Nightlands - Oak Island

Nightlands - Oak Island
Secretly Canadian




This is some dreamy music. Singer and composer Dave Hartley has made something masterful here by combining elements of chillwave and shoegaze pop into an absolute delight of sounds. There are even R&B and IDM influences thrown into the mix, as the tracks seem to vary widely yet somehow coalesce through a signature sound that is constant throughout the playlist.

If you're looking for something that is both refreshingly relaxing and inspiring, this album will deliver in a surprising way; sounding vintage at times and contemporary at other times, each song is a real treat to hear. Many of the moments sound influenced by Brian Wilson which might sound daunting to the experienced listener, but proves immediately satisfactory from the first listen.

Some of my favourite parts are when funkier dance beats come into play, and the ethereal crescendos delve into darker expulsions of primal energy. This album is enjoyable from beginning to end, suitable for many occasions and will definitely present a promising experience to the listener.

Pharis & Jason Romero - Long Gone Out West Blues

Pharis & Jason Romero - Long Gone Out West Blues
Independent


If you're looking for some authentic country banjo bluegrass, this act out of British Columbia may just be your saving grace. The thirteen tracks on this album include songs of heartfelt and honest introspection of life's troubles, lightly plucked instrumentals and even some of the rambunctious clamourings of musical fervor that many look for in banjo music.

The album lays on the sentimental side for the most part, especially when Pharis is singing. At times her voice carries softly over the acoustic guitar she plays, but at other times it soars with the emotional intensity that this music is born out of. Jason's vocals are equally impressive with his relaxed and natural drawl that will draw you into the heart of stories he sings. Combined, their harmony is sweet to the ears and ever so appreciatively invigorating.

Most of the songs have a classic sound, but do not tread too close to anything specifically familiar. For those in need of some genuine comfort music for the soul, this group will get the job done in no time.

 

Evangelista - In Animal Tongue

Evangelista - In Animal Tongue
Constellation




New York City-born and Los Angeles-based vocalist Carla Bozulich's project's newest release, In Animal Tongue, came across as a bit spooky at first listen, but for me that's a good thing. The opening track, "Artificial Lamb," strides along with a simplistic guitar riff that is greeted with Bozulich's emotionally crushing, yet enchantingly strained lyrical laments. Soon after, coupled with a slow and steady bass line, atmospheric experimentation comes into play via electronic sounds.

Much of the rest of the album follows a similar style with Bozulich's singing as the focal point. From time to time other instruments like violins will make an appearance, usually providing an avant-garde backdrop to the band's minimalistic tone.

My favourite track is "Die Alone," which starts off with an echoing chant and is followed by hypnotically sporadic bell chimes. In this song, Bozulich's howling comes out a bit more soulfully, and softly clamours through the verses that interlude between moments of a low, dark and almost industrial beat.

The last track, "Hatching," finishes off the album nicely with a more uptempo hippie voodoo jam with plenty of electronic splattering thrown in the mix. If you're a fan of Michael Gira, you will probably dig this.

In Animal Tongue - EVANGELISTA by Constellation Records

SubRosa - No Help For the Mighty Ones

Subrosa - No Help for the Mighty Ones
Profound Lore




Emerging from the unlikely town of Salt Lake City, Utah, SubRosa come to the table with a whole other flavor of doom metal. Using violins with the classic guitar/bass/drums band line up, the group executes haunting and ethereal doom songs. There is no shortage of deep, heavy rumbling going on here, but coupled with the violins and the vocals of not one, but two ladies, Rebecca Vernon and Sarah Pendleton, SubRosa create a harrowing yet meditative experience on No Help For the Mighty Ones.

SubRosa keep things interesting with elements of blues-based rock, sludge and stoner rock, but rarely do I get to hear a doom album that I would consider to be as beautiful as it is desolate. Those who love their doom/sludge/stoner sounds but are looking for something refreshing need look no further.

Recommended for fans of Witch Mountain, 40 Watt Sun and Dark Castle.

