Mdou Moctar returns to once again shred on guitar, spread the love and joy of Tuareg music, and spread the word of struggles in his Algerian homeland on Afrique Victime.
Opening track “Chismiten” bursts with so much energy that any sound system, no matter how hi-fi, can barely contain it. Moctar’s guitar swirls around you like a dust devil that eventually grows strong enough to lift you off the ground. He adds a cool echo effect to his guitar on “Taliat,” and the group vocals are immediately uplifting.
“Ya Habibti” backs the mantra-like vocals with hand claps and hand percussion while Moctar plays slightly amped acoustic / electric chords. “Tala Tannam” is downright dreamy. “Asditke Akal” is a stunner with its psychedelic riffs reaching to the heavens. Moctar and his band then switch it up on “Layla,” which (thankfully) isn’t a cover of the vastly overrated Clapton tune, but rather an acoustic, hypnotic song you might hear around a desert fire.
The title track is a powerful one about the plight of women in Algeria (as noted by the album’s cover depicting a crying woman), with some of Moctar’s most soaring guitar work that stretches its mighty wings for over seven minutes. The closing track, “Bismilahi Atagah” is beautiful in its simplicity as Moctar and his bandmates sing what sounds like a song of praise for blessings received and ones to come.
This might be Moctar’s best album yet, and that’s saying something when you consider the first two were excellent in their own right.
Anika has openly discussed how much she loves the dance floor as well as the dark corners of a night club, so putting out a remix album of her killer 2021 record, Change, was a no-brainer for her.
The “Planningtorock remix” of “Planningtochange” drops the pitch of her vocals and ups the beats to create a track that’s perfect for dancing in a dark basement full of sexy, sweaty people. Dave Clark‘s remix of “Never Coming Back” is somehow darker than the original. Lauren Flax‘s remix of “Critical” becomes slightly hardcore make-out music. Maral at the Controls‘ dux mix of “Finger Pies” is outstanding, mixing dub with industrial like a sexy glitch-bot.
PDBY‘s remix of “Freedom” strips the song down to a haunted house drone, like something you’d hear in a dimly lit ballroom with peeling wallpaper and warped floorboards. Lauren Flax comes back for a remix of “Change,” and it’s the closest one to a straight-up house music banger on the whole EP.
Don’t miss this is you’re a fan of Anika. It’s an interesting look at her different influences and how she’s influenced (and influencing) others.
Named after a studio space they built in Tamanrasset, Algeria, Imarhan‘s new album, Aboogi, instantly transports you to a different world where everything slows down, the tea is delicious, and you spend nights listening to music and dancing around a fire now and then.
Opener “Achinkad” sets this tone right away with its simple guitar chords, hand percussion and claps, and meditative vocals. “Derhan” builds on this theme of communal bliss. “Temet” (not to be confused with their 2018 album of the same name) is a haunting warm wind as the sun comes up on a desert cooled overnight. “Tindjatan” is a tale of a great battle in which many Tuaregs were killed. “Asof” is nothing but vocals, simple hand percussion, and guitar chords that drift into windswept dunes, and it’s lovely.
“Assossam” spins a tale of economic disparity in southern Algeria, all the while keeping some optimism with its beats and lively guitar work. The lyrics of “Taghadart” are ones of grief, but hope within that grief (i.e., “Please safeguard my trust from now until the end of time.”). “Laouni” is like a lazy stroll along the crest of a desert hill. It flows so well into “Imaslan N’Assouf” that it’s almost hypnotizing. I don’t have a translation of the lyrics for “Tamiditin,” but the guitar and vocal delivery on it makes it sound like Tuareg blues. The album ends with “Adar Newlan,” a song about the increase in youth imprisonment rates in the band’s native land and how these sentences affect families and communities.
Aboogi is a powerful record in its peaceful delivery. Imarhan have every right to rage and shred, but they decide to deliver prayers and meditations instead.
My taste in folk music, not unlike doom metal, is hit or miss. There has to be a certain combination of elements for me to enjoy an album in either genre. I’m not sure if I could tell you what all those elements are, but I can tell you that one of the most crucial is that the artist or band, while being good at their craft, doesn’t try too hard. They don’t force anything.
