A week of amazing voices, fuzzed out production and some wonderful new bleeps.
Hello, Friends.
Our Record of the Week is Seeking New Gods, the seventh solo record from King of Wales, Gruff Rhys. He is a voice that we have listened to endlessly for decades now and he's in pure, grooving form here. Mario C's production is pure Technicolor, sweeping psych-pop nuggets, all inspired by Mount Paektu (an East Asian active volcano). Whisper it, but these might be some of his best moments yet!
+ The LP is pressed on Dark Green vinyl in the Mountain Die Cut Envelope Style Sleeve.
Another of our most favourite voices is Kurt Wagner's divine baritone, so we’re hyped about Showtunes, the grand new Lambchop album, landing with us this week. It is less country-tinged than pretty much anything they have produced before, darker too. It has a ghostly quality to it and some absolute knock-out moments. Love this band, this one is going to get played a lot over here.
+ Both Black vinyl and Indie Exclusive White vinyl editions are in gatefold cover sleeves with spot gloss and lyrics and include a download code. All LP formats are cut at 45RPM.
What a pleasure it was to release Dinked Editions for both of these fantastic albums.
Seven years in the making, Full–Throated Messianic Homage is the debut LP from Sons Of Raphael (brothers Loral and Ronnel Raphael) and it is absolutely extraordinary. It sounds both timeless, familiar and strikingly new, which is a discombobulating experience. The songs are smart and dense and the production is really something else; pop maximalism that we haven't heard in... Well... We haven't heard?! It's quite the ride, very highly recommended.
'Revolution' is a masterpiece of a pop song.
Cécile Schott returns to Thrill Jockey as Colleen with the new The Tunnel and the Clearing LP and it is absolutely delicious. Beautifully imaginative music with electronic hues and all sorts of bubbling textures. It has such a feel to it, it's melancholic with all sorts of emotive gestures in the bleeps. A real beauty, this one.
+ Available as a very limited Indie pressing on Clear with Red and Black vinyl.
The prodigious Tuareg guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar releases Afrique Victime on Matador and it's a bloody joy. Rock and roll psychedelics, some grizzly riffs, dusty Saharan jams and all sorts of blurring between them all. Really good vibes and if you have a passing interest in Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen or Jimi Hendrix even, you're going to trip on this!
+ Available on a limited purple vinyl pressing.
Flora Fauna is the new LP from Billie Marten via Fiction Records. Really quite raw and sparse, with colliding big-pop flourish. She's got a great voice and a nice drawl.
+ Limited Indie shop edition LP is pressed on transparent 'Sun Yellow' coloured vinyl.
High-queen Mica Levi drops TWO new albums under her own name for the first time. Blown-out, fuzzy, clattering, hypnotic, woozed-up and full of crunching (sort of) field recordings, both Ruff Dog and Blue Alibi are really trippy. Hooks and sketches that fade in and out, she's just lightyears ahead of anyone else.
echo is the debut LP from Sydney-based singer-songwriter Indigo Sparke. It was produced with Big Thief's Adrianne Lenker and Andrew Sarlo and has such big, quiet energy. Ghostly vibes, with wobbling tapes, plucked strings and ethereal vocals.
+ Limited Red vinyl pressing.
Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 1 is a collection of eight improvised modular pieces recorded in various studio spaces across London in the spring and summer of 2019 by Sunroof, aka Daniel Miller, the Founder and Chairman of Mute and Gareth Jones, a producer and engineer, notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure and Yann Tiersen. Has to be said, this is totally lush.
+ Limited Clear vinyl pressing.
Also this week; An extremely limited 10" EP from former Soup Dragon Jim McCulloch. Monastic Love Songs is the superb new set from David John Morris of Red River Dialect. FatCat release the jangling third LP - North Street Air - from Holiday Ghosts, which is stacked full of good vibes. Emigrant is the new EP from contemporary traditionalist Kishi Bashi, his voice really is lovely.
We also have just a couple more of Burial's limited Chemz / Dolphinz 12", online now.
We will send out a not-new mailer tomorrow (including a Marcia Griffiths 12" on Soul Jazz, Drab Majesty and all of those heavy a.f. mbv reissues that we still have to count and get back in stock), which will also include a good handful of late arrivals too. It's ended up being a good week-full.
We also might well all have fuzzed heads.... BECAUSE WE ARE GOING TO A GIG TONIGHT!!! We're amazed to have Squid in town and it's a bit too much to take in, really! We'll drown them in kindness until they sign records, more of that to follow.
Lastly, if you head very promptly over to the Drift site, you can get clicking on Dinked No.123 from fast-rising, Hull six piece Low Hummer. It's another really handsome one, got a feeling that this will not touch the sides.
Enjoy diving into this lot.
- Drift
