Album of the Week – 28/01/22

This week sees new releases from Simone Felice (of The Felice Brothers– All the Bright Coins), Anaïs Mitchell and Pinegrove  (11:11) and in truth, any of them could have claimed this prize!

Instead, we have plumped for a new album that is only new-ish. It’s also 1 hr 26 min long, so there’s probably a new album buried in amongst the alternate versions and offcuts. It is of course the return of Zach (Beirut) Condon and his album of remastered and reworked oddities! You can find out more about it on his website here, but as ever, you can expect lots of accordions, horns and other instruments that others ignore. It’s hard not to love what he does!

Album of the Week – Beirut – Artifacts

When the decision came to rerelease the long out-of-print Lon Gisland EP with a few added B-sides and singles, I found myself digging through hard drives looking for something extra to add to the compilation. What started as a few extra unreleased tracks from my formative recording years quickly grew into an entire extra records-worth of music from my past, and a larger project of remixing and remastering everything I found for good measure. A brief history leading up to this first EP, as well as my thoughts on the extra three sides of music I‘ve decided to include in this compilation:

From the age of 11 on I had found myself stricken with terrible insomnia and many lonely hours to kill at night. three years later my older brother moved to New York. he left behind a strict musical education of minimal German electronica, hip hop and mix tapes of Neutral Milk Hotel and other curiosities, as well as an analog 4-track cassette recorder with some rudimentary instructions on how it functioned. I began recording little tunes with a trumpet, a drum machine, a synthesizer and my father’s acoustic guitar. Eventually a piano was moved into the house, and other instruments followed as I opened up to new styles and instrument obsessions. I took to it in the manner of someone completely possessed, having found an inspired alternative to idly passing by the empty hours of sleepless nights. It went on like this, with countless secret albums filled with city names and various musical styles until I was finally convinced to try playing a few concerts, around the age of 17. I would use my computer to play the pre-recorded backing music through the PA systems while I sang and played trumpet, and had my brothers beat djembes and tambourines furiously “over the loud parts”. we managed a concert at the local teen centre, and later, somehow, a warehouse on the edge of town with a few other local acts unknown to me at the time from the local arts college…. (continues here)

Albums of Note

— Anaïs Mitchell – Anaïs Mitchell

— The Furniture – The Furniture

— Kid Loco – Born in the 60’s

— Modern Nature – Island of Noise

— Pinegrove – 11:11

— Simone Felice (of The Felice Brothers) – All the Bright Coins

— Urge Overkill – Oui

January 28th:

— 800 Throats – Day Of the Woman EP

— ABORYM – Kali Yuga Bizarre

— Adam Shoenfeld – All the Birds Sing

— Adria Kain – When Flowers Bloom

— Alice Glass – PREY//IV

— Alvabot – Harmonic Dystopia

— Amber Mark – Three Dimensions Deep

— Anaïs Mitchell – Anaïs Mitchell

— Anteloper – Kudu (Vinyl Reissue)

— AWAY – self:antiself EP

— AZ – Do or Die II (Deluxe)

— Babyface Ray – Face

— Bad Suns – Apocalypse Whenever

— Beirut – Artifacts (Digital Release)

— Ben Böhmer and Rob Moose –The Apparitions EP

— Big Big Train – Welcome To The Planet

— Bipolar Club – Issue EP

— Black Flower – Magma

— Brent Cobb – And Now, Let’s Turn To Page…

— Brian Michael Henry – The Horror! The Horror! EP

— Burial – Antidawn EP (Physical Release)

— Buzzard Canyon – Drunken Tales Of An Underachiever…The Saga Continues

— Bye Bye Tsunami – Bye Bye Tsunami

— Carsen Gray – Each Moment EP

— Chino Cappin – Permanently Scarred

— Cloakroom – Dissolution Wave

— Combo Chimbita – IRÉ

— Cosmic Order – Inner Temple

— Crystal Ball – Crysteria

— Dark Meditation – Polluted Temples

— Dawn Of Solace – Flames of Perdition

— deathcrash – Return

— Deeper Graves – The Colossal Sleep

— Depleted Uranium – Origins

— Dirty Laces – L’Esprit Du Temps

— Drug Couple – Stoned Weekend

— EARTHGANG – Ghetto Gods

— Earthless – Night Parade of One Hundred Demons

— Eels – Extreme Witchcraft

— Elena Setién – Unfamiliar Minds

— Eric Gales – Crown

— The Fruit Bats – Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost Songs (2001–2021)

