Sondre Lerche - Turning Up The Heat Again EP (2026)

 

 

After the writing, recording, production and eventual release of Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche's tenth full length album Avatars of Love, I don't think anyone including Lerche saw the career pivot that would follow. While Lerche often described himself as a crooner (on albums Pleasure and Patience most resolutely), his casting as Christian in the Norwegian production of Moulin Rouge! solidified that. It also ate up a lot of the time Lerche would normally reserve for writing and recording music and while we've gotten a slew of releases since 2022's Avatars of Love, they were most focused on exploring different facets of Lerche's interests. Sea of Sighs exploring the inherently music focused facet of Lerche as an ambient meditation on melodies and ideas past and Avatars of the Night revisiting Avatars of Love from varying perspectives: demo versions, reworks, remixes. Despite frequently posting studio updates and his yearly non-denominational year-end cover, Lerche hadn't really released a batch of all new original music since and these year he acknowledge that and decided to give listeners something to bide the time. Turning Up The Heat Again is a collection of three songs from a potential album Lerche's been too busy but hopes to eventually complete.

 

With songs named "After the Coup" and "Diplomacy", it's not hard to instinctually expect a political statement. Lerche admits himself that while he's never considered himself a political songwriter per se, the very nature of existing in modern times has seeped into his thoughts and feelings and color his lyricism. But also with jazz and tropicalia such prevalent parts of Lerche's musical DNA, it might've just been a matter of time. "After the Coup", the lead track, with its lilting melodies and Lerche's soft croon belies its role as rather tense call out of the "thoughts and prayers" crowd. Lerche starts hot: "There was a robber at the altar, no sign of mercy, sleight of hand or intervention, is it the fault of the assaulter or just the thoughts and prayers from everyone who just looked on". Lerche has always let the lyrics do much of the work in his songs and "After the Coup" is full of these lyrically fraught moments that Lerche delivers with incredibly relaxed aplomb. A young Lerche probably would've met the scathing lyricism with an equally intense energy but the juxtaposition of both Lerche's ease of delivery and initial sparseness of his accompaniment, highlights Lerche's critique of what it really means to practice what you preach. 

"Turning Up The Heat Again" is a somewhat more standard Lerche song in that it's unabashedly a love song. And while it plays like a traditional love song where Lerche sings of being hard at work in the kitchen, as the song progresses it becomes abundantly clear "Turning Up The Heat Again" is a song about the art of songwriting. It's both a labor of love and Lerche's chosen profession. 

Similarly, "Diplomacy" focuses on the lack of tangible solutions to fixable problems. Where "After the Coup" chides, "Diplomacy" throws up its hands. Also beginning with an excellent opening line: "Once you have broken almost everything, you say you'll start repairing broken things" Lerche's delivery is equally as cool as "After the Coup" as the lyrics get more biting. "After the Coup" on the surface seeks to understand, "Diplomacy" makes no such claims. Lerche frequently repeats the lyric "You never did make any sense to me" and throughout the song transitions from "All I have to offer is diplomacy" to "Just as I gave up on diplomacy, you couldn't make it make sense to me". The song is both tongue in cheek as Lerche's "attempts" to find common ground just make expressively clear his distaste and disillusion, as well as delightfully severe: the diplomacy in question just a blatant underscoring of negative qualities. "Diplomacy" also serves up a moment of jubilance (in this case defiantly so) reminiscent of "If Only" from Lerche's self titled. There's string flourishes, dynamic swells, a bass breakdown. It's downright celebratory and provides an absolute winning contrast to not only its lyrics but to the other songs on the EP. 

 

It might not be in the style of Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie but there's no denying Turning Up The Heat Again as a collection of protest songs. They just happen to be in Lerche's style. A style that's as ever changing as it is familiar. They're catchy, they're potent, and feature a boldness both in Lerche's lyricism as well as in his composition that I hope continues as he slowly shapes whatever musical direction these new songs will take. Until then, Turning Up The Heat Again is an excellent placeholder that both meets the moment while also giving hope for the future. 

 

Sondre Lerche's Turning Up The Heat Again EP is out now. You can listen/download here.

 

  

PRO TEENS - Dentistry (2022)

 

In August 2020, Arizona rockers PRO TEENS called it quits. In their break-up announcement the band stressed the split was amicable but that they felt the band had run its course and while they had planned to release one more record, ultimately there would be no more new music. And then November of last year, the band uploaded an album pretty much without ceremony or explanation. "WE MADE AN ALBUM FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE AND IT'S THE BEST ONE YET" the band announced.

Dentistry, the band's posthumous release, might unsurprisingly be the best PRO TEENS album. One of the qualities that appealed to me most about PRO TEENS was their ability to exist in contrast. A sound that is equal parts retro and charmingly current, laid back and filled with blustering agita, Dentistry is a calmer follow up to their previously released Twos. Beginning with the aptly titled "(To The Tune Of An Electric) Toothbrush", which builds off the buzzing of an electric toothbrush before metamorphosing into a jangly pop rock jaunt, Dentistry is a veritable masterclass in guitar tone. Both front-person Andy Phipps' vocals and the band's guitars are incredibly versatile - offering a very dynamic sound that's an obvious peak for the band. Songs like "Mavs in 6" effortlessly switch to whole new sections without skipping a beat.

Album standout "Ode To Curse" shifts between lilting chamber pop and a barrelling rock scorcher. Dentistry feels the most narratively dense of all of PRO TEENS' oeuvre and "Ode To Curse" feels like a definitive songwriting flex for Phipps. Similarity to "Do Right Bayou" Phipps has an ability to sing about seemingly abstract concepts that suddenly coalesce into these moments of being known or yearning to be. "Overwrought with final thoughts, it's hard, sometimes we just need to fall apart but I can't help holding on" Phipps sings ahead of one of the track's big tempo shifts, plodding drums, glancing guitar strums, and an earthy bass clarinet underscore the moment. "Ode To Curse" is filled with these absolute gems of songwriting and composition eventually becoming an high speed locomotive as Phipps croons the song title over and over until everything comes to an exasperated fever pitch.

"Do Right Bayou" meanwhile is a slow burner, as Phipps realizes some wants and desires have no real grasp in reality. In a lot of ways Dentistry wrestles with twenty-something ennui but also realizes the role community/or anything external can have in defining the self. "Well I get caught up in what could've been, I'll spend a whole lifetime absolving sin, there's so many choices, what do you choose, if I could do one right I'd do right by you" Phipps concludes. In a song where Phipps ponders all the ways big and small that they could be different, in which their dreams align with actual reality, the main takeaway is that all that is ultimately needed is someone else.

A fan of PRO TEENS since fellow Arizona band AlhhlA recommended them to me around the release of their album Philistines, I am glad not only that PRO TEENS get to put a tidy bow on their time together but also that their final effort is such a perfect encapsulation of what makes them so worthwhile. If Dentistry truly is their final album, it sees PRO TEENS going out on an absolute high. Even more special because it's a record that wasn't supposed to even happen. Even if you've never heard PRO TEENS before, Dentistry is more than a nostalgia trip, it's a brilliant album in its own right.

Landlady - Landlady (2021)

 

When I was introduced to Brooklyn's Landlady during a Hometapes showcase at SXSW back in 2014, there was certainly a lot that would appeal to me - a stage full of members including two drummers, a style of music that deftly evades categorization but feels strikingly familiar but if I'm being completely honest the thing that sold me was the sincerity of frontman Adam Schatz. In a crowded bar in Austin, Texas during a festival where each band's goal is make the most of the brief amount of time allotted to make a lasting first impression on showgoers with tenuous attention spans, Schatz asked the crowd to engage. Not just with him but each other, with people who weren't in the room whether miles, ages, or lifetimes away in a sing-a-long on "Above My Ground". It was bold. It was unexpected. But most importantly, it was incredibly sincere. It was the kind of thing that made me immediately take notice and pursue every opportunity I could to see them again and again from small intimate sets in the back of Greenpoint's now defunct Manhattan Inn and Half Moon in Hudson, it was Schatz's initial openness that led me to discover through obsessive listens that Landlady were a damn good band. Over the years and through the albums, the lineup has changed but a few things have remained the same - the band is tight-knit and perform with an awing juxtaposition of playfulness and precision, Schatz's narrative subjects take the road less traveled but still achieve a beguiling universality, and Schatz is still disarmingly sincere. Even following their career for years, Schatz still manages to surprise with an ability root his songs in an inextinguishable honesty. "Why did my friend have to die?" Schatz asks on "Supernova", the first single for their fourth and self-titled album, and with such a succinct statement I knew the new record would be unlike any other. 

