Upcoming Releases

Johnstone, Johnnie

The Clientele

J-Card Press

***This is the story of the greatest British pop group of the last thirty years. The Clientele, formed in Hampshire in 1991. Renowned for their “invincible crystalline sound,” they have become one of the most highly respected British bands of their generation. Their first album, Suburban Light, a collection of early singles, was released at the beginning of the new millennium, just as the band were on the verge of splitting up. It was warmly received—particularly in the US— and is now recognized as a landmark album of the era. Their most recent album, 2023’s I Am Not There Anymore, was met with rapturous critical acclaim, but the journey in between had been a long and strange one.164 5x8 page paperback with 16 B&W photos.

Silk Fence

s/t

Sophomore Lounge

***Silk Fence is a New York–based instrumental electro-acoustic trio between three longtime friends and collaborators—Arian Shafiee (Guerilla Toss, etc.) on electric guitar, Booker Stardrum (SML, etc.) on drums and percussion, and Justin Frye (PC Worship, etc.) on double bass and tapes. The group stretches the sonic possibilities of their instruments while exploring long-form, texture-driven minimalism and time-based improvisation.Recorded throughout 2024 and 2025 between Brooklyn and Bethel, New York, Silk Fence presents the trio at its most focused. Over the course of 35 minutes, the group creates unhurried snapshots that appear and dissolve––at times into immersive soundscapes, and at other times into unflinching, propulsive grooves. The album unfolds as a study in subtle changes within repetition, blending kraut-jazz intuition and slowly shifting acoustic and electronic textures. It batters and lilts, resisting easy categorization: crossing stylistic boundaries to arrive, ultimately, at a sound all its own, deeply rooted in the musicians’ shared devotion to improvised music in all forms. At just four tracks, Silk Fence is a complete, unfussy musical statement.With traditional forms always in the rearview, the music carries a sense of ease that feels equally inviting and quietly engrossing, creating an expansive musical space that lands somewhere between ESP and ECM with a subtle nod to experimental American folk.

Socal's Parishoners

s/t

Going Underground

***SoCal’s Parishioners have picked a funny name for themselves. Is it a reference to the Church, the hallowed Hermosa Beach practice space that spawned Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, The Descendents, The Minutemen, Redd Kross, and The Last?  That would make sense.  This is vicious OC punk, with huge riffs, menacing vocals, and bad attitude for days.  If it’s some other church, they attend, I hope it catches on. Members of Not Shit decided they wanted to play old school punk rock the SoCal way in 2021.  Collaborating with friends from G*U*N*N, and Rolex they’ve put out some cassettes, played some house shows, and are finally ready to unleash their brutal wax debut as SoCal Parishioners on the mighty Going Underground label in 2026. Grab your board, drop in, tune out, and get pitted.  Real punks, See you at Polliwog Park!  —Goeffrey Weiss 

Bequest

On Hills Death Will Play

General Speech

***Bequest from Philly does a rare thing in 2026, instead of trying to adhere to a strict laser accurate recreation of a style, you get a blend of what each of the band members love. A fierce, political, and hardened anarcho punk attack reminiscent of Antisect or Exit-Stance if they were listening to bands like Zouo and Celtic Frost. Dark, metallic, and driving hardcore with deep drums and catchy UK style riffs that are filled to the brim with metallic overtones straddling the border of crust, but never fully diving over that edge. When you look at the pedigree of ex, and current members of The Ire, eX-Tradition, and K.O.S. this feeling of a band which sounds like the natural sum of it's parts makes perfect sense.

Early Grave

Violent Winter

General Speech

***Firmly rooted in the sounds of 80s hardcore punk, especially the deranged sounds of Midwest hardcore bands, unafraid to slow down to mid-tempo stompers bringing to mind bands like Mecht Mensch, but if they were created by punks being brainwashed, A Clockwork Orange style, with the most disturbing horror movies and 80s underground gore and metal zines. A more simple explanation from Aaron of World Gone Mad Records is "A fusion of Stains (L.A.) and Libresse (Sweden) making an album in 2026". Philadelphia’s Early Grave have crafted this album in a cinematic fashion, much like the horror film themes they are undoubtedly influenced by, the album grows and swells from the opening track, drawing you in more and more as it progresses, keeping you on your toes with unexpected turns, and culminating in a fantastic climax that fades into a feeling of satisfaction. Whether this album appeals to your personal tastes or not, it certainly contains everything needed to be a defining album in the scope of modern hardcore punk.

Iksre

In All Her Forms (Sound Meditations Vol. 2)

Constellation Tatsu

***IKSRE (I Keep Seeing Rainbows Everywhere / Phoebe Dubar) presents In All Her Forms, a deeply immersive one-hour sound bath album where water functions as both physical element and guiding metaphor for transformation.Across the work, water is understood as constant change within continuity. It moves through states of solid, liquid, and gas, yet always returns to itself as H₂O. This cycle becomes the conceptual foundation of the album, reflecting on how we as humans might move through change while retaining our essence.Water is ephemeral, sacred, and essential to life. It is both nurturing and destructive. It shapes ecosystems and landscapes while also sitting at the centre of the climate crisis, from rising seas and water scarcity to global conflict and displacement.Created as both meditation and composition, the album follows the arc of a traditional sound bath, expanded through field recordings and layered instrumentation that reflect water’s shifting states. Alongside crystal and Himalayan singing bowls, handpan, gongs, voice, and acoustic instruments, she incorporates bass, synthesisers, and ambient electronics that flow intuitively through the work. Drawing on her training as a certified sound healing practitioner, IKSRE weaves traditional sound bath practices with principles of brainwave entrainment and energetic healing throughout the album.The result is a continuous one-hour journey through entrainment, deep rest, dissolution, transformation, and integration.

R Beny

feedback memory

Constellation Tatsu

***r beny returns with feedback memory, a new five-track album that moves through delicate textures, melodic fragments, and gradual shifts in atmosphere.The album opens with the concise title track, “feedback memory,” followed by “suspended in the lilt of desire” and “sursum corda.” “glittered in thaw” offers a brief, shimmering interlude before the album closes with the expansive “late fragment,” a 20-minute piece that gives the record its longest stretch of open-ended space.r beny is the ambient electronic project of Northern California musician Austin Cairns. Working with synthesizers, modular systems, sampling, effects, and field recordings, Cairns has developed a deeply immersive approach to electronic music. His work often explores sound as a way of expressing emotions, ideas, and memories that are difficult to put into words.

Worriedaboutsatan

Outland

Constellation Tatsu

***worriedaboutsatan return with Outland, an eight-track album from Bradford, UK musician Gavin Miller. The record moves between expansive ambient passages, electronic textures, and shorter, more fragmented pieces, creating a shifting landscape that unfolds across its 51-minute runtime.From the 11-minute opener “I've Got Nothing But Time” through “A New Life Awaits You in the Offline Communities,” “Isogloss,” and “Your Home At One Time,” the album gradually moves between spacious and more concise forms. The shorter “Keygen Variations 2” and “An Endless Numbing Paradise” lead into “Ancestral Hell,” before the album closes with the expansive 13-minute “I am Vanishing Into The Trees.”worriedaboutsatan is the electronic project of Bradford musician Gavin Miller. Originally formed as a duo in 2006, the project became Miller's solo project in 2019. His music draws from ambient, electronica, post-rock, and techno, with an emphasis on atmosphere, texture, and immersive sound.Over the years, worriedaboutsatan has released music through various labels, such as n5MD and Past Inside The Present, whilst also working on film and television projects, most notably Adam Curtis' experimental BBC documentary films Hypernormalisation and Can't Get You Out Of My Head.

Stoltz, Kelley

Writing The Thread

Dandy Boy

***San Francisco songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kelley Stoltz returns with Writing the Thread, his 21st album and his second full-length release of 2026. Coming just months after May’s If You Don't Know Me, Buy Now, Writing the Thread captures Stoltz in an especially prolific stretch, still chasing songs, sounds and unexpected turns more than twenty albums into his career.Writing the Thread finds the melodic immediacy of Stoltz’s earliest recordings meeting the sharper edges, strange textures and restless experimentation that have increasingly colored his work.LP pressed on turquoise vinyl.

