New Music Reviews (9/21)

Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by DJs Gabriel Teodros and Alex) shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Sault, The Flaming Lips, Doves, and more.

Sault – Untitled (Rise) (Forever Living Originals)
The mysterious and prolific UK-based band SAULT have released their 4th album in less than 2 years. UNTITLED (Rise) picks up right where UNTITLED (Black Is) left off, with uncompromising themes of Black liberation and resilience. It's soul, funk, reggae, rock and African music influences are interwoven with emotive vocals and spoken word interludes narrating some of the most important protest music released this year. Each SAULT album has Inflo credited as the album's sole producer, with no other details to be found. Inflo has previously produced tracks for Michael Kiwanuka, Little Simz, Cleo Sol, Kid Sister, Belle & Sebastian, and The Kooks. — GT

The Flaming Lips – American Head (Warner)
This veteran Oklahoma-bred band’s latest album is a strong return to form of astral psych-pop, with a richly detailed sound combining spacy guitars, otherworldly synths, majestic strings, solemn piano, bittersweet melodies and more with Wayne Coyne’s fragile vocals and personal lyrics reflecting on growing up in Oklahoma and revolving around love, family, drugs, and death. — DY

Doves – The Universal Want (Heavenly)
This British trio’s fifth album (and first in eleven years) is an expertly crafted set of moody rock with a richly textured sound featuring acoustic and electric guitars, atmospheric synths, soaring vocals, wistful melodies and often-dark lyrics of loss and alienation. — DY

Anjimile – Giver Taker (Father/Daughter)
The debut album from this non-binary, Texas-raised, Boston-based artist of Malawian heritage (full name Anjimile Chithambo) is a well-crafted set of introspective folk-pop, combining a warm, often acoustic-oriented sound with guitars, strings, keyboards and occasional African instrumentation, rhythms and harmonies with breathy vocals and deeply personal lyrics of identity, addiction, loss, death and rebirth. — DY

Kingdom – Neurofire (Fade To Mind)
The second album from this LA-based producer is a propulsive, club-friendly blend of R&B and various electronic styles, combining skittering, bass-heavy beats and stabbing synths with a variety of guest vocalists and sampled vocals. — DY

DUCKWRTH – SuperGood (Republic)
The 5th full-length release from criminally overlooked Los Angeles rapper DUCKWRTH (aka Jared Lee) continues to push his refreshing, energetic, adventurous hip-hop style that's infused with a colorful and expansive pop streak. With an acrobatic and elastic style that falls nicely alongside contemporaries such as Amine, Dave B, EARTHGANG, Naeem, Buddy, and more, SuperGood jumps across rap, R&B, pop, trap, psych, and rock with a deft enthusiastic touch. — AR

Gillian Welch – Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs, Vol. 2 (Acony)
The latest volume in Gillian Welch’s “Boots” series of previously unreleased songs from her archives is another high-quality set combining a stripped-down country-folk sound inflected with blues and other styles with sublime close harmonies and sharply crafted lyrics of love and loss. — DY

Wax Chattels – Clot (Captured Tracks)
This New Zealand trio’s second album is a potent blend of dark, intense noise-rock, driving post-punk and droning psych-rock, combining a visceral, stripped-down sound of bass, keyboards and a two-piece drum kit with alternating lead vocals and angst-fueled lyrics. — DY

Ambar Luna – Carne EP (Nacional)
This young Chilean rapper’s debut EP is a promising 4-song set of moody hip hop combining a variety of mostly spare, hard-hitting beats with her confident flow and hypnotic melodies. — DY

Deradoorian – Find the Sun (ANTI-)
The second solo album from LA-based former Dirty Projectors member Angel Deradoorian is an adventurous set of psych and prog-tinged art-rock, combining driving, sometimes motorik rhythms, dreamy keyboards, guitars and occasional flute with haunting vocals and spiritually minded lyrics revolving around self-awareness. — DY

Bette Smith – The Good The Bad and The Bette (Ruf)
This Brooklyn-bred artist’s second album is a potent blend of southern soul and rock combining fiery electric guitars, punchy horns, strings, piano, organ and energetic rhythms with her gritty vocals. — DY

Death Bells – New Signs of Life (Dais)
The second album from this LA-via-Sydney, Australia duo is a solid set of moody post-punk combining angular guitars, atmospheric keyboards, driving rhythms and occasional sax and brass with stately baritone vocals, soaring song hooks and lyrics of resilience. — DY

QWANQWA – QWANQWA Volume 3 (Wuzzawazzee Industries)
This Ethiopian supergroup’s third album is an expansive blend of East African styles performed with a colorful variety of instrumentation including mesenko (one-string fiddle), punk krar (electric lyre), wah-wah violin, bass krar, and kebero (goat-skin drum). — DY

Night Shop – The Fountain EP (Salinas)
This LA-based artist (aka Justin Sullivan) follows up his 2018 debut album In The Break with this well-crafted six-song EP of warm folk-rock combining a guitar-oriented sound with lyrics revolving around friendship. — DY

ShitKid – 20/20 ShitKid (PNKSLM)
The fourth album (and second released this year) from this Stockholm-based artist (aka Åsa Söderqvist) is a diverse set of lo-fi pop ranging from propulsive synth-pop and haunting psych-pop to chugging garage-rock and brooding grunge. — DY

AceMo / Les Sins – C'Mon Les'Go EP (Sonic Messengers)
Super prolific and rising NYC club producer AceMo (aka Adrian Mojica) teams up with Oakland's Les Sins (the dancefloor-focused alias of Chaz Bundick, best known as Toro Y Moi) for this playful, propulsive, and dizzying set of jacking house grooves that also marks the inaugural release on AceMo's newly launched Sonic Messengers label. — AR

St. Panther – These Days EP (Nice Life)
The official debut EP from this Irvine, CA producer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist (aka Daniela Borjorges-Giraldo) is a potent, beat-driven blend of R&B, hip hop, jazz and other styles. — DY

The Demon Rind – Something Nice I Want to Tell You (self-released)
The third album from this Seattle band led by Kwab Copeland is a dark, ‘70s-influenced blend of psych-pop, prog, folk-rock and more, combining a wide variety of instrumentation played by an impressive supporting cast with often-ominous melodies. — DY

HAAi – Put Your Head Above the Parakeets EP (Mute)
The second EP from this London-based Australian producer (aka Teneil Throssell) is an evocative four-song set of atmospheric electronic grooves ranging from psych-tinged ambient to hypnotic techno, combining glitchy textures, shuddering deep bass and occasional vocals. — DY

Shlohmo – Heaven Inc. EP (Friends Of Friends)
The latest EP from Los Angeles electronic producer Shlohmo (aka Henry Laufer) is another solid set of atmospheric, hypnotic, and frequently eerie beats that carry his trademark dark cinematic streak. While most of the release hovers in spacious downtempo territory, the opening title track beautifully explodes into a driving post-rock groove midway through its journey. — AR