Monday, June 29, 2020

[PREMIERE] The C33s | Harpurhey Hostility




Judy Jones - Vocals/ drummer all-round talented gal!
Cav Moran - Vocals / badass guitarist
Ste Phillips / Bass and backing vox, super cool guy




Heading for a lockdown break-out? Then this song is one for the soundtrack! 'Harpurhey Hostility' is an explosive mix of garage punk and raging northern discontent.


Not quite like anything else but reminds you of such past iconic delights such as The B52s, The Ramones & the more recent sounds of Oh Sees and Amyl and The Sniffers, etc.





An uneasy and uncompromising visceral portrait of a small town in North Manchester whose strong will and attitude can often spill over into the extreme and unruly. Tragedy and comedy are at the core of The C33s and 'Harpurhey Hostility' represents this duality in both sound and statement.

Drummer Judy Jones takes lead vocals on this one and snarls her way through 3 minutes of slick guitar, bass runs, and tribal drums that have become now recognizable to The C33s' sound.

Recorded at Magic Garden Studios, Wolverhampton under the spiritual umbrella of Gavin Monaghan and Joseph Murray.

Sunday, June 28, 2020

[LISTEN] CONFRONTATIONAL | BLACK GLASSES (COVER)


Per Asia & Dario Argento.

credits

all vocals / instruments by CONFRONTATIONAL


Thursday, June 25, 2020

[LISTEN] DELCO | UNIFORM


What if the antihero in your favorite film or book had no chance to repent, reconcile, or redeem himself? There’s no victim to rescue. There’s no evil to thwart. There’s no tyranny to turnover. Instead of saving the day against his better judgment, he just walks a Sisyphean circle of existential malaise doomed to repeat yesterday’s vices without the promise of a better tomorrow. Rather than tell this story on the screen or on the page, Uniform tell it on their fourth full-length album, Shame. The trio – Michael Berdan (vocals), Ben Greenberg (guitar, production), and Mike Sharp (drums) – strain struggle through an industrialized mill of grating guitars, warped electronics, war-torn percussion, and demonically catchy vocalizations. 


“Thematically, the album is like a classic hard-boiled paperback novel without a case,” says Berdan. “It focuses on the static state of an antihero as he mulls over his life in the interim between major events, just existing in the world. At the time we were making the record, I was reading books by Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, and Dashiell Hammet and strangely found myself identifying with the internal dialogues of characters like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.” 




“I wanted my words to carry a degree of weight on this record,” he says. “Books and cinema have always been integral to my life, and that is often because of how I relate to the themes and characters therein. I am naturally shy and terrified of being misunderstood. This time around, I endeavored to trudge through those fears in order to explicitly articulate what goes on in a dreary corner of my inner life. To put it plainly: I was in a dark place. It was the culmination of years of thinking everyone in the world was wrong, but me. I realized that I couldn’t control the attitudes and behaviors of other people, but it was my responsibility to look inward and fix what was there. I had to articulate what was going on in my heart, my head, and my soul. As I set about the task of writing everything down, I experienced exorcism. If I wanted any kind of reprieve, I had to let go of the narrative that the demons in the back of my head had been constantly whispering to me. For years I held onto my lyrics like personal diary entries. Now is the time for a different approach.” 


This record marks the debut of Mike Sharp on drums, adding a natural fire to the engine. His presence grinds down their metallic industrial edge with a live percussive maelstrom. Once again, Greenberg assumed production duties behind the board at Strange Weather. Building on the approach from their last LP, the band perfected the powerful hybrid of digital and analog, electronic and acoustic, synthetic and actual that has become their hallmark. In another first, mixing duties were not handled by Greenberg, but rather handed off to the inimitable Randall Dunn at his studio Circular Ruin. Of this decision Greenberg says, “On ‘The Long Walk’ we took a big step in adding live drums and guitar amplifiers. It was a stylistic departure but it had actually been the plan for years, we were just waiting for the right time to execute. The next logical step with ‘Shame’ was to hand off the Mix phase of production. An alternate set of ears in the Mastering phase is crucial to gaining a wider perspective and creating a powerful end result, I wanted to find a similar constructive collaboration but earlier in the process. Randall was the obvious choice, he has long been a teacher and mentor to me; Berdan, Sharp, and I have some all-time favorite records bearing his name. Randall and I have also worked in the control room together many times before - the Mandy OST, and co-Producing the recent Algiers LP ‘There Is No Year’ for example - so we already had an established workflow and shared aesthetics.”




