Weekly Roundup: New Singles from Kelela and Julieta Venegas, and Gracie and Rachel's Third LP
Kelela Spans Genres On New Single
The progressive R&B singer Kelela has just released a new single called “Idea 1,” a song with a weighty theme presented through almost weightless vocals. She describes the track as being about “being expected to witness, absorb, and speak truth at a time when the world feels like it's unraveling.” The song, though, is quite well put together – a gently propulsive bassline and wispy keyboards in the verses, and then multitracked vocals and shoegaze guitars adding a threatening din to the choruses.
Julieta Venegas Tells A Border Story in “La Linea”
Julieta Venegas grew up in Tijuana, where the deportation of people from the US into Mexico has long been a fraught subject. Her new single, “La Linea,” is about a couple who’ve been separated by the border, and the power of music, specifically singing (“cantando”) to express their desire to be together again. The accordion drives this song, but a lovely horn arrangement adds just the right notes of hope and poignancy. Venegas is joined by Yahritza Martinez, from the Mexican-American trio Yahritza y su Esencia, towards the end of the song. “La Linea” is from Venegas’s upcoming album Norteña.
Gracie And Rachel Ask Big Questions On New LP
If We Could, Would We is the name of the new album of chamber pop by the duo Gracie and Rachel. We first met keyboardist/singer Gracie Coates and violinist Rachel Ruggles when we premiered their first single, “Tiptoe,” back in 2015. Back then, they had a neat visual metaphor for their mix of pop songwriting (Gracie) and classical training (Rachel), with the blonde Coates dressed in white and dark-haired Ruggles dressed in black, but their music has always explored shades of gray, especially on their last EP, 2023’s Nowhere Now Here, created after Gracie moved upstate. Those songs examined the stressors of being apart and wondering if they could, or should, continue to be together. The new record, which sees the two apparently reunited here in NYC, asks the question, if we could do all this over again, would we? The album is not about answers, but simply exploring the possibilities; and so each of the two has contributed solo songs, in addition to the ones they’ve done together. A standout track is the single “Leaving Home Is Going Home,” a beautiful slow waltz that builds to a softly sung chorus – a chorus that includes such notable voices as Ani Di Franco, Gail Ann Dorsey, Holly Miranda, and a host of others.
Caravan Palace Brings Its Electroswing to An Animated Universe
The French band Caravan Palace is one of the leading lights in the electroswing movement, blending modern dance music and hip hop production with the mid-20th-century sounds of swing jazz. Their new single is “Good Mouse,” done for a video game called Mouse: P.I. For Hire, so the music video places the song – largely instrumental except for some brief sampled voices – in the game’s universe. The retro black-and-white animation is a perfect fit for the band’s sonic mix of old and new.
Colin Currie Group Gets A Head Start On Steve Reich’s 90th Birthday
The hugely influential American composer Steve Reich turns 90 in October, but the Colin Currie Group isn’t waiting around. Today they released The Sextets, an album featuring their performances of Reich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet, for mixed ensemble playing to a tape of itself, the self-explanatory Six Marimbas (actually an arrangement of the earlier Six Pianos, so maybe not so self-explanatory), and the classic 1985 piece called simply Sextet. This work features two pianist who also play synthesizers, and four percussionists playing a large array of instruments, including Reich’s signature vibes and marimbas. Currie’s performance has a slightly more relaxed feel than, say, the original version by Steve Reich And Musicians, but the energy of the interlocking rhythmic patterns that has made Reich’s music so indispensable is still clearly there.
