80.
You can never quite be sure what to expect going into a new Blut Aus Nord album and, true to form, the French outfit’s latest album somehow feels like both a continuation and a total inversion of their last, 2019’s Hallucinogen. Disharmonium – Undreamable keeps that record’s distant vocals and feverish, psychedelic atmosphere, but replaces its brighter sound and soaring, comforting guitar leads with harsh dissonance and an ominous, nightmarish hue. It’s just as psychedelic as its predecessor, albeit in perhaps a less traditional way, and its harsher, more abrasive approach doesn’t come at the expense of its intoxicating, hallucinatory aesthetic at all.Blut aus NordDisharmonium – UndreamableDebemur Morti Productions
79.
Death’s Dynamic Shroud expertly dart between glitch, vaporwave and synthpop to deliver an ambitious, riotous double album in Darklife. Equally as abstract as it is tender, the record surprises you with the heavenly ambience of tracks like ‘I Just Wanted To Know Love’, and the startling sincerity of ‘Where Does It Come From?’Death’s Dynamic ShroudDarklife100% Electronica
78.
Being a concept album that functions as a portal to a parallel aural universe, I cannot listen to Escapology as a classic record, picking my favourite tracks and skipping the fillers. It is much more like a POV virtual reality adventure to be experienced in a single take. The productions are rather short, four-and-a-half minutes tops. They are employed as themes for different levels (‘Freefall’, ‘Sim-Darien’, ‘Lagrange Point’, ‘Docking’) with varying ambience and intensity. Each track comes across like a new challenge, provoking unpredicted sonic affects. Artificially-induced anxiety, a sense of disorientation, the feeling of falling and staring into the abyss, uncanny and haunting thoughts, it is all there.Kode9EscapologyHyperdub
77.
Geezers from three of my favourite bands in the last decade playing oily-denim tankard-raising riff mania that’d make the meekest wallflower want to crush a grape? Inject Left To Rot into my marrow! Erupt are fronted (and guitarred) by Al Smith, also of psychedelic hardcore lords Geld, and the rhythm section comprises Alessandro Coco, whose star turn for my money was in the brief, glorious Gutter Gods, and Kyle Seely, best known as a member of Philadelphia’s Sheer Mag. All those bands are fun as fuck and I’d be willing to bet this one is funner, to play in, than the lot: there’s nowt goofy about Erupt’s type of punk metal, even when the instrumental breaks approach upturned-baseball-cap crossover thrash territory. It’s just a dream assignment for anyone situated on extreme metal’s grimy fringes.EruptLeft To RotStatic Shock
76.
Ballistically bawdy digital queercore from a Californian rave theorist, operating in tandem here with London label New Scenery, Ani Klang is obsessed with kickdrums, going so far as to coin a nanogenre, ‘Kickmusik’, and pen a manifesto. On her debut album, the kicks are truly mule-esque, and the snares, basslines and samples aren’t shy wallflowers either. The result is a sound that is analogous to ballroom and (New Orleans) bounce at its fiercest, but delivered in a way that could lay waste at Bangface. Hails!Ani KlangAni KlangNew Scenery
75.
There is a moment on this album where under the choir – who sing firm and in full voice like muscles flexed – strings pour in like mist under and around the women singing, lifting them upwards as if they were all on a cloud transcending into the heavens. The emotional dynamics of this moment are so intense I found myself shedding a tear while shopping for shampoo. This record is full of these moments of reflection, or lament, or the sadness of recognition; the flights of the heart and the toils of the mind. Even behind a language barrier, there is a deeply moving narrative bound into this album.Silvia TarozziCanti di guerra, di lavoro e d’amoreUnseen Worlds
74.
Abundant are the double albums that could be edited down to a superior single LP. Rarer are the single albums that possess so much chutzpah you’d be delighted to see them expanded to twice the length. Peacock Pools really should be a double album, like The Beatles by The Beatles. Its artwork is largely white, after all. It also sees Stephen McBean and his pals toying with an obscenely rich range of styles and influences. Alongside the expected lysergic alt-rock shapes, there are dabblings in squelchy synthpop, Haçienda-friendly dance rock, yacht rock with spiritual jazz décor, Americana-via-C86, anthemic arena metal, Kinks-ish honkytonk, a song about a cyclops which sounds like Chromeo Plays The Doors, and a tribute to fallen friends via the medium of thrash.Pink MountaintopsPeacock PoolsATO
73.
