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Sims

More Than Ever
Doomtree (2016)

Sims is something of a firebrand on his early work, spitting political vitriol and pointing fingers outward and in on records like Lights Out Paris and Bad Time Zoo. This time around, the Minneapolis rapper is looking even more inward on the new More Than Ever, a record that pushes expectation beyond the hard-hitting beats and spitfire lyricism with echo-y … Read more

40 Watt Sun

Wider than the Sky
Radiance Records (2016)

40 Watt Sun hold a special place in the hearts of those who have heard their music and been affected by the honesty within. 2011s The Inside Room was a stunning debut that still garners regular plays from this writer and Wider than the Sky will do the same in the years to come. Having been many years in the … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Courteeners

Mapping the Rendezvous
Ignition Records (2016)

Written in Paris while the city was still reeling in the aftermath of the November 2015 attacks, Mapping the Rendezvous is an album that brims with escapism and the irrepressible desire to live for the moment. Part of the the band's previous album, 2014's Concrete Love, was also written in the French capital but this time it was different: frontman … Read more

Dean Ween Group

The Deaner Record
ATO (2016)

I’ve never met Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, the two-headed songwriting duo of Ween, but I have my own speculation about who contributes what based on their output in other projects. That guess is that Gener does the Pink Floyd styled space-prog-pop while Melchiondo, aka Dean Ween aka Deaner, brings on the grimy and oddball guitar rock.The Deaner Record only … Read more

Street Sects

End Position
Flenser (2016)

Austin, Texas duo achieve an unholy alliance of industrial music and punk rock in their debut album, End Position. In paper it feels that something like that would not work, and a failed attempt to produce something coherent would only end in hysterical laughter. Thankfully, this is far from the case here, and Leo Ashline and Shaun Ringsmuth unleash one … Read more

Jenny Hval

Blood Bitch
Sacred Bones (2016)

Jenny Hval has soared into the experimental scene since the release of Viscera, the first album under her own name. The quality of her work, and the scope of her vision continued to take form through a series of excellent records in Innocence is Kinky and Apocalypse, girl and is now reaching a peak with her newest album. Blood Bitch … Read more

Myrkur

Mausoleum
Relapse (2016)

The project of Amalie Bruun has stirred quite drastically the black metal scene, since the release of her debut, self-titled, EP in 2014. M, the first full-length of the project, came in 2015 and it displayed in glorious fashion the extent of Bruun's vision. Comparisons with early days Ulver are to be expected, with Myrkur's style fashioned around the more … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Various Artists

Dead Bars/The Tim Version - split 7"
No Idea Records (2016)

A limited edition split of two not-super-active bands that are Fest staples for this writer, this EP from No Idea Records combines Seattle’s Dead Bars and Tampa’s The Tim Version head to head, or head to ass or however literally one takes the physical conceptualization of a 7”.Dead Bars get the A-side here and it’s not my favorite of their … Read more

Neurosis

Fires Within Fires
Neurot Recordings (2016)

The experimental and extreme music scenes today would be completely different, probably for the worse, if it was not for the influence that Neurosis have had on numerous bands through the late '90s and early '00s. Starting off as a hardcore punk band in the late '80s, Neurosis went through a perpetual evolution, acquiring additional elements, revealing a plethora of … Read more

Low Culture

Places To Hide
Dirtnap (2016)

Screens, (2013) was damn near perfect. So what does Low Culture have in store with their second LP? It’s not disappointment, that’s for sure. Places to Hide continues their run of modern garage-punk that’s run through the melody filter and cleaned up of the fuzz and distortion, letting the elemental energy and punk tempo drive the songs while the vocals … Read more

Vow

Kind Eyes
The Native Sound (2016)

LA has been spoiling us lately: Bleached, Deap Valley and Warpaint are just a few of the bands that have been releasing stellar new material. These bands, like so many other musicians, use the fragments of past relationships as a springboard for putting chords and words on record. They all deliver their seething rebukes with the grittiness and determination necessary … Read more

Alcest

Kodama
Prophecy Productions (2016)

Kodama (loosely translating to “tree spirit” in Japanese) is a record that follows Alcest’s path of spirituality in music, and while Shelter (2014) was a lovely, warm, summery album, in retrospect it may not have been one of the best outings for the French duo. Kodama strips back to the basics of Alcest’s sound and lifts the mind into new … Read more

Bleached

Welcome the Worms
Dead Oceans (2016)

Fuelled by intense introspection and the adopting of a more polished sound, Welcome the Worms marries punk rock sensibilities with the radiant bubblegum pop of Southern California. Produced by Joe Chiccarelli (Morrissey, The Strokes, Minus The Bear), Bleached's second album is radio friendly rock with a serrated edge, channelling the likes of Black Flag alongside The Go-Gos. The album's title … Read more

200 Words Or Less

The Hussy

The Volar EP
Volar Records (2015)

The Hussy keeps changing on me. That’s cool, though. Bands are like babies: they grow and change and…eventually abandon you in the old folks’ home. Er, whatever. The point is that over the Wisconsin duo’s lifetime they’ve shifted from abrasive noisy garage-punk to more melodic but tonally challenging garage-punk, which comes across really well here, where they take those fuzzed … Read more

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