New Releases - 7/17/20
Hitting The Racks
Here's your weekly rundown of what's hitting the new release racks at Grimey's
Jump to… New Releases Reissues & From The Vaults New on Vinyl
New Releases
Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters CD/2xLP (Epic)
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and alt-rock icon Fiona Apple returns with her first album in nearly eight years. Following up 2012's The Idler Wheel, the raw and percussion-heavy Fetch The Bolt Cutters has earned instant acclaim as one of the best records of the 2020 and some of the finest work of her career. It takes its name from a line in the British police procedural The Fall spoken by star Gillian Anderson, but Apple explains that, "Really, what it's about is not being afraid to speak." She produced the adventurous 13-track collection herself and recorded it at her Venice Beach, CA home studio with drummer Amy Aileen Wood, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, guitarist Davíd Garza and Cara Delevingne singing harmonies. Biting yet buoyant, Fiona's elastic turns of phrase are supported by intoxicating melodic hooks throughout with visceral tracks like "I Want You to Love Me", "Shameika" and "Fetch The Bolt Cutters" serving as standouts. "Fetch The Bolt Cutters is a strange and exceptional record, even within the context of an uncommon career...whimsical and hardcore at the same time..." - The Guardian
The Chicks - Gaslighter CD/LP (Columbia)
"The last time the Dixie Chicks reinvented themselves, it was hard to know what would come next. On their most recent album, 2006's Taking The Long Way, the country trio wrote about being spurned by their industry, faced with uncertainty at the point when most bands on their level are finding career equilibrium. "Our last album was the most personal and autobiographical we've ever been," Maines said in 2019. "And then this one is 10 times that." She was talking about Gaslighter, the group's long-awaited comeback record. Like so many of their best songs, from "Goodbye Earl" to "Truth No. 2," the title track gets to the heart of matters by getting personal. Its references to broken promises and Hollywood homes suggest that Maines is addressing her recent divorce from an actor husband, but its larger points speak to the same belief that has driven the group's work from the beginning.With its buoyant rhythm and singalong chorus, "Gaslighter" merges the open-road optimism of their early records with the sharper power-pop of Taking The Long Way. Other than their vocal harmonies-still radiant and seamless, like different strings on the same instrument-banjo player Emily Strayer and fiddle player Martie Maguire accompany Maines in subtle ways, weaving the confrontational verses into the rallying cry of a chorus. The songcraft is so compact, and their trademark sound so welcome and familiar, that its message of empowerment comes across equally jubilant and defiant." -- Pitchfork
Bing & Ruth - Species CD/LP (4AD)
Bing & Ruth, the ever-evolving project helmed by New York composer David Moore, returns with a new 7-track, 49-minute record. While on a surface level, Species is an exploration of the sonic possibilities of the Farfisa organ, aided only by a clarinet and double bass (played respectively by founding members Jeremy Viner and Jeff Ratner), the album title is a nod to both humanity and humility - a devotion to the godly intuition with which we are all endowed, and the humbleness required of us to perceive it. It's also about suspended time and trance; not just a steady movement from A to B, but as something that flows, meanders and eddies, like water.
Grayson Capps - South Front Street CD/2xLP (The Royal Potato Family)
Grayson Capps' South Front Street is a 16-song retrospective of the acclaimed South Alabama singer-songwriter's career, compiled by his wife and longtime musical foil, Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer, Trina Shoemaker.
The Explorers Club - The Explorers Club CD/LP (Goldstar Recordings)
The Explorers Club - To Sing And Be Born Again CD/LP (Goldstar Recordings)
A pair of new albums by the Nashville-based sunshine pop band. To Sing And Be Born Again is a set of cover songs. Features guest vocals by former Barenaked Ladies front man Steven Page, and Drive-By Truckers member, Jay Gonzalez.
S.G. Goodman - Old Time Feeling CD/LP (Verve Forecast)
S.G. Goodman was raised in Western Kentucky on the Mississippi River Delta in a strict church going family of row crop farmers. Her debut solo album, co-produced with fellow Kentuckian Jim James, showcases S.G.'s otherworldly voice, which soars above a sonic blend of gritty guitars, bottomland grooves and plaintive balladry.
