Listening with an open mind. Writing about what I hear.
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I got to talk with local experimental and post-rock group a Light Sleeper for the CHIRP Blog today. Dheeru and his crew have created an awesome and beautiful sound, and they have a lot to say about it. Check out their thoughtful responses to my questions at the link below:
Manitoba emo rockers Fox Lake have an LP out today on Old Press Records. The album is called Repose, but the sounds and lead-up to the album are anything but lethargic. The album represents the fruition of the band's journey from shout-your-lungs-out punks to mature, self-reflective, power-pop proponents with a cultivated style that is both rhythmically complex and persuasively hooky. Now that they are at a sufficiently advanced stage of this rigorous process of artistic evolution, and they are ready to share the fruits of their labor with the world.
Repose in many ways is the survivor of a scrapped album of which only one tracks survived to be recorded during a trying four-day recording session. It's shocking how clear and calm the performances on the record sound given the very real restrictions of their production. A lot of love clearly went into Repose but all the care in the world wouldn't amount to much if there wasn't something worth caring for to begin with. And in this case, the band had a hand full of solid gold.
Fox Lake are nimble pop songwriters and players whose vision shines brightest on tracks like the shifting, off-kilter glimmer of "Metamorphosis" and the hopeful, sun-drenched harmonics of "In Fading." No emo record would be complete without an acoustic guitar segment, an aesthetic requirement that the band pays special attention to on the quiet interludes "EK" and "For Bulma, Forever Ago." And for those who just need something to shout along to, there is the forceful, open-hearted bluster of "In Due Time."
Repose is a record that the band put everything they had into, and now, hopefully, they can catch some R&R while the rest of us bathe in its shimmery pop glory. To celebrate the release of their record, I caught up with the band and asked a couple of questions about how it all came together. Check out what they had to say below and then keep scrolling for a full track-by-track breakdown, courtesy of the band themselves. Big thanks to Zach, Tyson, Neil, and Shane for their insights into this fantastic record!
The following interview was conducted via email on April 23, 2022. It has been edited only slightly for the sake of clarity.
How did you come up with the name for the record (Repose)? Is there a story behind it?
Much like the photographs and layout, the album name was selected via a lengthy list of options that was continuously being updated and edited. We had hundreds of potential ideas: photographs, layout concepts, pictures of the band as well as a list of album name candidates. Things shifted and evolved until all aspects of the art meshed together.
Repose is a fitting name as the word communicates a sense of ease, restfulness and sureness. It's also a tip of the hat to some of our previous projects which had bilingual (French/English) song names.
Where did you record it and how did you select that location?
There are a handful of great studios in our hometown. We chose Private Ear for a variety of reasons. Their pedigree is quite impressive and fit our eye the best: Comeback Kid, Propaghandi, AM Overcast, Royal Canoe and many other bands spanning all styles. We knew they would be able to work with our more unorthodox style and tones.
We have always strived to capture the excitement of our live sound and sometimes struggled to do so working with other engineers. We knew that JP (owner/engineer/magic man) would be able to not only find the sounds we wanted, but his reputation as a producer who can pull performances out of bands, and add a bit of his own creative elements and ideas was something we wanted to take advantage of.
What was the easiest song to record?
I think that this is really player/instrument-specific, but other than the blast-beat section in "In Fading" which demanded strong takes from Tyson (drums, and yes, he always delivered) that may have been the most effortless song. I will say that we were well-rehearsed, and there was not a particularly easy or difficult song.
We recorded them in order of comfort and if memory serves the first handful of songs were "In Fading," "Habitation" and "Chameleon Strategy." It was a bit of a blur though!
Which one was the most grueling?
The most grueling part of the recording process was the timeframe. Partially self-imposed, and as a consequence of a condensed pandemic calendar, we only had 4 days total in the studio. We chose a (mostly) live approach, recording all songs together, over the course of a day and a half. Most vocals were done on day 3, and that left very little time for any overdubbing, exploration, etc... We weren't used to singing that much, so protecting our voices and being selective with what and when to sing was tough.
Vocally there were some songs that really pushed our abilities, and I would say that "Habitation" had the most creative and ambitious vocal lines. It forced Shane and Zach to step into the booth and do things we had not done with our voices before. Neil's role is that of a supporting vocalist (with some exceptions) and many of the harmonies were written and performed on the spot. It was a challenge. JP's guidance was essential in forming and delivering a lot of those lines.
"In Due Time" was the oldest song we had written for this project and ironically was the hardest to pin down feel wise. It is slightly out of left field compared to the general feel of the album and though it fits well, we had to shift gears (and tunings) to make it happen. We were a yell-y band before, and there are traces of that with this tune, which took a toll on our voices.
Zach also had a hell of a time remembering some of the structure for "Metamorphosis," but that's just me. The other guys seem fine with it. Let the record show that Neil has a "tough" bass part and he tunes his G string for that song live to make it easier haha.
What are your plans for promoting this record? Will people be able to see you on tour soon?
