I’m almost certain I saw False Heads playing live in Manchester early in their career, but I’m struggling to locate evidence to substantiate this on my cluttered hard drive.
While I was searching on my fruitless mission I pondered the accompanying blub, wondering if #’alternative grunge’ isn’t a tautology – because even when Nirvana and Hole broke the charts, they were never really mainstream – they were alternative acts that just happened to break through, as such because of the zeitgeist as anything.
Anyway: FALSE HEADS have unveiled their scathing new single: ‘Mime The End’.
Produced by Frank Turner, the clangorous new cut comes as a second glimpse into the band’s long-awaited new album ‘Sick Moon’, set for release on 30 September 2022 via Scruff of the Neck Records.
French Progressive metal collective Tranzat have just revealed a music video for a new song from their third album Ouh La La, which was released last month Klonosphere Records.
Formed in 2015 in Brest, France, for reasons beyond comprehension, Tranzat self-produced their first two records, 2016’s Hellish Psychedelia and 2018’s The Great Disaster, this one with the support of Black Desert Records.
The group—Manuel Liegard (guitar/vocals), Nicolas Galakhoff (bass), Benjamin Arbellot (guitar), and Thomas Coïc (drums) have opened for international bands such as Kadavar, Shining (NO), Mos Generator and Mass Hysteria, and have toured with Angelus Apatrida on the French Motocultor Night Fever Tour.
The band’s new album Ouh La La was recorded at The Apiary studio (Birds in Row, Plebeian Grandstand), and boldly explores genres, subgenres, and subgenres of subgenres to offer up honest, eclectic, unpredictable and playful music that will appeal to fans of Faith No More, Devin Townsend, Mastodon, and Dillinger Escape Plan.
The latest release from the darkly delicious mind of Raymond Watts aka PIG is ‘Baptise Bless & Bleed’, a brand new EP awash with religious lyrical fervour and riffs that could effortlessly crush a tank.
Teased in early May, the relentless juggernaut of a title track opens proceedings and is followed onto the dancefloor by ‘Speak Of Sin’, which sounds like an instant PIG masterpiece and of which Watts says “I wanted to brew up a song of bounteous horrors and delights for the barren of belief, bathed in the brutality and beauty of pure electronic savagery.” The song sports a matching video, with Watts simply explaining: “Who else to turn to but Ed Finkler? His acid soaked visuals are the perfect balance to burn your eyeballs like a sacred heart will seduce the soul.”
Things then take a turn for the sublime as ‘Tarantula’ sinks its pernicious fangs deep into the psyche, clasping the listener tight in its electronic web, while closing out the release is the slower but no less ecclesiastic ‘Shooting Up Mercy’, an epic paean to the cosmic joke that is human existence. Accompanying these four new slices of PIGgish playfulness on its 12” vinyl format are three bonus extended versions added to the digital release to fully sate your fix.
The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? ‘Baptise Bless & Bleed’ completes PIG’s tarot quadrilogy, a tragedy in four parts that also includes the earlier volumes ‘Sex & Death’, ‘Pain is God’ and ‘Drugged Dangerous & Damned’. Providing blessings, but hopefully not the bleeding, on this particular release are regular PIG collaborators Steve White, En Esch and Michelle Martinez.
As with the other releases in the set, Watts has determined that presentation is paramount, and the spellbinding physical edition of ‘Baptise Bless & Bleed’ comes on opulent 12" white vinyl in a die cut custom sleeve that houses a printed inner sleeve and three brand new tarot cards.
Buñuel have shared the video for Killers Like Usalbum track "It’s All Mine." The video is a visceral display of mercilessness and aggression, with the band performing live in an empty room which can barely contain their energy.
Speaking of the song, vocalist Eugene S. Robinson says, "A kind word and a gun gets your video a lot further than just a kind word… Heavily influenced by film, and mindful of the ways in which film affects life, and life is affected by film, this video needed to recall the fact that musical art for us is probably a little bit more and not so much less of a life and death deal. The funny part was, when trying to get the insurance for the video shoot they were very worried about crowds. And when they HEARD the music they were very worried about ‘dangerous things’. So I had to assure them that there were no dangerous things on set. So, yeah, basically I lied. Which they should have understood is precisely what I’d do in that instance."
