Stellar, dark post punk comes courtesy of Vancouver, British Columbia band, Ringfinger, who return all reinvigorated with their new standalone single, Familiar Placement, one year after their very good EP, Echoes Fade.
Familiar Placement marks the beginning of a new phase for Ringfinger. The song is coming across as a forceful and immediate post punk song which retains the moody setting of the band's previous work, but also pushes them forward. Reliably rooted in darkwave, the new single has a vibrant and punchy energy, coming across easily memorable and easy to groove on.
Aloft is the second example unveiled off High and Low, the anticipated new album by cellist and experimental composer, Lori Goldston. The full length will be out on October 7th, 2022 via SofaBurn, and it was previously introduced with The Waves And What's Under.
This time, Goldston creates a wonderful work by echoing the shattering drones of Earth with whom she has previously collaborated. Aloft brims with extra weight and amplitude, surfacing as an electrifying dialogue between wood, string, and fuzz pedal.
“I have a restless nature; getting too comfortable makes me extremely uncomfortable,” says Lori Goldston, and while the music does not express comfort in the conventional sense, it does hearten and enchant the listener.
DARLING. is a bedroom project comprised of Caitlin Finn (ex-Dorothy and Dog) and Joel Glazebrook (Edith Thomas Furey), and it draws on its members' previous experience in dark and atmospheric shoegaze to create something rather experimental in actuality, and enticing overall. Midnight is the band's latest release, an ethereal and enveloping listen.
"Midnight is a song about being lost in a relationship." DARLING. comment on their new single. "Each stanza represents the process of working through the confusion that comes with the pain and loss of slowly losing someone."
The track arrives with a cohesive dual vocal, and it maximizes its impact by way of its subtle psych rock properties which blend elegantly with the duo's eighties post punk and goth proclivity.
Gravecrawler is a Swedish extreme metal act formed in the summer of 2019 in the Stockholm suburban areas, with the artistic intention of merging the groove of the old-school Swedish Death Metal and the atmospherics of nineties black metal, with some slam-like grime involved. Everything is produced and recorded by the band, and the result is a sharp fusion of their influencing factors which wears the heritage of Scandinavian extreme metal on its sleeves.
A Monument to Uncreation, a superb track from the band's four-song EP Chapter II: Blood Rites, is a piece with a greater emphasis on atmosphere, and it easily embodies the band's dark and loud approach.
Describing the emergence of Rile, with their first couple of freshly recorded and released singles as impressive, is an understatement. The band's style of biting, edgy and fierce metalcore seems comparable to acts like Converge, Botch, Deadguy, while at the same time it carries an even darker and more ferocious tone.
The group, which began in 2012 as a side project of Cult Leader's Sam Richards and was later joined by Brian Fell and Matt Mascarenas, spent many years performing sporadic gigs and developing songs, and now appears to be more than ready to excite their audience with their recordings.
Explosive percussion, tensed and torn vocals, and a savage breakdown comprise the severity of Rile's debut single, Dead End, which is recorded at God City Studios by Converge's Kurt Ballou, and shows no mercy.
From Sweden, new post punk outfit, Alpha Pet, release their second single, Too Fast, part of a trilogy of offerings which reflect the band's creative approach and character at this early stage.
On a lyrical level, Too Fast has an existential sense and carries a big dose of underlying darkness, while instrumentally it doesn't disappoint, and comes across as extremely vivid piece, echoing eighties' post punk in a noticeably nervy way.
The band's vocalist Rocky Åberg comments on the song: “When Jocke and Putte started hammering out the beat, it was impossible not to get caught up in the feeling of being the superior in an action movie. HA, HA! The theme of the text came naturally – desert from society and put your legs on your back. No one is faster than he who is free.”
With strong singles being released off it one by one, Human Nature, the new EP by Los Angeles punk rockers, Reckling, quickly shaped up to be a rather noteworthy listen. Spitter, the EP's opening and focus track, finds band leader, vocalist and songwriter Kelsey Reckling delivering an absolutely searing performance.
Speaking on Spitter and their new EP, Kelsey unfolds: "Each song on the EP encompasses a different feeling that I think everyone can relate to or identify with... it's human nature.
"Spitter is literally about a girl spitting on me because she didn't like me, but more generally, it's about persevering through the difficult things in life. The song sorts through my own angry feelings that were brought on by somebody else's misdirected emotions.
"The underlying themes in this EP move through feelings of indecision, guilt, and regret...but writing and playing the songs are a way of finding resolution, forgiveness, and surrender."
Human Nature also features previous singles, In My Hair and Verbalize, as well as a fine cover of How Low Can A Punk Get? originally by Bad Brains.
TVSEXDEATH is a Nashville, Tennessee-based alternative rock band whose sound is firmly grounded in an uneasy noise rock foundation, and features influences from new wave, post punk and hardcore among other styles.
Missy Hagen Hates You is a creatively wild track with hectic rage, gritty and piercing hardcore vigor, dirty sounds, and a great deal of distortion and fuzz. It's a smart work which passes as something visceral at the same time, and its emotionality and neuroticism are very obvious.
The band describe their new single: "Despite the intense and aggressive vibe of the song, it is actually all tongue in cheek and poking fun at how serious some people take themselves and the title references a fictional character. It was a lot of fun to draw out the 'anguished' vocals near the end knowing some might take it as serious as it sounds and others might understand the undertones of sarcasm."
In accordance with the headstrong mindset usually found in the band's themes, as well as the somber post punk that's entrenched in their core, Not Gonna Take It, is the newest offering from veterans, Pink Turns Blue, arriving coupled to a really fine video.
Not Gonna Take It is the first single from the group's TAINTED Tour-2022 EP, which will be released on September 2nd, 2022, the start date of the tour.
"This is a song about standing up for oneself and for a better world," says the band's own Mic Jogwer . "Yes, the powerful, the bullies and the rich have many resources to get their way and claim that wrong is right. And yes, we all have our moments where we feel helpless and depressed because there doesn’t seem any way out of this cunning system of lies, propaganda, lobbying and influence. But every now and then, we just get fed up and decide we are not going to take it anymore. We find ways to break free, organize and fight for the things that are worth fighting for. Right now, it seems very difficult, at times impossible, naïve and all too idealistic. But if we give up fighting, we give up living. It is an uphill battle, but our defiance and our courage keep us going."
Gossamer is the title song from Spirits of Leo's new album Gossamer Blue, which is freshly out now on à La Carte Records. Ryan Santos Phillips wrote, recorded, and mixed the album in his Brooklyn-based project studio Lux Perpetua NYC, while Justin Colletti mastered it at Joe Lambert Mastering.
The dreampop perspective and more ethereal facets of Spirits of Leo's music are fairly prominent in this piece, with everything sounding indicative of the emerging band's moodiness as well as their intricate compositional style. In all respects, Gossamer supports its position as the album's title track by embodying the band's aesthetic inclination and creative purpose.
Commenting on the new track, Spirits of Leo mention that "Gossamer is a song about grief, loss, and life."
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