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Bibi Club [Feu De Garde] May 10 street date. The pair named themselves Bibi Club for the discotheque in their living room, where the couple's bibis - their loved ones - come and dance. The duo formed by Adèle Trottier-Rivard and Nicolas Basque explore emotional and physical territories, overcoming obstacles with intense, raw yet benevolent radicalism. A former member of the very first exclusively female scout group, Les Guides, Adèle reconnects with the values that made her who she is: courage, perseverance, sisterhood, friendship. The years she spent in that community, discovering nature and developing intense relationships, became part of her identity and informed her writing, all the way to the creation of "Feu de garde". The influence of Moondog, Stereolab, and, more than ever, Suicide can be heard in the direct, singular approach of the album, which also features group chants inspired by Girl Guide outings in the woods. Pushing back the boundaries of genres and letting their creativity run free, Bibi Club fill "Feu de garde"with relentless rhythms. On stage Adèle grabs percussion instruments and takes risks. Liberated, seductive, undeniable. **** (Mojo UK) |
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Bonny Light Horseman [Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free] June 7 street date. Bonny Light Horseman's core trio - Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman - have amassed an incomparable collected resume. They've also lived a big ol' messy and tangled up pile of life, and all that living permeates their music with the wisdom, humor, and depth that underlies the accolades. Theirs is the stuff that defines folk music as a genre: love and loss, hope and sorrow, community and family, change and time. At the center of Bonny Light Horseman is, always, the singular combination of three powerful and tender artists, artists who expertly dodge superlatives but are quick to acknowledge that their bond makes each one better, braver and more vulnerable than they'd be on their own. Bonny Light Horseman's new album, "Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free", is an ode to the blessed mess of our humanity. Confident and generous, it is an unvarnished offering that puts every feeling and supposed flaw out in the open. The themes are stacked high and staked even higher: love and loss, hope and sorrow, community and family, change and time all permeate Bonny Light Horseman's most vulnerable and bounteous offering to date. |
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Crumb [AMAMA] June 14 street date. New York psych-pop band Crumb return with "AMAMA", their most carefree and open-hearted album to date. A soundscape full of playful and patchwork experimentation - glitchy pitch-shifted vocals, cell phone recordings, nautical blips, sax mouthpiece solos, blasted drum samples, and piano strings dampened with Silly Putty - "AMAMA" continues to deepen the band's hypnotic sound in a cohesive line back through 2021's "Ice Melt", 2019's "Jinx", and breakout EPs "Locket" and "Crumb". Without a doubt, "AMAMA is Crumb" at their most animated. It exists at the crossroads of psychedelia, pop, jazz, and rock, and cements Crumb as a band uniquely their own. "AMAMA" is an incandescent statement about searching for solid ground, connection, and clarity in a life of nomadic upheaval. |
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Dirty Three [Love Changes Everything] June 28 street date. Emerging once again from the unending waves crashing upon our fragile time-craft (adrift on the eternal ocean, and taking on water), Dirty Three are a) back, b) tangled in seaweed, rank with saltwater and possessed of three rather ominous thousand-mile stares (at least!), and c) not wasting another minute - as nothing is guaranteed. For their first album in over a decade, they flew in, got together, and started playing. Music's their language, their true love; they never stop listening to that. And like the label says, "Love Changes Everything". The Dirty Three - Warren Ellis, Mick Turner, and Jim White - formed in Melbourne in 1992, to play with guitar, drums and violin or viola, and within a couple years, they'd broken out - out of Australia, out of anything else they might have been inside of, to boot - and got worldwide. worldwide. Over the next ten years, they toured over and over the planet and cut seven albums out along the way. After this, their unique style of play was decoupled, more often than not, and pieced together in many other, fruitful collaborations with many other esteemed talents. Over the past 20 years, they've gotten together a few times, renewed the vow, revved the engines and played some shows, or made an album. Like now! |
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Eels [EELS TIME!] June 7 street date. Eels, the ever-changing critically acclaimed project of principal singer/songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett), have released 14 studio albums since their 1996 debut, "Beautiful Freak". "Eels Time!" was recorded between Los Feliz, California and Dublin, Ireland. It consists of twelve brand new tracks with some of E's most introspective and personal material in recent years, and features collaborations with American musician and actor Tyson Ritter. |
