"Mary Shelly Song" by Newcastle upon Tyne art rock trio, Cat Ryan, is full of interwoven sounds that push and pull against each other. It can feel like a frenetic dance while singer, lyricist and multi-instrumentalist, Mary Anne, cracks wise and wonderful. Her vocal aesthetic is artfully aloof and calm while the guitar not only mirrors and harmonizes with her vocal melody but also carries jagged playful rhythms with the equally potent tight drums and bass. It is a lovely, heady affair... feels proto punkish but bohemian folkish too with surf punk edges.
[Mary-Anne reveals the creative process and story behind the single: “It’s a very unique song and, despite the title, it’s only the first verse that’s about Mary Shelley. Lyrically it’s quite random, having been inspired by a variety of memories stemming from my time at college studying for my A-Levels. Essentially, I showed my friends a new song I’d been working on and one of them came up with the first three lines on the spot. It was funny because it doesn’t fully make sense, but that’s sort of the theme of the song: it kind of makes sense to us, but other people will probably wonder how the lyrics were created and what they’re supposed to be about.”]
"Mary Shelly Song" is such a rich package that it seems to end moments after beginning. The sign of a well crafted piece of work. I like the smartly penned lyrics and the lack of histrionics. Somehow the sort of cool delivery feels more engaging than far reaching vox, something Robert Smith and Morrissey taught us a long time ago.
Art-Rock/Modern-Shoegaze trio, Cat Ryan, are one of the most promising artists from Newcastle upon Tyne currently, as they continually mesmerise audiences through their exciting blend of genres that hints at new music territory.
The trio have already gained industry support in the short time they’ve been active. Having just been signed to Pillar Artists (management/label), Cat Ryan are in a position to gain significant traction as they develop alongside Art-Rock contemporaries Youth Sector, Swine Tax, Coach Party, CIEL and Tranqua Lite.
The self-conscious nature of their songwriting makes Cat Ryan stand out from amongst the indie landscape that has dominated the last decade, as Art-Rock, Post-Punk and Alt-Rock continue to emerge as new musical directions.
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CYR, the double paradigm shifting album by The Smashing Pumpkins is a lot of things but simplistic is not one of them. Billy Corgan thinks deeply, I have the feeling he can't help it. As a person who sees and turns aspects of everyday life as entertainment and different seemingly mundane entertainment as elevated art, he seems to embrace what art can do and how it can shift peoples thinking, serving as sonic seeds sown of inspiration.
Corgan also has always seemed to do what he wants with his music, critics be damned and I love that about him. Surprisingly, on CYR, he has embraced a highly decorated sound. The songs are almost always adorned with crystal clear backing vox, with oohs and ahs, men's and women's harmonies done up as middle of the road pop rock. The result feels at once ABBA or Disney-fied in spots but I don't mean that as a dig. There is something brilliant, in fact, about a grunge rock icon discarding the dirty noise (though that is represented here too). Corgan also discards his very stellar guitar work, his divergent lead work of past records for, instead, synth sounds, arpeggios and such.
CYR in many ways embraces the motif of another double album, ELO's 1977 "Out of the Blue" (as well as their 83 back masking album "Secret Messages") especially "Anno Satana" but Corgan stirs in more colors and emotional paint. While the tones do have a bit of retro-ness, Corgan embraces a baroque pop sense and crushes it with elegant Europop tones, an ample potent amount of post punk heaviness while pushing disco pop glitter on many of the up beat tracks. At spots, I thought of Depeche Mode but also Fleetwood Mac fused with JPop, Gorillaz, and The Smashing Pumpkins (of course). Make no mistake, The Pumpkins, have mined some of these sounds. The track "Purple", (the politico post punk of) "Telegenix" and "Save Your Tears" with their lush heaviness and heavenly beauty feels, in some ways, as sisters of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings".
The amazing, sometimes vexing but thoroughly captivating aspect of CYR is how it feels so rock operatic while sometimes feels so vox populi pop forward. Corgan has created his own mythology (maybe pulling from Greek, Eastern, German, futuristic visions, and philosophies) twisted in lyrics that can feel sometimes cast in Shakesperean tempered syntax ("Twixt the field and the foal, unaided - Yet spun with the toil of an oath").
Corgan has never really painted his songs in the seemingly inherent rock machismo of, well, rock songs. He has always been all inclusive but CYR seems to push further with songs that seem like gender agnostic parables about pure beings devoid of sexual descriptors and beings with an elysian sense of purpose. All this with songs that are coated with a hyper realistic sheen and deep musical narratives that are quite literally all over the place.
CYR, in the end, feels like an all inclusive fantasy (there is a reference to Xanadu after all) that fuses together a lot of disparate sounds and "things". The breezy, dark and light double album is (to me) a mixture of science fiction, baroque pop, post punk, Sailor Moon, The Never-ending Story, Mefistofele, glam, dance punk and disco with voluminous amounts of homo erotic glitter piled onto it. If time travel existed, it would make sense, it would be a wondrous thing to see The Smashing Pumpkins performing CYR in the middle of Flipper's Roller Disco Boogie Lounge in West Hollywood (in the early 80's) while pretty boys and girls skated around them in high.
