Last fall, Chicago-based group Growing Concerns Poetry Collective released BIG DARK BRIGHT FUTURES, an album that finds the common place between the personal and political as it explores the depth of social chaos while conjuring visions of collective transcendence. Today, they are pleased to present a video for the standout track, “First You Need A Body.” Throughout the song, MzKenzie Chinn describes “learning to love her body and sexuality despite a Catholic upbringing” (Bandcamp). Featuring the collective’s three members – McKenzie Chinn, Mykele Deville, and Jeffrey Michael Austin – the video shifts between a south side Chicago beach at dawn, a tennis court, and the home shared by Chinn and Deville. The dreamy visuals (captured by RemsyAtassi) kaleidoscope across environments meant to evoke both the power and delicateness of Black femininity, while lyrics like “You can’t call the cops on a body that can turn into light” celebrate the transformational magic of Black femme sensuality despite the limitations imposed on Black womanhood by anti-Black American culture.
With his new album ‘Dragons‘ set for release June 25th via Houndstooth, Throwing Snow is sharing his new single & video “Traveller“, which follows on from previous singles “Brujita“ and “Halos“.
Speaking about the track, Ross Tones, aka Throwing Snow said “The etymology of the word ‘travel’ originates in ‘to toil’ or ‘labour’.In a modern context, movement is easy for some and near impossible for others, so the word still encapsulates this duality. ‘Traveller’ is journey music and was made from recordings loaded on to the SAMPLR app then manipulated and sequenced.”
Throwing Snow’s fourth album is the audiovisually-augmented Dragons, a work that occupies the space between science and ancestral wisdom. It links music back to its prehistoric capacity for transmitting knowledge to new technology that can untangle the complexity of the contemporary world. Dragons’ ten tracks of heavy primal rhythmic productions incorporate the physicality of acoustic sources, from ancient ritual instruments to modern drum kit, and each track is accompanied by visuals generated by machine learning.
Throwing Snow, aka Ross Tones developed Dragons’ neural network with artist, designer and technologist Matt Woodham. The structures and changes in Tones’ music trigger corresponding changes in accompanying moving images, which combine life in three scales, from microscopic views of rocks to large scale maps. “Everything that happens musically triggers the algorithm to do something,” Tones explains. “This isn’t controlled or predictable, and the music becomes an instruction for the algorithm to make its own decisions about datasets, images, speed, movement and other manipulations.”
The tracks on Dragons match Tones’s ambitions for the album in weight but not complexity. They are intentionally dazzlingly simple in their means, for maximum effect, with repeating motifs, locked basslines, cosmic patterns and full-frequency mids. Often built from four or fewer elements, Tones allows sound to accumulate into his unique take on ritual music for the 21st century. Throbbing ritual dances contain half-remembered earworms revealing glittering night skies of synthesizer patterns – ‘Halos’ stabs and stutters like a dance atop a longbarrow; ‘Purr’ reverberates in silky vibrational motifs; the heavyweight ‘Brujita’ is nu-metal for a past-future ceremony of uncertain purpose.
Tones says he often uses his music as allegory and container for the concepts and theories he’s immersed in – he studied astrophysics, and is fascinated by crafts, archeoacoutics, history, evolution and psychology. In Dragons, he wanted to explore the purpose of music from the beginning of human history. “We have Palaeolithic minds but find ourselves in an increasingly complex and interconnected world,” Tones explains. “Music and art have always been ritualised as a tool for memory, knowledge and emotion, and humans make sense of existence by using tools. Songs were tools of understanding, passed down from our ancestors. Now, things are complex and interrelated, so we can’t use that ancestral knowledge, and need to invent new tools – that’s where machine learning comes into it.”
As is typical for Tones’ Throwing Snow project, the album contains a bold and eclectic mix of instruments, from a bodhrán and daf to cello, with their uses rooted in their inherent acoustic properties. Tones also essentially built his own sample pack for the percussion patterns, working with drummer Jack Baker (Bonobo, Kelis, Alice Russell, Planet Battagon) on an intensive two-day session.