Incapacitants / Bastard Noise

Plagued Enigma - Split

Matism Records

**Two titans of noise combine.Side A; Incapacitants “Sudden Bath Fever”Side B: Bastard Noise “Future Flesh Fear & Counter Action"Includes a double-sided insert. Pressed on white vinyl with and orange blob and red splatter in an edition of 400 copies.

Fatboi Sharif & Driveby

Let Me Out

Deathbomb Arc

***Crafted on the trembling bedrock of this country's more turbulent times in recent memory, Fatboi Sharif & Driveby shred unease, rage, and passion in a blender and reassemble these fragments with equal sense of panic and precision. The result is an audio experience which holds a mirror up to the listener, reflecting a face you may not recognize. Hope remains throughout though, in tracks about conquering and freeing your mind from your own imprisonment of self doubt. Hidden potential, taking risks, and a distorted perspective are birthed as this creature they call LET ME OUT. Let Me Out is Fatboi Sharif's first full-length album for Deathbomb Arc. Sharif has also released albums on the Backwoodz Studioz label, POW, and Fused Arrow. His 2024 work garnered him best of the year mentions at Bandcamp, The Fader, and The WIRE. Fatboi Sharif tours the EU and the US East Coast in the fall of 2026.

Imperator

The Time Before Time

Nuclear War Now

***The story of Imperator is one that should not be entirely surprising, considering the band’s emergence in the Eastern Bloc country of Poland during the waning years of the Cold War and amid its oppressive effects in the region. The gifting of a primitive acoustic guitar to founding member Bariel by way of his mother in the summer of 1983 set into motion a series of events that would lead to the band’s formation in September of that year. Fifteen years old at the time, Bariel befriended a classmate that month at his new high school, invited his collaboration, and chose the name Imperator (Polish for “emperor”) for his “Speed Black Metal” band as a fitting reference to the brutality of the Russian czars and emperors, whose tyranny had in part led to Poland’s then-current state of affairs. A series of lineup changes occurred in the band’s formative years, during which they recorded their first demo, “Endless Sacrifice” (1987), whose distribution gained Imperator some degree of international recognition. A second live demo, entitled “Deathlive,” and the band’s third demo, “Eternal Might,” were released over the next two years as well. During this time, Bariel had developed a friendship with both Dead and Euronymous from Mayhem (Norway), which serves as a testament to the admiration the band had begun to garner in Europe despite its relative obscurity. In fact, Bariel was invited to play in another of Dead’s bands, The Moon, and Euronymous offered to release Imperator’s first full-length recording on...

Penetratorz

s/t

Dr. Strange

*** All new material from three original VOODOO GLOW SKULLS members: Eddie Casillas, Jorge Casillas and Joe McNally. Do NOT expect Voodoo on this one! This is more of a nod towards early ‘90s East Bay Lookout-esque Punk Rock that has more kick than a mule at a Donkey Show! The reviews are in, and they are ALL “over the top!” One of the best new releases from the Doc in a while now... Oh wait, they’re ALL great!

Blithe Field

Soft Core Hard Wear

Orindal

***Eighteen unknown zones visited. Corrupted flash game files reconstructed. Cartoon floppy disk factory on the night shift. Point and click memories. Soft Core Hard Wear.Lost in the loading screen. Perplexed at the plaza. Cat in the Christmas tree with the singing lights shorted. Soft Core Hard Wear.Trick candles melting onto the birthday cake. Movie theater patterned carpets being vacuumed after hours. Plumbing beneath the water park being repaired in the off-season. Soft Core Hard Wear.Soft Core Hard Wear is the new album from Spencer Radcliffe’s Blithe Field. A suite of eighteen moments made from synthesizer, sampler, and cassette tape. Accompanying the album is a full-length movie of the same name, comprised of warped and meted together found VHS tapes, color, and general video experiments.Have a nice day...

Cronin, Claire

The Bruise

Orindal

***Old radios. Ritual bells. A cawing crow. A mother singing in the darkness. These figures haunt The Bruise—the new album of heavy folk songs from musician and writer Claire Cronin.Her third release on Orindal Records after Big Dread Moon (2019) and Bloodless (2021), and crafted in the same spirit as her cult-favorite book, Blue Light of the Screen: On Horror, Ghosts, and God (2020), The Bruise is an immersive sequel in Cronin’s brand of folk horror.Inspired by the atmospheres of doom metal and the spectral, disintegrating layers of avant-garde drone music, The Bruise is evocative and textured, but still centered on Cronin’s voice and guitar. Vocals are tripled with eerie harmonies, like sad angels singing. Electric guitars are bent to sound like old radio transmissions. The warm, spiritual hum of a harmonium spills across tracks. An Irish bodhrán keeps time at loose intervals. Musical saws, ritual bells, and violas make the weather that Cronin’s voice wades through.

Smith, Sonelius And Adam Kahan

We'll Let You Know When We Find Out

577 Records

***"This record is the crystallization of a friendship and musical partnership that started when Sonelius and I first met in 2012, when I was making my documentary on Rahsaan Roland Kirk – The Case of the Three Sided Dream. Sonelius appears only briefly in the film, and that’s mainly because of his ethereal approach to conversation, answering questions, and life, really. He doesn’t so much answer a question, rather, his responses usually generate more questions and are almost always an invitation into further exploration of the unknown. He’s never one to respond with an easy answer or soundbite. And documentary film so often demands the easy, bite-sized answer. While he appears only briefly in the film, this was the seed of what has become a very deep friendship, profound musical collaboration, and spiritual journey into what we don’t already know.Playing with Sonelius is always an experience. Listening too. Being present. There is always an energy in the room—you feel it. It’s not just listening to music. It can be powerful. Or confusing. It can be wildly dynamic. Or flat. It can produce tears. Or puzzlement. And we can bomb. Hard. And (because Sonelius once told me he doesn’t like the word but - use and he says), every time we play, at some moment—perhaps throughout a glorious and almost flawless set, perhaps for only a few songs, perhaps only one moment in an otherwise train wreck of a night—Sonelius will play something so arresting, so different, so fresh, so unmatchable...

Los Gaiteros De San Jacinto, Fruko And Carmelo Torres

Madre Cumbia

Bad Vibes Good Friends

***Madre Cumbia—a historic collaboration between Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Fruko, and Carmelo Torres. More than an album, Madre Cumbia brings together the living roots of Colombian cumbia with the artists who have carried, transformed, and preserved its legacy across generations. From the ancestral sounds of the gaitas and drums to the accordion of the sabanas and the electric bass that helped redefine tropical music, this record celebrates the full arc of cumbia's evolution.

Heavenly Bodies

Mechanics

Carbon

***Heavenly Bodies makes music that unfolds in real time. Built around improvisation and shared musical frameworks, the band’s performances move between hypnotic grooves, expansive ambient passages, and bursts of raw emotion and intensity.Mechanics is the 6th full-length release from Philly based expansive and dense rock outfit Heavenly Bodies. Like previous releases, and their live sets, this release has multiple long tracks, slowly…. slooooowlyyyy…. building into heavy thick rock jams, some might call it psych, some might call it spacey, we call it superb!But with Mechanics, also brings a new dimension to the long-running Heavenly Bodies approach. Layered arrangements expand the band’s sound, while the spontaneity of their improvisational process remains at the core.

Nod

All I Know Is We're Standing Here Together

Carbon

***Like the hype sticker reads, Nod is somehow loose and tight simultaneously, both together and shambly in the same breath, knees-a-shakin’. Like the hand-made replicas of the band, photographs featured on the back of the jacket and insert, these songs seem to be yearning for an actual, hand-made, in-the-flesh, reality, moving away from technologies and screens (and AI!).Like a combination of the Velvet Underground and the Strapping Fieldhands. Hooky riffs and vocals, with a groove and warble that makes you shake your head (and butt). Also having a slight feeling of 90’s slack-rock, but with bits here and there reminiscent of an older era, the kind riding in big cars on hot days without air conditioning.A collective yearning for days away from the day job, getting on the road, floating down the river, just anywhere but the desk, the screen, the machine.

