by Dan Goldin (@paintingwithdan)
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.
1000 RABBITS
“Are We Friends Yet?” EP
If you only have the capacity for one young art rock band from London that seemingly came out of nowhere to instant (but not overwhelming) buzz per year, let it be 1000 Rabbits. The quintet’s debut, Are We Friends Yet? is the product of two years of experimentation, the songs gestating as the band developed their own direction, a mix of piercing minimalism, heavy rhythmic pulses, itchy strings, and off-kilter structures. Woven together, it’s a stunning introduction to the band, intricate but sparse, raw yet composed, a set of songs that prove 1000 Rabbits know when to lean into a hook and when best to come unhinged. With shades of The New Eves and Black Country, New Road (or maybe even Crumb and Lucrecia Dalt) in their DNA, the band are able to contort textured pop, prog, jazzy rhythms, folk warmth, radiant synths, and a hint of avant-garde expression to create something that’s as engaged as it is accessible. At the heart of their mutant art pop is River’s commanding and dynamic vocals, genuinely nimble at times (“Spring Cleaning”) and explosive at others (“White Horse”). Where the band’s evolution will take them is anyone’s guess, but Are We Friends Yet? is a pretty immaculate starting point.
ALDOUS HARDING
“Coats”
Train on the Island, the fifth album from New Zealand’s Aldous Harding, is undeniably brilliant and yet after two masterpiece level records (Warm Chris and Designer), it seems to carry with it a feeling of relative restraint. While those albums tended to jump from one delightfully odd character to the next with buoyant ease, Harding sounds content to occupy a more solid ground this time around. Make no mistake, the songs retain her captivating presence and unbridled charisma, but the construction for the most part has been toned down. These are weary times after all, but there are moments in which Harding is prone to glow. “Coats,” the album’s closing track and final single is bursting with her signature magnetism, a song that hinges on a deep groove, psychedelic art pop melodies, and poetic irreverence. Like the best of Harding’s songs, she’s shifting between one reality to the next, layering without overloading, inviting you to draw your own conclusions. From the slinky rhythm and the silky guitars to the majestic harmonies, this one plants itself in the pocket before bursting open with the triumphantly clean refrain, “big thick coats on the dogs of people just trying to help.” Enough said.
ARTIFICIAL GO
“Triple Ones”
In less than two years time, Artificial Go have released two full length albums, evolved their sound (while keeping their signature charm in tact), and established themselves as a must see live band. Just in time for the band’s current European tour, the Cincinnati based quartet have joined Carpark Records (Ducks Ltd, Good Flying Birds, Fake Fruit) for the release of Triple Ones, a new seven-inch single due out June 12th. Built on a bouncy jangle and bent melodies, Artificial Go once again find themselves perfectly splitting the difference between sun-soaked post-punk tension and swarming power-pop hooks, with Angie Willcutt’s acrobatic vocals providing the radiance that makes it truly shine. While the song is rooted in frustration toward elitism and a basic lack of empathy, the band have juxtaposed their agitation with an inescapable sense of joy. Warbling between the endearing hooks with a garage punk grace, Artificial Go are painting in acidic technicolor, rattling out eclectic psych pop with their own unique personality.
FAKE DUST
“Lost Signal”
And now for something ruthless. When done right, grindcore as a genre, sounds rampantly deranged, the frantic flailing soundtrack to nightmares both surreal and impossibly terrifying. Portland’s Fake Dust do grindcore right. The band’s full length debut, Decrepitizing Din Of The Cerebral Psyopticon, is an oozing and spewing cavalcade of speed, filth, disgust, and dexterity. They emerge from a world void of subtlety and yet there’s plenty of nuance throughout the album. Bludgeoning riffs and stampeding drums claw and thrash from song to song with more grooves than anything this fast should be capable of. For all the carnage and destruction to be found in their minute long eruptions, Fake Dust are playing with skull cracking attention to detail. “Lost Signal,” the album’s third single, explodes on impact, dismantling our collective anxieties ansd last shreds of sanity with the force of an earthquake, but just as you settle into its burn and pillage assault, the band start pushing and pulling the tempo, not quite in a sense of respite, but it goes a long way in the structural integrity of their convulsions.
THE WOMACK SISTERS
“Chauffeur”
You can save any talk of nepotism when discussing The Womack Sisters and their upcoming self-titled album. Sure, Sam Cooke is their grandfather and Bobby Womack is their uncle, but Kucha, Zeimani, and BG Womack have worked hard to develop their sound, grinding it out for over a decade in the music industry prior to recording their debut album. That album, due out in August via Daptone Records (Jalen Ngonda, Sharon Jones, Lee Fields) is astounding from start to finish, a modern soul record rooted in the sound of the 60’s that plays on the familial chemistry of the trio and their lifetime engrained in the Motown sound. With the announcement of the album comes “Chauffeur,” a rolling and rollicking dose of hard-worn R&B laced soul that laments the struggle to make ends meet, in this case as a rideshare driver, a shared experience among the sisters. The song is built on expressive horns, sweeping strings, a bumping bass lead, and the crispiest of drums, a lush framework for The Womack Sisters’ gorgeous vocals, soaring and swaying in harmony together at times but every bit as impactful on their own as they each deliver a kinetic verse. Classic soul, R&B, the struggle, the beauty. It’s all here. It’s so good. I can’t stop listening.
Further Listening:
38 SPESH “The Main Line” (feat. Method Man) | ACTION BRONSON “Peppers” (feat. Roc Marciano) | AGLO “Devoured by Anguish” | ANKHLEJOHN & V DON “No Specifics” | CHERRY CHEEKS “Cruel Bore” | COLA “Haveluck Country” | CONVERGE “Doom In Bloom” | DAZY “BIG Problem b/w Gravity” | DJ PREMIER & THE ALCHEMIST “For The Gig” | ESTEE NACK & COOKIN SOUL “AL-ANDALUS” LP | ESTHER ROSE “New Bad (Lockeland Strings Version)” | FRANKIE COSMOS “Fool (Demo)” | ICEAGE “The Weak” | IMMERSION “We Don’t Need Your Validation” | JAWS “Flaws And All (Live)“ | LA SÉCURITÉ “Deny” | LUCRECIA DALT & ALEX LÁZARO “Synonym Mask” | MARNIE STERN “Building A Palace” | MELANIE RADFORD “Hangin’ On” | MX LONELY “Audiotree Live” | NAVY BLUE “Ocean Light (Phase 1: Prelude)” | NYXY NYX “What Do You Know About Hills?” | PARTS & LABOR “Haunted Limbs” | PORCHES “Habit” | SIYAHKAL “At The Grave / Freaky Bedbugs” | SLIPPERS “Wasted Tonight” | SPACEMOTH “Internet Fantasy” | TASHA “Spring / Clarion” | TERRITORY “Thief” | THOMAS DOLLBAUM “Pulverize” | ZOH AMBA “Eyes Full”