Archive for the ‘Singles and EPs’ Category

Watch: ‘Nevver’ by lowsunday

Posted: 28 March 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Pittsburgh’s LOWSUNDAY presents ‘Nevver’ single (via Projekt Records).

Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP, their first all-new material in 25 years, is out now.

AA

Legacy postpunk-shoegaze outfit Lowsunday presents‘Nevver’, the final single from their new Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP, following the earlier-released ‘Love Language’ and ‘Soft Capture’. Released via Projekt Records and ranking second among Post-Punk.com’s Best EPs of 2025, this is the band’s first record of all-new material since 1999.

With early gothrock underpinnings, here Lowsunday capture a different energy than other tracks on this EP, with a slightly more down tempo and driving rhythm. Itt is uniquely sparse and delicate at times, relative to the band’s typically multi-layered approach regarding atmospherics and dense noise. The accompanying video, produced by Jer Herring, drifts between dark postpunk atmosphere and a homage to classic outsider cinema.

Born in the mid-1990s within the local Pittsburgh scene, Lowsunday (initially known as Low Sunday Ghost Machine) emerged as a "retro-futurist" pioneer, blending darkwave and shoegaze long before the genres saw their modern revival. Their legacy was cemented with their debut album Low Sunday Ghost Machine and the 1999 masterpiece Elesgiem, both of which were re-released via Projekt Records over the past 18 months (for their 30th and 25th anniversaries, respectively).

The band dissolved, leaving behind a cult reputation for mercurial sounds and blistering guitar work that set the stage for subsequent generations of alternative artists. Following a nearly 25-year period of inactivity, the band resurfaced as a duo in 2025—consisting of original members Shane Sahene (vocals, guitar, synth, bass, drums) and Bobby Spell (bass, guitar, drums).
”This is one of my favorite songs on the White EP. These lyrics are related to an increasing sense of apathy in the world – how it feels like even love isn’t enough sometimes and yet, the only fate worse is to let go of it. The feeling that happiness can be delicate and unhappiness can be so determined to take its place,” says Shane Sahene.

“This song touches on very early influences and the recording captured some of the most unique guitar tones we’ve ever used. What’s unusual is that, separately, Bobby had been working on a bass line and I had been playing this guitar part. It was serendipitous in how well they went together to form this song.”

‘Nevver’ is a case in point, showcasing the band’s legacy of creative experimentation and talent for weaving counter-culture cadences and weightless production with a sense of visceral vulnerability.

Bobby Spell shares, “’Nevver’ was enjoyable for the two of us to compose. I had been playing with this menacing bass line that happened to be a perfect match for a guitar part Shane had been working on. It gave us an opportunity to explore darker tones and indicated the need for a more sparce production. The almost plodding tempo made this song more challenging and fun, imbuing it with a combination of creepy darkness with a dash of humor.”

AA

lowsunday

Watch: ‘Normalized Tragedy’ by dälek

Posted: 27 March 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Today, experimental Hip-Hop legends dälek release their latest full-length album, Brilliance of a Falling Moon.

Conceived, composed, and produced by Will Brooks (aka MC dälek) and Mike Mare, Brilliance of a Falling Moon is a sprawling, uncompromising record that speaks to the political timbre of the day. Taking its name from a section of Erik Larson’s 2011 novel In The Garden of Beasts, the album paints a fiery portrait of life and resistance in fascist America.

Recorded in the group’s Deadverse Studios over the course of 2024 and 2025, Brilliance of a Falling Moon’s beats are propelled by brutal, dust-caked drum breaks and cloaked in an ominous, otherworldly atmosphere. Taking aim at everything from The State’s suppression of information to colonialism and Trump’s demonization of immigrants, Brooks’ rhymes are practically burning with outrage at the current state of the world.

“When you listen to this, I hope you walk away with hope because we’re still fighting, building, and pushing.”

Check out the new video for ‘Normalized Tragedy’ below:

AA

Not only has dälek always presented an undiluted political stance in their music, the band is part of the continuum of bold, revolutionary hip-hop pioneered by Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad. dälek has spent decades carving out a unique niche fusing hardcore Hip Hop, noise and a radical approach to sound.

