pilole 2020 giugno/luglio

GIUGNO 2020	LUGLIO 2020
ALVA NOTO "Xerrox vol. 4" The Xerrox series is one of the jewels of Alva Noto’s vaunted and extensive discography. Much like William Basinski’s famous Disintegration Loops, the Xerrox releases find Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) copying and re-copying samples until they have morphed into something entirely different. [ file under: transgressions ]		FIONA APPLE "Fetch the bolt cutters" Fiona Apple's first studio album in eight years is astonishing, intimate and demonstrates a refusal to be silenced. The Apple of 2020 is astonishing; as if she has returned to reinvent sound - the rhythms pleasing, but counter, and unusual. On the title track she half-sings over a makeshift orchestra of kitchen implements, dog bark and cat yowl. [ file under: alternative & indie ]
JEHNNY BETH "To love is to live" Jehnny Beth, or Camille Berthomier to give her her real name, is known for fronting rock band Savages and also as one half of French lo-fi duo John and Jehn. With To Love Is To Live she is stepping out, on record, on her own for the first time. The album features collaborations with Joe Talbot (IDLES) and Irish actor and musician Cillian Murphy. [ file under: alternative indie ]		JULIANA BARWICK "Healing is a miracle" Four years on from the release of her last, critically acclaimed LP, Julianna Barwick returns with a new album. A distinctive meditation on sound, reverb and the voice, Healing Is A Miracle is a record built on improvisation. Additionally, Barwick draws on the input of three collaborators with whom she has nurtured deep friendships with over the years: Jónsi (Sigur Rós), Nosaj Thing and Mary Lattimore. [ file under: indie ambient ]
EL MICHELS AFFAIR "Adult themes" Big Crown Records is proud to present Adult Themes, the latest full length offering from El Michels Affair. This album takes the band’s “Cinematic Soul” aesthetic literally and sends the listener on a journey through a whirlwind of moods and energies. Adult Themes marks the long awaited, highly anticipated return to an album of original compositions from El Michels Affair. [ file under: original soundtrack ]		BING & RUTH "Species" For over a decade now, Bing & Ruth have been making emotionally resonant ambient compositions, ornamented with cascading piano, orchestral frills, sprightly electronics and minimalist drone. Species, the latest album from David Moore’s NYC ensemble project (which has been whittled down from 11 members to three since they began in the mid-‘00s), swaps the romantic piano figures of previous Bing & Ruth albums for the Steve Reich-approved farfisa organ. [ file under: electronica ]
GOGO PENGUIN "S/t" GoGo Penguin have been hailed as the “Radiohead of British Jazz”, but they draw equally on rock, jazz and minimalist influences, alongside the intricacy of Aphex Twin or Four Tet to create their punchy, experimental, but always beautiful music. [ file under: nu jazz ]		GREG FOAT "Symphonie pacifique" Greg Foat has become a versatile mainstay in UK jazz through an acclaimed series of albums on Jazzman and Athens Of The North, moving from soul-jazz workouts to library music to cinematic, haunting compositions and pastoral acid folk. Symphonie Pacifique goes expansive and widescreen, building a lush soundscape using choral textures, harp and tubular bells. [ file under: soul jazz ]
NIHILOXICA "Kaloli" Kaloli is the debut full-length LP from Kampala’s darkest electro-percussion group Nihiloxica. “Eerie, almost gothic, with digital synths fizzing and rumbling around hypnotic, polyrhythmic grooves.” (Pitchfork, US) “The tribal-techno percussion of Nihiloxica [takes] the audience to rhythmic territories never before explored.” (Les Inrockuptibles, FR) [ file under: ethnica ]		KHRUANGBIN "Mordecai" Mordechai is a story of finding yourself in unexpected places. Travel weary and without a home after 24 itinerant months of travel and touring, Known already for drawing on the music of locales like Thailand and Iran, Khruangbin found their most diverse and global influence by looking inward, returning to their hometown and America's most diverse city: Houston, TX. [ file under: funk & exotic ]
