Catalonia band Mourn have been making a name for themselves within the indie rock scene from quite a young age. The band members were in their teens when they released their self-titled debut album in 2015 on Captured Tracks. Mourn has continued to expand their post-punk sound and their evolution truly shows on Self Worth.
Waiting moments comprise an overwhelming majority of Allegra Kreiger’s The Joys of Forgetting. Awaiting good times sounds pretty terrific - so long as you ignore the desolation around you and the wreckage of the near and far past. For some, that is impossible. Call us empaths and/or annoying but these days, it’s tough to call us wrong.
Working with just an old BOSS BR1180 8-track, We Are Joiners recorded two EPs earlier this year. The New York independent label Totally Real Records saw potential in these: Clients + Carriers have been gathered into a double album, released on December 4th, and the decision makes sense upon listening.
Wren Kitz’s music is tense with contrasts: with his sweet falsetto, he’s capable of working within traditional folk song structures; as a student of tape recordings, he also dissolves himself into mysterious noise. Early Worm, is carefully constructed, going from more traditional forms to the hiss of lo-fi feedback immediately afterwards.
Contrary to Airhead DC’s previous release, the reflectively dense Crush Hi, the goal was to create something simple, dreamy, and capable of being recorded on a four-track tape recorder, he said. To his credit, the resulting effort, Busted Sermon, which is just six songs long, accomplishes that rather admirably.
Indie rock ensemble Tadzio’s latest record, That Cold Grey Light, carries a title conveying a bleak lifelessness; likewise, the music is imbued with a sense of sacrifice, and death. An unmistakable feeling of doom hovers over the album like a black cloud, but not at the expense of moments of refined beauty.
In just three tracks, Laundromat manages to conjure full-flavored textures that bely the snappiness of the EP. Lo-fi production ties the triptych together so it’s a testament to his innovation that so many textures and layers are evident on Green. Loops and harmonies worm themselves through the tracks, often from unexpected points.
The ambition of Necrot is high and can be read as pompous going into the album cycle for Mortal: create a death metal classic. All the necessary components in the genre are here. The riffs are endless and plentiful; there’s plenty of blast beats to pound against your brain; and of course the lyrics deal in the particular tropes of nihilism.
The quartet make sharp and witty post-punk that discusses the banality of everyday existence. They utilize repetitive rhythm to reflect the consistent monotony of their daily routines. What saves Global Charming – and their audience – from being subsumed by the emptiness are their sharp jolts of guitar licks and self-aware satire.
Th’Pig’Kiss’d Album is their second full-length and the chaotic lo-fi spirit remains intact. It was released by the new Dutch label Soft Office, started by members of the Lewsberg (as well as Cleta Patra). Chronophage share the same DIY and post-punk tendencies as their label bosses, but overall they skew to lighter and fuzzier jangle.
Emma Ruth Rundle’s music has always walked the edge of doom metal. Her dark lyrics and melancholic solo outputs have seemed likely to lead to an inclusion of doom metal. So it is no surprise that the folk singer has teamed up with Louisiana sludge/doom metal band Thou for the collaborative album May Our Chambers Be Full.
It’s fairly well known that Tom Petty wrote his critically acclaimed 1994 record Wildflowers as a double album, but Warner Bros. nixed that plan, saying it would be too long. If you ask a lot of die-hard fans, though, Wildflowers is his best work. Wildflowers & All the Rest finally puts the remaining songs where he wanted them: in the same place.
On her debut, Tenci crafts an album that’s at once wistful, solitary, warm, and tender. Shoman weaves together tracks that encapsulate how people and environments stick to us, creating a place of vulnerability and entanglement forever frozen in time. My Heart Is An Open Field builds a sound worth staying in.
Who Needs Smarts, Anyway? Is the first full length from Australia’s Smarts, loaded with short bursts of jittery garage punk that comes at you full force. The band let you know what they are about instantly, and steamroll the listeners eardrums with skronking keyboard and sax blurts interspersed with cutting guitar that yields little ground.
