by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_) and Kris Handel
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.
ENGULFED | “Cursed Eternity”
Turkey’s finest death metal marauders Engulfed are set to release their new album, Unearthly Litanies of Despair, this coming Friday, and well, we can’t wait to hear this demonic scourge in its full depravity. Until then, the band have shared the record’s second single, “Cursed Eternity,” a cavernous slice of grinding filth that sort of rampages with a sense of locked in destruction like Godzilla jogging through your neighborhood. With a supreme sense of apocalyptic evil in the low end churn, lacerating riffs, and gurgling vocals, Engulfed slash and burn through knotted shifts and primordial dread, lurking in the shadows one moment, entrenched in the carnage the next (plus the solo goes berserk).
GOAT GIRL | “Motorway”
London’s Goat Girl announced their new album Below The Waste with the jagged “Ride Around” back in February and they’re following “Motorway,” and it would seem as though a theme is arising. While the album is said to revolve around the idea of a better world, the band seem to be quite literally on the move, as “Motorway” explores long drives and shifting scenery. From the hazy synthetic car horn groove to the silky drumbeat, Goat Girl are contorting synth pop with a noire touch. The song’s woozy melody is accenting in vivid waking moments where the dream is punctuated and the plot dissolves, skittering from gorgeous harmonies to manipulated electronic pulses.
MALLORY HAWK | “All Your Troubles / Run Until They Catch You”
Between co-running Double Double Whammy and the occasional journalism sojourn, Mallory Hawk has released two heart wrenching songs full of childhood reminiscences and the overall effects of societal methods of coping and escape. "All Your Troubles" features Hawk’s wondefully husky vocals broken with shuffling drums and rolling sharp guitar leads as her melodies swoop and pull at all sorts of emotions. "Run Until They Catch You" is a smoky tune with a debt to dark-pop, riding seductive and hazy keys as the vocals weave a pulsating web that refuses to let go of the listener. Hawk has delivered two songs that reach deep with a stirring vulnerability, devastatingly burrowing into the core of the soul. - Kris Handel
MANDY | “Forsythia”
There’s something so perfect about the way Miranda Winters’ voice cuts through the sludge and dissonance of a burly ripper. Sweetness pushing through the rubble. We’ve all witnessed and admired it with Melkbelly, but there’s something special about “Forsythia,” the latest single from Mandy’s upcoming album, Lawn Girl. The Chicago based band cut right into the distorted sprawl with a Breeders like charm, heavy but melodically sweet, the noise of twin guitars and a punchy rhythm is intertwined with Winters’ drawn out vocals and abstract lyrics, a reflection on our inner selves working to meet our the atmospheres we find ourselves in.
SOUR WIDOWS | “Cherish”
Several years after the stunning release of Crossing Over, Bay Area trio Sour Widows return with Revival Of A Friend, the band’s full length debut. Due out on June 28th, the expansive record pulls and stretches the band’s sound to new points of lyrical vulnerability and sonic exploration. Filled with dazzling textures, artistic patience, and ever present emotional weight, the band continue to evolve, pairing grief together with resilience. “Cherish,” the album’s lead single is a great example, a song that moves from delicate patterns to a sweeping crescendo, slowly building upon Maia Sinaiko’s resentment of past struggles and all that went unsaid as a result.
Further Listening:
ALUMINUM “Beat” | AMY O “Early Days” | BETH GIBBONS “Reaching Out” | BILLIAM “Where Is Jackson Reid Briggs?” | BRUNCH “Carry On” | CAVALIER “Come Proper” | COLA “Pallor Tricks” | CUTTERS “An Ode To Shoplifting” | DOG DATE “Nirvana” | FACS “Take Me To Your Heart” (Eurythmics cover) | FLESH CAR “Being Inside Made Me Go Insane” | GREG SAUNIER “Grow Like A Plant” | JOYER “Softer Skin” | MANDY, INDIANA “Idea Is Best” | METZ “Superior Mirage” | NEUTRALS “Wish You Were Here” | PARSNIP “The Babble” | PJ HARVEY “Eugene Alone (Demo)” | PORCHES “Rag” | PSYCHIC GRAVEYARD “Stuffed With Secrets” | RAZOR BRAIDS “Berate Me” | RUSSIAN BATHS “Bind” | TARA JANE O’NEIL “Glass Island” | THOU “I Feel Nothing When You Cry” | TOTAL SHAM “Anti Everything” | WATER FROM YOUR EYES “Warm Storm” (Giant Sand cover) | WIPES "Forget the Minions" (KARP cover) | YOUR OLD DROOG “DBZ” (feat. Method Man & Denzel Curry)