Favourite Five Recent Releases

Five of the best albums from the recent postings at Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you're looking for a quick fix.

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Dead Famous People: “Harry” (Fire Records/Southbound/digital outlets)

9 Oct 2020  |  1 min read

Perhaps more spoken about than heard, Donna Savage's band Dead Famous People tapped into a shamelessly enjoyable mainline of power pop in the late Eighties which was as uplifting as it was melodic. But after their emergence and swept up a little by a brief Flying Nun association, they left for London where the Brits – other than John Peel – were largely indifferent to... > Read more

Dog

Cooper-Moore and Stephen Gauci: Conversations, Vol 1 (577 Records/digital outlets)

7 Oct 2020  |  1 min read

No one would say free jazz is easy and perhaps the case can be made that it should by definition be difficult. It is here, because with this duo the listener just has to go with it, clinging on as the players follow their instincts into furious flights of saxophone passages and stentorian piano or down blind alleys, creating dialogues or competing monologues, going into... > Read more

Sola Rosa: Chasing the Sun (Kartel/Border/digital outlets)

25 Sep 2020  |  1 min read

There's a swag of retro-soul around right now: from Troy Kingi repurposing and sometimes replicating the styles of the late Sixties/early Seventies on his album The Ghost of Freddie Cesar, through the sensitive/falsetto-ache of many young pretenders who never offend on an innocuous Spotify playlist (but don't make a distinctive impression). And now the long-running Sola Rosa (Andrew... > Read more

The Flaming Lips: American Head (Bella Union/digital outlets)

14 Sep 2020  |  2 min read

Longtime fans of Oklahoma's Flaming Lips – the pivotal figure being the delightfully humorous but here deadly serious Wayne Coyne -- know how frustrating they can be. Elsewhere goes as far back as Transmissions from the Satellite Heart ('93) and even before that courtesy of the '98 triple CD compilation Finally the Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid 1983-1988. But their digressions... > Read more

Throwing Muses: Sun Racket (Fire/digital outlets)

7 Sep 2020  |  1 min read

It's idle but interesting to speculate on how this 10thalbum by the decades-long Throwing Muses would be received if it was the debut by some hitherto unknown group. Those who have followed the career of key Muse Kristin Hersh have long been used to her often dark, brooding and sometimes explosive songs. But newcomers may be suitably enchanted by the pure spirit of... > Read more