New Music Reviews (3/20)

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 Yves Tumor, M83, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and more. 

Yves Tumor – Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume… (Warp)
This Miami-born, Paris-based artist’s fifth album is an imaginative blend of psych-rock, soul, electro-pop and other styles, with a densely produced sound combining guitars, keyboards and other instrumentation with their elastic vocals and lyrics ranging from dark and moody to sunny and celebratory.

M83 – Fantasy (Mute)
The ninth M83 album from French artist Anthony Gonzalez is a potent set of epic dream-pop combining massive, shimmering synths, fuzzy guitars, piano, organ, strings, woodwinds and more with sky-scraping song hooks.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – V (Jagjaguwar)
The fifth studio album from this Palm Springs, CA-based project led by Ruban Nielson is an impressive set of breezy psych-pop inflected with yacht rock, funk, Hawaiian Hapa-haole music and other styles, combining pealing psych guitars, shimmering keyboards, occasional sax and other instrumentation with often-sunny melodies and lyrics revolving around love, loss, family and heritage.

Flyying Colours – You Never Know (Poison City)
This Melbourne band’s third album is a strong set of shoegazer psych-rock with fuzzy guitars, hazy dual vocals and dreamy song hooks.

FIDLAR – That’s Life EP (self-released)
This Southern California band’s latest EP is a potent six-song set of hook-filled garage-punk with crunchy guitars, energetic rhythms, angst-fueled lyrics and anthemic song hooks.

TRUE||FORM – GENUFLEXION EP (self-released)
The second EP from this Seattle duo comprised of Gifted Youngstaz and RA Scion is a potent six-song set of energetic hip hop combining boom-bap beats and soul samples with trenchant rhymes of inequality, struggle, resilience, solidarity and hope.

Tei Shi – BAD PREMONITION EP (self-released)
This LA-based Colombian-Canadian artist’s latest EP is a well-crafted set of moody R&B combining hip hop-inflected beats with lyrics of heartache and deception.

Malika Zarra – RWA (The Essence) (D.Zel Prod)
This Moroccan-born, Paris-based artist’s third album is a beautifully crafted blend of jazz with various Moroccan styles, combining keyboards, horns, kora and other instrumentation with her sinuous vocals and hypnotic melodies.

babybaby_explores – Food Near Me, Weather Tomorrow (No Gold)
This young Rhode Island trio’s second album is an adventurous set of quirky avant-pop with hypnotic drum-machine rhythms, twangy, reverbed surf guitar, playful vocals and often-absurdist lyrics.

H. Hawkline – Milk for Flowers (Heavenly)
The fifth album from this Welsh artist (aka Huw Evans) is a well-crafted set of bittersweet psych-pop. Produced by Cate Le Bon, the album combines guitars, piano and horns with often-bouncy rhythms and sunny melodies juxtaposed with dark lyrics of heartache, loss and grief.

The Lost Days – In the Store (Speakeasy Studios SF)
The debut full-length from the Oakland-based duo of Tony Molin and Sarah Rose Janko is a well-crafted set of autumnal, psych-tinged folk-pop with jangly guitars and wistful melodies.

Elmiene – El-Mean EP (R&R Digital)
This British artist’s debut EP is a well-crafted set of sweet, airy R&B with pillowy keyboards, atmospheric guitars, gently soulful vocals and lyrics of love and heartache.

Genevieve Artadi – Forever Forever (Brainfeeder)
This LA-based artist’s third solo album is an adventurous set of jazz-tinged avant-pop combining atmospheric guitars and keyboards with ethereal vocals and lyrics of love and connection.

Downpilot – The Forecast (Tapete)
The seventh Downpilot album from Seattle artist Paul Hiraga is a solid set of bittersweet chamber folk-pop combining strings, keyboards and other instrumentation with lyrics of love and loss.

Nylon Union – Words and Waves (self-released)
This Slovakian band’s latest album is a solid set of shoegazer psych-rock with fuzzy guitars, gauzy vocals and soaring song hooks.

Django Django – Off Planet Part 2 (Because Music)
The second part of this London-based band’s upcoming fifth album Off Planet (due out June 16th) is a solid five-song set ranging from energetic dance-pop and buoyant electro-pop to moody indie-pop.