Versions of Modern Performance, the new album by Chicago’s Horsegirl, is a noisy introduction to a band that, based on the strength of their debut, is bound to be a fixture in the future of guitar music. Any time spent with the album is likely to call to mind melodic noise pioneers like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr, and that’s not entirely a coincidence.
On their Hyperdub debut, Nothing to Declare, there's enough gusto and finesse for anyone to latch onto and jump forth from. Moor Mother releases are time-travel ready. Nothing to Declare is the rare moment that really sees her grounded to the present, in step with both her own and DJ Haram's sound of this moment.
Otoboke Beaver make music that should, in theory, get stuck in your head. The incendiary Japanese punk quartet do not bide their time racing to a refrain, and when they get there they tend to sing it loud, over and over. As determined as they are to discover some infectious new chant or groove, they appear just as determined to move on to the next one.
On Diaspora Problems, Soul Glo's first LP for Epitaph Records following a string of increasingly daring EPs over the last several years, the Philadelphia hardcore punk band is taking its largest swing to date. At once manic, deeply affecting and celebratory, this is Soul Glo at the height of their powers.
The music speaks for itself, and on Site Out Of Mind, the music says a lot. The band itself calls it “garage-soul,” and that's definitely a nice way of tying it together, but the palette of sounds on their new record reaches far beyond garage and far beyond soul, where 70s style psychedelia fuses with the guitar tones of 60s garage.
On Blue Skies, with the increased recording budget offered by Fat Possum Records, the group builds upon their sonic foundation for the first time. Synthesizers, shimmering guitar overdubs, and more vocal layers than possibly live-performable combine to transform the songs into larger-than-life versions of themselves.
A Light for Attracting Attention lives an independent existence, and yet carries with it a baggage that comes from a sound that touches on OK Computer, The Bends, and even Amnesiac. The baggage is comprehensive, complex, but not weighty, because Yorke and Greenwood's cross-media paths offer an endless array of suggestions.
Cola started with friends trading song ideas and demos over the course of lockdown and what better time to announce new music then when you are retiring an old band? What resulted is the record Deep in View, and fans of Ought will be delighted to know that it has a very similar appeal, due to Darcy’s distinct vocal delivery style.
At this place in space/ time, there is an absolute aura around Tha God Fahim. With a constant, steady flow, ciphered from the ether, there seems no slowing Fahim - he has tapped into our divine consciousness, leveeing the spring to run like a river, and crafting soundscapes in the elegantly sophisticated fashion of legends.
Nate Mendolsohn has a few other releases of mostly rough and scratchy lo-fi type sketches under his belt as Market, however on this record there is an ever shifting psychedelic hue and a touch of folk influenced honesty. His songs become fully fleshed out with his band providing ample counterparts to the slightly twisted arrangements
“Repetition is the mother of learning” and “the devil is in the details”. These are the maxims William Basinski and Janek Schaefer abide by here. Picking up on piano passages recorded anywhere between 2014 and 2022, the duo explore how weaving passages can create repetition, but small changes can make a big difference in sound.
Luke Csehak, writer, singer, instrumentalist, and producer of the album Budget Alchemy and the band The Lentils, seems to be having a crisis on the usefulness of language. His fondness for words and his troubles with them (“the words fail every time”) are articulated clearly and strangely throughout the album, proving his point.
Tomberlin has expanded her accompaniment with strings and a rhythm section to reach a new intensity that was not as present on previous recordings. She writes some of the most heart-rendering and emotionally vulnerable lyrics, her words imparted with a hushed tenderness and an underlying strength and determination.
Though Caution’s members are separated by many States, they’ve produced their first full length album Arcola, packed to the gills with fuzzy distortion and pop chops. The duo touch on their influences of mid-late 80’s noise-pop/shoegaze with a ton of respect while managing to throw in dashes of modern dream-pop.
