Backxwash – His Happiness Shall Come First Even though We Are Suffering
Backxwash—Montréal-based rapper Ashanti Mutinta—just released their new album: His Happiness Shall Come First Even though We Are Suffering, the final part of the trilogy that began with 2020’s God Has Nothing to Do with This Leave Him Out of It. So-called “horror rap”, this is some real heavy hip-hop on the more experimental side of things. I mean, it’s got features from Pupil Slicer (mathcore) and Ghais Guevara (another experimental hip-hop artist I like), so I’m already sold on it! As dmaestaz puts it so brilliantly… Read more
What if you replaced the bassist with a bassoonist? Well, Brian! answered this question in 2010 with their debut EP EEE. Twelve years on, the New York power trio has mastered its peculiar sound and grown more confident, more adventurous, and more certain. With the Cataclysmic Engine, you can hear the idiosyncratic sound of the bassoon, somewhere between electric bass and synthesizer during the riffs and a genuine woodwind instrument during solos. I love this instrument, and I’m really grateful that such a band exists! Be sure to check out this new… Read more
When was the last time it seemed like the entire internet was on the same page? When did it last feel like (mostly) everyone online could agree on a singular subject? I have an answer for you: vaporwave. Really, I’m going to make this argument. This is a hill I feel confident dying on. So often, when we reminisce, a phrase is thrown around: “It was a different time.” I was listening to Death Cab for Cutie recently, and I remember thinking, “We just let Ben Gibbard write this music. We didn’t make fun of… Read more
Somewhere between blues, noise rock, and post-metal, we find Irish quintet God Alone. Their new album, Etc. was a huge surprise for me, and an absolute banger of an album. Perhaps you can best experience the breadth of the band’s sound by listening to the ten-minute “Kung Fu Treachery”, which goes to hell and back, and shows God Alone’s ease with disparate yet memorable musical composition. One of the great underrated noise rock albums of the year!
Insane in the Rain – Insane in the Rain
Carlos Eiene, also known as Insane in the Rain,… Read more
