Venera, the hypnotic, ambient duo featuring Atlanta-based composer/filmmaker Chris Hunt and James Shaffer (Korn), have shared a third, and final preview of the pair’s forthcoming album, Venera (Oct. 13, Ipecac Recordings), with today’s release of ‘Disintegration’.
“We hoped to explore drifting, gridless timelines of drums and guitars, which converge midway in a wall of harmony and chorale,” explains Hunt of the five-minute song that features drummer Deantoni Parks (Mars Volta, John Cale). He continues, speaking directly to the video, which also features words by author Blake Butler: “Blake’s text sees and explodes light and experience in a way that is deeply committed to density and emotion – an honest voice in ‘Disintegration.’”
Watch the video here:
AA
Several guests join Hunt and Shaffer on the self-produced Venera. Parks (Mars Volta, John Cale) also contributes to ‘Erosion’ and HEALTH’s Jacob Duzsik contributes vocals on ‘Ochre,’ and Alain Johannes lends his voice to ‘Triangle.’
Aural Aggro faves Pound Land have unveiled an eye-bleeding, brain-melting video for the track ‘Liar’. It’s taken from their recent Singles Club compilation, released last month on Cruel Nature, which collects all the digital singles released between April 2022 and April 2023 in a physical form. It also emerges ahead of new album Violence which is out next month.
The third single from Swedish act Darkplace is their first to feature vocals, and is not a cover of the Gary Numan hit.
The band are described as ‘a mysterious new Swedish dark dream pop/post-punk group whose forthcoming debut album, About The End Of The World, is a conceptual work inspired by the bleak landscape of the Stockholm suburbs that birthed them.’ They go on to say ‘for the members of this highly secretive group, it is not just about the music. They perceive themselves as more an art project that happens to be exploring and commenting on the state of the world through their chosen mediums of music and video.’
Is a band mysterious if they tell you they are, or does that undermine the mystery? Surely a lack of disclosure is mysterious in itself? If I’m overthinking, it’s almost certainly a consequence of their overexplaining, although I am entirely on board with the idea of an act taking their art seriously to the point of fully inhabiting that space. When it comes to concept-based creations, you have to fully believe in it, otherwise, how can you expect anyone else to?
When it comes to Darkplace, context counts for a great deal, and to provide this, I shall quote liberally here: ‘Centred around an alternative reality – or is it just a grim present and future? – the album is being unveiled gradually via a series of videos based on animated digital paintings for each of its tracks… Their new single, ‘Cars’ […] sees the story move on to a man who travels north following cryptic messages written on highway signs that only show up in the blast of his headlights. Is he the only person who can see them and follow the trail? Darkplace cryptically state that “trying to escape this psychotic, slow burning apocalypse is not easy. Nowhere is safe. These weird structures and phenomena seem to occur everywhere, all over the world. Nowhere is safe!”
Perhaps somewhat ironically, the slow-burning apocalypse of which they write is accelerating at a pace no-one can keep up with, and half the planet is on fire now, quite literally, although this afternoon I read of hailstorms of biblical proportions in Germany and Italy, smashing car windscreen and requiring snow ploughs to clear the streets. It really does feel like the end of the world, and there’s a strong chance that is truly is.
Detached from the narrative of the album, ‘Cars’ stands well as a standalone single. It’s a taut, dark (of course) slice of post-punk inspired tunage, and while its lineage is clearly one that can be traced to the early 80s, it’s equally indebted to the school of the early 00s, which brought us Interpol and White Lies. What goes around comes around, and here in 2023, times are the bleakest they’ve been since the early 80s, with the added bonus of climate change threatening the collapse of civilisation and life as we know it. It’s dreamy but driven by an insistent beat and nagging guitar lines, and if the vocals, floating in reverb, evoke The Charlatans or Slowdive, and there’s perhaps a hint of Doves in the mix, the energy is more reminiscent of early Editors. Lyrically, it’s anything but uplifting, but the musical counterpoint really sweeps you along, making for an exhilarating three minutes.
I miss 2005. It might sound crass or lame, but I really do. Sure, I miss being in my twenties, and I miss not having the responsibilities I have now and I miss still studying and I miss being as alert and edgy, but more than anything I miss the sense of life and future that 2005 offered. Musically, it was a good – exciting – time with a new wave of post-punk influenced bands coming through. Interpol dropped Antics in 2004 and Editors began to break in 2005, and there was a real groundswell of excitement around the new-wave renaissance as spearheaded by bands who really channelled a certain Joy Division-inspired darkness.
With ‘Drive By Argument’, Real Teeth capture that spring of excitement, but without sounding nostalgic. It may seem a contradiction, but then, that was how it was in 2005, too. The emerging bands drew on the past, but didn’t sound like they were trying to recreate it. And the same is true of Real Teeth.
The single is accompanied by ‘a collage video from short clips of dash-cam footage of London from 1999’, and that’s probably more nostalgia-laden than the song itself.
