We’re back (as is now monthly tradition here at Undrcurrents) with some albums from the past month that we loved, just in time to help fill up you Bandcamp Day shopping lists. Happy listening!
Parannoul / Asian Glow / sonhos tomam conta – Downfall of the Neon Youth
Parannoul, Asian Glow and sonhos tomam conta have each released stellar solo albums in 2021, but they’ve joined forces late in the year for this excellent three way split. Each artist exists somewhere at the intersection of shoegaze and emo, mixing blown out textures with anthemic choruses while still putting their own spin on the sound. Asian Glow’s tracks tend to lean more traditional emo while sonhos tomam conta’s feature black metal vocals. Parannoul’s sparkling melodies and intricately layered sounds might be my favorite contributions, but the dialogue between these artists’ sounds truly animates and elevates the whole record. Downfall of the Neon Youth is the rare split that’s much greater than the sum of its parts.
Ilai Ashdot – MAXIMAL LIFE
Over the years I’ve associated Orange Milk with cutting edge electronic experimentation, but this year they’ve been hitting it out of the park in the futuristic pop department. Ilai Ashdot is an Israeli artist who is releasing his debut album, MAXIMAL LIFE, today, and it’s a stunner. It’s tempting to brand Ashdot’s work with the nebulous term hyperpop because it shares the maximalist, throw everything at the wall tendencies of artists associated with the term. However, the complexity of his compositions align him more with the Orange Milk roster; choruses and melodies rarely repeat, decaying and reconfiguring themselves over and over in the span of a few minutes without ever feeling busy or cluttered. It’s audacious stuff, far and away one of the best “pop” albums you’ll hear this year.
Natalie Jane Hill – Solely
I’ve already written about one Dear Life Records release this week (Wendy Eisenberg’s Bent Ring, which is out today and also worthy of your attention), but the label has been on an epic run this entire year. Last week they released another top tier album: Solely, the latest from Texas artist Natalie Jane Hill. An introspective song cycle built around Hill’s idiosyncratic, expressive finger picking and stunning voice, the album brings to mind the early work of The Weather Station. Gently beautiful yet slightly off kilter folk music.
Tisakorean – mr. siLLyfLow
mr. siLLyfLow opens with a sample from “Pure Imagination”, a song performed by Gene Wilder in the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It’s about as on the nose as you can get; mr. siLLyfLow is an act of pure imagination, a mixtape that twists rap into strange and thrilling shapes. There’s no two ways about it: this is some weird stuff. There’s a track about how Tisakorean can’t feel his kidney, and another who’s chorus goes “Scooby doo ha boogy boogy boogy boo.” He tests the limits of his voice, deploying off kilter flows, visceral grows and shrill squeals. A beat that has the energy of a Waka Flocka track will immediately be followed by lounge music. But somehow it all works perfectly. It’s a mixtape that gives me the same thrill hearing 1017 Thug for the first time did nearly a decade ago.
Lunar Vacation – Inside Every Fig Is A Dead Wasp
Lunar Vacation describe their music as “Atlanta pool rock” on their Bandcamp page, a descriptor that feels both apt and overly simplistic. Undeniably, the band’s music goes down easy. It’s filled the kind of sticky melodies that lend themselves to lazy summer afternoons by the pool. However, look below the surface and the water gets a bit murkier; for seemingly every pop moment there’s a strange sonic texture or an unexpected left turn that keeps things from becoming rote. Pitch perfect indie rock for both the masses and the heads.
Patrick Shiroishi – Hidemi
Experimental saxophonist and composer Patrick Shirioshi has done everything from drone to black metal, but his latest album, Hidemi, is personal. Named after his grandfather, Hidemi Pat Shiroishi, the album is a nine track woodwind odyssey inspired by Hidemi’s experiences after being released from a Japanese-American concentration camp. Each track features Shirioshi duetting with himself on multiple woodwinds, building dynamic instrumentals filled with moments of quiet splendor and jarring abrasion. Yet another winner from the folks over at American Dreams.
Rider/Horse – Select Trials
Like your rock suffused with plenty of post punk dread? We’ve got the record for you right here. Rider/Horse is the duo of Cory Plump (Spray Paint) and Chris Turco (Trans Am, Les Savy Fav), and their debut landed a few weeks ago via the ever reliable Ever/Never Records. Recorded during the pandemic in a shuttered music venue, the duo’s music hits just the right balance between hazy, foreboding atmospherics and Big Black-esque industrial carnage; it’s noisy, it’s loud and it rules. Also very much worth checking out from Ever/Never is their latest release which lands today, a sizzling slab of free folk from Unda Fluxit.