Sky Valley Mistress, who release their debut album Faithless Rituals on 20th March, have shared new single ‘Punk Song’.
‘Punk Song’ is described by drummer, Max Newsome, as ‘the heaviest of jams, an album worth of riffs in six and half minutes. Nasa says this song is so dense it changed the earth’s orbit when it was written’.
Sky Valley Mistress spent 10 days recording at Dave Catching’s Rancho de la Luna studio in California, hanging out with the likes of Hutch (QOTSA’s ex sound man), Bingo (Mojave Lords), Chris Goss (Masters of Reality), Peaches and Arctic Monkeys who also dropped by during the stay.
The result of that meeting of minds and souls is the full spectrum stoner rock ‘n’ roll assault of Faithless Rituals.
“I’ve been blessed to work with both Ben Chisholm and Kristin Cofer for many years now as creative collaborators. Ben sometimes does something called “grave-hunting,” searching for graves for people online who are looking for their relatives in far-away cemeteries. Kristin and I went along with him one day last Spring to a hidden graveyard in a small mountain town and I brought my guitar along. We searched, and filmed, and played some music for those who’ve passed on. The feel of the video was inspired by some footage I stumbled upon of Joni Mitchell from a 1966 French-Canadian TV show, after I had already written “Highway,” but the feel was just so sweet and natural and free, and I wanted to bring that to life for my own song as well, since Joni has been such a big inspiration for me since childhood.” – CW
Chelsea Wolfe’s acoustic tour of Europe is fast approaching, and the debut of a new video for "Highway" (filmed by Ben Chisholm & Kristin Cofer) is a poignant reminder of journeying and life on the road, one of the themes around her latest work, Birth Of Violence, out now on Sargent House. Set in unique spaces, the forthcoming dates are complemented with support from Tribulation guitarist and sublime solo artist, Jonathan Hultén – dates and details below. Watch the video here:
Chelsea Wolfe has spent her career making music that’s as fascinating as it is undefinable. Built on seven studio albums and numerous tours of consistently powerful performances around the globe, Wolfe’s work has transformed itself repeatedly throughout her 10-year career. Her earlier records exposed the intimacy of folk music with a doomed, bleak aesthetic (The Grime and the Glow, Apokalypsis, Unknown Rooms). She later immersed herself in a sonic intensity approaching the electronic industrial (Pain Is Beauty, Abyss) and even sludge metal (Hiss Spun). Her latest release, Birth of Violence, steers her sound back toward pure folk, adding another enigmatic layer to her oeuvre. Although Chelsea Wolfe’s approaches are experimental, she deliberately ties together her discoveries in rich textures and haunting melodies, digging into the viciousness and pain of the world to find its beauty.
BIG|BRAVE share a video for "This Deafening Verity" a stand-out track from their most recent album A Gaze Among Them, out now on Southern Lord.
"The video is made from re-appropriated footage from a hot dog eating competition in the USA. With the video we didn’t want to only investigate the competitive hot dog eating community but rather at all spectacles of this character. Ones where gratuitous displays of abundance are celebrated and worshiped," the band remark.
BIG|BRAVE are returning to Europe in April and May opening the tour with their second appearance at Roadburn Festival, followed by dates in the UK and beyond – dates, details and tour poster below. Joining them for three dates will be violinist and sound artist Jessica Moss, who has toured with, and appeared on BIG|BRAVE’s previous album.
Since their inception in 2012, BIG|BRAVE have explored terrains of experimental rock with a clear focus on the key principles; space, volume, and raw emotion. The essence of BIG | BRAVE’s magic has always been the way they balance these dynamics, and particularly how much sheer power comes from the beautifully quiet moments.
BlackLab, ‘the dark witch doom duo from Osaka, Japan’ are poised to return with their new long playing record Abyss.
Recorded under a full moon over three intense days, the album has the ‘off the leash’ abandon of ‘Fun House’ era ‘Stooges’ and is marked by a fat dose of doom meets slowed down hardcore punk; filled with loud, ultra distorted guitar, and yet, a surprising amount of melody as well.
In fact, Yuko has said that the band’s name is a combination of Black Sabbath and Stereolab, well here on Abyss is where that strange mix begins to make musical sense.
The band haven’t lost their love of lo-fi or ‘Riot Grrrl’ attitude.
The guitars are loud and heavily gnarled to the point of chaos.
Vocals go from shoegaze melodic to hardcore screams (in fact rarely has a vocalist in this genre screamed so musically as Yuko does) and underneath all this, Chia batters the skins, all rolling and tumbling thunder amidst the riffs.
Yes there is a smattering of ‘Sabbathy Wizarding’ of course, but submerged within dark, deep fuzz and punk rock crank and grind.
In truth the vibe is closer to both the arty heaviness of early Boris, and the sweet savagery of My Bloody Valentine, than any kind of ‘doom’ tropes. And in many ways, Blacklab are continuing the long tradition of Japanese experimental noise that bands like Melt Banana and Bordeoms exemplify. Ultimately though, it’s a sound that is undoubtedly BlackLab’s own.
