Francisco López - (2008) Untitled (2006 - 2007) 2xCD

 

Monochrome Vision ‎– mv25

 Francisco López uses sound in a holistic way to reward attentive listeners. Adopting Pierre Schaeffer's attitude to sound as having the ability to recontextualise the world as we know it, his objets sonore - or aural pictures - explore the sum of an environment and the sound-making elements that inhabit it when divorced from the other four senses. This forms a proposal for the listener to contemplate outside of language, a freedom so rarely offered by the 24/7 loquacity of the modern age.

'untitled (2006-2007)' showcases almost all of the shorter pieces L
pez produced over the two year period where all but three of the sixteen pieces have appeared elsewhere. This not only saves the collector from seeking out many and varied compilation albums from boutique labels spread across the globe but, for the uninitiated, also makes for a good introduction to the artist, solidly surveying the breadth of his disorientating style.

For the closest examples to straight field recording, Untitled # 209 and # 210 both use "sound matter" recorded during Costa Rica's rainy season. # 209 pans back across a field heavily populated in insects who work up to a living, breathing mantric state that takes on the properties of coastal tides and later heavy rain - intensities out of which tones and rhythms emerge self-selected by the listener. While # 210 zooms in on the syllables of apes, but somehow endows the utterances with a less primal and more deliberate tongue that is both earnest and intelligent. While both have recognisable sources that can be linked with López' ecological studies, their subtle treatment and editing ultimately encourage the listener to re-consider them as pure sound, a composition that is not attempting to convey ecological, sociological or metaphorical messages - a consistent outcome regardless of the specifics behind all of López' work.

Indeed, many of the other pieces across 'untitled (2006-2007)'s two disks are from unrecognisable sources and do not sport any guidance. Untitled # 195 jumps from electrical scratches through the hum and pace of industrial machine routines to deep, cavernous isolation, like sudden edits in a film carefully unfolding a tense, urgent drama through different viewpoints, but where the activities viewed are imagined by the audience not the director. Meanwhile, Untitled # 190 demonstrates López' predilection for blurring the boundaries between so-called natural sound (be it biological or elemental) and man-made noise (be it manual or mechanical) as signs of life move delicately in the distance triggering a wind that disturbs millions of blades in a plastic field that, in turn, becomes the background noise of a room with a photocopier whose rhythm builds as it blends with rain hitting the windows.

The results are no less warped when López works with donated source material. This compilation features four such tracks - untitled # 193 uses Rapoon's 'Tribal Sci-Fi' loop library in a seemingly subterranean excursion, untitled # 198 entombs Kathy Kennedy's recording of eight voices humming into a holophonic microphone, burying them alive, untitled # 202 turns a recording of life in Victoriaville, Canada by Thomas Phillips into a textural river of sound, and untitled # 203 celebrates the qualities of aircraft engines originally captured by Lawrence English. In fact, this rich and resonant exploration of the Brisbane airport is possibly in direct response to R Murray Schafer's comment that "no sound contains less interesting information than that of an airplane". As initiator of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology and self-elected curator of the acoustic environment, Schafer has been known to display a kind of snobbery towards 'noise' that Schaeffer's and now López' work dramatically refutes. English's aircraft soar like power chords, yet when filtered by López reveal a full range of timbres and tones in their dynamism as a dream-like aeronautical display is paraded through the centre of your skull.

Frustratingly, these short pieces don't always afford the time to mesmerise and overwhelm as much as López' more extended pieces whose length extinguishes the instinct to ‘guess the context’ long before they are over. So while this compilation is not as successful as other releases at opening up a private, uninhibited world for the listener, it certainly provides enough of a dose to drop ones defences and stir aspirations for longer journeys into the unknown.

Grant Evans - (2020) The Pessimist

 

Adversary – Adversary no. 27

Using crude acoustic sounds recorded to 1⁄4" tape, "The Pessimist" finds Grant Evans crafting an unsettling aural self-portrait of the artist struggling to keep afloat after a dark and tumultuous year. Piano and out of tune strings - scraped, bowed, and plucked - melt into organ drones and dense electric throbbing, all buried under a gauzy layer of tape hiss. Not for fans of music. 

Loren Connors - (2017) Angels That Fall 12''

 

Family Vineyard ‎– FV100

A haunting and volcanic suite of electric guitar and piano from the modern master of the avant blues and the abstract -- Loren Connors. Angels That Fall slips deeper into Loren's headspace where vocalists in glissando and the swelling romanticism of chamber strings echo from beyond this mortal plane. Transcribed through Connors effect-laden six strings, he carries the listener from bluesy violence to sadness, hope and a piano coda.

Yeule - (2017) Coma

 https://i.imgur.com/kbMdoW8.jpg

 Zoom Lens ‎– none 

Today the always-innovative Zoom Lens released Yeule’s Coma EP. Like the Singapore artist’s self-titled debut in 2014, and like all great super-dreamy gothic pop, it’s incredibly soothing for how bleak it can be. My favorite type of music: just let those synths waaaash.

Here’s what Yeule had to say about it:

FADER Mix: Yeule
Read Next: FADER Mix: Yeule
“I wrote this album to commemorate the people I’d lost. Through death, through parting, through distance, just people who have gone from my life. They are all painful memories, but they have shaped my life. I’ve wasted the early years of my life trying to understand my depression, but recently I realized that it doesn’t need to be understood. I just had to embrace these feelings and create a void in myself.

“For me, it's always been the same. Happiness, sadness, love, hate, compassion, regret, loss, grief, content — they all feel like the same thing, but on a scale. I'm always on one end of the spectrum or the other. When I’m down I know that I’ll get back up and when I’m euphoric I know it won’t last forever. My art will always have a tinge of this sadness if not already indulged in it. I’ll always keep that part of myself, because without pain, you cannot have pleasure.

“And even though I keep the poison locked in the vault of my heart, in the end I know it will consume me whole, so I let it go.”

White Poppy - (2020) Paradise Gardens

 

Not Not Fun Records ‎– NNF 359 

British Columbia dreamer Crystal Dorval’s latest and lushest kaleidoscope-pop long-player took root four years ago as a hazy notion of “new age shoegaze bossa nova.” Across reflective summers and long winter nights in a thin-walled shack on a remote rural horse farm the vision evolved, eventually centering on a mythical muse, Paradise Gardens, somewhere between utopian sanctuary and decaying tropical apartment complex. Though the songs began as attempts to “transcend darkness,” over time they absorbed shadows and sorrows of their own, becoming lessons in coexistence: “learning to be with it all.” The album evokes overlapping vignettes within this layered fantasia: fading flowers along a balcony, distant birds above the surf, light glittering off a courtyard pond, sunset skylines darkening to lavender night. It’s a place of healing but also heaviness, fragile peace contoured with pains of the past.

White Poppy’s music has always been mirage-like but here her voice, guitar, keys, and soft-focus siren designs feel uniquely potent and distilled, weathered and wizened by years and yearning, the weight of memories of memories. These are melodies of psychic questing and self-discovery, at the edge of illusion and insight, glimpses of heaven half-remembered and half-imagined: “Paradise is a place within.”

White Hand Gibbon - (2019) Songs About Cars

 

Späti Palace ‎– SP025 

 White Hand Gibbon is the solo project of Dominik Jureschko. Since 2014 he's released off-kilter, folky dream-pop, which at first glance seems fragmentary, owing perhaps to the incorporation of field recordings, ambient passages and a certain bedroom-recording aesthetic. On second listening though, "Songs About Cars" exposes itself as a lyrically aswell as musicially accomplished and intimate softcore-emo album, placing it somewhere between The Postal Service and the soundtrack of the film "Drive".

VA - (2020) Southeast of Saturn

 

Third Man Records ‎– TMR-629

 

It makes sense that Detroit had a buzzy, thriving space-rock scene in the ‘90s. What American city’s denizens had a more urgent need to disengage and think outside the grim, post-industrial rustbelt realities? With space-rock (and its close sonic cousin shoegaze) being at once expansive and introspective, it naturally appealed to the young, intelligent artists who gravitated toward its vertiginous orbit.

