"White Noise is about sensory overload and the overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia that neurodivergent humans experience on a near daily basis,” explains lead vocalist Harvey Freeman. “It’s a horrible feeling of helplessness and anxiety that nothing can really help other than a quiet space and something to take your mind off of the situation.
We wanted to create something visually that could portray how that experience feels. The room used with the exposed hole in the wall was the perfect fit paired with the mirrors in particular scenes. We wanted it to almost look like you were inside the mind of someone going through that feeling."
Mixing moments of snarling nu-metal aggro and the scalding fury of Slipknot’s debut album with instrumental passages that at times recall the genius of Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, is where they have nailed the Graphic Nature sound.
Manchester-based art-rock five-piece Sylvette have shared a spine-tingling cover of Nine Inch Nails classic, ‘Right Where It Belongs’, which appeared on 2005’s With Teeth.
The new track arrives as the band confirm a release date for their third album: ‘Single Thread’ – which will arrive on 25th November 2022.
A sprawling rendition that sees Sylvette pay homage to the Nine Inch Nails original just as easily as they do douse the track with their own allure, the band initially released an early version of “Right Where It Belongs” on YouTube back in 2020. Having amassed almost 20,000 views since, the cover gained traction with Nine Inch Nails fans who flooded the video’s comment section “proclaiming they connected to it just as much if not more than the original.”
Quietly contemplative cover that’s laced with a heart-rending sense of feeling, vocalist Charlie Sinclair explains how it finds its place on their upcoming album:
“”Right Where It Belongs” is the first cover we’ve ever played together that really felt like we made it our own. The song is about questioning your reality and how going through change and trauma can distort the way you perceive yourself. It really felt appropriate for the theme of our upcoming album ‘Single Thread’, so we made it the closing track on the record.”
Staking their place as one of the most prolific and intriguing bands on the Manchester underground scene, ‘Single Thread’ will emerge on 18 November and promises to show a completely new side to the group.
Born out of Charlie’s personal struggles whilst caring for his disabled and terminally ill father, and the subsequent loss he experienced during lockdown, the album sees Sylvette shed their fantastical and dramatic sound to make way for a deeply personal, more honest and intimate kind of songwriting.
Capturing the sound of a band becoming more emotionally in-sync than ever before, the album was recorded in guitarist Jack March’s rented shipping container-turned-studio. Working on the project only between the hours of midnight and 3am, to avoid noise spill disturbing neighbours in the unit, ‘Single Thread’ is the band’s first completely self-made record, with Jack on mixing and producing duties.
With shades of John Martyn or Nick Drake appearing in some of the album’s instrumental moments, Charlie’s haunting falsetto will evoke the spectre of Jeff Buckley. Tracks like “Borrowed Time” and “Marble Stone” have a bitter-sweetness comparable to the likes of Cocteau Twins, whereas tracks like ‘Safety in Solitude’ are gently reminiscent of the darker, stripped-down side of Nine Inch Nails.
Listen to their version of ‘Right Where It Belongs’ here:
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SYLVETTE LIVE DATES 2022
27 September – Manchester, Carlton Club
24 November – Manchester – Album Listening Event, Details TBC
Alternative music legend Chris Connelly has announced he will be releasing a long-player paying tribute to the iconic Nico. Originally planned as 10 tracks featuring Connelly’s versions of her songs, once recorded, he decided to write a parallel album of his own compositions, spanning the life of one of the most unique, tragic and misunderstood female artists in the history of music. The result is the 24-track Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico, to be released in late autumn.
Ahead of this, the Chicago-based Scottish counter-culture artist presents the album’s first single ‘Eulogy to Lenny Bruce’, heralded by some as Connelly’s finest vocal performance. Appearing on Nico’s 1967 album Chelsea Girl, this song was penned by the tragic Tim Hardin about the equally tragic Lenny Bruce with the lyrics slightly altered, Nico describing her sorrow and anger at Bruce’s death.
Listen to ‘Eulogy to Lenny Bruce’ here:
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Connelly once again worked with producer and long-time Connelly collaborator Chris Bruce, a band member of Meshell Ndegeocello, who has also worked with Seal, Aaron Neville, Bob Dylan, The Waterboys, My Brightest Diamond, Cheryl Crow and Sam Phillips.
Eulogy to Christa sees Connelly purposefully adopting the personas of Nico, Lou Reed and John Cale – even Andy Warhol makes a cameo!
