Album Review: LLLL - Mirror

 LLLL initially caught my interest because of the way that he conceptualizes his music. Now, if you had asked me to describe it with no prior knowledge, I would have said that LLLL sounds like dark, moody house music. This is not at all how LLLL thinks about himself, though. In his mind he is a j-pop artist first, and a shoegaze artist second. And I think he's right on both accounts. Upon giving his 2012 EP Mirror thorough listen, I was struck by how tightly layered and sequenced its compositions are. Each track runs about four minutes in length and none of that time is wasted. I'm not sure that these songs exactly obey the strict conventions of j-pop's structures (ie, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, etc...), but these numbers do feel identifiably pop in nature and are all highly ear-wormy. Something that I'm glad to have confirmed about my initial impression of Mirror is that it is a shoegaze album. I've been acquainted with the idea that Japenese shoegaze departs significantly from its Western counterparts, and while I definitely heard a lot of elements I associate with the Japanese variety on Mirror (eg, cooing vocals, fluttery feedback, dreamy atmospherics, etc...) I was somewhat hesitant to allow these observations to color my impression of the album as a whole before I discovered some references to this fact in the work of other writers and in interviews with the LLLL himself. This is a good reminder to myself to trust my instincts as a music appreciator and critic. I also enjoy how this album, and LLLL's work generally, have expanded my idea of what shoegaze can be. Rather than just a fuzzy, highly textured, and emotionally charged form of rock music, I now know that it can take the form of peculiar recombinations of pop and dance as well. I can never put down a piece of art that helps me appreciate something I thought I was familiar with in new and interesting ways. Give Mirror a try if you haven't already. You might find that it will help you see things a little differently as well. 

Buy Mirror here. 

Interview: Ross Goldstein

Image by Ted Barron

Today composer and sound artist Ross Goldstein has released the final vignette in his mellotron series, Chutes & Ladders. The album follows 2018's The Eighth House and 2020's Timoka as a set of blossoming apertures that part to reveal the many silvery pearls that wait to reward an artist willing to apply proper quotient of pressure and patience to this legendarily temperamental device. The sounds of the mellotron are historically have provided a certain sonic accent and transcendent aura to rock and orchestral scores, but very rarely act as the vessel for an artist's compositions alone. Ross, being who he is, sees potential in places that others begrudge as fallow soil. He, therefore, took it upon himself to plant seeds of inspiration in the crystalline loams and milky pools of steady motion that sustain the peat of the mellotron's kaleidoscopic cataract to see what it could yield. The results, verily, speak for themselves. I find myself confounded by much of what I hear on Chutes & Ladders, even when the reference points wring out clear as day. To aid in with my understanding Ross's work, I reached out to the man himself for comment and clarity. You can read his response below, and I think you will find that they are suitably in line with the aesthetics of his album; brief, opaque, and disarmingly honest.

Interview was conducted over email on October 19. 

What was it that attracted you to the mellotron and fascinated you enough to plan a trilogy of albums around it? 

The trilogy was not planned. It developed over a period of 3-4 years. 

In 2016 my friend Curtis got a new digital Mellotron (M4000D) and after playing it I immediately wanted to get one. 

What makes the mellotron so versatile, and yet so temperamental? How closely related are its strengths and flaws? 

This question is tough to answer. The digital version isn’t very temperamental - so it’s a very different animal from the original Mellotron/Chamberlin. 

Its strengths and flaws are pretty subjective - but in my opinion they are one and the same.   

How did the popular perception of the instrument affect your approach to composing and recording with it? 

I’m not sure. I think it helped me use my imagination in new ways. 

What did you learn about working with the mellotron between each album, and how did your experiences impact how Chutes & Ladders came out? 

I learned that I was interested in how to create a kind of continuity while using many layers of Mellotron tracks. 

Chutes & Ladders was mostly influenced by the events of 2020 and the first few months spent in quarantine. 

What's next for you in terms of life and career? 

I’m moving out west. 

Anything else you'd like to add? 

The new record was mixed in mono!  

Buy Chutes and Ladders here. Listen below: 

Interview: Brandy Zdan

Photos by Alysse Gafkjen.