The music of Southeast Of Saturn did not arise organically from metro Detroit’s fertile soil. Locally, garage-rock, goth-rock, neo-hippie groups, and the usual preponderance of adequate bar bands dominated the landscape. Thirsty Forest Animals guitarist Andrew Peters summarizes the prevalent attitude among the Motor City’s space-rock contingent: “I don’t think we really noticed the local Detroit scene earlier on. We were more into the bands you would see in the NME / Melody Maker, zines, and records - mostly from the UK - on the walls at Play It Again”. If anything was a major factor locally, it was Play It Again, the independent record store in the suburbs of Detroit that nurtured the scene with its amazing curation of imports and killer used records picked up on owner Alan Kovan’s British record buying trips.

Penned “Detroit Space-Rock”, the scene centered around Burnt Hair Records, Burnt Hair CEO Larry Hoffman’s Life According To Larry radio show, Zoot’s Coffeehouse and bands, such as Windy & Carl, Asha Vida, Füxa, Auburn Lull, and Majesty Crush. It was a modern movement of a more traditional “space-rock” sound, influenced less by The Stooges and MC5 and more by Spacemen 3, Loop, My Bloody Valentine and krautrock bands like Can and Neu!. Even the best-known artists on Southeast Of Saturn - Windy & Carl, Majesty Crush, Füxa - never achieved mainstream success, but within the rock underground, they inspired a cultish devotion that burns to this day.

If you missed their evanescent output the fi rst time around, this compilation will get you up to speed over its 19 mind-altering tracks. ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO

SRSQ - (2018) Unreality

 

Dais Records ‎– DAIS119

SRSQ (pronounced seer-skew) is the solo project of Kennedy Ashlyn (vocalist/keyboardist of Them Are Us Too). Creative voids aren’t filled, but rather holes left that push the edges of the present into new realms of consciousness. SRSQ’s pulse began after the death of Kennedy’s closest friend and TAUT collaborator Cash Askew, a casualty in the sudden and tragic Oakland Ghost Ship Fire of 2016. Driven by loss, SRSQ became the vehicle for Kennedy’s transformative process, exploring nuance, nostalgia, reflection, and reconciliation, manifesting in the aural landscape of Unreality.

As a debut, Unreality is entrance into a new form of storytelling, traversing the present while pulling from a deep swath of experience, immersion, and sound. Like the impulse it pulls from, each song evokes the complex duality of meditation—where simple intersects with infinite. Ambient synthesizers that approach harshness, relentless arpeggiations act together with Kennedy’s vocals as a lush weapon, weaving cloudlike fables over orchestration that’s familiar and foreign. Trance-like at times, yet always rooted in cadence and structure, the synesthesia of sound and feeling takes cues from the delicate miasma of Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, or Dead Can Dance, using their example as the ground floor for building a new temple of frequency. Kennedy proves an adept architect of rhythm, using sequenced electronics as a deep backbeat that allows the harrowing beauty of her vocals to lead the journey. 

TOPS - (2020) I Feel Alive

 

Musique TOPS ‎– none

With a saturation of ‘80s synthwave revivalists, it’s easy to forget TOPS were there earlier than most. But on fourth album ‘I Feel Alive’, it’s obvious they’re well-practiced at the craft, conjuring up 35 minutes of their trademark melancholy. It’s also an album of firsts for them - newly added keyboard player Marta Cikojevic adds a vital new layer. This in turn frees up vocalist Jane Penny to add a couple of flute solos on the record, which is a pleasant surprise. In fact, it’s the broadness of flavour on the album that is its main strength. The sparse, chilling layers of ‘Ballads and Sad Movies’, or the Joni Mitchell-esque delivery of ‘Take Down’ really show the broadness TOPS are capable of. On top of this, Jane’s vocal is remarkable throughout, ranging from the fragility of Lana Del Rey to the power of Kate Bush. An album with some undeniable gems but perhaps a few too many soft-rock fillers, ‘I Feel Alive’ delivers a genuinely refreshing take on melancholy. 

Slender - (2019) Time On Earth LP

 

La Vida Es Un Mus ‎– MUS205

Cataclysmic punk obituary that basks as readily in the causeways of the sun as it does in stormy, apocalyptic marvel . From the second “Time On Earth” came a clobbering we were returned to the dilapidated, wall-crawling psychedelia that we NEVER saw coming on their five track 7” on LVEUM back in 2017, getting us all buzzy that such a potent cerebral secretion was no one-off and that our beloved Slender would not fall under the axe of Paco’s oft-heralded - “Mate, ANYONE can make a good single” -mantra! Spirits rejoice!

SO MUCH to sink into on this debut long haul with the elusive NYC skirmishers. Lean, concise, often juxtaposed songs and interludes are deftly thatched together to make up the majority of Side A, with dense, drowning-world electronics on tracks like “Heavy Weather” clearing the skies for jovial, anthems of the Anthropocene like “New Country” (which for us totally rings the same joyous bells as Yuzo Iwata’s “Gigolo”!!) and the grittier, barnacled basement etherea of “Sleep The Trees”.

The restrained fury in the opening minutes of Side B at first recalls the slow-stirring storm clouds on that shadow-cast Blodarna 7”, the thought of seeking shelter only arising as proceedings are adrenalised and escalated into what feels more akin to listening to Amon Düül perform kali ma on the guys from Pelt in some subterranean death church! The closing trio of “So”, “Far” and “Down” tunnels on and takes place as some sorta on-acid-and-caught-in-earthquake rite, that sees the volcanic pounding intensify and whatever THAT sound is (bass guitar?? some demonic synthesiser??!) begin to envelop everything like the swelling of oblivion - any brief interval between tracks serving only as a moment to observe your own mind try to scramble it’s way out of the slowly opening sinkhole.

Bonkers. Slender channels the same wild and earthy desire for experimentation as such un-pinnable, sleeping giants as Cro-Magnon, Blumen Des Exotischen Eises, The Fates or Moolah. But far from copying the founding fathers of homemade psychedelia Slender move forward to the caves with their own brand of Neo-Chamber Music.

No idea how the inhabitants of earth will express amazement / bewilderment in thirty years time but can imagine some archival psychopath or discogs dweeb digging this one up and ripping a righteous WHAT THE FUCK. 

Molly Nilsson - (2008) These Things Take Time CDr

 

Dark Skies Association ‎– DSA003 

 Last year, John Maus' We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves LP included a song by a little-known, Swedish-born synth-pop artist named Molly Nilsson. "Hey Moon" was a lovely, downtempo duet, offsetting the claustrophobic intensity of Maus' originals with a moment of understatement and calm. What many of us didn't realize was that, aside from Maus' vocals, it was an almost note-perfect rendition of a track from These Things Take Time, a CD-R Nilsson self-released in 2008. Since then the interview-shy, Berlin-based songwriter has written and home-recorded no fewer than three LPs, and put all of them out on her own Dark Skies Association imprint. Like Maus', her songs are built primarily from vocals and vintage electronics, with a comforting patina of false age.

History, her fourth full-length, is an 11-track collection of power ballads and off-kilter dance-pop, carried by the commanding, almost Nico-like ominousness of her voice. Synthetic, darkly romantic, and full of grandiose swells, her songs are likely to sound self-consciously 1980s without reminding you of any artist in particular. They also feel slightly awkward, as though she were struggling to reproduce the ecstatic pop vision inside her head using the antiquated tools at her disposal. Should there be any doubt that Nilsson's notion of History is partly about the relationship between humans and technology, anthemic opener "In Real Life" cuts straight to the chase with an existential meditation on the unreality of life in the internet age: "Online I never feel alone. I never feel alive." "Hotel Home", another anthemic standout, sees Nilsson comparing herself to a "satellite," and warning us that she's "never at home, so call on Skype."

There is a sort of wide-eyed innocence to statements like these, a guilelessness that feels equivalent to the cheesy synth presets she unleashes from the opening note. Susan Sontag once defined camp as "art that proposes itself seriously, but cannot be taken altogether seriously because it is 'too much.'" Album standout "I Hope You Die" demonstrates the over-the-topness of Nilsson's aesthetic most forcefully, combining a bouncy dance beat, swirling synths, and the sort of tragic romanticism that would make Morrissey proud: "I hope you die, by my side, the two of us at the exact same time." The key here is that Nilsson's music feels celebratory even at its darkest moments, chock full of auto-harmonies and dramatic tempo changes and eager remind us that "too much" can be very satisfying sometimes.

