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.

BABEHOVEN | “Bad Week”

Time and time again Babehoven’s Maya Bon has proven to be an exceptional songwriter, pulling at emotional with near-perfect phrasing and structural heft. Since the release of Sleep back in 2018, Bon and co. have just been getting progressively better as shown on January’s Yellow Has a Pretty Good Reputation and with the upcoming Nastavi, Calliope, the band have gone above and beyond already high expectations. Lead single “Bad Week” offers gut punches from the get-go, the opening verse claiming “It’s hard to talk about it being a bad week / When it’s been a bad week / For a long time now / And it doesn't seem to get better.” Bon opens the song with a sparse acoustic guitar strum and vocals, working her way into an atmospheric whir and laid-back drums that push her lyrical sentiments to the forefront.

BIRDS OF MAYA | “Please Come In”

Before there was Purling Hiss, Spacin’, or Watery Love, there was Birds of Maya, a reckless garage psych band that plays blown-out caveman punk that was both loud and free. The trio’s sound was dangerously lo-fi, rattling speakers with bluesy distortion and extended jams that went way beyond the point of mind melting. They never released anything that had even a passing “studio” sound, until now. Valdez, recorded back in 2014 but never released, is due out late June on Drag City, and while no one would dare describe the sound as clean (it’s far from it), there’s definitely a higher fidelity, a positive development. The band’s bleeding distortion sonic cocktail and power-trio fury is still as chaotic as they come (think Feral Ohms but further off the rails) and “Please Come In” is the perfect example. Slurred vocals and surging guitars battle against a pounding rhythm, everything awash in feedback and a layer of fuzz so thick you could swim in it. The band lock into a free fall of blistering shredding and peel away the rust with sheer force.

CHRONOPHAGE | “Animated Rose”

Here at Post-Trash we feel very strongly that the modern “album cycle” is bullshit. The idea that we’re supposed to stop talking about a record pretty much as soon as it’s released just doesn’t bode well with us. Back in November, Austin’s Chronophage released Th'Pig'Kiss'd, one of our favorite albums of 2020 and they’re breathing further life into it with a music video for “Animated Rose,” directed by Travis Kent. A stand-out on an album full of them, the song’s sense of calming melodies and warbling harmonies work against a tightly wound jangle that feels like anxiously splitting nerves. The video (which I could be completely misinterpreting) captures a man seemingly lost on another planet, wandering to find life and eventually coming to grips with his predicament. However you read the video, it’s a great visual for a great song and a reminder that Chronophage’s latest is as essential now as it was six months ago.

EXEK | “The Plot”

Melbourne, Australia’s EXEK have been breaking the mold of post-punk for the better part of the last decade with a string of never-endings singles, EPs, and albums. Consistently progressing in new directions while retaining an identifiable sound, Good Thing They Ripped Up The Carpet, the band’s upcoming album, carries on that tradition, moving toward something more alien, further askew, yet just as acerbic. Due out in June via Lulu’s Sonic Disc Club (Sleeper & Snake), “The Plot” is the record’s second single (following the groove heavy “Several Souvenirs”), a song that feels cold and steely by comparison. Rich in atmosphere and haunted textural landscapes, eerything moves within a thick fog, the music as ominous as the stream of conscious lyrics. The existential dread of it all is well-captured and by the mid-way point they find a deep pocket within the space-age lounge sound and atonality of the sustained guitars and synths.

HELVETIA | “Rock On The Ramp”

Essential Aliens, the 10th album from Jason Albertini’s long running Helvetia project should be a momentous occasion. Yet, the themes of the record are essentially the opposite of “momentous” due to the fact that the album comes from within the pandemic days, a record about monotony and isolation. Following the fuzzy perfection of first single “New Mess,” the band are offering up “Rocks on the Ramp,” the album’s centerpiece, a song that feels stripped back but ornate in design. With the lightly skipping drum shuffle a constant presence, the song marries together what could be described as a misleading energetic pulse and an otherwise tranquil atmosphere that’s as patient as they come. The vocals are delivered in a near mumble, mixed in as more of a texture more than a statement, but never resigned as an afterthought. This is the sound of turning monotonous weeks (and months) into a vision of endless creativity.

