Though Galician psych-folk band Sangre de Muergado has apparently been around since 2005, Brave Mysteries-- the Wisconsin imprint of artist and producer Nathaniel Ritter-- just brought them to America this year. This reissue is of their eponymous and originally self-relesed debut album from 2011, which followed the death of the band's leader. Some might detect the band’s origins in black metal and punk in their emphasis on themes of nature and human agency; others in their palette of naked, complex strings. What really elevates the album are in fact the more traditional elements-- flutes and strings that could sound like shtick in other contexts. Here, they represent an authentically deep-folk instrumental sensibility. 

Sangre de Muergado's self-titled debut is available now from Brave Mysteries.

Gorilla Vs. Bear announced John Maus' upcoming compilation, A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material, which is "a sixteen-song collection of music spanning eleven years of creative output" coming this July-- the first 500 of which will be on translucent pink vinyl (oh là là!!). While most Maus worshippers on Mausspace have already heard a chunk of these tracks, n00bs can take a listen to "Mental Breakdown" below.

When veteran spiritual jammers The Eternal Tapestry indulge in being spacious with their psych excursions, they form into one hive mind with transportive powers. Last year, the dark scorch of Beyond the 4th Door took us to a desert far, far away, as though the band were on a desperate spirit quest on an abandoned planet, the overwhelming heat exhausting their psych riffs to an aching crawl. The neanderthal-on-acid drums and Comets-esque guitar cacophony of "Wholeodome"-- a cut from their forthcoming Dawn in 2 Dimensions-- prove a more immediate distillation of the Tapestry method and takes on the radiance of the stained glass orb in Summertown, Tennessee.that bears the same name.

Tapestry founding father Dewey Manhood also put out a new album, Spirits, under his solo alias Plankton Wat. The acoustic ambling of "Fabric of Life" is a cozy stare shared by roomies and partners, like a modest celebration with more good memories than over-the-top fanfare. You can stream a video for it below that's blessed with the same homey, understated warmth.

Below, an introduction to the two tracks in Dewey's own words:

"Fabric of Life" came out of a short improvisation played on acoustic guitar. I was wanting to do something different from the other tunes on Spirits, something very open and free. So, I did a bit of fingerpicking and then listened back. The sound of harmonium came to mind, so I made a drone to warm up the background. Then, I was thinking a more live sound would be nice so I layered some small percussion on top. The track came together in my mind when the cymbals at the end fell into place. The song is inspired by my partner Loni Gaghan. She is always making clothes in our basement, and the tune seems to fit her.  

"Wholeodome" is a riff Eternal Tapestry played one afternoon and was lucky to catch on tape! I think it began after I played the simple two note riff, and then everyone just jumped in. We try to play as one mind, and when it works out the music can be really powerful. I love the simplicity of this tune, everyone just hits the beat and bashes it out. Jed's drumming really holds it all together. We named the song after a real place, the Wholeodome in Tennessee. It's a stained glass dome built in 1974, and we all found it to be pretty beautiful looking.

Dawn in 2 Dimensions is out June 12th on Thrill Jockey; Spirits is available now.

France's Hands in the Dark is dropping a Lee Noble and Ensemble Economique 12" split mastered by Sun Araw's right-hand man M. Geddes Gengras. The poem that inspired the split's material sees the cadence of song lyrics mutated into prose and the tunes follow suit with varying suggestion towards both the source material and the typical role of vocals. Ensemble Economique whispers in French under lucid synths and shamanic 808s, while Lee Noble chants about Kobo Abe's Stockholm-Syndrome triste through vapors of reverb and miniature electronic eruptions.

Motion Forever is out June 20 on Hands in the Dark. Only 300 platters were pressed of this bad boy.

In this biweekly column, TMT Cerberus editor Justin Spicer shares with you some killer tape-only releases he's had on repeat of late:

UK duo Forefather have long labeled their rousing, folk-infused heavy metal as "Anglo-Saxon Metal," and, well, if the shoe fits... Their latest album, Last of the Line, is an epic journey through Viking lore, utilizing classic twin guitar leads and a dual vocal attack to tell their tales of battle and bloodshed. Formed in 1997 by two brothers, Athelstan and Wulfstan, Forefather has long sought to glorify their roots while distancing themselves from folk metal's more frivolous inclinations (no trolls or beer steins here). As this and their previous releases make clear, these pagan odes and war hymns come straight from the heart, taking cues from Falkenbach, Bal Sagoth, and Bathory's Hammerheart and imbuing their compositions with their own very English sensibilities. We're streaming the title track below; into glory, we ride!

