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Technological agitation. Narcissism fatigue. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. The celestial-influenced folk album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, and The Guardian admiringly named it one of 2019's best.) While Titanic Rising was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos. "We're in a fully functional shit show," Mering says. "My heart is a glow stick that's been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness." And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow opens with the wistful, winsome "It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody," a song about the interconnectivity of all beings, despite the fraying of society around us. "I was asking a lot of questions while writing these songs. Hyper-isolation kept coming up," Mering says. "Our culture relies less and less on people. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal." Other tracks follow in kind. The lullaby-like "Grapevine" chronicles the splintering of a human connection. The otherworldly dirge "God Turn Me into a Flower" serves as allegory about our collective hubris. "The Worst Is Done" is an ominous warning, set against a deceivingly breezy pop melody. "Chaos is natural. But so is negentropy, or the tendency for things to fall into order," she says. "These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment."

Step inside the world of Ginger Root. Cameron Lew makes it easy to do so; every considered detail is his own manifestation, written, designed, and executed as an all-encompassing diorama of sound and sight. A multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and visual artist from Southern California, Lew has crafted his project steadily since 2017, inviting a fervent and growing legion of fans into storylines drawn across mediums: captivating albums with accompanying films and globe-spanning tours. The Ginger Root sound _ handmade yet immaculately polished synth-pop, alt-disco, boogie, and soul _ takes shape through Lew's lens as an Asian-American growing up enamored by 1970s and '80s music, specifically the creative and cultural dialogue between Japanese City Pop and its Western counterparts from French Pop to Philly Soul to Ram-era McCartney. He spins his retro-minded influences and proliferates savvily in the present, synthesizing a songwriter's wit, an editor's eye, and a producer's resource into something singular and modern. SHINBANGUMI, his long-awaited third LP, and Ghostly International debut set for physical release in 2024 with a visual album component, translates roughly to a new season of a show. It finds Lew more poised, idiosyncratic, and intentional than ever in a new chapter of life, unlocking "exactly what Ginger Root should sound and feel like," he says. "In terms of instrumentation and musicality, it's the first time that I felt very confident and comfortable with what everything should be comprised of. On the more personal side, I'm coming out of the last four years of writing, touring, and living as a different person; SHINBANGUMI is a platform to showcase my new self."

Eurybia is the second solo album by Italian artist Francesca Heart. The result of a compositional process that began in summer 2020.

The work is the product of a series of intimate imaginary projections and aural engagements with a number of geographical sites scattered across the Italian landscape. Places which have resonated with Francesca during various personal travels and pilgrimages, due to their extramundane and often even mystic significance. The most outstanding / iconic being the cloisters and gardens of San Gregorio Armeno’s monastery in Naples and the Nympheum of Villa Giulia in Rome.

Indeed the whole record seems to bring the listener constantly together with the overwhelming, tender presence of the surrounding environment. Seemingly permeated with a feeling of refreshing musky moistures or textured with soft, wet soil, Eurybia reminds us of walking barefoot near the lush architecture of some ancient, overflowing fountain or amidst the continuous flows of shallow rivers’ bedrocks informing the album with strong physical, sensory qualities. Myth, senses, and imagination become anchors of artistic and healing expression as well as forms of romantic escapism from an ever complex world.

On the whole, Eurybia’s seven tracks alternate dense enmeshment of sounds and melodies with sparse, forthright single-instrumental devotional hymns, working as a personal cartography of ephemeral audio monuments to human, transcendental, and mythographic landscapes. Influences connected by means of nuanced ascendance going from classical New Age music and Video Game soundtracks to digital phone ringtones. The fluttering arpeggios used as the main compositional device coalesce together into an experience of relaxing trance which is yet a glaring, audacious work.

