Carsie Blanton - Buck Up
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
With a terse 10-track glide of a record as accentuator, this showcases Blanton as versatile virtuoso that's bashful, bodacious, funny, calmly aching. With ease she emanates jazzy cool, classically trained folkie, punk quirk, low-key liberation. Between the sheets with nicely dressed mistakes/just the thought of them one minute, "We stole this nation fair and square / And a whole lot of people in chains / But it was all for the glory of God I swear / And the glory of capital gains" the next. Then there's feather-in-the-breeze balladry, a lip-hair letdown jaunt that could qualify for Grease 3 material, an album title that doubles as a legit life motto, getting back in bed until the president's dead. Backing band: pro ragtag that's restrained yet rich and crucial enough to earn their own hails. Harmonizers, too. 7.5/10
Matmos - Plastic Anniversary
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
///PLAS-FUCKING-TIC\\\
Plastic as single-source restriction is a far more conceptually compelling and contemporary gimmick than previous peculiar palettes -- e.g. crayfish nerves, hair, a washing machine. But how they go bout conveyin' this one is the clincher. Some bits distinct as billiard balls and poker chips, some presumably actual instrument, many manipulated to the point of could-be-anything, the concurrent sense of unnerving doom and daffy cartoon; this is in the pitch of plastic. Slickness turned sickening, convoluted yet accessible, wobbly+rattling+riveting, the uncomfortably squeaky glaze of shoes on a basketball court or lil nips to the brain. Pliable as hell and a hoot to boot. Baby aliens on a rollercoaster? Ominous space-dust for finale forecasting the future? 8/10
Pissgrave - Posthumous Humiliation
A handle like Pissgrave grouped with a megalomutilated mug for album art ensures a disgusting ordeal methinks. And ceaseless scum it does deliver. The disorienting+deafening mix'll pump dat blood and immerse your brain in spew and admittedly nears spellbinding in its own sick dinny-metal way, above all else though this just excruciates and exhausts. Not without their riffs or exceptionally vicious vigor but leaves you craving some variety. Endurability past a short while would be nice. Pissgrave, they just try so hard. 5.5/10
AJ Tracey - AJ Tracey
Like many-a grimer's flow, Tracey's broodingly braggadocios expertise-n-earnestness approaches oppressive. But not many carry this much comfortable crossover appeal while remaining so lyrically deft+dense. He's got enough suave r&b lover-man charm to pull off stuff like "I wanna get you home and give your thing a thumping / I carve the pussy up like I'm cutting pumpkin / Pussy like The English Channel every time I jump in"; later on labeling her ex-man "a lab rat". And for all the swift exactitude dude's got quite the kaleidoscopic quiver of ad-libs, impenetrable tangles of slang and rhyme, accented accentuation for days. No pills/just chill his m.o. from the get-go yet could calmly kill it at the club, perhaps preoccupied with possessions and sleeping with people but so pumped bout his success on "Doing It" you can't help but root for him. See "Country Star" for what Young Thug's guitar album shoulda went for, and personal fave "Horror Flick" for fantastically furious Halloween cheese -- in which ad-libs include "watch out", "grrr", "blahtt", full-moon howls. 7/10
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Angel Du$t - Pretty Buff 6/10
Chai - Punk 6/10
Duke - Uingizaji Hewa 6.5/10
Ex Hex - It's Real 5/10
Little Simz - Grey Area 7/10
Nonlocal Forecast - Bubble Universe! 6/10
