News – Page 37 – 7th Level Music

Duvet bring fun back to post-punk with their new single “Girlcow.”

Today we’re excited to introduce you to new Manchester-based band Duvet who are set to release a split 7″ ‘Girlcow / Sweaty Dog’ on October 6th via Fear of Missing Out Records. Today the band are sharing the first single “Girlcow“. Duvet’s jagged post-punk tales conjure sleazy cowboys, bone-dry badlands, and grotty indie discos in northern England.

Speaking about new single, the band said ‘“‘Girlcow’ is a song that includes a bit of fictional story telling about a confident cowboy pursuing a play girl bunny type character. The lyrics are a bit scattered, stream of conscious and all over the place, with the verse and chorus switching from the two perspectives. Given that, it only felt natural to write something that’s quite erratic to go with the words. It’s a very up and down song and that was kind of our intent, to put together something that’s slightly nauseating but still catchy.”

Listen to “Girlcow” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/ldAhKIXTVlY?si=69HoDn4N2HJTzEnO
Listen via other streaming services here:https://lnk.to/duvet

Self-released earlier this year, previously single “Rodeo” takes these markers and gallops full steam ahead, kicking up a dust storm of dissonance and teflon-tough drumming fortified by howls from lead singer Grace Walkden. The song lays into armchair activists who “jump on the rodeo” and “complain about topics they never actually act on”, according to the band.

First forming in 2022, Duvet dipped their toes in dream-pop and riot grrrl before landing on the driving basslines of post-punk. The band’s debut offering “Clown Clown Clown” cuts a hard-hitting figure of scabrous riot grrrl energy in thrall to the 1990s. Duvet assembled their current lineup of vocalist Grace Walkden, guitarists Tasmin Stephens and Seth Lloyd, bassist Jimmi Brown and drummer Victoria Melling and settled on a post-punk sound indebted to the genre’s new wave of artists like Shame, Warmduchser, and Viagra Boys.

Released as a split 7” with “Sweaty Dog,” new single “Girlcow” is flecked with specks of noisy grunge and was written from the perspective of “a pervy cowboy”. The haunting track showcases the band’s knack for crafting stories, as they flip the script and hand over the narrative reins to a female protagonist. “We all mutually find cowboys quite funny,” offers Tasmin Stephens. “I think we all live through cowboys – somehow.”

On the flipside, “Sweaty Dog” channels the band’s cider-drenched commitment to having a good time. The propulsive track is “basically just about being really sweaty and dancing”, according to Walkden. Meanwhile, guitarist Seth Lloyd has designs on transforming “Sweaty Dog” into a dance. “There are sweaty dogs inside all of us,” he jokes.

It’s this uninhibited sense of humour that shines through the band’s songwriting and at their riotous live shows with which they have been building their reputation over the past few years. “The reason we tend to write songs more of the fun side of life is because myself and Grace had many conversations at the start about how people only expect us to only talk/sing about harsh topics that affect a lot of women,” explains Stephens. “We tried it, but it didn’t work for us. Maybe in the future it will, but we came to the conclusion that we are here to have fun with the band and escape that side of life.”

“You come to the practice room with a smile on your face because this is meant to be fun, and that’s why we hopefully write songs that we think are fun,” says Lloyd. “We are here to distract from the shit things in life.”

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Lathe of Heaven are “At Moment’s Edge” with their new single.

**Photo credit: George C. Gildersleeve**

Today NYC based band Lathe of Heaven share their new single “At Moment’s Edge“, which is taken from their upcoming debut album ‘Bound By Naked Skies’ out Sept 1st via Sacred Bones.

When writing “At Moment’s Edge”, Lathe of Heaven initially intended the song to be a one-off, poppy departure from the otherwise depressive and urgent atmosphere of their debut record ‘Bound by Naked Skies’. Once recording the track however, the band found it to contextualise perfectly, the dualistic nature of the record and the band as a whole, proving itself to be a prime candidate for the album’s second single. Laden with dreamy synths and enchanting vocal melodies, “At Moment’s Edge” invokes within the listener a current of visceral elusion, ebbing towards a total re-imagination of any prior notions they may have had about the band.

