Excellent new collection from what seems to be a bottomless bucket of bones by Chicago’s Beau Wanzer, with nothing here newer than 2015, but it doesn’t matter. A prolific fixture in electronic music, noise and the paths where they connect, as well as a busy DJ here and abroad (been enjoying his Various Distractions night at the Empty Bottle, where he recently returned after a long stretch of Euro dates), Wanzer utilizes machine loops, a careful ear for tone/wave/sample sculpting, a stack of old Fangorias and a sense of humor about the whole thing to make something that sticks to the wall and slides down, with the eight tracks here vacillating from undead tech-boogie (“Warm Waterboarding”) to gross sploshing repetitive spasms (“A Burrowing Booboo”) to a title track that might have worked as a Butthole Surfers outtake around the Rembrandt Pussyhorse period, and a handful of more mannered offerings (“Simple Men”) to settle it down. All the tracks fit together and are just beyond the threshold of weirdness to keep a lot of the punters away. Not as harsh or violent sounding as some of his other solo works and projects within my reach, just kinda churning away at its own ends. I should recognize where the cover art comes from, but it kinda looks like Damian from Fucked Up if the lightbulb won. Great stuff, wear gloves if you’re squeamish.
(Doug Mosurock)

Pretty solid debut from the remaining three-fourths of Hash Redactor, a fun Memphis band that didn’t really have the directional pull of what they’re driving at now, which points towards the historical re-enactment of a band that might’ve opened for R.E.M. at the Antenna Club way back when. The flangey guitar and wheedlin’ stringbend technique, general slow-midtempo autumnal melancholy and Alec McIntyre’s vocal decisions put this firmly in the wheelhouse of dogeared, clip-cornered, marked-up records that have survived college radio station purges (or survive today in private homes) since the ‘80s, evidence of some impassioned level of debate for/against (or in specific cases, debates on For Against) still affixed. There’s a little Polvo in the slipperiness and southern-ness of these tracks, a lot of Bob Mould in the vocals, and the general demeanor of a band in the throes of the past, c/o Slovenly, My Dad Is Dead, Honor Role, the Middle Class LP, and so on. Ex-Nots and ex-Ex-Cult, Ibex Clone gives off a sense of the grandeur in finality that one wouldn’t normally associate with the molotov of Goner Records, but it’s set in stone now, decaying nature from which something new will surely grow. (https://goner-records.com/)
(Doug Mosurock)

Listen in, brainiac.

NOTICE: I don’t have a connection between this account and Twitter anymore. I’m relying on you to repost! If you like the show, share it. Far and wide.

HOUR 1

• Chris Brokaw – Go Foragers
• Chrome – I Am the Jaw
• Effigies – Below the Drop
• Rinf – Bang Bang
• Sarathy Korwar – The Past Is Not Only Behind Us, But Ahead of Us
• Meg Baird – Ashes, Ashes
• Affinity – Night Flight
• Cheater Slicks – Child of the Moon
• Doris Troy – Stormy Weather
• The Karl Hendricks Trio – Heart of Steel
• Obe – untitled
• People in Control – When It’s War

HOUR 2

• Doom Flower – Loess Hills
• Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth – They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)
• Olimpia Splendid – Jacksonin Paita
• Fresh Blueberry Pancake – Clown on a Rope
• Assagai – Telephone Girl
• Purling Hiss – Yer in All My Dreams
• Roy Montgomery – Aura of the Afterlife 2
• Spice World – Mountain Pony 20
• EggS – Old Fashioned Virtue
• Belle & Sebastian – Will I Tell You a Secret
• Ibex Clone – Nothing Ever Changes
• V-3 – Don’t Blame Me
• J.T. IV – The Future
• Smirk – Revenge
• Nathan Salsburg – X
• Lou Christie – Shake Hands and Walk Away Crying

HOUR 3

• Ghost Forest – Tuff Guy
• Ethel Cain – Ptolomaea
• Egor – Street
• Strange Attractor – Invisible Man
• The C.I.A. – Bubble
• Rider/Horse – Sacred M
• Rotary Club – American Tower
• Tomaga – Squeek and Chatter
• Nighttime – When the Wind Is Blowing
• Dissolve – Dissong
• Beau Wanzer – Warm Waterboarding
• Jensen Tjhung & Tom Lyngcoln – Thornbury Bells
• The Clouds – No, You Can’t Take Them

HEATHEN DISCO SHOW #322 (1/15/2023)

HOUR 1
Wormdoom – Blessed Assurance
In Camera – Fatal Day
Raajmahal – excerpt from Anthemoessa
Space Afrika – Strength
Roy Montgomery – On the Eve of Leaving Dunedin for Christchurch
Funkadelic – Wars of Armageddon
Cheater Slicks – Current Reflections
Grauzone – Alone in the Jungle
Stonewall – Outer Spaced
Mary Halvorson – Hoodwink
MARRIED FM – There Ain’t Nothing

HOUR 2
The Tubs – Illusion Pt. II
The Smashing Times – Mother Nature’s Son
Weird Nightmare – Searching for You
Buckingham Nicks – Long Distance Winner
Dusty Springfield – Let Me Get in Your Way
Iggy Pop – The Endless Sea
Almond Joy – Candy
The Grand Jury – Music Is Fun
Yukihiro Takahashi – Glass
Tristan Disco – Social Dance #4
400 Blows – Dubbing Pressure
Model Home – Fake Feet
Puppet Wipes – Athletic Table and What?
Bas Jan – Profile Picture (RAGGS Mix)
Dezron Douglas – Jones Beach
Shadow – Ah Come

HOUR 3
Sun City Girls – Space Prophet Dogon
Sic Alps – Love Is Strange
Dippers – Drift Space
The Mad Scene – Suzy
Alan Rankine – The World Begins to Look Her Age
Prince Charles and the City Band – Cash (Cash Money)
Maku Sica – Sensed
Dana Buoy – African Violet
The Seeds – Fallin’
Fela Ransome Kuti & the Africa 70 with Ginger Baker – Ye-Ye De Smell
Gunslingers – Be-Bop-a-Lula-Louie-Loua

I canceled the Still Single Twitter feed. You won’t see my posts on there, at least by me. Sorry friends, you’re gonna have to work for it.

MARRIED FM by MARRIED FM

Lovely little early-in-the-year offering from Beth Murphy (Times New Viking) and Emily Davis (Ipps, Necropolis) strumming away at some simple, gentle central Ohio-influenced folk-pop, empties and blurry pasts in the rear view. Kinda reminds me of The Roches. Everybody’s growing up, but the smart people aren’t growing old. Couple this with stories of mid-‘00s abandon (and a lawyer to clear it all) and you basically have your new favorite podcast. Would hit subscribe. Columbus has/had it comin’.

(Doug Mosurock)

also long/endless Best Of lists make u look indecisive, and if there’s anything we need to do lately, it’s make decisions

a top ten albums of 2022 by Doug Mosurock

Roller — Offed CS (Radical Documents)

Tha Retail Simp$ — Reverberant Scratch: 9 Shots in Tha Dark LP (Total Punk) / room-silencing beef with Daniel Romano (no label ever could)

Limousine Beach s/t LP (Tee Pee)

Long Odds — Fine Thread digital download (self-released / Bandcamp)

Rose Mercie — ¿Kieres Agua? LP (Celluloid Lunch)

Non Temps Plus — Desire Choir LP (PPM)

Jeff Parker — Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy 2xLP (Eremite)

Weak Signal — War & War digital download (Colonel)

Charles Stepney — Step on Step 2xLP (International Anthem)

The Soft Pink Truth — Is It Going to Get Any Deeper Than This? 2xLP (Thrill Jockey)

hear all ten on this week’s Heathen Disco, New Year’s Night 2023. chirpradio.org

Coming back in 2023. For real, for good.

Might be on here, might be someplace else, but the words are lining up and barely anybody else is doing it right.

Still Single / Heathen Disco Big Review Energy.

RECOMMENDED

Who can say why I wanted to review this? Ha ha ha! Really though I believe this record proves a point I’ve been fussing about for a while: bands that go after the street-punk/power pop intersection, why some succeed and others fail (on a purely artistic level; I’ll never understand why some of these groups get popular and others languish, other than money and proper positioning). The Prize hails from Melbourne, a five-piece maybe not as immediate as Amyl & the Sniffies or Royal Headache, less polished and more engaging than Romero, but more polished than Sheer Mag and the like. Reinventing the Thin Lizzy/Cock Sparrer/Incredible Kidda Band dynamic isn’t really necessary, but when it goes down, it’s best when the band stays true to the form without getting too cute. This style of music has endured for a reason, and it’s not because of bands trying to change it up too much or add annoying personal touches to it; it’s really a game of inches – seven inches, to be precise and The Prize understands this well. As a result, these songs are just right, with tougher guitars and softer, more melodic vocals. They have great riffs and a poppier outlook, especially in the co-ed singing approach which isn’t as cloyingly ruff/tuff/aggro, sounding more like an indie pop band (the Ex-Vöid / The Tubs / Joanna Gruesome conglomerate come to mind). For such a tested formula, so many bands have decided to perform their own tests against it rather than looking at the heart of this approach, and it always rings false when this happens. The Prize at least figures out what to run up and where to hold back; save the personality for the riffs (thunderous) and not how squeaky your voice can get.
(Doug Mosurock)

