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The Horror: New Music

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I don’t play Wordle. I don’t have a direct line into Vladimir Putin’s strategic thinking, or the situation on the ground in Ukraine. I don’t tickle ribs, and I can’t tell you which was Andrew W.K’s mental breakdown album (all of them?).

I do, however, listen to new music. Quite a lot of it. And I’m also reliably, reflexively, irritatingly over-excited about it. So I’m going to share some of that excitement with you here, whether you like it or not.

I don’t have a hook here (maybe “post some new stuff you’re listening to”, I dunno) – I just really like these tunes and wanted to pass them on. So: here you go – further timeless treasures to be cast adrift into the howling, yowling, scowling void.

BL

Go Easy Kid – Megan Martin

This is very nearly recognisable as actual music, with verses, a chorus, a bridge and all that other good stuff. Plus! No one shouting. I am clearly getting old. Lovely voice, James Blake on the keys – a soothing balm in times of trouble.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_zeHR9AWOk

Lights Out – Fred Again

I’ve been keeping half an eye on Fred Again for a little while now; he’s doing some really interesting stuff across a whole range of styles, and he’s also reportedly a very good time live. Here, he sounds like Jamie xx, but a little more bangertastic. Play loud – it will wake you up.

I Deserve – Smino

The tune of 2022 so far; so much interesting stuff going on with the production, the vocal and the structure of the whole thing. Video is great too. Super talented guy.

Diet Coke – Pusha T

I’m very much enjoying the “Mad Kanye” era we’re currently going through – the Netflix documentary is a happy reminder of the joys of the first album, but also what a difficult, contrary bastard he is. Anyway, I generally prefer my Kanye with someone a bit more competent on the mic, and there aren’t many more competent than regular collaborator Pusha T. This is the first single off what should be the Hip Hop album of 2022. It’s ace.

Everything’s Electric – Liam Gallagher

I did not enter 2022 expecting to get hype over a Liam Gallagher single, but this took me by surprise – it’s really good and properly suits his voice. Someone also recently sent me to “Once”, from his most recent album (I think). That’s pretty good too. I’m enjoying the way that the Gallagher brothers took a long time, post-Oasis, to do anything decent, but are now churning out tunes on a semi-regular basis. The drugs don’t work, chaps.

Estación Esperanza – Sofia Kourtesis feat Manu Chao

A charming reworking of Manu Chao’s “Me Gustas Tu” which has taken up residence on my kitchen playlist.

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Comments

  3. New stuff.I love listening to new and experimenting as much as anybody. However I find myself currently hooked on some old fashioned boogie. Silver Synthetic are a band from New Orleans, with a new album on Jack White’s label.


  6. Saw these at the Chandos Arms in Colindale on Thursday night. A free gig [*].
    Don’t think much of the name they’ve chosen for themselves but the music’s good. Young music students, I think.

    [*] Every 2nd and 4th Thursday night at the Chandos, organised by students from Middlesex University.
    .

    This is nice too from the folks at JazzRe:Freshed

  9. Gemma Cullingford of Sink Ya Teeth released a solo album last summer. The white vinyl dinked edition came with a 7″ featuring a “Rework” by A Certain Ratio of lead single Wide Boys. It has just been released as part of a digital EP.

    And I’m still enjoying the new Ibibio Sound Machine, which is produced by Hot Chip.

  10. The New of 2022 (to be honest, the only New I’ve got so far) I’m enjoying is Yard Act.
    A sort of spiky Post-Punk with overtones of The Fall meets Sleaford Mods meets Half Man Half Biscuit. There’s anger, comment, and no little humour (with a couple of rude words here and there) shoved into just under 40 minutes

    • I love this album & am seeing them live for the first time on Saturday having already got tickets for their November tour too.

      New vid with David Thewlis is a cracker;

  13. Repurposing this old thread for further new (new! new!) music excitement:

    WE – Arcade Fire

    New album out today. First impressions are pretty positive, not least because they appear to have written and recorded what is fundamentally a late period Springsteen track as the album closer. I am enjoying this very much, not least because as I listen I get to imagine it being sung by The Boss.

    DIKEMBE! – JPEGMAFIA

    Bit disappointed with the new Kendrick, which is, regrettably, ploughing the side of Kendrick I’m not particularly interested in. Hopefully parts of the album will go in another direction. Blessedly, JPEGMAFIA has a new EP out, so I’ve been enjoying that as a substitute. This is the standout so far – I love the sheer unpredictability of his work, and the way this twists and turns like smoke on the breeze.

