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.

ARBOR LABOR UNION | “Hovering Stone”

Atlanta’s Arbor Labor Union have been perpetually chooglin’ since the Pinecones days when the band mixed their knotted aggression with a big Crazy Horse kind of heft. It’s big time rock ‘n’ roll that always felt fried in the sun, but 2020’s New Petal Instants really took their twangier tendencies and freewheeling aura to new heights, going all in with their intricate punk boogie. Imagine The Allman Brothers teaming up with the Meat Puppets and you begin to get the idea. Arbor Labor Union return next year with Yonder, their first for Sophomore Lounge (Water Damage, Dan Melchior, Ned Collette), and with three tracks available via Bandcamp, it would seem their well-coiled floral punk remains in full bloom. “Hovering Stone,” the album’s opening cut skitters with a tight rhythm and a heavy front-porch twang. It’s energetic in tempo but laid back in essence, shimmering under the weight of surrealist choogle.

BEAUTY PILL | “I Don’t Live Today” (Jimi Hendrix cover)

Some folks release covers because of the DSP catnip quality, familiar songs to appease the algorithms. Others prefer to reimagine songs, adapting them as their own, changing them to something nearly unrecognizable, honoring the creativity of the past by pushing it into the future. Beauty Pill rest firmly in the latter camp with their cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “I Don’t Live Today,” a rarity featured on the upcoming Blue Period collection. Recorded during the band’s Unsustainable Lifestyle era, they pay homage to the original with an intent on minimalism. Chad Clark notes they decided to experiment with Moog filters and the result pulls the guitars away from the frontline, leaving the clattering of ping-ponging drums (seriously, listen to this with headphones on) and Clark’s warm vocals clean and centered. While Hendrix will forever be known for his guitar heroics, the decision to filter the guitars is an interesting one (perhaps even bold… bold as love). They sit sucked beneath the surface, trapped in another realm, pulled through the vortex, where leads become texture and dynamics are turned inside out.

BOLDY JAMES & CUNS | “Be That As It May” LP

It would be understandable at this point if some of Boldy James’ releases weren’t quite up to the high benchmark he’s set for himself. In 2022 alone he’s released full length album collaborations with Real Bad Man, Nicholas Craven, and Futurewave handling production, and with just a few weeks left, he’s dropped album number four, Be That As It May, a collaboration with Italian producer Cuns. Released via Tuff Kong Records (Crimeapple, Big Twins, Camoflauge Monk), this isn’t a year end toss off, James sounds absolutely fired up, bringing his casual gangsterism with an energetic rush. The beats move from traditional boom-bap flair to high pitched speed up soul samples, but the deeper the album goes, it becomes clear that Boldy feels at home in the sound. There’s always an unwavering focus to the Detroit MC’s delivery, whether he’s making records with Alchemist and Griselda or Craven and Cuns, he always brings his best and this is no different, with highlights ranging from the“what if” street tales of “2.2 lbs” to the menacing hustle of “Travel Lodge”.

DECISIVE PINK | “Haffmilch Holiday”

We’ve grown increasingly enamored with Angel Deradoorian’s music since the release of Find The Sun, an album that saw her expanding the psych folk collage of her solo records to embrace both krautrock and a vibrant sense of mysticism. Since then she’s shared an album of improvisations and captivated as her own Ozzy Osbourne in BSCBR, and now we’re introduced to Decisive Pink, a new collaborative duo together with equally astounding electronic musician Kate NV. Together the pair are weaving their talents into engaging modular synth-pop. Lead single “Haffmilch Holiday” is a gorgeous introduction, built on electronic beats and a variety of warm synth tones. Their vocals float above the bubbling synths, offering sweet harmonies as they both sing, pulling the melodies in different directions as they look back on a holiday well spent away. The synths pop and color the song with character, expanding in time with alien shapes and blissful comfort.

GLOOP | “I Never Really Knew”

The year ain’t over yet! Baltimore’s Gloop are set to release Maze Maker, their second EP of the year, just in time for the holidays on December 22nd. The past five years has seen the band build an impressive catalog, digging between the depravity of noise rock and the tension of post-punk, often spiraling out into screeds of no wave propulsion and walls of dense sludge. They are a band we should all be paying attention to. Their upcoming EP was created with an attention to immediacy, the songs were written in single day sessions and recorded as is for posterity. You can feel the spontaneity on lead single “I Never Really Knew,” a song slides through backwater filth to find a resonant groove. Reminiscent at times of Barkmarket’s harsh and distorted brilliance, Gloop ride an avalanche of sludgy twang down the rabbit hole, peeling away sections only to swarm back together for some home-cooked deviance.

MALIGNANT ALTAR + GOSUDAR | “Split” EP

There’s no need to play favorites, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better death metal band over the past few years than Malignant Altar. The Houston based band released their triumphantly bludgeoning full length debut, Realms of Exquisite Morbidity, just over a year ago, and while there’s been many great death metal records since, there’s hasn’t been one quite that great. In the year since the band has sadly called it quits, leaving so many of us genuinely gutted. Before we say farewell however, there’s one more sliver of their brutal majesty in the form of a split with Russia’s Gosudar (who aren’t too shabby themselves). The release, out via Me Saco Un Ojo Records (Faceless Burial, Vacuous, Morbific), pairs two songs from each band, the lumbering primal gloom of Gosudar and the atomic guttural chaos of Malignant Altar (who give us one original and a Imprecation cover) . Both bands sound cataclysmically heavy, embracing violent tempo shifts, petulant riffs, and the scourge of melodic decay. The two bands combine for a split as savage as it is brilliant. Long live Malignant Altar.

