Upcoming Releases

Le Motel

Pozo de Agua

Constellation Tatsu

***Brussels-based producer, composer, and field recordist Le Motel has developed a distinct body of work rooted in environmental sound, collage, and immersive electronic composition. Across releases, collaborations, and audiovisual projects, his music blends ambient textures, rhythmic experimentation, field recordings, and downtempo electronics into transportive listeningexperiences.Le Motel is also the founder of the Brussels label Maloca Records and has become known for projects that incorporate recordings gathered through travel and collaboration. His acclaimed release Odd Numbers / Số Lẻ drew from recordings made in Vietnam and explored the intersection of ambient composition, documentary sound, and experimental electronic music. Pozo de Agua continues Le Motel’s exploration of atmosphere, texture, and place through a fluid palette of ambient electronics, organic detail, and layered sonic environments. Most of the tracks were created outdoors or in transit, primarily on trains, emerging from what Le Motel describes as “a very natural and emotional process” of translating feelings, memories, and passing thoughts into sound. The album treats environmental sounds — ripples, water drops, movement, and air — with the same importance as traditional instruments, allowing elements to drift in and out like ocean waves while forming subtle polyrhythms and overlapping textures.Working at the intersection of ambient, experimental electronic music, balearic downtempo, and new age-inspired sound design, Le Motel creates music that feels both intimate and expansive. His approach combines processed acoustic elements, environmental recordings, and soft electronic structures into compositions that reward deep listening while maintaining an understated emotional pull.For listeners drawn to exploratory ambient music, environmental...

Leimer, K.

At The First Clear Sound

Palace Of Lights

Some more new music made with a system of hand-drawn, modular passages rearranged in coherent and incoherent signatures.  The tracks of At the First Clear Sound are stubbornly absent of improvisation, solos, virtuosity, and compositional form while being full of naïveté, a harsh smoothness, an agitated calm, and inharmonic harmonics. Dazzled by the automatic nature of this modular technique Leimer worked quickly, choosing to respect his mistakes and question his choices. “As reliant as the music is on computers, samples, digital processing, and typing, this work is still rather imperfect, rather handmade. And, of course, my compulsion to work with infinitely pliant sound is now clearly bordering on mild psychosis.”  Technically, there’s never a final mix. K. Leimer founded Palace of Lights in 1979. Leimer’s work has also been issued by Autumn, First Terrace, Les Giants, Invisible Inc., Origin Peoples, and RVNG. His early cassette work is included in the critically acclaimed VOD box set ‘American Cassette Culture’ and is included in Cherry Red’s ‘Noise Floor’ series. Leimer has been actively producing music since the mid 1970s—his current catalog includes solo albums, soundtracks, installations, and collaborative albums with Savant, Marc Barreca, Tyler Boley, and Three Point Circle. We are told his work is included in the collection of The British Library.

Smug Brothers

Pinhole to Vortex

Anyway

Most bands spend their careers trying to make important records. Smug Brothers have always kept busy making records that become important to you when you least expect it. That's been Kyle Melton's secret weapon all along. While everyone else is chasing reinvention, fashion, or the Next Big Statement, Smug Brothers keep uncovering another impossible melody, another sideways guitar figure, another chorus that sneaks into your bloodstream and refuses to leave. Each album feels like finding a battered notebook filled with perfect pop songs someone accidentally left behind. Pinhole to Vortex is that notebook exploding into a universe. This isn't simply another collection of irresistible Midwestern indie rock. It's the sound of a band that's been quietly perfecting its own private language for decades and suddenly speaking it louder, wider, stranger, and with more confidence than ever before. Every song feels connected by invisible threads—garage rock rubbing shoulders with psychedelia, power pop shaking hands with dream logic, acoustic confessionals giving way to electric storms. The road to Pinhole to Vortex was anything but hurried. Recording began in June 2024, overlapping with sessions that would ultimately produce Stuck On Beta. Across four guitar/drums tracking sessions and an additional solo acoustic session, Melton and drummer Don Thrasher—along with bassist Kyle Sowash and guitarist Ryan Shaffer—recorded more than twenty-five songs, continuing to write new material almost until the recording machine stopped rolling. Like all the best Smug Brothers records, the album wasn't assembled according to some grand master plan—it evolved organically, song by song,...

French Paddleboat

Fleeced At Golden Hour

Triple Crown Audio Recordings

Fussell, Jake Xerxes

The Old Beloved Path

Fat Possum

***Jake Xerxes Fussell has established himself as a devoted listener and contemplative interpreter of folk songs, drawing from a deep personal reservoir of favorites. The Old Beloved Path, Fussell's sixth album, is raw and intimate, stripping away outside noise and settling into a hypnotic rhythm. Tradition and memory intertwine throughout.

Ruby Of Thanks

Before You Turn Into A Dog

Woodsist

Ruby of Thanks is the songwriting and home-recording project of Hudson Valley musician Andy Weaver. A fourth-generation New Yorker, Weaver is also a house painter and drummer whose work has included Widowspeak, Castanets, Wildflower, and Andre Ethier. With Ruby of Thanks, he turns toward something quieter: intimate, handmade songs that find beauty in ordinary life.Before You Turn Into A Dog is the project’s second full-length album. Split between solo recordings made at Weaver’s home in Kingston—where he played every instrument himself—and collaborative sessions with friends in Cairo and Catskill, the record values process as much as polish. Several songs preserve their very first complete performances, documenting ideas as they emerge rather than after they’ve been refined.“Hopefully it captures some spirit of creation,” Weaver says. “The idea of songwriting as a way to process events and create peace at home by working with your hands, making things. Self-recording as a response to capitalism in art.”That philosophy gives Before You Turn Into A Dog its quiet gravity. These songs dwell in everyday rituals and fleeting moments of transcendence, moving through love, depression, work, and the search for peace with remarkable patience and generosity. Weaver’s warm acoustic guitars, understated melodies, and homespun recordings never ask for attention—they earn it through honesty, intimacy, and careful craft.There are echoes of artists like Little Wings, John Andrews and the Yawns, and Hand Habits, but Ruby of Thanks resists easy comparison. Like the records that have long defined the Woodsist orbit, Before You Turn Into A Dog...

