As the year comes to a close and we all conjure up our increasingly self-aware spouts of Top 50 this and that, the record labels get to follow suit and play along, relishing in end-of-year clout and strategically posing coveted reissues and holiday box set to the Cyber Monday crowd, who are somehow bigger suckers than the Friday lifers. Releasing an album mid-December might not be the most strategic idea in theory, but it takes some courage, and the few artists who are putting out an album in the ensuing weeks deserve some respect, if not a small stroke of promotion. True, we've only gathered five releases to anticipate this month, but that only doubles the potential of each of these albums to become one of your favorites of the year!
Hip hop trio Young Fathers have a most interesting history as each bandmember met at the age of 14 in Edinburgh, hailing from different parts of the world. Alloysious Massaquoi was born in Liberia and Kayus Bankhole resided in Nigeria and Maryland before meeting up with 'G' Hastings in the UK. They’ve labeled themselves as a “psychedelic hip hop boy band” and the brand surprisingly fits as the group thrives on trip hop and raggae influence as well as instrumental and vocal experimentation. Yough Fathers’ style of hip hop is certainly off the beaten path, but apparently far enough for Anticon, who stumbled upon their Bandcamp page and subsequently signed the group to re-release their debut record Tape One.
Just so you are aware John Eriksson, better known as the drummer for the Swedish indie rock group Peter Bjorn and John has a side project. It’s called Hortlax Cobra and he released his debut album Night Shift under the moniker earlier this year. Come December 18, Eriksson will have released his second collection of original music with 1984 which is essentially a tribute to Val Halen’s seminal record of the same name and the first album Eriksson owned. While it keeps the same song titles, lengths, keys, and tempos of the original 1984, somehow Eriksson has created all original songs via an orchestral and electronic infused soundscape. The record will be released through Ingrid, a label created by Eriksson, Peter Bjorn, Lykke Li, and Miike Snow and probably a few other Swedish artists as well. When asked about the influence of 80’s music on Eriksson in a recent interview he responded, “I get goose bombs every time I hear the Miami Vice theme and for me 1984 is when the magic happened. There is no ‘80s retro trend. It's just a part of the music history and a LinnDrum machine is as classic as a Fender Stratocaster.”
On December 4 via Carpark, Memory Tapes aka Dayve Hawk will release his follow-up to last year’s excellent full-length Player Piano with the six-track LP entitled Grace/Confusion. In an interview with Hawk by MTV (where the new record is available to stream in-full) the New Jersey native expounds on how the record revels in “longer, messier songs” and tosses out the brevity of “three-minute singles that didn’t seem appropriate.” The lengthiest track on the album is the sprawling and varied “Sheila”, which makes for an epic dance track littered with fluttering piano and synth progressions amid reverb-detonated guitar and bass riffs. Listen to “Sheila” below:
2. Heathered Pearls - Loyal
"I wanted to find a world that was built on repetition, erosion and melody because making these songs was about recreating soothing environments,” is how Jakub Alexander begins to describe his debut record, Loyal, released under the moniker Heathered Pearls. As co-founder of the electronic label Moodgadget and a veteran DJ, having played parties around Ann Arbor, MI with Matthew Dear and Ryan Elliott, it’s no secret that the Polish-born Brooklynite has an affinity for electronic music. Alexander has presented the 9-track collection as a tribute to his mother, who first introduced him to ambient music ten years ago. “Beach Shelter” is the first single off the new record, and plays to Alexander’s description as it lends repetitive languid coos that hazily bring natural textures into focus. Listen to “Beach Shelter” below:
Majical Cloudz is the electro-pop project comprised of singer/songwriter Devon Welsh and bandmate Matthew Otto. The Canadian duo formed last year and put out their first track “Dream World”, a short, but catchy pop song featuring Grimes. Their debut EP, Turns Turns Turns, which comes out on December 3, is a four track gem prefacing what looks to be a promising future. The two A-side singles, “What That Was” and the title track, which have been released on the group’s Soundcloud page, are impressively gorgeous as they utilize a down-tempoed wash of breezy synth and sparse percussion rising from Welsh’s hushed vocals. Watch the music video for “Turns Turns Turns” below:
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