In a pretty radical stylistic shift, Detroit-via-Toronto artist Moon King is releasing a Detroit house-inspired album called Hamtramck ’16 on Arbutus Records on August 4th. First track “In & Out” suggests he’s pulling the genre move off nicely.
Utah-via-Toronto songwriter and old friend of the blog Man meets Bear released another naturalistic wonder yesterday June 15th, his latest album Starfishes. It’s one of the more meditative works in his discography; most of the songs are smeared ambient soundscapes-as-songs, progressing in slow-motion but with a finger still placed on the idea of pop composition.
After the last Moonface album with the Finnish band Siinai came out, I started wondering what other great bands there are in Finland. I bounced around a bit through the Spotify ‘similar artists’ section, and here are the best albums I stumbled on.
Eleanoora Rosenholm – Älä kysy kuolleilta, he sanoivat
Eleanoora Rosenholm is like a Finnish Kate Bush, in that her music has lots of cool synths and sounds ‘magical.’ She’s also really big on using soviet-style male choruses as a musical element. This album and its follow-up, Hyväile minua pima tähti, are excellent.
K-X-P – II
K-X-P is a dark, spacey krautrock band. All their albums (I, II, III Pt. 1, III Pt. II) are solid collections, but II is the most consistent.
Paavoharju – Laulu laakson kukista
According to Wikipedia, Paavoharju “was a collective of ascetic Christians formed around two brothers.” If so, they were a collective of ascetic Christians who knew their way around complicated and enchanting arrangements. Their albums feel rough and organic, as if they were old tapes found under a bed. This one is my favourite, but their first, Yhä hämärää is about equivalent in terms of quality. Their 2013 album Joko sinä tulet tänne alas tai minä nousen sinne lost me though; the choice to make a rap album was an odd one.
Islaja – Keraaminen Pää
Easily Islaja‘s best album. Like Eleanoora Rosenholm‘s work, its got an ‘enchanted in the vein of Kate Bush’-thing going on, but it’s rougher around the edges and more minimalist.
Jaakko Eino Kalevi – Jaakko Eino Kalevi
Jaakko’s stuff sometimes sounds a little too self-satisfied for me, at least right now during this apocalyptic moment, but his self-titled album has a lot of solid songwriting and incredible synth work.
I found Tri Atma‘s bonkers 1982 album Yearning and Harmony while paging through the used records at my ever-beloved all-time favourite record store in the world, Academy Records in Greenpoint. The cover and especially its back-cover were just too classic: a German new age guitar-tablas band that teamed up with a crazy old synthesizer dude to make a record in 1982. Please, Adult Swim, do something like Live at the Necropolis with this.
Of course, I wouldn’t be writing about it if the music weren’t very close to exactly what I wanted to hear. The guitar and tabla work are solid, but top marks here go to Klaus Netzle for exceedingly melodic and beautifully kosmische synth work.
Nova Scotia’s beloved Joel Plaskett teams with his dad Bill for a wonderful album showcasing the father-son team’s love of Canadian maritime celtic music, English folk and indie-pop/rock: Solidarity.
