San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
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The Chronicle’s guide to notable new music.
NEW ALBUM
Rhye, “Home” (Loma Vista): Inspired by the series of live music gatherings Canadian singer and multiinstrumentalist Mike Milosh hosted at his Los Angeles home studio before the pandemic, Rhye has kept that feeling of community on the band’s fourth album, connecting with artists near and far. Among the guests on the album are the Danish National Girls’ Choir, which help set the album’s tone in the “Intro” and “Outro”; Grammywinning cellist Peter Jacobsen, who plays on most of the album’s 13 tracks; and former San Francisco mainstay Nate Mercereau, who cowrote and plays guitar, bass and a delightful French horn on “Hold You Down.”
The band broke through in 2013 with the LP “Woman” and has since stood out with orchestral R&B arrangements that complement Milosh’s gorgeous androgynous vocals. Rhye’s latest doesn’t veer too far from that and builds on the formula with the added layers of its collaborators.
R.A.P. Ferreira, “Bob’s Son” (Ruby Yacht): Described by Chronicle Portals of the Past columnist Gary Kamiya as “brilliant and cantankerous,” Bob Kaufman embodied the heart of San Francisco’s Beat poets. A humbly audacious orator, Kaufman’s legacy is that of a jazz musician, philosopher and, most important, a Black beatnik whose callouts of social injustice could not be silenced. He was a man who notoriously said he wanted to be forgotten following his death in 1986, but Kaufman’s influence has re
surged thanks to a 2019 collection of his works and nomadic rapper R.A.P. Ferreira’s album “Bob’s Son,” released Jan. 1.
Ferreira, whose production moniker is Scallops Hotel and was formerly known as Milo, said on his Bandcamp page that “this album is an ode to the poet Bob Kaufman, the inventor of frink and beat.” Set to nu jazz/soul beats, it’s art rap in its finest expression, seeing the MC deliver rhymes with metaphysical beatnik flair. “Martyred for visions, braced for collision,” he spits on “redguard snipers.”
There’s also an interactive 3D illustration website by Chicago designer Alex Bowman to accompany the album that’s built to resemble a Beat cafe, filled with sounds and sights to experience while the music plays.
NEW LOCAL TRACKS
Brijean, “Ocean” (Ghostly):
Ahead of the Feb. 26 release of their debut album, “Feelings,” the Oakland duo — percussionist/singer Brijean Murphy and multiinstrumentalist/ producer Doug Stuart — have released their third single. A gentle and vapory number, the pair said “Ocean’' was inspired by spending time with Antonio Carlos Jobim’s timeless 1970 album “Stone Flower.” Stuart paces the keys and bass in the style of Jobim’s “Choro,” alongside Murphy’s reflective vocals, delivered with an Astrud Gilbertolike tonality. But it’s the percussive sounds of chimes and woodblocks from the incomparable Murphy that gives this track a true Tropicália feel.
Astronauts, etc., “Cherry Plum” (selfreleased): Back for the first time since the smoky sonic portals of 2018’s “Living in Symbol,” Oakland’s Anthony Ferraro of Astronauts, etc. has settled wonderfully into a baritone coo on “Cherry Plum.” Acoustic guitar plucks and layers of Ferraro’s higher backing vocals ring throughout the song, before his dexterous keys round out the exquisite track. Always the experimentalist, Ferraro (who also plays keys with Oakland’s Toro y Moi) recorded and mixed the track himself for the first time, and he teased subsequent singles in the same vein coming soon.
Fake Fruit, “No Mutuals” (Rocks in Your Head): You’ve got to admire Sonny Smith’s enthusiasm when it comes to the Bay Area music scene. When the Sonny & the Sunsets frontman launched his Rocks in Your Head label in early 2019, he jumped at the opportunity to put out music by local bands.
Enter “No Mutuals,” the label’s first release of 2021 from Oakland band Fake Fruit ahead of their selftitled album that’s due out March 5. The track has a rugged postpunk jangle over vocalist Hannah D’Amato’s piercingyetcolorful style.
Go ahead and file Fake Fruit as one of the first local bands we’ll be looking forward to seeing when live, inperson concerts make a comeback.
SONG OF THE MOMENT
Lana Del Rey, “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” (Interscope): Following a delay dating to September, a March 19 release date has been set along with the lead single drop from the polarizing pop star’s much anticipated new album.
Produced and cowritten with Jack Antonoff, the track’s movements swing from just Del Rey singing over Antonoff ’s piano to sweeping autumnal strings and bass drums.
“Drag racing my little red sports car/ I’m not unhinged or unhappy, I’m just wild,” she sings, delving further into her pushpull foray into a life of luxury.
The bonkers video for the song is part “Cruel Intentions” part “Twilight” and builds an intriguing underlying macabre aesthetic.