TylaTylaFax / Epic
Loaded with catchy, silky hooks and a sleek fusion of classic R&B, Afrobeats and South African amapiano, Tyla’s self-titled debut album is one of 2024’s most addictive pop records. In ‘Water’, it has one of the past year’s most ubiquitous chart singles, centred around the South African artist’s sensual vocals and the log drums that are an ever-present in amapiano music, and the hand of Sammy SoSo, that track’s producer, can be heard through much of this album, providing some additional gloss and unity to proceedings. Further singles like ‘Truth Or Dare’ and ‘Jump’ (featuring rappers Gunna and Skillibeng) already underlined that there’s far more to back up that initial breakout single’s promise, but burrow deeper into cuts like the gentle, sultry ‘On And On’ and the Tems-featuring self-empowerment anthem ‘No.1’, and it’s clear that Tyla’s magnetic personality is on full display throughout.
Lord SpikeheartThe AdeptHekalu
There’s no build up to the intensity on DUMA frontman Lord Spikeheart’s debut solo LP. It opens, with ’TVYM’ at full throttle, a supercharged pummel of noise and Spikeheart’s almighty howling scream. Over the next 12 tracks, which include collaborations with Scotch Rolex, Backxwash and more, the levels don’t drop a fraction as manic beats and sandpaper vocals coalesce into a wave of noise. Even when it slips back to lower tempos, there’s a heaviness to The Adept that hits like a sledgehammer.
MahtiMusiikki 3Riot Season
Following his botanically themed joint record with Circle, 2021’s Henki, Richard Dawson has now shuffled his way into one of their side-projects too, along with his partner and Hen Ogledd/Bulbils bandmate, Sally Pilkington. Which band wouldn’t be improved by adding those two musicians to the line-up? AC/DC? Sugababes? Run The Jewels? Answers on a postcard, please. Anyway, they join Jussi Lehtisalo and Tomi Leppänen from Circle, plus an ex-member of that group, Teemu Elo, and the kantele-playing academic Hannu Saha. ‘Brisahka’ is the gorgeous opening piece on which Dawson’s non-lexical falsetto floats on top of bubbling synth noise and tinkling strings. ‘Ruskoi’ is a touch darker thanks to the regular interruption of distorted thunderclaps and the way it grows more insistently pumping in the second half, almost like John Carpenter playing with Heldon. Chanted group vocals form the spine of the pastoral ‘Hof-falssi’. Again, Dawson can be heard wailing soulfully in the background. ‘Lippa’ provides a nice ambient ending to drift off to. Lovely stuff.
BroadcastSpell Blanket (Collected Demos 2006-2009)Warp
Spell Blanket is great. Not the record that you’d give to new listeners but, for devotees, a cathartic way to put a cap on the band even if it’s not quite the final release – a companion album of older demos, Distant Call, will follow in September. Still, as I said at the top, there’s also a degree of melancholy here. The band’s later works hit around the same time that hauntology was starting to become a thing that people were talking seriously about and Broadcast tapped into that same current, while never quite going down the purely retro “Who remembers lard and space hoppers?” route of some of the latter-day “h-word” artists. For all their mustier reference points, Broadcast were always a band who engaged with the present as well as the past, with Tender Buttons (itself a collection of tracks originally intended as demos to be filled out later) still hitting that sweet spot between retro-futuristic and actually-futuristic. There’s a sad irony, then, that Spell Blanket itself now feels a little like an artefact from a lost future or a dispatch from a parallel world.
