Heavy shoegazers, GHXST, have just released Dark Days, their newest EP, and one of their finest offerings thus far. The band discuss their new record and more in an interview with D//E, followed by the dreamy new video for highlight track, U R My Night.

The most painful thing is that Baldwin’s books are still as relevant as when they were written. Like all doom bands, GHXST is indebted to black music history and especially the blues. It seemed morally wrong to stay silent when systemic racism is so obviously on display in the USA.

Baldwin is a New Yorker, and since he’s both vicious and elegant it seemed like a perfect reference.

I guess we like how the EP format captures a mood or moment in time. We did release a compilation album EvilWickedDesire with Desire Records which is the only ‘LP’ length album to date. You can still buy that vinyl here. 

I’m a huge fan of Tinariwen. Some of their Saharan blues style made it into the guitar work for Come Home. And one very obscure reference I’ll share: the film sample from the start of It Falls Apart was taken from the sound of wind before a duel in a Kurosawa film.  

In the past we were writing nonstop, mostly inspired by life in NYC. Our sessions would go from late nights into early mornings, six days a week. Now that we’ve grown into our sound, it’s easier to ‘find’ the sound when we write. But songwriting is tough, sometimes you come up with 10 good ideas in one night. Other times you can’t write anything good for weeks. 

Some combo of psych, grunge, blues, shoegaze, and no wave. But we like to call it doom. 

We actually did blow out at least one PA when we first started playing underground venues in Brooklyn. It was the 808 kick that did it. But then one time we saw SALEM wreck an entire sound system during their set. That made me feel better.

It’s been over a year since our last gig. We really miss it. We’re thinking of recording/streaming some acoustic versions of the songs on this EP. After the pandemic, we’re going to check out venues in California and maybe even come back to Europe again. 

Recording a collection of acoustic murder ballads. 

Band photo courtesy of Big Mouth Publicity

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Jordan: In Total Babe, Lizzie and I were like “the band”. Clara Salyer led the project and we filled in all the blanks. In Choux, Lizzie has taken the role of leader and I continue to fill in the blanks. I think this project is a more realized vision of music that Lizzie and I have inside of us. It feels like we’re coming into our own.

Lizzie: The sound is also quite different, Total Babe was more of a sweet and peppy indie pop band and Choux is more slowed down and reverbed out in comparison.

Jordan: It’s true. We are verging on slowcore.

Jordan: It’s a far cry from Howler. But I think parts of Choux have grown from Wellness, perhaps in the mood and texture of my playing. 

Lizzie: I love Howler and Wellness!

Jordan: We are sitting in silence on Zoom and typing this. It’s awesome.

Jordan: It was an interesting and arduous process, but I wouldn’t say it was limiting. A lot of the songs were just fragments that had stumped one or the other of us. Sending ideas to Lizzie or having her send me ideas helped us to get ears and perspective on whatever it was we were working on. It allowed me to take a step back and consider new possibilities. 

Lizzie: This project has been incubating for a while and some of the original demos we have are 5-6 years old. The pandemic was the push we needed to really put things in motion and it was just this spring and summer that we finalized the songs and recorded them. We work best with deadlines otherwise we’d always find something to change or add on so we hired our publicist Mallika Guhan, set the release date, and worked in the time that we had to complete everything. 

Lizzie: Jordan just finally started watching Buffy and Angel this year around the time that we were finalizing some of the songs. I think the brooding 90s feel of those shows and the music featured in them is present through this EP, especially in Underwater Dreams. We are also mega fans of Enya and Prince - the Prince-spiration definitely isn’t noticeable in the album, but there’s a heavy dose of Enya. I’ve also been into 70s folk lately and I think some of that influence comes through in Thirteen.

Lizzie: We haven’t had the opportunity to play live as Choux yet, but are really hoping that’s an option in the near future. The pandemic has definitely created some huge problems for musicians and venues but it seems like there are a lot of creative ways being found to adapt and find ways to stay afloat. To quote Black Sabbath, never say die! I have hope that we’ll all be back playing and attending shows and supporting our favorite venues soon.

