The Predatory Wasp
It’s Friday, it’s blazing outside, and there’s new music from Pale Jay about hanging out in his garden. Life is good! Taken from his upcoming LP Low End Love Songs which will be released later this summer.
I’m not entirely sure how many Helado Negro albums there have been – maybe 10? – but I do know they just keep getting better. His latest PHASOR is “an homage to going outside again” and a “returning to life record” concerned with beautifully evocative, hopeful imagery like remembering what the sun feels like and letting it warm your skin. I saw some early spring flowers out the other day, and putting aside what this ultimately means regarding the rapid warming of the planet and ultimate death of everyone on it… it was nice; just like this album!
The only description I can find online for Kam Theory is her Soundcloud bio which reads: “sound bender | the vibe known as Kam Theory”. But maybe that’s all anyone needs to know.
Each year there are a few albums released I put on pretty much every week, indefinitely, even though there are others I actually prefer. They tend to be relatively calm, accessible and unlikely to upset anyone too much, see: recent LPs by Thee Sacred Souls, Lady Wray, etc. I was hoping Cleo Sol’s latest would be added to this list, however overall it’s just a little too smooth and syrupy for me. In small doses though it’s great, and Things Will Get Better is a very enjoyable vibe.
A Pale Jay track randomly came up on a Spotify radio playlist I was listening to the other day and now his new album Bewilderment is one of my favourite things I’ve heard this year. A jazz vocalist and pianist, he wrote, recorded, and produced all songs on the album, except for ‘By The Lake’, which is a collaboration with labelmates Okonski. It’s so good. See? Spotify is great and in no way evil.
I’m back! Sorry for the extended silence, but Glastonbury etc. Slowly getting back into the new music swing though and just came across this glorious new album from Not Waving, The Place I’ve Been Missing, on which the Italian artist explores “grief, gratitude, and new beginnings” across a mix of ambient, electronica and jazz. Lead single Fool includes elements of all the above, and is really very lovely indeed.
https://notwavingmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-place-ive-been-missing
Salami Rose Joe Louis is the alias of Lindsay Olsen, who released her fifth album Akousmatikous – which losely transclates to “sound where there is no identifiable source” – earlier this month. As with much of her previous work, Akousmatikousi explores various shades of soul and jazz, but through a highly stylised and at times experimental lens, and includes features from some of her favourites artists, Soccer96, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Juuwah among them. Always on my Mind is one of the album’s more chill moments, with a lazy, tripping rhythm a suitably supple bed for her understated vocal delivery.
https://salamirosejoelouismusic.bandcamp.com/album/akousmatikous
You know Eddie Chacon as one half of Charles & Eddie, the duo behind Would I Lie To You – one of the biggest hits of the early 90s and a song so overwhelmingly ubiquitous that Chacon eventually abandoned the music industry in an attempt to escape it. He returned in 2020 with a debut solo album, and has just released its follow-up, Sundown, from which Far Away is taken. Sitting somewhere between soft-focus soul and meandering jazz, its reminiscent of acts like Rhye, and is about as distant from the bombast of Would I Lie To You as its possible to get, which is probably the point.
St. Paul & The Broken Bones pick up where they left off last year with the lead single from their recently announced second album, Angels in Science Fiction, due for release 21 April. Inspired by a story about a starfish that’s far too maddeningly twee for me to waste your time with, the song itself is, thankfully, a banger.
I’m a bit late to the party on this one as it feels like everyone’s been singing the praises of Liv.e’s new album Girl In the Half Pearl for some time now, but I just couldn’t risk the ire of the music blogging community so am jumping on the appreciation bandwagon. Also: it’s really great, and about as varied an album as you’re likely to find anytime soon, from the full on soul balladry of Wild Animals to the arpeggiated chaos of Snowing!.
The Predatory Wasp 