Museum Of Love – the New York-based duo of Pat Mahoney and Dennis McNany – shares the new single/video, “Marching Orders,” from their forthcoming album, Life Of Mammals, out July 9th on Skint Records. It follows lead single/video “Cluttered World” and their “Cluttered World / Marching Orders (Remixed)” EP featuring remixes by Parrot and Cocker Too and Justin Van Der Volgen. “Marching Orders” starts with an irresistible cowbell driven rhythm track. It builds with a propulsive bass riff, a casually whistled melody, and a whole studio load of chaos. Combined together, it’s a hypnotic musical invitation to join Museum of Love’s carnival procession that’s part Blackstar, part NYC block party and part after hours smash up at Mardi Gras.
The video, featuring footage deconstructed and edited by Shaun MacDonald, “is a hallucinogenic dreamscape describing the collective feelings everyone went through over the last year of the pandemic,” says Museum Of Love. “All of us feeling crammed in our tiny apartments like an elephant in a tiny tea house. Time and reality, not computing for many of us.”
Life Of Mammals is a dizzying swirl of chaotic art rock and metronomic dance music. The creative process for Life Of Mammals was approached like an art project while the lyrics throughout are delightfully elliptical, with a thousand valid interpretations. The album was recorded in bursts between Mahoney’s LCD Soundsystem touring commitments. It has been mixed in its entirety by James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem/DFA) and features guest appearances from legendary saxophonist and Arthur Russell collaborator Peter Gordon (The Love of Life Orchestra) and Matt Shaw.
If you’ve ever imagined what a band influenced by Scott Walker, John Cale, Jonathan Richman, dub, Robert Wyatt, post-punk and Krautrock might sound like, then you might finally have your answer – Museum Of Love. Weird, perhaps, but also enormous knockabout fun, at times approaching their song craft with the bombast of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the outlook of the Marx brothers and matched with the production knowledge of a Basic Channel record. A bewitching combination that rewards repeat listens, it’s doubtful anyone will release a more compelling and beguiling album this year.
Situation Chicago 2 is a fine compilation of Chicago bands and artists, and proceeds go to helping artists and venues affected by the pandemic (which, by the way, is pretty much all of them). The project is part of the CIVL SAVE fund, which needs all the help it can get to support independent music venues throughout the Windy City (full disclosure, some of these venues are my favorite venues in the country).
“Sinistry” by MIIRRORS is a fiery live rock cut with some light goth touches. Robust‘s “Dont Know Why” is a smooth example of Chicago’s vibrant rap scene. The bass line alone on it make impregnate you. Speaking of great example of Chicago’s music culture, Fess Grandiose‘s “Keep the Rhythm Goin'” is a prime one of Chicago house music (a genre that, while popular, still deserves to be better known around the globe). Umphrey’s McGee and Bela Fleck team up on the bouncy and bright “Great American.” Reduxion‘s “The Imperial Boxmen” is sweet funk jazz that will make you want to spin your lover around the room. Speaking of fun, Jeff Park delivers a great instrumental cover of WAR‘s “Slippin’ into Darkness.”
“Drowning” by Neptune’s Core starts side B of the vinyl with strong power-pop hooks. Goth country makes an appearance with The Goddamn Gallows‘ “The Maker.” V.V. Lightbody‘s “Really Do Care” is a slice of dream-pop complete with birdsong and cat’s purr-like guitar. Erin McDougald‘s lovely, sexy “The Parting Glass” is a wonderful exemplar of Chicago’s jazz club scene and makes you want to seek out her live performances.
It’s a good compilation, and proceeds go to a great cause. You can’t miss.
Moon Safari, the classic ambient / house / lounge album by Air (Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin) was pretty much an instant classic as soon as it was released. I remember reading reviews that more or less called it “cool elevator music.” It’s far beyond such a label. It’s a “mood change” record, as in it can change the mood you’re in or the mood of any room in which it’s played.
