Open Ear Music

Here is a very small selection of the new music we've been playlisting this month:


 

Long-awaited third album from Glasgow's analogue anoraks and masters of cosmic electronic pop Errors, and probably the one that's going to award them the mainstream success they've so long deserved. Whether this is clever music done in a fun way, or fun music done in a clever way, it matters not - with melody, hooks and even singing, Have Some Faith In Magic ought to be the record that allows Errors to quit their pub jobs and become the pop stars they deserve to be.
 

Utterly compelling ethereal shimmercore from Glasgow (again!), in the shape of the debut Happy Particles album. Mining the sonic seam of Galaxie 500, Brian Eno and The For Carnation via Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine; this is a record borne of a vast understanding of what makes great music special, and its heart shines through with a genuine warmth not found often in the avant left field.

 

The brains behind Million Dollar Disco (amongst other things) spreads the love here with a FIVE CD boxed set of glittering disco delights. Gathered here we have the full selection of Kent's decade-long series of Disco Demands compilations, with any necessary remastering/re-editing taken care of. Naturally, these aren't the same tracks that appear on just about every other disco comp. It says 'BBE' on it, so you know it's going to be the best, and it's largely composed of tracks you've never even heard. There's even a double vinyl release to look forward to.

 

Something of a concept release for Finnish electronic outfit Pepe Deluxe here - not only is the album subtitled 'an esoteric pop opera', but it's been made using some of the oddest instruments in the world. Nothing as predictable as vintage synths for this lot, but we see Jari Salo's troupe employing an Edwardian amplifier, a baroque pipe organ, a 'physical predictor' - a primitive ghost detection device (obviously) - and an organ made out of a cave... Yet this isn't abstract noise and it isn't field recordings. This is pop! Pepe Deluxe have always been about the songs, and this is the avant garde you can dance to.
 

Not the 1970s tennis champ, but a freshly discovered Atlanta MC. Thoroughly modern production and a delivery not dis-similar to the post-Def Jux style flow of Cadence Weapon suggests a background rooted as much in digital funk as it is in hip-hop for Smith. Atlanta vibes radiate unashamedly from this, and the production from Soul Parlour, Bugz in the Attic and Yellowtail assure this album is fighting the good fight in the battle for the advancement of hip-hop.
 

The full-length album from ex-Tunng head man Sam Genders landed in our office this month, and what a delight it is. Electro-indie-folk with a groove, penned with an obvious nod to English folk songwriting tradition, and another to 21st Century city life. Every bit as original sounding as his first releases with Tunng (and his subsequent time with The Accidental), Black Light will sound just as good to you wandering a barren moor as it will when you're jammed into a rush-hour underground carriage.

 

Canadian-Jamaican Caitlin 'Kinny' Simpson finally drops her second solo album, and with the involvement of Quantic, TM Juke and Souldrop, it's been worth the wait. Playing with her favourite elements of jazz, soul and hip-hop, Simpson sings with the confidence and nous of an artist infinitely more prolific. An assured follow-up, and one that belongs in the upper echelons of the current wave of releases by million-selling female soul-oists.
 

A bargain (a fiver) sampler of one of the UK's busiest labels isn't likely to let you down, and when it features David Lynch, Beardyman, Dub Pistols, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, David E. Sugar, Underworld and Jamie Woon; you know it's money well spent.
 

Glaswegian post-rock veteran turned folk troubadour presents his collaboration album through the wonderful Chemikal Underground. Acoustic folk (rather than flamenco) by way of Labradford and Tortoise never sounded so good, especially when warmed by the talents of Aidan Moffat, Emma Pollock and Alasdair Roberts never sounded so good. Like how Palace Brothers could have been if Will didn't read so much of his own press...