CYR touches on the corruption of power, the saintliness in all of us, paints narratives of people with righteous indignation fighting the good fight and sometimes succumbing to that fight, that purpose. The album, overall, is hyper realistic, drawing mythical lines in the rock classicalism sand. It's tenderness feels purely wrought and while it clings to art rock, it swings broadly. This adoption of the lush disco feel on some of these songs feels purposeful to me. Disco, after all, despite the naysayers and haters (including myself) was a coming together of all types of people, gays, straight, trans, in all shapes, sizes and colors and the attacks (at the time) against the art form and culture around it was cast in toxic anti-gay, anti-woman and anti-people of color rhetoric. CYR does seem to reference pandrogyny or the idea of "the third gender" in "The Hidden Sun". The utter embracing of all gender roles and sexual orientations and while this may be (originally) an extreme artistic endeavor by some (performance art by Genesis P-Orridge and Throbbing Gristle), it's core concept is so relevant now. CYR feels like a fable-esque journey open to all and maybe some of the songs (you decide) serve as a dioramic struggle of the LGBTQIA+ community.
In CYR, The Smashing Pumpkins have shape shifted, transformed and it maybe the perfect time to do so. The pyrrhonistic Billy Corgan, within his artistry, seems to me to always have a deep longing to find love and meaning. It is there even while buried in some of his hard steely eyed, cynical edges. An artful dodger who can be as abrasive as he can be tender, there is more tenderness here.
The Smashing Pumpkins, CYR, their first multi-album release since the earth shifting "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" is a stunning piece of work and while maybe not as emotionally upending as that 1995 seminole work, it still makes the earth quake.
In the final analysis (at least mine), CYR feels like a third gender grand fable, a Sci-Fi Rock Operatic Anime speckled with blood and glitter.
-Robb Donker Curtius
SIDE NOTES
(Down below are some of my scribble notes written out- notes by the way, from the first time I listened with jaded ears. those of you reading this have probably read some negative reviews of CYR. negative reviews bother me when any particular reviewer is not really listening intently, these reviewers will generally say things like "all the songs sound the same"- that is their level here and by the way, those reviewers oftentimes site that reason for not liking jazz. the point is that when artists shift their sound 'radiohead comes to mind' many listeners just can't take it- it makes me laugh)
1: The Colour of Love // with an automaton auto tune saturation it feels slightly misguided like when Rod Stewart ( the most organic raw blues rock pop provocateur) tried to go Disco
2: CYR // sci-fi post punk imaginings with a Vegas veneer, in some ways as pop as Shania Twain like 80's Disco punk
3: Confessions of A Dopamine Addict // **I like this** with it's robotic waltz and synth hook, Corgan's voice seems to fit perfectly in this plane, his aesthetic in an over reaching art rock way absolutely works here
4: Dulcet in E: Finds Corgan as a narrator of a dream pop manga (at heart) // that is what if feels like to me and only a grunge art rock god could attempt to pull this off
5: Wrath // made me think of Fleetwood Mac a bit - like hyper realistic Neverending Story stuff
6: Ramona // with the acoustic heart and machine beats is lush dystopia as a JPop love song
7: Anno Satana // a bit of Muse rock meets the Matrix
8: Birch Grove // steps on the toes of the CYR sound itself
9: Wyttch: feels like a sci-fi drug and sort of feel like a song that MJ might of penned after seeing Alita: Battle Angel if he had not passed (sorry)
10: Starrcraft: falls further into the surreal manga rabbit hole-- not bad but feels very 12 year old-esque (not that there is anything wrong with that)
11: Purple Blood: "despite all my rage" // very cool, very cool
12: Save Your Tears: core groove feels pretty pop but cool- love the vocal melody although the musicality might lack differences for derivative directions
13: Telegenix: old and new pumpkins sound // why am I thinking of Eminem // lovely embrace
14: Black Forest, Black Hills: grunge crashed with robotic drones- surreal, sci-fi organic
15:Adrennalynne- maybe too cute like the name // does feel character driven rock operatic
16: Haunted: purging baroque pop // horror pop // will grow on me
17: The Hidden: homo erotic glittery roller skating
18: Schaudenfreud: thump beat // mythology meets medieval / moves like a journey through a magical forest
20: Minerva: upbeat car cruising fodder // mentions Xanadu // again roller skate worth // with fairy dust
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“Cinnamon Girl” isn’t just a Neil Young tune, it also exists in another musical universe and time as the Entrepreneur’s new single. This Danish trio melds an eclectic array of styles to form their sound, with dashes of post punk, alternative and art rock. The track is off of their second album “Wrestler” which graces us on February 26th 2021, surely an offering of delightful noise that we can’t wait to dive into. “Cinnamon Girl” delicately weaves layers of droning instrumentation and softly intense vocals to bestow a tale of the somewhat mundane and every day human experiences. Have this track with your midday breakfast and patiently await the album “Wrestler” coming from the lovely label Crunchy Frog.
