The best new albums of the month, April 2014

Happily, April was a much stronger month than March, and I ended up having to wade through 35 mostly decent new releases to make this month's ten. It was fairly tight though and I wouldn't be surprised if some albums I've skipped over return to favour with me in the next while.

The Skull Defekts 'Dances in Dreams of the Known Unknown'

my review (the 405)
"The album is a thrill from start to finish and is perhaps surprisingly accessible, particularly if you are aware of their previous work. There is great tension between the riffs and the melodies and the way the guitars are just seconds away from dipping into something truly edgy and discordant. The Skull Defekts are a lot more interesting and original than those bands simply retreading garage rock in the name of psychedelia. They understand the power of repetition when used correctly - think of the Fall, Can, Sonic Youth - and Higgis's presence completes the band and makes it possible to deliver an album as trippy, yet somehow coherent, as this one."

Fennesz 'Bécs'

Although he always seems to be busy and productive, this is the first full Fennesz album since 'Black Sea', and on it he makes some of his prettiest noise since 2002's masterpiece 'Endless Summer'. Existing fans will not be disappointed, unless of course they were looking for a dramatic progression, because 'Becs' builds on what Fennesz does best but doesn't push the boundaries too hard. If anything, it is more stripped back and at some points there is something resembling raw guitar, stripped of effects. It's a beautiful album.

Protomartyr 'Under Color of Official Right'

There's a bit of a buzz about these people at the moment, and rightly so. 'Under Color...' expands on their impressive debut and it crams 14 songs into its 34 minute duration. The band take a similar approach to Fugazi in that they manage to create space and atmosphere on even short songs, as the drums deliver an unconventional pattern which the rest of the band fill in. The lyrics seem worth investigating as well, but it's early days for me with this one, but I know it's strong enough to make the ten.

Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks 'Enter the Slasher House'

my review (the 405)
"Overall Enter the Slasher House is perhaps too subtle to sit amongst the likes of the Cramps, Goblin and Zombie Zombie playing John Carpenter, on your future Halloween playlist. The eeriness only really emerges after a few listens, and the same could be said for the contributions of Angel and Jeremy, but it would be a shame if people just viewed this as an Animal Collective side project, as there is plenty to investigate here."

Wye Oak 'Shriek'

To paraphrase LCD Soundsystem, they've sold their guitar and they're buying synthesisers. Whilst that's not 100% true, this new album from Wye Oak sees them change their sound dramatically, towards something very synth-based. This is fine because they have managed to write some brilliant songs for 'Shriek' which would sound good no matter what they are played on. This isn't the Wye Oak you know but it may still be the Wye Oak you love.

Shonen Knife 'Overdrive'

It didn't seem that long ago that the Knife were professing their love for the Ramones with their 'Osaka Ramones'. With 'Overdrive' - their 20th album in 33 years! - they have drawn on classic hard rock as their main influence. There are shades of Thin Lizzy on the opening 'Bad Luck Song', and things get a bit heavier for 'Like a Cat' and 'Ramen Rock', though the catchy 'Dance to the Rock' is a perfect balance between their own sound and the pop-rock they are paying homage to. Obviously a bit heavier than its predecessor 'Pop Tune' that's no bad thing, and they still manage to leave you smiling as always.

Woods 'With Light and With Love'

Their previous album 'Bend Beyond' saw them emerge into something more coherent than their early folk-jams would have hinted at, and this new one sees them take that a step further. FM country-rock and the Byrds loom large over this, and the band take those influences and update them. The title track in particular sees them achieve the best balance yet between the psychedelic guitar solos that lift their live shows to another level, and their skills in writing a strong tune.

Pixies 'Indie Cindy'

There are probably half a dozen Pixies-influenced indie-rock albums that could have nudged their way into this list, but to be honest none of them are as good as 'Indie Cindy'. I was firmly in the "no Pixies without Kim" camp and nearly didn't listen to this at all, but I'm glad I did. Those guitar lines and those clever little melodic twists that they were so good at are all present and at times they sound sublime.

EMA 'The Future's Void'

There is nothing on here as stunning as 'The Grey Ship' (from previous album 'Past Life Martyred Saints') but then EMA doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would repeat herself. Instead she kicks this off with 'So Blonde', a ghastly yet ironic dig at that bombastic LA pop-rock sound. It's all uphill from here thankfully, and a lot of the album focuses on the cyber side of things - hinted at by the cover pic of her with an Oculus Rift headset. We can't see her eyes, and she is looking at another reality. '3Jane' deals with voyeurism and web-exploitation in a subtle way, and 'Neuromancer' is maybe the most successful blend of her words and her new electronic direction.

Thee Oh Sees 'Drop'

The first recording under Thee Oh Sees name since John Dwyer announced their hiatus in December, so it will be interesting to see where they go from here. Musically 'Drop' follows on from where predecessor 'The Floating Coffin' left off, although the rough edges and wig-outs seem more tempered these days. Coupled with the lack of further news about their future and the fact that the album is just over 30 minutes in length, 'Drop' feels like a bit of a tease. It's a good one though.