Founded by Will Brooks (aka MC dälek) and Alap Momin (aka Oktopus), dälek debuted in 1998 with Negro Necro Nekros, a sonic tour de force built upon thunderous drums, blissful ambient sections, and gritty, insightful lyrics. On watershed albums like 2002’s From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots (2002), Absence (2005), Abandoned Language (2007), and 2009’s Gutter Tactics (2009), dälek laid a template that added completely new textural and structural dimensions to rap music.

With this kind of musical and political pedigree, it makes sense that dälek would return with such a timely record that reflects all of our frustrations.

Once again the band has teamed up with artists Paul Romano and Mikel Elam for the striking package artwork.

AA

dalek---2026---4---credit-Jonny-Scala-990000079e04513c

Photo credit: Jonny-Scala

Teleost – Teleost

Posted: 25 March 2026 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

22nd March 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

After an eon evolving their sound with comparatively little to show in terms of releases, Teleost have really picked up the pace of late: Three Originals was released in January 2025, followed by ATAVISM in December of last year, and here we are barely three months on faced with a new eponymous EP. Clearly, they concentrate their mental energy into the music rather than the naming of their EPs – and rightly so. The title is inconsequential: the music is what this is all about. moreover, what this, and what Teleost are all about, is exploring those dark tones and the ways in which frequencies resonate against one another, particularly at volume.

Live shows – particularly of late – have more than attested to the necessity for volume for Teleost, in the same was as is true for Earth, and Sunn O))). The simple fact is that some sounds, some frequencies, some resonant interplays, simply cannot occur at low volumes. Anyone who suggests that these bands – and Swans and A Place to Bury Strangers, among others – exploit volume gratuitously simply doesn’t understand the way in which vibrations change things. Teleost, however, very much do. And with their ultra-slow doom-drone, this is a band who really go into microcosmic detail when it comes to tonal shifts and reverberations within their great wall of sound.

This – their second EP, and sixth release in all – features three tracks. And once again, epic is the word. The four-and-three-quarter-minute sludgefest that is ‘Palanquin’ feels like a brief bridging piece between the megalithic ten-minute ‘Navigator’ and the eight-minute ‘Standing Stone’. And holy shit, is this heavy.

With Telost, the guitar has always been heavy, thick, grinding, the sound more akin to two guitars – or more – grinding out a speaker-shredding tsunami. But this… this takes it up several notches. It’s not just the guitar sound itself, of course: the production achieves the rare feat of capturing not just the rib-rattling, lung-shredding sound of a duo that take Melvins’ reattenuation of Black Sabbath to a skull-crushing level of pain.

With Teleost, there’s a clear sense of structure, of linear progression, too. ‘Navigator’ starts out gently, a textured hum, a buzzing drone, clean strings strummed but resonating. Low tom beats enter the mix and the build is slow, deliberate. Leo Hancil’s vocals reverberate – detached, a pagan-like incantation low in the mix. The suspense builds. Dissonance chimes, but still we traverse through deep fog and mud-thick tracks. And then at five minutes, it hits. And it hits so hard but so sweetly. The impact is immense. THAT is a riff, and how to land it. It completely knocks the air from your lungs, then proceeds to tear your limbs off, one by one, while shredding your skin with blunt but brutal claws.

How two people can create this organ-bustingly megalithic noise is unfathomable. But they do, time and again, growing ever more immense with each show, and with each recording. Yes, I say it every time, but every time, it’s true: Teleost have transcended to another echelon with this release: denser, heavier, louder, more punishing – and at the same time more immersive and transportative.

AA

AA

cover

Octavian Winters – Elements of Air

Posted: 25 March 2026 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

25th March 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

Pitched as ‘one of the most exciting new bands on the North American dark post-punk scene’., Octavian Winters formed – or, as their bio would have it – ‘was born into the ghostly isolation of San Francisco’ in 2022. Already, the pandemic seems to have receded into a past which feels like a fever dream. The fact that German post-punk legends Pink Turns Blue dig them enough to have picked them as support for their tour of the western US in April speaks for itself, and in many respects, so does this single, a thick slice of classic vintage-style gothiness that’s cooked to perfection.

