Kurdaitcha

Mamaleek - Kurdaitcha

[black metal, experimental]
Alright, quick one today, basically to tell you to go listen to this. Yeah, yeah, it's tagged "black metal", but only because "post-black metal" would be silly. But this really is beyond what you think of as black metal; absolutely recklessly creative. I could say a million more things about this but I don't feel all that qualified having only listened to it once. What I can say in absolute confidence is that there are exciting things happening in black metal once again, and it's all coming from an anonymous bedroom in San Francisco. Grim, huh? (Ok, maye not all of it, because the new Gnaw Their Tongues is fantastically out there for the genre, too). The whole thing is available as a "pay what you want" download or as a high-quality, limited to 150 vinyl record.

Download | Donate | Buy




Also, here's why I haven't been keeping up:

bear with me

untitled

Planning for Burial - (Untitled EP)
[doomgaze, black metal, post-rock]

It's a bit unnerving when one single band - or, for that matter, one single musician - can so deftly capture and combine all my favourite things about music at once. Planning For Burial has done that twice already in two decidedly different ways: once with the sprawling, heart-wrenching filthy post-gaze (whatever) Leaving and then again on the, relatively-speaking, clean-cut slowcore on the split with Lonesummer. The new single here - originally intended as a 7" which sadly never came into fruition - is self-described as a meeting of these sounds, but more than that, it's a perfection two. Opener "I Hope You Will Pick Me Out" is even more grim, ferocious and blissed out all at once than anything on Leaving, and "Annick" was basically born to break hearts, sounding like an even more low-key Low with guitar solos ripped straight from late-era Talk Talk (yeah, I know, right, could things get better?). This is probably going to start slipping into slack-jawed fanboyism (if it hasn't already), but really, check it out. No one is forging sounds as sublimely as this.

Download/stream/buy.
(Physical CD limited to 60 copies w/ exclusive extra-long alternate take of Leaving's soul-crushing eponymous closer.)

musikdramen

Wahlheim - Songs That Are Not Part of Ambitious Musikdramen
[pop, emo, home-recording]


Mid-fi mid-90's emo-pop with morbid goth sensibilities & irresistible melodies so you know you've already clicked that link. This is the first/only release by Wahlheim, a two-song digital 7" which might sound silly in theory but it's a 14mb download so divide that by sides A/B (i.e., 2) then go and collect the grey matter dripping out of your ears when you've realized what that means. It's shamelessly catchy and fairly upbeat but it's presented with such a killer aesthetic that you won't have a problem checking it out. Besides, Wahlheim sounds grim as fuck, so you know these infectious plague-bearing choruses are in good hands.

Download.

Also available: this picture of a bluejay

blackout

Expo '70 - Blackout
[psychedelic, drone, space rock, noise]

Download/stream/buy here.

Two half-hour blissed-out excursions into whatever cosmic voids Expo '70 tore open in Ithaca and Manhattan (tracks 1 and 2, respectively). It's Expo '70 doing what Expo '70 do, have done, and will continue to do indefinitely at an alarming rate, made extra alarming by how good it is. Recorded live, allegedly "on less sleep than you can imagine", the duo takes things to the more weightless side of their sound with impossibly huge, dense celestial drones that refuse to be anchored by the comparatively timid drum machine. Two sprawling pieces of improvisation and neo-psych meanderings prove the band to be at the top of whatever game it is they're playing, if for some reason their expansive and curiously/appropriately highly-rated discography hasn't tipped you off yet. Stream it for free above or throw $8 out for a limited (200) CDr.

fast reverse

Orange Blossom Flyover - Fast Reverse
[shoegaze]

Download/stream.

Short & sweet nine-minute EP of beat-driven shoegaze. It's an interesting take on the style, pushing the surprisingly lively beats to the front but it works, especially in the closer "Vicarious Rooms of Gold" where the guitars and vocals feel more rhythmic, too; those shoes are tapping. The whole EP is really just driven - it has a sense of momentum that, elsewhere in this genre, gets lost in the cavernous reverb and swirling modulation. It's about as focused as you can get while still feeling a million miles away.

Also worth checking out is the Fresh Horrors from Hades "EP", which is just the 7-minute "So By Your Spells": a gorgeous, hazy backwards-looking free-fall. The complete opposite of the above EP but absolutely worth a listen.

Minajah

True Womanhood - "Minajah"
[Moombahton]

REEL TOO REAL by truewomanhood

Sublimely catchy new one from post-indie forerunners True Womanhood. This is part of their immensely cool "Reel Too Real" series which is cool for reasons other than the dense punning I mean, look, all the songs are recorded on this. Did you see ? Yeah, this synth-heavy stuttering grove was done through that monstrosity and, I am explicitly told, not through Ableton. I don't have a strong grasp of how electronic music is made & performed, really, but I have the inkling that Ableton makes it easy and this was not and that's good: reverb-drenched analog anti-technology fun-times dance tune. Bear with me when I say it's not "obvious" dance music aside from the rave synths (Moombahton synths?); no grating 4/4 drum machine beatdown, just organic & beat-driven & incidentally danceable.

whatever, dude

Tree Hopping - The Beat Band
[tropical lo-fi]
Recommended if you like: dancing in an exotic tin can telephone

Stream it.
Download.

Back to school back to work it's January oh man c'mon. Tree Hopping, though: we have Tree Hopping, thank god. The Beat Band is ferociously energetic and, despite being apparently composed mostly of loops and samples, is a coherent little package. It's a brisk half-hour but really, anything longer would've been exhausting because this LP is relentless, chock-full of funky rhythm and wooping and sloppy guitar and shimmery keyboards; really, all in all, an album put out in entirely the wrong season 'cause it's summer in a .zip. Or maybe this is entirely timely - rays of tropical post-punk shining through yr S.A.D. Yeah there's tons of "no-fi bedroom pop" or whatever making the rounds right now, but Tree Hopping has flavour rather than the drab dourness that is most of the contemporaries. Fun fun fun and really a feel-good record throughout; every bit as colourful as the album cover. If the first two tracks don't hook you then winter has claimed your soul and you need this more than you know.