Promoting music has, in our experience, changed dramatically in the last decade. There has been an obvious shift in how people discover and consume music (duh).
With the pandemic, there were so many unknowns and we feel as though we were swimming in the dark. Everything about this release: rehearsals, studio time, art, physical production, and everything in between has been affected by the uncertainties and setbacks that we are all living. And those uncertainties have really challenged how live music is experienced, at least in our city.
With that said, we plan to continue our dual approach of the traditional live shows and small tours, while focusing some of our resources towards digital material. Live sets, music videos and the like. We like to think that we are a solid option for many of our touring friends and we are typically a bit selective with who and when we play, opting to support traveling bands as much as possible.
Notable favorites of ours are Taking Meds (Rochester) and Life in Vaccum (Toronto).
Fox Lake is definitely a live band first and foremost, but the realities of the world as we know it forces our hand a bit. That being said, we do enjoy providing digital art and it's an avenue we will continue to explore.
The obvious album opener and hypest song from start to finish, this song is super satisfying to play. We enjoy surprising each other when writing, and the first time Tyson half-jokingly played the blast beat in the bridge, we knew it had to stay. Endless gratitude to our producer JP Peters for the Brian Wilson-esque “Your Summer Dream” harmony in this song’s climax, which quickly became a highlight of the album.
Track 2: "Habitation"
"Habitation" was the last song we finished for this album, painstakingly written over a year of sporadic sessions wedged between waves of the pandemic. The rest of the band had never heard the vocal ideas until Shane stepped into the booth, and harmonies were written on the spot. The voices are airy and sparse compared to the interwoven and driving instrumentation, which is a balance that we've always wanted to strike. Lyrically, the song exemplifies the often cryptic but self-reflective concepts throughout the album - this time wrestling with an acceptance of innate deficiency.
Track 3: "Five Minutes"
With big open chords and chiming guitars, this song has always felt like a tone showcase for us. When we talk about indulgences in our band, one of the obvious ones is the simple satisfaction of driving our vintage Traynor heads until we get that perfect natural breakup.
Track 4: "EK" (interlude)
We always knew we would have some interludes on the album - we all like the idea of having palette cleansers after big or busy passages. They also allow us to include acoustic guitars, which is how many of these songs began.
Track 5: "Chameleon Strategy"
The Alexisonfire and .moneen. Influences are undeniable on this one, whether it’s in the sparse guitar duets of the intro and outro, or the layered vocals in the climax. These aren’t bands that we necessarily think of often when writing, but their influence on us all as young musicians is undeniable.
Track 6: "Metamorphosis"
"Metamorphosis" stands out as the most narrative song we've ever written, both lyrically and instrumentally. We realized after it was done that the song follows a classical narrative arc, with the locked-in grooves of the verses crescendoing to an extended climax and dénouement. We're definitely leaning into dreamier tones here, the lyrical concept of losing oneself complemented by nearly whispered falsetto, soaring and circular guitar patterns, and extended, improvised drum fills.
Track 7: "Formalities"
While we’re a mostly a collaborative band writing-wise, this is the only song on the album where someone other than Shane took a lead on vocal ideas, and it’s a refreshing shift. Though it wasn’t a reference point when we were writing, there are strong Circa Survive leanings here, this song is a welcome break from the mathier guitar work elsewhere on the album.
Track 8: "In Due Time"
The only song on the LP that survived when we scrapped an entire album worth of material. This one has been mostly untouched since it was first completed and features some of the high-energy, shouty sounds that we’ve mostly left on earlier EPs. For the guitar nerds out there, Zach uses a modified capo to get the tuning on this song, sadly breaking our “no capo” rule for the album.
Track 9: "A Room for the Weekend"
This song is distilled Fox Lake: playful and indulgent instrumentals layered with raw and confessional lyrics.
Track 10: "For Bulma, Forever Ago (interlude)" (see above #4 EK)
I had the chance to talk with Nelson B the other week. He is a producer and rapper as well as a very cool cat out of OH. He is also signed to Lonely Ghost who (imho) is one of the coolest DIY labels in operation at the moment. We talked about his current projects, what kinds of production styles he does and doesn't like, and determined the proper application of autotune.
When a vapor or chillwave producer establishes an aesthetic that bridges multiple releases, it adds a new dimension to their overall discography. This added attention to theme and presentation, one that bridges multiple albums, lends itself to the interpretation that the producer's entire library is one cohesive and evolving work, with each release serving as an episode in a yet to be concluded saga.
You would think that such an interpretation would be applicable to any artist's catalog, but this is simply not the case. Most rock and pop artists, really musicians of any stripe, are not encouraged, either by their peers or fans, to adhere too closely to the sound and visuals of their previous release. In addition, lineups, labels, studios, producers, engineers, mixers, and other personnel responsible for shaping the sound of a record change from release to release- again, as much due to the industry-wide encouragement and incentives as happenstance or the general unavailability of partners between projects.
