This album has quickly become an absolute favorite of mine and I’ve been aching to tell everyone about it. The music breathes a strange dreamy atmosphere where the subconsciously familiar blends with startling newness, the entire production emerging from the half-recalled miasma of memory. In other words, it feels profoundly new while evoking my own past.
D.K. is Dangkhoa Chau, an artist who’s slowly moved away from dance-oriented techno into a glistening, crystalline territory more suited for emerging from sleep than fighting against it.
I haven’t talked about Lil B on this blog in years. But here he is, back with a new Clams Casino joint and sounding better than he has in a while. The production, also featuring Keyboard Kid, is beyond superb.
Looking at the startling cover art, I knew I had to hear Mark Pritchard‘s new album, Under The Sun. Beyond his decades-long pedigree across many galaxies of the electronic music universe, this image seemed to portend an idea of something truly groundbreaking. While it might not shake up an industry, it’s certainly one of the most interesting releases from a man with several genre landmarks under his belt.
This week I finally got on the literal saddle and biked every single day. It’s done wonders for my outlook. The days bloomed with a bright sense of openness, movement, and growth.
I find that optimism leads me to seek out new things with more enthusiasm. I ended up listening to a whole cavalcade of albums both brand new and new-to-me. I couldn’t fit them all so I’ll discuss the three that had the biggest impact on me.
I want to make this clear from the get-go: Anohni has crafted one of the most powerful vocal performances I’ve heard in years, wrapping it in incredibly sumptuous production that sounds like virtually nothing else out there in 2016.
With her incredible voice backed by innovative sounds by Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never (a longtime favorite of mine), this album instantly became my favorite work by the artist formerly known as Antony. Her gender transition seemed to herald a new boldness and sense of purpose, as these 11 songs definitively show.
This week saw a small explosion in surprise music releases, with both Radiohead and James Blake dropping new albums mere hours after announcing them. It also brought one of the best politically charged albums I’ve heard in a very long time, from Anohni, formerly known as Antony Hegarty. This trio of releases opened a bold new chapter for gorgeous British vocals in 2016.
As someone who listens mostly to instrumental music, it was a refreshing change of pace. Let’s get into it.
Optimistic Underground 