I'm back with an attack! Here is the first of two recommendations lists I'll be posting this weekend. I've been listening to so much incredible music lately that I feel the desperate need to share.
Spanning various genres, from post-hardcore to R&B to psych folk...here are some awesome albums and EPs you should definitely check out.
* Tomorrow I'll be posting a list of Experimental Noise recommendations.
---
Proper. - The Great American Novel (2022)
GENRE : post-hardcore, alternative punk, emo rock, prog rock, queer punk
RECORD LABEL : Father Daughter Records / Big Scary Monsters
Proper. are a proudly queer black punk trio from Brooklyn that I randomly came across while I was investigating the wonderful Father/Daughter Records Bandcamp page.
I had never heard of Proper. before. It was the intriguing album title that caught my attention. I decided to give this a listen and was instantly reeled in by the fearless honesty, the raw bare emotion and the furious unbridled passion of this band's sound - both musically and lyrically.
Musically, it's a fierce assault of blistering post-hardcore, 00's Midwestern-style emo, abrasive alt-punk and melodic metalcore. The lyrics are fearlessly confessional. It's the story of modern America told through the lens of a young queer black person that isn't afraid to confront ugly truths and tell it like it is, without any concerns for comforting the listener. It deals with tough subject matter - the prevalent (and relevant) themes being racial injustice, identity crisis and the apathy and aimlessness of the American youth, whilst retaining a healthy amount of universal appeal. I love it. Highly recommended for fans of bands like Thursday, Anberlin, Brand New & At The Drive-In.
Stream/Download the album here...
---
Gone - Fever Dream (2022)
GENRE : post-grunge, slowcore, shoegaze, alt-rock
RECORD LABEL : Heavenly Creature Records
Here's some slow fuzzy ethereal post-grunge from Scotland. This album is a dreamy hotpot of slow plodding alt-rock, melodic post-hardcore and pensive shoegaze. Think Deftones meets Codeine meets Slowdive, and you might get a decent idea of what this sounds like. Plenty of beautifully dissonant guitar chords ringing out, melodic basslines, broody drum patterns and breathy vocals. It makes me think about walking alone through the tenement blocks and industrial estates of Glasgow on a sad grey Sunday morning. Excellent album from Heavenly Creature Records, who are an excellent little label.
Stream/Download the album here...
---
David Colohan - Where The Leaves Fall First (2022)
GENRE : minimalist folk, ambient, soundscape, alternative folk, psychedelic folk
RECORD LABEL : Cruel Nature Records
This is a slow beautiful trance-inducing minimalist folk album from Irish songwriter/musician David Colohan. Consisting of two long meditative pieces of progressive pastoral folk music that softly tug at the heartstrings, it conjures up rural scenes of serene stillness and vast empty landscapes. Created using a variety of organic instruments, such as softly strummed acoustic guitars, melancholic harmoniums, yearning violas/violins and fragile male/female vocals - this music is filled with ancient longing. It shimmers and swells and speaks to us of an ambiguous and haunting loss.
This is a beautiful immersive record, bridging the gap between experimental psych folk and dreamy minimalist ambient music. Highly recommended.
Stream/Download the album here...
---
Dead Beats - End of Time EP (2022)
GENRE : R&B, soul, experimental, electronica
RECORD LABEL : Vivarium Recordings
The latest release from Vivarium Recordings is a murky liquidy R&B EP from a Massachusetts-based electronic artist called Dead Beats. This EP consists of five ethereal pop songs about desire, love, loneliness and longing. The silky wistful vocals emerge dreamily out of shimmering walls of lo-fi electronic synth pads, giving the songs a sad yet sensual vibe... whilst retaining its psychedelic vapor weirdness. Recommended for fans of Jamie Woon, The Weeknd & Inc.
Stream/Download the album here...
---
Mouth Washington - Remiss (2021)
GENRE : post-hardcore, post-punk, noise rock
RECORD LABEL : Repeating Cloud
Here's some ripping roaring noise rock chaos from Portland melodic post-hardcore band Mouth Washington. From what I've heard, there was a lot of tragedy and pain behind this album. Not only artistically/conceptually, but also within the band itself...
The album tells the true story of a Maine woman (Constance Fisher) who drowned her three children in a bathtub in 1954, was institutionalized, got released and institutionalized again until 1973 when she escaped from hospital grounds and drowned herself.
And if that's not grim enough - the lead guitarist of the band (Will Herd) died tragically and unexpectedly, soon after the making of this album. This was his final legacy and his swan song.
This band has a fierce brutal punk energy, which I love. It's a noisy and uncompromising, visceral and cathartic, melodic and chaotic post-hardcore album that's well worth your time and energy. Their sound is constantly unpredictable and unconventional, treading on some experimental territories that most rock bands don't go near. Highly recommended for fans of Fugazi, Touche Amore and Raein.
Stream/Download the album here...