Jimmy Heath - Love Letter CD/LP (Verve)
One month before the magisterial tenor saxophonist-composer Jimmy Heath died on January 19, 2020 at 93, he put the finishing touches on the final album of his luminous 76-year career as a professional jazz musician. Titled Love Letter, it's a posthumous masterpiece, the first occasion on which Heath - a well-established master practitioner of the ballad genre - presents an all-ballads recital. Propelling the flow is a multi-generational all-star unit, including NEA Jazz Master pianist Kenny Barron, poll-winning guitarist Russell Malone, soulful vibraphone veteran Monte Croft, New York first-call bassist David Wong, and all-world drummer Lewis Nash. Augmenting the group on separate tracks are 21st century vocal superstars Gregory Porter and Cécile McLorin Salvant, and trumpet icon Wynton Marsalis.Love Letter includes Heath's elegant arrangements of three less traveled originals culled from his enormous corpus.
Jarv Is... - Beyond The Pale CD/LP (Rough Trade)
Beyond The Pale is the debut album from Jarv Is..., featuring Jarvis Cocker (vocals, guitar, percussion), Serafina Steer (harp, keyboards, vocals), Emma Smith (violin, guitar vocals), Andrew McKinney (bass, vocals), Jason Buckle (synthesizer and electronic treatments) and Adam Betts (drums, percussion, vocals).This is the first original music from Jarvis Cocker since his 2009 album Further Complications. Jarv Is... formed to play a show at the Sigur Ros's Norður og Niður festival in Iceland at the very end of 2017, conceived as a way of writing songs in collaboration with an audience. As the material they were playing was in a state of flux the band decided to record their live shows so that they could monitor how the songs were developing. After an appearance at the Desert Daze festival in California, Geoff Barrow (Portishead, Beak>) suggested that these recordings could be used as the basis for Beyond The Pale.
Kansas - The Absence Of Presence CD/CD+Blu-ray/2xLP (Inside Out Music)
Legendary progressive rock band Kansas follow-up 2016's The Prelude Implicit with the new release The Absence Of Presence. Featuring nine new originals produced by Zak Rizvi, Phil Ehart and Richard Williams, Kansas' signature sound is unmistakable throughout. The album showcases Ronnie Platt's towering vocals, David Ragsdale's searing violin, Tom Brislin's dazzling keyboards, Williams and Rizvi's electrifying guitar riffs, Ehart's powerful drums, and Billy Greer's rocking bass. "We are really proud of the album" comments Rizvi. "Making a new Kansas album sets a very high musical standard that is expected from our fans. From rockers, to progressive epics, to ballads, there is something on this recording for everybody."
Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas CD/LP (Nonesuch)
British singer/songwriter/guitarist Lianne La Havas returns with her self-titled third album, her first since 2015's Grammy-nominated Blood. The ten songs - nine originals plus a cover of Radiohead's "Weird Fishes" - span the arc of a love affair, one that brought growth and newfound confidence. "This is my first completely self-produced album with my own band. I got my own way with everything - all the decisions that you hear on this album were mine," Lianne says. "I'm a woman now, so I'm less shy and timid about saying certain things. And there's no right or wrong when it's your record, so I was very much embracing that fact, as well. I've tapped into the best and worst parts of me and while I didn't expect this to be the direction of my new music, it's my reality and it's driven by emotion. I dare say that this is the closest I've gotten to a pure expression so far. If you'd never heard me before, I'd be happy to say, 'This is me. This is who I am.'"
The Lawrence Arms - Skeleton Coast CD/LP (Epitaph)
Chicago bred trio The Lawrence Arms return with their first album in six years. Skeleton Coast contains the elements of the band's sound that fans have come to love for the past two decades but re-contextualizes them in a way that somehow sounds perfectly aligned with this strange time in our collective history. Although it was written and recorded before the Coronavirus pandemic upended the world, the band's seventh studio album sounds eerily prescient as it imagines an apocalyptic future where coyotes croon and wolf packs roam free.
Lettuce - Resonate CD/2xLP (Round Hill Music)
Resonate comes on the heels of Lettuce's 2019 Grammy-nominated album Elevate. "Resonate is a definite continuation of the vibe of Elevate," said the band via a press release. "There's brand-new tracks on it along with some stuff that we've only played live at shows. When listening Resonate, we hope you can feel the groove, be moved to dance and allow it to shine a bright, positive light on any lingering negative vibes."