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Robocop - Robocop II

Robocop - Robocop II
Grind core Karaoke




Robocop were from Orono, Maine but unfortunately they recently called it quits. I guess you could call Robocop a grindcore band, and you wouldn't be wrong, especially since their latest release, Robocop II, was released by Grindcore Karaoke, a label Daryl recently jocked on here with other greats like Kunt Puncher, Inerds, Cloud Rat and Wadge. The thing is, Robocop wasn't content to be just a grindcore band, and this album thoroughly puts grind in the blender with power violence, thrash, noise and even sludge.

The results are a cacophonous, blast of ear-bleeding goodness, along with audio clips from the movie... you guessed it: Robocop 2! People who like their music putrid and unsociable are invited, all others must fuck off and die.

Recommended for fans of Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck, Wadge and Bastard Noise.


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Cormorant - Dwellings

Cormorant - Dwellings
Independent




Dwellings has to be one of the most interesting and compelling metal albums released in 2011, and will definitely be on my best of the year list. Cormorant play a brand of progressive death metal not quite like any other band I've heard. The album manages to be quite technical without being dismissively pretentious in its execution. In some parts Cormorant remind me of the mighty Opeth, but mostly only because of the fact that both bands found ways to merge the largely inaccessible sounds of death metal with more palatable and refined auditory experiences, and both do so without sacrificing punishing moments.

The songs on Dwellings will certainly keep you guessing, the arrangements are creative and ear pleasing, but make no mistake; this is still a metal album, and a pretty kick ass one at that. You're never quite sure where these guys are going to go, and that just adds to the joy of the experience. Fans of prog metal will find much to like here, but people turned off by the wankery of Dream Theater may indulge in the retained heaviness of Cormorant.

If you like Iron Thrones, Talanas or Kalisia, check these guys out.


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Deafheaven - Roads to Judah

Deafheaven - Roads to Judah
Deathwish Iinc.




There have been a few bands emerging out there mixing black metal with other styles. We've seen a lot of black metal mixed with crusty d-beat and hardcore, but Deafheaven fall more in line with the bands attempting to merge elements of post rock with the nihilistic fervor of the black metal sound. I have to say, these guys do it better than most. Roads to Judah perfectly eclipses the lines blurring the two genres and establishes itself as a listening experience both tranquil and emotionally punishing.

At times one can get lost in the soaring beauty of this release, and at others have your heart wrenched out and stuffed in your ears by the scathing, bleak, barren wasteland of metallic fury. The vocals are particularly seething with pain and anguish; Deafheaven have delivered a truly memorable album here.

Get on this if you like Wolves in the Throne Room, Alcest or Lantlos.


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Divorce - S/T 7" EP

Divorce - S/T 7" EP
Optimo Music




Divorce are an anything but an average noise-rock group. From Glasgow, I imagine a huge part of their sound, particularly on this album, comes from, well... drugs, drinking, violence, education, and any other callous, depraved forms of excess these young people have found time to expose themselves too.

Although Divorce do not adhere to the rules of any specific genre, I would classify some of their earlier recordings as a mix of 90s bands such as Jesus Lizard, Sonic Youth sort of noise-rock, and no-wave groups like Arab On Radar, Aids Wolf, and Pre. This new self-titled 7", however, is a huge departure for them; the focus seems to be much more on the weird and on the unrelenting filth, grime and torture of existing in a world that never has nor ever will have a place for you.

The first two tracks could be described as hazy at best (hazy like the morning after too many bottles of wine and codeine pills), mixed in a harsh discord of volatile and emotional outbursts and followed by what seems like hours of internalized terrorism. These tracks are the only of the six track EP that last longer than 45 seconds, and the length can wear on you if not properly hydrated and mentally secure.

The next four tracks range from spazzed-out harbingers of bloody ear canals to a more free-form grinding, and sludgy pastel soaked canvas of faeces.

I recommend this album for fans of nihilism. I give this album a rating of "A flaming bag of human shit hurled at that one teacher you always hated in high-school"

DIVORCE - wet bandit from Anna McCarthy on Vimeo.

