Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 29 November 2024.
Good Morning have unveiled their eighth studio album, The Accident. The surprise release arrives on the heels of upcoming dates with Waxahatchee across Naarm / Melbourne and Meredith Festival. The album took shape in the background of preparing and releasing their critically acclaimed release Good Morning Seven earlier this year. From a broken eight track tape machine which necessitated a strictly digital approach, to taking on the challenge of booking studio time without a single pre-prepared song, Good Morning embraced the self-induced discomfort of being put on the spot, resulting in jamming together – something that they had “spent the better part of our adult lives avoiding”.
A sublime expedition from Brazil to the sky, Modo Avião (Airplane Mode) sees São Paulo based trio Caixa Cubo jet further forth from the lineage of Brazilian instrumental music. Following in the footsteps of heroes like Azymuth, Antonio Adolfo, Cesar Mariano and Marcos Resende, with the tried and tested trifecta of synthesizers, bass and drums, Caixa Cubo have carved out their own idiosyncratic ideal of golden-era Brazilian jazz-funk and samba-jazz. Encapsulating the vitality and experimentalism synonymous with Sao Paulo’s musical history, Caixa Cubo playfully straddle the elegant and the surreal, with masterful songwriting and the consummate musicianship of longtime friends and bandmates Henrique Gomide (keyboards) Noa Stroeter (bass) João Fideles (drums).
Ben Lukas Boysen’s new album, Alta Ripa, signifies a seismic shift in his artistic journey. It revisits the foundational impulses of his youth, shaped amidst the serene beauty of rural Germany—a bucolic backdrop where his creative palette flourished. However, it was his move to Berlin in the early 2000s that electrified his sound, infusing it with the city’s pulsating energy and diverse cultural influences. Alta Ripa captures this transformative experience, blending the introspective melodies of his rural beginnings with the bold, experimental tones born from Berlin’s vibrant electronic music scene.
ChromaDuo, one of the world’s finest guitar duos, have greatly expanded the repertoire through friendships with leading composers. The five works featured on this album, four of which were written specifically for ChromaDuo, are all composed by renowned classical guitarists. Simone Iannarelli contributes a promenade to seven iconic pictures by the artist Frida Kahlo, whereas the writer Margaret Atwood offers the creative spur to Leo Brouwer. Dušan Bogdanović has created a stylistic hybrid in his Sonata No. 2, Dale Kavanagh has fashioned a marine ghost story, and Sérgio Assad fuses Brazilian and French elements in his moving tribute to Roland Dyens.
Big Mountain County have released their third LP Deep Drives. The record is the natural evolution of Big Mountain County’s musical journey, a bold and dynamic expression of the band’s untamed energy and creative vision. With their hands firmly on the artistic wheel, they fully unleash their musical instincts, channelling both their human and musical experiences into a collection of eight tracks that offer an honest, unfiltered reflection of shared visions and emotions.
Worth Control is CINTA’s sophomore release. However, rather than it being a chronological artistic step forward, it feels as though they’ve turned inward, taking a deeper, more introspective journey into the heart of our expression. Sharpening the vision from the first record, and Worth Control truly shows how CINTA has grown and come into their own. Like any good musicians they’re equally enamoured by the classics as we are contemporary, boundary-stretching music, so the goal is always to marry these ideas within their own composition.
Damien Mullane has been described as a virtuoso with an avant-garde style of playing. He has performed in some of the worlds most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Slane Castle, Radio City Music Hall, 3Arena etc. He has also collaborated musically with the likes of Ronnie Wood (Rolling Stones), James Taylor and Sting (Police), Bob Geldof, Bill Whelan(Riverdance), to mention a few. His new LP, Evoke, is out now.
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- New music round-up (for w/e 22 March 2024)
- New music round-up (for w/e 20 September 2024)
- New music round-up (for w/e 26 July 2024)
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television