MCKINLEY DIXON | “Sun, I Rise” (feat. Angélica Garcia)

Richmond’s McKinley Dixon operates on a different level than most. His brand of hip-hop is based on soul searching reflection as much as it is fantastical escape. There’s a very deliberate realness to his words and structures but there’s also that feeling of moving beyond the trials and tribulations, of rising up to new heights. Last year’s For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her was a masterpiece of underground hip-hop, full of feeling and void of posturing, an album steeped in off the cuff brilliance and reflections of life, loss, and the relationships that sustain his own existence. With a new album seemingly on the way, Dixon released “Sun, I Rise,” a new single featuring guest vocals from Angélica Garcia. The song, which DIxon describes as part Icarus and part King Midas, tells the tale of the big post-high comedown. With clean drums and echoing strings, the orchestral beat is gorgeously composed, a sweeping backdrop animated by Dixon’s thoughtful reflections.

PACKS | “Abalone”

Having spent a decent amount of the year on tour, Toronto’s PACKS still found time to release WOAH, a spontaneous acoustic EP that sort of painted outside the lines, highlighting ideas in their natural glow. With the year coming to a close though, it would seem the band are once again gearing up for new music, and they’ve shared “Abalone,” a new single that brings the full band back into focus… or relatively out of focus, one of the many traits that makes PACKS so special. The song, which Madeline Link describes as being about “life’s prospects” and the difficult task of actually arriving at those prospects, is the band doing what they do best, engaging in a subdued psychedelic pop-scented dirge. Link’s control of the vocal melody bends to create unlikely hooks, her laconic delivery situated between malaise and undeniable charm. With a hook that revolves on the wonderfully relatable line “as you ride the wave to the corner store,” PACKS envision the need for something else. It’s the subtle differences that make them such a phenomenal band, and it’s here in spades.

PILE | “Poisons”

There are times throughout Pile’s upcoming album that feel as though your brain is being restructured, where ideas and thoughts you once knew and had feel like they’ve been rearranged. All Fiction is the sound of the band evolving, with segments both familiar and those that welcome us to new exploratory territory. “Poisons,” the record’s second single is a bit of both. It rips like a classic Pile song, but the path feels triumphantly discombobulated and detached. Not everything is what it would seem. Opening with the colossal onslaught of Kris Kuss’ disconnected drum pattern, we’re instantly bounced around and thrown off center. Upon the introduction of Rick Maguire’s melodic vocal howl and the ominous dread of the guitars and layers of guitar like synths, the band have built a landscape that feels dangerous one moment and impossibly beautiful the next. Maguire’s voice darts between impactful harmonies and impassioned intensity, while his lyrics dream of seclusion and the unawareness that can result. The entire song winds through one enormous movement to the next, with classic Pile guitar leads buried beneath Alex Molini’s dense bass, atmospheric keys, and an ever growing dissonance. The constant momentum of this song is unreal, building and building, distorting and reshaping itself until the very end.

TROPICAL FUCK STORM | “The Golden Ratio”

Tropical Fuck Storm have become an unstoppable force over the past five years and we’d have it no other way. There’s seemingly no end to their creative output, with a global pandemic the only thing able to slow them down (and even then just barely). The Melbourne based band didn’t release a proper full length this year, but they did share a new EP (Moonburn) and a non-traditional live album (Goody Goody Gumdrops), each essential pieces of the delightfully deranged TFS puzzle. Next year they return with Submersive Behaviour, a new set that collects tracks from Moonburn and pairs them with a massive Jimi Hendrix cover like you’ve never heard before, and their latest single, “The Golden Ratio”. Due out in February via Joyful Noise, it’s being billed as a “covers” record, though only two of the five tracks are actually covers in the common sense. “The Golden Ratio” is TFS stretched and pulled, the song feels manipulated, broken and rebuilt. It’s full of their unique bent pop guitars, blunt bass, and kitchen sink noise rock inclinations, chipping layers back and piling them ever thicker yet slightly out of place, the entire thing threatening to teeter at any given moment. TFS remain truly essential.

YOUR OLD DROOG | “YOD Presents: The Shining” EP

Your Old Droog stays busy. YOD Presents… The Shining is his fifth record this year, and while the conceptual nature in regards to The Shining is loose at best (it’s more or less absent aside from some choice punchlines), the EP does continue YOD’s quest to be the best bar-for-bar MC out there. The amount of interwoven punchlines and cultural gems per verse are staggering, a dizzying array of clever metaphors and scenes pulled from the greater pop zeitgeist. YOD cracks jokes with a serious nature, skewering everything and everyone with his mighty pen and his unwavering delivery. It’s not anything new, but this one feels a bit more varied than some of this year’s output. Droog moves beyond rhymes on his status within hip-hop for the most part, instead spiting bars about well… everything from keeping it casual (“keep it moving with the movement, no delusions of grandeur, I’m gonna make a billion dollars still dress like Adam Sandler“) and straight up hip-hop reverence (“been working like Future to get my Fam out the Dungeon”), to scenic images of Brooklyn (“gettin’ love from every borough, used to play Atlantic Ave like the Spanish lady with the churros”). The references come rapid-fire and there’s a definite madness to his lyricism, but bar-for-bar, chip on his shoulder or not, no one else is doing it like YOD.

Further Listening:

November 28 - December 04:

December 05 - December 11:

December 12 - December 16th:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (November 28th - December 18th)