Browse: Misc

Record Time

Issue # 2 - 2024

Record Time

***Record Time No 2 hits the bargain bins and neglected corners of the local record store to find great records that are still affordable to average folks. And, as with the first issue, we dig into the back stories of these records and artists, with a focus on good writing. This time around we do a deep dive into the life and career of Ray (Rae) Bourbon, a pre-Stonewall drag artist and comedian; jazzman Charles Lloyd's "wilderness" albums; Catalan folk legend and politico Lluis Llach; oddball rockers the Hampton Grease Band; finding the South African country music holy grail; Canadian cabaret rocker Louis Furey; the weird world of Polka; hard rocking should-have-been-huge Birtha; actor & music pusher Jack Webb; Sex Pistols and Pistols-inspired novelty records; patron saint of smart asses Rick Johnson; and more! Contributors this time are TOM HYLAND, OWEN MAERCKS, STELLA BERATLIS, STEVE SILVERSTEIN, NATHANEL AMAR, ADAM TAUB, NATE KNAEBEL, LAURENT BIGOT, MIKE TROUCHON, GREG PSHAW, JOHNNY SUNSHINE, DENNIS WORDEN, FRED DE VRIES, STAN APPLETON, BILLUPS ALLEN, and TODD TRICK KNEE, with guest appearances by LALI DONOVAN, LARRY HARDY, TONY COULTER, and DANA KATHARINE. Edited by S SORIANO.

Chat Pile

Cool World

Flenser

Like the towering mounds of toxic waste from which it gets its namesake, the music of Oklahoma City noise rock quartet Chat Pile is a suffocating, grotesque embodiment of the existential anguish that has defined the 21st Century. It figures that a band with this abrasive, unrelenting, and outlandish of a sound has stuck as strong of a chord as it has. Dread has replaced the American dream, and Chat Pile’s music is a poignant reminder of that shift—a portrait of an American rock band molded by a society defined by its cold and cruel power systems. Though very much on-brand with Chat Pile’s signature flavor of cacophonous, sludgy noise rock, the band’s shift to a global thematic focus on Cool World not only compliments the broader experimentations it employs with their songwriting but also how they dissect the album’s core theme of violence. Melded into the band’s twisted foundational sound are traces of other eclectic genre stylings, with examples of gazy, goth-tinged dirges to abrasive yet anthemic alt/indie-esque hooks and off-kilter metal grooves only scratching the surface of what can be heard in the album’s ten tracks. Besides stylistically stretching the boundaries of the Chat Pile sound, Cool World is also the band’s first record to have someone else handle mixing duties, with Ben Greenberg (Uniform) capturing and further amplifying the quartet’s unmistakably outsider and folk-art edge. While Chat Pile’s debut album was plenty disturbing with its B-movie-inspired interpretation of a “real American horror story”, what the band...

Frunk29

Drifting Horses

Not Not Fun

Marat Shainsky aka Frunk29’s third album of cyclical six-string fugues for NNF further threads his needle of treated guitar, metronomic rhythm, and slipstream electronics into a 12-track suite inspired by “the free energy of nature:” Drifting Horses. Recorded across 2023 at home, the songs conjure moods of open plains, big skies, and endless journeys, plucked and strummed through webs of kaleidoscopic FX. Patterns ripple and reverberate, lifting into liberated wind swells of melody, gold dust, and drift. There’s an unhurried ease to Shainsky’s style, born of discovery and daily playing, limber navigations with familiar tools, echoing in his head on long forest walks with his dog. Music of vignettes and vistas, glimpses and memories, spilling from the source to somewhere beyond tomorrow.

Goldberg, Michael

Jukebox 1967-2023

Hozac

***San Francisco rock’n roll bleeds through Michael Goldberg – an innovative, inspiring figure who always has been quietly pioneering something interesting for the past 50+ years. Hozac Books is thrilled to present the first-ever collection of his photographs in JUKEBOX, featuring an impressive array of underground figures and outcast luminaries captured in their natural habitat, most seen here for the first time anywhere. Also the author of our critically acclaimed WICKED GAME book, Michael’s body of work extends farther out than we’d ever imagined, and we’re so excited to get his first major photography collection out into the world. Bridging the gaps between the late ‘60s psychedelic era, primitive first-wave ‘70s punk and soul & reggae, as well as never-before seen images of country & folk iconoclasts and rule-breakers across the spectrum of all that is captivating, and even including some modern artists still making waves, JUKEBOX is a riveting photography collection that truly feels as good as it looks. Addicted To Noise founder and former Rolling Stone senior writer Michael Goldberg’s new book, JUKEBOX, is a book of distinctive, full-page photographs of musicians taken between 1967 and 2023. Goldberg is best known as a writer, but for over 50 years he’s also been photographing musicians and the photos in JUKEBOX are drawn from the thousands he’s taken over the years. Included are photos of the Sex Pistols, Crime, the Ramones, the Avengers, Devo, the Nuns, the Clash, Tom Verlaine, Lou Reed, John Cale and the Dils as well as...

