Huge amount of bands doing the 80s retro thing at the moment. That's fine by me.

Case very much in point - NY band Nation of Language released their debut album "Introduction, Presence" this year. This is just 80s New Wave being released in the 2020s.



Once again, absolutely fine by me. Especially when the singer sounds positively made for it. I mean, this could be The Cure, no?

These guys are seriously in the wrong year I'm sure...

Nice sounds! I adore Cut Copy’s Zonoscope album if you’re looking for something similar.

That's funky. Cool - thanks.

Yup. If you like the other Hum records, you'll like this Hum record.

Jump Rope Gazers by The Beths album of the fucking year

I’ll give this a listen then.

Last Friday was the July edition of Bandcamp Day, and as such, there was a lot of new stuff that came out. Here's what I picked up, or piqued my interest:

Animal Collective - Bridge to Quiet


Animal Collective were supposed to be going into the studio in the spring to record their next album, but Covid-19 put the kibosh on that. Working from their respective locked down homes, the four band members remixed and rearranged parts from their latest tour improvisations to create four new long songs. It's technically an EP, but coming in at nearly 35 minutes it's as long as many a breezy and concise full-length. It's a wonderful work with some of the best material they've put out since the early '10s.

Patten - Glow


Patten is a British electronic musician/producer that I've casually followed for a few years after picking up his 2014 album, Estoile Naiant, from a thrift store impulse buy. This is his second album in two years, and was made while in lockdown. This album has no beats, an unusual trait for the artist, and is thus more subtle and drifting than any of his previous material.

Sam Shalabi - 20/20 comma


Already present on half a dozen releases out this year (some solo works and the new albums from The Dwarfs of East Agouza, Karkhana, and Jane and the Magik Bananas), Sam Shalabi is using the coronavirus imposed downtime to continue to be prolific, recording this new album of solo oud music. It consists of three pieces: the short "Trace" and the much longer "Ghosts" and "Tani" (the former a variation on the Albert Ayler composition, the latter based on a song by an Egyptian singer that was itself based on a traditional Sudanese tune).

OSB - Let's Go Fast


OSB is the current solo moniker of Aidan Girt, one of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's drummers. Originally going by 1-Speed Bike, Girt changed to OSB in 2013 for his last release before this one, Robbery EP. Apparently OSB can mean whatever Girt feels like, since this time it apparently stands for "Out Standing Bristolian." This new EP is a some bouncy, uptempo electronic numbers, which I guess is where the title comes from. Fun little curiosity for fans of the project.

Nice tune!
One of my fav bands.

Going to be tough to top Jeff Parker for me this year.

I peeped a few posts in this thread from RMers whose taste I respect. Glad it led me to this album.

I've been meaning to check out that Jeff Parker album for a while now. Finally got to it tonight, and, yeah, I can see myself spinning this one quite a bit. Some classic Tortoise style sound with an even groovier edge.

We're about halfway through the year, so I guess this is a good time to throw out some mini reviews for the new stuff I've been listening to in 2020. I'll split it up so as to avoid too much of a wall of text, thus here's the first seven I've written about:

Rebecca Foon - Waxing Moon
Slow, often gorgeous minimal chamber pop. It's refreshing to hear Foon take on piano as her primary instrument with her usual cello shifted to a supporting role. A couple of songs drag on the dull side, but it's otherwise enjoyable on the whole. A step up from the second Saltland album, and might just be on the same level as the Saltland debut.

Nick Storring - My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell
Nick Storring has always been on the periphery of my music listening habits, working with and championing various Toronto artists, but I haven't kept up the best with his solo works. This one interlaces psychedelic pop with his usual electroacoustic academic composition. It sounds kinda like childhood memories of listening to AM radio in the backseat of a car; hazy, mysterious melodies that are darkly pretty.

Khôra - Holographic Dreamtime
A Nick Storring associate, Khôra (aka Matthew Ramolo) also works mostly in the electroacoustic sphere, though more in the ancestral line of '60s/'70s style psychedelic, kosmiche, progressive electronics, etc. On this release he dips ever so slightly into some vaporwave aesthetics, but not enough to fully differentiate this album from most of his other works. I'd like to see him stretch his horizons some more, but I do still get some enjoyment from the material he does produce. Overall, it's a little too safe.

Addy - Eclipse
This is kind of cute: a slacker-pop/indie rock/country sound where drawling vocals occasionally mash against autotune and ambient washes fill the gaps between fiddle and pedal steel guitar sections. It's probably not something that I would have come upon on my own, but I got it as a freebie from being on a label's Bandcamp mailing list. Nice to put on once in a while, but doesn't move me much.

Automatisme - Alter-
William Jourdain, the man behind the Automatisme name, must never sleep. Since starting the project in 2011, he's had roughly two dozen releases including LPs, EPs, singles, remixes, and collaborations, all while pursuing university studies, getting married, and working in a record shop. These latest works see Jourdain exploring the realms of generative sounds, experimenting with multi-layered sequencer signals, and algorthmically random shifts in tempo. With so many releases in a short time, not everything he releases can be a hit, and this is some pretty heady stuff, but in the right headspace it's quite a trip.

El Ten Eleven - Tautology I
El Ten Eleven go metal. Well, not quite, but it leans in that direction, as well as hardcore punk and some other similar heavy genres. The first of their three album exploration of aging, this one captures the energy of adolescence and early adulthood, favoring an aggressive bent in the earlier tracks that mirrors songwriter Kristian Dunn's own experiences. It's a refreshing change of pace for the duo who generally stick to more contemplative or upbeat themes for their instrumental songs. I'm note quite sure about how it will hold up over time, though.

El Ten Eleven - Tautology II
This is part two of the above referenced trilogy and its thematic era covers the more modulated and perhaps well-adjusted era of the middle adult years. Sound wise, it's more in line with the typical El Ten Eleven style, though some of the manic energy of Tautology I is still present in certain shadings of these songs. If you enjoy what these guys do, you'll probably like this latest edition of their sound. It's neither too similar to their older material, nor too far out to be alienating.

I know you're not particularly enthusiastic about that one, but your description for that Addy album caught my attention so I put it and I'm digging it. I like this kind of lo-fi melancholic, alt-country influenced indie rock, reminds me of Trace Mountains' album from 2018 but dreamier.

Awesome. I was hoping that album would catch somebody's attention because I had a feeling it meshed with some RMers' tastes.

Dylan is winning the year so far, in my opinion.

Rouge & Rowdy Ways is everything I've been waiting for and more

Pretty stoked on the new Margo Price and My Morning Jacket

Dylan and Marling look good for AOTY so far.

The Dylan album is interesting as far as AOTY goes. It requires a lot of context. It's more a personal statement of an 80 year old than a real, strong musical statement. There's a weight to it that the same album by a 25 year old would lack. That's on me but part of the process.

Definitely in my top five. "Go Away" is infectious.