With lyrics that hit you like a mack truck, "Supernova" still plays into Schatz's sense of connection. Personal loss and failures coalesce with a collective understanding: "At least I know everyone's having a harder day today". It's a statement he first delivers fully and clearly with it's resurgence broken up - into four part vocals harmonies, adlibs "At least I know I'm not okay", Schatz sings, and instrumental flourishes, Schatz lands on a feeling of interconnectedness despite his individual sadness. The fact that it's followed by "Sunshine" is a masterful display of tracklisting. "Hold your breath, hold mine instead for now" Schatz opens and despite the fact that he's played it live several times, it takes on new life here. It's almost uncharacteristically sparse - featuring Schatz on keys for much of it. It's tender, as close as Landlady could arguably come to a ballad as Schatz makes a declaration of mutual support - take care of me and I'll take care of you. It's a love song but one with much broader applications than typical romance. Along with "The Meteor", "Take The Hint", and "Supernova", "Sunshine" follows themes of the heat burning up or burning out, "Sunshine" is the only one which doesn't treat it as an inevitability. "Careful with the sunshine, I won't let it burn you up" Schatz delivers less like a warning and more an expression of care and protection. 

Songs like "Sunshine" and "Nowhere To Hide", which have been played live by the band or Schatz at his solo sets for years find new life and meaning on an album that seems exceptionally timely. The core of Landlady's truths are about resilience and drawing comfort in little insular moments. Whether that be loudly singing along to "God Only Knows" on "Molly Pitcher", a game of Hearts on "Tooth and Nail", Landlady is about turning to each other in good times and bad and they tackle the subject with characteristic aplomb. Schatz doesn't claim to have all the answers as "Nowhere To Hide" attests but Landlady seems to posit that many of life's solutions lie in caring about others.

The most appealing thing about Landlady is that instead of songs on an album - it functions largely as a series of conversations both between narrative subjects and the songs themselves. There's references and callbacks - reoccurring themes and images but also solitary moments, self-contained episodes. Landlady coalesced into the version of the band they wanted to be on their second album Upright Behavior and yet each subsequent effort has expanded what the band is in a way that's been enjoyable to experience. A self-titled album tends to function as a reintroduction, signaling some sort of seismic shift in sound or mythology but Landlady doesn't need anything of the sort. There's no band that sounds like Landlady and each album has solidified that. There's a distinct sound that carries through without retracing its steps. Landlady is a band that makes music that's meant to entertain and challenge themselves and then invites listeners into that space and the result are songs and albums that are celebration of music and musicianship. Landlady arrives a little more than 4 years after the band's previous full length effort The World Is A Loud Place and wastes no time in drawing you into its embrace like an old friend. There's less guests and collaborators this time around but there's no shortage of dynamic musical ideas as Schatz has a wealth of new stories and witticisms to share. 

Landlady, the fourth album from Landlady is out now and available to purchase from the band's Bandcamp with $5 of all proceeds going to The Okra Project.

Collection of Colonies of Bees - HAWAII (2018)

Though most people's introduction to Wisconsin outfit Collections of Colonies of Bees may have been due to the fact that its members played alongside Bon Iver's Justin Vernon as Volcano Choir, Collections of Colonies of Bees have been crafting incredibly innovative and intricate guitar music for the better part of two decades not unlike a sort of Deerhoof of the Midwest. But aside from an impressively long career filled with records each more incredible than the last, that's pretty much where the Deerhoof comparisons live and die. Throughout the years COCOB has undergone a number of lineup changes sharing members with Field Report, Megafaun, Sylvan Esso, and All Tiny Creatures but guitarist Chris Rosenau has remained its steadfast captain, navigating the outfit as its most consistent and senior member since the departure of his co-founder, drummer Jim Mueller.

HAWAII, the band's most recent album and their follow up to 2014's SET, introduces those not in attendance at the third year of Vernon's Eaux Claires festival to its newer lineup which welcomes Marielle Allschwang into the fold on vocals - another shakeup for the previously solely instrumental focused band. Though the addition of vocals might in theory appear to push COCOB towards a more standard form of rock music than they've been purveying over the years, ever the innovators - Allschwang's inclusion comes with a bit of a surprise in the form of the creation of a synced pedal rig that connects Allschwang's vocals with Rosenau's guitar to further flush out Collections of Colonies of Bees' harmonic language. When first single "Ruins" dropped, I was unsure of how exactly Rosenau and Allschwang's relationship would play out over the course of an album but "Killerers", the album's opening track instantly answered that question. The entrance of Allschwang's vocals enter as a sort of stutter-stop hum - not quite tied to meaning but an integral part of the song's multitude of layers. I was reminded instantly of the technique of Ryan Lott of Son Lux where he recorded his collaborators vocals, cut them up and turned them into samples, and then tied them to individual notes. The main difference of course being that Allschwang is a present and active participant in the delivery of her vocals. Where previous albums SET , GIVING, and Birds presented Collection of Colonies of Bees as a pretty straight forward melody rich but rhythmically focused melange of guitars, bass, and drums HAWAII reintroduces the more diverse elements of the band's more distant past like the return of synths even as they push themselves toward a more ubiquitous sound.

HAWAII isn't a complete re-writing of the what the band's been about for the past decade or so however - even as they implement the use of lyrics for the first time. The band had a way of presenting engaging musical tableaux without the use of lyrics or even descriptive titles, and though hardly nonsense or gibberish - the addition of vocals by Allschwang and guitarist Daniel Spack, are largely impressionistic; another timbre to resonate in their multitudinous harmonies. Even as Collection of Colonies filter in more familiar pop leaning elements, there's an equal subversion and embrace of those expectations. Songs like the eponymous "HAWAII" which might've been a 7 minute long instrumental post rock jam elsewhere uses the added vocal framing to achieve the grandiose highs of songs like "G (F)" or "Lawn". The vocals undergo their own subtle evolution over the course of the album - enduring a sort of climax on "For Ghost" - the album's briefest and most singer/songwriter recalling effort.

While the old adage might be "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", bands like Collections of Colonies of Bees thrive by their ability to push themselves into new sounds and creative visions that inspire them and HAWAII even if you take away the seeming gimmick of the pedal rig that steers Allschwang's vocals - it's an album that's so delightfully complex without really insisting on that complexity. Take a song like "Ruins", arguably the album's most standard verse-chorus-verse type song. There's so many elements that work in tandem like Allschwang and Spack's dueting vocals but there's little embellishments that are beguiling effortless - like Allschwang's breathing being a noticeable part of the song's climatic breakdown that are hands down contribute to some of the album's most winsome moments. Collections of Colonies of Bees might've worn their influences of electronica, jazz, and post rock much more openly in their earlier days, their embrace of the familiar has added a much appreciated new dimension to their music. If Collections of Colonies of Bees are truly trying to bridge the gap between their experimental and pop tendencies, they've certainly succeeded on HAWAII - an album filled with engaging compositions that makes a bold but interesting new direction for the band.





Collections of Colonies of Bees' HAWAII is out now on Polyvinyl. You can order the record now.

Night Beds - Dear Jewell, EP (2018)

After the release of their sophomore album Ivywild, Night Beds, the project of Colorado born Nashville based singer/songwriter Winston Yellen went into a sort of silent, working hibernation. Between the release of debut full length record Country Sleep and Ivywild, Yellen had essentially decided to trim the fat and embarked upon a new music journey with only his younger brother Abe in tow. Styling himself after producers like his longtime favorites Kanye West, Flying Lotus, and J Dilla,  Yellen's music became less obviously folk oriented and way more inspired by R&B and hip hop. It was a move that confused longtime fans but one that was smoothed over by the fact that Yellen's voice - highly emotive and rooted in narrative sincerity, is incredibly versatile. When I was finally able to catch Night Beds live at CMJ 2015, it was an entirely different beast than I expected. Live instruments like guitar, drums, and bass swapped out in favor of sample pads and the like. Tracking Winston Yellen down after the performance, he noted a few of our exchanges on the Internet about Night Beds' new sound (mainly my hesitant acceptance of it) and hinted at a possible return of some of those other elements.

