New Music Friday: Rap Noir, Sardinian Folk, Extraterrestrial Death Metal
Nov. 13 releases include Armand Hammer, Maria Teresa Pirrigheddu, Soup Activists, Kalia Vandever & Dave Harrington, Artificial Brain and Anna Butterss
Some folks new to Viking's Choice may not realize the full experience of Viking's Choice. It's not just avant-garde hip-hop, twee-pop, cosmic death metal and pipe organ drone … though it is all of that and whatever left-field music strikes my ear. Pop music lights up the same pleasure centers of my brain, particularly the artists who play with conventions of a mainstream genre that's never had a defined sound.
Robyn has not only sonically reshaped pop music, but guided its tonal core: Name and embrace every emotion. Find power in vulnerability. Dance harder than everyone else. She's such an inspiration to me, so to co-produce Robyn's Tiny Desk was an absolute dream. Two deep cuts, two newer songs, including a revelatory version of "Light Up." Hope y'all love it!
Stream the Viking's Choice Guide to New Music Friday mixtape, which features tracks from the albums reviewed, plus other jams I dug this past week. Follow me on Bandcamp and check out previous mixes via Buy Music Club.
Armand Hammer, Snakes & Ladders
The atmosphere and arc of the 1958 noir film Elevator to the Gallows as a hip-hop album. There are wild, unexpected and sometimes even violent shifts in tone, brought upon by escalating events out of the rappers' control, but everything loops back around to the beginning.
Maria Teresa Pirrigheddu & Vieri Mura, Rundinas
Even if you know nothing about cantu a chiterra, there is a universal ache and beauty to be found here, in a weathered voice that holds generations, accompanied simply by acoustic guitar or church organ.
Soup Activists, Where the Rubbish Goes
The egg punk from Lumpy and the Dumpers unearths obscure twee 7"s and Nuggets-style power-pop for a jangle that shambles and guitar shimmer that feeds back.
Kalia Vandever & Dave Harrington, Evergreen
In a way, Bill Evans and Jim Hall's sublime Undercurrent for the 21st century. Beautiful, introspective music set in the mystery of creation, where the electric counterpoint between guitar and trombone finds a third way into doomy, droney jazz.
Artificial Brain, Antillia
When I crave oblivion, I submit to dissonant and cosmic death metal. Like Scavengers Reign, there is an extraterrestrial naturalism at play here: beautiful and strange, but unknown and uncaring. Inter Arma's Mike Paparo is a monstrous, but enigmatic new presence on vocals.
Anna Butterss, John Raymond & Ben Lumsdaine, Beginningless
Not-quite jazz grooves that curve like a bullet (see: Wanted, 2008). Answers the question: What if Bill Dixon scored Blade Runner? Two very different movie references, so what?
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