The Entrepreneurs started out as a duo when bass player Anders Hvass and singer/guitarist Mathias Bertelsen met in their teens starting high school in northern Denmark. They grew up in Thy, a rural region of Denmark, known for its creative environment and progressive youth culture, despite - or maybe because of - its remote location. As they grew older and craved new impressions, they moved across the country to Copenhagen where they met Jonas Wetterslev, who became their drummer. After touring extensively with their debut EP, the trio gained a reputation as one of the fiercest live bands in Denmark bringing their aesthetically rich and experimental take on some of rock’s most significant subgenres like punk, grunge and post-rock to stages around Europe.
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photo by Bjorn Eklund "looks like the end of hibernation"
I am pretty sure that there is not single artist, other than Moonspeak, that I have written about so often. Just see for yourself and, if you are so compelled, please check out my previous words on songs that were leading up to the band's debut album "Nowanights", which is out now: (clickable links)
The title track off the album, "Nowanights", with it's acoustic core, feels maybe less grand, but not any less emotional and art rock poised. At the center of Moonspeak is Robert Jallinder (Vita Bergen) and the compositions always feel (to me) to be fused out of hope, longing to be loved, losing oneself and finding oneself during that internal struggle we all have but framed in such an artful dreamy way. The songs feel like they stem from dreams or create these magical reboots in our mind.
Dreams after all are mysterious things, and "Nowanights" (the song) with it's organic wanderlust, whistling and picking acoustic sentimentality feels universal. The simple structure and Jallinder's forlorn vocal aesthetic has a familial sadness. The production, as developed by band member Jakob Kullberg (who produced the entire album), envelopes you with droning organ sounds, big bass and heavy ascensions that give way to lovely violin orchestration held up by sparse piano is sublime. When the song explodes, the way Moonspeak songs do, you don't know whether to cry or to revel in hope.
Lyrics-driven cinematic indie rock with folk and shoegaze influences.
After leaving the internationally acclaimed band Vita Bergen in 2018, Robert Jallinder has been working as a clinical psychologist. Now he is back on the music scene with the band Moonspeak. Debut album ”Nowanights” was produced by band member Jakob Kullberg.
Signed to Warner Chappell and releasing through AWAL.
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Let's get this out of the way right away. French alternative indie artist Magon's slippery track "Aerodynamic", the second single (following "Change) from his upcoming album 'Hour After Hour', does feel like a lost Pixies track. It has those kind of divergently twisted tones framed in a simple catchy rhythm. Vague obtuse lyrics and an equally lovely weird official video. I say that, not only, because it is obvious but it is what makes it so good and even made better by Magon's vocal performance / aesthetic. His aloof sort of frantic vocal subduction painted with that wonderful accent makes it feel more artful in that 70's proto New York busker punk way.
THE VIDEO: Directed by Magon - Starring: Titouan as the lizard man / Magon as the singer / Louise as the guitarist / Ferdinand as the drummer And Alexa as herself
"Aerodynamic" will implant in your head. It will make you smile. It will make you dance at 3 in the morning before you hit the bed.
Perpetuating this legacy, Magon is the “King of Nothing”, as suggested by the opening track. Magon has now found the path of salvation and it is through this new record that he reveals his new face.
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"Christ was brown before we painted him white" “Dignity” from Sparta Philharmonic is a track for the ages, marking a sadly polarizing time in history in which many of us have had enough. The piece is in protest of George Floyd’s murder, which has reignited a movement that’s been going on for decades and unfortunately has yet to truly change the issue of systemic racism in this country. This should not be polarizing, nor met with disagreement or argument, yet it still is. There should be no question that Black Lives Matter, and that the flawed system should be dismantled and rebuilt for the better. Sparta Philharmonic’s poignant and powerful “Dignity” is their first release in 10 years and together brothers Alex and Greg Bortnichak compose raw and urgent sounds, utilizing their musicianship to bring about change and we are here for it. Listen to “Dignity” and please consider purchasing the track as the proceeds benefit Walter Wallace Jr.’s family, since 1 month ago he was fatally shot by Philadelphia police. Stay vigilant, and stay tuned for SP’s EP “Nature of the Cure” due December 11th.
-Alyssa Holland
What yr seeing on the streets ain't about one tragedy / Nor a few bad apples among our police/ It's the breaking point after centuries of denying Black Americans their dignity/ If you happen to be white, accept you're immune to systems of oppression built to protect you... I hate to be that guy spouting Voltaire quotes/ But, fuck, it feels like we're nearing the end of our rope, so...
The sovereign's called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice... And if that doesn't ring a bell, note that POTUS deployed troops to suppress us protesting police after another unarmed black man died yelling "I can't breathe."
By justice a king brings stability/ But one who makes extractions will ruin it/ And here's another proverb just so we're sure/ A ruler lacking empathy's an oppressor.
