The Eiggy Sea Cate Le Bon CYRK II (The Control Group) Cate Le Bon makes small sounding records that reach deep—back in time, but also inward. And on CYRK II (due August 21st), the Welsh singer-guitarist’s strongest, most minimalist record so far, the mood is ripe with ‘60s bohemia. Curious taps and spectral organs waft about like incense or decadent scarves, but Le Bon drives these six tunes: Her fashionably flat monotone
Until Then Orcas Orcas (Morr Music)
ized. “Until Then” (originally
will send your SoundHound chas-
by Broadcast) is aptly nestled
ing after Nico or Brigitte Bardot,
at the heart of this record: It
but her unkempt guitar-playing
enters
is busy tickling at a dissonant
emaciated,
murmuring
underbelly: scraping through that
The air bends slowly through
“none of us have anything” as it
the self-titled debut by Seattle’s
passes and dragging an ineffable
Orcas.
(symph-rock
swarm of pink-noise in its wake.
scribes Rafael Anton Irisarri and
It is at once frugal and penetrat-
Benoît Pioulard) explored a range
ing—not
of long-form ambience during the
“High Fences,” a one-chord finale
past five or so years, scattering
that hollows a droning chord to
releases on fringy, fuzz-friendly
canyon-like depth. Think of it as
labels like Kranky or Ghostly International. But with Orcas
the island between Owl Splinters— deceptively austere EP. last year’s instrumental evergreen
(Morr Music), they’ve reconciled
by Norway’s Deaf Center—and the
those directions into something
balearic brio of Swedish swoosh-
more elegiac and wholly real-
stros Korallreven.
The
duo
unlike
album-closer
vocal veneer to something more unrefined, and captivating. It suits Le Bon’s reproach in opener “What Is Worse,” and especially caters to the sense of awe that begins on “The Eiggy Sea”—”I fall over myself just to bask in the wealth”—and pervades this
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