New Music Reviews (4/7)

Each week, Music Director Chris Sanley and Associate Music Director Alex Ruder share 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 Black Country, New Road, Momma, The Maya Experience, and more. 

Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong (Ninja Tune)
REJOICE! London sextet Black Country, New Road return with their transcendent third studio album. Their inventive fusion of chamber-pop, post-punk, jazz, prog, and neo-classical yields expansive, cinematic tracks with ornate, intricate arrangements that leave the listener hanging on every note. With Tyler, Georgia, and May sharing vocal duties this time around, they bring different theatrical expressions to each song, while maintaining the throughline of a woman’s voice. Forever Howlong showcases a band confidently embarking upon their next chapter with limitless innovation and inspiration. –CS

Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky (Polyvinyl)
And for their latest trick — aka their stunning fourth studio album Welcome to My Blue Sky — Brooklyn-based outfit Momma unveils a lush, vibrant collection of emotive indie-rock gold with a shimmering pop sensibility. With densely layered guitars, explosive percussion, and flourishes of cello and keys, the album is packed with earworm after earworm, showcasing a quartet that has leveled up yet again. –CS

The Maya Experience - Are You Influenced (Youth Riot)
The Maya Experience are here to remind you that grunge, in their own innovative and contemporary iteration, is alive and well in Seattle. Are You Influenced is a truly ripping collection of raw and urgent heaters, featuring Maya Marie’s dominating vocals that range from soulful to vengeful, intricate guitars, and potent percussion. They clearly left it all on the floor, as this debut album is big, bold, and commanding as hell. –CS

Anika - Abyss (Sacred Bones)
The third album from this enigmatic Berlin-based artist is another strong set of psych-tinted post-punk with a raw, gritty, grungy energy. Anika’s pointed, ominous lyrics “channel her frustration, anger, and confusion with the world” over hypnotic motorik rhythms and big fuzzy guitars for a commanding, visceral experience. -AR

Backxwash - Only Dust Remains (Ugly Hag)
The fifth studio album from Zambian-Candian rapper and producer Ashanti Mutinta — aka Backxwash — is an inventive, enrapturing set of experimental hip-hop. With a ferocious delivery, vivid lyrics, and mesmerizing, innovative soundscapes featuring layered synth work, strings, and drum patterns with infectious hooks, Mutinta draws the listener in deeper and deeper with each bar, until Only Dust Remains. –CS

Σtella - Adagio (Sub Pop)
The fifth studio album from Stella Chronopoulou, performing as Σtella, is simply breathtaking. Featuring her enchanting vocals, immaculate guitar work, psychedelic synths, delicate percussion, and her first-ever songs in her native tongue, Greek, Adagio is a “27-minute meditation on love and desire, rest and time.” Blending elements of psych pop, bossa nova, Tropicalia, disco, and more, this easy-breezy collection delights at every turn.  –CS

L.A. Witch - DOGGOD (Suicide Squeeze)
The third studio album from this magnificent trio is another killer set of guitar-forward garage rock with compelling, nonchalant vocal delivery. Bringing in influences of post-punk, psych-rock, proto-punk and more, DOGGOD runs the gamut from searing rockers to dusty ruminations, rooted in the modern day with clear nods to the ‘70s and ‘80s. Speaking on the album’s title and themes of love and devotion, frontwoman Sade Sanchez shares: “There is this symbolic connection between women and dogs that expresses women’s subordinate position in society. And anything that embodies such divine characteristics never deserved to be a word used as an insult.” –CS

Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla (Bella Union)
The debut album from Miki Berenyi Trio offers a dreamy fusion of shoegaze, bedroom pop, indie rock, and psych. Boasting Berenyi’s transportive, ethereal vocals and deliciously layered arrangements with spacy synths, moody guitars, and drum machines, Tripla finds Miki Berenyi, KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop and Oliver Cherer working together in perfect harmony. Here's hoping that this is the first of many albums from this trio. –CS

Panchiko - Ginkgo (Nettwerk)
Nottingham, UK band Panchiko’s fairytale ascent from obscurity to beloved headlining act continues with Gingko, their third full-length album and official label debut. The album arrives 25 years after the release of their 2000 demo D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, a long-forgotten CD that was (reportedly) discovered in a Nottingham charity show in the mid 2010s and later posted to 4chan, leading to a passionate online fanbase and the revival of a band that hadn’t played together for decades. Now a five-piece led by original members Andy Wright and Owain Davies, Panchiko deliver a cool set of adventurous, kaleidoscopic, psychedelic pop/rock that brings to The Beta Band and late-90s Radiohead with touches of Grandaddy, The Flaming Lips, and MGMT. -AR

Postcards - Ripe (Ruptured/T3)
The fifth album from this Lebanese trio fronted by Julia Sabra is a potent set of enveloping rock music that carries a heavy, beautiful, anguish-riddled pulse through its stormy blend of shoegaze, dream-pop, post-punk, grunge, and slowcore. Written against the backdrop of their ravaged city of Beirut and “as the world around them crumbles, Postcards transmute their rage into something transcendental.” -AR

Scowl - Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans)
On their sophomore album and Dead Oceans debut, this Santa Cruz hardcore outfit serves up a fierce set of scorching, melodic punk. With incendiary guitars, powerful drums, and fiery vocals that range from confident singing to cathartic screams, Are We All Angels is stacked with rippers and marks a thrilling second coming for Scowl. –CS