The opener “Delco” fuses guttural distortion to haunting chants buttressed by muscular percussion. Short for “Delaware County,” the track reflects on Berdan’s upbringing in a suburb west of Philadelphia and “how beatings and bullying by these local hellraisers taught (him) how to keep his guard up and navigate a violent world.” Elsewhere, the jagged thrashing of “Dispatches” nods to “Alan Moore’s Batman: The Killing Joke and how thin the margin between personal stability and total collapse is.” Neck-snapping riffs kick “Life in Remission” into high gear as a spiteful scream spirals towards oblivion. 

“The song is about people I’ve been close to who passed away and how I’ve become numb to death. A lot of these songs have to do with an internal dialogue and overwhelming sense of fear, uselessness, and dread constantly whispering at me, ‘You’re not good enough. Give up and join those you’ve seen disappear and die.’” 

The near eight-minute “I Am The Cancer” closes the record, as Berdan adopts the perspective of “The Judge” from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, going so far as to crib his proclamation, “God is war; war endures”. In many ways, the title track “Shame” cements the core of the album with unhinged instrumentation and a brutal bark. 

“It’s about self-medication not working anymore,” he admits. “This person is so tortured by internal ghosts from the past. He winds up pouring alcohol on his grief and guilt until he’s drowning. It was partially inspired by a Twilight Zone episode called Night of the Meek about a drunk, helpless department store Santa Claus who wants to make a difference, but feels incapable of doing so. That story has a happy ending. We’ll see about this one.” 

It may not be pretty, but Uniform’s story is most definitely real. “All I can say is, I’m glad this exists,” Berdan leaves off. “It felt like something we needed to create. Just completing it is enough for me.”  

credits


Releases September 11, 2020 on Sacred Bones Records

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Jesse Draxler | 'Reigning Cement'




In the pandemic summer of 2020, Jesse Draxler unveils Reigning Cement, an audio-visual project pairing a 100-page book of the artist’s location-specific photography and collage work with a collection of music created by over 20 musicians handpicked by Draxler himself. The list of participating artists is a veritable dream team of dark underground music: Chelsea Wolfe & Ben Chisholm, Greg Puciato, Dylan Walker (Full Of Hell), Eric Ghoste (Ghostmane), Vowws, Street Sects, Uniform, Exploited Body, Jaye Jayle, Gendo Ikari, Intensive Care, Virgin Mother, Lisa Mungo (Fucked & Bound), O Future, Planet B, Portrayal Of Guilt, Reeko, Shifted, Thirst Church, TR/ST, Surachai, Virgin Mother, and Trentemøller.


The concept behind the audio portion of Reigning Cement was inspired by an experiment that Draxler participated in a few years ago, in which a group of collage artists were each given the exact same packet of visual assets with which to create a piece. Similarly, Draxler provided each musician on Reigning Cement with the same 34 sonic elements—all recorded in the noisy industrial environment just outside his studio on the edge of Los Angeles.

Reigning Cement comes as a hand numbered 2LP gatefold vinyl comprised of 22 tracks, and a beautiful 100 page photo book. First pressing is limited to 500 copies, and is available for pre-order immediately below.

PLEASURE REBELLION | KICK IN THE EYE JEWELLERY





























PLEASURE REBELLION

Photographer
Hana Schlesinger, @hanaschlesinger.photography

Styling and direction
Kick in the Eye, @kick_in_the_eye

Models
Taylor Medwin, @diienastii 
Realm of Rubber, @realm_of_rubber

Hair and Makeup
Alissa Tothpal, @deathbecomeshair

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

[LISTEN] The Gateway by Miles Brown



Australian thereminist and composer Miles Brown returns to Death Waltz Originals for his second solo LP of incredible theremin driven gothic sci-fi techno. 

Released in 2020 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the theremin, THE GATEWAY features the instrument as lead voice in the extraordinary realm of high-energy post-Italo electronics. 

For this newest collection of original works, Brown transports the theremin to the heart of the dance floor – reimagining its mysterious interface as an electro-magical conduit for the opening of forbidden portals and the summoning of subversive spirits. 

THE GATEWAY also features a contemporary expansion of the classic theremin sound. Brown plays the Moog Etherwave Pro theremin in two ways – employing both its familiar heterodyne voicing and possessing a range of analogue synthesizers via control voltage technology. 

This groundbreaking combination presents a fresh voice and thrilling new context for the world’s oldest electronic instrument. 







Releases June 19, 2020 

Miles Brown: theremin, synth, programming 
All tracks composed and produced by Miles Brown © 2019 
Recorded at Die Hit Fabrik Berlin and Tower of Terror Melbourne 
Mixed by Tony Espie at Tufftones Melbourne 
Mastered by David Walker at Stepford Audio Melbourne 
Art and design by Luke Fraser AHR+ 

Death Waltz Originals 2020