LASTER did not only stun the audience at Prophecy Fest last weekend with their memorable performance, but the three masked Dutchmen have also revealed ‘Afgelopen tijd’ (‘expired time’ or ‘time run out’) as the final advance single taken from their forthcoming album Andermans Mijne. The stunning new full-length from the avant-garde metal trio is scheduled for release on October 13, 2023.
LASTER comment: “On ‘Afgelopen tijd’, we have pinned down our passion for a hybrid of swing and groove”, vocalist and guitarist Nicky explains on behalf of the trio. “Perhaps it’s the thrust of the drumming, which might wake memories of the ‘Stadsluik’ EP. Those two nocturnal tracks that seemed to be buried in the background of a wacky after-party. However, our guitars flow more than ever as crisp as high speed internet. They are accompanied by prominent bass lines that are eager to reject any atavistic dictate. So what does the clean singing command? Nothing. It should rather be perceived as a free roaming element that gets mixed up with an increasingly repressing harshness.”
German post–modern noise rock ensemble ZAHN present their second full–length album Adria, an 80–minute–long journey into the heart of classic European holiday culture. Adria offers a bold escape from your daily life through technicolor transmissions of post–rock, krautrock, dark jazz, noise–rock, post–punk and electronic music. Influenced by the likes of TRANS AM, THE JESUS LIZARD, METZ, THE MELVINS and TORTOISE "Adria" is a compelling soundtrack to a 1980’s anti–utopian road movie!
‘Adria’ was mixed and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (RUSSIAN CIRCLES, CULT OF LUNA) at his Stockholm studio. The cover artwork, based around photographs by Lupus Lindemann(KADAVAR), was designed by Fabian Bremer (RADARE, AUA).
Adria is a testament to the incredible power of this trio and its ability to effortlessly ensnare your attention for the duration of a ten minute–song of purely instrumental music. Over the course of the albums 11 tracks ZAHN emerge as a form of PINK FLOYD of noise rock, relentlessly pushing the envelope on what’s already accomplished while remaining tasteful and tasty at every corner.
In advance of this, they’ve released a video for ‘Apricot’.
The video for ‘Apricot’ was directed by N. Hildebrandt, bringing ZAHN’s unique vision to life. The track was recorded by Peter Voigtmann at Die Mühle Studios, Gyhum, and expertly mixed and mastered by Magnus Lindberg at Redmount Studios, Stockholm.
ZAHN comments: "Being in a band often entails profuse sweating, whether it’s under the stage lights, lifting heavy gear, sitting on a sweltering bus without air conditioning or the anxiety-induced perspiration before a performance. For many rockers, being intoxicated is a vital element of a show. With ZAHN we’re approaching this in a different way – we’re pursuing an altered state of consciousness by pushing ourselves to the limit in a sauna – Apricot is a sober yet sensory and psychedelic sauna experience.”
Manchester underground music icon HARRY STAFFORD (frontman/founder of INCA BABIES) and North Carolina-based trash blues guitarist MARCO BUTCHER present their new single ‘Walk Among The Spectres’, following the resounding triumph of 2021’s ‘Bone Architecture’ LP. This is a cool piece of walking blues, with percussive Hammond organ and Butcher’s laconic backbeat. Their forthcoming album We Are The Perilous Men is out this autumn via Black Lagoon Records.
The video is fitting for this song, which is about an old friend who is fondly remembered. Our hero travels across town to put an electric piano-keyboard on his grave, discovering his own fragile mortality along the way. Directed by Stafford, this video was filmed in an expansive cemetery in South Manchester, which dates back to 1700 and was used throughout the Victorian era. Now a public park, people are invited to wander among the tombstones… to literally Walk among the Spectres.
TAR POND have just unveiled the fierce video clip ‘SLAVE’ as the next single taken from the Swiss doom visionaries’ forthcoming new album PETROL, which is scheduled for release on September 15, 2023.
