Posts Tagged ‘New Album’

Listen: ‘GREY RUBBLE – GREEN SHOOTS’ by Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Posted: 31 August 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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The ever-enigmatic Godspeed You! Black Emperor have announced their new album in suitably oblique form – only, their message is loud and clear here. There’s no press hype for the album in their accompanying statement, but no explanation is required when it comes to the their focus: the album’s title alone speaks for itself. NO​ ​TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28​,​340 DEAD. This is, of course, the number of Gazan casualties since 7th October 2023. That number now stands at in excess of 41,000.

The final track on the album, ‘GREY RUBBLE – GREEN SHOOTS’ is an expansive seven-minute piece which balances darkness and hope.

The accompanying statement reads as follows, and you can hear the track below:

THE PLAIN TRUTH==
we drifted through it, arguing.
every day a new war crime, every day a flower bloom.
we sat down together and wrote it in one room,
and then sat down in a different room, recording.
NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody?
and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.
the sun setting above beds of ash
while we sat together, arguing.
the old world order barely pretended to care.
this new century will be crueler still.
war is coming.
don’t give up.
pick a side.
hang on.
love.
GY!BE

Tour dates:

UK/EU

SEP/OCT 2024
27 Sep 2024 • Dublin IE • National Stadium

29 Sep 2024 • London UK • Troxy
30 Sep 2024 • Glasgow, UK • Barrowlands
01 Oct 2024 • Manchester UK • Ritz
02 Oct 2024 • Bristol UK • Marble Factory
03 Oct 2024 • Coventry UK • The Empire
04 Oct 2024 • Tourcoing FR • Le Grand Mix
05 Oct 2024 • Esch-Alzette LU • Kufa
06 Oct 2024 • Paris FR • Le Trianon
08 Oct 2024 • Nantes FR • Stereolux
09 Oct 2024 • Nancy FR • L’Autre Canal (Jazz Pulsation Festival)
10 Oct 2024 • Zürich CH • Volkshaus
11 Oct 2024 • Lausanne CH • Les Docks
12 Oct 2024 • Frankfurt DE • Zoom
14 Oct 2024 • Berlin DE • Huxleys
15 Oct 2024 • Amsterdam NE • Paradiso
16 Oct 2024 • Brussels BE • AB
18 Oct 2024 • Athens GR • Floyd

NORTH AMERICA
NOV 2024
04 Nov 2024 • Hamilton ON • Bridgeworks
05 Nov 2024 • Toronto ON • History
06 Nov 2024 • London ON • London Music Hall
07 Nov 2024 • Grand Rapids MI • Elevation
08 Nov 2024 • Chicago IL • The Salt Shed
09 Nov 2024 • St Paul MN • Palace Theater
11 Nov 2024 • Lawrence KS • Liberty Hall
12 Nov 2024 • Fayetteville AR • George’s Majestic Lounge
13 Nov 2024 • Nashville TN • The Basement East
14 Nov 2024 • Knoxville TN • Bijou Theater
15 Nov 2024 • Atlanta GA • The Masquerade
16 Nov 2024 • Charleston SC • The Music Farm
17 Nov 2024 • Saxapahaw NC • Haw River Ballroom
19 Nov 2024 • Washington DC • 9:30 Club
21 Nov 2024 • Brooklyn NY • Pioneerworks
22 Nov 2024 • Norwalk CT • District Music Hall
23 Nov 2024 • Boston MA • Roadrunner
24 Nov 2024 • Philadelphia PA • Union Transfer
25 Nov 2024 • Montréal, QC • MTELUS