“Existing in the lyrics are themes of process, change and complexity on a very personal level,” remarks the band’s vocalist Gage Allison, “which we believe is indicative of the recurring themes represented in the album.”

The video accompanying the track was directed by Emma Penrose and Zach Shorrosh, who aptly cultivate the surreal and absurd atmosphere the song was meant to invoke. When asked to comment on the video Penrose stated “Gage reached out to us asking if we wanted to make a music video for Lathe of Heaven and showed us maybe the most thought-out mood board I’ve ever seen, referencing Man Ray, Caravaggio, Marcel Duchamp as well as classic and contemporary science fiction. Inspired by the monochromatic imagery, we shot At Moment’s Edge entirely on 16mm black & white film & print stock and developed it by hand ourselves. We processed the 900’ of film at Mono No Aware using an eco friendly developer consisting of coffee, beer & vitamin C powder. The results turned out exactly as we’d hoped.”

“At Moment’s Edge” on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGV_vcwe3FM

With little more under their belt than a relentless string of live performances, and a twice pressed (subsequently sold out) Self-Titled Demo, NYC based band Lathe of Heaven have proved themselves to be a potent and cohesive element amidst the torrent of hardcore punk and synth-driven pop revival currently proliferating throughout the U.S. underground. Formed in 2021, the band features members of noteworthy Brooklyn based projects such as People’s Temple, Porvenir Oscuro, Pawns, Android, Hustler and more.

Though this roster of past and alternate musical endeavors exposes a diverse range of genre and skill sets, Lathe of Heaven can only be understood as a departure from such influences, exploring a sound entirely of its own.

Now nearly two years later, LoH are finally prepared to unleash their debut Full Length Bound by Naked Skies. With careful consideration, this eleven track LP blends elements of British New-Wave and Finnish Post-Punk into a nuanced juxtaposition of 80s sonic mania. Incorporating themes of classic and contemporary Science-Fiction, Bound by Naked Skies indebts itself as much to its literary influences as it does to the music that informs its unique and deliberate sound. Paying powerful homage to the uncanny worlds of authors Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia Butler, Ken Liu and of course Ursula Le Guin (whose novel the band is named after), themes of cosmology (Ekpyrosis), simulation (Heralds of the Circuit-Born), mental illness (Moon-Driven Sea), and ontology (Entropy, The Spider.), weave implicitly throughout the arch of the record, providing a sense of insight into the minds of those plagued by the ambiguous nature of humankind’s terrifying and not-so-distant future.

Lathe of Heaven tour dates:
18th Aug – Union Pool (w/ Temple of Angels), Brooklyn,, NY (Tickets)
7th Sept – TV Eye (w/ Witness and Eyedrops), Brooklyn, NY (Tickets)
13th Sept – The Dirty Bird (w/ The Poisoning and The Exile), Santa Ana, CA
14th Sept – Knucklehead ( w/ The Exile and Shrouds), Los Angeles, CA
15th Sept – Zebulon (w/ Diode), Los Angeles, CA
16th Sept – Stork Club (w/ Vulture Feather and Vague Lanes), Oakland, CA
17th Sept – Enzyme, San Francisco, CA
18th Sept – Naked Lounge (w/ Vulture Feather and Exposure Therapy), Chico, CA
19th Sept – Coffin Club, Portland, OR
21st Sept – 23rd Sept – Varning Festival, Montreal, MTL (Tickets)

Keep your mind open.

[I’m on the edge until you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Ian Sweet presents your new favorite make-out song with “Your Spit.”

Today, IAN SWEET — the project of songwriter and pop auteur Jilian Medford — announces her new album, SUCKER, out November 3rd on Polyvinyl, and presents lead single/video, “Your Spit.” Perfectly merging Medford’s pop sensibilities with the widescreen indie rock that she first made her name on, SUCKER is both sumptuous and fully realized. Medford’s musical voice has only become more unique amidst an ever-growing field, and SUCKER is proof positive that — even with a considerable discography in her arsenal — Medford is just getting started.

