Weekly Listening: Tame Impala, Kanye West, Death Grips and more

A revolving cast of contributors from the Music 101 and Wireless teams showcase some of the best new music releases from the past week.

Tame Impala - 'Let It Happen'

Perth psych-rock band Tame Impala are back with ‘Let It Happen’, a restless eight minutes of dreamy vocals and ethereal synths which evolve into a supernova of vocoder, dance inducing melodic grooves and space-like ambience. It’s more akin to Daft Punk than Tame Impala, which isn’t a surprise considering their key songwriter Kevin Parker has always expressed his enthusiasm towards electronic music, working on his own disco-funk project ‘AAA Aardvark Getdown Services’ in-between touring.

While it’s hard to say for certain if this single is indicative of what we should expect from the band’s new material, Parker did reveal in an interview last year that his musical direction would be less rock and more electronic. For someone who has received a great amount of critical success for navigating complex sonic arrangements on the first two Tame Impala albums, it seems only natural that Parker might direct his attention towards a new frontier. – Joshua Thomas

Kanye West - 'Awesome'

After a snippet of ‘Awesome’ appeared on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, a full version of the heavily auto-tuned ode to his wife found its way onto the internet a few days ago. I can’t help but love that he keeps it simple with his declarations of love. It’s universal I think, to be so incredibly besotted with someone that you can’t quite articulate what those feelings are. Everything just falls way short. Here, Kanye is not afraid of those clichés.

And while you can side-eye him over the line “You look too good to be at work”, he’ll have you wiping away tears with “Cause baby you’re awesome”. After all, who doesn’t want to be loved as much as Kanye loves Kim? Judging from the bridge when Kanye sings “I’m also awesome”,  there are lessons to be learnt on loving ourselves too. - Ellen Falconer

Death Grips – 'On GP'

“Everyone thinks we broke up but we didn’t” experimental trio Death Grips are warming up to the release of Jenny Death, the second half of The Powers That B double album … This begs the question if you release two parts of a double album separately, aren’t they each albums in their own right? And if you think about that question for longer than three seconds, Death Grips have probably succeeded in their art. That’s why they do this, right?

But screw the art, let’s dance. After near silence and only a random magician for company during the first 1.20 mins of the video for ‘On GP’, snarling guitars let rip, inviting some bedroom head-banging; it’s like Death Grips as the band they might have been if it were 1988. Then a scratchy organ rings in, marking the start of a light psych jam with rapping from the band’s heavily-tatted frontman Stefan Burnett aka Ride. Follow that loud/quiet structure a couple more times, bring it to an abrupt and confusing end and you’ve got yourself ‘On GP’.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s cool, but it’s not blowing minds like Death Grips’ best tracks have done. – Marcus Stickley

Holly Herndon - 'Interference'

San Francisco based computer musician Holly Herndon traverses that intimate space where bodies and technology meet.

Her last release, Chorus EP, was constructed from secret recordings she’d programmed her computer to take of her daily activities, and while I’m not sure if the source material for her latest track, ‘Interference’, also comes from the tricky art of trying to forget that you’re spying on yourself, the video hints at a considered theoretical basis, with generous helpings of net art, vaporwave gradients, and a recreation of Marxist theorist Guy Debord's board game A Game of War.

Sonically dense, there’s an elastic techno impulse under the torrent of static sweeps and vocal snippets. Deconstructed? Yes. Banging? Also.

Her new album, Platform is due out this May on 4AD. – Emma Smith

Trinity Roots - Citizen

A new album has been on the radar for Trinity Roots for a long time, but it was the adoption of drummer Ben Wood that put the necessary heat under things. The result is Citizen, a somewhat surprising offering, painted from a rich palette of colour and light. 

For 'Bully', Ria Hall leads a choir in waiata tawhito or ancient Māori chant, before we are plunged into a heavy, Black Sabbath-esque bridge, finishing up with an angelic lullaby from Holly Beals. 'Haiku' switches from skulking Queens of the Stones Age guitars to sparkling, sun-drenched singalong and back again. Country doyenne Tami Neilson makes an appearance, responding with strength and conviction to the wavering character played by Maxwell on 'Village Man' - a song that seems to wish for a world led by women.  Among the nicest surprises though are on 'This Road', 'Musings of a Cloud' and 'They Fall', where Ben Wood takes the mic and surprises all (including his band members, I hear) with his warm and richly expressive voice.

The album will be a bit of a jump for fans expecting another Home, Land and Sea, but Warren Maxwell’s dusty tone and lyrical metaphor remain unchanged, acting as clear markers for navigating this sea of diverse influences. - Melody Thomas

Honourable mentions

Civil Union - 'My Father Below'
Sufjan Stevens – 'Should Have Known Better'
god bows to math - Brighter Futures
Young Guv - 'Crawling Back To You'
Sunkan - 'Our Names'
Flatbush ZOMBIES feat. Skepta - 'RedEye to Paris'

Did we miss something? Tell us about it in the comments section.