Monument is a fitting title for the third album by Belarusian trio Molchat Doma. Indeed, it stands as a monument to everything they've achieved in their short time as a band, from whispered-about unknowns, to enigmatic underground icons, to legitimate viral sensations with hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos using their music. Monument sees them return as conquering heroes, expanding on the minimalist greatness of S Krysh Nashikh Domov and Etazhi to fully realize a more maximalist vision of their crystalline post-punk sound.Written and recorded while the band was quarantined in their hometown of Minsk during the COVID-19 pandemic, Monument is a conscious step up in songwriting and fidelity, and it reveals a band preternaturally comfortable in its own skin. Whether playing to the dancefloor, as they do on the synthpop anthem "Discoteque," or working more introspectively on pre-pandemic live favorites "Otveta Net" and "Ne Smeshno," Molchat Doma are in complete control. Their greatest strength has always been their songwriting, and they've only gotten better.As the band's arrangements have grown more sophisticated, so too have the sounds they use to bring them to life. Roman Komogortsev and Pavel Kozlov's gear arsenal has grown to include an extensive range of synthesizers and drum machines, all of which they deploy with precision. Egor Shkutko's vocals move fluidly between his familiar deadpan monotone and an expressive croon, his beautifully delivered Russian lyrics at turns bleak and romantic. Shkutko has often been compared to Ian Curtis, but here, he outgrows the comparison. With Monument, Molchat Doma have done one of the hardest things to do as a band. They've greatly expanded the scope of their music while retaining everything that made them great in the first place.

When S Krysh Nashikh Domov The Debut Album By Molchat Doma, Was Released In 2017, It Announced A Bold New Voice In Underground Music. The Album Found A Passionate Audience On Bandcamp And Other Streaming Services And Was Released On Cd And Cassette. Sacred Bones Records Is Proud To Present The Album On Vinyl For The First Time. Molchat Doma (Translated As "Houses Are Silent"), Founded In 2017 In Minsk, Belarus, Stands At The Intersection Of Post-Punk, New-Wave And Synth-Pop. Dark Yet Danceable, And With A Heavy Dose Of Goth Ethos, Their Music Is Reminiscent Of The Masters That Predate Them, But Make No Mistake: Molchat Doma Creates A Sound And Meaning That Is Immediately Recognizable As All Their Own. The Band Is Comprised Of Egor Shkutko, Who Sings The Russian Lyrics In His Deep Monotone, Roman Komogortsev On Guitar, Synths, And Drum Machine, And Pavel Kozlov On Bass And Synths.Riyl: Depeche Mode, New Order, Drab Majesty, Black Marble

Rose Main Reading Room, the fourth full length by Peel Dream Magazine, is a lush, inviting headphones record; the kind of album made to accompany city bus rides and rainy-day solo trips to accidental destinations. The band, whose name nods to the BBC Radio 1 legend John Peel — arbiter of all things underground, quality, and (it must be said) "cool" — has since its inception been a genre-hopping experiment, jumping from motorik krautrock to shoegaze and space age pop, and their newest work is a perfect starting point for the uninitiated, beckoning toward a newfound romance and nostalgia with their catchiest collection of songs to date. Across its fifteen songs, Rose Main Reading Room ultimately proposes a world of marvels and compelling complexity: “Oblast” cheekily prods at mutually assured destruction; “Ocean Life” explores the infiniteness within ourselves; while “R.I.P. (Running in Place)” unpacks an all too familiar stagnation. It’s all part of, and crucial to, Rose Main Reading Room’s transportive power, ever reaching for the wonder and magic of the world we live in.

Thurston Moore's forthcoming album is his ninth solo recordi...

77-Early Years-79 is a compilation of the band's first four singles, all originally issued on Step Forward Records, and was first released as an LP in 1981. One album track ("Dice Man" from Dragnet) is also included, and a CD reissue in 2000 adds two tracks from the various artists compilation Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Ballroom, from the same time. 2002's Early Singles drops "Dice Man" and adds three singles recorded for Kamera Records in 1981 and 1982, with their B-sides. In 2003, tracks from the Step Forward singles and two albums recorded for the label were selected for It's the New Thing! - The Step Forward Years. The first of multiple Fall compilation albums and certainly one of the most valuable.

