Local Suicide make a second pass of the Alberto Melloni’s Red Siren which gained support and praise from the likes of Sean Johnston, Justin Wilson (No Strings Attached), Erol Alkan (Phantasy Sound), and Curses.
Berliners, Local Suicide return to the helm, offering up their hypnotic superpowers to concoct an alternative to their cobra wave anthem. This one’s entitled “Blood Red Siren” and will be released digitally through EPM on the 8th of April.
Keep your mind open.
[Zip over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
This was my third time seeing Gary Numan live, and it was the smallest venue I’ve seen him in so far. It was good to see a crowd of people happy to be experiencing live music again, and even better to see Numan and his band having a good time on stage.
His opening act was the one-woman band I Speak Machine, who came out looking like a Black Widow assassin and throwing down a set of darkwave mixed with kabuki, opera, and industrial grind. One of the best parts of her set was watching the reactions of some in the audience who didn’t know what to make of her, and of her not giving a damn what people thought.
I Speak Machine belting out operatic vocals for a dumbfounded crowd.
Mr. Numan came out to an appreciative crowd and proceeded to belt out a loud, sometimes furious set that mixed classics with hot tracks from his last two albums, Savageand Intruder.
Gary Numan being a rock god.
It was great to see him and his four-piece band having a good time. There were many moments when they were smiling or laughing. You could tell they were excited to be on tour. Numan’s guitarist, Steve Harris, was all over the stage, often mixing shredding solos with performance art antics. I’m fairly certain he broke a string or two just a few songs into the set from playing so hard.
Numan and crew
It was a great set, with standouts like “The Promise,” “Films,” “Ghost Nation,” “Love Hurt Bleed,” “Bed of Thorns,” “My Name Is Ruin,” “A Prayer for the Unborn,” and “Are Friends ‘Electric’?” Catch him if you can. He’s having a blast right now, and so will you.
Thanks to the woman who let me snap this photo of the set list she scored.
AKP Recordings is excited to announce the expanded Milan (Deluxe) from Alister Fawnwoda, Suzanne Ciani, Greg Leisz to be released digitally on April 15th. Today the first single “Snow Ritual (feat. Ghost Marrow)” is available and features vocals from singer and multi-instrumentalist Aurielle Zeitler.
Listen to the new single HERE, and pre-save the digital release HERE.
The song opens with a mass of sparkling, effervescent synth arpeggios, flitting through the air like snowflakes. The lush, plaintive pedal steel undulations of Greg Leisz emerge and float past like clouds in the sky, billowing above the electronic crystalline mesh. Deep sub bass undertones rise up from beneath the earth, fortifying this imaginary sonic landscape. Aurielle Zeitler, under the moniker Ghost Marrow, contributes a wash of soft, tranquil vocal layers, imbuing the song with a wordless nostalgia. “On “Snow Ritual,” I wanted to join the “drifting by on a cloud” sensation of the beautiful performances by Greg and Suzanne.” says Zeitler. “I recorded two improvised vocal tracks using a delay/loop pedal in an attempt to contribute to the emotional immediacy that I hear in the song.”
Milan is a bracing and expansive collaboration between generations of musical adventurers. Conceived and led by Detroit-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Alister Fawnwoda, the project includes major contributions from legendary 5 time Grammy-nominated synthesizer pioneer Suzanne Ciani, and Grammy-winning pedal steel maestro Greg Leisz.
Intuitively tracing a slowly evolving journey through time, Milan is deep listening music reminiscent of some of the best work of Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Pauline Oliveros.
As Ghost Marrow, California singer and multi-instrumentalist Aurielle Zeitler created a space to process her ongoing struggle with a rare bone marrow disease that both inspired the Ghost Marrow moniker and sequestered her to prolonged periods of isolation and loneliness, feelings palpable in her music.
After several years of writing and touring with Sacramento-based doom/indie band Giant Squid, Zeitler embarked on her solo project and recorded the hauntingly transcendent Ghost Marrow (Untitled) in 2012 before presenting different facets of her artistry by making appearances on Tera Melos’ X-ed Out, Emma Ruth Rundle’s Marked For Death, and serving as touring lead guitarist for Chelsea Wolfe. In 2016, Zeitler returned to the Ghost Marrow project, expanding on the wistful sounds of Ghost Marrow with the dispiritedly tender and delicately interwoven Bunraku Warrior, and synth-driven single “Form-a” in 2020.
