Following Wednesday’s announcement of the return of the Jesus Lizard, it was just good to see some excitement in the new music sphere for a change.
Scrolling through various message boards and Facebook groups, and for an underground band, you could have mistaken these scenes for a group of Swifties toasting to a successful ticket ballot (for the nosebleeds, of course).
The last couple of days have been a nice distraction for what has been a very strange couple of weeks on the back of Steve Albini’s passing (afterword here).
The engineer and underground provocateur’s untimely death has hit everyone hard in the underground and noise-rock fraternities; not least because of the indelible mark he left on DIY culture as we know it, but also the fact that another hero has left us; further evidence that every day is a gift and one that shouldn’t be wasted.
It’s made many (including myself) look inward, thinking just how much time is left on the clock – not only for ourselves, but for our friends, too. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve made a point of reaching out to friends and being more proactive in spending time with them, and I’d encourage others to do the same.
While Albini’s passing has stemmed the enthusiasm for the daily grind, in the words of Bob Dylan, “You better start swimming, or you’ll sink like a stone.”
So, with that, another quarterly awaits. This edition is perhaps a little more riff-heavy in homage to Mr Albini, but of course, there are several releases that shift away from that zone. As always, we hope there’s something new for everyone.
Be safe, and tell your loved ones that you love them.
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Amen Dunes: Death Jokes
Sub Pop
Moving on from the above sentiment, and yes, the wicked irony isn’t lost (blame the alphabet). Damon McMahon puts it best when he sings, “Someday we lose it / So use it” on Amen Dunes’ sixth outing, Death Jokes.
The Amen Dunes story has always been masqueraded in mystique and, at times, impenetrable. McMahon’s intent on hiding behind the mask both sonically and thematically has been a proposition that has never fully scratched the itch, but with the self-produced Death Jokes, the mask slips with some of the producer’s most straightforward songs.
Still drawing from skewed pop and left-field hip-hop which both form the backdrop to his homespun narratives, Death Jokes comes on stronger the more time spent with it.
Kee Avil: Spine
Constellation Records
Montréal producer, Kee Avil, follows up her 2022 release, Crease, with Spine – something that simply sounds like nothing else out there.
Like left-field avant-pop produced on the cold floors that birthed the sound design movement, Avil manages to create the kind of fractured folk that wouldn’t look out of place as score to a William Gibson novel. It’s not as rigid as it sounds either, with Avil’s post-industrial leanings giving these songs a thrust that reaches the corners of the mind.
With repeated listens, Spine is an album that cross-pollinates into sound worlds you wouldn’t have thought worked, but Avil orchestrates a series of songs that make the seemingly impossible, indeed, possible.
Stella Burns: Long Walks in the Dark
Brutture Moderne
Under the Stella Burns moniker, Gianluca Maria Sorace has spent the last decade or so guiding his listeners through the misty orbits of alt-country.
Having worked with Mick Harvey Ken Stringfellow and Dan Fante on his latest album, Long Walks in the Dark, Sorace creates the kind of narratives that are like cinematic backdrops built for escapism. Effortless songcraft inspired by Dylan but with a beautiful ambiance that makes the mind roam.
Long Walks in the Dark is the kind of record that evaporates your troubles. Like reading a novel, it’s that wandering dreamer art that everyone needs from time to time.
Cloud Nothings: Final
Noise Records
In their constant bid to obliterate minds, Cleveland, Ohio three-piece, Cloud Nothings, have been about as dependable as you’re going to get in the indie-rock pantheon, circa 2024.
On their 2021 release, The Shadow I Remember, the band turned to melody and a lot of it, which was a contrast to their severely underrated 2018 album, Last Building Burning (for me, their finest moment committed to tape).
Final Summer doesn’t replace the raw urgency of Last Building Burning, but there are moments that hit that energy (Mouse Policy). Granted, it must be difficult to keep finding something new and relevant without getting truly hemmed in by the guitar/ bass/ drums composition, but on Final Summer, Cloud Nothings manage it somehow.
The Conformists: Midwestless
Computer Students / Modulor
Surprisingly, the return of St. Louis noise-rock trio, The Conformists, has flown under the radar. In any case, one look at the title tells us all we need to know about Midwestless.
