Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock ★★★★
Two Improvisations
SCISSOR TAIL. DL/LP
Open-minded folk guitarists have been co-opting Indian ragas into their work since the days of John Fahey. Still, this set of 12-string, tabla and sitar freestyles, partly recorded at Leon Russell’s Church Studio in Tulsa, proves it remains a transportingly good idea.
Cola ★★★
The Gloss
FIRE TALK. CD/DL/LP
Post-punk savvy Montreal trio cite the DIY brawn of Dischord and SST, though their second LP boasts more melody than muscle. Pathos, clatter and Tim Darcy’s Malkmus-esque deadpan define Albatross’s Strokes-ish hustle, Pulling Down’s R.E.M. melancholy and the oblique, anxious Keys Down If You Stay.
Glasshopper ★★★★
I’m Not Telling You Anything
CLONMELL JAZZ SOCIAL. CD/DL/LP
Glasshopper’s second bursts with emotional intensity. From I Go To Bed By 10pm’s twangy propulsion to Take Out The Sun’s ruminative sprawl, this intersecting sax/guitar/drum trio re-prove their mettle as wordless storytellers with a laser focus.
Danny Paul Grody Duo ★★★★
Arc Of Night
THREE LOBED. DL/LP
Yin to 2023’s Arc Of Day yang, San Francisco guitarist Grody now honours duetting percussionist Rich Douthit, heading deeper into a plangently twanging, meditative space. A California correlative to Dean McPhee’s Pennine kosmische, perhaps.
Hiatus Kaiyote ★★★
Love Heart Cheat Code
BRAINFEEDER. CD/DL/LP
Hiatus Kaiyote’s fourth LP is dominated by hooky, boisterous neo-soul spliced with inventive rhythms and the jazzy textures of Nai Palm’s voice. Their talent for maximalism is evident on the jagged, urgent Cinnamon Temple and a wonderfully trippy inversion of Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit.
Elijah McLaughlin & Caleb Willitz ★★★★
Morning Improvisations/ Evening Abstractions
CENTRIPETAL FORCE. DL/LP
Guitarist McLaughlin’s previous albums have been notionally folk, but this latest, with sound artist Willitz, is more expansive: heroic jams that orbit jazz, Dark Star psych, post-rock and all unstable points in-between.
Nightjar ★★★★
Mala Leche
LEWIS RECORDINGS. CD/DL/LP
After contributing beats to Pan Amsterdam’s Ha Chu in 2020, Doves’ Jimi Goodwin returns under his new production mantle. He rips through echoed dub, twisted funk and spectral psych with abandon, coaxing twitchy raps from Homeboy Sandman, Guilty Simpson and Sleaford’s Jason Williamson.
O. ★★★★
WeirdOs
SPEEDY WUNDERGROUND. CD/