Got to do a track by track with the incredibly talented country-rock artist Brandy Zdan about her new LP Falcon for New Noise today. A great record from someone who feels like a pure force of nature. Links below: 

Interview https://newnoisemagazine.com/brandy-zdan-goes-track-by-track-on-her-new-album-falcon/

Embrace your inner falconer https://brandyzdan.bandcamp.com/album/falcon

Album Review: Mehenet - Ng’ambu

Wrote about the beastly new album from New Orleans-based black metal band Mehenet for New Noise. Ng’ambu is out via Gilead Media. Words can be found through links. Links are below.

Review https://newnoisemagazine.com/bandcamp-of-the-day-mehenet/

Get the album https://gileadmedia.net/

Interview: Steve Gabry, Creator of Sally Face

I discovered Sally Face on the Switch earlier this year, and it's currently one of my favorite games. I love the atmosphere, the hand-drawn animations, the music, and the characters- the whole package, it's my jam! I got to talk to Steve about his game for the VGA Zine and you can check it out at the links below: 

Read interview with Steve Gabry https://vgagallery.org/vga-zine/question-zone-steve-garby

Check out the trailer for Sally Face below:

Buy Sally Face. 

Album Review: Cuffed Up - Asymmetry

Wrote about a fun new EP from indie rockers and modern post-punks Cuffed Up today. See what I had to say about Asymmetry over on New Noise. Linke below: 

Review https://newnoisemagazine.com/bandcamp-of-the-day-cuffed-up/

Get it got https://royalmountainrecords.bandcamp.com/

Album Review: Chinese Football - Here Comes a New Challenger!

Here Comes a New Challenger! is an unassuming, but none the less unparalleled, released from the Wuhan-based emo band Chinese Football. The EP is somewhat of a pivot point for the group, marking the period in 2017 when they were starting to come into their own as artists while getting better international press- due in part to the accelerating pace of conversation around the then-current phase of emo revival in the US. Stylistically, it serves as a transition point for the band's sound, continuing the Mineral meets Cap'n Jazz conceits of their 2015 debut self-titled with the melody-forward, "Mandarin" rock of their 2019 EP Continue?. 

It's worth noting at this point that Chinese Football is not part of any emo revival as we would understand it. The band is certainly paying homage to classic second-wave emo, but in a way that is clearly developing along a different evolutionary logic than their US counterparts.

Getting back on track- one of the more striking differences between Chinese Football's later work and their early albums, up to and including Here Comes a New Challenger!, is that band are significantly more confident in their guitar work than in their singing abilities on these earlier releases. As a result, there is an incredible, almost overwhelming, amount of texture and detail in the mathy chord progressions on Here Comes a New Challenger!- far more delicate minutia than you could absorb in half a dozen listens (at least that ended up being the case for me!). 

This busyness can cause a few tracks on the EP to feel like they are dragging a bit- but only if you are listening more casually. Therefore multitasking while listening to this album is not recommended. If you're going to properly metabolize everything Here Comes a New Challenger! serves up, you're going to have to sit with it a while and let those mathy chords solve for some integers and do some scratch calculations on the interior of your skull.

Sure, enjoying this album can take a little extra effort on your part, but you can't say that the band didn't warn you that this might be the case. After all, it has the word "challenger" in the title. 

Here Comes a New Challenger! was released through Wild Records. 

Album Review: James Barrett - A Series Of​.​.​. Mostly Nothing

I did a little write up of the sweet sounds of PA singer/songwriter James Barrett's latest album A Series of... Mostly Nothing for New Noise today. Links below: 

Review https://newnoisemagazine.com/bandcamp-of-the-day-james-barrett/

Purchasing options https://jamesbarrettmusicpa.bandcamp.com/album/a-series-of-mostly-nothing-2

