'Field Theory' is the second studio album from Dublin four-piece MELTS, due for release April 12th 2024 on Fuzz Club. Recorded live to tape at Black Mountain Studios in Summer 2023 and produced by Gilla Band's Daniel Fox, it's a collection of turbulent electronic psych-rock shaped by bulldozing motorik synth lines, densely layered guitars, primal percussion and the cavernous vocals of frontman Eoin Kenny. While their highly-praised 2022 debut ‘Maelstrom’ dealt with forces on a larger scale affecting a whole city, ‘Field Theory’ explores connections on a smaller, interpersonal scale.

The title takes the scientific term ‘Field Theory’, which describes how forces interact and influence particles around them, and applies it to the interactions between people, to the space between all of us, how people interact and affect others around them. Expanding on the album’s themes, MELTS write: “Like gravity we are drawn to and miss people and like light waves we love people and are loved. We live in orbits of each other, drawn by unseen forces. The album explores these forces, how we relate to each other, the people we live with and the people we live without. At the heart of Field Theory lies the realisation that we inhabit each other's worlds as much as our own, through a field of wide-ranging forces, as important as the ones keeping the planets in place.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Figment
2. Waves Of Wonder
3. Clouded
4. WLDNG
5. Shelter Of The Shade
6. Main Sequence
7. Altered
8. The Never
9. Softly Breathes

Leipzig, Germany-based experimental group Flying Moon In Space will release their second album, ‘ZWEI’, on June 24th. Due out via Fuzz Club Records and preceded by UK and EU tour dates through Spring/Summer, the latest album from the six-piece will arrive off the back of their highly-praised and sold-out self-titled debut album and a recent remix 12" that featured reworkings of tracks from the S/T album courtesy of kindred spirits Xiu Xiu, Suuns, A Place To Bury Strangers, Minami Deutsch, Camera and Warm Graves.

Where Flying Moon In Space's debut album was an extension of their live shows, long improv performances that would last hours at a time, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions meant they were forced to reinvent their creative approach on its follow-up. Adopting the childhood game 'Stille Post' (or 'Telephone'), the six members would each send the demos around in a circle, recording a single line or changing up the tempo, until the songs took on a life of their own.

These demos were then taken into a studio deep in the forests of the Czech Republic and 'ZWEI' was born. "Musically it turned out to be somehow something completely new to us. As a result ZWEI has a more structured, poppy side compared to our debut, even though soundwise we opened up to more experimental layers - using synthesisers for the first time, as well as loops and field recordings of the church and surrounding forest. I guess generally you can say that the process behind this LP was manifold - testing out personal and aesthetic borders, and carrying on our idea of what Flying Moon In Space can be sonically.”

TRACK LISTING

1) Traum Für Alle
2) Optimist
3) This Exists
4) Power
5) The Day The Sun Was Made
6) Illl Ill Ill
7) Dissoziation
8) Prophet 

At times percussive and dancey, at others hypnotic and cinematic, the largely synthesiser-driven soundscapes of 'L’Orée' feel both of the past and the future. It’s the sound of two different worlds – a record capable of being as primal and ritualistic as it is synthesised and digitally manipulated. Where the band’s prior minimal Krautrock (see their 2019 ‘Sinie Sinie’ LP) might have brought to mind cold, dark post-industrial cities, ‘L’Orée’s kosmische experimentalism takes you instead on an instrumental journey through the natural wilderness via the medium of shape-shifting psychedelic electronics.

That ‘L’Orée’ explores a more natural and organic sound than heard on their previous releases owes largely to the environment it was made in. Recorded in a tucked-away house in the French countryside that bordered on a surrounding forest, Ashinoa recall sessions spent soaking up their surroundings with a number of collaborators coming in and out to perform on the record: “The house we recorded the album in was kind of in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by douglas pine trees.

