by Dan Goldin (@paintingwithdan) and Pat Pilch (@apg_gomets)
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 late hours of the night and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking it all out. There's a lot of great new music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music.
EXEK
“Arrivederci Back Pain”
Melbourne’s EXEK have always been a mesmerizing band, their music a deeply hypnotic balm even as they dig into paranoia, depression, and the deterioration of rational thought in the world. They have an innate ability to draw you in their swirling brand of psychedelic post-punk and keep you firmly in orbit, radiant with texture that morphes more than it “spikes”. If EXEK’s music is a surrealist flatline, they’ve perfected the ability to create nuance that’s intricate but never jagged. Prove The Mountains Move, the band’s seventh album, finds Albert Wolski and co. in fine form, mutating between fever dreams of avant-pop and kaleidoscopic disorientation. The record’s third single “Arrivederci Back Pain” is a mundane ode to the pitfalls of airports and traveling anywhere by flight, highlighted by lines like “passport holograms are best viewed bending over backwards” and a warning about long-term parking attendants fucking your car. With a deep in the pocket rhythmic groove and guitars that take no discernible shape, it’s quintessential EXEK, built on a hypnotic pull derived without gravity.
LANDOWNER
“Normal Returns To Normal”
A few weeks back Landowner announced the release of their upcoming album Assumption together with the record’s first single, “Rival Males,” a song that stampedes out the gate with sheer propulsion for a minute and a half and then rumbles to a close. “Normal Returns To Normal,” the band’s latest single, goes in the opposite direction, embracing expanse and repetition as the band lock into a tight circular pattern of motorik inspired punk. Landowner have always excelled at these kind of songs, taking their time on “Normal Returns To Normal” to lure you into the hypnotic madness, gripping at the last straws of sanity, as the tightly coiled guitars twist ever deeper. The song is about assumptions proving to be false, a reminder that sometimes the darkest dread in your head is simply in your head, and things will eventually return to “normal”. The incessant repetition is vital to the song’s impact as each shift and melodic rings out ever more illuminated against the mesmerizing rhythmic churn.
mclusky
“i know computer”
The triumphant return of mclusky remains in high gear as the trio announce a new mini-album, i sure am getting sick of this bowling alley, due out March 20th via Ipecac (Melvins, The Jesus Lizard, Human Impact). Is it a stop-gap release that comes just in time for their upcoming US tour with Pile? Sure it is, and there ain’t a damn thing wrong with that, because it’s new music from.mclusky, and that’s hardly something to complain about. Comprised of a pair of new singles, a pair of album b-sides (which are still new singles to us, the dear listeners), and a pair of previously released but never on vinyl singles, it’s a welcome expansion to last year’s the world is still here and so are we. “i know computer” is the first of those new singles, a low-end heavy song that balances brute force, a colossal rhythmic pulse (a tip of the hat to Jack Egglestone for the drum beat on this one) and of course the sardonic lyrical bite of Falco’s agitated vocals. There’s a sense of irreverence and disdain, a feeling of contempt for those who lack empathy in favor of living on the internet, but then again…. maybe I’m missing the point altogether. Either way, it’s a ripper. Go pick up the record. Go pick up tickets to their shows.
RITUAL CROSS
“II” EP
It’s been less than a year since Ritual Cross released their self-titled debut, but the Chicago based hardcore band are back with its appropriately named follow-up, II. While we were instantly impressed with last year’s introduction to their crust informed sound, its safe to say that the bar has been raised on their second effort as the quintet up the fidelity ever so slightly to allow hints of clarity amid the sonic filth, adding a depth of detail to Nick’s unhinged vocals and the corrosive nature of the band’s twin guitars (courtesy of David Anthony and Tony Assimos). Like chewing on a big mouthful of rusted metal, Ritual Cross tear into their riffs with a blistering old school hardcore fury that favors cavernous corrosion and apocalyptic texture rather than a barrage of dizzying tempos. While many hardcore bands are content to establish one sound and stick with it, Ritual Cross are comfortable with experimentation, digging into devolved complexity on the stampeding “For Aaron” while channeling savage anarcho punk on “War Crimes” and sinewy dungeon tinged dread on “Work”.
W-9
“W-9 (Demo)” EP
Recorded into a Tascam and a telephone, W-9’s debut demo is the essence of punk. Raw, loud, and rough, the New Orleans outfit scorches through three jagged tracks of varying energy and dissonance. Wailing feedback splices harsh distortion, and I’d be surprised if W-9’s first tape spends more than five seconds out of the red. But it’s payday, baby!! With members of Spllit, T.A.C.K. and Tonya, W-9 push this triptych into the black. - PP
ZERO SUM
“Die Fast Live!” EP
Ever since we learned of Thirdface’s untimely demise, we’ve been waiting to hear what comes next. For Kathryn Edwards, the answer is Zero Sum, a new hardcore quartet that made their debut a few months back. That very first show is captured in glorious detail on the band’s demo release Die Fast Live!, a ruthless surge of hardcore at its most brash and explosive. Offering fifteen minutes of undiluted intensity, Edwards and her bandmates arrive fully formed as they simply demolish their set with unglued momentum, blistering guitar leads, and the sledgehammer pummeling of Dave Varney’s (who happens to also be a great visual artist) drums. It all sounds as pissed off as can be and who can blame them, we’re living in frightening times and could all use the particular type of skull shattering catharsis that Zero Sum offer. Edwards’ vocals are raw and harsh, leading the way for the band’s maniacal dirge as they tear from one dismembered sensibility to the next.
Further Listening:
2M8O “Angle Numbers” | ALL FEELS “Wild Bones” | ANKHLEJOHN “The Riddler” | THE BIG THEM “Yellow” | BOLDY JAMES, RANSOM, & NICHOLAS CRAVEN “Offerings” | CHAT PILE “Masks” | DAMAGED BUG “End of the War” | EDWIN R STEVENS “Cruise Ships” | FAN CLUB “All Tied Up” | FANTASY OF A BROKEN HEART “Audiotree Live” | FRIKO “Seven Degrees” | GEMMA “Be About It” | HIDING PLACES “Waiting” | KETA ESTER “Ruby Dog Strikes Red” | LALA LALA “Arrow” | LILY KONIGSBERG “Is It Over?” (Demo) | MANDY, INDIANA “Sicko!” (feat. billy woods) | MEMORIALS “Wildly Remote” | MOTORISTS “The Damage” | MX LONLEY “Anesthetic” | NINA NASTASIA “Seaside Recordings” LP | NOVA ONE “Risky” | POISON RUÏN "Eidolon" | RATBOYS “Penny In The Lake” | THE SLEEVES “Come On Man” | SORRY “Billy Elliot” | STATION MODEL VIOLENCE “Drip Away” | SUITOR “Factory” | SWELL MAPS “Vertical Take-Off And Landing” | WEIRD NIGHTMARE “Might See You There” | WILD BIRDS UNLIMITED “Piece 7 / Coffee Is My Best Friend” | WINGED WHEEL “Can’t Say Goodbye Every Time”