Radiohead fans are tweaking for today's release of Thom Yorke's new project, Atoms for Peace. The group - featuring producer Nigel Godrich on keys, Ultraista's Joey Waronker on drums, Flea on bass, and Forro in the Dark founder Mauro Refosco on additional percussion - formed originally as the backing band to tour Yorke's solo album, The Eraser, back in 2009, but they gelled so completely that they returned for a masterful and moody new LP. Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls AMOK "an adventurous set of hypnotic electro-rock with densely textured, intricately constructed songs featuring twitchy, interlocking rhythms, buzzing synths, atmospheric guitars and Yorke’s floating vocals." Fans will call it amazing! Also, high on our playlist is second release from Autre Ne Veut. Pronounced “oh-truh nuh vuh”, this project of Brooklyn’s Arthur Ashin "is a bolder, more pop-oriented take on his blend of ‘80s-influenced electro-pop and bedroom R&B, with a cleaner and fuller sound featuring celestial ‘80s synths, sleek guitars and woozy hip hop beats accompanying Ashin’s emotive, falsetto-laden vocals and dark lyrics." Fans of How To Dress Well, Jamie Lidell and 80's dance will dig it!
It's hard to believe but after all these years and an active career, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr is just getting around to his first proper solo album. Although Marr half jokes about the debut in an interview when he says, "The idea sometimes of a solo record is that it gives you an excuse or a possibility to explore but it's not at all exploring, the irony is that I've made a twelve track record that I think sound like Blondie," the fact is that he's more free here than with The Healers or any of his many collaborations to make the songs he wants to play, regardless current trends. Indeed, The Messenger "is a solidly constructed set of jangly rock that makes a fine showcase for Marr’s ringing guitar work."
Other new releases you'll want to pick up this week come from Montreal artist (and Grimes cohort) Airick Woodhead, a.k.a. Doldrums), whose debut "is a mesmerizing set of fractured electro-pop with frenetic, densely textured songs combining chopped samples, trippy ambient textures, industrialized tribal beats, eerie falsetto vocals and sticky pop melodies"; Swedish group Shout Out Louds, whose fourth LP "is a smooth set of polished, ‘80s-inspired pop-rock, with a lushly produced sound combining guitars, synths, piano, strings, woodwinds and other instrumentation with warm harmonies and soaring pop hooks"; Seattle band Grave Babies, whose sophomore effort is anything but that; it's actually "a bracing set of noisy, goth-tinged post-punk, with a murky, lo-fi sound featuring fuzzy, grimy guitars, warped synths, industrialized drum-machine beats and dramatic, multi-tracked vocals"; new Australian band Gold Fields, whose debut is "a sleek set of New Waveish dance-pop with a polished sound featuring bright synths, flashy guitars, propulsive, occasionally tropical rhythms, smooth vocals and catchy pop hooks"; and Chapel Hill, NC’s Mount Moriah, whose second album is "a fine set of roots-tinged indie-rock with a stark, haunting sound combining rumbling rock guitars and stately rhythms with occasional violin, pedal steel and other instrumentation accompanying Heather McEntire’s quivering, soulful vocals reminiscent at times of Dolly Parton."
Speaking of veteran country crooners, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell team up on their first full-length together, after nearly four decades of friendship and years of collaboration. Old Yellow Moon is full of vintage sounds, covers of country classics and Crowell originals, and a wealth of worldclass musical guests. Seattle's Ivan & Alyosha are hardly a duo, but the indie folk group looks to days of yore for their warm harmonies and comfy campfire folk-pop. And new Discord label group Deathfix features some post-punk veterans, Fugazi's Brendan Canty and producer/composer/remixer Rich Morel, who started a side project together after touring in Bob Mould's band. Deathfix sounds nothing like these bandmates' previous projects, with its 70's retro garage-glam sound, but that makes it all the more fascinating.
Be sure to sample all of these and more recommended releases, including two Slumberland releases from Girls Names and Golden Grrrls, gathered below before heading out to your local record store:
Atoms For Peace - Default
Autre Ne Veut - Play by Play
Two Seattle bands top this week's list of new releases. Since 2011's full-length No Witch, The Cave Singers added Blood Brothers/Past Lives/Fleet Foxes (among others) member Morgan Henderson to their lineup and teamed up with Fleet Foxes producer Phil Ek for their fourth LP Naomi out on Jagjaguwar.…
It's a big week for new releases, so let's get right into it. First thing on your shopping list: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' latest, Push The Sky Away. Fifteen albums in and Cave & Co. still create unique stunners. As our Music Director, Don Yates, says, it's "a masterful set of brooding, mi…
