#orchards of a futile heaven

[disease]

THE BODY ft. DIS FIG // COILS OF KAA [ORCHARDS OF A FUTILE HEAVEN, FEB 2024]

[senorboombastic]

Live Review: Supersonic Festival 2024

Words: Ben Forrester Having ogled the line ups for the past few years now, I was pleased as punch to be finally in attendance at a Supersonic Festival. Now in its 21st year, the Birmingham based fest is a celebration of the very best in experimental music on a world wide scale! I am here just for the day today, but with nine acts on the bill and absolutely no skips, it’s fair to say that it’s…

[musicalburgerman]

The Body & Dis Fig: Orchards of a Futile Heaven

This album sounds like glass shard from Heaven are raining down upon you while your loved ones watch and do nothing.

8.5/10

[iamlisteningto]

The Body & Dis Fig’s Orchards Of A Futile Heaven

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Eternal Hours • To Walk a Higher Path • Dissent, Shame • Orchards of a Futile Heaven • Holy Lance • Coils of Kaa • Back to the Water

Spotify ♪ Bandcamp ♪ YouTube

[hellwatermelon]

My top 100 favorite albums 2024

Armand Hammer - BLK LBL Cannell Laura - The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined Selbst - Despondency Chord Progressions Vince Staples - Dark Times Grace Cummings - Ramona Crizin da Z.O. - ACELERO Various Artists - funk.BR - São Paulo (NTS) Lesser Care - HEEL TURN Omar Souleyman - Erbil Poroniec - W Pologu

The Body , Dis Fig - Orchards Of A Futile Heaven Ink & Fire - Emblazoned Visions Yield Eternity Amiture - Mother Engine Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere Vitriol - Suffer & Become Djevel - Natt Til Ende JPEGMAFIA - I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood Cower - Celestial Devastation Full of Hell - Coagulated Bliss

Full of Hell and Andrew Nolan - Scraping The Divine SECT - Plagues Upon Plagues Elucid - Revelator Revival Season - Golden Age Of Self Snitching KA - The Thief Next to Jesus Venus Twins - /\/\/\/\/ Kriegshög - Love & Revenge Moor Mother - The Great Bailout Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She 070 Shake - Petrichor

Castle Rat - Into The Realm Darkestrah - Nomad Mary Lattimore - Rain on the Road Camerata Mediolanense - Atalanta Fugiens Haley Heynderickx - Seed of a Seed Weltenbrandt - Transzendenz Schatten Romantik Panzerfaust - The Suns of Perdition IV: To Shadow Zion Cabinet - Hydrolysated Ordination Kidnapped - Disgust

Throwing Snow - Isthmus Floating Points - Cascade E-Saggila - Gamma Tag Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja Joanna Wang - Hotel La Rut (破爛酒店) Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown Position Parallèle - Aiguille À Découdre Amigo the Devil - Yours Until the War is Over Elyanna - WOLEDTO Kvadrat - The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone and The New World Lowen - Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran Roc Marciano - Marciology The Gnashing - Forsaken Sanctuary Lhaäd - Beneath Uniform - American Standard Westside Gunn - Still Praying Denzel Curry - King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2 Kelly Moran - Moves in the Field Jenny Don't & The Spurs - Broken Hearted Blue

WILLOW - empathogen Venomous Echoes - Split Formations and Infinite Mania Blaze of Perdition - Upharsin LL Cool J - The FORCE Rome Streetz & Daringer - Hatton Garden Holdup Show Me The Body - Corpus II ØKSE Maelstrom & Louisahhh - May the Rage Burn a Path for Joy Etran de L’Aïr - 100% Sahara Guitar Toby Driver - Raven, I Know That You Can Give Me Anything

Squarepusher - Dostrotime SHXCXCHCXSH - ……t Jlin - Akoma Kelly Lee Owens - Dreamstate KASHIWA Daisuke - Titan Molok - Ne pas chercher á comprendre My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding Antichrist Siege Machine - Vengeance of Eternal Fire Skeleton Lipstick - Death Romantique Seekersinternational + Mars89 - Dangerous Combination

Consumer Electronics - Surge Kendrick Lamar - GNX Dame Area - Toda La Verdad Sobre Dame Area Tyler, The Creator - CHROMAKOPIA Felix K - Sudbaism Heems - Lafandar Holy Tongue & Shackleton - The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now Al Wooton - Lifted From The Earth Ab-Soul - Soul Burger Previous Industries - Service Merchandise

Ponte del Diavolo - Fire Blades From The Tomb Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal Lord Buffalo - Holus Bolus Tristwch Y Fenywod Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven Humbird - Right On Mount Eerie - Night Palace Jasper Byrne, Sonic - Mirrors Odium Humani Generis - Międzyczas Milkweed - Folklore 1979

HONORABLE MENTIONS, mostly albums I heard very late in the year that would probably be added:

Big Blood - Electric Voyeur Kir - L'appel Du Vide UBOA - Impossible light Ganavya - Like The Sky I've Been Too Quiet

best of 2018

Best of 2020

Best of 2021

Best of 2022

Best of 2023

Any of you all want to add yours feel free :)

[defjux]

Here are 81 of my favorite albums of 2024 If you noticed the lack of hip hop albums on here, that's because i already posted a separate list for hip hop which you can find here if you're interested. Chart with album titles included I probably listened to the Chelsea Wolfe album more than anything else here but the cure album was such a pleasant surprise for me that I had to put it as number 1. I thought it was a great year for music overall though. I'm really happy with the first few rows on here and those are for sure the albums i'd recommend the most, even though i think everything on here is worth checking out. If you believe there's something i might've missed or your favorite albums of the year aren't on here, let me know! Feel free to leave your own list in the comments, i'd be interested in seeing it. As always, i'll make it so the album titles are a hyperlink that'll take to wherever you can hear it. Peace. 1. The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World 2. Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She 3. Iglooghost - Tidal Memory Exo 4. chat pile - Cool World 5. Frail Body - Artificial Bouquet 6. Whirr - Raw Blue 7. OKSE - OKSE 8. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere 9. Trauma Ray - Chameleon 10. Gouge Away - Deep Sage 11. drive your plow over the bones of the dead - Tragedy As Catharsis 12. Thou - Umbilical 13 . Moor Mother - The Great Bailout 14. Terry Green - PROVISIONAL LIVING 15. Krallice - Inorganic Rites 16. Nala Sinephro - Endlessness 17. Punchlove - Channels 18. Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown 19. Tenue - Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos 20. Crumb - AMAMA 21. Hammok - Look How Long Lasting Everything Is Moving Forward For Once 22. Infant Island - Obsidian Wreath 23. Meaningful Stone - Angel interview 24. Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement 25. Arooj Aftab - Night Reign 26. Ulcerate - Cutting The Throat Of God 27. Camila Bañados - Viento 1. 28. Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor 29. Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja 30. Mary Halvorson - Cloudward

31. Nails - Every Bridge Burning 32. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD 33. showmore - Liquid City 34. Blushing - Sugarcoat 35. Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk 36. Lip Critic - Hex Dealer 37. Joel Ross - nublues 38. State Faults - Children Of The Moon 39. geordie greep - The New Sound 40. Candy - It's Inside You 41. SATOKO SHIBATA - Your Favorite Things 42. Julia Holter - Something in the Room She Moves 43. Gigan - Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus 44. Knoll - As Spoken 45. Jaubi - A Sound Heart 46. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee 47. Blind Girls - An Exit Exists 48. Julie - my anti-aircraft friend 49. Milton Nascimento & Esperanza Spalding - Milton + esperanza 50. Hiatus Kaiyote - Love Heart Cheat Code 51. Isleptonthemoon - Only the Stars Know of My Misfortune 52. Liana Flores - Flower of the soul 53. SML - Small Medium Large 54. Maruja - The Vault 55. Spirit of the Beehive - YOU'LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING 56. Fievel Is Glauque - Rong Weicknes 57. Leaving Time - Angel in the Sand 58. Rita Payés - De camino al camino 59. TURQUOISEDEATH - Kaleidoscope 60. Babii - Daredeviil2000 61. Jessica Pratt - Here In The Pitch 62. HERIOT - Devoured by the Mouth of Hell 63. Dim - planted in the soil 64. Contention - Artillery From Heaven 65. Convulsing - Perdurance 66. The Body & Dis Fig - Orchards of a Futile Heaven 67. Uboa - Impossible Light 68. Melt-Banana - 3+5 69. DIIV - Frog in Boiling Water 70. Amiensus - Reclamation: Part 1 71. Ginger Root - Shinbangumi 72. Hannah Frances - Keeper of the Shepherd 73. Ravyn Lenae - Bird's Eye 74. Garden Home - Garden Home 75. Aara - Eiger 76. graywave - Dancing in the Dust 77. Martha Skye Murphy - Um 78. Mo Dotti - opaque 79. Luna Li - When a Thought Grows Wings 80. Pluma - Não Leve a Mal 81. Twine - New Old Horse

[postpunkindustrial]

The Body & Dis Fig - Orchards of a Futile Heaven

[twinsfawn]

tagged by @prairiedeath ♡

edit: i just noticed that fucking typo it’s DIS FIG

tagging: @tomb-mold @horrorlesbians @tammysneurosis @bloodykilos @icelogged @degenderates @rigorwhoretis @furrowfilthe @blackvelvetofnight @teeth-ing @lesbianjudasiscariot @housofpsychoticwomn @kestreleve @viksalos @texaschainsawmascara and whoever else wants to ♡

[alivingroomatthebottomofalake]

100 Great Albums from 2024.

OK…

I listened to a lot of music this year, and I am not going to prattle on about it all this time because there's too much. These are the albums that came out this year that I really liked. They aren't in a specific order, but they are in a general order (closer to the top just means I listened to it more often, or responded enthusiastically/felt really strongly about it). I have been doing a lot of radio this year, and so I've listened to so much music. It's not trying to be a definitive top 100 list, I am sure I missed some gems, but these are things I personally liked. Then there are some special mentions at the end that include some reissues that include some reworked/additional material, and some compilations/live albums as well. Genres are all over the place, from heavy to light to weird to weirder. Check things out and enjoy the adventure.