Album Review: Msylma & Ismael - مذاهب النسيان / The Tenets of Forgetting

Enigmatic Saudi singer Msylma became a figure of note in the international, electronic underground with the release of his 2019 album Dhil-un Taht Shajarat Al-Zaqum. A release that combined pre-Islamic poetry and song with fraying electronics, orthogonal post-punk protrusions, and inclement squalls of harsh noise. Through this mishegoss of sound and fury, Msylma's firm and reassuringly generative voice was a sonorous guiding force. Although, nestled amongst the wailing chimera of Dhil-un Taht Shajarat Al-Zaqum was a creature of a more docile nature named "Hazat-u-L-Waraq [Halcyon Veil]," a nereid with an even temper and a paradoxically pleasant disposition. It is from this track that Msylma's latest album The Tenets of Forgetting owes its spiritual inheritance. Teaming up with producer Ismael, the selection of tracks featured on The Tenets of Forgetting still find Msylma's voice as their focal point, but now the music matches the miraculous clam of his performance in a more complementary fashion. There is a strong emphasis on counter-melody and reflective effects that emphasize the unique qualities of his Msylma's vocal talents. While there are still plenty of ragged electronics swirling around Msylma like the winds of an antagonistic sand storm, the bluster fails to batter him- instead of acting as a buffer and an extension of his ego- obeying the laws of rhythm and time in an ecstatic elemental dance of eternal providence. In many ways, The Tenets of Forgetting represents a turn towards more familiar pop and R'nB structures, but the embrace of these forms only strengthens the effect of his performance and promotes the wealth of his imaginative reach.  

Get The Tenets of Forgetting from Éditions Appærent.

Album Review: The Convenience - Accelerator

Wrote about the NOLA funk group The Convenience's new LP Accelerator for New Noise. Album rules. Get with it ya squares! Links below:

Review https://newnoisemagazine.com/bandcamp-of-the-day-the-convenience/

Buy here https://winspear.bandcamp.com/

Album Review: Kedr Livanskiy - Liminal Soul

Moscow-based, modern trance and techno producer Kedr Livanskiy glibly remarked upon the release of her 2019 record You Need, that her next album would be a folk record. I appreciate that level of wry misdirection. It's good to keep music journalists on their toes. Their days are mostly spent sucking up to John Darnielle and they are not going to notice if you provide them with a statement that is patently untrue. Further, the most alive they will feel all year is when they have to scramble to issue a retraction. Kedr did everyone a favor as far as I'm concerned. 

If you haven't gathered yet, Kedr Livanskiy's fourth LP Liminal Soul is about as much a folk album as Parliament's Dr. Funkenstein is a polka album. That doesn't mean it's not a departure from the headlong IDM of her previous efforts. Indeed, the album sees Kedr diverting her attention to the fizzle and purr of pure pop song structures. Liminal Soul is a more intimate effort than its predecessors in a number of ways- the beats are sparser, the production is clean, effortless, and unobtrusive, and Kedr's vocals are center stage in the mix. There are still some saucy and sassy beats spattered throughout, but the focus of this album is not rhythm as much as it is melody. Kedr, through the vessel of her voice, is the heliocentric center around which all other forms circulate and vibe. These tracks might not be as enticing to the hips, but the sounds that escape from her lips are simply luminescent and it is worth pausing to appreciate the seduction of their aura in a moment of suspense and reverie. 

Liminal Soul is out via 2MR.

Album Review: Circuit des Yeux – -io

I wrote about the agaony and the ecstasy of Haley Fohr's -io for New Noise today. This may be my favorite album of hers so far. Links below:

Review https://newnoisemagazine.com/album-review-circuit-des-yeux-io/

Get it https://matadorrecords.com/

Album Review: Violet Cold - Empire Of Love

 It's fairly intimidating to tackle any release from the Azerbaijani, solo-black metal artist 40°22'37.7"N 49°50'51.6"E, also known as Emin Guliyev, but better recognized as Violet Cold. Emin is extremely prolific, often releasing several full-length albums in a single year (the most infamous streak of which was the ambient sound trilogy Sommermorgen released over the course of 2018). Emin is also well known for stepping outside of the confining shadows of raw black metal to embody within his sound aspects derived from shoegaze, post-rock, house music, and various strata of both Western and Middle-Eastern folk. All of which appear to find astonishing dimensions of accommodation on his latest LP, Empire of Love. 

