The best new albums this week

Our critics’ favourites

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Landscape – Landscape A Go-Go (Cooking Vinyl)

Diving into the story behind Landscape, more than 40 years on, fires up a few trains of thought. Looking at in from one way, the London electronic experimenters offer a cautionary tale about how difficult it is to genuinely push against the grain and not concede to the demands of a music industry which is arguably more fickle today than it was in 1975. From another angle, the narrative reinforces the importance of sticking to guns, no matter how adverse the results may look, and eventually reaping the rewards. Ultimately, though, it’s probably mostly about the importance of technology in the evolution of music itself.

Speaking on behalf of the common conscious, Landscape may not be the first word in synth pop on your lips. Nevertheless, their transition into a then-nascent genre produced two iconic tracks of the early 1980s scene, ‘Einstein A Go-Go’ and ‘Norman Bates’. Taken from their critically acclaimed second album, From The Tea-Rooms of Mars… to the Hell-Holes of Uranus, both songs, and the full album, appear on this huge retrospective box set — the LP in expanded form. Both tunes will be recognisable, even if you didn’t know you knew the group, but despite that each could be described as utterly, incomparably eccentric. Which gives some clue as to where they really came from.

Cooking Vinyl’s ode to this glorious and largely overlooked history spans a whopping 84 remastered tracks, including 52 available on CD for the very first time, 22 of which have never been released before. It begins roughly at the beginning, with the self-titled debut album dominating disc one. Opening on ‘Japan’, while there’s definitely an argument for labels like jazz-funk, the tune is cast in a kind of video game futurist sheen. Throughout the first chapter similar ideas come to mind, notes either want to seduce us in the bathtub or play directly into prevailing winds of the future.

The latter grows more pronounced from the outset of the second section, essentially album two with added bits. A transformation driven by Landscape’s passion for music tech, not least synths, which had already been apparent but now takes centre stage. Neon hues in the mind’s eye the moment ‘European Man’ begins. Robot voices and clattering, industrial-edged samples making things about machines almost as much as the men using them. A bold step in a direction that would mean labels and managers stopped completely ignoring them for being a bit too weird.

Of course, none of this was the plan. Aesthetically, and sonically, even at the peak of commercial recognition, Landscape could never be described as going for pop — with a look that was kind of like science fiction crossed with the shadow play of F.W. Murnau, and songs that didn’t really fit the mould, but hit at a time when moulds were being broken in electronic sounds. Their third full length, Manhattan Boogie-Woogie, also appears here, as do a ton of rarities, b sides, instrumentals, remixes, and bits by Landscape III, the outfit they became after cutting things back to a trio. Ultimately, what stands out across all this is just how strikingly original everything sounds — an often surreal, strangely uplifting and rousing, truly innovative collection of noises worth every second of the marathon listening session.

MH

Healing Force Project – Melts In Your Mind (Impatience)

Antonio Marini is an artist whose mode of expression seems bewildering and a little convoluted at first. If free jazz sampling is an overarching source of inspiration, its fierce angles are obfuscated by smoky, surrealist atmospheres which leave you reaching in the dark for hand holds. But as you adjust to these new surroundings as though acclimatising to the dark, the vivid detail half hidden in the shadows reveal themselves and draw you deeper in.

On earlier Healing Force Project releases, Marini’s wayward style teetered close to arrhythmic chaos as the freewheeling post-bop spirit in his music burst out in unexpected flurries of drums. He’s always sounded at his best when exercising a little restraint though, and this album for Impatience delivers some compelling, focused passages. The title track in particular holds its course even in the later stages as disembodied soul samples come sloping into earshot. It’s a gauzy, dub-splashed stew which comes on like the murky inversion of Seekers International’s day-go sample-a-delic patchworks.

There’s even some squashed funk to get you nodding emphatically on ‘Equator’, as Marini cheekily flicks guitar licks and cooly off-key piano chops in and out of the mix over a shuffling, ever-so-slightly wonky snare roll. It’s no mean feat to edge such subtly off-grid grooves into the electronic music process, and at times the effect calls to mind the nebulous configurations of Eric ‘Afrikan Sciences’ Douglas Porter, but where Porter weaves his own unique strain of future jazz fusion, Marini’s approach is that of the collage muralist, filling his paintbox with a lifetime’s obsession with jazz and letting the colours run.

Straight 4/4 kicks as heard on ‘Inharmonious Layer’ only serve to make the rest of the musical content more disorienting. Marini’s art lies in that which is hard to decipher – after all, where’s the excitement in art we already know the answers to?

OW

Have Mercy – The Earth Pushed Back (reissue) (Rude)

Returning from their 2019 hiatus last year to release an excellent self-titled comeback EP, Baltimore, Maryland emo powerhouse Have Mercy have captured ears and hearts all over again with the help of songsmith and sole original member Brian Swindle’s raw yet earnest writing; transporting listeners to a decade prior when the world didn’t seem as bad but everyone in their twenties felt much worse.

