New Music Reviews (11/25)

Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by DJ Alex) shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Beck, Matt Maltese, Avalanche Party, and more.

Beck – Hyperspace (Capitol)
This LA artist’s 14th album is an often-gorgeous set of psych-tinged, synth-soaked dream-pop inflected with hip hop, folk and other styles. The album features a few collaborators, most notably Pharrell Williams, who co-wrote and co-produced seven of the album’s 11 songs. — DY

Matt Maltese – Krystal (7476)
This London artist’s second album is a smartly crafted set of downcast bedroom pop with an often-stark sound featuring atmospheric keyboards and spare beats accompanying his gentle vocals and finely chiseled, often-brutally honest lyrics of heartache and loss. — DY

Avalanche Party – 24 Carat Diamond Trephine (So Knee)
This British band’s debut full-length is an adventurous blend of ferocious garage-punk, dark theatrical rock, clanking post-punk, atmospheric folk-rock and more. — DY

Girl Ray – Girl (Moshi Moshi)
This London trio’s second album finds them moving away from the lo-fi, psych-tinged indie-pop sound of their debut (2017’s Earl Grey) in favor of a more polished sound inflected with R&B, combining bright synths, and gently propulsive rhythms with sunny melodies. — DY

Andy Stott – It Should Be Us (Modern Love)
This British producer’s latest release is a double EP of dark, skeletal house and techno grooves with a murky, occasionally disorienting sound combining slow-rolling beats, ominous textures and occasional vocal samples. — DY

Vegyn – Only Diamonds Cut Diamonds (PLZ Make It Ruins)
The official debut full-length from this London-based producer (aka Joe Thornalley), who’s worked with Frank Ocean and Travis Scott among others, is a mostly instrumental set of adventurous electronic grooves featuring skittering beats, gauzy synths, sampled field recordings and video-game sounds. — DY

Anna Meredith – FIBS (Moshi Moshi)
The sophomore album from Scottish musician/composer Anna Meredith – the follow-up to her 2016 Scottish Album of the Year Award-winning debut studio album Varmints – is an extravagant set of maximal avant-garde electronic-pop full of bombastic arrangements that burst with colorful melodic ideas, frequently frenetic rhythms, and forays into widescreen vocal-pop. While comparisons to Dan Deacon, Holly Herndon, Julia Holter, and Orange Milk's catalog of leftfield electronic music all come to mind during specific moments of the record, FIBS explores a distinctively striking sonic landscape throughout its unique journey. — AR

TNGHT – II EP (Warp)
The duo of Hudson Mohawke and Lunice finally follow up their 2012 debut EP with this 8-track set of irreverent experimental beats inflected with hip hop, reggaeton and other styles, combining intricate rhythms and trunk-rattling bass with colorful synths and playful samples. — DY

Pom Pom Squad – Ow (self-released)
The sophomore EP from this NYC “quiet grrrl” band fronted by Mia Berrin is a ripping set of emotionally-charged alternative rock and angst-y grunge anthems that nod to the cathartic sonic force of early Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney. — AR

Spielbergs – Running All The Way Home EP (By The Time It Gets Dark)
This Norwegian trio quickly follows up their debut album from earlier this year with this 8-song EP of energetic garage-rock reminiscent at times of Japandroids, combining loud, fuzzy guitars and punchy rhythms with soaring song hooks. — DY

Omar Souleyman – Shlon (Mad Decent/Because)
This Syrian artist’s latest album is another buoyant blend of techno with dabke and baladi, combining propulsive beats with saz (a Turkish stringed instrument), bright keyboards and Souleyman’s husky, impassioned vocals. — DY

Jubilee – Call For Location (Mixpak)
The sophomore full-length album from Miami-raised, NYC-based DJ/producer Jubilee (aka Jessica Gentile) is another strong set of versatile club grooves that reflects her in-demand pan-genre DJ sets as she confidently weaves through dancehall, grime, techno, freestyle, electro, UKG, and other kinetic styles. — AR

HAAi – Systems Up, Windows Down EP (Mute)
The latest EP from this Australian-bred, London-based electronic producer (aka Teneil Throssel) is an adventurous blend of techno with house, rave and other dance grooves (along with some subtle North African and Southeast Asian influences), combining propulsive, bass-heavy beats with trippy synths and sampled field recordings. — DY

Galcher Lustwerk – Information (Ghostly International)
The third album (and Ghostly International debut) from this Cleveland-born, NYC-based artist finds him continuing to cruise in own cool lane of shadowy vocal-laced hip-house as he fuses his distinctive low-key vocal style and fresh humble-brag lyrics over hypnotic, jazzy, low-slung house rhythms. — AR

(Various) – Milk On Milk (Milk!)
The latest release from this Melbourne label founded by Courtney Barnett and Jen Cloher features various artists on the label’s roster covering songs from other Milk artists, with the sound ranging from atmospheric dream-pop and chamber folk-pop to psych-tinged rock and chugging, Velvet Underground-influenced rock. — DY

Jet///Lag – All We Ever Wanted Was Everything EP (self-released)
This Seattle band’s latest EP is a potent 4-song set of anthemic garage-rock reminiscent at times of Replacements and Jawbreaker. — DY

Alps 2 – Arron's Here EP (Selby Soul)
The debut EP from this mysterious UK outfit featuring members of Maribou State's live touring band is a sweet set of lush and sleek electronic grooves that sway between pulsating UK-centric house rhythms and blissful downtempo beats that ultimately recall the seductive and smooth style of Maribou State. — AR

Thomas White – Better Days EP (Hush Hush)
The latest EP from this Montreal electronic producer (aka Eloi Le Blanc-Ringuette) is a solid set of electronic grooves ranging from dreamy ambient pop and atmospheric left-field pop to buoyant house. — DY

Warmduscher – Tainted Lunch (The Leaf Label)
This British band’s third album is a fun set of quirky post-punk, funk, noise-rock, punk and more. Produced by Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey (who’s also produced Fontaines D.C., Black Midi, etc.), the album combines propulsive beats with often-declaimed vocals and surreal lyrics. — DY

Gaijin Blues – Gaijin Blues II (Shapes Of Rhythm)
The second release and debut full-length album from this Polish production duo is a transportive set of psychedelic beats and kaleidoscopic rhythms. Driven by an obsession with Japanese RPGs and hypnotic video game soundtracks, Gaijin Blues dream up a lively otherworldly sound that's in a similar vein to Romare, USF, and Quiet Village. — AR

(Various) – Future Bubblers 3.0 (Brownswood Recordings)
Gilles Peterson's Future Bubblers series spotlights emerging artists creating standout sounds within the amorphous soulful sound he's been curating through his label Brownswood Recordings over the past decade. Their third and latest installment is yet another strong set of expansive jazz, hip-hop, R&B, electronic, and grime flavors from new names to likely get familiar with. — AR

Luke Lalonde – The Perpetual Optimist (Paper Bag)
The second solo album from the frontman for Toronto band Born Ruffians ranges from jangly, energetic folk-rock to warm, country-tinged folk, with lyrics revolving around climate change and mortality. — DY

Sam Amidon – Fatal Flower Garden EP (Nonesuch)
This Vermont-bred, London-based artist’s lastest release is a four-song tribute to legendary Anthology Of American Folk Music compiler Harry Smith (who was raised in Bellingham and Anacortes). All four songs were originally featured on the Anthology, with Amidon generally taking a more experimental approach to the material. — DY