VINYL OF THE MONTH
Borokov Borokov World War Too (Rotkat)
Belgian duo Borokov Borokov are described by one source as “weirdcore”. Their gumbo of lo-fi funk, indie-electronica, and games soundtrack synth burbling does, indeed, frolic into purposeful silliness, as on the entertaining “Slippery”, a dry disco-flavoured ode to improper lust (including repeated outraged shrieks of “It was an accident!”). There are moments when they remind of a much more cantankerous and crudely formed Chromeo but their latest, limited to 300 on vinyl, also contains cute synth-pop slowies and cranked-up noise-pop boppers. Each song is a collaboration with another artist, including Personal Trainer and their regular workmate Younisss (who co-produced the album). Borokov Borokov have been going a few years and created a few albums; it's time their quirky underground alt-pop reached more ears.
VINYL REVIEWS
Momoko Gill Momoko (Strut)
London-based British-Japanese-American musician Momoko Gill (who has sometimes gone by the stage name MettaShiba) has worked with sampling adventurer Matthew Herbert and hails from the same milieu as Alabaster DePlume, Cobe Sey, et al. She initially found her way round music via percussion, and her debut album matches this with keys and a lightly jazzy shuffle. Her relaxed, breathy voice is an instrument that sits comfortably amidst the production. Some cuts are groovier, such as the sax-laced roller “When Palestine is Free”, but Momoko is mostly gentle in tone. It’s complex but avoids the cod-soul blandness of the "broken beats" sound, to which it’s adjacent. Comes with a 12” x 12” four-page insert full of photos, lyrics and background info.
Duran Duran Duran Duran (Parlophone) + Duran Duran Thank You (Parlophone)
By the early 1990s it looked like Duran Duran were done. They’d had a very good run. Their last couple of albums were stinky and their international chart reach was waning. But 1993’s eponymous album – often called “The Wedding Album” due to cover photos of band members’ parents getting married – caught everyone by surprise. To start with, it contains “Ordinary World”, one of their greatest songs, a haunted ennui-laden slowie that goes beyond their usual “Rio”-style catchy pop. It conveys a real sense of existential angst. They followed it, as a single, with the moody, Bond theme-ish “Come Undone”. While not consistent, there are other highlights, such as the trip hoppy “Love Voodoo”. However, it was another song that hints at where they’d go next, a (not-as-bad-as-you’re-now-imaging) cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale”. That's right, next came 1995’s notorious, much-mocked Thank You set of cover versions, an album sometimes termed the worst of all time that’s since garnered cult status. It’s was, at the time, a ridiculous exercise in 1980s excess a decade too late. In 2026 not all its over-polished tributes to Duran Duran's heroes (from Iggy to Dylan to The Doors) sound as dreadful as may be remembered. We live in, as Simon Reynolds coined it, the age of retro mania, thus the straighter tribute band-style covers, while hardly diamonds, aren’t the naff hoot they once were. There are exceptions, such as a ghastly, unlistenable take on The Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion” and, yes, those ill-advised hip hop covers (NB. The only cover of “Ball of Confusion” anyone needs is by Love & Rockets). Both albums come in double on gatefold with Thank You also containing a poster
Bellbird The Call (Constellation) + Glissando 70 G70 2: Bones of Dundasa (Constellation)
A couple from Montreal weirdness merchants Constellation Records. By their far-out standards the second album from local quartet Bellbird is relatively straightforward. Based around sax, clarinet, bass and drums, they muster a sound that’s intimate, busy, and revelling in compressed percussion and reverb. This, alongside their propensity for madcap cuts such as the bird-trapped-in-a bassbin title track, takes their music into a zone inhabited as much by electronic explorers and the freakier end of post-rock.
Comes in art/info iner sleeve. Next up is the debut album from Toronto duo Craig Dunsmuir and Sandro Perri; in fact a collection of what they did 10 years ago, thought they’d lost, then rediscovered. This is more what we expect from Constellation. It opens with a hypnotic eight-minute, dub-ish, trombone-laced version of Arthur Russell’s “Lucky Cloud”, but then “settles” to completely wonky, playful experimental pieces, often consisting of pings, scrapes, blips and wobbles (along with a gloopy take on New York street-living Viking hippy Moondog’s “You the Vandal”). It’s all wilfully bizarre and occasionally delicious. Comes in photo/info inner sleeve.
