by Anna Solomon, Calvin Staropoli, Caroline Nieto, Chris Coplan, Christopher J. Lee, Dan Goldin, Devin Birse, Justin Davis, Kris Handel, Matt Watton, Matty McPherson, Myles Tiessen, Selina Yang, Shea Roney, Zak Mercado, and Zuzu Lacey
*****
Here it is! The Mid-Year Report, sixty hand-picked records we think you should listen to. It's impossible to listen to everything and we’re well aware that everyone has different tastes, but we’re here to recommend these albums (and plenty more in the “also recommended” sections). Your next favorite band/artist could be out there, it's just a matter of listening to something new. Popular opinion isn’t the only opinion, sometimes you have to dig to find the real gems. Discover something new. Buy some records. Support the music you love. We hope you have a good time listening. Thank you for reading Post-Trash.
JANUARY + FEBRUARY:
Third Man Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Since the days of David Nance’s earliest recordings, mostly steeped in noise and abrasion, there’s always been a shimmering heart at the center, a balladeer buried beneath the distortion. His songs draw you toward the warmth, that core element of his charm readily apparent even as the dust had yet to settle. Over the span of a decade there’s been some refinement and what was once masked in acid-fried tape hiss and awash in caterwauling guitars has become more direct, distilled into something cleaner, but every bit as strong. David Nance & Mowed Sound is the next chapter of an already essential story, an evolution and expansion of his penchant for folk and country subversion. Much like the music itself, Nance’s band has evolved as well. What was once the David Nance Group has become Mowed Sound, a collective of Omaha’s finest that includes contributions from new members Dereck Higgins, Sam Lipsett, Pearl Lovejoy Boyd, and long-standing collaborators James Schroeder and Kevin Donahue. Together, the sextet has arrived at the most timeless music of their career. Roots abound from the recording, both in sense of community and the essence of cosmic earthiness. Everyone is playing their part, the instrumentation flexible to the demands of the songs. Sprinkle in some piano and organ here and a bit of flute and auxiliary percussion there, everything in its place. - DG
Ramp Local
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
On Psychedelic Anxiety, Frances Chang takes us through the cognitive clarity required to transform melancholy into mourning. In psychoanalysis, melancholy is shrapnel lodged in the soul, piercing with every movement. Buried in the subconscious, the pain of unassimilated memories radiates outwards into malaise. Before that scar can fade, it must first blister and darken. The sophomore album of this New York art punk is a sensory amalgamation of haunting memories and chromatic films, gift wrapped in angelic gauze. With allusions to Deerhoof’s eclectic instrumentation, the groove is grafted onto Jeff Buckley’s sweeping romanticism, then filtered through ambient progressive rock. Tumbling silk hums envelop the listener. They are hymnal in their precision, even as the instrument selection becomes increasingly eclectic. - Selina Yang
Merge Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Mary Timony has come to inhabit a category of one. This may seem like an odd assessment given her frequent projects and collaborations over the last three decades, whether with Helium during the 1990s, Wild Flag slightly over a decade ago, or Ex Hex, the hard/garage-rock inspired outfit that has preoccupied her recording the past ten years. Timony epitomizes the rock-and-roll lifer, a journey-person musician who has tried out, tested, and integrated different genres through a steady output of albums, while also being comfortable as part of a trio or quartet. This new solo album feels different, however. Though she has never been absent from the scene, Untame the Tiger sounds like both a culmination of these prolific decades and a re-introduction. One gets the sense that Timony harbors this feeling as well. - Christopher J. Lee
Fire Talk Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Through the nitty, gritty, and shitty, PACKS has been known to lean on the artistic musings of the most overlooked possibilities; standing out as a band in both genuine relatability and gripping authenticity. The Toronto four piece now returns with Melt the Honey, their third full length record and their second within a span of a year, continuing to cover new ground as they go. Fronted by Madeline Link, PACKS’ 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. Fully self produced and recorded down in Xalapa, Mexico at the infamous Casa Pulpa, Melt the Honey is a calloused gesture to PACKS’ individuality and Link’s growing attributions of self worth. - Shea Roney
Exploding In Sound Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Hot Air Balloon continues Pile’s mastery of intricate post-hardcore, animating a skeleton of sludge with the weeping flesh of psychedelic folk. Off the heels of their latest album All Fiction, Hot Air Balloon is composed of songs left off of All Fiction’s final cut. Far from scraps, each song on Hot Air Balloon is striking enough to stand alone. This EP serves as a deeper sampler into Pile’s future sonic landscape. Adding to the depths of earlier works’ abrasive rock, Hot Air Balloon wallows in a darker timbre. The clock slows in anticipation for something on the horizon – a primordial, yet gentle, beast. Pile’s new sound is like the silky oozing flesh of an early born calf, disconcerting in its raw organicness but beautiful in its wide-eyed innocence. The odyssey of the album’s emotional journey mirrors that of Pile’s recent creative process: the frustration of artist’s block, the catharsis of relentless experimentation, and the reimagination of past works. - Selina Yang
Portrayal of Guilt Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
It would seem that Austin’s Porcelain aren’t pulling any punches with their self-titled album. The band’s first full length is jagged and rampant, an album that seems to burst at the seams, a missive of explosive peaks and dynamic arrangements. For every moment that’s primed to burn and pillage, there’s another of atmospheric warble and gentle contemplation. Porcelain arrive with a sure footed debut, a post-hardcore album that’s urgently nuanced. At times clamoring with a corrosive grip (“World I Know”), the band also flex the capability for discordant pummeling and a crawling sort of surrealist ease (“Plastic”), the arpeggiated progressions recalling the sun-fried twang of Gun Outfit at times, with the dexterous muscle of Unwound never lurking too far in the distance. Their aggressive tendencies are balanced with the distorted twang-infused verses, pulled and eventually stubbed into a dense contusion. Porcelain swing from polarities, the epic swell of the duel guitars peeling away and swallowed in clouds of distortion. - DG
Beach Impediment Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Without warning came the barbaric return of North Carolina’s Public Acid, one of hardcore punk’s absolute best. While last year gave us the band’s great Beat Session tape, it’s been four years since the brilliant Condemnation EP and yet their artistically filthy take on hardcore sounds more corrosive now than ever. Deadly Struggle, their latest album, is a juggernaut of blistering riffs (seriously, listen to “Ignorance”) over sludgy primitive rhythms and delightfully deranged vocals, garbled and violent, in the best of ways. There’s a relentless force and sense of upheaval throughout the record, a righteous indignation that batters and fries the senses with a controlled sense of chaos and brutality that feels both inventive yet sonically disgusting. Crusty, damaged, and equal parts primal and arty, Public Acid can’t be stopped. - DG