Jake Xerxes Fussell is such an artist. His guitar playing and vocals are simple, haunting, and the work of an expert craftsman – and none of it is forced. None of it is for show. It simply is, and his new album Good and Green Againcontinues his string of top-notch folk music that instantly transports you to different times and places that resonate with lessons needed in modern time.
“Love Farewell” is the sound of the sun rising or setting, depending on your mood when you hear it. It can be a song of moving forward after the loss of love or realizing a love is ending. “Carriebelle” adds solemn horns to a solemn song about the perils of booze and heartbreak. The horns continue their lonely cries on “Breast of Glass,” in which Fussell sings about wishing how he could keep a memory inside him forever – all the while knowing his hold on it would be fragile.
“Frolic,” “What Did the Hen Duck Say to the Drake?”, and “In Florida” are three lovely instrumentals on the album, something I hadn’t heard from Fussell before this record, and they’re all great additions. Fussell is great at writing, playing, and singing songs about the plight of the working class (or finding obscure songs about the subject and reinterpreting them in a new way), and “Rolling Mills Are Burning Down” is one such track. He sings about workers watching their jobs being reduced to ashes, knowing their way of life and means of earning bread are gone.
“The Golden Willow Tree” is a nine-minute-long tale of a scuttled ship, betrayal, and the loss of wealth and glory. The album ends with “Washington,” Fussell’s tribute / satirical salute to the first President of the U.S. and the way we, as Americans, tend to deify the Founding Fathers.
It’s another lovely record from Fussell with strength in its subtlety.
Kevin Marksson, otherwise known as Endearments, makes spacey dream pop seem easy, even though at least two of the songs on his Father of Wands EP are about heartbreak.
I mean, opener “Ocean” starts with the lyrics, “You could make me nothing. You could be the ocean. I’m inside you drowning.” Meanwhile Marksson’s synth and guitars are as bright as the high noon sun bouncing off the surface of Caribbean beach waters.
“How could we love each other endlessly?” He asks on “Empress,” a song in which he speaks of knowing a lover could treat him well if only she would stop focusing on just herself. The song bursts with optimism, though. Marksson’s instrumentation is too bright to ignore and too lovely to deny.
That being said, “Hymnal” has Marksson singing about how he can’t understand his girl’s thinking and how she can’t understand how he’s lost without her (“I don’t think you understand where I go when I’m not here with you.”). The closing track, “Delicate,” has Marksson resigned to the fact that things might not work out after all and he just needs to accept that (“I thought I was yours, but I could never be enough for you like this.”).
Still, the EP has that optimism I mentioned earlier. Marksson lets us know that love can be rough, but there is always some hope that, if we can’t find love, it might find us.
Hailing from Manchester and not Indiana, Mandy, Indiana, formerly known as Gary Indiana, make post-punk that bends and warps the genre on their …EP. As guitarist Scott Fair put it, “We’ve scrapped anything that sounded too normal.”
Opening track “Bottle Episode” starts off with Liam Stewart‘s snare drum rolls that sound like a swarm of angry bees attacking a hulking robot and then it switches to thumping synth bass and horror movie sounds, all with Valentine Caulfield singing in her native French. The percussion on “Nike of Samothrace” sounds like a drunk guy stumbling down a flight of stairs – and I mean that in the best possible sense – while Fair’s guitar and synths remind one of revving, and possibly failing, jet engines. I don’t know if “Alien 3” is inspired by the movie of the same name, but I do know that it’s over six minutes of industrial techno that slays as hard as a Xenomorph.
The EP comes with a remix of “Alien 3” by Daniel Avery that somehow makes the track heavier and, dare I say it, sexier, and the “Club Eat” remix of “Nike of Samothrace” – which ups the speed and would be perfect for a fight scene in whatever Matrix film comes next.
Let’s hope Mandy, Indiana puts out a full LP soon, because this EP will leave you craving more of their work.
