October can’t stop, won’t stop. This is the third week in a row there have been more than 10 items in Indie Basement and while this week is slightly smaller than last week, it’s not by much. Quality is a little higher, though. I review 10 new albums including the latest from Katie Von Schleicher, Lost Girls (Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden), former Lush co-leader Emma Anderson, Sleaford Mods, Maria BC, Crime & the City Solution, Pip Blom, Rat Columns, Sondre Lerche, and Screensaver, plus 40th anniversary reissues from Soft Cell and The Three O’Clock.
It’s an even bigger week in Notable Releases, with Andrew reviewing 15 records, including The Rolling Stones blink-182, Sampha, Bombay Bicycle Club, and 11 more.
If you live in NYC and are looking for something to do tonight (10/20), BrooklynVegan is presenting UK group Girl Ray at The Sultan Room in Bushwick. Their album, Prestige, is one of my favorites of the year and it should be fun time. Hope to see you there.
Head below for this week’s dozen reviews…
ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Katie Von Schleicher – A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night (Sipsman)
Katie Von Schleicher’s witty and wonderful third album is her best yet
As opening lines go, Katie Von Schleicher has a doozy for her third album, sung in airy harmonies with giddy strings: “When you’re mourning the past, you’ll try to remember your ass / When I was 25, Amy said do your naked portraits now.” Maybe not as succinct as “Call me Ishmael,” but just as punchy. Funnier, too. The song, “Montagnard People,” is gorgeous stuff, a portrait of lockdown watching Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson movies in the middle of the night while doubting your own worth that has been lushly orchestrated with horns, conga-embellished percussions, fluid bass and those aforementioned strings. “Honestly my tight five needs work,” she sings later in the song, but A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night (a title that nods to Nilsson) shows Katie has a full set loaded with zingers that will make you laugh and touch your heart.
Katie is ever further away from her lo-fi beginnings than she was on 2020’s Consummation. Like that one, she made it with Sam “Evian” Owens and a full stable of talented friends, including her Wilder Maker bandmates (Gabriel Birnbaum did those swoon-worthy string arrangements) and this one dives even further into the ethereal ’70s, musically recalling everything from Nilsson to Minnie Riperton to Melanie, but it’s her insightful lyrics — witty without pulling you out of the moment — that make this all such a wonderful album. “I wish that I could just get high and drool,” she sings on “Elixir,” a duet with Lady Lamb, “It’s factual that all our brains unspooled / so if compassion is a gutter ball / then let the good time have you after all.”
The great songs are plentiful: “Bottle It?” finds Katie in a vulnerable state, as she sings, “I want one hand on my cheek, a joke inside your mouth / to love and not with fear to feel the whole thing out” against gentle baroque backing; while the whispered “400 Pillows” has her staying in bed (“do you want to be famous / or like me, aimless? / sometimes it feels too much / and i duck it / an alarm going off under 400 pillows”); closer “Janine” — the most delicate song on the album — Katie describes as a “love song for assholes.”
I am not a “lyrics person,” except when I am (Pulp, Pavement, The Smiths, David Berman, for example) and Katie is in that class for me. That her melodies are just as surprising and enticing — the key changes in “Elixir,” everything about the soaring rock of “Overjoyed” — makes A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night a delight that gets better with every listen.
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Lost Girls – Selvutsletter (Smalltown Supersound)
Second album from the duo of Jenny Hval & Håvard Volden brings the guitars but keeps the dark vibe intact
Longtime collaborators Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden made things official in 2018 as Lost Girls, a project where studio improvisations get turned into haunted, trancelike bangers. Their make-it-up-as-you-go-along ethos even applies to their album titles: their 2021 full-length debut Menneskekollektivet was a made up Norwegian mouthful that kinda translated to “the human mouthful,” and their second album’s title, Selvutsletter, means “self-effacer” with the duo elaborating, “Someone who tries to erase themselves. Or perhaps just getting older, less interested in their own present self.”
Selvutsletter was born out of opportunity: booked to play a special show at Les Subsistances in Lyon, Hval and Volden decided to write all new music for the performance designed to work as a cohesive whole. While they started their process the same way — Volden providing beats and guitar riffs and Hval manipulating them and adding new ones along with vocals — the results were very different than Lost Girls’ debut. These were shorter songs with less emphasis on dance rhythms and more on song structure and melody. The album starts off in similar territory to Menneskekollektivet, though; “Timed Intervals” is all sleek, minimal beats, slow moving glaciers of synthesizers, and a powerhouse vocal from Jenny who distorts her voice digitally during one of the real belt-it-out moments. But the song, which is in Bjork Homogenic territory, feels much more like a song than the fantastic, meticulously tweaked accidents of their first album, and that follows suit through the rest of the record.
