What the CL Music Team is listening to on this fine Monday to rocket launch the work week. Click here to check out previous entries.
Gabe – Public Image Ltd., One Drop EP (2012)
Still reeling from my post-Record Store Day buzz… Thankfully, I have no shortage of new records to listen to, but this one is really standing out. One Drop is the first new music recorded and released by John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols project in decades, and if it's any indication of the direction the band is traveling in, it was well worth the wait. Four tracks of dub-influenced rants from the former Johnny Rotten and crew that sound so deep and rich on the glorious 12 inches of heavy black vinyl they're pressed on. The final track, the epic "Lollipop Opera" is one of PiL's finest moments and has been stuck in my head all weekend long. As punk rock veteran Henry Rollins once said when describing PiL and their unique blend of noise, dub and aggression: "…infinitely more interesting musically than the Sex Pistols." I couldn't agree more. Welcome back, Public Image Ltd.!
Leilani – Here We Go Magic, A Different Ship (out May 12 via Secretly Canadian)
The forthcoming Here We Go Magic album hasn't been released yet and is already one of my favorites this year. Produced by Radiohead's Nigel Godrich, the fivesome's third full-length opens with a light cacophony of found sounds before segueing into the stunning simplistic alt folk beauty of "Hard to Be Close." All throughout, the record draws on the Kraut-y/post-punk rhythms that have become the band's trademark, sometimes picking up a more insistent pace, as in "Make Up Your Mind" [download after the jump] and "I Believe in Action," but generally offering a more subdued tone of melodic indie rock with moments of blissful electro folkedelia. Luke Temple's vocals slide and sigh and coo over it, breathy warmth, tender and channeling shades of Paul Simon and Sting. The title track closes the album with mesmerizing gentleness that building to a swirling cacophony of vocals, feedback and ambient noise.
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2012.