Well, it’s been an adventurous third quarter around here. Question marks in reviews have been fixed! You can see entire release dates! All album art and images uploaded between November 2017-the Great Power Surge of 2019 have disappeared into the ether, never to return!
As a Loaf of Meat once power balladed: two out of three ain’t bad.
We’re getting geared up for not just the 2019 year-end list (to be published in late December, as is tradition), but the Top 100 Albums of 2010-2019 feature (to be published in… TBD? Probably the tail-end of Q1 2020!).
In the meantime, we have a nice slab o’ tracks from July-September for your listening pleasure, with thanks to Atari, BlushfulHippocrene, DrGonzo1937, insomniac15, Rowan5215, SowingSeason, Voivod, and Willie.
What albums would top your list for this quarter? For all of 2019? For all of 2000-2019? Let us know what we inevitably forgot!
3TEETH – “Pumped Up Kicks” Metawar Listen if you like: Youth Code, Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM
For me, Metawar is easily the most disappointing album of 2019 so far — I can’t emphasise that enough — but the quality speaks for itself when one of the LP’s strongest numbers is a cover of Foster the People’s “Pumped up Kicks”. This is a bloody excellent reinterpretation of Foster the People’s dark and bouncy indie-rock hit, one that shrewdly integrates 3TEETH’s industrial DNA into the piece whilst remaining faithful to the source material. I can’t…
In case you haven’t noticed: the charts are finally updated and the default year when adding new albums to the database is 2019. Sayonara, 2016!
26 entries make the cut for Q2 2019 (as always, thanks to BlushfulHippocrene, DrGonzo1937, insomniac15, manosg, Rowan5215, and verdant for pitching in!), so while I was perilously close to throwing in a power metal entry, I’ll tell you instead to check out Slavic Spirits by EABS if you want to whet your improvisational jazz whistle (the best songs run a bit long for a mixtape).
Let us know what we missed (or who you miss, because we probably miss them, too) and see you in Q3!
88-Keys f/ Mac Miller & Sia – “That’s Life” That’s Life Listen if you like: reminding yourself why life is worth living
Mac Miller’s unreleased discography may be more imposing even than his fantastic run of mixtapes and albums from 2013 until his death. Especially now there’s no new music to come, the presence of Mac’s vault attains near-mythical status among his fanbase; the tape with Madlib, Pharrell collabs, unfinished companion album to Swimming tantalisingly just out of reach. We’ll take minute-long scraps as cause for celebration. Thankfully, “That’s Life” is no scrap, rather a shining example of how to do a posthumous single with respect and taste.
88-Keys had the unenviable task to polish and clean up the raw demo known as “Benji the Dog”, which with its heartfelt performance from…
Welp, it’s March 31st, possibly April 1st, so you know what that means.
Is your March Madness bracket more busted than Kyle Ahrens’ ankle or Chuma Okeke’s ACL?
Did your baseball team start off on a roaring 162-0 pace before regression towards the shit kicked in real, real hard?
Fear not, people who don’t even like sports: our Q1 2019 mixtape is here for you to treat with general apathy!
From blistering punk from a band nearing their 40th anniversary to a singer/songwriter who earned the #3 spot in our Top 50 back in 2014 to [insert user here]-core stylings of psychedelic rock (insomniac), indie pop (Sowing), alternative R&B (BlushfulHippocrene), and the generally abstract (Winesburgohio), there’s [hopefully] something for all to enjoy. There might even be a sneak peek at the 2019 AOTY if this set is any indication.
If it’s not on the Spotify playlist, then the Soundcloud/Bandcamp/YouTube pick-your-poison should do the trick.
Let us know what we missed (or who you miss, because we probably miss them, too) and see you in Q2!
Aldous Harding – “The Barrel” Designer Listen if you like: Halloween during Christmastime
In a way this song is the most disconcerting thing I’ve ever heard. It’s all sharp fangs softly piercing skin, dead things buried under a big pile of autumn leaves. Different instruments float in only to be scared off by Harding’s ghoulishly pretty visage. Play this at my funeral; I accept there will…
This project is a collection of the very best individual tracks from the decade spanning 2010-2019. All tracks have been linked to this homepage for ease of navigation. If you’re less in the mood to read, and would rather just jam the entire playlist, a spotify link has been embedded below for your convenience. The homepage will be updated as additional songs are chosen, so you can always navigate to this page to find the latest updates. Enjoy!