Tones is a Houndstooth stalwart, and Dragons is his fourth full-length album on the label, along with a string of 12”s and EPs. His first album was Mosaic in 2014, followed by Embers in 2017, and Loma in 2018. Originally from the North Of England, for the last few years he has worked from The Castle, his studio an hour outside Bristol/Bath, where he can both forage his own food and find the headspace to make music and experiment with modern technology. He is currently recording a new album with his trio Snow Ghosts, and a soundtrack for a Netflix documentary.
Dragons is a new form of inter-disciplinary album, which is neither wholly electronic nor acoustic, sonic or visual, and pulls from an equally diverse range of inspirations, from texts such as Steven Mithin’s The Singing Neanderthals and Margo Neale and Lynn Kell’s Songlines to the 1982 animated film Flight of Dragons. “I’m into putting music back into history,” Tones explains. “I want to make you think about what music is, what its purpose has been. I’m asking about the scientific aspect to folklore and ancient knowledge, and looking at why it’s still useful. This album is a doorway – if you choose to listen like that.”
Alberto Melloni‘s Red SirenEP was already a hot double-shot of house and trance music, and now two remixes of the EP’s title track have been released from Paradise Palm Records.
The first remix, by Berlin’s Local Suicide, bubbles with industrial bass and dark dance club synths. It’s the kind of track that will instantly awaken you from an early morning groggy state (as it did to me) and keeps you bumping and grooving.
The second remix is by Jacuzzi General, and is a great example of his poolside, luxurious, hedonistic style of house and disco. The synth-bass thuds are pretty much made for slow motion videography of glamorous women walking around, lounging in, and making out by a rooftop pool.
It’s good stuff, and Paradise Palms seems to be hitting everything up the middle for at least a double right now.
Life on the road isn’t all glamour and rock’n’roll excess and MOTÖRHEAD’s punishing tour schedule in 1981 took them all over the globe as they rode high on the success of Ace Of Spades. One integral part of the daily grind on the road is the sound check, although very little of it is ever seen or documented in the public domain. Fortunately during the Short Sharp Pain In The Neck tour of March 1981,
MOTÖRHEAD had a mobile recording studio in tow as they recorded their thunderous, number 1 live album, No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith now celebrating its 40th year. This rare recording of them performing “Stay Clean” as they warmed up for the night at Newcastle on March 30 is accompanied by a video containing behind the scenes montages of the backbone of the MOTÖRHEAD live show; the legendary road crew!
A Place To Bury Strangers share new single/video “I Might Have” from their forthcoming Hologram EP out July 16th onfounding memberOliver Ackermann’s label Dedstrange. Following lead single “End Of The Night,” “I Might Have” is a fuzz-soaked sonic disaster in the best possible way. Past reflections collide with the brutality of a disintegrating world, stories of personal trauma, acceptance, and human failings emerge from the rubble of noise and destitute motorik rhythms. This is A Place To Bury Strangers at its most honest and unfiltered. Hologram serves as an abstract mirror to the moment we live in and “I Might Have” smashes that mirror into a thousand pieces.
“‘I Might Have’ is about the insecurities of life and growing up and when you just have to turn around and say ‘F*ck it,’” says Ackermann. “Life sucks so we may as well have a good time.” The accompanying video visualizes this mentality as it shows the band raucously hanging out together in New York City. Watch “I Might Have” Video
In 2003, A Place To Bury Strangers emerged on the scene out of Ackermann’s psychotropic vision. The band is known for their vicious live performances overloaded with all-consuming visuals, experimental sonic warfare, and treacherous stage antics. 2021 welcomes a lineup change; Ackermann is joined by new members John Fedowitz (bass) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) of Ceremony East Coast, cementing the most sensational version of the band to date. John and Oliver were childhood friends who had played in the legendary underground shoegaze band Skywave, crafting futuristic punk music together. This next phase is a sonic return to the band’s most raw and unhinged endeavors, pushed even further into a new chaotically apocalyptic incarnation.
