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February 17, 2017The Detroit rapper's fourth full-length is a significant evolution in terms of depth, maturity, and self-awareness.
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March 10, 2017Eighth LP from the Canadian producer finds the mouse-masked Joel Zimmerman relying on deep grooves that favor a focused, extended listen.
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February 3, 2017A contemplative and hopeful album from Elbow.
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February 3, 2017Stirring first album from a singular do-it-all who has worked with Drake, Beyoncé, Kanye, and Solange.
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February 3, 2017The band responds to a period of massive change and loss with some of its most ambitious and unexpected music.
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February 10, 2017The ageless New Zealanders sound as good and jangly as ever, even after being in a band together since 1982.
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February 3, 2017Peter Sagar continues to refine his minimalist, melancholy indie R&B sound on his third full-length as Homeshake.
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February 3, 2017Italian-born bedroom pop auteur Mauro Remiddi's third outing splits the difference between heady chillwave and Scandinavian pop grandeur.
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February 3, 2017The third full-length from these thrash metal revivalists is smart, funny, and hits hard like a baseball bat.
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February 10, 2017U.K. eccentric Julian Cope reclaims his whimsy and melodicism on this pleasing set of drinking songs.
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February 3, 2017Former Toy Soldiers frontman reinvents himself as a scrappy, literate garage-punk troubadour with this album.
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February 3, 2017The band's fifth studio album is reliably psychedelic, but lacking some of the invention of their best work.
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February 3, 2017Moody, new wave-inspired modern pop with guitars and very direct lyrics.
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February 3, 2017The post-Thin Lizzy unit's third studio outing invokes the heyday of late-'70s/early-'80s classic rock without falling victim to nostalgia.
Various Artists
Cumbias Chichadélicas: Peruvian Psychedelic Chicha
Spread out over two discs, this vibrant and appealing collection of vintage Peruvian funk, rock, and cumbia is culled from the archives of producer Alberto Maraví's legendary Infopesa label. Chichadélicas serves as a great introduction to both the Infopesa and the creative musical explosion it generated.
1993
If you watched BET in the 1990's, you likely crossed paths with the video for flautist Phillip Bent's banging cover of WAR's "The World is a Ghetto." Filmed in front of white studio backdrop and featuring Bent's stylishly besuited quartet, as well an intercut fly girl-style dancer, the track was one of the great forgotten hits of the "acid jazz" era. Bent's accompanying album, 1993's The Pressure, was an equally thrilling time capsule that, in retrospect, seemed to portend a progressive world, scored to a chic melange of jazz, hip-hop and R&B, that never quite materialized.
