by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
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.
J.R.C.G.
“34”
If “Dogear,” the first single from J.R.C.G.’s upcoming Sub Pop debut, Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra), highlighted the more hypnotic and careening “pop” elements of Justin R. Cruz Gallego’s music, then “34” would seem to be more about the deconstructive moments, reshaping our senses. Forever led by Gallego’s immersive drum patterns and his transfixing use of rhythmic experimentation, the former Dreamdecay member sets off into an off-kilter groove of propulsive and textured beats that practically sing. With swarming synths and a detached vocal, J.R.C.G. warps between abrasive peaks and deep valleys, his melodies resonant over the echo and churn of the locked-in shifts ingrained in his freeform rhythms.
THE JUDGES
“(The People Want A) Show”
Last year saw the release of The Judges’ debut album, Judgement Day, a brilliantly lurching garage punk record that moves at the speed of molasses to create a druggy haze. Slow dripped and psychedelic but raw and rambunctious, the band sound something like a worn out The Stooges cassette, played until its last warble. The Melbourne based band return with Guns, a new two song single released via Anti Fade Records and Drunken Sailor Records. While the title track captures that woozy punk drone, b-side “(The People Want A) Show” is a barn-burning ripper, a harsh grooving beer-soaked condemnation of overconsumption destroying attention spans. Slurred and disorienting, The Judges still sound delightfully woozy at all tempos.
LECHE
“Ernest Kills His Landlord”
Austin’s Leche combine irreverent cowpunk, swarming noise rock, and a sordid sense of humor to create the most deranged music Texas has seen since The Butthole Surfers and Cherubs. With a rampant sneer and blistering feedback leading the way, the band’s acerbic grit has become more focused over the years, thrashing like a rodeo dust storm. “Ernest Kills His Landlord,” arriving ahead of an east coast tour, is our first preview of the band’s upcoming album, Miracle Whip-It (out this fall via Digital Hotdogs). The tightly wound song coils itself into scrappy dust-ups, the southern charm delivered extra thick and brilliantly damaged. With a subject matter that you can’t help but love, the band dive into mathy twang and a mutated square dance boogie.
MEMORIALS
“Acceptable Experience”
Following a pair of exceptional film scores in 2023 and a commissioned EP from Paris’ Centre Pompidou museum earlier this spring, MEMORIALS are set to release their “proper” debut album via Fire Records. Due out later in the year, the Brighton based duo of Verity Susman (Electrelane) and Matthew Simms (Wire, Fitted) share the record’s first single, “Acceptable Experience,” a song that finds the common space between the psych folk of their Women Against The Bomb score and the avant-garde drift of their Tramps! score. The single resides in a temporal moment of intension and improvisation, with Susman’s immersive vocal hooks and vibrant melodies sitting side by side with layered tape loops, Farfisa, and the nimble clamor of bass heavy noise pop.
POISON RUÏN
“Confrere”
We may not be living in medieval times or the dark ages anymore, but the remnants of feudalism are still clawing into modern life. With revolution in the air, Philadelphia’s Poison Ruïn return, swinging the axe for everyone struggling under the weight of oppression. Set to release their new EP Confrere in August via Relapse Records, the band have come to rally the disenfranchised, staying true to their damp-as-a-dungeon fidelity. The record’s title track is dense and thudding, a primal ode to camaraderie and holding each other up when the path forward feels all too impossible. With a dark and shadowy Wipers indebted groove, Poison Ruïn dig and stomp beyond the desperation for a moment of battle-torn brotherhood, splintering with piercing guitars and murky production.
RAZ FRESCO & DJ MUGGS
“The Eternal Now”
Raz Fresco stays on his grind. The Toronto based rapper and producer’s discography is overwhelmingly deep, from his long running Magneto Was Right series to his instrumental beat tapes, the gems of his catalog can be tied together by a restless drive and an unshakable love for hip-hop. Less than two months after teaming up with Daniel Son on Northside, Raz Fresco is set to release The Eternal Now, a collaborative album with the legendary DJ Muggs. While Fresco is a gifted and inventive producer himself, there’s an inherent magic to working with Muggs, a pioneer of hip-hop’s boom-bap era and a beacon for the underground’s elite. The title track draws upon the top-down-in-the-breeze side of Muggs’ production, a soulful landscape for Raz Fresco to weave tightly wound bars with a loose determination.
