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.
BLONDE REDHEAD | “Before”
The signature feel of a Blonde Redhead song is an indisputable treasure. Even as the band have evolved their sound, increasingly smoothing out their once caustic rawness, their dynamics and structural pull remain a quintessential element. Sit Down for Dinner, their first new album in nine years, is the return we’ve been waiting for, a brilliant new record that elegantly layers their instruments into a state of dreamy complexity. There’s a lot to hear, a lot to pull apart, despite its seamless design. Everything about is swooning and textured, but the music remains intricate, Simone Pace’s drums are dazzling, laying framework for guitars, bass, synths, and vocals to glide wherever they might. Following the great “Snowman” and “Melody Experiment,” we’re treated to their latest single “Before,” a song that’s transfixing yet deceptively busy, each detail adding to it’s lush orchestration. The return of Blonde Redhead should feel momentous, because the return of Blonde Redhead is momentous.
EXEK | “Welcome To My Alibi”
There’s something instantly recognizable to the way that EXEK, led by Albert Wolski, form their songs. They’re almost dreamy, but the chord structures and voicing seem to be spring loaded with tension, despite the drums deep in habitual groove, and the lyrics opt to paint in shades of societal dread. Set to release their latest album, The Map and The Territory on October 6th, the band’s lush synth explorations continue to be dazzlingly muted but fully immersive. “Welcome To My Alibi,” the record’s lead single, is both brilliantly drifting and rhythmically immediate, pairing Chris Stephenson’s radiantly in the pocket drum beat with the laser-focused omnipresent synths. There’s a sense of mind expanding impermanence, awash in a world of hallucinations, floating like a celestial cloud, ready to transport us from one existence to the next. With collapse at the core, both in lyrical terms and amid a composition that counter-balances its own mesmerizing structure, EXEK manipulate their sound into something impossibly smooth, yet indirectly challenging.
FAITH HEALER | “I’m A Dog”
Six years after their second album, Edmonton’s Faith Healer, the duo of Jessica Jalbert and Rene Wilson, return with The Hand That Fits The Glove. Due out on October 13th via Mint Records (Dumb, Heaven For Real, Kamikaze Nurse), the band continue to reshape pop in their own way, offering a sense of AM gold paired with motorik pulses, built on clean guitars, organs, synths, and transcendent electronic programming. After sharing the silky “Another Fool,” the album announcement comes paired with “I’m A Dog,” an orchestral rocker with layer upon layer of swelling jangly indie bliss. The song seems to reside somewhere between Laurel Canyon psych folk and modern jangle pop with hints of fuzz. At the core of the song is Jalbert’s voice, warm and confident, melancholic yet lush. Her words revolve around the guilt of indulgence and the feeling of being a dog forever on the hunt, an animal that can’t stay still, but there’s little shame to be found in the song’s radiant grace, rolling drums, and the mesmerizing way it all swirls together.
TEMPS | “firstbirthday” (feat. NNAMDÏ & Public Speaking)
Temps, the collaborative project led by comedian/producer James Acaster, just released their debut album PARTY GATOR PURGATORY back in May, an experimental hip-hop record that presents itself way outside the box. Due to the fact that we’re living in a content-feeds-content world, the collective are back at it again just three months later, set to share their upcoming EP, AFTER PARTY, on September 8th. The good thing is, Temps is great, and “firstbirthday,” the lead single from the album’s companion EP is another wondrous take of more or less genre-less art. While Acaster sits this one out, NNAMDÏ steals the show, opening with a line about “devouring his own placenta” and only getting stranger from there. The song is jazzy and electronic, twitching and sweeping in equal measure for its limited runtime. Joined by John Dieterich (Deerhoof), Seb Rochford (Sons of Kemet), Adam Betts (Colossal Squid), Jason Anthony Harris (Public Speaking), and Emma Daman (Islet), the project’s collective spirit creates something alien but conceptually shimmering.
VANGAS | “Vangas” LP
Atlanta’s Vangas are a band that everyone should be paying attention to. Last week saw the release of their second album, a self-titled effort, out via Chunklet Records (Man or Astro-Man, During, Germ House), one of the most exhilarating noise rock records we’ve heard in a long time. The rhythms sit way up front in the mix, threatening to stampede your local town to rubble, while the guitars do their best to peel sensibility into oblivion. It’s ruthless but brilliant, visceral but catchy. The carnage that the young band make seems to draw a line between bands like Sonic Youth, Drive Like Jehu, and early Unwound, but Vangas aren’t playing “guess the influence,” they’ve developed their own brash sound, their lyrics confrontational but with a sense of humor, the outrage delivered with a smirk. Each song offers new devolved glory, from the minimalist yet unhinged “Dog Walker” to the slurred and swarming “Waltz in E Minor,” one of the album’s stand-out moments. Leave hype behind, Vangas have made one of the year’s best new records.
Further Listening:
ABISM “Libertad” | ACTION BRONSON “Tiny Desk Concert” | ADVERTISEMENT “Nobody’s Cop” | AL MENNE “Grandma’s Garden” | AOIFE NESSA FRANCES & HOLLOW HAND “Lagniappe Session” | BRADY WATT “Without You” (feat. Conway The Machine & Talib Kweli) | CANNIBAL CORPSE “Summoned For Sacrifice” | COOL DEAD WOMAN “Hedgehog In The Fog” | COURTNEY BARNETT “Different Now” (Chastity Belt cover) | THE COWBOYS “The Sultan of Squat” | DEEPER “Fame” | DIM WIZARD “X-Games Mode” (feat. Ratboys & Mike Krol) | DJ MUGGS “Dump On Em” (feat. Ice Cube, B-Real, & MC Ren) | GABBY’S WORLD “Powerful” | GHOSTFACE KILLAH “Yupp!” (feat. Remy Ma) | GOAT “Unemployment Office” | HALF STACK “Burnt“ | IAN SWEET “Your Spit” | THE INTELLIGENCE “Now, Squirm!“ | KATIE VON SCHLEICHER “Montagnard People” | KILLAH PRIEST “Snakes With Wings” | KING KHAN “Never Hold Back” (feat. Miranda & The Beat) | KONVENTIO “Konventio” LP | LATHE OF HEAVEN “At Moment’s Edge” | LORELLE MEETS THE OBSOLETE “Ave En Reversa” | MARLOWE “Last Reserve” | MEDITATIONS ON CRIME “Robbin’ Hoods” (feat. Quelle Chris, Jean Grae, & Money Mark) | MJ LENDERMAN “Knockin” | MUTANT STRAIN “Tethered” + “Night Hag” | PREWN “Woman” | RATBOYS “Morning Zoo” | RILE “Climb Out” | RINGING “Remember You” | SLOW SALVATION “Here We Lie” | SPARKLEHORSE “Listening To The Higsons” (Robyn Hitchcock cover) | STIGMATISM “No Funding” | TEA EATER “Fuck The DMV” | THANKS FOR COMING “Loop” | TIM KINSELLA & JENNY PULSE “Nena” | TUBE ALLOYS “Jubilee” | VIDEO AGE “Away From The Castle” | WETSUIT “Clovers” | WEYES BLOOD “Hearts Aglow”