Album Review: Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips

This week I covered the dusty new drone album Full Upon Her Burning Lips by Earth. It's an interesting departure for the band and I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Check it out over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.  

Review of Earth's Full Upon Her Burning Lips

Desert witch. Lady of the Earth. 

Album Review: Full of Hell - Weeping Choir

My mind is still reeling after experiencing grindcore genre benders Full of Hell and their new LP Weeping Choir. Read my ramblings tongues over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 

Review of Full of Hell's Weeping Choir

Weep for the living, not the dead.   

Album Review: Steel Pulse - Mass Manipulation

This week I covered English reggae mainstays Steel Pulse and their new LP Mass Manipulation. Read all about how to break the back of the global corporate hegemony and my thoughts on the album over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 

Review of Steel Pulse's Mass Manipulation

Forever in solidarity. 

Album Review: Esperanza Spalding - 12 Little Spells

I invite you to join me in exiting the mundane with the help of the award-winning, Harvard professor, and musical polymath, Esperanza Spalding and the reissue of her seventh LP, 12 Little Spells. Frankly, she needs no introduction. All 12 of these little spells were released as standalone singles with accompanying music videos last October. It’s now being combined with a sister EP comprising of four original tracks that should have never should have been separated from its sibling. Together they complete Spalding’s vision of an album that explores the extensions and limitations, the experiential lenses, and overlapping political and real economies that are represented by the human body through an overlay of soul-penetrating jazz, R’nB, funk, and orchestral pop. Beginning with the theatrical meanderings of “12 Little Spells (thoracic spine),” through to the swinging bell-shaped groove of “Thang (hips),” to the funky floating sweeper of “You have to Dance (feet),” and wrapping up with impossibly wet sounding “Lest We Forget (blood),” this is a beautiful and exceptionally composed record. Allow yourself the luxury of becoming lost in the enchanting sweep of Spalding’s incantations.

Get a copy of 12 Little Spells on vinyl here

Album Review: Sâver - They Came With Sunlight

Lots a brilliant brutal stuff in rotation this week.Check out my review of the latest album from Norwegian sludge metal upstarts Sâver over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.

Review of Sâver's They Came With Sunlight

Still curious who "they" are. 

Album Review: Possessed - Revelations of Oblivion

This week I covered the original death metal band, Possessed and their new LP Revelations of Oblivion. They're back from the abyss and I've got some thoughts on their return which you can read over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 

Review of Possessed's Revelations of Oblivion

Spoilers: They nailed it! 

Show Review: Perturbator at Thalia Hall

Perturbator (Photo credit: CCS)

This week I checked out the future-imperfect cyber synth wraiths Perturbator at Thalia Hall. I dug a little deeper than usual in my recap of their set and seeing their show helped me unpack some ideas that had been rolling around in my mind for the past few weeks. My coverage is over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 

Show Recap Perturbator @ Thalia Hall

No future but what we make. 

Album Review: Combo Chimbita - Ahomale

Today I am snacking on some choice rhythmic ruminations, courtesy of Brooklyn’s Combo Chimbita. While home-based in a whitewashed hipster wasteland, the band transcends their surroundings with fealty to the global south. Their expressive, sharp-edged folk-funk combines traditional cumbia rhythms with futuristic psyche and soul with overtones of Afro-Latinx diaspora and lush post-punk. Ahomale is their second LP as well as the name of the album’s central character, a vessel of ancient cosmic knowledge, who seeks to free humanity from the trappings of hubris and intolerance. The music here is infused with a sense of spiritual purpose and a mission to open the listener’s eyes to true wisdom and transcendent human consciousness. Things start out unassuming enough with the dusty western waltz and Latinx soul of “Ahomale” which give way to darkly symphonic, distorted, and surging guitar riffs, a great primer for what the band has in store for you on the rest of the album. The chilling quite-loud-quite dynamic established on the title track is further embellished on the cobweb swept, crypt diving salsa of “Revelacion” and the future-forward reggae crossfire of “Te Vi.” Moodier moments of force are offered up on the dripping dub upheavel of “Al Templo” and the trippy trap groove and deconstructed ska of “Santo Fuerte.” Escape the mundane with the guiding embrace of Combo Chimbita.