Matchess

Stena

Drag City

***Following Sonescent, Matchess’ 2022 album documenting “the final moments in the life of music,” Stena goes further, reanimating dying waves with a collage of found sounds, frequency experiments and new music compositions. Poring over notebooks rife with polarities and doppelgangers, considerations of biological and symbolic ancestry and the spirits that infuse places we leave behind, Matchess crafts an encompassing work of psychoacoustic music.

Galaxie 500

Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90

Silver Current

The complete uncollected Noise New York studio recordings of Galaxie 500. A twenty-four track chronological journey through rarities and outtakes including never-before-heard songs, from the start of their incendiary career to their final studio session. Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90 marks Galaxie 500’s first release of new archival material in nearly thirty years and their most comprehensive collection of unreleased and rare material ever. Produced and engineered by Kramer at Noise New York 1988-1990.

Collette, Ned

Our Other History

Ever / Never

***"Our Other History is a wonderful new LP by this wandering Berlin-based Melbourne expat. Ned's last album, Afternoon Dusk was an avant instrumental trio outing with James Rushford and Joe Talia, but Our Other History is a return to the delicate, sophisticated song craft of his 2018 masterpiece, Old Chestnut. Ned's approach to lyrics, vocals and music shares a melancholic beauty that is both haunted and haunting. His words are often more impressionistic than overt in their storytelling, but his vocals carry hints that recall those of the legendary Roy Harper. But where Harper's attack was often Dionysian, Collette's approach is Apollonian, and the tracks often have a compositional feel with a distinct taste of Canterbury. The players this time include old hands, like drummer Steve Heather and pianist Chris Abrahams (of The Necks), but there are a bunch of new players on hand, including Melbourne mates Jim White and Mick Turner (of Dirty Three fame) and the folksinger Leah Senior. All these elements (and more) are fitted together with elegance and allowed space to breathe. Collette's music is hard to classify. It exists inside a dynamic flux made up of equal parts post-rock, folk, jazz and avant prog, but it manages to remain plain-spoken and uncluttered regardless of how complex its structure can be when you start parsing it. But why bother? With a record as throughly lovely as Our Other History, the best idea is to just relax and let the music flow. Beautifully.”—Byron Coley, 2024

Dungeon Crawl

Maze Controller

Carbonized

***The die is cast and your journey begins within the epic labyrinth that is Dungeon Crawl’s second full-length album, Maze Controller! Influenced by a multitude of orchestral and extreme metal bands, both classic and contemporary, Dungeon Crawl seeks to root their sound on Maze Controller as something wholly unique, but familiar in a saturated genre, by fusing elements of thrash and symphonic metal to create a distinctive listening experience. Maze Controller was Recorded by Codie Jones and Jason Bursese (Black Fucking Cancer, Cyanic, Dispirit). Guitar Reamping, Mixing, and Mastering by Zack Ohren (Cyanic, Immolation, Suffocation) at Castle Ultimate Studios. Cover Artwork by James Bousema (Laceration, Municipal Waste), with additional Inner Artwork by Carlos Castilho, Geraldo Marinho, Brendan Elliot, Garry Yulianto, and Jacob Fleming.  (STREET DATE - 9/20/2024)

Lord Of Plague

Passage to None

Carbonized

***Lord of Plague’s debut demo, Passage to None, features three tracks of blistering Death Metal madness in the vein of Cenotaph, Monstrosity, and Morbid Angel! Passage to None was self-recorded by the band, with Mixing and mastering handled by Andrew Oswald (Mortiferum, Triumvir Foul). Original cover artwork by Joshua Porter and additional inner artwork by Rohhalusmu. (STREET DATE - 9/20/2024)

Vile Rites

Senescence

Carbonized

***The first Full Length album from Vile Rites, Senescence, is a forty minute journey of mind-bending Psychedelic Death Metal that takes the listener through cavernous darkness to soaring ethereal ecstasy with surprises around every corner. Senescence presents the idea that everything must die and everything must suffer to live, shining a light on the chaos of our world, and the juxtaposition of all creatures suffering and writhing in the shadows of ancient entities. Senescence was Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Greg Wilkinson (Mortuous, Necrot, Vastum) at Earhammer Studio and features fantastic Cover artwork by Justyna Koziczak. Additional inner artwork and Senescence lettering by Karmazid (Stormkeep, Svartidauði, Vile Rites). Turn on, Tune in, Take the Journey... (STREET DATE - 9/20/2024)

Vile Rites

The Ageless

Carbonized

***The official reissue of Vile Rites’ EP, The Ageless. Originally released on CD and cassette by Desert Wasteland in 2022, the record received praise and admiration through several circles of the metal underground, establishing Vile Rites as a new band to look out for. The Ageless reissue sees both original formats back in print as well as the first ever Vinyl Pressing for this release. Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Greg Wilkinson (Mortuous, Necrot, Vastum) at Earhammer Studio. Cover Artwork by Fernando JFL. (STREET DATE - 9/20/2024)

In The Teeth

You've Done Enough

What's Left

***Colorado Springs In The Teeth plays alternative rock/emo in the vein of Braid, Dismemberment Plan and Dinosaur Jr. 2023 release.

