Feb 2024

WOODHOUSE FINDS

A Glimpse of Enlightenment - Saphileaum

A lovely set of songs that fit snugly in the category of “outsider house” which has come to mean a radiant, cozy batch of danceable music: if danceable means holding a cup of tea in one hand while grooving. Georgian producer Saphileaum has a knack for instruments that are both rhythmic and harmonic, plucking away at guitar harmonics, tuned drums and thumb pianos that give an effortless sense of flow and movement to his heartfelt melodies.

The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain - Tapir!

Now that is an album title. But before you get afraid that you’re diving into some prog-rock nonsense–well you kinda are but it’s much more cozy than usual. The excellently named Tapir! are a UK 6 piece in a parallel route to fellow English experimentalists Squid and black midi, but with a much softer edge. Following a bewildering story that seems to be one part Canterbury Tales, one part break up with god, Tapir! draw deeply from XTC’s Skylarking, progressive pop using its more surreal side to tug and play at the heartstrings.

Any Light - Loving

I make fun of my dad a lot for listening to “wimp rock” from the ‘70s. You know: America, Bread, James Taylor. But I’ll be damned if Vancouver duo Loving didn’t hit the nostalgia and dopamine buttons in my head with this lovely pastiche. The singing is a dead ringer for the soothing coo of Jose Gonzales, and the arrangements are yacht rock perfection.

a bit of a mad one. - glaive

Emo-pop vunderkind glavie is back and so I am I as his defender.

S/T by Porcelain

Monstrously heavy in production and emotion, Austin homies Porcelain ride the edge between screamo and late ‘90s alt-rock. That means it’s catchy while you cry!

Imerro - C. Diab

I now work in an archive with over a 1000 vinyl records and a few hundred 78s hiding in a dusty room called “The Stacks.” I feel like C. Diab and his hissing world emanated from the heart of those lost records. Tapes, reverbed out guitar and distant stabs of violin make Imerro enchanting but not in a traditional hooky or even on the level of sheer beauty sense. It feels more like peeking into another world, bound by new laws. The fleeting glimpse confusing as it is wonderous.

On Thin Air - Ryan J Raffa & Nico Rosenberg

The recent discovery of the excellent Japanese record label Muzan Editions has added a sense of ease and ambience to my mornings, and this is the finest album of the bunch.

There Must Be Something Here - acloudyskye

Mystery zoomer acloudyskye gives their shoegazey hyper pop two interesting twists: actual hooks and an intelligible a voice. And what a voice it is! acloudyskye’s riveting baritone invites comparisons to Editors or Johnny Flynn, giving the buzzy catchiness an emotional anchor.

Twelfth House - Magic Tuber String Band

Lovely, thoughtful instrumental folk that brings to mind long nights around the hearth.

Mustang - Kings of Leon

Fuck you the new KOL is good.

Sri Lanka - Heems

“I’m like Hugh Jackman/ I’m a huge jacked man.”