So, something of a bumper weekend for listening to new stuff for me. Quick summary, in no particular order:
Baloji: cracking album! He's a Belgian rapper of Congolese origin so what you get here is a Francophone merging of afrobeat, afropop and hip hop. Well worth checking out!
Cavern of Anti-Matter: It's good but vastly different to previous CoA-M material.
Ernie Hawks and the Soul Investigators: flute fronted, largely instrumental retrofunk from Finland. Enjoyable!
Preoccupations: As mentioned already in the thread, it's just a bit dull.
Alasdair Roberts, Amble Skuse and David McGuinness: Really good! Alasdair Roberts is a big favourite of mine anyway. This takes his traditional Scottish murder ballads and sets them over piano, a bit of orchestration and some electronics.
Melissa Laveaux: She's a Canadian singer-songwriter, of Haitian origin, who would normally do sort of folk/blues stuff but has gone back to her Haitian origins for this. Exceptionally good! Elements of calypso, soca and traditional Haitian guitar stuff.
Jack White: Seems a tad all over the place. Tracks are enjoyable but I'm not so sure how cohesive an album it is.
The Rheingan Sisters: It's a good week for traditional music. I was very impressed by them at Cambridge Folk Fest last year. Two sisters playing violin and sometimes singing. They've spent time training with both French and Scandi traditional musicians, seemingly.
Sunflower Bean: Enjoyable indie rock. They've lost a little of their early shoegaziness, maybe.
Bonny Doon: As
@James said, a lovely listen. Pavement gone a bit country/folk would be my reference point. Not doing anything massively original but warm and comforting.
BCUC: bouncy, shouty, dancy, South African fusion of lots of things. Only three tracks - the first is 19 mins+, the next 16 mins+ and the third 3 and a half mins. The final one (Nobody Knows) could be a hit, if hits still happened nowadays.
Gris-de-lin: very impressive. Female singer-songwriter from Dorset. Meshes together post-rock, blues, anti-folk etc.
Mark Pritchard: gentle, ambient electronica. He was formerly one half of Global Communication (along with Tom Middleton). Goes further down the line he followed with 2016's Under the Sun.
