The best new albums this week
Long playing heaven awaits
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
We’re not short of artists launching their own platforms, but it feels like a perfect time for Simo Cell to build his own stable. When he first emerged on 2015 he was associated with Livity Sound – a label with the kind of renown which positions a breakthrough artist in a specific field. Simon Aussell’s early productions certainly nodded to Pev and co’s UK techno fragmentation, and in interviews he’s been quick to credit the influence the UK sound had on him – his name is literally a fanboy reference to a Joy O track, after all. But equally, the sound Aussell was cultivating by the time we reached his Gliding EP was something of a game-changer for Livity as he swerved through a multitude of tempos and kaleidoscopic sound design. He may have his inspirations like every artist, but to date Aussell has displayed a conviction in his own musical direction which is growing more exciting by the minute. Anyone who’s heard him DJ will testify to that as well.
Now Aussell is launching his own label, TEMET. Quite what it holds for the future is anyone’s guess, but the opening record strikes out with the many-sided maverick verve we’ve come to expect from the French artist. It’s a marvel that he manages to keep things so varied without coming across like a disparate mess, but he clearly has a lot to express given his records rarely dip below four tracks in length. YES.DJ might not quite be a full-blown album, but the six fully-fledged tracks give you more than enough to chew on as Aussell initiates a new chapter in his career.
One of the interesting things about the Simo Cell approach is that intensity doesn’t always align with speed. Some of his heaviest tracks roll at slow tempos, and that’s absolutely the case on ‘Short Leg’. The bludgeoning bass thrum and feverish, noisy phrase loops feel far removed from the warm-up, and given Aussell’s commitment to broad tempo-range DJ sets and the club-centric theme of the record this feels like a potent point on the fluidity that (ill) defines the contemporary dance music scene. One of the joys of such tempo fluidity from super slow to super speedy is the chance to slide between half and double time measures, and ‘YES.DJ’ does that in extravagant style. The vocal slice gets twisted up artfully, coming on like a frantic footwork trope while the beat seems to lurch at 75 BPM.
‘Whispers’ is the heater which feels the most intuitively linked to the whole ‘UK’ thing – a 140 snapper with sharp claps where they should be, monstrous sub growl and an assured display of tension and release. When he wants to, Aussell can completely excel in this field. ‘Cegetel’ by way of comparison may only be a touch slower, but it feels wholly other in comparison. The mid-section opens up with pearlescent synth drops which create a sense of sci-fi wonderment in contrast to the slow-fast agitation of the percussion. With Aussell’s preference for slapdash sampling splattered across the mix, it’s the wild style approach to a club wrecker which makes him such a fascinating and individual artist.
Final track ‘not all it’s cracked up to be’ feels like the stretched-out, experimental finisher you expect at the end of an album, solidifying the idea of this record as more than an EP. It’s an opportunity for a more meandering side to the Simo Cell sound, moving through distinct passages without too much emphasis on linearity. In its latter stages, the tart slap of Rompler-esque hits lends the track an industrial dimension (in the Ministry / NIN sense of the word) before closing out on a disarmingly beautiful ambient reverie.
If you were holding out for Aussell to provide some clarity on where he stands as an artist, in some ways this record does that by cheekily encapsulating the slippery artistic tendencies he’s already displayed to date. Dexterous and playful, sharp where it counts without ever coming across too self-serious, this first release on TEMET sets us up for yet more intriguing adventures with the maverick producer from Nantes.
OW
Lowtec – Easy To Heal Cuts (Avenue 66)
There’s a beguiling simplicity to Jens Kuhn’s style which seems at odds with his idiosyncratic take on house music. These days Lowtec feels like a household name, at least within the more experimental corners of 4/4 dance music, and that’s largely due to the part he plays in the widely adored Workshop label. But long before Workshop he was already weaving nocturnal tapestries on his machines which feel entirely in line with where he’s at now. It can be tricky to keep a specific sound interesting over a protracted period of time, but Kuns has never faltered despite staying faithful to an approach he struck up in the 90s.
