Album reviews (6/26): Beth Orton, Brutalismus 3000, more

It is officially summer and it’s another somewhat quiet week in Indie Basement as we’re nestled in between two holiday weekends. I review four new records: Beth Orton‘s The Ground Above; the debut from Dutch superduo The Hobknobs (members of Lewsberg and The Klittens); Berlin hellions Brutalismus 3000‘s pummelling second album Harmony; and a new EP from London acid house troublemakers DECIUS.

This week’s Indie Basement Classic is a great summer album that turns 40 this month and is album one of my all-time favorites.

Over in Notable Releases, Andrew reviews the latest from Truck Violence, Downtown Boys, River Shook, Benny the Butcher, and more.

While it was a quiet week here for new releases, it was not a quiet week for news and felt like we got three weeks worth of announcements in four days (and that is probably true). Those included: a 16-disc live Joy Division Box Set; new album announcements from Team Dresch, Frankie Rose, The Tubs, and Bodega, and too many tours to list here.

If you’re in the NYC area, this week you can go to Chrysties and check out some of Johnny Marr’s guitars that he’s auctioning off. Speaking of buying things, can I interest you in some vinyl from Tom Verlaine’s personal record collection?

On this week’s episode of BV Interviews, I talk with The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins.

I need a nap. So until next week, head below for this week’s reviews.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Beth Orton – The Ground Above (Partisan)
Beth Orton deepens the luminous, jazz-inflected sound she created on ‘Weather Alive’ using many of the same ace players

Beth Orton’s Weather Alive was one of my favorite albums of 2022, and she’s now back with many of the same collaborators (Shahzad Ismaily, The Smile’s Tom Skinner, and more) for an album that feels like the natural continuation down that luminous path. The Ground Above opens with its stunning title track; set against Vishal Nayak’s skittering drum pattern and a swirl of sound design-heavy production recalling late-period Talk Talk even more than her last album, Beth sits at the center with chiming Fender Rhodes and her fragile vocal delivery. It not only gets better as it goes, it deepens with repeat listens.

The whole album is another subtle stunner. Orton’s voice forever sits on the verge of shattering, even at the quietest moments, and you hang on every word as they float in the center of mesmerizing arrangements that are jazzier, more enveloping, and more woozily romantic this time around. Put on your headphones for this one, from the backing harmonies and strings on “Cigarette Curls,” to the quietly dazzling electronic-tinged percussion on “Celestial Light,” the liquid-mercury guitar leads on the swelling “Love You Right,” and Christos Stylianides’ airy trumpet playing and Tom Herbert’s fluid bass lines throughout.

The album closes with another knockout, the swaggering “Otherside,” that, like so many songs on The Ground Above, grows from the smallest of embers into a grand, swaying, soulful creation. This time, though, Orton’s voice begins to break free from its brittle delivery as she sings, “I sing out for my freedom, I sing out for my life, I sing out for another day I get to make it right.” Then the backing also breaks free into what is undoubtedly a showstopper moment, so much so that it ends with applause, presumably from the others in the room at the time. It’s an earned moment, and one you might be tempted to join in on wherever you’re listening.

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The Hobknobs – Helmets Off (12XU)
Members of Lewsberg and The Klittens make up this strummy Dutch duo whose duet-filled debut is full of low-key charms

Cultishly loved Dutch group Lewsberg ceased operations sometime in 2024, but for those like myself who miss their talky, strummy choogle, frontman Arie van Vliet is now doing much the same as one half of Rotterdam duo The Hobknobs. The other half is Yaël Dekker of The Klittens, and together they make low-key, Velvet Underground-style guitar pop. What makes The Hobknobs different from Lewsberg is that nearly every song on Helmets Off, their debut album, is a duet. Their voices sound like they were always meant to be together and perfectly suit these quiet, sweet songs, which often belie thornier lyrical subject matter, all supported by gently strummed guitar and soft bass.

There is some percussion — a shaker egg here, a minimal rhythm track from a cheap Casio there — but the focus is really on Yaël and Arie. “We don’t have words for each other, we are the words themselves,” they sing on “Dictionary,” the album’s most charming song. “Oh how we speak to each other and listen to nobody else.”

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Brutalismus 3000 – Harmony (Live From Earth / Columbia)
This intense Berlin techno duo get help from Boys Noize, Underworld and Anya Taylor-Joy on their nuanced but still relentless second album

Would it surprise you to learn that a German electronic duo named Brutalismus 3000 go hard? Well they do. Victoria Vassiliki Daldas and Theo Zeitner met on Tinder and fell for each other while discovering ’80s and ’90s punk, post-punk, rave, and industrial, spending all night at Berlin clubs like Berghain before eventually deciding to make music themselves. Their debut album, 2023’s Ultrakunst, kept the pedal to the metal, favoring tempos that blew past 160 BPM and finding a large fanbase via TikTok.

