like Iron Maiden but this is more stripped down (the single Afterglow Of Ragnarok sucked but I’ll still listen to this garbage at least once). FFO: Iron Maiden but worse
Pelican - Adrift / Tending The Embers
Two new songs from the instrumental post metal band who just won’t quit. Sounds like two new Pelican songs. FFO: Pelican
The big one for me this week is this fourth album by Brazilian jazz pianist Freitas with guest features for Shabaka Hutchings, Brandee Younger, Hamid Drake and Jeff Parker, and dedicated to the preservation of the Amazon and its rainforests.
Sheherazaad - Qasr
Produced by Arooj Aftab, this debut mini-album got 5 stars from the Skinny and “draws from folk, Indian classical stylings, pop, even jazz and flamenco”, which sounds perfect.
MILC & Televangel - Extra Phish
West Coast hip-hop duo with an EP of what I assume to be offcuts from last year’s The Fish that Saved Portland. AJ Suede and Skech185 amongst the features.
Everything Everything - Mountainhead
Capitalising on the publicity of a recent What’s Their Best Song thread, Everything Everything return with a seventh (7th) album.
ScHoolboy Q - Blue Lips
West Coast rapper returns with an album that has been trailed by some promising preview tracks.
Faye Webster - Underdressed at the Symphony
Country-tinged indie rock singer-songwriter, with Lil Yachty turning in one of the least predictable features you’ll see.
Split LP with “with Laurel taking a quietly orchestral 21 minute nite flyte on one side, and Ekomane synthesising uncanny bagpipe-ish nuttery on the flip”. Only appearing separately on Spotify so far.
Chalk - Conditions II
Dirty, gritty post punk electro from Northern Ireland, with an EP that would be at home on DFA, according to Rough Trade.
Yard Act - Where’s My Utopia?
Their second album sees them trying to expand beyond the post-punk scene tag, with a little help from a diverse cast including the vocals of Katy J Pearson, the production of Gorillaz’ Remi Kabaka Jr and even the voice of comedy’s Rose Matafeo.
Ben Frost - Scope Neglect
Iceland based Aussie sometime purveyor of glitchy electronic dark ambient stuff goes (a bit more) metal.
Nils Frahm - Day
Solo piano. Not dark.
YHWH is LOVE - The Jahari Massamba Unit
Second Collab album from Madlib and Kareem Riggins. Expecting some more jazzy pan-genre beats.
Horse Lords - As It Happened: Horse Lords Live
Live album from the totalist math-rockers. Imagine they would be pretty immense live so looking forward to this.
Maxwell Sterling & Dali de Saint Paul - Penumbra
Experimental collaborative recordings of Maxwell’s bass and synths and de Saint Paul’s vocals borne from a joint session for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, where the recording sessions were so bountiful that only a small fraction hit the airwaves.
Emile Parisien Quartet - Let Them Cook
Jazz quartet led by one of the most exciting saxophonist-composers in Europe.
Julian Lage - Speak to Me
Fourth album on Blue Note for the prominent jazz guitarist.
Daniel Herskedal - A Single Sunbeam
Tuba / bass trumpet-led jazz with Norwegian folk/classical leanings.
Nils Økland Band - Gjenskinn
More Scandi folk-jazz.
Little North - While You Wait
Danish piano, drum and bass jazz trio joined by a Norwegian trumpeter for their latest album.
Liam Gallagher & John Squire - Liam Gallagher & John Squire
Go on then. Collaborative album from two of the stars of the Manchester music scene who haven’t soiled their legacy the most (yet).
Not sure this qualifies as an album, but let’s go with it! Milkweed - Folklore 1979
11 minutes of absolutely frazzled, weird, unique folk. One of the most vital things I’ve heard in a while.
Groundsound - Working Progress
FFO that Gavsborg record last year, this is his new duo with Riddim Writer - dub, dancehall, broken beat. It’s all kinds of ace.
DJ Anderson do Parasio - Queridão
Boomkat’s No. 2 album of 2023 is actually released now in 2024. Forget the logic of that though and it’s great, gutted favela funk. Properly unique, lovely & weird, but doesn’t forget the tunes.
Dip Friso - Dip Friso
This is actually an EP, but three times the length of the Milkweed album. Who wants to make sense of that? It’s great though, very Tirzah & Mica. Proper good.
Oof. A lot going on today. I’m starting with two very good Brooklyn debuts.
The Narcotix - Dying
Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalists Esther Quansah and Becky Foinchas with their debut album, full of West African 12/8 polyrhythms and back-and-forth vocals between the two making a slightly psychedelic sounding album. Really good stuff.
I’ve got a sprained arm and wrist, and was very happy to see this long post, as I have 22 albums in my long list, but looks like only four overlapping albums unfortunately! (Not Liam Gallagher, shockingly). Sheherazaad was on my list, and sounded interesting from the first track!
Meril Wubslin - Faire Ça
I’ll let Bandcamp do the explaining: “This nine-track masterpiece defies genre boundaries, seamlessly merging blues, folk, post-rock, and dub, resulting in a distinctive and unparalleled palette born from all-night sessions and a shared love for avant-garde composers.”
Chorus arrives as Mildlife’s most optimistic record, serving as a sonic testament to the band’s unwavering adoration for the beguiling realms of 70s psychedelic and cosmic sounds. Delve deeper, and you’ll unearth Polish jazz, Italo disco and a sprinkling of contemporary electronic sounds.
The new Squarepusher album is supposedly out, and there’s even a banner on Spotify saying it’s out today, so I presume it’s coming to streaming. But it doesn’t appear to be streaming anywhere yet.
Anyway, the single was one of his biggest bangers in years
Yeah this and Ruth Goller were the two I reluctantly dropped from my list when I saw they didn’t land on streaming today. Shame, was very in the mood for new Squarepusher this morning.