Felte Vinyl, CD & Tape 37 Items

Colin McCann, Brian Gossman, and Eric Fiscus periodicallyreturn to the grid from the remote mountains of NorthernCalifornia to document their evo/involution as Vulture Feather.Touring the states throughout much of 2024, they brought thesharpened machine back to Tim Green's Louder Studios tocapture their second album, It Will Be Like Now.In literary terms, the record is a work of man versus nature,except man and nature are both secret identities of a third,unnamed thing. Tears and the ocean and death are the maincharacters, and the initiated may get the sense that these too,belong to the absolute. It all ultimately resolves as a terrifyingand beautiful love story. Sonically speaking, It Will Be Like Nowreports from a place where PiL and Jah Wobble never partedways, where Johnny Marr righted the ship, where songs onlyneed one part: the good part.The heads will know McCann and Gossman from their time inthe prehistoric Don Martin Three (recently re-issued catalog byNumero Group) and later, Wilderness (Jagjaguwar). Whileprior efforts are beside the point, this is undeniably the sound ofpeople who have been making music together for 25+ years.Glistening as much as howling, the guitar and vocals functionas duet, delivering The Only Story Ever Told over a conciseand thunderous rhythm section. It's the sound emulating fromeverywhere, all the time, through thick carpets of clouds,reverberating off canyon walls, through troubled waters, andfinally to your devices, your ears, your heart, if you choose tohear it.

Public Memory is the solo project of Brooklyn's Robert Toher, recorded over the course of a year as he lived in Los Angeles temporarily. Previously of the group ERAAS, Robert places a greater emphasis on electronics in this new project. Rhythm is at the forefront, with the tone informed by stripped down, narcotic impressions of krautrock, hypnotic percussion, and subtly layered atmospherics. Spectral vocals meld with delicate piano against hip hop beats and a dub sensibility, conjuring clouded lights, foggy glass in empty buildings, urban wraiths.To call it minimal would, on the surface, seem appropriate. Wuthering Drum does not need an abundance of flashes and frills to illustrate its point, nor does it need smoke and mirrors to mask a lack of vision. However, repeated listens yield layers of tonal variations, textural nuance, and tastefully placed overdubs. There is a slightly religious or spiritual element at Wuthering Drum's core; a sense of being in an existential crisis...

Public Memory is a mixture of damaged and dubbed-out percussion, unfurling synths and sparse sampling - all strung together by producer Robert Toher's spectral tenor. Theproject's sophomore LP, Demolition follows 2017's Veil of Counsel EP and 2016's Wuthering Drum LP with cinematic fortitude. While Public Memory's prominent krautrock and trip-hoprhythms are represented here, Demolition explores a greater range of tempos and an expanse of alien emotions with layers of electronic drums, live drums, Korg synths and samples fromnature. Themes of rebirth and reflection imbue the album's atmosphere, rich in tape delay, spring reverb, and textures that conjure a sci fi and supernatural narrative.Opener "The Line" sets the album in motion with a driving energy and introspective unease, as if estranged from the world it was created in. A meditation on impending collapse,"Red Rainbow" begins with an arpeggiated melody that hints at a sense of dread. Like the darkness of night descends, the track unfolds with haunting atmospherics and howling synths,finishing with an unexpected climax that ominously builds until at last it falls apart, quickly, softly, without incident. The slowtempoed "Aegis" reflects on the banal reality of love lost, withshuffling rhythms, lingering inflections and a growling synth at its core.Toher's adept use of space and tension articulates the world of Demolition as eerie, emotive, and above all, narcotic. Each track is an existential procession. "Turning out the lights onyour illusion," Toher sings to close the album, accepting that change is an inescapable condition of being.

Black Vinyl. In Rumi's poem A Great Wagon he writes of a place of totalacceptance. "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,there is a field. I'll meet you there," It is a boundless, liminalspace where we can release the judgments we make and carryof ourselves, and the comparisons to others. When we think ofthis field, there is a sense of tranquility that only comes whenwe are undisturbed by the shadow self and see existence asneither bright nor dim, white nor black. But as lead singer GregBertens explains, arriving there is a whole different story. "Thisis a poem I've returned to over the years, and I love the idea ofthis place, but getting there is life's journey." Bertens adds "Ithink the longing for and elusiveness of this field is a recurringtheme in our music." Field is enveloped by themes of regret,disconnection and frustration but with the space to understandthat these feelings are a natural part of the struggle betweenreconciling the inner and outer self.The Los Angeles/San Francisco-based group have been indieshoegaze stalwarts since their formation in 2001. After twodecades and a handful of line-up changes, their extensivediscography presents a dynamically textural, lush psychedelicrock that has featured guest appearances by members ofPavement, My Bloody Valentine, and Snow Patrol, amongothers. 2021's LP We Weren't Here (Sonic Ritual) was hailedfor its dense instrumental blanket, where unrelenting hi-hatsand heavy kicks exist alongside dreamy drone guitar.This propulsive nature permeates Field, as members Bertens,Noël Brydebell (vocals), Nyles Lannon (guitar), Jason Ruck(synths), Justin LaBo (bass), and Adam Wade (drums) producea kaleidoscopic sonic landscape. Patient, sprawlinginstrumentation builds a foundation in which Bertens' themes ofendurance, perseverance and clarity can bloom with aconsidered poise. As a lyricist who writes in response to theinstrumental arrangements, rather than a focus on a specifictheme or person...

