This week’s Timely Tunes feature the latest from Cloud Nothings, Tinariwen, Tornado Wallace, and Matthew Dear. And as always, we have a new Spotify playlist for your listening enjoyment.

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Cloud Nothings “Enter Entirely” (From “Life Without Sound”)

Cloud Nothings’ hooky, riffy anthems to evaporating youth wouldn’t sound out of place in the 1990’s alongside Pavement, Archers of Loaf, or Weezer. Their last two records (2012’s “Attack on Memory” and 2014’s “Here and Nowhere Else”) are two of the great rock albums of this decade. “Enter Entirely” continues to tickle those dopamine receptors.

Tinariwen “Assawt” (From “Elwan”)

Tinariwen are one of the more unlikely success stories. Leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib formed Tinariwen in 1979 with a group of Tuareg musicians, making beautifully hypnotic music influenced by Moroccan chaabi protest songs, Algerian rai, and western rock and roll. The group drifted between refugee camps in Algeria and Libya before eventually resettling in Ibrahim’s home country of Mali. I stumbled upon their 2007 release “Aman Iman” by accident on a world music blog, and it was unlike anything I had ever encountered before. Ten years later, they continue to astound me.

Tornado Wallace (feat. Sui Zhen) “Today” (From “Lonely Planet”)

Tornado Wallace sounds more like the nickname of a 70’s basketball star in the ABA than an Australian producer who channels the smoothness of Italo disco and 80’s soft rock into slow motion house music. The echoing, reverb-heavy guitar lurking throughout this track reads like a subtle nod to “A Momentary Lapse of Reason”-era David Gilmour. I’m not doing a good job of selling this song, am I? I promise it’s better than late-80’s Pink Floyd.

Matthew Dear “Wrong With Us” (From “DJ-Kicks”)

This previously unreleased track from Matthew Dear’s crucial addition to the long-running DJ-Kicks mix series is another gothic, off-kilter earworm. Taking inspiration from the measured minimalism of Detroit Techno and the avant-pop explorations of David Byrne and David Bowie, Dear continues to perfect his singular, queasily kaleidoscopic sound.

TIMELY TUNES, VOL. 32

TRACKLIST:

Erasmo Carlos “Gloriosa”
Kurt Vile “Life’s A Beach”
Cloud Nothings “Enter Entirely”
Superchunk “Animated Airplanes Over Germany”
Leon Russell “Beware of Darkness”
Jim Sullivan “Highways”
Fatoumata Diawara “Makoun Oumou”
Tinariwen “Assawt”
CAN “Laugh Till You Cry, Live Till You Die”
Herbie Hancock “Stars in Your Eyes”
Tornado Wallace (feat. Sui Zhen) “Today”
Lee Ritenour “A Fantasy”
40 Thieves “Crystal Mountain Thunder”
Matthew Dear “Wrong With Us”
DJ Khalab & Baba Sissoko “Bognya”
Popol Vuh “Kyrie”

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What are you listening to lately? Any new finds? Leave me a comment and we’ll chat about our favorites.