FRESH RELEASES - WEEK 12
Discover the best of the week by Gabriele and Marco
Discover Gabs and Marco’s favourite records released in the last seven days. Also, find the eight records on Bandcamp.
Marco’s suggestions
Braids - Euphorical Recall
(Secret City Records, 2023)
Braids abandoned strategy burned it down, and realized their love record. Love, all of it; the unbound bliss, the budding impulses, and the messy imperfections, a supernova swirled up in a suite of bold, patient, symphonic pop songs surrendered to the present, Euphoric Recall.
Indigo De Souza - All of This Will End
(Saddle Creek, 2023)
A sense of stability and a new community, which has welcomed the artist, are the sources of inspiration for this new record. Indigo De Souza says, "I was finally able to trust myself fully…until recently, my life seemed chaotic…now, much of the chaos is behind me. I have an incredible community, love where I live, and am surrounded by truly amazing people dedicated to deep connection and joy. My music seems to come from a centred place of reflection…" All Of This Will End was recorded at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina, by the band that has been following the American singer-songwriter for years together with producer Alex Farrar (already working on the previous Any Shape You Take).
JFDR - Museum
(Houndstooth, 2023)
Observing an orchid, admiring its curved shape, and realizing that a new colour is hidden under each leaf or petal, you can breathe a candid and luxuriant naturalness. This is what I felt listening to The Orchid, one of the tracks from this Museum, JFDR's third solo album out April 28, 2023, for Houndstooth. Here, ethereal and meditative atmospheres harmoniously blend with delicate sounds, which, apart from some psychedelic and new-age cues, can be defined as unique and avant-garde. It feels like reaching another dimension, where the songs capture fleeting moments in a timeless movement, as if the clock hands had suddenly stopped, to let you enjoy an eternal moment capable of giving freshness and purity, rediscovering that dimension of well-being necessary for the human soul.
Matt Maltese - Driving Just to Drive
(Nettwerk Music Group, 2023)
Everyone is looking for happiness, and although it may seem impossible to find it, Matt Maltese is getting closer to the goal. For his fourth album, the musician looks forward and has finally let himself go to the past, reflecting on the meaning of the place where he grew up and the secret of simply being able to enjoy the moment. 'Driving Just To Drive' finds Maltese at its most accessible. "When I was younger, I was super serious. I think the way I lived my life before 2021 was all thought. Now, I try to think less and be less precious with my writing."
The album's lush, almost cinematic sound comes partly from Maltese who, after years away from a mixer, shares experience with Josh Scarbrow on production. Maltese understood how he wanted to write for himself only after writing for other artists – Joy Crookes, Celeste, Etta Marcus and others – did he write for himself. "I'm terrible at letting myself go to get someone to help me, but I've gotten better. In real life, sharing those moments with another person is cool and working with others has been important."
'Driving Just To Drive' finds Maltese at his most open and stable, embracing new sounds while returning to the most organic version of himself. He's always wanted to find a way to make people laugh, but here he finds a way to charm while somehow lowering her gaze. The result is something bittersweet and authentically emotional.
Gabriele’s suggestions
Lapa Dula - Agua
(Early Sounds Recordings, 2023)
Early Sounds strike again! This time with Lapa Dula's debut album "Agua". Guitarist and producer of this album full of memories, Alessandro La Padula, has created a realistic mosaic of 80s Naples funk, which is also a cultural and social manifesto, which is utterly also "a tribute to the myths and legends (old and new) of Partenope". Early Sounds are forging the ultimate Mediterranean sounds packed with funk, Latin, world music, and disco. And Lapa Dula is a centric figure of this cultural wave.
vii M - Sublunary
(Eating Music, 2023)
Trip-hop revives in a brand new form. Stirred up by modern jazz(tronica), lo-fi leftfield beats, post-urban aesthetic, indie-shoegaze, and full-spectrum worldwide influences. 'Sublunary' is composed, performed, arranged, produced and recorded by Ming Qin, a Shanghai-based independent music producer, bassist and DJ. Her work explores a different world, conceptualised as a "paradise that exists in the future but reflects the present time simultaneously". Expect trippy grooves, digital, analog, acoustic and electronic elements, complicated structures and an incredible sensibility.
Will machines have a heart in the future?
Tom Trago - Deco
(Rush Hour, 2023)
Deco means 'decompression'. The sixth album, and first for Rush Hour in a decade, is abstract synthesiser material for the brain. Trago set about navigating different musical routes here, recording the album after an extended absence from club dancefloors. In the territories of Leftfield Electronic, Tom can use repetitive patterns almost like a tribalistic but modern medicament to cure our souls. Immersive and vibrant, I agree with others claiming this is "Trago's most mature and musically rich album to date".
Packed Rich - Warp Fields
(Ilian Tape, 2023)
We all love space, the idea of infinite unknowns that take us away anytime we look at the night sky. We also love musicians capable of creating the ideal soundtrack for that cosmic trip if we can ever explore the cosmos. I always knew that drum'n'bass was the perfect music for that trip - Warp Fields is the music of a journey throughout a "field of energy that connects different locations in space: syncopate strikes, deep sub bass lines, alien samples and out-of-this-world synths. Warp Fields will take you on the fields of energy our galaxy is made of.
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