Plutonic Rainbows

Ex-Pink Floyd member releases his first new album since 1992 on June 2nd. Not much is known as at this time but there is a video for one of the new songs, Smell The Roses.

The new album is available on Audio CD & Vinyl.

A somewhat esoteric release from a rather obscure band/artist. The music is uneasy and haunting.

Boomkat:

Heavily engaged mission music from the mysterious sect of Niggas With Guitars, coming correct with a stunningly evocative debut vinyl for Digitalis. In the vein of Dylan Ettinger's 'New Age Outlaws' or Leyland Kirby's muddled memories, 'Ethnic Frenzy' is a vivid internal soundtrack for hypnagogic dreamers, warping the memes of Vangelis or Carpenter in much the same way Pat Maher's DJ YoYo Dieting did to DJ Screw or Indignant Senility to Wagner.

Cruising in to the A-side we're slowly immersed in smoked-out and sludgy choral drones punctuated with fractured gasps of drum machine reminding of the 1st Chasing Voices 12", before we reach the bottom and everything becomes blissed out and stargazing with a soulful slopped and screwed ending.

The second side is more unresolved, amping the drama with a weirdly affecting orchestral synth score before tipping over the edge into paranoid, muffled voices while clammy Italian horror hooks give a dank atmosphere and we're dumped from the boot to blunted back alley 808s. Check the samples for yourself, but we should stress that spending a bit of time with this record is a memorable experience.

Digital Edition

This album was released almost a year ago but I've not written about it until now. Lone, otherwise known as Matt Cutler, a British electronic musician released five or six albums up until now but Levitate is without doubt, the best so far.

Following the blockbuster success of previous album Reality Testing (and it’s all conquering single Airglow Fires), Cutler was left at somewhat of a musical impasse – a six month dry period with no new inspiration that was showing no signs of abating.

The ‘epiphany’ moment came, during an enforced short break from touring in New York. Bed ridden and feverish for days Cutler started to hallucinate;

“It was pretty terrifying – I’d try to go to sleep and I’d be hearing these mad rave tunes form in my head. When i recovered i was left with all these ideas for fast, feverish tunes. Following that we went to LA and hung out with friends, driving round all day in the baking sun playing these jungle and hardcore edits – all the best bits from rare jungle tunes, spliced together…

There was something that really seemed to fit hearing these ridiculously energetic tracks whilst speeding around LA under perfect blue skies, that was amazingly similar to the music I’d been dreaming up whilst in New York. I couldn’t wait to get home and start putting this together – I had a new theme.”

Levitate is a short but very beautiful album, atmospheric and some way, quite haunting.

The album is available on Audio CD and Vinyl editions.

Bleep Records:

Out via Brian Not Brian’s Going Good label (Moon B, Aquarian Foundation), Nummer’s debut full-length is the artist’s second release on the imprint following 2014’s Reach EP. Opener ‘Liege Trinite’ neatly details what is to come, moving between classic after-hours house, Balearic lead lines and Bladerunner synth soundscapes, and the title track is a masterfully curated spool of grooves that lasts a full ten minutes. Neatly juggling both deep house and techno with more ambient interests as well as occasional nods to breakbeat and other leftfield club musics, Nummer’s eleven pieces here are the sort of edge-of-the-dancefloor fare to make clubgoers swoon as well as sounding great at the afterparty.

I haven't heard this yet (except for the previews on Bleep but it certainly sounds interesting.

Released last month, this new album from the ex-Japan keyboard player is his third solo album. This has the usual soft-jazz leanings and elegant drum patterns one has come to expect. They are augmented by some very exquisite samples but I can't help thinking that inspiration this time is a little short in supply.

Night Of The Hunter and Unholy prove to be the exception with the latter proving that Barbieri can still conjure some magic.

The album is available on Audio CD and Vinyl and should please fans, even if it doesn't ever reach the perfection that was evident on Things Buried, his 2005 debut album.

Self-titled album from the Fleetwood Mac duo is expected to be released on Atlantic Records on June 9th. This is the first time they have collaborated together and the album was recorded at The Village Studios in Los Angeles. The album features ten tracks.

Lyndsey Buckingham:

We were exploring a creative process, and the identity of the project took on a life organically. The body of work felt like it was meant to be a duet album. We acknowledged that to each other on many occasions, and said to ourselves, ‘what took us so long?'

UK pre-order vinyl is quite reasonable.

Recently I've been spending quite a lot of time with these lovely writing tools. I originally found them while on study leave in Japan and went on-line to have a look at them in more detail.

The Blackwing 602 features a very smooth and firm graphite inner. It comes in a gunmetal grey finish and also features the iconic square black eraser on the end. These erasers are replaceable. The pencils themselves last quite a long time.

These (slightly) expensive pencils come in packs of twelve and are highly recommended.

New album from purveyor of 1970s hauntology. All Hold Hands And Off We Go takes you down the (now well worn) paths traversed by The Advisory Circle and Belbury Poly. Lots of vintage electronics, ghostly children's voices and early 70s BBC radiophonic workshop vibes. This album doesn't push the genre forward in any way but maybe it's not meant to. Seatman weaves a pleasant, if disturbing spell that fans of Ghost Box will love. While it's a well-executed album, the genre is flooded with people doing this now and an uncharitable view would be that it's all starting to sound the same.

Bleep Records:

People change, but some bands never do. In the case of Future Islands, they have come back with a new album entitled, The Far Field.

A meaty streak of Born in the USA-era Springsteen cuts through singles like ‘Ran’ and ‘Cave’ as well as obvious nods to Depeche Mode and other 80s synth-pop greats. The addition of a live drummer (Michael Lowry, who initially joined the band for that now-legendary ‘Seasons’ performance) brings a groove and swing that the band has sometimes previously lacked, and one is pleasantly surprised to find Debbie Harry guesting on ‘Shadows’.

There is also a vinyl edition.