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.

BLACK THOUGHT & DANGER MOUSE | “Belize“ (feat. MF DOOM)

The Roots’ Black Thought has been one of hip-hop’s best MCs for a very long time, but the common narrative is always that he doesn’t come up often enough on “Top 5 Dead of Alive” lists. There are certainly reasons for that, even if those reasons are dumb, but the Philadelphia great has been grinding out solo releases the past few years that are changing perceptions. While some of those records are a bit uneven, his latest, Cheat Codes, is a long awaited full album collaboration with Danger Mouse (whose last hip-hop album was the cartoon-themed DANGERDOOM release). The production, at times closer to soundscapes than traditional “beats” allows for Black Thought and the great curation of guest MCs to let lyricism do the heavy lifting, case in point the dusty production and reserved atmosphere of album stand-out “Belize,” featuring a posthumous verse from MF DOOM. Both MCs give proof to their legendary status, coming at the softened beat with energetic wordplay that goes from brilliant to absurd and back again, eloquently laying claim as to why they are supreme kings of the mic.

BLESSED | “Anything”

For the past six years Vancouver’s Blessed have been blurring the lines between technicality and accessibility, creating their own brand of post-punk and art rock with a sonic complexity that ranges from overt to subtle. They’ve released punk angular enough to dart around corners and music with an electronic core, both with their own delightfully alien processes, but Blessed have always done so in favor to the songs themselves. Circuitous, the band’s upcoming album, seems to be the best distillation of their juxtaposing parts yet, evidence on lead single “Anything” as the band carve intricate moments and structures into what feels their broadest “indie” push yet. It’s nuanced music that can sit amongst the mainstream without rattling listeners. Blessed are making complexity sound accessible, which is never easy.

DISCO DOOM | “Mt. Surreal”

“Mt. Surreal,” the second single and title track from Disco Doom’s upcoming album, feels like a salve toward anxiety, an escape that we never want to let go of. The Zurich based trio augment our reality on a song that’s very much about augmenting reality, but not just in terms of the lyrics, it’s the soundscapes, guitars, synths, and pitched drums that tumble and glide toward the surreal. It wobbles and wavers, never walking a straight path, yet managing to be incredibly catchy in the process. “Mt. Surreal” throws us for a loop but tethers us to it as it diverts. Then there’s the lyrics, with immortal lines like “don’t know where comfort spends its summertimes, in the night of living freaks“ and “It’s the same as it ever was, but the same is just too bad,” that want to bend our sensibilities, diverging from the mundane to the surreal, taking on new meaning within “the world that brought me here, is a world I can’t recall”. The song ebbs into long sustained ripples of distortion and tranquility, a meditative conclusion to an otherworldly journey.

FACELESS BURIAL | “A Mire of Penitence”

Melbourne’s definitely a city known for it’s endlessly exceptional punk scene, but it’s also the home to the colossal Faceless Burial, one of death metal’s more exciting bands of the past decade. The trio celebrate the old school sound of the genre without repeating what came before them, but expanding, contorting, and mangling the cornerstones of the genre into their own ugly and unpredictable onslaught. The production is brilliantly dim and without gloss, the only brightness emanating from Faceless Burial seeps from the explosive guitar leads, everything otherwise dragged through the filth. Following 2020’s great Speciation LP, the band return with At The Foothills of Deliration, due out in October via Dark Descent Records (Ataraxy, Corpsessed, Undergang), led by the mountainous “A Mire of Penitence,” a song that lurches and grinds. The progression is built on complex twists and turns that never feel overtly technical, pummeling with enormous bass that leads the devastation in unexpected directions. The mammoth shifts stay true to classic death metal, even as Faceless Burial maneuver galactic shifts and brute force.

KAMIKAZE PALM TREE | “Mint Chip” LP

There’s a strange elegance to Kamikaze Palm Tree’s sophomore album, Mint Chip, a delightfully unusual art rock album that has grown to one of our favorites of the year. The Los Angeles duo have built their own world, with idiosyncratic songwriting, that feels pulled from alien planets, with melodies that are often hard fought but undeniably captivating. Recorded together with Tim Presley (White Fence), there’s definitely lo-fi magic abounding from every nook and cranny of their songs, with unlikely percussive elements, detuned guitars, and impeccable wonkiness that never finds solid ground but stumbles in a fancy state of grace. With elements of Deerhoof, Sic Alps, and Cate Le Bon all making a presence in the Mint Chip recipe, Kamikaze Palm Tree are able to warp disparate sounds together into something magnetic and radiant, their songs becoming unbelievably memorable not just for it’s melodic subversions, but its most unlikely hooks end up the most gluey.

