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.
ALIEN NOSEJOB | “The Derivative Sounds Of... Or... A Dog Always Returns To Its Vomit” LP
With six albums in the past five years and nearly as many EPs to match, Alien Nosejob hardly need an introduction. Jake Robertson’s solo project turned band is a worldwide treasure, due in part to the ever shifting scope of their sound. From hardcore to lo-fi disco and blown out rock ‘n’ roll to synth punk, nothing is off limits and everything seems genuine. Alien Nosejob aren’t a band searching for the next trend, they’re blazing through influences as they spark, proving capable of anything. Following their well praised US tour (the NY show was easily one of the best I’ve seen this year), Robertson is back with The Derivative Sounds Of… Or… A Dog Always Returns To Its Vomit, an album built on 60’s garage pop infatuation. The jangly punk record is spring loaded with Robertson’s signature melodic insistence, but there’s a psychedelic breeze to the effort that pulls between paisley accented power-pop and subtle post-punk ease. Its not an aggressive record by any means, but the more you listen, the better it gets.
ALL STRUCTURES ALIGN | “Hopes Are Quartered”
Whether you’re aware or not, All Structures Align came out swinging. The UK based band released not one but two excellent albums last year, and compiled them together earlier this year as a 2xLP set. It would seem those two records were just them getting started because their third effort, Cut The Engines, is due out this November via Wrong Speed Records (Hey Colossus, Elizabeth Still, Thee Alcoholics). If lead single “Hopes Are Quartered” is anything to go by (which it should be), we’re in for a treat, the song offering a well developed blend of post-hardcore, slowcore, and post-rock textures. Reminiscent of label-mate Sweet Williams, ASA create music ripe with tension, delivered in a nonchalant sort of hush that soon comes unglued. The knotted progressions work their way toward the more grandiose moments. It’s brilliantly tangled, the guitars wrapped around the rhythm like a three headed snake in a sandstorm, swinging around, jaws open.
JUNE MCDOOM | “The City (With Strings)”
Last year June McDoom introduced her music to the world with “The City,” a gorgeous stand-alone single that came prior to her equally stunning self-titled EP. Nearly a year later, June McDoom and her band have played dozens of local shows, toured with Nick Hakim (as well as becoming a focal point of Hakim’s live band), and celebrated their psychedelic folk debut with a special string quartet performance. Arranged by Sammy Weissburg, With Strings continues McDoom’s work with the string ensemble, and the EP’s latest single brings a new look to “The City,” expanding the original’s smoky charms with an unbelievable sense of grace and acoustic texture. The song’s original patchwork production style is replaced with the beauty of the strings and the room’s airy space, lifting McDoom’s dazzling vocals into the focal point where her words are given increasing prominence as they softly drift, assisted and stretching by the sweeping strings.
MIND SHRINE | “Runner”
Houston’s Mind Shrine are one of those bands that feel like a “best kept secret” for those in the know, but they won’t remain that way for too long. Following a string of singles and a great EP, the quartet released their first album, Is It You? last year, a record of swirling dream pop and lush psych. While there’s a inescapable resemblance to some of Crumb’s most immediate work, Mind Shrine offer their own strange glow, their silky songs adding their uniquely nuanced deep-space grooves. “Runner,” a new single recorded while in New York, is the band’s first new music since the full length, a song that finds the band supplementing their swooning art-pop malaise with some weird and warped dub influences lurking in the stuttering drums and fuzzy production. Jess Howard’s vocals bounce and contort over the psychedelic vision, skipping along with a dazzling rhythm design (serious shout out to the band’s drummer) transmitted from alien landscapes. It’s a real beauty of cosmic indie dream pop funk… or whatever you want to call it.
ODETTA HARTMAN | “Dr. No”
It’s been five long years since Odetta Hartman released the incredible Old Rockhounds Never Die album, a record that combined experimental folk music with twangy country soul and jazzy exploration. If you’ve never heard it, go listen now. If you have, then you already know it’s importance. After an extended wait, Hartman is back with Swansongs, a new album due out next March via Transgressive Records. “Dr. No,” the record’s first single, meets our high expectations, the song feeling like a seismic blend of avant-garde pop, ornate orchestration, and wistful electronics. Pulling it all together is the natural and jazzy beauty of Hartman’s voice, her words peeling out from the hypnotic darkness, crooning and wilting in equal measure. It’s perfect for the spooky season, as she skips between shadowy elegance and a seductive charm, reminding us “you can’t hide from your Jekyll”. The video, directed by Bao Ngo, meets the vibe to a tee in glorious black and white.
