Starting August off with some new singles. Emma Ruth Rundle:  " Darkhorse " (via Rarely Unable /  Sargent House  / YouTube) Via Rarely Unable: “In the wake of weak beginnings, we can still stand high,” Emma Ruth Rundle sings over banks of electrified minor chords and ghostly guitar leads on "Darkhorse". It’s a statement of purpose and a recurring motif throughout the album. “The record is about overcoming—understanding and embracing the crippling situation and then growing beyond it,” Rundle says. “Horses keep working their way into the lyrics and visual dimension of this record. They’re powerful and beautiful yet not free really. So the dark horse works for me in a visual way, as a representation of a contained force that will win the race or exceed the expectation of society and self.” The songs that comprise On Dark Horses vibrate with restlessness and forward motion. Prodding and preening the wounds unmasked in Marked For Death , Rundle’s ...

I was elated to find out that Guerilla Toss will be releasing a new LP this September called Twisted Crystal . Last year's GT Ultra spent many days and nights at constant rotation in the confines of my car's CD player.  GT Ultra made my top 5 favorite records for 2017 .   You can find GT Ultra   here  via Guerilla Toss' Bandcamp for preview or purchase. I recommend the purchase option.     "Meteorological," the lead single from Twisted Crystal , continues the band's foray into funk and electronic dance modes, moving from the noisier output of prior releases (i.e.,  Eraser Stargazer ) to more accessible, albeit characteristically odd, territory, a modern homage to the mutant disco and synth pop that flourished beneath the post-punk umbrella in the early 80s. The video premiered at Stereogum , but you can check it out below. Twisted Crystal is releasing September 14th via DFA Records . All info, links, music, and tour dates co...

Sunn O))) is now twenty years old. For those of you who've breathed the frequency all these years and accepted that maximum volume does indeed yield maximum results, the story begins with the LA Rehearsal/Rifftape March 1998 demo, which was recently issued and quickly bought up from Sunn O)))'s webstore.  Following that release, the band's WHITE1 and WHITE2 albums have been reissued.  Myself a fan of both albums, I am very excited about these reissues, which have been repackaged as 180-gram white vinyl double-LPs with posters.  Both are now available to purchase from the webstore .   Please leave me a couple of copies: I have to wait a full week until payday. If you're interested, you can find more Sunn O)))-related stuff here: • A review of 2009's Monoliths & Dimensions   • A review of the 2011 reissue of ØØ Void • A review of Soused , Sunn O))) 's collaboration with Scott Walker •  A review of 2015's Kannon from...

Back in 2006, Henry Rollins exposed me to The Fall via his Harmony In My Head radio show at the now-defunct Indie 103.1 . For a while, each episode would feature at least one Fall track and his fanaticism with this band was enough to convince me to run out to the sorely missed Tower Records in King of Prussia and pick up A Part of America Therein, 1981 , which is a compilation of live performances. I was not immediately taken with the album, nor the material per se, so I chalked this venture up to just being at odds taste-wise with a diehard fan. The Fall just wasn’t for me. The first time I listened to Get Up With It , an electric era double-LP from Miles Davis , ( I’ve written about the record before, so sorry being redundant ), I couldn’t get through the first track. “He Loved Him Madly,” which was written as a meditation on the life of Duke Ellington , was over 30 full minutes of ambient sound and icy guitar notes, scattershot snare rolls arbitrarily placed throughout t...

Some new and not-so-new selections for June.  DEAFKIDS: " Espiral da Loucura " (via Rarely Unable /  Bandcamp ) Via Rarely Unable: Brazilian trio DEAFKIDS share a new track "Espiral Da Loucura" ahead of widespread touring this June . This new track was recorded live at Red Bull Studios in Sao Paulo/Brazil on April 2018 - listen below. Espiral da Loucura by DEAFKIDS __________________________________________________________ Marisa Anderson : "Lift" (via  Thrill Jockey Records /YouTube) Via Thrill Jockey: Just after the release of her debut Thrill Jockey album Cloud Corner , guitarist Marisa Anderson has released the video for album single "Lift," directed by Christopher Kirkley and featuring Anderson playing the charango. Anderson kicks off her North American tour tonight in Seattle with Joan Shelley , and will be performing throughout the summer with the likes of labelmates Sarah Louise and Glenn Jones , as we...

The Austin-based experimental sextet known as The Young Mothers are releasing their second album this week, Morose .   Currently based in Austin, The Young Mothers tie together backgrounds as regionally varied as Texas, Chicago, New York, and Norway, engaging their multiple influences into a cross-genre synthesis of protest music and aural turbulence. As if to illustrate this perfectly, for the single "Black Tar Caviar," The Young Mothers compose a discordant, rhythmic tug of war that attempts to merge jazz-based improvisation with the bare-knuckle assault of hardcore or powerviolence.  Somewhat akin to the avant sonics and noise-fetish brass explorations of John Zorn , especially for its frenzy of a finale, "Black Tar Caviar" pairs confusion and aggression in a compelling way, pitting the avantgarde against the underground and reveling in the forms' rejection of each other.  Those opening Albert Ayler -styled sax notes almost seem like a red herri...

Mating Surfaces , the newest album from Portland rockers Lithics , is out now at Kill Rock Stars .  You can find a review of the album at  No Ripcord . Lithics Mating Surfaces Kill Rock Stars Released: 5.25.18 Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead