This Month

!earshot Top 200 of 2021 For January to December 2021
TW	Artist - Title - (Label)
1	TEKE::TEKE Shirushi - (Kill Rock Stars)
2	The Halluci Nation One More Saturday Night - (Radicalized)
3	Chad VanGaalen World's Most Stressed Out Gardener - (Flemish Eye)
4	The Weather Station Ignorance - (Next Door)
5	Kiwi Jr. Cooler Returns - (Kiwi Club)
6	Arlo Parks Collapsed In Sunbeams - (Transgressive)
7	Ada Lea one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden - (Next Door)
8	Sook-Yin Lee & Adam Litovitz jooj two - (Mint)
9	Suuns The Witness - (Secret City)
10	Andy Shauf Wilds - (Arts & Crafts)
*View the full !earshot Top 200*

!earshot Top 200 of 2021

For January to December 2021

The Halluci Nation - One More Saturday Night

Chad VanGaalen - World's Most Stressed Out Gardener

Artist - Title - (Label)

TEKE::TEKE

Shirushi - (Kill Rock Stars)

The Halluci Nation

One More Saturday Night - (Radicalized)

Chad VanGaalen

World's Most Stressed Out Gardener - (Flemish Eye)

The Weather Station

Ignorance - (Next Door)

Kiwi Jr.

Cooler Returns - (Kiwi Club)

Arlo Parks
Collapsed In Sunbeams - (Transgressive)

Ada Lea

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden - (Next Door)

Sook-Yin Lee & Adam Litovitz

jooj two - (Mint)

Suuns

The Witness - (Secret City)

Andy Shauf

Wilds - (Arts & Crafts)

View the full !earshot Top 200

Specialty Charts #1s

Electronic:

The Halluci Nation - One More Saturday Night - (Radicalized)

Hip Hop:

Cadence Weapon - Parallel World - (Self-Released)

International:

Lakou Mizik and Joseph Ray - Leave The Bones - (Anjunadeep)

Jazz:

Adrian Younge - The American Negro - (Jazz Is Dead)

Loud:

Tunic - Exhaling - (Artoffact)

Folk/Roots/Blues:

Allison Russell - Outside Child - (Fantasy)

Charts

This Week's Charts

For the Week Ending: Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Top 50
#1 Hildegard - Jour 1596 - (Chivi Chivi)
Loud
#1 Amyl and the Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness - (Rough Trade)

Airplay Basics
OK, so you got a CD. What now?

Rupa & The April Fishes ( http://www.theaprilfishes.com/ )

Build
Electric Gumbo ( )

Rupa and the April Fishes have come out with an astounding album for the musical ears of 2012. Almost every twist and turn is a surprise and the styles of songs are as diverse as a sack of Halloween candy. With musicians Aaron Kierbel, Safa Shokrai, Misha Khalikulov and Mario Alberto Silva hailing from around the world, it's no wonder that the album is able to offer such a plethora of flavours. Rupa herself comes from a Hindustani background and possesses a passion for travel, languages, social change, as well as music. The talent is incredible and seems to come together in a beautiful quilt work of sounds that can easily appeal to many cultures and tastes.

BUILD is composed of 12 songs focusing on themes of globalism, capitalism and demoralized societies. It is an album of political messages and social change aimed at speaking to the world. Most of the songs are in English but Spanish and French also turn up, sung by the incredibly talented and sultry voiced Rupa whose vocal prowess is something to be reckoned with.

It is almost impossible to describe this album in one paragraph for it's diversity is immense. "Sur La Route" is a spicy latin-jazz number sung in french with some more edgy experimental instrumentation that is an opening of the mind. "Guns of Brixton" has a more reggae feel. "Like I Do" is a saucy offering with a lively french cabaret and swing mood. "Firewater" verges on a gypsy jazz flavour verging on a Tom Waits influence. All of these and I haven't even mentioned the indie-pop feel to songs like "Inheritance," the simpler singer-songwriter numbers like "Metamorphosis" and the countless instrumental surprises, weird sounds and aural textures imbedded into almost every song.

By Hayley Muir
Oct 29, 2012

More Reviews By Hayley Muir