News – Page 23 – 7th Level Music

Photay releases “Jet Stream” from an upcoming extended version of his “Windswept” album.

Nearly six months after the release of his album Windswept, Photay (Evan Shornstein), returns with Windswept: Expansions, out March 28, 2025 via Mexican Summer. The expanded album features two new tracks from the album’s surplus of exceptional sound alongside the producer’s own remix of standout single “Air Lock.” The first of these new tracks, “Jet Stream,” is out today.

“Pushing past the dynamic ceiling of Windswept, ‘Jet Stream’ peaks in our upper atmosphere, and as a result, it didn’t fit on vinyl,” explains Shornstein. “At the start of 2025, on the other side of Windswept tours, I lost my home and studio to the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. Although this piece (and Windswept) were made well before this disaster, for me they grow in relevance. I use sound to understand the greater elemental forces and our vulnerability to them. I believe music will continue being a source of uplift and clarity amidst intensifying weather and atmospheric conditions.”

Following headline tours in the US and Asia in 2024, Photay will perform at London’s Polygon Live LDN Festival this May.

Photay’s Windswept is, in the producer’s own words, a nine-track sonic exploration of the wind as a “powerful, deep, unpredictable and at times overwhelming spirit.” Traversing IDM, ambient-techno, and jazz funk electronic modes in unpredictable, undeniable ways, Windswept blew away those familiar and new to Photay’s music, even being named the #1 album of 2024 by Juno Daily.

The album is primarily reliant on Shornstein’s fresh, home grown electronic textures and acoustic drumming. Numerous friends also add instrumental touches including Randall Fisher, Will Epstein, Carlos Niño, Laraaji, Nate Mercereau, and Mariana Bragada. Windswept’s compositions were largely written-out and specifically produced, though a couple were also turned into “songs” out of improvised sections. But all were under the spell of the wind, of climate change and weather phenomena — from their titles on down.

One reason that Windswept may especially feel like an organic solo statement is that the previous handful of projects Photay had been involved in were all explicitly collaborative. There was the new age improvisation albums with Niñoand friends; there was the album he produced for London-based Indian-American drummer Sarathy Korwar; and there was WEMA, a kind of studio supergroup involving members of the Afro-Latin dance band Penya and Tanzanian gogo master Msafiri Zawose. Each of those projects took Shornstein in very specific directions he did not dictate. Windswept was a response to those experiences, an opportunity to reconnect with his own vision, and apply newfound lessons.

There is admittedly a higher quotient of direct-towards-dance-floor energy to Windswept than recent Photay recordings have featured. Stretches of tracks are moderately home-rave-ready, but there is a thematic balance with moments of reservation as well, and of Evan’s voice embracing the moment. These songs — gorgeously sweet melodies and tart textures, layered synths and instruments, off-kilter rhythms and treated voices, all gliding from structure into another — contain much of the warmth and fresh-air that’s made Photay’s various sounds so distinctive and unified through the years.

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[Thanks to George at Terrorbird Media.]

Smut releases new single that’s anything but “Dead Air.”

Smut — the Chicago band comprised of vocalist/lyricist Tay Roebuck, guitarist Andie Min, bassist John Steiner, guitarist/synthist Sam Ruschman, and drummer Aidan O’Connor — releases “Dead Air” via Bayonet Records. It’s the first new single from a forthcoming release out later this year and follows their revelatory 2022 Bayonet debut, How the Light Felt, hailed by Under the Radar as “pop perfection.” “Dead Air” starts out with crystalline guitars and fall air-crisp bass. Then Roebuck’s vocals come in. She sounds like Elizabeth Fraser, but more rock ‘n’ roll, shifting her vocals from honeyed and dreamy to a pop punk shriek. It’s patched together Frankenstein-style, with lyrics and riffs the band worked on solo and together. Lyrically, it’s a break up song, a band break up song— a song about relationships ending and changing. “I heard you say forever,” she sings, “Forever.”

Stream “Dead Air”

When setting off to write “Dead Air,” Smut wanted to make something that rocked. They wanted to make something that was as fun to make as it was fun to listen to. They went back to their favorite bands growing up, playing My Chemical Romance and Metric. Green Day and The Fall. Twisting metal riffs into a pop context.

