THIS WEEK’S NEW ALBUMS REVIEWED | FEATURE
Tour Beats Vol. 1 (International Anthem)
Multiple trademarks of quality combine on Tour Beats Vol. 1, a four-song 12” EP and the second release by Anteloper. Originally knocked up DIY style by this New York duo for a US tour late last year, sold at those gigs as a cassette, the extremely righteous International Anthem label – tops for envelope-pushing jazz in recent years – thought it was good enough to put on a platter, and they rarely if ever miss.
Jaimie Branch, Anteloper’s trumpet player, is already part of the IA roster and a certain go-to for playing that’s fierce, funky, melodious, hip-hop-infused and tricked out with loop pedals and other electronics. Jason Nazary is a drummer whose CV spans the noisier end of the Brooklyn rock underground to more scholarly jazz ensembles. Here, they bedeck their interplay with enough psychedelic FX and (perhaps literal) bells and whistles that it sounds like there are more than two musicians chipping in. A marimba or something like one lends Isotope 420˚ a delightful aquatica/exotica feel, staggered beats overlay gossamer-light synth and brass on the concluding Soledad Saboteur, and the other two tracks are hot to trot too.
words NOEL GARDNER
Re-Animator (Infinity Industries/AWAL)
Everything Everything aren’t exactly known to play it safe, and the Mancunian art-rock band’s fifth album shows that they’re not going to stop evolving anytime soon. Re-Animator has to be their most other-worldly release yet. In the opening song Lost Powers, “come on, you only lost your mind” is repeated like a mantra – from there, we fall into the rabbit hole that is Re-Animator.
In its sound, video aesthetics and lyrical themes, this record is nothing short of an experience. The haunting, cinematic Planets and Moonlight slow the pace, but the energetic Big Climb is reminiscent of Everything Everything’s Get To Heaven, from 2015, and the transcendent In Birdsong imagines life as the first self-aware person. The record often plays on the idea of the divided self, and what it means to be human: sounds intense, but even if you don’t have a specific interest in psychology or evolution, this is a powerful, diverse album full of whacky lyrics and memorable melodies.
words KAT SMITH
Remedy (Never Fade)
An enviable career to date has seen Bridgend singer-songwriter Hannah Grace achieve over 25 million streams online and be described as a “superstar” by Lady Gaga. Produced by MyRiot (London Grammar, Birdy), Paul O’Duffy (Amy Winehouse) and Ian Barter (Paloma Faith, Izzy Bizu), debut album Remedy features singles How True Is Your Love, With You, Praise You and Blue. Her sound is stripped back to its bare bones, revealing a strong and powerful voice that remains soft, tender and full of yearning. Her finessed vocals weave through genres ranging from woozy pop music to spirited, rousing country blues.
Entrancing lullabies and heady anthems sit side by side, with a soft lustre capable of soothing us to sleep or stirring emotions. Whoever wronged Hannah Grace is surely to feel the wrath of her scorn, through this stunning debut; exposing her wounds through music, Hannah Grace has found strength, embodied within Remedy.
words REBECCA LLEWELLYN
Is Love Enough? (100 Percent)
Fans of Paul Weller might already be aware of the funk-infused soul of Stone Foundation as the Weller connection runs deep. Weller produced one of Stone Foundation’s previous records and sings lead vocals on Is Love Enough? album track Deeper Love. The Specials nabbed Stone Foundation to support them on tour, too, so accolades do not come lightly for this eight-piece Midlands soul group, together since the late 1980s.
Listening to Is Love Enough? is an uplifting listening experience that promotes “hope, compassion and empathy” within an explosion of soulful funk. Durand Jones sings on Hold On To Love, while the undoubted show stealer is Laville on The Light In Us.
Is Love Enough? mirrors past UK heavyweights such as Beggar & Co, Freeez and Light Of The World when it comes to making hit-that-play-button-again funk. With the history of the UK soul and jazz funk scenes being recently celebrated with two separate documentaries on BBC 4, now seems like a good time to get into the soulful groove of Stone Foundation.
words DAVID NOBAKHT
Shame (Sacred Bones)
They’re Uniform by name, but not by nature. The Brooklynites’ [top] fourth LP, on the magnificently reliable Sacred Bones, plates up pulverising metal riffage, head-down thrash, industrial brutalism and malevolent electronics – often in the space of the same four-minute song.
Delco sets the album’s no-punches-pulled stall out immediately, Michael Berdan barking “You are what you’ve done / You are what they’ve done to you” like the alternately self-flagellating and vengeful voice inside a serial killer’s head. It’s followed by The Shadow Of God’s Hand, on which the band suddenly break free from a monster Houdini-era Melvins riff into a hardcore sprint only to wade waist-deep back into the sludge once more. Life In Remission descends into the sound of a battalion of malfunctioning Daleks being suffocated with static, while This Won’t End Well makes you feel like you’re trying and failing to outrun Godzilla.
And as that last song title might suggest, there’s no happy ending. The take-home message from closer I Am The Cancer? “And God will not love you forever.” If 2020 hasn’t already crushed you, then Shame surely will.
words BEN WOOLHEAD
