[Weekly Mix] 2020.08 (4)

Fade

About 'Too Numb to Know' (out 9/25) by Profligate

'Too Numb to Know' showcases Profligate continuing to shirk the heavy electronics of his early years for razor sharp pop. On 2018's 'Somewhere Else,' Noah Anthony delivered dark pop gems while adding live instrumentations, reinvigorating his songwriting and sonic palette. This new song-driven approach gained praise from Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily and The Wire, exposing Profligate to new listeners.

'Too Numb to Know' followed Anthony from coast to coast, as he recorded his first demos in Philadelphia and then moved to Los Angeles, a city he found creatively challenging and emotionally depleting. After the theft of his computer—and with it the work he'd done on 'TNTK' in L.A.—Anthony took a friend's suggestion and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he finished the album and added contributions from allies like Matchess, Lazy Magnet, Gel Set, and Missions, among others.

'TNTK' is about growth, reflection and change. Lead single "Hang Up" urges the artist’s younger self to trust his instincts during chaos. Its message pairs with bright keyboards, a pulsing beat, and soft, alluring vocals - on the chorus, he croons "Nothing you create but love penetrates." It's an urgent, driving pop song that fuses electronics with guitar and bass like the best of alternative radio. Guitar is prevalent on 'TNTK,' building on the live bass of 'Somewhere Else,' adding a new arrow to Anthony’s quiver, creating more space for melody, and using it to fill the room.

"A Little Rain" and "My Days" feature evocative melodic and textural beauty. Laura Callier of Gel Set adds graceful shimmering vocals to “A Little Rain” that wash the song in nostalgia, while the latter song’s weave of mostly acoustic instruments (certainly a first for Profligate) is unexpected and welcome. Softer moments like these are interspersed throughout 'TNTK' between kinetic numbers like "No Clear Way," while "We Can Punish" and “A Stranger” are reminiscent of his noisier, beat-oriented years. This varied approach and attention to detail are the garnish to an already tight song cycle that will satisfy hardcore fans of Noah Anthony's output and newcomers, alike.

About Profligate

Noah Anthony’s music ranges from heavily rhythmic electronics to tightly-composed songs. His debut LP Come Follow Me, was released in 2012 on More Records and a string of 12” EP’s and compilation appearances followed. 2014’s Finding the Floor was issued by Not Not Fun. 2018's 'Somewhere Else' was Profligate's first for Wharf Cat Records and was supported with U.S. touring and an appearance at SXSW 2018. The follow up, 'Too Numb to Know' will be released on 9/25.

BUY LP/CD

Profligate - A Stranger (from album 'Too Numb to Know' out now)

Tour Guides

The Omnis Collective - Broke Kids (Single)

Following up their well-received 2018 album "Used To Yesterday," LA's Smokecreens are back with the excellent new record "A Strange Dream." Produced by David Kilgour from NZ legends The Clean, "A Strange Dream" shows a band at the peak of it's talents, ably blending influences like The Go-Betweens, UK DIY indie and pop, and of course Flying Nun into a compelling, compulsive album. From the jaunty pop of opener "Fork In The Road" to the rocking "Streets of Despair" and the dreamy "On and On" this is a record that clearly shows a band that knows it's way around a timeless guitar riff and aching pop melody. Gorgeous ballads like "Nighttime Skies" and "I Love Only You" add a new depth to Smokescreens' sound, and the cover of Scrotum Poles' DIY classic "Pick The Cats Eyes Out" is perfect, and perfectly fun. A future classic.

A Strange Dream

Pre-order

Smokescreens - Fork In the Road

Intoxicated

Hello everyone, hope you’re keeping yourselves well and healthy✨. If you’ve made it here you’re listening to the very first introduction into the JWestern world and I hope it’s an enjoyable one that makes you want to come back to it again and again, lots of love JWestern x

Listen: http://heistorh.it/CYRN

http://www.facebook.com/jwesternn
http://www.instagram.com/jwesternn
http://www.twitter.com/jwesternn

Call You Right Now

Luke Wild - Everything Is So Hard

Pre-order the 12" vinyl here: https://shop.orchidtapes.com/product/breaking-12-vinyl

Out August 28th on Orchid Tapes

Cars

Better On T.V.

In My Mind

Chasing Highs

Second Date

'In The Stone' is taken from Normil Hawaiians' new 7" out September 11th through Upset The Rhythm.

https://upsettherhythm.co.uk/

When Upset The Rhythm released Normil Hawaiians’ lost album ‘Return Of The Ranters’ back in 2015, the band members got back in touch with each other after a 30 year break and starting playing music together again. Out of this the group played a launch show for the album and followed that up with more concerts, including an appearance at Supernormal, a residency at the Edinburgh Festival, gigs at Cafe OTO and supporting Richard Dawson in London too. They even recently toured Greece in support of having all three of their renowned exploratory post-punk albums finally back in print.