MACH-HOMMY | “Magnum Band” (feat. Tha God Fahim)

After several years doing his own thing (and releasing a slew of modern hip-hop classics in the process), Mach-Hommy has teamed up with Griselda Records once again, the immediate result his new album, Pray For Haiti. Executive produced (or “curated” as they like to say in the “high art” world of Griselda) by Westside Gunn, the album finds Mach-Hommy doing what he does best, spitting hazy raps over warped production that works with his dexterous delivery, punch lines and abstract bars swirling together for what he describes as “Mach-phonics” on “The 26th Letter.” The real highlight of the album may be “Magnum Band” pairing Mach-Hommy together with co-conspirator Tha God Fahim, the pair going in over a tough as nails piano beat that’s both dreamy and mountainous thanks to the echo of the rhythm. Mach-Hommy delivers triple folded rhymes of braggadocios fly shit like this gem, “catalog one in a trillion, Dumplestiltskin, odds stacked against me and I still win.” You gotta give love for the Dump Gawd gifting the world, “Dumplestiltskin.”

MAGIK MARKERS | “Find You Ride”

Much like Chronophage above, Magik Markers released another favorite of ours in 2020, a welcome return in a time where nothing when little felt like “a return” to anything we once knew. The album, convientantly titled 2020, is a gift that keeps on giving, one that grows on you with each passing listen, which says a lot for an album that hits with an immediate intensity. The band remain the perfectionists of wild psych distortion and introspective songwriting, pairing those disparate elements together in way that feels feral one moment and meditative the next, sometimes intertwining and converting the two. “Find You Ride” is one the record’s more mesmerizing songs, with a motorik beat and a swirling cosmic vibe, the track has been gifted an animated video courtesy of the folks at Wonderdumb. The clip captures a mythical quest featuring grails, dragons, sea-monsters, and some pink butt cheeks.

RED RIBBON | “High”

Los Angeles via Seattle’s Red Ribbon are set to release their third album, Planet X, in June via Danger Collective Records (Momma, French Vanilla). Led by Emma Danner, the project’s latest effort is a mix of stoned indie, haunting grunge, and dreary pop, with focused songwriting that draws as much from sparse structures as it does sonic density. Produced by Randall Dunn (Earth, Sunn O))), Pallbearer), the album gets a heavy production despite songs that are otherwise breezy, allowing for a crystalized sound. “High” is the album’s third single (following “Renegade” and “Way”), reliant on a gorgeous acoustic structure and a desert rock aura. It’s sparse with a slow tempo, allowing Danner’s vocals to do the heaviest of lifting, as she contemplates life without getting high or how exactly to feel those highs without drug use.

SUPREME JOY | “Palace of Oranges”

Following a great solo album in 2017 and amid an impeccable run with Cool Ghouls (who released one of our favorite albums this year), at some point Ryan Wong moved from the Bay Area down to Colorado. While little has changed but the scenery, he’s back with another project, Supreme Joy, set to release their debut album, JOY on May 28th. “Palace of Oranges” is the album’s third single, a beautiful song described as “an ode to one’s motherland.” With a slow dripped pulse and a hefty delayed twang, this song slinks into the dreamiest of sounds, drifting off into lullaby territory with Wong’s words at the forefront as the guitars crackle and sputter under the echoing twang. It feels like a return home, a warm embrace with a familial spirit. As the band layer on guitars for more country western charm, it all feels like a dream you never want to wake up from.

YAUTJA | “The Lurch” LP

There is no force in metal and its many sub-genres quite like Yautja, a band who defy all odds and simply crush at all times. The band’s new album and first for Relapse Records, The Lurch, is nothing sort of a masterpiece of artful sludge and metal at it’s most intelligent, putting them in a similar league as forward thinking bands like Sumac and Botch. Which isn’t to say they sound like those bands, but more share that spirit of pushing down boundaries. The Lurch is immaculately dense, moving with the force of a herd of elephants and a relentless ferocity burning a trail of never ending riffs and fills in its wake. The three members shred with a shared complexity, each one encouraging the other in terms of pushing technical ability, raw aggression, and a dynamic brutality rarely seen. For those keeping an AOTY lists at-home, put Yautja at the top.

Further Listening:

MAY 10 - MAY 16:

MAY 17 - MAY 23:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (May 10th - May 23rd)