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.

DANA GAVANSKI | “Ears Were Growing”

LATE SLAP compels you. The singles from Dana Gavanski’s upcoming album keep coming and we keep writing about ‘em. Consider us fully hooked. With the record out on April 5th via Full TIme Hobby, we’re treated to “Ears Were Growing,” another dazzling single that distorts sweeping art-pop with psychedelic folk and a hint of prog beneath the surface. The arrangement is lush and elastic, bending with a majestic breeziness, led by a stop/start bass groove, garage pop dashes of guitar, and soaring keys. Gavanski’s voice moves in well-coiled loops, contorting and maneuvering her melodic phrasing from one brilliant earworm to the next. It’s a song about letting go of depression and working past anxieties, and it feels like a celebration of all that could be.

ENGULFED | “In The Abyss of Death’s Obscurity”

It’s been nearly four years since Engulfed released of the great Vengeance of the Fallen LP, yet the trio still seem emphatically at home amid the blistering depths and depravity. The Istanbul based death metal band (which includes Mustafa Gürcalioğlu of Hyperdontia) are set to release Unearthly Litanies of Despair, their second full length on April 19th via the ever dependable duo of Dark Descent Records and Me Saco Un Ojo Records, a highly anticipated scourge of bludgeoning riffs and stampeding rhythms. “In The Abyss of Death’s Obscurity” batters down the doors, a song built on violent twists and drums that simply detonate upon impact. Both raw and somewhat complex (without being overtly technical), Engulfed sound enormous as they tear between oozing solos and sheer chaos.

FINOM | “Haircut”

Champions of freaky pop and art rock that leans forever askew, Chicago’s Finom (fka Ohmme) find a way to channel the duo’s vibrant personality into everything they do. They make forward thinking music that never sounds too serious, operating compositions with fine tuned precision amid a loose playfulness. Not God, produced together with Jeff Tweedy, is the band’s first album in nearly four years, arriving on May 24th via Joyful Noise Recordings (Marnie Stern, Deerhoof, Oneida), and lead single “Haircut” proves that Finom’s magic remains in rare form. With a locked-in rhythm and animated harmonies, there’s a sweeping groove to their new single, a song that unfolds with jazzy fills and noisy refrains, slipping and sliding with a dance floor boogie. An ode to devolved schedules and taking back their time, blocking out the “time of day I can get my haircut,” the lyrical charm and swarming arrangement collide to for unadulterated fun.

LA LUZ | “Strange World”

We all know it, La Luz is a national treasure, their music a constant comfort, an escape that’s always there when you need it most. At the core of the band’s upcoming album, News Of The Universe (their first for Sub Pop), is the reminder that while the world remains in a constantly overwhelming state of flux it can be hard to feel grounded. As life dealt lemons, for Shana Cleveland that place of grounding comes literally from a connection to touching the Earth’s soil, but on “Strange World,” La Luz are approaching a more cosmic boogie. With a flurry of insistent toms and a hypnotic synth pulse, the band make the “strange” their own, finding their beautiful space in society’s dissonance. With a motorik beat and swirling harmonies the song’s dreamy voyage takes La Luz to bold new atmospheres for their final album with longtime members Lena Simon and Alice Sandahl. The video sends the band through a vortex found in their fridge… need we say more?

LUKAH & REAL BAD MAN | “The Initiates Piece” (feat. billy woods)

Following collaborative albums last year with YUNGMORPHEUS, Kool Keith, and Blu, Los Angeles production team Real Bad Man aren’t wasting any time in 2024, having recently announced a new full length together with Memphis’ Lukah (and yet another with Buffalo’s Elcamino). Lukah, a gifted lyricist, often offers a pointed look into socioeconomic issues and racial injustice with a focus on what it means to be Black in America, and “The Initiates Place,” the first single from Temple Needs Water. Village Needs Peace. continues his brand of empowering and intellectual hip-hop. Together with none other than billy woods, the two MCs lament a lack of educational opportunities, unwarranted arrests, and a fear of living in our modern police states. Lukah and woods are a welcome pairing, each verse delivered with unflinching focus.

