When circumstances forced Wardruna to postpone the release of their upcoming album Kvitravn, it was clear to them that they still wanted to release new music. Music and art can potentially carry great meaning in times of uncertainty. They decided that now was not the time to stay silent and headed straight back into creative mode and the studio to write and record the song "Lyfjaberg".
The Old Norse word Lyfjaberg means Healing-hill or Healing-mountain and is known from Norse mythology and the Eddic poem Fjölsvinnsmál as a place of comfort and cure for the ‘sick and sore’ who manage to climb the mountain and bear offerings at the shrines there – a gift demands a gift in return.
The video for "Lyfjaberg" was mainly filmed in the mountains at Tustna in Norway. The band shot the video in early May, when all of a sudden winter decided to return with full strength and they ended up wading in half a metre of snow for three days and nights. On many levels, the process of making this video reflected the meaning of the song itself. They all had to climb a few of their inner mountains to get it done.
A 21-year wait and the first new music is a two-and-a-half minute cover version? Hell yeah! It was more than worth the wait, too.
Mr. Bungle roar back with their first recorded music since 1999, releasing a blistering cover of The Exploited’s politically-charged anthem, “USA” (available now on all digital platforms via Ipecac Recordings.
The Bay Area band, whose current incarnation features original members Trevor Dunn, Mike Patton and Trey Spruance with Scott Ian (Anthrax, S.O.D) and Dave Lombardo (Dead Cross, ex-Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies), is donating 100% of the proceeds from both the song and a limited edition t-shirt to the MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund, through the 4th of July. The shirt, which will only be offered through Independence Day, is available exclusively via Mr. Bungle’s webstore (https://kontraband.shop/collections/mr-bungle). MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund was created by The Recording Academy® to help those within the music community who have been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.
"Doesn’t matter what part of the political spectrum you are on, everyone at some point has said ‘Fuck the USA’. The closest thing we have to a universal sentiment," says Spruance.
“This is a song that resonates and speaks to the country that Ipecac calls home,” adds Ipecac Recordings Co-owner Greg Werckman, who will also be donating the label’s proceeds from the single. “Over 100,000 US citizens are dead from the pandemic. At the same time protective masks have turned into a political football and no one has a grasp on testing. Racism continues to rear its ugly head. Police brutality spikes, unemployment spikes, depression spikes and ‘our’ ego driven elected officials don’t seem to care. We need to do a better job of looking out for each other. MusiCares looks after all of us in the music community.”
London experimental metal 4-piece Asian Death Crustacean (who have perhaps one of the best names we’ve seen here at AA all year) have shared another new track taken from their debut album. Released this summer ‘Baikal’, combines their breadth of influences in extreme metal, electronic/ambient music and the London underground jazz scene into an exploration of the themes of metamorphosis and self-transformation.
With FROST*’s latest album, “Falling Satellites”, dating back to 2016, it was about time, mastermind Jem Godfrey teamed up with Nathan King and John Mitchell to continue forging daring and dynamic progressive music. After announcing the 32 minutes long “Others – EP”, now the time is nigh to reveal a brand-new track ‘Exhibit A’.
Jem Godfrey states: “It’s good to be back with a cheerful song for these cheerful times! This is about being careful what you wish for when playing the fame game”.
Leeds trio Magick Mountain have shared new single ‘The Shitty Beatles (Live)’, the first to be heard from ‘Come Stay With Me’, a fundraising compilation by and for Leeds based artists.
Made up of Lins Wilson (Grammatics), Tom Hudson (Pulled Apart By Horses), and Nestor Matthews (Sky Larkin / Menace Beach), Magick Mountain are a trio who embody the long running collaborative spirit that has made the city home to some of the UK’s finest new DIY bands and, thanks to a number of ferocious live performances, have built a strong reputation as one of the most exciting new bands from the West Yorkshire city.
New single ‘The Shitty Beatles (Live)’ captures the band at their noisy and riotous best. The two-minute whirlwind of frantic garage rock was recorded live last year in Mabgate Bleach, a small independent arts space in a decommissioned textile mill just outside Leeds city centre. Just one of a number of treasured small venues in the city currently crowdfunding to try and survive through a difficult time. The band want to highlight these campaigns with their live single explains singer and guitarist.
