New Tunes 4.10.2024
Hello, music lovers! 🎶
The rain and cold have come to our place. Luckily, I have music to warm me up. Here we go again with a list of fresh music suggestions, #newtunes, famous, less famous and new musicians trying to enchant us with their tunes. Will they succeed?
I don't think any of the songs on this list will be a worldwide hit, but a few will stick in our ears for the weekend and beyond.
First, I have some more established names, then I will move on to the less well-known ones. If you have a few minutes, you can support them by listening.
But if you don't like something, skip it and move on.
Music4life!
God Is An Astronaut - Apparition
God Is An Astronaut, an Irish post-rock band active since 2002, released their twelfth album, Embers, at the beginning of September. The mix of kraut-rock, space-rock, and electronic sounds proves once again that for some bands, verses are, I won't say, unnecessary. Still, instrumental music can also be used to say whatever is on your mind.
It's harder to reach an audience with instrumental music alone, but God Is An Astronaut is top-notch here. It conveys the feeling convincingly with sharp guitar riffs, subtle, melodic passages, and slower, gentle acoustic parts.
I recommend the whole album.
THE THE – COGNITIVE DISSIDENT
The The is an English post-punk band that has been active since 1979, in different lineups, but with a constant singer and songwriter, Matt Johnson. Ensoulment, named after when a human (or any other living being) gets a soul, is a pop rock album, played by almost nobody for a long time, open to all influences and experiments.
The song Cognitive Dissident is written at an ominous mid-tempo. In it, Johnson surveys a Britain tormented by rebellion, Brexit, and violence against dissenters, a kind of Orwellian 1984 confirmation.
Jon Spencer - Come Along
I've been following Jon Spencer, the American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, since his days with Pussy Galore, then with Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion, and finally, a couple of years ago with the Jon Spencer Hitmakers, which I even recorded, and now that he's only posting under his name.
The latest album, Sick Of Being Sick!, released this week, has again confirmed that rock music is alive and well. When the masters take the initiative back into their own hands, everything else can be put to bed.
I recommend the whole album.
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr – FREE THE JAZZ
Ingebrigt HÃ¥ker Flaten is one of the most famous bass players. With his occasional band, Knarr, he has again gathered a bunch of established musicians. I have the album Breezy, released about a week ago. With an international line-up, the album is dedicated to the American musician trumpeter Jaimie Branch, who worked with HÃ¥ker for many years and overdosed at 39 in 2022. Breezy is what she was called by those close to her.
Free The Jazz is the single and introduction to the album. As the name suggests, it's the very essence of jazz.
Mabe Fratti - Kravitz
Mabe Fratti is a composer, musician, and producer from Guatemala who currently lives and works in Mexico City. In addition to her solo projects, she is a member of the four-piece band Amor Muere and the duo Titanic. She has released four solo albums, the latest, Sentir que no sabes, released at the end of June this year. Although it sounds more popish on this one, she always offers accomplished floating compositions with a smooth fusion of voice, strings, electronics, and brass.
The chosen song, Kravitz, flirts with Lenny Kravitz, of course, but in her relaxed and groovy way, which is certainly not dull.
RIPPED TO SHREDS - 冥婚 (Corpse Betrothal)
Ripped to Shreds is a California death metal band that has been playing since 2016. All band members are of Chinese descent. Sanshi is their fourth studio album, and it deals with the morbid addiction to death and the afterlife in the context of traditional Chinese folklore.
Energetic death metal, standing on a delicate balance between modern school and old tradition. Suitable for all followers of the genre.
Senyawa - Vajranala
Senyawa is a duo from Indonesia, specifically Yogyakarta. It's a new name for me. At the end of July, they released their second album, Vajranala. The album is a reinterpretation of the mythology of the land, the island of Java, where they come from. They are not concerned with the political power that makes it possible to rule but focus on the roots of power, more precisely on the shamans who possessed more significant power than the leader of the people and connected people with knowledge, mythology, and deities.
The throaty chanting, multiple voices, shouting and manipulation, distorted whipping, and tribal rhythmic pounding are a distinct and unique combination.
DEADLETTER - Mother
Finally, another new name for me: Deadletter. A band from Yorkshire based in London since 2020, Deadletter's debut album, Hysterical Strength, was released on September 13th.
It's a post-punk band that doesn't flirt with experimentation in electronic music, instead clinging to the instruments' raw power and the sound effects' minimalism.
Alongside the standard cast of vocals, bass, guitars, and drums, the tracks are colored by saxophone tones that also breathe a sense of sophistication and a glow of jazz that is anything but standard for post-punk.
I'll follow them from now on because I'm sure they'll have much more to say.
🎶That's all for today, and enjoy your weekend with new songs!
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If you're interested in #newtunes suggestions from the past five years, you can listen to them at these links - there are Spotify playlists for each year:
newtunes2019 | newtunes2020 | newtunes2021 | newtunes2022 | newtunes2023
If you like rare and alternative live performances (lo-fi), take a look at my recordings - 3speak video channel, or Seckorama Music Podcast - audio.
If you like jazz, I recommend Jazz-Matinee regular Sunday blog by @w74.
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God is an Astronaut - Do you know their role models? Krautrock at its finest.
And (not to be forgotten and still on stage after 50 years)
The The - There are some sayings I don't like to use, as they tend to spread in an inflationary way. But in this case it fits like a glove: the long wait has really been worth it!
Jon Spencer - To hell with all those people who are always prophesying the end of rock and roll. I can only give them a recommendation to put under their pillows.
Ingebrigt HÃ¥ker Flaten - It's quite rare for me to take the instrument out of the hand of a jazz player. But here it seems that there is no concept, the actual concept of the composition. As far as I am concerned, there are limits in free jazz.
Deadletter - If the music and the lyrics are in balance at a really high level, then this record has almost made it into my music cabinet.
Thank you for your comments. There is no one else here who can describe situations so accurately.
I agree with your description of free jazz; the Nordic branch is at a bit of a dead end in this case. But it's not all like that, just one part.
In this case, maybe I could paraphrase that as "l'art pour l'art." Products/creations from this domain are often unreadable, unviewable, or unlistenable. This is usually not what we want, but it happens.
The critics and the sales strategies of the record companies have a tendency to favour interpretations that they themselves scarcely understand. In this case, it is quite simple. Everyone, regardless of what social class they belong to, should be able to decide for themselves whether they consider it to be art or whether it should be thrown away with the next round of rubbish collection.
I don't know if you know Alan Ford, but it used to be a very popular comic in the Balkans. My whole generation read it, and it's still a legend. Now, it is mostly in memes. This is Grunf, one of the team.
😆