For the most part, History unfolds with the theatrical pacing of a rock opera, alternating between large-sounding anthems and more stripped-down, slow-paced asides, usually with Nilsson singing over elementary piano melodies. Even with these variations, everything does start to feel a little bit the same, but you probably won't mind if you're easily enchanted by the album's overall gloss of elegiac, glam-rock decadence, enhanced by Nilsson's deadpan delivery, and lyrics that revolve around doomed love, lost worlds (see: "The City of Atlantis"), and "chances... blown" ("Hotel Home"). Even if you're not, there's still something charming about the sound of a person trying to make "big" music with wonky drum machines and limited keyboard technique. When she doesn't quite pull it off, there's a beauty to the sound of a person trying, failing, and letting us bear witness to the whole thing. When she does, we're smitten.

The Radio Dept. - (2004) Why Won't You Talk About It?

 

 XL Recordings ‎– REKD 41

Like many a cult artist, the Radio Dept have frequently proven their own worst enemies. Take it from their label boss, Johan Angergård of Stockholm’s Labrador Records:

There’s been fights and threats regarding contracts. They’ve cancelled more interviews than all the other bands I’ve worked with altogether. They are unworldly time optimists (they can miss a deadline by three years). They’ve demanded – and received – so much advances that we haven’t been able to pay our bills. I’ve had to bribe them with drugs to persuade them to talk to selected parts of the press. They’ve been soundly pissed off when a colour of their artwork didn’t turn out exactly the shade they intended … the story goes on.”

Now consider that these complaints were listed in the liner notes to the band’s 2010 singles and rarities collection Passive Aggressive (in case you’re wondering why Angergård bothers releasing the Radio Dept’s music at all, elsewhere he hails them as “fantastic songwriters and almost geniusly wayward producers”), and you begin to appreciate that a kind of glorious dysfunctionality is written into these painfully shy lo-fi electro dreampop Swedes’ DNA. That and an integrity few other groups could claim to possess.

A rotating cast of musicians based around long-term friends Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson (occasional third member Daniel Tjäder also plays with Korallreven), the Radio Dept originally hail from the southern Swedish university town of Lund. Their name, taken from a local petrol station turned radio repair shop, has been used by Duncanson since 1995. But the band’s noisy-melodic signature sound only really came to be with a string of EPs from 2000’s Against the Tide through to 2003’s Pulling Our Weight, each of them self-produced – like all of the Radio Dept’s music to date – by Duncanson and Larsson at their home studio.

There’s true magic in these early formative toyings with wonky drum machines, gauzy synths and guitars soaked in fuzz and reverb. Only semi-discernible through an enigmatic cloak of ambient drones and tape hiss, Duncanson’s softly sung words speak to his stubborn iconoclasm and bored disillusionment with normative power structures, be they within the music industry, politics or relationships. The pseudo-shoegazey, feedback- and distortion-torn Against the Tide and Why Won’t You Talk About It? – each recorded initially as demos, now firm fan favourites – are so overdriven it feels like your speakers can barely take it...

White Poppy - (2017) The Pink Haze Of Love

 

Self-released ‎– none 

White Poppy's latest EP marks something of a departure for Crystal Dorval's oft-titled "dream pop" project. Ironically, Pink Haze of Love clears some of the "haze" that masked her previous releases and positions Dorval as a new age singer songwriter. The album weaves through 8 songs that deal in matters of love, limerence and heartbreak in an uncharacteristically forward manner. Dorval's hypnotic guitar circles its way around warm, droning synths while her lyrics and voice take centre stage for the first time. The result is a short but sweet meditation, sung from a candlelit cabin, that echoes over a calm tide.

Teams, Noah & Repeat Pattern - (2018) Kwaidan

 

flau ‎– FLAU72  

 KWAIDAN is collection of reverb soaked harmonies leaning on a couch of field recordings and heavy drums all accompanying the vocals of flau’s Noah. Songs referencing Japanese folk tales about ghosts and spirits presented, not in the usual tone of a ghost story but rather, in a romanticized air of normalcy and matter-of-factness.

Stranded Whale - (2018) The Revival

 

 Qiii Snacks Records ‎– none

The ten-song album signifies the transformation of the band, from urban folk to alternative, within three years. The Revival features Grey, a song collaborated with Taiwanese chamber group Cicada during the band’s tour in 2016. The album also highlights two songs, Why Don’t You and Dies In A Room, from a limited edition of 7” lathe-cut “Why Don’t You?”, which is distributed by indie label Sweaty and Cramped. In 2017, a dreamy and obscure music video of Sunday’s Over was released, which demonstrated the band’s avid interest in alternative, electronic and jazz.

The whale has voyaged from the sea and plunged into the deepest ditch.

Sparrows - (2019) Berries LP

 

flau ‎– FLAU79 

 “Travel is always the theme of Sparrows’ work,” says Ryota Miyake (aka Sparrows himself). It’s on his latest album Berries that this is truly exemplified, not just in the international smorgasbord of featuring artists from Fazerdaze (New Zealand), Julián Mayorga (Spain), Casey MQ (Canada) and Vincent Ruiz aka Yung Veerp (Switzland), to Iranian-American producer Kamron Saniee, but in the actual feeling of the music itself. “I wanted it to be a little hard-boiled and rough,” he admits, “but in the end, the concept is to travel like science fiction.”

And when it comes to “travel like science fiction”, nothing does it better than Miyake’s latest body of work. Taking cues from the retro dadaist electronica of his band CRYSTAL, there are tracks like ‘Moon’, drenched in atmospheric VGM flavours, ‘The Star Tours’ which Ryota himself describes as “pre-YMO fusion”, and the “phony jazz band, acid house bass and synth noise” of ‘Bands In The Sand’. This theme of the “imaginary band” crops up more than once.

Elsewhere Berries tumbles along in a patchwork of ‘Coffee and TV’ jangle, splashy jazz elements, ‘60s psychedelia and galloping, airy space rock, making for a journey that’s as vivid as it is varied. Sounds, we’re told, from Miyake’s student days.

“I had a lot of opportunities to listen to jazz, fusion, and soul,” he admits, “but I decided on the overall tone thinking that I would be able to mix the feeling of the puffy life I had spent abroad with the pale, dreamy, psychic atmosphere I had always liked.”

Speaking of that “puffy life”, he was originally going to name the album Sparrows’ Lazy Life but decided on Berries when a friend suggested “a short title like Taylor Swift because there were a lot of sweet pop songs.” Each track on Berries bursts with flavour: the perfect road trip snack for a mystical mixed salad of journeys and travels.

somesurprises - (2019) ST LP

 

 Drawing Room Records ‎– DRLP00036

Somesurprises is the moniker of Seattle singer/songwriter Natasha El-Sergany. What once was a solo project focusing on spectral balladry and late night exploration, somesurprises has since formed into a dynamic live band. Motorik beats, reverb-drenched vocals, washes of fingerpicked guitars, and hazy synths expand El-Sergany’s delicate and blissful songwriting. Over the years, somesurprises has built a strong presence in the Seattle music scene, and toured the west coast. In Seattle, they have opened for touring artists such as Circuit Des Yeux, Carla dal Forno, A Place to Bury Strangers, and the Cave Singers...

...With its 36th release, Drawing Room brings in a new wonder with somesurprises’ self-titled debut LP, a treasure among pop treasures. The album explores a range of styles, from gradually intensifying meditative drones, to songs where the same moment never quite happens twice. As in previous cassette releases with fewer members, El-Sergany uses her ethereal voice as an instrument, no more or less central to the music than a guitar hook or a drumbeat. But the vocals and lyrics are more in focus than ever before. From shimmering cascades of reverbed guitar chords, to driving bass and percussion guiding guitar and synth freak-out outros, as a full band, somesurprises finds its fullest expression yet. The songwriting here, laden with effects and orchestral arrangements, reaches for more than navel-gazing, or (even shoegazing) and seeks, perhaps, through knowledge of the self, to guide the way out of one’s own mind.

somesurprises & supercandy - (2019) Some Candy

 

Crash Symbols ‎– PBUH126 

Our latest split is returns to the Pacific Northwest with two exciting psych projects: Natasha El-Sergany's somesurprises, since expanded into a full band for their Doom Trip group debut, and Brenan Chamber's solo vehicle supercandy. Both sides are atmospheric and engrossing, a witches' brew that draws from a variety of influences. While somesurprises offer five tracks with an oblique, almost noirish tint, supercandy follows a similar shade in a more cosmic direction.

