Sims
More Than Ever
Doomtree (2016)
Sims is something of a firebrand on his early work, spitting political vitriol and pointing fingers outward and in on records like Lights Out Paris and Bad Time Zoo. This time around, the Minneapolis rapper is looking even more inward on the new More Than Ever, a record that pushes expectation beyond the hard-hitting beats and spitfire lyricism with echo-y and dreamlike tracks interjected through the more traditional beat-heavy songs.The album is an interesting experience between his more traditionally structured “OneHundred” or “What They Don’t Know” mixed in with the ambient tones of “Spinning Away” or the dreamy “Gosper Island.” He twists tongues and drops observant and descriptive rhymes through it all but it’s a new tone that gets heavy and hard before drifting into a no man’s land, sort of the hip-hop equivalent of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s mind subspace (for all you Bryan Lee O’Malley fans out there). The record feels like a journey, but not one with an ending -- more of a snippet from a winding road along an epic. There are struggles, highs and lows, but no real resolution. The onesheet notes the festive moments of the record, but I hear more introspection than … Read more
40 Watt Sun
Wider than the Sky
Radiance Records (2016)
40 Watt Sun hold a special place in the hearts of those who have heard their music and been affected … Read more
Courteeners
Mapping the Rendezvous
Ignition Records (2016)
Written in Paris while the city was still reeling in the aftermath of the November 2015 attacks, Mapping the Rendezvous … Read more
Dean Ween Group
The Deaner Record
ATO (2016)
I’ve never met Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, the two-headed songwriting duo of Ween, but I have my own speculation … Read more
Street Sects
End Position
Flenser (2016)
Austin, Texas duo achieve an unholy alliance of industrial music and punk rock in their debut album, End Position. In … Read more
Jenny Hval
Blood Bitch
Sacred Bones (2016)
Jenny Hval has soared into the experimental scene since the release of Viscera, the first album under her own name. … Read more