Founded by its only constant member, Mark E. Smith, The Fall formed in Manchester in 1976 and were one of the most prominent post-punk groups in the world. Musically, there may have been several stylistic changes over the years, but it was often characterised by an abrasive guitar-driven sound and frequent use of repetition, always underpinned by Smith's distinctive vocals and often cryptic lyrics. “Dragnet” is the second studio album – released 26th October 1979. Originally released through record label Step-Forward, it predicated 2 major factors in the group’s career – high productivity and high group turnover. The album has historically garnered excellent reviews, including 4/5 in Mojo, 8.7/10 on Pitchfork and 4/5 in Q Magazine. Featuring the one and only Mark E. Smith alongside Steve Hanley (bass), Marc Riley (guitar), Craig Scanlon (guitar), Mike Leigh (drums), Kay Carroll (backing vocals) and Yvonne Pawlett (keyboards).

Live at the Witch Trials was the debut studio album by The Fall. It was released in March 1979, through record label Step-Forward. Despite it's title, it is not a live album. The album was recorded at Camden Sound Suite on 15 December 1978 and mixed by producer Bob Sargeant the next day. The group had been booked into the studio for a week but Mark E. Smith had fallen ill, leading to the cancellation of the first three days. Some songs dated from earlier incarnations of the group with both Tony Friel and Una Baines featuring on the writing credits.

'In `All This and So Much More' Tasha is an artist flung open. For Tasha, the last few yearshave been propulsive, dynamic, bursting at the seams. They've included painful encounterswith grief; a sudden break up; new flirtation; new hair; the glitter of world travel and not least,a role in Tony-nominated Broadway musical `Illinoise' which adapts Sufjan Steven's `Illinois'for the stage. If `Tell Me What You Miss The Most' was an introspective meditation on lovewith a few moments of glancing toward what's next, `All this and So Much More' is Tashaturned outward, flourishing, telling us what it's like to take life by the chin and look it in theeye.Take, for example "Eric Song." This was the first song to be written on the album, pennedwhile Tasha grappled with the sudden, tragic death of Eric Littman, the co-producer of herlast album. Though the instrumentation is a familiar 3/4 guitar strum, lulling us into acomforting waltz, Tasha's voice is breathy with grief, adding depth and dimension to thehushed sound. "No, I'm not alone after all / You must be near / Facing this soaring sprawl,"she sings, transforming the experience of loss into a talisman of love and courage meant tohelp usher in a new self.Said a different way, `All This and So Much More' is a full-throated ode to all of the ups anddowns of becoming. In the opening track, "Pretend," when Tasha sings about "feelingsoutgrowing this little life," we get the sense, both lyrically and sonically, of someone in thethroes of growth. This is an album crafted with a big, ambitious sound (in part, thanks to theproduction of Gregory Uhlmann)_cinematic droning, orchestral woodwinds, dazzling arrays ofjangling guitar, all lining up to capture a sweeping moment in Tasha's life. Written over thecourse of 2022 and 2023, right on the cusp of Tasha being cast in Illinoise, the songs in thisalbum invoke friendship, heart ache, flirtation, doubt. From the social anxiety of "Party" ("Dothey think I'm funny? / Did they like my joke...

Lutalo's highly visceral folk goes electric on The Academy,the Vermont multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer'sdebut LP. Recorded in January 2024 at the storiedSonic Ranch and self-produced along with Jake Aron (SnailMail, Protomartyr, L'Rain), The Academy feels like watchingthe best underground film you've seen in years; establishingLutalo as a singular voice of this generation of indie rock.Lutalo describes The Academy as their "first chapter" - atime capsule of the lessons they've learned in their20-something years of life. "This record is exactly that: a`record' of my early life," they say of their debut album, outvia Winspear. "The experiences, thoughts and feelings I washolding at those times and am currently processing. To me,this is the first big stamp of my existence I'm sharing."While Lutalo's 2022 EP Once Now, Then Again introducedthem as a lo-fi acoustic guitar wunderkind, The Academy isbigger and bolder without compromising Lutalo's invitingsense of emotional intimacy, inspired by alt-rock veteranslike Thom Yorke and Rob Crow as well as electronic greatslike Aphex Twin and Bowery Electric. The Academy'sgrander arrangements are heard in the biting adrenalinerush of "Ocean Swallows Him Whole," or the anti-war jangleof album closer "The Bed." Their lyrics are often deeplyintuitive, flowing as a stream of consciousness, albeit withweighty meanings. With their unique baritone and finessefor lyrical world building, Lutalo cuts to the bone-while onlyjust beginning to reveal the depth of their artistry and vision.

