New Releases 31 December 2021

Last new release thread of 2021. Anything doing? I’ve just caught up with a couple of good uns that came out on Boxing Day.

Jeffrey Lewis - 2021 Tapes (Suddenly It’s Been Too Late for a Long Time)

Latest annual lo-fi tape of new stuff from the great and prolific ‘antifolk’ singer-songwriter Jeffrey Lewis, including a cover of It Happens In Florida by another of my favourites, The Burning Hell.

"Hi, Jeffrey here, I’m putting out another batch of home-made songs today (in digital form only, no physical copies)! This is the new “2021 Tapes,” same as how I put out the 2019 and 2020 Tapes last year. Assembled from some of this year’s personal recordings, and all mastered by Brian Speaker, so the volume-levels are consistent from the different sources.

I don’t currently feel like dealing with plastic and manufacturing and shipping for this stuff, it’s just kind of lo-fi home-made material anyway. Like the tapes full of songs I used to do every year in my early days. This is not on CD, not on LP, not on dubbed cassettes, not on streaming services. Thanks for being there, best of luck to all in the new coming year.”

Nancy Kerr - The Poor Shall Wear the Crown: Songs by Leon Rosselson

Former Folk Singer of the Year (and my neighbour) Nancy Kerr with this album based on her 2020 lockdown project covering songs by Leon Rosselon, the satirical songwriter, children’s book author and part of the folk revival scene. Didn’t know these songs at all; they’re great/funny/both.

And a couple of good free/pay what you decide label compilations:

Various Artists - Artoffact Records 2021 Sampler

Enjoying this selection from the Toronto-based label’s 2021 releases, mainly electro, synth-y rock and post-punk. A couple of artists whose stuff I know (including Novosibirsk’s finest, Ploho) and a few I plan to explore further.

Various Artists - Reverberation Appreciation : Label Compilation

60 track compilation of loosely psych rock stuff from 11 years of releases on The Reverberation Appreciation Society record label, including Ty Segall, OSEES and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

And one more, the latest Death Is Not The End archival release.

Morteza Mahjubi - Selected Improvisations from Golha, Pt. II

"The second part in a collection of stunning Persian-tuned piano pieces, cut from Iranian national radio broadcasts made for the Golha programmes between 1956 & 1965.

Morteza Mahjubi (1900-1965) was a Iranian pianist & composer who developed a unique tuning system for the piano which enabled the instrument to be played in all the different modes and dastgahs of traditional Persian art music. Known as Piano-ye Sonnati, this technique allowed Mahjubi to express the unique ornamental and monophonic nature of Persian classical music on this western instrument - mimicking the tar, setar & santur and extracting sounds from the piano which are still unprecedented to this day."

Also name your price on Bandcamp

Lastly, thanks to all of you on here for sharing your recommendations during the year. I’ve listened to so much great stuff that I wouldn’t have found if not for these weekly threads.

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Ooh, a few things to check out there, thanks!

Only one from me:

Talons’ - 2 Weeks
DiS and @TAFH33 faves, Talons’ have a lovely delicate little EP out, presumably fr an upcoming album. It’s so new that he sings about Omicron.

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zakè, City of Dawn & Ossa - A Pale Shelter

All I have is the streaming launch for this record that was out on bandcamp a few weeks back, but wasn’t mentioned here. Ambient drone trio collaboration between zake, City of Dawn, and Ossa. Two tracks feature close friend Benoît Pioulard. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri.

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Three more…

I Monster - These Are Our Children

Leftfield electro pop.

“The very first and very rare I Monster album from 1999. Recorded in the era of Atari ST! Only 1000 CDs were pressed in 1999. Contains the original version of Daydream In Blue.”

Just put up on Bandcamp. Doesn’t seem to be on Spotify (yet)?

Various Artists (Nothing Is Mine) - Influencesticide: A French Tribute To Nirvana

28 covers of Nirvana tracks by French artists. I haven’t delved far enough to see if anybody has done anything particularly radical with their interpretations - I hope so though - after a while of reasonably faithful covers on albums like these I feel like I should just listen to the original and best, but if there’s a nose-flute-heavy free jazz version or a banging techno version, or even just a translated-the-lyrics-into-French version, I’ll be interested to hear them. Anyway, this is name your price on Bandcamp.

Various Artists - Take This To Heart Records 2021 Label Sampler

Another end of year label compilation, this one of indie rock put out by the Massachusets-based Take This To Heart label. Don’t think I’m familiar with any of the bands featured. But enjoying some of them so far.

Only thing I’ve got to add is that shoegazers, Animal Ghosts released this ep yesterday.

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Nothing to add except listening to the Analog Africa complete playlist on shuffle whilst making dinner, happy new year to everyone who contributes to these threads - you’ve vastly improved my tastes this year, here’s to more in 2022!

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New EP of very nice post black/blackgaze

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Kill Rock Stars have released a 25th anniversary comp of folk covering other KRS folk:

Tracks by Laura Gibson, Anais Mitchell, Deerhoof, Laura Veirs, Mirah, Shamir, Fruit Bats, Mike Watt, etc, etc, etc…

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Happy 2022 all! Just held my New Year’s/last third of 2021 party with several rather unexpected guests.

Barbican Estate and Rupture // Rapture were the favourites over Chirstmas week, with I Like Trains and Wisbands in third (albeit with just three votes for the favourites and two votes for third place).

Another quiet one. What, if anything, did you like?

  • Animal Ghosts - Wake
  • I Monster - These Are Our Children
  • Jeffrey Lewis - 2021 Tapes (Suddenly It’s Been Too Late for a Long Time)
  • Moongazer - The pain that never leaves​.​.​.
  • Morteza Mahjubi - Selected Improvisations from Golha, Pt. II
  • Nancy Kerr - The Poor Shall Wear the Crown: Songs by Leon Rosselson
  • Talons’ - 2 Weeks
  • Various Artists - Artoffact Records 2021 Sampler
  • Various Artists - Reverberation Appreciation : Label Compilation
  • Various Artists - Stars Rock Kill (Rock Stars)
  • Various Artists - Take This To Heart Records 2021 Label Sampler
  • Various Artists (Nothing Is Mine) - Influencesticide: A French Tribute To Nirvana
  • zakè, City of Dawn & Ossa - A Pale Shelter
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I did like 10 of the new releases but as ever, there’s like and LIKE. I thought the Nancy Kerr one was brilliant, especially the Leon Rosselson songwriting which I didn’t know at all - it’s not particularly folky, this, certainly not trad, so the folk-averse on the boards might still like it. Jeffrey Lewis was reliably ramshackle and bodes well for the next full album whenever that appears. And I really enjoyed the shoegazey Animal Ghosts EP. Everything else was fine, even the French Nirvana covers one which I listened to in bits to avoid being annoyed by.