[The Soup Nazi]

Out now:

 

https://www.allmusic.com/album/love-hurts-mw0003240925

https://kf-merch.com/collections/julian-lage

[d.sound]

Uffie finally dropped yesterday. Totally lived up to my expectations. I love the use of guitar.

Found a new mountain man record. I have been dying for one just as long as the uffie. Wonderful surprise. It actually came out last year.

Doja Cat's recent single Tia Tamara is a real banger.

New xiu xiu is insane and probably one of their better records but I'm not in an intense enough mood to get through it.

[The Soup Nazi]

Out April 12: Chris Forsyth, All Time Present.

 

The annals of music history are overflowing with gifted guitar players whose egos prevented them from reaching their full potential: rather than being content to be exceptional members of a band, they instead create unexceptional records as leaders in vain attempts to prove their worth as solo artists.

Guitarist-songwriter-bandleader Chris Forsyth is the rare exception that proves the rule. Rightfully but somewhat reductively known as a guitar player par excellence, one listen to Forsyth's latest double album, All Time Present, reveals that while his dazzling musicianship can always be taken for granted, it's hardly the whole story. Forsyth's albums—presented with his Solar Motel Band or nominally solo, as here—have always been evidence of a musical mind brimming with ideas.

Forsyth is joined on All Time Present by bassist Peter Kerlin and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Edward Hansen, both longtime foils; new to the group is Ryan Jewell, a sublimely talented drummer whose musicality is seemingly bottomless. With this group, Forsyth is at the peak of his powers.

The album begins on a triumphal note: "Tomorrow Might As Well Be Today" provides a kind of overture, presenting some of Forsyth's most concise and lyrical guitar spiderwebs complemented by Hansen's Mellotron and Jewell's buoyant groove.

"Mystic Mountain" is the latest of Forsyth's songs to feature his unaffected and increasingly confident vocals, a practice begun on his previous double set for No Quarter, 2016's The Rarity of Experience. Here, over a hypnotic beat suggesting Levon Helm gone Saharan, the band's syncopated playing swirls behind his finest vocal number to date.

"The Man Who Knows Too Much" is performed by Forsyth alone with Jeff Zeigler on Onde Magnétique, a cassette synthesizer. Here Forsyth and Zeigler —who also recorded the album— suspend time in a sort of weightless, heavy-lidded haze of acoustic guitar, Wurlitzer, drum machine and what sound like Jovian radio transmissions.

That brief piece makes for an appropriate introduction to "Dream Song," which opens like a reading of Roy Buchanan's funereal and riveting "The Messiah Will Come Again" before snapping into action. Soon, Forsyth is conjuring from his Stratocaster a lively and eloquent solo soaked in an uncharacteristically robust, thick tone. Airy and eerie double tracked vocals by fellow Philadelphian Rosali Middleman (noted for her own fine 2018 Trouble Anyway LP as well as her work with basement boogie specialists Long Hots) stand in the midst of all the whiplash and gnarl like a delicate but stubborn leaf clinging to a branch withstanding the turbulent maelstrom.

"The Past Ain't Passed" provides a necessary cooldown, sounding like the introduction to Richard & Linda Thompson's "The Cavalry Cross" (which Forsyth has covered) stretched to infinity. If the Fillmore West had been equipped with a chillout room, this would be the music you'd hear while safely ensconced inside its dimly-lit comedown sanctuary.

Continuing the trend of recent albums, Forsyth again makes space on the record to reprise and revisit one of his older tunes, this time in the form of "New Paranoid Cat" (previously known as "Paranoid Cat"), a piece he's been performing steadily since at least 2010. This latest chapter continues in the spirit of previous renditions, Forsyth audibly relishing the opportunity to ruminate on the song's structure, as if the tune itself were a mysterious object in Forsyth's hands to be carefully considered, meditated upon, and puzzled out. The piece's gradual build, sustained tension of eighth notes, and breaks that tease at release achieve a balance of tight, stately minimalism and sun-dappled pastoralism unheard since Gastr Del Sol circa Camoufleur.

"(Livin' On) Cubist Time" whittles the group down to a duo of just Forsyth and Hansen for an extended piece of psych-trance variously recalling Michael Rother's solo work, Don Cherry's breathtaking collaboration with Terry Riley, and trumpeter Markus Stockhausen's contributions to the ambient music of David Sylvian and Holger Czukay. Soft, vibrant, and elemental, the piece recalls not so much the work of Picasso as it does Monet.

Though rock is its predominant melodic language, the music of Chris Forsyth contains multitudes; as an arranger, he has displayed over the course of his career an almost monomaniacal dedication to rhythm and dynamics. Nowhere is this more evident than on album closer "Techno Top," an extended jam that pushes the guitar into the background in favor of an irresistible kind of Germanic disco funk, or what Forsyth calls his "nihilistic disco accountant" vibe. The palm-muted, staccato rhythm guitar imagines Young Marble Giants gone highlife; the propellant but elastic rhythm section allows the track just the right amount of room to breathe and gradually expand until, finally, Forsyth lets loose with a scene-stealing wah guitar solo. A DFA or Superpitcher remix of this track would blow the fuck up.

All Time Present is the rare double album that goes by in a flash. Indeed, one of Forsyth's greatest strengths as a composer and bandleader is his consistent ability to sustain interest even when at his most brazenly improvisational: he drifts, but he never meanders. On All Time Present, Forsyth's particular drift is like that of a proverbial wallflower with a sudden surge of unselfconscious courage: toward the dance floor.

https://chrisforsyth1.bandcamp.com/a...l-time-present

[Toilet & Bowels]

I'm fairly curious to hear the new mdou moctar records, also curious to see if wolf eyes releases any recordings of the live collaborations they did last year, also interested in whatever comes out on siltbreeze if anything, and any more SY or Harry Pussy archival releases would be cool if any are planned but really who gives a fuck about what records come out and when?

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

[...] but really who gives a fuck about what records come out and when?

I do. Who the fuck are YOU.

[Severian]

New Solange album, “When I Get Home” out now!

 

[_tunic_]

New Sebadoh album will be released on May 24! Here's a new song celebrate the void

 

[Skuj]

Fuuuuuuck.....I just bought the new Swans "fundraiser album" called What Is This?, as well as the preorder to the next "proper" album.....hopefully 2019.

From MG:

Hello There!