Muuntautuja by Oranssi Pazuzu

Dreaming the Strife for Love by Bedsore

Absolute Elsewhere by Blood Incantation

Impossible Light by Uboa

Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons

Red Hot & Ra - The Magic City by Meshell Ndegeocello

COEXISTENCE by Johanna Elina Sulkunen

13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips by Xiu Xiu

Coagulated Bliss by Full of Hell

Orchards of a Futile Heaven by The Body & Dis Fig

The Healer by Sumac

Scope Neglect by Ben Frost

I Saw the TV Glow by Various/Alex G

Maxxxine by Tyler Bates

The Substance by Raffertie

Colour by Material Object

NONAGE by Li Yilei

Delight by Arushi Jain

RECESSED DRAUGHTING by Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe

NATI INFINITI by Alessandro Cortini

Much Unseen Is Also Here by Lustmord

Mosaic by Fennesz

Generative Etudes Vol 2​.​1 by Matthew Ryals

Nidar Effigy by Althru

MANTRA by Diploid

Cutting the Throat of God by Ulcerate

Emerald Fires Atop The Farewell Mountains by COSMIC PUTREFACTION

The Great Bailout (Deluxe) by Moor Mother

Vajranala by Senyawa

The love it took to leave you by Colin Stetson

Cellophane Memories by Chrystabell & David Lynch

NRTYA by SAICOBAB

Black Blues by Keiji Haino

Disconnect by KRM & KMRU

The Light is Real by Thollem, Terry Riley, Nels Cline

Chytridiomycosis Relinquished by Slimelord

Cool World by Chat Pile

You Could Do It Tonight by Couch Slut

Highly Irresponsible by Better Lovers

The Head As Form​’​d In The Crier​’​s Choir by Sarah Davachi

with my back to the world by Teeth dreams

Chroma by Loscil // Lawrence English

Argot by Passepartout Duo

Farm Psychedelia I & II by eucademix

Placenta by Carlos Niño & Friends

Spectral Evolution by Rafael Toral

Paloma Wind by EVA-MARIA HOUBEN + JOHN HUDAK

Arise in Sinking Feelings by PINKCOURTESYPHONE

September 23rd by William Basinski

Two Verses by Mark Templeton

Outer Spaceways Incorporated : Kronos Quartet & Friends Meet Sun Ra by Red Hot Org

The Copyrite of Spring by Buttress O’Kneel

marked by Klein

Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos by Ka Baird

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree by Various

Black myth wukong by Zhai JinYan

UFO 50 by Eirik Suhrke

Idea Man by David Flemming

Natur by KMRU

Sharqan Hatta Al Maut - 4 by Firas Shehadeh

Harmony / Balance by Ibukun Sunday

Radio Yugawara by Passepartout Duo and Inoyama Land

In - Tran - Situ by babyxxan

Dulcitone 1804 by Nightports w/ Matthew Bourne

The sound of flowers by Daniel O’Toole

Dawn by Raymond Haddad

Horror Vacui by 9T Antiope

Halki pilvien by Tomutonttu

Standstill by Disasterpeace

Challengers by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

Nautnir þrj​á​r by Guðmundur Arnalds

Space As An Instrument by Félicia Atkinson

The Itself of Itself by Bass Communion

Instability of the Signal by Simon Fisher Turner

D​Ý​RA by SHHE

Salt And Sugar Look The Same by Tim Koh / Sun An

Aurora Liminalis by William Basinski + Richard Chartier

On Leaving by RICHARD CHARTIER

Lambda by ZULI

Face to Face, Day by Day by ACT!

Endlessness by Nala Sinephro

For Barney, Who Was A Bad Dog, But A Good Boy, And Very Much Loved. by Dekalb Works

Anatomical Heart by Erik Griswold, Chloe Kim, Helen Svoboda

Talitakum by Avalanche Kaito

Giant Beauty by أحمد [Ahmed]

Let Us Descend by Francesco Leali

Peurakaira by Maja S. K. Ratkje/Marte Ingeborg Haltli/Frida Helene Haltli

Turzets by James Rushford

Music For A Bellowing Room by Sarah Davachi and Dicky Bahto

MUNDANAS VII​-​XI by John McCowen

Eleven Fugues For Sodium Pentothal by Adam Wiltzie

Social Engineering by Jan Jelinek

Suite For The Drains by Lisa Lerkenfeldt

Princ​€​ss by Princ€ss

Ataque Mental by Interzona

Crises Trilogy by Darlene

Ag Titim by Anocht

Material by Connor D'Netto

Special mentions (compilations/live albums/reissues)

Disposable Heroes of Hit Em by Various

Blue and yellow through Black and Grey by Various

Special versions - Live at ACCA, Brighton by Colleen

Hear the Machine #4 by serene ailment

Alley of the Sun by Various

Vile Luxury - Redux 1924 (24​-​bit HD audio) by Imperial Triumphant

plexure '24 by plunderphonics

Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Expanded Edition) by Aphex Twin

[disease]

THE BODY & DIS FIG TO WALK A HIGHER PATH [ORCHARDS OF A FUTILE HEAVEN, FEB 2024]

[dustedmagazine]

Dust, Volume 10, Number 8

Orcas (not Oasis)

Welcome to our all-Oasis edition of Dust!

