Lord Apex - Smoke Sessions 3

Consider us Aotearoa’s biggest Lord Apex fans. Apex drops his third installment of the Smoke Sessions and there is a certain joy in hearing a United Kingdom accent delivering laid back yet slicing bars, which is present throughout SS3. As the title suggests, herbal essence is a frequent topic and Apex brings in Smoke DZA (‘I Need A Light’) as well as Wiki (‘Say That’) for guest features on the heavy herbal tracks. Zone out to much on the mellow groove though and you’ll miss out on spiritual gems, as well as wholesome motivation - ‘Rise Up’ could be your daily morning anthem. Perfect low key hip-hop vibes from the UK here and you may be inclined to listen to SS3 in similar fashion to Apex and his friends…

Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

That whole British/Irish post-punk scene is only getting stronger and here’s another addition as Dry Cleaning drop a debut on the back of a couple excellent EPs. Lead singer Florence Shaw’s laconic vocal delivery makes the group sound almost like a poetry recital, her wry and dryly humorous words are a millennial slacker’s delight, but the thing is they’re also a wicket hot band full of ferocious rhythms and strutting bass and slashing guitars. It’s quite a contrast. And somehow it doesn’t only work but it’s actually completely brilliant and inspired. For sure the most quotable art rock album you’ll hear this year, from “emo dead stuff collectors” to the various sighs and audible shrugs, and Dry Cleaning never take themselves too seriously which might be the secret to the magic.

Black Country, New Road – For The First Time

But wait there’s more because that Dry Cleaning album came out not too long after this BCNR debut and the two of them make an outstanding pairing. This is some very similar areas. Wildly expressive band scenarios with guitar giving way to keys giving way to saxophone giving way to guitar and oscillating between traditional ideas of genres all while the lead singer Isaac Wood hurls out twitter-poetry over it all. It’s... confusing, to be honest. The kind of confusing that can be off-putting but you have to meet it halfway. There’s humour here. There’s insight. There’s a shout out to black midi. And it’s massively ambitious. Can’t fault any of that.

Benny Sings - Music

Dutch veteran Benny Sings drops 'his eighth album and his second with Stones Throw Records. 'Music’ is light and fluffy, full of intricate bits and pieces that sound lovely as Benny sets a groove. Mac DeMarco makes a perfect guest appearance on ‘Rolled Up’ and whether it’s the funky ‘Kids’ featuring KYLE or Emily King’s work on ‘Miracles’, Benny does a fabulous job of finding cohesion and variety in working with the guest features. There’s also a splash of variety in how Benny uses his own vocals and you’d be wise to let this simmer in the background for a few plays, allow this album to lead your vibe.

Dinosaur Jr – Sweep It Into Space

People gotta realise that the Dinos are creating albums in their middle age that are almost as good as what they produced in their late-80s heyday. That’s pretty bloody rare. 2016’s Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not is a legitimately excellent album full of jams of both the J.Mascis and Lou Barlow and you know what? Sweep It Into Space doesn’t let off. DJr have honestly never made a bad record. SIIS doesn’t mess with the formula and it doesn’t need to, we’ve still got up-tempo rock and rollers with sludgy guitars bursting into spirally solos around J’s laconic drawl. To Be Waiting. I Ain’t. And Me. All sweet additions to the Dino Jr oeuvre while as always Lou Barlow pops up with a couple absolute stunner tracks of his own that give the album it’s depth and resonance (Garden & You Wonder), it’s only a shame that he doesn’t get more of a spotlight like he did on Give A Glimpse. Oh and Kurt Vile produced it so that’s awesome. You cannot possibly pick a better contemporary foil than KV.

La Femme – Paradigme

Funky French psychedelia with a conceptual American western road trip thing going on. It’s a heavily referential album with touchstones including (by way of their own Bandcamp description): Kraftwerk, the Velvet Underground, modern jazz, cabaret, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, art deco, retrofuturism (!?), Michel Foucault, synthpop, Ennio Morricone, Giorgio Moroder... you get the idea. La Femme is apparently the biggest rock band in France these days despite the far out nature of their tunes. Paradigme is their third album and it’s wild, man. It’s all over the place. Definitely a shuffle-era track listing... this is the sound of a band full of ideas and willing to try them all. It’s also pretty funny in that knowingly ironic cool European way. Best indulged amidst circumstances of maximum weirdness.

