It’s been quite the scramble to get this feature across the line. To say yesterday was stressful is somewhat of an understatement. Yesterday afternoon the site completely disappeared. Seemingly swallowed up by a raging spirit, every single word gone, including the drafts for this feature. We actually still don’t know how this happened, but after three hours everything magically re-appeared. Crisis averted.
It was the end to a week filled with turbulence. Preceding yesterday’s drama, after 12 solid years, my PC decided to pack it in and, not to be deterred, somehow dragged the backup hard drive along to the scrap heap with it. Yes, all the backups containing site-related files are no longer, so effectively, yesterday afternoon we had absolutely nothing. And yes, the back-ups were hard drive-based and not cloud. The lesson? Move with the times or sink…
Well, to a degree, but I hear the laughter and can almost visualise the head shaking at the whole amateur nature of this screaming shit storm.
Without trying to sound like the grim reaper shouting anti-technology sentiments from the rooftops, I’m sure most readers wish at some point that we step it back, if only a little. Just look at the way social media platforms operate, and the deluge of abuse people throw at each other. Has society ever been so divided? Or has social media been the quintessential agent to release this raging contempt? Everyone will have their take, of course…
Since our last AQ feature, AI seems to be the latest burning issue, and while we may joke from time to time that our jobs will be null and void in due course, it opens the floor to further confirmation that tech companies have little care for original artistic relevance.
And while the below list is AI proof (for now), at least that’s one silver lining in the cloud. The other being that our backups now sit somewhere in there, too.
Glass State: In Conversation with Sweet Williams’ Thomas House
Billy Woods & Kenny Segal: Maps
Fat Possum Records
Through a post-lockdown world and the haze of jet lag, Billy Woods returns with an album for the ages. A travel log underlining the life of an artist circa 2023, from taking 300 dollar Ubers to a show, to couples therapy sessions over Zoom after landing on the other side of the world, Maps is a kaleidoscope of ideas that are infectious, original and era-defining.
Along for the ride is the master of sonic gold dust, Kenny Segal, and together he and Woods reconvene in the best possible fashion. Segal, in particular, producing a smorgasbord of sounds that somehow ape his efforts during Serengeti’s wonderful 2020 opus, AJAI. Arguably, Maps is the finest hip-hop release since that.
Backed by free-jazz wig-outs and narcotic dreamscapes, Woods completely throws down the gauntlet on Maps, which will go down as one of the finest collaborations of the year. Where hip-hop is concerned, well, few other records will hold a candle to it.
Binge: Toothache
Self-released
Manchester two-piece, Rob Sewell and Mark Heron (of Kong and formerly of cult heroes, Oceansize) join forces as Binge, and while Toothache is billed as an EP, to our ears it’s long enough to slide in the LPs pantheon.
Inspired by the cut and thrust of noise-rock and its usual suspects, throughout these six songs, Binge combine their thrumming racket with the kind of frenetic speed rock of Lightning Bolt.
Already having caught the ear of many during several festivals appearances across the U.K. including ArcTanGent, purely through musicianship, Binge are that kind of act that solidify festival line-ups and have punters dripping tears of joy all over the place. Toothache feels like the start of something bigger.
Matt Christensen: Nightwires
Self-released
I start to get worried when Matt Christensen doesn’t release at least four albums a month, but in what is one of the most fruitful and expansive listening experiences on Bandcamp, even the best are prone to burn-out.
Or perhaps not… the Chicago songwriter has spent an extra couple of weeks getting the tracks down for what has become Nigthwires – a 20 song double album spanning and over an hour containing some of the best songs Christensen has written over the past three years (listen to Gigi I Don’t Know and try and tell me otherwise).
We’ve spoken enough of Christensen throughout these pages, and for an artist to continually produce the kind of magic he does, we will continue to do so. Nightwires is another wonderful chapter in an equally thrilling story.
Country Westerns: Forgive the City
Fat Possum Records
Following their wonderful 2020 self-titled debut, Country Westerns return with more would-be hits on their follow-up, Forgive the City.
Rather than shift the sound template, the three-piece pick up where they left off, continuing their quest to countrify punk and post-hardcore with a slew of barnyard riff-a-rolla and scorching melodies that penetrate the collective consicence. Once again Joey Plunkett spearheads the band towards wonderful landscapes, his whiskey-and-cigarettes-addled drawl separating Country Westerns from just about every other band on the planet.
Those hankering from new music from Eleventh Dream Day can rest easy. For the moment we have Country Westerns, and with Forgive the City they deliver something that will more than placate.