Throughout this time, Normil Hawaiians revisited their original songs for these live performances. However for a group always so interested in evolving their sound and seeking nuance, it comes as no surprise that they shirked the idea of a faithful retread of old material in favour of reimagining their songs. The group experimented by pushing their songs into new inventive dimensions, still progressive at heart, but now imbued with a cosmic uncanny. A cinematic, even pastoral approach that was always quietly present has come to the fore. The quaint weirdness of folk song, the humanity of communal practice and the group’s ecological mindedness have all found a place in Normil Hawaiians’ current sound world. With this conducive atmosphere brewing, the band’s first new songs in decades started to emerge.

Being far-flung across the UK, the Family Hawaii encamped to Tayinloan, a small village on the west coast of the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland with the intention of recording new music. They set up their own studio in an isolated, windswept house overlooking the sea and started the tape rolling. Noel Blanden from the band explains how the spirit of the location was such an inspiration to the group during this initial recording session: “Our time immersed in the place and the unique energy it generated in us allowed us to write ‘In The Stone’. It goes right back to our first album, this need to document experience before it passes over and eludes us. We were grabbing at the musical ether and letting it shape itself through the band.” From loose, improvised sessions and reflective periods of listening in Tayinloan, Normil Hawaiians captured the moment. ‘In The Stone’ is a motorik thrill of distorted guitars, locked rhythms and morphic resonance. Guy Smith is joined by Zinta Egle on vocals, skilfully sharing lyrics informed by Alan Garner and Nigel Kneale’s ideas around recurring events being linked to place and historical artefact;  a kind of residual haunting known as ‘Stone Tape’ theory. In keeping with the context of the song, sounds from several previous live recordings of the track were woven into its present being. Flipside ‘Where is Living?’ is a decidedly more delicate affair of questioning lyrics and eerie traces, droning strings and impressions smudged. This resultant 7” is a tantalising glimpse of Normil Hawaiians now, an echo from the past, an echo from the future.
 
Website: https://normilhawaiians.com/

'In The Stone / Where Is Living?'

Normil Hawaiians - 'In The Stone' 7"

Proudly flaunting sassiness with lyrics about Nintendo 64 and befriending vibrators instead of hanging out with your partner, there is no room for “playing it safe” on this track and this is clearly the band’s intent.

Sticky Situation

Avalanche

Artist: Tangents
Title: Old Organs
Album: Timeslips
Release Date: Sep 4, 2020 

Pre-order: https://tangents.bandcamp.com/album/timeslips

Enigmatic Australian ensemble Tangents return with a new studio album two years after the release of New Bodies. The Australian Music Prize-nominated New Bodies thrust Tangents’ peculiar blend of furious improvisation and precision production into the international spotlight. More tension and intention pervade Tangents’ fourth album, Timeslips, demonstrating a thoughtful maturation of spontaneous ideas and more deliberately abstract assembly. With breathtaking, rhythmic drumming and adept production driving the various moods, Timeslips emerges from greater live performance and carefully constructed compositions. The brittle skittering mallets of “Exaptation,” raucous guitar of “Debris,” and processed trumpet of “Vessel” add new timbres to their existing palette of jazz drums, melancholy piano, throbbing cello and swirling glitched ambience. Mostly recorded in a single day, just before guitarist Sia Ahmad left the band, only the bravest, most intense moments from the original session remain intact on Timeslips. The tonal rumble of a 100-carriage coal train winding through New South Wales’ Bylong Valley signals the album’s slow close, recalling Tangents’ earlier references to the Australian environment on New Bodies and Stateless.

Tangents - Old Organs

Baby Cash- Pylsur's Revenge

So excited for What We Could Be to be out! 

Stream: https://gyro.lnk.to/WhatWeCouldBe

Socials: 
https://facebook.com/dekleynmusic 
https://soundcloud.com/dekleyn 
https://twitter.com/dekleynmusic 
https://instagram.com/dekleynmusic   

Credits:  
Production & Mixing by dekleyn 
Mastering by Ben Feggans 
Artwork & Press Photos by Cath Connell

Publicity:
http://www.mammalsounds.com

What We Could Be

Oliver Coates - Butoh Baby
From skins n slime. 

Learn more https://smarturl.it/rvngnl68.

[Weekly Mix] 2020.08 (4)

Niche Music