NORTH AMERICA
APR/MAY 2025
25 April 2025 • Austin, TX • TBA
26 April 2025 • Dallas, TX • Granada Theater
28 April 2025 • Denver, CO • Ogden Theater
30 April 2025 • Los Angeles, CA • The Bellweather
01 May 2025 • Santa Ana, CA • The Observatory OC
02 May 2025 • Tijuana, B.C., Mexico • Cine Bujazán
03 May 2025 • Ventura, CA • Ventura Music Hall
04 May 2025 • San Francisco, CA • Curran Theater
06 May 2025 • Portland, OR • Wonder Ballroom
07 May 2025 • Portland, OR • Wonder Ballroom
08 May 2025 • Seattle, WA • The Neptune
09 May 2025 • Seattle, WA • The Neptune
10 May 2025 • Vancouver, BC • Vogue Theatre
12 May 2025 • Kelowna, BC • Revelry
13 May 2025 • Calgary, AB • Palace Theatre
14 May 2025 • Edmonton, AB • Midway

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Watch: ‘Hide & Seek’ by the Jesus Lizard

Posted: 5 June 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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the Jesus Lizard, undeniably one of the most iconic and influential bands to emerge in the late 20th century, return with Rack, their first new album since 1998’s Blue, on Sept. 13 via Ipecac Recordings.

A preview of the 11-song album arrives today with the release of ‘Hide & Seek,’ a track David Yow describes as “a perky ditty about a witch who can’t behave, and it’s got nearly as many hooks as a Mike Tyson fight.” An accompanying video captures the foursome of Duane Denison, Mac McNeilly, David Wm. Sims, and Yow as they recorded the “ditty” with Producer Paul Allen at Nashville’s Audio Eagle Studio.

Check ‘Hide & Seek’ here:

“There are definitely some references to the past,” Denison says, in reference to the album, adding, “but it’s more as a point of departure: We don’t stay there.”

the Jesus Lizard reconvened in 2009 for a finite number of shows, and have spent the intervening years as both friends in close contact with one another, and touring bandmates. “We literally only made the record because we thought it would be fun to make the record,” Sims shares. With McNeilly highlighting the strong relationship amongst the musicians: “We are bonded by the music we make, and also by the respect we have for each other.”

Jesus Lizard

The band has also announced tour dates, stretching well in to 2025, with more performances to come:

June 6  Nashville, TN  Third Man Records  SOLD OUT

June 8  Pomona, CA  No Values

June 9  Garden Grove, CA  Garden Amp

September 7  Raleigh, NC  Hopscotch Music Festival

October 13  Las Vegas, NV  Best Friends Forever Music Festival

October 31  Dallas, TX  Longhorn Ballroom

November 1  Austin, TX  TBA

December 9  Pittsburgh, PA  Stage AE

December 11  Brooklyn, NY  Brooklyn Steel

December 12  Boston, MA  Roadrunner

December 13  Philadelphia, PA  Union Transfer

December 14  Washington, DC  Black Cat

December 18  Atlanta, GA  Variety Playhouse

January 7  Glasgow, UK  QMU

January 8  Manchester, UK  Academy 2

January 9  Leeds, UK  Brudenell Social Club

January 10  Bristol, UK  Fleece

January 11  London, UK  Electric Ballroom

January 12  Brighton, UK  Concorde 2

January 14  Belfast, UK  The Limelight

January 15  Dublin, IE  Button Factory

May 2  Solana Beach, CA  Belly Up Tavern

May 3  Los Angeles, CA  The Fonda Theatre

May 5  San Francisco, CA  The Fillmore

May 8  Portland, OR  Revolution Hall

May 10  Seattle, WA  Neptune Theatre

BIG|BRAVE announce extensive tour dates for Spring 2023

Posted: 12 January 2023 in Previews and Editorial
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Following the announcement of their monolithic new album nature morte, out February 24th, Canadian trio BIG|BRAVE has announced an extensive European tour for spring 2023. The tour includes performances at Roadburn Festival, Donaufestival and Desertfest, among others. The trio’s first nature morte single "carvers, farriers and knaves" captures the album’s striking balance between expansive atmospherics and direct emotional drive, guitar and vocals twisting atop thundering drums to create one of the most bracing and relentless pieces in the band’s ouvre.