The noise in their music is reflected in the erratic figure (of actor Mattia Azzarelli) drawing scratchy charcoal pictures, footage of which is spliced between shots of the band. This haphazard assortment of imagery is expertly crafted by director/editor Duccio Brunetti and director of photography Niccolò Arcostanzo.
About the song the director comments, "When I first heard “It’s all mine” by Buñuel I felt that the song was about something that was “trapped in a cage”. I tried to translate this rage, those vibes that came from their music, into a cinematic experience: I elaborated their meticulous sound into a “bloody” vision that I hope the audience will never forget."
Watch the video here:
EUROPEAN AND UK TOUR DATES:
02/07 – Arcella Bella, Padova (IT)
03/07 – Fluc, Wien (AT)
04/07 – T3 – Kultúrny Prostriedok, Bratislava (SK) – NEW
Crease is the debut full-length album of deconstructed electroacoustic postpunk songcraft by Montréal guitarist and producer Kee Avil, whose touchstones range from Scott Walker and Coil to Fiona Apple; (early) PJ Harvey and (later) Juana Molina to Eartheater, Pan Daijing and Smerz—or like Grouper produced by Matmos.
Chiselled twitchy minimalist guitar, sinuous electronics, industrial and prepared-instrument micro-samples, furtive rhythmic propulsion, all galvanised by the anxious intimacy of finely wrought lyricism/vocals: Crease is one of those debut records that excites a wide range of peerless references precisely because it’s so compelling and convincing in its own idiosyncratic originality, vision, detail and execution.
Ahead of some extensive touring, Kee Avil has unveiled a video for album track ‘Drying’. Watch it here:
Defined as "The queen of the electric harp", Kety Fusco continues to surprise and subvert expectations with her new single ‘Shivers’, produced by Francesco Motta and Aris Bassetti, to be released on all digital platforms on May 13th on the international label Floating Notes Records. It is the first excerpt from a new solo album coming out in 2023.
With the addition of Carmine Luvone on cello, the Italian-Swiss harpist launches a new provocation: ‘Shivers’ represents a new form of music, a new genre. Fusco’s harp sings as if it were a voice, the sound box creates the rhythm, the resonant strings decorate the harmony, and the scratchy noises envelop the atmosphere of the composition. According to Fusco: "The search for the instrumental genre of the harp is also about discovering what kind of music and genre you can create with it. Since there is no real musical reference to the world of contemporary pop music on the harp, I have to make attempts to express myself and continue to embrace my idea of the contemporary harp, feeling its vibrations and letting myself be overwhelmed by the shivers that these resonances cause me, and continue to compose and let the world discover a new idea of the harp".
Kety Fusco’s music is a mix of insistence and passion, pop and electronic music, wild dancing, and organic research of experimental music. ‘Shivers’ follows the horror sound-track Music To Make A Dream Come True, released last March as the result of extensive sound research undertaken by Kety on her harp. Music To Make A Dream Come True, accompanied by an esoteric videoclip shot by Studio Asparagus, was the result of sampling sounds from Kety’s harp, which she then published in her personal sound library: Beyond the Harp, Extreme, Extended, Experimental, available to artists, producers and art lovers on the website www.ketyfusco.com. Fusco wants to transform the vision of the harp, moving away from the usual arpeggios and sound carpets, and instead delving into a world of timbres that are never usually associated with the instrument. Kety’s sound research on the harp will continue in autumn with the release of the experimental record The Harp by Kety Fusco Pt. I, made in collaboration with IOSONOUNCANE, the mastering and sound engineer Alessio Sabella, and Aris Bassetti. The record will premiere this summer at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival.
Seattle, WA’s Museum of Light just dropped ‘Drug School’ the second single off the band’s debut album Horizon, scheduled for release on June 10th, and recorded with Kowloon Walled City’s Scott Evans (Thrice, Heiress, Thou, Sleep).