In Rumi's poem A Great Wagonhe writes of a place of totalacceptance. " Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,there is a field. I'll meet you there," It is a boundless, liminal space where we can release the judgments we make and carry of ourselves, and the comparisons to others. When we think of this field,there is a sense of tranquility that only comes whenwe are undisturbed by the shadow self and see existence asneither bright nor dim, white nor black. But as lead singer Greg Bertens explains, arriving there is a whole different story. "This is a poem I've returned to over the years, and I love the idea ofthis place, but getting there is life's journey." Bertens adds "I think the longing for and elusiveness of this field is a recurring theme in our music."Field is enveloped by themes of regret,disconnection and frustration but with the space to understandthat these feelings are a natural part of the struggle betweenreconciling the inner and outer self.The Los Angeles/San Francisco-based group have been indieshoegaze stalwarts since their formation in 2001. After twodecades and a handful of line-up changes, their extensivediscography presents a dynamically textural, lush psychedelicrock that has featured guest appearances by members ofPavement, My Bloody Valentine, and Snow Patrol, amongothers. 2021's LPWe Weren't Here (Sonic Ritual) was hailedfor its dense instrumental blanket, where unrelenting hi-hatsand heavy kicks exist alongside dreamy drone guitar.This propulsive nature permeatesField, as members Bertens,Noël Brydebell (vocals), Nyles Lannon (guitar), Jason Ruck(synths), Justin LaBo (bass), and Adam Wade (drums) producea kaleidoscopic sonic landscape. Patient, sprawlinginstrumentation builds a foundation in which Bertens' themes ofendurance, perseverance and clarity can bloom with aconsidered poise. As a lyricist who writes in response to theinstrumental arrangements, rather than a focus on a specifictheme or person,Fieldis a te...

The Detroit trio's fifth album is eight tracks of what we've come to expect from the always in form group - a cinematic blend of twangy industrial rock, metal, noise, baritone vocals, and macabre lyrics -but with an immediate urgency not yet seen from the band on past albums. It's their most focused album to date.

Colin McCann didn't pick up a guitar for nearly ten years. The Northern-California-based songwriter, previously performing under Long Dog Bird, had been creating music with longtime friend and collaborator Brian Gossman for much of their adult lives with early-00s Baltimore-based band Wilderness. So what would cause such a stagnant period? And how could McCann find his way back to the joy that music had once so easily conjured? The answer was to go back to the very beginning, where the kinetic forces that urged McCann to make music in the first place could emerge once again. But first, he had to make space in his internal world; a kind of silence where he could hear the exhale of his past, and the blossoming of a new song. That blossoming would soon become the first songs for McCann's latest project Vulture Feather. The band's debut album Liminal Fields exists on an intangible plane: a crack in the concrete, a gauze between worlds. For as long as McCann can recall, he's been using music as a vehicle to try and connect with an underlying, indescribable nature that only the sonic world seems to be able to reach. "There's a feeling of ecstasy that comes when one merges with music," he says. "It's what calls us all back again and again to listen, to sing, and to play." McCann had been striving to reach this outlying environment throughout his career, often stretching in ways that eventually came to negatively impact his life, and his health. The wake up call came when McCann suffered a near-death experience, eerily predicted by a friend through a dream she had had almost a year earlier. Newly awoken to the beauty of being alive, McCann strove to slow down, to listen to the inherent nature in all living things, and to rediscover our mutual connectivity. He stopped playing and listening to music, and instead soaked himself in the cacophony of silence. Then without any epiphany or grand catalyst, something urged McCann to pick up a guitar again. Ideas flowed more naturally than ever, and he soon realized that the liminal space he had been searching for was there all along--he only had to listen. McCann tentatively reached out to Gossman to collaborate and the friends found themselves once again jamming together, in an off-grid quonset hut where they now practice. "It was like no time had passed," McCann says. "That feeling of ecstatic joy, of forgetting your own name, came flooding back." They were soon joined by another old friend, Eric Fiscus, who completed Vulture Feather on drums.

Detroit three piece Ritual Howls album Turkish Leather tells stories fit for Poe or Lovecraft. On their debut full length for felte, titled Turkish Leather, they incorporate a variety of styles into an ominously self-assured statement of intent, Ben Saginaw and Chris Samuels' sounds providing an imposing form for Paul Bancell's darkly alive lyrics to inhabit. Their influences range from English post-punk to Nick Cave to the industrial sounds of Skinny Puppy, and the band melds them expertly. Combining field recordings with electronics, this music is sound design turned pop. Many tracks here feel cinematic - whether it's th...

Matthew Doty didn't set out to write a solo album. His first batch of weightless and brightly lit material under the name Deserta began to take shape in 2017. Shortly after finding out he was going to be a father, Doty started working on a batch of songs inspired by the joy and the unknown of the world he was about to enter. That inspiration is the sonic and emotional backbone of debut album Black Aura My Sun. Like a hot air balloon headed straight for the stratosphere, Deserta reveals yet another side of the songwriting Doty has spent decades refining. As experimental as it is enthralling, Black Aura My Sun applies the vapor-trailed production values and sublime dynamics of Doty's previous group projects (including post-rock band Saxon Shore and the synth-laced post-punk of Midnight Faces) to a shoegaze-y sound that splits the difference between Slowdive and Sigur Rós. Doty began finding his own musical voice in the early '00s with the sky-piercing efforts of Saxon Shore. While it was initially a collaboration with Josh Tillman (a.k.a. Father John Misty), Doty was Saxon Shore's only consistent member over the course of five acclaimed records. His responsibility spilled over into everything from booking shows to the songs themselves. He was never completely alone in his pursuit of post-rock perfection, however, so Deserta is very much a new endeavor: a trial-by-fire that was written, recorded, and mixed in total solitude. Deserta expands and contracts, with chords that drift like clouds, drums that drag and dissipate, and hooks that hang in the air for what feels like forever. That doesn't mean Black Aura My Sun is a subtle or soft record. It actually whips up quite a racket and is particularly heavy when piped through a pair of headphones. Deserta is Doty's main creative outlet right now and a one-way ticket to another dimension entirely.

