Almost one year after the release of Fragrance's debut full length, Now That I’m Real, the album's eloquence hasn't worn out a bit, on the contrary it keeps giving, as another single and accompanying visual comes off it.

Crawling To The Void maintains the warm feelings of melancholy usually found in Matthieu Roche's work, as well as the colorful and glimmering synthpop courtliness that defines the sound of Fragrance. The song comes with a wonderful video directed by Benoît Aubert (L’An2000) whose vision for the iridescent clip meets with the music's sharpness and class with total sublimity.

A worth exploring oddment for underground electronica, Now That I’m Real features collaborations with Hante. (Hélène de Thoury), and Maya Postepski (Austra, TR/ST, Princess Century), together with some of the most fully realized creations in Fragrance's consistently on the rise path thus far.



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Fragrance. Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram


synthreligion.com



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Great alternative rockers, Criteria, have been absent for quite a long while, still, from all appearances their comeback is nothing but full of vim and vigor. Their new album. Years, their first in fifteen whole years, is out now through Cursive's imprint, 15 Passenger, and it doesn't disappoint.

Following the anthemic, This Reign Is Ours, new single Hands Out makes a strong impression by being both a solid representation of Criteria's post hardcore dynamism, and more laid-back than those earlier singles that paved the way for the coming of Years. Dense structurally and compulsive lyrically, the song makes for another standout from the long delayed LP.

Criteria are AJ Mogis (bass, vocals), Michael Sweeney (drums), Aaron Druery (guitars) and Stephen Pedersen (vocals, guitars). The band is currently out on the Get Fixed tour alongside Cursive and Cloud Nothings.



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Upcoming dates

01/28 - Fresno, CA @ Strummer's
01/29 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Bunkhouse Saloon
01/30 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
01/31 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sister
02/01 - Colorado Springs, CO @ The Black Sheep


Criteria Facebook | Twitter | Instagram


15passenger.com




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Principally an odd cover of a well known song requires from the covering artist to put their own original twist on what is generally considered a standard. In the hands of Norwegian genre defying act, Deathcrush, Backstreet Boys' universal hit, I Want It That Way from 1999, transforms from an accessible pop ballad to something utterly dark, vile and depraved.

The song, which was previously tested by the band on their live appearance to positive reactions, is now out as a standalone single, and it will be a bonus track on the upcoming vinyl compilation, The Single Series, which brings together previously issued singles to a singular release.

The original's mellow R&B-inclined smoothness gives way to a more industrial-prone darkness, founded on a raucous post punk and noise rock meld that's too indefinite to describe in detail.

The Single Series comes out March 13th, 2020.



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Cover art by Vidar Evensen




Deathcrush Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram



apollonrecords.no




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Alternative rock heroes from another era, Local H, are still active and going strong, as they unveil an excellent new track off their upcoming album, LIFERS, their ninth studio full length. The album features production by the great Steve Albini, as well as contributions by the likes of Juliana Hatfield and John McCauley of Deer Tick, and it comes out April 10th, 2020 via AntiFragile Music, a little after the band's upcoming tour with fellow nineties rockers, Soul Asylum.

Guitarist and vocalist, Scott Lucas, and drummer, Ryan Harding, have kept Local H alive and busy throughout all these years through countless releases and a continuous live presence.

LIFERS draws influence from The Beatles' White Album, processed through the band's own filter. "When the re-release of the White Album came out a few years ago, I became re-obsessed all over again," Scott Lucas explains. "One aspect that really hit me about it (this time) was how it’s not really a concept record — but it feels like a concept record. I wanted to do that with LIFERS. This might be a concept record about the end of the world. Or it might just be a party record with loud guitars and cowbells."

Turn the Bow finds Local H in full on heavy guitar-driven noise rock mode, although the band cite a whole different source of inspiration for it. Scott comments:  "The Floyd influence was so strong that at one point we considered making a six song album like Meddle and this tune was going to be our Echoes and clock in at over 20 minutes long. Maybe next time."







Local H Facebook | Twitter | Instagram




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Coming from Calgary, Canada, emerging post punk band, Port Juvee, release the title track and accompanying video off their forthcoming full length, Motion Control, which comes out February 28th, 2020 through the Canadian DIY label, Garment District Records. It will be the band's sophomore album, following the self-released CRIMEWAVE from 2016.

Resolutely rooted in post punk, Port Juvee call to mind the New York No Wave scene through their effective fusion of punk, surf rock and psychedelia, and the sharp and jumpy Motion Control is a radiant example of the drive in the band's restless sound. The song comes with a kaleidoscopic visual comprised of retro-futuristic found footage that add to the song's intriguing agitation, and its clever commentary of life in the digital age.




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Port Juvee Facebook | Twitter | Instagram



thegarmentdistrictmusic.com




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Having shared stages with bands like Preoccupations, Havah, Be Forest, and Soviet Soviet, receiving praise for their live presence, upcoming Italian shoegazers, submeet, have just released their debut album, Terminal, through Lady Sometimes Records.

Dwelling on the grittier and noisier side of shoegaze, with large doses of post punk and noise rock blended in their sound, submeet have already earned comparisons to acts like A Place To Bury Strangers and Preoccupations,  by virtue of their excellent implementation of fuzz, raucousness and reverberation to their dark aesthetics, and their enamoring dystopian themes.

On Capsule Hotel, a paradigm of the illusory and ghostly mood that the band achieve throughout the whole record, they cite influence from the nightmarish brilliance of David Cronenberg, and sound utterly maniacal while giving full substance to their vision.

As the band put it in their own words: "The song tells about the rejection of the alienating condition submitted by a post-industrial society in which we do not recognize ourselves anymore, but of which we speak the same language made of metallic, distorted and deafening noises. Death of the man as death of conscience, intellect, authenticity and freedom of thought."






Cover art by zannunzio



submeet Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram


ladysometimesrecords.com




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