Bremen

"Second Launch" is the sophomore release from Swedish duo Bremen.  The album combines drone, experimentation, psych rock, prog, and krautrock to form something wholly beautiful and intoxicating.  The album "evokes nothing less than the vast emptiness of outer space and the obliteration of all meaning and identity in the face of it."  I couldn't say it better than that.  Get the album next month from Blackest Ever Black and listen to "Hollow Wave" below.

Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets

Apparently there is a documentary film coming out about Pulp's final show in their hometown of Sheffield, England in 2012 called, adequately enough, "Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets."  Being a huge fan of the band, and totally bummed out that i've never been afforded the opportunity to see them perform live, i will have to seek this film out.  Watch the trailer below.

Adult Jazz

Adult Jazz are an experimental art-rock band out of Leeds, England.  Their debut LP "Gist Is" is due in August from Spare Thought Records.  "Spook" is the album's 10-minute centerpiece...and it's a beauty, a cinematic and grand avant garde opus.  Listen below.

Wolves in the Throne Room

I had heard that we could expect new music from Wolves in the Throne Room this year, and lo and behold, here is the first taste of the Pacific Northwest black metal band's upcoming album "Celestite."  "Celestite Mirror" is 15 minutes of atmospheric buildup, a droning blossom of synths, flutes, and effects that cascades and subsides, surges and ceases, like some some terrible Lovecraftian old god rising from the sea.  Listen below and get the album in July from Artemesia Records.

Moby covers Duran Duran

Moby covered Duran Duran's "Rio" for some reason.  I like it.  Listen below.

Haunted Hearts

Haunted Hearts is the side project of Dee Dee from the Dum Dum Girls and husband Brandon Welchez from The Crocodiles.  If you're familiar with either band, the duo's debut "Initiation" sounds exactly like it's supposed to, a head-nodding, foot-tapping, spaced and trippy take on Jesus and Mary Chain surf rock.  Get the album tomorrow on Zoo Music and watch the video for "Up Is Up (But so Is Down)" below.

Brett

It's Sunday.  It's a holiday weekend.  I took it the whole thing off from work.  So, let's float around in some blissful electronic pop from Washington DC's Brett.  Take a listen to "Goon" below, air it all out, and grab the self-titled debut album from Cascine.

Dirty Beaches

I've been a fan of Alex Zhang Hungtai's drone-meets-rockabilly explorations for a few years now.  The man knows how to weave heartache and unease into these little twisted and echoed bursts or sprawls of sound.  Earlier this week, "Neon Gods of Lost Youth," an EP of unreleased material surfaced to great acclaim...in my house at least.  Take a listen to "Neon God and Funeral Strippers" below.  It sounds like following a faint glow into a dark tunnel that ultimately leads you...somewhere.  Get the EP here.

Circulatory System

Will Cullen Hart (Olivia Tremor Control) is set to release a new album with his Circulatory System project called "Mosaics within Mosaics."  Listen to the hazy, choppy sunshine psych pop jam "Stars and Molecules" below and look for the album at the end of June from Cloud Recordings.

New music from Godflesh

Though i'm still kicking myself for missing last month's Godflesh show when the group came through Austin, i can take some solace that new music from the legendary industrial/metal band is on the horizon.  The "Decline and Fall" EP is due on Avalanche at the end of June, but in the meantime, you can listen to album opener "Ringer" below.  Hooray!

The Soft Pink Truth

Why do the heathen rage?  Why indeed.  On new album "Why Do the Heathen Rage?" The Soft Pink Truth take classic black metal jams by Venom, Darkthrone, Mayhem, and more on an abrupt sonic detour into electronic, industrial noise.  It's like if the folks over at Wax Trax had gotten their hands on these songs 25 years ago.  Thumps and thuds, screaming and screeching.  Listen to the band's take on Venom's "Black Metal" below and grab the album from Thrill Jockey next month.

Fun Fun Fun Fest lineup

Fun Fun Fun Fest released their lineup for November's festival last night...and it looks inviting and exciting.  Judas Priest!  Death from Above 1979!  Failure!  Nas!  Neutral Milk Hotel!  Guided by Voices!  And so much more.  Get tickets here, and watch the classic "Breaking the Law" video below.

Quirke

I don't know much about UK producer Quirke, except that i was immediately drawn in by the cover art to his "Acid Beth" EP and the smoky, haunting piano ambience of the title track.  It's akin to some of the work by Tim Hecker, ghostly and far away.  Listen below and grab the EP from Young Turks.