Just kidding. We slog through August bemused by the excitement over big ticket tours, though we will, if pressed, admit to a fondness for “Wonderwall,” a song often sung jubiliantly by someone we love on the way to track meets and XC ski practice and theater rehearsal years ago (though not as many years ago as it first emerged).

Anyway, we once again trawl the slush pile for the good stuff, opine briefly on its merits and share it with you. We’re sure you’ll find out what the Gallagher brothers are up to from other sources.

This month’s contributors included Bryon Hayes, Ian Mathers, Jonathan Shaw, Tim Clarke, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Mason Jones and Christian Carey.

Ark Zead — Niptaktuk (Glacial Movements)

The Italian label Glacial Movements specializes in music that’s chilled, immense and slow, just like its namesake. Niptaktuk continues this icy throughline, offering a series of highly resonant, frost-tinged drone passages. The creator, of which no information is known, sourced these textures from gongs and singing bowls, stretching the frequencies into lengthy, subtly shifting tone clouds. They cleverly balance lighter shades against darker hues, layering pre-dawn shimmer over sub-sonic bass pulses. The delicate patter of scraped and stroked metal adds a sense of the real to these otherwise uncanny soundscapes. Ark Zead drew influence from the cold northern Canadian winter when they created these sounds, yet the experience of listening doesn’t evoke frostbite or blinding blizzards. Instead Niptaktuk, which is an Inuit word that implies oncoming clear skies, is a remedy against frostiness, a kernel of warmth that seeks to melt the winter ice. 

Bryon Hayes

The Body & Dis Fig — Orchards of a Futile Heaven (Thrill Jockey)

At this point, at least going by actual releases, surely there are no greater collaborators in heavy music (in all its forms) than The Body. In addition to their stellar work as “just” a duo, Chip King and Lee Buford have at this point collaborated with a real murderers’ row of bands and artists, and those albums absolutely refuse to stick to any particular formula. That they’d work with Dis Fig (aka Felicia Chen), who’s made an excellent, emotionally/sonically challenging record called Purge and sang on a full length by The Bug, makes perfect sense. The result, as with many “The Body &” LPs, is so seamlessly satisfying you’d think this was everyone involved’s main gig. The thunderous drums, harsh noise, and King’s peerless shrieks are all present, and Chen gives a hell of a lead vocal performance to centre it all. The closing one-two punch of “Coils of Kaa”/“Back to the Water” is one of the best endings 2024 is going to get, Chen wailing in rage and despair as the music collapses buildings around her.

Ian Mathers

Demiser — Slave to the Scythe (Blacklight Media/Metal Blade)

Retrograde throwback thrash isn’t exactly a growth area in metal, or a particularly enlightened undertaking, culturally speaking. But dudes in denim and bullet-lined bandoliers don’t make records like Slave to the Scythe because they foresee mass-market opportunity or stadiums full of fans in the immediate future. Mostly they don’t see much future at all. Demiser seems to share those perspectives — live fast, die faster, have as much fun as possible in the brief and weird interregnum. Is Slave to the Scythe fun? Depends on your sense of humor, and your tolerance for metal’s more reductive shenanigans. The fellows in the band have given themselves stage names like Gravepisser (he plays guitar) and Infestor (he drums), and they have supplied us with the sublime song title “Hell Is Full of Fire”; no points for innovation, but maximum points for unconquerably up-for-it idiocy. Motörhead seems as significant to Demiser as early Exodus and Kreator (especially the genius of Pleasure to Kill). Sort of nice to hear a thrash record that’s more interested in the riffs than the solos. Sort of fun to play this record really, really loud. Sort of certain that doing so results in becoming materially stupider. That’s okay — it makes that aforementioned lack of a viable future a little less awful to contemplate.

Jonathan Shaw

Dummy — Free Energy (Trouble In Mind)

Dummy’s debut, Mandatory Enjoyment, lived up to its title; it was a record difficult not to appreciate. In her Dusted review, Jennifer Kelly praised it as “a listening experience that simultaneously braces and soothes, agitates and lulls.” Dummy’s second album, Free Energy,has a similar appeal, but knocks this listener off balance with its bizarre fixation on dated drum machines and backwards sounds that bring to mind the baggy indie-dance of the 1990s. You know the stuff: Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, Jesus Jones, Pop Will Eat Itself. There are some great songs here, such as “Nine Clean Nails,” but you have dig around amongst the misfires to find them. Dummy still have an ear for a good tune, so you can forgive their more questionable aesthetic decision-making.