Best Brother / Midnight Werewolf Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
It’s been more than five years since Rick Rude released Verb For Dreaming, and there have been more than enough high highs and low lows to go around. That said, Laverne, the band’s new album, feels like a celebration. It’s a record that revels in the glow of family and friends, remembering the best of times, the moments of pure joy, but it’s also mindful that we all need support to maintain stable footing. It’s not all sunshine, but there is comfort to be found, and it’s in that understanding where Laverne really comes alive. There’s an inherent bond that comes with being a band for over a decade, when everything seemingly just snaps into place. Rick Rude have always exuded a unique chemistry, the dynamic approach to Ben Troy and Jordan Holtz's duel songwriting often felt like radiant sides of the same coin. There’s cohesion in spades yet their voices, literally and metaphorically, offer personal perspectives, direct yet abstract, with Laverne highlighting both hard-worn warmth and a sardonic wit that combine to satiate, to create a mental ease. There’s sunshine waiting to break through the darkest of clouds if you’re patient enough. Together with Ryan Harrison and Chris Kennedy (who joined the band shortly after their last album), Rick Rude have constructed an album that ebbs and flows in a way that feels like time passing, healing, with riotous spikes and reflective respite. Make no mistake though, it’s a ripper, they’d have it no other way. - DG
XL Recordings
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
The Smile certainly don’t need to move as fast as they do, but who is going to stop them. The trio of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner give off the impression that they’re excited about creating together, excited to see where the roots of their project will lead, and how it will expand. Less than two years after their debut album, A Light For Attracting Attention (and it’s subsequent live album), The Smile returned with Wall of Eyes, continuing to evolve their delicate and elegant mélange of ideas in all directions. From the refracting glow of disorientation that accompanies “Read The Room” to the jazzy skitter of “Friend Of A Friend” and the taut but vast atmosphere of “I Quit,” The Smile prove that they’re not resting on past accomplishments and indefatigable good will. They’ve earned their acclaim once again with another dazzling and forward thinking album, sweeping from movement to movement with orchestral intentionality, artistic chaos, and undeniable grace. Their creative spark burns bright and eternal. - DG
Legless / Goner / Drunken Sailor Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Australia's own Split System have presented their latest album, Vol. 2, as a kind of musical counteragent. By first questioning if our "demands of punk are a little too high... [or] a little too exacting," not to mention talk of primal itches that need scratching, they’ve positioned themselves as a hard-hitting salve for needless wanderlust. The resulting eleven track LP supports that M.O. to a tee. "The Wheel" may be the most streamlined piece of Aussie punk rock you can lay ears upon. Meanwhile, "Kill Me" is the bouncing, angsty grandchild of bands like The Scientists and Radio Birdman. Is it all good? You bet it is — a sound that draws you into a crowded pit and ignites both hearts and minds as it peels away the needless ephemera of life like so much industrial solvent. - Chris Coplan
ALSO RECOMMENDED:
@ “Are You There God? It’s Me @” | ARSE “Kaputt.” | BAD HISTORY MONTH “To Be Free” | BIB “Biblical” | BIG MESS “Heroic Captains of Industry” | BOLDY JAMES & NICHOLAS CRAVEN “Penalty Of Leadership” | CAN “Live In Paris 1973” | CHE NOIR “The Color Chocolate, Vol. 1” | THE CHISEL “What A Fucking Nightmare” | FATBOI SHARIF & ROPER WILLIAMS “Something About Shirley” | GRASS JAW “I Don’t Want To Believe” | GRAZIA “In Poor Taste” | HACKER “Psy-Wi-Fi” | HEEMS & LAPGAN “Lafandar” | LAETITIA SADIER “Rooting For Love” | LILY SEABIRD “Alas,” | LUPO CITTÁ “Lupo Cittá” | MODE HEXE “Norphonic” | SPECTRAL VOICE “Sparagmos” | THA GOD FAHIM “Dump Goat 2” | TY SEGALL “Three Bells” | THE UMBRELLAS “Fairweather Friend” | ZOWY “Beware Magical Thinking”
MARCH:
Tough Love
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
One might hear Ulrika Spacek and not appreciate the pop sensibility underlying some of the harsher, post-punk aspects of that group’s excellent 2023 release Compact Trauma. However, that group’s front man, Rhys Edwards, is constantly injecting that sensibility throughout all of his music. The Foreign Department is Edwards’ follow up to 2022’s impressive Flickering I, released under the name Astrel K. Under this moniker, Edwards’ pop sensibility is more transparently laid bare. The name Brian Wilson gets thrown around a lot as a comparator, whether for vocals, album production, or the general mood of songs, artists, or records. Here, with Astrel K, the comparator is apposite. There’s equal parts pop sensibility, sweet melancholy, and beautiful song arrangements on The Foreign Department. Not many artists have that special sauce. From bouncy and fun Kraftwerk-influenced songs like “R U A Literal Child,” to cinematic score-like tunes, as on “Daffodil” or interstitial “C-Ya!,” Astrel K builds tunes with surprises and soul-edifying qualities. - Zak Mercado
Realistik Studios
Youtube | Geocities
Shimmering like a mirrored ballroom Diamond Jubilee is a record of tasteful excess. Across its two-hour runtime, the album never seems to ache for the common descriptors of work of its length. This is not an album that is epic in scope or full of aching ten-minute-plus tracks, but rather a precisely and perfectly executed collection of hauntingly brilliant guitar pop. Cindy Lee as a persona has always carried a spectral quality, as if Pat Flegel was resurrecting the ghosts of sixties girl groups past and channelling them through a husky yet tender falsetto and glitteringly sharp guitar. Where other albums under Cindy Lee have explored harsh synth soundscapes and no-wave angularities, Diamond Jubilee is as pure of a pop record as any of those sixty’s greats, complete with haunting brill-building production, gorgeous choruses, and barely any songs that break the five-minute mark. - Devin Birse
Self Released
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Jen Bender’s vulnerability cuts through Thanks So Much with the same corporeality of blazing stars in the night sky. Clear, infinite, ever-distant, yet tangible. On “The Alternative”–the opening track of Cusp’s new EP–after a ceaseless list of grievances, Bender sings, somewhere between a mumble and a shout, “I think people are good; they just make mistakes.” The guitars wash up in a tidal wave of resonance, and the band lets the drums sit thick and heavy. Like Bender’s biting lyrics, the song begins and ends with arresting starkness. The Chicago-based outfit’s new EP is as much an indie record as it is a grunge, shoegaze, or pop record. A dreamy, psychedelic-infused ambience underpins its entirety, allowing crunchy, reverberating guitars to smash through the speakers with well-curated intensity. Thanks So Much is a loud EP, and Cusp definitely knows the importance of volume. But most importantly, they understand the importance of tranquillity. - Myles Tiessen
Ruination Record Co.
