Ato Z
AFTERLIGHT Afterlight
MIGHTY VILLAGE
7/10
Thea Gilmore’s painful rebirth
This Anohni-style renouncing of Gilmore’s previous identity is a shock, coming after 19 albums largely made with a producer and husband whose influence she now views as toxic. “Of All The Violence I Have Known” is a cool, spoken-word litany, remembering a forearm on “the tiny bird’s hollow of my neck”, and “the slow assassination of the years” in a relationship begun when she was 16. “The Ghost Of Love” typifies the emotional gutting which follows, a lushly crooned piano ballad soon hitting icy currents. Rock’n’roll liberation is gratefully clutched on “Cut And Run”, but more ferally vicious goodbyes remain to be said, in this austere, emotionally full record. NICK HASTED
BABA ALI Memory Device
MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES
7/10
London-based American’s lockdown- penned debut
Produced by Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem polymath Al Doyle, this debut album from New-Yorker-in-east-London Babatunde Doherty often sounds like the work of those acts’ adopted nephew. Icy synth textures and gnarly nuggets of techno punctuate Doherty’s sometimes staccato, sometimes soulful vocals on the likes of “Thought Leader”, all hung on sharp pop hooks. You might feel like you’ve heard the “round and round” chorus of “Black Wagon” in several songs before but it’s no less hypnotic for it, while the New Order-ish pulse and guitar twang of “Nature’s Curse” and the neurotic LCD-style techno-rock of “Temp Worker” suit his understated delivery just as well. JOHNNY SHARP
ALTIN GÜN
ÂLEM BANDCAMP
8/10
Amsterdam-based Turkish sextet dig deeper into the ’80s
Like this year’s Yol, Âlem resettles Altin Gün’s Anatolian psych in a synth-pop environment. There’s still no hiding their heritage, as spotlighted by the lead melodies of “Özüne Özüm Kurban” and pan pipes of “Og lan”, but both demand little adjustment from western ears, the first powered by a solid groove and the latter like Art Of Noise’s “Moments In Love” lent an especially sweet melody. “Cips Kola Kilit”, one of three originals, might even have suited Japan’s ‘Shibuya-kei’ scene, while another, “Üzüm Üzüme Baka Baka” – featuring co-producers Asa Moto and additional melodica – subtly embraces dub. Opening traditional “Yali Yali”, however, would segue perfectly into LCD Soundsystem’s “Get Innocuous!”. WYNDHAM WALLACE
AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS
Comfort To Me ROUGH TRADE
7/10
Oz-punk quartet celebrate the potency of cheap music on rowdy second album
A one-woman Pussy Riot of declamatory lyrics and car-crash charisma, Amy Taylor helped catapult Melbourne garage-punks Amyl And The Sniffers to wide acclaim with their self-titled 2019 debut. Recorded under Covid lockdown, this marginally more polished sequel find Taylor amplifying her hip-hop and metal influences on rowdy riot-grrrl stomps like “Freaks To The Front”, the punchy “Don’t Fence Me In” and the gloriously titled “Don’t Need A Cunt (Like You To Love Me)”. Like their friends and collaborators Sleaford Mods, the Sniffers sometimes sound limited by their studiously low-brow, lo-fi aesthetic. Even so, Comfort To Me offers a mostly exhilarating mix of headbanging riffs, profane wit and gutter-punk attitude. STEPHEN DALTON
RIDDY ARMAN
Riddy Arman LA HONDA
8/10
Montana cowgirl’s sparse, gothic debut
Singer, songwriter and occasional ranch hand, Montana-based Riddy Arman has a treacle-thick alto that recalls Neko Case at her most elegiac. Arman’s self-titled debut is sparse and gothic, keeping instrumentation minimal enough to leave room for emotion as open as the western skies she works under. “Barbed Wire” dresses things up with wailing lap steel, while a faithful version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through The Night” is lush and supple. But it’s mournful opener “Spirits, Angels Or Lies” that cuts the deepest through a tale of a ghostly Johnny Cash visiting her father’s deathbed. LEONIE COOPER
PETE AVES
Sweet Are The Uses CARGO
7/10
Exquisite English solo recording by High Llamas man
High Llamas guitarist Pete Aves brings a deft musical and lyrical wit to his latest solo album, which appropriately concludes with “Muck & Bullets”, a track dedicated to his friend and occasional collaborator Neil Innes. Lyrically, Aves tackles serious themes and interrogates the ego but often deflects with humour, while the music, recorded in his home studio, is clear-eyed and gently charming. Aves has worked with a range of artists, including Nick Lowe and Shirley Collins, and his work exists in that same very English space, a mode of songwriting that is unassuming but secure and smart while being quietly affecting. PETER WATTS
BALIMAYA PROJECT
Wolo So JAZZ RE: FRESHED
8/10
London Afro-jazz collective immerse themselves in Mali music
The current wave of British jazz borrows heavily from African sources but this 16-piece London collective delve deeper into these connections than most. They’re led by Harlesden-born djembe drummer Yahael Camaramusic of Mali and neighbouring countries. Opening track “Balimaya” begins with a tapestry of tumbling kora patterns and rattling balofons before turning into a horn-heavy Afro-funk workout. After that, “Soninka/ Patronba” sees a heartfelt vocal from Malian singer Mariam Tounkara Koné mutate into a slice of fiery jazz-rock featuring guitarist Godwin Sonzi. Best of all, however, is the hypnotic, psychedelic Afrobeat of “I No Go Gree/Aniweta”.
