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.
BABE REPORT | “Universal”
Babe Report’s new song is here to remind us all that life isn’t meant to be a competition, we don’t need to step over one another in order to rise to the top. What good is getting ahead if you’ve left everyone else behind. The second single from the band’s upcoming album, Did You Get Better, continues in their fuzzy brand of jet propulsion slacker pop, this time with guitarist/vocalists Ben Grigg and Emily Bernstein joining together on the joyous chorus. With a bouncing rhythm and distorted boogie, their vocals collide like oncoming traffic, the sweet contrast offering a pair of gluey hooks set on top one another. In less than two minutes Babe Report manage to set the pulse and let it combust on impact.
CAVALERA | “Escape To The Void (Re-Recorded)”
Last year Cavalera, the duo of Sepultura’s founding members Max and Iggor Cavalera, released re-recorded versions of early Sepultura classics Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation, taking back the music they were so pivotal in creating while also capturing the songs that way they always wanted them to sound. They’re back at it again with Schizophrenia, and while many love the way the original sounds, it’s clear that “Escape To The Void,” the album’s first re-recorded single, has been given an upgrade in terms of sheer fidelity, the song hurtling like a torpedo of bellowing thrash metal. It sounded like an untamed beast back in 1987, and the it’s only grown more feral over time.
HYPERDONTIA | “Death’s Embrace”
The brutality of Hyperdontia’s brand of death metal is often perched right upon the divide between primal pummel and technical ecstasy. The Danish / Turkish quartet aren’t looking to drown us in flashy playing, but there’s an inherent intelligence in their cataclysmic assault. With their third album, Harvest of Malevolence, on the way via Dark Descent / Me Saco Un Ojo Records, lead single “Death’s Embrace” once again finds the band atop the festering heap, stampeding in every direction with rhythmic dexterity rarely seen and guitar riffs that feel seismically intense. The entire structure is pulled off its axis on several occasions, the putrid framework thrown into the abyss with each dense diversion and blistering solo.
LA LUZ | “I’ll Go With You”
We all know that La Luz make incredibly beautiful music, full of heart and charm, warmth and breezy open space. News Of The Universe, the band’s upcoming album (out May 24th via Sub Pop), expands on their signature sound, at times with a cosmic focus but also motifs of psychedelic detachment. Their latest single, “I’ll Go With You,” captures disorientation from the get go, setting a surrealist tone before the song’s more gentle folk melodies lull us back into the natural world. Inspired by Indonesia’s Yanti Bersaudara, a band that Shana Cleveland grew up listening to, La Luz take us to distant lands to express a dreamy romance that came in a dream, over a warped pop mix of soft drifts and stunning harmonies.
MAGIC FIG | “PS1”
It seems unfair to call garage pop the antithesis of psychedelic prog, but the emphasis of each can feel like opposing forces, and there lies the eponymous “magic” of Magic Fig. Comprised of members of The Umbrellas, Whitney’s Playland, Almond Joy, and Healing Potpourri, the band dissociate between genres, their pop charm the common thread as they dig into something complex but undeniably immediate. “PS1” is sun-drenched bliss in progressive psych pop form, a song with a visionary expanse that feels like manipulated time, both retro and futuristic, as the band gently glide between movements of intricate synthesizers and dazzling rhythmic shifts while remaining hyper-focused on Inna Showalter’s swirling pop vocal melody.
NO FUTURE | “Silent Majority” + “P.B.S”
After a handful of EPs and singles, Perth’s No Future will release Mirror, their caustic full length debut, at the end of this month via Iron Lung Records and Televised Suicide, an ultra-indignant hardcore record that’s both brash and brilliant. Swarming with a thick cloud of squalling noise, their propulsive attack on the senses feels immersive, all hell is breaking loose and we’re all invited. “Silent Majority” and “P.B.S,” the album’s lead singles explode out the gates, the need for subtlety obliterated by societal dread and the violent horror caused by futility. While the drums and guitars lock in for complete decimation, vocalist Clare Duckworth rages against the “illusion of freedom” and the oppressed that are kept “oblivious, contempt, and unashamed”.
SHOP REGULARS | “Mischief”
There’s something rather special about the ragged glory of Shop Regulars’ fractured lo-fi sound. Led by Matt Radosevich (Honey Bucket), the Portland collective (which has included members of Mope Grooves, Woolen Men, Spatulas, and Lithics at times) sound triumphantly unglued on their upcoming self-titled album. The wheels have fallen off but no one cares because at the core of their music is impeccable songwriting, “Mischief” is a prime example, clattering but locked into resonant grooves. The recording darts and weaves with tape warble, but there’s a well worn glow radiating from hard fought melodies beneath the hypnotic and tangled rawness. A true gem of homespun DIY that’s far more than aesthetic appeasement.
Further Listening:
ADVERSARIAL “Hatred Kiln of Vengeance” | AKIRA KOSEMURA & LAWRENCE ENGLISH “Mirroring Feldspar” | AMY O “Superbloom” | AUNT ANT “8theist” | BAD HISTORY MONTH “Flight” | BEAMS “It’s All Around You” | BED MAKER “Ballad of Tokitae” | CAVALIER “Doodoo Damien” | CHRIS COHEN “Damage” | CUT PIECE “Soft Limit / Hard Line” | EARTH BALL “Moon FM” | EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FROZE TO DEATH “Wreck The Decks” | EXTORTION “Turn It Off” | FLESH CAR “Wishing Blue” | FOLD PAPER “Nothing To Report” | FUMING MOUTH “Daylight Again” | GABRIEL BIRNBAUM “The More They Come Around” | GEE TEE “Prehistoric Chrome” LP | GHOSTFACE KILLAH “Scar Tissue” (feat. Nas) | HABIBI “My Moon” | IAN SWEET “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” (Broken Social Scene cover) | ILLUMINATI HOTTIES “Can’t Be Still” | JESSICA PRATT “The Last Year” | KENDRICK LAMAR “Euphoria” | KENDRICK LAMAR “Meet The Grahams” | MADLIB “REEKYOD” (feat. Black Thought & Your Old Droog) | MAITA “Girl At The Bar” | MARY TIMONY “Live at Best Show” | MUTANT ACADEMY “Soda” | NEUTRALS “That’s Him On The Daft Stuff Again” | THE NOISY “Backlit” | OH BOLAND “A Power Of Wides” | PARDONER “Future of Music” | PISSED JEANS “Live on KEXP” | ROC MARCIANO “LeFlair” | ROUGE “Rouge” LP | RUI GABRIEL “Summertime Tiger” (feat. Stef Chura) | THE SPATULAS “Beehive Mind” | SQUID PISSER “Splatter The Master” | SQUIRREL FLOWER “Live on KEXP” | TEA EATER “The Taste“ | THANK “Fragile Ego (Demo)” | UNIFORM “Ghosthouse in the Nightmare City” | VACATION “Kink” | VINCENT VOCODER VOICE “Love is the Pearl in the Belly of Grief” | WOOLEN MEN “Eden Express” | WORKERS COMP “When I’m Here” | YUNGMORPHEUS “Fermentation”