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Inspired by the unique guitar work and confessional songwriting of artists like Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, Chicago singer-songwriter Hannah Frances is another in a lineage of great songwriters who have tackled the subject of grief and loss. Going into her third studio album, she sought to create something that could be healing both to herself and to the listener. The result was Keeper of the Shepherd, a record overflowing with generosity and ambition, with Frances delving into the darkest parts of her psyche and her past to try and learn to reclaim herself again. Frances’ lyrics on Shepherd often focus on the feeling of being trapped inside oneself, of our own bodies and minds not being us but something we are stuck in. Through these seven tracks, we hear the sound of her attempting to break free. - Calvin Staropoli
Total Punk Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
If there’s another record out there that oozes joy the way that The Worst of Itchy & The Nits does, we haven’t heard it. The Sydney based trio combine the smash hits of their self-titled demo with five new songs to create a relentless garage punk record steeped in sunshine and endless charm. Rudimentary in construction, the brilliance is in the band’s power-pop hooks, their gang vocals, and the punchy nature of their lo-fi sound. The songs are bright, simplistic, and as raw as can be, loaded with flippant attitude (“Beat It Bozo,” “I’m Not Listenin”) and sugary smiles magnetism. Itchy & the Nits eschew technicality and finesse for what really matters, inescapably great songs played with undeniable heart. Bouncing from one jangly garage bop into the next, the band run through each minute long song with a carefree wonder and reckless sense of exuberance. - DG
Self Released
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Let’s be perfectly clear, Jae Skeese is laser focused on Testament of the Times, his full length collaboration with producer Superior. Following a collaborative album with Conway The Machine and his first “proper” full length, Abolished Uncertainties, Skeese single-handedly eclipses his entire catalog with verbose and honest lyricism that feels like an underground hip-hop masterclass. In a world where bars outweigh hype, Jae Skeese would be praised among hip-hop’s intelligent elite, a top tier MC (and diehard sneakerhead) with an expansive rhyme book that prefers the personal to boastful posturing or glorifying the struggle. Testament of the Times should be a defining moment, a densely layered and emotional rap album that’s unapologetically true to itself. - DG
Sad Cactus Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
In early spring 2023, Mulva (featuring members of Kal Marks and Bethlehem Steel) released the truly commanding Seer EP. Across that four-track effort, they emphasized balance — between post rock and sludge, emotional restraint and outright indulgence — to give us this really multifaceted experience. Now, the band have released their debut album, Bitter Form, in which they seem both newly-transformed and yet more familiar than ever. It's just as startling and compelling of a new experience as you’d ultimately desire. It's about accessibility to themselves and to one another, and being free to find a way to pull back or push forward to find newer ways of balancing loud and soft, brash and nuanced, direct and mysterious, etc. "Lye," while not my fave track, is a standout because you can almost hear this back-and-forth, and it has these moments where the balance seems tenuous but god does it feel so great to move with such uncertainty. The band can do that because they've tried to remain open to more imperfections and messiness because it also carries with it expressions of a more profound humanity and heaps of unspoken texture and context. - Chris Coplan
Pimpire Records
Spotify | Apple
Roc Marciano has positioned himself over the years as both an acquired taste for some and one of the best to ever do it to everyone else. The Hempstead based MC is a living legend, a rapper that carved his own path, with raw unflinching lyrics, equal parts poetic and menacing, the grace and the dirt. Roc Marciano is cut from the same cloth as Ghostface Killah, Rakim, and Pimp C, an MC that feels larger than life, his tales of the streets only balanced by his sense of humor. Marciology, produced by Marci, The Alchemist, and Animoss, is full of tight loops and hard rhymes. The bar for bar punches take some unpacking (as do all the best Marci records), he’s talking his shit with artistic elegance and patience, his intricate rhyme schemes delivered with both a sinister sneer and a braggadocios smirk. - DG
Merge Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
If Rosali’s No Medium was a masterpiece rippling at a heavy boil, Bite Down feels like the casually simmering counterpart, an album laced with heavy sentiment and graceful patience. Rosali Middleman and her band (once again joined by David Nance, James Schroeder, and Kevin Donahue) balance gentle textures and peeling guitars, the careening boogie tempered with the softer more nuanced moments of quiet retrospection. There’s a great deal of emotional muscle in the lyrics, Rosali drifting between loss and love, a mix of longing and understanding, songs that often find her down but absolutely never out. While it’s a more serene affair than the band’s last record, it’s not without it’s rollicking moments of boisterous country twang and silky soul. Bite Down proves to be a gorgeous and dynamic record, veering between moods and mental states with an unflinching sincerity. It’s a reminder that Rosali deserves all the flowers. - DG
Century Media Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
The LA based quartet are making death metal records the way they love them, raw, mountainous, and classic. Fragments of the Ageless, the band’s fifth album is a colossal homage to riffs… big fucking nasty riffs, riffs that shred, riffs with hooks, brilliant razor sharp riffs, riffs that decimate everything else to rubble. Skeletal Remains nod to the past, sure, but their primal take on ruthless OSDM feels like an adaptation of their influences, a catalyst and reminder of why they play supremely evil sounding death metal in the first place. Fragments of the Ageless is a demonic beast come home to reign, the incarnate of chaos and carnage. While eschewing over the top technicality or experimental genre splicing, there’s nothing “meat and potatoes” about the record, the album’s rotted fury feels corrosive at all moments, a brutal masterpiece set firmly in decrepit glory. Skeletal Remains are in fine form, and against all odds, they just keep getting better with every release. They are reliable, an impenetrable force, and for all it’s classic trappings, Fragments still feels like a breath of fresh air. Mining classic influences like Morbid Angel, Grave, early Gorguts, and Pestilence, the band offer a none stop rollercoaster of rhythmic slaughter and twin guitar riffs that dig and dig (and dig), the dirge balanced by the rampaging leads and combustible solos. - DG
Static Shock / Anti Fade Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
The Minneapolis Uranium Club Band are burdened with expectations. Their music is expected to be hard hitting and immediate, their lyrics expected to be cerebral and absurd, their live performances rapturous and intense, their band profile tantalizingly minimal. These expectations only grew stronger as time elapsed between releases and sporadic live performances. At long last, the Club has released new music, Infants Under the Bulb, a record that does what all great records by great bands do: overdelivers on some expectations and completely thwarts others. Make no mistake: the Uranium Club is back, and they’ve outdone themselves. The platonic ideal of a Uranium Club song is agitated and agitating: dueling guitar stabs and outbursts over a foundation of languid bass and impossibly fast four-on-the-floor drumming; speak-sung vocals delivered with deep emotion and palpable sarcasm about alienation and esoterica. Miraculously, IUTB delivers six or seven of these perfect tunes. “Small Grey Man” is a well-chosen opener, as understated chords and plodding tom-toms let the tension build and build – it’s a tension that sticks with you through the entire album, ebbing and flowing but never fully released. The Club is in their finest form on tracks like “Viewers Like You,” “2-600-Lullaby,” and “The Big Guitar Jackoff in the Sky.” They are the tightest, most vigorous punk band on the planet, but somehow also the most accessible and infectious. These songs get you moving and slamming while also being unstoppable earworms. - Matt Watton
