This is not an album of hope because these are rarely hopeful times, rather Buice’s aim seems to be catharsis by way of some of the most inventive noise rock this year. Their sound is a hurricane of angular guitars, crushing bass, and rapid-fire drums, with bass player/lead singer Hayden Locke's voice echoing out across the storm.
Mary Jane Dunphe’s debut has been a long time coming, the musician and poet has been making waves within the underground for the better part of a decade. Dunphe’s voice has appeared across a swathe of cult acts, always sounding as impressive as it is unique. Yet on her debut, Dunphe sounds her most fully formed and brilliant yet.
Aunt Katrina’s Hot, out via Pittsburgh label Crafted Sounds, feels like letting loose after hours, blasting music over the office intercom and sneaking your friends in to dance. It’s all the marshmallows in the bowl of Lucky Charms that stick in your teeth, with its Y2K computer game nostalgia and sweaty danciness.
Hailing from Champaign, IL, Hum always provided more substance to their recordings than any hit single might suggest. For this reason, the re-release of their catalog on vinyl – Electra 2000, You’d Prefer an Astronaut, Downward is Heavenward, and Inlet – is deserved and will hopefully give them renewed attention.
Historically, Vastum’s signature flavor of lyrical blasphemy centered around sins of the flesh taken to disgustingly perverse extremes and communicated via gratuitous and cavernous death metal. Inward to Gethsemane shifts the focus of its subject matter from the visceral profanity of sex to the suffocating, metaphysical anguish of religion.
It's Sorted is the fourth full length from LA’s Cheekface, another building block of their unique approach to sing-speak vocals and melodies that refuse to leave your head. Greg Katz and Amanda Tannen have mastered writing ear-worms, continuing to charm and surprise audiences with songs that poke and prod at the world around them.
There have been more than enough high highs and low lows to go around since Rick Rude’s last album, and yet, Laverne feels like a celebration. It’s a record that revels in the glow of family and friends, remembering the best of times, the moments of pure joy, but it’s also mindful that we all need support to maintain stable footing.
Brought out by the gentle whims of Blaine Teppema, a librarian by day, the music of Sleeper’s Bell is as simple as writing a diary entry and as bold as reading it out loud from a stage. With Umarell recently getting reissued by Angel Tapes, Sleeper’s Bell are bringing out their delicate beauty from the quietest parts of Teppema’s vivid memories.
Hot Air Balloon continues Pile’s mastery of intricate post-hardcore, animating a skeleton of sludge with the weeping flesh of psychedelic folk. Off the heels of their latest album All Fiction, the EP is composed of songs left off the final cut. Far from scraps, each song on Hot Air Balloon is striking enough to stand alone.
Colin Newman toyed with sparsity and repetition well into the ‘80s, upon Wire’s reunion with mechanical electro-industrial pop. Given Newman’s ever-changing creative mind, Bastard was a naturally unforeseen left turn. Bastard was a clinical and primitive, yet charming exercise of playing with trip-hop, downtempo, and minimalist techno.
Power-driven and reckless at its core, Upchuck’s newest album Bite The Hand That Feeds demands listener attention. The Atlanta based post-punk group bring listeners through a fluid and twisted but expressive journey. With production from Ty Segall, distortion and garage-rock attentively weave their way into Upchuck’s unique sound.
Great Grandpa made a splash with the phenomenal Four of Arrows in 2019. Since then, they’ve been working on a wide assortment of personal projects. Among them is Freak Accident, the latest release from Al Menne, the bands’ lead singer - a record that finds him hitting his most intimate, personal, and soft spoken songwriting moments yet.
Toronto’s PACKS return with Melt the Honey, their third full length and their second within a span of a year, continuing to cover new ground as they go. Fronted by Madeline Link, their sound plays from a controlled burn of garage rock, anti-folk and the barebones of pop-eccentricism, redefining the mundane with gasps of fixation and sincerity.
Evoking Marvin Gaye, Ngonda’s falsetto and beautiful orchestration is a modern interpretation of the classic soul music many of us grew up on. It’s hard not to immediately feel a sense of nostalgia for Motown oldies and soul when listening to the tight instrumentation and themes of unrequited love, heartbreak, and becoming a better person.