Ethel CainPreacher’s DaughterDaughters Of Cain
Pop girls seldom balance sugar-sweet melodies and dirgeful backstory in the way they’d like, but Ethel Cain isn’t just another pop girl. Like Billie Eilish before her, Cain’s debut album feels like a sharp left-turn in the genre, in what’s possible with pop and how much we can and should say about the intersection of religion and identity in a teenage girl’s life, and just how petrifying those growing pains can be.
72.
Something must be happening in Chicago. Maybe it always has been. But when I listen to this album by 27-year-old West Coast rapper-producer Saba, what I’m reminded of first is not so much any records by his immediate contemporaries in the US hip hop scene; more moments from recent albums by Jeff Parker and Ben LaMar Gay. It’s not so much the sounds you can actually hear on the record (although, every now and then…), but rather something about the bounce of it, that certain lilt it has, the feeling of light gleaming through the cracks between the notes. But no matter how many blocks of real estate might separate them on a map of the Windy City, isn’t it odd that two scions from such a venerable, half-century old jazz institution as the ACCM and the hot kid from the cool young hip hop collective across town should seemingly be taking notes over each other’s shoulders? Things ain’t like that in London, at least.SabaFew Good ThingsPivot Gang
71.
Songs of all flavours – flex songs, sex songs, heartbreak ballads and lamentations towards fame – are all given level standing on MOTOMAMI. The highs here hedonistically bounce around big beats, and Rosalía can rap just as coolly about her status and influence as she can get you wrapped up in it. Even the most by-the-numbers reggaeton cut, ‘Chicken Teriyaki’, is contagious, and finds space to nod at the album’s inner conflict: “Yeah, fame’s a prison sentence,” she raps, “but tell me what other girl’s gonna buy you dinner?”RosalaMOTOMAMIColumbia
70.
In moments of quietude that blanket us, imagine the piercing yet melodic trills of a bird song that grow louder and stronger to drown out any touches of stillness – this is the moment that UK composer, performer and improviser Laura Cannell captures in her striking seventh solo album Antiphony Of The Trees.The layered collection of eleven tracks is framed by Cannell’s trademark pull of experimental semi-composed, semi-improvised soundscapes which tease the lines of perfectly polished and deeply organic as she draws inspiration from the crisp melodies of birdsongs and channels it through the raw power of a recorder.Laura CannellAntiphony Of The TreesBrawl
69.
Only Love From Now On is the fifth in a string of near-perfect, roughly album-length releases that kicked off with the release of Both Lines Will Be Blue in mid-2019. I’ve written about Carmen Villain’s aesthetic at length before: “gentle but never wimpy”; “the crossroads of dub, ambient, and new age”; “canyon-esque dub space.” And all of that still applies. What we’re witnessing here isn’t radical reinvention (which is hugely overrated anyhow), but the continued refinement and mastery of a specific milieu, and the judicious introduction of new elements and a new collaborator in Arve Henriksen – who joins Villain on trumpet and electronics along with longtime collaborator Johanna Scheie Orellana on flute.Carmen VillainOnly Love From Now OnSmalltown Supersound
68.
Alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins composed this seven-part suite with a meaningful parallel between religious devotion and group improvisation. The progression of the music, climaxing with the ecstatic 26-minute closer ‘Lift’, which occupies nearly half of the album’s running time, is designed as an exercise in “vesselhood.” The musicians in his tight-knit quartet (bassist Daryl Jones, pianist Micah Thomas and drummer Kweku Sumbry) are merely containers for a unified improvisational process that transcends written notes by the end of the session, which is the metaphor for spiritual release. The first six pieces arrive as exceptionally sophisticated manifestations of different current jazz strains informed by a deep sense of history, while the closing piece is an unfettered expression of freedom, the notes on the page little more than a husk at that point.Immanuel WilkinsThe 7th HandBlue Note
67.
From the tape rewind melody, vortical harp motifs and jerky beats of the overture ‘Basmala’, Julmud promptly lets us know we are in for a special treat with Tuqoos | طُقُوس. A representative of the contemporary Palestinian progressive music scene, the Ramallah-based producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist has collaborated with innovative compatriots, such as Haykal, Al Nather, Muqata’a, Makimakkuk and Walaa Sbait, and has now gone on to crystallise his vision on this debut for the label Bilna’es. Tuqoos is an album characterised by a clear ambition to go beyond any genre-based expectations both in terms of form and aesthetic, all the while retaining an utterly alluring sonic aura. Most productions are instrumental, but when he raps, he spits his bars in a commanding tone that grabs you by the throat.JulmudTuqoos | طُقُوسBilna’es
66.
