Album review overview: Andrew Van Garratt, Phoebe Bridgers and more
Dozens of new albums arrive at Maxazine’s editorial staff every week. There are too many to listen to, let alone review them. It ensures that too many albums are left behind. And that’s a shame. That is why today we post an overview of albums that arrive at the editors in short reviews.
Snorlax – Toxic Current
“Toxic Current” is the second album by Australian one-man project Snorlax, led by multi-instrumentalist Brendan Auld. The album contains twelve short tracks which nevertheless do not sound fragmentary but are genuine compositions with a beginning and an end. On the first album “The Necrotrophic Abyss”, there are still many slow, reverberating soundscapes to be heard. On “Toxic Current”, these have largely been replaced by blackened/death metal, grindcore and a touch of hardcore, which comes through in the grooving breakdowns. As befits a good death/grindcore album, “Toxic Current” just reaches the 30-minute mark. There are two covers on the album. The first is “Puppet Fuck” by Australian grindcore band Agents Of Abhorrence. The second cover is the closing track “Pigs” by fellow Australian hardcore/sludge band The Fevered. The album’s theme is the mental torment of existence, which is visually represented beautifully through the striking artwork created by artist Rotten Reign. Suitable for anyone who likes a good dose of heavy noise. (Ad Keepers) (7/10) (Avantgarde Music)
Der Nino aus Wien – Neubau alone
Der Nino aus Wien presents his thirteenth album, “Neubau alone”, and for the first time in a long time, the Viennese troubadour is completely on his own. Without his regular band, he recorded the songs in a basement studio in the Neubau district, with an emphasis on raw, unpolished sound quality that gives the feeling of listening to a private demo tape. That imperfect character fits well with the intimacy of lyrics in which Nino Mandl moves between small anecdotes and broader philosophies of life. In “Zerrissene Figuren”, he looks back autobiographically on his childhood ambition to become the new Bob Dylan, a joke that over the years nevertheless proves to contain a kernel of truth. “Ein Tag im Süden” brings relief with a Mediterranean wink for the ‘wunde Wiener Herz’, while “Lange schon genug” strikes a light-hearted, upbeat tone. Even his cover version of “Unchained Melody” takes on an entirely distinctive colour within this setting. The album lacks the polish of earlier records, but precisely because of this it gains in directness and personality. A record that remains close to the artist’s core. (Tobias Braun) (8/10) (Medienmanufaktur Wien)
Danny Keane – Kinesis
On “Kinesis”, everything revolves around movement and in that respect multi-instrumentalist Danny Keane could not have chosen a better title. In the first five tracks, the Brit really shows us every corner of the room. In doing so, Keane limits himself by nothing. Traditional jazz, world music, classical music and electronics: with Keane, the boundaries between these genres blur. His trademarks are unusual time signatures and distinctive rhythms. The opening track “Running” is immediately a calling card: the basis of that track is a driving electronic riff in 7/8. Layer by layer, Keane builds this up before the brass play the theme and provide the prelude to the fascinating improvisations, including on a Fender Rhodes. Most of the instruments are played by Keane himself. Nevertheless, there are also some special collaborations to be found on “Kinesis”. On “Cathartic Chaos” (we can safely call this piece the centerpiece), Palestinian Adnan Joubran solos on the oud, a lute-like instrument widely used in Eastern music. It produces a wonderful combination with the pulsating sounds of the Moog, but it works. Something that cannot be said of the sixth and final track on the album. A restrained classical piano trio that is completely dissonant with the rest of “Kinesis”. A shame, because “Kinesis” is an excellent follow-up to the 2020 debut. (Jeroen Mulder) (7/10) (MVKA)
Andrew Van Garratt – Point Nemo
Andrew Van Garratt is a British rock and indie musician/singer-songwriter. He became known as the lead singer, guitarist and main songwriter of rock band No Hope In New Jersey. After the band broke up, he focused entirely on his solo career. “Point Nemo” is now his 14th solo album and is being released in collaboration with the Dutch independent label Rock Company. Everything on the album is performed and played by Andrew Van Garrett, except for the drums, which are played by Karl Thompson, with whom Van Garrett has also worked in the past. The album is named after the most remote place on Earth and thematically balances isolation, human connection and personal introspection. “Point Nemo” contains eleven relatively short, compact tracks and contains a huge variety of musical styles. The accompanying press kit uses the metaphor: ‘Imagine The Beach Boys and Black Sabbath sharing a rehearsal room while The Beatles and The Clash occasionally drop by to add ideas’. My favourite track is “Eternal Condition”, which contains a fine Led Zeppelin guitar riff. (Ad Keepers) (7/10) (Rock Company)
Phoebe Bridgers – Lost Weekend
Phoebe Bridgers returns after six years with “Lost Weekend”, her third solo album since the much-discussed “Punisher” from 2020. In the intervening years, she won several Grammys with her supergroup Boygenius, lost her father and found a new relationship with comedian Bo Burnham. Those events form the backbone of the album, which spans sixteen tracks and more than fifty minutes. On “Haunted”, she sings openly about emotions without secrets, while “Still Standing” poignantly conveys the loss of her father. “Never Going Back!” also contains a voicemail from him, making the grief tangible. Opposite that sorrow is the romance of “Bobby”, in which she sings humorously about her relationship. Tracks such as “Kill Me” and “Lost Weekend (Reprise)” show that the record is not only sombre, but also contains light-hearted and even comic moments. Produced together with Jack Antonoff and Alex G, the album sounds more richly orchestrated than her earlier work, without losing the vulnerability that characterises her style. With “Lost Weekend”, Bridgers presents a cohesive and lived-in album about love, loss and coming to terms with it. (Daniel Harris) (9/10) (Dead Oceans)
