Ambient music group Chord has released a new song called "Fm" from their forthcoming album, Imperfect Authentic Cadence, which is due out on June 4th via Debacle Records. This is the first new music from the group since 2013’s GMaj7.
This is the work of Kyle Benjamin, Phil Dole, Jason Hoffman, Sean McCarthy, and Trevor Shelley de Brauw.
"Fm" is the closing track of the three song journey that explores the most fundamental chord progressions in Western music. The album presents a cadence, which is a sequence of chords that brings finality and resolution to a musical phrase, that is intentionally left imperfect, hence the album’s title.
Guitarist Dave Miller has released a new single called "Lockstep". This is the first new music from Miller since the release of his self-titled album last year via Tompkins Square.
Miller blends improvised jazz, psych rock, and more into his music, and "Lockstep" finds him delving deeper into his more experimental side.
For the Tripartite Challenge on this one (this one being Hello Mary’s new single "Take Something") I’m gonna go with shoegaze/dreampop pioneers Lush crossed with a pre-“These Dreams” Heart in psych-folk mode crossed with the fuzzed out garage rock of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. But whatever the mix it’s a heady one that’s why the kids like to call this “head music” it’s a known fact.
L.A. by way of Puerto Rico indie pop group The Marías—led by the bilingual core duo of writer/producer Josh Conway and writer/lead vocalist María Zardoya—have released a video for “Hush,” the first single off their debut album, Cinema, out June 25th on Nice Life Recording Company/Atlantic Records, and it’s a slinky, two-tone minimalist slow-burner.
The track begins with insistent, pulsing synth bass, laying out the carpet for Zardoya’s breathy, beguiling lead vocal performance over a languorous, seductive mid-tempo beat—the kind you’d probably sway rather than dance to.
Lyrically, we’re firmly in “woman in control” territory, with lines like “every night / got you running in circles/touchin me/get your paws off my dolce cologne/back it up/off my throne cuz you know/you wanna make me/walk away and forget about it?”
Meanwhile, producer Conway keeps things moving along tightly, with shimmering, swimming synth pads and dream-pop guitar arpeggios entering at points, adding a tasteful sheen of 21st-century disco glam, while during the single-word “hush” chorus, pared-to-the-bone guitar lines yawn and warp like hot metal, while Conway’s deeper bass vocals share the stage with María during the bridge, adding a vague feeling of menace.
Visually, the video makes the most of a modest budget, cutting between a sterile but stylish 1960s psychiatrist office—decorated all in white, except for María—and a series of crimson-soaked sets that feel like a dance club designed by David Lynch, complete with writhing dancers costumed to look like living condoms. In the middle of it all is María, sitting stately on her ultramodern throne, perhaps getting cozy with the pop stardom she and the band may be on the verge of achieving. Gabe Hernandez
Appleby has released a new single called "Half Life" via the WILDER Records. This is his second single of 2021 and fourth since the release of his 2018 debut EP, "Happiness".
Joshua Virtue of Free Snacks, UDABABY, and Why? Records has released a new solo album called "Moon". This is a deeply personal, mostly instrumental project and the first that Virtue has done completely on his own. The album could be classified ad experimental Hip Hop, but as you find yourself getting lost in the beats, sounds, and audio clips the project really transcend genre.
Virtue recently wrote on his Instagram about the making of this album that was actually never meant to be released. Of Moon he said, "When I made it, I was in a pretty low place yet simultaneously reaching new milestones in my spiritual recovery/development, living alone for the first time in almost a decade. I was learning to embrace the quiet and let sound lead my ear rather than the other way around. I was in a sandbox. Digging a hole just to see if I could."
Imagine if Electric Mayhem sax man Floyd Pepper and bandmate/electric bassist Zoot took a break from Jim Henson’s house band and got a hold of some vintage drum machines and synths and an array of effects pedals and then fed their heads full of James Chance and the Contortions, Steve and Andy Mackay (no relation), the Sun Ra Arkestra, Kraftwerk, Lemmy-era Hawkwind, and The Comet Is Coming when it comes to their contemporaries, and then moved to South Philly to add more layers of grit and vigor to their sound and you’d probably end up with something like Writhing Squares and something like their third and latest LP Chart For The Solution.