“Dead Air” marks the first track drummer Aidan O’Connor and bassist John Steiner have recorded on as full-fledged members of Smut. Part of what makes the song so electric is the excitement the band felt working in this new iteration. “We have so much energy right now,” says Roebuck. To record, “as live as they could,” they went off to New York to work with Aron Kobayashi-Ritch (Momma) at a studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Right before they went off to New York, Roebuck and Min got married. When they were recording, Roebuck had completely blown her voice by the end, chugging lemon and honey and hot water. The band slept on friend’s couches and floors. Smut has always been DIY. Because they love it, they love to work together. They love to collaborate. “Dead Air” is the product of that collaboration.

Formed a decade ago in Cincinnati, OH, Smut have conquered national tours with Bully, Swirlies, Nothing, and Wavves since their founding. Where their 2020 EP Power Fantasy dipped its toe into the experimental, their most recent album, How the Light Felt (mastered by Heba Kadry), dives head-first into 90s influences — brit-pop, shoegaze, and trip-hop, taking Smut’s sound to exciting heights, with more new music to be released in the coming months.

Stream/Purchase How the Light Felt

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Blackwater Holylight announce new EP, “If You Only Knew,” with its first single – “Wandering Lost.”

Blackwater Holylight crafts music that offsets airiness and immediacy. Today [February 26, 2025], the Los Angeles, CA band announces their new EP, If You Only Knew, out April 18, 2025 via Suicide Squeeze Records. Though it clocks in at just four tracks, the EP traverses countless cosmic peaks and sludgy valleys. The band has also shared the single “Wandering Lost,” premiering on FLOOD Magazine, which gradually evolves from atmosphere to heaviness. Over the course of almost seven minutes, metal, shoegaze, and psychedelia coalesce. The song was slowly conceptualized while Blackwater Holylight was working with acclaimed producer Sonni DiPerri (Animal Collective, DIIV, Suzanne Ciani) in Los Angeles, and mimics the mysterious, sometimes painful chapters of life by shifting between multiple movements. Like all of Blackwater Holylight’s material, there is an ample dose of beauty to be found beneath “Wandering Lost”‘s snarling exterior.

On “Wandering Lost,” singer, guitarist, and bassist Sunny Faris shares: “‘Wandering Lost’ came to us in pieces throughout a handful of weeks in Los Angeles. The four of us intentionally wanted this song to have multiple parts to tell a story that takes you on a journey throughout. This song is very special to us because it represents us as musicians individually and is a perfect reflection of what we’ve created as a group. It’s a song about wandering through the chapters of life, curiosity, and the connection we all have to each other through the unknown of how it will all unfold.”

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Levitation France announces its 2025 lineup.

Levitation France has announced its full (?) lineup for 2025, and they’ve packed a lot of good bands into just two nights.

Vendredi (Friday) brings in Italy’s New Candys (whose new album, so far, sounds pretty cool), UK’s Ditz (a sharp new post-punk band), Spain’s Hinds (also promoting a new album), Danish metal giants Kadavar, and the U.S.’ own Blonde Redhead.

Samedi (Saturday) has Angers post-punkers Rest Up, UK’s mysterious HONESTY, goth-queen Heartworms, experimental psych-rockers Bryan’s Magic Tears, and psych-proggers bdrmm, plus the U.S.’ synthwave duo Boy Harsher, and finally French psych heavyweights The Limiñanas.

It’s a good lineup with some serious rock in it this year, and it’s in a new location – a pyramid on a lakefront, no less. Don’t miss it.

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Big Thief’s James Krivchenia’s new solo single, “Probably Wizards,” is out now.

James Krivchenia (drummer and producer of Big Thief) announces his new album Performing Belief, out May 2nd via Planet Mu, and shares its lead single, “Probably Wizards.” This spring, Krivchenia will play his first ever live show on Tue. June 17 at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, NY (tickets are on sale this Friday and will be available here).