Some time ago, when I made the decision to disband the most recent line up of Swans, I did so not only with trepidation, but also with a great measure of sadness. This, after all, was the longest lasting grouping of core musicians in the 35 year plus history of Swans, and we made some great work. We were (and remain) friends and collaborated seamlessly as an ensemble. However, a too-comfortable familiarity had taken hold and none of us could see the music surprising us further, so we ditched it, at least for the time being. Following our final performances at Warsaw, in Brooklyn, in November of 2017, after sleeping for what seemed like 6 months, I set about writing new songs for the next version of Swans. I’ve completed about a dozen, and you’ll find 10 of them on the CD we’re releasing as a fundraiser to help with the recording and production costs of the new Swans album. These are as close to the bone as it gets – just my acoustic guitar and voice. Should you delve into this collection, you’ll discover that the material leans heavily towards words (lots of them) and vocals, which I suppose is a natural inclination after 7 years of immersion in music that was so adamantly geared towards long instrumental passages… Though I’m certain these are fine performances here, these are demos, which means that they are skeletal versions intended as a guide for building the songs with other musicians. And build them (and expand them) I will - presumably to my usual excessive degree, though in this case that proclivity won’t be expressed in a musical style similar to the chapter of Swans that recently concluded. That much I know. Just how things will actually end up sounding is another matter. I have lots of thoughts about how the orchestrations should go, but for now they’re still amorphous, and I’m looking forward to diving in with other musicians in the studio and following where the sound we generate leads. As always, I’ll be looking for the unintended. During a recent phone conversation with my friend Bill Rieflin, I expressed my uncertainty about where this record would lead, especially after 7 years of knowing pretty much in advance the timbre and vocabulary that would be used when we (the recent, past version of Swans) played, and Bill said something I’ll employ as a guide for this new chapter: Follow the uncertainty, make that the thing. A person could do worse than to follow the advice of a supreme musical savant like Mr. Rieflin, so I intend to keep his words in my head as we work. Joining me in this slippery quest will be the following:
•The Necks: (Tony Buck, Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanton). This transcendental improv combo will play basic tracks to my guitar part on 2 songs, and the songs will be further orchestrated and sung to thereafter. Tony will also play various instruments on other songs.
•Kristof Hahn: Stalwart stabber of the sky, recent Swan, and past member of Angels of Light, will play various guitars and lap steel.
•Larry Mullins: Stellar past Swans and Angels of Light member, will play drums, orchestral percussion, piano, organ, and whatever else seems appropriate.
•Yoyo Röhm: Yoyo is a Berlin bassist and composer/arranger, and he’ll play double bass and electric bass, and will also lend his considerable arrangement skills to the proceedings and will help in gathering orchestral musicians and additional signature players.
•Ben Frost: Composer, recording artist, maker-of-sounds and psychic landscapes. I will sit down with Ben once the songs have taken on a shape and I will say OK: What?
•Anna von Hausswolff and Maria von Hausswolff: Anna is singer, organist, and composer and her sister Maria is a filmmaker who sometimes sings with Anna. Their voices combine wonderfully. They will sing myriad backing vocals on the record.
•Baby Dee: recording artist, chanteuse extraordinaire, harpist and pianist. I wrote a song specifically for Dee to sing, and she has consented generously to come out of retirement to do so. She’ll also sing backing vocals, as will her friends Fay Christen and Ida Albertje Michels.
•Jennifer Gira: Sometimes contributor to Swans, professionally arcane. Will contribute backing vocals and critique. She sings the song The Nub on the What is This? CD.
•Bill Rieflin: Long time honorary Swan and past Angels of Light contributor, currently a member of King Crimson. Bill plays everything. I will sit down with Bill once the songs have taken on a shape and I will say OK: What?
•Cassis Staudt: Past member of Angels of Light and passionate accordion pumper, she will play on various songs.
•Thor Harris: Robust recent Swan and past Angels of Light superman, recording artist, percussionist, drummer, torturer of homemade instruments. I will sit down with Thor once the songs have taken on a shape and I will say OK: What?
•Dana Schechter: Recording artist, past member of Angels of Light, bassist, vocalist, soundscape maker. I will sit down with Dana once the songs have taken on a shape and I will say OK: What?
•Heather Trost and Jeremy Barnes: Long time purveyors of exotic Eastern European/Balkan/Turkish homemade hoedowns of psychedelic import as A Hawk and a Hacksaw. They sing and play multiple instruments. I will sit down with them once the songs have taken on a shape and I will say OK: What?
•Norman Westberg, Phil Puleo, Christopher Pravdica, Paul Wallfisch: Heroic recent Swans members, ex-Swans, and Swans again forever. I will sit down with them once the songs have taken on a shape and I will say OK: What?
•M.Gira will sing and play guitar and produce the record.

[Kuhb]

Originally Posted by _tunic_

New Sebadoh album will be released on May 24! Here's a new song celebrate the void

 

The first single 'Celebrate the Void' is great

[Severian]

Originally Posted by _tunic_

New Sebadoh album will be released on May 24! Here's a new song celebrate the void

 

Heard about this. Fucking *nice.*

[The Soup Nazi]

Holy shit! Out April 26, but act now because it's just 500 copies, you mooks: Mars archives volume three: N.N. End.