"Beautiful music in free fall..." -Lost in a Sea of Sound

"Imagine hearing another person’s dream put to cassette." -Ruix Zine

"...truly a perfect meld of two incredible psych rock projects out of the Pacific Northwest." -Houdini Mansions

"...laden with ghostly soundscapes and mist-inducing reverb." -Infinite Headphones

Holy Motors - (2018) Slow Sundown

 

Wharf Cat Records ‎– none 

2017’s equal parts somnambulant and sultry Sleeprydr 7” was aptly described as “psychedelic rock that hits like a dream despite undoubtedly seeking to soundtrack nightmares” (-Stereogum). Thankfully, Slow Sundown, Holy Motors’ debut full length release, finds the Estonian dreamcatchers utilizing a similar sonic palette ranging from dark psychedelic pop to shoegaze-inflected western music. But while Sleeprydr, much like 2015’s Heavenly Creatures 7”, provided only a fleeting glimpse into the dreamscape that their music evokes, Slow Sundown’s eight tracks offer a more immersive experience for those brave enough to take the ride. While the guitar lines from lonely cowboy ballads like “Honeymooning” could easily serve as the central themes for unwritten Morriccone scores, dystopian anthems like the rhythmically propelled “Signs” break new ground for the band and demonstrate that Holy Motors are not bound by their influences. Thematically the album is comprised primarily of sad love songs centered around the idea of motion – the motion of a satellite orbiting a planet, the motion of a passenger riding shotgun in a car – as it relates to stellar-scale and existential isolation. Produced by Merchandise’s Carson Cox and recorded at Brooklyn’s Kutch1 Studios when the band was visiting the US on tourist visas, Slow Sundown is a beautiful alien artifact that definitively delivers on everything we have been promised by Holy Motors’ work to date. 

Seablite - (2020) High-Rise Mannequins

 

Emotional Response – ER 102

 2019 finished with critical acclaim across the board for SEABLITE’s lives shows and their excellent debut album topping many Year End “Best-Of” lists. There was even a surprise and welcome placing at #36 in Good Morning America’s top 50 albums of the year, rubbing shoulders with some industry giants!

The new year sees the band off to a flying start, with a brand new 4 song 10inch EP, that builds on their growing stature as songwriters and performers. Recorded by Alicia Vanden Heuvel (The Aislers Set, Poundsign etc), in San Francisco, the new recordings capture the band at an exciting moment in time, as they take their place amongst the growing list of Bay Area fuzz-pop indie-greats.

Same Waves - (2018) Algorithm of Desire

 

 flau ‎– flau71 

 Same Waves is Lindsay Anderson and John Hughes. Hughes first crossed paths with Anderson in 2002 when she recorded vocals for Telefon Tel Aviv’s single, “Sound in a Dark Room”, which would appear on Hughes’ Hefty Records imprint. Hefty went on to release work from Anderson’s group L’Altra, as well as her vocal contributions for Telefon Tel Aviv and Hughes’ own studio projects. The two reconnected over a cup of coffee 3 years ago, eager to document a new period in their musical lives through a collaboration from the ground up. Anderson, a songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist and Hughes, a producer and electronic musician, create a beautiful and strange hybrid of synthesized and organic elements on Algorithm of Desire. The album, equal parts pristine and weathered, lyrically and sonically explores themes of human connection, algorithmic technology, desire and artistic creation, all within the confines of a surrealist landscape. The album was recorded outside of Chicago at HFT Studio and includes several players from the Chicago jazz and improvisational scene.

Pure X - (2020) Rare Ecstasy 2009-2019 LP

 

Infinite Best Recordings ‎– FTK163

Rare Ecstasy 2009-2019 is a collection of unreleased b-sides, demos, and covers that span the more than a decade career of the Texas underground legends. Rare Ecstasy includes early tracks that reflect what Pitchfork once called the “druggy, wall-of-sound escapism that put them on the map,” as well as unreleased recordings from each album session that document the evolution of the Pure X sound. A must- have addition to the collection of any Pure X fan.

Purple Pilgrims - (2019) Perfumed Earth

 

 Flying Nun Records ‎– FN589LP

Purple Pilgrims emerged in 2011 with an 8-inch lathe cut in an edition of 50. It held two untitled tracks with a cover photo swiped from the poster for the Wes Craven-directed 1981 cult horror movie Deadly Blessing and was accompanied by a hand-sewn 12-page zine. Checking out the tracks on Bandcamp (via the PseudoArcana label), they radiate like a mixture of environmental field recordings and pop that’s as psychedelic as it is dreamy; that it was mastered by Brian Crook of the Renderers provides a clue as to where it’s all situated.

From there, Purple Pilgrims shared a 2013 split LP with the US-based twisted synth psych sculptor Gary War on Upset! The Rhythm and they followed that in 2016 with their proper full-length debut Eternal Delight on the Not Not Fun label. The songs on the split lessened the hazy drifty quality that could make ‘em seem like a byproduct of the Xpressway label in favor of dreamy glisten-glide, and all was well.

With Eternal Delight, the sound blossomed even more, all while retaining tangible but subtle edge in the delivery, so that folks who gravitated toward the lathe-cut debut could continue to relate. There was also an increase in attention to synth ambiance that underscored the association with Gary War. On Perfumed Earth, this connection persists, as War contributed bass and synth lines to the record from various US hotels while he was out touring with John Maus.

For this recording, the Nixons utilized the same rustic studio in Tapu where Eternal Delight was cut, augmenting the vibe with those abovementioned assists, which include drumming from Lorde keyboardist Jimmy Mac and guitar from Surf City’s Joshua Kennedy. But the moody lushness of the brief opener “How Long Is Too Long” puts the sisters solidly in the foreground.

And it’s not like they get lost in the proceedings as Perfumed Earth unfolds, but “Ancestors Watching” does register as a more collaborative affair, or at least more layered, even as it mingles vocal beauty with a gemlike glistening keyboard pattern. And speaking of patterns, those drums do add heft, but it’s not like Purple Pilgrims are standing on the precipice of rocking out.

And that’s cool. Pop splendor is increasingly the fruits of the Nixon’s artistic labor, with “Sensing Me” the sorta tune that will inevitably draw comparisons to Kate Bush. One crucial difference is the elevated vocal harmony; hey, it’s like having two Kate Bush’s on hand, and that circumstance blends well with the non-clichéd and often subtle synth-pop current that runs throughout the disc.

This synth-pop aura, with an emphasis on pop, intensifies during “I’m Not Saying,” the song reminding me a little bit of Stephin Merritt (like something he might’ve recorded with Susan Amway, or as part of the 6ths project), but just a wee bit, as the Nixons lack Merritt’s strain of eccentricity and his anachronistic qualities. That is, “I’m Not Saying” has nothing to do with the Tin Pan Alley. It’s just good pure synth-pop that calls out for chilly autumn weather.

To my ear, synth-pop and the fall season complement each other particularly well. A personal idiosyncrasy perhaps, but one not unworthy of comment. I’m also taken with how well the Nixonian dream-pop sensibility blends with the playing of experimental saxophonist Jeff Henderson. While his playing does flirt with free jazz a smidge along the way, the whole is much more about prettiness, courtesy of a vibraphone-like keyboard line. There is also a hovering synth.

But most notably, as neither Nixon sings it all holds up extremely well. The voices do return in “Two Worlds Apart.” Here, the tempo shifts. It’s now up, and it’s dancy, though there’s an instrumental ambiance reminding me just a little of very early Stereolab. Others may not hear this similarity at all, but hopefully it’s getting driven home that Purple Pilgrims are far from a typical dream-pop/ synth-pop scenario.

“Love in Lunacy (Saturn Return)” cultivates a touch of retro-futurist strangeness while keeping on the pop course. Closer “Tragic Gloss” heads wholeheartedly down that the same avenue and with some appealing synth cascades thrown in. However, it’s penultimate track “Ruinous Splendour,” in part through the guitar of Roy Montgomery, that stands as one of Perfumed Earth’s highlights.