Lead single “Your Spit” swerves and sways with a distinctly pop gait. Produced by Alex Craig (Binki, Claud) and Strange Ranger’s Isaac Eiger, “Your Spit” begins with blown-out synths and Medford’s ever-incisive lyrics. “Why don’t you kiss me like you mean it // Kiss me like you’re leaving // Your spit tastes different,” Medford sings, her voice shapeshifting from nonchalant yearning to a full-blown scream-along chorus. Of “Your Spit,” Medford adds; “‘Your Spit’ is about the joy and fear that surrounds new relationships. The excitement that’s also accompanied by doubt. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say the song is just mostly about making out.”

The accompanying “Your Spit” video — helmed by Insufficent Funds and directed by Brittany Reeber — sees Medford surrounded by a theater full of kissing couples, and features cameos from Saturday Night Live cast members Sarah Sherman (aka Sarah Squirm) and Martin Herlihy. Of the video, Reeber adds: “Jillian and I got together one day and had a complete mind meld on what the videos would be for the first two singles. The concept for ‘Your Spit’ comes straight from the energy of the song. It felt right to get kind of literal and visceral! The couples brought a whole new dimension to the video that I wasn’t even expecting, it’s flirty, but it’s also really tender and sweet. Grateful to all the brave kissers! We also knew we wanted the two videos to speak to each other in some way so there is a nod to the next vid in this one if you can catch it.”

WATCH IAN SWEET’S “YOUR SPIT” VIDEO

Work on SUCKER began in the fall of 2022; feeling newly untethered in the wake of a “COVID relationship” that had recently come to pass, Medford took a cross-country road trip from her L.A. home to an artist residency at The Outlier Inn. “I was feeling very stuck in L.A. and was trying to get comfortable with spending more time alone again,” she recalls about her hermetic confines, which included 24-hour studio access to create in an unfettered fashion. “I went there not knowing exactly what I wanted to do or make, but I knew I wanted to explore and get out of my comfort zone. I forced myself to make things on the spot, in the moment and not overthink it too much.”

Feeling inspired, Medford brought her demos to life with co-producers Craig and Eiger, along with mixing engineer Al Carlson (St. Vincent, Jessica Pratt), all of whom helped shape SUCKER into its current form —a record that reconciles Medford’s beginnings with where she’s landed at this current moment. “I revisited the reasons why I started playing music to begin with,” she explains. “I wanted to get more personal and showcase a more confident side musically and lyrically.”

SUCKER follows Medford’s 2021 breakthrough and Polyvinyl debut, Show Me How You Disappear, which chronicled her time spent in an intensive outpatient program that included six hours of group therapy a day. “Show Me How You Disappear was written during a really difficult period of my life after reckoning with a mental health crisis,” she explains. “I survived that very moment in my life through writing that record, and the extreme urgency to heal is reflected in the songwriting. With SUCKER, I felt more capable to take my time and experiment without being totally afraid of the outcome. It wasn’t life or death — it was just life, and I was lucky to be living it.”

PRE-ORDER SUCKER

SUCKER TRACKLIST
1. Bloody Knees
2. Smoking Again
3. Emergency Contact
4. Sucker
5. Comeback
6. Your Spit
7. Clean
8. FIGHT
9. Slowdance
10. Hard

IAN SWEET Tour Dates
Fri. Aug. 11 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre #
Sat. Aug. 12 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre #
Thu. Aug. 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Skirball Cultural Center
Tue. Aug. 22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere – Rooftop $
Thu. Nov. 9 – London, UK @ Pitchfork Music Festival London

# w/ Please Don’t Destroy
$ co-headline w/ Why Bonnie

Keep your mind open.

[It would be sweet if you subscribed.]

[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Shoegaze legends Drop Nineteens drop their first single in 30 years.

It was almost 30 years ago when Drop Nineteens disbanded. They had released their shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and shared stages with bands like Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey and Smashing Pumpkins. They went from being teenagers in Boston to mid-twenty-somethings with videos on MTV, sessions on the BBC, world tours and numerous festival appearances under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, their lead singer and songwriter Greg Ackell felt content. He had the rest of his life in front of him to figure out what he wanted to do. Music was a closed chapter.

