Juan Maclean
This week’s Singles Club finds Getintothis‘ Chris Burgess in a nostalgic mood, although his twerking days appear to be behind him.
The Juan MacLean: A Simple Design – Single of the Week
Fresh out on DFA Records, this is a welcome return for the American electronica legend MacLean. An elegant, funky dance tune, A Simple Design is a swirl of bouncing bass synths and nu-disco beats. Ex-LCD Soundsystem member Nancy Whang provides flawless vocals on this track, as well as MacLean’s forthcoming album In A Dream.
At over seven minutes long there’s a lot to get your teeth into, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome by any stretch of the imagination. It’s the kind of song that makes you reminisce about the times we were young and used to go out dancing – a superb return and features one of the best fade outs in modern music.
Electric Wurms: The Bat
Strange one, this. A side project of the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Steven Drodz, along with Nashville’s psych-rock outfit Linear Downfall, Electric Wurms are a prog-rock supergroup of the highest order.
Distorted and unnerving, The Bat knocks you sideways from the very start, with a loping beat, hypnotic loops and downbeat, muffled vocals. Their debut album comes out on 18 August, titled Musik, Die Schwer Zu Twerk, which roughly translates as Music That’s Hard To Twerk To. That’s certainly true of this track – although for the record I gave it a good go.
Jimmy Hickmott: Follow Me
A late summer jangly tune from Marketstall Records’ new boy Jimmy Hicknott. Follow Me is two parts sunshine and one part handclaps.
It’s an upbeat and joyful enough, but there’s not much depth to this. It’s one of those songs that’s so vague that he could be singing about his girlfriend, his daughter or his pet dog. The video features Hickmott in a ten quid Primark onesie, which sadly is the most exciting thing about it.
Avi Buffalo: Memories of You
Released on Sub Pop next month, their new album At Best Cuckold is the long-awaiting follow up to Avi Buffalo’s eponymous debut.
Memories of You, released ahead of the album, is the sort of song that Jimmy Hickmott should be trying to make. The sumptuous instrumentation and Beach Boys-esque harmonies float by effortlessly, before crashing to an end.
Holy Sons: Breakdown on the Beach
Portland’s Emil Amos, one-time member of Grails, Om and Dolorean among other bands, has returned with a new album, The Fact Facer, and a surprising choice of covers as bonus tracks. The lo-fi songwriter has been releasing covers of hardcore bands Black Flag, Circle Jerks and Slapshot.
This track, however, is about as far away from punk as you could ever get. Breakdown on the Beach, here recorded live, is a raw, emotional acoustic track, introspective and pretty dark. Amos’ voice evoking Neil Young at times, and his guitar work exemplary.
Obliterations: The One That Got Away
Another supergroup here, but of an entirely different variety. Obliterations are made up of members of Black Mountain, Saviours, Night Horse and others, combining to create a new album, Poison Everything.
The One That Got Away starts off like Motorhead’s Ace of Spades and veers straight into a brick wall of noise and insanity. It’s a brutal, aggressive hardcore song and makes no excuses about that. It’s glorious.
Listen to The One That Got Away on Soundcloud
Uncle Acid: Poison Apple
Psych-rockers Uncle Acid, recently having toured with Black Sabbath release this new single at the end of August. It’s a straight up rock song, with solos and everything. It’s a beefy, catchy track that stomps along, dragging you with it – disturbing lyrics and all.
BenZel & Stevie Neal: Wasted Love
BenZel are the production duo Benny Blanco and Ben Ash, and have made a name for themselves collaborating with the likes of Jessie Ware, Cass Lowe and Chance The Rapper. Their new MEN EP, due out on 1 September, is the first they’ve released and is hugely anticipated.
Featuring the vocal talents of London-based singer Stevie Neale, Wasted Love is a marvellously produced track, emotionally charged and full of heartbreak.
Can: Serpentine
This is big, big news for Can fans. The Krautrock kings are releasing all of their studio albums individually on vinyl including Out Of Reach, available for the first time since 1978 – also available on CD and MP3.
Not only that, but in November they are re-releasing The Lost Tapes Vol. 1 to 5, as five separate vinyl releases – which include recordings from 1968 to 1977.
To celebrate this, the band have put out Serpentine from Out of Reach. As experimental ambient music goes, Can are the undisputed heavyweight champions of the world.
Ed Sheeran: Don’t
Don’t worry Ed, I won’t.