Krallice

Scour Order

Profound Lore

For their new album Scour Order, their sixteenth release, Krallice comes full circle and returns to Profound Lore (who initially released the band’s first three releases) with a new album that is raging and dark, dense but also expansive. One that slightly recalls the earlier phase of the band yet continues in the forward-thinking/next level singular sonic histrionics that the band have continued to expand and morph upon throughout the years. While the band have been experimenting more with their sound (band members switching roles, the band diving into more ambient and experimental territory etc.) over the last little while, Scour Order sees Krallice tether slightly back to more of a progressive black metal aura akin to the first four albums.

Blackshaw, James

Fractures on the Horizon

Amish

***Amish Records is proud to release the vinyl edition of Fractures on the Horizon, the latest album from British fingerstyle guitar virtuoso James Blackshaw. Originally digitally self-released on Bandcamp by James in February 2026, Fractures on the Horizon comprises two compositions totaling nearly 40 minutes of music. The title track—a sweeping 25-minute piece performed in an open tuning—finds Blackshaw at his most commanding, weaving hammered arpeggios and resonant melody into something at once technically staggering and deeply felt. The second piece, "Three Interlopers," shifts into hypnotic drone territory, rounding out the record with an unexpected and unsettling power.The album marks Blackshaw's second release since his return from a near-decade-long hiatus, following Unraveling in Your Hands, which arrived on Amish Records in 2025. Written, performed, and recorded entirely by Blackshaw, Fractures on the Horizon confirms his place as one of the most singular voices in contemporary acoustic music.“...the 25-minute title song might be his most boldly beautiful composition yet, a bravura performance for guitar alternating between slow, Aching melody and dazzling streams of strings” - UNCUT 8/10“These two compositions add up to a gorgeous odyssey, showing off not just Blackshaw's technical prowess but his ear for drama and dynamics. And when you realize the second track is an incredible drone exercise, your appreciation for Blackshaw might grow deeper still”. - Stereogum

Orcutt, Bill

How to Rescue Things

Palilalia

"Charlie Parker's first album with a string section landed in 1950, ten years after his debut recordings. Although the overtly lush arrangements of Charlie Parker with Strings were Parker's idea, the record must've been something of a relief to producer Norman Granz, especially when the sides went on to become Bird's best-seller, by a long shot. The record (and its follow-up) sparked something of a jazz-strings virus, infecting Nina Simone, Paul Desmond, Clifford Brown, and (later) Miles and Trane. And while the latter entries in that list were clearly bending their arrangements into space-age forms (and the arrangers—Gil Evans, Eric Dolphy—were becoming much hipper), these ubiquitous strings albums established a jazz cliché of sorts. They were a shot for the charts at worst, an attempted reinvigoration of tired easy-listening ear candy at best. How to Rescue Things, landing 15 years into Bill Orcutt's 'rediscovery' years, marks a somewhat tardy entry into the string- sweetening sweepstakes. In a post-chart, post-irony world, no one is going to mistake this as a bid for mainstream ears—nor are too many pop-gobblers going to paste this into their 'Chillax' playlist. With loops of dulcet, birdsong choruses, syrupy strings, and plucked harps clipped from an RCA easy-listening disc, the zombie strings conjure not red leather couches, cotton slankets, and yuzu martinis, but rather a clockwork mortuary, an undead Who-ville and a cigarette butt drowned in bottom-shelf scotch. In contrast to Orcutt's previous reanimation of yesterday's hit parade, How to Rescue Things instead takes as its foundation...

Perennial

Modernism

Ernest Jenning Record Co.

Perennial is sharp, quick, ferocious, focused. Their bruising, bombastic sets come and go before you know it: all over but the sweating. 20 minute marathons, on stage and wax. On Modernism, the New England mod trio’s newest LP, that lightning-strike chic is devoted to a pocket-symphony rave-up — 10-songs built from all the keenest bits of The Who, The Blood Brothers, Otis Redding, Stereolab, MC5, Wilson Pickett, and Le Tigre. Op art to dance to. Mellotron loops bracket electric feedback squalls; freakbeat riffs tangle up beneath Stax/Volt hooks. The band’s deep, eccentric record collections, turned into a 1,200 second action painting. Formed in 2015 in Connecticut, Perennial is Chad Jewett (electric guitar and vocals), Chelsey Hahn (electric organ and vocals), and Ceej Wolf (drums). Focusing on both unforgettable live shows — frenetic, joyful dance-punk rites of spring — and studio-as-instrument modernist recordings, the band has built a cult of dedicated international aficionados, one sticky-humid basement show at a time. Touring tirelessly, they honed their Motown-via-Dischord sound to a keen, glossy point. With their longtime producer Chris Teti (The World Is A Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid To Die), Perennial has added layer after layer to their sharp mod collage: free jazz, ambient electronica, big beat, dub, Musique concrète, all within explosive 90-second sprints. Modernism is their best/catchiest/densest LP yet. The hooks pile high and stick fast atop dance floor strata of fuzz bass, tambourine, and Vox Continental organ jabs. Modernism marries the experimental to the ecstatic, the...

