Ed Schrader's Music Beat - Daylight Commander
Cryptically politicised synth-theatrical absurdity heralds Baltimore duo and Future Islands running mates' fifth album Orchestra Hits, out September 20th
Hamish Hawk - Nancy Dearest
Speaking of theatrical absurdity plus synth... well, with more stridency. Album A Firmer Hand out August 16th
Hello Mary - 0%
New York trio arrive at fractured spiralling guitar, subterranean bass frequency and some excellent frustrated shouting, then briefly remember they're occasionally a sunny guitar-pop band too towards the end. Clearly contain multitudes.
Joan As Police Woman - Long For Ruin
Blimey, long time since we've featured Joan Wasser on here. Lemons, Limes & Orchids, out September 20th, is her tenth album, heralded by expansive shuffling about humanity destroying itself from within.
Knitting Circle - Losing My Eggs
Excellently titled misleadingly urgent jittery mental health/menopause statement from DIY indiepop supergroup (Milky Wimpshake, Crumbs, Red Monkey)'s debut EP Deciduous Climbers.
New Starts - Asbestos Roof
And in case that DIY indiepop supergroup isn't your thing, how about this DIY indiepop supergroup? Darren Hayman scratches his lovelorn new wave/power-pop riffage itch with members of adults and Tigercats backing up. More Break-Up Songs is out August 16th.
Nightshift - Phone
Meanwhile Glasgow's Nightshift's bass player Andrew Doig went the other way and joined a DIY indiepop supergroup, Dancer. His day job outfit's third album Homosapien, released next week, is heralded by swooning, itchy, country-influenced confliction of the heart augmented into seductiveness by the mighty Ray Aggs (Sacred Paws, Shopping, Trash Kit, R.Aggs, probably another thousand) on wandering fiddle.
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
New sounds: 12/6/24
ANONHI and the Johnsons - Breaking
Following our number four album of 2023 My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, in all its soulful lament to the opposition and end to everything, feels like a difficult thing to follow, so ahead of some American live dates ANONHI has gone even more spare, just delicate Bill Withers-style guitar and woodwind yet again having to narrate climate catastrophe.
Heartworms - Jacked
Joining in at least an EP too late to the hype around Jojo Orme, we know, but with Dan Carey's production aid this feels like the moment her ideas find their fervid metier, paranoid post-gothic soundscapes that seem claustrophobically closing in around her own increasing anxiety.
Johnny Foreigner - Orc Damage
HOLY FUCK WHAT'S THIS WHAT DO WE DO WITH OUR HANDS WAAAAGH. Er... so, no sooner are we getting used to there being a new Los Campesinos! album impending than their sometime running mates are back amongst the recorded living - seems appropriate just as we start to make special plans for next April's STN twentieth anniversary that two primary anchors of its first decade-plus reactivate, we suppose - and still sounding just as wired and zealous as ever. Their sixth album How To Be Hopeful ("a pure product of chaos magic. It compelled us to be made, to harness returning ripples of stones long since thrown.") is due on the almighty Alcopop! on September 13th but ahead of that we find The Sky and Sea were Part of Me (or I was Part of Them), a nine track... EP? Mixtape? Project? What should we call this exactly? "High quality selection of music" covers it in any case, with all the righteous ragers, proto-emo lyrical references, crossthreaded shoutalongs, hyperminiature guitar pyrotechnics and songs built around almost ambient keys and electronics that still sound of a piece that you could ever want, now from a perspective of being old, jaded, cynical and observing all around them turn to shit, especially here as Alexei and Kelly narrate corporate avarice.
Following our number four album of 2023 My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, in all its soulful lament to the opposition and end to everything, feels like a difficult thing to follow, so ahead of some American live dates ANONHI has gone even more spare, just delicate Bill Withers-style guitar and woodwind yet again having to narrate climate catastrophe.