Emin has been reliable for his captivating and divergent explorations of black metal for as long as I've been aware of his work. In addition to his probing into the ambient textures of undefined spaces of potential on Sommermorgen, he also took listeners to the stars on the interstellar frontier, breaching opus kOsmik the following year. Black metal can be a primitive and traditionalist genre, one that often seems most comfortable in the grime and decay of underbrush, or the staining soot of a long-dead campfire. But Emin was still able to take its crude tools and terrestrially oriented gaze and use them to write for us a map of celestial bodies. Empire of Love, as you should gather from the title and cover, is no less ambitious and bold in its approach. 

Adapting the symbolic representation of his homeland (the Azeri flag), and modifying its color scheme to match that of the contemporary LGBTQ+ movement, Empire of Love performs an insurrectionist move against the presently repressive and homophobic government of Azerbaijan. A coup deepened in its audacity by the combination of native Azerbaijani folk with incredibly clean and crisp atmospheric black metal in a celebration of difference and defiance. It's a fairly overt subversion, demonstrating the way in which individuals are often made the enemies of a society by virtue of their mere existence, and ways in which the act of continuing to exist in such scenarios can consequentially form the basis for rebellion. 

This is made most clear on the effervescent and rosé hued "Pride," which entwines cleanly sung, woman's vocals intoning a rollicking folk melody with mathy tremolos and refreshing gusty synth chords to form a nebula of affirmation that will shock your synapsis with a near overdose of pure serotonin. This particular mix of sounds and elements finds fresh and generative recombinations on later tracks like the reflective and cascading "Shegnificant," with its climbing post-hardcore guitar progressions, as well as the cooly elegant and explosively mercurial saga "Be Like Magic," which earns the merit of its pretense through the feat of hybridizing orchestral black metal and arena rock while still leaving room for a cyclopean-voiced rap verse in its bridge. While it's impressive to hear the guitar tones and '80s, Cult styled, goth 'n roll of this track taken to novel heights on the darkly romantic "We Met During The Revolution," I'm not as struck by this particular chimera as much as I am by the rapid exchange of tremolos that can be found on the militantly upbeat "Working Class" or the simple and cheery blush of opener "Cradle." Both of which feature performances on a traditional tar accompanied by electric guitar. 

The fact that the varied vocal performances here appear to only be possible with the aid of an AI does little to diminish the effectiveness of the arrangements on Empire of Love. Similarly, its overriding themes of solidarity, optimism and pride in affection do nothing to degrade its character as a black metal album. Black metal is rightly characterized by a rejection of modernity and all its shallow falsehoods. Empire of Love solidifies its place within this oppositional front by rejecting the prerogatives of the conservative, nationalistic and anti-queer agenda of the Azerbaijani government and presents in its stead an inclusive, national identity that cannot be confined by the limits of contemporary culture's imagination. In short, when reality fails to match the potential of Emin's imagination, Emin allows his imagination to become the catalyst of a new reality- submerging the hostility of a degraded world in the radiant prism of a rainbow and allowing it to be born anew. 

You can support Violet Cold on Patreon here. 

Album Review: Jimi Tenor - Order of Nothingness

Before we get into this, I just want to acknowledge that Jimi Tenor released an album last year titled Aulos. I intend to do a full review of it at some point, but I really don't know if I can do that without talking about his 2018 Afro-jazz record Order of Nothingness first. That record was my introduction to Jimi's sound, and it still is the jumping-off point for me concerning anything else he does. Also, Aulos is a very different record, and I still need more time to get my head around it. But that's enough preamble, let's get to the review! 

Composing his nom de plume by combining the name of his childhood hero, Jimmy Osmond, with the name of his primary organ of expression, the tenor saxophone, Finnish player and songwriter Jimi Tenor has been a respected avant-garde musician throughout the global jazz scene for decades now. For his 2018 album Order of Nothingness though, he takes a step back from the spotlight in order to light a flame in tribute to indelible traditions afro-beat and afro-soul. The record sees the Helsinki denizen connecting with Berlin’s Ekow Alabi Savage and Max Weissenfeldt to punch up his rhythm section and bust out the boogie and make for an impeccable listening experience- one that is as catchy as it is embued with an ecclesiastic Earthiness. Order of Nothingness incorporates a number of experiments with obsolete electric keyboards that give many of these tracks a powerfully nostalgic vibe as well. 