Ripper

Towards Rebirth

Dark Descent

Your patience will be rewarded.Chile’s Ripper returns with their first full-length since 2016’s “Experiment of Existence”.“Towards Rebirth” contains the band’s most violent work to date. Razor sharp guitar work, intense drumming and well-crafted songs are still there…only more concise, more vicious.Recorded, mixed and mastered by Pablo Clares at DM6 Studio. Artwork by Paolo Girardi.

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,...

Drin, The

I Lost My Way For Centuries

Feel It

***"Stories like drops of water—the water sounds like the water in Tarkovsky’s Stalker.Stories without beginning or end. Memories of memories, some are yours and some belong to others. Glimmering impressions of pasts, presents, and futures that might be or might have been come like watching a film on a broken projector. Maybe this isn’t the first, or the original, of this sequence and maybe it won’t be the last.A saxophone sings throughoutit is your Virgil in this musical expanse, endless and uncannythe journey must continue through each iteration: a burst or a flicker, a drop or a torrent.Stories of echoes, ballads of the spaces between spaces, a collection of recursive narratives. Bass, drums, keys, guitars, reeds, a bouzouki: these are your travel companions and their voices paint the world as it unfolds before you in all its strangeness, beauty, and terror. And you’ll realize, with their help, that you are perhaps more lost than found, that what appears simple is endlessly complex, that within the cosmic static there lies the hum of truth, that nothing is ever just anything.… and eventually you’ll realize that the road turns into itself after the first thousand miles."—Ben Michaelis

Totalitar

s/t

Prank

***Swedish Punk legends TOTALITÄR return with their first new album in twenty years! Nine rampaging tracks, crafted with their trademark sublime innovation, where something beautifully and wonderfully simple as D-beat hardcore is innovated on, changed up and perfected again and again. That's the brilliance of Totalitär, their world renowned old master innovation, and this welcome return finds them in fine form, encased in distortion with Poffen's shouts firing an abrasive volley of anger and reflection at the state of the world. Recorded and mixed by Kenko at Communichaos in 2025/2026.

What Kind Of Human Have I Become

Memory Gut

Soft Abuse

What Kind Of Human Have I Become is home for the everyday neuroses of Matthew Plunkett, who listeners might know for his involvement with two of New Zealand’s recent greatest, The Cuticles and The Trendees. If you’ve steered your ship close by the shores of The Cuticles then you’ll have some idea of what goes on throughout the twelve songs of Memory Gut: gorgeously non-pro pop and non-pop songs, marinated in hazy psychedelia, but with both feet firmly planted on the ground. It’s practical music, but surreal, too.Plunkett started writing and recording material for What Kind Of Human Have I Become during pandemic times, in the sleepout at his home in the South Island’s Oamaru. After releasing a self-titled album on Bandcamp, compiling stray moments from the sleepout sessions with other detritus, Plunkett started collaborating with Stefan Neville (Pumice) on the project, recording in the latter’s Queen Street studio (shared with Ben Holmes of Oxsun Ox etc). A seven-inch slipped into the world on Soft Abuse mid-2024; now, the mighty Memory Gut.What Kind Of Human Have I Become allows Plunkett to dive deep into his art and writing. There’s plenty going on in these songs – a welcome roughness and playfulness, and adroit melodicism, and a touch of both profundity and colloquialism in the lyrics and their delivery. Asked about this, Plunkett discusses a fondness for the potential in the meeting of the radical and the everyday, mining the unconscious for material, and rubbing up against the physicality and sensuality...

Ch’ahom

Anthropic Rites Of Sublimation

20 Buck Spin

German black/death cult Ch’ahom offer upon the altar of sacrifice their second album Anthropic Rites Of Sublimation, a concept album set in a fictional world inspired by the rituals, art and architecture of pre-Hispanic cultures. Continuing where their Ts’ono’ot EP ended, its story unfolds around a cenote of impossible dimensions whose cosmic call draws the lost and uncertain toward self-sacrifice. Four civilizations rise along its edge, each developing its own rites, hierarchies and monuments to transform the abyss’s fatal summons into a foundation for collective existence. Ch’ahom gives this imagined world form through cavernous death metal, bestial eruptions and feverishly progressive structures. Savage riffing coils through suffocating chambers of rhythmic conjuration while ancient instrumentation emerges from the tumult like echoes inside a buried temple. Anthropic Rites Of Sublimation moves like the cenote itself, drawing the listener inward through an ecstatic and ever-deepening sense of the unknown. Inspired by a deliberately literal interpretation of the death drive and its sublimation, Ch’ahom explores culture as a response to an irresistible desire for self-erasure. Mutilation, vicarious sacrifice, enslavement and willing surrender become the foundations of competing societies awaiting the cenote’s periodic opening. Ch’ahom transforms this dark fiction into an immense ritual of sound, portraying humanity through its terrifying ingenuity: creating faith, beauty and entire civilizations upon the edge of annihilation.

