A Billi Free & The Lasso "Holy Body Roll"
Holy Body Roll is a groove-filled guidebook for healing, the soundtrack to help you move from tear-streaming breakdown to full-body boogie. The first collaborative album from Michigan multi-instrumentalist/producer The Lasso and New Mexico-based singer/rapper A. Billi Free, it’s also a quest for self-realization and self-preservation. With the aid of musical trio Tri Magi, The Lasso imbues thumping ’80s boogie, guitar-wailing funk descended from Midwest legends, heart-pumping house and techno direct from Detroit, celestial and spiritual jazz, and slices of krautrock with hip-hop sensibilities.
A. Billi Free sings in warm, comforting melodies and raps with force and encouraging sincerity, pushing us to reconnect with our bodies in the present while accepting the unknown ahead. However, when the duo began working on the album remotely, The Lasso was still reeling from a divorce. Realizing Free’s sonic visions helped him transmute his anguish into uplifting, dance-inducing instrumentals. During mixing sessions in Michigan and Tucson, the pair drove through forests and deserts, the album on repeat. Listen closely, there is wisdom in every note and lyric, a chance for you to dance as the pain fades and the future comes into focus.
Destroyer "LABRYNTHITIS"
Destroyer’s 2022 album brims with mystic and intoxicating terrain, the threads of Dan Bejar’s notes woven through by a trove of allusions at once eerily familiar and intimately perplexing.
More than an arcane puzzle for the listener, LABYRINTHITIS warps and winds through unfamiliar territory for Bejar as well. Written largely in 2020 and recorded the following spring, the album most often finds Bejar and frequent collaborator John Collins seeking the mythic artifacts buried somewhere under the dance floor, from the glitzy spiral of “It Takes a Thief” to the Books-ian collage bliss of the title track. Initial song ideas ventured forth from disco, Art of Noise, and New Order, Bejar and Collins championing the over-the-top madcappery. “Our version may have been punk clubs, but our touchstones for the album were more true to disco,” says Bejar.
Minibeast "On Ice"
Minibeast is the current project from Peter Prescott, formerly of Mission of Burma. The Providence based band has a new album coming out on April 1, “On Ice: and one of the songs they’ve made available to listen to is “Exclusive.” If you’re familiar with Prescott’s work with Mission of Burma or Volcano Suns, chances are you’re going to dig this song. “Exclusive” has a lot of the noise and clunky guitars of his previous bands, but there is also an jazz-like groove throughout the song. The song surprisingly stops just shy of being mainstream, but definitely stops short. While it may be rooted in classic Burma, Minibeast are a completely different project, but still ones fans will love.
Yumi Zouma "Present Tense"
Yumi Zouma, the collaborative long-distance project originally created between friends online, have been self-producing their infectious blend of delicate pop tapestries by way of home recordings since the release of their debut EP in 2014. Composed of vocalist Christie Simpson, bassist / vocalist Josh Burgess, guitarist / multiinstrumentalist Charlie Ryder, and drummer Olivia Campion, Yumi Zouma have returned with Present Tense, the band’s fourth and most comprehensive studio album. On Present Tense, Yumi Zouma bolster their sonic palette with an arsenal of live drums, grand pianos, orchestral strings, and woodwinds, to develop a sonic confidence that has grown with the release of 2017’s Willowbank and 2020’s Truth or Consequences.
Recorded in between Los Angeles, London, Florence, New York and New Zealand, Present Tense effortlessly glides between ballads like “Where The Light Used To Lay”, and bangers like “In The Eyes of Our Love” – arguably one of the most immediate songs the band has ever written. On “Mona Lisa”, the quartet adds to their vast collection of undeniable melodies, with Simpson’s adlibs and harmonies shining bright atop a battery of percussion and saxophones.