But, propelled by a rhythm that’s packed with stuttering fills, a groove-driven bass and choppy guitars, it’s got a lot going on, with nods to Radio 4 and Gang of Four thrust to the fore in what is a busy and multi-layered cut. With a vital energy and dynamism, not to mention some well-placed changes in tempo and tone, ‘Drive By Argument’ is straightforward on the surface but has more going on underneath, and is worth taking some time to chew on.
Birmingham quintet TNL VZN describe themselves as ‘the product when the aggression of 90’s alternative rock and grunge collides with melancholy and angst of 2000’s Emo.’ Certainly, what goes around comes around, and there does, almost invariably tend to be a twenty-to-thirty year cycle in music. It’s interesting to witness, not least of all because it seems less the case that the new generation rebels against the music of the one before, but instead recycles and recreates it. Formed in 2021, TNL VZN are dipping into the music from around the time they were being born, the music of their parents – but with heartfelt lyrics that speak to their own generation.
‘Night Terror’ builds from a simple verse that combines aching minor chords with a half-sung, half-mumbled vocal that feels remarkably intimate and soulful, before breaking onto a beefy riff-driven chorus and instant hook.
Their touchstones are Gilt, Paramore, Halestorm and The Pretty Reckless. I have to admit that while I’m not mad keen on the first three, I do have something of an appreciation for The Pretty Reckless, and would say that this is very much on a par, with some solid songwriting, a strong delivery and a tangible emotional quality that gives it that vital edge. When they say they’ll soon be ready to conquer the world, it’s hard to disagree.
Allen Epley (Shiner, The Life and Times) has released a video for "Evangeline" off his recent debut solo album Everything, out now on Spartan Records.
“We wanted something simple but stark and beautiful. Having a solo record and figuring out how to do things like videos for it is strange for me because I’m usually doing it with a band. So after many potential scenarios, we decided to just get some simple close up footage in my garage in Evanston. Clayton Brown who made the video, (who was also first drummer in Shiner!) grabbed some beautiful shots of Chicago via the Blue Line and it absolutely matches the kind of sadness and sense of melancholy that the song carries in it. There’s a theme of escaping and wandering throughout the record so this was perfect” – Allen Epley
‘2072’ is the new single from Kety Fusco’s album The Harp, Chapter I, due for release on 3 March 2023. The composition of this track is based on a live granulation of Kety’s electric harp, combined with drone sounds created with a pulsating massager on the soundbox of the 47-string classical harp, and vocal reminiscences emitted by Kety with scratchy screams inside the harp soundboard, which decorate this post- classical sound.
On the single & accompanying video, Kety says, “On 13 January 2072 I will die: this video is a reminder of what it was. My melody will accompany me in my passing, reminding me that the world was beautiful before I arrived. I did not love the world I was living in and that is why he did not allow me to stay any longer. Forests precede civilizations, deserts follow them. It’s not my phrase, but I like it”.
All sounds on ‘2072’ are produced by an 80-kilo wooden harp, a carbon electric harp and live electronic manipulation. Kety Fusco and the harp met when she was six years old, and they have never left each other since. After years of studying and perfecting with the classical harp, Kety embarked on an exploration of non-traditional harp sounds, made from objects such as hairpins, scotch tape, wax, stones, hairpins, and so she says: "The harp was born in the 7th century, when the air was different, the tastes and experiences had nothing to do with today’s world and to this day I cannot think that there is no evolution: that is why I am designing a new harp instrument, it will still be the same, but contemporary and everyone will have the opportunity to approach it; in the meantime, welcome to THE HARP”.
Kety Fusco launches new album The Harp, Chapter I at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall on 3rd March 2023.
They say all good things arrive in threes, and the third single to be cut from Addie’s upcoming album ‘That Dog Don’t Hunt’ (out 25 November, via Itza Records) is a prime example.
A song that dwells upon the laws of the ultimate numbers game, “The First Odd Prime” finds Addie reflecting on Fibonacci’s revolutionary sequence, and the natural order of things. As Addie explains: “This is about compassion, as seen through the lens of Nature, The Golden Ratio, Fibonacci Numbers, with the fairy dust of the Charles Laughton film, Night of The Hunter, thrown in for colour.”
Chiming with the themes of “odd primes, the Golden Mean, rescue and homecoming” expressed in the song, the new single arrives with a mesmeric official video that finds the numerical and the natural artfully intersecting with one another. Directed by Andy Alston (Del Amitri) and co-edited with Addie Brik, the live footage was captured outside Addie’s home in Scotland, with additional film clips provided by Glenn Lewis (Mick Harvey, Cambodian Space Project).
Featuring a stellar cast of guest players, “The First Odd Prime”’s thunderous rhythms come courtesy of Simple Minds’ Jim McDermott on Drums, with Glenn Lewis (guitars) and Nick Blythe (bass) adding to its swirling maelstrom of sounds. US star N’dea Davenport (Brand New Heavies, Malcolm McClaren) also contributes her vocals to its hypnotic chorus hooks.
AA
Following recent singles including, the slow-burning ‘Retromingent’ and folk-tinted ‘Gearless’, ‘The First Odd Prime’ is the latest excerpt to be taken from Addie Brik’s upcoming studio album That Dog Don’t Hunt (out 25 November, via Itza Records).