Took a lot of shit from randos over doing Blaze posts about my radio show. Looks like that isn’t even possible anymore, so you lucky fucks get to soak it all in now for free. 14 hours of music and talk here. Settle in.

HD 304
8/14/2022

HOUR 1

Conjunto Primitivo – Vagando

Phantasia – All the Flowers

Baston – Neptune

Bohannon – Let’s Start the Dance III

Paul Johnson – Construction Work

Minami Deutsch – Grumpy Joa

Golomb – Western Threshold

Double Wig – Broken Cup

Hammer – Forever Tonight

Lil Keke – Graped Up and Dripped Out (Textasy Jungle Remix)

Dichroics – The Invisible Floor

Kokoroko – Ewa Inu

Killing Joke – Wardance

HOUR 2

Regina Leather – Communicazione Due

The Sound Vandals – Extasy (Body & Soul Mix)

Stephen Mallinder – Galaxy

Lincoln – Benchwarmer

Scupper – Superbike

The Movers – Oupa Is Back

To Damascus – Behind Me Closer

208L Containers – Holograms

Ace of Spit – Lonedell Wild Flower

Siobhan – Calamity

Space Art – Nous Savons Tout

Angels and Images – Hold Me Tight

Ty Segall – Don’t Lie

Civic Center – Rival the Sun

The Leather Nun – No Rule

HOUR 3

Green Screen Door – Brooding Giants

Manufacture – Passion for the Future

International Music System – Nonline

Crystal Grass – Crystal World

Pankow – Gimme More (Much More)

Th Blisks – Alaska

Love Nation – Love Nation Theme

Dummy – Mono Retriever

Orchestre Massako – Temedy

RRR Band – Rock for Birds

Squarepusher – North Circular

I AM – Confessions of the Heart

HD 303
8/7/2022

HOUR 1

Naujawanan Baidar – Koh Har Qadar Boland Bashad Baaz Ham Sar-e Khod Rah Darad

Party Dozen – The Worker

Lifeguard – Fifty Seven

Joseph Jarman/Don Moye – Ode to Wilbur Ware

Charles Stepney – That’s the Way of the World

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 – February

Killing Joke – Complications

Death Bells – Intruder

Workforce – Skin Scraped Back

Norma White – I Want Your Love

D’Arcangelo – Spacing Out

HOUR 2

Surface of the Earth – Causer Gird

My Bloody Valentine – To Here Knows When

Kirlian – Pulsingers Dream

Unique 3 – Weight for the Bass (Digi House Mix)

Barry White – It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me

The Movers – Oupa Is Back

Cupol – Kluba Cupol

Soho – Hippychick

The Cure – So What

Curleys – Florida Fights Back

The Sods – R.A.F.

Circus Lupus – Cat Kicking Jerk

Magazine – My Tulpa

Machine – There But For the Grace of God Go I

Nick Macri & Mono No Aware - … Without Jumping Out of Your Skin (for Tracy Pew)

Vision 3D – Hypnose

HOUR 3

Oogbogo – A Side

Judy and the Jerks – Scorpion

CB Radio Gorgeous – Asking for a Friend

Foxy – Get Off

Moss Icon – What They Lack

Unrest – Cherry Cream On

Hard Corps – Sacred Heart

Sam Prekop and John McEntire – Ascending By Night

T.U.M.E. – One on One

Pharaoh Sanders – Summun Bukmun Umyun

1990s – (My Baby’s) Double Espresso

Gang Starr – Step in the Arena

HD 302
7/31/2022

HOUR 1

Sonic Youth – Cotton Crown

Unwound – Honourosis

Polvo – Gemini Cusp

The Telephone Numbers – The Ballad of Doug

Nick Macri & Mono No Aware – How to Be in the Body…

Double Wig – Gone Circling

Sub Skin Cables – Closer to Myself

The Sleepers – Walk Away

Stephen Mallinder – Hush

Hard Corps – Respirer

400 Blows – Strangeways (Revisited)

The Great Unraveling – Left with Only Out

Minami Deutsch – Fortune Goodies

Hüsker Dü – Eight Miles High

HOUR 2

Teenage Fanclub – Every Picture I Paint

1990s – What’s Up with the Midnight Me?