As Purple Pilgrims assisted Montgomery on his very nifty Suffuse from last year, their association is a sturdy one. I’m also struck that the most enjoyable (if not necessarily best) Flying Nun record I’ve heard in quite a while features guitar from a member of the Pin Group, a unit responsible for the very first Flying Nun record, the “Ambivalence” 45. But I don’t want to stray from the point here; even with a handful of help, the core of Perfumed Earth’s goodness derives from Valentine and Clementine Nixon.

Parker and Lily - (2004) Here Comes Winter

 

Manifesto ‎– MFO 43601

Like their debut album, Hello Halo, Parker and Lily stick with a gauzy, dream rock sound for their second effort. Here Comes Winter is as charming as its predecessor; delicate synth beats weave in and around humming organs, soft-hued bells, and vibraphones. Lily Wolfe is an angel with her warm, girlish vocals, while her partner, Parker Noon's vocal hushing is nearly cheerless. Together, they're a darling pair, making Here Comes Winter a daydreamy songbook of broken hearts. "You Are My Matinee" is a glossy, lo-fi gem where Noon gushes about his crush in an unnervy, cinematic tone. "Bridge and Tunnel" and "Motel Lights" are more sinister and dark with creepy instrumentation thanks to Noon's quiet, spoken narrative. When Wolfe takes to the mic, she gives Parker and Lily a new light -- a sweetness. She swoons over young love on the carnival-like, candied fun of "My Apartment Complex," while "For C.L. (Iowa Is Passing By)" aches with poetic heartbreak. Elements of travel and holiday also highlight Parker and Lily's musical life on Here Comes Winter; the bossa nova shimmy of "Three-Day Life" is a delightful match for the salsa twists of electronic beats on "Planes in Clouds." Here Comes Winter slowly works against the entangled mess of love and life. Parker and Lily's personal relationship is more apparent on this album; how imperfect they might be as lovers makes for a mesmerizing set of songs. There's a genuine sense of longing and desire on Here Comes Winter, but without self-pity. Their art is divinely complex and that's what makes Parker and Lily so interesting. 

Paco Sala - (2019) Our Love Is The Gold LP

 

Denovali Records ‎– DEN312 

“"Our Love Is The Gold" is the third proper studio album from Paco Sala following "Ro-Me-Ro" & "Put Your Hands On Me". Written over 4 years it marks a return to song-writing for the duo, employing fever-dream melodies and synth drunk hooks, balanced against off-kilter production that sets them apart from their peers.

Intense, impassioned, guttural yet enigmatic - the album documents the process of leaving London and the empowerment a new life inspires. The opening & title track is a statement of intent “are you aware of my power?” repeats Garza, leaving us in no doubt that we really shouldn’t doubt her.

Tone set, what follows is gloriously idiosyncratic and deeply personal pop, presented without compromise or concession. Direct, confident, articulate - gone are the the opiated improvisations of 2017’s "The Silent Season", though the wilful sense of adventure remains throughout. "Our Love is The Gold" is a record of awakenings and self-discovery.”

Thibault - (2020) Or Not Thibault

 

Chapter Music ‎– CH165LP

Thibault is the long-awaited new project for Melbourne musician Nicole Thibault.

Her drily-titled debut album Or Not Thibault is full of harmonic invention, unexpected arrangements, and atmospheres so lush they make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It moves seamlessly from humour to genuine pathos, from spacious mystery to kinetic energy.

Nicole’s former band Minimum Chips were a cornerstone of Chapter Music’s fabled 90s roster. For a decade or so, Minimum Chips played Moog-driven motorik pop that made them support band of choice for touring artists like Stereolab, Pavement, Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. Nicole’s vocals, trombone, keyboards and songwriting helped grow a cult mystique around Min Chips that persists to this day.

Nicole took time off in the late 00s to raise a family, but recently returned to music with the support of a new generation of Melbourne pop kids. Or Not Thibault includes contributions from Zak Olsen (Orb, Traffik Island), Rebecca Liston (Parsnip), Lachlan Denton (The Ocean Party) as well as Minimum Chips co-conspirator Julian Patterson. The live Thibault band currently features Zak, Rebecca and Stella Rennex (Parsnip).

The album’s dreamy space-age pop feel has been beautifully captured by producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture In Helsinki).

Or Not Thibault is a richly rewarding return from a master of melody and charm. 

Oh! Calcutta! - (2016) The Greatest Story Ever Told

 

Frank de Jong ‎– none

Nubes en mi casa - (2018) ¿Qué Viene Después?

 

Plastilina Records ‎– none

La banda argentina Nubes en mi casa después de un prolongado silencio, nos regala un nuevo sencillo, uno que se pasea entre géneros como el rock, dream pop e incluso la electrónica.

El track llamado “¿Que viene después?” con ese perfil experimental, está envuelto en una atmósfera melancólica y misteriosa, se pasea por algunas secuencias y su ritmos cambiantes y contrastes le otorgan una personalidad singular y satisfactoria. Además, la melodiosa voz de Josefina sigue siendo un importante componente, un instrumento más que se desenvuelve líquidamente entre los sonidos que van brotando.

Schonwald - (2017) Night Idyll LP

 

Manic Depression ‎– MD084-LP

 With the artistic promise to make a step forward from the gloomy shades, "Night Idyll" transforms dark into psychedelic drone made of shimmering ethereal movements strongly inspired by a brighter nocturnal dance in particular making "Love Collides" an ideal new start.
Significantly, the songs favour imagery of love-passion lasting over time and massive melodies replacing the claustrophobic, smothering mood of previous SCHONWALD work
is new-found appreciation of space and the actual melody itself, infused with a kind of vainglorious mix of shoegaze, darkwave and dream pop.

Nicholas Krgovich & Friends - (2020) Pasadena Afternoon

 

 Moone Records – MR045

 “Pasadena Afternoon” was recorded this past February, in a day, for fun. The previous summer there was a NK show booked at Zebulon opening for Chris Cohen and after doing multiple solo tours I was excited by the idea of throwing together a pick-up band for this one. So I roped in my Dear Nora bandmates Zach Burba and Greg Campanile to play bass and drums and Aaron Olson from LA Takedown to play guitar and we learned a bunch of songs written by our friends. We learned two by Lake, a Chris Cohen one, two by Dear Nora, one by Little Wings, one by Ruth Garbus and a couple Canadian ones from Veda Hille and Marker Starling. The show felt so good and our interpretations of the songs were so fun to play that we ended up reconvening half a year later and recorded everything. The next day we went to Disneyland.

I’m so glad we made this thing! It feels good to celebrate the work of your friends, and to make something so easy breezy. Hope you like it!

Death Bells - (2020) New Signs Of Life LP

 

Dais Records ‎– DAIS156 

Australian outfit Death Bells return with their sophomore album, New Signs of Life. Nine Captivating tracks for fans of eighties indie, classic antipodean new wave, and turn of the century post-punk.

After swapping hemispheres, Australian outfit Death Bells have found a new home in Los Angeles, emerging with a new album of fervent guitar-driven rock, stripped of gloom and punching through with a new sense of positivity. New Signs of Life, their debut for Dais Records, finds Death Bells using a DIY pedigree to plunder the conventions of “rock music” with a saxophone along for the mission. Rather than leaping genres or formats, New Signs of Life is refined and nuanced—a methodology built on process, craft, and perspective.

Following their 2017 debut, Standing at the Edge of the World, and follow-up single “Echoes,” Death Bells left their hometown of Sydney for the United States. Energized by impulse, extensive touring and exploration led to the formation of an ambitious six-piece band that eventually coalesced as a collaboration between founding members Will Canning and Remy Veselis. With Canning and Veselis becoming the engine, Death Bells began to employ several underground mainstay musicians to complete their live presentation, including Cortland Gibson (Dock Hellis), Colin Knight (Object of Affection), and on occasion Brian Vega (Fearing).

Revitalized and centered, Death Bells released the single “Around the Bend” in 2019, before workshopping material that would eventually comprise their second full-length effort. As much as Standing at the Edge of the World was an energized disclosure informed by fresh naivete, New Signs of Life harnesses those initial sparks, cloaking the threads of Death Bells with authority, allowing each of the nine tracks which embody New Signs of Life to become lush streamlined vehicles.