Bandcamp | Blog | Label | S/T 7"

Puberty - Invitations 7"

Puberty - Invitations 7"
Telephone Explosion




This quirky indie duo have released two songs here that are conducive to either dancing, grooving or just chilling out to. The opening track, "Invitations," starts out with a short and settling surf rock riff and tapers off into a hypnotizing bass line that is accompanied by semi-monotonous yet dreamy male and female vocals. The track eventually gets a bit more colourful when drums and synth enter the equation, coalescing into a mysterious vibe of almost classic-rock era psychedelia.

"Parties," the second track is a bit more upbeat and dancey, with catchy melodies and anti-climactic lyrics. Between the ironically bubblegumish style of the verses is an interluding riff that sets a completely different tone, building up with a crescendo of post-rock sensibility only to jump all too soon back into the next verse.

FACEBOOK

Puberty - Invitations by telephoneexplosion

Eternal Fags - S/T

Eternal Fags - S/T
Winning Sperm Party




Eternal Fags are a three piece from Glasgow. This release at it's heart is in many ways a pop-punk album, if not for the dissentious barrage of squeaking guitars and curdled screeches. It is at times loud (loud with a side of 11) and at times just pure fun... shrill, terrorizing fun.

Released on Winning Sperm Party, Eternal Fags have an extremely raucous, direct and spazzy sound. Although this is a 2010 release I felt it appropriate to include this on the blog, as I feel the record is so good, not even two years could hold it back.

After my first listen I thought of what must be in the water in Glasgow that's causing so many young musicians to be in such a state of chaotic flux; but, as long as they keep producing music of this caliber, I can get behind it.

I would compare them to The B-52s if The B-52s were a good band, but they're not, so that does nobody any good. I also highly recommend you check out Winning Sperm Party; the roster they've built is astonishingly good.

I give this album a rating of "the satisfying feeling of finding three slashed tires on your car, then realizing that one tire is still in tact".





Label | Contact | Free

Women In Tragedy - Medusa

Women In Tragedy
Independent




This album by Toronto's Women In Tragedy contains four songs, each over seven minutes long, and each full of segment after segment of progressions that pull along the irregularly placed screeches through a maze of stylistic tampering. Track three plays out as more of a progressive metal-core; although it starts out a little indie-shoegaze sounding, it soon bursts into a hardcore affliction that races its way through the remaining five minutes of the piece with relentless fortitude.

The last track, "Nothing & Everything All At Once," is a twelve-minute piece that opens nicely with a bit of post-hardcore instrumental that is laid-back enough to chill out to. It eventually charges back into an eight more minutes of post-metal orchestration —building, stretching and breaking through moments of musical cohesion.

BANDCAMP | MYSPACE

Kunt Puncher - Take Drugs and Eat A Kebab

Kunt Puncher - Take Drugs and Eat A Kebab
Grindcore Karaoke


Featuring ex and current members of My War, River Freshney, Dripback, Yes My Ninjas?, Nebukadnezza, & Damnas. Kunt Puncher Are a four piece experimental cyber-grind group from London, England.

Another outstanding release from Grindcore Karaoke Kunt Puncher blew me away all through their six song, nine minute debut release. Opening with a dreamscape of soothing sounds and narration describing the band's intent of mind control, these themes repeat throughout the record, at times ethereal, but mostly just brutal. I feel like this is the grind band that Douglas Adams could've been a part of in another dimension somewhere.

The wry, and extremely cacophonous use of television and film dialogue, the synaptic mash of it all; it's really what makes this record so good. I find it hard to focus on any one sound for more than a few seconds. This is musical ADHD in cyber-grind form.

I would recommend this to fans of Two Dead Sluts One Good Fuck, or The Penguin Collector. I give this album a rating of "A Bruce Lee side kick in the throat" (trust me, that's a good thing).

