by Benji Heywood, Dan Goldin, and Kris Handel
Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our 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. 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.
DEAD GOWNS
“In The Haze”
Dead Gowns is an "indie"-folk project based out of Maine fronted by Genevieve Beaudoin who has proven themselves over the past few years to have one of the most haunting and beautiful musical voices in the area (whether solo or with her band). Beaudoin's vocals treads a line between Angel Olsen and Emmylou Harris, with the ability to reach wonderfully high registers as well as express exhaustion and heartache with a tremulous croak. "In The Haze," a single of her upcoming debut album It's Summer, I Love You, and I'm Surrounded by Snow, conveys feelings of unease and a country gothic sense of isolation over a loping bassline and dustily swinging guitar. Beaudoin's voice is one of the most expressive instruments as her tremble conveys a sense of forlorn solitude before the song explodes into its descent. Beaudoin's vocals go from creaking to full throated roar to match the final guitar hurricane courtesy of Luke Kalloch. - Kris Handel
HORSEGIRL
“2468”
There are decidedly different stakes this time around as Horsegirl announce their second album, Phonetics On and On. Due out on February 14th via Matador Records (Circuit des Yeux, The Hard Quartet, Kim Gordon), the trio bring with them the whirlwind of acclaim and extensive touring that came from their exceptionally buzzy debut. Recorded together with Cate Le Bon, it would seem the Chicago based band are ready for the big follow up, pulling out new tricks while remaining intrinsically tangled together. “2468,” the record’s lead single is sparse, a song that plays like a mantra, simple in some ways but deceptively complex in others. The knotted progression and clean sense of dissonance feels like a tribute to The Raincoats, the band strumming into hypnotic circles, repetition used for disorientation. - DG
JUANA MOLINA
“EXHALO” EP
Seven years after the magnificent Halo, Juana Molina has shared EXHALO, a short but essential EP of that record’s b-sides. The set is as stunning as the record’s core, highlighting a prolific time for the experimental pop songwriter’s distinctive blend of influences. There’s a luminescence in her compositions, blending natural and synthetic in a way that feels distinctly her own, pulsing and skittering around in the headphones one moment but lush with strings and warped synths the next. Over the coarse of four songs, Molina is working her magic, from the upbeat and ever progressing “Astro de la luz segunda” to the serene and beautiful lullaby warmth of “Vagos lagos,” a track that embraces simplicity via gorgeous tonality. Molina’s vocals adapt to any texture, floating above the grooves and the melodic pockets of her psychedelic art pop radiance. - DG
MONDE UFO
“Samba 9”
Los Angeles’ Monde UFO are a fascinating band, at times drifting, droning, and ambient, yet equally adept at loungy lo-fi psych, detached folk, and atmospheric indie pop. Like a kosmische leaning Spiritualized or Broadcast on quaaludes, their music is serene and intelligent, textural and comforting, but often unpredictable. Set to release their new album, Flamingo Tower, on March 7th via Fire Records (Memorials, Jane Weaver, Royal Trux), lead single “Samba 9” feels like a amalgamation of their many influences, a sweeping and elegant track pairing avant jazz and orchestral pop with a blanket of tape warble detachment, gentle but unhinged, deeply mesmerizing while slightly disarming. With a boisterous rhythm and overlapping layers, acoustics pair with glowing synths to create something welcomingly alien. - DG
OPEN HEAD
“N.Y. Frills”
Open Head is fascinating. After the noise-and-abacus approach of the Kingston, New York band’s debut Joy and Other Sufferings, they returned with a slate of singles as diverse as the band’s influences themselves. “N.Y. FRILLS” is my favorite of the bunch, a taut, propulsive post-punk banger that acts as a throughline between the giants of 80s no wave and more recent purveyors of thoughtful, dissonant music, bands like Women and Blessed. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, all good; here’s what’s important. Open Head is a band making original music that sounds both captivating and confounding. In a culture forcefed nostalgia and backwards politics, it’s reason enough to be excited for What Is Success, the new album by Open Head arriving next year. - Benji Heywood
Further Listening:
ANGEL OLSEN "Farfisa Song" (Camp Saint Helene cover) | CAMP SAINT HELENE "Wonder Now" | DANESHEVSKAYA "Scrooge" | DAUBER "Falling Down b/w No Use For a Pig" | EDITH FROST "Hold On" | FIEVEL IS GLAUQUE "Toute Suite" | GAOLED "Becoming" | GOAT GIRL "Gossip" | GREG FREEMAN "Long Distance Driver (Acoustic)" (feat. Merce Lemon) | GUIDED BY VOICES "Fly Religion" | JAYE JAYLE "Father Fiction" | K-THE-I??? & KENNY SEGAL "Crushed Heavenly" (feat. ShrapKnel) | KENDRICK LAMAR "GNX" LP | KIM DEAL "Nobody Loves You More" | KINSKI “Do You Like Long Hair?” | LAMBRINI GIRLS "Love" | THE LENTILS "That Living Edge" | LOW HARNESS “Bloodplay“ | MASS TEXT "Exercise" | METHOD MAN, REDMAN, & RAEKWON "Red Bull Spiral Freestyle" | MIA JUNE "Rewire Me" | NAP EYES "I See Phantoms of Hatred and of the Heart's Fullness and of the Coming Emptiness" | PHANTASM "Demons" | RICK RUDE "Aggultination" | ROTARY CLUB "Phonemate" | SACRED PAWS "Another Day" | SHRAPNEL "Turning The Knife" | SLEEPER'S BELL "Over" | SQUANDERERS "Theme for Viewers At Home" | TWINE "Fruit To Ripe" | ULRIKA SPACEK "Live on KEXP" | THE WEATHER STATION "Window"