STACK NZ Jan-Feb #59

44 / 60

RECOMMENDED by STACK
The stats on Knife Party are mind-blowing: they’ve
amassed more than 2 million fans on Facebook and
53 million views on YouTube. After headlining the
Future Music Festival last March, the hot English
dance duo have been on an extended, album-focused
studio hiatus that has seen them cultivate some
of the most dynamic, innovative
and outright exciting music of
their career. Electro house at its
hardest, Knife Party’s debut album
Abandon Ship includes the singles
Resistance and Begin Again.
Hot on the heels of his critically acclaimed Single
Mothers album comes this companion piece LP.
Absent Fathers was actually recorded at the same
time and Earle had originally intended to release
both sets as a double album. But as he began to
sequence it, he felt each half needed to make its
own statement. As well as 10 new
originals, Absent Fathers also
includes a lovely accoustic reading
of the Fleetwood Mac classic
Dreams, recorded late last year in
Australia.
The London-based singer-songwriter has enjoyed a
meteoric international rise since the release of her
2013 debut True Romance. As well as touring with
the likes of Coldplay and Ellie Goulding, Charli XCX
penned the global smash I Love It for Swedish duo
Icona Pop, and co-wrote and appeared
on Iggy Azalea’s four million selling
global smash Fancy. Her sophomore
album Sucker is another bad-ass
floor filler, oozing rebellion and
attitude, and includes the top 10
smash Boom Clap.
It’s taken a while to arrive but the fifth album from
Chicago rapper has been worth the wait. Although
partly inspired by his tough upbringing in the projects,
Lupe Fiasco told Rolling Stoneit was a non-political
album. “For some people it’s gonna be a shock,
because there are no politics on
the record,” he says. “From here on
out, I’m just making music.” Tetsuo
& Youth also boasts an eclectic
line-up of collaborators, including
Ed Sheeran, Ty Dolla Sign and Guy
Sebastian.
Released in 1980, the third album from the irreverent
British New Wave outfit was a top 20 hit in NZ on
the back of the hit single Making Plans For Nigel,
an enduring favourite from the punk era. Drums
and Wires is the second in a series of remixed and
expanded XTC classics, and is
available as a deluxe CD/BD set.
The original album has been mixed
for 5.1 Surround Sound from the
original studio masters by prog icon
Steven Wilson, and the set also
includes six bonus tracks.
Rarely has an album been better named. Hitching
the driving sound of his electrified Stratocaster to a
foot-stomping backbeat, the stunning debut album
from the one-time Cee-Lo Green backing singer is
steeped in classic gospel, R’n’B and blues. “Gospel
is inspiring,” says Harding. “From hardship and trials,
you make something beautiful.
It’s the history of black people in
America, what happened to us
during slavery, it’s the foundation
of blues, R&B, soul, country and
rock.”
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MUSIC A Special JB Hi-Fi Promotion
SUMMER EDITION 2015 JB Hi-Fi