Spending lives like poker chips, passing fatal lies as party rhetoric, talk about fake news... where's the proof they're keeping us safe and not just keeping us in our place, we're still slaves to our next paycheck while no one is above the law but our cops and our president, whom we've had to watch debase our founding documents, this isn't freedom, this isn't democracy, this isn't any sentient creator's idea of what life on earth should be / Christ was brown before we painted him white, 60 years passed and still MLK's right, the forces we trusted to serve and protect are taking their loads off on our very necks.
Tardy, yeah, but not too late to make a stand for human dignity... No more silence no more fuel to feed the machines of our cruel history /The sovereign's called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice... No is until we all are free / It's about fucking time we reclaim the police.
credits from Dignity / 45, released November 2, 2020
Sparta Philharmonic is a music duo formed in Sparta, New Jersey in 2000 by brothers Alex (drums) and Greg Bortnichak (guitar, cello, voice). They have performed across the US in support of various DIY releases, the last of which, (trans)migratory birds (2010), made Jersey Beat Magazine’s top 10 albums of the 2010’s who called it “one of the most original, engaging albums of the decade.”
Sparta Philharmonic is currently based out of the greater Philadelphia area, where the brothers eagerly anticipate a return to global health and well-being following the coronavirus epidemic so they can get back on the road in support of new music.
From the onset, "Ph Dean" by ØZWALD, feels surreal and dreamy. And I do mean from the onset. It is the vibratone synth sounds that stair step down (and up) and feel sad but wide eyed at the same time as if one is stepping through a door to a semi cartoon world. The beat feels deliciously free and easy and the guitar hook carries the tender vox and harmonies of Jason Wade and Steve Stout of the band Lifehouse. This is their project formed 'over a bond of the Beatles' and there is a psyche sense of 'plasticine porters with looking glass ties' embued in their sound, although "Ph Dean", anyway, feels emotionally less grand and, well, I like that.
ØZWALD is the indie side project of lead singer and guitarist Jason Wade and Steve Stout of the band Lifehouse. Jay and Steve started the project over a bond of the Beatles and writing songs where they both sang together in a new project with no rules.
With the goal of releasing 2 full-length LP's a year, the duo has produced/written and released 3 records since 2019 with a 4th on the way titled 'For Polly Anna' - keep an eye out for that release through the Fall of 2020 as well as plenty of psychedelically reimagined covers throughout.
ØZWALD'S tender cajole "Ph Dean (a codependent love song)" is a delicious slice of psychedelic pie
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“Clouds” from Brazil’s Echo Upstairs transports you to a dreamy realm with hazy ethereal sonic waves. The phantasmic video directed by Elisa Moreno Oieno sets the scene with cloudy, overexposed and layered imagery well fit for the track. In the world of shoe gaze/dream pop/post punk styles, there tends to be an overlap without much that’s dissimilar to the rest. Echo Upstairs stand out with their poetic songwriting, mystic melodies and dynamic instrumentation. Pioneers of the sound A.R. Kane would love this band, and a show with them together would be brilliant. The band formed with likeminded musicians who had performed with previous acts, something of a cosmic fate seems to have brought them together to become Echo Upstairs. As the pandemic halts gigs and releases, we hope to hear a lot more from them soon. Tune in and drop out with “Clouds,” out now via the rad independent Rio label Midsummer Madness.
Formed in 2018 in São Paulo (Brazil) Echo Upstairs is Ana Zumpano on guitar and vocals, Bigu Medina on bass and vocals, Gilbert Spaceh on guitar and Mauro Terra on drums.
All members come from important Brazilian indie and shoegaze bands. Gilbert previously played in Early Morning Sky, Ana Zumpano drummed for Lava Divers, Bigu plays in a lot of bands, the most known is Oruã, and Mauro still plays in Early Morning Sky.
Their first single was released in July 2020, in the middle of the lockdown in São Paulo, one of the cities most affected by Covid-19 in Brazil. Before the pandemic, they had everything set for the recording of an EP but the lockdown interrupted the plans.
Ana, a former drummer at Lava Divers, was invited in 2018 to substitute Mauro playing drums in an one-off Early Morning Sky concert. Ana was invited by Gilbert Spaceh, at that time still an EMS guitarist. During rehearsals for the gig, Ana suggested that Early Morning Sky should play the song “Forbidden” by Lava Divers, written by her for guitar.
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I try my best to listen to music videos before viewing them and that was the case for Rare DM's (Brooklyn based singer, producer, multi-instrumentalist Erin Hoagg) retro dark wave track "send nudes". The twirling synth arpeggios, machine beat and Hoagg's aloof sensuality cast in somber blue light is full of questions and mysteries. The sound is so engaging being both retro and sci-fi. I thought instantly of Ridley Scott's 1982 retro sci-fi toned flick "Blade Runner" not only because it is one of my favorite films but because Hoagg's dark electronic aesthetic feels so much like it could be a cross generational soundtrack to it.
My jaw subtly dropped when I watched the video for "send nudes" because of the evocative opening imagery of Hoagg gliding through New York streets in shiny black, fishnet stockings with silver cast hair and raccoon eyes. She looks like she could be one of the replicants in Blade Runner or even a female version of Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) himself.