The eponymous lead single is a grandiose statement, influenced by the theme song of HBO’s classic television program Six Feet Under. The lyrics are a shopping list of personal neuroses charged with wry optimism, dressed with jagged guitars, brass, and percussion providing a deliberate pace for Death Bell’s new chapter. As method gives way to melody, New Signs of Life exudes an urgent hope laced with drive and verve.

The first track for New Signs of Life, “Heavenly Bodies,” signals Death Bells’ point-blank delivery of a laconic truth: “We all vanish, anyway.” Somber and cool, it eases into hushed staccato hypnosis while still finding the tenets of guitar-driven rock. ”A Different Kind of Happy” and “Alison” push the edge of convention, speaking to the power of love in a world gone mad. A nod to their homeland and new city’s surf heritage, “Shot Down (Falling)” pivots playful to a sun-soaked beach strum, layered with shimmer before the horizon fades. As a new statement of purpose, New Signs of Life subverts the band’s moniker, offering breath during suffocation; optimism in chaos with sound over sinking.

Nemui pj - (2017) Pumpkin CD

 

flau ‎– FLAUR29 

 nemui pj is a new duo comprised of UK producer kidkanevil and Japanese musician Noah, both of whom have release solo albums on flau. The pair met when performing at a show in Tokyo, following which kidkanevil remixed a piano piece from Noah’s debut album ‘Sivutie’. It wasn’t long before they began collaborating and a musical friendship was born. Named after the groups mutual appreciation for making music in pyjamas, nemui pj have crafted a delicate and emotive journey through those hazy half asleep moments when you’re not sure what’s real or a dream.

nemui pjは、BonoboやTOKiMONSTAらも絶賛するイギリスのDJ／プロデューサーkidkanevilと北海道出身の女性アーティストNoahによる新しいデュオ。東京のフェスティバルで出会った彼らは、ある日オンラインでお互いのパジャマ姿で盛り上がり、nemui pjのコンセプトをスタートさせます。ヒップホップ、ベースミュージックにトトロやポッキーなど愛する日本のカルチャーを融合させたkidkanevilのキッチュでチャイルディッシュなトラックに、神秘的なNoahの歌声とピアノの旋律が絡み合う、絵本の中にいるような純度の高いトイ・ポップ。このファーストEPで、日英の注目デュオは現実なのか夢なのかさえ分からないぼんやりとした心地よいうたた寝の時間を、繊細で感情的なトリップへと仕立て上げます。同じくflauより両者とも親交深いsubmerse、名古屋のトイトロニカ・デュオLullatone、シンガポールの新世代アーティストfrpzによるリミックスを収録。

Fazerdaze - (2017) Morningside LP

 

 Flying Nun Records ‎– FN574 

The music of Amelia Murray, who records as Fazerdaze, is on its surface bright and summery. Pick any track at random from Morningside, her excellent full-length debut for Flying Nun, and you’ll be greeted by foamy waves of guitar and Murray’s warm, sighing voice. But zero in on the lyrics, and the sun begins to fade. A portrait of romantic uncertainty, Morningside rests Murray’s emotionally-candid lyrics in silvery latticeworks of guitar, and the resulting tension is one of the things that makes the record so alluring. (It was one of our Essential Releases the week it came out.) A step up from her excellent, self-recorded, self-titled 2014 EP, Morningside is the sound of a person who—as Murray herself puts it in her song “Little Uneasy”—is feeling their way through the world, in every sense of the word.

Midwife - (2017) Like Author, Like Daughter LP

 

Whited Sepulchre ‎– WS003

 Under the name Sister Grotto, Denver based artist Madeline Johnston explores the limits of minimalism in transcendental drone-pop. With "Like Author, Like Daughter", Johnston uses the Midwife moniker to craft triumphant, fist-in-the-air anthems that tackle themes of dislocation and falling in (and out) of love with a person, a home and yourself.

"Like Author, Like Daughter" is a portrait of Johnston’s last year as a resident of Denver’s famed D.I.Y venue Rhinoceropolis which closed in a rash of politically motivated assaults on creative spaces across the United States. The album internalizes loss, addiction, abandonment and wrings them through distorted power chords, powerful leads, sheets of drone to create building, aching monuments to past-selves and lost relationships into a positivist statement of resilience and self-love. It’s a record that is impossible to listen to without a lump in your throat.

Performed, recorded and co-produced by Tucker Theodore (Buffalo Voice, Gunmothers Head), "Like Author, Like Daughter" was recorded in Denver at Rhinoceropolis and INAMBULANCE in Olympia, WA. LA,LD will be released with companion split cassette with Planning for Burial.

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"Blends waves of distortion with a delicate edge, finessing a kind of strained beauty. Her vocals sound distant and obscured underneath the layers of guitar static and noise. It creates a spectral effect, her presence fading in and out like some kind of memory recorded to tape, creating faint, comforting feelings of nostalgia that fade out as soon as they arrive." - CLRVYNT

"Johnston’s latest album, this time under the name Midwife, is a perfect record for bleak times, depicting the singer with head held high as she stares straight into the void. Like the abandoned mattress on the album cover, everything is in decay for Madeline Johnston, but the human spirit might just be the one exception." - Slow Breathing Circuit

"This is an album best experienced loud, as turning it up makes it all the easier to surrender to the songs' heartache and share in its affirmative, even at times celebratory spirit. Whatever the hardships Johnston's endured, songs such as “Way Out” and “Liar” reveal Like Author, Like Daughter's tone to be triumphant rather than resigned or mired in despair."

Kidbug - (2020) ST LP

 

 Joyful Noise Recordings ‎– JNR329

Kidbug is Marina Tadic (Eerie Wanda), Adam Harding (Dumb Numbers), Thor Harris (Swans) and Bobb Bruno (Best Coast). The band was born from the romance of Tadic and Harding, and together with Harris and Bruno they make self-described "cuddlebug sludge”, the harmoniously spiky offspring of Harding’s fuzzy guitar grunge-gaze and Tadic’s dreamy left field pop.


Kidbug’s roots stretch back to December of 2018. For the last several years Joyful Noise has invited their roster of artists to the label’s office in Indianapolis for an annual holiday party. This is when Australian transplant Adam Harding was first introduced to the Croatian-born, Netherlands-based artist Marina Tadic. "We all convened at Postal Recording in Indianapolis to record Christmas songs for the label, and it just sort of grew from there,” Harding explains. When Tadic learned that Harding was also an accomplished video maker (having directed music videos for DJ Shadow, Warpaint, Best Coast, Swervedriver, Sebadoh) she asked if he would make a video for Eerie Wanda. According to Tadic, the creative sparks started flying immediately, inspiring a series of long-distance musical love letters. “The writing started when I went back home. We were both very inspired to start writing songs to each other. It's a funny thing because we're both really slow at songwriting, but for some reason the songs just kept flowing. Within two months or so we had enough to make an album."


The resulting music was raw and personal, naked in its emotional honesty. Tadic and Harding agreed to preserve that purity of expression. “We made a pact that whatever came out, we wouldn't second guess it,” Harding shared. “We were inspired by the honesty and purity of John and Yoko singing love songs to each other,” Tadic added. "We wrote the songs for each other and there was no reason to overthink them or purposefully obscure the lyrics. This made both the writing and recording process extremely fun and spontaneous".


The compositional chemistry between Tadic and Harding effectively channels the late twentieth-century melodic noise-rockers that inspired Kidbug. “We love Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pixies, Sonic Youth, and all that is definitely an influence,” Harding stated. “We decided to borrow the term ‘cuddlebug sludge’ to describe our music. It was a cute little description that Spin magazine used when writing about the first Dumb Numbers album back in 2013, but it feels even more fitting for Kidbug,” Harding explains. "I’ve often referred to Dumb Numbers as a collaboration, but for the most part I write all the songs and then ask friends to play on them. But writing Kidbug songs with Marina is a dream and feels so effortless". "Kidbug is a true collaboration," Tadic adds. "I have never really been able to write a song with another person. But together we did it effortlessly, like we were one person."


