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.
ASTREL K | “Darkness At Noon”
Following the triumphant return of Ulrika Spacek last year, including both one of the year’s best albums (Compact Trauma) and international touring, Rhys Edwards is back at it again with his solo project, Astrel K. Set to release The Foreign Department in March via Tough Love (Rat Columns, Cindy, April Magazine), the record explores transitions in Edwards’ life, situations best viewed from outside himself as he processes extraordinary reshuffling. Lead single “Darkness At Noon” is as slick and slinky as they come, a song that contorts through an evolving progression with psychedelic guitars, plinking keys, and textural horns. A song rooted in lyrical juxtapositions, Edwards sounds engaged even in detachment.
CHÉ NOIR | “Junior High” (feat. Evidence & Your Old Droog)
Buffalo’s Ché Noir has always been a lyricist first and foremost. Her rhymes are focused and vivid, hard and detailed, nailed to the streets but wanting for more. After two great records in 2022 and last year’s Noir or Never, a full length collaboration with Big Ghost Ltd, she returns this week with a new EP, The Color Chocolate Vol. 1, a four song effort that pairs her with like-minded lyricists Ransom, ICECOLDBISHOP, and on lead single “Junior High,” both Evidence and Your Old Droog. The trio of MCs opt to reflect on their middle school days, with Ché Noir stealing the show, describing “cursed” teen years with kids selling crack and having babies while pushing their way through school.
JANE WEAVER | “Perfect Storm”
Liverpool’s Jane Weaver is a legend in her own right, a transfixing presence in the world of experimental pop for the past two decades. Following the dissolution of her band Kill Laura back in the 90s, she began an uncompromising solo career, creating left of center pop music that blends analog synth textures, elegantly warped disco, and radiant lounge to create something timeless and innovative. Following 2020’s great Flock LP, Weaver is back with Love In Constant Spectacle, due out in April via Fire Records, recorded together with John Parish. After sharing the exceptional title track, Weaver offers the silky groove of “Perfect Storm,” a song that balances motorik rhythms with lush fuzzy psych, infectious hooks, and a jazzy spaced-out bliss.
URANIUM CLUB | “Small Grey Man”
A new Uranium Club album is reason to be excited and we can’t wait for Infants Under The Bulb, the band’s fourth full length. Due out March 1st via Static Shock and Anti Fade Records (with Iron Lung handling US distribution), the band seem to be channeling something more “alien” on their latest, exploring the unexplained quite literally. “Small Grey Man” is a perfect introduction, a song with spiraling tension and the band’s elastic tight rhythmic precision. It’s full of deranged and animated charm, pointed lyrics that are as absurdist as they are vehemently delivered. Uranium Club continue to evolve without losing focus and “Small Grey Man” is so tautly wound that it feels capable of combusting at any moment, yet masterfully never does.
VARIETY | “Plover”
While Rhys Woodruff (Borzoi, Leche) is best known as a drummer and vocalist, he’s moved from behind the kit to write, perform, and record the entirety of Variety’s debut single, equal parts arty punk and deranged alternative rock. “Plover” is a triumphant introduction, a jittery song that feels both knotted and supremely hooky, built on rough edges and locked in momentum. Woodruff’s musical DNA is readily apparent in the jagged progression and the rhythmic stomp, but Variety opt for something cleaner, more direct, and ultimately brighter than his other projects. Lyrically “Plover” seems to capture the anxiety of the titular birds in face of predators, a constant stress felt on a day to day basis. That tension however isn’t met in the music, as Woodruff eschews agitation in favor of deconstructed grooves and an easy to embrace melodic focus. The video, directed by Taylor Browne, offers an incredible companion to the song, represented in glorious stop-motion as the VHS of plover grief comes oozing to life. Reminiscent of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse on acid, the channels are flipped through vivid claymation, the commercials we’d all love to see, and well, murderous birds.
Further Listening:
ADRIANNE LENKER “Sadness As A Gift” | ANGRY BLACKMEN “Dead Men Tell No Lies” (feat. Fatboi Sharif) | ARSE “Shame Bomb” | BILLIAM / REVV “Billiam // REVV Split” EP | BRUTE SPRING “Blood On Sand” | CHELSEA WOLFE “Everything Turns Blue” | COLIN NEWMAN “Turn” | CONWAY THE MACHINE “Give & Give” | CORKER “Distant Dawn” | COWER “Summoner” | DEERHOOF “Almuatin” | DRILL “Within Reason” | FANTASTIC PURPLE SPOTS “Vibrations Now” | FAST PREACHER “Keep Me In Mind” | J. ROBBINS “Last War” | THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN “Chemical Animal” | KIM GORDON “Bye Bye” | LOST SOULS OF SATURN “Lilac Chaser” (feat. Protomartyr) | MEATBODIES “Move” | MOOR MOTHER “Guilty” (feat. Lonnie Holley & Raia Was) | MX LONELY “Too Many Pwr Chords” | ODETTA HARTMAN “Goldilocks” | PALEHOUND “Live on KEXP” | PLEASANTS “Karaoke Booth” | PORCELAIN “World I Know” | PYLON REENACTMENT SOCIETY “Fix It” (feat. Kate Pierson) | RICK RUDE “Square” | ROSCO P. COLDCHAIN “Vengeance” | RUAH “Pets” (Porno For Pyros cover) | SAM EVIAN “Wild Days“ | SENSOR GHOST “Psychic Robots” | SHOCK WITHDRAWAL “Oblivion Seeker” | SLIMELORD “The Beckoning Bell” | SPLIT SYSTEM “The Drain“ | TOMATO FLOWER “Saint” | WINTER “The Lonely Girl”