Dub Pistols and Freestylers Enter the Sound (Cyclone)
Barry Ashworth’s Dub Pistols are a perennial fixture of festival-land, up there nowadays with Zion Train (indeed they have their own festival, Mucky Weekender). Their new album is with longterm pals Freestylers, the post-Big Beat outfit who had some hits a couple of decades ago. It’s not going to surprise anyone familiar with either group, but that isn’t to suggest there’s not fun to be had. Ostensibly it’s one of those “soundtrack to an imaginary film” affairs. I’m not feeling that, aside from occasional Portishead-influenced cuts such as “Whiskey & Water” (featuring Scarlett Quinn). Instead, with a host of lively, high-ish profile guest MCs such as General Livey, Tippa Irie and Tenor Fly, it’s a dancefloor-ready stew, full of cheesy but well-estimated culture references (Clash basslines, “Wonderwall” chorus lifts, etc). It will set joyful feet moving on grass this summer, and also fill your room with party spirit.
Vitalic OK Cowboy: Special Edition 20Y Boxset (Citizen)
One of this century’s most enjoyably accessible but still “proper” techno albums was Vitalic’s musically imaginative 2005 debut OK Cowboy. 20 years later, this benchmark album by the French producer, known to his mum as Pascal Arbez-Nicolas, receives the boxset treatment from its parent label, the sometimes underestimated Citizen. He has said the album was flavoured by the times, when acts such as LCD Soundsystem and Justice were huge, and this can be heard on cuts such as the rockin’ “My Friend Dario”, but the album is equally in thrall to the techno-pop ethos of the label he first signed to, DJ Hell’s International Deejay Gigolos. This boxset's double album contains bonus cuts, such as the worthwhile Tiga-like “You Are My Sun”, and there’s a transparent 7” single containing a bullish live 2025 take on the martially percussive “Valetta Fanfares”, with another bonus cut, the bangin’ “Anatoles”. Also in the box are an eight-page 7” x 7” photo booklet, a CD of the album, a slipmat, a keyring, a sticker, and six Vitalic coasters.
Abigail Snail Rad Burns (Romac Puncture Repairs) + Taupe Waxing/Waning (Minority)
“Skronk” is the onomatopoeic term thrown at artists who apply free jazz principles to a punk band attitude. The New York No Wave scene was ripe with it, but its looser fringes run into the worlds of metal and indie. It is, without doubt, one of the more difficult-on-the-ears genres. And we have two releases this month dipping a toe. London duo Abigail Snail consist of Stef Ket on guitar and bass and Will Glaser on drums and percussion, with occasional saxophone from James Allsop. Their spiky abstract music lies somewhere between Captain Beefheart, Albert Ayler and Stump. It’s shouty, hard work, and invigorating. Comes in photo/lyric gatefold.
Glasgow trio Taupe are noisier, jerkier, less interested in “songs” and more in twitchy assault, with the same kind of instrumental line-up as Abigail Snail, but supplemented with electronic weirdness. It ranges in tone between material that fringes into funk metal one minute then, the next, warped free jazz experimentation revelling in a chaos almost uncontrolled, yet with a deranged rhythmic logic at its heart. It’s exhilarating, off-the-wall stuff and arrives in art/info gatefold.
Various House Masters: Purple Disco Machine (Defected) + Crooked Man Crooked Stile (Vicious Charm)
A couple of albums from the wittier, more characterful side of the clubland dancefloor. In an era when house, once a hugely exciting music form, has become one of the most conservative and bland, it’s good to hear these records. First, a new collection of remixes by German DJ-producer Tino Piontek, AKA Purple Disco Machine. His M.O. is to recalibrate tunes as Giorgio Moroder-aligned stonkers. It’s a simple idea but it works. He attends to whoppers by Fatboy Slim (“Praise You”), Spiller (“Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”, The Shapeshifters (“Lola’s Theme”) and Tensnake (“Coma Cat”), as well as his own. With the latter he moves further from the Moroder template. But not too much. Comes on three well-cut discs.
