By Will McGuirk
This week drops include Florence and the Machine with their full on celebration of post-pandemic giddiness on ‘Dance Fever’; Sadurn’s ‘Radiator’, a Philly sandwich of Big Thief and Sarah Harmer; the Black Keys daft funk of ‘Dropout Boogie’; plus ‘Leave the Light On’ from DC’s Pillow Queens.
By Will McGuirk
Lovely new album from Caroline Marie Brooks; get real with Bob Vylan cos its time to get up and shit is real; Mom Jeans still fit well; Rowan skids into his roots, and Alison Wonderland melts the EDMs.
Wet Leg, photo by Hollie Fernando
By Will McGuirk
Its all teenage kicks undertones for Wet Leg; the Isle of Wight duo debut their album Friday, chock full of chunky vox driven rock n rollers.
On the other side of the age bracket Alex Lifeson of Rush is in Envy of None, a misnomer I suspect for fans of the iconic CDN rock trio he is known for.
Father John Misty marries a mod approach to his country rock with the very stylish ‘Chloë and the New Century’
Orville Peck is as much an anomaly at Misty, moreso due to the masking, but one can say the chap is wrangling for a hit, hellbent for leather and going for baroque, on his sophomore, ‘Bronco’.
‘The Line is a Curve’ is the latest from the multi-dimensional Kae Tempest. On the single “I Saw Light” they join with Fontaines DC lead Gian Chatten for a chatty intercourse over a succulent body wave beat.
By Will McGuirk
Vinyl revelling this weekend will include The Unraveling of PUP, the TO punksters punking the world; Folly Group with its Franz Ferdinand fronting Television-isms, the tenacious debut from Koffee, the courageous debut from Daniel Casimir, and the silver anniversary of Placebo, plus so much much much more.
By Will McGuirk
The vinyls coming it is said on Friday include some of Canada’s finest, coast to coast to coast, from the genius of Destroyer delivering his 13th, and the unique expressions of Tagaq, to the creative explorations of Lisa LeBlanc and the melodic tune-smithery of Jerry Leger. Dig in but go get the wax.
By Will McGuirk
Oh man I could listen to this Belgian metalgaze act, Slow Crush, new album “Hush” all day long, and all night. Pummelling Thor hammer like beats stomp and swashes of ethereal guitars, its a bloodied My Bloody Valentine, a deafening Deafheaven, a Portishead smashed in. Powerful stuff. Dig out their debut ‘Aurora.’
Mdou Moctar, Altin Gun, Orions Belte, Somali Yacht Club, and of course Khruangbin, are some of the bands bringing some width to the rock ’n roll. Etran de L’Air are another act I’m digging into. Such celebration and optimism to their sound, known as it is as ‘Desert Blues’. Etran de L’Air (the Stars of the Air) are from Northern Niger and the music they play is strongly associated with weddings, baptisms etc, all occasions of joy and the tunes bring it all.
A working class hero is something to be so Hurray for the Riff Raff. The HRR aka Alynda Segarra are a collage of influences, nips and tucks of references, some Bowie, some New Order, some Leonard Cohen, some Kate Bush, but as is the way with fragments, step further away not closer to see the picture, and you get all of this. Go macro not micro.
By Will McGuirk
Fazer, on ‘Plex’, their third album, manage to hold the centre even as elements take flight. The German group tie all the jazz meanderings to a core held in place by their rhythm section. While the restraint can be binding the results are spellbinding - there is something to be said for returning home again before taking off again.
Holy Hive are OG Dap-tones drummer Homer Steinweiss and singer-songwriter Paul Spring. Their self-titled album is what the Brooklyn duo term Folk Soul. The folk and the soul in question are not a marriage between the rural and the urban traditions of America but the two draw from a diverse global base and a soul which is as local as each of us.
Silas Short blends soul and jazz on his debut ‘ Drawing’ - a gathering of lockdown conversations with himself laid over some deft grooves and a voice with a drop like a waterfall. Something of Bahamas and also Daniel Caesar to this 24 year old resident of Milwaukee.
Aussies Haiku Hands may be what one could get if Peaches had joined the Spice Girls, less Wannabe, more WAP.
By Will McGuirk
The world has been walking this tightrope between hyper-local and hyper-global for over two years, its been a time of contempt and contemplation and all of it is explored in ‘Highs in the Minuses’, the new album from Charlotte Cornfield due out on vinyl January 28.
“We are not supposed to go outside/ the stores are all closed/ Never seen this city so dead and so morose/ its a crisis but we haven’t got the words” she sings on ‘“Headlines” which kicks of this week’s showcase.
Fortunately Charlotte has the words and the chords to put this earthly experience in to some sort of context.
‘Black Acid Soul’ - Experience, colour, sound, chemistry - its all here in the debut album from Lady Blackbird. From the psyche of Nina Simone to the psychedelia of Alice Coltrane, its a swirling sorrowful, mesmerizing trip with the voice of Marley Munroe holding the centre.
There’s an acid burn to the voice of TO R&B artist Charlotte Day Wilson. that gets straight but so deliciously slowly to the heart. Her debut ‘Alpa’ drops this week and wrapping these songs up in the even warmer tones of wax may just be the tonic this winter needs.