Click a thumbnail to hear a selected song of the decade and read more about it.
Now this is just creepy. There’s such an unsettling vibe to this whole thing, from the band name to the artwork to the massive industrial groove beat that throws me all the way back to The Downward Spiral. Oh, and those shrill, shouted vocals, followed by by the low, distorted Frank the Rabbit (Donnie Darko) spoken passage. Yikes. This thing just feels monumental. I get the feeling from the tracklist that there could be some serious political vibes on this thing as well. The band itself has 25k Facebook likes, so this is very much a fringe “under the radar band” (sure, they don’t have hundreds of thousands of followers)…but they have only released one album (as far as my knowledge and a cursory google search can tell) and it was all the way back in 2010. Apparently, Gate of Grief has been 7 years in the making. I have a feeling it will be well worth the wait, and one of those albums that catches everyone off guard when it comes out of nowhere. Consider me as hyped as I’ve been for anything so far in 2018.
We missed a quarter or two, but who’s counting? The infinite playlist has been a Sputnik tradition ever since I can remember, and we’re back baby! Jom was kind (or cruel?) enough to let me organize the playlist this year. Some coercion may have been involved, but it made for 30 creative and biting blurbs this time out. With such a diverse range of tastes among the staff, this edition has a little big of everything to sink your teeth into…
Don’t forget to check the Spotify playlist below in addition to skimming through the blurbs! The best part about this whole thing is branching out and listening to something you wouldn’t normally stumble upon.
All The Luck In The World – “Golden October” A Blind Arcade Listen if you like: Frightened Rabbit, Elliott Smith, Horse Feathers
Perhaps no better example of A Blind Arcade‘s beauty could be cited than “Golden October.” The album’s third track offers up poetic melodies that experiment with time signatures, as well as wintry effects that instill an absolutely breathtaking atmosphere. The whole thing commences with some simply strummed chords, introduces strings, slowly emphasizes the force of each drum beat, and eventually alters the vocal melody to rise and meet the intensity that the rest of the song has already arrived at. The way it all happens so subtly is a thing of beauty, and by the song’s final minute you’ll be totally spellbound. –Sowing
Soundtracks have always played a big role in my enjoyment of music. Often I find myself paying more attention to the various melodies in the background of whatever film is playing, imagining how the soundtrack’s producers decided to match certain moods with specific frames. I don’t know, it’s just fascinating to me. I watch a lot of indie-romances and stuff that the average guy actively avoids, but one thing that frustrates me is that even in the so-called indie flicks, they always seem to draw from the same pool of hip artists. I guess I was just tired of hearing the same types of scenes matched up with the same types of musicians, every time. It’s like they’re getting lazy; either that or they all just want to emulate successful indie soundtracks of the past without actually attempting to go through the requisite discovery of unknown artists that makes an indie soundtrack worth exploring. I wanted something that would make me feel like Garden State did when I first heard it, before I knew of The Shins, Remy Zero, or Nick Drake — but that was a long time ago, and my musical depth and breadth has more than tripled. I needed outside help to dig a little deeper.
So when I did my brief little rec competition (thanks to everyone who offered a song!), I was trying to fashion a “sputnik indie-flick romantic comedy” type of soundtrack that would (1) turn myself…
I truly had a nicer intro written up, but the servers died, so let’s take you live to check in on how they’re sounding today:
Despite the internal strife heard above, we’re happy to bring you 22 selections of tunes that might have tickled our collective fancies this quarter, with some tracks being wonderfully complemented by some rather entertaining blurbs along the way. As you will see, not everybody could make it this time out (thanks, servers), so if we missed something, you’re certainly welcome to let us know in the comments.
Cheers, and Happy Independence Day/Treason Day to all you Americans. See you in September for Q3 if our site doesn’t eat itself!
