na: four tet, los campesinos!, etc.

Big, big day! My head is swimming. I had to come up for air just as Alex was unearthing reams of cool singles, so he may need to take the baton from here in the Comments section, but here are all the cool/interesting things I came up with on first pass. As always, tell us what you found in the Comments: UPDATED because of COURSE I forgot stuff:

Four Tet, There Is Love In You – New Kieran Hebden! The world hasn’t seen a new Four Tet album since 2005’s Everything Ecstatic, but Hebden is back now, and his new record is as swirling, sensuous, and downright pretty as anything he’s ever done. Big Old Pitchfork score yesterday from Mark Richardson, and we couldn’t agree more. Michaelangelo Matos, in his eMusic review, calls it “Four Tet at his most shamelessly gorgeous,” ; the “shameless” part might have something to do with the titles (“Angel Echoes,” “Love Cry” wassup House is A Feeling), but the music is undeniably gorgeous, and well, ecstatic. Check it out.

Los Campesinos!, Romance Is Boring – Man, no one deserves their exclamation mark more than these dudes. How many records a year can you put out? And have them all be great!? I haven’t had a chance to hear this one, but Dan Weiss’s review has me excited:

No description of Los Campesinos! could be as fitting as the New Pornographers’ song title “Testament to Youth in Verse.” The exuberance of this Welsh seven-piece is such that they’ve evolved from blog-hopping one-song-buzzers (“You! Me! Dancing!” off a sugar-rush EP that still remains the finest way to gulp their ADHD aesthetic), to the artisans behind three orchestral full-lengths in just three years. Most importantly, their exciting, multi-layered music (violin, glockenspiel, trombone, ba-bas) skirts twee with energy and counters the adolescent melodrama they pretend with wit and empathy. So it’s a testament to youth in verse that their third, slowest record is yet another great one.

Animal Collective, Campfire Songs – The reissue of the seminal 2003 freak-folk document. Campfire Songs catches the animals on the verge of becoming a collective; it’s a fuzzy, muzzy series of languid acoustic sketches that point (albeit vaguely at times) to all the things the boys would become.

Tindersticks, Falling Down A Mountain – Another Tindersticks full-length, hot on the heels of their 2008 comeback The Hungry Saw. Andrew Mueller did an interview with Tindersticks lead singer Stuart Staples that will be up in a few hours (***UPDATE***, here’s the link); in it, he talks about rediscovering his joy and passion for music. Not that you hear much joy in their music, but then, you wouldn’t want to; on their latest, they sound newly rededicated to their brand of whiskey-throated miserablism.

Fucked Up, Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009 – A righteous and furious singles comp from the Toronto hardcore pioneers whose Chemistry of Common Life won them a Polaris Prize, an unusual distinction for a dyed-in-the-wool hardcore band. Their early years were leaner, but no less ambitious.

Gigi, Maintenant – A compilation of girl-group style songs by indie rockers! For more, here’s Maris Kreizman, killing it:

When you’re a teenager in love, certain emotions feel like they were invented just for you. The rush of a first kiss. The loneliness of pining for a crush who doesn’t like you back. The tearstained-pillow melancholy of a freshly-broken heart. In the 1960s, no one articulated this hormone-fueled agony and ecstasy better than Phil Spector … It’s in this spirit that songwriter Nick Krgovich of Vancouver-based band No Kids and producer Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Destroyer) formed Gigi, a project that calls on a whole new generation of musicians to emulate the best of the ’60s pop sound … the result is as sweet as a chocolate malt, mostly because the musicians’ reverence for straightforward ’60s pop is evident in every song, every arrangement, every performance — there is nary an ironic wink or a pretentious flourish to be found.

