Nö Pöwer
No Peace
Sorry State (2013)
No Peace is the debut LP by Charlottesville, NC’s Nö Pöwer. There are subtle elements of garage and psych at play here but it’s primarily raging hardcore punk, with a noticeable emphasis on the noise. It's a primitive and blown-out style of D-beat that’s been injected with a distinctive dose of artiness and then drenched in feedback. Although he’s not stretching the margins of hardcore vocals too far, the singer is still able to effectively convey a variety of emotion; whether it’s depression, anger, anxiety, or often times, inexplicable. The drums and bass step outside the Dis zone for brief periods of erratic improvisation, trying as best as they can to keep up with the lightning fast guitars, which squeal and swirl all over the place; driving the band’s sonic direction into face-melting realms. This comes as no surprise, considering this the same band that dedicated side B of their 2011 demo cassette to one four-plus minute jam of chopped and screwed remix racket that had the singer shouting the band’s name repeatedly atop an inordinate drum beat. While there’s nothing quite that bizarre on this LP, Nö Pöwer is still pushing the limitations of the big D beyond monotonous … Read more
Hope Drone
Self Titled
OSCL (2013)
Heading over to their Last.fm account, the light hearted description ‘Australian for Deafheaven’ doesn’t exactly seem to serve as an … Read more
Papermoons
No Love
Deep Elm (2013)
The press blurb that accompanies Texas-based indie folk duo Papermoons' sophomore album No Love claims that "the idea that you … Read more
Steve Adamyk Band
Third
Dirtnap (2013)
Sometimes calling something the “[insert record label]” sound is meant in a derisive way. Before the clichés came home, however, … Read more