Mills, Amy Rose

i think we've met before

Brutal Panda

***Amy Mills is a musician and artist from NYC who plays guitar in cult noise rock act Couch Slut and emotional noise rock band Adult Human Females. Her self-recorded debut album is full of "delicate acoustic ballads haunted by darkness (and) punctuated by eruptions of noise."—Stereogumi think we've met before was mastered by Ben Greenberg (Depeche Mode, Drab Majesty) and features guest appearances from Theo Nobel (Couch Slut), Anya Good (Grumpy) and More Eaze.

Visiting Hour

Visiting Hour

Dig! Records

***"Where does the day end, and why must we lie still in images of past and present; amongst the multitudes of invocations brought forth on a Sunday afternoon; forever in contemplation of the wind and where it may lead. Now present, you find yourself wrapped in the warmth of indecision and possibility; as this record plays... as Visiting Hour takes you someplace familiar yet all the while unknown. For the sounds contained within this music are not all too distant, but this is not a mere regurgitation. This is a testament of truth; of passion built from years spent in the presence of one another. And with this release, the Richmond quintet has begun to plant a new seed in the sonic landscape of today, echoing the harmonious cacophony that is heard in Creation Record’s catalogue, while simultaneously blending the calming restraint of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker with the visceral, untethered instincts of Lungfish. And surely it would be a great omission to neglect Red House Painter's imprint on guitarist Kevin McCormick’s foundations; listen to the conclusion on 'New Eyes' and note a similar amalgamated and reserved beauty found on Songs for a Blue Guitar or Old Ramon... And one returns to these themes throughout the record, for its consistency is pure in every form. This is an introductory offering from Visiting Hour… from Kevin McCormick, Ren Schwarz, Willy Anderson, Brendan Reichhardt, and Zack Rogers. This is to ease the load; for this world is an increasingly unforgiving place,...

Exploding Flowers

Alphabet Window

Meritorio

***Los Angeles quartet Exploding Flowers return with Alphabet Window, their fourth and most accomplished album to date. Across twelve beautifully crafted songs, the band expands its signature blend of jangly guitars, soaring harmonies and richly layered arrangements, creating a record that feels both timeless and strikingly fresh.Drawing inspiration from melodic guitar-pop traditions without ever sounding nostalgic, Alphabet Window effortlessly balances immediacy and sophistication. Piano, organ, synthesizers, vibraphone and shimmering guitars enrich the band's warm, hook-driven songwriting, resulting in an album that reveals new details with every listen.Already praised by Bandcamp Daily as "a colorful and kind-spirited amalgamation... full of jangling guitars, handclaps and sparkling melodies," Exploding Flowers continue to establish themselves as one of the most exciting contemporary guitar-pop bands.Recommended if you like: Big Star, The Chills, Teenage Fanclub, The Soft Boys, The Bats, Fountains of Wayne, The Lemon Twigs, Papercuts.

Axis Sova:

Flowerage

God?

***Rock is rich krovvy that froths in the veins of Chicago’s Axis: Sova, the trio of Brett Sova, Jeremy Freeze, and Josh Johannpeter. They enjoy progressive tactics when spilling it: earworm hooks & phased/fuzzed guitars, metronomic time moving flexibly into a breathing frame. With visceral pull and elegant bloom in their new songs and sounds, Flowerage discovers how to get blood back out the rock, to focus an eye in the world’s chaos.

Verity Den

wet glass

Amish

***"Amish Records is excited to announce an October 24th release date for wet glass, the stately sophomore album from Carrboro, NC-based Verity Den. This eagerly awaited new record follows their 2024 debut, which was built from early demo recordings and quickly attracted a passionate following despite the raw origins.The new album was self-recorded and self-produced over the last year and is built upon the same foundational elements as their first album, noise, texture, ambience and simple songcraft, but wet glass has a wider ranging landscape. A bigger frame brings a bigger picture, but fear not, Verity Den has not forgotten what we’ve come to love about their sound. Just because it’s groomed doesn’t mean it’s 'clear'. It’s 2025, clarity is downright embarrassing and Verity Den has expertly mastered the skill of translating the current mind-fuck zeitgeist into a sonic snapshot. They are equally inner-political journalists as they are musicians. Casey Proctor, Trevor Reece, Mike Wallace and Reed Benjamin's musical simpatico is natural.wet glass flows between multiple zones including, but not limited to, the melodic Yo La Tengo Painful era drive of 'wet glass' and 'green drag', the loopy Flying Saucer Attack haze of 'unsolved mystery' and 'highway fifty four' or the loner neo-Fred Neil devotional 'to trees'. Impressionistic lyrics, effective songs and jams that sound warm and familiar. The make-up of wet glass is dense, yet simply beautiful. Unintentionally cinematic. Verity Den conjure a sound that soaks in like an Epsom salt bath after a long day of being pummeled...

P.P. Rebel

Devotee

Anti Fade

***P.P. Rebel is the harmonium-led, spiritually inspired project of Melbourne artist Paris Rebel Richens (Singer of Parsnip, Hierophants), who has been making all kinds of extraordinary sounds over the past fifteen years and has more recently found a new direction through the spiritual path of Kriya Yoga. Drawing on both Eastern spiritual traditions and Western influences such as The Incredible String Band, The Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett, and Skip Spence, P.P. Rebel has developed a sound distinctly its own: beautiful, calming, spiritually charming songs for the soul. Devotee was produced by Jack Crook at Sound Recordings on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, and mixed and mastered by local hero Mikey Young, resulting in a sound that feels natural and honest -- blending classic textures with Paris' reflective perspective and spiritual focus. The album artwork was created by Paris using pressed flower petals collected from altar arrangements at group meditations -- a process inspired in part by the work of Sally Stang. The central bird form is based on a photograph by Joel Sartore of a Superb Parrot, which Paris reimagined after noticing its resemblance to praying hands when viewed upside down. P.P. Rebel's debut is an album filled with love, joy and optimism, to be welcomed and enjoyed in any household.P.P. Rebel is the harmonium-led, spiritually inspired project of Melbourne artist Paris Rebel Richens (Singer of Parsnip, Hierophants), who has been making all kinds of extraordinary sounds over the past fifteen years and has more recently found a new direction through...

R.M.F.C.

Club Hits

Anti Fade

***Anti Fade Records presents the third pressing of Sydney-based R.M.F.C.'s classic debut LP, Club Hits. For those who read these things without listening first, you might ask: what does this R.M.F.C. sound like? If you could say anything about post punk it means post-Wire, who were past punk before punk had an opportunity to codify and become brilliant and stupid. Few bands manage to sound like all three Wire records, but R.M.F.C. are a Rock Music Fan Club. Anyone paying attention to underground Australian guitar overdose would relate: the R.M.F.C. Club Hits LP has been the culmination of five years of work, patience and discipline. If you've heard these songs live at any of their shows over the past couple of years you'll understand -- the wait is over and the result is exhilarating. Thinking of bands like Royal Headache, Dick Diver, and Eddy Current Suppression Ring, there's even been a fairly recent tradition of expanding styles of rock and roll (let alone the bigger, famous rock-centered acts). The Sydney based R.M.F.C., and the scene (or friend circle) from which it's emerging, is carrying a torch of rock music which has the potential of a wider appeal. Written, recorded and mixed by Buz in Burrill Lake and Sydney between January 2022 and April 2023. Mastered by Mikey Young. Painting by Oscar Sulich. Photos by Michael Vasila.

Christoph El Truento

Musical Power

Nudie Records

***Auckland Producer Christoph El Truento returns with Musical Power; his most precise record yet - sparse and detailed in the same breath, where every part, down to the smallest gesture, is doing exactly what it needs to do. Following Dubs from the Neighborhood and Peace Maker Dub, Musical Power is indebted to the early dub tradition. Warm tape, vintage keys, and melodica echo through the tracks. Each song unfolds as its own journey, and together they trace something bigger. More powerful than accompaniment, music is rongoā, prepared with care, the right amount for a spiritual ailment, healing and uplifting. For such a bold declaration, the sound does the humble carrying, prepared for headphone listening or sound system weight.

