New tunes from New Orleans: February 2025
New music from New Orleans, February 2025
Round up by Paul Oswell
Alexis & the Sanity
Tongue Tied
Alexis & the Sanity make pop music, but like A24 make horror movies, or like Dooky Chase make fried chicken. In a word: ELEVATED. This is intelligent pop, cultured pop…pop that you could have a fulfilling relationship with, even if it starts with a cheeky knee-trembler in the park. It’s a fun time, but there’s a hell of a lot of production-focused graft going on underneath it all - musical and vocal embellishments working hard while the songs glide along with unshakeable finesse. Multi-instrumentalists and enviably-talented duo Sam Craft and Alexis Marceau have a ridiculous amount of musical chemistry, forged in their ‘other’ band, Sweet Crude, and their real-life former coupledom. I’ve wanged on before about Alexis’ voice, but holy hiccups is it impressive, and it's clearly basking in the sonic space afforded by this album. Sure, it’s powerful and technically precise, but add the deft, nimble expressiveness, and the sheer, evocative articulation, and, well, Tongue Tied is a vocal tour de force. Not that the music isn't all that and a bag of dried shrimp - the (love)Craftian atmospherics and hooks hit the spot on every tune. The highlight for me is the life-affirming single ‘Hind Legs’, but really, you can’t go wrong. Imperial pop. Triumphant pop. Elevated pop. Tongue in chic.
Round up by Paul Oswell
Alexis & the Sanity
Tongue Tied
Alexis & the Sanity make pop music, but like A24 make horror movies, or like Dooky Chase make fried chicken. In a word: ELEVATED. This is intelligent pop, cultured pop…pop that you could have a fulfilling relationship with, even if it starts with a cheeky knee-trembler in the park. It’s a fun time, but there’s a hell of a lot of production-focused graft going on underneath it all - musical and vocal embellishments working hard while the songs glide along with unshakeable finesse. Multi-instrumentalists and enviably-talented duo Sam Craft and Alexis Marceau have a ridiculous amount of musical chemistry, forged in their ‘other’ band, Sweet Crude, and their real-life former coupledom. I’ve wanged on before about Alexis’ voice, but holy hiccups is it impressive, and it's clearly basking in the sonic space afforded by this album. Sure, it’s powerful and technically precise, but add the deft, nimble expressiveness, and the sheer, evocative articulation, and, well, Tongue Tied is a vocal tour de force. Not that the music isn't all that and a bag of dried shrimp - the (love)Craftian atmospherics and hooks hit the spot on every tune. The highlight for me is the life-affirming single ‘Hind Legs’, but really, you can’t go wrong. Imperial pop. Triumphant pop. Elevated pop. Tongue in chic.
Mike Dillon and Punkadelic
Run White Boy Run
Mike Dillon is the kind of musician that New Orleans does best: a punk rock vibraphonist, avant-garde bandleader, and all-round musical adventurer. Like Quinton or Clint Maedgen, Dillon isn’t hemmed in by tedious details like genre, and his new album is a wonderful showcase of his versatility and invention. Let’s take the opening songs: the eponymous Run White Boy Run opens as a kind of soundtrack to a creepy abandoned circus with its wurlitzer and cheesy drum machine. Dillon’s sinister, guttural vocals add another level of edginess before, out of nowhere, it breaks out into flamboyant, rock opera territory. Second track Bowie Cumbia/I Want To Be Your Dog offers a toe-tapping, alt-reggae beat before electronic noodling and a frantic vibraphone solo evolve the song into a deranged (complimentary) reprieve of The Stooge’s masochistic anthem. Rousing stuff from a multi-talented performer who puts the ‘cuss’ firmly in ‘percussion’.
Anuraag Pendyal and Moses Eder
Cheatin' On Another Band/'Til Every Door on the Van is Broken
Deadbeatniks’ Anuraag Pendyal teams up with long-time collaborator Moses Eder for this double-headed single release. Saddle up for a couple of warm and tuneful progressive country ballads that tell tales of road-weary touring musicians a long way from home. Pendyal says, “It's ‘music for musicians’, not in terms of virtuosic chops or theory, but reflecting the pain and strain that can arise with one's relationships in the music industry.” Mournful but melodic (although ‘Van’ climaxes in a noisier, feedback-fuelled rant), heartfelt and honest - lovely tunes that are tinged with sadness, but the sweet harmonies help the melancholy medicine go down.
Randy MC
High (feat. Daniel Kelly II)
I’m a sucker for a keytar (see the video), especially when it’s used to create such a joyous, upbeat slice of pop music. We start slow and then unfurl into full bloom as the flute-like bridge solo hits like a blast of sunshine. It’s a catchy, celebratory pop romp that you’ll be whistling for the rest of the day. Randy Martono-Chai is an experienced, conservatory-trained, multi-instrumentalist mixing pop with jazz and soul, and the outcome of that heady mix is contagiously joyful. Lovely stuff. (Randy MC's links here)
Chichovite Konye
Trendafilka, from the album, ‘For The Olives’
This was released towards the end of last year, but I dropped the ball somewhere and wanted to return to bring attention to it as it’s just so good. If you’re unaware of this band, Trendafilka create, among other things, striking arrangements of East European folk songs - in their own words, “Dissonances and harmonies weave and swell…creating a musical tapestry”. This is an arrangement of a Bulgarian folk song, the title meaning, ‘My Uncle's Horses’. It’s a song of love and yearning, with a haunting refrain of “Be patient, be patient, be patient my love, as thin as a sapling.” The acapella vocals are immaculately arranged, dramatic and dizzying - this applies to the whole album, so open your ears to something very different, you’ll be amply rewarded.