Jefferies, Peter

The Day They Let You Out Is The Day They Might Not Let You Come Back

Grapefruit

Grapefruit is proud to announce the first new album in 25 years from the legendary New Zealand singer-songwriter, Peter Jefferies. Known for his seminal post-punk bands Nocturnal Projections and This Kind of Punishment as well as his equally influential solo records such as The Last Great Challenge in a Dull World, Electricity, Elevator Madness, and Closed Circuit, Jefferies has been one of the towers of the New Zealand underground music community since the early 1980s.The Day They Let You Out Is The Day They Might Not Let You Come Back is a new masterpiece in an already staggering catalog. Only Peter Jefferies could take a quarter of a century off from songwriting and come back as if a moment hadn’t passed. If anything the world has given him even more to grapple with and his voice is as urgent and necessary as ever.

Loose Lips

Love You

Dig! Records

**Newly recorded 4-song EP from Melbourne's most benevolent punk thruple, the Loose Lips —Nadine Miller from The Prize on drums, Josh Hardy from the Chats & the Unknowns on guitar, and Ethan Stahl from The Prize and Chubby & The Gang on bass—everyone sings!

Van Pelt, The

Remain Obscure

Ernest Jenning Record Co.

***The Van Pelt are one of the great cult bands of American independent music.Formed in New York City in 1993 around singer, guitarist and songwriter Chris Leo, the band emerged from the same fertile underground scene that gave rise to many of the most influential post-hardcore, indie rock and emo acts of the decade. Yet while many of their contemporaries went on to achieve wider recognition, The Van Pelt chose a different path: one built on artistic independence, restless experimentation and a stubborn refusal to fit comfortably into any scene or trend.Across two landmark albums—Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves (1996) and Sultans Of Sentiment (1997)—The Van Pelt developed a singular language that combined intricate guitar interplay, spoken-word intensity, literary lyrics and emotional depth. Their music occupied a unique space between post-hardcore urgency, indie rock invention and the introspective sensibility that would later become associated with emo, influencing generations of musicians while remaining largely outside the spotlight.After disbanding in 1997, the band's reputation continued to grow. What began as a well-kept secret among underground music fans gradually became a touchstone for listeners searching beyond the obvious narratives of 1990s alternative rock. Reunions in 2009 and 2014, the release of the long-lost Imaginary Third, and a series of acclaimed live performances introduced their music to a new audience while reaffirming their enduring relevance.In 2023, The Van Pelt returned with Artisans & Merchants, their first collection of new material in more than twenty-five years. Rather than revisiting old formulas, the album expanded the...

Early Moods

Ready For The Grave

Riding Easy

Elements of the past, present, and future coalesce within the spell cast by Early Moods. The Los Angeles band channel the sludge-born spirits of seminal doom metal and beckon them to attack even faster with a jolt of NWOBHM guitar-craft and a twist of thrash attitude. The quintet—Alberto Alcaraz [vocals, keys], Oscar Hernandez [guitar], Eddie Andrade [guitar], Elix Felciano [bass], and Chris Flores [drums]—transfix with otherworldly transmissions of cosmic and catchy heaviness. “Our sound is more honed,” notes Elix. “We’ve found our identity. I think it takes a couple of albums for most bands. This record isn’t too far removed from what we’ve done in the past, but the songwriting has certainly matured. You can hear the chemistry. You can feel the mood changes in specific songs and all of the dynamics. It’s really alive.” Originally formed by Alberto and Eddie, the musicians unlocked an uncanny balance between heavy and hypnotic on the self-titled Early Moods in 2022. The sound further crystallized on A Sinner’s Past [2024]. Along the way, they incited the applause of Angry Metal Guy, The Obelisk, and more. Hitting the road, the group shared stages with the likes of High On Fire, Candlemass, Pentagram, Coven, Lucifer, Pagan Altar, and more in addition to joining the bill of Desertfest. During 2026, they recorded Ready For The Grave at Cyan Sound Studio with producer Toshi Kasai [Melvins, Tool]. He invariably inspired them to level up. Ultimately, Early Moods deliver a body of work befitting of...

F/i

Blanga

Sorcerer

***Sorcerer Records have a long-running relationship with the Milwaukee space-rock band known as F/I, having already reissued two of their old '80s albums on LP. The group itself has existed for over 40 years, sprung from that city's punk scene by a group of musicians who were equally inspired by the early industrial sounds of Throbbing Gristle, but also the earlier electronic explorations of Klaus Schulze, Cluster, Conrad Schnitzler, etc. and the fuzzed space-rock of Amon Duul II and Hawkwind. Over the years, they earned fans in Jim O'Rourke and Steve Albini and toured Europe, where they have a particularly dedicated fan base. Blanga was originally released on compact disc in 2005 on the Lexicon Devil label and went out of print over a decade ago, and it saw the core lineup of Richard Franecki, Brian Wensing, and Grant Richter reconvene to release an incredible "comeback" of sorts. Blanga is a mind-frying mix of Hawkwind-style heavy-duty space/psych-rock and raga-like electronic meditations. Featuring newly reconfigured artwork, the sleeve is printed on matte stock, the vinyl on orange/yellow/red mixed colors. 300 copies.

Pireh, Cyrus

Thank You, Guitar

Palilalia

"Broadly speaking, shredders are the pro wrestlers of music, trafficking in overwrought drama but devoid of soul, the realm of finger-tappers, fretboard lubricators, and those prone to viewing music as a competitive brawl. As such, the axe-slinger of conscience steers clear of shredding behavior, albeit every-so-often dexterously running the neck to tip listeners off that, you know, they 'really know how to play.' But for the typical avant-string consumer, shredding is beyond the pale.Which brings us to Cyrus Pireh's new Palilalia release Thank You, Guitar, his latest stab at 'transcendental shred electric guitar music.' (Check out 'If I Can Play Fast Enough It Will Turn into Food and Shelter' on Bandcamp for a long-form embodiment of exactly what this means). Pireh, a self-professed anarchist and presumed enemy of music-as-sport, upcycles the 32nd-note neck sprint into a mesmeric boil played and recorded with little intervening electronic trickery other than a Digitech DD5 and mysterious amp modifications.The end result sounds like Pireh's plugged a quarter-inch jack into each of the listener's eardrums, a quick digital delay ping-ponging across the frontal lobes, the wet and dry signal of his 9-string axe all but indistinguishable. Indeed, Pireh views his maximalist double-handed scrabble as a mirror in which the listener might visualize all manner of details in its rapidly self-propagating tonal and rhythmic tapestry.The title track, its hairpin turns echoing Fred Frith's 'Hello Music'—another startling LP-opener—establishes this methodology immediately. ('What Are We Doing What Could Be Done', another Bandcamp track, taps this same ecstatic mojo)....

Mojohand

Mojohand's Bar & Grill

Nudie Records

***Mojohand’s Bar & Grill, the second long play album from New Jersey’s peerless pub-rockers Mojohand, mixes timeless bites of Mojohand’s signature Rock & Roll and Ginger-Soul (™) sound and peppers it with field recordings of conversations from people along the winding roads of America. Mojohand’s Bar & Grill is a concept album that explores memory, nostalgia, the legend of rock & roll, and the changing world around us. Taking inspiration from the rock and soul sounds of 1970s Asbury Park, Stax, Motown, and early rock & roll classics that laid the groundwork for a world class touring bar band from New Jersey. The album was recorded to tape with Hunter Davidsohn at Business District Recording in Johnson City, NY, and the songs were written and refined on the road all across the United States, but Mojohand’s Bar & Grill is a distinctly New Jersey sound.

Burkett, Joshua

M/B/Too/4T/&M

Futura Resistenza

***Long before Spotify algorithmically ruined discovery, Joshua Burkett was wandering the New England underground with nothing but a guitar and enough patience to make tar smells feel like deja vu. This compilation LP is your time machine back to when "knew someone who knew someone" was the only distribution network you needed. Free Folk for the eternally lost & happily found.

Nowhere Flower

Peace Channel

Soft Abuse

Nowhere Flower, Lila Jarzombek’s solo music project, returns with a highly anticipated third full-length, Peace Channel. This time around finding a befitting comrade in Soft Abuse, a label that has served as a welcoming home to over two decades worth of like-minded sonic travellers. Peace Channel offers a continuation and evolution of her homespun wanderings through the pursuit of minimal bedroom perfection. One key difference from past releases is the use of a Tascam 4-track as opposed to digital recording. The switch made for a freeing experience, with the tactile functionality of the machine creating more space for experimentation and discovery. Despite, or perhaps in spite of the learning curve of navigating the new gadget, which inevitably leads to problems, surprises, and many happy accidents along the way, the album comes across with the ease and flow of a seasoned practitioner.With this in mind, Jarzombek described the album’s process as feeling more akin to making a painting or collage. A feeling that comes across distinctly upon first listen, and one that’s most fitting given her artistic practice. The warbling and fluttering of UK or NZ DIY-style Casiotone electronics are met with rambling guitar lines and slurred vocalizations. Tracks like “Behind Glass” and “Hallowed Out” have a somehow epic-yet-quiet catchiness. Back-to-back gems “Shared or Shattered” and “Formed By Water” display the layered and building approach to 4-track aided improvisation. One of the album’s defining moments is the inclusion of the winding acoustic piece “Ur Picture;” a mesmerizing ode to Mope Grooves’...

My Heart And Inverted Flame / Earth Jerks

Smile Denied - Split

Computer Tapes

***Long threatened, long promised, long in the works cosmic sonic ritual featuring the hypnotic, ambient primitivism of San Francisco faux-fisa droner Earth Jerks and the crushing monolithic rhythmic sound-scapery of California / Oregon doom-synth duo My Heart, An Inverted Flame.My Heart, An Inverted Flame is the urban/rural duo of Andee Conors and Marc Kate (formerly of A Minor Forest and IAMSPOONBENDER respectively). Synths and drums living somewhere between the doomiest of Doom and glaciers cutting through the Earth’s surface to create the grandest of canyons, My Heart, An Inverted Flame exists solely to remind the listener that all is for naught, the world is cruel and vengeful, and that you are smallest speck in this massive omniverse.Earth Jerks is the long running solo endeavor of Christian Dixon, (of Death Sentence: PANDA!, COPS, OTIOXI, etc. etc. etc.). Primitive organ chording peppered with a smattering of tremolos, delays and fuzzes, Earth Jerks does it’s best to straddle the world of the smart drone and the caveman drone. For fans of Eliane Radigue and Pebbles and Highs in the Mid-Sixties comps. Minds should expand, knuckles must drag.Pro-duped cassettes, with hand stamped labels and covers.Limited to 100 copies

