New Music Releases Thread

Thinking about music around the world and the advantage of Spotify and the likes;

We are all very Anglo American dominated aren’t we? There must be some cracking other stuff out there

Granted. There is the following;
France - electro stuff
Mali
Iceland
And some stuff from Canada and Australia.

But we rarely see much else

So today I went googling for Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Russian stuff

Frankly, most of it is pap. I do like Carsick Cars, who are from Beijing and Sonic Youth approved.

Any other random suggestions in the digital world?
 


Thinking about music around the world and the advantage of Spotify and the likes;

We are all very Anglo American dominated aren’t we? There must be some cracking other stuff out there

Granted. There is the following;
France - electro stuff
Mali
Iceland
And some stuff from Canada and Australia.

But we rarely see much else

So today I went googling for Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Russian stuff

Frankly, most of it is pap. I do like Carsick Cars, who are from Beijing and Sonic Youth approved.

Any other random suggestions in the digital world?
Scandinavia and Eastern Europe for the more extreme end of the metal spectrum.

There are some cracking German punk bands

I love a bit of French hop-hop from MC Solaar and Saian Supa Crew.
 
Thinking about music around the world and the advantage of Spotify and the likes;

We are all very Anglo American dominated aren’t we? There must be some cracking other stuff out there

Granted. There is the following;
France - electro stuff
Mali
Iceland
And some stuff from Canada and Australia.

But we rarely see much else

So today I went googling for Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Russian stuff

Frankly, most of it is pap. I do like Carsick Cars, who are from Beijing and Sonic Youth approved.

Any other random suggestions in the digital world?

Scandinavian indie bands, a lot of good kiwi stuff, some Russian folk (mostly Otava Yo), some Japanese post-rock and prog stuff, some Middle Eastern and North African music, a reasonable amount of sub-Saharan African music. I'm sure there's a lot more out there and I've got very little knowledge of Latin American music at all.
 
Scandinavian indie bands, a lot of good kiwi stuff, some Russian folk (mostly Otava Yo), some Japanese post-rock and prog stuff, some Middle Eastern and North African music, a reasonable amount of sub-Saharan African music. I'm sure there's a lot more out there and I've got very little knowledge of Latin American music at all.
That’s all well and good. But names would be helpful. Mono obviously for Japanese, and I think I know a decent amount about the Malian scene. And actually Afro beat as well.
 
That’s all well and good. But names would be helpful. Mono obviously for Japanese, and I think I know a decent amount about the Malian scene. And actually Afro beat as well.

Ah, I thought you were talking generally. Kikagaku Moyo from Japan for psych rock. TootArd (who I've mentioned a couple of times on here) for a sort of Syrian hybrid of desert blues and ska. There's the whole Flying Nun indiepop thing from New Zealand then the folkier likes of Nadia Reid and Aldous Harding plus Marlon Williams.

Trying to think of other African bands - Konono No1 are the obvious one. There was a compilation of Rwandan music called Abatwa earlier this year, which is well worth a listen. Vaudoo Game were good at End of the Road (Francophone Afrobeat).

Saz'iso for Albanian/Balkan folk also.
 
Ah, I thought you were talking generally. Kikagaku Moyo from Japan for psych rock. TootArd (who I've mentioned a couple of times on here) for a sort of Syrian hybrid of desert blues and ska. There's the whole Flying Nun indiepop thing from New Zealand then the folkier likes of Nadia Reid and Aldous Harding plus Marlon Williams.

Trying to think of other African bands - Konono No1 are the obvious one. There was a compilation of Rwandan music called Abatwa earlier this year, which is well worth a listen. Vaudoo Game were good at End of the Road (Francophone Afrobeat).

Saz'iso for Albanian/Balkan folk also.
I actually listened to Saz’iso this week, most pleasant
 
It's definitely one of my favourites of the year.

I noticed when I read a review of it around the time of release (possibly The Guardian or AV Club) that there were a lot of comments about how it was completely different from the rest of their stuff and that a lot of people weren't happy because they had 'sold out'. Seemed a bit odd.
 
It's definitely one of my favourites of the year.

I noticed when I read a review of it around the time of release (possibly The Guardian or AV Club) that there were a lot of comments about how it was completely different from the rest of their stuff and that a lot of people weren't happy because they had 'sold out'. Seemed a bit odd.

There's been a move away from what was more of a folk/roots /blues sound that had a New Orleans base to something a bit closer to Patti Smith or, dare I say it, Springsteen, only with a Puerto Rican background. That's also coincided with a change of band membership beyond Alynda Sagarra. I think it's pretty much amicable and most of the rest of the old band are now concentrating on being The Deslondes, who also released a very good album this year.

On a different subject, it turns out that The Hold steady released a couple of new songs on their Bandcamp page a week or two back:

https://holdsteady.bandcamp.com/

Entitlement Crew, in particular, is the sound of a band back to something like their best.

As far as some other new/newish stuff I've been listening to, Robert Finley's album is good fun (blues veteran given the Dan Auerbach production treatment) and Lawrence Rothman's album is excellent (sort of smooth 80s pop with a voice that's a bit Anohni). Also, Dan Michaelson's latest is worth checking out and the new Bill Baird album is of his usual excellent standard.
 
There's been a move away from what was more of a folk/roots /blues sound that had a New Orleans base to something a bit closer to Patti Smith or, dare I say it, Springsteen, only with a Puerto Rican background. That's also coincided with a change of band membership beyond Alynda Sagarra. I think it's pretty much amicable and most of the rest of the old band are now concentrating on being The Deslondes, who also released a very good album this year.

On a different subject, it turns out that The Hold steady released a couple of new songs on their Bandcamp page a week or two back:

https://holdsteady.bandcamp.com/

Entitlement Crew, in particular, is the sound of a band back to something like their best.

As far as some other new/newish stuff I've been listening to, Robert Finley's album is good fun (blues veteran given the Dan Auerbach production treatment) and Lawrence Rothman's album is excellent (sort of smooth 80s pop with a voice that's a bit Anohni). Also, Dan Michaelson's latest is worth checking out and the new Bill Baird album is of his usual excellent standard.

I've been meaning to give some of the old stuff a listen and not got round to it yet, I'll give it a try over Christmas when there's not much new stuff out. Wasn't sure if I'd be keen given how different it's meant to be but I'll be disappointed if it's a let down based on what you've wrote!
 
It's definitely one of my favourites of the year.

I noticed when I read a review of it around the time of release (possibly The Guardian or AV Club) that there were a lot of comments about how it was completely different from the rest of their stuff and that a lot of people weren't happy because they had 'sold out'. Seemed a bit odd.
I don’t get the whole “they sold out” thing in general. Making music in one style out with the mainstream, to making different music which is style out with the mainstream isn’t selling out. The best bands/artists evolve and try to incorporate something different into their music constantly.

It’s different if a band has clearly changed drastically to a different style of music purely for chart success (Sugar Ray going from being a hard rock band to shite like “Every Morning” for example), but this is rarely the case.
 
I don’t get the whole “they sold out” thing in general.
doesnt it also come with popularity? when you get in with a band on the ground floor, when they're playing a room to a 100 people it might be your little secret... spin forward a few years and that one song the broke them see's them playing the O2 arena and now you're just one of 20,000 who are waiting for the "one song"... then you label the band as selling out for not being that same band who seemed to be your mates in a room of a 100?
 
I’m putting it out there

Kozelek was right, the War on Drugs are shite
I've gone the other way, used to love kozelek and could take or leave the war on drugs, now i think most of kozeleks more recent output borders on the unlistenable whereas the war on drugs stuff is listenable in an undemanding way
 

Back
Top