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Bendik Giske
New album: An extraordinary second album by the classically trained Norwegian saxophonist, who undermines the instrument’s showy jazz cliches by employing contact microphones around his tenor to amplify noisy fingers clicking against the keys and keypads for a new world of sound
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Memory Device is Baba Ali’s debut album
New album: A catchily eclectic debut by the singer-songwriter drawing on his Nigerian heritage, his adolescence absorbing hip hop and new wave in New York, the techno scene in Berlin, and now disco, punk and electronica in his London base
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The second LP by Big Red Machine
New album: Featuring guests including Fleet Foxes and Taylor Swift, an attractive second LP of mellow indie-folk by the band formed by The National’s Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver, and named after the dominant 1970s Cincinnati Reds baseball team
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New album: An upbeat, wonderfully catchy and evocative new LP release by the Blur guitarist of pop-indie-disco-funk-prog numbers as soundtrack to a book of 15 graphic novel sci-fi stories, in a dystopian setting stemmed from his passion for the genre
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Goat’s for glory
New album: This welcome first LP helping of primal psych rock from the Swedish band since 2016’s Requium is a stirring, hallucinogenic cauldron compilation of rarities, standalone singles, B-sides, and digital edits and two brand new tracks
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Orla Gartland’s debut album
New album: Clever, wry, witty, refreshing indie pop debut from the Irish singer-songwriter who brings oddball sounds along with the more conventional and has echoes of Fiona Apple in her delivery and even a dash of Laurie Anderson
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Tropical Fuck Storm’s back for a third helping
New album: The third album by the Melbourne quartet of two ex-Drones and more is a magnificently anarchic mix of thrummingly clever noise and art-rock, postpunk, and wittily inventive, sweary, crafted chaos
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Solar Power is Lorde’s third LP
New album: New Zealand’s Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor returns with a far mellower LP than her previous mega-selling Pure Heroine and Melodrama, concentrating on simpler pleasures - relaxing and escaping the public glare though not doing much with any eco theme
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IDER’s Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville return with their second album
New album: Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville return after 2019’s excellent Emotional Education with more clever, quick-witted, crisp, feminist indie pop unpicking the deep-seated problems of relationships, social control, society and self-loathing
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The Killers’ Pressure Machine
New album: An atypical LP from the American stadium fillers eschews the sometimes nonsense (“are we human or are we dancer”) air-punching pop-rock anthems for more reflective material inspired by Brandon Flowers’ Utah childhood
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Willie Nile’s The Day The Earth Stood Still is his 14th studio album
New album: The veteran 73-year-old rocker from Buffalo, NY is a lesser known treasure, and returns with more sharp, vivid political lyrics that open here comparing New York streets during Covid to a sci-fi alien movie, and many unashamed nods to Springsteen, Dylan, The Who, Mellencamp and The Beatles
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Reflectiive: Jade Bird’s Different Kinds of Light
New album: The 23-year-old English singer-songwriter and BRIT school graduate’s second LP after 2019’s debut is a strong selection of numbers influenced by Americana and more from Fleetwood Mac to PJ Harvey, Blur to various shades of country rock
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Jungle: Loving In Stereo
New album: West London’s Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland return with undeniably, strong, catchy selection of falsetto soul and disco pop that has strings, horns, hip hop and gospel elements that hit perfect, broad appeal notes
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Bleachers - aka Jack Antonoff, doing his best Springsteen look
New album: Super pop producer Jack Antonoff releases a very personal album inspired by his New Jersey upbringing, and features his hero and big influence – Bruce Springsteen – as well as guests Lana Del Rey and string arrangements by St Vincent
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Kristin Hayter aka Lingua Ignota
New album: An astonishingly intense, beautiful but at times disturbing journey into the heart of extreme Christian faith by Kristin Hayter who explores puritanism via relocation to rural Pennsylvania, expressed through the prism of piano, organ, Appalachian strings, drone, and above all, her extraordinary voice
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Deeper and darker: the 10th Liars album in a 20-year career
New album: Remaining founder member Angus Andrew is joined by drummer Laurence Pike and multi-instrumentalist Cameron Deyell on a rich return to form of dark, cinematic, menacing and entrancingly strange songs
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Ishmael Ensemble
New album: Excellent, evocatively fluid follow-up to 2019’s A State of Flow by the Bristol band of Pete Cunningham and co whose mix of harp, saxophone, upright bass, vocals, percussion and more create a mesmeric mix of electronica, folk and jazz
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Desire Marea
New album: The singer and African queer artist icon from Durban and founder of the FAKA collective offers something truly different with this startling LP mixing operatic voice, disco and alternative, experimental electronica with Zulu language
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Durand Jones & The Indications’ third album
New album: Good vibes and upbeat sounds mark this third LP by the American funk and soul group fronted by Jones as well as the higher range of co-singer and drummer Aaron Frazer who collectively mix in 70s disco and pop
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Torres aka Mackenzie Scott’s fifth album
New album: Strong melodies and witty lyrics mark this powerful set of grunge-pop songs by the American indie rocker Mackenzie Scott, whose work has echoes of The Breeders and as well as her British counterpart Du Blonde
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