News – Page 31 – 7th Level Music

Mr. Bungle announces 2024 U.S. tour dates.

Mr. Bungle continue to extend their 2024 world tour, adding headlining dates to cities the band has not visited since the turn of the millennium, with newly announced performances now also slated for the Southeastern and Midwestern U.S.:

May 6 Dallas, TX House of Blues

May 7 Austin, TX Emo’s

May 8 Houston, TX House of Blues

May 11 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle

May 12 Raleigh, NC The Ritz

May 14 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl

May 15 Indianapolis, IN Egyptian Room

May 19 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue

Tickets are on-sale this Friday, Jan. 26 at 10 am local time. Ipecac alum, Otto Von Schirach opens on all headlining dates. Ticketing links are available at Ipecac.com/tours.

Full list of Mr. Bungle tour dates:

February 28 Tokyo, JP Toyosu Pit

February 29 Osaka, JP Namba Hatch

March 3 Auckland, NZ Auckland Town Hall +

March 6 Melbourne, AUS Festival Hall +

March 7 Adelaide, AUS Hindley Street Music Hall +

March 9 Sydney, AUS Hordern Pavilion +

March 10 Brisbane, AUS Fortitude Music Hall +

March 12 Perth, AUS Metro City +

May 6 Dallas, TX House of Blues #

May 7 Austin, TX Emo’s #

May 8 Houston, TX House of Blues #

May 10 Daytona Beach, FL Welcome to Rockville

May 11 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle #

May 12 Raleigh, NC The Ritz #

May 14 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl #

May 15 Indianapolis, IN Egyptian Room #

May 17 Columbus, OH Sonic Temple

May 18 Milwaukee, WI Milwaukee Metal Fest

May 19 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue #

June 16 Zurich, CH X-Tra %

June 17 Milan, IT Magnolia %

June 19 Berlin, DE Huxley’s %

June 20 Copenhagen, DK Copenhell

June 23 Luxembourg Atelier %

June 24 Tilburg, NL 013 Poppodium %

June 27 Oslo, NO Tons of Rock

June 29 Clisson, FR Hellfest

+ with Melvins

% with Oxbow & Spotlights

# with Otto Von Schirach

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Monica at Speakeasy PR.]

Paperkraft brings progressive house music back to the forefront on his upcoming EP.

Bubbling beneath the surface of Japan’s emerging underground scenes, Osaka based artist Paperkraft has passionately developed his craft, immersing himself in the culture and championing a new wave of Japanese artists. With the rise of genres like UKG & bass in neighboring cities like Kyoto – it’s the progressive and house movement Paperkraft is concerned about. Although more niche in his native city, developing a sustainable scene and championing the sounds he loves is the ultimate goal.

“UK Garage and other types of bass music music are thriving in Japan. I think the number of DJs of the younger generation has also increased.On the other hand, modern progressive house and liquid house music is a smaller scene. At least, no one around me is making similar music, so I would be happy if I could help bring some of it to Japan.”

First introduced to HOMAGE through friend and breakthrough producer Stones Taro, Paperkraft referenced releases like Aldonna’s Morph EP as the catalyst to send his demos, and who subsequently remixed ‘OK Corral’ on his forthcoming EP Not C But K.

Breakthrough tracks’ like Papekrafts’ ‘Dimple’ which was released by HearThug’s Are You Alien label gathered large support, and made a special appearance on Manami’s Boiler Room Debut; laying the foundations for tracks like ‘OK Corral’ to take shape. The infectious vocal sample coupled with jam-like riffs give off the vibe that it was done in one take in an act of pure enthusiasm, with that same energy lending itself to the dancefloor. Aldonna’s remix adds a balearic and emotive touch, while tracks like ‘Stella’ use a left leaning approach, perfect for low capacity clubs and sweaty, dimly-lighted rooms. Aiden Francis lends his signature sound to the remix of ‘Dizzy Disks’, with elements of breakbeat, trance and electro, showing why labels and clubgoers rate him so highly.

FORTHCOMING FEBRUARY 16TH.

PRE-ORDER

FEATURING REMIXES FROM ALDONNA & AIDEN FRANCIS.

PREVIEW

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Harbour Music Society.]

VR SEX’s new single, “Real Doll Time,” is now here for your real enjoyment.

Following 2022’s Rough Dimension LP, Noel Skum– aka Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty– made the radical leap of expanding his psychedelic post-punk vehicle VR SEX into a fully collaborative five-piece band. Hard Copy is the result– 10 tracks of sneering psychedelic punk streaked with Chrome-damaged freak-outs and snotty power pop harmonies chronicling sex doll love affairs and glue-sniffing fatales and is due out March 22nd via Dais Records. To mark the announcement, the band are sharing the first single from the record “Real Doll Time“.

Listen / share “Real Doll Time” on YouTube.

