Lo-Fang’s good first impression
Lo-Fang “Blue Film” (4AD)
Lo-Fang is the pseudonym of Matthew Hemerlein, a singer and pop composer who wrote, recorded and played all the instruments on this debut. Drawing on digital R&B, modern pop, “Kid A”-era Radiohead and electronic music, he presents threeand four-minute song bursts that are tightly structured but labyrinthine in detail. “When We’re Fine” floats on a digital loop, a tiny-but-mighty rhythm, backward-spinning bleeps and bloops and a catchy chorus. An early contender for debut of the year, “Blue Film” comes out Feb. 24. Hemerlein recently relocated from Maryland to Los Angeles and goes on tour with his most famous fan, Lorde, this spring. Highly recommended.
Lambchop “Nixon” (Merge)
Few records have dented my psyche in the past 14 years more often than Nashville country-politan band Lambchop’s “Nixon.” A humble, unassuming record that blossoms in grand fashion with each listen, the 10-song work was created by wry mastermind Kurt Wagner with a dozenplus Nashville session players and resides in a realm where orchestrated country, expansive Curtis Mayfield-style soul and independent rock meet. Wagner’s kind of a glum fellow, but humor and vivid observations lift his spirit, and when he moves into falsetto the songs erupt. The label that released it, Merge, agrees. It just issued a deluxe double-disc version featuring bonus 1998 sessions called “How I Met Cat Power.”
Afterhours “Lowlife” (Not Not Fun)
A dimly lighted, textured instrumental album released by the consistently surprising L.A. label Not Not Fun, Lowlife’s “Afterhours” is precisely titled. Six songs that hit on mesmerizing breakbeat-inspired dance jams, minimal house and ethereal ambient music, the debut by Los Angeles-based Nicholas Crozier Malkin surprises from track to track and measure to measure. Each a different glimpse at predawn bliss, many of these tracks could have been released at any time in the past few decades. The beat-heavy “Sixty Forty” sounds like New York City trip-hop circa 1998 but falls off a cliff three minutes in, landing in a pool of ambient pleasure. “Lovesick” is nine minutes of hypnosis that explores a quick groove and rides it with gleeful, if restrained, abandon.
Eleni Mandell “Let’s Fly a Kite” (Yep Roc)
A lovely record about the heart, children, commitment, joy and other Saturday afternoon-style pleasures, “Let’s Fly a Kite” presents Los Angeles singer-songwriter Eleni Mandell at her lyrically precise best. Nick Lowe’s backing band on the standard guitar, keyboards and drums employs a tasteful array of instruments — vibraphone, flugelhorn, violin and trumpet — to craft sophisticated but playful parlor music. “Little Joy” is one of the most loving songs to a child you’ll hear this season (Mandell is the mother of toddler twins). “Maybe Yes” takes a stand against ambivalence in a delicately expressed work that outlines reasons why “maybe” won’t cut it. Here and throughout “Kite,” Mandell’s wonderfully direct: “Maybe doesn’t turn me on/ Maybe’s not filet mignon/ If your answer’s ‘I don’t know’/ Maybe I will let you go.”