There’s enough highly publicized new music released every day now to keep you busy for at least a year. Chances are you haven’t heard all of it—and if by some miracle of temporal tampering or unemployment you have, chances are you haven’t retained too much of it.
That’s why every month, our Senior Editor Mike LeSuer rounds up fifteen tracks from the past month or so to reiterate their importance in an unending stream of musical content. Comprised of pre-released singles, album deep cuts, and tracks by unfairly obscure artists, these guys could all use a little boost.
Aeviterne, “Denature”
There’s never been a better album selling point for me than a promise to “look beyond the destruction of flesh or the punishment of the spirit” and instead contemplate “the curse of sentience; the futility of productivity; the breakdown of consensus reality; humanity’s twin drives to propagate and destroy itself, locked in permanent perverse competition.” If that’s the most metal thing you’ve ever heard, you probably haven’t yet listened to the record this vow is tied to by NY-based death-metallers Aeviterne, with “Denature” setting the tone for a project that razes even the most brutal subsect of woodsy atmospheric metal. At a relatively short five minutes, that record’s opening track and lead single certainly takes things beyond metal’s casual, y’know, destruction of flesh and stuff.
Ajent O & Tr38cho, “Coup de Grace”
I’m glad we’re past the era of using the term “conscious hip-hop” to describe anything that’s more focused on verses than chorus as (a) we’re no longer implying that most hip-hop is entirely thoughtless and (b) it feels like that movement has largely jolted mainstream circles within the genre that were getting a little stale. But I occasionally still feel a sense of nostalgia for early recordings by artists like Open Mike Eagle and Armand Hammer from a decade ago, which seemed to open all kinds of new doors. This recent single from Buffalo rappers Ajent O and Tr38cho feels like it’s tapping that source, with the opening vocals from Tr38cho even sounding particularly like P.O.S.’s flow as he balances punchlines, politics, and references to cult movies. Might not be long before these guys are coup-de-gracing the scene.
dvr, “lowlife”
Pretty sure I’ve expressed this before in this exact column (yep) but lately it’s felt like “Where Is My Mind?” has produced its own cultish genre in the same way “Amen, Brother” once did—and also that I’m very OK with that. The Kenny Beats–aided “lowlife” sees the instantly familiar Pixies unplugged-guitar riff commandeered by a UK songwriter who warps hip-hop into something fairly undefinable in a similar way to King Krule. dvr still pays homage to the weirdo charm—if not instrumentally, certainly lyrically—of the Pixies track, painting a portrait of a lowlife loner much more believably than MGK did.
Foxtails, “life is a death scene, princess”
I like this period we’re in where the debate over what the term “fifth wave emo” means, exactly, is getting dusted by bands like Foxtails dropping experimental—within and outside of the blanket genre term “emo”—records that further stretch the already-definition-defying parameters annihilated by groups like Home Is Where and Foxing last year. Foxtails never really sounded like either of those bands, but Fawn further complicates things with an element of chamber music—not to mention an ever-present sense of suspense—pulling the violin-heavy compositions into unexpected places. “life is a death scene, princess” is not only the most post-hardcore song title of the lot, but also the track that I think best exemplifies the the slow tension built through the use of early-Cursive guitar, unassuming strings, and Megan Cadena-Fernandez’s on-again-off-again screams.
Grumpster, “Crash”
The cool thing about being a person who generally tunes out lyrics when I’m listening to music is that I can jam an upbeat, American Idiot–era Green Day–channeling pop-punk track explicitly (and unnervingly earnestly) about self-annihilation as if its subject matter is neutral at best. I’ve seen plenty of comments online that Grumpster are a ton of fun live (they recently opened a string of shows for Anti-Flag), and that certainly comes through even on “Crash,” a track with a narrative considerably more straightforward in its handling of intentional car accidents than the death-fetish fiction of J.G. Ballard. Maybe not a great track to bump too loud while driving.
Mythless, “Dreadless”
I often wonder if it’s possible to explain Fang Island to anyone born after 1996. Like, “There were a bunch of guys, most of them played guitar and/or wore half-assed wizard costumes onstage, and they would frequently request that you high-five each other” is fairly descriptive, but hardly begins to address the prog-psych-by-way-of-math-rock sounds they made together. While Mythless isn’t quite all that, it carries with it a fairly recognizable vestige of Jason Bartell’s former band, albeit one seemingly overshadowed by a knack for modern classical minimalism instead of the maximalist approach that defined Fang Island. I could absolutely high-five someone to “Dreadless,” though.
Na-Kel Smith, “HARVARD GRAD”
Real FLOOD-heads may remember Na-Kel when we interviewed him and his mid90s co-stars a few years back, though even casual fans of hip-hop may recognize the mononym from his guest spot on Earl’s I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. The West Coast rapper just dropped a new project, though, which rarely presents his instantly recognizable intensity as heard on “DNA” as familiar—like most of the EP, standout “HARVARD GRAD” features pitched-up vocals rapping over a futuristic beat that lands somewhere between the ethereality of vaporwave and the bass-heavy tradition of hardcore hip-hop as forged by Odd Future. Tonally it feels worlds apart from the heavy subject matter of both of those prior film and music projects, with Smith breezily stringing together lines about the Hollywood lifestyle over a wonky instrumental.