A celebration of club music in its various forms, Beyoncé described her seventh solo album in the liner notes shared via her website as “a place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking.” The resulting album is still replete with the glossy production touches that one might expect from a record by one of the world’s biggest artists, but sees her pay tribute to the Black and queer artists, and spaces, who gave us much of the electronic music that so many hold dear today. ‘Pure/Honey’ samples vogue-ballroom legend Kevin Aviance, ‘Summer Renaissance’ nods wholeheartedly to the disco shimmer of Donna Summer, and Honey Dijon is tapped for production on expansive standout cut ‘Alien Superstar’. As Beyoncé rolls through references to reggaeton (‘I’m That Girl’), hyperpop (‘All Up In Your Mind’) and Afrobeats (‘Energy’), it’s clear she’s having fun on Renaissance, and, vitally, is unafraid to challenge a legion of fans who always have heavy expectations.BeyonceRenaissanceParkwood Entertainment
65.
Omertà’s second release, Collection Particulière, which features Jérémie Sauvage of France on bass and Jonathan Grandcollot on drums, is avowedly a ‘pop’ album. It’s underpinned by the latter’s “streamlined” drumming style and the greater clarity of singer (and visual artist) Florence Giroud’s cool, but not affectless, vocals.OmertCollection ParticulèreZamZam
64.
The five tracks that comprise Nocturnal Trance are deceptively detailed, with the album’s washed-out sound belying a wealth of rich, textured soundscapes. Repeated plays of swirling, curiously meditative sonic vortexes like ‘Poisonous Dark Apparitions’ will reward the patient listener with all manner of hypnotic and oddly beautiful layers, all working in tandem to create an oppressively macabre ambience. It helps that there’s a keen, if subtle, melodic sensibility here too – the album may do a good job of scaring off less adventurous listeners by opening with its longest, most abrasive track in the nine-minute ‘Crystalline Telasthesia’, but beyond the blistering blasts and harsh walls of noise, the way the track unfolds into a luxuriously dark, expansive soundscape without tempering its cold assault is pretty extraordinary.CANDELABRUMNocturnal TranceHells Headbangers
63.
Warm Chris is a tightly wound, crisp and straightforward record, a demonstration of Aldous Harding’s now finely-honed abilities as a songwriter. It is also extremely weird, her voice flittering from moments of hypnotic warmth to a bonkers high-pitched squeal. The album is proof that when approached by a musician of sufficient ability, there is no limit to the breadth of experience a record could – and should – contain.Aldous HardingWarm Chris4AD
62.
For this release, Carl Stone is the latest participant in a series where artists are given carte blanche to use ten releases from the Finnish label We Jazz as source material for new works. Ideal territory for Stone, but also a bit new: the textures of jazz and free improv are decidedly different building blocks from that of pop, no matter how geographically wide his net has previously been cast. Yet Stone takes to this source material like a fish to water, and the resulting pieces bear his unmistakable mark. Throughout We Jazz Reworks Vol. 2, snatches of bass melody fold over themselves and lapse into layers of digital detritus; horns melt into fragrant piles of simmering metal and plastic. Sometimes, as on the relatively brief blast of ‘Omar’, the throb and semi-repetition turns into something resembling early glitch music, moving with the tempo of the dancefloor even as it strives to trip up any fancy footwork.Carl StoneWe Jazz Reworks Vol. 2We Jazz
61.
At the core of Skinty Fia is Fontaines D.C.’s reckoning with their Irish identity. The title is the anglicised version of an Irish expression that drummer Tom McColl’s great aunt – a Gaeilgeoir who speaks Irish as a first language – was fond of. It translates loosely as “The damnation of the deer,” recalling the now-extinct Irish giant elk, and can also be used as an expletive roughly analogous to “for fuck’s sake.” The album opens in Irish with ‘In ár gcroíthe go deo’, which translates to ‘In our hearts forever’, the title repeated in a choral chant in the background through the entire song. That song is also a clear indication that the album is quite some step forward instrumentally too, a pounding industrial beat fizzing its way in under the elegiac choral refrain at the song’s halfway point.Fontaines D.C.Skinty FiaPartisan