Felte Records presents `Glimpse Of Heaven' - a stunning new album by the Hawaii-born, LA-based musician, singer, producer and professional mastering engineer Jess Labrador, AKA Chasms. Labrador's deeply personal work as Chasms has always felt like an unveiling. Following 2019's `The Mirage,' which was a dark, dubby meditation on grief and loss, this new album is both familiar and different. The third full-length under the Chasms name, `Glimpse of Heaven' trades in washes of reverb for starker moments of closeness and intimacy. An exploration of the personal inventory and reckoning necessary to move forward in life, the LP considers not only how we relate to the world, but more importantly how we relate to ourselves. While always distinct, you could previously detect post-punk, shoegaze, and dub sensibilities in the music. Dreamy drift tethered by skittered beats, airy vocals, and melancholic melodies are here like previous efforts too. However, at the same time, Labrador steps into new territory with an expanse of vaporous synths and samples, adding to the project's ethereal electronic pop and dubwise pulse. Lush guitars glisten throughout the album, but this time only in sparse, disciplined embellishments. `Glimpse of Heaven' is a fully realised version of Chasms beyond its influences; to say that this is a seamless evocation of such disparate sounds as Massive Attack, Basic Chanel, Sade, Seefeel and Dif Juz is to say it is wholly unique. While she continues to unfurl her thoughts, there is a shift from opening up to the listener toward allowing the listener to witness her opening to herself. Where the last Chasms record was about various kinds of collapse, `Glimpse of Heaven' is about trying to develop as a whole person. It seems to ultimately be asking whether what we want and what we need align in ways that will get us where we want to be. Can we let go of the comfort of bad habits and steer ourselves toward a less easily obtained but maybe more enduring happiness? `Glimpse of Heaven' is a Chasms record, but really it's a Jess Labrador record. This is the first release operating on her own, and it feels like that's the only way this could have been made. It finds itself in the rare company of those few records that exist within themselves; it's a complete environment. You don't need to know anything to tune in and enjoy the world that she's created. It's a record that feels indebted to itself. It offers premonitions but not directions. It gives us honesty, but doesn't claim to know exactly where that will lead.

Since 2016, Public Memory has been crafting lo-fi electronica from the darker corners of the psychic landscape. Gritty atmospherics, damaged synthesizers, and unearthly vocals blend with a mixture of electronic and organic percussion, creating a sense of forceful unease. This, when combined with the shadowy production and emotive singing of Robert Toher, creates a singular contrast between power and vulnerability.

The story of Ritual Howls begins in a southwest Detroit basement in the early winter of 2012. Singer/guitarist Paul Bancell had been writing and performing solo as well as in several bands and was looking for collaborators for a new project. Ben Saginaw (bass) and Chris Samuels (synths, drums, drum machines) were acquatances that became natural fits. With the help of a friend (Jeff Navarre), they recorded their first full-length in Ben's art studio using a laptop. Paul tracked vocals at home in his bedroom and, not wanting to relinquish control, mixed and mastered the album himself. A formidable introduction to the band's haunting, cinematic blend of twangy industrial rock, their self-titled album established the band as a unique force in the landscape of dark music, both past and present. Separated by a decade, four LPs, two EPs later, Ritual Howls is an impressively cohesive first effort and testament to the band's vision that, even in its infancy, forged a distinct sound that has only matured with perfection over time.

For Matthew Doty, Deserta has always been about exploring a sonic universe that allows him to express a kaleidoscope of emotions, without having to say much at all. Through a patchwork of reverb-tinged textures - drone guitars, lingering synths and driving percussion - the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist weaves together stories of care, frustration and catharsis that ultimately stretch to a gentle resolve. On new album Every Moment, Everything You Need, Doty chronicles the kind of year we all fear, full of uncertainty, tension and sustained pressure, and transforms it into a celebration of perseverance. It's an essential reminder that we have the power to shape the stories we tell.Stepping out as Deserta in 2020, Doty's debut solo album Black Aura My Sun garnered critical acclaim for its gorgeous, experimental ruminations on new fatherhood, where shifting perspectives and challenges were relished with a cinematic flair. Follow-up full-length Every Moment, Everything You Need continues these explorations but with a louder, more aggressive tone that mirrors the difficult year Doty - and many others - experienced. The pandemic meant that Doty had to give up his studio and downsize a lot of his gear and instead, carve out a space in his two-bedroom apartment to craft the next chapter of Deserta. Sharing the space with his wife and son, Doty and his partner are also essential healthcare workers, which meant the couple would often have to tag-team childcare with alternating 13-hour days in PPE with ever changing guidelines and protocols. On their days off, construction noise would drill through the walls on all sides of the apartment in the developing LA neighborhood, while helicopters, sirens, protests and police chases would soundtrack the evening hours. This, along with a small toddler in need of mental stimulation, companionship and basic needs, saw Doty pushed to his limit. "We had two days together as a family per month, it was never enough." Describing himself as "an introv...