Further Listening:
JUNE 10 - JUNE 16:
ACTION BRONSON “Sega” | ADRIANNE LENKER “Evol” | ASEETHE “The Air Is Caving In” | BEAK> “The Seal” | BILLIAM “Maid Dress” | BOLDY JAMES & CONDUCTOR WILLIAMS “Terms And Conditions” | CHILD BITE “Black and White” (Rollins Band cover) | CHUBBY AND THE GANG “The Bonnie Banks” | COLOR GREEN “God In A $” | DALE CROVER “Doug Yuletide” | FAKE FRUIT “Cause of Death” | FUCKED UP “Stimming” | HANNAH MOHAN “Soaked” | HEARTWORMS “Jacked” | KOSMETIKA “Reward Risk” | MR. MUTHAFUCKIN’ EXQUIRE “Holy Day” | NAILS “Imposing Will” | NAP EYES “Demons” | NATE TEREPKA “Silence” | NEGATIVE GEARS “Ants” | NIGHTSHIFT “Phone” | NXWORRIES “WalkOnBy” (feat. Earl Sweatshirt & Rae Khalil) | OPTIMYSTIC & LORD VLADAGUS “Locked In Da System” (feat. Cappadonna, Supreme The Eloheem, & Aysha Amani) | ORB “You Do” | POM POKO “Go” | REBECCA RYSKALCZYK “The Music of Ouchie” LP | SAINT JAME$ “Jordan Box” (feat. Rome Streets & Estee Nack) | SNOOPER / PRISON AFFAIR “Split” EP | SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE “Let The Virgin Drive” | SQUID PISSER “Lord of the Slog” | SUBDUED “Machine Hell” | THIS IS LORELEI “Perfect Hand”
JUNE 17 - JUNE 23:
BAD COUGH “Good Cough, Bad Cough” EP | BLOOD “TV For A Reason” | BRAIN TOURNIQUET “Degrade” | CAVALERA “Nightmares of Delirium” | CHIME SCHOOL “Give Your Heart Away” | DELIRIANT NERVE “Fleshtuned” | DOLDREY “Moral Decay” | DUST FROM 1000 YEARS “Spirit of the World” | ED SCHRADER’S MUSIC BEAT “Daylight Commander” | FOLD PAPER “Idle Idle” | FULCI “Rotten Apple” | GLOOP “Lizard” | HEAVEN “S.C.U.M.” | HEMLOCK “Drive & Drive” + “Hyde Park” | HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE “Snow Angel” | J. ROBBINS “Exquisite Corpse” | JANA MILA “Chameleon” | JAY WORTHY & DAM-FUNK “105 West” (feat. Ty Dolla $ign, Channel Tres, DJ Quik & A-Trak) | JULIA JACKLIN “Dead From The Waist Down” (Catalonia cover) | KRONOS QUARTET “Blood Running High” (feat. Armand Hammer & RP Boo) | LILACS & CHAMPAGNE “Evil Has No Boundaries” | MELENAS “Bang (Peanut Butter Wolf Remix)” | METZ “No Reservation/ Love Comes Crashing” | OCEANATOR “First Time” | ORUÃ “Miragem” | PIG DESTROYER “Painter of Dead Girls (2024 Remaster)” LP | PROM THREAT “Firewalker” EP | RAKIM “Be Ill” (feat. Masta Killa & Kurupt) | RIDER/HORSE “Combing The Horse” | ROBBER ROBBER “Dial Tone” | RUI GABRIEL “Change Your Mind” | SCOUT GILLETT “Room of Shadows” (The Human Expression cover) | SCRUNCHIES “The Empire” | SNAKESKIN “Cross Country” | TENSION PETS “Mansion” | THEE SACRED SOULS “Lucid Girl” | THURSTON MOORE “Sans Limites” (feat. Laetitia Sadier) | TRACE MOUNTAINS “Sick of Myself” (Matthew Sweet cover) | VANGAS “Rushing” | WAND “JJ” | WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN “No More Apocalypse Father” | YOUBET “Vacancy (Holy Fang Live Session)”