Jordan: Starting a band in the plague year is not indicative to playing live. We would love to play live, I’m thinking by our fourth or fifth record...

Lizzie: Yes, and like most people are probably experiencing, the motivation definitely comes and goes. I’ve been taking regular walks in my neighborhood in Montreal, which have been inspiring some new song ideas. My winter quarantine project is to get a full-sized keyboard and get more into technical piano skills and also keep writing material for Choux.

Jordan: I spend a lot of time “shredding the Bach” on piano. It’s all I do for fun now. I’m also terrible at it FYI.

Lizzie: We plan on releasing another EP next year, we have a few songs and cover ideas already in the mix. Based on the current state of the world, we’ll likely record at a distance again. We figured out a pretty slick system this time around. We also plan on releasing a full length in the next few years and it would be great to record that in the same location, we’ll see what the future holds!

Jordan: I’m excited to get back to writing. 

Toronto's Peeling reveal another single off the coming Worshipper, the project's debut full length, and the first number on the newly founded Labyrinth Records, the label established by the band's own Anna Timoshenko.

Timoshenko describes new track, dread as "a fitting anthem for 2020. It’s about being restless, uneasy and distraught in your surroundings. Spiralling into feelings of impending doom that are beyond your control."

Despite its unsettling subject matter, the new song comes distinguished by a warm and collected vocal execution which pairs well to the instrumentation's almost krautrock-like density and fidelity.

Worshipper finds Peeling for the first time as Anna Timoshenko's solo project, and features the contribution of Preoccupations' Michael Wallace on drums. The album releases on November 27th, 2020.

Next to their dynamic and often brutal metallic hardcore, Seattle's City Of Industry have shown their partiality for other genres and aspects of indie rock in the quite numerous releases they've put out since their first EP three years ago. After all, their previous two-song offering included a Pixies cover.

Off their upcoming third album, False Flowers, new track, Broken Cisterns Hold No Water, shows that exact tendency for expansion, and the trio's ability to blend inherent brutality with more emotive ways. The song is an extremely heavy noise rocker which goes briefly through psychedelic bent passages, and possibly the closest to what City Of Industry would call accessible for their standards.

False Flowers comes out in its entirety on December 4th, 2020.

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Following the recent Borderline, new track, Dozer, becomes the second single revealed off the coming album by LA veteran musican, Kaz Mirblouk, who seems to be strongly developing his original voice outside of the many projects of which he's been part.

The new single blends elements from psychedelic dreampop into its post punk underpinning, bringing into existence one of the most melodic pieces the artist has released so far, and presenting more of his approachable creative side.

Dozer comes together with the very creative hand-drawn animations by Rob Fidel, which represent well both the song's psychedelic pop nature, and its appealing idiosyncrasy.

Careless by Contrast, the new album by Kaz Mirblouk comes out January 22nd, 2021 via Mock Records.

Philadelphia trio, Total Rubbish, continue with their series of solid psychedelic garage rockers which have been all of their early singles with new track, Someone Else's Dream, this time touching subtly on dreampop, as the band delivers one of their most dainty performances to date.

"This song embodies the feeling of waking up in someone’s bed that you kind of wish you never woke up in," the band describe. "But only kind of."

Once again standing out for its immaculate production and the audacious psych indie rock character, Someone Else's Dream, together with previous singles, Honey Ryder and What's Your Damage?, is part of Triple Negative, the musically and aesthetically very bold five-song debut EP by Total Rubbish, which has just come out through Born Losers Records.

Born Losers Records · Total Rubbish - Someone Else's Dream

It looks like the legacy of A Flock Of Seagulls keeps holding strong, with modern bands frequently contributing to the rediscovering of the great synthpop act's songs. Apparently that doesn't concern the mega huge hits, but also some of the less appreciated cuts, such as Modern Love Is Automatic from the band's first EP, which became the opening track to their self-titled debut album a little later.