This emo-revival era of the 2010’s saw many fractured, fragile and fruitful works fall from the tree of 90’s sadboy alt rock into the modern age, with groups like American Football, Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate being discovered for the first time by an entirely new generation of avid fans. Along with a slew of excellent debuts released in 2013 as part of said revival, from newcomers (now veterans in their own right) including Citizen, Turnover and Foxing to name but a few, Have Mercy’s first full-length, The Earth Pushed Back, was yet another vital contribution to the newly revamped subculture.

Celebrating its ten year anniversary with this new reissue, the nuanced balance of gruff delivery with truly vulnerable introspection has only aged like a fine wine, with cuts like the seemingly simplistic yet deeply devastating ‘Let’s Talk About Your Hair’, reflecting the youthful malaise of fleeting adolescence, encroaching adulthood and the realisation that young love and youthful relationships can often fall apart through little fault of either party, and more down to innocent crossroads such as attending different colleges. While there’s no word on a planned full-length to follow up last year’s welcomed return EP just yet, this reissue lands at a perfect time as the revival has now reached a longevity and reverence of its own stature, and sad folk in their thirties need early twenties nostalgia to distract from modern sadness with a retro-fitted kind

ZB

B. Rupp – Vapid Time (Accidental Meetings)

Emerging out of the thicket of tape-borne deviance comes B. Rupp, a shadowy figure with a sharp line in gutter sonics with a seductive charm. At this point in time we’re not exactly short of noise-soaked lo-fi industro-fantasies, but in the best instances the force of personality cuts through to create something memorable. Rupp already turned heads with their first tape-borne drops on Stay Awake! and Opal Tapes, and now they leave their sooty trail around the ever-intriguing Accidental Meetings.

The tools employed on Vapid Time are pretty straight-forward – crusty, blown-out drum cycles and abrasive textural interference as a carriage for distorted vocal murmurations and a splash of dub on everything to space it out. What makes Rupp’s approach work is that they make room for subtlety, whether it’s in the considered shifts in arrangement or the tweaks to the sound design. It might be distorted to within an inch of fidelity, but the likes of ‘124055’ feature more than enough dynamics and details to ensnare your attention, where so many lo-fi acts simply red-line their lack of actual ideas.

There’s space for feeling in the depths of the dirge on ‘Don’t Damage Our Ears’ – a subtle melancholic shift thanks to a looming synth note. ‘Pile Up The Pots’ actually lifts the shroud and lets a more detailed percussive arrangement register some upper frequencies and ‘Suicide Sweets’ employs the kind of sad-eyed microtonal melody you might expect from Aphex Twin.

When a revival of sorts of noisy machine music came about with the advent of L.I.E.S. et al, it was refreshing to hear the sterile veneer of digital production distorted with the tangible imperfection of real-world circuitry. Out the other side of that surge as the hype moves on elsewhere, it’s pleasing to be reminded of how satisfying that sound is when someone does it right.

OW

Covet – Catharsis (Triple Crown)

Math-rock virtuoso Yvette Young has become one of the faces of proggy, virtuosic instrumental rock since her early Acoustics EPs combined melancholic mid-Western emo atmospherics with nuanced noodling and jazz-inflected finger-picking.

Garnering a swelling fanbase from these projects, she effortlessly transferred audience attention to what would eventually become her primary endeavour, the math-prog trio of Covet. Releasing two acclaimed albums in 2018’s Effloresce and the remarkable sophomore follow up Technicolor in 2020, the band has gone on to become one of the quintessential acts of the movement along with peers in CHON, Animals As Leaders and Polyphia.

Announcing the departure last year of both longtime bassist David Adamiak and drummer Forrest Rice, citing personal differences, before enlisting and enforcing the new line up of Brandon Dove and Jessica Burdeaux, their aptly titled Rebirth tour both assured fans of the beyond capable chops of the fresh line-up while the unheard material performed made it known that a new project was in bound.

Catharsis marks the final studio contributions from Young’s recently departed bandmates, yet sonically feels like a quiet rediscovery of musical identity. To the passing ears, this may sound like another reliably intricate batch of summery, euphoric post-math-rock pretension, but dig a little deeper, and Young’s introspective compositions both eschew and embrace her artistic origins with dense aplomb.

‘Firebird’ is a piece of grooving, dance-punk dynamism, awash in the hues of her San José home, while hypnotic closer ‘Lovespell’ balances ethereal post-jazz flourishes with sanguine emo-tinged soundscapes. These experiments culminate in the cathartic (no pun intended) standout of ‘Coronal’, which features a rare vocal turn from Young who usually shies away from the mic on works produced under the Covet banner. Her delicate, lush cadence is consistently suppressed by the ensuing waves of transcendent mathematical post-rock, making for a singular moment of vulnerable, emotional resonance, which feels simultaneously triumphant and despondent.

