With My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go, Aereogramme eschews the heavy in favor of the expansive. In contrast to their collaboration with Isis (In the Fishtank) the new material launches their mammoth size skyward – with explosive strings, ethereal keyboards, rolling fills, and crashing cymbals.
Music
Antibalas: Security
Antibalas is an American take on Nigerian Afrobeat, one that’s become more refined with each subsequent release. Security (Anti Records), the band’s fourth full-length album, leaves the Afrobeat sound for new territory.
Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective: Watina
For the past decade, producer Ivan Duran from Stonetree Records of Belize has gathered Garifuna artists to create exciting, impeccably produced new music that brims with the same timeless freshness as the finest roots reggae. In the process, Belize’s biggest star, Andy Palacio, abandoned the upbeat but mindless local punta dance music for a mellow yet funky, incantatory sound based on traditional rhythms.
High Priest: Born Identity
Many times in the musical sphere, when different elements from different genres are combined, the result is labeled “experimental.” High Priest is doing something different, and doesn’t try to fit in any specific musical category.
The Glasspack: Dirty Women
Louisville’s The Glasspack wears its Southern heritage like a badge of honor. Tales of barbeques, whiskey, and cars flow through their music like the Mississippi River through the delta valley.
With RIP USA (Chimp Beams: “Menina”
Chimp Beams are a dub trio out of Brooklyn, formed in 2001 by “track maker” Marihito, guitarist K-Go Mizutani, and multi-instrumentalist Yusuke Yamamoto. On Menina, tracks like “Sleep Talking” (featuring Jerome Loston) and “Synthesized” (featuring Roger Kahlon) incorporate hip-hop vocals that justify the comparisons to—and self-professed influence of—Massive Attack.
Rwake: Voices of Omens
Rwake plays the kind of music that makes babies cry. They’re one of the many reasons that there will always be clusters of people across America who believe that metal has the power to turn “normal” kids into blood-thirsty demons.
Call Me Lightning: Soft Skeletons
Forget everything you think you know about Milwaukee bands. Call Me Lightning bludgeons any notions of beer, cheese, and bad sports teams by releasing one of the dirtiest punk rock albums in recent memory.
Bunny Rabbit: Lovers and Crypts
Anything that sounds original in 2007 should get instant credit. However, originality does not always equal a great product. This is the case with Bunny Rabbit.
Field Music: Tones of Town
Situated under the wide brim of the indie-pop umbrella are three lads from Sunderland who call themselves Field Music. Their second full-length, Tones of Town (Memphis Industries), is inventive and hard to describe.