As far as new releases go, it's a bit of a slower week than in the past hectic month, but 2013 still holds many terrific new albums yet to be released, including quite a few just hitting stores today. Among them, is the excellent new mini-album, Fade Away, from LA duo Best Coast, which at seven songs is, according to our Music Director, Don Yates, "more raw and energetic than their last album (2012’s The Only Place), combining fuzzy guitars, Bethany Cosentino’s bell-like vocals and catchy girl-group melodies." Other KEXP favorites, whose previous albums you've already grown to love, and who have new releases waiting for you today include Active Child, a.k.a. the angelic voiced and harp wielding electronic artist Pat Grossi, and Poliça, the Poliça, the Channy Leaneagh-led darkly seductive electro-rock band out of Minneapolis. And, formed from the ashes of Portland's Drew Grow & the Pastors’ Wives, is the "darker, more muscular and electric" group Modern Kin, who debut with "a stark, visceral set of brooding rock steeped in blues, soul and gospel", produced by Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney, Quasi and Wild Flag.
Other new albums out this week that you'll want to check out come from Atlanta trio Gringo Star, whose third LP is "a strong set of psych-tinged garage-pop steeped in a variety of vintage styles from the British Invasion, surf and ‘60s R&B to doo wop and Buddy Holly, featuring a hazy sound with jangly reverbed guitars, playful keyboards, soaring harmonies and catchy pop hooks"; Black Hearted Brother, a collaboration between Neil Halstead (ex-Slowdive, Mojave 3), Mark Van Hoen and Nick Holton, whose debut is "a sprawling set of shoegazerish space-rock with a thickly textured sound featuring distortion-drenched guitars, atmospheric synths and soft vocals"; and Brooklyn-based Argentine artist Federico Aubele, whose aptly titled fifth album, 5, is "another solid effort of atmospheric downtempo grooves with nylon string guitar, ethereal synths, bandoneon samples and occasional guest vocalists".
There's much more in stores besides, including new albums from Canadian DJ and producer Ryan Hemsworth, veteran singer-songwriter Linda Thompson, Floridian songwriter (and yesterday's live guest) Ben Cooper a.ka. Radical Face, and Syrian underground electronic musician Omar Souleyman. Check out the songs gathered here, and see (and hear) what else awaits you in record stores today.
Federico Aubele - Laberinto del Ayer
Active Child - Subtle (Feat. Mikky Ekko)
While many people are compiling their year-end lists and shopping for gift-worthy deluxe reissues for the upcoming holidays, some bands are still releasing excellent new albums that you'll want to hear before you make any final decisions. A few of this week's releases see some KEXP favorites making…
