Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 1 November 2024.
I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain is an album of late night reflections on goodbyes, grief, new beginnings, and an important friendship that underpinned Sarah Blasko’s childhood, and finds one of Australia’s most revered songwriters more reflective and more personal than ever before. It was recorded at Rancom Street Studios in Eora/Sydney with engineer Brent Clark, produced by Sarah Blasko and mixed by Kenny Gilmore (Weyes Blood, Julia Holter, Ariel Pink), and marked a new approach to writing and recording from that of her earlier records – “This album was probably the most relaxed and free feeling record I’ve made” – while thematically traversing both the heartbreak and quiet calm that comes with letting go of your younger self, how thin the line between tragedy and comedy becomes the older we get, and the way that time changes ourselves, our hopes and our dreams.
Night Palace – the new album from Mount Eerie – appears as a culmination of eras, arrived at after tumbling through decades of a tumultuous life and building from scratch in the settled dust. The 26 track album is a palace of many rooms, all welcoming, all varied. The songs stand vivid in their diamond sharp eloquence and distorted feedback, but only after traveling the album as a whole do we find the door. The palace is dilapidated with moss dripping through, airy, bright and open.
A rich blending of Jazz, Afro-Latin, and West African musical inspirations are at the heart of drummer Andy Wheelock’s melodic and joyfully dancing compositions on this debut recording of his WHEE3Trio. While using the timbre and pentatonic offerings of the wooden xylophone-like Ghanaian Gyil as a composing tool, Wheelock pictured the inventive voice of guitarist Gilad Hekselman as the perfect addition to pianist Walter Gorra, bassist Gonzalo Teppa, and Wheelock’s own drums & percussion to orchestrate the sweeping landscapes of “Finn”, the intricate dance of “Your Poor Mother”, or the Afro Pop-tinged street party that is “Empire”. Full of joy, lift and rhythmic surprises, WHEE3Trio’s debut is sure to enthuse and inspire.
In a world where there are no more heroes, the Fleshtones walk the earth like Roman gods. It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves) is a smash that could have dropped at any point in The Fleshtones’ epic career — it is an outburst, and a celebration of the SUPER ROCK sound. Unlike their contemporaries, they have not dialed down the tempos to compensate for osteoporosis, they have not lost anything on their fastball, and continue to throw it for strikes. The hardest working band in garage rock has never sounded better, and now you see why they’ve been your favorite band’s favorite band for decades.
“I’ve wanted to record Elgar’s violin concerto for a long time,” says Vilde Frang. “It really is a journey … Such a vast piece of music with such an original structure and so many impulses and ideas … You need to take the time to savour all these moments … That is part of the magic of the piece.” She has now recorded the epic concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and its music director, Robin Ticciati. The album (out now on Warner Classics) is completed with a delightful short piece by Elgar, Carissima, in a version for violin and piano (played by Thomas Hoppe).
Contour’s body of work is evidence of a restless curiosity that culminates on his latest album and debut for Mexican Summer, Take Off from Mercy. Starting off as a beatmaker, Khari’s vision has broadened over releases like Onwards (2022), Love Suite (2021) and Weight (2021), spanning from noirish, sample-driven R&B to covers of Strawberry Switchblade. Take Off from Mercy eschews samples in favor of guitar-driven songwriting, positing a singular take on the blues, Tropicalia, hip hop, post-punk and indie rock, establishing Lucas as an exemplary lyricist and broad collaborator, working with the likes of Saul Williams, Mndsgn and his co-producer, Omari Jazz.
Globally acclaimed genre-bending band Chase Atlantic have unleashed their fourth studio album, Lost in Heaven, via Fearless Records. Known for their unpredictable fusion of pop, rock, and R&B, the band continues to push creative boundaries while staying true to the core elements that have captivated their global fanbase.
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- New music round-up (for w/e 11 August 2023)
- New music round-up (for w/e 23 June 2023)
- New music round-up (for w/e 31 March 2023)
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television