Semi-anonymous producers who release their music exclusively via Bandcamp or Soundcloud are involved in a different milieu than most musicians, one that rewards consistency over almost any other creative virtue. These artists also largely work alone and at home, which makes it both easy and feasible to maintain a certain character, both visually and sonically, between releases.
Haircuts for Men is a good example of this phenomenon, as the monochromatic depictions of fetishized male beauty and sexuality of their cover art colors their future funk and soul mixes with shades of repressed cravings and sculped carnal idealism. There are plenty of other worthy specimens I could discuss here, but one of my current obsessions is Mexican producer DΛRKNΣSS.
Since their second LP, DΛRKNΣSS has outfitted their albums in high contrast collages of pulp manga imagery, often depicting women in outlandish costumes and striking severe poses that imply a range of intriguing narratives, from tense sexual liaisons to fateful confrontations with apparitions or other paranatural forces. The insinuated sex and violence gifts to DΛRKNΣSS's music an intrepid sense of escapism, as if the music formed a wormhole through which you could crawl to find a dimension of indulgent dark fantasy. Their latest release Maid Tapes Vol. 1 is certainly that. A divertingly sequenced spread of light funk and ambient new age that feels like an inverted version of Pure Moods that has fallen through the cracks of New Port City (新浜市) and into our reality.
The production work on Maid Tapes is very humid and the grooves are slick with moister- like freshly scrubbed skin after a shower. Although the dim, weighty tone of the synths selected for this album illicit the centuries of grime that have been smeared across most major cities, the tainted surfaces of these megalopolises are regarded at a distance rather than under a magnifying glass. Instead, the mix overall gives the impression of being consciously withdrawn and actively removed from society to permit some form of recuperation or strategic rupture.
These tracks are lonesome sounding, but not lonely. Through some light fantasy, dancing horn samples, and refined bass grooves, Maid Tapes permits the listener to withdraw at their leisure, and to be alone, not by compulsion or in seeking avoidance, but by preference. It is music that allows one to enjoy the company of their own thoughts, and only the company of their own thoughts, should they so desire.
I'm looking forward to hearing how DΛRKNΣSS develops their chosen themes and aesthetics on their next album, but at an hour and thirty minutes run time, Maid Tapes will keep me plenty preoccupied until they get around to releasing the next installment of their oeuvre.
Yes, I know everyone likes the touchy, precious, ambient stuff that Claire Rousay releases every 3-4 months. I know a lot of people think that's cool. It is cool. It's just not the kind of cool that I'm into right now. Do you want to know what I do think is cool right now? Unrepentant pop music. You know what else is cool (always, forever)? Friendship. We all get by with a little help from our friends, as the song goes. That and sick tunes. Besides Sgt. Pepper's, is there any place where the two shall rendezvous? I'm going to hazard a yes. Because if I'm wrong that I have no idea how Never Stop Texting Me could exist.
Friends, and musicians, Claire and Mari "More Eaze" Maurice have unlocked dimensions of their individual talents in ways that are unexpectedly spectacular on Never Stop Texting Me. I'm not trying to draw unnecessary comparisons, but it exceeds anything they've done on their own, or together, previously. And they have me in their hands as a result, like I was their pet. As if they are scratching me right under the chin like I was some oafish but adorable stray that approached them looking for scraps. Now excuse me while I tuck my pride away (Ha! As if), and gush about this record for a bit.
I was hooked by Never Stop Texting Me as soon as the song "hands" got a grip on me. It begins with a grandly understated guitar downstroke, a post-punky throwback that sets the tone for the song and its shy romanticism. This guitar motif is later developed by increasingly hot solo exhibitions and crisp, crackling grooves, each recurrence acting like a mile marker for the dreamy, melodic sweeps that coalesce like a cotton candy chemtrail at the song's core. It's exhilarating- like the first time your parents heard Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" or you encountered The Knife's "Heartbeats." And amazingly, the duo are able to bridge the differences between these two eras of sound together in a confounding synthesis of sonic polarity and exuberant effect.
While "hands" has more of a vignette-like structure, Never Stop Texting Me is most notable for its flowy consistency, aiming for big builds and payoffs on songs like "kyle," which has all the flavor and tantalizing tactlessness of a champagne bubble bath, and prolonged sections of reverie like the tiny field orchestra ballad "art." Their use of studio effects to augment Claire and Mari's voices strikes that flawless invitation quality of being intriguing and playfully approachable without succumbing to cloying or obnoxious cliches, and can often be found rising out of the grooves of synths and slightly diverting samples like a Wisteria Tree embedded in a custom flower bed constructed out of decarded laptops and spools of fiberoptic ligatures.
