Courtesy of Warp Records/Beat Records

Warp Records’ 20th birthday celebrations last year reasserted the label’s continued relevance, but they also reminded how far it had drifted from its core constituency. Autechre are perhaps the only act from Warp’s mid-’90s electronica heyday who continue to make music that’s remotely worth listening to. (Aphex Twin might also qualify if he actually bothered to release anything.) Oversteps continues in the vein of 2008’s Quaristice, though it’s a less fragmented and ultimately more satisfying listen. Rob Brown and Sean Booth have drawn back from the intimidating abstraction of their early noughties work, and there are some moments of real loveliness here, even if the melodies tend to feel like malfunctions rather than deliberately crafted hooks. Tracks like “see on see” and “krYlon” drift in the ether, without any kind of rhythmic mooring, while the disintegrated two-step of “r ess” might almost pass for Burial.

Autechre
British electronica duo touring their new album, Oversteps. June 4, time/price TBA. Differ Ariake. Tel: Beatink 03-5768-1277.
Taico Club
All-night electronic music festival with Autechre, Mice Parade, Matthew Dear and others. June 5, time TBA, ¥11,000 (adv). Kodama no Mori, Nagano Prefecture. http://taicoclub.com

Courtesy of Liquidnote

Studio engineer So Akashi works with cutting-edge Japanese electronic acts like Handsomeboy Technique, Hideki Kaji and Uran Okajima. Nanofingers is his solo project, and like so many studio whizzes, Akashi takes a mellower turn when working alone. His third album to date is heavily piano/keyboard driven, and the tracks have a tranquility that transcends the usual forgettable film-soundtrack qualities of this genre. “Q Suite (1&2)” pulls you in with its lilting river current—simultaneously hypnotic and melodic. “Mishuku” spirals between a classical piano concert hall and a rave chillout room. “Satellite Village” recalls Deep Forest’s mid-’90s heyday, but somehow manages to be interesting rather than annoying—Akashi’s mystical blend of vocal splashes, keyboard and programmed strings must be doing something right.

Courtesy of Sony

“I only make records when I feel like I have something to say,” says Sade. So what does the Nigerian-English torch singer have to say, a decade since her last album, Lovers Rock? In place of the jilted innocent of old, there’s the battle-hardened lover (and mother) of middle age. “Soldier of Love” signals Sade’s steely resolve with an unfamiliar military march tempo, while in more typically smooth tracks like “Babyfather” and “Skin,” she meditates with a familiar sadness on the predicaments we all seem to create for ourselves—and our unintended victims. Even if Soldier of Love is essentially a variation on the theme Sade first outlined two-and-a-half decades ago, it’s both well-crafted and enough of a departure to please diehards—and maybe even rope in a new generation of Norah Jones fans.

Courtesy of Idiolect

Free jazz albums are somehow quixotic—why record something that’s meant to be experienced in the moment? Nevertheless, this document of a Norwegian gig shows a crack trio at the peak of its improvisatory game. Named after the city in which it was recorded, the album brings together German saxophonist Peter Brotzmann with Japanese “hyper koto” player Michiyo Yagi and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love for the latest in a series of group outings. The album’s three tracks, Volda I-III, capture the band’s working method. There’s no beating about the bush: they just leap right in at the deep end with a frenzy of sax skronkings, koto pluckings, and Nilssen-Love’s protean bashings, skitterings, burblings and bubblings. The second track notches the tension level down for 11 minutes of contemplative brushwork and instrumental thoughtfulness before ratcheting it back up for a high-powered closing.

Courtesy of Secretly Canadian

One of the great strengths-slash-weaknesses of American music vis-à-vis its British rival is a relative lack of irony. It’s hard to imagine any ‘sneer-always-near’ UK group dishing up the rich, cheesy, poptastic mish-mash of resuscitated sounds (disco-funk, Balearic house, sax riffs, dreamy harmonies, Pet Shop Boys noodling, etc.) that Odd Blood contains, while maintaining a straight face. But the Brooklyn trio’s follow-up to 2007’s All Hour Cymbals pulls it off with an infectious sincerity, drive and energy that drags you in and makes all the inherent uncoolness… well, cool. This is especially evident in the self-help lyrics of “Ambling Alp,” with a vocal stretched into a fragile falsetto, delivered over a synth-flute hook, pegged down with parping synths, and poured enthusiastically over burbling world music rhythms that suggest the group cares madly and deeply for the rainforest and the bonobos. It shouldn’t work, but it does, and when music gambles like this and wins, the payout is a jackpot.

Courtesy of Groovie Drunker Records

If there’s anyone who knows about Japan’s infatuation with goofy Green Day-esque SoCal punk-pop, it’s Koga. As boss of indie label Groovie Drunker Records, he has brought attention to such snotty young go-getters as Ketchup Mania, The Automatics and SpecialThanks. And as chief songwriter, vocalist and bassist in Rocket K, he proves he can walk the walk too. As fans of the band’s previous five albums will know, Rocket K stretch summery boy-girl harmonies over razor-sharp power chords at lightspeed tempos. On the catchy “Music Life,” Koga sings with unbridled joy of the rewards of working in music, in what may be nominally considered ‘English.’ And as with all Rocket K albums, there are covers: this time, Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” and “Carnival” by The Cardigans get the punked-up treatment. The band’s generic sound may not score points for originality, but the members’ passion is infectious, charming and, above all, fun.