Country Risque

As the Crow Flies

Nudie Records

***As the Crow Flies from San Francisco queer honky-tonk institution Country Risqué evokes the vast wildernesses and extreme landscapes of the West Coast, drawing inspiration from the resourcefulness and mischief of coastal birds, which nested by the hundreds in the trees outside co-frontman Miles Gordon’s childhood home in Portland, Oregon.Recorded at the Peach House deep in the Sierra Nevada foothills, As the Crow Flies features a rugged and electrified sound generated by a six-piece band. The album includes covers of deep cuts from the Everly Brothers and Conway Twitty, along with songs of longing for the woody expanses of Oregon, where co-frontmen Daniel Bromfield and Miles Gordon met. Gordon’s songwriting overflows with natural imagery and childhood nostalgia, while Bromfield’s writing drifts into story-songs and period pieces, telling stories of women rebelling against societal expectations with dreamlike language that shifts the country towards the cosmic.Country Risqué prides itself on the eclectic musical backgrounds of its members, who record everything from psychedelic rock to ambient music to doom metal to crust punk on the side. As the Crow Flies is both the band’s most eclectic and most cohesive release thus far, a major level-up for a band that’s beginning to look like a central player in the Bay Area country-rock scene.

Last Agony

Death Wave

Sentient Ruin Laboratories

***Toronto’s berserk terror-crust raiders Last Agony return with their incinerating sophomore album. In its pulverizing twenty minutes "Death Wave" discharges an ear-splitting assault of blown-out raw hardcore punk and speed metal destruction doused in nuclear vice and ablaze with visions of a polluted, dark and violent world headed straight Into doom. Japanese noise-punk, scandinavian crust, UK d-beat and anarcho-punk, and various declinations of grind and speed metal all deliberately consumed by a raw and caustic production pushed to its limits, collapse into apocalyptic maelstrom of noise, speed and distortion in which the only law reigning is that of anarchy, chaos, and of no law at all. Fans of Doom, Anti-Cimex, Extreme Noise Terror and Napalm Death will instantly be drawn into the madness and destruction of Last Agony’s lawless assault, but this is far from just a mere throwback exercise. This is the sound of a broken world gone deaf, dumb and insane, and disintegrating into the wake of its own failures and horrendous self-destructiveness.

Water Damage

Repair

12xu

Water Damage were always destined to be veterans. It’s not only that its members are themselves veterans of a daunting roll call of groups, but that this particular juggernaut was born to birth a solid-to-the-core set of dispatches. The four performances that make up Repair rank among their best. The m.o. of listing their track titles “Reel 45,” “Reel 38,” etc. now registers as a clearsighted, long-game approach and a wise sidestepping to the nuisance and potential for distraction of giving these workouts programmatic titles. They’ll tell us the order in which they were laid down, but what else do you really need to know in advance?Because “in advance” with Water Damage seems largely irrelevant. It’s what happens when the sticks are clicked and the band lurches into gear, whether ten players or twice that number. In the case of Repair, it’s an even ten plus simpatico pals Wendy Eisenberg and Ricardo Dias Gomes.Repair what? Repair to where? Reel 45 charges out of the gate at what you might imagine to be peak intensity. But not yet. A frenetic beating of the traps—no slow burn here—becomes a mutated thrash beat and summons Mari Maurice’s Shepard tone-ish climb. Cymbals swell, everybody join in, safe to call it one of the group’s new high water marks. Also sounds like they’ve been doing cardio. Where do you go after that? Reel 38 is boppy garage rock with sneaky cellular subdivision, a splinter group let loose inside the broader band. Fiddle appropriately takes the...

Slater, J.D.

Elbow Deep In The Hoopla

Dark Entries

Dark Entries is Elbow Deep in the Hoopla thanks to J.D. Slater. Legendary actor, director, and composer J.D. Slater is sometimes known as “the Lou Reed of gay porn.” Slater cut his teeth in the New York punk scene, even opening for the Talking Heads and Blondie at CBGB with his project Frenzy. A true polymath of the erotic, he co-founded Raging Stallion Studios with Chris Ward in 1999, which has remained a prolific outlet in the world of gay pornography. Elbow Deep collects the scores from three late 1990s fisting-focused Club Inferno films: At Arm’s Length, Hand Over Fist, and Heads or Tails. Never before released, these works show Slater digging deeper into the electronic music production techniques that were blossoming in that era, like loop-based sampling. Says Slater, “Suddenly I could have access to every instrument in the world. My whole concept of sound and structure evolved with the technology.” The works here are trance-inducing groovers, laced with acid and dosed with brooding ambience. Check out the Gregorian vibes on “Grand Fuck,” the legato lurch of “Stallion Funk,” or the frosty atmospheres of “At Arm’s Length.” Elbow Deep in the Hoopla comes with an insert featuring an interview with J.D. Slater. Starkly sexy, these tracks remind us of Slater’s creed: “The main rule for writing a porn score is to remember what you are writing for.”

Slater, J.D.

Filling Your Silence

Dark Entries

Dark Entries is Filling Your Silence with the help of J.D. Slater. Legendary actor, director, and composer J.D. Slater is sometimes known as “the Lou Reed of gay porn.” Slater cut his teeth in the New York punk scene, even opening for the Talking Heads and Blondie at CBGB with his project Frenzy. A true polymath of the erotic, he co-founded Raging Stallion Studios with Chris Ward in 1999, which has remained a prolific outlet in the world of gay pornography. Having spent years in front of and behind the camera, 1999’s Filling Your Silence was his debut as maestro. This album collects the soundtracks from the first two Raging Stallion films - Sexpack One and Sexpack Two - to bring us nine tracks of sleazy beats and trance-like moments of pure ecstasy. Album opener “Seduction” begins with the iconic synthetic pan flute, one of the defining sounds of the 1990s, before pulling us along with its wild grooves. Halfway through its nine-and-a-half- minute course, it breaks down to bust out a jazzy electric piano vamp. “Running with Scissors” ups the tempo with some crunchy breakbeats to undergird its portamento-laced lead synth. Elsewhere, like on “Mercy” and “Mercy (2nd Movement),” we see Slater embracing a bleep-adjacent sound close to early Nightmares on Wax or 808 State. Filling Your Silence’s endless grooves pursue that oceanic feeling. This record comes with a one-sided insert that includes archival Raging Stallion press materials. In the words of the Bay Area Reporter, Filling Your Silence...

Savak

Door Deals & Debt: An Essential Collection From The First 10 Years

Ernest Jenning Record Co.

***Brooklyn’s SAVAK release Door Deals & Debt: An Essential Collection From The First 10 Years via their own Peculiar Works label, in conjunction with Ernest Jenning Record Co.Over the past decade, SAVAK have released seven albums, building a singular catalog of sharp, melodic post-punk driven by restless guitar work and an instinct for experimentation. At the heart of the band are Sohrab Habibion (Obits, Edsel), Michael Jaworski (The Cops), and drummer Matt Schulz (Holy Fuck, Enon).Door Deals & Debt distills those first ten years into a vital collection, tracing SAVAK’s evolution through cinematic Morricone-inspired textures, Velvets-style grooves, and the wiry, angular spirit of guitar heroes like Geordie Walker, Andy Gill, and John McGeoch.SAVAK occupies a particularly good corner of your record collection—somewhere between Radio Birdman, Omar Khorshid, and One Last Wish.Made by and for fans of Television, Wire, Mission of Burma, and Magazine.

Nace, Bill & Mike Polizze Duo

Live at Pageant : Soloveev

Sea Note

***Back in May of ‘25, Body/Head’s Bill Nace and Purling Hiss’ Mike Polizze launched an improv duo with an unhindered exhibition of full-spectrum free string playing at Philadelphia’s Pageant Soloveev. Mike + Bill, on gtr & taishōgoto respectively, their unique idioms colliding with sibilant crunch across twenty-three minutes of forever captured on iPhone and carved into vinyl. Wild molten rock to keep noise freeks spinning for eternity. Pressed on one-sided vinyl.