From this proximity to the forest, we wanted to take our soundscapes to a place we’ve never been before. Before we were surrounded by concrete, and then far from it. We were looking for a new listening place, to discover new intriguing sounds. We had laid down the basis of the album and then musician friends that would visit us at the time were invited to participate in the making of the album, each one of them bringing a touch of their own.” Since forming in 2015, the French five-piece comprised of Chris Poincelot, Matteo Fabbri, Jérémy Labarre, Paul Renard and Ghazi Frini have been at the forefront of the alternative scene in their home city of Lyon.

Initially associated with the city’s Misère Records movement and collective, the band have now signed to London-based label Fuzz Club Records (Night Beats, Tess Parks, The Underground Youth) for their latest. It follows the band's debut 'Sinie Sinie' LP and a vinyl-only release of the 'Koalibi' single as part of Fuzz Club's Reverb Conspiracy compilation series. Having toured around France on a number of occasions Ashinoa have also through the years shared stages with the likes of Metz, Flamingods, Tomaga, Warmduscher, Bo Ningen, Kikagaku Moyo, Minami Deutsch, The Holydrug Couple and many more.

TRACK LISTING

1) Vermillion
2) Koalibi
3) Feu De Joie
4) Space Cow
5) Falling Forever
6) Fuel Of Sweet
7) Unknown To Myself
8) Selvatica
9) BAde BaidebSz
10) Disguised In Orbit
11) Yzmenet
12) Outro

'Ships Will Come' is the highly acclaimed debut album from Leipzig, Germany-based outfit Warm Graves. On the LP, Warm Graves deliver surreal, dream-like atmospherics that are underpinned by repetitive, organic rhythms and echoing vocals, performed by a self-taught choir composed of a collective of friends. Across the seven perfectly structured and interwoven tracks, Warm Graves create a sci-fi soundtrack that manages to be as gorgeously mesmerising and ethereal as it is anthemic and empowering. Originally released in 2014, the album is now being reissued by their new label home, the London-based Fuzz Club Records. Having spent the last few years out of sight and quietly working on new music, Jonas Wehner’s Warm Graves have now completed their long-awaited second album which is set to be released via Fuzz Club in 2022. Until then, their fantastic debut, ‘Ships Will Come’, is now available to stream/download on all digital platforms once again and will have a vinyl reissue arriving on December 3rd. Warm Graves have previously toured with Exploded View and Moon Duo and also supported The Soft Moon, Crystal Stilts, Efterklang and Moonface.

TRACK LISTING

1) Ravachol
2) Penumbra
3) Cold Women
4) Ships Will Come
5) Best Ezra
6) Headlines
7) Rouleaux 

‘Ungrateful Heart’ is the fourth album from Milan-based group The Gluts. Whilst their previous releases traded in an explosive psychedelic noise-rock, ‘Ungrateful Heart’ sees the Italian four-piece hone in a more post-punk-indebted sound. Although no less abrasive and confrontational in its utlising of ear-piercing feedback and hard-hitting riffs, the band say that the songs here primarily take cues from the likes of Fugazi, Gang of Four, the PiL-Pistols canon and the Campana brothers’ long adoration of Italian and American hardcore punk. The album arrives off the back of 2019’s ‘Dengue Fever Hypnotic Trip’ LP and tours and festival dates around the UK, Europe and South Africa.

Laid down over a tireless week living side by side and working in the studio around the clock, The Gluts – comprised of Claudia Cesana (bass/vocals), Dario Bassi (drums) and Nicolò and Marco Campana (vocals/synths and guitar, respectively) – recorded ‘Ungrateful Heart’ with Dutch producer and close collaborator Bob de Wit (A Place To Bury Strangers, Gnod, The Sonics). On the sessions, the intensity of which is mirrored in the fierce uncompromising attitude of the music itself, the band said: “Bob’s contribution to this album was essential. He pushed us beyond our limits. It was difficult, we can’t hide it, but it really was worth it.” Although the album is still shot through with moments of lacerating noise-rock ('Mashilla' and 'Eat Acid See God'), songs like 'Love Me Do Again' and 'Bye Bye Boy' deal in a timeless hedonistic punk sound. Elsewhere, the politically charged 'Breath' and 'FYBBD' see The Gluts turn their sonic belligerence towards fascists and systemic racial violence to rallying effect.

