New Music Reviews (6/21)

Each week, Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. These reviews help our DJs decide on what they want to play. See what we added this week below (and on our Charts page), including new releases from Cold Cave, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, The Lounge Society, and more.

Cold Cave – Fate in Seven Lessons (Heartworm Press)
The third album (and first in 10 years) from this LA-based project spearheaded by Wesley Eisold is a potent set of goth-tinged post-punk with icy synths, atmospheric guitars, propulsive rhythms, hypnotic melodies, gloomy vocals and lyrics of love and longing.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Butterfly 3000 (KGLW)
This prolific Australian band’s 18th album is a well-crafted 44-minute, 10-song suite of pulsing synth-rock with bright modular synth loops, acoustic guitars, often-motorik rhythms, sunny melodies and lyrics reflecting joy, love and the surreal world of dreams.

The Lounge Society – Silk For the Starving EP (Speedy Wunderground)
This British band’s debut EP is a strong 4-song set of politically charged, occasionally funk-inflected post-punk with angular guitars, propulsive rhythms and sardonic lyrics aimed at celebrity culture, misinformation, environmental devastation and other ills.

Moonshine – SMS For Location, Vol. 4 (Foreseen Entertainment)
The latest mixtape from this Montreal collective founded by musicians of Congolese heritage is a vibrant set blending Afrobeats and related styles through a combination of bass-heavy electronic grooves and traditional instrumentation, with help from an impressive supporting cast of artists from around the world, including Sango, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Deepkapz and many more.

pronoun – OMG I MADE IT EP (Wax Bodega)
The latest pronoun release from Brooklyn artist Alyse Velturo is a strong five-song set of hook-filled indie-pop with buzzing guitars, energetic rhythms, anxiety-fueled lyrics and buoyant melodies.

Kings of Convenience – Peace or Love (EMI)
This Norwegian duo’s fourth album (and first in 12 years) is a well-crafted set of gentle folk-pop inflected at times with bossa nova and other styles, combining acoustic guitars, occasional strings, soft harmonies, wistful melodies and lyrics of heartache.

Sleater-Kinney – Path of Wellness (Mom+Pop)
This Olympia-bred band’s 10th album is their first released without founding drummer Janet Weiss. Following the sharp left turn of their previous album (2019’s synth-heavy The Center Won’t Hold), the band returns to their guitar-oriented roots, but they also sound considerably more subdued and less incendiary than before on this set of songs revolving around searching for love and connection during turbulent times.

Garbage – No Gods No Masters (Infectious/BMG)
This veteran Scottish/American band’s seventh album is a well-crafted set of energetic, industrial-tinged post-punk combining a dark and dynamic sound with often-scathing, sometimes ham-fisted lyrics aimed at sexism, racism and climate change, along with more personal lyrics of love, sex and revenge.

Squirrel Flower – Planet (i) (Polyvinyl)
The second Squirrel Flower album from Boston artist Ella Williams is a solid set of emotive folk-pop featuring a dynamic sound often alternating between spare, acoustic-oriented passages and cathartic rock, along with evocative lyrics revolving around physical disasters, personal struggles, healing and connection. — DY

Whispering Sons – Several Others ([PIAS])
This Belgian band’s second album is a solid set of dark post-punk combining angular guitar lines, atmospheric synths and driving rhythms with Fenne Kuppens’ deep, low vocals.

The Scientists – Negativity (In the Red)
The first album in 34 years from this influential Australian band led by Kim Salmon is a potent set of swampy post-punk with scuzzy guitars, snarling vocals and swaggering song hooks.

Lightning Bug – A Color of the Sky (Fat Possum)
The third album from this Brooklyn-based project spearheaded by Audrey Kang is a well-crafted set of folk-tinged dream-pop combining shimmering guitars and atmospheric synths with her hushed vocals and lyrics revolving around self-acceptance.

Country Westerns – Country Westerns EP (Fat Possum)
This Nashville band follows up their excellent 2020 debut album with this strong four-song EP comprised mostly of covers, which subtly expands the band’s gritty, roots-tinged barroom rock sound with the addition of marimbas and piano.

Leathers – Reckless EP (Artoffact)
Leathers is the Vancouver, BC-based project of ACTORS member Shannon Hemmett. Her debut EP under that name is a promising 4-song set blending goth-tinged electro-pop and shoegazerish dream-pop, combining moody synths, atmospheric guitars, propulsive rhythms, ethereal vocals and haunting melodies.

Hemi Hemingway – The Lonely Hunter EP (PNKSLM)
The debut EP from this New Zealand-born, London-based artist (aka Shaun Blackwell) is a solid six-song set offering a modern, noirish take on ‘60s girl-group pop and related styles, combining atmospheric guitars and keyboards and occasional sax with his lilting croon and wistful melodies.

Dylan LeBlanc – Pastimes EP (ATO)
This Nashville-based artist’s latest release is a solid six-song EP of covers of 1960s & ‘70s-era folk-rock ranging from the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin to John Hartford and Bob Dylan.

MYXA – Snap Snakes EP (self-released)
This Seattle duo’s second EP is a solid set of moody trip hop and related styles, combining atmospheric synths, gently propulsive beats, ethereal vocals and haunting melodies.