Midnight Snaxxx "Music Inside (Slovenly)"
From Oakland, Ca. comes Midnight Snaxxx. Their new LP, Music Inside (Slovenly), is a great big slap of fun across your garage rock-loving face. Full of catchy melodies, angular-punk-y guitar interplay, and snarling vocals. But you can’t pin down the Snaxxx that easily. Hints of early LA Punk, UK dance-punk, and DIY jams throughout. This is a rock and roll record baby. So get ready to rock and roll along with the danceable “She Don’t Want That.”
Yann Tiersen "Portrait (Mute)"
It would be all too easy to fall down a rabbit hole of explanation when it comes to this new Yann Tiersen album Portrait (Mute)-which would explain why I’m about to do it (hey look! All my favorite rabbits are down here too! I see Bugs Bunny, Thumper, JoJo, Harvey, Peter, Roger… Oh no! I fell down a rabbit hole within a rabbit hole!) Portrait is a career-spanning retrospective of Yann’s immensely beautiful and important work. This is not a compilation of previously recorded work, as it’s all been rerecorded and rerecorded using analog recording equipment. The result is “a vital album that fizzes with the excitement and energy found at a live concert, but packed into a studio album.” Thanks Mute! Dip your toe in anywhere here and you are bound to fall in love, but if we must (and we must) start with the reworking of “Rue de Cascades.”
Eluvium "Virga 1 (Temporary Residence)"
From Temporary Residence:
Virga I is the first album in a new ambient music series by Eluvium. Matthew Cooper, the composer behind the Eluvium moniker, explains: “I had recently been playing around with various forms of generative music and long-format looping – as well as practicing patience interacting with musical systems and recordings – hesitantly dueting with them, trying to keep things minimal while also encouraging as much depth as possible. It was really just something fun to privately experiment with for personal gain. Over time I’d created a group of pieces and had them on various mixes that I would make for myself, but I hadn’t really given them much thought. At some point, my evenings became very much about relaxing, stretching, and breathing to these pieces. They gradually fostered a very specific mood that I found intoxicating. The music seemed to enhance the soft orange glow in this small room in the dark of night, with the snow falling just outside. They also reminded me of some of my earliest works, those which were a bit less researched and considered. Perhaps they were simply more “felt” than anything. I decided it might be nice to start a series inspired by this setup. I titled it Virga, after the drifting of rain we sometimes catch drooping on the horizon, disappearing before it reaches the ground.”
Check out the title track “Virga I.”
Harry Nilsson "Losst And Founnd (Omnivore)"
What’s this? Oh nothing. No big deal… just the NEW HARRY NILSSON RECORD!!! Ok, I’ll calm down now. When the music world (and the world in general) unexpectedly lost Harry Nilsson in 1994 it had been nearly 15 years since he had gifted the world with a new album. Well, it turns out that at the time of his death he was deep into the work on a new album, and now 25 years later that album has been completed by his friends and family. Produced by Mark Hudson and featuring contributions from Van Dyke Parks, Jim Keltner, Jimmy Webb, and Harry’s son Kiefo as well as the songcraft and melodies Nilsson is known for, this is a wonderful post script to the man’s already amazing legacy. If you were worried that Harry was going to get with the times in the 90s, well fear not. This is his classic sound. Check out the title track “Lost And Found.”