— The Furniture – The Furniture

— Gentlemen’s Crow – Apparitions

— Grave Next Door – Sanctified Heathen

— Hazemaze – Blinded By The Light

— Holm (Mikkel Holm Silkjær of Yung) – Why Don’t You Dance

— Immanuel Wilkins – The 7th Hand

— Jacques Greene – Fantasy EP

— Kid Loco – Born in the 60’s

— Kings and Liars – Transition Animals

— Kush Arora x Orogen x Titus 12 – Magma Pulse

— KYLE – It’s Not So Bad

— Lady Wray – Piece Of Me

— The Last Ten Seconds Of Life – The Last Ten Seconds Of Life

— Leo Sayer – Northern Songs: Leo Sayer Sings the Beatles

— Maddie & Tae – Through The Madness Vol. 1

— The Magnetic Fields – The House of Tomorrow (Vinyl Reissue)

— Mantic Ritual – Crusader EP

— Man With A Mission – Break and Cross the Walls I

— Maria Domark – Flawless: Reloaded EP

— Mark Guiliana – Music For Doing

— Mathis Picard – Live at the Museum

— Maverick Sabre – Don’t Forget to Look Up

— Maya Shenfeld – In Free Fall

— MICHELLE – After Dinner We Talk Dreams

— Milquetoast – Caterwaul

— MØ – Motordrome

— Modern Nature – Island of Noise

— Monoscopes – Painkillers and Wine

— Morgan Wade – Reckless (Deluxe Edition)

— Mother Mother – Inside (Deluxe Edition)

— MOTHERMARY – I Am Your God

— Nathan Leigh & The Crisis Actors – All Myths Are Remixes

— NightNight – Love Decayed

— Nija – Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You

— North Mississippi AllStars – Set Sail

— Our Lady Peace – Spiritual Machines II

— PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (Vinyl Reissue)

— PJ Harvey – Let England Shake – Demos

— Pinegrove – 11:11

— PinkPantheress – To hell with it (Remixes)

— The Quill – Live, New, Borrowed, Blue

— QuinzeQuinze – Vārua EP

— Rick Ross – Richer Than I Ever Been (Deluxe)

— Russ Rankin (of Good Riddance) – Come Together Fall Apart

— Ryan Cullwell – Run Like A Bull

— Sad Daddy – Way Up in the Hills

— Sam Moss – Blues Approved

— Samm Henshaw – Untidy Soul

— Scarlet Rebels – See Through Blue

— Scruffpuppie – letters to nobody

— Sebastián Yatra – Dharma

— Secondhand Depression – Secondhand Depression EP

— Siamese – Home Instrumental

— Silverlane – Inside Internal Infinity

— Simone Felice (of The Felice Brothers) – All the Bright Coins

— Spaceface – Anemoia

— Squirrel Flower – Planet EP

— St. Paul & The Broken Bones – The Alien Coast

— Styles Haury – One Life Ain’t Enough

— Sweet Alibi – Make a Scene

— Tangent – Tangent

— Tension – Decay

— Thomas Leer and Robert Rental – The Bridge (Reissue)

— Thyla – Thyla

— TOXPACK – ZWANZIG.TAUSEND VOLT

— Tyler Mitchell – Dancing Shadows

— Uèle Lamore – Loom

— Urge Overkill – Oui

— Various Artists – Mainstream Funk: Funk, Soul, Spiritual Jazz 1971-1975

— V**gra Boys – Welfare Jazz (Deluxe Edition)

— Wasuremono – Let’s Talk P. 2

— WHY NOT – VERY WHY NOT EP

— Willie & The Bandits – When The World Stood Still

— Youn Sun Nah – Waking World

— Your Old Droog and The God Fahim – The Wolf on Wall St 2