A great and grand Friday to all! The Winter weather continues to chill, but the New Music is warming my heart.
The musical pickings were thin this first week of December, but I was still able to find six new titles to add to my life. Take my arm, let me guide you.
I missed an album last week from the fantastic Hip-Hop MC Jean Grae. Back in the late 90’s she was known as What? What?, and featured on tracks from The Herbaliser, Pharoah Monch, and The Roots. Her release Please Send Help is touted as, “A Holiday Guide of Meditations, Talks, and Needed Things.” It is eleven Spoken Word/Self Help/Comedy tracks designed to help out with Holiday visits back home, or social gatherings in general. Helpful nuggets such as, “Do you need to get the fuck out of there right now?…Have you thought about volunteering yourself for a store run, or all the store runs? Store Runs. Do them. Get the thing.” Useful advice from your cool older cousin.
A Musician and Producer from the UK got my attention this week. w00b is an artist from somewhere in England named Paul Frankland who has been recording ambient and ambient-adjacent Electronic Music since the last century. 7007 is an EP that features six new tracks, plus one ‘alternate version’ of the first track, Glow. The artist wears his Trip-Hop heritage proudly, while dabbling in the cold impersonality of Vaporwave. In heavy rotation in the Chillout Room of My Imaginary Nightclub.
My next recommendation came with such a unique energy to it that I simply couldn’t let it pass. Thank ‘copy-and-paste’ for making my life easier with this Japanese artist. マッチャポテトサラダ , or Macha Potato Salad, is a Producer and Beatmaker from Japan. Their latest release is アニメーション・トリッピング, within its fifteen tracks is ambitious hyperpop filled with danceable fun mixed with glorious freakouts. Incidentally, the title translates, according to Apple, as ‘Ani me cone tripping gig nni me cone.’ Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I seem to be in a bit of an Electronic Music mode this week. The term “Intelligent Dance Music”, or IDM, has been embarrassing since the 1990’s, as the Music it describes usually is not particularly intelligent, nor is it very danceable. I cringe when it’s used to describe Music. Anyway this particular dumb guy really likes this new album by Pittsburgh, PA’s TOBACCO. He has been recording Experimental Electronic Music for over fifteen years, and his latest album, Skids and Angels is more Aphex Twin than Daft Punk, though it does drift in wonderful ways.
An about-face is in order. It comes in the form of the Singer-Songwriter from England that I noted on Tuesday from my BandCamp Wishlist. Maja Lena’s second album PLUTO is ten beautiful tracks of lush and tasteful production, led by Marianne Parish’s glorious crystalline voice.
A husband-and-wife duo from Boston (Hello Boston!) have been making Music together for nearly thirty years. Robertson Thacher and Erica Fletcher, with their band, Nurse & Soldier, have just released its latest album. Let’s Spend The Day Together utilizes an intriguing musical canvas that includes organ and piano with distortion and dissonance, and it’s my Feature Pick this week. Pretty 12-string melodies and vocals help make this a must listen.
That is everything for the week. Don’t forget about BandCamp Friday! I’ll be talking to you again soon. Stay healthy and warm, and look out for each other!
New Music Jason’s Picks 
I forgot to mention, though it should go without saying, but it can’t – Fuck antisemitism. Kanye, get help or get fucked.
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