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Music

John Moods – Same As You

The first new solo material since his sublime So Sweet So Nice album from last year, Same As You sees the Berlin based-musician commit himself fully to 80s soft-rock balladry, with intoxicating results. It’s possibly a coincidence that the gently plucked guitar melody (very) strongly resembles Every Breath You Take – arguably the very epitome of melodramatic musical yearning – but whether it’s a direct lift or knowing nod to his inspirations, Moods carries it off with aplomb.

Read our One Track Mind feature with John Moods here.

https://www.instagram.com/johnmoods

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Tess Roby – Century

I really liked Tess Roby’s 2018 album Beacon – especially the song Plasticine Hills – a perfect balance of haunting synths and her extraordinary vocal – so the release of her new LP Ideas of Space last week was very welcome. Century is the opening track and immediately draws you into her intimate, fragile world, with glistening chords and hushed percussion providing the ideal framework for her wonderful voice to work its magic.

https://tessroby.com

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Music

Earthen Sea – Felt Absence

The latest album from New York artist Jacob Long recording as Earthen Sea, Ghost Poems spans ten tracks of lo-fi ambient and minimalist melodies created from a combination piano samples and field recordings. I’m usually draw to long, sprawling ambient, characterised by very slow progression and rich, warm pads a al Stars of The Lid. Here, tracks rarely break the four minute mark, and there’s a very defined rhythmic structure, but the sense of space created is nevertheless completely engrossing. I hadn’t paid attention to Earthen Sea before today, but I’m very glad he’s now on my radar.

https://earthensea.bandcamp.com

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Music

Nancy Mounir – Khafif Khafif

Egyptian composer Nancy Mounir is a part of the Cairo new wave of artists who are taking inspiration from historical music to inform their own modern productions. On Khafif Khafif – as with a lot her compositions – she layers her own microtonal, ambient arrangements over a buried 20th century Egyptian cut to pleasantly unsettling effect.

https://www.instagram.com/mounirnancy

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Music

bloodcat – summer rain (prod. geloガザ)

Dark, Joji-adjacent r&b vibes on the latest single from US artist bloodcat, with geloガザ on production duties blending a plaintive piano line with crisp, trappy beats and bloodcat’s warped vocal, with satisfyingly nihilistic results.

https://soundcloud.com/bloodcatbloodcat

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Music

Kurt Vile – Chazzy Don’t Mind

There are very few albums that really need to be over an hour long. 30-40 minutes is probably ideal, and usually anything even approaching the 60 minute mark starts to feel like hard work before I’ve even listened to a note. And yet: Kurt Vile’s new LP (watch my moves) – which clocks in at a frankly intimidating 74 minutes – is still very welcome indeed. There’s something about his breezy riffs and wandering melodies that reassures you (or me, at least) that everything’s going to be ok. And that’s exactly what it delivers, never outstaying its welcome. Let’s break the two-hour mark on the next one please, Kurt.

https://www.kurtvile.com

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Music

Clara Engel – Dead Tree March

If there is an artist bio more hopelessly, beautifully melancholic than “I’m not writing the same song over and over so much as writing one long continuous song that will end when I die”, I am yet to read it. Taken from their new LP Their Invisible Hands which lands today, Dead Tree March fully embodies the threads of sorrow and despair which run through the album, with Engel’s mournful strings brought to the fore against a backbone of funereal percussion.

Photo credit: Ilyse Krivel

https://claraengel.bandcamp.com

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Music

Andrew Ostler – Crossing the line, part 1

Andrew Ostler, you had me at “unashamedly nostalgic for the polyrhythms of 70s Berlin”. One of two extended pieces from his new album, Ostler’s penchant for modular synthesis is expressed across a 20 minute recording that evokes not only the electronic polyrhythms of acts like Tangerine Dream, but also the epic prog-rock of Pink Floyd. No mean feat, but it’s handled here with both skill and subtlety.

https://twitter.com/expertsleepers

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Music

Syd – Tie The Knot

I really liked Syd’s 2017 album Fin, so it’s great that’s she’s back releasing new music this year after a fairly extended hiatus. Broken Hearts Club came out last week, and seems a lot less angsty than Fin, with delicate melodies and sparky drums replacing the often moody, introspective atmosphere of her previous work. Tie The Knot is a real standout, reminiscent of the jaunty bounce of someone like Tierra Whack’s, in her lighter moments.

https://www.instagram.com/syd

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Music

Whatever the Weather – 25°C

Unlike pretty much every other person in the world, I didn’t really enjoy Loraine James’s 2021 album Reflections very much. It’s obviously really good, I just found it a bit jarring and after a few time thinking “everyone loves this, so you should too!” kinda just stopped trying. It felt too much like hard work, which absolutely does not apply to her new album recorded as Whatever the Weather, which seems tailor-made for me: all the rough corners of Reflection sanded down to a soft sheen, and the machine-driven claustrophobia replaced by hazily shimmering vistas. Opener 25°C is about as calming as music gets, and that’s what I need in my life right now.

https://whateva.bandcamp.com/album/whatever-the-weather