Last year was full of a lot of metalcore releases, with new stuff from Converge, The Armed and the final release from Every Time I Die leading the charge. Vein.fm’s This World Is Going to Ruin You shows that 2022 is looking like another promising year for the genre. The album wears its influences on its sleeves.
Primal Matter was worth the three-year wait. The Cincinnati-based post-punk band continues their minimal wave impulse and leans heavier on melodies and grooves to elevate the songs into a tremendous sonic aerospace. The drum and bass have more direction, while the production creates a polychromatic musical feast.
We’re premiering the Jhariah, Marco Sah, and Sam Goblin-featuring track “O Kristi,” a cutting punk number aimed at South Dakota governor Kristi Noem. A former South Dakota resident themself, they express disappointment and rightfully criticizes the representative’s voluntary decision to turn the state into a record-breaking COVID Petri dish.
Naja Naja are a post-punk duo based in Beijing, China, set to release their self-titled debut EP shortly via Wharf Cat Records (US) and Bié Records (China). With their introductory single, “Dong Dong,” the duo of Gou Gou and Yuhao are creating music to escape within, experimental pop songs with a krautrock core.
Nyokabi Kariuki’s Peace Places: Kenyan Memories is an EP worth thinking about in regards to the language of the abstract. Over the twenty eight minutes, you never hear a synthesizer. In its place there are voices harmonizing melodies, humming out a scripture of its own accord, communicating in languages that tie Kariuki’s six songs.
While technically an extension of 2020’s Long Haired Locusts, last year’s Saltergasp presented the band in a different light, subverting the tongue-in-cheek funk rock gestures of their debut into thrashing, high tempo motifs and noise-scrambled shreds of wailing riffs. The band spoke about their songwriting, playing live, and the future of their sound.
Kenny Becker remade Goon with new members and recorded Paint By Numbers, Vol. 1, their most cohesive release to date. Made in the style of early Goon – on a tape machine in Becker’s apartment and their rehearsal space – PBN1 may harken back to Goon’s developmental phase in spirit, but the songs are forward-thinking.
Aside from the album’s stand-out singles, “Parricide is Painless” is another highlight, on an album that’s spoiled with them. The song opens with a slinky bass and clipped snares, the entire atmosphere given a Lynchian lounge treatment. The video, directed by Alexandra Millen, sits somewhere between surrealism and dread.
Poorly Drawn House are a trio from Spartanburg, South Carolina that create an intricate blend of slowcore and post-rock, with lush dynamics and creeping tension. Out now via Candlepin Records, Poorly Drawn House were kind enough to share some of the influences that lead to Home Doesn’t Have Four Walls with us.
It’s been almost three years since the Brooklyn electronic trio released their second LP, Duo Duo—the strongest expression of the group’s krautrock, art-pop and occasionally post-punk sensibilities thus far. Deep Break is three songs long, which according to the band’s Twitter were taken from an aborted full-length album.
Curtis Godino is sort of both mastermind and middleman here, as the album is billed in the form of Curtis Godino presents The Midnight Wishers. Although full of Godino and Kramer's touches, it’s The Midnight Wishers who act as the medium to present the ideas of transporting the sound of iconic girl groups into the left-field modern age.
To commence 2022, Feeble Little Horse have released an expanded reissue of Modern Tourism via Crafted Sounds. The new ten track EP features all the original material, unreleased demos, and a My Bloody Valentine cover. Here, Feeble Little Horse and label-mates Gaadge share covers of each other’s songs.
Archive Material is a tidy 38 minute grab bag of influences that ultimately adds up to something unique. For a relatively short album, the individual songs often feel longer in the best way possible. In the landscape of dour post-punk, it’s nice to have a band stop by, roll down the windows every now and then, and let some sunshine in.
“Shot Down” is the album’s second single, a rapid fire blast of feedback riddled psych-pop. Despite the song’s hurried tempo, this one feels like classic jangle pop at its core, reminiscent of a grittier version of the band’s noted influences, The Shop Assistants and Black Tambourine in the sing-song melody.