With the release of their latest EP Dear Jewell,, Night Beds are back and Winston Yellen has more love to give. The lead up to the EP has been defined by Yellen embracing the ephemeral nature of things. Nothing Yellen posts to social media is permanent - deleting much of the band's social media posts in favor of vague promotion. Any explanatory information Yellen provides gets wiped swiftly after it's posted when Yellen thinks enough eyes have seen it. And yet, the confessional nature remains on Dear Jewell,. In a now deleted post Yellen proclaimed that he had fallen in love with his manager and wrote some songs about it.

While Night Beds has always been defined by a pervasive melancholy, Yellen's blurred the lines between the intimately personal and what is narratively so. Yellen finds a kernel of emotionally resonant truth and builds and intricate tale around it. Dear Jewell, doubles down on the electronic, experimental R&B of Ivywild while leveling up the production. "Jade", the first track on the EP is a sumptuous groove filed with fragmented and obscured lovelorn lyrics. "Tell me what it's gonna take? You know that I love you" is Yellen's first line and the rest of the song twists itself back and forth between pining and the assumption that the feelings are obvious with actually vocalizing them. "Jade" is a surprisingly dance-y track for how much it wrestles with itself narratively. Lyrics are submerged in seas of reverb only to click into sharp focus at unexpected times like "All I do is party running from this heartache" in the song's outro.

The inclusion of a cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" is curious if only for the rare moment of sparsity: Yellen's back to playing guitar. But the production is anything but obvious - dropping a full band in and out at specific times and throwing effects on Yellen's moment at unexpected times.

 "Velvet River", a co-production with Seattle based artist Lofty Stills, leans more heavily into their experimental tendencies than "Jade" as the lyrics are spouted, warped, and shifted to lead to the subsequent thought - the use of old movie samples and string flourishes is a move right out of Lofty Stills' playbook but it's no less effecting as it's used to highlight Yellen's impeccable vocals. Yellen is softer here, vocals unaffected amid lush arrangements and harmonies. It's a dip back into the dream pop well Night Beds originally pulled from and "Velvet River" as well as instrumental interlude "In The Shadow of the Shade) is a testament to the fact that Yellen is perfectly capable in that arena but the challenge of Ivywild and the more electronic-tinged songs are more compelling to him and Abe.

"Ever-After" is the continuation of Winston and Abe's collaboration with Lofty Stills' Luke Culbertson. "(Pt.1)" is a stellarly arranged waltz. It's a moment of brightness in an otherwise raging storm of complicated emotional tumult. It's the inverse of "Jade" in that while similarly upbeat, its lyrics are much more hopeful. Where "Jade" pushed and pulled with heartache, "Ever-After (Pt. 1)" seems to find the positive in sense of love. "If I found another, I could love her like no other man, someday" Yellen sweetly coos. It looks toward the future but the rest of the song is firmly situated on this particular person: "If I shut you up, fill my mind, trying to find - a thousand lights point to you/what's a man to do?"

"Ever-After (Pt. 2)" follows its saccharine counterpart with a bit of a reality check. The production snaps back towards the more obviously electronic and R&B elements as Yellen sings of heartache once more. Like "Jade" Yellen's lyrics are splinter and dive into pools of reverb but their main points resonate - where "Ever-After (Pt.1)" asked "If you love me, what could I need ever after", "Ever-After (Pt. 2)" offers that just love is not enough. The love contained with Dear Jewell, is a struggle. It's messy and a hell of a lot of work.

Dear Jewell, is a more clearly focused effort than Ivywild that balances Night Beds' musical adventurousness with a cast of skilled collaborators and balances their skills with those of Night Beds. It's also a collection  of songs that highlights all of Night Beds strengths. The production has tightened up, segues are smoother and each song is composed of incredibly winsome moments. Yellen's songwriting remains as effecting as it always has but the more polished production actively works to enhance it. Where Ivywild was the direct result of Winston and Abe's desire to switch up the Night Beds formula, time and experience has provided them with a defter hand at self-production and more confident presentation of ideas. Where Ivywild recalled a hip hop mixtape, Dear Jewell, seems like a more cohesive collection despite the stylistic shifts contained within. It's subtle when it needs to be subtle, bold when it needs to be bold, and as always bolstered by Winston Yellen's absolutely distinct voice.

Night Beds' Dear Jewell, EP is out now.

Madam West - Warm Bodies EP (2018)

My introduction to Brooklyn based quintet Madam West happened as all my discoveries tend to happen: completely randomly. I had been invited to a house show by Caleb Moore from Lands & Peoples who was visiting Brooklyn playing with his new band Wae and 3/5 of Madam West were there to see Operator Music Band. A spilled drink set us on a collision course where I got to know Madam West's Sophie, Todd, and Will, the fact that they were all in a band together came up naturally, and after enjoying the sets, I made a mental note to check out their band. A mental note I didn't really follow up on until several months later when I caught their live show at C'mon Everybody. I was immediately taken with Madam West's intersection of artpop, psych rock, and funk and caught them several other times. Each time I saw them they mentioned the fact that most of their songs were new and each subsequent viewing I found them in various stages of recording their EP until their latest show - a record release show also at C'mon Everybody where they announced that not only was it done but that it'd be coming out at the end of the month.

While Madam West were a band I very much enjoyed every time I saw them, they weren't a band I ever particularly planned to write about. Part of this was due in part that their live set was so much better than their previously recorded output. To write about them with only their debut full length Loves You as a reference point would've done them quite a disservice in my opinion as their new songs were so much stronger and better composed than their previously released ones. Some part of me also figured that live energy would be lost in the recording process and I just relegated Madam West to a great live band that I would enjoy in almost exclusively that regard. And then came their Warm Bodies EP.

While Madam West are still best experienced live, their Warm Bodies EP is streets ahead of Loves You. From opener "Strongest Son" to the titular "Warm Bodies", the EP is composed to incredibly universal themes of the what now sense that plagues many a post-grad. Album standout "Erstwhile, Manatee" is probably my favorite display of this as Sophie Chernin and Will Clark wrestle with millennial ennui. "Speaking of excitement, why can't I dream big anymore?" Chernin sings before lamenting: "Is this what happens when we grow older, when we grow apart, grow cold shoulder to cold shoulder?" They're questions she doesn't exactly have the answers to and doesn't try to solve them. Merely vocalizes them and in that way sort of makes a strange peace with them. It's a companion to "Warm Bodies" which posits that connection and passion is what brightens up the doldums of adult life where you sometimes have to work a job you aren't particular passionate about to fuel your actual passions. Or even how the pressures of adult life lock you into a routine and the percolating escapism inherent in that. "Erstwhile, Manatee" says more than "Warm Bodies" cares to and maybe that's why I prefer it. Chernin says so much with so little especially considering the chorus is incredibly vague. But Chernin manages to tackle biological clocks, millennial guilt, impostor syndrome, and in the song's almost spoken word conclusion the nagging feeling that a life outside of the arts might've yielded better prospects. It's Madam West at their most versatile blending their various genre tags into a colorful ear-catching potpourri.

Another strong point of Madam West's Warm Bodies EP is that it finds a home for a one of my favorite single's "L". A song about the L train, it manages to transcend typical songs about the city. Written largely by Clark but featuring Chernin on vocals, the lyrics both personalize the L train while also not really talking that much about it. "L" is one of those songs where you're fairly certain there's something else happening and that's largely because of a breakdown which introduces actual people. It's an exciting twist even as the band cheekily dive deep into vagueness. With a less practiced and less committed band, the fact that the song essentially juggles three if not four seemingly unrelated subjects without making any non-instrumental attempts to connect them would be frustrating but "L" is triumph of composition and that's what essentially smooths over it's various narratives. It gives a sense that what the song is actually about is a riddle only available to those able to pay enough attention. It's a love song of sorts, to the L train, the city itself, and something else entirely but like most good songs the evasive meaning doesn't take away from the song itself.

On Warm Bodies, Madam West come into their own. Their songs are clever and inventive, enjoyable and catchy and feature each of its members' strengths. While their debut full length Loves You saw them introducing their soul-inflected style, Warm Bodies sees them refining it extensively. Though it's the kind of album where a favorite song is sure to pop out, each song is skillfully performed and written with a vibrant energy that's downright captivating. Madam West may be a band that's best experienced live but Warm Bodies does its darnedest to bring that live energy to the listener and largely succeeds.