Thermals, The

Under Crushing Rain

Static Catsup Aspic

***A blare of guitars, a thump of drums, a trebly, wobbly voice kick off “Good Morning Fellow Scavengers,” the first song on the first Thermals album in 10 years and the first since More Parts Per Million to be home-recorded and produced. We have become accustomed to the big bands of our youth—and even middle age—returning on much smaller labels and self-directed platforms. Still going from Sub Pop, Kill Rock Stars and Saddle Creek back to home-taping is an extreme example. You wouldn’t do this if you didn’t love the game. And indeed, Hutch Harris sounds almost giddy as he plots his return. “Good morning fellow scavengers, it’s back to work today/We’re not far from where we started and it’s too soon to decay,” he declares in this opening salvo, and indeed, some of the early days’ enthusiasm bubbles up in Under Crushing Rain.Let’s be clear, this latest missive is not as vertiginously daring as More Parts Per Million or as joyfully corrosive as Fucking A. But “I Have Had Enough Blood” erupts with ebullient “oh-ee-oh”s and “hey-oh”s, a staple of the Thermals’ sound since the early aughts. “Angel Eyes Are Always Watching” rattles and clangs and drops Catholic imagery as the Thermals have been doing since The Body, the Blood, the Machine. Harris sounds lighter and less constrained than he has in ages.It’s all him, this time, which means that Kathy Foster is not on hand for rambunctious bass play or vocal counterparts. She will not be pogo-ing up...

My Heart And Inverted Flame / Earth Jerks

Smile Denied - Split

Tumult

***Long threatened, long promised, long in the works cosmic sonic ritual featuring the hypnotic, ambient primitivism of San Francisco faux-fisa droner Earth Jerks and the crushing monolithic rhythmic sound-scapery of California / Oregon doom-synth duo My Heart, An Inverted Flame.My Heart, An Inverted Flame is the urban/rural duo of Andee Conors and Marc Kate (formerly of A Minor Forest and IAMSPOONBENDER respectively). Synths and drums living somewhere between the doomiest of Doom and glaciers cutting through the Earth’s surface to create the grandest of canyons, My Heart, An Inverted Flame exists solely to remind the listener that all is for naught, the world is cruel and vengeful, and that you are smallest speck in this massive omniverse.Earth Jerks is the long running solo endeavor of Christian Dixon, (of Death Sentence: PANDA!, COPS, OTIOXI, etc. etc. etc.). Primitive organ chording peppered with a smattering of tremolos, delays and fuzzes, Earth Jerks does it’s best to straddle the world of the smart drone and the caveman drone. For fans of Eliane Radigue and Pebbles and Highs in the Mid-Sixties comps. Minds should expand, knuckles must drag.Hand-numbered CD edition of 100 copies with stamped arigato covers and printed inserts.Pro-duped cassettes, with hand stamped labels and covers.Limited to 100 copies

Carlton Melton

Reason Beings

Agitated

Time to turn on and turn it up, theres a brand new Carlton Melton in the offing… its been a good couple of years since the West Coast space/sike travelers have dropped new music. ‘Phantomize beyond the window, into the portal, the panes of eternal returns, wooden spirals, roots into the realms of everything and nothing, the reason beings’ With Anthony Taibi fully ensconsed in the metaphorical Melton Dome, this four piece is ready to soar, go deeper and wider into the sike psyche than on previous recordings, now fully recording live with drums, bass, guitars and keys—recorded at 3D Light in Freshwater, CA by Anthony Tiabi in 2025, and mastered by the inimitable John McBain in 2026. We have a single LP of 40+ minutes spanning 4 tracks, that have textures, and waves and patterns to lull you into some fever dream of motorik psych! Touchstones like Träd, Gräs Och Stenar / Kandodo / Guru Guru / Eno & Fripp / Birds of Maya / Parson Sound come into view. There are moments of gentle ambience bordered by speaker shredding guitar soloing, whole passages of Krautrock inspired jams that have form and focus—you blink and your live flashes before you, the record ends, you want more. Carlton Melton masterfully blend hypnotic, long-form psychedelic jams with drone and Krautrock influences.

Ravi Shavi

Wild Rock Dove

Almost Ready

***RAVI SHAVI trade in the post-punk skronk from last year's limited vinyl release Erase America for the skronk post-funk of Wild Rock Dove. There’s long been a thread of Eno running through Ravi Shavi’s work, and if tracks like opener “Peace of Mind” conjure Roxy Music, the chaser “Fresh Hell” could have been ripped from the No New York comp. Longtime guitarist Nick Politelli scatters Will Sargeant-style licks across the album like Necco Wafers drenched in reverb. He finds a foil in Chuck Perry, who has fleshed out the band’s live sets for years and brings his slinky, shapeshifting tone to the forefront of several tracks, including title cut “Wild Rock Doves”.The band's sixth release on Almost Ready Records marks six years sober for frontman and songwriter Rafay Rashid. Firmly in control of this art-damaged chaos, Rashid turns his gaze from white liberal hypocrisy in “New Brown Neighbors” to his own sordid past on “Misbehave”. Rashid’s songs are rooted in his experience as a naturalized citizen, specifically as a Pakistani-American and uniquely as a trickster- fuckup that never fully earns White America’s praise as a model immigrant or scorn as a hatta-clad terrorist.In this distinct space he has a co-conspirator with songwriter and guitar-player Shahjehan Khan–formerly of The Kominas and most recently flexing his acting chops in cult streaming hit Deli Boys. The two offer the band’s first song in Urdu, the album-closer, “Halaat”. Loosely translated to “circumstances” and finding a sonic bridge from South Asia to West Africa, the...

