Pain:: Believers [XL]
Believer is the debut LP by the Norwegian duo Smerz. Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt announced the news with a music video for the album’s title track, which takes place in a fantastic garden. The duo wrote the songs on Believer over a period of two years. The record follows their first two EPs: 2017’s Okey and 2018’s Have fun. Revisit Pitchforks 2017 Rising Interview “Smerz makes eerie electronic pop that sounds like a secret.”
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Artwork by Benjamin Barron and Bror August
Adrian Younge:: The American Negro [Jazz Is Dead]
The American Negro is the latest album from Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Adrian Younge, who wrote the music, played every instrument in the rhythm section, orchestrated a 30-piece orchestra and recorded the band in his analog studio. As part of Younge’s multimedia project published in conjunction with Black History Month, the LP describes “the development of racism in America,” according to press material. The album cover is a reference to lynch postcards that existed around the turn of the century. “In this day and age, suffocation is a tool used by police officers to kill innocent black Americans,” the album’s press release reads. “The lynching of black Americans must stop.”
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Clouds nothing:: The shadow I remember [Carpark]
Cloud Nothings has teamed up again with producer Steve Albini, who worked on the group’s 2012 album Attack on Memory. The band’s The Shadow I Remember includes the lead single, “Am I Something,” which landed last October with a visual staged by Lu Yang. The Shadow I Remember also follows the band’s 2020 “Quarantine album” The Black Hole Understandings from 2020.
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Mia Doi Todd:: Musical life [City Zen]
Music Life is the classically trained singer Mia Doi Todd’s first studio album since her 2016 LP Songbook. Her live Dublab performance was released in 2017, followed by a soundtrack for A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2018. Music Life was recorded in Todd’s hometown of Los Angeles and features guest appearances by Laraaji, Jeff Parker, Money Mark, Fabiano do Nascimento, and Sam Gendel and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.
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