Vecka 31-32

Då går vi tillbaka till ordinarie tvåveckorslistor igen. Hoppas så många som
möjligt kan vara med även om några har fortsatt semester. Här kommer tio nya
spännande låtar:

1. Portugal. The Man  (US)  Alaskan outfit Portugal. The Man has always excelled at melding multiple styles into a delightfully varied, distinctive, and pleasurable sound.  “Rich Friends” takes a heavier approach overall, with forceful percussion and sharp guitar riffs leading the way. Structurally, it’s a straightforward rock song, albeit with plenty of multilayered eccentricities to keep it engaging and impressive. Popmatters

2. Peter Perrett (UK)  It’s astonishing that How the West Was Won exists at all. The fact that Perrett seems not just to have emerged from the abyss but emerged with his musical faculties completely intact suggests there is something superhuman about him. But he has. It’s all there, in the opening title track. A Sweet Jane-like riff decorated with ghostly slide guitar. The facility for effortless, languid melody. The voice – a nasal South London drawl, apparently unaffected by the lung disease its owner visited upon himself. And the lyrics, replete with the kind of entertainingly withering, Lou Reed-by-way-of-SE5 put-downs that powered Only Ones songs. The Guardian

3. Royal Blood (UK) Royal Blood have never claimed to reinvent the wheel, but in recent years they have reinvigorated the popular face of the hell-raising riffs genre. Now they surmount the challenge of the ‘difficult’ second album with ease, turning down their power not a jot but improving their deceptively adept knack for songs and melodies. The thrust and muscle here is direct and demonic, and the duo also display why they offer more than head-banging Team Rock

4. Moby etc (US) These Systems Are Failing is Moby’s most furious album in twenty years, a return to his hardcore days, but it's still oddly cold and routine. It’s an angry album, which in this case means Moby is running drum machines through banks of distortion and sullying up every synth line with fuzz, tempered by the kind of pressurizing rhythm guitar lines redolent of Joy Division and post-punk. Pitchfork

5. The Deslondes (US) Större delen av det här New Orleans-bandet har ett förflutet tillsammans med Alvinda Segarra i Hurray for the Riff Raff, och det går att höra i hur säkert de bottnar i doowop, gammaldags r’n’b och americana. Här adderar de dessutom surf, rockabilly, smäktande tex-mex och i utmärkta (This Ain't A) Sad Song 60-talsgarage till mixen, som vore de ett modernt Los Lobos. Att individualiteten blir lidande har man ledigt överseende när kvalitetsnivån och feststämningen är så här hög. Nöjesguiden

6. The Horrors (UK) On September 22nd, The Horrors return with their first album in three years, V. Today, as a preview, they’ve unveiled the music video for lead single “Machine”. it’s a spooky clip based on the concept of computer simulation. Here, creatures both of this world and not are spliced together using technology. Many slither and float around, their thorns and tentacles almost alien-like, and The Horrors’ harsh and industrial “Machine” makes for the perfect backdrop. COS

7. Dappled Cities (Aus) There’s something so homely about Dappled Cities recent outing ‘Five’. Everything feels in its right place; ebbs and flows so elegantly that you feel like you’re a part of the album. And maybe that’s what makes me love ‘Five’ so much. All the bass lines, the high-pitched vocals, the reverb, oh god that reverb. The production of every track is so clean and engrossing, drawing the listener into this world ‘Five’ has created. So sit back, close your eyes, and take in possibly one of the best indie albums of the year.  SputnikMusic

8. Alt-J (UK)  Etta v mina favoritband är tillbaka. De har blivit ganska stora nu, men de spelar fortfarande en ganska kompromisslös, lite snirklig och väldigt egen musik, som jag har svårt att motstå. Relaxer heter senaste albumet.

9. Rips (US) This is Rips debut album. On RIPS they pull off referencing 70’s New York punk and new wave while making it feel effortless, unstudied, and fun. The guitar solos, instead of standing starkly demanding we pay homage to technical prowess, charmingly crawl over each other in their excitement. It comes through clearest on “Safe Room”, an existential anthem that opens with “I’m searching for the feeling/I’m searching for the reason.” Parquet Courts’ Austin Brown, who produced the record, manages to wring out a similar sense of profundity here as he does in his own band’s tales of stoned bodega runs. AltCitizen

10. Japanese Breakfast (US) Med Psychopomp stod Michelle Zauner aka Japanese Breakfast för ett av förra årets stora utropstecken. På uppföljaren Soft Sounds From Another Planet kommer alla färger i lite mer hi-definition; men indie-charmen består. Låtarna är lite mognare och lite mer eklektiska. Det psykedeliska gitarrmotivet i symbios med de extraterrestriella ljudeffekterna i inledande Diving Woman sätter till vis del fingret på vad som komma skall, men varje låt tillåts leva sitt ett eget liv. Gaffa

Nu är det två veckor som gäller igen. Ni ska ha lämnat era röster senast söndagen

den 13 augusti. Här är länken. 

Michelle Zauner aka Japanese Breakfast