Heartworms - Jacked
Joining in at least an EP too late to the hype around Jojo Orme, we know, but with Dan Carey's production aid this feels like the moment her ideas find their fervid metier, paranoid post-gothic soundscapes that seem claustrophobically closing in around her own increasing anxiety.
Johnny Foreigner - Orc Damage
HOLY FUCK WHAT'S THIS WHAT DO WE DO WITH OUR HANDS WAAAAGH. Er... so, no sooner are we getting used to there being a new Los Campesinos! album impending than their sometime running mates are back amongst the recorded living - seems appropriate just as we start to make special plans for next April's STN twentieth anniversary that two primary anchors of its first decade-plus reactivate, we suppose - and still sounding just as wired and zealous as ever. Their sixth album How To Be Hopeful ("a pure product of chaos magic. It compelled us to be made, to harness returning ripples of stones long since thrown.") is due on the almighty Alcopop! on September 13th but ahead of that we find The Sky and Sea were Part of Me (or I was Part of Them), a nine track... EP? Mixtape? Project? What should we call this exactly? "High quality selection of music" covers it in any case, with all the righteous ragers, proto-emo lyrical references, crossthreaded shoutalongs, hyperminiature guitar pyrotechnics and songs built around almost ambient keys and electronics that still sound of a piece that you could ever want, now from a perspective of being old, jaded, cynical and observing all around them turn to shit, especially here as Alexei and Kelly narrate corporate avarice.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
New sounds: 11/6/24
ACHB - Double Agents
Alex and the Christopher Hale Band, to give them their government name. Alex Hale has been around the STN-sphere for a few years, even designing our Alldayer posters for a while, and this upgraded version of his band, now featuring another Alldayer alumnus in SJ Newman, toughens up with nods to ME REX's exuberant post-LC! (of whom more shortly) post-indiepop/emo.
The Jesus Lizard - Hide & Seek
They're back! Back! BACK! Their first album in 26 years, in fact, Rack out September 13th, with David Yow set to soar over/crash into the half-waiting arms of British audiences in January. For now this largely picks up impressively adjacent given the ageing process to they left off, wild eyed and iridescent with classic rock riffs punctured with live wires.
urika's bedroom - XTC
Nobody seems to know much about urika's bedroom, apart from that they're based in Los Angeles and they've got the enormously influential Chris Coady to mix this second single. While the introductory shuffling acoustic guitar comes on disturbingly like Everlast, the rest is pure shoegaze effects, where melodies fly in the reverberated stratosphere and the hopeful, fragile vocals of dark matter blur into it all until disappearing into digital distortion.
And as before, we've just recently told you or you already know who these people are:
Los Campesinos! - 0898 HEARTACHE
My Best Unbeaten Brother - Blues Fatigue
Nilufer Yanya - Method Actor
Alex and the Christopher Hale Band, to give them their government name. Alex Hale has been around the STN-sphere for a few years, even designing our Alldayer posters for a while, and this upgraded version of his band, now featuring another Alldayer alumnus in SJ Newman, toughens up with nods to ME REX's exuberant post-LC! (of whom more shortly) post-indiepop/emo.
The Jesus Lizard - Hide & Seek
They're back! Back! BACK! Their first album in 26 years, in fact, Rack out September 13th, with David Yow set to soar over/crash into the half-waiting arms of British audiences in January. For now this largely picks up impressively adjacent given the ageing process to they left off, wild eyed and iridescent with classic rock riffs punctured with live wires.
urika's bedroom - XTC
Nobody seems to know much about urika's bedroom, apart from that they're based in Los Angeles and they've got the enormously influential Chris Coady to mix this second single. While the introductory shuffling acoustic guitar comes on disturbingly like Everlast, the rest is pure shoegaze effects, where melodies fly in the reverberated stratosphere and the hopeful, fragile vocals of dark matter blur into it all until disappearing into digital distortion.
And as before, we've just recently told you or you already know who these people are:
Los Campesinos! - 0898 HEARTACHE
My Best Unbeaten Brother - Blues Fatigue
Nilufer Yanya - Method Actor
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