Straw Man Army – SOS (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos)

This one’s a breath of fresh air. There’s an early-mid 80s adventurous USHC vibe but not like anyone in particular. I am thinking of when hardcore turned away from the polka-beat formula and added cleaner guitar melodies and inventive rhythms. In DC they briefly called it Revolution Summer (see Rites of Spring etc), but you can also hear it in Proletariat’s fantastic 2nd LP Indifference and maybe its earliest form in Mission of Burma. Those are starting points maybe, but there is a limitless feeling to this like they could go almost anywhere, moody pop, ambient excursions, etc. Chanted dueling (double-tracked?) vocals are a little like Gang of Four covering My Dad is Dead. Round Bale Recordings put out two releases by Wisconsin’s Private Anarchy, who could definitely slot on the same bill as this fantastic NY duo.

Flinch – Enough is Enough (self-released)

Here’s some top-shelf sad pop from Glasgow that I discovered via Twitter thanks to the guy from Prolapse, an excellent 90s post-punk influenced band btw. There is just enough strum haze and reverb on Enough is Enough to give off a depressive Grouper vibe, but this is more song than drone, like classic K records 90s folk-pop. The brilliant Lois comes to mind, check your local used CD bin for those treasures.  There are witty song titles and knowing winks here that remind you that you are listening to something very current too. This recording is a solo effort, very intimate, but Instagram tells me it’s a band now. The yearning vocals and withering words are perfect for my moods, and there’s a rough edge here I hope the band doesn’t smooth out. An awesome personal LP package coming directly from the artist, which is always so nice. 

Fortunato Durutti Marienetti – Memory’s Fool (Soft Abuse/Bobo Integral)

Breaking my unspoken rule here, and reviewing something from Soft Abuse with whom I have close ties, but this also comes via the great Bobo Integral from Spain. This one is so good, that I have to hype it some more. From what I can tell, this Canadian has been at it a while in various guises, all very good Lou Reed-ish guitar acts, but this album really hits it out of the park adding in bits of jazz and synths like you might hear on adventurous records from John Cale and Robert Wyatt. The songs unfurl at a leisurely pace Astral Weeks-style, with FDM doing low-key Reed/Cohen/Berman talk-singing on top. The words are intriguing, the delivery appealing and the backing tracks delightfully ambitious. Overall, it’s an impressive work, a future and current hidden gem of modern music.

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