Here is part two of our new music picks for January. You can catch up with Part 1 here. Do we actually know anything about new music? Or, are we just too old to understand what most of this is banging on about? Read on to find out.
Excess / Automatic
Mark: Automatic are a Los Angeles female post-punk trio, who toured NZ for the first time earlier this month. ‘Excess’ is their 2nd album, following on from 2019’s Signal, whose success saw them opening for Tame Impala, and performing at major festivals. Drummer Lola Dompé is the daughter of Kevin Haskins (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets) so that is perhaps an indication of of their influences, as they meld 70’s underground & early 80s synths with a Sci-Fi narrative that delves into billionaires on spaceships, modern anxiety, consumerism, and hopelessness. Robotically melodic, with catchy tunes, detached chill harmonies, and dark bouncy synths. A bit like Wet Leg if they were a synth band in places.
Neil: Automatic are an American all-female punk trio named after The Go-Go’s song of the same title. ‘Excess’ is their second release, and finds the band moving away from their punk roots and mining a rich vein of 80’s electro pop. The music in the album displays the influence of bands like O.M.D., New Order, and the commercial incarnation of The Human League. There are loads of infectiously catchy bass lines, and some seriously studied 80’s synths. However, they keep to their punk origins in the lyrical content as, beyond the playful mid 80’s sounds, some large and often dark themes are explored.
Big time things / Office Culture
Mark: Office Culture are a Brooklyn quartet, and ‘Big time things’ is their 3rd album. This is something different, a cross between Steely Dan, early 80s British sophisti-pop bands like ABC or The Blue Nile, and the loungy art-rock of Roxy Music. Backed by violins & cellos, the velvety crooning of singer Winston Cook-Wilson is so smooth, it almost seems like a deliberate pastiche. But the songs address the mundainities of city life and relationships with some surprisingly deep and unsettling lyrics. Reinventing soft-pop for a whole new generation.
Neil: ‘Big time things’ is a suave and cool sophisti-pop album from Brooklyn based quartet Office Culture. There’s a studied world weariness and sad mellow humour that underpins many of the album’s lyrics. The music has some lounge-core aesthetics, like a modern sophisticated Jazz-pop version of Steely Dan or Avalon era Roxy music, or even Court and Spark era Joni Mitchell. Lyrics about the strangeness of big city life, love, and sadness. The stuff of everyday life turned into art.
Reset / Panda Bear
Mark: Long time collaborators on various projects, Panda Bear (Noah Lennox of Animal Collective) & Sonic Boom (Peter Kember of Spacemen 3) debut for the first time under their own names for this decidedly retro album. They almost merge into one person on this short, summery, warm, synthy, album that is a pean to the wonder & joy at the heart of music. The Beach Boys are an obvious touchstone, but they also explore other early psych-rock & pop styles, with this cut-in-paste tribute to 60’s pop.
Neil: ‘Reset’ marks the first collaborative joint outing for Noah Lennox and Peter Kember (though the pair have had numerous musical connections for many years). The collaboration seems to suit both parties involved, with the songs having a light and breezy feel. It is a sample heavy album that is built up from mainly elements of 50’s and 60’s pop songs, with electronic & synth elements holding the samples together, and the lyrics are opaque and impressionistic with a distinct surreal psychedelic feel. If I had one reservation with the album, which I did enjoy, it was that the impressionistic lyrics, great as they are, don’t always sit that obviously with the 50’s and 60’s source material, which would have originally been anchored by clear strong story-song lyrics.
Not tight / Domi
Mark: Domi (22) and JD Beck (19) are a jazz duo consisting of French keyboardist Domi Louna and American drummer JD Beck, and the first signees to Anderson .Paak’s new Blue Note imprint, APESHIT Inc. Their 2022 debut album, ‘Not Tight’, features guest appearances from Thundercat, Anderson .Paak, Herbie Hancock, Mac Demarco & Snoop Dogg among others, and was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the Grammys. From being backing musicians for acts like Thundercat and Anderson .Paak, to viral live performances such as this one with Thundercat and Ariana Grande, these young prodigies have been hailed as Jazz saviors, bringing back fusion for a new generation. This mix of dense improvisation, vocals, R&B & Hip-Hop elements is a showcase of their synergy & musical chemistry, but like a lot of amazing young musicians and bands out there, it often feels like a triumph of technique more than anything else.
Neil: Zoomer Jazz prodigies JD Beck and Domi Louna have already been described as “ The future of Jazz ! Two alien miracles from outer space”, and such hype and praise before you’ve released an album is a lot to live up to. ‘Not Tight’, their debut album, is a frenetic Jazz fusion album that boasts such high-profile guests as Thundercat and Herbie Hancock amongst others. It’s a virtuosic and dazzling debut, designed to impress and doesn’t really let up at any point. And for me at least, perhaps that’s its weakness. It feels like a sequence of finely choreographed demonstration showcases, that lack any overall emotional cohesion or overarching content.
Anadou ejderi / Akyol, Gaye Su
Mark: ‘Anadolu Ejderi’ is the latest 4th album from Turkish musician Gaye Su Akyol. Before the 1980 military coup d’etat Turkish psych was a distinct musical style, and this is where she draws her primary influence, mixing in some modern Jazz elements, pop & rock rhythms, and soaring vocals. The music is sophisticated, atmospheric and alluring, while the lyrics hint of the political & social turmoil that exist in Turkey currently, without any outright statements, and with a broad enough scope that it can also apply to the rise of authoritarian regimes around the world and their weaponizing of the past.
Neil: Gaye Su Akyol’s fourth album fuses modern pop sensibilities with Turkish folk music, psychedelic sounds, and a hint of goth. Its an intoxicating mix with lyrics expounding the past glories of Istanbul and lamented lost love. Many of these smouldering dark anthems are supported by the inclusion of lush exotic melodies, and complex cinematic orchestration.
Live at the Capitol Theatre / Crosby, David
Mark: David Crosby passed away a week or so ago, so it’s somewhat fitting that this new live album arrived to be catalogued. If all he had done was be a founding member of both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, he would still be remembered as an iconic figure, but he fought through hard times to experience a huge creative & critical renaissance in the 2010’s, delivering one great solo album after another. This warm sounding Live album is from a 2018 tour, backed by the much younger ‘Lighthouse Band’ (Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis and Michael League), and the magical chemistry is readily apparent, as they produce a layered instrumental backing and a beautiful shading of female vocals, breathing new life into older songs and new ones. There’s a timeless purity to the music here.
Neil: The legendary musician David Crosby passed recently; he was a musician who lived a life that mixed massive success with troubled times. In the late 60’s and early 70’s he was one of the biggest and brightest creative forces around, being a key player in bands like The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but his fall from grace in the 80’s was tragically almost as spectacular, culminating in a prison sentence on drugs charges in 1982. From that period in his life, he eventually rebuilt, and remarkably went on to released some on his finest work in the noughties albums like Croz and Here if you listen are amongst his best. And now, we have ‘Live at the Capitol Theatre’, recorded at one of his last live outings in December 2018, in support of the ‘Here if you listen’ album. It is a fitting tribute to his late period renaissance; he is in fabulous voice and it is noticeable that he is playing within a band context, rather than surrounding himself with supporting musicians. Which makes for a much stronger dynamic within the recordings, with interlocking vocals and smooth integration of all the musical components, giving the tracks added emotional intensity. If you are a fan, this will definitely work for you.
Cruel country / Wilco
Mark: ‘Cruel Country’ was hailed as Wilco’s return to their country origins and, harking back to Being There, another sprawling double album, which finally gets a physical release on CD & Vinyl after coming out digitally last year. Recorded in live takes (like 2017’s Sky Blue Sky) it’s shorn of most of their layered sound and delivers a simple, direct, loose & casual set, as Jeff Tweedy ruminates on the past and the future with no grand statement in mind, just a pondering of the multiple enigmas at the heart of life in modern America. There’s a lot here, and perhaps it would have been better as a single album, but it offers a quietly reflective pleasure, and multiple listenings will throw up different stand out songs each time.
Neil: In ‘Cruel country’ we find Wilco returning to their Alt- country roots and, in part, paying homage to Jeff Tweedy’s earlier work, rather than creating one of their more adventurous rock outings. That said, it will appeal to a lot of their fans and beyond. The six band members returned to the studio for the first time in over a decade to record this double album pretty much live. And you can hear from the chemistry within the recordings that, not only were they relieved that they worked so well together, but also that they are really enjoying the experience. The tracks are stripped back, languid in pace, but largely upbeat in sound. The lyrics are equally nuanced, talking about big issues, but carefully avoiding falling into doom and gloom.
Bell bottom country / Wilson, Lainey
Mark: ‘Bell Bottom Country’ is the second major label album (& 4th overall) from American country music singer-songwriter Lainey Wilson, who won Female Vocalist of the Year & New Artist of the Year at the 2022 CMA Awards, along with 4 other nominations. An unabashedly southern personality who mixes country with pop & Louisiana rock, Wilson is a bit of an old school country throwback, a mash-up of Deana Carter, Lee-Ann Womack, Miranda Lambert & Dolly Parton (2021 album ‘Sayin What I’m Thinkin’ features a song called WWDD (What Would Dolly Do). Debuting as an independent artist in 2014, she has travelled a long road to success as a female artist in contemporary country music, but looks like making it straight to the top with this album, a couple of big 2022 duets, and an upcoming role in season 5 of Yellowstone.
Neil: ‘Bell bottom country’ is the second major album from Lainey Wilson and it’s a big hitting major Nashville country album through and through. Sure, there’s a little bit of sixties hippy chic in the marketing, and the music has a smidgeon of classic rock and a smattering of pop, but with song titles like “Hillbilly Hippie” and “Watermelon Moonshine” you know exactly what you’ve in for. The songs are catchy and full of hooks, both vocally and melodically. It’s the kind of album that will attract a huge following, especially in the USA. Indeed, with the number of country music awards its already nominated for, it looks like an album that’s going to launch a new country superstar.
