Spotify just sent me a load of push notifications. One of the last big release days this year I reckon.
I’ll be listening to…
Green Lung - Black Harvest
British retro doom metal similar to Ghost but singing about folk horror and with Ozzier vocals.
Every Time I Die - Radical
Fun metal.
Black Marble - Fast Idol
Spooky new wave a bit like Cold Cave or the Soft Moon
Hbu?
Massive day apart from the obvious, aya - i’m hole for me, Clive.
If anyone gets a chance listen to I Wish It Would Rain by them as well it is ace.
Green Lung are amazing, they’re like some weird well kept metal secret. Hope this blows up for them.
How do you get these? I’ve never seen anything from my Spotify app.
That said, my Release Radar playlist is such a desert I’m not sure I want them.
To paraphrase Mercury Rev, today is all about yer Self Esteem. But there’s also a ton of other music I’m checking out today:
Aksak Maboul - Redrawn Figures 1 / Redrawn Figures 2
A pair of remix/rework albums of the Belgian avant-rock group’s 2020 electronic chamber pop record. The Notwist, Cate le Bon, Kate NV, Vanishing Twin amongst the contributors.
Aya - im hole
Debut album on Hyperdub, mix of glitchy garage, grime, jungle, rap and mutant IDM. FFO Arca maybe.
Bedouine – Waysides
“Sixties folk meets seventies country-funk with a glimmer of bossa nova cool. Lithe guitar picking and precise lyrical excursions.”
Call Super – Cherry Drops II
Companion EP to last month’s part I. Inventive atmospheric techno.
Circuit des Yeux - -io
“An imposing concept album that’s part Western epic and part psych odyssey. It takes place on a land where “everything is ending all the time”. With its timeless, off-world approach to baroque pop, it’s a surprisingly hi-fidelity offering, at the centre of these lofty songs is Fohr’s distinctive low, warbling vibrato. "
Deerhoof - Actually, You Can
It’s one of those bands with deer in the title.
Grouper – Shade
Liz Harris returns, sparse and cavernous folk-pop with touches of ambient, slowcore, folk and drone.
Guided By Voices – It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!
Don’t call it a comeback. Robert Pollard returns with his first album since April 2021.
Helado Negro – Far In
Warm, daydreamy electronic Latin pop crooning, his first LP for 4AD.
Herbert – Musca
Literal house music, featuring sounds wrought from Matthew Herbert’s own home and animais.
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle
Recently uncovered live performance of one of the very best jazz albums, or just music in general really.
JPEGMAFIA – LP!
Dark and surreal experimental hip-hop. Tkay Maidza and Denzel Curry feature.
La Luz – La Luz
Naturalistic, psychedelic harmonised garage-surf-rock-pop, produced by Adrian Younge.
Lana Del Ray – Blue Banisters
Second LDR of 2021, kind of forgotten the earlier one already though.
Lomond Campbell - LŪP
Scottish soundsmith who makes his own instruments, experimental electronic tunes.
Lonely Guest – Lonely Guest
New project from Tricky featuring Lee “Scratch” Perry, Martina Topley-Bird, Joe Talbot and more.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – B-Sides and rarities Part II
27 more odds and ends from NC & The BS.
Olafur Arnalds – Invisible EP
Some typically glacial beauty that was written for a film but then buried on a hard drive for a decade.
Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita – Suba
Cuban keyboardist Omar Sosa and Senegalese kora maestro Seckou Keita collaborate on delicate and tender songs of hope.
Orquesta Akokán – 16 Rayos
Vibrant mambo from a Cuban band more who are more about the dance floor than the social club.
Ouri – Frame of a Fauna
Montreal-based French singer/producer /composer fusing orchestral compositions with industrial fuzz and trip-hop.
Parquet Courts – Sympathy For Life
7th album of spiky art-punk from the Courts.
Ross From Friends – Tread
Lo-fi bittersweet house music on Brainfeeder; first album since 2018 from a producer who you could say was… on a break.
Self Esteem – Prioritise Pleasure
More emphatic, emotional, exceptional pop bangers. If it’s as good as her debut it will be a great album, and the early reviews seem to say it’s better.
Jarvis Cocker - Chansons d’ennui Tip-Top
J-Cock turns his hand to French classics to tie in with a new Wes Anderson movie.