To achieve the full cohesion of cuddlebug sludge, strong rhythmic components were required - Best Coast’s Bobb Bruno was recruited for bass, and Joyful Noise’s 2019 artist in residence Thor Harris was called to fill the drummer’s chair. “Thor was the glue that brought everyone together in a really collaborative way at the Joyful Noise holiday party. He was our first and only choice for a drummer,” Harding emphasized. The album was recorded in 3 days at Postal Recording in Indianapolis, with Tadic once again flying out from the Netherlands, and Thor Harris coming up from his home in Austin, Texas. Melvins’ legend Dale Crover makes a special guest appearance behind the kit on the album's closing track “Dreamy.” “Dale was in town with the Melvins and had a rare day off in between shows so we asked him to come into the studio. I’ve known Dale for a long time and he’s recorded a bunch of songs with me before, but it’s always a huge thrill to record with Dale”, says Harding.

Kidbug’s debut LP is fueled by a deeply charged electrical love, and they hope to return that magical energy to listeners. “This album is a celebration of love. All of my songs with Dumb Numbers have been about endings, but Kidbug is about beginnings,” Harding shared. “We hope to bring love into the world with this album” Tadic adds. “We dig love". 

Cruel Summer - (2017) Ivy LP

 

Mt. St. Mtn. ‎– MTN-19 

CRUEL SUMMER's sound evokes the dazed, fuzzed-out, swirling noise of the late 1980s UK sound while still sticking to their pop roots—they’ve aptly been crowned San Francisco’s “jangle darlings.” Following their 2013 self-titled EP (Mt. St. Mtn.,) they released the sold-out lathe-cut 7” for “Leeches,” accompanied by a video. In 2016 Cruel Summer released “Around You, Around Me,” recorded for L.A.’s Part Time Punks, the 7” B-side features a moody cover of Pylon’s “Crazy.” Mastered by Kramer (Galaxie 500 and Low). Ivy is the long-awaited, first full-length album from this quartet, who have become a mainstay in the San Francisco and Oakland club scene. Recorded at Santo Studio in Oakland, California by JASON KICK (Sonny & the Sunsets, Once and Future Band, Mild High Club, Maus Haus), the record is a love poem to San Francisco, with all its changes and disappointments. Cruel Summer recently completed a California tour with the UK’s Primitives, and in early August they will be accompanying the '90s noise pop demons Swirlies on a full West Coast tour.

Holy Motors - (2020) Horse LP

 

Wharf Cat Records ‎– WCR 106

 “Hold your horses, cowboy, put your pickup in reverse,” drawls Holy Motors vocalist Eliann Tulve on “Country Church.” Tulve makes a conscious effort to enunciate on the Estonian rock band’s second album, Horse. The result is an immediacy similar to when critics had to stop calling R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe “Mumbles” in the late 1980s.

Horse is akin to a Holy Motors hootenanny, markedly more confident and forward-facing than their debut. This time around, instead of directly appropriating Americana and American western film soundtracks, the guitars achieve cinematic grandeur by simply being evocative. The best example of this is their finest song to date, “Endless Night.” Hitting all the frequencies, this song alone earns the accolades lauding guitarists Lauri Raus and Gert Gutmann. At once elegiac and propulsive, “Endless Night” ends too soon. Speaking of frequencies, you’ll know if your bass EQ is too high from the low-end flicker of doom in “Midnight Cowboy,” sounding like Holy Motors playing at a prom where everyone forgot to show up.

That psychedelic spaghetti western template fuels intriguing dramatic turns in both “Trouble” and “Matador,” which has a false ending that pre-empts a searing guitar outro, and holy Epiphones, is it breathtaking. Although “Road Stars” is effective as an experimental, mid-album palate cleanser, the male voice unexpectedly joining Tulve’s is jarring; it’s just not a good duet. “Life Valley (So Many Miles Away),” a major-key instrumental with wordless vocals, closes the album on a high note. It’s the most ‘shoegaze’ of anything on Horse, and with some different effects pedals, this song would sound right at home on Ride’s Nowhere. Readily compared to Mazzy Star, Lana Del Rey, and Cowboy Junkies, with Horse, Holy Motors have made a gorgeous, stately record that puts miles between them and their reference points.

Gosh! - (2018) Odyssey LP

 

Nicey Music ‎– NICEY15

 Returning to Chicago after yet another self-booked tour marked by engine failure and a drummer jumping ship, Padraig Steadman and Claire Lambach wrote a stunningly beautiful album reflecting on the melancholy of a life in pursuit of art and music. Here’s GOSH!’s Odyssey, the too-real opposite to the Wayne’s World quest-for-rock-stardom narrative. It remembers an underpaid journey as arduous as the real Ulysses’s, full of tragic twists and chemical quicksands, dating back to Padraig’s years as the frontperson of Nude Sunrise — one of the most notoriously drug-fueled bands to churn through the DIY circuit in the first part of this decade, who always played louder than any band on the bill, who’s volume got our co-founder arrested in 2011, who toured with 200 hits of acid at least once in my experience, and who all worked at the same Papa John’s when they weren’t on tour. Since forming GOSH! with bassist/vocalist Claire Lambach in 2015, Steadman’s output has been far more sober (literally) — the group has become known for their uniquely minimal and sensitive psych rock, at times traversing into almost ambient territory. They can’t escape their distinctly Midwestern tempos, with vast gaping expanses between some chords, and a gritty, industrial drum machine popping in only occasionally to drive their more social numbers, but Odyssey takes on a western palette at the same time, emulating some of LA’s great country stars through the stark emotionality of voice and strum. There’s an optimistic stripe buried in all GOSH!’s music too, never put more plainly than in the album’s opener, “I can feel it coming soon.” Ultimately, the GOSH! story isn’t about hopelessness — it’s about an unquenchable faith in the power of love and music to survive even the most fucked up circumstances, and it’s always been a big inspiration to us. Here’s hoping this album can carry GOSH! onto a brighter leg of their Odyssey.

Choir Boy - (2020) Gathering Swans

 

 Dais Records ‎– none 

Salt Lake City’s indie pop favorites Choir Boy return after four years with the release of their new cosmic album, Gathering Swans. An emotionally powerful record, full of poignant heartbreak and gently steeped in pop nostalgia, Choir Boy push their distinctive sound further, while tenderly romancing the unsuspected.

Since the release of their well-received 2016 debut Passive With Desire, of which Slug Magazine’s Erin Moore declares to be “...packed with songs that are infectious by way of their sound, as well as their emotion...”, and their 2018 single “Sunday Light”, the band evolved from singer Adam Klopp’s project accompanied by a rotating cast of players into a solidified, permanent lineup featuring long-time collaborator and bassist Chaz Costello, saxophonist and keyboardist Jeff Kleinman, and guitarist Michael Paulsen. Following a series of tours with such notable acts as Cold Cave, Snail Mail, and Ceremony, Choir Boy began writing their new album. Proving to be a worthy successor, Gathering Swans builds upon Choir Boy’s infectiousness with unique pop sensibilities and impeccable polish.

The first single, Complainer, demonstrates Klopp’s angelic voice effortlessly floating within the heart-wrenchingly somber melodies, that in a tender state, will surely render tears. Lyrically, the song poses a form of wounded optimism, declaring “Oh my life, what a pitiful thing to hear...But it’s not that bad...I’m just a complainer”. Tracks such as Toxic Eye undoubtedly present the touching “choral-pop” sound that has come to be a hallmark of Choir Boy. Repetitious, layered vocal hooks that fade into the background, allowing the absence between breaths to be filled with the serene melody that embodies the foundation of Choir Boy’s appeal, demonstrating that the ethereal moments between the bright choruses and memorable hooks are as equally crucial and unforgettable as the lyrical content itself. A slightly more solemn ballad, Eat The Frog, skillfully adapts Choir Boy’s taste for nostalgia and translates such desire into a fully mature statement. The propulsive drive behind Eat The Frog possesses the emotional equivalent to sitting atop a hillside, just outside of the city, gazing at the sunset on a warm Summer night.

Creative, sincere, passionate and glaring with intention, Gathering Swans paints a bright, hopeful, and deeply heartfelt image that will most assuredly attract anyone who accompanies Choir Boy upon their journey.

Far Caspian - (2019) The Heights 12''

 

Dance To The Radio ‎– none

 Far Caspian have delivered another thoughtful and dynamic set of songs with their latest EP, The Heights. The five track EP takes listeners on a wistful journey. With their impeccable production and tasteful use of synth and lo-fi sensibilities, Far Caspian make their music more than just a listening session, but a full on experience. The record flows smoothly and softly. The band had released three of the five songs prior to the release. It was the perfect set of teaser songs to introduce new listeners to this unique and engaging group.

