81.
As on VTSS’ previous releases, the more straightforward productions on Borderline Tendencies, like ‘C.E.T. Unlimited’, ‘To Whom All Lovers’ and ‘Sytuacja Jest Beznadziejna’, borrow from the EBM and industrial traditions. The earworm ‘MDM508’ comes across like a 3.0 version of the Nitzer Ebb classic ‘Let Your Body Learn’. There are two tracks, though, that mark a departure from high-octane abrasiveness towards booty-shaking science. Judging by its captivating erotic undercurrent, the collaborative track ‘Going Nuts’, featuring club provocateur LSDXOXO on vocals, will certainly make the rounds at future raves. The master stroke of this EP, though, is the psytrance meets jungle paranoia of ‘Woah’, built around syncopated bleeps and bloops, wavering “woahs” and blistering 168 BPM breaks. If this is the shape of things to come from VTSS, then there’s plenty to look forward to.VTSSBorderline TendenciesVEYL
80.
Smooth-but-wavey slowburner synth pop from a multi-instrumentalist Margate resident who can also be found playing saxophone for Bryan Ferry, and just because such a role is an almost self-parodic idea of ‘classiness’, it doesn’t mean that Jorja Chalmers’ second solo album isn’t very classy. Strolling hither and yon between ambient, electro and jazz, Chalmers produced Midnight Train herself (although Chromatics’ Johnny Jewel “executive produced” this, the meaning of which is mysterious as ever) and generally comes off like an auteur to watch out for.Jorja ChalmersMidnight TrainItalians Do It Better
79.
The second album from what might be the most exciting piano trio today raises the stakes from their bracing eponymous 2018 debut. Pianist Kaja Draksler, bassist Petter Eldh, and drummer Christian Lillinger proceed with clockwork exactitude on material that perpetually teeters on the edge of an abyss. Rhythms splinter and fracture, forging uneasy alliances with melodies that seem to mock the polyrhythmic, post-hip hop propulsion. The simple repeating piano melody of Eldh’s ‘Natt Raum’ — played, like everything here, on an upright — sails along gleefully impervious to the way the wildly careening groove seeks to practically crush it, while Draksler’s sparkling tones on ‘Vrvica’ use their own splattery logic against the roiling grooves of her partners.Punkt.Vrt.PlastikSomitIntakt
78.
It’s been four years since the last full album by the excellent trio of Fatou Seidi Ghali, vocalist Alamnou Akrouni, and Amaria Hamadalher, and so this live album is very welcome, more so since the rolling guitar rounds of Tuareg desert blues feel at their finest with an audience, and don’t much suit being shoehorned into studios. Recorded in New York in 2019, this set starts with the pace-setting ‘Surbajo’, picks up through ‘Eghass Malan’ to the album’s centrepiece ‘Telilit’ that crackles with constrained energies. There is much to enjoy in the control in the raptures of Les Filles de Illighadad – they are never explosive, but loose vocal flourishes or low-end percussion upon the form.Les Filles de IllighadadAt Pioneer WorksSahel Sounds
77.
Olivia Rodrigo is not the first teenager to write about her raw, corrosive feelings, and she makes little attempt to break the mould – SOUR offers eleven angsty, vulnerable songs in which a girl sings about, and to, a boy who didn’t deserve her, didn’t respect her, yet still had an unshakeable hold on her. It works because those feelings are familiar, her voice is spectacular, and the guttural resentment of Alanis Morrisette’s ‘Jagged Little Pill’ courses through this album like an IV drip. Rodrigo might seem like she has no reason whatsoever to be so distraught about such trivial things at 17, but that’s the point: you can be as beautiful and pure and comfortable as the world might want you to be, but there will always be one loser who will inadvertently ruin your life.Olivia RodrigoSOURGeffen
76.
Like Sunlit Threads sees Scottish producer Mark Kastner introduce the world to a new alias, having come to be known since 2008 for the high-tempo, often intense electro he’s released under the name Galaxian for labels such as Shipwrec and Helena Hauff’s Return To Disorder. As Kas, the high tempos remain, but Kastner’s in a more pensive mood. The album is peppered with interludes of spoken word, much of it lifted from various literature, and beatless cuts that shift between the dazzling (‘Outwardly Attaching’) and the downright haunting (‘Self Aware Field Pt. 1’). When the beats are let loose though, as on the title track and ‘In The Absence Of Becoming’, they’re accompanied by some of the most breathtaking melodies Kastner has committed to record yet.KasLike Sunlit ThreadsIlian Tape
75.
