New music round-up (for w/e 8 November 2024)

Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 8 November 2024.

Best-selling, prizewinning novelist and member of legendary sadcore band Art of Fighting, Peggy Frew has shared her debut album Dial-Up. Dial-Up is Frew’s first solo album. Luminous and ominous, the songs on Dial-Up are full of both vulnerability and bravado. Silver days, thunderstorms, broken-down cars and lonely winter train rides. The fraught sweetness of looking back. The record features a string of songs which carve out an intimate world.

Igmar Thomas’ Revive Big Band’s new album concept, Like A Tree It Grows, symbolizes the family tree of Black American music, showcasing its unity. It also chronicles Revive’s journey as a band and company, inspired by the music we present. The story of Meghan Stabile and our partnership, both professional and personal, is intricately woven into this project. Writing for a large ensemble is challenging, but the process, partnerships, and rewarding experiences made creating this album essential. Validation from collaborations with childhood heroes and performing for thousands reinforces our musical direction, bringing our vision to life.

Mysterious, multifaceted collective i Häxa have unveiled the latest and final chapter that completes the self-titled ‘i Häxa’ full album; a ground-breaking, year-long multimedia project shaped by a collision of ancient gods and cutting-edge technology. A singular vision that weaves together genre-defiant soundscapes, abstract cinema and ancient meteorological mythologies from singer-songwriter and visual artist Rebecca Need-Menear (also of electronic alt-rock duo Anavae) and forward-thinking producer Peter Miles (Architects, Dodie, Fizz); i Häxa is a ritualistic dissection of the world as we know it, a forceful separation of the monotony of modernity from the rites and rituals that for centuries formed the foundations for who we are, how we came to be and where we claim to belong. Disjointed fragments of time collide. Two sides, one of logic and one of chaos, seeking unity and balance through an expression of freedom.

A Ballet Through Mud is a poignant coming-of-age story that delves into the complexities of love, the loss of innocence, the bonds of friendship, and personal growth. Drawing inspiration from RZA’s own lyrics and the candid memories he penned in his teenage notebooks, the narrative also embodies his profound philosophical journey influenced by Chan Buddhism. As RZA eloquently states, ‘out of the mud grows the lotus.’

Merope’s most experimental full length to date, Vėjula is a celebration of collaboration and playfulness, and features appearances from Shahzad Ismaily, Laraaji and Bill Frisell. Like its predecessors, the duo’s fifth album still roots itself in Lithuanian folk forms, but sprouts out spiritedly from that point into unfamiliar landscapes, muddling ancient themes with contemporary philosophies, concepts and technology. Delicate instrumental sequences and ethereal vocals are woven into a rich tapestry of subtle synth work and evocative field recordings. On ‘Kouma Lil’, Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė and Bert Cools experiment with digital images of the kanklės (a traditional Lithuanian chordophone), and Jurgelevičiūtė’s voice, blurring the boundary between the organic and the artificial, while on ‘Spindulė’, French percussionist Toma Gouband adds percussion from his custom-made sounding stones to Jurgelevičiūtė’s gentle words and Cools’ surreal, sensuous electronics. Vėjula is an album that reaches into the unknown without loosing its tight grip on the past. Merope are in a new creative phase of their career, and they’ve never sounded quite so universal, or so vital.

Rita Strohl is an atypical figure in the history of music: attracted as much by the Wagnerian world as by symbolism, she has composed both chamber music works and large symphonic or lyrical frescoes. She’s the subject of a new triple album from a collective of sixteen prestigious musicians including Célia Oneto Bensaid, Héloïse Luzzati, Shuichi Okada and Tanguy de Williencourt. This is the second volume of a three-part monographic project was devoted to the chamber music of Rita Strohl, almost all of which had until now been unpublished at the recording.

West Australian indie outfit South Summit have released their long-awaited debut album, The Bliss. Offering unique perspectives and observations on life, South Summit represents an exciting shift in Australian song writing. In 2024, the band have arrived at an important juncture, as the 12 tracks of Reggae-infused indie rock that perfectly encapsulates the band’s wide-ranging influences and air-tight song writing abilities, is finally shared with the world.

Other reviews you might enjoy:

• New music round-up (for w/e 16 June 2023)
• New music round-up (for w/e 11 November 2022)
• New music round-up (for w/e 12 August 2022)