“I’m not subtle, I’m not trying to be,” Hoagg purrs over a somber synth melody and a pulsing beat. “I can send my nudes to someone else.”
"send nudes" ultimately feels so engaging and circular that it could run forever chasing itself. So cool. Love the narrative. Love the musical breaks and love the proto sci-fi punkery.
Dance music, dark matter, direct message, dungeon master, distant memory—people have tried to decipher the meaning behind the name Rare DM, but really it’s the Brooklyn-based singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Erin Hoagg. Rare DM is Hoagg at her most vulnerable and visceral, as she mines dates, breakups and other adventures to make revealing, romantic darkwave dance-pop music.
With a collection of vintage analog synths, Hoagg transforms the mundane into the magical, transposing real DMs she’s sent and received into songs that reflect on the fractured nature of modern communication and online dating. Her songs are dark and deeply intimate, rendering in raw detail the search for that special connection we all crave, but rarely find.
Hoagg’s 2019 debut album, Vanta Black, tackles subjects of longing and loneliness, moods that match its namesake—the darkest pigment ever created by man. Her new work continues to explore the dark side of modern life, but now she’s more seductress than sad girl. New single “Send Nudes” details a romance that unraveled in the DMs, her disaffected monotone occasionally breaking into a Billie Holiday-esque lilt.
Rare DM lives up to its name in live performance by utilizing a DAW-less setup. This replaces the now-familiar image of someone standing behind a laptop with the striking spectacle of Hoagg dancing between an Octatrack, a Machinedrum and other analog gear.
"Rare DM's gliding retro electronica sci-fi proto punkery of 'send nudes' is mesmerizing
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South London artist Loyle Carner’s recent release “Yesterday” is a well intentioned and affecting piece. The track is meticulously produced by the legendary Madlib, with a captivating video by the Coyle-Larner Brothers illustrating the inspiring story of Carner’s life. The strong lyrics and flow of Loyle will take over your mind and hopefully empower you to be introspective about your own life and stay motivated despite all the shit thrown at us throughout. The genre tends to overflow with meaningless and sometimes demeaning lyricism, and Carner sets himself apart especially by crafting his tracks with respect and artistry. Check out “Yesterday” and keep Carner on your radar.
Loyle Carner (Mercury & BRIT nominee, NME award winner) returns with his first single and video of 2020, “Yesterday”, out today via Republic Records.
Loyle Carner is often praised for the perfect matching of music to lyrics and is known for his love of golden age Hip-Hop. On “Yesterday” worlds collide as critically acclaimed producer, Madlib, has provided the beats that sit under Loyle’s inimitable flow and uncompromising verses.
Loyle has always cut an impressively idiosyncratic figure within the UK rap and hip-hop scenes, offering up intimate, introspective vignettes about his day-to-day life. However, on “Yesterday” we’re hearing and seeing the boy become a man, and as he grows to understand the world around him, he learns to speak out against political and social discrimination.
The video for “Yesterday” has been directed by Loyle and his brother Ryan (The Coyle-Larner Brothers), it’s a compelling and touching coming-of-age film where Loyle comes full circle, it walks tall and resonates long after. For this ambitious film that was shot in one continuous take, the directors enlisted crew members from the West End & The National Theatre (& Juliet and Hamilton) to make their vision come to life.
“Yesterday” was premiered by Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1 and is currently Annie’s Hottest Record. Loyle has also been announced as the first host of the new BBC 6 Artist In Residence, his first show aired on Tuesday and is now available on BBCSounds. The show is the first of ten that Loyle will host, with this initial one celebrating the vast and exceptional discography of Kanye West, with follow up shows diving deep into the catalogs of Madlib, J Dilla, and other iconic producers.
Loyle Carner's meticulous flow fused hip hop gets serious and beautiful on "Yesterday" (prod. by Madlib)
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"when the ones you love feel like the ones you don't"
At first the pure catchiness of Coed Pageant's pop rock postured "Sleep it Off" feels like a hard instruction or hope (or wish) that we could sleep off 2020 all together very soon but then the words started seeping into my brain and into my heart. Underneath the simple sort of 90's indie rock classicalism, that made me think a wee bit of a crashing together of Semisonic and Blink 182, you begin to ingest the emotional imagery flowing off the lyrics full of sadness but a simple resolve too:
"when it feels so bad you know it won't get better" or "when the ones you love feel like the ones you don't" or "when it's a part of you, you can't get beyond it"
We have all been there but those who can't get out of the abyss (and current times make it so much harder) can literally drown in their own sadness so sleeping it off, dusting oneself off, keeping your brain and heart active is, sometimes, the only solution.
Coed Pageant are Bradley & Gretchen Bergstrand based out of Bluffton, Ohio and of the song they offer:
"This is a song off of our upcoming release 'Visiting Hours'. The song and the album is about struggling, coping with and treating mental health. The songs seek to be relatable and meaningful while at the same time catchy and memorable"
"Visiting Hours" drops on December 4th and I look forward to hearing it.