 

Barring some miraculous discovery (never out of the question!), this is the final LP in our series of LPs documenting the music of New York's most amazing combo of the No Wave era.

From their more-quotidian beginnings as China, whose sound was influenced by the Velvets and Television, Mars mutated and grew in a variety of nearly unchartable directions. N.N. End documents the latter, immaculate stages of the band’s destruction of song forms once and for all.

The A-side captures a live show at Max's Kansas City in July 1978. They were still playing some of the songs from the No NY compilation, which had not yet been released. Their sound had moved on since the recordings session, however, and you can hear the songs dissolving structurally as they move along. Pretty amazing.

The B-side is from a rehearsal tape recording while they prepped for their final show (at Max's in December 1978.) At this point, Mars was shredding the cocoon that had held their music. Then shredding the music itself. Vocals, guitars, rhythms all come apart in clumps, taking on lives of their own. Beyond good and evil, Mars stood alone.

And then they were gone. Hope you've followed their contrail.

-Byron Coley, 2019

http://feedingtuberecords.com/releases/n-n-end/

http://feedingtuberecords.com/artists/mars/

[The Soup Nazi]

Out May 10: Nots, 3.

 

https://nots.bandcamp.com/album/3

Had to go to fuckin' Pitchfork for some kinda description:

Memphis punks Nots have announced a new album. The band's third LP is called 3 and it's out May 10 via Goner. Check out the album's first single, "Half Painted House".

"[The song is] about being stuck in a haze of repetitive cycles while change proves to be both stubborn and elusive," Natalie Hoffmann said in a statement. "The veneer of what it looks like to be 'normally functioning' during these tumultuous times is peeling to reveal a mind struggling to keep from turning against itself."

Nots' new album follows 2016's Cosmetic. It's also the Nots' first album as a trio; Alexandra Eastburn left the band last year. The band's current lineup is Hoffmann, Charlotte Watson, and Meredith Lones. (Charlotte Watson and Meredith Lones are also in the band Hash Redactor, whose new album Drecksound is out April 26.)

[The Soup Nazi]

Out May 3 (you can now pre-order the black 7"; if you want the orange one you're shittouttaluck and so am I... but hey, you get an instant WAV —or mp3, if you must— download of the A-side): Tropical Fuck Storm, "The Planet Of Straw Men"/"Can't Stop".

 

 

From Joyful Noise:

New music from Australia's favorite avant-psych-noise-skuzz weirdos... announcing Tropical Fuck Storm, The Planet of Straw Men. The first new material since 2018's terrifying debut A Laughing Death In Meatspace, The Planet Of Straw Men is a transplanetary neutron dance about casting the first stone on the third stone from the sun.

The new 7" will be available on limited edition neon orange vinyl, limited to 500 copies, backed with a cover of Missy Elliott's "Can't Stop".

New dates have just been added to their first tour of UK/Europe, including a London venue move from Oslo to Dingwalls due to popular demand. See below for full tour dates and more information.

Tropical Fuck Storm will release their second full length album with us later this year.


TROPICAL FUCK STORM - 2019 TOUR DATES

08 May - Dingwalls, London, England (UK) *
10 May - The Great Escape Festival, Brighton, England (UK)
14 May Phase One - Liverpool, England (UK) *
15 May The Sound House - Dublin (IE)
17 May The Hug and Pint - Glasgow, Scotland (UK) *
18 May Cobalt Studios - Newcastle, England (UK) *
21 May Merleyn - Nijmegen (NL) ^
22 May Het Bos - Antwerp (BE) ^
23 May Vera - Groningen (NL) ^
24 May London Calling, Amsterdam
26 May Festival White Nat White Heat, Nantes
29 May MOD, Hasselt ^
30 May Vooruit, Gent ^
31 May Helios 37, Cologne
1 June Hakken, Hamburg
2 June Privatclub, Berlin
4 June Beaches Brew, Marina Di Ravenna
6 June Le Romandie, Lausanne
7 June Petit Bain, Paris
8 June Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers
15 June Andoaingo, Jaialdia
21 June Azkena Rock, Vitoria