Blank Realm – Falling Down the Stairs

Ray Barretto – Mercy, Mercy Baby

The Soft Boys – I Got the Hots

Slovenly – At Sea

Michael Beach – Out in a Burning Alley

Civic Center – Actualization

Public Image Ltd. – The Question Mark

U-Roy – Natty Kung Fu

Bernie Worrell – Insurance Man for the Funk

Galcher Lustwerk – Been a Long Night

Ron Trent – Cycle of Many

Slumber Party – I’m an Example

HOUR 3

Space Opera – Outlines

Terry Reid – Sea of Memory

Linton Kwesi Johnson – Song of Blood

Jackie Paris – Run for Your Life

Georgie Red – If I Say Stop, Then Stop!

Sam Prekop and John McEntire – Ascending at Night

Bomb the Bass – 10 Seconds to Terminate

Sparks – Amateur Hour

DAF – Mein Herz Macht Bum

Grace Jones – Warm Leatherette

Eric Copeland – Antibirth OST (side A)

HD 301
7/17/2022

HOUR 1

Sam Prekop and John McEntire – Crossing at the Shallow

Velocette – Stumm

Prince Charles and the City Beat Band – Jungle Stomp

Le Mystere – Opus 303

Busta Rhymes – Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check

Two Shell – Ghosts

Oogbobo – New State

VISION 3D – Blv Cbd

CB Radio Gorgeous – Devil

Thin Lizzy – The Hero and the Madman

Anthony Moore – Useless Moments

Sex Tourists – He Said

Jay & Yuta – Be More Kind

Wire – Being Sucked In Again (5th Demo)

Lower Tar – Brothers Pt. 1

Season of Life – 4:08

HOUR 2

A Certain Ratio – Do the Du

Doctor’s Cat – Feel the Drive

Night Communication – Nocturne Seduction

A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray

Bohannon – Cut Loose

Ndikho Xaba and the Natives – Makhosi

Miss Lie – Claustrophobia

Baby Ford – Flowers

Severed Heads – Never Fall in Love/Nazi Beach Party

Syamese – Absorbia

Mordicai Jones – All Because of a Woman

Terry Reid – Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

High Mountain Hoedown – Pickin’ Berries

Funk Factory – Rien Ne Va Plus

Reg King – Merry-Go-Round

Flanger Magazine – Falls Fountain Removed

The Velvet Underground – Ocean (Live 1969)

HD 300
7/10/2022

HOUR 1

The Fall – And This Day

Gene Clark – No Other

Bernie Worrell – I’ll Be With You

Unrest – Imperial

Psychic Ills & Gibby Haynes – At Long Last

The Mice – Not Proud of the U.S.A.

Chain of Flowers – Death’s Got a Hold on Me

The Dils – I Hate the Rich

Flux of Pink Indians – Tube Disasters (JD Twitch Re-edit)

Tetsu Arrey – Go

Slices – Floodlight

Slug – Aurora F

Roller – Au (Yellow)

HOUR 2

Vision 3D – Rien a Dire

Portray Heads – Puppet

Kraus – Dear Giulietta

Poesie Noire – Pity for the Self

Liars – Pillars Were Hollow and Filled with Candy So We Tore Them Down

Sprung Aus Den Wolken – Junge Menschen

2 Body’s – Astoria

D’Arcangelo – Godsonix

Urge Overkill – Now That’s the Barclords

1990s – Diamond Drag

Cult Objects – When Will a Fire Come?

18th Dye – Play W/ You

Shizuka – Lunatic Pearl

Lelly Boone – When Will I Be Loved

Ron Trent presents WARM – Melt Into You

Charles Stepney – That’s the Way of the World

HOUR 3

Loose Ends – Slow Down

The Cure – Close to Me (Closer Mix)

Depeche Mode – Shake the Disease

Photon – Doin’ Our Thang (Radiant)

Time Machines – Psilocybin

Dump – International Airport

Slug – Swingers 

Some radio shows to ease your troubled minds.