Doc Sleep: Birds (In My Mind Anyway)
Tartelet Records
Berlin-based Doc Sleep has made a record that awakens electronica from its slumber.
On the latest Doc Sleep LP, Birds (In My Mind Anyway), the producer, originating from the Midwest then later re-locating to San Francisco before the move to Europe, delivers a slow maximalist blur that creeps to the edges of the dance floor in what is one of the most immaculately produced records of the year so far.
Essentially, it’s marginal electronica, and those who miss Actress producing R.I.P. part II, Doc Sleep has only gone and done it with Birds (In My Mind Anyway) – a release that comes on strong the more time spent in its company.
Display Homes: What If You’re Right & They’re Wrong
Erste Theke Tontrager
Sydney’s Display Homes unveil their long-awaited debut LP, What If You’re Right & They’re Wrong, and for those who are familiar with another Sun 13 favourite, Imperial Broads, well, you’re in for a treat.
Clocking in at under 25 minutes, What If You’re Right & They’re Wrong is an X-Ray Spex-inspired jaunt filled with short sharp, galloping ditties that hit with immediate effect. Slightly unvarnished and gnarled, Display Homes manage to replicate their frenetic live sound on tape.
Australia continues to produce solid post-punk bands, and Display Homes is yet another. With a fantastic band name and the tunes to match, honesty, what’s not to like?
Ensaña: Rosario de Concesiones
Repetidor
Spain has always been a fertile ground for underground treasures, and Madrid’s Ensaña are the latest to be unearthed.
Consisting of Daniel Ardura, Maria Saénz and Alex Canales, on their debut LP, Rosario de Concesiones, the trio pair post-hardcore with emo through a gritty DIY-inspired aesthetic. And the results are grand, of course, with wiry bass lines and slow churning riffs that render Ensaña as the type of act those familiar with Wrong Speed Records stable would instantly fall in love with.
An album of the slow burn variety, Rosario de Concesiones is an impressive start from a band we will be hearing more of in the coming years.
The Golden Gaytimes: Hot As Buggery
Half A Cow Records
We love bands who don’t take themselves too seriously, and The Golden Gaytimes are the band of that ilk in 2023, with their debut LP, the aptly titled Hot As Buggery.
Named after the quintessential Australian ice cream, The Golden Gaytimes are led by Jane Harvey who gives a frank assessment of the world in this fine dose of Australiana. She is joined by a merry band of miscreants of Sleepy Jackson and Muzzy Pep fame, including Scott Blackley, Greg Perrau, Luke Bennett, Nichola Mackie, Edward Harvey and Steven Reynolds.
With references not limited to Cheezel-made wedding rings, melting paddle pops, the scourge of dating apps and, of course, the Coogee Bay Hotel, it’s quite hard to listen to without getting homesick. That aside, Hot As Buggery is a record that fills in the gaps. A total riot and a whole lot of fun for all the family. File in-between the Cosmic Psychos and the Hard-Ons.
Guardian Singles: Feed Me to the Doves
Trouble In Mind
New Zealand’s Guardian Singles burst onto the scene in 2020 with their self-titled debut, which was quickly snavelled up by Chicago label Trouble In Mind, who re-issued the release 12 months later.
The four-piece return with Feed Me to the Doves – an album showcasing a band progressing at breakneck speed. From front to back, the songs hold more depth and range in what will be one of the growers of 2023.
Whilst within the paradigm of the jangle renaissance, Guardian Singles have a bit more about them, with a series of expansive atmospheric punk ditties with wonderful lyrics to match (“It’s disconcerting/ the acid rain on my skin’s burning” – Manic Attraction). Feed Me to the Doves has all the hallmarks of how sophomore records should sound and feel. Good, honest tunes that only get stronger with time.
Steve Gunn & David Moore: Let the Moon Be a Planet
RVNG Intl.
While guitarist Steve Gunn is usually the centre piece of any such collaboration, on Let the Moon Be a Planet, he shuffles aside for David Moore (Bing & Ring) to take the reins over this wonderful 44 minutes.
Moore’s piano-led meanderings are like a mediation for sun-drenched open fields. Gunn’s guitar merely filling in the gaps during this journey of gentle splendour that should really be listened to on a loop.
In many ways, Let the Moon Be a Planet falls outside the scope of anything either artist has released throughout their respective careers. Together, through sparse, floating arrangements, they extract the beauty from simplicity in what is yet another great collaboration in a year that has given us many.
