Our biggest ever week of new music? You can be the judge of that, we had to write it all...
Hello, Friends.
Our last Record of the Week for February is the return of The Orielles with the excellent Disco Volador. On the surface it sways along with deliciously wonky vibes, but listen carefully and you'll hear how complicated and brilliantly weird this all is. Bonkers time signatures, hugely inventive production and it's all as impeccably stylish as it's brilliantly smart creators. We've played this LOADS over the last few weeks and it just gets better and better.
+ Available as a very limited and custom indie shop pressing on transparent orange vinyl with a green blob centre.
File this one under 'things that either get your pulse racing, or you are flat-out dead'... Ty Segall and Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt have combined their collective efforts and limbs to form the super group Wasted Shirt, and their debut LP Fungus II sounds exactly as you'd dream! A tightly wound offering of screaming guitars, pounding drums and gnarled wails that alternate between hypnotic and deranged. Huge energy and super addictive.
+ Indie shop orange coloured vinyl 2LP is limited to just 500 copies for UK shops. The LP also includes an 8 page, Risograph-printed lyric zine by Brian Chippendale
+ Hit up our instagram to win a very limited test pressing.
In a week where we've been announcing forthcoming Dinked Editions for the Spring, it's lush to get our hands on a Dinked that is out in the flesh. Released this week is the impeccably cool Un Deux Trois from the Paris outfit Juniore. If you're a radio listener, you'll no doubt keep hearing hugely evocative 1960s French pop with hazy psychedelia and surf grooves... Its these guys!! It's cool AF but don't mistake this for style over substance, they have some killer songs in that smokey haze.
+ The CD and LP editions will be with us in a couple of weeks. We're putting the last handful of Dinked Editions in stock... NOW.
Five years in the making, Caribou returns with Suddenly on City Slang. Manages to sound instantly Caribou-ish, whilst still finding new space. Vocally he sounds amazing and it's full of slow building hooks. Really enjoying this one, naturally.
The Proper Ornaments return with Mission Bells, a sombre but uplifting record. Lush layers of haze in the production, but more of a prominence for the lo-fi electronics this time out, adds a lush timbre to what they do. Been looping this loads, it's got a brilliantly ghostly vibe.
+ Indie exclusive clear vinyl, limited 300 pressing.
Soccer Mommy returns with Color Theory. Big step forward again in production whilst retaining that direct voice and honesty. She's a great songwritter, some big moments here.
+ Limited, Indie shop version LP is pressed on coloured vinyl; lucky dip of either blue, yellow or grey versions. We can't tell.
The Russian techno DJ and producer Nina Kraviz has enlisted Jlin, Buttechno, Midland, and others to remix all 13 songs from St.Vincent's MASSEDUCTION album. Some lush sonics going on here.
+ Limited crystal clear vinyl pressing
+ Hit up our instagram to win a very limited test pressing set.
The first glimmer of Spring sunshine and we have a new Real Estate LP. Created over the course of a year at upstate New York’s Marcata Sound, The Main Thing is brilliantly delivered. Less carefree than the jangle of their first LP's, but successfully pondering big narratives and questions without veering off into dull waters. Super fresh production and loads of hooks.
+ Available as a deluxe double LP, tip-on gatefold jacket with Bjorn Copeland’s collage piece mounted on the front cover).
Man, this one is really special. Chicago drummer and composer Jeremy Cunningham wrote The Weather Up There in response to the loss of his brother Andrew, who died in a home invasion robbery in 2008. It covers so many tones, there are some pretty frenetic moments with skipping beats and hazy saxophones, warping tape loops, audio fragments like daydreams (or nightmares) and a whole lot more. Honestly, do check this album out, it's a hell of a listening experience.
Sink Ya Teeth release their excellent second album, Two, this week. Production wise it has a nice progression from their first outing, but it still sounds suitably lo-fi with pounding DIY funk and a sort of post New Order bleakness. Great stuff.
Indiana musician Kevin Krauter releases his second LP Full Hand, on the Bayonet label (run by Beach Fossils.)
+ Indies only LP format is pressed on Transparent Yellow vinyl
Wajatta - the musical duo of Reggie Watts and John Tejada - return with their second album on Brainfeeder, Don’t Let Get You Down.
Electronic synth trio Wrangler return on Bella Union with the dystopian but funky as hell A Situation.
Mysterious Swedish outfit Och release 11 on Rocket Recordings. Drones, noise, loops, bleeps... We're getting a little bit obsessed with this black magic.
Brooke Bentham releases Everyday Nothing on All Points.
San Francisco band Cold Beat make their DFA label debut with Mother. Euphoric and sad, really got something going on this one.
Simulcast follows Tycho's fifth studio album Weather and features bespoke instrumental reworkings of the album tracks, previously vocal-led by singer-songwriter Saint Sinner.
We have an exclusive and very limited signed edition of the self-titled Humanist album.
And lastly for the new stuff, a very welcome return from Sound of Yell with Leapling on Chemikal Underground.
If you missed out on the Japanese Television EPs (we still have number two), this week we have both packaged together with the addition of four brilliant bonus live Marc Riley BBC 6 Music Session tracks recorded in 2019, pressed on heavyweight vinyl.
Return To Never is the second volume in a trilogy exploring the teenage tape experimentation of Warren Defever aka His Name Is Alive. Echo-drenched guitar instrumentals, field recordings and gorgeous ambient tones. Indie version LP pressed on limited clear vinyl.
Merge have this week reissued Polvo's Cor-Crane Secret and Today's Active Lifestyles (running late), both getting super limited colour vinyl editions too.
A 15th anniversary edition of a dear old friend with Grizzly Bear's excellent Horn of Plenty pressed afresh via Kanine Records. This edition comes on limited cloudy clear vinyl.
Couple of excellent Blue Note releases from the vault with Grant Green's Nigeria, and Chet Baker's evergreen Chet Baker Sings.
At long last we have a physical edition of JPEGMAFIA's All My Heroes Are Cornballs. Nothing but time for this guy.
Finally this week, we're hyped to have a few copies of the exclusive collaboration between Sheema Mukherjee and Simon Richmond (The Imagined Village / Afro-Celt Soundsystem). The pair took a journey across India to explore local music and experience various approaches to wellbeing. These encounters formed the foundations of the forthcoming spa treatment across Lush stores and this evocative and searching new album on ECC Records. Really quite special meditative music.
What did we tell you, eh?! Stick some time aside to check this lot out as there are some real subtle moments you'll not want to miss. Look forward to chatting again soon.
- Drift