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“Night Life” from Hypoluxo is an infectious jam that pulls you in as it energetically progresses. The track is perfectly paired with its video by Molly and Judson Valdez, filmed at the Honore Club in Brooklyn, NY depicting the night life of the city that “never sleeps.” I get a little bit of Devo out of this track with its urgency and emotive vocals, which you could call new wave but it’s more like an integral corner of the foundation of punk. Hypoluxo melds those sectors of new wave and punk creating rhythmic and vehement pieces that end up not actually needing a genre to describe them. Just listen, I doubt you won’t dig it. Their self-titled album was released November 20th and I really hope you love it as much as we do. While listening to it I involuntarily mumbled “that’s the stuff.”
-Alyssa Holland
side notes: "Night Life by Brooklyn's Hypoluxo feels like Pavement and Talking Heads in an atom smasher." - Robb Donker Curtius
Hypoluxo almost didn’t make it. Members of the Brooklyn-based quartet have been playing together in some form since their teens but their experience with the music industry could have broken a less tenacious group. Young and impressionable they signed an opaque deal that left them at the whim of a label with no interest in transparency or care for their releases. Many bands have broken up, fallen apart and moved on from lesser struggles but the frustration born from this experience crystallized into an aggressive and urgent album of power-pop inflected post-punk on Hypoluxo’s LP3.
On Hypoluxo’s LP3 the band have crafted their most polished, unmediated and rousing songs to date. Eschewing the dream pop of their previous work LP3 hits immediately with lead guitarist Cameron Riordan’s angular post-punk lines whirling over the unrelenting rhythm section of drummer Marco Ocampo and bassist Eric Jaso while lead singer Samuel Cogen’s emotion packed vocals, replete with distinct yelps and near-screams grab you by the collar and refuse to let go. With help from San Fermin’s Allen Tate, who produced LP3, these songs exude a charismatic charm that belies the surreptitious despondency that runs through Hypoluxo’s new album.
Hypoluxo take no time launching into their entrancing brand of intricate post-punk on first single, “Ridden”, which delves into the band’s near dissolution, while their jaded lyrics are cut by Riordan’s fluttering guitar work through the chorus while Ocampo’s frenetic beats are perfectly complemented by Jaso’s driving bass line. It’s not all doom, though, as “Ridden” concludes and Cogen leaves a glimmer of hope with the repetition of “I feel Im stronger than that / I feel Im better than that”. “Nimbus” is a derisive takedown of weathermen, written during Cogen’s time working delivery on his bike in NYC and the mercurial nature of the job. “Shock” opens with shimmering guitar work and allows the rhythm section to shine on the most aughts indie rock influenced song on LP3, with these big building verses and Kristina Moore sweetly sung backing vocals that belie the quarantine-induced insomnia, sleep deprivation and feeling of being trapped that spawned the song. While on “Nightlife”, with it’s wildly vacillating rhythms, Hypoluxo recalls the feeling of moving to the city, finding your footing, or not, and the hedonistic lifestyle that’s much too easy to fall into. Throughout the ten songs on LP3 the band traces their own growth from teenagers on their 2016 debut If Language, the eagerness and enthusiasm that was dashed by the onslaught of adult life and the exploitation that is rife in the music industry. There are glimmers of hope and a deep sense of resiliency in these vignettes of growing up, finding yourself and your confidence in a world that wants nothing more than to beat you down. On LP3 Hypoluxo are resolute in their refusal to be taken advantage of anymore and the results are an album that is urgent in it’s convictions. Maybe a bit of a “fuck you” as well.
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At eleven years old Steven Ostroske watched The Ring. I think we all remember when we watched a movie that maybe our parents would of not wanted us to watch. A movie so scary that it leaves an indelible (sometimes blood soaked) impression. Ostroske still remembers himself and his friends being absolutely terrified.
"for years after that I was afraid of hearing TV static"
So now, under the musical moniker of Say I Am, he has released "Static", an indie alt rock homage to that moment when he could not breathe. The track, amidst, a sort of Halloween-esque floating guitar line, gets post rock heavy and falls away to a blend of art and classic rock with big lead guitar drops. I like that, sometimes I feel like like lead guitar has gone away.
Steven Ostroske was born in January of 1991. About 13 years later, he decided to pick up a guitar to impress the ladies. That didn't work, but he realized he actually liked playing music, so he started writing, recording, and mixing. Now Steven is a college graduate writing songs in his basement. Such is life.
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"and I don't know why... I love you more than you could know"
Abe Anderson has just released “Love You More,” a track that will take you into a dream with its intricate simplicity. Anderson’s impeccable reverb soundscapes are due largely to the fact that he records and produces them himself, as well as other acts around the Twin Cities. Abe brings new meaning to the term DIY, building his sound from the ground up.