Two words come to mind when listening to this record: warmth and transcendence. Qualities that feel like they radiate and permeate your cells, bringing them to life all at once in a frantic arousal of the senses- like you've just gone from lounging in a hot spring to cannonballing into a frozen pond, and back again. Of like you've been induced to expel all your pours at once and are now taking in oxygen and respiration through a thousand newly cleared passages throughout your outer layers. The lyrics on this record are pretty special as well. All of them playing their role setting up inflection points of humility, love, observation, and curiosity, to compliment dynamic and psychedelic imbued hymns of melodic jazz, which Jimi's as brought forth. Each a beacon that burns brightly with the glow of global solidarity.

Buy Order of Nothingness from Philophon. 

Album Review: Reyna Tropical - Sol y Lluvia

 
On Reyna Tropical's latest EP Sol y Lluvia, She Shred's founder and guitarist Fabi Reyna doesn't really shred, and LA-based producer Nectali Diaz aka Sumohair doesn't exactly throw his weight around, either. Partly because they're both aren't showy people. But mostly because they don't need to. The strength of their collaboration is commanding enough. 

Both members of the band were born in Mexico but grew up, and presently reside, in the United States. Not surprisingly, each of them still maintains a sense of deep connection with their Mexican heritage and thrive on the fluid exchange between the cultures of their two homes. Often in defiance to those with power and influence and who might seek to separate the peoples of these intensely intertwined, sister regions to advance their own political agenda. You can't keep people apart though. Nor can extinguish their thirst and a burning desire for freedom and connection with one and another. To attempt to is a full hardy as telling the sky not to rain or demand that water stop being wet. Which interestingly enough, brings us back around to the topic of Reyna Tropical's new album.

Sol y Lluvia is inspired by Fabi's time spent around the Rio Mendihuaca, a river in Northern Columbia that flows into the Caribean Sea. And the album is dedicated to all of the bodies of water that make life on this planet possible and connect every living thing on it. The narrative that the Fabi and Nectali crochet together for this release is an emotional and spiritual one- a truth you feel before you can rationalize it and understand before you can even articulate the words that have been spoken to you inside your own head. 

The cool, Afro-Mexican rhythms that the band lays down are as easy and as natural to indulge in as taking oxygen into your lungs (and about as healthful as well). "Lluvia" is possessed of an enveloping tranquility, one which feels like you're sitting on the banks of a dark, calm lake, as light reflects back at you from the water's surface at dawn, just as the sun begins to climb above the treeline. A track with a shimming appeal, achieved through a combination of peaceful but precise syncopated guitars, a rippling display of Caribbean rhythms, and the invigorating lap of Fabi's beguiling voice. "Calor" evinces a lo-key clamor for your attention, achieving its goal with the help of relaxed and congenial Latin surf pop and reggae, a sonic profile that contrasts playfully with the romp and shimmy of the arpeggiated reggaeton on "Tristeza." Then Sol y Lluvia exits with a final au revoir, courtesy of the unhurried closer "Calmada," a track which sounds like it would be an excellent companion soundtrack to the writing of a travel diary, with its ambling, daydreamy mood and stone-skipping grooves. 

Where ever water flows, you will find people there. And where ever you find people, you will find water. We're a long way off from achieving solidarity and camaraderie between all the people of the world, but as long as we have water and music to guide us, you may find some common ground yet. 

Buy Sol y Lluvia here. 

Album Review: Gully Boys - Favorite Son

Wrote about a cool new punk band out of Minneapolis today for New Noise. They're called Gully Boys and they are ready to blow the roof off your sound system with their new EP Favorite Son. Links below: 

Review https://newnoisemagazine.com/bandcamp-of-the-day-gully-boys/

Buy from Get Better: https://getbetterrecords.com/

Album Review: Guess What - Children In Space

Man, if only space were as funky as Guess What makes it sound. If the experience of space exploration was anything like listening to the latest collaborative effort of keyboardist  Graham Mushnik and drummer Luke Warmcop I'd sign up for a Mars mission tomorrow. Elon Musk could drop a fishbowl on my head, stuff me in a dumpster and light 3 tons of dynamite underneath my ass, and I would not give a shit as long as I made it into orbit.