To christen the new group’s camaraderie of becoming a five-piece band, VR SEX booked a block of studio time in Glassell Park, swapped skeletal iPhone demos, and “did that classic thing of a band making the exact record they want without any interference.” Working 12-hour days, they banged out the basics in a week, then tracked the rest over a month, fine-tuning it with flourishes, FX, and amplifier experiments.

Mixed by guitarist Mike Kriebel– an accomplished engineer with dozens of credits across the punk, goth, and garage underground– the album is dense, rich, and spatial, spurred by Clinco’s muse of “reckless abandon.” Shadows of Chrome, Stickmen With Rayguns, Japanese psych, and loud-quiet-loud grunge anthems flicker here and there, but ultimately VR SEX’s mode is more sardonic and saturated, oscillating between ripped leather riffing and space echo meltdowns. Banning plug-ins was a mission statement, with most instruments tracked direct into the board, then guitars added via a daisy chain of amplifiers, panned and mixed and matched for maximum intoxication: “My goal is always to load up every take with as much sound as possible in one pass.”

Lyrically, the record revisits the project’s perennial fascinations: twisted lust, cheap thrills, dirty money, doomed delinquents, and ruined romance amid the creeps and cracked dreamers of gritty city voids. The title refers to the uncanny valley between “facsimile and the real thing, and the illusion that one is better than the other – when both come with their own menu of delights and demonic pleasures.” Hard Copy embraces extremes and outliers, delusion and perversion, the conflicted dimensional depths lurking in every exploded heart: “I can be ugly / I can be strong / I can be proper / I can be wrong / I can be lovely / or I can be gone / the thing that will haunt you is still hanging on.”

Pre-order Hard Copy here and look for more news + music from VR SEX soon.

Keep your mind open.

[You’ll be a real doll in my eyes if you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Stephanie at Another / Side.]

Nick Schofield returns with a “Picture Perfect” single.

Distant piano, vintage synths and faded orchestral arrangements resounding in spacious natural reverb. Nick Schofield’s Ambient Ensemble sees the Canadian composer and synth maven expanding his solo practice with an ensemble, adding his signature ambient essence to contemporary-classical and electronic music.

Where his previous two albums (Water Sine, Glass Gallery) were entirely solo endeavours and synth-focused, Ambient Ensemble invites gregarious group play. The compositions feature a chamber ensemble of grounding double bass and sliding fretless flourishes, warm violin and soothing vocals, with convivial accents of clarinet. Compelled by natural elements and intuitive composition, Ambient Ensemble is a refreshing assembly of acoustic works by Nick Schofield.

In January 2020, the album began with patient piano improvisations recorded in a church during deep Canadian winter nights. The sparse piano sketches were then slowed to half-speed and layered with classic Moog and Juno-6 synthesizers. After the project received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2023, the ensemble was formed with luminaries of the Gatineau/Ottawa music scene, featuring Yolande Laroche (voice, clarinet), Mika Posen (violin) and Philippe Charbonneau (fretless electric bass, double bass).

Citing the blissful spaciousness of pioneering new age flutist Joanna Brouk as a central inspiration, Ambient Ensemble lands delicately within the contemporary cannon alongside artists like M. Sage, Blue Lake, Ana Roxanne, and Joseph Shabason.

Regarding his newest single, “Picture Perfect,” Schofield says: “Picture Perfect is my most upbeat ambient song. It features pulsing piano, sparkling synths and swelling string arrangements – all recorded in a church with naturally resounding reverb.

The song is about envisioning perfection, while also recognizing the perfection of the present moment.

This piece shows the trajectory of my music, from working solo with synthesizers to incorporating acoustic instruments with an ensemble.

I wanted to work with acoustic instruments and an ensemble of musicians after hosting a concert series at Resonance Cafe in Montreal (which is sadly now closed) from 2018-2020 called Ambient Ensemble where I invited small ensembles of local musicians to improvise over my ambient music. It was beautiful and playful, full of serene surprises. The series featured so many amazing musicians – I was joined by label-mates Pietro Amato, Michael Feuerstack and Sarah Pagé, as well as Thanya Iyer, Austin Tufts, Eve Parker Finley, Sean Michaels, Alexei Perry Cox, Desert Bloom, Adam Kinner, Sarah Feldman, Justin Wright and many more. This new album is my way to produce the ‘Ambient Ensemble’ concert series on record. I am in love with how the album turned out because it is equally playful, serene and full of surprises that I would have never come up with on my own – just like the concert series.“

Keep your mind open.

[It would be perfect if you subscribed.]

[Thanks to Gabriel at Clandestine Label Services.]

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble’s new album is due in March, but you can hear “Compared to What” from it now.

Today, Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, in conjunction with the legendary group’s 50th anniversary, announces its new album, Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit, out March 8th, 2024 via Spiritmuse Records, and shares lead single, “Compared To What.” In addition, the ensemble announces their 50th annual February North American Tour in honor of Black History Month.