Various Artists – Uncut: Dylan ...Revisited

One of the weirder entries in the ol’ Jukebox, this is a tribute album put together by Uncut Magazine in honour of the great man Bob Dylan’s 80 trips around the sun. These things are often hit or miss... but one look at the artists involved is enough to spark the intrigue. And obviously there are more than enough killer Dylan tracks to fill out fifty of these. You’ve got the Flaming Lips doing Lay Lady Lay. Richard Thompson doing This Wheel’s On Fire. Courtney Maria Andrews doing To Ramona. Low doing Knocking On Heaven’s Door. Thurston Moore doing Buckets Of Rain. There’s not a bad rendition here, it’s fantastic. Some keep it faithful, some switch it up (Fatoumata Diawara’s Blowin’ In The Wind is one of the highlights). There’s also a pretty cool unreleased Dylan tune called Too Late (from the Infidel era, apparently), definitely an unfinished song but not without its charms. But the final word has to go to the final track: Weyes Blood serving up a straight-up brilliant rendition of Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands.

The Alchemist - This Thing Of Ours EP

Every Alchemist project is a mandatory listen and with Earl Sweatshirt on board for two tracks on this four-song extravaganza, do yourself a favour and give this a jam. As always, The Alchemist’s production is rooted in obscure samples and Al delivers a slow, mellow tempo with various pockets of intrigue for the listener to enjoy while also providing a certain canvas for his selection of rappers. Earl and Boldy James are the more well known rappers involved with strong appearances from Navy, Maxo, Sideshow and Pink Siifu. All of these rappers deliver their poetry with little energy as if there is no flow, but the flow is to accompany Alchemist’s production and this all serves as an invite to ‘this thing of ours/theirs’ where the real funk is slow cooked.

Milk – Milk III

“When Reuben Samuel Winter (Waitaha/Kāi Tahu/Te Aupōuri/Te Rarawa/Ngāti Kuri) passed away in September 2020, he left a hole in the New Zealand music community that will never be filled. But like the generous soul he was, he has left behind a glorious gift to us all in Milk III. Milk III is not the last album that Reuben recorded, but it is a masterpiece and a culmination of a life immersed in music. A life spent experimenting in a plethora of eclectic genres, and constantly leading the charge of weirdness from the vanguard of the New Zealand underground.” - per Bandcamp.

Not really sure there’s a better way to put it than that so there you go. Winter was pretty prolific, cramming a large body of work into his 26 years, that work varying from electronic experiments to the guitar-based work of his Milk projects. This album was fully finished before he passed and it’s a wonderfully eclectic and energetic and expressive listen, which hits whether you listen to it as an introduction or as the culmination mentioned in the press release. Tracks like Dopehead, Stolen Valor, and Maple are just fantastic. Go hard if you dig those emo-tinged punk rock styles of the early-mid 00s but remember that you’re hanging on the weirdness vanguard too. Get amongst it.

Cory Hanson – Pale Horse Rider

The main man behind LA psych rock group WAND is up to some new tricks here. Pale Horse Rider remains a trippy experience but with some lush soundscapes and an almost cinematic vision here Hanson is dishing up his cosmic american chops on this one. You can guess just by listening that he recorded Pale Horse Rider out in the Mojave Desert because the desert is all over it. There’s sand in the speakers. Pedal steel guitars hover over tracks like fog, while Hanson’s gentle voice and sneaky-great lyrics lure you in like the neon lights of a cheap motel. This is an album about drifters and nomads. But just in case you thought he’d put the electric guitar away he goes into full Neil Young mode on the epic Another Story From the Center of the Earth to blast everything into space (the desert, after all, is where most alien sightings happen). PHR is dedicated to David Berman, which makes sense. It’s got that same wistfully strained beauty thing going on that the best Silver Jews albums carry. This one’s going to get plenty more spins... also check out Hanson’s new web show which is as delightfully weird as you’d hope.

La Luz – Live From The Black Hole

Recorded for a live stream on Boxing Day 2020, this is La Luz running through their surf-garage hit catalogue (no shortage of bangers there) but with a twist. Each member recorded their parts separately. One did hers, presumably the drummer, then sent the track along to the next member to add her bit, and so on until you’ve got all four of them all locked and loaded. And it works surprisingly wonderfully. Short and sharp in all of its lockdown ingenuity. Even the harmonies sound typically amazing. There’s nothing new here but La Luz play such awesome sunny daze stuff that it’s just cool hearing them in this Frankenstein format... fitting for a group who love a bit of monster magic imagery (The Creature is one of the picks of this set).

Ryley Walker – Course In Fable

Ryley Walker’s been on some sharp form with his recent efforts and this one is a new high point. Mixing the sweet folk sounds that he first came to prominence with the proggy jam king that he’s since developed into – check out his Kikagaku Moyo collab – with some dryly humorous song-writing that belies an extra level of vulnerability in his tunes. The best thing to say about Course In Fable is that it sounds uniquely like Ryley Walker. That’s how you know you’re carving out something worthy. There are jazzy tones here, there are gorgeously plucked guitars, and if you close your eyes and let it, it’ll carry you like a gentle breeze to plenty of places you didn’t expect to go.