Mint Field creates a unique blend of avant pop that explores the nostalgia and melancholy of daily life with complex rhythms, loud, shimmering guitars, and softly sighing vocals. Emerging from the two most exciting destinations for art and music in Mexico, the band originally formed in Tijuana before relocating to Mexico City where they are now based.

Scrutiny, the debut album from Moaning's Pascal Stevenson under her new solo alias Fashion Club, explores the mind's complex relationship to morality, and the way structures of power tend to replicate themselves through unexamined habits. Stevenson began writing the songs that would become Scrutiny toward the end of 2018, as Moaning embarked on a European tour in support of their critically acclaimed first album. Between shows, in the back of the band's tour van, she traced early drafts of Scrutiny's instrumentals on her laptop, planting the seeds of what would bloom into her captivating solo debut. While concocting Scrutiny's dreamlike art-rock palette, Stevenson drew inspiration from artists working during the incipient decades of the synthesizer's lifetime, like Kate Bush, Brian Eno, and Wire's Colin Newman - musicians whose work bridges the gap between disarming experimentalism and poppleasure. The album similarly channels the influence of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis's tactile, material production on Janet Jackson'slate `80s albums Control and Rhythm Nation 1814, records that exploded the potential of digital music-making and entwined the soundsof new technology with the currents of the body.For Fans of early Brian Eno, Cate Le Bon, Crack Cloud, Japan, Preoccupations, Deerhunter, Iceage, Ought.

Ashley Shadow winks at darkness, but she won't lead you towards it. It's easy to fall under the spell of Ashley's haunting voice. The Vancouver, B.C. based songwriter forged her own identity as a songwriter with 2016's eponymous self-titled debut. Her sophomore effort, Only the End, maintains the moody introspection that is ingrained in Pacific Northwest life, but now comes armed with a palpable hope complementing her signature melancholy. Ashley explains, "I wanted to make a more upbeat album, something you could play with some friends over. Some of the songs I wrote were initially bummers, but when we went to record them, we lightened them up." Balancing a couple of jobs and navigating life and love in increasingly unstable times, the album was written over two years by Ashley at her apartment. Her confident vibrato above lightly, distorted guitars mirrors the album's theme of resilience, if not triumph, over adversity. There is comfort in these warm songs that endorse the realism of contented acceptance, rather than the naïve search for non-existent utopias. While the songs were conceived in contemplative solitude, Ashley invited some very capable collaborators for their journey into the studio. Ashley's first album saw her take center stage after more than a decade of gracing friends' projects in a supporting role. The move to the front was a cautious one. "First record was, can I do a solo album? This time, I know what I'm doing. It's way more clear." "Don't Slow Me Down" reunites Ashley with Bonnie "Prince" Billy for the first time on record when she sang vocals on Bonnie's Lie Down In Light album in 2018. The album also includes contributions from Paul Rigby (Neko Case), Colin Cowan (Elastic Stars), Joshua Wells (Black Mountain, Lightning Dust) and Ryan Beattie (Himalayan Bear). It's clear to anyone listening. It's Only the End. If only all endings were so glorious.

Ritual Howls Create A Cinematic Blend Of Twangy Industrial Rock That Could Fuel A Post Apocalyptic Dance Floor. A Collaboration Between Paul Bancell (Vocals, Guitar), Chris Samuels (Synth, Samples, Drum Machine), And Ben Saginaw (Bass), The Detroit Trio's Fourth Full Length 'Rendered Armor' Follows The 'Their Body' Ep Of 2018 With Expansive Arrangements Sculpted With Masterful Production. Throughout 'Rendered Armor' Familiar Influences Reveal Themselves, But The Band Doesn't Rely On Derivative Imitation. Instead, Ritual Howls Forge Haunting Atmospheres That Are All Their Own, Reaching Into Unexpected Sonic Domain. Each Track Unfolds With Unnerving Anticipation, As If Sound Tracking A Chase Scene In A Surrealist Western Film. Bancell Delivers His Baritone Above A Jangling Guitar Like An Incantation, Evoking Macabre, Religious Imagery Laden With Futuristic Undertones. Propelled By Saginaw's Often Fuzzed Out Bass And Samuels' Dance Club Friendly Rhythms, It's No Surprise That The Band Hails From The Techno Capital Of The Us. Ritual Howls' Most Mature Offering To Date, 'Rendered Armor' Finds The Band Further Carving Out Their Own Eclectic Mix Of Organic Instrumentation And Pulsing Electronics, Distinguishing Them As A Unique Force In The Current Landscape Of Underground Music.

Since 2016, Public Memory Has Been Crafting Lo-Fi Electronica From The Darker Corners Of The Psychic Landscape. Gritty Atmospherics, Damaged Synthesizers, And Unearthly Vocals Blend With A Mixture Of Electronic And Organic Percussion, Creating A Sense Of Forceful Unease. This, When Combined With The Shadowy Production And Emotive Singing Of Robert Toher, Creates A Singular Contrast Between Power And Vulnerability.

