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.

FACELESS BURIAL | “At The Foothills of Deliration“ LP

There is no escape from the decimation of Faceless Burial’s impenetrable new album, At The Foothills of Deliration. It’s fitting that an album title that alludes to losing your mind is able to bend, contort, and utterly obliterate our senses through the sheer dexterity of the band’s brutal riffs and earthquaking rhythms. Released via Dark Descent Records (Malignant Altar, Vacuous, Imprecation), there’s a great balance to Faceless Burial’s brand of classic death metal, as the band give weight to the low end by offering an onslaught of ear bleeding solos, weaving texture into the eternal darkness. Their latest album is unrelenting but it’s the ever shifting nature of their progressions and combustible drum fills that really set the trio apart. The musicianship is otherworldly, with a scourge of impeccable technicality (Max Kohane’s drumming is in a league of its own) that pays service to the songs, steering away from “tech death” clinicality. Faceless Burial latest embraces the rawness and guttural tension of primal death metal with an urge to obliterate repetition in favor of a constant state of flux.

GUT HEALTH | “Inner Norm”

This one technically came out over the weekend of the previous week, at which point we’d already written all our blurbs for last week’s “Fuzzy Meadows” column, but I can’t stop listening to Gut Health’s debut single, so who really cares what week it came out. The Melbourne based quintet place an emphasis on self-expression and gender equality with their explosive and highly addictive brand of no wave inspired art punk. “Inner Norm” is the lead single to their upcoming debut Electric Party Chrome Girl, due out November 18th via Marthouse Records (It Thing, Bench Press, Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice), a kinetic post-punk dance floor jam. It’s the type of punk song that keeps the lyricism brash and the rhythmic groove mesmerizing. The band described the song to Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie Zine as being a tongue in cheek send off to “alternative” types who move to yuppy neighborhoods to embrace their “normie” selves, their “inner norm.” Hello neighbor indeed.

HORSE LORDS | “May Brigade“

There’s nothing quite like the microtonal experimentation of Baltimore’s Horse Lords (who are now primarily based in Germany), a band that has continuously embraced the eccentricity of composition by pairing free jazz dissonance with krautrock’s motorik resolves. Set to release their fifth album Comradely Objects (their first for RVNG Intl.) in early November, the band pull perfection from imperfections, coming together in a sound both detached and unified, building layers of knotted brilliance into their immersive discordance. “May Brigade,” the album’s second single lives and breathes in constant evolution from the skronky sax disassociation of the intro to the sprawling drone of the finale’s decrescendo. It’s the sonic voyage between that repeatedly lulls you into one surreal state to the next, locking into a groove and then shaking and sputtering you into the next with anything but subtle shifts. The song contracts and contorts, bleeding and reviling in the controlled chaos and a willing sense of reckless abandon.

LAUNDROMAT | “Gloss”

While Laundromat released the exceptional En Bloc LP in August, a collection of the project’s first three EPs into one cohesive album, “Gloss” is their first new music since February’s “Combo” single. The Brighton based band’s latest is a rapid paced piece of bent-pop and fuzzy futurism, pairing together Toby Hayes with Marco Kleebauer on drums and frequent collaborator Josephine McNamara on backing vocals. The tempos are swift but the resolve is as relaxed as ever, residing in Hayes’ innate ability to present inner personal dread with a sun-soaked disposition. The production, which Hayes handled himself (the bass track captured on a phone), is as vibrant as it is hazy, capturing both the retro feel of the hook and the noise pop bleed into the bridges with the same muted fluorescent glow. Hayes described the song as being about the detriments of too much screen time and the misperceptions that it causes as a result, something we can all relate to as we’re sucked deeper into the void.

NAIMA BOCK | “Giant Palm (Live at Rough Trade East)”

Naima Bock’s solo debut, Giant Palm, stands as one of the year’s best releases, a stunning collection of folk songs influenced by Bock’s Brazilian roots and a sense of natural exploration. The songs are arranged with lush use of melody and harmony, layers and textures of acoustics paired with synths, strings sections sweeping against detached organs. There’s a permanent glow to the songwriting, even among themes tragedy. As Nicole Kidman once said, “heartbreak feels good in a place like this”. All jokes aside, there’s an incredible resonance to every word of Bock’s introspection and the feeling that radiates from her voice. Her compositions really fuse disparate textures together with grace, the results gentle but nuanced. With new tour dates announced across the UK, EU, and US, Naima Bock has shared a gorgeous black and white clip of “Giant Palm” recorded live at Rough Trade East back in January. Joined by her expansive sextet backing band, Bock and co. capture the hopeful bliss amid tender string arrangements, soft sax accompaniment, and the lilting majesty of Bock’s stunning voice.

Further Listening:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (October 3rd - October 9th)