BIG|BRAVE are an elemental trio who harness an earthen heaviness composed of distorted and textural drones, austere bombast, and Wattie’s heart-rending voice. Like recent collaborators The Body, BIG|BRAVE is at the forefront of reconfiguring the landscape of heavy music. The trio brandish sparseness and density like weapons, cast tense atmospheres with languid tempos and mutate feedback into eruptions of enveloping tempests. nature morte sharpens BIG|BRAVE’s ferocity and expansive sound into emotional elegies for the disenfranchised, wringing abstracted textures and pure fervence into songs of unfathomable mass.

Those dates in full:

BIG|BRAVE spring 2023 EU tour dates:

Apr. 9 – Hamburg, DE – Hafenklang
Apr. 10 – Copenhagen, DK – Loppen
Apr. 11 – Malmö, SE – Plan B
Apr. 12 – Oslo, NO Blå
Apr. 14 – Helsinki, FI – Kuudes Linja
Apr. 15 – Tallinn, EE – Sveta Baar
Apr. 16 – Riga, LV – Noass
Apr. 18 – Vilnius, LI – XI20
Apr. 19 – Warsaw, PL – Voodoo
Apr. 20 – Poznań, PL – Dom Tramwajarza
Apr. 21 – Berlin, DE – Urban Spree
Apr. 23 – Tilburg, NL – Roadburn Festival
Apr. 26 – Nurnberg, DE – KANTINE (beim Künstlerhaus)
Apr. 27 – Dresden, DE – Ostpol
Apr. 28 – Krems, AT – Donaufestival
Apr. 29 – Zagreb, HR – Kset
Apr. 30 – Bologna, IT – Circolo Dev
May 2 – Piediripa, IT (MC) Dong
May 4 – Busto Arsizio, IT – Circolo Gagarin
May 5 – Bulle, CH – Ebullition
May 7 – London, UK – Desertfest
May 9 – Manchester, UK – Soup Kitchen
May 10 – Glasgow, UK – Stereo
May 11 – Newcastle, UK – The Lubber Fiend
May 12 – Liverpool, UK – IWF Substation
May 13 – Norwich, UK – Voodoo Daddy
May 14 – Birmingham, UK – The Castle & Falcon
May 15 – Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
May 16 – Bristol, UK – Dareshack
May 17 – Brighton, UK – The Hope & Ruin
May 18 – Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique

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Watch: ‘Lacerations’ by Curse Mackey

Posted: 1 September 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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On September 9, darkwave artist Curse Mackey will release his highly-anticipated new full-length album, Immoral Emporium, the follow-up to his 2019 industrial masterpiece, Instant Exorcism. Curse will also embark on a North American tour as a special guest for darkwave legends, Clan of Xymox.
Immoral Emporium is an intense, dark electronic music experience. Curse emphasizes, “This is a NEW album for modern times, in the here and now.”

True to his word, Immoral Emporium pushes the boundaries of genre with a vast dynamic range, from a tortured whisper to a triumphant howl. The first single, “Lacerations” is a dancefloor stomper with hypnotic vocals, a hard-hitting chorus with wailing synths and bin-shaking beats.

The album moves into poppy, upbeat club territory with the earworm ‘Dead Fingers Talk’.  The buildups are big, such as in ‘Omens and Monuments’, with monstrous synths that bring Immoral Emporium to a goosebump-inducing, cathartic end leaving the listener looking forward to the future.

Curse says, “Immoral Emporium was created under very remote, unusual, stressful conditions. This record is a dangerous listen. By the time it reaches the last song, I, as the protagonist, am essentially already dead. However, my last words are meant to give hope to the listener, my friends around the world…that you can live to fight another day, knowing you don’t have to give in to the fear, pain, and worry. These things will pass and you are not alone."

Clocking the William Burroughs reference in ‘Dead Fingers Talk’, interest in the album is piqued here at Aural Aggravation, and never more so than by the promo clip for ‘Lacerations’, released as a taster for the album, which you can watch here:

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Listen: ‘Carcini’ by Grave Lines

Posted: 9 May 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Two albums in and London’s Grave Lines, purveyors of ‘heavy gloom’ have already carved a unique niche in the myriad spheres of heavy music. Their first album Welcome To Nothing set the tone for their distinct take on doom metal, which was broadened even further with album two Fed Into The Nihilist Engine. An epic feast of hard ‘n’ heavy riffs coupled with brooding sadness interspersed with thoughtful transcendent moments of introspection.

