New releases · Music
New music: Moderný chalan, MAELSTROM and Dopamine Chamber
Two debuts lead the Czech-Slovak selection, while Fontaines D.C. release their fifth album, featuring Rosalía. Critics disagree over what Dopamine Chamber achieves.
A roundup of new releases and their reviews. We have not seen, heard or read the works ourselves: the verdicts are those of the critics cited.
The selection includes Moderný chalan’s self-titled debut and Fontaines D.C.’s fifth album, Dopamine Chamber.
- Moderný chalan introduces a self-titled debut with Slovak lyrics.
- Sinner Self releases the nine-song debut MAELSTROM.
- Fontaines D.C.’s Dopamine Chamber features Rosalía on Where Is Gone?
For the week of 16 October, the music selection brings together Moderný chalan’s self-titled debut, Sinner Self’s nine-song MAELSTROM and Fontaines D.C.’s Dopamine Chamber. The international release pairs the band with Rosalía, whose appearance marks the first guest contribution to one of their studio albums.123
Slovakia and Czechia
This part of the roundup puts two first albums side by side. Moderný chalan is a new Czech-Slovak project introducing itself with Slovak-language lyrics and an accompanying video; Sinner Self enters the selection with MAELSTROM, a debut comprising nine songs.13
Moderný chalan
The project’s name also serves as the title of its debut album. New Model Radio included Moderný chalan in its selection published on 9 October, reporting the arrival of the record alongside a video for Čo oči nevidia. That is a reporting date rather than a specified release date: the supplied account does not establish an exact day on which the album became available.3
Slovak lyrics are a defining detail in the release information. In comments carried by New Model Radio, the project’s author describes having avoided writing in Slovak for a long time, explaining that English had offered a more comfortable language to hide behind. That statement supplies context for the debut’s choice of language without prescribing how listeners should interpret the songs. The album and the video are the two elements of the project’s introduction identified in the report.3
MAELSTROM
Sinner Self’s MAELSTROM is the second debut in the regional selection. Released on 13 October, it contains nine songs and appears in Rock ON’s news roundup published on 16 October. The release information establishes its place as the group’s first album and gives its track count, keeping the focus here on the record’s arrival rather than a description of its sound.1
International
Dopamine Chamber is Fontaines D.C.’s fifth album. Its rollout extends beyond the release itself: EL PAÍS reports advance record-shop listening sessions across 38 countries, a collaboration with Rosalía and a limited vinyl edition connected specifically to those listening events.2
Dopamine Chamber
Dopamine Chamber arrives on 16 October through XL Recordings, with James Ford credited as producer. Rosalía joins vocalist Grian Chatten on Where Is Gone?, placed eighth in the album’s track listing. EL PAÍS identifies her as the first guest artist on a Fontaines D.C. studio album and describes the song as slow-paced, with guitars, violins and pronounced drums contributing to a dark atmosphere. That description comes from the newspaper’s account of the collaboration.2
The physical release associated with the collaboration has a narrower distribution than the album announcement might suggest. A limited seven-inch edition of Where Is Gone? is available exclusively at the Dopamine Chamber listening sessions, while stocks last. Those sessions were organised for the week before the album’s official arrival; the reported network spans 38 countries and includes 26 record shops in Spain. The exclusivity applies to that single’s limited vinyl edition, not to the album as a whole.2
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