Jeanneau, Laurent

Brao Gongs of Ratanakiri

Sublime Frequencies

***This is raw, unfiltered ceremonial gong ensemble music recorded on location by Laurent Jeanneau in Ratanakiri, Cambodia's northeastern province, bordering Laos and Vietnam. Along with Mondolkiri to the south, it was once home to many of the country's ethnic minority communities. During the colonial period, the French failed to establish full control over the region. After independence, the Khmer state also struggled to govern it, while Khmer Rouge rebels hid in its forests in the 1960s amid the wider conflict between communist Vietnam and the United States. The Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975 and the subsequent Vietnamese occupation, which lasted until 1991, could have devastated the traditions of northeastern Cambodia's ethnic minorities. Yet during the 1980s and 1990s, Indigenous communities revived swidden agriculture, also known as slash-and-burn farming, and resumed gong playing, preserving their animist ceremonies and beliefs. Only in the 21st century have rubber plantations and corporate development, driven largely by dominant Khmer, Vietnamese, and Chinese interests, become a serious threat to the ways of life of these marginalized communities. This album features various gong ensembles being played during animist rituals and for drinking the fermented rice alcohol called Tavei. Instrumentation includes Nipple and flat gongs, bamboo tubes, male and female vocals, and drums. Limited edition of 500 vinyl copies with a two-page insert featuring detailed liner notes by Laurent Jeanneau and additional photos of the musicians.

V/a

Mekong Shellac: Cambodian Artifacts From The 78-Rpm Era

Sublime Frequencies

***Mekong Shellac is an extremely rare collection of classical and popular styles of Khmer music from the 1930s to the 1950s. Restored from the few original remaining copies, this compilation reveals a remarkable world of early 20th-century Cambodian folk music previously lost in time through war, cultural shifts, and modernization. These recordings were selected for their distinctive musical qualities, the physical condition of the 78 rpm records from which they were sourced, and the circumstances of their survival. The selections span a range of Khmer musical forms, including Chapey, Romvong, Lakon Basak, Pleng Khmer, Ayai, and Ayai Reung, as well as classical and court-derived traditions such as Pinpeat and Mahori, alongside popular and regional styles including Lamleav and Pleng Ka. It's a miracle these discs have survived at all throughout the past century. Restoration of these 78-rpm artifacts was a challenge, but considering that, of most songs appearing on the album, less than five copies are known to exist worldwide today -- with only two known copies of three tracks presented here, the songs survive magnificently. Produced by Adam Fargason with the critical assistance of Sam Touch and Mai Viết Cường, this limited-edition vinyl pressing comes with a deluxe 16-page booklet insert including highly detailed liner notes, essays and historical information about the recordings, and a selection of vintage photographs.

Sun Araw

Rapid Response

Sun Ark

***This new 12" EP from Sun Araw contains three long-form compositions that peer through a glimmering aperature into diaphonous realms of textural experience. Are their pros and cons of being lost in a thought?

Hot Load

Realized

Going Underground

***When punk started, it was a line in the sand—no other music was allowed. Motörhead were an exception, punk energy with some hard-rock gestures but single-minded enough to qualify. Discharge and early hardcore upped the tempos, but metal was still a foreign country. Lots of pent-up young people loved punk, and lots loved metal, so it wasn’t surprising that they started to blend into each other as the 80’s progressed. Most people who could play lead guitar wanted to PLAY LEAD GUITAR.The Japanese have always excelled at refining any idea they encountered. Bands like Gism, The Stalin, Gauze, Lip Cream, Kuro, Systematic Death and The Execute took punks rage and added metal’s scale. The world had a model for how this peanut butter cup could be perfected.Punk splintered into thrashier, spazzier, noisier, (and some poppier) directions. Indie, grunge, stoner rock, post-hardcore, and other flavors of the month came and went.Los Angeles’ Hot Load is the logical conclusion of this story. It’s hardcore punk, it’s metal, it’s classic rock, and if you wanna fight about it, you’re gonna lose. Punk rock fury, 2026 style. You’re welcome. —Geoffrey WeissMatt Trejo – VocalsSteven Preciado – GuitarChristopher V. Franco – BassMarvin Noyola – GuitarLucian Ray – DrumsProduced by Andrew Oswald At Paradise Studios

Dream Unending

Certain Uncertainties

20 Buck Spin

With their first two albums Dream Unending transformed the familiar architecture of death doom into a place of their own making. A language where cavernous heaviness could coexist with progressive rock, ambient music, jazz-informed improvisation and a disarming emotional candor. On new album Certain Uncertainties that expression remains intact, but its gaze has shifted. Where previous records often seemed to reach upward and outward, this one comes back down to earth: leaner in construction, rougher around the edges and possessed of a distinctly nocturnal atmosphere. Call it Adult Contemporary Doom perhaps; music of considerable weight that has nevertheless learned how much can be said by leaving certain things unsaid. Recorded with fewer layers and a deliberately more immediate instrumental approach, Certain Uncertainties gives the individual performances room to breathe. Derrick Vella’s guitars move through blues, jazz and progressive vocabulary with unusual freedom, at times carrying the open-ended character of American roots music into territory rarely encountered within doom. Justin DeTore’s drums are present throughout, lending the album a more physical momentum and helping its compositions arrive at their destinations with greater economy. Yet concision has not diminished Dream Unending’s taste for release: the opening and closing pieces in particular build toward enormous pressure points, while the spaces between allow Vella’s playing to wander, react and occasionally remain imperfect. Each song operates as its own vignette; part desert reverie, part after-hours noir; with traces of Western landscape, dim rooms and empty roads running throughout the album. That earthbound quality suits an...

Roth, Chuck

Texture Songs

Palilalia

"'I have this Pavlovian response where I just expel songs,” Chuck Roth explains. For the New York-based guitarist, the LP format is less a definitive product than a snapshot of his daily life and growing artistic practice. With last year’s watergh0st songs, Roth was dedicated to 'mapping every voice, seeing where they come together and fall apart.' He’s more interested in materiality on his new album, the expressive and intimate Texture Songs. Across its seven tracks, he excavates the particularities of his Stratocaster, be it the guitar’s characteristic pickups or capacity for volume swelling. Traces of some Texture Songs have existed for at least five years, evolving with every live performance, but their presentation on this album represents Roth in the now. At times that means technique. 'Gun' is built on a curiosity for hitting harmonics on the bottom string, letting them ring out, while 'Siren' is similarly defined by sustained buzzing sounds while string crossing. 'I get really into the shape of each note,' he says. You can sense that curiosity in the album’s raw presentation, where every song invites a full feeling of every plucked note, every slide across the fretboard. On the shapeshifting 'Highway,' it sounds like you’re there in the room with him, hearing his breath, sensing the shape of every chord, tracing each split-second change in attacking the guitar. Roth has felt most comfortable talking about his work with painters and visual artists, favoring descriptions via color and brightness over any technical language. It relates...

Biafra, Jello And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine

Audacity Of Hype

Alternative Tentacles

***BACK IN PRINT ON BLACK OR LIMITED SOLID BABY BLUE VINYL!!! In the twenty or so years since his brainchild, The Dead Kennedys, officially disbanded, Jello Biafra has made a career of spoken word gigs interspersed with musical collaborations with some of the most compelling figures in underground music. Recording projects and touring with the likes of Melvins, NoMeansNo, DOA, Mojo Nixon, and Lard (with Ministry's Al Jorgensen) among others have kept his "punk as political weapon" message sharp, but the lack of his own band made these collaborations usually short-lived and left Biafra with a ton of songs that never saw the light of day.Inspired by The Stooges gig on Iggy Pop's 60th birthday in San Francisco, Biafra laid plans for his own 50th birthday party and finally decided it was time to start a band of his own. After cramming practices for a month, the four-piece dubbed themselves Jello Biafra and the Axis of Merry Evildoers! and featured Biafra, Ralph Spight (Victims Family, Freak Accident, Hellworms), Jon Weiss (Sharkbait, Horsey), and Billy Gould (Faith No More) The band took the stage in a sold-out two-night stand at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. Flush from that exhilarating triumph, nine months of rehearsal and writing followed; they added ace guitarist Kimo Ball (Freak Accident, Carneyball Johnson, Mol Triffid, Griddle), and christened themselves Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. The Audacity of Hype was produced by Biafra and engineered by hip hop producer and longtime co-conspirator Matt Kelley...

Burnside, R.L.

Too Bad Jim

Fat Possum

***BACK IN STOCK!!! R.L. Burnside's album Too Bad Jim is a record worth owning. “I didn't mean to kill nobody ... I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head.

