HORSEGIRL
PHONETICS ON AND ON
CD / LP / INDIE LP
[CD] 01. Where’d You Go / 02. Rock City / 03. In Twos / 04. 2468 / 05. Well I Know You’re Shy / 06. Julie / 07. Switch Over / 08. Information Content / 09. Frontrunner / 10. Sport Meets Sound / 11. I Can’t Stand To See You
Label: MATADOR
Produced by Cate Le Bon and recorded at The Loft in Chicago, the band’s original and sonic home, Phonetics On and On is an exploration of the lines between pop, minimalism, and playful experimentation.
Since the release of 2022’s Versions of Modern Performance, “compelling from its first note to its very last” (NME), much has changed for Horsegirl. In the fall of that year, they relocated to New York City, where Penelope and Nora were to attend NYU leading to the first time the trio had written music outside of Penelope’s parents’ basement. You can hear the push in a new direction by virtue of their new environment, but through this time of unparalleled change, the band turns inward.
Horsegirl returned to Chicago to record in January 2024, finding focus and intimacy in the studio that can only arise when it’s simply too cold to step outside. Le Bon led them into new, bright, clear, sonic territories highlighting the inventive nature of these songs. New tools help bring this world to life; violins, synths, and gamelan tiles are all woven into the record. The songs are a testament to experimenting with space and texture while maintaining a pop song at the core. All the while, a confident simplicity brings the band’s songwriting ability to the forefront.
It’s hard to imagine any of these songs being written by anyone but Nora, Penelope, and Gigi. Horsegirl write with unanticipated honesty, leading us through scenes of girlhood and youth. These are moments of their lives. The indelible truth is that Horsegirl is a band of best friends; being around them you can see that love in their eyes and it is always a joyous thing to witness. It’s a love that is ever-present in Phonetics On and On as tenderness reverberates back and forth across the recording.
Available on indie exclusive crystal-clear vinyl.
JOHN GLACIER
LIKE A RIBBON
CD / LP
01. Satellites / 02. Don’t Cover Me / 03. Money Shows (feat. Eartheater) / 04. Emotions / 05. Nevasure / 06. Steady As I Am / 07. Grands! / 08. Cows Come Home / 09. Whole Or None / 10. Poster / 11. Found / 12. Home / 13. Ocean Stepping (feat. Sampha) / 14. Dancing In The Rain / 15. Heaven’s Sent
Label: YOUNG
Within the UK, there are a select few burgeoning icons, artists that push the boundaries with their musical output while embodying a presence across all mediums that feeds into mass intrigue and curiosity. London-based rapper, poet and producer John Glacier is one of the few that can lay claim to this status. After years of garnering intrigue across the mainstream and underground, John Glacier will finally release her debut album, Like A Ribbon.
Referring to the seamlessly neverending threads of relationships and responsibilities that overlay to form the ribbon of modern existence, Like A Ribbon finds John Glacier providing an accurate snapshot of her life as it has played out on her meteoric rise; from a insular, simple existence growing up in Hackney, to projecting stories to the world while aiming to maintain a semblance of normalcy in what is a very extraordinary life. Executive producer Kwes Darko helps to lay the sonic tapestry for the weaving of John’s own tale, alongside contributions from the likes of Flume, Mk.gee contributor Andrew Aged, Surf Gang, Eartheater, Sampha and more. Like A Ribbon is the story of living in a modern world, told through an imaginatively otherworldly lens.
The album is comprised of tracks from the two existing EPs Like A Ribbon and Duppy Gun, as well as the third unreleased EP Angel’s Trumpet.
BARTEES STRANGE
HORROR
CD / LP /INDIE LP
[CD] 01. Too Much / 02. Hit It Quit It / 03. Sober / 04. Baltimore / 05. Lie 95 / 06. Wants, Needs / 07. Lovers / 08. Doomsday Buttercup / 09. 17 / 10. Looped Defenders / 11. Norf Gun / 12. Backseat Banton
[LP] A1. Too Much / A2. Hit It Quit It / A3. Sober / A4. Baltimore / A5. Lie 95 / A6. Wants Needs / B1. Lovers / B2. Doomsday Buttercup / B3. 17 / B4. Loop Defenders / B5. Norf Gun / B6. Backseat Banton
Label: 4AD
Bartees Strange was raised on fear. His family used scary stories to teach life lessons, and at an early age, Strange started using scary movies to practice being strong. The world can be a terrifying place, and for a young, queer, black person in rural America, that terror can be visceral. Horror is an album about facing those fears and growing to become someone to be feared. Throughout the record, Strange lays down one difficult truth after another, all over a sonic pastiche of music he loved as a kid. His dad hipped him to Parliament Funkadelic, Fleetwood Mac, Teddy Pendergrass, and Neil Young. Those influences merged with Strange’s interest in hip-hop, country, indie rock, and house, culminating in a record that feels completely original.
Strange began Horror at his home studio with an eye toward production. A session with Yves and Lawrence Rothman (Yves Tumor, Lady Gaga) provided a rhythmic and sonic backbone for chunks of the record. After Strange met Jack Antonoff and the pair became fast friends, Strange worked on some material for Antonoff’s band Bleachers, and Antonoff worked on Horror. The twosome finished the record together, working the songs raw, editing, arranging, and dressing them up in clothing bound to inspire fear.
