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From London
For fans of Tirzah, Loraine James, Space Afrika
Up next Debut album Goodness drops 10 October

Over the past three years, vocalist Theodora Laird and bassist Caius Williams have established a passionate hub for spontaneous music at Grain, a residency taking place at Avalon cafe in the city's creative scene. Bringing in renowned improvisers – key players in the avant-garde – to perform with emerging talents, Grain nights feature Laird and Williams as the still points of this ever-evolving little world. The duo additionally play as Crosspiece, with Laird’s calm intensity playing against Williams’s grittier, layered sounds.

Laird has worked in the studio with Loraine James and has played alongside Mica Levi and Tirzah. Her experimental approach is concerned primarily with fragmenting words, then remaking it. This idea permeates Goodness, her introductory record as Feeo, as a capacity to work with extreme conviction without disturbing the gentle soundscapes around her. On this fairly still and grounded album, every syllable feels meticulously placed, every utterance present and breathing in the mix. Born within a London underground enamoured of lo-fi, gritty textures, it feels like breathing fresh, clear oxygen.

A variety of expansive textures – blemishing drones, gentle rhythms, uneven synth and piano figures – support Laird’s vocals. Their beauty masks a lyricist of thought-provoking writing, of vivid descriptions on the building tension single The Mountain, and personal revelation. In the track Here, a mid-album highlight, Laird begs a lover to escape from a harsh urban environment that has twisted both of them into something else. “These structures are permanent,” she sings. “Love wasn't part of the plan.”

This Week’s Best New Tracks

Thundercat – Children of the Baked Potato ft Remi Wolf
“In the end, I did it for my health,” Thundercat delivers – preceding a typical Brainfeeder genre-blending explosion that is far from settling down quietly in peaceful solitude.

Hannah Frances – Life’s Work
“Learning to trust even so” – namely love’s certain end – “takes a lifetime,” the Vermont songwriter states, her stream-of-consciousness words full of intent as a muted New Orleans-y rumpus gradually approaches her.

Claire Rousay – Somewhat Burdensome
Time for reflective music, time to dust off your Yo La Tengo records – and include the Canadian-American sound artist’s deeply emotive guitar wanderings to the rotation. Listen closely: what sounds mournful actually overflows with vibrant elements.

Anna von Hausswolff – Facing Atlas
From the Swedish pipe organist’s most ambitious, brilliant album yet, a timely ode: “The world is full of shit and full of evil, but you persist,” she notes, her monumental composition expanding into ritualistic, slightly mechanical ecstasy.

Charlotte Gainsbourg – Blurry Moon
“You'll long for me / Beneath my hazy light,” the divine Gainsbourg sings: easily done as she breathes faint come-hithers amid a elegant dance rhythm. But danger lingers: “It’s ever so nasty,” she includes subtly.

The Avett Brothers and Mike Patton – Eternal Love
Very different from the frantic energy of Patton’s work, this folk collaboration runs on warm camaraderie. Such a sweet it’s actually unnerving, given the personnel.

Jordan Patterson – Hey Mama
Picture Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ retooled for the Gilmore Girls soundtrack, with fitting lyrics about a parent-child bond delivered with emotional depth: what a gem.