INDISPENSABLE NEW MUSIC PICKS
August 2022
Kristine England
Aug 31, 2022
Kyle Kidd
Soothsayer
Deep in the first Covid winter, Kidd was fighting off depression and enlisted the help of fellow Mourning [A] BLKstar collective member, bassist (and co-founder) R.A. Washington. After a week in the studio, the two had crafted a draft of Kidd’s solo debut, Soothsayer. Featuring Kidd’s haunting vocals, Cleveland Magazine notes “the record reads like a diary, raw and without a censure…”
FEATURED TRACK: “Scars Alight”
Windhand
Live At Levitation
Doom metal band Windhand hail from Richmond, VA has released a live studio recording with songs spanning its 14 years together. They call their sound “heavy psychedelic,” but whatever label you want to apply, it’s powerful music. Recorded at Levitation in 2020, the set has been released as a double vinyl LP set along with a digital version.
FEATURED: Full Session
Amythyst Kiah
Pensive Pop
To call Kiah’s latest a collection of covers does a disservice to the singer-songwriter. She truly reinvents each song, including an acoustic rendition of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” as well as Katy Perry’s “Chained To The Rhythm, and Tori Amos’s Sugar reimagined as a synth-laden rocker. Her performance of Green Day’s “Hitchin’ A Ride” is powerful and haunting. You’d never guess someone else wrote it.
FEATURED TRACK: “Hitchin’ A Ride”
Russian Circles
Gnosis
Russian Circles is an instrumental metal trio from Chicago. The pandemic period presented the group with an unusual opportunity to create its next record in a unique way. Working separately in home studios, the band members brought fully realized compositions to the studio together once it was time to lay down the tracks. “As dauntless as it is electrifying, Gnosis is also efficient and lean…” (Pitchfork)
FEATURED TRACK: "Gnosis"
Cinema Hearts
Your Ideal
Caroline Weinroth pivoted from being a former beauty pageant queen to a power pop queen instead. Her Cinema Hearts project recounts her experiences with a great deal of humor. “Your Ideal is a record that’s cool and clean. In Weinroth’s expert hands it’s a hurricane of a sugar rush.” (Slug Mag)
FEATURED TRACK: "Your Ideal"
Julia Jacklin
Pre Pleasure
Australian folk singer Julia Jacklin crafts intensely personal songs with special attention paid to her lyrics. On her third album Pitchfork hails her “ empathetic, understated rock songs [that] sift through a litany of relationships and beliefs, seeking a balance between thinking about life and actually living it.”
FEATURED TRACK: "Less of a Stranger"
Kramer
Music for Films Edited by Moths
The American indie music icon has had an illustrious career as a producer (Daniel Johnston, Galaxie 500), musician (Bongwater, Shockabilly), and founder of Shimmy-Disc records. His latest is a collection of songs for movies that never existed. The Quietus raves, “the sweep of this thing, with its grand chord changes, spacious soundscapes, and nervy propulsion, gives each ambient workout a distinct cinematic sheen.”
FEATURED TRACK: "Like the Planets Love the Sun"
Muse
Will of the People
Muse is back with its ninth record, a dark and dystopian concept album that NME calls “their best music in years…Bellamy’s ire here locks in step with a growing public mood, bubbling with a very relatable anger toward those who stand in the way of us tackling humanity’s overwhelming crises.”
FEATURED TRACK: "Will of the People"