Following the release of the shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and the intricate experimentations on National Coma in 1993, Drop Nineteens disbanded. They had a great run. Shared stages with Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey. Went from being teenaged kids in Boston to mid twenty somethings with an MTV video under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, Greg Ackell felt content, music was a closed chapter.

That was until 2021. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Ackell felt compelled to pick up a guitar. He immediately called up Steve Zimmeran, the band’s bassist and fellow guitarist, and the two got writing. It felt effortless for Ackell, like he never stopped writing music. “We were off to the races,” he says. “But also the question came up: what does a Drop Nineteens song sound like today? Enter Hard Light, the band’s stunning third record. It’s the band’s proverbial follow up to Delaware, a modern Drop Nineteens record that is completely singular in its sound and vision.

The first task making Hard Light, was of course, getting the rest of the band back together. Drop Nineteens is an inherently collaborative project. Ackell’s primarily the lyrics writer, and he collaborates with Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin to create the sonic world. The record came together over the course of a year, recording at a patchwork of studios all around the country. Making music together felt natural, fluid, exciting.

The guitar reverb is expansive as ever. Ackell and Kelley’s vocals are crystalline. “Scapa Flow,” is triumphant. An excellent example of what a modern day Drop Nineteens song sounds like. The guitars glide like clouds on a blue sky day, drums shuffle in the background, searching. Ackell and Kelley’s vocals are cool toned and dreamy, bound up in a haze of reverb. It’s unquestionably lovely. You could say the same for the whole of the record. Hard Light is so lovely. A portrait of a band 30 years later, as talented and as dedicated to their craft as ever.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's been THIRTY YEARS since Boston's Drop Nineteens put out an album, and we've finally been gifted with another outing. While 'Hard Light' clearly trades in the sort of woozy heft and wall-of-sound intensity we've come to know from the 90's shoegaze, it's got a more nuanced melodic edge, shining through the fog when you least expect.

TRACK LISTING

1.Hard Light
2.Scapa Flow
3.Gal
4.Tarantula
5.The Price Was High
6.Rose With Smoke
7.A Hitch
8.Lookout
9.Another One Another
10.Policeman Getting Lost
11.T

Upon ‘Swarm’’s 2016 release, Brooklyn-based Bambara had been honing their noise-rock brutalism since forming in Athens, Georgia in 2009. On ‘Swarm’, their second full-length, the band began to pull their approach into sharp focus, and the result was a foundational triumph.

After the pure noise experimentation of their 2013 debut, ‘Dreamviolence’, here the band began to develop many of their later trademarks. Marrying the maniacal ravings of The Birthday Party and the brutality of early Swans with the tangled roots-punk of The Gun Club, the spotlight started to fall on vocalist / guitarist Reid Bateh’s lyrics as well as the ‘Spaghetti western’ atmospherics that would come to the fore to such effect on later releases such as ‘Shadow On Everything’ and ‘Stray’.

For fans of Bambara’s visceral and pummelling performances, which led to extensive touring opportunities along rising star contemporaries such as Gilla Band, Algiers, and IDLES, before earning the band their own headlining slot on multiple international tours, ‘Swarm’ will serve as a sort of missing link. Now, for the first time ever, live-set favourites such as the brooding ‘An Ill Son’, the flawlessly dynamic ‘Black’, and the pop-snarled ‘All the Ugly Things’ can be listened to at a level of audio fidelity on par with the band’s later recordings.

Tiny Mix Tapes praised ‘Dreamviolence’, the band’s first LP, by saying that “complete, utter anguish has never sounded this good.” ‘Swarm’ made it sound even better. With these 12 songs, Bambara proved that sometimes the only way to confront a fucked-up world is to sink to its level. As Henry Rollins succinctly summed it up at the time, this is a “REALLY cool record.”