In the decades that followed, despite the band’s turn away from the spotlight, Drop Nineteens’ legacy grew. Delaware came to be considered a classic of the genre, landing on lists of the greatest shoegaze albums of all time, with Pitchfork saying that “Delawareset Drop Nineteens squarely in a league of their own” on their run down of the genre’s best albums. The band’s catalog also found a new life on streaming, where tracks like “Winona” and “Kick The Tragedy” have racked up millions of streams and reached a new audience, becoming a touchstone influence for the new wave of American shoegaze.

It was in this context that in 2021 a friend from the band’s early days got Ackell on the phone to suggest making some music together, just to see how it felt. Instead of shutting it down like he had been doing over the years, he decided to entertain the prospect. For the first time in nearly 30 years, he picked up a guitar with intent.

Today, Drop Nineteens are announcing their official return. The full original line up of Ackell, Steve Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin has reunited to create a new album entitled Hard Light (out November 3rd on Wharf Cat Records), the band’s 3rd official LP and the spiritual successor to Delaware. To mark the announce the band are sharing the first single from the album, a track called “Scapa Flow”, and Ackell and Kelley have spoken to Stereogum about the band’s history, their unlikely reunion, and their comeback LP.

“The intent on Delaware was to reflect that time in our lives, which I think it did accurately,” says Ackell. “Having considered Delaware before embarking on Hard Light, we wanted to make an honest, reflective album representing who we are now, which is, well, older.

“I’ve been struggling to find an answer to the question ‘why now?’ What was the catalyst for getting back together after so long? The best answer I can come up with is this was the first moment in my life since stopping making music that I got curious to hear what Drop Nineteens might sound like now. And there was only one way to find out!”

In support of the new LP Drop Nineteens are announcing a series of fall tour dates in major US markets with support from Horse Jumper of Love, Greg Mendez and Winter.Full details can be found below.

Drop Nineteens Hard Light is available for preorder HERE

Keep your mind open.

[Drop your e-mail address in the subscription box while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Courtney Barnett covers Chastity Belt on her new single.

Suicide Squeeze celebrates Chastity Belt with the latest in its split 7″ single series–a pair of covers by Friends of the Band and tourmates Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile. For this release, Kurt and Courtney each recorded a song from the band’s third album, 2017’s I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, in their signature styles.
Today, you can listen to Side C for Courtney’s take on “Different Now,” where she pulls the song from its Pacific Northwest haze, leaves it out to dry in the middle of the desert, and wrings something almost joyous from the original’s ambiguity.
Side K is Kurt’s version of “This Time of Night,” on which he lovingly recreates the anxious interplay of Julia Shapiro and Lydia Lund’s guitars, stretching each note of the song’s fraught vocal melody to its breaking point. “This Time of Night” / “Different Now” will be available October 27 on vinyl and digital platforms, with a one-time vinyl pressing limited to 1500 (250 pink, 250 black, 1000 blue) copies.

On the track Courtney Barnett offers: “This song is so special to me. I remember when the album came out and I listened to ‘different now’ over and over, I thought they were singing directly to me. It’s a perfect piece of songwriting, I showed it to Kurt and he would always sing it to me on tour. I love Chastity Belt. I’m pretty sure we met in 2014 at a record store in Seattle, then we toured together in 2015 and we’ve been friends ever since.
I originally played it as a little folk acoustic version, then I asked Stella [Mozgawa] to program some drums and it turned into something a lot more fun. we tracked straight to the Tascam 388 and it was a real joy to make.”

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Andi at Terrorbird Media.]

Skeleten says “Right Here It’s Only Love” on his new single from his debut album.

On his thrilling and immersive debut album, Skeleten (producer / vocalist Russ Fitzgibbon) dares to imagine new ways of being that are not characterised by doom or despair – a challenge in an era defined more by feelings of futility, isolation and precarity. Across eleven tracks of free-flowing, transcendent, and often euphoric electronic music, he plays spiritual guide to a musical journey which is wonderfully in touch with realms beyond our own. Praising the power of comradery and community, dreaming of a future that is joyously boundless, Skeleten’s singular debut LP is, to borrow from one of his own lines, music for dancing “any way your body turns.”

