Frequent collaborators, Boris and Merzbow, join forces again, this time to come up with a ten-song full length created to say goodbye to one of the darkest years in recent history.
2R0I2P0 translates to "Twenty Twenty R.I.P." and it's being introduced with a goosebumps-inducing first cut, the album's opening track, Away From You, and its accompanying visual.
"This year was a period of trial for everyone in the world," Boris remark. "This work becomes a monument to the requiem of the previous era. From here, a new world begins again."
Away From You is a wistful track which lays out the best of both worlds, bringing together the alluring melodiousness with fascinating noise.
2R0I2P0 comes out December 11th, 2020 through Relapse Records.
Closed My Eyes is the first single of the forthcoming new EP, Chewing Gum, by Swedish dark pop artist, Promise and the Monster aka Billie Lindahl, and her first offering since her signing to Icons Creating Evil Art. Promise and the Monster goes back as far as 2007 when the project's debut EP and album, Antarktis and Transparent Knives, were released. Since then she has shared stages with Chelsea Wolfe, Mark Kozelek and Jens Lekman.
Closed My Eyes is in line with the wistful dark pop sound for which Promise and the Monster earned its initial notoriety, yet, the approach feels more mature, more grown and enticing as always.
"I wrote Closed My Eyes surprisingly quickly after thinking about the ambiguity in that image, closing one's eyes for various reasons. It was good fuel," Billie Lindahl describes. "The women in this song are out roaming in the streets. Marilyn is famous and Kimberly and Brenda got killed by Ted Bundy. The song was pretty easy to record compared to the other songs - it was a Paranoid moment so to speak. You know when Black Sabbath recorded their album Paranoid they just needed an extra song and came up with that riff, and bam: history. It worked just that same way with this song."
"I'm so pleased, together we can take this in a great new direction," Billie adds in relation to the signing with the new label, detailing more on the coming EP. "I used to like writing quite cryptic stuff but I tried hard this time to get out of that safe haven and be more direct. The new songs often express the feeling of being that last person at the party, dancing slowly in the background, waiting for something to happen. Like a sad moonlight disco."
Since their re-emergence early in 2020 with their first single in a long while, Tranås/Stenslanda, Sweden's Kite have been steadily delivering new pieces co-produced by Ben John Power of Blanck Mass and Fuck Buttons, the latest of which is the excellent and pop sensible, Hand Out The Drugs.
Very much topical in theme and nature, opposed to the pining for the past, super sharp and emotional synthpop sound in which the band thrive, Hand Out The Drugs emerges as one of the acutest pieces Kite have put together in a while. The duo composed of Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg describe their new single as "a song about the extreme longing for cultural kicks in a controlled, locked down world."
For a pretty good dose of macabre fun, Connor Appleby's lo-fi synthpop project, Ripple Tapes, has everyone covered by way of the brilliant earworming groove of the new single and video, (Living) in the Dead of Night. Say hello to your new Halloween jam.
(Living) in the Dead of Night is a direct, zombie-themed cut, drawing from horror's vanguard, lyrically wistful and originative, and downright the best track in the so far brief catalog of Ripple Tapes. The project's lo-fi and DIY aesthetics are in full bloom, and although the track is immediately appealing, the accompanying video sells it unhesitatingly.
Filmed in Rock Hill Cemetery in Foxboro, Massachusetts, (Living) in the Dead of Night, pays tribute to the classic zombie tropes, as it lays out the fine eccentricity of a conspicuously smart new act.
Always productive, creative and bringer of tasteful selections, French synthwave/electronica composer, Volkor X, filters an older video game classic through the lens of his own, unique sound, and gives it new life, contributing to making an important part of the retro gaming culture more accessible to a younger audience.
An original composition by the acclaimed video game composer, David Wise, for the Super Nintendo game, Donkey Kong Country, Aquatic Ambience is presented in a sharp brand new version which was arranged, produced and performed by Volkor X, and features the contribution of French progressive rock/metal act, Feather, on lead guitar.
The new take is pretty faithful to the original track's moodiness and playfulness, and petty impressive from every angle.
It turns out its easier to keep clear of sharks underwater than try to resist the lure of Volkor X's charm, even if the bait is a cover of something celebrated and cult-followed.