Following 2016's On the Legs of Love Purified and the recent "Divine Illusion" single, The Mirage pushes the band's ethereal sound into the murky depths of dub. Marking a sonic shift for the project, we find the duo trading in chaotic bursts of noise for understated minimalism that's still characteristically melancholic and potent with emotion. Labrador's drum production is as deft as ever with an expanded range of electronic samples and tape delay induced polyrhythms. Layered with Madden's persistently dubby bass, Labrador's sparse guitar and gliding soprano float above a labyrinth of hypnotic sequences. These dublaced dirges signify growth within the band, heard in their command of repetition, space, and effects to build a pervasive mood that's often utterly heartbreaking. The Mirage was conceived following major upheaval in the pair's lives, including the loss of Madden's brother and a number of friends in Oakland's Ghost Ship warehouse fire in 2016. Compounded with th e dissolution of a marriage, and leaving San Francisco to relocate to Los Angeles, the album is an exploration of grief and the multifaceted heartbreak that follows such events. 'The Mirage' tells candid narratives of a heavy heart but does not wallow in despair.

Ritual Howls are industrial rock meets cinematic country goth. Entering a vast nothingness of everything, exploring the unknown, baptizing, cleansing yourself, actually putting something or someone into water, like an act of murder, hiding something. "Look into the water at your Francis Bacon face. Are your lies that easy to erase?" Welcome to the trio's third album, Into The Water.Detroit's Paul Bancell (vocals/guitars), Ben Saginaw (bass) and Chris Samuels (synths, samples, drum machines) are Ritual Howls. They collect samples of the physical world and feed them with guitar, vox, bass, synth and drum machines to create an aura of darkness over a pop sensibility. Paul Bancell provides lyrics that Poe or Lovecraft would approve of while Chris Samuels and Ben Saginaw provide sounds that bring his macabre tales lurching into the world of the living. Collaborativel...

It can take years to find your voice. In the case of the Winnipeg-born, Brooklyn-based musician Devon Church, it took the dissolution of a decade-long marriage and creative collaboration (Exitmusic, a nightmare-pop project co-founded by Church's ex-wife) to send him down the road of discovering his own singular, rough-hewn-yet-elegant style. Exitmusic is known for haunting soundscapes and hair-raising emotional climaxes. With his remarkably assured Felte debut,We Are Inextricable, Church applies his experience as a producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter to an equally absorbing solo project_one that plunges his Cohen-esque pop poetics into an ocean of drone, psychedelic minimalism, harmonic noise, and distortion-tinged, angelic ambience. The result is a well-crafted exploration of samsara and nirvana, heaven and earth, two states seemingly coexisting in the songs themselves. It's an entrancing listen. Sensuous, surrealist lyrics_touching on themes of romantic obsession, religious ambivalence, dysfunctional families, and the ineffable strangeness of human existence_are delivered in a ravaged, soulful baritone, approximating some chimeric offspring of two-cigarettes-at-once Tom Waits, a tripped-out David Bowie, and John Maus. Trance-inducing, tape-saturated echoes of minimalist and ambient composers like Terry Riley, Pauline Olivera, Steve Reich and Grouper fill the spaces left by post-punkified chord structures, primitive drum machines, shakers, tambourines, and delirious, overdriven synthesizers.RIYL: Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Mark Lanegan, TheNational, Crooked Fingers, Lee Hazlewood, Atlas Sound,Scott Walker

Natural Grey Swirl Vinyl Edition.
Still shrink wrapped but opened.
Cover with a beginning seam split at the upper edge.
Includes original inner sleeve.

Red Vinyl. Listening to Fashion Club's self-produced second album ALove You Cannot Shake feels like being caught in the crossfireof a profound beam of light. You can't help but feel bothenlivened and exposed as its aberrant synth lines, artful stringsand disfigured guitars swell into larger-than-life crescendos,which evoke a divine yet probing spotlight.Pascal Stevenson, the Los Angeles-based musician behindFashion Club, likens the experience of hearing A Love YouCannot Shake to staring into the sun, and though the recordwasn't written with religion in mind, its heavenly sonics andemotional sagacity also make it feel like a prophetic encounter.The album was shaped by Stevenson's gender transition andsobriety journey and parses her fluid emotions surroundingthese events and other personal trials and tribulations. But asmuch as it's a dialogue between Stevenson's current andformer selves, it's also an invitation for listeners to join her inthe work of discarding bitterness and re-centering hope,especially when such efforts feel futile. Musically, A Love YouCannot Shake is an unshackling of expectations, asStevenson's previous stint as bassist in the L.A. post-punkoutfit Moaning and her first record as Fashion Club, 2022'sScrutiny, didn't necessarily reflect the full range of her taste,which includes ambient, pop, classical and dance music, orembody her sensitive tenderness and femininity.A Love You Cannot Shake also thrives on a fluid sonic palette.The album's magnetic immersiveness hinges on its strangedynamic shifts, jagged production and ambitious songstructures with parts that don't repeat_choices influenced byher love of left-field electro-pop and her classical musicbackground. While Stevenson handled most of theinstrumentals on Scrutiny, this LP is much more collaborative,featuring an array of contributors who lent strings, piano, pedalsteel and more. Plus, this album boasts country harmoniesfrom Perfume Genius ("Forget"), high-pitched c...

