Bloc Party: Four (Frenchkiss, 8/21/12)
Since Bloc Party hit Lollapalooza in early August, the UK indie quartet has tirelessly toured Europe and the United States in support of Four, its hard-charging new album. Now, with only a few dates left in the Pacific Northwest, the band sets its sights back across the Atlantic for dates through late November. Hey, touring isn’t for the faint of heart!
Drew Reynolds was on hand in Chicago last week to capture Kele and company.
Titled Into the Future, the new Bad Brains album promises, according to bassist Darryl Jenifer, to be “the purest Bad Brains recording since the ROIR cassette.”
Efterklang: Piramida (4AD, 9/25/12)
“Apples”
Efterklang can hear dead people, or so it seems. Perhaps that’s why the Danish post-rock ensemble visited Pyramiden — a ghost town on the Arctic Norwegian island of Spitsbergen — to create its new album of similar name.
At the abandoned Russian settlement, its members wandered a landscape of streams and mountains, recording the sounds of seabirds, footfall, and rushing wind. In the studio, they added the ethereal vocals of a choir and the chime-like peals of a glass-bottle collection. Whether or not these sounds are messages from another realm, they summon haunting melodies and shiver-inducing rhythms. It makes perfect sense, considering that “efterklang” means remembrance and reverberation.
Grizzly Bear: Shields (Warp, 9/18/12)
“Sleeping Ute”
In 2009, Brooklyn-based Grizzly Bear became a mainstay of artsy indie rock with its breakthrough effort, Veckatimest, which added to the band’s already gorgeous, distinct sound. Three years later, the vocally adept and sonically diverse quartet is back with Shields, an album even more assured of the band’s signature style.
Jodis: Black Curtain (Hydra Head, 10/2/12)
Three years ago, Aaron Turner of Isis (and many, many other bands) and James Plotkin and Tim Wyskida of Khanate (and many, many other bands) formed a haunting, melodic, ambient project called Jodis.
Each already had quite a résumé for elongated, swirling, textured pieces, particularly of the dark variety, whether from projects like Old Man Gloom, House of Low Culture, or solo material. Jodis was different, though, and now the three experimentalists are issuing a second album together with a renewed focus on slow-building melody.
Murder by Death: Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon (Bloodshot, 9/25/12)
“Lost River”
With its sixth full-length album, Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon, Murder by Death has further defined its particular brand of alt-country. The recording is the band’s first for Bloodshot Records, but it marks another notable occasion: the writing contributions of multi-instrumentalist Scott Brackett (previously of Okkervil River and Shearwater), whose work on piano, trumpet, accordion, and backing vocals provide new musical details throughout.
Down: Down IV Part I: The Purple EP (Warner Music Group, 9/18/12)
“Witchtripper”
For a super-group like Down — formed from members of Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, and Eyehategod — what’s more fitting than assembling a Voltron-style album out of four epic EPs?
Clocking in at a weighty 33 minutes (what many consider a full-length these days), Down IV Part I: The Purple EP is less a return than it is a first repayment — starting to make good to its fans for another five-year wait between albums.
Lymbyc Systym: Symbolyst (Western Vinyl, 9/18/12)
“Prairie School”
Lymbyc Systym: “Prairie School”
Despite spending much of the past three years on separate continents, brothers Jared and Michael Bell have written and recorded their third full-length as Lymbyc Systym — a feat that’s made at least a bit easier thanks to 20 years of playing together. And somehow, Symbolyst is among the duo’s most accomplished to date, with harmonies as rich and melodies as infectious as ever.
On the final weekend of the summer, Chicago’s Humboldt Park hosted the city’s eighth annual Riot Fest, the punk-, rock-, and hardcore-filled festival that has since branched to Brooklyn, Toronto, and Dallas. This year’s installment was special for more than its consolidated location in the park; it also boasted a brand-new carnival — featuring a Ferris wheel, funnel cake, and impossible-to-win prize games — to enjoy between sets.