Omnibael, “Nothing Tastes Better Than Deceit”
Similar to the misconception that a supergroup automatically implies some sort of Megazord of immaculate creative compatibility, the idea that influences from all your favorite artists fused into a single project is sort of a careful-what-you-wish-for scenario. I was surprised, though, at how close Omnibael gets to recreating sounds by very specific metal-related acts over the course of their first proper LP Rain Soaks the Earth Where They Lie, with “Nothing Tastes Better Than Deceit” specifically recalling the amp-shredding guitar distortion of an Aaron Turner project before the track opens up with an electronic drum machine almost perfectly replicating the percussive backing to Uniform’s “The Killing of America.” While the vocals aren’t as Chip King-y as they sound elsewhere on the LP, it’s still the perfect mashup.
Proper., “Milk & Honey”
Is there a single other person out there who remembers the time Noah and the Whale blew up as the absolute zenith of twee with their overly sweet, uke-heavy debut only to return exactly one year later with the absolute most devastating breakup album you could possibly imagine, backed by a full orchestra? If there is, please confirm that it wasn’t an unreasonable thing to do to suddenly think about First Days of Spring for the first time in a decade (IMO it holds up, for the record) upon first hearing the new track from Proper., which echoes the post-twee-comedown vocals of that LP while chronicling mid-relationship disorientation rather than that of the post-breakup period (also: horns). Makes me wanna put on a hideous argyle sweater and the biggest cords you’ve ever seen and try to impress any of the eight girls at my high school that dress exactly like Zooey Deschanel.
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The Red Scare, “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed”
It’s pretty impressive to see the continued relevance of Los Campesinos!, an inarguably unique (and recently mostly quiet) band that came up among a scene of equally unique artists lost to the unnecessarily-flagged-content annals of Tumblr. Heavenly Creatures’ homage to the group in the form of a covers comp, then, is less a collection of recordings meant to bolster their wavering cultural status and more a passion project from artists ranging from those that are reverentially twee to unrelated pockets of music such as coldwave, with The Red Scare contributing a highlight in the form of a fairly devout version of the ramshackle and wordy “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed.” The whole comp is Name Your Price on Bandcamp, by the way—proceeds benefit the UK-based charity Gendered Intelligence.
Scrunchies, “No Home Planet”
Dirtnap has consistently provided a home for a specific subsect of punk that feels less at home at an all-ages DIY venue liable to attract a police presence than it would at a fairly rowdy dive bar. But rather than channeling the energy of the label’s early wavemakers like The Marked Men and The Ergs!, their latest release ping-pongs back and forth from echoing the controlled rage of Mannequin Pussy and the not entirely dissimilar angst of Sleater-Kinney as the vocals kick back and forth between Scrunchies’ two singers. Underneath it all, though, there’s an occasional upbeat tightness to the guitar riffs that sounds grounded in Dirtnap predecessors like Sonic Avenues. It’s certainly rambunctious enough to earn them a noise complaint at 10 p.m. on the dot.
Stander, “Patience”
Vulnerable may be the first LP released through The Garrote, the new label co-run by Aseethe’s Brian Barr, but the most recent single “Wither” posits that the collection of heavy instrumental tracks from Chicago trio Stander might have more in common with the post-rock roster of Temporary Residence than their label head’s sludgy take on metal. The first single, on the other hand, veers considerably closer to doomy territory, with “Patience” swapping the funereal pace of their Midwestern peers with something considerably more frantic, at one moment mid-track unravelling altogether. Far from what the title suggests (or the slowcore-reminiscent band name, for that matter), the track is nearly eight minutes of aggressive riffs.
Stimmerman, “Geek”
I can’t remember if it was the need for something bite-sized to occasionally consume after getting into the type of metal that not infrequently welcomes ten-plus minute song lengths or the realization that artists whose songs linger around the one-minute mark are much easier to support financially on streaming services that helped me open my mind to the prospect of loving recordings that are over before they feel like they really begin, but either way I’m glad it allow me to give “Geek” a chance. The hazy, lo-fi, lilting new single from Stimmerman succeeds in giving the impression of a full song compacted into a curiously short runtime, weaving in and out of unexpected textures with no need of a chorus to return to. No choruses. Society has progressed past etc., etc.
supernowhere, “Basement Window”
I know the term “surreal” gets thrown around a lot, probably to the point where it doesn’t really mean anything as a descriptor anymore, but it does feel like an apt term for a song like this that sounds so firmly rooted in reality (albeit one prominently affected by the existence of math rock) before taking an unexpected flight into the bizarre world foreshadowed in Meredith Davey’s abstract lyrics about beams of light emerging from the cobweb-filled throat of a serpent. Or, I dunno, maybe the lyrics are autobiographical, who am I to say. I certainly think witnessing something like that would inspire someone more creative than me to write the swelling latter half of this track.
Thank, “Good Boy”
I will never forgive myself for mixing up the set times and showing up just in time to hear Dara Kiely announce that Gilla Band was about to play their final song, thank you, goodnight, back when the band toured the US in support of The Talkies. Fortunately it seems like since 2019, that band’s unique brand of meltdown vocals and thumping, Liars-like instrumental experimentalism has become a little more common, with Leeds’ Thank channeling this exact mounting-anxiety energy on their single “Good Boy.” Seemingly addressing the type of person who patted themselves on the back for posting a black square on IG in summer of 2020, and who began washing their hands regularly for the first time shortly before that, the full descent into demented post-punk feels apt.
