Divide and Dissolve’s new and fourth album Systemic examines the systems that intrinsically bind us and calls for a system that facilitates life for everyone. It’s a message that fits with the band’s core intention: to make music that honours their ancestors and Indigenous land, to oppose white supremacy, and to work towards a future of Black and Indigenous liberation.
Saxophonist and guitarist Takiaya Reed comments, “This music is an acknowledgement of the dispossession that occurs due to colonial violence,” She continues, “The goal of the colonial project is to separate Indigenous people from their culture, their life force, their community and their traditions. The album is in direct opposition to this.”
Like its predecessor Gas Lit, Systemic was produced by Ruban Neilson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra and arrives on all formats through Invada on 30th June and is preceded by the lead single/video ‘Blood Quantum’ which calls into question the violent process of verification of Identity.
Godsticks announce their return with their new album This Is What A Winner Looks Like out May 26th via Kscope.
Introducing the new era of the band is single ‘Mayhem’. Musically the track flits from pneumatic staccato style riffs to an earworm chorus before an inspired solo slingshots us home to the song’s abrupt end. The track comes as the first taster of what This Is What A Winner Looks Like, an album that capitalises on the band’s near limitless sense of creativity, expert musicianship and effortless song writing to deliver what is surely their finest release to date.
Characterised by a rhythmic groove, the song is a testament to the airtight playing of the band and their unorthodox song writing that has made them one of Kscope’s shining lights. A fantastic initial offering of what is to come from the next chapter in the story of Godsticks.
Revelling in the chaos of the track, Godsticks guitarist Darran Charles, had the following to say:
“I stumbled upon this really ugly dissonant chord that sounded great with distortion, and thought about ways of making it sound even nastier and more chaotic (hence the title). But I was also interested in causing Tom (drummer) physical harm so I devised a bass drum pattern so complex that it will likely cause him a repetitive strain injury in the very near future. This song promises to be immense live and the music video hopefully translates the energy we’re going to bring to the stage when we take this song out on the road.”
Something unlike anything you’ve heard before, Severance is the 9th release from multi-instrumentalist, compulsive creator, and unrepentant volume addict Timo Ellis (Cibo Matto, Spacehog, Yoko Ono) under the Netherlands moniker. Just out on Svart Records, Severance features all the hallmarks of Ellis’ work, including blistering post-shred guitar heroics, primal drumming, and soulful, yet searing caterwauls. But as with every Netherlands release, Ellis has inexplicably found a way to ratchet up the intensity, render the dynamic shifts more extreme, and hone his menacing melange of melody and rhythm into a uniquely weaponized form of rock ‘n’ roll that reaches towards high art.
To coincide with the release of their new album, Netherlands have shared the video for their animal-rights anthem ‘Animal Insults’. Band leader Timo Ellis comments, ‘The song (and video of) ‘Animal Insults’ is more or less a straight up, punk rock animal-rights anthem/ scream of anger and grief. IMO, any regular meat/ fish/ dairy eaters that have the (relative) privilege + access to be able to *extremely easily* transition to a fully plant-based diet…ought to summon the guts to unflinchingly watch footage like this…in order to plainly see how horrifically inhumane (and socially and environmentally catastrophic!) the worldwide, legal, factory farm system really is. The current cultural and commercial manifestations of malevolent, ecocidal speciesism need to be dismantled, at scale…and as soon as humanly possible. ANIMAL LIBERATION RIGHT NOW! ‘
THESE BEASTS release a dashing video for the track ‘Cocaine Footprints’ as the final single taken from their forthcoming new album Cares, Wills, Wants. The crushing new full-length from the Chicago sludgy noise rock trio is slated for release on April 21, 2023 through Magnetic Eye Records.
Watch the video here:
THESE BEASTS comment: “There’s a bar near our rehearsal building that is sort of a hang out for bands and a great place to catch up with friends and talk music”, bass player and singer Todd Fabian relates. “One day, our friend Shirilla told us a hilarious story about someone calling the bar and asking him to find their cocaine. Of course, he told them no, but after getting off the phone, he did look over and saw these cocaine footprints coming out of the bathroom. Once we named the song that, the lyrics became an ambiguous story about our local hangout and our friends there. We also had a listening party at the bar one night after we got our test press and filmed a lot of it for the video.”
Girls Under Glass unveil the black and white video ‘We Feel Alright’, which is also the first single taken from the forthcoming album Backdraft. After a long hiatus the Hamburgian gothic rockers return with fiery new tracks that take the best elements from the band’s past and shapes them into an album that leads the way to the future. The release date of Backdraft has been slated to June 2, 2023.
‘We Feel Alright’ is also available as a digital single with two Girls Under Glass remixes entitled ‘Who the F*** Is Killing Joke?’ and ‘Into the Shining Light’ through the regular platforms.
The electric noire clip ‘We Feel Alright’ is now available to watch here:
Girls Under Glass comment: “The original version of ‘We Feel Alright’ was already introduced for years ago live on stage, but ever since we have continued to work on the song until it was just perfect for us”, synth player Axel Ermes explains. “This track comes with the vibe of our classics, yet it is also moving forward. It was fun to work on the two alternative mixes, which will be available as bonus tracks.”
After unveiling two singles of ‘Bortgang’ and ‘Tilbake Til Opprinnelsen’, Norwegian black-metal band MORK deliver a stunning video for ‘Forført Av Kulden’ to celebrate the release of their new album Dypet which is out now on Peaceville.
