Blue Hawaii

7 months ago

With so many releases flying at you, here are recommended vetted listens from Nialler9 for you this week, as collated in the Nialler9 New Releases Spotify playlist, updated weekly.

1. King Krule – The Ooz

Archy Marshall’s guttural vowel-swallowing voice has been the biggest draw across nearly all his work a King Krule, Zoo Kid, DJ JD Sports Edgar the Beatmaker or his given name. That work has shown him to be a proficient producer too but The Ooz takes his talent to assured new heights. For his second King Krule album since 2013’s 6 Feet Beneath The Moon, it’s as if a black and white painting has become shaded with a depth of colour over time. The Ooz is a spacious cinematic piece of work – a late night tale, where danger lurks on every corner and our protaganist drifts in and out of noir landscapes of wasteland motorways, urban decay, broken homes and joyrides.

Listen on Spotify

2. Wolf Alice – Visions Of A Life

It’s good to hear a buzzed UK band come out the other side of their debut album with an even better release of scope, sonic ambition and songwriting prowess than before. Visions Of A Life. From the hedonistic roar of ‘Yuk Foo’ to the dreamy anthemic ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ to the delicate ‘After The Zero Hour’ and the expansive closer and title track, this is easily one of 2017’s best guitar/rock albums.

Listen on Spotify.

3. St Vincent – Masseduction

A dense and near schizophrenic album upon first listens, Annie Clark’s Jack Antonoff-produced fifth album has a hyper-real pop coat that barely contains searing guitar lines, electronic percussion and high-tempo busy rhythms. The album is at its best when it takes a breath and doesn’t crowd the songs with overactive sonics on songs like ‘Los Ageless’, ‘Happy Birthday, Johnny’ , ‘Pills’, ‘New York’ and “Savior’. Clark plays the Olympia in Dublin on Friday and Saturday.

Listen on Spotify

4. Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice

A loose album of jaunty bluesy slacker-rock between two idiosyncratic songwriters from two parts of the globe from Australia and America respectively, who work well as a duality on record.

Listen on Spotify

5. And So I Watch You From Afar – The Endless Shimmering

The Belfast post-rock instrumentals deliver heft and a return to form on their new fifth album, which can be heard in full two days before release.

6. Blue Hawaii – Tenderness

You can catch Blue Hawaii in Dublin at the Workman’s Club next month on November 18th and Tenderness is a fine album by Raphaelle Standell (Braids singer) and Alexander Kerby who got their project back together after a four year hiatus in 2016. The album draws on relationships forged through online apps, disco rarities and ’90s dance music.

Listen on Spotify

Posted on October 18th, 2017

Tags: new albums

Artists: ASIWYFA, Blue Hawaii, Courtney Barnett, King Krule, Kurt Vile, Wolf Alice

9 months ago

This is only a selection of new music – dig into more or follow the Spotify playlists.

Nialler9 Weekly playlist

1. Jessie Ware – ‘Midnight’

The soul singer with a penchant for featuring on upbeat dancefloor tracks and the UK’s closest artist to a new Sadé, Jessie Ware returns to her torch-bearing soul sound with more confident vocals than ever before and an Andre 300 Love Below-style production. It was co-written by Kiah Victoria, Jordan Thomas and Carrius Gold, three upcoming songwriters from London and co-produced by Carrius Gold and Pop Wansel (Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj).

2. Bantum – ‘Feel Your Rhythm’ (feat. Rusangano Family & Senita) – Daithí remix

Bantum’s mini-album Move from last year has spawned a series of solid remixes from Mix & Fairbanks and Phare and now, Daithí is the producer to tackle the Cork man’s track ‘Feel Your Rhythm’ with a fresh perspective.

The Clareman takes the original’s feature guests Rusangano Family and Senita (Lakerama, Shookrah) and brings some fresh energy to the original, adding new focus to Rusangano’s verses. This tune slayed at Body & Soul so catch Bantum and Another Love Story and Electric Picnic in the next month.

3. Kelela – ‘LMK’

One of my favourite new artists of the last few years, Kelela has returned with new music.’LMK’, which stands for “Let me Know” restablishes Kelela’s clubby R&B sound as heard on Cut 4 Me mixtape and Hallucinogen EP.

It’s taken from her album Take Me Apart out on October 6th on Warp Records.

4. King Henry feat. Rhye – ‘Moment’

I sometimes find Rhye’s music too soft or elegant to grasp when it doesn’t quite land but on this track from a one-time Bieber and Beyoncé collaborator its the mark. Mike Milosh’s beguiling effeminate voice is ably matched by a muted and buzzing arrangement.

5. Blue Hawaii – ‘No One Like You’

When not singing with her weightier band Braids, Raphaelle ‘Ra’ Standell has been playing with Alexander ‘Agor’ Kerby as Blue Hawaii since 2014 but they’ve just announced Tenderness, their first album in four years (October 6th via Arbutus Records).

The album’s lead track interpolates the hook of Kenix feat. Bobby Youngblood’s ‘There’s Never Been (No One Like You)’, an absolute jam it must be said.

6. Four Tet – ‘Planet’

Another beautiful dance track from the master. Last month it was ‘Two Thousand And Seventeen’ and ‘Planet’ falls somewhere between his soft and dancefloor sensibilities.

7. Bicep – ‘Glue’

Bicep, Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson are gearing up to release their debut album on Ninja Tune next month.

We’ve heard the excellent ‘Aura’ from the album and seen the tracklisting.

‘Glue’, the duo’s followup preview is a less dancefloor-focused but a shimmering slice of electronica.

Bicep is out on September 1st.

8. Tender – ‘Machine’

Songs about domination and control have traditionally been about relationships between humans but Tender addresses the very modern and young problem of a partner who spends too much time staring at their phone instead of spending time with the person in front of them. We are all guilty of it and should be aware of it actively. The London band uses the idea of cellular distraction as an example of an disintegrating connection in a relationship. Their album Modern Addiction is out Sept 1st.

9. Lone – ‘Mind’s Eye Melody’

Matt Cutler followed up his hip-hop-infused fifth album Reality Testing with Levitate last year which was more ravey and breakbeat-oriented (‘Backtail is Heavy’). Since then, there’s been an Ambivert Tools Vol 1 lead by the hard-edged ‘Crush Mood’ and this track which recalls his earlier melodic work.

10. Birthday – ‘Que Pasa’

Atmospheric electronic dreamy pop on Shlohmo’s LA- based Label WEDIDIT/ Tombstone Recordings from Birthday, who are a duo named after the venue in London Birthdays.