Never a band to rely solely on trotting out those ‘doom metal’ tropes, the band began to weave in gothic and experimental elements into their music, to delve deeper into the dark shadows of the psyche.

Now with their third album Communion Grave Lines continue their exploration into the ugliness of the human condition, at the same time becoming a band that truly defies any pigeonhole.

Continuing to hone and evolve their collective vision and aided by the masterful production of Andy Hawkins at The Nave Studios, Communion sees Grave Lines creep further into the various corners of their sound.

In a nutshell Communion is a violent descent of bile-soaked intensity spiralling between filth laden swagger, and fragile mournful lament. The album delves into the internal aloneness of existence and the failings of the human connection.

Owing as much to Bauhaus and Killing Joke as it does to Black Sabbath or Neurosis, there are moments of gut wrenching doomed up heaviness and bellowing noise rock, contrasting with ambient gothic passages and a thoughtful melancholy, to a create a powerful new chapter in their ceaseless journey through the gloom. Listen to first single ‘Carcini’ now:

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Watch: ‘Toni’ by Interpol

Posted: 7 April 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Well this has come out of nowhere: Interpol unveil a new song, ‘Toni’ with a video, while simultaneously announcing they’ve a new album, The Other Side of Make-Believe, out on Matador Records in 15th July 2022.

Check ‘Toni’ here:

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Watch: ‘Let’s See Each Other’ by A Place To Bury Strangers

Posted: 17 November 2021 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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A Place To Bury Strangers announce the release of their sixth album See Through You on 4th February 2022. It’s not just a return to form for the band, but also a return to their fiercely independent, DIY roots on their own label, Dedstrange.

Outpacing even their own firmly blazed path of audio annihilation, this 13-track album repeatedly delivers the massive walls of chaos and noise that A Place To Bury Strangers are renowned for. It’s an explosive journey that explores the listener’s limits of mind-bending madness, while simultaneously offering the catchiest batch of songs in the band’s discography. It’s a nod to the art school ethos of the band’s origins, while forging a new and clear direction forward.

The first single ‘Let’s See Each Other’ is an intimate and disarming love song from a forgotten future. Syncopated memories and deconstructed fantasies of lovers lost in a city that doesn’t know their names. The accompanying video, directed by David Pelletier, features the band destroying the song while imploring people to reunite.

Watch the video here:

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Photo by Ebru Yildiz

Watch: ‘Return’ by Emma Ruth Rundle

Posted: 12 September 2021 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Emma Ruth Rundle’s forthcoming Engine of Hell is stark, intimate, and unflinching. For anyone that’s endured trauma and grief, there’s a beautiful solace in hearing Rundle articulate and humanise that particular type of pain not only with her words, but with her particular mysterious language of melody and timbre. The album captures a moment where a masterful songwriter strips away all flourishes and embellishments in order to make every note and word hit with maximum impact, leaving little to hide behind.

A gentle melancholy piano line introduces album opener and lead single “Return,” and when Rundle finally sings, every syllable guided with the utmost intention, she unleashes the ominously cryptic opening lines “A rich belief that no one sees you / Your ribbon cut from all the fates and / Some hound of Hell looking for handouts / The breath between things no one says.” The ambiguity may obscure the muse, but it doesn’t diminish its heaviness.