Featuring contributions from electric bassist Sam Wilkes (Wilkes/Gendel) and double bassist/multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams (Natural Information Society), Performing Belief builds rhythmic thickets from gathered sounds interwoven with synths, drum machines and other samples. At the core of Performing Belief is a lush, opulent matrix of percussion ranging from the familiar—hand claps and drum machines—to the mysteriously verdant, sampled largely from Krivchenia’s own field recording collection. Lead single “Probably Wizards” was created alongside Wilkes and carries a profoundly fresh sense of time, blurring the edges of the quantized grid and the boundaries of electronic music.

Listen to “Probably Wizards”

Krivchenia’s previous release, 2022’s hyperkinetic Blood Karaoke, was composed mostly from hundreds of tiny samples of unwatched YouTube videos. Performing Belief sees Krivchenia turning from online realms to the natural world. For years, Krivchenia would record his musical encounters with natural objects: performing on a particularly resonant log on a hike, throwing rocks into a pristine pond, tap dancing in the mud. This archive of sounds became the fertile soil out of which the tracks on Performing Belief grew. Having built these rhythmic nests, Wilkes and Abrams bring the presence of a grounding human witness to the undergrowth, providing a centering and even at times melodic voice to the gathering. This rhythmic language, set in Krivchenia’s long-fermenting electronic musical palate, feels like a revelation — it calls back not only to his wonderfully elastic timekeeping behind the kit, but also to his prior work in computer music as well as his deep study of the vast human archive of drumming.

Performing Belief is in good company in the rank and file of the legendary Planet Mu label. From the foundational early releases of the likes of Jega and Venetian Snares, to the contemporary envelope-warping work of Jlin and hundreds of brilliant releases in between, Planet Mu has been a beacon of forward-thinking rhythmic music for decades, informing Krivchenia’s own sense of the weird metaphysics of musical time since he was a kid. Krivchenia’s contribution to this history calls to mind the principle of organic danceability that subtends Mu’s whole catalogue, while bending our sense of rhythm in new and gracious dimensions.

Pre-order Performing Belief

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Sextile open up their “Freak Eyes.”

Los Angeles duo Sextile – celebrated for an unflinching, electronic punk sound injected with trance-pop grit – have announced their bold upcoming album, yes, please., out May 2, 2025 on Sacred Bones.

Much of yes, please. is being performed on a current North American run of dates supporting Molchat Doma into March. Sextile has also shared the single “Freak Eyes,” which pushes their dark, pulsing signature sound to new heights. It opens with a nasty bass growl, which abruptly gives way to a techno beat peppered with clanging cowbell and sharp hi-hat. “I feel the pressure / Man the pressure I feel when we’re together,” vocalist Brady Keehn cooly, albeit firmly yell-sings in the opening lines. Inspired by the ways in which pressure can provoke challenges and improvement alike, “Freak Eyes” conjures electrifying images of seedy Sunset Strip backrooms and leather clad warehouse dance floors.

On the track, Brady Keehn of Sextile shares: “”Freak Eyes” is aboutthe pressures of making art, living, and aspiring. The sound was inspired by house parties we went to in NY, where certain tracks had the conversation stopping power. If you were in the middle of convo with a friend and heard certain songs, it didn’t matter what you were talking about, you stopped and joined the party in the collective release of emotion, singing, dancing, and drinks flying everywhere. It was like in that moment, nothing else mattered but that energy that we all collectively felt. And I felt like I hadn’t seen that at a party, or anywhere in a while, and wanted to try to bring that feeling back into the world again.”

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Triathalon releases appropriately titled “RIP” from their upcoming “Funeral Music” album.

Triathalon — the New York-based trio of Adam Intrator, Chad Chilton and Hunter Jayne — announces its new album, Funeral Music, out May 16th on Lex Records, and presents the lead single/video, “RIP.” Funeral Music, the band’s fifth album, began taking shape when the band imagined what they’d like played during their memorials. Continuously referencing “play this at my funeral” throughout writing and recording, the album became a realization of this concept. Lead single “RIP” is a 90s-influenced rock track inspired by artists like Pixies, Deftones, and Nirvana. Adam Intrator says, “The aim for ‘RIP’ was to kick start feelings on what it felt like to listen to a late 90s rock song for the first time as a kid in your parents car in the backseat and asking to hear it louder. ‘RIP’ has a double meaning; it’s about both dying and being reborn.”