Open Me is a joyous honoring of portent new directions of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble; it’s a visionary journey into deep roots and future routes, channeling traditions old and new. It mixes El’Zabar’s original compositions with timeless classics by Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, and Eugene McDaniels. Thus, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble continues affirming their indelible, half-century presence within the continuum of Great Black Music.

The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (EHE) constantly shifts gears and tempos in a jazz-blues continuum, in perpetual spontaneity, and “Compared To What” is a powerful statement on their incomparable sound. It’s a deeply funky read of Eugene McDaniel’s eternal protest song first recorded by Robert Flack, and later, Les McCann and Eddie Harris. Featuring vocals and kalimba by El’Zabar, backed by bassist Alex Harding, the EHE’s “Compared To What” is 8 minutes of contemplative, dynamic rhythms combined with El’Zabar’s deep captivating vocals, and accompanying horn and string cacophony that tunes the listener to their higher consciousness.

“Compared To What’ was my father, Clifton Blackburn Sr’s favorite tune,” says El’Zabar. “On Saturdays he would play jazz all day, and later in the evening, he would scat, sing rhythms, and then he and I would improvise together on the grooves that he taught me. It was all ‘Compared to What.’”

Watch Video for “Compared To What”

Open Me, El’Zabar’s sixth collaboration with Spiritmuse in five years, marks another entry in a run of critically acclaimed recordings that stretch back to the first EHE recording in 1981. The storied multi-percussionist, composer, fashion designer, and former Chair of the Association of Creative Musicians (AACM) is in what might be the most productive form of his career, and now in his seventies, shows no signs of slowing down. Few creative music units can boast such longevity, and fewer still are touring as energetically and recording with the verve of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.

The EHE was founded by El’Zabar in 1974 originally as a quintet, but was soon paired down to its classic form — a trio, featuring El’Zabar on multi-percussion and voice, plus two horns. It was an unusual format, even by the standards of the outward-bound musicians of the AACM: “Some people literally laughed at our unorthodox instrumentation and approach. We were considered even stranger than most AACM bands at the time. I knew in my heart though that that this band had legs, and that my concept was based on logic as it pertains to the history of Great Black Music, i.e. a strong rhythmic foundation, innovative harmonics and counterpoint, well-balanced interplay and cacophony amongst the players, strong individual soloist, highly developed and studied ensemble dynamics, an in-depth grasp of music history, originality, fearlessness, and deep spirituality.”

With El’Zabar at the helm, the band’s line-up has always been open to changes, and over the years the EHE has welcomed dozens of revered musicians including Light Henry Huff, Kalaparusha Maurice Macintyre, Joseph Bowie, Hamiett Bluiett, and Craig Harris. The current line-up has been consolidated over two decades — trumpeter Corey Wilkes entered the circle twenty years ago, while baritone sax player Alex Harding joined seven years ago, after having played with El’Zabar since the early 2000s in groups such as Joseph Bowie’s Defunkt.

For Open Me, El’Zabar has chosen to push the sound of the EHE in a new direction by adding string instruments — cello, played by Ishmael Ali, and violin/viola played byJames Sanders. The addition of strings opens new textural resonances and timbral dimensions in the Ensemble’s sound, linking the work to the tradition of improvising violin and cello from Ray Nance to Billy Bang, Leroy Jenkins, and Abdul Wadud.

Open Me contains a mixture of originals, including some El’Zabar evergreens such as “Barundi,” “Hang Tuff,” “Ornette,” and “Great Black Music” (often attributed to the Art Ensemble of Chicago but is, in fact, an El’Zabar composition). There are also numbers drawn from the modern tradition, which El’Zabar uniquely arranges, including a contemplative interpretation of Miles Davis’ “All Blues.” As a milestone anniversary celebration and a statement of future intent, Open Me effortlessly carries El’Zabar’s healing vision of Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit.

Pre-order Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit

Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit Tracklist
1. All Blues
2. Barundi
3. The Whole World
4. Return Of The Lost Tribe
5. Hang Tuff
6. Can You Find A Place
7. Great Black Music
8. Passion Dance
9. Ornette
10. Compared To What
11. Kari
12. Open Me

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble 2024 Tour Dates:

Thu. Feb. 1 – Chicago, IL @ The Promontory
Sat. Feb. 3 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Blue Llama
Tue. Feb. 6 – Washington, DC @ Rhizome
Wed. Feb. 7 – Philadelphia, PA @ Solar Myth
Sat. Feb. 10 – Baltimore, MD @ An die Musik
Sun. Feb. 11 – Erie, PA @ City Gallery
Mon. Feb. 12 – Rochester, NY @ Bop Shop
Tue. Feb. 13 – Burlington, VT @ Radio Bean
Wed. Feb. 14 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rosa
Fri. Feb. 16 – Toronto, ON @ Caliban Arts @ Redwood Theatre
Sat. Feb. 17 – Detroit, MI @ N’Namdi Center For Contemporary Art
Sun. Feb. 18 – Madison, WI @ Cafe Coda
Fri. Feb. 23 – Portland, OR @ PDX Jazz Festival
Sun. Feb. 25 – Santa Monica, CA @ First Presbyterian Church (Jacaranda Performance Series)
Mon. Feb. 26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Yard Act release new single, “Petroleum,” from upcoming “Where’s My Utopia?” album.