Night Child

s/t

What's Left

***NIGHT CHILD is a Heavy Metal band based out of Albuquerque, NM. Composed of local scene veterans including former members of international touring acts Koffin Kats and Russian Girlfriends, Night Child formed as an homage to the best parts of Death, Thrash, and Classic Metal played in the spirit of punk rock. Produced / enginered by Ryan Bram (Gatecreeper, Spirit Adrift) and mastered by Brad Boatright (From Ashes Rise, Audio Siege).

Midwife

No Depression In Heaven

Flenser

***ON LIMITED APPLE RED VINYL!!! “If rock ’n’ roll’s a dream, please don’t wake me.” Midwife’s No Depression In Heaven, her fourth studio album, was written primarily in the back of vans while on tour endlessly over the course of the past few years. The record engages with the contemplative spirit of rock ’n’ roll from within a body in motion. No Depression In Heaven explores themes of sentimentality, the interplay between dreams, memory, and fantasy, and a familiar subject seen throughout all of Midwife’s work: grief. Madeline Johnston takes a look at the tender and transcendent underneath a hard exterior of leather and studs, exposing a different side of the heavy music scene, where Johnston’s project has been living and evolving. Recording at home in New Mexico between 2021 and 2023, Johnston aimed to create something that was rough around the edges, returning to a free recording process that was less focused on perfection and more attuned to expressing the spirit that lives inside of the songs. The album features collaborations with Chris Adolf and Michael Stein of American Culture, Ben Schurr and Tim Jordan of Nyxy Nyx, Angel Diaz of Vyva Melinkolya, and Allison Lorenzen. Inspired by ephemeral moments that make up life on tour, the totemization of vehicles, outlaws, and the psyche of America’s underbelly, No Depression In Heaven affirms Johnston’s existential status as a woman of the highway.

Charles A.D.

West Pontoon Bridge

100% Silk

Farmer and deep house producer Hiroyuki Tanaka aka Charles A.D. has been quietly cultivating his crop of live hardware dub techno and devotional acid since debuting with the 熱い海 (‘Hot Sea’) EP on Austria’s Dream Raw Recordings in 2017, followed by two long-form classics for Tokyo’s Umé label in 2019 (Inception) and 2021 (Dry Flower). His latest, West Pontoon Bridge, further refines Tanaka's composite of rhythm, repetition, and vanishing point electronics, shaded in what he calls “characteristic sadness.” Schemed and tracked across a half decade of studio explorations, the album moves through gradient landscapes of twilit trees, mossy waterfalls, and hidden temples shrouded in ocean mist. Named for a nearby Japanese landmark of boards laid across boats at the river mouth in place of a permanent bridge, the collection unfolds in a similarly improvised and panoramic sweep. Lean percussive systems crosshatched with bass, haze, liquid loops, and spatial FX, the album subtly accelerates as it advances, spiraling softly towards a strobing mythic dance floor in a sacred grove.

Cheon, Josh And Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh

Dark Entries Collected Music Graphics

Dark Entries

Dark Entries Collected Music Graphics Compiled by Josh Cheon and Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh To celebrate 15 years of Dark Entries, this zine showcases the label’s visual aesthetic, bringing together some of the most iconic designs that we’ve released. While Dark Entries’ sonic mission has included sounds as diverse as synth-pop, Italo disco, darkwave, house, and techno, it is equally staggering to see the breadth of visuals the label has encountered and collected over the years. Included here are selected typography, logos, and illustrations from the label’s extensive catalog—well over 300 releases to date. Designs have been created using DIY analogue techniques as well as more contemporary digital approaches. A full discography is included at the end for reference and an essay by Shawn O’Sullivan (Led Er Est, Further Reductions). This zine serves as a source of inspiration for artists as well as a means of preserving and documenting these distinct graphics. Dark Entries Records is a San Francisco-based record label that was born in July 2009. Helmed by Josh Cheon, a vinyl-focused DJ and collector, the label has focused largely on excavating the 1980s underground era—but releases have spanned from sultry vintage disco to bleeding-edge contemporary techno. Graphic designer Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh has been responsible for most of the label’s artwork, whether reproducing original designs accurately for reissues or creating exciting new ones. Much care and attention is given to each release to represent the music in a memorable way as well as tell the stories behind these projects. Hand-stamped...

