By Maxazine South Africa 
Dozens of new albums arrive at Maxazine’s editorial staff every week. There are too many to listen to, let alone review. This ensures that too many albums are left behind, and that’s a shame. That is why we post an overview of albums that arrive at the editors’ desks today, along with brief reviews.
Photo (c) Jorge Fakhouri Filho
Daybreak – Matt Greenwood
Daybreak: The break of dawn, the beginning of a new day. Anyone who takes the trouble to go for a walk early in the morning at first light will notice that the early morning light is never the same. The sky colours itself in countless variations, like a prediction of what the day will bring. In that sense, guitarist Matt Greenwood has chosen an apt title for this album. No day is the same on “Daybreak”. From the almost rustic “Strength To Spare” to the more robust, up-tempo “Paper Planes”, Greenwood shows that with six strings you have an infinite palette of possibilities to create any desired atmosphere, although it should be noted that the box of studio effects could have remained closed more often. All styles are touched upon: jazz, rock and also world music, as in the eastern-sounding “1000 Paper Cranes”. The slight excess of ambient sound layers is forgiven once we hear his arrangement of Claude Debussy’s “La Damoiselle élue”: a musical poem for orchestra with vocal solos for soprano and alto, written in 1888. Greenwood’s interpretation, in which he translates vocal melodies to guitar, is a pleasure to listen to. Here, Greenwood truly makes his guitar sing. It promises to be a beautiful day. (Jeroen Mulder) (7/10) (Matt Greenwood Music)
Ladytron – Paradises
On their eighth studio album “Paradises”, the Liverpool trio Ladytron clearly opts for the dance floor, for the first time written entirely as a conceptual whole rather than as separate tracks. Produced by band member Daniel Hunt and mixed by Jim Abbiss, this is their most dance-oriented record since “Light & Magic” from 2002. Opener “I Believe in You” immediately makes it clear that Ladytron is not interested in revisiting the past: a pounding rhythm is combined with techno percussion until everything clicks and pulses like a mechanical device full of disco lights. On “I See Red”, Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo sing darkly over a background that spins until you can no longer distinguish up from down. Previously released singles are “I Believe in You”, “I See Red” and “Kingdom Undersea”. On “Secret Dreams of Thieves”, the vocals sound unusually light, while the electro beats and thick swirling synths practically push you onto the dance floor. The sixteen tracks are sometimes a little too long, but “Paradises” is an album that looks back and forward at the same time, and that is where its strength lies. (Norman van den Wildenberg) (8/10) (Nettwerk)
Motorpsycho – The Gaia ll Space Corps
The Norwegian band Motorpsycho releases their new album, “The Gaia ll Space Corps,” which is stylistically best described as vintage hard rock. The songs are highly riff-oriented and feature numerous guitar solos. Fortunately, there is also sufficient room for vocals and keyboards. The length of the songs is striking. Motorpsycho is known for its long, extended songs and its improvisation-rich live performances. The seven tracks on “The Gaia ll Space Corps” clock in at just over half an hour in total. The sound is very retro. Motorpsycho wanted an album that sounds as if it were recorded in the 1970s. That has been achieved. The album was recorded in the Old Cheese Factory in Trondheim and Amper Tone in Oslo. Of course, it is not purely hard rock throughout. The typical psychedelic Motorpsycho stamp is still present, as can be clearly heard on the title track, on which singer and guitarist Hans Magnus ‘Snah’ Ryan plays the electric sitar. Opener “Fanny Again, Or” is the first single from the album and has been available for some time. Closer “Black As Night” is a cover of The Frost and remains fairly faithful to the original version. “The Gaia ll Space Corps” is highly recommended for fans of stoner rock and vintage hard rock and is a valuable addition to Motorpsycho’s extensive discography. (Ad Keepers) (8/10) (Det Nordenfjeldske Grammofonselskab)
Chenxi Pan – This Very Moment
Born in China, Chenxi Pan moved to New York in 2021 to study at The New School, where she primarily deepened her literary craft and, of course, refined her style. As a composer and singer, that style is unmistakably rooted in traditional vocal jazz, but Pan adds something entirely her own: storytelling. The tracks on the debut “This Very Moment” are not so much intended as separate compositions, but as a continuous story with chapters. Pan writes all the material herself and clearly chooses atmosphere over virtuosity, in arrangements that are extremely carefully constructed, with an important role for strings, saxophone and guitar. The music mainly serves as a carrier for the beautiful lyrics. And that is immediately the problem that “This Very Moment” struggles with: Pan has clearly paid more attention to the lyrics, because musically the album lingers just a little too much in ambient noodling that sometimes seems completely detached from the vocal melody. This certainly applies to the longer pieces. In the shorter “Little Bells”, composition, vocals and lyrics are much more of a unity. Pan’s intentions are crystal clear, but she has gone too far in the pursuit of subtlety and the urge to give every note a certain nuance. That makes an hour quite a long listen. (Jeroen Mulder) (6/10) (Origin Records)
BTS – ARIRANG
After almost six years, the complete seven-member formation BTS returns with “ARIRANG”, their fifth studio album, named after a centuries-old Korean folk song about longing and resilience. All fourteen tracks are co-written by producers including Diplo, Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, Flume, JPEGMAFIA, and Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic. The album opens with “Body to Body” and builds through the energetic “Hooligan”, “Aliens” and “FYA” towards the pivot point of the album: the title single “Swim”. The fourteen tracks form a more mature work than before, with the band opting for a more nuanced, layered approach. The solo periods have given each member a sharper creative identity, which they now bring back to the group. The second half loses some momentum here and there, but the closer “Into the Sun” brings the album to a warm and hopeful end. “ARIRANG” is a reunion that understands that returning is never the same as standing still. (William Brown) (9/10) (Big Hit Music)
Nijaga Terborg