Bandcamp | Website | Label

Distant Relative - First Folio

Distant Relative - First Folio
Grindcore Karaoke




Distant Relative is a solo artist named Dustin Johnston; he works with analog equipment to make a furious amount of hisses, clicks, pops, and screeches. Released through J. Randall's label Grindcore Karaoke they have a, thus far, prolific output.

I don't know too much about First Folio or Distant Relative; so I will do my best in relaying how good this album is.

If you're a fan of Guilty Connector or Hair Police you will very much enjoy this album. As much as one could say this about any harsh-noise recording; this record had a very linear feel to it. Not in the sense that it was predictable, more in that it had a very direct feeling. A feeling of being led somewhere, and when it ends, it feels natural.

Short tracks, unified names, and often times more conservative than crushing; I've listened to First Folio all the way through a half dozen times, and I'm still loving it.

I give this album a rating of "psssssstskizzlpssssssstBooooshvrrrrrrrr!!!"

P.S. Head to the Grindcore Karaoke link for a ton of free music!

BANDCAMP | LABEL

Autarkeia - S/T

Autarkeia S/T
IFB




Autarkeia hail from Ft. Myers, FL. They are a crushing female fronted real-screamo group.

This release is an amazing record. Front to back, there is not a moment that lacks total and brutal desolation. Vocals hit every extreme possible: haunting, ethereal, brutal shrieks, and guttural growls. Lyrically this album is so private I felt like an invader just for listening at times.

Reinventing the wheel this band is not; but, not every new band needs to focus on creating new genres, sub-genres or movements. Sometimes a group is so good at something it's appreciable for them to culture the sound they have, and to evolve within that sound rather than away from it. I feel this is exactly what Autarkeia comes up with. I've heard one other song from a split they did with Cloud Rat; it was just as tight and unrelenting as each track on their S/T release.

I recommend this group for fans real-screamo, sweet smelling shampoos, and brutal vocals.

I give this album a rating of "Holy shit, I'm going to run away and marry this band, whether my parents approve or not."

Unfortunately this group does not have the hugest online presence as of yet (but look forward to a review of a split they did with Cloud Rat).

LABEL | PHOTOS | PREVIEW

Suede Dudes - Greatest Hits

Suede Dudes - Greatest Hits
Independent




Just a little F.Y.I., I am sort of reviewing their entire Bandcamp page here. They have three releases in 2011, so I listened to all of them and liked what I heard.

A mix of garage/fuzz and psychedelic, Ft. Lauderdale's Suede Dudes sound to me like a mix of Junior Boys and Mudhoney. The fuzzy thick guitar tones reek of "that classic grunge sound", whatever that is supposed to mean, but it's the at times loud and hollering, but still apathetic vocals that hooked me in.

I like the tracks "Belkarm's River" and "Hot Grenade" the most. Hot grenade specifically has a more fun-with-science feel to it, and an almost experimental aspect — hopefully an indication of future endeavors by these young men.

If you're into aggressive, super technical, or really high energy this might not be the band for you. The band's focus seems to be more on feel, and more on set and setting than the mechanical masturbatory of more tech-based bands. However, if a little jingle-jangle, some muff-like tone, and drawled vocals are your thing, I very much would recommend this group to you.

I give this band a rating of "I gave it a shot; listened, and was quite pleasantly surprised. I suggest you do the same."

BANDCAMP | TUMBLR | FACEBOOK

Vektor - Outer Isolation

Vektor - Outer Isolation
Heavy Artillary Records




Yes! The almighty Vektor return with their second full length, Outer Isolation. Their previous album, Black Future, was a thrashterpiece of blackened, technical and inventive metal genius, and now they've come back.

So, does Outer Isolation measure up to Black Future? Absolutely. Each track cuts a swath through you, sharp as any knife; these guys know how to keep you guessing. They aren't playing straightforward thrash but are harkening back to early bands that took things several steps further in terms of playing progressively. Bands like Voivod and Sadus, followed by the likes of Atheist and Cynic, and even later Pestilence. Another stand-out feature here is vocalist. David DiSanto utilizes a black metal feeling but also hits incredible high shrieks that remind me of classic Death Angel singer, Mark Osegueda.