Grab a vinyl copy of the album from Anti- Records here

Album Review: Fixed Fight - Empty Homes

My review of Danish metallic hardcore crew Fixed Fight's debut Empty Homes is up over on InEffect Hardcore. If you dig Snapecase and Converge but wish they leaned a little harder into death metal territory, then this LP is definitely worth checking out.

Review of Fixed Fight's Empty Homes

The first rule of Fixed Fight Club, is that you don't talk about Fixed Fight Club. The second rule of Fixed Fight Club, is that you don't talk about Fixed Fight Club.  

Album Review: Versus - Ex Nihilo

This week I covered Versus new EP Ex Nihilo for Chicago Crowd Surfer. Its exactly what you want from this greying indie bulwark in 2019. Indie rock can wear me down pretty quick but I'm definitely feeling this one. Link below. 

Review Versus' Ex Nihilo

Something from nothing means nothing, gotta have something...  

Album Review: Ringworm - Death Becomes My Voice

Chicago Crowd Surfer is running my review of the brutal and uncompromising return of hardcore legends Ringworm and their latest tour de force Death Becomes My Voice. This may be my album of the year. Only time will tell. Link below.

Review of Ringworm's Death Becomes My Voice

Death has always been my voice. 

Album Review: Fury - Failed Entertainment

This week in album reviews I had the honor of covering a new release by art-house youth crew upstarts Fury, tilted Failed Entertainment. My review is over on Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.

Review of Fury's Failed Entertainment

Are you not entertained? 

Album Review: Helms Alee - Noctiluca

Nothing like music from a rainy city to set the mood for an overcast afternoon, right? Today I’m enjoying the angular cloud-bursting dynamics of Seattle post-hardcore mainstay, Helms Alee. Helms Alee formed in 2008 and is comprised of Ben Verellen on vocals and guitar, Dana James on bass, and Hozoji Margullis on drums. They play a loose, groovy style of rust yielding metallic punk buttressed by arching supports of terse grunge and quivering sludge metal. Being from the northwest, I guess you either mix your Drive Like Jehu with Soundgarden, or you just play Soundgarden (or you don’t play anything and get a job at Amazon HQ). Noctiluca is their fifth album and sees the band continue to maintain a solid level of energy and manicured rage through the honing of tight sheering guitars, gluey bass riffs, and duets of cleanly sung melodious female vocals and Melvins style, sky-blackening shouts. Their dynamic approach is best displayed on the shambolic drift-and-slam of the reverb wrapped “Be Rad Tomorrow.” Need more interlocking, rolling grooves? Check out the harmonic prickle and plunging grooves of “Interachnid.” Need something to sweat your angst out to? Smash play on the imposing Mastodon-esque “Lay Waste, Child” and the sludge-core knuckle-cracker “Word Problem.” Get inspired, not tired. 

Pick up a copy of Noctiluca from Sargent House Records today!

Album Review: Chevalier - Destiny Calls

Helsinki based heavy metal heathens Chevalier just dropped their new LP Destiny Calls, and it is everything you could want out of a speed metal album in 2019. My write up is at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.

Review of Chevalier's Destiny Calls

Heed the call of destiny, and give this bad mother f*cker a spin.

Album Review: Aldous Harding - Designer

There is no one in the world like Aldous Harding, and her new album Designer is a distinctly transportive masterpiece. My write up is over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 

Review of Aldous Harding's Designer

Design the world you deserve, not the one you were born into...

Album Review: Walking Bicycle - Chooch EP

Walking Bicycle, local alternative rockers named for a strange hybrid mode of transportation, are thankfully back with some new music. The new Chooch EP may not be breaking new ground, but it's helping to break me out of the mood I'm in today. Check out my write up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer at the link below.

Review of Walking Bicycle's Chooch EP @ CCS

Do not ask for whom the bicycle bell tolls...