New Music Reviews (4/14)

Each week, Music Director Chris Sanley and Associate Music Director Alex Ruder share 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 Bon Iver, Valerie June, Adja, and more. 

Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE (Jagjaguwar)
The long-awaited new album from Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver is all-consuming. SABLE, fABLE simultaneously feels like an artist returning to his roots while forging new, innovative soundscapes. Leaning into the beauty of collaboration, this project includes features from Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes, Wye Oak), Dijon, and Danielle Haim, and co-production from Jim-E Stack. These twelve expansive, atmospheric pop gems carry undercurrents of folk, jazz, and ambient, with Vernon’s guitar and signature vocals leading the way–peppered with flourishes of fiddle, pedal steel, saxophone, keys, and trumpet. The result is nothing short of breathtaking: a bold step forward that feels both new and eerily familiar. –CS

Valerie June - Owls, Omens, and Oracles (June Tunes Music/Concord)
The latest offering from Tennessee-bred singer-songwriter Valerie June is a stellar collection of genre-blended alchemy, spanning soul, roots, blues, pop, folk, and R&B. Produced by M. Ward, the album features collaborations with The Blind Boys of Alabama, Norah Jones, and DJ Cavem Moetavation, and includes a spoken word piece from her book Maps for the Modern World. Each cut carries its own unique flair, with dynamic arrangements, captivating hooks, and inspiring lyricism. In the pursuit of hope, joy, and unity, Owls, Omens, and Oracles is anchored by her magnetic, soulful Southern vocals, offering a bright light for any weary soul. –CS

Adja - Golden Retrieve Her (Sdban Ultra)
The debut album from Brussels-based singer-songwriter Adja is a stunner from start to finish. With her rich, expressive vocals at the helm, Golden Retrieve Her features a mesmerizing blend of jazz, soul, and R&B as she explores themes of capitalism, conditional friendships, moral decline, and the return to one’s self. –CS

Cold Specks - Light for the Midnight (Mute)
Canadian singer, songwriter, and producer Al Spx returns with her breathtaking fourth Cold Specks album. Born out of her mental health struggles, Light for the Midnight is a true testament to strength and resilience, as she reflects on the years since her last release, 2017’s Fool’s Paradise. With her singular vocals, ornate instrumentation–featuring driving piano, horns, guitars, and string arrangements by Owen Pallett–Spx is more raw and vulnerable than ever, delivering tracks that are as delicate as they are powerful, allowing listeners experience her lingering ghosts. –CS

Daughter Of Swords - Alex (Psychic Hotline)
On their latest solo project, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig of Mountain Man and The A’s delivers an endlessly enchanting set of bright, prismatic art pop. Co-produced with the masterminds of Sylvan Esso, Alex is full of quirky, genre-hopping magic with compelling arrangements featuring swirling keys, sax, guitars, harmonium, and more. Speaking on their mission in life and music, Sauser-Monnig shares: “I refuse to let the state of the world deny me the ability to live in joy, while also trying to show up for others.” –CS

Dead Pioneers - PO$T AMERICAN (Hassle)
The second album from this Denver band fronted by Indigenous visual and performance artist Gregg Deal is an enthralling, defiant, captivating punk record fueled by Deal’s searing, scathing lyrics calling out capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy “while imagining a path toward unity beyond those oppressive systems.” From explosive hardcore outbursts (“The Pit”) to brooding art-pop meditations (“Fire and Ash”) to a bunch of undeniable in-your-face anthems (“My Spirit Animal Ate Your Spirit Animal,” “PO$T AMERICAN,” “The Caucasity,” “Mythical Cowboys”), Dead Pioneers are making powerful, unapologetic, much-needed contemporary punk music based in a “love of music, a love of art and the DIY disposition of just figuring it out and seeing what happens,” and firmly rooted in a righteous mission to champion the rights of marginalized communities. -AR

Frankie & The Witch Fingers - Live at KEXP (The Reverberation Appreciation Society/Greenway Records)
You know ‘em, you love ‘em, and now they will forever be immortalized LIVE AT KEXP for this special Record Store Day release. Recorded in the Gathering Space and hosted by our darling Cheryl Waters, Frankie & The Witch Fingers rip through a scorching set of psychedelic rock glory. PLAY. IT. LOUD! –CS

Marlon Williams - Te Whare Tīwekaweka (self-released)
Aotearoa singer-songwriter Marlon Williams (Kāi Tahu, Ngāi Tai) returns with his fourth studio album–and his first sung entirely in te reo Māori. Speaking about Te Whare Tīwekaweka, Williams says: “Through the process of constructing these songs I’ve found a means of expressing my joys, sorrows and humour in a way that feels both distinctly new yet also connects me to my tīpuna [ancestors] and my whenua [land, home].” This stunning fusion of folk, bluegrass, indie-pop, and country with traditional Māori rhythms – paired with his buttery vocals and impressive range – results in a beautiful love letter to his homeland and its people. –CS

