Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by DJ Alex) shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Amaarae, Aesop Rock, WizKid, and more.
Amaarae – The Angel You Don’t Know (Platoon)
This Accra, Ghana-based producer/vocalist’s debut album is a strong set of expansive Afro-fusion blending various West African influences with R&B, indie-pop, hip hop and more, combining percolating rhythms, breathy vocals, dreamy melodies and lyrics of love, loss and resilience. – Don Yates
Aesop Rock – Spirit World Field Guide (Rhymesayers)
This Portland-based rapper’s latest release is an impressive 21-track set of dystopian hip hop combining a variety of ominous, hard-hitting beats and haunting melodies with knotty, anxiety-fueled rhymes reflecting these troubled times. – DY
WizKid – Made in Lagos (Starboy/RCA)
This Nigerian artist’s fourth album is a potent set of percolating Afrobeats incorporating elements of dancehall, reggae, R&B and other styles, combining Caribbean-influenced rhythms, warm keyboards, smooth sax, often auto-tuned vocals and buoyant melodies. Special guests include Burna Boy, Skepta, H.E.R., Damian Marley and other notables. – DY
Bosq – Y Su Descarga Internacional (Bacalao)
The fifth album from this Massachusetts-bred, Medellin, Colombia-based DJ/producer (aka Benjamin Woods) is a buoyant, dance-friendly blend of cumbia, salsa, calypso and other Latin styles with house, disco, funk and more, combining propulsive rhythms, punchy horns, bright keyboards, funky rhythm guitar and traditional percussion with a variety of guest vocalists. – DY
Seba Kaapstad – Konke (Mellow Music Group)
The second album from this multi-national Johannesburg, South Africa-based group is a well-crafted set of atmospheric, mostly downtempo R&B inflected with jazz, hip hop, gospel and other styles. – DY
Told Slant – Point the Flashlight and Walk (Double Double Whammy)
The third Told Slant album from Brooklyn-based artist Felix Walworth is a solid set of emotive folk-pop combining a well-crafted sound featuring guitars, synths, piano, harp and more with hushed vocals and deeply personal lyrics of love and devotion. – DY
SassyBlack – STUCK EP (self-released)
The latest release from this Seattle artist (and formerly one-half of THEESatisfaction) is an adventurous EP of astral R&B with lyrics revolving around mental health, calling out Karens and the challenge of getting paid while working in the music industry. – DY
David Nance – Staunch Honey (Trouble In Mind)
This Omaha, NE artist’s fifth proper studio album is a potent set of reflective, roots-tinged rock incorporating elements of folk, blues, country and more. – DY
Cry Club – God I’m Such a Mess (Best & Fairest)
This Melbourne duo’s debut album is a solid set of anthemic, ‘80s-steeped pop with a bombastic, densely produced sound featuring fuzzy guitars, bright synths, soaring vocals and epic song hooks. – DY
Stats – Powys 1999 (Memphis Industries)
This London-based band’s second album is a solid set of buoyant dance-pop inflected with disco, New Wave, funk and other styles, combining propulsive beats, swooping synths, piano, cello and soaring melodies. – DY
Molchat Doma – Monument (Sacred Bones)
This Belarusian band’s third album is a dark, well-crafted blend of ‘80s-steeped post-punk and electro-pop, combining bleak guitars and twinkling synths with hypnotic, often-propulsive rhythms, gloomy vocals and brooding melodies. – DY
Lambchop – TRIP (Merge)
The latest release from this veteran Nashville-based band led by Kurt Wagner is a well-crafted covers album that transforms a wide range of source material from Wilco and George Jones to The Supremes and Stevie Wonder to Mirrors and James McNew of Yo La Tengo into the band’s dreamy, atmospheric folk-pop. – DY
Camila Fuchs – Kids Talk Sun (felte)
The third album from this Mexican/German duo based in Lisbon, Portugal is an adventurous set of experimental, psych-tinged electro-pop with swirling synth textures, hypnotic melodies, haunting vocals and lyrics revolving around childhood and nature. – DY
Kruder & Dorfmeister - 1995 (G-Stone Recordings)
Twelve years after their latest joint release, legendary Austrian duo Kruder & Dorfmeister return with their first full-length album of original material after becoming downtempo and trip-hop trendsetters in the 1990s with their debut EP G-Stoned (1993) followed by their seminal DJ-Kicks (1996) mix and their downright iconic remix collection The K&D Sessions (1998). Sticking closely to the sounds that cemented their reverential status, 1995 is a return to their blunted, dubby, laidback downtempo beats. – Alex Ruder
Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by DJ Alex) shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Oneohtrix Point Never, Sevdaliza, War on Women, and more.
Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Songhoy Blues, Ela Minus, clipping., and more.
Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Budos Band, Supercrush, Gabriel Garzón-Montano, and more.