Crooked Man is Sheffield electronic groundbreaker Richard Barratt, AKA DJ Parrot, he of original bass-meisters Sweet Exorcist and, later, Nineties pop-dance outfit All Seeing I. His third Crooked Man album appears on Damian “Midfield General” Harris’s Vicious Charm label and opens with an inarguable 12-minute rave-buzzed take on disco-soul classic “Don’t Leave Me This Way”. From there, he goes where he fancies, Chicago house, Balearic chill (check “Seesaw”), subterranean tech-dub (“Denka”) and more, closing with a four-to-the-floor version of Jarvis Cocker’s underheard 2006 gem “Cunts Are Still Running the World”. He may be an old hand but Barratt is one of the few keeping house renewed. Comes on two records.
The Long Ryders High Noon Hymns (Cherry Red)
Back in the early 1980s Los Angeles band The Long Ryders, combining a Sixties garage band ethos with a love of country music, hit on something original that would prefigure 1990s alt-country. They released three albums back then. They split up decades ago but have been active again this last decade. High Noon Hymns is the third album since their rebirth. It arrives on double in photo/info gatefold, with photo/lyric inner sleeves, and shows off a trio with fire still in their bellies. It’s not all for theartsdesk on Vinyl, but the best of it channels the spirit of Gram Parsons one song, then something more gruffy rockin’ the next. And there’s a lovely version of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young”.
Fliptrix Elevation (High Focus)
Fliptrix is the man behind High Focus Records, the south coast hip hop hub that’s been quietly holding its own for well over a decade-and-a-half. He is a prolific MC but his eleventh album retains an upbeat spirit and wriggly-brained lyricism. Produced by Forest DLG (AKA Telemachus), the beats are a match for the wordage, keeping the backing punchy, the samples interesting, while Fliptrix holds forth, sometimes going in a surprisingly new age direction, but at others, as with “Energy! Energy! Energy!”, featuring General Levy, simply starting the party. Other guests on board include Kamakaze and Coops, while one cut, the boisterous verbal showcase of “Dangerous” has a guest list as long as your arm. Spread over two records, Fliptrix still holds his own, staying true to original hip hop principles.
Beck Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime (Capitol)
Beck’s Valentines Day compilation makes it onto vinyl. The title track was on the soundtrack to Michel Gondry’s cult 2005 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a cover of The Korgis’ deathless 1980 hit, one of those yacht rock-ish guilty pleasures that’s soppy yet more-ish. Beck’s version is a downtempo indie thing and not the best thing here. That might be the string-swathed “Ramona”, drawn from another soundtrack, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. This song aside, it’s all covers, of songs by Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Caetano Veoloso and Fifties doo-woppers The Flamingos, all of which have been out before, and two new covers, Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and a sweet, acoustic, finger-picked take on Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End”. It's not essential Beck but is an earthed, good-natured set for lovers, young and old, everywhere.
