by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our weekly recap of this week's new music. We're sharing our 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 written in the early hours of the morning and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking out all the music we've included. There's a lot of great new 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 our countdown 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 of top-notch quality too.

AVA LUNA | "Deli Run"

Ava Luna are back and it's a real reason to rejoice. I remember a time between their last spectacular album, Infinite House, and the announcement of their upcoming album, Moon 2, when the future of the band was not promised, so we are thankful, grateful, and elated to hear their new album's first single, "Deli Run". Three years may have elapsed but Ava Luna haven't missed a beat in the space age art-funk hybrid. The single, led by Felicia Douglass (also of Gemma) dips and grooves, keeping the beat moving as the song weaves and breaks all around the soulful vocals. Douglass asks "if I go for a deli run, will you roll with me?" As an avid fan of both Ava Luna and Brooklyn's many glorious corner stores, my answer is always yes.

BELLINI | "Being Married"

Split between Italy and the United States, Bellini are breaking a decade of silence with their new album Before The Day Has Gone. Due out later this month via Temporary Residence, the legendary post-hardcore band have teamed up once again with Steve Albini for another brilliantly tangled and discordant album that seethes more often than soothes. It's a welcome return from the band once started by Agostino Tilotta and Giovanna Cacciola (Uzeda) together with Damon Che (Don Caballero). When Che left back in 2002, his replacement, Alexis Fleisig (Girls Against Boys), continues to contort and bend rhythms in unique unpredictable patterns. Case in point, new single "Being Married," a ragged stomper that pulls in all directions, the tension thick enough to snap into a thousand pieces.

THE CRADLE | “Sweet Dreams” (Feat. Lily Konigsberg & Ani Ivry-Bloc)

The Cradle aka Paco Cathcart stuns with each successive release and after as many records as he's put out in the past few years, it's hard to believe he can continuously better the last, but Bag Of Holding certainly follows in that tradition, The Cradle drifting ever closer toward their masterpiece. Due out this month via the project's new label home, NNA Tapes, lead single "Sweet Dreams" (feat Lily Konigsberg and Ani Ivry-Bloc of Palberta) is the perfect introduction, a carefully composed and sweeping piece of harmonized beauty and expanded instrumentation, string arrangements (courtesy of Sammy Weissberg), and Cathcart's gorgeous lyrics. Consider this your first glimpse at one of the year's best albums.

DEATHSNACK | "American Lifecycles" EP

The basement recording project of Chicago's Suzy Erin, Deathsnack released American Lifecycles on July 4th, a surprise release that's far more enjoyable than any fireworks display (truth be told, I missed the fireworks altogether this year). With recording assistance from Ben Grigg (Whelpwisher, Milked, Geronimo!), Erin's songs are fuzzy and melodically expansive. Her voice is perfectly situated in the mix, surrounded by distorted guitars and just enough separation to pop from their planted position. Ranging from feedback-ridden sludge-pop ("Gloria") and twangy dream-pop with a nod to both the Swirlies and spaghetti western post-punk ("I Name Thee Cold Pig's Dark Star"), Deathsnack's music continues to creep out from the basement and into our subconscious.

DJ MUGGS | "Death Wish" (feat. MF Doom & Freddie Gibbs)

DJ Muggs is best known as the man behind the boards for Cypress Hill, but the veteran producer over the past decade and a half, he's released exceptional collaborative albums with GZA, Meyhem Lauren, Planet Asia, and more. In August, he's set to release Assassination Day, a new record that has Muggs teaming up with different MCs for their own "chapters" (which consist of two singles, an a-side and b-side). The first chapter is a timeless collaboration with the one and only MF Doom (who already has one of the year's best hip-hop records together with Czarface) on the dark and haunting "Death Wish" which features a guest verse from Freddie Gibbs, just in case this one wasn't hard enough already. It's slow and creeping, each MC going on with their own version of gangster rap and street grime. This is real hip-hop at its best.

