MUSIC | RECORDS ALBUM OF THE ISSUE
HIP HOP SAMPA THE GREAT The Return (Ninja Tune) ●●●●●
Naming your debut The Return might seem odd, but it’s worth remembering that this is far from the beginning of Sampa the Great’s story. The Zambia- born, Australia-based artist drew critical acclaim for her 2017 mixtape Birds and the BEE9, and she’s been on a steady rise ever since. But there’s another return being addressed here. ‘I personally feel that
people on the continent have a duty to our family in the diaspora, to re-teach our culture, language, spirituality, ways and return our peeps to ourselves,’ Sampa recently said of new single ‘OMG’, a highlight among near-relentless pleasure points. For an artist who has also lived between Botswana, LA and San Francisco before settling in Melbourne, the musician frequently talks up life at the intersection of various identities, and the result is an album that sounds as rich and vibrant as a life lived across continents. ‘Music is my way of expressing my return, my self, my beginnings,’ the title track proclaims, and suddenly the eponymous return feels as much a journey as an arrival. Sampa’s greatest weapon is frequently the element of surprise. Tracks
like ‘Summer’ and ‘Don’t Give Up’ are positively soporific in places, lulling the listener through the record before something like ‘Time’s Up’ comes and blows it all up. There’s a raft of collaborators across the album’s 19 tracks, all of which promises an exhausting listen which blessedly never arrives. Could The Return get Sampa the Great’s foot firmly in the door of the
music industry? We’ll let her answer that one, on the gloriously horn- laden track ‘Final Form’: ‘Nah, knock the walls off. Fuck the whole key, we gonna hinge the whole door off.’ (Matthew Neale) ■ Out Fri 13 Sep.
INDIE BROKEN CHANTER Broken Chanter (Olive Grove and Last Night From Glasgow) ●●●●●
In search of inspiration for his debut solo album, David MacGregor (of Kid Canaveral fame) headed for the Highlands to immerse himself in the rugged vistas of Skye and Ardnamurchan. The product of these isolated weeks of writing and demo-recording is the eponymous Broken Chanter; a title that could double as a tongue-in-cheek description of the sombre singer himself. Pairing catchy choruses and post-pop grooves, with melancholic, self-deprecating lyrics about ageing and resilience, MacGregor offers up a tasty slice of Scottish indie avant-pop, shot through with streams of folk and electronica, that fans of the Twilight Sad or Frightened Rabbit will meet with glee. Many of the highlights of the record come when MacGregor experiments with field recordings: the opening track ‘Nineteen Ninety-Eight’ features a recording of a Japanese freight train that lies in a bath of huge, almost rave-y synths and swooping fiddle lines, before a galloping, drum-heavy groove thunders in. The contrast in mood and scale between the first two tracks is perhaps the most stark illustration of what MacGregor does best on this album: from a sweeping, anthemic soundscape, the music deftly zooms right in, to an intimate, hushed guitar line in the first few bars of the waltzing ‘Should We Be Dancing’. Another ambient peak comes on the sparkly ‘Mionagadanan’, which sounds exactly like its name; a previously lost Gaelic term for the twinkling dust particles caught in a ray of sunlight shining through a window.
These more cinematic moments are interspersed among solid, indie pop-rock tracks, yet they do leave you keen for some more daring experimentation that never quite materialises. But the sweetest melodic moments (‘Don’t Move to Denmark’) and the danciest choruses (‘Beside Ourselves’) definitely make up for the less memorable stuff in between, in music that marries traditional and contemporary influences to make an album that is somehow just so very . . . Scottish. (Kate Walker) ■ Out Fri 6 Sep.
INDIE POP FRANKIE COSMOS Close It Quietly (Sub Pop) ●●●●● ALTERNATIVE GRUFF RHYS Pang! (Rough Trade) ●●●●●
‘Does anyone wanna hear/the forty songs I wrote this year?’ Greta Kline offers on New York indie rockers Frankie Cosmos’ forthcoming album Close It Quietly. Only half of the output of this characteristically prolific spurt of creativity has made it onto the band’s fourth full-length LP, which comprises 21 songs (only one of which passes the three minute mark). Like a scrapbook of incidental sketches and thoughts, the album retains their trademark twee, anti-folk aesthetic, and radiates ephemeral punk energy. What binds this collection together is consistent yet distinct sonic textures, and Kline’s soft, confidential vocal. The quartet’s lineup has further solidified with what was once Kline’s ‘backing band’ now each bringing irreplaceable elements to the sound. Lauren Martin’s whimsical synth lines add a particularly lovely layer of lightness to Alex Bailey’s climbing basslines and Luke Pyenson’s taut drum fills. A hushed assurance of sonic identity matches the understated profundity of Kline’s lyricism. This is poetry which is complex in mundanity, much like that of the band’s namesake and Kline’s once-moniker Frank O’Hara, famous for his diaristic observations of the small beauties of everyday New York City life.
The opening lines of Close It Quietly (‘The world is crumbling/and I don’t
have much to say’) are a sarcastic nod at how these sometimes heartbreaking, endearingly goofy lyrics are deeply personal, yet outwards facing. ‘Flowers don’t grow/in an organised way/why should I?’ is the
A decade has passed since Super Furry Animals released their last album Dark Days/Light Years but Gruff Rhys continues to be a relentless creative force. Following hot on the heels of 2018’s orchestral triumph Babelsberg, Pang! is yet another intriguing step from one of indie’s great innovators. The lyrical content of Babelsberg addressed tyranny, socio-political uncertainty
and environmental fears both directly and metaphorically. On the face of it, the largely Welsh-language Pang! shies away from making big direct statements but Rhys’ decision to collaborate with the South African electronic artist Muzi naturally invites us to consider the joys of working with people from other cultures; the partnership is a thrilling one. The polyrhythmic two-punch of the opening title track and ‘Bae Bae Bae’ hustle and bustle like a busy marketplace, with Gavin Fitzjohn’s frantic brass adding to the excitement.
Pang! also contains the poppiest thing Rhys has recorded in the last decade and possibly ever, ‘Ara Deg (Ddaw’r Awen)’, which wouldn’t have been out of place on the last two Vampire Weekend albums. It’s a song that begs to be played over and over again; with interweaving, hook-laden melodies and a bouncing groove that’s reminiscent of Animal Collective at their most whimsical. It’s up there with his career highlights.
The most enjoyable songs on Pang! are the boldest; after ‘Ara Deg’ the album settles into a more stripped back place with ‘Niwl O Anwiredd’, ‘Eli
characteristically astute line that speaks to this record not marking any significant ‘progression’ from Frankie Cosmos’ previous releases. Each brief track on Close It Quietly is a poetic journal entry with a pearly surface but a spiral of deeper meanings at its centre – much like the marbles on the album artwork – in a testament to the non-linear messiness of growth and finding little moments of joy in today’s crumbling world. (Kate Walker) ■ Out Fri 6 Sep. Haul’ and ‘Taranau Mai. They feel less adventurous coming after that opening run, a point reaffirmed by the closing ‘Annedd Im Dannedd’, which sends Pang! out with glorious fanfare. It could have been interesting to hear a whole record’s worth of Rhys and Muzi really doubling down on the links between Cardiff and Johannesburg, but as it is, Pang! is another marvellous collection from one of the best songwriters of his generation. (Craig Angus) ■ Out Fri 13 Sep.
80 THE LIST 1 Sep–31 Oct 2019