Various Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement (Independent Projects)
Gary Young was already halfway into his fourth decade, and fixture on the scene in Stockton, California, when he became Pavement’s first drummer at the end of the Eighties. He was an old hippy who loved booze and acid but also the rising tide of punk rock which he booked locally. He died in 2023 but not before he’d taken part in Louder Than You Think, a documentary on his eccentric, outsider life. The soundtrack takes in the Stockton punk scene (bands such as The Authorities and Fall of Christianity), alongside early Pavement, spacy electro pieces made for the film by Edward Dahl and Noah Georgeson, and my favourite material, Young’s own indie freak-folky oddities with his Gary Young’s Hospital band, somewhere between Eugene Chadbourne and the lyrical innocence of Jonathan Richman. It’s a varied and intriguing celebration of a character I’d not heard of.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Temps (Decca) + James Taylor Shadows and Dreams (Acid Jazz)
We don’t usual cover straight classical on theartsdesk on Vinyl as there are those on theartsdesk much better prepped and suited to it. However, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring was sent our way and is one of those out-there pieces of music that reaches well beyond the usual auditoriums. It famously caused a riot when the ballet was first performed in 1913, and its Russian folk-touched dissonance, percussive stomp and general sense of impending threat is, without doubt, a precursor to a million noisies who’ve injected avant-garde into rock’n’roll ever since. This 1974 recording is mastered rich and deep (from the original quarter inch two-track tapes)
and captures the manic theatre of it all in glorious stereo. It comes in gatefold with a 12” x 12” card insert giving background. And, as if one classical thingy weren’t enough, along comes the classical debut from James Taylor Quartet’s Hammond kingpin. He enjoys himself at his Rochester home playing favourite pieces by Bach, Mozart, Scarlatti and Beethoven on his Steinway Model D piano. It’s not something I’d listen to but it seems churlish not to mention it.
Lou McLean Outline of a Girl (Alba Cruthachail): The debut album from Scottish singer Lou McClean has misleadingly nothing-y cover art, but stick the record on and this is one witty, shrewd, observational, feminist affair. Her music inhabits timeless twee indie-pop territory, but with such light, catchy pop harmonies that her pithy lyrics, sung in a Scottish accent, land well and stay in the brain. Her voice is so sweet and the music so easy-going that it could also lead casual listeners to misestimate the songwriting talent involved, or the way she smuggles snark through. One to watch. Comes on garish purply pink vinyl.
Happy Mondays The Factory Singles 1985 – 1992 (London) + Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine Straw Donkey… The Complete Singles (Chrysalis)
A couple of greatest hits compilations from Eighties-into-Nineties sorts. Happy Mondays may have pissed their mystique away by hanging around way too long, the band's main players earning their living anywhere they can, however drossy. But, once upon a time, they were the greatest of all those baggy Madchester bands, better, even, than The Stone Roses (whose story arc just happens to be more conducive to retaining at least some of the aforementioned mystique). The new two-record singles set showcases a band in three chapters; first the rough early, post-C86 indie-funk chuggers, then 1988’s “Wrote For Luck” bridging into their imperial phase, a guitar band tuned to the acid house zeitgeist on the solid gold likes of “Hallelujah”, “Step On”, “Kinky Afro” and “Loose Fit” (replete here with some remixes), before crashing'n'burning with songs from 1992’s notoriously addled Yes Please! album. The band would regain some form with 2007’s Uncle Dysfunktional but, by then, no-one was listening. Carter
the Unstoppable Sex Machine existed in approximately the same timeframe as Happy Mondays but are a different proposition, a drum-machine indie-punk duo who fired out a dozen Top 40 hits between 1991 and 1995. These are here alongside the ones before popularity arrived. Originally released in 1995, it’s the first time on vinyl and now arrives expanded to include promo singles such as “And God Created Brixton”. The quality never really drops off but they’re an acquired taste, with swelling Pet Shop Boys synth and wit entangled in tinpot crusty London pubbing. “Anytime Anyplace Anywhere” remains one of the best songs ever written about boozing. Comes in gatefold double with notes on all songs by the band.
Miles Davis The Best of Miles Davis (Craft)
Miles Davis would have been 100-years-old in May this year. He died in 1991 but this set of eight tracks offers a snapshot of the jazz trumpet giant in his prime. All were recorded in 1955-56, but released on the albums Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’ and Steamin’, which appeared in 1957, 1958, 1960 and 1961, respectively. Featuring one of his greatest ensembles, the quintet of John Coltrane (tenor sax), Fred Garland (piano) Paul Chambers (bass), and “Philly” Joe Jones on drums, it’s the sound of musicians completely in sync with each other, reinventing standards (plus Davis’s own “Four”), and creating a smooth, gorgeous atmosphere that transports the listener straight back to smoky, late, late nights in beatnik New York.
