Aural Aggravation

Stephen O’Malley from SUNN O))) guest hosts BBC 6 Music’s Freak Zone this Sunday (22^nd November) from 8-10pm.

SOMA takes over the air waves with a playlist of artists programmed by Sunn O))) who play Le Guess Who? festival the same weekend in Utrecht, Netherlands. Expect your Sunday sonic palette to include fellow Le Guess Who? Performers – who were personally chosen to perform by Sunn O))) – such as the legendary Annette Peacock and bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin, in addition to the the likes of Southern Lord  heavyweights Goatsnake and BIG|BRAVE; two bands who have both seen new releases this year.

But that’s not all – SUNN O))) will also be sharing an exclusive track from Sunn O)))’s highly anticipated forthcoming album Kannon, due for release December 4^th via Southern Lord. Pre-orders are now available via the SUNN O))) store, the Southern Lord store, including the European store and via bandcamp. A limited number of white vinyl LPs will also be available at participating Record Store Day outlets Black Friday, November 27th.

And remember, even if you find yourself at Le Guess Who? you can still listen live to SOMA’s playlist for 30 days afterwards at the BBC website.

Finally, here’s recent live footage of SUNN O))) in Berlin courtesy of Boiler Room. We strongly recommend it.

Fancy a spot of raw but melodic punk rock with driving guitars and female vocals? We certainly do, and it doesn’t get much better than the second release from this London duo. Don’t just take our word for it: listen below.

We love a chunky bassline here at Aural Aggravation. ‘Attention’, the new offering from Youthless grabbed ours (attention, that is) by virtue of a bassline to die for, coupled with some soaring vocals. If it’s in any way representative of their upcoming album, set for release early next year, then it’s going to be something special. Listen to it here:

‘Mesumamim’ means ‘On Drugs’ in Hebrew. With this new single offering, Spiritwo, the musical vehicle built around Yael Claire Shahmoon, who TimeOut describe as ‘The Queen of Tel Aviv Underground’, create an exotic, pan-cultural musical blend, which is accompanied by a video that’s visually compelling to say the least. Released as a double a-side with ‘Face To Face’ on 13th November, you can watch the video here, now.

The fact it’s early days here at Aural Aggravation, and we’re a mere 25 posts in, excuses us somewhat for failing to represent the Italian Alt-Digitalist scene. The unveiling if ‘’the sblime semi-ambient digital shoegaze masterpiece that is ‘Crash’ by Shirley Said gives us the perfect excise to rectify the situation, though.

Shirley Said are a two-piece, comprising Giulia Scarantino (lead vocal, synth, piano, fx) and Simone Bozzato (backing vocal, guitars, programming, efx).

About ‘Crash’, according to the press release: ‘Emerging from a dense euphonious haze composed of sustained guitar notes, sparkling synth bursts and skittering glitchstep rhythms, Shirley Said’s distinctive vocalist Giulia delivers an angst-ridden ballad about doubt and abandonment. “The ceiling’s coming down/I am crashing to the ground”, she breathes across a gently insistent chorus hook. In exploring the quest for appreciation and reassurance from loved ones, Shirley Said have produced another soundtrack of rich, harmonic electronica, heavy on noirish atmospherics and unorthodox progression.’

Enough text. Here’s a tune.

A Place to Bury Strangers make the kind of noise we like: sharp, trebly, abrasive. Their latest album, Transfixiation offers no nod to commercialism, and we dig that.

Ahead of another European jaunt in support of said album, they’re releasing a video for opener ‘Supermaster’. Does it sound like The Jesus and Mary Chain on drugs? Absolutely.

Thunder on the Left are new to us, but ‘Sick’, lead track from their new EP The Art Of Letting Go is a belter. It’s got feedback, chunky guitars and attitude. And it’s accompanied by a video that takes a poke at our pig-porking PM. It gets our vote!

When we promise music that’s as far from the mainstream as you can get, we mean it. The Communion trade is the nastiest, dirtiest, most abrasively snarling metal racket going. Their videos are hardly Disney, either.

‘Hymen Balaclava’ provides a taster for their upcoming split CD with Helmsplitter, released 6th November on the Horror Pain Gore Death label. This should all give a fair indication of what to expect.

Note: you may need to sign in to verify your age on this NSFW vid. But trust us, it’s worth it.

After many years of toil and wicked refinement, Dragged Into Sunlight and Gnaw Their Tongues can share the first track from their nihilistic collaborative triumph, N.V., which will see release through Prosthetic Records on November 13th. As the opener to this most bleak of records, ‘Visceral Repulsion’ serves well in warning listeners of the evil contents that can be found elsewhere on the album, with a hostile grinding introduction strewn with joyless samples and morbid shrieks that detonates into an industrialized and highly methodical dissection of extreme metal. Listen below – and brace yourself.

From their deviant and soon to be released second LP, Corrections House reveal the track ‘Superglued Tooth’. Combining oppressive vocal bile with sadist electronics, the track smudges emergency measures of dystopian melody across distinctly punchy machine-drums in a manner that verges on deranged, bristling with kinetic energy and harking to the most outrageous aspects of the members’ collective discography. Stream it below.