This week, Peter Gabriel’s new album i/o, finally; plus Czarface returns; Nailah Hunter previews her debut LP, and Montreal-based vocalist and composer Erika Angell's solo album.
Peter Gabriel Completes The Rollout Of His New Album
In one of the more quixotic album releases in recent years, Peter Gabriel has spent 2023 essentially putting out his album i/o one track at a time, issuing one song for each full moon of the year. “Live And Let Live” is the final song – the last to be written, the last to be released, and the last cut on the now-finally-completed album. Featuring guests like Brian Eno and The Soweto Gospel Choir in addition to his usual band, “Live And Let Live” is a hymn of sorts, a plea for forgiveness and empathy as the only way to anything approaching peace. “Lay your weapons down,” Gabriel sings, “lay your burden down.” He name-checks William Blake and Martin Luther King Jr, among others, and builds the song to a rousing chorus that turns the hymn into an anthem. The full i/o is actually a double album – each track has two different mixes; this is the “bright side mix” of “Live and Let Live.”
Nailah Hunter’s New Song Is A Strange Delight
The LA-based harpist and singer Nailah Hunter has released a new song from her upcoming debut LP, which is due in January. “Strange Delights” is a steadily building piece of electronic art-pop; Hunter says the song has “a more golden quality that reminds me of a hazy and intoxicated feast.” The synthesizer loop and the deeply-reverbed vocals certainly add a haze to the sound, but it’s grounded in a beat that becomes slightly more insistent each time it comes around. The video, meanwhile, takes us to a post-apocalyptic world where crocodilians with glowing eyes swim past the ruins of human activity – a strange delight indeed.
Czarface Return To Sounds Of Classic Hip Hop And Comic Book Culture
With the Wu-Tang Clan having concluded their big 30th anniversary tour, we’re beginning to see the various members of that hip hop collective releasing other projects. The latest is Inspectah Deck, who has once again teamed up with Boston’s Esoteric and 7L for a new album under their Czarface moniker. Czartificial Intelligence blends some old school boom-bap production with imagery from comic books and sci fi, while still acknowledging the struggle to overcome real life obstacles. “All That For A Drop Of Blood,” for example, refers to both the zombie TV series The Last Of Us and growing up poor with “old photographs – how I got to know my father.” Surprisingly glittery layers of synthesizer add a cosmic dimension to a song that, for all its many other references, has its feet firmly on the ground: “I just need the loyalty/hold the stardom,” raps Esoteric (and 7L echoes the line later in the song).
Unsettled Beauty In Erika Angell’s Solo Debut
Swedish-born, Montreal-based vocalist and composer Erika Angell has just released the first track from her upcoming solo album – a first for her after years with experimental bands like Thus Owls and The Moth. The “song” (might not be quite the right word here) is called “Dress of Stillness,” and features Angell’s voice in both its natural state and pitch-shifted down an octave to create an eerie second musical line. Meanwhile the layers of synthesizer shimmer and simmer behind her, creating a sense of unease that reminds me of nothing so much as Scott Walker’s later albums. Her sound may be more fluid, but Angell has done an alarmingly good job of capturing that ominous tone of Walker’s music.
Hear Dr. John, Solo, On A Riverboat in 1984
The setting is almost too good to be true. On April 27, 1984, the late New Orleans pianist, singer, and songwriter Mac Rebennack – better known as Dr. John – performed a solo set on the SS President, a riverboat that was based for several decades in the Crescent City. Tapes were rolling, but Dr. John’s set was never released, until now. Solo Piano Live In New Orleans 1984 features his usual musical stew, comprised of stride, funk, jazz, and R&B, and includes this version of the old folk song “Stack A Lee,” or “Stagger Lee” as it’s more commonly known. Dr. John had recorded this on his 1972 album Dr. John’s Gumbo, but to hear him growl through this tale of gunplay in front of a hometown crowd is almost too much fun.