Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (October 24th - October 30th)

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our weekly recap of this week's new music. We're sharing our top ten favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web. It's generally poorly written and totally unedited... but full love of heart. The number rankings are fairly arbitrary and we sincerely recommend checking out all the music included in this feature. There's a lot of great music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music. *Disclaimer: We are making a conscious effort not to include any artist in the top ten on back-to-back weeks in order to diversify the feature, so be sure to check the "further listening" as well because it's often "top ten" quality too.

1. SURFACE TO AIR MISSIVE | "A V" LP

It's safe to say that Surface to Air Missive are at the top of their game, so to speak. The glorious psych pop project of Athens by-way-of Tallahassee native Taylor Ross has returned with A V, his latest sun blasted vision of pop exploration. Diving into a world full on wonder and never ending intrigue, Ross invites you deep into his wormhole of sticky sweet melodies and kaleidoscopic pop. Blending together modern exploration and retro psych pop influences, Surface to Air Missive have captured a sense of pure imagination with lush acoustics, unusual progressions, and layered organs and recorders. It's a scenic view into a beautiful world that may only exist in the collective subconscious, but it's beautiful regardless.

2. gobbinjr | "Vom Night" EP

Emma Witmer aka gobbinjr is an amazing songwriter. If you didn't already know that, her new EP, Vom Night, is sure to make you a believer. There's a whimsical charm to her songs even that their saddest and most self effacing moments. Witmer bares it all throughout her song's, inviting you into her personal headspace through minimal compositions of mostly synths, vocals, and programmed drums... and she doesn't need much else. There's a vulnerability to her songs that's inescapable but it's the creative and vibrant ways in which she conveys them through the music that really separates her from the rest. It's evident all over her new EP, a stunning listen to cheerfully sad songs.

3. TRAAMS | "A House On Fire"

When locked into a serious krautrock groove, there's an important tendency to keep that groove going. Chichester, UK's TRAAMS understand this and they're happy to indulge on new single "A House On Fire". Laser focused from the start, TRAAMS ride their skittering motorik beat over the course of the nearly nine minute epic, slowly building the intensity above the hypnotic groove. The band begin to layer in waving guitars, manic yelps, and explosive harmonies, remaining forever grounded in rhythm, while ramping up the chaos everywhere else. There's a slew of hooks and refrains that pop up and recede during the marathon groove, a raging dance number that peaks repeatedly. TRAAMS get it, now please come to the States.

4. WE LEAVE AT MIDNIGHT | "Milo"

Keeping in the psych pop theme of the week, we certainly need to mention Texas has had it's fair share of great psych bands over the past few decades and it's time to welcome We Leave At Midnight to that list. The San Antonio based quintet are channeling deep into the Elephant Six Collective oasis on their upcoming album, The Holy Rolling Flower Band, and the jangly pop shimmer is all encompassing on first single "Milo". Mixing together swirls of psych pop, indie rock, folk, power-pop, and alt-country, the band have created a sound that resides somewhere sonically between The Beach Boys and Of Montreal, with it head in the clouds. Built on lush orchestration and hazy swooning, the band are brilliantly dreamy and "Milo" serves as the perfect introduction.

5. FRANKIE COSMOS | "Fresh Pond" (Krill cover)

Long live Krill. It's a sentiment we think about often and thankfully, so does Frankie Cosmos' Greta Kline. She's covered the band in the past on the aptly named "Krill Cover," her minimal rendition of the band's "Solitaire" and it remains one of the more beautiful covers in our recent memory. Hell, the latest line-up of Frankie Cosmos' live band even includes former Krill drummer Luke Pyenson. Just in case you've forgotten that Krill is "forever" (even when they insist they're not), Kline is back at it with her take on the band's "Fresh Pond". Taken from an upcoming tour exclusive covers tape (which also includes covers of Baby Mollusk, Whatever, Dad, Cameron Wisch, Rivergazer, Aaron Maine and more), she brings a sparse beauty to Jonah Furman's introspective lyrics with a simplistic and condensed acoustic version of the Steve Hears Pile... closer.

6. LAWN | "Big Sprout" EP

I don't know a great deal about New Orleans' Lawn (aside from the fact there's a member of Pudge in their ranks), but the band's recently released Big Sprout EP is overloaded with jangly psych pop charm... or at least that's how it starts. Lead track "Sweet" is blissed out in the best of ways. By the time "Prefect" begins though, the trio are wrapped into wild shifting riffs and experimental post-punk, hinging between repetition and the unpredictable. Determined to keep listeners on their toes, Lawn move back into dreamy pop territory with "Familiar," a wistful song with a surfy riff and fuzzy melodies. It's an intriguing debut from a band I'm excited to hear more from.

7. RUN THE JEWELS | "Talk To Me"

It looks the wait for RTJ3 is coming to an end. Run The Jewels, the explosive hip-hop duo of Killer Mike and El-P are sharing the first cut from their highly anticipated album via the Adult Swim singles series and no surprise, it's a certifiable "banger". With a haunting beat that bursts to life like the rap King Kong himself, Killer Mike wastes little time before ripping the track to shreds with his militant flow and words of braggadocios wisdom. El-P does all he can to keep up with Mike, and he's really starting to hold his own. One of the most revered hip-hops groups of the past few years, it's great to see RTJ remain true to what they do... straight up, no bullshit, hip-hop.

8. OOZER | "Music Songs: The Songs of Music" EP

Oozer as a name conjures up a certain feeling of sickness and thankfully, so does the band. The band's blend of demented noise punk, sludge, and harsh low end convulses and contorts throughout the well named Music Songs: The Songs of Music, the band's first proper recording. The trio aren't afraid to wallow in the filth of distortion and manic insanity, in fact, it'd seem they embrace it. Reminiscent of a warped (and loose) combination of The Jesus Lizard, godheadSilo, and Harvey Milk, Oozer combine downright heavy doom and reckless punk to create something lovingly vile. The band may warn "this album is no good," but we recommend it for anyone in need of something as strange as it is unapologetically crushing.

9. MALL WALK | "Funny Papers" LP

Oakland's Mall Walk just released their full length debut, Funny Pages, with almost no press attention outside the Northwest, surely making it a qualifier as one of the year's most overlooked albums. The trio mine a dark post-punk sound as the record unfolds, digging into the reverb with enormous bass grooves, tangled riffs, and hook filled vocals. There's a sense of detachment coursing through the album, evident on songs like "Standing In Shifts" with its hook, "it's cool, I can fake it". The album is definitely draped in a gloomy layer of fuzz, but it's not without it's bright surging moments on the energetic "Death In Small Increments" and the pop friendly skronk of "Limbs"

10. TYVEK | "Origin Of What"

Tyvek have been making their own brand of rattled garage punk since the turn of the decade and after four years of relative silence, the Detroit based trio returns with Origin of What. The album's title track is a breezy ode to the spaghetti western genre, a post-punk with song with a dusty desert sundown kind of vibe. The track finds Tyvek stretching out their usual hyper pacing, opting for a slow burning daze that shows the potential found in just a bit of patience.

further listening: