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Caustic Wound - "Death Posture" | Album Review
Modern Rituals - "This Is The History" | Album Review
The use of dynamics on This Is The History make it seem like a more deliberate and comprehensive album than their past releases. Vocals swell in and out of screams and quiet croons, while the guitars bring a sense of controlled chaos. The bass and drums keep a heavy pulse that often erupts into pulverizing bursts.
Toner - "Silk Road" | Album Review
Silk Road, the band’s third LP, sees Toner far more polished than ever before. While a refinement in sound is expected after five separate records, the most striking thing about their songwriting this time around is not just its maturity but the amount of variety the band manages to pack into Silk Road’s brisk twenty minute runtime.
Amyl and the Sniffers - "Live at The Croxton" | Album Review
Led by one of the greatest lead singers of the past few years, they’ve built up a ferocious reputation for their live shows, ensuring this EP should become a defining companion piece to their recordings. Live at The Croxton flashes by in under ten minutes but not before the dynamism and raucousness of their energy is translated to the listener.
Melenas - "Dias Raros" | Album Review
Melenas hail from Pamplona, Spain, a city known more for the running of the bulls than its music scene. After multiple releases on local labels, they have signed with US based label Trouble in Mind to release Dias Raros. If there is any justice, the band has created an album that should put their local scene on the map.
Parsnip - "Adding Up" | Album Review
If last year’s debut LP delivered an anthology of twee-punk fairy tales, Parsnip’s new EP represents a burgeoning adolescence for the band as they test out new tones and take on larger themes. On Adding Up, the quartet buoys a scrappiness and more robust sound while still glimpsing the joy of their previous work.
Stuck - "Change Is Bad" | Album Review
If change is bad, Stuck makes the best of it. The record, front to back, is solid. It’s as dense as it is brief - the band wastes zero time plunging to exceptional depths in both arrangement and lyricism. Stuck’s debut contains the kind of post-punk precision and detail begging for repeated listens. Nothing’s overthought, but it’s all thought out.
Ordinary Reaper - "No Plans" | Album Review
Locate S,1 - "Personalia" | Album Review
Peel Dream Magazine - "Agitprop Alterna" | Album Review
This is esoteric and cerebral rock. The use of Agitprop (political propaganda, especially in art or literature) in the album’s title defines this as highbrow music, clearly, but Peel Dream Magazine’s quality ensures its never pretentious or fawning. It’s clear that Stevens thinks consciously and acutely about the meaning of his music.
Gaytheist - "How Long Have I Been On Fire?" | Album Review
Isobel Campbell - "There Is No Other..." | Album Review
Isobel Campbell emerges solo after a quiet fourteen years. Her latest album, There Is No Other… presents a bit of contemporary seriousness without overshadowing her familiar, dreamy sound. There Is No Other is different from anything we’ve already heard from Campbell. On this album emerges her new persona: a soft-spoken activist.
Primo! - "Sogni" | Album Review
Philary - "I Complain" | Album Review
Philary is the solo project of Alex Molini (Pile, Jackal Onasis, Stove), who has cultivated an artful combination of heaviness and harmony on I Complain. Molini melds sludgy, bass-driven riffs with catchy and melodic vocal lines; it’s a winning combination, and yet it is performed here in a way we haven’t quite heard before.
Bad History Month - "Old Blues" | Album Review
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - "Chunky Shrapnel" | Album Review
Live records are often boring, but this King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard collection finds new ground, and finds an interesting cue. The songs of the record are stylistic landscapes, aesthetic insights that touch a style that embraces from psychedelic rock albums like Gumboot Soup to the stoner metal of Infest the Rats’ Nest.
Lié - "You Want It Real" | Album Review
Trace Mountains - "Lost In The Country" | Album Review
Larger than the sum of its parts, Trace Mountains’ Lost in the Country is honest and lasting. Each little hook, vocal flair, snare hit. The songs keep an enduring pace, excited to get moving, even if it’s just to the woods out the front door. The drum kit hikes the path so the lyrics can admire the world and the melody can whistle along the way.
Dragoons - "Horrorscope" | Album Review
Dragoons are a product of Melbourne’s music scene: a group of friends whose members occupy various bands, sharing in creative energy; united by a vision deeply rooted in community. They’ve built an identity that is as hardworking as it is prolific, something further extrapolated on their latest release Horrorscope.