mvm.

A wide array of four album releases this Friday to get your ears into over the weekend.>>

Whether it’s the frenzied thematics of slowthai’s ugly, or the muzzled rock from Gallo’s FOREGROUND MUSIC – or perhaps you prefer the posied indie-rock charm of The Lathums, there’s something for everyone: whatever you dabble in.//

slowthai – UGLY //

An abstract artist beyond measure, slowthai borders the line between the abrasive derelicts of grime rap, and the aggrieved (London) calling era of punk, as a quintessentially troubled British artist in a disparity of youth. Bent on from the second, TYRON – which resulted in his first No.1 album – comes more twists in his third, UGLY. A subversive misfit stuck between a rock and a hard place, UGLY, a fitting acronym of u gotta love yourself, is a feeding-frenzy of self-revelation into the world of slowthai. A topsy-turvy world of highs and lows. While emblazoned Feel Good leads the trumpets into battle, the sub-electrics of Slaves-enthused Selfish, leads the fray as to why we never learn: “explain, please why you feel this way towards the world / my good sir? / People suck a dick / To climb a pyramid / It makes me sick / But they’re just thinking about themselves / The rich get rich.”

UGLY is a zesty zeitgest of resistance to changing times and paints the Northampton rapper at its realest. Still inflamed from his first introduction in 2019 with Nothing Great About Britain, there are no signs of burning out.

The Lathums – From Nothing to a Little Bit More //

Still reeling on from the highs of their Number 1 Debut, How Beautiful Life Can Be in the rear-end of 2021, the Greater Mancunian indie rock band are back with their sophomore catch-up; From Nothing To A Little Bit More. The album shows a darker fledging to their songwriting, as airy Sad Face Baby charters new plains in cynical love, as Turmoil follows – a sorrowful piano ballad unkept from such a band. Struggle and Say My Name bring an indie-alternative rock edge, as a spirited Red Rum Club comes to mind. While their sophomore creation offers dazzling complexities in new sounds for the band, what it lacks is thematic layers were How Beautiful… prevailed. Whether they will be hit with the dreaded curse of that second album, only time will tell.

Ron Gallo – FOREGROUND MUSIC //

Bold, brash fuzzy bravado comes in tungsten waves with Ron Gallo’s FOREGROUND MUSIC – his first for 2023, and his second in three years. A man who rarely uhms and ahs about his styliic choices, is Ron. The American who was behind Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me back in 2007, is channelling more his inner psych-rockabilly as opposed to the “traditional” raptures of blues-rock. The psych-oddity of VANITY MARCH dramatics are plastered all over White’s Fear of the Dawn, while straight-edged ENTITLED MAN is an alternative craze you would hear more often on a Blue Stones record. Certainly, Ron isn’t the type of artist to stamp-mark as that one or that’s what he sounds like. Hell, he doesn’t want to be. He’d rather thread his own tapestry than being cut from the same cloth. The infections of Dan Auerbach’s The Arcs have certainly seeped in, but not enough to muddy the waters as SAN BENEDETTO brings a pure rock ‘n’ roll sound brought over from many many decades before him. A gem of an album to get you down and dirty with the fuzz-buzz in the newest rock.

Boa Morte – The Total Space

This weeks’ surprise visit is Boa Morte’s The Total Space – an ambient totality of falling deeper into the woods. A neo-folk fledging of archaic drum-shell instrumentals, synthesised materials and an innate melodic compass to know the right way, The Total Space shares Boa at their best… in 12 different recordings. A taping via dusty attic recordings and laptop platforms as developed an all encompassing drone-found sound of longing … or wanting to be longed for. It’s a beautiful listen but it’s somewhat more than that. It’s a warming expedition of escape; a jaunting mountain walk; a speed-jog to your nearest and dearest coffeehouse. It’s dreamy and eerie at the same time: it’s everything and nothing all at once. Matched with space and silence, each Mountain and Dark Is collude one another in timbres as Hard To Know watches on from the shadows. If you manage to find yourself with a spare few minutes, do not get waylaid before you listen to this.