The tracks on Private LIFE often feel like performers stumbling groggily on stage, elegantly shooting themselves in the foot, then somehow pirouetting off, perfectly choreographed, in unison. Unquantised drums knock under Richards’ warm sprechgesang, samples whistle and ping-pong throughout while Duffin’s sax honks along, sometimes bursting free, charting a course all its own. It’s paradoxically both chaotic and comforting, mirroring the way everyday life carries on during crises, wrestling just a little bit of order away from entropy.Virginia WingPrivate LIFEFire
74.
Punx, metalheads, metalpunx and general ne’erdowells develop (ugh!) their Nottingham-located project from a sludgy noiserock dirge with psychedelic leanings into… a psychedelic dirge with sludgy noiserock leanings. The result, Bloody Head’s second LP, sits pretty on the Hominid Sounds label alongside bands like Casual Nun and Melting Hand; the clouds of the title rain down acidic chaos and deceptively sharp riffs.Bloody HeadThe Temple Pillars Dissolve Into The CloudsHominid Sounds
73.
Badsista’s Bandcamp page is a veritable treasure trove of party music, ranging from the baile funk of her native Brazil to rip-roaring trance and techno. The second instalment in her HITS DE VERÃO (SUMMER HITS) series offers six killer cuts with eyes only for the dancefloor. ‘MANDELÃO 3000’ taps into an electro swagger of sorts, while ‘SORRY DAD’ calls to mind the kind of thumping, cheeky techno that you might expect to hear from Russian producer Vladimir Dubyshkin and the трип label stable. There are also nods to baile funk, gqom and trance across the remaining four tracks, as Badsista links up with a number of other emerging Brazilian artists, such as EVEHIVE, JLZ and Mu540.BadsistaHITS DE VERÃO (SUMMER HITS) Vol. 2Self-Released
72.
With the re-addition of Mike Dillard, Melvins are back to their 1983 lineup, last visited on 2013’s Tres Cabrones. With this, Working With God carries the air of a heady reunion. It careers from familiar, high-energy, hooky sludge rock to little snippets of in-jokes, and then back again. These ideas are occasionally extended over multiple tracks, as in the case of ‘Brian The Horse-Faced Goon’, which – bewilderingly – is a story that requires two parts to be realised.MelvinsWorking With GodIpecac
71.
The more I listened to this album to write this silly, bitchy review, the more I liked it; the more forgiving I felt towards the OTT production and schmaltzy lyrics. I don’t believe for a moment that someone as obviously hellbent on technical brilliance as Annie Clark has the capacity to put out a spontaneously loose, dirty, blues-inspired album, unpolished and restless. If you want to think about grubby late mid-century New York, go and read Just Kids or something. If you want a high-production, catchy album that’s cheesy, fun, and occasionally a bit naff, buy Daddy’s Home.St. VincentDaddy’s HomeLoma Vista
70.
The Tuareg music that makes it into ears outside of the Sahara is often that of tishoumaren, the loping, bluesy, guitar-based music that was pioneered by Tinariwen and skyrocketed to the über-cool with artists such as Imarhan, Mdou Moctar, and Bombino. It would be easy for Khalab to focus on the guitar styles, but instead, he gravitates towards the deeper roots. On this album, the sounds of M’berra are the acoustic strains of the banjo-like tehardent lute, the one-stringed imzad fiddle and the tinde drum. The tishoumaren guitar still has its place, but as an equal in the music’s pantheon rather than acting as its overarching definition.Khalab & M’berra EnsembleM’berraReal World
69.
This is music with aspirations beyond any boundaries. Never mind genre bracketing, this is work that gleefully tramples the fences we generally use to divide art forms. One disc (Lights In The Rain) features a suite of compositions inspired by and dedicated to Italian film directors. Poems are deployed as lyrics in some places, cited as inspirational source texts in others. Jo Wood-Brown’s paintings (appearing on the cover and in the booklet) of migrant workers have been chosen carefully, and two pages of the booklet are devoted to her work. Different disciplines seep into one another: Parker associates tones with colours, sounds with imagery, notes with poetry. The end results are less music than a kind of magic.William Parker QuartetMigration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone WorldCentering
68.
