Dave Lombardo shares the second single ‘Separation from the Sacred"’today, from his upcoming debut solo record, Rites of Percussion, coming 5th May via Ipecac Recordings.
Lombardo is one of the busiest musicians working right now. Never one to rest on his laurels, the drumming pioneer recently released new albums with Dead Cross and Venamoris, and announced Empire State Bastard, a new project with members of Biffy Clyro who have just shared a new single. He will also be hitting the road with Mr. Bungle and The Misfits in the coming months, as well as festival appearances with John Zorn (including Big Ears Fest in April).
Listen to ‘Separation from the Sacred’ here:
The recording process of the film score-like album had a simple mantra: drums had to be drums. Mixed in early 2022 by Lombardo’s son, David A. Lombardo, the self-produced release features a large concert bass drum, a timpani, a grand piano, and a flock of shakers, maracas, Chinese and symphonic gongs, Native American drums, congas, timbales, bongos, batás, wood blocks, djembes, ibos, darbukas, octobans, cajóns, and cymbals.
SWANS have announced details of their sixteenth studio album, The Beggar, due for release on Mute / Young God Records (N America) on 23 June 2023. In addition, Swans have announced further dates for a tour across the UK, Europe and North America – full details below. The Beggar will be released on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve with a download card for accessing an additional 44 minutes of music (also included on the album’s CD version), as a double CD in a brown chipboard digi-pack, as well as digitally.
Listen to the first track from the album, ‘Paradise is Mine’:
SWANS LIVE DATES – 2023
20 May – Leipzig DE, UT Connewitz – SOLD OUT
21 May – Poznan PL, CK Zamek – SOLD OUT
23 May – Katowice PL, Kino Teatr Rialto – SOLD OUT
25 May – Zilina SK, New Synagogue
26 May – Ljubljana SL, Kino Siska
27 May – Innsbruck, AT, Heart of Noise Festival, Treibhaus
29 May – Bologna IT, Teatro Duse
31 May – Lyon FR, Transbordeur
2 June – Barcelona ES, Primavera Sound Festival
4 June – Lisbon PT, Culturgest – SOLD OUT
5 June – Lisbon PT, Culturgest
6 June – Faro PT, Teatro Das Figuras
9 June – Madrid ES, Primavera Sound Festival
11 June – Athens GR, Vraxon Theatre
13 June – Thessaloniki GR, Moni Lazariston
15 June – Antwerp BE, Bourlaschouwburg
16 June – Utrecht NL, Hertz Theatre – SOLD OUT
11 Aug – Brighton UK, St George’s
12 Aug – Manchester UK, Albert Hall
15 Aug – Newcastle UK, Boiler Shop
16 Aug – Glasgow UK, St Luke’s
18 Aug – Bristol UK, Arc Tangent Festival
19 Aug – Leeds UK, Belgrave Music Hall
21 Aug – Dublin IE, The Academy
23 Aug – Norwich UK, Waterfront
24 Aug – London UK, Troxy
26 Aug – La Tour-De-Peilz CH, Nox Orae Festival
2 Sep – Dallas TX, Granada Theater
3 Sep – Austin TX, Paramount Theatre
7 Sep – Phoenix AZ, Crescent Ballroom
8 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room
9 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room
12 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
13 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
Plant-based metal avant-gardists BOTANIST have seeded the new track ‘Epidendrum Nocturnum’, which is named after a ‘nocturnal’ species of the orchid family (common to South Florida but also growing in the Caribbean and all the way down to Brasil), as the second single taken from their forthcoming album VIII: Selenotrope. The album is planted for blooming on May 19, 2023.
Listen here:
BOTANIST comment: “For VIII: Selenotrope, I wanted to limit myself to only dulcimers, drums, bass and voice”, mastermind Otrebor explains. “For the voice, I decided to have an album without any screams or harsh vocals whatsoever, and instead to rely on the whispers that speak to the listener as messages in a dreamlike state. As the album progresses, melodic choirs are increasingly introduced. These choirs, which have progressed in form and presence since I started Botanist, see their biggest role ever on VIII: Selenotrope. The song ‘Epidendrum Nocturnum’ is one of the album’s darker pieces. Its churning main section gives way to a cathartic landscape in which whispered elements underpin melodic choral paeans to flora that bloom in moonlight.”
Ahead of the release of their sprawling double-album 93696, out March 24th, Liturgy shares new single ‘Before I Knew The Truth’. Bounding with an incalculable momentum, "Before I Knew The Truth" exemplifies the new album’s equilibrium between meticulous composition and unbound ecstasy. Incendiary guitars glitch and fracture throughout, contorting and stuttering at lightning speed as keening vocals reach toward the sublime.
