Bodega welcome 2022 with their third full length, Broken Equipment, carrying on their acerbic and pointed songwriting full of anti-capitalist sentiments and nervy energy that wriggles and bounces all over the place. On this record, front person Ben Hozie slightly softens the songwriting approach of previous releases.
Last year was full of a lot of metalcore releases, with new stuff from Converge, The Armed and the final release from Every Time I Die leading the charge. Vein.fm’s This World Is Going to Ruin You shows that 2022 is looking like another promising year for the genre. The album wears its influences on its sleeves.
Primal Matter was worth the three-year wait. The Cincinnati-based post-punk band continues their minimal wave impulse and leans heavier on melodies and grooves to elevate the songs into a tremendous sonic aerospace. The drum and bass have more direction, while the production creates a polychromatic musical feast.
Nyokabi Kariuki’s Peace Places: Kenyan Memories is an EP worth thinking about in regards to the language of the abstract. Over the twenty eight minutes, you never hear a synthesizer. In its place there are voices harmonizing melodies, humming out a scripture of its own accord, communicating in languages that tie Kariuki’s six songs.
Kenny Becker remade Goon with new members and recorded Paint By Numbers, Vol. 1, their most cohesive release to date. Made in the style of early Goon – on a tape machine in Becker’s apartment and their rehearsal space – PBN1 may harken back to Goon’s developmental phase in spirit, but the songs are forward-thinking.
It’s been almost three years since the Brooklyn electronic trio released their second LP, Duo Duo—the strongest expression of the group’s krautrock, art-pop and occasionally post-punk sensibilities thus far. Deep Break is three songs long, which according to the band’s Twitter were taken from an aborted full-length album.
Curtis Godino is sort of both mastermind and middleman here, as the album is billed in the form of Curtis Godino presents The Midnight Wishers. Although full of Godino and Kramer's touches, it’s The Midnight Wishers who act as the medium to present the ideas of transporting the sound of iconic girl groups into the left-field modern age.
Archive Material is a tidy 38 minute grab bag of influences that ultimately adds up to something unique. For a relatively short album, the individual songs often feel longer in the best way possible. In the landscape of dour post-punk, it’s nice to have a band stop by, roll down the windows every now and then, and let some sunshine in.
After having all of their loose material gathered on Thankology, we finally get Leeds’ best noise rock band Thank’s debut album, Thoughtless Cruelty. This is a record that is meant to be played as loud as possible, an album that is filled with clever lyrics, a clear nihilistic view of the world, and pounding instrumentals.
Big Thief are some of the only artists right now whose mission runs entirely counter to the world we live in. Their music leaves behind cities, machines, and rigid rhythms, where most of even our best music these days seems intent on replacing the sounds of human beings with a false mechanical magnificence.