Erland and the Carnival, Erland and the Carnival – A “supergroup” of sorts consisting of members of the Verve and the Good, The Bad, and the Queen, but more to the point, a bracing collection of warped folk-rock — and by “folk-rock” we don’t mean The Byrds. The British folk these guys draw from is much more of the grinning-macabre variety, and it makes for an ear-turning treat. Craig McLean sez:

Guitarist and frontman for this electrifying trio, Orkney-to-London transplant Erland Cooper is clearly a man with an understanding of the British pre-rock and roll musical tradition. But he’s no beard-munching, finger-in-the-ear Luddite. This debut album, made with drummer David Nock and former Verve guitarist Simon Tong, and recorded in Damon Albarn’s Studio 13, is a vivid, rich, century-spanning treat. No matter its musical lineage, Erland & the Carnival is a balls-out folk-rock triumph — bold, inventive, age-old and brand-new.

Basia Bulat, Heart Of My Own Heartfelt, bruised-tender folk songs. Our own Joe Keyes sez:

A significant musical step up from its predecessor, Heart of My Own finds Bulat gilding her songs with pinwheeling banjo, wheezing accordion and gliding piano; fortunately, she’s got such a knack for gracious melodies that it allows her to pull off any number of embellishments. Unsurprisingly, the songs draw mainly on folk music — but not Philly suburb, double-skim latte folk, more like 1880’s dirty-petticoat, daisy-in-the-hair folk, possibility-of-typhoid folk. Her voice is a wonder, a rich, wavering alto that swoops down low and mighty. Bulat’s trick is the fact that she is able to put all this over with a distinct air of vulnerability. Throughout the record she remains disconcertingly touchable, a tender presence at the center of her fragile dollhouse melodies. And it’s because you can get to her that Heart feels so nervy and disarming.

Fredrik, Trilogi – New Fredrik! These guys’ last record, 2008’s Na Na Ni, was an absolute eMusic fave, a warm, glowing, richly orchestrated triumph. This new one sounds darker and slightly grayer and duskier, but no less appealing.

Joe Pernice, It Feels So Good When I Stop (Novel Soundtrack) – That’s right, it’s a soundtrack. To a NOVEL. Joe Pernice’s own, in fact; the alt-country stalwart wrote “It Feels So Good When I Stop” and then recorded this album of covers, all songs mentioned in the book. I ask you: how fucking cool is that?

Matthew Shipp, 4D – Impressionist modern jazz intertwines with modern classical! Does that sound like a Cubist painting you don’t want to stand in front of? Au contraire — Shipp is a one-man force of nature in the modern jazz world curating avant-garde releases for the label Thirsty Ear and recording with all manner of artists. This new one sounds excellent (to untrained ears, yes, but don’t let that stop you .. much more knowledgeable folk than me, like, say, Rob, are also vigorous champions.)

Oddissee, Traveling Man – Speaking of one-man forces of nature! Oddissee is a D.C. rapper who works in the warm, nostalgic, boom-bap center of the post-Dilla rap underground, and he has been quietly locating himself at the center of this scene and steadily amassing a fanbase. This latest is a wordless collection of smeared-paint sketches of various cities — so Donuts it hurts, yes, but it sounds ably executed and evocative. And, uh, bumping.

Strong Arm Steady, In Search of Stoney Jackson – New release from the extended Stones Throw family — which, you know what that means: Guilty Simpson, Madlib, Phonte, Planet Asia, Talib Kweli, Evidence — Backpacker Central over here. Beats are predictably great; rapping predictably emphatic and sadly lackluster. Some sparklers here and there, but not much to induce more than the vaguest of head-nods.

Diehard, Oh So Premier – Like Superchunk? Like Braid? Like Archers of Loaf? These guys have that shit down. Seriously, those cotton-candy clouds of guitar, the male-female vocal tradeoffs, the chipper/winsome melodies — if you were into Pacific Northwest indie rock or Midwestern emo in the ’90s, this shit is a mainline to your lizard brain.

Xiu Xiu, Gray Death — And…a Xiu Xiu single. I do not have much enthusiasm for the musical works of Xiu Xiu.

And you? What did you find?