Recommended for fans of Voivod, Sadus and Synergy era Extol.

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NGOD - XL EP

NGOD - XL EP
Independent




I'm not even sure how you're supposed to pronounce this band's name, but what I can tell you is that these guys have written an incredibly infectious, poppy math rock EP.

Everything just comes together perfectly here; the arrangements, the intertwining instruments and even the somewhat unique vocals, which sort of sound like the dudes from Wolf Parade and dredg smashed together. I will be listening to this one over and over again; it's just one of those perfect examples of writing catchy, perfect pop songs without feeling like some bullshit radio pap.

Recommended for fans of dredg, Man Your Horse and older Minus the Bear.

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Dickkicker - 3 Songs EP

Dickkicker - 3 Songs EP
Gaines St. Records




Being a huge fan of Dickkicker's last release, Somniloquent, I was definitely stoked to hear new material from this Floridian trio. Aside from being way too short with only three tracks to take in, the EP does exactly what the band wants it to, which is to kick in your proverbial dick.

These guys are considered stoner rock, and they are that, but to me they are just as much a noise rock band. Every song I've heard by them is punchy as all hell and just wants to burst right out of the speakers and kick some ass. Unlike a lot of other bands going for this sound, these guys also come across like they're having fun, rather than just bemoaning the shitty state of everything. Dickkicker's music not only makes you want to rock the fuck out, it makes you want to party while you're doing it.

Recommended for fans of Big Business, Slabdragger and Animal Skins.

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Rotting Hills - Humans Vile Path

Rotting Hills - Humans Vile Path
Independent




It's so awesome to hear some great doom/sludge coming out of Vancouver! I know there are other local bands playing in this arena of doom/sludge/stoner, and some pretty damn good ones actually (Bison, Massgrave, Corazon, Depressing and Weirding come to mind), but none of them are really doing the doom side of things. Not only that, but Rotting Hills bring something unique to the table with five drummers, two guitars and one bass. The group only has one track up on bandcamp at this point, but seeing as it's around 20 minutes long, it should keep you satiated until they get more music out there.

The track in question, "Humans Vile Path," is a long, burly and corrosive journey whose points get absolutely hammered home with many drums raining down, numbing your skull in the best of ways. Thick, muddy riffs absorb some of the clatter and maniacal vocals show up periodically to terrify you out of the hypnosis. The low end paces along underneath everything like the slow saunter of Jason Vorhees in the deep woods, holding it all together. This is a band that I will be sure to check out live and soon; you should do the same if you're in the Van city area, and I will be keeping my fingers crossed for more recorded material from these guys.

Recommended for fans of Hooded Menace, The Body and Burning Witch.

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S.F.B. - S/T

S.F.B. - S/T
Independent




Shit For Brains (S.F.B.) are an excessively noisy four piece from Vancouver. I was turned on to this record by a Vancouver musician I know; I assume it's one of his 10,000 latest side projects (probably not actually 10,000... probably).

S.F.B.'s self titled debut release is at first listen a fast, fuzzy and clearly pissed off record, pissed off about something I can't deduce from the lyrics; whether that's the case or not is for smarter people than I to decide. Part of me wants to call this hardcore, and I would feel comfortable calling it that if not for the tight play and noisy aspects of this album. Part of me wants to call it noise rock, and I would feel comfortable calling it that if not for the fact that these recordings have been intrinsically steeped in the hardcore leanings of old.

While I would not say S.F.B. categorically sounds like these groups, I would recommend this group for fans of Pissed Jeans, Grids, or Homostupids. Nine songs in approximately ten minutes; this is exactly my kind of album. Get in, slay faces, and get the hell out.

I guess ultimately this is an noisy hardcore album; whatever it is, it's the equivalent of a sonic punch in the ear.

I give this album a rating of "listen or I no longer respect you" (not really, I never respected you in the first place), or, "this album sounds good me." You pick; either way, listen!

Head to their Bandcamp page for a free download!

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