Frontwoman and lyricist Ria Aursjoen says: “‘Elements of Air’ is about how we see the world, our chosen frame of reference, and how much power that holds over us — including the power to destroy things we value. The direct inspiration was someone I knew who chose to view the world through a lens of hate, and how that ultimately cost the friendship.”

In these times of extreme division, this is likely to be a scenario which is relatable to many. While the arrival Trump in the Whitehouse (and the advent of Brexit here in the UK) was an obvious moment of rupture, the pandemic proved to be a defining moment in time where people seemed to take more polarised positions. And since emerging from the successive lockdowns, the world feels like a different place – a place not only in the grip of war, but a place where people seem intent on causing anguish, antagonism, and aggravation, as if they’re spoiling for a fight, and if it’s not over immigration or race or the like, then they’ll settle for sparking a dispute over car parking or dustbins. Disharmony dominates the social discourse, and many have found themselves having to sever ties to once-close friends in the interests of self-preservation.

Driven by rolling drums and a dense bass, it’s topped by a choppy, metallic, flange-coated guitar, reminiscent at times of X-Mal Deutschland, which scratches and scrapes it way through the track. And then there’s Ria Aursjoen’s airy vocals which breeze in and weave a spellbinding melody. Part Toni Halliday (Curve), part Maria Brannigan (Sunshot), she brings an almost poppy vibe to the dark-edged post-punk party. Sure, it’s a formula that has its roots much further back, with The March Violets and Skeletal Family incorporating an accessible, pop-with-a-twist vocal, with snaking melodies steeped in Eastern mysticism.

Listening to any ‘new’ goth inevitably leads me down a rabbit hole of memory lane excursions into ‘old’ goth: the genre is rich in intertext and references, influences and appropriations, and it was ever thus, the early 80s acts who were goth before the label existed – Bauhaus, The Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie – all belonged to the post-punk milieu, which draw on Bowie, The Doors, The Stooges. Perhaps more than in any other genre, there’s a lineage and a trajectory which can be traced back through the decades to its musical prehistory and which has remained quite intact through the various waves, of which there have now been several.

As such, it’s not so much about breaking new ground, but how inventively the tropes are used, and how well-crafted, how well-executed the songs are. And in the case of ‘Elements of Air’, the crafting and execution is spot on.

AA

AA

Octavian Winters band photo (greyscale)

Watch: ‘Ghosts Of Europa’ by Mortiis

Posted: 25 March 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

Iconic Norwegian artist MORTIIS presents the the stunning music video ‘Ghosts of Europa’. This is also the title track (feat. vocals of Sarah Jezebel Deva (The Kovenant, Cradle of Filth, et al.) and Laurie Ann Haus (Blizzard Games, Todesbonden) as well as additional synths and sequencers from Tangerine Dream’s Thorsten Quaeschning) and first advance single taken from his upcoming new full-length.

AA

MORTIIS comments on ‘Ghosts of Europa’: “This song has tried many shapes and forms, until it finally sort of found itself”, the Norwegian writes. “I never thought that it would end up this way. Strange, mysterious, and choral. It started out as a simple thing, a different song, with a different title, which got slowly de-constructed and altered. This did not happen due to dissatisfaction with the original, but because layers of new ideas appeared. As excited as I am about this new ‘entity’ and the way it shaped up, the title, that has already been in existence for years, feels slightly, and sadly, prophetic – although that was never my intention.”

AA

da667747-8680-530a-13ed-46be46f241e2

The SPKtR – The Last of Men

Posted: 24 March 2026 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

24 March 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

SPK require little introduction, although industrial / electronic pioneer Graeme Revell has spent most of his time in recent years exploring and talking about AI – not just its applications, but its implications – having been an early adopter of this now world-changing technology. As such, SPK have been effectively dormant since the late 80s, with their last new material having been released in 1987. In their absence, their legacy has grown, but the fact that last year saw the first musical activity in a very long time, with a couple of live shows in Europe, with Graeme performing with his son, Robert, still came as a surprise to many. Then, Revell announced the birth of The SPKtR – a new phase for SPK – although he wasn’t giving much away.

