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Patrick Masterson 03.07.10

• Yellow Swans Going Places (Type)
  This final, posthumous release from one of the early aughts’ most promising noise groups, Going Places is massive in every sense of the word – a towering, cathartic aural cleansing sure to clear out lesser listeners and leave those that stay behind blown into the weeds of their own anti-noise prejudice. I don’t even know what that means, that’s how good this is.

• White Hills White Hills (Thrill Jockey)
  Too bad that Purling Hiss record sold out at Permanent in like two weeks and The Psychic Paramount don’t have an album out until the summer and Magic Lantern’s LP keeps getting put on hold and Oneida’s Rated O was impossible to digest in one sitting. Good thing New York’s White Hills keep it real with some seriously scuzzy psychedelia on their latest full-length. A great opportunity to show your little brother that “good music” didn’t stop in 1974.

• Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba I Speak Fula (Next Ambiance)
  This is the first release for this label, a Sub Pop offshoot looking to expand its horizons beyond the traditional indie fare. Not a bad way to kick things off, either: Between Malian maestro Kouyate and his family band Ngoni ba, you’ve got all the West African-American trad-blues one could ask for. Please put away your Putumayo releases and start speaking some Fula.

• Local Natives Gorilla Manor (Frenchkiss)
  This doesn’t strike me as the kind of release I’d love from the label owned by Les Savy Fav, but Gorilla Manor is a beautifully understated album that’s a kind of take-it-or-leave-it affair: If you like harmonies you can actually remember, robust drumming, or Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest (and if you don’t these days, you’re in a distinct minority), you owe yourself a listen. Very rewarding.

• Clipse Lord Willin’ (Star Trek/Arista)
  Any critic worth their salt will tell you what a bulletproof (double entendre) artistic endeavor Hell Hath No Fury is, and I won’t argue… But have you gave Lord Willin’ a listen lately? What a fun (and funny) album this is. The brothers Thornton low-riding with Jesus on the cover! Cot damn, I love these guys. And cane. But, like, sugar.