One Little Independant Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Six albums in and USA Nails just keep getting better. Never a band to rest on their laurels, the London based quartet are forever warping their sound, an intersection of damaged noise rock, charismatic post-punk, and discordant post-hardcore. With Feel Worse, the group’s first record for One Little Independent (Bad Breeding, Crass, Björk), they’re examining societal misfortune in its many forms. With sharp and pointed lyricism at times abstract and other times more direct, Steven Hodson and Gareth Thomas howl and malign the indifference that has washed over so many. Feel Worse is spring loaded with corrosive riffs and seasick layered distortion. There’s a visceral attack firmly in place throughout the record’s aggressive sound, but the album is undeniably dynamic, an exploration of brute grooves and swarming abrasion that bends in new directions, sputtering and stampeding in equal measure. - DG
ALSO RECOMMENDED:
A COUNTRY WESTERN “Life On The Lawn” | ADRIANNE LENKER “Bright Future” | BILL ORCUTT GUITAR QUARTET “Four Guitars Live” | DRILL “Permanent” | GOUGE AWAY “Deep Sage” | KIM GORDON “The Collective” | LYSOL “Down The Street” | MANNEQUIN PUSSY “I Got Heaven” | MARBLED EYE “Read The Air” | ODETTA HARTMAN “Swansongs” | OUTER WORLD “Who Does The Music Love?” | PISSED JEANS “Half Divorced” | PLEASANTS “Rocanrol In Mono” | SEPTAGE “Septic Worship“ | SLIMELORD “Chytridiomycosis Relinquished” | TOMATO FLOWER “No” | TOSSER “Sheer Humanity” | VALTATYHJIÖ “Kuristusleikki” | VERITY DEN “Verity Den”
APRIL:
Double Double Whammy
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Babehoven, the New York duo comprised of Maya Bon and Ryan Albert, have solidified themselves over the past seven years, release after release, amongst the finest purveyors of forthright and achingly gorgeous indie-folk. Bon has a knack for penning songs full of intense and forthrightly poetic lyrics that reach the heart of personal issues while holding a universality that has wide ranging appeal. She has shown herself to be equally adept at heart-wrenching emotions and expressing the hidden beauty in the world and daily life in a manner that is wholesomely gripping. The music, with delicate to soaring keys and rumbling chunky guitars, shifts around adding color and depth across these tracks. With Water's Here in You, Babehoven have managed to push beyond guitar based folk songs, incorporating a denser atmosphere that ebbs and flows with power, moving through pain into contemplative rest and peace. - Kris Handel
Thrill Jockey Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
No other group pushes the boundaries of feedback and bombast quite like BIG|BRAVE. Part of this is Robin Wattie’s otherworldly voice, which is at once powerful and vulnerable. Equally vital are guitarist Mathieu Ball and drummer Tasy Hudson, both of whose all-or-nothing playing feels specific to the band. On A Chaos of Flowers, the Montreal-based trio’s mastery of dynamics continues. The band welds its signature formula of orchestral guitar squall and hammerhead rhythms into new forms that are every bit as compelling as their catalogue of mono-chord pummel-fests. An active listen to A Chaos of Flowers reveals a band exploring rich textures, brushed drums, and complex melodies. The music is nearly penitent in its patience. If doom can be delicate, then this is it. - Benji Heywood
Astral Spirits
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Accept When is the collaboration rooted in friendship and admiration between the duo of Wendy Eisenberg (guitar, vocals) and Caroline Davis (alto saxophone, vocals, synthesizers). The renowned pair construct a gorgeous blend of compositional improvisation, free jazz, and gentle experimental folk, alternative between the avant-garde and structured songs, each benefiting from the strength of the other. Joined at times by Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier on drums (who also mixed and mastered the record), Davis and Eisenberg feel locked in as they careen, skronk, and drift through minimalist reflections and meditative jazz, contorting the abrasive into something beautiful, the movement taking new shapes at every majestic turn. It’s a stunning record for both deep focus and zoning out, an album that blossoms anew with each repeat listen. - DG
Full Time Hobby
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Dana Gavanski is not afraid to write songs. On her third full length album, LATE SLAP out on Full Time Hobby, we are treated to fully formed, fleshed out arrangements that relish in their own musicality. While her previous releases showcased her arresting voice and undeniable spirit, they feel reserved and somber in comparison to this new record – LATE SLAP is teeming with life, in all its joy, heaviness, and whimsy. It’s teeming with music: beautiful, uncanny layers of voice, a menagerie of synth tones and guitar jangles, tasteful strings and enthralling melodies. Gavanski emerges self-assured, and rightly so, stepping out as a true peer alongside more well-known names like Cate LeBon, Aldous Harding, and A. Savage. Take “Let Them Row,” one of a handful of equally amazing singles. Beginning with an understated bass and piano line, Gavanski’s voice floats on top with a melody that lilts along but doesn’t resolve where you’d expect. Deep layers of vocal harmonies sneak in, as the song’s second movement introduces a carnivalesque synth that leads to a bubbly, rousing conclusion. This is a masterclass in the often-ignored art of arranging – no wasted space, no jostling for position, just an impeccable balance of voice and instrumentation creating an infectious yet refined art-pop gem. The record is chock-full of this. - Matt Watton
Fire Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Liverpool’s Jane Weaver is a legend in her own right, a transfixing presence in the world of experimental pop for the past two decades. Following the dissolution of her band Kill Laura back in the 90s, she began an uncompromising solo career, creating left of center pop music that blends analog synth textures, elegantly warped disco, and radiant lounge to create something timeless and innovative. Following 2020’s great Flock LP, Weaver is back with Love In Constant Spectacle, recorded together with John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding). An exceptional album from start to finish, Weaver offers silky grooves that balances motorik rhythms with lush fuzzy psych, infectious hooks, and a jazzy spaced-out bliss. She’s in perfect control of the proceedings, gliding from kaleidoscopic brilliance into emotionally wrought territory and back again with a disorienting grace and Weaver’s anything-goes elegance. - DG
Exploding In Sound Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Miranda Winters has been a fixture of Chicago’s underground scene ever since her co-founded noise-rock group Melkbelly turned basements and clubs into sweaty communions of raw energy and pop-melodic mobility, but even before that she was writing gripping and tender alt-pop songs that stand the test of time. Now with a new project to focus on as well as the trials of becoming a parent, Lawn Girl plays beginning to end so strategically with youthful nostalgia as Winters writes through the lens of adulthood. When writing the album, Winters wanted to further explore her relationship within the historic Chicago music scene, more specifically with the relationship of women that have for so long built it up. Championing the idea of femininity, Winters added drummer Wendy Zeldin, bassist Lizz Smith, and guitarist Linda Sherman to make Mandy into something undeniably invigorating. With these new players, a fuller sound and depth in the production, Lawn Girl feels fresh in its delivery yet familiar at the heart of Winters’ charming and nostalgic song writing that has made her a beloved household name in Chicago and beyond. - Shea Roney
