Safe To Run captured Esther Rose’s potential, both as a songwriter and performer. Maybe it was just a natural progression, but she seems to have reached her full musical maturity. It’s expressed in the fact that when she writes her songs she’s able to envision them in a number of versions, with almost each one being the right one.
After upgrading from Version 1 to Version 2, the band started producing luscious, gossamer shoegaze tracks that draw on digital soundscapes. Along with a drum and bass track at the end of each, this is what made up their first two demos. Now with their latest, infinity signature, the band continue this sound, further developing a new world.
Olympia’s Physique have returned with Overcome By Pain, a blistering six track EP on Seattle’s Iron Lung Records, giving a form to the noise of the body – the body reacting to the deep silence keeping this rotten imperialist foundation in place. Fresh off February’s Again, Physique continue their d-beat bombardment.
As echoed keys welcome melting synths, crushing drum loops knotted around a lustful, intimate voice awaken. That is how a.s.o. opens – the collaborative effort of eclectic house producer Lewie Day (Tornado Wallace) and singer Alia Seror-O’Neill (Alias Error) – and it is the modern reinvigoration of sleek ‘90s downtempo.
New York duo Frog returns with a rowdy cast of characters on a beaming LP, and a new lineup in Daniel Bateman’s brother, Steve. On the introductory track of GROG, a cheery voice explains that grog is the drink of choice for sailors in the 18th century, and the album certainly does have a flushed, rosy feeling to it.
Legendary multi-instrumentalist and improviser Keiji Haino, along with Guro Moe, a Norwegian bassist and avant-garde composer share Drums & Octobass, released on Norway’s ConradSound label, a new collaborative effort. Haino, now 71, is showing no signs of slowing down, raising eyebrows with his adventurous improvisations.
Darling aka Charlotte Kouklia is a member of Rose Mercie, and has already released two solo singles, various CD-R releases, and one widely distributed full-length of her own. It took her a few years or so to share another solo effort, but judging by the nine tracks (and a voice recording) on La Porte, it was quite worth the wait.
St. Louis indie-rockers, Shady Bug use their latest EP to interpret preservation through a lens of both inner and outer anxieties. What’s the Use?, packaged within twenty minutes of bleeding hooks and dissonant indie-rock, lets Shady Bug unwrap a beautiful juxtaposition of self worth while our world comes to an end.
The Chicago quartet play hardcore at the speed of light, their fury only matched by their willingness to distort their assault with subtle psychedelic shifts. Harsh Reality, released via Three One G Records is aware of police brutality, corporate greed, and ever present inequality, and Stress Positions are none too happy about any of it.
Sundae Painters, the last recordings of Hamish Kilgour (The Clean), brings four pivotal artists together. Kilgour, Alec Bathgate (Tall Dwarfs), Paul Kean (Toy Love, The Bats) and Kaye Woodward (The Bats) have a long history with each other and these recordings come from informal jam sessions that give space for psychedelic and folk exploration.
Wishy is a force of Midwestern exceptionalism; a blanket of whirling guitar music and a breeze of soothing pop melodies all brought to life by leaders Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites. With their new label home, Winspear, and help from friend and producer, Ben Lumsdaine (Durand Jones), Wishy has released their debut EP, Paradise.
Cruel throws another hat into the busy, increasingly-young Chicago ring, with a mosh-able, riff-heavy debut EP on Fire Talk’s new tape imprint Angel Tapes. To-the-point at only four songs over eleven minutes, Common Rituals flexes a driving rhythm section, loud two-guitar attack, and blown-out yelled vocals.
While a lot of bands are delivering truly unique and innovative releases, few of them have managed to deliver anything with quite the same energy as Pons. On their latest album, The Liquid Self, the three piece has constructed a shipwrecked concept album that is as lyrically dense as it is full of brooding atmosphere and chaotic ups and downs.
Czarface lives on. Hip-hop’s mightiest heroes are back with their ninth LP Czartificial Intelligence. Made up of Inspectah Deck and Boston’s 7L & Esoteric, the group is known for their intricate lyricism and plush old school production. Their latest, a major label debut released a decade after their inaugural album, is no exception.
The Guided By Voices archive resembles a murmuration by now with thousands of melodies and ideas flocking together to create a singular movement, in which individual elements matter less than the beauty created by the entire whole. Nowhere To Go But Up is a minor, but essential, part of this greater entity.
Roseland Live NYC – which paired a gripping performance by Gibbons and co. with a full band and orchestral strings, horns, and woodwinds – would be the last music Portishead would release for over a decade. Now, 25 years later, the band has reissued the album as Roseland NYC Live 25, newly remastered, and for the first time in its complete form.
It is a sign of mutual respect and adoration to make something together as one package to grace listeners with. Queensburgh by Baked and The Zells is the latest addition to the DIY canon of splits. Two of independent rock's heaviest hitters have delivered a special split that anyone will be able to appreciate.