Connelly speaks of these early influences: “I was not a stranger to her music, I had been playing The Velvet Underground & Nico to death for about a year, but knew nothing of her solo work until Cosey Fanni Tutti played me ‘Desertshore’ whilst I was visiting her in London in the summer of 1980… Nico’s output was spartan, at that age, I didn’t know why, but I was drawn in deep to the myth, as well as the myth of Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground and the concentric rings of influence in their wake, like so many musicians.”
The album was inspired by the brilliant book You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone by author Jennifer Otter Bickerdicke, who contributed to the liner notes for the album. She writes, “This is a record to be played at full blast, all the way through, as a commemoration not just to Nico the person, the musician, but to art for art’s sake, for making something because it is important and needs to be done – an idea that is as rare and precious as Nico herself.”
US post-metal trio Girih have recently shared a music video for ‘The Key’, a new song off their forthcoming second album Ikigai, due out on vinyl and digital formats on October 14th via A Thousand Arms and dunk!records!
Filmed by gotdamnjoshua and Brad Griffin and edited by Brian Luttrell, this video was captured at local show in their hometown Manchester, NH and is now playing here:
Named after the Japanese conceptual philosophy of finding purpose and fulfilment, the eight-track release was recorded at Wachusett Recording Co. by Girih and Mike Moschetto, who also engineered and mixed the album, and was mastered by Zach Weeks.
Girih formed in 2016 in New Hampshire and released their debut album Eigengrau in 2018, which was met with great critically acclaim and allowed them to play numerous shows throughout their local scene, including a slot in 2019’s Post Festival.
Comprised of Alex Paul (guitar), Brian Luttrell (guitar) and Jeremy Dingman (drums), Girih made significant strides towards to improve and evolve their sound and new effort Ikigai is not merely a continuation of their impressive capabilities; it is an evolutionary progression in every tangible facet of their artistry.
HAAVARD, the acoustic brainchild of mastermind and sole member Håvard Jørgensen (aka Lemarchand of early ULVER and SATYRICON fame) has released the melancholic yet optimistic track ‘Niende Mars’ ("9th of March") as the second single taken from the Norwegian’s self-titled debut full-length Haavard, which has been slated for release on November 11.
Listen here:
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HAAVARD comments: "The track ‘Niende Mars’ deals on one hand with the fear of losing what’s most important to you, and on the other with reconciliation", the guitarist and singer reveals. "It moves through the cloud of unknowing, and the painful turmoil leads to an opening – a new view, a new perspective, a new path to follow as well as ways to evolve through hopes and fears. In my eyes, the expressive dynamics and dense instrumentation of this piece are a reflection of all of those feelings. After the storm comes calm."
The immense success of Psychonaut’s Pelagic debut album Unfold The God Man, which has been repressed 3 times throughout the pandemic and sold close to 3.000 vinyl copies to date, has proven that Psychonaut are a force to be reckoned with.
The three gentlemen from Mechelen, Belgium now return with a ferocious and muchly anticipated concept album that proclaims the formation of a new world through the acceptance of a new human identity. “We’ve always been interested in religion, spirituality and philosophy,” explains vocalist/guitarist Stefan de Graef about the music of PSYCHONAUT. “We’ve meditated together, had long discussions about the nature of life, and we share a common vision.”
Now, with the release of their sophomore album Violate Consensus Reality on 28th October (Pelagic Records), the Belgian three-piece take you on a visceral trip into our collective human consciousness. A journey marked by explosive riffs, soaring vocals and intricate yet catchy compositions.
An impressive album which cements PSYCHONAUT’s standing as aspirants to the throne of the contemporary European progressive / post metal community.
“We distance ourselves from a system that is based on the idea that humanity is fundamentally bad and needs protection from itself in the form of a hierarchy,” continues De Graef about PSYCHONAUT’s latest album. “By no longer subscribing to the notion that we are all separate beings in a separate world that is dead and pointless, we embrace the vision of a new civilisation that is rooted in the idea that we are part of a living, sacred universe.” Likening our present state of separation to “an island on oceans grown, designed to bear unpredictable wrath,” the band accompanies their denunciation by punishing riffs and heavily syncopated rhythms, grabbing you by your guts and taking you on a turbulent journey.
Violate Consensus Reality engages the senses in a way that is quite rare for concept albums, it is raw and brutal, unlike the lofty concept albums of yore with their endlessly repeating motifs and needlessly complex song structures. It stands in a long tradition of activism in music, but it also deconstructs this tradition by taking its loud and admonishing tone and providing it with a thoughtful base rooted in philosophy and spirituality.