Spartan Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
Neither kitsch nor hard-hearted, it would be easy to say that Frog Poems is about confronting the loss of innocence. It is clear, however, that Mister Goblin is concerned with going beyond this worn-out premise to examine the deeper, unresolved ambiguities of growing up as the source material for both adult confusion and contentment. This point of view isn’t entirely a rehash of the notion of the child being the parent to the adult; it is more along the lines of innocence and experience co-existing at once. Yet, there is also a lightness of touch to this album. Like his musical forebears, Mister Goblin is committed to recording a certain set (or period) of feelings rather than tallying rites of passage or arriving at the settled conclusions of maturity. Through elements of pop grace, Frog Poems is a reminder that we ignore the emotional insights of those long-ago episodes, however distant, at our peril. - Christopher J. Lee
Tankcrimes
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
There’s a bull-headed brutality to Necrot’s music that feels unfused. In a genre that often leans over the top, the Oakland trio seem grounded, crushing skulls while playing it (relatively) cool. There’s a consistency the band have built over the course of the last decade, the sound of unstoppable juggernaut force barreling forward at the leisure pace of a stampede. Like a wrecking ball forever swinging until all that remains is rubble, Necrot are capable of sheer destruction, but there’s a thoughtfulness to their songwriting, an intention beyond disgust and putridity. Lifeless Birth, the band’s third full length album, is rooted in reality, an old school death metal record with a focus on modern times. Void of the cosmic, supernatural, and demonic, Necrot are exploring the terrors of this world, the horrors brought on by humanity. Having crawled through hell to arrive at this album, the trio arrive with a fiery determination. Lifeless Birth is both their most bloodthirsty album and their most accessible. - DG
Anti Fade / Upset The Rhythm Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple
There’s a special glow to Parsnip’s music, a lightness that retains substance, a whimsical sound that’s built with more nuance than one might expect. Behold, the Melbourne based quartet’s second full length album, released via Anti Fade Records (Program, Uranium Club, Alien Nosejob) and Upset The Rhythm (Marcel Wave, Normil Hawaiians, Earth Ball), feels as though the band have become ever so slightly unglued. Their swarming pop charm is still in tact but they’re embracing the weirdness of their psychedelic influences, the result a rich world of textural differences, moments that pop and glimmer, aiding and abetting the brilliance of their songs in a way that swoons and disorients in equal measure. - DG
Double Phantom Records
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There’s a sense of patience inherent in Vessel’s debut album. The Atlanta based post-punk quartet took their time and it shows in the end result. Wrapped In Cellophane is a marvelous record of immersive songs and vibrant grooves. Formed during the pandemic by a group of friends seemingly looking for an outlet, they spent years writing songs, scrapping what didn’t stick, and eventually landing on one of the more impressive debuts we’ve heard in a while. Vessel’s music is dynamic, bouncing through disjointed skronk one moment and intertwined in dense melodies the next. Led by Alex Tuisku, who handles vocals and drums, it makes sense that the rhythms and hooks are given equal focus, bright spots with a locked-in pulse that allows the rest of the band to flood the mix with any and all textures (much of which is provided by Isaac Bishop’s shimmering saxophone). - DG
20 Buck Spin
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Abhorrent Rapture, and Buried Deep In A Bottomless Grave before it, were impossibly heavy, a pair of slime infested and brutal death metal records. The past three years have had us wondering where exactly Witch Vomit go from there, as they can’t get much heavier. Funeral Sanctum, the band’s third album, answers that question with a new emphasis on dismal melodic touches. Make no mistake, this isn’t “melodeath” and Witch Vomit haven’t embraced the genre’s cheesier tendencies, but their carnage and dread have more of a melodic focus buried within the primordial sludge. While the shift on lead single “Blood on Abomination” took some getting used to, the record comes lurching forward with demonic grooves and the sense of decimation like a twinkle in the band’s cavernous eye sockets. - DG
ALSO RECOMMENDED:
ALEXANDER “Lucky Life” | ATRAE BILIS “Aumicide” | BNNY “One Million Love Songs” | BUSTED HEAD RACKET “Go Go Go!” | CAVALIER “Different Type Time” | CORRIDOR “Mimi” | DEAD FINKS “Eve of Ascension” | DR SURE’S UNUSUAL PRACTICE “Total Reality” | DRAHLA “Angeltape” | ENGULFED “Unearthly Litanies of Despair” | FULL OF HELL “Coagulated Bliss” | GREG SAUNIER “We Sang, Therefore We Were” | GROCER “Bless Me” | GUSTAF “Package Pt. 2” | HOLIDAY MUSIC “333” | NOBLE BEAST “Absentee” | NOLAN POTTER “The Perils of Being Trapped Inside a Head” | POOLBLOOD “theres_plenty_of_music_to_go_around.zip” | TWICE EYES “2XEYES” | VALEBOL “Valebol” | WRETCHED BLESSING “Wretched Blessing”
MAY:
Exploding In Sound Records
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Did You Get Better, the debut album from Chicago's Babe Report's is built on non-stop rippers, blasting with fuzzy riffs and pounding drums. Blending together post-punk and basement pop, they've made a record splattered with instantly memorable hooks as they tear between the sweetly melodic and blown out shredding. There’s no two ways about it, the record is a certified ripper, but don’t mistake that for a lack of dynamics. The quartet (which includes former members of FCKR JR, Geronimo!, and Yeesh among others) are playing with a propulsive intensity and fuzzy resolve, their songs filled with crushing grunge-tinged pop abandon and riffs that dig into one groove before finding another. Led by Ben Grigg and Emily Bernstein (who both handle guitar and vocals), they come stampeding out the get with primitive pummeling from the rhythm section and guitars that careen between blown out and recklessly melodic. Listen in full, it’s full steam fun from top to bottom. - DG
Temporary Residence / Invada Records
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Geoff Barrow (drums/vocals), Billy Fuller (bass), and Will Young (keys) have an understanding of where they’re going, even if the lines of the map have blurred and smudged. They’ve played together long enough to develop a synchronicity in their performances, providing each other the space to adapt and the patience to explore. That earned sense of trust feels apparent in the progressions found throughout >>>>, a record in constant motion yet never seemingly in a rush to get anywhere. There’s an oceanic feel to it, ebbing and flowing like waves crashing into the shoreline, a natural rhythm in an ever changing world. There’s a brightness reminiscent of a breezy calm, a throbbing heat stroke inducing pulse, and the vast darkness, each moment an inevitable part of the dynamic whole. Beak>’s signature blend of krautrock rhythms, analog synth exploration, and droning psych pop melodies is engrained with depth, a cosmic current of fluid ideas made uniquely human and at times delicate (despite the band’s charmingly salty disposition). - DG
Domino Recording Co.
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Beth Gibbons needs no introduction. Twenty two years after the release of her collaborative album with Rustin Man, the Portishead singer goes solo on the stunning Lives Outgrown, a showcase for her crystalline voice and haunting compositions. Gibbons explores aging and time with a deft grace and orchestral precision. Lives Outgrown quickly establishes two things: it was worth the wait and all the hype is well deserved. Over skeletal bass and dusty sprinkles of percussion, Gibbons’ signature voice, full of heart and weary resolve, is the shinning star, her words ringing heavy as she laments the unpredictable nature of aging. While the atmosphere whistles and plinks around the ether, her mesmerizing vocal melody remains the constant focus. - DG
Self Released
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Crumb has proven that they can toe the line between eclectic and grounded. The airy, dream-like quality of Lila Ramani’s vocals and Bri Aronow’s synthesizer are backed by the confidence of Jonathan Gilad’s percussion and Jesse Brotter’s punchy bass lines. AMAMA, the band’s third studio album, is the strongest collaboration of these skills so far. The vocals have a cloudy quality reminiscent of shoegaze—at times, the lyrics are almost indecipherable. The listening experience of a Crumb song begs equal attention to written themes and musical motifs. Instead of a lyrical deep dive, the band’s songs are best analyzed through letting the curated mood of each track wash over you. On AMAMA, these atmospheres are created through intense repetition, where certain words and phrases are echoed again and again throughout a song. - Caroline Nieto
Joyful Noise Recordings
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There’s so much to love and explore on Finom’s new album Not God, an endlessly interesting art rock album that really shines from the duo’s chemistry, Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham forever matching each others “freak” in stunning fashion. While early singles “Haircut” and the timeless beauty of “As You Are” are astonishing, the album’s “deep cuts” offer some of the record’s greatest moments, found in songs like “Dirt” and “Naked,” the former falling deep into a mesmerizing groove, while the later comes slinking right behind it, gliding on tight harmonies, minimalist grace, and a hook that soars while retaining a sense of subtlety. Finom play with amorphous shapes, their songs dazzling and rewarding, exploring textures that really demand repeat listens. - DG
Nuclear Blast
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Arizona death metal juggernauts Gatecreeper return with the long awaited Dark Superstition, pairing their signature brutality and sludgy grooves with a melodic turn (at times reminiscent of Dismember). It's a big shift but the band haven't abandoned the oozing and violent density and apocalyptic dread they've built their sound upon. They quintet are reshaping, manipulating their seismic death metal in new directions, first experimenting with different aspects of hardcore on An Unexpected Reality, and now they’ve introduced increasingly melodic ideas throughout Dark Superstition. If the hard rock riffs of “The Black Curtain” caught you off guard, you’re not alone, but in the context of the album, every piece serves the greater puzzle. For every genre bending amalgamation, Gatecreeper balance it with nail in the skull death metal, case in point, the barbaric brilliance of “Masterpiece of Chaos”. Pure decimation, it’s a blast of bellowing disgust and monolithic riffs. - DG
Mexican Summer
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Here in the Pitch is a natural continuation of Jessica Pratt's previous three LPs, intimate folk songs through the grandeur of a studio. Pratt’s been noted for her perfectionist streak in interviews and even in her newsletter, where she herself emphasized that it’s because of this she publishes so few songs. All of them sound labored over but effortless and precise as can be. The novum this time though involves a steady beat beckoning into the space; one that gives her folk greater direction to outright pop if not other mid-century styles. The hypnotic thump-pa-dump-da-da-la drum roll of “Life Is” is practically a big bang-180 from “Opening Night”’s piano saunter. This is a track that spends thirty seconds locking down a bass groove and strings for full blown pop revelry, practically orienting Pratt at center stage; no longer out of the past but present. That is until the follow-up, “Better Hate”. It features vocal layering as detailed and sublime as a cut like “Game That I Play,” now wedding the effect to bossa nova drum stylings, recasting the ghostly effect from Quiet Signs. Such is that brimming prowess of Pratt's arrangements, disarming and uncanny, matching her meticulous phrasings and featherweight delivery. - Matty McPherson
Sub Pop Records
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News of the Universe presents the band in flux. With the addition of drummer Audrey Johnson there is also the departure of bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl. The complexities behind La Luz’s latest contributes to its greater sense of prevalence in alteration. As an ever-evolving set of new obstacles arise, the band prove to be willfully indulging in the chaos, rather than pushing it away. Lead vocalist Shana Cleveland’s vocals are haunting and expansive; space is created for humor, drama, and emotional impact. La Luz’s fifth album has a sweet balance between yearning for normality and embracing the strange. Tracks float along between one-another, in the peculiar dream-like way La Luz have become known for. The band draw upon influence from the baroque sound, as well as classic folk and even doo-wop, but what is most recognizable is their individuality. It is easy to become lost in the La Luz sound. News of the Universe is a record created entirely by women, from its instrumentation and writing right down to its mastering. It is a smart and well-considered record based on womanhood and connection. - Zuzu Lacey
During a private listening party for his newest record, #RICHAXXHAITIAN, Haitian-American rapper Mach-Hommy posed a question to the crowd: “What’s the difference between legend and a legend?” Maybe you’ve heard Mach’s legend before. More than thirty projects deep, he’s got co-signs from a broad cross-section of hip-hop royalty — plus a ravenous fanbase that’s turned his rap-release-as-high-art approach into a viable career path. Although his trademark reclusiveness has helped him get here, it feels like he’s been toying with the idea of becoming more open with his artistic approach and motivations. A recent press release describes #RICHAXXHAITIAN as the last of a “tetralogy” of Haiti-focused albums, starting with 2016’s HBO (Haitian Body Odor), 2021’s Pray for Haiti, and Balens Cho (Hot Candles), more intimate and melancholy, highlighting the scars of a “post”-colonial world between scraps of archival clips and vibrant instrumentation. Haiti’s struggle for self-determination has always been central to Mach’s mythos, but these four records explicitly use it as a framing device — and compared to its predecessors, #RICHAXXHAITIAN feels especially clear and distilled. His music often feels like it’s turning its back to the listener, but this album feels more aware of its relationship to its audience, more ready to explain itself. When the Haitian diaspora has seen its wealth, natural resources and culture repeatedly extracted, his murkiness acts as a protective balm. - Justin Davis
Silver Current Records
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Wondrous, majestic, and fantastical, Magic Fig’s debut rarely feels of these times, and it’s all the better for it. As so many struggle with their day to day existence, trying to make ends meet as the world crumbles around them, it’s not hype and “buzz” that we’re in search of, but a great escape, a place beyond the daily grind, beyond this realm altogether. The band’s self-titled album is an ever shifting kaleidoscope, the shapes all recognizable yet refracted in mirrored splendor. It’s a decidedly pop odyssey that wanders deep into the woods of late 60’s prog, Moog altered psych, and dream pop at its most visionary, a lysergic trip into an unknown cosmic past. As the isolation of the pandemic developed a need for collaboration and a communal approach in its wake, so came to be Magic Fig, stepping outside our reality, figuratively and somewhat literally as we decontextualize those involved in the band from their best known work. Magic Fig’s blend of prog and psych is sophisticated and developed, there’s a sense of patience even in the most dexterous of movements. From the hypnotic blossom of album opener “Goodbye Suzy” and its luminescent harmonies and the cavalcade of divergent drum patterns to the folk-leaning ease and natural aura of “Departure,” the band feel locked into the whole. - DG
