The best new albums this week

Albums of distinction

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Black Country, New Road – Live At Bush Hall (Ninja Tune)

In February of last year, what should have been a momentous week of celebration for London based art/post-rock collective Black Country, New Road quickly digressed into conjecture and concern following the sudden departure of vocalist/guitarist Isaac Wood. Losing their enigmatic frontman mere days before the release of their seminal sophomore effort Ants From Up There, placed the remaining six members in an unusual predicament, as while supporting their friend and former bandmate’s decision to prioritise their mental health, the group still intended to continue on and see out their already pre-booked year of touring dates.

Stating from the outset that no material from either of their two LPs (or any work written in collaboration with Wood) would be performed, many pondered just how a band would fill a setlist with no songs from the critically acclaimed work they were initially booked to promote.

While anyone with more than a passing knowledge will be familiar with individual members’ side projects, such as violinist Georgia Ellery’s avant-electro collaboration with Taylor Skye known as Jockstrap, or more notably bassist Tyler Hyde’s solo endeavours under the moniker of Tyler Cryde (who has also performed regularly in the Windmill in Brixton where the collective originally cut their teeth), it shouldn’t come as too great a shock that the remaining members were able to cobble together an entirely new batch of tracks to take on the road. But what would these sound like, and would they resonate the same with listeners?

In what has been a testament to both artist perseverance and fan devotion, many still flocked to attend a show that had shifted from experiencing material from one of the best albums of 2022 to essentially going in cold to an unfamiliar collection.

Echoing the run up to both their debut LP For The First Time in 2021 and its successor, bootleg fan footage slowly trickled its way online offering fractured glimpses of the new work for those still apprehensive of the group’s trajectory sans Wood. It wasn’t until the second instalment of their covers EPs Never Again Pt. 2 dropped that we were presented with the first officially recorded output from the trimmed down line up, complete with exceptional renditions of ‘Us’ by Regina Spektor and the Billie Eilish smash hit title-track from 2021’s Happier Than Ever. The short project served as a pivotal moment in clarifying that even without their original verbose, vulnerable primary songwriter, every other facet of the band was still intact and possessed the confidence and prowess to continue on, with vocals now distributed between Hyde, keyboardist May Kershaw and Saxophone/Flute/Wind Man Lewis Evans.

Just over a year from the week of the excellent release and Wood’s sudden departure, and with studious fans having tracked down the entire setlist in live footage form complete with song titles, a three-day residency took place in the intimate surroundings of Bush Hall. Tapping into their reliably goofy eccentricities, attendees received differing emails depending on which of the shows they held tickets for, instructing them of a committed theme that ranged from a play set at a gathering of farmers, titled “When The Whistle Thins” to “I Ain’t Alfredo No Ghosts”, set in a pizzeria which encounters a poltergeist (complete with free pizza handed out between tracks); and “The Taming Of The School”, which had a 1980s prom night theme. The band even adorned differing costumes pertaining to each thematic performance, encouraging fans to dress accordingly. 

While specifying in interviews that the current live material wouldn’t result in a new album due to the pressurised nature in which it was composed, and the desire for studio respite in order to reflect and craft under no strict deadlines, many felt somewhat disheartened to learn these recent tracks seemingly served as little more than live placeholders, especially given the fondness that had grown for them.

With the entire residency recorded as a concert film, many were elated to learn that this material would be given its due in the form of Live At Bush Hall, which in essence, is the third Black Country, New Road LP, just recorded live in front of an audience.

What’s clear from the outset is how the group’s camaraderie and chemistry hasn’t been diluted one iota. The anthemic opener ‘Up Song’ is the closest to a feel good baroque folk-pop hit they’ve ever crafted, with Hyde speaking of an absentee lover or friend while the cathartic refrain of “Look at what we did together, BC, NR, friends forever” which sounds near identical to “be seeing our friends forever”, feels like it to could be an ode to Wood’s tenure. 

