ALCEST ****
Spiritual Instinct (Nuclear Blast)
As the progenitors of blackgaze (a clunky portmanteau that does a disservice to the surprisingly seamless fusion of black metal and shoegaze to which it refers), Alcest might be rather miffed that former tourmates Deafheaven have been given much of the credit. The French duo’s sixth LP Spiritual Instinct layers clean vocals over molten riffs to create songs that glide along with swan-like serenity on the surface but churn away furiously beneath. A potent combination of polish and punch. BW
ARVE HENRIKSEN ****
The Timeless Nowhere (Rune Grammofon)
The only (legal) way of owning this release seems to be dropping £60 or more on a four-LP box set, containing 160 minutes of music by Norwegian jazz trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Partly collaborative, part live recordings, often experimental and all unreleased, it’s a glorious, elegaic showcase of his compositional and textural prowess. Given the high financial stakes, though, I don’t honestly expect to sway you into purchase, so readers are hereby invited to my house to listen to my promo copy. No knobheads allowed. NG
THE BAD PLUS ****
Activate Infinity (Edition)
Another mesmerising album from the Minneapolis jazz revolutionaries, their second since pianist Orrin Evans replaced founding member Ethan Iverson in 2018. The line-up change seems to have inspired a renewed vitality for the trio. Accomplished compositions give way to interludes of carefully controlled chaos. Explosions of acoustic breakbeat on the opening tracks reveal their ongoing influence over recent crossover jazz groups like GoGo Penguin and Portico Quartet. But seven-and-a-half minute closer Love Is The Answer drifts toward a serene conclusion. SP
BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY ****
I Made A Place (Domino)
Although Will Oldham has not starved us of listening material over the last eight years with various albums of covers and reworkings, I Made A Place is the first Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album of original songs since 2011. Oldham is keeping his renowned alt-country sound firmly in check, on what is actually quite a cheerful sounding BPB collection. Not as stark as catalogue highlight I See A Darkness, just a bit more light shines through this time round. DN
CIGARETTES AFTER SEX ***
Cry (Partisan)
The peculiar and profitable sausage machine run by Greg Gonzalez chugs gradually on, as Cigarettes After Sex album #2 leaves their musical formula preserved in aspic and triple laminated. A kind of horny slowcore, the nine songs on Cry maintain the noirish ambience and slightly creepy lyrics of every single one of their other songs, producing the same unsettling uniformity as Coke bottles or IKEA cabinets. A soporific copout? Giving the people what they want? Some bands don’t even have one song. WS
COLD WAR KIDS ***
New Age Norms, Vol 1 (Kobalt)
Complainer, the album opener and one of two teaser tracks for Cold War Kids’ latest album, doesn’t do the Californian indie-rock five-piece any favours, but what follows after is pretty good. Beyond The Pale is emotional, familiar-sounding and radio-friendly; 4th Of July a smooth stroll in the sun. Nathan Willett’s passionate vocals are can get a little whiney at times but overall, New age Norms is easy listening for those who like a funky sound with piano. LN
DJ SHADOW ***
Our Pathetic Age (Mass Appeal)
The sample-master returns with a double EP that has two very different personalities. An instrumental first half that finds DJ Shadow offering a more subtle, at times cinematic, exploration of melody is superseded by a heavyweight second EP, featuring a cast of lyricists as diverse as Ghostface Killah, Fantastic Negrito and Sam Herring. The second half is a return to high-octane hip-hop flavour yet, whilst it reasserts that DJ Shadow is a masterful beat-maker, jars a little uncomfortably against the more spacious opening tracks. JW
FENELLA ****
Feherlofia (Fire)
If you’re looking for a soundtrack to a Hungarian animated film from 1981, then look no further. The main bulk of the material here is electronics, with some shimmering, sparkling and oscillating modular synthesisers providing the background for Jane Weaver’s ethereal vocals. Throughout the course of this lengthy album, you are treated to some dreamlike ambience and expert knobtwiddling from this trio. The film deals in fantastical Hungarian folklore, and I’d like to think this is a pretty fitting accompaniment. GM