But now, finally, The SPKtR have unveiled ‘The Last of Men’, and it’s a chilling slice of dark, industrial-strength electronica. The vocals are heavily processed, low, ominous, doomy in a filmic sense, a shade Darth Vader, the lyrics hinting that the future is a synergy of man and machine:

We are the last of men

We are the broken faith

The soul is a lie

The mind is a ghost

We are the machines

Marching to the future

Not so long ago, this was purely the domain of science fiction. But of course, science fiction in its purest form takes emerging science and uses it to create a fictional narrative based on potential scenarios (I’m thinking here of works like Prey and The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton, which specifically cite research papers, rather than the more hallucinogenic kind of work by Philip K. Dick or the cyberpunk works of William Gibson, although the latter does very much explore the space of virtual and alternative realities, the likes of which became habitable with the advent of the Internet). And now the futures depicted in works of science fiction are here, and the prospects for where we go from here are giving rise to extremely divided views. Some people are embracing AI wholeheartedly, while other are experiencing abject fear, and not only over the prospect of losing their job to AI. There have been reports of AI weaponry overriding commands and going rogue in simulations, and AI coaxing vulnerable individuals to take their own lives. For every person who loves AI, there is another who loathes it and is of the belief it will bring about our doom.

If the song itself sounds like the end of days, the accompanying video – a clip of which accompanies the stream on Bandcamp is truly apocalyptic. And it’s AI generated, of course, as is, quite clearly, the single’s artwork. Whatever your stance on AI, there’s no question that it’s visually striking, and works as an accompaniment to the audio.

Writing on the single, Graeme explains its meaning and presents a more balanced, nuanced position:

“‘The Last of Men’ is not about human extinction. It’s about the end of a certain idea of Man — sovereign, central, in control. Is it a warning? Yes, if we cling to a myth of human exceptionalism while delegating cognition, memory and desire to systems we barely understand, we risk becoming decorative in our own civilisation. A celebration? Yes, of transformation rather than replacement. Humanity has always been prosthetic. Fire was prosthetic. Language was prosthetic. Electricity was prosthetic. AI is a cognitive prosthesis. The anxiety comes from the fact that this prosthesis talks back.

If there’s a message I’d stand behind, it’s this: We are not witnessing the end of humanity. We are witnessing the end of human centrality. Whether that becomes tragedy or metamorphosis depends less on the machines than on our willingness to evolve ethically, imaginatively, and politically alongside them. It’s always an investigation. SPK prefers probing thresholds rather than conclusions.”

It’s a lot to unpack, and everyone reading this will likely hold a different view on this. The extent to which AI was involved in the music itself is unclear – the video, more obvious. Is applying AI to this extent as part of an ‘investigation’ valid, or is it something which, by its very nature is complicit in the expansion of AI, a surrender of creative control to a machine which we don’t have a rein on?

‘The Last of Men’ is a striking release, and a powerful return for SPK, with the new SPKtR moniker denoting the start of a new era. How it will unfold remains to be seen, and will likely be interesting. All we can do is watch this space…

AA

AA

The SPKtR - The Last of Men cover art

Watch: ‘Serve Me Some Crime’ by Noir Addiction

Posted: 24 March 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Alternative-industrial rockers NOIR ADDICTION present their new single ‘Serve Me Some Crime’, a sarcastic manifesto about embracing chaos and contradiction, where rule-breaking, humour and non-conformity become tools of personal freedom. The accompanying video, with its black-and-red aesthetic, was created by ‪Jack Lucas Laugeni.  Favouring instinct and madness over routine, control and the suffocating seriousness of everyday life, this is the first postpunk-darkwave taste of the Pretty Things Don’t Last album, forthcoming via Berlin’s Soulpunx label.