Lins Wilson: I think this track is probably as punk as Magick Mountain gets. A 2 min ankle biter that’s over before you can cry ‘Help!’. Usually the last track of our set – it’s like a snarling ‘full stop’ that’s been released from Iggy Pop’s clenched butt cheeks. This track was recorded live at one of our favourite Leeds DIY venues, Mabgate Bleach whilst supporting Aussie fuzz queens, Stonefield and we think it has a sort of feral charm about it. We’re massively missing live music right now, I think this is the longest we’ve ever been without any of us playing or going to a show. It’s great that people are finding new ways of connecting and performing online, but absolutely nothing can beat a live gig, where you truly feel the force of music.”
‘The Shitty Beatles’ will be released on ‘Come Stay With Me’, a collection of 13 new songs from bands and artists across Leeds including Talkboy, Dialect, Team Picture, Van Houten, Dead Naked Hippies and more. Set for release in July on eco-vinyl, all profits from Come Stay With Me will be shared between the contributing artists.
While the vinyl won’t be arriving until July, Come Play With Me have launched a new crowd funder for the compilation where it can be pre-ordered now.
Launching in 2015, Come Play With Me is a record label, promoter, magazine and development organisation based in Leeds working to support artists in the region and releasing a series of 7” record splits, compilations, magazines and more.
The album, Seaside Donkeys, may have had its release postponed and live launch rescheduled, but lockdown isn’t going to stop Yorkshire post-punk powerhouse Percy from getting their musics to the masses.
‘Will of the People’ encapsulates everything that is Percy in a fraction over three minutes: ramshackle, Fall-esque rattling guitars, a thumping rhythm section, needling synths and sneering sprechgesang vocals with a flat tone and overtly Northern inflection spitting fury at the stupidity of thee masses over Brexit. A band like Percy could only ever come from the north of England. Fact.
It’s a blistering blast of disaffection, and it’s ace. Check it here:
Following the release of their debut self-titled album, Human Impact have kept busy and continued writing and recording more songs they will be releasing over the coming months. The first of those new singles, "Contact" (which debuted via Louder Sound), was written and recorded shortly before the outbreak of Covid-19.
An eerie premonition, it predicts the new reality we all currently inhabit. In anticipation of this release, and as an act of connection in this time of isolation, the band put a call out to fans across the globe for video footage to use in the video for "Contact" showing how the Coronavirus has affected all our daily lives and environment. Asking the question: What does this new reality look like for you?
About the music and video, Human Impact remark: "We’d like to write songs about humankind living in harmony and balance with the world, about governments and corporations being of and for the people. But those songs would be narcotic lullabies spitting in the wind of what’s real. We wish this song were wrong. "Contact" was written, recorded and mixed just before the global COVID-19 pandemic hit. Originally written as a response to a feeling of international vulnerability to the spread of disease via air travel, the song’s lyrics proved to be an uneasy and uncanny prediction, foreshadowing our current quarantined reality."
As residents of North America’s hardest hit city, the band has earmarked their proceeds from the song to be donated to the NYC COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. Human Impact ask fans to consider donating to this or their local charities as well.
Legendary NYC based musician JG Thirlwell (Foetus, Manorexia, Xordox) and composer Simon Steensland present the cinematic noir of their new track "Papal Stain" from the new collaborative album Oscillospira, to be released 24 April on Ipecac Recordings.
Speaking on the track Thirlwell remarks, "’Papal Stain’ is a multi movement piece which takes the listener on a cinematic journey that vacillates wildly in mood before its tumultuous climax. Along with Thirlwell and Steensland playing many instruments between them, the track features performances by drum virtuoso Morgan Ågren (Devin Townshend Band, Zappa, Mats Morgan) Simon Hanes (Tredici Bacci) on guitar, Chris McIntyre (Tilt Brass, Either/Or, SEM Ensemble) on trombone and Joanna Mattrey (Tredici Bacci) on violins."
A frequent collaborator with the likes of Zola Jesus, Melvins, Swans, Kronos Quartet and many others, JG Thirlwell is also the composer for the highly acclaimed animated TV series ‘Archer’ and ‘Venture Bros’ while Swedish multi-instrumentalist Simon Steensland is known for his compositions for theatre.