NOVELLER "Arrow" Creating what Iggy Pop described to Jim Jarmusch as “symphonies for people that don’t have a lot of time,” Sarah Lipstate has emerged as an innovative and defining voice in the world of music under the name Noveller. Wielding a guitar as her main instrument, Lipstate has pioneered a transcendent approach to composition through her mastery and integration of effects pedals and technology. [ file under: experimental ]		JESSY LANZA "All the time" Jessy Lanza has released a new album, called All The Time, via Hyperdub. Working with creative partner Jeremy Greenspan to record the album, Lanza experimented with a Mother 32, Dfam and Moog Sirin synths to create its 10-tracks. “We got all of the machines talking to one another and would run patterns through. A lot of the little burps and quacks and squiggles heard on the songs are from those experiments,” explains Lanza. [ file under: hyperdub ]
GARY OLSON "S/t" This album is a tale of two cities, or rather, two studios; one in Hayland, Norway and the other in Flatbush, Brooklyn and two brothers who came up with the idea making a record with indie rock wizard Gary Olson which now links the two locations. Gary Olson is the lead singer, main songwriter and plays trumpet with the band Ladybug Transistor who have released five albums on Merge Records. [ file under: indie pop ]		LIZA ANNE "Bad vacation" With her bold and bracing new album, Bad Vacation, Liza Anne hasn’t just shaped her liberation, she’s completely reinvented it. The record is defiant and thoughtful, showcasing a remarkable confidence. Bad Vacation marks a remarkable development in her sound and vocal performance, a collection that calls to mind everything from St. Vincent and Sleater-Kinney to Kate Bush and Talking Heads. [ file under: indie pop ]
NADINE SHAH "Kitchen sink" Kitchen Sink is the fourth album from critically acclaimed singer songwriter Nadine Shah. It is the follow-up to her Mercury Music Prize nominated album Holiday Destination. The album contains her usual brave approach to songwriting and unflinching social commentary, but is tempered, this time, with a certain playfulness. Ben Hillier is in the producer’s chair once again. [ file under: alternative indie ]		HANIA RANI "Home" "I feel like 'Home' is a second part of the same book, that the start was in 'Esja', a musical prelude to a real plot. I feel Home is a story with an ending, so the next book can tell a totally different one. I am constantly looking for new ways of expression. I am curious where 'Home' will lead me and my music". — Hania Rani [ file under: modern classical ]
KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH "Mosaic of transformation" West coast composer, artist, and producer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has chartered a pioneering career with multiple critically-acclaimed albums since 2015. Following the release of The Kid in 2017, Smith focused her energy in several directions. She founded Touchtheplants, a multidisciplinary creative environment for projects including the first volumes in her instrumental Electronic Series and pocket-sized poetry books on the practice of listening within. [ file under: electro mantra ]		WAAJU "Grown" Pulsing Afro-Latin roots and UK jazz combine on Grown, the latest album by London-based quintet Waaju, released via Olindo Records. Fusing dexterous hand-percussion, hypnotic guitar riffs and soaring melodies, Waaju connect a wide range of traditional musics percolating at different corners of the global soundscape yet with a distinctly of-the-moment and British jazz flavour. [ file under: afro-jazz ]
SONIC BOOM "All things being equal" It’s auspicious that Sonic Boom—the solo project and nom-de-producer of Peter Kember (Spectrum, Spacemen 3)—returns in 2020 with its first new LP in three decades. Kember’s drawn to the year’s numerological potency, and this intentionality shines into every corner of All Things Being Equal. [ file under: spaceman ]		JESSIE WARE "Whats's your pleasure?" What's Your Pleasure? is the fourth studio album by English singer-songwriter Jessie Ware. Featuring twelve tracks that focus mostly in various electronic and dance music genres, such as disco, hi-NRG and house, Ware described the album as a two-year labour of love upon her release announcement in February 2020, further citing the album as her visions of escapism [and] groove, wanting to move away from her usual melancholy sound in her previous releases. [ file under: danceable pop ]