Cutting In Line Edition: Vanishing Twin, Drakkar Nowhere & Natural Child
By Aaron Stein Oct 19, 2016 • 7:25 am PDT
Vanishing Twin: Choose Your Own Adventure
There’s so much good music coming out every week that I’ve got a serious queue of albums to RecommNed, I doubt I’ll ever get to all of them. But every once in a while a record comes out that I just can’t wait to tell y’all about, so here are a few released in the last month or so that cut in line, so to speak. Hopefully, you’ll forgive the budging. First up is the debut full length from Vanishing Twin out of London. The record is Choose Your Own Adventure, and indeed is just that, a sonic adventure that seems to take the form you might want. At turns it’s weird and exploratory, at others incredibly outer-space groovy. I could never sum up the amazing breadth and addictive music contained herein, but, needless to say, I love this album. Gets better the deeper you go, so please, enjoy the adventure.
Drakkar Nowhere: Drakkar Nowhere
I’ve repeatedly sung the praises of the Beyond Beyond Is Beyond label and rightly so, they’re continually unearthing some of the most exciting new music out there. Add to the pile of excellent releases is this album from a new group with one of the better band names I’ve heard in a while, Drakkar Nowhere. Not quite a supergroup, per se, the band came together in Stockholm, starting with Daniel Collas and Morgan Phelan who eventually recruited members of Dungen and The Amazing to help flesh out the songs. Not just a witty name, their killer self-titled debut is a revelation of psychedelic funkiness, intelligent and groovy. This is an album of the “who wouldn’t love this?!” variety, a nearly perfect amalgamation of sounds. If you’re not busy, I’d spin this one right now.
Natural Child: Okey Dokey
If, for some strange reason, you haven’t already discovered the brilliant new album from Natural Child, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Their 2014 RecommNed’d album Dancin’ With Wolves, is a personal favorite, and with the recently released Okey Dokey, they’ve outdone themselves. Their cosmic, funked-up country is taken to the extreme here with some delicious, often hilarious, songwriting and incredibly catchy melodies that wrap up everything that’s great about the Nashville music scene in a big, day-glo package. Most of all, this album is FUN, like, “why aren’t these guys huge rock stars?” fun. Like the other albums features this week, this one couldn’t wait, I’m sure you’ll agree.
