Mister Lies-Deepend

Mister Lies is no longer the Mister Lies you once knew. What was once the pseudonym used by Nick Zanca just to craft his eclectic production work under has pushed his music has now been pushed into a far grander realm with “Deepend”. While still rooted in Zanca’s production (more on that in a second), it’s made to serve the new heart of the track, Zanca’s vocals. Singing for the first time, it’s slightly unbelievable how easily he manages to not only incorporate them into his music, but how much it expands his work as well. “Deepend” builds slow, opening with a muffled clicks and Zanca’s crystal clear voice delivering cryptic but clearly dark lyrics. The song then lurches forward, the production clicking together, and beautiful cello lines emerge to continue the sullen mood of the song. The song eventually comes to its crescendo, Zanca practically yelling the last line of “Don’t pull me up/I would drown happily”, giving out right when the production becomes the most frantic and glitched out, with only a moment to catch your breath after it finishes. "Deepend" is Mister Lies blooming in every capacity before your very eyes. It's utterly glorious.



Links:

Mister Lies' Website
Pre-order Shadow here, from Orchid Tapes

Institute-Salt

Institute have been an Austin staple for a while now. If there was ever a hardcore show, or a noisy guitar band rolling into town, Institute were sure to be shoved onto the bill somehow. Over that year of opening for everyone though, Institute started to hone their bleak, misanthropic post-punk, turning it into something tighter and tougher with each passing show. A sharp taste of this was already delivered earlier this year when the band released their Giddy Boy 7", and it has been refined even more with "Salt".

"Salt" will probably serve as the introduction to Institute for many, and there may not be a better track. The rumble of the low end bass and drums meshing together, only to be cut apart by guitarist Arak Avakian's jagged, picked riffs. These two contrasting sounds play off each other, creating a discordant mood through the whole song. All this this serves as the backbone for frontman Mose Brown's vocals. Taking center stage, they're both snotty yet menacing, slurred but full of spite. When the words can be made out, they're Brown decrying clichés of the world, taking down tropes with profanity and a snarled lip. With "Salt" Institute push post-punk into a ragged form, creating the musical equivalent of a raw nerve protected by nothing except venom and bitterness, which is the band is more than happy to spew.



Links:

Pre-order the Salt EP here, from Sacred Bones Records

Sea Oleena-If I'm

Back in the distant time of 2011, Bridgetown Records released an unassuming tape from Sea Oleena. The tape was compilation of her two EPs (Sleeplessness & a self-titled work); a collection of some tracks that balanced at the edge between folk and gauzy dream-pop, with a sense of delicateness and longing underpinning the songs. The compilation had an almost haunting quality to it, and was truly memorizing.

So hearing "If I'm", the first piece of new material from Sea Oleena in three year, is slightly startling. In that time, Sea Oleena's confidence has grown immensely. It's in her vocals, which now shine clearly in the song, no longer hidden behind a partial haze and open "If I'm" with a certain boldness. Its in her instruementation as well. The track evolves from tinkering piano before gradually bring in perfectly placed strings, which in turn collides with quick electronic beats that flow right into the song. Instead of rising into something climatic though, Sea Oleena decides to dissolve the song, closing it on a sweeping and gorgeous ambient section like the one she has been performing live for the past few months. And truly, that is the better option. By ending on that quite yet stunning note, "If I'm" exists as a thing of beauty, one that is as memorizing as it is enveloping.



Links:

Sea Oleena's Facebook
Pre-order Shallow here, from Lefse Records

Sophie-Hard

Sophie has built his sound around a form of musical whiplash; an uncanny ability to craft tracks in a truly twisted form, constantly jumping between build and climax without ever really giving either in a track. Similarly, the sonic competent has a matching quality. Like the rest of his PC-Music family, Sophie utilizes these sugary sweet, almost cartoony samples that when shoved through Sophie's production develop a warped, menacing quality that lays just below the surface. A taste of this was presented in a more compact form with "Lemonade", but it's much better crystallized through "Hard".

