The Week's Bestsellers: JJ DOOM, The Heavy, Antibalas and MORE...

JJ DOOM
Key to the Kuffs

Lex Records

One of the world’s best producers, Jneiro Jarel, has teamed up with the world’s best rapper, MF Doom. The long awaited Keys To The Kuffs features contributions from Damon Albarn and Beth Gibbons(Portishead) among many others.

The Heavy
The Glorious Dead

Counter Records

Renegade English soul-rockers The Heavy are happy to announce the release of their new album, The Glorious Dead, on August 21 via Counter Records/Ninja Tune. The Glorious Dead is the band’s third full-length LP, and the follow-up to their acclaimed sophomore record The House That Dirt Built (2009). Self-produced and with their unique, raw eclecticism fully intact, it’s their most fully-realized record yet, mixing together soul, hip hop, rock, blues and funk into glorious, raucous party music that is equally full of heart.

Antibalas
Antibalas

Daptone Records

Antibalas piled into two rooms at Daptone’s House of Soul Studios in Bushwick, Brooklyn to cut an explosive new set of afrobeat classics. “Dirty Money” launches the propulsive six-song LP with deep, pulsating rhythms, monstrous horns and tight funk. Lead singer Amayo — a native of Lagos, Nigeria and senior Kung Fu master – guides the band through cathartic workouts of call and response, dynamic instrumentals and eruptive solos.

Branford Marsalis Quartet
Four MFs Playin’ Tunes

Marsalis Music

Legendary saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his tight-knit working band invite audiences into their world of musical cohesion with the release of Four MFs Playin’ Tunes. This is the first recording of the Branford Marsalis Quartet with an electrifying young drummer that joined the band three years ago. The results are a nimble and sparkling album, featuring ambitious original compositions by members of the band, a Thelonious Monk classic,and one standard dating to 1930. The record blends the beautiful and subtle ballad sounds of the 2004 release Eternal with the ecstatic contrasts of the critically-acclaimed Braggtown. In other words, this just might be the Branford Marsalis Quartet’s most sublime musical achievement yet.

Metric
Fantasies

Metric Music

Fantasies was written mostly in exile in Argentina with only a piano and guitar, recorded mainly at the band’s own Giant Studio in Toronto and mixed at the legendary Electric Lady in NYC. It’s gilded surfaces and textured density – a heady amalgam of psychedlia, eltro and rock – evoke a certain dream like quality.

First Aid Kit
The Lion’s Roar

Wichita Records

First Aid Kit is Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg. The first single and title track to their sophomore album, “The Lion’s Roar”, was recorded with producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk, Jenny Lewis) in Omaha, NE. The record sees the band exploring a bigger sound and more instrumentation than on their debut album”The Big Black and the Blue”, but maintains the signature storytelling and harmonies they have become renowned for.

The Black Keys
The Big Come Up

Alive Records

There is something hugely satisfying about the unfettered moans of a vintage Fender Telecaster. For some solid sonic evidence, look no further than the gutsy 2002 debut of Ohio blues duo, The Black Keys. If you’re not hooked by the time Dan Auerbach finger-picks his way into the whining guitar groove of opener “Busted,” then the delivery of his sandpaper vocal drawl – ably assisted by Patrick Carney’s whiplash drumming and ‘medium fidelity’ production – will assure you that, in the US Midwest, they still keep their blues traditionally bottled. And therein lies the key to The Black Keys’ brilliance – the ability to make exciting new tunes sound raw and well-travelled, without falling into lame pastiche or parody. Check out the woozy, melodic leanings of “Yearnin’” or the straight-out garage barnstorm of “I’ll Be Your Man” – both tracks successfully fusing valve-humming cool with a contemporary edge that, five years and four LP’s down the line, remain founding cornerstones of The ‘Keys unique and wickedly uncoiled oeuvre. – Ross Bennett / Mojo

Phantogram
Eyelid Movies

Barsuk Records

Phantogram’s music sounds like it’s made by a band from the city. Electronic loops, hip-hop beats, shoegaze, soul, and pop each find its way into their songs. Unexpectedly, the band doesn’t live and work in a major urban center, but rather calls the town of Saratoga Springs, NY home. Despite the cultural influence of local Skidmore College (where fellow beat-experimenters Ratatat formed) Saratoga isn’t exactly teeming with fans of J. Dilla, My Bloody Valentine or Serge Gainsbourg. Using various samplers, tapes, records, synths, drums, and both percussive and stringed instruments, Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel, the duo that make up Phantogram have allowed their natural surroundings and metropolitan influences to mix, resulting in brilliant, unusual recordings that are beautiful yet hard, dreamlike yet substantial, danceable yet smart.

Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest

Warp Records

There is an unbelievable clarity of sound and vision to Veckatimest: vocals (a duty shared by all band members) are sharper and more complex, arrangements are tighter, production is more venturous and lyrics more affecting. Having opened the creative dialogue at such an early stage, Grizzly Bear was able to realize these 12 songs together as a band, making it their most collaboratively compositional album to date.

Mewithoutyou
Ten Stories

Pine Street

mewithoutYou returns with their 5th studio album, Ten Stories. Helmed by producer Daniel Smith (Sufian Stevens) and mixed by Brad Wood (Smashing Pumkins), Ten Stories is an allegorical coellection of songs that, at first listen, follows a winding narrative about a circus train crash in 19th century Montana. Long time fans will know that although we are introduced to a talking elephant, fox and tiger there is always more then meets the eye.