Episode #296 (June 12, 2022)

HOUR 1

Flanger Magazine – Sympathies to the River

David Nance – Amethyst

Kikagaku Moyo – Effe

Azita – Bruxism

Tommy James and the Shondells – Crimson and Clover

Cocteau Twins – Lorelei

Weird Nightmare – Sunday Driver

Eggs – This Party Never Ends

Cyrus Pireh – Adomono Tone Control

Magazine – The Light Pours Out of Me

HOUR 2

The Neon Judgement – The Fashion Party

Beau Wanzer – Blood Type Gravey

The Gruesome Twosome – Hallucination Generation (Joker’s Revenge Edit)

Alan Vega – Saturn Drive

Dharma – Dreams of a Final Theory

Chevalier Avant Garde – The Killing Fields

Green-House – Produce Aisle

The Stroppies – Material Condition

Kitchen’s Floor – Haunted Houses

Sorcery – Woman

Rats – Mainhorse Cowboy

Estus – On the Wings

Freda Payne – I Get High

Roller – Homunculus

HOUR 3

The Modern Lovers – Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste / Dance with Me

Nite Fields – Take My Side

à;GRUMH… - Another Brick in the Wall Part II

Midas – One O One

Bomb the Bass – Don’t Make Me Wait

L/F/D/M – Midnight Muscle

Penza Penza – Merman

Linton Kwesi Johnson – Reggae fi Dada

Glenn Branca – The Ascension

BABY? – Babbling Brook (Vintage Dust)

Forest Management – Liminal Suite Pt. 2

The Velvet Underground – I Found a Reason

Episode #295 (June 5, 2022)

HOUR 1

The Leather Nun – Slow Death

Afrorack – Last Modular

Astaron – As Time Joins In

TSAP – Vile Corporation

Danse Macabre – The Voice of Bulgaria (instrumental)

Brian Case – Our Ruin

Horsegirl – Homage to Birdnoculars

Long Odds – Not Enough Stars

John & Beverley Martyn – Auntie Aviator

Smoke Bellow – Maybe Something

Rose Mercie – Sweet Place

Daniel Villarreal – 18th and Morgan

Steve Hillage – Musick of the Trees / Palm Trees (Love Guitar)

HOUR 2

Vivienne Styg – Leather Love

Jess Scott – Climbing Numbers

Dick Diver – Private Number

Microdisney – Town to Town

The Party of Helicopters – Neverending Cycle

Tar – Goethe (live)

Rudimentary Peni – Vampire State Building / Blasphemy Squad

New Age Steppers – Fade Away

Forest Management – One After Another

Fievel Is Glauque – Decoy

Cookie Jar – Far Out As Near As Can Be

The Neon Judgement – Hot Sally

Roller – Habit Man Zero

The Arms of Someone New – No City Fun

Kim Phuc – Razorblades

Cyrus Pireh – Message of Universal Solidarity

Goblin – Tenebre

HOUR 3

Mr. Big Mouse – Duck the Mouse (Ascorbic Acid Mix)

Tomaga – Very Never (My Mind Extends)

System 56 – They’re Only Dreaming

Construction Crew – Break That Beat (That Noise Mix)

Heavenly Bodies – Rains on Me (extended mix)

Brandon Coleman – We Change (Part 1)

Chronophage – Spirit Armor

Doramaar – Monestrial

Blue Öyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper (demo)

Episode #294 (May 29, 2022)

HOUR 1

Mess Esque – Sweet Spot

Just Mustard – Seed

Bardo Pond – Don’t Know About You

Mosquitoes – Outlines

Th’ Faith Healers – Love Song

Penza Penza – Merman

Siouxsie & the Banshees – Hybrid

Th Blisks – I Don’t Fade

Anne Clark – Counter Act (instrumental)

Apiento featuring Harriet Brown – Down That Road (Apiento & Tepper Dubbed It)

Depeche Mode – Nothing

Winged Wheel – Central Ceiling

Felt – All the People I Like Are Those That Are Dead

HOUR 2

Zusammen Clark – Rest Position

Comet Gain – Allende

The Go-Betweens – Head Full of Steam

Bailter Space – Robot World

Neu! – Hallogallo

Green-House – Flora Urbana Absumpto

Stephanie Mills – What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin’ (12” version)

Paul Haig – Blue for You

Sleep D – Twin Turbo

Wally Badarou – Hi-Life

Silver Apples – Lovefingers

Tommaso Moretti – ESM

Viva L’American Death Ray Music – Getting Better

HOUR 3

Mura – Younger Brother

Mary Lattimore and Paul Sukeena – Altar of Tammy

Small World Experience – Side Projects

The Garbage and the Flowers – On the Radio

The Breeders – When I Was a Painter

Delivery – Personal Effects

Ebi Soda – Pseudocreme

Vacant Gardens – Field of Vines

Spread Joy – Discomfort Is Palpable

Sparks – At Home At Work At Play

Severed Heads – Halo

Chris & Cosey – Until

James Brown – I Can’t Stand It “76”

