It’s the most wonderful time of the year (if you don’t want lots of new albums to listen to).
NOFX - Double Album
Legendary skate punkers final album. 10 songs in 27 minutes.
FFO: legacy bands who are breaking up but will definitely reform in about three years, those Not My President t shirts loads of British punks were (accurately) wearing about 15 years ago, having your early music taste shaped by the Tony Hawks Pro Skater soundtracks
Anything else out today?
Amberian Dawn - Take A Chance: A Metal Tribute To ABBA
Symphonic metal covers of ABBA classics. I hate everything about this but I know there are a lot of ABBA fans here for some reason.
FFO: the worst pop music of all time that provokes a genuine feeling of disgust in me, the year Lordi won Eurovision
These guys are great fun and their album is out today on BSM
Black Ox Orkestar - Everything Returns
Stumbled across this and don’t know anything about them except that they’re on Constellation. Wikipedia description sounds good though:
Black Ox Orkestar is a quartet that formed in Montreal, Quebec in 2000 who play modern Jewish diasporic music that draws influence from Klezmer, Romani, Arabic, Balkan and other East European traditions alongside indie rock, experimental folk and avant-jazz. The band interprets traditional tunes and composes originals sung primarily in Yiddish.
Chale Jaana features scholar, vocalist, and sārangī player Suhail Yusuf Khan in a live studio recording of improvisations and songs from Jenkins’ catalogue.
Intrigued by this because ‘An Overview on Phenomenal Nature’ was easily my most listened to album of last year and I’m wondering what they’ve made of some of the tracks.
Still a decent number of new releases popping up for me today:
Mira Lu Kovacs and Clemens Wenger - Sad Songs To Cry To
Really loved an album by Mira last year, Austrian / English singing, nice heartfelt songs (to cry to).
Black Ox Orkestar - Everything Returns
“an entrancing collection of roiling interpretations of Jewish diasporic instrumentals combined with brooding vocal-driven originals”
Nyx Nott - Themes From
Solo album from Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat. Made up theme songs for different types of tv/film shows.
Maja Lena - Pluto
@rich-t posted about her last year I think. My notes compare her to Joanna Newsom style singing, so maybe for fans of that persuasion.
Anna Jarvinen - Lila
Etherreally scandi-dreamy-pop. As far as I can tell, she has released this album twice, but in different languages. This album is in Swedish.
Anna Jarvinen - Liila
Etherreally scandi-dreamy-pop. As far as I can tell, she has released this album twice, but in different languages. This album is in Finnish.
Micah P. Hinson - I Lie To You
12th album from Mr Hinson.
Ameli Paul - Echoes Of Memoria
“Synthesizers, field recordings, vocals and guitars… thrilling dance tunes to dive into and get lost in”
Kadhja Bonet - California Holiday EP
Dreamy sunshine vibed Christmas songs.
Shirley Hurt - Shirley Hurt
Debut album, “experimental indie folk, pop and country”
Sophie Jamieson - Choosing
Bella Union label singer-songwriter.
The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Mountain Lake Park
a second album from this colourful lot this year. Seems to be instrumental I think.
SKYDYV and Shelf Nunny - Losing Reception EP
“Shelf Nunny’s glitchy electronic production and SKYDYV’s smooth R&B-tinged vocals. It is simultaneously catchy, sexy, and dreamy.”
Their bandcamp has a very mini-boombox of the EP available for sale for $100, limited to 10 people, in case anyone somehow wants that.
There is a new Leftfield album!
Leftfield - This is what we do. (90’s dance)
Third if you count ‘They Only Wanted Your Soul’ as a new studio album rather than a reissue/archival release. He’s also released two EPs this year - basically the Robert Pollard of dreamy jangle pop 
First album in eight years from the New York neo-folk/post-punk group formerly signed to Sacred Bones
Lovely, big fan of black ox orkestra
If I may, as they are friends of mine:
Excellent Post-Hardcore to the tune of Fugazi, Hot Snakes and even the occasional blast into Converge (I used to be in the old UK Screamo band Maths with the drummer Alife which is where the chaotic drumming comes from) with some sharp witty lyrics to beat. Playing an album launch show at Dulwich Hamlet’s clubhouse tonight and then again in Norwich tomorrow (I’m going to both) and having seen them recently when we shared a stage at Til The Fest, they are in terrific form just now with a decent wee bit of momentum behind them. I’ve had the album for a while and can confirm it is pretty brilliant. Get involved!
White Lung return after a looooooong time.
White Lung - Premonition
Played a gig with them last week in Oxford and can confirm they were amazing
Singer is the smiliest chap I’ve ever seen
Looks like the ever reliable El Palmas Music label is releasing it’s latest obscure re-issue of Venezuelan salsa.
Few artists worked as hard at their craft as Ramón Urbina. At the age of 15, and in thrall to the Latin jazz and tropical music he was hearing on the radio, he learnt to play tres guitar. Then he learnt bass. Then percussion, tumbadora, timpani drums, trumpet, trombone, piano, whatever instrument he could get his hands on. A true enthusiast and student of all the tropical music that was percolating through Venezuela and the rest of Latin America at the time, he wanted to understand the art of composition and arranging, and around 1972 he decided to put it to the test, forming his first group, Ramón y su Banda Latina.
Ramón’s group toured throughout Venezuela during the 1970s. Then one day, he went to see La Dimensión Latina in his home town of Charallave, and he saw the future. The age of salsa with its multi-trombone sound was here, and he wanted to take part, recruiting new members to form Moncho y su Banda.
Multi-trombones! That’s gotta be worth a listen.
Various Artists - Loud Women Volume 5
Launching on 2 December 2022, LOUD WOMEN are proud to present our 5th compilation album. Featuring bands and artists who have played LOUD WOMEN’s festivals and events, all profits from the sale of the album will be donated to Musicians Defend Ukraine.
Aye Cal’s lovely, GBOL in general really
The second chapter in his epic fantasy black metal story arrives today. Loved the first chapter’s mix of synth and melodic riffs but slightly concerned by the apparent stylistic shift in the logo and artwork and by “With influences ranging from Power Metal to Symphonic Black Metal and even Pop”, not a fan of power metal at all, but hopefully my worries will be unfounded.
No luck from me today, slim pickings for the rest of the month I think. I thought this was ok…
NOFACESMOOV - NOFACESMOOV - LP - Hip Hop
Low bass down tempo hip hop. I found the production interesting, not a fan of the preview track but the rest was alright.
NOFX is fun, it’s not a patch on So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes or Punk In Drublic but they’re best for quite a long time.
Edit - just got to track 7 and it’s all gone very edgy Family Guy watching teenager. Urgh.