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WHARF CAT RECORDS

Water From Your Eyes

Structure

    Water From Your Eyes’ Rachel Brown and Nate Amos are no strangers to contradiction, with Pitchfork making note of their “confidence in splicing different genres and feels from acoustic twee to indie-electronica” in their review of 2019’s Somebody Else’s Songs. So, upon first listen, Structure – with its tendency to turn on a dime from the buzzsaw synths and string arrangements that sonically bookend tracks like “My Love’s,” to the subtle, almost Squarepusher-esque rhythms that round out electronic compositions like “”Quotations”” – may just seem like a further refinement of the duo’s idiosyncratic approach to making music. However, repeat listens will reveal that, even though the album zigs and zags in a manner consistent with WFYE’s prior releases, its line of best fit trends in a very clear direction away from the quaint affectations of their prior work and towards something more deliberate and half a shade darker.

    Even on ostensibly cheery tracks like album opener “When You’re Around,” which, with its saccharine melodicism sounds like it could be a lost song from The Apples in Stereo or one of their Elephant 6-era labelmates, there’s an underlying eeriness that’s not immediately apparent until the song is listened to in the context of the full album. Amos’ advice for navigating Structure’s sonic terrain is to “remember that this is weed music,” while his counterpart Brown offers that that the album is like “solving a puzzle with a ton of different answers.” Although these varied descriptions of how to approach listening to Structure may accurately reveal it to be another exercise in contradictions, the clear intent with which the pair approached creating the album can only be appreciated with repeat listens, and is likely what makes it, by far, their most compelling entry to date.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. When You’re Around
    2. My Love’s
    3. You’re The Embers
    4. Quotations
    5. Monday
    6. Track Five
    7. You’re The Watching Fly
    8. “Quotations”

    Bambara

    Shadow Of Everything

      Released in 2018 to widespread critical acclaim, Bambara’s Shadow On Everything represented a decisive step forward for twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh – frontman and drummer, respectively – and their childhood friend, bassist William Brookshire. While prior to its release they had always been adept students of noise rock and post-punk, mining the work of bands like Swans and The Birthday Party to construct what NPR called “beautifully dynamic nightmares,” on Shadow they boldly redefined their sound to create an album that clearly transcended their early influences and dramatically quickened the pace of their ascent from the underground. Consistent with their frenetic live set, the musical center of Shadow On Everything is Bambara’s impossibly tight rhythm section, with Blaze’s manic drumming and William’s rock-steady basslines serving as the perfect canvas for Reid’s wild guitar squalls and howled vocals.

      But the album’s recording marked the first time that Reid’s voice was pushed to the front of the mix, highlighting the damaged characters and seedy locales that interact and overlap throughout its 12 songs. A stridently experimental record, Shadow features everything from violin to saxophone arrangements, and is meticulously interspersed with outré ambient noise loops distilled down from hours of manipulated vocal collages. Just two years after its release Shadow On Everything may seem like it was the logical next step for a band with experimental and punk origins that would go on to construct the intricate compositions displayed by its follow up Stray. In fact, Shadow memorializes Bambara putting everything on the line because they knew they could be more than what anyone may have seen in them up to that point in time.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Dark Circles
      2. Doe-Eyed Girl 
      3. José Tries To Leave
      4. Night’s Changing 
      5. Monument 
      6. The Door Between Her Teeth
      7. Human Hair
      8. Steel Dust Ocean
      9. Sunbleached Skulls
      10. Wild Fires
      11. Backyard
      12. Back Home

      Holy Motors

      Horse

        The more hopeful ‘sunrise’ to 2018’s critically acclaimed Slow Sundown, Horse finds Tallinn, Estonia’s Holy Motors acknowledging the Americana and rockabilly strands of their musical DNA without sacrificing any of the otherworldly mystique that keeps them from neatly conforming to the shoegaze and dreampop labels often applied to their music. From the album’s opening moments, songs like “Country Church,” with its major key and classic rhythm and blues guitarline, and “Midnight Cowboy,” which sounds like a lost Buddy Holly 45 played at 33 rpm, make it clear that Horse — even if it may not accomplish the impossible task of demystifying this band of ex-Soviet cowboys — will at least show you that there’s more to them than the near-impenetrable darkness of their work to date may suggest.

