Masaki Batoh "Nowhere (Drag City)"
A mostly acoustically driven collection of psychedelia, Masaki Batoh’s Nowhere is a very easy pill to swallow. Just like the pills taken to best enjoy this pastoral freak-out. Kidding! I kid. No drugs needed to enjoy this modern take on the ‘60s underground psych-folk sound. Alternating between lyrics in English and his native Japanese, with drone-y acoustic lines other and lush instrumentation. This one is gonna make you long for the lovely days of summer. So kick back in a field somewhere warm (I’m pretending that’s possible, leave me be. It’s literally 10 degrees out as I write this) and check out the shimmering beauty of “Tower Of The Silence.”
Tiny Ruins "Olympic Girls (Ba Da Bing!)"
Tiny Ruins has shifted from a sparse, delicate sounding band to something more akin to Van Dyke Parks so skilfully I almost forget what they sounded like before their latest release, Olympic Girls (Ba Da Bing). But I certainly won’t soon forget what this one sounds like. Full of big, lush ideas (and sounds! Hooray music!). Combine the aforementioned lush-ness musical sounds with Hollie Fullbrook’s Leonard Cohen-esque literate folk-pop vocals (Cohen-esque in lyrical writing, not vocal stylings) and you have quite a combo. Check out the single, “Holograms” for an early entrant to the “chorus of the year” award.
William Tyler "Goes West (Merge)"
William Tyler’s new LP Goes West (Merge) is the opposite of Dylan going electric, and is just as illuminating. It’s not like William NEVER plays acoustic guitar on his albums or anything–his 2008 record Desert Canyon is mostly solo acoustic. But if you only know him from his widely heralded 2016 album Modern Country, then this record might come as a bit of a shock. But it’s not like there isn’t ANY electric guitar on the album, it’s just that he isn’t playing it. Who is? Oh, just Meg Duffy. Bill Frisell. NBD. A much more spacious album than his last, it would appear the “west” he has gone to in the album title is desert-heavy and wide open. As H.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger writes “it sounds as though he found a way to point himself directly towards the rich and bittersweet emotional center of his music without being distracted by side trips.” Check out the mesmerizing “Fail Safe.”
Black To Comm "Seven Horses For Seven Kings (Thrill Jockey)"
For a certain kind of music fan… ok, fine. ME! For a certain kind of me, Seven Horses For Seven Kings, the album from sound artist Marc Richter’s solo project Back To Comm is exactly the kind of thing I want to listen to all day. Instrumental, creepy, dark, tension-filled. If ambient music is something that you put on to fall peacefully asleep to, then this album is the one you put on to have nightmares to (look, I didn’t say I was a well-adjusted music fan, I’m just being honest here.) Whatever the opposite of New Age music is, this is that. It’s like if Lou Reed asked Brian Eno over to help him make Metal Machine Music (release day purchase if it existed, right?). Check out the unsettled “Lethe.”