New Music Releases Thread

Well I am pleasantly surprised by the Death From Above record considering the mid reviews it's been getting. Bit of a mix of sounds on there. Totally Wiped Out sounds pure QOTSA.

Better album than the previous one.
 


The first batch of my listening over the weekend and into this week (part 2 will follow):

For Those I Love: I managed to miss this from my list. Serious album of the year contender. The obvious (and maybe lazy) comparison is The Streets, who get referenced in the lyrics, only with an Irish accent. It's so much more though - it's about being in your late teens and early 20s, it's about the joy you can have with your best mate and it's about the grief and despair that you'd go through when said best mate dies.
Azita: a new name to me, although she seems to be something of a veteran (her 7th or 8th solo album, having been in bands in the 90s). She's an Iranian-American singer and musician. This is a really good album of guitar based songs with hints of R'n'B. Comparable artists: Angel Olsen, Sharon van Etten, Weyes Blood etc.
Esther Rose: another really good album in a strong week. Countryish, folkish songs, delightfully simple but lovely.
The Antlers: as @James said, their best album since Hospice. There's a stately beauty to it allied to really strong songs.
Julius Eastman/Ensemble 0: Eastman was a minimalist composer who died in 1990 at the age of 49. This album. Femenine, is Ensemble 0's performance of one of his major works. It's one track, 74 minutes long and is stunning from start to finish.
Deathcrash: @James gets his second mention as I'd not have listened to this if he hadn't posted about them a day or two back. I like this a lot. A bit post-rocky, sort of gentle but intense. If you'd asked me I'd have said that they'd formed in Oxford in the early 90s.
Nancy Sinatra - not new but a cracking compilation. There's a heavy focus, unsurprisingly, on her work with the mighty Lee Hazlewood.
Nermin Niazi - slightly off the wall. In 1984, two teenage siblings from Birmingham sought to marry the Urdu music they'd grown up with with the new wave, synthpop and disco sounds they heard regularly on the radio. Thus their album 'Disco se Aagay' was born. It's been rediscovered and rereleased this year and is really enjoyable. Sari Sari Raat, in particular, is a killer tune (so good, it's on the re-released album three times in varying forms).
Claud - one of the first releases on Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory label. This is, essentially, bedroom pop. Claud is young, non-binary and very 2021. The album is pretty good.
Clark - Chris Clark has been putting out electronica for a good 20 years now on Warp, until recently. He often uses field recordings as he does on this new album, Playground on a Lake. It's a concpet album, seemingly, about the last person on Earth. It's something of an ambient masterwork (circa 2021). Tracks range from soothing electronica to, er, soothing choirboy fronted guitar stuff. A major step forward.
Cathal Coughlan - Coughlan's work with Microdisney was superb and, with Fatima Mansions, he put out one of the great "should have been a hit" singles in 'Only Losers Take The Bus' and one of the great "should have been massive" albums in 'Viva Dead Ponies!'. His solo work since they split has been patchy. He's mellowed a bit and has tended toward balladry, as well as making a bizarre concept album ('The North Sea Scrolls') with Luke Haines and journo/author, Andrew Mueller back in the early 2010s. This is his first solo album in over a decade and, well, it's pretty good. It's at its best when more upbeat and angry and his voice is still great.
Ed Dowie - the second solo album from Dowie, who is in his mid 40s, has a pudgy but friendly face and, I think, is unrelated to Iain. He was in a band called Brothers In Sound, who released an album in 2000. He's on Lost Map Records, which is usually a sign of interesting and this is very interesting and really good. It's kind of Magnetic Fieldsy synthish excursions into pop only, whereas Stephin Merritt has something of a deadpan baritone voice, Dowie's is quite choirboyish. Highly recommended.
The IDMEMO compilation - @mad cyril gets a shout for mentioning this last week. It's a really well put together compilation of what was known as Intelligent Dance Music back in the 90s and 00s i.e. the electronic music that indie kids also listened to. It's pretty much great from start to finish and made a cracking soundtrack for my lunchtime stomp/walk around the streets of Cambridge today.
Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird - Mathus is the singer/guitarist with pre-rock band Squirrel Nut Zippers, Andrew Bird is the folkish indie rock singsongwriter Andrew Bird. Together, they've made a very nice album of gospelly folk. Mathus' more lived in voice works well with Bird's more chimey proper singing. Good!
Noga Erez - her second album, this is smart, witty, highly listenable, early 2020s pop from Israel. It's good fun.
Field Works - they seem to be getting grouped with the Ambient Americana scene which Uncut are pushing at the moment. This is their ninth album. It's a mix of more traditional instruments (pedal steel, banjo, hurdy gurdy) and electronica and, basically divides into two halves. Half 1 is sung/naarated by musician/musicologist Youmna Saba in Arabic and sounds vaguely middle eastern. Half 2 is narrated by the excellent HC McEntire and reminds me a little of those early 90s electronica/flotation tank crossover tracks (I think The Grid did one) that started "Imagine yourself in your favourite place, it could be a meadow or a donkey sanctuary" only with pedal steel guitar where burbling synths would be. Recommended.
NYX & Gazelle Twin - in which Gazelle Twin's 2018 album Pastoral is reimagined live as a scary patchwork of horror, electronica and folk. Think The Wicker Man remade by Aphex Twin. Reminds me a little of The Knife/Fever Ray if they were a bit more into the Nordic dark folk scene. Recommended, particularly as the soundtrack to a long car journey with kids.
Loney, Dear - early album "Loney, Noir" is something of a classic in the genre that is gentle Scandinavian folkish indiepop. They've not quite hit those heights since. This follows along in the same mode. Its gentle Scandinavian, folkish indiepop. It's really pretty and lovely but a tad inconsequential.
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra - victor in the longest artist name of the week competition. This is nice. Jazz legend Sanders playing over Floating Points' analogue synths with the LSO strings coming in part way through. Essentially, it's one track with nine movements. Like having a lovely bath in gentle music.

