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.
Ibibio Sound Machine "Electricity"
Electricity was produced by the Grammy Award– and Mercury Prize–nominated British synthpop group Hot Chip, a collaboration born out of mutual admiration watching each other on festival stages, as well as a shared love of Francis Bebey and Giorgio Moroder. The fruits of their labor reveal a gleaming, supercharged, Afrofuturist blinder.
Electricity is the first album Ibibio Sound Machine have made with external producers since the group’s formation in London in 2013 by lead singer Eno Williams and saxophonist Max Grunhard. True, 2017’s Uyai featured mixdown guests including Dan Leavers, aka Danalogue, the keyboard jedi in future-jazz trio The Comet Is Coming, but Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine worked together more deeply throughout the process, collaborating fully. Along the way, the team conjured a kaleidoscope of delights that include resonances of Jonzun Crew, Grace Jones, William Onyeabor, Tom Tom Club, The J.B.’s, Jon Hassell’s Fourth World, and Bootsy Collins.
Kevin Devine "Nothing’s Real, So Nothing’s Wrong"
In simplest terms: Nothing’s Real, So Nothing’s Wrong is a grown-up break-up (or break-ups, as it were) record, for strugglers by strugglers, a kitchen-sink 10th album pivot, painstakingly brought to life by two career-long collaborators and their shared (& split) obsessions.
The mission: alchemize a chainsmoked series of destabilizing life experiences into something musically dynamic & progressive & expansive;
be lyrically evocative & excavating & unflinching without irresponsibly printing your journals;
navigate two successive endings, and the “how did I get here,” and the dark night of honestly assessing the soul, and digging a tunnel, and the stubborn humanity in beginning again.
(It’s also sort of a fatherhood record.)
And now: to get people to hear it.
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.