The opener, “La Femme D’Argent,” with its ultra-smooth hand percussion and keyboards, immediately shifts your brain into a meditative space and should be played in dentist offices around the world. The song is never in a hurry. It’s about a seven-minute groove beamed into your brain from aliens who might be high. The slightly menacing “Sexy Boy” tells a tale of hyper-masculinity and wanting to be “as beautiful as a god.”
“All I Need,” featuring Beth Hirsch on vocals, brings in lovely, almost Spanish, acoustic guitar as Hirsch sings to a perspective lover to let her be a light to him. “Kelly, Watch the Stars!” is mostly an instrumental (the title is repeated multiple times) that combines thick bass, Theremin, and robot vocals. “Talisman” belongs on a movie soundtrack, be it a spy thriller, a sexy comedy, or a sci-fi film.
“Remember” has electro-beats surrounded by ghostly synths as Dunckel and Godin sing about a day in the past. You can’t tell if the day was good or bad or somewhere in between, but I think that’s the point. Ms. Hirsch returns for vocals on “You Make It Easy,” a song with bossa nova touches that tells a lovely tale of love.
“Ce Matin La” reveals Air’s love of Ennio Morricone with its harmonica riffs, subtle trumpet, and, of course, guitar work. “New Star in the Sky (Chanson pour Solal)” is a mellow head-trip and perfect for relaxing on the international space station while you’re circling the Earth every ninety minutes. “Le Voyage de Penelope” closes the album with sultry synths that almost sound like a warped trumpet at first and then become a lush groove track to send you off into euphoric bliss.
Moon Safari is perfectly named because this whole album sounds like it was made in such a place – a hidden jungle deep inside the moon ruled by sexy women and weird creatures.
Scottish producer Sam Gellaitry announces his new EP, IV, out May 14th (digital) and June 11th(vinyl) via the new home to Sam’s own Viewfinder Recordings, FFRR Records/Parlophone, and shares the lead single/video, “Duo.” Between 2015 and 2017, Sam put out three EPs as a series – Escapism, Escapism II, and Escapism III. He’s always used instruments to convey voices – high pitched flute sounds to evoke falsetto sounds and female vocals, for example, or top lines made from melodics. But after taking a break for a few years since the release of his Escapism series, he decided the time was right to start singing on his own music. You can hear this for the first time on IV. Produced, written, vocalized, mixed and mastered by Sam, its name is a subtle nod to the Escapism trilogy and the work he’s released so far. More literally, it’s also called IV because it’s a collection of four songs and four emotions.
Born far away from key electronic music hubs like LA, Glasgow and London, Sam, now 24, grew up in Stirling – an old town in central Scotland that’s rich in medieval history and visually stunning views. Living here led Sam’s older brother to happy hardcore – a kind of hard dance music born from the UK and Europe’s breakbeat and rave scenes – which in turn lead to Sam learning to produce. YouTube granted unfettered access to the world’s electronic scenes, with the array of sounds pushing Sam to pick up production in his early teens. He dove into Daft Punk’s robotic space realm where looped up disco samples reigned supreme and LA producers Samiyam and Flying Lotus were early inspirations. But no matter the genre, one thing remained constant: the idea that music can take your imagination on a voyage through color, place and sound, via combinations of notes.
Sam views the world through palettes of vivid color. A C minor scale becomes purple, plum and grape. C-sharp minor is cool and blue. Night time is best evoked in dark F minor reds and D minor induces rich forest green. His music is a journey through experience, circumstance and surroundings, told through his impressive, synesthesia-informed knowledge of different musical tones. For him, songwriting and producing has always connected to a process of pairing and contrasting different tones – “using the notes to create different sensations – like tension or relief in your head.” In practice, this technique has seen him experiment with high definition club music, crisp hip hop production, dabs of orchestral instrumentation and more.
