Published on
April 19, 2024
Category
Features
Essential weekend listening.
This week’s rundown is by VF’s Kelly Doherty, and contributors Emily Hill and James Hammond.
claire rousay
sentiment
(Thrill Jockey)
claire rousay shifts her focus on sentiment, her most accessible and immediate release yet. While the found sound and distinct experimental musical language of her previous work remains at the backbone of sentiment, the previously implied emo atmospheres are explicit this time round as twinkling guitars wrap themselves around rousay’s isolated ambient productions. There’s a stark sadness to everyday sounds captured on sentiment–these compositions belong to an inner world plagued by loneliness, self-doubt and conflict. A moving body of work from one of experimental music’s most emotive figures. –KD
Lord Tusk
Happy Endings
(Mida)
London’s favourite electronic mutant beatmaker Lord Tusk returns with two tripped-out steppers on Estonian imprint Mida. Lord Tusk’s debut with the label, aptly titled Happy Endings, brings together spacious industrial percussion with bright neon-esque pads that have a touch of the futuristic about them. On the flip, things get extraterrestrial with electro-style pads and zorbing effects taking you out of this world.–EH
Still House Plants
If I don’t make it, I love u
(Bison Records)
If I don’t make it, I love u by Still House Plants
Still House Plants’ third long player If I don’t make it, I love u comes as the group’s best yet with their neatly intertwined yet off-kilter approach taking another stride forward. Built on the foundations of the group’s long-standing friendship and a curious balance of pop and abrasion, these tracks thrive on the enveloping repetitions and left turns of Finlay Clark’s guitar, Jess Hickie Kallenbach’s vocals, and David Kennedy’s drums.–EH
Cloud Nothings
Final Summer
(Pure Noise)
Final Summer by Cloud Nothings
Fifteen years into their career, Ohio outfit Cloud Nothings offer up another solid slab of melodic but nonetheless confronting indie rock. Final Summer doesn’t rewrite the book but showcases the value in a consistent indie rock act that reliably deliver, regardless of trends within the wider genre. Anthemic without falling into the saccharine, Final Summer is the sound of slacker rock grown up–work that feels at ease, not because of casualness but because of years of experience and talent. Roll the windows down and blast it through the car speakers.–KD
Orbital
Orbital
(London Records)
Orbital’s seminal debut self-titled album, aka ‘The Green Album’, was originally released 33 years ago and now gets the reissue treatment but in the most deluxe format. The limited expanded 4 LP boxset, which includes the original album alongside a selection of remixes and rarities, is encased in two double gatefold record sleeves. The album, restored by the band themselves, includes various versions of some of their most iconic hits. This boxset is one for the serious heads.–EH
FUJI||||||||||TA
MMM
(Hallow Ground)
FUJI||||||||||TA – MMM by FUJI||||||||||TA
MMM meets Yosuke Fujita’s self-built pipe organ system with experimental microphone and vocal techniques for three long-form works that follow up on 2021’s excellent Noiseem LP. Where past works for his organ systems have seen Fujita manually working the air pump as a vital part of the sonic flow here, a switch to an automatic air pump gives space for some adventurous interplay with a shotgun microphone. Combined with vocals that push at corporeal limits, there’s plenty here for adventurous ears to delve into.–JH
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