Streaming Playlists

New Releases: April 2021

Picked by Brendan Keller-Tuberg

Really From – Really From

Hitting play on Really From’s new self-titled album for the first time last month was one of the most immediately satisfying listening experiences in my recent memory. As a combination of indie rock, Midwest emo, post-rock, and of course jazz, presented in a series of through-composed multi-phase compositions, Really From constructed musical bridges that I didn’t know I needed. I’ve seen lots of comparisons online to bands like American Football, but there really isn’t much precedent at all to the specific sound Really From has carved for themselves – it’s highly innovative and idiosyncratic, but it’s so intuitive and unpretentious in its execution so as to feel wholly effortless. It fit my ear like a glove, and hasn’t left rotation since.

However, just to speak on musical terms when describing Really From’s successes would be a disservice to the value of this album. The lyrical and thematic content of Really From is refreshing, honest, and gives a voice to stories and experiences particularly relevant to 2021’s zeitgeist and recent world events. Themes of ‘place, self and culture’ are explored throughout, with tracks raising ‘hematic questions concerned with intergenerational trauma, tokenism, and immigrant parenthood’. There are tracks with titles like ‘Yellow Fever’, which deals with some of the uglier sides of the Asian-American experience, and ‘Try-Lingual’, detailing the alienating and stressful experience of attempting to communicate with family or friends in your second language. Loss of self and fractured identities take center stage on Really From, but despite all this, Really From couldn’t sound more comfortable or sure of themselves on this self-titled release – and the world is much better for it.

Promises – Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra

The moment I first heard of this collaborative album’s existence earlier this year, it shot to the top of my mental shortlist of anticipated releases on the horizon. There’s a few reasons for this:

As a key collaborator on some of my favorite Coltrane recordings, Pharoah Sanders has been a formative jazz inspiration since my first years as an undergraduate (if you haven’t checked him out, I’d highly recommend Karma as a starting point).
Floating Points has been quietly producing some of the subtly ear-grabbing and satisfying electronic dance-orientated music of recent memory (2019’s Crush comes to mind), but he’s already proven himself as a trustworthy and deeply affectionate ally of improvised music and live instrumentation on albums like 2015’s Elaenia.
This is a cross-genre, cross-generational collaboration by two master artists in their respective fields, made all the more notable because Pharoah hasn’t released an album for the last decade or more.
The London Symphony Orchestra is involved!!???

Truth be told, given Floating Point’s groove-orientated recent work, and the overblowing, cacophonous ‘sheets of sound’ approach Pharoah has been known for, I was expecting something pretty different than what I got on my first listen of Promises one night a couple weeks ago after work. Instead, my first journey with the album was honestly mostly a lesson in expectations, where I slowly re-adjusted my want for overwhelming maximalism to the stark, subdued and minimal extended composition we have been gifted here. Apart from a catastrophically huge climax in the sixth movement, Promises is mostly devoid of overly grand gestures, despite the inherently lavish instrumentation. Instead, it anchors itself around a gently cascading seven-note central motif for its entire 46-minute duration, as different textural and harmonic variations re-contextualize it in various fashions.

Pharoah’s playing is so deliberate and soft-spoken – entire movements fly past without so much as a single note from him, and his aforementioned signature overblowing style only comes into effect maybe once, kinda. But every note, whether it’s improvised by Pharoah, played on one of twelve keyboard instruments by Floating Points, or performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, feels agonizingly deliberate and essential. You can even hear Pharoah’s breath or his saxophone keys clicking, or orchestra members shift in their seat, before notes are even sounded. There’s not much else like the simultaneous grandeur and sonic intimacy on offer here, and that feeling extends through the compositions and performances as well as the recording.

This is an incredible collaborative record, not because one artist invited the other into their respective sonic wheelhouse, but because across continents, generations, and genres, both artists have pushed each other conceptually and artistically into new territory. It speaks to the power of music, and the openness of these musicians, that something as compelling as Promises even exists. This is a true gift and piece of history for music fans that deserves to be experienced with full attention, from front to back.

G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! – Godspeed You! Black Emperor

The post-rock titans return once again. To my mind, the shadowy 10-piece Montreal band Godspeed You! Black Emperor is one of the most influential and immediately identifiable contributors to the development of the post-rock subgenre through the mid and late 1990s. Their first three albums released during this period, from F♯ A♯ ∞ to Yanqui U.X.O, are essential listening for anyone looking to get their heads around this essential sub-genre in rock music history. Godspeed You! Black Emperor consistently make some of the most immersive listening experiences in rock music through their signature multi-movement long-form compositions, quasi-minimalist guitar and string arrangements, as well as ambient interludes and extensive field recordings. The word ‘cinematic’ gets thrown around a lot, but I can’t really think of any other bands that more perfectly fit this descriptor. Plus, despite being instrumental, the band’s message and politics remains ever-present through their song titles, album artwork, packaging and more. If you’re looking for music that captures the sound and feeling of the oncoming late-capitalism apocalypse, look no further. This album was announced along with a list of demands: ‘Empty the prisons. Take power from the police and give it to the neighbourhoods that they terrorise. End the forever wars and all other forms of imperialism. Tax the rich until they’re impoverished.’