HAWKWIND ***
All Aboard The Skylark (Cherry Red)
From the first buzz of Flesh Fondue you know you’re in typical Hawkwind territory but this, their 32nd studio album, lacks the strength and oomph of earlier works, and lyrics about asteroids and dinosaurs seem a bit silly. Instrumental tracks are more dynamic and can still induce a trance-like state, while the accompanying acoustic CD features PSI Power, Flying Doctor, and a folk version of We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago – and that’s definitely a bonus. LN
JEFF LYNNE’S ELO ****
From Out of Nowhere (Columbia)
The 10 songs on the 14th ELO album have poppy rhythms, catchy hooks, familiar beats and echoes of the Mr Blue Sky days. There’s a fair dose of melancholy here too, though, which is only occasionally alleviated with a bit of foot-tapping rock’n’roll. Lynne plays guitars, bass, piano, drums and keyboards and sings lead and harmonies. He may be on his own – albeit with Steve Jay adding some percussion – but he’s still giving fans the authentic ELO sound. LN
JEFFREY LEWIS AND THE VOLTAGE ****
Bad Wiring (Moshi Moshi)
New York antifolk singer/songwriter and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis has been making music for over two decades now, and on latest release Bad Wiring he shows no signs of slowing down. His humorous, insightful and brutally honest lyrics will easily win over new fans with highlights such as the record collecting tribute LPs or the existential crisis of Depression! Despair!. One of his strongest and most accessible releases yet. ML
JNKS ***
A Trip To Init 5 (Death Proof)
The Mexi-Cymro-Franco techno alliance rears its head again, or more likely for the first time ever, as the Death Proof label – run jointly by Newport DJ Paul Blandford and Parisian Benjamin Vial – issue the second album by Jnks, aka Daniel Jenkins from Mexico City. A Trip To Init 5 is apparently based conceptually on TV show Mr. Robot, which might plausibly attract some listeners but has little obvious bearing on this 73 minutes of expansive, sometimes trancey big room fare, like 90s prog house with Drumcode-type punch. NG
JUNIOR DISPROL ****
Def Valley (Plague)
After spending almost two decades with his fingers in as many south Wales hip-hop movements and collectives as possible, including Dead Residents and Fleapit, Junior Disprol is back with his debut solo project, Def Valley. Cerebral and dripping with wit, the 12-track album is a testament to the creativity of the Welsh hip-hop scene, which is often overlooked by those less familiar. With its unmistakable 90s bent and jazz infused beats and accessible flows, the project seems ripe with appeal for hip-hop fans far and wide. AP
MAYHEM **
Daemon (Century Media)
The problem with black metal pioneers Mayhem is that their revolving door of musicians over the years has weakened their output somewhat. If you were putting together a best of compilation, sadly there’s nothing on Daemon that would get a look in. With that said, there are a couple of tracks here that remind us of the band at full tilt, Of Worms And Ruins evoking classic Mayhem for instance – but ultimately, the whole thing just falls a bit short. CA
RACHAEL DADD *****
Flux (Memphis Industries)
In marrying poetic protest to pretty, playful music, Rachael has produced a cracking globalist folk LP, teeming with humanity. Cut My Roots champions liberty and fights white supremacy, with syncopated handclaps a deliberate echo of the deep south funk of Nina Simone’s See Line Woman – a tune Rachael has in common with Feist, who she resembles on Animal. Dadd matches the folk-estral majesty of Sufjan Stevens on Two Islands and the art-pop of Field Music on Palaeontologist. CS
RIGHT HAND LEFT HAND ****
Zone Rouge (Bubblewrap)
Andrew Plain and Rhodri Viney return for their third album, brimming with the multi-layered guitar riffage and thunderous polyrhythms the Cardiff duo are renowned for. Illustrating the indelible marks that humankind has left on this earth, each track refers to a location in the world that has endured some form of hardship. Highlights include the feral thrash of Clipperton, the gloomy and cryptic Kola and lead single Chacabuco, featuring the emphatic wails of former Estrons vocalist Taliesyn Kallstrom. CPI
