DARKSIDE, a brilliant pairing of electronic producer Nicolas Jaar and guitarist Dave Harrington, is getting a ton of buzz on the internet lately and in fact yesterday earned a "Best New Music" rating of 9.0 on Pitchfork. Our Music Director, Don Yates, describes their debut album, Psychic, as "a moody, entrancing blend of various downtempo electronic styles with prog, blues and psych-rock", and it's just one of the many excellent new albums you can pick up in stores this week. Like the third album from Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells. Bitter Rivals is "their most diverse, nuanced and melodic offering to date, while still delivering a sometimes noisy, adrenaline-pumping blend of hard rock, hip hop, R&B and bubblegum pop with crunchy guitars, pounding beats, girlish vocals and sugary pop melodies." Both albums are highly recommended and available in stores today. Also, be sure to check out Sleigh Bells this Saturday, October 12, at Showbox at the Market.
Other excellent new releases out this week come from Brookyn-via-Denton group Parquet Courts, who follow up their their acclaimed debut album, Light Up Gold, with a new EP "that finds them sharpening their energetic blend of driving post-punk and ‘90s slacker rock"; UK singer/songwriter Anna Calvi, whose second album of "goth-tinged avant-pop is a bit darker, more varied and restrained than her promising 2011 debut, with densely textured songs featuring searing guitars, cinematic strings, rolling drums and Calvi’s dynamic, soaring vocals"; NY-via-LA artist Cameron Mesirow, a.k.a. Glasser, whose latest "is another strong set of arty electro-pop with an intricately textured sound featuring bright synths, strings, woodwinds and other instrumentation along with asymmetrical rhythms, crystalline vocals and dreamy melodies"; and the Sonic Youth guitarist's project Lee Ranaldo and The Dust, who expands upon his other band's noise rock with an album of "jangly folk-rock, melodic psych-pop and more, with mostly lengthy songs that provide Ranaldo with room for plenty of masterful guitar riffs and solos".
Also be sure to check out new albums from Detroit duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., whose latest "is a more polished take on their bubbly, psych-tinged electro-pop, with a lush sound featuring shimmering synths, sleek guitars, dance-friendly beats, smooth vocals, sunny harmonies and sugary pop melodies"; Chicago's Ezra Furman, who "replaces his former acoustic-based sound with a more electric and aggressive attack while still leaving room for plenty of bright melodic hooks on this set of punkish, occasionally ‘50s-inspired rock with politically charged lyrics"; of Montreal, whose latest "finds them setting aside the funky electro-pop stylings of their past few albums and instead hearkening back to their earlier, more rock-oriented sound with this sharply executed blend of Beatles psych-pop and Bowie glam-rock, featuring a variety of tightly constructed songs with jangly guitars, piano, bluesy slide and steel guitars, effervescent harmonies and catchy pop hooks"; Philly-based DJ/multi-instrumentalist RJD2, whose new album "is a diverse and somewhat uneven set of mostly instrumental, beat-driven tracks combining elements of hip hop, various electronic styles, rock, funk, jazz and more"; and Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., whose new solo EP of "well-crafted pop-rock" comes out on the Julian Casablancas-owned Cult Records.
There's a lot more out this week besides -- including new albums from The Fratellis, Tim Kasher, Daniel Bachman, Turing Brakes and many others -- so head over to your favorite record shop to find some new favorites... but not before you sample the songs gathered here first:
Daniel Bachman - Honeysuckle Reel
V V Brown - Samson
A while back, a producer, a DJ and an MC, each with solid careers of their own, formed a sort of hip hop supergroup to face against rising corporate interests in their fields. Like Gorillaz, Deltron 3030 was high-concept, semi-fictional, character driven project that blew the minds of music fans of…
