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Contributor Features

25 – 11 | 10 – 1

10. Earth Tongue – Floating Being

10et
Genre: Heavy Psych/Fuzz | [Bandcamp]

Marrying the sound of bands like Big|Brave or True Widow with the imagery of Dr. Who (the connection makes a lot of sense in my head somehow), this couple from New Zealand were one of my most precious discoveries this year. Heavy fuzz, with emphasis on heavy, splattered with psychedelia, prog rock, and vocal acrobatics. In just 30 minutes, Gussie Larkin (also of psyche pop act Mermaidens) and Ezra Simons will take you on a journey through microscopic worlds and galactic wonders unlike anything you’ve seen. –Dewinged

9. Rachael Roberts – Rachael Roberts

9rrrr
Genre: Country/Folk | [Official site]

I’ve barely spent enough time with this record to be repping it this much, but needless to say I was immediately captivated by this hidden gem. If you’re someone who can accept its instantaneous turns between forlorn indie folk, straight-up country, and expansive alternative rock (and sometimes all three at once), then look no further. Roberts manages to spin all these contradictory elements into something that might not be wholly cohesive, but sells each individual feeling as true and exciting from moment-to-moment. So let’s make a deal: I’ll give this a few more listens while I give y’all a chance to catch up and get on this! –neekafat

8. Polo

25 – 11 | 10 – 1

25. Homeshake – Helium

25hh
Genre: Indie Pop/Psychedelic | [Bandcamp]

When I think ‘under the radar,’ the words “underrated” and “underappreciated” are obviously synonymous. Still though, this album is a pretty hard sell with that abysmal 2.6 average, but I find it hard to discern the clear drop in quality between Helium and, say, Fresh Air or Midnight Snack that is apparently worth a full Sputnik point. I digress, ratings can hardly shake my appreciation for this smooth, wistful journey into the trendy psychedelic-pop waters, abandoning most guitars and live instrumentation for chime-like synth leads and coalescing colorful harmonies. Sure, it sounds a bit bare and even incredibly easy to replicate, yet the simplistic melodies and Homeshake’s knack for toeing the line between whiny and airy vocal lines help solidify the very original “milkshake for your home” sound. There’s also a coldness found within tracks like “Other Than” and instrumental rap-fusion highlight “All Night Long”, yet the eerie atmosphere tends to entice me rather than shock. The best surprise, however, comes in the form of a “(secret track)”, finally bringing back the warm, fluttering guitar for a simple yet evocative riff destined to reverberate within those chill nights on the couch with Mary Jane. Although it’s nothing extremely spectacular, it’s truly an album that is getting a lot of quiet hate, making it my 2019’s most…

Johnnyofthewell

 

Oomori Seiko – “Saishuu Koen”

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Narrowing down an entire decade’s worth of music to two or three songs was a tough call, but I can’t think of a more appropriate top pick than this. On the face of it, Saishuu Koen (Last Performance) is a case study of the most beautiful, raw facets of indie folk, spinning a bitter snapshot of dejection into a stunning outpouring of frustration, heartbreak and loneliness. I used to think it would be impossible to recreate this song’s magic beyond the original version, but hearing the almost-as-good rock revamp on Seiko’s Pink Tokarev side project gave me bad ideas and it’s since become the only Japanese song I can cover by heart. Putting aside her incredible songwriting talent, one of the things about Oomori Seiko that has always spoken to me is her knack for turning her distinctly imperfect voice into a dazzling force of personality. Her lyrics and performance are presented in a way that foregrounds her own weaknesses, with a fierceness and boldness that a long way to explaining why her exemplary discography has stolen the show this decade.

 

The Knife – “Full of Fire”

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Finding a worthy runner-up for Saishuu Koen was a tough call. A lot of songs might have held the slot, but I gave myself a load of silly criteria: it shouldn’t be Japanese, it shouldn’t be overrepresented across the rest…

All it took was one line to get Marskid (Mitch) all riled up. A cursory, sweeping statement about the lack of innovation in Mitch’s most-loved genre (that’s my assumption anyway) was enough of a reason to shake his fist angrily at me in a Contributor’s group discussion (off-site). Basically, it got us thinking about what actually defines a genre as “dead”, and more importantly how much life (specifically) metalcore has left in it. Rather than dismissing the thought we took our beloved Marskid down the proverbial rabbit-hole and have hesperus (Dean) expand on the points Marskid brings up.

