STACK #204 Oct 2021

REVIEWS MUSIC

Mykki Blanco Broken Hearts and Beauty Sleep

Hand Habits Fun House On their third record as Hand Habits, LA-based musician Meg Duffy transforms their ordinarily sparse recordings into grand statements with help from producer Sasami Ashworth. Opening with More Than Love , Duffy’s guitar takes a backseat as an array of minimal electronic sounds introduce listeners to a new side to Hand Habits, one that is remarkably more assured. A guest appearance from Perfume Genius on Just to Hear You pairs two of indie’s most captivating voices to rousing effect, while strings and Ashworth’s tranquil backing vocal on Clear Air dazzle. Tender in parts and forceful in others, Fun House is Duffy’s most varied yet cohesive effort since they left the session muso world (Kevin Morby, Weyes Blood, The War On Drugs) and released their first solo Boom & Birds, and Epstein, but it wasn’t until he was nearly 30 that his voice formed part of the mix. Helado Negro took shape, blending electronic pop with folk. His albums are soulful explorations. Private Energy from 2016, for example, is a meditation on identity, and connection. 2019’s This Is How You Smile travels even further along the bridge between the personal and the universal, tracing human histories across countries, through memories and time. Far In delves still deeper within. Scientist and cosmologist Carl Sagan once wrote, "If we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.” Lange acknowledges the mystery, and EP almost 10 years ago. (Milk!/ Remote Control) Holly Pereira

FEATURE ARTIST

Duran Duran Future Past Because this is Duran Duran, you just know that any provocative whispers throughout the album once escaped the lips of supermodels. “Anyway, lover, what do I have to do?/ When it’s all over/ I’d give it all up for you” – Simon Le Bon flexes his immense vocal range throughout standout banger Give It All Up (feat. Tove Lo), which we can’t wait to hear blasting through nightclub speakers – one of this album’s

A major theme of Broken Hearts and Beauty Sleep , Mykki Blanco’s second full- length album, is all the forms love can take. Romantic love, a fan’s love, self-love, fleeting love. A dreamy clatter of instruments and voices, the album draws on new and old friends to bring out all these different facets: Blood Orange on woozy highlight It's Not My Choice , Kari Faux with the pure attitude of Summer Fling , Bruno Ribeiro on showtunes-y Want From Me , Big Freedia’s raw power on That’s Folks . But even when Mykki goes solo like on vibrating interlude F**k Your Choices , it’s clear who’s the captain of this ship. A

producers is DJ Erol Alkan, which speaks volumes. Elsewhere: lead single Invisible incorporates Graham Coxon’s dazzling, textured guitar work; Anniversary features a Hungry Like The Wolf -esque “doo-doo-doo” chorus refrain; retro Japanese video games inform More Joy! (feat. CHAI); and emerging British rapper Ivorian Doll embodies a Marvel-comic goddess on the slap-bass enhanced Hammerhead. For tragic Duranies (guilty!), all of the band’s treasured sonic elements are here in abundance: the elastic funk of John Taylor’s basslines, Roger Taylor’s metronomic drumming, Nick Rhodes’ masterful synth arpeggiation, and Le Bon’s poetic lyricism (“But a voiceless crowd isn’t backing down and the air turns red with their loaded hesitation” – I mean…). To honour Duran’s greatest influence, Bowie’s pianist of choice Mike Garson elevates closer Falling, his nuanced playing floating beneath woozy, bendy vocal harmonies – pure bliss! Whether or not Duran Duran form an integral part of your musical fandom, Future Past captures an already fab band revitalised by their inspired collaborative choices. (BMG) Bryget Chrisfield

glamorous good time. (Transgressive/PIAS) Jake Cleland

Ronnie Wood Band Mr Luck: A Tribute To Jimmy Reed Live At The Royal Albert Hall On his 2020 album Rough And Rowdy Ways , Bob Dylan paid tribute to one of electric blues' most important figures, with his song Goodbye Jimmy Reed . Songwriter-musician Reed (1929 -1976) was also a major influence on The Rolling Stones, enough so for Ronnie Wood to put a band together that included former Stones' guitarist Mick Taylor, Paul Weller, Mick Hucknall and Bobby Womack to perform some of Reed's most popular songs at the titular Hall in November 2013. The record includes Honest I Do , (covered by The Stones,) Baby What You Want Me To Do , (Elvis Presley) Bright Lights, Big City (The Animals) Big Boss Man (The Pretty Things), and Shame, Shame, Shame (Bryan Ferry). (BMG) Billy Pinnell

FEATURE ARTIST

Helado Negro Far In Far In is the seventh album from Roberto Carlos Lange as Helado Negro. Lange was born and raised in southern Florida, the son of Ecuadorian parents, and grew up surrounded by the sounds of Miami bass, hip hop, dance

is in no hurry to finish the conversation. “We can move in slow motion, just watch me/ We can take our time in cosmic balance,” he sings on Gemini and Leo , a tender synth-pop love song dedicated to his longtime partner Kristi Sword. Such rhythmic tracks sit side-by-side with more meditative moments. The downbeat breakbeats of Agosto (feat. Buscabulla) and the arpeggiated folk melodies of Wind Conversations bring a low-lit glow like golden hour, and a chill like last light before nightfall. The album is characteristically contemplative, and joyful. An invitation from Lange to dance, and reflect. (4AD/Remote Control) SimonWinkler

music and Latin-American folk songs. His own early songs drew on these traditions, forming instrumental, ambient, sample-based compositions. Lange recorded under various names: La Muerte Blanca,

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