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Folk Implosion [Walk Thru Me] June 28 street date. "How the fuck are we going to turn this into a song?". That's the question Lou Barlow and John Davis have asked themselves since co-founding The Folk Implosion in the early 1990s. Beginning with improvised jams featuring Barlow on bass and Davis on drums, the duo develop their beat-driven pop collages from the ground up. It's the process they used on their debut cassette, "Walk Through This World With The Folk Implosion", and one they’ve returned to 30 years later on their spellbinding, self-referencing reunion, "Walk Thru Me". Contrasts and comparisons are the keys to unlocking "Walk Thru Me", and The Folk Implosion as a whole. Beyond the audible differences between Barlow's soft voice and Davis's urgent, reedy proclamations, their approaches to songwriting are strikingly distinct. Finally, Davis's Persian music studies in weekly Zoom lessons inspired him to integrate traditional Middle Eastern instruments such as the setar, oud, saz, and tombak. |
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Frazer, Aaron [Into The Blue (black vinyl)] June 28 street date. "Into The Blue" is the second solo album from Aaron Frazer (of Durand Jones & The Indications). A daring blend of soul, psychedelia, spaghetti western, disco, gospel, and hip-hop, "Into The Blue" represents the impressive range of Frazer's sonic talents. Frazer maintains the unmistakable falsetto and classic songwriting he's known for, but plants the album firmly in the now with a hip-hop mentality at its core, weaving together genres and production techniques to form something new. "Into The Blue" was conceived, like so many classic records, out of actual heartbreak. Frazer moved cross-country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and embarked on a journey that's reflected in the album's themes of grief, loneliness, and searching for healing. For "Into The Blue", Frazer enlisted Grammy-winner Alex Goose as co-producer, known for his crate-digging samples and collaborations with hip-hop artists like Freddie Gibbs, Madlib, and Brockhampton. Frazer also experimented with samples for the first time on a record, drawing from unexpected sources like 90s R&B group Hi-Five. |
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Gendron, Myriam [Mayday] May 10 street date. “Mayday is an album that keeps on giving; every listen reveals additional nuances and every visit to the end- groove invites a return to the start.” -Lucy Sante In May 2024, Myriam Gendron comes back with her third full-length record, aptly titled Mayday. On Mayday, the artist showcases her love of traditional folklore music, drawing inspiration from the Appalachian variant of an English Christmas carol (“Lully Lullay”) and French Canadian sea shanties alike (“La belle Françoise (pour Sylvie)”). But the album is just as much an endorsement of Gendron’s talent as a singer-songwriter, as her bold poetic voice and musical arrangements shine on tracks such as country-folk ballad “Long Way Home”, rock and jazz infused closer “Berceuse”, cinematic 6-minutes long “Terres brûlées” or heartwarming instrumental interlude “La Luz”. On Mayday, she sings in both English and French, paying homage to various traditions across North America. Music critic Byron Coley writes: “Myriam has privately described the mood of Mayday as dark, in part due to the fact it was assembled after her mother’s passing, but she is always capable of balancing and blending emotional content in a way that makes it ultimately hopeful.” The album benefits from the precious contributions of renowned artists, collaborators and friends of Myriam, amongst which we can name Marisa Anderson, Jim White (‘Dirty Three’), Cédric Dind-Lavoie, Bill Nace and Zoh Amba. |
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Ghost Inside [Searching For Solace] June 7 street date. The Ghost Inside stands as an unstoppable force in the realm of hard rock music. Fueled by unwavering determination and unyielding passion, this band has forged a path marked by resilience and redemption. Their latest endeavor, the 6th studio album titled "Search For Solace", delves into the profound theme of grappling with one's own thoughts - the internal struggle between good, bad, and evil. It explores the journey of finding comfort and making peace amidst the chaos of life's ebb and flow. The album reflects the band's commitment to not succumb to negativity, anger, or darkness, aligning with their identity as an uplifting and comforting musical force for fans seeking solace. Established in 2004, The Ghost Inside has solidified its position as a trailblazer in melodic hard rock. Their music seamlessly combines raw aggression with profound lyricism, creating a resonant experience for their dedicated fanbase. Their music embodies a spirit of resilience, unity, and the indomitable power of the human spirit. Each thunderous breakdown and soaring melody strikes a deep chord within the hearts of their fans, serving as a testament to the band's enduring impact. |
