The first set of new releases for August. I've included info and links for the ones you want to know about most below, plus some other ones you may not have heard of (but should know), with audio & video for your listening and viewing pleasure. Click here to check out releases that dropped over the past few months.
10 Years, Minus The Machine (Palehorse Records/LLG)
The American Scene, Safe For Now (Pure Noise)
Antibalas, Antibalas (Daptone)
The Brooklyn Afrobeat ensemble (inspired and influenced by Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band and Eddie Palmieri's Harlem River Drive Orchestra) present their fifth full-length album [pictured right].
Antony and the Johnsons, Cut the World (Secretly Canadian)
A collection of live symphonic performances of songs from the band's four full-length albums, recorded in Copenhagen with The Danish National Chamber Orchestra.
Ape School, Junior Violence (Hometapes)
The performing alias of experimental music maker of Michael Johnson, under which he creates acid-bounce pop music with lots of wall-of-sound synth texture. After the jump, listen to the freaky anthemic single "Marijuana's on the Phone," which apparently began as a drunken strum into a tape recorder that was filled out the morning after with Slick, an ARP 2600 analog synthesizer, and a swinging baritone sax. Pretty cool.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2012.