Columbia www.randomaccessmemories.com
Ok, so you'd have to have lived under a rock for the last 6 months to have not heard this one, but one thing Daft Punk haven't done over the last 20 years is stand still. RAM forays further into funk than they have before, recruiting Nile Rogers helps add an old skool flavour but on the slower tracks the album does flag somewhat. That doesn't change the fact that when it's on it, it's the party album of the summer.
Highlights: Give Life Back To Music, Lucky, Doin' It Right, Contact.
Polyvinyl record Co. www.wampiremusic.com
Less familiar will be less familiar to say the least, and the duo hail from Portland, Oregon. Curiosity is at times a blissful, lo-fi psych-pop affair that reminds me of Of Montreal and to a lesser extent Kurt Vile. I have two main complaints about this album, first all the best songs are at the start, and some of the songs veer into generic driving indie.
Highlights: The Hearse, Orchards.
Matador www.savagesband.com
Savages are an all-girl post-punk four piece from London who wear their influences on their artful sleeves, Siouxsie & the Banshees being the most obvious. It took me a while to get into this album but now I love it, and it seems like it's been a while since there's been a band like this. If you like your haircuts angular, basslines chugging, and drums that sound like they've been recorded in an aircraft hanger you'll like this too.
Highlights: Shut Up, City's Full, She Will.
Warp Records www.boardsofcanada.com
The return of the elusive scottish electronica duo after an 8 year absence was greeted with almost as much online hysteria as My Bloody Valentine's. Tomorrow's Harvest's minimal soundscapes are full of contradictions sounding in turn alien and natural, futuristic and nostalgic, gentle and menacing and it is these juxtapositions that make it so enthralling.
Highlights: (None/All)
Matador www.chelsealightmoving.com
Chelsea Light Moving is alt-rock god Thurston Moore's new side project band, and it all sounds very familiar, in the best possible way. Thurston's drawl, the teetering on the edge of tunefulness melodies, the sudden lurching changes of pace, the pounding drums. The one way this seems to differ from Sonic Youth's output is that it plays with heavier, metal sounds at times as well as looking back to hardcore punk's fury. What's not to like?
Highlights: Sleeping Where I Fall, Alighted, Burroughs.
Merge Records www.sheandhim.com
Alt-Folk axe for hire & Bright Eyes collaborator M. Ward and kooky actress Zooey Deschanel might seem like an odd pairing, but a shared love of Phil Spector and pretty harmonies and it all makes perfect sense. Now I have to admit to having a crush on the delectable Miss Descahanel which colours my opinion somewhat, but Volume 3, is as close to perfect as pop music gets for me, the sunbeams practically urst out of the stereo speakers.
Highlights: Never Wanted Your Love, I Could've Been Your Girl, Somebody Sweet To Talk To, Sunday Girl.
Munster Records www.vampisoul.com
The familiar lisp, the themes of love, Satan, and painfully lo-fi production will for many may be welcome, others will be mystified about the adoration he receives. For me it's the former, Daniel Johnston makes some of the purest music, honest, full of the joy of just making music, and in a full band setting as here it's really a joy to behold. He's probably best known for the simpler, just him & guitar songs but this is probably closest to what he's heard is in his head all these years.
Highlights: Mentally Ill, Satanic Church, Lucifer Tonite, Walk In The Truth
Infectious Music www.thesenewpuritans.com
I somehow lost track of Southend's These New Puritans after their taut art-rock debut and skipped the second album so Field of Reeds came as quite a surprise to me. Gone are the tumbling beats and angular guitars, replaced by orchestras, jazz & electronica subtleties, exemplified on Fragment Two. The skittering beats return to an extent on V, but with a more organic feel than on their Beat Pyramid debut. Move over The Horrors, you're no longer the best band from Southend.
Highlights: Fragment Two, V(Island Song), Organ Eternal.
ATP Recordings www.fuckbuttons.com
If Boards of Canada's style of electronica is more soothing and pastoral, then Fuck Buttons is far more aggressive and difficult. This doesn't sound very attractive I know, but it's done with impeccable skill, and using repetition even the most abrasive beats and sounds burrow their way inside your head. Fuck Buttons 3rd album, keeps pushing at the edges to see what they can make addictive and listenable with, for the most part, great success.
Highlights: Brainfreeze, Sentients, Hidden Xs.
Soul Temple www.12reasonstodie.com
Less of a solo album from the Wu-Tang Clan member, as a full collaboration with producer/composer Adrian Younge. Twelve Reasons To Die is a concept album that tells the story of a 1960's mafia enforcer killed by his employers, who returns as an avenger when records infused with his ashes are played. There are of course numerous appearances from his bandmates, but the cinematic, Ennio Morricone & blaxploitation influenced music keeps this record unlike any hip-hop record I've heard before.
Highlights: I Declare War, Blood On The Cobblestones, The Rise Of The Ghostface Killah.
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