Food Fortunata / Furniture Huschle

Furniture Huschle / Food Fortunata - Split

Shrimper / Unread

Food Fortunata and Furniture Huschle have written and issued thousands of songs between them over the last forty plus years. You may know Joel Huschle, of Furniture Huschle from his myriad of solo and collaborative records including his work with Wckr Spgt, and perhaps Food Fortunata from his work as Sockeye and dozens of other names/bands as the purveyor of over three hundred rightfully weird world recordings on his Wheelchair Full of Old Men label. It has in fact taken decades to bring these cats together, the double lift of Unread and Shrimper records to issue it, and most importantly, two sides of tape magnetized with the unique sound of these stalwarts of the underground. A Rudimentary Peni and Caroliner Rainbow Fish n' Chips cover best describes the pumping heart that these two push oxygenated blood out of. Limited edition of 100 with cover art by Dennis Callaci

Segall, Ty

Love Rudiments

Drag City

***A meditation from Ty Segall on love, played on his first love: the drums. Delving deep into the melodic and orchestral possibilities of a full array of percussion instruments, from the trap kit to timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, percussion and e-drums, Ty charts the waxing and waning of a love affair, to explore some of the most delicate space we know of—the private emotional location where only two can meet.

Mamaleek

Vida Blue

Flenser

Time is a slippery fish. Loss has inspired Mamaleek’s latest full-length album, titled Vida Blue. This marks the San Francisco Bay Area metal deconstructionists’ eighth album and their third as a full lineup. Tragedy struck in March of 2023 when the band lost a longtime friend and member, keyboardist Eric Livingston, leaving the group, which began as a duo of two brothers and later expanded to a five-piece, now with only four members. Despite this profound loss, Mamaleek persevered, performing as a quartet at various festivals, including the 2023 edition of Tilburg. The band returned to the studio to create new material that appropriately reflects their journey through loss and honors their fallen comrade. The resulting album draws inspiration from the legacy of Oakland A’s baseball legend Vida Blue, whose former team coincidentally announced its relocation to Las Vegas that same year. The band members themselves describe this poignant chapter in their own words: “Time is a slippery fish. Maybe only someone like Vida could grasp it. Although he’s left time behind, his image and that lefty heat remain in the memories of many. Eventually they’ll be forgotten, and hopefully replaced with even more exultant ones. This musical recording is a reflection on loss and its acceptance. We explore several examples for each song, including the loss of pride, of money, of glory, of country, of sanity, of a favorite sports team, of significant others, and, every day, one’s self. It also explores various associated moods—fear, panic, reverence, stoicism,...

Noroth

Sacrifical Solace

Carbonized

***Noroth brings forth absolute chaotic putridity on their third full-length album, Sacrificial Solace! A triumvirate, born in the year 2019, Noroth focused on making their own trail of stench inspired by the likes of Bolt Thrower, Grave, Morbid Angel, and Rottrevore. Their first two albums, It Dwells Amongst Us and Harbinger, quickly helped establish them within the Pacific Northwest’s flourishing Underground Death Metal community, which eventually would allow them to support bands like Deicide, Suffocation, Incantation, and Miasmatic Necrosis. With Sacrificial Solace, Noroth seek to prepare audiences to a new pile of feral rotting darkness, inspired by those that have sonically pushed the limits before them. Recorded by Nick Emard (Cavurn, Cystic, Degraved) at 7 Hills Studio in Seattle, Washington, Mixed by Greg Wilkinson (Mortuous, Necrot, Vastum) at Earhammer Studio, and Mastered by Dan Lowndes (Cruciamentum, Funeral Leech, Mortiferum) at Resonance Sound Studio. Artwork by Thomas “Necromaniac” Westphal (Excarnated Entity, Infester, Plague Bearer).

Du Browa, Corey & Friends

An Ideal For Living - A Celebration of the EP

Hozac

***The extended play recording. Not quite an album. More than a single. And not only an artifact of the vinyl era—the EP has survived and even thrived at every turn of the music industry’s evolution, from vinyl to tape to CD to stream. This definitive book unearths the EP’s origins, history and cultural impact and enlists nearly 50 music-industry veterans (musicians, scribes, producers, executives, superfans) to create a list of the 200 Best EPs ever recorded and shapes these opinions into a book that seeks to trace the arc of the EP’s development and, in so doing, chart the history of the music industry writ large. From Dangerhouse to Touch & Go to Sub Pop to Flying Nun, and all roads in between, savvy labels have used the EP to great effect and its been the way to introduce bands in a less risky mid-sized format for decades. This super-interesting guide shows how the format developed and how it took on a life of its own, from early jazz & rock’n roll through the beat & psychedelic rock era, right on through punk, new wave, and post-punk, and into the alternative/indie rock era, right up to the modern age. This rousing guide through the mid-sized mindset features a huge swath of guest writers galore, each offering up their enthusiastic opinions on which E.P.s deserve your attention, divided by decade, along with all of their details on long-forgotten B-sides and extras that couldn’t fit on the 7” version, yet easily pad...

