lung cycles

my new album is now available to preorder and will be released next month. this is my first album as “lung cycles” and the first proper album I’ve released in 5 years, recorded over the past few months with a 7-piece band made up of other people whose music I’ve released on my label, lily tapes & discs. the download costs a few bucks but I have plenty of download codes to spare, so let me know if you’d like one. here’s the release blurb, written by my friend emmerich (aka distant reader)

As the sun stayed down Hottest day of the year so far (4pm version) Cammal Following me up the stairs Blue Rochester moon

IN//VIA - Treading Water - it’s a lot less shadowy and glacial than Meditations and I sort of miss the dire dire docks keyboards but I think I might like it even more? more direct and emotional instead of atmospheric and suggestive. bandcamp.

Jon Hassell - Listening to Pictures (Pentimento Volume One) - surprised at how glitchy and active this is compared to Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street, which I loved because of the way it felt huge and heavy but still managed to glide along without a trace. it’s great though, probably closer to his earlier fourth world stuff than the last album but it still feels like a big step forward. hope it isn’t another 9 years before he puts out another one. very jazzy and flowery, stirs up a weird sense of motion that isn’t quite danceable. youtube.

Pentangle - Solomon’s Seal - it’s Pentangle season!!! one of the few albums I hadn’t heard already from (in my opinion) one of the most underrated bands of the ‘60s/’70s. unsurprised about how electric and psych-tinged this one is considering when it came out but it’s still kind of weird, it still rules as much as anything they did though. youtube.

I AM STARTING OVER FROM SCRATCH BECAUSE THERE’S TOO MUCH THAT I MISSED

Charli XCX - Pop 2/Number 1 Angel - I’m way late to the party here and I’ve definitely gone on record before saying that I can’t stand PC Music, but both of these totally rule, top to bottom. the only parts that don’t really do it for me are the parts where it gets a little too PCM for its own good, but I’ve still been blasting both of em nonstop. youtube / youtube

Haley Heynderickx - I Need to Start a Garden - I feel like I don’t listen to a whole lot of singer/songwriter stuff these days apart from friends who make that sort of music, but I think this is probably the best straightforward album of that kind of thing that I’ve heard all year so far? it’s great, beautiful summery guitar playing and cathartic lyrics. bandcamp.

King Crimson - Discipline - still working my way through King Crimson’s massive discography and surprised yet again at how this is so different from everything else I’ve heard but still amazing in a lot of the same ways. maybe the most consistent album I’ve heard from them yet in that it doesn’t have any obvious fuck-ups in the middle, also maybe their most “fun” album that I’ve heard.

Pusha T - DAYTONA - I’ve never really been invested in Kanye’s career or any of his music so I’m not gonna weigh in on that conversation but this is great - part of what’s kept a lot of classic rap and hip-hop at arm’s length for me is the tendency for rap albums to be 60+ minutes, so at the very least I think it’s kind of cool that this recent album-a-week campaign has been helping to normalize and encourage shorter albums from mainstream artists. it seemed like we were headed that way recently but I guess CD-length albums are back in style now because of the way streaming revenue works or whatever? anyway that all sucks, nobody should ever make an album longer than an hour. youtube.

Rob Noyes - The Feudal Spirit - powerful Fahey-esque solo guitar, but unlike most of the current batch of fingerpickers that people seem hyped up about there are actual tunes here, and they’re beautiful as hell. great summer driving music. bandcamp.