Coming in with a cover that looks like something by a death metal band and beats that sound like a basement club staffed by werewolves, X Club‘s Now or NeverEP is a great EDM record that combines trance, house, and jungle.
“Concentrate” challenges you to do just that – focus on the beats and dance, dammit. You need to let go and cut loose now and then, and forget about all the crap happening in the world. The perfectly titled “Inna Trance” brings early rave tracks to mind and will get you bouncing.
“Sports That Require Petrol” not only has a fun title, but some of the coolest beats on the EP. It will make you want to stamp the pedal to the metal, or at least turn up the speed and incline on your treadmill. The EP ends with the “Journey Mix” of “Elevation” – a trippy track that drifts into euphoria by the end.
I’d like to catch these two Aussies at a festival or club. I’m sure they put on a great set, if this EP is any indication.
Keep your mind open.
[Elevate over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
These are my top five shows of 2021. I hope to see more than 30 bands in 2022, but the future is now – so let’s get to it.
#5: Ty Segall – Psycho Music Festival – August 20th
Playing on a stage atop a wave pool, Ty Segall and his band put on one of the loudest, fiercest sets of the 2021 Psycho Music Festival. The power coming across the water was stunning.
Clutch are always a top tier live band, and this show kept their reputation intact. They played a few new cuts and a lot of stuff from early in their catalogue they hadn’t played in a long while.
I’m not sure I saw a more delighted crowd at any show in 2021. Everyone stopped caring about the heat and humidity, the overpriced food, and the terrible screamo bands on the lineup and started cheering, dancing, and singing.
This set stunned everyone at the Mandalay House of Blues. It was my first time seeing FATW live, and the first time many in the crowd had heard them. It was their first gig in two years, and they came out gunning. I heard someone in another crowd later raving about them and telling everyone he could to listen to them. I can’t put it better than that.
Holy crap. Osees closed the 2021 Psycho Music Festival’s outdoor stage on the last night of the four-night festival. They went bonkers. Yes, I know every Osees show is bonkers, but you could tell they had a lot of pent-up energy from not being able to play in front of a crowd for two years. People were charging through the wading pool in front of the stage, throwing beer buckets full of water on each other, or stumbling backwards on the beach as the wall of sound hit us like a bulldozer.
Everyone stay healthy in 2022 so we can see more shows.
This delightful live album from The Beths is full of joy. The band was over the moon, the crowd was ecstatic, and daring to open with “I’m Not Getting Excited” was a gutsy move when everyone in the place was bursting with energy.
Acid Dad were a band I’d heard a lot about, yet didn’t know much about them. I caught them live about an hour from my house and was sold within two songs. Take It from the Dead is a fine psych-rock record with touches of surf that make it a standout.
Ty Segall added a bunch of synths and electronic beats to his already heavy fuzz rock, and the result, Harmonizer, was impressive. He showed his love for krautrock and even dance rock, and that he could pull off both genres as easily as psych jams.
Easily one of the loveliest and sexiest albums of 2022, Till I Start Speaking is a great mix of Morly’s vocals, electro-beats, and synths. I hadn’t heard of Morly until this record was sent to me, and it was a pleasant discovery.
Speaking of lovely records, here’s another one. Bossa nova, disco, ambient, and house all merge together for an album as pretty and trippy as its cover.
As always, I actually wait until the previous year has ended to put out my list of my top albums (and live performances, which will be listed in other posts), because albums are released all the time. Many excellent albums have been released in many Decembers and gone forgotten or ignored by music critics and bloggers.
So, without further ado, let’s get started. I reviewed sixty-five albums last year, so I cut the list in half to cover the top of the bunch.
This is a wild punk rock record from a band with a goofy name and serious chops. I mean, you have to be good with a name like “Shred Flintstone.” Unlimited Power is appropriately titled, because the whole thing is bursting with energy.
This is a wild double EP of post-punk and krautrock from Berlin. It ranges from dance beats to rock riffs and was one of the best releases fro Dedstrange all year.
This four-song EP is solid alternative rock with catchy hooks, great double vocals, and heavy riffs that bode well for a full-length album in the future.
The Reverb Appreciation Society has been issuing “Live at Levitation” albums for a little while now, so it was no surprise that The Black Angels, who started the RAS and also started and still help curate the annual Levitation Music Festivals in Austin, Texas and Angers, France, should get their own release in the series. It covers some of the bands’ earliest performances at the festival and is a treat for fans of the band, the festival, and psychedelic rock.
Who cracked the top 25? Come back tomorrow to find out!
Natten (“The Night”) is a beautiful album of ambience and improvisation from Denmark duo Bremer / McCoy. Written and recorded straight to tape, with no room for second takes, the album becomes meditations and explorations for the bassist (Bremer) and keyboardist (McCoy).