MEAT WAVE | “What Would You Like Me To Do”

Chicago’s Meat Wave are set to follow up last year’s Volcano Park EP with the recently announced Malign Hex, their first full length in five years and their Swami Records (PLOSIVS, Night Marchers, Mrs. Magician) debut. Following the early singles “Ridiculous Car” and “Honest Living,” the album was announced with the band’s latest, “What Would You Like Me To Do,” a song propelled by an incessant rhythmic density and pinched harmonic attacks, pulling the band’s post-hardcore approach in new directions as they slow the tempo ever so slightly, using the muscular repetition to make the resolve of the bridge and sort of anti-hook hit harder. Meat Wave’s sound can at times feel like the intersection of Drive Like Jehu’s driving discordance and the locked in dynamic of Jawbox, and their latest single is a perfect encapsulation of that nuanced pairing.

ONEIDA | “Success” LP

With 25 years together as a band, it’s safe to call New York’s Oneida a legendary band, at least in the forward thinking art-rock, punk, psych, circles the band have made their experimental stomping grounds. While the band rarely stay in one place for more than a record or two, it’s a constant growth in their sound, seeing just how far they can push repetition and the pulse of their splattered guitars and kinetic rhythms. Following the electronic leaning Romance back in 2018, the band return once more with Success, an album that seems to bring them back to their earliest roots, with psychedelic motorik punk and buoyant indie rock energy making good time rock ‘n’ roll for these bad times. The band chug and storm through blistering solos and walls of squealing guitar fury, throwing avalanches of abrasive abstraction to songs that are otherwise happy to blissfully jangle and entrance. They sound refreshed and primed to engage, sweeping into explosive riffs and syrupy hooks with reckless abandon.

OSEES | “Arena of Blood”

It’s been just over a week since the ever shapeshifting Osees released their latest album, A Foul Form, a crusty punk record that gleefully takes influence from John Dwyer’s favorite 80’s hardcore albums. It’s a tremendous album of scuzzy mutant punk and while the band haven’t yet announced their next album (which they’ve been known to do in the past), they have shared another new single, “Arena of Blood,” pulled from SPELLJAMS, a compilation of music inspired by Dungeons & Dragons’ latest edition, Spelljammer: Adventures In Space, released via Kill Rock Stars (Zannie, Big Joanie, Slang). The collection, also featuring Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band, TEKE::TEKE, Red Fang, Califone, Reggie Watts, and many others, spans many genres and a wide diversity of artists, with Osees bringing about the album’s rawest moment, carrying forward with the sound of A Foul Form with them. “Arena of Blood” goes fully berserk, opening some heavy “fantasy” synths and raging like a chicken with its head cut off from there, with guitars and synths digging into the crust and exploding from within.

R.M.F.C. | “Access”

The eventual full length debut from Sydney via Ulladulla’s R.M.F.C. is long awaited and heavily anticipated. In the four years since Buz Clatworthy released the project’s first EP, he’s followed it with another EP, a pair of splits, and 2020’s “Reader” single. Two years later, Clatworthy and co. return with “Access,” another 7” single, and seemingly our first taste of an album due out in 2023 via Anti Fade Records (Vintage Crop, Modal Melodies, The Prize). “Access” is another R.M.F.C. highlight, honing in their Devo influenced tendencies, with a riff that sounds straight out of Akron circa 1977 and a tightly wound rhythm that stampedes in perfect time. The drums take this one for a wild ride and the guitars and synth act to ground it as they dart in and out of concentric post-punk circles. It’s all feverishly coiled and mechanical sounding as it takes aim at the digital nature of our world. The single is joined on the b-side with a cover of The Lillettes’ “Air Conditioning,” built of warm and insistent synths and a laid back jangle.

YOUR OLD DROOG | “Yodney Dangerfield” EP

There’s nothing left to prove for Your Old Droog. He’s undeniably one of modern hip-hop’s absolute best lyricists, whether you like it or not. Yodney Dangerfield, his fourth release of the year (following two EPs and a collaborative album with Tha God Fahim) might be his most focused, and like its title reference, he still gets no respect, I tell ya. That’s only half true, as the underground has fully embraced Droog as a modern legend, a punch line king that digs deep with references, bringing the laughs and the swagger in equal measure. While Droog has always been compared to a certain Queens MC, in reality, his rhymes and delivery are more closely related to Redman than anyone else, weaving his personality with a biting sense of lyrical humor. His wit and grit are in fine form on Yodney Dangerfield, with so many moments that demand a rewind to catch the layered jokes. There are the immediate ones (“these other rappers, don’t make me pull your card again, dudes sounding like a fake Earl Sweatshirt… Earl Cardigan”), the corner store battle raps (“tape money like store owners with dollars on the wall”), the deeper pop culture references (“they can’t see me when i drop gems like Wilson from Home Improvement”) to the down right show stoppers (“props ain’t always good, word to Alec Baldwin”). Your Droog goes at it without hooks or features, Yodney Dangerfield is just bar after bar.

Further Listening:

August 08 - August 14:

August 15 - August 21:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (August 8th - August 21st)