The Georgia-born, Scottish-based artist’s first release since 2018’s acclaimed ‘I Have A Doctor On Board’, Addie’s new album documents the decline of Western society and culture, tells of the vilification of truth-sayers and whistleblowers, and derides the corrosion of free thought and the tide of dissolution our human liberties face in the 21st Century. Speaking about the album, Addie says: “I think Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato… the ancient Greeks blazed a very wise trail with the Golden Mean that influenced the best of what the West has achieved. The Golden Mean can right matters, which have gone too much in one direction, like betrayal or corruption; it’s about symmetry as opposed to chaos. The US Constitution, an inspired 4-page document, is still completely revolutionary. It states that man has unalienable rights, these rights are from Divine Authority and not from the State. It was written for ‘The one dissenting voice’. Whether it be society, music, architecture or education, the overarching thought should be: is it true, is it good, is it beautiful?”.
With its initial sessions arranged by Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, the album was recorded between Fernando Vacas’ private studio in Córdoba and her current base in Scotland during lockdown. Featuring appearances from Scottish talents including Deacon Blue’s Jim Prime (who also happens to be Addie’s neighbour), Alex Rex of Trembling Bells, Robbie MacIntosh (Paul McCartney / The Pretenders), Jim McDermott (Simple Minds / The Silencers) and The Scottish National Youth Choir; it also features contributions from further afield musicians including Glenn Lewis (who added guitars from Melbourne), plus engineering from Bob Coke and bassist Stephen Harrison from Bob’s studio in Paris. Writing retreats on the Isle of Skye with resident artist Doc Livingston (Kings of Kaakon / Uncle Rocket) would also feed into the record’s inherent sense of spaciousness and quiet contemplation.
Produced by Addie Brik, it was mixed jointly by Tufty, Paul Stacey and Pierre Marchand, with additional mixing and Mastering by Mark Beazley (Itza Records).
Purposeful and powerful, ‘That Dog Don’t Hunt’ is a record that burns with a luminescent ambition and a calescent political intent delivered by an artist at the top of her game.
Enigmatic Italian singer Elena Alice Fossi has released the lush single, ‘Poison Fresh’, which is taken from the forthcoming new full-length of her dark electro project SPECTRA*Paris. The fifth album of that band is entitled "Modernism" and has been slated for release on August 26.
Watch the video here:
AA
SPECTRA*Paris comment: "The new single ‘Poison Fresh’ is perhaps the most psychedelia-inspired song on the album", singer, composer, and lyricist Elena Alice Fossi writes. "It is a journey to unknown shores, where you learn how to free yourself from reptilian and poisonous empires. Getting on that spaceship has a price and takes you away from the known side of the world. But the dream is well worth living. ‘Plant your stigma on all dogma’!"
While physical formats for music may not be especially popular these days, there really is no substitute for holding an article in in your hand. It’s not just about the artefact or the possession – although increasingly, I feel that actually ‘owning’ your music seems like a sound move as acts pull their music from popular platforms – particularly Spotify – and acts who no longer exist cease to maintain their websites and BandCamp profiles and their works simply disappears. Nothing is permanent, but when it comes to things which are virtual, their ephemerality is even more pronounced. This is a long way to coming around to saying that the CD for Abrasive Trees’ new single is magnificent as an item, and it’s very much a fitting way to present the musical contents, and with three tracks including a remix of ‘Moulding Heaven with Earth’ by Mark Beazley (Rothko), it’s a proper 12” / CD single release, the likes of which are sadly scarce these days.
I don’t just love it for the nostalgia: this feels like a proper, solid package in every way, and ‘Moulding Heaven with Earth’ is very much cut from the cloth of sparse, minimal shoegazey post-rock, which provides the backdrop to a stirring spoken word performance before spinning into a slow-burning extended instrumental work. It builds and it broods, the atmosphere growing denser and tender as the picked guitar lines unfurl and interweave across a slow, strolling bass. A reflection on life and death, earth and afterlife, it’s a compelling performance, and the words would stand alone either on a lyrics sheet or as a poem. From there, it’s a gradual, and subtle journey that culminates in a crescendo – that’s strong, yet restrained.
B-side / AA side ‘Kali Sends Flowers’ is moving: again, it’s understated, and yet so very different, spinning a blend of post punk – even hinting at the gothier end of the post-punk spectrum – and psychedelia that in places hints at Spear of Destiny in the way it’s sparse yet rousing. It’s one of those songs that simply isn’t long enough, and that demands for ‘repeat’ to be hit immediately to keep it going.
Mark Beazley’s remix of ‘Moulding Heaven with Earth’ accentuates the atmospherics, and while it retains the rhythm – and if anything it highlights the beef of the bass – and is generally quite respectful in its treatment, and somehow expands the vibe and introduces a more ambient feel, while at the same time shaving over a minute off the time of the original. It’s an interesting – and I mean that positively – reworking, and one that most definitely brings something fresh to the track, rounding off what’s as close to a perfect EP as you’ll hear all year.
Aural Aggravation 