Tonstartssbandht – Petunia
Unpronounceable folk-psych fusion filled with guitar grooves and HARMONIES.
Oh and also:
Chelsea Carmichael - The River Doesn’t Like Strangers
The first album on Shabaka Hutchings’ new label Native Rebel recordings. Chelsea is a saxophonist with the Seed Ensemble and who plays with Theon Cross, her debut album sounds like another strong addition to the Shabaka Jazz Universe (SJU™)
Slow Crush - Hush fuzzy beautiful shoegaze
What with Sepf Esteem and ETID, that’s three artists whose previous work made my too tens in previous years. Exciting day.
Massive day. Won’t even try to list everything I want to listen to.
Trace Mountains - HOUSE OF CONFUSION
Project of former LVL UP guitarist. Dreamy, warm and folky music.
Hand Habits - Fun House
My Morning Jacket - S/T
Stacked day.
Self Esteem takes priority, but let me give Charles’ (ex-Slow Club) new band a shout too.
Got Helado, Lana, Black Marble and Ross From Friends lined up too.
Got Parquet Courts, Self Esteem, MMJ and Circuit Des Yeux lined up, and also the new Strand Of Oaks - vaguely spacey Americana FFO….well, My Morning Jacket really
Quantic and Nidia Góngora - Almas Conectadas
Second collaborative album between electronic/funk/soul producer Quantic and Colombian folk singer-songwriter Nidia Góngora.
Self Esteem, Parquet Courts and Hand Habits have been mentioned, will also have…
Adeline Hotel - The Cherries Are Speaking
A very short, lushly produced piano led album from a prolific songwriter.
Clinic - Fantasy Island
Ninth album of offbeat psych from Clinic. They go a bit disco and a bit dub for this one at times, and cover Ann Peebles’ I Cant Stand The Rain.
A bumper day. I’m particularly excited about Helado Negro and Bad Seeds (both of which I’ve pre-ordered) and I’ll be streaming Self Esteem and La Luz this morning.
@Octobadger your short descriptions are fantastic, lots of other stuff to check out based on those.
Jacques Greene - ANTH01
Compilation of deep house tracks from Jacques Greene’s 10 years of back catalogue.
Anyone trying new Biffy?
Plenty of interesting new stuff to go through from @Octobadger 's list. Really looking forward to the new Helado Negro album. Some other bits and bons not mentioned:
Dinner - Dream Work
One of the most fun live acts I’ve seen. Catchy sort of 80s indie pop. Just tagging in @Steved as he liked them/him in music league. I’m already in love with the first song.
Mess Esque - Mess Esque
Discovered them as a side project of someone from Music League. Lovely female vocalist and Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner. Hazy relaxing sounds.
Léonie Pernet - H24 (Band Originals De La Série Arte)
French electro poppish lady who has an album out next month, but this is an additional set of tunes from a TV show I think.
Moyka - The Revelations Of Love
Norwegian synthy pop.
Okay Kaya - The Incompatible Okay Kaya
She’s described herself as “singer-crywanker” on Spotify. I don’t think I should try a proper description.
Jherek Bischoff - The Ocean At The End Of The Lane
Another chap who did well on music league with his Cistern track. Instrumental orchestral sounds, from some National Theatre production.
SUSS - Night Suite EP
Some old dudes making some really nice ambient country. Enjoyed their album from last year.
Harris Vole and Somni - Sirens EP
A four track instrumental sort of melodic hip hop beats EP.
Hawthonn - Earth Mirror
Chilly folk drone
On Earth Mirror, Layla’s heavenly voice accompanies a sonic palette encompassing field recordings of ice cracking on an ancient Corpse Road, mysterious hymns sung in disused medieval chapels, spectrally processed horse shrieks, electronic textures, rumbling organ, crystalline electric piano, and modulated jaw harp. No guitars appear on this album. Nor do conventional song-structures: the compositions of Earth Mirror organically developed from dreams (‘Dream Cairn’), experiments with inducing magical visions (‘Odo Galse’, ‘Vehiel’), ruminations on lunar beings (‘Crowned Light’, ‘Circles of Light’), and ecological anxiety (‘Cat’s Cradle’). Their literary influences include English witch Andrew Chumbley, nihilist philosopher Emil Cioran, the Enochian language of John Dee and Edward Kelly, and even Kurt Vonnegut.
two words: circuit des yeux