Alternative Album Chart: the best new indie and alternative albums this week
When it comes to the fifth album, many bands, if they’re lucky enough to make it to that point, can start to doubt their ability, get bored of their sound, and try and fail to move into areas that are simply not them. Like the dreaded second LP, it can be make or break for a group as they scratch their heads trying to keep moving forward. This cannot be said for Warmduscher. Too Cold To Hold is their best yet.
Releasing five acclaimed albums in nine years is good going by anyone’s standards, but following up the immense At the Hotspot in just two short laps around the sun is remarkable. Too Cold To Hold is the finest sort of musical trip, too. Instead of working with outside producers, the band kept it in-house, with bassist Benjamin Romans-Hopcraft and their friend Jamie Neville bringing it to life as Warmduscher delved deep into what makes them tick. Accordingly, the rhythms are outstanding.
A truly narcotic dream sequence, opened by Irvine Welsh and featuring Lianne La Havas and Confidence Man’s Janet Planet – as well as others – the ease with which you find yourself being transported into this scintillating, constantly shifting netherworld is a true masterstroke. Like every trip, though, not every exhibit is comfortable, and this endless frittering between shade and light is what makes it so impressive. If you weren’t already a fan, you will be now.
Despite being scarcer week than others for releases, there is still excellence to be found elsewhere, particularly in Chak Chak Chak Chak, the new one from Colombian avant-garde master, Julián Mayorga. A challenging sonic assault on the senses, this is contemporary music being pushed to its absolute limits, and is a prime example of why creativity shouldn’t always bring solace. It’s true art.
Find this week’s Alternative Album Chart below.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
Too Cold To Hold – Warmduscher – [4.5]
How often can you really say that an album grabs your full attention within the opening seconds? Kicking off with the unexpected drawl of Trainspotting legend Irvine Welsh taking about a DMT trip, this perfectly sets the scene for a record so cinematic that the tales are palpable and the mind goes to fantastical places. The new Warmduschereffort, Too Cold to Hold, is an absolute treasure and is most likely their finest release yet.
On their fifth album, Warmduscher have not worked with an outside producer, but instead bassist’ Mr. Salt Fingers Lovecraft’ better known as Benjamin Romans-Hopcraft, and their friend Jamie Neville collaborated to bring it to life. This has seen the band hone their sound, delve even further into the hypnotic rhythms that have always been central to their approach, and, with the help of a few notable allies such as Lianne La Havas and Confidence Man’s Janet Planet, create an album that is akin to a psychedelic trip. Imagine if Cool World was an album.
Chak Chak Chak Chak – Julián Mayorga – [4]
Avant-garde music is an endlessly broad spectrum which incorporates everything from the blues-orientated sounds of Captain Beefheart to the pioneering performance art of somebody like Gary Wilson. Today, with the musical landscape so oversaturated with artists worldwide, it can be difficult to strike upon something truly original and experimental. For Colombian songwriter Julián Mayorga, however, this has never been a problem. His latest record, Chak Chak Chak Chak, is his ninth studio album, and yet he is still creating new and endlessly diverse avant-garde excellence.
Chak Chak Chak Chak is the musical equivalent of being assaulted, with each new track offering a different kind of high-octane experimentalism. The composer rarely gives you, the listener, a chance to catch your breath before delving back into his anarchic repertoire. Simultaneously, though, Mayorga is adept at keeping just enough diversity within his work to stop the record from feeling too overly repetitive yet retaining a continuous narrative.
To call anything created by Mayorga ‘dull’ would be a gross oversight; I would not be surprised if the songwriter claimed never to have heard the word. That sense of excitement and surrealist euphoria certainly dominates proceedings on this album. As a listener, you cannot help but become swept up by the strange and surreal world that Mayorga creates.
Via Negativa – Xeno and Oaklander – [3]
It’s difficult to balance minimalism with nuance in the broader category of electronic dark wave. Yet, somehow, that’s exactly what Xeno & Oaklander achieve in their latest album, Via Negativa. Over a decade on, this duo accomplishes the seemingly impossible by providing sounds that consistently feel fresh and exciting while paying homage to the beauty of times gone by.
In Via Negativa, Wendelbo and McBride execute the pulsating beats and atmospheric melodies you will likely expect, but with more focus on offering a commanding presence. However, with this, they also toy with spaciousness to emit a certain level of experimental effortlessness, blending melancholy and iciness with subtle notes of playfulness.
Although meticulous and nuanced, the layers do not distract from the duo’s signature simplicity; instead, they enhance the ambience without overwhelming too much. That said, some notes appear distant in a way that could disengage, but for the most part, they ultimately contribute to the album’s overarching hypnotic pull, encouraging focus and purpose without too much command.
Young-Girl Forever – Sofie Royer – [3]
Sofie Royer only has two albums under her belt, but the Austrian synth enthusiast has also been steadily making a name for herself with endeavours outside of production. She lent her stellar taste to Boiler Room and NTS listeners, occasionally blessing them with a violin solo, and even dipped her toes, or brush, into the world of painting. Now, she returns to the studio, releasing her third full-length offering, Young-Girl Forever.
True to its title, Royer’s latest record delves into the trials and tribulations of being a young girl, the dangers wrapped up in bows and the constant pressure to smile through tears. She tackles the uncertainty of modern dating, the haunting presence of memories that may not even be real, and the strange FOMO-like feeling that still arises even when you know you’d rather not be at that particular party.
The record was entirely produced by Royer, which provides a real consistency in sound as well as tone. She leans heavily on synths, allowing them to swirl around her smooth vocals and cushion her ruminations on girlhood. Even when she’s singing songs she didn’t pen herself, inserting a cover of an old 1980s track, there’s a sense that Royer is driving the sound and feeling of the record.
However, as much as Young-Girl Forever charts Royer’s personal experience of being a young girl and her unique songwriting style, the record also thrives in the universality of the pressures it describes. The simultaneous hatred for the experience of girlhood and the longing to hold onto it, the indulgence in bad dating habits and the regretful, cringe-inducing memories that follow, running from your dreams and giving into chaos.