While many had reservations due to the sudden re-shift in line up, and Young’s cryptic statements of wiling to offer Covet just one more chance to creatively reward herself, Catharsis is an effortless reaffirmation of the auteur’s tireless work ethic and flawless ability, while continuing to exude her deft understanding of the balance between predominantly instrumental technicality and genuinely accessible, digestive song craft.

ZB

Kurvenschreiber – Licht Ausgang (Udacha)

Since its inception Udacha has provided a portal into an alternative reality where electronics are fluid and acoustic instrumentation sequences and modulates with machinist precision. It’s a world of inverted logics with some regular collaborators who materialise in varying configurations. In the case of Kurvenschreiber, it’s Vlad Dobrovolski who also frequents other Dacha projects such as S A D and Fritz Ellarald. Kurvenschreiber also features Alex Grachev, Ilja Sadovski and Sergey Komarov, and between them the group feed loping sound waves into slippery FX until it’s hard to discern the edges of the music.

Like much of the Udacha material, it’s certainly not ambient music. There’s not much emphasis on drums, even if they’re not strictly off the menu, but the movement rather comes from beguiling patterns rounded with a playful, whimsical nature. Space is afforded to tiny sounds, and sometimes a warming bass stumbles underneath in an unobtrusive fashion, while elsewhere slow release chords get shaken down for their overtones and tiny bleeps pass through tight compression until they make elegant pockmarks in the musical fabric.

Past the mellow tint of the atmosphere, these fine slithers of detail are what makes the record such a delight to listen to. Licht Ausgang is teeming with cosy, sun-bleached energy in an introspective, homespun way, like a microscopic tour through a cottage garden at the height of summer.

OW

Restraining Order – Locked In Time (Triple B)
Formed at the beginning of 2017 as a New Years Resolution to start a “1982 style” hardcore punk band, Connecticut/Western Massachusetts based old school revivalists Restraining Order have since become of the most adored newcomers to the scene. In an era where so many beatdown and Youth Crew acts lead the continuing expansion of the genre down diverging avenues, the material Restraining Order deal in is a direct nod to the likes of Minor Threat, Circle Jerks and Jerry’s Kids, but repurposed with the youthful vibrance of the modern age.

Following a slew of promising demos and EPs, their 2019 debut full-length This World Is Too Much captured the attention of many within the scene thanks to its focused brevity (little to no tracks made it over the two-minute mark), and its unashamed use of retro garage rock hooks, providing an instantaneous and welcoming formula, more interested in inciting push-pits and cathartic singalongs than your standard kickboxing and stagediving chaos.

Signed to Triple B, one of the most vital labels and platforms for modern hardcore, their highly anticipated second album Locked In Time comes hot off the heels of their recent jaunt across the UK and Europe as part of their label’s European Takeover tour alongside diverse labelmates such as No Pressure, Sunami and Pain Of Truth.

Where their debut featured frontman Patrick Cozens exorcising grievances and anxieties with his gruff, distorted delivery, their sophomore effort is a much more self-reflective affair, searching for the state of mind to appreciate our present lives, the time we’re bound, tied and locked into, while musically pushing their accessible qualities even further.

‘Misled’ stomps like a minute-long lead single retro banger should while the anthemic ‘Another Better Day’ bounces with youthful swagger and a seasoned compositional approach, resulting in one of their longest and slowly building cuts to date, while still not making it to three minutes. That accomplishment is reserved for the standout cut ‘Breakout’.

Locked In Time isn’t a creative rebirth per se, nor is it a discarding of past identity, but rather an embellishing of their formula that’s helped elevate Restraining Order beyond simple OG revivalists to a status of essential modern day teachers, reminding all of hardcore’s purpose, poise and sonic origins, while likely serving as a welcoming starting point for those slowly warming to the concept of the scene’s global expansion. 

ZB

MADMADMAD – Behavioural Sink Delirium (Bad Vibrations)

Mutants almost every one. MADMADMAD drop their third album to prove that the spirit of early electronic post punk is alive and well somewhere in London, and longing to get out for a good stomp. Behavioural Sink Delirium takes very little time to present its first piece of evidence, opening on an alien tune up intro before the aptly-titled ‘Krautjerk’ bursts from the starting blocks. Like a demented robotic horse, it gallops on loose drums — at times pots and pans — ensuring that the relentless forward momentum still feels fun and spontaneous, machine-like lyrics chanting indecipherables into our ears, chaos eventually used to close things down.