Today, Yard Act present their new single, “Petroleum,” another taste of their forthcoming second album, Where’s My Utopia?, out March 1st on Republic. The accompanying “Petroleum” video is a continuation of the prior James Slater-directed videos for “Dream Job” and “The Trench Coat Museum,” and stars friend of the band, comedian and creator of Starstruck, Rose Matafeo.

“Petroleum” lives on the second half of Where’s My Utopia?, which simultaneously contains some of Yard Act’s most grimly real and fantastically optimistic narratives yet. It was written after a touring nadir. “I lost it with the crowd in Bognor Regis and told them I was bored and I didn’t want to be there,” Yard Act’s frontman James Smith recalls. “Me and Ryan [Needham] had a row after, and Ryan rightly dressed me down for the way I acted. It got me pondering the idea that, now this is a job, what are the requirements of it? People think they want honesty but they don’t, they want me to portray the version of honesty that they’ve paid to see and that’s part of the illusion.”

Speaking about the ‘Petroleum’ video, Smith says: “‘Petroleum’ finds The Visitor as she stumbles into the hideout of a fearsome Biker gang called The Utopians. She’s still on the run from the H.G.E agents. It was a lot of fun shooting this video, and a joy to watch our friend Rose Matafeo bring the leader of The Utopians to life. Though the story isn’t being told in a linear format, I hope that the journey of The Visitor through the last three videos is starting to come together and reveal that we’re working on something bigger here. More to come!”

Rose Matafeo added: “I screen most of my phone calls, but when the phone flashes up ‘JAMES YARD ACT’ you’re gonna pick that up straight away. To feature in a Yard Act video has been on my bucket list ever since I added it to my bucket list after they asked me so I could have the satisfaction of crossing it off my bucket list. The overall vision for this album is so creatively ambitious and fun and cool and I’m so stoked to even be a little part of it. Sorry for my bad accent. Not sorry for the line dancing.”

Watch Yard Act’s “Petroleum” Video

Where’s My Utopia? follows Yard Act’s Mercury Prize shortlisted debut The Overload, “a debut album bursting with character” (Uncut), and was co-produced by Yard Act and Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr. Written in snapshots of time in the midst of touring, the album is a giant leap forward into broad and playful new sonic waters, sprinkled with strings, choirs, and voice-acting clips courtesy of comedian pals Nish Kumar, Rose Matafeo, and more. Where’s My Utopia? is a communal four-way effort built on chemistry, familiarity and the trust to challenge and push each other creatively. “The main reason that ‘post-punk’ was the vehicle for Album One was because it was really affordable to do, but we always liked so much other music and this time we’ve had the confidence to embrace it,” James explains.

It’s a celebratory palette upon which Smith allowed himself to reach lyrically deeper into himself than ever. Gone, largely, are the outward-facing character studies of yore, replaced with a set of songs that stare fully into the headlights of life, wrangling with the frontman’s own fears and foibles to create a sort of Promethean narrative – but with jokes. This dueling sense of responsibility and ambition, guilt, love, drive and everything in between forms the narrative backbone of Where’s My Utopia?, Yard Act’s brilliantly exploratory second album. “You can commit to the idea that we’re just animals who eat and fuck and then we die, and that’s fine,” Smith suggests. “But for me, creativity always seems to be the best way of articulating the absolute minefield of what human existence is.”

Next year, Yard Act will embark on a tour of North America, Europe and the UK, including a hometown headline show at the 5,750 capacity Millennium Square Leeds. A full list of tour dates is below, and tickets are on sale now.

Pre-order Where’s My Utopia?