“Return” is available today via Sargent House and comes accompanied with a striking and introspective video directed by Rundle herself. The visual was heavily inspired by Jean Cocteau’s ‘Orpheus’ and Wim Wenders’ ‘Wings of Desire’, and gives nods to other films and images. Of “Return”, Rundle unfolds, “An examination of the existential. A fractured poem. Trying to quantify what something is definitely about or pontificating on its concrete meaning defeats the purpose of art making. I’m not a writer. I make music and images to express things that my words cannot convey or emote. I’ve been studying ballet and the practice of expression through movement, which I incorporated into the video. I choreographed a dance to the song – some of which you see. Pieces show through. Since completing ‘Engine of Hell’, I’ve stepped away from music more and more and into things like dance, painting and working on ideas for videos or little films. ‘Return’ is the result of the efforts.”

Watch the video here:

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Album artwork. Photo by George Clarke

Watch: ‘Piecework’ by Kowloon Walled City

Posted: 8 September 2021 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Oakland-based heavy music savants Kowloon Walled City have announced Piecework, the quartet’s first album in six years, confirmed for an October 8th release via Neurot Recordings and Gilead Media. Since forming 15 years ago, the band has increasingly refined its deconstructed approach to noise rock, math rock, and post-hardcore, embracing dynamics and negative space to a degree that few others in the world of heavy music match. With Piecework Kowloon Walled City has managed even greater levels of restraint: songs are bleak and slow, but also shorter and more concise; counterpointing moments of austere beauty with stretches of near silence. While the band has always operated under the MO that less is more, it has doubled down on that ethos for Piecework. Singer/guitarist Scott Evans and guitarist Jon Howell, the main songwriters, self-imposed restrictions to push themselves creatively—“restraining ourselves into oblivion,” as Howell puts it.

The negative space amplifies the ruptures of heady aggressiveness that anchor Piecework. Angular guitar notes from Howell skew off the neck, dissolving into space. Ian Miller’s bass lines churn in the muck. Drums and cymbal smashing by Dan Sneddon punctuate dead air. (Sneddon, formerly of Early Graves, makes his recording debut with the band five years after joining.) There’s sadness and anger in Evans’ shouted vocals, but also a desire for something better; hints of perseverance and hope pushing through the resignation and regret. Piecework feels not only like an artistic accomplishment, but a triumph of resolve and vision.

Evans was dealing with the loss of his father during the writing of the album. He found strength in the women in his life, especially his maternal grandmother, who worked at a shirt factory in Kentucky for 40 years while raising five kids. The album name (and title track) is a nod to her line of work—and her quiet resilience. The themes of absence and death, surrendering to aging, and familial strength and love are all encapsulated in album artwork by photographer Melyssa Anishnabie—the tattered beauty of an abandoned home reveals the faint edges of where life used to be. Evans likens it to watching a grandparents’ house fall into disrepair. As with all previous KWC releases, Evans recorded and mixed Piecework (his impressive recording CV includes Thrice, Yautja, Great Falls, Ghoul, Town Portal, and many others) and like previous albums Container Ships (2012) and Grievances (2015) the tracks were recorded live at Oakland’s Sharkbite Studios, with minimal overdubs.

Watch ‘Piecework’ here:

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Photo Credit: Scott Evans

MORTIIS Reveals ‘Transmissions From The Western Walls Of Time’

Posted: 15 May 2021 in Previews and Editorial
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Dungeon synth pioneer, MORTIIS has announced the release of  Transmissions From The Western Walls Of Time – a live recording from 1997.

Very few audio documents exist of the handful of shows MORTIIS did in the    90s, and this is one of the few we were able to dig up. This recording was captured by an unknown person, bringing a video camera or cassette recorder to the show. The show was at the Transmission Theatre, now defunct, in San Francisco, November 12, 1997.

Transmissions From The Western Walls Of Time was released on limited edition classic black vinyl, and a strictly limited edition silver vinyl, which is now sold out. Both vinyl versions include an A2 sized poster. It is also available on Digipack CD.
The silver vinyl, was offered to members of the Fan Club/Patreon group Cult Of Thee Black Wizards which is a subscription based Fan Club style group. Membership includes free download of around 40 releases, studio updates, priority ordering of limited edition releases, exclusive merchandise, a monthly/bi-monthly video chat for members only (via a private members only Facebook Group).

Click the image for links:

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