New Music Video from Oort Smog for “Bright Empty Future”

We’ve recently reviewed the psychedelic Californian jazz-prog duo Oort Smog‘s upcoming masterpiece: Smeared Pulse Transfers. To recapitulate briefly, it’s a brilliant and innovative album that is full of surprises and good times.

Before the album’s release, on the 26th, you can watch this amazing video, directed by Dylan Louis Pecora, for the song “Bright Empty Future”, which you can also listen to on their Bandcamp page. The video uses various techniques in conjunction and superposition with one another, which gives it a pretty surreal feeling—not so far, in fact, from the feeling given by the music, too!

Smeared Read more

Isaac – Évasions manquées

The Music

The Words

From their Gaulish city of Reims, Isaac—stylized as ISaAC—just released Évasions manquées, their sole release since 2011, if we don’t count their split with Térébenthine in 2014, which would still leave a wide gap between the two. The band has been likened to The Mars Volta, among others, but the similarities, although present, are threadbare. Let’s see what the band has to offer.

Évasions manquées is a three-song EP, with the longest song, self-titled, topping the twelve-minute mark. At first, with “Aliocha”, we’re greeted with a droning post-hardcore piece. The Mars Volta parallels … Read more

EXCLUSIVE SONG PREMIERE: uSSSy – “Western” and Review of Voyage

The Music

The Words

Moscow’s uSSSy is a long-time favourite of yours truly. Here’s a cringy post from 2013 as proof. Since their last album, Unsharp Mask, released now about five years ago, we weren’t certain that the ball was still rolling or if the group had decided to quit. A recent release of the band’s unreleased demos was an ominous sight, almost like the last nail in the coffin for uSSSy. I couldn’t have been more wrong, however, as they soon after announced the release of their newest work: Voyage.

Voyage takes off where Unsharp Mask left, … Read more

Protoplasma –

The Music

The Words

What a surprise I had, when sifting through the zeuhl tag on bandcamp, when I stumbled upon this Magyar brutal prog gem. Protoplasma keeps it mysterious: we don’t know who is in the band or how many they are, only that they’re from Budapest! Maybe I should organize a field trip, someday, to make some detective work… They hardly play zeuhl music, their sound is closer to experimental, noise rock, and avant-prog, but I certainly won’t mind the indirect reference.

(Kötőjel, I guess?) is just over thirty minutes, but it’s filled to the … Read more

Lingua Nada – Snuff

The Music

The Words

Leipzig-bound Lingua Nada just put out their fifth release, Snuff; an eccentric, energetic album that takes elements from shoegaze, surf rock, post-hardcore, and noise rock, and blends them all together into a palatable musical paste. This full-length album sends similar flavours to the then-peerless Brooklyn band Sheen Marina, who were a favourite of mine, last year. Lingua Nada perhaps go farther than them in terms of harshness, sprinkled here and there throughout the ten tracks on Snuff, but this only works in their favour, as every time they do it feels like a … Read more