“‘Swarm’... is a beautifully dynamic nightmare.” – NPR

“Since 2008, Bambara have reined nigh-unintelligible noise into something more artfully restrained, but the wildness remains intact.” - Pitchfork

“Bambara hail from Athens, Georgia, famously home to REM and The B-52’s, but what they do is far noisier, angrier, scarier. They sound like a band always on the lookout for something bigger.” - The Quietus

“Bambara write chaotic songs held together with formless washes of noise and anxious vocal drones, crafting pallid but vibrant pieces that thrashed with... mutant energy.” - VICE

TRACK LISTING

Clearing Out The Weeds
Her Sister Touya
An Ill Son
Black
Like Waves
I Don’t Mind
Filled Up With Night
It’s Nothing
All The Ugly Things
I Can’t Recall
In Bars
As Her

A country songwriter from Brooklyn’s indie underground, Dougie Poole blurs the lines between genre and generation on his third solo album, The Rainbow Wheel of Death. Rooted in sharp songwritingvand the organic sounds of a live-in-the-studio band, it’s a classic-sounding record for the modern world.

The Rainbow Wheel of Death’s title nods to the colorful pinwheel that appears onscreen whenever a computer’s application stalls. For Poole — who found himself working as a freelance computer programmer once the pandemic brought his touring schedule to a temporary halt in 2020 — it’s also a reference to the holding pattern that’s left much of society feeling stuck, unable to move ahead in an uncertain world. That feeling was pervasive when he began writing these nine songs, finishing the first handful of tracks in his New York City bedroom and wrapping up the songwriting process in the recording studio itself.

Once hailed as the “patron saint of millennial malaise” for his sardonic wit and topical, tongue-in-cheek songwriting, Poole broadens his reach here. “High School Gym” builds a bridge between 2020s lo-fi textures and 1980s pop vibes, while “Must Be In Here Somewhere” — whose narrator sits at a lap top, searching through “every server burning in North Carolina” for a digital souvenir of a long-lost relationship — mixes modern concerns with classic country instrumentation. If records like 2017’s Wideass Highway and 2020’s breakthrough release The Freelancer’s Blues told stories about uninspired Millennials languishing in dead-end jobs and no-good relationships, then The Rainbow Wheel of Death focuses on more universal issues like mortality, love, and the passing of the time.

With The Rainbow Wheel of Death, Dougie Poole breathes new life into country music, retaining the acclaimed elements of his previous work — drum machines, synthesizers, and his deepset voice — while pushing toward something warm, organic, and prismatic

TRACK LISTING

1. The Rainbow Wheel Of Death
2. High School Gym
3. Nothing On This Earth Can Make Me Smile
4. Worried Man Blues 2
5. Nickels And Dimes
6. I Lived My Whole Life Last Night
7. Beth David Cemetery
8. Must Be In Here Somewhere
9. I Hope My Baby Comes Home Soon

Cass McCombs and Weak Signal’s members have been friends for a long time and played together in many different formations over the years, and here they seal the deal by joining as a four piece for the Vacation From Thought b/w Give it Back 7”. They quickly wrote and arranged two bangers and recorded them in NYC tracked directly to tape and featuring only 2 overdubs. The A-Side, and lead single “Vacation From Thought,” which was written by Cass, takes the listener on a trip to some of the most exotic places imaginable within the confines of the narrator’s mind. The B-Side “Give it Back” counters Thoughts’ complexity with the Weak Signal written, and Cass sung “Take it Back” - a punch straight to the gut.

P.E.’s sophomore album, ‘The Leather Lemon’, ushers in a new era for the New York band. A wild ride through chewy bubblegum pop, sweeping synthetic orchestrations and mutant club beats, the album slides ever closer to the fully-realized pop sensibility only winked at with their debut album, ‘Person’ (2020), and subsequent releases.

Recorded primarily at Schenke’s Studio Windows in Brooklyn, NY, ‘The Leather Lemon’ was cultivated from a fertile creative period between spring 2020 and summer 2021, which also yielded 2021’s acclaimed ‘The Reason For My Love’ EP.

Digging into mystery, romance and sex appeal, the album centres its sound within a Bermuda Triangle of dance music, electronic composition and experimental rock. Members Jonathan Schenke, Bob Jones and Jonny Campolo play within pop parameters, building upon free-form collaboration to create a fluorescent groove machine that harnesses the energy of their frenetic live shows.

