Mammal Hands - “Window to Your World”
The opening track on the new album from UK instrumental trio Mammal Hands album is one of the cooler pieces of music I’ve heard all year. The slow build of the piano and sax lines backed by nonstop frenetic drumming, influenced more by techno than jazz, is intoxicating. The rest of the album doesn’t quite reach the heights of “Window to Your World” but is absolutely a worthwhile listen.
Sleater-Kinney - “Heart Attack”
Man I love Sleater-Kinney’s Call The Doctor, it's not something I revisit all the time but after seeing news of a new 30th anniversary remaster, I threw it on and was as engaged as ever. It’s definitely a favorite in their catalog for me, maybe second only to The Woods, with the closing track “Heart Attack” the single most impactful song they’ve ever recorded.
Dagmar Zuniga - “Her Master’s Voice”
This Dagmar Zuniga record is pretty fascinating stuff, a transmission from another universe that brings to mind everything from Grouper to Cindy Lee to Sibylle Baier. Delicate song fragments built on a foundation of broken keyboards and barely in tune piano and guitars, the record is a bunch of impressionistic snapshots crafted through excision that feels sort of chilly and remote at first but rewards close listening.
This Dagmar Zuniga record is pretty fascinating stuff, a transmission from another universe that brings to mind everything from Grouper to Cindy Lee to Sibylle Baier. Delicate song fragments built on a foundation of broken keyboards and barely in tune piano and guitars, the record is a bunch of impressionistic snapshots crafted through excision that feels sort of chilly and remote at first but rewards close listening.
Isabel Pine - “Winnow”
My policy of checking out everything Kranky Records releases is rewarded once again: I'm loving the sweeping, swirling strings accompanied by field recordings and nature sounds on Isabel Pine’s gorgeous debut LP. It's cool how “Winnow” sort of sounds like a Stars of the Lid song played back at 1.5x speed.
My policy of checking out everything Kranky Records releases is rewarded once again: I'm loving the sweeping, swirling strings accompanied by field recordings and nature sounds on Isabel Pine’s gorgeous debut LP. It's cool how “Winnow” sort of sounds like a Stars of the Lid song played back at 1.5x speed.
Star Moles - “Day Off”
This Star Moles album is really something special. It’s still so thrilling encountering something this fully formed that’s independently produced and self released. Everybody get on board with Star Moles right now or else I’m going to totally freak out!
This Star Moles album is really something special. It’s still so thrilling encountering something this fully formed that’s independently produced and self released. Everybody get on board with Star Moles right now or else I’m going to totally freak out!
True Green - “Hamlet + Juliet”
The vivid, conversational songwriting delivered with plainspoken confidence on Hail Disaster, the new record from Minneapolis’ True Green, is so precisely what I’m looking for from indie rock these days. After constantly replaying the handful of advance singles released over the last few months, the heartwarming “Hamlet + Juliet” is a current favorite, a misfit love song packed with effortless bangers like “you're handsome like a typo, I'm pretty like a smudge."
Red PK - “Get Down”
About two thirds of the way into the first track on the new Red PK album, a single second’s worth of a turntable scratched vocal sample appears and vanishes, hinting at a deeper strangeness to their otherwise familiar sounding emo Americana vibe. Moments like this are why we do it, baby!
Rocketship - “Friendships and Love”
I came across Rocketship’s iconic "I Love You Like The Way That I Used To Do" on Instagram a few weeks ago and was immediately hooked. Their 1996 debut LP, recently reissued by Slumberland is packed with similarly exhilarating indie pop nuggets, closed out by a compellingly strange heartbreaker that splits the difference between twee and slowcore, sounding like Red House Painters era Mark Kozelek singing a Belle & Sebastian ballad.
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet - “Like Swimwear (part one)”
We're spoiled by this new track from Jeff Parker ETA IVtet! The Way Out of Easy, their landmark 2024 album, is so awesome and endlessly replayable, and to have another record full of perfectly calibrated minimalist jazz sprawl arrive less than eighteen months later feels insanely generous.
Full March playlist embedded below! Back soon with songs from April (and maybe a review of the first three months of cool records? We'll see).