Limited edition vinyl pre-orders for the album are currently available at spartanrecords.com and include an instant download of the single.
Listen to ‘Drug School’ here:
On Horizon the trio (which notably includes Rob Smith of Traindodge fame on drums) expertly balances the opposing worlds of heavy and ambient music; Equal parts big, crushing, overwhelmingly heavy riffs and dreamy, Zen-like washes of ambience and found sound.
Guitarist/vocalist Ted Alvarez explains, "Those would seem to be incompatible, but the more we played, the more we realized those two things could mesh, and could be incredibly appealing to us. For us, both are coming from places of joy, pleasure, and serenity as opposed to anger or rage. Don’t get us wrong — there’s plenty of wonderful aggressive music that comes from those places. But there sure is a lot of it already. This stuff should be a release to listen to and certainly to play, and that’s ultimately a positive vibe."
Smith adds, "We are massive fans of complexity and wonderfully dense and abstruse music, and I think there are some surprising ways in which that sneaks out. But we placed that immediacy at the forefront."
Horizon was recorded at Sharkbite Studios and Anti-Sleep Studios in Oakland, CA with Kowloon Walled City’s Scott Evans (Thrice, Heiress, Thou, Sleep).
PENCEY SLOE are now premiering the video clip ‘Smile to Zero’ as the first single taken from the dreamgaze rockers’ sophomore full-length Neglect, which has been slated for release on August 19.
The band comment: “At first you think that the comfortable zone of emptiness is your friend, until it grabs you so hard that your mind twists and locks itself up”, writes singer and guitarist Diane Pellotieri. “It was important to create a video in a dimension other than reality as we all embody a virtual profile these days. The repetitive movements of the characters and their aesthetics echo the underlying problem of the digital age that is imposed on us. I view surrendering to the virtual space as a self-surrender. The video’s characters are gradually drawn into a horror, which does not even frighten them anymore. I see the same mechanism in real world situations like depression or dependency.”
San Diego’s Wild Wild Wets continue to roll out singles off their upcoming new album ‘Love Always.’
The latest, ‘The Seer,’ is accompanied by a fully-animated music video (premiering today) created by Michael Turi, frontman and co-founder of Wild Wild Wets.
The track itself features backup vocals by Shelbi Bennett (The Midnight Pine and The Havnauts), and while the single version was cut to a stoney 4:20 minutes, the album version is 8 minutes long and includes nearly 4 minutes of added takeoff time that echoes Stereolab’s ‘kraut-rock’ sensibility with Turi & his bandmate and co-frontman Taejon Romanik sharing in the masterful quilting of noise and melody.
Turi explains, "I championed this track to be recorded and it eventually grew to become one of our favorite tracks on the new album, "Love Always". The song was written about a mixture between the writing process, a love for that along with the mantra that comes with completing your art, but also acts as a mantra for living, in general. I am and have always been obsessed with cartoons and it’s been a long-time dream to animate something of my own. Cosmically, I was able to use the last year of off-and-on pandemic scares to finally sink my teeth into the process. So many late nights of delirium spike this colorful dose of weirdness. I learned a lot during this creation process and once I’m over enjoying the time away from animating this I look forward to finishing my next project."
Romanik adds, “The Seer is an ethereal and cathartic pop song about writing pop songs. A story of the creative process and seeing things through to the end. Harmony vocals were performed by Shelbi Bennett of the Midnight Pine and The Havnauts. The Seer is the 3rd single from our 3rd LP ‘Love Always.’ It may be the catchiest song we have ever written."
Constellation are releasing three stylistically diverse electronic albums throughout May and June: the dazzling polychromatic avant-jazz-driven Familiar Science by JOYFULTALK (out now); the psycho-geographic glitch-noise minimalism of Gap/Void by Automatisme & Stefan Paulus (out May 20th); and the pulsing corrugated mantric-alluvial Miracles by T. Gowdy (out June 3rd).
The Montréal label has shared a video from each of these fine albums. Check ‘Üble Schlucht’ from Gap/Void by Automatisme & Stefan Paulus here:
