Another week brings another batch of streamable albums. Arm yourself with a set of headphones and jump in below.
1) Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels. “Killer Mike and El-P’s unforgiving Run the Jewels project is the perfect sort of rap for the sweltering summer ahead: heavy hits, pointed threats, decaying beats. While their last album-length collaboration — the already classic R.A.P. Music — dismantled the burden of the Reagan Era, their latest material has a much simpler aim. Which is, as tracks like ‘Get It’ and ‘Banana Clipper’ have shown, to talk as much shit as possible.” — SPIN (via SPIN)
2) Daughn Gibson, Me Moan. “[Gibson’s] 2012 solo debut, All Hell, found his country roots showing through the crackly lo-fi loops and stark piano songs, all of it sticking thanks to Gibson’s well-deep baritone. On… Me Moan (out July 9), that powerful instrument is still nuanced enough to capture details such as downing an afternoon shot at a local bar (‘Kissin on the Blacktop’) and breaking into cars with a state trooper’s daughter (‘The Pisgee Nest’). Country fans will hear a baritone that hearkens back to the likes of Waylon Jennings and the Oak Ridge Boys, while other listeners might detect a trace of Ian Curtis or the drawl of Wall of Voodoo.” (via NPR)
3) The-Drum, Contact. “Two years since emerging amid a cloud of smoke, Chicago production duo The-Drum are releasing their debut album, Contact… Compared to their more structured recent work with the R&B group JODY and rapper Kit, Contact floats and lingers. The-Drum describe the LP as a ‘cross-pollinating’ of influences like Jean Michel Jarre, their namesake The-Dream, David Van Tieghem and Vangelis; it feels (and often sounds, with its dense, metallic effects) like taking an elevator to space.” (via Fader)
4) Pretty Lights, A Color Map of the Sun. “This ‘album’ is a multi-medium map of my mind and my self. It is personal and honest and I put everything into it… I made this music for everyone.” — Derek Vincent Smith, a.k.a. Pretty Lights (via SoundCloud)
5) Owen, L’Ami du Peuple. “‘I got high with an art teacher of mine,’ Mike Kinsella’s latest album as Owen, L’Ami du Peuple, begins. Due out July 2 via Polyvinyl, the Cap N’ Jazz, American Football, and Owls affiliate’s new record mixes the kind of disarming intimacy and art-stained craft on evidence in that opening line. Advance track ‘Bad Blood’ is a crunching, lightly country-inflected confrontation with one’s family tree, capped by a searing guitar solo. The rest of the album further broadens Kinsella’s singer-songwriter with electronic tones, stomping drums, strings, and female vocals. By the end, he’s wondering aloud: ‘How long have I been sleeping? / I’m a dad and my dad’s dead.'” (via SPIN)
6) Mood Rings, VPI Harmony. “Aptly named Atlanta five-piece Mood Rings seamlessly shift between genres and tempos, all while conjuring lush swirls of color. The forlorn dreamweavers have already offered three tracks from their upcoming full-length debut, VPI Harmony: the swaying, New Wave-leaning ‘Pathos y Lagrimas,’ the post-punky ‘Hollow Dye (Defected Crystal),’ and glistening ‘The Line.’ Now, Mood Rings have shared the entire LP.” (via SPIN)
7) Beautiful Swimmers, Son. “Electronic music and its many sub-genres are known for jams, but less so for nebulous bursts of creativity… That’s not how it works for the Washington, D.C., duo Beautiful Swimmers. Ari Goldman and Andrew Field-Pickering stumbled upon many of the ingredients to their new debut LP, Son, during years of sonic exploration… It was worth the wait: Son is a house party waiting to happen. Both dedicated record collectors, Goldman and Field-Pickering touch on house, disco, New Age zen and John Carpenter unease during their 11-song journey, and you can sense how much serendipity played into the process.” (via NPR)
8) Busy P, Still Busy EP. “Busy P is… the dude that started Ed Banger, masterminded the careers of Daft Punk and Justice, and pretty much put French electro-house as we know it on the map.In his relentless pursuit of the new music, partying, and finding new music to party to, he has a fresh out-the-oven release out on Ed Banger. The track is called ‘Still Busy’ and features vocals from Thunderbird Gerard… plus some bananas remixes from hard-assed Maelstrom (for you Gesaffelstein fans), classic electro don Dexter, and Xavier de Rosnay (the shorter dude from Justice).” (via VICE)
9) Maya Jane Coles, Comfort. “[Comfort] is one of those collections that really translates the dancefloor rush of this music to the long-play arena, making the most of the format to comprise this, in the words of Clash’s write-up, ‘deepest of journeys…’ These are sounds exploring the furthest corners of her beloved house music — an edifice of beats and bass that’s been born from [Coles’] own hand, from production, mixing, mastering.” (via Clash Music)
10) Oberhofer, Cannibalism, Freud, Night of 3.15.13, Morning of 3.16.13. “This new Oberhofer EP is either incredibly fresh, or incredibly old, news to you, depending on the relative depth of your love for Brad Oberhofer. On a restless night back in March, young Ob posted a message to Facebook: ‘Tonight I’m going to write and record an album and post it somewhere tomorrow.’ And from 12:30AM to 8:30AM, he did just that, conceiving, recording, and posting a five-track, 18-minute set… The songs appeared in the set chronologically, in the order they were written and recorded — until Oberhofer’s label Glassnote had the EP taken down, as its unapproved dissemination was a breach of their contract… And so now here, for you, is Oberhofer’s long-lost midnight classic… Brad’s tipped ‘Winter Has Come and Gone Again’ and ‘Your Blood Will Always Flow’ as his favorites, though you are entitled to your own preferences — and if you’re an admirer of Oberhofer’s freewheeling melodicism and whooping, bittersweet pop-rock prowess, these 18-or-so minutes present you with solid options.” (via Stereogum)