Three years later, and now signed to a major label, Brutalismus 3000 are back with their second album, Harmony. The title might suggest they’ve mellowed, but Brutalismus 3000 have not, though they are widening their scope while staying heavy and hard, and they’ve brought in a few cool collaborators. Boys Noize, fresh off the Nine Inch Noize album, collaborates on “I Bring My Gun to the Function,” a relentless banger about gun violence where Viki’s vocals sound like she’s trying to shout her way out of a black hole and only slices of words get through. It’s a bit like Crystal Castles for the hardcore techno set, and it comes with one of the most memorable, disturbing music videos of the year.

Then there’s “Friends at the Pigshed,” a collaboration with Underworld that is very much in “Born Slippy” mode, Viki’s vocals swirling around Karl Hyde’s signature style. Actress Anya Taylor-Joy, meanwhile, turns up on “Morning is for the Happy,” a mid-album interlude, delivering a spoken-word ode to bleary-eyed club kids coming down and stumbling out of parties as the rest of the world heads to work.

The best tracks might be the ones they did on their own. Opener “No Friends in the Company” blasts out at nearly 200 BPM before downshifting into anthemic, crunchy near-metal, and “Gore Louvre” gleefully lays waste to everything in sight with a thumping kick and chopped-up, stomped-on production. They also dabble in trap beats, 8-bit glitch, Justice-y slice-and-dice, and sounds that almost resemble synthpop, at least before it all burns up on reentry. Maximalist yet nuanced, Harmony is the very loud sound of Brutalismus 3000 growing without compromise. May they never slow down.

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DECIUS – DECIUS TRAX VII (Trashmouth Records)
DECIUS (members of Fat White Family, Warmduscher) keep the acid house burners coming with another irresistible three-track EP

If you’re not left motionless in a pool of sweat and blood after listening to the Brutalismus 3000 album, the latest in DECIUS’ DECIUS TRAX series is a nice pick-me-up. The London acid house collective — Fat White Family’s Lias Saoudi, Quinn Whalley of Paranoid London/Warmduscher, and Trashmouth Records’ Luke and Liam May — have delivered “3 NOVUS slices of PURE dance floor AURUM, primed & READY.”

“Body Office” is pure acid house euphoria with disco strings, electro handclaps, and signature gurgling 303s; the trancier “X-Ray Shocks” keeps you on the floor with a hard-hitting, very bassy kick, stabby synth bass, and a lead line that sounds like the electronic equivalent of stomach grumbles; and “Born to Steam” is the kind of house banger that would probably benefit from some vocals (and could show up again in another form down the line). For those who like more hooks and pop structure, you should check out last year’s excellent Decius Vol. II (Splendour & Obedience) album, but if you like getting lost in the groove, VII is another killer EP.

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: The Woodentops – Giant (Rough Trade, 1986)
Happy 40th birthday to one of my favorite albums of all time

I don’t double-dip in Indie Basement Classics, but I’m making an exception. It’s been a tough, exhausting week, and I was thinking about albums that always make me feel better. I also wanted to celebrate the first week of summer and, for both of those reasons, The Woodentops’ debut came to mind. Then I realized it turns 40 this month… so I had no choice.

London band The Woodentops played at punk speeds but favored acoustic guitars and warm melodies. Their early singles were irresistibly crazed — hyperpop before there was hyperpop — powered by frontman Rolo McGinty’s strong songwriting and drummer Benny Staples’ inventive, kitchen-sink style. After a mini-LP made with XTC’s Andy Partridge, the band signed to Rough Trade, home of The Smiths, and released their debut album, Giant, in June 1986, the same month as The Queen Is Dead. It’s one of my favorite albums of all time. (Hearing it at 17, in an era when there wasn’t streaming and you savored records you didn’t even like that much, probably has something to do with it, but hearing it felt like it was already part of my DNA.) The band made it with producer Bob Sargeant, best known for working with The (English) Beat and Haircut 100, and he slowed their roll just a little to let McGinty’s creations and the band’s extensive musical talents breathe and shine.

They come out of the gate flying at 194 BPM, though, with “Get It On,” a rerecording of an early single that really benefits from Sargeant’s skills behind the boards, as well as his marimba playing (which is all over the album). There are so many musical ideas in the arrangement of this three-minute gem, played at such a speed you’d think The Woodentops would fly right off the road, but it all just works: pop as a whirling dervish. Those tempos stay high, but Giant is somehow manic and smooth at the same time, thanks to McGinty’s warm voice and melodies, and the positive vibes that run throughout songs like “Good Thing,” “Love Affair With Everyday Living,” “Give It Time,” “So Good Today,” and more. There are no mediocre songs on this album, which I know inside and out, from Simon Mawby’s dexterous guitar solos to graphic designer Panni Charrington’s woodblock-created artwork. Giant is perfect.

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