Also on shelves this Friday, June 19, are the new records by Laurent Bardainne and Swim Deep.
Acid Arab Resonance (All Night Long/Believe)
Unequivocal champion of blending electronic music with Middle Eastern sounds, the Parisian group delivers an exhilarating fourth album, enriched with numerous guest voices, that should seriously ignite dance floors. Blessed with a name that instantly conveys its mission, Acid Arab propagates a notion with formidable effectiveness: fuse electronic rhythms (especially drawn from acid house) with music from the Arab world to conjure shimmering, hybrid crackles, ideally at the heart of the night.
By Jérôme Provençal. Read the review of Resonance.
Laurent Bardainne Prologue (Heavenly Sweetness/L’Autre Distribution)
With the stirring and pop “Prologue EP,” the saxophonist Laurent Bardainne opens a chapter under his own name that feeds on the past while living in the present. A young brunette and a man-lizard in a red tracksuit lean on the hood of a yellow car in front of a pink house, with palm trees in the background. Their pose seems sensual, yet it hints at a game: behind her, she has a pistol ready to draw. This suggests rather complex preliminaries… After more than a quarter of a century of eclecticism, the French saxophonist begins a new chapter under his own name with these fresh, stirring tracks, kicked off by the storm of Introduction, an ambient jazz piece that finds its conclusion at the end of the program with Outro.
By Vincent Brunner. Read the review of Prologue.
Graham Coxon Castle Park (Transgressive Records/Fuga)
The brilliant Blur guitarist finally dusts off a cache of rarities with a deliciously sixties aura. This year, his label initiates a multi-step reissue of the entire, captivating catalog, beginning with the stunning The Sky Is Too High (1998) and The Golden D (2000), his two early solo chapters. “These albums represent different facets of who I was,” the musician explains. “Like skins shed from my skin. Reissuing these records that I find underrated gives them the chance to be underrated again. It’s a kind of overhaul or gastric reflux.”
By Noémie Lecoq. Read the review of Castle Park.
Gilb’r L’École de la nuit (Versatile)
With his second solo album peppered with guests, the French musician rewrites the night while also recounting his own history, moving between ambient, shoegaze and tropical moods. One can take the music seriously without becoming a dour bore. Gilbert Cohen, aka Gilb’R, has followed this line for nearly four decades, charging ahead with energy toward what excites him, while remaining curious and determined to smile at life and the joy of creating.
By Vincent Brunner. Read the review of L’École de la nuit.
Swim Deep Hum (Submarine Cat Records/Bigwax)
The English group needed only two weeks to record an album that embraces the electricity of shoegaze and the sobriety of acoustic textures. It has been roughly fifteen years since Swim Deep formed in 2011 in Birmingham, and the band has continually shifted gears with every record to explore every corner of indie rock. Sometimes drawing from the pop that listeners hum along to on Emerald Classics (2019), for example, and at other times allowing themselves more experimental passages on Mothers (2015). This time, the British outfit stays within the indie pop perimeter they sketched two years ago on There’s a Big Star Outside.
By Juliette Poulain. Read the review of Hum.
