This week, New Jersey producer Clams Casino hits a jackpot with his first official album. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it, "a strong set of expansive hip hop and R&B with woozy soundscapes combining atmospheric synths, spacy ambient noise and trunk-rattling beats with an impressive guest lineup of rappers and singers ranging from A$AP Rocky, Lil B and Vince Staples to Future Islands' Samuel T. Herring, Kelela, Mikky Ekko and Alt-J's Joe Newman."
UK artist Michael Kiwanuka shares his sophomore LP; Yates notes the album "finds him mostly moving away from his folk-soul beginnings towards a darker, more edgy and brooding sound (courtesy of producer Danger Mouse along with Inflo and Paul Butler) with rumbling electric guitars, gauzy keyboards, cinematic strings, backing choral voices and stark, muscular rhythms accompanying his plaintive, soulful vocals and often-poignant lyrics of lost love, doubt, isolation and injustice."
Montreal band No Joy share a "rock-solid 3-song EP of shoegazerish noise-pop with fuzzy guitars, ethereal vocals, and strong song hooks," and Boss Hog go the EP route, too, for their first release in 16 years. (Though as co-founding member Jon Spencer said in their KEXP session, it's not a reunion.) Former-Seattlite, current L.A.-based artist Jherek Bischoff found inspiration at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Washington for his latest, recreating a cistern (an underground reservoir for rainwater) in his own home recording studio. And William S. Burroughs rises from the grave via previously unreleased audio of the legendary author reading his 1959 novel, Naked Lunch. Guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Wayne Horvitz, and violist Eyvind Kang recorded audio for it in 1995, but it was shelved until King Khan and producer Hal Wilner took another stab, with help from Australian garage-punk band Frowning Clouds and vocalist/composer M. Lamar.
(Various Artists)
from Derrick Harriott Rock Steady 1966-1969 on Dub Store
(Various Artists) Chris Ajilo and his Cubanos – “Ariwo”
from Nigeria Freedom Sounds! Calypso, Highlife, Juju & Apala: Popular Music And The Birth Of Independent Nigeria 1960-63 on Soul Jazz
16 – “The Absolute Center Of A Pitch Black Heart”
from Lifespan of a Moth on Relapse
ABRA – “CRYBABY”
from Princess EP on True Panther Sounds
Belly – “Gepetto”
from Star reissue on 4AD
Blu & Nottz – “Atlantis”
from Titans in the Flesh on Coalmine
Boss Hog – “Wichita Grey”
from Brood Star EP on In the Red Records
Clams Casino – “Witness”
from 32 Levels on Columbia
Darkstar – “Black Ghost (feat. GAIKA)”
from Made To Measure on Warp
David Nail – “Got Me Gone”
from Fighter on MCA Nashville
Deny The Cross – “Heart Like Siberia”
from Alpha Ghoul on Tank Crimes
Dreezy – “Close To You feat. T-Pain”
from No Hard Feelings on Interscope
The Earls of Leicester – “Steel Guitar Blues”
from Rattle & Roar on Rounder
Flava D – “Happy (feat. Miss Fire)”
from Fabriclive 88 on fabric
The Garbage & the Flowers – “St Michael Of The Angels”
from The Deep Niche on Grapefruit
Gary Wilson – “I Want to Hold Your Hand Tonight”
from It's Friday Night with Gary Wilson on Cleopatra
Heaven for Real – “Kill Your Memory”
from Kill Your Memory on Mint
Heliotropes – “Normandy”
from Over There That Way on The End
Inkke – “Chores”
from Secret Palace EP on LuckyMe
Jack & Amanda Palmer – “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”
from You Got Me Singing on Eight Foot
Jeff Beck – “Live In The Dark”
from Loud Hailer on Atco / Atlantic / Rhino
Jherek Bischoff – “Cistern”
from Cistern on The Leaf Label
Kel Valhaal – “Tense Stage”
from New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala on YLYLCYN
Lawrence Arabia – “Another Century”
from Absolute Truth on Flying Nun
Lawson – “Where My Love Goes”
from Perspective on Polydor
Lindstrøm – “Closing Shot”
from Windings on Smalltown Supersound
Little Richard – “Tutti Frutti”
from Mono Box: The Complete Specialty and Vee-Jay Albums on Speciality
Lucy Woodward – “If This Were A Movie”
from Til They Bang on the Door on Decca / Groundup Music / Universal
Michael Kiwanuka – “Love & Hate”
from Love & Hate on Interscope / Polydor
MJ Guider – “Lit Negative”
from Precious Systems on Kranky
Needtobreathe – “Hard Love”
from Hard Love on Atlantic
Nina Simone – “Four Women”
from The Philips Years reissue on Verve
No Joy – “A Thorn in Garland's Side”
from Drool Sucker on Topshelf
nonkeen – “glow”
from Oddments of the Gamble on R&S
The Paranoid Style – “Duvet Fever”
from Rolling Disclosure on Bar/None Records
Prose – “Home Of The Brave”
from Home of the Brave on Virgin EMI
Psalm Zero – “Pay Tomorrow”
from Stranger to Violence on Profound Lore
Richard & Elizabeth Lester – “Canzona III”
from A Musical Journey Around Europe on Nimbus
SKY H1 – “Air (Codes 04)”
from Motion EP on PAN
Steven Tyler – “Sweet Louisiana”
from We're All Somebody from Somewhere on Big Machine Records / DOT Records
Sugar Candy Mountain – “Windows”
from 666 on Joyful Noise
William S. Burroughs – “Disciplinary Procedure”
from Let Me Hang You on Ernest Jenning / Khannibalism
It's been almost two decades, but it's finally here: the latest from Australian band The Avalanches! KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes the album as "another impressive full-length of cut-and-paste collage-pop incorporating a dizzying multitude of samples, field recordings and guests vocalists…