---
The Honeysuckle Steamboat - Echoes of Paradise (2022)
GENRE : alternative folk, psych folk, folk rock, indie folk
RECORD LABEL : Vard Records
Get your tickets ready and come aboard The Honeysuckle Steamboat! Here's some good summery alternative folk-rock for you. The 3 songs that comprise this debut EP are fun, quirky, sweet and catchy as hell... with a subtle twisted underlying darkness that makes it slightly unsettling. A compelling mixture of 70s psych folk and contemporary bedroom pop. Great music for gazing into a nice babbling brook on a calm summer's morning.
Stream/Download the album here...
---
Snowhore - Everything Tastes Bad (2021)
GENRE : pop rock, indie rock, indie folk, bedroom pop
RECORD LABEL : Devil Town Tapes
Snowhore are a minimalist power pop trio from Philadelphia, centered around songwriter/vocalist Veronica Isley. They play wistful lethargic bedroom pop - perfect for sad summer days. The vocals are beautiful, and the instrumentation is minimal and sparse. Isley clearly has the pop sensibilities of certain acts from the 60s/70s, but it's delivered with a punk energy and a raw garage rock style production. Although Isley's form of songwriting is pretty damn downbeat - this album is a real joy to listen to, from beginning to end.
If you're seeking great lo-fi power pop songs about tumultuous relationships and youthful apathy, look no further. This is a delicious pop treat that you'll want to return to again and again.
Stream/Download the album here...
---
Nancy Gaffield & The Drift - Wealdon (2020)
GENRE : experimental, psych folk, progressive, spoken word
RECORD LABEL : Skep Wax Records
This is a collaborative auditory exploration of the rural Kentish landscape - specifically the marshland of The High Weald down to the sea at Dungeness. This particular area of the land is only a few hundred years old, and may only last another few hundred years, due to the rising sea levels...
In this album the poet Nancy Gaffield has teamed up with experimental band The Drift to create these haunting long drawn-out psychedelic soundscapes that paint an evocative picture of the place that inspired its creation.
Bass guitar effectively used as the sound foundation of these pieces, which is wonderfully backed up and coloured with a variety of other instruments including harmonium, melodica, and clarinet, along with other non-musical instruments like shingles & bracken.
The music is progressive and semi-improvised, and is used as a dark pastoral landscape in which Gaffield's spoken word poetry sits comfortably in. Gaffield's observational and meditative poetry takes us on unique emotional journey through the histories and present state of the marshlands, and everything in between. It is both grounded and dreamy, simple and complex, cerebral and visceral...
Overall, this is a beautiful and disturbing exploration of a troubled corner of the Kentish landscape, and a great album. It's like 60s/70s-inspired psychedelic folk meets cinematic post-rock meets experimental sound art.
Stream/Download the EP here...
---
Non Pathogen - Dead Words EP (2022)
GENRE : industrial hardcore, doom rock, noise punk, metalcore, experimental electronica
RECORD LABEL : Imploding Sounds
Here's some dark misanthropic industrial hardcore music from Scotland. According to the Bandcamp blurb, this project was borne from the overwhelming anger and sadness that has plagued the individual behind it throughout his entire existence, and you can tell...
This debut EP is a brutal hate-filled noise assault - combining elements from industrial electronica, alternative doom rock, hardcore punk, metalcore and harsh noise into walls and walls of hideous yet glorious noise. Wild and uncontrollable down-tuned guitars, wailing synthesizers, electronic drum loops and piercing screams and yells are all fighting to be heard at once - the end result being a noisy doom-laden mess that's all over before you're even able to catch your breath.
This is a dark and frightening musical catharsis. Definitely not for everyone (especially those easily triggered by harsh ugly truths) but if it hits - it hits hard, and begs for repeated plays. A baffling and brilliant debut EP from a deeply troubled and tormented soul.
Stream/Download the EP here...
---
Oblivion Orchestra - Scene To Scene (2021)
GENRE : alternative folk, atmospheric folk, singer-songwriter, indie rock
RECORD LABEL : self-released
Oblivion Orchestra (a.k.a Josh Allen) is a singer-songwriter, but this certainly isn't typical singer-songwriter music. Though the central focal point of the sound is a lone strummed acoustic guitar and Allen's vulnerable voice, it's completely surrounded by a heavily-layered sonic blizzard of atmospheric reverb-laden cellos that constantly soar and sweep and fall around these bare simple pop compositions.
Allen self-admittedly can't play the cello... but he is also a sound designer and film composer, which is very evident in the execution and production of this album, and the fact that he is not a trained cellist makes for interesting listening, and a unique aural treat.
As a big fan of both dreamy minimalistic singer-songwriter music and immersive ambient/drone music, this album feels like a soft gentle kiss from someone strange yet familiar. If you crave hazy blurry Americana-style folk with cinematic soundscapes, look no further.
Stream/Download the album here...
No comments:
Post a Comment