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Girl And Girl [Call A Doctor] May 24 street date. In one sense, it's easy for artists - songwriters, specifically - to express their feelings in their work. After all, that's what the lyrics are for! But it's much harder to convey emotional energy in how you play, slash at the guitar, and the structure of the music itself. That's precisely why Girl And Girl's Sub Pop debut, "Call A Doctor", feels like such a vital, electrifying shock to the senses. Not since the early work of Car Seat Headrest or Conor Oberst's widescreen emotional brutality as Bright Eyes has indie rock managed to come across as this intimate and grandiose, as the Australian quartet led by Kai James lay a lifetime's worth of woes - mental health, the human race's planned obsolescence - across a canvas of indie rock that feels both timeless and in-the-moment. The album's eleven songs - spanning sweeping guitar epics and wry acoustic shuffles to spiky punk maneuvers and the type of raw, adoringly unvarnished indie-pop associated with legendary PacNW label K Records - are literally plucked from James' personal history, as he reworked older recordings with newer lyrics reflecting his past struggles as well as new anxieties that emerged prior to the album's recording. |
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Goat Girl [Below the Waste] June 7 street date. Goat Girl - Lottie Pendlebury (she/her), Rosy Jones (they/them) and Holly Mullineaux (she/her) - present their third album, "Below The Waste", arriving on Rough Trade Records. Progressing from their angst-fuelled self-titled debut (2018) to the escapist world of sophomore LP "On All Fours" (2021), the South London trio enter their most self-assured era yet with this 16-track record. Pieced together like a collage over an extended period of time, the instrumentation was tracked mostly over a ten-day stint in Ireland at Hellfire Studios, in the shadow of the infamous Hellfire Club itself. They also used Damon Albarn's Studio 13. Additional strings, woodwind instruments, and vocals (including a choir made up of family and friends) were added to this framework at a number of locations, from a barn in Essex to Goat Girl's own studio. Co-produced by the band and John Spud Murphy (Lankum/Black Midi), "Below The Waste" takes the band's distinctive sound to new extremes, as they delve fearlessly into expansive noise-rock, delicate folk and synth-driven pop. |
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Gou, Peggy [I Hear You] June 7 street date. Peggy Gou presents her 10-track debut LP, "I Hear You". Featuring the Canadian Platinum single, "(It Goes Like) Nanana", and her Lenny Kravitz collaboration, "I Believe In Love Again", the record sees Gou stepping into the next level of her artistry and boldly claiming her voice through the kaleidoscopic lens of 90s house music. Peggy Gou has ascended from underground sensation to global icon by sticking to her own unwavering vision, becoming one of the most in-demand electronic musicians/DJs in the world. Having performed to over a million people worldwide in 2023, the self-managed, South Korean-born and Berlin-based producer/artist has blazed her own trail as the first Korean DJ to play Berghain, the first female DJ to headline Ushuaïa Ibiza, and the first woman in over 20 years to appear within the Top 10 of DJ Mag's annual Top 100 list. |
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L'Imperatrice [Pulsar (black vinyl)] June 7 street date. With two successful albums and a sold-out world tour under their belt, Paris-based L'Impératrice have matriculated from a good-times instrumental act created by music critic Charles de Boisseguin to a six-piece powerhouse whose sashaying mixes of funk and French Touch, disco and deep house now include the fetching vocals of singer Flore Benguigui. Their new album, "Pulsar", is a focused but far-reaching record, the jubilant testament of a band with plenty to say and the skills to say it themselves. Across 10 tracks, L'Impératrice move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmische, and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house ever. Benguigui, meanwhile, boldly sings of self-empowerment by shirking beauty standards, ageism, and drab normalcy, with a little help from an exciting set of new friends. Throughout these 10 songs, L'Impératrice espouses the rare willingness to be real about life and its woes while also sounding like a perfect picture of joy. |
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La Luz [News Of The Universe] May 24 street date. With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland learns to embrace a changing world with unconditional love on "News Of The Universe", the new full-length from California rock band La Luz. "News Of The Universe" is a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland's experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son. It's also a portrait of a band in flux, marking the first appearance for drummer Audrey Johnson and the final ones from longtime members bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl, whose contributions add a bittersweet edge to a record that is both elegy for an old world and cosmic road map to a strange new one. It might be La Luz's most brutal record to date, but it is also their most blissful. |
