Here’s a rundown of new releases on DSPs and physical releases in record shops this week.
New Albums
Conchúr White – Swirling Violets
UK-based Irish singer-songwriter releases his debut record on Bella Union. Of the single ‘“Righteous (Why Did I Feel Like That?)’, Conchúr (pronounced Conor) says:
“Lyrically, ‘Righteous’ references an infamous event from 2000. Specifically it looks at fundamentalism and finding justification for cruel intent. I’m interested in the duality of good and evil, and if we truly believe that what we are doing is righteous then is it so? Religion is obviously the reference for this track but such conviction and blind faith isn’t always reserved solely for a God. It can be found everywhere and when we place more value in our beliefs than on life, it becomes frightening.”
Sleater-Kinney – Little Rope
Eleventh studio album from the alt-rock band 30+ years deep, recorded with producer John Congleton. ‘Say It Like You Mean It’
Aik Hifi – How To Re-Enter A Dream
This 42-minute seven-track collection of ambient electronic music from Milan-based Irish producer Harry Foley aka Aik HiFi “is for drifting, for walking through cities at night and staring at black ceilings,” says the artists.
Features field recordings and samples of friends and more identifiable sources.
The Fauns – How Lost
Bristol shoegaze band reconvene after 10 years away. The album touches on guitar-driven electronic sci-fi fantasies and industrial-tinged new-wave. ‘How Lost’
glass beach – plastic death
The second studio album by Los Angeles indie rock band. ‘rare animal’
Victoria Hume – Radical Abundance
Atmospheric alt-folk songs from Scottish singer-songwriter Victoria Hume on Lost Map Records (Seamus Fogarty) all about the dying days of capitalism and what might emerge next. Made with support from Creative Scotland, it’s inspired by the book Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel and based around interviews with Hickel as well as other activists and agitators seeking to steer the world away from a failing economic system that undermines all of our wellbeing.
New EPs
Megan Nic Ruairí – Made Of Sin EP
Donegal-born Megan Nic Ruairí is a musician you might recognise from playing with the band Big Love or the trad/folk family band Clann Mhic Ruairí. For her solo project, it’s a personal cinematic piano-lead ballads to the fore with a cover of Waterboys’ Whole Of The Moon’ feautured.
“This EP may have taken a few years but this is exactly when it needed to be released. All tracks were recorded three years ago but I believe that I needed to grow as a woman to understand the type of artist I wanted to be and to give the space for these pieces to turn into the body of work that I am very proud to be releasing.
I’m not scared of the spectrum I possess as a writer. I can be delicate but I can be bold and I’ll never be afraid to show it all. I’ve never wanted to be pigeon holed and constantly feel the need to expand and explore what makes me a musician. This EP is only the beginning of that.”
Also released today:
- Black Grape – Orange Head
- Donato Dozzy – Magda
- Green Day – Saviors
- Nick Oliveri – N.O. Hits At All, Vol. 9
- Omar Rodríguez-López Is It The Clouds?
- PACKS – Melt The Honey
- Shed – The 030-Files
- SLIFT – ILION