Lead single “Duo” hones in on the French house music Sam discovered in his early teens. It’s the first track ever that features his voice. Presented with high octane and eclectic visuals, the video directed by Ethan + Tom, transitions rapidly through a scene of animated and inverted clips of Sam before it takes a psychedelic-feeling thrill ride. “It feels like I’m dropping my first ever song. It’s a crazy feeling to go from hiding behind instrumentation to finally finding my voice. It’s super liberating being able to explore more refined soundscapes by using my vocals as the glue. I return to my roots with ‘Duo’ by venturing into a more funk oriented sonic and I’m going to continue to showcase all my past and present tastes that have brought me to this point musically.”
This new phase of Sam’s career is an embrace of his unparalleled and unadulterated passion for creativity. “I’m at an age now where I feel ready to talk and tell people what I’ve experienced in life. It’s perfect timing in that sense,” says Sam. “I’ve done three EPs. I’m at the point now where I’m like – I want all the smoke. Now I’m comfortable singing on my songs, I want to go back to each point in my musical journey and tap into it. I’m using the voice as my anchor, then tapping into other sonics that have influenced me.”
Margate-based, Australian multi-instrumentalist Jorja Chalmers will release her new album ‘Midnight Train‘ on May 28th via Italians Do It Better. The first single from the record “Bring Me Down” is streaming online now.
Speaking about the first single “Bring Me Down”, Jorja said “It’s about the fragility of the perfect housewife.It’s basically about a woman that’s trying to be everything, and is cracking psychologically. It’s got a very haunting melody. There’s something there that’s a little bit beautiful and disturbing about it.”
The accompanying video is a piece of Lynchian performance art, an unsettling one-shot clip that shows a person on the edge. It’s all theatre however, Jorja Chalmers relishes in inhabiting a persona, one that may be entirely divorced from her own experiences. “There can be a healthy separation from using your creativity to make something that is almost like a duplicate of yourself, that you don’t necessarily associate with. If you make something dark, then it’s not necessarily your personality. It can be the opposite sometimes.”
Jorja Chalmers enjoys a quiet life. The Australian born mother of two lives in Margate, the Kent coastal town that is turning into something of a cultural hub. Yet there’s another, shadow version of Jorja Chalmers, one that resides in a liminal realm; a saxophonist and composer, a brooding, vampiric, twilight soul who yearns for some sense of aesthetic transformation.
New album ‘Midnight Train’ comes close to severing the two. Constructed during the long winter lockdown, Jorja would put her kids to bed before closing the door in the spare room, building lengthy, undulating passages of cinematic terror, patching together European art-pop glamour with outsider electronics. It’s composed, intense, and challenging – but it’s also utterly exhilarating.
It’s not been a straight-forward path. Burned out following years of classical studies in her native Sydney, Jorja travelled half-way round the world looking for an escape. Settling for some ad hoc office jobs in London, she started kicking around in bands, playing saxophone for a friend’s new wave project. Someone from Bryan Ferry’s team spotted her at some flea-bit bar, and was infatuated – soon Jorja started touring the world with Roxy Music.
Jorja’s 2019 debut album ‘Human Again’ was sketched in hotel rooms across Europe and North America, ideas punched out on down-time between shows. This time round, however, things are a bit more defined. “A lot of those songs were one take jams, it was improvised. This is more refined,” Jorja insists. “It’s a natural progression, this second album. It feels more mature in that way.”
Mixed by Dean Hurley, David Lynch’s music engineer, ‘Midnight Train’ is a treasure trove of ideas. Indeed, it could well be the album Jorja had waited her entire life to make – aspects of minimalism sparked by a teenager who spent countless hours memorising Michael Nyman’s seminal film score for The Piano, set against cinematic electronics and swathes of huge, enveloping, classical dynamics.
“I want it to sound immersive, like it’s wrapping you in a blanket,” she says. Indeed, she cites Rachmaninoff’s epic work The Rock as a key touchstone on the new record. “It’s something that my parents used to blast out of their stereo when I was a kid. I heard it a million times. It’s strange to be hearing a song that is so dramatic when you’re that young. It’s a beautiful piece. It’s one of those things that leaves an imprint on you.”
