September closed out with a really strong week of new releases, including the long-awaited new album from Bon Iver. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it, "his most adventurous, forward-looking recording to date, combining spacy, digitally warped electro-pop with folk, gospel and other styles on soul-searching songs featuring an intricate blend of electronic and acoustic instrumentation accompanying his often-manipulated and vocodered vocals." Solange snuck out her third LP, "a powerful set of expansive, bittersweet R&B inflected with jazz, hip hop, funk, soul, electro-pop and more, combining a mostly dark, moody sound with her honeyed vocals and poignant, often-politically charged lyrics revolving around issues of identity, empowerment and healing." And veteran Alabama-bred band Drive-By Truckers deliver not only their 11th studio album but their most personal, passionate and political yet!Detroit rapper Danny Brown named his latest after a Joy Division song, bringing "a powerful set of expansive hip hop with adventurous production from former collaborator Paul White along with The Alchemist, Evian Christ, Black Milk and Petite Noir. Songs range from warped trap and frenetic Afro-Beat to nightmare carnival music and noirish, jazz-tinged tracks, with off-kilter beats accompanying his elastic nasal honk and gripping lyrics revolving around the downside of the party life with its accompanying anxiety, paranoia and isolation." The latest from Norwegian artist Jenny Hval is "a haunting, at times unsettling set of experimental avant-pop combining eerie ambient soundscapes with her ethereal vocals and lyrics revolving around vampires, blood and menstruation." LA-based artist Itasca (aka Kayla Cohen) shares "a gorgeous set of psych-folk with a spare, haunting sound combining her nimble guitar finger-picking and dusky vocals with occasional piano, pedal steel, violin and flute." And Brooklyn artist Oliver Kalb -- also of Eskimeaux, Told Slant, and Brooklyn artist collective The Epoch -- releases his third solo album under the name Bellows, a "fine set of adventurous folk-pop combining atmospheric guitars and synths, swelling strings and looped drum beats with lyrics revolving around a broken friendship."
Alcest - "Oiseaux de Proie"
from Kodama on Prophecy
Aldous Harding - "Merriweather"
from Aldous Harding on Flying Nun
Anthony Jay Sanders (of the Island of Misfit Toys) - "Mother's Day Money"
from I Will Be the One Who Goes on Near Mint
Apollo Brown / Skyzoo - "A Couple Dollars (feat. Joell Ortiz)"
from The Easy Truth on Mello Music Group
Banks - "Poltergeist"
from The Altar on Harvest / Virgin EMI
Bellows - "Thick Skin"
from Fist & Palm on Double Double Whammy
Betty Harris - "Sometime"
from The Lost Queen of New Orleans Soul on Soul Jazz
Blonde Redhead
from Masculin Feminin reissue on Numero
Bob Weir - "Blue Mountain"
from Blue Mountain on Columbia/Legacy Recordings
Bon Iver - "CR∑∑KS"
from 22, A Million on Jagjaguwar
Carl Stone - "Chao Praya"
from Electronic Music from the Seventies and Eighties reissue on Unseen Worlds
Danny Brown - "Really Doe (feat. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul & Earl Sweatshirt)"
from Atrocity Exhibition on Warp
Darcy James Argue's Secret Society
from Real Enemies on New Amsterdam
Drive-By Truckers - "Surrender Under Protest"
from American Band on ATO
Emma Ruth Rundle - "Protection"
from Marked for Death on Sargent House
Eric Clapton - "Tell The Truth"
from Live in San Diego on Reprise / Rhino
EZTV - "High Flying Faith"
from High in Place on Captured Tracks
The Faint - "Skylab1979"
from CAPSULE 1999-2016 reissue on Saddle Creek
Grapell - "Some Places"
from Love Chambers EP on Strangers Candy/Roll Call
The Growlers - "City Club"
from City Club on Cult Records
Infinity Crush - "Heaven"
from Warmth Equation on Joy Void
Itasca - "No Consequence"
from Open to Chance on Paradise of Bachelors
James Leg - "Blood On The Keys"
from Blood on the Keys on Alive Naturalsound Records
Jenny Hval - "Female Vampire"
from Blood Bitch on Sacred Bones
Jimi Hendrix - "Power of Soul"
from Machine Gun: Jimi Hendrix The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/1969 on Acoustic Sounds
John Prine - "Who's Gonna Take The Garbage Out (w/ Iris DeMent)"
from For Better, or Worse on Oh Boy
Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster - "Headed South"
from Constant Stranger on Big Legal Mess
Kestrels - "No Alternative"
from Kestrels on Sonic Unyon
Low - "Untitled 1"
from The Exit Papers on Temporary Residence
Luke Winslow-King - "I'm Glad Trouble Don't Last Always"
from I'm Glad Trouble Don't Last Always on Bloodshot
The Luyas - "Engineers"
from Says You on Paper Bag Records
Machinedrum - "Do It 4 U (ft. D∆WN)"
from Human Energy on Ninja Tune
Mandolin Orange - "Wildfire"
from Blindfaller on Yep Roc
Marianne Faithfull
from No Exit on Ear Music
Marillion
from FEAR on Ear Music
Moses Sumney - "Worth It"
from Lamentations EP on self-released
Mr Oizo - "Seahorses"
from All Wet on Ed Banger
Nick Waterhouse - "Smooth Operator"
from Never Twice on Innovative Leisure
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
from Circlin' Back: Celebrating 50 Years on Ngdb Records / Warner Bros.
Oathbreaker - "Immortals"
from Rheia on Deathwish
Opeth - "The Wilde Flowers"
from Sorceress on Nuclear Blast
(Pat Thomas) Broadway Dance Band - "Go Modern"
from Coming Home (Original Ghanaian Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1967-1981) on Strut
Pional - "Casualty"
from When Love Hurts EP on Counter
Pixies - "Um Chagga Lagga"
from Head Carrier on PIAS / Pixies
Regina Spektor - "Bleeding Heart"
from Remember Us to Life on London / Rhino / Sire / Warner Bros.
After a two year wait, and a rescheduled release date, we've finally got the latest from Phantogram on our hands. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says, the "New York duo's third album is a sleeker, more polished take on the band's moody electro-pop inflected with hip hop, funk and other styles." Swed…
It's another strong week of new releases, and don't forget: KEXP can only discover this new music when you help power us! Consider making a gift to KEXP during the Fall Fundraising Drive.
