Maserati "Enter The Mirror (Temporary Residence)"
From Temporary Residence:
Marking their 20th year as a band, Maserati returns with their first new album in five years. Produced by the band and mixed by Grammy-winning producer, John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Swans, Angel Olsen), Enter The Mirror is Maserati’s most compelling mélange of triumphant guitar hooks, abstract synth-pop, and Wax Trax-inspired noise anthems.
The gated drums of Phil Collins and chorus-drenched guitars of INXS were prominent influences on Enter The Mirror, paired to magnificent effect with the increasingly dystopian lyrical themes (which, ironically, were also massive influences on popular music in the 1980s, and feel ever more relevant now). In addition to longtime members Coley Dennis, Matt Cherry, Chris McNeal, and Mike Albanese, Maserati are joined by friends and collaborators, Bill Berry (R.E.M.), Owen Lange, and Alfredo Lapuz Jr.
Check out “A Warning In The Dark.”
Simon Fisher Turner and Edmund de Waa "A Quiet Corner In Time (Mute)"
From Mute Records:
A Quiet Corner In Time is a meditative drama, poised between action and stasis, mischief and grace. Some sounds are drawn out, combed into finely textured drones, while others remain starkly literal. We hear the creaks of rattling doors slamming shut; echoing steps of people moving through long corridors; cups and chatter in Viennese tearooms. The trapped harmonics in a vocal loop fall in, but lift before landing, and the small melodic chiming of porcelain shards resist syncing with the sounds of horses hooves, made percussive like castanets. Wooden coat hangers collide in the cloakroom of the Secession Building and a stolen glimpse of Rossini from the Opera House foyer appears, as does Ryuichi Sakamoto’s recordings of Mr Raku’s fine coffee and tea ceramics. In the background the house’s scent of soil and foliage is represented in recordings of bamboo from the house’s garden, while crashes of unprepared piano punctuate the work. Porcelain objects click and rattle throughout, in rhythms that accelerate as they come to rest. “I wanted it to be beautiful,” says Fisher Turner, who has vivid memories of the intensity of scent and light in the house.
Check out “Breaking Emptiness.”
Green / Blue "Green / Blue (Slovenly)"
From Slovenly Records:
lovenly Recordings is proud to present the debut hard copy from GREEN / BLUE: manually opening up a can of syrupy tones and pouring them down upon our daily bread. Each track cuts through a work uniform and plugs guitars directly into a human heart, encapsulated by a fully functioning warm body, which is either hugging a pillow and singing along to the 80% cocoa bittersweet dual vocals of Jim Blaha (The Blind Shake) and Annie Sparrows (The Soviettes), or revving the engine to the stoner, greaseball anthems of high motility.
The Green / Blue sound is primarily influenced by visual art, or more specifically, collages (“‘cause you can grab from anywhere and make a new story with it” – J.B.) and inverts itself for manifest on the album artwork, also performed by Mr. Blaha. His recent discovery and newfound love for lo-fi pop jangle (The Clean, The Chills and early GBV, as well as longtime JAMC lust) represents a bit of a sonic departure (not to be mistaken with maturity) for the label as well.
Each fat track was recorded on the thinnest of tape in the basement studio of Blaha’s Minneapolis home. What originated from batches of his home-brewed solo songs and electronic experiments, Green/Blue developed into a four-piece live force after adding Danny Henry (The Soviettes) on drums and Hideo Takahashi (Birthday Suits) on bass.
Check out “With That Face.”
Grumpy "Loser (Acrophase)"
It’s Grumpy‘s debut album on Acrophase Records! Loser is a candy-coated collection of alt-pop gems. A little like ’90s college radio, a even more like the current youth rock that obviously leans on that sound but has updated it to the current times. This is a head-bopping, jangle good time rock record. So get ready to bounce along to “Davy Jones”!