Limbo District

Sin-Gles! (Plus Live)

Chunklet / Primordial Void

***Esoteric, yet oddly vivacious, Athens legends Limbo District never released any music during their 25 month career from April 1981 until their less-than-ceremonious dissolution in May 1983. They did several tours up and down the east coast in addition to playing local haunts like 688, TV Dinner, the I&I, the Last Resort, Tyrone’s and, of course, the 40 Watt. Over the past year, Chunklet has released four singles and restored the apparition of Limbo District to where the world can now experience their unique take on no-wave. Primordial Void, in tandem with Chunklet, is proud to release a cassette compilation of their singles along with never before heard live material from the Nitery in 1982. Love Tractor’s Mark Cline calls Limbo District “an art band’s art band.” Sin-Gles! (Plus Live) sheds a spotlight on an ignored (yet pivotal!) band from Athens’ golden-age. Cuts such as “Encased” and “Factory Margo” have a distinctly Beefheart-y, Branca-esque flavor to them, yet their murky take on the classic punk ethos, combined with their innovative visual elements (more on that below), frame Limbo District as early pioneers of a rather clever aesthetic later adopted by groups such as Hype Williams, Pocahaunted, and Immaterial Possession. Limbo District is also notable for some of its core members; vocalist/percussionist Jeremy Ayers was a member of Andy Warhol’s Factory (as “Sylva Thinn”) in the 1970s, a major, major scene staple in Athens, and a co-writer of songs by R.E.M. and the B-52s; Limbo’s bassist and arranger was Dublin,...

Leaving

Hidden View

Moon Glyph

***Leaving is the left-of-centre, electronics project of Rupert Thomas (Erasers), based in Perth, Western Australia. With a focus on hardware electronics, Thomas conjures immersive worlds of mood-driven synthesizer compositions that range from deep, slow moving ambience, to dense rhythms and hypnotic melodies. Forming over a decade ago as a home recording project on Whadjuk boodja (Perth, Western Australia), Thomas documented his early sound through a steady flow of CD-R’s and tapes before releasing his debut self-titled LP in 2020 via Good Company Records, a culmination of songs recorded between 2013-2017. In 2021 he contributed slow burner ‘Detached Lines’ to Deep Water Greenhouse ‘Greenhouse Vol. 1’ LP. In the live realm, Leaving has shared the stage with the likes of Actress, Oneohtrix Point Never and Outer Space (Emeralds), sculpting a mesmeric sonic experience through deep drones, atmospheric synth and echoed drum machine interplay. 2024 sees Leaving return with his second full length ‘Hidden View’ via Moon Glyph and Pouring Dream. Recorded and mixed at home throughout 2023 using a limited palette of synths, ‘Hidden View’ creates a sound world that is simultaneously moody, emotive and meditative, offering both careful focus and a dreamy escape for the mind. Through this collection of sounds, Thomas seeks to evoke the surrounding landscape in which it was made, with its wide-open spaces, dense bushland and expansive coastline.

Turn On The Sunlight

Canoga to Ha'iku

Moon Glyph

***We live in places and they live in us. Sometimes we’re in the same place, linked together by the elements and our immediate surroundings. Other times, we push off into farther flung spaces, but stay connected as though telepathically, treasuring the closeness that once was and will someday be again. Most of the humble music that comprises ‘Canoga to Haʻikū’ was recorded in a single sitting by Carlos and Jesse in Carlos’ studio in California. A little later, Jesse departed for Maui, where an acquaintance named Russ kindly lent him a Casio CZ-1000 for the summer. With that instrument and the surrounding sounds of children, birds, insects, lizards, frogs, goats, wind and rain, the finishing touches were added to these songs. The ocean a glimmer in the distance through the palms, a portal was opened across the Pacific to Carlos’ studio, where friendship dances in all its forms. A rainbow beckoned and invited everyone to dive into the water and share in its universal embrace.

Shade, Eric

All Over The Place: The Rise of The Bangles From the LA Underground

Hozac

***At long last, we’re got the massive biography on THE BANGLES and it is nothing short of a whopper. This monumental project, started by author and unofficial band historian Eric Shade back in the 1990s has had quite a journey from start to finish. This insane overview of the early days of the members’ obscure early groups, as well as an amazing snapshot of the sorely-undocumented Paisley Underground scene of early 80s LA, all the way up through the core band members’ current projects, is a feat we never though we’d see fulfilled. For a band as huge and omnipresent as The Bangles still in are 2023, the revelation of their earlier efforts, such as the mind-blowing story of Micki Steele in the first lineup of the fledgling Runaways, while the Peterson sisters were rocking out in bands such as The Muze, Hollywood Girls, and The Fans right around the same period is the legendary stuff mostly outside of public knowledge. The intertwining stories of Susanna Hoffs meeting David Roback (later of The Rain Parade) and getting inspired by The Last, with Vicki & Debbi’s growing interest in garage bands like The Unclaimed around town, All Over The Place shows how many moving parts were swirling around, generating a indescribable electricity around Los Angeles as the hardcore scene raged on the other side of the coin. As the Paisley Underground scene evolved during its short window, bands such as Salvation Army/The Three O’Clock, Long Ryders, and Dream Syndicate are given...

Crazygoji

Times New Romantic

No Sides

***Aurora, IL now has two claims to fame, Wayne’s World and CRAZYGOJI! Like a bolt from the blue, this first official full length album from electronic wunderkind Tom Horne is pure acid bliss-- hypermodern, crystalline and revelatory chiptune jams for the Playstation 4 generation. The album was made from November to Christmas, 2023 and was based entirely around the AMAZING cover art by Xoma18. Expect great things from this guy in the future!

Lonesome Organist

Them / Apples

No Sides

***About 15 years ago, after producing several albums for Thrill Jockey Records and touring in Europe and Japan, world-renowned one-man-band performer JEREMY JACOBSEN withdrew from the Chicago music scene. He settled down in neighboring Indiana with his family and now plays organ in church every Sunday. However, a recent Facebook tag led to a brief hailz which led to “Hey man, what have you been up to?” which led to “Well, I have a few albums if you’d like one.” Flash-forward to a New York-minute later and No Sides Records is beyond stoked to present THE LONESOME ORGANIST’s fifth full length album.

Smith, Charles Joseph

The Electroacoustics Come Out

No Sides

***Charles Joseph Smith is a pianist, composer, arranger, writer and dancer based in Chicago, IL, and he has been a staple personality in the city’s arts community for decades. Inspired by the work of 20th century composer and electronic instrument inventor Salvatore Martirano, The Electroacoustics Come Out is a double-length album packed with electronic-based piano jams, ditties, oddities and experimentations. In 2021, Dr. Smith published an autobiography titled The 88 Keys That Opened Doors, a book which details his experience in the arts as a person living with autism. He is also a two-time recipient of honorarium grants from Elastic Arts.

Multi-Surface

NAP

Not Not Fun

Ambient craftsman Tomokazu Fujimoto aka Multi-Surface describes the 11 pieces of his 2nd album for NNF as “nap-like” – fleeting vignettes of FM synths and fragmented melody, looping and smeared across lost hours of the afternoon. Recorded over a year of sessions at his home studio in the Japanese countryside, the music moves in soft-focus swells and glistening arcs, gently swaying like paper lanterns. A few outliers expand the palette – kosmische percussion voyager “I'll float a boat on those clouds,” churning lo-fi whirlpool “Through the forest,” jittery gamelan edit “One rat” – but otherwise the mood skews opaque and oblique, chiming hazes half-heard on the breeze. Fujimoto’s muse is inward but infinite, reflecting on “the paths one has taken” and, in brief dreams, “visiting those places again.”

Body San

Hilly Blue

100% Silk

Top-notch archival grab bag of hot steppers and house wreckers by Portland boogie guru Brandon Knocke aka Body San. Named for and themed around the dandy mob boss from 80’s cinematic lore, Hilly Blue spans the years just before and after Knocke’s formative westward migration from heartland America to the Pacific Northwest [2016-2019]. Electribe slink (“Glossy”) and luxury glide (“Glove Covered In Blood”) cross-fade with vapor shuffle (“Fondue Thought”) and afterhours downtempo (“Serious”), showcasing the bounce, bump, and bliss of Body San’s signature sound.

Jupiter Jax

Summer Grey

100% Silk

A little over a decade ago, Maltese mastermind Rudi Agius debuted as Jupiter Jax with City Life ‘88, a 6-track suite shading Chicago and Italo into a hypno-melancholic fusion tailor made for the House of SILK. Two LPs, three tapes, and two EPs later, the saga concludes. Crafted across the last few years in pockets between other pursuits, Summer Grey slinks, flexes, and lifts on swells of collective memory and pleasures past. Rhythms and melodies cruise and crisscross, brooding and blissed along Mediterranean shores. It’s music of lost hours and fleeting farewells, dusted with the glow of endless sunsets. Balearica inverted by resignation and renewal, ecstasy and acceptance, tracing the beauty of vanishing points. Every summer fades from gold to grey.