[Nocte] Let’s start with the main question here. Is metalcore dead? To what degree and what are the challenges that bands face when writing new albums?

[Marskid] 

I’m quite comfortable in asserting that metalcore is alive and thriving. Obviously, there still lingers an elements of the mainstream sound and djent-centric groups, but their presence has diminished over time due to a lack of innovation on their end, thus leading to their stagnation. In their place are a slew of collectives, both young and old, that are either 1) bringing new ideas to the table, bringing a fresh perspective on the genre over two decades since its formation, or 2) tightening the category’s original sound, perhaps adding a personal touch to it–basically fine-tuning the heart of the musical type but not necessarily pushing it per se. This has elevated the baseline quality of your typical metalcore release as more and more bands shy…

Recently, the Sputnikmusic contributors had a fun conversation about the kinds of people who claim they listen to “all genres” of music, and how they’re probably either ignorant or lying. Almost everyone has genres they’d rather avoid, and if you think you don’t, consider whether you’d pick up a record of polka, free jazz, harsh noise, or drone metal.

This conversation got us thinking about our own genre blindspots, and we decided to explore them further. We asked you, the users, to recommend us genres that listeners tend to avoid, and two songs each to serve as introductions to those genres. We then assigned these genres semi-randomly to contributors who didn’t listen to them. Here’s what we thought about the first batch of genres.

 

POST-PUNK

Recommended by Papa Universe

Assigned to SitarHero

Before listening to your two songs, what’s your opinion of post-punk?

Being a child of the ‘80s it would have been pretty hard to avoid post-punk completely. The Police (love), The Clash (love), U2 (like), and R.E.M. (dislike) were constant presences—I’m not going to quibble about where these bands fall in the punk/new wave/post-punk continuum—there were occasional appearances by Depeche Mode and Devo, and youthful dalliances in XTC and Echo and the Bunnymen. Then as a young adult in the mid-2000’s I was bombarded by the post-punk revival of The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, etc., which, quite frankly, I hated for the most part. So, the TL;DR version is: I loved some of the more mainstream strands of…

State Faults is a band that hardly needs any introduction on this site. Coming off of a 6-year hiatus, they’ve received universal acclaim for their newest album, Clairvoyant. Lead singer and guitarist Johnny Calvert-Andrew was kind enough to correspond with me about their comeback. Enjoy, y’all.

,

Slex:  First, I wanted to address the hiatus. What brought you guys back together? Is it safe to say you guys are here to stay?

Jonny Calvert-Andrew:  Well we had tried a couple times getting together and playing the songs but the spark wasn’t really there. Last year Noisey published an article listing R/D as like a top ten hardcore record of the decade or something, and that got us looking around and realizing people were still listening and waiting. We each got the itch, went into the practice space again around September or October of last year and this time the spark caught flame, it felt like we were a brand new band.

 

S:  Seeing as how you guys are a 3 piece now, how has that changed the dynamic? Did it make songwriting more difficult, or less?

JCA:  It certainly changed our writing dynamic. I think it forced us to be more rhythmically interesting you know? Our older songs more or less relied on dual guitar parts for dynamics. Switching to one guitar, I had to make the riffs interesting haha. It was way more fun honestly instead of having to come up with rhythm and lead parts. This…

For Episode 2: Electric Boogaloo of the Sputcast, join Bloon and neekafat as they talk about the new Remo Drive, the Batushka controversy, the going-ons of Sput, and other miscellaneous tangents in a leaner, meaner 43 minutes.

 

1) As I mentioned in my review, you guys seem to use calmer/more melodic moments differently than most heavy bands I’ve been listening to in the fact that they exist as their own movements and not just a prelude to a breakdown or climax. Was that something that was intentional, or did it come about naturally? Does that come more from an emotional place or a songwriting one?

