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.
Hi there! Apologies to those of you who missed out on our celebratory rainbowsplosion on Friday.
People got a bit cranky with me, and perhaps understandably so — my favorite remark had something to do with “keeping the politics out of a music site” — despite that user 5’ing the entire Ted Nugent discography. Another user inquired as to why we decided to “fag up the main page”, which seemed odd considering there were no large bundles of sticks anywhere to be seen.
Despite our Communist name, Friday might have been the most important SCOTUS ruling since Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS, and there’s no reason why we can’t dance.
You know, perhaps there’s lots of lumber in those pants.
On another note, what are you doing for your extra leap second? Some of you might not have been alive during the Y2K pandemonium, but alas, I assure you that, somehow, your computer will be just fine.
Let’s carry on, then, to our Q2 mixtape, which our staffers are again delighted to present to you. Featuring selections from Titus Andronicus to The Drays to Nicolas Jaar to Icicle to Witchwood to God is an Astronaut, please feel free to stream the playlist below for some of our favorites between April 1st and June 30th.
Not everything is in the Spotify playlist, though, so keep your eyes peeled for the streamables. Enjoy! –Jom
It’s Opening Day! Well, sort of, anyway. Does it really count if there’s only one game going, and one of the teams is the Cubs?
It’s also the Master’s next week.
Either way, just like the lion and the lamb adage about March, the year’s first quarter came and went, and the staffers are pleased to present the first rendition of their quarterly mixtape. Featuring selections from CHON, Cirrus, Niko Is, and Tanlines, you can stream the mixtape (save for a handful of songs, which have their own embeds) here.
For future mixtapes, what would you like to see? Should this be a mix of staffer favorites, or should the mixtapes serve as a platform to unearth favorites that would otherwise go unnoticed?
Your feedback is appreciated. Enjoy! –Jom
CHON – “Can’t Wait” (03:08)
Grow Listen if you like: Plini, Mestis, Polyphia Bandcamp
CHON’s long-awaited full-length debut really pushed all the right buttons in all the right ways. The album (Grow) is chock full of memorable hooks, intricate leads, rapid key changes, driving drum beats, groove galore, and – a first for the band – some great vocal melodies.
“Can’t Wait” stands out to me as one of many favorites from Grow because it manages to stuff all of these elements into one incredibly memorable track. Relaxed, fluid verse section? Check. Exploding…
Spring is an exciting, tricky season. As the cold of winter slowly starts to fade and give way to blossoming life once more, everything changes. The sun regains its warmth, the waters start to burble again, branches develop green buds, and in the midst of nature waking, one should feel an increasing pep in their step as well. I find there’s rarely a feeling more fulfilling than the one you get when the fog of winter clears from your mind, and you start to see all sorts of colors again. The initial lure of spring can be dangerous though, and it’s not especially difficult to fall victim to a number of ailments (just as I have at the moment), like the flu, or other more minor infectious diseases. So what to do when you’re feeling too lousy to take advantage of the weather outside, but are lively enough to not sleep your days away? Listen to new, exciting music of course! This is where Galar and Dark Essence Records come along to help us out.
Today, on the 16th of March, Norway’s black/folk metallers Galar will release their long-anticipated third album De Gjenlevende through the aforementioned Dark Essence Records. Links will appear at the bottom end of this post on where you can acquire the new album, but for those who want to give it a spin before getting the real deal on their hands, Sputnik has been granted the privilege to…
Is there any musician out there that would have a better C.V. than little known singer-songwriter Sasha Siem? I doubt it. The British-Norwegian chanteuse has studied music and poetry at both England’s Cambridge University and America’s Harvard University. She has written and composed music for the London Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras, as well as various opera companies. This was all by her early 20s!
Of course, there was no chance that someone so prodigiously talented could stagnate for too long, so Siem recorded her debut EP ‘So Polite’ in 2013. Sensing she may have a career with this unique style of classical indie-pop, the now 30 year old has followed it up with her recently released debut LP ‘Most of the Boys’. Taking cues from a wide variety of sources, Siem reminds of Joanna Newsom, Fiona Apple, Bjork, Regina Spektor, PJ Harvey and Tori Amos. Yet she is undoubtedly her own artist.
