Carly Rae Jepsen shines a light on our dark world, unveils two brand new songs

Carly Rae Jepsen shines a light on our dark world, unveils two brand new songs

Look, there’s no way around it. It’s been a dark few years. Yet, on certain nights, when there’s not a cloud in the sky and the moon is positioned just right, you’ll swear you can hear the faint sounds of an opening saxophone salvo. Carly Rae Jepsen’s life-affirming hit factory E•MO•TION echoes in the air, nearly four full years later.

Legendary producer Craig Leon announces first album in decades, coming on RVNG Intl.

Legendary producer Craig Leon announces first album in decades, coming on RVNG Intl.

There’s really only one pertinent question, given the context: is the Dogon tribe of Mali willing to reward world-renowned producer, composer, and arranger Craig Leon’s consistent musical homages by offering him a lifetime royal position of some sort?

Boy Harsher Careful

[Nude Club; 2019]

Styles: minimal wave, synthpop, darkwave
Others: HTRK, Chromatics

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

We may still watch television, but who watches a television? Who today knows static, and where could consumption be so static?

Celeste video game composer Lena Raine announces debut album Oneknowing

Celeste video game composer Lena Raine announces debut album Oneknowing

Often when we talk about music’s “replay value,” we’re talking about music that holds up after a couple spins on the ol’ record player. But what about music that you maybe had to listen to for upwards of 14 hours while you tried again, again, again, again, and again to just get that one god damn strawberry! Music that still sounds great after all that must be something really special.

RIP: Mark Hollis of Talk Talk

RIP: Mark Hollis of Talk Talk

Mark Hollis of Talk Talk has died, according to a confirmation from manager Keith Aspden to Pitchfork. He was 64. From ex-Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb’s official Facebook page:

Silk Road Assassins State Of Ruin

[Planet Mu; 2019]

Rating: 2.5/5

Styles: electronica
Others: WWWINGS, Celestial Trax, Endgame

If sound is a story about what happened to itself, then State of Ruin is a coyote sucking the pheromone-marrow from a fallen cyborg. Its rhythms are like muscle-spasms, its melodies like prayers. Explosion after explosion after explosion occurs, until exploding becomes boring. Synth-sounds dance like bodiless brains, or brainy bodies, or bodies without organs. Lasers shoot at you.

SPELLLING Mazy Fly

[Sacred Bones; 2019]

Styles: R&B, techno, experimental
Others: Kate Bush, Brian Eno, FKA twigs, David Lynch

At the beginning of the second verse of “Hard to Please (Reprise),” a sultry psych-R&B number from SPELLLING’s latest album Mazy Fly, the Bay Area experimentalist softly croons, “I just wanna spend time with you/ I just wanna make love with you.” Here, SPELLLING (born Tia Cabral) sounds as self-assuredly sexy as Britney Spears and twice as commanding, her voice giving purpose to the retro keyboards and guitars that underpin her sweet nothings.

Triad God returns with long-awaited second album on Lorenzo Senni’s Presto!? label

Triad God returns with long-awaited second album on Lorenzo Senni's Presto!? label
Photo: Jim Alexander

Save for a peep here, a peep there, and a diamond-cut single with James Ferraro encased in glass, Triad God has been annoyingly quiet over the years.

Croatian Amor Isa

[Posh Isolation; 2019]

Styles: posh isolation, sound collage, ice cold
Others: Varg, Severin, Minais B, Lee Gamble

(whose end
of the world
is
the end
of the
world?)
(whose ending of the world
is
the ending of
the world?)
(whose apocalypse is
the
apocalypse?)
(who survives
but
is not considered
to have survived?)

– Keguro Macharia

U.S. Girls plot U.S. tour, this headline writes itself

U.S. Girls plot U.S. tour, this headline writes itself
Don't cry for me, I'm already dead.

So you say it’s 2019, and everyone’s “sad?”

Oh, BOO-HOO. I got news for y’all: STUFF HAS ALWAYS SUCKED, and it ALWAYS WILL. You’re gonna have to buck up and get over it.

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