It’s Monday, which means it’s time for another edition of our regular start-of-the-week stream-a-thon, wherein we scour the Internet for worthy and/or noteworthy albums that are streaming this week at absolutely no cost. This week we’re somewhat underwhelmed by the Dead Can Dance comeback album, but thoroughly overwhelmed by the coruscating new Nü Sensae record. There’s also Django Django’s pleasantly oddball debut record, Spaghetti Western theme music par excellence from Los Straitjackets, and conclusive proof that a Brooklyn-based Afrobeat band can be a good thing. It’s all awaiting you after the jump, so click through and get a piece of the action!
Dead Can Dance — Anastasis
We mentioned a while back that the new Dead Can Dance record, Anastasis, was streaming at the band’s website, but that stream was so short-lived that we only got to hear half the album, so we’re delighted to see that Fact are previewing it this week prior to its release on Thursday. Our first impressions were that Anastasis was pleasant, if not exactly a great leap forward for the band, and those impressions are reinforced by giving it a proper listen. In some ways we’d rather hoped for more from Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry after such a long absence — it’s been 16 years since their last album — but if all you wanted was more of the same, then click here to listen.
Nü Sensae — Sundowning
Our deputy editor Judy Berman has been raving about this record since the stream popped on Canadian site Exclaim a couple of days back, so we’re happy that it’s stayed there long enough to share it with you this week. If you like guitar music that balances experimental leanings with a strong ear for a melody, then start streaming this ASAP — suddenly Sonic Youth’s implosion doesn’t seem like such a terrible thing anymore. Listen here.
Antibalas — Antibalas
We noted in our recent preview of albums due out this month that the whole idea of a Brookyln-based Afrobeat band is kinda incongruous, but there’s no doubt that Kuti-alikes Antibalas are pretty good at what they do — they’ve played with various members of Fela’s Africa 70, and they were also the band for the Broadway musical based on the great man’s life. Their new self-titled record is due out via Daptone this week, and you can hear it here.
Django Django — Django Django
Meanwhile, NPR has the debut album by Scots four-piece Django Django. It’s a belated US release for this record — it came out in January across the Atlantic, and the UK press went batshit about it, with the Guardian, Drowned in Sound and NME all giving it good reviews, as did our friends at The Quietus. The latter compared it to The Beta Band, which seems a pretty good reference point as far as we can see — it’s whimsical Scottish psych with a host of influences and a habit of incorporating several apparently disconnected ideas within the course of a single song. It’s not at all bad, in other words. Listen here.
Los Straitjackets — Jet Set
And finally, the whole soundtrack-to-a-non-existent-film thing has been done to death, but if this album doesn’t end up soundtracking a neo-Spaghetti Western along the lines of Straight to Hell, there’s something very, very wrong with this world. Click here, imagine you’re one of the Three Amigos, and suddenly Monday isn’t so bad, eh?