Alas, the interstellar regions beyond our atmosphere aren't nearly as sensual an environment as these Frenchmen make it out to be on their latest album, Children in Space. For one, there's no sound out there. Not only can no one hear you scream, but you can't hear the thump of a mad sound system either- it doesn't matter how big and hi-def it is. Different but related, there is no air in space. It makes it hard to boogie if you can never catch your breath. I guess I'll just have to settle for life on this side of the Kármán line. It's not so bad, not so long as I have the fat beats and heavy rhythms of Children in Space to help me appreciate all the breathable gas I get to swim in each day and which prevents the death of every cell in my puny Earthling body. 

So what makes Children in Space so interesting? Well, for starters, it's a concept album about humans leaving Earth behind for life amongst the stars. It's also a tribute to Christa McAuliffe, the educator who infamously died in the Challenger explosion in 1986. The duo also manages to make the album a tribute to Sun Ra and his explorations of interstellar consciousness. None of this would be noteworthy if the music didn't hold up though, which at this point, I think you should be able to conclude from my tone that it does. Through bright, optimistic and elegant melodies and elastic and enticing polyrhythms, Guess What leaves little doubt as to their ability to transport you to another world. I don't think that I have to belabor the point that this trip is for me. The only question left is whether or not I should be saving you a seat. 

Children in Space is out via Catapulte Records

Album Review: Sour Blue - Schema

I wrote about the fantastic new EP Schema from the LA-based electro-shoegaze band Sour Blue. These guys are very cool and I'm really looking forward to hearing what they do next. Links below: 

Review https://newnoisemagazine.com/bandcamp-of-the-day-sour-blue/

My Blog https://sourblue.bandcamp.com/album/schema-ep

Album Review: Debt Stalker - Endurance Test

At around 10 minutes of total run time, Debt Stalker's Endurance Test isn't an onerous listen. Of course, your stamina isn't what the artist is looking to gauge (at least not until you are comfortably on your back and the two of you have discussed a safe word). It's not stoicism that matters to this open format producer, but bravery. Do you have the fortitude to follow Debt Stalker into the unknown? Through an electro-sexual, gothic nebulo of sin, surrender, and satisfaction? Do you have the courage to admit your desires, no matter how dark and uncanny, and embrace them as they emerge from the whirlpool of your psyche as one would the return of a prodigal sprog? This might sound like you are being invited into the den of a cenobite, but what I think Debt Stalker is seeking to envelop the listener is a mix of pleasure and pain that is heavily weighted towards the pleasure end of the equation. The most pain you're likely to endure are some light bruises and maybe a little bit of heartbreak with Endurance Test. Unless you really mess around and are a disrespectful or judgmental prick about what they've opened up to you with- in which case, I don't think they'll hesitate to put stiletto switchblade on the cover to good use. 

Get Endurance Test from HiedraH Club de Baile

Interview: Alex Santilli

Pic by Nick Mcmillian

I had a very fun and enlightening exchange with in-demand DIY drummer Alex Santilli about his new project The Adventures of Anacleto for the CHIRP Radio Blog. The project is a tribute to his grandfather as well as an expansion and exploration of his unique production technique. Read what Alex has to say about his new project here and his new single "Caffe Tristé":https://chirpradio.org/blog/the-chirp-radio-interview-alex-santilli

Interview: Damiana

Photo by Doug Kaplan

I had the absolute pleasure of talking with Natalie Chami and Whitney Johnson of the experimental group Damiana for the CHIRP Radio Artist Interview Series. We had a great conversation about how the band got together, their name and even picked up some great tips for improvising as well. 