This was intentional. Cory has been doing solo ambient performances for a long time now and has a regular gig at a yoga studio in Austin where he plays a lot of stuff similar to the movements on the album you mention. One reason they’re their own tracks is because we wanted them to serve as reflections on their he previous tracks so they sink a little more. The other reason is to break up the formulaic crescendo-based post rock structure and let the bangers be bangers and the chill pieces be chill pieces.

 

2) Your first album was a bit more aggressive, whereas Spotted Horse is more spacious and dense-what heralded that shift between albums? It really seems like Memorial hinted at that shift a little bit, was it a case of picking up where Memorial left off, or no?

The first record is definitely a beat down but I think Spotted Horse is actually more powerful with its use of dynamics. It lets you breathe before punching you again and I think that comes from our evolved collaboration…

capture

Our next stop on our tour of Bandcamp’s undiscovered artists takes us to Melbourne, Australia – the land down under. Specifically takes us to one Jesse Glass, a folk singer-songwriter whose music is extremely serine, dreamy, and picture-esque. With only one single out at the time of writing this, Jesse doesn’t have a large repertoire of work to pull from, but the Shouldered Friend single, featuring the title track and the “I Envy You” b-side, is an extremely powerful piece of work. Like a refreshing splash of cool water, this single runs gracefully, bringing chills to one’s nerves. The acoustic melodies are harrowing and melancholic, but not in an overbearing way at all. In fact, Shouldered Friend is a very light listen, but one that leaves me wanting more.

You could say I’m hooked…

Anyway, I had an opportunity to ask Jesse a few questions about pet peeves, influences, and what’s to come in the future.

——————————————————————————————————————————–

Sean: First off, I gotta ask, you have more stuff coming, right? I’m gonna be sad if this is a one time single…

Jesse: Thanks so much for the compliment! Well, I definitely plan to record and release a lot more in the near future. This was my first time recording something that is solely mine, having had all my previous experience recording in other bands. I really enjoyed the recording process – It is something I definitely plan to keep doing. I have at least an album’s…

Quarter-Year Crisis: My Top Records of 2019 (so far)

By: Brandon Nurick

If you had asked me in early January whether I thought 2019 could compete with 2018 in terms of releasing an equal (or greater) quantity of obscenely killer music, I probably would’ve upturned my nose, scoffed, and replied with some kind of snarky comment deriding the idea – y’know, typical music nerd shit. I do my best to try and not get snobby, but (for me) 2018 felt like a pinnacle for music. From the depths of the metal underground with gutter-slinking acts like Hissing and Akitsa to Ariana Grande’s return to the summit of the Billboard 200, last year exuded an undefinable yet unmistakably palpable aura that seemingly elevated every piece of music that was released in its duration. At the time, to think we could surpass or at the very least match this exceedingly high standard, felt nigh impossible.

If you ask me today, I would have to admit that somehow, someway, 2019 was also graced with that elusive and amorphous blessing; four months into the year and I couldn’t really even give you a ballpark to how many albums I’ve drooled and dribbled over. Similar to last year, there is no one bastion of great music – no singular artist or dominating genre – but a widespread renaissance, from jazz to emo, emo to black metal, and black metal to infinity. In no small part due to…

“I know it’s hypocritical to point fingers at the people who point fingers…” starts the tenth song on the fan favorite ska-punk-power-pop record, Scrambles. This is the first of many acknowledgements that Jeff Rosenstock, the man on the proverbial soapbox during “(Shut) Up The Punx!!!”, isn’t free from the shackles of what he’s raging against. But, there is a problem in punk and a multitude of other music scenes; one that actively pushes out people who may have found a home in that culture. After all, most underground music scenes, once founded by the outcasted, now have a set of unwritten rules you have to abide by out of fear of being disregarded by potential peers. Of course, this isn’t to say that problematic characters who emit negativity should be welcomed with open arms (Nazis, racists, sexual harassers, and all other assholes), but, as Jeff puts it, “… we could stand to be nicer.”