Tim Clarke

“Father” John Misty — Greatish Hits: I Followed My Dreams and My Dreams Said to Crawl (Sub Pop)

With streaming supplying abundant amounts of playlists, one might reasonably ask why a greatest hits compilation would be useful. Curation instead of algorithms. “Father” John Misty’s Greatish Hits presents the high points in his catalog, beginning with early songs“Real Love Baby” (2016) and “Nancy from Now On” (2012). It is by no means a chronological survey, nor is it front-loaded like so many collections and playlists. The popular “I Love You Honeybear” (2015) is saved for the penultimate track. The finale, “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All,”  is new. At eight and a half minutes long, it stretches out with saxophone, bongo, and electric piano solos interspersing bluesy pop vocals. Worth the wait - don’t skip ahead!

Christian Carey

Ben Felton — A Lot (Island House)

Ben Felton lets the drones linger, layering sounds on top of sounds, like primary-toned transparencies on an overhead projector. You can spend this album watching the colors these tones make when the light shines through them, hitting one, two, three or more guitar/synth textures before getting to the other side. Complex yes, but peaceful, drowsy almost. One track called “A Foghorn or a Loudspeaker,” sounds like just that, an uneasy truce between natural serenity and amplified buzz and hiss. The space it lives in is large and echoey, a cathedral or, more likely, a vast underground cavern with water lapping at the walls. Occasionally, the electronic mode predominates as in the airy percolation of “What You Need.” Yet though the blippy motif is bright and uncorroded, it sits atop a woozy soup of tone; guitar notes crash in sporadically intimating a rustier, more industrial territory nearby. Felton comes from New York but now resides in more bucolic Carrboro, North Carolina. His soundscapes find a meeting place between folk-adjacent ambience and rougher, noisier music. The album gets more propulsive as it goes. Shaken-not-stirred “The Fifth Day,” turns a three-note upward lilting motif into something approaching rock anthemry. You can’t blame the sustained notes for hanging around. It’s nice here, and you want to stay.

Jennifer Kelly

Margarida Garcia And Manuel Mota—Domestic Scene (Feeding Tube) 

Upright electric bassist Margarida Garcia and electric guitarist Manuel Mota are part of Lisbon, Portugal’s experimental/improvisational music scene and have worked together with and without the participation of others on seven records besides Domestic Scene over the past decade. It is their first LP to be released in the USA, and there’s something poetic about that fact, because it feels like an echo of the work of one American musician — Loren Connors, and more specifically, 21st century Connors in solo mode. It shares his sparseness, boiled-down lyricism and willingness to disappear into a haze of noise. Since Garcia has associated with him at times, there’s definitely a shared aesthetic. However, these are not young copycats. Mota’s spare progressions proceed according to a different logic, purged of blues and baroque elements, guided by a north star of sequential consonance that adds up to quiet dissonance. And Garcia’s subdued, bow-born cries have an ability to compound, making the music thick with atmosphere, but still stingy with note counts. Play it late. 

Bill Meyer

Geneva Jacuzzi — Triple Fire (Dais)

Geneva has been making bedroom synth pop for years. On Triple Fire (named after her astrological sign), the production values tick upward, and several of the songs are club ready. “Laps of Luxury” is a case in point, with Geneva’s dulcet singing abetted by backing vocals, early digital synth sonics, and mechanized beats. “Scena Ballerina” recalls her early bedroom pop, with a taut riff and harmonic swerves. Trebly synths and out of the box percussion underscore an emotive vocal on “Take it or Leave it.” Geneva’s speechsong in “Art is Dangerous” and “Speed of Light” recalls Laurie Anderson’s 1980s work, while “Heart of Poison” has an art rock ambience that incorporates tenor saxophone and is rife with shimmering synths. “Rock and a Hard Place” is an aggressive example of dark wave electronica. The closer, “Yo-yo Boy” is an anthemic piece of minimal synth-pop that reminds listeners of Geneva’s roots while presenting memorable tunefulness. 

Christian Carey

Katatonic Silentio — Axis Of Light (Midnight Shift)

Axis Of Light by Katatonic Silentio

Italy-based Mariachiara Troianiello is a long-time DJ, and independent audio and ethnomusicology researcher at the University of San Marino. She also creates electronic music under the name Katatonic Silentio, and on Axis of Light explores a spatial dub, filled with palpating beats and flickering synthesizer sounds. The five tracks on this EP are all based on rhythmic frameworks that skitter and thud with a dark, night-time vibe for the most part. As the title indicates, opener “Drip in the Cave” is indeed subterranean in nature, with rubbery pads and liquid drums reverberating in tactile space. “Bridging the Gap” is lighter and bouncier, bubbling at a fast tempo and filled with electronic hoots and blips. The other pieces mix slow with fast, and machine-like rhythms with heartbeat-like pulses, all swirling in a warehouse ambience populated by ghostly static, quiet bells, or spooky, whistling tones. It’s all a neat combination of machine world and organic atmosphere, like a science-fiction world populated by real, messy people.