Check out the interview on CHIRP Radio's site here: https://chirpradio.org/podcasts/damiana-interview

Buy Damiana's debut Vines from Hausu Mountain: https://hausumountain.bandcamp.com/album/vines

You can also listen to the interview below: 

CHIRP Radio · Damiana Interview

Album Review: Superdestroyer - Such Joy

I wrote a review about the very excellent new EP from electro-emo, one-person, musical armada, Superdestroyer. It's called Such Joy and it rules! Links below: 

Review https://newnoisemagazine.com/bandcamp-of-the-day-superdestroyer/

Buy https://www.lonelyghostrecords.com/

Album Review: Falcifer - Pain

 I find it frustrating that the half-life for how long you can talk about a great, or even excellent, hardcore record is about half a week. By the week following its release, the discourse has moved on, the hype is elsewhere, and the excitement for the record has burnt down to embers. It's kind of ridiculous given how much sweat, tears, (sometimes blood) and straight-up passion goes into these records. I mean, Knocked Loose dropped a straight-up banger of an EP last week. On top of that, the album was released with a mesmerizing stop-motion animated, short film. And now, not even five days later, it feels corny already to even mention how straight-up baller that all is. It's kind of fucked up. There might be something wrong with the way we're experiencing music now that causes this to happen, or even more likely, the way it is something messed up with the way we are introduced to things on social media and streaming platforms and the way the music press's buzz cycle squeezes things out before music fans even have a chance to fully metabolize a piece of work. I try to break out of these dumb patterns as much as possible on this blog. That is why when I find something I love, or even just a record that gets stuck in some part of my brain, I take the time to shout it out. One of those records, is Pain by the downtempo metallic hardcore band Falcifer. Falcifer has a very deep, resonant sound, and it would be easy to simply comment on this aspect of them call it a day, but there is some profoundly compelling songwriting here as well. They remind me of Harm's Way in that respect, in that they are able to take that sense of vicious, overbearing power collapsing in on you that some melodic and industrial death metal band do so well (basically, Godflesh-core), and transform it into something targetedly kinetic and propulsive. It feels like the songs on Pain have as solid of conceptual structure as any Brill Building tunes- except that the songs on this record would likely cause a '60s sock-hop to devolve into a Lord of the Flies scenario (more so than it already was), or a mass, ritual blood carnival. The savage emotions it exsanguinates from the band reek of bile and retribution and have a spellbinding effect on the listener. The only way to survive with your mind intact is to plunge forward into it and hope that the scars it leaves in your body aren't so deep that they are born upon the blameless flesh of your future children- a type of spiritual branding for the trauma suffered by their progenitors. Falcifer called this thing Pain for a reason. It is as much a descriptor as it is a warning. 

Pain is out via Greyscale Records.

Interview: Zulu

Image courtesy of Zulu

I had a talk with Anaiah from Zulu a couple of weeks back. You can read our conversation over at New Noise now. Links below: 

Interview: https://newnoisemagazine.com/interview-zulu-black-powerviolence-is-here/

More Zulu: https://zuluca.bandcamp.com/

Album Review: shadynasty - ✌Curtis✌

Someone posted about shadynasty on Twitter recently, claiming that they were a precursor to acts like Hey, Ily. I have no idea if that is true or if the personality behind Hey, Ily has even heard of this band. But I do think it is interesting to point out how long folks have been sequencing chiptunes into emo jams. It seems like this should have been going on for a while longer than it actually has, though. Give the nostalgia that a lot of emo and pop-punk bands had for the '80s, particularly retro electronics, during the first decade of the new Millennium, you would have thought that this style would have been well established by the mid-10s. Nostalgia for Reagan-era sounds metastasized in a lot of weird ways over the past 30 years- not the least of which was a manga-style comic book that combined retro gaming with pop-punk. How it is that Scott Pilgrim didn't coexist with a wave of chirpy, 8-bit pop-punk will baffle music scholars (or just me) for decades to come. As it is, shadynasty is one of the only bands to match my imagination's impression of what Sex Bob-Omb would have sounded like, and their EP ✌Curtis✌ is one of the earliest records I've come across that integrates chiptunes with the style of emo you could rightfully coin a "revival" as of 2014. And while shadynasty doesn't predate Here Between You Me, I can't find any evidence that the aforementioned band ever released anything but a handful of singles and a split- a fact that makes shadynasty all the more noteworthy. Now it might not be particularly surprising or unusual to hear GameBoy soundcard produced effects and melodies in a live band setting as of 2014, but what is remarkable is the extent that the chiptune melodies are doing the lifting within their sound- by which I mean, the chiptunes are doing almost all of the lifting. Even when you can pick up on guitars and acoustic drums in the mix, they are far in the back, playing an entirely supportive role. This was definitely an odd aesthetic choice, but it's one that really works for shadynasty and definitely makes their sound distinguishable and unique. If not influential on their own, they're at least a novel-sounding band who had some great ideas, some of which ended up being ahead of their time- which ironically, means that they were very firmly rooted in the past. 