Across the pond Leeds band Yard Act join the accented chorus of the speak-easys Dry Cleaning, Wet Leg, Billy Nomates; angular jocular gong songs going for the jugular. More than three’s a crowd in any scene but Yard Act are defo no pretenders to the new Brit home grown, they are of it. Line them up with Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, Pulp, and yips Sleaford Mods.
By Will McGuirk
Expected drops of new vinyls Friday Jan 14 include the debut album ‘Gender Studies’ from the post-punk Irish act M(h)aol. Recorded in three days by the five piece the album stomps alongside Sonic Youth calling out male white corporate oppression and The Slits asking “Who invented the typical girl?” but add on a couple of decades of “in this modern age so little change” fuelling the tunes.
‘Hell on Church Street’ is the new record from the Punch Brothers. The album is a tribute and reimagining of the late Tony Rice’s ‘Church Street Blues.’ The band says ““No record (or musician) has had a greater impact on us, and we felt compelled to cover it in its entirety, with the objective of interacting with it in the same spirit of respect-fueled adventure that Tony brought to each of its pre-existing songs.” The album includes tracks by Bill Monroe, Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan and is available on Nonesuch.
The Kernal also tips the hat to those prior to him on his album ‘Listen to the Blood”. His father was a bass player at the Grand Ol Opry for three decades and The Kernal aka Joe Garner has over the last couple of albums tried to get inside his music and find his own space within his country heritage and the modern age.
By Will McGuirk
So here go, 2022, driving into the new year with the latest new vinyl due out Friday Jan 7.
‘People in Cars’ from Curse of Lono, from London UK captures that long romance between motors and music. Singer-songwriter Felix Bechtolsheimer says “When I first got clean, I used to feel like running away a lot. Whenever things got too much I'd jump in my uncle's Jeep and drive along the ocean, all the way from Boynton to Miami and back again, blasting Rolling Stones records until I felt better.” This album will take you on a similar trip, and you should come out all the better for it.
Lincoln’s 2017 EP, ‘A Constant State of Ohio’, winds its wordy way in a vein similar to Dan Mangan and the Weakerthans and maybe Arctic Monkeys. I thinks its a bit shabby these days to describe bands in terms of other bands because we are all in our own channels but yah worth a listen, several listens actually.
Somali Yacht Club are releasing ‘The Sun.’ Some driven psychedelic stoner rock from the Ukrainian act. on this debut.
Las Dianas
By Will McGuirk
Not much coming down the pipes as it is the year-end. Most outlets will be looking back, maybe some will be looking up, we here at SlowCity will be looking forward as usual. There are of course records still being released and here are the ones scheduled for this week that caught our ears.
Durutti Column are releasing the 2010 ‘A Paean to Wilson’; Tony Wilson was the head of Factory Records and the band’s erstwhile manager, and he had passed away in 2007. The album is a tribute to Wilson and the track “Brother” is a take on Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’, by way of label mates Joy Divison’s “Atmosphere”. Great track.
L’éclair, a Swiss techno-psyche band have the album ‘Confusions’ dropping this week and we are digging the jammy Madchester vibes of “Timbacrack”, vibes it must be said were energized by the aforementioned Tony Wilson.
Iggy Pop would have energized Wilson’s own vibe. The punk icon doesn’t restrict himself to gnarly raw power rock but dives wholeheartedly into a variety of everything which may only have the common denominator of being cool. This week Dr. Lonnie Smith releases ‘Breathe’ on Blue Note. Its a live album recorded at the NY club Jazz Standard on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The album also includes collaborations with 74 year-old Iggy, a cover of Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” and included here cos its cooler, “Why Can’t We Live Together”. Thats almost 150 years of cool together!!
Mixing cool and Swiss timing are Pablo Infernal, a glamped up garage affair from Zurich. Their record ‘Mount Angeles”, mastered at Jack White’s Third Man Studios, has some strut.
From Spain, slightly warmer than Switzerland, but just as cool is Las Dianas, somewhat a Spanish Go Gos and/or B52s. Their debut album ‘Lo Que Te Pida El Cuerpo’, is out and ya no idea, I don’t speak Spanish but I do speak Dance!!
By Will McGuirk
Radio Zeitgeist spotlights the best of the week’s vinyl releases scheduled for a drop on Friday. This week we spotlight tracks by the RTs, Palette Knife, Nation of Language, Slow Down Molasses, and JW Francis plus a whole lot more. Dig in. It is available on the Spotify platform. Subscribe, Follow, Like, whatever it is they do do it there. We have been doing the RZ roundup for a while so there’s an archive too.
Wet Leg
By Will McGuirk
Radio Zeitgeist spotlights the best of this week’s vinyl releases. This week we spotlight tracks by Wet Leg, the Beaches, Grouplove, Inspiral Carpets, Lissie, plus a whole lot more. Dig in. It is available on the Spotify platform. Subscribe, Follow, Like, whatever it is they do do it there. We have been doing the RZ roundup for a while so there’s an archive too.
