LIP CRITIC are back with ‘In The Wawa (Convinced I Am God’, the latest cut from their forthcoming LP ‘Hex Dealer’ (out 17 May).
‘In The Wawa (Convinced I Am God),’ the latest single from NYC’s Lip Critic, combines banshee-possessed samples and furious percussion to create a sonic environment something like a f**ked-up rave that a bunch of hardcore kids and punks showed up to. This thrilling piece of electronic punk is an inquisition into the state of spiritual marketplace and the isolating results of consumption. The accompanying official video follows a band as they raid their label’s offices to reclaim their music.
Lip Critic’s debut album Hex Dealer will come out 17 May via Partisan. Behind previous singles ‘It’s The Magic,’ ‘The Heart,’ and ‘Milky Max,’ the band was one of the breakout artists of SXSW (“they made for an anarchic, categorization-defying experience that got better and weirder the longer it went on.” – Rolling Stone). The music has earned additional praise from Consequence (“hits like a cannonball to the chest”), Paste (“the B-52s on ketamine”), Matt Wilkinson gave them a 5/5 and Loud & Quiet said “the band has gone from conquering their neighbourhood venues to becoming one of NYC’s most talked about acts.” The album announcement in Feb came with features from NME (cover story) and DIY who said “Lip Critic are taking what it means to be a musician in 2024 and pushing all boundaries.”
Watch ‘In The Wawa (Convinced I Am God)’ here:
LIP CRITIC – UK TOUR DATES:
14 May – The Deaf Institute (The Lodge) – Manchester, UK
SUMAC the Northwest-based trio consisting of guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner, bassist Brian Cook, and drummer Nick Yacyshyn have announced their new album The Healer, out on June 21st on 2xLP/CD and DL. Alongside the album’s announcement, the trio have shared the single ‘Yellow Dawn,’ an epic that churns meditative organ by Faith Coloccia into a glacial stomp that the band obliterates into swirls of airtight riffing and untethered, intoxicating improvisations.
On The Healer, recorded and mixed by Scott Evans (Kowloon Walled City, Thrice, Great Falls, Autopsy), SUMAC deepens its multi-faceted exploration into the parallel experiences of creation and destruction. Over the course of 4 tracks in 76 minutes, SUMAC presents a sequence of shifting movements which undergo a constant process of expansion, contraction, corruption and regrowth.
This musical methodology reflects the thematic nature of the record – narratives of experiential wounding as gateways to empowerment and evolution, both individual and collective. The group’s interpolation of melody, drone, improvisation, and complex riffing becomes a transmogrifying act embodying the depth of human experience. In its highest aspiration it mirrors our ability to endure mortal and spiritual challenges, through which we may emerge with an increased capacity for understanding, empathy, love of self and others. Dismal though the subterranean pits of The Healer may at first appear, from them can be felt the unwavering determination to embrace life, acknowledge interdependence, and honour the gift of existence.
On the eve of their album release, CNTS, the Los Angeles-band featuring members of Dead Cross, Retox and Qui, have shared a video for the title track from their new album, Thoughts & Prayers (out tomorrow, 29th March).
"’Thoughts & Prayers’ was inspired by a bad day I was having during recuperation after my accident and subsequent surgeries. I was angry and in a lot of pain, struggling to get through the day while not exacerbating my injuries. In the US, "thoughts and prayers," is a common banal response to tragedies. Whenever someone shoots up a school or an airplane crashes into a shopping mall or an entire city overdoses on fentanyl, pundits and politicians flock to the cameras and social media with, "our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families… It’s stupid and insulting." – Matt Cronk
Ahead of the release of their new album A Chaos Of Flowers, out April 19th, BIG|BRAVE have released the striking new single ‘canon : in canon,’ featuring one of the album’s featured performances by acclaimed guitarist and label-mate Marisa Anderson. Vocalist/guitarist Robin Wattie leads the ensemble with a deeply affecting melodic turns and subtly ecstatic vocal effects, while Anderson and guitarist Mathieu Ball billow in plumes of distortion and slow arpeggio beneath drummer Tasy Hudson’s delicate cymbal work.
