CDs + Vinyl:

Aerosol – Leave CD/LP (N5md)
Third album from Rasmus Rasmussen’s ethereal electronic project. Cosmic sounds and psychedelic effects mingle with cascading guitars and kraut-infused beats on a collection of tracks that sends obvious nods to the German synth pioneers of the ‘70s.

Anberlin – Never Take Friendship Personal: Live New York City CD (Tooth & Nail)
Recorded live at The Gramercy Theatre, the album helps celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the original release of Never Take Friendship Personal.

And So I Watch From Afar – Heirs CD/LP+MP3 (Sargent House)
New album from the Irish progressive-punks. “Heirs is the splatterings of pigment in a Jackson Pollock painting. It’s the incomprehensible equations of a mad scientist. And it’s delivered with a playful sophistication that boggles the mind and delights the senses.” – GiggingNI

Ólöf Arnalds – Palme CD/LP (One Little Indian)
The fourth long-player from the stunningly talented classically trained singer and multi-instrumentalist is a move beyond the sound she’s become known for, with synthetic sounds carefully augmenting her songs, thanks in part to múm founder Gunnar Örn Tynes and long term collaborator Skúli Sverrisson (Laurie Anderson, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Blonde Redhead).

Jeff Beck – Live + CD (Rhino)
New live release spanning the legendary guitarist’s vast and varied career along with two new studio tracks. The 14 live performances on Jeff Beck Live+ were recorded at multiple venues in 2014 and feature Beck backed by his band: vocalist Jimmy Hall, bassist Rhonda Smith, drummer Jonathan Joseph and guitarist Nicolas Meier.

Best Coast – California Nights CD/LP (Harvest)
A brighter, more-sparkly, more sophisticated, more psychedelic Best Coast album across the board, embodying the rich lightness and stinging darkness of a California state of mind. “Bethany and Bobb’s third record is like a needy, narcissistic L.A. teen in an ironic Avril Lavigne T-shirt who loiters round the house, nagging and nudging you until you’ve no option but to be endeared by its gawkish vulnerability. It begins with the heavily medicated ‘Feeling OK,’ falls hook, line and sinker on the Hole-homage ‘Heaven Sent,’ asks ‘Why don’t you like me?’ during ‘Jealousy,’ before addressing more pertinent questions, ‘What is life? What is love? What’s the meaning of it all?’ on ‘So Unaware.’” – The Guardian

Frank Black And The Catholics – The Complete Recordings 7xCD (Cooking Vinyl)
A seven-CD collection of remastered versions of the band’s six studio albums, plus a bonus disc of demos from the sessions for Black Letter Days. The albums included are 1998’s self-titled, 1999’s Pistolero, 2001’s Dog In The Sand, 2002’s Black Letter Days and Devil’s Workshop, and 2003’s Show Me Your Tears.

The Bloodline – We Are One CD (Another Recording Co.)
The Bloodline cleverly fuse elements of rock, hard rock and metal lined with infectious hooks and soaring vocal melodies.

Chaos Delivery Machine – Burn Motherf**ker Burn CD/LP (Hardline Entertainment)
The members of Chaos Delivery Machine have not let advancing years dilute their anger – or their love of fast punk rock. More power to them, they have more endurance than I ever will. Perhaps they just don’t have any kids to tire them out. Their latest album, Burn Motherf**ker Burn, is their second after Manifesto. It has taken eight ‘exhausting and life-threatening’ years to produce. The trio has a strong Pennywise connection. Bassist Fletcher Dragge was a founding guitarist of the legendary Californian outfit, while CDM’s drummer Justin Thirsk’s brother Jason played bass for Pennywise before his death in 1996. Justin Thirsk and CDM’s guitarist Jason Page were once of 98 Mute, another of the ‘90s punk bands which took over the world from the west coast of the USA.

Ciara – Jackie CD (Epic)
New album from the R&B superstar. Jackie features production by The Underdogs, Da Don, Dr. Luke, and others. Includes “That’s How I’m Feelin’” featuring Pitbull and Missy Elliot. Available in Regular and Deluxe editions. Deluxe adds five bonus tracks.
[Read more…] about New Releases for May 4, 2015

CDs + Vinyl:

10,000 Manicas – Twice Told Tales CD (Cleopatra)
A full-length album of inspired interpretations of traditional British Isle folk songs. Vinyl version due May 12.

1939 Ensemble – Black Diamond Pearl CD/LP+MP3 (Jealous Butcher)
For their second album, 1939 Ensemble added a third member, multi-instrumentalist Josh Thomas, whose musicality adds a rich ostinato to Medeles and Coniglio’s dialogue. The band put together a dream team to help build the record, including John McEntire, Tucker Martine, Mark Orton, Holland Andrews, M. Ward and Michael Flinn. Black Diamond Pearl is a journey, cinematic in nature and ranging the full spectrum of emotion — a puckish romp in vivid colors, a bright trumpet peppering the ebullient rhythms, percussion-heavy songs acting as exercises in tom work, penetrating brass, ethereal vocals (provided by Like A Villain’s Holland Andrews), and industrial noise.

