Thr Chameleons

By the time of their fifth album, 2013's Thr!!!er, the dance punk revivalists with the funny name !!! had been playing their funky, gritty jams for more than a decade. Common wisdom might dictate that their best years were probably behind them at this point and they were all ready to start treading water, but that's not the case here at all. They are doing some serious gold medal-winning swimming instead. The album sounds amazing, with tightly wound and whip-smart production from Spoon's Jim Eno, and the band plays with a newfound loose and rubbery style that's warmer and more fun than anything they've done yet…

Jarringly highfalutin name aside, Chameleons Of The White Shadow deserves better than the reception it will inevitably receive. The latest album by Egyptian-Australian musician Joseph Tawadros, Chameleons… will almost certainly be embraced by jazz and world music listeners alike as a masterful piece of work. Unfortunately, it will almost as certainly be ignored by everyone not immediately concerned with those genres. Which is unfortunate. Not because jazz and world music are deserving of a broader audience, either. Simply because Chameleons Of The White Shadow is a truly excellent album, regardless of genre.