Gvantsa Narim Interview: “I always try to express my own opinion”
Healthyliving: Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief
Self-released
On their debut album, Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief, Edinburgh’s Healthyliving (Amaya López-Carromero – vocals; Scott McLean – guitar, bass synths; Stefan Pötzsch – drums) have an uncanny knack of reminding us off a careless youth whilst still maintaining artistic relevance in the present.
With dirge-laden rhythms and soaring melodies that twist and turn throughout, López-Carromero delivers a stirring performance (see Galleries), and back by a sea of crunching tones, Healthyliving will capture the hearts of many who like their sounds rough and ready.
Like Spotlights, Healthyliving have a penchant for making road-trips that more exciting, and with Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief, they’ve delivered a debut that gets under your skin more and more with each listen. It’s the perfect amalgamation of sludge and alt-rock.
Lankum: False Lankum
Rough Trade Records
On the back of their game-changing 2019 release, The Livelong Day, it was evident that Lankum would go on to reach wider terrains, and it’s now confirmed with their follow-up, False Lankum.
An epic in its own right, on False Lankum the Irish four-piece create the kind of drone-based experimental folk that is designed for the dark corners of a pub where you can proceed to drip tears into your glass. Their stories, harrowing and heartfelt, almost like a backdrop to a Benjamin Myers novel, and they seemingly reach new depths here.
Sonically, you won’t hear many other records that are better crafted than False Lankum. Everything inexplicably just lines up in what is a beautifully hypnotic journey, and this time around there will be far more in the audience to hear it.
Lichen Slow: Rest Lurks
Rock Action Records
On paper, Joel Harries and Malcolm Middleton make for odd bed fellows, but the more you think about it, the more their collaboration as Lichen Slow makes sense. Both straight talking in their own way; Harries – an idealist asking questions which should provide straightforward answers; Middleton – no messing, just cutting through the bullshit and calling it out for what it is.
The juxtapositions on their debut, Rest Lurks, are what make this record. Harries’ sunny timbre against Middleton’s grizzly brogue as he delivers the kind of songs that would clear the floor of an indie disco, simply because the people who inhabit these torrid events are exactly the people in Middleton’s ire.
Rest Lurks is a great debut offering, and here’s hoping it’s just the start, as the world needs more collaborations of this ilk.
The Lost Days: In the Store
Speakeasy Studios SF
The Lost Days are Sarah Rose (Dawn Riding) and Tony Molina, and together they’ve released one of those first-thought-best-thought records that everybody comes across no matter which style of music they like.
In the Store, The Lost Days’ debut LP, takes the essence of slacker punk and throws it through the tie dye of ’60s AM radio pop, and the result is 10 songs that clock in at 13 minutes of utter sweet majesty.
Although a slightly different vibe to Monde UFO’s latest offering, Vandalized Statute to be Replaced with Shrine, there’s a left-of-centre psychadelic aesthetic that has elusive pulling power, and The Lost Days capture it perfectly with In the Store. An all purpose concern that comes and goes like a summer breeze through the back door.
Modoki: Atom Sphere
Echodelick Records / Riot Season
Modki is the latest project featuring Sun 13 regular, Mike Vest, who recently gave us the third Artifacts & Uranium instalment, The Gateless Gate.
Alongside Mitsuru Tabata (Zena Geva, Leningrad Blues Machine, Boredoms, 20 Guilders, Acid Mothers Temple) and drummer/ regular collaborator Dave Sneddon, on Atom Sphere Vest gives us a series of scorching, scuzzed-out riff-a-rolla designed to torment the neighbours.
As well as a bit of bedroom mirror air-guitar wig-out behaviour, those who miss Boris getting straight down to the nuts and bolts of things circa-Akuma No Uta can rest a little easier with Atom Sphere. Yet another enjoyable psych-rock offering in the Mike Vest canon.
Nadsat: Torn Times
Overdrive S.R.L.
“I need a new a face / A new body /a new face / To feel again” sings Michele Malaguti on Brand New– one of the many highlights from Nadsat’s latest album, Torn Times, which follows 2019’s Feral.
Malaguti is joined by Alberto Balboni, and together the Italian noise-rock pair deliver 25 minutes of blistering noise that sweats and swerves, brimming with soul and vitality.
On Torn Times Nadsat colonise the margins of noise-rock, finding chaos between the lines of Godflesh and Shellac. Delivered with a ferocity few others have committed to tape so far in 2023, Nadsat are the kind of band that will be your new favourite sooner rather than later.
