The Smashing Pumpkins – Cyr
Something of an atypical Pumpkins release, with Billy Corgan opting, perhaps influenced by the difficulties of lockdown, to turn back the clocks to a style more like early 1980s, going heavy on synths and drum machines. It's also really a double LP, with 20 tracks and a mixed bag of a whopping 10 singles and another 10 perhaps flatter numbers. It's their second LP since their semi-reunion with guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, following 2018’s Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. It's a mixed bag with some thumping good tunes, such as the title track that might be more at home in an 1982 Human League album, and with Corgan's voice a little odd and thin without angry guitars around him. Not really one for fans of classic Pumpkins, but in places, while oddly likeable and catchy, also strangely insubstantial such as on singles In Ashes, EP 1 (The Colour of Love), or Ramona – Corgan is like a stand-in vocalist for the Pet Shop Boys, or on Ashes, EP 1 (Anna Satana) which like other tracks is accompanied with a cartoon video in a series. Again 2020 has thrown up the elements and they have landed in unexpected places. Out on their new signing to Sumerian.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Ashes, EP 1 (Anna Satana)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – K.G.
A whopping 16 albums in a decade and more recently averaging two a year, the prolific Australian prog band return with something of a sequel to their 2017 album Flying Microtonal Banana, returning to a style in which they retune their instruments to microtonal musical scale that is traditionally used in Turkish and Arabic music, notably on the song Automation. Straws in the Wind is another standout, as is The Hungry Wolf of Fate, Honey and the funky Intrasport. As ever, while the whole album varies, the energy, joy and inventiveness remains a constant, and even having to write and record via Covid restrictions in separate locations, they gloriously rock on. Out on KGLW.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Automation
Jack Cheshire – Fractal Future Plays
With opening track Tunnel Vision having been a featured on our New Songs section in May, the release of London-based multi-instrumentalist's dark, indie psych album is a real bonus this month. Inspired variously by Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci and “pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will" , Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5, as well as the music of Can, Neu, Broadcast, John Maus, Jane Weaver, early Pink Floyd, Echo & The Bunnymen, PJ Harvey and Laurie Anderson, this gives a flavour of the profundity, intelligence and inventiveness of this work in melody and lyrics. "Out across the multiverse visions of your blackened hearse" Cheshire sings with his strong, distinctive deep voice on Mystery Train. Tiny Hands has more of a country-ish cross between Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen. Miradors is a spoken poem set to music, Tangerine a gentle, folky piece, Widescreen an atmospheric mix of swirling synths and acoustic guitar, the title track is powerful, dark, wondrous piece of esoteric existentialism, while Landscape Dissolving is a 7-minute epic of pastoral psychedelia. A great talent creating new musical shapes, altered states, moods, and taking us to high-minded places. Glorious. Available on Bandcamp.
Jack Cheshire – Landscape Dissolving
Daniel Avery - Love + Light
Third album by the DJ and electronic musician from Bournemouth feels like a full night out at a club or festival (remember those?) and comes in two distinct halves with its full 14 tracks. After the gradual build of opener London Island, the first set is filled with pulsating beats and energy industrial synths and repetition, such as Darlinn, or the crashing sounds of Searing Light, Forward Motion, moving towards the starker beats of Infinite Future that then become more ambient. The second half is ghostlier, more ethereal, and reminiscent of the sun coming up, a new dawn, especially from After The Fire, the much quieter Into The Arms of Stillness, all the way to One More Morning. In many ways an absorbing nostalgic trip to trips of old, in the dark shadows of the current climate, with added shape and narrative. Out on Phantasy Sound.
Daniel Avery - London Island
Ane Brun – How Beauty Holds The Hand of Sorrow
After a five-year gap, the Norwegian singer-songwriter has released two albums in 2020, and following After The Great Storm, this, her second this year and eighth overall, is another of great stripped back gorgeous delicacy. Her distinctive voice, like a restrained Joanna Newsom, is as pure as any singer around today, like a bird soaring across landscapes of snow-capped wonder on nine tracks. From opener Last Breath to the piano-led optimist Closer to the Song for Thrill and Tom, the melancholy Meet You At The Delta, the softer sheen of Trust, and the string drawn skies of Gentle Wind of Gratitude, all the way to Don't Run And Hide, this is a featherweight delicacy of rare, exquisite fragile beauty. Out on Balloon Ranger Recordings.
Ane Brun – Closer
Brandee Younger and Dezron Douglas – Force Majeure
A fabulous combination through this married couple of harpist and double bassist creating a unique jazz blend from a series of sessions they put out outline during lockdown. Younger has fronted her own quartet and has guested for Lauryn Hill, Common, Drake and the Roots. With husband Douglas on bass the contrasting instruments bring out the best of each other and in this release they showcase classics of both jazz and soul, firstly by both the big Coltranes as well as Pharoah Sanders, and in the latter genre, You Make Me Feel Brand New by the Stylistics and Clifton Davis’s Never Can Say Goodbye. There's also a refreshing version of Kate Bush's This Woman's Work. Younger's harp shows a phenomenal range, sounding like a classical orchestra to African kora. Particularly gorgeous is their own composition Toilet Paper Romance. A powerful, intelligent force they are indeed. Out on International Anthem.
Brandee Younger and Dezron Douglas – Toilet Paper Romance
Heather Trost – Petrichor
Fresh, alternative psychedelic pop by the New Mexico-based artist who recorded this album in 2019 with husband Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel) at their home studio. The two are community activists, urban gardeners, as well as full-time musicians, and with their home, there's an elsewhere, desert sun feel to this, as shown, for example on opener Let It In, or the track I'll Think of You. Contrasting styles are shown in the darker, more otherworldly Jump Into The Fire, a fabulously new cover of the Harry Nilsson song, or the heavily synth-based Vko9, while Love It Grows echoes late-60s Love. Another place, and different sound. Out on Third Man Records.
Heather Trost - Love It Grows
The Wytches - Three Mile Ditch
This album by alt-rock psychedelic band who started in Peterborough came out mid-autumn. It's a powerful, dark release of blistering guitars, heavy drums and the sneering, sorrowful, soaring voice of frontman Kristian Bell. But there's plenty of light and shade, Opener Cowboy has a quieter balance with a slow, psychobilly flavour before the volume goes to full throttle on the title track and others such as Meat Chuck and Everyone's Friend. Silver Trees is a quiet, acoustic track, White Cliffs is on the edge of shoegaze, and You Looked Happy To Me is more indie pop that builds to a fine finale. But perhaps the standout is Fly Inside, a syncopated piece of psychedelia. A strong, consistent, energetic release filled with great changes of gear, pace and power. Out on Cable Code Records and available via Bandcamp.
The Wytches – Three Mile Ditch
Matthew Halsall – Salute To The Sun
Wonderfully evocative jazz by the trumpeter, composer, producer, DJ and founder of Gondwana Records, this latest release conjures up echoes of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, a spiritual, ethereal flavour, brought together by a selection of some of Manchester's finest young jazz musicians, including Matt Cliffe on flute & saxophone, Maddie Herbert on harp, Liviu Gheorghe on piano, Alan Taylor on drums Jack McCarthy on percussion and longtime friend and bassist, Gavin Barras. The titles evoke the style, from Mindful Meditations to Joyful Spirits of the Universe, Harmony With Nature to Salute to the Sun. Uplifting, exploratory and superbly rendered. Out on Gondwana Records.
Matthew Halsall – Salute to the Sun
This week's selection is by The Landlord.
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