Watch “Dream Job” Video

Watch “The Trench Coat Museum” Video

Yard Act Tour Dates

Wed. Mar. 13 – Norwich, UK @ The Nick Rayns LCR (UEA)
Thu. Mar. 14 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
Fri. Mar. 15 – Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy
Sat. Mar. 16 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
Sun. Mar. 17 – Newcastle, UK @ Northumbria University
Tue. Mar. 19 – Belfast, UK @ Mandela Hall
Wed. Mar. 20 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street
Fri. Mar. 22 – Liverpool, UK @ Invisible Wind Factory
Sat. Mar. 23 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy
Mon. Mar. 25 – Brighton, UK @ The Dome
Wed. Mar. 27 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
Thu. Apr. 4 – Nantes, FR @ Stereolux
Fri. Apr. 5 – Paris, FR @ Cabaret Sauvage
Sat. Apr. 6 – Bordeaux, FR @ Rock School Barbey
Mon. Apr. 8 – Lisbon, PT @ LAV
Tue. Apr. 9 – Madrid, ES @ Mon
Thu. Apr. 11 – Barcelona, ES @ La 2
Fri. Apr. 12 – Lyon, FR @ Le Transbordeur
Sat. Apr. 13 – Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv Club
Sun. Apr. 14 – Milan, IT @ Santeria Toscana 31
Tue. Apr. 16 – Zurich, CH @ Mascotte
Wed. Apr. 17 – Munich, DE @ Muffathalle
Thu. Apr. 18 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Sat. Apr. 20 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan
Wed. Apr. 24 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefährlich
Thu. Apr. 25 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Main Hall
Fri. Apr. 26 – Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje
Sat. Apr. 27 – Cologne, DE @ Kantine
Sun. Apr. 28 – Brussels, BE @ Les Nuits Botanique
Thu. May 30 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
Fri. May 31 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater
Sat. Jun. 1 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
Mon. Jun. 3 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst Atrium
Tue. Jun. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Thu. Jun. 6 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Fri. Jun. 7 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
Sat. Jun. 8 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
Sat. Aug. 3 – Leeds, UK @ Millenium Square

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Meatbodies announce new, almost lost album and a new single – “Hole.”

Meatbodies’ latest undertaking and borderline lost album, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom is their most varied and realized work to date. It’s a melodic, hook filled rock epic in which frontman and lead guitarist Chad Ubovich faces the trials of sobriety, redemption, reinvention while literally, learning to walk and play again.

Resurrection not only accompanies the record, but its production as well, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom examines themes surrounding love and loss, escapism, defeatism, hedonism, psychedelics and much more. “The last record was more of a cartoon version of who we were– simple and fun without delving into heavy concepts,” recalls Ubovich. “The whole thing before with Meatbodies was never sit down, next part, next part, but I wanted to make something with more depth. After everything that had happened, and my personal life, I was left with this feeling of emptiness and loss. So I wanted to make music that was absent from things– songs that were more about conveying feeling.”

March 8th of next year, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom finally sees its release via In The Red. Its lead single and video “Hole,” released today, is pure alternative rock sweetness and clearly a nod to an amalgamation of shoegaze juggernauts from yesteryear. Backed by a brand-new video by Matt Yoka, “Hole” is immediate, dosed with enough pop and psilocybin to appease fans of both heavy rock and a quality melody. “That was one of the first songs I wrote, and I think it’s really indicative of that time,” says Ubovich. “How I was thinking and feeling and what I wanted to accomplish with this LP before I even knew it.”

Watch / Share “Hole” (Official Music Video)

By 2017, Meatbodies’ Ubovich had reached a crossroads. After years of increasingly insane shows playing to heaving crowds with an ever-evolving and rotating door of personnel, fatigue had taken its toll and he realized another change was on the horizon. “It was like the car had run out of gas in the middle of the road, and I knew I had a long walk ahead of me.” Retreating to the seedy Los Angeles underbelly– in search of meaning and a reset. Ubovich escaped into that world, ignoring his own well being, trying to forget his successes. “I was living like a 90’s vampire out of a comic book. Stumbling around LA with the socialites, partying away my sorrows, trying to forget.”

It was at this point that Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom began to take shape—a project built by a man searching for new beginnings and his own sense of self. After sobering up, writing sessions began at Ubovich’s home and various studios with longtime collaborator Dylan Fujioka. Eventually, the official production for Flora began in 2019, but it was a story left on the editing table. Due to discrepancies with the studio, tensions were high and the plug was pulled. Left with an album only half baked, it seemed like Flora had been put to rest. After the fires cooled and many discussions about the future of the album. Ubovich finally got the green light to finish production for Flora in 2020 when he hit another snag– the pandemic. And as the world took a back seat, so did the idea of Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom.

Not wanting to sit still at home, Ubovich began to comb through his previous demos with Fujioka while writing for Flora. And with that, 333 was born, the now de facto third Meatbodies LP. Yet Flora was never far from Ubovich’s mind and once again he revisited the idea of completing the now fabled album. As restrictions started to lift, Ubovich headed to Gold Diggers Sound in Los Angeles, backed by engineer Ed McEntee and a team of colleagues and friends, Ubovich completed the final act to the album, but he still wasn’t quite out of the woods just yet. He now faced a new crisis, one that proved to be more terrifying than any before: his home that he had spent the last 8 years in had been deemed uninhabitable and he wound up in a hospital bed where he spent the next month of his life.

Having to not only learn to walk again but also learn to play again, Ubovich used an upcoming tour with his band FUZZ as a motivating factor and hit the road for a year trying to regain a sense of normalcy. By the time Ubovich returned from tour he was centered and energized, ready to conquer his white whale – Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom. The mission was finally a success. Armed with a new home and a new studio – The Secret Garden, Ubovich mixed the album himself, looped in Brian Lucey at Magic Garden to handle mastering, and Flora was completed, five years after those fateful demos with Fujioka. “A lot happened with this record – it took me five years, I was out of a band, I had a drug problem, the album almost didn’t happen, the pandemic made it almost not happen again, and then in the end I almost died in the hospital, lost my house, and had to learn to walk again. It’s been quite a road, but I could not be more thrilled with the final output. I guess the juice was worth the squeeze?” laughs the Meatbodies frontman.

