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.

DERADOORIAN | “Saturnine Night”

Set to release her third solo album as Deradoorian (and first for ANTI- Records), Angel Deradoorian decided to look toward Can and Damo Suzuki for influence this time around. The former Dirty Projectors member will release Find The Sun in May and the first single mines that Can inspiration to perfection. “Saturnine Night” is a tightly wound krautrock song, chugging along with a hypnotic rhythm and vocals that color between the lines. Deradoorian’s voice does gymnastics as the pulse beats ever onward, with tension mounting in the build up that keeps a steely demeanor as it all starts to boil over. It’s a great example of extended repetition working to create substance, driving deeper and taking the controls.

ES | “Hidden Track”

London post-punk quartet Es will release their full length debut, Less of Everything, via the ever excellent Upset The Rhythm (Primo!, Handle, Kaputt) on April 3rd. Following a great EP on La Vida Es Un Mus, the band have become a fixture in UK underground, making dystopian synth punk that feels both immediate and essential. Having recently shared album opener “Chemical,” the band now present us with the raw and immersive closer, “Hidden Track,” a great glimpse into their music as it feels like the walls are closing in all around us. Built primarily on rhythm and invading keyboards, there’s a minimal quality to their attack, but their grasp feels massive. Locked in with an almost industrial sludge presence to their cold post-punk, Es keep things anxious and rattled from start to finish.

EYE FLYS | “Guillotine”

There is a special kind of density and disgust to every one of Eye Flys’ earthshaking riffs and head splitting drum cracks. While the band (who feature members of Full of Hell, Backslider, and Triac) may be named after a classic Melvins track, the Philadelphia quartet tend to stray closer to the classic Helmet sound, with that harsh thwack of every hit landing like a ton of bricks in a way that hasn’t been heard too often since Meantime and Betty. Set to release their full length debut, Tub Of Lard, via Thrill Jockey next week, second single “Guillotine” is vicious enough to wake the dead and full of brute intelligence. With a lurching start that would make their namesake proud, the band heave into a crushing riff and harshly barked vocals. The compressed primal aggression partners up with a landslide of guitar distortion that trickles at rapid speed, sounding something like a carefully constructed aural infestation.

ORANSSI PAZUZU | “Uusi Teknokratia”

Last year we fell in love with Oranssi Pazuzu (thanks David Anthony) and their 2016 masterpiece of freaked out psych metal, Värähtelijä. The Finnish band are absolute masters of extraterrestrial doom and gloom, traversing the darkest and coldest depths of the outer orbits to create something that owes as much to death metal as it does space rock. Set to release new album, Mestarin Kynsi (translation: The Master’s Claw) in April via Nuclear Blast Records, first single “Uusi Teknokratia” is wrapped in the juxtaposition of croaky metal and non-traditional metal structures that has become the band’s mind-bending signature over the years. There’s a sense of looming terror and cosmic exploration, pummeling into blissfully ugly chaos like the vacuum of space before settling back into the “drift before the storm” with an alarming cohesion. Oranssi Pazuzu create metal for another planet, with all doors of experimental psych open and explored. Mestarin Kynsi is one of our most anticipated albums this year, and “Uusi Teknokratia” is a welcome voyage into the unknown.

PROTOMARTYR | “Processed By The Boys“

We’ve said it before and I’m sure we’ll say it again, Protomartyr are one of our generation’s most consistently great bands. There fifth album, Ultimate Success Today, due out May 29th via Domino, is the latest from a band with a string of already classic post-punk records from the raw punk of NoPassion All Technique to the loquacious and profound Relatives in Descent. Judging by first single “Processed By The Boys,” we’re in for another great record from the unstoppable Detroit quartet, and there’s a great visual element to both the video and the album’s cover art. There’s plenty of apocalyptic tension both in the guitars and the vocals, opening with the utterly timely, “when the ending comes, is it gonna run at us like a wild-eyed animal / a foreign disease, washed upon the beach, a dagger plunged from out of the shadows.” The band waver into disjointed gloom and eventual catharsis that comes from stabbing distortion and haunting sustained dread.

Further Listening:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (March 9th - March 15th)