Father/Daughter Records
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mui zyu's full length debut was a great introduction to Eva Liu's gorgeous world of bent dream pop and experimental indie rock but nothing or something to die for feels like a defining moment, a stunning record of subtle cosmic complexities and swirling nuances that heighten the emotional weight of Lui's songwriting. There’s a transportive nature to her music, a quality that feels stripped from another realm, like space travel in tranquility. Last year’s Rotten Bun For An Eggless Century brought an electronic flourish to Liu’s words, the songs felt immerse and alien but emotionally resonant. Experimenting with layers of synths and programmed rhythms, mui zyu’s songs tend to feel limitless, ideas sustained on infinite timelines as hearts shatter and the mind wanders. nothing or something to die for expands the depth of while slightly contracting the sonic palette, pulling away from overt chaos toward something that’s lush and stunning, beauty from desperation. - DG
Iron Lung Records / Televised Suicide
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The agitation of No Future's Mirror has reached a boiling point. The Perth based hardcore band won't be suffering any injustices lightly, highlighted throughout a record that's a giant kick in the teeth both sonically and lyrically. The band's fury is captured in exceptionally blistering riffs and an onslaught of stampeding d-beat rhythms. After a handful of EPs and singles, Mirror, their caustic full length debut, arrives as 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. No Future explode out the gate, the need for subtlety obliterated by societal dread and the violent horror caused by futility. - DG
Touch and Go Records
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To All Trains is the sixth, and since the unfortunate premature passing of the legendary Steve Albini, last album from Shellac, continuing their persistent chugging sonic assault of aggravation, cutting wit, and intelligence in fine fashion. The band streamline Albini's acerbic way with words along with seemingly simple yet absolutely devastating musicianship and guile that combines The Fall-like ire with unyielding lyrical observations. Albini, along with Bob Weston (bass) and Todd Trainer (drums) combine for a forceful and incessantly pounding musical beast that refuses to relent, which is readily apparent in this late stage collection of songs. The record finds Shellac doing away with the longer motorik grooves that were widely spread across their discography in favor of tightening up, leading to direct and precise strikes full of vengeance and bile. - Kris Handel
Permanent Residence
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Ain’t no two ways about it, Moral Decay, the full length debut from Perth’s Sooks is a ripper, and a dynamic one at that. While many hardcore records can be full throttle at all times, this is corrosive punk with a sense for nuance, splitting time between brutal indignation and a flippant sense of sarcasm that’s equally built around a righteous fury. The riffs are always shredding, the hum of the distortion captured with a perfect layer of hiss to mix together with the propulsive drums. Everything pounding in unison amid a flow of feedback, setting the muscular backdrop for Ange’s lacerating vocals and her higher pitched sardonic screeds as she takes on mountainous levels of gendered inequality, discrimination, bigotry, and the devolved state of society. - DG
12XU
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Winged Wheel have expanded to a six piece ensemble - Cory Plump (Spray Paint, Rider/Horse), Fred Thomas (Tyvek, Idle Ray), Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Damiana), Matthew J Rolin (Powers/Rolin Duo, solo). and in addition to the first album’s lineup, Big Hotel enlists Lonnie Slack (Water Damage) and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth). In an orchestra where each person is a conductor, these experimental imaginations melt into one conversation. The first Winged Wheel album was recorded in syncopated time across the country, putting the symbiosis of the instrumentalists to the test. For Big Hotel, the group met in person to record over a three day stint in Kingston, New York, producing hours of improvisational sonic drift. The excess was trimmed away, leaving only these fleeting moments of focus where the rest was seared away by time. Winged Wheel pioneers a seamless multi-instrumental odyssey. Big Hotel’s imagination expands into a scale grander than its literal soundscape, flowing into every crevice of the imagination. - Selina Yang
Ever/Never Records
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The past couple of years have seen a steady flow of releases from the brilliant Workers Comp, a band that splits the differences between lo-fi punk, Americana, and folk in it’s rawest distillation. The decidedly “for the people” trio of Ryan McKeever (Staffers), Luke Reddick (Divorce Horse), and Joshua Gillis (Deadbeat Beat) have been cranking out dusty country tunes that feel built for cassette, a destiny cemented in clamoring minimalism and plenty of psychedelic twang. The band’s self-titled album collects all of their EPs and singles, compiled together with a new song, highlighting both the humanity and labor driven dissatisfaction that lies at the heart of their music. - DG
Hardly Art
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Four years after youbet’s now classic debut album, the Brooklyn based project returns with the follow-up, Way To Be, the band’s first for Hardly Art (Lala Lala, Shana Cleveland, Caution). If you’ve ever witnessed the magic that comes with seeing the band live, they seem to capture it here, contorting melody with pinched harmonic grooves and lackadaisical rhythms that keeps a loose frame. Nick Llobet and co. play with a lo-fi charm but the songs feel impeccably realized, layering guitars and textures to create a free flowing charm, wavering with a pastoral psych breeze. While many of the songs aren’t built with massive hook (like many other youbet songs are), it’s in the calming nuance that it’s able to ramble between fuzz and gluey bent-pop. - DG
ALSO RECOMMENDED:
AKIRA KOSEMURA & LAWRENCE ENGLISH “Selene” | AMY O “Mirror, Reflect” | BAD HISTORY MONTH “BH1” | BERMUDA SQUARES “Outsider” | BROADCAST “Spell Blanket” | CONWAY THE MACHINE “Slant Face Killah” | CUTTERS “Psychic Injury” | D. SABLU “No True Silence” | GEE TEE “Prehistoric Chrome” | HABIBI “Dreamachine” | INSANE URGE “Two Tapes” | INVERTEBRATES “Sick To Survive” | OH BOLAND “Western Leisure” | PARDONER “Paranoid In Hell” | RAZ FRESCO & DANIEL SON “Northside” | ROME STREETZ “Buck 50” | SLEEPIES “Misc” | SOFIA BOLT “Vendredi Minuit” | THE SPATULAS “Beehive Mind”
JUNE:
Iron Lung / One Little Independent Records
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Stevenage anarcho hardcore band Bad Breeding return with their fifth full length, Contempt, a brash record fueled by their righteous rage and unwieldy distortion. Swarming in sludgy layers of primal noise, the band's brand of politically minded punk takes on a new degree of brutality, peeling back some of the auxiliary elements of 2022’s Human Capital in favor of hardcore deviance. It’s not necessarily a back to basics approach though, as Bad Breeding continue to push their sound with hints of psychedelic hardcore and an immersive attention to detail as they erupt with thudding dissonance and gravel throated howls. Everything about Contempt seems to swarm despite the dense construction and dangerous low end, a testament to their ability to fuse dynamics into their blistering chaos. - DG
Nuclear Blast
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Last year Cavalera (or Cavalera Conspiracy), 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, arguably the band’s first (but not last) genre defining classic, and while many love the way the original sounds, it’s clear that the re-recorded version of the record has been given an upgrade in terms of sheer fidelity, the songs hurtling like torpedoes of bellowing thrash metal. It sounded like an untamed beast back in 1987, and the it’s only grown more feral over time. There’s an enormous level of expectation involved in digging into a classic album and modernizing it, but Cavalera pull it off to perfection, the production capturing the savage and dynamic nature of the songs in the way they always intended. - DG