These strict guidelines don’t just boot ‘different’ people; they rot the very core of a counterculture. By making frivolous rules like “Vegans only, no meat allowed / Straight edge only, no drinking allowed / Fixed gears only, no three-speeds allowed”, you’re building a layer of conformity that’s hard to see from the inside of the group. Groupthink ideals that say different subgenres or suggestions are ‘not punk/rock/metal/trve enough’ pigeonhole progression. Rather, it creates a childish superiority complex (“Like God speaks through my acoustic guitar…”), a gatekeeping pseudo-authority (“Follow these conditions or we’ll kick your ass out…”), and ironic

On the very first podcast, we talk about Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, Moon Tooth, Billie Eillish, Lentic Waters, and Lord Snow, as well as our recent pickups and projects. It’s a hoot and a half.

Featuring:
The Spirit, Hesperus, Neekafat, MarsKid, and Bloon!

https://soundcloud.com/sputcast/sputcast-episode-1/s-mNrjD

At the time of writing this, I don’t know where Remorse are from, I don’t know when they formed, I don’t know even who they are. What I do know that they are an oppressively harsh sludge group that offers a blackened, noisy approach to the kind of metal played by bands like Dystopia, Grief, and Eyehategod. It’s a intense sound, one that feeds into paranoia and anxiety (this is a positive, mind you), but is also fiery and cathartic, biting at anyone dumb enough to get close to it. There’s some subtle melodies hidden underneath but, that’s not what you or I are here for, we’re here for the distorted noise and pummeling, industrial percussion, as well as the dissonant, murky guitar and bass tones.

But, other than sound and mission statement (“Think about your faults. Remorse is entirely antifascist and intersectional feminist”), I know very little about the project and, because I’m either a curious writer or a nosey prick (take your pick), I’m very eager to get a hold of them and ask a few questions. I’m also very eager to spread the word about their record, Inward, as it’s a hell of an introduction to the world of sludge metal. It’s very obviously a labor of hatred to the evils and prejudices of mankind, the kind of which that’s made to suck your soul out of your body as you headbang along.

 


 

I had an opportunity to chat with Remorse, a one

This series is a new effort to highlight artists on Bandcamp by talking with them, discussing their music, and why I find it rad.

Mental Fatal, a three piece out of New Zealand, are the definition of a garage punk group. Rough around the edges in all the right ways, the group is the kind of project made for the internet age of music distribution – DIY punk with enough energy to take down a fortress (one most likely made of capitalism). Using that raw aesthetic that hundreds of bands try to either shed or embrace to their advantage, songs like “Jeffree,” “Reckless Times,” and “Burning People” all bring that snotty groove and power pioneered by the likes of the Circle Jerks and the Dead Kennedys and the burning intensity of Choking Victim.

Because I so earnestly believe in the quality of their product and admire the fruits of their labor, I wanted to shine a spotlight on these garage-destroyers from Christchurch and their lovable jams – below you will find a condensed showcase of the brand of throw-a-chair-through-window punk titled The Virus. It’s a lively little bugger, short enough for you to listen to on a lunch break or between chores (or whatever you may be doing with your time), but long enough for the band to make their presence known to the listener.

I had even had an opportunity to ask the group some questions:


Sean: First off, thank you so much for being the…

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Despite the name, noise rock gone post punk group Ed Schrader’s Music Beat is primarily two people, Ed Schrader and Devlin Rice. Both take part in writing and performing brilliantly sharp hooks and idiosyncratic melodies, especially on the superb Riddles, which you can read about here. Alternatively you could listen to the album or see them live, check this bandcamp for their albums and information on their tour.

I recently had a chance to ask Ed Schrader himself a few questions about modern music, what music means to him, and more.

 


 

Sean: Thank you so much for your time, I’d like to start with one specific question. What does music mean to you?

Ed: I don’t think I am qualified to answer this but I’ll try. When I am not on tour or performing, music just means a fun place where I can escape judgment entering in and out of many worlds of sound. Sometimes it’s nostalgia and comfort, like listening to an early 90’s playlist. Other times it is escape, that’s when I turn to Elton John’s Ice On Fire, a weird, polished, mechanical mess that always pleases! Music is tofu – it’s whatever you want.

 

Sean: Music has a big part in all of our lives. When did you first get into music? Who were your original go-to artists? Do you think their influences have a part in your current style?

Ed: Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Vol 2,…

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