Ribbon Skirt - Bite Down (Mint)
The debut album from this Montreal-based band led by Anishinaabe musician Tashiina Buswa is a strong set of rumbling, explosive, anthemic alternative rock infused with post-punk and grunge that finds Tashiina lyrically exploring themes of memory, grief, and her connection to her Indigenous identity. -AR

Beatrice Melissa - Secret (Midnight Special)
The debut album from this Strasbourg, France-based duo composed of Beatrice Masters and Melissa Weikart is a promising set of dreamy, club-tinted, bilingual bedroom-pop that playfully floats from skittering house to simmering cloud rap, magnetic UKG grooves to quirky electro-pop. -AR

Charif Megarbane - Hawalat (Habibi Funk)
The latest album from Lebanese composer and multi-instrumentalist Charif Megarbane – still the first and only contemporary signing to the renowned reissue-focused label Habibi Funk – is another sweet set of transportive instrumental-heavy compositions and lush cinematic grooves. Charif’s style has been cleverly billed as “Lebrary music,” a borderless, Mediterranean-rooted fusion of library music, Afrobeat, hip-hop, jazz and orchestral elements, and with Halawat he’s created an appropriately expansive, diasporic journey. -AR

Clutter - Loves You EP (PNKSLM)
The debut EP from Stockholm-based quartet Clutter is a scrappy set of grungy, shoegaze-inflected melodic indie rock. With distorted guitars, muddied yet urgent vocals, and a keen nod to the ‘90s, Loves You offers plenty to love right back. –CS

Danzón El Gato - El sonido bastardo (Lovemonk)
The debut album from Madrid-based collective Danzón El Gato is an expansive set of groovy, psych-tinged Afro-Latin jazz and funk. With influences ranging from ‘70s rock, Tropicalia, hip-hop, African rhythms, and more, El sonido bastardo brings an intoxicating blend of global grooves.–CS

DJ Koze - Music Can Hear Us (Pampa)
Seven years since his last proper DJ Koze album, German DJ/producer Stefan Kozalla returns with another mesmerizing journey into his sophisticated, chameleonic, technicolor sonic world that blends house, folk, R&B, downtempo, multilingual global pop, Afrobeats, and more in effortlessly cool fashion. While there’s some razor-sharp instrumental cuts (“Buschtaxi” in particular) here for the club heads, DJ Koze once again brings a bunch of his friends along for the consistently pop-adjacent ride, including Damon Albarn, The Notwist’s Markus Archer, Sofia Kourtesis, Sophia Kennedy, Ada, and Marley Waters. -AR

Footshooter - The Oasis (Tru Thoughts)
The new album from South London-based producer and DJ Barney Whittaker is a thrilling, kaleidoscopic journey through jazz, broken beat, and house. Ranging from reflective, downtempo numbers to scintillating dancefloor heaters, The Oasis is a dynamic, versatile, and compelling trip. –CS

Grandmas House - Anything For You EP (Duchess Box Records)
The new EP from Bristol-based Grandmas House is a completely captivating set of raw, sludgy post-punk. Now a four-piece, the addition of a second guitarist allows for more densely layered soundscapes, making Anything For You sound bigger and bolder, priming fans for more grungy goodness to come. –CS

Mamalarky - Hex Key (Epitaph)
On their third studio album, LA-based Mamalarky serve up a colorful collection of adventurous indie pop that explores feelings of inauthenticity, self-doubt, dysphoria, and yearning. Driven by keys, distorted guitars, and heartfelt lyricism, this Hex Key is just the right fit–no matter the mood. –CS

Maz - NPC EP (Winspear)
The debut EP from Utah’s Marley Guevara – aka Maz – is an intoxicating set of indie pop that showcases her exceptional vocals and songwriting talent. Boasting infectious hooks and laced with just the right amount of grit and haze, NPC marks an impressive introduction to a burgeoning new talent.  –CS

Men I Trust - Equus Asinus (self-released)
This Montreal band’s fifth studio album finds them shifting their effortlessly cool dream-pop sound towards a sleepy, soothing shade of folk-pop. Emma Proulx’s airy, enchanting vocals and the band’s pillowy, atmospheric, acoustic backdrops, now with a touch more twang, create a soothing, steady balm of sound that’s hard to resist. -AR

Tapeworms - Grand Voyage (Music Website)
The sophomore album from Tokyo-based Tapeworms is straight-up FUN. The French trio’s playful fusion of art pop, electropop and shoegaze–filled with dizzying synths, samples, Casio keyboards, experimental glitches, and manipulated vocals–takes listeners on a Grand Voyage to remember. –CS

The Ophelias - Spring Grove (Get Better)
Produced by Julien Baker, the fourth album from this Cincinnati band fronted by Spencer Peppet is another solid set of sweeping chamber-folk, impassioned art-rock, and cinematic indie rock bolstered by Peppet’s poetic, melancholic, bracing lyrics and the band’s dynamic backdrops, which get a notable boost from violinist Andrea Gutmann Fuentes’ soaring string accents. -AR