Peter Manos - Do You Turn Red? CDEP (Capitol)
On the heels of his new single, "Tennessee", acclaimed R&B artist Peter Manos drops his debut EP, Do You Turn Red?. It features new material, as well as several previously-released favorites, including Manos' viral track "In My Head". The New York Times called "Tennessee", "an electronic lament, auto-tuned and steeped in James Blake and Frank Ocean; it also hints at the Beatles' chromatic chord progressions... even as programmed arpeggios swell to support him, he's left uncomprehending and alone, pure male angst." Idolator, meanwhile, praised that, "this is the kind of song that casts an uneasy spell on the listener - commanding a spot on any respectable late-night playlist." The 23-year old Dallas native has been working on an almost exclusively solo basis - as a songwriter, singer, producer, guitarist and pianist. For Do You Turn Red?, however, he turned to producer Sam Ricci (SZA, Kendrick Lamar) and mixing engineer Jeff Ellis (Frank Ocean) to hone his sound. [Vinyl edition due August 7.]
The Pretenders - Hate For Sale CD/LP (BMG)
Following up 2016's acclaimed Alone, Hate For Sale is the Pretender's first album to be recorded with the now long-standing touring line-up of the group. Produced by the revered Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) Hate For Sale is the Pretenders' eleventh studio album overall and the first to be written collaboratively by Chrissie Hynde and electrifyingly dynamic guitarist James Walbourne. "I wanted to write with him since day one," says Chrissie. "James is especially sought after and has recorded with Jerry Lee Lewis, Dave Gahan, and The Rails, to name but a few." And on the single "The Buzz", she adds, "I think we all know that love affairs can take on the characteristics of drug addiction. It's about that."
Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today CD/LP+MP3 (Domino)
A sting in the summer blossom, Ultimate Success Today is Protomartyr's fifth full-length album. Following the release of Relatives In Descent, the band's critically acclaimed headlong dive into the morass of American life in 2017, Ultimate Success Today continues to further expand the possibilities of what a Protomartyr album can sound like. The album was recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios, a late 19th century church, in upstate New York and co-produced by the band and David Tolomei (Dirty Projectors, Beach House) with mixing by Tolomei. Featured guest musicians on the album include Nandi Rose (vocals), jazz legend Jemeel Moondoc (alto sax), Izaak Mills (bass clarinet, sax, flute), and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello).
David Ramirez - My Love Is A Hurricane CD/LP (Streetworld)
My Love Is A Hurricane is an ode to love from an exhausted heart. Written as a transformative relationship began ripping apart at the seams, the lyrics and storytelling of once heart-broken and cynical singer/songwriter David Ramirez sit upon dreamy, psychedelic landscapes that evoke genre-melding contemporaries from Michael Kiwanuka to Grizzly Bear. In facing his pain and self-doubt head on, Ramirez turned My Love Is A Hurricane into a story of potential, survival, hope, and encouragement.
Rebelution - Dub Collection CD/LP (Easy Star)
16 years into an effervescent career, California reggae rock band and touring juggernaut Rebelution remain abundantly creative, whether on the road or in the studio.
Spice - Spice CD/LP (Dais)
At its core, Spice's eponymous album is wired together by brawny and brittle guitars, lock-groove rhythms, and vocals announce each moment and mood. Formed in 2018 and based across California, the band's sound pulls from the sense of melody and drive inherent to Bay Area pedigree, peppered with modernity and awash with an anthemic haze.Traversing guitar-driven indie-pop and call-to-action impulse, Spice balances their urgency by interspersing violin melodies and layers, creating depth without oversaturating the heart of each song.
Strike Anywhere - Nightmares Of The West CD/LP (Pure Noise)
Nightmares Of The West is the band's first studio recording in a little over 10 years. Still political and socially-active as always, the new EP stays true to the classic Strike Anywhere sound.
The Texas Gentlemen - Floor It!!! CD/LP+MP3 (New West)
Pop on Floor It!!!, the new and second full-length effort from the Texas Gentlemen, and prepare your eardrums to be hit with everything from woozy, brass-fueled Dixieland-style jazz ("Veal Cutlass"), to slinky, chicken-scratch country funk ("Bare Maximum") to lushly orchestrated pop-soul balladry ("Ain't Nothin' New") - and that's all in just the first 10 minutes of play time. While the Gentlemen's sound is clearly steeped in the classic roots, rock and pop music of the '60s and '70s, there's a dreamy (the lilting "Sing Me to Sleep"), spacey ("Skyway Streetcar") and occasionally progressive ("Dark At The End of the Tunnel") element to what they do that seems to detach the music from belonging to any particular place and time. Add in elements of funk, soul, country, R&B, southern rock, gospel and essentially any other style that catches their musically omnivorous ears; an expansive and detailed approach to arrangement that sees the songs adorned with all manner of horns, strings and heavenly background vocals ("Hard Road") and you have a collection of tunes that is more than just a mere album. [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Trickfinger - She Smiles Because She Presses the Button CD/LP (Avenue 66)
Legendary LA-based cult figure John Frusciante presents his most diverse yet cohesive album to date. Frusciante has the melodic and programming chops to jump from style to style while sounding only like himself, sometimes striking a middle-ground between Balearic and IDM as well as touching on pastoral, "intelligent" ambient. The common thread through this quixotic journey are his trademark, timeless melodies. For years now, Frusciante has immersed himself in machines, learning tracker programs, synths and drum machines inside and out, applying the same, tireless approach he's exhibited throughout his career. On his third album as Trickfinger, this period of intense study leads to intense creative liberation.
