New Tunes 23.6.2023

Hello music lovers! 🎵

I've managed to put together a #newtunes selection for the weekend and beyond! And summer has started.
Open-air festivals time, bands and fans are already cruising the countryside, and the sea and summer music are calling! It's going to be a fun and happy couple of summer months.
What do you say?

As usual, the #newtunes selection is from a variety of music genres with well-known and unknown (yet) musicians.
If you don't like something you can skip it or comment. Well, you can comment anyway :)

Music4life

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Paul Simon - The Lord / Love is Like A Braid

Paul Simon, who I won't introduce, but I assume music lovers know him, has released his fifteenth solo album, "Seven Psalms". With it, he has opened many doors, especially by searching for spirituality in the turbulent contradictions of today's world, following the model of the 'Book of Psalms'. The Psalms are 33 minutes long, and in one way they can be listened to as protest songs against today's digital discography, which in principle insists on songs 3-4 minutes long.
Psalm "The Lord" begins with thoughts about the great migration through which Simon finds the supreme and the contrasts of everything that human senses perceive, from the stones on which one walks to the silver moon, from tribal songs to welcoming a stranger on one's doorstep, but also from rising ocean levels to covid virus.
This album is sure to be one of the 81-year-old artist's more important works.

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Queens Of The Stone Age - Time And Place

QOTSA released their eighth studio album "In Times New Roman..." last Friday, after great expectations.
Anticipation was great, and the first reactions, both from the audience and the critics, are unique in their praise. The album's hyper-present sound makes you feel like you're in tune with the players.
All the while, the arrangements grow to reveal shattered vulnerability, lonely intimacy, terror, determination, and mind-shattering desolation. The recordings project a deep belief in the power of sound and a desperate desire to connect with the listener at the deepest level. They respect every moment of the listener's attention and dedication. Rock music at its best.
I highly recommend the whole album.

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Micke Bjorklof & Blue Strip - Colors Of Jealousy

Finnish blues musician Micke Bjorklof (vocals, mouth harmonica and guitar) and his band Blue Strip have released a new album "Colors Of Jealousy". Things have never been easy or simple for Finnish blues (who in the world listens to Finnish blues?).
But Micke hasn't given up and has been on the road since 1991, and after all these years it has paid off. In those 30 years his music has become recognized and appreciated in blues circles, and his latest album which "mixes groovy electric & acoustic rockin' blues with innovative "fonky" New Orleans rhythm & soul" has attracted attention globally.
I recommend listening to the whole album.

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Blur - The Narcissist

After eight years of inactivity (actually the frontman and guitarist are very active in the even more popular virtual band Gorillaz), the English band Blur are releasing their ninth studio album "The Ballad Of Darren" in the second half of July this year.
With the announcement came the first single from this album "The Narcissist" which frontman Damon Albarn says is "actually a record of stress, a reflection and commentary on the state we're in at the moment".
For fans of the classic Brit-Pop sound, it will be just right.

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Skinny Pelembe - Don't Be Another

Yorkshire musician Skinny Pelembe, real name Doya Beardmore, is a new name for me. In his second album, Hardly The Same Snake, he has decided to release a set of sumptuous and genre-spanning tracks that are perfect for listening to as the sun sets on late summer evenings.
Crooner vocals like the Young Fathers, or the blues-oriented King Krule, the interweaving of groove, synth-jazz melodies, and hip-hop urban style, give us a touch of the so-called "schmaltz", or exaggerated sentimentality and sweetness, but not with a derogatory connotation.
With this album he has certainly found some of his own original expressiveness and it will be interesting to follow him further. This song, "Don't Be Another", has all the necessary elements to become a summer hit.

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WITCH - Waile

We are fortunate nowadays to have a one-click glimpse into the diversity of the world's music scenes, which were created in the last century by the fusion of local musical traditions and popular genres from the West.
Witch is a new band for me, but it comes from Zambia, where it has been active for forty years. Witch, which is actually an acronym for "We Intend To Cause Havoc", broke up with garage rock on their first albums, later strayed into more progressive-psychedelic waters and finally, in a slightly reworked line-up, flirted with disco.
The success of last year's European tour and the enthusiasm of their audiences convinced them to persevere with their music, and in April this year, they released Zango.
Very dynamic music, flirting with afrobeat and funk, with a sometimes dirty guitar sound that twists and turns in wah-wah influences, as if from the distant eighties, but still modern and danceable. Recommended.

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Ascended Dead - Ungodly Death

Hailing from the Californian death metal underground, Ascended Death has been on the scene since 2011, appearing on a multitude of demos, EPs, releases, and compilations, and this year they released their second album, "Evenfall of the Acopalypse".
They create a real claustrophobic atmosphere in their sound, and in relatively short tracks they torture us with hundreds of intricate guitar riffs, rhythmic drum jumps and excellent production in an already over-chewed death metal style.
The track Ubgodly Death is exactly that and I'm sure fans will be impressed.

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Gov't Mule - After The Storm

Government Mule is an American southern rock jam band, performing since 1994. I met them in 2015 when I heard their album "The Dark Side Of The Mule", where they play covers of Pink Floyd. As a Floyd fan, I always follow bands that play their covers and Mule appealed to me because they have a different grace to this British psychedelic music. (Of course, it's in my music collection).
Well, I was reminded of their latest album last week by my Hive music friend @w74 and I'm grateful to him because the album is excellent (and will end up in my collection). I recommend listening to the whole album.