Singer Veronica Torres explores her softer side, expanding her vocal repertoire from spoken word and jagged growls to cherubic and sensuous psalms.

Sax virtuoso Benjamin Jaffe’s chiseled experimental tone is heard in an extended solo of true romance in ‘Tears in the Rain’, a sombre surrealist duet penned by Torres and Andrew Savage, singer/guitarist of Parquet Courts.

It is a reckoning record for the times; an album of psychedelic resurfacing, real-time response to world events, and soft, sympathetic magic. This is a collection of songs shaped by five individuals who embrace music-making as a way to centre themselves in times of uncertainty; it’s resilience and imagination given shape. ‘The Leather Lemon’ is a true sweet-and-sour listening experience, an album as bright and clear as it is fractured and fun.

“Drum cuts feel sharper and lighter, bringing a sense of structure... sensuality suits them well” - Pitchfork

“A skittery piece of post-punk with blithe vocals and saxophone squawks and brittle bits of synth” - Stereogum

“A sultry, infectious, off-kilter groove” - Brooklyn Vegan

For fans of Primal Scream, Parquet Courts, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Depeche Mode, Gang of Four.

TRACK LISTING

Blue Nude (Reclined)
Contradiction Of Wants
Lying With The Wolf
The Leather Lemon
Tears In The Rain
The Reason For My Love
Magic Hands
New Kind Of Zen
86ed
Majesty

With ‘Love on My Mind’ - the six-song mini-album, mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer (Tennis, Parquet Courts, Johnny Marr) - Bambara condense all the energy and darkness that have made them so compelling and rearrange it into something defiantly new.

Opening track, ‘Slither in the Rain’, all hissing high-hat and spectral synthlines, is a true statement of intent. It’s minimal and atmospheric, foregrounding Bateh’s raw vocals as he introduces one of ‘Love on My Mind’s main characters years after the events of the album are over, a lonely man who throws bottles at airplanes and dances a two-step in the pattern of a figure-8. While Bateh has always been adept at character sketches, tracks like ‘Slither’ introduce a newfound vulnerability that runs true through the entire album and cause the songs to hit on a more human level.

Similarly, ‘Point And Shoot’ - in which each stanza describes the louche, lawless scenes of “rooftop girls / standing shoulder-to-shoulder, naked figures with their hips / cocked,” busted up jaws, and couches full of burnholes captured by the snapshots of ‘Love on My Mind’s female lead - displays an autobiographical intimacy that is not as apparent in Bambara’s previous releases. This tenderness is echoed on ‘Birds’, a rare love song (from which the EP’s title is derived), and album closer ‘Little Wars’, a gripping finale of loneliness and isolation.

But while these songs may display a softer side of Bambara, it’s important to note that they haven’t lost the thrill of what attracted so many people to them in the first place. ‘Mythic Love’ (featuring vocals from Bria Salmena), with its driving bassline and ricocheting guitar lines, brings to mind past rave-ups like ‘Serafina’ and ‘Sunbleached Skulls’ but obliterates them in the process, while ‘Feelin’ Like A Funeral’ - a dangerously oscillating tale of a city knifing - is probably the most thrillingly anthemic song the band have ever recorded.

Taken together, ‘Love on My Mind’ amounts to another massive step forward for Bambara - the boldest thing they’ve ever done - and the sound of yet another breakthrough.

“Engrossing, dark and irresistible… an adventurous group, who just keep getting better all the time.” - CLASH

“Never anything less than captivating.” - Upset

“What Athens, Georgia bunch Bambara do, they do very well… the trio’s commitment to the dark side is never in question.” - DIY

“Bambara are ice cold and sharp as a knife’s edge.” - Loud & Quiet

“Brooklyn based doom-mongers delight… the trio go further than most in their quest to rattle.” - Q (4/5)

For fans of Daughters, Protomartyr, IDLES, King Krule, Ice Age.