Omnibadger: Famous Guitar Licks Vol. III
Cruel Nature Records
Dragging noise-rock to perilous places, Stoke-on-Trent’s Omnibadger deliver a simple mission state: to fry the minds of their audience.
On their latest album, Famous Guitar Licks Vol. III, Phil Malpass and Jase Kester enlist no other than the chaos master himself, Seth Manchester (The Body, Lingua Ignota, Kal Marks et al), to harness their sordid blend of nihilism and no-wave-inspired blasts that fit somewhere in the realm where the likes of Uniform, Godflesh and Throbbing Gristle roam in search of their quarry.
Like digesting a glass of rusty nails, Omnibadger deliver an urgent snapshot of esoteric noise. They are fast becoming the torchbearers for Cruel Nature.
Bill Orcutt: Jump On It
Palilalia
Following last year’s frenetic Music for Four Guitars, and before that the wonderful 2021 release alongside Chris Corsano, Made Out of Sound, Bill Orcutt tones things down on Jump On It.
Despite what its title may suggest, this is Orcutt at his most intimate, which – if anything – could be described as a library album, with 10 acoustic sketches occupying the same stratum as Ben Chasny and Chuck Johnson.
While Made Out of Sound was a triumph in every sense, Music for Four Guitars – to these ears at last – felt like it was missing something. Jump On It, while a contrasting proposition, marks a fine return in what is one of the loveliest acoustic-led albums of the year.
Cash Savage and the Last Drinks: So This Is Love
Glitterhouse Records
Over the past decade, Cash Savage has been one of great marvels out of Australia, and alongside her band The Last Drinks, the Melbourne-based songwriter releases her latest long-player, So This Is Love.
A diaristic dispatch with killer hooks and stirring strings aplenty, So This Is Love sees Savage reaching for the stars on the back of heartbreak and the dark pits most of us fall into at some point throughout our lives.
Never has Savage been so revealing and direct through song, and in her most honest record to date, perhaps So This Is Love is also the release that will finally reach a wider listenership. It’s been a long time coming and well deserved.
Shit and Shine: 2222 and Airport
The State51 Conspiracy Ltd
Texas producer, Shit and Shine, cares little for release schedules and just about every other industry standard most others adhere to. No, Mr Shine just continues his quest to delve into the sordid corners of techno, acid house and psychadelia, and on 2222 and Airport, he throws us a bigger curve ball than usual.
2222 and Airport fits somewhere between the crevices of the warehouse and green room, with subtle grooves and beats that skirt along the dancefloor but never really embrace it.
In many ways it tells us a lot about the Shit and Shine story. An electronic wrangling outlier whose natural habitat is on the fringes. And for those who like those same marginal terrains, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Shit and Shine’s 2222 and Airport is probably your number one go-to.
Jeffrey Silverstein: Western Sky
Arrowhawk Records
With 2020’s You Become the Mountain, Jeffrey Silverstein provided the morning light to some dark days for all of us. Just over three years later, he returns with Western Sky.
The Portland-based folkster produces his best outing yet, with a set of breezy numbers that do their best to untangle the knots in your mind. They often say simplicity is the best and after listening to Western Sky it’s hard to argue.
The kind of release that will get the Aquarium Drunkard heads feverishly excited, readers around these haunts should feel the same, for Western Sky is a record every collection is lesser without. File under summer listening.
Single Mothers: Roy
Dine Alone Records
“I want my LSD/ I wanna live for art /I wanna forget money,” sings Drew Thomson on Air Sick – the fines vignette taken from Roy – Single Mothers’ follow-up to last year’s Everything You Need.
It’s the kind of inner-monologue many of us grapple with every other day, and the sentiment encapsulates the Single Mothers experience. A band that has never shied away from a bit of open-hearted honesty, and blurring the lines between post-hardcore and punk, Roy is like the sugar rush that everyone needs in their lives.
Thomson’s direct diatribes separate Single Mothers from most of their contemporaries, and that doesn’t change with Roy. Snapshots of fame, jealously, and the ups and downs of trying the chase that dream; it’s all here, but the difference is that Thomson delivers his missives from a place of contentment and inner peace.
Spotlights: Alchemy for the Dead
Ipecac Recordings
Now joined by percussionist Chris Enriques, over Spotlights’ four album existence, Mario and Sarah Quintero have completely ploughed their own furrow through the alternative metal landscape. Their latest offering, Alchemy for the Dead is another fine chapter in this story of DIY stewardship.
