The kids are coming up from behind.
Protomartyr – Hotel Usona Detroit’s Protomartyr accentuated their verbose, gloomy post-punk dirges with brass on Hotel Usona. It is the most conceptual and cohesive album of their career and perhaps, the album that best justifies them as heirs to the gothic existentialism of The Birthday Party. The sound is characterised by ‘noir’ harmonies and post-industrial … Read more
Phoebe Bridgers – Lost Weekend 6 years after the success of Punisher, Bridgers returns with Lost Weekend, (over-)produced by Jack Antonoff alongside Alex Giannascoli (Alex G), Tony Berg, Ethan Gruska and others, which is unfortunately underwhelming on the songwriting front, despite the liminal and moody production choices and intimate lyrics. The opening couplet of Lost … Read more
After several pioneering EPs, mixing spiritual jazz, Godspeedian post-rock and rap-rock (but verging on spoken word), Manchester’s Maruja (Harry Wilkinson (lead vocals, guitar), Joe Carroll (saxophone, vocals), Matt Buonaccorsi (bass) and Jacob Hayes (drums)). released their long awaited debut album, which offers a dose of ferocious agit-prop backed by sinister rhythms and mournful saxophone. The … Read more
North Carolina’s Wednesday revived Indie rock of the 90s (power pop, grunge, shoegaze, slacker rock, country rock), sounding sort of like all of the above. Singer, Karly Hartzman falls somewhere in between Liz Phair and Alannis Morrisette. Bleeds is their most varied and dynamic album yet. Note the mix of scorching guitar riffs, tuneless singing … Read more
In an era of ‘noise rock’ and ‘dark-punk’, New York’s Geese were a breath a fresh air. 2023’s 3D Country presented a band both drowning in their influences (particularly the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin) but with the capacity to perform their imitations with a ‘new wave’ vivacity, with new ideas and a new presentation, … Read more
Playboi Carti – Music Carti returns with a 75 minute behemoth that abandons any pretence of quality control. The album is crafted by an extraordinarily long cast of producers, which doesn’t exactly imbue the album with much vision or purpose. Stylistically, the album shifts towards a less experimental style and abandons the androgynous vampire persona … Read more
London-based rapper Dave returned the autobiographical and conceptual style of Psychodrama on The Boy Who Played The Harp, also mainly self-produced but with a vital contribution from songwriter-producer, James Blake alongside his usual cast (Jo Caleb, Jonny Leslie, Kyle Evans, Fraser T. Smith). The album displays both his emotionally gripping, diaristic writing style and his … Read more
Former Youtube streamer, Benjamin Fernando Barajas Lasky, combines folktronica (a la Ultramarine) and emo-rap (a la Lil Peep) as Quadeca, especially on 2022’s I Didn’t Mean To Want You, a ghostly and depressive concept album constructed from dense cloudy atmospheres mixed seamlessly with trap cadences. Vanisher, Horizon Scraper, for the most part, reneges his cloud … Read more
Tyler The Creator – Don’t Tap The Glass Odd future alumni Tyler, The Creator dropped the loose 30-minute mini-album Don’t Tap The Glass which eschews the conceptual ambitions in favour of a more direct and visceral style. The album contains scuzzy atmospheres, evocative of the ‘Crunk’ era (Big Poe feat, Sk8brd), nods to original hardcore … Read more
British rapper, Simbiatu “Little Simz” Ajikaw built a reputation for introspective and conceptual raps, particularly on the kaleidoscopic Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and the more subtle but equally emotional No Thank You, both produced by Inflo. After a nasty legal battle, Simz split from Inflo and releasedLotus, which is partly a response to the … Read more