Deleted Scenes is the debut album by futurist dub pop duo Standish/Carlyon, comprising bassist/vocalist ConradStandish and guitarist Tom Carlyon, both formerly of noir rock group Devastations. Deleted Scenes continues the process begun on the final Devastations album Yes, U, moving away from full-band arrangements towards submerged electronic rhythms and late-night altered states. The atmosphere throughout is oneof surreal chic. In rich baritone or impressive falsetto, Standish intones dark, absurdist lyrics over the band'sshimmering take on dub, a sensual, ultramodern gloss disturbed by deep vibrations. There's the pulse-quickening progression of Moves, Moves, the spectral faux-soul of "Feb Love" (featuring vocals from Standish's wife Jonnine, one-half of HTRK), the icy grind of "Gucci Mountain", the synthetic fractured funk of "Nono/Yoyo" or the deviant denouement that is 2 5 1 1, a collaboration with Benjamin John Power of Blanck Mass and FuckButtons. The album was recorded in London with Aaron Cupples and mastered by the iconic Denis Blackham, who has workedwith everyone from Brian Eno to Pan Sonic. Standish/Carlyon have played Belgium's Sonic City Festival (curated by Liars) alongside Chris & Cosey and Rhythm & Sound, as well as All Tomorrow's Parties' new Australian incarnation I'll Be Your Mirror, alongside the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Pere Ubu and Einsturzende Neubauten.FIYL: Twin Shadow, Coil, White Car, HTRK

Milky Clear Vinyl.Aprender a Ser: Extended is an EP by Mexico City band MintField. It was recorded in the same sessions as Mint Field'slatest album, Aprender A Ser. Mint Field decided to split thework into an album and an EP as they felt it was too dense fora double album and wanted these songs to co-exist in anotherspace and have its own time to shine. As with Aprender A Ser,the EP incorporates influences from shoegaze, trip-hop, dreampop and electronic music. The final track includes longtimefriend and cello player Mabe Fratti to play Cello.Time. It's something we tend to cherish. As a band, you'retypically thrown into more than usual stressful scenarios whenrecording albums and rushing decisions becomes the norm.Mexico City's Mint Field knows this all too well.Rewind to the spring of 2020 (yes, Covid). The band startedfleshing out their new album Aprender a Ser (meaning LearnTo Be in English), the follow up to 2020's minimalist psych/shoegaze album, Sentimiento Mundial. For the first time, theband was not under any time constraints in the recordingprocess. They wrote, recorded, produced and mixed the albumin isolation. They had time to slow things down and think moreobsessively about the sound, environment and vibe theywanted to create.Aprender a Ser became really intimate, every single detail wasmeticulously worked on. Mint Field recorded take after take, butat the same time tried to keep the soul of the demos intact.Some of the guitar and drums are first takes in the finalversions. The band would let a recording sit, leave it and comeback to it. The songs evolved a lot doing so, but at the sametime didn't lose the essence of its original intention.Thematically, Aprender a Ser talks about opening ourperspective of the reality that we live every day, acknowledgingeach moment that we witness in life. Learning to recognizewhat we are, what we live, what we see, what we feel. Whetherit's seeing ourselves in the past and observing how we have...

Merge Now in Friendship is about death and impermanence. Itis a wilting flower beheld from a passing vehicle. It is neither lament nor declaration. The three songs that comprise this EP share a kindred thread - All arising events and phenomena; people, dreams, songs, even worlds, are all transitory in nature. We are all going to die. Someday there will be no record of any of this. It is this very truth that allows for beauty. The impermanent nature of all that arises is the apparent aspect of the essence of being. It is this essence that lends infinite openness to our experience. It is ultimately all we are about. Music is the language of this inscrutable, sublime essence. This record is a joyful attempt at music. Vulture Feather is an unconventional three-piece from the mountains of Northern California, featuring members of the Baltimore band, Wilderness and the early post-hardcore group, Don Martin Three. Merge Now In Friendship follows up the 2023 debut album, Liminal Fields.

Oakland's Houses of Heaven fuse the grit of early industrialwith dizzying hits of EBM, techno, and drum & bass, all imbuedwith lyrical themes that draw equally from the emotional andthe mechanical. Within/Without, their sophomore LP for Felte,delves into a realm of intricate intensity, pushing electronics tothe forefront with the production prowess of Matia Simovich(INHALT), and features top-of-their-game guest vocals fromDouglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb) and Mariana Saldaña(BOAN).While the dub-influenced, shoegaze throb of Silent Places(2020) immersed itself in the paradox of opulence against theunsettling backdrop of California's wildfires, Within/Withoutconfronts social order through the lens of inner strife. Itexplores a contrast between the fantasy worlds and unfilteredtruths that define modern survival, and a yearning for genuinehuman connection brought on by the anxiety and isolation oftechnology.On Within/Without, Houses of Heaven truly come into their ownwith a distinctive alloy of electronic, industrial, psychedelic andshoegaze elements. They create a dynamic conduit for discordand harmony with a profoundly human essence, bridginginterior lives and exterior pressures through visceral songcraftand deft pacing. In a cruel and technologically dominatedworld, emotional gridlock is rampant. Yet, in the propulsiveparanoia of album highlight "Flesh Techniques", we'rereminded that it's often best to "breathe in / these dreamsagain / shake, shake it off".