"Love You More" is my idea of a simple, unabashed love song. It harkens back to sound of 80's new waves as well as blending with modern, splashy indie guitars. I'm personally from Minneapolis, and my sound has been heavily influenced by the local artists in the area. Lyrically, this song is a straightforward proclamation of love amongst doubt, about not knowing why you are in love with someone, but having the feeling rekindled by a simple moment." - Abe
The single is off of his new album "Seasick Lullaby" expected to be out early 2021, so add it to your list of things that are good for your ears in the new year. For now, let in the ethereal vibrancy of “Love You More.”
side thoughts: "with it's guitar notes falling like raindrops, it's urgent cadence and Abe's tender vox, this song (Love You More) floods your senses" - Robb Donker Curtius
“A jack of all trades is a master of none” goes the common adage. Whoever came up with that saying clearly hadn’t met Abe Anderson.
The Cannon Falls, MN musician has become somewhat of a superproducer for Twin Cities bands over the past couple years. His garage studio, while not as fancy as something you might see in an old-school rock documentary, guarantees some of the best engineering you can find within a 100-mile radius. On top of his production work, Anderson serves as the recording wizard behind releases from both of his bands – indie emo outfit Thank You, I’m Sorry and party punk trio niiice. One might think his talents would be spread thin with that many irons in that many fires. Somehow, he saves much of his best work for himself.
Starting with his 2019 EP Slacker, Anderson stepped out into the spotlight. Highlights like “Summer ‘17” and “Somersault” combined his engineering acumen with more effortless hooks and melodies than any four-track EP should reasonably have. In the ensuing months, he has released a steady string of singles that have threaded the needle between lo-fi, pop punk, shoegaze, new wave, and more. Each new song reveals another facet of Anderson’s musical passions and nuanced songwriting. “Love You More,” his latest single, is a reverb-drenched ode of dedication. Sweetness follows every spiraling guitar lick as he professes his affection.
-Wes Muilenburg, Ear Coffee
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“Germans” from Cat Piss sounds like it’s on a weird punk private press 7” you found from the late 1970’s. This Omaha, NE group just released their four track EP “Zeppelin Four Pt. 2” on Halloween featuring cover art from Una Novotny and the short spurts of punk noise that is their sound. This track has a heavy Minutemen feel which for fans of that band and scene is undeniably enjoyable. But if you like the humor filled groove and vigor of bands like the Urinals or Black Randy, this EP is for you. If you don’t like those, this EP is still for you. The band is Nate Wolf (drums, piano, vox), Casey Plusinscki (guitar, vox) and Sam Lipsett (bass, vox) and since the pandemic has slowed down their live shows, you’ll have to stay in the loop for their plethora of wonderful no wave productions they’ll hopefully release in the near future.
-Alyssa Holland
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
"We're the best god god damn Band in the Midwest. This whole ep rips and were currently working on our first album slated to be out next spring. We need help putting out physicals."
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"all the business class still living with their mothers..."
“Take Arms” from Hull’s Low Hummer is a synth riddled jammer, like a modern Tubeway Army if you will. With heavy, in your face lyricism and palpable energy, Low Hummer create music with their passion for the art form itself. While I appreciate artists who solely use synths and electronics (and analog at that), it’s refreshing when that sound is incorporated into raw instrumentation with distorted guitars, real drums and bass. “Take Arms” calls out society in a sardonic political punk fashion and hands it to you on a pulsating platter.
[‘Take Arms’ landed on a day where the world waits for America to make it’s potentially catastrophic electoral decision and finds the band at their most overtly political and apocalyptic as guitarist and singer Daniel Mawer explains: “I was pretty engrossed in the idea of the end of the world when I wrote ‘Take Arms’. I wanted to write a rallying call that would attempt to address everyone, at a point in the near future where we are at the edge of no return.”]
Please listen up and follow Low Hummer for their next releases and gigs.
-Alyssa Holland
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Encapsulating The North of England’s vibrant DIY music scene, Hull five piece ‘Low Hummer’ are set to take 2020 by storm with an arsenal of deadpan post-punk anthems.
Brought up on a diet of chip spice and patty butties, in the sweat dripping walls of The Adelphi, Low Hummer are a battered, bruised and wired bunch of odd bods armed with synthesisers, drum machines and distorted guitars (and a scratched copy of ‘Surfer Rosa’ in their back pocket).
* * *
The follow up to ‘Sometimes I Wish (I Was A Different Person), ‘Take Arms’ is a crushing electronic anthem for the end times, at least as they see it… Layers of driving, pulsing synths and snarling guitars collide to lay the foundation for the band’s brashest, nosiest single yet.
While the band have long tackled themes of social isolation, manipulation and misinformation, ‘Take Arms’ landed on a day where the world waits for America to make it’s potentially catastrophic electoral decision and finds the band at their most overtly political and apocalyptic as guitarist and singer Daniel Mawer explains: “I was pretty engrossed in the idea of the end of the world when I wrote ‘Take Arms’. I wanted to write a rallying call that would attempt to address everyone, at a point in the near future where we are at the edge of no return.”
Taking this idea of a rallying cry for the end of the world and running with it, the band took the opportunity to speak to the imagined masses ahead of them in their vision: “From addressing my local Northerners, to the business class, billionaires and single parents, I offered the only solution to the inevitable end of the world that we’d all collectively face. Individually self-destructing ourselves with alcohol, and rambling the phrase ‘I won’t take it!’
