Review: Pulsar saw Gianluca Salvadori and Leonardo Ceccanti return to Claremont 56 with a second LP of sanguine and psychedelic dub disco under the Almunia name. Arriving roughly two years after Salvadori and Ceccanti served up the sublime Almunia debut long player New Moon, this new album sees the pair of tracks released as singles (the excellent title track and 'The Magician') complemented by six all new productions. From the heavenly acoustic strumming of opening track 'The Awakening' Almunia remain locked in a mood where refined instrumentation is balanced perfectly with a chugging soft edged disco sensibility with the buoyant 'Views From A Blue Train' a particular highlight.
Review: After 15 years of live space-rock improvisations and jam sessions around Europe, Bambi Davidson finally got round to delivering their second LP last month. Warmly received by old fans and new, here we find the title track repurposed as an extensive 13 minute exercise in spatial expressionism. Dreamy, deep and full of endless twists and turns, this is the epitome of modern cosmicity. Claremont never cease to surge forward.
Review: Lucinda Chua is currently based in South London and is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist. She crafts elegant and emotive music mainly using her voice and cello, plenty of effects units and draws on ambient for her inspiration. What results is atmospheric and intimate music that is utterly enchaining as this album on 4AD proves across ten tracks that come after she spent an intensive period studying Chinese dance forms. Lead single 'Echo' is a pop song about ancestral trauma that walks a thin line between respect for the past and the hope and freedom of a new future. It's captivating indeed.
Review: Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. last appeared don our radar when the Baron of Techno MR Dave Clarke was busy remixing them. Now comes this deluxe and 180g gatefold album Skint Fa with an alternate cover and 20 page lyric book. This is the band's third album in as many years after 2020's A Hero's Death saw them hit the number two spot in the album charts and pick up nominations at the GRAMMYs, BRITs and Ivor Novello Awards. After a sell out tour at Alexandra Palace that now serve up more darkly political ones, thrashing riffs and hard edged drums.
Review: Ruins is the 10th LP from Portland artist Grouper, an incredible set that's found it's home on the inimitable and always on- point Kranky label...and yes, it's another fine outing from the voco-noise head. Tracks like "Clearing", however, show another side to Grouper's usual rough edge. There's an element of smoothness to those sombre keys and far-out vocals. It's basically an ambient album with an extra layer of soul in its core - check "Made Of Air" for a seriously trippy set of soundscapes.
Review: The Jesus And Mary Chain mark 40 years of music-making with a new album recorded at Mogwai's Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow. That's where their last album, 2017's 'Damage and Joy', was recorded and it went on to be their highest charting record in more than two decades. With this one they again embrace a new sound that builds on their usual mix of melody, feedback and controlled chaos with sounds inspired by their love of Suicide and Kraftwerk as well as 'a fresh appreciation of the less disciplined attitudes found in jazz.'
Review: Gothenburg, Sweden, is a hotbed of diverse and escalating musical talent, now boasting the dynamic, organically soulful pop sounds of Little Dragon. Featuring radiant vocalist Yukimi Nagano and her close high school friends Erik Bodin (drums), Fredrick Kallgren (bass) and Hakan Wirenstrand (keyboards), Little Dragon stepped into the spotlight with releases on Peacefrog. "Little Dragon" is their debut album.
Review: It's been several months since we first stocked the CD release of Porter Robinson's sweet sophomore album 'Nurture'. Now you can get your mitts on an rare clear vinyl version (contrast to the matte white edition that came out in April). With the album coming about "during a period of intense creative and emotional struggle", this project feels like a triumphant response to nihilism in electronic music form. Bright, major key vocal synthesis and glitch is the name of its game ('Look At The Sky', 'Dullscythe'), cementing the feeling of prevailing through stacked odds.
Review: New magenta vinyl reissue of Thee Oh Sees' 2011 double LP, 'Carrion Crawler/The Dream', which was originally conceived as two separate EPs. While their former album Castlemania "was more of a vocal tirade", according to John Dwyer, "this one's meant to pummel and throb". It shows: every track from the opener 'Carrion Crawler' through to the musical globules of toxic waste that are 'Chem-Farmer' and 'Crack In Your Eye' pulse and shimmer with the reverberative sound of Thee Oh Sees' live show, with the studio recordings and production intended to mimic their in-person sound. Sirening guitars shred front and centre on this whirlwind of a gothic garage rock album.
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