TRACK LISTING

Slither In The Rain
Mythic Love
Birds
Point And Shoot
Feelin’ Like A Funeral
Little Wars

Lily We Need To Talk Now is a record Konigsberg has been slowly chipping away at since 2016, revising and re-recording the songs over the years. The eleven-track collection is her first proper full length, following her anthology of EPs and unreleased tracks, The Best of Lily Konigsberg Right Now, released in 2021 by Wharf Cat Records. The new record is catchy the whole way through, like much of her poppy and plainspoken indie rock output that’s made her a fixture of the NYC underground in recent years. Her voice twists and turns and dashes around her clever wordplay in new ways; there are hints of power-pop, pop-punk, and downtempo introspection, all dotted with easter eggs of winking humor.

True to its title, this collection of songs is like a check in with herself. “On “That’s The Way I Like It,” with backing vocals from longtime collaborator Paco Cathcart, she reflects on the feeling of “struggling with someone you love, and how you can get all evil about it, like a brat, like a baby.” On “Proud Home”, she sings one of the records boldest earworm hooks (“You’ve got a lot of fucking things to be proud of!”) and tries to comfort a friend who has a crush on her mom. “I really cracked myself up with the lyrics,” she says. “It’s kind of a Stacey’s Mom riff. I decided it’s a dedication to Adam Schlesinger [of Fountains of Wayne].” “Roses, Again” is a new take on a familiar Lily tune (originally on Good Time Now) re-recorded at the request of her current live band, who have evolved the song on the road.

TRACK LISTING

1 - Beauty
2 - Sweat Forever
3 - That’s The Way I Like It
4 - Alone
5 - Don’t Be Lazy With Me
6 - Proud Home
7 - Hark
8 - Bad Boy
9 - Roses, Again
10 - Goodbye
11 - True

A musical omnibus, ‘The Best of Lily Konigsberg Right Now’ is the first widely distributed Lily Konigsberg physical release, as well as the first vinyl treatment for EPs ‘Good Time Now’ and ‘4 Picture Tear’.

The collection loosely parallels the melancholic narrative behind the latter, where a mental break triggered Konigsberg’s depersonalized sense of her past self. Of the ‘4 Picture Tear’ EP Konigsberg says, “I would look at this photo booth picture I took with Matt [Norman] and cry because I thought I was looking at the person I used to be in that picture and that that person was gone.” In retrospect, these EPs feel like distinctive vignettes of Konigsberg’s progression as a songwriter, each version of her past self-tethered by an invisible thread to the present through musical alliances and fervent introspection.

‘Owe Me’, a song Konigsberg never felt fit on any of her previous releases, now serves as an opening curtain call. “Thank you all for coming to my show,” Konigsberg says to an invisible audience’s applause, “If you didn’t know, now you certainly know.” It’s a transportive moment that combines Konigsberg’s patient steps into the underground pop limelight with her exceptional ability to connect with a diverse and talented cohort of creatives.

One third of egalitarian art-punk outfit Palberta, the Brooklyn-born and-based Lily Konigsberg has occupied her time with music since her early childhood. “Basically I was born and immediately started wanting to be a rock star,” she says.

“Even before she became a fixture of the New York underground, Lily Konigsberg was staking out her place in local music.” - Pitchfork (Rising Artist, 2020)

“A crisp, catchy, and concise bit of 90s-indebted indie rock” - Stereogum

“The freewheeling, flitting melodies underline the precision of Konigsberg’s songwriting: She knows what she wants to say and she is methodical about how much to reveal.” - Pitchfork

“Warm and direct but tough to grasp, untraceable” - Tiny Mix Tapes

TRACK LISTING

Owe Me
To Hold It
Rock And Sin
7 Smile
At Best A #3
It’s Just Like All The Clouds
I Said
Summer In The City
Good Time (demo)
Lily’s National Anthem
Waterfall Snake Juice
Talk To Me W. Birds
Roses
North Porsche
I Don’t Like The Name
Big Tall Grass (demo)
Opening The Day

One thing you won’t be able to avoid on Bambara’s 'Stray' is death. It’s everywhere and inescapable, the key to the whole record. That though won’t be the first thing that strikes you about their fourth – and greatest – album to date. That will be its pulverising soundscape; by turns, vast, atmospheric, cool, broiling and at times – on stand out tracks like “Sing Me To The Street” and “Serafina” – simply overwhelming. This NYC-via-Georgia trio (the Bateh brothers, Reid and Blaze, singer and drummer respectively, and bassist William Brookshire) have been evolving their midnight-black noise rock into something more subtle and expansive ever since the release of their 2013 debut 'Dreamviolence.' That process greatly accelerated on 2018’s 'Shadow On Everything,' their first on New York’s Wharf Cat label and a huge stride forward for the band both lyrically and sonically.

