Blazar, a relatively new band, are no strangers to the punk scene. Vocalist Jack Vermillion was once a member of stalwart Tallahassee group Ex-Breathers, while the band’s Nick Derella also shreds in Night Witch. Reach Out is noisy, fast-paced, and thrilling -- a record that grips you from the first chord until finally spitting you out at the last.
Undercurrent, their second LP, is the product of an entirely separate cast of evil doctrine. Its compositions leap from the speakers to place a hand around your throat like vengeful oni manifesting from folds of a recently translated and cursed scroll. The chord progressions are more muscular. The production is cleaner.
Emily Alone is a Florist record through and through, despite being a solo effort. It’s also something more: it’s like a refined, evolved iteration of Sprague’s prior work, feeling more like a memoir than a diary entry. That sense of evolution comes through in the high production quality and a lyrical grounding in the present.
Written nearly two years ago, recorded with a full band, compiled of 24 tracks, No Problem is wildly ambitious, and that’s even before you take into consideration the 24 music video counterparts, directed by 24 different teams! It’s an epic composed of private thoughts, pitch-black comedy, nuanced observations, and self-aware anxieties.
The technical prowess of Trash Kit, displayed in their ability to remain tight and clean throughout their most chaotic compositions, is enough to make Horizon an album worth praising. But Horizon accomplishes the difficult task of being an album that is immediately accessible, requiring no intense mental focus to appreciate and enjoy.
With their new offering The Cosmo Cleaners, the Club take a more surgical approach to their trademark antsiness, tying themselves into tighter and more intricate knots than ever before. The group creates a compelling musical landscape solely out of sharp edges and punchy hits -- smooth sonic textures are truly few and far between.
Black Midi’s sound on Schlagenheim is sophisticated, yet they surprise their listeners with their youth. They have studied the progression of rock through a different timeline. They are the prodigious and glitched studio musicians of the late Aughts who have ran amok over the annals of their country’s pervasive post-punk history.
One of the most impressive things about Bend is how nimble the songwriting is. Listen to the transitions; the band is able to get from points A to B in clever ways that never sound fussy or overly technical. Keys shift and time signatures change, and if you aren’t keeping a close watch, you won’t even notice.
It’s been four months since Nonlocal Forecast’s Hausu Mountain debut and picking the right words to describe its brilliance has become nearly impossible. As the sidestep project of Fire-Toolz’ Angel Marcloid, Nonlocal Forecast showcases the Chicago-based producer’s remarkably deft hand in electronic novelty on Bubble Universe!