And gets better. “With the Other Hand,” the second song, is the most striking on the album and full of bold contrasts, with furiously — yet gently — strummed guitar, clubby beats, whispered verses and a soaring chorus. Selvutsletter is also much more of a guitar record than Menneskekollektivet, with a few songs (“Ruins,” “June 1996”) that veer into indie rock territory. Guitar plays a featured role in even the most electronic numbers, like the trance-inducing “Jeg slutter meg selv.” The album finishes with the eerie, hypnotic “Sea White,” a siren song that stretches across nearly 10 minutes of beautiful, placid unease. It’s a striking end to a terrific record. Where will Lost Girls find themselves next?
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Emma Anderson – Pearlies (Sonic Cathedral)
The Lush co-leader teamed with Maps’ James Chapman for her first-ever solo album
Emma Anderson needed some convincing to go solo, saying she prefers the collaboration, anonymity and support system being in a band provides. Apart from co-leading Lush, whose 2016 reunion she thought was going to last longer than it did, her only other musical project was as one half of short-lived duo Sing-Sing. Anderson had written a few things for what she expected to be a new Lush album but when the band went bust again, she let those song fragments stay where they were until Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie (who produced Lush’s debut album) encouraged her to finish and sing on them. Guthrie was originally going to produce the album but when Covid hit, that was put on hold and label Sonic Cathedral suggested Maps’ James Chapman instead. One wonders what an Emma Anderson solo album produced and probably featuring guitar by Guthrie would be like, but it definitely wouldn’t have sounded like Pearlies.
There was always a little bit of baroque folk lurking in Anderson’s songs with Lush, and Chapman helps bring all that to the fore. “I didn’t want to form a traditional four piece band to record these songs, so I needed a producer who was a whizz-kid programmer and arranger and James is just that. I like recording straight into software as it gives you the freedom to experiment with sounds and textures quickly and easily that using a more traditional set-up sometimes does not.” Chapman adds synthesizers, but never makes these songs sound anything like Maps; they add background shading and atmosphere, an ethereal cloud of autumn foliage swirling around Anderson and her guitar. Opener “I Was Miles Away” sets the tone for the album. It’s clearly from the same artist who gave us “Thoughtforms” and “Nothing Natural,” but with an arrangement that includes oboe, we’re in very different territory. “Willow and Mallow,” meanwhile, echoes The Wicker Man soundtrack and is one of a few songs on the album to feature Suede guitarist Richard Oakes. Standout cut “The Presence” drops in a nod to Budgie from Siouxsie & The Banshees in an otherwise not-at-all gothy song. In an era where artists are trying to repeat their past, Anderson is moving forward while never letting you forget where she’s from.
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Sleaford Mods – More UK Grim (Rough Trade)
Loved this year’s ‘UK Grim’? Sleaford Mods have ‘More’ where that came from
Sleaford Mods current album UK Grim was their most varied album to date, bringing in new sounds and styles to their usual bile-a-minute style. There’s more where that came from on this new companion EP featuring five songs that didn’t make the album. These may be even more rabble-rousing than anything on the album, with Jason Williamson setting his sights on “crying purists” and “moaning pricks” (“Old Nottz”), conspiracy theorists (“Big Pharma”), and other worthy targets. Andrew Fearn is also getting more adventurous in his production and arrangements, with more overtly electronic backing than we’ve had before, be it wobbly synthpop, wub-wub EDM, or skipping 2-step garage. The latter is at the center of “PO Crazy,” a serious banger about that contains my favorite insult on the album: “I’ll tweet you so hard you’ll puke all over your bedroom.” The EP’s other highlight is the wickedly funny “My 18hr Girdle” that’s powered by mad drum-and-bass backing that recalls peak Aphex Twin. For a group now fully in middle age who could’ve been a flash-in-the-pan novelty, Sleaford Mods’ continued relevance and awesomeness is heartening in a grim world.