Speaking of which, Hyde’s cadence, delivery and dramatic inflections make her sound like an ideal replacement for Wood, as her simultaneously sultry yet vaudevillian tones conjure hypnotic emotive despondency. Handling lead vocal duties for the majority of tracks, this trend is likely to continue as her fragile lilts across the devastating ‘I Won’t Always Love You’ or the mercurial ‘Dancers’, sound as if she was always destined to lead the proceedings with her combination of poise and restraint. 

That isn’t to detract from other members’ contributions such as Kershaw’s enveloping three act structure on ‘The Boy’ which feels less like a typical song and more an ever-shifting micro-drama, while fan favourite ‘Turbines/Pigs’ is a dreary and macabre piece of chamber post-rock with its drab composition swelling to a plain of transcendental crescendo as the twisted metaphor of pigs flying and turbine engines is as cryptic as it is unsettling. 

The cuts from Evans are easily the most at odds with their traditional formula, taking a much more nuanced and accessible approach in the form of ‘Across The Pond Friend’ which uses insignificance as a tool to paint the pains of a long distance relationship and the myriad of stressful details and bruised emotions that come with such a commitment, while the bombastic strings ebb and flow around Evan’s muted yet earnest delivery. 

Live At Bush Hall serves two primary purposes, with the first being to placate and reassure that the remaining six members are more than capable of crafting poignant, eccentric and rewarding material even with the perceived detrimental departure of their original frontman. The second is to offer credence to this batch of quickly composed cuts which allowed the group to fulfil their touring commitments and has ultimately resonated just as much with their avid and adoring followers as all previous work. If these songs and performances are an example of what can be done under strict time constraints, then the future of Black Country, New Road as an artistic entity and the potential for their next studio project couldn’t appear any more promising. This isn’t the sound of an artist on the ropes, this is the bounce back and southpaw uppercut to any would-be worriers or detractors. That being said, it isn’t too ridiculous to presume that their next studio LP could take a completely differing sonic form from the material performed at Bush Hall. All we know is that the (new) road is long, wide and brimming with possibilities.

ZB

Kösmonaut – Contagion Vapers (Castles In Space)

Plying his trade under his own name as well as a raft of pseudonyms including Black Tempel Pyramid, RUFFINI, Teeth Of Glass and Kösmonaut, this is album number, well, you lose count to be honest, from Colarado’s ridiculously prolific Patrick R Park.

Last year’s ‘Transgressive Transmissions’ (also on CiS) was the first Kösmonaut outing in a while, since 2017 in fact. While that was a natty little Berlin School-influenced box of delights, Contagion Vapers’ – made at the same time – heads off into a whole different sound world. As you might guess from the artwork, vapourwave is in the house, but there’s more to what’s going on here than slo-mo retro spangle.

In the year that marks the 50th anniversary of ‘Tubular Bells’, the cascading bright chimes on the 12-minute title track would’ve had Virgin Records (1970s version) cocking an ear in appreciation. It was only last week I was saying how it takes knackers the size of footballs (round soccer ones, Partrick) to start an LP with a lengthy track. Guess what? For the second week running an opening track steals the show. Check out Kösmonaut’s nads.

Contagion Vapers feels very acoustic. There’s a certain hustle and bustle to tracks like ‘Kinetic Sand’, which comes fully fitted with a brisk, rattling snare and a warm xylophone chime, while ‘Dream Windows’ tumbles along with a bright repeating motif, the glow of brass and the twang of an acoustic guitar picking its way through a swaying cornfield of delight.

The whole thing has a deliciously hypnotic, mellow motorik drive about it too. Not so much krauty as one hand on the wheel with the window rolled down and a chubby on the go. Which is all good. Park’s work often tends toward the dour, icey end of proceedings, but Contagion Vapers radiates warmth and feels positively upbeat. And you know what? It suits him.

