April 2022
Kristine England
Apr 30, 2022
Warmduscher
At the Hot Spot
At the Hotspot is dirty, nasty funk, by a group described as “in your face,” “seedy,” and “dangerously debauched” with The Line Of Best Fit describingtheir last album "gritty, poppy, tasty, and utter, utter filth.” They meant it as a compliment, and Warduscher has thankfully not cleaned up its act one iota.
“Wild Flowers”
Crows
Beware Believers
Crows create noisy, topical post-punk and has traveled a rocky road since its inception. The band nearly crumbled along the way, with its drummer departing and frontman Cox about to pack it in when he got a lift up from IDLES’ Joe Talbot who encouraged him to keep going. The new album "shines brightest when at its darkest.” (Clash Magazine)
“Slowly Separate”
The Dead Tongues
Dust
Singer-songwriter, musician, and producer Ryan Gustafson has been creating folk music under the Dead Tongues moniker for some years. Work on the quite and entrancing Dust began after a months-long musical hiatus, during which he had traded his guitar for a notebook.
"Dust"
Blue Violet
Late Night Calls
The husband and wife duo brings the drama. Starting out as a beautiful ballad, “Halo” builds to a glorious theatrical climax. This album offers dreamy soundscapes, slow-burning rockers with notes of Americana, some country-pop, and more. This record is rich with great vocals and instrumentation.
"Halo"
Nakaya
Fire Becomes Me
Originally from LA but now based in NYC, singer Nakaya is the daughter of a hip-hop producer which may have granted her early inspiration to pursue a musical career in her own right. Casting herself as an outsider (a queer woman of Panamanian-Filipino descent), she brings her unique perspective to her art.
"Fire Becomes Me"
Oumou Sangaré
Timbuktu
"The Songbird of Wassoulou," singer Sangaré began singing on the streets of her native Bamako, Mali as a child. She’s come a long way in the 30 years after her formal debut, she’s still fusing West African traditions with Western influences to create magic.
"Sarama"
Tempers
New Meaning
NYC duo Tempers creates a mood with music that is darker than it suggests at first listen: layered synth-pop with themes of loss and life during a shared, catastrophic crisis. "Sightseeing,” offers meditations on the “the anguished city” that was an early victim of the pandemic in the US.
"Sightseeing”
Christian Lee Hutson
Quitters
Picking up Eliott Smith’s torch, LA’s Christian Lee Hutson began as part of The Driftwood Singers, releasing We Will Never Break Up in 2012. But break up they did. As a solo artist, he’s released several recordings and collaborated with Phoebe Bridgers, who produced his last two records.
“Cherry”