The title track, written by McCoy as he watched a Swedish sunset, opens the record with groovy organ that reminds one of riding in a taxi from the airport into a quiet city as the night emerges. “Mit Hjerte” and “Gratitude” have bright, shining piano from McCoy. “Hjertebarn” sounds like something Vince Guaraldi might’ve dreamed up one night in his studio.
“Nu og Altid” and “April” are dreamy, drifting tracks. “Aurora” and “Nova,” on the other hand, are trippy, cosmic chill-outs. “Måneskin” effortlessly drifts into “Natten (Part 2)” – a welcome return on our relaxing journey – before we end with the sexy and subtle “Lalibela.”
This whole album blends together for an intoxicating sound that lingers with you for a while after you hear it. It’s a delight.
Today, Boy Harsher, the Northampton-based duo of vocalist/lyricist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller, share “Give Me a Reason” from their new album The Runner (Original Soundtrack)out January 21st, 2022 via Nude Club/City Slang. Following the heavy presence of lead single “Tower,” “Give Me a Reason” finds Boy Harsher leaning into their signature dark pop sound with snappy synths.
“With ‘Give Me a Reason,’ we wanted to write something that encapsulates that feeling of yearning — the way we feel when we catch eyes from across the room. Our music can be flirty and crushable, and it’s fun to play with that,” explains Matthews. Over a steely beat, she intones, “Speak of the devil // and she will appear // afraid of the runner // who draws herself near.” Boy Harsher continue teasing the cinematic universe of The Runner, the short horror film written, produced, and directed by the duo which will be released in January 2022. Listen to Boy Harsher’s “Give Me a Reason” Boy Harsher’s fifth release is not a traditional album — it’s a soundtrack that balances eerie instrumentals with pop songs that push the boundaries of the duo’s sound. In the midst of last year’s chaos and Matthews’ MS diagnosis, Muller started working on moody, cinematic sketches. In Matthews’ period of convalescence, it was uncertain what these pieces would become other than catharsis, but she kept thinking about a sinister character: a woman running through the woods. The duo developed this idea further into The Runner, a film that explores lust, compulsion, and the horrific tendencies of seduction. The movie is intercut with a meta-style “documentary” about Boy Harsher’s recording process. The project is a reconciliation of uncertain times made into sound and moving images. The Runner and its soundtrack are both a return to form and an evolution for the duo.
More information on screenings for The Runner is to come. Following the release of the album and film, Boy Harsher will embark on a North American and European tour — all dates are listed below and tickets are on sale now. The duo also recently collaborated with Møffenzeef Mødular to create a limited edition drone synthesizer called The Runner. Watch the “Tower” Video
Chicago’s Brett Naucke teamed up with two other well-respected Chicago musicians, Natalie Chami and Whitney Johnson, to create Mirror Ensemble– an album that combines synthwave, ambient, and even a bit of indie rock to make a meditative gem.
“Vanity Well” gets things off to a mood-altering start, and then “The Glass Shifting” comes in sounding like something from the new Dune film score. The longest track on the album, “A Look That Tells Time,” takes its time to stretch out and let you relax into it with its temple-like bell sounds and lotus flower-drifting-on-a-lazy-river.
“Catch Your Breath,” at a quarter of the previous track’s length, is a short meditation, while “Parallax” is the sound of sunlight shining through a prism. Trust me, you’ll feel this when you hear it. “Rose Water” is equally delightful, while “Sleep with Your Windows Open” is going to become your new favorite song to put on your bedroom speakers this summer. The closer, “Late Century Reflection,” ends the album with slightly up-tempo beats and synths that rise like a flock of birds from the edge of a still lake.
It’s a lovely record, suitable for meditation, making out, or even just walking around the neighborhood.
Keep your mind open.
[Drift over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
Named after the gardens people were encouraged to start and tend during World War Two, Cold Beat‘s new album, War Garden, is a lovely collection of synthwave, 1980s pop, and optimism created during the pandemic and written, in part at least, via Zoom.
Opening track, “Mandelbrot Fall,” begins with thick 16-bit video game bass and peppy blips while lead singer Hannah Lew sings “There’s nothing to explain, I’m trying anyway.” That’s basically been my motto for the last month. “SOS” starts off like a sad scene in an episode of Stranger Things, but soon blossoms into a happy skate around the roller rink. “Tumescent Decoy” has bright synths bouncing around lyrics about finding paradise within and within lonely times.
“Weeds” brings in shoegaze guitars that are as dreamy as the lyrics. “See You Again” sums up the band’s (and everyone else’s) feeling during the onset of the pandemic. It has a twinge of sadness to it, but an underlying hopeful vibe as Cold Beat knew they’d eventually reunite in person – or even beyond the void if (when) it came to it. “Arms Reach” is a soft caress while “Year Without a Shadow” is almost an industrial dance club floor-filler.