And so here we are, with Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom, an album completed by an ironclad will and steely determination. A massive step forward, both by conventional standards and considering its tumultuous path toward completion, the album is set for release. The LP recalls the searing Blue Cheer-meets-Iggy Pop-with-psychedelia that permeated previous releases, but adds new elements of shoegaze, classic alternative, Britpop, drone, and hints of country—blazing trails without ever sounding forced or alien. Simultaneously an ode to ’80s LA punk and the rise of indie/alternative music in the U.K., Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom plays like a radio station broadcasting from the void, with a cosmic playlist of early Pink Floyd, Ramones, Roky Erickson, Kinks, and Spacemen 3. And while those names may seem outwardly disparate, Ubovich crafts a distinctively Meatbodies arc among the songs, creating an eclectic and unmistakably cohesive piece of work in total. It all adds up to an effort that shows strength in its diversity, which is only secondary to its impeccable songwriting.

Pre-order / Pre-save Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom Here

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]

Sacred Bones to release a new collection of Xmal Deutschland singles and a new album from Anja Huwe.

Today Sacred Bones are excited to announce two parallel releases – a reissue of Xmal Deutschland’s ‘Early Singles’ (including two bonus tracks), as well as the debut solo album from Xmal Deutschland’s inimitable frontwoman Anja Huwe, ‘Codes’. Both records are set for release side-by-side on March 8th, 2024.

Xmal Deutschland are now marked as forerunners of the post-punk movement and ‘Early Singles (1981-1982)’ is a map of their foundational movements, just seconds before takeoff. The band’s pursuit of something greater is palpable with this release, a reflection of a time that introduced accessibility to new means of making music following the onset of punk. This reissue includes two bonus tracks; “Kaelbermarsch” (originally from the compilation “Lieber Zuviel Als Zuwenig”) and a gritty live version of “Allein” (originally from the compilation “Nosferatu Festival”), which is shared online today along with a video montage of footage from this era of the band’s career.

Watch the video for “Allein” here: https://youtu.be/6LU6Egw6R6Y
‘Early Singles (1981-1982)’ pre-order links: https://lnk.to/XmalEarlySingles

Alongside the reissue comes the debut solo release from Xmal Deutschland’s incomparable frontwoman, Anja Huwe. Invited by her long-time friend Mona Mur, Huwe reconsidered her decades-long hiatus from music and decided to join Mur in her studio in Berlin. Together, they worked for a year and a half, composing, performing and producing the tracks from scratch which eventually became the album ‘Codes’.

Integral to the overall sound experience was the input of Manuela Rickers who added her famed signature guitar style. The collaboration was relentless: “Mona and I have a similar artistic background since the 1980s. We hung out together, and we sport a similar attitude towards life and art. We don’t have to explain ourselves to one another,” says Huwe. Mur adds: “Anja’s voice is like a spear, her appearance a torch in the darkness.”

Initially inspired by the diary entries of Moshe Shnitzki, who, at the age of 17, left his home in 1942 to live in the cavernous White Russian forests as a partisan, ‘Codes’ is about the human experience and what extremes can do to an individual. “The result is a poetic, musical cosmos that encompasses the following themes: forest, fear, pain, loss, violence, and loneliness but also beauty, longing, hope and the will to survive,” Huwe explains.

Along with the announcement today, she shares “Rabenschwarz”, a frenzied song, which, with Rickers’ hypnotic apocalyptic guitars, Mur’s agitated and distinctive electronic sounds and beats, forged together with Huwe’s unmistakably energetic and expressive vocals, hits you in the face. A captivating combination.

“Rabenschwarz” on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kIM6K0XU3oQ
‘Codes’ pre-order links: https://lnk.to/AnjaCodes

More about Xmal Deutschland and Anja Huwe:
“Gothics”—a time before the word goth had even taken shape—believed in the do-it-yourself punk ethos that anyone could pick up an instrument. This, alongside the bric-a-brac fashion of Adam Ant and the long-winded atmospheric malaise of Bauhaus’ 1979 single, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” grey clouds were starting to form. And in the unlikely city of Hamburg, a brazen and haunting gang of five women formed Xmal Deutschland.

As any true punk would, Xmal Deutschland’s members Caro May, Rita Simon, Manuela Rickers, Fiona Sangster and Anja Huwe, started the band despite not having had any previous musical experience. When they bought studio time to record their first single, “Schwarze Welt,” Simon was originally slated to be the lead vocalist but failed to show on the day of recording. Huwe—who originally played bass—was thrust into the front-woman position, and begrudgingly agreed: “The only condition from my side [was that] I will never perform onstage… Two months later, they made me without ever telling me upfront. I had no choice.”