        While tracks like “Trouble” and “Endless Night” gravitate towards the ethereal production and existential subject matter of prior releases, repeat listens will reveal the same complex compositions and humanity that are much more a hallmark of Horse’s eight songs. As a whole, Horse stands as a warmer, more human counterpoint to 2018’s celestial Slow Sundown. As to which of the two entries better approximates Holy Motors’ natural set point, only time will tell.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Country Church
        2. Endless Night 
        3. Midnight Cowboy 
        4. Road Stars 
        5. Matador
        6. Come On, Slowly
        7. Trouble
        8. Life Valley (So Many Miles Away)

        Profligate

        Too Numb To Know

          Too Numb to Know showcases Profligate continuing to shirk the heavy electronics of his early years for razor sharp pop. On 2018’s Somewhere Else, Noah Anthony delivered catchy nuggets while adding live instrumentations, reinvigorating his songwriting and sonic palette. This new song-driven approach gained praise from Resident Advisor, Pitchfork and The Wire, exposing Profligate to new listeners.

          Anthony worked on Too Numb To Know while living on both coasts of the United States, but eventually completed the album in Cleveland, Ohio, where he currently resides. Anthony recorded demos in Philadelphia and in Los Angeles, which was a creatively-challenging, emotionally-depleting city for him - after losing the computer holding original recordings of TNTK to a thief, he took a friend’s suggestion and moved to Cleveland where he finished the album, and added contributions from allies like Matchess, Lazy Magnet, Gel Set, Missions, and others.

          TNTK is about growth, reflection and change. Lead single “Hang Up” urges the artist’s younger self to trust his instincts during chaos. Its message pairs with bright keyboards, a pulsing beat, and soft, alluring vocals - on the chorus, he croons “Nothing you create but love penetrates.” It’s an urgent, driving pop song that fuses electronics with rock instrumentation like the best of Alternative radio. “A Little Rain” and “My Days” feature evocative melodic and textural beauty. The latter’s hopeful and assuring chorus is unexpected and welcome. Softer moments like these are interspersed throughout TNTK in between kinetic numbers like “No Clear Way” and “We Can Punish,” or “A Stranger” reminiscent of his noisier, beat-oriented years. This varied approach and attention to detail is garnish to an already tight song cycle

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Mask 
          2. Hang Up 
          3. Tula 
          4. A Little Rain
          5. No Clear Way
          6. We Can Punishl
          7. Drink A Spider
          8. Just A Few Things Wrong
          9. My Days
          10. A Stranger

          On the heels of their justly lauded LP "Dream All Over", Gun Outfit deliver "Two Way Player", an EP of enigmatic & spacious guitar music that stands alongside the band's boldest & strongest work thus far, this time with a new line up of David Harris (MILK MUSIC), Joe Denardo (GROWING/ORNAMENT), with Will Lawrence, in addition to the core members, Daniel, Carrie, & Dylan. Abstracted legends of the American West, fortunes gained & lost, tragic songs of life rendered in deep focus - all portrayed through mysterious & dense compositions that recall the lonely expanses & warm intimacies of the films of Bruce Baillie & Gunvor Nelson. "Two Way Player" is a brief, beautiful dispatch from the country's most consistent band, a record equally suited for stoned sunny mornings & lonely full moon nights.

          Wall

          Wall

            A certain self-awareness of the very question is at the heart of the WALL apparatus & listening along as they discover themselves throughout this EP is invigorating & scary. Tone & rhythm whirl together, like an emergency exit door choreographed to swing flawlessly in time to its damned & chaotic Pavlovian alarm bell. From the first rigid & cautious seconds of their EP, WALL unleashes an uncanny self-awareness that methodically slips pages ripped from demented No Wave legacies through a shredder of their own design.

            Posse

            Perfect H / Voices

              Seattle 3 piece, Posse (featured in Pitchfork's RISING Listings in 2015) follow up their 2014 LP "Soft Opening" with this limited run 7" with jacket artwork by Sam Falls. Featuring beautifully interwoven guitars, propulsive, stripped down drumming & Paul Whittmann-Todd & Sacha Maxim's hushed vocals, these 2 tracks take Posse's brand of minimalism to the next level.


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