Plenty of top releases clamouring for your attention this week. Get your lugholes around these.
Buffet Lunch Perfect Hit!
Ramshackle odysseys of observational charm from Scotland/Newcastle four-piece on Upset The Rhythm. In their wonky melodicism and strange but beguiling sense of rhythm, they are a perfect fit for one of England’s most consistently oddball and appealing record labels. One to gorge upon.
Dirty Projectors & stargaze Songs of the Earth
A song cycle for orchestra and voices. Just as Dirty Projectors’ Rise Above sounds nothing like Damaged – the Black Flag album upon which it was based – Song of the Earth bears little resemblance to its namesake: Gustav Mahler’s 1908 song-poem Das Lied Von Der Erde. But Longstreth notes that “it is saturated with the Mahler work’s themes, feelings, and spirit of dissolved contradiction.”
Yann Tierson Rathlin from a Distance / The Liquid Hour
An album divided into two distinct, interconnected parts, each with its own unique sonic characteristics: Rathlin from a Distance is eight tracks of introspective instrumental piano, The Liquid Hour is an expansive, genre-defying blend of electronic and psychedelic rhythms.
Pigs x 7 Death Hilarious
Newcastle riff wizards with a diversely punishing record that shape shifts through Sabbathian doom, grotesquely minimalist noise rock and cyclical post-metal fortissimos.
Marlon Williams Te Whare Tīwekaweka
Supported by long-time touring band The Yarra Benders, co-producer Mark Perkins, the He Waka Kōtuia singers and featuring a collaboration with Lorde, the album is a collection at once contemporary and timeless, traversing Marlon’s familiar folk-country-bluegrass territory, while continuing his exploration of poppier waters and the inherent rhythms of Māori music.
Miki Berenyi Trio Tripla
A richly layered, imaginative and uniquely slanted strain of dream pop that is an often euphoric and sometimes melancholic mix of guitars and electronica,
Anika Abyss
Notably heavier than previous releases, the 10-track album is raw, urgent, and fuelled by strong emotions. Pulsing with a heavy guitar and rhythm section, Abyss takes Anika on a new sonic journey.
The Nightingales The Awful Truth
Wordy, Beefheartian post-punk veterans.
L.A.Witch Doggod
A record that captures the band journeying out of the proto-punk, psychedelia, and gritty riffage of the ‘70s into the chorus-drenched guitars and forlorn minimalism of Joy Division and early The Cure.
Talulah Paisley Fool
Talulah Paisley is the Brooklyn-based experimental rock’n’roll band led by singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Lyris Faron. Deemed “unselfconsciously whimsical [and] unapologetically earnest” by the New York Times, Faron’s compositions centre on relationships, gender and nostalgia.
Famous Friend Blue EP
The sun-soaked dream rock project of Los Angeles writer/producer Zachariah Carlson
Fraufraulein Greater Honeyguide
Each composition can serve as a meditative space, and observing the quietly unfurling layers of sound — a footfall and a quiet breath, scraps of overlapping melodies sung like notes to self, synthesizers droning lightly in the distance — can be a very calming, grounding experience.
Famous Friend Blue EP
The sun-soaked dream rock project of Los Angeles writer/producer Zachariah Carlson.
Panchinko Gingko
Across the record, there are moments reminiscent of ELO’s electronic, chromatic playfulness, OK Computer-esque, brainy theatricality, and even bits of Rage Against The Machine’s hip-hop flow.
Soul Coughing Live 2024
21 song set comprising tracks from their 1990s albums.
Coffin Prick Loose Enchantment
His latest could be of interest to followers of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Scott Walker and Chris & Cosey
Amplifier Garagantuan
Eighth album features their signature blend of progressive rock and experimental sounds.
Heaven Dream Aloud
Third album from power popgaze band that pair timeless melodies with layers of reverb-driven guitar.
Warfield With The Old Breed
German trio unleash brutal shredding riffs and lightning-fast beats with powerful precision.
Florist Jellywish
On their new album, New York minimalist folk quartet Florist invite listeners to question everything — to imagine a world where magic, surrealism, and the supernatural are our companions in day-to-day life.
SYML Nobody Lives Here
It is fuelled by the keen understanding that life is a contradiction, a fleeting moment. As he accepts the presence of loss, he still welcomes others into his space with melody, lyrics, a slide guitar, or a cello’s hum.
Craig Finn Always Been
Sixth solo album from The Hold Steady frontman includes contributions from The War On Drugs and Sam Fender.
Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals A City Drowned in God’s Black Tears
A duo that has achieved a cult-level following in experimental hip-hop, blending chaotic, genre-defying production with unapologetic social critique and dark humour.