So over 8 tracks, clocking in at around 42 mins, you get the current Blacklab world view.
‘Abyss’ is an album that is as raw and alive as it gets.
It’s refreshingly free of artifice, and it doesn’t arse around. What more can you want.
Say hello to the Osaka underground and watch the video for new single ‘Insanity’ now.
Canadian multi-media artist Jay Crocker presents what’s being pitched as his ‘third and most impressive Joyfulktalk album, a tour-de-force of modern composition systems music for electronics and strings. A Separation Of Being is based on Crocker’s mural-sized visual score artwork and his Planetary Music System of rotational interlocking notation. Channelling minimalism, Japanese environmental music, Maghrebian rhythmic modes and other numinous folkways, and featuring string arrangements performed by Juno and Polaris Prize winner Jesse Zubot (Tanya Tagaq, Destroyer). A Separation Of Being is translated from two-dimensional page to trans-dimensional aural life using an array of homemade instruments.
As a taster, Crocker’s shared the 9-minute track ‘Pixelated skin’, which you can check out here:
"This video was pieced together over several months. Most of the footage was shot by the intrepid Pierre Malacarnet at Beck Studios in Wellingborough, the site of the original Bauhaus recording of ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’. I filmed the game and lovely Emily Jane White in a 19th Century bathtub in San Francisco. Pierre then shot some other cut away scenes in Berlin and edited the whole thing together quite brilliantly. The mood of the film resonates perfectly with that of the music," says David J.
Released in support of the massive double album Missive to an Angel from the Halls of Infamy and Allure, there’s a lot to get enthused by. Watch the video here:
tētēma (Mike Patton and Anthony Pateras) release a video for “Wait Till Mornin’", the second single from the band’s second album, Necroscape (April 3, Ipecac Recordings).
“Peter Gunn on methamphetamine with RD Burman as co-pilot, being pursued by Madlib through an early 80s London industrial estate,” is how Pateras describes the three minute track. He went on to add: “This was one of the first songs we wrote for the new album, and probably played a big part in convincing us doing another would be a good idea. It is the only song on the record with a drum less chorus; like a lot of our music, the drama is upside down.”
“Wait Till Mornin’” is the second track to be released from the 13-song Necroscape, with the band debuting “Haunted On The Uptake” in mid-January. Pre-orders, which include a limited edition embossed gatefold vinyl (2500 copies), CD digipak and digital download are available here: https://smarturl.it/necroscape.
Necroscape is the second album from the modernist electro-acoustic rock proposition, seeing the outfit continuing to employ the wayward orchestrations and arresting physicality of their 2014 debut, Geocidal with a renewed melodic language which grounds its multi-colored twists and turns in hallucinatory lyricism.
Ahead of the release of their second album, Inviolate, Dystopian Future Movies release ‘Black-Cloaked’ as a follow-up to ‘Countenance’, which came out in January.
After 3 albums Antwerp’s noisiest outfit The Hickey Underworld evaporated. They never announced a break up, they just ceased to be… but the genie’s back out of the bottle. Well sorta… Frontman and main songwriter Younes Faltakh is the sole survivor and teamed up with ex Das Pop member Niek Meul. The pair set up camp in Niek’s studio in Oslo and recorded 10 eccentric, mysterious and groovy tracks. Guitars do a lapdance wrapping their tormented strings around a worked up rhythm section while Younes’ hoarse growl sounds as familiar as it does threatening.
Birthed in post-punk, heavily infused by Eastern psychedelica, and described by their record label [PIAS] as alternative world music, most refer to Arabnormal as ‘a manically zonked-out flying carpet ride’.
Read the above and listen to Arabnormal’s new single ‘Digital Veil’ and you’ll know that doesn’t make any sense at all… ‘Digital Veil’ is a sweet, sophisticated and too cute to cuddle soft rock gem. To honour the late Hickey Underworld tradition of psycho-facemelting video’s, Arabnormal’s visual companion for their latest single is quite something. Does your mouth get wet thinking of a make-up sandwich? Well, here’s the recipe!
Pure Reason Revolution recently announced the release of Eupnea, their first new studio album in nearly 10 years, for the 3rd of April 2020. They’ve just revealed the first piece of new music taken from the record, in the form of the epic 10-minute ‘Silent Genesis’, a track which Jon Courtney co-wrote alongside original PRR member Greg Jong.
The band comments: “With some tracks it’s blood sweat & tears to get them nailed, but “Silent Genesis” came together really quickly. While Greg & I worked on the music, Chloe was blasting out vocals in London. We had a lot of fun making this track; mangling synths, riffing & unexpectedly outroing with funk!”
![Sky Valley Mistress - Faithless Rituals [Album Cover] 1500](https://auralaggravation.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/sky-valley-mistress-faithless-rituals-album-cover-1500.jpg "Sky Valley Mistress - Faithless Rituals [Album Cover] 1500")
Aural Aggravation 