Contrary to what one might expect from such a virtuoso, ‘Most of the Boys’ is far from the elongated recording that you might think it would be. With its total running time clocking in at under 32 minutes (only one track surpasses 3.15), its 11 tracks are bite size without too significantly sacrificing compositional integrity. There’s some satisfying diversity too… As can be seen by the following three videos: the quirky ‘So Polite’;
the more methodically paced ‘My Friend’;
and finally the little bit of everything that is ‘See Through’:
A big part of why I review music here on Sputnik lies in my desire to introduce little known bands to a wider audience every now and again (and to get introduced to other lesser-known bands myself). Saudi-Arabian black/folk metallers Al-Namrood definitely fit into that “little-known” category, and from today up until Friday the 13th, Sputnikmusic has an exclusive chance to stream their upcoming EP, titled Ana Al Tughian, which will see the light of day also on the 13th via Canadian label Shaytan Productions. As can be expected already by reading where they’re from, Al-Namrood sound nothing like the Western metal we’ve become accustomed to. There’s real oriental flare, theatrics, and an alien quirkiness on this short EP that makes it seem like it’s from another world entirely to a Westerner like me.
Especially helpful in making it sound so different are new frontman Humbaba’s vocals, which seem downright bizarre at first, but on repeated listenings prove an invaluable part of the Al-Namrood experience. As a whole, Ana Al Tughian sounds almost like a soundtrack to an Arabian festivity in the same way Mechina’s albums sound like soundtracks to space epics: with a lot more guitars incorporated. As a unique listening experience, Al Namrood’s newest EP is surely worth 12 minutes of your time.
Starting from today (November 30), in conjunction with Clawhammer PR, Sputnikmusic has the exclusive chance to host a stream of Vancouver-based Astrakhan’s new EP A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin, set for a 12” vinyl release on December 12 via War on Music Records. It is the band’s third EP, featuring two new tracks and two (“The Pillarist” and “Rest In Depths”) that you can also find on the band’s digitally released 2013 EP The Pillarist. Astrakhan play a hybrid form of sludge/stoner metal with a garage vibe and a progressive edge. You can hear a bit of Baroness in there, a bit of The Sword, and a bit of Kylesa, but you’ll also hear a lot of what makes Astrakhan a force of their own. For a band “born out of years of failure, frustration and stifled creativity,” the band members have sure found their feet in Astrakhan. The way the band melds sludge, garage rock, and spacey stoner vibes together is enviable: Astrakhan have a clear vision of the kind of music they want to create, but unlike a lot of young bands, they also have the chops to make that vision come to life. A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin is a true teaser in that sense: being a mere 20 minutes long, it generates appetite, it commands attention, but before you know it, the album has come to an end. There’s so much promise here, a full-length by these guys could really kick ass and…
Let’s start the new week with an exclusive stream, shall we. English black metallers Fen have been quite the busy bees since bursting onto the scene with their 2007 EP Ancient Sorrow. Since then, counting Carrion Skies, they’ve proceeded to write four fell-length albums in the span of five years. Dustwalker, their 2013 studio offering, finally showed what the band were really capable of and what their EP hinted at – the album presented a thoroughly satisfying mix of black metal, folk and post-rock that didn’t sound derivative in the least. Fen had really come into their own as a group. Luckily they haven’t stopped there and in 2014, with Carrion Skies, they look to carry the momentum further, with the new album featuring towering highs and zero lows. It is just that good, and one of the more unique black metal albums of 2014 to boot. Fen have definitely found a sound in the folk/black metal spectrum that has only one name written on it – their own. Carrion Skies will be released on November 22 in Europe, and on December 2 in North America, but starting from today, Sputnikmusic has a chance to stream Fen’s new opus ahead of its official release.
If you find that the aural description “twilight descending upon empty heathland and the cries of the crows that wheel in the bunching stormclouds” reads like it could translate into some excellent music, then look no further and doubt no longer, since Fen are here…
