Weekly Music Roundup: Alicia Keys, Tyondai Braxton, Piel

Week of Dec. 13: This week, Alicia Keys releases a new album, twice; Leon Bridges and Khruangbin renew their collaboration; and a posthumous film and score by Jóhann Jóhannsson. Plus, new art-rock from L.A.'s Piel, and avant-dance music by Tyondai Braxton. 

Alicia Keys Issues New Album – Twice

Alicia Keys’ new album is called Keys, and it’s a two-record set with a difference. The first disc is a set of songs in “Original” versions, mostly done on her own and having a sound halfway between home recording and polished studio sheen. The second disc presents many of the same songs in “Unlocked” versions, fleshed out with samples (both of the “Original” material and outside sounds) and guests. The song “Nat King Cole” is about putting in the time to make something timeless – “be unforgettable,” she sings, “like Nat King Cole.” Its “Original” version is driven by Keys’ own piano, but it picks up an increasingly cinematic orchestration as it goes, ending up somewhere close to “You Only Live Twice,” the 60s James Bond theme song. The “Unlocked” version has a few studio tricks added, but the main change is an initial verse by Lil Wayne, who takes full advantage of the song’s message to brag about just how memorable, how “unforgettable,” he’s become. It probably should come later in the song, once Keys has established the song’s theme, but then we wouldn’t be treated to the apparently essential sounds of Lil Wayne lighting up a joint, inhaling, and launching into his rap.  

Khruangbin and Leon Bridges Are Together Again

Singer Leon Bridges and the usually-instrumental trio Khruangbin seemed like strange bedfellows when they released their EP Texas Sun, but it turned out pretty well, so now they’ve announced a followup EP called Texas Moon. The lead single is this playfully-titled “B Side” (because as the lead single, it would be the “A side”), which blends Khruangbin’s seemingly effortless surf-funk with Bridges’ classic soul/R&B vocals. Khruangbin themselves have recently added their own voices to their patented blend of Southeast Asian psychedelia and instrumental rock, and they say the new vocal sound is a direct result of working with Bridges. But hey, if Leon says he’s in, you shut up and play and let the big guy sing. 

The video was shot in the J.Lorraine Ghost Town in Texas and echoes the dream-like mood of the song. 

A Striking New Release From Piel

Piel is a group from LA that traffics in arty, urgent rock. There are elements of the shoegaze in the way that vocalist Tiki Lewis floats over the layers of alternately chiming and churning guitars, but also notes of pop and even some R&B on their new EP called A.K.A. Ma. The standout track is probably “Custodian,” based on the idea of living in a utopian world where we don’t own anything and are simply custodians. Fans of 90s alternative and aughts indie-rock will find much to like here.  

Avant-dance music from Tyondai Braxton

Tyondai Braxton, the composer, former frontman of the experimental rock band Battles, and son of avant-garde jazz legend Anthony Braxton, has just released his first new music in five years. “Dia” and “Phonolydian” are the first tracks in what is planned as a series of releases over the next several months, which one assumes will eventually be collected on an LP or EP, depending on how many of them there are. Braxton’s earlier LP Central Market showed off his keen ear for unexpected tone colors, even when working with fairly standard instrumental ensembles. These tracks, though, are electronic. This one, “Phonolydian,” melds glitch electronica to a restrained but recognizable dance beat, and treats current sample-and-hold digital technology the way early DJs treated their turntables. You can even hear echoes of turntable scratching in how Braxton manipulates his fuzzed out, abstract sound bites into something genuinely song-like.  

Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Last and First Men: A Film Score To His Own Movie

In 2018, the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson died, suddenly, at the age of 48 in Berlin. New Sounds listeners had come to know Jóhann as a reliable creator of unusual musical projects, including a theater work that drew on medieval music, and an album built on the sounds of the Iceland’s first mainframe computer. But most people knew him as an award-winning film score composer. The Theory of Everything, Sicario, Arrival, the list goes on. Eventually, Jóhannsson even made a film himself. Last and First Men is based on an astonishing novel by the early sci-fi author Olaf Stapledon that covers two billion years of human history and evolution. The film version consists of somewhat abstract but evocative shots of landscapes and monuments in the Balkans, while Tilda Swinton narrates a message sent to us by our descendants two billions years from now. With no actors, the music does much more of the heavy lifting, and Jóhannsson created a haunted, brooding electroacoustic score. Both the film and the soundtrack were premiered live in Manchester in 2017, with Jóhannsson performing the music with the BBC Philharmonic. But they were not released here until Friday. This track, “A Minor Astronomical Event” (but one which, like the proverbial butterfly flapping its wings, will have major repercussions), has an eerie, almost-vocal sound, and includes the disquieting rumble of Colin Stetson’s bass sax. 

San Fermin Compiles A Pandemic’s Worth Of Collaborations

The band San Fermin has had a variable lineup, but it’s always been led by composer/songwriter Ellis Ludwig-Leone, one of those New York musicians who moves freely between indie pop/rock and contemporary classical music. He’s made good use of his down time during the pandemic, inviting a number of his favorite musician friends to co-write with him. On Friday, under the San Fermin rubric, he released In This House, an EP with 6 of those songs, each featuring a different collaborator. Highlights include the title track, done with composer/arranger Nico Muhly and the Attacca String Quartet; the closer “Nothingness,” featuring chiming indie rockers The Districts; and this song, “My First Life,” done with the duo Wye Oak, who’ve also traveled into contemporary classical circles in recent years. The song surrounds Jenn Wassner’s poetic musings with lush layers of electronic production and Andy Stack’s fitful but propulsive drumming.