11/13/20: Katy J Pearson, Faten Kanaan, and more
Welcome to the November 13th edition of First Listen Friday!
Katy J Pearson released her debut solo album Return today. This is a great indie-pop album with influences ranging from folk & country to 70’s songwriters. Katy has a lovely voice and there are great melodies and pop hooks all over this album. The LP kicks off on a high point with “Tonight”, an upbeat track featuring strings, strummed acoustic guitar, a steady beat, and horns (used to great effect) to round things out in the final third of the track. There’s something to grab onto and enjoy about all the tracks here, and there’s a nice variety in sound. “Return” is a beautiful song that slows things down with just a finger-picked guitar, Katy’s vocals, as well as some background vocals. Another stand-out track is “Take Back The Radio” which really sealed the deal for me. Overall this was a great new album by an exciting young artist.
Faten Kanaan released her new album A Mythology of Circles today. Faten is a composer and musician who constructs songs by live-looping without samplers, sequencers, or arpeggiators and she focuses “on bringing an earthy, visceral touch to electronic music” and tends to explore “cyclical patterns and variation through repetition”. On A Mythology of Circles, these descriptions ring true, the songs are often repeating while simultaneously unfurling in a way that so much of the best ambient music does. Your patience is rewarded on tracks like “The Archer” which builds slowly until an arpeggiated synthesizer takes hold and lifts the track into new sonic territory. Other favorites were “Birds of Myrrh”, “Night Tide / Anteros”, and “The North Wind”.
Recently signed to Ghostly International, Brijean has released the single “Day Dreaming” from their forthcoming album Feelings out February 26th, 2021. The track is fun and percussive (Brijean Murphy has provided percussion for Toro Y Moi and U.S. Girls among others) and I’m definitely looking forward to the full-length.
Django Django released another new single from their forthcoming album which will share the same title, Glowing In The Dark. Between this track and “Spirals” from September, I’ve got high hopes for the LP due in February.
KOKOROKO released a new single, “Baba Ayoola”. KOKOROKO is a London-based jazz/afrobeat band and they released an excellent self-titled LP back in 2019 that you should check out if you’re unfamiliar.
Girls in Airports released “Stonehouse”, a track from their album Dive, due out November 27th.
“6000 Ft.” is a collaboration between celebrated electronic artists Bonobo & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
Lucy Gooch released “We Carry” as part of Mexican Summer’s Looking Glass series.
The replies to this tweet seem like a great resource to find some albums you may not be familiar with that others consider to be gems. Check it out and find something you may have missed!
That’s all for this edition, check out the Spotify playlist of my favorite selections from the newsletter this week.