In reality, Writhing Squares is comprised of Kevin Nickles and Daniel Provenzano who in addition to their respective sax and bass duties both play synths and contribute vocals, with Daniel pulling extra duty on percussion and programming, and Kevin filling in some flute and oboe parts. Chart For The Solution came out a couple months ago and it’s been in my rotation ever since so I can vouch for the album’s durability and its high quotient of electric mayhem.
The first track is called “Rogue Moon” and it picks up in a way from where the last track of their previous album left off, namely “A Whole New Jupiter” which took up the last 19 minutes of 2019’s Out of the Ether–a heavy psych rewrite of A Love Supreme transformed into triple time and with rhapsodic skronk saxophone played over overdriven bass it all comes off something like a No Wave Coltrane.
Likewise, “Rogue Moon” rides a loping riff into the psychedelic sunset except here the foundation is a burbling analog synth arpeggiation with NEU!ish interlocking rhythms that shift the downbeat around in your head and then right in the middle the song turns itself inside out and stays that way for the rest of its eleven-minute duration–a dreamy coda that’s like the soft underbelly to the first half’s gleaming steel exterior.
Aside from any overlaps, Chart For The Solution stakes out new terrain for the Squares with a newly cinematic production on some of the tracks and ever more adventurous playing and arrangements. But it never veers too far from their lo-fi ethos roots either–whether in the swirling sonic vortex of “Geisterwaltz” or the post-punky surf rock party of “Ganymede” or the back masked ambient interlude of “A Chorus of Electrons” or the Stooge-worthy rave-up of “NFU.” It all culminates in the 18-minute headtrip “The Pillars” which begins by sounding like a UFO landing and then turns into a bleep-bloopy coldwave number with Alan Vega verbal outbursts before taking a turn in the final part with the duo seemingly inhabited by the ghost of Lou Reed trying to get out of another record contract.
In the end it all speaks to the band’s enigmatic name, a name suggesting the cohabitation of opposite forces, such as rigid geometric “squares” that can somehow kinesthetically “writhe” because on one side you’re got regimentation and repetition and on the other side looseness and grooviness. It’s a dynamic heard in the Writhing Squares’ conjoining of trance-like repetition and wild sonic freeness, punk and prog in equal measure, maxed-out minimalistic music for the select masses. (Jason Lee)
Bobbie Gentry pops into my head occasoinally (and she’s always welcome there) while listening to Elizabeth Wyld’s Quiet Year, the seven-song debut album she released earlier this month, whether in terms of vocal cadence or country twang or plain-spoken storytelling. Except on this record instead of stories about living a hardscrabble life in Chickasaw County, Mississippi and bridge jumpers and familial indifference, you get songs about leaving behind rural Virginia for the big city and dealing with vocal paralysis and romantic infatuation. But still if any marketing person wants to use “Elizabeth Wyld is the indie Bobbie Gentry this world needs” as a pull quote I’m not going to stop them.
Falling under the general rubric of indie-folk and alt-Americana closely associated with artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Angel Olson, and Kacey Musgraves, Quiet Year spans the stylistic gamut from its open-hearted, full-throated opener “I Still Believe In Ghosts" which depicts a road trip in terms equally brash and vulnerable (“pull over I’m taking it in / how’d I get here and where have I been?”) to the closer “Hudson” that moves with a slow, steady flow like its namesake river in tandem with lyrics about lovelorn enervation and resignation to the extent that it could lead one to spurn the advances of a foxy artistic type at a Brooklyn apartment party for no other reason than to go back home and wait on one’s errant, absentee lover.
