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 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, he thinks these guys could all use a little Signal Boost.
Colonial Wound, “Handcuff Trick”
It’s a big moment for Wound bands: Leading up to Oozing Wound’s new album, the not-entirely-dissimilar-in-sound but very-dissimilar-in-locale Colonial Wound unleashed their own capsule of thrashing hardcore. Singed by the hot Florida sun rather than iced over by Midwestern frigidity, the band’s recent Easy Laugh often bends into the realm of metallic hardcore, though my favorite moments recall the driving, deranged noise rock of groups like KEN Mode or Adult-era Blacklisters, as heard on “Handcuff Trick.”
Constant Smiles, “In My Heart”
Between their apparent reverence for innovative film directors (their forthcoming album is titled Kenneth Anger, while past releases include Maya Deren and John Waters) and a fun take on Jenny Hval, Constant Smiles are beyond qualified for a spot on Sacred Bones’ roster. Yet that new album’s lead single “In My Heart” makes a great case for this alignment anyway by channeling the label’s pocket of artists who combine a less floral take on the early-’10s Captured Tracks discography with a vein of coldwave that’s more compact than the plodding, symphonic drama Pornography established long ago.
En Attendant Ana, “Principia”
In an alternative timeline, global forces were capable of preventing the spread of COVID back in 2019, bands were able to continue touring their new music over the course of the following years, and Paris’ En Attendant Ana became the new *checks Billboard rock charts* Manny-skin? This may be a slight exaggeration, but the arrival of Julliet in January 2020 seems like an unfortunate situation the group aims to amend with their follow-up LP Principia, announced with the title-track lead single presenting a Trouble-in-Mindier take on the formula they worked with on much of their last album, landing the needle perfectly between jittering jangle-pop and patient dream-pop.
Ghais Guevara, “James Harden”
I always feel bad in the early months of a year when I inevitably finally sit with what probably would’ve been a top pick for my personal album of the year had I heard it in time—this year it’s Ghais Guevara’s There Will Be No Super-Slave, which was released back in July and therefore provided me with plenty of time to have given it a spin after instantly being hooked by the Philly rapper’s Lupe Fiasco–esque verses further elevated by coming up in the pop culture era of rap (my guy seamlessly namedrops Smitty Werbenjagermenjensen to close out a rhyme). Fortunately it’s not too late to give him a shout for the EP he dropped to close out 2022, with Job’s Not Finished Pack coloring just a bit outside the lines established on the LP. Going with “James Harden” as the standout here because, yes, NBA references, but it also serves as the cut from the bunch most conducive to attempting to keep up with Ghais’ lyrics.
Jeff Markey feat. Googie, “Inner Groove”
For the past decade, Jeff Markey has been a peripheral character within the Backwoodz Studioz universe, with a production credit on a pair of Armand Hammer’s earliest releases in 2013 and a spot on one of two billy woods solo albums from 2019. Yet Sports & Leisure places the Brooklyn-based beatsmith on the map with a full-length collection of instrumentals aided by familiar voices from the label roster, including a memorable album sendoff in tandem with emcee Googie, whose presence has recently elevated both ShrapKnel LPs. It’s an interesting balance of Markey’s light, vintage production and Googie’s gravely, nearly DMX-esque vocals doing their best to adapt to the smooth sounds.
King Vision Ultra feat. Algiers & Desde, “Cold Hex”
Algiers are on the cusp of releasing a new album with a massive tracklist so overloaded with incredible featured guests that it almost feels like the Atlanta post-punks’ involvement in their own project feels peripheral by design—Shook’s lead singles alone pair indie-rap all-stars billy woods and Backxwash together, while a rare Zack De La Rocha verse and a cameo from Hemlock Ernst’s alter ego followed suit. In the meantime, Algiers sent their stems for the LP to King Vision Ultra to craft another massive tracklist nearly equally overloaded with head-turning collaborators, with the NY-based experimental artist enlisting woods’ partner in crime ELUCID, Company Flow’s Bigg Jus, and earsplitting noise artist Dreamcrusher this time around—though the standout for me is one of two guest spots from emcee Desde, with “Cold Hex” sounding like a more desolate take on the intensely apocalyptic sounds of Shook.
Kosaya Gora, “Motorcyclists Die”
“Motorcyclists Die,” one of two introductory singles to collaborators Kedr Livanskiy and Flaty’s new moniker Kosaya Gora, sounds like an early Raveonettes recording retooled to soundtrack the dashcam footage of an anxious backroad drive through endless rural snowbanks (“There was nothing but a forest, a cemetery and [a] ruined church,” Livanskiy shared of the recording process in their native Russia). It doesn’t help that the track’s visual lands somewhere between ambient-Blair-Witch and a heavily sedated remake of Salem’s storm-chasing “Starfall” video, solidifying the track as a guaranteed needle drop the next time you accidentally take a wrong turn somewhere so hauntingly rural that your GPS can’t seem to connect.