TAR POND explain: “Although the video for ‘SLAVE’ was produced simultaneously with the clip for ‘BLIND’’, we approached the visuals in a quite different way”, vocalist Thomas Ott elaborates. “This dark and heavy song rather evokes simple and slow images. I had some interesting shots of jellyfish floating in dark water. So we decided to shoot some additional material of the band performing in the rehearsal room, filled with a maximum of smoke. That quickly turned out to be a bad idea due to the fire alarms installed in the building. Well, with the kind help of some good old friends, Marky managed to procure a much better location in no time. Initially, the video for ‘SLAVE’ was planned with more varied footage, but Fabrizio Merico’s sublime camera work, shot in only one night at the Zukunft Club in Zurich, and the absolute professional editing by Coroner’s Daniel Stoessel made us decide to just let it all go up in smoke! Sometimes less is more!”
Jason Blackmore (Molly McGuire) and Mario Quintero (Spotlights) have combined forces with their new band known as SISTERS.
The duo’s new single "Through The Cracks" appears on the upcoming album Leecheater, which will be released August 25th on Spartan Records.
Listen here:
Blackmore says, “’Through The Cracks’ was actually a last minute song. I came up with the riffs for the song the morning of the day before I was flying home from our second recording session. Mario had come down to the studio that morning and I showed him the riffs. While he went upstairs to get coffee, I threw together the structure and then we just recorded it. I walked around the block to come up with the verse lyrics and melodies. We recorded my vocals after we recorded the music and while I was doing my vocals Mario came up with the chorus lyrics and melody. We slapped some vocals on the bridge and did a couple guitar overdubs and voila. Basically it’s a song about a person having a midlife crisis. Or that’s how I perceive it at least.”
The album, Leecheater, is a tour-de-force of heavy, atmospheric rock. Featuring powerful, distorted guitar riffs, driving rhythms, and Jason Blackmore’s distinctive vocals, Leecheater is a gripping and immersive listening experience that showcases the band’s ability to create big sonic soundscapes that push the boundaries of modern rock.
With its lush production and dynamic arrangements, Leecheater is a must-listen for fans of heavy, atmospheric music and is sure to cement Sisters’ place as one of the most exciting and innovative bands in the contemporary rock scene.
Norwegian progressive rock group AVKRVST will release their debut album The Approbation on 16th June, 2023. The Approbation is a concept album about a bleak soul who is left solely with his thoughts, isolated on a cabin deep into the dark forests, far away from civilization. The 49 minutes long concept album contains 7 songs, which take the listener though the thoughts of a man struggling towards the acceptance of death, being hauled into the abyss.
Previously released as a single on streaming services, the haunting new video for the album’s second single ‘Arcane Clouds’ is out now and can be seen here:
AA
At the young age of 7 years old, Martin Utby and Simon Bergseth made a pact that they would form a band when they got older. Now, 22 years later they’ve created an album inspired by everything they grew up listening to from Mew, Anekdoten and Porcupine Tree to Opeth, Neal Morse and King Crimson, yet unique in its own right.
The Approbation was written and recorded at a cabin in Alvdal (Norway) during a rainy, cold fall and winter. Simon (composer, guitars, bass and vocals) and Martin (composer, drummer and synths) were later joined by Øystein Aadland on bass/keys, Edvard Seim on guitars and Auver Gaaren on keys.
Sonically, The Approbation is a massive sounding piece of music. It’s everything from lush, melancholy moods to heavy, more aggressive atmospheres capturing the feeling of a cold, gloomy fall – a dark sky, filled with gazing stars above the mist.
ME LOST ME shares the video for ‘Festive Day’, from her upcoming album, RPG (due 7th July via Upset The Rhythm). A selection of dates in support of Richard Dawson throughout May have also been announced, more details below.
Songwriter Jayne Dent comments on the track;
“’Festive Day’ is a song about being overcome by intense sensory experiences, of nature, the elements and desire. It’s inspired by spending a midsummer festival in Denmark, when the huge bonfires lit along the coast stayed alight through torrential rain and dense sea fog, which left a massive sensory impression on me. It’s about the coming together of all these elemental forces, feeling connected to this seasonal ritual, and connecting it to the English folk traditions around the same time of year, explored in May carols and similar songs, which often celebrate desire, lust and love alongside celebrations of nature and the land. The music video is an overload of artefacts, it’s fast paced and intense in terms of the editing but I wanted to contrast the emotional intensity of the song by framing it almost as an archive or museum of the future, that is documenting folk traditions and trying to reconstruct them and understand them, but missing that vital emotional component. I worked with folk musician and dancer Mark Insley, who choreographed a dance in the Cotswold Morris tradition, to be featured as part of the music video, and made handkerchiefs in the Morris style featuring elemental symbols.”
