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Jun 13: Week 24 of the year. We’re into the throes of June now and with Download Festival weekend over the hill, we take a look at some of the best album picks this week. We’ve got some real doozies on here. Some real Summer doozies…

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A short term lease two blocks from the beach. A rental guitar and a laptop. This is what kickstarted the eclectic sound of Goldkimono. Now, in the throes of ’90s hip-hop coming into fruition again, Goldkimino returns with his third record, This One’s On The House. A transcendent feeling all about energy, his third encapsulates the very feeling of a Dutch Summer. A deluge of both indie, funk and surf dad rock as it pulls all sort of global grooves and flavours from every corner of the musical world, it’s a real joy to listen to.

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The kings of experimentation return with Phantom Island, their first for this year rather surprisingly. Since 2010, the Aussie adventurers of sound and style have released 25 studio albums, each personifying a completely different identity than the last. A gorgeous twist to their previous few, incorporating an orchestra within ’70s fabulous rock whimsies, it seems the outfit have expanded their palette with this most recent and gone beyond just screeching the title over and over again (although Rattlesnake was a corker) – it knocks Flight b741 out of the water.

A progressive idea that always garners the most intrigue, they are most definitely the band who are in their own lane.

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Free jazz full of colour is the best kind of jazz. Mary represents this best with her fourth, About Ghosts. Mary’s last three records were named Jazz Album of the Year in DownBeat’s annual Critics Poll – will she make this the fourth?

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Pioneering Zambian psychedelic act of WITCH (We Intend To Cause Havoc) return with their new record SOGOLO, their second burst of new material in 40 years – right after 2023’s Zango. Harnessing the power of “Zamrock” – a fusion of Westernised rock and rhythm & blues from the likes of Deep Purple and Hendrix with traditional African sounds. Weaving together those garage-infused psych licks and smacks they helped invent back in their 1970s heyday, the album is one of a sonic remembrance of a band once forgotten – but it is also one living in the present, experiencing the now of being an ever-present band fortunate enough to keep releasing material to an ever-loved and ever-growing audience. It’s an album earmarked with urgency – no doubt eager to show off their new sounds – but it’s also an album full to the brim with strong spirituality.

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Neil Young turns back the clock in the lovable ramblings of Talkin To The Trees, an exciting debut for the esteemed country blues man with his new band: a heartfelt welcome!

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