Watch/Stream “RIP”

Born out of a period of heartbreak, growing pains, and self discovery, Funeral Music showcases a darker, more vulnerable side of the band. With a more minimal approach, every element within the album is highlighted, from cleaner guitar tones, to live-tracked drums, to first-take vocals mixed with singular piano playing and experimental production. Funeral Music not only reflects the band’s sonic shift but also reinvents the overall dynamics between their sound, energy, and workflow. These songs were written, demoed, recorded, and mixed in various places, bedrooms, studios, and houses over the course of two years and is the band’s strongest and most cohesive work to date.

Pre-order Funeral Music

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Lonnie Holley’s new single, “That’s Not Art, That’s Not Music,” turns the spotlight back on critics.

Lonnie Holley unveils the new single, “That’s Not Art, That’s Not Music,” from his new album, Tonky, out March 21st via Jagjaguwar. Following Holley’s “deeply moving, genre defying” (NPR Music) single “Protest With Love,” “That’s Not Art, That’s Not Music” is about Holley’s early experiences in the art world and larger institutions’ apprehension in accepting Black self-taught art as fine art. Holley is once again joined by Jacknife Lee, The Legendary Ingramettes, Kelly Pratt, and Jordan Katz. Budgie also contributes here. Atop atmospheric horns, flute, and marimba, Holley sings: “Gathering our arts / Gathering our music / Incorporating it into song / Us being rejected / They were saying, ‘That’s not good enough’/Not good enough / That’s not art / That’s not music.”

Watch/Stream “That’s Not Art, That’s Not Music”

Tonky is a work born out of the delight of finding a sound and pressing it up against another found sound and another until, before a listener knows it, they are awash in a symphony of sound that feels like it stitches together as it is washing over you. The layers of sound found on Tonky are the result of decades of evolving experimentation. Tonky takes its name from a childhood nickname that was affixed to Holley when he lived a portion of his childhood life in a honky tonk. Lonnie Holley’s life of survival and endurance is one that is required – and no doubt still requires – a kind of invention. An invention that is also rich and present in Holley’s songs, which are full and immersive on Tonky.

Portions of this press release are pulled from the Tonky bio written by Hanif Abdurraqib.

Pre-order/save Tonky

Watch The Video For “Protest With Love”

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Population II release second single, “Mariano (Jamais Je Ne T’oublerai)” from upcoming album.

Last month, Population II announced their new LP Maintenant Jamais, their third full-length album, which is due out on March 28th via Bonsound. The album was announced with a single calledLe thé est prêt” (French for “The tea is ready”), which saw an immediate positive response, earning praise from outlets like Stereogum and BrooklynVegan for a sound that “shimmers, shakes, and soars” (Stereogum).

Today, on the heels of their recent European tour and ahead of their upcoming appearance at SXSW, Population II are back to share a second single from the album, a track called “Mariano (Jamais je ne t’oublierai)” that is premiering today via FLOOD.

Layered with synthesizers and fuzz-saturated guitars over pulsating drums, “Mariano (Jamais je ne t’oublierai)” unfolds with finesse, somewhere between krautrock and psychedelic pop. The track exemplifies the refinement and textural depth Population II have found on their latest LP, which was recorded with the help of producer Dominic Vanchesteing (Marie Davidson). It’s a sophisticated rock album that surprises with its languorous pace (as heard on “Le thé est prêt”), while staying true to the band’s renowned raw power.

About Population II

Population II is a band dedicated to its disengagement, constantly refining their imposing, yet unpretentious sound. The trio of musicians (singer/drummer Pierre-Luc Gratton, guitarist/keyboardist Tristan Lacombe and bassist Sébastien Provençal) are masters at improvised madness and sophisticated composition. They deliver heavy psychedelic rock infused with feverish funk rhythms, a hint of jazz philosophy, a burst of early-punk energy, and a love of minor scales that harkens back to heavy metal roots. The band is reinforced by Pierre-Luc’s unique voice and his introspective, offbeat lyrics.