At the core of "Hard" is a tinny trap beat which Sophie manages to slice and dicing in a matter of moments, ripping it up & putting it back together over and over again. It is everything else that surrounds "Hard" though, that makes it so magical: the tinkering chimes, the creepy synth that suddenly lurches to life during the song's high points, the vocals that never change in tone but somehow develop a menacing quality to them when saying the track's name. Sophie cuts to & pieces together all these different sounds at such a rapid fire speed it's almost disorienting. However, that just adds to the effectiveness of the song. The world of Sophie is an off-kilter one, so it's no surprise that its soundtrack is just as manic.



Links:

Sophie's Website
Pre-order the "Lemonade"/"Hard" 12" here, from Bleep

Joanna Gruesome-Jerome (Liar)

"Jerome (Liar)" is a strange little track. The newest song from Joanna Gruesome since their utterly impeccable collection of noise-pop tunes Weird Sister came out last year, "Jerome (Liar)" feels like a distillation of every aspect of Joanna Gruesome's sound. Incredibly sweet snippets of indie-pop are dueling with equally frequent bursts of noise rock throughout the whole song, with the track constantly teetering the edge between wholesome pop and teeth snarling guitar freak out. It manages to do all of this in less than two minutes, short even by Joanna Gruesome standards, and sounds like the closest the band has ever come to throwing a temper tantrum in song form. But maybe that's the point. The song is clearly about someone they know, and we've all been in the predicament of having a "friend" you had to alternate between smiling to their face and flipping them off behind their back. Joanna Gruesome just finally cut the charade short, and let it all come tumbling out on "Jerome (Liar)".



Links:

Joanna Gruesome's Facebook
Pre-order the Trust Fund/Joanna Gruesome split 12" here, from Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records

Whirr-Heavy

Whirr have gone through many different forms since their initial inception. There was the strict shoegaze sound of their Distressor EP, the more '90s fuzz rock sound of their debut album Pipe Dreams, and then finally the sprawling/cascading sound that emerged on their Around EP last year. With each release, the band ventured into a new area of the shoegaze sound, exploring all the possibilities that the genre tag would allow in conjunction with the ever changing shape their band existed in at the time.

Now though, Whirr may have finally found their sound with their new album Sway. The band has seemed to have refined the more crushing aspects that they made on Around, focusing their sound to less of a build/climax style than to a more everlasting sludging through brightness quality. A taste of this was heard in the album's first single "Mumble", but the full effect of this is more present on "Heavy". Opening with thunderous drums and a wall of static fuzz, the track quickly gives way to a beautiful gliding guitar that sets the tone of the song. The production is what makes "Heavy" work so well. Every instrument shines through instead of colliding with one another like on previous Whirr albums. The thick thumps of the rhythm section are always ever present even as the noise swells more and more as the song progresses. The utterly beautiful guitar work is layered, the perfected melding of distorted riffing and noisy soundscape. Even the lose of the key balancing component of female vocals has been worked out with an ever so added presence of  Loren Rivera's vocals, which in turn give the track a lovely distant quality to it. With "Heavy" Whirr have finally whittled their sound to its core, and have crafted a pitch perfect piece of shoegaze around it.



Links:

Whirr's Facebook
Pre-order Sway here from Graveface Records

Hamish Kilgour-Crazy Radiance

Hamish Kilgour, whether making music with his brother David in The Clean or The Great Unwashed, or co-fronting the greatly underappreciated Mad Scene, has been making music for 30+ years at this point. In all that time though, Kilgour has never released a collection of his own music until now. "Crazy Radiance", the first single off Kilgour's upcoming All of It and Nothing, is not too far removed from music he made with The Mad Scene, all be it presented here in a much more stripped down form. Over a quickly strummed acoustic guitar and distant bass drum booms Kilgour crafts a very intimate pop song, his vocals especially helping to convey this moody, containing an well worn and knowing quality to them. Even when the second guitar comes in to let the track unfold a little, the feeling like he's crafting the song right next to you before your eyes never dissipates.