As mentioned, part two of this (not as many albums as the above) later in the week so no AotW until then but it's a cracking start.
 
Arkle said:
The first batch of my listening over the weekend and into this week (part 2 will follow):

For Those I Love: I managed to miss this from my list. Serious album of the year contender. The obvious (and maybe lazy) comparison is The Streets, who get referenced in the lyrics, only with an Irish accent. It's so much more though - it's about being in your late teens and early 20s, it's about the joy you can have with your best mate and it's about the grief and despair that you'd go through when said best mate dies.
Azita: a new name to me, although she seems to be something of a veteran (her 7th or 8th solo album, having been in bands in the 90s). She's an Iranian-American singer and musician. This is a really good album of guitar based songs with hints of R'n'B. Comparable artists: Angel Olsen, Sharon van Etten, Weyes Blood etc.
Esther Rose: another really good album in a strong week. Countryish, folkish songs, delightfully simple but lovely.
The Antlers: as @James said, their best album since Hospice. There's a stately beauty to it allied to really strong songs.
Julius Eastman/Ensemble 0: Eastman was a minimalist composer who died in 1990 at the age of 49. This album. Femenine, is Ensemble 0's performance of one of his major works. It's one track, 74 minutes long and is stunning from start to finish.
Deathcrash: @James gets his second mention as I'd not have listened to this if he hadn't posted about them a day or two back. I like this a lot. A bit post-rocky, sort of gentle but intense. If you'd asked me I'd have said that they'd formed in Oxford in the early 90s.
Nancy Sinatra - not new but a cracking compilation. There's a heavy focus, unsurprisingly, on her work with the mighty Lee Hazlewood.
Nermin Niazi - slightly off the wall. In 1984, two teenage siblings from Birmingham sought to marry the Urdu music they'd grown up with with the new wave, synthpop and disco sounds they heard regularly on the radio. Thus their album 'Disco se Aagay' was born. It's been rediscovered and rereleased this year and is really enjoyable. Sari Sari Raat, in particular, is a killer tune (so good, it's on the re-released album three times in varying forms).
Claud - one of the first releases on Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory label. This is, essentially, bedroom pop. Claud is young, non-binary and very 2021. The album is pretty good.
Clark - Chris Clark has been putting out electronica for a good 20 years now on Warp, until recently. He often uses field recordings as he does on this new album, Playground on a Lake. It's a concpet album, seemingly, about the last person on Earth. It's something of an ambient masterwork (circa 2021). Tracks range from soothing electronica to, er, soothing choirboy fronted guitar stuff. A major step forward.
Cathal Coughlan - Coughlan's work with Microdisney was superb and, with Fatima Mansions, he put out one of the great "should have been a hit" singles in 'Only Losers Take The Bus' and one of the great "should have been massive" albums in 'Viva Dead Ponies!'. His solo work since they split has been patchy. He's mellowed a bit and has tended toward balladry, as well as making a bizarre concept album ('The North Sea Scrolls') with Luke Haines and journo/author, Andrew Mueller back in the early 2010s. This is his first solo album in over a decade and, well, it's pretty good. It's at its best when more upbeat and angry and his voice is still great.
Ed Dowie - the second solo album from Dowie, who is in his mid 40s, has a pudgy but friendly face and, I think, is unrelated to Iain. He was in a band called Brothers In Sound, who released an album in 2000. He's on Lost Map Records, which is usually a sign of interesting and this is very interesting and really good. It's kind of Magnetic Fieldsy synthish excursions into pop only, whereas Stephin Merritt has something of a deadpan baritone voice, Dowie's is quite choirboyish. Highly recommended.
The IDMEMO compilation - @mad cyril gets a shout for mentioning this last week. It's a really well put together compilation of what was known as Intelligent Dance Music back in the 90s and 00s i.e. the electronic music that indie kids also listened to. It's pretty much great from start to finish and made a cracking soundtrack for my lunchtime stomp/walk around the streets of Cambridge today.
Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird - Mathus is the singer/guitarist with pre-rock band Squirrel Nut Zippers, Andrew Bird is the folkish indie rock singsongwriter Andrew Bird. Together, they've made a very nice album of gospelly folk. Mathus' more lived in voice works well with Bird's more chimey proper singing. Good!
Noga Erez - her second album, this is smart, witty, highly listenable, early 2020s pop from Israel. It's good fun.
Field Works - they seem to be getting grouped with the Ambient Americana scene which Uncut are pushing at the moment. This is their ninth album. It's a mix of more traditional instruments (pedal steel, banjo, hurdy gurdy) and electronica and, basically divides into two halves. Half 1 is sung/naarated by musician/musicologist Youmna Saba in Arabic and sounds vaguely middle eastern. Half 2 is narrated by the excellent HC McEntire and reminds me a little of those early 90s electronica/flotation tank crossover tracks (I think The Grid did one) that started "Imagine yourself in your favourite place, it could be a meadow or a donkey sanctuary" only with pedal steel guitar where burbling synths would be. Recommended.
NYX & Gazelle Twin - in which Gazelle Twin's 2018 album Pastoral is reimagined live as a scary patchwork of horror, electronica and folk. Think The Wicker Man remade by Aphex Twin. Reminds me a little of The Knife/Fever Ray if they were a bit more into the Nordic dark folk scene. Recommended, particularly as the soundtrack to a long car journey with kids.
Loney, Dear - early album "Loney, Noir" is something of a classic in the genre that is gentle Scandinavian folkish indiepop. They've not quite hit those heights since. This follows along in the same mode. Its gentle Scandinavian, folkish indiepop. It's really pretty and lovely but a tad inconsequential.
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra - victor in the longest artist name of the week competition. This is nice. Jazz legend Sanders playing over Floating Points' analogue synths with the LSO strings coming in part way through. Essentially, it's one track with nine movements. Like having a lovely bath in gentle music.

