Sure, there are 600-plus new releases arriving this week. But only a handful are from big-name artists. So it’s a good week to step out of your musical comfort zone and sample some sounds from the left of the dial. Here are a few worthy options (along with those big-name titles):
Thelonious Monk
Palo Alto
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Palo Alto is a previously unknown + unreleased live Thelonious Monk recording. After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, racial tensions across the country rose. Palo Alto, a largely white college town in California, was not immune to the events of the day. Danny Scher, a rising junior at Palo Alto High School, had a dream to bring Thelonious Monk to Palo Alto to perform and help bring about racial unity in his community as well as raise funds for his school’s International Committee. After somehow securing Monk’s services to perform on Sunday, October 27, Scher initially had trouble selling tickets and convincing people that Monk was even going to show up. With many twists and turns along the way and several hundred people waiting in the school’s parking lot to await Monk’s arrival before purchasing tickets, the concert eventually happened and was a triumph in more ways that Monk or Scher could have imagined. This is a recording of that historic concert.”
Napalm Death
Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
THE PRESS RELEASE: “From the pinnacle of confrontational instrumental extremity and steadfast lyrical humanity, Napalm Death’s new album warps musical landscapes all over again. The 16th studio album by UK’s Gods of Grind and much anticipated follow-up to 2015’s acclaimed Apex Predator – Easy Meat includes 12 songs seething with caustic evolution and unrelenting scope.”
OSees
Proteen Threat
THE PRESS RELEASE: “WITNESS THE EVER-CHANGING, EVER-MUTATING THREAT THAT IS REALITY
PERCEPTION IS UNDER DURESS
SENSIBILITY IS BENDING EVERYDAY UNDER THE BARRAGE OF NONSENSE
WE MUST MAKE NOTE OF WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE HAVE BECOME
LOOK INTO THE MIRROR OF THE PLANET-KILLERS
PSYCHIC CANNIBALS INFILTRATE AND CONTAMINATE ONCE FAMILIAR AND SEEMINGLY SECURE TERRITORIES
FORMIDABLE FOES INDEED
WHAT POWERS THESE BEASTS?
WHAT FUELS DISCORD AND HATRED?
THE BEHEMOTH OF A “CIVIL” SOCIETY?
WHAT ARE THE WEAPONS AT OUR DISPOSAL?
GENEROSITY IS YOUR AEGIS AGAINST GREED
EMPATHY IS YOUR ARMOR TO DEFLECT APATHY
LOVE IS YOUR CLUB TO ABATE HATE
THE FOG IS LIFTING AND HUMANS ARE OPENING THEIR EYES
AND SO WE OFFER THIS FIELD RECORDING FROM THE PITS
AS A QUICK BOOSTER BETWEEN PROTEIN PILLS AND RECYCLED SWEAT BEVERAGE
ANTHEMS TO ASSIST YOU
TO NOT WORSHIP AT THE ALTAR OF VIOLENCE AND GREED
TO NOT OFFER YOURSELVES UP FOR FREE
TO STAND UP AND BE VIGILANT
TRUTH WILL NOT BE FOUND IN THE SPEECHES AND PHOTO OPS OF YOUR OVERLORDS
STAND STRONG AND TOGETHER UNDER THE GAZE OF YOUR OPPRESSORS
STAND VIGILANT, UNITED WITH THOSE WHO DON’T HAVE THE SAME PRIVILEGE AS YOU.
DEMAND RESPECT AND A PEACEFUL LIFE FOR ALL
THIS RECORDING IS AT THE APOGEE OF SCUZZ
PUNK ANTHEM AMULETS FOR YOUR EARS AND HEART
A BATTERY FOR YOUR CORE
BE STRONG
BE HUMAN
BE LOVE.”
