Black Mountain–IV
Genre: Progressive Rock, Stoner Rock, Space Rock
FFO: Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Wolfmother
Vancouver hard rock outfit Black Mountain lay all of their strengths on the table for their fourth LP.
IV blends the cutting edge stoner rock riffage of the self titled, the progressive nature of In the Future, and the catchiness of Wilderness Heart adding a spacey, synthesized layer providing the record with its own unique flavor.
Hop unto the Black Mountain spacecraft, strap in your seatbelts, and embark on the voyage amoungst the stars that is undoubtedly the band’s strongest release to date.
dvsn–SEPT 5TH
Genre: R&B, Ambient
FFO: The Weeknd, Boys II Men, The Space Jam Soundtrack, Inc., How to Dress Well
Talk all the smack you want about Drake, but there is no denying the production on some of his tracks are top knotch. “Hold On, We’re Going Home” is a specific tune that comes to mind, and the man behind that single goes under the alias Nineteen85.
dvsn is Nineteen85‘s baby, and his debut offering easily surpasses his peers. SEPT 5TH is the most honest, compelling R&B effort I’ve heard since Black Messiah coupled with a beautifully layered performance and textured atmosphere.
Allow dvsn the opportunity to seduce your ears with its sexual magic.
Explosions in the Sky–The Wilderness
Genre: Post Rock
FFO: Mogwai, Caspian, If These Trees Could Talk
The Austin, Texas post rock ensemble we all know and love has returns from their five year break (soundtracks excluded) with their best album in years.
The Wilderness shows the hard-working quartet rebuilding their sound and achieving creative direction providing clever crescendos, euophoric ambience, and subtle sprinkles of electronica.
Graves At Sea-“The Curse That Is”
Genre: Doom Metal, Sludge Metal
FFO: Ahab, Amon Amarth
Portland’s Graves At Sea unleashes a vicious storm of brutality with their debut LP The Curse That Is.
This nautically themed doom metal outfit is anything but corny with their metaphorical presentation.
Expect a tidal wive of sludgey riffage to sink your ship and send you to the ocean’s deepest depths.
The High Violets–Heroes and Halos
Genre: Dream Pop, Shoegazing, Alternative Country
FFO: Coteau Twins, Mazzy Star, Secret Shine
The High Violets is a Portland Dream Pop quartet formed from the ashes of The Bella Low in the late ’90s.
Immerse yourself in their new, dreamy, reverb-drowned LP titled Heroes and Halos channeling the beautifully etheral vocal performances of the Cocteau Twins with the hazey riffage of the legendary Kevin Shields.
Kyson-“A Book of Flying”
Genre: Indie, Folk, Ambient, Electronica
FFO: Bon Iver, Volcano Choir, Fleet Foxes
German producer/vocalist/musician Jian Kellet Liew (aka Kyson) crafts a beautiful sophomore LP using his beautiful whispery vocal performance as the the foundation for dreamy, thought-provoking, folk-based ambience.
Japanese Breakfast–Psychopomp
Genre: Indie Rock, Pop
FFO: Petal, Adventures, Little Big League
I was first introduced to the beautiful solo project of Michelle Zauner (Little Big League) via her split with Foxing a few years back.
Japanese Breakfast channels Zauner’s vibrant emotion in a more intimate way taking on more laid back, dreamy, poppy songwriting truly allowing her musical and vocal talents to shine in ways that wouldn’t necessarily correlate with her emo outfit.
Mamiffer–The World Unseen
Genre: Post Rock, Ambient, Drone
FFO: Sigur Ros, Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Mamiffer is a Post Rock duo consisting of married couple Faith Coloccia (Pyramids, Everlovely Lightning Heart) and Aaron Turner (Isis).
The two piece implements every honed skill from their previous endeavors creating a piano-driven, droney monolith.
Coloccia‘s angelic pipes soar over the atmospheric instumentation like a graceful and majestic eagle in flight on Mammifer’s fourth LP. The World Unseen serves as a great addition to any post rock junkie’s record collection.
Mike and the Melvins–Three Men and a Boy
Genre: Sludge Metal
FFO: The Melvins, godheadSilo, Faith No More
Following the breakup of 90’s noise rock duo godheadSilo, frontman Mike Kunta befriended and hit the road with sludge metal legends The Melvins to occupy his time.
A collaborative album resulted from this friendship but was unfortunately shelved.
16 years later, Three Men and a Baby finally sees the light of day combining Kunta’s uniquely sporadic vocal presentation with The Melvin‘s signature crushing riffage.
Teen Suicide–It’s the Big Joyous Celebration, Let’s Stir the Honeypot
Genre: Indie Rock, Noise Pop, Alternative Rock; Lo-fi
FFO: Elvis Depressedly, Ariel Pink, Sufjan Stevens (early)
The 26 track farewell monolith from Maryland’s Indie trio Teen Suicide proves to not disapoint.
Sam Ray and the boys craft a very intimate album full of warm, raw, meditative, bedroom songs that suprisingly pull its weight for seventy full minutes crossing many genre bridges avoiding filler at all costs.
Tombs–All Empires Fall
Genre: Experimental Metal, Black Metal, Post Punk
FFO: Darkthrone, Sisters of Mercy, Bathory, Bauhaus
With musicians rotating under his command, Mike Hill has lead the batallion of Tombs to craft album after album of unique metallic experimentations.
All Empires Fall introduces the addition of synthesizers and Post Punk/Goth Rock influences whilst keeping a solid footing in traditional Black Metal.
It is refreshing; must-listen for metal heads of any variety.