Julia Holter, Phosphorescent, The Jesus And Mary Chain and more appear on our Real Live Wire compilation
All copies of the March 2024 issue of Uncut come with a free, 15-track CD – Real Live Wire – that showcases the wealth of great new music on offer this month, from The Jesus And Mary Chain, Julia Holter and Phosphorescent to Rosali, Sam Lee and Dean McPhee. Now dive in…
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1 ROSALI
Rewind
On her fourth album, Bite Down, Rosali Middleman has created one of the first great LPs of 2024, a wildly inventive breakup record. Head to page 54, where we catch up with the singer-songwriter in her new home of North Carolina.
2 SHEER MAG
Moonstruck
After years on their own label, the Philly gang have signed to Third Man for their new album, Playing Favorites. As our lead review reveals, on page 22, it’s an eclectic, bounding journey of a record, with Tina Halladay in fine voice over the group’s garagey amalgamations of punk, country and disco.
3 THE HANGING STARS
Disbelieving
Straight from Edwyn Collins’ studio in the Highlands comes the latest from this London country group, On A Golden Shore. There’s a cosmic element to these rootsy laments, thanks to Richard Olson’s shimmering songwriting and Joe Harvey-Whyte’s pedal steel. Potent stuff.
4 THE BEVIS FROND
Wrong Way Round
Nick Saloman has been making records as The Bevis Frond for decades now, but new LP Focus On Nature still knocks it out of the park with his psych-tinged indie-rock. On this track, the Neil Young of Walthamstow launches off into flights of kraut-fringed fancy.
5 JULIA HOLTER
Spinning
Something In The Room She Moves, our Album Of The Month on page 18, finds Holter subsuming her past records into a stellar new work: gone is the thorny tangle of 2018’s Aviary, replaced by liquid fretless bass, divine and floating keyboard textures and some of her most indelible and unexpected melodies.
6 DEAN McPHEE
Lunar Fire
A concept album united by space, aliens and the unknown, the latest from West Yorkshire’s interstellar guitar wrangler, Astral Gold, contains some of McPhee’s most transportative soundscapes yet. Teleport yourself to page 34 for a full review and Q&A.
7 THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
JAMCOD
Jim and William Reid are back 40 years after their debut single, their love for fuzz gloriously unabated. Here’s a highlight from their new album Glasgow Eyes, a reassuringly caustic slab of distorted motorik.
8 PHOSPHORESCENT
Revelator
This is the title track of Matthew Houck’s latest album, the long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s C’est La Vie, crafted at his own Spirit Sounds studio in Nashville. Uncut joins him there on page 80 to discuss songs, sadness and toilet walls.
9 FRANCIS PLAGNE
Here Is Dull Earth (Edit)
This Melbourne-based musician, better known for his experimental work, ventures into out-there song on his new LP, Into Closed Air. Here’s an exclusive edit of one of its mammoth tracks, coursing with the spirit and melancholy of prime Canterbury Scene sounds,
10 CHARLES MOOTHART
One Wish
The LA multi-instrumentalist is releasing his first album under his own name, though you’ll recognise him from his work with Fuzz, CFM and Ty Segall. Inspired by experiments with a sampler, Black Holes Don’t Choke is a forward-thinking, playful rock record, dipping into genres at will.
11 SHEHERAZAAD
Mashoor
‘Produced by Arooj Aftab’ should be enough to prick up most ears, and deservedly so here: much like Aftab’s work, Sheherazaad’s brief debut album Qasr is a brilliantly modern meshing of Asian and Western music. Read our review on page 35.
12 HIGH LLAMAS
Toriafan
Sean O’Hagan has painted with various styles throughout his career, but the Llamas’ new album Hey Panda brings him bang up to date, with bit-crushing, Auto-Tune and the most current of beats. On paper it seems like a risk, but the reality, as “Toriafan” shows, is sublime.
13 WHITELANDS
Now Here’s The Weather
Shoegaze is bigger than ever these days – just ask anyone on TikTok, if you dare – and here’s a great young London group worshiping at the shrine of Slowdive and Ride. Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day is almost slavish in its reverence, but with tracks as mighty as this, it’s a pleasure not a problem.
14 SAM LEE
Meeting Is A Pleasant Place
On his fourth album, song-finder (and former wilderness survival expert) Lee continues his voyage into traditional song. Bernard Butler is back on production duties, and the result is resiliently modern, deeply textured and moving.
15 ADRIANNE LENKER
Sadness As A Gift
Whether Lenker is writing for her own projects or for Big Thief, her albums become little worlds, as endless in their scope and power as her well of songs can sometimes appear to be. Bright Future is no different, as this deep, generous ballad proves.