Virginia Beach's Turnover has never been a band afraid of telling the truth. The emotional honesty poured out over a number of anthemic releases has been a proven formula of success for the band, but on their sophomore LP Peripheral Vision, the band treads into deeper water. Working again with Magnolia producer Will Yip (Title Fight, Circa Survive), Turnover's latest record shows a band maturing to create their best effort: an ethereal, reverb-drenched soundscape blending elements of hazy dream pop and the delicate emo rock of yesteryear. Songs like "Hello Euphoria" and "Like Slow Disappearing" highlight the new calmer, more subdued approach to songwriting, matched by Austin Getz's somber, confessional lyrics that echo throughout songs as if his words were haunting every measure. Peripheral Vision solidifies the idea that Turnover is a band with it's finger on the pulse of it's generation: growing and learning with every release, but never failing to provide a relatable, cathartic experience for anyone listening.

MJ Lenderman - the North Carolina-based singer, songwriter, and musician - announces his new album, Manning Fireworks, out September 6th via ANTI-, and releases the lead single/video, "She's Leaving You." Following last year's "triumphant live album" (Pitchfork), And the Wind (Live and Loose!), and 2022's surprise breakthrough Boat Songs, Manning Fireworks is an instant classic of an LP. M] lets us in on his frank observations on the intersection of wit and sadness. The punchlines from his previous albums are still here, as are the rusted-wire guitar solos that have made him a favorite for indie rock fans looking for an emerging guitar hero. But there's a new sincerity, too, as Lenderman lets listeners clearly see the world through his warped lens. Today's single, "She's Leaving You," is a half-sneering portrait of a middle-aged man cheating his way through a midlife crisis, at least until he gets caught and blasts Clapton in a rented Ferrari en route to Vegas. It also happens to be the perfect shout-along anthem for any kid who's ever felt shortchanged by their parents. The songs accompanying video, another instant classic, was directed by Whitmer Thomas and Clay Tatum. Per the directors, think 'Creed Thanksgiving Half-Time Show' mixed with "Smells Like Teen spirit" mixed with '"Drop Dead Gorgeous."If we flashback to 2021 , no one paid too much attention when Jake Lenderman recorded Boat Songs, his third album released under his initials, MJ Lenderman. Before he cut it, after all, he was a 20-yearold guitarist working at an ice cream shop in his mountain hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, getting away for self-booked tours of his own songs or with the band he'd recently joined, Wednesday, whenever possible.But as the pandemic took hold just as he turned 21 , Lenderman-then making more money through state unemployment than he had ever serving scoops-enjoyed the sudden luxury of free time. Every day, he would read, paint, and write; every night, he and his roommates, bandmates, and best friends woul...

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

Superheaven spent the past few years honing their grunge buzzing, and desperate sad sound across four EP's, showcasing and perfecting a talent for writing both jarringly heavy and delicately emotional songs. With high-anticipation, the Pennsylvania four-piece deliver JAR, their debut full-length. Engineer & producer Will Yip's massive production knocks you on your ass from the very first drum hit and snarling guitar riff. The stadium-sound drums, plus pulsing bass and walls of buzzsaw guitars are all mixed with the size and clarity of major label grunge breakthrough records like Nirvana's Nevermind and Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream. Superheaven have delivered a towering rock record and an early contender for album of the year.

Have A Nice Life released their debut double-album Deathconsciousness in 2008 to a whimper and critical non-interest; six years later, the band followed it up with 2014’s stunner The Unnatural World. In the meantime, Deathconsciousness has become a cult classic whose seamless blend of shoegaze, post-punk, new wave, industrial and noise influences inspires fanatic obsession. Rhythmic, primal and expansive, Deathconsciousness offers a meditation on death, loss and unrequited love, with repeated listens revealing new layers of depth and meaning.