The MPT Trio are a real power trio in every sense of the word. Whilst occasionally capable of gorgeous little ditties (see: ‘Naima’), they’re at their best when each member is giving it both barrels. Each player is totally off-kilter, and at their best – like on fragmented closer ‘El Llanto de la Tierra’ – when it sounds like they could each be playing different songs. Whilst there are gems in each player’s discography, and Mela has spent a career lighting up every recording he drums on, this is the boldest and best entry point into each of the trio’s discography. With a lot of bleak shit happening in the world right now, and little to look forward, thank your lucky stars that this is only MPT Trio: Volume 1.Francisco MelaMPT Trio: Volume 1577
67.
The gargantuan, swarming beats of Prolaps rip dance music down to its rawest energy and then explode the essence. Ultra Cycle Pt.2 is the second of four albums planned from the duo of Machine Girl (AKA Matt Stephenson) and Bonne Baxter (vocalist producer in Kill Alters) this year – one coming out on each solstice and equinox. Their tracks boldly mangle together BPMs into a maximalist whole. Footwork hyperactivity battles tectonic low end, frantic drum & bass accelerates into gabba euphoria, polyrhythms sprout more polyrhythms before detonating into twisted robot mulch. It variously sounds like multiple amen breaks colliding, an AI drum circle collapsing or, on ‘You Cant Ddddiiiieeee’, as if the duo somehow managed to sidechain an ecosystem. They sometimes hit a straight house or techno groove, but there’s always an absurd texture, or gloriously unpredictable beat switch to knock the whole thing on its head.ProlapsUltra Cycle Pt. 2: Estival GrowthHausu Mountain
66.
Last time we heard from Liverpool-based Andrew PM Hunt was his work as one half of gorgeous psychedelic duo Land Trance, who released their exceptional debut album last year. His latest under solo moniker Dialect is equally beautiful but far more delicate, a lavish record peppered with endless little touches of texture – whispers of vocals, rich piano chords, shattered fragments of found sound. Originally written as chamber pieces for fellow Liverpool outliers Immix Ensemble, allowing Hunt to experiment with woodwind and strings, the record is delivered with the utmost finesse but packs considerable emotional heft. Like a glorious garden in full bloom, with every petal pruned to perfection, Under~Between is incredibly arresting.DialectUnder~BetweenRVNG Intl.
65.
For all the brilliant flashes of agile lyricism, much of J. Cole’s work of recent years could always be said to have taken itself just a little too seriously. Not such on The Off-Season, on which the first artist to sign to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation way back in 2009 sounds refreshed. Gone is the hackneyed conceptualising of 2018’s KOD, Cole opting instead to simply have a bit of fun as he draws on various flows and a cast of well-known guest collaborators (21 Savage, Lil Baby, Cam’ron, Diddy, Timbaland) that help to bring out the best in him.J. ColeThe Off-SeasonDreamville
64.
Perceptual Geography is music as actor, not scenery. It moves, it interacts, it plays a role and shifts the listener. The album is dedicated to Maryanne Amacher, the late American composer who was a friend and influence on Ankersmit. In Lisa Rovner’s documentary Sisters With Transistors, Kim Gordon recalls meeting Amacher, “She said: ‘I’m gonna make this whole house vibrate and come alive.” That spirit of disrupting the domestic shines through in Ankersmit’s composition when taken as a home listening experience. He suggests the listener plays it in on speakers, a bold request when so few of us have access to either the time or the equipment, but it makes sense. Although it’s a fascinating listen on headphones, listen to it out loud and it becomes a different, all-encompassing beast.Thomas AnkersmitPerceptual GeographyShelter Press
63.
Yu SuYellow River BlueMusic From Memory
62.
La Novia are a French collective who play various strains of traditional and experimental music. Their associated catalogue and various assemblages are a wormhole, and they’re also connected to one of my favourite bands, the chugging drums, hurdy-gurdy and bass trio France. This new release is a duo by Perrine Bourel on violin, and Jacques Puech on cabrette (a type of bagpipe) and singing. It contains waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and rigadons – the latter a French Baroque form with hopping steps, although don’t be fooled, none of these tracks are pretty dances. What I love about various La Novia-related releases is on evidence here: theirs is not polite folk music, never sweet and rarely soothing. It is, often, music that bares its teeth.