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Maria BC – Spike Field (Sacred Bones)
Maria BC goes widescreen on their excellent second album
Maria BC’s second album is a major step up and out, sonically, from last year’s relatively spare Hyaline which was made in their bedroom while trying not to disturb roommates. Spike Field was recorded in a friend’s house with no worries of waking anyone up and it shows, with Maria letting their classically trained mezzo-soprano pipes fly free across equally gossamer arrangements. This is still “ambient folk” but it stretches across the horizon. The nylon string guitars and detuned piano wash over you like waves, as synthesizers swell up from below the earth. The album may have been named after giant thorny granite structures designed to warn people against nuclear waste radiation that will last thousands of years, but this Spike Field is warm and inviting.
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Crime & The City Solution – the killer (Mute)
First album in 10 years from Simon Bonney and Bronwyn Adams’ long-running group
the killer is the first Crime & the City Solution album in a decade and its creation story is unusual. Simon Bonney got the idea while applying for a doctorate degree. “I sat and I pieced together a PhD application about decision making in Afghanistan in the late ‘80s,” Bonney says. “But, as it turned out, it was actually more of a record than it was a PhD.” The PhD program had Bonney travelling around the world — the Indo-Pacific region, particularly — delivering aid programs. Witnessing places with high levels of violence made a profound impact on him and shaped the album. “In the face of such uncertainty, there was this incredible resilience that seemed to be born of accepting life as it was at that moment, no matter how challenging.” These seven lengthy songs, made with partner Bronwyn Adams and various sidemen, bear the weight of those situations, as well as people’s resilience, all delivered in the group’s signature swaggering, weary style. “Will there be peace in my time,” Bonney asks. He finds no answers, but glimmers of hope peak through the mournful arrangements.
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The Three O’Clock – Sixteen Tambourines (40th Anniversary Edition) (Yep Roc)
One of the best albums to come from the ’80s Paisley Underground scene gets a remastered vinyl edition for its ruby anniversary
One fan of Los Angeles’ early-’80s “Paisley Underground” scene, where bands rebelled against ’80s sythpop for a sound influenced by The Velvet Underground and The Byrds, was Prince who would go through his own psych period with 1985’s Around the World in a Day. He gave “Manic Monday” to The Bangles, but The Three O’Clock were the only Paisley Underground band to sign to Prince’s Paisley Park. By that point (1988’s Vermillion), The Three O’Clock were using lots of synthesizers and drum machines — perhaps more than they actually wanted to — and that album today sounds very dated. But just five years earlier, The Three O’Clock released their debut album, Sixteen Tambourines, which holds up remarkably well. Produced by Earl Mankey, who was an original member of Sparks, the album features bassist/singer Michael Querico’s very catchy songwriting and a sound that wasn’t overly beholden to the past the way fellow Paisley Underground groups The Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade were. (His high and fey voice, though, was a dealbreaker for some.) Harpsichord sits next to modern keyboards and crunchy production. The album includes “Jet Fighter,” one of the great Paisley Underground singles, but it’s loaded with great songs, including “And So We Run,” the Monkees-eque “Fall to the Ground,” a terrific cover of baroque-era Bee-Gees song “In My Own Time,” and lots more. It’s a groovy good time.
Yep Roc has reissued the album on green vinyl for its 40th anniversary, with remastered sound and new cover art featuring never-before-seen photos of the band from the era.
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Soft Cell – Non Stop Erotic Cabaret (40th anniversary box set) (Mercury-EMI/UMR)
One of the iconic synthpop albums of the original era gets a fantastic 40th anniversary box set
Synthpop groups, the ones with eyes on the Top 40 anyway, presented a shiny future, a Brave New World. As Soft Cell, Marc Almond and Dave Ball used the same bouncing tones as Depeche Mode and The Human League but were much more interested in carnal pleasures, forbidden romance, the parts of town most people don’t admit they visit, and the juxtaposition between your public face and how you really live. “I used to wonder about these really glamorous people,” Almond told Sounds at the time, ” What do they look like doing the dishes?” Almond loved the trashy glamor of Alan Vega and Martin Rev’s Suicide, while Ball was a fan of Northern Soul, and that gave Soft Cell their sound: ’60s pop played on machines and drug through the gutter. This is exemplified on their cover of Ed Cobb’s 1964 song “Tainted Love,” originally recorded by Gloria Jones, which gave the duo a worldwide smash, but the whole album follows in lurid, technicolor fashion, a fluorescent-lit portrait of a sleazy city where anything goes.