Mason Jones

Nicole Marxen — Thorns (Self-Release)

Nicole Marxen puts an eerie shimmer over rough crescendos of metallic noise, keening in the ghostliest, most disembodied way amidst vibrating slabs of guitar sound. “Thorns,” the album’s spiritual center, floats a chilly line of vocal melody—think Beth Gibbons or Chelsea Wolfe—over a machine-like industrial beat. Fragility blooms in an apocalyptic afterworld. “The Executioner” is heavier, more ominous, slithering to life out of the flickering buzz of downed powerlines. A stolid march emerges soon, swaggering with drums, swelling with amp-frying volume. Marxen presides like a high priestess, unperturbed amid flares, fills and violence. Like Jarboe astride a Justin Broadrick wall of noise, she stakes her claim, with operatic trills and whispered confidences. Dramatic, large-scale stuff.

Jennifer Kelly

Magda Mayas’ Filamental — Ritual Mechanics (Relative Pitch)

Keyboardist Magda Mayas’ music has often evidenced expansive thinking, but it took the resources of a festival to first bring her large group Filamental together. Once convened, she took full advantage of her octet’s assembled potentialities for imagination and sound. Having had one such experience, Mayas wasn’t going to wait for a festival to marshal such a breadth of mindpower and material again, nor was she going to let the impediments to travel and gathering imposed by a world pandemic get in the way. So, she sent out an invitation to an invitation to Filamental’s members and turned their gathered input into two pieces that run a bout 20 minutes in length. Each sets small, contrasting gestures dancing atop a consonant surface of elongated, layered sonorities. Ritual Mechanics is not so much a drone piece as an expression of continuous, focused action, richly detailed and consistently focused.

Bill Meyer

Rob Mazurek — Milan (Clean Feed)

Rob Mazurek has been recording for nearly three decades and performing much longer. His methods encompass composition and improvisation using brass, electronics, voice, and other instruments. In any body of work so broad, there are themes, some more dominant than others. Milan is a successor to Rome, which together comprise a smaller trend that involves recording solo performances in Italian radio studios with nice pianos. Recorded nine years apart, they offer a measure of how Mazurek’s work has changed in that time. Instead of cornet, he plays concert and piccolo trumpets; sternly ceremonial vocalizing and fistfuls of percussion dropped purposefully into the piano assert a more explicitly ritual intent. And, perhaps reflecting the amount of work that Mazurek has done with Damon Locks of late, the electronics now include playback options, so that vocal and instrumental samples (Is that Sun Ra I hear in there? And maybe some Ocora ethnic recordings?) as well as beat patterns muscle their way through the sizzle and smash of the prepared piano. Explicitly conceived as a journey, it’s quite a trip. Mazurek’s ensemble work can be pretty widescreen, but Milan reminds us that he can be epic on his own.

Bill Meyer

Nadja — Jumper (momentarily records)

Out of the many, many records put out by ambient and/or doom metal duo Nadja, it’s truly rare to find one that doesn’t feature Aidan Baker’s guitar in one form or another. But on Jumper, originally released as a bit of an art object on cassette (the online cover art is a look at the contraption that the tape comes in), he restricts himself not just to their drum machine but to layering and processing one particular pattern from it. Leah Buckereff provides bass, a more typical entry in the credits of their release, but here the way the slowly accreting digital noise plays over and around its pulses and feedback gives the whole album a very distinct feeling. Despite the use of drum machine there’s almost no rhythm to the whole hour here (until a surprise right at the end that catches me off guard every time), instead the effect is one of meditative harshness. The result is absolutely industrial, like a factory that’s weirdly compelling to listen to.

Ian Mathers

Orcas — How to Color a Thousand Mistakes (Morr Music)

Orcas — Rafael Anton Irisarri and Benoît Pioulard — haven’t recorded together in a decade, but they have been abundantly busy with their own projects. How to Color a Thousand Mistakes is consistent with past Orcas recordings and also reflects the music they have made in the interim. “Wrong Way to Fall” stands out in both regards, with Pioulard’s husky vocals over shimmering electric guitar solos, synth riffs and minimally complicated, but driving, drums. “Riptide” is populated by a number of different synth parts against a terse countermelody in the guitar. “Swells” has a strong vocal performance, while vibrato and pitch bends in the synths and economical guitar parts make for a memorable arrangement. “Fare” covers all the bases, with Pioulard’s voice double-tracked in a soaring chorus alongside mellifluous electronics, emphatic guitars, and plenty of drum fills. The recording’s closer, “Umbra,” has an extended introduction with a bass melody and warm synths. Then tangy dissonance and glissandos abound in both voice and instruments. It epitomizes the atmospheric textures that Orcas seem able to summon at will.