ALSO WORTHY OF MENTION
Eric Cantona Perfect Imperfection (Barclay): At first the Cantona-as-singer-musician thing seems too preposterous but he’s so persistent and convinced of the righteousness of it that, after a while, one is slightly persuaded. His first studio album (he debuted with a set of in-concert cuts) is, at first, so outrageously Gallic it’s comes across as pastiche, but it eventually settles with the listener; his combination of growly chanson and Leonard Cohen-esque balladry gets under the skin. In short, better than you might presume.
Crayon Home Safe (Erased Tapes): Respected Parisian hip hop producer Crayon releases his debut album, with a host of guest singers such as Rhye, anaiis, Yamê, and ELIZA. Unlike so many releases, it has delightful cover art then, drop the needle, and it holds its own; wobbly, pared-back electronic soul, with lots of falsetto vocals. Laidback but funny and offbeat, yet not a million miles from contemporary R&B, it’s an understated treat. Comes on transparent vinyl with an enclosed photo/lyric booklet.
Small Faces Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (Immediate): This 1968 album’s been reissued a billion times but this time as a lovely-looking picture disc in gatefold with a host of (I think) fresh sleeve notes. The album itself is a Brit-Sixties classic wherein one of the era’s pre-eminent bands assayed a concept album. Psychedelic in intent, some of the music is too, such as the Hammond fuzz-out of “Rene”, but it’s as much a post-Sgt. Pepper studio exploration of different styles and directions. It’s a bridge between Small Faces' cheeky Cockney pop persona and the heavier rockin’ direction band members would go on to pursue when they split up after its release.
JP Coimbra Revealing (Spautores): Successful Portuguese film and TV composer João Pedro Coimbra has maintained a parallel career in various strands of popular music, first with his band MESA, and now solo. His second solo album, created with Brian Eno associate Leo Abrahams, is a juicy wander through synth-pop, Baroque pop, indie rock, and other styles. He has a way with a tune and his Scritti Politti-esque singing sits well amidst it all.
Alison Krauss + Union Station Live (Rounder): From her teenage years to the present fiddlin’ singer Alison Krauss has been one of the leading faces of bluegrass music, maintaining an impressive balance between populism and raw roots. In 2002 she was already well-established and is captured on this set, recorded in Louisville, Kentucky, presented on three records in triple gatefold, with her longstanding band Union Station. She has a gracious persona, and combines full-on audience participation hoedown material with soft-sung ballads. She is where she is with good reason. A wonderfully lively performance.
Jowee Omicil Smiles (BasH Village): Jowee Omicil is a prolific and eclectic jazzer of Canadian of Haitian descent, who’s worked with everyone from Andre 3000 to Tony Allen. His latest album (of many!) is a likeably loose affair, touched by the spirit of beatnik, and dedicated to Miles Davis. His sax is fluid and warm, as are his easy-going chatty vocals, on a set that encompasses tango-touched bubblers, reggae tints and pure spiritual freakouts. It’s all very likeable. Comes with 12” x 12” photo/infio insert.
Peter Gabriel In the Big Room (Real World): Around the time of his 2002 album Up, on a roll, presumably, Peter Gabriel decided to invite an audience (we must presume – there’s clapping) to the largest space in his Real World Studios in Wiltshire, for a meaty live set. It now appears on sturdily mastered double vinyl in gatefold, mingling tracks from across his solo career with recent material. Opening with his feisty (and then-unreleased) song “Burn You Up, Burn You Down”, he touches on biggies such as “Games Without Frontiers” and “Shock the Monkey” alongside more offbeat cuts such as his Millennium Dome Show tune “The Tower That Ate People”. The album doesn’t feel a throwaway stop-gap, more a set released because he feels he was on form. He sounds committed.
Nicolas Leirtrø’s Action Now! Entrance (Sauajazz): Norwegian jazz bassist Nicolas Leirtrø has gathered a quartet containing some of Europe’s finest jazz mavericks. On board for this double album in gatefold are keys man Kit Downes, flautist-sax-player Mats Gustafsson and drummer Veslemøy Narvesen. Together, vibing from “printed graphic scores”, some of which appear on the inner sleeves, they rev up a tasty gumbo that’s, of course, jazz in a loose sense, but so free that it wanders off into spaces we might usually associate with psychedelia, noise music and ambient wifflings. An adventure.
