NEW & NOTABLE Releases

The Avalanches

Wildflower (ASTRALWERKS/MODULAR/XL/EMI)

Sixteen years.

In the time it’s taken Tony Di Blasi and Robbie Chater to follow up The Avalanches’ sublime 2000 debut Since I Left You (released in 2001 in the U.S.) the world has somersaulted on its axis more than once. Politics, nations, terrorism, sport, travel, dating, and music have all transformed into massively magnified 2016 incarnations of what they used to be. Some are almost unrecognizable. Some are not.

So, how have these song stealing, turn-tabling, cut ‘n’ paste craftsmen modernized? Well, truth is, they haven’t. Their sophomore LP, Wildflower , may pepper a fresh batch of corroborators into the mix, but the ingredients are essentially the same: a hopscotch of samples all patchworked together with exquisite precision.

Nothing here tugs the heartstrings quite like the opening notes of “Since I Left You”; nor does anything blow the mind like “Frontier Psychiatrist”’s lunatic beats. In fact, the album’s first song proper, “Because I’m Me,” doesn’t even try; its boomboxing soul strut is enrapt to a jangling melody and the ebullient, loose lipped lines of Camp Lo.

This sort of oddball hippity-hoppity rears its head time and again. “Frankie Sinatra” jigs away as an old time calypso rhythm that ripples to the screwball cantos of Danny Brown and MF DOOM. Biz Markie makes a similarly loopy cameo as a cereal munching superhero during the kaleidoscopic whoosh of “The Noisy Eater,” which includes a lacerated sample of The Beatles’ “Come Together” (as performed by Kew High School).

There’s a lot of silliness woven into these 21 cuts, but it actually helps its more sober moments to stand out. “Stepkids,” for instance, is a bulbously textured lilt that shimmers to the coy, wide-eyed refrain of Royal Trux’s Jennifer Herrema. Similarly, the delicious Toro Y Moi collaboration “If I Was a Folkstar” feels like a gorgeous desert island dream sequence emitting a chilled out Balearic vibe.

For all its sonic sponging, there’s something unquestionably personal and alive about this recording. While Wildflower comprises many, many elements, ultimately, it’s a testament to the craft and time it takes to build such a seamless and joyful record. All of a sudden, 16 years doesn’t feel quite so long. (www.theavalanches.com)

By Billy Hamilton

Devendra Banhart

Ape in Pink Marble (NONESUCH)

Devendra Banhart is an artist. Recently, the music for which he is widely recognized has been demarcated by periods of his lesser known visual art, where open hearted interaction with forms and figures may be shaping his recordings. Ape in Pink Marble , which sounds like it could be the title of a painting, comes after the making of an art book collecting Banhart’s works of more than a decade. Who knows which songs floating through his art studio during the past couple of years spoke to the exquisite vibrations of this particular audile trip.

In spirit, this is a rephrasing of Brazilian Folk and Bossa Nova, which actually sees Banhart in his most natural state yet. Past excursions have been aligned with Caetano Veloso and now he wanders farther down the Brazilian seaside, closer to pastel quiet of Joao Gilberto. Vocally, Banhart delivers observation secretly, as if to someone laying on the beach blanket next to his, and still with a wit that makes you giggle. A study in understatement and delicate imprint, Ape in Pink Marble hones in on the essence of melodic note. These are the kinds of songs that don’t announce their arrival to a room but rather twirl in the corner waiting to be noticed. In shuffles between Tropicalismo and lo-fi disco, there are shades of earlier Ariel Pink production character, while Banhart’s voice stays right around the zone of Ira Kaplan and Stuart Murdoch in hushed moods. Consecutive crawlers “Linda” and “Lucky” let on to the impression of Lou Reed and in turn to Banhart’s broad reverence of other musicians past and present.

Consistency with Banhart’s last recording, 2013’s Mala , is assured by the return of long standing production partner Noah Georgeson and Josiah Steinbrick, forming the same trio that hand crafted that album. Yet, there’s nothing as fabricated as what’s on Mala . Ape in Pink Marble carries the feeling that much of it came about through happenstance, from early morning or late night fiddling with gentle melody, and was fortunate to be captured.

There’s an oneness with Banhart and his music on this album, an effortless grace signaling arrival in a stage of less conflict and fewer flights of fancy. And there’s a low-hanging hammock vibe throughout that it doesn’t stand up from, which is alright because that’s just where you want it to stay. The pearly surfaces of lulled out drum machine, the feathering and fluttering of minimal keystrokes, the unassuming entry of elegant strings, it all speaks to artistry absorbed and fashioned, keen on finding magic in the subtleties. (www.devendrabanhart.com)

By Charles Steinberg

Bat For Lashes

The Bride (PARLOPHONE)

Puzzlement gives way to fascination when absorbing Natasha Khan’s new album as Bat For Lashes. The unambiguous titles of the album, The Bride , and opening track, “I Do,” lead you to think that maybe Khan devoted an entire project to the subject of her own marriage. Always having kept her romantic life private, this would have been an about face of transparency. The album is in fact an allegorical soundtrack to Khan’s own story about the fatal car crash of a groom on his way to his wedding and the world of aftershock that besets the bride. Along with a short film that premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and the written text of the story are theatrical performances set in churches in select locations. The ambitiously creative leap is a culmination of sorts from a winding path of the heroines of Khan’s songwriting, whose encounters have acquainted them with love’s many transcendent attributes and trappings. The theme surrounds how tragedy upends an occasion with the sole purpose of honoring love and togetherness, abruptly forcing someone to process the devastation of sudden incomprehensible loss. In this respect it is intended to be absorbed as a whole—something of a vanishing experience in this on-the-go era of downloading and playlists.

Khan is like predecessors Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush, with a kind of voice that floats in on a breeze and dances up and down on its current in the manner of a seagull. When her voice appears there’s often a feeling of surrender and immersion in the setting. As with past Bat For Lashes releases, wide orchestral watercolor brush strokes are her friend, providing ethereality to underpin her vocal presence. “Land’s End,” which along with its adjoining chapter, “If I Knew,” stand on their own, independently from their place in the storyline, on the merits of their beauty alone. The peak of her artistry is her ability to bring home existential gravitas through impassioned lift in her register. Her ways of projecting emotion have always been a distinguishing characteristic.

The closer “I Will Love Again” flows to the steady rhythm of a heart still beating, an earnest declaration of coming to terms with the loss of something that can never truly be replaced, galvanized by an undaunted clarity of someone who’s made the decision not to be taken under. At this conclusion, the essential theme of the project emerges as a contextualization of all of the stages and manifestations of romantic love. With this reading, The Bride can be understood as a narrative vehicle of the full spectrum of the human condition of amorous experience. (www.batforlashes.com)

By Charles Steinberg

Beach Slang

A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings (POLYVINYL)

Following quickly on the heels of several EPs and last year’s excellent debut LP, , Beach Slang has quickly released the follow-up less than a year later. Thankfully, very little has changed. The songs are still smart, fun, heartfelt, melodic punk shout-a-longs about, well, teenage feelings of loneliness, alienation, and rebellion sung by former Weston guitarist James Alex (who is in his 40s). While the primary influence on the debut was that of The Replacements, on this one James is sounding more like Blake Schwarzenbach circa Jawbreaker’s swan song . This is evident on the first song, “Future Mixtape for the Art