Christian Carey

Oxygen Destroyer — Guardian of the Universe (Redefining Darkness)

Guardian of the Universe by Oxygen Destroyer

Guardian of the Universe is another slab of monster-movie-themed, death-metal-inflected thrash from Oxygen Destroyer. The Seattle-based band’s previous LP, Sinister Monstrosities Spawned by the Unfathomable Ignorance of Mankind (2021), expanded their long-standing kaiju theme to include colossal beasts from outside the canon of the Tojo Studios Godzilla movies. The new record shifts tactics, focusing exclusively on Gamera and the giant turtle’s films for one of Tojo’s competitors, Daiei Films. It’s hard to know how much the record will appeal to listeners for whom those inside-baseball kaiju references mean little to nothing. But if you’re down for songs that attempt to replicate the absurd pleasures of Gamera in flight — head and limbs retracted into its massive shell, which then spins and shoots sheets of sparks from the holes, natch — this may be the record for you. Guardian of the Universe is non-stop fireworks: crazy, thrashy riffs; maniacal flat-out sprints; dive-bombing guitar solos. Should we take any of it seriously? This reviewer won’t hold forth (again) on the cultural stakes of post-war kaiju films. If you know, you know. And mostly what matters here is the band’s complete conviction and the joys of the music’s excesses. In these dog days of summer, it’s exactly what some of us need.

Jonathan Shaw

Peel Dream Magazine — Rose Main Reading Room (Topshelf)

Rose Main Reading Room by Peel Dream Magazine

It’s been four years since I’ve checked in on Peel Dream Magazine, whose second album Agitpop Alterna I described in my Dust review as “just like early Stereolab, with occasional blasts of shoe-gazey guitar thrown in for good measure.” I missed PDM’s third album Pad, so this brings us to album number four, Rose Main Reading Room. There’s still plenty of Stereolab in the mix, especially in the Mary Hansen-style backing vocals, the Farfisa, and the squelchy synth sounds (see “Oblast”). But here there’s more of a lean towards the baroque pop of Sufjan Stevens circa Illinois, mainly thanks to the chunky glimmer of vibraphone and the spiraling flute lines, which really brighten up proceedings. This balance between droning indie-rock and tuneful pop is very pretty, with sufficient musical complexity to invite rewarding repeat listens.

Tim Clarke

Plastic Bubble — Circular Breathing EP (Garden Gate/Moon Control)

The Circular Breathing EP by Plastic Bubble

Here’s a slab of happy, giddy, psychedelic garage rock which, except for the 2024 release date, wouldn’t be out of place in the Elephant Six universe. Lexington, KY’s Matt Taylor and Elisa McCabe are the chief blowers of bubbles, spinning out rough but iridescent songs like “Recontextualize,” where a guitar vamp grinds but vocals drift in pop ideality, “ah, ah, ah,” indeed. A classic indie boy-girl vibe permeates these five songs, with McCabe especially fetching in “Bright Morning.” “Forever” pulls back on the guitar roar to uncover a jaunty, girl-group bounce, with sweet counterparts and harmonies weaving in and around McCabe’s part. The set closes with a banger, part Who, part Fountains of Wayne, and all the way infectious, “Anything and Everything.”

Jennifer Kelly

SUUNS — The Breaks (Joyful Noise)

The Breaks by SUUNS

Elusiveness characterized SUUNS’ last album, 2021’s The Witness. As I noted in my Dusted review, “There’s no denying that its elusive character is part of its charm, but there are stretches where it feels more evasive than elusive, stubbornly refusing to engage more directly.” On their new album, The Breaks, the Montreal band are more direct in terms of the sounds they’re employing, but more evasive when it comes to songwriting. The majority of contemporary pop music is based around heavily effected vocal melodies and beats, which The Breaks seems to take as a cue towards similar immediacy. However, aside from the title track, the nagging piano of “Road Signs and Meanings,” and the loping stomp of opener “Vanishing Point,” this record is a tough nut to crack.

Tim Clarke

Tatsongs — Bushcraft (Self-Release)

Bushcraft by tat songs

Tatsongs are neither tat, nor really songs. The former implies fussy decoration, and these long, glacially evolving pieces seem as raw and elemental as rock formations. You can almost hear an icy wind blowing through their sheered off contours. The latter argues for a Pavlov’s buzzer of pleasing tone arrangements, and Tatsongs’ Tom Sadler is really not concerned whether you can guess then next 10 seconds of his compositions from the preceding 20. But even so, there’s something to be said for looming, sheeny layers of guitar and synth sounds that carve space and time into epic, barren landscapes. Tones vibrate in and out of true, zooming close and fading back, twitching in rhythm and coalescing in static fuzzed drones. Not a song in the bunch, nor much embroidery, but powerful stuff nonetheless.

