Published on
August 23, 2024
Category
Features
Essential weekend listening.
This week’s rundown is by VF’s Kelly Doherty and contributors Annabelle Van Dort, Emily Hill and James Hammond.
Fontaines D.C.
Romance
(XL Recordings)
Dublin outfit Fontaines D.C. release their fourth album and it’s yet another left turn. Where lead single “Starburster” may have indicated a move towards laddish ’90s rock, Romance is a thoughtful exercise that dabbles in shoegaze and sonic grandiosity. Romance is a stadium-bothering record without cloying anthems, these cuts are expansive and all-consuming in their ambitious production and the band’s trademark blunt and dark lyricism. Fontaines D.C. are at the top of their game.– KD
Various Artists
funk.BR – São Paulo
(NTS)
NTS radio and its highly esteemed vinyl imprint continue expanding our musical understanding. Having heavily supported the contemporary Brazillian funk scene on shows across the station, they sought out a collaboration with journalists Jonathan Kim and Felope Maia to assemble funk.BR – São Paulo. NTS invites the listener to take a journey across the city’s vital funk mandelão sound–one that São Paulo can truly call its own.–EH
Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd
The Moon & The Melodies
(4AD)
A first vinyl reissue for Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd’s The Moon & the Melodies after its initial release in 1986. Upping the ethereal and enveloping nature of their respective approaches, this one thrives on the shimmer of sustained instruments and some liberal use of chorus effects. Given an attentive remastering by the Cocteau Twin’s Robin Guthrie, this merging of Budd-leaning instrumentals and tracks that feature Elizabeth Fraser’s resplendent vocals makes for a balmy and transportive set that still stands as more than just a footnote in the storied discographies of those involved.–JH
Holy Tongue meets Shackleton
The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now
(AD 93)
Shackelton is having a busy 2024. Just a month after releasing his genre-bending collaboration with new-folk experimentalist Six Organs Admittance (the masterful Jinxed By Being), he returns with another mind-altering record—this time a joint effort with left-field musical mavericks The Holy Tongue. The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now is a maelstrom of rumbling sub-heavy basslines, thundering percussive rhythms and bursts of atonal horns—all submerged in a viscous mix of distortion and reverb. A sonically metamorphosing trip through dub, tribal and spiritual jazz, The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now is one of 2024’s best releases yet.–AVD
Various Artists
fabric presents Confidence Man
(fabric)
Pop-dance hype machine Confidence Man show off their electronic chops on this latest fabric presents mix. Featuring tracks from Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, Demi Riquísimo, Papa Nugs and more, alongside new Confidence Man material–a collaboration with IN2STELLAR–it’s a late summer party selection ready-made for pulling up the vibe. Another solid entry in the fabric presents series.–KD
Melt Banana
3 + 5
(AZAP)
Transitioning to a duo on 2013’s Fetch, Yasuko Onuki and Ichiro Agata continue as such here with their formidable high-octane fusion of adrenalised sounds showing no signs of atrophy after an 11-year break in recording. Meeting glitch and cyberpunk aesthetics decidedly on their own terms, Melt Banana draw on punk and hardcore as readily as they do on gaming or anime subcultures and the results here are a blast.–JH
DJ Babatr
Rise of the Raptor
(International Chrome)
DJ Babatr is one of the minds pushing forward Raptor House and is widely considered the Godfather of the Raptor genre, a sonic exploration that brings together a vivid fusion of Euro trance, ghetto house and Afro-Latin rhythms. The latest offering Rise of the Raptor on International Chrome includes a stellar remix by French producer and fan of speedy percussion Amor Satyr. Across five tracks they hop between club-ready sounds, bringing together ’90s Euro club tropes with Venezuelan street rave alacrity, keeping dancefloors refreshed and electric.–EH
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