New Music Reviews (12/05)

Each week, Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. These reviews help our DJs decide on what they want to play. See what we added this week below (and on our Charts page), including new releases from Stormzy, Honey Dijon, Contour, and more. 

Stormzy – This Is What I Mean (Def Jam)
The third album from this London artist (aka Michael Owuo) finds him recasting his sound for an introspective, mostly downbeat set blending brooding hip hop with melancholy R&B, celestial gospel, percolating Afrobeats and other styles, combining twinkling keyboards, horns, strings, woodwinds and more with gospel backing vocals and lyrics of lost love and celebrating black culture. Special guests include Sampha, Tems, Amaarae and Ayra Starr.

Honey Dijon – Black Girl Magic (Classic)
This Chicago-bred, Berlin-based producer/DJ’s second album is an impressive set of buoyant house and disco grooves inflected at times with R&B, jazz and other styles, combining propulsive rhythms, bright keyboards, soaring horns and more with a variety of guest vocalists and lyrics of love, desire, resilience, connection and celebration.

Contour – Onwards! (Touching Bass)
The second Contour album from Charleston, SC artist Khari Lucas is an evocative set of atmospheric pop incorporating elements of moody indie-pop, introspective R&B, smoky jazz, hip hop and other styles. The album’s loose, airy sound blends a variety of live and sampled instrumentation, along with samples from films made by The Black Rebellion, a group of filmmakers that came together in the late 1960s to highlight the living conditions of Black Americans.

Fred Again.. – Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9, 2022) (Atlantic)
This London DJ/producer’s third album is also the third in a trilogy of diaristic concept records about his own life. The album combines propulsive house and UK garage grooves incorporating elements of R&B, gospel and other styles with often-melancholy melodies and vocals, along with samples of his friends talking and samples of important songs in his life.

Model Shop – Love Interest (Meritorio)
The debut album from this Seattle trio comprised of former Math and Physics Club members Kevin Emerson and Ethan Jones along with bassist Jen Fox is a well-crafted set of hook-filled indie-pop with jangly guitars, sunny harmonies and wistful melodies.

Sophie Jamieson – Choosing (Bella Union)
This London-based artist’s debut album is a well-crafted set of dark folk-pop, with an often-stark, sometimes hazy and reverbed sound combining piano, guitar and occasional other instrumentation with her intimate vocals and personal lyrics revolving around alcoholism.

Moura – Axexan, espreitan (Spinda)
This Spanish band’s second album is an entrancing blend of motorik prog, psych-tinged space-rock and Galician folk, combining a variety of electric and acoustic instrumentation with hypnotic rhythms and ritualistic vocals.

Moriah Bailey – i tried words (Keeled Scales)
This Oklahoma City artist’s second album is a well-crafted set of experimental chamber-folk with an intimate, often shapeshifting sound combining her often-treated harp, guitar, violin and more with her breathy vocals and lyrics revolving around language and relationships.

Terence Fixmer – Shifting Signals (Mute)
This French producer’s seventh album is a solid set of experimental techno and related styles, with a dark, hypnotic sound combining thumping rhythms and often-scuzzy synths.