SPENCER SEGELOV ***
Signs, Wonders & Miracles (self-released)
Spencer Segelov has been working through differing personal twists on guitar-based pop music for a good 15 years now, and invariably making it sound effortless. Sometimes these have been very lavish studio ventures and sometimes they’ve utilised a self-reliant spirit, like this new album. Recorded at a bandmate’s house, Signs… is 14 songs of knockabout folk blues replete with lyrical references to In The Pines, a track titled Song For Josephine Foster and an unlikely Celtic air on Vanilla Crow. NG
SUDAN ARCHIVES ****
Athena (Stones Throw)
Sudan Archives, birth name Brittney Parks. A twin. Based in LA by way of Ohio. Singer/songwriter and violinist. Sound: r’n’b, beats, electro. Debut album concerns duality. Right and wrong, good and evil. Relationships – breakups, vulnerability, strength, weakness, confidence, abuse, staying, money, power. Journeys. Exotic rhythms. A modern poetess. Urban yet from ancient times. Like Athena, dispensing wisdom for sisters. Favs: Did You Know, Black Vivaldi Sonata (God v devil), the dreamy Iceland Moss, Glorious (police brutality, homelife, surviving) and Pelicans In The Summer. RLR
TINDERSTICKS ****
No Treasure But Hope (City Slang)
Tindersticks’ 12th studio album sees them revisiting the melancholic chamber-pop that first made their name almost 30 years ago. The Amputees swings with their customary gallows humour, whilst Trees Fall wears the kind of luxurious sadness rarely seen outside of a Lee Hazelwood album. But it’s the closing title track that lingers longest in the memory, an anthem of quiet defiance for our troubled times. PJ
VARIOUS ****
No Other Love – Midwest Gospel 1965-1978 (Tompkins Square)
For my money, San Francisco’s Tompkins Square label is never better than when it’s digging up impossibly rare vinyl and making it available to us saps. They’ve compiled a big whack of American black gospel previously, but this 14-song collection focuses on Chicago and the surrounding area. It’s a special document, these DIY sides ranging from James Brown funk barkers to folky ballads and haphazardly taped live choirs, and the sleevenotes by compiler Ramona Stout are candid and incisive. NG
VETIVER ***
Up On High (Loose)}
Mellow folk with tinges of soft rock and country about lovin’, leavin’, searchin’ and stayin’ from Andy Cabic aka Vetiver’s seventh studio album. He handles writing and vocal duties, plus most guitars and keyboards, lending a Dylan/Cohen vibe on lovely tunes such as To Who Knows Where, the poetic Filigree and evocative Lost (In Your Eyes). Other highlights are Swaying, recalling REM, and the mystic Up On High with gorgeous pedal steel from Tim Ramsey. Sometimes melancholic but eminently listenable. RLR
DEMOS
JUST DRIVE
www.facebook.com/justdrivemusic
Cardiff-based, clean-cut and four in number, Just Drive were recently reviewed warmly by Buzz, a support slot of theirs garnering comparisons to The Killers. Their recorded material to date backs that up, all pop-rock bombast and “woah-oh”ing. Running, their new single, is brisk and synth-heavy, and includes in its first verse the lyric “that familiar taste / that’s always right between your thighs”. Conceivably there are musical styles which could render those words non-excruciating, but Just Drive do not play one of them. NG
LUNG
Lung feature two members of King Juss, who did a dirgey, grungey thing which I for one considered underrated. This incarnation’s been bumming around, low key-like, for a year or so, a 12-minute song called Chalice Lung’s first studio fruit. It’s hulking, lumbering downtuned-to-heck stoner metal with lyrics phrased so as to conflate religious ritual and getting high – the elephant in the room being Dopesmoker by Sleep, to which this is a completely undisguised albeit very rocking homage. NG
SALLOW WORM
Since this six-track EP of beatless, murky synth grumblings was dropped onto Bandcamp in early September, Sallow Worm appears to have removed anything relating to its identity from online, although that may have been a single Instagram post anyway. It’s one of the members of erstwhile, bleaker-than-bleak slowcore duo Mars To Stay, and collates homestyle electronic burble, creepily distant field recordings and vocals that would probably be gloomy if you could make out the words. Probably/possibly a one-off project, but a very cool one. NG