New on Vinyl
Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways LP+MP3 (Columbia)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. Rough And Rowdy Ways is Bob Dylan's first album of original material in eight years and his first since becoming the only songwriter to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 2016. Its 10 tracks include the three new songs released this spring: the album's lead-off track, "I Contain Multitudes", the nearly 17-minute epic "Murder Most Foul", and "False Prophet". "This isn't perhaps the most comforting communique to issue in the middle of a global pandemic, but then the man behind it has seldom dealt in soothing reassurance. And besides, it doesn't matter. For all its bleakness, Rough And Rowdy Ways might well be Bob Dylan's most consistently brilliant set of songs in years: the die-hards can spend months unravelling the knottier lyrics, but you don't need a PhD in Dylanology to appreciate its singular quality and power. It is a testament to his eternal greatness."
The Allman Betts Band - Down To The River LP (BMG)
Limited double clear vinyl LP pressing of the Allman Betts Band's 2019 debut album. Led by Devon Allman, son of founding Allman Brothers Band keyboardist and singer, Gregg Allman, and Duane Betts, son of founding Allman Brothers Band guitarist and singer, Dickey Betts, Down To The River was recorded at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studios with producer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Prine and Elvis Presley). The beginning of the partnership between Devon Allman and Duane Betts goes back to the Gregg Allman tribute show at the Fillmore in San Francisco. It was time, in that historic venue, to pass the spirit to the next generation. It was time to take all the lessons of the past, all their collective experiences, and make something new.
Marvin Gaye - Every Great Motown Hit Of Marvin Gaye: 15 Spectacular Performances [Reissue/1983] LP (Motown)
Marvin Gaye - His Classic Duets LP (Motown)
Every Great Hit Of Marvin Gaye: 15 Spectacular Performances is a platinum-selling 1983 compilation which covers Marvin Gaye's career, from his key 1960s hits through the multi-chart # 1, "Got To Give It Up". His Classic Duets is an update of Marvin Gaye's 1970 collection Marvin Gaye & His Girls. The vinyl album sleeve (cover and back) artwork is based on the original. 14-tracks featuring duets with Tammi Terrell, Mary Wells, Kim Weston and Diana Ross.
Arca - KiCk i LP (XL Recordings)
Produced and recorded by Arca, KiCk i defines a new era of multiplex harmony for the Venezuelan artist, singer, DJ, performer and experimental music composer. Featuring guest appearances by Björk, Rosalía, Shygirl and Sophie, KiCk i is a celebration not only of the joy Arca's been able to find in her life, but the sometimes arduous journey it took for her to find it. Her struggles to reconcile her Venezuelan heritage and her trans Latinx identity emerge as reggaetón and pop en Español. "I don't want to be tied to one genre," Arca says. "I don't want to be labeled as one thing." [CD due July 24.]
Genevieve Artadi - Dizzy Strange Summer LP+MP3 (Brainfeeder)
On Dizzy Strange Summer, Genevieve Artadi offers a window into her ad-lib creativity and the L.A. community where it's been nurtured. This is the vocalist, composer and producer's second solo album, and it sees her stake out her own ground outside of her other groups Knower (with Louis Cole), Expensive Magnets and Everything's Under Control. She brings her own slant to the DIY L.A. scene that she's grown up in, melding influences from jazz, psychedelia, bossa nova and avant-garde electronics.
