Listened to: The pop albums of the week with Disclosure, Angel Olsen, Kelly Lee Owens, Nubya Garcia

Disclosure - "Energy"

(Capitol / Universal, from August 28th)

Icon: enlarge

How do you notice that after six months of working from home you have become a little thin-skinned? For example, by knocking vehemently on the door of the apartment from the poor DHL messenger, who is not satisfied with ringing the doorbell, so that the parcels for the neighbors (where are they? In the office?) Can be taken from him , opening the door increasingly scruffy with tangled hair and a crazy look (please think of GIF by "dull boy" Jack Torrance from "Shining").

In the meantime, at least this critic shows a certain annoyance at the reception of compulsorily calmed, so-called lockdown albums. At first this new inwardness was still quite nice, but now it's also good with the demonstrative contemplation, the lonely men of pain crouching at the piano (take that, Nick!) And the songwriters entrenched in churches or log cabins (sorry, Taylor!). Life in Corona times has been a long, monotonous river for long enough - and in all probability it will stay that way for a little longer (Hello Herbstness, my old friend).

Andreas Borcholte's playlist

Photo: 

Christian O. Bruch / laif

You are all the more happy about artists who are just as fidgety as you are - and express that with music that urges you to move (thanks, Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware, Lady Gaga, Moodymann!). The pre-released single "My High" by Disclosure with the rappers Slowthai and Aminé was one of those urgently needed bursts of energy a few weeks ago: An uncompromisingly trumped-up UK garage attack, as seen by the British DJ duo, which is also celebrated in the charts hadn't heard in a long time.

To be honest: not since "When A Fire Starts To Burn", the opening track of their 2013 debut. "Please don't fuck up my high", that breathless growled line, a warning to every record player from the dance floor, it Just not to mess up with the next song, you could call out to the brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence afterwards for their overly saturated second album "Caracal" (2015). But with the programmatically titled "Energy" the two likeable milk faces from Surrey raise the pulse again.

A board like "My High" can only be found once on the album (but is already enough for a place among the best tracks of the year), but "Watch Your Step" (with singer Kelis), which plays casually with deep house, sets one appropriately peppy groove. Channel Tres from Compton then adds a bit of heat in the Nightcrawlers vibe of its lustful comments about lavender ("Lavender", wtf?): "No turning back now!". "My High" then pushes the feeling on, so to speak.

Celebrity guests have always had Disclosure, but this time it is noticeable that everyone involved is people of color - and the proportion of hip-hop and rap features is extremely high, the album sounds urban. The Lawrence brothers told the Guardian that it was simply not possible for them as white country eggs to get rappers to call back at all. With the fame came the acceptance, so that now, in addition to Kelis and R&B star Kehlani, even rap legend Common provided his flow for the elegant final piece "Reverie".

display

Disclosure

Energy

Label: Island (Universal Music)

Label: Island (Universal Music)

approx. € 17.44

Price query time

08/25/2020 5.10 p.m.

No guarantee

Order at AmazonIcon: amazon

Order from ThaliaIcon: thalia

The central piece "Douha (Mali Mali)" with Fatoumata Diawara shows that Disclosure, who once brought British soul singer Jessie Ware onto the dance floor with their remix of "Running", still have a feel for the zeitgeist. The - of course - from Mali, multiple Grammy-nominated singer and actress was already a guest on the Disclosure track "Ultimatum" in 2018, now she gives the British an authentic, heavily hip Afro-House touch that is easy on the Can record radio hit "Jerusalema" or Burna Boy's summer anthem "Wonderful" and provide similar instant bliss. "Ce n'est pas" with the French trip-hop vocals by Cameroonian songwriter Blick Bassy is a little less euphoric, but no less impressive.

