Daily Drops · Vol.034每日唱片 · Vol.034
A pianist closes a decade-long project; Greenwood returns to Rajasthan eleven years later 工作日基礎：今週新碟為 5/8（NMF）為主，加上 4/24 已發 Editor's Choice 古典先入。
Jonathan Biss / Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Malin Broman — Beethoven/5 Vol. 5
Biss 用了十年時間，邀請五位當代作曲家為貝多芬的五首鋼琴協奏曲各自寫一首"回應曲"——這是項目的最終卷。這一卷把貝多芬第三與 Caroline Shaw 新作《Watermark》並置：Shaw 直接引用貝多芬主題，又把他的和聲層層折射出去。這種對話比項目此前幾卷都更含蓄——更像水印，不是辯論。Swedish Radio Symphony 在 Malin Broman 棒下保留了 Biss 一貫的長句呼吸。Gramophone 與 Limelight 雙 Editor's Choice，這種雙中並不常見。
Aldous Harding — Train on the Island
Four years after Warm Chris, Harding is back at Rockfield Studios with John Parish, who produced both Designer and Warm Chris—a partnership that has by now the texture of a long shared joke. Ten songs, with pedal steel from Joe Harvey-Whyte and Sebastian Rochford on drums; the arrangements lean closer to the dust-and-string austerity of Designer than to anything baroque. The lead single "One Stop" is characteristic: a precise melody pinned to lyrics that refuse to make their referents legible. She is still not interested in being explained. 距離《Warm Chris》四年。她回到威爾士的 Rockfield Studios，再一次找 John Parish 合作——從《Designer》算起，這已是長期班底。十首歌，pedal steel、豎琴、合成器，編配偏《Designer》的乾燥派，不向華麗靠。先行單曲 "One Stop" 是典型的 Harding：旋律精準到一個音都不能錯，歌詞堅決拒絕被翻譯。
Cola — Cost of Living Adjustment
Tim Darcy's third record with Cola is more spacious than the first two, and the spaces are colder. The acronym C.O.L.A.—a paycheck adjustment for inflation—is the kind of joke that works only because the band plays it straight. "Hedgesitting," the lead single, has the loping, unimpressed motorik that Ought used to throw away as a B-side; here it carries an entire song. The trio's drummer Evan Cartwright has been quietly building one of the best percussion vocabularies in independent rock, and this record gives him room. If the previous two felt like Cola finding their pace, this one feels like them deciding it. Tim Darcy 與 Cola 的第三張比前兩張更松，但松是冷的松。專輯名 C.O.L.A.（Cost of Living Adjustment，工資為通脹做的調整）是冷笑話，他們一句都不笑。先行曲 "Hedgesitting" 那種懶慢的、不上心的 motorik，在 Ought 時期是 B-side 的廢料，今次撐起整首歌。鼓手 Evan Cartwright 是這幾年獨立搖滾裡最厚的節拍語彙之一，這張終於給足空間。
Croz Boyce (Avey Tare & Geologist) — Croz Boyce
Two members of Animal Collective trading guitar themes over Dropbox—Avey Tare in North Carolina, Geologist in D.C.—and assembling nine instrumentals out of the back-and-forth. The name comes from a folder labeled "Croz Boys," set up around the time of David Crosby's death and never renamed. Built mostly from electric and acoustic strings, synths, and percussion, with no vocals, the record sounds like the inside of a long collaboration that has stopped needing to perform itself. It will not be the album anyone plays first when they want Animal Collective, but it is the kind of side project where the absence of stakes is the whole point. Animal Collective 兩位成員的純器樂支線：Avey Tare 在北卡寫吉他主題，Geologist 在華盛頓回信，全程隔空。九首器樂曲，主要是電木絃樂器、合成器和敲擊。專輯名來自一個 Dropbox 文件夾的筆誤——"Croz Boys"，命名於 David Crosby 離世前後，乾脆保留下來。
Daughn Gibson — Lake Mary not mysterious
Eleven years since Carnation. Gibson—who used to drive a truck and whose baritone has always sounded built for that geography—comes back with a record that doesn't bother apologizing for the silence. "Sacred Life," the lead single, is space-age countrypolitan, the kind of arrangement that puts pedal steel and a vintage Moog in the same chord. He is releasing it himself, on Bandcamp, with no label to write a press release about the long pause. The pause is the thing. 距離《Carnation》十一年。Gibson 開過卡車，他的男中音本身就有那種地理。先行曲 "Sacred Life" 是太空感的 countrypolitan——pedal steel 與 vintage Moog 在同一個和絃裡和解。這次他直接 Bandcamp 自發，沒有廠牌幫他寫新聞稿替這十一年的沉默解釋。
Loraine James — Detached From The Rest Of You
James calls this her "IDM popstar album," which is a self-deprecating way of saying that she has finally pushed her own voice up in the mix. The clicks-and-cuts heritage—Aoki Takamasa, early Ikeda—is still the substrate; the new layer is voice as compositional element rather than incidental texture. Alan Sparhawk shows up, so do Tirzah, Anysia Kim, and Miho Hatori, but the album doesn't feel like a guest list. It feels like James working out how loud she is willing to be. 第四張錄音室專輯。James 自嘲為"我的 IDM 流行歌手專輯"，意思是這次她終於把人聲推前。底下是 clicks-and-cuts 的老脈絡——Aoki Takamasa、早期 Ikeda——上面是當作作曲材料而非裝飾的人聲。客串名單很硬：Alan Sparhawk（Low）、Tirzah、Anysia Kim、Miho Hatori。
Olof Dreijer — Loud Bloom
Twelve years after The Knife stopped, Olof Dreijer has finally put his name on a full-length solo. Most of the tracks have already trickled out as singles and EPs over the past few years, which makes Loud Bloom less a debut than a long-deferred catalogue: fourteen tracks named after plants—Rosa Rugosa, Plastic Camelia, Cassia—each one a slightly different argument with house music. Toya DeLazy, Diva Cruz, and the Sudanese singer MaMan widen the geography. Dreijer is using the language of the dancefloor without ever quite letting the dancefloor have him. The Knife 解散十二年，Olof Dreijer 才終於以個人名義發了完整專輯。其實大部分曲目過去幾年都以單曲、EP 形式陸續釋出過——所以《Loud Bloom》不太是首作，更像一份積壓已久的作品集。十四首歌，每首以植物命名——Rosa Rugosa、Plastic Camelia、Cassia——每首都是 house 語法的一種細微變奏。Toya DeLazy（南非）、Diva Cruz（哥倫比亞）、MaMan（蘇丹）讓地理感更開。
Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express — Ranjha
Eleven years after Junun and Paul Thomas Anderson's documentary about its making, the trio has returned: the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, the Rajasthan Express ensemble, and Greenwood at his Oxfordshire studio with Sam Petts-Davies producing. Junun caught lightning in a Mehrangarh Fort in 2015; Ranjha is the considered follow-up, eleven new songs that don't try to repeat the documentary's geography. Greenwood's role is more textural this time—he sits inside the qawwali rather than circling it—and the splatter vinyl, gatefold sleeve are the kind of object collectors will queue for. There are worse ways to spend a decade than waiting for this. 距離《Junun》和 Paul Thomas Anderson 那部紀錄片，整整十一年。三方再聚：以色列作曲家 Shye Ben Tzur、拉賈斯坦邦的 Rajasthan Express 樂團、Jonny Greenwood——這次在 Greenwood 的牛津 studio 錄音，Sam Petts-Davies 製作。十一首新歌。