Dehd - Flower Of Devotion LP (Fire Talk)
"I want nothing more than to be alone," Emily Kempf sings early on Flower Of Devotion, the third album by Chicago trio Dehd. It's a startling admission coming from a songwriter who, just a year ago on Dehd's critically acclaimed Water, wrote eloquently about the joys and pains "more than anything, the necessity" of love, compassion, and companionship. But then, "admission" isn't really the right word here, given the stridency of Kempf's tone. "Loner" is a declaration. The record ups the ante on Dehd's sound and filters in just enough Polish to bring out the shining and melancholy undertones in Jason Balla and Emily Kempf's songwriting, even as it captures them at their most strident. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Sam Hunt - Southside LP (MCA Nashville)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. A propensity for songs that don't drag on has long been a strong point for Sam Hunt and not one song on Southside lasts longer than 3:55 minutes long, and that's the first song on the record. 'Let It Down' has a twangy, sing-a-long feel to it and while it doesn't really say too much, it'll work well in Sam's live show and could very well become a radio hit with its programmed drums mixed with bluegrass harmonies and instrumentation. 'Sinning With You' was a digital preview track a little while back and while it really didn't feel like something a modern radio station would play, it did show a different time and sound to Sam Hunt, the same thing which can be said about 'Breaking Up Was Easy In The '90s', a song which blends sounds of R&B, '90s country and 2020s production techniques to give me the sense of what could become another big hit for Hunt on the radio.Sam Hunt is a unique star in country music and in a world of sameness, it's nice that he's around making records like Southside." - Roughstock
Felt - Felt 3: A Tribute To Rosie Perez [Reissue/2009] 2xLP (Rhymesayers)
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of Murs & Slug's third collaboration under their Felt moniker, Felt 3: A Tribute To Rosie Perez has been pressed on a limited edition double-LP blue & white 'galaxy effect' vinyl, with one of three limited bonus die-cut picture discs featuring exclusive remixes.
Fall Out Boy - Believers Never Die [Reissue/2009] 2xLP (Island)
Vinyl reissue of the first greatest hits album by the alt-rock band. Believers Never Die contains all the songs the band had released as singles to that point in their career, in chronological order, as well as two new songs and two rarities that debuted as a part of the original collection.
Joy Division - Closer [Reissue/1980] LP (WB)
Joy Division - Transmission [Reissue/1979] 12" (WB)
Joy Division - Atmosphere [Reissue/1980] 12" (WB)
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart 12" (WB)
Limited 40th anniversary edition of Joy Division's sophomore album Closer, pressed on crystal clear vinyl. Also available: four album-era 12" singles, repressed on 180gm vinyl. Closer is the second and final studio album by English rock band Joy Division. Produced by Martin Hannett, it was released two months after the suicide of the band's lead singer and lyricist Ian Curtis.
Kllo - Maybe We Could LP+MP3 (Ghostly Int'l)
New release from the electronic pop collaboration of Melbourne cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam. Ten tracks pairing the rhythms of dance music to emotive chords and melodies; revealing two artists at their strongest yet most vulnerable, operating as their truest selves, honest with each other and their craft. Limited colored vinyl pressing.
Jens Lekman & Annika Norlin - Correspondence LP (Secretly Canadian)
For the first time since the digital release, Lekman's collaboration with Swedish songwriter Annika Norlin (Hello Saferide, Säkert!) has been released on vinyl. An epistolary novel in the form of twelve folksongs.
Nick Lowe - Lay It On Me 12" (Yep Roc)
This limited edition vinyl EP features two new originals from Lowe, "Lay It On Me Baby" and "Don't Be Nice To Me", plus a cover of Dorsey Burnette's "Here Comes That Feeling" (made famous by Brenda Lee). Nick's wordplay and razor-sharp lyrics shine bright with the twang-friendly tones of Los Straitjackets behind him.
Egisto Macchi - Sud e Magia LP (Cinedelic Records/Soave)
Maestro Egisto Macchi (Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza) recorded this mystical ethnographic trip to the South of Italy imbued with its rites, superstitions, magical symbols and popular mythologies in 1977 for the TV Documentary Sud E Magia. Astoundingly evoking the intensity, magic, and psychedelia of its subject with the use of inventive and unconventional techniques (aerophones, crystal glasses, prepared piano), Macchi harmonizes kindred spirits from transcendental, religious, and metaphysical sound forms. This pinnacle of experimental library music is released for the first time with audio restored from the original master tapes.
Matao with Atilla Engin - Turkish Delight LP (Arsivplak)
A Turkish jazz-funk delight originally released in 1979, with a hard-hitting rhythm section blending into a prime example of the swingin' sound of the cool influences of jazz, funk, and folk music, with a Turkish flavor. An instrumental library of traditional Turkish jazz sessions punched up with drums and percussion sets, plus electro-bass breaks with Moog and synthesizers from the beginning to the end. Traditional Turkish songs based on drums and synth bass over moody 5/8 fuzz guitars.
