Fever Ray "Radical Romantics"
Radical Romantics, Fever Ray’s first new album in five-plus years, is out now. In conjunction, Fever Ray unveils their arresting music video for album highlight, “Even It Out.” A tribute to the campy universe of John Waters, the “Even It Out” video draws influence from Susan Sontag and Divine’s portrayal of Dawn Davenport in Waters’ cult classic movie Female Trouble. Keen eyes will spot cameos from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who co-produced and performed on “Even It Out,” as well as the song, “North.”
Fever Ray first started on Radical Romantics in fall 2019; working in the Stockholm studios built with brother and fellow The Knife member Olof Dreijer after the former completed the last Fever Ray tour in 2018 and the latter returned from living in Berlin. Some time in mid-2020, Olof joined Dreijer in working on Radical Romantics, co-producing and co-writing album opener “What They Call Us,” released in October to a wealth of praise, plus three further songs. These tracks on Radical Romantics are the first time the siblings have produced and written music together in eight years.
Other co-producers and performers include the Portuguese DJ and producer Nídia, Johannes Berglund, Peder Mannerfelt and Pär Grindvik’s technicolor dance project Aasthma, and the aforementioned power duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Nine Inch Nails) and experimental artist and producer Vessel. Long-time collaborator, Martin Falck, joins Dreijer in creating the all encompassing visual world of Radical Romantics-era Fever Ray.
Vosh "VESSEL"
Originally the trio of Chris Moore (Repulsion, Coke Bust, The Rememberables), Carson Cox (Merchandise, Death Index), and Josephine Olivia (Blacksage), VOSH was built to explore an amalgam of influences that range from Bauhaus to early Ministry to Sisters of Mercy to Zounds to Killing Joke to latter day titans Nine Inch Nails. And while a wide reaching and generic term such as “synth pop” or “darkwave” could be applied to the effort in broad strokes, the drama, intensity and excellent songwriting evokes something much deeper, more sinister, and darkly beautiful. Stretching across twelve original tracks, VOSH’s debut album Vessel doesn’t just slither, it bangs and bursts with explosive energy, juxtaposing an icy goth cool with red hot heightened drama and muscle.
Vocalist, lyricist and front person Josephine Olivia is the musical centrepiece for VOSH, mixing the dreamy and ethereal approach of Hope Sandoval or Alison Shaw (Cranes), the versatility of David Bowie, and the commanding power of greats like Siouxsie, Diamanda Galas or Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance). Olivia’s vocal sails above it all, presenting haunting melody after haunting melody in a dramatic and forceful manner that nods to voices from goth, dream pop, indie and elements of traditional pop music.Recorded at Moore/Olivia’s shared home in the greater Washington DC area, Moore looped in longtime collaborator/producer/engineer Kevin Bernstein from Developing Nations in Baltimore for an assist on the mix with Magnus Lindberg (Tribulation, Russian Circles, Lucifer, Hellacopters, Frida Hyvönen, etc) mastering the effort.
Can't Swim "Thanks But No Thanks"
New Jersey rock band Can’t Swim is releasing their 4th full length studio album called ‘Thanks But No Thanks’. Self-produced by Danny Rico, the band’s guitarist, the band is returning to their roots of gritty, dirty, DIY instrumentals accompanied by some of the best lyrical concepts of their career.
Sightless Pit "Lockstep Bloodwar"
Sightless Pit is the project of duo Lee Buford (The Body) and Dylan Walker (Full of Hell). Buford and Walker are born collaborators, known for their ability to subvert musical expectations, transcend genre and plunge headlong into the unknown. Their work with the likes of Thou, Uniform, Merzbow, and Nothing, taken together with their The Body & Full of Hell albums, have established each as singular voices and masterful alchemists of heavy music. The duo shares an affection for rhythm-based beat music, disparate electronic genres, dub, as well as darkly-hued atmospheric ambience. Lockstep Bloodwar exceeds expectations by stunningly combining the noise and confrontational posturing they are both well known for with pulsing and kaleidoscopic electronic samples, drum machines, and grizzled synths. Across the album, the two highly inventive musical omnivores are buoyed by an astounding menagerie of eclectic and celebrated collaborators.
Lockstep Bloodwar is a dub album composed by Buford and Walker with a sonic palette drawn from heavy music. The pair, enamored by the space and depth of dub, as well as the creative production techniques of the genre, wanted to employ its approach to harsh and foreboding sounds, a natural continuation in their explosions of boundaries. The duo built the sonics of each piece with distinct guest artists in mind, allowing them space to alter the direction of each track while maintaining a distinct, cohesive vision for the album. Midwife’s signature ethereal voice undulates suspended in time on “Resin on a Knife.” A protean performance from Elizabeth Colour Wheel’s Lane Shi Otayonii drives “Flower to Tomb” from obliterating squalls to anthemic rounds. An autotuned Claire Rousay expands the range of Sightless Pit’s dynamic compositions. The distinctive nature of their approach is nowhere more evident than when looking at the stark contrast of songs like “False Epiphany” and “Low Orbit” from the Industrial Hazard’s (aka Spencer Hazard of Full of Hell) noise-riddled onslaught to clubby dance hooks from Gravediggaz/Stetsasonic rapper Frukwan. This seamless mashup of disparate influences is also apparent on the exhilarating “Calcified Glass,” where YoshimiO’s (Boredoms/OOIOO) processed voice and drums spar with Walker’s howls before succumbing to defiant bars from Three 6 Mafia’s Gangsta Boo. Sightless Pit, with the help of engineer Seth Manchester, produce a strikingly seamless balance between entirely unexpected sonic combinations wrapped with high caliber collaborations to create an invigorating, inventive and undeniably listenable album.
An aura of brusque confrontation and grime is sheathed around Lockstep Bloodwar and its multiplicity of noises and raw energy. Buford’s signature rhythmic voice stretches into new complex patterns while retaining an unearthly punch, with gargantuan bass thuds and deft syncopations capable of transforming a song’s landscape in an instant. A spirit of malcontent and caged frustrations oozes from within each piece manifested in spiraling low end throbs and Walker’s pained wails. Walker describes the underlying worldview of the album: “Lockstep Bloodwar is the struggle to comprehend and come to terms with the fact that our lives are on a locked track, and the track is violent and painful. We have zero control over our lives on any kind of scale and even the simplest existence is a selfish and violent one.”
Buford and Walker are sonic inventors who, armed with an array of voices complimenting their own as Sightless Pit, push back against the locked track of life, presenting escape routes and musically giving voice and agency to all of us navigating an increasingly hostile world