Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This is the time of year when I awake in my nightcap in the early hours to find myself confronted by the ghosts of albums past. “You have enjoyed listening to us,” they hiss, “but you didn’t review us. Why?” To which I retort, “Bah humbug,” before falling back into the uneasy sleep of a critic. But their accusations linger. Thus I shall endeavour to appease the phantoms of my conscience with a round-up of records I failed to cover when they came out.WH Lung’s Every Inch of Earth Pulsates (released by Melodic) is foremost among them. The Manchester indie band take their name from a Chinese wholesale supermarket in their home city, although their music aims for a less prosaic register. This is their third album. Its title pulsates with rather too much energy, but the songs manage to strike a consistently rhapsodic note without becoming overwrought.Opener “Lilac Sky” sets the tone with a metronomic bass/drums combination and the rippling tones of synthesisers and guitar. Lead singer Joseph Evans chants his vocals as though into vast open space. The mix of expansiveness and rhythm is finely judged. Too much of the former and the results might become bombastic. Too much of the latter and they might get monotonous. Instead, the album unites both in the manner of forerunners such as Doves and Sea Power.The lyrics are youthfully impulsive. Moments are seized, epiphanies are had. “The night doesn’t wait for us,” Evans intones in “Bloom and Fade”. His bandmates play with similar urgency and commitment. Even Scrooge would be swept up by their well-channelled fervour.★★★★☆Christmas’s favourite miser might also approve of Mach-Hommy’s approach to the music business. The New Jersey rapper of Haitian descent refuses to allow his verses to appear on lyrics websites, on the basis that they’re not to be given away for free. He masks his face behind a bandanna and keeps his real name to himself. But he doesn’t hoard his talent. His album #RICHAXXHAITIAN sets tightly packed raps to grainy East Coast beats and hazy melodies. The flow of words from Mach-Hommy and his numerous guests is labyrinthine. The verbal twists and turns are epitomised by a track called “Antonomasia”, an obscure term for a figure of speech in which a proper name is used as a noun — for instance, calling someone a Scrooge.★★★★☆
