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Hi all,

Here’s what we have planned this week:

On tonight's Inside Track, we'll hear The Labyrinth of the Straight Line, the latest album from Cindytalk, a long-running experimental group who’ve been putting out music since the mid-80’s. This record here is a really nice collection of swirling, dynamic drones, sometimes anchored by melodic elements, sometimes anchored by spoken word poetry, sometimes anchored by pounding synthetic rhythms that hearken to their industrial past, and sometimes simply allowed to float free in its own abyss. Sharp’s described it as a revelry in obtuseness and surreality, and I really appreciate the way that manifests in the album’s strange and complex soundscapes. Although in some ways difficult to dissect, there’s still a lot of immediacy and visceral force behind these tracks, and the album is gripping the whole way through.  

On Monday for the Outside Track we'll hear the 8th album from Tinariwen, Elwan. In the world of Tuareg music Tinariwen are something of an international cross-over force, and this album features a slew of indie and American musicians including Kurt Vile, Mark Lanegan, Alain Johannes, and Matt Sweeney. The album takes a more acoustic direction for the band, and sees them combining the distinctive guitar twang of the genre with sharp, political and personal lyrics that reflect on their home country, Mali. Despite their international presence, Tinariwen have always been connected to and wrote about where they’re from, and their relationship to the North African desert is one that’s as clear here as it’s ever been.