Jesu / Sun Kil Moon
Jesu / Sun Kil Moon
[Caldo Verde/Rough Trade]
Another instalment of diaristic songs from Mark Kozelek sees him moving in the same direction as on Universal Themes, away from the documenting of seismic personal events that occurred throughout Benji to an even more disparate collection of passing thoughts. At one points he sings “And Pitchfork gave me a 6.0 that day, I said ‘Man, what took them so long?’” before reading out – verbatim, one assumes – a letter of support from a Singaporean fan. At times it’s faintly ridiculous and hamfistedly meta, but nonetheless voyeuristically enthralling. –IL
David Bowie
Blackstar
[RCA]
I spent the afternoon of Sunday 10th January reading a string of *actually* gushing – and not just reverently deferential – reviews of a new Bowie record and made a note to listen to it in work the next morning. You know what happens next, so getting round to Blackstar was an odd experience but thankfully, for someone who disliked The Next Day, one full of beautiful moments that raise of rueful smile in salute to the man’s enduring capacity for musical transcendence. –IL
Animal Collective
Painting With
[Domino Records]
As lead-off single FloriDada illustrated well, the gonzo, hyperactive Animal Collective are back. Timbrally Painting With is related to the at times challenging Centipede Hz, with its hectic rush of voices and synths fighting for the mid frequency range, but the songs are crisper and catchier, though peculiarly, the hookiest numbers like Bagels In Kiev and On Delay all feature on the back end of the this record. It sounds a bit like Silver Apples for the attention deficit era, which is a good thing. –IL
Toby Kaar
Gumbrielle EP
[Music/Is/For/Losers]
Cork’s Toby Kaar has been agitating at the edge of Irish electronic music for quite some time but Gumbrielle marks his first release of any kind. Consisting of peripatetic instrumental beat music, coloured by musical and concrète samples, tightly chopped and arranged into a restlessly colourful soundscape that brings to mind the work of Simon Bird, except with the added concern of the rhythmic strictness that dancefloor demands. Gumbrielle is a promising, and surprisingly euphoric debut release. –DS
No Monster Club
I Feel Magic
[Popical Island]
It was only this time last year that songwriter and storyteller Bobby Aherne was unleashing People Are Weird, a similarly earworm-y collection of guitar-pop sung with a glint of madness in its eyes and a love of kitschy ‘60s rock organ sounds. I Feel Magic is definitely a return to familiar territory no doubt, but if he’s gonna sling out one of these to kick off each year, you’re unlikely to find me complaining too much. –DS
Fat White Family
Songs For Our Mothers
[Fat Possum Records]
For a band so concerned with juvenile provocation, this is a strikingly mature *sounding* record, though FWF still toy with fascist imagery, invoke Harold Shipman for shocks and close with a lo-fi ballad sung from Hitler’s perspective. It’s punk strictly in ideology as opposed to content, as musically FWF are spacey, krauty, surfy and psychy, channeling The Horrors at their best or Thee Oh Sees at their most contemplative. For a record that likes to wallow in its own filth, it’s considerably more enjoyable than it has any right to be. –DW
Besnard Lakes
A Coliseum Complex Museum
[Jagjaguwar]
The Besnard Lakes are helmed by frontman Jace Lasek, producer/engineer supremo behind modern day classics from Wolf Parade and The Unicorns, so unsurprisingly they have always been considered a studio band. Widescreen grandeur remains the dish of the day with the band deftly balancing brawn and a lightness of touch with praiseworthy finesse. Though perhaps a little bit of a sideways move for devotees, A Coliseum Complex Museum serves as as good an entry point as any for the uninitiated. –DW
Camila Meza
Traces
[Sunnyside Records]
This Chilean singer, composer and arranger is the rising star on the global jazz scene. She is a guitarist of epic talent, sings beautifully in both English and Spanish and is part of a new generation of adventurous jazz musicians in New York who are imposing their disparate influences on jazz with glorious results. It’s impossible to pick a favourite from this disc, they’re all winners. If I knew her agent, I’d ring them tomorrow and declare ‘Dublin is waiting. Come soon!’ –TC
Words: Ian Lamont, Danny Wilson, Tom Cahill, Daniel Simon