At times, ‘Midnight Train’ gets very dark indeed. ‘Rabbit In The Headlights’ is a squirming piece of jet-black avant-pop, while ‘Boadicea’ is draped in the blood of the ancient British warrior queen. ‘The Wolves Of The Orangery’ was sculpted after a Roxy Music show in the Palace of Versailles, and it’s haunted by the oppression meted out to the servants, and the bloody revenge exhibited on the French regal classes. There’s light in those murky depths, however; take her brooding version of The Doors’ classic ‘Riders On The Storm’ – a blood-thirsty slice of dystopian electronics, it doubles as a salute to her father, who built himself colossal speakers to both entertain his daughter and terrify his neighbours.
A finessed, contoured vision of Jorja Chalmers’ undaunted creativity, ‘Midnight Train’ bristles with ideas. Breathy saxophone undulates on ‘Nightingale’, her homage to Yellow Magic Orchestra founder Haroumi Hosono, while mournful closer ‘Underwater Blood’ echoes the intensity of Goblin’s work on the Suspiria score, or even John Carpenter’s cinematic endeavours. “I grew up watching lots of movies. I was obsessed with the Terminator soundtrack. I remember hearing that for the first time, and just knowing my tastes were going to be changed forever.”
‘Midnight Train’ feels concise, sharpened, ready to pounce. Cannibalising her influences, Jorja Chalmers has been able to pursue her creative appetites to their most extreme. Yet even at its most challenging, her bold new album revels in the sheer joy of creation. “Making this album was really freeing,” she explains. “I loved writing this album. I always write in the same way, but I think that lockdown provided me with lesser distractions. Writing is such a personal thing for me – being in your little cave, and creating. That’s the beautiful moment for me.”
A solitary creation, a lockdown triumph, ‘Midnight Train’ is the moment Jorja Chalmers truly achieves transcendence.
Midnight Train track list: 1. Bring Me Down 2. I’ll Be Waiting 3. Rabbit In The Headlights 4. Boadicea 5. Love Me Tonight 6. Nightingale 7. Riders On The Storm 8. Rhapsody 9. The Poet 10. The Wolves Of The Orangery 11. On Such A Clear Day 12. Midnight Train 13. Underwater Blood
Do you need to chill out? Are you looking for music for meditation, yoga, sleeping, or romance? Does your reality need a shift? Then give Cicada Wavesby Ben Seretan a spin.
The idea behind Cicada Waves is beautifully simple: Hit record, play some piano in an Appalachian Mountains dance studio, and record whatever happens with no second takes, edits, or polishes. It captures moments in time in Seretan’s life and gives them to us to experience. Ambient piano criss-crosses with sounds of rainfall, thunder, wind, cats, birds, and the titular cicadas. It was recorded in isolation yet sounds expansive. It is hypnotic yet enthralling.
“Cicada Waves 1” has the critters’ buzzing as soft drone undertone while Seretan muses away on his antique Steinway without hurry. “3pm Rainstorm” is perfect for slowing down the rush of whatever is overwhelming you. “Cicada Waves 2” seems a little melancholy compared to “Cicada Waves 1,” but it’s no less lovely. The cicadas blend into more white noise on “Rain and Cicadas” while Seretan’s piano backs them.
I meditated through most of “11pm Sudden Thunderstorm” and can tell you it was a nice experience. Seretan’s piano riffs off the rain and thunder quite well. His piano work on “8pm Crickets” is a bit more playful and active, surely inspired by the insect chorus outside the studio. “Fog Rolls out Rabun Gap” moves as easily out of your speakers or earbuds as its namesake.
It’s a lovely record that you’ll want for many moods, travels, and situations. I wouldn’t listen to it while driving, however. It might lull you into a dreamland across the centerline or into a ditch. Play it at the rest stop while you take a power nap during a long trip. Open the window while you play it and you won’t be sure where the album ends and nature begins.
Keep your mind open.
