Before releasing Gardening, Lal was best-known as a guitarist for one of the best post-hardcore bands of recent memory, Big Ups. You never would have guessed it based on the music of Gardening. He recently moved and went through his exceptionally varied logs of field recordings and mixed audio, to be codified into what would become this album.
Much anticipation preceded The Cypher when Xetas first announced it last year. With its release, the band has proven itself as one ready to emerge further in the new decade. The Cypher is at once cynical and hopeful, self-aware and glaring, hungry to make listeners understand the downward spiral of our world and the possibility of working to lift it up.
Locate S,1, the latest project of DIY staple Christina Schneider, are set to release their sophomore album, Personalia in April, a brilliant move past the confines of lo-fi and avant-garde. Due out via Captured Tracks, Locate S,1 was kind enough to share some of the influences that lead to Personalia with us.
Blacker Face may be one of the punkest bands active in the US right now. This is apparent not only from the brash way they blend styles into a recondite arch of rock and rebellion, but also from the deliberately confrontational approach they bring to music, and the conversations it generates. Their most recent album Distinctive Juju is likely the fullest realization of their message and sound to date.
Flexing his experimental inclinations, The Cradle will release new album, Sense Stats, on January 30th, an album seemingly constructed on dissonant loops, waves of thumb piano, compressed electronics, and hypnotic avant-garde compositions. Everything feels manipulated, bent, and reshaped with alien aplomb.
The experimental Montreal based solo project of Catherine Debard is set to release their latest album, Interplay, on January 31st via Crash Symbols, a gorgeous and serene look into the self by way of the outside world. By using elements of jazz, new age, psych, and ethereal pop music, Debard is album to create something that feels beamed down from another plain on existence.
The wobbly pop leanings of Various Fads And Technological Achievements has been darkened by a heavier sound this time round and this is no bad thing. Where that release channeled those other solo sonic adventurers R. Stevie Moore and Syd Barrett, the noise and thrash has been turned up significantly.
After releasing a self-titled EP, the trio are set to share their full length debut, Self Help, out January 31st on Don Giovanni Records. The album feels like a breath of fresh air, a reinvigorating listen after heaps of stale indie rock. “Sacred Scales” begins with a somber piano lead, a red herring that evaporates once the groove slinks its way in.
Ceremony is their second album and was released back in December while everyone was busy making lists. The album finds the band building upon their first album Shadows. The stark black and white cover sets you up for exactly the kind of album you’re going to hear, along with the name of the album noting the debt paid to the past.
Following the demise of Brooklyn’s Doubting Thomas Cruise Control, vocalist/guitarist Bobby Cardos wasted little time before embarking on a new project. Out came bcc: (who you may remember from our podcast) and now the band are set to release their ambitious debut, A New Theory of Nothing and A New Theory of Nowhere, on 2/22.
Their latest single, “Fielder,” opens with a wonky and warped bit of dialogue (I think), slowed to an unintelligible pace that kinda sounds like adults talking in Peanuts. From their the tape runs and the band’s fried jangle comes seeping in, sounding as though the band are practicing in the floor below you.
With their album due out on February 14th via 11A Records, Green and Glass occupy a dazzling and unique space between orchestral beauty, studied precision, and evocative pop exploration. “Gabriel” is a fantastic example, opening with a serene harp progression that lends itself gorgeously to Stavros’ gentle vocals.