A breathless opening, to say the least, things settle into themselves from thereon in, but the sense of imagination and adventure is always there. ‘You See, You Do It Like This’ has this suppressed, wasp-in-jar energy fighting to break out, frenzied synth line buzzing in and around another mesmerisingly complex and addictive set of percussive arrangements. ‘Baggy Bag Bottoms’ loses the juggernaut pacing, opting instead for strange staccato drum work, ‘Deckchairs’ takes us into places that feel surreal, whimsical and tropical. Writing about music can be repetitive. When words fail, it’s a privilege. Enough said.

MH

Moloko – Do You Like My Tight Sweater? (Music On Vinyl)

There is nothing like striking while the iron is hot and Roisin Murphy’s iron would currently burn your face off. With her eagerly anticipated new album due to land in September, here’s a timely reminder of where it all started – Moloko’s 1995 debut album.

And while Murphy is rightly hot property, her Moloko other half, the wildly underrated Mark Brydon, deserves a little more smoke up his backend. He was at the epicentre of Sheffield’s second wave when his band Chakk built FON Studios using their major label advance. No FON, no Warp. And Brydon was FON.

‘Do You Like My Tight Sweater?’ was something of a production calling card for him. The utter knockabout joy of the single ‘Fun For Me’ is perhaps what people expect from Moloko, but there’s so much more here to drink in. The soulful ‘Day For Night’ was way ahead of its time, the drum ’n’ bass of ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ and ‘Butterfly 747’ are both very tasty, but it’s the seven-minute acid-fuelled funker ‘Party Weirdo’ that’s a total killer.

We’re three years away from ‘Sing It Back’ and that remix, but listening to ‘Do You Like My Tight Sweater?’ it’s no surprise Moloko went stella. It’s a record that’s chock full of ideas and it sounds as good now as it did first time round. Nice artwork too.

NM

Huw Marc Bennett – Days Like Now (Albert’s Favourites)

We’ve seen the badlands of Wales inspire records with the journeyman qualities of an imagined US Midwestern odyssey. Gruff Rhys’ American Interior is perhaps the most famous example in recent years, but the list could go on. Huw Marc Bennett needs to be on it, although Days Like Now isn’t an ode to some other place far removed from his home. Instead, it sees the acclaimed Welsh producer and bassist invoke a sense of openness and endless horizons through a combination of jazz, blues, folk, and Americana, twanging guitars overshadowing plodding top end percussion, conjuring images of riding through nowhere en route to somewhere.

As the record progresses the hues grow more vivid, but are painted with broader strokes. ‘Farewell i Llangyfelach Lon’ introduces dubwise nuances to the equation, perhaps nodding to the free party soundsystems Wales is (in)famous for. ‘Iolo’, meanwhile, uses crooning lead guitars atop rhythmic acoustic to create a sense of movement and serenity in one. At once sounding like it was plucked from a past long before recent memory, while also packed with new ideas, words like ‘timeless’ are so overused it feels lazy, but in this instance hard to come up with much better.

MH

Converge – Axe To Fall (reissue) (Deathwish)
Massachusetts hardcore royalty Converge appear to be laying groundwork this year with a recent headline set at Manchester’s Outbreak Fest just last month as well as another set for ArcTanGent held in Bristol this August. They’ve also announced reissues for several of their seminal full-lengths while recently unveiling the live LP Jane Live, featuring their full performance of the 2001 magnum opus Jane Doe at Roadburn Festival held in The Netherlands back in 2016. While it’s mere speculation currently, all of the momentum, appearances and represses seem to be in an effort to re-establish their presence in the scene for preparation, but of what, we do not know.

One of the most highly anticipated projects to be respawned on wax is their phenomenal seventh full-length Axe To Fall. Originally released in 2009, the album served as a revitalisation following the claustrophobic, abrasive trilogy of works that began with the aforementioned Jane Doe, and continued with You Fail Me in 2004 and No Heroes in 2006. Opting to balance their feral, caustic dissonance with lengthier forays into post-metal doomscaping, the project marked the band’s first (much desired) attempt to collaboratively branch out with the help of other artists such as post-hardcore turned grunge heroes Cave In who contributed to several cuts, with the most notable being the blisteringly chaotic ‘Effigy’.

Elsewhere, members of Neurosis, The Red Chord and pg.99 would also make guest appearances, while the project’s most singularly powerful effort comes in the form of the seven-minute epic closer ‘Wretched World’; brought to life by the synth-laden horror provided by avant-garde cybergrind collective Genghis Tron, who were invited to expand upon the early version of the track whilst Converge guitarist/producer Kurt Ballou was helping to craft their seminal 2007 masterwork Board Up The House.

Equal parts reliable and unprecedented, Axe To Fall ushered in an entirely new era of sonic experimentation for the group, while continuing to cement their reign as one of the figureheads of metallic hardcore and musical extremity; a legacy they continue to build upon with nuance and ease.

ZB

This week’s reviewers: Martin Hewitt, Oli Warwick, Neil Mason, Zach Buggy.