Kimbrough, Junior

God Knows I Tried

Fat Possum

***BACK IN STOCK!!! "...we went into the backwoods of the Delta, where there was an illegal Sunday Juke Joint run by Junior Kimbrough, who was a contemporary of Muddy Waters...The whole thing was extraordinary - like an IV introduction to the blues." - Bono (of U2)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

s/t (Black Vinyl)

Fat Possum

***BACK IN STOCK ON BLACK VINYL!!! UMO was initially conceived by New Zealand native, Ruban, to release some tracks via a Bandcamp page to promote his limited addition vinyl in 2010. He pieced a band together, with a skilled producer, Jake, on bass and a brilliant teenage drummer named Julian to fill out the band. They are based in Portland.

Ultha

Belong

Vendetta

***ULTHA's ninth release in five years and features two extended tracks—"No Fire, Only Smoke" (17:04) and "Constructs of Separation" (21:07). “Ultha have done it again, somehow. Converging Sins is the sort of album that any band would be lucky to release once in their career, but with Belong, Ultha proves that they are among black metal’s most inspired forces. This is atmospheric black metal, with strong elements of doom intertwined now and again, that you do not simply listen to—no; you feel it. Ultha are communing with some unseen force, and through their dense sonic tapestries, they afford us the same opportunity. Recommended!”—Ippocalyptica

Totalitar

Sin Egen Motstandare

Prank

***BACK IN PRINT!!! Sin Egen Motstandare was originally released in 1994 on CD-Only By Finn Records. A reunion album of sorts, the reconstituted band sought to get back their original hardcore roots, while at the same time sparking a direct reaction to the rising right wing political climate of time in Sweden. One of the all-time most rampaging Swedish Punk albums, it affirmed the band's template of D-beat hardcore that they continually challenged and re-imagined for another decade and a half of releases, and inspired a legions of bands worldwide. This 30th Anniversary edition is a 1-time press at RTI with a stoughton tip-on gatefold with spot gloss, new liner notes from the band, unique center labels for the release, a printed inner sleeve, a reprint poster of the flyer for the original CD release show.

Amp

Stenorette

Kranky

***The third album from this UK dream'n'drone duo returns to the drifting sound of their first album with an emphasis on rhythms, lock stepping, and clattering percussion to move the music through. Many of the songs were composed on the piano for a more delicate sound to loop drones, grooves, guitar and vocals around. Twelve dreamable tracks.

Defiance

No Future No Hope

Puke N Vomit

***30th Anniversary Repress on Green Vinyl!!! Latest pressing of Definance's eternally relevant debut full length from 1996, No Future No Hope. Defiance cut through the Gordian Knot of screamo, crust, power violence and metalcore that dominated the mid-90's underground punk scene, opting instead to deliver a decidedly UK82 influenced street punk attack. The resulting No Future No Hope full length has aged like a fine wine (or spanged cider, if we're staying on theme), with a sound time has been far kinder to than their contemporaries, and a message of uncompromising political outrage as relevant today as the era it was penned. Oh, here's a fun suggestion: tell a middle aged punk it's been 30 years since this album came out and see how long they stare into the middle distance.

Water Damage

Repeater

12xu

***"There is something really special about music based on drones. Whether it's the vocals of Pandit Pran Nath, the ARP 2500 of Eliane Radigue, or the nearly-blown amps of Sunn O))), by changing the listeners's focus on details to one that favors flow, drones are uniquely capable of transporting our brains far far away. The debut LP, 'Repeater', by this loudly droning Austin septet is a goddamn splendid example of how the process works. Using the motto, “Maximal Repetition Minimal Deviation,” Water Damage create glowing fields of post-rock lava that pretty much suck you right in and boil you alive. Water Damage, while technically a septet, actually operate in various configurations, with the proviso there should always be two drummers and two bass players on hand. They prefer if each of their sonic ideas takes up a whole reel of tape, and once they start they don't look back. Everything proceeds towards an imaginary end point that is only achieved when the tape starts flapping. What a way to run a railroad! But the folks in the band are all vets of various projects—Spray Paint, USA/Mexico, Marriage, Black Eyes, Thor & Friends, among others—so let's assume they know what they're doing. And why not? They sound fucking great. Their approach to the form is less front-loaded than most of their peers, and the surface of their sound is sometimes ruffled by aural events of an un-drone-like nature. But the main gush is usually a blend of harmonic tones and textures pointing towards...

Sex Messiah

Metal Del Chivo

Nuclear War Now

***Sex Messiah returns from the Satanic brothels of Japan to satiate our depraved appetites for morally-corrupt black metal with four new tracks and five live tracks. Although their overall sadistic formula remains consistent with prior atrocities, their language of choice has shifted to Spanish, providing a new vehicle to spread their gospel of fornication and degradation.

Retail Simps, Tha

Reverberant Scratch: 9 Shots In Tha Dark

Total Punk

***What if the Velvet Underground had written ‘Wooly Bully’ and Sam The Sham ‘Sister Ray?' If Ron House picked up some bongos and joined CCR or If Half Japanese and Hasil Adkins started a Meters cover band? This is the scrap yard of the Retail Simp's mind. Gang activity started when moldy Joe (Celluloid Lunch, Itchy Self...) enlisted fellow rhythm bro, Tom tha Moleanderthal (Feeling figures, Hélène Barbier band...) to make a perfect record in the Ides of corona March. A million Doll hairs and several rock bottoms later, the idea was to make something that would easily fall apart, this was executed with Montreal's best and brightest in the wings, lending a foot (all in the name of bogtime[sic] exposure). Bathroom-stall-wart and Barstool-smart Chrispy Burns (Terminal Sunglasses, American Devices…) was brought in to add his patented 'racket roll' guit-o-rama. James "Gogo" Goddard (SkinTone, Egyptian Cotton Arkestra...) skronked his reliable sax machine and the ticket was printed. Short on practice and high on ideas, thee Retail Simple Tones were born, well traveled and unraveled individuals, bound by a musical adventure. Now to show for it, Reverberant Scratch is a 9 track ruckus of tinny guitar sketching, horn-honking deliberations, keyboardarific doodles, and whatever else one can summon in a basement to bang on. It's a ramshackle party stabber. Loose, loud, and 100% TOTAL PUNK!!!

Carter, Daniel / Evan Strauss / 5-track / Sheridan Riley

The Uproar In Bursts Of Sound And Silence

577 Records

***The Uproar in Bursts of Sound and Silence is a sort of emergent collage that came together over four years of composition, improvisation and production. The foundations for this album were initially recorded in 2018 by producer/engineer Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Skinyard) at Soundhouse in Seattle, WA with myself (Evan Strauss, electric bass and upright bass), 5-Track (Guitar) and Sheridan Riley (Drums). The initial foundations of this music consisted of my long-form graphically notated conceptual compositions based on the calls of the Veery songbird (Catharus fuscescens), the astrological transits at the precise time of the recording session and some thematic elements from Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed.   In 2019 the album was given the working title Bird Songs for the Stars and I commissioned the cover art, Night Fisher, from Jeane Cohen. Also around this time, Daniel Carter had emphatically told me, “I’m going to become a rapper by the time I turn 90.” So, a few weeks later Daniel and I were hanging out, recording music and eating stir fry in my Ditmas Park apartment and I convinced him to make some progress on his goals by recording his voice into a microphone. Daniel began by recording an excerpt from Virginia Woolf’s The Waves and continued by recording some of his own poetry.  The recordings of Daniel from that afternoon would eventually make their way onto this album alongside my own experimentations in production inspired by Lee Scratch Perry, J Dilla and Ingram...