As mentioned, part two of this (not as many albums as the above) later in the week so no AotW until then but it's a cracking start.
Click to expand...

shit was going to listen to the ‘for those I love’ album today but got sidetracked. Will get it on first thing in morning.
Glad you liked IDMEMO 👍
 
Not sure if it’s been mentioned but quite enjoying ‘the volume of the light’ by Emanative Feat. Liz Elensky

also ‘Into the Rest EP’ by Woom. Think it’s a serious of covers by an all female choir made up several members from varying bands.
*series even.
 
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herra soul mob said:
no, but if you can give me any guidance I'm all ears.
Click to expand...
Hospice is my favourite ever record. Stunning from start to finish. It's a concept album of caring for someone with terminal cancer, used as a metaphor to tell a story of his own relationship falling apart (though he's never explicitly confirmed that). Sounds quite bleak when I put it like that. :lol: It's class though, made me cry when I saw them play it live a couple of years ago.

To be honest I couldn't really recommend much else, other than the new one. They never touched the heights of Hospice and everything that followed was hit and miss. I do quite like Burst Apart and Familiars but both are patchy in quality. The new one is the first complete record they've made since imo.
 
James said:
Hospice is my favourite ever record. Stunning from start to finish. It's a concept album of caring for someone with terminal cancer, used as a metaphor to tell a story of his own relationship falling apart (though he's never explicitly confirmed that). Sounds quite bleak when I put it like that. :lol: It's class though, made me cry when I saw them play it live a couple of years ago.

To be honest I couldn't really recommend much else, other than the new one. They never touched the heights of Hospice and everything that followed was hit and miss. I do quite like Burst Apart and Familiars but both are patchy in quality. The new one is the first complete record they've made since imo.
Click to expand...
cheers ta, will act on the latest album , read review and liked what I read.
 
Arkle said:
The first batch of my listening over the weekend and into this week (part 2 will follow):

For Those I Love: I managed to miss this from my list. Serious album of the year contender. The obvious (and maybe lazy) comparison is The Streets, who get referenced in the lyrics, only with an Irish accent. It's so much more though - it's about being in your late teens and early 20s, it's about the joy you can have with your best mate and it's about the grief and despair that you'd go through when said best mate dies.
Azita: a new name to me, although she seems to be something of a veteran (her 7th or 8th solo album, having been in bands in the 90s). She's an Iranian-American singer and musician. This is a really good album of guitar based songs with hints of R'n'B. Comparable artists: Angel Olsen, Sharon van Etten, Weyes Blood etc.
Esther Rose: another really good album in a strong week. Countryish, folkish songs, delightfully simple but lovely.
The Antlers: as @James said, their best album since Hospice. There's a stately beauty to it allied to really strong songs.
Julius Eastman/Ensemble 0: Eastman was a minimalist composer who died in 1990 at the age of 49. This album. Femenine, is Ensemble 0's performance of one of his major works. It's one track, 74 minutes long and is stunning from start to finish.
Deathcrash: @James gets his second mention as I'd not have listened to this if he hadn't posted about them a day or two back. I like this a lot. A bit post-rocky, sort of gentle but intense. If you'd asked me I'd have said that they'd formed in Oxford in the early 90s.
Nancy Sinatra - not new but a cracking compilation. There's a heavy focus, unsurprisingly, on her work with the mighty Lee Hazlewood.
Nermin Niazi - slightly off the wall. In 1984, two teenage siblings from Birmingham sought to marry the Urdu music they'd grown up with with the new wave, synthpop and disco sounds they heard regularly on the radio. Thus their album 'Disco se Aagay' was born. It's been rediscovered and rereleased this year and is really enjoyable. Sari Sari Raat, in particular, is a killer tune (so good, it's on the re-released album three times in varying forms).
Claud - one of the first releases on Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory label. This is, essentially, bedroom pop. Claud is young, non-binary and very 2021. The album is pretty good.
Clark - Chris Clark has been putting out electronica for a good 20 years now on Warp, until recently. He often uses field recordings as he does on this new album, Playground on a Lake. It's a concpet album, seemingly, about the last person on Earth. It's something of an ambient masterwork (circa 2021). Tracks range from soothing electronica to, er, soothing choirboy fronted guitar stuff. A major step forward.
Cathal Coughlan - Coughlan's work with Microdisney was superb and, with Fatima Mansions, he put out one of the great "should have been a hit" singles in 'Only Losers Take The Bus' and one of the great "should have been massive" albums in 'Viva Dead Ponies!'. His solo work since they split has been patchy. He's mellowed a bit and has tended toward balladry, as well as making a bizarre concept album ('The North Sea Scrolls') with Luke Haines and journo/author, Andrew Mueller back in the early 2010s. This is his first solo album in over a decade and, well, it's pretty good. It's at its best when more upbeat and angry and his voice is still great.
