My review of the week's new stuff, starting with a review of stuff that's new to me because the albums where physical releases only and I've just picked them up.
The Coral: 'Holy Joe's Coral Island Medicine Show' is a companion both to Sea of Mirrors (released on the same day) and Coral Island (thematically). It's good, some excellent songs on here, alongside short spoken word bits.
Latin Freestyle - New York/ Miami 1983 - 1992: a Pete wiggs and Bob Stanley compilation of, well, Latin freestyle from that decade. Good stuff, if a bit samey over the full set.
Bobby Gillespie Presents • I Still Can't Believe You're Gone: I think the idea is that it's chilled out tracks that Bobby G plays before going on stage. Big names (Dylan, Cave, Al Green etc.), terrific tunes.
The Auteurs: the motherload really, the complete EMI recordings box. Six discs of all the albums (including Baader Meinhof) plus B-sides, demos, live tracks etc. Superb stuff.
None of them are really valid for album of the week, however so on to the contenders...
Matmos: over the years, Matmos have made some terrific experimental records. This isn't one of them. Sounds like a ZX81 game loading mostly.
Jockstrap: more a reimagining than a remix album. This is pretty terrific, again. Very little relationship to the original album.
Viji: as recommended by @chunkyshanhawk53 last week. I like this. Slacker indie rock singersongwriter type stuff.
bar italia: good but not as good as their previous album. I still like the vocal interchanges but some of the slower songs drag a little.
Laura Veirs: very simple instrumentation, good songs, good album.
Robert Finley: held over from last week (i.e. I forgot to listen to him). A very good blues album, essentially.
New Age Doom & Tuvaband: as also recommended by @chunkyshanhawk53 last week. Proggy, post-rocky, spacey. My only previous experience of New Age Doom was their Lee 'Scratch' Perry thing. I like this.
Marnie Stern: she's back. Guitars are shredded, there's weird girly vocals, sounds like nobody else really. Very good but all too brief.
King Creosote: he's back. Cracking folkie songs leading up to an epic almost closer that leads to an even more epic 36 minute actual closer. Cracking album!
Danielle Howle: I like this a lot. Americana, basically, very good songs.
Drop Nineteens: they're back. 30 years after splitting here's album number 3 for the once hotly tipped indie rock band. Excellent, it is, as well.
Sarah Davachi: four tracks of neo-classical brilliance. Drones and strings, drones and strings, drones and strings
Jeffrey Martin: apparently recorded in his shed. There's nowhere to hide in a shed. This is an album of quite lovely songs, just Jeff and his guitar mostly.
Half Stack: more slacker indie rock. Very good, chufs away nicely.
Empty Country: indie rock with space in it. I need to check out their debut. Very good1
Kevin Drew: the Broken Social Scene main man is back. Likeable enough.
Jacknife Lee, Budgie & Lol Tolhurst: very good indeed. Guest heavy (Bobby G appears a lot), quite percussive. I like a lot.
Album of the week: I think King Creosote pips it for me.
I’m gagging to listen to the new King Creosote record but I can’t stop listening to the lol Tolhurst / jacknife Lee record at the minute.