With so much good music coming through thick and fast, it’s easy for albums to drop online and go overlooked. No lengthy write-ups, as who reads those anyway? We keep it short and to the point because you’re here to listen to the music! Check out our weekly mini-guide below, and please support all of the artists you enjoy by buying their music.
Albums
David Versace – Okra
Bubbling away in the underground for four years, Australian multi-genre keyboardist, composer and producer David Versace offers his first solo album featuring seven new songs, including the recent single ‘Summer Party’. It is a clever blend of jazz and samba to ambient works and the odd dancefloor heater. This effort should bring Versace a much wider audience.
Deli Paloma~Sisk – Time~Lapse Nature
Time~Lapse Nature by Deli Paloma~Sisk features various influences evident in the music, with folk melodies prevailing over ambient soundscapes. It produces a superb album that goes through different atmospheres and moods but remains consistently high quality throughout.
Matthew Bourne – Irrealis
It’s not often that you hear stories about would-be pianists teaching themselves the basics of prepared piano by throwing sweets into their school’s instrument, but that’s just what Matthew Bourne did; from an early age, he was always adventurous. With Irrealis, his sonic adventures continue, recording the album in a single session, without any overdubs, only live takes. In an effort to throw convention out the window, Bourne recorded the album with playfulness and spontaneity, using a box full of nuts, bolts, and Blu-Tak. It is an album to be enjoyed over and over again.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Let’s Turn It Into Sound
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith dropped her new album last week, called Let’s Turn It Into Sound, via Ghostly. Recorded over three hectic months in her home studio, Smith created a new vocal processing technique to complement her existing synths. “The album is a puzzle,” she explains. This is her best work, with a delightful mix of ambient, electronic, and baroque avant pop. Getting lost in this album is easy because it’s so beautiful.
Coby Sey – Conduit
The new Coby Sey album is ripe for the late-night grooves section of my music collection. This album conveys music’s resolute power of magic and truth through his woozy and corrosive post-grime sound that flirts with post-punk, jazz fusion, and experimental electronics. There is a fuzzy lo-fi quality to the production.
TONE – So I Can See You
The further we get into the year, the more releases we discover that have slipped under our radar. Released in March via Rythm Section, South London-based musician and CURL member TONE unveiled his debut album. Across the album, TONE blends in R’n’B elements with dub and shoegaze while holding onto the punk rock roots of his short-lived duo Farai. On the whole, the tracks are short, but what they lack in length, they make up for with punch.
Kulku – Fahren
The latest release from MR TC and Lo Kindre’s Phase Group label offers post-punk, no-wave krautrock from Berlin collective Kulku! This percussion-intensive, ritual music is influenced by the late 70s/early 80s NYC downtown bands, such as Liquid Liquid and Klaus Dinger/NEU! Over the past two decades, they have crafted their unique music almost exclusively using acoustic sound sources. Fahren features wondrously unpredictable music with a post-punk DIY ethos for adventurous minds.
Om Unit – Acid Dub Studies II
Om Unit switches on his Roland-303 and gets his groove on with ten killer tracks that sway between dub reggae and the hazier edges of dub techno and ambient music. Bringing new life to the dub continuum is Om Unit.
Chip Wickham – Cloud 10
“Cloud 10” is an energetic and soulful performance of classic modal hard-bop and spiritual jazz by British-born saxophonist and flautist Chip Wickham. This recording has endless layers to unravel, and repeated listening reveals more of them. Lovely stuff.
Also, check out:
Reissues
Electro Keyboard Orchestra – Electro Keyboard Orchestra
The outstanding self-titled album by Electro Keyboard Orchestra, an eight-piece ensemble featuring some of Japan’s leading keyboard players, is a stylish example of jazz fusion masterfully blending melody and rhythm. Electro Keyboard Orchestra deserves a place in your collection if you enjoy jazz fusion music.