Cracked Actor

Nazi School

Last Laugh

***"If you’ve encountered CRACKED ACTOR before, it is most likely from their appearance on the fifth installment of Killed By Death, where the title track of this LP appeared in all its revved-up, trashy glory. Sourced from a 1981 EP of the same name, 'Nazi School' emerged from the same degenerate ectoplasm as fellow East Coast goons the DICTATORS and NERVOUS EATERS. Sleaze-forward raunch’n’roll, with killer tone loaded with swagger. Naturally, the big question to be answered is how the rest of the material stacks up. For me, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. There are some unsurprising throwaways—the cover of 'Judy in Disguise,' the five-minute-plus 'All Day Sucker'—and a gross-out, ultra-cringe track called 'Jailbait Judy,' scraping at the very bottom of the barrel. But the best of the rest packs a mean hook. 'Epileptic Fit' could easily make the KBD cut, and 'Slow Down' sounds like it was snipped from a DMZ rehearsal tape. Twelve cuts in total, mostly good, just keep the barf bag handy."—Matt Casteel (MRR)

Dorothy

Not Responsible

Mighty Mouth Music

***Long before Ru Paul took drag to the ultimate degree, in 1984 international recording artist Laurice created Dorothy. Dorothy was very 1950s Marilyn Monroe — glamorous, outrageous, blonde, blue-eyed and extremely sexy. Her music was very 1980s New Wave. On this four song EP the boisterous track "Not Responsible For Loss Or Damage", written by Laurice, is a catchy 1980s romp through schadenfrude and retribution. Dorothy does not claim any responsibility for her lover’s obvious mistakes. "Come Up And See Me Sometime", also written by Laurice, is a really wickedly amusing take on famous Mae West’s quite shocking sayings heard in many of her films. "Sex Bomb", another Laurice composition, is literally Dorothy’s explosive reaction to a very ardent pursuer melting her heart. Very funny indeed. "Anyone Who Had A Heart" is a New Wave Dorothy version of Bacharach and David’s number one hit song. Its a triumph for Dorothy. Don’t miss this terrific one of a kind Dorothy EP. Its music history in the making. Enjoy.

Black Meteoric Star

Wet

Dark Entries

***Wet is the fifth full length album by Black Meteoric Star and their 10th release. Black Meteoric Star is a project Rayna started in 2006 when she was living in Berlin that brought together her life long love of dance music culture with spiritual themes, drag, and her formative experiences of S/M culture Black Meteoric Star has always had an avenger quality in Rayna's life and creative work, and this iteration plays that role in response to the current political landscape. Wet celebrates the long standing shared history of electronic music and queer leather/SM culture and imagines a future where these two cultural expressions are re-connected. Electronic music and leather/SM are both ways that queer people have historically built community, created and shared knowledge, and kept each other safe. The current administration demonizes and villainizes queer people on the basis of a false moral framework of respectability, and its a trick. No amount of acting "respectable" will humanize queer people in the eyes of this administration and get us the rights we deserve. Revitalizing the connection between electronic music and queer leather/SM is a way to affirm the cultural power of both during a time when it has never been clearer that we keep each other safe. Rayna, a transgender woman with a deep commitment to all of these cultural forms, has a strong message to deliver with this album. She has been a DJ and producer of electronic music for over thirty years and has been producing community cultural...

Freedom North

s/t

Lion Productions

***Based in Montreal, and known as Freedom, Freedom of Choice (for the US release of their debut single on Wand) — and finally, Freedom North, the band had success with their first two singles, both released in 1970: ‘Doctor Tom’, which garnered radio airplay across Canada and attained the #2 spot on RPM’s Top 50 Canadian Chart; and 'Losing You’ which made it to #47 in the MAPL Top 50 Canadian Chart. Freedom North toured extensively, often with other Montreal bands such as Mashmakhan and April Wine.There are plenty of options when trying to classify their sound — if that’s your thing. The reviews certainly make that point. Many tracks are clearly in range of being called psychedelic rock, using the current slack mode of declaring what is “psychedelic” (abundant fuzz guitar, in this case) — while other songs edge towards hard rock/acid rock, and still others are late 1960’s-esque pop/rock. Yet the band was tight and full of energy whatever sub-genre they were exploring, and thus the album is excellent throughout it’s many phases and faces. The songs are superbly crafted and feature terrific soaring vocals by Franki Hart. As a side note, ‘Losing You’ somehow recently made an appearance on "Brown Acid: The Twenty-First Trip”… so no doubt quite a few of you have heard one more song by Freedom North than you thought, which hopefully inspires you all to investigate this reissue of their entire LP.After the band split up, Freedom North members Eddie Kaye, Rick St....

Adult DVD

Adult DVD

Fat Possum

***The debut album from 6 piece Leeds band, Adult DVD. Simmering with boredom, wasted time, scams and a preoccupation with death and sex, the Adult DVD universe is a place to escape to and also get lost. These are songs that untangle the complicated ways in which people find themselves living, mining both laughter and energy from thinking.

Empanadas Ilegales

LABORATORIO TROPICAL

We Are Time

***Somewhere between Vancouver and Montreal, between cumbia and the cosmos, between the apocalypse and the dancefloor, there is a laboratory.Inside it, Empanadas Ilegales have spent nearly a decade breaking tropical music down to its bones, recombining it under pressure, and testing what comes out the other side. LABORATORIO TROPICAL, their fourth album, is the report from the lab.The record came together in the way the band works best: in motion. The first sessions happened at the tail end of their Fall 2025 tour, tracked at Sud Ouest Studios in Montreal with engineer William Poulin, with ideas channelled straight from the road. The stems then traveled west to Vancouver's Afterlife Studios, where the record took shape over a handful of sessions that were mixed by John Raham. These sounds were fine-tuned by Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer Adam Ayan; the resulting album is a dramatic journey through Empanadas Ilegales’ expanding psychedelic universe.

