Your correspondent is back from vacation and back on the interwebs, and my first order of business has been to catch up on the music I missed over the last couple of weeks. (Yes, there are definitely worse jobs to have.) The highlights of this week’s trawl include, first and foremost, a new Spiritualized song that is amazing and beautiful and should be listened to forthwith. Beside that, there’s new HTRK, along with a track from Le1f’s first EP for his new label, Fujiya & Miyagi getting all acid house-y, and, um, the former Gene Ween teaming up with Slash to cover the most ridiculous Bob Dylan song ever. It’s all streaming for free, so click through and listen away!
Spiritualized — “Mississippi Space Program”
OK, this actually came out last week, but I was on a plane and missed it. Happily, a fellow Spritualized obsessive fan brought it to my attention, and just as well, because it’s gorgeous. It’s a slow-burning love song that leans more to the gospel end of the Spaceman spectrum. The more I listen to it, the more I think it may well be the best thing he’s done in years.
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HTRK — “Blue Sunshine”
As far as HTRK go, this counts as a moment of levity — it’s a languid, late-night jam that sounds like hot summer evenings when the parties go on just slightly too long. It’s from their excellent new album Psychic 9-5 Club, which is out via Ghostly in early April.
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Le1f — “Boom”
Le1f has a new record deal, apparently — he’s signed to Terrible Records, the label founded by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor. This is a definite step up in terms of profile and distribution, which is entirely welcome news, because Le1f is awesome. This track is from what’ll be his debut EP for the label, and finds him in typically fluid form.
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Aaron Freeman and Slash — “Wiggle Wiggle”
I mean, it’s Gene Ween and Slash covering the most ridiculous Bob Dylan song ever. Of course it’s great. Listen at Stereogum.
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Fujiya & Miyagi — “Tetrahydrofolic Acid”
Wow, Fujiya & Miyagi have gone aciiiiiiid! I very much enjoyed their previous Neu!-alike work (especially the excellent “Ankle Injuries”), from which this is a pretty significant departure — motorik beats have been replaced with scattershot drum patterns and a squelchy 303. It works well.