Madam West's Warm Bodies EP is out now on Floordoor Records. You can cop digital copies from the band via Bandcamp.

SOFTSPOT - Clearing (2017)

One of my favorite qualities of Brooklyn art pop outfit SOFTSPOT is how they experiment with their sound. While the band arrived with a full realized and unique sound on debut full length record Ensō, instead of resting comfortably on that particular sound they've expanded: going from two members to their current four, adding in the incredible insistent drumming of Bambara's Blaze Bateh and the svelte synths of Jonathan Campolo of Pill, each album since their debut has been a veritable redshift - a musical "yes and..." statement that rather than negating what's occurred before simply seeks to build upon it.

The result of another of the North Carolina retreats where singer/songwriter/bassist Sarah Kinlaw and guitarist Bryan Keller Jr emerged with much of Ensō and MASS, SOFTSPOT emerged from the chrysalis of both touring and the retreat once again with a newer sound - one that positions them at their most accessible. Clearing, the band's third full length album, is rooting firmly in the pop element. Much of what makes SOFTSPOT truly special can be still evidenced on this record: its diverse aural tapestries, unexpected lyrical subjects and narrative choices, and Kinlaw's vocal elasticity.

On Clearing, SOFTSPOT makes the most of the official addition of Campolo and constructs songs of seemingly limitless lushness. Whether it's the intense, of album opener "Maritime Law" or , SOFTSPOT build entire worlds with astonishing swiftness. The songs pull you in instantly with either their expansive, full instrumentation or their confessional-like intimacy. At times dream-like and incredibly visceral at others (often times within the same song), SOFTSPOT illustrates the theme of connection through both a lucid clarity and dreamy, subconscious intuition.

On "Helen" and "Habits", Kinlaw explores the dangerous and pitfalls of pursuing connections that no longer exist as the subjects of these songs surrender to lives to reminiscing and reliving golden memories with lovers that are no longer there. Though both are expressions of grief much like Ensō's "Half a House", Kinlaw explores them in drastically different ways, "Helen" from an outside perspective as she tries to convince the titular Helen to leave her room and rejoin normal life and "Habits" from the perspective of someone wrapped up in their loss who gives up more and more of time to trying to imagine life with the departed.

In addition to Kinlaw slipping into different characters and shifting various perspectives, Clearing seeks Keller also contributing vocals/lyrics and his contributions "Touch and Go" and "Whale Song" approach them from an male perspective of what is expected and what can actually be offered and how that ultimately ties into the quest for an engaging connection.

While much of Clearing is perhaps a reaction to a lack of a proper connection or a response to what happens when a powerful connection is severed, occasionally on the record there are moments which illustrates the surge of electrifying possibility that happens when a positive relationship is received: enter "Abalone" and to a lesser extent "Heat Seeker", arguably the most pop heavily cuts on the record. "There is a pull between the endless love that comes from me", Kinlaw sings as "Abalone" begins and it's a pretty intense feeling both to describe and to feel as Kinlaw describes how the what is irrelevant when the how is what is absolutely brimming with love. "It isn't in the way you move, it's the way you simply stood and took my hand" Kinlaw sings in probably one of the song's most climactic moments and it perfectly encapsulates the intensity of feeling that's she's looking to convey.

Clearing also sees a culmination of an often used reference to water. While Ensō paired many of its various reference with either an incendiary delivery or actual mentions to fire, Clearing is rooted firmly in its aquatic element: the push and pull of the waves seeming directing the very flow of the album as Kinlaw from the albums very beginning weaves a through line of water as a force greater than almost every force but love. It's the most prevalent of nature exerting a direct influence in the lives of the album's multitude of characters but where water was a cleansing agent on Ensō, its role on Clearing is both as an actual threat to contend with like the stormy, menacing "Maritime Law" or as a fathomless mirror of the album's subjects own capacity to feel and to love. 

SOFTSPOT are a band with a fiercely distinct sound but one of their greatest strengths lies in how malleable they allow themselves to be. No one SOFTSPOT album sounds the same as the one that proceeded it but there is still an unmistakable oneness to them all. Clearing reveals more facets to SOFTSPOT as Keller takes up both songwriting and vocal duties, the band properly incorporates its former touring members, and the band pursues a bolder sound through reveling in their vulnerabilities. Clearing is a remarkably open album. It is open and sincere and full of very real reactions and responses even as it presents them in occasionally more palatable dressings than they might've been presented on a previous album. But SOFTSPOT have always operated on a point between experimental musicianship and an inescapable pull of either frenetic guitar riffs or ear-catching pop melodies and tied them together with innovative songwriting. Clearing is no different and though it pushes their sound forward towards the end of the pop spectrum than previous releases there's, they band haven't dialed back the other qualities. Clearing is a powerful document from a band utterly comfortable in their own skin, it's not afraid to try dressing a little differently. 



SoftSpot's third full length album Clearing is out now on Arrowhawk Records.

Brooklyn Rider - Spontaneous Symbols (2017)

New York string quartet Brooklyn Rider have made a career establishing the crucial link between essential classical music and the now more nebulous, far reaching era of modern composition. It's a choice that's taken them on a rather circuitous journey. From introducing the uninitiated to Armenian composer Komitas Vartaped or their cover of Mexican rockers Cafe Tacvba's "La Muerte Chiquita" on their first record Passport, to the global premiere of collaborations with Iranian composer/Kamancheh play Kayhan Kalhor and New York based Russian composer Ljova, Brooklyn Rider have taken great care not only to bridge the musical gap between traditional classical music and contemporary but also to bridge cultural gaps (unsurprising considering Brooklyn Rider are also members of the Yo-Yo Ma founded Silkroad Ensemble).

While most of their albums paired a known classical work with newer works they felt meshed well or were inspired, the foursome broke new ground with The Brooklyn Rider Almanac: a collection of collaborations from all living composers/artists like folk singer Aoife O'Donovan and jazz pianist Vijay Iyer. Since then the group has gone on to have a number of releases like the Gabriel Kahane collaboration The Fiction Issue but The Brooklyn Rider Almanac signaled a turning point in the quartet's catalog where elevating and commissioning new works took primary focus over their attempts to revitalize old classics. The spirit remained but by focusing almost exclusively on works from composers they could actually work with, the quartet highlights all the exciting things that are happening in current day classical scene. Spontaneous Symbols is a return of sorts to their traditional setup (even as they welcome new cellist Michael Nicolas). Unlike The Fiction Issue or their collaboration with soprano Anna Sofia von Otter So Many Things, Spontaneous Symbols repositions many of those extended collaborations back to the simpler composer/performer dynamic.

"ArpRec1", a composition by Tyondai Braxton, is a notated version of piece Braxton normally performs with the use of a midi controller and built using Ableton and MaxMSP. Brooklyn Rider are no strangers to work with electronics, as evidenced by "Together Into This Unknowable Night" from their album Seven Steps, a composition by violinist/software engineer Christopher Tignor. "ArpRec1" is a piece that relies on the intuition of the performers. Reminiscent of the works of Terry Riley, "ArpRec1" Braxton's use of generative technique allows for a feeling of spontaneity. And yet, much like Riley's use of music modules gives each performance an improvisitory quality, to the casual listener the gradual build and precision of rhythmic fixtures seem wholly planned. It's not until the end of the first part where you hear a sort of unraveling that it occurs there could anything happening other than the written music. Considering this is the notated version of Braxton's musical experiments, it's not totally out of the norm that he would include this moment of chaos as part of the music. It actually forms a bridge between the two parts the piece is split into on the album: from the surefooted, unfurling of part 1 into the frenzied pacing of part 2, the minor elongating, conflicting rhythms sets up an unexpected second act.

"BTT", Brooklyn Rider's own addition to the album by violinist/composer Colin Jacobsen, sees the quartet essentially finding parallels between their classical training and the modern classical movement. Inspired equally by the 70's/80's downtown New York scene as well as by John Cage, Jacobsen realized that Cage and Bach, though diametric opposites are connected through a tendency towards rule-making. Bach's being strict and conservative while Cage's were meant more to focus his chaos. The result is a multi-layered piece that's a pendulum swing between order and chaos, minimalism and maximalism. Theoretically, Jacobsen is operating on a level of deep complex: having two motifs: a Bach and Cage one, interweaving all throughout while also trying to pay homage to Phillip Glass and Steve Reich. It's a piece that's pretty much synonymous with Brooklyn Rider's mission statement as it seeks to illustrate the interconnectedness of music using the string quartet as that lens.
    