Watch the video here:
AA
A prolific writer, ME LOST ME has released two crowdfunded albums: Arcana (2018) and The Good Noise (2020), which was included in Electronic Sound Magazine’s Album of the Year list. These in addition to her latest EP The Circle Dance (2021), which was described as “her most textural and sonically adventurous music to date” by NARC Magazine, and an extensive touring schedule around the UK DIY scene, has won her unique sound much support across the musical spectrum. Dent has notably performed live for BBC Radio 3’s After Dark Festival and as part of the 2022 BBC Proms alongside Spell Songs, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Voices of the Rivers Edge Choir. She recently received the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers and was 2020-2021 Artist in Residence at Sage Gateshead.
ME LOST ME LIVE DATES: 03/05 – The Gate Arts Centre, Cardiff, UK w/ Richard Dawson – tickets
04/05 – St George’s Bristol, Bristol, UK w/ Richard Dawson – tickets
05/05 – Barbican, London, UK w/ Richard Dawson – tickets
06/05 – The Bradshaw Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, UK w/ Richard Dawson – tickets
07/06 – London – EartH Theatre w/ Xiu Xiu
30/06 – Hyper Inverter Festival, Ulverston, UK
15/07 – The Lubber Fiend, Newcastle, UK (ALBUM LAUNCH)
The inimitable four piece OXBOW are announcing their first new music in six years with the anticipated release of Love’s Holiday, to be released via Ipecac on the 21st July. The album is preceded today by the lead single ‘1000 Hours’ – a song featuring Roger Joseph Manning Jr (Jellyfish, Beck) and with a video directed by John David Levy.
About the track vocalist and lyricist Eugene Robinson comments, “1000 Hours for the OXBOW completist, 100 percent ties in to our other song 1000, thematically in my mind. But filming the video, given that I just had surgery a few days before felt very much like Mann’s Death in Venice to me. You know where waiting to die never felt more beautiful. Which really feels like the essence of love. Or at least one of them.”
Guitarist Niko Wenner adds, "’1000 Hours’ began life with the bright extroverted feel you hear most, but inevitably the darker introspective mood of the coda and intro emerged. Both qualities are essential to Love’s Holiday. Roger (backing vocals), John (video director), and Joe Chiccarelli (co-producer) all did extraordinary work to heighten these emotions."
‘Move Fast’ is from the open-ended Argonaut album Songs from the Black Hat.
It is Gen X Silicon Valley slogans, 80’s pop synths and 90’s noise.
The video follows the adventures of some hapless microserfs in an office pod near you.
We’re reminded of Douglas Coupland, and also a time pre-pandemic when offices 9-5, 5 days a week were the usual. It’s a fizzy li-fi indie tune: check it here:
Quite possibly the most exciting thing to come out of Redhill in the last three centuries, Trevor’s Head markedly circle in three distinct orbits around stoner, punk and prog, creating a heavy, sonic vibe quite unlike anybody else out there.
Their new album “A View From Below, released on 5th May via APF Records (Mastiff, Desert Storm, The Brother’s Keg, Video Nasties) is a lean and cohesive expression of the power trio’s precision, which marks the next stage in the genre-bending and ever-evolving sound that is Trevor’s Head. For first single ‘Call of the Deep’, Roger Atkins (guitar/vocals) states,
"These last few years have been tough for us – for everyone – and I have constantly been struck by the strength I’ve seen in others. Whether battling personal loss, mental health difficulties, financial stresses, relationship troubles, whatever. This song is a nod to anyone who keeps fighting through the calm and through the storm. I have unending respect and pride in anyone who can do that, and this song is for them. Even if it didn’t go to plan for the protagonist this time.”
Aural Aggravation 