In almost every imaginable way, instrumentals is an unconventional record, especially when listened to in conjunction with songs, an effort laden with deliberateness and structural warmth. Still, instrumentals is a worthwhile amalgamation of ambient instrumentation that soothes and invigorates any willing ear.
Following a string of releases including 2018’s Crush-Hi, Airhead DC return with a brand new EP, Busted Sermon, an expansive swirl of warped lo-fi psych and homegrown bedroom pop. The solo project of Vishal Narang has steadily grown over the years to include new influences and sounds, dipping into territory less traveled.
Before you even hear its music it’s clear that this record is an address, but whereas past missives were calls to arms this one postures more as a plea for contemplation: more than do, Stateless wants you to think — even to hope. It has stakes subtler than Dorji’s other political records, and this makes the guitarist seem more present.
Shelter of a Song, due out November 20th via Orindal Records shines with its own dim lit glow and comfort that comes from a place of patience and introspection. Built on an ever growing stretch of atmosphere, Liza Victoria’s songs look into the depths of mourning and loss, reworking those feelings into a meditative beauty
Or Not Thibault is the first record from Nicole Thibault, formerly of Minimal Chips, with some help from other Aussie underground bands in the likes of Parsnip and The Ocean Party. Thibault relies on spacey and swirling melodies with a bit of a Sarah Records influence in its slightly askew outlook on the world and wide-eyed songwriting.
Holyoke, MA’s Landowner are never short on words. With the band’s excellent sophomore album, Consultant, out now via Born Yesterday Records (Dummy, Stuck, Red Tunic) their scathing takedown of systemic racism via political agendas, the upper class, and disparities of resources is all delivered with an appropriate agitation.
This wasn’t music you could dance to. If you tried, it would just look like a person high on caffeine, shaking and convulsing with no discernible rhythm. It trafficked outside of the predictable 4/4 rhythm. This was hardcore’s version of jazz music— frenetic and frenzied, with no care to what came before.
Beginning as a solo project of vocalist/instrumentalist Theo Zhykaryev, the project soon grew legs and became a quartet, combining all things unique of eggpunk and all things doom of post-punk. Across the EP, their off-kilter sound is hallmarked by the speed and force coming from the use of both the analog synths and ripping drums.
The trio - Gemma Fleet (The Wharves), Robert Sotelo, and Chris Taylor began making music in the unexpected landscape of a Glasgow flat and they have a combined sound entirely of their own concoction. A hazy mixture of medieval folk, baroque pop, and 60s psychedelia, it’s an utterly bamboozling palette but it works.
The album was initially conceived as a concept record about Australia’s first and largest air raid, the 1942 Bombing of Darwin, until Robertson realized the repetitive nature of history would be better-suited to what he wanted to say. In this way, it’s his most focused release yet, both lyrically and sonically.
Miranda Winters, a veteran of Chicago DIY, best known for her work with Melkbelly, makes surprising, knotty music. All-Purpose’s twin tracks celebrate awe. Awe in daily life, awe in the act of writing. Awe in the strange pleasure of free-association. Winters wanders from one thought to the next, refusing clear-cut beginnings and ends.
Cartalk, the project of Los Angeles songwriter and musician Chuck Moore, have been teasing out their debut album, the immaculate Pass Like Pollen, for the better part of a year. The nine tracks that form Pollen are each vulnerable, exuberant, and gripping in a way that makes their power known mere seconds after pressing play.
