A Closer Listen
The final segment of our Spring Music Preview covers releases in a variety of genres, symbolizing the vitality of the industry. We’re super-excited about spring, and this is only the tip of the (melting) iceberg. This week we’ve covered hundreds of releases, and many times that will eventually be unveiled. Remember to check our Upcoming Releases page for more! We hope that you’ll stay with us throughout the season and the year as we sort through thousands of albums and highlight one a day, like a vitamin. A happy, healthy and music-filled spring to all of our readers!
Our cover image is taken from sleepmakeswaves’ It’s Here But I Have No Name For It, covered immediately below!
Our post-rock highlight of the season is the return of Australia’s sleepmakeswaves. It’s Here But I Have No Name For It is also a return to the primarily instrumental sound we first fell in love with, after the vocal excursions of 2020’s these are not your dreams. Lead single “Super Realm Park” is a mammoth, stadium-sized rocker, only a hint of the album’s full power. We’re especially enamored with the verdigris swirl vinyl LP (Bird’s Robe/MGM, April 12). Another veteran band, Oklahoma’s Unwed Sailor, returns with an album that purposely references classic 80s bands, heard in “Final Feather,” reminiscent of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” Underwater Over There is out May 10.
Ease the Work is another triumph for Hour: warm, laid back and gorgeous, the work of nine musicians who isolated themselves in a theatre on a remote Maine island to begin the recording process … and experienced an island-wide power outage on their first day. The album displays none of the frustration one might expect from this story, instead conveying a peaceful, all-enveloping calm (Dear Life, April 12).
Ex-Easter Island Head is a band in flux, but the sound of Norther is confident and clean, referencing threatening weather conditions through the squall of guitar and the pounding of drums, yet riding out the storm with a sense of safety. The tracks build like the systems they reflect, landing gently when all is said and done (Rocket Recordings, May 17). Percussive trio De Beren Gieren returns with What Eludes Us, which was produced by Jaga Jazzist and includes some of the expected jazz flair. The Houses is the first single (Sdban Ultra, March 29).
Aptøsrs references the famous dinosaur, and produces large footprints. Cinematic references abound, as synth and strings seep into the mud-soaked holes: nods to the artist’s background in film scores. Elders is released March 29 on SkyBabyRecords. Fans of pure progressive hard rock will be well-served by Pyramids‘ Beyond Borders of Time, the visual correlation of single “Solar Flare” represented on the splatter vinyl (Subsound, March 22). Richard Pinhas & RG Rough rock out on the two side-long tracks of End of the Line, in no hurry to reach said end. This allows the pieces room to build, erupt and recede (Bam Balam, April 20). In contrast, this is NOT the end, claims Present on the polyrhythmic octet’s final album, a tribute to founder Roger Trigaux, who sadly died during the recording (Cuneiform, March 29).
SticklerPhonics plunges deep into an electronic, jazz-soaked realm, lacking bass and chords, but adding a bit of scratching and a whole lot of funk. The music of Technicolor Ghost Parade is as colorful as the album title and cover (Jealous Butcher, May 3). John Cage speaks on “Silence Is Traffic,” the lead single from Menchaka/Noga‘s Activity of Sound, a juxtaposition that Cage might have found ironic. The album jumps between genres, but the guitar is always apparent, as is a sense of sonic curiosity (March 22).
Flute, guitar, electric cello, keyboard and drums, plus a love for progressive rock and jazz, make Vision Is the Identity a cross-genre release. Christopher Hoffman holds it all together despite the presence of the Grim Reaper in the cover art (Out of Your Head, March 22). “Power octet” FYEAR offers a dynamic sound on its self-titled album, which includes spoken word and punchy, System of a Down-esque flourishes. Is is jazz? Is it poetry? Is it hardcore? We’ll let the listeners decide (Constellation, April 5).
Good Folk
Magic Tuber Stringband is recommended to fans of label mates Black Twig Pickers, offering a homespun sound that perfectly reflects their North Carolina home. Asking “what does a modern string band sound like?”, the duo answers with a wealth of tones tumbling down the mountains like melting spring water. Needlefall is out March 22 on Thrill Jockey. There may be some very scary hands on the cover of Kevin Coleman‘s Imagining Conversations, but the album itself is benign. These fingerstyle guitar compositions, augmented by strings and synth, are recommended on the artist’s Bandcamp page to fans of Magic Tuber Stringband, so we’ve linked them in the same paragraph (Centripetal Force, March 19). The warm fingerstyle guitar of tripliciti is showcased on opening single For My Father. The band is billed as a “guitar supergroup,” a slightly misleading phrase that implies a much louder sound. Instead, the trio is more interested in texture, emotion and mood. Their self-titled album is out April 4.
The dream collaboration of Jim White and Marisa Anderson releases Swallowtail on May 9, merging their skills on drums and guitar to create something more than the sum of its prodigious parts (Thrill Jockey). Folk string trio Fran & Flora delves into the traditional music traditions of multiple cultures, adds percussion and voice, and creates a tapestry of sounds and styles. From Transylvania to Ukraine and rock to modern composition, Precious Collection bewilders and beguiles (Hidden Notes, April 12).
We can’t believe Mike Post is still around ~ yes, the same Mike Post who composed the theme song for The Rockford Files and more! Better yet, he’s still relevant, and Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta should bring him a whole new generation of listeners (Sony Masterworks, April 5). Raoul Eden‘s Incarnation is his second release in as many seasons, a flowering of 6 and 12-string guitar, lap steel and drone, improvising yet fluid (March 31). Add ambience, tape hiss and quiet noise to fingerpicking, and you have Black Brunswicker, a solo artist signed to Nettwerk, whose debut album will be out this spring.
David Murphy‘s album won’t be out in time for St. Patrick’s Day, but we suspect that Cuimhne Ghlinn: Explorations in Irish Music for Pedal Steel Guitar will be worth streaming all year long. These tender tracks include contributions from Peter Broderick, Steve Wickham and more, celebrating Irish music across the years (Rollercoaster, April 19).
The sound of Khôra is mystic and global, a trance-inducing journey whose atmosphere is built through meditation bowl, ehru, kalimba and (surprise!) drum machine. Gestures of Perception is offered with a 42-page book to enhance the experience (Marionette, April 19). Farah Kaddour showcases the buzuq on her solo debut Badā, with a guest appearance by Ali El Hout, who plays Persian dak on two tracks. This mix of composed and improvised music traverses worlds, transporting the listener through time and space (Asadun Alay, March 29). Derek Monypeny offers a smooth folk-drone hybrid on The Oppositional Imagination by layering electric guitar and oud. The end result is relaxing and uplifting (Debacle, March 22).
Richard Allen
Fri Mar 08 00:01:40 GMT 2024