Merzbow x Kaoru Sato - Kyoto Oct 21 2018 LP (Slowdown Records)
First collaboration between Japanese noise legend Merzbow and visionary/provocateur Kaoru Sato of R.N.A. Organism and EP-4. Side A: live recording of Merzbow and Kaoru Sato's first live collaboration. Recorded October 21st, 2018 at Metro Club in Kyoto for a three-label showcase with avant-garde imprints Slowdown, Phonon, and Kyoh Records. Side B: Solo sessions by each artist that took place after the joint performance on the same night. Edited and mixed in their respective studios.
Ingrid Michaelson - Human Again [Reissue/2011] LP (Spirit Music Group)
Ingrid Michaelson - Lights Out [Reissue/2014] LP (Spirit Music Group)
Vinyl reissues of the singer-songwriter's fourth and fifth albums.
Minais B - Quiet Bloom LP (Anyines)
Quiet Bloom describes the return to life after losing a loved one and finds the Danish producer exploring spiritual music, rituals and ceremonial togetherness. The album takes the listener through the multi-colored feelings embedded in the process of grieving; threads of emptiness and crisis, but also lighter playful and even joyful passages permeate the album, which shifts from ecstatic arpeggios to sonic spaces for celebrations beyond bodily life. The solemnness of the organ is a recurring element, and the exchange between virtual organs and digital synths, from the "father of synths", from "real" to "fake," is equal and respectful, as is the treatment of the different phases of grief and gradual return to the surface that Quiet Bloom represents.
Molina - Vanilla Shell EP (Tambourhinoceros)
Danish-born Molina writes, performs, produces, and co-mixes all songs herself resulting in pop music with an experimental approach to songwriting. The Vanilla Shell EP features songs like "Venus" which has been lauded as one of 2019's best tracks, and "Hey Kids" which has gained Molina thousands of new fans on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and TikTok. The EP also features the single "Parasito" that is half-Chilean Molina's first song sung in Spanish. RIYL: Jenny Hval, Grimes, John Maus, Molly Nilsson, Fever Ray, Depeche Mode.
Alva Noto - Xerrox, Vol. 4 2LP (Noton)
This fourth installment of Carsten Nicolai's series based on the concept of digital replication of source material finds him turning to a more harmony-driven composition technique. Unlike the previous Xerrox albums, whose starting point is a set of samples extracted from external sources and fragments of recordings, Vol. 4 compounds under a unified cinematic soundscape, warm organic chords, thrumming digital ambiences, liquified electronics, drones, and noise sustained by floods of strings. This fourth volume shuns further from the conceptualism and orderliness of prior musical outputs, ranging from heart-warming elegies to mind-bending sci-fi projections in extrasolar territories.
Various Artists - The Ladies of Too Slow to Disco Vol. 2 2LP (How Do You Are?)
16 compelling tunes and hidden gems from 1974-82 that tell a political story, while taking the suave sounds you love into new territory: soul, gospel, and jazz. The songs on this compilation are from women who were taking control of their own careers, making an independent stance in some of the most trying years for women in the history of the recording industry and breaking through the machismo that sat upon the glass ceiling before them to create classics. On this compilation, you'll find confessional funk and sultry disco, 5th Avenue flounce and soulful midnight aching, and you'll discover artists who were movers and shakers of the 1970s women's music movement, determined to fashion a music industry that worked for them.
Yaeji - What We Drew LP (XL)
NYC-via-Seoul electronic producer, DJ and vocalist Yaeji releases a new mixtape. What We Drew is titled intentionally; for Yaeji, the title captures the spirit of the project as a whole which she explains, "is so much about friendship, family, gratitude and support - support that I've felt, that I've given, and that we all share." Produced entirely by Yaeji over the course of two years, she started writing the music for What We Drew with no specific narrative in mind, each track becoming a snippet of her life, a look into her diary.
Reissues & From The Archives
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Just Coolin' CD/LP (Blue Note)
A never-before-released studio date by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack, New Jersey studio on March 8, 1959, and featuring the legendary drummer - whose centennial was celebrated in 2019 - along with trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt. The six-song set includes two previously unissued compositions: "Quick Trick" and "Jimerick". "In 2020, it's great to find more Morgan, Mobley and Timmons in their prime," writes Bob Blumenthal in the liner notes for Just Coolin'. "The music had clearly settled in during the month that separated studio and live versions, but the fire of these six tracks has an appeal of its own."