About the track Robin Wattie comments, "I took a risk and went full R&B and to my great surprise everyone was super down. I took another risk by trying to convey the slow and heavy nature of witnessing yet another sunrise in the throes of deep sadness, grief or depression… and the sense of failure when you’re unable to navigate the outside world that seems to carry on and disregard the severity of these emotional and mental states. Marisa Anderson amplifies the track to a beauty I couldn’t have imagined."
Listen to ‘canon : in canon’ here:
BIG|BRAVE tour dates
May 3 – Duisburg, DE – Stapeltor May 4 – Brussels, BE – Les Nuits Botanique May 5 – Paris, FR – Pointe Ephemere May 6 – Bern, CH – Dachstock May 7 – Schorndorf, DE – Club Manufaktur May 8 – Graz, AT – Orpheum Extra May 9 – Budapest, HU – Durer Kert May 10 – Wien, AT – Chelsea May 11 – Krakow, PL – Kamienna12 May 12 – Warsaw, PL – Hydrozagadka May 14 – Prague Bike, CZ – Jesus May 15 – Berlin, DE – Kantine am Berghain May 16 – Aarhus, DK – VoxHall May 17 – Sonderborg, DK – Mejeriet May 18 – Copenhagen DK – A Colossal Weekend May 20 – Den Haag, NL – Paard May 21 – Antwerp, BE – Bouckenborgh May 22 – Ramsgate, UK – Ramsgate Music Hall May 23 – Brighton, UK – The Green Door Store May 24 – Bristol, UK – Dareshack May 25 – Leeds, UK – The Lending Room May 25 – London, UK – Portals Festival
German psych-rock collective Ornamental have just unveiled a new song off their first studio album Verwandlung Im Schlaf, which is scheduled to be released on April 11th via Pink-Tank Records.
Listen to this new seven-and-a-half beast of a track titled ‘Methastasis’ here:
Combining elements of heavy, psych-rock with 80’s influenced synthesizers, the quartet sound like the Germanic counterpart of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Verwandlung Im Schlaf takes listeners on a exciting journey through various musical landscapes, and sometimes during the duration of just one song. ‘Esoteric Warfare’ for instance, send us on a drive through a desolate and monochromatic desert, while ‘Maelstrom’ sweep us off the road and transports us straight to space.
Originally formed as a solo project of Sidney Jaffe (Arcane Allies, Burnpilot) the band transformed into a power quartet with Jonas Hehemann (Burnpilot, Tv Strange) on bass, Rouven Bienert (Tv Strange, Ruins) on Guitar/Synth and Lennart Uffmann (Brandmann) on the drums.
Australian instrumental post-rockers sleepmakeswaves have released another single from their forthcoming album "It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It" following the addition of two more US shows to their growing world tour dates. The band took to social media to tell fans about the new single:
"’Ritual Control’ was first demoed as ‘Dr. Riff Has Arrived’. I still wonder whether we were mistaken to have not kept the old title. Otto originally presented the song skeleton to us with the concern that maybe the riffs were "too dumb". In fact, Tim and I responded, they are the *perfect quantity* of dumb. Sure, these riffs aren’t going to earn a PhD. But they will hold down a full-time job, get the kids to school on time and read the occasional piece of challenging non-fiction on weekends. Courageous and heartfelt conversations like this are the core of what effective post-rock songwriting is all about. New album out next month!" -Alex
Listen to ‘Ritual Control’ here:
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The new album It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It, released on 12th April, was produced by the band themselves, at Golden Retriever Studios in Sydney, Australia. Written during the pandemic, it was originally recorded during 2022 just before the band embarked on a 3 month tour for their previous EP trilogy ‘these are not your dreams.’ Further recording was completed in 2023, including string arrangements by Simeon Bartholomew (SEIMS). The record was then mixed by Andrei Eremin (Closure in Moscow, Tash Sultana, G Flip, Luca Brasi) in Philadelphia USA and mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering in Boston USA.