Buy ✌Curtis✌ from Out of Breath Records here. 

Album Review: Chloe Hotline - +NSTYNCT

 
Chloe Hotline is a pretty exciting young MC and producer out of Cincinnati who has made the surprising maneuver representing herself through the avatar of Alexandra from the '00s animated adventure-comedy Totally Spies!  It's an endearing decision and matches the sound and aesthetic of Chloe's music quite well. She is presenting fun and familiar objects of affection in an effortlessly cool way that only tangentially illudes to influences while feeling wholly original in her own right. 

Her debut +NSTYNCT is a scrappy DIY hip-hop release at its core, but it feels like it is reaching for the stars- collecting each in tern and wearing them like rings on her finger. This is to say, that for an underground release, +NSTYNCT sounds incredibly slick and rich in fine detail. Her production combines various elements of downtempo and vampy post-punk and trap in a way that is reminiscent of the Weeknd with the warm summery drift of late '90s alternative rock and pop-punk daydreams a la rappers like Kevin Abstract. 

Given how smooth and sensually inclined this record is, it feels like a bold move to start with "Izudown" which has a comparatively hard beat and some haunting abstract vocal samples on it- but it works! Like the cover, "Izudown" is letting you know that despite her emotional openness on the record, you are only ever going to get glimpses of her through her music. She is going to remain somewhat of an enigma and the closer you get to her image, the blurrier the outlines of it will appear. This is true of most people. No one is ever one thing all the time. However, it's rare for an artist to be able to capture the ambiguities of identity and interpersonal relations while still staying sexy and approachable. 

The hard bop opener makes later tracks like the jazz-trap traipse "Tallulah," and the trancy, new wave entwined R'nB of "Sum1" (featuring a wonderfully talkative guitar solo courtesy of Lyden Rook) feel like they are intentionally treading softly on the footpath of your heart. Chloe is still going to say what she is going to say, but she's going to try and minimize the lasting damage if possible. 

+NSTYNCT dropped back in February, but it has an undeniably summery vibe. Hopefully, its abundant warmth will help you ward off the cold as we descend into winter once again. 

Get a copy of +NSTYNCT here. 

Album Review: Sopycal - Dans l'eau

French performer Sopycal is known for posting dance videos to her Facebook page. A regular exhibition directed towards exorcising bad vibes brought on by the isolation of the pandemic through... well, exercise. Her debut EP Dans l'eau is much less of a workout. On the record Sopycal leisurely intones her faith and conviction in herself and her own strength in a four-part polyptych of lowkey hip hop and affirmational codas. Opening track "Femmes" lets its verses slide around pliable waves of wet string arrangements and rippling synths lines that sound like they owe their origin to a happy little frog making a belly flop into the mix. The contrasting melodies of "Tabou" twirl at alternating speeds, relaxing for the chorus while accelerating during the verses where Sopycal bursts with enthusiasm to share her innermost confessions- delivering them with such abandon and excitement you may worry that she will tie her tongue into a knot before she finishes freeing all the words she has pent up inside her. "Mon féminisme" or " My Feminism" explores Sopycal's experience with, and relationship to, political projects aimed at woman's liberation, set to the lovely coo of her voice and handsomely crafted backing beats. Lastly, the house piano anchored closer "C'est l'été" translates summer vibes into vivacious escapes through dreamy verandas decorated with all manner of sonic symbols of trust and accommodation. Summer might be over, but that shouldn't stop you from indulging in the sweet nectar of Sopycal's voice. 

Buy Dans l'eau here.