Brooklyn Rider's albums have contained at least one multi-movement work and Evan Ziporyn's Qi is Spontaneous Symbols offering. Inspired by the Chinese concept of life-force, Ziporyn's three movement work is breath-taking. First movement "Lucid Flight" is adequately named as it seeks to inspire a feeling of weightlessness in the listener, the harmonics like soft wisps of air streaming past your face. But Ziporyn avoids expectations of what flying is supposed to sound like - it's not all polished breathy melodies and bright timbres, rather there's a dissonance that flutters in and out as if the awareness of the unnaturalness of human flight seeks to ground it at any time. That "awareness" theme is passed around from instrument to instrument even as those airy harmonics try to keep everything afloat.

"Garden", the second movement of Qi begins slowly, a comedown from the flighty first movement but when it truly touches down, it offers up one of Spontaneous Symbols most beautiful moments. It's meditative while not lethargic, it's also built with kaleidoscopic complexity, as a shifting array of vibrant coloring and stirring melodic moments catapult it forward from section to section. Where "Lucid Flight" glides from one moment to the next, "Garden" arrives to each with deep centering breaths. And its final section gives the sense of relieving sighs before letting everything peter out to contemplative silence.

And where "Garden" is an inward moment, "Transport" is reactionary. Inspired by intense moments that led to epiphanic revelations, "Transport" is expectedly busy. But even then Ziporyn subverts that notion, it isn't a fast paced sprint, it's a patient plod toward a moment of true weightlessness "Lucid Flight" never actually achieves. Perhaps because of the expectation and cerebral nature of it then but in "Transport" it whisks you up and away.

Where Ziporyn's piece is focused on the inner life, Paula Matthusen's "on the attraction of felicitous amplitude" is a piece shaped by a strong sense of place. Written during Matthusen's fellowship at the American Academy at Rome, it's a piece that draws from Matthusen's love of architecture and a cistern underneath the Villa Aurelia in particular. Matthusen utilizes field recordings she took of the cistern and the piece is an exploration of how sounds travel in the space paired with notated music performed by Brooklyn Rider. The quartet capture both the cavernous quality as the space while also replicating the sound of trickling water with col legno and slides. In addition to trying to replicate the sounds of the space but also invoking how sound travels in it, the field recordings are also transduced through the actual instruments themselves.

Kyle Sanna's "Sequence for Minor White" closes out the album and is a particular solid choice for that duty. Inspired both by the photography and the teachings of photographer Minor White, Sanna builds a set of sequences sans movement. One doesn't have to be at all familiar with Minor White or his teachings to be effected by Sanna's work as the work is multitudinous and sans context but like White's sequence philosophy, Sanna seeks to construct a sense of interconnectedness. White's attempts to evoke a stronger feeling through the grouping of specific photographs is an idea not at all foreign to composition where often you string various personal ideas or techniques together in the hopes that the observer can put the puzzle together (except if you have the benefit of program notes) but the idea to essentially score selected still photographs and White's philosophy to try and provide an adequate measure of the man is incredibly ambitious. But if the piece inspires you to acquaintance yourself with either the photography, creative thoughts, or poetry of Minor White, Kyle Sanna is sure to consider the work successful.   

For a group of musicians that pushes themselves to new creative endeavors over and over, it seems unfair to call Spontaneous Symbols their best work. It is an assuredly different work than they've released before both in form and content but it seems like their most vital. Brooklyn Rider essentially wrote themselves a new playbook on The Brooklyn Rider Almanac and those lessons have been internalized and improved upon. Spontaneous Symbols is not the easiest album to listen to but it is an incredibly interesting one full of fruitful collaborations and compositions. Brooklyn Rider are hardly the kind of that frequently need to highlight their strengths as a string quartet but Spontaneous Symbols contains many pieces that do just that. Brooklyn Rider are not only game for just about anything but have an exception knack for curation that in turn spotlights their incredible versatility. Spontaneous Symbols that requires patience but rewards it with both incendiary moments and soothing ones.



Brooklyn Rider's new album Spontaneous Symbols is out October 20th on violinist/Brooklyn Rider founding member Johnny Gandelsman's In A Circle Records. You can pre-order the album here.

Friend Roulette - The Matt Sheffer Songbook Vol. 1 (2017)

For perhaps as long as I've known about Friend Roulette since I was introduced to them from ARMS, the experimental chamber pop sextet have mentioned a desire to record and release a record of ballads. Considering it was sometime hard to round up their multitude of members, playing their songs as ballads was a tactic the band would often use if they wanted to play out but either drastically change the energy or compensate for a lack of members. They would mention the ballad record occasionally and the some time would pass and nothing came of it. Also many of their records both full length and EP would contain a ballad or two so fans were never particularly suffering from a lack of them. When Friend Roulette announced and actually released said ballad album earlier this year, I was a bit in shock. What with guitarist/singer Matthew Flory Meade starting a new side project and the members' various other commitments, I had never expected the record to take shape or at least not for it to be the next release after their rather downtempo Grow Younger EP. In fact, I essentially assumed Grow Younger was the ballad record even though "I Guess" and album ender "Kitty Song" are very high energy. 

The Matt Sheffer Songbook Vol. 1 is a tribute of sorts to their friend Matt Sheffer who is a fellow musician and is ultimately responsible for the Friend Roulette we have today. He was an ardent supporter of their music as well as a sounding bound and helped write "Viva Zyprexa", one of Friend Roulette's first songs, as well as part of "Kitty Song". Though not particularly a fan of the ballad, Friend Roulette have a knack for writing them in a way that has always resonated with me from as far back as "Or Belin" off their self-titled EP and the Matt Sheffer Songbook Vol. 1 is no different. 

Album opener "You're A Fox" is a touching love song where Sheffer uses grander and grander metaphors to express his love all the while still elevating the intended and appealing to their strong nature. Where "Joan" is a tribute of sorts to the Golden Age Hollywood actress/dancer Joan Leslie and details her struggle getting the sort of roles she wanted, she's referred to with the sort of absentmindedness you might have for a mundane piece of trivia.   

In listening to the Songbook, it occurred to me just how much Friend Roulette gained from Sheffer especially when I heard the newly recorded version of "Viva Zyprexa", as the sense of otherness that Sheffer and Matthew Flory Meade touch on essentially forms the backbone of much of Friend Roulette's output. While "Bacon and Raisins", a tale of being trapped in a would-be fight to the death with a home-invading spider, is not only the most cohesive Friend Roulette have allowed their narratives to be, it contains winsome melodic flourishes that the band often build songs on before drawing them in sharper, more abstract directions. 

It's not hard to see why songwriters Julia Tepper and Matthew Flory Meade were drawn to Sheffer's songs, though he's capable of writing straightforward songs, Sheffer is also capable of both non-linear narratives as well as touches of the surreal is his songwriting like "Snow Pea" with its shifting perspectives. The Songbook essentially gives a glimpse into the evolution of the sextet's sound. Stripped back, you can focus on the innovative lyricism and Friend Roulette's arrangements are subtle and sparse enough that they never threaten to obscure the lyrics. Instead they're held with a reverence that's befitting of someone so important to the band's core identity.   

Friend Roulette's The Matt Sheffer Songbook Vol. 1 is out now via Pretty Purgatory.

AlhhlA - 8oNitsSidE (2017)

When I was introduced to Arizona based experimental artist AlhhlA earlier this year due to their affiliation with Yairms, one of my only real complaints about the band was that there was so little music available from them. I was sold on a single song ("Who Shall Lead") out of two possible ones on a split EP released in 2014, my obsession fueled by demos and live recorded concerts and now with singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Levi Hiller's plans to reunite with Yairms' Jerry Rogers to create/recorded new material he's seen fit to release a brand new EP he's been sitting on for some time and was only previously available as a tour-only cassette. 8oNitsSidE, AlhhlA's first release since the Yairms split three years ago finds Hiller demonstrating a wider expanse of sounds than at-home listeners would have gotten to experience.

