Human Giving is a paranoid, tense, and at times breathtakingly lush record that feels like the culmination of an evolution that started with the band’s beginnings in 2012. Their latest is more careful and deliberate, setting focus on the journey and filling its landscapes with warm tones over a more calculated build.
While Yanked may tap out around the 20-minute mark, the six songs offer no shortage of sonic variety. One of Yankee Bluff’s preeminent strengths is the contrast between Helmis and Dionne’s songwriting styles. Where Helmis leans toward sunny, anthemic arrangements of distorted open chords, Dionne doubles down on melancholic, off-kilter picking riffs
Fans of Elf Power are going to find plenty to enjoy as a band should sound fairly confident in themselves after releasing twelve records previously. For a band whose sound was never defined by the Elephant 6’s unabashed love of all things ‘60s, they sound here like they’ve never aged, frozen in time but not defined by it.
All Aboard is the follow up to the stunning Here Comes Washer and truly a journey in itself. It begins with “Forget Everything,” which has a dreamy opening but then soon becomes distinctively Washer as Quigley’s vocals kick in, feel effortless, and seems to fit perfectly with the actual message or mood of each song.
The group’s new self-titled seven-inch leaves little room for wallflowers with singer Luke Reddick’s verbal gyrations. Pleasant as it is to get all dark and downcast, Bless really treats the listener to an energy and movement seldom found nowadays in one all-too-serious post-punk rehash after another.
Seattle’s Old Iron is a great example of the variation that’s found its way into every shade of contemporary metal. On their newest album Lupus Metallorum they incorporate the plethora of approaches that made their debut memorable: chugging riffs locked to the bass drum; dissonant melodic leads; and walls and walls of power chords.
Do Pas O’s debut album isn’t just an LP-length barrage of percussion, though anyone expecting exactly that from Peter Negroponte, best known as the beastly drummer of Guerilla Toss, can’t be blamed. Instead, Join the Fucking Drum Circle is a psychedelic squawk from the inner depths of his strange and beautiful mind.
Clearance have been releasing the kind of breezy, effortless rock that serves as the perfect backdrop to the end of summer haze for over four years now, and with the release of their 7” single Are You Aware last August, the band proved that they have grown even more adept at stringing together infectious guitar hooks and vocal melodies.