Avenue 66 have worked with Kuns plenty in recent times, and now they’ve tapped him up for some early archival digs from the Lowtec vaults. It’s interesting that, listening to Easy To Heal Cuts, it’s not immediately obvious when the tracks have been made. They could have been recorded this year, or back in the late 90s when Kuns was working alongside Marvin Dash and others in System 360. The one hint is the track ‘Red Sparrow’, which shares its name with a one-off release Kuns dropped on United States Of Mars in 2001.
‘Red Sparrow’ is a touch sunnier than the typical Lowtec jam, and it has a certain Detroit flavour which aligns with the tracks on the previous Red Sparrow release, but essentially it’s still stripped, woozy house music from the dreamers dimension. When you zoom in on the individual elements it all seems so straightforward – crisp drum machine patterns and a modest set of synths to accompany them – but the bigger picture is always beautifully strange. There’s a pervasive harmonic warmth on every track to offset the weirdness, but as this record demonstrates the charm of Lowtec has always lain in that tension between the sweet and unsettling, the straight-forward and surreal.
OW
Special Request / Various – DJ Kicks (reissue) (K7)
UK house and breakbeat veteran Paul Woolford connects the dots between club-music styles from across decades, finding a through line in lush, transporting melodies. His eclectic selections can make for bumpy musical rides, but Woolford has based his song choices around his love for “lush melodics,” a decision that adroitly transcends any genre. In Virgo’s 1986 house jam “R U Hot Enough?,” this translates into undulating piano chords and ethereal synth strings; in the Special Request mix of FC Kahuna’s “Hayling,” it means bleeps, breaks, and satiny vocal; and in Tim Reaper’s VIP mix of Special Request’s “Pull Up,” melodics come in the form of a pumped-up and billowing bassline that is vicious in its volume and strangely tender in its melodic caress. DJ-Kicks doesn’t so much jump from track to track as it oozes ever onwards, the boundaries between songs often impossible to locate at times.
Some of the transitions are particularly graceful, such as the passage from “R U Hot Enough?” to Speedy J’s 1991 IDM classic “De-Orbit” via Krystal Klear’s 2014 techno tool “Tun Valve,” with the four decades between the tracks falling effortlessly off the bone.
Where the requisite jigsaw piece isn’t at hand, Woolford has the production skills to create it – and flawlessly. Previously unreleased Special Request tracks “KissFM NY87 Mastermix” and “Vellichor” help guide the mix from the dreamy, trumpet-led disco of Morgan Geist’s “Lullaby” into AS ONE’s galactic IDM, while new Special Request remixes of “Hayling” and μ-Ziq’s “Twangle Frent” tilt the mood towards the biting nu-jungle of the mix’s closing stretch. Woolford had a hand in 11 of the 25 tracks here, but DJ-Kicks never feels overwhelmed with his work; it’s a compelling example of the way that talented producers can make captivating DJs. Outstanding composition from start to finish, and worthy of every minute.
AY
Simoncino – Nothing Good Happens Before Midnight (Rawax Germany)
RAWAX presents Italian producer Simoncino’s latest album called ‘Nothing Good Happens Before Midnight’. An impressive work by the artist who has teamed up here on two tracks with American DJ Luke Hess. Absolutely worth running to checking out immediately, however fans may feel slightly underwhelmed with this number.
Originally released last year, German label Rawax serves up another much deserved repress of Nick Anthony Simoncino aka Simoncino’s fifth full length album called Nothing Good Happens Before Midnight. It’s a massive collection of work by the HotMix Records boss, where as always, there is much diversity within his sonic repertoire. Many will take note however, that as good as this record sounds, it will feel like pretty much every record that has come out since. Every producer is getting ready for the opening of clubs, hence the mass release of club ready records, and this feels exactly as that in a market that has now become oversaturated.
Opening track ‘Bang The Drums’, opens the gate straight into Tribal beats from the onset, laden with rhythmic drum beats to keep people moving as soon as they hit play. From hypnotic slow burners such as ‘Psycho Village’, or the echo laden dream stomp of ‘Tape I’ (a fantastic collaboration with Detroit dub techno hero Luke Hess – placed perfectly in the line up) to deeply meditative tribal excursions like ‘In The Spirit’ and ‘Akaweba’ before moving into the punchy groove of ‘My Fev Girl Is The Next’. Wasting no time at all to show exactly what he can do, Simoncino’s release is enough to create serious FOMO for all that comes across his record, especially with a classic house vibe ending like ‘Tape II’ to round things off. But this won’t be for everyone, to the chagrin of others, who have been feeling like this for far too long already.
