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The Umbrellas

Fairweather Friend
Slumberland Records (2024)

Slumberland is one of those labels I note, but haven’t really dove into. The Umbrellas fit my expectations of the label’s sound though. It’s distinctly modern songwriting, but with a wave of sounds from yesterday. I’ll call this power-pop washed in the folk and psyche rock of the ‘60s, with a bit of twee and British invasion and dreamy indie … Read more

Sprints

Letter to Self
City Slang (2024)

Rage meets dance-punk on Dublin four piece, SPRINTS’, first full length release. After a smattering of well received singles and a trail of blazing live performances, the group released their album following the success of their previous EP, A Modern Job. The Irish punk band’s star continues to rise in the good company of contemporaries Fontaines DC and Pillow Queens- … Read more

Video/DVD Review

Daniel Turres

HERE FOR BLOOD
Screambox (2024)

Canadian made horror/comedy Here For Blood sees Shawn Roberts (Resident Evil/Land Of The Dead/Diary Of The Dead) as Tom, a wrestler who helps his girlfriend Phoebe (Joelle Farrow) out by taking on her babysitting gig for a night whilst she studies for exams. What would appear to be a normal night of playing video games and eating pizza with Grace … Read more

Every Face Becomes A Skull

Every Face Becomes A Skull
Independent (2023)

Confession time: I was going to burn this record to the ground. I wasn’t writing a review yet, just listening to the album, but I had some really not nice things to say. And then everything changed. Why? Well, I decided to see if my problems with the album could be solved by playing it from another source. I thought … Read more

Come Closer

We Died With Print
Independent (2022)

Members of Come Closer have played in Dan Padilla, Pinback, Tiltwheel, and more. While that background is helpful for setting the tone, though, it’s not really essential. They are a new-ish group and We Died With Print is their second album. J. Wang is the ringleader of the band, which is rooted in DIY basement punk but expands their sound … Read more

Paint It Black

Famine
Revelation (2023)

Paint It Black kind of burst back onto the scene the last two years. It had been 15 years since their last full-length, New Lexicon, and now we get Famine, which came out last fall. And “burst” was a word a chose purposely, because this record is fast and loud. Just as important, when it’s playing, you can’t ignore it. … Read more

The Manikins

Swedish Woods
Lövely (2023)

The Manikins previous album, 2019s Bad Times, was my encounter with The Manikins. We started off a bit weird, as I read their name as The Mankinis for a while. I expect different music from a band with a name like that. I did like that album after I ditched my assumptions and stopped messing up the band name. It … Read more

Niecy Blues

Exit Simulation
Kranky (2023)

The allure of ambient music and its applications in pop structures has always been an important topic for Niecy Blues. It has been a conjunction that the artist has been playing with on shorter releases, in both the 2020 EP CRY and the 2021 single Bones Become The Trees. But, it is with this full-length in Exit Simulation, that Blues … Read more

Aisha Devi

Death Is Home
Houndstooth (2023)

The talent and quality of Aisha Devi have been apparent since the release of her first EP, Aura For Everyone through her own Danse Noire imprint. As the years passed, Devi became more ambitious and started honing into the duality between ecstasy and mysticism. Her latter works, in 2018’s fantastic DNA Feelings yielded towards the atmospheric and ambient side, presenting … Read more

Aesop Rock

Integrated Tech Solutions
Rhymesayers (2023)

Aesop Rock seems to be the rare artist who gets better with age. I enjoyed his early work with Blockhead, but it felt like things started to take off when he took over self-production, steadily growing and hitting what felt like peak when Spirit World Field Guide came out in 2020 (followed by Garbology in ’21). Luckily for all of … Read more

Benefits

Nails
Invada (2023)

In December 2019, Benefits released their “Marlboro Hundreds” single. The UK act sourced all the fury and urgency of punk, wrapping it into a devastating noise facade and powerviolence demeanor. A prime example of weaponized music, and while through the years Benefits have morphed, their poignant messaging remains. Now, their debut record, Nails, sees them revisit some of their early … Read more

Goat

Joy In Fear
NAKID (2023)

Having listened to Goat’s first two records, 2013’s New Games and 2015’s Rhythm & Sound, I was firstly blown away by their minimalism, but mostly by their precision. Featuring primarily percussive elements, the act from Japan perform an etude on both technical aptitude but also creativity. I was even more impressed when I had the chance to see them perform … Read more

Seagulls

The Rapture and Resurgens
Say-10 (2023)

While this is their second overall (if Bandcamp is up to date), The Rapture and Resurgens is my first time really sitting down with a Seagulls full-length. And my takeaways match with seeing them at FEST 21 recently. It’s heavy punk that’s big on singalongs, equally angry and melodic -- and usually both at the same time. I like the … Read more

Lankum

False Lankum
Rough Trade (2023)

Dedication to tradition is tricky business. On one hand, adhering to existing norms carries on the legacy. On the other end, can this result in something novel? Folk music is, by definition, rooted in tradition. And while many have pushed its boundaries, they are instead labeled as experimentalists or neofolk. From the early works of Comus to the feverish interpretations … Read more

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