After years of cutting his teeth in Sydney’s tight-knit electronic community, Fitzgibbon forged his own identity and debuted under his solo moniker, Skeleten in 2020. It’s his most personal project to date, the sound of him unfiltered for the first time as both a vocalist and producer. At once intimate and otherworldly, at the core of the project lies a strong sense of uncomplicated openness and a deeply rhythmic, meditative ambience. Strikingly unplaceable, the result is a curious yet alluring amalgam of far-flung influences and emotive atmospheres that invites you to get repeatedly lost in.

In between his debut and the long-awaited release of Under Utopia, Skeleten’s consistent output has seen him accrue rotation and early praise from Triple J, Double J, XLR8R, Stereogum, NME, The Guardian, BBC Radio 6 Music’s Recommends Spotlight Artist, Brooklyn Vegan and receive the official remix treatment from the likes of Logic1000, Moktar and Jennifer Loveless.

Under Utopia sees its release today via 2MR (North America) and Astral People Recordings (ROW) on vinyl and across all digital platforms.

Listen / Purchase / Playlist Under Utopia Here

Watch Under Utopia Official Videos:
“Right Here It’s Only Love”
“Sharing The Fire”
“Territory Day”

Keep your mind open.

[Right now is the time to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]

Light in the Attic to reissue four classic Betty Davis albums – including one that’s been on the shelf for over three decades.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Betty Davisʼ self-titled debut — an electrifying artistic statement that launched one of modern musicʼs most revolutionary figures. To celebrate the visionary singer, songwriter, producer, and fashion iconʼs broadly influential career, acclaimed reissue label Light in the Attic is revisiting four essential titles from The Queen of Funkʼs catalog: Betty Davis (1973), They Say Iʼm Different (1974), Is It Love Or Desire? (recorded in 1976, released in 2009), as well as the first-ever vinyl release of Crashinʼ From Passion, which captures Davisʼ final 1979 sessions. All four tiles were produced in close collaboration with Davis, who sadly passed away in 2022.

Betty Davis, They Say Iʼm Different, and Crashinʼ From Passion were remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). For the aforementioned three titles, the accompanying booklets include a treasure trove of rare photos from the era, plus lyrics, and new liner notes by writer, ethnomusicologist, and Davisʼ close friend, Danielle Maggio, who integrates interviews that she conducted with Davis, marking her last-ever interviews. They Say Iʼm Different also includes a fold-out 24×36 poster. Is It Love Or Desire? was remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). The album includes liner notes from journalist, DJ, and professor Oliver Wang.

Each album will be available on CD, black wax, and in a variety of exclusive color variants. All titles will be released on August 25th. Read below for more information on Davis and the individual albums.

Pre-order Betty Davis Reissues

Listen To Unearthed Single, “Crashinʼ From Passion” (from 1979ʼs Crashinʼ From Passion)

Watch Trailer

Far ahead of her time, Queen of Funk Betty Davis (1944 – 2022) defied the limits of gender, race, and genre during her all-too-short career. She innovated with her space-age blend of funk, R&B, and blues and enraptured audiences with her raw and powerful vocals – then shocked (and awed) them with her provocative, sexually liberated lyrics. Unapologetic and independent, Davis smashed glass ceilings with gusto. To count a few, she was among the first Black models to grace the covers of Seventeen and Glamour, while later, she became the first Black woman to write, produce, and arrange her own albums.

When Davis released her self-titled debut in 1973, she was already a force in New York, London, and Los Angeles. She had opened one of NYCʼs most vibrant private nightclubs, penned songs for The Chambers Brothers and The Commodores, collaborated with Hugh Masekela, and inspired her then-husband Miles Davis to create the roots for jazz fusion on Bitches Brew. While she received numerous offers from record labels in those early years,

Davis also recognized the power of retaining control over her music. Fiercely DIY, she eventually signed a contract with Woodstock organizer Michael Langʼs Just Sunshine imprint, under which she released Betty Davis (1973) and They Say Iʼm Different (1974). In 1975, she made her major label debut under Island Records with Nasty Gal. Davis would go on to record two more albums—Is It Love Or Desire? and Crashinʼ From Passion—both of which remained unreleased for decades.

