Audiophile 021 – Triola EP

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With Triola, Cape Town-based DJ/Producer, Audiophile 021, offers a meandering journey full of rich and textured sounds. The EP was released on the 25th of June on the Triplefire Music label.

The XX – ‘Angels’

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In case you missed it, The XX were the biggest new thing in London when they burst onto the scene back in 2009. Their debut album was all soft beats and groovy melodies over which Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim would whisper sweet nothings to each other. Since then the young members have been doing their own thing, most notably beat-master Jamie XX’s remix album of Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here. This new track features the nocturnal lovesickness that was the motif of their debut and precedes the September 10th release of their new album, Coexist.

The Antlers – ‘Drift Drive’

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2009’s dark and lo-fi Hospice was the breakout album for the Brooklyn-based trio, which they followed up with Burst Apart, one of the best albums of last year. The new single conveys the feeling of aquatic sedation that seems to be the theme behind their new 4-song EP, Undersea, which will be coming out on the 24th of July.
 
 
 
 

Meursault – ‘Flittin’’

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‘Flitting’ is the new single from Meursault’s third album. They make the sort of heartbroken melodies leaning towards the folk side of indie rock that makes a lazy comparison to Frightened Rabbit easy and quite accurate. There’s a coarse honesty and melancholy in this song that cuts into you like a hot gulp of of whisky. Their new album, Something For The Weakened, was released on the 16th.
 
 
 
 

Errors – ‘Relics’

aaamusic.co.uk

Have Some Faith In Magic was an early contender for my favourite album of this year and in the months since its January release there hasn’t really been anything to knock it from its perch. Now we have the montivagant ‘Relics’ as a precursor to their new mini-album New Relics, with an ETA scheduled for October.
 
 
 
 

Dirty Projectors – ‘Gun Has No Trigger’

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The last LP by Brooklyn-based indie band Dirty Projectors, 2009’s Bitte Orca, showcased the band’s eccentric and experimental leanings. After a collaborative EP with Bjork in 2010 their new album, Swing Lo Magellan, is coming out on the 9th. The new LP finds them at their most accessible yet still offering an array of interesting sounds. ‘Gun Has No Trigger’ is the first single.
 
 
 
 

The Stone Roses – ‘I wanna Be Adored’

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The reformation of Manchester legends The Stone Roses has been big news for nostalgic fans  and backwards-looking music magazines. However, to someone like me who was born in the same year as their famous 1989 debut a big reunion like this looks like more ageing rockstars are willing to kill their legacy and pick its bones clean. Cynicism aside, this reunion is something that means a lot to thousands of fans and makes this as good a time as any to remind ourselves why, more than fifteen years after they first disbanded, they are still adored.
 
 
 
 

Ill Skillz –  Skillz That Pay Da Billz 2

ill-literate-skill.bandcamp.com

Cape Town hip-hop trio Ill Skillz exhibit the ego, pride and partisan attitude of hip-hop, but with an explicitly South African heritage. Their 8-track album Skillz That Pay Da Billz 2 is available as a free download from their bandcamp page.
 
 
 
 

Big Space – Brown Bag E.P

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Big Space is from Cape Town. Aside from beats, he also shares some words on his SoundCloud: ‘I could just name drop all the famous people I’ve worked with who are waaay more famous than me but that would just be stupid. I make house music but I don’t make house music. I don’t think a lot of people like my personality but its okay… I love everyone. I also have an adopted cat and an E.P. coming out this summer on BOMBAADA records’ ALSO, I WILL STILL FUCK SHIT UP. CHENIN NON BLANC BABY! BOURGIE BOYZ!’ (Big Space, SoundCloud)
 
 
 
 

The Wave Pictures – ‘Eskimo Kiss’

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The Wave Pictures make guitar music that’s familiar yet invigorating. The prolific London three-piece follow up last year’s excellent Beer In The Breakers with their new album Long Black Cars, from which ‘Eskimo Kiss’ is the first single.
 