Recorded by the late Steve Albini, on the band’s first LP since 2016’s Divorce, The Conformists mangle the origins of math and noise-rock and tailor it to something that sounds nothing like anything else. At six tracks clocking in at 28 minutes, this is like a roller coaster ride on psychedelics.
It’s art delivered in purely abstract ways, and if only the Butthole Surfers ever delved into chords and mute notes, well… it may have sounded something like what the The Conformists deliver on Midwestless.
Dez Dare: A Billion Goats. A Billion Sparks. Fin.
God Unknown Records
On A Billion Goats. A Billion Sparks. Fin, Brighton-based Australian odyssey, Dez Dare, returns with another twisted take on psychedelia.
Think of going into the video game arcade as a kid and being greeted by Wire’s Pink Flag rushing out of the speakers. Dare adds his own flavour of course, with a garage psych sensibility that makes the walls sweat.
A Billion Goats. A Billion Sparks. Fin. needs a bit of time to grasp the full effect, but when it sinks into the grooves, it proves quite the earworm. Take it for a spin around the block and by the time you get back home, you may just fall in love.
Empty House: Blue Stone
Cruel Nature Records
Blackpool experimentalist Fred Laird offers a second dose of the Empty House goodness in 2024, with Blue Stone following his excellent February release, The Golden Hour.
Loosely billed as an accompanying album to The Golden Hour, Blue Stone was recorded after a three-day trip Laird took to around the Pembroke-shire coastline last year. It does have an air of escapism about it without the open-source psychedelic neurosis of The Golden Album, giving both albums a very yin and yang vibe.
While The Golden Hour is more of a watch-the-sunrise concern, Blue Stone is tailored for the later hours. Perhaps even a companion for the sunset (see Old Ways). Again, that yin and yang, which is no bad thing at all.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
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Einstürzende Neubauten: Rampen (apm: alien pop music)
Potomak
The German experimental pioneers have basically summed up their latest album with the last three words of its title.
Slightly removed from the wonderful 2020 release Alles in Allem, Blixa Bargeld and Co. return with an album that stretches their sound world to unimaginable places (no surprise, considering they’ve spent a career doing this). It’s a band growing older gracefully but managing to deliver their art in fresh and vital new ways.
The one fact about Einstürzende Neubauten is their dry sense of humour and on Rampen (apm: alien pop music) there’s plenty of that. The band seems to be in as good a head space as they’ve ever been, and the seamless feel to Rampen (apm: alien pop music) underlines that.
Fat White Family: Forgiveness Is Yours
Domino Recording Co.
The South London odyssey hasn’t always been the easiest sell around these parts, however on Forgiveness Is Yours, whilst thematically it may not mirror the internal conflict that incessantly overshadows the Fat White Family, sonically it’s a different story.
Forgiveness Is Yours is an album that really does envelope the band’s bipolar world. From the woodsy, Animals-era reverence of John Lennon to the skittish tale of You Become Man and the balladeering closer You Can’t Force It, these are like the shards from the broken mirror that is indeed this band.
In essence, Forgiveness Is Yours is a faux best-of Fat White Family experience. While it may not be a swansong, at times it certainly feels like it. Either way, it’s an album that comes on as strong as anything the band has produced.
Keeley Forsyth: The Hollow
FatCat Records
Anyone who has witnessed Keeley Forsyth in the live arena will know just how bewitching her performance is. The Harrogate-based artist translates this to her third full-length release and first for FatCat Records, The Hollow.
While Debris and Limbs were skeletal snapshots that captured the dark, wet terrains of Northern Britain, The Hollow sees Forsyth branching out in more expansive ways. With rich, orchestral sonic bedding proving the right foil for her frightening vocalisations, it makes for a dramatic sound world inspired by Scott Walker (led by album highlight, Eve).
The Hollow is another striking piece of work that makes the listener work hard to garner the best results. Forsyth has never made it easy, and why should she? Life’s not like that, so why shouldn’t art be?
Kim Gordon: The Collective
Matador Records
Since they disbanded, the members of Sonic Youth have meandered towards different corners of the creative landscape. Kim Gordon has ventured across the most fertile ground of all, arguably delivering her most defining work.