The “Schwarze Welt” seven-inch was released on the local punk label, ZickZack, in 1981 and introduced the band as an unsettling swarm of intensity. There’s an urgency in its repetitive dirge, a swirling mania that persists on the b-side with “Die Wolken” and “Großstadtindianer” whose crude synthesiser noises escalate in tension. Most of all, Huwe’s uniquely venomous German vocals quickly became embedded in the unbridled and burgeoning scene of glamorous gloom.

Punk’s independence from the stiff grip of tradition allowed the band to find solace in anti-establishment art and music, far from the conventions of the past. “We as girls, especially being creative in many ways, ignored facts like: be nice, be polite, take good care about your looks. Of course, we wanted to look good but in a different and unconventional way. We were enough for ourselves.” However, some tropes were harder to overcome. The association of Xmal Deutschland as a girl band (later with the addition of Wolfgang Ellerbrock who, jokingly, became the token man of the group) gained traction within the media circuit because of their looks: “We were like paradise birds,” says Huwe in retaliation to the tired misogynistic tale. The band’s keyboardist, Fiona Sangster, adds: “To be an ‘all-girl band’ happened accidentally. To us, it was not the main reason to form a band.”

With their peacocked hair and thick kohl-lined eyes, Xmal Deutschland’s music retained both a restlessness and delicacy, transcending any confines of the “Neue Deutsche Welle” movement (much like their colleagues and friends DAF and Einstürzende Neubauten) with the release of the “Incubus Succubus” single in 1982. It instantly became a post-punk classic. That same year, the band performed in London as support for the Cocteau Twins; it was the platform they needed to ricochet into the arms of the ripped fishnet masses. After Xmal Deutschland’s success with four albums on cult labels such as 4AD, Huwe abandoned music to pursue her visual art career. But leaving her legacy in the past was not so easy: “Since the split in the early 1990s, I have been haunted by the ‘Legend of Xmal Deutschland’ and never-ending requests from all over the world, all of which I always turned down,” she says.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Amiture get “Dirty” on their new single.

Today, Amiture, the New York City-based project of Jack Whitescarver and Coco Goupil, unveiled their latest single “Dirty” from the upcoming album Mother Engine, set for release on February 9th through Dots Per Inch Music. The dark and serrated new single arrives alongside a self-directed music video, premiered earlier via FLOOD, who commended the duo for their “creative take on experimental electronic music forged and honed within NYC basements.”

Remarking on the track’s unique construction, Amiture issued the following statement: “In a way, this song is our most indebted to early hip-hop production on the album because of its melodic relationships. Each melody, guitar, bass, vocal, etc… is in a different key. This way we were able to find a darker environment that reflects the textures and soundscapes that older sampling technology had. Different samples in Dirty fit together regardless of their tuning, creating a cacophony of anxious gestures that somehow become a glittery dance track. We recorded each part live in our studio and not on a sampler, you can feel that kind of live, almost like theater, expressionist bravado. The lyrics tell you all you need to know about the ideal way to listen to Dirty.”

Expanding on the concept behind the music video, Whitescarver added: “Cameras are always recording you. Your laptop records you. Your phone records you. It’s not clear what distinguishes an intimate moment from a public one. Most major cities like New York are massively surveilled. I thought it was interesting to think about how you would behave if privacy was no longer a clear-cut idea. The video intercuts surveillance-type video of New York City streets and people with more intimate interior scenes and even scenes of people making out. Dirty is about remembering a time when sex and love were valuable. If you know someone is watching you, maybe that estranges you further from that, maybe it makes it more so.”

WATCH: “DIRTY”

Whitescarver and Goupil were involved in music their whole lives and briefly performed in a band together in college before taking separate paths as visual artists. It wasn’t until 2021, when the two came back together to flesh out live arrangements for Whitescarver’s solo endeavor The Beach, that their collaboration really began. Following this reunion, Amiture was reinvented. While the two were performing songs Whitescarver had written alone, Goupil arranged their own parts, displaying a sculptural sensibility in their contributions. The synthesis of Goupil’s unorthodox guitar stylings with Whitescarver’s heartfelt songwriting proved to be a rich union.

Mother Engine began to take form in a dilapidated garage between a sanitation center and a set of train tracks. This would be their laboratory, workshop, and recording studio where they developed a process of working that included a newfound love for sample manipulation. They collaborated with other musicians including Matt Norman and Henry Birdsey to bring their production out of the digital landscape of Ableton. Between the tape machine, the amp, the turntable, and the computer, Amiture found magic. Each song is a part of a complex sonic matrix that reflected a vision and a sound neither one could have procured alone, always centered around Whitescarver’s classically trained voice and Goupil’s gritty, tripped-out-guitar sound, merged and then steeped in the traditions of American guitar music, industrial music, and folk melody.

Following the release of Mother Engine, Amiture will perform at SXSW Music Festival in March. Stay tuned for additional tour dates including details for a special hometown record release show in February.

