Music should be impactful, wide and universally relatable. For almost twenty years, The Black Angels have done this through six long players and four extended plays. Five years since the profound Death Song, the Austin legends blast back onto Mother Earth with fierce textures driven by drummer Stephanie Bailey, who has never sounded larger.
On the heels of two solid 7” releases, Melbourne five-piece Delivery evolve their sound and vibe with debut album Forever Giving Handshakes. Channeling wiry post-punk as much as psyched-out garage and hooky power-pop, Handshakes rides a wavering line between tightly-wound momentum and raucous partying.
Philly’s Labrador make alt-country music to lift you up. It’s not always bubbling with positivity, but they’re here to remind you you’re not alone, and that good times are just around the bend. They take those sentiments to heart on Hold The Door For Strangers, the follow-up to 2020’s A Car That Works EP.
Nashville’s Snooper gives us everything we could ever want from an egg punk EP: ripping-hot riffs, shrieking guitar, pummelling drums, half-sung vocals about modern malaise. Their latest five track EP, Town Topic, clocking in at less than eight minutes, sounds like a Devo record mistakenly played at 45 RPM, but this is no trite rehash.
Plan Pony, a solo project turned duo built on caterwauling saxophone and harsh electronics, skews closer to noise music than noise “rock” music. With several releases over the past couple years, they’re set to share their latest, the Flocking EP, out today via Nim Brut. The pair obliterate senses with “Can’t Say, Won’t Say,” the album’s centerpiece.
We'll Become the Flowers is New York based Eliza Edens’ second album of indie folk songs. The record is full of aching sadness contrasted with a whimsical hopefulness and acknowledgement of beauty all around, if we're open to seeing it. Eden's vocals have a way of cutting to your deepest feelings with their husky intonation and warmth.
Lipsticism is Chicago-based electronic musician Alana Schachtel. The project has a new record via Earth Libraries on 12/2 called Two Mirrors Facing Each Other, and today we’ve got a sneak preview of the accompanying visuals to “Worth.” The video follows a digital humanoid and their stuffed rabbit reanimated by a spectral mirror hand.
The anger that persists on Malign Hex is never so cliched to be grounded by the confines of its creators; it's tapping into the ether to explode unseen parts of reality and give listeners the spark to indulge these nameless feelings of fear, disgust, outrage, etc. To support this larger effort, the band emphasize their cohesion as a unit.
Incredibly idiosyncratic - albeit not to one another, the Atlanta-based quartet Mamalarky communicates amongst themselves in a tongue all their own. Their most recent release, Pocket Fantasy, is not an invitation into their world, but an overheard discussion felt so intensely that it is carried home by casual passerby.
It turns out that a slowed-down, remote, process gave Mushfoot ample time to think these songs thoroughly through, giving them the recording touches these detailed, layered songs require. They pick up on strands laid before them by the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Broadcast, Deerhoof, Stephen Merritt, and more.
At some point in 2020, Andy Molholt felt it was time to call it a day on Laser Background. While it was sad to see it come to an end, in reality, it was more the retiring of a name, and a chance for Molholt to start anew. Special World is that fresh beginning, a new solo project that explores similar psych territory but pushes further into alien terrain.
Formed by Joel Harries (72%) to make a cavalcade of guitar and synth noise, the collaborative roots of the current iteration later emerged, with Harries joined by Luc Hess (Coilguns) and Thomas Lacey (Cower). There’s a noticeable dread and claustrophobia to Catalogue of Errors, captured with harrowing tension and fury, equal parts sludge and abrasion.
In keeping with the promise of their 12”, Blush is an exciting addition within that catalog. An album length statement that stands rather asynchronous from the momentum of this New British Alternative moment; more akin to a dark horse alternative nudging towards the dancefloor catharsis of hundreds or even just one.
