Slash, Mia Doi Todd and the Juan MacClean drop new albums

A weekly look at newly released albums.

Mia Doi Todd

Floresta (City Zen Records)

This mistress of the canyon chilllwaves has brought her light and loose touch to a set of Brazilian songs on her latest, “Floresta,” Portuguese for “forest.” Working with a crew of Brazilian players, including Los Angeles-based guitarist Fabiano De Nascimento, Todd revisits such classics as Tom Jobim’s “Chovendo Na Roseira” and the traditional “Ewe,” as well as golden-era Tropicalia from Tom Ze and Caetano Veloso. Check out the making-of video, shot by Dublab, here.

Slash

World on Fire (Dik Hayd International)

The best curly mop in metal is back with his third solo album, released on his own Dik Hayd imprint (interesting name there, Slash). Handling vocal duties in front of Slash’s ax work is Myles Kennedy, the octave-crushing singer from Alter Bridge. The first single, “World on Fire,” leans too heavily on Kennedy’s studied yowl but in the middle of the mania is Slash’s flashy fingerwork. As for the video, consider yourself warned that “World on Fire” trots out every metal cliche in the book, namely, a scantily clad metal chick guzzling whiskey and writhing, always writhing, and other NSFW fare.

Shintaro Sakamoto

Let’s Dance Raw (Zelone Records /Other Music)

Japan’s resident odd bird has toned down the psychedelic fireworks that made his band Yura Yura Teikoku a renowned presence in ‘90s Tokyo but he’s still keeping things freaky. On “Let’s Dance Raw,” his follow-up to his 2012 solo record “How To Live With A Phantom,” Sakamoto keeps up the fascination with mysterious forces. The title track mixes steel guitar – an instrument Sakamoto taught himself before recording the album -- Hawaiian melodic inflections and Space Age atmospherics into a quietly funky groove.

The Juan MacClean

In A Dream (DFA Records)

This New York duo (John MacClean and Nancy Whang) have turned into one of the few bands to make it past the early-aughts disco revivalism that birthed them -- even if most of their aging audience does cocaine only with their souls now, not their noses. All the same, the party never stops in the TJM universe, which is slick, minimalist and wild all at the same time. “In A Dream,” sadly, is the first album TJM has released after the band’s drummer, Jerry Fuchs, died in a terrible elevator accident in 2009. The shadow of his loss gives the single “You Were a Runaway” a mournful edge, especially in Whang’s vocals.

Lia Ices

Ices (Jagjaguwar)

After her gorgeous song “Love Is Won” appeared in the closing credits for an episode of Lena Dunham’s “Girls,” Lia Ices got a push of wind in her sails. Her new album enlists experimental hip hop producer Clams Casino, as well as Benny Sagittarius (the duo of her and her brother, a longtime collaborator) for a more layered and fractured outing. The single, “Higher,” still finds Ices looking heavenward with airy vocals and off-kilter rythyms.

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