Following the release of 93696, Liturgy will be touring worldwide, including U.S. dates with support from labelmates BIG|BRAVE and sets at Big Ears Festival, Long Play and ArcTanGent. The music of Liturgy is in a constant state of searching. In pursuit of larger truths, be they philosophical or personal, Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix and her band imbue their music with a sense of urgency and ceaseless longing.
93696 is a number derived from the religions of Christianity and Thelema, a numerological representation of heaven, or a new eon for civilization. Hunt-Hendrix composed the album as an exploration of eschatological possibility divided by the four “laws” that govern her own interpretation of heaven, “Haelegen”: Sovereignty, Hierarchy, Emancipation, and Individuation. These laws constitute the four movements of 93696 which act as dramas all their own within the framework of the record. Throughout the movements Hunt- Hendrix invokes the album’s myriad of personal and conceptual themes through the ensemble’s sheer force of sound, her will and intent blossoming from each bombarding gale.
Taken in its entirety, 93696 reflects the awe of the unknowable and celebrates what revelations and mysteries lie ahead.
Listen to Liturgy’s 93696 single ‘Before I Knew The Truth’ here:
AA
Liturgy 2023 tour dates:
Mar. 23 – Brooklyn, NY – TV Eye (93696 album release show) Mar. 30 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival May 7 – Brooklyn, NY – Long Play Festival Jun. 10 – Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz PDB * Jun. 11 – Toronto, ON – The Garrison * Jun. 13 – Buffalo, NY – Mohawk * Jun. 14 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop * Jun. 15 – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary * Jun. 16 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle * Jun. 17 – St Paul, MN – Turf Club * Jun. 18 – Fargo, ND – The Aquarium * Jun. 21 – Calgary, AB – Sled Island Festival * Jun. 23 – Vancouver, BC – Vancouver Jazz Fest * Jun. 24 – Seattle, WA – Substation * Jun. 25 – Portland, OR – Star Theater * Jun. 27 – Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial * Jun. 28 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent * Jun. 29 – Los Angeles, CA – Resident * Jun. 30 – Mesa, AZ – The Nile Underground * Jul. 1 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar * Jul. 3 – Austin, TX – The Lost Well * Jul. 4 – Houston, TX – The End * Jul. 5 – New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa * Jul. 7 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl * Jul. 8 – Raleigh, NC – The Pour House * Jul. 9 – Philadelphia, PA – Milk Boy * Aug 16-19 – Bristol, UK – ArcTanGent Festival * w/ BIG|BRAVE
As anyone who ever listened to the legendary BBC radio DJ John Peel will know, hearing a favourite artist re-interpret a familiar song by another artist can bring new insights into both, as well as being a lot of fun.
During a break from writing Midas Fall’s fifth album, Elizabeth Heaton took some ideas that had been incubating for a while and, along with bandmate Michael Hamilton, applied their own unique perspective to three well-loved songs by Bruce Springsteen (Dancing in the Dark), Radiohead (Creep) and Placebo (Every You Every Me).
Covers EP sees Springsteen’s driving rock anthem reimagined as a quieter, more introspective narrative, imbued with ‘80s synths and Heaton’s softly hopeful but uncertain vocals. Radiohead’s Creep is a dreamy, kaleidoscopic waltz that slowly builds to a raging climax. On Every You Every Me, the icy undertones of Placebo’s original version are magnified even further, evoking a bleak landscape cloaked in dark, haunting sounds.
For first single ‘Creep’ Liz from the band states, “Creep, along with the other tracks on the upcoming EP were created during lockdown. We took some of our favourite tracks from growing up and gave them a different feel. As a teenager Radiohead were the first band to make me feel that music could be something more, so have been a massive influence to me musically, especially when I first started writing. I was listening to Creep and imagined it played in a waltz style time signature. With the aid of my keyboard and a glass of wine the vocals seemed to flow very easily and were captured in a single take. From there it grew arms and legs."
Listen here:
Covers EP will be released digitally worldwide by Monotreme Records on 7th April.
Well this is bold… But if you’re going to cover a classic, you have to do something special with it.
The Canadian alternative rock band A Primitive Evolution (A.P.E.) released an excellent third album entitled ‘Becoming’ in late 2018 that fused industrial, metal and electronic sounds to create a raw, visceral yet soulful record that blurred boundaries to show off a genre-blending mix of Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Tool, Radiohead, The Prodigy and even U2.
