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Music

Hydroplane – International Exiles

Australian trio Hydroplane formed back in the mid-90s, initially to record a single seven-inch. They ended up releasing three albums, including a self-titled debut recently reissued by Efficient Space and garnering a cult fanbase that continues to grow to this day. Out last week, a new retrospective Selected Songs 1997-2003 compiles some of their finest recorded moments, including International Exiles which has all the hallmarks of their instantly recognisable sound; hushed, lazy drums, dreamy, deeply melancholic chords and Kerrie Bolton’s ethereally indifferent vocal.

https://hydroplaneband.bandcamp.com/album/selected-songs-1997-2003

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Music

Grant Chapman – Comedown

Grant Chapman’s new album Revisions starts with an anguished scream and ends with a breathy vocal repeating “it’s so sad” for a couple of minutes, but despite this it’s actually a joyful listen, and really not depressing at all (honestly). Calm and serenity permeates through the entire album, which makes that jarring start all the more surprising. It’s hard to pick out a highlight as all the tracks flow pretty seamlessly, but sometimes it really is “so sad”, so Comedown gets TPW seal of approval. Also, at the time of writing this currently has zero views on YouTube, so it makes me feel good to know that might increase to a dozen or so following this post.

https://grantchapman.bandcamp.com/album/revisions

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Music

Slowdive – prayer remembered

I’m glad I hadn’t listened to any of the singles from Slowdive’s new album everything is alive ahead of its release last week, as although it does mean I’m a little behind the curve, these tracks are undoubtedly more impactful as part of the whole than separated out. prayer remembered is the one that really got me on the first listen; a dreamy, melodic, instrumental slice of shoegaze perfection.

https://slowdive.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-alive

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Music

Stars of the Lid – Another Ballad for Heavy Lids

Brian Eno may have ‘invented’ ambient, but it was Stars of the Lid who refined it to perfection, creating some of the most beautiful, transcendent music ever to grace this world. With the death of one half of the group’s Brian McBride earlier this week we have lost a true visionary, and while surviving member Adam Wiltzie says there is unreleased music that may yet see the light of day, McBride’s passing in an opportunity to look back rather than forward, and to appreciate the work of a phenomenal artist and true original. Somewhat poignantly, there’s no music better suited to morn McBride than that which he himself created, and Another Ballad for Heavy Lids remains, for me, the highpoint of their extensive catalogue.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/33863-Stars-Of-The-Lid

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Music

Barker – Wick & Wax

Sam Barker returns with his first solo EP since 2020’s BARKER002, this time on Oslo’s Smalltown Supersound. His 2018 EP Debiasing changed the game and remains one of my favourite electronic releases of all time, and while his latest Unfixed sees him reintroducing kick drums back into the equation there’s still an unpredictability to how the tracks are structured and progress. There are arguably more inventive, and certainly harder-hitting moment on the four-track release, but Wick & Wax get my nod for being 9 minutes of melodic loveliness.

https://sambarker.bandcamp.com/album/unfixed

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Interviews Music

One Track Mind: Freak Heat Waves

The Canadian duo’s Steve Lind on the inspirational merits of an r&b icon

The premise of One Track Mind is pretty simple: I ask artists to pick one track that means a lot to them – either something they’ve discovered recently, something that’s been with them for years, or one that reminds them of a specific time in their life or career – and tell me what makes it so special to them. I get to talk to the artists I love, and they get to talk about the artists they love. Love all round!

For more than a decade, Freak Heat Waves have been steadily amassing a cult following and earning acclaim from both critics and underground aficionados alike. Their music is a heady cocktail that defies easy categorization, blending elements of post-punk, psych, dub, ambient, house, and techno. Their eclectic sound has served as the soundtrack to countless DIY punk shows, outsider galleries and sleazy discos, establishing the duo as iconoclasts with a reputation for ignoring expectations and subverting genre conventions.

Their latest album Mondo Tempo exists in a hazy space between all these genres. Lead by Lind’s purringly nonchalant vocals, all the tracks on Mondo Tempo are various shades of “extremely chill”. From the barely-there, Nightmares on Wax-evoking Altered States to the spacious, breezy melodies of Cindy collab In a Moment Divine it’s one to be savoured, preferably while poolside somewhere exotic.

For their One Track Mind selection, Freak Heat Waves Steve Lind has dived back into the movie vaults to the soundtrack of a nearly 80 year old noir classic.

Continue reading “One Track Mind: Freak Heat Waves”
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Music

Carmen Villain – Multicolor

The latest album from Norwegian-Mexican artist Carmen Villain is comprised from parts of her score for Eszter Salamon’s two-and-a-half hour dance performance, Monument 0.10 : The Living Monument. Most of the track included here are edited down from the long-form versions that accompanied the ultra-slow scenes of the performance, which means that somewhere there’s probably an extended version of this incredibly lush album opener that I need to find and have on repeat for months to come.

https://carmenvillain.bandcamp.com/album/music-from-the-living-monument

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Music

Madeline Kenney – HFAM

Madeline Kenney isn’t Swedish, or Danish (she is, in fact, “a musician, baker, artist, sucker” who lives in Oakland), but she does very much remind me of some of my favourite bands from those particular countries, namely Wildhart and Lowly, respectively. And yes, I know they’re not the same place, but there is a shared atmosphere when it comes to alt-rock/pop from the region: a glassiness to the vocals; a particularly sharp thread of yearning evoked by the melodies – all of which is very much apparent in much of Kenney’s new album, A New Reality Mind from which HFAM is taken.

https://madelinekenney.bandcamp.com/album/a-new-reality-mind

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Interviews Music

One Track Mind: Avi C. Engel

The Toronto-based artist on the spellbinding power of a 70-year-old composition.

The premise of One Track Mind is pretty simple: I ask artists to pick one track that means a lot to them – either something they’ve discovered recently, something that’s been with them for years, or one that reminds them of a specific time in their life or career – and tell me what makes it so special to them. I get to talk to the artists I love, and they get to talk about the artists they love. Love all round!

Formerly known as Clara Engel, Avi C. Engel is a prolific and multi-faceted Toronto-based artist whose music has been described as “folk noir,” and “minimalist holy blues from another galaxy.” Their influences span genres and media, amongst them Vasko Popa, Virginia Woolf, Theodore Roethke, Jim Jarmusch, Arvo Part, Robert Johnson, Gillian Welch, and Jacques Brel. In their own words, “I’m not writing the same song over and over so much as writing one long continuous song that will end when I die”, which is about as beautifully bleak a statement as I can imagine.

Their latest album Sanguinaria marries equally poetic lyrics with sparse instrumentation, building atmospheres that move beyond ‘haunting’ into territory that is almost unbearably raw and unsettling, but with a lightness of touch and attention to detail that draws you in completely.

For their One Track Mind selection, Avi has dived back into the movie vaults to the soundtrack of a nearly 80 year old noir classic.

Continue reading “One Track Mind: Avi C. Engel”
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Music

Sufjan Stevens – So You Are Tired

Our lord and saviour Sufjan is back with – IMO – one of his finest songs for years, So You Are Tired; the lead single from his new album Javelin, due out in October. It’s absolutely vintage Suffers, with an outro beautiful enough to rival anything he’s ever recorded. I have enormous hopes for this album, which is described as “his first in full singer-songwriter mode since Carrie & Lowell.” Fuck. Yes. I love everything about this, with the exception of the deeply hideous title font on the artwork. But I forgive him.

http://asthmatickitty.com