Last of the Line is out now via Seven Kingdoms.

Though Stephen Lewis and Spencer Grady of Padang Food Tigers have changed their line-up and their name, they still retain the mission statement of their old outfit Rameses III: "take time hostage -- slow it down and put it on ice." When wading through the impressionistic babbling brook that is their latest Bathetic full-length, Ready Country Nimbus, moments drift downstream at wavering paces, floating away off the grid with deep breaths. It's the type of deep listen that evades capture or quick consumption, but the distant cries of the ghostly organ and the rubato ballet of the plucked guitar in "Lone Carson" especially struck me. In an instant, I was overlooking the vast open fields outside of my old home and holding a lover's warm hand, swearing they were next to me even though there were only phantoms.

Ready Country Nimbus is out now on Bathetic. You can also check out more from them on Ad Hoc contributor Andy French's blog, Raven Sings The Blues, here.

On July 12th, Trouble (Sam Hillmer of Zs and sculptor Laura Paris) will present the You Are Here Festival at the Secret Project Robot Gallery for its third iteration. The event is a series of time-based art events that take place within the confines of a giant maze (hence, the fest affectionately being referred to as simply "the maze"). Lines between artistic communities are defined and blurred, intentionally and by experiment, in order to provoke a creative spurt from the audience to make their own way through a sort of anti-festival. It will be open Thursday through Sunday for three weeks, showcasing varied art performances and pieces during gallery hours, and featuring live performances from the likes of Laurel Halo, Dustin Wong, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's Kel Velhaal, Mick Barr, Amen Dunes, Driphouse, and many others after hours.

You Are Here has also been invited to make its international debut in Berlin this September. Trouble has just launched a kickstarter to raise the money necessary to launch the Berlin edition, putting guest passes of various lengths, bicycle tours, and sculptures as rewards up for grabs. Their goal is $15,000 in just under 60 days; you can check out the page here, and peep a video of the maze's virtual construction below.

We've been informed that the music of San Gabriel aka Los Angeles resident and Pit Er Pat co-founder Butchy Fuego has created for his debut Volfe EP shall be labeled "mountain rave". Now there ain't any decent mountains anywhere near Berlin, so we cannot evaluate if raving to these tunes high up in thin air enhances the experience in any way, but we can confirm that Fuego achieves a surprisingly massive impact with strikingly few means. With a thick, pounding bass and minimalistic, yet intricate drum patterns, Fuego creates a weird hybrid between R&B and global club music not far from his friends Nguzunguzu, which in short means that you can rave to it just about anywhere.

The Volfe EP is out May 22 via Time No Place.

The trailer for Episode 9 of Weird Vibes, an web-based indie music television show masterminded by New York producer Shirley Braha, takes the form of an advertisement within an advertisement. A very American-looking, middle aged blonde hosts a mock infomercial for “Weird Vibes Warehouse,” a fictitious company specializing in music memorabilia. Chances are, those of us already well acquainted with the ins and outs of indie hype will chuckle at the sight of products like “Grimes All Purpose Cleaner,” “Lana Del Raisin Bran,” and a John Maus-themed, “inspirational” mouse pad; likely, we’ll also experience a twinge of discomfort. A MTV-sponsored project dedicated to “bands who are self-released or on indie labels,” Braha’s labor-of-love inhabits an awkward and frequently hilarious middle-ground between music enthusiasm and self-critique, eager to point out the very processes of commodification in which it willingly participates.

With a backlog of artist appearances that includes the likes Best Coast, Neon Indian, Twin Shadow, and Real Estate, there is no arguing that Weird Vibes tends toward the more above-ground side of contemporary “indie music”; at the same time, it’s hard to not to admire her conviction that a mass medium like music television can be a powerful entry point to artists from all over the visibility spectrum. A graduate of Smith College, Shirley founded the long-running New York Noise music television show while working as an Intern for the city government-sponsored station NYCTV. Though she’s since switched over to a multi-platform media corporation, Shirley insists on handling pretty much every single aspect of the show herself, from treatments and shooting to the Saved-By-The Bell-reminiscent animations that pepper every episode. I met up with her at the cafeteria of the MTV building in Times Square last week to discuss how she taught herself the nitty gritty of TV production, the challenges of presenting niche music to a mass audience, and her advice for getting by doing what you love.