NM

Jesus Piece – …So Unknown (Century Media)
Philadelphia based metallic hardcore mob Jesus Piece dropkicked the scene into the chest with their blistering and abrasive 2018 debut full-length Only Self. Showcasing an unhinged and brutal display of hardcore punk fury decorated with caustic heft and nuanced grooves, the band were quickly placed in the same league as several peers already leading the charge for a new school of metalcore prioritising the core over any metal machinations whilst toe-dipping into nu-metal sonics, such as Knocked Loose, Code Orange and Vein.

In the five years since that immense introduction, life has caught up with the members via numerous avenues. From lockdown almost destroying any and all momentum their first album garnered, drummer/model Luis Aponte being head hunted to perform live with Charli XCX on her Saturday Night Live appearance, not to mention frontman Aaron Heard keeping busy between handling bass duties with shoegaze heroes Nothing and becoming a father, there’s myriad reasons as to why it’s taken a half-decade for …So Unknown to materialise.

Signing to major hitters Century Media and refusing to rush the creative process, the ten tracks that make up their sophomore effort are a genuinely intense and intimidating collection of emotive catharsis balanced by frenetic compositions and genuine, seething aggression.

Opting to look towards more positive subject matter rather than solely using his lyrical platform to expel past traumas, Heard constantly shifts between tortured hardcore howls and death metal gutturals, while unpacking feelings of frantic disillusionment (‘Gates Of Horn’), reaching out to his estranged brother (‘The Bond’), and motivational pleas for the search for purpose (‘An Offering To The Night’).

Even the devastating standout ‘Fear of Failure’ is centered around Heard’s newfound fatherhood and the redefining sense of being the responsibility has ushered in. Make no mistake, these less horrific anecdotes are still delivered with depraved levels of sonic abandon from the mangling of time signatures to overwhelming breakdowns, cementing Jesus Piece as forerunners of a scene they’d initially helped cultivate but have now elevated immensely.

ZB

AA TIGRE – Las Frutas Amarilla (Acuarela)

For a nice addition to this week’s oddities, we look to the soft but austere folk vision of Rafael Martinez del Pozo, known under his solo project name of AA Tigre. Del Pozo is a pioneering member of Spain’s 1990s indie scene. After his successful early days with the band La Jr, he later moved into folkier and more sombre directions, indulging the opportunity to hark back to some of his earlier musical inspirations such as Nick Drake or John Fahey. 

Las Frutas Amarilla is Tigre’s third solo album, and for all intents could be considered a Spanish rural experimental folk album which draws on a great many cues from Drake in particular. But the reality is that it is much more than that indeed: the album is plunged in atmospherics and hiss, but still remains faithful to the naked honesty of its acoustic components like its guitar and softly whisper-sung vocals.

Charming clicks and pops jut out of the nearly metreless ‘Una Descripción’, which indulges an vocal stutter / gate that pans around the mix in an almost horrifying fashion; perhaps its this sort of effect that warrants the album’s recent comparisons to the music of American experimenters such as Mount Eerie. Elsewhere, songs play out like broken music boxes or the fading memories of lullabies – the later track ‘El Primer Ultimo Día’ springs to mind, as we hear the “background noise” of Del Pozo gently wafting between frets and fidgeting on the floorboards, as if we were sitting in an old creaky attic with him, opening up with him all the old photo albums and boxes of tat.

JIJ

Currents – The Death We Seek (Sharptone)

Hailing from Fairfield, Connecticut, Currents have made a name for themselves over the past decade as one of the most dynamic modern metalcore outfits. Their 2017 debut The Place I Feel Safest was a powerful maelstrom of emotion and groove intertwined to conjure a work both immensely hefty yet serene with melody. 

The 2020 sophomore follow-up The Way It Ends showcased an embracing of European djent machinations which had penetrated the US scene whilst refusing to jump ship entirely. The resulting experimentation led to a project which cherry picked many of the tonal traits of the progressive metalcore (sub)sub-genre, and imbued them into the group’s more streamlined approach, with many heralding the output as pushing forward the formula already being crystalised by labelmates such as Loathe. 