White Lightning

Thunderbolts Of Fuzz

Riding Easy

Standout favorites of Riding Easy Records’ Brown Acid compilation series, White Lightning’s stellar discography of rare and under-appreciated heavy psych, proto-metal rock gets a vital revival for new generations to learn how swinging, swaggering and often blazingly fast rock’n’roll is done. White Lightning was formed in Minneapolis, MN in 1968 by guitarist Tom “Zippy” Caplan and bassist Woody Woodrich after leaving garage psych band The Litter (themselves popular standouts from the Nuggets and Pebbles series of garage rock rarities.) Originally a power trio, the band later expanded to a five-piece in 1969 while shortening its name to Lightning. The quintet’s brilliant and rare 1970 self-titled album on Pickwick International’s P.I.P. imprint provides six of the ten tracks on Thunderbolts Of Fuzz. The original White Lightning trio only released the one 45-rpm single “Of Paupers And Poets” during their existence (on local Hexagon label in 1968, later reissued by major label ATCO Records in 1969.) A long out-of-print posthumous album released in 1995 gathered unreleased recordings, three of which are found here. This rounds out this collection of recorded highlights from the band’s rocky history. Taking their name from a particularly potent type of LSD, White Lightning laid out from the start that it was not cute and cuddly ’70s rock. In fact, the band’s aggressive tempos are like punk rock way before punk. However, their dirty blues groove and musical prowess shows the band was more than unrefined ne’er-do-wells, they had true versatility.

Ruth, Rich

I Survived, It's Over

Third Man

***Recorded under a loft bed in the guest bedroom of his Nashville home, MICHAEL RUTH aka RICH RUTH's I Survived, It’s Over starts in a humble space. And while many contemporary music projects are produced in such an environment, I Survived, It’s Over sets itself apart in its transformative properties as well as its transparency. What we have here is honest sound exploration, session musician-level instrumentation, and a true love for nature run through the fingers of a dude who can channel some acute and undeniable magic. Underneath the swell of the strings and the shredding of the guitars, this record has hard working, rustbelt, drum-heavy roots all over it (which makes sense as Ruth hails from outside of Toledo, the album was mixed by JOHN MCENTIRE from Chicago band Tortoise). Many of the flutes, saxophones, pedal steel, and other instruments were recorded remotely because we live in the future, but this only adds to the collage of sampled and sample-able material that Rich Ruth has to offer. The organic relationships between the artist and other musicians on the album is evident even in the compilation style sampling that needs to occur in putting such a project together. I Survived, It’s Over is a record you should buy for your friend, your foe, and yourself. It’ll sit perfectly on your shelf between Alice Coltrane and Hiroshi Yoshimura.

Dead Void

Volatile Forms

Dark Descent

After some silence since their magnificent demo, Dead Void return from the depths to bestow a crushing debut album—Volatile Forms—upon the world. Drawing in on doomy, yet certainly not meek, atmospherics—the sheer monstrous tone of which will pin one to the wall—it is clear this is something unwieldy. Murmuring bass seeps through buzzing guitars in a manner that sounds profoundly unwelcoming, while the daunting vocals and crashing drums give no alleviation from the bludgeoning force. While the hostile and claustrophobic sounds of this record cannot be ignored, equally impactful are the grooves which hit like a hammer of pure malice when carefully spliced with the caverns of eerily contorting death metal. When the pounding drums break through the guitars, they have a real hard tone, while the seeping filth of the strings is not overshadowed. Clearly the three demos and spacing between them have allowed the band to develop into the best version of themselves, as on this debut album one hears a refined but unpolished and inhospitable cut of truly awesome music taking form. Moving forth, the hooks, the grooves, the expanses of doom and desolation, all conjure something inescapable and dread-tinged while the malignant hammering of pure old school violence is not lost or forgotten, as warped riffs and blast-beats meet gutturally-spewed vocals and occasional lead oddities. Contrasting often nuanced moments with an assault of bestial ferocity, there is no predictability or obvious pattern, rather a chaotic and honest approach to all of the songs. These tracks move...

Warmers

s/t

Dischord

***The Warmers' full-length record, released in 1996.

Juliff, Simon

Stars

Dog Meat Records

Much-loved Melbourne rock 'n' roll label Dog Meat Records returns with first solo release from former singer/guitarist/songwriter of The Roys and God / Hoss / Powder Monkeys associate, Simon Juliff The first new Dog Meat release in over a quarter of a century is the new single “Stars”, taken from the forthcoming album of the same name, from reticent Melbourne pop-rock singer/songwriter Simon Juliff. Juliff, who was singer/guitarist/songwriter for Melbourne band The Roys in the ‘00s, was a friend of many of the ‘90s Melbourne bands on Dog Meat and nearly a Dog Meat signing with his first band The Evil Dead. Produced by long-time friend Joel Silbersher (God, Hoss, Tendrils etc) and featuring backing from members of Hoss and Kim Salmon & the Surrealists, “Stars” – both the new single and the forthcoming album - combines brightly dappled glimmers of classic pop-rock melodicism with a darkened, frazzled vibe.

Owners, The

s/t

Dischord / Red Room Records

***THE OWNERS are a band from Washington DC, featuring DANTE and CATHERINE FERRANDO, ALEC BUDD and LAURA HARRIS. Over the years, they have played in bands ranging from IRON CROSS, GRAY MATTER, THE SHIRKS and EX HEX. Their first full-length is a split between Red Room Records and Dischord The vinyl is a limited edition pressing on splatter vinyl.

Raffa, Ryan J

4 e and a

Group Tightener

***4 e and a is about the infinite spaces between. As a classically trained percussionist, RYAN J RAFFA has sat in front of a metronome for the majority of their life. In their mind, they would play with the spaces between those clicks. In especially challenging times, they would attempt to expand and stretch those spaces into forever. Just existing in the between. This record is about these moments (and places) living in those infinite spaces. The title "4 e and a" is a play on words, in reference to counting and subdividing rhythmic patterns. Ryan would need to play these patterns on a drum as a child. “4 e and a” is also a reference to a country or a place with a name. Like Argentina is a place, "4 e and a" (said run all together) sounds like a country. A place we all know about and sometimes go to because it's beautiful and full of spirit, but it also can be a bit unnerving, uneasy, and eerie when we explore new places there. In mathematics, we have Cantor's diagonal argument and the understanding that the infinity between each integer (such as between 1 and 2) is larger than the infinite space that every integer that exists can fill. Like, one infinity is larger than another infinity? Huh?! When you start subdividing time (like 1 e and a, 2 e and a, 3 e and a, 4 e and a), you start creating those ever-expanding spaces, one larger...

Paranoid

Satyagraha

Paranoid Northern Discs

***PARANOID's first album is a manic, noise-drenched d-beat assault. 10 tracks that capture us at our rawest and most aggressive period up to this date. Part of the band's First Ten Years 2012-2022 vinyl reissue series. "Whether you’re the old guy at the bar with the Discharge tattoo, or the 14 year-old who just discovered punk, Paranoid will bring out your inner discontent. D-beat is an interesting genre, either you do it well, or you don’t. Paranoid, dare I say, have completely mastered the genre and everything from their tone to their album artwork embodies what it means to be in a d-beat band. There is no bullshit attached to this record"—CVLT Nation

Amba, Zoh + William Parker, Francisco Mela

O Life, O Light Vol. 2

577 Records

***New York-based Zoh Amba first cultivated her musical passion in the lush forests of the Appalachian mountains, playing to the woods around her home, before she studied at classical conservatories. Her music honors her roots, full of folk melodies, mesmerizing refrains, repeated incantations and powerfully-executed Free Jazz. Her sound is courageous and bold, soaring from muted hums to squeaky trebles, producing a confident sound imbued with an innate spirituality. On this project, Zoh Amba is joined by legendary artists William Parker (Bass, Gralla) and Francisco Mela (Drums), named the 2021 musician of the year by The New York City Jazz Record, who temper her daring saxophone with a lush percussive foundation and a steady bassline.

Fossilization

He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten

Transylvanian Recordings

***Ritualistic, Primeval Death Metal from Brazil. Featuring members of Jupiterian. For fans of Dead Congregation & Portal.