Billow Observatory's second Extended Play in less than a year,Soliton maximizes the compact format by further illuminatinglesser-traveled paths. Contemplation and exploration weaveharmoniously through five mysterious tracks. Influenced by awide range of styles and sounds, such as Japanese ambient,the muted dissonance of Pharoah Sanders, and the chilly dubof the Scape catalog, Soliton evokes visions of lonely nightdrives punctuated by bright moments of bliss.The Calque EP from January 2023 saw them pursuing theminimal electronic side of their work even further. The openingtrack, "Kottbusser Tor," showcases a conspicuous absence ofthe processed guitars that characterize most of their work, andinstead explores sequenced filters, tape delays and analogsynth patterns for eight minutes. On "Ammosel", they divedirectly into dubby soundscapes, with crackling electronics anddeep basslines, while "Kiyosumi" and "Fade Into Air" pay a visitto more familiar ambient territory. A darker undercurrentpervades on this EP, but one that goes particularly well with thecoldest of seasons and its frosty air.The duo, consisting of Jason Kolb (Michigan, US) and JonasMunk (Denmark) started working together in 2006, sendingeach other tracks across the Atlantic, eventually resulting in afull-length release on Felte in 2012. What started out as a sideproject to their respective main projects (Auburn Lull andManual) have slowly become the main activity for both artists,now with a total of four full-lengths under their belt. Their musichas also evolved and matured over the years, reaching a levelof perfection that's only granted producers who've been in thegame for decades. Billow Observatory have by now establishedthemselves as purveyors of highly refined ambient music andthe Soliton EP sees them elegantly blend new and old,electronic and organic, into a gently drifting, enveloping whole.

Time. It's something we tend to cherish. As a band, you'retypically thrown into more than usual stressful scenarios whenrecording albums and rushing decisions becomes the norm.Mexico City's Mint Field knows this all too well.Rewind to the spring of 2020 (yes, Covid). The band startedfleshing out their new albumAprender a Ser(meaningLearnTo Bein English), the follow up to 2020's minimalist psych/shoegaze album,Sentimiento Mundial. For the first time, theband was not under any time constraints in the recordingprocess. They wrote, recorded, produced and mixed the albumin isolation. They had time to slow things down and think moreobsessively about the sound, environment and vibe theywanted to create.Aprender a Serbecame really intimate, every single detail wasmeticulously worked on. Mint Field recorded take after take, butat the same time tried to keep the soul of the demos intact.Some of the guitar and drums are first takes in the finalversions. The band would let a recording sit, leave it and comeback to it. The songs evolved a lot doing so, but at the sametime didn't lose the essence of its original intention.Fast forward to January of 2023. During this period, the bandrecorded approximately twenty-five more songs and trimmed itdown to ten, cohesive tracks that fit conceptually while at thesame time trying to evolve their sound. During the recordingprocess, they naturally came back to the roots of the Mint Fieldsound by doing a lot of layering, utilizing different types ofreverb and exploring more ethereal, ambient, dream pop andshoegaze sounds.Thematically,Aprender a Sertalks about opening ourperspective of the reality that we live every day, acknowledgingeach moment that we witness in life. Learning to recognizewhat we are, what we live, what we see, what we feel. Whetherit's seeing ourselves in the past and observing how we haveevolved in the present. Or the lifetime of a butterfly from itsformation within a cocoon to how i...

The dual forces of shadow and light, despair and hope,frustration and catharsis are at play in the music of Cupid &Psyche, the Los Angeles-based indie rock duo of MichaelVidal and Juan Velasquez. First gaining recognition in the lateaughts as members of the punk band Abe Vigoda, whose2010 album Crush was named one of the "Best 50 Albums ofthe 2010s" by Pitchfork, the two have reunited ascollaborators for the first time in a decade.Cathartic jam sessions would birth the emotionally resonantsongs that appear on their debut album, Romantic Music.Though they pull from a wide array of `80s and `90sinfluences, Cupid & Psyche bring together these disparatemoods and genres through their own esoteric lens onRomantic Music_making for a singular sound that at oncefeels familiar and alluringly hypnotic. Listeners will detect thegloom of post-punk and goth, the haziness of dream-pop andshoegaze, the bittersweet guitar melodies of second-waveemo, and the manic electronic rhythms of trip-hop and bigbeat.The immersive soundscapes on Romantic Music aresometimes agitated and driving, while other times etherealand transcendent. This duality matches the album's lyrics oflooking for a divine escape from the grim realities of existence,as well as the darkest parts of one's psyche. "The thesis of thealbum is trying to transcend the limits of life and the struggletherein," Vidal says. "There's a lot of lyrics about feelingtrapped or frustrated, and then trying to find a way out.There's a lot of times I sing of hope and grasping towardslove. But maybe in trying to escape, you take the wrong door,be it substance abuse or other vices."Now as Cupid & Psyche, Vidal and Velasquez return to afriendship that creatively feels like home_except this time,with more experience, self-knowledge, and less pressure tomake anything other than the music that emerges naturally.The LP's title Romantic Music is tongue-in-cheek, since thereare no love songs proper on the project, and the...

Over the past seven years, Public Memory's distinctive use ofanalog synthesizers, electronic beats mixed with organicpercussion, lo-fi sound design, and gritty ambience has createda singularly eerie and shadowy world. The first seconds of Public Memory's new record, Elegiac Beat, thrust us immediately into that world. We are in media res, with a feeling of sudden movement from a sensible point A to B. Given some time however, we realize that there is something askew-a bit of brightness here, some shadows pushed aside, some jazz and funk amongst the dub and Krautrock. This is an unfamiliar, ambiguous mood that pushes Public Memory towards new ground. We still drift past the clouded lights and hollowed out buildings of previous albums, but with an occasional bounce in our step now, a bit of golden haze around the edges. Elegiac Beat is between two places, and as it straddles the line between the two, we are uncertain if the light it brings shines directly from the sun, or if it is dimly reflected through that majestic ballroom world.

Mission to the Sun synthesizes ambient, post-industrial landscapes with expansive arrangements and haunting vocals. The project consists of Ritual Howls' Christopher Samuels (synths, samples, programming) and Kirill Slavin (vocals). Their sophomore album, Sophia Oscillations, is an immersive journey through the dark corners of post-industrial music. The Detroit based duo continues the sonic exploration started on their debut album Cleansed by Fire, while delving deeper into themes of isolation and lost communication. Christopher Samuels' synths, samples and rhythmic programming is accented by Kirill Slavin's haunting vocal delivery as the listener receives intersperse audio recordings from the outer reaches of inner space.