"-_cLeArLiNes_-", the EP's opening track begins in a place of quiet dramatically different than the percussive, boisterous "Who Shall Lead" that introduced AlhhlA on the split. And yet its quietness is hardly indicative of its multitudinous layering. Hiller takes his time building its lush lilt as his own vocals combine with instrumental shuffling in a feeling akin to the sloshing of ocean waves. That wave formation informs much of the track as its swells softly build and recede in much the same way. There's also the fact that many of the effects are practically indiscernible. That's largely due to Hiller relying on different forms of recording and playback from old shareware to and old boombox and finally a tascam tape machine before being transferred to digital, "-_cLeArLiNes_-" almost seems ironically named. It's various parts a mesh of intriguing, augmented sounds as Hiller's sage-like voice cuts clear through cassette hiss. It's a move reminiscent of Son Lux: forming an interesting base rooted in intricate layering and unique sounds while letting his distinct vocals captivate and enhance the instrumental parts.

Second track "@@" however is much more familiar territory. Percussion and guitars anchor the track while Hiller's vocals function in several different ways: percussive staccato, a narrative flow, and craning ornaments. As much as Hiller experiments with timbre and effects, his voice remains his secret weapon: wispy but with enough weight behind it that its never in danger of getting overwhelmed by the myriad of other elements Hiller plays around with in his song's composition. Whether at a whisper or a shout: the timbre of Hiller's voice effortlessly informs all the other textures in AlhhlA's catalog.  Even in a track like "LoLoVe" which is a full on vibe showcase featuring a djembe, cello, and bowed saw, Hiller's vocals supersede. That's not to say that Hiller isn't capable of incredibly engaging moments outside of the sound of his own voice. "LoLoVe" expands not only Hiller's textural palette but his sound as well. A world music influence has existed at the core of most AlhhlA songs but "LoLoVe" takes it to its logical conclusion and even then with it syncopation and djembe loops Hiller doesn't rest on invoking that sound without filtering it through his own creative lens to guide not appropriate his influence. Also considering how entangled AlhhlA and Yairms at once seemed, 8oNitsSidE is an album forged in the distance between them as Hiller and Rogers took divergent paths. The EP relies on a completely different cast of collaborators (owing more to geographic distance than creative distance between Hiller and Rogers).  

8oNitsSidE is a wonderfully demonstration of just what AlhhlA have to offer and if you haven't listened to the songs on the aforementioned split, it serves as a pretty excellent introduction. The EP is varied but grounded in a consistent sound that is uniquely Hiller's. AlhhlA's music gets its sound from a number of aspects: the various transitions between analog tape and digital and editing, Hiller's fascination with augmenting sounds, as well as sense of creative storytelling that brings to mind bands like Le Loup or Akron/Family. Hiller crafts delightfully intricate textural meshes that he simultaneously works to shepherd you through. It's no wonder I was obsessed after one song as Hiller's songs balance an entrancing experimentalism with a subdued pop sensibility. The only thing keeping people from becoming fans of AlhhlA is time and if it takes three years between releases to get songs as good as those featured on 8oNitsSidE, I'm surely willing to wait.



AlhhlA's new EP 8oNitsSidE is out now and available for stream/purchase via his Bandcamp. All digital purchases come with three bonus tracks.

Palm - Shadow Expert EP (2017)

Through their rather short but somewhat noteworthy career Philly four piece Palm have crafted an oddly accessible though certainly off-kilter brand of noise pop. Since their inception at Bard College, the foursome have pushed themselves to explore new sounds and tonal dialogues that meant for fans of the band, you'd often hear a song once and then maybe never again or have to wait several months if not years become you could actually own it. The Shadow Expert EP is their latest release, following an absolutely full length debut Trading Basics.

While first single "Walkie Talkie" gives the impression with its ramshackle jangle that Palm are up to their old tricks, as the EP proceeds there's a growing persistence of melodic coherence. Not that Palm have ever suffered from a lack of coherence in the past but it's hard to imagine a song like the eponymous "Shadow Expert", with its clean, straightforward flow existing on Palm's Trading Basics. But Palm haven't left either their angular guitar lines or their complex, interwoven dynamic or their intricate, atypical rhythms behind. Rather Shadow Expert seems to explore the band dynamic on the most basic of levels by dialing down the fuzz.

Guitarists Eve Alpert and Kasra Kurt are locked in a dance that's not wholly unlike a changing bird formation. Where Kurt might take the lead with Alpert adding in little noisy flourishes, they're capable to shifting roles in an instant. That same sense of impermanence follows along in the vocal lines. One of the most delightful things about Palm's Shadow Expert EP is how fluid the whole thing feels. Buoying melodies and shifting figures both melodic and rhythmic give the sense that you're not entirely on solid ground. What's more, the EP progresses from harsh sounds to clean math pop right back to into harsher realms almost effortlessly. While Palm lean into their more pop sensibilities on the EP, there's a pervasive sense that noise is going to overtake everything laps at the sides of Palm's jangly art pop like oceans waves with varying intensity until "Sign To Signal" where it's presence is such a integral part of what makes it flow.

Given their constant pursuit of new and interesting sounds there's no telling if Shadow Expert is the kind of pop that Palm have been striving for or if it's merely a pitstop but it's an absolutely incredible entry into a diversifying catalogue that plays to their strengths while also exploring and establishing new ones.

Palm's Shadow Expert EP is out now on Carpark Records.
 

Hundred Waters - Currency EP (2017)

When they released their newest single "Particle" earlier this week, Los Angeles based art pop collective Hundred Waters gave every indication that new music was on the horizon. Fortunately for fans that time is both now and later as the threesome stealth released a five song EP and have plans to release their third full length album sometime later this year. While the release of "Particle" certainly allowed for some speculation on the sound of their new album - the fact that it's one of several new songs featured on the EP (along with "Everywhere" a snippet of which was featured in a video announcing year 4's batch of FORM Arcosanti artists) is thrilling in that it essentially throws the little fans/listeners have come to expect right back into the murky unknown. The band have never been ones to repeat themselves and each release has been handled with cohesive care.

Hundred Waters' music as unlabelable and sidestepping in genre as it is has been firmly rooted in the electronic element. Much of the appeal of their self-titled record laid in just how elastic they treated the borders of acoustic and digitized sound, blurring the lines with various timbres. Its tapestry of textures arranged with monastic devotion and universal resonance that it was almost hard to believe it was real. As Hundred Waters' have grown over the years since their debut, they've given themselves over more and more to computerized sounds - enlisting a number of electronic leaning artists to rework songs, putting out EPs, and even a whole remix album featuring those works. The Currency EP is by all accounts a very logical step in the band's growth, and first single "Particle" featured a much more concrete synth pop direction and Hundred Waters seemed to take all the trappings and hallmarks of EDM and work them into the song. But Hundred Waters have from their onset been a band not like any other and even their dip into more straight forward pop was handled in a way uniquely their own. "Particle" combines Nicole Miglis' delicate vocals and emotion-stirring lyricism with production that's constantly in flux - at times simple and sparse and others multitudinous and lush. There's a push-pull for much of its duration often directly in line with the swing of certainty/uncertainty captured in Miglis' lyrics. The powerful lovelorn moments aiming high for the stratospheric and being given plenty to fit the expanse; the moments of devastated doubt coming down and hushing the rush of sounds. It's not hard to see why it was selected as a single: it's dynamic. Fraught with raw emotional thoughts and feelings.

But Currency begins with a moment of quiet. "Jewel In My Hands" begins with a soft chime that's much more morning-sun-peaking-through-your-bedroom-window than bedside alarm. It's a gentle start as Miglis' actual lyrics seek to rouse you: "Wake up, come on, go on, get up, get out of bed you're tired but this is most extraordinary" Miglis coos and essentially jumpstarts an adventure. It's a work of beguiling restraint - managing to build its various layers and sense of forward momentum without actually needing to raise its volume. It forms an interesting parallel with its succeeding track "Particle" which begins in a similar whisper but branch off in decidedly different ways. "Jewel In My Hands" seeks to retain that feeling of stage-whisper throughout eventually achieving a climactic break from the hushed state where "Particle" is more inclined to move through peaks and valleys.

The most surprising thing about Currency may be in how many different switch ups in sound occur.
Album closer "Currency", the track that gives the EP its name, feels not unlike a The Moon Rang Like A Bell outtake. It's siren-like effect as well as Nicole Miglis' vocal cadence easily reminiscent of "Cavity" where "Takeover" is the most percussive of Currency's tracks and starting out there, it's never quite able to shake that initial harshness. Or rather it never really tries to. It's another straight forward pop song but one far more rooted in live instrumentation than "Particle" if not the whole of Currency. Where much of Currency seems to either pick up directly after The Moon Rang Like A Bell or seek to move on from it, "Everywhere" recalls the dream pop of Hundred Waters' self-titled debut. It's a rare moment where Miglis' lyrical narrative doesn't dictate the direction of the song. Instead Miglis' vocals soar above, adorning the swirling vortex of sounds as it sprawls ever outward. It has an endless quality to it that the band acknowledge by essentially never trying to end it - letting it fade out.

As a whole Currency is a wonderful addition to Hundred Waters' growing catalog. It manages to experiment with the group's ongoing efforts to push themselves forward creatively and hints at both potential directions to them to take and roads not traveled. Wherever Hundred Waters' new album lands, Currency is sure to operate as a benchmark release as a document that captures where the band were creatively after The Moon Rang Like A Bell. That's not to say that it's much more worthy of comparison than The Moon Rang Like A Bell which was a wondrous record that pushed Hundred Waters in so many unexpected directions but the strength of songs like "Particle" and "Jewel In My Hands" is hopefully a sign of things to come from a band who is delightfully hard to predict and is absolutely enjoyable to listen to from beginning to end over and over.
 


Hundred Waters' Currency EP is out now and available to stream/buy/download from your preferred digital retailer.

Sondre Lerche - Pleasure (2017)

If you had told me that the young songwriter behind 2001 debut Faces Down would grow up to release an album like Pleasure, I wouldn't have believed you. Not because I would have thought him incapable but because I couldn't possibly imagine the leap in sound it would take to get from point A to point B. But year after year and with album after album Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche has been incrementally pushing his sound in invigorating new directions that have made such an evolution possible. Pleasure is as much an album about Lerche's personal growth as it is his artistic one. It's an album rooted both in past influences, inspirations, and experiences; his present realizations, and future hopes and desires. Lerche, who grew up with a healthy diet of 80s pop and Brazilian tropicalia, has existed at sort of the nexus point of those influences without allowing his sound and vision to be too reminiscent of either. The ability to dilute what makes those influences so interesting and incorporate them without merely imitating them has been as much of a strength as his sincere, universal songwriting. Right around the time Lerche returned with his raucous, rebellious Phantom Punch, that spirit of experimentalism became a constant that paved the way for the surreal-minded art pop of Pleasure.

While Please was unabashedly a breakup album both honestly detailing and at times eluding the breakdown of his marriage and eventual divorce, his follow up Pleasure is a bit of a different beast. Beginning with his Talking Heads channeling album opener "Soft Feelings", Lerche's synthier side is at his peak and his lyrics blur the lines between what is real and what is imagined; the personal and the broad. It's unsurprisingly that three years and an album later, his divorce would still be a fruitful narrative well and yet "Soft Feelings" attempts to put some distance between him and it; exploring life in the metaphorical hereafter of unexpected singledom as Lerche wrestles with lingering feelings of both hope and resentment. It's a seesaw between trying to move on and realizing not enough time may have passed and it might never be enough to completely erase those feelings. "I can't will into motion impossible things/I can't promise devotion or make a bell unring" Lerche sings in one of the song many shifting sections and it's an excellent encapsulation not only of the song's thesis statement but where Lerche might be at the end of Please and the start of Pleasure.

"I'm Always Watching You" follows and its selection as the album's first single is incredibly obvious in the context of the album. A post-break up song lyrically based on how easy it is to keep tabs on exes with the advent of social media, it's also a song that's not as directly tied to Lerche's personal experiences. It's universally applicable, incredibly catchy and rooted in the same 80's synthpop that initiates the album to make its unflattering portrayal of obsession incredibly palatable. It's also the listener's first indication that Lerche is striving for realism not necessarily truth on Pleasure. "I'm Always Watching You" ensures a song like its successor "Serenading In The Trenches" is cohesive even if it's narrative metaphors are less plausibly rooted in actual events.

On Pleasure, Lerche not only references his influences like new wave and synth pop on the aforementioned "Soft Feelings" and "I'm Always Watching You" but he also references himself. Though lyrically very different "Serenading In The Trenches" recalls "Crickets" with it's stuttering drum line. While melodically "Bleeding Out Into The Blue" calls to mind both "Ricochet" and "When The River" from his self titled  and "Reminisce" resembles "Lucifer" with it's tropical pop springiness. There's also "Hello Stranger" which resembles Antonio Carlos Jobim standard "Águas de Março" in Lerche's lyrical delivery while also quoting one of Lerche's strongest influencers Prefab Sprout.  Lerche also derives influence from modern music doing his best D'Angelo in the funky album ender "Baby Come To Me".

Pleasure is much more than a trot through Sondre Lerche's greatest hits and those of his predecessors however. Compositionally, it's his most complex and scenic work to date. Lerche's continuous efforts to subvert traditional songwriting structure are fully realized here resulting in dramatic shifting sections like "Soft Feelings" or "Hello Stranger". Lerche offers up golden musical moments like throwaways and it makes them all the more precious and enviable since Lerche proceeds through much of Pleasure like there's more and more unexpected phrases and ideas where that came. It's a confidence that leads itself well towards the sultry croons "I Know Something That's Gonna Break Your Heart" or "Siamese Twin" and grounds the multi-faceted musical portraiture of Pleasure.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Pleasure is how very little Lerche's guitar factors into it. It's a bold move inline with Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak eschewing guitar for synths on Shriek. Lerche is no multi-instrumentalist: his specialty and only instrument, aside from his voice, is guitar and so the shift is certainly unexpected. But it addition to highlighting Lerche's songwriting capabilities to their fullest, it also spotlights Lerche's trusted collaborators - his live band: drummer Dave Heilman, bassist Chris Holm, Europe tour band member Alexander von Mehren, producer Matias Tellez as well as longtime producer Kato Ådland who does much of the record's programming. It's a record that relies on the talents of others for it's most winsome moments. Take "Violent Game", a remnant from Please that features Lerche prominently on guitar but needed to be recorded live in studio to produce a cut that Lerche felt album worthy. Lerche has often approached studio recording as the antithesis to the more lonely art of songwriting so the presence of his friends and collaborators is not entirely new. It's just far more obvious when Lerche has elected to bench his instrument of choice.

While a breakup nevermind a divorce isn't exactly something you get over overnight, Pleasure shows that there's more to Lerche than that. Lerche's always been a genuine songwriter and love has been his most rewarding topic. Pleasure indicates that Lerche has no intention of letting disappointment and heartbreak alter his whole worldview nor his most reliable topic of songs. Lerche is even poppier, even dancier than he was on Please and it succeeds much for the same reasons Lerche set out to do with Please: it's a record rooted in the personal that refuses to let itself wallow. Lerche's sincerity isn't a question but for all his wry allusions to failed relationships and the like, there's an endearing push to move on; to explore what else is out there. To dust himself off, to learn and grow as well as to make sense of his feelings and the world around him by building visceral scenes of emotional theatre and knocking them down. Please make have dressed up Lerche's heartbreak in slick dance-y dressings that might've seemed a little like denial but Pleasure is an indicator that not only is all well but that Lerche is capable of reaching brand new creative heights.





Sondre Lerche's eighth full length studio album Pleasure is out March 3rd on his own PLZ Records. You can pre-order the album now. 

Kishi Bashi - Sonderlust (2016)

Considering how tied to the concept of love the wide majority of violinist/composer/loop maestro Kishi Bashi's songs are, it's hardly a surprise that he would find himself creatively blocked when his own love life was suffering a sort of break down. From the tenderly emotive "Manchester" from his debut Room For Dream EP and subsequent reappearance on full length 151a, to the ecstatic giddiness of Lighght's "Philosophilize With It! Chemicalize With It!", love in all its permutations lyrically fueled Ishibashi and grounded his vibrantly colored blend of psych rock and orchestral pop. And after dealing with his writer's block, Kishi Bashi was able to channel that strife into his third full length studio album Sonderlust that essentially manages to pick things up right where he left them.

