Evan Ballew, Music Director
Melaina Kol – “Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then”
Fresh out of Nashville, Tennessee, we have the project of multi-instrumentalist Logan Hornyak. Familiar to the genre norms of their hometown, Melaina Kol is dark and experimental. Hornyak uses a mix of unconventional classical instrumentation and electronic drum machines to create an atmosphere teeming with life, from plucking violins to ghostly vocal samples. The title track immediately reminds me of an independent puzzle video game called “Donut County” where the user controls a hungry black hole that swallows everything around it. Sounds a lot darker than it actually is, but Melaina Kol’s music would fit perfectly into the game’s dynamic and organic score. A quick listen that’s highly replayable.
For fans of: Alex G, Oklou, Hooky, Wyatt Smith, Lowertown, Dead Sullivan
Horse Lords – “Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!”
Elements of Sarahan boogie, Appalachian folk, and math rock come together on Horse Lords’ seventh album, “Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!” The album is rhythmically complex but melodically accessible, with woodwinds, bass and percussion filling the core of the quartet’s sound. The album marks Horse Lords’ first venture into recording remotely, with principal drum tracking at the band’s home in Baltimore and all other recording done abroad in Germany. Vocals pop in and out, not to deliver a lyrical message, but to help accent the ethereal droning saxophone Horse Lords is known for.
For fans of: Mdou Moctar, This Heat!, Bitchin Bajas, Can, black midi
god of war – “molly picture”
Fans of shoegaze rejoice! A new trio is born from Philadelphia musicians Douglas Dulgarian (They Are Gutting a Body of Water), Scott Turner (Hooky) and Sam Silbert (Hooky, Circle of Fire), and the result is a triumphant follow-up album marked by a vividly chromatic sound. god of war’s sound is heavy and metallic but also shiny and playful, utilizing Nintendo-esque sound effects and filters to create a vibe all their own. The band’s adopted a “skate game” aesthetic – one that’s hard to understand unless you’ve experienced it. Imagine it’s the early 2000s and you’re watching your older brother absolutely dominate on Playstation 2. You can hear the band’s stream of conscious style of songwriting and mastery of self production on full display on “molly picture,” an album that deserves to be listened to loud.
For fans of: They Are Gutting a Body of Water, Hooky, villagerrr, Teethe, @, untitled (halo)
John Garcia, Morning Show Host
Alabama Shakes – “Waist Deep”
There’s something inherently funny about Alabama Shakes returning after 11 years and sounding, like they spent the interim getting even weirder. Lead vocalist Brittany Howard remains, obviously, the main attraction, and Heath Fogg’s guitar still knows its way around a good riff, but the Shakes of “I Must Be Dreaming” seem less interested in proving they can make a huge rock song, than in seeing how far they can stretch one out. Fans who came looking for another “Hold On” might be disappointed, though that would be sort of like ordering a hamburger at a sushi restaurant and getting mad at the chef. “Waist Deep,” along with the rest of the album, is lush, slow-burning, and slightly psychedelic. It feels soulful without being retro, heavy without needing to stomp, and expansive in a way that makes the song feel almost physically humid. After more than a decade away, Alabama Shakes could have returned with a victory lap. Instead, “Waist Deep” sounds like a band that has absolutely no interest in reenacting its own past. Thank God.
For fans of: Black Pumas, Gary Clark Jr., The Black Keys, St. Paul & The Broken Bones
benny blanco, BB Tricks – “Joven y Salvaje”
“Joven y Salvaje” is what happens when Benny Blanco, a man with approximately 5,000 pop hits in his résumé, decides to get in the car with BB Trickz and take a drive with no destination in mind. The production is bright, bouncy, and in classic Benny Blanco fashion, intentionally a little obnoxious, leaving plenty of room for Trickz’s deadpan delivery to do its thing. The feature on the song, BB Trickz, singer/songwriter from Barcelona, has always had a knack for making her attitude feel like the primary instrument on her songs, and Blanco teams up with her on this track to give her a colorful playground for her to run free. “Joven y Salvaje” translated to English means “Young and Dumb;” a fitting title for the song. It is short, catchy, and mildly ridiculous in exactly the perfect amounts.
For fans of: Charli xcx, Bad Bunny, Cashmere Cat, Rusowsky, Ralphie Choo, Juicy Bae
insyt. – “June Baby”
Canadian rapper-producer insyt. makes songs that feel less like songs and more like things you briefly remember hearing while falling asleep. “June Baby,” from his latest release, “Rite of Passage,” is a particularly nice example of this trick: barely two and a half minutes long, hazy around the edges, and gone before it ever feels like the song has properly introduced itself. There’s no grand entrance, no dramatic thesis statement, no “and now the chorus” moment to grab you by the collar and shake you. Instead, insyt. lets the track sort of materialize, hang around, and disappear, which sounds like a recipe for forgettable music until you realize you’ve already started it again. Insyt. wrote on Instagram that this is “a song that is heavily inspired by the idea of romanticizing the summer months in the midst of winter.” It’s a tiny song with a surprisingly long afterimage. The kind you put on again because you are not quite sure you heard it correctly the first time.
For fans of: Earl Sweatshirt, MF Doom, MIKE, Sol ChYld, Guru (from Gangstarr)
