Welcome to HNGN's weekly top picks, where we cull the best and brightest releases in music, fashion, beauty, tech and pop culture. Come back every other week for more of-the-moment goodness. - Editing by Michael Lello.
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MUSIC
By Michael Lello
Tame Impala: Currents (Modular)
Tame Impala is one of the more unlikely rock music success stories in recent memory: a psychedelic rock group out of Australia? But the Kevin Parker-led band has found a large, worldwide following hungry for Tame Impala's experimental sounds. Next up for the Aussies is "Currents," a third album. It's currently streaming in its entirety at NPR, so you can hear for yourself if "Currents" is a step forward, sideways or backwards for the beloved synth rockers.
Ghostface Killah/Adrian Younge: Adrian Younge Presents: Twelve Reasons to Die II (Linear Labs)
Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan fame is remarkably prolific, having just released his whopping 12th studio album. This time, he teams again with film scorer Adrian Younge for a follow-up to their 2013 collaboration, "Twelve Reasons To Die." It's a good thing Ghostface and Younge have hooked up again, because the results are musically deep, socially conscious hip-hop - a dying art, it seems.
Check out the NSFW "Return Of The Savage" below.
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra: The Conny Plank Session (Groenland Records)
A classic jazz lover's dream come true, a newly discovered session Duke Ellington recorded in Cologne, Germany in 1970 with producer Conny Plank - who went on to work with the likes of Eurythmics, Devo and Neu! - is seeing the light of day. It clocks in at a mere 29 minutes, but "The Conny Plank Session" offers a new window into the late-career output of a master.
Check out an album teaser below.
Ezra Furman: Perpetual Motion People (Bella Union)
The singer-songwriter genre is overrun with well-intentioned artists who unfortunately have nothing new to offer. Ezra Furman, of Ezra Furman and The Harpoons and Ezra Furman and the Boy-Friends, is an exception to that trend. In "Restless Year," from "Perpetual Motion," his third solo effort, Furman yells "Death is my former employer/ Death is my own Tom Sawyer" over a sunny melody. Unique and compelling, and certainly worth checking out.
Have a listen to "Restless Year" below.
TRAVEL ESSENTIALS
By Vincent Yodice
Micro USB cable or Lightning connector cable
If not being able to text, listen to music or scroll through Twitter and Instagram for a few hours while on a plane seems like sheer torture, look into a Micro-USB (for Android users) or Lightning connector cable (for Apple users). Micro-USBs charge any Windows device but be careful when choosing a Lightning connector cable. Some of the older Apple models have a different plugs. A Lightning connector cable is required for iPhone 5 and up, iPod Touch (fifth generation), iPad (fourth generation) and up, iPad Mini and iPod Nano (seventh generation). A 3 foot Micro-USB can be purchased for just $1.23; a Lightning connector cable at 3 feet can be bought for $5.95; and the 6-foot cable is just $3 more.
Tablet Keyboard
The Mio Fuse fitness tracker is a handy tool for runners and cyclists looking to get in better shape. The waterproof wristband comes with an optical heart rate monitor and can keep track of factors like steps taken, calories burned and distance traveled. You can keep track of your pace while you run, and the tracker provides different zones for your heart rate. The Mio Fuse is available now on Amazon for $146.02.
