Recommended Albums: May 2013

Another month, more releases to trawl through. There's enough that I've virtually abandoned recently to suggest that the ones left range from pretty good to something special, even when they're not presented in traditional album form:

Savages - Silence Yourself
A post-punk debut that feels like the three decades preceding it didn't happen, Silence Yourself has some fantastic songs and a great overall feel and structure. Listen alongside Iceage's You're Nothing for the ultimate 2013 post-punk experience - it's just as good as that album.



Chance The Rapper - Acid Rap (mixtape)
Chance seems to take his cues from The College Dropout-era Kanye and J. Dilla without necessarily emulating either. "Fun", and "quirky" are words that come to mind. You won't need to listen to Acid Rap too many times for some of these hooks to lodge in your head.



Merchandise - Totale Nite (EP)
A heady 30 minutes of psychedelic space-rock rubbing shoulders with hardcore punk and occasional Depeche Mode-like gritty euphoria. Has to be heard to be believed I suppose.



DJ Rashad - Rollin EP
One of footwork's biggest names releases a 4-track EP on Hyperdub (and I finally hear it). It's hard to choose a highlight, but "Drums Please", a collab with DJ Manny is perhaps my favourite right now. A good month for footwork releases, as a scroll down will reveal...



RP Boo - Legacy / FACT mix 384 - RP Boo (May '13)
What RP Boo can't do with vocal samples isn't worth knowing. The footwork originator's debut album Legacy collects some of his best jackhammer beats from the last 10 years. Meanwhile on his FACT mix he spins some entirely different tracks into a constant 160BPM mix - the way they were meant to be heard.



Inga Copeland - Higher Powers (mixtape)
I've been playing Inga Copeland's Don't Look Back... EP so much that an extra 20 minutes of demo/ additional material was always going to sit well with me. Best here is "A World In Danger III", featuring familiar collaborator Scratcha DVA.



Vår - No One Dances Quite Like My Brothers
A debut concocted of militaristic snares, triumphant acoustic guitar and throbbing electronica, from members of  Iceage and Lower. "Vår" translates as "spring", and this group seems to capture a type of youthful abandon, as looming as the shadows of darker subject matter may be.



Bambooman - Hollowed EP
Strange, hypnotic, relaxing instrumental hip hop coming from a man from Leeds. Despite the shortness of the tracks here they come together as an astonishingly developed whole. A few here are definite keepers, and I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.



Them's your lot from me this month. The next Culture Shock mix ought to be coming tomorrow, featuring tracks from releases here (if not try a previous instalment). Next month expect new releases by Boards of Canada, Kanye West, Melt Yourself Down, Young Fathers, Run The Jewels, Holden, Austra and more (bring it on!)

Recommended Albums: March 2013

March may be the month where album releases have really started to get tight. Most of these choices are either pretty odd or relentlessly heavy (or both), and all are memorable. Looking at April's release schedule it may cross your mind to look at March as the calm before the storm, but the albums and singles here are all top drawer stuff, so check them out if they appear interesting:

clipping - midcity
A name-your-price album/mixtape from an incredibly noisy hip-hop trio. I'm really enjoying the songwriting and tight lyricism clipping are bringing here, and admire the new ground they've found between the Death Grips, Shabazz Palaces and Jeremiah Jae influences.



David Bowie - The Next Day
A startlingly solid late-career album from one of popular music's most celebrated figures. Bowie may not be reinventing himself quite so freshly as he did during his astounding 70s run but draws from his many strengths already amassed to create the best kind of retrospective.



Hookworms - Pearl Mystic
The debut album from Leeds-based Hookworms is a nigh-on flawless foray into modern psychedelic rock, written and produced masterfully by key member MJ. If this doesn't break the top 10 albums of the year, 2013 will be especially rich in musical quality.



Gnod - Chauderlande
More of a compilation than a proper album, Chauderlande collects the six tracks that made up Gnod's two Chauderlande LPs and repackages them onto one CD. Still these tracks are absolute monsters. "Tron" and "Genocider" in particular are likely to be the heaviest psych rock opuses you'll ever have the pleasure of encountering.



Inga Copeland - Don't Look Back, That's Not Where You're Going (EP)
These are the first three solo tracks Inga Copeland has released, although they feature production from DVA and Martyn. They sound like highly twisted dance-pop tunes, with killer vocal hooks and squelchy basslines. If you want your brain scrambled, and for others to wonder why, choose this one.



Pete Swanson - Punk Authority (EP)
30 minutes of relentlessly harsh techno noise that doesn't forget the emphasis on rhythm and repetition. Each Pete Swanson release seems to be a honing of this formula, and with Punk Authority he may have produced his strongest results yet.



Next month expect new albums from the Knife, the Flaming Lips, James Blake, the Haxan Cloak, Phoenix and more. Tracks from some of these albums/EP's can be found on my latest monthly mix Culture Shock (check the channel from tomorrow).