Never Stop Texting Me is the pair's strangest but undeniably most traditional record, defying the barriers of expectations through an enveloping encounter with the familiar. Bloodz Boi and How To Dress Well even show up to help push these intractable constellations of texture and sound to their proper celestial heights. It's improbable how perfectly compelling it all is, but that's the power of friendship for you.*
The One Who Knocks is not rapper J Wade and producer Jordan "Cloud Boy" Patterson's first record together, but it does feel ostentatious in the fashion that a debut would. I think an examination of the declaratory nature of the album, the way it muscles its way into your life, can start with the album's name. The One Who Knocks is a Breaking Bad reference, but it doesn't feel derivative or even reflective of the themes of the prestige television drama that inspired it. Instead, the phrase acts as a mirror for the collaborators and their performances. Many of these tracks were written in 2018 when J was binging the Bryan Cranston vehicle and dealing with a crisis over the fact that his dedication to his work had caused his girlfriend to dump him. It's a strange space to find yourself in; where you are working towards your dream but realizing that the cloud you are riding on is smothering everyone else below you. I think this epiphany has a lot to do with how J's vocals eventually ended up coming across on this album ie no-none-sense, none-what-so-ever.
J baritone flow on The One Who Knocks is of the no-frills school of "say it and let it weigh on their minds" that denotes a priority for the substance over style, and content as a measure of caliber, that will leave you digging for the next level of meaning in each verse for days. It's a very under-the-radar but spirit-rich style that feels almost overly direct at first, but this bluntness is what gives it its character and rhythmic cadence. It's a trustworthy manner of dropping bars- dependable and one-point. Especially when J is unreserved about how his drive and work ethic and how they have interfered with his personal relationships, you get the sense that his performance is as honest as they come.
Then there are Cloud Boy's beats, which have so much flair that they almost make me light-headed. He has a real love of pitched down and goopy remixes of soul samples (don't we all!) but he places a special emphasis on the emotional peak of these charged vocal hooks, which he then cycles and sequences as if they were the only vocals on the track. There is probably a manual out there for rap production that instructs its students that, under no circumstances, shall they do what Cloud Boys has does on The One Who Knocks. But if any of these impressionable padawans were to take that advice, they'd never be able to make an album as tonally and melodically dynamic as this one. Cloud Boys is self-taught and his drive is self-sustaining, and if he has a use for a manual, it's probably to even out a wobbly table somewhere. This is how you ended up essentially having two top-line melodies for each track on this album. Both are perfectly perpendicular and yet in harmonious synchronization.
Cloud Boy will clip and rotate a plangent vocal swell in sustained climax and J will then proceed to rock the open beats of each measure and gaps in the breath of the sampled singer like they were spacious enough to rent a studio apartment wherein he can paint you a picture with his mind. I say "as if," but that's precisely what he does. It's amazing how both J and Cloud Boy's talents can be displayed side-by-side, breathing the same breath of air and not trip and stumbling over each other, or crumbling into a shoving match. They are close enough to be siblings here, and when one takes a step with their right foot, the other steps forward with his left, as they face each other in an interpretative whirl of rhythm, and sound.
This is all probably possible only because Cloud Boy's mixes are so hot, and J's flow is so cool and collected, but it's no less impressive even if you can break it down into its elements like a mathematical equation. It all adds up though to make an album whose energy and presence are effortless and unreproducible by anyone else. An album possessed of a centripetal force that should fling its collaborators to the wind but instead holds them in an unremitting orbit of esteem and fellowship. The One Who Knocks is a bold title of an album full of forward-facing and unapologetic music about living with ambition, but not allowing your ambition to rule your life. So if you hear a knock, answer- because an experience like this only comes once in a lifetime.
Exwhite is a German punk band out of Halle (Saale) that is basically just one guy named Jonas, plus whoever else has a free weekend on their calendar when he is in the mood to record. Jonas has recorded a bunch of short albums under the name Exwhite, all of which are lofi and half-drowned in cheap beer. He's cultivated a lightly comedic personality for his music which matches his spastic playing style and tantrum-like vocals pretty effectively in that it makes songs about peeing on your friends and beating kids with bats come across as both not-insane and non-threatening. His latest EP Estray is intriguing in that is more mature than his past work without sacrificing any of the project's essential excentricities. The album opens with "Conspiracy Theory," which sounds like a lost but integral Soviettes single, performed with maximum urgency and a winding sense of dread. Melancholia seems to be the definitive nature and design of these songs, giving the project a freshly dried coat of lugubrious, and bringing it within deadly proximity to gravely dower post-punk in the vein of early Ice Age- especially on the grime blitz and spiral of "A Die." This saturating sadness even permeates buzzy hook hoppers like "True Love" and the dizzy filth fountain "On The Street." Although, not for the worse. The era of garage punk that Exwhite still finds purchase within had plenty of sad songs, many of which defined its peak of cultural relevance. You don't need to look much further than Jay Reatard's Watch Me Fall to find proof of this fact. It's unexpected given the downright silliness of his past work with Exwhite to see Jonas take the project in this direction, but it's a welcome development to see him giving his McLusky-esque raconteurism a little more emotional bandwidth to work with and dramatic weight to throw around. Estray does pry its way out of Exwhite's settled sonic territory, but if a project is going to grow, it has to find the space to do it in. It's a move that's definitely warranted in my opinion, especially after hearing the results.