G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!, while essentially being more of the same sound the band has honed throughout their career, is a welcome and strong addition to their catalogue, and as good an introduction to their sound as any. All the aforementioned hallmarks of their art are here – their long and patient layering of instrumentation, building to devastating and/or soaring climaxes, is here in spades. It’s all capped off by a mournful, delicate string chorale on OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN (for D.H.), which beautifully captures the bohemian romanticism and lingering sense of hopelessness, as activists around the world continue to protest and push towards a brighter future, in spite of the unshakeable feeling of oncoming doom. Capturing this sort of imagery has long been one of the band’s greatest strengths, and as our international political climate continues to evolve (and intensify), it’s comforting to know that Godspeed You! Black Emperor will be around to perform that essential artistic service: providing a voice to the affected people, and speaking truth to power.

Lei Line Eon – Iglooghost

More than just my most listened to musician of the last decade (according to Spotify), Iglooghost is a gateway to dimensions and worlds previously unknown to the human race. I first stumbled across him in 2015 when he first signed to Flying Lotus’ record label Brainfeeder at the age of 19, and released his debut EP Chinese Nü Year, a programmatic work which:

‘… is about a gelatinous worm-shaped creature who wears a witch hat called xiāngjiāo. He/she is really sad because his/her existence consists of infinitely being blasted through endless wormholes into different worlds that don’t make any sense – full of floating fruit and pink mist. He/she has a voice played by my little sister but sometimes my dad. He/she is perennially sad and terrified because it doesn’t make any sense why he/she was randomly born into this existence, but he/she is also shit scared because being shot at light speed through wormholes is probably f**king terrifying.’ – Iglooghost

This probably tells you as much about the music as you would realistically need to know going in (but in practice this translates into some of the most dense, hyper-detailed, hyper-active, constantly mutating electronic production I’ve ever heard). So! To say I’ve been looking forward to Iglooghost’s sophomore album Lei Line Eon is a vast understatement.

Based on the above, what I did anticipate from a new Igloo release was a continuation of the lore and mythology that has helped make his music such an intoxicatingly other-worldly experience – and his formation of the Glyph Institute and research into the ancient genre of Lei Music didn’t disappoint in these respects.

What I didn’t expect, however, is the growth and maturity with which Iglooghost has evolved his musical approaches. Where his debut album Neō Wax Bloom (masterpiece) reveled in skittish, born-of-the-internet, PC Music/hyperpop aesthetics and relentless manic energy, Lei Line Eon opts instead for a more meditative and transcendental musical experience. The BPMs are slower, and the drum grooves far less busy, but the more I listen to it, the more I believe this may be for the better.

For one, this gives space for other aspects of the production to shine, and by god they do. The sound design on this album is borderline unmatched by its peers. Past Igloo releases now feel like 480p Youtube-compressed videos compared to the ultra-HD 8K textures on offer here. It’s near-impossible to draw the line between live instrumentation/electro-acoustic sounds and the MIDI programming on any track – which means that the magic realism of the lore and imagery of Iglooghost’s work translates perfectly into the sounds themselves. Sound ‘reality’ and ‘fantasy’ are inextricably intertwined in Lei Line Eon’s sonic landscape. Also, Vivek Menon is now officially the Thundercat to Iglooghost’s Flying Lotus, which is to say that his contributions on violin are so perfect and seamless that I can’t imagine any future Iglooghost release without him.

But most importantly, the depth of artistic expression on display on Lei Line Eon is almost incomparable to Iglooghost’s previous work. Neō Wax Bloom certainly felt like a wormhole to another plane of existence, but it wasn’t always entirely clear whether there was much to be experienced on Mamu besides giddy excitement. While those elements can still be felt on Lei Line Eon, the new production and compositional choices now reflect a sense of dramatic weight, and offer whole new wave of indescribable feelings and emotional content previously absent. Particular moments that come to mind may be (1) when the sky on the Björk/FKA twigs-ish ‘Light Gutter’ cracks open into a mind-blowing extended ambient interlude multiple times mid-song, and (2) the juxtaposition of the purity and innocence of the Pie Factory Children’s Choir against the churning bass and drum programming on ‘Amu (Disk•Mod)’.

If it’s not already clear that I love this thing to bits, I’ll come out and say it head-on now. Lei Line Eon will be probably my most-listened to album until the next Iglooghost release. No regrets here.

We so hope you enjoy these selections! We are fortunate to live in an era with immediate, cheap access to virtually all of the music ever recorded. Unfortunately, streaming is not a sustainable form of income for most artists. If you find music you enjoy please consider supporting the artist directly or purchasing their music through a service like Bandcamp. We’ll see you next week. Happy listening!