Clinic – Wheeltappers and Shunters
After a seven-year gap, the Liverpool indie psych band return with one to treasure, something full intricate detail, voices, sounds and ideas that enrich on each listen. The sound is distinct, offbeat, eccentric, eerie, and often at a walking pace, deceptively simple, with Ade Blackburn's often lispy voice a wonderful narration, and it makes a perfect companion to Fat White Family's Serf's Up from a couple of weeks ago. The title is taken from the 1970s TV series variety show (also referenced on Noel Gallagher's latest single video) a kind of original Phoenix Nights featuring everyone from Cannon & Ball to Dusty Springfield and the Krankies – a mishmash of brown-and-beige glory and naffness, summoning up a period when Blackpool was the height of pleasure entertainment showbiz, of Butlins, of national TV plate-spinning and Morris dancers, all with a seedy underbelly. From Laughing Cavalier to Ferryboat Of The Mind, Flying Fish to Be Yourself/Year Of The Sadist, it's a spooky, mischievous delight. Out on Domino.
Clinic – Rubber Bullets
Holly Herndon – Proto
A strong contender for the most original and brilliant release of the year so far, the American composer, musician, and sound artist's fifth studio album is an experimental masterpiece of electronica and choral adventure. Astonishing, lengthy and exploratory, it takes the genre to different, but equally thrilling areas as much as Gazelle Twins's album of last year. The extraordinary song Crawler, for example, brings utterly dazzling vocal sounds and harmonies, as original as anything by Kate Bush or Bjork at any time. Alongside collaborator JLin, the album includes the voice of an “AI baby” called Spawn, exploring the nature of DNA strains and identity. History, folklore, science and spirituality? It's all here, and this is certainly a new musical frontier. Out on 4AD.
Holly Herndon – Frontier
Mac Demarco – Here Comes The Cowboy
The Canadian singer-songwriter takes his gentle minimalism to an ever jokier, dry-humoured level in this quirky, eccentric fifth LP release, now on his own label. This is almost too lacklustre, in-joke daft, disarmingly simple and abstract, but nevertheless self-deprecating fun, from On The Square to Nobody, the funky Choo Choo, and the woozy country style of All Of Our Yesterdays. A playful talent who continues to amuse and bemuse. Out on Mac's Record Label.
Mac Demarco – Nobody
Viagra Boys – Street Worms
Debut album for the Swedish punk band around which there's a real buzz at the moment, with a live set that's full of entertaining surprises spearheaded by raspy voiced singer Sebastian “Sebbe” Murphy. A variety of influences here include Screaming Jay Hawkins, Butthole Surfers, Suicide, and Dead Kennedys, and so it's not all blast and shouting fury, like superb Swedish forbears The Hives, but lots of subtlety, space for a little bit of twisted saxophone, dark humour and slow build. Out on YEAR0001.
Viagra Boys – Just Like You
A.A. Bondy – Enderness
First album in eight years by the artist from Birmingham, Alabama, Auguste Arthur, also known as Scott Bondy, who in 2012 joined an MDMA surf club in LA and took up meditation. Previously known as a singer-songwriter, this album is a downbeat, more electronica affair, parse, desolate, nocturnal, with him making everything on the album. A late-night work to immerse yourself in if you're in the mood for low-mood introspection. Out on Fat Possum.
A.A. Bondy - Images Of Love
Jamila Woods – Legacy! Legacy!
Second album by the US US poet, activist and soul singer of strong, powerful R&B that includes guest rapper Saba, and celebrates, as per the title, influential black heroes and heroines such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Black Arts Movement wordsmith Nikki Giovanni, poet Sonia Sanchez, author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, and Eartha Kitt. Out on Jagjaguwar.
Jamila Woods - Eartha
The Mystery Lights - Too Much Tension!
Fascinating new album by the eclectic synth and postpunk band from Salinas, California and now based in New York. They echo influences from The Kinks to Television, from 60s garage to postpunk, such as on I'm so Tired (Of Living in the City) or the more psych Someone Else Is In Control. Out on Daptone Records.
The Mystery – Too Much Tension
Laurence Pike - Holy Spring
Seasoned Australian jazz percussionist Pike's solo album could come across as an indulgence - it's a drummer's solo album after all, but this work just pulls you in by its joyful repetition and intricacy. Inspiration comes from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Philip Glass and more, and this is world that mesmerically pulls you in, a form of traditional, primeval dance music done in analogue. Out on The Leaf Label.
Lawrence Pike – Drum Chant
Death and Vanilla – Are You A Dreamer
The Malmo-based indie trio return with a dreamy, otherworldly album that has elements of everything from Fun Boy Three to Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Contonou, Brian Eno to Cocteau Twins, electronica, melancholy rhymthic guitar sounds and ethereal vocals. Out on Fire Records.
Death and Vanilla – Nothing Is Real
This week's selection is by The Landlord.
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