A rapturously-received concept album (NPR called it a “mesmerising…western, gothic opus”), it elevated the band’s status on both sides of the Atlantic (capturing the attention of, among other people, the UK band IDLES – who invited them to tour with them – and influential British 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq, who dubbed them the best band of 2019’s SXSW). The question was, though: how to follow it? The band knew that they wanted to push further: experiment with instrumentation and not limit their songwriting in terms of what they could or could not reproduce live. They also wanted to showcase a wider range of influences. Their Georgia upbringings means that Southern Gothic is in their DNA (the likes of Flannery O’Connor and Harry Crews) but there’s more to them than that and this time they wanted to show that, offering up touchstones as diverse as Laurie Anderson and Sade as well as classic French noirs like L’Ascenseur Pour L’Echafraud as key influencers on their thinking.

The record was written in an airless Brooklyn basement in the first half of 2019, the songs being continually reworked over many months. Once they felt cohesive, they travelled back to their hometown of Athens, GA to record the building blocks with their friend Drew Vandenberg. After that, a period of experimentation and enriching began: additional instrumentation was added, (violins courtesy of Adam Markiewicz, trumpets via Sean Smith), as well as a crucial and leavening layer of female vocals (thanks to Public Practice’s Drew Citron and Palberta’s Anina Ivry-Block). Finally, in a remote cabin in the woods in rural Georgia, Reid laid down his vocals.

Now, while the music itself is evocative and propulsive, a fever dream all of its own, the lyrical content pushes the record even further into its own darkly thrilling realm. If the songs on 'Shadow On Everything' were like chapters in a novel, then this time they’re short stories. Stories that are connected by death, both abstract and personified, and that deal with how that affects the characters in contact with it. “Death is what you make it” runs a lyric in “Sweat” and in a way that’s the key line on the whole record. It would be wrong to characterize 'Stray' as simply the sound of the graveyard though. Light frequently streams through and love and longing are present too (particularly on “Made For Me”). It’s a record that avoids simple characterization but one thing that is certain about it is that it represents another monumental leap forward for the band. Sometimes groups need time to grow. Here Bambara finally sound like they’ve locked into what they were always destined to achieve. It’s electrifying!

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Brooging, gothy rock a-la Nick Cave, meets the cavernous insistent guitars of mid-80's Manchester, and hazy surf percussion underpinning the whole adventure. Brilliantly diverse but cohesive collection from Bambara.

TRACK LISTING

Miracle
Heat Lightning
Sing Me To The Street
Serafina
Death Croons
Stay Cruel
Ben & Lily
Made For Me
Sweat
Machete

Decisions are a new punk band from New York City and this EP is their first official release.

The house punk band of Bushwick’s socially conscious bastion The Silent Barn, Decisions craft songs that rail against yuppies (‘Gatekeeper’), creeps (‘Trapped’) and the gentrification prevalent in New York’s 5 boroughs.

While these tracks range from fast ultra-catchy punk bangers to sprawling hard rock developments (‘Rusted Shut’), there is not a wasted note on these four tracks and we bear witness to a new band with a the rare quality of an incisive attack whose message is entirely of the moment.

In their short career Decisions have played with the likes of Parquet Courts, Palberta and KAG.

TRACK LISTING

Trapped
Disform
Gatekeeper
Rusted Shut

‘Somewhere Else’, Profligate’s first album since 2014, deftly balances seeming opposites - chaos and composition, melody and noise, programmed and live instrumentation.

Featuring contributions by LA poet / musician Elaine Kahn and Chrissy Jones, this diverse yet cohesive album walks the line between dark pop and noise.

