With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums from Bitchin Bajas, Pi’erre Bourne, Mo Troper, SSWAN, Bill Orcutt, and Lou Turner. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)
Bitchin Bajas: Bajascillators [Drag City]
Bajascillators is the first full-length of originals from Bitchin Bajas in five years. The Chicago-based instrumental trio of Cooper Crain, Rob Frye, and Dan Quinlivan issued their last LP Bajas Fresh back in 2017, followed by a Sun Ra cover album called Switched on Ra in 2021. Their new double album was recorded with an array of instruments including 19 distinct keyboards, reeds, woodwinds, percussion, and Laurie Spiegel’s Music Mouse program. Spiegel’s software was prominently used on the lead single “Amorpha.”
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Pi’erre Bourne: Good Movie [SossHouse/Interscope]
Two months after releasing Space Age Pimpin’—his joint LP with Juicy J—Pi’erre Bourne is back with his new album Good Movie. The rapper and producer shared the title track last week. Good Movie is Bourne’s first solo full-length since he issued The Life of Pi’erre 5 last year; it was preceded by The Life of Pi’erre 4 in 2019. In recent years, Bourne has become a highly sought-after producer, crafting beats for the likes of Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Trippie Redd, Young Nudy, and others. Bourne will kick off a world tour behind Good Movie next week. Revisit “Pi’erre Bourne’s 10 Best Beats” on the Pitch.
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Mo Troper: MTV [Lame-O]
MTV is the latest album from Portland power-pop artist Mo Troper. His fifth full-length follows last year’s 28-track LP Dilettante. The more concise MTV includes 15 songs, with titles like “The Only Living Goy in New York,” “I’m the King of Rock ’n Roll,” “Tub Rules,” and “Coke Zero.” Troper wrote, recorded, and mixed every song but “Waste Away,” which was co-authored by Nick Pounders.
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SSWAN: Invisibility Is an Unnatural Disaster [577]
SWWAN is a formidable assembly of improvisatory-minded musicians, including contributors to Irreversible Entanglements, Fuubutsushi, and Anterloper. The lineup of saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, guitarist Jesica Ackerley, trumpeter Chris Williams, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Jason Nazary makes its debut on Invisibility Is an Unnatural Disaster. Their three pieces draw together free jazz thrills with a wide-open course of twists and turns.
Bill Orcutt: Music for Four Guitars [Palilalia]
Noisy improv guitarist Bill Orcutt returns with a new set of intricately knotted electric pieces with Music for Four Guitars. Despite the quartet implied in the title, it’s Orcutt’s first solo album since 2019’s Odds Against Tomorrow—he recorded and layered each part himself. He draws together Tuareg folk blues, minimalism, and his ever-expanding kit of off-kilter sounds for the record’s 14 short songs. “Each track grows from a single phrase into an interwoven network in which each motif is in conversation with the others,” writes Vanessa Ague in her review of Music for Four Guitars.
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Lou Turner: Microcosmos [Spinster]
Lou Turner’s third solo album is an exploration of “the small microcosmic things that make up the fabric of everything.” Co-produced with Ross Collier, Microcosmos was recorded live in an Alabama barn in May 2021 alongside Trevor Nikrant and Joe Kenkel. All four perform together in the Nashville-based group Styrofoam Winos. Lambchop bassist Matt Swanson features on “Green and Growing.” Microcosmos follows Turner’s 2020 album Songs for John Venn.
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