‘Take Arms’ shows the strong collaborative spirit between the band and producer Matt Peel who has worked on all of the bands singles explains Mawer: “I had the remnants of a plodding, scrappy sounding song, and went to The Nave with me to see our producer Matt who completely turned the song on it’s head! Within an hour of settling in at the studio he chucked Krautrock drum patterns at us, we had fuzzy synths on the go which we had no idea how to use, and John sweating in the live room creating guitar hero finger tapping solos. We walked out at the end of a couple of days recording time, terrified we’d wasted our money on a drastically different song we wouldn’t know how to play live, but once we had a couple of plays of the mix in the car we were hooked and felt like those inspirations Matt had drawn from should be used to help us write more.”
Low Hummer, who arrived almost exactly one year ago with a run of impeccable singles that have earned them extensive support from the likes of NME, Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music. They are currently working on their debut album for Dance To The Radio due 2021
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Ottawa's Canadian / Filipina singer-songwriter, producer Pippa (Sam Pippa) and musician, producer Loser Supreme out of Halifax, Nova Scotia- get together on the dreamy and deeply grooved "Light Blue". The trancy keys push Pippa's dreamy vox forward and the musical breakdowns are cool. The entire production has a static fog that give the dream askew edges. For years, the 1996 Romeo + Juliet soundtrack (William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: Music from the Motion Picture) was a go to CD in the car on road trips and "Lightblue" feels like it should be there. It has the same sort of cool aloof edginess.
-Robb Donker Curtius
Voice/Lyrics by PippaMusic/Production by loser supreme
Listen to the intertwined puzzle pieced tenderness of "Where You Find Me" by Germany's The Notwist and you will hear sprite pop tones (but not), indie rock divergence (but not), dream pop ascensions (but not) and hushed vox telling stories that will move you in all those genre specific ways (but not). It is really, the "not", in their sound, the space between genres that is the allure.
It has been six years since Markus Archer and company has released an album and "Where You Find Me" is the first listen from "Vertigo Days" dropping on January 29th, 2021 via Morr Music. Of this new album Archer shares: “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”
That desire found the band collaborating with international musical guests like Argentinian songwriter Juana Molina, American jazz artist Angel Bat Dawid, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay, and Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats.
In the end, The Notwist's press described flavors of "melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads" is something I want to linger in after having this first taste. A brilliant one.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
The Notwist are based out of Germany and are:
Markus Acher, Micha Acher, Cico Beck, Andi Haberl, Max Punktezahl & Karl Ivar Refseth,
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Listening, or maybe I should say 'floating', to "The Madmen" by 'neo-vintage duo Calico Mantra based out of Nashville and I feel swept away into a 70's-esque big Brit pop homage. I distinctly thought of Bowie, the Beatles and Tears for Fears and while that duo (TFF) were ostensibly an 80's outfit, they had some 70's pop / chamber pop affections as well.
"We love old late 60's psychedelic music so we wanted to do our best in channeling the issues of this world both politically and environmentally, while staying true to the style." Leonardo Faillace's and Victor Arruda's love of these vintage sounds is obvious in the way they approach the tones here. Clean vocals and heavy bass, Mellotron sounds, lush clean guitars (with a bit of dirty glitter sprinkled throughout) and vox (with dreamy lush backing vox) that bounce while the music marches forward. I am thinking of the acclaimed Thomas Marolda who successfully champions this kind of aesthetic as well. This twist on classic psyche pop with an unabashedly heavy hugging embrace for 60's and 70's rock psychedelia will push endearing nostalgic buttons when music seemed more real.
Psychedelic Neo-Vintage Duo from Nashville, TN channeling the voice of Bowie and the Beatles in their exploration of sound and psychedelic travel.
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Favor’s recent single “Wishing at the Well” is a real head shaker with its punk painted garage expressions. The changes are admirable as the track smoothly progresses and takes you down different avenues. I enjoy hearing something that reminds me of both Television and The Seeds, of totally different musical worlds but encompassed within the rock and roll universe. That’s what Favor does for you; three young dudes out of good ol Austin, Texas using their musical mastery to carefully craft strong tracks. They released a full length “Sounds from the Sand” in February of this year, and have another album in the works. Do yourself a favor and give “Wishing at the Well” a listen and keep an eye out for what’s next.
"Teen trio 'Favor' came together in 2017, formed by music camp students Jimmy Mercado (guitar/vocals) and Evan Campbell (drums). Bassist Lo Gomez joined the band in December 2018 after a stint of shows, which have grown to include venues such as Empire Control Room, Hotel Vegas, Beerland, ABGB, One-2-One, The North Door, Carousel Lounge, and Dozen Street. Combining indie rock, surf rock, funk, and even jazz, the band continues to push the limits of music, and does so all by themselves. They also released a full-length album, "Sounds From The Sand" in February of 2020, receiving radio play on KLBJ, KGSR, and even in Europe! Favor also participated in the 2020 Rock the Causebah Benefit, helping raise over $3,000 for NORD and the Galactosemia Foundation."
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