* w/ Cables Ties
^ w/ Raketkanon


In a world where dissident writers are drawn and quartered, communists wear Rolexes, and Trump drives around with a fridge-full of blood; Tropical Fuck Storm's new single is testament to the jester's duty. The Planet of Straw Men revives Tropical Fuck Storm's art-punk manoeuvres with a political snarl that pulls your head in, without calling you out. Lauren Hummel's drums unwind like a sonic mirage of a call to battle. The swagger of Fiona Kitschin's bass line is as insecure as a parliamentary promise. And Erica Dunn's uncorked guitars frolic throughout the track like a shit-faced fist fight. In this bare-knuckle ceremony, Tropical Fuck Storm have made a song and dance of diplomacies cheap-suit delusions of grandeur. "They want the glory of a coup de gras!" spits Gareth Liddiard; a broken bottle reminder that General Jack D. Ripper's red-cap reincarnation is running the show—and how unsatirical this whole joke is.

https://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.co...t-of-straw-men

https://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.co...cal-fuck-storm

[The Soup Nazi]

^ Oh, and the WAV is 24/48, whaddayaknow...

 

[The Soup Nazi]

Alright, so by now we're all sick of Morrissey's Brexit-is-great/Spacey-is-great/No-I-didn't-say-any-of-that-fake-news bullshit, but for what it's worth the guy's got a covers album coming up and the song selection really is A+. The list of collaborators, however, is not (Billie Joe Fuckface et al). All in all, I'm impressed by his take on "It's Over" (if you cut out Laura Pergolizzi's lamentable screams, that is) — Roy Orbison is obviously seriously difficult to cover and that song in particular can be impossible.

http://www.undertheradarmag.com/news/morrissey_shares_cover_of_roy_orbisons_its_over_fe at._lp_and_details_of_cov/

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Out May 3 (you can now pre-order the black 7"; if you want the orange one you're shittouttaluck and so am I... but hey, you get an instant WAV —or mp3, if you must— download of the A-side): Tropical Fuck Storm, "The Planet Of Straw Men"/"Can't Stop".

 

THE PLANET OF STRAW MEN

it's got some looney tunes biology
the planet of straw men
their only purpose is to disagree
and do it publicly, amen
they're always going for the coup de gras
they think they're gonna fuck a movie star
but all paths lead to nowhere
and it all adds up to nothing

it radiates more of a loneliness
than it does a visible light
but its beacon to the cosmonaut
a weekend to the taikonauts, alright
and so then Bejing send her diplomats
and the Kremlin sets their wire taps
and they send a probe to mine the gold
on the planet of straw men

don't hate the player, hate the game right?
don't hate the singer hate the song
but don't go saying that to the straw men
or to their rubble kings, king kong
they want the glory of the coup de gras
a mating ritual or a courtship dance
but all paths lead to nowhere
and it all adds up to nothing

you'll be picking Chinese cotton on the moon soon
on the planet of straw men
you'll buried in an egg then disinterred i've heard
and made to do it, all again
up on the surface it's a charcoal roast
there's ruined temples in the undergrowth
and strange insects chirping
with all the rancour of a coliseum

they want the glory of a coup de gras
they want the glory of a coup de gras
they want the glory of a coup de gras
on the planet of straw men

[The Soup Nazi]

"The Past Ain't Passed" provides a necessary cooldown, sounding like the introduction to Richard & Linda Thompson's "The Cavalry Cross" (which Forsyth has covered) stretched to infinity.

Fuckin' copy-&-paste, I can't believe I didn't correct this — the song is called "The CALVARY Cross", of course. From I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight. Incidentally, if you don't have that album I will bitch-slap you right now.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Holy shit! Out April 26, but act now because it's just 500 copies, you mooks: Mars archives volume three: N.N. End.

