1 AMBER ARCADES
Engage higher and lower self for the month’s best cosmic rock-outs, glitches and super-heavy funk.
GOODNIGHT EUROPE/SIMPLE SONG
Dutch artist Annelotte De Graaf trails her new album European Heartbreak (due September 28) with a three-part short film of the same name. A romance as political allegory, the first instalment features the track Goodnight Europe (“No one really got you I suppose”), whose message of isolation is bleakly direct. Part two brings release, and a road trip that takes in Alpine vistas, coastal sunsets and the gorgeous upbeat horns of Simple Song. Part three, unreleased at press time, brings the promise of resolution (“I have a plan”…) Find it: YouTube
2 JIM JAMES JUST A FOOL
Those pining for James to give it the big, My Morning Jacketesque cosmic rock-out with an aerated guitar riff, howling, country-souled chorus and super-reverby production; the wait is over! So good it could have been recorded in a grain silo. Find it: SoundCloud
3 JAMES BROWN TALKIN’ LOUD AND SAYIN’ NOTHING
The 1972 version, where drummer John ‘Jabo’ Starks’ deft, metronomic beats are the central ingredient that allows everything else to move and challenge over nine glorious minutes. See next issue for a fuller appreciation of this master sticksman, who died in May. Find it: YouTube
4 WIRE FRENCH FILM BLURRED (VERSION 1)
This demo of the Chairs Missing track – just 78 seconds! – shows the speedy, slack-jawed-but-brainy punk Wire before Mike Thorne got his hands on them. From the album’s new three-disc special edition. Find it: YouTube
5 SLEEP SONIC TITAN
A band for whom immutable heavy permanence is their greatest asset finally record an old live favourite for their first album in 20 years. High intensity doom metal, insistent repetition and stoner vibes guaranteed. Find it: Streaming services
6 THUNDERCAT FINAL FIGHT
“Let’s go down the rabbit hole,” suggests the virtuoso Los Angeles polymath. Cue unbound, sound-bending jazz micro-randomising, seemingly recorded underwater. His splicing of Zappa and George Duke continues unabated on this new song, his first new material since 2017’s Drunk album. Find it: SoundCloud
7 CHRIS FORSYTH & THE SOLAR MOTEL BAND DON’T BE DENIED
Premium jam of the month, as New York’s heirs to Television reframe Neil Young’s autobiographical burner from Time Fades Away. Among the quicksilver guitarplay, note the lyric tweaks, as “We played all night” becomes “We played all high”. Find it: Bandcamp
8 CULTURE & RANKING JOE & THE MIGHTY TWO BALDHEAD BRIDGE/BABYLON BRIDGE
Rasta reggae prophesies the end of the oppressors’ shitstem with a cheeky take on London Bridge Is Falling Down. Then we get an inspired dub version full of joyous proportion-inverting delirium. Find it: YouTube
9 BRAZILIAN GIRLS LET’S MAKE LOVE
The new single from the NY band’s fourth LP sounds like The Pretenders’ Message Of Love played too fast but with impeccable beat logic, and on a Wurlitzer. Find it: Streaming services
10 AUDIOBOOKS GOTHENBURG
Title-track to an EP by producer David Wrench and fine arts student Evangeline Ling: a style mag dream-team of glitchy beats and synth-pop vocal froideur, all mist and Berlin-architect cool. Find it: SoundCloud
11 ONE ELEVEN HEAVY DAWSON LANE
A frayed new riff on Cosmic American Music, by James ‘Wooden Wand’ Toth and other psych/roots notables. Reductive first take: Workingman’s Dead deconstructed by Royal Trux… Find it: tinyurl.com/yczc5f5w
12 FAZ WALTZ JULIE
From Lombardy, boogie powerpop with a touch of Slade for growing big bushy sideburns to. From the LP Double Decker. Find it: YouTube
13 HENRY PRIESTMAN AND LES GLOVER NOT IN MY NAME
A dossier of political crookery sets out the duo’s new folk-pop protest, wry love songs and social commentary set, Six Of One & Half A Dozen Of The Other. Find it: YouTube
14 CORTE REAL & CHARLIE O. LA CHANSON TRISTE
From La Souterraine C’est Extra, a tribute to chanson giant Léo Ferré, a song of bittersweet valediction via voice, piano and strings. Find it: SoundCloud
15 COWBOY JUNKIES ALL THAT RECKONING (PART 1)
Ontario alt-country cults return with a viscous brooder on how the personal and political connect. Find it: YouTube
16 GIRLS NAMES HAUS PROUD
Belfast band channel the spirit of Cold War-era disco via icy beats, echoey Joy Division-invoking production and frontman Cathal Cully’s deadpan vocals. Find it: Streaming services
17 AIM UNDERGROUND CROWNHOLDERS
A flipside from 1999, the Barrow beatmaker bolts breaks and brass to a Nas sample for a track that demands b-boy stances. Find it: SoundCloud
18 MICHAEL RAULT DREAM SONG
Moustachioed Canadian whose Lauren Canyon-evocative cosmic cuteness hymns the joys of a nice nap on this track. Employs a Stylophone (yes, we know) to induce woozy, dust-in-sunlight drowsiness. Find it: streaming services
19 BLACK POPE ATOM BOMB
Cork Cramps fans talk nuclear threat over a neorock’n’roll soundtrack of surf guitar rumble. Check their cover of Lux and Ivy’s I Was A Teenage Werewolf too. Find it: blackpopemusic.com
20 CHICO ARNEZ WOULD I
From 1972, funky lounge sounds with rocking guitar, wiggy brass, and the title repeated breathlessly in the style of perennially-frustrated Carry On film actor Kenneth Connor. Thanks to Manchester DJ P.P. Roy for the tip. Find it: YouTube
“THUNDERCAT SPLICES ZAPPA AND GEORGE DUKE.”