The Albums You Need to Know About Every Week
Whether it’s cosmic remixes, freak folk, or sweet beats, we’ve got new music this week to warm your bones. Our friends at Norwegian Arms officially release their well-witted debut LP, and London’s Mt. Wolf has another debut for you with the simple, yet edgy Life Size Ghosts EP. To top off the list, Björk released her tenth-and-a-half studio album, BASTARDS, composed of remixes from last year’s Biophilia.
BJÖRK – BASTARDS
With ten full length albums under her belt, Björk (@bjork) has had ample time to establish herself as one of the most innovative composers and performers alive — she doesn’t need anyone’s help to be on the extreme fringes of strangeness, intensity, or uniqueness. Remixes are always good fun, though, and this week she released a full album of them. Biophilia, Björk’s wildly successful 2011 release, was accompanied by a host of synesthetic delights for the little scientists in all of us. Her live show featured a modest-sized choir as well as some incredible visual elements (follow the Soundcloud link to read more). I’ve yet to check out the ravely reviewed app that was created as a companion to the album, but it also sounds incredibly cool. Anyway, as if there wasn’t enough amazing peripheral stuff regarding Biophilia, BASTARDS, the compilation remix album, is sure to top things off.
Mt. Wolf – Life Size Ghosts EP
This week, London quartet Mt. Wolf (@MtWolfOfficial) released their debut EP, Life Size Ghosts. They call themselves “dream folk,” and it seems to be a good descriptor. Their music features incredibly soft and smooth female vocals with sparse instrumentation that includes some electronics. It ends up sounding like simple folk music that was carefully and delicately remixed by a trance or dreampop artist. The EP is a wonderful calm contrast to (ehem) the music you’ll probably be hearing a lot of this next month.
Norwegian Arms – Wolf Like A Stray Dog
Last Wednesday, The Wild Honey Pie premiered the debut full-length of Philly’s Norwegian Arms (@norwegianarms), entitled Wolf Like A Stray Dog. The high energy, thickly instrumented album, recorded in Dr. Dog’s Meth Beach studios, is lovingly deemed “freak folk” by its creators, and I can’t think of a better way to say it. The wonderfully spazzy, quirky and oftentimes downright weird songs could very easily be on one of Bill Haverchuck’s college playlists. In all seriousness, Wolf Like A Stray Dog is a great listen. Listen to it here, buy it on Bandcamp, and freak out.