PARTY DOZEN | “Wake In Might”
The walls continue to crumble with every new song from Sydney’s Party Dozen, the indefinable post-whatever art punk duo of Kirsty Tickle (saxophone) and Jonathan Boulet (percussionist), and the house is coming down. The band’s rhythmic skronk takes whatever shape it may and they’re far more versatile than their set-up might suggest. While their mesmerizing songs are played live with sax and drums, there’s often a visceral framework of guitar and bass samples pounding from the speakers, a sludgy atmosphere for the band’s oozing arrangements. Following last year’s The Real Work (out via Temporary Residence) and the recent reissues of their first two albums, the band are working on their next record, with “Wake In Might” (an homage to the tense Australian cinema classic, Wake In Fright) serving as an early preview. Straying from the past, the duo incorporate piano this time around, the low timbre of the keys delivered with colossal heft as they let the saxophone wail and groove between the cracks. It’s an arresting mix of instrumental noise rock and artful no wave, delivered with that uniquely abrasive yet captivating Party Dozen bounce.
SKELETAL REMAINS | “Void of Despair”
“Void of Despair,” the first single from Skeletal Remains’ upcoming fifth album is a ripper, but no surprise there. This is after all the band that named the lead track of their 2018 masterpiece Devouring Mortality, “Ripperology”. The years have been kind to the Southern California based death metal band, who seemingly just keep steamrolling ahead, leaving a wake of festering depravity. Skeletal Remains play with an earnest brutality, there’s nothing extra flashy or technical to their decimating brand of death metal, but it’s also not the caveman leaning primal side of the genre either, instead opting for filthy, nasty, raw carnage, packed with shifting tempos and brain melting solos. With Fragments of the Ageless due out in March, lead single “Void of Despair” sets the tone, an all out assault on the senses with earthquaking riffs and stampeding rhythms that are set on pure musical annihilation. The momentum feels like a tsunami coming to wash this world away, with a surprisingly harmonic solo buried ever so wonderfully in the mix giving that extra kick in the teeth. It’s not for the faint of heart, but neither are these current times.
SPLLIT “Bevy Slew”
SPLLIT’s second album, Infinite Hatch, is a major statement of a record, the duo of Marance and Urq showing incredible growth while remaining true to their sound and vision. One of the year’s more exciting albums, each song a piece of the greater whole, capturing the band’s acidic knack for unlikely melodies together with their immaculate sense of personality. The brilliant and magnetic “Bevy Slew” offers a steady but dazzling rhythm, cosmic harmonies, and a hypnotic focus, the band entering a portal of indefinite groove. The melody feels warped and bubbling but while subtly tangled, SPLLIT’s duel vocals have the ability to make the song feel at ease. As the rhythm works to scramble reality, the band play it cool, this is major art rock dexterity delivered with a calming wink. SPLLIT let it unravel with perfection, eventually stuttering into a half time version that would sound like a tape glitch if it wasn’t executed with such grace. They slip and slide with intention, the shimmering melodic flourish the glue that holds it all together.
TELEHEALTH | “Mindtrap”
Seattle’s Telehealth play into the corporate bit with an unmatched fervor. The organization has been trademarked and left to develop in research meetings for maximum profitability. Their impeccably tight brand of synth punk draws from their zany conceptual status, much like the way Devo created a world unto itself, a major influence in both sound and spirit. Having released their full length debut, Content Oscillator, back in March, the band’s earnings are up and they’re back with a new single as part of the legendary Sub Pop Singles Club. While the b-side, “Bitter Melody,” showcases the more romantic side of the band’s sound, “Mindtrap” is full blown art-punk, a song that ‘s buzzing with jittery synth pulsations from the start. There’s kinetic energy working overtime as the band howl about future activity in bits and pieces, starts and fits that only build with layered force. The intensity boils to a fever pitch, rooted in corporate structure and taking the piss out of it all. It’s the HR anthem the world’s been waiting for, punched and dialed into a riotous post-punk surge.
THA GOD FAHIM | “Tha Supreme Hoarder Of All Pristine Wealth” LP
After a flood of releases in the first half of the year that included no less than eight records, in a very strange way, it feels as though we’ve been impatiently waiting for Tha God Fahim to drop another album. It’s not as though he’s been lacking (far far from it), but it’s rare to go more than a couple months without new music from the prolific MC, his own self-made burden. The Dump Gawd never stops though, and his latest, Tha Supreme Hoarder Of All Pristine Wealth, is an album length collaboration with producer Camoflauge Monk that seems to find Fahim in one of his more inspirational moods, spitting timeless verses with a positive message that often feels rooted in experience as an underground MC. There’s plenty of talk of money and luxury, but Tha God Fahim seems to dwell more on the spiritual journey that leads toward stacking paper than he is in the lavish accumulation itself. Camoflauge Monk offers beats that feel like cinematic vignettes, a psychedelic wash of slow moving soundscapes, looping with a laid back ease for Fahim to dump his sage lyricism with effortless clarity.