Their sources of inspiration are diverse and not limited to music. They include the Detroit garage rock and psychedelic funk scenes of the late 60s, the Canterbury scene of the same period, the German experimental rock of the 70s, and Miles Davis’ electric era. They bind all this together with the swampy landscape of Pointe-Calumet (their hometown), and the deep friendship and undeniable chemistry of its three members.

The roots of Population II go back a long way and are inextricably linked to their teenage memories. After years of jamming, to the point of developing a sense of telepathy, the trio began recording a handful of independent releases that soon caught the attention of the independent label Castle Face Records. Thus was born À la Ô Terre, their first label-released album, which came out in 2020. They returned in 2023 with Électrons libres du québec, this time released on Bonsound. A little more straightforward than its predecessor, the record reflects a natural progression of the sound the trio established on their previous releases, showing a sharp sense of songcraft and the undeniable expertise of their instruments. Many tours have followed since then, including several dates opening for Osees.

On a creative spree, Population II struck again the following spring with their EP Serpent Échelle, and then in the fall with a split single with local punk act Mulch. After this prolific sequence of releases, the band laid the groundwork for Maintenant Jamais, a third full-length album that stirs up their formative influences with sophistication, resulting in fourteen catchy, transgressive tracks.

Pre-order Maintenant Jamais here.

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Autogramm releases “Randy” – a song about and dedicated to their drummer’s cat.

Autogramm, synth-driven power-poppers from Seattle, Chicago and Vancouver, have just released their latest single on Dirt Cult Records and Germany’s Goodwill Records. The vinyl seven-inch single features the band’s newest composition “Randy” and is backed with the song “Jenny’s In A Sleep World” by Toronto’s punk legends The Diodes. Originally released in 1979, The Diodes enthusiastically endorsed the synthed-up cover version of the song. The new single follows Autogramm’s tradition of crafting sing-along new wave anthems, but this time with a humorous twist. “Randy” was originally slated to be released as part of their latest album Music That Humans Can Play, but was omitted as the subject of the lyrics became inaccurate. Being a self described “cat band” they naturally – after some deliberation – decided to re-record the vocals and dedicate the content of the lyrics to their drummer’s cat, Randy.

Drummer The Silo explains the lyrics he penned for the song. “It’s a letter to a good friend, in need of a little confidence push. Everyone needs an ego boost sometimes. Even if they’re a cat.” Listeners will delight in lines like “If you think you wanna jump up on that countertop, well baby you’ve got the tools. The world’s looking for a pretty cool dude, and maybe that dude is you.” “Randy” will remind listeners of DEVO, with tick-tack rhythms, motorik basslines and a quirky bounce that subtly points to influences like The Dead Milkmen and The Cars. Guitarist Lars Von Seattle aptly describes the new release as, “Nuevo juevo punk pop for allergic feline lovers. Blazing guitars, squiggly synths, bumping bass, and deftly thrashing drums collide in a spirit of uplift for the irrepressible Randy in all of us”. The new Autogramm single comes in conjunction with the announcement of their Spanish tour dates this March.

LIVE IN SPAIN MARCH 2025

Sat March 22 COX – TNT BLUES

Sun March 23 GRANADA – PLANTA BAJA

Mon March 24 SPAIN – TBA

Tue March 25 SEVILLA – EVEN

Wed March 26 CÓRDOBA – HANGAR

Thu March 27 VALLADOLID – CIENTOCERO

Fri March 28 SPAIN – TBA

Sat March 29 MADRID – FUN HOUSE

The Spanish tour will also be in support of their latest album Music That Humans Can Play released on vinyl and digital formats world-wide on Stomp Records (and Beluga Records EU). The album has already graced the pages of international press like Paste, Exclaim, Under the Radar, Goldmine, Austin Town Hall, Visions (DE), Musik Express (DE), Happy Mag (AU), and Rock ‘n’ Roll Army (ES). With their new album Music That Humans Can Play the band dedicated themselves to bringing in sounds from influences like The Fixx, David Bowie, Cheap Trick, The Boys, The Dickies, Jay Reatard, and Prince. The result is a decisively cohesive album that will fit in easily to the 80s section of your record collection, with songs so well-crafted they probably deserve to be on the soundtrack of Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

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