Melding together the origins of shoegaze and dream-pop into heavy crunches of melodic noise and distortion, Spotlights have been building on their immediate walls of sound, and with Alchemy of the Dead they may have reached the peak of their creative arc.
With some of their finest songs to boot (Ballad in the Mirror and Crawling Toward the Light), this is essentially alternative metal for open roads. A rush of melodic volume that showcases one of the best acts in this space. Once you’re in with Spotlights, there’s no going back.
Surgeon: Crash Recoil
Tresor Records
On his latest blast of euphoria under the Surgeon alias, Anthony Child returns to techno’s spiritual home, Tresor.
Crash Recoil is Surgeon at his most direct. With howling drones, sweaty, hard-hitting beats, this is a relentless surge across the dark frontiers with dark rooms and head phones the perfect place for it. Over the album’s 50-minute duration, Child takes us into his own world and in some strange way, there’s a psychadlic quality here.
It should be no surprise, as the past couple of years has seen Child ploughing those furrows with the excellent Transcendence Orchestra, and while vastly different in sound, the feeling to Crash Recoil isn’t that different when exploring the inner grains of sound. It’s a welcome return in what is one of the finest techno albums in 2023.
Terry: Call Me Terry
Upset the Rhythm
Melbourne’s Terry (what a name!) is the Melbourne underground supergroup consisting of Amy Hill (Constant Mongrel, School Of Radiant Living), Xanthe Waite (Mick Harvey Band, Primo), Zephyr Pavey (Eastlink, Russell St Bombings, Total Control) and Al Montfort (UV Race, Dick Diver, Total Control).
Carrying on from Melbourne’s jangle renaissance, Terry have spent the last six years in a simple, countrified haze, also injecting a space cowboy post-punk vibe which rubs close to wonderful orbit of Pavey and Montfort’s Total Control. And it all continues on their latest offering, Call Me Terry.
From the explicit artwork calling out former leaders and multi-nationals to the songs themselves, Terry’s sharp political observations remain (“I’m a good actress/I’m not acting now” – Jane Roe). While sonically it’s a slow burn that requires a bit more attention than their contemporaries, Call Me Terry leans on many influences of the past, but in their zany post-world capsule, Terry doesn’t sound like any of them.
Yves Tumor: Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)
Warp
Yves Tumor has been one of the most crucial voices across the experimental landscape, successfully cross-pollinating sound worlds from the hyper-electro mind frazzling Safe in the Hands of Love (2018) to the wonderful turbo-charged glam assault of Heaven to a Tortured Mind that followed two years later.
Which is why it’s surprising that Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) hasn’t really captured the collective heart despite the tunes suggesting otherwise.
Streamlining the glam-infused punk stomp of Heaven to a Tortured Mind, with the likes Meteora Blues, Operator and Fear Evil Like Fire, there are enough hooks and melodies to sink a ship. Again, Sean Bowie is unafraid to take hairpin turns, and in doing so, Yves Tumor continues to be a project that is truly one of a kind.
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12 replies on “Sun 13’s Albums Quarterly #10”
[…] Sun 13’s Albums Quarterly #10 […]
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[…] the usual one-two combination with Stephen Kerrison (Remote Living, The Lichen Slow et al) undertaking mastering duties, Repo Man begin the rolling wave of chaos with Back on the […]
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[…] good as anything Haress have delivered. Meanwhile, Lullaby reaches same damp terrains the likes of Lankum have recently […]
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[…] at his Blank Studios, with the mastering duties undertaken by none other than Stephen Kerrison (The Lichen Slow, Remote Viewing et al), Toward marks a timely return, not least because of the reasons noted above, […]
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[…] Vest (BONG, Downtime, Neutraliser et al), and Dave Sneddon (Gruel, Threads, Flat Earth Records), MODOKI make a quick-fire return with their second album of 2023, Luna to […]
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[…] Steve Gunn and John Truscinski have forged a vibrant partnership over the last 10 plus years, their latest […]
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[…] nicely with Yves Tumor’s latest cut (another that KIDA has their fingerprints all over), Drift is a record from one of […]
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[…] Since the COVID pandemic, folk music has enjoyed a resurgence more than any other genre out there. With all its variations (some radical, some not), many have found folk as a gateway of sorts, and even the doomier side of it has broken through the fourth wall, largely thanks to the talisman that is Lankum. […]
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[…] Released on Christmas Day, A Mouth at Both Ends captures a 2018 performance from underground heavyweights, saxophonist, Joe McPhee and guitarists Tashi Dorji and Bill Orcutt. […]
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