The synths on “Rubble Ren” are as soothing as a Jacuzzi. Lew’s vocals on “Part the Sea” flow like waves while the synths rise like crests and then splash onto the shore. “Leaves and Branches” is just as uplifting. The album ends with the optimistic “New World” – a track to give us hope as we emerge from our self-imposed exiles.
War Garden is one of the more hopeful albums of 2021. Give it a spin if you need a boost.
Following its genesis release from the label co-founder himself, Galway native KETTAMA invites Brisbane locals and close pals X CLUB. to lay down the riddims for G-TOWN002.
Having met the lads at their GRID night in Brisbane during his Australian tour, G-TOWN Records label head KETTAMA alongside Shampain are familiar with the dutty duo. Shampain actually interviewed the pair for the VSN World website (a concept that started as a club night run by the label heads), so you could say this is a dream link up of sorts. They may be on the other side of the world but make no mistake, X CLUB. are honorary G-TOWN members.
Following releases on Steel City Dance Discs and 1Ø Pills Mate, alongside appearances on Mall Grab and Miley Serious’ Rinse FM shows, the duo of Ben Clarke & Jesse Morath have cemented their reputation as one of dance music’s most exciting doublets with their distinctively large productions – channeling influence from grime, electro, hardcore and techno – and capturing the minds and hearts of dance music fans with their big-room, uncompromising attitude. Punishingly beautiful, devastatingly cinematic; X CLUB.’s back catalogue invites a sea of oxymorons to the shore, blending euphoria and darkness – with one eye on the past and another to the future – to perfectly capture the mood of the modern-raver.
‘Concentrate’ kicks things off with a swirling blend of textured atmospherics and driving kicks that soon manipulates into a steppy electro-techno hybrid drenched in heads down energy. ‘Inna Trance’ swaps the serious for the fun with something that sounds like a blend of quintessential X CLUB. and the progressive, trance-like sounds of Radiant Love in Berlin; bouncy techno for those that like to smile while they dance.
‘Sports That Require Petrol’ incites images of joyriding youths doing donuts in parking lots and sweaty bodies bumping into one another in packed-out clubs; an ode to the hardcore era that contributed to the birth of the X CLUB. concept, before ‘Elevation (Journey Mix)’ guides us on a blissed-out trip through emo-dreamscapes and tears-in-the-club energy that wouldn’t sound out of place dropped in the middle of a Bicep performance.
Today, Marco Benevento shares his latest single, “At The End Or The Beginning” (listen/share). Diving deep down a psych-funk rabbit hole, the singer/songwriter/keyboardist captures the zeitgeist with lyrics like “we can walk and keep our distance, the whole world changed in an instant,” as he delivers a dose of blissed-out escapism where listeners can recontextualize these troubled times through a surrealistic-slanted optimism and the pure joy of an irresistible groove.
“Where are we? At the end or the beginning? It’s been a strange few years not being able to hug our close friends or play shows and to see so many people struggling from this pandemic that came out of nowhere,” says Benevento. “So the idea was inspired by what we’ve all been living through. The lyric says it all, we can’t wait for the clouds to lift up for us…this one time.”
Co-written with San Diego-based poet/lyricist Alfred Howard, “At The End Or The Beginning” hints at what’s to come from Benevento in 2022 as he puts the finishing touches on a new studio album. In the meantime, Benevento and his band featuring bassist Karina Rykman and drummer Dave Butler perform a handful of select shows to close out 2021, including a sold out two night run at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock this weekend, a three night stretch at one of his favorite rooms The Press Room in Portsmouth on November 11-13 and Brooklyn Bowl over Thanksgiving weekend.
Over the course of seven studio albums and countless shows around the world, keyboardist Marco Benevento has drawn praise from tastemakers far and wide. Los Angeles Times has written, “it’s safe to say that no one sees the keyboard quite like Marco Benevento’s genre-blind mashup of indie rock, jazz and skewed improvisation,” while NPR Music raves that Benevento combines “the thrust of rock, the questing of jazz and the experimental ecstasy of jam.”
Indeed, Marco Benevento’s music cuts a wide swath, seemingly connecting the dots in the vast space between LCD Soundsystem and Leon Russell, His songwriting is smart and earthy, yet simultaneously pulsating with dance rock energy. Benevento’s high energy live shows have led to numerous high profile appearances, ranging from CarnegieHall to Pickathon. In the studio, he’s collaborated with the likes of Richard Swift (The Shins, Nathaniel Rateliff), Leon Michels (Lee Fields, Freddie Gibbs) and Simone Felice (The Felice Brothers, The Lumineers) among others.
Upcoming Shows
November 13 – Portsmouth, NH – The Press Room (Sold Out) November 27 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl December 11 – Miami, FL – North Beach Music Festival
