This week’s releases are generally from lesser-known names but there is plenty worth exploring.
The Joy Hotel Ceremony
A seven-piece that wrangle influences across alt-country and 60s psych, with six-part vocal harmonies and elements of alt-rock, cramming a world of inspirations into a sound that surges, crescendos and crashes.
JB Dunckel Mobius Morphosis
Air co-founder releases his first ballet score which features the choir of Maîtrise de Radio France, directed by Sofi Jeannin, blended with electronics and percussion.
Chin of Britain Opaque Inflections
Formerly drummer with Camden lurch band ‘Milk’, Hackney krautrockers ‘Quickspace’, melodic east london shadow players ‘Dark Captain’ and ’Firestations’, Chin Keeler holds a circle of comforting euphonic noise which is tickled with playful satire.
Baby You Know Clear Water and To Live Is To Fly
Rerelease of 2 albums from the 1990s by a Bavarian band with a sound somewhere between indie rock, Americana and British-style pop music.
Minny Pops Stockholm_1974
First album in 40 years from Post-punk electro pioneers, Peel Session favourites, and former Factory Records signees whose frontman Wally van Middendorp musing on his formative years as a student in seventies Sweden.
Philip Henry – Jupiter
Eleven track album from one-man studio band. It is bookended by atmospheric space-age instrumentals while the songs have an air of Husker Du at their most commercial and accessible.
Orua Passe
Brazilian band known for their noisy, lo-fi experimental sound and resistance to fascism.
Elori Saxl Drifts and Surfaces
The three-piece set originates from three different commissions, each influenced by her experience of living on Madeline Island, a small island in Lake Superior, and unified by shared themes that explore how technology has come to define our daily life: the blurring of physical and digital worlds, the compression and datafication of human experience, and the paradox of everyday stasis and constant change.
Pas Musique Come Follow Me
This album pays tribute to FAD GADGET, with 80’s synthpop-tinged compositions with a touch of modern noise and lyrics that are inspired by metaphysical and philosophical themes, interlaced with abstract vocalizations.
Henrique Vaz De Silenti Natura
Both sides of the album slowly unwrap and uncrinkle, revealing layers of hisses, distant digital choirs, warm enveloping chords, and juddering bleeps.
L.C.Franke Still in Bloom
Inspired by the savoir-faire of artists like Frank Sinatra, Scott Walker, and Ella Fitzgerald, Still In Bloom sees L.C. Franke building a bridge between 20th-century nostalgia and post-millennial alienation, his barstool croon smouldering against a backdrop of woodwind trills and string quartet swells.
Beachwood Sparks Across the River of Stars
The record showcases the band’s signature Western swing and the blend of soft signature, expressive vocals of Chris Gunst..
Glass Animals I Love You So F***ing Much
A record inspired by the sci-fi world of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, full of ‘70s analogue synths and a vast space-scale of production
Olivier Cong Tropical Church
Hong Kong composer transposes the humid nights of the rainy season into a fluid audio postcard that speaks to contemporary life in his home city-state.
Highly Suspect As Above So Below
It invites listeners on a sonic journey that blends their trademark gritty guitars, haunting piano melodies, and off-kilter synths with a newfound sense of introspection and exploration.
A Shoreline Dream Whitelined
Progressive shoegaze band who are joined for a guest appearance by Mark Gardener of Ride.
Greytooth An Afternoon for a Fact EP
Bedroom folk with industrial & ambient elements, a bit of an Alex G / Tapir! / Magnetic Fields vibe.
SSD Get It Away
Reissue of 1983 album from one of the first straight-edge bands.
sparkle*jets u.k. Box of Letters
The Southern California power pop bands’ first album of original material since 2002
Summer Salt Electrolytes
Trop-pop outfit whose seven songs are packed with short, to-the-point pop goodness.
Role Model Kansas Anymore
Pondering life, love, and everything between over an ever-evolving sonic palette of pop, alternative, hip-hop and punk.
