Artist: Imarhan

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6 new albums you should hear: Rejjie Snow, Wyvern Lingo, Everything Is Recorded & more

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.

Rejjie Snow – Dear Annie

Dublin-born rapper Rejjie Snow has finally staked his claim on the international hip-hop landscape with the release of his long-awaited debut album Dear Annie. The album is released under the watchful eye of 300 Entertainment, home to artists such as Migos and Young Thug. Rejjie first appeared on the scene as Lecs Luther, channeling MF Doon and Tyler, The Creator and while he hasn’t left the influences of those artists entirely behind, he has penned a A stylish and polychromatically produced debut record where the vocalists like Portland’s Aminé, London’s Ebenezer and Jesse James Solomon, Norway’s Anna of the North and American singers Dana Williams, Caroline Smith and Jesse Boykins III shine on the hooks.

Rejjie’s choice of intermissions negate the album’s romantic sincerity but there’s much to enjoy here in the vein of a soft glow rooftop down R&B-tinged rap tip. Snow hasn’t quite escaped the shadows of his forebearers but at 24 years-old, he’s finally on a path to showing his own colours. Hear more from us on the album on this week’s podcast.

2.

Wyvern Lingo – Wyvern Lingo

Wyvern Lingo’s self-titled debut album arrives on Rubyworks with much fanfare based on hard work, a regular gigging schedule and crucially, great preview songs. If lead single ‘I Love You Sadie’ is a starting point, then the group spend the rest of the album fleshing out and expanding upon that polished R’n’B sound with harmonius intent and a keen eye to real-world events. Without a doubt, the most exciting Irish prospect at the moment. Listen to them interviewed about the entitlement of Irish male artists of the past in our recent podcast.

3.

Everything Is Recorded – Everything Is Recorded

The modern-day supergroup is a rarity, however, head of XL Records Richard Russell has assembled an impressive team to create this eclectic album. Featuring a plethora of artists ranging from Kamasi Washington to Sampha to Ibeyi to Giggs, with all musical ground in-between covered, the final product is the wonderful and sometimes bizarre Everything Is Recorded. . Don’t go into this album expecting loyalty to any singular genre, Russell instead seems to be concerned only with bringing out the best from the artists on each individual track. When it works, it shines but it sometimes feels a little lightweight.

4.

Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy

Most artists focus solely on moving forward, writing and releasing an album to move on to the next project. Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo makes the interesting choice to revisit and re-imagine an old project with this remake of 2011’s Twin Fantasy. The addition of a bigger budget allows some of the lo-fi elements of the original release to be tweaked and upgraded. A worthwhile listen for those interested in seeing how far the group have come over the past seven years.


5.

Imarhan – Temet

Temet marks Algerian desert rock sextet Imarhan’s second studio album. The band’s name, translating roughly into “the ones I care about”, is reflective of the passionate music the group create. Employing a hybrid sound of Western surf-rock guitars with pan-African rhythms and vocal deliveries, this release finds the group sounding more polished than their debut album.

6.

Poliça and Stargaze – Music For The Long Emergency

Setting out to soundtrack the end of the world, this collaborative project between American synth-pop group Polica and Berlin-based orchestral ensemble Stargaze results in a stunning collection of novel music. Released under the supervision of London label Transgressive Records, this short album is packed full of haunting melodies and evolving textures. Landing somewhere between industrial and modernist, the apocalypse has rarely sounded better than on this album.

Posted on February 26th, 2018

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Algeria’s Imarhan show a younger side to Tuareg music

Algeria’s Imarhan are following in the footsteps of Tinariwen and Songhoy Blues in African guitar bands breaking into into a Western market with an album release on City Slang at the end on April 29th.

The six-piece band from Tamanrasset in Southern Algeria make music similar to their Saharan Tuareg peers. Eyadou Ag Leche of Tinariwen may be a cousin of Imarhan frontman Sadam, there is the suggestion of a different undercurrent to proceedings, with the label press release saying “their
poetry and flow has a more integrally urban base than the ancestral Tamashek poetry and traditional rhythms of their elders.”

Displacement is in the Tuareg people and with Imarhan it’s perhaps manifested in a wider net of influences: from funk grooves further in West Africa to Saharan Traditional folk music and Algerian Rai music.

The self-titled ‘Imarhan’ is your way in:

In the language of the Kel Tamashek people ‘Imarhan’ means ‘the ones I care about’.

Posted on April 6th, 2016

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