Following their captivating previous single, Angkor Wat, Melbourne shoegaze/psychedelic rock up and comers, Shiva and the Hazards, return with another potent new single. Revolution Son was produced by the band and mixed by Mark Gardener from Ride whom Shiva and the Hazards supported in a series of live dates in Australia back in 2019.
This time Shiva and the Hazards' sound delves deeper into alternative psychedelic rock territories, on the model of some of The Brian Jonestown Massacre's more accessible work, and the gritter side of acts like The Dandy Warhols, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Black Angels, while the new single also retains the spacey, guitar-laden britpop feel with which the band impressed through their earlier material.
Almost topical conceptually, Revolution Son is also the first specimen from Shiva and the Hazards' debut album, expected in 2021.
For their second ever single, Philadelphia psych garage punk trio, Total Rubbish, take their songwriting through a bit of a more easily accessible direction, and bring on the quite memorable What’s Your Damage?
Once more the band cite influence from an older film, this time from Michael Lehmann's 1989 comedy, Heathers, while their sound carries that same nineties-like psychedelic fuzz which could also be heard all over their debut track, Honey Ryder.
The liveliness of What’s Your Damage? is matched to a fun DIY video which depicts the band having a blast to the sound of their spirited tune.
Triple Negative, the coming five-song debut EP by Total Rubbish, comes out in its entirety on November 20th, 2020 through Born Losers Records.
One of the unsung indie rock heroes of the eighties and nineties, LA-through-Boston band, The Wild Stares return with their first album in 28 years, and the result will certainly satisfy those who admire their earlier work.
The Wild Stares created three albums between 1985 and 1992, and a few other releases on labels such as Ace of Hearts, What’s so Funny About, Hell Yeah, Transparency, Birth Records, Good Noise, Propeller Product and more, and they were frequently moving between the US and Europe where the shared stages with My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain and Poison Girls among others.
Their original lineup of founders Justin Burrill (guitar, vocals) and Steve Gregororpoulos (vocals, guitar), together with bassist Fran Miller who joined soon after the band's formation, is still present, while the new album also features bass by Steve Reed of Lethal Weapon, and Kyle C. Kyle (The Motels) on drums who passed away in 2015.
New song, Obsidian, is a gritty cut which recalls the rawer early days of the Paisley Underground movement mingled with additional volumes of psychedelic noise rock dirt. The track represents the vibrancy found in the entirety of the just released Automatic Writing Machine, as the band indulges in a low-key, yet, sharp and revered comeback.
After their introduction with the very impressive debut single that was Frosting back in June 2020, Australia's HighSchool stay on the same path of cultivated, guitar-driven and dark-bent indie pop, and release another imposing single.
New York, Paris and London sounds like a lo-fi version of the early Smiths, and it comes splendid instrumentally, quite sentimental overall, and well performed, while like its predecessor, it is also paired to a very charming black and white clip which was filmed by videographer Jake Coombes.
The new song was recorded by acclaimed engineer Naomune Anzai (Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks, The Teskey Brothers), and mastered by Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Total Control), and finds HighSchool signing with Dalliance Recordings with the bar already set quite high, as the rising act keeps building toward the release of its debut EP.
"New York Paris and London exposes peer validation that exists in settings where criticism is common, and the uncomfortable line it draws between social anxiety and social elation," the band write. "It suggests that dreaming and manifesting is as meaningful as our ambitions coming to fruition. New York, Paris and London are three highly desirable, yet clichéd destinations that symbolise the elusiveness of our own self expectations."
Trauma Queen, the sophomore album new Brooklyn art punk quartet, Slut Magic, comes out October 30th, 2020, and it has been introduced with a couple of singles thus far, the latest of which is the angsty and emotive Salsa Red.
The new song finds the band exploring their garage punk grit as it converges with their glam rock properties, and results to the shiny sound which has turned heads their way in the first place. Salsa Red appears extremely memorable, yet, lyrically privy and intimate, offering a peek at vocalist and violinist Emma Sky's high school bedroom.
Slut Magic are Emma Sky (vocals, violin), Hot Boyfriend (guitar), Shannon Zakarison (drums), and Marc Hall (bass). The band released their first album, In My Mouth, in 2018 though Laruicci Records, and went on to establish a good reputation through their live presence which was also shown off via a UK tour. From all sounds and appearances, Trauma Queen already seems like an admirable successor to Slut Magic's striking start.
