7 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Vijay Iyer Trio, J Mascis, and More

With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums from Vijay Iyer Trio; J Mascis; Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer; Meth Math; Lee “Scratch” Perry; the Paranoid Style; and Cookin Soul & Tha God Fahim. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)

Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh & Tyshawn Sorey: Compassion [ECM]

The current iteration of the Vijay Iyer Trio, comprising the vaunted jazz pianist alongside bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, made a sterling debut in 2021 with Uneasy. Now, a year after Iyer’s Love in Exile album with Arooj Aftab and Shahzad Ismaily, the Vijay Iyer Trio are back with an Uneasy follow-up for ECM. Among Compassion’s 12 tracks is an interpretation of Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed,” in homage to the late Chick Corea, who often played his own interpretation of the song. Iyer’s originals continue the debut’s occupation with contemporary social justice, with tracks dedicated to the anti-Apartheid icon Desmond Tutu and victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.

J Mascis enlisted the B-52s’ Ken Mauri, on keys, and steel guitarist Matthew “Doc” Dunn for his first solo album since 2018’s Elastic Days, writing on acoustic guitar before adding lead and band parts in his Bisquiteen Studio. Despite a radically different approach to his records with Dinosaur Jr., What Do We Do Now “ended up sounding a lot more like a band record,” Mascis said in press materials.

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Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer: The Closest Thing to Silence [International Anthem]

French-born, Australia-based composer Ariel Kalma first met International Anthem signees Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer during the 2022 edition of BBC Radio 3’s collaborative Late Junction series. The event pairs artists who have never worked together, encouraging them to collaborate on all new music. This was the seedling moment for The Closest Thing to Silence, the debut album from the three musicians. After meeting at Late Junction, Kalma, Chiu, and Honer pieced together improvised segments, spliced with Kalma’s voice notes and archival recordings from the 1970s. The result is a textured and meditative soundscape that draws from ambient, electronic, and experimental jazz.

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Meth Math: Chupetones [In Real Life]

Meth Math whirl reggaetón, synth-heavy emo and neo-perreo into a sort of party-starting hyperpop on their debut album, Chupetones. The Mexican trio enlisted Daniela Lalita and Zah for guest spots on the LP, which follows the 2022 EP M♡rtal and collaborations with the likes of Sega Bodega and Machine Girl.

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Lee “Scratch” Perry: King Perry [False Idols]

Billed as the late Lee “Scratch” Perry’s final studio album, King Perry comprises tracks the dub legend worked on until days before his death in 2021. As well as Perry’s collaborator in the studio, producer Daniel Boyle, the album features vocal contributions from Tricky, Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder, and Greentea Peng, among others. On album closer “Goodbye,” the last song Perry recorded, “his lyrics have him musing about going back to being a baby and being reborn,” Boyle said in press materials. “When the music stops, he just says ‘goodbye.’”

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The Paranoid Style: The Interrogator [Bar/None]

The Paranoid Style is the DC-based rock outfit of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, labor organizer, and sometime journalist Elizabeth Nelson. The group’s follow-up to 2022’s For Executive Meeting was inspired by ZZ Top’s Eliminator, an album created out of “Billy Gibbons’ incipient fascination with Depeche Mode and Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, and his desire to embroider the sound of those bands onto the Top’s inimitable Texas boogie,” as Nelson put it in press materials. “To me it sounds like heaven.”

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Cookin Soul & Tha God Fahim: Supreme Dump Legend : Cook Soul Saga [Cookin Soul]

The latest from Spanish DJ and producer Cookin Soul is a collaboration with Atlanta rapper Tha God Fahim. Supreme Dump Legend : Cook Soul Saga features the Argentine-born rapper Dano, Canada’s Raz Fresco, and New York rapper the Musalini. The new album follows Tha God Fahim’s various 2023 projects, including Iron Bull, Chess Moves, and the Mach-Hommy collaboration Notorious Dump Legends, Vol. 2.

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Source : Pitchfork