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Synthwave. Darkwave. Silhouettes is a strong debut album that captures the shifting perspectives of its five-year writing period, and the emergence of Yama Uba’s uniquely crafted sound. With Akiko Sampson's charismatic vocals and rumbling bass combined with Winter Zora's sweeping guitar and saxophone soaring over velvet synthesizers and synthpop beats, Yama Uba makes several nods to their post-punk and darkwave predecessors while creating a sound entirely their own. Throughout each track, Yama Uba emerges as a songwriting unit able to capture the complexities of the human spirit, as fragile as it is powerful, as it experiences its own evolution. States Sampson, ‘‘As a whole, Silhouettes is about personal transformation and self-discovery, and is a reckoning with the power of time.”

"Yama Uba’s modern-yet-nostalgic sound plays beautifully into the emotional cadences of Silhouettes, reflecting on personal growth and transformation with the cutting insight of the hard-won wisdom that can only come with age. The band’s nods to earlier darkwave movements evoke past eras and distant memories, but Sampson’s powerful lyrics and no-holds-barred delivery remind us that some wounds don’t heal with time, even as they make us stronger."

We're all familiar with this story: the pandemic struck, and people found themselves confined to their homes, left alone with their thoughts. Amidst various musical projects, Shelby Cinca reached out to his former bandmates with the idea of creating and instrumental album in the style of FRODUS—a desire that had never materialized during the band's active years. Despite the challenges of life and logistics, the project began to take shape as Nate and Shelby brainstormed and organized their ideas. They recalled an offer from their fellow DC friend and prolific musician, Aaron DC Edge, to provide raw drum tracks. Shelby accepted Aaron's offer to kickstart a rhythmic foundation, and soon the project came to life. Some tracks remained faithful to the original demos, while others underwent substantial editing. Eventually, songs began to take form in an organic manner, despite the geographical distance between the collaborators. Conceptually, the group aimed to craft a soundtrack for a post-human world, inspired by a cryptic phrase hidden in the artwork of Frodus's last album: "when man dies, we become wolves again." These songs conjure images of overgrown and ruined cities, the return of wildlife, and the interplay of light and darkness, peace and savagery, coexisting in the after- math of humanity's downfall. Without the prominent narrative of anguished vocals, the vistas emerge in the mind's eye without barriers, allowing for a more subtle and profound exploration of the themes.

Lenticular Sleeve / White Vinyl.When Jack Tatum began work on Life of Pause, his third full-length to date, he had lofty ambitions: Don't just write another album; create another world. One with enough detail and texture and dimension that a listener could step inside, explore, and inhabit it as they see fit. "I desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me," he says. "I'm terrified by the idea of being any one thing, or being of any one genre. And whether or not I accomplish that, I know that my only hope of getting there is to constantly reinvent. That reinvention doesn't need to be drastic, but every new record has to have its own identity, and it has to have a separate set of goals from what came before." What came before: a rightfully acclaimed, much beloved display of singular pop craftsmanship. Tatum's dreamy, unexpected 2010 debut, Gemini, was written while he was still a student at Virginia Tech University. Its equally disarming follow-up, 2012's Nocturne, marked the first time he'd been able to bring his bedroom recordings into a studio, to be performed and fully realized with the help of other musicians. There has been a set of wonderfully expansive EPs in between_each hinting at new directions and punctuating previous ideas_but with Life of Pause, Tatum delivers what he describes as his most "honest" and "mature" work yet, an exquisitely arranged and beautifully recorded collection of songs that marry the immediate with the indefinable. "I allowed myself to go down every route I could imagine even if it ended up not working for me," he says. "I owe it to myself to take as many risks as possible. Songs are songs and you have to allow yourself to be open to everything." After a prolonged period of writing and experimentation, recording took place over several weeks in both Los Angeles and Stockholm, with producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Beachwood Sparks) helping Tatum in his search for a more natural and organically textured sound. In Sweden, in a studio...

What Kind of Human Have I Become is a new vehicle helmed by Matt Plunkett (Cuticles, The Trendees, etc.). Conceived as a solo endeavor, the designation got a bit blurry following an invitation to record his new songs with Stefan Neville (Pumice, etc.) at the studio he shares with Ben Holmes (Oksun Ox, etc.) in Auckland.

Once in the studio, Plunkett’s songs puffed in a wholly new way with Neville at the controls, and backing and bits from both Neville and Holmes perhaps channeling Nag and Bendie. Fans of Matt’s past and current activities will find much to rejoice in here; Avoiding The Diggy Diggy Dogs plucks three songs from the sessions. More to come in due time.

Weatherday is the noise-pop project of the mononymous Swedish artist Sputnik. While they have also found success with their side project, Lola's Pocket PC, it is their cult-acclaimed album Come in that has garnered them a large and dedicated following through its raucous musical universe and serpentine sparklepunk stylings. Often heralded as an achievement of lo-fi bedroom pop tangled with threads of emo and DIY, Come in is better described, in its author's own words, as a 'life goal.'

The initial spark that ignited the fiery, heated debut from Weatherday originated from Sputnik's desire to write, perform, and produce a record all on their own, from the ground up. Starting in 2014-2015, their preliminary attempts at what would eventually become Come in first materialized as a shoegaze EP, and then a dream-pop meets chamber-pop LP. Ever the perfectionist though, Sputnik wasn't satisfied with the results and deleted the releases without a trace, finally deciding to set out in the direction of something more akin to their longtime influences of emo and its various subgenres.

After two years of tinkering in this stylistic sweetspot, Sputnik settled on the eleven knotted, maximal tracks that comprise Come in. From the caustic, harsh peaks of 'Sleep in while you're doing your best' to the soothing piano-laden passages of 'Embarrassing paintings' and experimental, granular coda of 'Water dreamer the same,' the range of Weatherday's debut is doubtlessly a product of an artist who refuses to compromise a single shred of their vision.

"In July 2022 I was invited to open for the band Low who specifically wanted 'something weird'. I only had about 24 hours to come up with a set but decided to take up the generous offer. Recorded live to Tascam 8-track at the High-Noon Saloon in Madison, WI. Gear: Waldorf Quantum, Roland Rs202, Arturia Polybrute, Waldorf XTK, DSI Poly Evolver, and Korg Mono/Poly." - Vincent Presley (Those Poor Bastards, Zebras, Logan 5, Secret Creeps, etc). Live ambient, drone, experimental electronic. Side 2 can be played at 45rpm (how it was performed) or 33rpm (ultra slow gloom version). Hand-numbered edition of 115 copies.

Set sail with the third installment of Numero's ode to regional radio surveys. Broadcasting 44 minutes of uninterrupted yacht, easy-glide, AOR, and blue-eyed disco that'll rock your boat. These 13 selections are anchored in the deep blue waters of the American private press_a life preserver for any BBQ, birthday party, or bris. Let W3NG be the sonic wind at your back.