Enter Flamagra – a work that sweeps up every quantum advance and creative leap of the last dozen years of Flying Lotus’ career and takes them even further; the Warp release encompasses hip-hop, funk, soul, jazz, global dance music, tribal poly-rhythms, IDM, the L.A. Beat scene, but it soars above a specific vortex whose coordinates can’t be accurately charted. Other than to say that it is a Flying Lotus record, perhaps the definitive one. An astral afro-futurist masterpiece of deep soul, cosmic dust, and startling originality. He’s aided by a dream cast of collaborators: Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Yukimi Nagano of Little Dragon, Tierra Whack, Denzel Curry, Ishmael Butler of Shabazz Palaces, Toro y Moi, and his telepathic kinsman, Thundercat. David Lynch even pops up for an eerie narration wherein he somberly warns that, “Fire is coming.” But they all naturally bend to the magnetic warp of Lotus’ spells – a transfixing hex unto themselves.

Cate Le Bon – Reward CD/LP (Mexican Summer)
Be it on her more minimalist, acoustic-leaning 2009 debut album Me Oh My or critically acclaimed, liquid-riffed 2013 LP Mug Museum as well as 2016’s Crab Day, Cate Le Bon’s solo work – and indeed also her production work, such as that carried out on recent Deerhunter album Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? (2019) – has always resisted pigeonholing, walking the tightrope between krautrock aloofness and heartbreaking tenderness; deadpan served with a twinkle in the eye, a flick of the fringe and a lick of the Telecaster. The multifaceted nature of Le Bon’s art – its ability to take on multiple meanings and hold motivations which are not immediately obvious – is evident right down to the album’s very name, Reward. “Cate Le Bon writes songs in the absurdist tradition, as both as an escape and a mirror to the world. Her music is elliptical and sparse, using familiar sounds—chiming electric guitar, saxophone—to create her own alien landscape. ‘Daylight Matters’, the swooning first single from her new album Reward, isn’t so much a reinvention as it is a grand unveiling.” – Pitchfork

L’Eclair – Sauropoda CD/LP (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
L’Eclair’s Sauropoda LP was recorded in an undisclosed location in the mountains over the course of two days in October 2018. Captured live in the studio, the music is mega-organic and free with few overdubs. Think of it as a 2am YouTube rabbit-hole find, or that weird-looking Soviet prog funk private press that you knew you should’ve bought the one time you came across it in the bins. In fact, Sauropoda actually sounds more like a L’Eclair live show…blended with carefully crafted dance floor grooves, last-minute studio fantasies, and fully-faded late night jams. L’Eclair is all about the blending of things, and those things never sound the same twice; endlessly morphing like the human machine itself. Sauropoda is the way L’Eclair sounds right now in proto-groove’s golden age. But don’t let your head get in the way and try too hard to classify this music.

Morrissey – California Son CD/LP (BMG)
The Britpop icon releases his new covers album, California Son. The 12-track collection traverses the sonic landscape of the ‘60s and ‘70s, covering untouchable luminaries like Joni Mitchell, Dionne Warwick, and Bob Dylan while also delving into more obscure musicians of the time, such as early gay icon Jobriath and political activist Phil Ochs. Paying equal tribute to the marginalized stars as he does household names – and taking on these covers with modern alt-rock royalty guests including Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Ed Droste (Grizzly Bear), Sameer Gadhia (Young The Giant), and LP – California Son serves as a bridge between space, time, and rock music’s past, present, and future. In line with a career marked by environmental advocacy and a groundbreaking soundscape of jangly alt-rock melancholia, we see Morrissey playing to his strengths while pushing his sonic limits.

Sebadoh – Act Surprised CD/LP (Dangerbird)
Indie-rock pioneers Sebadoh return with their first new studio album in more than six years. Act Surprised continues the soulful collaboration that’s defined the band since 1991’s Sebadoh III and 1994’s Bakesale. The new batch of songs reaffirms how vital the creative partnership is between members Lou Barlow, Jason Loewenstein, and Bob D’Amico. When Barlow recently moved back to his home state of Massachusetts following a series of personal changes, he pressed the restart button and, in time, felt the incentive to reach out to Jason and Bob again to reunite and start work on a new album. The trio convened and began recording in their original stomping grounds in Northampton, MA where they first formed back in 1988. Along with producer/sound engineer Justin Pizzoferatto, Sebadoh has delivered one of the best records of their career – a 15-song collection that’s as dynamic and visceral as anything the band has ever committed to tape.

Mavis Staples – We Get By CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
A clarion call to love, faith, justice, brotherhood and joy lies at the heart of We Get By, Mavis Staples’ spectacular twelfth studio album and first full-length collaboration with multi-Grammy Award-winner Ben Harper. Backed by her longtime touring band, Staples breathes extraordinary life into Harper’s compositions on the record, delivering roof-raising performances with both a youthful vigor and a commanding maturity. The arrangements here are spare but weighty, matched by Harper’s suitably lean and thoughtful production, and Staples seizes the opportunity to showcase her remarkable and continued evolution as an artist, one still growing and exploring more than half a century into her storied career.

Black Mountain – Destroyer CD/LP (Jagjaguwar)
Destroyer is structured around that first time behind the wheel of a hot rod, inspired by the crucial nexus of the early-to-mid- ‘80s Los Angeles when a war between punk and hair metal was waged.

Earth – Full Upon Her Burning Lips CD/LP (Sargent House)
With their latest album, Full Upon Her Burning Lips, Earth has stripped away the layers and auxiliary instrumentation that embellished some of their previous records and have deconstructed their dynamic to the core duo of Dylan Carlson on guitar and bass and Adrienne Davies on drums and percussion.