TRACK LISTING

1) Mashilla
2) Love Me Do Again
3) Black Widow
4) Breath
5) Leyla, Lazy Girl From The Moon
6) Something Surreal
7) Ciotola Di Satana
8) Bye Bye Boy
9) FYBBD
10) Eat Acid See God

The latest offering from experimental noise masters One Unique Signal is a collaboration between the three core band members and 20 of their contemporaries, who each designed a piece of music inspired by a single riff. Much like the process of continuous recreation that its namesake symbolises, the West London groups third LP, Hoopsnake, devours the seemingly eternal riff and constantly reinvents it to form a series of parallel iterations to the original composition. The riff was born from a repetitious loop originating from the sessions for their previous LP, the Sonic Boom mastered Aether. The band then recorded two versions of it (one a loud, guitar-driven take, the second a softer synth passage) and shared it with friends and collaborators, inviting each artist to create a corresponding sonic interpretation, which have all been mixed into four separate 10 minute long tracks.

The result is a seamless meshing of ideas from some of the best minds in the underground music scene - including The Oscillations Demian Castellanos and Steven Lawrie of The Telescopes - whose recordings span the weird and wonderful, ranging from home made noise box to Godin Artisan ST II recorded on solar power in a caravan, to simply lime green guitar. The roster of musicians and their various tools and instruments has been documented on the vinyl editions printed inner sleeve, and reads like a cross between a tech catalogue and a fantasy novel. The album was originally intended to serve as a second disc for Aether, however an extended, separate version was eventually called for to allow the project to fully realize it's 46 minute cycle, which was inspired by the long, warm summer evenings England experienced in 2013. Despite the new process undertaken for Hoopsnake, the methodically exploritive approach is typical to One Unique Signal, as is the feeling of continuity. The groups Nick Keech explains. From the very beginning, the Signal mythos has been repetition. Fellow band member Byron Jackson continues. The LP destroys itself, reflects upon the destruction, and is finally recreated, ready to repeat the process again. Along with fellow member Daniel Davis, the trio also perform as a part of space rock legends The Telescopes. 

TRACK LISTING

1. HS01
2. HS02
3. HS03
4. HS04

Manchester's The Underground Youth is here with with yet another hauntingly beautiful record that blends shoegaze, post-punk and psychedelia. TUY is the name under which Manchester’s underground poet, Craig Dyer, has produced his records since 2009. In 2011, Fuzz Club Records started putting out his prolific catalogue, bringing to light a number of LPs and singles that had only circulated virally on the Internet. Since then, TUY, with Craig and Olya Dyer as the core of the band, have expanded to a five piece, gaining a solid international fan-base and touring all around the UK and Europe.

Drowned In Sound said of their Eindhoven set: “combining the mesmeric rhythms of The Velvet Underground - Olya Dyer's driving beats make her the new psych generation's Mo Tucker - with rippling feedback associated with Bad Moon Risingera Sonic Youth and a dash of the Mary Chain thrown in as well, they're a captivating force”. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Manchester's Underground Youth return with another slice of post-everything psych-rock-tronica. Combining beautiful guitar melodies and repeated vocal refrains with overwhelming pastoral electronic washes, this is a collection founded on indie pioneers past, but expanded upon to the Nth degree and updated. 'Drown In Me' is a particularly accomplished slice of synth-heavy industrial sadness, interspersed with bursts of cautiously optimistic shoegaze-y guitars. Nothing too sunny about this, but it's nice to wallow in the bleakness of life sometimes, and there really is no better way to do it. A soundtrack to industrial ruins, and rainy evenings. Highly recommended.

TRACK LISTING

1. Collapsing Into Night
2. Haunted
3. Dreaming With Maya Deren
4. Self Inflicted
5. Drown In Me
6. The Girl Behind
7. Slave
8. Deep Inside Of Me
9. Returning To Shadow