New Albums

more layers and nuance than ever before, it’s all blown away again by the rumbling riot punk of All This Noise, which ends things in magnificently raw and breathless fashion.

Mischa Pearlman

Chappaqua Wrestling

Plus Ultra

★★★★

EMI EMI 2091 (CD, LP)

Brighton quartet prove hard to pin down

Initially a duo of singer/ guitarists Jake Mac and Charlie Woods, the latter’s five childhood years in upstate New York spawned their name. Their voices are broadly similar – think Damon Albarn at his most melancholic. Yet a divergence in tastes means the recently expanded quartet’s debut ranges from the zesty power pop of Need You No More, via slowthai-inflected social commentary on Kulture and Wide Asleep, to the full-on Foals epic freakout My Fall. Throw in keyboardist Coco

Varda recalling Juliana Hatfield with her vocals on grunge ballad Not In Love and the only consistent pattern is an ability to make everything they touch stick around in the listener’s head. Don’t be surprised if the Wrestlers are to be among this summer’s breakout festival bands. John Earls

Cinder Well

Cadence

★★★

Free Dirt Records DIRTLP 0110

(CD ,LP)

Stirring third from singer-songwriter

A strong sense of place infuses these songs by Cinder Well, Amelia Baker’s folk project. Cadence evokes two locations – the Californian coast where Baker hails from and western Ireland where she has also lived. Her distinctive vocals are heard to forceful effect throughout, including the vivid Two Heads, Grey Mare, where waves of sound create an intense impact. Elsewhere, well-crafted songs such as Gone The Holding and A Scorched Lament reflect classic aspects of folk. Along with dextrous guitar playing, Baker delivers some fine melodies, as on Overgrown, while Cormac Macdiarmada’s string work contributes subtle detail to several songs. There are occasional dips, most notably the lengthy title track, which feels over extended. By contrast, the brief but compelling Well On Fire ignites instantly, another reminder of the album’s impressive boldness. Steve Burniston

Rhoda Dakar

Version Girl

★★★★

Sunday Best SBESTLP 94 V (CD, LP) Compendium of covers from the 2 Tone stalwart

Though still proudly waving the ska banner some 40 years since fronting The Bodysnatchers, 21stcentury Rhoda Dakar draws water from several disparate wells on Version Girl. This is a fabulous record, full of wit and invention in the manner with which Dakar and her musicians execute their makeovers. Stop Your Sobbing shuffles like a vintage Trojan 45, The Man

Who Sold The World shifts Bowie’s other-worldliness to shanty town Jamaica, Tim Buckley’s Song To The Siren here owes a debt to Jimmy Cliff, and Ms D confidently corners the market in blue beat country on Patsy Cline’s Walking After Midnight. The voice charms at every turn, brimming with personality on what might just be the party album of the year. Terry Staunton

David Edren

Relativiteit Van de Omgeving

★★★★

Not Not Fun NNF 388 (LP, Cassette) Belgian synth whizz taps into nature’s rhythms

Just like Basho’s best haikus, these dozen vignettes evince the mysteries of time, space, place and perception with minimal fuss. In Edren’s minimalist architecture of breathy chordal sweeps, crystalline chimes, mournful tones and subtle piano you can hear the spider dexterously weaving its web, the falling of morning dew, the passage of comets and setting of countless suns. The tender marriage of electronic and organic shifts across environments like an Attenborough special, inspired by Satie’s love affair with the shimmering patterns of Indonesian gamelan music and the phase-shifting strategies of Steve Reich. Yet Edren’s album stands on its own merits, a contemplative suite to the universe’s myriad wonders. Spencer Grady

Elegant Weapons

Horns For A Halo ★★★★

Nuclear Blast NBA 6937-2 (CD, 2LP) Outrageously exciting debut album

It seems a while since the term ‘supergroup’ was bandied about, but Elegant Weapons fit the bill. Featuring Rainbow frontman Ronnie Romero, Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner, Uriah Heep bassist Dave Rimmer and Accept drummer Christopher Williams, their debut album is a classic metal fan’s dream, with perceptive songwriting, great performances, fingerknotting solos and bucketloads of melody. There are no weak links among the nine originals (although Downfall Rising and Dead Man Walking do vie for first-among-equals status), which renders the crowd-pleasing UFO cover Lights Out rather superfluous. With renowned producer (and Faulkner bandmate) Andy Sneap guaranteeing a kickass sound, and Pantera’s Rex Brown and Priest drummer Scott Travis guesting, this is an incredibly impressive debut. John Tucker

Esben And The Witch

Hold Sacred

★★★

Nostromo Records NOS 10 (CD, LP) Goth-pop dreamers cling to founding beliefs

After the distorted doomrock of 2018’s Nowhere, this Brighton-forged alt-goth trio reconnect with sparser formative instincts on a self-produced sixth album. Developed between Porto, France and Berlin, Hold