AY
Park Hye Jin – Before I Die (Ninja Tune)
South Korean go-getter 박혜진 Park Hye Jin returns to Ninja Tune with her debut album ‘Before I Die’. The fast-rising DJ and producer has shown formidable determination to make a global mark throughout her burgeoning career, and last year’s mega-contagious ‘Like This’ went a long way to embedding her sound into the underground subconscious. With the full support of Ninja Tune propelling her laser-focused trajectory, it was only a matter of time before she arrived with a long-player. ‘Before I Die’ finds her in adventurous mood – playing fast and loose with genre definitions, albeit with a heavy emphasis on twisted R&B swagger and ghetto house bump. Lead single ‘Let’s Sing Let’s Dance’ sees Hye Jin’s wonky vocal blend with honeyed piano chords and stripped house drums. Elsewhere, the nostalgic bi-lingual flow of ‘Before I Die’ presents a long list of people and things she misses since moving to LA, before the ghetto sleaze of ‘Can I Get Your Number’ powerfully evokes erotically-charged nocturnal adventures. After a string of low-slung, foggy-headed jams, ‘Never I Die’ injects some energy into proceedings, with its fast-paced rhythms and defiant message, while closing track ‘I Jus Wanna Be Happy’ creates a dream-like panorama with its scattered drums, hypnotic vocals, and off-kilter synth textures.
PC
Hayley Williams – Flowers For Vases/Descansos (Atlantic)
In the span of a single year, the prospect of solo material from one Hayley Williams has gone from hypothetical to hyper-realistic. 2020’s ‘Petals For Armor’ was a staggering debut, completely dismantling what critics and fans alike had come to expect from the Paramore frontwoman.
Arriving less than twelve full months later, ‘Flowers For Vases / Descansos’ seems to serve as more of a prequel to ‘Petals…’ rather than a natural continuation.
Sonically, it’s the antithesis of the lush, dynamic art rock/retro alt-pop that adorned her debut, forgoing these frills in favour of delicate, minimal instrumentation made up almost exclusively of acoustic guitar, piano, and sparse moments of percussion.
When taking into account the fact that this is also the first project that Williams has recorded solely, performing every single instrument herself in stark contrast to the vast array of excellent musicians previously utilised, an intimate pattern begins to emerge that imbues the material with a fragile hypnotism.
Where last summer’s hit single ‘Cinnamon’ featured the defiant bridge “I’m not lonely, baby, I am free”, the first line of heart-imploding opener, ‘First Thing To Go’, instantly illustrates how much of a far cry this material is from her debut. ‘My Limb’ is bold and graphic in its depiction of letting oneself bleed out under the illusion that another human being is a living appendage of ours in which we need to survive, while the caustic hook is mesmerising.
Many cuts here are much briefer and operate as musical musings more than fully fledged songs, with ‘Over Those Hills’ and ‘Good Grief’ both feeling particularly intimate as if eavesdropping on the most personal of discussions. ‘No Use I Just Do’, however, one of the album’s shortest tracks, is an ethereal, haunting affair bolstered by the claustrophobic production of Daniel James, who truly brings Williams‘ Tennessee home to life, like a silent monolith bearing witness to all her intrinsic sadness.
Where ‘Petals For Armor’ touched on independence and self-love with odes to friends, her dog, and a reinforced message of perseverance, ‘Flowers For Vases / Descansos’ is a much darker, more vulnerable project. Baring all about her divorce, and the subsequent, conjured feelings of loneliness, isolation, and bewilderment, makes for a delicate, profound experience, while also operating as an enlightening companion piece/extension to this sonic, floral tapestry which Hayley Williams continues to weave.
ZB
Blyth – Confessions Of A Justified Sinner (Clouds Hill)
“What I was trying to do was to create a sense of ritual,” explains Ian White of his new solo project. And he’s succeeded. Cutting his teeth as an apprentice drummer for acts like Gallon Drunk, Big Sexy Noise, Lydia Lunch and the Bad Seeds’ James Johnston and Barry Adamson throughout the ‘90s and ‘00s, White is now a revered drum sorcerer and ritualist, able to summon entraining drum flow-pulses and black magic blitzkriegs from his very wrists.