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Loma [How Will I Live Without A Body?] June 28 street date. world. Following the release of their 2020 second album, "Don't Shy Away", Loma's three members were cast around the globe and the band - not for the first time - entered a deep sleep. In the pandemic years, even being in the same room was impossible, and attempts to start a new record faltered. The following winter, Emily Cross suggested they regroup in the UK, in the tiny stone house where she works as an end-of-life doula. With minimal recording gear and few instruments, Loma turned two whitewashed rooms into a makeshift studio, using a padded con as a vocal booth. It was a turning point. They scrapped much of what they'd made, letting a new place set a new course. The one-lane roads, hedgerows, and dark skies of Dorset gave the new songs an inefable but unmistakable Englishness. What emerged was "How Will I Live Without A Body?": a gorgeous, unique, and oddly comforting album about partnership, loss, regeneration, and fighting the feeling that we're all in this alone. Many of its songs have a feeling of restless motion; faceless characters drift through meetings and partings, tangling together and slipping away. |
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MakeWar [A Paradoxical Theory Of Change] June 28 street date. Formed out of the ashes of frontman Jose Prieto's solo endeavor, Sad And French, MakeWar - completed by bassist Edwin Santacruz and new drummer Alejandro Serritiello - have always worn their hearts on their sleeves. Heartbreak, despair, and alcohol have long been at the center of those struggles, and the songs themselves are a way to push through all of that. MakeWar's albums have all been intensely cathartic affairs that bristle with the promise and the terror of the human experience. "A Paradoxical Theory Of Change" describes a different approach to tackle the pitfalls in life. Instead of fighting or pushing against whatever it is you are feeling, absorb it, accept it, and let it be. Most of this record was written during the height of the pandemic by Prieto at home on his acoustic guitar. In that sense, it not only lent itself naturally to personal introspection and self-reflection, but also recalled the early days of Sad And French. The magic of this record is that it is specific and universal, working both as a memory of universal trauma as well as something much more personal, the two layered up on top of each other until the difference between them is obscured. |
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Me First & The Gimme Gimmes [Blow It - At Madison's Quinceañera!] June 14 street date / July 26 (LP). Twenty years have passed since Me First And The Gimme Gimmes ruined Johnny's Bar Mitzvah, and punk rock's premier cover band is back to wreak havoc on another important coming-of-age ceremony. This time, as the album title reveals, it was a Quinceañera. Nobody attending had ever heard of Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, and nobody knew what to expect. Recorded on July 15th, 2023, at The Soap Factory in San Diego, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes were completed by Joey Cape on guitar, CJ Ramone on bass, Swami John Reis on guitar, and Andrew "Pinch" Pinching on drums - a veritable punk rock supergroup, as ever, not that anyone at the Quinceañera knew or cared. However, they also had a wind section for the first time, courtesy of Keith Douglas and Jason Crane. It all comes together to create a performance that rises (even as it's sinking) to the occasion in "¡Blow it…at Madison's Quinceañera!". |
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NOFX [Half Album (EP)] May 24 street date (LP). Resolicitation at higher price. All pre-orders have been cancelled. Over the past few years, NOFX have unleashed their very first double album in the form of 2021's "Single Album", followed by "Double Album" a year later. What fans didn't know is that wasn't all there was to this masterpiece. That's right, NOFX's first and only double album has a 5th side! "Half Album" is the final chapter to NOFX's epic double album. The songs that comprise this EP - as well as its two predecessors - were all recorded at the same time. "Half Album" is not simply the leftover songs from this session, but rather an integral part that ties the entire project together. "Half Album" isn't the last record they will release, but it is the beginning of the end of NOFX as we know them. It's also proof, despite its title, that NOFX doesn't do things by halves. This might be called "Half Album", but it's part of a much bigger legacy and an even greater whole. |
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Pedro The Lion [Santa Cruz] June 7 street date. On Pedro The Lion's new album, "Santa Cruz", critically acclaimed musician David Bazan returns with a new chapter in his ambitious and ongoing recording project - 5 albums devoted to places he lived in throughout his life. "Santa Cruz" is Bazan's third album in the series and follows up where 2022's "Havasu" and 2019's "Phoenix" left off. Tracks like "Modesto" and "Little Help" foreshadow Bazan's exposure and ultimate love of classic rock 'n' roll records, while songs like "It'll All Work Out" showcase his unique approach to synthesizers, something he introduced with the 2005 self-titled Headphones album. The stories on "Santa Cruz" highlight Bazan’s teenage years and solidifies what he sees as an exposition in a traditional three-act structure. |