EXPLODED VIEW | "Raven Raven"

Last year Exploded View released the short and sweet Summer Came Early EP, one of our favorite releases of the winter, providing an experimental warmth to the cold months. The international band (split between Berlin and Mexico City) led by Annika Henderson are back with their sophomore full length, Obey, set for release this Fall via Sacred Bones Records. Catapulting to the top of our "most anticipated" list, the band's first single "Raven Raven" is every bit as intelligently detached and intrinsically artistic as their previous records, The song is noisy and disorienting but inarguably beautiful, a radiant glimpse of the now trio's time spent exploring the studio, using overdubs and tape manipulation to create an effect both dreamy and terrifying. The song's dark sprawl and piercing highs lend to Henderson's mellow but impassioned vocals, her strong voice wavering between swirls of chaotic reverb and dense layers of delightful dread,

FLOATING ROOM | "False Baptism" LP

Floating Room's sophomore album is stunning at every turn, in both it's shimmering atmospheres, gentle moments of reflection, and it's nuance for swarming, muscular, shoegaze done-to-perfection. The Portland quartet navigate heart yearning sentimentality and brawny noise pop in simultaneous bursts, the force of their blanketing guitars only aiding Maya Stoner's beautiful lyrics and floating melodies. False Baptism is a testament to everything they do so well, balancing blistering leads with dreamy haze, an approach that manages to retain aggression without compromising any of it's delicate emotional heft. Layering guitars, synths, vibraphones, and beyond, Floating Room's wall of sound is lush and dense, but light and accessible, the perfect come down to get lost in.

NOPES | "Immersion"

"Immersion" is as titled, immersive from the opening thud. The low end comes cracking with a thunderous bass line, reminiscent of The Jesus Lizard and more recently, Blacklisters, a comparison I would never make lightly. It digs and grinds with a sure footed groove, as mesmerizing as it is filthy. Nopes' guitars ring and scrape around the colossal rhythm, churning their own sweltering assault on your senses. By the time Alex Petralia's vocals come howling in through the layers of mud and feedback, the band sound unhinged and rather immaculate doing so. "Immersion" picks up on the promise that Never Heard Of It and Fun Limbo hinted at, pushing the band further into unbridled noise glory.

OH SEES | "C"

After the prog-metal bent to "Overthrown," the first single from Oh Sees' upcoming Smote Reverser album, our expectations went through the roof. They're already one of our favorite bands (with last year's Orc serving as one of favorite records this decade), and the possibilities seem to be fairly limitless for John Dwyer and co. these days. "C" retains the recent psych-prog bliss they've been heaving into they hypnotic kraut-punk opuses of late, a song that relies of science-fiction synths and the duel drumming wizardry to take flight into territories beyond, where visions blur and heads implode... in a carefree joy that comes with complete freedom. Oh Sees may just be the only band in the world that you can say are 20+ years in and still getting better.

OVLOV | "Stick"

The release of Ovlov's long-awaited new album is now less than two weeks away. I can hardly believe it. The third single from TRU is "Stick," the album's centerpiece, a slow burner that is most certainly a burner. The wall of fuzzy guitars drift effortlessly under Steve Hartlett's casual melodies, yearning with just the right spikes of aggression. When the hook hits, the band kick into a blistering pop grandiosity, the twin guitars encircling Theo Hartlett's ever pounding rhythmic attack. It's as infectious as can be, a song that continuously rips with forward momentum, gaining in volume and layered shoegazy bliss the whole way.

SHARKMUFFIN | "Liz Taylor"

Last year Sharkmuffin quietly released one of the year's best kept secrets, the incredibly dynamic, Tsuki, an album full of bombast punk, howling garage rock, and a bit of shoegaze amplifier destruction. They sold out of the first pressing and this Summer the trio will reissue the record together with two new bonus songs featuring recent drummer Jordyn Blakley (Stove, Jackal Onasis, Kino Kimino). The first of the pair, "Liz Taylor" is ripe with tight harmonies, a pointed sense of humor, and a enormous bass line that really feeds itself into the song's stampeding structure. The guitars sound perfect in the heat-wave days (or daze if you're cool), careening over the tightly wound rhythm and the agitated pulses. Catchy and dissonant, there's good reason Sharkmuffin are one of Brooklyn's greatest garage punk/fuzz pop hopes.

WOOLEN MEN | "Weatherman For Sale"

There's such a special juxtaposition in Woolen Men's music that really hasn't been replicated anywhere. They sit in the perfect middle of so many genres (post-punk, Americana, early 90's "college rock," krautrock, psych pop, etc.) adapting all they've learned, all they've experienced, into their own unique sound that's so easily pleasing and yet profoundly brilliant with each successive dive into their world. "Weatherman For Sale" is the second single from the upcoming Post album, and like "Brick Horizon" it stays locked in to a motorik groove but the feeling is all down home Americana and maybe a touch of Flying Nun styled post-punk, built on simplicity and punchy repetition, with earworm melodies and an inescapable bassline that burrows deep... real deep. The Woolen Men transcend expectations with a grace all their own.

Further Listening:

June 18 - June 24:

June 25th to July 01:

July 02 - july 08:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (June 18th - July 8th)