‘Confessions Of A Justified Sinner’ is exactly the kind of title one would expect from such a character. We imagine White’s solo alias Blyth as a hooded diviner of forbidden drum patterns. Aided by James Johnston on guitar and piano, and Gallon Drunk bassist Jeremy Cottinham on lead and wah guitar, he’s a good warlock gone rogue. Over the album’s course, Blyth treats us to an auditory tour of the free jazz, European prog and contemporary sample driven music he is inspired by and uses as ingredients in his sinful stew. Tracks are long and unforgiving hellscapes, with the impeccably mic’ed, multilayered drums on ‘Tongue Tied’ and ‘Ghosts’ sounding like urgent conch-blows across underworld deserts. The songs evoke everything from Morgan Agren’s solo work (although more repetitious) to the electro-samply post-punk of This Heat. Our favourite is the solo on ‘Manors’, on which White simply does not stop, owing to his nature as a true powerhouse drummer.
JIJ
Andrew WK – God Is Partying (Napalm Germany)
Two decades have been and gone since ANDREW W.K. first released “Party Hard”. A turbocharged, steroidal mega-banger by anyone’s standards, it seemed to herald the arrival of a major new talent during a time where douchebaggery was all the rage. The subsequent album, “I Get Wet” was a flat-out joy: brimming with exhilarating variations on the same alcohol infused extreme rager theme. But still, “Party Hard” was the one, and despite having released plenty of strong records over the years since activating that subcultural glitter-bomb, Andrew W.K. remains tethered securely to one song, released 20 years ago, at least in the ears and eyes of the alternative rock-consuming public. For a start, this is nothing like “I Get Wet”, and there are no songs that resemble “Party Hard” in any meaningful way. This will definitely come as no surprise to diehard fans, who have been enjoying Andrew’s eclectic approach to raising spirits all along, and encouragement of the excess. Meanwhile, ANDREW W.K. is not constantly telling us to party this time, which also comes as something of a relief. In fact, the overall vibe of “God Is Partying” is one of hopeful resignation and, unexpectedly, world-weary grit.
Not afraid to encompass the whole embodiment of great show, WK presents his new release with what was better known as ‘stadium rock’ with powerful riffs and dramatic drum beats and heavy bass riff ripping through this record. With influences ranging from Pink Floyd, Queen and Alice Cooper to name a few, it’s clear to hear where some of his interests are incorporated into the final product. With the album’s closing track, the theme of the album is completed when the self-proclaimed God of Partying emerges with a renewed desire to show the whole world a good time. But are we actually ready for his version?
AY
Art School Girlfriend – Is It Light Where You Are (Fiction)
Creating an intimate inner reckoning, Art School Girlfriend’s ambient debut album ‘Is It Light Where You Are’ is a record full of turmoil and surrender, vulnerability and growth. Clocking in at an immersive 43 minutes, ‘Is It Light Where You Are’ is a wholly atmospheric synth-driven debut album doused in heartbreak. Throughout its ten tracks, Polly Mackey – under her stage moniker Art School Girlfriend – sings in a low, drowsy vocals of grieving an ex-partner and feeling empty and alone in the wake of a breakup, all the while wondering if her ex feels the same as she asks, “Is there light where you are?”
While progressing through the motions of heartbreak across the album, standout ‘Softer Side’ sees the singer toying with the feelings of becoming infatuated with someone you’ve projected an ideal onto, searching for something in them which was never there (relatable, much?), and reminding listeners they are not alone in their feelings. Bringing the album to a close, ‘Eyes On You’ with its lamenting vocals caps off ‘Is It Light Where You Are’ with a perfect new-found clarity. Reminiscent of artists like Gordi, The Japanese House, The xx, and Beach House, Art School Girlfriend’s music is a hypnotic radiant mix of darkness and light.
AY
This week’s reviewers; Oli Warwick, Zach Buggy. Jude Iago James, Ava Yusuf.
Simoncino image used by kind permission of Kratom IQ