28.02.2025-MAE POWELL Both Ways Brighter (Park The Van,2021)

 

INDIE POP

     Both Ways Brighter evinces a vibrant collaborative spirit, from its playfully layered instrumentation to its lyrics about caretaking and camaraderie even in cold, hostile environments. Recording the album opened an opportunity for Powell to collaborate deeply with other members of her band: Bassist Mayya Feygina, drummer Sam Jones, guitarist Spencer Owings, and Garrett Barley on lap steel. She began working on the record in 2018, before COVID-19 lockdowns shunted her and her bandmates into relative isolation, and completed it two-and-a-half years later with producer Jason Kick. The unhurried pace of the recording process let Powell and her collaborators animate the songs layer by layer until they came into the brightest versions of themselves.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/t3f6xx

27.02.2025-MATTEAH BAIM Falling Theater (Dream Drive,2014)

 

INDIE POP

   Matteah Baim constructed the album to be both musically seamless and lush, as well as offer unexpected elements and textures. Falling Theater was arranged by Maxim Moston of Antony and the Johnsons and features contributions from several members of the Johnsons, as well as Au Revoir Simone, MGMT, The New York Philharmonic, and The Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem. The album art was shot in the Los Angeles theater district by Lauren Dukoff, a photographer noted for her portraiture and documentary work in and out of the studio.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/stbw5y

26.02.2025-NATALIE JANE HILL Solely (Dear Life,2021)

 

INDIE FOLK

   Van Morrison named one of his albums A Period of Transition, a phrase that could apply equally to Natalie Jane Hill’s second album, Soley. Following a move from the Blue Ridge Mountains back to Austin, Texas, in 2019, she began a period of self-discovery that led to the new album. In the process, she also found herself open to external creative input. Using an expanded sonic palette, the additional colours and textures provide a sonic shift making Soley an even more engaging proposition.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/ge5lcp

25.02.2025-PAUL McCANN Here Comes The Rapture (MakMem,2018)

 

POP ROCK

   ‘Here Comes The Rapture’ is the debut album from Paul McCann. The album is pure pop rock, with infectious, upbeat melodies and guitar driven hooks throughout.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/30kazt

23.02.2025-EUROPEAN GHOST Collection Of Shadows (Unknown Pleasures,2018)

 

POST-PUNK / DARKWAVE

   The umpteenth dive into the past, in the never forgotten, and never enough celebrated, ’80s. However, European Ghost don’t simply copy that formula, but also put their mark on their music, as they do in their sophomore album entitled Collection of shadows, released by French label Unknown Pleasures Records.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/7umn6v

20.02.2025-DUBTRIBE SOUND SYSTEM Baggage (Defected,2003)

 

ELECTRONIC

   Since 1991, after booting their DJ, SF deep housers Dubtribe Sound System (husband Sunshine/wife Moonbeam Jones) mixed up house and dub-chilled, not stirred. A proudly viable live band, DSS also pumped out a plethora of dancefloor luvin‘ twelvers and now have Baggage. No samplers were harmed during the recording-it‘s hyperreal in both instrumentation and topic. Titles “Shakertrance,” “Raggatronique,” “The “Rhythm In Your Mind,” “Lo Disco,” and “Do It Now” appear fluffy and the tracks do bounce, but a deeper dig into the bag o‘ tunes reveals concern for today‘s house music.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/mzq72k

19.02.2025-ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER Betrayed In The Octagon (Deception Island,2007)

 

ELECTRONIC

   Opening track “Woe Is The Transgression I” opens like some strange, impressionistic piece inspired by a firestorm on Mars or something. Big, loping noise envelopes you as the song slowly tracks nearly 9 minutes of your life away. It’s truly heavy and heady stuff. There’s a “Woe Is The Transgression II” later on that sucks nearly 11 minutes of your bandwidth away and it’s even darker and more desolate. But it’s not all space madness on here. “Behind The Bank” feels like that double sunrise on Tatooine, or the moment those purple dust clouds clear and you see the new day’s light. Sounds sculpted from analog noisemakers always make for better sounds, and Lopatin surrounds Oneohtrix Point Never’s world with plenty of analog bliss here. But this isn’t about geeking out over gear, this guy really seems to take a serious mental trip on these songs. “Eyeballs” has the buzzing vibe of androids waking from a 100 year shutdown, while “Betrayed In The Octagon” is all oscillating fervor and wheezing square waves inching their way into the great abyss. “Parallel Minds” feels like a Boards of Canada interlude, while “Laser to Laser” almost sounds and reads like some sort of Philip K. Dick term for Replicant sex.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/k6g8bb