 

http://feedingtuberecords.com/releases/n-n-end/

http://feedingtuberecords.com/artists/mars/

Fuck April 16; they already shipped my copy!

 

[The Soup Nazi]

Out May 10: Holly Herndon, PROTO.

 

Holly Herndon operates at the nexus of technological evolution and musical euphoria.

Holly's third full-length album PROTO isn't about A.I., but much of it was created in collaboration with her own A.I. "baby", Spawn.

For the album, she assembled a contemporary ensemble of vocalists, developers, guest contributors (Jenna Sutela, Jlin, Lily Anna Haynes, Martine Syms) and an inhuman intelligence housed in a DIY souped-up gaming PC to create a record that encompasses live vocal processing and timeless folk singing, and places an emphasis on alien song craft and new forms of communion.

PROTO makes reference to what Holly refers to as the protocol era, where rapidly surfacing ideological battles over the future of A.I. protocols, centralised and decentralised internet protocols, and personal and political protocols compel us to ask ourselves who are we, what are we, what do we stand for, and what are we heading towards?

You can hear traces of Spawn throughout the album, developed in partnership with long time collaborator Mathew Dryhurst and ensemble developer Jules LaPlace, and even eavesdrop on the live training ceremonies conducted in Berlin, in which hundreds of people were gathered to teach Spawn how to identify and reinterpret unfamiliar sounds in group call-and-response singing sessions; a contemporary update on the religious gathering Holly was raised amongst in her upbringing in East Tennessee.

"There's a pervasive narrative of technology as dehumanizing," says Holly. "We stand in contrast to that. It's not like we want to run away; we're very much running towards it, but on our terms. Choosing to work with an ensemble of humans is part of our protocol. I don't want to live in a world in which humans are automated off stage. I want an A.I. to be raised to appreciate and interact with that beauty."

Since her arrival in 2012, Holly has successfully mined the edges of electronic and Avant Garde pop and emerged with a dynamic and disruptive canon of her own, all while studying for her soon-to-be-completed PhD at Stanford University, researching machine learning and music.

Just as Holly's previous album Platform forewarned of the manipulative personal and political impacts of prying social media platforms long before popular acceptance, PROTO is a euphoric and principled statement setting the shape of things to come.

https://hollyherndon.bandcamp.com/album/proto

http://www.hollyherndon.com/

[The Soup Nazi]

Out May 31: Nivhek (Liz Harris, aka Grouper), After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house.

 

From Superior Viaduct:

Opaque assemblages of Mellotron, guitar, field recordings, tapes and broken FX pedals by Pacific Northwest artist Liz Harris, created during and after two contrasting residencies in the Azores, Portugal and Murmansk, Russia and combined with pieces made at home in Astoria, Oregon. The collection's unique dual design functions as a forked path, existing independently of one another but with roots intertwined. She cites her score for HYPNOSIS DISPLAY as a compositional reference point, inspired by "interior mnemonic device landscapes" and "curiosity around a sadness."

In pacing, palette and poignancy, these sides rank among Harris' most stark, primordial work: fragile, feverish, ominous and otherworldly. She describes this music as "a requiem, a ritual, to unlock and release feelings," a sense of shadowy masses, moving backwards, in spirals, massive doorways opening chaotic forces, "a toxic concentrated reduction of something much darker bubbling beneath." Her artistry for mapping richly detailed inner worlds is nowhere more expressive and enigmatic, vibrations and voices gliding dimly out of the void, "wraithlike and ethereal, their existence in the mist questionable."

Initially released in a private edition that vanished almost as quickly as it was announced, After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house is presented here in a beautiful second edition on Superior Viaduct's imprint W.25TH.

https://www.superiorviaduct.com/collections/nivhek

https://grouper.bandcamp.com/album/a...ards-the-house