Links:

Pre-order All of It & Nothing here, from Ba Da Bing Records

Foxes in Fiction-Shadow's Song

It's hard to believe it has been three years since Foxes in Fiction have released an album. Not that Warren Hildebrand, the mastermind behind the project, has been completely quite since Swung from the Branches came out. The Alberto EP, various compilation appearances, and a collaborative 7" with Benoît Pioulard were all released in the intermediate time. However, as lovely as those songs were, they couldn't help but feel like stopgaps while Hildebrand was building to something bigger or grander.

"Shadow's Song", the first taste of Foxes in Fiction's second album Ontario Gothic, fulfills that promise. It is a slowly unfolding piece of absolutely gorgeous dream-pop, taking it's time to reveal all its different layers. What starts as something akin to the frail guitar work of Atlas Sound circa Logos quickly gives way to Hildebrand's silky vocals and the track's wonderfully glossy & warm production that blossoms with each guitar strum. Owen Pallett's guest violin work gives the track extra room, letting it expand further and further than it could have on its own. The song's ending, with Hildebrand's almost liquid guitar work trading off with Pallett's violin as the track swells more and more is one of the loveliest movements I have heard in a song all year. "Shadow's Song" is utter and complete dream-pop beauty, with all three years worth of effort shinning brightly in every aspect of this track.



Links:

Foxes in Fiction's Website
Pre-order Ontario Gothic here, from Orchid Tapes

Liam Betson-The Primordial Will

Before Liam Betson was a guitarist in Titus Andronicus for the last two years, he was Liam the Younger, creator of ragged indie folk/rock that served as a medium for Betson's dense and near stream of consciousness lyricism. His work is not unlike that of fellow "Titus Andronicus guitarist gone solo" artist Andrew Cedermark, layering this sense of rusticism into their work that gives their music a more aged feeling which in turn better reflects the weariness contained within them.

However, while Cedermark approached his music with a clear love of The Microphones in his heart, Betson's tunes are more lively, a sort of musical jog through what's on his mind. "The Primordial Will", the latest track from the upcoming The Cover of Hunter, uses rolling guitar jangle and shimmering distortion to drive the track. The track sprawls and sprawls, creating a sense like it could never end, Betson unfurls a tale of self-awareness, of knowing the mistakes one will make in a life, being unable to do anything about them, but still longing to change. Betson is addressing someone else in the song, but it's clear that that he's really talking to himself, trying to figure out and map out the himself the best he can. When "The Primordial Will" finally hits its climax, with a small roar of guitar that is pure catharsis, it is still up in the air whether Betson has succeed or not. But at least he tried, and that might be the most important thing of all.      



Links:

Liam Betson's Bandcamp
Pre-order The Cover of Hunter here, from Double Double Whammy

The Bilinda Butchers-Edo Method

The Bilinda Butchers have been making synth-filled dream pop for a while now, putting out several excellent EPs and singles for the past couple of years in the vein of the equally underapprciated Depreciation Guild. However, with the band finally announcing the details of their proper debut album, Heaven, something has changed. At least, it feels that way while listening to "Edo Method". Everything about the track feels ramped up, as if it's a Bilinda Butchers track on hyperdrive. It bursts out of the gate, the drumming massively more kinetic & frantic (thanks to the inclusion of newest member Ryan Wansley), and the guitars richly distorted yet it's riffs ringing out crystal clear. Most sticking maybe Michal Palmer's vocals, which are still soft and warm, but now are no longer buried. Instead, they are front and center on the track, and give the song an added urgency that wouldn't have been there otherwise. With "Edo Method", it seems Bilinda Butchers are taking the energetic burst they picked up on "The Lovers' Suicide!" and decided to crank that energy even higher. Which is wonderful because the band wound up melding power pop to dream pop perfectly, and crafted a truly gorgeous song in the process.



Links:

The Bilinda Butchers' Website
Pre-order Heaven here, from Orchid Tapes