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Pond [Stung!] June 21 street date. Pond are one of the most versatile, inquisitive, and accomplished bands of the psychedelic rock vanguard. The last four Pond albums have been showcases of tidiness and brevity, 10 ideas always tucked into 40 minutes or so. But on "Stung!", they gleefully, madly, and wilfully lean into double-LP largesse, tapping the spirit of "Tusk" and "Sign ‘O’ The Times" by funnelling 14 songs into the most unfettered and splendid hour of their recording career. "Stung!" delivers some of Pond's most glorious rock songs ever and also some of their least rock moments, all psychedelic drapery or funk vim. In that epic, as in "Stung!" at large, Nick Allbrook speaks to our collective modern paradox of being disappointed in or even disconsolate over a world that we know more about than any prior generation but also being in awe of it and (sometimes) each other, too. There are so many reasons to cry and so many reasons to marvel. Can't they all, Pond suggests with "Stung!", be reasons to sing? |
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Sam Morton [Daffodils And Dirt] June 21 street date. SAM MORTON - the musical duo comprised of singer, songwriter and acclaimed BAFTA award winning actor/director Samantha Morton and music producer/artist Richard Russell (Everything is Recorded) present their debut album, "Daffodils & Dirt". Over twelve startling tracks, the pair build a deeply personal musical world that feels simultaneously intimate and delicate, yet powerful and tough. The part-autobiographical suite of songs sees Russell's spartan soundscapes providing a rich foundation for Morton's gorgeous, ethereal vocals. The collaboration, a first for Morton, came about after she appeared on "Desert Island Discs" in October 2020, and Russell happened to be listening. He was struck not only by her song choices (including a shared love of "I Remember" by Molly Drake) but by the way music weaved through her lived experiences. The pair connected and corresponded, swapping ideas, sketches and stream-of-consciousnesses, which proved to be a cathartic musical process for both. "Daffodils & Dirt" features musical collaborators Alabaster Deplume, Laura Groves, Jack Pen~ate, and vocalist Ali Campbell (UB40). |
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Slash [Orgy Of The Damned (2LP)] May 17 street date. A collection of 12 dynamic songs that shakes up and revitalizes blues classics with a stripped-down, instinctive approach, Slash's "Orgy Of The Damned" creates a singular expression that pays homage to the blues. A great cover takes something old and makes it new again. This is the philosophy behind "Orgy Of The Damned", on which the acclaimed guitarist re-teamed with storied producer Mike Clink and enlisted the album's diverse guest vocalists, which include Gary Clark Jr., Billy F. Gibbons, Chris Stapleton, Dorothy, Iggy Pop, Paul Rodgers, Demi Lovato, Brian Johnson, Tash Neal, Chris Robinson, and Beth Hart. To round out his band in the studio and on the road, Slash reunited with two of his bandmates from his Blues Ball outfit in the 90s, bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis, and brought on drummer Michael Jerome and singer/guitarist Tash Neal. |
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Strand Of Oaks [Miracle Focus (black vinyl)] June 7 street date. According to Timothy Showalter, the idea of Strand Of Oaks' eighth album, "Miracle Focus", was born out of one simple concept: to make people feel good. Throw in a healthy mix of Ram Dass, yoga, Freddie Mercury, Alice Coltrane, and Beastie Boys, plus over a year of writing and building the extremely dense architecture of the songs, and "Miracle Focus" was born. The result is FUN, wild, rhythmic music filled with synth layering and mantra-like lyrics intended to uplift and hopefully bring some light to whoever listens. Tim says, "In many ways, this record is a love letter to bliss. Through meditation, I found a way to connect with something greater, a positive force that allowed me to write music as a manual towards a more love-focused life. And the miracles I refer to aren't asking the universe for anything; it's just acknowledging and celebrating this complex beautiful moment that we all get to share. My most sincere hope is that whoever listens might through sonic osmosis experience a similar joy". |
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Unessential Oils [Unessential Oils] May 31 street date. Unessential Oils is the search for something authentic. Bits and pieces of Warren Spicer's life - traumas and weaknesses, successes and breakthroughs, moments of clarity and enlightenment mixed with the mundane and menial. The weight of grief and anger imposed on the joy and ecstatic freedom of new life. "I wanted to expose truths and realities inside myself, and not create illusions and beautiful places in which to hide and conceal myself. It's the opposite of escapism, it's about the feeling of home and safety and welcoming people into my world", explains Warren. The result is an album that is somewhat like a jazz record in that it focuses on the musicians' performances. Many of the songs are quite minimal in terms of songwriting, but the execution and the musicianship are at the heart of this album; they are adventurous with room for embellishment and improvisation. The microphones were turned up loud and everyone played quietly, complementing Warren's vocals, which are more conversational in terms of range and volume, almost under-sung. The four backup singers are singing in unison - a hat tip to the backing-vocal style in Brazilian Tropicalía records - gently enveloping the lead vocals. |
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