Zeitler currently lives and works as a high school therapist in Oakland, California and is finishing a new Ghost Marrow record in 2022.
Alister Fawnwoda melds an abundance of influences into a sound that is expansive, ambitious, and authentic to its core. With a creative practice that flows between painting, production, DJ’ing, and beyond, Alister is committed to exploring the boundaries of his talents and potential. Alister is persistently building his repertoire as he makes a name for himself as one of the most promising artists in the City of Detroit. For lovers of classic house, experimental ambient, and everything in between, Alister’s music presents the possibilities of creative exploration.
How do you follow up releasing two records of house music, club beats, and dub tracks? If you’re Jon Hopkins, you do it by releasing Music for Psychedelic Therapy – a gorgeous record of ambient meditations that doesn’t have a single beat on it.
As Hopkins said in the liner notes from the press release I received for this album, “I feel I explored that particular sound (house and club music) as much as I could. Next, I wanted to make something that faced the opposite direction, something very far away from a cosmic party or a set of festival-ready bangers…Something looking inwards, something egoless, with no attempts made to ‘fit in.’ It felt like time for a total reset, to wait for music to appear from a different place.”
I don’t think I can put it better than that, and this album is already difficult to describe. It’s more of an experience than a record. “Welcome” sets you up for chakra alignment and to get you into your meditation space. After that follow three tracks called “Tayos Caves, Ecuador,” which put you into a cool, quiet place suitable for dreaming, sleeping, or the “total reset” he mentioned.
The entire record is a reset for whatever is bothering you at the time. “Love Flows Over Us in Prismatic Waves” feels like light hitting you through a window as you watch a rabbit bounce across your lawn. “Deep in the Glowing Heart” reflects the place we all hope to find and reside in at some point in our lives, hopefully in this plane and the next. These are the first two tracks of a thirty-five-minute uninterrupted journey that continues with the hopeful “Ascending, Dawn Sky,” the cosmic energy-tinged “Arriving,” and the beautiful, tear-inducing “Sit Around the Fire” – in which music is set to a recording of the spiritualist Ram Dass.
It’s a record that’s stunning with its simplicity and subtlety. Let it calm and warm you.
US-born, Norwegian-Mexican artist and producer Carmen Villain (aka Carmen Hillestad) shares a new single, “Subtle Bodies,” from her forthcoming album, Only Love From Now On (out now on Smalltown Supersound), and in addition, presents a second version of the song by Huerco S. Only Love From Now On showcases Villain’s aesthetic blossoming into something unexpected, benevolent in its composure and altogether luxuriant in its sensuality. In turn, “Subtle Bodies” begins with minimalistic instrumentation, blooming with finely rich layers. Just like how lead single, “Gestures,” refers to Hannah Wilke’s video piece of the same name, “Subtle Bodies” pays tribute to the performance/sculpture of Ana Mendieta, who Hillestad responded deeply to in that artist’s rage, protest, and love for nature in connection to the female body.
“I found Ana Mendieta’s work deeply moving in many ways, in an emotional sense but also in the way she fully immersed herself into her art, connecting her humanity, strength, rage and vulnerability with nature,” says Villain. “It’s a deeply layered immersion. I had her, and especially her ‘Silueta’ series, in mind when I made ‘Subtle Bodies.’ Making music is for me about a complete immersion into sound, a continuous conversation between an idea and what comes back to me from what develops sonically. While I certainly consider Mendieta’s work and what she was communicating was far more important than what I do, she continues to be a big inspiration in many ways.”
Of the Huerco S version, Villain elaborates: “I have been a big fan of Brian’s work for a good while. He’s got an impeccable approach to sound and texture and communicates a lot with his music I think. So I was very happy he was into doing a version for me when I asked him. I asked him to choose whichever track he wanted from the album, and he went for Subtle Bodies. The result is deep and fizzy, I love it.”
