The Sound that Ends Creation – Memes, Dreams, and Flying Machines

Texas’s Sound that Ends Creation is a one-man mathgrind operation with a bit (quite a bit) of zaniness thrown in. Think Diablo Swing, Zappa, Unexpect, and music dreamed on krokodil. Their previous album came out late last year, so this one comes less than a year after, but is an improvement on an already-successful formula. Just listen to “Slurp’n Up That Ice Cream Baby”—or any of the other singles really—to have a good idea of what to expect from it when it drops!

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R’luhh – Li

R’luhh—which sounds like a mashup of R’lyeh, R’hllor, and Cthulhu—is an avant-garde, technical black metal project from Caleb Simard, a promising young guitarist from Quebec. The succinct three-tracker goes from technical mathematical blackened death metal on “”'” to anxiety-inducing ambiance on “””, with a return to the grinding convulsions of the opener on “‘”. An insanely promising eight minutes right there! Let’s hope to hear more from that project in the future.

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Alpha du Centaure – Paralysis (Stellar Frequencies)

Alpha du Centaure is a French post-black metal band that asks the question “How post can we get away with?” I know post-black comes in a variety of forms, but this truly feels more right to call blackened post-rock, especially given the instrumental nature of the band. Over forty minutes of ethereal shoegazey post-rock sprinkled with tremolo picking and blast beats is, sometimes, just what I need. In a way, it reminds me of Australia’s Dumbsaint, with the lyricism of the melodies and the narrative character of the music. It’s a truly stellar record.

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Bave – Secret Peaks of Grief Mountain

I know I’ve never mentioned Bave before, but that’s not because of a lack of interest—oh no!—but rather a bit of laziness or forgetfulness on my part. That time is at an end, for I hereby write about the Detroit duo’s new album, Secret Peaks of Grief Mountain. The thirty-minute album is a single composition, albeit split into six tracks, about “death and dying”. The band’s self-description reads “DETROIT SUPER PROG SCARY JAZZ POWER DUO”, and they’re far from wrong! Actually, that’s pretty accurate and even though I’ll tag them more concisely as being a “math rock” band, their sound just can’t fit into that box, just like when you put too much jam in your sandwich: it all oozes out from the sides. So, with that being said, stop reading and start listening!

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Ghost Rhythms – Imaginary Mountains

The French jazz fusion collective Ghost Rhythms began to release their new album, Imaginary Mountains, back in April, drop by drop, and with each new song added to the release page a new adventure awaited. Now, the album was [nearly] completed on September the fourth with “Horizontal Ascension”, a ten-minute epic concept progressive jazz masterpiece. So, there are admittedly some transitions and interludes to work out before the final release date of the opus, but it’s finalized enough to consume and enjoy and marvel and fall into and discuss and become amazed.

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Camila Nebbia – Aura (Ears & Eyes)

The Argentine saxophonist and composer Camila Nebbia recently released her latest collection of pieces, named Aura. Recorded with a rather impressive ensemble of ten musicians. Camila’s pieces blend strict composition with free improvisation in very interesting and sometimes unsettling ways. As such, Aura is full of surprises.