I've been meaning to do one of these for a while and I'm glad that I finally got around to it. I tend to listen to hardcore in streaks so doing a quick write-up of some stuff that I've enjoyed during my most recent binge makes sense. Also, with lists, it feels more natural to dump a lot of effusive, unqualified praise on your subject- which is definitely what I am doing here. Some of these records are ancient in hardcore years, but keeping up with the hot new shit has never really been my thing. Anyway, maybe what I have to say below will help you discover something you didn't know about before, or maybe it will be the push that you needed to check out a record you should have picked up ages ago. Really, it's whatever. This is all just for fun when it's all said and done. Get down to some hardcore and have yourself a Friday.
Ghost Fame - Nobody Wants To Be Here Nobody Wants To Leave (Patient Zero)
Not unlike the PS2 survival horror game Fatal Frame, the Lowell, MA-based melo-hardcore band Ghost Fame are also on the hunt for spirits. Although, the spectators the band are seeking to confront, dwell within themselves. We all have things in us that we need to excise and unburden ourselves from, some have the talent and audacity to do it via song. Nobody Wants To Be Here Nobody Wants To Leave is Ghost Fame's second EP and sticks to their devastating Have Heart / Defeater formula, with a rawer, shoutier energy, that grows weightier with chaotic builds until the tension burst and an acoustic guitar line and clearly sung choruses intercept the album's trajectory on "In Mourning" and shepherd it to its climatic and bitter conclusion on"Something Ends, Something Begins." Dissident mathcore monsters MouthBreather pitch in to make "False Chevalier" the scornful conflagration that it is and Ethan Harrison of Great American Ghost lends his voice to the busted up back-bitter "Scenes From a Marriage." This is seriously cathartic. God damn does this band have promise!
Valtatyhjiö - Lukko (Sorry State Records)
Finnish hardcore band Valtatyhjiö would give pause to a bat out of hell with the speed and fury they achieve on their debut cassette Lukko. The first three heaters on this release will inject a dose of excitement into your life in a similar fashion to a bullet whizzing past your ear. This is fighting music for sure and any given moment could loosen a couple of teeth in your gob if it managed to land a direct hit- which, frankly, does frequently and often! As rattled as the first block of venom dripping shrieks, rushing guitars and double-bass kick-powered tranches left me, it wasn't anything compared to the final track, "Pahat hahmot," a mid-tempo banger that feels like a Kvelertak demo with fire and whisky in its bowls and werewolf blood in its veins. Lukko is the kind of death spiral you won't want to pull yourself up from.
Guardrails - If You Please (Self-Released)
Richmond, VA's Guardrails are keeping the faith and the warrior spirit alive on their EP If You Please. The album will rip across your brain, cutting synapses like a razor blade cleaving through the tension of a strip of saran wrap. Its dirty peels of crossover guitars and rampaging grooves are not to be trifled with as they are dripping with urgent anticipation and a thrust for vengeance. Guardrails obviously has some classic NYHC influences, but that is not all! If anything, what defines the band is their filthy sound quality and extremely organic textures. If You Please has a grit to it that you usually don't find outside of crust records. Also, the intermissions they've included of borrowed '60s pop-soul and psych point to influences beyond hardcore and help to further illustrate their penchant for sour, lilting melodies. My only complaint is that this record is not longer. I really can't wait to hear more from this band.
Foxtails - Fawn (Skeletal Lightning)
Foxtails's fourth album Fawn was one of the first hardcore records I listened to this year and I still honestly don't know entirely what to make of it. It's good. So freaking good! Beautiful and punishing. Relatable and confrontational. I still feel like my head is swimming every time I put it on. The band can curate a lovely and endearing scramble of soft skramzy grooves and choruses, but it is the addition of Jared Schmidt's violin, and the orchestral overtones that this contributes, that accounts for the album's absolutely intoxicating allure. I'm not going to put too fine of a point on it, but to me, Fawn is a total game-changer.
Sour - Songz (Delayed Gratification Records)
It's rare for a hardcore band to make their mission statement as boldly and unmistakably clear as Sour has on their EP Songz. At one point on the EP the bracing dice of guitars, singe of reverberating feedback, and the biting bark of the vocals fade away, and a simple statement of purpose is uttered- "you have to sing your song, even if the notes are sour." This sentiment resonates with that of many folk traditions, wherein you must sing a song, not because they are better or more important than other songs, but because it is your song, and if you don't sing it, then it will never be sung. The defiant spirit of this sentiment, along with the absolute wrecking ball of '90s-inspired groove-core the band is hurling at you on this release, gives Songz the force of a manifesto harmonized with the passion of its origins in the hearts of these young dudes. That might sound cringe to some of you, but only those who embrace cringe can truly come to know themselves.