With music deeply rooted in communal meditation sessions, psychedelic metal outfit Psychonaut are a unique entity in the Belgian metal scene and beyond. The mantric title track of their upcoming second album, which they have now shared, sees the trio once more aligned in body and mind as they appeal to the listener with a 9-minute atmospheric slow burner. Their stature is once more affirmed by Amenra’s Colin H. van Eeckhout, who ushers the track to an unforgettable climax.
Sharpen your knives and prepare yourself for another BLOODBATH! Massive death metal beasts BLOODBATH are prepared to annihilate with their sixth full-length album, Survival Of The Sickest, out this Friday via Napalm Records. Vicious, unrelenting, and thrillingly violent, the critically-acclaimed, cult-followed band has no limitations, leaving the scene in shreds while skilfully fusing old-school Scandinavian harshness with a dose of Floridian U.S. death metal.
BLOODBATH have now revealed their most crushing track yet, “No God Before Me”, released alongside a brand new lyric video today! On this relentless offering, “Old Nick” Holmes and his bandmates crucify with a blasphemic explosion, ensnaring with a sinister churning riff while coalescing elements of death and doom metal. Boasting one of the album’s most hair-raising solos, “No God Before Me” is a prime example of the band’s triumphant evolution.
Jonas Renkse on “No God Before Me”:
"’No God Before Me’ is a slow, churning hymn of death, a description of a godless afterlife as well as a massive nod to the masters of sickness themselves: Morbid Angel."
Watch the lyric video for “No God Before Me” by Bloodbath:
The Bobby Lees offer a final preview of their forthcoming album, Bellevue, due 7th October via Ipecac Recordings, with today’s release of “Ma Likes To Drink” and its companion video.
Drummer Macky Bowman said of the track: “To paraphrase John Berger: there is a stark difference between being naked and being a nude. To be naked is to be natural. Stripped of societal confines you are free to be as languorous or wanton as you wish. Even in naked acts of exhibition the primary spiritual benefactor will be the model, not the voyeur. Conversely to be a nude is to be reduced to no more than your physical form, displayed as a trite odalisque for the pleasure of greasy slobs. On an unrelated note we are all very proud of this song and video! We really hope you enjoy. Love you!”
The static shot clip, featuring singer Sam Quartin on a stationary bike sandwiched between a pair of mannequins, was directed by John Swab who also created the band’s videos for “Dig Your Hips”, and the video-meets-film short, “Hollywood Junkyard”. The band have also recently released the visualiser for “Monkey Mind” in anticipation of Bellevue‘s full release.
‘The End of Absence’ is the second single to be taken from Devotional, the new collaborative album from The Lord & Petra Haden arriving on 21st October. The track is the closer of the album, and provides a beguiling mixture of vocals and droning guitar to create a seductive atmosphere as incessant as waves beating upon a shore.
Devotional is a rapturous and heady offering of wordless vocalisations, droning guitars, and heaviness explored in unexpected and intoxicating ways. Inspirations came from deep listening to Indian classical music, as well as a fascinating look at the chaotic and unbelievable life of Ma Anand Sheela and the Rajneesh community.
Through a haze of incense, flowing robes, and secret mantras, Haden’s voice rings out over constant drones in ecstatic chants throughout this musical investigation into the myriad of ways in which worship can lure and intoxicate.
What does worldwide quarantine do to our favourite porcine libertine? Raymond Watts holed up in his sty and created The Merciless Light, the new album by PIG. Ably aided and abetted by long time accomplices En Esch and Steve White, Watts also welcomes a new swine to the trough as Jim Davies (Pitchshifter/The Prodigy) adds another new level of impeccable (in)credibility and talent.
The Merciless Light seethes, swings, seduces and snarls. Extraordinary electronics and a glut of glitz, glam, guitars and grooves create a masterful mélange of mirth, malice and winking wit from our very own venerable Vicar of Vice.
A stellar sample comes in the form of the snazzy ‘The Dark Room’, which clocks in at exactly three minutes and delivers a massive knockout punch with mercifully no paunch. A video for the song directed by LA based Ibex is available now. Watch it here:
Four further tasty morsels from the album can be consumed in the form of video snippets, while album opener ’No Yes More Less’ has also been released as a single ahead of the main course being served on 23rd September.
Aural Aggravation 