NEW ALBUMS
UNIVERSAL HARMONIES AND FREQUENCIES Tune In
YEYEH 8/10
Acid (house) jazz and cosmic insight from transatlantic duo
As Hieroglyphic Being, Chicago’s Jamal Moss has explored a raw, experimental house music that has oen shown a¦nity with the outer reaches of jazz. In 2022, Moss joined forces with the Polish saxophonist Jerzy Maczyński for a show at Amsterdam’s Deckmantel, and Universal Harmonies And Frequencies was born. Maczyński’s saxophone coils sinuously in and out of Moss’s rhythms, locking into spiralling cascades on “The End Of Ur World” and unleashing fulsome peals of joy on “Searching 4 Spirituality Without Religion”. “Multidimensional Transformation”, meanwhile, nds Moss take the mic for a spot of cosmic motivational poetry. Theirs is an auspicious pairing: imagine the Sun Ra Arkestra remixed by Ron Hardy and you’re somewhere close. LOUIS PATTISON
MARIA UZOR Soft Cuts
CASTLES IN SPACE 7/10 Debut solo album from one half of Sink Ya Teeth
Everything from UK garage to Aphex Twin to music from Disney lms makes up the broad range of in¬uences that have gone into Maria Uzor’s debut album.
One half of the Norwich out t Sink Ya Teeth, Uzor has ditched the itchy post-punk grooves of her band and fully embraced everything electronic on her debut. From the zzy yet bass-heavy club bounce of “Mighty Mighty” to the sparse R&B slow-burn chug of “Facemask” via the ’70s synth-funk strut of “Ventolin”, Uzor’s range is impressive. While some of the production lacks a little punch, there’s plenty to like about this debut o¤ering. DANIEL DYLAN WRAY
THE VACCINES Pick-up Full Of Pink Carnations
THIRTY TIGERS 7/10
Concise guitar-popsters embrace lineup change as a fresh start
The rst album aer a signi cant personnel reshu®e is always a nervous moment. The Vaccines have ridden out the replacement of founding lead guitarist Freddie Cowan with touring member Timothy Lanham with considerable poise. Pick-up Full Of Pink Carnations – the title is an oblique reference to Don Mclean’s “American Pie” – nds The Vaccines at their terse, nervy best, “Lunar Eclipse” and “Discount De Kooning” especially sounding like instant indie canon. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the best track – the languid surf-rock lament “Sunkissed” – is also the most downbeat, though in this sprightly company, that is a relative assessment. ANDREW MUELLER
JOZEF VAN WISSEM The Night Dwells In The Day
INCUNABULUM 6/10
Dutch lutenist repeats himself on a lockdown album
Maastricht-born Van Wissem has cut a lone, heroic gure in recent years, trying to rede ne the medieval lute as the doomy backdrop to noir-ish movies, recording some fascinating collaborations with the likes of Jim Jarmusch. This solo LP features seven spartan, gothic pieces in the same style (relentless clawhammer arpeggios) and the same keys (C sharp minor and G sharp minor, to be speci c). It only really springs to life when Van Wissem starts to tentatively add electronic drones (as on tracks 1, 5 and 6) or when he croaks out his Nick Cave-ish vocals (as on the
nal track, “The Day Of The Lord”). JOHN LEWIS
VARIOUS ARTISTS Light In The Attic And Friends
LIGHT IN THE ATTIC 9/10
Seattle label salutes its 21st birthday in typically le eld style
Given their core mission to reappraise cult artists and recordings that were never likely to trouble the mainstream, LITA’S ongoing Cover Series makes perfect sense. This wondrously eclectic 20-song set partly draws from previous releases (Angel Olsen’s gorgeous take on Karen Dalton, Iggy Pop in heat over Betty Davis, for instance), but over half of these tracks are new. Delights include Lawrence’s Mozart Estate making punchy fuzz-pop from Pil’s “Low Life”, Vashti Bunyan & Devendra Banhart dovetailing on Lynn Castle’s “How Could You Let Me Go” and Mary Lattimore’s minimal transposition of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s “Blink”. ROB HUGHES
VARIOUS ARTISTS Moping In Style: A Tribute To Adam Green
CAPITANE 6/10 Endearing yet ramshackle tribute to Moldy Peaches man
Just to be clear, Adam Green is not dead. However, a bunch of his pals have decided to record his songs for a fun, albeit patchy, covers album. Things start promisingly with a beautiful piano rendition of “We’re Not Supposed To be Lovers” by Regina Spektor & Jack Dishel and the stomping glam-poprock of The Lemon Twigs’ “Baby’s Gonna Be Alright” continues in this direction. Although not everyone has put as much thought and time into their compositions – The Libertines and The Lemonheads sound like phone recordings bashed out hurriedly in the practice room – resulting in an album that, while likable, also feels a little throwaway. DANIEL DYLAN WRAY
CONCHÚR WHITE Swirling Violets
BELLA UNION 8/10
Northern Irish songwriter’s solo debut
This Armagh native says of his songs, “there’s ghosts, there’s other worlds”, and there’s a certain whispery feel of a kindly but love-lorn apparition about his sonic persona as he makes his rst long-form solo statement. You may be reminded of Suan Stevens in his so-sung approach to cotton-wool pop such as “Righteous”, and while his idiosyncrasies aren’t so pronounced, the warm, organ-accompanied “501s” is shot through with yearningly nostalgic reference points. Creamy harmonies also enhance the redemptive break-up melancholia of “Fawn” as if he’s bottled up some West Coast air and let it loose in the studio. A gentle gem. JOHNNY SHARP
NEIL YOUNG Before + After
REPRISE 8/10
Touching, thoughtful exploration of his own past
Aer a couple of records with Crazy Horse, Young goes solo, performing 13 relative obscurities from his own catalogue on acoustic guitar, piano and organ. He strings these together into a (nearly) seamless single piece, creating a collage from fragments of his past as 1974 rarity “Home res” becomes Bu¤alo Spring eld’s “Burned” or Trans outtake “If You Got Love” beautifully morphs into “A Dream That Can Last” from Sleeps With Angels. There’s a handful of better-known songs here – “Birds” (stunningly done), “Mr Soul”, “Comes A Time” – but this is about consistency of themes and mood over time, reimagined by a man reckoning with his past and drawing new light to the deepest of cuts. PETER WATTS