Leor Galil, Reader staff writer
Doleful Lions, Song Cyclops Volume One I ran into 1980 Records honcho Bill Tucker at the CHIRP Record Fair, and he couldn’t wait to tell me about his label’s recent cassette reissue of Song Cyclops Volume One, a lo-fi pop album originally released in 2000 by Doleful Lions, aka singer-songwriter Jonathan Scott. (Scott was living in Chapel Hill when it first came out, but he’s a Chicagoan now.) The worn-in intimacy and warmth of the blissful, mostly acoustic tunes on Song Cyclops suit the slightly fuzzy, muffled sound of the tape format.
Alicia Walter, guitarist and vocalist in Oshwa
Son Lux at Schubas on March 25 I’ve known Son Lux’s music—something like minimal, orchestral electro-pop—for a few years. This was my first live experience, though, and jeez, did they deliver. Onstage they’re only a three-piece, but they made the sounds of living giants. Ryan Lott’s voice, dipping from angelic choirboy to whiskey rasp, led an insane barrage of orchestral samples and sub-bass thuds; weird-jazzy guitarist Rafiq Bhatia wailed the gnarliest, and unstoppable drummer Ian Chang played punchy and lush, like some brilliant caveman.
Omar Souleyman, Wenu Wenu I’m completely obsessed with this man. I was introduced to him only a few months back and started listening with his live bootleg stuff. When I found this record, produced by Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet), I was super excited. It never lets his frenetic energy lose immediacy, nor does it iron out his emotive delivery—it merely gives all the reed instruments and synths more of a space to live harmoniously next to one another. Wenu Wenu feels like an intense cocaine psycho percussive festivity.