A TECHNICAL CATASTROPHE OCCURRED MOMENTS PRIOR TO DEADLINE AND THE FOLLOWING “ALSO WORTHY OF MENTION” REVIEWS WERE IRRETRIEVABLY LOST
Langorne Slim The Dreamin’ Kind (Dualtone)
Roswell Road Rebel Joy (Roswell Road Music)
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh & Frédéric D. Oberland Eternal Life No End (Constellation)
Tinariwen Hoggar (Wedge)
Huw Marc Bennett Heol Las (Albert’s Favourites)
Atabasca Atabasca (Killer Groove)
Unfortunately, these reviews cannot be revived but the albums all come recommended (especially the pared-back easy listening funk of Italian grooveniks Atabasca). Apologies for the lack of words. Such frustrations are sent to try us in the post-typewriter age.
FURTHER REVIEW SNAPSHOTS
- Before punk, during the mid-Seventies, ex-Procul Harum guitarist Robin Trower was a thing, especially in the US. His excessive fret-wrangling has elements of Jimi Hendrix/Eddie Hazel zest but drifts too far, for this writer, into proggy indulgence. His 1976 LIVE! album (on Chrysalis) was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic and, while it is flare-fringed blues-rock, it’s also a curates egg, tasty in parts. Now arrives in a 50th Anniversary Edition gatefold double with a new 2026 mix and loads of notes, including an interview with the man himself.
- The four-piece Golden Hours have, between them, a storied history, with members having been in bands such as Gang of Four, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Fuzztones and Tricky’s group. Their second album, Beyond Wires on Fuzz Club Records, is a gothic mood piece, overcast in rumbling shadows, but given lift by clanging guitars and their capacity for a tune (check “Heading for the Moon”). Comes on bright scarlet vinyl.
- Fans of chirpy but melancholic-leaning indie might want to note the de debut album by Sydney duo Salarymen. It’s called Take It or Leave It on Impressed Records and on it both members, Renne de la Motte and Thomas Eagleton, sing, on a set of songs that form ruminations on a relationship. Although verging into the twee, they know their way around sweet-natured guitar pop.
- Last year, Mike Scott’s folk-rock perennials The Waterboys released an entertaining but sometimes naff album tribute to Dennis Hopper (which I reviewed here). Now they give us Rips From the Cutting Room Floor which, on “hot pink” vinyl, on Puck Records, is a companion album of off-cuts, B-sides and so forth. It’s a match in quality for the original, blending up pastiche and filmic playfulness, from rock to country to Alabama 3-ish cuts. They sound like they’re having fun, which is sometimes contagious.
- Buck Meek is guitarist in Big Thief, and his fourth solo album, The Mirror, is released by that band’s label 4AD. The Texan singer delivers a set that’s sometimes akin to his day job but more chilled-out, and with his calmly thoughtful singing voice rather than their strong female lead. Quietly lovely, it’s one for fans of Lambchop, Howe Gelb and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Comes on transparent vinyl in lyric inner sleeve.
- For those after more gently confident songwriting, but in a folkier vein, Étáin Sweeney records as Étáin and her debut album is The Well, released via Alba Chruthachail. From Ireland but based in Edinburgh, she has a girl-ish voice that she carefully doesn’t push, giving her airy tones a delicacy on a set of late-night songs, acoustic guitar backed by an appropriately muted band. Comes with a 28-page lyric/photo/art booklet.
- German-international jazz institution ECM re-releases the 1994 first meeting and collaboration between double bassist Gary Peacock and classical-style guitarist Ralph Towner, both now no longer on the planet (2020 and earlier this year, respectively). It’s called Oracle and shows off pieces where quietude and busy complexity sit comfortably side by side. Anyone after ambient music that is sort of, well, not actually ambient, may enjoy this original collection, deep-mastered, on gatefold, with new artwork. It’s not as jazz-noodly as I was expecting; virtuosic, yes, but not to the detriment of ear interest.