Sleepytime Gorilla MuseumOf The Last Human BeingAvant Night
The first album in 17 years from Oakland-based, performance art-inclined, experimental rock troupe Sleepytime Gorilla Museum comes as a pleasant surprise. The band turn in their most varied yet integrated work to date, a fully realised sonic tapestry that unspools like a movie for the mind’s eye, demanding to be played from start to finish with each listen. The band still look like extras from Mad Max and their core sound (Art Bears-style RIO with metal, prog and industrial elements) is recognisably similar to past work, but what’s different this time around is how well all the pieces fit together, and the powerful emotional resonance these songs leave in their wake. Carla Kihlstedt’s beautiful vocals really come into their own here, contrasting perfectly with Nils Frykdahl’s metallic growl. Chamber music miniatures evoking freak show carnivals rub shoulders with industrialised folk drones (‘Silverfish’). Propulsive Sturm und Drang pieces (‘The Gift’) exist alongside dream-like prog-inflected soundscapes (‘Hush Hush’), wild post-apocalyptic almost funk (‘Save It’) and a possessed sounding cover of This Heat’s ‘S.P.Q.R.’. Perhaps best of all is ‘Old Grey Heron’, sung by bassist Dan Rathbun, its opening lyric, “After years of service and distinction, The Old Grey Heron hobbles toward extinction”, evoking a stirring, emotional response not present in the band’s earlier material, for this listener at least.
Skee MaskISS010Ilian Tape
ISS010 is an example of pure techno mastery. There’s been a lot of late 90s/early 00s-inspired techno music around in the past year or two, but nothing comes close to how Skee Mask takes the tropes forged by Jeff Mills, Basic Channel, Ben Sims and other forerunners and fulfils their further untapped potential in unexpected ways. The grooves, pads, chord progressions, even the claps sound familiar, but these tracks could hardly have been produced 25 years ago. It’s their depth and multilayered nature that give them away. Comparable older techno productions with more treble lack the impact and HD quality of Skee Mask’s productions. With intricately arranged, ever-evolving grooves backed by melancholic, dub-wise pads and shimmering sonic flourishes, these tracks are some of his best so far.
Colin JohncoCrabe GéantJohnkôôl Records
Colin Johnco, the co-founder of Johnkôôl Records, is hard to get a handle on, an electronic producer and DJ who also released and was the key collaborator on experimental folk musician Emmanuelle Parrenin’s magical 2022 album Targala, La Maison Qui N’En Est Pas Une. Parrenin returns the favour on the utterly mesmeric Crabe Géant, contributing hurdy-gurdy and “vocal matter” to ‘Ventre’. In fact, Crabe Géant features a thrilling cast of guest musicians, including producer and dancer NSDOS, sax player and Nurse With Wound-collaborator Quentin Rollet, producer Paulie Jan and more. The list of contributors appears to presage a wildly eclectic album; instead they all surrender to the same rich, flowing sound, with each of the long tracks (opener ‘L’Etoile’ is nearly 24 minutes long) combining almost seamlessly.
The Havels, Irena & Vojtěch HavloviFour HandsAnimal Music
Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi seal their forty-year relationship by playing the piano four-handed. Irena sits in front of the instrument, Vojtěch stands behind, embraces her, and plays it. They later repeat this on the organ. I saw this touching performance in Janskerk at Le Guess Who? 2022, and now, the duo has released an album with poignant minimalist and meditative compositions, recorded in Atrium na Žižkově in Prague. It is moving, lyrical and trancelike. The juxtaposition of the subtle sound of the piano with a wall of organ encapsulates a spectrum of emotions. Again, it shows how Havlovi, playing patiently, can draw out incredible beauty.
Spectral VoiceSparagmosDark Descent
Comprised of four lengthy, supremely satisfying compositions, Sparagmos (named after Dionysian dismemberment techniques, if you were wondering) is even more haunting and otherworldly than it’s more combative predecessor. There’s still a primal aggression at play here (check out the ravenous ‘Sinew Censer’) on the whole this album is a lot more atmospheric, with the aforementioned ‘Be Cadaver’ culminating with grandiose, Asunder-esque clean vocals and gigantic swathes of melancholic distortion. ‘Red Feasts Condensed Into One’, meanwhile, eventually disrupts its cavernous blasting by reducing the band’s rolling darkness to sparse, violent stabs, letting the uncomfortably quiet spaces between overwhelm the listener instead. In many ways, Sparagmos is reminiscent of Swallowed’s boundary-pushing (and somehow now decade-old) masterpiece Lunarterial in that it reveals genuinely sinister new avenues of expression within the well-worn genre of death/doom metal, and is easily 2024’s first essential metal record.
