New releases out today: Beyoncé, Niamh Bury, Shabazz Palaces, The Expert, Rufous Nightjar & more
Here’s a rundown of new releases on DSPs and physical releases in record shops this week.
Nialler9 keeps a rolling list of Irish album releases here.
Released today
New Albums
Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter
Originally intended to come out before Renaissance, and written over five years, Cowboy Carter is the much-anticipated country album from the singer. Draws on bluegrass, rodeo, Westerns, Americana and features a cover of Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’.
The album was made with many real instruments including accordion, harmonica, washboard, acoustic guitar, bass ukulele, pedal steel guitar, a Vibra-Slap, the mandolin, fiddle, Hammond B3 organ, tack piano, banjo, handclaps, horseshoe steps, boot stomps on hardwood floors and Beyoncé’s nails as percussion.
Guests include Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Post Malone, Linda Martell, Stevie Wonder, Jon Batiste, Rhiannon Giddens, Nile Rodgers, Gary Clark, Jr. and more.
Niamh Bury – Yellow Roses
Rising Dublin folk artist Niamh Bury was one of the first artists to sign to newly reanimated Irish label Claddagh Records and this is her debut album.
Recent RTÉ Folk Awards nominee having played with Ye Vagabonds, Martin Hayes, Dermot Kennedy, Daorí Farrel, Niamh Regan and Cinder Well, I can attest to Bury’s magnetic singer-songwriter style, and fine singing tone, as heard on the recent single ‘Budapest’, a textured folk song adorned with fine colour touches of piano and violin.
Shabazz Palaces – Exotic Birds Of Prey
Shabazz Palaces is masterminded by vocalist and producer Ismael Butler, whose music is a cosmic and shapeshifting alternative take on hip-hop.
Kelly Moran – Moves In The Field
Experimental piano lead compositions on Warp Records from the New York-based composer and producer pitched as a dialogue between Moran and her Yamaha Disklavier instrument.
“In early 2020, Yamaha loaned me a Disklavier player piano-a special instrument that allows you to record your performance for the piano to play back on its own. I was initially working on a duet for myself and another pianist, but when the pandemic hit, the player piano became my duet partner. I began writing a series of duets for myself and the Disklavier, exploring all the different ways I could utilize this instrument to merge its inhuman capabilities with my own playing. The Disklavier allowed me to record multiple layers of my playing so I could create music on the piano that would require more fingers or greater endurance than I physically have-like chords that had more than 10 notes in them, or chords that were spaced out farther than my hands could stretch.Sometimes I’d record a pattern and then speed it up to play back faster than I could ever physically play. My imagination exploded at all the possibilities this instrument allowed me to create, and these explorations culminated in my new record Moves in the Field.”
Moran plays Pavilion Theatre, Dublin on April 28th.
NAHreally & The Expert – Blip
The Dublin producer The Expert is following up his recent album with rappers Stik Figa and Jermiside with a collaboration with another Massachusetts MC NAHreally.
Guests on the record include Open Mike Eagle, Hemlock Ernst (Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring), Dillon and Jesse The Tree.
High Llamas – Hey Panda
First album of offbeat pop music in eight years from London-born Cork man Sean O’Hagan’s band features turns from Rae Morris, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Fryers. Released on Drag City.
Rufous Nightjar – Songs for Three Voices
Rufous Nightjar are a three-part harmony trio consisting of Branwen Kavanagh, Anna-Mieke Bishop and Zoé Basha.
ockdown lead to Branwen Kavanagh composing some a cappella songs “around the themes of mythology, folklore, landscape, loss and the otherworld.”
Branwen then invited Anna-Mieke and Zoé to collaborate on arrangements for an album, aided by artist residencies and a brass ensemble on the songs.
Roger Doyle – Babel
OG Irish electronic Roger Doyle’s Babel project spans a decade of composition work before its’ initial release in 1999 as a 5CD set. Over 100 pieces and almost 50 collaborators it marks a journey through a virtual tower of Babel with each piece corresponding to a room within an imagined giant tower city.
For the 25th Anniversary vinyl edition Doyle has revisited it- remastering it and providing its first vinyl edit – 80 minutes spread across two 180gm LP’s – rounding out the package with extended liner notes and a download code to the full 6 hours.
New EPs
All Acid Everything Volume 2
4-track collection of electronic acid from UK producer Gilbert, US artist Heckadecimal and Irish artists Calcium Club and Heckadecimal.
HUR | Hear Us Roar
Short 6-track album featuring six Irish female artists including Elkin, Alicia Raye, Becky McNeice, Laura Elizabeth Hughes, Jackie Beverly, Lisa Gorry and Dena Anuska.
Leanz – After Sunset
Latest release on EMA’s Woozy label – ” an extended player of haunted dub architecture, set out within a found-sound planetarium of deconstructed rhythms and textural deviancy. Seminal UK producer and Hemlock Recordings’ founder Untold also features with his first remix in 9 years.”
Also released today
- Boys Noize & Rico Nasty – HARDC0RE DR3AMZ
- Chastity Belt – Live Laugh Love
- DJ Muggs & Mooch Roc Star
- Gesaffelstein – GAMMA
- Gglum – The Garden Dream
- Ride – Interplay
- Yot Club – Rufus