"Who knew", who would have thought that, one would like to shout out, cheered, but inwardly soothed, dancing through the house hallway with US rapper Mick Jenkins and his album feature: that Disclosure will save us another summer. (8.2) Andreas Borcholte

Angel Olsen - "Whole New Mess"

(Jagjaguwar / Cargo, from August 28th)

Icon: enlarge

There are a thousand different ways to finish a song, but at the start of "Whole New Mess" Angel Olsen demonstrates the most brutal of them all. The title track of their new album becomes more and more clumsy in the course of its four minutes, an electric guitar drags itself through its tone sequences undistorted but not intact, and finally you can hear the piece collapse under the weight of its last chord change. Olsen is also certain of that, because she had already known: "I made a whole new mess again".

Why is there a new album from the songwriter from Asheville, North Carolina at all? Because Olsen's record "All Mirrors" last year was a two-pronged affair from the start. There was the film-ready version of the 2019 version with strings, synthesizers, springy bass and great seriousness, but there were skeleton versions of the songs before: voice, guitar, even greater seriousness. Olsen recorded this with sound engineer Michael Harris in Washington State and added two previously unknown tracks for the release of "Whole New Mess". A gift, but one that is not that easy to unpack.

"Whole New Mess" makes it clearer than "All Mirrors" that the songs on both albums are about a failed relationship, about reorganized circumstances, groups of friends and priorities. Olsen wrote them when the related processes were not yet completed, their whole life was practically in the air - even if you hardly noticed any of this uncertainty in the elegant, graceful pieces on "All Mirrors". "Whole New Mess" now notices everything: The solo setting, the stoic guitar and the fraying vocals carry the hallmarks of a classic breakup album.

display

Angel Olsen

Whole New Mess

Label: Jagjaguwar / Cargo

Label: Jagjaguwar / Cargo

approx. € 15.19

Price query time

08/25/2020 5.10 p.m.

No guarantee

Order at AmazonIcon: amazon

Order from ThaliaIcon: thalia

Olsen and Harris recorded the record in a church and left much of the work to the room. Syllables and chords stay in the air for seconds, reverb and feedback develop an unexpected life of their own. Still, "Whole New Mess" sounds very immediate, after a maximum of two attempts per song. And once even almost happily: "Waving, Smiling" is the name of one of the previously unpublished pieces, his guitar picks up in waltz time, and Olsen watches the beautiful weather through a closed window. "I'm waving, smiling / At love", she sings, but of course there is something else: "Forever alive and dying". It is lucky that we already know the happy ending to this album from last year. (8.1) Daniel Gerhardt

Nubya Garcia - "Source"

(Concord / Universal, since August 21)

Icon: enlarge

The current jazz scene in south London has an almost mythical reputation. A lot comes together that appeals to young audiences who call themselves woke : Afro-diasporic cultures, Caribbean music such as reggae, dub or cumbia. These relationships are shaped by the electronic spirit of hip-hop as well as by a sometimes spiritual, sometimes (identity) political awareness of diverse roots. The local scene doesn't seem to be huge; the same names are usually used. For example the saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings with his great band Sons of Kemet. The tenorist Nubya Garcia, born in 1991, has been called just as loud for some time. That is the background of her debut album, which is in the foreground for her, namely on the cover: "Source" is the name of the record, Ursprung, and Garcia's hair actually has roots. So it's about origin, solidarity, empowerment. What else?

That's a lot of baggage for a debut. Anyone who has ever seen the Londoner, whose parents come from Guyana and Trinidad, knows that Garcia can shoulder a lot. In the fall of 2018, she blew the top dogs on the wall in the band of Chicago drummer Makaya McCraven. And with her own quartet, she already betrayed her quality as a soloist in live performances last year.

But you can hear two different musicians on "Source". On the one hand, the modernist jazz musician, who pulls the trigger, presents herself, fueled by a constantly charged drummer (Sam Jones). The very first number, "Pace", sends this signal. Unfortunately, I have to say, even if the level is top. Because on "Source" we also hear a musician who for her young age and her old skills only has to flex a few muscles, instead creates her own moods and finds her place in them.

display

Nubya Garcia

Source

Label: CONCORD

Label: CONCORD

approx. € 15.31

Price query time

08/25/2020 5.10 p.m.