Sharp Pins - Radio DDR (K/Perennial)
The second album from this solo project of Chicago’s Kai Slater (also of Matador Records trio Lifeguard) is a breakout set of scrappy, charming, infectious lo-fi pop gems that blend power-pop, jangle-pop, mod, and psych-pop in addictive fashion. -AR

Swamp Wife - Your Love Is All I Know EP (LACE Records)
The second EP from Seattle’s Swamp Wife is a stellar set of moody, melodic shoegaze-inflected post-punk. With Abigail’s commanding vocals, entrancing guitars and driving drums, Your Love Is All I Know feels like a muffled howl that lets a little bit more out with each listen. –CS

Wet - Two Lives (30SF)
The fourth studio album from Wet finds Kelly Zutrau delivering prismatic pop, driven by dynamic piano, pulsing beats, shimmering synths, and electronic undercurrents. With vocal manipulations, compelling hooks, and expert production, Two Lives provides a euphoric yet moody escape from reality. –Chris Sanley–

Babe Rainbow - Slipper imp and shakaerator (p(doom))
The sixth studio album from Australia’s Babe Rainbow is a bright and woozy trip through their classic psychedelic pop soundscapes. With a kaleidoscopic blend of guitars, synths, flutes, hazy vocals, and varied percussion, Slipper imp and shakaerator guides listeners on a groovy journey through the Gold Coast. –CS

Craig Finn - Always Been (Tamarac Recordings/Thirty Tigers)
The sixth solo album from the frontman for The Hold Steady is another strong set of sweeping, poignant, poetic story songs. Produced by longtime friend Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs, and backed by members of the band, Always Been follows the record’s main character (“ a guy who became a clergy person without having actual faith, and the aftermath of his fall from grace”) through a whirlwind of experiences that’s all carried by Finn’s distinctive, nuanced, fascinating narratives, including numerous references to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, and the band’s dynamic backdrops that range from The War on Drugs’ emotive, soaring, guitar-driven landscapes to the propulsive, anthemic, heartland rock of The Hold Steady. -AR

duendita - a strong desire to survive (10k)
a strong desire to survive’ is one of those punch-you-in-the-gut, stop-you-in-your-tracks kind of records. NYC’s duendita artfully blends jazz, soul, and alt-R&B, whipping listeners into a trance with their bewitching vocals, imaginative arrangements, and deep, poetic lyricism. –Chris Sanley–

Florist - Jellywish (Double Double Whammy)
Steeped in melancholy, rich in textures, and perfectly restrained, the fifth studio album from Florist is a mellow and moody treasure. Jellywish draws from indie folk, ambient, minimalist, bedroom pop, and indie rock influences, featuring tender lyrics and delicate guitar work, culminating in a raw and earnest collection of intimate gems. –CS

foamboy - lime, knife, time, hand EP (self-released)
The latest from Portland’s foamboy is an endearing set of disco-infused dream pop. With funky synths, Katy Ohsiek’s pristine vocals, and Wil Bakula’s masterful production, lime, knife, time, hand hits the sweet spot as they explore the feeling of “paranoia and self-scrutiny.” –CS

Joe Armon-Jones - All the Quiet (Part I) (Aquarii)
The third studio album from London-based keyboardist, producer, songwriter, bandleader, and Ezra Collective member Joe Armon-Jones is a stellar exploration of soulful jazz infused with hip-hop, dub, and funk flavors. While it’s a rich instrumental-heavy journey bolstered by Armon-Jones’ exquisite work on the keys, Goya Gumbani and Asheber make guest appearances on a pair of vocal-laced highlights. All the Quiet (Part II) is due to arrive June 13th. -AR

Kallsup - En sista räddning (VÅRØ)
The debut album from this Örebro, Sweden six-piece band is an impressive set of dreamy, heavy, classic shoegaze jams with Eline Gustafsson’s soaring, ethereal, all-Swedish vocals swirling amidst the band’s enveloping waves of guitars, drums, and distortion. -AR

Kin'Gongolo Kiniata - Kiniata (Helico Music)
Fueled by intoxicating rhythms created by handcrafted percussion‬‭ from found street objects, Congolese five-piece band Kin'Gongolo Kiniata ("the crushing sound") unveil an exciting debut full-length album that showcases their vibrant, bold, trance-link take on Kinshasa-born Congolese rumba and soukous music. -AR

Lawrence Hart - Come In Out of the Rain (Domino)
Following a steady string of singles, collaborations, and remixes over the past decade, South London electronic producer Lawrence Hart delivers his debut full-length album Come In Out of the Rain, an “emotional garage record, euphoric and therapeutic” that spotlights his hypnotic bass-heavy UKG style, interspersed with pillowy ambient moments, and all inflected with ethereal, melodic, mesmerizing R&B-tinted sampled vocals. -AR

Orchidae - True Beginning (Birthday Cake)
On her debut album, queer Canadian Taiwanese musician Yolande Laroche blends her classical background with a contemporary avant-pop aesthetic that ranges from slinky, synth-forward pop jams to intimate piano-driven ballads. Her distinct, breathy vocals dance atop these vibrant soundscapes, resulting in one impressive True Beginning. –CS

Rosettes - Lifestyles (Timmion)
The debut album from this Helsinki-based six-piece band fronted by lead singer Tytti Roto is a sharp set of dreamy throwback R&B/soul inflected with jazz, funk, and psychedelic flavors that’s distinguished by the band’s groovy, analog-rich compositions and Tytti’s charismatic voice. -Alex Ruder-