Feel It Records
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Over the past few years Cincinnati’s The Drin have become one of punk’s most forward thinking bands by essentially throwing the kitchen sink into their murky fog. Last year’s Today My Friend You Drunk The Venom was a visionary effort of post-punk as high art, shadowy and dangerous but triumphantly inventive. With Elude The Torch, The Drin prove that they were only getting started. Their brand of claustrophobic atmosphere and arid lo-fi ambiance is still well in tact, but there’s an incredible amount of sonic diversity bubbling beneath the haze on a set of songs that really don’t feel constricted in any way. From buzzing synths and muddy harmonicas to detached hip-hop beats and even some dungeon folk twang, The Drin take pieces here and there and reshape them into something unique, a gothic vision of post-punk romanticism filtered through a lens of dust that only aids in the ultimate appreciation of how eclectic’s Dylan McCartney and co.’s songs truly are. - DG
Rough Trade Records
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Goat Girl was a bit ahead of the windmill scene curve in 2018, at least as far as gaining international recognition, releasing a solid and straight-ahead self-titled debut. Their third album Below the Waste is their first as a trio, but they’ve developed a sound that might take upwards of ten musicians to recreate, where folk textures and gorgeous harmonies are polluted by a sludge of dreary post-punk. It runs a hefty sixteen songs, only a small handful of which are interludes, and with this there’s variety and experimentation in spades. Even as most songs only run about three minutes, they tend to branch off in unpredictable directions. While leadoff single “Ride Around” is a relatively conventional slacker rock track, relatively is doing a lot of work here. The dynamic switches in the verses are enforced by an unnervingly deep and chunky bass tone, which reappears throughout the album and forces the music to stay murky. The bridges contain a rickety stuttering feel in the guitar, and the outro builds into something surprisingly magnificent. “Words Fell Out” and “Play It Down” are a bit more direct, with even more hooks and eclectic instrumentation, but not fully out of the muck. - Anna Solomon
Dark Descent / Me Saco Un Ojo Records
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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, the band are once again atop the festering heap, stampeding in every direction with rhythmic dexterity rarely seen and guitar riffs that feel seismically intense. The entire structure of the record is pulled off its axis on several occasions, the putrid framework thrown into the abyss with each dense diversion and blistering solo. They’ve made what could be the death metal album of the year, a brutal infestation of a band as brainy as they are barbaric. Harvest of Malevolence is in constant motion, darting between rapidly shifting riffs and complex rhythms (incredible performances as per usual from both the band’s bassist and drummer) at the speed of light, and yet it’s the impenetrable darkness that always prevails. - DG
Merrie Melodies
Bandcamp
Shop Regulars' self-titled album is as refreshing as they come, a welcome reset for all our ears. Primal and hypnotic, the Portland based project rips through ramshackle riffs and combustible production to create something that's incredibly honest, engaging, and sort of deranged. Bending repetition into knots, Shop Regulars create busted lo-fi punk on the verge of collapse. 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 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. - DG
Backwoodz Studioz
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ShrapKnel, the duo of Curly Castro and PremRock return with Nobody Planning To Leave, an artistic hip-hop record with a forward thinking glow. Produced in full by Controller 7, the eclectic beats are incredible, an ever evolving landscape for the duo's oft abstract lyrics and raw delivery. ShrapKnel spit their verses with a kinetic focus, bar after bar of acrobatic highlights. It really feels like a landmark release for everyone involved, the duo’s third album for Backwoodz Studioz is firing on all cylinders, from the intricate rhymes and immaculate punchlines to what feels like a career defining moment for producer Controller 7. The grand design of the album’s beats is a sweeping in construction, slipping between hard and psychedelic to warped and bubbling and back again, mining both the glory days of boom-bap hip-hop individualism to futuristic abstract space-age beats. ShrapKnel ride whatever Controller 7 throws into the mix with veteran ease, their rhymes on a swivel of intelligent wordplay, elastic humor, and poetic resolve on another level. - DG
Exploding In Sound Records
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There are few bands that work with space, depth, and time the way that Sour Widows do, their ideas given the patience and freedom to gestate. The great expanse of their sound is paired with the gentle magic of their close harmonies and the eternal bond shared between Susanna Thomson and Maia Sinaiko. The transfixing symbiosis is evident in their playing on Revival Of A Friend, the band’s first full length record, a visionary indie rock epic that swirls with extended instrumentals and heart-on-a-sleeve honesty. Together with Max Edelman, the most tasteful of drummers, the band use nuance and atmosphere to hit impossible emotional peaks, wrought with equal parts tension and beauty. Sour Widows never take the easy path forward, their penchant to push and pull at our senses feels truer to life, the ups and downs cascading beyond our control as we attempt to hang on for dear life. Revival Of A Friend is a powerful record with grief at its core, yet Sour Widows push through with a mystical sense of warmth. - DG
Thrill Jockey Records
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Ask Aaron Turner and he’ll tell you he wants the music of SUMAC, his experimental metal band with bassist Brian Cook and drummer Nick Yacyshyn, to be a reflection of the band members’ lived experience. If we take that assertion at face value, what does The Healer, the band’s fifth album, say about the experience of living in today’s Western world? The scope and grandeur of The Healer begs comparison to an epic novel or a film auteur’s masterpiece making it impossible to distill its essence into one catchy tagline. Which is the point. At 76 minutes, The Healer is oceanic, a leviathan of tones, tempos, and motifs which run the gamut of improvisational noise, bone-humming sludge, meditative pastorals, and some straight-up abacus-defying, heart-palpitating riffs. SUMAC has always demanded a concerted effort on the part of the listener. It’s a fair ask. From its album artwork to its penchant for collaboration, everything SUMAC does is performed with painstaking care. For those who take the time, The Healer is the Pacific Northwest band’s most beguiling and rewarding album of its decade-plus career. - Benji Heywood
Double Double Whammy
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The ever shifting landscape of This Is Lorelei is a rare breed, the solo project of Nate Amos (Water From Your Eyes) has always served as a catch all for his boundless creativity. Box For Buddy, Box For Star feels like a culmination of all he's done, a kaleidoscopic blend of his many influences and inclinations, pulling together fried country tunes, auto-tuned electro pop, and homespun bedroom pop to accent his impeccably earnest and heartfelt songs. The result is like superglue for your subconscious as these songs burrow themselves deep, demanding repeat listens at an alarming frequency. Amos is an immaculate songwriter, earnest and emotional even at his most detached. He’s capable of damn near anything, and he let’s that radiance shine throughout the many sides of Box For Buddy, Box For Star. - DG
ALSO RECOMMENDED:
200 STAB WOUNDS “Manual Manic Procedures“ | AUTOBAHNS “First LP!” | BEINGS “There Is A Garden” | BLACKLISTERS “This Is Not An Album By BLKLSTRS” | COLA “The Gloss” | DUST FROM 1000 YEARS “Joy” | EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FROZE TO DEATH “Thirds” | FAN CLUB “Demonstration 2024” | GUIDED BY VOICES “Strut of Kings” | LAS NUBES “Tormentas Malsanas” | MABE FRATTI “Sentir que no sabes” | MARCEL WAVE “Something Looming” | MONO “OATH” | PERENNIAL “Art History” | PREVIOUS INDUSTRIES “Service Merchandise” | PSYCHIC GRAVEYARD “Wilting” | REARRANGED FACE “Far Green Arcade” | SNOOPER + PRISON AFFAIR “Split” | SPECIAL WORLD “Special World”