The Collective is another example of that. Here, Gordon makes a punk record with a futuristic twist. Taking the ideas of her collaboration with Bill Nace as Body/Head and melding them with the origins of trap for something cataclysmic. With the likes of I’m A Man, Trophies and Shelf Warmer, she is fearless, vaporising everyone and everything in sight.
It’s the ideas that interlace the past with the present that make The Collective the radical triumph that it is. After all these years, Gordon is still leaving the competition for dead.
High On Fire: Cometh the Storm
MNRK Heavy
If ever there was an album title that a band was destined use, it’s High On Fire’s Cometh the Storm. It’s certainly been that for Matt Pike and Co. over the last couple of years, and following their Grammy Award for 2018’s Electric Messiah, the band return as pent up as ever.
The first HoF album to feature drummer Coady Willis (Big Business, Melvins), once again the band have Kurt Ballou harnessing the bedlam from the sound boards. It’s as glorious as ever, of course, and while each High on Fire record needs to time to fully get to grips with all the components underneath the bonnet, Cometh the Storm is no different.
Like always, the time spent is worth it, as Cometh the Storm sees the band at their bristling best, reaffirming what most already know: High on Fire are this generation’s answer to Motörhead.
Il Sogno del Marinaio: Terzo
Improved Sequence
Mike Watt continues his rich creative journey, straddling from one sound world to the next, and his latest adventures see him resuming the story of Il Sogno del Marianio – the collaboration alongside Italian experimental guitarist, Stefano Pilia, and drummer, Paolo Mongardi.
With Terzo, the band branch out with a series of loose, countrified experimental rock, drawing from ’90s indie-rock to warped surf-rock. In many ways, it’s Watt extending the fun from his days alongside Karen Schoemer, Jad Fair and Oli Heffernan in Detective Instinct.
Pilia and Mongardi add their own flourishes on Terzo, too, with something that would translate just as well in the live arena as it does on tape.
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Infinite River: Tabula Rasa
Birdman Records
In our interview with Infinite River’s Gretchen Gonzales last year, the guitarist suggested that the band had a fist full of material on the back of last year’s excellent one-two of Prequel and Space Mirror.
The next instalment is Tabula Rasa. Far removed from the above-noted releases, Infinite River escape the warmth of the campfire and edge towards the outhouse in something that feels like Can thrashing about with Neil Young.
There are still moments of atmospheric majesty that made Prequel and Space Mirror such enthralling propositions (Blessed Unrest), but for the most part, Tabula Rasa sees Infinite River travelling beyond into the great unknown. And I for one can’t wait to hear what they deliver next.
Metz: Up on Gravity Hill
Sub Pop
Metz have always been an act that has passed me by. I’m not sure what it is, but we all have bands that we should like but for some ungodly reason, things just don’t click.
That changes with Up on Gravity Hill. Dialing down in the rip-and-tear noise-rock assaults that have melted the minds of many, Metz opt for a bit more melody here and the results are grand. Track like Superior Mirage and closing cut, Light Your Way Home, are the kind of songs built for open-road freedom. But not in anger; this is purely euphoric.
Up on Gravity Hill is Metz’s anthemic moment, and in a world where I thought that one band of this ilk may have been enough, it feels like they now seamlessly coexist with Cloud Nothings. And on that note, listen to this and Final Summer back-to-back for the best results of both.
Mountain Movers: Walking After Dark
Trouble In Mind
The New Haven, Connecticut underground rockers return with another gallon of the good oil with Walking After Dark.
While Eleventh Dream Day and Antietam remain as the band’s eternal kindred spirits, Mountain Movers have also had the knack of zoning out on their own, and on Walking After Dark that meandering comes via three 10-plus minute experimental jams that can be rendered as sonic garble.
No dis, of course. This is just how the Mountain Movers have rolled, and in-between these off-the-beaten track moments, there’s plenty of that campfire gloom that fits somewhere between Neil Young and ’90s-era Thrill Jockey. Yes, Walking After Dark is another to mark down in the win column.