- I wasn’t expecting to like Irish singer Foy Vance’s new album, The Wake, which arrives on gatefold double on red vinyl. He’s Ed Sheeran adjacent and was signed to the Gingerbread Man label for years. This album seems to be his first not on there since 2007. There’s lots on it I don’t like but songs such as bluesy opener “A.I.” and the drawled late night soul shuffle of “Ever Feel Like Everybody’s Just Coming At You?” make it, while not essential, at least worth cherrypicking.
- Married partners Nicolas Basque and Adèle Trottier-Rivard make up Canadian duo Bibi Club whose third album, Amaro on Secret City Records, offers an indie-grungey-shoegaze take on electro-pop. The shorn-headed Trottier-Rivard’s dainty French vocals are a light counterpoint. It has heft, not a million miles from Ladytron in a gnarly mood. Comes in murky art gatefold.
- More frowning synth-pop, this time Ayşe Hassan, the bassist from Savages, in her ESYA guise (albeit, given how her logo reads, I spent five minutes Googling in vain for “EIVA”). Her debut album is called Chasing Desire and appears via AOK Records. The electronics are decently punchy (sonically, always good to hear David Wrench connected to any record) and the whole has a techno pulse spiked by the melodies and emotive vocals. There are guest appearances by Sharon Van Etten and Jessy Lanza and it arrives with a 12” x 12” lyric card.
- The second (I think) album from Milanese reggae band The Appetizers is called Keep Your Step and arrives via Rome’s Killer Groove Records. It’s a set of sunny roots reggae, ska-tinted in places, and, while songs such as “Fussy Girl” have pop charm, they break no new ground. You’d not leave the field if they came on at a festival some warm summer afternoon.
- North Carolina singer-songwriter Natalie Jane Hill releases her third album, Hopeful Woman, on Dear Life Records. She has a band backing her this time but it’s really about her at the front, with her acoustic guitar, on a set of solid, literate songs that also make the most of her swooping headed-for-heartbreak voice. Her chewy lyrics are laid out on the inner sleeve.
- The band name The Reds, Pinks and Purples makes theartsdesk on Vinyl think of Sixties mod-art-poppers The Creation’s tagline, “Our music is red with purple flashes”, but, on their latest Acknowledge Kindness, this lot sound more like The Cure put through smudgy shoegaze production. The band is the project of San Francisco’s Glenn Donaldson and he’s ultra-prolific, at least eight albums in the last five years. This one is released by London indie bastion Fire Records and comes in art/lyric inner sleeve.
- Country singer Luke Combs is massive in the US and making decent inroads here (the UK) in recent years. His seventh album is a double on gatefold called The Way I Am on Seven Ridges Records. He doesn’t change the formula; barroom meditations (“Wish Upon a Whisky”), affirmative love songs, southern blue-collar vibes, solid narrative songwriting, and cheesy but compulsive roadhouse rock’n’rollers such as “My Kinda Saturday Night”. I’d never listen to this at home, but would love to be in a bar in the American south when his band were playing (not that he’s played a bar for many a year!). Comes on vinyl that looks like clouds blossoming on a stormy night.
- The Gallands are a Belgian jazz duo, featuring Stéphane Galland on drums and his son Elvin on keys. Sanne Greet A. Putseys, AKA Selah Sue, is a successful singing star in Europe, particularly around 10-15 years ago when she had pop hits. Together they are Selah Sue and The Gallands and have a collaborative album Movin’ on Because Music. It’s very Gilles Peterson; crafted jazz-pop with modernist electronic trimmings and soul vocals. They do this well. Comes with a 12” x 12” photo/lyric insert.
- German film and TV composer (and once actor) Ralph Markus Sieber is also another relatively prolific musician with his Aukai ambient project. His latest album is Chambers on Apapachoa Records, and is built around reverbed revolving patterns of various types of acoustic guitar, swirling amid electronic tones. It’s twinkly and atmospheric, if a bit new age oils shop, the latter fact enhanced by the supersoft focus cover art.