[Drift over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
Japanese quartet CHAI present a new single/video, “PING PONG!,” from their forthcoming album, WINK, out May 21st on Sub Pop. The track is a laser beam ode to a social activity that CHAI love but cannot currently partake in. In Japan, CHAI would often play ping pong after visits to the public hot springs, called onsen. “PING PONG!” also features YMCK, who brought a gaming feel to the production, which CHAI wanted to match.“
CHAI elaborate: “We’re channeling our inner playful selves, challenging ourselves to fun, and bringing you that nostalgic-feel with this song! There’s just something about old video games that’s super cute, a little tacky, yet at the same time fancy. Something that you think is “old-school” but at the same time super refreshing. YMCK collaborated with us on this and created the ultimate 8bit World of CHAI!”
“The theme for PING PONG is exactly as is, ‘ping pong.’ In Japanese culture, there’s this routine where Hot Springs or ‘onsen’ and playing PING PONG go hand in hand. When the four of us hit the hot springs, we always wear a Yukata (unlined Summer kimono), drink a cup of milk, and go right into some PING PONG! It’s very Japanese, something we don’t think exists overseas and that’s exactly what we want to share! You can hear it in the lyrics and you can feel it in the music video!”
YMCK adds: “It was our first time creating something from start to finish remotely but everything turned out amazing with each member’s character shining through! Don’t miss this ever-so free and forever dancing world of CHAI! “ WATCH CHAI’S VIDEO FOR “PING PONG!”
CHAI is MANA (lead vocals and keys) and KANA (guitar), drummer YUNA, and bassist-lyricist YUUKI. Following the release of 2019’s PUNK, CHAI’s adventures took them around the world, playing their high-energy and buoyant shows. They took quarantine as an opportunity to shake up their process and bring their music somewhere thrillingly new. Rather than having maximalist recordings like in the past, CHAI instead focused on crafting the slightly-subtler and more introspective kinds of songs they enjoy listening to at home—where, for the first time, they recorded all of the music. WINK is also the first CHAI album to feature contributions from outside producers (Mndsgn, YMCK) as well as Ric Wilson. They draw R&B and hip-hop into their mix (Mac Miller, the Internet, and Brockhampton were on their minds) of dance-punk and pop-rock, all while remaining undeniably CHAI. WATCH THE “NOBODY KNOWS WE’RE FUN” VIDEO
Earlier this year Oakland-based duo Brijean released Feelings, “an album that’s as soothing as it is grand” (Bandcamp). Today, Brijean announces the Feelings Remixes EP coming out August 13th on Ghostly International, and presents the “Moody (Buscabulla Remix).” In addition to the Buscabella remix, the EP extends the relaxed reverie of Feelings with contributions from Sam Gendel, DRAMA, and Rick Wade. Brijean Murphy and Doug Stuart’s deep roots in jazz, pop, electronic and Latin spheres inform the music they make as Brijean, and these influences are reflected in the diverse group of remixers they tapped for this project.
Puerto Rican synth-pop duo Buscabulla accentuate the percussive downtempo flair of “Moody.” Keeping Murphy’s stream-of-consciousness lyrics at the forefront, the polyrhythmic percussion is sparing and, well, moody. Sprinkles of subtle yelps, harp flutters, gauzy synths, and sinuous synth grooves give this rework a unique neo-tropicalia vibe. Murphy elaborates, “I first heard of Buscabulla from a club poster at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn. I was playing at that venue with a band I was touring with around the same time and fell in love with their music. They play with time signatures, levels and expression in an enveloping and inspiring way. They are insanely talented artists and I’m so so stoked to have their lush, experimental and moving touch on our song ‘Moody.’“
Buscabella adds, “We had plans to meet Brijean the next time we swung by San Francisco on tour before the pandemic hit. We love their vibe and doing this remix is as close as we can get to jamming together in the same place. We aimed to deconstruct the original and to explore the point where our separate influences converge. Fusing together the futuristic synthesized drums and bass with organic syncopated Caribbean percussion. Here’s to a jam in real life.”