LYSOL | “Padded Cell”

Last year saw the release of LYSOL’s latest EP, Down The Street, as a tour cassette and Bandcamp exclusive. Captured for the road with raw lo-fi tape hiss scuzz, the band have since had the EP mastered (by none other than Mikey Young) and are set to release it on vinyl and digital later this month via Feel It Records (Why Bother?, Choncy, Grazia). We were enamored with the Seattle hardcore band’s Soup For My Family LP back in 2021, a record that filtered the band’s brand of hardcore through the rust of garage punk and caterwauling fuzz. LYSOL are as adept at blistering and primitive punk as they are deranged legless rock ‘n’ roll, as evident on new single “Padded Cell,” a song that spits and slashes with reckless riffs and an avalanche of low end. Equal parts grime and grit, LYSOL are always ready for ignition.

ROSALI | “Bite Down”

The laconic groove on Rosali’s “Bite Down” is downright sultry. With a soft detached roll of snare drum and a deep open air bass progression, the band bring a lounge-like ease to the song, rooted as much in introspective soul as it is dusty country folk and silky blues. It’s a lush and lovely landscape for Rosali Middleman’s stunning voice, warm and weary, yet striking above all else, weaving a melancholic thread of light harmonies and gentle heartbreak. As she sings “I can’t seem to feel what’s real anymore,” we’re led to dissociate, drawn to a place where love is softly splintered to the point where all sense is lost as a result. While the sentiment is heavy, Rosali and her band keep it shuffling, the sweeping reverb and plinks of pianos warbling in at perfect moments, the backbeat slinking all the while.

SLIMELORD | “Chytridiomycosis Relinquished” LP

Slimelord’s first album for 20 Buck Spin (Witch Vomit, Atrae Bilis, Dissimulator), Chytridiomycosis Relinquished, isn’t exactly a casual listen, even by death-doom standards, and it’s all the better as a result. While much of the genre’s sound can be found dragging its knuckles or lurching in cryptic shades of monotonousness, Slimelord’s album is a labyrinth of psychedelic extremes, a demonic serpent with a belly full of acid. The Leeds’ based band bring the lumbering apocalypse in a way that feels downright inviting, their brutality pulling at progressive territory with an ever shifting framework, and yet the album avoids the “tech-death” tag by simply being adventurous and unpredictable. Like a beast with four heads, there’s no telling where each rabid assault might lead, but the path is guaranteed to be warped and corroded, a death metal record that feels as sordid as it is abstract.

WASHER | “You’re Also A Jerk”

Less than a year after the release of the phenomenal Improved Means To Deteriorated Ends LP, Washer return with “You’re Also A Jerk,” the first of two new singles. While the new set’s b-side, “Come Back As A Bug” takes Washer in a new direction (or a more emphatically pronounced take on one of their twangier strengths), the a-side is a certified Washer ripper, a signature stomp and howl blast of catchy garage-tinged power pop and fuzzy punk. Mike Quigley and Kieran McShane have developed a terrifically wonky approach to what is essentially pop at it’s core, but they thrash and pummel their way through it, exploding into monstrous hooks and patterns of anthemic self destruction with a mix of syrupy hooks and sprightly sludge. “You’re Also A Jerk” explores the way self loathing distorts attempts at true reflection, so shout along and feel the communal empathy.

YOUBET | “Seeds of Evil”

Following the release of “Carsick” back in November, Brooklyn’s youbet have announced their highly anticipated new album, Way To Be, due out May 10th via Hardly Art Records (Shana Cleveland, Lala Lala, Cherry Glazerr). The announcement comes together with record’s second single, “Seeds of Evil,” a gorgeously pinched psychedelic art rock song that seems to take cues from both experimental folk and breezy off-kilter dream-pop. There’s little straight forward about the band’s compositions yet their hooks always ring out with undeniable radiance. It’s in that juxtaposition of complexity and melodic swoon that youbet tend to shine the brightest, crafting music that’s both undeniably interesting and instantly memorable. On a song that explores themes of self-criticism, the focus seems to blur in kaleidoscopic bliss. Don’t be too hard on yourself, listen to more youbet.

Further Listening:

FEBRUARY 26 - MARCH 03:

MARCH 04 - MARCH 10:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (February 26th - March 10th)