The first single ‘Super Realm Park’, prefiguring the record as a whole, is a majestic return to the classic hallmarks of the band’s melodic post-rock sound, whilst introducing new production and arrangement elements. Fans of the band’s heavy bombastic aggression will resonate with tracks such as ‘All Hail Skull’ and ‘Ritual Control.’ They also shine with invigorated melodic and emotive performances and arrangements on tracks like ‘Black Paradise’ and ‘Terror Future.’ Retaining their signature approach to heavy dynamics and crescendos the band are still at their unmatched peak when they turn their hand to cataclysmic emotional epics such as the title track and the album closer ‘This Close Forever.’
The band released a statement to fans, saying:
"The mysterious phase of nothingness, crucial to the smw creative process, is over: our new album is finally done. Thank you so much to all our listeners for your patience. It has been a slow but intense labor of love and we are proud of the songs on this record, and grateful for the many people who helped bring it to life. Hope to see you on the road in 2024, more show announcements to come, and we truly hope the new music we’re about to release resonates with you in the same way it does with us. Love smw”
‘Propaganda Now’ is the closing track from the upcoming album Confused OK by York band Soma Crew.
‘Propaganda Now’ was lyrically informed by an awareness of the increased discrepancy between fact and its interpretation through social media. Participation in the dispersion of information is unavoidable in contemporary society, and it is virtually impossible to be sure of the veracity of sources. Visual cues are taken from historical posters where images are used to persuade the viewer of a particular point of view. In these circumstances we are presented with a dichotomy, and our innate circumspection is smothered.
Anglo-Finnish progressive metallers Wheel are pleased to announce the release of their much-anticipated third studio album Charismatic Leaders on the 3rd May 2024 (InsideOutMusic). The album was meticulously crafted to meet Wheel’s ever-heightening benchmarks and recording with engineers/co-producers Daniel Bergstrand and Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah) stretched from August to December 2023. The end result, mixed by Forrester Savell, has consolidated all the gains of what came before: singer/guitarist James Lascelles, lead guitarist Jussi Turunen and drummer Santeri Saksala’s third album represents their heaviest and most conscious music to date.
To mark the announcement, the band have launched the first single taken from the album, and you can watch the video for ‘Empire’ here:
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Vocalist & guitarist James Lascelles comments of the track: “This is probably the most metal song I have ever written – it is intense as all hell when it kicks in and it keeps finding new ways to punch you in the face all the way to the end! Santeri did an incredible job with the drum track on this one and playing it live is really going to take some work in the rehearsal room..
Lyrically, it is about media empires and the effect they have on wider society – all of us are influenced to some degree, even if we would rather not admit it. Issues that require nuance are presented as binaries and opposing views are made into caricatures – a target for us to rage at that far too often, doesn’t even exist. This is not a new phenomenon by any means but it is one that seems to have been catalysed by the modern landscape of media, the internet and populist politics. As you might be able to tell from the mood of the song, this pisses me off immensely and it was cathartic to vent about it.”
The band will be celebrating the release of their new album with their first ever shows in Australia (supporting label-mates Caligula’s Horse) as well as their first ever North American headline shows. Later in the year the band will return to Europe for further headline dates, which have just been announced and can be found below:
31st October – Olympia, Tampere, Finland
1st November – Sawohouse UG, Kuopio, Finland
2nd November – On The Rocks, Helsinki, Finland
7th November – Lutakko, Jyväskylä, Finland
8th November – Finlandia-Klubi, Lahti, Finland
9th November – 45 Special, Oulu, Finland
15th November – Logo, Hamburg, Germany
16th November – Melkweg Up, Amsterdam, Netherlands
17th November – 013, Tilburg, Netherlands
19th November – Rebellion, Manchester, UK
20th November – Cathouse, Glasgow, UK
21st November – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK
22nd November – 1865, Southampton, UK
23rd November – Underworld, London, UK
24th November – Thekla, Bristol, UK
26th November – Kavka, Antwerp, Belgium
27th November – Luxor, Cologne, Germany
28th November – Colos Saal, Aschaffenburg, Germany
30th November – Backstage, Paris, France
2nd December – Komplex, Zurich, Switzerland
3rd December – Legend, Milan, Italy
4th December – Backstage Halle, Munich, Germany
5th December – Analog Music Hall, Budapest, Hungary
‘Ride Or Die’ is the first single release in nearly two years by Swedish post-punk/goth icons Then Comes Silence. It is also an opening statement of intent from their stunning new album, Trickery, which is out on 5th April, with vocalist Alex Svenson stating: “Friendship is love. It is important and worth fighting for. It’s ride or die."
