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.

ALPHA HOPPER | “The Goods”

Buffalo’s Alpha Hopper are set to release their latest album, Alpha Hex Index, in November, their first together with Hex Records (Exhalants, USA Nails, Gaytheist). The record is the band’s third overall (or maybe fourth, depending on how you count) and they’ve developed something pretty special over the past six years, combining elements of art punk, noise rock, and no-wave to create something hyper agitated and immediately inviting. Led by Irene Rekhviashvilli’s vocals, her words are stretched out and exaggerated, immediately bringing to mind the weird and sordid sounds of Arab on Radar and a maybe a touch of US Maple. Alpha Hopper play it a bit straighter than those comparisons, but there’s a special kind of chaos that permeates through lead single “The Goods,” as it glows with a sci-fi terror and the delightfully discordant vocal performance.

COWER | “Enough”

“Enough” is our introduction to Cower, a new project that features current and former members of USA Nails, Death Pedals, Petbrick, and Silent Front among others. The London based trio have made their mark on the UK noise scene in their respective projects and now they’ve joined forces to create Boys, their debut album, out this November via Human Worth (Modern Technology). If “Enough” is anything to go by, we’re in for a treat with this one. Opening with a massive bass tone that coats your ears, the band kick in the door upon first impression, with a swarming guitar riff, howling vocals, and a dense crack of drums. While primal and enveloping, “Enough” isn’t without a sense of melody, breaking the tension just enough to let it swirl back in with layered guitar noise and swirling distortion as pleasing as punch.

DEERHOOF | “Love-Lore” LP

It hardly needs to be said that Deerhoof are one of music’s greatest living treasures and yet the band never stop reminding us. The band are always looking to recreate and reshape their sound through compositional shifts and an experimental streak that always proves rewarding. This is never more obvious than Love-Lore, an album of covers that truly is like no “covers album” cover that has ever existed before. Throughout 35 minutes of music, the band weave together interpolations of 43 different songs, works that build on their framework from Ornette Coleman to The B-52’s. Rather than a straightforward approach to paying homage to their influences, Deerhoof blend them seamlessly together like a DJ mash-up brought to life, as only they can. It’s wild, progressive, and infinitely joyous, picking and choosing the best moments becomes an impossible task (though The Jetsons theme is rather jaw dropping), as the fusion of songs becomes something so quintessential that they feel like they’ve been awaiting Deerhoof all along. “Cover albums” can usually be tossed aside but Love-Lore is a genuine masterpiece.

DUMMY | “Pool Dizzy”

Los Angeles’ Dummy released their self-titled debut back in May, an EP that remains one of our favorites from the first half of the year. Wasting no time, the band are set to release EP2 in November, due out via everyone’s favorite new label, Born Yesterday Records (Landowner, Stuck, Red Tunic). The first single from their latest is “Pool Dizzy,” a song that lives firmly in the retro futuristic dream pop world of their debut, mining influences from bands like Stereolab and Broadcast, and bringing them to life with a focus on motorik rhythms, enchanting melodies, and softly swooning harmonies. The song’s ringing guitars and synths blend together with a space age synchronicity, everything feels blanketed in warmth and blistering by dreamy design.

FLOATING ROOM | “Freakshow”

With the first two singles from Floating Room’s Tired and True, Maya Stoner is making a strong case as one of the best hook writers we’ve got going. After gifting us with “I know that I am strong, but strength don’t get me high,” we get the stunning “Freakshow” and it’s similarly impactful, “everybody loves a freakshow, they don’t like the freak though,” a line that hits simple at first but profound upon reflection. Built over a lo-f introduction that shortly warps to life, the Tired and True intro is rooted in pop, but retains a warbling tapey atmosphere, like a cut of AM gold that’d been dubbed hundreds of times, taking on a new tonality as a result, leaving everything sounding just a bit more interesting as a result. It’s a short song but it’s reshaping itself to the very end, something that Floating Room do exceedingly well.

