Eleventh Dream Day "Since Grazed (Comedy Minus One)"
From Comedy Minus One:
Where the last decade of EDD music has been defined by the work of a band honing their live roar in the studio, Since Grazed contemplates what isn’t there, and builds the songs from the bottom up, relying on long-lived friendships and trust. While Works barreled down the highway, conscious of and trying to outrace the past, Since Grazed takes the long way home, spacing out a bit, and reveling in the journey, celebrating those along for the ride. Not all have made it, but this is not a record about what is lost, it is about what is still there, however grazed it may be.
El Michels Affair "Yeti Season (Big Crown)"
From Big Crown:
Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time—with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season.
So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It’s a heavy album—as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it’s also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better—or fuller—coming our way. You hear it in songs like “Ala Vida,” with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA’s bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in “Fazed Out,” which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army.
This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season—a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise.
It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that’s where we are.
The Peacers "Blexxed Rec (Drag City)"
A new album from the San Francisco act, The Peacers.
Cabaret Voltaire "Dekadrone (MUTE)"
A new album from Cabaret Voltaire.