Boliden - Surfaces
Still pumpin' out the placidity that comes with minimal-yet-moving loops warmly smothered in spectral-dub-soup ambience, still winningly meditative and rather jaunty all things considered. But really seems like a less-striking overlong reiteration of his 10-months-prior album 'Landscape and Memory'. Still eventually grows toward samey-gone-stagnant too; which the whole overlong thing certainly doesn't remedy. 6.5/10
Tim Darcy - Saturday Night
As Ought's guitar-wielding frontman he's quite the piquant post-punk aggregator; enough to pique interest in this here solo path anyway. Which, despite having its moments and brandishing some bedraggled charm, is too much of a disjointed toss-together. It's a shame yet reasonable tradeoff when the tunes all but disappear at the midway point -- out with the generic garage riffs w/ good tonage and warm psychedelia, in with the whatever'd basement scraping and truly touching 2-minute piano ballad called "What'd You Release?". A good question. 5.5/10
Carsten Jost - Perishable Tactics
The ominous ambience and conservative-yet-chill rainy-day house jam that kick things off ain't bad, but I'm relieved when what follows is more stark+stringent and brings on dat thump. Prolonged like most house and kinda sounding like most house too, but ooo the sturdy subdued grooves and moody doing-much-with-a-little adornments are strong with this one. A rich marriage of trance-dance-mechanical with no need to complicate things made with an ear for moving-n-meticulous-n-mysterious textures. Slight Special Touches include the feathery palm pats of "Atlantis", the "Platoon RLX" duo's cryptic and haphazardly looped dialogue, and the title track's bursts of robot breath. 7/10
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
Kinda miss the pure fire that was brought on by the perpetual propulsion of their loopy LP from last year, but the provided variety and perma-stellar performances and this here 'microtonal' makeup still engage to the extreme. Seeing that their grooves are tight as they are effortless and this is the first of five albums they're due to discharge in 2017, I get the feeling they can make this stuff in their sleep. And yeah the stiff glued-to-the-guitar-lick vox get old quick -- but for two-to-three fuzzy rock bands' worth of sound that employs punky-plain tunefulness and old-school dusty-desert vibes with a penchant for piano+harmonica? Sleep it is, then. Plus screaming zurnas. 7.5/10
Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
Jens progressively proves himself masterful at nonchalantly merging the droll with the touching whilst perpetually painting scenes that endure -- stories here range from rigging a carnival ride with an electrician's sister to a worried-bout pal bringing his print-tumor out for beers to a hand-hold and mouthed-out "i love you" absolving all woes to a 'how we met' yarn that starts at the beginning of time to the dilemma of male friends expressing love for each other when they usually just talk about nothin'. But blowing me away each and every listen are the arrangements: peppy, pristine, bright, bold, soft done super, really downright beautiful. Too sweet, too many horns-n-handclaps, too "disco"? Agh; cheer up, listen close, face that it's a concise pop classic. "In a world of mouths I want to be an ear", he flawlessly croons on his existential 20-year flashback opener. That's great, but whatever you do plz stay a mouth. 9/10
Palberta - Bye Bye Berta
Even the most permissive post-punk pundits may find these 20 half-songs too sour and slipshod -- not that the discordant clatter and youthful yelps and hectic harmonizing aren't fun or the "Stayin' Alive" sendup ain't a hoot. As a whole however this is just frivolous gone kinda fruitless, more goof-off than gung-ho. "It's a free space", an anomalous man muses at one point. Agh, it's a bummer when those backfire. 5/10
Pissed Jeans - Why Love Now
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
Having gone from playing punk and scarfing sugar to anticipating a deadly diagnosis and singing the blues, an aging Matt Korvette's rude awakening serves as sick-n-sludgy commencement. Granted, the swamp-creature delivery renders it ridiculous as is, but no Pissed Jeans record could stay forlorn for long; so in come a buncha one-to-three-minute invigorators and some more important matters -- the asininity of astrology, kneecaps becoming a deal-breaker, the encouragement of sexual exploration, playing Jumble with 'ignore', being labeled a decent person just cuz of society's sad standards. Also featured is the forever jarring and perfectly performed macho rave centerpiece "I'm a Man"; suspect until determining that the raver+writer is (slowed down?) female author Lindsay Hunter satirizing it the fuck up. Punk playing and sugar scarfing still apply, btw. 8/10
Sleaford Mods - English Tapas
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
Their latest rendition of minimalist rant-punk lets up a bit on the hyper ire and colorful oddities while boosting the consonance+catchiness of their fundamental beat-box and bass-man confinement. Compelling choruses and observant Brit-grit abound, but I do miss the denser diatribes of yore that provided many-a LOL puzzler line; especially upon excavation. But an engaging cleanup nonetheless, one that includes twizzled beards and fat bastards and deadlift-induced farts to boot. 7.5/10
Thundercat - Drunk
Whimsical warmth and playful electronix are fetching enough, tones both sharp-n-crisp and nighttime dreamy please the ear, expected jazzy verve is there but woulda liked to see it more amply utilized. For my money, the peak of this 23-track 51-minute yuck-it-up jumble comes at what may as well be the beginning, the 2 tunes/4 minutes of "Captain Stupido" and "Uh Uh". The latter a simple speedy jazz drill that shoulda lent some of its liveliness elsewhere and the former gagger-goofy as the best of em with its flatulence and meat beatin' beard combin' Beach Boys scurry. Following that, it seems like video game/internet/cat culture is catered to more than the songwriting; too many half-songs and less-than-half-songs with a bulk not making a dent. Monotonous vox, smooth-gone-shallow, garden-variety guest spots -- except for Wiz Khalifa, tho not in a good way -- his gnarly weed and red cups take the gagger-goofy crown. 6/10
Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage
A bit too formless for my plain ol beat-preferring inclinations, not smooth or emotionally enthralling enough for utter ambient envelopment -- but I do dig the rather fluky fashion that these synthblipsetc. soothingly glow, squoosh, crumble, tinkle, fidget, float, ping, moan, whathaveyou; tickling the senses and tranquilizing a room without gettin' obnox or comatose. Think erratic martian spa with just a touch-o-glitch, artificial windswept exotica, and adherence to Japanese diction. 6/10
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