HOLY MOTORS | “Trouble”

Horse, the sophomore album from Estonia’s Holy Motors is nearly upon us, due out October 16th via Wharf Cat Records. We recently featured their single “Endless Night” and the band have sucked us in once again with their latest, “Trouble,” possibly our favorite track on the album. Like Widowspeak and Hope Sandoval before them, this one is slithering in arid reverb and a thick fog of dreamy atmosphere. Every note rings through the dense night air, swaying like a palm tree in the desert, out of time, and out of reality. It’s a welcome escape to listen to “Trouble,” sit back, and just imagine yourself anywhere else, removed from this existence and momentarily placed into a better one. The band’s debut was good, but in the years since, Holy Motors have become great, full of captivating beauty and mysterious intrigue.

LISA/LIZA | “From This Shelter”

Portland, Maine’s Lisa/Liza released one of our favorite albums of 2018, the reflective and heartbreaking Momentary Glance. It was a record that offered a sense of peace, a sense of calm, at a time we all needed it. Two years later and things aren’t much better (they are in fact far worse), so we’re thankful that Lisa/Liza is back with Shelter of a Song, a new record out November 20th via Orindal Records. The lead single is “From This Shelter” and it once again captures Liza Victoria’s ability to create slow, mesmerizing songs, that feel both meditative and restorative. In the song guitars, open spaces, and Victoria’s gentle voice comes personal reflection that in turn feels universal, a quietly drawn resolve to lull us toward spiritual ease.

MIRANDA WINTERS | “Double Mirror Light”

Sometimes it’s a bad sign when you immediately love a song. That original impression doesn’t always last. Sometimes however, you have that song struck in your head for several months, and only love it more each time you hear it. That, is a great thing. That is how I feel about Miranda Winters’ new single “Double Mirror Light.” The A-side to recently released All-Purpose single, the song is a direct reaction to the birth of Winters’ first born daughter and the profundity of bringing life into this world (even if it is a “harsh, heavy, hot life”). As Winters asks “you have got me wondering, have I ever really seen anything,” it’s a beautiful sentiment and the song, with it’s warm acoustics and lush string arrangement match the gorgeous vocals, with a deceptively hook filled ode to the rare, once in a lifetime, joys of this world. This song creeps into my subconscious at least once a day, and I consider myself better because of it.

NANA ADJOA | “National Song“

Dutch-Ghanian singer-songwriter Nana Adjoa released her debut album, Big Dreaming Ants, a stunning record of indie, pop, and folk elements are swirled together into something easily accessible but built on impact. Adjoa has a radiant positivity, with messages that look to rebuild rather than shatter the world landscape. “National Song” is the record’s highlight, an epic song with a slow drum pulse and brooding synths creating tension against Adjoa’s sweet voice. The song speaks about the dangers of nationalism and the fear of charge, hoping these things are inevitable road bumps on the way toward progress, a time where borders become meaningless and cultures become intertwined. It’s a wonderful idea and the song’s video, which captures dancers wearing traditional Ghanaian school uniforms is a powerful image and a step forward.

SUMAC | “May You Be Held”

SUMAC, our favorite three headed behemoth have once again blurred all lines with May You Be Held, their latest in a line of growing masterpieces. The band’s take on art metal, sludge, hardcore, drone, and noise is reconstructed with spacial complexities as well as a combination of improvised and developed movements. After a handful of albums together (and a pair with Keiji Haino), the band share a synchronized wave length, able to reflect and react upon the most delicate of drifts to the absolute heaviest collisions, merging the two together. The record is lumbering and corrosive, unpredictable in shape and intensity, and it feels like another spiritual awakening from metal’s most brilliant band. May You Be Held is a record built on positivity, from family to the earth itself, it’s a colossal record with the intention of healing, and I know that I’ve been feeling better since listening to it with regularity.

Honorable Mentions:

There was a boat load of great music released these past two weeks, unfortunately more than we can possibly cover, but I felt remiss not to mention a great new single from Olympia’s Gen Pop, a new EP from Melbourne’s Moth (proceeds go to charity), and a fantastic Audiotree session from Tenci, that is both raw and beautiful.

Further Listening:

September 21 - September 27:

September 28 - October 4:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (September 21st - October 4th)