March 2025 – Page 2 – 7th Level Music

Water Machine announce their debut album, “God Park,” with its first single – “Tiffany.”

Flooding out of Glasgow in 2022, Water Machine have quickly gained a reputation for their weird and wonky art-punk, winning hearts with sing-along songs about dogs, struggling artists and the housing crisis. Now, they announce their debut album God Park out 20th June via FatCat Records, as well as sharing first taster with new single ‘Tiffany’. Explaining the track, vocalist Hando says, “This song was originally called Orange as we think it sounds like an Orange Juice song. We decided not to call it that due to a certain king and the city we live in being Glasgow. Eventually it was changed to Tiffany as it felt safer for our careers (we are not sectarians). We wrote this in one sitting after I had a panic attack in the studio and we decided to write something happy. As usual it ended up being a hypothetical love song about a car crash.”

Listen to ‘Tiffany’ HERE

Debut album God Park takes a collection of disparate influences and distils the disjointed into something new. Taking influence from everywhere, the tunes are always on the verge of falling apart or breaking down. Their world is a swirling eddy of melodic bass lines and volatile guitar sliding between jazz chords and punk riffs, all the while narrated by sardonic social commentary, silly stories, and pop sensibilities. This group of young Glaswegians recognise that they owe something to the city’s rich musical history, in particular the 1980’s scene captured so brilliantly in Grant McPhee’s documentary, Teenage Superstars.

Tired of listening to songs about gloom and heartbreak, Water Machine, instead, want their lyrics to provide a “realistic escapism.” Their words, while rooted in the day-to-day-maybe-mundane, are spun into what the band call “hyper conceptualised allegories.” So while they might sometimes sing about love, this is hidden amongst copulating clouds, car crashes, housing crises, rabies outbreaks, toxic jobs and unrequited office romances.

Everything on the album packs positive, punk energy. As Henry Rollins put it: “Water Machine is a very cool band”.

Water Machine are: Hando Morice [they/them] – vocals, violin, synth, Flore De Hoog [she/her] – bass, vocals, Nicky Duncan [he/him] – drums, percussion, Baby Cousland [they/them] – rhythm guitar, Ellie McWhinnie [she/they] – lead guitar

God Park is out 20th June via FatCat Records. Pre-order HERE

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Amy at After Hours PR.]

Rewind Review: The Jesus and Mary Chain – Honey’s Dead (2009 reissue)

The Jesus and Mary Chain came out swinging on their 1992 album (their fourth) Honey’s Dead. First, the title refers to their hit “Just Like Honey” and how they’ve decided to move on from it, so get on the train or get off the tracks. Then, the first line of the opening track, “Reverence,” is “I wanna die just like Jesus Christ.” The song was banned across many BBC airwaves for that lyric (along with “I wanna die like JFK.”) and its repeated apparent references to suicide – which were actually about letting go of relationships and the ego.

There’s no hidden meaning behind “Teenage Lust.” It is what’s advertised. William Reid‘s guitars sound like they’re being banged around in a tool & dye plant. “Far Gone and Out” is still one of JAMC’s biggest hits, and it has Jim Reid singing about a woman he wants to teach a lesson (“No one works so hard just to make me feel so bad.”).

His brother, William, on the other hand, has much better things to say about the subject of “Almost Gold” – a woman who was the closest he’d come to perfection by that point in his life. HIs guitars on “Sugar Ray” roar and growl like angry wasps as he tries to tell a woman that he’s not like “All those boys [who] have fun with toys. All I want is you.”

“Tumbledown” has Jim Reid dealing with the fallout of another lover who’s nothing but trouble, while Steve Monti, bringing a nice return of live drumming to the band, knocks out frantic beats. “Catchfire” is a standout if you love some psychedelia mixed with your shoegaze. The title might be a drug reference. After all, the album was recorded in their studio they’d named the “Drugstore.”

Jim Reid finally finds Mrs. Right (Now?) on “Good for My Soul” – a downright lovely shoegaze song giving praise to a woman who “Ever since she came I’ve been whole, believe me.” “Rollercoaster” is an early 1990s rock gem with William Reid trying to forgive his past after others have already done so (and Monti nails some killer beats in the meantime). On “I Can’t Get Enough,” he sings “Honey, you’re so cool” to a woman, but you really don’t believe him. His brother’s guitar work highlights his snarky frustration.

By the time we get to “Sundown,” William Reid is ready to give up. “The planet poisoned me. It’s a sick place to be. I’ve got a taste for it. Now I’ve gotta leave.” “Frequency” is the sibling to “Reverence,” which much the same lyrics but with William Reid on vocals and extra guitar crunch and shredding sprinkled on top.

Honey’s Dead was (and still is) a good record, and a second launching point for the band to explore more options and sounds. Don’t skip it.

Keep your mind open.

[Coast over to the subscription box while you’re here.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep your mind open.

[Jet over to the subscription box!]

[Thanks to George at Terrorbird Media.]

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

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

Stream “Dead Air”

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

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

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

Stream/Purchase How the Light Felt

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe? You’re here, and the subscription box is just over there.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

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

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

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

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll feel lost if you don’t subscribe.]

[Thanks to Andi at Terrorbird Media.]

Levitation France announces its 2025 lineup.

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

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

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

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

Keep your mind open.

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

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

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

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

Listen to “Probably Wizards”

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

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

Pre-order Performing Belief

Keep your mind open.

[You probably should subscribe.]

[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Takuya Kuroda – EVERYDAY

“Jazz-funk” is a term that’s a bit overused, but it’s a perfect description for trumpeter Takuya Kuroda‘s impressive new album, EVERYDAY. Kuroda takes joy in blending and playing with multiple styles of music, and his commitment to practice and make music every day inspired the album’s title.

The title track blends hip hop drumming from David Frazier and funky keys from Takahiro Izumikawa. “Bad Bye” (with guest vocals from FIJA) is fun and funky and could’ve been a Thievery Corporation track in another timeline. “Car 16 15 A” absolutely sizzles for five straight minutes, even in the mellow bits.

“Must Have Known” slows things down, with Kuroda’s trumpet stepping back just a bit to let Corey King‘s vocals take front stage. “Off to Space” might well take you there. It’s almost a prog-rock track at points (i.e., Frazier’s drumming) and cool lounge jazz in others (i.e., Martha Kato‘s Rhodes organ). Kuroda trades hot solos with saxophonist Craig Hill on “Iron Giraffe.”

I’m not sure if the title of the snappy “Hung Up on My Baby” means Kuroda is hung up (wistful for) on his lover or if he cut a phone call short with them. I think it’s the former. The album ends with the cool-as-a-cat “Curiosity.” Everyone seems to get a chance to shine on it, especially Izumikawa on his piano solo.

It’s another slick record for Kuroda, who is quickly becoming one of my “Have you heard this guy?” recommendations for anyone who even gives me a hint that they enjoy jazz.

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe today?]

[Thanks to Gabriel at Clandestine Label Services!]

Sextile open up their “Freak Eyes.”

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

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

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

Keep your mind open.

[Look! The subscription box is just to your left!]

[Thanks to Andi at Terrorbird Media.]

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

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

Watch/Stream “RIP”

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

Pre-order Funeral Music

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t go without subscribing!]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]