White Lung

Everything, and i mean everything, about the latest single from Vancouver's White Lung reminds me of high school.  The sound and vibe of "Face Down," the throwback VHS quality of the video, the band's clothing choices, everything.  It feels like snap shot of an early 90's, spit-in-your-face riot grrrl act before that term became meaningless.  Watch the video below and get the band's "Deep Fantasy" LP in June from Domino.

Jesu - Infinity

Justin K. Broadrick's Jesu offerings are a wonderful mix of beauty and heaviness.  Very often, the songs veer into emotional and epic territory, a sprawling bombast of layered guitars, pounding drums, and echoed, wistful vocals spread out over an ongoing, melancholy melody.  And thus, the aptly titled "Infinity."  Listen to the vinyl-only mix of the track below, and then go here to get the album both digitally and on good, old-fashioned black vinyl.

Ashburn County

Ashburn County is the sound collage project of a group of artists/musicians/maniacs in Louisiana.  The group just released "Our Dead Selves Rise - A Collection" on Belaten, and it's a creepy and icky soundtrack to a film that does not (and should not) exist.  There are some thematic and sonic elements in common with Hank III's "Gutter Town" album from a couple years ago, a mix of field recordings, Cajun music, and sinister clunks and thuds.  The band's own synopsis says more than i ever could:

In 2012, Leroy Delbert Quebedeaux and his friends decided to direct their own movie which would be a tribute to (sic) independent hick films and their grotesque humor set in the midst of a terrifying nature. But they had no cameras, no money, nothing. So they decided to work on the soundtrack of the film they would have done if they had the adequate equipment. They bought a digital handheld recording machine and, inspired by the soundtracks of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Eaten Alive, they did some field recordings of instruments, agricultural machines or natural environment. So everything has been recorded with it : accordions, trombones, voices, synthesizers, cellos, etc. It gave a particular quality to the sound of all these instruments. By mixing traditional folk and Cajun culture with industrial collage, droning synthesizers, old rhythm boxes, neoclassical grandeur, samples and mechanized sounds, the musicians confronted themselves with ghosts of their own past and ghosts of the earth itself on which they have grown up and lived until now.

Pretty excellent and dark stuff.  Listen to "Cracks in the Wall (Alternate Mix)" below, download the album here, and grab the cassette here.

Failure - Come Crashing

New music from Failure!  New music from Failure!  New music from Failure!  I suppose it was only a matter of time after the reunion gigs began, but we have the first new Failure jam to bask in since 1996.  And it's good.  Listen to "Come Crashing" below, and do your best to see these guys while they tour.

And word on the grapevine is that there is a new album in works too.  Hooray!

All Your Sisters

San Francisco's All Your Sisters weave electronic beats, industrial scrape, and post punk darkness to craft some pretty menacing pop numbers.  The group's new album, "Modern Failures" traverses these dark waves with skill and enough hooks to hang around your head for days.  Listen to "Tension" below, download the album here, pick up the cassette from Belaten, and howl at the moon.

RIP H.R. Giger

 Legendary artist and designer H.R. Giger passed away yesterday at the age of 74.  Giger was known for his creepy, often sexually charged mix of synthetic and organic art pieces, most notably the design for the creatures in the "Alien" series.  He also created art for a variety of other movies and some album covers as well, like Danzig's "How the Gods Kill" below.

He will be missed.

Amen Dunes

"Love," the latest album from Amen Dunes, plays like forgotten songs on an old radio in a rusty, broken-down car, static in the air, dust blowing off the road, dark clouds forming in the horizon, the smell of rain and mud.  Main man Damon McMahon brings in some help this time around from members of Iceage and Godspeed You! Black Emperor to expand the band's sound.  The album feels close to Americana roots and folk, but floats just high enough off of the ground with tinges of post punk and reverb as to feel like a fading memory.  Get the lovely album from Sacred Bones and listen to "Lonely Richard" below.

Dave Harrington

Dave Harrington is one half of electronic duo Darkside (the other being Nicolas Jaar), and his first solo outing, the "Before This There Was One Heart but a Thousand Thoughts" EP comes out this week on Jaar's Other People label.  The album weaves melody, psych experimentation, and ambience in a sparse, but pulsing soup that feels like wandering lost through some synthetic desert landscape.  Listen to the A-side "One-All // A Thousand Times // Multiple and Mirror" below.

Spookyland

Spookyland is the reverb-drenched, quirky bedroom-folk project of Australia's Marcus Gordon.  There are some elements of Elephant 6 in the artist's debut EP, "Rock and Roll Weakling," though they take on an otherworldly vibe.  And then there's the vocals.  Nasally.  Idiosyncratic.  Maybe a tad hard to get used to, but ultimately sincere and real.  Listen to "The Silly Fucking Thing" below and get the EP from Monday Records.