One of most exciting things about Kishi Bashi's albums - Sonderlust in particular is it shows a growth that's both in line with previous releases while aspiring to be more than just more of the same. Lighght pushed Kishi Bashi's sound firmly into that of his influences in prog rock and jazz fusion and Sonderlust gives the occasional nod to those influences without rooting itself too much in the sounds of Lighght ("Ode To My Next Life", "Who'd You Kill").

While songs like "Manchester" and "Bittersweet Genesis For Him AND Her" introduced darkness into Kishi Bashi's narratives to show the enduring appeal of true love, Sonderlust treats that darkness less as means of narrative shading and more as rooting his tales of love in reality. Real feelings of doubt, insecurity, and sadness. Sonderlust begins with "m'lover", a dizzying but sweet appeal for reconciliation that along with "Say Yeah" obscures their inherent melancholy with upbeat and engaging pop dressings. Even more overt songs like "Can't Let Go, Juno" and never quite forget to be pop songs first and foremost. It's not until penultimate track "Flame On Flame (a Slow Dirge)" that Sonderlust shows any signs of slowing down or toning down its pop mechanics. In this way Kishi Bashi creates an album that's a sort of cousin to friend Sondre Lerche's own breakup record Please: both seemingly operating under the rule that regardless of the intensity of emotion, how negative the feeling that wallowing heartbreak ballads simply will not do.

Sonderlust is essentially an album about putting in the work to sustain the honeymoon of Lighght and the fantastical first love of 151a. Through moving through the shade, its glitchy "It All Began With A Burst" recalling finale in "Honeybody" feels earned. It's the sun appearing in newly blue skies after storm clouds and the rain and Kishi Bashi's playful enthusiasm is infectious and cathartic. With "Honeybody", Kishi Bashi's creative woes and romantic strife appear to be solved for the time being and love wins out, surging to the forefront past the churning bile of the album's negative emotional displays. On record Kishi Bashi employs drums instead of the beatboxing he's done in his live show since ditching him cumbersome drum machine after his first tour and while he doesn't exactly enact that here, his cadence on "Honeybody" is perhaps the closest Kishi Bashi has gotten to the kind of music a beatboxing would feel at place in.

Sonderlust finds Kishi Bashi at his most electronic while still the orchestral pop flair that's become a core part of Kishi Bashi's sound. By focusing on the personal, Kishi Bashi has created a dynamic record that pushes his sound forward by circumventing the easy and predictable. Hardly surprising considering his past output but thrilling nonetheless.



Kishi Bashi's third full length album Sonderlust is out now on Joyful Noise Recordings.

Sur Back - Kitsch EP (2016)

From the opening trumpet fanfare of her first single "Jane Eyre", I knew Jupiter, Florida based singer/songwriter/producer Sur Back was going to be the type of artist that would be thrilling to watch grow. Not because Caroline Sans had a lot of growing to do but more her ideas - in the case of "Jane Eyre" a fearless dive into complicated meter, were sure to get more fascinating over time and with additional input. While I knew producing was an underrated labor of love where slight, incremental progress could be measured in years, I still let myself hope that Sans' debut album was soon to follow. Ultimately the wait wasn't too torturous and this year, a little over two years after the official release of her first single, Sans' debut EP Kitsch is out and well worth the wait.

Kitsch with its four tracks allows itself to be brief but that hardly blunts the force of its arrival or the sharpness of its construction. Sans has established rather early with "Jane Eyre" and second single "Occam's  Razor", which opens the EP, a tendency towards luxurious craning vocals that belie the simple utility of her production. Sans' approach favors deft over decadence; sparsity over the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach without sacrificing lushness. Kitsch is a collection of smooth, flowing songs that highlights the talent of Sans' one-woman show as "Pastel" and album ender/title track "Kitsch" feature perfectly deployed strings that catapult her songs to peak emotional effectiveness. But "Kitsch" with its slavic romance feel and sultry slow-burning delivery and "Pastel" do impressively different things with their strings. On "Pastel", Sans' strings are merely a part of din; an elegant textural choice in the climactic cacophony of its race to the finish instead of the deflating sighs towards quiet entropy in "Kitsch".

Kitsch may be brief but functions as an utterly thrilling introduction to Caroline Sans and the movement and classical music inspired vision that informs her work as Sur Back. Each song on Kitsch functions separately as a sort of expressive mood piece tailor made for the soundtrack of the listener's life. Sans' maximalist tendencies are obscured by the effortless stitching together of multitudinous layers result in visceral images presented with beguiling ease. None of the EP's four tracks resemble Sans' first single "Jane Eyre" (the only song not to make it on the EP) and Kitsch is all the more better for it - pushing Sans' in exciting and largely unexpected new directions for the listener. With plans for a new EP percolating no one can really tell where Sans is off  to creatively but if her continued growth resembles anything like the  lead up to Kitsch it's bound to be incredibly entertaining, wonderfully cinematic, and entirely worth the wait.



Sur Back's debut EP Kitsch is out now.

Lucius - Good Grief (2016)

"Inspiration feeds off of the deepest scars"

A somewhat offhanded lyric in the rather upbeat number "Almost Makes Me Wish For Rain" about regarding happiness with suspicion somehow functions as the thesis statement for powerpop outfit Lucius' latest offering Good Grief. It worked surprisingly well for their breakout album Wildewoman and the quintet has decided to double down on the blues to motivate themselves to overcome the sophomore slump. Considering the years Lucius spent not only refining and augmented their core sound as a must-see Brooklyn band but also taking the time to put out their debut full length record as a fivesome, the fact that they've managed to finish up a fully polished second helping in only two years and a cross country move is certainly unexpected and undoubtedly impressive.

 First single "Born Again Teen" while arguably the catchiest of the quintet's infectious retro-infused powerpop happens to be a rarity on Good Grief. With band members Jess Wolfe and Dan Molad dating and eventual marriage led to the band being compared to Fleetwood Mac, the band has elected to really just go full on Rumors for Good Grief. It's a record that's so wonderfully honest in how it regards relationships - the ecstatic highs demonstrated by the aforementioned "Born Again Teen" and "Something About You", the turbulent in "What We Have (To Change)" and "Gone Insane" and the heartbreaking ballad in "My Heart Got Caught On Your Sleeve".  It manages to engage in moment of rich, emotional honest while never really forgetting that it's a pop record. It this way it resembles the self-titled debut album of former tourmates and friends The Head and the Heart - songs deceptively upbeat in arrangement with underlying emotional complexity. Chief singers/songwriters Jesse Wolfe and Holly Laessig are on a role here and their vocals are the key to really selling most of these slice of life scenes - imbuing the necessary drama and emotional resonance. Take "Go Insane", a frenetic look at words said that escalate a disagreement to an all out explosion. Wolfe and Laessig's main calling card is their perfectly in sync harmonies and the fact that they allow themselves to slip out of it as they properly illustrates those moments where things get out of control and you're carried by pure vitrol. Wolfe and Laessig devolve in an aggressive shout match, their vocals fraught with abrasive tension and harsh to the ear and it's jarring as hell but so incredibly effective.

While Lucius has always made it a point to spotlight Wolfe and Laessig to the point that they're often the focus in press photos, they're bold colors and matching outfits, that it's easy to forget that Lucius is continuing to come into its own as quintet. The production of Good Grief, helmed by Dan Molad, is absolutely impeccable making up for some of the occasion wonkiness on Wildewoman, and the band is astounding rare form nailing the genre-shifts with effortlessness. Which is no easy feat. Going from the dance-pop of "Almost Makes Me Wish For Rain" all the way to the rootsy folk of album closer "Dusty Trails", Lucius covers a considerable amount of ground but manage to internalize those influences and personalize it in a way that it never quite feels like the jukebox style of retro pop that's increasingly popular.

Good Grief is a triumph of Lucius' continuous stylistic synthesis and earnest, engaging songwriting. It might not've been the easiest path from the critical success of Wildewoman to this new batch of songs but it's a testament to the magic that awaits when you put in the work and love what you do to the point of potential madness. No one who's ever heard them would mistake their success for a fluke but Good Grief is a indicator that Lucius is capable of wonderful amounts of growth that can still contain the sound they've been working at since their earliest days together.



Lucius' latest album, their second in their current incarnation, Good Grief is out March 11th on Mom + Pop. You can order the album here and stream via NPR's First Listen until its release.