What So Not – “Divide & Conquer” (Noisia Remix) Divide & Conquer (Remixes) Listen if you like: Spor, SHADES, Ivy Lab, Mefjus
This song is bananas. You know those brain-dead YouTube comments on every mediocre dubstep or neurofunk drum & bass song, things like, “oi this song’s so bonkers I fucked me girlfriend without a rubber”? This is so nuts I’m almost tempted to make one of those comments. The half-time drop is an underappreciated resource in drum & bass – though it’s thankfully seen more use with the rise of SHADES’ and Ivy Lab’s hip-hop-leaning uptempo stuff – and a properly tuned one can ignite a room. This Noisia remix does just that: corrosive distortion, offbeat drum fills, and a snare the size of Mars fuse…
I missed the boat on the staff-wide feature thanks in part to a hectic work week, a desire not to cut-paste from my track reviews, and general laziness. In retrospect, that turned out pretty awesome (thanks in a large part to Jom’s orchestration of the feature) so I’ll have to do better and contribute to the Q2 playlist. But for now, I’d just like to get my favorite 10 songs from Jan.-Mar. 2017 out there for your consumption. I’d consider them all to be essential listens if you stay current week-to-week, especially in the indie-rock / indie-folk scene. I tend to be long-winded with everything I do, so below each track/artwork I’ve included 3 simple notions that represent feelings, memories, or lyrics I associate with experiencing that particular piece. Anyway, without further ado, here are my top 10 tracks of the year’s first quarter.
#10 – Teen Daze: “Cycle”
Genre: Indie-Folk | Listen if you like: Immersing your senses in nature
Melting snow
Leaves blowing in a spring breeze
“You are the only one that speaks into me”
#9 – SUSTO: “Far Out Feeling”
Genre: Indie/Americana | Listen if you like: Unexpected string sections
With all of our March Madness brackets sufficiently busted (and my Red Wings slowly morphing back to the Dead Wings as their 25-year playoff streak’s been snapped and they pivot to the Little Caesars Pizza Pizzarena next season), we look forward to one of the best days of the year:
Rather than building a diamond in corn fields, though, we’ve constructed our first quarterly mixtape of the year. At 28 songs deep this time out, it’s also the first opportunity for some of the new staffers (and long-lost friends) from our crew to flex their blurb-writing muscles on the blog this year.
In cases where a track isn’t on Spotify, we’ve included either an embedded YouTube clip or a link to the artist’s Bandcamp and/or Soundcloud.
We hope you enjoy. Next edition will be in Q2. See you then and enjoy April-June!
Carly Rae Jepsen & Lil Yachty – “It Takes Two” (prod. Mike-WiLL Made-It) Single Listen if you like: pop music, artistic seven-car pileups (in a good way), capitalism, anti-capitalism (?)
“It Takes Two” is effectively the musical equivalent to an unfortunately-patterned sweater: gaudy, incomprehensible, sold for $29.99 at your local Target (there’s the Target reference quotient for this blurb filled!), and only worn well by people whose aesthetic sensibilities fall so firmly outside traditional fashion standards that it turns out to look pretty fuckin’ great on them. Nothing about this song should work, until you recognize that the one common thread binding…
What began as an idea to post on a quarterly basis has evolved into something of a whenever-I-please due to an influx of excellent indie/alternative tracks and a need for me to document them all in one place. There’s no specific timetable for this continuing blog, but every time my queue of interesting, upcoming alt/indie tracks starts to get high I’ll just purge them onto my spotify list and share with the Sputnik community (joy!).
As I mentioned, these are all singles or tracks that have been officially released, but have not seen their respective EPs/Albums actually drop yet. This gives readers the opportunity to keep with the best new and upcoming indie releases as they happen. And you know you’re getting nothing but the best, because I’m picking the songs. I hear Train has an album coming out in 2 days, so get hyped.
Anyway, for installment #2 we see both Dude York and Temples – who are becoming my darling “under the radar” indie-rockers this year – make a return (both were featured on Indie Corner #1). The playlist also features new material from the likes of Spoon, Minus The Bear, Father John Misty, Conor Oberst, Dirty Projectors, Peter Silberman, and Real Estate. If you don’t already have a Spotify account (like seriously?), get one and then follow me. I have 16 dedicated followers so you still have time to get in good with me before…
Here’s a quick look ahead at a handful of Q1 Alt/Indie tracks that have caught my ear in advance of their respective album’s release. If this is any indication, 2017 is going to be a vibrant year for electronically-influenced indie-pop and indie-rock, with the likes of The Flaming Lips, The xx, Dirty Projectors, and Temples shaping up this sheerly-for-shits-and-giggles compilation. I randomized the playlist’s order though, so there’s still a solid mix of more down-to-earth material, like Japandroids and Cloud Nothings.
Every song on this playlist is taken from an album that will be released between now and the end of March 2017. Give it a spin, skip around a little, or ignore it and go listen to something m/ as fuck. I just hope you give this a chance and perhaps discover a few new artists that you enjoy in the process.
Will probably return to this to do a Q2 playlist in due time. Enjoy!