PREORDER / SAVE ‘MOTHER ENGINE’

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe?]

[Thanks to Cody at Terrorbird Media.]

Beans find a “Calling” with their new single.

Melbourne band Beans have just released their latest single; a groovy psychedelic track titled ‘Calling’. ‘Calling’ marks the third song the five-piece band have released from their upcoming album Boots N Cats (following ‘Groove’ and ‘Haunted’), which is set to be released on March 1st, via Fuzz Club Records. Taking a slower, more strutting pace than the former two singles, ‘Calling’ is characterised by an almost seductive groove, all while maintaining the fuzzy kaleidoscopic glow that audiences have come to know and love from Beans.

Heavy with drawling vocals and beautifully defined percussion at the forefront of the tune, the result is a tantalising songscape sure to leave listeners enchanted by its sound. Thematically, though, this new single speaks not to the cool and breezy feelings that one might assume from its sonic qualities, but rather to the grim feelings of hypersensitivity and disconnectedness which emerged during the pandemic, according to frontman Matt Blach:

“Calling is about that period of Covid time where everyone, including myself, felt like they were going insane. When people were being really sensitive and reactive, calling people out over pure boredom – obviously sometimes worthy, sometimes far-fetched.” Matt Blach, Beans Listen to “Calling” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/f-OfTr9zxUA
Listen via other streaming services:beansband.lnk.to/calling

Serving up eleven tracks of rhythmic garage-psych goodness, ‘Boots N Cats’ is the third full-length from Melbourne outfit Beans and the first of two albums set for release in 2024. The long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s ‘Babble’ and 2020’s ‘All Together Now’, it’s a record that finds Beans frontman (and The Murlocs drummer) Matt Blach putting percussion at centre-stage. “I’ve always wanted to make a drum-based album, dedicated around the beat first and then everything else follows”, Blach says, explaining his desire to explore “different production approaches, like hip-hop and crunched drums, and show an admiration and appreciation for the likes of The Meters, Wu-Tang and James Brown” as much as the acid-soaked 60s/70s rock you’d expect.

What emerges from the beat-first approach on ‘Boots N Cats’ charts mutant garage-rock boogies and festival tent psychedelia, by way of blissed-out funk instrumentals. The line is constantly skirted between a loose, carefree vibe and interesting, meticulous musicianship – never falling into the trap of taking itself too seriously. It’s a sunny kaleidoscope of chugging guitars, driving bass-lines, soaring organs and warm, echo-soaked vocals – driven always by the tightly-wound rhythms and grooves that Blach has been in pursuit of since he was a kid: “The title of the album comes from me learning drums from my dad. He had a background of German heritage and during lessons would jokingly say ‘nein, boot’n’cats’n’ like a simple 1,2,3,4.”

The songs themselves, Blach says, are “mostly based on a state of mind or place of consciousness, intended to be open to the audience’s own interpretation as well as for my own self-release.” Hence, “life’s ups and downs” are placed under the microscope on tracks like the aptly-titled opener ‘Groove’ (based on not wanting to let loose/be yourself and dance in a crowd) and lead single ‘Haunted’ (about that near-universal sense of being ‘Haunted by the fear of failure’).

‘Dreaming Daisy’ is a song for the devil on your shoulder, tackling addiction/alcoholism and “people wanting to live their life to prove right to others rather than themselves”. Elsewhere, songs like ‘Calling’ take on the paranoia of the times they were made in. It’s a suitably wonky soundtrack to “that period of Covid time where everyone, including myself, felt like they were going insane. When people were being really sensitive and reactive, calling people out over pure boredom – obviously sometimes worthy, sometimes far-fetched.”

Beyond its drum focus, ‘Boots N Cats’ also marks another first for Beans, in that it was entirely written and recorded by Blach himself. Setting up a DIY studio in the garage of his North Melbourne home over the pandemic, Blach began working on the record in lieu of the full band (Jack Kong, Lachlan McKiernan, Vincent Clemenston and Mitch Rice) that he’d been jamming and tearing up Melbourne stages with under a number of different monikers since they were all 16.

“We didn’t get to see each other as a band AT ALL”, Blach recalls of that time: “This is why the album came to fruition as it kept me sane and feeling productive to still be writing/recording and achieving something. Having this opportunity and time and space really got my tires turning so I basically recorded every part and engineered the entire thing myself. Not that we wanted it to be this way, but we couldn’t collaborate together during this time so it was a case of adapting.”

Making the most of the enforced isolation to venture down new creative roads, Blach came out the other side of the pandemic with two new Beans records in the bag (“Just you wait for the next one, we will go much more folky and chill on lockdown session 2…”). Mixed and mastered by John Lee (“a master from Melbourne who actually became a true friend”), those recordings are now ready to start seeing the light of day. ‘Boots N Cats’, the first of those two records, will be released March 1st 2024 via London-based label Fuzz Club.

Keep your mind open.

[I’m calling on you to subscribe today.]

[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]