Jennifer Kelly

TELESTIALVISIONS — Taurus in a Field (Island House)

Taurus in a Field by TELESTIALVISION

As Dittocrush, Pittsburgh resident Trevor D. Crush assembles tape loops into ambient symphonies. He often adds layers of live instrumentation from other musicians, such as Island House associate Chaz Prymek (Lake Mary, Fuubutsushi) and guitarist Ryan Fedor. TELESTIALVISIONS is his latest project, a tag team with New York guitarist Brinton Jones. The pair offer up a frothy brew that tastes rich and complex. Their debut Taurus in a Field is a pair of woozy collages that, while undeniably loose, are sharp in focus when compared to Dittocrush’s ghostly soundscapes. Crush’s tapes construct tangible shapes that intersect in a variety of patterns, while Jones unveils angelic melodies with his guitar. These two are telling a story that’s more Borges than Burroughs, a fantastical tale that defies conventional logic but manages to meander toward a graspable conclusion.

Bryon Hayes

Tycho — Infinite Health (Ninja Tune)

Infinite Health by Tycho

Tycho is Scott Hansen, and Scott Hansen is a designer. You can hear Hansen’s day job in Tycho’s music: the clean lines, the smart use of space, the sheer digestibility of it all. But should music go down quite this easy? Listening to Infinite Health feels a little bit like you’re at a trendy gym, playing a bit-part in an advert, or hitting up a bar packed with influencers. The common denominator is wanting to feel seen; everything plays a part in attracting attention. The synths sound like Boards of Canada, some of the funkier electro-pop moments sound like Daft Punk, and there’s an expensive sheen over everything. It’s hard to deny it’s appealing, but it also feels like experiencing capitalist obsolescence in real time.

Tim Clarke

White Collar—S/T (Static Shock)

White Collar by White Collar

Listeners with a long memory for North American hardcore might flash on those mid-1980s records by White Flag when listening to this new release from White Collar. Like that earlier Inland Empire band, White Collar frequently turns its critical gaze and its caustic smart-assery on the contemporary cultural climate of punk and politics as lifestyle (and your reviewer uses that odious term advisedly here). Songs like “Compassion Fatigue” and “Petition Signer” snarl at and spit on liberalism’s excesses of self-righteous smugness, to often hilarious effect. There’s a puritanical element to Gen Z’s dispositions and discourse that White Collar finds deeply irritating — not that the band is against strong ethico-political speech; check out “Meat Market” and “Equal Wrongs.” This is not the space for sustained analysis of Gen Z punk, and the extent to which we may want some sort of political purity from punk in the first place. But certainly, it’s an intrinsic good for punk to have snotty, disputatious and nasty voices in the mix. White Collar’s songs are short and sharp, and vocalist Loosey C’s performance is memorably unpleasant. Snarl on, punks.

Jonathan Shaw

[oculus-de-malus]

@weirdlookindog tagged me to post 9 albums I've been listening to lately - thank you! 🖤

VR Sex - Hard Copy

HEALTH - Rat Wars

The Body / Dis Fig - Orchards Of A Futile Heaven

Einstürzende Neubaten - Rampen

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

:Of The Wand And The Moon: - Behold The Trees

Data Void - Strategies Of Dissent

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death

Swans - The Beggar

I tag: @altzchmerz @babybatttttxx @celtos @grimmly-fiendish-0 @nullheaven @polvo-lunar @thebrazenvessel @traumarbeit @vpervaffanculo

No obligation to participate as always 🖤

[ursaminorjim]

“Dissent, shame” - The Body & Dis Fig, Orchards of a Futile Heaven

[imathers]

Top 20: The Body & Dis Fig — Orchards of a Futile Heaven

Dusted review

The Body put out a really excellent album by just them in 2024 as well; in a year where this record doesn't exist, The Crying Out of Things may well have taken its place. Chip King and Lee Buford have put together a pretty fucking astounding (err) body of work in the last 25 years, and are the only act I can think of where either just their records or their collaborations would make them all-time greats on their own.

I have not yet delved as deeply into all that work (per Wikipedia, 8 LPs and 15 colloborative LPs!) as I eventually will, but I am still pretty confident Orchards of a Futile Heaven is going to rank towards the top of all that for me. I hadn't even heard of Felicia Chen's work as Dis Fig when this was announced, and I still need to properly check her out. Because on the basis of this LP, she's an amazing performer. This is probably one of the records on the list I feel most strongly about, and in such a way that it was actually hard for me to find anything very coherent to say about it (hence the short review). I always love the way the Body sound, and here Chen's vocals just ground and focus the whole thing so that the visceral impact is, I feel, multiplied tremendously. There are bits where some of these tracks suddenly come together and just leave me floored.

One of my most unexpected and wonderful live music experiences in 2024 was finding out that the Body & Dis Fig were touring together and playing a small venue here in town; as I'd never looked up footage of them before I had no idea some of the sounds in their music that I loved so much are actually just Chip King (an affable and gregarious presence at the merch table after) screaming his ass off. Incredible thing to experience at close range. They played this whole album, in order, and it was one of my favourite nights of the year. (Bless this account for putting up a full, good quality video of another show on the tour.)