New Tunes 13.1.2023

Hello music lovers! 🎵 🎧 🎵

This year's music race is in full swing. There's a lot of new music competing for your attention. It's hard to decide because there is so much to choose from.
Anyway, here are some #newtunes picks that might brighten up your weekend and ring in your ears for a while.

Again, we have some well-known and lesser-known artists trying for a slice of the pie, and if you don't like something, feel free to skip it.

Music4life!

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Jeff Beck - Beck's Bolero

At the age of seventy-eight, one of the world's top guitarists suddenly left us a few days ago, after a short illness. Although as a guitarist he never achieved the commercial success and fame of his two Yardbirds colleagues Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. But his guitar has been used in all kinds of musical genres from blues, rock, metal, jazz, and more recently electronic music, and he has been highly respected by music critics and connoisseurs alike.
A couple of months ago I mentioned him in #newtunes performing with Johnny Depp.
This song is not so new, I put it here mainly because of his virtuosity.
R.I.P Jeff :(

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PJ Harvey - Man-Size (Demo)

I've been following PJ Harvey, as someone called her "The Queen Of Art Rock", since the beginning of her career. Her latest album "B-Sides, Demos & Rarities" is a real treat for all her fans. 59 unreleased songs, demos, rarities, and similar materials are on this 4x box set!
From the early 90s when she recorded on a four-track recorder, demos that didn't make it on the "Let England Shake" distinctly anti-war album from the previous decade to the piano demos from 2019 for the Peaky Blinders series.
Almost an entire career, which of course continues, with a new album coming this year, which I'm already looking forward to.

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Iggy Pop - Strung Out Johnny

Iggy Pop, the rock icon, the Godfather of punk, needs no introduction. The album 'Every Loser', released a month ago, is a collection of rock'n'roll tunes that goes quickly to the ears. Some critics have grumbled that it's too mainstream. I disagree. Pure rock, great melodies, all first-class production.
But what do you people expect from a man who is 76 years old, has released 35 albums, and is still actively performing?

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Rozi Plain - Painted the Room

A new author for me. Rosalind Leyden, an artist named Rozi Plain, is a former art student from Winchester and has been living and working in London for the last ten years. I wouldn't say she's a young, rising star, because she's presenting her fifth album "Prize", which is certainly the current highlight of her 15-year music career.
I completely agree with what the Guardian said about her:

Listening to Rozi Plain is like searching for shapes in the clouds. In her mirage-like lyrics and mix of gently warped folk and nomadic jazz, you can stumble on moments of sharp recognition.

I'll try to see her live if possible.

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Palm - Touch and Go

Palm, an experimental and neo-psychedelic band from Philadelphia, USA released their fourth album "Nicks and Graces" two months ago. Palm has been making experimental music in the local scene for over a decade, and when listening to their latest release, our ears are often filled with slightly distorted prepared guitars, hazy synths, and collages of reverberating percussion and dreamy vocals.
In the expanse of various neo-psychedelia, it's hard to avoid comparisons between bands - and indeed, Palm (to me at least) at times resembles a mix of Animal Collective and Tame Impala, with Syd Barret conducting in the background.

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black midi - Welcome To Hell

The highly acclaimed English art-rock band black midi doesn't play live very often. The album "Live Wire", released at the end of December, was recorded at the Primavera Sound festival in Portugal, and is probably their most impressive sonic performance, taking the band into completely new waters of improvisation. In one band I hear Primus, Talking Heads, and Mr.Bungle here.
Unfortunately, you'll have to make do here with a snapshot from Central Park NYC four months ago.

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Thanks For Coming - Losing Touch (NYC)

Rachel Brown, Brooklyn, NY, who has been performing as Thanks For Comming for the last few years, has quite an impressive catalog of projects on Bandcamp in the last ten years. I counted 79.
Her latest project is "You Haven't Missed Much", a compilation and re-arrangement of older songs she recorded with various collaborators. A retrospective or a look back into experimental indie-pop with warm, at times melancholic and introverted, inward-looking lyrics.

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Everything But The Girl - Nothing Left To Lose

Pop and hip-hop duo Everything But the Girl (Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn) announced the release of a new studio album after 24 years. It will be called "Fuse" and will be released in April by Buzzin' Fly. The first single from the album "Nothing Left to Lose" also received an appropriate video, and you can watch it below.
The last studio album "Temperamental" was released by this duo in 1999, and they worked on the new album for two years. 2 decades have passed and almost nothing has changed. The vocal has gained a gorgeous, mature tone and the beats are sublime.