Mikau - Abandonware (Self-Released)
What DC's Mikau are doing on their Abandonware EP feels a lot like what Vein (now Vein.fm) attempted to accomplish on 2018's Errorzone. I like what Mikau is doing slightly better though. It feels more comfortable with the idea of blending early '00s industrial and alternative metal with death metal and hardcore and their confidence in combining these elements comes through on this record. While they're not the only band doing the "every-thing-including-the-kitchen-sink-yes-even-nu-metal-especially-nu-metal" style of hardcore, they do it really really well. I've always been amused by the fact that there is also a variety of techno music called "hardcore" and I've always wondered what it would sound like if, you know, a hardcore (punk) band synthesized the two... Well, I literally don't have to ponder this hypothetical anymore because it now exists (Thanks to Mikau), and as it turns out, it's amazing! There are also nods to pretty-boy pop-emo on this EP and the dubsteppier sections sound like underscores embracing a core-meltdown of their psyche. Abandonware is a vicious and self-assured shock of body-maiming body music that will turn you inside out and leave you begging for more.
Ekulu - Unscrew My Head (Cash Only Records)
Every time I think I've left Ekulu's Unscrew My Head behind, it pulls me back in. I listened to it upon release back in June of 2021, and I thought it contained a solid roster of tactfully brutal, early '90s-styled NYC hardcore. I liked it but moved on pretty quickly. Then a couple of weeks later I got one of the riffs from "Proven Wrong" stuck in my noddle and I went back to the album to figure out if it was really that earworm worthy or if I was just misremembering it. Not surprisingly, after revisiting the record I would get another groove stuck in my head. And this kept repeating. Month after month. And now I don't have to wonder if this record has staying power. I know! Unscrew My Head has left a boot-shaped impact mark on the inside of my skull! An impression that I gladly retrace as often as possible.
Life - Ossification Of Coral (Not Enough)
Japan's LIFE straight-up rules! I couldn't stop there, but you can't make me. Their 2020 album Ossification Of Coral is the latest collection of guttural, insanely slimy, Motorhead worshiping crust punk from the group, and one that I still regularly throw it on when I want to feel like the walls of my apartment are about to collapse in on me. Sometimes you just need music that acknowledges how stacked the deck is against you and which refuses to give way to complacency no matter how thick the shit gets. Ossification Of Coral is that kind of music! Also, the title is savage as hell, as it implies that there is a process of turning coral to bone! Brutal right!?! Well, it also works as an analogy to what singer Hiro defines as world "starvation," or the strangling of the planet's ability to sustain life through environmental devastation. So it's not just brutal but extremely pointed in its criticism. LIFE are as deliberate in thought and intention as their sound is untamed and feral.
Street Weapon - Quick to Die (Not For the Weak)
Noisey, dangerous and disaffected sounding, Virginia Beach's Street Weapon emits a deadly, radioactive halo of bad vibes on their 2020 debut Quick to Die. The guitars sound incredibly slippery, leaving a residue of crimson fluid and other excretions in their wake for you to slip and skin your knees on. Also, the riffs feel impracticably hostile, like someone screwed a bunch of hammers to the sides of a circular saw. I love a record that gives off the sense that it will grab you by the collar and shove you around for fun and that is unconditionally what I am getting with every callous, choke-hold groove the band whips my way on this release. "The Truth" in particular is very menacing, as its persistent locked guitar lines feel like their constantly putting my back against the wall, and tracks like the muscular crunch of "American Dream" sound like anything but an edifying fantasy and everything like a benighted swath of dilapidated ruin. In this life, you're either quick or you're dead, and if you're not the former, then you might just be Quick to Die.
Ultras - Ultras (Convulse Records)
Ultras are terrifying. They're like a nightmare you keep dying in and can't wake up from. Their self-titled EP dropped last December and I'm still attempting to comb my hair forward from the initial encounter. Featuring members of World Peace and Fentanyl, the band is exactly as slug-brained and violent as could be expected from such a meeting of malignant minds. There are two things you need to know about Ultras, white-knuckle speed and razor-wire guitar lines. The first will tag your back with a black rubber stripe as it treats you as a disregarded speed bump and the other will wrap you up like a Christmas ham and then divide you like the spoils of war. Ultras are the ultimate frontier of barbaric sound. Do you dare to cross the threshold? I did. And I'm still alive (mostly).
Some people were caught off guard by Blood Incantation's Timewave Zero when it dropped earlier this year. A death metal band releasing an ambient space rock record? "By Satan, what has the world come to?" said somebody in a Pantera shirt (probably). I'm sure most of you have recovered from the shock. If this is the case, and you're ready to dive even deeper into the depths of esoteric and heavy music, then allow New Jersey's Fernwah to... um, show you the way!