Sacred is a well-sustained display of minimalist moodcrafting, its fortitude and discreet detailing illuminating the gloomier shadows. Between the familiar gothic imagery of spider- and rat-infested chapels, The Well reflects querulously on depression. In Ecstasy adds softly building beats pulses, like ripples cast through moon-shaped pools, to accompany singer Rachel Davies’ incantatory paean to pleasure. Fear Not’s post-rock lullaby and A Kaleidoscope’s gentle shimmer uphold Esben’s flair for, respectively, beauty and atmosphere. Best of all, A Heathen hymns the virtues of self-belief and becalmed resilience, defining the core terms of engagement on an often beguiling comeback set. Kevin Harley

Feist

Multitudes

★★★★

Fiction 4848161 (CD, LP) Returning with her audience’s help

The death of her father and firsttime parenthood have contributed to a six-year gap since Leslie Feist’s previous album, Pleasure. Back living in Canada after time in Los Angeles, Feist returned to music by road-testing new songs live at immersive shows in 2021. The encouraging atmosphere has led to Feist’s most varied album. The grandstanding Heroes-era Bowie anthem Borrow Trouble and recorderdriven folk lament Martyr Moves are the obvious contenders for live favourites, but there’s room, too, for adventurous jams Become The Earth and I Took

All Of My Rings Off, where Feist gets as communal as The Flaming Lips. She even gently teases her fans by imagining her dream audience in The Redwing, having delivered what could be her dream album, six LPS in. John Earls

Neil Gaiman & Fourplay String Quartet

Signs Of Life

★★★

Instrumental INST 009 CD (CD, LP) Enter Sandman

Here’s an album of partclassical, partfolk music from the Australian Fourplay ensemble, overlaid with spoken-word narrative from the British author Neil Gaiman. Listening to it is a curious experience; it’s probably best to treat it like an audiobook or podcast, perhaps while travelling unhurriedly somewhere, rather than a regular album. You’ll probably enjoy the cinematic experience of the music, but your appreciation of Gaiman’s clipped, dry vocal contributions on a variety of fantastical subjects will depend on whether you enjoy his wellknown imaginative works – The Sandman, Coraline, American Gods and so on. If you don’t fancy being talked to the whole way through, instrumental cuts such as the Tindersticks-like Neverwhere will save the day, as will the vampire-themed, conventionally sung Bloody Sunrise. Joel Mciver

Alison Goldfrapp

The Love Invention ★★★★

Skint 4050538871579 (CD, LP) Solo debut from an electro-pop master

Those who fondly remember Goldfrapp’s early noughties primal glitterball electro-pop peak will thrill at Alison Goldfrapp’s debut solo effort. As the song titles – Never Stop, Fever, So Hard So Hot, Digging Deeper Now – suggest, her first offering in six years replugs Goldfrapp into the euphoria of the dancefloor and is in thrall to the beat, a fullbodied, relentless immersion in house, disco and distorted electro. There’s an update of Goldfrappian themes of female desire and pleasure and the role machines play in our lives – her airy vocals are often layered electronically to great effect – and in the two sensual ballads, particularly the closing, luxuriously dreamy early FKA Twigs-alike Sloflo, a reflection on aging. Here’s to hearing it in the club. Shaun Curran

Himalayas

From Hell To Here ★★★★

Nettwerk Cat No TBC (CD, LP) Welsh rockers’ debut, 10 years in

In their decade together, melodic

Cardiff rockers Himalayas have supported Manic Street Preachers and Stereophonics, notching up nearly 50 million streams en route. It’s taken until now to release an album, but From Hell To Here still sparkles with the energy and enthusiasm of the best first offerings, despite the delay. Royal Blood and Queens Of

The Stone Age are the obvious touchstones on a succession of infectious choruses wrapped around Mike Griffiths’ chunky, tuneful riffs. Joe Williams’ sardonic vocals bring Arctics inflections to Into The Trap, while the sci-fi paranoia feel of Mistakes ensure Muse fans can get on board too. After so long, it’s little wonder Himalayas’ debut has the mood of a best of, essentially one big single after another. Don’t leave it so long next time. John Earls

The Ironsides

Changing Light ★★★★

Colemine CLMN 12051

(CD, LP)

A soundtrack in search of a movie

Back in 2013, this Californian quintet featuring producers Max and Joe Ramey released The Raven, their debut single for the Ohio-based Colemine label. A cinematic psych-soul instrumental, it etched the sonic blueprint for the band’s distinctive sound, which now blossoms into maturity on their first LP. Inspired by arrangers/producers like Charles Stepney and David Axelrod, as well as library music and European movie soundtracks, The Ironsides create pictorial mood pieces with a retro feel. Enabling them is New York arranger Louis Robert King, whose orchestral expertise brings the group’s sonic vision to life. The opening title track, with its gorgeous tone colours, establishes a sound that haunts the remainder of this exceptional album. Charles Waring