A Place To Bury Strangers 2022 Tour Dates: Wed. March 9 – Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang Thu. March 10 – Dresden, DE @ Beatpol Fri. March 11 – Warsaw, PL @ Klub Poglos Sat. March 12 – Prague, CZ @ Futurum Sun. March 13 – Bratislava, SK @ Randal Club Mon. March 14 – Budapest, HU @ Durer Kert Wed. March 16 – Bucharest, RO @ Control Club Thu. March 17 – Sofia, BG @ Mixtape5 Fri. March 18 – Thessaloniki, GR @ Eightball Sat. March 19 – Athens, GR @ Temple Mon. March 21 – Skopje, MK @ 25th of May Hall Tue. March 22 – Belgrade, RS @ Club Drugstore Thu. March 24 – Zagreb, HR @ MochvaraFri. March 25 – Bologna, IT @ Freakout Club Sat. March 26 – Rome, IT @ Largo Sun. March 27 – Milan, IT @ Legend Club Tue. March 29 – Zurich, CH @ Bogen F Wed. March 30 – Munich, DE @ BackstageThu. March 31 – Martigny, CH @ Caves Du Memoir Fri. April 1 – Paris, FR @ La Trabendo Sat. April 2 – London, UK @ Lafayette Mon. April 4 – Antwerp, BE @ Kavka Tue. April 5 – Munster, DE @ Gleis 22 Wed. April 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg Thu. April 7 – Groningen, NL @ Vera Sat. April 9 – Stockholm, SE @ Hus 7 Sun. April 10 – Oslo, NO @ John Dee Mon. April 11 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset Tue. April 12 – Berlin, DE @ Hole 44 Wed. April 13 – Cologne, DE @ MTC
Keep your mind open.
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Anika – the project of Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson who is also a founding member of Exploded View – announces Change, her first new album in over a decade, out July 23rd on Sacred Bones & Invada, and shares the “Change” video directed by Sven Gutjahr who also directed the video for recent single “Finger Pies.” The follow-up to cult favorite Anika (2010), Change is beautifully fraught. The intimacy of its creation and a palpable sense of global anxiety are seemingly baked into the album’s DNA. Spread across nine tracks, the central feeling of the record is one of heightened frustration buoyed by guarded optimism. The songs offer skittering, austere electronic backdrops reminiscent of classic Broadcast records or Hi Scores-era Boards of Canada, playing them against Anika’s remarkable voice—Nico-esque, beautifully plaintive, and—in regards to the record’s subject matter—totally resolute.
Having worked collaboratively in the past with the likes of BEAK> and Exploded View, Change was ultimately the product of necessity. After recording the initial ideas by herself at Berlin’s Klangbild Studios, Anika was joined by Exploded View’s Martin Thulin, who co-produced the album and played some live drums and bass. “This album had been planned for a little while and the circumstances of its inception were quite different to what had been expected,” says Anika. “This colored the album quite significantly. The lyrics were all written there on the spot. It’s a vomit of emotions, anxieties, empowerment, and of thoughts like—How can this go on? How can we go on?”
Recorded at a time when literally everyone in the world was being forced to take stock, rethink, and reimagine their own place in the cosmos of things, Anika provides the wizened perspective of an outsider. It’s a perspective that is not lost on the British ex-pat and former political journalist, and despite the subject matter and the circumstances around its creation, Change itself is ultimately a treatise on optimism. The title track presents the album’s message writ large: “I think we can change, we all have things to learn, about ourselves and about each other.” To end the record on such a sanguine note might be one of Change’s most revolutionary gestures.
“There’s a lot of stuff I want to change,” says Anika. “Some things I sat down and decided last year, I had to change about myself and my life. Sometimes it feels helpless because the things we want to change are so huge and out of our control. Starting with yourself is always a good place. I think we can change.” Watch “Change” Video
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard announce that their North American tour is now rescheduled for Fall 2022. In October 2022, the band will play shows across the country, including marathon sets at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre and two performances at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, during which the band will play material from their vast discography across three hours. The tour will follow the release of their new album, Butterfly 3000, out now via the band’s own label KGLW.
