Spotify Playlist: I See Manchester, I See Bordeau

RIP Holger Czukay

RIP Holger Czukay

24 March 1938 - 5 September 2017

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RIP Jaki Liebezeit

Happy Possibly 100th Birthday, John Lee Hooker!

Torres - Three Futures

Torres doesn't seem interested in staying in one place musically for too long, and it was anyone's guess what her third album was going to sound like. A focus on synths (and guitars run through synth pedals among other things) most obviously delineates Three Futures from its predecessors, but what strikes me about that move even more than its seamless and non-perfunctory integration is how necessary an evolution it was in order to convey Scott's ideas. Even if she could have conceived of "Concrete Ganesha" before, there was no way to render such a textural, glitchy piece with her old palette. Recognisable guitar lines don't prop up any of the songs, but rather snake in and out.

Torres' self-titled debut established Mackenzie Scott as a talented songwriter straight out of the gate; Sprinter expanded her purview and gave her many places to go. Three Futures isn't a step forwards, backwards or laterally, but downwards; it drags you down and traps you in its world and doesn't let you come up for air until it's over.

Spotify Playlist: We Live in a World of Stuff

Spotify Playlist: I'm a Moose! *moose noises*

Slowdive - Slowdive

So there's a new Slowdive album in 2017; it almost seems too pure for this sinful Earth, but I'll take it.

Of course, you don't want a Slowdive album compromised by two decades of cynicism and the world generally going down the shitter, so it comes as a relief that Slowdive, though recorded last year, could have been from 1994, a missing link between Souvlaki and Pygmalion, perfectly preserved in amber and discovered just when we need it most. Slowdive shouldn't be penalised for sticking to what works, because it does work; there hasn't been a time between their formation and now when their simple yet layered and meticulous compositions wouldn't have seamlessly blended into the musical landscape aesthetically while standing out in quality. Though it's no mere nostalgia trip, Slowdive nonetheless serves as a reminder of a time when there was assumed to be preordained limits on human ego, hubris and stupidity - that if we weren't already as low as we could go, we'd at least know when we got there. It's the album we need right now, even if it's not the one we deserve.