Different yet complementary, both creators make idiosyncratic music that can be characterised by dramatic intensity, shadowy suspense, darkness and light, sometimes breathtaking and always evocative cinematics. Oscillospira is an odyssey of dark chamber prog with a cinematic bent, largely instrumental album with eerie choral parts.
JG Thirlwell and Simon Steensland’s journey together first began in 2017 in Stockholm at a workshop for the Great Learning Orchestra, a collective that operate on the model of an experimental music ensemble from the late 60s, Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra, using musicians from a variety of backgrounds and abilities.
JG Thirlwell recounts "I had been a fan of Steensland’s work for some years through his albums like Led Circus and Fat Again. I admired the dark power in his work and it seemed adjacent to a lot of music that I love and inspires me – groups in the Rock in Opposition and Zeuhl worlds such as Magma, Univers Zero and Present, as well as 70’s era King Crimson and Bartok."
Yorkshire’s answer to The Fall may have postponed the release of their new album, and since they can’t build any buzz with their usual gigging schedule, they’ve released an album preview to accompany the pre-order on Bandcamp. Showcasing some solid songs and a ragged, lo-fi production on an album that – in the best possible way – sounds like Percy, in the way they’ve sounded like Percy since forever. In uncertain times, here is a band you can depend on…
‘Wolf Moon’ is a song about alternative realities, created by choice and chance. In the video we explore these different realities, while at the same time serenading the 90’s music videos we grew up with and still very much adore. The video is directed by Nina Spiering and shot by Robijn Voshol.’ – Ryanne van Dorst (singer, guitarist, songwriter, lyricist)
Watch the video for ‘Wolf Moon’ now:
AA
Founded in 2015 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with a name derived from the Dutch word for "wandering," dark rockers Dool embarked on an ongoing spiritual and musical journey that took them far within a short amount of time on the strength of just one album. However, hearing the sophomore "Summerland," you can’t help but think its successful predecessor (ranked #13 among the "Best 100 Albums Of The New Millennium" by German magazine Rock Hard) was just a warm-up.
"Our debut ‘Here Now, There Then’ was a big experiment because we could not foresee at all how the band would sound," reveals singer, guitarist and overall powerhouse Ryanne van Dorst. "I took the skeletons of songs I had written to the other members, and we just started to jam, seeing what would happen. That was what we recorded, but we only found our own style while playing gigs during the last few years. The material kept growing on stage, so on the "Love Like Blood" EP, you could already hear that we had become more confident."
"Summerland" encapsulates the meaning behind the quintet’s monicker. Expansive and more varied on all fronts, it represents the constant evolution that goes along with the soul’s quest for ascension, resulting in a bedazzling mix of classic and post rock, Midde Eastern flourishes, psychedelia and metal. Each track displays its own identity within a loose thematic frame as summarized in the climactic title track: the struggle to find a place in this world, reaching some ultimate state mind, ecstatic pleasure and reincarnation, also inspired by Richard Matheson’s novel "What Dreams May Come" as a modern take on the Biblical cycles of hell.
"The term ‘summerland’ comes from paganism and refers to heaven, nirvana or whatever else you’d like to call it," the lyricist explains. "Since I usually write from experience and about what keeps me awake at night, I was asking myself what makes me happy on this existential plane and how the ideal afterlife would look like. This became a recurring motif throughout the lyrics in the shapes of sex, magic, psychedelics and many other means to invoke this ‘summerland’ in the here and now.”
The group recorded "Summerland" at DAFT Studios in Malmédy, Belgium, and Studio Cobra in Stockholm, Sweden, with Martin Ehrencrona (Tribulation, In Solitude). Mix and mastering were handled by Cult Of Luna’s drummer Magnus Lindberg in Redmount Studio Stockholm. As guests, Dool invited Per Wiberg (Opeth, Spiritual Beggars, Candlemass) on Hammond organ, backing vocalist Farida Lemouchi (The Devil’s Blood) and Okoi Jones (Bölzer), who contributed spoken words to ‘The Well’s Run Dry’.
Aural Aggravation 