Black Witchery

Holocaustic Death March To Humanity's Doom

Nuclear War Now

***Fifteen years ago, Black Witchery and Conqueror, both still virtually unknown outside of a small cult of maniacal blasphemers, united for the split release entitled “Hellstorm of Evil Vengeance.” Exploring a style that few North American bands dared approach at that time, Black Witchery and Conqueror inherited their extremist tendencies from the likes of Blasphemy and Sarcofago among others. Looking back, the release can now be regarded as something of a statement of intent in that it signified the establishment of a second wave of Bestial Black Metal and set the course for the future of the genre. Although external circumstances would necessitate the termination of Conqueror’s mission immediately following the release of the split, J. Read continued treading the path of the Superion with Revenge and R. Forster was initiated into the ranks of Blasphemy. Black Witchery also persisted through the years, assuming a well-deserved, prominent place among the bestial legions. Since the split release in 2000, Black Witchery and Revenge have shared numerous stages all over the world and maintained a united front within the underground. Similarly, NWN!, which also began its campaign of atrocities in 2000, established its dominion over the chthonic depths of the Bestial Black Metal underground. Having settled into their respective roles as progenitors of a particular faction of extreme metal, it is time to assemble the unholy triumvirate of Black Witchery, Revenge, and Nuclear War Now! once more. For this release, Black Witchery turn in one of the band’s most primitive and punishing...

Darts, The

Snake Oil

Alternative Tentacles

***NOW ON LIMITED GREEN VINYL!!! Note new price.At last! The Darts return from their Bat Cave Covid lair, with Snake Oil—by far their best album to date. The Darts formed in 2016 with the goal of getting some solid female musicians together to make garage punk rock and roll noise, see the world, and basically have a super-fun slumber party every night. They are now hands down one of the best garage bands in the world. This is a much fuller sound than any Darts disc before, courtesy of their longtime collaborator Bob Hoag (FB Rec) and some remote control co-production wizardry from Jello Biafra himself. Featuring the return of Nicole Laurnne on vocals / Farfisa and Hammond organ, Christina Nunez on bass / vocals, and Meliza Jackson on guitars / vocals, Snake Oil is the debut of new drummer Mary Rose Gonzales. The result? It comes out smoking as if the band had been in a pressure cooker throughout the pandemic. Expect the wider sound and sparkle of Laurnne and Nunez’s previous band, The Love Me Nots (which was also recorded by the brilliant Bob Hoag), but with way more raunch—and Laurnne’s voice has never sounded better. Snake Oil is for fans of agile, sultry vocals and beefy, vintage rhythm sections paired with razor-tone guitars. This Snake Oil was concocted to remedy the most unaffected and stiff-legged garage rockers out there!

V/a

Heroes of the Night Vol. 2

Reminder

***The sequel without equal: the second installment in the Heroes Of The Night compilation universe is now here! Picking up exactly where the first volume left off and featuring a cast of twelve of the best and scarcest D.I.Y., powerpop, punk and new wave 45 tracks from the likes of JACKIE, L’HOMME DE TERRE, BRENDA PRESCOTT, AQUILA and more. Something for the girl with everything or the boy who thinks he’s heard everything, Heroes Of The Night Volume 2 continues Reminder Records’ campaign to showcase the talents of post-punk’s female musical innovators and pioneers.

Kimbrough, Junior & Soul Blues Boys

Sad Days Lonely Nights

Fat Possum

A reissue of the infamous late Kimbrough's second album. Raw rocked, and laid bare blues recorded at Junior's juke joint and produced by Robert Palmer.

Underground River

Life Cycle, Delicate Song

Nudie Records

***Underground River is the solo project of Johnson City, NY based artist, multi-instrumentalist, and recording engineer, Hunter Davidsohn. On his album, Life Cycle, Delicate Song Hunter weaves a sonic tapestry combining elements or baroque pop, chamber psychedelia, and left field recording techniques to take the listener on a surprisingly romantic journey through heartbreak and self reflection. The whole affair is anchored by Hunter’s unmistakable and singular baritone voice that washes over you and sends you adrift. From the Syd Barrett-esque stroll of “Pour Some Tea” to the tormented and clear eyed beauty of “It Continues” the album moves through styles effortlessly without ever feeling like anything less than a cohesive and exquisite portrait by a rare artist. In the words of Hunter, “It’s an album for people who have been saved by music” and we couldn’t agree more.

Les Lullies

Mauvaise Foi

Slovenly

****As smokin’ as they are, previous releases from LES LULLIES were rushed through with impossible deadlines and little time to consider the ends. Mauvaise Foi—their new LP with resolutely French title (and their first record almost fully sung in the tongue)—takes a more laid back approach to manifest the desired energy, finding the boys swimming in a sea of change from their usual methodology. The result is streamlined rock’n’roll with a new purpose: a stark contrast from yesterday’s news while remaining truly Lullies. Mauvaise Foi sounds more personal and fleshy, dabbling in influences from Phil Spector to the Real Kids, classic punk from the Normandy scene (Fixed Up, Dogs, Sub Kids), and brimming with subtle, headphone-worthy layers and details. Mauvaise Foi (“Bad Faith”) as a title sums up this full-length with accuracy. Sometimes tackling somber subjects with tongue planted firmly in cheek, has no qualms breaking free to resonate with hilarity and their trademark cockiness like a brakeless derailing bullet train. Contained herein are stories about real-life characters sung by slightly mendacious rock’n’roll adventurers.

50 Miles Of Elbow Room

Issue # 2

50 Miles of Elbow Room

***The second issue of this "lively and thoughtful" magazine is a 112-page book with extensive features on HAMID DRAKE (11,000 word historical and philosophical interview), OTHA TURNER (excellent interview wth the 90+year-old fife player), REVEREND CHARLIE JACKSON (untouchable '70s gospel guitar scorcher), LOUIS MOHOLO (WILLIAM PARKER interviews the great South African expatriate drummer), JUNE TYSON (a hail to SUN RA's righteous and radiant singer, dancer, and violinist, includes PHIL SCHAAP's never-before-published interview from '87), and ROBERT PETE WILLIAMS (retrospective on this blindingly original improvising bluesman). 8" x 8", perfect bound.

Afterhours

Collaborations of Sound And Visuals

Afterhours

***Japan’s Afterhours Magazine celebrates twenty issues with a special book-and-CD issue. Includes collaborations between fifteen international illustrators and fifteen international musicians with beautiful visuals and wonderful sounds. Includes music from MICE PARADE, ISAN, MONTAG, JOSHUA LA RUE, MUM + ADAM PIERCE, ULTRA LIVING, LONESOME ORGANIST, HIM, SPOOMBUG (aka KEV HOPPER), and more. Japanese import.

Svenonius, Ian F.

Supernatural Strategies For Making A Rock’n’Roll Group

Akashic

Badaboom Gramophone

Issue # 5

Ba Da Bing!

***The long-anticipated fifth issue comes out cracking with a wide range of subjects, including Cognitive Abnormalites Relating to Music, RAYMOND SCOTT, the newly discovered "No Exit Act II" by JEAN PAUL SARTRE, Twisted Village Records, MATMOS & FRANKLIN BRUNO, DAVID FOSTER WALLACE, a Consumer's Guide to ROBERT CHRISTGAU's Consumer Guide, and more. Includes a tribute to Raymond Scott CD with unreleased tracks from SOLEX, CEX, AROVANE, GEOMETRIC FARMS, ENSEMBLE, TELSTAR PONIES, BOGDAN RACZYNSKI, and more.

Blank Forms

Blank Forms, Vol. 3: Henning Christiansen: Freedom is Around the Corner

Blank Forms

Brother Jt

Black Journal / Non Compos Mantis

Brother JT Inc.

***The Brodge's second book of "Spirit Transcriptions and Advice For Living" is a spiffy, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2, 148 page, b&w expressway to the Id. Much the same in spirit as the larger, more colorful (and pricey) Orange Journal, Black Journal's main departure is the extensive use of typeface instead of direct scannings from the hand-scrawled journal, so as to make the maddening gibberish a might bit easier to read. Of course there are still some pages left un-transcribed for authenticity's sake, and many original and collages as well. Automatic writings, drawings, collages, and pure BROTHER JT magic. Companion CDR, Non Compos Mantis, which derives many song lyrics from Black Journal, is also included.

Mr. Pottymouth

Pussy Pow Wow

Chronoplastics

***The long-awaited (?) testimonial of the enigmatic MR. POTTYMOUTH, frontman for the rock outfit ARAB ON RADAR. A volatile collection of depraved poetry, lyrics and prose, delivered with candor, emotion, retarded adolescence and twisted morality.

Callahan, Bill

Ballerina Sketchpad

Drag City