The Death We Seek was first revealed last year with the arrival of the pummelling title-track, which set the wheels in motion for their most fully realised work to date. Cuts such as the ethereal yet chunky and dense standout single ‘So Alone’ echo the likes of Periphery or SikTh whilst continuing to prioritise melody and instantaneous venom over the more frenetic mayhem of their influences.

Penultimate cut ‘Remember Me’ critiques modern over-reliance and dependency on social media without falling into armchair lecturer territory, instead feeling more like an earnest and weary plea from vocalist Brian Wille who seamlessly transitions between lush clean vocals and a rasping growl-shout, over interlocking breakdowns subdued by watery melancholic leads.

At three full-lengths deep, Currents continue to toe a fine line between several Venn Diagram intersections of metalcore; drawing on a myriad of differing inspirations and approaches to craft a highly refined collection of pristine progressive hardcore-inflected groove-metal, and serves as an immense scoff in the face of perceived genre stagnation.

ZB

Foxy Shazam – Introducing (Enjoy The Ride)

One of the most criminally overlooked and underrated acts of the 21st century, Foxy Shazam made a name for themselves in the mid-noughties post-hardcore scene while sonically bearing very little in the way of similarities to the majority of acts singing their praises and sharing stages.

Combining classic rock and glam motifs from the likes of Queen and T-Rex with an unhinged youthful bent, the band were able to weave sasscore swagger around their traditional influences while utilising keys and brass to conjure an audible aesthetic not dissimilar from the likes of Mr. Bungle’s absurdist genre mangling a decade prior.

Since reforming in 2020 to the delight of many an avid listener, the band have released three comeback full-lengths with the latest two, The Heart Behead You and Dark Blue Night arriving barely a year apart.

Following on from the remastered re-release of their demented debut The Flamingo Trigger last year, we now have in our midst a long awaited reissue of the group’s seminal sophomore effort Introducing. Originally released in 2008, and boasting some of their most ludicrous audible concoctions from ‘The Rocketeer’ to ‘A Black Man’s Breakfast’, the level of compositional understanding and disregard on display since their early 20s is a spectacle behold, and it’s high time that fans had the chance to spin the musical mayhem in its purest form.

The eccentric virtuosic vocal performance from frontman Eric Sean Nally (who would go on to collaborate with the likes of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis) is as brazen and obnoxious as it is endlessly endearing, leaving little wonder the band would become regular outlier tour companions for the likes of The Darkness and Portugal, The Man. Leave little doubt, one spin of the most successful Foxy single ‘A Dangerous Man’ will have you pop-locking and boogieing your way into the nearest mosh pit.

ZB

Bernice – Cruisin’ (Telephone Explosion Canada)

Canada’s Bernice are a special kind of collective headcase, never quite having found a completely pigeonholeable niche for their music. The five-piece band have spent a total of eleven years together, and lately their vision has come to a new head with Cruisin’, mixing elements of classical, folk, and indie electronic together for an ultra-personal sound that could only fail to touch the hardest of hearts.

Take the track ‘Underneath My Toe’. This one alternates between aquatic synth-folk in wild fusion style, resembling the fantasy-crossover-world of Tennyson meets Fiona Apple, perhaps. Lyrically and melodically, the LP is heartfelt: simple, low-end-driven progressions nestle ultra-clear vocal lines about redemption and purging, “begin and begin again… the sun can reach us anywhere, at least that’s real” going the refrain on ‘Begin Again’. More lo-fi and indeterminate moods also crop up, as on shorter and skittier cuts like ‘Always A Lover’, and there are also dream pop ballads like ‘Are You Breathing’ (we’re thrown by this one, as it sounds a little bit like Owl City). But this album is mostly an audiophile’s emotive, lowercase dream, thoroughly impressive for showing off how minimal production can make such a difference in provoking emotion in the listener.

JIJ

This week’s reviewers: Zach Buggy, Jude Iago James, Neil Mason.