Verbeuren, Hannah

Midnight: A Thousand Nights In Sodom

Bazillion Points

***Photographer and road warrior Hannah Verbeuren presents a vivid, lurid, rabid history of mysterious heavy metal animals Midnight. Captured in live, portrait, and candid settings, the hooded band plays with fire, swords, and sex in settings ranging from European castles to the the smutty back alleys of their native Cleveland. Essays by Verbeuren and Midnight main man Athenar ring the bells and keep everything street. You will believe a band can fly… “Hannah Verbeuren’s photojournalistic odyssey of and about Ohio’s own king cult band, Midnight, will hit home with even the hardest of souls. The visual essence is raw and sensual—Midnight is so down and dirty! This is a definite must for hardcore, hard rock, punk, and metal fans.”—Jeff Becerra, Possessed

Sabbat

Sabbaticult

Nuclear War Now

***SABBAT are legends of underground metal. 2024 marks their 40th year of creating pure blacking heavy metal. As they enter their fifth decade, the Japanese horde has returned with their tenth full-length album Sabbaticult. It’s a rare feat for an extreme metal band to retain such relentless integrity for so many years, and rarer still for that intensity to grow with time. Yet Sabbaticult shows that GEZOL and his fellow maniacs GINOIR (guitars) and ZORUGELION (drums) have indeed outdone themselves. This record allows no respite from its opening blast to its epic coda, with eight tracks of Japanese blacking heavy metal thrash in the tradition of Venom, early Bathory, and Sodom. But rather than sticking to a formula, Sabbat employs a deft compositional aptitude that has deep roots in traditional heavy metal, with distinct movements and a tasteful melodicism that constantly reminds the listener that they are in the presence of the genuine article. Gezol’s tortured vocals howl in a manner truly unnerving, with Ginoir’s implacable guitar work recalling Mercyful Fate. Album closer “Kanashibari” provides a stunning epilogue, standing comfortably alongside classics like “Mion’s Hill” in the group’s canon. This is an essential release for fans of extreme underground metal NWN! Productions is proud to bring the Japanese language version (sung in Japanese) of this record to the west. This release comes a few months before SABBAT tours the USA and Latin America in October of 2024.

Scarcity

The Promise Of Rain

Flenser

The Promise Of Rain, the sophomore album of the experimental black metal band Scarcity, is an embodiment of the hard-to-believe truth that burdens are easier to bear when distributed, a realization Brendon Randall-Myers (conductor of the Glenn Branca Ensemble) grappled with extensively while writing this record. This is a sweat-drenched album about dispersion, about spreading, about the collective relieving of burdens through shared experience: one doesn’t have to go through everything alone. When Scarcity’s debut album Aveilut was written in early 2020, Randall-Myers and vocalist Doug Moore (Pyrrhon, Weeping Sores, Glorious Depravity, and Seputus) never expected to be able to play their songs live. The cathartic experience of playing something that came from a place of isolation out to people in a live setting is the root of the intensity in The Promise Of Rain. The Promise Of Rain begins where the craziest climaxes of Aveilut end, and is the first Scarcity record to include Tristan Kasten-Krause (Sigur Ros, Steve Reich, LEYA) on bass, Dylan Dilella (Pyrrhon) on guitar and Lev Weinstein (Krallice) on drums. Rather than building density with the quasi-orchestral layering on Aveilut, Scarcity challenged themselves to document what five people in a room could do, recording most of The Promise Of Rain in one or two takes, capturing the physical effort and urgency of a live performance. Scarcity forges a completely fresh sound in The Promise Of Rain with their alarming guitar work and melodic arpeggiating, shedding dead skin and breaking ground with sheer vulnerability....

Smug Brothers

Another Bar Behind the Night

Anyway

Forgoing grand musical statements, magnum opuses, or even fashion, every release by Smug Brothers is a little box of hooks, each riff or refrain rolling around like a colorful pebble or marble. You can practically hear singer, guitarist, and songwriter Kyle Melton say to the listener: Look what I found. Pretty neat, huh? This innocent perspective shines throughout the Ohio indie-rock band’s canon, but it reaches summer-moon brilliance in latest EP Another Bar Behind the Night. Parading cheery guitar arpeggios, Don Thrasher’s stomping drums, and a kids-show mellotron line, opener “Javelina Nowhere” immediately sets the mood, brimming with all the natural joy and confidence of a toddler marching toward a merry-go-round. The pep continues onto the poppy, playful “Seamus and the Younger,” which flaunts a surprising psychedelic smear in the middle. Additional lightness is provided by "The Seven-Year Inch” and “Cricket Blessings,” both of which are built upon uplifting, ascending chord sequences. Yet brightness needs contrasting shadow. With Kyle Sowash’s Carlos D.-like basslines, “Alexander for Two” suggests a Midwestern Interpol. Lastly we come to “Shedding Polymer,” the sole song on Another Bar Behind the Night that reveals bite and menace, courtesy of newcomer Ryan Shaffer’s lead guitar. An appropriate artistic choice because the whole tune shape-shifts, the final 40 seconds flowering into pure indie-rock perfection—a hook so right and good it hurts. Classic Smug Brothers. What a way to end an EP. Pretty neat, indeed.

Maggot Brain

Issue # 17

Maggot Brain

***On The Cover: Unpublished Joe Dilworth photo of My Bloody Valentine, from sessions for their Isn't Anything record. My Bloody Valentine: Revelatory, unpublished interview excerpts from hours of tapes with Kevin Shields by editor Mike McGonigal conducted for his 33⅓ book on Loveless. Inside: A great interview with Joe Dilworth by Mike Galinsky and pages of his photos of London's underground music scenes in the 1980s and '90s, including unseen images of MBV. Will Oldham: Great, lengthy conversation with his collaborator and longtime friend Nathan Salsburg, on the occasion of their record of Lungfish covers. Harvey Milk: Epic, well-illustrated oral history of the pioneering '90s Athens, GA-based doom/ heavy-rock/ experimental/otherwise unclassifiable and influential band. Justin Green: New scans of the underground cartoonist's music comics, many originally published in Tower's Pulse magazine. 18 full pages, with text by comics historian John Kelly."

Dirty Three

Love Changes Everything

Drag City

***Dirty Three Ahoy! Appropriately disheveled, the Three—Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White—emerge from the unending waves of time to pick up their guitar drum and viola / violin / piano / synthesizer / loops / percussion for their first album in a decade. Their playing encompasses ALL—from the original fury of their unlikely power trio to an impressionist cinema later on; mercurial, tumultuous to ambient to adagio, mood and emotion drawn up to dazzling heights from the humble human scale.

Uboa

Impossible Light

Flenser

Uboa’s fifth album Impossible Light almost never made it out of the dark. From its initial conception in 2018, this record went to hell and back, dragging its immensity and too-big-to-hold emotion through the torturous process of translation to sound and returned triumphantly as a full-bodied record in a distinct new style. Impossible Light begins where Uboa’s 2019 breakout album The Origin Of My Depression left off—and ends somewhere entirely different. The Origin stunned with its methodical use of doom, harsh noise, and ambient soundscapes while documenting a raw, unhindered account of Xandra Metcalfe’s experiences with her transition and her struggles with mental health. Over time The Origin steadily grew a cult-like following which developed into a full-fledged internet community focused around noise, neurodiversity and transness. While Uboa’s signature style of highly polished, cinematic “hypernoise” is front and center in Impossible Light, there is also a daring departure into the genres of industrial metal / rock, setting it apart from any other Uboa release thus far and distinguishing it from other contemporary noise records. Metcalfe kept the lyrical content of this record as a time capsule of the catastrophic ups and downs and rapidly changing environments within herself and in the world from 2018-2023. Key collaborators include Blood Of A Pomegranate, Otay:onii, Charlie Looker and Haela Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy. Impossible Light dives fearlessly into queer sexuality, trans embodiment, grief for those who couldn’t make it, solidarity for those facing unimaginable discrimination, the toxic spread of transphobic hatred and...

2Muchachos

Natura: 2009-2012

Not Not Fun

When Russian musicians Vladimir Karpov (X.Y.R.) and Dmitriy Borodin began making hushed, liminal, ASMRbient dream pop together in the late 2000’s, the underground landscape was thick with artists using mystical monikers, so they chose to troll in the opposite direction: 2muchachos. Although the original intent was to filter out listeners “who judge by name or cover,” they were soon joined by Aleksandra Evseeva (aka Andra Ljos), rendering their banner even more incongruous and comical. Titles aside, the collaboration was fruitful, spanning nearly half a decade of steadily refined activity. Natura 2009-2012 collects 76 minutes of the trio’s most cloaked and bewitched recordings, evolving from the “northern environmental folktronica” of their early years through to the whispered fairytale ambient voyaging of 2012’s haunted swansong, Forest Is Not What It Seems. The tracks are sourced from an array of digital singles, compilations, and self-released CD-Rs, mapping a non-chronological odyssey of the group’s skeletal, subliminal songcraft. Karpov’s signature Soviet Formanta synth weaves within windswept guitar, fragile percussion, and field recordings of forest birds and endless steppes, occasionally accented with Andra’s glimmering, ghostly voice. It’s music of isolation and introspection, poetic and remote, murmuring through mists and long winters, flickering with the color of springs yet to bloom.

Chunked

Inhaling The Infestation

Gore House Productions

***Prepare to dive into the depths of primordial aggression with Chunked's debut offering, Inhaling the Infestation. This EP is a relentless onslaught of primitive, knuckle-dragging death metal, stripped down to its most visceral essence. With no frills or unnecessary embellishments, Chunked delivers a sonic barrage that is as heavy as it is unapologetic. Inhaling the Infestation is a testament to the band's dedication to the purest form of death metal. From the thunderous drumming to the haunting vocals, each track is an assault on the senses, leaving listeners gasping for air amidst the suffocating atmosphere of relentless aggression.