Providence's Carlos Gonzales, the man behind the Russian Tsarlag moniker has been honing his brand of "sewage-pop" for a while now, which is clearly evident though the cassette haze of his latest single, "Plastic Door", off his upcoming LP for Not Not Fun. According to the label, Gagged in Boonesville tells the tale of a tenement apartment in, yes, Boonesville. A poster of Medusa in the basement is "mentally poisoning" the tenants, and a pack of rabid dogs haunt the courtyard. This less-than-ideal setting makes for some of Gonzales' more despondant songcraft—"Plastic Door" floats along like a piece of litter in the wind after a series of listless false starts. It's beautiful like waking up in the gutter on a gorgeous day.
Gagged in Boonesville drops June 11 on Not Not Fun and comes with a Medusa collage by the artist and a zine.
Hospital Ships used to be the solo bedroom-pop project of one Jordan Geiger, but on his latest LP, Destruction In Yr Soul, he has invited in a backing band. From what we have heard so far of the album, it exists in the tension between fuzzed out garage rock and twinkly twee pop, a space that Geiger occupies with existential, doom-filled lyrics. Second single "If It Speaks" begins with a plunky keyboard melody and falsetto chanting, but the addition of a cathartic rock guitar line quickly adds some aggression to the track, which closes out with a rousing solo. The addition of other bandmembers gives "If It Speaks" some clarity and cohesion without the loss of Hospital Ships' rural, homemade feel.
Whirr are from the Bay Area, but they are not a garage rock band. Instead, the six-piece has a penchant for dark shoegaze, as was seen on their 2012 release Pipe Dream, which drew comparisons to genre staples like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. Now, the band is back with an EP, Around. The first single off that effort, "Swoon", forgoes Pipe Dream's relatively catchy melodies for ambient and drone inspired sounds. In true shoegaze fashion, singers Kristina Esfandiari and Loren Rivera are almost completely unintelligible, lending their vocal chords to the sweet soundscape that settles around the listener like San Francisco fog on a summer's morning.
An algorave is a rave in which people dance around to algorithms. The phenomenon, which appears to have been largely created by one Alex McLean, is an attempt to break down the barriers between coders and electronic musicians. At an algorave, the musicians will use software such as Max/MSP and live coding to create what the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 describes as “sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive conditionals.” According to the algorave website, “the focus is not on what the musician is doing, but on the music, and people dancing to it.” While they originated in the UK and Germany, algoraves are popping up in Mexico and Australia.
Underground techno collective Sandwell District recently closed its doors with the release of the encapsulating Fabric mix, Fabric 69. However, Sandwell District members Regis, Silent Servant, and James Ruskin recently announced a new art and music endeavor, Jealous God. The label falls under the umbrella of Downwards Label, much like Sandwell District did. Its mission statement read that the project is "intended for the mutants of our age" and its goal is to "question the here and now". Regis, (Karl O'Connor) is listed as the director while Silent Servant (Juan Mendez) will run the visual department and James Ruskin will be in charge of music. The imprint is putting out its first release in late May, a 12" entitled Sicario de Dios by SS/S, a collaboration between Silent Servant and Svreca. Each Jealous God release comes with an art zine, and the first 100 will include an artifact-- for example, Sicario de Dios comes with a tote bag and its successor will include an engraved logo dagger. (via Resident Advisor)
Ed Schrader has been a mainstay of the much-lauded Baltimore music scene for a long time. While he was much renowned for his live shows, he did not put out a full-length LP until his 2012 collaboration with Devlin Rice, Jazz Mind. Finally, Shrader has been getting the attention he so richly deserves, contributing a track for Sub Pop's Sup Pop 1000 RSD compilation. The track, "Radio Eyes", now has an accompanying video, directed by Philip Leaman. Watch the musicians get accosted by a bunch of disembodied limbs and sentient apples below.
Sub Pop 1000 is still available at Sub Pop or your local record store.
When the term “lo-fi” gets thrown about, it usually refers to vintage, analogue-based recording methods. But with their new video for Continental Lunch track “Bleacher Honey”, Great Valley have embraced the birth era of the pixel by creating a video that looks like it was shot sometime in the early nineties. In the age of HD, the band’s effort stays stubbornly low-res and utilizes effects taken from our very favorite HTML website. The Brattleboro based band share members with their more buzzed-about cousins Happy Jawbone Family Band and Blanche Blanche Blanche and make homemade, jangly “pretend pop”.
Dead Gaze is the project of one Cole Furlow, who hails from Mississippi where he is a member of the Cats Purring Collective. Furlow has been recording under the Dead Gaze moniker since 2009, releasing various cassettes and 7"s on labels like Fire Talk and Clan Destine. The project was a staple on Altered Zones and we are proud to premiere a stream of Furlow's eponymous debut for FatCat, a compilation of various tracks from his extensive back catalogue. For those not familiar, Furlow places a huge emphasis on texture in his work as Dead Gaze, with every song being deliberately overprocessed to create a near-palpable crunch. Behind the production are catchy, Americana-influenced guitar, synth melodies, and heart-on-your-sleeve lyrics, with each song attempting "to capture a very memorable moment," in Furlow's words.
Dead Gaze will be available May 21 in the US on FatCat. Our friends across the pond can pick it up from Palmist.
Amid the ongoing 3D printing controversy, Amanda Ghassel has used the technology to create several records-- both with a 3D printer and a laser cutter-- out of various materials including wood, paper, and acryllic. The quality of the audio is warped by the material and naturally low fidelity (the bit depth hovering between 4-5, compared to the standard 16-bit of a typical mp3), giving strands of audio strange re-interpretation. So far, she has created 3D printed records of Daft Punk, Joy Division, and New Order songs, and laser-printed LPs with songs by The Velvet Underground and Radiohead. Ghassel has also provided vector files so anyone with access to a laser printer can create their own LPs. When choosing a song, she recommends tracks "that are full in the lower to mid range, but also very sparse overall" Check out some of the audio from these creations below and click here to create your own. (via Vinyl Factory)
“Elite Excel” is the first single off Joy One Mile, the latest by French musician and visual artist Christelle Gualdi, aka Stellar OM Source. Previously known for her Trilogy Select, a compilation of hypnotic, free-form soundscapes, “Elite Excel” explores the influence of early Detroit electro and proto-techno. Gualdi, who received her degree in electro-acoustic composition at the Conservatoire de Paris, began Stellar OM Source in order to ‘unlearn’ her academic musical training. From her vantage point across the Atlantic, she contributed to the DIY synth scene of the late 2000s that included Oneohtrix Point Never and James Ferraro. “Sometimes you feel that you’re getting really close to what being alive means, be it learning about distant planets or being grounded by life’s occasionally heavy burden. Joy One Mile grew from the consciousness of such moments. When I listen to it, I see myself walking through a pouring rain at night with headphones on, embracing both the misery and the ecstasy.”
Joy One Mile will be released on June 11 via RVNG Intl. The album is preceded on May 14 by a 12” single with “Elite Excel” as well as a remix by techno producer Kassem Mosse, who also arranged and mixed Joy One Mile.