Taking from ten years of his catalogue, ANTH01 brings together many of Jacques Greene‘s best tracks, killer dance cuts, and hypnotic grooves.
“I Won’t” is the answer to “Are you just going to sit in that dark corner of this dance club all night?” Greene’s snappy beats are all you need to get moving. “(Baby I Don’t Know) What You Want” literally gets off to a shaking start before this electro-bass saunters into the room and curls around you like a playful cat. “The Look” is similarly playful, with Greene mixing blips and bleeps with sexy house music vocals about feeling a connection – something we were all wishing for in the last two years.
The warped, yet still sexy lyric of “Tell me what you like.” starts off “Tell Me,” pulling you into a lush trip. “These Days” bursts like an opening flower and then descends on you like disco ball lights. “Arrow” has a beat like a ticking clock or a dripping faucet that turns into a warm rain shower – followed by sick, thick bass hits. The opening, echoed vocal sounds of “Ready” made my dog lift her head and look around the living room when she heard them. The rest of the song made me dance and bounce on my desk stool.
“Faded” brings in soul lyrics to mix with slick house beats, and “Faithful” continues the soul-house vibe with gospel-tinged vocals mixed with synths that sound like robotic eagles calling from above. “On Your Side” is an emotional plea to a potential lover for some kind of recognition and invitation. “Quicksand” mixes house with synthwave, and the closer, “Another Girl,” is lush house under lyrics about heartbreak and longing.
ANTH01 is a great collection of Greene’s work so far. He’s always experimenting with multiple electronic genres and this collection shows the scope of his talent.
Keep your mind open.
[Fade on over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
When I type “afrobeat” into my post here, my computer’s autocorrect feature changes it to “acrobat.” It makes a bit of sense, actually, because Ibibio Sound Machine combining Nigerian afrobeat with house music so well that they are like acrobats moving all around you with astounding skill on their 2019 album Doko Mien.
Opening track “I Need You to Be Sweet Like Sugar (Nnge Nte Suka)” sounds like a Curtis Mayfield track mixed with 64-bit video game blips. Eno Williams‘ soulful, powerful vocals grab you by the ears and don’t let go and Derrick McIntyre‘s bass roots down the whole thing. You think that’s funky? Wait until you hear “Wanna Come Down,” a track that mixes Max Grunhard‘s synths with his saxophone and Tony Hayden‘s trombone and Scott Baylis‘ trumpet so well that you’re not sure where one of the them ends and the other begins.
The title track (also known as “Tell Me”) could be an LCD Soundsystem cut if LCDSS were even funkier. “I Know That You’re Thinking About Me” brings in more soul smoothness to seduce you. “I Will Run” is a synthwave love song that makes you want to make out on the dance floor. “Just Go Forward (Ka I So)” is a call to action (“Just go forward, don’t look back!”) that everyone needs to hear – and follow.
“She Work Very Hard” has some of Alfred “Kari” Bannerman‘s most interesting guitar work on the record, sounding at times like he’s in a funk band, other times in a krautrock band, and other times like he’s in a shoegaze band. “Nyak Mien” is pure afrobeat joy. “Kuka” is even a bit psychedelic.
“Guess We Found a Way” is a trippy slow jam that, if you play it in the presence of a potential lover, you had better be prepared for something to happen. The album ends with “Basquiat” – a fittingly funky tribute to the funky artist who left us far too soon.
A Place to Bury Strangers has a new rhythm section (the husband and wife team of John and Sandra Fedowitz on bass and drums, respectively) and with it Oliver Ackermann‘s most personal album to date – See Through You. The album is full of nods towards the band’s past sounds, continuing explorations of familiar themes (i.e., the insidious way technology continues to separate us), and movements to the future and new ways of pushing the sonic envelope.
The references to Ackermann’s past bandmates are inescapable, and he’s made it no secret that the lineup change, the pandemic, and the world lockdown changed his perspective on pretty much everything. The album’s opener (with its cool, robotic bass lick from John Fedowitz), “Nice of You to Be There for Me,” might be a sarcastic jab or it might be a genuine acknowledgment. It’s up to us to decide, as much of APTBS’ music is always open to multiple interpretations. Ackermann’s guitar work on it is somehow disjointed and jazzy at the same time.
“I’m Hurt,” however, pretty much tells you how Ackermann’s feeling. Sandra Fedowitz’s beats in it are pure industrial, perfectly backing up the dark, heavy feel of Ackermann’s mind. The song belongs in a modern giallo film. “Let’s See Each Other” might be the friskiest song Ackermann’s ever written. “Open your heart to me. Explore the fantasy, we’ve got the chance to be together. Let’s meet up late tonight, indulge in pure delight…” I mean…come on! Then again, knowing Ackermann, the song is probably about online fantasies and how they never pan out to be what you think they will.
“I never thought you’d get so low,” Ackermann sings on the fuzzy “So Low.” One interesting thing about See Through You is how the album has some of Ackermann’s clearest vocals yet it doesn’t slouch on the raw, loud power of APTBS’ catalogue. “So Low” is a good example of this. You can make out pretty much every word, but it’s still as loud as a saw mill. Just to surprise you, however, “Dragged in a Hole” is almost the opposite on the vocals, as they’re almost melded with the monster growls of Ackermann’s guitar and John Fedowitz’s bass.
“There’s no way to make it right. It wasn’t even done on purpose. You should know it’s not your fault, and I know no one deserves this.” Those are the opening lyrics of “Ringing Bells,” a track in which Ackermann apologizes to someone (Past bandmates? A former lover? Deceased relatives?) and Sandra Fedowitz goes completely nuts on her drum kit, being the yang rage to Ackermann’s yin grief. “I Disappear (When You’re Near)” has a cool, warped darkwave vibe to it that makes it a standout.
“Anyone but You” is surprisingly peppy with happy dance rhythms provided by Mr. and Mrs. Fedowitz. I can’t help but wonder if “My Head Is Bleeding” is a sort of sequel to “To Fix the Gash in Your Head,” one of APTBS‘ earliest tracks. “My back’s against the wall,” Ackermann sings on “Broken” – a track with frenetic energy to reflect his state of mind. John Fedowitz cranks up his bass on “Hold on Tight,” which you need to do throughout the entire track because it might knock you flat.
Synths and guitars meld well together on “I Don’t Know How You Do It,” almost to the point where you’re not sure where one ends and the other begins. It’s a strong shoegaze track, and a tip of the hat to The Jesus and Mary Chain with its sound. This sound continues on the uplifting closer, “Love Reaches Out,” with Ackermann singing, “I’ll always have the warmest thoughts of you.”
See Through You is one of APTBS’ most interesting releases as of late, even improving on the HologramEP released not long ago that started exploring these themes of loss and hope. Ackermann is always exploring and innovating, and this record sets his bar even higher for the next.
Fully embracing their love of John Carpenter film scores, and horror movies in general, Boy Harsher‘s newest record is actually the score to an original short horror film written, produced, and directed by them – The Runner.
The album’s first notes on “Tower” immediately set the dark, creepy tone and both unsettle and intrigue you. You don’t know where this is going, but you’re willing to risk the danger to find out where it leads. “Give Me a Reason” brings in a sexy vibe, with smoky vocals by Jae Matthews that have an underlying menace to them. She could very well be singing, “Give me a reason to love you.” or “Give me a reason to kill you.” at any moment.
“Autonomy” is a peppy new wave bright spot on the record, with guest vocals from Cooper B. Handy. “The Ride Home” switches back to giallo film dread and terror as it slithers around the room like some sort of killer dressed in a black trench coat and holding a gleaming straight razor. “Escape” is trippy synthwave made for a nightclub that took over an abandoned arcade.
“Machina” is another sexy number, this one with guest vocals from MS. BOAN, reminiscent of early Human League tracks. An untitled piano / synth track follows, and its lovely and unnerving at the same time. The album closes with “I Understand” – a brief, dritting track that fades away like a last breath.
So, yeah, it’s all perfect for a horror film soundtrack.