MEREBA
THE BREEZE GREW A FIRE
CD / LP / LTD LP
[CD] 01. Counterfeit / 02. Ever Needed / 03. Phone Me / 04. White Doves / 05. breeze grew fire / 06. Out of the Blue / 07. Starlight (my baby) / 08. Meteorite / 09. Hawk / 10. Wild Sky / 11. Spirit Guiding / 12. Heart of a Child / 13. Sanctuary
Label: SECRETLY CANADIAN
Southern-bred, alternative R&B singer-songwriter Mereba artistically embodies self-understanding on The Breeze Grew a Fire, her grandest work and first release on Secretly Canadian. To hone in on this latest album, it was necessary for Mereba to reconnect with her whole many-sided self, from her inner child to her inseparable relationships. While she peacefully transmutes her beginnings on the 13-track LP, Mereba looks upon her closest kinships and friendships with a keen understanding of their steadying, inspirational force. Surrounded by the gentle Breeze of these relationships and recollections, Mereba is empowered as both an artist and mother, while also being reminded to nurture her childlike wonder.
As a singer, rapper, songwriter and producer, Mereba gracefully shines on the follow-up to her bounteous 2019 debut, The Jungle Is the Only Way Out. In escaping the Jungle, Mereba faced the paradigm shift of birthing a son in 2021 and getting accustomed to a rapidly changing self-outlook. Mereba’s creative output has always relied on her innermost reflections and ideas on whatever was happening around her; but in motherhood, the singer’s perspective widened while her inspiration became more focused, and more individually powerful.
Her debut studio album The Jungle is the Only Way Out was a breakthrough by virtually any measure; Mereba found a hefty, devoted fanbase, a dizzying number of doors open to her, and a connection to the icon Stevie Wonder, who mentored Mereba around the same time. “We hit it off in a very pure way,” says Mereba, “he was one of the early supporters of me serving as my own producer with my music, as it mirrored him taking control of his own sound in the late 60s/early 70s. His support and guidance helped me finish the album that changed things for me as an artist.” Mereba also found her music soundtracking film and TV like Creed, Insecure, and Queen & Slim, all of which reaffirmed Mereba’s ascendant place in culture.
Available on limited Summer Sky Splash vinyl.
MARINERO
LA LA LA
CD / LTD LP
01. La La La / 02. Cruz / 03. Lost Angel / 04. Taquero / 05. Dream Suite / 06. The Mystery of Miss Mari Jane / 07. Cha Cha Cha / 08. Sea Changes / 09. Cinema Lover / 10. Die Again, Yesterday / 11. Hollywood Ten / 12. Pocha Pachanga
Label: HARDLY ART
As Jess Sylvester finished his Hardly Art debut as Marinero in the fall of 2020, he realized it was time for a change. Sylvester grew up in Marin County, on the doorstep of San Francisco. It was a nurturing community for a high-school punk with a pompadour and, later, for a sober songwriter with a proclivity for moody psychedelia. But he wanted to be challenged and inspired by a new setting and scenario around strangers who prompted him to approach his music in unexpected ways. So in September 2020, as the world continued to reel in lockdown, Sylvester headed several hours south to Los Angeles, a city that, despite the relative proximity, the film buff knew largely from classic and cult films situated there. When he arrived, he kept digging into that cinematic past—Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, with John Williams’ classic theme, or classic 90s movies about East LA, many featuring Edward James Olmos. They shaped his understanding of his new town just as it began to open.
This is one pillar of the multivalent and endlessly lush La La La, Marinero’s new album about sobriety, identity, and fantasy that is playfully named both for the city that helped shape it and the sophisticated pop it contains. Sylvester wrote about characters outside of himself, whether considering the heroine reckoning with her own version of keeping clean or the screenwriters whose work was deemed communist simply as a political convenience. He linked those songs with motivational anthems about self-acceptance and playful numbers about flirting through food, shaping a 12-song set rich with humor, empathy, and encouragement.
FATHER JOHN MISTY
I LOVE YOU, HONEYBEAR (LOSER EDITION SINGLE LP)
LTD LP
01. I Love You, Honeybear / 02. Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins) / 03. True Affection / 04. The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt. / 05. When You’re Smiling And Astride Me / 06. Nothing Good Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Crow / 07. Strange Encounter / 08. The Ideal Husband / 09. Bored In The USA / 10. Holy Shit / 11. I Went To The Store One Day
Label: SUB POP
Father John Misty’s landmark 2015 sophomore album, I Love You, Honeybear, is back on vinyl, remastered and repackaged as a single LP (It was originally released as a double LP). The now-classic album includes fan favourites “Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins),” and the title track, “I Love You, Honeybear.”
On release I Love You, Honeybear earned a Pitchfork Best New Music, a perfect
score from Exclaim!, and rave reviews from NME, Mojo, Q, Spin, and more. It was hailed as one of the best albums of 2015 by Pitchfork, Billboard, The A.V. Club, NME, and Stereogum.
I Love You, Honeybear was produced by Josh Tillman and Jonathan Wilson, and mixed by Phil Ek. This 2024 edition was remastered in 2024 by Adam Ayan at Ayan Mastering.
