It's Monday, ir's a random time so it must be the weekly sum up/review. A mix of new stuff and a couple of recommendations from others that are quite new...
Cassandra Jenkins: quite the start to the week. Takes the basic model of her previous two albums and refines it. Terrific!
Johnny Blue Skies: Sturgill Simpson in full on psychedelic lounge county singer mode. This is a superb listen.
Joe Goddard: very good. He mostly uses guest vocalists (including Alexis Taylor, making things Hot Chippy). Danceable throughout in a variety of styles.
Liana Flores: she's Brazilian/British and makes music that melds Brazilian tropicalia and folk with British indie pop and folk together with a smattering of jazz. All in all a lovely debut album.
Chris Cohen: he's formerly a member of Deerhoof. This sounds a little like them minus the jagged edges and Japanese female vocals. A very good, solid album of alt-rock.
Cigarettes After Sex: their third album doesn't really stretch much beyond the dream pop template of the first two. It's nice, good songs, lovely vocals, just not novel.
Jake Xerxes Fussell: exceptional. He's a marvellous, warm interpreter of traditional songs and now is writing his own also and they're bloody good.
Luke Temple: also Art Feynman and he's part of Here We Go Magic. This is rather good, slightly wonky arthouse indie. Reminds me, at times, of Field Music.
Danny Paul Grody Duo: instrumental music that falls somewhere near post-rock but isn't really post-rock. It's very, very good.
Eiko Ishibashi: the soundtrack to the film Evil Does Not Exist directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. UNsurprisingly, very cnematic, verges on post-rock again/
Toe: cracking tip from
@chunkyshanhawk53. They're a Japanese post-rock band, which explains why the vocals are initially confusing if you're not aware of their nationality. Exceptional.
This Is Lorelei: cracking tip from
@buckowski. American indie from one of those one man bedroom projects. Lovely songs, stylistically everywhere.
Album of the week: I'm tempted to say all of them except Cigarettes After Sex but, when push comes to shove, if you asked me which one I'd want to listen to now, it would be Cassandra Jenkins.