AA

Noir Addiction is led by Sonny Lanegan, a seasoned musician and producer whose creative vision was shaped by cutting his teeth in Los Angeles’s high-octane music scene, where he honed his experimental style as singer-songwriter for White Pulp and co-founder of The Dead Good. The Spill Magazine finds this “somewhere between industrial grit and sardonic self-awareness. Drawing clear lineage from acts like Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode, Noir Addiction doesn’t just imitate its influences—it refracts them through a modern lens of irony and controlled chaos”.

AA

Noir

Listen: ‘Oxygen’ by Lantlos

Posted: 22 March 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

LANTLOS present the nimble track ‘Oxygen’ as the tasty final advance single taken from the forthcoming new album Nowhere in Between Forever, which is slated for release on April 3, 2026.

AA

LANTLOS comment on ‘Oxygen’: “This song is rollerblading through a utopian vision of the late ‘90s rave euphoria – a hyper world of digital elevation and weird plastic positivity”, mastermind Markus Skye muses. “’Oxygen’ channels that era’s surreal optimism and unbroken faith in technology as a gateway to a bright, boundless future. I take it as a kind of ‘Metal DnB’ track. Metal and rock drumming are driving a classic breakbeat rhythm that creates a rush of velocity and acceleration, which feels both euphoric and slightly shrill. This strange flight through early 3D models of an endless digital reality gets you suspended between plastic bliss and power trip exhaustion on your way to elysium.”

AA

dba3d8c1-b27b-68d6-d586-94a33899f353

Barren Womb / Hylko – Split Single

Posted: 20 March 2026 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Fucking North Pole Records / Captured Records – 20th March 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

This single is pitched as ‘a split release that pairs Norwegian noise-rock abrasion with Japanese stoner-psych experimentation, bringing together two bands that thrive on doing things their own way’.

Its arrival is times just before Barren Womb launch a live assault on the UK, which threatens some big noise. Their half of this single, ‘The Perils of Self-Improvement’, which they describe as ‘a mid-tempo stomper delivering grim news for the supposed wisdom of self-help culture’ is an offcut from the Chemical Tardigrade sessions which they withheld specifically for this release, and it sure is a beast, which works particularly well as a standalone release. It’s got grit and grind as well as melody. The verses are hefty, trudging slabs of noise where the bass rumbles and the guitar jabs and the pair – consisting of Timo Silvola (drums/vocals) and Tony Gonzalez (guitar/vocals) manage to blend elements of Melvins and the Jesus Lizard with a dash of psychedelia.

AA

AA

On the flipside, Hylko really go all out on the psych, presenting a deep, dark, spinning riff which lumbers and lurches amidst a swathe of flange and reverb. And then it suddenly goes all dark and dubby, with the added bonus of sounds of water and running rivers.

AA

AA

It’s a perfect split release: complimentary but most definitely contrasting, completely wild and all quality.

AA

733508

Listen: ‘Aneska’s Song’ by Marie Ann Hedonia

Posted: 20 March 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Electro-industrial artist, MARIE ANN HEDONIA just unleashed her new EP, Lunar Eclipse – an autobiographical release full of anger, rage and revenge.

The songs work as emotional layers from rage to acceptance, and through them we are transformed. ‘Anseka’s Song’ is pure rage as humans love violence. We consume it as entertainment when it should shock and disgust us. It’s a perfect opener for this EP. The song sets the tone for the emotional space these tracks occupy. It also flows right into ‘Family Trauma’, the most autobiographical track on the EP.

Marie says: “My family was messed up, screaming fights, job loss, arrests, and it generally made me a pretty angry person. I thought one day I would write this all down, maybe as a quirky memoir. Instead life guided me to music and so I channelled my rage, and sadness into this EP.  In astrology a  “lunar eclipse” can bring on emotional transformation, even upheaval. I want this EP to release these emotions for myself and for the listener.”

AA

Along with the release of her 2nd EP comes, Eclipse, a full length album encapsulating both EP releases, available on vinyl, digital download, and streaming now!

AA

AA

0082284e-0543-95c1-65bd-bb6d8dd56b6e

Older Entries
Newer Entries