Published on
September 16, 2022
Category
Features
Our favourite new vinyl releases this week.
This week’s rundown is by VF’s Kelly Doherty and Lazlo Rugoff, alongside Annabelle Van Dort, Emily Hill, and James Hammond.
anaiis
This Is No Longer A Dream
(Dream Sequence Recordings / Touching Bass)
anaiis’ 2021 debut album is finally getting the vinyl treatment. This Is No Longer A Dream is a formidable introduction to the French-Senegalese artist. Melding soulful vocals with warm, intriguing textures, the release is structured around an internal dialogue that moves from anxiety to acceptance and through the shades in between. This Is No Longer A Dream‘s hazy, selective instrumentation casts an accessible shroud over its astute lyricism. Intimate and affirming work. — KD
Hodge
Sub 100
(Two Moons)
A staple of Bristol’s electronic music scene, the news that Hodge is launching his own record label feels like a long time coming. Stepping up for the first release on Two Moons, Hodge summons a true dance floor heater on the titular ‘Sub 100’, before moving into murkier territory on the flip with ‘Where I Wanna Be’. While details for forthcoming releases on the label are pretty sparse — he plans to simply release records “when the music comes”, with “no real schedule” — if its first 12” is anything to go by, Two Moons is going to be worth keeping an eye on. — LR
Lou Reed
Words & Music, May 1965
(Light In The Attic)
Words & Music, May 1965 is the inaugural title in Light in the Attic Records’ oncoming Lou Reed archival series. Compiled and produced in collaboration with the Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed archives, this compilation of previously unreleased tracks features the earliest known recordings of The Velvet Underground classics like ‘Heroin’ and ‘Pale Blue Eyes’. Accompanied only by a twanging guitar, occasional melancholic harmonica and subtle vocal harmonies, this is Reed at his most intimate. The informality and unfinishedness of these recordings add a rawness to Reed’s iconic work. — AVD
Tenka
Hydration
(Métron Records)
Meitei returns this week to debut his new Tenka alias for a second release on Métron Records, Hydration. Moving away from the satirisation of Japanese aesthetics of the Kofū albums, Hydration pays attention to the mountain forests close to his home. In doing so, Tenka combines ambient textures with chimes, the sounds of water, and ethereal instrumentation. Designed to truly immerse you in the landscape, the record is accompanied by a fragrance created in collaboration with perfumer Ryoko Hori. — LR
Lil Silva
Yesterday Is Heavy
(Nowhere Music Ltd.)
Ten years in the making, Lil Silva’s Yesterday Is Heavy is a feature-laden excursion that straddles the line between pop grooves and experimental production. On its funkier numbers, the album oozes warmth and familiarity – acutely capturing the essence of home. Elsewhere, Lil Silva’s sound shaping unfurls and repeatedly challenges. With a roster of diverse yet enduringly reliable guests including Little Dragon, BADBADNOTGOOD and Sampha providing extra touches throughout the release, Yesterday Is Heavy feels complete and essential. — KD
Yutaka Hirose
TRACE: Sound Design Works 1986-1989
(WRWTFWW)
The defiant ‘WRWTFWW’ delivers a beautiful collection of unreleased tracks from the depths of Yutaka Hirose’s vault. Spanning the period of 1986 to 1989, these tracks come from Hirose’s work during the Sound Process Design sessions, following his successful Soundscape series. The work can be described as sound scenery, sculpting sound to entwine the listener with the composition. Each piece is delicate and seemingly accidental yet incredibly calculated in its weaving form. — EH
Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley
Oceans of Time
(Sacred Bones)
The fruits of Gloria de Oliviera and Dean Hurley’s long-distance, musical pen-pal style collaboration, Oceans of Time finds the duo worldbuilding through dreampop and emotive lyricism. Including some of the signature atmospherics that recall Hurley’s collaborations with filmmaker David Lynch, it’s the broader range of pop entanglements and de Oliviera’s soothing yet stark vocals that give this work an allure of its own. — JH
Jorg Kuning
Chosta-del-sol
(Wisdom Teeth)
A 12inch electronic bass excursion from K-Lone and Facta’s London label Wisdom Teeth. Enigmatic Welsh producer Jorg Kuning’s ‘Chosta-del-sol’ is a modular piece of art, offering the listener a final taste of summer through four snuggly psychedelic house and techno numbers. Evoking the beauty of the Welsh landscape, the tracks carry a weighty depth of playfulness which harks back to his own signature production stamp. From the titular opener, it’s an eccentric ride, as the sprawling noodly pads blend effortlessly with the warmth of a house beat. — EH
Whitney
SPARK
(Secretly Canadian)
Whitney finds liberation in reinvention on their third record, Sparks, released on Secretly Canadian. Sparks marks an artistic shift from the soft-rock hymnals of 2016’s Light on the Lake and 2019’s Forever Turned Alone into new electronic terrain. Lead vocalist Julian Ehrlich’s signature saccharine falsetto and delicate vocal harmonies are still present, but take on an edgier character against beat-focused production. A captivating new chapter and creative turn for the Chicago duo. — AVD
Cosey Fanni Tutti
Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And The Legendary Tapes
(Conspiracy International)
Soundtracking Caroline Catz’ Delia Derbyshire biopic The Myths and the Legendary Tapes, this collection from Cosey Fanni Tutti primes the tape machines and analogue synthesizers and sets out an intriguing interzone between her and Delia Derbyshire’s ground-breaking crafts. Bolstered by Tutti’s open access to Derbyshire’s vast archive of reel-to-reel tapes and letters, these tracks find Tutti utilizing the same collaging and tape manipulation techniques as Derbyshire, pairing their musical sensibilities and paying testament to the ingenuity and ongoing legacy of Derbyshire’s work. — JH
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