“Synthesizers flutter airless and inviting and are grounded to solidity with brooding and distinguished bass” - Impose.

“‘Black Plate’ features Kahn's lyrics and vocals, around which Profligate’s teetering synths and atonal crackles swirl like snakes on acid.” - The Fader.

“Different facets of noise and structured arrangements that ebb and flow brilliantly and make for a fresh experience on every listen.” - Impose.

“Based on the striking and natural contrast between pop and noise, distorted and clean sounds, the strident but functional and amazing juxtaposition of the ethereal slightly gloomy Elaine’s voice and Noah's crispy and discordant electronic textures” - WhiteLight / WhiteHeat.

“You could never quite call Noah Anthony’s music hi-def, but this delectable slice of post-punk pop comes close.” - Resident Advisor.

“Mixes noise, industrial and new wave synth pop.” - Warzawa.

“A tense industrial track with tearing and bubbling sounds that, in context, are actually kind of soothing.” - The Fader.

TRACK LISTING

Somewhere Else
A Circle Of
Enlist
Lose A Little
Black Plate
Jet Black (King Of The World)
Needle In Your Lip

‘Love Letter’, the opening track from The County Liners’ debut mini album, cuts “Lucinda Williams’ own particular strain of lonesome” with “Rolling Stones swagger” (NPR) to set the tone for a collection of five “country-rock songs that buck like an old pickup” (NPR).

The County Liners started in Mary Jane Dunphe (Vexx, CC Dust, CCFX) and Chris McDonnell (CC Dust, CCFX, Trans FX)’s country home in Olympia, WA in the winter of 2016. Longtime friends and collaborators, Chris and Mary Jane began writing 80s / 90s inspired country tunes when Mary Jane found herself bedridden with a debilitating ankle injury. Riley Kendig, also living with Dunphe and McDonnell, and Mirce Popovic (Trans FX) joined the band to help arrange and perform these deeply personal songs.

“Loaded with broad desert plains and cloudless skies and open roads and a time lost in memories of blood and industry” - Impose

“Deeply grooved, intelligently written and electrified by immediacy” - Autumn Roses

TRACK LISTING

Love Letter
Walkin’ Out
Maria
The County Line
Oklahoma

As their first release featuring songs written collaboratively by all three band members, it only makes sense that Honey’s sophomore LP New Moody Judy was recorded with the intent of perfectly capturing the dynamic, human energy that’s a vital component of their sound.

From the opening track, "Wage Agreement," – a song featuring a repeating blues lick framing verses that could either be about begging your boss for more hours or fighting with everything you have to not fall out of love – Honey make it clear that even with its ferocious riffs and careening rhythms, New Moody Judy’s message is one of empathy. “Through that front door / I’ll find anything but love” Dan Wise sings from the gut – what person hasn’t experienced the futility of trying to escape from a feeling like that. Equally relatable, if slightly more uplifting, is the message of the album’s first single “Dream Come Now”, an anthem to never giving up on your dreams even when they seem out of reach. Sonically, the song displays a new level of concision and brute heaviness previously known only to those who have seen Honey play live: the pummel and swing, the rave-ups and come downs -– the sound of perfect rock and roll, music always on the edge of spinning out of control.

From the tight jam giving way to a thrilling cascade of riffs that fuel the rush of "Hungry" to the ender-ender blowout of "Peggy Ray," New Moody Judy sees Honey giving everything to the music, and in doing so they create an LP that is meant to be felt all the way through. A band can't swing this heavy without heart, and New Moody Judy is about staying sensitized; about not numbing yourself to your relationships and the world around you even during the times that everything seems to be going to hell.

TRACK LISTING

Wage Agreement
Dream Come Now
New Moody Judy
Spped, Glue
Hungry
Bagman
Power
Wage Too
Peggy Ray

Coca Leaf was a collaborative birthed in the hot Florida swamp years ago. ‘Deep Marble Sunrise’ was sculpted from a series of brain-fried studio sessions in NYC taking place in the summer 2015. The manic ramping-up and the inevitable comedown intertwine here. The party and the empty vacuum that follows.