Ages – Malefic Miasma CD/LP (Black Lodge)
New album from the Swedish black metal band.

Craig Armstrong – Far From The Madding Crowd [OST] CD (Sony Classics)
Craig Armstrong is a composer of modern orchestral music, electronica and film scores. Since the mid-‘90s, he has created scores for both Hollywood and independent films including Love Actually, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Robbie Basho – Twilight Peaks CD/LP (Smeraldina)
Basho’s last recordings, originally issued in 1984 on a tape label called The Art Of Relaxation. Mastered by Glenn Jones and Matt Azvedo, from the original demo tapes, provided to Jones by Basho himself. CD has two extra live tracks.

William Basinski – Cascade CD (2026)
Cascade and The Deluge are variations on the latest tape-loop and delay composition from the inimitable William Basinski. In Cascade, a single ancient lilting piano tape loop repeats endlessly carrying one along in its tessellating current. (Cascade is available now, and is currently listed as CD only. The Deluge will be available on May 26, and is currently listed as vinyl-only. Basinki’s new collaboration with Richard Chartier, titled Divertissment, is also due on May 26, and is also currently listed as vinyl-only. Of course, all of this is subject to change.)

Bell Witch – Four Phantoms CD (Profound Lore)
New release from the Seattle-based funeral/death/doom act.

Blue Blood – This Is The Life CD/LP (This Is American)
Blue Blood started as a solo project by Athens music veteran and critically acclaimed fly-fishing guide Hunter Morris. As the songs came together, Hunter teamed up with members past and present of MGMT and The Whigs to flesh out these bigger ideas which would become a sort of distant, Southern third-cousin to indie rock idols Nada Surf and The Jesus And Mary Chain.

Bluey – Life Between The Notes CD (Shanachie)
Bluey Maunick is famous as the creator and leader of Incognito, the ground-breaking funk/jazz UK supergroup. He is also famous for his collaborations with and productions of such greats as Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Maxi Priest, George Benson and many more.

Blur – The Magic Whip CD/2xLP+MP3 (WB/Parlophone)
The new album from Blur started life in Hong Kong when the band had an unexpected break in touring in May 2013, and arrives 16 years since 13, the band’s last record as a four-piece. “Familiar but also exploratory, the legendary band’s first album since 2003 is a triumph. Parklifers are thrown the bone of opener ‘Lonesome Street’. With its Britpop swagger and talk of catching ‘the 5.14 to East Grinstead,’ it’s a pleasing self-pastiche, a welcoming beckon inside. Other tracks hark back to their history – the grinding ‘Go Out’ could sit on 13 with its coruscating guitar squalls, and catchy knees-up ‘Ong Ong’ will be the new song lapped up at Hyde Park this summer, resembling a beery ‘Ziggy Stardust.’ But a crowd-pleasing recreation of past glories a la Suede’s 2013 comeback Bloodsports just wouldn’t be Blur. The fascination of The Magic Whip is in how a reanimated Blur imagine they’d have developed by 2015, and how the Hong Kong environment fed into that.” – NME

Braids – Deep In The Iris CD/LP (Arbutus)
Braids are a three-piece experimental/dream pop band from Montreal. Deep In The Iris is the band’s third album. “[Album track] ‘Miniskirt,’ is a synth-y pop number marked by jolting beats and acerbic lyrics drawn from the album’s weighty themes of ‘pornography, abuse, and slutshaming.’ Here, Braids teem with the kind of rage and frustration that can only be articulated by a woman who’s felt snuffed by a sexist society and targeted by the leering eyes of men. ‘Liberated’s what you wanna call it. How about unfairly choked?’ Standell sings in the opening moments of the song, adding, ‘I’m not a man-eater, I enjoy them like cake. But in my position I’m the slut, I’m the bitch, I’m the whore, the one you hate.’” – Consequence Of Sound

The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Musique De Film Imaginé CD/LP (A. Records)
Musique De Film Imaginé (music for film imagined) is a soundtrack that pays homage to the great European film directors of the late ‘50s and ‘60s, such as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard (to name but two), created by Anton Newcombe on behalf of the Brian Jonestown Massacre for an imaginary French film. Guests on this daring symphonic experience are French chanteuse and multi-instrumentalist SoKo and Italian actress, singer and director Asia Argento.

Zac Brown Band – Jekyll + Hyde CD (Republic)
Describing Jekyll + Hyde’s direction, Zac told Rolling Stone earlier this year that it will have “things that people will expect and things that they don’t.” “Homegrown,” the band’s highest chart debut, which is bulleted at #10 on country radio this week has earned massive fan support and early praise for its “rock feel” (Country Weekly) and “intricately arranged vocal harmonies” (Billboard); “Dress Blues,” written by Jason Isbell, is a somber and stirring tribute to members of the military who have been killed in service; and “Heavy Is The Head,” which features Chris Cornell of Soundgarden.
[Read more…] about New Releases for April 28, 2015