Ed Dowie - the second solo album from Dowie, who is in his mid 40s, has a pudgy but friendly face and, I think, is unrelated to Iain. He was in a band called Brothers In Sound, who released an album in 2000. He's on Lost Map Records, which is usually a sign of interesting and this is very interesting and really good. It's kind of Magnetic Fieldsy synthish excursions into pop only, whereas Stephin Merritt has something of a deadpan baritone voice, Dowie's is quite choirboyish. Highly recommended.
The IDMEMO compilation - @mad cyril gets a shout for mentioning this last week. It's a really well put together compilation of what was known as Intelligent Dance Music back in the 90s and 00s i.e. the electronic music that indie kids also listened to. It's pretty much great from start to finish and made a cracking soundtrack for my lunchtime stomp/walk around the streets of Cambridge today.
Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird - Mathus is the singer/guitarist with pre-rock band Squirrel Nut Zippers, Andrew Bird is the folkish indie rock singsongwriter Andrew Bird. Together, they've made a very nice album of gospelly folk. Mathus' more lived in voice works well with Bird's more chimey proper singing. Good!
Noga Erez - her second album, this is smart, witty, highly listenable, early 2020s pop from Israel. It's good fun.
Field Works - they seem to be getting grouped with the Ambient Americana scene which Uncut are pushing at the moment. This is their ninth album. It's a mix of more traditional instruments (pedal steel, banjo, hurdy gurdy) and electronica and, basically divides into two halves. Half 1 is sung/naarated by musician/musicologist Youmna Saba in Arabic and sounds vaguely middle eastern. Half 2 is narrated by the excellent HC McEntire and reminds me a little of those early 90s electronica/flotation tank crossover tracks (I think The Grid did one) that started "Imagine yourself in your favourite place, it could be a meadow or a donkey sanctuary" only with pedal steel guitar where burbling synths would be. Recommended.
NYX & Gazelle Twin - in which Gazelle Twin's 2018 album Pastoral is reimagined live as a scary patchwork of horror, electronica and folk. Think The Wicker Man remade by Aphex Twin. Reminds me a little of The Knife/Fever Ray if they were a bit more into the Nordic dark folk scene. Recommended, particularly as the soundtrack to a long car journey with kids.
Loney, Dear - early album "Loney, Noir" is something of a classic in the genre that is gentle Scandinavian folkish indiepop. They've not quite hit those heights since. This follows along in the same mode. Its gentle Scandinavian, folkish indiepop. It's really pretty and lovely but a tad inconsequential.
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra - victor in the longest artist name of the week competition. This is nice. Jazz legend Sanders playing over Floating Points' analogue synths with the LSO strings coming in part way through. Essentially, it's one track with nine movements. Like having a lovely bath in gentle music.

As mentioned, part two of this (not as many albums as the above) later in the week so no AotW until then but it's a cracking start.
Click to expand...
Impressive. How do you listen to all that stuff - actually sit down and listen, or have it as background while you're doing other stuff? I've managed to listen to just one new album in the past few weeks!
 
Grimes said:
Seems as if MBV are doing something for Loveless’ 30th anniversary. Likely it will be back on streaming too as they’re now with Domino records I believe.

Hope there’s maybe new music and a tour but that’s wishful thinking from me. :lol:
Click to expand...
MBV just up on Spotify this am.
Stumbled on it by chance.
 
