Grouper returns with a new track that delicately places a sonic ice pack upon your feverish brow.
Grouper returns with a new track that delicately places a sonic ice pack upon your feverish brow. Tanja Engelberts

Grouper, "Parking Lot" (Kranky). Grouper (aka Astoria, Oregon's Liz Harris) has pared down her sound on the lead track from the forthcoming Grid of Points album (out April 27) to piano and voice. It's a brave move for an artist who is famous for swathing her songs in diaphanous billows of guitar drones. That being said, "Parking Lot" does hark back to 2014's Ruins, with its wispy, melancholy vocals and mutedly stately upright piano. This is high-class, minimalist, consoling music, a sonic ice pack delicately placed upon your feverish brow.

Chrome, "Time Slider" (Cleopatra). Helios Creed and company are keeping the Chrome legacy flaming brightly, even at this late date. Sure, a lot of the new album, Techromancy, recalls past glories from Chrome's zenith era (1977-1984), but who would bitch about that? It's a sound worth dredging up, forever. So, "Time Slider" evokes that chthonic, seething rager "Firebomb" off 3rd from the Sun, flaring sinsisterly with Creed's hyper-distorted guitar wails. This is like comfort food for me... albeit very gnarly comfort food, which you consume as Armageddon transpires in the distance. (Chrome perform at the Highline Wednesday, March 14.)

Keiji Haino & Sumac, "I'm Over 137% a Love Junkie and Still It's Not Enough Pt 1" (Thrill Jockey). Japanese experimental-noise-rock legend Keiji Haino (Fushitsusha, Nijiumu, Lost Aaraaf, etc.) links up with Northwest heavy-metal intellectuals Sumac (who feature Aaron Turner of Isis and Mamiffer and Stranger freelancer Brian Cook) for an epic piece that's pregnant with mid-'70s Miles Davis-like menace (think Get Up With It and Agharta), and a methodical, gravid, OM-esque rhythm. As always, Keiji launches himself way out there, like a method actor who's expert in communicating emotional extremities, delivering his lines with a masterly sense of space. I've never understood a word KH has grimaced or groaned, as I'm an ignorant monolinguist, but no matter: He moves me something fierce. If you want the cataclysmic conclusion to "I'm Over 137% a Love Junkie and Still It's Not Enough Pt. 1," check out "Pt. 2" here.

Newaxeyes, "Aleph Null" (Important). Among Seattle's best bands over the last five years, Newaxeyes are finally ready to drop their debut LP, Black Fax, on one of America's finest forward-thinking labels, Important. The new single, "Aleph Null," finds the quartet at their most refined, yet still retaining the glistening tension that marks their best work. All the people losing their shit over S U R V I V E should check out Newaxeyes for a more compelling take on chilling electronic instrumentals that signify impending trouble with suspenseful and ruggedly beautiful sound design. Black Fax is released March 16. Newaxeyes' release party happens that night at Fred Wildlife Refuge, where you can purchase vinyl copies of the LP.

Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids, "Message to My People" (Strut). One of the last remaining survivors of the '60s/'70s spiritual-jazz boom, Idris Ackamoor is still leading his Pyramids to sublime heights, against the odds. "Message to My People" follows up their shockingly good comeback album, We Be All Africans, with a humid, low-slung funky groover elevated by mellow chants and languid horns. The results are not a million miles away from Dr. John's 1968 swamp-funque-soul masterpiece, Gris-Gris. That is, until the Pharoah Sanders-like freakout and distant guitar-feedback explosions near the end. Love that shocking twist. The track is produced by Heliocentrics mainman Malcolm Catto, and you can tell from the simmering afrobeat-jazz heat conjured. "Message to My People" appears on An Angel Fell, out May 11.

Noteworthy March 9 album releases: David Byrne, American Utopia (Todomundo/Nonesuch); Jimi Hendrix, Both Sides of the Sky (Experience Hendrix/Legacy); Jonny Greenwood, You Were Never Really Here OST (Lakeshore/Invada); Young Fathers, Cocoa Sugar (Ninja Tune); DJ Nigga Fox, Crânio (Warp); 03 Greedo, The Wolf of Grape Street (Alamo); of Montreal, White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood (Polyvinyl); Nap Eyes, I'm Bad Now (Paradise of Bachelors); Judas Priest, Firepower (Columbia/Epic); Editors, Violence (PIAS); The Fratellis, In Our Own Sweet Time (Cooking Vinyl); Phonte, No News Is Good News (Foreign Exchange Music); August Greene, August Greene (Amazon Music); Oneida, Romance (Joyful Noise); Hieroglyphic Being/Jamal Moss, The Red Notes (Soul Jazz); Eric Chenaux, Slowly Paradise (Constellation); The Third Eye Foundation, Wake the Dead (Ici d'Ailleurs); Ministry, AmeriKKKant (Nuclear Blast); The Herbaliser, Bring Out the Sound (BBE).