No guarantee

Order at AmazonIcon: amazon

Order from ThaliaIcon: thalia

The first example of this beautiful early maturity is "Stand With Each Other" with various guest singers. Here Kraftmeier Jones also plays a light, dub-covered drums, while the choir scraps anticipate the simple theme of the saxophone. It sounds like reduced Lovers Rock, as the reggae practiced in London in the mid-seventies was called, which conjured up love instead of accusing the world. Garcia only repeats the theme a little - it almost only changes the dynamics and the sound, only once does it change to a higher register. Then the siren voices come closer again. 3 minutes and 38 seconds can be so magical.

The second surprise doesn't last much longer and is called "La Cumbia me esta llamando": vocals, percussion, saxophone, close together. It sounds as physical as it is avant-garde and was recorded in Colombia with local musicians. Here a concrete, touching encounter at eye level grows out of the sometimes fashionable root discourse. (7.0) Tobi Mueller

Kelly Lee Owens - "Inner Song"

(Smalltown Supersound / Rough Trade, from August 28th)

Icon: enlarge

Kelly Lee Owens seems to have a penchant for musical homage to her heroes: On her self-titled debut album, released in 2017, she dedicated a dreamy ambient techno track to avant disco pioneer Arthur Russell with "Arthur". In the same year Owens released a cover and remix of Aaliyah's "More Than A Woman" and let the iconic R&B anthem bubble over spherical acid lines. With "Arpeggi" she opens her second album "Inner Song" directly with a Radiohead quote by chasing the gently plucked guitar motif from "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi" through the sequencer and working out the syncopated drum pattern so concisely that you longingly waiting for the amen break. 

Heard on the radio

On Wednesdays at 11 p.m. on the Hamburg web radio byteFM there is a taped mixtape with many songs from the records discussed and highlights from Andreas Borcholte's personal playlist.

Recommended editorial content

At this point you will find external content that supplements the article. You can display it and hide it again with one click.

External content

I consent to external content being displayed to me. This allows personal data to be transmitted to third-party platforms; more on this in our privacy policy.

External content

And that doesn't even begin to outline the musical frame of reference in which the London-based producer and singer moves: Arca, Björk, Jon Hopkins, Daniel Avery, Jenny Hval, St. Vincent - the list of Kelly Lee Owen's collaboration or remix partners are bursting with zeitgeist and make their musical location between dance floor, glitchy pop and avant-singer-songwriter all the more difficult. She herself describes it as "convention blurring techno" and that is probably the best way to sum it up: techno that obscures conventions.

display

Kelly Lee Owens

Inner song

Label: SMALLTOWN SUPERS

Label: SMALLTOWN SUPERS

approx € 12.57

Price query time

08/25/2020 5.10 p.m.

No guarantee

Order at AmazonIcon: amazon

Order from ThaliaIcon: thalia

Traditional techno can actually only be found on "Inner Song" on the peak time banger "Melt!", For which Owens sampled the sound of melting glaciers in line with climate change. Blurry is a lot on "Inner Song": Owens artfully layers her melancholy singing into dizzying sound towers and merges dull pop hooks with pulsating dance floor grooves. "On" is the only classic pop song that caught earwigs like "Lucid" or "Anxi". the next, whereby the direction of the new album already becomes clear: It will be rougher, more dancefloor-oriented and yet less predictable. As with Arthur Russell, Kelly Lee Owen rarely knows at the beginning of their tracks where they will end - and is therefore pleasantly surprised when "On" suddenly transforms from melancholy electro-pop into a pure UK garage.

The secret star of the album, however, is the somewhat bulky "Corner Of My Sky": Owens brought in none other than Velvet Underground founding member John Cale as a guest for the spoken word feature. Over a dub-like drone, he speaks poetically alienated in both English and Welsh - and, in addition to the musical one, pays a further homage: to the West British roots that he and Owens share. (8.6) Laura Aha