For this album the group is comprised of multiinstrumentalists ZZ Ramierez (Ukiah Drag, Destruction Unit), David Vassalotti and Carson Cox (Merchandise) and Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Missionhubble). The cuts follow their impulses freely, coming up with a strange combination of hard funk, jazz, noise, no wave, free improvisation and dub.

TRACK LISTING

New Soft Dawn
No Light Bleeds The Den
Twilight Haze
Riding Ice
Marbled Sunset
Glaze

“A tarnished, shouty clangor that recalls Mission of Burma, Wire circa ‘Pink Flag’, Pylon…” - Pitchfork

“The Five Boroughs’ most vicious singer with any real songs behind her this decade” - NME

“Louche post-punk, all starkly angled guitar lines and minimalist beats” - Noisey

“The energy and swagger of a cocky young ruffian” - DIY Mag

“Ripping apart at the seams and bursting through with unnerving vitality” - Stereogum

‘Untitled’ is the debut album from “New York City’s buzziest new band” (NME).

This follow up to their cult classic, eponymous EP documents WALL’s rapid ascent from a relatively unknown entity to a hard-playing, highly sought after act on the NYC underground circuit and beyond.

From the pensive minimalism of ‘River Mansion’ to the fervent satire of ‘High Ratings’, the barely nascent four-piece captures the nervous energy of a city defined by constant change.

TRACK LISTING

High Ratings
Wounded At War
Sonic
Save Me
Turn Around
River Mansion
Charmed Life
Weekend
Circus
Everything In Between

“Mesmerizing, dark melodies” - Subbacultcha

“Alluring in their delivery, entrapping in their substance” - Adhoc

Holy Motors sound like the bastard love child of Hope Sandoval and Ennio Morricone born in the back of a ‘67 Trans Am and raised on nothing but Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. Their sound lies somewhere between the wind with a vibrato and the soundtrack to a non-existent movie.

The band’s second single, an introduction to their forthcoming debut album, is yet another love story inspired by Chris Isaak songs and Spanish blues. The single features the sad and sultry two-chord ‘Sleeprydr’ backed with ‘Descending’, a sunset anthem for lonely navigators.

In their time, Holy Motors have played alongside Craft Spells, Sic Alps, and Dirty Fences and lent their music to the likes of Jim Jarmusch, in his film ‘Night Train’.

Wharf Cat Records present the ‘Fire Dance’ 7” by Austin Brown (Parquet Courts), Carson Cox (Merchandise) and Sam York (WALL).

This release features artwork by Wharf Cat founding father Sam Falls.

The ‘Fire Dance’ 7” is producer Carson Cox’s ode to downtown New York City. On ‘Fire Dance’ and ‘Rene’ the three collaborators channel the glitzy sheen of Sam Falls’ shimmering cover artwork on tracks that resonate heat like august concrete in the city.

These tracks are constructed from spliced disco rhythms, modulated synth lines and searing guitars with Sam and Carson’s fevered vocals pulsing from all sides.

After releasing two critically acclaimed albums that evaded the trappings of contemporary psychedelia, Jackson Scott’s heavily drone-rock and shoegaze influenced new outfit Votaries reasserts that an unabashed indifference to musical trends continues to suit his songwriting.

Undulating guitars and lyrics that wantonly explore themes of eradication, annihilation, temptation, rage and paradise, recalling Spaceman 3’s drugtinged insouciance, while ethereally layered vocal harmonies pay homage to the singular production achievements of pioneers like My Bloody Valentine.

The resulting sound is somehow greater than the sum of its parts. Songs like the rhythmically propelled ‘Delusion’ and the punchy, bass-driven ‘Rainbow Death Revisited’ explore territories not yet charted by any of the greats and show that ‘Psychometry’, transcendent as it may be, is merely a hint of what is to come as Scott continues to push his musical boundaries.

“The Asheville-via-Pittsburgh native hasn’t yet learned how to hold back, and here’s hoping he never does…” - NPR

TRACK LISTING

Annihilation Generation
Trick Tomorrow
All Mine
Second Sister
Delusion
Succumb
Lucifer Inverted
Your Bed Is Melting
Rainbow Death Revisited
Ritualized