DJ Plead – Please: DJ Plead created a late-night vibe that feels more like a soundtrack than a club record. A lot of writers seem to focus on his Lebanese heritage, but his Middle Eastern roots are a subtle whisper behind his foundation in Western electronic dance music. While each song portrays a complete thought, I wish he’d expanded more on them. I suppose that’s what 12” mixes are for, but I’d like to hear him push his ideas farther than he does on Please.
Death Cab for Cutie – I Built You a Tower: At his best, Ben Gibbard writes about the awkwardness and confusion that accompanies human connection, and Tower seems to be about a connection that has disconnected. Ben Gibbard is one of my favorite lyricists, and my favorite words emerge as I listen to an album over and over and find those moments that resonate with my own awkwardness and confusion. No specific words from Tower have hit me yet, but I’m certainly drawn to Gibbard’s search for kindness.
SML – Spontaneous Music Live: I don’t have much more to say than I did last week, but the album gets better every time I listen.
Pan American & Kramer – Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road: I hear Mark Nelson’s music similarly to how I see Mark Rothko’s paintings: If you’re willing to dig beneath the surface, you’ll find a mirror that reflects whatever truth you need at that moment. Reverberations (like most Pan American records) never succumbs to the cinematic grandeur or foreboding tension that so many instrumental artists rely on, which makes that mirror more powerful. This ability to reflect is what makes me still listen to them after nearly 30 years.
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – Texas Moon | Texas Sun: Texas and New Mexico are totally different worlds, but if we share two things, it’s our sun and moon. I expected these two records to be, well, night and day different. They’re not. With the possible exception of “C-Side,” I could make an argument for any of these songs being on either record. That’s disappointing. What’s not disappointing, though, is how good all the songs are. “Doris” is as beautifully surprising to me as “Conversion” was when I first listened back in February, and “Chocolate Hills” is like Dijon crashed into Khruangbin.
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: Mono: Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined; John Coltrane: France 1965: The Complete Concerts