Best Bets – The Point

Yo La Tengo – Deeper into Movies

Episode #293 (May 20, 2022)

*insert image of Wednesday Addams here*

HOUR 1

STRING – Plus Operator

Maya Hardinge – Living Behind Smoke

Trisomie 21 – Jakarta

Bauhaus – Stigmata Martyr

Levon Vincent – Tubular Bells

For Against – Loud and Clear

The Cure – Object

The Scissor Girls – D1 Test (Cracked Swanreons)

Crime of Passing – Ways of Hiding

Automelodi – Angoisses D’Orléac

Winged Wheel – Central Ceiling

Austra – Beat and the Pulse (extended mix)

HOUR 2

A Split - Second – Close Combat

Fad Gadget – Lady Shave

ADULT. – I Am Nothing

16-17 – Davul

Cairo Pythian – Puce Cross

The Birthday Party – Junkyard

Kelly Lee Owens – S.O (2)

Modal Melodies – Standing Still

The Terminals – Hide Yourself Away

The Glove – Looking-Glass Girl

Ashrae Fax – Decaax

Xmal Deutschland – Nachtschatten

The Veil – Manikin (extended mix)

Whatever the Weather – 25° C

HOUR 3

The Wedding Present – Never Said

Prefab Sprout – Desire As

Shirley & Dolly Collins – Rambleaway

Roller – Au (Gold)

My Bloody Valentine – Feed Me With Your Kiss

The Litter – Breakfast at Gardenson’s / Future of the Past

Green-House – Mycorrhizare Dreams

Deep Tunnel Project – Elysian Fields

Spiritual Mafia (ft. Alan Partridge) – Bath Boy (30 Mil From My Gland remix)

The Hazmats – Empty Rooms

Drive Like Jehu – Super Unison

Marley Marl feat. Biz Markie and Heavy D – We Write the Songs

2022 Demo

Book me to play records at yours.

The Garbage & The Flowers – Cinnamon Sea 12" EP (Fire)

RECOMMENDED

Celebrate this band and everything they manage to do, at the glacial pace at which they operate. Gorgeous, timeless slow rust psych-pop, such a beautifully-rendered sound, virtually a lighthouse for those who know, but let’s be real and not call these five gorgeous new songs an album. It’s hard enough to justify the price point on any Fire releases stateside (until retailers are all but forced to mark them down) without misleading anyone about how much music they’re getting.
(Doug Mosurock)

Australian pillow crash debut collab between the members of the duo known as Troth (Amelia Besseny and Altered States Tapes legend Cooper Bowman) and Yuta Matsumura (Low Life, Orion, Jay & Yuta, Oily Boys). Mostly playing in the sort of soft, hazy, itchy pseudo-benzo-jam zone for triphop braincell snag and pastel notions, some of How So? sounds as first-thought as you’d expect, but the layers and loops seem to pick up some steam, the collection of repetitive sounds occasionally gets into that uncategorizable felt-not-said sort of space, the songs are long enough to flesh out all of the ideas in play, and “A Salve” seems to be as close to a fern-bar take on Orion (whose album I’m still listening to regularly, years on, as a go-to) as we’re ever gonna get. Thought about this more than I expected, and it’s quite nice if not totally borne of consequence. Soundtracks for that all-white marble shopping plaza in VR space, the one that’s all day spas and Sephoras and Korean skin care boutiques.
(Doug Mosurock)

RECOMMENDED

Loud, spacious songs out of this NYC trio’s subliminal campaign to become the most heady primitive rock band in the world, ratcheting to lower gears and finding a new path. The band remains Mike Bones (Soldiers of Fortune, Cat Power) on guitar and vocals (and unstoppable tunes) and the rhythm section of Tran Huynh on drums and Sasha Vine on bass, with participation from Cass McCombs as a leg-up. Only two tracks rise above a mid-tempo saunter, though, and the second half of this, their third album, burrows into a low-slung, downtuned funeral march tempo that is heavy by nature and heavier by writ, like drop-tuned Leonard Cohen Manimal’s slow growl, or Crazy Horse trudging on one cylinder at dawn (or dusk). That Johnny Thunders cover is something else. Johnny K at the dials is what’s up.
(Doug Mosurock)