Happy Mother's Day from Camp Crystal Lake

Happy Mother's Day everybody.  Let's try not let any mongoloid children drown today, huh?

Leyland Kirby - We drink to forget the coming storm

Experimental, ambient artist extraordinaire Leyland Kirby (The Caretaker, The Stranger) just released a 40-track album called "We drink to forget the coming storm" in celebration of his 40th birthday.  The album is a hushed and wistful piano-driven affair to soothes and breaks hearts.  Pay what you want to get the album here, though the artist recommends the price of a "birthday whiskey."  In the meantime, listen to the opening track below.

Slow Pulse

Slow Pulse is the dreamy, minimal synth project from Justin Sweatt (Xander Harris) and Nic Nadeau (Single Lash).  Dark and moody atmospheres prevail.  Take a listen to "Hardware" below and grab the cassette from Mirror Universe Tapes.

Allie X

You ever have one of those songs you're kind of ashamed to admit you dig?  Happens to me all the time, but dammit, every once in a while, i've just go to embrace the inner tweenage girl that resides in my ears.  And so, the latest pop club anthem from Allie X.  I don't know who she is.  I don't know who she works with.  I don't know the first thing about her.  And yet "Bitch" refuses to leave my conscious mind alone.  Listen below...and join me.

Heroin in Tahiti

Sounding like the house band of some decadent and sinister night spot in a Giallo film, Italy's Heroin in Tahiti do us up right with their particular brand of "occult psychedelia."  Listen to the creeping and Eastern sounding "ALO" below and grab the 7" from Yerevan Tapes.

Beta Frontiers

I first heard Toronto's Beta Frontiers a couple of years ago, but then they kind of fell off my radar.  Well, it looks like they're back, and this time with Carmen Elle from Diana on vocals.  "So Cold" is pure, electronic pop bliss.  Listen below and get it from Buzz Records.

Eno & Hyde

Brian Eno is a perennial favorite around here, so any upcoming project from the legendary artist is welcomed with open arms and a wide smile.  "Someday World" finds him collaborating with Underworld's Karl Hyde to craft an album of sweeping electronic pop.  Listen to "The Satellites" below and get the album from Warp.

The Devil

The Devil is the project of Atlanta hip-hop producer Derek Schklar, and his new mixtape "Violence," is a dark, nasty, awful thing.  But it's captivating.  The album strings along bits of rap verse, radio samples of Johnny Cash, Dillinger Escape Plan, and others, and snips and clips from news reports about violence and murder, from Charles Whitman climbing the UT tower to shoot strangers to the more recent mall shooting in Maryland with a complete abandonment of structure.  It's ugly.  It's foul.  But it's worth listening to.  And it's aptly named.  You can download it for free here, and listen to "KILL RADIO KILL / THE RIDE" below.

Peter Matthew Bauer

I have a confession to make.  I was never really into The Walkmen.  I know they had a very fervent following, but they just never clicked for me.  I was actually a bigger fan of what came before (Jonathan Fire Eater), so i wasn't exactly heart broken when the band called it quits shortly after Fun Fun Fun Fest last year.  That being said, the new solo effort from former Walkmen member Peter Matthew Bauer is slowly creeping its way into my brain and staying there.  They album details life growing up in an Ashram, and then mixes folk and rock into this wonderful, spiritual and existential testament.  "Liberation!" feels deep and honest...and joyful.  Take a listen to the lo-fi "Philadelphia Raga" below and get the album on Mexican Summer.

William Tyler

"Lost Colony," the latest EP from Nashville guitarist and composer William Tyler is a sun-drenched, plugged-in folk mini-opus, the sound of middle America at sunset.  There's dust on the road, winds blow through the farmlands, and the road goes on forever.  It's honest, and beautiful, and spectacular.  Get the album from Merge and listen to the sweeping "Whole New Dude" below.

Wovenhand

I had never heard of Denver band Wovenhand until about a month ago, just as snippets and tastes of the group's new album "Refractory Obdurate" were starting to surface on various blogs...and whoa, have i been missing out on something spectacular.  The band started as an offshoot of alt-country act 16 Horsepower, and have been churning out records for the last 13 years or so.  The band blends the aforementioned alt-country with gloomy folk, elements of ragged Americana, experimental metal, blues stomp, post, prog, and punk rock, and an old school vibe akin to channeling the Druids or ancient mystics.  In short, it's an absolutely amazing record.  Fans of Swans will be swimming in this...and you should too.  Get the album from Deathwish Inc, and listen to "Good Shepard" below.