Bigger picture-wise this appears to be an album about losing and re-locating (and remaking) one’s own voice in various metaphorical and literal senses—whether by speaking up for sexual self-determination via a set of Sapphic-themed Southern Gothic-tinged love songs, or seeking one’s voice by moving from the country to New York City, or recovering and retraining the literal voice after a year long struggle with a rare vocal cord condition.
Soon after completing a six-month engagement in Europe with a touring company of the Broadway revival of Hair, Elizabeth Wyld lost the ability to speak above a whisper and was diagnosed with unilateral vocal fold paralysis. No longer able to sing in any capacity much less to belt out tunes on stage, the self-described theater kid refocused her energy onto writing poetry and playing guitar which culminated in the songs heard on this record–a solitary creation made public after vocal cord surgery and rehabilitation, and turned into a record at Greenpoint’s Studio G with the audio production/multi-instrumentalist assistance of Brooklyn-based Oscar Albis Rodriguez and Zach Jones who between them brought a range of experience reaching from extreme and nü-metal production to playing guitar in the pit band for the Spongebob Squarepants stage musical. So maybe change that pull quote to "Elizabeth Wyld is the new indie Squidward-meets-Degrader sonstress that this world needs". (Jason Lee)
“I Will Not Be Your Prison, I Will Not Be Your Guide” is a challenging and — if you have the taste for it — rewarding three track release from Austin experimental metal band God Shell. The EP immediately throws the listener for a loop with “Skinwalker.” The discordant guitar riffs surprisingly remind me of chaotic no-wave/noise rock outfits like Sissy Spacek and Sleetmute Nightmute. The rhythms are jagged, with thundering drums and angular guitars. The song comes in phases, changing tempo but keeping a constant claustrophobic mood. The guitars squeal and screech, eventually overcoming the actual notes themselves, and as the drums gradually lose momentum, the song returns to the noisescape it began as. The second track — the semi-titular “A Prison” — is more experimental. The introduction reminds me of Daughters’ “You Won’t Get What You Want,” before the beat suddenly collapses amidst a maelstrom of glitches, and shifts into a droning noise cut. A phantom-like drumbeat hides under one thick, sustained chord for most of the runtime, creating the sort of dark, oppressive mood that is so dense it almost becomes cozy. I say “almost” because the song is interspersed with unpredictable — and at times startling — stutters and skips. Ender “Hagibalba” is the most straightforward on the EP, starting off with a catchy, toe-tapping riff that I was stunned to hear after the first two songs. Like “Skinwalker,” “Hagibalba” turns on a dime again and again, changing speeds and flipping from cacophony to measured playing. The drums stay consistently tight considering the whiplash-inducing song structure, providing the listener with a sort of light for navigating the strange progression. All in all, “I Will Not Be Your Prison” is a release for fans of sonic extremity. The music is entirely un-formulaic and to-the-point. Where another experimental release might gish gallop the listener with semi-listenable, tedious and indulgent pulp, Shell God explores new concepts with precision and purpose, keeping the listener engaged. The music is leaden, but when performed with such rawness and intensity it becomes irresistible.
When I recently got the chance to ask Johnny Dynamite¹ what old movie he’d like to see his new single “Bats in the Woods” magically and retroactively inserted into, he replied Lost Boys without hesitation (well, if an email can be sent “without hesitation”) and damn if isn’t an astute choice because A) there’s actual bats in the movie (not to mention actual bloodsuckiers) or at least they’re strongly implied and these teenage vampire bats like to party in the woods; B) the song would be a perfect fit sonically for the Lost Boys soundtrack and it’d fit seamlessly in between tracks by INXS, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Lou Graham of Foreigner fame; C) just like that scene in the movie featuring the ripped, oiled-up saxophone guy thrusting his hips while singing about how he “still believes” in front of a burning trash bin and a coterie of screaming fans, Johnny Dynamite is likewise willing to go shirtless and to sport a mullet for his art and also to sing a heartfelt appeal to casting aside negative forces and getting “so outta here, so f*cking out of here” like Bonnie and Clyde on a motorcycle built for two.
“Bats in the Woods” is the third single and the opening track from Mr. Dynamite’s soon to be released LP titled Sleeveless (Born Losers Records) and I can see why he’d choose it to open the album because it establishes a really vibey <vibe> right off the bat with chiming guitar harmonics and gated snare and an insistent single-note bass line followed by an equally vibey melodic hook and that’s all before Johnny declaims the opening line “your bath is warm / I want to step in” and fair warning you may find your own hair suddenly forming into a mullet just from listening to this song—though I’m guessing less a Fabio style mullet and more like a cool Ric Ocasek mullet that’ll have supermodels groveling at your feet and critics praising your musical creations.
Speaking of a fondness for warm baths you may be wondering about Johnny Dynamite’s other personal preferences and peccadillos and his personal history and fortunately this music journalist dug deep into the mystery and the results may surprise you. And so appearing here, for the very first time, we introduce to you our new “Vital Stats” column in which a profiled artist spills the beans on their favorite hobbies, turn-ons and turn-offs, and other intimate fun facts. And as you‘ll see below it turns out Mr. Dynamite is a pretty down to earth guy especially for someone named after an eyepatch-wearing, criminal-killing and ladykilling private detective who starred in his own series of hard-boiled, pre-code comic books from the early 1950s drawn and (in later issues) authored by Johnny’s own grandfather Pete Morisi.²
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JOHNNY DYNAMITE"S VITAL STATS™
Current home: I live in a tiny bedroom in Ridgewood, Queens where I record all my tunes
Previous home: I grew up in Staten Island then lived in New Paltz for 5 years. After deciding to move back to the city, I lived in the East Village projects illegally for a year before my credit score was good enough to get a real apartment
Profession: I work in the art department for film when the jobs come in, otherwise I’m just a bike messenger who eats on food stamps
Hobbies: I love to ride my bike through the city really fast and I love to play Mario Kart & Sonic Racing. I think I have the need for speed
Last book read: kind of funny, but this past year my grandpa’s comic Johnny Dynamite came out as a graphic novel and my pops got it for me for Christmas, that’s what I’ve been reading lol
Place you’d like to visit most: Tokyo… I love anime, I love sushi, I love the music, and I love a big city
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¹ The Bloodsuckers were unavailable for comment.
² But unlike that other “Morrissey,” when Johnny Dynamite implores you to “take me out tonight” you can bet he won’t let you to get run over by a double-decker bus.
The album features contributions from MIIRRORS, Fess Grandiose, Umphrey’s McGee, The Imperial Boxmen, Jeff Parker, V.V. Lightbody, Neptune’s Core, The Goddamn Gallows, Erin McDougald, and Robust. There are also four digital only tracks from Gramps the Vamp, HON3YBUN, The Avondale Ramblers, and Adem Dalipi.
The album’s lead single, “Don’t Know Why”, is from Robust and is accompanied by the video below.
Compton, South Los Angeles multi-disciplinary creative outfit Paris Texas (the team of Louie Pastel and Felix) have released their debut project, BOY ANONYMOUS. Across the project’s 8 self-produced tracks, the duo span an impressive range of genres and textures, and a particular standout is the single “SITUATIONS.”
The, tense but nimble track is a spare, minimal blend of icy late 70s/early 80s UK synthpop with “slice of life” hip-hop lyricism. The sonic landscape is populated with warm, rounded synth bass, distantly-reverbed vocals, and a jaded chorus repeating the phrase “hey now / these situations / hey now / just keep your patience,” while lines like “leave the house for all the dreams I had to chase,” and “couldn’t stay behind ‘cause shit would stay the same” hint at a desperate desire to escape a dire domestic situation to stake a claim at some sort of autonomy, whether creative or otherwise. And all the while a nervous, insistent synth organ phrase repeats throughout, restlessly peaking over the fence at the rest of proceedings.
The sense of anxiety mixed with fatigue is palpable, but the off-hand style and catchiness of the track keeps things from growing stale. Gabe Hernandez