 
 
 

Joey Bada$$ – 1999

pigeonsandplanes.com

1999 is the debut project from Brooklyn’s 17-yr-old Joey Bada$$. This 15-track mixtape features members of his Pro Era crew – a collective of 18 rappers, producers, graphic designers and studio engineers – such as Capital STEEZ, who makes an appearance on track four – ‘Survival Tactics’. From A$AP to BadASS, NYC keeps rolling out that old school hip-hop grit
 
 

Killer Mike – ‘Big Beast’ (Feat. Bun B, T.I., and Trouble)

musicya.net

The rapper Killer Mike (born Michael Render) released his sixth studio album called R.A.P. Music, produced by Definitive Jux’s El-P (Jaime Meline) and released by William Street Records. Spin mag’s Christopher Weingarten says it perfectly: ‘A child of the ’80s and a student of the Internet, Killer Mike is as exciting and wildly unclassifiable as hip-hop gets: New York noise and country shit, nods to when rap was punk and crunk was pop, Ice Cube before he needed hooks, David Banner before he needed to whisper, and Willie D before he needed anybody.’

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Signing with Frenchkiss Records in 2009, the three-piece band has since played at the 2010 Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, 2010’s Osheaga Festival in Montreal as well as Chicago’s famous Lollapalooza, also in 2010. The force behind the music is guitarist and lead vocalist Peter Silberman, Michael Lerner on drums and Darbi Cicci on keyboard, trumpet and banjo.

Burst Apart follows 2009’s Hospice, the album The Antlers are best known for. That album was at times quiet to the point of fading into the background, and at other times abrasively noisy, often during the same song. The songs were of a high quality, but you couldn’t help but feel that you might be missing something, either in an almost inaudible whisper or swallowed up by echoing lo-fi pollution. But while their style may have taken some getting used to, it was still a great album that was very warmly received.

I mention that Hospice was a bit rough around the edges because Burst Apart is a more polished album, easier on the ear. It contains some moments of brightness that were not found in the  bleak themes of fear, melancholy and loneliness of Hospice, but the new songs still aren’t exactly radio-friendly, catchy pop tunes.

The album opens with ‘I Don’t Want Love’, which shows the band’s new sound, with soft vocals and an orchestral feel to the instruments. Already we see the band making good on their intention to expand their sound, adding more colour to the grey despair of Hospice. Second song ‘French Exit’ follows suit, with lovely little snare drums and echoing softness that would have been out of place on Burst Apart’s predecessor.

Lead single ‘Parentheses’, with its howling vocals and background sirens; the sweeping instruments and falsetto of ‘No Windows’ and ‘Rolled Together’s haunting, floating ambiance,  as the background noises come closer, filling up the song as it builds to a climax, turn the album into a more soporific and somber affair. With ‘Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out’ the album becomes lively again, before the next three songs, which are solemn and sparse, with a far-off beauty to them. The album then ends with ‘Putting the Dog to Sleep’, because what’s a bigger bummer than the euthanasia of a loyal pet? That’s the kind of theme The Antlers write their songs about.

It was always going to be difficult to please all fans with a follow-up to Hospice, reproducing what made those songs special but without trying to make the same album, which would surely have turned out be just a cheap impersonation. They have made some noticeable changes to their sound and there is no doubt that some fans will feel that Burst Apart doesn’t quite compare to its predecessor, but there’s no doubt that it too is a fine album which beautifully captures the angst of being a flawed person, which we all are. Here too are the dark themes, spooky quietness and surreal lyrics with which the Brooklyn-based trio established themselves, but on what is a more colourful album. I mentioned earlier that it isn’t a MTV or radio-friendly album, because that’s not their style. Their music doesn’t catch your attention and make you, as my sister would say, ‘crank it up’, but if you take the time to listen to their music, you will hear why The Antlers are such a treat.

Words by Adam Alexander

8/10