Only Love From Now On is fueled by the sense of scale in feeling small in the face of things so large, the contemplation of how the biggest impact we can have is in the people close to us, the attempt to make sure that impact is a positive one, and the choice to try to focus on love instead of fear.
Listening to Only Love From Now On is simultaneously comforting and alluringly strange, with Hillestad engaging themes both philosophical and occasionally abstract. Hillestad describes it as “wishing to maintain a sense of careful optimism for the future, while on the cusp of something unknown.” Employing a panoply of instrumentation – such as woodwinds – field recordings, the studio, jam, and careful composition, Hillestad invokes a conversation with sound that occurs in her deliberate attempts to experiment with new methods, like granular synthesis, for her music-making. The emotional tenor of her music is clear and purposeful. It makes sense that her key musical touchstones are dub, ambient, and cosmic jazz – flexible vehicles for tranquil wonder.
Chelsea Jade unveils the new single/video, “Good Taste,” from her new album, Soft Spot, out April 29th on Carpark Records. Premiering via FLOOD, “Good Taste” follows lead single “Optimist,” a calibration of Jade’s skills in passing pop through an R’n’B tinged lens, and is presented alongside a video illustrated by Frances Haszard. “It’s like a miracle // Feeling your charisma getting physical,” Jade begins atop svelte production courtesy of herself and Bradley Hale (Now, Now). “And yeah, I’m miserable // But oh it’s such a mood getting sad, getting sexual.” “Good Taste” features additional vocal engineering and production by Luna Shadows, and sees MUNA’s Naomi McPherson and Josette Maskin lending their guitar prowess.
Of the track, Jade says: “I met someone at a party while I was living in a hotel for a briefly opulent moment in time. The next night they met me in the lobby and eventually we made our way up to my room. It’s an implicitly sexy situation but we parted without touch. As soon as they left I asked if they wanted to come back and when the elevator opened on the ground floor, they got in and ignited the most cinematic make out plus I’ve ever had. This song is about that encounter. I imagine the first half to be an internal fantasy until the real first touch when the production explodes into maximalism.”
On the video, Haszard remarks, “The world already existed- black and white, linear and basey with augmented senses and ripples of distortion. These things translated easily into my frame by frame animation with my awkward impressions of 3D and motion. I’m self taught and a bad teacher so my style suits working with artists who enjoy imperfections and have a sense of humour about what unfolds.”
Jade brings her “good taste” to Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater where she’ll perform with Jai Wolf on June 8th. Tickets are available here. A New York City headline show to celebrate the release of Soft Spot will also be announced soon!
Orange County-bred Vicky Farewell releases a new single/lyric video, “Kakashi (All of the Time)” from her debut album, Sweet Company, out April 8th on Mac’s Record Label. The anime-inspired standout “Kakashi” came about during a COVID lockdown binge of the Naruto series. “It’s probably the most fun I ever had writing a song,” says Farewell. “It’s also the most embarrassing and I thought I’d never share this with anyone, but here we are.” Elongated synth acts as the song’s backbone, as Farewell’s saccharine voices sparkles across.
Farewell’s emergence as a solo act is the latest chapter in an already impressive career. A classically-trained pianist, songwriter, and producer, Farewell began to flourish at the epicenter of the funk-addled and deeply experimental Angeleno musical ecosystem alongside The Free Nationals in the studios of Shafiq Husayn (of Sa-Ra Creative Partners) before graduating to the legendary hip-hop producer Dr. Dre’s. She also boasts writing credits on Anderson.Paak‘s acclaimed GRAMMY-nominated album Malibu (Best Urban Contemporary Album) and the GRAMMY-winning album Ventura (Best R&B Album). With this rare combination of elite musicianship and singular vocal performance, Farewell produced, arranged, and engineered Sweet Company herself. Her particular knack for pocket-driven ear worms match the album’s melancholy tone with whimsical notions and unbridled joy.
Sweet Company cements Farewell as a true record producer, complete with the confidence to let the music do the talking. For Farewell, it’s “all about the music and the music is fucking good.”Sweet Company is a bold statement of artistic capacity delivered in feather-light refrains, bursting phasers, and robust arpeggios that conjure pastels and the tender nostalgia of a childhood crush. Farewell finds herself fully realized in the span of eight tracks painstakingly designed to shatter industry norms.