J-E-T-S – Zoospa CD/LP (Innovative Leisure)
J-E-T-S is Jimmy Edgar and Travis Stewart (Machinedrum), two of the past decade’s most versatile and protean producers, who have artfully glided through techno, house, IDM, bass, hip-hop, R&B, and pop without being pinned down to any one of them. They channel the two-heads-one-brain spirit of a more danceable Autechre or Outkast raised on the Belleville Three and first wave IDM.

Steve Marino – Fluff CD/LP (Darling Recordings)
Over the last decade Steve Marino has recorded multiple solo albums (as Moor Hound), been in countless bands, and toured the country consistently, but his newest full-length, Fluff, is the first collection of songs he’s released in his own name. In that sense it’s his debut album. It is an album about home, and one’s place in it, love, and intimacy, and it’s the result of Steve marrying his direct, honest songwriting with a deeply collaborative process. The title track, “Fluff”, with its precise drums, layered guitars, and visceral, emotive vocals, captures the power of this collaboration.

Middle Kids – New Songs For Old Problems CDEP/12” (Domino)
New Songs For Old Problems comes hot on the heels of what was a massive 2018 for Middle Kids, including the May release of their critically acclaimed album Lost Friends – an impressive debut which saw the band tour worldwide, earned them a slew of US late night TV appearances, and back home in Australia snagged an ARIA nomination, and the Triple J Album of the Year prize. Lead single “Real Thing” is a soaring rock song mixed by the legendary Mike Spike Stent (Madonna, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Muse).

Stray Cats – 40 CD/LP (Surfdog)
The first new studio album 26 years from the rockabilly trio comprised of Brian Setzer (guitar, vocals), Lee Rocker (bass, vocals) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums, vocals).

Mike Donovan – Exurbian Quonset LP/Cassette (Drag City)
The Peacers and Sic Alps frontman is back with another solo album less than a year after How to Get Your Record Played In Shops. It’s a wild ride through a pop landscape formed largely of scorched earth and canyons of damage that give way to blissful meadows of melody – in other words, the kind of music Mike Donovan digs playing and excels at.

Com Truise – Persuasion System CD/LP+MP3 (Ghostly Int’l)
For nearly a decade the story of Com Truise has relied on science fiction and abstract fact. Seth Haley’s singular style of melodic beat music subsists as hazy machinist nostalgia, a mainframe downloaded cosmology. Yet with each release, alongside sonic refinement, comes an increasingly visible vapor trail to Haley’s own ontology.

The King Khan Experience – Turkey Ride LP (Ernest Jenning)
King Khan’s adventures almost 18 years ago in the cities of Bordeaux and Berlin, finely documented in music, get the vinyl treatment for the first time. These recordings were made while King Khan gallivanted through Europe’s most hedonistic cities and collected a merry group of pranksters to make sweet, sweet rock ‘n’ roll with.

Röyksopp ‎– Senior [Reissue/2010] LP (House Arrest)
Vinyl reissue of the fourth studio album by the Norwegian electronic duo. This chapter of Royksopp’s career saw them move to instrumental tracks only; Senior has been described as more introspective and withdrawn than its predecessor, Junior (2009).

The Sonics ‎– Introducing The Sonics [Reissue/1967] LP (Beatrocket)
The Sonics – fronted by Gerry Roslie’s banshee vocals – blow-torched the mists of Seattle in 1966 like the fiery exhaust from a jumbo-jet. With their trademark scorched-earth guitar sounds, they created a mind-numbing assortment of classic garage rock tracks.

Thee Oh Sees – Hounds Of Foggy Notion LP (Castleface)
Thee Hounds Of Foggy Notion/Live Performances Sans Stages And Whatnots With Thee Oh Sees (2008), is a film Thee Oh Sees made just over a decade ago, and this record is the soundtrack. 

The Waterboys – Where The Action Is CD/LP (Cooking Vinyl)
Following the acclaim of 2017’s Out Of All This Blue, The Waterboys return with the new album Where The Action Is. Its title inspired by Robert Parker’s 1960s mod/northern soul classic, Where The Action Is is a 10-song, genre-defying album, testament to the enduring talents of the band’s founder and frontman Mike Scott. One of the finest British songwriters of the past four decades, his songs have been covered and recorded by artists as far and wide as Prince, Rod Stewart, Tom Jones, Steve Earle, and Ellie Goulding (who had a number three hit with “How Long Will I Love You”).

NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
ELUVIUM – Piano Works CD/LP (still have a few LP pre-orders avail!)
KISHI BASHI – Omoiyari CD/LP
OPERATORS (Wolf Parade) – Radiant Dawn CD/LP
REPEAT REPEAT – Glazed CD/LP
SINKANE – Depayse CD/LP
LISA HANNIGAN + STARGAZE – Live In Dublin CD/LP
APEX MANOR – Heartbreak City CD/LP
BRAINIAC – Electro Shock For President LP reissue
JUAN WAUTERS – Introducing Juan Pablo CD/LP
JUAN WAUTERS – La Onda De Juan Pablo CD/LP
J. ROBBINS – Un-Becoming CD/LP
SACRED PAWS – Run Around The Sun CD/LP
WARLOCKS – Mean Machine CD/LP
GOTOBEDS – Debt Begins At 30 CD/LP
L7 – Scatter The Rats LP
PHISH – Billy Breathes LP reissue
PHISH – Slip Stitch + Pass LP reissue
FUJIYA + MIYAGI – Flashback CD/LP
DEPECHE MODE – Black Celebration LP box
DEPECHE MODE – Music For The Masses LP box