Recorded at their Desolation Studios set-up in their home city of Toronto, it included input from writer/producer Ian D’Sa (Billy Talent) and engineer Kenny Luong (Metric) and displayed obvious crossover potential that had the band placed firmly in the ‘ones to watch’ category. With songs also featured in films such as ‘Chastity Bites’ and the vampire musical ‘Suck’, as well as several North American TV shows, their next step was keenly anticipated.
Then….frontman and guitarist Brett Carruthers joined old friends and compatriots (and labelmates) The Birthday Massacre as their new bassist, with writing, recording and touring duties foor them (not to mention a pesky pandemic) necessitating that A.P.E. be temporarily placed on the backburner.
The band have today taken a step back into the limelight with a new single entitled ‘Ace Of Spades’. Yes that one….and who saw this leftfield/rightfield (it’s all the same to me) curve ball of song choice coming? But, as Carruthers explains: “We actually started playing it live for fun years ago while writing ‘Becoming’ and were listening to a lot Motörhead classic. We thought, what if we slowed it way down to sound like one of our dirty rock jams? We fell in love with the result and played around with it, and finally decided to record and release it. We’re just sad Lemmy will never get to hear it, but hopefully the metal gods may accept our filthy offering!”
‘Ace Of Spades’ is included on a three track EP that is set for release on 3rd March via Metropolis Records. Check it here:
Taken from their album ‘Apocalypse For Beginners’, Rabbit Junk have released ‘Nostromo’ as a taster of their bold technoindustrial/electropop/metal crossover sound.
Rabbit Junk draws subtle parallels between the challenges facing our species as a whole and the challenges facing our own personal lives. These challenges are characterized as foreseeable and yet tragically unavoidable. As such, the album communicates the fatalism and frustration of modernity alongside the lack of control we often feel over our own lives.
The album’s lead track “Stone Cold" (Feat. Amelia Arsenic) exemplifies Rabbit Junk’s willingness to take risks and defy genre norms. “Stone Cold” is a gender-fluid and genre-mashing anthem with an infectious sing-a-long chorus. The song featuries lyrics in both German and English delivered by masculine and feminine vocal textures floating over a mélange of punk, drum & bass, metal, and hip hop.
Other standout tracks include “Nostromo”, a sci-fi influenced art-metal meets synthwave track which is quickly becoming a fan favorite, and “Love Is Hell”, a decidedly danceable and gritty homage to everyone’s broken hearts.
French darkwave band, Divine Shade has just unveiled their new single, ‘Stars’.
The track was performed live during Divine Shade’s set in support of Gary Numan’s 2022 UK tour.
The song’s theme is simple. It addresses the concept of our “inner child” disappearing over time. Says, Rémi Thonnerieux, “I wrote this song to talk about the fact that love and resilience are the true paths to dreaming again”. 2022 has been a great new start for Divine Shade. "Stars" is their way of saying "Thank You" to everyone for this year’s success. The song will also be part of a big musical project to be announced in 2023.
‘Stars’ was produced by Ren Toner and features Shan Moue on additional vocals. ‘Stars’ is available on all major digital platforms including Bandcamp. Listen here:
Black Ox Orkestar have shared the new track ‘Viderkol’ from Everything Returns.
The new album from the acclaimed modern Yiddish/Klezmer avant-folk group reunited after a 15-year hiatus, featuring members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion, is out on 2nd December 2022 on Constellation.
Black Ox Orkestar formed from Montréal’s fertile post-punk scene of the early 2000s, featuring members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion and Sackville, releasing two acclaimed and influential albums Ver Tanzt (2004) and Nisht Azoy (2006).
Everything Returns picks up right where the band left off, with incisively atmospheric, uniquely modern Jewish diasporic folk music of brooding balladry filtered through the lens of an indie-rock sensibility, exquisitely recorded by Greg Norman (Nina Nastasia, Jason Molina)
Black Ox Orkestar will be making select live concert appearances in Toronto, Montréal, Keene NH and Brooklyn NY, December 13-17.
LIVE DATES • DECEMBER 2022
12/13 • Toronto ON • The Music Gallery 12/14 • Montréal QC • Museum of Jewish Montréal Co-presented with MJM, POP Montréal and KlezKanada with special guest Sam Shalabi 12/15 • Keene NH • Nova Arts 12/16 • Brooklyn NY • Union Pool with special guest Matana Roberts 12/17 • Brooklyn NY • Union Pool Co-presented with Jewish Currents Magazine
Oslo-based hardcore/noise-rock trio Hammok has just shared a new track off the band’s debut EP Jumping, Dancing, Fighting, due out on December 9th via Loyal Blood Records, the label owned by Blood Command’s Yngve Andersen.
Aural Aggravation 