Combining the lulling ambience of shoegaze with the iconic melodies and vocal prowess of classic American country music, enigmatic outlaw cowboy Orville Peck, croons love and loss from the badlands of North America. The resulting sound is one completely his own, taking the listener down dusty rose-colored desert highways, through a world where worn out gamblers, aloof road-dogs and lovesick hustlers drift in and out of his masked gaze. Orville's upcoming debut album, Pony, delivers a diverse collection of stories that sing of heartbreak, revenge and the unrelenting tug of the cowboy ethos. Warm lap steel guitars and echoing drums move through dreamy ballads, campfire lullabies and sometimes frantic buzzsaw tunes, all the while paying homage to his country music roots. Orville's music has been featured by Nylon magazine, ID mag, Vice, The Needle Drop, as well as numerous Apple Music and Spotify playlists. He has also had magazine features in New York's Hello Mr. and the UK's Notion. ''The masked man our 'Yee-Haw' moment deserves.'' - The New Yorker ''Utterly seductive.'' - MOJO ''4/5 - One of the best and most fascinating debuts from an alt-country-adjacent artist in a very long time.'' - AllMusic

TRACKS

Tape Casette 1

01 Dead of Night 01 Old River
02 Winds Change 02 Big Sky
03 Turn to Hate 03 Roses Are Falling
04 Buffalo Run 04 Take You Back (The Iron Hoof Cattle Call)
05 Queen of the Rodeo 05 Hope to Die
06 Kansas (Remembers Me Now) 06 Nothing Fades Like the Light

Several things happened before a warm day when I met the four members of Frankie Cosmos in a Brooklyn studio to begin making their album. Greta Kline spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation. She's lodged in my mind amongst authors, other observational alchemists like Rachel Cusk or Sheila Heti, but she's funnier, which is a charm endemic to musicians. Meanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they'd continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created Inner World Peace, a collection of Greta's songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline's musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she'd loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite "droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality," as well as "'70s folk and pop" as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their "ambient" or "psych" album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline's penchant for concise pop, Inner World Peace finds its balance. The first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn's Figure 8 studios was to project giant colorful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC's aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine. The mood board for "Magnetic Personality" has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with "K.O." in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says "Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files." On tracks like "F.O.O.F." (Freak Out On Friday), "Fragments" and "Aftershook," the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don't miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they're coming deeper into their own. Inner World Peace excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering "Empty Head" Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline's point of view. Says Greta, "To me, the album is about perception. It's about the question of "who am I?" and whether or not the answer matters. It's about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don't leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?" - Katie Von Schleicher

There's a kinetic energy about anything this band does: a level of care, precision and attention to detail that nearly twenty years into their existence, continues to elevate and set them apart. This four-song offering is no different—from the self-recorded and produced songs down to the design and packaging.

Tucson, AZ singer, songwriter & sound designer shares early, home-recorded versions of songs, alongside illuminating sketches and ambient pieces. The demo versions feature alternate lyrics and intimate acoustic arrangements that highlight the power of Walker’s voice and musicianship, while ambient pieces plumb deeper depths of tension.

While Duster went into hibernation in theyear 2000, Clay Parton's four-track neverstopped rolling. Recorded alone at homeover several years, Birds In The Groundis an album of 30-something, post-9/11malaise. Under his Eiafuawn (EverythingIs All Fucked Up And What Not) acronym,Parton hides beneath layers of fuzzy andclean guitars, his hesitant, cottony vocaldisappear into noise. This deluxe pressingis packaged in a gorgeous tip on sleeveand includes the complete lyrics for thiscryptic entry of the Dusterverse.

The third LP from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz. The Beths wanted to make an album meant to be experienced live, for both the listeners and themselves. They wanted it to be fun - to hear, to play - in spite of the prickling anxiety throughout the lyrics, the fear of change and struggle to cope.

"Back to Mystery City" by Hanoi Rocks channels the grit and glamour of the urban underground, intertwining sleazy rock riffs with poetic lyricism. It's a sonic journey through the shadows of city streets, showcasing the band's distinct fusion of punk attitude and rock 'n' roll swagger.

Hanoi Rocks' "Oriental Beat" pulsates with a unique blend of glam rock and punk energy, capturing the band's rebellious spirit against the backdrop of 1980s Helsinki. With catchy hooks and raw intensity, it solidifies their status as pioneers of the Finnish rock scene.