Indeed, much of Trickery celebrates friendship, unity and the feeling of belonging to a tribe, with TCS explaining that “being a part of the post-punk and goth scene is a great privilege. After being on the road for so many years, we have experienced caring and welcoming audiences, both old and young, some with a similar background and some just for the love of the music and the culture that comes with the lifestyle. Uniting and harmonising with other people, we feel an incredible community together and it is a feeling that is both priceless and a blessing."
Trickery is also the audio definition of triumph over adversity. Backtracking to 2022, on the eve of their first-ever US tour and eager to promote their just released ‘Hunger’ album and its 2020 predecessor ’Machine’, TCS were suddenly and unexpectedly reduced to a three-piece. Would their famed darkwave wall-of-sound still work in a trio format? Fortunately, the answer was resoundingly positive, so much so that they resolved to continue with this slimmed-down line-up on a permanent basis, a period that has already included further US and European tours, followed by their return to the studio to make Trickery.
The inadvertent metamorphosis of the band has also led to a different way of creating new music. In order to capture the heart and essence of the trio’s live prowess, Trickery was recorded in just three days in Kapsylen Studio in Stockholm. With Jonas Fransson (a band member since 2015) laying down an energetic punk backbeat and sleaze punk fan Hugo Zombie (a 2018 recruit) providing inventive and rhythmic guitar lines, the main focus remains on singer and bassist Svenson, the sole surviving founder member from the band’s 2012 debut album. His velvety croon and solid bass lines are enhanced on ‘Trickery’ by retro synth sounds reminiscent of his recent solo futurist wave project, Neonpocalypse. "The electronic elements are essential to ‘Trickery’," he adds, "but are also a salute to punk music, the cradle of Then Comes Silence and the cradle of post-punk.”
Founded by Svenson in 2012 and touring frequently to promote three albums released in quick succession, TCS soon found a large audience in Germany. Signing to Nuclear Blast in 2016 for the release of Blood, their fanbase widened as they shared stages with artists such as A Place To Bury Strangers, Chameleons and Fields Of The Nephilim and performed at festivals all over mainland Europe. Firmly in the vanguard of the new generation of post-punk, darkwave and goth artists releasing high quality new material, they work hard to promote it and are recognised as a leading live act in their genre. They have also built a significant UK following and 2024 has already seen them play a sold out London show at the 229 venue.
TCS recently signed to Metropolis Records for the worldwide release of Trickery.
CNTS, the Los Angeles-band featuring members of Dead Cross, Retox and Qui, have debuted a second song from their forthcoming album (Thoughts & Prayers, 29th March) with today’s release of ‘I Won’t Work For You’ and its accompanying video.
Matt Cronk shares the story behind the song: “’I Won’t Work For You’ was inspired by the talking point being bandied about, mostly by conservatives, that ‘nobody wants to work anymore’ after having collected unemployment during the lockdown. I think a more accurate way to frame that is that nobody wants to work for people who treat them badly. Nobody wants to work without the expectation of fair pay and dignity. Nobody wants to work for the sole purpose of enriching someone else, and nor should they! Work sucks. I think a lot of people, myself included, are inspired to find more equitable means of supporting themselves or at least expect more from their employers.”
Michael Crain adds, very succinctly: “Bosses suck.”
The video, directed by Meriel O’Connell, who also crafted the band’s ‘Smart Mouth’ clip, was filmed at a pizza joint where Michael Crain worked. During tough times, Crain occasionally treated Cronk to a free slice.
Aural Aggravation 