NEW RELEASES 2015 WEEK # 28 JULY 17, 2015

JULY 17, 2015 (WEEK # 28)

1.    ELLEN ALLIEN-“HIGH” [EP] (7/17) (Ellen Allien's first release of 2015 proves once again that love of music is still the best drug on earth. Euphoria can turn into ecstasy by sharing this love on the dancefloor, and Ellen's 11-minute trip "High" is dedicated to the dancing crowd. Subtle and hypnotic, from the pushing bass to the powerful, ascending soundscapes of the Jupiter-8 to the lead vocal line, "You make me feel so high." The B-side is also about her typical way of exchanging energy; while the 303 only tickles at first, the acid helixes soon climb into the trance sky. Listen. Feel. Space out.)

2.    THE BIRD AND THE BEE-“RECREATIONAL LOVE” (7/17) 

3.    CARLTON MELTON-“OUT TO SEA” (7/17) (The voyage is long, the voyage is joyous. Out to Sea is the most focused of all Carlton Melton's recordings to date. Leaving their geodesic dome behind, they hitched their magick karpet to San Francisco's El Studio for a fried weekend in July 2014 with The Fucking Champs / Trans Am's Phil Manley at the production helm (and occasionally contributing  to the furor--Manley plays guitar on "Similarities" and synth on "Peaking Duck").Out to Sea sees Carlton Melton expand the psychedelia and free outrock sound of their previous output to its furthest horizons. Huge rhythms, outta space riffage, sparkling synths, pastoral passages, searing shards of molten guitar, smothered ambience and gentle guitar-picking all flow together into waves of sound to lap at the shores of your senses.We're gonna need a bigger boat."Radiant" --Mojo "Intense, sweet, headnodding psych" --Uncut +  ("Out to Sea" is the most focused of all Carlton Melton’s recordings to date while successfully expanding the psychedelia and free outrock sound of their previous releases. Huge rhythms, outta space riffage, sparkling synths, pastoral passages, searing shards of molten guitar, smothered ambiance and gentle guitar-picking all flowing together into waves of sound to lap at the shores of your senses. MIDHEAVEN MAILORDER")

4.    THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS-“BORN IN THE ECHOES” [DELUXE EDITION 2-CD] (7/17) 

5.    SAMANTHA CRAIN-“UNDER BRANCH & THORN & TREE” (7/17) (Crain's songs are full of expansive melodies that veer off in unpredictable directions, with lyrics that explore conflicting emotions with uncommon insight and compassion. She has a jazz singer's phrasing, often breaking words into rhythmic fragments that land before and after the beat, stretching syllables or adding grace notes to uncover hidden nuances in her lyrics.Under Branch & Thorn & Tree was recorded at Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco, with John Vanderslice (The Mountain Goats, Spoon), who also helmed last year's Kid Face. We recorded straight to two-inch tape on a Studer 24-track machine and mixed down to 1/2-inch tape on an Ampex machine. The pre-amps were tube and we never used a computer. Our effects were done manually through tape looping and manipulation. Most of the arrangements happened in the moment, as we recorded. My guitar and vocals are all first or second takes. These intimate vignettes are marked by Crain's careful attention to the tiny details that often escape us, supported by the subtle musical settings she crafted with Vanderslice and the backing musicians.)

6.    DAT POLITICS-“NO VOID” (7/17)

7.    DAY WAVE-“HEADCASE” [EP] (7/17) 

8.    D.O.A.-“HARD RAIN FALLING” (7/17) (2015 release, the 16th studio album from Canada's legendary punk pioneers. DOA is back with a vengeance! It looked like Canada's legendary punk pioneers were going to hang it up, as Joe "Shithead" Keithley, the godfather of hardcore, sought political office in Canada, but that didn't happen this time. When Keithley set out to write the songs for the album, he used DOA's early efforts like Hardcore 81, Something Better Change and War on 45 as a bit of template, in the sense that the songs should be short, fast and right to the point. The end result is great, likely their best album since War on 45. Keithley's lyrics take on a wide range of modern and horrible screwups, from racism to street gangs to war to environmental degradation. With all of that in mind, Shithead and his infamous henchmen Paddy Duddy (drums) and Mike Maggot (bass) went into the studio with fire in their bellies and with the goal of making a kick-ass album. It worked-Hard Rain Falling is a great effort from one of the world's most influential and inspirational bands.)

