An excellent Friday to you and yours! I hope you’ve had some time to relax, and that you’re not working too hard. Myself, beyond the shovelling and snowy walk to and from my daughter’s school, my week has been relaxing and calm.
This week brought another load of wonderful New Music. I found ten New Releases this week; some that seek to modernize and/or manipulate old recordings in fascinating ways, some that help to soothe the soul, and some to move and/or manipulate your booty.
Pop Quiz: Who was the first artist to sell over a million copies of a record? If your first guess is Bing Crosby and White Christmas, you are like me, and about forty years late. The answer is the legendary Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, and his recording of Vesti la Giubba, from the Leoncavallo opera I Pagliacci, from 1902. Caruso was not only an amazing Opera singer, he was a Star, the same way that Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson were, but without the benefit of radio or television to help his career. An anonymous Artist from Florida called Chapman Pond Music has taken nine Caruso recordings, now over a hundred years old, and paired them with delicate Electronic Music, utilizing analog synths. Electric Caruso is hauntingly breathtaking.
A six-track EP from Brazilian Experimental Label The Church of Noisy Goat serves, tangentially, as a companion piece to my previous recommendation. Serbian Electronic Artist Lezet (who I recommended just over a month ago), recording as ØÜð, is also taking ages-old recordings as his starting point. Taking loops, both forwards and backwards, and soaking them in glitchy beats, Mold 2 is deliciously weird and satisfying ear candy.
An audacious DJ and Producer from Toronto comes with a more traditional record crate, and then proceeds to transform the samples in magical ways. I’m able to ascertain that 26 year-old celinee has the skills and to sample classic Hip-Hop and R&B tracks, and couch them in deep bass beats, with spacey synths to snack on, on their new full length, tay. That’s all I know about about celinee. #NoSampleSnitching
An Antwerp-based multi-instrumentalist and singer has made one of the more intriguing clashes of sound I’ve heard in a while, to tremendous affect. Youniss Ahamad’s second album White Space is a daringly dark and adventurous ride through Harsh Noise and EDM. Emotionally soulful vocals gives me ‘Moses Sumney-meets-Nine Inch Nails’ vibes.
A.A. Khan is a multi-instrumentalist and Producer based in Berlin. For nearly a decade now he has been releasing Music as King Khan, and I’m happy to have found his new album, The Nature Of Things. Not only is it named after that great Canadian television show (hosted by David Suzuki), the album has its own organic feel to the instrumentation. Breakneck drums drive Brontez Booty Beat, with garage electric guitar, but dig the flutes and horns! Jazz/Rock with a higher consciousness.
Are there any Fever Ray fans out there? I’ve known of this Swedish solo project, led by Karin Dreijer for nearly fifteen years, at the suggestion of a fellow Music Store employee. I never gave them a proper chance. I prejudged them for their fashion and visual aesthetics. I like to think that I’ve grown since that time, and their new album (only their third) Radical Romantics has won my heart. Electro Pop with intriguing melodies, led by Dreiser’s emotionally powerful voice, inflected with Scandinavian punctuation. Sorry Tiffaney, I was an idiot.
I was specifically in search of some new music to dance to. I expect to have the floor filled at My Imaginary Nightclub with this new EP by French DJ and Producer Kyrian Nicolas-Kritter, aka Ekorce. Four tracks of respectable BPMs and foot-grabbing bass synth grooves are found on Puzzled. Get your booty on the floor tonight. Make my day.
If that got your dancing feet warmed up, it’s time to kick them into high gear. Nia Archives is a singer/songwriter, DJ and Producer from the North of England. Last year, her album Forbidden Feelingz achieved great popular and critical acclaim. This week she has released a six-track EP. Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall begins with the high-energy Drum & Bass banger Baianá, before utilizing frenetic beats to accentuate her warm vocals in a Trip Hop-meets-Garage way.
An Artist that shows himself to also be ‘Trip-Hop-adjacent’ (amongst other things) is London’s Drummer, Rapper and Producer Ricco Komolafe. He comes from the London Jazz scene, and Rarelyalways, he makes his full-length debut this week. WORK is fourteen tracks that showcase his verbal skills upon bassy rhythms and polyrhythms. Mad production.
You can’t dance, exactly, to my Feature Pick for this week. Lia Kohl is a cellist, sound artist and composer who lives in Chicago. What I humbly offer is the notion to to sit quietly for the 35 minutes it takes to unravel The Ceiling Reposes. The seven ambient tracks wash over you, and cello stabs and radio samples bring shivers to the spine in the most delightful way.
An excellent wind down to an excellent week of excellent New Music. So, in conclusion, have a great weekend, and in the wise words of William S. Preston, “Be excellent to each other.”
New Music Jason’s Picks 