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.

BILLY WOODS & KENNY SEGAL | “FaceTime” (feat. Samuel T. Herring)

billy woods has been on a legendary run for over a decade now, dropping highlight after highlight of impenetrable hip-hop, breaking down each line like chess moves as he thinks several steps ahead. Last year he added both the Preservation produced Aethiopes and the Messiah Musik produced Church to his list of modern classics, the former pushing the limits of cinematic brilliance while the latter felt like its stoned victory lap addendum. Never one to rest on his accomplishments, woods will once again join forces with producer Kenny Segal for Maps on May 5th, their first collaboration since 2019’s masterpiece, Hiding Places. “FaceTime” is the record’s lead single, a song that finds both MC and producer dropping raw heat. woods recounts the rigors of life on the road and the resulting separation anxiety. Segal’s beat plays to woods’ strengths, rolling with twinkling keys, bleary horns, and a stutter-step rhythm.

DECISIVE PINK | “Ode To Boy”

The release of Decisive Pink’s debut album, Ticket To Fame, is still nearly two months away, and we can hardly stand the anticipation. The duo of Angel Deradoorian and Kate NV introduced the project at the end of last year with “Haffmilch Holiday,” an undeniable smash hit of plinking modular synths and vibrating bliss. We were instantly enamored. Their brand of retro-futuristic synth pop is exuberant and expansive, pulling between hypnotic motorik beats and layers upon layers of bloops, squiggles, and detached electronics. The sound is campy as hell, but they’re doing it with the utmost sincerity and that’s what makes it so amazing. “Ode To Boy,” the album’s third single, is pop splendor. The song is brought to life with lush harmonies, warped synths, choral beauty, and an alien sense for mechanical wonder. Deradoorian and NV are the perfect team, working in tandem to transport us to another dimension.

DJ RUDE ONE | “Look Around” (feat. Pink Siifu)

Back in 2016, Chicago producer DJ Rude One released ONEderful, working together with many of hip-hop’s modern greats… just prior to them being considered the modern greats. The record featured Roc Marciano, Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine, and Your Old Droog among others, with Rude One’s minimalist beats tying the threads together, with hard boom-bap knocking bass and haunting keys. Seven years later and he’s back with the follow up, Upper Space, due out via Closed Sessions. While we don’t know what he’s been doing in the years since, his production remains glorious, with loops and samples that never overstay their welcome. “Look Around,” the second single, features an inspired Pink Siifu at his most direct. This one sounds like a smoked out nightmare, with Siifu bringing his stretched enunciations and stream of conscious thoughts reminiscent to Dungeon Fam’s Witchdoctor to a beat that could have been pulled from Prince Paul’s Gravediggaz era.

GELD | “Fog of War”

Melbourne’s GELD have always been a brute force, their brand of hardcore built on disgust, impenetrable density and crusty d-beat propulsion. After two exceptional records for Static Shock and Iron Lung Records, the quartet has made the move to Relapse Records for their third album, Currency // Castration. Due out June 9th, the band’s filth and fury remain entirely intact, still ringing in our ears, but with more clarity than ever. The blows land harder, there’s less recorded hiss, and more stampeding dread. The antithesis of squeaky youth hardcore, GELD arise from the gutter, foaming at the mouth, and saturated in psychedelic aggression. “Fog of War” is a good example of their new found clarity, ripping and stomping in a way that allows cohesion, from the harsh bile spewed vocals to the dirge of shredding riffs and the thud of the drums. It’s GELD in hi-definition, captured in primal detail where the filth is forever essential.

LA SÉCURITÉ | “Anyway”

Montreal’s La Sécurité are making post-punk with a heavy disco influence, built upon dance-floor grooves and rattling synths. Our introduction to the band came from a press release (can ya believe it… they can serve a purpose) and we’ve been hooked ever since upon the quintet’s relentless boogie. Their full length debut Stay Safe!, out June 16th via Mothland, is constantly engaging, the band’s textures shifting from one groove to the next with a luminous bounce. On “Anyway,” the record’s first official single, the band’s sound resides somewhere between PYLON, ESG, and Le Tigre, with transfixed pop that’s dripping with synths, warbling bass, insistent guitars and most of all, an incredibly tight and crispy drum beat. Éliane Viens-Synnott splits her vocals between near spoken word verses and a dazzling hook, bringing a quirky energy to a song with an otherwise heavy subject matter, processing the dissolution of a relationship in the face of a miscarriage.

