Favorites this week:
Krallice Wolf EP (self released)
This EP starts as it means to continue: bewilderingly (“Am I interrupting something already in progress?” - me pressing play on this record). I don’t mean this to sound like a putdown: the album is simply a strange, impenetrable world. It lets up on the intensity only briefly, just letting you stagger to your feet before pummeling you over the head again, never truly allowing you to find your footing. “Black metal or not,” as stated in their Bandcamp bio, is as appropriate a categorization as any could be for a set of songs this unclassifiable; changing mood and tempo at seemingly random hairpin angles, it’s impossible to guess where (or when) the next riff will take you. Wolf, which contains a 15 second song (!), is not quite like anything else they’ve released, and it’s heartening that Krallice is still, just as always, making albums that we can describe that way.
https://krallice.bandcamp.com/album/wolf-ep
Zona Apple Du Noir (self released)
From Turkish composer Cavit Ergün comes a true winter album full of icy, grey ambient topographies. Layers of soundscapes and field recordings stack in a way that feels very organic, forming a whole that is less “dark” than melancholic, in the vein of Tim Hecker. There’s more going on here than the “dark ambient” tag might make you expect — for example, “Black Ceremony” is a track that could pass for shoegaze, with an insistent but sonorous drumbeat behind the billows of gauze. Just wish I could find even a morsel of info about this, anywhere.
https://zonamuzik.bandcamp.com/releases
Married Man Hard Bargain (Lesstalk Records)
This Sydney three-piece is known for combining dream pop-esque gossamer with a more pointed post punk-y sound, a tricky melange that really works for them. The vocalist has the chops for both angles; it’s great to hear her cut loose and wail on a track like “In This Room” after being soothed by the more angelic bits. Though Married Man are at their best when they’re chugging along, and are somewhat less engaging in the slower moments (though “Knowhere” is great), it’s truly stunning how much etheriality they’re able to access within such an angular framework. Though at times it seems vaguely reminiscent of Slant 6 or maybe Unwound (they certainly wouldn't have been out of place on the Half-Cocked soundtrack), I can honestly say I’ve never heard anything quite like this.
https://marriedman.bandcamp.com/album/hard-bargain
Drofnosura Voidfever (Acid Vision Records)
This walks on a balance beam of unhinged, raw doom with an occasional lilt toward black metal one way and sludge the other. Persistent and menacing with the occasional surprise, such a repetitive wail (is it a guitar? a synth? a vocal?!) that sounds like a distant wolf’s howl, and an unexpected clean vocal moment. Reminiscent of Thou, not only because I can’t think of anyone else currently doing doom in a way as interesting as this. Kicks ass!
https://drofnosura.bandcamp.com/album/voidfever
Moth Pylon Pylon (Self released)
Another band formed seemingly from ether, Moth Pylon from Seoul, Korea (this is the single kernel of information I’ve been able to glean from the web about them) quietly dropped this collection of shoegaze bangers then stole away. Pylon is track after track of gorgeous, mid-to-late-90s-esque shoegaze, though thankfully offering its own point of view rather than simply reinventing those pre-existing wheels. Though I couldn’t possibly know for sure, this feels like a first record from a very young artist, with the ever-so-slightly underbaked songwriting one might expect from such a release; some songs fade out just before they’ve been allowed to really breathe, etc. That said, I’ve listened to this a zillion times and can’t wait to see what (or if) this person (or band) release(s) next.
https://mothpylon123.bandcamp.com/releases
คณะ เบียร์บูด/Khana Bierbood คนแปลกหน้าจากดินแดนบูรพา/Strangers From the Far East (Panda Records)
It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world, but this band makes it look easy. I didn’t know how refreshing it would be to finally hear an interesting modern take on garage/psych/surf, genres obviously recycled ad nauseum by innumerable uncreative imitators to a point far beyond redundancy, until this slice of summer hit my ears. Hailing from Thailand, the band pride themselves on mixing traditional Eastern sounds with beachy California retro, and the result not only works, it’s exactly what this frozen winter hellscape needs right now.
https://khanabierboodgggb.bandcamp.com/
Other new stuff this week:
Kovtun Death (Sinewave Records)
There’s nothing objectionable about Death, but until about the halfway point of this album, nothing that distinguishes it, either. When we hit track four, suddenly it seems that two songs are playing at once, and from this point forward the album explores a more experimental, collage-y type of territory. This half has more resonance than the first — just wish they hit us with the interesting stuff sooner.
https://kovtun.bandcamp.com/album/death
The Tallies The Tallies (Kanine Records)
This is glossy shoegaze, a 2019 update of a Sundays/Innocence Mission conglomerate. The songs and the sound are good to great, even if it feels a little hollow at times, an echo of something previously heard. In sum: it’s not groundbreaking, but they’re good at it.
https://tallies.bandcamp.com/album/tallies