TOO MANY SOULS – Avi C. Engel
A most happy new discovery (thank you, Skyjelly): haunting, elegiac vocals over endlessly intriguing instrumental permutations. Releases in a couple of weeks but I’m presently taking a dive into their back catalog to sate me until then. So good.
SPIRIT GUIDE مرشد حقيقة – Skyjelly
Had no clue that this was what my ears needed until I hit play; all of their albums Wish-list-bound.
WALL OF EYES – The Smile
Songsmithing of the highest order: this is great stuff.
GOD GAMES – The Kills
The essence of everything I love about Mosshart and Hince distilled in a single face-ripping, soul-baring set. Heavy rotation on my many nighttime trips of back and forth along the backroads and byways. Seven years is a long wait, but if this is what emerges, I’ll gladly an eternity.
SYSTEMIC (Divide and Dissolve, 2023)
Seamlessly jarring and jarringly seamless transitions from pastorale to metal to spoken word poetry to any and all combinations in between that speak profoundly to what I can only imagine the Indigenous experience must be. Revelatory.
SHOOK – Algiers
The latest from possibly my favorite band working today: genre-smashing at its finest, a kaleidoscopic fury of rhythm and poetry. While I've featured their latest album above (out 24Feb), everything Algiers releases is essential.