Further Listening:
OCTOBER 16 - OCTOBER 22:
CHERRY CHEEKS “Mourning Sky” | CLANG! “New Feel Now” | CRAIG WEDREN “Fingers On My Face” | CRUEL “Demeanor” | DAN FRANCIA & KARLA FRANCIA “An Induced Album” EP | DEAD GOWNS “Kid 1” | DION LUNADON “I Walk Away” | DUCKS LTD. “The Main Thing” | DUSK “Be Nice To Me All Day Long” | EARL SWEATSHIRT & THE ALCHEMIST “100 High Street” | EDWIN R. STEVENS “Purgatory Game” | ENUMCLAW “These Are Some B-Sides” EP | EX EVERYTHING “Detonation In The Public Sphere” | FLOWER FESTIVAL “Stolen” (feat. Nicholas Krgovich) | FUCKED UP “Show Friends” | HAMMER NO MORE THE FINGERS “Silver Zebra” LP | IAN SWEET “Smoking Again” | INGROWN “Cold Steel” | JOEY MAJORS “I Thanks The Lord” (feat. Raekwon & Kross) | KATIE VON SCHLEICHER “Cranked” | THE LEWERS “O Karina” | LITTLE BIT “Lying To You” | MANNEQUIN PUSSY “I Don’t Know You” | MX LONELY “Rest In Salt” | NIONTAY “Real Hiphop” (feat. Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, & El Cousteau) | ONEIDA “Halloween” (feat. KATIEE) | OXBOW “Gunwale” | PACK RAT “Bite My Tongue” EP | PEARL & THE OYSTERS “Loading Screen (Salami Rose Joe Louis Remix)” | THE POLYPHONIC SPREE “Shadows On The Hillside (Section 48)” | RID OF ME “The Weekend” | SCREENSAVER “Future Trash” | THE SERFS “Beat Me Down” | STRESS POSITIONS “How To Get Ahead” | SUNK HEAVEN “Silent, Ivory” | THA GOD FAHIM & COOKIN SOUL “Blood Sport“ | THEY ARE GUTTING A BODY OF WATER “Expansion Pak” | VIDEO AGE “Is It Really Over?” | WINDED “Heaven Is Leaking” | WISHY “Donut” | WU-TANG CLAN “Claudine” (feat. Nicole Bus)
OCTOBER 23 - OCTOBER 29:
BAR ITALIA “World’s Greatest Emoter” | BLOCKHEAD “Lighthouse” (feat. Ugly Frank) | CAT POWER “Mr. Tambourine Man” (Bob Dylan cover) | CHELSEA WOLFE “Whispers In The Echo Chamber” | CITRIC DUMMIES “Tubing Down A River of Anxiety” | CORY HANSON “I Can’t Keep My Eyes Open” | DAZY “Forced Perspective” | DELIA MESHLIR “My Only Child” | DRIPPING DECAY “Trick or Treat” (Halloween cover) | FRANCES CHANG “Eye Land” | GIRL RAY “Hurt So Bad” | GRASS JAW “Race For The Prize” (Flaming Lips cover) | JAYE JAYLE “Audiotree Live” | JUNE MCDOOM “Stone After Stone (New Sounds Session)” | LEFT CROSS “Deity of Molten Iron” | MAUL “The Sacred and The Profane / Hovering, Sinking” | MIA JUNE “Freckled Friend Forever” | THE PARANOYDS “I Like It Here” EP | PEOPLING “gEneRaTOr bOys” | POWERPLANT “She” (Misfits cover) | PYLON REENACTMENT SOCIETY “Flowers Everywhere” | QUEEN SERENE “Queen Serene” LP | SEE JAZZ “1982” | SHOCK WITHDRAWAL “Sullen” | SLOAN RIVERS “All I Want Now” (feat. Kyle Andrews) | SUN JUNE “Sage” | SUNK HEAVEN “Breathtaking” | TOADIES “Since U Been Gone” (Kelly Clarkson cover) | THE UMBRELLAS “Three Cheers!” | VARIOUS ARTISTS “Joyful Noise Halloween Party, Vol. 1” | VASTUM “Corpus Fractum” | WATER FROM YOUR EYES “Buy My Product (Fantasy of a Broken Heart Version)” | YARD ACT “Dream Job” | ZOWY “Beware Magical Thinking”