Odonis Odonis have proven time and time again that they're not interested in doing the same thing twice. Since their beginnings, the Toronto outfit led by core duo Constantin Tzenos andDenholm Whale, have put out five full-length albums, and played countless shows and festivals across North America and Europe, all while following their musical instincts. In the past eleven years, they've thrillingly explored genres including post-punk, EBM, industrial, shoegaze, pop, and surf rock. For their next evolution, Odonis Odonis are shifting from the grind of the traditional music industry with its unsustainable physical and psychological demands, to strictly focus on meaningful creative endeavors. These include releasing music, album production, and event production, and draw on Tzenos and Whale's collective talents and experience. From producing, scoring, and mastering at Tzenos's new studio After Hours, to countless curated shows through Whale's co-run concert company Transmit Presents, these past and forth coming projects were chosen selectively, and with the intention of working with individuals they respect and admire. The duo describe their forthcoming collaborative EPICONas a "calling card," and it perfectly encapsulates the new iteration of Odonis Odonis. Following their 2021 album Spectrums, they started working on this collection of five songs, writing them geared towards some of their favorite veteran and up-and-coming artists. "We wanted to bring out what we admire in them and prove that we can do a variety of styles," explains Whale. Some like New York noise rock mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers, Pittsburgh experimentalist TOBACCO, and Vancouver post-punks ACTORS, they've previously shared stages and tour vans with, while others like Vancouver dark wave singer and pianist Terror Bird and Los Angeles industrial pop project Patriarchy, are more recent discoveries. The striking artwork comes courtesy of New York-based noise artist Dream crusher, another act who shares Whale and Tzenos' community-minded ethos. Somewhat ironically, by shedding their skin as a band, the duo have embraced the individual spotlight more, and ICON marks the first chapter (with further collaborations to come) of this new Odonis Odonis era. - Max Mertens

In the chaos of our every day, it can be difficult to find time for pause. Knee-jerk reactions have become the norm, while the instantaneous fog clouding our culture urges us to move along, to step away from the present moment. Mexico City-based songwriter and instrumentalist Estrella del Sol wanted to craft a space where there is finally room to breathe, and time to arrange the patchwork of our reality. On new album Figura de Cristal, she encourages fragility, and celebrates the delicacy of our ever-evolving selves.Estrella del Sol is known for her work in shoegaze band Mint Field, hailed for their tender exploration of sentimentality and grief. While Mint Field propel their themes with oozing, amplified guitars and commanding vocals, del Sol's solo work blossoms in a quieter, more electronic space. "I wanted to experiment more with my vocals and mainly synth sounds, always trying to find a different sound," she explains. The result is a patient and nurturing collection of songs that remind us of the importance in taking our time. Her first solo album, Un espacio de lo imaginario, released in 2020 and recorded in the first two months of the pandemic, introduced del Sol'sethereal side. Expansive vocal dynamics dance carefully through gentle melodic structures, showcasing the intimacy of del Sol's soloarrangements. Figura de Cristal builds upon this intimacy, adding a blanket of subdued yet glittering drones, haunting electric guitars and celestial vocal textures. It was written, recorded and produced entirely by Estrella del Sol at her home in Mexico City, with cello contributions by experimental composer and personal friend Mabe Fratti and mixed by Mint Field bassist Sebastian Neyra. The album includes field recordings of Estrella del Sol's surroundings, namely her neighborhood in Mexico City. By including these miniatureportraits of her reality, Figura de Cristal acts as a kaleidoscopic interrogation into what it means to be alive, and how others figure into the images we create for ourselves. By usi...

Ashley Shadow winks at darkness, but she won't lead you towards it. It's easy to fall under the spell of Ashley's haunting voice. The Vancouver, B.C. based songwriter forged her own identity as a songwriter with 2016's eponymous self-titled debut. Her sophomore effort, Only the End, maintains the moody introspection that is ingrained in Pacific Northwest life, but now comes armed with a palpable hope complementing her signature melancholy. Ashley explains, "I wanted to make a more upbeat album, something you could play with some friends over. Some of the songs I wrote were initially bummers, but when we went to record them, we lightened them up." Balancing a couple of jobs and navigating life and love in increasingly unstable times, the album was written over two years by Ashley at her apartment. Her confident vibrato above lightly, distorted guitars mirrors the album's theme of resilience, if not triumph, over adversity. There is comfort in these warm songs that endorse the realism of contented acceptance, rather than the naïve search for non-existent utopias. While the songs were conceived in contemplative solitude, Ashley invited some very capable collaborators for their journey into the studio. Ashley's first album saw her take center stage after more than a decade of gracing friends' projects in a supporting role. The move to the front was a cautious one. "First record was, can I do a solo album? This time, I know what I'm doing. It's way more clear." "Don't Slow Me Down" reunites Ashley with Bonnie "Prince" Billy for the first time on record when she sang vocals on Bonnie's Lie Down In Light album in 2018. The album also includes contributions from Paul Rigby (Neko Case), Colin Cowan (Elastic Stars), Joshua Wells (Black Mountain, Lightning Dust) and Ryan Beattie (Himalayan Bear). It's clear to anyone listening. It's Only the End. If only all endings were so glorious.