Roc MarcianoMarciologyPimpire International / Marci Enterprises
No stranger to a self-referential album title – see Marcberg, Marci Beaucoup, Mt. Marci and other releases – cult underground rapper Roc Marciano’s latest project is an enthralling trip through lo-fi, low-key beats and his typically laidback, gruff vocal delivery. Like many of his past records, much of Marciology is produced by the rapper himself and folds in samples of, or references to, old jazz and soul records, while the sinister callback to classic Memphis horrorcore instrumentals on the self-titled opening cut is instantly absorbing. Tracks like the Blaxploitation-soundtrack-referencing ‘Goyard God’ (one of two songs produced by Los Angeles-based beatmaker Animoss) and subtly eerie ‘Gold Crossbow’ underline just why Marci is credited as one of the most influential underground hip hop figures of the past decade or so. Perhaps with the release of Marciology, it’s about time he got his flowers more widely.
Hi! CapybarasA/M/Y/G/D/A/L/ASelf-Released
Nothing is hidden on Hi! Capybaras, AKA Kyle Acab’s, A/M/Y/G/D/A/L/A, these haunted synth and spoken word tracks are a portal into private space. Setting reinforces the effect, luminous synths crumpled by tape, sonic comfort food while Leonard Susskind lectures reel off in the background. Through memories of pet snails and youthful misdemeanors, Hi! Capybaras holds a mirror up to past and present in search of a thread. Loss and discovery roll into tender honesty. “Have you ever felt truly, truly, truly alone? I mean like really, truly alone?” They ask on ‘Things That I Wld Tell My Younger Self’. Addressing the listener, the question halts time, fully embroils us with Hi Capybaras!’s perspective. Though stark and ruminating, this is generous music. Its vulnerability lifts facades, shatters the pressure to keep up appearances. Putting it all out there and perhaps offering a glimmer of comfort in the act of sharing.
Judas PriestInvincible ShieldSony
Don’t let the Turbo-esque 80s style intro fool you, as Invincible Shield is another cast-iron ripper – if 2018’s Firepower was a return to form after misguided attempts to go prog on records like Nostradamus, then this one is arguably their most direct, powerful release since Painkiller. Rob Halford is on ridiculously good form, belting out glass-shattering falsetto with the gusto of singers half his age on the anthemic title track. Whilst Invincible Shield wisely eschews most of the experimentation of the band’s recent records to focus on robust sing-along rockers like ‘Devil In Disguise’ or ‘Sons Of Thunder’, there are still a few surprises hidden away here – ‘Escape From Reality’, for example, leans into a more psychedelic, Sabbath-esque sound, whilst ‘Giants In The Sky’ finds new guitarist Richie Faulkner dishing out some smooth flamenco licks in between chugging riffs.
Mdou MoctarFuneral For JusticeMatador
Active since the late 00s, it’s in the last few years that Nigerien rocker Mdou Moctar has really made a claim to be one of the iconic guitarists of his era. Funeral For Justice, his second album for Matador Records, fair teems with delicious riffs, ostentatious solos, sauna-hot tones, all done as the leader of a crack band plugged into his ‘assouf blues meets Billy Gibbons boogie’ vision. He also sings about meaningful things, such as how the French fucked his country up and should get out of it.
Avalanche KaitoTalitakumGlitterbeat
Mixing up the West African folk traditions of urban griot Kaito Winse with the avant-punk of Belgian guitarist Nico Gitto and French drummer/producer Benjamin Chaval, Talitakum is the second album of joyful noise from transnational trio Avalanche Kaito. It is both more cohesive and wide-ranging than their debut, hardened on the road but still crammed with rough-edged vigour. Their sound is a striking, molten blend that sparks and shakes with life. Driven by an unstoppable uplifting energy, this is a record in touch with music’s ritual power.