Oen relegated to cult figure status and frequently misunderstood, Davisʼ album recording career spanned less than a decade. While her music earned critical acclaim and respect from peers, it was regularly banned or disregarded, due to its sexual nature. As a Black woman in an industry controlled by white men, Davis found herself in a constant battle for creative control, oen to the detriment of her career. Never given the chance to succeed commercially, a disillusioned Davis retired from the spotlight in 1980.

From a modern lens, the path that Davis forged can be traced clearly throughout the decades, traversed by those who pushed the needle farther and fought for equality in the industry. Many of musicʼs brightest stars have counted Davis as an influence, including Prince, Erykah Badu, and Janelle Monae, while rappers like Ice Cube, Method Man, and Talib Kweli have all sampled her work. In recent years, Davis has captured a new generation of fans, thanks to the use of her songs in such series as Mixed-ish, Girlboss, Pistol, and Orange Is the New Black. In 2017, she was the subject of the acclaimed documentary, Betty: They Say I’m Different.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Metro Riders release “Spasm” ahead of upcoming album due September 29, 2023.

A pungent ooze emanates from the subway. As a sticky drum machine sequence rolls out like thick dark fog, ice cold synth swirls rise from the depths.

Since the debut album Europe By Night, one of the main references associated with Henrik Stelzer and his Metro Riders project has been that of cinema, and particularly the European genre films of the 1980s. With its seedy subject matters manifesting both in visual style and music, the vibe of that era has crystallized over time. Passed down to us from deteriorating video cassettes, it became an invaluable key to decoding our present day reality.

And this is true for his new album Lost in Reality, announced today for a September 29th release via Possible Motive. Stelzer does not hide the fact that he builds heavily on that vibe; referencing it through track titles and utilizing a particular recording setup consisting of a Fostex and a reel to reel in order to achieve and recreate the feeling of those soundtracks — as heard on magnetic tape rather than vinyl.

Hear it yourself on the new single “Spasm,” out today, and pre-order the album here.

The motion picture soundtrack as an arbitrary genre definition becomes, in the hands of Stelzer, a pair of X-ray specs for him to envision a kind of music that deals in grains and contrasts rather than hooks and choruses. And like Roddy Piper in John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live, he hands those glasses over for us to see the true face of our times.

On Lost In Reality, Metro Riders maps out an emotional geography of the cities at night, wherein the cinematic haze becomes a tool by which we can view the cities with new eyes. Not steering away from the darker alleys nor the harsh realities of modern day politics masquerading as progress. Yet escapism, in the end, seems the only viable option. But not as an endgame, but rather a stepping stone for building a new vocabulary for an utopian language.

Lost In Reality is the second album from Sweden based Metro Riders (real name Henrik Stelzer). Employing outdated software and now obsolete analogue recording equipment, Metro Riders conjures a suspenseful and gloomy, true to the era re-imagining of lost sounds. Metro Riders encompasses a very niche palette, everything from the prophetic visions of John Carpenter,to the warbled world of Troma films, to Italian horror flicks, euro-crime and the cybernetic sewers of The Skaters.

Keep your mind open.

[I might spasm if you don’t subscribe.]

[Thanks to George at Terrorbird Media.]

Art Feynman is “Desperately Free” on his new single.

Today, Art Feynman — the recording alias of visual artist and producer Luke Temple — presents his new single, “Desperately Free,” from his forthcoming album, Be Good The Crazy Boys, out November 10th on Western Vinyl. Following lead single “All I Can Do,” “Desperately Free” keeps the grooves going, propelled by tropical-inflected percussion and infectious chants. “Something changed while I was sleeping,” the backing vocalists interject between Temple’s murmured incantations, “Somehow I feel different // as I go about my day.” Of “Desperately Free,” Temple adds: “I was thinking about the obsession with spiritual growth or with ‘curing’ death and the compensatory consequences that ensue as a result. We can’t cheat nature of which we are one and the same, she’ll find balance eventually.”

Watch Art Feynman’s “Desperately Free” Visualizer

Until now, Art Feynman has strictly been a solo act, a way for Temple to explore surprising sonic landscapes without the burdens of identity. Be Good The Crazy Boys was recorded live in-studio with a full band. The result captures a spirit of restless anxiety, and recalls the most frenetic work by Talking Heads, or Oingo Boingo at their darkest. “Sonically, I was inspired by records that were recorded at the late Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas such as Grace Jones’ ‘Private Life,’ Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s Mambo Nassau, and Talking Heads’ Remain in Light.” Despite these callbacks, Be Good The Crazy Boys remains firmly rooted in modern concerns, with songs about fearing the end of the world and struggling with FOMO — narratives that would be relatable if they didn’t sound so completely unhinged.

