Koleżanka "Alone with the Sound the Mind Makes"
From Bar/None Records:
In the last few years, we’ve all gotten a bit more acquainted with isolation at some point or another. It was no different for Kristina Moore (she/they), the songwriter behind koleżanka. During the long, dire winter months of late 2020 and early 2021, Moore found themselves holed up in their Brooklyn apartment, spending most of their time alone, and thus tumbling deeper into their own mind. The noise of daily life in New York City, and the numbness it can produce, receded. Moore’s thoughts were alight with memories, dreams, musical explorations. New songs began to pour out of them.
What could’ve been another despondent lockdown instead turned into the genesis for koleżanka’s sophomore album, Alone With The Sound The Mind Makes. Unable to work and without the distractions of social life, Moore kept a strict schedule, plotting their days down to what sort of meals they were going to make, which songs to revisit. It was a way of enforcing order on a chaotic time, during which they wrestled with mental health swings many of us are familiar with from quarantine (or otherwise) — depression, then anxiety, manic bouts of productivity with undercurrents of exhaustion. Without the resources for therapy, Moore had to learn to navigate it solo, to “make friends” with various unsettled states. In the process, they wrote an album that dives deep into a person’s reckoning with their self, their body, their experiences, their perceptions.
Sunroof "Electronic Music Improvisations Vol 2"
From Mute Records:
“Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2 is the second collection of improvised modular pieces recorded by Sunroof, aka Daniel Miller, the Founder and Chairman of Mute and Gareth Jones, a producer and engineer, notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure and Yann Tiersen. The album recorded through 2022, is available on CD and white vinyl.”
Jesse Malin "The Fine Art of Self Destruction"
From the Rolling Stone:
“JESSE MALIN TAKES a page out of Taylor Swift’s book and re-records his 2003 solo debut, The Fine Art of Self Destruction. Due Feb. 17 on the MNRK Heavy label, the updated version of the LP features fresh versions of fan favorites like “Riding on the Subway,” “Downliner,” and “High Lonesome.” Some, like “Brooklyn,” have been retitled as well: Malin premieres a video for “Brooklyn (Walt Whitman in the Trash)” today.
Directed by Malin’s longtime bass player Cat Popper and photographer Vivian Wang, the video finds the Lower East Side songwriter reminiscing on a New York that no longer exists. A scene from The Honeymooners (a frequent reference in Malin songwriting) opens the clip, with Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden saying, “I’m sorry, and I hope you forgive me,” before Malin, seated at the bar at Bowery Electric, shuffles through old photos.
“‘The last car on the line’ refers to me and my hardcore friends like Jimmy G. from Murphy’s Law, meeting at the junction of two different subway lines, Flushing and Astoria. When we were younger, the big dream was to come into the old Apple, New York, and make it happen,” Malin tells Rolling Stone. “We left our small boroughs like Queens and Brooklyn to live on our own and make our lives. We used to see people packing up stuff, throwing away their books and records, not having time to sell them or give them away. In this song, the character has to turn around and go backwards. It’s funny, because now Brooklyn is the first stop where kids come to make the art happen. Things change but the sentiment stays the same.
Along with the “Brooklyn” video and re-release, Malin will celebrate the LP’s 20th anniversary by performing the album with special guests like Lucinda Williams, Tommy Stinson, and Butch Walker at Webster Hall in New York on March 25th. Other performers include the Pogues’ Cait O’Riordan, Low Cut Connie’s Adam Weiner, Johnny Pisano, and Catherine Popper. Fantastic Cat, the all-star group of Don DiLego, Anthony D’Amato, Brian Dunne, and Mike Montali open.
The updated version of The Fine Art of Self Destruction, produced by Malin’s bandmate Derek Cruz and engineered by Geoff Sanoff, will be available on limited-edition vinyl. Earlier this year, Malin re-released his out-of-print album Glitter in the Gutter, which features the Bruce Springsteen duet ‘Broken Radio.'”
Maps "Counter Melodies"
From Mute Records:
Mercury-nominated artist Maps, aka James Chapman, presents his fifth studio album, Counter Melodies.
Maps’ music has always embraced melancholia, but with Counter Melodies Chapman has produced an album of upbeat and uplifting dance tracks. The album is a new adventure through the familiar emotional terrain of the Maps sound, while also transporting you to more resolutely optimistic and hopeful places. The album will be released in two parts; the first half will be available digitally from 26th October 2022, followed up by the full physical album release in early 2023.