Ambarchi, Oren

Cooked

Drag City

***Cooked comes a la - yet so far from - 2022’s Shebang with transcendent and trenchant flow from Oren Ambarchi. Flying in international collaborators Joe Talia, Johan Berthling, Will Guthrie, Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O’Rourke, Michiko Ogawa, Marcus Pal, Fredrik Rasten, James Rushford, Isak Hedtjärn, Andreas Werliin & Konrad Sprenger into the mix, Cooked sets foot tapping, mind boggling, heart quailing, earth turning.

Homework

Bang Here If Stuck

Meritorio

***Homework are a quintessential Glasgow band—overstimulated and a little rough round the edges, but with a pretty streak and a big, sentimental heart. They make fuzzy 90s-indebted indie rock that's bursting with ideas and sounds like home.Twin songwriters Michael Newton and Santiago Taberna trade off driving lopsided anthems and fuzzy baroque pop experiments, their voices and guitars tangled together in a way that feels less like a band and more like a shared language. Rhythm section Lizzie Quirke and Andrew Gordon provide a loping centre of gravity—steady enough to hold everything together, loose enough to let it breatheBang Here if Stuck, their debut album, delivers a kind of enthusiastic chaos where everything fits exactly where it should. Recorded at Chime Studios in Glasgow with Melissa Brisbane, the band tracked the core of the album live to best capture the playful spontaneity of their gigs. Drawing from the likes of Pavement, Teenage Fanclub, The Vaselines and Urusei Yatsura, it offers a familiar sound that's easy to love, punctuated by oddball diversions that lead somewhere unpredictable and unique.

Squanderers

Bright Madness

Blue Chopsticks

***Bright Madness is the third album from the improvising trio of Wendy Eisenberg, David Grubbs, and Bonner Kramer, a glorious afternoon’s worth of instant compositions laid down in Asheville, NC in the early spring of 2025. The sound of Eisenberg, Grubbs, and Kramer doing their damnedest to dazzle one another is encompassing, flowing from shell-game sleights of hand to effortless beauty in the flicker of an ear, a lyrical group sound, with an insistent, vivid and immediate feel.

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.

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.

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.

Doomsayer

Awake In Darkness

Nuclear War Now

***In celebration of the 30th anniversary of their sole demo from 1992, Awake in Darkness, NWN is proud to present Doomsayer’s legacy on LP for the very first time! This burning triumph- described as “Pestilential Death Metal” by the band back in the early ’90s when they were establishing themselves in the Italian extreme metal scene- combines all of the power of their varied influences, giving both a perfect snapshot of the heavy metal and occult tinged nascent scene in their country as well as an image of a power, creative band that managed to create a single work that still resonates now decades later. Though Doomsayer fits squarely in the saga of other cult Italian bands, it has plenty of its own voice to offer and fans of early extreme metal will be pleasantly surprised at the strength of this long-hidden obscurity. For fans of Varathron, Sadist, and Necrodeath.

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.

Militia

Regiments of Death / No Submission

Nuclear War Now

***Though they were a favorite around their hometown of Austin and nearby San Antonio, Militia received scant attention outside of Texas during their short-lived existence from 1984-1986. Formed in 1984 when bassist Robert Wellingham (who, at the time, neither owned nor knew how to play a bass) met drummer Phil Achee, Militia’s origin is inseparable from the story of the heavy metal scene in and around Austin, Texas during the 1980s. With the inclusion of vocalist Mike Soliz, whose powerful, Halford-esque shrills became a defining feature of Militia’s sound, the band established itself as a fixture of the regional metal scene, sharing members and performing live with many notable acts around the area, including Watchtower, Wyzard, and S.A. Slayer, among many others. Militia swiftly progressed, writing original material and perfecting their live performances. During the three years they were together, they recorded two demos—Regiments of Death and No Submission released in 1984 and 1986, respectively—and the highly coveted MLP, The Sybling, privately pressed by the band in an edition of just 100 copies. The two demos, the band’s first and last recordings, depict Militia’s evolution during its brief lifespan. On Regiments of Death, Militia displayed a unique fusion of skill and passion, an amalgamation of the most potent elements of aggressive speed metal and melodic power metal. The second demo, recorded in the wake of several lineup changes, displayed a more “progressive” approach, drawing inspiration from early Queensryche and other similar acts. Now that NWN! has established its permanent base...

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.

Abhorrent / Thyabhorrent

Occultus Brujeria

Nuclear War Now

***Abhorrent formed in Sarpsborg, Norway in 1989, during a period in which the now-famous black metal scene was developing in the same area. The most renowned of its founding members was Stian “Occultus” Johansen, who has also been active in Perdition Hearse and co-founded the infamous Helvete record store in Oslo with Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth (of Mayhem notoriety) and Geir “Thrasher” Bratteli. In fact, Occultus was also briefly an official member of Mayhem following Dead’s untimely demise. Abhorrent recorded one live and one studio demo in 1990 before adopting the moniker of Thyabhorrent for an EP and another demo in 1991. Their music reflected the transitional nature of the moment and location, as the more traditional form of death metal assumed an increasingly evil nature, while black metal was taking hold of the Norwegian underground. “Occultus Brujeria” documents this obscure entity’s existence as a compilation of the band’s “Occultus Brujeria” demo, which also includes the same three recorded tracks from its “Death Rides at Dawn” 7″, and some additional bonus tracks. Given that these recordings have not been officially available for well over two decades, “Occultus Brujeria” is an overdue reissue that is sure to satiate all appetites for early Norwegian extreme metal.

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.