Aja Monet

The Color Of Rain

Based in LA, this self-styled “surrealist blues poet” and musician sets her spoken-word performances to experimental jazz which is shot through with blues and hip-hop, deeply soulful and at times almost hallucinatory. Raised in NYC by parents of Cuban, Jamaican and Puerto Rican ancestry, Monet has long addressed racial inequality, resistance to structural injustice and love as a political power in her work. Now comes her second album, inspired by the way in which surrealism has been used throughout history as a counter to the growth of fascism.

All of which might make The Color Of Rain sound forbidding but it’s a seductive listen that’s flooded with light, due to Monet’s voice (warm, softly powerful), her command of meter and music that brims with vitality, rather than acts as a neutral backdrop. Live instrumentation dominates, with Meshell Ndegeocello conducting the players (she also guests on “Elsewhere”, alongside Georgia Anna Meldrow) and post-production work bringing warped electronic intrigue. Choosing highlights is tough but among them are the righteously angry, hectic electro-rock of “Hollyweird” and, in sharp contrast, the hushed “To Sister”, where Monet is joined by vocalist Gaanavya and harpist Brandee Younger. 

Label: drink sum wtr

Croz Boyce

Croz Boyce

Rather than being destabilised by the myriad solo projects of its four members and their various intraband configurations, Animal Collective is enriched by them. Both collectively and individually, the idiosyncratic pop outfit from Maryland thrives on experimentation, its sound still influential more than 25 years on.

Avey Tare (Dave Portner) and Geologist (Brian Weitz) released a record together (with bandmate Panda Bear) in 2001, but for this instrumental debut the pair have chosen a name for themselves – a nod to ’70s folk-rock grandee David Crosby, who passed away around the time they launched the project. Made via remote file-sharing, Croz Boyce shows that the apple hasn’t fallen too far from the Animal Collective tree: a blend of pastoral folk, glitch, woozy psychedelia, “American primitive” guitar and drone, it often sounds like two close friends picking up the thread of a musical conversation that’s lasted decades. But there’s unsettlement and anxiety here, too. With its faintly menacing percussion, moodily winding guitar motifs and quivering sci-fi synth, “Steven’s Sunshine Rejected” recalls Black Mountain, while “Father Karras” arranges classical Spanish guitar and the darkly minimalist sawing of strings to thrillingly ominous effect.  

Label: Domino

SUSS

Counting Sunsets

Founded 10 years ago in NYC as a quintet by veteran singer, songwriter and pedal steel guitar don Jonathan Gregg, SUSS are acknowledged as pioneers of ambient country, a micro genre defined by its fusion of country/Americana-style guitar and atmospheric synth/electronica, which evokes vast skies, endless horizons and the lonesomeness of the open road. Fellow vets Pat Irwin (on piano, synths, slide guitar, autoharp and more) and Bob Holmes (acoustic guitar, synths, tape loops, drone violin) complete the trio.

Their latest album consists of 10 instrumental “sunsets” – vignettes of mysterious no-places which are nonetheless dreamily familiar, summoning as they do the desert vistas of Ry Cooder’s soundtrack to Paris, Texas, the blissful, drifting cloudscapes of Harold Budd and Bruce Langhorne’s expressive, country-folk tableaux for The Hired Hand score. It makes for a reflective and serene listening experience, not least of all via the divinely melancholic sighing of the organ in “Sunset III” and “Sunset VII”, a ravishing, slow-mo symphony of harmonium, drone violin and pedal steel with light harmonica detail.

Label: Northern Spy

Aldous Harding

Train On The Island

Tracking Hannah (aka Aldous) Harding’s evolution from her English folk-styled beginnings to the singular, alt-rock auteurism of today has been intriguing and enjoyable. The New Zealander impressed early on with her mysterious songworld and oddly mannered vocal delivery but since then her expression has broadened and the art-rock:folk ratio in her work has shifted accordingly.

Though Harding hasn’t severed her roots on album number five – there are echoes of her beloved Neil Young, and a more impassioned Vashti Bunyan – neither is it as brittle as 2019’s Designer. These 10 elegant, clean-lined songs, produced by repeat collaborator John Parish, are perhaps her most immediate yet. That their author remains unknowable despite lyrics that read like candid autobiography is just part of their appeal: “I hate my perception, but the medication slows my mind,” she sings on the title track, while elsewhere there’s mention of Ritalin and being “on the spectrum”. With a simpático band (including Parish), stylish melodies swing and swerve and space is abundant. The spirits of PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, The Weather Station and (surprisingly, in “Coats”) Sheryl Crow float nearby but Harding remains very much in a field of her own.

Label: 4AD