Anika has openly discussed how much she loves the dance floor as well as the dark corners of a night club, so putting out a remix album of her killer 2021 record, Change, was a no-brainer for her.
The “Planningtorock remix” of “Planningtochange” drops the pitch of her vocals and ups the beats to create a track that’s perfect for dancing in a dark basement full of sexy, sweaty people. Dave Clark‘s remix of “Never Coming Back” is somehow darker than the original. Lauren Flax‘s remix of “Critical” becomes slightly hardcore make-out music. Maral at the Controls‘ dux mix of “Finger Pies” is outstanding, mixing dub with industrial like a sexy glitch-bot.
PDBY‘s remix of “Freedom” strips the song down to a haunted house drone, like something you’d hear in a dimly lit ballroom with peeling wallpaper and warped floorboards. Lauren Flax comes back for a remix of “Change,” and it’s the closest one to a straight-up house music banger on the whole EP.
Don’t miss this is you’re a fan of Anika. It’s an interesting look at her different influences and how she’s influenced (and influencing) others.
Joe Goddard photo by Marc Sethi, Psymon Spine photo by Ruvan Wijesooriya
Psymon Spine—the Brooklyn, NY based music collective fusing psychedelic indie pop and the deep grooves of dance music—today announced Charismatic Mutations, a remix album of their 2021 album Charismatic Megafauna, will release April 1st, 2022 via Northern Spy Records and shared “Milk (feat. Barrie) – Joe Goddard Remix.”
Joe Goddard (Hot Chip) shared the following note on the track rework: “This remix was very natural and very joyful for me. I did it in lockdown so I felt a sense of freedom and playfulness that was really nice and actually, in retrospect, very unique. I love the vocals on this song, so I placed them at the forefront, and I tried to sonically make the mix one that was balearic and satisfying. Macrodosing.”
The members of Psymon Spine grew up in the ‘00s and ‘10s with a deep appreciation for the art of “the remix,” and after the release of their latest album Charismatic Megafauna, the band found themselves craving longer and more dance-floor friendly versions.
Additional contributors to Charismatic Mutations include Love Injection, Dar Disku, Each Other (Justin Strauss and Max Pask), Safer (of the Rapture and Poolside), Bucky Boudreau and Psymon Spine’s own Brother Michael.
Released early in 2021, Psymon Spine’s Charismatic Megafauna explored complicated feelings and catharsis through a singular approach to left-of-center indie, electronic and dance sounds. The release earned praise from publications such as Paste, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Under The Radar, and NME; playlist support from NPR Music (New Music Friday), Spotify (All New Indie, undercurrents, Fresh Finds), Apple Music (Midnight City, Today’s Indie Rock), and TIDAL (Rising: Indie/Rock); and notable airplay from KEXP, KCRW and the BBC.
Read more and preorder Charismatic Mutations here.
Kevin Marksson, otherwise known as Endearments, makes spacey dream pop seem easy, even though at least two of the songs on his Father of Wands EP are about heartbreak.
I mean, opener “Ocean” starts with the lyrics, “You could make me nothing. You could be the ocean. I’m inside you drowning.” Meanwhile Marksson’s synth and guitars are as bright as the high noon sun bouncing off the surface of Caribbean beach waters.
“How could we love each other endlessly?” He asks on “Empress,” a song in which he speaks of knowing a lover could treat him well if only she would stop focusing on just herself. The song bursts with optimism, though. Marksson’s instrumentation is too bright to ignore and too lovely to deny.
That being said, “Hymnal” has Marksson singing about how he can’t understand his girl’s thinking and how she can’t understand how he’s lost without her (“I don’t think you understand where I go when I’m not here with you.”). The closing track, “Delicate,” has Marksson resigned to the fact that things might not work out after all and he just needs to accept that (“I thought I was yours, but I could never be enough for you like this.”).
Still, the EP has that optimism I mentioned earlier. Marksson lets us know that love can be rough, but there is always some hope that, if we can’t find love, it might find us.
