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.
Variety, a new band led by Rhys Woodruff (Borzoi, Leche) has arrived. While best known as a drummer/vocalist, he’s moved beyond the kit to write, perform, and record the entirety of Variety’s debut single, equal parts arty punk and deranged alternative rock. “Plover” is a triumphant introduction, a jittery song that feels knotted yet supremely hooky.
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.
The Philly / New Brunswick band, led by Quinn Mulvihill, have ventured beyond the digital realm into a dense form of swarming shoegaze and layered slowcore. Working together with Tim Jordan (Sun Organ) at Blood Red Sky, Glaring Orchid’s full length debut arrives fully formed, with equal parts graceful nuance and blaring distortion.
On a wet December morning, Post-Trash caught up with Blonde Redhead drummer and percussionist, Simone Pace, who spoke with us from his home in upstate New York. Pace shed some light on the making of Sit Down for Dinner, the unexpected role a canceled tour with Tool played, and the best feline cameo on an album.
Safe To Run captured Esther Rose’s potential, both as a songwriter and performer. Maybe it was just a natural progression, but she seems to have reached her full musical maturity. It’s expressed in the fact that when she writes her songs she’s able to envision them in a number of versions, with almost each one being the right one.
London duo Grazia are here for the sleaze punks, making clean and rattling garage punk with heavy pop hooks and minimalist structures. Their sound is catchy, indebted both to 80’s new wave and a more radiant KBD sound, each song on their upcoming debut, In Poor Taste, packing a gluey charm that’s hard to resist.
After upgrading from Version 1 to Version 2, the band started producing luscious, gossamer shoegaze tracks that draw on digital soundscapes. Along with a drum and bass track at the end of each, this is what made up their first two demos. Now with their latest, infinity signature, the band continue this sound, further developing a new world.
Olympia’s Physique have returned with Overcome By Pain, a blistering six track EP on Seattle’s Iron Lung Records, giving a form to the noise of the body – the body reacting to the deep silence keeping this rotten imperialist foundation in place. Fresh off February’s Again, Physique continue their d-beat bombardment.
As echoed keys welcome melting synths, crushing drum loops knotted around a lustful, intimate voice awaken. That is how a.s.o. opens – the collaborative effort of eclectic house producer Lewie Day (Tornado Wallace) and singer Alia Seror-O’Neill (Alias Error) – and it is the modern reinvigoration of sleek ‘90s downtempo.
Returning with a teaser for Good Kind, Wesley Wolffe’s new full-length album set to be released January 12, he doubles down in tenacity and charm on his latest single, “Streets”. Grown out of sweaty spontaneity, fractured instrumentations and deliberate angst, “Streets” finds him eerily attuned to the characters around him everyday.
New York duo Frog returns with a rowdy cast of characters on a beaming LP, and a new lineup in Daniel Bateman’s brother, Steve. On the introductory track of GROG, a cheery voice explains that grog is the drink of choice for sailors in the 18th century, and the album certainly does have a flushed, rosy feeling to it.
Legendary multi-instrumentalist and improviser Keiji Haino, along with Guro Moe, a Norwegian bassist and avant-garde composer share Drums & Octobass, released on Norway’s ConradSound label, a new collaborative effort. Haino, now 71, is showing no signs of slowing down, raising eyebrows with his adventurous improvisations.
Darling aka Charlotte Kouklia is a member of Rose Mercie, and has already released two solo singles, various CD-R releases, and one widely distributed full-length of her own. It took her a few years or so to share another solo effort, but judging by the nine tracks (and a voice recording) on La Porte, it was quite worth the wait.