RADIATOR HOSPITAL | “Yr Head”

Radiator Hospital released four full length albums in a five year stretch and over a dozen other EPs, splits, and live recordings, but things have been quiet for the past few years. That ends with the announcement of Can’t Make Any Promises. Due out May 25th via Salinas Records, the album was recorded with Kyle Gilbride in their shared practice space and Radiator Hospital feel at home. Captured in a lo-fi haze, there’s a special kind of depth to both the melodic sensibility and to Sam Cook-Parrott’s weary lyrics. It’s the type of record with highlights popping up at every turn, from a phrase to a tone, Radiator Hospital are at their best. “Yr Head” opens with a blistering immediacy but not necessarily a sense of aggression. The quartet sound huge, channeling overblown jangle into a graceful blanket of fuzzy harmonies. The guitars, both dense and somehow subdued, are the backbone for the vocals, laconic in delivery but gluey with melody.

SNOOPER | “Pod”

In just a few short years, Nashville’s Snooper have cemented themselves as one of the best live bands in the country, bringing an unmatched energy to everything they do. Adorned with hand-crafted props and bugged out puppets, the punk intensity of their music is matched with a sense of joy and artistic whimsy, but this isn’t mere spectacle, Snooper rip… at all times. Led by the sprightly good vibes of Blair Tramel (vocals) and the unhinged riffs of Connor Cummins (guitars), the fried and frizzled sound of their records has always captured their manic energy with little to no regard for fidelity. That all changes with Super Snōōper, the band’s upcoming Third Man Records debut, out in July. “Pod,” originally released on their self-titled EP, gets a gleaming new recording. Their mutant energy and tightly wound obliterated-pop convulsions are delivered in a new radiant glory, fast and chaotic, but tight and melodic, their song writing brilliance now matched with equally brilliant production.

SPEEDY ORTIZ | “Scabs”

It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since Speedy Ortiz released their last full length record. Even in their absence, Sadie Dupuis is more active than most people are at their busiest. There’s been a handful of stand-alone singles, a reissue of the project’s earliest material, and Dupuis’ other ventures: writing poetry books, Sad13 albums, and running Wax Nine. The creative energy never rests, but we’re excited to see the return of Speedy Ortiz and their latest single “Scabs,” the first to feature the band’s new (but not so new) rhythm section. Recorded together with Sarah Tudzin (Illuminati Hotties), it’s great to this one heavy with guitar wizardry, twisted and mangled, processed and fuzzy, Dupuis and Moholt’s guitars wind themselves into knots, coloring the song with textures both immediately poppy and delightfully abrasive. The song collides along the winding path, the verses wobbling right into the hook with hints of Brainiac. Written about so-called activists who don’t actually “act” on their ideals, it’s a fine return to form.

TUNIC | “Disease”

If you’ve been listening to Tunic since the beginning, you probably recognize there’s a change afoot. If you’re new to Tunic, well then you probably just recognize that their music is abrasive and dissonant. These aren’t the major changes, it’s always been the mold for the Winnipeg trio, but where their songs used to detonate instantly and continue to combust in entirety for sub-two minute immediacy, each single from Wrong Dream, the band’s upcoming album, feels expansive by comparison. With more attention to dynamics, it’s not a full on attack at all times, but full of nuance. “Disease” is a great example, a song that’s built as much on tension as it is release, careening and caterwauling against being a part of a capitalist society yet aware of the things we must do to survive. Guitars pierce and bend, with aggression that feels ominous, peeling back to allow for a focus on the low-end before swarming back in.

WATER FROM YOUR EYES | “True Life”

There’s something special about the idea that Water From Your Eyes’ first album for Matador Records may just be their strangest set of songs. We, of course, mean that in the best of ways. Get weird. Live a little. Following the incredible lead single (“Barley”), we’re treated to “True Life,” a skronky blast of deadpan electro-punk and art rock excesses. The band describe it as “quasi-nu metal stomp” but to our ears the disjointed blast of guitar stabs and spoken melodies sounds closer to US Maple or Disappears meets late pop era Butthole Surfers… which is all to say it sounds totally unique and full of unbridled charm. Then there’s the bridge… an ode to Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl” that was not approved by him and his team (what a shocker), so in turn Rachel Brown has been modified the lyrics to contemplate why Mr. Young isn’t down for the cause. It’s both hilarious and structurally interesting, a respite from the squawk of the guitars.

Further Listening:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (April 10th - April 16th)