You can check out the video here:
Thematically, ‘Forført Av Kulden’ deals with the beguiling force of the cold, often portrayed as an omnipresent character within the world of Black Metal and a look into the natural beauty in death. On the single our protagonist enters a trance-like state to wander the forest and eventually freeze.
The song is also accompanied by a striking video, directed by Trond-Atle Bokerød, which echoes the primordial allure of nature, synonymous with the Black Metal subgenre, whilst exploring the unforgiving winter that is the song’s subject. After a veil of synthesizers are lifted MORK’s signature Black Metal tonalities are revealed for a mid paced rhythm that eventually gives way to Eriksen’s signature vocals and lachrymose lead lines.
Regarding the track Thomas Eriksen had the following to say:
“Forført Av Kulden’About being seduced into the cold hard weather outside by an unknown force. Wandering into the snowstorm at night and ending up freezing to death. It depicts a somewhat glorified theme of death as a beautiful and unavoidable thing.”
‘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:
‘A Classic Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue’ is the first video from Now That We Are All Ghosts, the second album from Milwaukee’s Resurrectionists.
The project was self-engineered, recorded and produced; it was mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. The album features nine songs of Doom Chamber-Americana, all powerfully cinematic and ripe for video treatments, leading the group to take the unusual and ambitious step of commissioning videos for every one of them. Now That We Are All Ghosts, will be released on Seismic Wave Entertainment on 12” vinyl LP, CD and Digital formats.
Watch here:
AA
The new album sees a marked change in the band’s direction and stylistic range. Resurrectionists were originally formed by lyricist, guitarist and banjo picker Joe Cannon and bassist Jeff Brueggeman from the locally revered trio WORK with drummer Josh Barto and pedal steel player Gavin Hardy. On the group’s 2019 debut album What Comes In — a collection of everyman trouble tales delivered with dark wit and piquant Midwestern tang — Gavin’s mournful, swelling steel work helped steer songs into Gothic-country territory.
On Now That We Are All Ghosts, Hardy has been replaced by multi-instrumentalist Gian Pogliano. Gian’s penchant for more adventurous, wider-ranging sonic discourse inspires Resurrectionists to branch out into unexpected stylistic experimentation. The material here is informed equally by the meticulous melodic abstractions of pre-punk icons Television as the Old Weird American sounds of Dock Boggs and Bascom Lamar Lunsford. The album’s opener ‘A Classic Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,’ for instance begins as a mournful, banjo-driven meditation but ends as an apocalyptic howl, filled with shrieking banjo feedback – ideal support for Cannon’s writing and singing.
Joe’s lyrics on Now That We Are All Ghosts are both primal and poetic and he sings the hell out of them with a tent preacher’s conviction and a working-class punk’s urgency. Lines that seem to squarely address experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic were actually influenced by reading Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain pre-2020, married to strange ruminations concerning Walt Whitman’s death mask.
It all adds up to a collection of life-or-death songs that are incredibly haunting, daunting and visceral.
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.”
Following the announcement of their forthcoming album Dødheimsgard return with their exceptional first single ‘Abyss Perihelion Transit’. The ten minutes plus track weaves a sombre tapestry incorporating elements of multiple sub genres in the world of Extreme Metal and thematically tackles ideas of epistemological dualism.
Regarding the single Vicotnik had the following to say:
“The whole album revolves subjectively around perception, experience, psychology, objective/subjective reality vs external pressure, tropes, taboos, the laws of motion/causality which influences one’s life. The subjective perception of reality vs the objective causal effects of reality and how they are bound interact. Epistemological dualism.”
Vicotnik continues:
“I guess mental health, or rather instead of health, let’s call it mental condition is a big topic on this record. Not as in a complaining way, or as a good or bad notion, but rather a subject’s study of his own psychology (en)during everything.
Like the ambiguity of Being. What is Being? Is it a meta-physical stratum of subjective emotionally fuelled notions or is Being just explaining a physical object that is, therefore being. Epistemologically I guess these lyrics dwell a lot on naïve realism vs representational realism. Cognitivism vs behaviourism, and then bringing it all to an artist context obviously. So, it is experiential renditioning, not solution driven.”
Accompanying the single is a video and single cover art from visionary artist Costin Chiorenau who brings the disparate and incredibly solemn existence of ‘Black Medium Current’s first single to life. Working together both the song and the video evolve over the course of the ten-minute run time to create something truly visionary both in a sonic and visual context. Costin elaborates on the video below:
“I’ve been following Dødheimsgard for 20 years now, and the genius of Vicotnik always captured my highest focus, being at the same time a huge inspiration, both musically and aesthetically. I always perceived Dødheimsgard being more as an artistic movement than a black metal band, another aspect which excites my creativity and I feel fulfilled that I could express all this passion through the ‘Abyss Perihelion Transit’ art video and single cover.”
He continues: “When I first heard it, I felt that void left behind by the desperation of the root-sense of old structures of perception. That void, which shakes the black matter foundation every time when manifestations tuned with and born in the past overleap the fresh sight of the present which fights hard to penetrate the dense walls of repetition. The main characters of this movie are the absence created by the vanishing old, the observer in search of a new fitting cloth of identity for its avatar and the desperate need of giving shape to the yet-not assimilated nor understood living new.
Secondary characters are different types of glitches in the matrix between self-imposed reality and the golden mean dream state, measuring systems for various types of space found between the layers of perception and the omnipresent shadow. These characters are interfering one with another in a multiverse of contrasts between defined and undefined, forming a brick-dust flavoured whole, at times exotic, at times smoked in bitter nihil. These characters are also the topics spoken but the energy of this song, by the voice of now and I consider the proper ones to be dissected through art.”
Aural Aggravation 