Six months down - six to go. Over the past few days I've been taking stock of the newly released albums that I've dug the most during the first half of 2017. I came up with a list of 20 off the top of my head and narrowed those down to 10 after further consideration. So, in no particular order;
Flotation Toy Warning - The Machine That Made Us (Here)
Long awaited 2nd LP (13 years!) of wonky far-out chamber pop.
Richard Dawson - Peasant (Here)
'Medieval concept album' and 'most accessible work to date' aren't phrases often seen in the same sentence. It's a bloody masterpiece folks.
Peter Perrett - How the West Was Won (Here) 21 years after Perrett's last LP of new music, this sits comfortably with his very best work. Heartwarmingly terrific.
Sacred Paws - Strike a Match (Here)
Recent (and deserved) winners of the Scottish album of the year award, even though we're only at the half-way point. A poly-rhythmic post-punk joy.
Yazz Ahmed - La Saboteuse (Here)
Psychedelic Middle Eastern jazz. That'll do nicely.
Big Blood - The Daughters Union
The most recent missive from the prolific cottage industry, psych-folk outsiders is a 'pay what you like' download (Here), which is frankly ridiculous. Go grab it.
The Myrrors - Hasta La Victoria (Here)
Spiritual sonic explorations. '...unrefined, unrestrained and unforgettable'.
Joshua Abrams - Simultonality (Here) Malian infused kosmische trance. I think I invented a new genre there.
Jake Xerxes Fussell - What In The Natural World (Here)
This passed me by on first listen, but I'm forever grateful to Ramone666 over at For The Sake Of The Song, who persuaded me to give it another spin. 'Transmogrified folk/blues koans' is the much quoted descriptor - and who am I to argue?
The Prophet Hens - The Wonderful Shapes of Back Door Keys (Here)
'Melancholic songs about hope & despair, joy & regret, ambition & reality, coming together & drifting apart.' The Dunedin Sound is alive and well.
There are of course other albums I need to investigate further and many that I haven't checked out at all yet, but hopefully I'll get to 'em all eventually. Some of my favourite stand alone tunes so far in 2017 have yet to appear on album and I'm particularly looking forward to new full length releases from Low Chimes, Bas Jan, Pins, Nadine Shah, Girl Ray and Meatraffle. Let the second half commence!
Meanwhile, here's one from This is the Kit, whose new LP is due out on Friday.
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10 comments:
Go on, admit it, you made those up, didn't you?
What's your real list? ;-)
I'll be buying that This Is The Kit album. It must have been you who put me on them before I have the Bashed Out album by them
Rol. I should've dropped a ringer into the equation to see if anyone noticed ;-)
George. I did bang on about them a bit, so it could've been me. Rozi Plain is also a member of This is the Kit and, as you might remember, she's one of my favourite artists of recent years.
Love Rol's comment!
I was looking up a moth yesterday and it turned out to be a Rusty Tussock. Must admit, I'd love to see Rusty Tussocks turn up in your next Halftime Report.
I've been thinking its been a good year so far for albums.
I quite fancy making up an obscure band for a post.
That a lot yo check out TS, I'm on the case
Sacred Paws - Bhundu Boys meet Bananarama - terrific stuff
Now off to have a trawl. Thanks.
Thanks for this, and good of you to call attention to outside-the-mainstream albums. I've followed new music quite closely (the last 6-7 years), yet feel a bit stupid as I don't know any! Your explorations make me realise the internet is so vast. I'm intrigued by the chamber pop LP by Flotation Toy Warning
A couple of these will surely make my list come December. Great digging, Swede.
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