All of their songs have the ability to encapsulate you and carry you away. Despite the lyrical content, the songs feel dynamic enough to fit any situation or location. The title track The Heights carries a melancholic vibe while Conversations features an indie pop tune with 80s tendencies. A Dream Of You takes on more personal emotions while engaging with the same soft-pop synth sound.

Far Caspian - (2018) Between Days 12''

 

Dance To The Radio ‎– none 

Far Caspian’s debut EP is ready to whisk listeners into the clouds: Awash with hazy guitars and faraway vocals, the plaintive and dreamy Between Days (November 19, 2018 via Dance to the Radio) marries nostalgia and disconnect in a stirring display of vulnerability. In evoking the emotional magnitude of solitude, loneliness and wandering, the Leeds-based band have created a thing of striking resonance and beauty.
Formed this January, Far Caspian are very much the new kids on the block, to say the least. The four-piece consists of frontman and guitarist Joel Johnston, Jof Cabedo (drums and vocals), Alessio Scozarro (bass and vocals), and Nath Sayers (guitar). Though their story is just beginning, they’ve managed to make quite an entrance – earning early acclaim from critics on both sides of the pond as they splashed onto the music scene with melancholy tones and poetic lyrics.
If dwelling in your own dark, ruminative space is the current trend, then Far Caspian are a shoe-in for this season’s “it” band. Joel Johnston’s heart-heavy lyrics depict the natural turbulence of a life in transition: From the artist’s move from Ireland to the UK, to matters of love, purpose, and well-being, Far Caspian embed themselves in the throes of change.
And yet, almost in spite of itself, Between Days appeals to a wide swathe of listeners and situations. “I think we’ve ended up with a batch of songs that all have their own character,” Johnston, who also produced the EP, shared via press release. “Listen to this when you’re feeling low, when you’re late-night driving on a road trip, when you’re getting ready for a date or just with a friend.”
EP opener and title track “Between Days” sets the scene with its propellant beat and intoxicating sonic haze, immersing listeners in a rich, mellow slumber. The rhythms intensify on “Blue,” as Johnston somberly sings of acceptance and moving on. “The Place,” rich with catchy harmonies and a drowsily fun chorus, showcases the band’s ability to build up to big crescendos.
Penultimate song “Let’s Go Outside” is Far Caspian’s most successful release to date, putting their full character on display through wondrous melodies that fill the space with fresh hope and warmth – even if the lyrics themselves focus on homesick themes.
Concluding with “Finding My Way Home,” Far Caspian bring us down from the clouds in style: Dynamic highs clash with subtle lows as the band evoke a sense of the “new” and “unknown.” For the first time, we feel some excitement float into the mix – and with that sense of renewal and looking up, Between Days ends.

Emma Gatrill - (2017) Cocoon LP

 

 Willkommen Records ‎– WILLKOMMEN021

 Emma Gatrill is a multi-instrumentalist based in Brighton, UK. Her debut, 2012’s Chapter I, was a poignant collection of songs based around her then-latest acquisition – the harp. Subtly accompanied by various members of Brighton’s Willkommen Collective, her intricate harp playing coupled with a unique vocal fragility drew comparisons to Björk and Joni Mitchell as well as her friends and co-conspirators Rachael Dadd and Rozi Plain.

By the time the album came out, she’d already played clarinet in Laura Marling’s band on Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage, made up part of Broken Social Scene’s horn section on a run of UK dates and toured all over Europe as part of Sons Of Noel And Adrian. Since then she’s been touring and collaborating with kindred spirit Kristin McClement and as a member of Matthew & The Atlas.

In amongst it all, Gatrill somehow found time to develop her own live show beyond the simplicity of Chapter I; augmenting her harp and vocal with ambient analogue synths and drum machines using foot controllers, as well as introducing accompanying guitar atmospherics from label-mate Marcus Hamblett.

Five years and hundreds of live shows with dozens of different bands later, her larger-scale live ambitions fed back into the writing and recording process for Gatrill’s forthcoming second album, Cocoon.

The album showcases a huge leap forward in scope and imagination. The harp, tender vocal and unique take on classic songwriting are still at the core of Gatrill’s sound, but the arrangements draw from a much wider and often darker sonic palette – from orchestral strings to monosynths, drum machines to tap shoes and Casio keyboards to vibraphones.

Gatrill’s circle of influences has widened too – on Cocoon Emma draws from the joyful experimentation of Juana Molina and the intelligent pop and texturally rich arrangements of Julia Holter and My Brightest Diamond.

While the songs are more honed and focused, the lyrical content is broader. Philomela explores Greek mythology to the backdrop of tumultuous strings and thunderous drums and Robin tackles climate change set to chamber pop orchestration; while universal concerns of loss, isolation, hope and togetherness tie the album together.

The album was mixed by Dan Cox whose work for the likes of Laura Marling, Thurston Moore and Florence and the Machine lead to him being named Breakthrough Engineer Of The Year at the Music Producer’s Guild awards.

Dylan Moon - (2019) Only the Blues

 

Rvng Intl. ‎– RVNGNL57 

 Only the Blues is an introduction deferred, and it is the debut album by Dylan Moon. Across its 35 minutes, we are rarely made to understand what, exactly, the source of Moon’s blues is, how that feeling has mutated, or whether there is a life beyond the small rooms and cramped spaces where this music was made. If not opaque, this first meeting with Moon is at least hazily translucent.

This makes Only the Blues something of an esoteric response to an age of radical transparency. Broadly speaking, Moon works in the field of folk music. But from this pasture, he glances pathways to digression; seeking scenic routes and counterintuitive cartography, trusting that even the most aimless trip becomes lucid if the foggy details are documented well enough.

On this trip, images spill from Moon, and most of them seem foreboding. We are given the sense - both from his lyrics and from the viscous mood he creates, using electronic manipulation to send his songs down compositional egresses, from which they emerge with a mysterious residue - that things have not been going well. Even the most saccharine memories, dancing before a freshly lit fire or hanging out with childhood cartoons come to life, feel caked with a hidden history.

Moon studied electronic production and sound design at music school, and then moved to Los Angeles in hopes of working in the film industry. While simultaneously graduating from pop to psych to prog to beat-making, he returned to traditional songwriting on the west coast, working out his ideas over a pair of self-released EPs. He also stumbled upon an ancient drum machine with scratched contact points and seventy years spent under restless thumbs, finding a kind of sonic entropy in its past-futurist rhythm signals that serve as Only the Blues’ spiritual center.

The album was recorded in Moon’s bedrooms in L.A. and Boston, small spaces made more claustrophobic by the soundproofing he hammered into the doors and the bedding he leaned against the walls. A single soul, spinning away (and out) in a cramped room: It’s a state of mind — and being — that Moon used his formal training to refine across Only the Blues. This is an album ornate with so many musical ideas to express that it teeters between ecstasy and anxiety.

Tamaryn - (2019) Dreaming the Dark

 

Dero Arcade ‎– none 

TAMARYN has been crafting gothic dreampop and soaring shoegaze records for the better part of a decade. With each subsequent release she has both expanded her sonic palette and playfully deconstructed it, the project itself an iconoclastic exploration involving a variety of collaborators and genre-melding that has spanned three previous albums, an EP and a handful of singles. While 2015’s lush Cranekiss marked a synth-inflected left turn for the artist, Dreaming the Dark pushes her sound even further. It’s simultaneously her hardest, darkest record and still somehow her most accessible, landing squarely in the sweet spot between between pop and post-punk. Produced by and co-written with JORGE ELBRECHT (Ariel Pink, Frankie Rose, Wild Nothing, Gang Gang Dance), the nine tracks on Dreaming the Dark represent an emotional and aesthetic evolution, the front and center guitar washes and foggy ennui of her earlier records giving way to crystalline beats, synths and lyrical narratives aimed directly at the jugular. While the record still occasionally mines a 4AD-adjacent musical palette—all manner of Cocteau Twins gauze, her Kate Bush meets Tears for Fears level vocality and melodic guitar lines that might have swirled off of a mid-80’s Cure record—Dreaming also pack a hefty emotional wallop. The album flirts with the aesthetics of classic '80s synthpop while playing at the fringes of hip hop production and forward-thinking electronica.