These Jersey grey-matter mashers released their debut album Approaching Oblivion via Horror Pain Gore Death Productions last December and I'm still trying to get an honest grip on it. The album is a celestial hemorrhaging and organic synthesis of grind aesthetics, progressive sensibilities, melodic songwriting, ambient calm, interstellar explorations, and death metal muscle that feels like it's been reclaimed from a whole other reality. The album breaks through barriers like a barbarian horde cutting through a Roman phalanx while managing to explore all impossible routes and flanks of sonic inquiry to unprecedented realms of understanding. Truly, Fernwah are the cosmic warrior-poet-kings whose arrival the human race has been warned/prophesized about. And, Approaching Oblivion is a whole fucking trip. I can't even start to describe it.
To try and get in the right zone to resonate with the vibrations that Fernwah is emitting I reached out to one of the band's two members to sate my reckless curiosity. Luckily, their guitarist and vocalist Zakk Mild replied and you can now read his responses on this very blog. They do not disappoint. Check out the Approaching Oblivion and the full interview below!
The following interview was conducted via email on April 19, 2022. It has been edited only slightly for consistency's sake.
How did you both meet, and what were the origins of Fernwah?
Oh, are you ready for the Origin story? HERE GOES: Peter moved into this crazy musicians and touring house I lived in we had lots of parties and hosted touring bands usually more than once a week. The house was in Sopranosville AKA Bloomfield, NJ. Only say that because we lived up the block from Holstens where they shot the final scene of the Sopranos and there is literally a Sopranos tour bus that would come on Sundays. We became close quickly thru a mutual respect of each other as musicians and people.
About 5 months after he moved in we got word our landlord was selling the house and we had thirty days to vacate. We had about three weeks where we had no spot to live and made it work thru motels, friends, and family and thru that we really started jamming. Any time we weren’t at work we jammed. For those three weeks the studio was our de facto home. Once we found a new spot we just continued playing a lot together. It def was some shared bond thru struggle shit.
We get settled into the new spot and then boom pandemic. We used the pandemic and lack of shows to work out tons of song ideas and those song ideas became Fernwah and our other band Come Mierda.
The artwork for your album Approaching Oblivion is really amazing! Is there a story being depicted there, and if so, how does it tie into the album as a whole?
The artist Thomas Toye is truly incredible. I gave him a few references of art I thought were cool. And sent him some rough mixes I had at the time and he just came up with that masterpiece. Also I let him know about some books, Harlan Ellison in particular, that was inspirational to the album. We both have a mutual love for old sci-fi and horror so he could really just speak the artistic language of that so he really just got the vibe.
I think the art def references the title of the album title Approaching Oblivion which was a Harlan Ellison short story collection from the 1970s about how we are destroying ourselves and society and how our complacency will be, and is, our undoing. Ellison was particularly angry with many of the former people involved in the protest movements of the 1960’s and many white so-called “ALLIES” who seemed to give up on all the causes of the former decade and settle into a toxic compliancy during the Nixon years- which mirrors a lot of society today. This also inspired the song title “ Corrosive Catharsis.”
Are there any unifying themes, either philosophically or sonically, that connect the tracks on Approaching Oblivion?
I think philosophically that idea of hurling towards our destruction but comfortably doing it like we can see it but it’s easier to just compartmentalize and do the easy thing and continue digging our graves. Along with the powerful corporations giving us enough distraction to not focus on the slow-rolling disaster. This and a lot of nostalgia, and about how it can be healing but also how it can be used to justify heinous acts in society and in one's own personal journey. There is a poem I wrote which is also the spoken word part in “ Vertigo of Freedom” which is very influenced by Thomas Ligottis's The Conspiracy Against the Human Race.
Musically. I wanted this to be as adventurous and out there as it could be, or as clinical and rigid, or wherever the song in a given moment of the writing process took me. I believe the best music is made when bands inject their own individual quirks into the genre templates they are working from. That’s the music that lasts the longest so I really wanted it to be as unique and true to myself and Peter as possible.
You have a lot of movie dialogue samples sprinkled throughout the album. What are some of these films and how do these crosssections of audio/visual work help you convey your message?
One of the main samples are from the episode of the Twilight Zone "The Obsolete Man" which is all about how fascist governments want to close your mind off and restrict knowledge. In a lot of ways what we see now about school boards banning books is very reminiscent of that episode and it’s wild to think after all these years we are falling into the same traps that Rod Serling tried to warn us about.
Another sample if from Christopher Lee discussing the occult. I’m a huge believer in the power of esoteric knowledge and fascinated by the occult of all the different beliefs and interesting figures.
Not to mention I may have initiated a magik blood sacrifice for my artistic success.
Also there are samples from HARLAN ELLISON AND PHILLIP K DICK.
As I understand, you use some concepts of Jungian psychology in your work. What kinds of archetypes can we glimpse as reflected in the music of your latest album?
That is a great question. One that pops up immediately is the “explorer.” There is def an undercurrent of journeying and exploration sonically as well style-wise. Also the "creator" because as a musician, creating original music, you create these interlinked sound waves from nothing and you hope they will have enduring meaning and value. Finally, I would say the "magician." What’s more magical and alchemical than making music?
