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.

DENMARK VESSEY | “Marionette Flex” (feat. Fly Anakin & Nolan)

Omakase is the latest compilation album from Mello Music Group and much like it’s namesake it’s hand-selected and crafter by the chef, in this case the label. The collection features the great YUNGMORPHEUS track we recently featured (one of our favorite tracks of the year), as well as contributions from Marlowe, Apollo Brown, Fatboi Sharif, L’Orange, Namir Blade, and many others, touching upon a myriad of sounds. Together with the announcement comes a new single from Denmark Vessey in collaboration with Fly Anakin and Nolan. Produced by Vessey, the punchy boom-bap beat has a hard knocking production with live bass and guitars that stop and start under the breaking drums paired together with choral interludes. It’s a great beat for the trio to do their thing over, the verses coming off the cuff with verbal dexterity and tightly wrapped punchlines. Vessey and Fly Anakin’s verses really shine, their flows stretched and compressed in time with the winding beat.

GRAILS | “Sad & Illegal”

Grails, the veteran instrumental psych band, are set to release their first new album in six years, Anches En Maat, due out in September via Temporary Residence (Eluvium, Party Dozen, Nina Nastasia). Lead single “Sad & Illegal” shows that they’re still pushing their sound in new directions, lurching through open soundscapes that feel removed from space and time, but there’s an inherent focus on minute detail. Slow drawn atmospheric guitars sound reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s earliest days, floating together with dazzling drum fills, orchestral movements, and a stunning mid song piano riff that subtly erupts the foundation. I’m far from the world’s biggest instrumental music aficionado, but I can’t stop listening to this new Grails track, there’s something so captivating about the entire surrealist landscape it builds, the construction both cinematic and grooving, and the loose shuffling drums from Emil Amos are a major highlight.

MIKE DONOVAN | “Planet Metley”

Against all odds, we’d venture to say that time has been kind to Mike Donovan’s music. While he remains best known for Sic Alps, the past decade has seen him release a trio of brilliant albums with The Peacers and a trio of equally engaging solo records (while contributing to other projects, including Brigid Dawson & The Mothers Network). His ever warbling lo-fi form changes shape with each project, but his sound is instantly identifiable, blending garage pop, fuzzed out psych, and hints of prog rock together to create songs both radiant and unassuming. His fourth “solo” album, Meets The Mighty Flashlight, pairs Donovan together with Mike “The Mighty Flashlight” Fellows (Prison, Royal Trux, Silver Jews), and if “Planet Metley,” the record’s first single is anything to go by, then we’re in for a real treat. The song is triumphantly disjointed, burning across the lo-fi atmosphere like a star at the point of cosmic burn-out. Raw and structurally loose, Donovan and Fellows seem to have one foot in this world and one foot in the next.

PREWN | “But I Want More”

“But I Want More” is the perfect introduction to Prewn’s sound, equal parts sinewy alternative rock and experimental-leaning psych folk. Taken from their upcoming album Through The Window, the songs takes many shapes, weaving a path that seems to render heartbreak in its various stages. As the song opens with a minimal guitar strum and an understated simplicity, the arrangement slowly begins to open, raw emotion leading to heavier progressions and haunting sentiment. There’s a groove that resides deep in the pocket, but the song maintains mood over all else. Things aren’t great and there’s no reason to sugarcoat it. Izzy Hagerup wrote the song from the perspective of her father, whose lifelong battle with Parkinson’s disease was made even more tragic during Covid as he was quarantined away from family in a nursing home for over a year. Each lyric stings a bit more as Hagerup describes both preventative care and the failure of one’s own faculties. It’s crushing and brutal in sentiment, but there’s a beautiful tribute that comes with it, as those we can’t be near remain forever in our thoughts.

SNŌŌPER | “Running”

While it could be said that Snōōper’s entire catalog is comprised of hits (and you wouldn’t be wrong), “Running” has always felt like a next level stand-out. Originally released on the Nashville band’s Music For Spies EP nearly three years ago, the song has been re-recorded in (relative) hi-fidelity for their full length debut, Super Snōōper, a collection that brings a welcome addition of sonic clarity to their otherwise harsh recordings. While many of the record’s contributions simply update previous singles with a studio-friendly boost, Snōōper aren’t messing around with “Running,” stretching it past the five minute mark, which says a mouthful when you consider no other song hits two minutes. While their energy is always captivating, hearing the band ride an expansive wave of motorik boogie and hard driving synth-punk into swarms of deranged repetition is pretty stunning. They’re truly heading off the rails with a build that just keeps growing, scuzzy enough for the punks and brilliant enough for the art-set.

VANGAS | “Still”

For every experimental punk, post-hardcore, and noise rock band that is deemed hip enough for the conventional music press, there’s often a more exciting version lurking in the shadows, bands that eschew “buzz” but deserve it all the same. Case in point, Atlanta’s Vangas, a young band that have been playing together since their high school days. They’ve released a full length and a slew of singles over the span of the fast four years, attracting an audience of regional diehards and proverbial “crate-diggers” worldwide. Their second full length, a self-titled album, is set for release on August 10th via Chunklet Industries (During, Man or Astro-Man?, Germ House), a record seemingly built on impenetrable distortion and pummeling yet brainy destruction. Their latest single “Still” is wrought and tangled in feedback, peeling and abrasive, it’s unbelievably great. The song captures the band’s brand of intelligent and dynamic noise rock with post-hardcore dexterity and a no-wave mentality, it’s reckless and unglued, intelligent and immersive.

VANISHING TWIN | “Afternoon X”

The world around us tends to disappear and dissociate when listening to London’s Vanishing Twin. For nearly a decade now the band have been creating retro-futuristic psych-pop that stands among the best the genre has to offer, past and present. The years have presented a few line-up shifts, and sometime after the release of their third album, Ookii Gekkou, the once five piece band found themselves down to a core three. The cosmic world of Vanishing Twin can’t be stopped though, and Cathy Lucas, Valentina Magaletti and Susumu Mukai are more than capable to move forward as a trio, with each member expanding their roles. With Afternoon X out in October, it would seam that the band haven’t lost a step, the record’s title track is an immaculate mix of patchwork psych, space-aged jazz, and post-punk hypnosis. Led by the deep grooves of Magaletti’s drum patterns, the band rattle and slink through immaculate valleys and warped vibrations, creating a dream nestled deep within the glow of all-encompassing musical freedom.

Further Listening:

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