Looking forward to Field Day this weekend? Here's a playlist and a preview

Something that interests me as a voracious consumer of new music is the rise of multi-venue festivals where you can try and cram as many acts into your day as possible. The SXSW festival in Austin, Texas is the best example of this, but this year already many UK events have taken this as their lead, with the likes of Brighton's Great Escape, Liverpool's Sound City and the long established Camden Crawl booking a huge range of bands over a variety of venues.

With literally hundreds of music festivals competing for space and attention over the summer months, this seems to be a succesful model. This year larger events such as Sonisphere have been cancelled, whilst even legendary ones like Glastonbury have taken a year off.

One event that has moved from its normal slot in the festival calendar is London's Field Day; a one day outdoor event that has steadily been building an audience in Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets since 2007. This multi-stage music festival traditionally takes place in August, but this year it has been pushed forward to the first Saturday in June due to the huge presence of the Olympics taking over that area in August.

Field Day always boasts a cutting edge line-up of both established and breakthrough acts, and as it is all compressed into one day, you don't have to camp or bring anything with you. For me, it works brilliantly as a showcase; an excellent way to see quite a few new bands in one day as you can cover the ground between each stage in a few minutes.

The festival emerged from small grass roots venues and promoters working together and has grown into something much larger. In 2006, it began in the car park of the Griffin Pub in Old Street as the Return of the Rural and took the format of a village fete with live acoustic acts such as James Yorkston and Beth Orton, as well as Clinic and Four Tet. These acts were large enough to pull a decent crowd back then, and the promoters decided to do something bigger the following year they booked space in Victoria Park, joined forces with other promoters and announced the first Field Day, which sold out to 10,000 people in August 2007.

The festival has evolved and grown in size to 20,000 and has now played host to the likes of Florence and the Machine, Phoenix, Santigold, James Blake to name just a few.

Last year's festival was the largest yet and there were some issues with overcrowding. These have been addressed this year with a new layout to help the flow between stages, although the capacity remains the same.

The close proximity of the stages gives the organisers another headache, specifically how to reduce the bleed-through of sound between venues. Over the years they have taken various steps to address this and with some clever positioning of each PA plus a capacity crowd in each tent, the colouration is negligible.

There are around 60 acts on the bill, so I thought I would try and pick out some highlights. There are inevitable clashes of course, but I reckon on a carefully planned day you get to see around 8 or 9 acts. A clashfinder is essential but here are some suggestions.
Grimes – one of the breakthrough acts of 2012, Grimes is the alias of Claire Boucher, a young prolific talent from Canada, who manages to straddle the genres of dance music, lo-fi indie and witch house with ease
Peaking Lights – a husband and wife duo who make a lo-fi mix of dub, krautrock and psychedelic pop
R. Stevie Moore – a prolific but wilfully obscure DIY musician who has been making music since the mid-70s but is only just coming to a wider audience now thanks to the likes of Ariel Pink
The Men – high octane punk rock, noisy and brash, which sounds like it was recorded with all the needles on red
Summer Camp – duo Jeremy Walmsley and Elizabeth Sankey are building their indie-pop origins into something very special,as last year's Welcome to Condale album showed.
Fennesz – legendary Austrian guitarist now firmly established in the world of ambient electronica, he makes some lovely noises
Andrew Bird – an amazing talent who plays superb violin, writes great songs and does clever things with loops. He is also a fantastic whistler!
Tortoise – the guys who brought dub, jazz and krautrock to the world of American indie-rock in a rescheduled show from last year
Mazzy Star – newly reformed,this duo made three classic albums in the 1990s, featuring the distinctive voice of Hope Sandoval and the psychedelic fuzz guitar of David Roback.
Liars – one of the finest experimental rock groups of the last 10 years, showcasing their new album WIXIW.
Papa M - the alias of David Pajo, best known as guitarist of the post-rock group Slint
Django Django - last but not least, one of the bands of 2012, on a mid-afternoon slot so look sharp.

Just in case you missed the clashfinder, click here to get the official one.

The Field Day line-up was hard to pick ten or twelve acts from, so I've made a 25 track playlist on Spotify. Enjoy!

Slow Thrills Friday mix no1: Wintering Out

Yesterday I uploaded the first of my old fanzine's archives to a new site, weedbus.posterous.com, and they will be appearing at the start of every month for most of this year, as a PDF book and a Soundcloud audio stream.
So far this year, Friday has meant Spotify playlist day so, following on from that run, I am introducing our mixcloud into the grand scheme of things. From now on Friday will feature either a playlist OR a guest mix, and to start the ball rolling (and test the systems of course), I have uploaded my own short mix. It is deliberately downbeat and wintry, it is not intended for dancing; a bit like myself a the moment. The mix is embedded below.

Slow Thrills mix no.1: Wintering Out by Slowthrills on Mixcloud

The guest mix slot is open to anyone and I have invited a few people so far, but if you feel you can do one please email me at slowthrillsj-blog@yahoo.co.uk for more details. Music-wise I am very openminded but it will have to fit within the broad musical remit of this blog, so go easy on the funk/metal crossover tunes.