9.    FELIX DA HOUSECAT-“NARRATIVE OF THEE BLAST ILLUSION” (7/10)

10. IRON & WINE / BEN BRIDWELL-“SING INTO MY MOUTH” [A COVERS ALBUM] (7/17) (Longtime friends Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses and Iron & Wine s Sam Beam unveil their first ever collaborative album, Sing Into My Mouth, a homage to 12 songs that have had indelible influence on both of its creators. Classics interpreted range from Talking Heads, This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), Sades, Bulletproof Soul & El Perro del Mar, God Knows (You Gotta Give to Get) the original having recently been featured on HBO s GIRLS to deep cuts like Them Twos, Am I a Good Man?)

11. JASON ISBELL-“SOMETHING MORE THAN FREE” (7/17) 

12. JAILL-“BRAIN CREAM” (7/17) 

13. MATRIXXMAN-“HOMESICK” (7/17) (Matrixxman uses his debut album to evoke visions of future with music made both for the dance floor and the early morning zone-outs that follow. These are the real world applications of Homesick, though Duff comes to it all from an entirely different mindset. "We will have the technological capability to fully map out a human brain in its entirety within 30 years. We will be crossing a rubicon towards a new phase in human consciousness. I am one person that is prepared to take that step." Once you emerge on the other side of Homesick, it seems possible that Matrixxman already has.)

14. METRIC-“THE SHADE” [EP] (7/17)

15. TESS PARKS & ANTON NEWCOMBE-“I DECLARE NOTHING” (7/17) (Born in Berlin in early 2014 and nurtured over the following summer, I Declare Nothing is the spine-tingling collaboration between Tess Parks and Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre), co-written and co-played by the duo and released to coincide with their 2015 European tour, following their Record Store Day 2015 Cocaine Cat single (AUK 118EP). A native of Toronto, Tess Parks moved to London, England, at the age of 17, where she briefly studied photography before deciding to focus on music. Parks made an impression on industry legend Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records, though the timing of their meeting could hardly have been less ideal; McGee was no longer involved in music and Parks was due to move back to Toronto. After moving back to her hometown in 2012, Parks formed a band on the advice of McGee and less than a year after their meeting, he returned to music with his label 359 Music. Parks became one of his first signings and released her debut record, Blood Hot, in November 2013 to excellent reviews. One reviewer described her as "Patti Smith on Quaaludes." Others have mentioned her "gauzy psychedelic sound" and "smouldering voice." Alan McGee himself said, "She's only 24 and is already an amazing songwriter... she just doesn't quite know she is yet -- her most beautiful quality is her lack of ego. Tess is an amazing lady." Anton Newcombe is the leader of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who returned in May 2014 with their 14th full-length album, Revelation (AUK 030CD/LP), to critical acclaim, and released Musique de film imaginé (AUK 032CD/LP) in 2015. The band's first album to be fully recorded and produced at Newcombe's recording studio in Berlin, it was supported by a successful European tour. Named in tribute to the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist and his influence in introducing Eastern culture and music into the world of Western rock 'n' roll, The Brian Jonestown Massacre formed in San Francisco, California in 1990. Through two dozen band members and numerous "ups and downs" (some of which have been famously sensationalized in the media), the one thing that has always remained consistent for this psychedelic collective is frontman Mr. Anton Alfred Newcombe.)

16. POINTED STICKS-“POINTED STICKS” (7/17) (2015 release from the veteran Canadian punk band. It's a great record, and contains 10 amazing new songs by Vancouver's punk pop kings. In a parallel universe, this is what the radio might sound like. For the old, and for the young, these are songs for everyone. It's the summer of 2015, and here comes a brand new full length Pointed Sticks LP. "You're Not The One," "Lovely Bird" and "Tin Foil Hat" are all ber catchy songs in that classic Pointed Sticks style. Long live summer, long live the Pointed Sticks.)

