by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our weekly recap of this week's new music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web. It's generally written in the early hours of the morning and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking out all the music we've included. There's a lot of great new music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music.

*Disclaimer: We are making a conscious effort not to include any artist in our countdown on back-to-back weeks in order to diversify the feature, so be sure to check the "further listening" as well because it's often of top-notch quality too.

AUTOMATIC | “Venus Hour”

Los Angeles trio Automatic return three years about their excellent debut album with Excess, due out in June via Stones Throw (Quakers, Jerry Paper, John Carroll Kirby), a continuation of the band’s radiant avant-garde post-punk. Their sound is minimal, with tightly wound rhythms bouncing between electronic and human touches, like dance punk goes disco, but with a steely resolve. It’s well coiled, with every beat firmly in its place, but the band’s vocals give it a sense of character, a smooth sort of “cool,” almost nonchalant, but well locked into their grooves. With tour plans that include runs with Tame Impala, Osees, Parquet Courts, and Idles, it’s only a matter of time until they’re a household name (at least in households that discuss post-punk over dinner). “Venus Hour,” the album’s second single is crisp and stark, with the bass groove and drums snapped in, colored by added textures of percussion, accenting the hypnotic pulse.

BILLY WOODS | “Aethiopes” LP

The legend of billy woods is a story still in progress, one that’s hit underground high point after continuous high point. As the MC has established his own lane for gritty rap, freely associative lyrics, and lacing adventurous production with the greatest of ease, at some point in time, the mainstream has drifted closer, and woods’ duo Armand Hammer (together with ELUCID) have become outsiders within the mainstream, gaining widespread popularity while sticking to their guns. The duo has been busy but it’s been three years since woods has released his last solo records (with two great albums in 2019), which brings us to Aethiopes, an album that feels like an immediate classic. Together with Preservation on production, they take hip-hop to another level, matching beats and bars in the least likely of circumstances. From the twinkling jazz of “Asylum” and the dissonant bells and skittering drums of “Wharves,” woods rides whatever he’s given, offering shape-shifting introspection that only comes with multiple listens. There’s plenty to decode and confound, it’s an album that comes as much from the heart as it does the brain.

CHRONOPHAGE | “Black Clouds”

Released late in 2020, Chronophage’s th’pig’kiss’d album quickly became an underground favorite, a DIY basement punk album that mixed Sonic Youth destruction and Yo La Tengo jangle. In the two years since a lot has changed, both in the world and with the band. Their upcoming self-titled album, due out June 3rd via Post Present Medium (Behavior & Mayako XO, Pink Trash Can, Eugene Chadbourne & Jim McHugh) and Bruit Direct Disques, sounds downright refined. Gone is the ramshackle spirit and tape hiss, in their place however, the band’s songwriting shines radiantly, giving sight to the band’s more “pop” tendencies. “Black Clouds” however is the perfect introduction, the song on the record that is most similar to the band’s previous output. It’s a great song, with plenty of snare fills, strained and stubbed melodies, and their penchant for hard spun indie chaos.

HELMS ALEE | “Tripping Up The Stairs”

It’s been nearly fifteen years since Helms Alee released their debut album and the band’s unique approach to sludge remains entirely their own. The trio are a singular force, one that’s undeniably heavy, but their mountainous approach has always been balanced by light vocal melodies and unpredictability that has them swinging for the fences one moment and soft and intricate the next. With their sixth album, Keep This Be The Way (out 4/29 via Sargent House), the band continue to evolve their compositions, trading much of their primal strength for hypnotic dread, but the results remain heavy as a stampede of elephants. “Tripping Up The Stairs” however, did not get that message, it’s as sludgy as they come, led primarily by the thunderous growl of Ben Verellen. The single is a slow build, even with it’s crushing riffs and the off-kilter post-hardcore of the verses, led by Hozoji Matheson Margullis and Dana James.

NINA NASTASIA | “Just Stay In Bed”

After a twelve year absence from music, singer/songwriter Nina Nastasia makes her welcome return with Riderless Horse, a new album of solo vocals and guitar, due out July on Temporary Residence (Party Dozen, Maserati, William Basinski). The record comes from a place of brutal heartbreak, the end of an abusive relationship and subsequent suicide, topics that are as heavy as they come (you can read more about it on her Bandcamp). Despite that emotional heaviness, which resides over the entire record, the songs don’t feel committed to doom and gloom. Lead single “Just Stay In Bed” has a classic folk story-telling nature to it, wind lyrics that wind into nursery rhyme patterns, even as they explore depression and the desire to simply stay in bed all day, rather than dealing with the issues at hand. It’s an escape, but not one that enacts any change in the situation, but Nastasia makes it sound appealing and nearly blissful, despite itself.

Further Listening:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (April 4th - April 10th)