Arkle said:
The first batch of my listening over the weekend and into this week (part 2 will follow):

For Those I Love: I managed to miss this from my list. Serious album of the year contender. The obvious (and maybe lazy) comparison is The Streets, who get referenced in the lyrics, only with an Irish accent. It's so much more though - it's about being in your late teens and early 20s, it's about the joy you can have with your best mate and it's about the grief and despair that you'd go through when said best mate dies.
Azita: a new name to me, although she seems to be something of a veteran (her 7th or 8th solo album, having been in bands in the 90s). She's an Iranian-American singer and musician. This is a really good album of guitar based songs with hints of R'n'B. Comparable artists: Angel Olsen, Sharon van Etten, Weyes Blood etc.
Esther Rose: another really good album in a strong week. Countryish, folkish songs, delightfully simple but lovely.
The Antlers: as @James said, their best album since Hospice. There's a stately beauty to it allied to really strong songs.
Julius Eastman/Ensemble 0: Eastman was a minimalist composer who died in 1990 at the age of 49. This album. Femenine, is Ensemble 0's performance of one of his major works. It's one track, 74 minutes long and is stunning from start to finish.
Deathcrash: @James gets his second mention as I'd not have listened to this if he hadn't posted about them a day or two back. I like this a lot. A bit post-rocky, sort of gentle but intense. If you'd asked me I'd have said that they'd formed in Oxford in the early 90s.
Nancy Sinatra - not new but a cracking compilation. There's a heavy focus, unsurprisingly, on her work with the mighty Lee Hazlewood.
Nermin Niazi - slightly off the wall. In 1984, two teenage siblings from Birmingham sought to marry the Urdu music they'd grown up with with the new wave, synthpop and disco sounds they heard regularly on the radio. Thus their album 'Disco se Aagay' was born. It's been rediscovered and rereleased this year and is really enjoyable. Sari Sari Raat, in particular, is a killer tune (so good, it's on the re-released album three times in varying forms).
Claud - one of the first releases on Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory label. This is, essentially, bedroom pop. Claud is young, non-binary and very 2021. The album is pretty good.
Clark - Chris Clark has been putting out electronica for a good 20 years now on Warp, until recently. He often uses field recordings as he does on this new album, Playground on a Lake. It's a concpet album, seemingly, about the last person on Earth. It's something of an ambient masterwork (circa 2021). Tracks range from soothing electronica to, er, soothing choirboy fronted guitar stuff. A major step forward.
Cathal Coughlan - Coughlan's work with Microdisney was superb and, with Fatima Mansions, he put out one of the great "should have been a hit" singles in 'Only Losers Take The Bus' and one of the great "should have been massive" albums in 'Viva Dead Ponies!'. His solo work since they split has been patchy. He's mellowed a bit and has tended toward balladry, as well as making a bizarre concept album ('The North Sea Scrolls') with Luke Haines and journo/author, Andrew Mueller back in the early 2010s. This is his first solo album in over a decade and, well, it's pretty good. It's at its best when more upbeat and angry and his voice is still great.
Ed Dowie - the second solo album from Dowie, who is in his mid 40s, has a pudgy but friendly face and, I think, is unrelated to Iain. He was in a band called Brothers In Sound, who released an album in 2000. He's on Lost Map Records, which is usually a sign of interesting and this is very interesting and really good. It's kind of Magnetic Fieldsy synthish excursions into pop only, whereas Stephin Merritt has something of a deadpan baritone voice, Dowie's is quite choirboyish. Highly recommended.
The IDMEMO compilation - @mad cyril gets a shout for mentioning this last week. It's a really well put together compilation of what was known as Intelligent Dance Music back in the 90s and 00s i.e. the electronic music that indie kids also listened to. It's pretty much great from start to finish and made a cracking soundtrack for my lunchtime stomp/walk around the streets of Cambridge today.
Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird - Mathus is the singer/guitarist with pre-rock band Squirrel Nut Zippers, Andrew Bird is the folkish indie rock singsongwriter Andrew Bird. Together, they've made a very nice album of gospelly folk. Mathus' more lived in voice works well with Bird's more chimey proper singing. Good!
Noga Erez - her second album, this is smart, witty, highly listenable, early 2020s pop from Israel. It's good fun.
Field Works - they seem to be getting grouped with the Ambient Americana scene which Uncut are pushing at the moment. This is their ninth album. It's a mix of more traditional instruments (pedal steel, banjo, hurdy gurdy) and electronica and, basically divides into two halves. Half 1 is sung/naarated by musician/musicologist Youmna Saba in Arabic and sounds vaguely middle eastern. Half 2 is narrated by the excellent HC McEntire and reminds me a little of those early 90s electronica/flotation tank crossover tracks (I think The Grid did one) that started "Imagine yourself in your favourite place, it could be a meadow or a donkey sanctuary" only with pedal steel guitar where burbling synths would be. Recommended.
NYX & Gazelle Twin - in which Gazelle Twin's 2018 album Pastoral is reimagined live as a scary patchwork of horror, electronica and folk. Think The Wicker Man remade by Aphex Twin. Reminds me a little of The Knife/Fever Ray if they were a bit more into the Nordic dark folk scene. Recommended, particularly as the soundtrack to a long car journey with kids.
Loney, Dear - early album "Loney, Noir" is something of a classic in the genre that is gentle Scandinavian folkish indiepop. They've not quite hit those heights since. This follows along in the same mode. Its gentle Scandinavian, folkish indiepop. It's really pretty and lovely but a tad inconsequential.
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra - victor in the longest artist name of the week competition. This is nice. Jazz legend Sanders playing over Floating Points' analogue synths with the LSO strings coming in part way through. Essentially, it's one track with nine movements. Like having a lovely bath in gentle music.