Nico Georis Music Belongs To The Universe
A searching collection of improvisatory, open-ended piano and keyboard experimentation.
Glare Sunset Funeral
Shoegaze band whose album has a multiplicity of heavily crushed textures, treasures.
CRIG CRIP EP
The debut solo project from Craig Johnson, the singer from Leeds post-punk outfit AUTOBAHN. A lo-fi, satirical take on the singer-songwriter tradition, these are raw, unfiltered diary entries, delivered with directness and a DIY spirit.
The Underground Youth Decollage
A trip-hop infused soundtrack to a collection of lyrics dealing with adoration, ancestry, originality, hallucinations of revolution and a hope that something better can be born from the ashes of the horror that exists in our world.
Dalila Kayros Khthonie
Kayros embodies the dark and destructive qualities of the Greek Gods with screamed vocals and sudden shifts in mood, while Danilo Casti’s generative electronic production adds an element of unruly chance to their performances.
Michael Grigoni and Pan•American New World, Lonely Ride
Using instrumental voices and textures drawn from the traditional American forms of folk, country, bluegrass and blues, and informed with a modern sense of ambience and space, the sound is both contemporary and deeply rooted.
Hüma Utku Dracones
Turkish composer explores her own pregnancy and passage to motherhood with immersive, shuddering sounds.
Chimers Through Today
Duo with a powerful bedrock of sound and taut rhythms.
Djo The Crux
The musical project of actor / producer / songwriter Joe Keery, known for his work in such blockbuster projects as Stranger Things and Fargo. It races through a world of sounds and styles owing to the likes of Television, Wings, LCD Soundsystem, Jeff Lynne, Lemon Twigs, MGMT, Tame Impala.
Stranded Horse The Warmth You Deserve
Throughout the stripped-back arrangements, a newfound serenity emerges in Tambour’s compositions, while Cissokho’s distinctive kora playing weaves its way through the album like a golden thread.
Sarah Mary Chadwick Take Me Out To a Bar / What Am I, Gatsby?
Chadwick performs her signature sucker-punch, an elegant kill switch from poetry to blunt reportage, intrinsically linked and blood related to the almost chintzy, dark drama of her piano.
Allegaeon The Ossuary Lens
On the death metal band’s seventh album, the science-based lyrics are as challenging as the progressive musicianship.
Nikhita Solace EP
Telling stories through entrancing vocal melodies, live instrumentation and the soothing frequencies of singing bowls, the five tracks delve into topics such as struggles with self-worth and identity, draining relationships, and familial difficulties:
Toby Sebastian Eyes Light Up
The 11 tracks take inspiration from the sounds of the late 60s and early 70s, from songwriters and guitarist such as Marc Bolan, the warm acoustic sounds of John Martyn, to the smooth soul of Marvin Gaye, while also playing with a fresh sound reminiscent to contemporaries such as Hozier or Jake Bugg.
Richard Walters Company EP
Five track EP featuring collaborations with some of his favourite artists: Ainslie Wills, Katharine Priddy, Luke Sital-Singh, Daudi Matsiko & Audrey Powne and Fairhazel.
Lawrence Hart Come In Out of The Rain
An ‘emotional garage record, euphoric and therapeutic,’ journeying through cinematic uplifting synths and moments of fragility enriched with obscure vocal samples.
The Null Club The Null Club
Debut EP from a project that fuses hip-hop, industrial, and black metal.
Ed Kuepper & Jim White After the Flood
Collaboration between members of The Saints and Dirty Three.
Brown Horse All The Right Weaknesses
Their new album sess them meld slacker-rock, folk and alt-country – equal parts Lucinda Williams, Jason Molina, The Breeders and Silver Jews.
Air Drawn Dagger A Guide for Apparitions
Sheffield-based electro-emo angst-pop trio.
Lou Phelps Chelbe
Haitian-Canadian rapper known for his effortless flow and genre-blending sound that seamlessly fuses hip-hop, house, and jazz-infused production.
Juanita and Juan Jungle Cruise
A musical duo formed by Alice Bag and Kid Congo Powers, two influential figures in the punk and alternative music scenes who first crossed paths in 1977 during the early days of the Hollywood punk movement.
Visceral Eyes, Teeth and Bones
Group with one foot planted firmly in old-school death metal and the other reaching into the genre’s darkest and most extreme realms.
Daniel Kleederman Another Life
Artist best known for his work as musical director and touring guitarist for Bartees Strange.
Foamboy lime knife time hand 6 track EP
Portland synth pop duo.
