Weekly Music Roundup: Michael Kiwanuka, Big Thief, and Fontaines D.C.

This week, new music from Michael Kiwanuka, Fontaines D.C., and Puzzle Muteson; and new looks at older music from Big Thief and Alarm Will Sound.

Michael Kiwanuka Is Back

“Miracles,” sings Michael Kiwanuka at the beginning of his new single; “I need miracles.” The track is called “Sing,” and it comes on the heels of Kiwanuka’s revelation that he suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke last year, causing him to cancel all dates, delay the release of his next LP, and fall silent on social media. The Mercury Prize-winning singer/songwriter had amassed a huge global following over the course of his first four albums, and next week, finally, his fifth album, Fudge, will be released. “Sing” was written before his stroke, but that opening line hits harder now in light of Kiwanuka’s continued recovery – according to The Guardian, to whom he gave his only (and fairly circumspect) interview, he still can’t go home and is in a rehabilitation center. But the song is a good example of Kiwanuka’s gift for both melody and lyrics that go places others usually don’t go. “Sing” is about love after the initial infatuation wears off; “we’re nowhere if we never sing,” he concludes, as the arrangement quietly builds and glows around him.

Fontaines D.C. Release Dopamine Chamber

The Irish band Fontaines D.C. have completed the journey from scruffy bar band to arena rockers, and the most impressive thing about it is that they’ve done it without compromising their sound or their vision. Frontman Grian Chatten still mulls over the dark side of love and the increasingly fraught question of what it means to be human in an age of digital connectivity which often feels like its own opposite. Meanwhile, the guitars still groan and chime in ways that recall Interpol or Joy Division; there are hints of The Cure and other influences, and yet the band has an unmistakable sound, or perhaps I should say “feel.” The band’s new album, Dopamine Chamber, actually includes the line “You can't escape the feeling once you've given it a name,” which may be the closest thing to a thematic statement on the record. Leadoff track “Six Shot Morning” has the play of light and dark that colors Fontaines D.C.’s best work, and it’s reflected in the two voices that Chatten most often employs, a quietly brooding, simmering low register and then a keening higher one that reaches the cheap seats. Of which there will be none when the band comes to Forest Hills Stadium next September – both shows are already sold out and resale prices are into Broadway show territory. 

Big Thief Opens Up The Archives

Brooklyn trio Big Thief have announced the creation of a Live Archives website, where they are posting fully mixed concerts.  As they rightly point out, the band spends way more time on the road than in the studio, and the songs change with each performance, so this is a great way to experience their emotive brand of folk-rock. Along with the ten shows currently up on the archive, and available for free, Big Thief also released a single, a stunning performance of “Incomprehensible” recorded this spring in Dublin, with the inimitable Laraaji helping out on vocals. Adrianne Lenker’s voice eventually soars wordlessly into the musical stratosphere while Laraaji, best known for his ambient electric zither playing, occupies a middle ground between her and the rest of the band. 

Electronica Made Acoustic By The Band Alarm Will Sound

This year, the chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound celebrates 25 years of making new music with a wide array of composers, and one of the things the group has done which has widened both their audience and their circle of collaborators is to do acoustic arrangements of electronic music. First it was Acoustica, an album of unpredictable music by the English artist Aphex Twin. Now comes New Acoustica, in which Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson once again tackle Aphex Twin’s music, along with works by Lucrecia Dalt, Jlin, and the late SOPHIE. It’s no accident that the band doesn’t seem drawn to the popular EDM artists of the day, but rather to the artists whose work is slightly left-of-center. The creativity of these musicians has sparked some clever and inventive arrangements by AWS, and there may be no better example than their all-acoustic version of SOPHIE’s “Faceshopping.” The group is an instrumental ensemble, but vocals were integral to the SOPHIE original – where they were transformed digitally – so the challenge for Pierson and his fellow arrangers was to come up with ways to evoke that sound acoustically. Among other things, Pierson sends his voice through a plastic tube that ends on a snare drum, so you don’t actually hear his voice, but rather the metal snare being activated by his voice. Best of all, the piece is fun. 

A Long-Delayed Return For Puzzle Muteson

Puzzle Muteson is the stage name of English singer and musician Terry Magson. Over the course of three albums, he staked out a musical territory that included art-pop, ambient electronica, and lyrical guitar playing. But then he went silent for eight years, before returning with today’s Mechanical Kiss. There is less guitar and a heavier electronic presence, with Puzzle Muteson’s wispy, often multitracked vocals surrounded by arrangements done by New York composer Nico Muhly and Icelandic composer/producer Valgeir Sigurdsson, among others. This track, “Shiota,” also sports a dance-y groove and electronics that ebb and flow around him.