C.B. Murdoc: Nonplus Ultrataken fromHere Be Dragons. Released 24 June, 2016.
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I’m not the biggest fan of technical death metal. To me, a large majority of it is style-over-substance; a flurry of notes and chaos with nothing that sticks. C.B. Murdoc is different. Although they could easily be placed into the technical death metal genre, each song has a multitude of riffs and melodies that will stick in your head and make you want to come back. This is particularly amazing because the band definitely engage in a large amount of chaos played at breakneck speeds. In a nutshell, C.B. Murdoc’s sound could be described as a cross between At the Gates, Atheist, and Meshuggah. Their foundation is definitely based on the same high-intensity, raw melodic death metal sound that made Slaughter of the Soul such an instant classic; including the throat-shredding vocal style. This foundation is combined with the technical chaos of Atheist’s Unquestionable Presence, and the quirky rhythmic experimentation and balls-crushing heaviness of Meshuggah’s best material.
This particular track, ‘Nonplus Ultra’, is probably one of my favorites on the album if only because it is one of the more instant songs. It features multiple tempo changes, crushing riffs, atonal dissonance, quirky rhythms, but also just the slightest hint of melody. At the current moment, Here Be Dragons is probably my number 2 album of the year. It is that good. Be sure to stream the other…
A little later than usual, here’s our Q4 mixtape for 2015, kicking off the new year with a pick of some of the best music released in the final three months of last year. Some of the below mentioned artists featured as part of our year-end staff and userfeatures, and the individual tracks can be heard below the track title or, if you’d prefer, most can be found on the Spotify playlist below. Featuring everything from the wandering post-punk of Cindy Lee to the proggy space jam of Yuri Gagarin to Reket at the forefront of Estonian rap, we hope you enjoy. –Dave
Cindy Lee – “Last Train’s Come And Gone” Act of Tenderness Listen if you like: Women, Viet Cong, Zola Jesus, Metal Machine Music
One of the great clichés in music criticism is to mark down a song by saying that it simply “doesn’t go anywhere”. Now, there is no apparent navigational sense to “Last Train’s Come and Gone”, one of the (many) standout tracks from former Women guitarist/singer Patrick Flegel’s eerie new album Act of Tenderness, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming one of the most profound songs I’ve heard this year. The number arrives subsumed within a thick syrupy murk, with Flegel casting off individual guitar notes that unfurl in the crushing gloom before slowly spinning off into the abyss; I’ve struggled to come up with a better description for it here but somehow the…
Pilot Waves isn’t just Icarus the Owl’s third album- it’s also the innovative pop-punk group’s debut on Blue Swan Records, a label run by Dance Gavin Dance’s Will Swan. While the band’s singer Joey Rubenstein was generous enough to send me a copy of the release a few weeks ago, I regrettably haven’t been able to spend much time cracking the album. But Joey was able to share some thoughts and feelings with me about this release, reasons why Pilot Waves is a different kind of release for Icarus the Owl.
Pilot Waves exists as a balance of light and dark. We pulled our sound in opposite directions- meaning that we wrote the heaviest and lightest songs we’ve ever written. I was going through a tumultuous time while writing the album, and I think the ups and downs in both the music and lyrics are a reflection of that. Some days I would have a very manic headspace, and I’d write a really heavy song. Other days, I would feel serene and write something more uplifting. We talk a lot about waves on this album and it fits perfectly with how the album sounds. Pilot Waves peaks and valleys much like the oscillation of a wave.
![Holy Vacants [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71fOJ64uPfL._SS500_.jpg)
![Go Farther In Lightness [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81g4mXDaSIL._SS500_.jpg)
![Trouble Will Find Me [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1ZqkeVrf0L._SS500_.jpg)
!["Awaken, My Love!" [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81aYuDTpo3L._SS500_.jpg)
![POWER [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/713Pdp0hXzL._SS500_.jpg)
![[Untitled]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Yig76akQL._SS500_.jpg)
![Undun [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Nl5xk+bGL._SS500_.jpg)
![E·MO·TION [Deluxe Edition]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71%2BSiv1oLDL._SX522_.jpg)
![I'm All Ears [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91EhSgO2TtL._SS500_.jpg)
![MAGDALENE [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A16f62eXR8L._SS500_.jpg)
![Vitriola [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91XEFSrcCpL._SS500_.jpg)
![House Of Balloons [2 LP]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51xrSLGmiOL.jpg)
