Sunshine drenched balladeering, fist-clenched EMO, experimental Pow Wow and Havana’s dancehalls.
Californian songwriter Chris Cohen returns with his latest solo LP - Paint A Room - this week on Hardly Art and it casts a wonderful spell. It does not sound at all like a new record, it’s full of gentle analogue hues and sunshine warm nostalgia. He is such a subtle writer (and performer across his own releases and the huge set of albums he’s been a part of) and Paint A Room plays out like a set of little vignettes, popping across the stereo before slowly fading away like ideas coming to fruition. It really is a pretty gorgeous set. Record of the Week.
![Chris Cohen](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0161/8690/files/SQ_Sign.jpg?v=1721314622)
+ Available on limited and exclusive 'Blood Moon' colour double vinyl.
Unbound is the debut LP from a new collaborative project under the name Bizhiki. The trio are Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings, Joe Rainey and the multi-instrumentalist Sean Carey (S. Carey and Bon Iver collaborator). Rainey’s 2022 Niineta LP won huge plaudits, a stirring and contemporary take on Native American Pow Wow music, and his vibrato-laden vocalisations feel like the centre point of this fascinating and otherworldly album. Really lush atmospherics and absolutely one to give some time to.
+ Available on Sky Blue colour vinyl.
We have always really liked Oneida, but had absolutely no idea that the new Expensive Air was the prolific New Yorker’s seventeenth full LP. Expensive Air is absolutely full of different guitar music drives, from the more straight up punk, to psychedelic noise and even a pop-pound to it. Rattles along, good stuff.
+ Available on limited Glass Green colour vinyl.
![Drift Records](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0161/8690/files/D_Shop_a7bb6778-85c4-4464-9198-ce720bcd5a7a.jpg?v=1721314662)
Lastly today, our Record of the Month from Orquesta Akokán is in the racks and very much on the stereo. We have all absolutely fallen for its Conga-driven rhythms (read more here and check out some videos) and it just feels like one of those albums that people are going to go wild about when they hear even just a ten second blast. Havana has got it going on!
+ Available on limited Ocean Blue colour vinyl.