    Sidelines – Phoebe Bridgers

    Not up there with her very best, and yet still: new Bridgers, and therefore good. Has that same lovely warm production sound from recent work, and has accompanied some of my more Dawson’s Creek moments in recent weeks. She remains, unreservedly, a Good Thing.

    AYE! (Free The Homies) – Vince Staples

    If anyone is looking for an album of super laid back West Coast Hip Hop, Vince Staples has you well covered with Ramona Park Broke My Heart. I’ve listened to it a lot the last few weeks, and I can already feel that it will be getting a lot of play once the temperature eventually rises. This is the (or at least: my) highlight – a classic Summertime jam with an irresistible hook.

    I Go: Soulwax Remix – Peggy Gou

    A bop.

    Main Road – Digga D

    Could have chosen any of this, Came In The Scene by Headie One and Reggae & Calypso by Russ Millions, all of which are largely cut from the same cloth. I kind of feel like Digga is recording the same song over and over again, but it’s a song I enjoy so much that I am fully on board for the project. The video is ace too.

    Bonus old track I’ve been listening to loads:

    Hacker – Death Grips

    Implausibly, it’s been 10 years since Death Grips released the enormously underrated and influential The Money Store, and I still find myself mining it for gems. In this case, the album closer: Hacker. The perfect synthesis of Hip Hop, Industrial and EDM, Hacker has so much going on in it that I could listen to it forever. The cryptic lyrics, the bellowed chorus of “I’m in your area”, the sheer acceleration of the entire thing – I love it all. I think you can draw a straight line from this to so much of the more interesting Hip Hop of recent years (not least the JPEGMAFIA tune listed above, which is what sent me back to it).

  14. This is the kind of thing I typically rely on the Afterword to alert me to, but which on this occasion appears to have slipped the net.

    An inquest will duly follow into whether blame and ritual condemnation for this dreadful oversight should be laid at the feet of the community or myself (or both).

    Anyway, it’s quite lovely.

  19. New EP from the Lickerish Quartet is released tomorrow (20th May). I’ve banged on about them before but with 3 of the ex-Jellyfish members, how can they not be great ?

    Available from their website as a download for only 4 of your English pounds (or 12 if you want a CD).

  20. Something new here from a very familiar name, Elizabeth Fraser (ex Cocteau Twins of course) has released some tracks – with her partner Damon Reece – under the name of “Sun’s Signature”, and they sound as lovely as you might expect.

      • Harry’s a one, innie? Blessed with good looks, didn’t win a crap talent contest yet still got picked out for fame and fortune, at 17, with a shite boyband, goes on to make some genuinely very good music, now a Hollywood acting career seems inevitable and as if all that wasn’t enough he comes across a really nice person. What a bastard.

  23. I’m really enjoying the new Bear’s Den Album “Blue Hours”.

    First couple of listens it was pleasant but kind of washed over me, but this track really stood out…..

    It really sank in though after a few listens.

  26. Unexpected combinations of 2022: Liam Gallagher and hallmark card mental health balladry (it’s still pretty good tho).

    Also: new Carly Rae.

    And my favourite thing Elbow have ever done.

  27. Franz Ferdinand-adjacent Weegee band 1990s* are back with their third album (recorded in 2011 and in the can since) due shortly on what is rapidly becoming my fave label, Last Night From Glasgow.

    (*) 1990s is surely the daftest band name since heavy rockers ‘A’.

    Here’s ‘What’s Up With The Midnight Me?’:

  28. I quite like “Wires Turned Sideways In Time”, the new album by the Glasgow-based guitarist Duncan Marquiss.

    “What genre is it, duco?” I hear you ask.

    Well, according to the album’s shrink-wrap packaging, the genre is “Kraut-folk”
    I imagined that “Kraut-folk” would sound like Amon Düül II covering the Watersons, but not a bit of it.

    Take it way, Mr Marquiss…

  29. A thoroughly enjoyable thread.

    Retro tipped me off that Scottish folk band, Eabhal, have a new album, Aisling, out. One listen, and I enjoyed it a lot. I’m very rural in my musical tastes.

    My very urban teenage son suggested I listen to Kay9ine’s latest album.

  30. This playlist is a wonderful testimony to how magnificently eclectic things are around here.

    I just got round to listening to that Monica Martin track. It’s a stunner! Within seconds I was mesmerised and frothing at the mouth.

  32. Nice work, @chrisf! Keep them coming folks and I’ll add them to my playlist.

    Here’s the stupendous opening track of the Delines’ new album.

    And a fine song from Adriana Calcanhotto from Brazil, who I saw recently.

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