Lana Del Rabies, “A Plague”
It’s been a long five years since Lana Del Rabies released Shadow World—a canonical work within a genre that may or may not officially exist called “death industrial”—with the Phoenix-based artist shuttering the moniker in the interim, soft-launching a career as Strega Beata, shuttering that moniker, and ultimately announcing the return of Lana with her third LP inheriting the name Strega Beata. Fortunately, “A Plague,” the first sample of that record, seems to pick up precisely where Shadow World left off, with the track slowly escalating its heaving, noisy industrialism across its four-minute runtime all while Sam An’s ritualistic vocals blend into the droning soundscape. It’s certainly no “Chemtrails Over the Country Club.”
Matt Muse & BoatHouse, “Leave Here”
BoatHouse is responsible for crafting the beats for one of 2022’s most exciting breakout hip-hop LPs in Defcee’s For All Debts Public and Private, making his latest release in collaboration with fellow Chicagoan Matt Muse a must-listen. Seemingly a one-off single for Muse after a couple of conceptual releases in recent years, the confident bounce of BoatHouse’s instrumental is the perfect foil to the rapper’s assertive middle finger to imposter syndrome and all other feelings of doubt.
Mulva, “Shouldn’t Fear the Seer”
Last week I placed 18th at a trivia night entirely dedicated to Seinfeld after spending probably over a decade of my life making the sitcom my entire personality. As I continue to nurse this wound I’ve found some comfort in (well, continuing to watch Seinfeld, but also) knowing that even if the name “Gary Fogel” couldn’t come to me in a crunch, I was immediately able to identify “Mulva” as a deepcut from the show, assuming that’s where the members of Bethlehem Steel, Kal Marks, and Ex-Breathers’ heads were at when they named the new outfit. If you’re a fan of any of these projects, all of which revel in the unkempt flannel of ’90s grunge to some degree, you may know what to expect here. If you’re unfamiliar with these groups, just imagine what kind of music Bob Sacamano might listen to.
Racetraitor, “Zoropsidae”
If you weren’t a Chicago hardcore guy in the ’90s, it may be hard to extricate the name “Racetraitor” from its ties to fellow local group Fall Out Boy, with whom they share a drummer (and, for a sec, a Pete Wentz). But as of 2018, Racetraitor are going strong again, carving out new anti-colonialist spaces in metalcore alongside groups like Neckbeard Deathcamp, with whom they recently released a split. Even more recently, though, they shared a release with NYC-by-way-of-Nepal grindcore outfit Chepang, with Racetraitor’s track “Zoropsidae” encapsulating the pounding intensity that’s long defined the group. Couldn’t quite tell you what they’re saying, but I’m almost certain that I agree with it.
Rarelyalways, “LET’S”
London’s Rarelyalways had a bit of a moment back in 2021 when he teamed up with Hanni El Khatib for a collaborative nu-wonk EP Manic and instrumental hip-hop artist Ben Marc for a series of nu-jazz singles. With little noise made in the interim, 2023 will see the rapper setting out on his own with his debut solo LP Work set for release in March, the playfully talk-rapped “LET’S” serving as an early taste. It feels like a less heady take on what L.A. Salami gave us last year with Ottoline, channeling his witticisms into deadpan relationship faux pas rather than upsetting any systems of power.
Regal Cheer, “Castanets”
I’ve always been picky about emo and pop-punk music due to the genres generally skewing toward a certain self-seriousness clashing with some objectively goofy vocal performances. But somewhere between these two circles on a Venn diagram lies bands like Joyce Manor, Prince Daddy, and, more legendarily at this point, Glocca Morra, who lean into the inherent fun to be had in a public pity party—a corner of rock music Brighton’s Regal Cheer seem to feel plenty comfortable in. “Castanets” and the other tracks currently available to stream from the band’s forthcoming debut LP Cans shotgun tough emotions and reckless responses to them in under two minutes.
Teether & Kuya Neil, “RENO”
I’m racking my brain trying to think of a single rapper I listen to who hails from Australia and coming up short. It seems like that region’s just been pumping out the highly specific export of freaky, prolific, shapeshifting psych-rock bands with absolutely bizarre names for the past few years—and, yeah, also Iggy Azalea some time before that—so maybe it’s no coincidence that the new single from Teether & Kuya Neil is hard to provide any sort of reference points for besides a clear reverence for trap and D&B that rears its head at various points in the production of “RENO.” All the great hip-hop tropes are there (references to Tokyo drifting and/or Tokyo Drift, oddly self-deprecating bars, e.g. “Nose wide I’m a Black guy Pinocchio”) without any of the expectations.
Truth Club, “It’s Time”
2020 seemed like a pretty thorough litmus test for whether or not a band was still active, with all those who were active seemingly uploading demos, live takes, and B-sides to their Bandcamps and/or contributing them to charity comps over the course of the year while we had nothing better to do, and plenty of time to do it. It was exciting, then, when Truth Club belatedly did just that back in May of last year, confirming they were not, in fact, locked out of their BC account, and further proving they were still carving out post-punk fully seceded from the genre’s British origins at the beginning of 2023 via their first new music since their 2019 debut LP with the absolute hero’s journey of a music video for “It’s Time.” The slacker-rock vocals and dark undercurrent of the instrumental are just as uniquely uncommitted here as they’ve always been, while the extreme-rock-music potential of the album cover is just as established. It’s “It’s Time” time.