Daniel Romano’s Outfit
How Ill Thy World Is Ordered
THE PRESS RELEASE: “How Ill Thy World Is Ordered is the ninth full-length Daniel Romano album to be released in 2020, but the first to manifest in the physical mediums (LP/CD) since the career spanning, era-defining live album Okay Wow was released way back on March 27. This one too, features the mighty skills of The Outfit, the tightest of tight-knit rock and roll bands: Julianna Riolino (vocals), David Nardi (guitar, vocals), Roddy Rossetti (bass), Ian Romano (drums), supplemented here by Mark Lalama (organ, piano), Briana Salmena (vocals), Victor Belcastro (sax) and Aaron Hutchinson (trumpet). The band assembled in studio in a perfectly tuned geometry to record these new songs following simple guidelines and simple rules: play the whole thing, in sequence, 3 takes or bust, with no overdubs; play “the sound of the feel of a snake bite”; play “a heist on horseback for fool’s gold.” The always-darkened clubs and the strange and dirtied hovels that offered remote shelter to this particular breed of restless musicians on their long and winding journeys across the continents have darkened more. It’s a different age to ply a trade. Every day reveals new cracks in the artifice, new crimes from the oligarchs and politicians, new types of genocide and dispossession. New visions of contempt. O, how ill this world is ordered. Yet music can lift the spirit, can, uniquely, restore dignity. To sound together, bringing hope.”
Sumac
May You Be Held
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Picking up where the band left off with their critically acclaimed Love in Shadow, the trio of Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom), Brian Cook (Russian Circles), and Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) push further into the polarity of their sound with long- form composition and free-form exploration. Meticulously detailed and complex one moment, rudimentary and repetitive the next, and completely untethered and unscripted at seemingly random — May You Be Held is an album that fluctuates between extreme discipline and control and an almost feral energy. “As an artist in this time of significant upheaval, society seemingly having reached the end of its current iteration, it’s of critical importance to absorb and interpret this process of dissolution – and of the transformation that hopefully follows it” says Turner, “While I don’t believe we’re on the brink of collective destruction precisely now, this is clearly a pivotal stage in the story of humankind – and there is something that feels right about this music at this exact and very uncertain moment.”
Keith Urban
The Speed Of Now Part 1
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Keith Urban has spent the better part of his life harnessing a deep-seated passion for music. His story is unlike any other filled with its own unique twists, turns and challenges. His infatuation with music is the core ingredient that, when combined with his authenticity, talent and driving musical inquisitiveness, helps to understand why he is one of the most successful and well-respected artists in the world. His musical boundaries are forever expanding as is his audience which he continues to amass worldwide, a result of his innate ability to connect with people both musically and personally.”
Neil Young
The Times EP
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Times is a moving and topical solo acoustic performance, a unique collection of songs, recorded by Neil Young at home during lockdown as part of the raw and personal Fireside Sessions series. The songs include his updated Lookin’ For A Leader – 2020, Alabama from the seminal Harvest album, the Young-penned CSN&Y classic Ohio, the brilliant Southern Man from the After The Gold Rush album, and Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’, closing with Little Wing from Homegrown.”
Yusuf / Cat Stevens
Tea for the Tillerman²
THE PRESS RELEASE: “50 Years on from the release of Tea for the Tillerman, the 1970 multi-platinum selling, era-defining album that made a superstar, Yusuf / Cat Stevens is set to release Tea for the Tillerman². It sees Yusuf recast the same 11 songs for a new age with dramatic results. Half a century and an entire universe of experiences after they were originally laid down on tape, T4TT² is a beautiful reunion between the artist and the songs that helped define the melodious ’70s. The impact of Tillerman has subtly intertwined with the fabric of popular culture while its songs have magnified and developed a life of their own through their ever-expanding use in film, TV, and numerous reinterpretations by other artists. The concept for Tea for the Tillerman² grew out of a conversation, fittingly, between Yusuf and his son about how to celebrate the album’s 50th anniversary. This gave birth to the idea of reimagining and rerecording the songs, and the results speak for themselves. ‘Though my songwriting adventures were never limited to Tillerman, the songs on that album certainly defined me and pointed the way for my mysterious life’s journey. Since those originative sessions in Morgan Studios, Willesden, in 1970, Tillerman has grown and developed its own gravitas and influence on music history and as the soundtrack to so many people’s lives. Like it was destiny waiting to happen, T4TT² feels like the timing of its message has arrived again.”