17. RATATAT-“MAGNIFIQUE” (7/17) (Following up on the experimental sounds of LP3 and LP4, Ratatat return to their core guitar-driven sound on Magnifique. Combining the bedrock beats and primordial riffs from their first two albums with the sonic experimentation and production prowess of LP3 and LP4, Mike and Evan arrived at a new plateau with Magnifique. RATATAT recently returned to the stage for the first time in four years to complete a handful of sold-out shows in Tulsa, Denver, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. RATATAT will also perform at Governor’s Ball, Capital Hill Block Party and HARD SUMMER music festivals this summer.)

18. SCREATURE-“FOUR COLUMNS” (7/17) (Screature's second album Four Columns opens with shimmering guitar and incantation... and then it flies. Chris Orr's atmospheric guitar is a cool companion to Liz Mahoney's haunting vocals; Sarah Scherer's keys swirl to Miranda Vera's insistent beat; it's all brought to now by Chris Woodhouse's excellent production. Call it dark psychedelia or post-punk black, Screature's Four Columns is a creeping zodiac of sound.Screature came to life in 2008, in a dark corner of Sacramento, California. They spent three years making music in secret, wintering to Rudimentary Peni and Chrome, summering to Music Machine and PiL. In 2011, they played their first show, with Death Grips. And then hit the stage with White Lung, Chain & the Gang, Wounded Lion, Milk Music, TV Ghost and others.2013 saw their debut LP flash through the sky (now back in print on S-S Records). D. Yudt called it the "feel-bad record of the year." It landed in Chelsea Wolfe's Pitchfork year-end "Best Of." As good as the self-titled Screature is, Four Columns is better. The songs "Down Boys," "Half Past Midnight," and "Lost Ones" are already live hits; on record they rule other worlds. From front to back, Four Columns intoxicates.)

19. TAME IMPALA-“CURRENTS” (7/17) 

20. THE TWILIGHT SAD + ROBERT SMITH-“IT NEVER WAS THE SAME B/W THERE’S A GIRL IN THE CORNER” [SINGLE] (7/17) 

21. UNIFORM-“PERFECT WORLD” (7/17) (Uniform formed in New York City in late 2013 when old friends Ben Greenberg (Hubble, The Men, Pygmy Shrews) and Michael Berdan (York Factory Complaint, Drunkdriver, Believer/Law) realized they lived on the same street. Their impulsive collaboration quickly yielded the 2014 Our Blood/Of Sound Mind and Body single. The six tracks that make up the equally abrasive but more refined Perfect World have been coming together between tours and work ever since. The music that Greenberg and Berdan conjure up under the Uniform moniker is immediate, aggressive, and even primal in form, but it plumbs untold depths. Berdan's venomous voice mines deeply personal themes of resentment, regret, reflection, and addiction over the hum of Greenberg's almost impossibly disciplined guitar, bass synth, and drum machine lines. Greenberg uses the word "templatized" to describe their approach to writing songs for Uniform. "There's this set bunch of gear to create sounds, and it only creates sound through a certain process, or within its own limitations," Greenberg says. "The goal of songwriting is to see how many different kinds of sounds you can get from the same basic process and machine." On Perfect World, that machine is firing on all cylinders. The guitar is run through a cheap '80s preamp marketed to metal kids. The drum machine is equally no-frills, an Akai XR20 that Greenberg says "most people wouldn't want to keep around." These humble components are combined with noisy synth and Berdan's profound howling to form something much greater. Post-punk, synthpunk, and industrial traditions are borrowed from as needed, but the constraints placed on the process mean the result is unique to Uniform. Berdan describes his lyrics as the consequence of feeling "so full of pain, confusion, deep selfishness, and general animosity that you make some horrible mistakes and have to learn how to forgive yourself for them." Perfect World feels like the sum of all that pain and confusion, but it also feels like the catharsis.)

22. WHITE REAPER-“WHITE REAPER DOES IT AGAIN” (7/17) (White Reaper Does It Again: a raucous debut full-length from a bunch of barely 20-somethings who have more fun on a Tuesday night than you do on a Saturday. Recorded in White Reaper’s hometown of Louisville, KY, with engineer Kevin Ratterman (Young Widows, Coliseum), WRDIA is a pure rock ’n’ roll adrenaline shot: vicious guitar scratches, elastic bass, sugary keyboard leads, and a thudding drums that will inevitably give your heartbeat a new rhythm.)