The song is now covered by Ottawa synthpop duo, Paragon Cause, who approached the track with a more daring, experimental mindset.

"We drew on a bunch of influences, Syd Barret, Trentemoeller, David Gilmour and Psychedelic Space Rock of the 60s and 70s," Paragon Cause comment on their version of the song. "We also tried to use movies like Berberian Sound Studio by Peter Strickland as an inspiration for the tone of the first half of the song. Of course, we tried to stay true to the song, particularly the incredible guitar playing by Paul Reynolds. We never really took the time to listen to the guitar on A Flock of Seagulls songs, but after doing this, we were pretty amazed at his innovation, particularly during a time when synthesizers dominated music."

Regarding the song's production, the band reveal the technical specifications and much from the creative process which made their take sounding diverse from-, yet, respectful of the original at the same time: "We learned from our frequent collaborator Sune Rose Wagner (The Raveonettes) that sometimes, setting limitations on your work spurs creativity. The entire song was made using a Roland JX-3P synth, a Roland SE201 Space Echo, a Yamaha SPX90II for the reverb and a more modern Reverb called the Oto Bam, which is based on the earliest 60s, 70s and 80s digital reverbs, before they were perfected. If we couldn't reproduce the synths, Michelle sang the parts. So if you listen closely, you will hear some of the parts with Michelle singing processed through the equipment. For guitar, we used a Boss Chorus Flanger from the 80's to get that lush 80's tone. It was a challenging experiment, but we think it paid off."

Joining the eclectic list of Permanent Creeps Records, London's Heartworms emerge with an impressive and notably auspicious single of dark, colorless post punk aesthetics, and a very creative production. What Can I Do puts the fresh act in the post punk map, coming with a rather sinister tone, and bent toward the more edgy and avantgardistic side of the genre. 

As the song's dense instrumentation comes together with an almost aloof vocal delivery, Heartworms' debut piece seems to be distilling its sophisticated influences to something punchy, simultaneously anachronistic and forward looking.

Heartworms is the brainchild of musician and poet Jojo Orme, introduced earlier through her contribution to Speedy Wunderground label chief Dan Carey's Quarantine Series project. Together with her close collaborator Charlie Weight they make up a firm new act, one of the ones to watch.

Heartworms · What Can I Do

Off the recent sophomore full length by Oslo post punk band, Mayflower Madame, Ludwig Meidner, has been a highlight, and one of the most easily memorable pieces in the group's catalog so far. With a sound between the matter-of-fact darkness of Joy Division and the more grandiose gothic rock approach of The Mission, the song is one of the tracks which typify the gloom that runs all over Prepared For A Nightmare.

The new music video which comes with the song was directed and edited by the band's previous collaborator, Astrid Serck.

"The track is inspired by (and dedicated to) German expressionist painter Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966), mostly known for his apocalyptic landscapes and cityscapes which portray the chaotic modern world as a ferment volcano about to erupt," Mayflower Madame describe the song's aim. "On a more individual level, it also describes a relentless search and longing for intensified emotions in the mechanized concrete jungle - a dangerous ride which might lead you to the point of no return. However, as in Meidner's visions, the idea of letting it all burst can involve both a fear for doom and a hope for catharsis."

November 20th, 2020 is the date when the anticipated album by old school death metal band, Toxaemia, Where Paths Divide, is finally being released, more than three decades after it’s initial inception. All of the early singles which preceded the album showed that the experienced band could have easily been one of the names that make up the genre's front line, while those initiated in the edginess of the band's death metal sound must have recognized that Toxaemia are something special for what they represent musically and aesthetically.

Buried to Rot and it's accompanying video is classic, brutal death metal, in line with the genre's archetypes, still, way above the norm.

"Buried to Rot is about what the title says," the band describe. "When you die your body will just rot or be burnt to ashes and you are gone. No Reincarnation or heaven with a bunch of virgins. That is it, do you want to live on after death! Make a difference while you are alive and be remembered."