- More fret-tackling from former Band Of Horses lead guitarist Tyler Ramsey and My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel. Their debut together, Celestun on Duo Quest Records, sounds like neither of those bands, which is as it should be. Instead, it’s made up of rustic but classical-flavoured acoustic guitar interplay, folkish, with the occasional Americana-tinged song. It’s not designed for impact, really, but would be perfect as soundtrack to a melancholy feature film about happenings in the wide-open spaces of America’s mid-west. Comes on rose-pink transparent vinyl with a 12” x 12” photo/info insert.
- It seems to be a bumper month at theartsdesk on Vinyl for po-faced classical-leaning downtempo and David Moore, of Brooklyn minimalist modern-classical unit Bing & Ruth jumps into the fray with Graze the Bell on RVNG Intl. Records. It’s a set of eight solo pieces recorded live on a 1987 Hamburg Steinway D piano, the room reverb contributing to the feel, a delicately constructed set for those that wish to listen with eyes closed and hands clasped together in their lap.
- Canadian composer Matthew Patton once said, “The floating point where sound design may or may not become music is an obsession of mine”. His second album under the moniker Those Who Walk Away speaks to this. It’s called Afterlife Requiem and is on the reliably off-piste Montreal label Constellation. He says of this one that “death is smeared all over the music”. It’s not a lot of fun, then, but for those who want to hear tone music built around two string quartets electronically treated to muffled gloom, it’ll be a treat. Comes in info inner sleeve
- Ten years into their career Boston, Massachusetts, singer Anjimile’s sixth album (and second for 4AD Records) is called You’re Free to Go. They take a soulful singer-songwriter template and run it into a washed-out sonic palette, strum and piano washing around the crisply enunciated but placid vocals. Somewhere between Fink and Lapalux, if you remember either of them, it’s original and interesting but not this listener’s thing, Comes on green vinyl in lyric inner sleeve.
- London DJ-producer Shy One delivers Mali, her debut album proper, on Touching Bass Records (she had a set out over a decade ago but it was more a bunch of tracks than an album). She mingles the last 20 years of developments in bass music with something more soulful, thus we get numbers such as the squelchy dubstep-tinted club tune “Nort Wess” next to housey cuts next to the post-2Step smoothness of “16 Hours”. At its best, it’s a tasty mash-up.
- Midnight Zone is an hour-long installation-type film by Berlin-based French-Swiss artist Julian Charrière. In its looped footage a camera follows a Fresnel navigational lamp as it plunges deeper and deeper under the sea. This is pretty much what the Original Soundtrack by US experimental musician Laurel Halo sounds like; glooping, oppressive tone music, weighty and threatening. It is released by Awe and comes with a 32-page 12” x 12” photo booklet of stills from the film. I’ve often wondered what factors separate those who make a living from this stuff and those destined to spend their lives doing it unheard and unseen. As far as I can tell, there’s often no difference in what they’re up to.
- In the world of Austen’s The Band of Heathens it is forever 1973, where loose, stoned, country-soul rock’n’roll made by longhairs is all the rage. On their latest album (of many), Country Sides, on their own BOH Records, they stride confidently around then aforementioned territory with songs about getting high on their own supply alongside twangy Eagles-ish cuts about being as “as good as I can be, baby”. If I saw them in a bar in Texas, I’d love them. On record in wintery war-ridden Europe, I’m more ambivalent. Comes on transparent vinyl in lyric gatefold.
CHUNKY REVIEWS ELSEWHERE ON THEARTSDESK OF VINYL WELL WORTH LOCATING
Read about Peaches’ No Lube So Rude (Kill Rock Stars) here.
Read about Sky Valley Mistress’s Luna Mausoleum (New Heavy Sounds) here.
Read about Joshua Idehan’s I Know You’re Hurting Everyone is Hurting Everyone is Trying You Have to Try (Heavenly) here.
We welcome any and all vinyl for review. Please hit thomash.green@theartsdesk.com for a postal address.
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