The first Stream And Destroy playlist for 2019 features some of the year's earliest ear-catching moments, of which many come from veteran artists we already know and respect, while the largest part, as usual, is composed of tracks from up and coming acts we love keeping an eye on.
After last year's very satisfying, Something Else, Anton Newcombe’s The Brian Jonestown Massacre is back with a self-titled LP which was initially expected to come sooner. Fortunately, nothing seems to have changed in regard to the strong impact of BJM's psychedelic sound.
Composed of members of Lush, Elastica, Moose and Modern English, Piroshka will unveil their debut LP in February, and the newest single off it, the politically triggered, What's Next?, is the only track on the album mixed by the great Alan Moulder.
A fine specimen of fresh shoegazey virtuousness, The Art of Sleeping In is a nineties-colored track off the upcoming NO, the sophomore album by Phoenix band, Nanami Ozone, while Camden Town's Idle Youth end their run of the early singles they put out since their inception in 2018 with Preface, their most fluctuating piece of music yet. Similarly, Vancouver's Mesa Luna, the project of songwriter and producer, Justice McLellan, balances with skill between the always associated dreampop and shoegaze styles, and reveals Dispel, the second single off of the debut album Lash, due out on Afterlife Music, March 22nd, 2019.
Swedish post punks, Makthaverskan, put together a two-track seven-inch single with a couple of impressive leftovers from the sessions of their 2017 album III, and Aussie punks, Low Life, put an end to the long wait, as March will see the release of their sophomore album, Downer Edn, five years after their debut. Also expected for a long time, Falltime is the newest album by Belgian post rockers, Endless Dive, whose instrumental exploration cunningly mixes heaviness and mellowness. The Black Drumset have kept their audience in the wait longer than anyone else on this list, but the much brooding There’s a Shark in the Boat drops to introduce their sophomore LP, coming nine years after the debut.
A surprise collaboration between Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers is here to showcase what cooperative creativity and what the standard mainstream rock sound is supposed to be like, and if the studio version of the excellent, Dylan Thomas is not convincing enough, watch what Better Oblivion Community Center are capable of, through their nervy live performance of the same song on Colbert last week.
Manchester greats, A Certain Ratio, celebrate their 40th anniversary with ACR:BOX, a box set that collects all their singles and b-sides, together with many unreleased tracks, one of which is a new version of Won’t Stop Loving You.
Oslo's Marie Ulven aka Girl in Red who at 19 seems already like a full-grown, sophisticated artist comes up with another intimate and wistful bedroom pop piece, the deeply sentimental, Watch You Sleep.
01. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Cannot Be Saved
02. Piroshka - What's Next?
03. Nanami Ozone - The Art of Sleeping In
04. Idle Youth - Preface
05. Mesa Luna - Dispel
06. Makthaverskan - Onkel
07. Low Life - Τhe Pitts
08. Endless Dive - Stoky 335
09. The Black Drumset - There's a Shark in the Boat
10. Better Oblivion Community Center - Dylan Thomas
11. A Certain Ratio - W.S.L.U.
12. Girl in Red - Watch You Sleep.
ZR