Slightly twisted takes on Kosmische musik, worldbeat, and art pop can be found scattered across the Art Feynman discography, but with Be Good The Crazy Boys, Temple fully immerses himself into pools of collective madness. With Be Good The Crazy Boys, Art Feynman proves to be more than just a character. He represents the part of the modern, collective consciousness that’s struggling to maintain balance in a toxic, chaotic world. In less skilled hands, that concept could result in a very somber listen. Fortunately, when Art Feynman gets his hands on the chaos of the modern age, it simply makes you want to dance.

Temple explains, “To me, there was a lot of energy that needed to be released as the result of living in isolation for six years. It also seems to speak to a general anxiety we’re all holding, but it’s expressed in a cathartic way.” It’s this acknowledgement of general anxiety that separates Feynman from the other fictional personas that have been cropping up in the music world lately. Feynman doesn’t sound suave, confident, or even heartbroken in these songs; it sounds like he’s on the verge of a panic attack.

Listen to “All I Can Do”

Pre-order Be Good The Crazy Boys

Keep your mind open.

[Be good and subscribe.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Slighter releases “Pulling Me Under” from his upcoming album due July 21, 2023.

Alternative-electronic artist Slighter presents his new album ‘This Futile Engine’, released via Brutal Resonance Records and Confusion Inc. This 13-track record features collaborations with Steven Seibold (Hate Dept) and Craig Joseph Huxtable (Ohm, Landscape Body Machine, Front Line Assembly, Noise Unit), as well as Yvette Winkler (Vaselyne), Morgue VVitch and Deep Dark Water.

Following up the intense, moody and cinematic lead single ‘Have No Fear’ (with traditional A-side and B-side versions), Slighter also presents an enthralling video for the latest single ‘Pulling Me Under’ feat. Craig Joseph Huxtable, with whom he had previously collaborated on earlier singles ‘Give Me’ and ‘Lights Out’, as heard on FOX’s Second Chance in 2016.

Slighter is the solo moniker of Colin C., who has been fine-tuning the future of electronic music since kickstarting his music in Mid City Los Angeles in the early 2000s. Creating from a unique vantage point, he was involved in collaborations for various Metropolis Records releases and Cleopatra Records compilations, in addition to Slighter releases via his own Confusion Inc. imprint.

Mixed and mastered at The Cell Studio, through the sonic experimentation and innovation entailed in recording this album, Slighter continues to provide new fuel for the counterculture..

“This record was a lot of fun to make with my friends. I’m always enjoying collaborating on Slighter albums and, this time, it felt best to leave the majority of the vocal work to some great voices from Craig to Steven and Tara, Yvette, and Anastasia. It has been an experimental but cohesive experience, the classic cinematic vibes I’m known for hitting with faster Techno and killer bass lines across a 10 track narrative,” says Colin C.

“I think I have a pretty unique way of working outside of genres, but my work still gives off this sort of expansive cinematic vibe, which also retaining a darker mood that gets me associated with various dark sub-culture genres. The themes I often explore has me adopting an ‘Electronic Death Music’ umbrella for the music I make – a play on words, with the music I make being the antithesis of popular EDM”.

While very much an independent artist who largely files under the musical radar, Slighter’s music has also found its way on to mainstream shows over the years, with songs and remixes featured on such television shows as Showtime’s ‘House Of Lies’, ‘Elementary’(CBS), ‘Bones’ and ‘Lethal Weapon’ (FOX), ‘Defiance’ and ‘Covert Affairs’ (NBC-Universal).

As of July 21, ‘This Futile Engine’ will be released across fine digital platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. Available as a Deluxe Edition limited edition CD and as a digital download, this album includes three exclusive bonus remixes of ‘Cold Black Waters (feat. Morgue VVitch)’, ‘Pulling Me Under’ and ‘Have No Fear’.

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]

[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion.]