Freedom seems to also be something you are wrestling with an Approaching Oblivion. What does this concept mean to you and the kind of music you are trying to make?
I think freedom is the common goal for all people. It’s one of the few things that really unites us in a sense that we are all searching for some sense of it, or if we have it one, way we want to find it another way. I consider myself lucky to be able to have the freedom to have made this album but also sometimes I think at what cost did it come? Do I even deserve to have this outlet and this space to be here when so many others never even got that chance?
Even though your music is not specifically death metal, the genre still seems to inform much of your approach. What is it about death metal that you find liberating? What aspects do you feel hemmed in by?
I think death metal and extreme music, in general, lets you tap into this primal intensity that can be achieved in other genres but it’s easier to tap into it with extreme music and punk etc. I also play in a death metal band Oxalate and am a huge fan of the genre. Undeath, 200 STABWOUNDS, Sanguisgabogg, Outer Heaven, Blood Incantation, Phobophilic... the genre is overflowing with great new bands taking the genre into a lot of exciting directions.
Who are some of the non-death metal reference points of the sounds of Approaching Oblivion?
I would say the most present in my mind is Black Sabbath BECAUSE every band I’m in IS somehow influenced by them because they are THE GREATEST BAND OF ALL TIME!!! AND PROBABLY KING CRIMSON IS MY SECOND FAVE BAND OF ALL TIME!!!!! 90’s music like Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice and Chains, Slowdive, Radiohead, My bloody Valentine, RIDE...
Ambient and weird keyboard based stuff like BOARDS OF CANADA, BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW, BRAIN ENO, APHEX TWIN, KRAFTWERK, TOBACCO...
Prog Rock like CAMEL, YES, GENESIS, OPETH, PORCUPINE TREE...
AND GUITAR MUSIC LIKE ERIC JOHNSON, STEVE VAI, ETC … and Amulet was written right after I found out Eddie Van Halen died.
You have a really interesting approach to melodicism that I almost never hear metal bands have. Specifically, a lot of your chord progressions feel very flowy and catchy- why do you think it's so rare for underground metal bands to approach guitar playing in the same kind of way?
I think it’s really hard to thread that needle of being melodic and having stuff that IS pleasurable to the ears and then stuff that’s actually heavy and pummeling. It’s rare that it gets done correctly which is why there are only a handful of good melodic death metal bands and why the second wave of metalcore was much maligned because it can come off as super cheesy and sound like jingles. I don’t think I’ve nailed it yet but I enjoy experimenting with different moods that only melodies and melodic playing can open you too. I also just love melody and when I’m noodling on guitar my lead style is naturally melodic rather than say going straight to the Yngwie stuff or bluesy stuff.
I also like that the guitar playing feels very muscular but not overly aggressive. Do you have any thoughts on striking that balance in your playing style?
Well I think being involved in death metal and hardcore bands the percussive nature of the instrument, the CHUNK, becomes present in your mind when you're trying to write.
Why is it important to stay creative and test new ideas?
STAGNATION TURNS INTO MALAISE AND THAT IS THE DEATH OF CREATIVITY.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Thanks for all the great questions if anyone wants to buy a copy of the CD I have a few copies left and I can ship it out to you from the Fernwah Instagram!! All the copies on Horror Pain Gore Death are SOLD OUT!!!
You keep hitting the button on your remote but the channel won't change. Or maybe it's the same thing on every channel? Life feels that way sometimes. Or at least, this is a common experience of living right now. Something is always happening, but nothing seems to change, resolve, or evolve. Every day feels like a rerun, but somehow the script keeps changing, and you don't find out until three seconds after you've flubbed your line or lost track of the plot. This strange sense of inertia finds a living kind of reenactment on the latest album a hAonfrom Irish duo Cathal Coughlan & Jacknife Lee for their collaborative project Telefís (which means Television... do get the schtick now?). The album is apparently a deep reflection of life in Ireland over the past forty years and its chaotic transition from a fringe, European backwater to collapsed society, that is totally difunctional despite drowning in FDI due to its ballooning tech sector. I know next to nothing about Irish history and yet it all feels too familiar to me. The sense of alienation and estrangement that burdens Cathal's reedy melodramatic voice and the discontented romanticism of his lyrics leave me with the impression that the country has broken loose from its anchor, floated out to sea and capsized over the falls at the edge of the world. Jacknife's production helps keep the sinking feeling of Cathal's words from getting stuck in their own morose malaise providing a bed of nippy, thorny synth blossoms and blushing funk furrows on which the singer can perform his revenant like firewalk. They entwined this dead man's dance, in partnership, in solidarity, in perpetual damnation, until their bodies become effigies of dried clay, so dry and combustible that a stiff breeze could cause them to fragment into twin dust devils, whereupon they continue their ritual motion, unimpeded, for eternity- like the static on your TV while it searches for a signal from a tower that had been collateralized, sold and dismantled decades prior. There is no place like the home where you find yourself a stranger.