Buscabilla photo by Quique Cabanillas
Rhythm is the driving force of Feelings; each featured remix plays with that force, adding, subtracting, and altering percussive elements to build a range of sonic environments — true to Brijean’s mission of encouraging uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. Stream “Moody (Buscabulla Remix)”
Following their recent JUNO Award nomination for Alternative Album of the Year, Dizzy are excited to release their new single “Sunflower, Are You There?” featuring Kevin Garrett. The new track is the second offering from a forthcoming collaborations EP titled Separate Places. The EP will be released by Royal Mountain Records and Communion Records on 11th June, and features recent single “The Bird Behind The Drapes” featuring Luna Li.
LISTEN: to Dizzy’s “Sunflower, Are You There?” feat. Kevin Garrett on YouTube
The Separate Places EP sees the Oshawa four-piece reimagine some of the standout tracks from their second album, 2020’s The Sun and Her Scorch. Each track features a different guest artist: “Sunflower, Are You There?” is a reworking of the album’s lead single “Sunflower”, now featuring Grammy-nominated musician Kevin Garrett, known for his work on Beyoncé’s Lemonade.
On the collaboration, vocalist Katie Munshaw explains, “We opened up for Kevin back before we had released any music as a band. I remember looking up to him as someone our age touring, writing perfect songs and just doing the damn thing so well. Having his seal of approval on “Sunflower”, a song about self-doubt, felt very full circle.“
Upon its release, The Sun and Her Scorch album was praised for its “lyricism paired with their dreamy indie-pop sound” (MTV) and its candid exploration of the messiest, most raw emotions young people experience in the modern age. “I wanted to be completely honest about the things nobody ever wants to admit, like being jealous of your friends or pushing away the people who love you,” frontwoman Katie Munshaw says. “So instead of being about romantic heartbreak, it’s really about self-heartbreak.” The Sun and Her Scorch has been nominated for Best Alternative Album at the Juno Awards, a feat previously achieved by the likes of Arcade Fire – and Dizzy themselves, for their 2018 debut Baby Teeth.
Unable to tour the record due to the pandemic, Dizzy returned to the studio, bubbling with a fervent creative energy and drive to make the most of a bad situation. “The Separate Places EP has allowed songs from The Sun and Her Scorch to go on tour without us,” Katie explains. “Following some of our favourite artists around the globe from Birmingham, London, New York and back to Toronto, each song has been reimagined. “Primrose Hill’” is now fiery and tough. “The Magician” and “Ten” returned to a state of naive, solemn bliss. “Beatrice” gains solace with felt piano and harmony and “Sunflower” sounds like something out of a Super Mario Brothers video game. It’s kind of a ride.”
Each track draws inspiration from Dizzy’s chosen collaborators, breathing new life into an already stellar collection of music, enriched by the excitement of artistic synergy in a time when collaboration hasn’t always seemed possible. It’s a celebration of the new ways we have found to be together, even though we’re all in separate places.
The Separate Places EP will be released on 11th June on Royal Mountain Records and Communion Records, including the below tracks. The featured artist for each track will be announced by Dizzy in the build up to EP release. You can pre-save it here.
Just in time to snap you out of your COVID-19 blues, Alberto Melloni‘s two-track EP, Red Siren, brings you plenty of dance beats and synth-bumps to get you moving out of the house, down the street, and to a club or house party (finally!) in order to celebrate your survival and you and your friends being properly vaccinated.
Side A is the title track, and it brings together jungle drums with cyborg synths, chopped-up Middle Eastern chants, and a bass line so subtle it pretty much seduces you before you realize it’s happening.
Side B is “Santa Serenada” – a track that somehow sounds more futuristic than the other with its “underground disco of the future” vibe that brings to mind humans and replicants dancing alongside each other and sipping drinks that glow in the dark. Chants are again used to nice effect, and that bubbling synth-bass is boiling hot.
The whole EP is hot, really. You can’t miss with this one. Mr. Melloni sure didn’t. He hit a home run with it.
