Due to travel I’m having to write this post up early this month. I won’t be covering anything released on the 31st until next month, but it’s not that important. What is important is we have another month of amazing music. And a single of the month! Exciting eh?
Lankum
Go Dig My Grave
Irish Trad / Drone
Not in a Million years would I guess my song of the month would be an Irish trad band, yet here we are. Now, Lankum are not your average trad band and this may just be one of the most intense things I’ve heard in a very long time.
Go Dig My Grave starts with Radie Peat singing solo. The instruments, when they do join in, surround her voice, giving an incredible weight to her words. As the song progresses the music descends into drone, sounding like a Banshee moan of acoustic instruments. It honestly sounds like nothing else I’ve heard.
It reminds me of some of the more emotionally brutal bands like Swans, but I guess a song about heartbreak and suicide should hit like a tonne of bricks. Yes, the song could be shorter, I’m not sure it needs that much drone, but it doesn’t detract from just how powerful a performance this is. I haven’t made up my mind on the album yet, but this song is jaw dropping.
Lake Haze
Coordinates of a Decaying World
Acid Techno
Lake Haze moves from his normal sound of chilled acid to…. a far more upbeat flavour of acid. It’s hardly reinventing himself but it does sound great.
Galactic Federation and the fantastically named Jamming in Dracula’s Castle are fun acid techno. He called himself the Italo Legend has some great vintage synth sounds and the closer, Acid Genesis is a fun mix of DnB and Acid.
You get the idea here, if you like acid techno, you’ll have a good time with this ep.
Memoria
From the Bones
Darkwave / Goth
Memoria are Swedish goth / darkwave band. I don’t know much about them but what I do know is that they have been very heavily influenced by the Knife / Fever Ray. Now, this is no bad thing at all, it’s a sound that I really love so it’s interesting to hear a different spin on it.
The opener, Witch Hunt, begins with pure drama, hushed strings over dark electronica, it sets the mood perfectly for an album that seems to live in the shadows.
Along the Sea has a hushed tension that builds to the track Girl where the tempo and the urgency finally increase. It’s not quite a goth club floor filler but there is something about the synths that reminds me of Orbital.
From Hold On the mood changes from icy electro to a more rock orientated sound, From the Bones of the Dead and Anymore have a more punky, noisy feel to them, bringing much more aggression than the sleek electronica / darkwave of the first half of the album.
I was worried that this album coming out the same month as the new Fever Ray album would eclipse this one, but to be honest, I never even finished that Fever Ray album and I can’t stop listening to From the Bones.
SØWT
Kids Hurting Kids
Alt Rock / Noise Rock
One of the reasons I write this blog is because I keep finding bands that deserve far more attention than they receive.. I’ve no delusions about my reach but it does feel good to say, Look here! This lot are great! And SØWT are very definitely in this category.
SØWT are a Dutch band whose influences are grunge and 90’s alt rock, with more than a dash of Sonic Youth in the mix. Kids Hurting Kids is one of my favorite things, an alt rock album built around the bass and drums with the guitars adding texture more than being the main feature.
The first two songs are fun fast paced rockers, but it’s Lifelike where the album shows that it’s got more depth, it, and the following track, Found, are slower, have more texture and a lovely shoegaze guitar attack. The closer, Stupid Kids, as one of the best low slung bass lines I’ve heard in ages and the almost metal wall of noise is just the cherry on the cake.
It’s also worth mentioning just how great this album sounds. Some of it is noisy and dissonant, but everything is sharp and sounds clear in the mix. I doubt the band had much of a budget but it sounds fantastic. None of that would matter if the songs weren’t any good though, so if you’re looking for something to scratch a noisy alt rock itch, this album is perfect for you.
Surgeon
Crash Recoil
Techno
I’ve never gotten along with Surgeon’s style of techno, the absolute assault he unleashes is just too much for me. I mean, I once hid in the smoking area during one of his live sets.
Things have changed a lot from the music I remember, not that Crash Recoil is Surgeon going soft, but this is more nuanced. There’s a dynamism here that takes that hard techno sound and makes it breathe. This is a fifty minute masterclass on how to make techno that carries the listener with it, rather than just bludgeoning them with bass.
Oak Bank is almost, dare I say it, a gentle introduction to the album, starting slowly and slowly ramping up the intensity. When the bangers arrive, they arrive thick and fast. We Laugh and Clap at the Circus and Subcultures are going to destroy dancefloors around the world.
This is the kind of accessible techno that I love, it’s still techno for dark rooms and strobe lights but it’s got enough hooks to grab my attention and the dynamics to keep it.
Spotlights
Seance EP
Alt rock
I’ve been following Spotlight since their incredible first album, which was my introduction to Doomgaze, a mix of doom riffs and shoegaze walls of sound. As they approach the release of album number four, Spotlights have shifted their sound, moving from the more metal sound to Alt Rock.
So, imagine a band who’ve been playing pretty, noisy, dark metal, who decide to play alt rock but have no intention of reducing the low-end in their sound. The lead track, Sunset Burial is just beautiful, a mix of bass heavy, atmospheric rock with some crushing riffs. It’s in the same mood as Deftones’ White Pony, but without the anger, much more distortion, and an added dash of The Cure.
Algorithmic, the second single, has all the melodic distorted bass you can ask for, it’s wrapped in fuzz and sounds all the better for it.
The Seance EP is made up of two tracks from their upcoming album and three tracks that are exclusive to this release. Two of the three tracks are good enough for any album, with only the instrumental, Time Should Stand Still, being slight enough for its b-side status.
All I can say is that if the album up to the standard of this EP it’s going to be a contender for album of the year.
deathcrash
Less
Slowcore / Alt rock
It’s only 14 months since deathcrash released their debut album, Return, so I was surprised to see the follow up released so quickly. Less lives up to its name, it’s half the length of their first album and a lot more focused, but I’m still making up my mind if that’s a good thing or not.
One thing that is clear is the doomcrash have now found their own sound. Whereas the debut was heavily indebted to Slint, Less feels like the band has taken control of their influences and have put their stamp on this sound.
The album starts with the same fragile, hushed as before. The delicate space between the instruments is still there as are the hushed vocals, but by the end of the second track the band are in full wall of noise mode.
And that’s a balance the band carefully navigates, the loud quiet dynamic is the cornerstone of the band’s sound, but Less is a heavier album than its predecessor, the noisy sections are louder, and Tiernan is pushing his voice harder during the sections where he’s shouting his lungs out.
This is going to be a deal breaker for a lot of listeners but it’s well worth persevering with if you’re on the fence about harsher vocals. I’m delighted to say this is a great follow up to one of my albums of the year.
Halina Rice
Elision
Electronica
So this was released last year and I totally missed it. Luckily, this is my blog, so I can cover whatever I want and the rules mean nothing to me, so here we are. Covering an amazing album, months after it was released.
Halina plays a very thoughtful version of electronica that has the chilled thoughtfulness of someone like Rival Consoles but is just as comfortable with big room bangers that have the immediacy of Jon Hopkins.
The album does get a bit abstract for me towards the end but that doesn’t put me off this album one bit.
She’s playing London at the end of the year and I’ll be front and center for it.
The ways of exile 