Music reviews

Cairo Knife Fight Seven (Warner) ★★★★★ CKF is the alias for Kiwi multi-instrumentalist Nick Gaffaney and guitarplaying collaborators. The current iteration pairs him with Grammy-award winning songwriter/guitarist George Pajon Jr – notably of the Black Eyed Peas – and the result is stunning. Seven swings from ethereal harmony to loud blasts of guitar fuzz, and its natural home is a moshpit. It sounds a little bit Muse, a little bit Royal Blood, has a hint of Queens of the Stone Age, and is entirely indispensable. The only disappointment is how short it is – Seven refers to seven songs, and seven brief interludes. But, especially in the age of streaming, this isn’t enough to detract from the strongest possible recommendation. – James Cardno ★★★ The idealistic vision and experimental pop of Anne ‘‘Annie’’ Clark, aka St Vincent’s, four previous releases – particularly her 2014 self-titled album – have been mesmerising and unorthodox to say the least. And while Masseducation retains that sense of being musically blindsided, particularly on the title trac, it has that unsettling sense of someone who has decided to leap naked into the mainstream after swimming against the tide. The lyrics are her most personal to date, the revealing cover art appears to suggest she is baring herself, and yet that is the antithesis of everything she has portrayed before. It’s not a bad album but more one you might expect from Gwen Stefani. – Mike Alexander ★★★★ Despite being only 23, the thick drawl of Archy Marshall is well familiar to the alternative music landscape in 2017. And this is probably his finest work yet. A strange and unsettling marriage of jazz, post-punk and hip-hop, Krule offers a highly idiosyncratic approach to the wider realm of singersongwriters. The likes of Dum Surfer sees him control and orchestrate a jazz band with his brutal working-class twang. The OOZ is also unusual in that it emits a broad and diverse atmosphere – much of it would feel as much at home in a jazz club as it would in the middle of a summertime hipster music festival. With three studio albums to his name before 25, something suggests this is still just the beginning for Marshall. – Hugh Collins