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.
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.”
Jäh Division "Dub Will Tear Us Apart… Again (EJRC)"
If you listened to music in 2004, then chances are you listened to Jäh Division’s Dub Will Tear Us Apart. The project, made up of members of Animal Collective, Oneida, and other then-burgeoning Brooklyn scene players, was a simple, funny to read about concept. Jäh Division plays dub versions of Joy Division songs (nearly 10 years before The Pizza Underground did their concept thing, thank you very much). Well here it is nearly 15 years later (shudder) and Ernest Jenning Record Co. is reissuing that original EP, but expanded to include a few more left off of the original EP and some songs from a scrapped album. Unlike a lot of other gimmick bands like this, they were actually great players, and more than the sum of their name and their blog-friendly story. In fact, you needn’t know anything about the story to love this dubbed up release. Check out “Dub Will Tear Us Apart.”