Helvetia is back with the charmingly lo-fi This Devastating Map. The solo project of Jason Albertini, an original member of Duster and former bass player for Built to Spill, each release from Helvetia manages to sound different from the last, yet usually sits within a common realm: fuzzy, home recorded psych-pop music.
Take our word for it, Leeds’ Blacklisters are the best noise rock band on the planet. We’re only a week away from the release of their third full length album, Fantastic Man, their first new LP in five years. The band continue their masterful approach at remaining willingly off the rails, but they do it with menace void of machismo, aiming just about all their efforts at showing just how dumb being tough looks.
Endless Space (Between You & I) is entirely a record of its own, suffused with a purity that only true dream pop can provide. Everything is ethereal (unsurprising from the person who released an EP titled Ethereality in 2018) and the songs never cease to sparkle, awash as they are in technicolor reverie.
V.V. Lightbody is the type of artist that will take your breath away. She writes expertly crafted songs that are steeped in emotional nuance and humble wisdom. On Make A Shrine Or Burn It her self described “Nap Rock” sound is built up into an endlessly entertaining album of complex arrangements and tightly performed musical moments.
In some ways, I Was Born Swimming is a perfect record for this period of isolation. Recounting intimate moments from her life (literally starting from her own birth on the titular track), Williams navigates through feelings of loneliness, anxiousness, and heartbreak with the goal of constantly moving forward.
Oakland’s Lunchbox have been releasing records since the mid 90’s but their upcoming album, After School Special, is their first for the legendary Slumberland Records (Peel Dream Magazine, Lake Ruth, Failed Flowers). The pairing is a match made in heaven, a dreamy home for a band making dreamy music.
The aptly titled To Be Surrounded…, which takes its title from a Walt Whitman poem, feels like a gift to everyone currently missing the energy of live performance. The album’s eleven tracks not only capture the excitement of a top-notch band bringing some of their most beloved songs to life, but also that of organic collaboration.
On Goodbye, Nowhere!, the sophomore record from Minneapolis’ Double Grave, emptiness faces a reckoning. The trio has been working towards this album for nearly half a decade, starting as Ego Death and evolving into Double Grave. Each subsequent release has brought them closer to perfecting their form of existential shoegaze.
Over four full-lengths, Young Jesus have built up a modus operandi of terse tracklists, extended instrumental workouts and satisfying buildups. It’s a formula that served their previous releases well, and Beach doesn’t deviate far from it. Post- and math-rock influences also remain but this record floats and soars with a newfound lightness.
As is often the case with a third album, the production levels have been raised. The sounds of Flower Of Devotion are glossier and crisper, the raw qualities of their indie-rock both softened and rounded. The new lushness will be more inviting to the casual listener but the basic premise of Dehd’s music is kept to satiate long-time followers.
Vicious Nonbeliever, the newest release from Mal Devisa, is a natural extension of her previous efforts from a few years ago. By pairing up with DJ LUCAS, Devisa fully hones in her vocals, creating some of her best work to date. It’s really the turn of phrases that make Vicious Nonbeliever hard to escape or ignore.
The mutant manifestations of Jordan Sobolew are all played live, contorting sounds into triggered noise and mangled industrial fury since 2014. After several EPs, the wait for Reptoid’s full length debut is nearly over with the release of Worship False Gods due out August 28th via Learning Curve Records.