As mentioned, part two of this (not as many albums as the above) later in the week so no AotW until then but it's a cracking start.
Click to expand...

The other half (well, third) of the week:

Nitin Sawnhey: standard stuff from him. It's all very nice, Asian music mixed in with UK, samples of right wingers moaning about immigrants. Very well made but a little clean and a tiny bit coffee table.
Hannah Peel: highly Delia Derbyshire influenced kind of classical electronica. Hannah Peel is very good and this is up to standard.
tune-yards: quite likeable. It's very obviously a tune-yards album. There's the usual slightly jarring rhythms and nursery rhyme lyrics. I was amazed how much kids (by which I mean under 10s) were into tune-yards when I saw them at End of the Road a few years back.
Lost Girls: Jenny Hval plus a friend, basically. It's similar in essence to a lot of Jenny Haval's recent releases. Spoken word vocals, relaxing synths, bits of guitar and other instruments. Very good!
Renee Reed: a little bit folk and a little bit country. She's a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. It's a very good album. A little closer to, say, Cate le Bon, than she is to Esther Rose.
First Aid Kit: Leonard Cohen songs done live along with some of his poetry. Mostly the classics, as far as songs are concerned. A little overly long.
Xiu Xiu: duets with some well known and not so well known names, mostly from the NYC art rock scene. Some of it is very good, some a bit jarring.
Death From Above 1979: a very good indie rock album (toward the rock end of the indie rock scale). The reviews haven't all been great but I like it.
Sun Kil Moon: this album came out late last year digitally but I''ve only just caught up. It's Kozelek riffing on some of his pet subjects (people he's met, animals, his girlfriend, the trials of ordering hummus in a cafe) but less about touring, as he's not been doing that lately. As usual, a bit overlong but when it's good, it's very good.

Album of the week: For Those I Love triumph in a very good week.
 
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra - victor in the longest artist name of the week competition. This is nice. Jazz legend Sanders playing over Floating Points' analogue synths with the LSO strings coming in part way through. Essentially, it's one track with nine movements. Like having a lovely bath in gentle music.

i managed to get a copy last week from reflex. some of the reviews and thoughts made it sound like it was going to be out of this world. granted, it's had one listen to far and i'd agree with your thoughts on it :lol: but it's not life changing, as some have made out.
 

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