Butterfly 3000 is King Gizzard’s 18th studio album. The band decided to play this one close to the vest, and refrained from sharing any advance singles, or the album artwork, which will be a cross-eyed autostereogram created by long-time collaborator Jason Galea. Butterfly 3000 might be their most fearless leap into the unknown yet; a suite of ten songs that all began life as arpeggiated loops composed on modular synthesisers, before being fashioned into addictive, optimistic and utterly seductive dream-pop by the six-piece. The album sounds simultaneously like nothing they’ve ever done before, and thoroughly, unmistakeably Gizz, down to its climactic neon psych-a-tronic flourish. This is undoubtedly the most accessible and jubilant album of their career.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Tour Dates Sun. Oct. 2 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre Tue. Oct. 4 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater Wed. Oct. 5 – Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum Thu. Oct. 6 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre Mon. Oct. 10 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre Tue. Oct. 11 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre Fri. Oct. 14 – St Paul, MN @ The Palace Theatre Sat. Oct. 15 – Chicago, IL @ RADIUS Sun. Oct. 16 – Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple Tue. Oct. 18 – Toronto, ON @ TBA Wed. Oct. 19 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia Sat. Oct. 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall Sun. Oct. 23 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem at The Wharf Mon. Oct. 24 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit Wed. Oct. 26 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern Mon. Oct 31 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion
Recorded in an attic in a house where an exorcism took place and inspired by science fiction and mind expansion via psychedelic drug trip, Evolfo‘s Site Out of Mind is a pretty groovy record. I mean, how could it not be with an origin story like that?
Opening with Cure-like guitar chords that mix with thick electro-bass and reverbed vocals on “Give Me Time,” the album instantly feels far more expansive than an attic. The crunchy guitars and humming of the first single, “Strange Lights,” will make you stomp the pedal to the metal. Evolfo goes from Temples influences to Osees within two songs, which is nothing but cool to me. The warped, wobbly beats of “Zuma Loop” are disorienting at first and then hypnotic.
“Towers rise, towers fall,” they sing on “Blossom in Void” – a song that seems to be about staying present in order to emerge from sorrow and end up in a place of joy. Jangly acoustic guitars and vintage psych-synths start the funky “Drying Out Your Eyes” – a top-notch groovy cut. “In Time” parts 1 and 2 are a nice psychedelic combo – like pretzels and curry. “Let Go” is a dreamy float down a hazy river.
“Broken Hills” has this neat, weird beat that I love, and the change to a trippy Yes-like sound for the end (complete with string section) is gorgeous. “Orion’s Belt” is appropriately spacey, with guitars sounding like buzzing UFOs. The closer, “White Foam,” reminds me of Psychedelic Furs by the end if the Furs were even more psychedelic.
It’s a nice record, and I’m curious to see and hear where these chaps go next.
London & Manchester-based duo Oh Baby are set to release their new album ‘Hey Genius‘ on July 23rd via Burning Witches Records The pair, made up of distant cousins Rick Hornby & Jen Devereux met via a chance meeting at distant relatives funeral. Today they’re sharing their new single “I Need Somebody To Love Tonight“.
Speaking about the track, the band said “I Need Somebody To Love Tonight is a cover of an obscure track by Patrick Cowley who was a composer and electronic musician/producer in 70’s San Francisco and who’s music formed part of the New York underground post-disco scene of the early 80’s. When we discovered his early instrumentals and demos had been re-released we devoured all that homemade analog charm. Finding out that the original track was part of music commissioned for gay porn films gave the sound even more beautiful late-night sleaze.”
Last month, London-based band Dry Cleaning released New Long Leg, their 4AD debut and one of 2021’s most praised albums thus far. The album was immediately met with much fanfare and glowing reviews from Pitchfork(Best New Music), The New York Times, NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Bandcamp, and more. Today, they announce a fall tour in support of New Long Leg. Dry Cleaning will play select shows across the states, performing for the first time ever in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Chicago, plus return appearances in Los Angeles and Brooklyn. Following in early 2022, the band will tour Europe and the UK. Their live energy was previewed during their television debut on Later…with Jools Holland earlier this year, plus their 2021 KEXP session.
Dry Cleaning is Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard(bass) and Florence Shaw (vocals). Buoyed by the universal acclaim they received for 2019 EPs “Boundary Road SnacksandDrinks” and “Sweet Princess,” New Long Leg “arrives fully formed, ready to evacuate the contents of your brain and replace them with the odd images, bizarre obsessions, vivid sense memories, and banal judgements that live rent-free in the mind of another” (Pitchfork).
