Colleen "Le Jour Et La Nuit Du Rèel"
Le jour et la nuit du réel (“The day and the night of reality” in French) is an album of parallels and contrasts. Schott’s first purely instrumental work since 2007’s Les ondes silencieuses, and her first double album, Le jour et la nuit du réel started as an album of songs with lyrics in the style of her previous album The Tunnel and the Clearing before gradually morphing into wordless suites of compositions divided into movements. Schott realized that synthesis was the best expressive tool at her disposal to grapple with a theme that seemed to be constantly on her mind: the impossibility of truly grasping all facets of reality, especially one’s own emotional reality and that of others. Each movement within a suite employs different synthesis settings, but with distinctive chords and motifs that provide a throughline, guiding the listener through shifting sonic landscapes. Schott elaborates: “To me, the capacity of synthesis to alter – subtly or radically – the physical embodiment in sound of the same series of notes is akin to how, when given new information about a person or a situation, we can reevaluate our initial perception of what we thought was the “reality” of that person or situation, sometimes drastically so.”
The album’s construct falls into two larger sections, day and night. A kaleidoscopic range of sounds speckle the album’s seven suites, aiming to translate the range and nuance of emotions, both deeply personal and communal, and the complexity of identity, as we shift from day to night. Daytime opens with more friction, tension, and abrasive timbres emulating the invigoration of daylight with “Subterranean” and “The long wait”, before softening into the warm luminance of “To hold and to be held” and “Mon coeur”. “Be without being seen” functions as a twilight transition zone, first melancholy, then threatening, mimicking the fact that nighttime tends to warp our sense of reality, often making it more intense. “Les parenthèses enchantées,” named for a French idiom that, roughly interpreted, means “a beautiful moment destined to end soon”, plunges the listener into the second half, night. The descent into slower, more melancholy textures and longer trails of delay slips into the pulsating, bottomless recesses of “Night looping”, a direct reference to Schott’s own recurrent insomnia.
Danko Jones "Electric Sounds"
From Napalm Records:
In the last ten years, DANKO JONES have visibly shifted up a few gears. Since frontman Danko and bassist JC joined forces with drummer Rich Knox, the band’s creative fire has blazed brighter than ever. A string of albums has led to even more intense touring and tireless dedication to the cause of rock. “Electric Sounds” is the best proof that even a global pandemic couldn’t stop DANKO JONES.
The McCharmlys "The McCharmlys"
From Hi-Tide & NuTone Recordings:
Debut LP from The McCharmlys, five-piece combo from Santa Ana, Calif., currently taking the scene by storm with their stylish blend of doo-wop, surf, beat & 60s style rock ‘n’ roll. LA Weekly called the band “an absolute joy” as they “recall sounds from past while adding a contemporary edge that is attractive to punk, new wave and rockabilly fans.”
Taking their name from a obscure Beatles interview, the band was assembled by band leader & primary songwriter Angie Monroy in 2018, carefully selecting key players from the Santa Ana scene. Monroy writes music every day, with influences ranging from The Ramones, Roy Orbison & The Beach Boys. The band’s lush sound is rounded out by layered harmonies & instrumentation that has captivated audiences on stage alongside Jason Joshua, The Delta Bombers, Josie Cotton, Slim Jim Phantom, Los Yesterdays & more.
Abby Johnson "Abby Johnson"
With fresh energy and bright intuition, Abby Johnson’s confident self-titled debut (due in late 2021) offers timeless folk songwriting teeming with a classic Nashville golden-era sheen. Johnson draws upon genre-spanning influences and wrangles them effortlessly into her own expression: “I want my songs to sound familiar, but tell you something new,” she says. The duality of Laurel Canyon nostalgia and indie rock blend effortlessly in her songs, polished further by the airtight backing band of fellow Nashvillians, Ornament (and produced by the band’s drummer, Ryan Donoho).
Raised in North Carolina on the earnest mythos of Taylor Swift, she describes her first songs as “diary entries — playing guitar alone in my bedroom until I was twenty three.” Moving to Nashville for college introduced her to an immersive musical community, where she steeped in the influence of folk-and-country stalwarts like Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt in equal proportion to more contemporary indie songwriters like Phoebe Bridgers.