As I’ve done a couple of times before, I thought it was about time for another round-up of some of the cool new music I’ve found. (New to me, anyway.)
(All links to Spotify. Soon everyone will be able to get it!)
First up, there are a couple of albums from artists who are more famous in other guises:
Julian Plenti is… Skyscraper is an album by Interpol singer and guitarist Paul Banks and while it can’t help but sound familiar, given how distinctive his voice is, it manages to be nice and quirky, not really that much like the band. I’d heard that he had something on the way, but didn’t know it was being released under the alias so after I saw the title and queued it up, I was nicely surprised when it came on.
Dragonslayer is the 4th album from Sunset Rubdown who started life as a solo project for Spencer Krug who, to me at least, is better known as the singer in Wolf Parade but it turns out he’s involved with quite a few groups. Also of interest to me was finding out that Camilla Wynne Ingr of the wonderful indie-pop group Pony Up! is now on of his collaborators (it no longer being a solo project). Pony Up!’s “I heard you got action” was included on Rough Trade Shops’ Counter Culture 04 album and I fell a little bit in love with it and subsequently the band.
Next, my musical explorations took a trip to Sweden where I found first The Tough Alliance and then The Embassy after reading that their label, Service, are giving an album each a UK release:
From The Tough Alliance we got The New School, which brings a mix of synths enthusiasm and just enough attitude that makes me smile when I listen to it. From The Embassy we got Tacking, which also borrows heavily from 80s pop but is a little more chilled out - less sugar-rush and more lying back and relaxing.
The Tough Alliance departed from Service and created their own label, Sincerely Yours, and it’s from there that the rather mysterious group JJ are releasing confusingly named material. The ‘single’, JJ no. 1, was put out back in March while the album, JJ no. 2 was released in July. The album includes a couple of pretty uninspiring, but still lovely, acoustic songs alongside beats and samples that carry along the same, haunting female vocals.