Sheida Gharachedaghi, Mohammad Reza AslaniChess Of The WindMississippi
The sounds used Chess Of The Wind, heard prominently on the OST, also play an important role in emphasising the gothic ethos of the movie. The shadows are heard in the sounds and voices with invisible sources, such as the coughs and laughter of a supposedly dead character apparently coming from nowhere. Other musical elements fill the silence in the eeriest way, such as the sounds made by the main character’s wooden wheelchair, or the ticking sound of the clock and the clinks of the metal flail which, in the murder scene, are dissolved into the music. These elements represent gaps, silences, or absences: the wheelchair’s sound represents the main character’s pain, and the constant ticking and clinking are shadows of their fear of the supposedly murdered man – even after his death. The sounds, just like the visual elements of the film, are the sonic shadows of the characters, who remain inaccessible throughout the entire film. Aslani’s movie and Gharachedaghi’s score mirror the story and its characters: after decades of dwelling in shadows, they rose from the dead and emerged into the light.
R.N.A. OrganismR.N.A.O. Meets P.O.P.O.Mesh-Key
There is something endearingly uncouth and unselfconscious in the clunkiness of this album that makes it really fucking cool. It is brilliantly odd and lumpen, quite a contrast to the chiselled cheekbones and tweed tailoring Sato wears in the Bandcamp profile photo. I love the distant wailing in ‘Nativity’, which has a similar energy to my neighbour who has no idea the walls are so thin, and who sings with an unencumbered tuneless gusto. ‘Yes, Every Africa Must Be Free Eternally’ is more a nod to early Jamaican dub, with the melodica over chunky rhythms. Despite the many comparisons and connections available – to a certain type of post punk; to private press experiments with tapes and crunchy drum machines; to dub and to Vanity Records – it walks with its own gait entirely, neither one thing nor the other but its own complete self nonetheless. Mesh Key strikes again.
Alison CottonEngelchenRocket Recordings
Translated literally as ‘little angels’, violist and singer Alison Cotton’s Engelchen tells the true story of two Sunderland-born sisters, Ida and Louise Cook, who, using international networks established through their passion for opera, secured safe passage out of Germany and Poland for a number of Jewish people in the years prior to WWII. The term ‘engelchen’ was bestowed upon them by the people they saved, and certainly their story is one of supreme bravery and compassion. Using mournful drones, haunting vocal arrangements and the judicious inclusion of Foley-type sound effects, Cotton communicates not simply the details of the story but the emotional journey of its characters.
Yaya BeyTen FoldBig Dada
Though much of Ten Fold, Yaya Bey’s fifth studio album, was written while she was mourning the death of her father, the rapper Grand Daddy I.U., it’s refreshingly bouncy and liberated. Deeply soulful moments like ‘East Coast Mami’, which opens with a voice note from her late father, and ‘Chasing The Bus’ sit gracefully alongside the elastic dancehall sound of ‘So Fantastic’, also featuring guest vocals from Grand Daddy I.U., and ‘Sir Princess Bad Bitch’, a subtly banging house cut all about self-affirmation. Vitally, the genre-hopping doesn’t feel forced or jarring in any way either, instead providing Bey with perfect foil to exorcise her demons.
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas WerliinGhosted IIDrag City
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin don’t make ecological collapse audible. But they do change the way we feel time. Ghosted II stretches the now. For every second of forward momentum there’s an ocean of lateral movement. The trio’s jams are texturally lush and rhythmically intricate, dazzling in the balance and harmony between the three players. They play with time as much as sound. It’s a captivating relationship musically, where separate temporalities congeal into a whole. Perhaps it can chime with ways of thinking about much bigger concerns.
BòscBòscLa Crue / La Grande Folie
When I first heard ‘L’Èrba d’Amor’ as part of Bòsc’s set for the Printemps du bal, it made me feel like I was levitating. OK, so I was coming down with something and starting to feel feverish, but its power undoubtedly translates to the recorded version on the group’s self-titled debut: the mesmerising vocals in Occitan, the wavering drones, the heart-stopping first chord change at 4’48”, the feeling of wanting it to last for an eternity. I don’t think they’d appreciate me focusing on just the one song, though, and with good reason – Bòsc is an all-round beauty.
