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.

DEADY | “Eat Sleep”

After a couple years of playing shows and sharing a few singles on the sly, Louisville art punk band Deady released their official debut single, “Eat Sleep”. A combustible post-punk song that at times feels reminiscent of the Melbourne punk scene, Deady’s swarming upbeat sound shares a similar energy and socio political concern with band’s like Delivery and Gut Health, but Kentucky is a long way from Australia, and Deady are taking on our own societal issues. “Eat Sleep” is a thinly veiled scourge on the unchecked power of the police, bogus incarcerations, and our failed “justice” system. While the message at hand is a serious one, the song itself feels like a party, with the quintet (which features members of The Archaeas, Mister Goblin, and Parlour) combining jagged riffs and whopping patterns into a caterwauling eruption. The tempos shift and progressions wind around one another, but the melodic force of Mandy Keathley’s vocal performance stays focused, bouncing atop the dizzying and taut spiral of dense noise pop, commanding our attention and stretching the chaos with a catchy kick in the teeth.

R. RING | “Hug”

While Kelley Deal is best known as a founding member of alternative rock legends The Breeders and a frequent collaborator of Protomartyr’s, she’s spent much of the past decade making music together with Mike Montgomery (Ampline) as R. Ring. Their sound over that course of time, dating back to 2011, has been in constant flux, often minimal and often explosive, the Dayton, OH and Dayton, KY based duo don’t really play by any set of rules. They make music together because they enjoy making music together, using the project to explore sounds that aren’t typical of their other efforts. War Poems, We Rested, the group’s second full length (and first for Don Giovanni Records) is out now, a tremendously dynamic listen that really moves from one strength to the next, picking up strands of motorik dream-pop (“Def Sup”), sparse Elliott Smith-esque indie folk (“Stole Eye”), and psychedelic minimalism (“Exit Music”) along the way. “Hug,” while probably the closest to what you may expect from the band, is still an immediate highlight, engaging from the start with guitars that sputter and careen in a way that only comes with veteran status, wrapping themselves around Deal’s cooly delivered vocal.

RICHARD DAWSON | “Horse and Rider”

We’re well aware that Richard Dawson’s music is an acquired taste, we’re just sorry for those who haven’t yet acquired sed taste. For the wise folks who have, especially those of us Stateside, there’s great news this week as Richard Dawson is coming to the US for tour dates this Spring, including headlining dates in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, as well as support dates with Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs around the east coast. Touring in support of last year’s The Ruby Cord, a brilliant album as stunning as it was sprawling, Dawson’s experimental folk and Canterbury prog influences coalesced into the rolling hills of the record, shimmering in movements on the 40+ minute single, “The Hermit”. For those that prefer more digestible bites however, the rest of the album is just as impactful (albeit with shorter run times), pulling us from the real world into something far more serene and majestic. “Horse and Rider,” the album’s grande finale, feels very much like that, a soothing refrain from a voyage well spent. Sweeping strings, gentle acoustics, and softly brushed percussion pull us to a place lush and vivid, a landscape for Dawson’s wandering narrative. The video finds Dawson as the “rider” but the horse has seemingly gone missing (though don’t tell our protagonist). Richard Dawson is often quick to show his sense of humor when it comes to music videos, gifting us with a lack of self seriousness to counterpoint the material’s epic nature.

TUNIC | “Dull Ache”

Winnipeg’s Tunic have been making utterly visceral noise rock for nearly a decade, turning up the dial over the past six years with a tireless work ethic that includes both a busy touring and recording schedule. It’s been nearly half a year since the band’s last single, so we can all be confident that they’ve been hard at work on at least an album or two. “Dull Ache” is their first new music of the year, and it could easily be the most unique track in the Tunic catalog, adding an expansive new dynamic to their sound, with slurred menace and tension building patience. Tunic’s music is often short and combustible, the get in, get out, and leave the place in ruins mentality that has rarely broken the three minute mark. It’s worked for them thus far, but “Dull Ache” shows what can be, and they’ve never sounded better. The pacing is relaxed, creeping into the dissonance as the depravity seems to have settled delightfully off its axis. David Schellenberg’s vocal performance isn’t so much punchy and swinging for the fences, instead his wonderfully slurred words arrive as though losing all grip on subtlety, literally offering a bath in filth, and sounding like he means it.

ULRIKA SPACEK | “The Sheer Drop”

Sometime between the release of Modern English Decoration in 2017 and now, we grew enamored with Ulrika Spacek’s music, the evergreen glow of their analog synths, the majestic charm of their chiming warmth. Suggestive Listening followed the next year, continuing to expand the band’s sound, and there hasn’t been much in the years since. Last year the band’s Rhys Edwards stepped out on his own as Astrel K and made one of the year’s best records, which only added to the anticipation of another Ulrika Spacek record. Thankfully, the wait is nearly over. Compact Trauma, the band’s third full length, arrives March 10th via Tough Love with lead single “The Sheer Drop” our stunning introduction. The London based quintet experiment with forms of krautrock, dream-pop, psych, and noise pop, working everything into a celestial mix that always feels delivered from lightyears away. The song is beautiful, complex, and dissonant, ringing in open spaces and colliding headfirst by the time it reaches a climatic sort of anti-hook. It’s all impeccably tight, and the band manipulate the extended run time to dive into the cosmic instrumental, wrenching between tension and eventual release before sliding right back into knotted formation.

Further Listening:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (January 23rd - January 29th)