For its 40th anniversary, Soft Cell have given Cabaret the Deluxe Edtiion box set treatment. It features a remastered version of the original album, plus full-length versions of the songs, single versions, their lauded 12″ versions which predated rave culture by nearly a decade, b-sides, new remixes, alternate mixes, rarities, radio sessions, demos, instrumentals, the album played live at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo in November 2021, and more. There are 98 tracks total, 40 of which are previously unreleased. That’s a lot — maybe too much for most — and for those who need slightly less, there’s a double-LP version with the remastered album on the first disc and a choice selection of single mixes, 12″ mixes and b-sides on the second which is all essential. If you’ve never gone past “Tainted Love,” now is a good time to explore.
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Screensaver – Decent Shapes (Poison City / Upset the Rhythm)
Melbourne, Australia’s Screensaver originally began as a collaboration between Christopher Stephenson (Spray Paint/Exek) and Krystal Maynard (Bad Vision/ex Polo) but grew into a four-piece with the addition of Giles Fielke (ex Low Tide) and James Beck (Personal Touch/ex Rat Columns) on bass and drums. Decent Shapes is the band’s second album and is a real dark-n-angsty dance-party, full of angular guitars, synth blasts, skronky horns and chant-along choruses. There is some dissonance, as you’d expect, but the album is well produced and full of hooks, and “The Guilt,” “Future Trash,” and “Severance Pay” could be mixed into a playlist with The Cure, Gang of Four, and Romeo Void and no one would bat an eye. Or stop dancing.
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Rat Columns – Babydoll (Tough Love)
David West stomps on the fuzzbox for Rat Columns’ scuzziest record to date, but the pop melodies are still there
Rat Columns is for all intents and purposes David West, who was in Total Control and also made records as Lace Curtain and Rank/Xerox, and while with this moniker he tends to explore classic UK indie guitar music, his records also bend to his whims. 2021’s Pacific Kiss was bright, jangly and bathed in ’60s organs (very Felt), but for Rat Columns’ fifth album, West has headed into dirgier, shoegazier territory, with an emphasis on fuzz-and-reverb-drenched guitars that gets into Crazy Horse territory occasionally. More than any other Rat Columns record, Babydoll‘s sound matches West’s mopey vocal style. Part of this may be that the album was recorded with an actual band, giving everything a live-in-studio feel. West still delivers some wonderful pop melodies but, apart from the airy “Jane, I Live For You” and “December,” they’re delivered with the grungy force of a Mack Truck.
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Sondre Lerche – Understudy (PLZ)
The jazzy Norwegian pop singer covers Drake, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and more on this album recorded over the last 10 years
Sondre Lerche has lived in the US since the early-2010s (Brooklyn and LA) but he always goes home to Norway for the Holidays and one of his traditions is to record a current pop hit in his own style. Over the last 10 or so years those have included Taylor Swift’s “Anti-hero,” Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More,” and Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.” He amassed enough of them that he finally decided to release them as an album, which is out today. I am a mostly unreformed Gen X indie snob who hasn’t listened to Top 40 radio in 25 years but I am a fan of Sondre, and the fun he clearly had recording these — some of which sound as big as the originals (but in different ways) — during the festive season comes through. He also included a few bonus covers, which fall closer to Indie Basement territory: Prefab Sprout’s “Moving the River,” Henry Mancini’s “Moon River,” and Scott Walker’s “The Plague.” I wonder what he’ll cover when he goes home this year?
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Pip Blom – Bobbie (Heavenly)
Pivot! The Dutch indie rockers get a synth makeover for their third album
Who saw this coming? After two albums of bright indie rock, Dutch group Pip Blom have made synthesizers and drum machines a big component of their sound on their third album. Produced by Dave McCracken, whose credits include Jay-Z and Faithless, Bobbie bubbles with effervescent arrangements made for the dancefloor. It’s a bit like they’ve time traveled back 20 years, and you could imagine them playing “Tiger,” “Kiss Me By the Candlelight” and “Can I Be Your Man” on a bill with The Sounds, New Young Pony Club and Clor. Adding to that vibe is Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos who guests on “Is This Love?” “I want to start again,” they sing on closer “7 Weeks” but it’s clear they’re already there.
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