No Man’s Valley: Chrononaut Cocktail Bar
Tonzonen Records
Consisting of Jasper Hesselink (vocals), Christian Keijsers (guitars), Rob Perree (bass), Ruud van de Munckhof (keys) and Dinand Claessens (drums) Horst, Netherlands five-piece, No Man’s Valley, add a frayed, narcotic edge to the blues with their latest LP, Chrononaut Cocktail Bar.
As the title suggests, this is slow-motion blues-rock reminiscent of The Doors with the added gnarl of Berlin-era Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. From the opening title track where Hesselink channels his inner-Morrison, to the 18-minute closer, Fight the Sloths, Chrononaut Cocktail Bar is a like the soundtrack to an alternative version of Twin Peaks.
For those partial melody, deep tones and hairpin grooves, you could do a lot worse than inviting No Man’s Valley’s latest LP into your life.
Phosphorescent: Revelator
UMG Recordings
On the back of 2013’s Muchacho, Matthew Houck had the world at his feet. It was a good album, but the adulation felt somewhat misguided, with the likes of Pride (2007) and Here’s to Taking it Easy (2010) containing songs that felt a lot stronger.
Houck has taken a back seat over the years, and following 2018’s C’est La Vie, the songwriter has been enjoying some family time debunking from New York to Nashville. Revelator feels like the product of this new phase in the songwriter’s life, and the songs are better for it.
Think of that country artist dispensing earworms via simple songcraft over the AM radio waves. That’s what Revelator feels like, and the results see Houck as comfortable as he’s ever been.
Jessica Pratt: Here in the Pitch
Mexican Summer
The idea of folk music in 2024 is wide ranging, however over the past decade, it feels like Jessica Pratt has delivered the perfect idea of it.
A career spent unveiling loner-folk that cuts through the heart strings, the L.A. songwriter shifts the needle on Here in the Pitch, reaching for inspiration of the past, combining the patina of ’60s pop with her staple, skeletal arrangements.
It’s not the easiest mission to accomplish given Pratt’s distinguishing voice, but these subtle shifts on Here in the Pitch make for something beautiful and dream-like. It continues the songwriter’s spellbinding run of form as one of the major voices in folk music today.
Shellac: To All Trains
Touch & Go Records
Music just hasn’t felt the same since the passing of Steve Albini. Alongside Bob Weston and Todd Trainer, the underground recording legend left us with the last vignette in the Shellac swansong, To All Trains.
Whilst the likes of WSOD and Scrapper had been a part of Shellac’s live canon for the last couple of years, it’s songs like the closing I Don’t Fear Hell which make you wonder whether Albini knew what was coming. Eerily prescient in the vein of David Bowie’s Blackstar, perhaps only Albini could be so morbid in his band’s victory lap.
And that’s what To All Trains is. You always know what you’re getting with a Shellac record, but with the added weight of recent events, it’s an album that many will hold the closest to their hearts. R.I.P., Steve.
Steven R. Smith: Olive
Soft Abuse
Under his own name, the Los Angeles-based experimental guitarist returns with the follow-up to his excellent 2022 release, Spring.
Both under his own name and from his vast array of other projects that include Ulaan Khol and Hala Strana, Olive is one of the looser records Smith has released. Back porch guitar meandering where you can almost smell the dust down that lonely road, over the years Smith has carved out distinctive patterns and tones in the same way fellow guitarist, Marisa Anderson has.
With Olive, Smith has delivered another lovely record in a body of work that contains many. It’s something that could dovetail with a host of records, but the one that initially springs to mind is Anderson’s recent collaboration with Jim White, Swallowtail.
Sudden Voices: Days and Nights
Self-released
Following his self-titled debut release in 2023, Ben Morris resumes the Sudden Voices journey with Days and Nights.
It sees the London-based experimentalist exploding with fresh, forward-thinking ideas, breaking the boundaries set on Sudden Voices with a record that constantly sparks new senses every time you listen to it.
There’s a lot happening on Days and Nights, but that’s the beauty of it. While comparisons to Wild Beasts and These New Puritans may be forthcoming, it’s the post-rock aloofness similar to All Structures Align that slowly shines through here. Not in sound, but in idea and feel, and it results in Morris’ finest offering yet.
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12 replies on “Albums Quarterly #14”
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